by Charley Case
Choose The Slain
The Lone Valkyrie™ Book 2
Charley Case
Martha Carr
Michael Anderle
This book is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Sometimes both.
Copyright © 2020 Charlie Case, Martha Carr and Michael Anderle
Cover by Fantasy Book Design
A Michael Anderle Production
LMBPN Publishing supports the right to free expression and the value of copyright. The purpose of copyright is to encourage writers and artists to produce the creative works that enrich our culture.
The distribution of this book without permission is a theft of the author’s intellectual property. If you would like permission to use material from the book (other than for review purposes), please contact [email protected]. Thank you for your support of the author’s rights.
LMBPN Publishing
PMB 196, 2540 South Maryland Pkwy
Las Vegas, NV 89109
First US edition, April 2020
Version 1.01, April 2020
eBook ISBN: 978-1-64202-840-9
Print ISBN: 978-1-64202-841-6
The Terranavis Universe (and what happens within / characters / situations / worlds) are Copyright (c) 2019-2020 by Martha Carr and LMBPN Publishing.
Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Free Books
Author Notes - Charley Case
Author Notes - Martha Carr
Other Books in The Terranavis Universe
Other LMBPN Publishing Books
Connect with The Authors
Dedications
From Charley
This book is dedicated to my wife and best friend, Kelly. Without her belief in my abilities, and patience to see the process through, this book wouldn't exist.
From Martha
To all those who love to read, and like a good puzzle inside a good story
To Michael Anderle for his generosity
to all his fellow authors
To Louie and Jackie
And in memory of my big sister,
Dr. Diana Deane Carr
who first taught me about magic, Star Trek,
DC Comics and flaming cherries jubilee
From Michael
To Family, Friends and
Those Who Love
To Read.
May We All Enjoy Grace
To Live The Life We Are
Called.
Chapter One
Mila sat cross-legged on the living room floor watching Finn and Remmy in the dojo as the dwarf instructed the goblin in combat maneuvers. Penny, the small blue faerie dragon, sat on the floor beside Mila and tapped on a laptop as she compiled the latest research she and Mila had gathered for Finn’s next treasure hunt.
The tiny goblin hopped from side to side with her powerfully muscled legs while Finn tracked her from a defensive posture that looked overblown considering his opponent’s tiny size, and Mila was struck by just how talented the goblin warrior was. It was a proper David and Goliath fight, except Remmy fought with knives and Finn used his bare hands.
Finn reached out, quick as a viper, but Remmy danced backward just out of reach and slashed at his hand with a knife. Finn lifted the targeted hand just enough for the blade to pass under his wrist, then shuffled two steps forward and reached out to slam a palm into her chest.
Remmy spun to the side and sucked in a breath, then held it and vanished from sight. Finn quickly backed away from where the goblin had been just a second ago, his hands out and fingers splayed. He scanned the area quickly before jumping back just as Remmy let out the breath in a puff and appeared on Finn’s opposite side, to drive a knife into the space he had just occupied.
Finn quickly chopped down with the heel of his hand and hit Remmy’s extended hand to knock the knife to the blue mats. She dove in to stab with her other knife. Finn spun to the side to let the knife pass through the empty space before smacking the second knife from her grip.
To Mila’s surprise, Remmy didn’t give up. Instead, she leaped up onto Finn’s chest and punched him in the nose once before he could pluck her off and hold her at arm’s length by her black spandex shorts.
She hung there, slowly spinning, her shorts tightening with each rotation, but she kept swinging even though her arms didn’t even come close to her opponent.
Finn smiled at the fuming goblin. “Okay, I think that one went a little better.”
Remmy finally gave up and sagged in his grip, her arms and legs hanging a good four feet from the ground. “Ya mind putting me down, boss? These shorts are starting to cut me in half.”
Finn obliged, gently setting her on her feet. “You need to use your invisibility to better advantage.”
He gathered up Remmy’s practice blades while she adjusted the spandex shorts and matching sports bra back into place. “I outmatch you in everything but speed, and even that is pretty close. If you want to beat a larger opponent, you are going to have to rely on your other strengths.”
“But I did use my invisibility.” Remmy snapped the elastic band around her ribs and winced.
“You did, but you were so winded from the long fight that it only lasted a few seconds.” He handed her the blades. “You have a lot of things that most people would consider disadvantages. Your size, for example, makes people immediately dismiss you as a credible threat. You can ask Penny how well that works out for most of the assholes we go up against.”
Penny snickered but didn’t look up from the computer.
“You need to think about things like how strong you are compared to your foe, or how small of a target you are, or the fact that if you can go invisible early on, then it’s all the more effective because you have the breath to hold it longer.”
Remmy nodded, her long white braid of hair bouncing between her heavily tattooed shoulder blades. “I get it, boss. Think first, then fight.”
“Sort of,” Finn corrected. “Think now, while we practice, so that in a fight you don’t have to think at all. Now, look me over and decide what to do to me before we go again.”
Remmy cocked her head to the side and narrowed her eyes, glancing up and down Finn’s chiseled body. He was dressed in nothing but the pair of the black leggings he only wore when he was on the mats.
“Geez, boss. I know you like ‘em small.” She hiked a thumb back at Mila. “But you’re really not my type.”
Mila snorted a laugh, while Finn turned a little red. “You know what I mean, you little shit. I get enough of this crap from Penny. I don’t need it from you, too.”
“Sorry, boss.” Remmy shrugged. “I takes ‘em li
ke I sees ‘em.” She sucked in a deep breath and vanished, catching Finn off-guard.
He shuffled back a few steps, hands up. Mila could hear the slapping of Remmy’s bare feet on the mat, but it went so quickly she couldn’t get a fix on where the slippery little goblin had gone. She imagined fighting an invisible foe and shivered, just thinking that a knife could slide into her and she wouldn’t have any defense.
Finn, on the other hand, seemed to have no problem finding Remmy despite her ability. He quickly spun to his left and rolled forward, kicking out a foot. There was a cry of surprise a second before Remmy materialized to sail through the air. She hit the mats with an “Oof!”
Finn squatted down beside the little green goblin and offered her a hand up. “You need to remember that just because I can’t see you doesn’t mean I can’t hear you.”
“You have the ears of the devil, boss. Nobody so far has been able to hit me just from the sounds I make.” She took hold of two of his fingers with her whole hand and he pulled her to her feet.
“Just because you haven’t fought a higher quality enemy doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be prepared for one. That’s the whole reason I’m teaching you. You’re the best goblin fighter in your tribe, but I want you to be one of the best. Period. Let’s do it again.”
As they reset, Mila glanced at the computer as Penny put the finishing touches on the file for Finn. Every day for the last two weeks, Finn had gone out and returned that evening with a bag full of treasure. Mila was shocked that there was so much lost gold and jewels just sitting around out there for the taking. She understood that there must be, logically, but seeing it all piled up in Penny’s room was another thing entirely.
Finn and Penny had had to reinforce the entire building so the sheer weight of all that treasure didn’t bring the whole thing tumbling down. As of right now, they estimated that there were just over twelve tons of precious metal and stones piled in the center of Penny’s room. Any ordinary structure would have collapsed after the second bag had been transferred to her growing hoard.
The front door opened, and Danica came in, shoulders slumped as she dropped her satchel and kicked off her high heels. She wore a cream-colored suit that accentuated her long legs with long straight lines down from the front pleats. After hanging her suit jacket on a hook by the door, she turned into the kitchen and grabbed a beer from the fridge before shuffling into the living room and flopping down on the couch. She unbuttoned the top two buttons of the white halter-top dress shirt she had on and took a long drink of the beer.
“Long day at the hospital?” Mila leaned back on extended arms to look over her shoulder at her friend.
Danica waved a hand, and her concealment spell fell away to reveal her long, pointed elven ears and her dwarven prosthetic arm. “Yeah, it was a rough one, but it had its moments. I had a kid that wasn’t going to make it two months without a miracle. Brain tumor. The mom hadn’t realized anything was wrong until the little guy started having seizures.”
“Oh, that is rough,” Mila said compassionately. “What did you end up doing?”
Danica smiled. “Since I was the first doctor they saw, I gave the little guy a miracle.”
She waggled her mechanical fingers and blue magical energies danced between them. “I told her he was dehydrated and that we would give him an IV before sending him home. Sometimes it’s good to be a doctor. But I was still on my feet for ten hours.”
With a groan, she put her feet up on the coffee table.
Mila chuckled, then circled around to sit on the couch beside Danica. She waved for Danica to put her feet in her lap. “You’re going to get caught one of these days.”
Danica swung her legs over and leaned back on the arm of the couch with a satisfied moan.
“What are they going to say? That I used magic? We both know Peabrains can’t even comprehend the idea. Besides, that’s one little boy who gets to grow up and make something of himself. Oh, yeah. That’s the stuff. You’re too good to me.” Her eyes rolled up as Mila started kneading the ball of her foot.
“Well, you at least deserve a foot rub for saving that little guy’s life. Speaking of foot rubs. Where’s Phil tonight?”
“Working the graveyard shift at the morgue.”
“Isn’t every shift at the morgue the graveyard shift?” Mila chuckled.
“I would tell you how bad a person you are for telling that joke, but I don't want you to stop rubbing my foot.” Danica took another drink of beer as Mila laughed.
Finn and Remmy continued their practice for another twenty minutes while Mila and Danica caught up on the day, then Remmy bade them all goodnight and skipped out the front door.
Penny finished up the file for Finn while the tall dwarf pulled on a t-shirt and grabbed a beer for himself, then came over to sit on the couch beside Mila.
“How’s Remmy doing?” Mila patted his knee affectionately.
“Really well.” Finn raised his eyebrows. “I was shocked at how quick she can be when she’s focused. She genuinely almost landed a few hits on me. If I can just get her to think ahead and plan her attacks instead of reacting to a fight, I think she could be one of the best fighters I’ve ever seen.”
Danica switched feet in Mila’s lap, then groaned as Mila dug into her other foot with her thumbs. “I thought she was already the best fighter in her tribe.”
Finn tilted the bottle from his mouth and smacked his lips in satisfaction. “She is. But goblins aren’t exactly known for their fighting prowess. They usually just overwhelm their enemies with numbers. A goblin tribe traditionally has one or two fairly good fighters that can finish off the enemy while they are distracted with hordes of lesser fighters. But Remmy has a real talent for battle. Probably because there are no wars they fight here on Earth, so she can focus on learning without the threat of death every day. Out there in the universe, it’s a hard life for goblins.”
“I thought goblins were servants of dwarves.” Mila lofted an eyebrow. “Don’t their dwarves look out for them?”
Finn grimaced. “The unfortunate truth is that most dwarves are not kind to their goblins. They usually use them as cannon fodder. Most dwarves don’t consider them worth the time to train properly.”
“Man, your people sound like a bunch of assholes.” Danica chuckled.
“You have no idea.” Finn picked up the laptop Penny pushed closer to the couch. “So, where are you guys sending me tomorrow? Let me guess; it’s going to be in the bowels of a crumbling ancient city full of snake people that want to eat my face.”
Mila snorted. “Hardly. This time you get to go to the beach.”
He began to scan through the file. “Assateague Island? Where’s that?”
Danica perked up. “I love that place. My family used to vacation there in the summers. They even bought a little beach house there about twenty years ago. Well, technically, the house is on Chincoteague Island, but it’s practically the same place. Assateague is covered in wild Spanish ponies.”
“Ponies?”
“Yeah.” Mila scrolled down to the section of the file about the islands themselves. “A Spanish galleon wrecked off the coast during a storm and sank, dropping all its treasure and killing most of the sailors, but the ship was also transporting hundreds of ponies, which are very good swimmers. They made it to shore and have been an isolated breed on the islands ever since. It’s quite the tourist attraction when they have the pony roundup once a year.”
Finn scanned the info. “Interesting. So the treasure is what was in the ship?”
Penny shook her head, “Shir shee.”
“Who is Charles Wilson?” Finn asked the little dragon.
Mila pulled up another file about the famous lost treasure as she gave him the short version.
“Well, he was a prisoner that died about two hundred years ago. In England.”
Penny picked up the tale. “Shir. Chi shee shir.”
“Okay, Charles Wilson wrote a letter to his brother saying that he had
buried treasure on the island, but that was a long time ago. This island looks like nothing more than a glorified sand bar. Landmarks would be totally different after that long. One good hurricane could change the geography for good.”
“Well, that’s only half the problem,” said Mila sheepishly. “There’s a lot of evidence that the treasure isn’t real at all. A lot of people think it was made up by a guy back in the fifties so he could drum up interest and sell land on the island.”
Finn frowned. “Then why are you sending me to find it? It probably isn’t even there.”
“True, but while researching the story, we found out that there are tons of treasures on the island. People find gold coins on the beach all the time. There are rumors that Blackbeard buried a bunch of treasure on the island. We figured you would be able to find something.”
Finn chuckled. “The old shotgun approach? I like it. This will be a real walk on the beach.”
He waggled his eyebrows and smiled as they all rolled their eyes at once.
“What? That was a good one!”
“I can give you a teleport in the morning before I head into work.” Danica did her best to ignore the joke.
“Hopefully, he can refrain from being funny on the way.” Mila consoled her.
