Shadow of the Hook

by Erik Schubach

  Shadow of the Hook

  Urban Fairytales - Book 10

  By Erik Schubach

  Copyright © 2019 by Erik Schubach

  Self publishing

  P.O. Box 523

  Nine Mile Falls, WA 99026

  Cover Photo © 2019 Nicola Genati / DepositPhotos.com license

  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. This book contains material protected under International and Federal Copyright Laws and Treaties. Any unauthorized reprint or use of this material is prohibited. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system without express written permission from the author / publisher, except by a reviewer who wishes to quote brief passages in connection with a review written for inclusion in a magazine, newspaper, blog, or broadcast.

  This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

  Manufactured in the United States of America

  FIRST EDITION

  Chapter 1

  Splashdown

  I stumbled as we stepped into Perchta's gardens from the world of man. Before we were fully out of the folds of the Goddess' magic which allowed all of us Avatars to travel the twisting paths between realities my Mandywolf said, “Wow, it's like Neverland.”

  I tried to cover her mouth before she could finish voicing the thought, and I lost focus on our destination for an instant. That was long enough, and the ground beneath our feet bled away into the nothingness of the night sky. We were falling!

  Mandy was growling out my name, desperately grasping the air between us to get to me somehow, “Robyn!” Even now she tried to protect me when we were helpless to the pull of gravity. I glanced down as I tried to stabilize my fall instead of spinning at the whim of the air rushing past us. A chain of islands lay below us, cloaked in fog, and ocean waves glittered all around them in the pale moonlight.

  The moon... it was huge, taking up half the horizon. I noted in a panic, it was a full moon. But the full moon was days away. Amanda's expression turned from panic and need to somehow protect me into something more primal and savage as her body writhed and reformed, her clothing squeezed her and I could hear bones breaking from that constriction until the fabric failed and shredded.

  Where once was my mate, was now her inner wolf set free. A midnight black killing machine that was all fang and claw. It whimpered in a panic to find itself falling, then howled at me with an animalistic glint in its eyes.

  Though larger than any wolf found in nature, for a werewolf of one of the cursed, it was quite small like my Mandy in her human form. But now my mate was buried in the mind of this animal, for her wolf owned the nights of the full moon.

  I looked down to see the ocean far below and getting steadily closer, Amanda's now freed weapons rig falling faster as it had less wind resistance than us. She would survive, it took more than falling a mile into the ocean to kill a wolf.

  I... might, with my enhanced strength. I sent a silent prayer to my Goddess, Perchta, that by the grace of the Queen of Nature I would live yet another day to stand against evil as her vassal. I twisted in the air and made my body as streamlined as I could, turning my fall into a dive as the ocean rushed up to meet me.

  For a time, there was nothing but darkness. Then my eyes opened, and there was pain. I felt as if I were floating and being pulled along, I could barely keep conscious as I heard voices and giggling around me, and... was I wet? That's right. The fall. The ocean.

  I felt hands holding me then pulling me onto a sandy bed as I regained my wits about me. I looked to the side to see I was now laying on a white sand beach in some sort of small lagoon. Beyond the beach, huge palms and other trees loomed up into the sky.

  Then my eyes widened as my hands reached back for my bow and quiver. They weren't there. I exhaled shakily in relief when I found them laid neatly by my side, along with my Mandywolf's weapons rig.

  I sat up, wincing at the fading pain as the healing gift bestowed to those who stood in the shadow of the Queen of Nature, knitted my injured bone and tissue back together. The full moon commanded almost the entire sea beyond the little cove which was formed by the lagoon. How was it so big? It was at least ten times its normal size in the sky and was now halfway over the horizon. It would be daytime soon.

  I was panicking when I looked around frantically for my little wolf. Then I hesitated when I saw a swirling in the rippling waters, highlighted by the bright moonlight. A half dozen heads broke the surface. Strikingly beautiful women, all smiling at me and whispering behind their hands and giggling.

  It was the same giggling I heard in my dazed state. The world rushed forward as I used my Farsight to see that their hands were webbed, and I saw wide fluked tails as they dove back under just to pop back up near the shore, to giggle and watch me.

  Mermaids!

  I blinked, wondering if I were still unconscious as I slowly made my way to my feet, shouldering my bow and quiver as I stood. Then I watched them watch me as I slung Amanda's rig over my other shoulder, noting the weight of it.

  I always forget how much stronger those taken by the lupus infection, the cursed, are than normal humans. So even my mate, with her smaller stature, would probably not even notice the weight of it. I did not, because I was... different, a child of Perchta. What mankind has taken to calling elves. Possibly the last of my kind.

  I looked along the white sands again but saw no signs of my mate's beast, and no tell-tale wolf tracks in the sand.

  Ok, one thing at a time, Robyn. I looked back at the playful mermaids and called out, “Hello?”

  They brightened, and all of them swam closer, eyes wide with excitement. A redheaded one with shells strung along her neck in a stunning necklace replied, “Hello.” She blinked her larger than normal eyes. Normal? What is normal for a mermaid? The others giggled again.

  I couldn't help but smile at them, then asked, “Did you bring me here?”

  She nodded in earnest. “Yes. You fell into the sky from the air. You lost your wings. Are you Tinker's mother? You are so big.”

  Wings? Mother? Fell onto the sky? Oh, the surface of the sea must be their sky.

  Another asked brightly, “Will you tell her? Tell her we saved her mother, so she may show us a favor?”

  I was confused. “Tell who?”

  They all chimed out in an almost cute chorus of, “Tinker of course.”

  The redhead giggled. “We saw you had the fairy folk ears, and you are so big, you must be very old. So you must be her mother. Did something attack you in the air above the sky? Will your wings grow back?”

  They... thought I was a fairy?

  I exhaled and walked waist deep into the water, and she swam right up to me and rose up to eye level. I tried not to look, as she wore no clothing, and she was quite shapely. I did glance though and found myself staring at her hips, where the skin blended with pearlescent scales, and I could see her wide tail fanning out and swishing just below the water, moving like a delicate sheet of gossamer to keep her torso above water.

  I did not wish to upset them, as they gathered around me with hopeful looks on their faces. “If I see this... Tinker, I will let her know of your bravery and heroism in saving me.” Then I looked around, trying to maintain eye contact with them and ignore the feminine grace I was now surrounded by. “Was I alone when you found me? I'm looking for someone, she would have hit the... sky, when I did. She's... well she's a wolf right now, and quite dangerous, but the sun will push that nature back to reveal the woman within.”

  I nudged my chin at the moon which was almost fully obscured by the sea now and then the oranges of the sky in the other dire
ction which indicated the impending rising of the sun.

  They all gave looks of distaste, as the smallest one, who looked to be barely sixteen or seventeen said in a pout, “The doggy? We tried to play with it, but it kept trying to bite us.”

  I looked at them in alarm. “Did she bite any of you? She carries a curse, not of her own making.”

  They all giggled at me, and one asked like I was being silly. “A land doggie, bite one of the water folk? No. And since it did not wish to play, nor to be saved, we left it to the waters to claim it so we could feast.”

  Then they all got a confused look on their faces. I noted they had started taking turns diving under to resurface a couple moments later, and I realized they must be going under to breathe. One shared, almost with a questioning tone, “So the waters claimed it, like all the air creatures who venture too far into our world without the wooden vessels. But, the waters rejected it. And so the drowning did not hold. Thrice more did it succumb to the watery grave, but it kept waking up stronger each time.”

  I winced. Mandywolf was drowning over and over, but her curse would not give her peace. Unlike other animals, werewolves had virtually no body fat and their muscle density made it so they sunk like a stone in the water... wolves could not swim. It was good she was regaining her strength, the fall probably broke most of the bones in her body, but her wolf healing sounds to be up to the task. They were... they were going to eat her?

  I asked, “Do you know where she is now? Can you take me to her?”

  They all turned and started talking in squees and chitters that would have been just above a human's ability to hear, I... am not human. Then the redhead turned to me. “The beast was attempting to swim and failing when last we saw it going under. We can look for it again, and bring it to you if it changes into a lady as you say. For... for a favor from the fairy folk at a future time?”

  They all clasped their hands to their chests like it would be the shiniest bauble to be granted a favor. I just nodded. “I am not of the fairy folk, so I cannot promise that, but I can promise you a favor from me, Lady Robyn of Locksley, upon my honor.”

  They giggled and one said like I had told the silliest of jokes, “Not of the fairy folk.”

  The redhead swam up to me again and rose up to lock eyes with me. She cocked her head and said, “I, Camellia of the water folk, accept your terms, Robyn of the Locksley.”

  Then I was blinking and pulling back when she kissed me.

  I sputtered out as she lowered back into the waters of the lagoon, “What was that? I'm a taken woman.”

  She scrunched up her lips in both confusion and amusement and said, “A deal is a deal. Sealed with a kiss.”

  The others echoed her words in sincere tones, “Sealed with a kiss.” They were all nodding, eager looks on their faces. “Yes, a kiss.”

  I relaxed, they seemed so innocent to me. I exhaled and couldn't help but smile at them as I said, “Agreed. A deal has been struck.”

  They cheered in glee then all at once disappeared down into the water, and moments later exploded from the water in an acrobatic display a hundred yards out, flipping gracefully in the air before vanishing back under the gentle waves.

  Umm... I said to the empty lagoon, “Am I just supposed to wait here? How will you find me otherwise?”

  The stilling water paid me no mind as the light of the moon finally extinguished below the sea, and I felt the first rays of sunlight on my back. A fist inside my gut relaxed, knowing that the wolf held no sway over my love in the light of day. Amanda would be herself if the mermaids found her.

  I thought of the impossibility of that thought. Mermaids. They were real.

  I exhaled loudly and spoke to myself, “Ok, Robyn, first things first, get shelter to wait in above the high tide mark to await their return.”

  I turned to the treeline with a haze of fog at its base, and the large stream which fed the lagoon of the cove. Ah, there. I started trudging through the sand to the fresh water source and trees which would protect me from the heat of the rising sun.

  Chapter 2

  Lost Boys

  I tracked the sun and the tide as the day progressed while I built a small lean-to at the base of the trees and covered it with palm fronds. The tide came in almost to the treeline, and the sun was tracking wrong.

  According to Mandywolf's cell, which she kept in one of the waterproof compartments in her weapons rig, it had taken almost twelve hours since rising to make it's way halfway across the sky. At that rate, the daylight would last almost a full twenty-four hours before the sun set.

  That told me a couple of things. One was that we must not be in the mortal realm anymore. This explained the mermaids and the moon being overly large in the sky, as was the sun. The other was that there was one or possibly two more nights that my Amanda would be changing into a wolf, so we needed to find some way to contain her those nights, so she didn't spread the lupine curse in this new land. That, and if the days were double the length here, then the nights might very well be as well, so we would need to contain her for longer.

  I took the time to scout the area, leaping from tree to tree to stay off the ground in case there were large predators here. In very short order I found that this was quite a small island, no more than a half mile across, with a lot of small game and a variety of bird species. A small mountain rose out of the center of the island, the remains of a long extinct volcano which had formed the isle.

  From the rim of the small caldera, I could see for miles around the C-shaped island to see it was part of a chain that stretched both ways to the horizons. I could see much from my vantage point, dark spots that marked reefs, and a shipwreck outside the mouth of the cove I had made shelter in. I didn't even need to use my Farsight to see the dozens of sailing vessels dotting the sea. This archipelago of islands and reefs must be a trade route or fishing ground.

  There seemed to be a sandbar just below the surface here at high tide, arcing around just offshore around half of the island. The only approach on that side was the mouth of the cove, which had jagged rocks to one side by the shipwreck, and a colorful reef on the other.

  I turned to look at the closest island, which looked maybe two miles across, not more than a quarter mile away to the north. And to the south a pair of islands a mile off, which looked to be about the same size as this one, but with what appeared to be a rope between them until I used my farsight to see an impossibly long rope bridge stretched between the cliffs of the islands. It had to span at least three or four hundred yards, and I could see a couple people walking across it.

  Both islands were completely covered with stone or wood plank buildings with rocks or palm trees jutting up between them. There was motion everywhere. Everything seemed to be colonial construction, and the tall ships just completed the image.

  I heard booms far off, and just at the horizon were two of those tall ships, the world rushed past me as I focused on them. Seeing little puffs of smoke and flashes of flame between them, followed by delayed booms and cracks as the sound reached me, made me realize they were exchanging cannon fire.

  One of the vessels had men dressed like soldiers from the Revolutionary War that the United States had with England, where they broke away to successfully gain their Independence. The other ship flew the flag of pirates, the Jolly Roger, its skull and crossbones rippling in the wind.

  I couldn't quite make out the faces of the people on the vessels as the distance was straining my enhanced vision and all the black and grey cannon-fire smoke was causing a haze.

  At first blush, one would think the pirate vessel outmatched by the larger, but I watched in fascination as it sailed directly into a massive broadside, exposing only its bow to the enemy. Two cannonballs hit their mark, one glancing away at the steep angle against the heavy timbers of the ship, the other tore a hole in the bow, but the captain held the wheel steady, were they going to ram?

  I noted my heart was beating faster as I watched the battle. My own fighting
instincts rising as adrenaline pumped. Moments before the vessels would have collided, a huge anchor dropped on the port side of the pirate vessel. Then the ship shuddered when the huge and heavy rope tensioned, and the tall ship seemed to slide to the side as the captain spun the wheel.

  By the Holy Spirit of the Goddess! When the ship had twisted enough to present its broadside at almost point blank, all of its cannons fired gouts of flame, and the masts of the other vessel exploded into slivers and the rudder looked to be hit as well.

  Another man took the ship's wheel when the Pirate captain flipped through the air and landed on the deck at a run and with one slash of his cutlass, the huge anchor rope was severed and the pirate vessel stopped side sliding and sailed away from the disabled ship at an obtuse angle presenting a smaller target for the guns the men on the crippled vessel were firing. Were those single shot muskets?

  I could see the pirates massed on the deck cheering.

  I blinked. They were, running? They had the others dead to rights. Not that I was rooting for the pirates, but it just didn't make sense. Any pirates from my time would have finished off the authorities, so they had fewer men to worry about hunting them, and they would have taken all the supplies and ammunition from them as well.

  Then there was the fact that they fired only the one broadside, and had only targeted the masts and rudder, not the waterline or powder magazine to sink them. It was like they were trying to limit casualties.

  That pirate captain showed skill and precision and battle awareness, so I knew it to be no accident. And that blade of his. How sharp was it that it could have sliced through a rope that had to have been at least six inches in diameter? I sensed something unnatural at work. My suspicions were confirmed as a fog seemed to roll in to conceal the pirate vessel as another ship of soldiers arrived at the scene.

  That was quite something to watch.

  I again contemplated that we had wound up in a realm not our own as tow lines were tossed to the men on the disabled ship until my attention was brought back to the shoreline of the island. I had to readjust my eyes to the shorter distance, and my heart leapt.