The Sunken Tower

by J A Campbell

  “See you later, what was your name?” he said to her.

  “Why not, who-zit.” Hagatha chuckled. She tossed his garments to the local police, who gathered both the drunken man and his clothing up into a police car and sped away.

  They found Melanie staring appalled at the television in the lounge. There was a reason there had been no activity at the church all night.

  Another ship had gone down—this time off Miami.

  None of them spoke as they went upstairs to their room.

  “We need to get to Miami, ASAP,” Hagatha said.

  “You remember what happened the last time we used the Ways?”

  Elise glowered at her cousin, who, despite her tousled appearance—was that a hickey on her neck?—seemed well-rested and alert.

  “We fly.”

  Melanie pulled out her phone and made reservations for the first available seats from Rome to Miami.

  “No!” Hagatha wailed. “I hate flying.”

  Elise set to packing their few possessions and making sure the room was semi-clean. She stared at a large citrine geode on the desk. It was not one of the stones they’d purchased for Hagatha, but she’d seen it before.

  “Where’d you get this?” A knot of dread tied itself in her stomach.

  “At the wedding,” Hagatha answered blithely as she set to styling her multi-colored tresses.

  “They were giving away rocks at the wedding?” Elise asked. Then she cudgeled her exhausted brain. “What wedding?”

  “Aldo’s sister’s wedding.” Hagatha bared her skinny leg to expose a blood-red garter, and Elise belatedly realized a highly perfumed bouquet of flowers sat on the nightstand next to the bed. “When I saw my focus stone on the table among the gifts, I had to take it back.”

  “You what?” Elise and Melanie said at the same time.

  Melanie swore.

  “Oh, no one noticed,” Hagatha said, cheerfully. “I conjured a purse around the rock and carried it off.”

  “Who gave it to the bride and groom?”

  Elise could read doom in every word of Melanie’s question. The fae girl’s blue eyes darkened to near black. She stood before Hagatha poised like a coiled cat.

  Hagatha gestured to the trashcan. Melanie snatched it up and grabbed a gift tag. Her face went red, then white.

  “Get moving,” she said in cold, precise tones Elise had never heard from her before. “We have to leave. Stat.”

  “What?” Hagatha stared at her. “We haven’t had breakfast. Why can’t I take a shower?”

  Elise shushed her cousin’s questions and gathered everything up as quickly as she could. Melanie hurried them through checkout and then went to the rental agency to advise them that they’d be dropping the car off at the Rome airport instead of returning it to the local depot. She purchased an extra passport case at the rental agency and tossed it to Elise.

  “Can you magic up a passport for Hagatha?” Melanie spoke in undertones so only she could hear.

  Elise nodded and set to work. The ID wouldn’t hold up under close scrutiny, but with a bit of magical push, they could at least get Hagatha back on US soil before she was arrested. From there, it would hopefully be easier to procure the documents they needed to get her out of trouble.

  Then Melanie got into the driver’s seat, with Elise riding next to her and Hagatha sprawled in the back. Melanie casually drove out of town, and as soon as they reached the highway, she hit the accelerator and thrust the car into the fastest traffic.

  By then, Hagatha snored like a steam engine in the back seat. Elise’s nose wrinkled. She wished she’d had time for a shower. She especially wished Hagatha had time for a shower: she smelled like sweat, sex, garlicky Italian food, and booze.

  “Why?” Elise turned to Melanie. She’d shielded the car as a matter of course, but she didn’t fear her driving near as much as Hagatha’s. Melanie drove fast, but with precision. She played the engine like an instrument, her eyes always on the road.

  “Hagatha stole Don Giovanni’s wedding gift.”

  Elise’s blood chilled. “As in the Godfather? Step on it.”

  Melanie laughed mirthlessly. “Moving as fast as I can. No one’s followed us out of town, but I am certain they know by now that Hagatha was with me. After they’ve gone through all the usual suspects, they’ll come looking for us.”

  “Should we just return the stone?”

  Melanie shook her head. “Can Hagatha de-spell the stone?”

  Elise frowned. “Not easily. It would take some time, and there’d be serious magical residue since this was her focus stone.”

  “Can you imagine what would happen if the Mafia got hold of a magically-charged stone and figured out how to use it? Much less, if they realized that magic really did exist?”

  They reached the airport in plenty of time to turn in their car and board. “You two take the seats together,” Melanie said.

  Elise started to argue. She’d been forced to share a bed with Hagatha, but Melanie had a point—someone needed to keep her half-drunk cousin under control. She nodded reluctantly.

  At least they were flying first class. They would have plenty of room to spread out and relax and enjoy the service.

  Elise’s eyes widened at Melanie’s seat partner. She didn’t follow celebrity magazines or watch much popular media anymore, but she easily recognized the man her friend would share space with for the next several hours.

  Rock stars flew with regular people?

  “I think I’m going to be...”

  Hagatha didn’t finish the sentence before whatever she’d eaten and drunk at the wedding spewed out. The flight attendant was quick with cleaner and disinfectant, but Elise could swear she smelled recycled wine the entire journey.

  Of course, after she’d spilled her guts—literally—Hagatha fell asleep, snoring loudly.

  Not even the first-class headphones would drown her out.

  “Goodbye, and thank you.” Melanie shook hands with her famous seatmate and tucked his business card into her phone. She’d memorized every digit. He knew of her work with her now-defunct band and in films. He had contacts and was willing to make introductions for her, if she wanted to do more composing work, and this was her ticket. She needed a boost in her career, since her old band broke up after a band mate died.

  “Be sure to get in touch.” He clasped her hand a bit longer than usual and smiled brilliantly down at her. “I look forward to working with you.”

  That was one good thing from the trip. Melanie practically floated off the plane. She’d done session work with big names before, but this man’s music had inspired her for years.

  “I might kill her,” Elise muttered once they’d gotten together after deplaning. “Did you have a good time?”

  Melanie couldn’t help smiling. “He’s interested in my work and can make connections for me.”

  She purchased tea for everyone at the ever-present coffee shop and queued up for a rental car. Once she had that done, she hit a phone kiosk to replace her lost iPhone and buy a waterproof diver’s case for the bloody thing.

  “Should I get one for the two of you?” Melanie turned to Elise, who was dragging along, exhausted, behind her. Hagatha had gone off and left Elise carrying both their bags. Okay, that pretty much consisted of a substantial number of rocks in Hagatha’s case and whatever clothing they’d magicked in Curon Venosta.

  “No,” Elise said. “We can all share a phone, and that saves the expense account.”

  “Okay.” Melanie looked at Elise. “Two options: One—get hotel rooms and rest. Two—go to the wreck site and find out what’s going on.”

  Elise let out a long breath.

  Melanie knew they both needed rest, but if they let the site go stale, they might miss some vital clues.

  “Site,” Elise said, obviously feeling the same. “But we stop to get showers first and then buy some appropriate clothing. There are many things I can magic superbly, but shoes aren’t one of them.”
r />   “I love my boots.” Melanie grinned at her. “Thank you.”

  Elise sighed. “That may be the problem. Everything I magic for my feet is too small.”

  They did just that. First, a truck stop for a shower, and then the mall.

  Everyone ended up with underwear, bathing suits, summer clothing, and shoes. Melanie added vampire-level sunscreen, shades, and a wide-brimmed hat.

  “So who knows about renting boats?” Melanie asked once they got back into the rent-a-car. They’d gone from a Fiat to a big four-wheel-drive Jeep Wrangler, which was fine with her. Hagatha had added yet more rocks to their supply at a Metaphysics store in the mall.

  “I do,” Elise said from the passenger seat.

  Hagatha snored in the back.

  Melanie turned on music. They arrived at the harbor, and the best they could do was a small Boston Whaler. Elise assured her it was a good boat.

  Melanie raised a brow at Elise, who nodded calmly. If Hagatha had made the same claim, she’d question her, but Elise didn’t over-state her qualifications. She could handle the craft.

  “I hate this, no matter what kind of boat it is,” Hagatha grumbled. “I don’t want to go.”

  “You want to stay at the harbor and wait for us to come back, then?” Elise snapped.

  Hagatha sighed and grabbed a life vest.

  They made sure everyone had life vests and were wearing them before Melanie cast the ropes off (one thing she did know how to do), and they set out to get as close to the wreck site as they could.

  Melanie opted to call Tallon while Elise drove the boat.

  “We’re in Miami now,” Melanie announced. “Just rented a boat, and we’re headed for the next wreck.”

  “Sunshine,” Tallon muttered. “I’m freezing my already cold, dead ass off in Dallas. We had an ice storm.”

  Melanie chuckled. “Just keep the place running.”

  “Your fiancé’s still talking with the mages, and after that he’ll be looking at the case files to see how and where magic was used,” Tallon said. “I have no idea what he thinks about the operation. I get the feeling he’ll be here for a while.”

  Melanie sighed. No one knew what Marcus Macrow thought until he told them. It was frustrating.

  “You still on radio silence?”

  “Pretty much,” Melanie said. “You don’t want to know what Hagatha did in Italy.”

  Tallon chortled. “Oh hell yes, I do. We’ll have a drink when you get back.”

  “I’ll have a bleeding distillery if I don’t drown or someone doesn’t shoot me,” Melanie muttered and hung up.

  She continued using the phone, ignoring regular messages and researching the case. “Ladies, they’ve found dozens of wrecks beneath the first wreck site in the Med. Literally dating from several centuries. This first site appears to be a regular beat for them through the years. If that’s true, there could be some kind of pattern of tides or something we could hone in on between the two sites to predict the next one?”

  “Maybe something with the rocks?” Hagatha considered. “They may need some kind of underlying geological structure for their tunnels?”

  “How many people died in each wreck?” Elise spoke as she drove them to the perimeter of the wreck site.

  Melanie paused and considered. “You know, as far out as both the sites are, anything that’s not fairly contemporary would probably have an almost one hundred percent casualty rate. I don’t know how many people were on the older ships, but that’s a significant death toll.”

  The Coast Guard was done in the area, and Elise kept away from the main activity. The boats were barely visible in the distance and soon passed out of sight altogether in the open expanse.

  Elise would attempt to summon ghosts of the victims to help answer questions. Elise could hopefully find a way for all three of them to converse with the specters once they’d gathered a few to speak with. “If the first case holds true, there could still be ghosts from older wrecks here, too, and they may know more about the creatures than even the newer victims.”

  Melanie suppressed a shiver, despite the tropical heat. “Elise, you know the scope of this case is getting a lot bigger than three people can handle…”

  Elise didn’t turn from her driving, which reassured Melanie some. “You may well be right. We really should call Marcus in on this.”

  Melanie hit the keypad feature on her phone and swore. “No signal. We just lost it.”

  “Can you maybe hack onto the Coast Guard or something?” Hagatha suggested.

  “I’m not above hacking, Hagatha, but doing that to the US Government when we’re so close to Gitmo...just doesn’t seem like the best idea.”

  Melanie grimaced and slid the phone back into the diver’s pack. No calls, no data from this point on. They were on their own, and her sense of unease grew by the minute.

  “What the hell is that?” Hagatha immediately regretted standing up, as the boat moved.

  Red and sinuous, a curved back breached the surface and sluiced through the water, rocking the boat. Long and thin like a snake, but with fins running down its back, the creature looked longer than a tall man.

  She summoned power from the bag of stones at her feet. Whatever it was, it had never been covered on a National Geographic special. More like National Enquirer.

  Across from her, Melanie swore. Elise slowed the boat, angling away from the massive scaled creature.

  Ware! Ware! Ghostly voices rose up from the waters. Flee while you can!

  “Do you hear that?” Hagatha called to Elise.

  “What are we fleeing?” Elise spoke in her calmest tone of voice. Hagatha swallowed, suppressing the urge to yell forget the conversation and get us the hell out of here, but she kept her peace. They were there to find out what was happening. The ghosts may be their best resource. The waters around their craft erupted with creatures Hagatha had only seen in fantasy. Red scales, green, gold, all the creatures glittered in the sunlight. Dark, gem-colored eyes studied them over elongated snouts. Thick whiskers coated the creatures’ cheeks and chins. They reared out of the water, propelled by short arms and legs tipped with long, sharp webbed claws.

  “Here there be dragons…” Melanie whispered.

  Hagatha’s blood froze, but awe overshadowed some of the fear.

  “You will present your treasure,” the red one spoke, voice low and menacing. As if fangs the size of Hagatha’s fingers weren’t menace enough. It spoke English with an accent Hagatha couldn’t place.

  “We have no treasure,” Elise answered in her cool voice. “We come in peace. We’re here to talk to you and find out why you’re doing this.” Elise spread her hands. The gesture looked placating, but Hagatha felt the tingle of magical energy and knew her cousin had just cast shields around them.

  “Give us your treasure or go down.”

  “Why are you doing this?” Elise persisted.

  “Treasure,” the purple-scaled dragon answered.

  “And revenge.” A gold dragon glided closer to the boat. It sniffed. “Do I smell magic? Are you mages?”

  All of their eyes narrowed.

  “I am part fae,” Melanie stammered. “It’s probably me.”

  The gold one studied her, then sank back into the water, hopefully mollified.

  “Treasure,” the dragons hissed as they swirled around the boat.

  Hagatha stumbled and fell back into the seat, as the boat began to spin. Elise gunned the engine and turned the wheel. The dragons in front gave way, but they followed, easily keeping speed with the boat.

  “Head back to land,” Hagatha said, voice rising. She did not want to get wet again. She’d put the life vest on before she’d even stepped aboard, but that was small comfort when she hadn’t seen land for what now seemed like hours.

  Elise nodded, jaw clenched tightly.

  “There!” Melanie pointed. “Watch out!”

  The boat wasn’t maneuverable enough to avoid the dragon that slammed into their shields. Ex
cept for Elise, the dragon would have crashed into the side of the boat. As it was, they rocked, and Elise’s shoulders sagged.

  “Mages!” The cry went up amongst the dragons.

  Elise slumped over the steering wheel, and Hagatha tried to get to her cousin’s side. She poured some of her energy toward Elise and was shocked to discover her cousin’s energy flagging. The woman never ran out of reserves, and her shields always stood!

  “Here!” Melanie tossed her engagement ring over the side. “Take it! That’s all I’ve got!”

  One of the dragons rammed the side, splitting the fiberglass hull.

  Hagatha stared in horror as sea water poured in around her feet.

  “Bugger!” Melanie screamed as the hull fractured again. The red dragon reared out of the water and grabbed the boat, ripping with its clawed hands. The boat shattered, pieces of foam-filled hull bobbing on the churning froth.

  Hagatha clutched the bag of rocks, gasping and choking as water slapped her in the face. She kicked, trying to keep her head above water.

  “Come on, Hagatha,” Melanie yelled. “Give me your hand.”

  Despite her life vest, Hagatha sank with the weight of the rocks.

  “What the hell…”

  “We can’t leave them,” Hagatha said, kicking harder. “The dragons...”

  Melanie gave the bag a mighty heave and it landed on a large chunk of hull with a solid plop, lowering where it floated in the water like a person was already aboard.

  Melanie grabbed Hagatha’s arm and towed her to the chunk of hull. Hagatha struggled to keep her head above the water and kick in the hopes she could propel them forward.

  She gasped once she was aboard and tried to balance her weight with the rocks. The hull piece rocked as a dragon swam close, almost tipping Hagatha back into the water, but she managed to balance, using a touch of magic to keep herself out of the water.

  “Elise!” Melanie shouted.

  Eyes going wide, Hagatha scanned the water for her cousin. She floated, bobbing on the roiling waves, head lolling to one side.