by Rose, Rhea
“Jane?”
“I’m still here, Emi.”
“What will happen when –“she paused.
“When what?”
“When it’s over?”
“This?”
“When you get everyone back in the deck.”
“Freedom for the factotum.” I had a pretty good idea where this conversation was headed.
“What about me?”
“Emilia, if you’re worried about going back into the deck, or losing your death-dealing status with Maisie, don’t be.”
“But I have to go back if you want your freedom.”
“Yeah, but only till I’m free, then you and Maisie can do your thing.”
“I suppose,” she said, not sounding very bright about the prospect. I really didn’t want to get into it with her. There was no other option. Everyone had to go nice and neatly back to their card, so I could present the deck to Maisie and be free of this ordeal.
After that we were pretty much silent. My batteries died in my flashlight, but my cell phone had a flashlight app in it and we used that. It was straightforward. We found everything exactly as William said it would be. We found the cairn and with a little effort we saw the camouflaged door, the key around my neck opened the door and beyond the door we found a torch lit, very short hall all made of hewn granite. At the end of it was another door.
We stood there staring at the door’s wrought iron handle. “They’re in there,” I said.
“Yup,” Emi said.
“Remember what we’re here for.”
“The hermit and the hierophant hold the ring of keys for Whitman when he’s not carrying them,” she recited.
“Exactly.”
“Okay, let’s go,” she said.
“What do you think they’ll do when we go in?”
“They will think Whitman’s, returning.”
“Yes.”
“They won’t do anything because they’re likely chained up or something.”
“Right.”
I put my hand on the handle and slowly pressed down the thumb latch. Emi stopped me.
“I better go first. I’m more equipped than you to deal with any surprises.”
“It’s okay I’ve got this. I’m a lot stronger when it comes to magical ability. I’ve gained more power since, you know, I’ve got a few characters back into the deck. You, you’re only an orange belt.”
“Right. Okay, after you,” Emi said, but I heard her draw her sword.
I let her squeeze ahead of me.
*
The door creaked loudly as we entered. The smell of dust and damp bored into our nostrils. Two old men with beards and eyes like watery eggs in a bird’s nest looked up at us, but they didn’t move. One I recognized as the town librarian, Benny Goss about fifty-five, but at the moment he looked a lot older. He’s a cross-dresser and leads a double life; by day he’s a nerd, by evening he’s a little slutty. He sells private anonymous viewings of himself over the internet. He angered Maisie when he photoshopped Maisie’s face over some very inappropriate body images and sold them online. Maisie put him in the tarot deck.
He worked in the basement section of the public library. My guess was that of the pair of them, he was the hermit. The other I didn’t recognize right away, but he looked even older than Mr. Goss.
I soon recognized the second old man from one of the churches in the village – a volunteer janitor and the owner of the local pawn shop, George Gottschalk, seventy-fiveish; he’d tried to keep Maisie’s very unique gold jewelry (handed down to her from her mother) that she’d had to pawn when Glendie stole some of her life savings from Koldwell,(the reason for Glendie’s time in the deck). George Gottschalk, who makes and sells jewelry, was strongly encouraged by his wife, Julia Gottschalk, a.k.a. the head mistress, to keep Maisie’s items.
Maisie set Mr. and Mrs. Gottschalk up as the Hierophant and Empress, respectively. Maisie had originally co-signed a loan at the bank for the couple so they could purchase the pawn shop, but Maisie now owns more than the deed to their pawn store.
Anyway, the two old guys now appeared grateful to have an opportunity to be set free of their dingy dungeon, preferring to be returned to their realms within the tarot deck then to stay one minute longer in this dank, dark place. I told them I was happy to hear that because that’s where they’d be going, pretty darn quick.
However, I promised them free time if they told me how to get hold of the ring of keys Whitman carried around that would permit me to capture the rest of the tarot crew. They hummed and hawed and cleared their throats, scratched and pulled at their beards, one looked at the other and vice versa, until the Hierophant, George Gottschalk, finally spoke up. His voice was soft and quiet and a little hoarse, as if he hadn’t spoken in quite awhile. He had a bit of a German accent.
“Ze keys are a tricky business,” he began. I nodded and waited for more.
“Yes,” I said in a tone that I hoped encouraged him to continue. Emi reached for her sword.
“Zay are not here.”
“Does Whitman have them?” I asked. The two men nodded sagely. Emi let her sword slide back into its scabbard.
“He brings them here at the end of the day and hangs them there on zat small hook,” Mr. Gottschalk said. I recalled that the pawn shop was somewhere near the triple X shop. The hermit, Mr. Goss remained quiet.
“Why does Whitman bring the keys here? Why doesn’t he hide them in his office?” I asked the two men.
“Becauze it iz I who have put ze magic into zem,” said Mr. Gottschalk. I keep zem working. I created zem!”
“How do you do that?” I queried. He’d sounded a lot like Dr. Frankenstein on a good night.
He was silent.
I looked at Emilia. She pulled out the sword and raised it toward him frightening the man.
“In ze pawn shop I came across an ancient scroll,” he continued. “I gave it to Maisie and it was with the power of this ancient Egyptian scroll she was able to create the deck and had each key made for a magic portal for each major character. The keys were wiz the scroll, but Maisie made them work.”
I figured that much was true. After all, she is the town’s local witch. Maisie, I began to suspect, wanted to be free of her own enslavement to the deck and its prisoners. More and more I realized she desired a different lifestyle.
Her mother was Romanian and Maisie learned much of her magic from her. I’d heard tale that Maisie had two daughters. One adopted, whom Maisie keeps tightly locked within the cursed tarot deck.
*
Each of the men inside the tomb appeared to be handcuffed to the wall by a long chain with a single cuff on one end, leaving one hand free. I figured Emila could cut those chains with her sword in a blink. I proposed a deal to all involved and everyone agreed to it.
Emilia would stay in the tomb with Gottschalk and Goss, hidden in the shadows. I leave and return the crypt key to its hiding place in Whitman’s desk. When Whitman returned he would use the crypt key to come down to the tomb. When he hands the ring of keys over to the hierophant, which he normally does for the evenings when he doesn’t need them and the keys need to be re-magicked, then George Gottschalk should give them to Emilia. Emilia releases the two prisoners. She makes certain the two old guys make it back to the surface, and she brings the keys to me in my class room. It sounded like a great plan.
Of course it all went wrong.
Back in Whitman’s office I opened the drawer and located the secret spot in which I’d found the key that unlocked the underground tomb. I’d nearly returned the key to its spot when Whitman walked in, and from the look on his face he wasn’t very happy to see me. He took two giant steps and lunged at me grabbing me by the throat. He groped my neck searching for the thong that held the Whitman key. I didn’t know that was the key he wanted. I don’t think he knew that I’d just returned the crypt key to his desk drawer. He held me with one hand and ripped away the chain around my neck with the other. I noticed the lar
ge key ring under his coat hanging from a suspender that looked like it was designed to hold the key ring close to Whitman’s heart. Nevertheless, he found the leather lanyard at my neck and yanked it from me. I struggled against his grasp and when he saw the key he wanted wasn’t there, he let me go.
“Where’s that key I gave Cabria?” he demanded. I thought a minute, ”Oooooh, that key. I’d forgotten that one,” I said stalling for time. “I gave it to Maisie.”
Whitman looked like a pimple about to pop. He flew out of the office. When he was gone, I crawled around the floor and grabbed my mini-pliers, Sia’s collar, and my broken lanyard. I also grabbed the crypt key I’d tucked into the desk and hurried back down to the tomb.
*
Meanwhile, back at the Curio, Maisie walked in on Mrs. Gottschalk decking Devon who’d let his true colors come shining through, and because he lost his cool he was now trapped in his tarot card.
Maisie Price wasted no time. She rolled her right wrist a couple of times and with her index finger pointed at a tarot card and it flew to her. Then like an expert at card toss, she flung the Empress card at Julia Gottschalk, her long time nemesis, who immediately disappeared into the card, minus the beautiful gold jewelry she’d been wearing. Maisie picked up the jewelry and dropped it into her purse. “Thank you, Julia. I wondered where that had got to.”
Not a moment later, Whitman walked into Maisie’s shop, no doubt looking for the key I said I gave to Maisie. “Looking for your headmistress?” she asked him.
“You know what I’ve come for, witch,” he said.
“Whatever it is, you must be desperate to dare set foot here.”
He snorted derisively. “You don’t scare me.” He walked around the counter and began to tear things from the bottom shelf and as fate would have it, he accidentally stepped on the Emperor card. Poof! The keys couldn’t go back into the card with him and they fell with a heavy clatter to the floor. They were now in Maisie’s possession. “Well, thank-you, Christian,” she said to Whitman’s card. “I’d wondered where that had got to. I have half a mind to bring you out and make you tidy this mess, asshole!” Instead Maisie retrieved the cards and tucked them back into the box and closed the lid.
By then some major players were permanently returned to the deck: Justine Day, Malcolm Press, Joseph Seer, Julia Gottschalk, Christian Whitman and Devon Raker!
*
As I made my way back down to the tomb, I knew I had to have plan. I had three major characters down there waiting. They’d expect Whitman to come through the door, but it would be me. Somehow I had to convince them all to go to the Curio shop without suspecting that the plan we agreed to had just now failed. I was going to have to catch at least two of them back at the shop.
I had to convince them that everything was all good.
I crept quietly down into the tomb and listened at the door. I clicked the latch. They were there, all three of them.
“Where’s Whitman,” Emi asked, her eyes bugging out of her head. Her sword held high. It slowly sank as she began to realize I was alone. George and Benny looked scared.
“It’s okay everyone. Whitman’s at the shop –“
“Maisie’s?” Emi asked.
I nodded.
“We need to go. All of us.” I made a gesture that included the two men.
“Okay,” Emi said, but she sounded unsure.
The men remained silent.
And then without even knowing I spoke the truth, I said, “Maisie’s captured Whitman and we’ve got to go there if we want to recover the keys.”
Emi gave me a doubtful look. I gave her a smile and nod which meant help me out here and she got my message.
“You guys can stay here locked up indefinitely or come with us back to the shop. You’re choice,” I said, but I didn’t mean it – about having a choice.
They both agreed to go. They wanted out of the tomb. I was glad for that--I desperately needed the Hierophant to show me how to use the keys.
*
It was early morning by the time we got to the shop. We were quite the menagerie walking down the main drag at that time in the a.m. The two old guys were led like dogs on chains by an orange belted, sword wielding, martial artist and then there was me, bringing up the rear.
Inside Maisie’s it seemed unusually quiet and calm. A little soft music was playing and come to think of it, the front door was unlocked. I went straight to the back area to see if anyone waited, or hid there, or just hung around, but there was no one, at least, no one who was visible.
I hurried back to the front where Emi and the men stood like statues waiting for direction. I saw the tarot box on the counter and went for it. The hierophant and the hermit appeared resigned to their fates. I tapped Benny first, the Hermit. He looked like he needed a long winter’s nap. He disappeared instantly, but he left a magical item behind. It fell to the floor. It was small, fitting into the palm of my hand. A book, bound leather, gold leaf and an embossed symbol of a stick figure female on the front made it appear important.
I collected it.
George Gottschalk, the Hierophant, remained standing and free of the tarot deck. As I was about to get into a conversation with George about the ring of keys, and how they were to be used, who should come walking in through the front door but Maisie, William Tell, and Sia, with a new collar around her neck! The three looked like a rather happy family! William had his arm around Maisie’s shoulders and she carried Sia. I stood gaping, gob smacked. I looked at Emi but was unable to read her expression. Then I noticed Maisie wore the ring of keys like a necklace. The keys splayed against her décolleté. Everything I ever wanted, an arm’s length away, the keys, Sia and a possible good man, or so I had thought, and of course, my freedom. They may as well have been on the dark side of the moon.
It was very much like a standoff at the O.K. Corral.
Maisie fired the first shot.
“Awww. Jane and her girlfriend are taking their little pet for a walk.”
Emilia lost her resolve. “I can’t do this.” She dropped George’s chain and walked away.
I grabbed George Gottschalk’s chain and decided to take a rational approach to the situation, but before I said anything, Maisie took a second shot.
“I’ve had to do a lot of your clean up, Jane. I’ve returned a few majors to the deck for you. That wasn’t part of the deal. YOU were supposed to do that.”
“Funny you mention that because I’m here to put all the others to rest. See, I’ve got the Hierophant and he knows how that jewelry you’re wearing works.” Then, stupidly, I lifted the tarot deck I held in my left hand to show Maisie I was in charge and that I had the cards up my sleeve, so to speak. At that point William pulled his Cheshire collar away and disappeared. That was disappointing.
I got nervous. I had no idea what he was capable of in the realm of the Cheshire.
Maisie put Sia down on the front counter and began rolling her wrists.
Omg, I knew what that meant. I didn’t know what to do. I rattled George’s chain. “George, you got anything?”
George looked up at me and wearily shook his head, no. “I’ve got nothing,” he said.
Great! “Emi,” I called toward the back of the store, “A little backup?” But there was dead silence.
Maisie was really rolling those wrists of hers, and I figured I was about to be struck by lightning.
“Maisie, I thought we were friends? Partners?”
But she wasn’t having any of it. “Is this goodbye, Maisie?” I asked.
“For me it is,” she said, and she began chanting a language I’d never heard before. At first I thought it was Latin. I’m certain it was a language much older than that, or at least a language from the far east, but it got really weird when I found myself reciting similar sounding words, as if I too, knew the language. Even though I spoke it, I had no idea what I uttered, but it put a momentary stop to Maisie’s incantation.
Then she let me have it.
The cards exploded from the box and flew all over the shop. I was knocked on my ass. The Hierophant was whining and moaning at my feet. I tried to pick myself up from the floor, but that proved impossible. I lifted my head to see that Maisie was winding up one more time. I put my head down.
The hierophant crawled over to me and in my ear he said, “Get the keys from her.”
“Sure,” I said. “I’ll do that tomorrow, and I rolled over to get some sleep.”
He pulled me back. “Now, now, you’ve got to get the keys or you’re doomed! We’re doomed.”
I felt high, like I was drugged. I wasn’t worried about doom. My head lolled around and then I caught Sia staring at me. I mumbled at her, “Got anything for me, Sia?”
Get up, Jane. And stop Maisie.
Sia’s voice was in my head!
But as I sat up, it was clear Maisie was about to release a second whack of magical ammo at me. I noticed that she’d retrieved a card from the scattered mess. I couldn’t let her touch me with that card!
When she stopped rolling her wrists, about to release the next blast, Sia leaped at Maisie.
And the worst cat fight I’d ever witnessed, ensued!
Maisie, caught off guard fell backwards, and her blast of nuclear sunshine hit the roof, blowing a small hole through it.
I sat up on my ass like a ragdoll smiling at my little Sia, the killer kitten. George yelled in my ear, “The keys!”
On hands and knees I crawled over to Maisie and while she tried to yank away Theodosia, I yanked away her necklace! One of the small keys fell off the end of the broken ring and slid down Maisie’s cleavage. Yikes!
Unabashed, I reached in and pulled the key back to the surface. Maisie grabbed me by the arm.
