Highland Tales Series Box Set

by Rory B. Byrne

  I used the distraction to unsheathe the dirk. I expected a black blade, but I got something extraordinary. The intense flame erupted from the sheath. It sprang out of the handle in a fiery rope. It had no extra weight, only a forceful arcing blue flame like a welding torch only a few meters in length with the diameter of the dagger handle.

  As surprised as I was to see the flaming rope erupt from the handle, Broken Toe teetered off me. I looked at him, turned my wrist, and pointed the tip toward him. The fiery blue rope lashed out at him. It sliced through the air from one side of the large man to the other, from his left to right. Before I realized what had happened, I saw the look of shocked pain spread over Broken Toe’s face. Then the top half of him dropped to the left while his bottom half slumped to the right. The flaming whip had cut him clean in two.

  Still traumatized by the fire whip, I backpedaled away from the body. My feet sunk into the mud of the loch. I felt the water close to me. I saw bodies scrambling not far from me. Evander managed to evade the others, but they got closer to him.

  Even with the flaming whip, I was too far away to reach him. They didn’t see what had happened to Broken Toe. As I watched, I saw the creature leap from the water. It cleared the shore and clawed at Fire, driving him screaming to the beach. It had him by the arm, dragging him into the water.

  Next to go was Camden. The leader wasn’t powerful enough to stop the beast from jumping on him, snatching an ankle and dragging him into the loch. I saw another of the creatures leap to the shore toward Evander. It didn’t have the shape of a human, more like a seal or manatee, but it had strength and speed.

  Then I saw another only a half-second before it snatched me. I felt claws tearing at my sleeve as it yanked me off my feet and dragged me into the water. I didn’t get another breath; I was pulled under the icy waves. Cold death enveloped me. I felt a heavy current around me. The creature pulled me deeper and deeper into the loch. My eyes burned in the water. I saw nothing but blackness. I had lost my boots. I felt the sheath come free of my left hand, and the fire whip snuffed out the moment the handle came out of the grip of my right hand.

  Everything turned to cold, wet death. I’d die in the lake, and I lost my boots and that awesome dirk just when I learned what it meant to have a witch weapon. My lungs tightened in my chest. My ears filled with water and popped. I felt the heavy hand of death dragging me to the murky floor of the Elphame loch.

  Finding a Friend

  Simon spent hours alone in his private quarters following the briefing with the private army. Brian had hired the men to invade a world they didn’t understand. Money, it seemed, meant to do as anyone wanted. It occurred to Simon that Fraser and his team’s sudden appearance meant Brian needed Simon less and less as the days went by. Their recent actions, infiltrating, kidnapping the Weatherspoons, and burning down the guesthouse, told Simon Fraser had no fear. The man didn’t believe in consequences.

  Thirty highly trained, military-minded men showed no interest in the wonders they could encounter once they passed through the portal. Simon knew they’d use those weapons first facing anyone and anything. The creature that came through the portal survived for years in the dark hold, chained to the wall, fed carcasses of farm animals. It was a strange and monstrous beast with a disposition of an enraged badger. That was what everyone expected on the other side. They saw one creature capable of maiming and killing without thought along with the potential speed that made running from the monster impossible. Consequently, the men had one mindset: go through the portal and kill anything in their way.

  Simon read history. He understood the Highland people had rich folklore surrounding mythical life forms that lived on in human literature. Fairy folk and Scottish fairytales had origins that predated the simple ideas of modern men. Simon read all the Norse tales, the Scottish folklore, and the Celtic legends. Fanciful reading for some, but each of the stories of redemption or encountering curses all portrayed the interaction between humans and fairies as something fleeting. As a dominant species, humans didn’t understand the culture and history of anything that wasn’t human.

  To suggest anything other than humans had sentient capabilities often made people feel insignificant. Humans did not share resources or the environment with anything. Even among people from different cultural backgrounds or regional differences, people had a hard time sharing.

  Simon suspected the mythical creatures that once lived on the Scotland side of the portal died out quickly. They were hunted and slaughtered by humankind because people never had passion or patience for anything nonhuman. It was impossible to communicate with men who carried weapons and ended disagreements with bullets.

  He stood in the private rooms at the facility. He’d never left in the eight years since Phoebe Biel went through the portal. Simon stayed at the facility. He had made a home on the site of the fairy mound. Brian funded his research, and Simon only wanted to see his beloved again. Instead, Brian wanted immediate access to Elphame. The Equinox CEO had lost faith and hope in Simon’s abilities.

  It was Brian MacIomhair who owned everything, and Simon learned that the moment Fraser arrived. The man owned everyone. Simon couldn’t walk away. He’d invested years into Brian’s vision of the future. The man wanted godlike control of the portal. He wanted people to pay homage to him for access to the other world.

  Brian managed to keep the secret of the fairy mound. No one outside the facility understood what he had, and they didn’t know how it worked. That was until Harper Biel showed up with the other American girl, Amy Miller.

  They kept Miller secured inside the same control cages they used on the creature from Elphame. She had seen too much to release her to the public again. At the start, Simon had wondered how long they’d keep Amy Miller prisoner within the compound. It took the terroristic acts of an organized and well-armed clan of mercenaries to get the answer. It seemed Brian was unopposed to arson and murder.

  There was a gentle knock on the door to Simon’s chambers. He answered it without thought. Karen Mackin stood on the other side of the door. She saw Simon’s scowling and worried face. Then she saw the condition of his apartment.

  “Oh my, Simon, what happened?” she asked. Karen passed through the doorway. She stood on Simon’s right side. Without the arm, she got closer to him.

  “It was a prank from our new guests,” he said.

  The room was ransacked. It was Fraser sending a clear message on who ran the program now. Brian had the money. Simon was an employee. And Fraser was the head of security and directly protective of Brian.

  “But they broke things. Look, they spilled the contents of your icebox over your clothing.”

  Who said ‘icebox’ anymore? Simon wondered. He shook his head.

  “It’s fine. I will clean up, Karen. You don’t have to worry about it.”

  “Your notes, your books, why would they think this is humorous?” she asked. In her hands, Simon saw a first edition hardcover book on ancient Celtic folklore. It was completely ruined, the binding ripped in half.

  Fraser found Phoebe Biel’s prescription glasses under the dresser. Simon had removed the bottom drawer and put them in a place he assumed secure. For the last eight years, those glasses were a reminder to Simon’s work. The physical connection to a woman he loved and respected helped him focus. Now, even the glasses didn’t belong to Simon anymore. Brian had them. Fraser and Brian had to make a decision about Simon. He wondered if they’d come to the same conclusion as Amy Miller. Perhaps the beast from Elphame ate other living animals besides sheep and goats. The monster consumed fur and bone and wasted nothing. Left long enough, it lapped up the bloodstains from the concrete floor and ate the offal.

  “Did you need something, Karen?” he asked.

  “Yes, Simon. It’s time to change your dressings. I want to check the scars. You had some inflammation last time I changed the dressing on your shoulder.” She took Simo
n by the hand and led him out of the quarters.

  Karen’s Strength

  The medical bay inside the facility had enough high-tech medical equipment to keep people alive during a trauma. That was the intent when Brian made the additions following Phoebe’s disappearance eight years ago. When they first captured the creature from Elphame, several of Fraser’s team some years ago had gotten seriously injured. Each of the men signed nondisclosure agreements with Brian. Some had new lives and lived on a healthy stipend into their retirement. Simon never kept track of Fraser’s team before. Still, Brian’s foresight into updating the medical bay had stabilized Simon enough following the amputation that it made sense to increase the medical unit.

  That was Brian’s original thinking when he invited Karen to accompany Simon as his personal caretaker at the Equinox facility. He wanted the woman to feel comfortable, to enjoy the arrangement, and sign on as a medical professional. They didn’t have a doctor. But Karen’s credentials told Brian she had enough experience and training to save a life in a triage setting. They weren’t performing surgeries. They needed someone to patch up anyone who got hurt on the missions.

  “You seem upset today,” Karen said.

  Simon took off his shirt. He pulled at the Velcro straps on the harness over his shoulder. It made him wince when Karen helped remove the nylon and surgical plastic implement over the wound. It was the mounting fixture for the prosthetic limb Simon had with him but never used.

  Karen examined the surgery scarring over Simon’s shoulder and armpit. He still felt the phantom limb. Karen’s gloves probing the area, exploring the reconstructive surgery area, made Simon feel as if the arm still existed.

  “I am worried,” he said. Karen had become someone who Simon learned to talk to, someone from the outside. In Karen’s setting, she lived in the compound. Having had a full apartment with access to several areas inside the various buildings, Karen had no idea what went inside the place. As far as she knew, according to Brian, they were a research company that focused on rural life and agriculture in the mountains. Karen had no reason to believe otherwise.

  “Is it because of Mr. Fraser and the rest of his men?” she asked.

  Karen stood very close to Simon. If he still had the limb, her face wouldn’t linger so close to him. Simon found love once in Phoebe. When Karen looked at him with her wondrous amber eyes, Simon felt more for the woman than that of a medical professional and patient relationship. It was in her look, the way Karen’s fingers delicately redressed the wound, reapplied the ointments, or helped Simon with the constant rehabilitation of the missing limb. Wearing a robotic arm took strength and concentration. Brian’s insurance purchased the best money could buy when it came to artificial limbs.

  Karen made suggestions for Simon to consider. When the right arm eventually arrived at the facility, he had no interest in replacing his missing limb with something inorganic. It was Karen’s constant encouragement that helped Simon. For all she did for him, Simon knew they were at least friendly. She wasn’t interested in any of the other young and physically fit men staying at the compound. Karen once confided in Simon that the brutish men under Fraser’s command were typical, underwhelming male specimens with no consideration for feelings or passion. She often praised Simon for his mental prowess.

  “You can trust me,” she whispered. It was unnecessary, Simon knew. They were alone in the medical bay, and the CCTV cameras didn’t carry sound anywhere in the base except the fairy mound chamber. “What is bothering you, Simon?”

  He didn’t answer. It was hard to concentrate when Karen’s gloves worked at redressing his wound. He liked the tactile connection between them.

  “Does it have something to do with the fire in town the other day?” she asked. “I heard on the local radio that three people died in the guesthouse fire, and the fire brigade was still looking for the remains.”

  “Three people?” Simon repeated. “I thought the guesthouse didn’t have anyone staying there, only the owner and her son.”

  Karen finished with the redress. She helped secure the shoulder harness again for Simon. “The owner, Beth Weatherspoon and her son, Rory, had a police inspector from Edinburgh staying at the place. Inspector Lemont was investigating the whereabouts of the missing American girls, and she was staying in Eskdale, according to the reports.”

  Simon sat on the examination table while Karen finished securing the Velcro straps again. She took care of the supplies and removed her gloves.

  “Did you know her?” she asked.

  “No, I didn’t.” Simon remembered Inspector Alice Lemont.

  The woman had visited Simon in the hospital following his injury. She pressed him about the disappearance of Harper Biel and Amy Miller. He knew Amy Miller’s boyfriend. Bill Laverty had stayed at the Weatherspoon Guesthouse until his girlfriend’s disappearance. Police Service of Scotland arrested the American boy for possession of marijuana. Simon knew they had transported the young American out of Eskdale.

  Brian had used his political influence to have the cease and desist order sent to the police regarding Inspector Lemont’s questioning Simon again. Hearing Lemont fell victim to the guesthouse fire sent a repulsing wave of fear and guilt slicing through Simon’s guts.

  “You look flushed, Simon. Are you feeling well?” Karen asked.

  Simon didn’t answer immediately. It had to do with Karen’s cold, calming hands pressed on his cheeks. He stared into her beautiful amber eyes. Her pale face and wispy blonde hair so close to his face encouraged him.

  “Will you promise to keep a secret?”

  Karen looked suspicious. Her hands came away from Simon’s face. He felt the skin still tingling where she had touched him. Her eyes narrowed as she stepped back.

  “What did you have in mind?” she asked lightly.

  “I want to show you something. We must go at night, later, when the crews complete their patrols for the day. I want to take you to the other part of the facility.”

  “The cameras,” Karen said. Her awareness of the CCTV cameras everywhere meant she’d maintained a professional distance from Simon. She knew her physical interaction with him had consequences if it became intimate.

  “I know how to circumvent the system. I want to show you something. We must go tonight.”

  Karen gave Simon a look that balanced between trust and uncertainty. In the end, it was trust in Simon that won Karen. She nodded and finished with the supplies. When Karen returned to the examination table, she had something in her hands.

  “I don’t want to put it on,” Simon said.

  “If you want me to trust you, Simon, you need to trust me.”

  He considered it was an even trade. He needed Karen more than she realized. Simon needed someone outside the facility to confess their secret to. It was an impossible proposition. Simon knew for Karen to understand the mysteries of the fairy mound better, he needed to show her the monster from Elphame.

  Simon waited with uneasiness as Karen connected the custom prosthetic arm. It had definition. It needed skin tone matching still. But it was a motorized representation of the limb Simon had lost to the portal.

  Rather than spend time and energy making it look more natural, Karen suggested Simon needed to understand how to manipulate it before the manufacturers coated it with synthetic skin. For now, after Karen attached it to the harness and connected the link to Simon’s skull, he had a functioning arm. The linkup between the arm and his head came with the package.

  Much like the cochlear implant used for electrical stimulation for hearing loss, the arm needed a direct link to Simon’s brain to work correctly. It used mental controls and visual cortex for hand-eye contact and movement. It had limits, but the more Simon used it, the more authority he had of the device. To Simon, it was another anchor to technology, a piece of the present that tore the roots of the folklore asunder and collided with the crutch of
modern civilization. More than anything, he wanted to believe that Elphame had a rich tapestry of living mythology, more than one giant, unstoppable creature.

  “How does that feel?” Karen asked.

  Simon knew she meant well, but it hurt him to hear her say it.

  “It doesn’t feel, Karen. It just is,” he said. He left her standing alone in the medical bay.

  The Replacements

  It wasn’t challenging to find Brian. The man spent time in two places, either inside the lounge that turned into the mercenaries’ forward operation base, or in the portal chamber where they made a direct opening through the structure over the fairy mound. The Quonset hut had a new opportunity to the outside. It meant the area needed fortification. They intended to haul equipment into Elphame once the portal stabilized. That was Simon’s last job. He knew once the portal opened, when Brian figured out that Simon needed Beth and Rory to complete the connection, he would no longer have any use for Simon.

  “Whoa, that is awesome,” someone said. The guy saw Simon’s shiny new appendage.

  Simon ignored the mercenary when he entered the chamber and found Brian. The man stood on the platform overlooking the stone mosaic on the floor of the chamber. Brian and Fraser were fast friends, and Simon never understood the connection between two men when it came to military ATVs and guns. Simon believed in literature, history, and preservation of folklore. Brian’s contract with Fraser and his men meant conservation in Elphame wasn’t something included in their invasion plans.

  “Tell me you didn’t know about the inspector,” Simon said. He felt the tension in the servos at the end of the limb. The hand curled into a fist.

  Brian and Fraser shared a look between them. Simon knew before his employer answered that he already knew of the death.