The League of Skull & Bones

by MJ Fletcher

  Chapter 11

  “Where too?” I asked.

  DeAndre and I had both cleaned up after our sparring session. He was dressed and had his Skeleton Key in his hand, glowing crimson as I walked down the stairs of my loft.

  “Smidgeon is willing to talk some more, so I figured you might want a chance to question him before the Detective Inspectors sequester him for a tribunal.”

  The Honorable and Venerable Order of Detective Inspectors are the lawmen of the Old Kind. In truth, each Society had its own people who sought out justice, but the only Society who could cross lines was the HVO, as they were more commonly known.

  “Let’s go,” I said.

  DeAndre twisted his Key and the door swung open, creating a portal to the next dimension. I stepped through and directly out into another place. DeAndre had created a perfect gateway, instead of us having to move through the In Between, the place that exists between dimensions and is populated by Gremlins and who knows what else.

  A massive stone wall with a metal gate rose up directly in front of me. On either side of the gate stood a man made of steel and copper. Their bodies were wrapped around gears and large pipes stuck out of their backs where puffs of smoke would appear every few seconds. Their faces were copper masks and they had glowing green eyes that followed your every movement. Both of them moved in a jerking motion as they raised their arms and placed them in front of us in the universal sign for stop.

  “What is your business here?” The voices cracked and whirred like some old radio show.

  “We have an appointment to see prisoner Smidgeon Guile,” DeAndre said.

  “Names?” they asked in unison.

  “DeAndre Morgan and Jess Grimm of the Skeleton Key Guild.”

  The head of the machine to the right tilted to one side and emitted a rhythmic beat as it verified our information. Once the clicking noises stopped, it righted its head and lowered its hand.

  “You may enter,” it said.

  The gate rose from the ground and we walked past the guards and into the prison of the HVO.

  The walls stood three stories high and a series of gears ran the full length of them. Every few moments the gears would shudder and a buzz saw would careen along the top of the wall. There was no pattern only the moving gears gave any warning of the violent death that awaited anyone who would dare attempt to cross the wall.

  Beyond the walls was a grouping of five buildings in a square formation with the last sitting directly in the center. The middle building door opened and a man walked toward us.

  “Good afternoon, I’m DI Sandoval. We were told to expect you.”

  He smiled as he joined us and extended his hand, which DeAndre shook. Then I did the same, though I thought I saw his eyes linger on my forearms for a moment. Or perhaps it was only my own issues.

  “I’m going to need solo access to Smidgeon,” I said.

  “Of course, and since you captured him that won’t be a problem. There is however one thing I must ask.”

  “What’s that?” I said

  “This is a secure facility. I need to ask you to hand over your devices,” he said as we reached the building and entered.

  “That might be a problem,” I said. Even if I were willing to give up the Artifact, it wasn’t like I could. I cursed myself for not having thought about that sooner.

  “Not a problem, Ms. Grimm, the SKG informed us,” —he smiled awkwardly— “about your special situation.”

  So I hadn’t been paranoid when I thought I had seen him looking at my arms. He knew something about me was different, though I doubted he knew the full story.

  “I’ll give over my vessel,” DeAndre interjected and I was glad he did.

  “Very good, Mr. Morgan, and if you’ll follow me it will only take a moment to fill out some paperwork. You can wait here, Ms. Grimm, if you’d like?” he offered.

  I smiled and took a seat in one of the many arm chairs dotting the expansive marble floored foyer. “No problem at all.”

  The two walked down the length of the massive foyer and disappeared through a door. I quickly dug into my pocket and pulled out my mobile phone and raced through my contacts. Once I found the number I was looking for, I hit it and waited while it rang.

  “Hello,” the voice responded dully as if answering the phone was secondary to whatever else he was doing.

  “Edgar, its Jess.”

  Edgar Magnus is by far the smartest person I know, but his genius comes with the price of not being good at social skills or a million other things. But if you need to know something, he is the man you go to.

  “Oh, hi, Jess, sorry, I am right in the middle of creating some new Maps that cross forty-two dimensions and access on the temporal flux of a black hole.”

  “Wow, that’s great,” I said understanding only maybe a tenth of what he was working on, but I was also on a timetable and had no time to chat. “I need your help.”

  “What do you need?”

  “I want you to find out everything you can on Merric Vale.”

  “Why’s that name sound familiar?”

  “Not sure, but he runs a bar called the Cantina in Paris. He’s got his hands in some black market stuff as well,” I said as the door opened on the far end of the foyer and DeAndre and DI Sandoval emerged.

  “I’ll see what I can find out,” Edgar said.

  “One more thing, don’t mention this to anyone,” I said.

  “Okay,” he said with some hesitation.

  “I don’t need a lot of questions on this one, okay, Edgar?” I said as my only offer of consolation.

  “I understand. I’ll get back to you as soon as I learn something.”

  He hung up, and I slipped my phone back into my pocket as they approached.

  “Everything okay?” DeAndre asked.

  “Fine, just checking in with some friends,” I lied, since DeAndre didn’t need to know what I was doing when it came to Merric. Ronan was another one I didn’t need help with since he was a member of the Guild, but I’d get to him soon enough.

  “The interrogation room is this way,” DI Sandoval said waving us toward another side of the foyer where a bank of doors waited.

  We entered through one and crossed through a series of checkpoints until we reached a narrow windowless hallway.

  “I’ve had Smidgeon set up in the last room on the left. It is a lockdown room, so no abilities will work inside, and it has no recording devices of any kind. We’ll give you some time.” DI Sandoval pointed down to the door.

  I nodded and trudged off as DeAndre looked on. When I reached the door and slipped my fingers around the doorknob, a cold spark ran along my spine. Something in me was screaming to not enter the room. It was like a voice calling from a distant shore that I couldn’t quite make out. My hands began to shake, and I could sense the Artifact pushing for me to use it.

  I’d been in Lockdown’s before. If it was powerful enough, it could dampen nearly any power. I guess I was about to find out how effective this one was. I turned the knob and stepped into the room.

  Chapter 12

  “Well, look who showed up?” Smidgeon was hunched over a table, his hands placed in front of him and shackled directly into the table by manacles that covered his entire hands.

  I took a deep breath and let it out slowly. I couldn’t feel the Artifact like I normally did. It was like having an open electrical line running through your body at all times. But for the moment it was dimmed; the Lockdown was having an effect. I could still sense it, but it was not nearly as bad as I was used to. Maybe this place wasn’t all that bad.

  “Maybe you’ll think better of it before selling black market items and attacking agents of the Council.” I smiled and pulled out the chair across form him and slid onto it. I crossed my legs and wiped at my pants nonchalantly. I wanted him to know how comfortable I was with the current situation.

  “You’re heartless. All I did was move some merchandise. Who am I to deny someone looking for some
thing so unique?”

  “You sold a Timelock, one of the oldest devices known to the Old Kind, and then tried to kill me and my partner when we found you out.”

  “But I gave you Merric?” he said hopefully.

  I rolled my eyes. “A complete dead end.”

  “You talked to him.” His voice changed to a high-pitched tone, and he fidgeted as much as his shackles would allow.

  “Yes, and he wasn’t very helpful.”

  “Did, you um, mention my name?” He gulped as he spoke.

  I leaned forward and slid my fingers together and placed my chin on my hands, looking at him and batting my eyelashes.

  “Crap you did, didn’t you?” He dropped his head and let out a low moan.

  “Problem?”

  “I’m a dead man that’s the problem. I’m probably safer staying in this hellhole,” he shrieked and looked around, his eyes growing wide with despair.

  “Where did you get it, the Timelock?”

  “What does it matter?”

  “It matters—tell me.” I needed as much information as I could get. I didn’t know if I could trust Ronan or his information, so I needed to either verify it or disprove it. Every little bit of info I could garner would help.

  “You’ve heard of the Tavern at the End of Time?”

  “Yes,” I said knowing that the establishment was mythic among Old Kind, almost impossible to get to and very difficult to get out alive as it exists outside of space and time. If you get lost from there that’s it for you.

  “I’ve got a contact that’s able to secure a few precious items from there every few decades. I put the order in and he came through for me. It took some doing, but Timelocks are extremely rare. The best chance of getting one is a place like the Tavern.”

  “Who contacted you about the Timelock?”

  “An intermediary who I never met.”

  “No one?” I leaned back and crossed my arms over my chest. “You never heard a name or anything?”

  “No, nothing,” he said his voice dropping to a whisper.

  He was lying. He knew something. He might not know who, but he had heard something, and he was too nervous to say anything. He’d already given me Merric and that hadn’t ended exactly as I’d expected. But I needed a new lead. All I had now was Ronan’s word and I had no idea if I could trust it.

  “You’re a bad liar, Smidgeon.”

  “I’m not lying,” he said.

  “I hope you can sell that to Merric,” I said narrowing my eyes and watching him.

  My comment had the affect I was hoping for; he tensed up and took a deep breath. It seemed I wasn’t the only one who felt uneasy around Merric Vale.

  “What’re you talking about?”

  “I’m going to tell the DI’s to release you for being such a great help to us with our case against Merric.”

  “What? No, you can’t do that.” He tried to stand, but the manacles on his arms tightened like a winch, pulling him closer to the table. He was bent over and shaking uncontrollably.

  “Good luck, Smidgeon,” I said and stood and headed for the door.

  “No, wait if you do that Merric will…” his voice trailed off and I could hear the fear in it.

  Yet another thing about Merric that made me curious. How could this man inspire such fear in people? “If you want me to change my mind you’ll have to convince me Smidgeon.”

  “Okay damn it, I heard something, but it is probably useless.”

  “What?”

  “Foxglove,” he said.

  My hands clenched into a fist. Nyla Foxglove. So it was her who wanted the Timelock. She was apparently interested enough in me to go after the one device I desperately needed. Not only had she hurt me and my friend, she was also going after the one device I needed to save myself from the Artifact.

  “Anything else, Smidgeon? This is your last chance.”

  “They needed me to procure the device for some project they are working on. It had something to do with another component.”

  “What do you mean another component?”

  The list Merric had given me was a full of Impossible Engineer components. Maybe the Timelock was another piece of whatever it was they were attempting to build.

  “I don’t know. They gave me specifics on the Timelock that had to be met. When I went over the specs, it was so the Timelock could be used in unison with another device.”

  Now I was curious. I’d never heard of a Timelock being used in conjunction with something else. What the hell was Nyla planning?

  “What was the other device?” I asked.

  “Not sure, though it is something they are having specially made by an Impossible Engineer.”

  Then I was right. The list Merric had given me was about this plan. He had been trying to help me in a roundabout way. But why was he helping me, and what the hell was Nyla up too?

  “Who?”

  “No clue, but there isn’t a shortage of Engineers who would mind working on something as unique as a Timelock.”

  He was right. Most Engineers would give their right arm to work on an ancient device like a Timelock. They were rare and some of the most powerful Old Kind objects around. But those skilled enough to work on such a device were few.

  “That’ll do, Smidgeon,” I said as I grabbed the door handle and began to turn it.

  “Wait, what about me?”

  “I’ll let them send you to tribunal,” I said.

  “And Merric?”

  “He won’t bother you.”

  “How do you know?” he asked.

  “I’ll make sure of it.”

  “That doesn’t mean anything. I need protection.”

  “I’ll see what I can do,” I said as I pulled the door open and walked out.

  I could still hear him yelling out to me as the door swung closed behind me. The power of the Artifact returned like a damn breaking. It rushed throughout my entire body and once again I could barely hear the whisper of someone trying to speak to me. I pushed the thoughts out of my head and hurried down the hall toward DeAndre and DI Sandoval.

  “Did you get what you needed?” DI Sandoval asked.

  “The Guild thanks the HVO for its help,” I said with a nod.

  Sandoval smirked and nodded as he showed us the way out of the HVO prison. When we crossed the threshold of the gate, DeAndre turned to me and finally spoke.

  “You didn’t give the DI much to work with,” he said.

  “It’s Guild business. No need to involve the HVO.”

  “Guild business or personal?” DeAndre asked.

  I didn’t answer. Instead I opened a portal with a wave of my hand to return us to Paris. “We’d better go. I’ve got work to do.”

  “I wouldn’t want to be whoever gets in the way of you and your work.” DeAndre shook his head and stepped through the portal.

  He was correct, getting in my way was never a good idea. And it had turned out that Ronan Sparrow was right. Nyla Foxglove was in my way, and now I was going to find out why and, more importantly, I was going to remove her from my path—by any means necessary.

  Chapter 13

  I stepped out of my portal and onto the streets of Cape May, New Jersey. My hometown was bustling to get ready for summer and all the visitors who come to enjoy the beaches and Victorian architecture. They had little idea that this town was one of the epicenters of Old Kind activity.

  My grandmother still lived here, helping to raise my young cousin. But I didn’t want my family to know I was here right now. It didn’t help that my grandmother was also the leader of the Council of the Old Kind and with that kind of power came far more responsibility.

  I crossed over the street weaving between people strolling in flip flops toward the beach. I could see the sign of the establishment I was looking for in the distance.

  The Cape Beanery

  I’d spent hours in this coffeehouse with my friends where we would discuss our problems and our plans. Whenever I came home, I alwa
ys had to stop here and grab a cup. But I wasn’t only coming for the coffee; I had a meeting as well.

  I pushed open the door and the bells jangled over head in a familiar ring. I half expected to see all my friends piled into a booth waiting for me. But we’d all moved on after graduating the Paladin Academy, most of all me—I suppose.

  I’d made the choice to keep my distance from my friends. I loved them all dearly, but I didn’t want them to know what I was going through, not only with the Artifact, but dealing with my scars, physical and mental. It had changed me and I didn’t want them to see how much.

  I suppose I missed the carefree, always-wanting-to-shop-and-enjoy-myself Jess, at least a little bit. But if I was being honest, I also liked the freedom from worry that came with always needing to look perfect. Not everything that had happened to me had been bad. I had to keep reminding myself of that.

  I spotted one familiar face and made a beeline for the back of the store. I slipped into the booth across from Edgar Magnus and did my best not to laugh. He had covered the table in Maps and was busy writing on two of them at the same time. A pair of goggles that wouldn’t look out of place on a mad scientist was pushed up, forcing his brown hair to poke out at odd angles. His hand moved with incredible swiftness and grace. Golden symbols were left behind in his wake as he crafted a Map that could be used by any Old Kind to find a destination in the multiverse.

  I waved my hand, calling the waitress over and ordered my favorite blend, then sat back, waiting for Edgar to finish.

  The waitress returned with my coffee and I sipped at its contents, a smile spreading across my face. At least some things in the Universe still made sense to me, and coffee from the Beanery was one of them.

  Edgar made a snorting noise and sat back in the booth, his mouth scrunching together in a perplexed fashion. He finally looked up, noticing my presence and shook his head as if he might be imagining me.

  “Jess, when did you get here?”