“What do you want us to steal?”
In the dirt between them, the Scarab projected the image of a poster advertising a traveling carnival called “The Wild West and Mystical Wonders Show.” While they watched, the poster changed to another showing some of the wonders to be displayed. It featured a painted woman with black hair wearing a simple white linen dress, holding a staff. At the top of the staff was a disk that looked a lot like the Scarab before them, only bigger.
We would have you rescue our queen.
“What? The woman?”
No. Our queen. Held by the woman.
Will shook his head and wondered if he was crazy. “All right. I see her. Just the staff. Shouldn’t be that hard. What’s the pay?”
Gold.
Will and Mena looked at each other. “How much gold?”
Enough for your needs. We have watched you. Listened to you. You will have enough.
Will frowned. It sounded too good to be true. “What’s the catch? What aren’t you telling us? Why can’t you go in and get her?”
Our queen is a captive. Our enemy watches. He keeps her from the light. She is weak without the power of the sun.
“Enemy?”
A foul creature that can morph into other biological entities.
“Pardon?”
The enemy is a shapeshifter, like the legend of werewolves. He does it on command. He is in control. He looks human now but he is not human. We are long-standing enemies. Will you help us, Mena and Will?
Mena gave a slight nod to Will who said, “We will, but you’ve got to tell us more about the enemy, this shapeshifter.”
~ * ~
Over the next couple of hours, Will and Mena prepared themselves as they heard the story of a longstanding feud between a race of small creatures made of “circuits and light” and a war-like race of beings that could take on the shape of things around it but were, by and large, “hostile biological entities.” One of these creatures, dubbed Shifters by Mena, had managed to capture the Scarabs’ queen and had kept her in the dark ever since. He wanted the Scarabs to cede Earth to the Shifters so they could immediately colonize it.
Despite not understanding all the Scarab told them, Mena and Will agreed that this Shifter was bad news and needed to be dealt with—starting with the rescue of the Scarab queen.
After setting the Scarabs to wait for them about a mile away from the Wild West show, they went on ahead, pretending to be some of the locals just looking for a good time. The whole thing was less of a Wild West show and more of a carnival with its emphasis on the “Mystical Wonders” part of the traveling venue. The tents with their private shows of extinct creatures, weird animals, weirder humans and other such wonders were a definite draw.
As they walked arm-in-arm through the dusty show, they saw a couple of the locals trying their hand at target practice for a prize. Easy enough for anyone who had had real practice with a rifle, but not so much for a man with his girl looking on. Just down the way was a strong man daring a slender farm boy to “ring the bell” and another hawker shouted for people to toss rings around the bottle tops—three rings got a prize. It was all good fun as the summer dust puffed around everyone’s feet.
In one outdoor ring, a pretty woman, who would be mistaken for a jilly by the cut of her short dress in another time and place, was doing some fancy trick riding on a horse, while a very old, tired looking cowboy performed trick shot after trick shot in the ring next door. The man looked like he could do his routine in his sleep; Mena wasn’t certain he was actually awake while she watched.
As they strolled deeper into the tent aisles of the carnival, barkers from food tents, knick-knack displays and private shows vied for their attention. Will allowed Mena to drag him over to the tent showing “Wonders from Around the World.” He paid their two nickels along with several other couples and they entered the darkness of the tent with anticipation.
There were four exhibits inside, each showcasing a different part of the world: a Zulu warrior, several Mongols, an Indian serpent tamer, and, of course, the Egyptian queen. The Zulu warrior was interesting mostly because neither Mena nor Will had seen a man with such black skin before. There was little doubt that he was an actor but the man played his part well. If they had not been on a job, Mena would have spent more time looking at him. The Mongols were loud Chinamen and the serpent tamer was fascinating with his lunging snake. The exhibits were worth the nickel, much to everyone’s surprise.
The beautiful Egyptian queen was stretched out on a chaise longue. She looked regal, bored and hot. There was an Egyptian warrior fanning her with a giant fan made of leaves. Mena smiled at him. Clearly not Egyptian, he was still a man. While she strolled near him, she let Will examine the queen and the object of their quest.
“Our Egyptian beauty is available for a private showing, should you have the appropriate offerings for her,” the barker murmured to Will as soon as Mena was out of earshot and then glanced at her. “Assuming the gentleman is available.”
“The gentleman is and his sister seems to have an eye for the warrior.”
The barker leered, “The business between the warrior and your sister is theirs alone. My business is with our queen.” He tilted his head back towards the woman on the chaise. Will saw that her gown was suddenly that much more revealing.
“How . . . what sort of offering does our queen take?”
“Five.”
Will considered. “Five if you let this showing be in here.” He allowed his eyes to greedily follow the lines of her curves.
“Your wish is our command. Come back at sunset.” The barker paused, “And I’m certain your sister will find the warrior loitering nearby then.” The two men grinned at each other.
Mena said nothing with words while she examined the Egyptian exhibit. But she used every bit of her feminine wits to let the Egyptian warrior know she was much more interested in him than in what she was looking at. By the time Will retrieved her and the barker was ushering them out, she knew she had her target snared.
“Come, sister-dear. We’ll be back later. Sunset.”
Mena glanced coquettishly between the warrior and her “brother” and smiled as she left arm in arm with Will.
~ * ~
They returned to the tent just as the barker was ushering the last of the customers through the exit. He grinned at them, watching Mena saunter off around the back of the tent to where her assignation loitered, and then waved Will into the entrance of the tent. While the rest of the exhibit workers had ducked out the back, Will saw that heavier curtains were drawn around the Egyptian exhibit, mostly obscuring what was inside.
He steeled himself to fight the Shifter if he had to, while pretending to be nothing more than an eager gentleman ready for a good time with the Egyptian queen.
The barker stepped in between him and the curtain. “I’ll be out front. You have an hour. I’ll holler when you have fifteen minutes left.” He held out his hand for the money. As Will paid him, he added, “It’s always polite to tip our queen for her graciousness.”
“We’ll see how gracious she is,” Will said, and stepped around him. He waited at the curtain until the barker left the tent.
“Do I have a supplicant?” a heavy feminine voice called.
Will opened the curtain and stepped into the Egyptian exhibit. “You do, my queen.”
Before him, on the chaise longue, the queen lay, posing for him—nothing revealed but everything intimated. Then she sat up. “Join me.”
All around her were the false artifacts of a sideshow exhibit. Stepping to her, he saw the chipped paint revealing wood instead of bronze and the hurried stitching in all of the fabric in the ground covering, the fur throws and even in the queen’s costume. He took one offered hand and kissed her knuckles. He smiled at her laughter. “I have a gift for you, if you’ll allow it.”
“Of course,” the queen said, enjoying her role and used to such gestures.
Will went to one knee before
her, reached into his bag and brought out a small bottle. “It’s perfume. I hope you like it.” He opened it and offered it to her.
She accepted it, delight clear on her face, and took a delicate sniff. The look of delight changed to something more neutral “I. . . it’s very interesting.” She put on a brave smile and inhaled again. “I...” She blinked several times and collapsed towards Will. He caught her and the bottle before either hit the floor. After arranging her on the chaise, he waved the bottle under her nose a few more times to make sure she was out. -
Will stowed the bottle away and stood up. Looking down at the pretty woman, he smiled. “Guess ether works on Shifters, too.” He turned to the thing that really mattered and approached it with caution.
The Scarab queen was still in her box standing on top of a pole that was supposed to be a staff. He saw that the box was simple to close and, as part of her capture, was probably locked in the dark at all times. The shadows within made her silver and bronze finish dull, lifeless. Even the jewels on her rim looked like paste within the box. He walked around the staff, careful not to knock over any of the set pieces, looking for security, but found none.
Coming back around, he shrugged to himself and reached into the box for her. The Scarab queen came free without resistance. In the scant light inside the tent, he could now see the scarab etching on her bronze plate. It was that much more intricate and beautiful than the etchings on any of the other Scarabs he had seen.
“Let’s get you home,” he said to her before sliding her into his pouch and slipping out the back of the tent.
~ * ~
Mena walked with her Egyptian warrior, keeping her head down in pretend shyness. He had not bothered to change out of his costume and makeup. Other workers from the Wild West and Mystical Wonders Show gave them a knowing look. Such traveling shows did a brisk trade in the flesh of locals whether or not it was paid for.
“What’s your name?” she asked as they reached the back part of the show campground. This part of the campground was quiet despite the festooned wagons that made a half circle around a central firepit. She could imagine the nightly gatherings that happened here.
“They call me Olaf. It’s Norse.”
“Norse? A Norse name for an Egyptian man?”
“I can be many things, my lovely.” He stopped at a large wooden wagon painted with the bright colors of the Wild West show. He opened the door and invited her in.
Once inside, she could see that a couple of people lived in this wagon. She turned to say something to him but he was on her, hungry and passionate, kissing her and his hands exploring where they would. After allowing him to paw her, kissing down her neck, she pulled away. “Whew…slow down there. I don’t need to be taken like a conquest yet. Let me freshen up.”
He chuckled, low in his throat. It was almost a growl of amusement. He bowed his head and moved past her to sit on a bunk, his presumably, while she shifted closer to the door. From her reticule, she pulled a damp handkerchief and dabbed at her throat. Then she turned, allowing him to see her dab at the cleft of her cleavage with it.
“I have a new perfume. Would you like to smell it?” She came close and offered it to him.
He smiled and took a deep whiff of the handkerchief. “It’s pungent but I like it. It will smell good on you.” He pulled her closer.
Mena laughed, dabbing it up on her cleavage again before pulling it away from her face. She could feel the ether working on her and that was not what she wanted. Playfully, she dabbed it on him—his throat, his face—and he breathed deeply of the ether again, showing no signs of being affected by it. She was wondering if she was going to have to go through with her part of this little ruse when a noise sounded from a jewel on the wall she previously thought was just decoration. That jewel sparkled and flickered with many colors, just like the jewels on the Scarabs.
She stepped back, realizing that she and Will had guessed wrong. The fake Egyptian queen wasn’t the alien Shifter; the fake warrior was. And she was in deep trouble if she did not escape now. Mena turned and got two steps towards the wagon door before something hot, strong and pulsing wrapped itself around her throat and lower half of her face. She tried to scream and grab for something to fight the creature, but to no avail. He was just too strong.
Forced to face him, she saw his eyes were pure black and the thing that held her was one of his arms, elongated into a tentacle of boneless flesh. “So,” he said. “This is your game. I assumed you were here to rob me like some whore with a bit of ether, but you and your brother are so much more, aren’t you?” He shook her for emphasis. “I was going to let him rob Jane and eat you, but he’s escaped with my prize, hasn’t he? Well, not for long.”
Mena tried to pull back in revulsion as she saw a lump rising up Olaf’s throat. The Shifter opened its mouth to reveal a large, fat bug, black as his eyes and gleaming like oil. Without a word, the bug flew out one of the wagon windows. “I’ll have my prize back, and then I’ll eat you and the man both.”
With that, he picked up the forgotten handkerchief and loosened his hold on her just enough for him to use Mena’s own weapon against her.
~ * ~
Will reached the waiting Scarabs and horses. He was unhappy that he had not seen Mena trailing behind. The plan was to drug both of the carnies and get out as quickly as possible. That meant something was wrong. But with the Scarabs hovering around him, waiting to see their queen, he did not leave them in suspense.
As soon as the queen was out of the dark bag, her jewels began to glow with a faint gold light. The larger Scarab, the one who had hired them, hovered nearby.
She is free but she needs the sun.
“You’ve waited this long. Tomorrow’s another day.”
No. The situation is still dangerous.
Suddenly, the smaller Scarabs descended upon Will and the queen. As each one alighted upon her in Will’s hands, her jewels glowed a little brighter and the small Scarab fell away and all but crashed to the ground in an ill-controlled fall.
“What are they doing?”
They are powering her.
Will looked at the ground, now littered with small Scarab bodies. “Are they dead?” He could not keep the horror out of his voice. In the dying light of setting sun, the Scarab bodies once again looked like teacup saucers abandoned in the sand.
No. Dormant. They will power up with the sun. I ask that you take them with us.
“Sure. As soon as Mena gets here.”
Then the queen was hovering on her own and the other Scarabs moved back from her. She made no sound but the lead Scarab approached and the two of them hovered in tandem.
“What’s happening?”
The Scarab queen answered. I am now informed of all that has occurred during my captivity. I thank you for your assistance.
“You’re welcome.” While the queen had the same uninflected voice as the other Scarab, the queen’s voice did sound almost female. “I just want Mena to get back soon.”
Mena Scott. She is your queen.
“Yes. She’s the queen of my heart and—”
His words were cut off at the sudden flurry of the still-hovering Scarabs. They surrounded something in the distance coming closer. He hoped it was Mena, but by the time he could actually see what it was they surrounded, he knew it was not his wife-to-be. “What is it?”
None of the Scarabs answered him. Instead, the fat black bug issued a series of ear-piercing sounds. Then it turned and flew away into the night, towards the faint lights of the now closed Wild West show.
The queen, who remained at Will’s side, spoke. The enemy has captured your queen.
“Mena!” He could not keep the anger or fear out of his voice.
It is demanding a prisoner exchange in the largest tent on the campground when the moon is at its apex.
Will looked at the Scarab queen, knowing that rescuing her had also been rescuing the planet. But at this moment, he did not care. He would give the queen back to ma
ke sure his Mena was safe.
If the prisoner exchange does not occur, the human female, Mena Scott, will be eaten.
He looked at the hovering Scarabs, knowing he could not force them to give up their queen again. Scowling, he looked at the moon. Hours before it was at its highest point. “I’m not letting that thing hurt her.” He turned to his horse and grabbed his holsters.
What will you do, Will Brogan?
“Fight.”
We will fight with you.
He looked back at the queen and gave her a grateful nod. “Then let’s plan.”
~ * ~
Mena woke with the smells of horse shit and ether warring for attention. She turned her head and groaned. Ether left a nasty headache; one she recognized—you have to test a tool before you used it. She opened her eyes and looked around. She was lying on her side in the dirt inside a large tent at the edge of the center ring. The scent of horse shit came from the shovel lying next to her, used to remove the pungent offal after any show with animals.
Westward Weird Page 18
