by Fiona Roarke
“So you’re saying that I have a stronger reason to fight?”
The gargoyle shrugged again. “We’ll see shortly, I think.”
Someone from the crowd in an awed voice asked, “Is that gargoyle talking?”
Another said, “Yes. They are robots or animatronic or something. They answer questions when asked.”
“Awesome,” someone else responded.
A tourist wearing a tan fishing hat approached the gargoyle, looked around to see if anyone else listened and asked if there were any wagers available on the coming fight.
“I’m a gargoyle, not a bookie,” the gargoyle said, sounding disgruntled. “And this is Nocturne Falls not Las Vegas. Step back.”
The guy with the hat shrugged. “Okay. I was just asking.”
Elise shook her head and turned back to the ring. Even she wouldn’t put a bet on this fight. She was very aware of Riker seated on the bench. His eyes were closed, but she thought she saw his mouth twitch. Good. Perhaps he wasn’t frozen for all time.
Maybe her plan should be to stay conscious and keep fighting long enough for Riker to break the power of whatever Druid dust had been thrown in his face.
After stretching the muscles in her arms, legs and back, Elise decided she needed one more thing before going into battle. She rounded the edge of the pink chalk, launching into a sprint and headed for Riker.
She grabbed his face and planted her mouth over his in an exuberant kiss meant to let him know she would fight to the death for him. But she also whispered, “If you’re able to get away, I want you to run. Get to the crash site. Don’t worry about me.”
Before he could respond, she’d already darted away and was back beside the gargoyle.
Anya stared at Elise like the battle was already over and she’d won even before the fight began. The gargoyle was right. Anya was arrogant and perhaps that would be her undoing.
Anya stepped across the pink chalk line at the opposite corner to where Elise stood pondering her strategy. “Do you dare enter the battle ring, witch?”
“You think I’m a witch?”
The Druid priestess smiled as if she harbored a secret. “You look like a witch with hair the color of flames and emerald eyes, too.”
Around them, the word “witch” carried through the crowd like an ominous sign that Elise was in over her head. She wouldn’t know until the battle started whether her opponent was a skilled fighter.
“What are the rules, Anya?” she called out in an overloud voice as the murmurs in the crowd rose.
Anya stood in her corner, arms away from her body as though she stood ready to chant ohm until her spirit was calm. Elise knew better.
“There are no rules. If you accept my challenge, step over the line and prepare to fight to the end. But if you’d rather save yourself the pain of battle, simply agree the man on the bench is mine to do with as I please. I’ll understand if you don’t want to lose in front of this crowd.”
“What does fight to the end mean?”
Anya’s eyes flashed. “Until one of us is either unconscious or incapacitated to the point we can no longer do battle.”
“I will never agree that Riker is yours, ever. He’s my one and only true love. Prepare to lose this match, Anya.” Elise stepped across the pink chalk line. A wave of dizziness assaulted her the second she’d planted both feet inside the ring. Crappity-crapness. What is wrong with me?
Anya launched across the space the moment Elise had completely crossed the pink line and stood in the ring. She led with a fist and Elise had to dodge her or get punched in the face. The dizzy feeling only got worse as Elise bobbed her body to one side. She stuck her leg out straight and Anya tripped over it, falling to her knees.
Elise ignored how weak she felt and jumped on the Druid’s back, trying to push Anya to the ground and get a chokehold in place. Hitting certain pressure points would knock her unconscious, hopefully. Elise just needed to stay conscious long enough to complete the move. But Anya didn’t stay down. The second Elise climbed on her back, Anya stood up, knocking her off balance. As Elise fell from shoulder height, Anya tried to drop her out of the ring.
Elise did a back flip in the opposite direction and landed on the balls of her feet well within the pink line. The crowd cheered, apparently impressed by the move, but then Anya grabbed a bunch of her hair and yanked her backward. She barely kept on her feet as the priestess dragged her across the ring toward where Riker sat on the bench, still mostly frozen in place.
His eyes were open, but staring down at the sidewalk at one area near the edge of the pink line a couple of steps from his booted feet. His lips seemed to be moving, but no sound came. Or at least she didn’t hear anything.
She broke from Anya, pushing her back several feet and put up her fists as if this was a boxing match. Anya charged at her several times, flinging fist after fist in her direction. Elise was able to block each one and push her back. She kept coming. Arrogance or not, Anya seemed determined to win. Elise fought off wave after wave of wooziness, as she tangled with the Druid, but if she didn’t beat Anya soon, the vertigo was going to win, and then so might her opponent.
Anya came at her feinting one way before moving another, fooling her in the moment and grabbing her hair once more. Was hair-pulling the only move she had? Elise managed a backward kick, hitting Anya in the thigh to get her to let go, and lost a clump of hair in the process. Anya screeched the moment Elise got free. Elise’s eyes watered at the pain of her hair being pulled out by the roots. Luckily it wasn’t much.
Before she could turn around, Anya punched her, delivering a hot, painful shot to her lower back, putting her on her knees as various spectators shouted, “That was a cheap shot!” “The woman with blue-streaked hair is a cheater.” “This is a terrible fight!”
None of the shouted insults made Anya stop. Elise did her best to draw breath as Anya aimed to hit her low once more. Elise twisted at the last minute and got a punch to the hip. Though less painful, it also pushed her off balance.
The screaming pain in her lower back made Elise’s eyes really water, much worse than when her hair was pulled, but she did her best to recover, taking two or three squatting steps backward, trying desperately to regain her balance. Through it all, the growing lightheadedness threatened to win out.
Anya was suddenly on her other side. She shot a palm into Elise’s shoulder, knocking her completely on her butt. With a hand on the sore spot of her back, Elise managed to lift both feet and kick Anya in the belly as she tried to leap onto her prone body.
A satisfying grunt from Anya—when she consequently landed on her butt—didn’t make Elise move any faster. The pain in her back was extreme. She pulled her hand away and realized she was bleeding. Had Anya stabbed her?
She felt around with the tips of her thumb and forefinger until she found something small and hard. She pulled on it and a thin metal bristle came out of her flesh. The level of pain dropped immediately, but she’d taken too long to remove the thin puncturing metal. Anya leapt up and aimed a fist at Elise’s head. She dodged the first blow, wanting to call foul for the metal pin in her back, but didn’t have time.
Anya managed a left-handed blow to the side of her head, square on Elise’s ear, and she went down, hard, pain ringing in her skull, going hand in hand with her vertigo. Together, both conditions kept her down. Elise turned her head to one side and opened her eyes, realizing she was in Riker’s narrow view. She stared into his eyes. His expression seemed focused and intense, but softened ever so slightly when he saw her. Unfortunately, he was about to see her fail.
Echoed pain clanged around in her head with a deafening and resolute sound. Her limbs were weak from the fight. The dizziness she’d acquired since entering the ring was about to end her challenge. Her cheating opponent stood up and walked a few steps over, blocking Riker’s sightline. “One last chance. Surrender, green-eyed witch, or I’ll stomp on you until you stop moving.”
“No. I’ll never surrend
er.”
“Fine. I warned you. I gave you a chance and I have witnesses.” Anya backed up three long steps, like she planned to get a running start before stomping Elise unconscious. She shook her head, the long, blue-streaked ponytail flailing behind her like a silk scarf blowing in the wind.
Elise caught a slender glimpse of Riker’s face. A beautiful smile played around his lips. His eyes were focused directly on her and he winked. At least he was unfreezing.
Too bad she was about to lose this foolish battle right in Riker’s limited view.
Chapter Fifteen
<^> <^> <^>
Riker watched the battle, well, the part he could see anyway. He mostly heard it. When the crowd started shouting about the blue-haired woman being a cheater, it helped focus his efforts on freeing himself.
Behind him, he thought he heard a familiar voice.
“Is she a witch, do you think?” It sounded exactly like Miss Jayne Frost’s.
In that moment, Anya aimed a punch at Elise’s head. She dodged a direct blow to the face, but Anya’s fist hit her solidly on her ear. She stumbled backward and fell on the sidewalk.
“No,” said Pandora’s voice. “She’s definitely not a witch. Otherwise she could have already won.” Interesting conversation. Did these women believe in witches, goblins and ghosts?
Riker had read Alpha colony reports from Earth over the years. He understood the basics of Halloween with its ghosts, goblins and witches. It was all make believe, but he also knew from his reading that some humans actually believed in all sorts of supernatural things. Up to now he’d only focused on alien conspiracies on Earth and not supernatural. Interesting to get a close-up view of supernatural beliefs.
For the here and now, all he could do was remain where he was and concentrate on that final kiss Elise had given him before stepping into the ring. That single brief connection had gone a long way toward helping to warm his frozen body.
Before when hit with the pink dust, he’d felt hampered, but eventually broke free. This potion was different, much stronger, and too difficult to escape easily. The spell had bound him with a much stronger force. It was like being frozen in a block of ice and very frustrating to someone who was used to being the bringer of law enforcement, the guard of those in need, The Calderian.
Elise was bleeding. He saw that as soon as she was on her back right in his only view of the battle ring. Was that why the crowd had called out that Anya cheated? Or was it because Anya had obviously hit her in the back? Either way, seeing his beautiful Elise hurt, down and bleeding unhinged him way deep down inside.
She’d rescued him from the cabin. She’d found a way to transport him out of the woods. She’d discovered and fixed the purposeful injury to his leg. Elise had saved him over and over as they’d negotiated this odd little town, chased by Druids hell-bent on fulfilling their prophecy. And best of all, he’d learned that she loved him, just as he loved her with every fiber of his being.
It was his turn to save her and end this foolish battle.
Anya backed up several steps, obviously getting ready to launch herself onto her fallen opponent. She flicked her head, sending her ponytail out of the ring.
Riker used all the power he’d accumulated, breaking the spell keeping him frozen. He stood and grabbed Anya’s ponytail with a fist, winding the blue locks around his hand once and yanking her backward, out of the ring. He released her hair and deposited her on the bench where he’d just been immobilized.
The look of shock on her face was priceless.
“But…you can’t move.”
“Oh, yes, I can. Watch me move more.” Riker stepped across the pink chalk line. He was still a bit dizzy, but did his best to ignore it.
“But I gave you the most potent subdue potion I have and I tripled the strength due to your large size.” Anya was seriously awed by the fact he could once again move of his own free will.
“The problem is that you challenged my true love to a battle. Love is a powerful force. In this case, love conquers all, even potent potions meant to subdue. You should have left us alone.”
Anya’s gray-robed followers all pushed their hoods off their heads at the same time and moved to the bench where Anya sat frozen in her defeat. Her expression seemingly tried to figure out where she’d gone wrong as her compatriots started chanting, “Our Druid priestess has been defeated in the sacred battle ring. The prophecy is lost forever. Our Druid priestess has been defeated…”
Their voices sounded downcast and miserable as they repeated their melancholy message several more times. How long had they followed her prophecies only to discover she was not a leader they could believe in by not fulfilling the one prophecy they followed without question?
Riker reached a hand down to Elise. She took it and got to her feet with a relieved smile. “Thanks. I thought I was done for when I hit the ground.”
“Likely you would have rallied at the last second, but I thought it was my turn to rescue you. It is in my skillset, and it was certainly my turn.”
Elise walked out of the ring and pulled him with her. The dizziness abated and Riker felt better.
“Thank you.”
“My pleasure,” he said.
“I think the pink chalk was laced with something. I was woozy the moment I stepped inside the lines.”
“Me, too. I thought it was residual effects from the stuff thrown in my face.”
Elise turned as a disturbance rippled through the crowd. Riker looked around in time to see someone coming toward them. He was tall, big, dressed in what Riker assumed was a human law officer’s uniform and his expression was ferociously serious.
Someone in the crowd whispered in an overloud tone, “Oh no. Sheriff Merrow is here to break this up. Let’s go.”
Elise said, “Looks like we get to meet Ivy’s husband after all.”
Riker stiffened. “Let’s hope he’s here to arrest Anya, and not us.”
“Maybe Ivy will stand up for us.”
“Maybe. However, we should perhaps leave.”
“You there.” The sheriff pointed to Riker. “Tell me what’s going on here. Were you staging a public fight in the town square?”
Before Riker could answer, Pandora and Jayne approached. “Hey, Hank.”
The sheriff looked at the women and his expression softened. “Pandora, Jayne. Can you shed some light on this…gathering?”
“Yep.” Pandora pointed to Anya. “It’s her fault. She started the whole thing.”
Both Pandora and Jayne explained in succinct detail exactly what had gone on both before, during and after the battle. “And if you don’t believe us, you can ask the gargoyle. He saw everything.”
Riker’s eyes narrowed on the statue perched on the fountain’s edge. “Does the gargoyle have a camera or something?”
“Or something,” Hank said. And that was all he said. The guy was a man of few words. Riker could respect that.
Hank directed two deputies, one of whom was Jenna, to arrest the five Druids. The four followers were docile, but Jenna had to put Anya in handcuffs as she shouted and cursed everyone around her and generally made a loud exit from the area.
“Are you going to arrest us?” Elise asked the sheriff.
“Should I?”
“No,” Riker said. “We are blameless. The Druid Anya has been chasing us all day, trying to fulfill some foolish prophecy.”
“Aren’t they looking for some spaceman that’s fallen to Earth?”
Pandora nodded. “That’s the word on the street.”
The sheriff cracked a smile, but he looked like it didn’t happen very often. He eyed Riker up and down, perhaps noting his tattered and torn uniform. “And are you a spaceman that has fallen to Earth, fulfilling their long-awaited prophecy?”
Riker put on his best incredulous expression. “What do you think?” he asked in a tone meant to sound skeptical.
Hank looked affronted. “Are you answering my question with a question?”
&n
bsp; “Is that against the law here in Nocturne Falls?”
The sheriff crossed his arms, scanned the area as if assessing who might be around to listen. They were, for the most part, alone.
“I had occasion to call Alienn, Arkansas today. Do you two know where that is? Are you perhaps from there?”
The shock factor of that almost worked. Riker opened his mouth to deny whatever the sheriff was about to say next.
Elise was cooler. “What do you think you know?”
He ignored the fact she’d just answered another question with a second query. “I know that earlier I ran into one of your friends. Her name is Stella. She was with a man named Draeken who looks an awful lot like you, as a matter of fact.” He nodded at Riker.
“Do you think we should head to the sheriff’s station and have a chat?”
<^> <^> <^>
Elise stiffened and felt Riker do the same beside her. “No. I do not think we need to go have a chat at the sheriff’s station.”
“Why is that?”
“Your wife’s name is Ivy, right?”
He frowned. “How do you know that?”
“I met her earlier. She’s nice and your son Charlie is really cute.”
A flash of manly pride at the mention of his family crossed Hank Merrow’s face.
“Call her and ask her about us. She’ll tell you we are merely trying to get back home after my friend here got hurt in the woods. The Druids found him first and tried to claim him as their own, but I’m going to marry this man. I selected a dress today in your town.”
“Oh? What’s the name of the place you shopped?”
“Ever After Bridal Boutique.”
“Who waited on you?”
“Corette. You can call her, too. She’ll tell you we were there and also that Anya followed us inside.”
