by Eric Vall
“That must have been terrifying,” Daisy commented. “How ever did you survive?”
“I ducked my head at the last second,” Ortensia garbled. “Thankfully, I was wearing full armor, and the metal took most of the damage from his nails, but, sadly, his pointer finger scraped my eye. Nearly took the whole eyeball out, but I pulled away at the last second once the searing pain started.”
“Where did this brute come from?” I probed. “Do you have any idea?”
“No, my smaller ranks taking up the back of the Queen’s caravan arrived and managed to kill it before it did more damage,” the Chief Constable sighed. “So, we patched up my eye the best that we could, and then I continued on with the parade.”
“You didn’t go to the doctor immediately after?” Daisy asked.
“No!” Ortensia cried, chugged down her last drink, wobbled in her chair, and lifted a single finger into the air. “My duty was to protect the Queen, no matter if I were injured or killed, and that’s precisely what I did! Thankfully, her Highness called her private physician shortly after we arrived back to the castle, and he looked me over. He was able to save the eye, but… I can no longer use it. He offered to remove it, but I told him, ‘hell, no!’ I wear it like a badge of honor, I served my Queen the best that I could, and this eye proves it!”
“Wow… uh, how very courageous of you,” Daisy added. “I’m sure the Queen appreciated your... sacrifice.”
I wanted to ask more about the half-man, half-beast she’d encountered, but it was clear from the way Ortensia leaned sideways in her chair, we weren’t going to get more information out of her. The scarlet-haired woman slowly stood from her chair, slapped a hand across Daisy’s back, grinned, and then nodded in my direction.
“This was all great fun, Ms. Browning,” the redhead burbled. “I’m so glad that we got to do this… Ah, Charles! You too! You may be a brute, but you are… alright, I guess… oh boy, I think… I think I need to lay down…”
I hastily stood from my chair as Ortensia wobbled on her feet, but before I could catch her, the redhead dropped like a felled tree. Her body connected with the floor with an echoing boom. People turned to stare, and I hurriedly grabbed her by the shoulders. I glanced at her face, chuckled when I saw her eyes were sealed shut, and then propped her up in her chair.
“Let’s go,” I urged. “They may be sleeping for now, but we don’t have much time.”
I grabbed Daisy’s hand, peeked over to where the guards sat at a low table, but their shoulders were hunched, and they spoke softly to each other in whispers. I dragged the brunette out of the tavern, glanced around in case anyone was outside, and then hoofed it toward our wagon. Valerie was nowhere in sight, but I rifled through the piles of tarp in the bed, grabbed the crème colored envelope from its hiding place, and then whipped toward the courier’s carriage.
“Val?” I hissed. “Valerie? Are you over here?”
“She’s not here, Charles,” Daisy whispered. “What do we do? Where could she have wandered off to?”
“Alright, you go search for her,” I instructed. “And I’ll switch out the letters. Meet me back here, and then we’ll leave immediately.”
“I’m on it, Charles!” the bear-girl cried, turned on her heels, and headed toward the other two shops on the other side of the tavern.
I stuffed the letter into my breast pocket, crept toward the wagon, and, once near it, pressed myself against its white and gold side. I sidestepped toward the door, reached for the curved metal handle, and then jumped at a sudden noise. My heart leaped into my throat as someone above me cleared their throat and then coughed into a sleeve.
“By science…” I grumbled. “The coachman…”
During our scramble to lose the guards and outwit the two aristocrats, we’d totally forgotten about the coachman. I held tightly to the sides of the carriage, exhaled softly, and then slowly peeked over the top of the wagon. The man clothed in all black sitting in the driver’s seat was hunched over, his top hat pulled low over his wrinkled features. Then I heard whispers of snores escape from his parted lips, and I grunted under my breath.
I lowered myself back down, listened intently to the snores from above, reached for the handle for the second time, gripped it in my hand, and then pulled it down. The handle creaked softly, and I peeked over the top of the carriage once again, but the coachman was still fast asleep.
I tiptoed closer, opened the door painstakingly slowly, lifted a leg, and slid inside of the carriage. I’d thought I’d have to search around the interior for the letter, even had the horrifying thought that the letter was tucked away somewhere in the courier’s pockets, but I was wrong.
Resting in the middle of the seat across from me was a white and gold box that matched the outside of the carriage. I crept toward it, and paused for a moment as the wagon creaked, shifted, and then groaned softly under my weight. I stared up at the ceiling with wide, terrified eyes, but the coachman stirred, grumbled in his sleep, and then sat still.
I sighed softly, grabbed the edges of the box in both hands, slid it closer, and then flipped the top open. The inside of the box was lined with deep indigo velvet, and the eggshell white letter rested atop a small cushion.
“Thank science,” I whispered.
I snatched the letter up, stuffed it into my pocket, glanced up toward the ceiling, listened for more noises from the coachman, and then settled our copied letter inside of the box. I closed it softly, tiptoed toward the door, opened it slowly, cringed as it creaked, and then slid out onto the gravel below. I peeked over the top of the carriage once more, but the coachman still hadn’t moved. If anything, his snoring had gotten even louder.
I hurried toward our wagon, untied our horses, and then hopped into the driver’s seat right as Daisy rounded the corner. The brunette held her hand out behind her with tightly clamped fists, almost as if she were dragging someone along behind her.
“I found her!” the bear-girl sang. “Let’s go!”
Valerie came into view at the last second as she leaped through the air, flipped forward, and then leaped into the bed of the wagon. The feline-woman giggled, grinned up at me, and then faded out of view. Daisy clambered in after her, settled herself next to me on the driver’s seat, and then smiled.
“Ready to go?” she asked. “Did you get the letter?”
“Yes,” I uttered, brought it out of my pocket, and showed it to them. “Now, let’s head home.”
“Oh, no…” Valerie’s voice grumbled. “Charles… did you switch out the letters?”
“Yes,” I nodded. “Why? What’s wrong?”
“Well… while you were gone, I snuck in and switched it out…” Valerie mumbled. “So, uh… the one you have in your hands is…”
“Our letter, goddamnit,” I hissed.
“What are we going to do?” Daisy gasped.
“We have to switch it out again,” I uttered as I glanced at the one in my hand to confirm. “We have no other choice.”
“We could create a distraction,” the stunning brunette offered. “I could call over the coachman, asking for some help, or I could pretend to be hurt?”
“No,” I shook my head. “I’ll do it, I was the one who made the mistake in the first place.”
“No, Charles, I’ll do it!” Valerie volunteered. “I can get in and out of there lickity split without anyone noticing! The coachman didn’t make a noise when I slipped in and out earlier, I could do it again!”
“Okay, yes,” I exhaled. “That sounds better than me doing it. Every time I moved, the whole carriage would shift and creak.”
“Alright, I’m on it,” the feline-woman giggled, took the letter from my hands, and wriggled out of the bed of the wagon. “Be back in a second!”
The cat-girl phased out of view, and the only trace of her movement was the shift of the gravel underneath her feet. Daisy and I watched with bated breath as the door handle shifted down, the door swung open, and the gravel shifted as Valerie hopped up ins
ide of the carriage. The bear-girl’s hand slipped into mine, I held it tightly, and waited for Valerie to return.
A few minutes passed without any sign of her, I kept my eyes glued on the coachman’s back for any changes in his breathing, but the man stayed asleep the entire time.
“Where is she?” Daisy breathed. “She should’ve been back by now.”
Right as the last word fell from her lips, the gravel by the open door scattered, the door swung closed, and the feline-woman phased back into view.
“I got it, I got it!” Valerie sang. “Let’s gooooo!”
The stunning cat-girl threw herself forward, gripped onto the edges of the wagon, flipped upward, and then landed firmly on her rump in the back of the wagon. I slapped the reins against the horse’s bags, braced myself against the seat as they jerked forward, and then guided them onto the road toward Edenhart.
“We did it,” I sighed. “We actually did it, I thought for sure that we were going to get caught.”
“No way, not us!” Valerie giggled. “There’s no way that our Charles Rayburn would let us down!”
“That trick with the powder was brilliant,” Daisy grinned. “I still can’t believe they drank that much…”
“I’m just glad we got away with all of it unscathed,” I breathed. “Hopefully, after Edony receives that letter, it’ll get her off our backs for a while. She shouldn’t have any other ammo to come at us with… maybe after all of this, we’ll finally be free to live our lives in peace…”
Chapter Fifteen
“It’s so good to be home!” Valerie shouted, jumped from the back of the wagon, and rushed toward the house. “Not only that, but we beat those big, dumb aristocrats and got the right letter! Oh, this is so fantastic, I’m so happy!”
I chuckled, jumped from the driver’s seat, turned, and then offered my arms up to Daisy. The brunette stood from her seat, shuffled closer, grabbed me by the forearms, and stepped down onto the gravel beside me.
“We also got the imp,” the bear-girl smiled. “Can’t forget about that.”
“Yes!” the cat-girl chuckled. “We have half of what we need for another experiment! Oh, Charles, can we please make us another sister? Oh, please, oh, please!”
Valerie turned in the gravel drive, pressed her clasped hands to her chest, rushed forward, and aimed her wide, pleading eyes at me. the ash-blonde woman puckered out her lips, whimpered a few times, dropped to her knees, and lifted her clasped hands toward my chest.
“Charles, puh-leeeeeeease,” the feline-woman cried. “Let us do it, let us do it, let’s do it!”
“Eventually,” I chuckled, reached down, ruffled her hair, but then shook my head. “You know we can’t just yet, we’ll just have to keep the imp until the next woman comes along and threatens us.”
Valerie deflated, slumped to the side as her hands dropped, and then dramatically sagged onto her side with a loud sigh.
“What are we going to do with it in the meantime?” Daisy asked. “We can’t keep it in this box, it’ll surely die. It needs food, water, and a small space to roam, or at least, that's what the books said.”
“I could build a small cage for it,” I nodded. “The cells downstairs are far too big for it, and it’d slip in between the bars within seconds of being inside. What do imps eat, Daisy?”
“According to the bestiary books in your library, any type of uncooked meat will do,” the bear-girl informed us. “They are carnivorous by nature, but they’re scavengers when food is scarce, so they'll practically eat anything if they’re hungry enough.”
“So,” Valerie giggled, sat up, swiveled, and grinned up at us. “We get to keep it… almost like a pet?”
“Uhm, yes,” I chuckled. “I guess you could think of it like that. You can take care of it, feed and water it, but I’m sure you wouldn’t be able to take it out of its cage, though, it is a wild animal.”
“Hey, now,” the cat-girl disagreed. “I practically tamed the bear that we used to make Daisy! I’m sure I could tame a little imp! It can’t be that bad!”
“It bit me,” I shook my head. “You absolutely cannot, under any circumstance, take the imp out of the cage after I build it. Do you understand, Valerie?”
“Yes, Charles...” the beautiful feline-woman grumbled.
“No, I want you to promise,” I urged. “The last time you said you wouldn’t let the bear out, and you did exactly that.”
“Fiiiiine,” the feline-woman sighed. “I promise I won’t let the imp out into your laboratory… Even though the bear was perfectly fine, no one got hurt, and it became my bestest friend and sister.”
“Thank you, my dear,” I chuckled. “Now, let’s get this beast inside, and I’ll start working on the cage for it. I need to call for a courier to send off the other aristocrats’ items. I’ve finished off both of them, and I should be paid within the next few days once they receive them.”
“Yay!” Valerie shouted. “The manor is saved! I’m so glad that we can finally relax, it’s so nice to be home finally, and not have to worry about an aristocrat just showing up out of the blue!”
“You’re right,” I nodded. “That is nice, especially since we intercepted the letter. Edony won’t have anything on us anymore, and hopefully, we’ll stop being a target to her.”
“Speaking of the letter,” Daisy uttered. “Why don’t we read it? I’m kind of curious to find out what the Browning’s said back to the Duchess.”
Valerie jumped to her feet, stuffed a hand into her jumpsuit, stuck her tongue into the corner of her mouth as she wriggled around, and then pulled out the eggshell white letter. The feline-woman examined the surface, shrugged, and then handed it over to her sister.
“Shall I read it?” Daisy asked.
“Go on ahead,” I nodded. “I kind of want to know what they said back, too.”
Daisy peeled back the delicate wax stamp, stared at it for a second, opened the envelope, and produced the folded letter. The bear-girl unfolded it, held it in both hands, and then read aloud.
“To whom it may concern,” the brunette recited. “I have received your unexpected letter at the worst of times, but I will address all of your concerns, though I am unsure why you are so interested about the life of my youngest daughter.”
“Oh-ho-ho,” Valerie giggled. “Lady Browning was not happy to hear from Edony.”
“You asked me if my young daughter, who has not yet debuted out into society, has moved to your puny town of Edenhart, the answer, of course, would be a resounding no. Ophelia is at the tender age of sixteen, and I would not allow her to visit just a small, horrible, and corrupted place outside of the capital on her own.”
“Ouch,” I chuckled. “I almost wish that Edony had received this letter. Lady Browning is letting her have it.”
“As to your question regarding a consort under the name of Charles Rayburn,” Daisy pressed on. “As I have written, my daughter is not yet over the age of sixteen, and is not permitted to take a consort yet, though I have no idea what passes for normal in your backwater duchy. I have never heard that name, or met a man under such a moniker. The Browning family has a rigorous breeding program in place, and a future consort has already been chosen for her. I can assure you, her future consort is not from the reeking cesspool that is known as Edenhart. If you have any more questions about my child’s life, or business that has to do with the family Browning, please keep them to yourself. Sincerely, Her Grace, Celestia Browning.”
“I knew that the letter was going to be bad,” I uttered. “I didn’t expect her to destroy the Duchess and Edenhart like that, it was absolutely fantastic.”
“Makes me kind of wish we’d worded our letter a little more brutally,” Daisy snickered, folded the letter up, and slipped it into her pocket. “We were cordial at best, with a few jabs here and there.”
“Now that it’s out of the way,” I breathed. “Why don’t I summon the couriers for the two aristocrats, and you can go down into the laboratory and buil
d the cage for the imp?”
“Yes,” I sighed. “That sounds like a good idea, Val, come with me. Do you want to help use the welder?”
“Oh, boy, I do!” the feline-woman gasped, jumped to her feet, and raced on toward the stairs. “It’s so much fun, I think it’s my favorite thing you’ve let me use in the laboratory! Ooooh, maybe next time we create a monster-girl, you’ll let me throw the switch!”
“I haven’t witnessed the transformation yet,” Daisy uttered. “But I’d like to throw the switch, too, if I may.”
“We can hold hands as we do it!” the feline-woman cried. “Please, Charles, let us throw the switch next time!”
“Alright, you can,” I grinned. “I’ve done it both times, and I’ll admit, it’s invigorating.”
“Then it’s settled, Daisy and I get to throw the switch and create our brand new sister,” the stunning ash-blonde woman giggled. “Come on, Charles! You said you’d let me use the welder by myself!”
“Not by yourself!” I laughed. “Val! Wait up, you can’t use it by yourself yet!”
“Go on,” Daisy smiled. “I call for two couriers to come pick up the items.”
A wide smile spread over my lips, I nodded to the brunette, and then tore after the feline-woman. I couldn’t help but feel happy now. It seemed as if everything was going right and luck was finally on our side. We didn’t have to worry about the Duchess anymore because of the letter we’d sent… though the Chief Constable concerned me a bit, but I knew for sure that we’d left no trace at the crime scene.
I followed Valerie down into the belly of the laboratory. The feline-woman was just starting to wheel out the welder, squeaked when she saw me, and then scuttled away.
“Oh, no, you’re not getting away from me that easily,” I chuckled. “Come here, you rascal.”
I grabbed her around the waist before she could escape, lifted her off the ground, turned her around in my arms, and then held her tightly to my chest. Valerie’s ash blonde hair created a curtain around her shoulders, her light blue eyes glittered in the midafternoon sunlight, and my heart pounded in my chest just by looking at her. I brought her closer until our noses were almost touching, took in all of her gorgeous features, and then pressed my lips to hers in a passionate kiss.
