by Gene Curtis
The boys stopped running. “Ma’am, we’re not going to hurt you. We just want to talk to you.”
The door opened and the lady officer from before stepped into the opening. She saw the key in the door lock and said, “Mrs. Rutherford, I’m so sorry for your loss, but I can’t let you in here. I’m under orders.”
Tears started streaming down Mrs. Rutherford’s face and she sobbed, “Then, it’s really true. My Clarence is dead...” She put her hand on the wall, knelt and started bawling. The younger lady knelt and put her arms around Mrs. Rutherford, “Grammie, let me take you home. You don’t need to do this right now.”
Mrs. Rutherford stemmed her crying a little and said with a determined voice, “I’m going to stay right here until I see him with my own eyes.” She leaned over and sat down on the ground. “I’m staying right here.”
Mark looked at the officer, “Is there any way you can let her see?”
The officer shook her head, “Sorry, I can’t do that.”
“Then I want to talk to someone that can.”
“This is a crime scene. She can’t come in. No one can come in until the investigators are finished processing.”
“You’re in. I want to talk with the detective in charge. This lady is going to be a prime source of information. You don’t want to make her mad at you. She may decide that you’re all a bunch of knuckleheads and not tell you anything. How’s your detective going to feel about that? How’s he going to feel about you for causing it?”
The officer looked sternly at Mark and then called back into the building. “I need Detective Rivera back here.”
It took a couple of minutes. Det. Rivera didn’t come through the building, he walked around outside. “Officer Martin, what do you need?” His accent was Spanish sounding.
The officer pointed at Mrs. Rutherford who was still sitting on the ground. “She insists on seeing her husband’s body.”
Det. Rivera stepped over and squatted beside Mrs. Rutherford. He spoke in a low voice. “In there,” he raised his chin toward the door, “is something I wouldn’t want my mother to see, but she would insist on seeing anyway. If I let you in there, what you see will scar you... forever. Do you understand that?”
Mrs. Rutherford nodded, “But not seeing would be worse.”
“I understand. If I let you see, will you promise me not to go any farther than the top of the stairs? We are still collecting evidence.”
Mrs. Rutherford nodded.
“I need you to say it.”
“I won’t go any farther than the top of the stairs; you have my word.” She began to get up. Her granddaughter and the detective helped her.
Det. Rivera asked the officer, “You heard?”
The officer nodded and stepped out to help Mrs. Rutherford.
The granddaughter tried to go with her but the detective said, “Just Mrs. Rutherford, please.”
The granddaughter looked at the detective, started to say something and then stopped. She touched her grandmother’s shoulder as she was passing through the door and said, “I’ll be right here.”
Det. Rivera addressed Mark, “Virginia is such a beautiful place. It reminds me of my home in Chile. My village was in a valley of six mountains, a very beautiful place. I traveled from there to seek what I might find in America. Alas, days like this make me wonder if that choice was wise.” He quickly pointed to Mark and Nick. “You traveled here too?”
Mark said, “I live near here and Nick is from Kansas, but we go to a private school out west. This is a field trip for us, sort of. We’re seeking knowledge.”
“You can see mountains from your school, yes?”
“There are seven.”
“Mountains are a good thing. Now, you two were the ones that discovered the crime, yes?”
Mark nodded.
“Perhaps you have an idea who did this terrible thing.”
Mark glanced at the granddaughter and then motioned for the detective to come closer. He whispered in the detective’s ear, “Neo-Phylum.”
“Ah, as I suspected. Perhaps a name?”
A grief-stricken cry came from inside the door. Mrs. Rutherford must have reached the top of the stairs.
The granddaughter looked suddenly worried about her grandmother and made to go through the door. Det. Rivera cleared his throat and wagged his finger when she looked around. Her facial expression changed, showing that she was disappointed that she couldn’t comfort her grandmother. She leaned back against the wall.
Det. Rivera turned his attention back to Mark and Mark whispered again, “Ruby Jones.”
“I know of this one. Why would such as she wish harm to such as Mr. Rutherford?”
Mark showed him the book. “He wrote this. This is a drawing of the real sunstone. She didn’t want me finding out what he knew about it.”
Det. Rivera flipped through his notes and then looked quizzically at Mark, “Mark... Mark Young? The Mark Young, bearer of the staff?”
Mark nodded.
The granddaughter started toward them, “You’re Mark Young? The boy with the staff called Bands? My grandfather practically worshipped you. You and that staff were all he talked about when he got back from his last expedition. You’re really him?”
Mark felt his face flushing and nodded at the gushing woman.
When she stood in front of him, she looked him up and down. “You’re older, but I guess you’d have to be. I saw you in a dream once. What has it been now, three, four or five years ago?” She extended her hand. “I’m Trudy, most folks call me Dee.”
Mark shook her hand gingerly.
She offered her hand to Nick and he said, “I’m Nick.”
Det. Rivera queried, “Nick... Nikola Poparov? Inventor of the infrasonic gun?”
Nick smiled and nodded.
“That was some stunt you did on that boy, yes? I want one of them guns.” He grinned and turned back to Mark. “You have the staff, yes? I wish to make my oath.”
“Out in the open like this?” He looked at Trudy and at the doorway. The officer was evidently with Mrs. Rutherford.
Trudy said, “Oh don’t worry about me. I know all about it. I’ll keep it secret, promise.” She held her hand up and looked excited.
Mark said, “Let’s be quick about it before anyone else comes back here. Aaron’s Grasp is hard to explain.” He pulled out the staff. Trudy’s appeared shocked at first and then her face spread into a wide grin.
Det. Rivera knelt, laid his pistol and sword on the ground in front of him and said, “I choose... my sword, my skills and my life serve you and your quest to defeat Benrah.” He swiftly gathered his weapons and stood.
Mark put the staff back and took out a Fairystone necklace, placed it over Det. Rivera’s head and said, “This is a reminder of your oath.”
Nick asked, “Det. Rivera, can I have your first name and tribe?”
“Carlos, and I am of Agate Tribe.”
Trudy asked, “Benrah? Is that the same as Satan?”
Det. Rivera answered, “You know of him as the son of Lucifer or the Antichrist. I believe that it was by his design that this has happened to your grandfather at the hands of one of his followers.”
“How do I join? I want to fight too.”
Mark said, “It’s not possible, you’re not a Magi.”
She looked him up and down, “Neither are you... you ain’t no Occoneechee.”
Mark smiled at the ludicrous remark. “A few Occoneechee are Magi, not all. Your grandfather got that part wrong.”
“Still, I want to fight. How do I become a Magi?”
Mrs. Rutherford emerged from the door. “You can’t be no Magi, you don’t have the right blood. You don’t need to be fightin’ nobody noway.”
Det. Rivera looked at Officer Martin standing in the doorway. “You can close the door. I think we are through back here. Make sure it’s locked. I’ll walk back around.”
“Grammie, you ain’t going to believe this.” Trudy put her hand on M
ark’s shoulder. “This here is that boy that Granddaddy was always talking about. He’s got that staff and everything.”
Mrs. Rutherford looked Mark up and down. “Um, could be. Are you him?”
Mark nodded.
“Let me see the staff.”
Her tone was forceful and demanding. His first thought was to refuse her request, but then he remembered she didn’t have to tell him anything. It was best, he thought, to placate her. He pulled out the staff.
“Glory be to God in the highest! I didn’t believe Clarence when he told me; I just played along to humor him. He gets cranky when he thinks you think he’s telling a lie. Praise the Lord, he was telling the truth all along.” She reached out to touch the staff and he moved it beyond her reach.
Mark said, “Yes ma’am, he was telling the truth. Do you mind if I ask you some questions about one of his books?” He put the staff back into Aaron’s Grasp and held up the book for her to see.
“I trust that whenever you find who done my Clarence in, you be sure to do them in too.”
“I can’t make that promise, ma’am, even if it means we part company right here, right now.”
“Ain’t you the polite one? Me, I’m just talking out of anger. Whoever did that to my Clarence deserves the same I say. But, it’s in God’s hands. Now, what questions you want to ask me?”
“This picture on the cover; it’s unusual. Do you know where he got it?”
“Oh, that. He got that from that detective friend of his’n that he met in New Orleans. Detective Sergeant Polaris. I remember that because of the North Star and that man loved collard greens. Said he couldn’t get none where he lived ‘cept for that canned stuff they sell in grocery stores. Nasty stuff, if you ask me. Anyway, Sgt. Polaris sketched that picture out for him. Said it come from a dream.”
“Do you have an address for Sgt. Polaris?”
“Sure don’t. I asked Clarence to get it so I could send a Christmas card. He never got it for me though. Just like a man to forget something like that. Lordy, I’m going to miss him.” She began tearing up again.
“You think he lived in New Orleans?”
“Lord child, no. Collard greens almost grow wild down there. No, that man was a Yankee to the bone, sure as Moses led the people outta Egypt. Least he talked like one anyway.”
Det. Rivera pulled out his cell phone. “How long ago was Clarence in New Orleans when he met Sgt. Polaris?”
“Let me think... must have been about five years ago. That’s when he was researching that jeweled dagger he figured belonged to that pagan goddess Ishtar. I told him he better not go looking for any of them temple prostitutes, to stay away from prostitutes altogether if he knew what was good for him.”
A couple of moments later Det. Rivera was talking with the New Orleans Police Department. “Hi, I’m Detective Sergeant Rivera with the South Boston, Virginia Police Department. I’m working on a case and trying to find a Detective Sergeant Polaris that conducted an investigation in your city about five years ago. I don’t think he was one of yours. The information I have is he was from up north... Yeah, I’ll hold.
“Archived? What do you mean archived? It’s only been five years. What do I need to do to get the information?
“Can’t you just fax it to me and I’ll fax it back?
“I see, thanks for your time.
“Mark, sorry, I did try. They say the case was sealed and archived. It’s very unusual for a case to be sealed and archived so early. They say a normal archival pull can be done then and there with an in person form request, but a sealed case requires a FOIA, Freedom of Information Act request and a court order. Then it’s usually more than two weeks before the information can be released, if then.” He shook his head, “Bureaucrats.”
“That’s okay. There are other ways to find out. Got any friends in New Orleans?”
Det. Rivera shook his head, “Sorry, never been there.”
Mark turned to Mrs. Rutherford and said, “Thank you ma’am, you’ve been a big help.”
“You’re welcome. Now go catch them that did my Clarence in.”
Trudy said, “Wait, you didn’t answer my question.”
Det. Rivera said, “If you’re serious, I can give you a test. If you pass I can take you as an apprentice.”
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Battle in the Spirit
They were walking away from the back of the bookstore when Nick asked, “You’re thinking LeOmi might know, aren’t you?”
“She might, but I was thinking there has to be a database of police officers somewhere in the library back at school. If not, then the Council of Elders might know something.”
“If not, it might be best just to go to New Orleans and find someone that worked with him.”
“Good idea. Mom, can you remanifest us back to The Seventh Mountain?” She didn’t materialize. He looked around. They were approaching the alley and no one was around. There was no reason for her not to appear. “Mom?”
He walked over to the back of the nearest building and sat on the ground. “If I stand up when I do this, I sometimes fall over.” He closed his eyes and slipped into Spirit Sight. His mom was no longer with them. He opened his eyes and said, “She’s not here. Something must have happened. I’m going to see if I can find out what it is.”
Neither LeOmi nor Bekka was at the ranch. The Seventh Mountain appeared normal, except almost nobody was in The Oasis, highly unusual. The only reason he could think of for that happening was if Jamal had opened his kitchen; not likely on a Sunday. He checked and Jamal’s Kitchen was indeed closed. The mall was full of people going to and fro, talking, visiting shops and doing normal stuff. The classrooms were empty and so were the dorms for the most part. Nothing out of the ordinary there, yet where was his mom. She’d evidently volunteered to stand sentinel for him and Nick and now she wasn’t at her post. Whatever took her away had to be important. He listened to snatches of conversations in the mall and no one gave any clue that anything was out of the ordinary. In Magi City, everything seemed normal.
He didn’t find any clue as to what was happening until he decided to check the Engineering Building. The few people there were outside and were in a trance. Every one of them just standing or sitting motionless with their eyes closed. Their connective cords, the faint, silvery, thin line that connected their spirits with their bodies stretched up and toward the roof. He followed them up to the rooftop and beyond. Higher up they merged into a bundle and continued up where they merged with an even larger bundle that seemed to emanate from the mountain. They were so faint; it was hard see if that was where they actually came from. He followed it away from the school.
When he was almost across the Atlantic Ocean, he saw that another large bundle from the southwest merged with the one from The Seventh Mountain. Farther on one merged from the south, and then one from the north. The bundle was large enough now that he didn’t think he could wrap his arms around it. The bundle began curving down toward the ground at the eastern end of the Mediterranean Sea and two more bundles joined it.
He approached closer to the ground and saw many smaller bundles coming in from many different directions and descending toward the same point as the large bundle.
Seeing in Spirit Sight was like looking at something while in a totally dark space and the only light was from one source centered on you. You could see things when you were close. Objects became less illuminated the farther away they were depending on size. It wasn’t until he was about two hundred feet overhead that he saw the pitched battle below. It reminded him of the ancient clashes between armies he’d seen on TV, one on one or two at a time, except this was spirit against spirit in a melee. The blows fell in a fury; spirits were wounded and fell but none died; they just writhed in agony on the ground. Some regained their feet and rejoined the battle.
How did they tell who was who? There were no uniforms or anything that he could see that distinguished one side from the other; yet each one seemed to know frien
d from foe. It wasn’t until he got closer that he saw it was their eyes. The Magi had very bright eyes, almost luminescent while the others had dull eyes, gray in some cases and a few appeared black and lusterless.
He took out the staff and held it up. After a few minutes, it didn’t appear to be having any effect on the battle below. He thought about severing the cords of the Magi enemy, ascended and used his katana. It passed right through doing no damage. He tried it several times to no effect. He removed the sword from the bottom of the staff and tried it. The cords severed and vanished in a silvery wisp. He did another bundle and another. They all severed and vanished. After a few more, the battle below stopped. Then one of the smaller bundles slithered up and away. A moment later another went, then several more and then all the rest of the small bundles.
The Magi bundle began diminishing in size and a man appeared in front of him. It took a second, but he recognized him as Mr. Diefenderfer-with hair and bright eyes. He wouldn’t have recognized him had he not seen the transformation in the labyrinth.
Mr. Diefenderfer said, “Well, fancy meeting you here. It is puzzling as to how you accomplished such a feat as no weapon forged by human hands can do what you apparently did. I take it that you used the staff?”
The sword was still in his hand and he was sure Mr. Diefenderfer knew it wasn’t his regular sword. “Sir, I need to keep this secret.”
“Rest assured, good sir, I will keep your secret, but you must realize that what you have done here will become legend in the Magi community, and a source of consternation and conjecture for the Neo-Phylum. I suggest you leave before anyone else comes looking to see who did this remarkable thing. You will be on your own for the next day or so while we recover. Battles like this are very taxing on the mind and the body.”
CHAPTER TWENTY
The Hospital
Mark forced his eyes open. He felt as though he’d just had a bad dream, but knew that what he’d just seen, just done, was real. He wasn’t sitting on the ground any longer. Where was he? He tried to focus, but it was dark. “Nick... are you still here?”
