Curse of the Sea

by Joni Parker

  ASSEMBLY HALL

  In Meridian, Lord Odin boarded the Rambler for Tulon, the current home of the Rock Elves. He had a private meeting scheduled with Lord Fissure to discuss using the keys to help them with Nexus Island. Based on his previous encounters with them, he couldn’t help but be concerned for his safety. As soon as he landed, he took a deep breath and headed to the Governor’s palace.

  The Governor escorted him to the Assembly Hall. It was filled with the Elders of the Rock Elves, their families, and staff. At one end was a stage with two chairs. Lord Odin paused—this wasn’t what he expected. As he climbed up to the stage, Lord Fissure stepped out from behind a curtain. They faced each other like adversaries.

  Lord Fissure turned to him. “Welcome to Tulon, Lord Odin.” The room fell silent.

  Lord Odin was about to speak when Lord Fissure continued. “It’s always a pleasure to welcome a member of the Council, but it’s a rare occasion indeed.” He smirked. “As you are aware, my friends, we have been granted permission by the Mentors and the Council to settle on the northern side of Nexus Island. The area is unsuitable. We can’t even find a location for our ships to dock. I’ve sent a letter of protest to Lord Ashur and he has sent Lord Odin to remedy our situation. My lord?”

  Lord Odin stepped forward. The room was so still he could hear his heart pounding. He smiled and bowed. “Thank you for seeing me on such a short notice, but I wanted to start right away. As you know, I’ve been assigned temporarily to be the Keeper of the Keys. I believe that one of them may help you improve the land you seek to settle. So, I propose that I go to the island on one of your ships and try it.”

  “How long will it take?” The question came from somewhere in the audience to Lord Odin’s left.

  “I don’t know. I’ve never used the keys myself, but my granddaughter, the Keeper, has.”

  “Why didn’t she come?”

  “She was sent on another mission. When she returns, she’ll be able to help you even more than I can.”

  “How do you know it worked for her?”

  “Have you heard of the parched lands of Easton? With the help of the keys, they have been turned into the most productive farmlands we’ve ever known.”

  The crowd murmured and exchanged glances.

  Lord Fissure nodded. “Promising. What say you?” He turned to the audience.

  The crowd applauded and Lord Odin breathed a sigh of relief. “I should like to begin as soon as possible.”

  “Tomorrow morning, my ship, Bloodstone, will depart for the island. In the meantime, join us for supper.” Lord Fissure bowed to him.

  “Thank you, my lord.” Lord Odin returned his bow and stepped off the stage behind Lord Fissure. The crowd knelt as he passed by. Once outside, he took a deep breath and felt the cool breeze on his face. Relieved, he followed Lord Fissure down the street.

  Chapter 27

  THE BARRISTER

  Back in London, Alex tapped her foot as she waited in the room with her hands cuffed to the table. The room was utterly bare. No pictures hung on the wall and the windows were barred. The walls were painted a dull gray and evoked a feeling of sadness.

  Before the walls closed in on her, she rested her head on her arms on top of the table and dozed until a young woman breezed through the door. She was petite with cropped blond hair, dyed pink on the tips. Her face was pale with dark red lipstick and she looked about fifteen. She wore jeans and a black T-shirt that read Barristers Forever in bright green letters. She extended her hand.

  “Hello, love. Sorry, I’m so late, but I only received this assignment two hours ago after my clearance came through and there was another delay—they searched my bag three times. My name’s Cornelia Julia Lloyd. You can call me Julia; all my friends do. I’m your barrister and I’ll be your Special Advocate, your defense solicitor, for the closed hearing tomorrow morning. Sorry, not tomorrow, the day after tomorrow.”

  “Can you talk a little slower? I’m having a little trouble understanding the accents here.”

  She gasped. “Are you an American? I’m terribly sorry, but I haven’t had time to review your file. Have you contacted the embassy?”

  “Actually, I’m from Eledon, but my foster father’s an American.”

  “Eledon? What country is that? Let me look for the extradition order in your file.” She sat down and leafed through the pages. “Where is this Eledon and how did you get here?”

  “I’m not sure where Eledon is from here, but the Wizard Ecstasy brought me here. We were bringing home some sailors from NATO Exercise Hunter Dawn 2031.”

  She paused, wrinkling her brow. “Hunter Dawn? Weren’t those men brought back by an American fishing vessel?”

  “They made up that story because no one would believe they came from Eledon in Ecstasy’s ship.”

  “Ecstasy?”

  “He’s a wizard. He has this little red ship that flies through the air. All I know is that we went past the moon.”

  “I do know where that is.” She looked at the file and put her hands on her head, pulling on her hair. “Well, I definitely have some reading to do. First, I want to clarify what will happen tomorrow and the day after. Tomorrow, you’ll be taken for some tests, if you consent.”

  “What kind of tests?”

  “The first will be medical to make sure you’ve recovered from your injuries. The second will be psychological. You’ll be evaluated for your mental competency.”

  “To see if I’m delusional.”

  “Well, yes. If you agree, sign here.” She shoved a piece of paper over and pointed to the bottom with a pen.

  “Better than being in here, I guess.” Alex signed it.

  “I want you to wear some nice clothes.”

  “This is all I have.” Alex looked down at her gray sweats.

  “But you’re allowed to have your own clothes in jail.”

  “This is all I have, but I do get a new set every Friday. The hospital cut up my clothes because they were bloody.”

  “What size do you wear?”

  “I don’t know.” She shrugged.

  “I’ll send you something. Anyway, the next day, we’ll attend a hearing of your case before Mrs. Louisa Meriweather, Judge of the Crown Court. All we’ll do is hear the evidence against you. And by request of the prosecution, it’ll be a closed session, so the only people in the room will be you, me, Barrister Harold James Somers of the Crown Prosecution Service, the Judge, the bailiff, and a recorder. Four witnesses are scheduled to testify, including Detective Inspector Graham Tyler, Rear Admiral Thomas C. Collins, Dr. Rajiv Ramanathan, the contract medical examiner for the Metropolitan Police, or as we say, the Met, and Dr. Philip Owens, the contract psychologist, also from the Met. Other witnesses may be added later. Well, quite standard. The transcripts will be reviewed and classified as top secret due to national security issues. Have you seen the arrest warrant?”

  Alex shook her head.

  The barrister shuffled through her papers and handed her a document. “Here.”

  “By this decree, I, the Right Honorable Mrs. Louisa M. Meriweather, presiding judge of the Crown Court, do hereby order the arrest of Lady Alexin Catherine Dumwalt to appear for a hearing involving damage to government property, in excess of one million pounds and the murder of six people.

  Signed, Mrs. Louisa M. Meriweather”

  Alex read it and looked up at Julia. “Oh, I heard about this before, but I didn’t get any specifics.”

  “Oh yeah. That’s Judge George Godfrey, or as we call him, Hanging George. It’s a computer program. We have so many cases we’ve had to automate our systems. Did you press guilty or not guilty?”

  “Not guilty.”

  “Good. Well, if I’m to present a viable defense, I need to know more about you and you need to trust me. I promise I shall do the best job that I can.”

  Alex noticed sweat on her upper lip. “How many cases have you done?”

  “I’ve assisted in over a dozen, but yours will be
the very first one I’ve ever done alone.” She bit her lip. “I’ll do my very best.” She broke into a large smile.

  Alex cringed and pressed her lips together. “The first one?”

  “What should I call you?”

  “Alex.”

  “And you’re twenty years old, according to this file—you’re quite young for all this. I will ask you bluntly and this won’t be used in court: Did you do any of the alleged crimes listed in the warrant?”

  “Yes, but the damage wasn’t that bad, not a million of anything.”

  Her jaw dropped slightly. “Why?”

  “I came here to bring back the sailors of Hunter Dawn. There were over seven hundred sailors who were shipwrecked on Seaward Isle, so this was the first trip of many to bring them home. My job was to give them the counter-potion to restore them to normal size and then I was to return home for the next group.”

  “Wait, wait.” She held up her hand. “You said this counter-potion restored them to normal size?”

  “We had to fit as many people on Ecstasy’s ship as we could and the only way was to give them a shrinking potion to make them small. It also makes them very sleepy, so they slept all the way. When we got here, I gave them the counter-potion to make them normal size again.”

  “And then what happened?”

  “They held me all day, asking me questions and then Admiral Collins told me I was delusional for saying that I was an Elf and the daughter of a Count and he was sending me to a clinic to be examined. He had this man handcuff me. So, I escaped. I was only trying to help them and they arrested me.” Alex held her hands up to her to show her the handcuffs clamped to the table. “Admiral Collins said that Elves don’t exist and my father wasn’t a Count and that I could be violent, so I couldn’t be released to wander around in public.”

  “And how did you become an Elf?”

  Alex sighed. “I didn’t become one—I was born one. My father was mortal, but my mother was part Water Elf and Titan.”

  “Do you mean like the Elves in fairy tales and the Titans of Greek mythology?”

  “Elves and Titans are quite real.”

  Julia leaned forward. “How do I know that you’re an Elf? Do you have pointed ears?”

  Alex pulled her hair back. “Since I have mixed blood, my ears are rounded, but I have blue hair in them. It means I’m a young Water Elf.”

  Julia gasped. “May I touch it?” She reached over and touched the blue hair in her ears, making Alex’s head twitch. “It seems quite sensitive. Does it help your hearing?”

  “It has something to do with it. What’s your pink hair for?”

  “Decoration.” She pulled on her hair. “What about these murders? Did you kill these people?”

  “Yes. One man stole my cloak pin and ran off. I chased him down, but he turned on me with a knife, so I killed him. The others were trying to kill a friend of mine, Colonel Jeffrey.”

  “So, it was self-defense. How did you kill them?”

  “With this blue light from my hands.”

  “May I see your hands? Can you show me where this light comes out?” She stared at her hands and turned them over.

  “It comes out from here, but I don’t know how.” Alex pointed to the palm of her hand.

  “And it’s powerful enough to kill?” She glanced to the door and back at her. “Could you break out of here if you wanted to?”

  Alex nodded, not wanting to admit that she was looking for opportunities to escape. But the thought of getting Tasered or shot in an escape attempt made her chest ache, just thinking about it. Then, there was the issue with lead. She still needed time to recover from it.

  “Why don’t you?”

  “My grandfather said I had to face my responsibilities. And I have nowhere to go. I don’t know how to get back to Eledon.” That was true, but there had to be a way.

  “Your grandfather sounds like a very wise man.”

  “He’s an Elf.”

  “Yes, well, perfectly clear. We have to see what the prosecution presents, all right? Remember this is just a hearing to see if there’s enough evidence against you. Try not to show any emotion.” Julia smiled. “The guards will make sure you arrive on time. Get a good night’s sleep, so you look refreshed. Oh, and you need some clean clothes.” She wrote a quick note on a pad of paper and put it in her briefcase. She pressed a button by the door.

  “Good night, Julia.” Alex waved with her cuffed hands.

  Julia smiled and waved, but rolled her eyes as she left.

  When the door closed, Alex leaned her head back and sighed. She didn’t know much about the law but knew that experience counted for something. Julia had very little. The guard came in and released her from the table. Due to the late hour, Alex wasn’t returned to her cell and placed in solitary for the night.

  Chapter 28

  EVALUATIONS

  The next morning, Alex woke up when the buzzer went off in the hall. She rolled on her side and got out of bed. She waited to be counted by the guards and went to the showers.

  “We’re giving you extra time in the shower today. Make yourself look pretty. You’re going on a trip,” the guard said.

  “Yeah, the barrister said I was supposed to have some tests done today.”

  The guard took her to the shower and escorted her back. Her breakfast was waiting inside her cell.

  “Some clean clothes arrived for you this morning.”

  “Thanks.” Alex saw the stack of clothes on her bed, a clean set of gray sweats.

  “Eat your breakfast.”

  Alex ate and put on the clean clothes. A few minutes later, the guard returned to pick up the tray and handed her a hairbrush. “Use this on your hair.” The guard rolled her eyes. “You look like a drowned rat.”

  “I do?” Alex grinned and looked at her reflection on a piece of steel mounted above the sink. She brushed her hair, but it was wet and lay plastered against her head. The guard returned with two others. They stepped into Alex’s cell and put handcuffs on her.

  Alex was led to the garage where the handcuffs were removed, so she could be shackled to the van. Once inside, one of the guards sat up front with the driver and the van pulled away.

  The side windows were so dark Alex couldn’t see anything except the cars through the front window. The food in her stomach sloshed around and she tasted breakfast once more. It took over an hour to get to another garage. The door to the van slid open and she was unshackled. Handcuffs were placed on her wrists behind her back and she was marched into the building.

  The metal doors of the lift slid open with a dinging sound. Alex took a step back. She recalled the little room from before.

  The guard pulled her inside and chuckled. “It’s just a lift.”

  Alex went in and closed her eyes. The room moved up. Her knees buckled slightly and she broke into a sweat. When the door opened, the dinging sound returned and Alex opened her eyes. The guard took her to a door marked Laboratory.

  “Good morning, Doctor Ram,” the guard said. “This is the young woman Detective Inspector Tyler said to bring to you.” She took off the handcuffs and warned Alex. “I’ll be right over there, so don’t try anything.”

  Doctor Ram was a small man who stood no higher than Alex’s chest. “There’s no need for threats, Police Constable Kent. Good to meet you, Lady Dumwalt. My name is Doctor Ramanathan, please call me Doctor Ram. I’m the Medical Examiner on contract with the Met. This is Custody Nurse Gemma. How are you feeling today?”

  “Fine.”

  “I understand you suffered some injuries. May I examine them?” Dr. Ram checked her arms and searched for scars. “Is it true this happened about a month ago?”

  “Yes. Do you want to see anything else?”

  “May I check your back?”

  Alex turned around and he raised her shirt, looking at her back. “I don’t see any scars anywhere, but you were shot multiple times. I’ve seen your x-rays and read the report from hospital. They can’t even
find the bullets in your body. How did that happen?”

  Alex shrugged. She wasn’t going to tell him the truth; he wouldn’t believe her anyway.

  “I need to take official height and weight measurements. Could you please take off your shoes and stand over here on this square? Gemma, get ready.”

  Alex took off her slippers and stepped into the square on the floor.

  “Look directly ahead of you at the flower on the wall. Stay still.” Gemma pointed to it and a light flashed. “You are seventy-two inches tall or one hundred eighty-two point nine centimeters and you weigh…one hundred fifty pounds or sixty-eight point two kilos.” Gemma touched a button to send the measurements to a computer.

  “One hundred fifty?” Alex said. “I’ve gained weight.”

  “It’s the prison food. It happens to everyone,” Dr. Ram said.

  “Now, let’s take your blood pressure. Have a seat.” Gemma wrapped a band around Alex’s arm and pressed a button on a machine. The band inflated becoming uncomfortably tight around Alex’s arm. She started to back away. “Stay still.” Gemma said. The air released. “BP is one-fifteen over seventy, Doc.” She read the numbers off the screen and added it to the computer.

  Dr. Ram came over. “Completely normal, very good. My lady, have a seat in this chair. I must draw some blood from you. This will hurt a little. I need three tubes. We have to test it for HIV and the other two will be sent for examination. Which arm would you like us to use?”

  Alex shrugged and held out her right arm.

  Dr. Ram felt her arm for a vein. “Yes, good.” He put a band around her arm and picked up a needle. “You’ll feel a little stick. Please relax.”

  Alex gasped when he stuck the needle in her arm, but he held on firmly. Dark red blood flowed out into the little tubes. Alex said nothing and looked away.

  When the vials were filled, he pulled the needle out and put a drop of blood onto a clear glass slide. He put a bandage on her arm. “There, all done. We have a few more tests, if you don’t mind.”