by T. J. Hunter
Chapter 29
The police car door opened and a tall muscular officer stepped out. He was a big man, not Thyzil big, but intimidating just the same. No one would ever give this guy any trouble.
“License and registration,” the officer said.
After the officer looked at my documents he handed them back and smiled.
“Thank you Mr. Zane. Henry is expecting you sir at the general store. It’s the first building you see when pulling into town.”
I thanked the officer and began to drive off toward town. From my rearview mirror, I saw him pull a road block across the dirt road and position his car sideways behind it. Looks like no one would be going in or out of the town on this road, at least not by car.
Being a wizard, I could always transport out of town should any pitch fork and sickle crazed townspeople think I was Frankenstein, but hey, why think about the worst case scenario. Like I say, paranoia is a good ally is one wishes to stay alive.
I arrived at the general store at lunch time and had expected to see people going about their business. Instead, everything was quiet with no one in sight. Several pickup trucks were parked unattended with bales of hay and oats piled in their flat beds. A hound dog sleeping on the porch of the general store was the only sign of life.
I parked my car in front where a wooden sign hanging above a door read: General Store, Henry R. Twyer, proprietor, est. 1883. If this is the same Henry, he’d be well over 100 years old, which is actually not that old for a lycanthrope, or hybrid.
As I reached for the store’s doorknob, someone inside opened it. A tall thin middle aged man with red hair and a beard greeted me. Several people standing behind him were smiling in a curiosity manner, clearly not accustomed to having visitors.
“Welcome Mr. Zane. My name is Henry Twyer and I am the proprietor of this store. Tommy is a friend of ours and told us you would be coming.”
The other people continued smiling and nodded as they introduced themselves. I sensed no danger, didn’t smell any wolfs, and felt very welcomed. A young woman handed me a warm glass of cider and cinnamon stick.
“Stir the stick in the cider sir,” she said. “It makes it taste so wonderful,”
“Thank you for your hospitality, and please, everyone call me Daniel. Henry, can you take me to the area Tommy talked about?”
“Yes sir, I can. Come with me. We’ll use my truck to get there and my two sons can ride in back.”
As we drove to the caverns, I had to ask. “Your store sign says established 1883. Did your grandfather start up the store?”
Henry laughed. “Yes sir, outsiders think of me as Henry Twyer III. Locals know me as the one and only original Henry Twyer.”
“I see. How many hybrids are there in Howe?”
“That would be the whole town, all 1,203 of us,” he said. “Not all of us are shapeshifters. Only a few hundred that are can actually change form. Most of the pack lives out their time as ordinary humans, as is the case with most other hybrid packs. Tommy and I have known each other for hundreds of years. We use to farm together until the electric guitar was invented. That’s when Tommy went all crazy for rock and roll and city life. Damn noisy contraptions, those guitars.”
I smiled and nearly laughed. It was hard to imagine Tommy pulling a plow with Henry, who looked very much the part, but Tommy was clearly born for rock music.
“Have you seen Tommy recently?” I asked.
Henry frowned. “You mean all those tattoos, crazy hair, and metal things stabbed through the face of what use to be my Tommy boy? No, I haven’t seen him for years. Once was enough to scare me right back to the farm in a jiffy. We keep in touch by phone now.”
Henry stopped his truck at a cliff wall covered with brush. His sons hopped out from the back and we followed Henry to the cliff.
Are they expecting me to climb that 100 foot granite wall? Not going to happen.
Henry paused at some brush and pulled it aside revealing a narrow passage.
“This way Daniel. It’s a tight fit, but we only have to go in a few feet.”
When I entered the passage, I felt the hairs on the back of my neck stand up, and I smelt wolf. After a few more steps, we entered a cave about 30 feet square filled with shriveled corpses, all piled up in the middle. Sunlight was shinning down from a large hole 30 feet above onto the corpses.
“Some of these bodies are city folk,” Henry said, pointing to bodies fully dressed. “These three over there without clothes are ours who went missing a few weeks ago.”
“Has anyone gone missing since then?” I asked.
“No, the last full moon hunt was when our townsfolk began disappearing. This sort of thing has never happened before up these parts.”
The bodies Alura and I found at Sunset Park were just like these victims, making me think that Ah Chuy Kak’s new feeding ground was 30 feet above my head. If so, this is where the grand fur ball will probably be during the next full moon.
“Henry, when will the next full moon occur?”
“In two days time.”
“Okay, I’ll be back before then. You and your sons should return to town and stay away from this mountain. I need to return to Manhattan for some help.”
“Don’t you need a ride back to your car?”
“No, I have another way. I’ll see you again in a couple of days.”
After Henry and his sons left the cave, I summoned Kyiel to take a look around up above inside the cavern. It was weird watching him float up and back down again through the hole like a ghost. He only took a minute to complete his inspection and report what he saw, which was conveniently presented in 3-D holographic images.
The area above the hole was a like a mini Roman Coliseum with large monoliths supporting three levels of stone ledges. At the center of the dirt floor were three wooden stocks where heads and hands are placed to imprison someone while standing. At the far end were stairs leading to a raised platform, and to no surprise, there was a throne on top laced with gold and red linen. The throne was exactly like the one in my vision of Tenochtitlan and most definitely belonged to Ah Chuy Kak. This place was his hideout and main feeding ground now that Sunset Park was destroyed.
I dismissed Kyiel and looked around for a good place to make a pentagram. Holding my pocket coin in my hand, I said, “Unclass staff,” causing my staff to appear. I used the end of my staff to draw a pentagram on the dirt floor at the far side of the cave and crushed a blue magic coin under my foot saying, “Transmati domas.” When I opened my eyes, I was back in my Manhattan apartment bedroom and the hairs on my neck relaxed, but the stench of death was still very much present inside my nostrils.
I exited my bedroom and saw Thyzil taking inventory of five large aluminum locker style cases. He had plenty of time to do what he loves doing – getting ready to kick monster butt – and was smiling ear to ear with his arms stretched out over the cases.
“What do you think wizard? Nice weapons, yes?”
I looked inside the cases, each neatly packed with everything a Zeshtune warrior could possibly dream. The first two cases were filled with a hundred silver laced grenades. The third case had two hand Gatling guns with dozens of magazines filled with hollow point silver bullets. A fourth case was filled with wolfsbane, two red crystals, and pouches filled with silver fragments. The last case had something different: two shotguns and a couple hundred shells filled with silver pellets. Oddly, there was also a nicely wrapped package with a ribbon and bow sitting on the coffee table.
Thyzil bought an engagement ring for Alura? Nah, not his style. Thyzil’s more likely to think a new battle sword was an appropriate engagement gift for Alura.
I looked at the cases again and said, “We’re going to need bigger weapons.”
Thyzil narrowed his eyes. “Bigger?” he asked while scratching his head, then began laughing. “Bigger … I like how you think wizard. We make bigger bombs, yes?”
I smiled and nodded in agreement. “Thyzil, where’s Alura
?”
“She’s walking your beast. I wanted to go, but my princess told me people get nervous. Why she thinks this?” he asked, looking at himself up and down wearing Zeshtune battle garb. “Perhaps it’s sword, yes?’
Alura returned before I had the chance to explain the dos and don’ts of public attire to Thyzil. Not that explaining would do any good since the big guy was uncomfortable in anything other than metal breast plates.
“I knew you were back,” Alura said. “Sally turned around and dragged me all the way here barking.”
Sally pushed me to the floor and began her slobbering routine.
“Hey old girl, you missed me didn’t you? Good girl.”
Sally rolled over on her back for a belly rub. I complied while Thyzil asked Alura if she would give him a belly rub later, to which she rolled her eyes, but also smiled.
Thyzil laughed. “A warrior never knows unless he asks, yes wizard?”
I winked at Thyzil in agreement.
“So brother, was your trip eventful?”
I summoned Kyiel and had him show Alura and Thyzil the 3-D holographic images of the cave and cavern. Among his many talents, not least was magical knowledge, was Kyiel’s math skills. He provided the exact dimensions of the cavern, throne, and number of seats. Math was never my strong suit, but I could always hold my own when needed. Kyiel was one of those natural gurus who could answer any math question with precision and without pause.
“Kyiel, in my vision of the Mayan city of Tenochtitlan, I cast a spell inside a room that covered everything with silver dust by using only a few pieces of silver. The cavern at Howe is much larger. How much silver do I need to cover it?”
“The half acre cavern will require one hundred pounds of silver to cover the walls, ceiling, and floor. The two tunnels and opening in the ceiling would not be affected except for the most inner edges.”
“What would happen to the fur balls inside the cavern?”
“Silver dust burns a lycanthropes skin, eyes, lungs, and causes disorientation and possible death, just as you saw in your vision. The spell you refer to will not necessarily destroy lycanthropes, but it will hurt them badly. If a lycanthrope breathes in enough of the dust before it adheres to solid surfaces, it will destroy them.”
I can see it now. Dozens of fur balls running around in circles rubbing their eyes as if shot with pepper spray.
“Such a spell may create just the distraction I need to take them out and catch Ah Chuy Kak off guard,” I said.
“We’ll need someway to keep them from escaping through the tunnels and ceiling,” Alura said. “I will ask Sarila to craft titanium nets coated with silver. Not even a tank can break through titanium. Lieutenant Mack’s team can guard the exits just in case a few strays get loose. Once the lycanthropes are destroyed, we’ll use the two red inferno crystals to seal the cave permanently.”
Alura looked at me and grinned, again knowing what I was thinking.
“These crystals don’t explode brother. Instead, they will fuse the entire cavern into solid hot rock.”
I smiled. “Excellent. Looks like we have a plan.”
“Plan good, these better,” Thyzil said while bending down and tapping one of the silver cases.
Assuming things go well, having a pentagram placed above Ah Chuy Kak’s throne still remains a problem. The cavern ceiling is ragged with ancient drip stone making drawings with chalk or bees wax not an option. This meant a pentagram would have to be made at ground level, hoisted up above the throne, and hung from dripstone.
As I thought about the problem, I remembered an old pirate movie where a lantern wheel was raised and lowered from a hook in a castle ceiling. All I needed was a hook embedded in the cavern ceiling, some flexible PVC pipe, and a clamor spell to hide the pentagram.
“Alura, would you be able to shoot a hook and small pulley into the ceiling directly above the throne?”
Alura smirked. “Do fish swim in water?”
Such a smarty pants, but then again, it was a dumb question. Alura could shoot a tick off the nose of a deer a mile away while blindfolded.
“What kind of fish?” I asked, just to be a smarty pants too.
Alura arched her brow. “A shark … what else?”
“That’s what I thought you say.”
Alura snapped her teeth at me a couple of times to imitate a shark, then called Sarila to have a 100 pounds of silver transported. Evidently, precious metals are readily available in the Batcave vaults. They also discussed the details necessary to build titanium silver coated nets using Kyiel’s measurements.
“Hey, ask Sarila is she can spare 50 feet of half inch PVC flex pipe and a 30 foot rope ladder,” I said.
Sarila heard this and Alura smiled, then turned to me and said, “She wants to know if you would like your shoes shined too.”
I grinned. “No thanks. I only need the piping and ladder, but will gladly take a rain check for the shoeshine.”
Alura put her phone away and informed Thyzil and me the nets would be ready in a few hours. The silver and piping would be transported after Alura returned to Keob.
To save time, Alura decided to transport to Keob from my bedroom. As she stepped into the pentagram, she told Thyzil and me to play nice while she was gone. Thyzil put his arm around my shoulders and squeezed me tight enough to take my breath away.
“Don’t worry princess. We have much work to do,” Thyzil said, laughing while squeezing me tighter, which made Alura also laugh.
After Thyzil released me from his death grip, I broke a blue magic coin in half and tossed it into the pentagram.
“Transmati Keob,” I said and blue-white light filled the room as Alura disappeared and a large stack of silver bars, two rolls of black PVC flex pipe, and a rope ladder appeared where she had stood.
“Wow, Sarila is quite the efficient one, isn’t she? Come on Thyzil, we’ll have to make two trips to Howe with all this and the weapon cases,” I said, then we stepped inside the pentagram. ”Better cover your nose. The smell of death is overwhelming on the other side.”
I broke another blue coin in half and said, “Transmati Howe.”
I had my nosed pinched with my fingers of one hand while changing my pocket coin into a staff that lit up the area. Thyzil looked around and took a deep breath.
“I want to remember this place,” he said and looked up at the hole in the ceiling. “I want to remember when heads of big doggies fall to ground.”
“You’ll get your chance soon enough Thyzil. The full moon tomorrow will bring those fur balls here to feed. This time, however, instead of their feeding on innocents, we’re going to dust every last one of them. And if things go as planned, you can take the first wolf head.”
Thyzil smiled. “You always know what to say wizard.”
We returned to my apartment and transported the five weapon cases to the cave. Once there, I asked Thyzil if he had any idea how we were going to get everything up through the cave hole. He went over to a weapon case and took out a small crossbow, spool of wire, and several darts.
“Watch wizard. Zeshtune warriors can fly.”
Thyzil tied a wire to the end of his dart and shot it up through the hole into the cavern ceiling. He then pushed a button on the crossbow which tightened the wire and pulled him effortlessly up through the hole. Once he reached the top, he swung his feet back and forth until he was able to land on the cavern floor, then snapped a few glow sticks for light and looked over the edge at me.
“Want to fly wizard?”
“No thanks. I’m a wizard, not an acrobat. I’ll use the rope ladder after we get the silver and PVC piping up to you. Can you rig up something to pull all this stuff up?”
Thyzil shot another dart into the ceiling and then dropped the wire spool down to me. The wire was flexible, like string, and didn’t look as though it would hold much weight, however, it did pull Thyzil up as though he was a bag of feathers.
I tied the wire to a handle on a weapon case for Thy
zil to haul up. We repeated this until all but one of the weapon cases were hauled up to the cavern above and emptied, then Thyzil lowered one case back to me. I filled the case with the silver bars and he hauled it up too.
“Ready for ladder wizard?”
“Yup, send it down.”
“Maybe you change mind and want to fly.”
“Nope, I haven’t changed my mind. You can send the ladder down.”
Thyzil laughed. “As you wish wizard.”
I grabbed a large bag of wolfsbane from the one weapon case left in the cave and started up the ladder. Wolfsbane would hide our scent and throw off the lycanthropes when they arrived for the full moon fur ball festival. I was counting on the element of surprise which would not happen if they smelled our presence.
Thyzil and I hid 15 silver bars with wolfsbane at each of the cavern corners to provide maximum damage. I looked back and saw Thyzil, always the big showoff, juggling several silver bars. Big deal … well, actually it is a big deal, but I wasn’t going to let him know. If I were to even hint that it was a big deal, he would only brag about his strength and there was too much work to do for that nonsense.
I placed the last three silver bars closer to the tunnel behind the throne to keep the fur balls inside once I cast the dust spell. I also placed wolfsbane on top of the silver bars and covered it with dirt to hide everything. Hopefully, none of the fur balls would sense anything was out of place.
The spell I planned on using was the same one used in my vision of Tenochtitlan. In the vision, I turned a few pieces of silver into a swirling wind that coated the temple walls, ceiling, and floor with silver dust. This magic was a cleansing spell that made the entire area inside the Tenochtitlan temple wolf proof, and I was hoping it would work just as well here.
There was not enough time or silver to practice, so the spell would have to work the first time. If it didn’t, we’d be fighting a lot of angry fur balls without having the advantage of pepper spraying them first with silver dust.
Thyzil zipped back down the hole using his crossbow wire and hid a few weapons near the pentagram. We had plenty in the cavern, but hiding a few down below as extras was a good precaution. I stayed behind to discuss another idea with Kyiel.
“Aptier Kyiel,” I said and my old pal appeared as usual.
“Kyiel, how have you been?”
“I am as you last saw me Azul. How may I help you?”
No small talk with Kyiel. He always gets right to the point.
“I have an idea. Remember how you did all that magic stuff in Las Vegas?”
“Not magic Azul. It was illusion and manipulation of the elements.”
“Yea, that’s what I meant. I was wondering if you would help me out here tomorrow night with another performance.”
I discussed my idea with Kyiel and he told me everything could be done quite easily, and for a second, I thought I saw a glimmer of excitement in his eyes. Maybe he enjoyed performing illusions, but that would mean he could feel emotion. I looked again and his eyes were stone cold. Still, I swear I saw a spark of life in those bright blue eyes.
After dismissing Kyiel, I used the rope ladder to rejoin Thyzil in the cave below. He finished covering the last spare weapons with a few rocks and then stood still staring at the corpses.
“It’s been a busy day Thyzil. Let’s go home, eat pizza, and have a few beers. Tomorrow night is going to be another crazy battle.”
“Good idea wizard. I could eat horse, but pizza and beer much better.”
“Yup, pizza and beer are the best,” I said and slapped Thyzil on his back.
We stepped into the pentagram and transported back to my apartment where Alura was waiting. When Thyzil and I entered the living area, we saw 10 pizza boxes and a tapped beer keg sitting in a barrel of ice. Our mouths dropped and eyes widened.
Did we die and go to heaven?
“Hi boys,” she said, wearing a smile as if she won the lottery. “I thought you might be hungry and thirsty after a long day in those dark dirty caves.”
Thyzil and I stood still looking at all the pizza and keg of beer. We were speechless.
“Are you two going to stand there and look like idiots all night, or are you going to help me eat and drink?”
“Oh man, you are an angel sister, a real angel.”
Thyzil walked slowly toward the beer as though he was in a trance.
“I agree wizard … a warrior princess angel.”
After a few hot slices of pepperoni pizza and a couple mugs of cold draft beer, I noticed the neatly wrapped box was still on the coffee table. It must be a world record having a gift within Alura’s reach and her mustering up the will to not open it.
“Alura, are you ever going to open that box?” I asked.
“It’s not for me you dork. It’s for you from Melony.”
Melony got me a gift? Now that I think about it, Thyzil could never wrap a box so perfectly.
I opened the box up under the watchful eyes of Alura and Thyzil, and then my eyes widened when I saw a silver bracelet with four brilliant runes embedded on the front.
“Wow, look at the craftsmanship,” I said. “It’s beautiful.”
“It’s more than beautiful,” Alura said. “It a charm bracelet made by the Sisters of Galbria. Each rune has special powers to protect and heal when needed. This bracelet, dear brother, is one of a kind and the first to be gifted by the white witches to anyone outside their coven.”
“One of a kind you say.”
I looked on the backside of the bracelet which had an engraving. It read: Love always, Melony.
“What does it say?” Alura asked with a coyish grin.
I put the bracelet on my wrist. “Never mind Ms. ‘none of your business’.”
I felt flush and Alura and Thyzil grinned, so my face must have been a little red. If that wasn’t enough, Alura began singing that annoying kids tune: “Daniel and Melony, sitting in a tree. K-i-s-s-i-n-g. First comes love, then comes marriage, then comes baby in a baby carriage.”
Give me a break.
