Death in the Hallows (Hank Mossberg, Private Ogre Book 2) Page 6

  “Is Butch… is Butch unusually attractive?” I said uncomfortably. “I mean, for a dwarf?”

  Annie scoffed at the notion. “No!” she said emphatically. “Frankly, I didn’t understand Talia’s interest in him at all. And now the sister. I can’t believe I have to deal with this, and on the wedding day no less.”

  “When else would it happen?” I murmured.

  At that moment a nine-foot tall giant settled onto the bench in front of a humorously small organ at the edge of the clearing, and began playing the wedding march. Annie shushed me.

  We were standing at the end of the path and I glanced around to see a hundred faces all turn to stare at us at once. I’d never realized Butch had so much extended family. Magnus, the middle-aged gray haired wizard at the podium scowled at me. Magnus and I have never gotten along very well. He’s one of the Elders, the supreme leaders of the fae, and I’ve had to call on him numerous times to help me bring criminals to justice. Somehow, it seems like Magnus and I are never on the same page. And he hates the fact that I waste his time on such mundane matters as crime and law. If I had someone else to turn to I would, but Magnus just happens to be the only Elder who lives year-round in San Francisco.

  Butch appeared at the back of the crowd, near Dwana and the rest of the bridesmaids. He shifted uncomfortably and offered me a weak smile. I wanted to go offer him a word of encouragement, but it was too late for that. I took Annie’s arm, careful that she was touching my jacket sleeve and not my skin, and began marching up the aisle. She put on her brightest smile and I tried not to look at anyone… especially Magnus.

  Step, pause. Step, Pause. I followed Annie’s lead, marching down the aisle just the way she’d told me to at least a hundred times in the last week. We separated at the end of the aisle and I stepped off to the left, Annie to the right. I took my place and watched Butch as he counted out the appropriate beat and then followed us with Talia’s mother on his arm.

  He ushered her to a seat in the front row and then took his place next to me, directly in front of Magnus. After the appropriate pause, Talia and her father stepped out of the trees at the back of the clearing. All heads turned and I heard a few gasps. We all took in her radiant beauty.

  Talia was dressed in a gown like humans wear, but it was light green, the color of moss in the woods, and decorated with intricate silver-threaded patterns. A jeweled veil covered half her face, sparkling as she moved through the broken sunlight under the trees. She wore a crown of silver on her brow.

  I glanced at Annie and saw her wiping tears from her eyes, and then at Butch. His eyes glistened with moisture as well. He didn’t seem to notice as he stared at his gorgeous bride walking down the aisle. Talia’s mother broke down, letting out a sob as she dabbed her eyes with a handkerchief. That was it for everyone else. There wasn’t a dry eye in the crowd.

  Talia’s father brought her up to the podium and then released her arm. He motioned for Butch to step closer. He gathered up their hands and brought them together, uniting them in a symbolic gesture. He stepped away, smiling, and took his seat.

  Butch and Talia were beaming as they turned to face the podium.

  “Dearly beloved,” Magnus began, “we have gathered here at this precious moment, in this place of beauty, to answer to a higher authority. The ancients commanded us: Harm none and let Love be the Law, and today they remind us that there is no greater force than love.

  “Love is with us here, in spirit and in body. Love commands us, but only to love, for it is without judgment, without anger, and without fear. Love brings us together, strengthens us, renews us, and builds tomorrow from today.”

  The wizard raised his eyes to the crowd. “Who here gives this young woman to this man?”

  “I do,” said Talia’s father, raising his hand. Her mother burst out sobbing again.

  The wizard smiled. “Butch O’Shea, do you swear to keep the sacred commandment, to love without fear, without anger, and without judgment?”

  I glanced at him and saw that the color had drained from his face. He was terrified. “I… I do,” he stammered. Talia squeezed his hand and he smiled nervously.

  “And you, Talia,” said the wizard, “do you take this dwarf as your eternal mate, and do you swear to keep the sacred commandments of love?”

  “I do,” she said.

  “Excellent. You may exchange the rings.”

  Talia smiled as she placed Butch’s wedding ring on his finger. Butch turned to me and I suddenly realized that I was supposed to be doing more than just watching. Frantically, I searched my pockets. I wasn’t used to the tuxedo, and I’d forgotten where I put the damn ring. At last, I produced the tiny velvet-covered box from one of my pockets and held it open. Half the audience chuckled, the other half glared at me.

  Butch smiled, took the ring, and placed it on Talia’s finger.

  “Now,” Magnus continued, “if anyone here knows of any reason these two should be kept apart-”

  He was cut off by a shrill, high-pitched shrieking sound. There was a flash of light overhead and I looked up to see a strange, shadowy creature descending out of the clouds. Screams filled the air as everyone jumped out of their seats and scattered. Thick black clouds rolled across the sky and lightning crackled across the heavens. The sun vanished, and darkness fell over us.

  The creature descended towards the podium. I finally got a good look at her. She looked like a hag, dressed in black rags and a long, tattered cloak. The hood pulled up over her head concealed her face in shadow, but I saw glowing red eyes and the end of a long, pointed chin.

  I glanced at Butch and saw him staring, dumbfounded. A look of rage swept over Talia’s face and she clenched her fists. “Aha, the happy couple!” the creature said in a grating, cackling voice that sounded like something out of a Disney movie.

  Talia’s father stood up, putting himself between the creature and his daughter. “What do you want, witch?” he shouted.

  She laughed menacingly. “Time and times you take from me, time from you I’ll take, times three.”

  “What does that mean?” Talia’s father said. He scanned our faces, but we were all equally perplexed.

  “I don’t care,” Talia murmured. “She’s gonna pay for ruining my wedding.”

  The witch hovered closer. She reached up to pull back the hood, revealing a hideous, misshapen face. Her skin was pale blue, the color of a corpse. Wrinkles and boils covered her flesh. Her eyebrows met over the ridge of her long, crooked nose and dark mustache-like hair sprouted out from her top lip.

  “Today begins the maiden’s sorrow, ten years gone, thrice come the ‘morrow.” With that, she took a deep breath and put her hand to her lips. She blew a kiss at Talia. A cloud of bright blue sparkles radiated forth and rained down over the bride. Instantly, Talia’s eyes rolled back in her head and she fainted. Butch leapt out to catch her. He gently lowered her to the ground.

  “Talia?” he said, gently shaking her. He lightly slapped her cheeks. “Talia?” She didn’t respond.

  Talia’s father ripped out his wand and pointed it at the witch. “Undo this, hag!” he shouted. “Undo it, or I’ll undo you!”

  The witch cackled. “Fear not, what must be… soon she’ll waken, old as me! Hahaha!”

  Talia’s father Rory shouted a curse. He waved his wand, sending a lightning bolt hurtling towards the witch. She pulled back, shadows concealing her face as she lifted into the sky. She vanished into the stormy heavens and the clouds rolled around her like boiling oil. A heavy rain began to fall, and the wedding party scattered.

  I looked down at Butch and his bride, still trying to make sense of it all.

  “Hank, help me?” Butch said pleadingly. “I’ve got to get her to a hospital.”

  “A hospital will do her no good,” Talia’s father said, stepping close. He knelt down, touching her cheek and then felt the pulse in her neck. He put his hand on Butch’s shoulder and gave him a dire look. “Your bride’s been cursed.”

 
; “This is your doing!” Talia’s mother said angrily, pointing at Butch. “I knew no good would come of this relationship!”

  “Easy,” I said. “Butch didn’t have anything to do with this.”

  She was about to object, but her husband shook his head. “He’s right, Tess. Butch didn’t have anything to do with this. But I think we all can guess who did.”

  They were all looking at me. Butch was frowning. “I don’t get it,” I said. “Who?”

  “His mother,” Tess said bitterly. “She can’t stand Talia. She thinks the girls a… a whore!”

  “Hey now!” Butch said, rising to his feet. He glared at her. “She never said anything like that.”

  “Oh, you know it’s true!” Tess cried out. “I’ve seen the way she looks at us. She doesn’t like our kind.”

  “Well, she’s right about that,” said a husky female voice behind us. We all swung around to see Butch’s parents standing there. Butch’s mother, a stout dwarf wearing a dress lined with furs, pointed her finger at Tess. “I don’t trust you,” she said, “and this just proves why! You elves all think you’re so great. You thought my Butch was beneath your family. Don’t lie, I know it!”

  “That’s not true!” said Tess.

  “Then why did I hear you say it just before the wedding, when you didn’t know I was in the ladies’ room?”

  Tess pursed her lips. Butch’s mom glared at her. The tension was so thick I could have cut through it with a knife. “Okay, separate corners,” I said. “Pointing fingers won’t solve this. First things first. We need to get her out of the rain… there, in that gazebo. ”

  Butch lifted Talia’s body and carried her into the shelter, gently pushing past the table with the wedding cake so he could lay her across a bench. Annie appeared behind us carrying a shawl. She covered Talia and then we stood back, looking down at her.

  Butch knelt down next to her as the rest of the bridal party slipped in around us. The rest of the guests were vanishing into the surrounding woods, either making their way back to the undercity, or to their cars, as the case may be. I gave Butch a compassionate look.

  “What do I do, Hank?” he said.

  “First we find out exactly what that thing was, and what she did,” I said. I pulled out my cell phone and my dialing pencil and scrolled through the menu.

  “Who are you calling?” he said.

  “Somebody I haven’t talked to in a long time,” I said. “Siva.”

  Everyone around me exchanged uncomfortable glances. “Is that really necessary?” said Butch’s mother. “I mean… her?”

  I didn’t have a chance to respond because Siva answered on the second ring. I explained the situation and asked her to come as quickly as possible. When I hung up, they were all staring expectantly. “It won’t be long,” I said.

  A blue light flashed up near the roof of the gazebo and a column of smoke descended towards the floor. Siva appeared, and everyone took a step back. Talia’s mother gasped, looking like she was about to faint.

  “You weren’t kidding,” Butch whispered.

  Siva looked at me, her face unreadable. I stared into her dark eyes, wondering what she was thinking. Siva is a dark elf. That’s not a race. I’ve already explained how the lifestyle of fae creatures can affect their appearance. That is where dark elves come from. They usually start out as high-elves. High-elves are genetically gifted with extremely powerful magical abilities. They often pursue higher learning in this area and become wizards and sometimes even ascended Elders.

  Occasionally, they go the other way. Once in a while a powerful elf mage chooses to embrace the dark side and takes up dangerous studies like necromancy, sorcery, and the other dark arts. In time, the mage changes into something else.

  Siva’s skin is dark blue, almost black, and her eyes are black and colorless. Long, tendril-like tattoos cover her body. They are elegant and somewhat hypnotic to look at, but I was careful to avoid that snare. She wore a transparent gossamer gown that left nothing to the imagination. Someone courageous enough to stare might have found her attractive, but my mind was on other things.

  “Thanks for coming,” I said.

  Siva looked up at me and a smile tugged at the corners of her lips. “Anything for you, Steward,” she said. She touched me gently on the hand. I flinched, expecting her to faint, but she just smiled and held her hand there for a moment. Then she looked away, turning her attention to Talia.

  “She’s bespelled,” Siva said quietly. She brushed Talia’s bangs away from her forehead and bent low, sniffing her hair. She pulled one of Talia’s eyelids open and sighed quietly. Then she bent forward and kissed Talia on the mouth.

  “Stop that!” Tess said. Her husband silenced her with a stare.

  Siva raised her head, her eyes closed as she savored the kiss. “What were the words of the spell?” she said. “Tell me, exactly.”

  I thought about it for a moment. “Something about the maiden’s sorrow, ten years gone thrice tomorrow.”

  Siva opened her eyes and gave me a disgusted look. “Exactly,” she repeated. “Tell me exactly what she said.”

  Talia’s sister stepped up. “I can tell you,” she said in a worried voice. “I have perfect memory.”

  Siva gestured for her to come forward. She rose up, taking Dwana by the hands. “Tell me,” she said.

  Dwana closed her eyes, drawing up the memory. She began to speak:

  “Today begins the maiden’s sorrow, ten years gone, thrice come the ‘morrow;

  Fear not, what must be… soon she’ll waken, old as me.”

  “Ahh,” Siva said in a long, drawn-out whisper. “Yes, very good.” She released Dwana’s hands and turned to face me. “I must go,” she said. “There is nothing I can do for you.”

  “But what’s the spell?” I said. “Who did it? How can we undo it?”

  Siva pulled her gaze away from me to look around the room. Everyone watched her expectantly. “The bride will sleep for thirty years. I cannot undo the spell unless I have a drop of blood from the mage who cast it.”

  “But who?” Butch said. “What can we-”

  “I can say no more. Find this person and bring me a drop of blood. Then I can break the spell.”

  “But-”

  Siva snapped her fingers and vanished in a cloud of multi-colored sparkling lights. Butch’s voice trailed off helplessly. He looked at me, his face a mask of desperation. “Hank?” he said.

  I looked at Talia, and then at her father. “Take her home,” I said. “Butch, you and I will have a word with everyone else.”

  “That’s ridiculous,” said Tess. “I’m going with my daughter!”

  “I can’t eliminate you as a suspect unless you talk to me,” I said. “If you want me to get to the bottom of this, I need your cooperation.” I turned my attention to the rest of the group. “The same goes for the rest of you. If you fail to cooperate, you’ll only make yourself look suspicious.”

  Butch and the two fathers carried Talia to the car and then he returned a few minutes later, joining us in the gazebo. One by one, we separated the rest of the wedding party to question them. I started with Annie, guiding her to a dry spot under the branches of a nearby tree. “Really, Hank?” she said impatiently. “You’re seriously going to treat me like a suspect?”

  “No,” I said. “I don’t think you had anything to do with it. But, the fact remains that you were with Talia all morning. If something happened to her, you may have seen it.”

  “I didn’t see anything, Hank. I told you I spent the whole morning putting out fires. Literally.”

  “I know,” I said. “That’s what worries me.”

  “I don’t understand.”

  “Wait… you think something happened to Talia before the wedding?” Butch said. “We all saw the witch, Hank.”

  “We all saw something,” I said. “It’s impossible to say exactly what we saw.”

  “You think she was an illusion?” Annie said. “Like some sort of spel
l?”

  “That could be the case. You yourself admitted that things have been going wrong all day. Maybe the person who did this to Talia did it much earlier. Maybe they slipped something in her drink, or… well, it could have been a thousand different things. It could have been a pin prick or a potion in her food.”

  “I don’t know,” Annie said thoughtfully. “I don’t remember anything like that happening. Talia didn’t eat at all today. She wanted to look skinny in her wedding dress.”

  “Well, think about it,” I said. “If something comes to mind, call me.”

  “That’s it?”

  “Yes, you can go home now.”

  “What about you?”

  I could tell from the tone of her voice that Annie wanted to be with me, that she wanted to talk about everything that had happened. I hated the fact that I had to send her home alone, but I couldn’t go with her and it wouldn’t have looked right if I kept her there with me. “Go,” I said. “I’ll call you later, when I’m done here.”

  Reluctantly, she left. I took a deep breath and turned to Butch. “Well that was fun,” I said sarcastically. “Who’s next?”

  Talia’s mother Tess was next. We wanted to get her out of the way so she could go home. I questioned her briefly and then sent her on her way. Butch didn’t quite understand. “You let her off easy,” he observed as she headed towards their limo in the parking lot.

  “I didn’t see much point in giving her a hard time,” I said. “She didn’t do it.”

  “Are you sure? Because if you recall, she doesn’t think much of me or my family. Who’s side are you on, Hank?”

  I sighed. “Think it over, Butch. Tess may not care much for you, but if she wanted to stop the wedding, would she cast the spell on her own daughter?”

  “Maybe,” he said shrugging. “That way she doesn’t look suspicious.”

  I sneered. “Right. Tess cast a spell on her own daughter that will make Talia age thirty years before she wakes up, just to keep suspicion off herself.”