Larkspur

by Christian, Claudia Hall

  “I hear shouting!” a voice came over the feed. “Someone’s alive down there.”

  “We’d better get everyone in from the farm,” Rodney said. “This isn’t going to be . . . good.”

  “I’ll get everyone here,” Aden said. “I’ll get the sign team to bring hot food.”

  “You’ll direct those soldiers?” Rodney asked.

  “Or find someone who will,” Aden said.

  Rodney gave Aden a long look. He nodded to Honey before turning to his assistants. Honey and Blane moved back to the medical tents.

  “Pete, I want a list of who we think might be down there,” Rodney said. “Those are Kissack Construction trailers. Who are they missing? I need it fast.”

  Pete gave a curt nod and ran across the dirt.

  “DeShawn, Jason, you’re with me,” Rodney said. “We’re going to scare those engineers into coming up with a plan, or do it ourselves. You ready?”

  They set out toward the group of army engineers.

  ~~~~~~~~

  “I know how they created the curse,” James said.

  “What?” Queen Fand leaned forward. The room became very still.

  “James?” Jacob asked.

  “I have more questions first,” James said.

  “Then you’ll explain what you mean?” Queen Fand asked.

  “I will,” James said.

  “Go ahead,” Queen Fand said.

  “Is this Liban?” James gestured to the Cleopatra fairy.

  “I am Liban.” The Cleopatra fairy curtsied.

  “You don’t look like twins,” James said.

  “Not all twins look alike,” Queen Fand said. “We can change our looks.”

  In the blink of an eye, Liban looked like Queen Fand, and Queen Fand looked like Liban. They switched back.

  “Fair enough,” James said. “Have you ever heard of a bloke named Cúchulainn?”

  “No,” Queen Fand said. “Why?”

  “Queen Fand is supposed to have been mad about him,” James said. “Manannán intervened.”

  “With a relationship between me and a human?” Queen Fand chuckled. The host of fairies tittered with laughter.

  “How ’bout a bloke named, Mongán mac Fiachnai?” James asked.

  “He’s one of Manannán’s human grandchildren,” Queen Fand said. “His mother set out for Ireland with a group of fairy-humankind. She married there. Why?”

  “What’s this about?” Jacob asked.

  “One last question,” James said.

  “Proceed,” Queen Fand said.

  James glanced at Jacob, and Jacob shrugged.

  “Did Manannán have any powers of his own?” James asked.

  “Not especially,” Liban said.

  “He is humankind,” Queen Fand said.

  “My mother loved these stories,” James said. “She died when I was not quite four. When my father died, I went to a Catholic orphanage. I used to read her books whenever I missed her. I must have missed her a lot, because I know them by heart.”

  “Your mother, Brigid?” Queen Fand nodded her head toward the side of the room.

  A small woman with dark black hair and large deep-blue eyes stepped out from behind the fairies near the back. She wore the green dress of the Irish fairies. James gasped at the sight of her.

  “Mum?” James’s eyes filled with tears.

  “We are fairy-humankind.” She beamed at him.

  “Johnny sees the blue fairy.” When James said the words, the blue fairy appeared. “I . . .”

  James nodded. He took a breath to control his emotions.

  “Mum, will you tell her?” James asked.

  Brigid walked to James’s side. He was so taken aback that he wept.

  “My lady, Manannán is supposed to be a god,” Brigid said.

  “A god?” Queen Fand smiled. “He cannot be a god.”

  “Yes, ma’am,” Brigid said. “He is attributed with powers of the sea and mist — my lady’s powers.”

  “My powers?” Queen Fand gave a confused shake of her head. “Why would he have my powers?”

  “I believe the Celts took your powers and gave them to Manannán,” James said. “Quite possibly forced him to use your powers.”

  “It happened in an instant,” Gilfand said. “Manannán was with us, and then he wasn’t. What magic could do that?”

  “Not magic,” James said. “Human cunning.”

  “How did they do such a thing?” Brigid asked.

  “They stole her human body,” James said. “Queen Fand would have naturally imbued her human body with her fairy self. By stealing her body, they tied Queen Fand to the site of the original monolith and stole her power. I bet Manannán himself doesn’t know where you are — fairy self or human body. That would keep him in line.”

  Brigid gave James a proud smile. James hugged his mother.

  “I’m not sure what you’re saying,” Queen Fand said.

  “What he’s saying makes sense. The Celts needed power and wanted control,” Jacob said. “They had to eliminate any old magic. That’s why they got rid of the fairy-humankind. In order to be in control, they would have to destroy the power of Queen Fand and Manannán.”

  “And cursed us,” Celia said. “They have to kill the male babies because they . . .”

  “Have the power stolen from Queen Fand.” James nodded.

  “Or they’re trying to prevent the creation of a human with Queen Fand’s powers,” Celia said. “A human like my granddaughters, Katy and Jackie.”

  Jacob swallowed hard.

  “How do we fix this?” Valerie asked.

  “We must return Queen Fand’s human body to her grave,” Sam said.

  “If we can find it,” Jacob said.

  “I bet James has an idea,” Sam said. James nodded.

  “I’m pretty sure I know where they hid Queen Fand’s body,” James said.

  “Does the monolith still exist?” Valerie asked.

  “It is under this castle,” Gilfand said. “And he’s right. Queen Fand’s human body is not there.”

  “How to we find this Manannán?” Sam asked. “That seems tricky.”

  “We will return Queen Fand’s body to its rightful place.” Jacob used his booming, powerful voice. He turned to look at the host of fairies. “Will you help us find Manannán?”

  “If my son is correct, finding Manannán will return power to the fairies,” Brigid said. “And break the curse.”

  The fairies seemed to agree at once.

  “We will scour the earth for our king,” Liban said.

  “Where do we start?” Jacob asked.

  “Anyone here good with a shovel?” James asked.

  Jacob laughed.

  Chapter Two Hundred and Sixty-two

  The Viking

  Friday night — 9:45 p.m. MST

  Denver, Colorado

  Sissy waited by the coal tunnel door until she saw Mike’s Bronco start into the garage, and then she ran to meet him. He was pulling in when she noticed he had a passenger. Sissy ran to Mike’s side of the truck.

  “Sissy!” Mike said as he got out of the Bronco.

  “We thought you were helping at the site!” Sissy said.

  “It’s been a complete mess,” Mike said. “I tried to get there, but got stopped by the state patrol, and then I tried to get home and got stuck in traffic. I’ve been sitting in the car for hours.”

  Anxious to tell him what was going on, Sissy shifted from side to side. Mike’s eyes flicked across her face.

  “What’s going on?” Mike asked.

  “Jill’s in labor, and . . .”

  “That’s what her doctor said.” Mike gestured to the man getting out of the passenger seat of the Bronco. “I found him standing on Colfax, just standing on the street. He said Jill’s in labor and he can’t get inside the Castle to help.”

  Sissy’s eyes went big.

  “Why can’t he get in?” Mike asked.

  The doctor gave Sissy an evil
look, and Sissy panicked. It was her job to tell Mike everything, but she hadn’t counted on the doctor being here. She opened her mouth, but nothing came out. As sure as if the doctor has placed a spell on her, Sissy couldn’t talk. Mike patted Sissy’s shoulder and moved around her.

  “Come on,” Mike said. “I’ll show you the way.”

  “But . . .” Sissy’s eyes pleaded with Mike.

  He smiled at her, and looked at the doctor. The doctor gave Sissy a smug look. Sissy felt like her mission had been raided by this doctor. She scowled.

  “It’s all a little weird, but we set this up so that Val could have some privacy.” Mike gave the doctor a broad smile.

  “I feel like I’m in a movie.” The doctor smiled. “A fair maiden needs my assistance and I need to fight my way to her.”

  Mike laughed and moved toward the coal tunnels. He stopped at the door.

  “Are you coming, Sissy?” Mike asked.

  Sissy groaned at herself and turned around.

  “Mike, I . . .” Sissy started. She made the mistake of looking at the doctor. He gave her another evil look, and she swallowed hard. “You . . .”

  “Come on,” Mike said. “You can tell me on the way.”

  Mike’s hand moved over the coal tunnel keypad lock and the door opened.

  “At least you get to see a little bit of Denver’s history,” Mike said. He held the door for the doctor. “These tunnels were made to move coal from the railway lines downtown out to the mansions east of downtown during inclement weather. Just head down the stairs.”

  “I’m moving a little slow these days,” the doctor said. “Injured myself.”

  “We’ll go together,” Mike said. “Right, Sissy?”

  He gave her a long, unreadable look, and then smiled. He gestured to the door. Sissy slunk through the doorway. Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed the keypad’s backlight was red, instead of the usual green. She glanced back at Mike, who gave her a bright smile.

  “How is Jacquotte?” the doctor asked when Mike reached the tunnel floor.

  Mike waited for Sissy before stepping forward in the dimly lit brick-lined tunnel. The doctor limped as if he’d hurt himself in the crotch. Sissy wished she’d been the one to hurt him, and then was embarrassed by the thought.

  “She’s doing really well,” Mike said. “Val’s sister had her baby, Maggie. Jackie and Maggie are best friends. Isn’t that right, Sissy?”

  “Katy too,” Sissy said. “Katy takes care of them. If anyone hurts Maggie or Jackie, boy, Katy, she makes sure that person suffers. Big! You can imagine what she’d do to someone who hurt her mom. Katy and Jill are really close and . . .”

  Sissy looked up to see if the men were listening. Mike patted her shoulder in a “there, there” paternal way and asked the doctor a question. Sissy scowled at herself. The doctor blathered on.

  Sissy couldn’t believe Mike was acting like this. Mike was Sissy’s friend. Whenever he got back from traveling, he’d always made a point of setting up special time to spend with Sissy. He always wanted to hear all about Sissy’s dancing and her possibilities for dance companies. That was the reason Tanesha had sent Sissy to wait for Mike. Sissy was the one who was supposed to get through to Mike.

  But there was no getting through to Mike tonight.

  “Come on, Sissy, keep up,” Mike said brightly when Sissy fell behind.

  “Teenagers,” the doctor said. “They always shuffle here and there.”

  Mike laughed. Sissy was so disappointed in Mike that she started to cry. Up ahead, she noticed a light was out in the tunnel. If she didn’t know better, she would have sworn someone was standing along the tunnel there. She touched Mike’s arm, but Mike seemed oblivious to everything.

  “How far are we going?” the doctor asked.

  “It’s a little less than a mile,” Mike said. “Not too far, but far enough away from the paparazzi’s prying eyes.”

  “It’s hard to imagine you have to live with this constant curse of prying eyes,” the doctor said.

  “You know, I remember those magazines when I was a kid,” Mike smiled.

  “My mom used to subscribe,” the doctor chuckled.

  “I never realized they were such vultures,” Mike said.

  “I don’t know that they were when we were kids,” the doctor chuckled. “I’m a bit older than you are, but . . .”

  Sissy could have sworn there was someone standing just at her side. She looked into the gloomy tunnel and saw nothing. She swallowed hard and moved closer to Mike. She got too close and knocked into him by accident. He caught her arm to keep her from falling over.

  “You okay?” Mike asked.

  Sissy gave a nervous nod. He gave her another one of those annoying pats, and kept walking. She glared at his back.

  “Come on, Sissy,” Mike said. “You’ve got to keep up, or the tunnel ghosts will get you.”

  “Tunnel ghosts?” Sissy asked.

  Mike had always said he didn’t believe in ghosts. He even said he didn’t believe in Mrs. Celia, whom Sissy had seen lingering around the Castle. Mike gave her a bright smile and she jogged to catch up.

  “Did you say ghosts?” the doctor asked with a chuckle in his voice.

  “Sure,” Mike said. “These tunnels are notoriously haunted. They used the tunnels to move bodies out of Cheeseman.”

  “When it was a cemetery?” the doctor asked.

  “Exactly,” Mike said.

  “I’ve heard that story,” the doctor said. “It was a Jewish cemetery?”

  “That’s right,” Mike said. “When the light is exactly right, you can see the burial mounds in the grass at Cheeseman Park.”

  Sissy began to feel like she’d been in this tunnel most of her life.

  “I will tell you there’s a kind of ‘close feeling’ in these tunnels,” the doctor said. “I keep thinking there’s someone just right there. But when I look . . .”

  “Nah,” Mike cut off the doctor. “No one can get in here. It’s sealed off completely by Homeland Security.”

  “You must feel safe,” the doctor said. “I’ll tell you that I was impressed with all the security you have there at the house.”

  “Isn’t it amazing?” Mike asked. “Jake set it up. Of course, it’s mostly to keep the press out, but every once and a while, we get a drifter or drunk from Colfax.”

  “You’re close to the street there,” the doctor said.

  “I think there were a couple murders down here,” Mike said. “You remember that Saint Jude thing?”

  “The serial killer?” the doctor asked.

  “He buried a few people along this coal line,” Mike said.

  “He buried some under our house!” Sissy said.

  “Very creepy,” the doctor said.

  The doctor gave Sissy a patronizing smile, and she felt stupid. She glanced at Mike. He was usually her big defender. Whenever Charlie or Nash made Sissy feel stupid, Mike always spoke up for her.

  Not tonight.

  Sissy couldn’t believe it. She was about to say something when she felt someone near her again. Mike and the doctor kept walking. She stumbled and fell. The big guy who was Teddy’s guardian stepped out of the gloom. He grabbed her elbow and set her on her feet. She was so surprised she almost fell again. He winked at her, put his finger to his lips, and stepped back into the dark

  Sissy looked ahead at Mike. When she looked back for the big guy, she couldn’t see him. Mike stopped walking.

  “Sissy?” Mike squinted against the dim light.

  “I fell.” Sissy ran up to them.

  “Try to keep up,” Mike said in a stern voice.

  Sissy was so surprised her mouth fell open. She was about to protest when she realized that Mike was playing a game. He was pretending to be a jerk so the doctor wouldn’t catch on to what was going on. Feeling like a secret agent, Sissy stood a little taller.

  “Yes, sir,” Sissy said.

  Mike’s eyes flicked to Sissy. His lips turned u
p in a partial grin before he asked the doctor a question. They continued along the coal tunnels. Sissy felt people around every once and a while. She kept her mouth shut and pretended to be a good little girl. She grinned at her own pretense. She wondered if she’d see her idol, Alex Hargreaves, in the tunnels. Alex was Mike’s friend and the big guy’s boss and . . .

  Sissy was so lost in thought that she walked right past their stairwell without giving it a glance.

  “That’s our neighbors,” Mike lied. “We’re just up ahead.”

  The wood barrier, that usually sat next to their wooden stairs was gone. They were now walking in a part of the tunnel Sissy had never been to.

  Sissy shivered. This part of the tunnel was way creepier than where they usually walked.

  “Just up here.” Mike pointed to a set of stone stairs.

  Sissy thought they might still be under the Castle but she wasn’t sure. She tried to catch Mike’s eye, but he refused to look at her. She swallowed hard and followed.

  “Please.” the doctor gestured for Sissy to go up the stairs first.

  Sissy glanced at Mike, and then started up the short stairwell.

  “It always surprises me when young people don’t know their manners,” the doctor said as he followed Sissy up.

  Sissy came to a door. Because she couldn’t think of anything else to do, she opened the door and stepped through. They were standing in gloomy stone hallway. She took a step forward and heard the door close behind her. She put her foot out to take another step and she felt a man’s arms around her. She gave him a strong elbow, but he didn’t let go. He pulled her into a dark corner. His mouth was right next to her ear.

  “It’s Sensei, Sissy,” he said in her ear. “Use your other senses.”

  Like he’d taught her, she took a deep breath in to use her other senses besides her eyes. She could smell his distinctive cologne. She could feel his powerful hands, and the warmth of his body. He felt safe. This was Mr. Colin’s teacher. Even though he was blind, he was an incredible martial artist. Sissy let him pull her deeper into the gloom.

  “What’s going on here?” the doctor asked.

  “You’ve got some nerve,” Mike said. “You think you can sell off Jackie’s blood and stem cells and get away with it? Sell my sister and her children to the highest bidder?”