by T S Paul
"A decision I am starting to regret. Did I ever tell you the story of why my granddaughter came to live with me? I doubt I told you the whole truth. She scared half the town, and they demanded that she leave. Demanded. I took her in and trained her to be the best of us all. She has potential that my own daughters didn't have. Do you know what she did? She shrank a Unicorn given to her as a birthday present, down to mouse size and gave him speech. I have had a talking Unicorn living with me for over ten years. And yesterday, he met with other Unicorns from his home herd for the first time. If you ask where the story came from. I'm going to say the Unicorn! Stop. Lying. To. Me!"
"Marcella you should have told me. We could have talked about this years ago. There is a plan. My family..." Frederick stopped talking when Marcella spoke one word.
"Stop!" Marcella shook her head. Agatha didn't lie.
"Let me guess. Your ancestor found Tir na Nog inside a portal. He found the fabled lost kingdom of Arthur in a pocket dimension. It was populated by Magickal creatures and a small group of Fae. He married one of them and decided to profit from the bounty that no one else knew about. He kept it secret for centuries. Harvesting what he needed and planning. Then came the great war and our secrets were revealed. So, he went public and covered the gate with a castle and founded the Unicorn ranch. What I wonder is how he did he get the Unicorns to agree to it? They had warriors and wizards. Surely they must have fought you?"
"How? How did you know all that? None of that is public. We don't talk or even write our history." Marcella noticed he didn't deny any of it. Especially the Unicorn part.
"Do you know how old I am Frederick, or how long my family has been in existence? We keep records and have access to libraries that would boggle the minds of the world's scholars. It's good business sense to know both who and what you are dealing with before you sign anything. Why did you want Magnus Ranch investigated, really?" Picking up a pen Marcella prepared to take notes on his answer.
"The laws your country have are archaic. We established the Ranch to give us a presence in the United States. Two of my cousins were sent to run it. One to run the ranch, the other to handle distribution and shipping. It takes time to build up the sort of business like we have here in Europe. But they did it in just under a decade. We sent spies to find out how. The latest reported about the deaths, and I asked you for a favor."
"So you lost control of it. The deaths your spies reported on are being caused by a local menace. But that doesn't explain the other deaths." Marcella jabbed her pen into the blotter on her desk.
"What other deaths? Those are bad enough. Product loss affects us all."
"According to my Granddaughter and the Unicorns, Magnus Ranch is killing at least two or three a month for their parts. And they are breeding different colors. What happened, did you run out of Magickal ones and are trying to make more?"
"There you go with the Magick again! They are beasts. There is no Magick!" Frederick raged into the phone.
"Check this against the records you say you don't have. The Elders are white. It is they that speak to humans. Warriors are red. They protect the herd with their lives. Green Unicorns heal the wounded and keep the lore. Purples are the Teachers. They pass on new information. Blues are the Wizards. They fight the Dragons and protect everyone from harm. Now there are yellow and orange colors. Someone has been cross-breeding them. Is it you or is it the Ranch? It doesn't matter who now. It will stop. It will all stop.
"We don't profit from those that think. It's wrong, and it takes us down a dark path that has no end. I will not have this world end up like something the Vrxa destroyed. I refuse to pretend they don't matter. They have a language, culture, and a history. And they have Magick.
"A representative will be sent to hear their grievances and offer membership. They will join the Council, and this business will end. I want and need the truth, Frederick. To avoid censorship of your family and your business, you need to speak to me. It is literally your only chance of survival now."
Frederick Magnus groaned into the phone. "Marcella, please don't DO this! You have as much to lose as we do. They are just animals."
"No, they aren't. I did notice you didn't refute what I said. The American Ranch has killed hundreds. How many thinking creatures have you killed Frederick?" Marcella hung up the phone not wanting to hear his answer. The Council... The Council is going to go ballistic over this one, and it will again be laid at the feet of Agatha. So much to do to prepare. Marcella quickly compiled the notes she took and placed them in a folder. Grabbing her shawl, she left her office headed toward The Garden.
"Will you be back in time for dinner?" Minerva stopped her on the way out.
"Maybe? I need to consult with an old friend and see what he knows about Unicorns. Time moves differently there Min. You know that."
"I do. Just checking. Give these to Calvin and tell him if he wants more, he has to come see me to get them. Understood?" Minerva thrust a small paper bag into Marcella's hands.
"For your cookies, he just might. I'll tell him. Don't wait up."
Minerva watched as her oldest friend and employer stepped out onto the porch, walked through the yard, and out to the Garden Gate. Passing through and finding the right path was the hardest part as Marcella Blackmore left this plane of existence and entered another.
<<<>>>
"I hope you're wearing pants. You have a visitor." Glock, the owl, said, flapping his way into the room. Landing upon the suspended right arm of Athena, he perched. Next to his perch stood a much-faded statue of Nike.
"One of these days, that arm is going to fall if you keep landing on it like that. I had a heck of a time putting it up there last time." Calvin stared at the disembodied arm. It had once graced the Parthenon in Athens. A change in government and belief saw its downfall. When the rest of the statue was looted and destroyed, some small part ended up here. The library was like that. 'That which was lost becomes found.' It was even written on the door.
"You just hate real work. I was serious about the pants. Marcella is out in the central atrium."
Calvin cursed and grabbed his pants. That was one of the joys of working here. No visitors. "Stupid owl. You couldn't have started with Marcella is here? Why do you haunt me like this again?"
"Haunt you? Seriously? Do you earnestly think I hang out with you on purpose? I heard there was an upswing in Owl adoptions after those Wizard Academy movies. I could have gone there. Athena thought this was the perfect place for me, remember?" Glock flapped a few times launching himself from the arm. He flew higher and higher until he perched atop one of the many candelabra hanging from the decorative ceiling.
Now properly attired, Calvin found Marcella staring at a series of panels on the ceiling. "Marcella?"
Marcella looked over her shoulder at Calvin and smiled. "I was just admiring these. I've seen them before."
Squinting in concentration, she turned to glare at Calvin. "They once hung in Vienna, at the University. These were supposed to have been destroyed by the Demons!"
Calvin smiled and held out his hands, palms upward. "The Gods provide. Something about this place brings things here. Artwork, books, the forgotten treasures of not just your world but others connected by the doors. Think of us as a sort of clearinghouse of history."
Marcella pointed to a painting atop a row of sagging bookcases. "What is that woman doing with that swan? Whoever lost that one can keep it."
"That's one of my favorites, actually. Not at all like those goofy soup can pictures in the back room. This was a masterpiece by one of the newer artists." Calvin took it down blowing the dust off it.
"Master of dirt more like it. You need a housekeeper around here." Marcella sneezed a couple of times at the blowing dust.
"We get by. A young Florentine created this. Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni better known to you ugly Americans as ..."
"Michelangelo." Marcella finished the sentence for him. "Is it really?" She stepped closer
to the ancient work.
"That came to us smelling of wine and cheese. I liked it so much I put it where I could see it each day. The lines and the shape of the woman so remind me of home."
"Wrestle many swans back in Alexandria?" Marcella smirked.
"No. You have no appreciation for fine art." Calvin placed the painting back atop the bookcases. "What brings you here to see us?"
"Unicorns. Did you know they are sentient?"
Calvin's mouth dropped open in surprise. "I didn't, actually. But I know someone who might."
Looking upward Calvin yelled. "Glock! Get your feathered ass down here right now. I need to know something."
The sound of flapping filled the air as Glock descended from the ceiling. "I was comfortable and just about to sleep. Why are you yelling at me this time? Hi, Marcella."
"Glock. Did you know that Unicorns were sentient?" Marcella looked at the giant owl.
"Yes. Can I go back to sleep now?"
"How do you know this? My granddaughter Agatha just found out a day ago. People are killing the Unicorns, and we have to stop them!" Marcella threw up her hands.
Glock turned his head and began grooming his left wing feathers. "Humans and others are always killing Unicorns. It's the way the world works. I can remember flying into Tir na Nog by accident once." The owl shuddered. "Creepy place. Lots of fog. There were Unicorns all over the place in those days. The Dragons wanted them, and so did the humans.
"The old guy I was hanging out with wanted me to find a large, blue one for his new Magickal staff. His walking stick, not actual people, just to be clear. Technically, I was all the staff he had. He stole someone's kid for a few years under the auspices of training him to be king, but that didn't work out the way he planned it. Stupid Wizard. He forgot that humans are human. They gravitate towards things like sex and drink. Add local politics and a little religion and boy do you have trouble. That Arthur kid didn't have a chance."
Marcella and Calvin could only stare at the owl. "What?"
"You worked for Merlin. The Merlin?" Marcella looked at the owl with wide eyes.
"It wasn't what you think. He was a wanker. Always doing the oogalie boogalie thing whenever any of those knights came around. If he didn't have me, he would have lost his way trying to get home at night. He drank. A lot."
"What did any of that have to do with Unicorns?" Marcella glared at the owl.
"Arthur and his pack of hooligans they called knights used to hunt them. The Warriors were the best. With those bright red manes flowing in the wind, they could spear a knight and kill him with one stab! Great fun to see those idiots clanking around in sheets of metal. Sounded like an ash can rolling down a flight of stairs. The Unicorn Wizards would blast the horses out from under them, and the warriors would get them. Too bad the Dragons didn't find it as amusing." The owl continued to preen his feathers.
"Is there a record of this here in the library I can use to persuade the World Council to grant them sentience?" Marcella waved at the library around them.
Glock snorted. "Of course, there is. It is a library. Look in section Cee, subsection four, shelf three I think. It might be shelf four."
Calvin started counting on his fingers and reciting a poem in ancient Greek.
Clock batted the old librarian with his wing and spoke slowly to him. "Look to the left of the big pencil, two aisles down. Idiotic humans. Anything else? Can I have my nap now?"
The owl took flight and disappeared from sight up in the rafters of the building.
Calvin picked a couple of feathers out of his hair and smiled at Marcella. "Ignore him. He's just cranky this time of year. I'll show you the section you want."
As they two walked Marcella looked around. Every time she came here, there was something different to see. This was originally the Library of Alexandria. How it got here was a story all in itself.
"So are you Bat Guy now?" Marcella pointed over Calvin's head.
"Bat Guy? Oh, you mean that comic book hero? No." He laughed. "Some of those found their way here a few years ago. I last saw them near Glock's nest. He's the fan here. Not me."
Looking up to where she was pointing Calvin shook his head. "That is an art piece that showed up here a couple of years ago. I thought it was junk until Glock pointed out the name on the eraser."
"What did it say?" Marcella looked up at the twelve-foot tall pencil leaning up against the wall.
"Property of PU, whatever that means. It doesn't stink to me so it must mean something else. I hope it wasn't too important. Stuff that shows up like that never leaves. The shelves we want are over here." Calvin stepped around the giant pencil and bent down near a row of shelves.
Marcella looked and saw a half dozen books and scrolls on the shelf. At least one of them should have what she needed. Turning to Cal, Marcella gave him the message from Min with his bag of cookies. Cal smiled so hard at his gift, he forgot Marcella was watching him.
Chapter 14
"What do you mean there's no body?"
Anastasia looked up at me from her computer console. "There's no body. The news reports from twenty-five years ago say that Eleanor Magnus and her son James were in a head-on collision on Interstate fifteen during a really nasty rain storm. Radio and television reports stated that the bodies were taken to the local funeral parlor. Records from there only show one burial. The one for Eleanor Magnus. James Magnus disappeared. No body, no burial, no trace, he's a ghost in the system."
"That's impossible in this day and age, isn't it?" I stared at the report again.
"Let's just say it's very hard to do. Trust me when I speak from experience on that topic. What it means is either Robert Magnus had the boy buried elsewhere, or he's still alive somehow."
"But where? The neighbors all think James is dead. Ellie Running Eagle would have said something otherwise. Remember, she loved Eleanor as a friend. How old would he be now?" I started flipping pages to find the information.
"Early thirties at least. The child was about one-year-old when they came here to take over the operation. I've been pulling records everywhere. Nothing matches the description of the boy. It's like he vanished from any sort of digital record. The county keeps a physical record of all deaths and births. I've got one of their clerks pulling them for me. Maybe the original coroner's report will say something. When they find them, they'll be couriered to us. These deaths are hurting tourism. The county wants us to solve this one."
Looking at her I frowned. "I want us to solve this one. Every time we turn over a rock, a new mystery crawls out. It started so simply with just a few deaths. Now we have a missing kid, a Skinwalker, Blood Magick, and sentient Unicorns. That is just this week. Imagine what the rest of the month will bring."
"Please don't imagine anything. I'm not liking Montana." Anastasia went back to typing.
"I feel your pain." I looked down suddenly. My hip was vibrating.
Pulling out my phone I stared at the number. Why was grandmother calling me? "Hello?"
"Oh, good. Agatha, I want to apologize for earlier. You were right." I pulled the phone away from my ear and stared at it for a moment.
"Agatha? Are you there? Hello?"
Crap. I quickly returned the phone to my ear. "Sorry Grandmother. I was working."
"If this is a bad time, I can call back."
"No. What's up?"
"You were correct about Magnus and the Spagyric Corporation. I've worked with them and have sat on their board of directors for years without knowing the real truth. Can you forgive my comments earlier?" My grandmother sounded as if she was crying.
"Grandmother, I love you. You are the mother that raised me. Please don't cry."
"Dear one, I didn't believe you, and I will forever feel the pain of it. Frederick Magnus has been one of my closest friends for half a century. He lied to me today. It was Frederick that pushed for the investigation into the deaths of the Unicorns. I used my influence in Washington and pushed it through. You can imagine my surprise
when it was you and your team they assigned to this. The information I had given you before you left was completely true, to the best of my knowledge at the time. He didn't really care about Unicorn deaths. He wanted his cousins investigated. It took Alicorn Ranch almost a century to get to the position it's in now. Robert Magnus and his brother did it in less than thirty years. Frederick wanted to know how. When I confronted him with the information that you gave me, coupled with Council records I couldn't share with you, he went ballistic. He all but admitted to what you were saying. I gave him a choice. Come clean, or the Council will do it for him."
The Council? "Grandmother, why are you involving the Council?" This could be either really bad or really good for Fergus's people.
