by Gabi Moore
“They claim my work is valuable,” she told him. “But if it had value, why do they make such an effort about money to support the academy? Every time there is a financial crisis, I and my colleges are recruited to get the kingdom out of a mess. They sing our praises later, but in a few years, another issue arises and they need us again. They claim our fees are too high and the budget could not withstand what we might charge. I think they are worried we’d dig a little too deep into their sources of income.”
“Furthermore,” she continued, “they waste all kinds of funds on absurd educational projects which never show results. In math, results are easy enough to duplicate and resolve once you understand the underlying equations. In these social sciences, not so much. They freely admit their results can’t be duplicated, and then wonder why so few of us take them seriously.”
“It reminds me of many of the arguments I hear in my own kingdom,” Dion told her. “So much money spent on nonsense just to make someone feel good about themselves or to line pockets. I think you will find it everywhere, no matter where you travel. At least I have.”
As Mary Tangent continued on about her work in symbolic logic, Dion’s mind began to wonder. Not only was the arrival of the women in the bus too much of a coincidence to be taken lightly, so was his uncle’s relationship with this Queen Lilith and her horde. According to his uncle, it was a minor issue that Dion was needed to send them back. However, he seemed to have invested a lot of time and energy into this tower project, and the one in their mutual world, for these things just to appear by accident. Did his uncle have some reason he wasn’t telling him? Dion wasn’t sure, but intended to find out.
“You’ll have to excuse me,” he said to the math teacher, “but I need to have a conversation with my uncle for a moment.” Dion got up from his side of the table and walked around to his uncle’s side of the table.
His uncle looked up at Dion. “What do you want, nephew?” he asked with sarcasm. “I am in the same tower as all of us, so don’t expect I have any solution to the current predicament.”
“Come take a walk with me, uncle,” Dion told him. “There are some wall hangings I would like you to tell me about.”
Not sure where Dion was headed with his line of conversation, Seth Back left the table with Dion. They walked to another part of the great hall where the sound wouldn’t echo as bad. Dion made certain no one was near them when he asked what was on his mind.
“So how much do you know about this Queen Lilith?” he questioned his uncle.
“Only what you have heard,” he replied. “She’s some being from the abyss that always looks for a way out.”
“Really, uncle?” Dion asked again. “It seems to me that it’s awful convenient you had a major force from the abyss work its way into this realm while you were opening the gate. Surely someone of your level of skill should know what is on the other side?’
“What are you trying to say Dion?” his uncle snapped at him. Although no one could hear them at this range, he fought to keep his voice down.
“I think it was very fortunate for you, this arrival of a demoness and her horde. Then you had a reason to bring me and my parents to this time circle. You claim I’m needed by the Aether Elemental Grandmaster, but she is nowhere to be found. Very handy accident on your part, I might ad.”
“Spell it out, nephew!”
“I once heard about a factory owner who was heavy in debt to the banks. He also was over-insured. When his factory burned under mysterious circumstances, he collected his check, paid the creditors and sold the business. To this day, people say the secret of his success was lighting a match.”
“You draw too many unrelated conclusions!” his uncle unloaded at Dion and stormed back to the table.
“Hit a nerve, did I?” Dion said to himself.
Dion walked back over to the table where he sat down next to his parents. His uncle returned to his place at the same table near the Mahen sisters, who were in another one of their deep discussions. He tried not to pay much attention to what they talked about, as it didn’t concern him. Finances. They were in a heated discussion about the monetary state of the family and of the tower. From what Dion could tell, they’d missed several payments to the kingdom on the lease of the tower. Susan let it slide that their parents had never had such problems when they ran the tower’s affairs. Kiley fired back that the financial status was in excellent shape, thank you, and anytime she needed to dip into the cash reserves she could do so. However, as the eldest she felt it irresponsible to run the bank account so low when there were plenty of retainers to take care of and a budget to maintain.
“She does have a point,” Loris said to her older sister, “we could let some of the people who work here go and we’d have more many to spend.”
“I’ll not toss the retainers who have stood by us all these years out the door!” Kiley thundered back at her while the lightening lit up the great hall. “Did you forget these are the same people who have taken care of you since the day we were all born?”
“You don’ have to make it permanent,” Loris replied in a cool voice, “Just send them away for a while. Only until we can get the tower back on its foundation.”
“Do you have the sensation they have bickered this way for years?” a voice to his right said to him. Dion turned and expected to see the math instructor.
Instead, he faced an older woman. She was the leader of the group, he seemed to recall. What was her name? Dion thought for a few seconds and remembered. This was Kristen Malar. He didn’t have a clue as to what she did, but it had to be important by the way the other women respected her.
“I wouldn’t be surprised,” he said to her. “Their parents vanished suddenly, leaving all of them to handle the affairs of the tower.”
“In my line of work,” she said to him while swirling the glass she carried, “you want to minimize arguments between women. It creates a bad reputation for the establishment. Clients see all the negativity and they take their money elsewhere.”
“No argument there,” Dion responded. “What kind of work do you do?”
She hesitated which told him a lot. “I manage a social exchange club. We supply entertainment to clients for many occasions. Most of our customer base is men.”
Dion nodded. She had told him quite a bit.
A few minutes later, Dion saw Susan Mahen get up from the table and walk away. He had no idea where she was headed, nor did he really concern himself with her destination. The tower was vast. She disappeared into the stairwell, which led to the warehouse at the bottom. This was the same place Dion was greeted by Kiley Mahen when he first entered the tower. It still puzzled him why she was the one who greeted him and how she knew he was on the way. It had to do with his uncle, he decided. Uncle Seth had arranged things so he would be greeted by the chatelaine of the tower herself. No minor functionaries for his nephew. He wanted to see Dion impressed.
While Dion puzzled over the reasons for the bus arrival, the women on it, and his uncle’s real motivations, he felt a tap on the shoulder. Dion turned to see the chamberlain Rudy with a note in his hand. Rudy handed it to Dion and left the table. Rudy had timed his approach at the right time as Kristen Malar was back in the far side of the hall conversing with the women’s writing group. It would be of interest to find out what kind of reading material was popular in this world, as it seemed so much like his own in many ways.
Dion unfolded the note and read the message. “Downstairs in the warehouse,” it read. “Immediately. I need to talk to you about something.” It was signed by Susan Mahen.
Dion folded the note and stood up from the table. “I need to see about something,” he said to his parents. His uncle did not seem to notice what Dion was up to, but it could be a deliberate ruse. “I’ll return in a few minutes.”
Dion tossed the note into the fireplace as he walked past it, stopping briefly to make sure it burned.
When he departed the stairwell at the bottom level, Dion
was greeted by Rudy, who pointed to their right. In the far corner of the warehouse level, he saw Susan Mahen standing idle next to a collection of wooden crates. She made eye contact with him the moment he looked at her.
Dion wondered what this all might be about. He’d felt some interest from Susan the first time they were introduced. If this were the case, he’d have to inform her that he had a fiancée who waited for him on the other side of the gate he’d taken to enter this world. Lilly might not rule over a huge tower, but she other qualities, which would make her a good wife.
“You need to see this,” Susan said as Dion walked up to her. She pointed down at the open crates.
Below him, inside the wooden crates, were twelve fully automatic rifles. The other crates, which were pried open, contained ammunition and spare parts for the weapons. Dion bent over and noted the maker of the rifles. It was a German arms manufacturer. He shook his head; only the best for Seth Bach.
“What the hell are these?” Susan demanded. “Rudy found these crates last week when he took inventory. They weren’t here the last time we inventoried this part of the warehouse. I know because we have to keep close records for the tax assessor. He just now opened them up. Does this have something to do with your uncle?”
“Probably,” Dion told her. “I can’t think of any other reason he’d have them here. Of course, they make the official reason he had for bringing me here absurd. He doesn’t need me or the fifth elemental grandmaster to get rid of the Azuroth if he has these.” Dion had a thought and turned back to Susan. “Did you just say you don’t know what they are?”
“I’ve never seen a thing like these devices,” she told him. “What are they?”
“Are you familiar with guns?” Dion asked her.
“What?”
“Nasty weapons,” he told her. “Ones that shoot bullets.”
“I know what you’re talking about,” she snapped at him. “Don’t treat me like a fool. Those things were banned hundreds of years ago, ever since the Rutrack Massacre. No one would even consider using one; it’s a capital offense in most kingdoms just to own one. Besides, where would you get the compound that makes them work? Didn’t they use some kind of flammable powder?”
Dion looked at the rifles and realized what his uncle plans were. He needed Queen Lilith to clear the tower of the inhabitants. Once he had everyone outside, he could distribute the automatic weapons to the guards who used to work for him. The Azuroth wouldn’t last five minutes when they opened up with them. He could do the same thing to the ones outside. Of course, there would be witnesses, but they would be outside when the slaughter began. Once he cleaned up the mess, he could bring everyone back inside and repeat the procedure outside. No one who was native to this world had to see the horror he was about to unleash on creatures who fought with their claws and had no protection.
A chill went through Dion when he understood there didn’t have to be any witnesses at all. In the end, his uncle would have an unlimited way to enrich himself by supplying cheap power to the sovereigns. He could use this to fund whatever activities he planned back home on their world. It was a ruthless plan and one in his uncle’s style.
“Make sure these are always under guard,” Dion told Susan. “They are far more deadly than anything you can imagine.”
She looked down at the rifles with disgust. “Is it safe to leave them here?” Susan asked.
“For now, yes. They are harmless unless you know how to make them work. If someone tries to use one with no knowledge of it, they could end up killing themselves. So I’d recommend you keep everyone away from them for the time being.”
Susan looked the rifles and ammunition over. “These things look scary. I’m not surprised they’ve been banned. Why would he bring them here?”
“Let’s just say that any one of these can kill the entire Azuroth force many times over. I think my uncle brought them across as part of his overall plan. He’s using the Azuroth to clean out the tower. Once the tower is under their control, you’ll have to allow him to distribute the weapons to the guards he brought with him. Most of the guards were soldiers and know how to use them. They’ll eliminate the Azuroth on both sides of the tower faster than you can imagine.”
She starred off into space, then returned her attention to Dion. “Don’t you find it a little strange the bus full of women writers broke down next to the tower before the second group of Azuroth appeared? They still haven’t given me an adequate reason for being in this part of the kingdom. The only decent road runs from the entrance of the pass to our tower. It was built hundreds of years ago to supply the garrison that used the tower. The only reason anyone uses that road is to visit us. We hardly ever see people up in these hills.”
“I thought they were too much of a coincidence too,” Dion agreed with her. “But I don’t get any bad feelings from these women. All of them seem to be transparent as far as their personalities go. However, I’m new to this world. What is your feeling?”
Susan, still wearing her basic red gown, put her hands on her hips and looked at the weapons again. “I don’t know what to think. They don’t seem to have much in common, which is what you might expect from some tourists. The only thing that unites them is a love of books. I’m scared to let them near the library, since it’s too close to those creatures at the top of the tower. Part of me wonders if they’re connected with the government in some fashion. The sovereign has used some creative methods to track down criminals in the past. This is just the sort of thing she would do.”
“And still no sign of the fifth element grandmaster,” Dion brought up to her. “Even if she was just an excuse my uncle could use to bring my parents and myself here, I wish she’d make an appearance. If nothing else, my uncle would no longer be able to hide his trued intentions from her after we show her this gun cache.”
“How do you not know the fifth element grandmaster is working with your uncle?” Susan asked him. Dion could see by the determined look on her face she was serious.
“It’s never happened,” Dion pointed out. “The elemental grandmasters have to be chosen with care. The other masters have to trust her with their lives. I can’t even conceive of a scenario where they’d risk someone who was capable of doing this. It would wreck their positions.”
“Too many coincidences,” Susan continued. “Too many things that don’t add up.”
Chapter 16
Dion wanted to agree with her, but he knew so little about how her world functioned. It was time to ask her a few basic questions. It was the only way he would ever find out anything about it.
“This sovereign of yours,” he asked, “Does she have a name? I’m sorry I have to ask, but the government functions differently where I come from in the other world.”
“Princess Menisha,” he was informed by Susan. “Guardian of the faiths, Lady of the Kingdom of Gwensea. She has about fifty official titles, but I doubt you want to hear them all.”
“That is quite alright,” Dion told her. “How is she chosen?”
“Chosen?” Susan looked at him with a combination of amusement and surprise. “She’s the oldest daughter of the previous Sovereign. That is the way it has always worked and always will work. Do you mean to tell me they choose your sovereigns differently where you come from?”
Dion decided not to go into the whole concept of a democratic republic to her. It was an alien concept, he could tell. Better to find out what he needed to know and leave without the creation of a footprint in this world. Perhaps the same thing had taken place in his world’s distant past. It would account for many things.
“So the story about trained dragons is true as well?” he added. “Sorry, but they don’t have them in the place I call home.”
“We don’t see too many of them around the tower,” she told him. You might see one or two patrolling the skies, but not often. The whole reason our family was able to take a lease out on his tower was the dragons. Any army which tried to attack the kingdom through t
he mountain pass would be spotted and vulnerable to the dragons in the air.”
“I just wanted some confirmation on that one,” Dion told her. How could she possibly understand that dragons were mythical beasts in his world? Although larger lizards once existed, no one could ever find one that belched fire.”
“I’m going to leave these men here to guard the weapons,” Susan announced to him. “If you speak the truth, your uncle intended to use them against us eventually.”
Dion didn’t tell her his fear that his uncle didn’t plan to leave any survivors. It was too much of a speculation. It was also too much of an evil concept for his uncle. But it would eliminate the need to worry about witnesses. If projectile weapons were a capital offense in this world, his uncle was prepared to risk everything by using them. Whatever he planned long-term, it had to be worth the wrath of both governments. Right now, Dion didn’t want to speculate on it.
“I need you to come back upstairs with me,” Susan told Dion. “We have to confront your uncle and demand an explanation for these weapons.”
“My guess is that he’ll deny everything,” Dion responded. “He might even try and blame me for their being in the warehouse.”
Susan ruffled around in her gown and pulled out a piece of paper. “I found this in one of the crates,” she said. She handed it to Dion. “Does this mean anything to you?”
The paper was an invoice for three crates of machine parts made out to Seth Bach’s company. The delivery address was the mall in Ohio and the shipper was some company in Germany. Dion suspected the German company would turn out to be a fake address or a firm that specialized in discreet customers. The dimensions of the crates matched the ones on the invoices.
“It’s an order for three crates of machine parts,” Dion told her. “Appears to be the method they used to get them past the customs inspector.”
“He’ll deny it was sent to him, of course,” Susan spoke up. So far, the household servants hadn’t moved one bit from the crates.
