Forgery of the Phoenix

by Michael Angel

  After enough time had passed to make even a Seraphine impatient, the door to the patient’s wing buzzed. A beefy-looking male orderly waved for us to follow. He brought us to a cheerless green room with a window overlooking a jumbled rock garden.

  “You got five minutes,” he said brusquely.

  I didn’t even quibble. Esteban and I closed the room’s door behind us and went over to meet the figure who sat ramrod straight in the chair by the window. I approached, all the while trying to keep my concern from leaping back up into fear.

  Shelly looked as tense as a cat that had been thrown into a dog pound. She had kept the small amount of weight that she’d put on since Albess Thea had removed her magical compulsion, yet that was about the only positive thing I could say. Her pince-nez glasses hung askew on her face. Worse, the peaceful look that Thea restored to my friend had been replaced by a jumpy, uncomfortable nervousness.

  “Dayna, Alanzo, thank the Lord that you’re here,” she said in a shaky voice. I knelt by her chair and she embraced me as if she were a drowning person grabbing for a life ring. “This is all goin’ south in a handbasket. I’ve been on pins and needles all week. No one’s been talking to me, but I can tell that they’re not lettin’ me out anytime soon.”

  “It’s okay, Shelly,” I said, trying to sound reassuring. “Alanzo and I are going to get to the bottom of this.”

  “That’s right,” Esteban added. “You just sit tight.”

  “I...well, it’s not exactly like I’ve got a choice,” Shelly said. She lowered her voice to a whisper as she added, “But they’re startin’ to give me drugs. I’ve been palming and spitting as many as I can, but I think the orderlies are catching on. If they do, they’ll strap me down and force ‘em down my gullet.”

  I stared at her in horror. “Alanzo, we’ve got find out what’s going on. And we have to get her out of here.”

  A knock at the door made us all jump. The orderly’s voice called out, “Your time is up!”

  “Like hell,” Esteban shot back. “That wasn’t two minutes, let alone five.”

  The orderly threw the door open. “You two got to leave. Or I’ll have you removed.”

  Esteban reached into his jacket and pulled out his badge. “I’m interviewing Ms. Richardson under the purview of an attempted murder case. So I guess that you want to officially be part of my investigation.”

  A fearful look flashed across the man’s face. “I don’t want no part of that.”

  Esteban had caught the look as well. Judging by his next words, he’d decided to make use of it. “You don’t want any part of it? Why? There anything irregular in your background, your hiring here? Because if I have to go mucking around in there, trust me, you won’t like what happens.”

  The orderly took a step back. “I told you, I don’t want no part of that.”

  “Then you better answer a couple questions.” Esteban nodded at me to go ahead.

  Once I got that nudge, I spoke up without hesitation. “Who authorized Ms. Richardson to be held here longer than her observation period?”

  “I don’t know. We’ve had a couple people over here to update her files.”

  I traded an alarmed look with Esteban. “Then I want to see those. You’ve got to have a computer around here somewhere.”

  The orderly shook his head. “We still use paper. I’m not allowed to remove files from the record room.”

  “Then you better take us there,” Esteban gritted. I quickly squeezed Shelly’s hand again and then went to follow the two men. The orderly locked the door behind us, then led the way to a cramped little room stuffed with file cabinets.

  Even though the facility was air conditioned, I found myself starting to sweat. Legally, Esteban didn’t have a leg to stand on, as we couldn’t have done any of this without a warrant. He was relying solely on a bluff. That was good enough for me, so long as we moved fast.

  I pulled open a drawer marked ‘N – R’ and flipped my way back to ‘Richardson, Rochelle’. I pulled out the folder and skimmed it as quickly as I could. Someone poured a pitcher of ice water through my veins as I went through it.

  “Dayna,” Esteban said urgently, “Hurry it up.”

  A couple more page flips, and I had my answers. There were forms in here that reclassified Shelly as a patient who was ‘Needs Assist’ and ‘Potentially Dangerous to Self and Others’. The second set of forms had extended her observation time to ‘Indeterminate’. And a final, damning sheet had authorized the use of psychotropic drugs based on ‘Daily Staff Evaluation’.

  Each form had been signed and dated only a little more than a week ago by the Mental Health Services Director. And each page had a field that listed who requested the form in the first place. The person who’d signed in that particular box had been the same person who’d passed my firearms certification, even when I’d flunked the test.

  Deputy Chief Robert McClatchy.

  I slumped against the wall, feeling defeated. McClatchy’s voice rang in my head.

  You see, you’re not leaving work anytime soon.

  He was right. He’d won this round hands down.

  It looked like Bob and I weren’t done with each other, not by a long shot.

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  The setting sun cast the very last of its rays over the peaks that surrounded the Vale of the Seraphine. The light refracted as it hit the gas and dust that rose from the two active caldera’s vents. In the process, they created something I’d never seen before – a blue violet rainbow.

  Unlike the complete all-spectrum versions, this one skipped red through green and jumped directly to a chilly, arctic blue. It next shaded through ocean blue, lapis, indigo, then on into eggplant, maroon and plum. The innermost arc finished off with the color of bright boysenberry jam. It looked beautiful and utterly alien, much like the Seraphine themselves.

  I stood in front of the cavern containing Pirr’s remains and began to go over the events of the day with my friends. Korr and Jett sat a short distance behind everyone else, their flame settings turned to low so that they could join us comfortably. Although the Seraphine wouldn’t be interested, I began with the details about the Cielo case, my encounter with McClatchy, and what I’d discovered about Shelly’s retention by First Samaritan.

  “This is most disconcerting!” Galen said, with a firm clop of one hind hoof. “I fear for her safety. Having met this ‘McClatchy’, one cannot help but feel apprehension.”

  “I’m surprised that he did this,” Liam added. “He must feel very secure in his power.”

  “Thy concerns are overblown,” Shaw declared. “We have the magic, the strength, and the will to overcome any bonds that hold her. Say the word, Dayna, and we shall free thy friend, or perish gloriously in the attempt.”

  “Easy, big guy,” I said, as I came over and rubbed the top of the drake’s head. “I’m sure we could break Shelly out if we wanted to, but that’s got to be a last resort. If we freed her that way, what next? She’d be a wanted woman.”

  “Shouldst she be deemed a traitor to your world’s lords, she can come live in Andeluvia. Surely thy monarch, or the Albess herself, would welcome her.”

  “There is that. But I know Shelly. That’s not what she wants. She loves her job with the OME, and she enjoys being close to her family. I don’t think it’s right for me to decide what she has to give up. So let’s table the ‘jailbreak’ option until all hope is lost, okay?”

  My friends nodded. The Seraphine continued to look on curiously, but without comment. That is, until I started talking about some of the other lab results. I began with the results showing that copper and graphic powder had been delivered by the bullets found in the Quondam’s remains. Korr interrupted me before I could explain that the powder had been designed to quench their kind’s flames.

  “We Seraphine are nearly eternal. Thus, our knowledge goes back eons,” he said, in his usual pompous fashion. “However, my mate and I are still unclear as to what a ‘bullet’ is.�
��

  That stopped me. I’d forgotten that the Seraphine didn’t have the same knowledge of my world as my three friends. I backed my explanation up a step, and tried to keep it as simple as possible.

  “Bullets are an artifact of my world,” I clarified. “They’re fired out of a weapon called a ‘gun’, which works sort of like a bow and arrow does in Andeluvia. I’m afraid that this is what was used to kill Pirr.”

  “Nonsense!” Korr said, and a snort of flame leapt up from his beak. “I have seen bows and arrows, and they cannot so much as scratch one of my glorious people!”

  “These are different. In my world, these weapons can–”

  “Enough of this foolishness!” he snapped. “How does this pertain to where the Quondam went prior to her ‘murder’? My mate and I have been kept waiting long enough!”

  Galen, Liam, and Shaw all traded glances amongst themselves. I wondered what else they had found in their own explorations of the Seraphine’s Vale, but I stuck with calming Korr down as much as I could. I was still trying very hard to be sympathetic. Waiting on lab results that could determine whether your entire species would live or die couldn’t be anything but stressful.

  “It’s pertinent, because it tells us that either someone familiar with my world came here to kill her, or, as I now believe, the Quondam came to my world first.”

  Korr and Jett looked at each other. I caught whispers of mind-talk between them.

  How could she conclude...such nonsense!

  Could this be, my mate? Could...have...

  Does she know? Do we dare...?

  I set my jaw. Now seemed as good a time as any to play another one of my cards.

  “All right,” I said. “There’s something else that I’ve been meaning to discuss. The fact is, someone’s playing a game of deception. Someone lied in order to get me out here.”

  “What do you mean?” Jett asked meekly.

  “I had a piece of the sartuul tested. Specifically, from the summons you used to call me. That summons was written on material that was practically indestructible...and around three thousand years old. I highly doubt that Pirr would have used it to ask for a crime scene analyst to look over her body, even if she knew who I was! So talk to me. Why forge a summons from your Quondam? Why go to all this trouble?”

  “We did not go to any trouble,” Korr rumbled back. “I awoke from my long slumber, as I told you. I found our leader, Inert and beyond revival. I found the message scrawled on the wall. And on the sartuul.”

  “Didn’t it look the least bit suspicious to you?”

  Korr’s beak twitched. “It looked odd, yes. But the message left in fire writing could not have been done without magic. The summons could not have been created without it. Neither my mate nor I care about oddities. We only care about our magnificent people, whom we wish to free from their tombs of ash and stone so that they can grace the universe with their beauty.”

  That did sort of make sense, I realized. The Seraphine hadn’t even cared all that much about who had killed their Quondam. All they wanted was their resurrection as a people.

  “Dayna,” Liam broke in. “I need to share with you what Galen and I found.”

  I nodded. “Maybe it will help clarify things.”

  “It hints more than clarifies, but you can be the judge.” Liam stepped forward, his proud stag face framed by his beautiful antlers. “The tangle of magical pathways here is dense as a thicket, and made worse by the fires that bubble just beneath the earth.”

  That’s interesting, my mind noted. Volcanic or geothermal activity disrupts magical divination. I don’t think I would have guessed that.

  “However, while I can’t puzzle out which type of magic has been used, Galen was able to determine the level of magic cast in the recent past.”

  Liam nodded to Galen, who spoke up next. “The Fayleene Protector was able to trace the location of two major magical events. I was able to determine their location, and their magnitude, which I would classify as close to Archmage-level.”

  I listened even more intently to Galen’s words. That was very potent magic indeed – right up there with physical transformation or other major spellwork.

  “The first magical event took place ten days ago,” the wizard continued. “The second, exactly one day later. And the location for both events was identical – approximately one-quarter furlong directly above us.”

  I resisted the urge to look up. Instead, I watched as the two Seraphine nodded, as if a suspicion of theirs had been confirmed.

  “We had wondered if our Quondam had travelled in this manner,” Korr said. “It is not widely known, but we Seraphine are able to magically transport ourselves for long distances once per day, at least if we are at our full magical strength. However, glorious as we are, we cannot sense where one of our kind has gone before. Perhaps our Quondam has visited your world on her own.”

  “How likely is that?” Shaw scoffed, as he looked over at me. “She would not even know of thy world’s existence!”

  “Actually,” I replied, “It’s not only possible. It’s what actually happened.”

  Galen rubbed his chin in thought. “I suppose that, if Pirr’s murderer knew about Dayna, they could also know about Dayna’s world. Perhaps they showed the Quondam the way to go.”

  “But how are you so sure that Pirr visited your world?” Liam asked.

  “The final lab tests,” I explained. “The ashes from Pirr’s body contained a very specific chemical, one that’s manufactured in my world. It’s called dimerized isobutene, or DIME, and it was added to a fuel called ‘gasoline’ to reduce the amount of pollution created when it was burned.”

  Galen looked impressed. “Rather like creating a fire that would not release smoke?”

  “I suppose that’s as good an analogy as any. But here’s the kicker. It was produced only at a few petroleum plants in Southern California before it was banned as toxic to humans. So, there’s thousands of gallons of this banned gasoline still sitting in fuel tanks around Los Angeles, waiting for disposal.”

  “You think the Quondam took a sip of this ‘gasoline’?”

  “Gasoline is a distillate of crude oil. If the Seraphine can consume that kind of oil straight out of the ground, then drinking gas would be like quaffing a glass of the finest wine to one of them.”

  “Do I understand that a return to your home world is in the offing?” Galen asked.

  “Yes, and I’m thinking that we all need to come. I’m still not sure how we’ll be able to track down exactly where Pirr went, but with all of us together, I’m sure that we can figure out a way.”

  “Are you sure that you have the strength to bring us all?” Liam asked Galen. “You and I expended a great deal of our power today.”

  “We’re both tired,” Galen admitted. “Yet I can accomplish this feat.”

  The two Seraphine conferred once more before Korr spoke again. “You shall not have to account for me, Wizard. I have sufficient power to travel across worlds for this day.”

  “Can you follow the spoor of my magic?”

  The big, fiery bird leapt into the air and blazed anew. “I can, now that I have reassumed my most splendid form. I shall only be a few seconds behind you.”

  “Then there is no sense waiting any longer,” Galen declared. “Come closer, everyone.”

  Liam trotted over to the centaur’s side, while I put a hand on both Shaw’s furry shoulder and Liam’s warm flank. Galen concentrated, shouted his incantation, and we all vanished in an ozone-scented flash of white.

  Chapter Thirty

  The four of us arrived with a bang, smack in the middle of my red-and-white bullseye carpet. I held onto my midsection as my stomach threatened to rebel. Galen steadied me with one large, warm hand as I caught my balance.

  “Thanks,” I said, right before a jolt of fear ran through me. “Everyone get back!”

  “What’s wrong?” Liam asked. He looked around as if to bolt.

  “Korr’s
right behind us!” I shouted.

  Instantly, Liam and Shaw dove for the corners of the room. Galen trotted backwards and hit his head on one of my hanging lamps. He cursed, something I rarely saw him do. But he’d gotten out of the way just in time.

  With a sizzle of rare steak on the grill, and a flash of gas-jet blue, Korr materialized in my living room. His presence immediately made it feel like an oven. The raised crests on the Seraphine’s head brushed the living room’s ceiling, burning a foot-long swatch in the sprayed-on stucco surface. Heat from his outstretched wings immediately started making the paint scorch and curl on the two closest walls.

  “Korr!” I shouted. “Turn it down! Turn your flame down!”

  “I shall reduce my splendor down to its minimum,” he agreed, as his flame diminished and he furled his wings to land.

  The Seraphine’s right foot instantly blackened the wood parquet floor where his talons touched. His left foot had no more than touched the red-and-white carpet when the floor covering burst into flame. There was an electronic chirp, followed by the piercing EEP-EEP-EEP of my home fire alarm.

  “Thy defenses do pierce my head!” Shaw complained.

  “At least you can plug your ears!” Liam groaned to his friend.

  “Dayna, might you be able to improve our situation?” Galen pleaded, as he winced and covered up his own ears.

  I pointed at the little round disk of the alarm. “I can’t get close enough to turn it off!”

  The damned thing had been bolted to the ceiling just next to where the Seraphine had arrived. Korr cocked his head and looked at it curiously. His beak darted forward. With a crunch, the din subsided a bit.

  But not completely.

  Compared to the open, stony space of the caldera, my living room was cramped and amazingly flammable. The rug, which had been rated ‘fire resistant’, was still merrily ablaze. The stucco walls began to sizzle as they browned and scorched like pizza crust. Overhead, the ceiling smoldered and began to emit smoke.