Once in a Blue Rune: An Urban Fantasy Novel (Dwarf for Hire Book 2)

by J. B. Garner

  Behind me, Patches roared and hissed as Bunny kept fighting him back, but the thousands of animal noises faded, reducing to fewer and fewer. There was another shudder as I cut the second of the four runes I needed, the world shaking from another of Aelfread’s strikes.

  Just a few more moments. I gritted my teeth and stayed focused, even though I swore I heard echoing footsteps on the stairs and distant shouts through the clearing mists. If it was unexpected help, great. If it was Frizzoli breaking his word and tracking us down, we’d figure it out … somehow. That worry just didn’t rank up compared to an out-of-control doom Corgi possessed by an outer entity, you know?

  “Ha!” Aelfread’s triumphant and tired voice resounded in my ears. “Take this, vile fount, and let the good Garou free!”

  Boom! Whatever Aelfread just did, it was decisive. Reality itself seemed to waver around us, and everything turned dark, not quite pitch black, as the moon above was enveloped by dark clouds. The trees around us crumbled as if consumed by a fire and the moss under me dried and shriveled. There was a tearing feeling in my body as if I were a dried-up piece of gum stuck under the seat of a bus being pried up by the cosmic fingers of a god.

  I slammed my chisel down to form the last arc of the last rune, focusing all my considerable will on that word the moment it was finished. I filled my head with thoughts of a quieted storm, a caged beast, safety from both as we stood on the other side of a window, and the heat built, magic racing through my hand, through the chisel, and into the word engraved beneath me.

  The runes filled with platinum before blazing with silver light. The tearing stopped as it washed over me and filled whatever place we were in now, this in-between. Patches’s howls of fury turned into whimpers, the force of his movements fading into nothing, as he shrunk, folding back in on himself to his natural Corgi form. Glancing behind me, I could see Aelfread huffing, kneeling over the shattered stones and muddy water, Bunny cradling the now-unconscious Garou Chien, the Azure Star falling into the broken chunks of moonstone beneath all three of them. At the edges of the light, I swore I could make out several hazy figures, but then the light pulsed one last time, and we were …

  … in the small, desolate basement of the Blue Moon smoke shop. It wasn’t all as it had been, though. The runeword was still in the concrete foundation underneath me, still shining with platinum light, while the shattered fragments of the fountain were still strewn around Aelfread, the Azure Star somewhere among them.

  Perhaps the thing that shouldn’t have been there the most was the one thing we weren’t responsible for. Namely, a rather intense-looking Mr. Sinclair stood at the bottom of the stairs leading up to the store proper, flanked by two slabs of walking beef (an Ogre and a Minotaur, from my cursory inspection) stuffed into uniforms and paramilitary gear, bearing badges of the Drachenreich on their breasts.

  “I hope that you can explain what is going on here,” Sinclair purred, “and more importantly, where the Azure Star is.”

  22

  A moment later, as the three of us collectively stared at him in our general states of dishevelment and disrepair, Sinclair’s eyes widened. “Mother of dragons!” The Drake’s tone let slip a measure of honest concern for our well-being as he snapped his fingers, talons sparking as he did so. “Thaddeus, Clovis, see to our friends’ injuries. You are authorized to use any and all measures from your kits.”

  Sinclair’s two heavies responded smartly to the Governor’s command, moving around him towards us. The Ogre headed towards the blood-covered but mostly unharmed Bunny, still naked and cradling Patches, while the Minotaur beelined for me, pulling a hard, plastic case, white with a red cardecus symbol on it, from a belt pouch way too small for it.

  While I had no idea what Sinclair’s talk of measures meant entirely, I didn’t care as I pushed up with my right arm, my left hand feeling out the bloody cuts around my waist and stomach. It could have been worse, should have been if I was honest with myself. They still hurt horribly, and I barely bit down on a fresh cry of pain. The squeak that came out was what grabbed Aelfread’s attention, his head snapping towards me and eyes flashing with worry.

  It was no surprise that he beat the huge bull-man to my side as I managed to flop into a seated position, hissing through clenched teeth. Part of me didn’t want to look, but the smarter part of me realized that my imagination would come up with more and more fantastic injuries the longer I didn’t see the truth. Aelfread’s comforting arm slipped around my shoulders as I opened my eyes.

  “Oh, my dear, sweet heroine,” he murmured, kissing my head, “you will be quite fine, I am sure of it.”

  I smiled weakly at him before casting a glance down. My blouse from just below my bountiful bosom was a blood-stained, shredded mess, and the waistband of my skirt, tough cloth with a leather belt holding it up, was far worse for the wear. Still, all that only made it hard to tell how severe the actual wounds were. The thousands of minute bites didn’t feel too deep. Of course, that could have been shock setting in.

  Looming over both of us, the wall of beef cleared his throat and, in a surprisingly soft voice, said, “Prince Aelfson, I can’t do my job unless you give us a little space.”

  We both looked up at the disparity of body and voice. Only a split-second later did Aelfread relent, reluctantly letting go of me as he sat back on his calves. “Of course, good sir. Please, do whatever you can for my love.”

  Past my sweet prince, the Ogre was already attending to Patches, having no doubt deciphered that the blood in Bunny’s fur wasn’t her own. Her sole ‘injury’ was the indignity of having her clothes reduced to shreds, including her enchanted jacket. She took it well from what I could see, more worried about Patches’s condition once she realized I was already being attended to. Still, one of her side-looking red eyes never left where the Minotaur, Clovis as we soon found out, began to carefully examine my wounds.

  Of course, that meant that I soon was nearly as disrobed as Bunny was. “My apologies, Lady Stone, but I must cut away most of your shirt and your skirt entirely,” Clovis said as he produced thick shears from his box of medical goodies, the same kind of scissors I’d seen EMTs and doctors use in just such an emergency.

  “My dignity’s the least of my worries,” I answered, having to already hold my silky scarlet beard up out of the way of his examination. “Do your worst.”

  At least it turned out that demon-Patches’s tendrils hadn’t torn into my underwear. Clovis neatly cut away the tattered clothes to reveal both my panties and the field of ring-shaped bites, gouges that still oozed blood from my taut stomach and back. I didn’t need to hear Aelfread’s sharp breath to feel his worry, but the Minotaur’s confident look as he nodded to himself kept me calm.

  “How are they?” Sinclair called, still observing from the foot of the stairs, reptilian eyes flitting from one scene to the other occasionally.

  “Fortunately, Dwarves are as tough as I’ve often heard, Governor,” Clovis reported as he pulled out a plain, silver tube, like an unmarked toothpaste dispenser, from his kit. “I believe the judicious application of healing salve should deal with her injuries sure enough.”

  The Ogre, Thaddeus, grunted loudly, his Neanderthal-like face matching his thick, gravelly voice. “Dog live. Sleepy, use too much mojo.” He petted the unconscious Corgi gently. “No mojo rock, though.”

  Sinclair nodded at that, his sliver of worry disappearing entirely as he turned his attention to Bunny. “So, Huntress, what do you have to report?”

  Clovis was trying to gingerly apply the magical goop, a pale green concoction that looked and smelled like minty fresh toothpaste, to my wounds, as the Drake asked that question. Before Bunny could get a word in, I found myself pointing an accusatory finger at the Drake, something that made my poor medical Minotaur’s job a living hell.

  “Oh no, Sinclair! I have questions for you first.”

  Bunny blinked at me in surprise before I think it finally hit her that she was naked (furrily so, perh
aps) in front of me and that I wasn’t much better off in the clothes department. Her intended objection was cut off by a deep blush that shone right through her white fur as she tried to both look away and place the burly Ogre between her and me. That left the floor open for Sinclair, who folded his arms behind his back as he inclined his snout towards me.

  “Though I feel under no obligation to allow them, I will humor you, Ms. Stone. What is it you would wish to ask?”

  I hadn’t expected him to give in so easily. Blinking my momentary surprise away, I got back to what I was going to ask. “How did you get here? We didn’t tell you where we were going … or did we?” It was entirely possible that Bunny had reported in as was her job while I slept. “Er, if we did, then why didn’t you get here sooner and help out? We could have died!”

  One of Sinclair’s horned eye ridges raised in amusement. “From your own stammer, I believe you have already realized why and how I knew of this place. Even if Huntress Kincaid had not fulfilled her due diligence in reporting in, the report of unnatural activities we received on our way here from the mundane authorities would have brought someone under my auspices to investigate.

  “As for our late arrival, I can only cite the most mundane of delays.” Sinclair sighed the sigh that every driver in the Saginaw metropolitan area shared. “Rush hour traffic. We arrived at the edges of the mists the moment before … whatever … happened here concluded.” He glanced around. “At least the recompense to be made to the owners of the Blue Moon will be minimal. Excellent job in being more … precise with your magic, Ms. Stone.”

  Where ever Clovis smeared the healing salve, my skin itched and burned like crazy for a moment before the wounds went soothingly, thankfully numb. Letting out a sigh of relief and my suspicions averted, at least for the moment, I nodded. “I suppose that all makes sense. My apologies for my healthy paranoia, Governor.”

  “Not unwarranted, I might add!” Aelfread helpfully supplied, his composure returning now that it was plain I was going to be okay.

  “Your opinion is not my concern, Prince Aelfson.” Sinclair turned his attention to Bunny. “Now, let us try this one more time and hope for no interruptions. Huntress, what occurred here and what is the status of the Azure Star? I cannot afford to have a dangerous magical artifact running around my city.” As he focused on the naked rabbit-girl, his quirked eyebrow raised higher. “Oh, Thaddeus, give the poor woman a blanket from your kit or your jacket or something.”

  Maybe Ogres didn’t quite have the same nudity taboo I had (though whether it was from my human life or my supposedly conservative Dwarven instincts, I didn’t know). It took Thaddeus a moment to realize the issue before digging into his own enchanted utility belt for one of those itchy, grey wool emergency blankets. While he fumbled with that, Bunny rolled her eyes and began her report.

  “You know most of the story, Governor,” she nodded. “When we followed the lead here to the Blue Moon, the attendant on duty told us he had taken in a hungry-looking stray dog this same day and was keeping it in the basement. The fog you ran into was waiting for us, but we managed to penetrate down to, well, it wasn’t here wherever it was.”

  “A cross-dimensional space,” Aelfread supplied as he drifted away from where Clovis finished tending to my wounds to the pile of broken moonstone. “Whatever ancient lunar spirit the Garou used to entreat here wanted to cross over, so it linked this basement to its realm out in the Beyond.”

  “Thanks, Aelfson,” Bunny said with honest appreciation. “Patches here had not only tapped into the power of the Azure Star, but that same spirit thing had gotten its hooks into his mind. We’re talking full-on possession, something we haven’t seen in Saginaw for some time.”

  Sinclair nodded slowly. “It is something of a minor miracle that Mr. Sanderson didn’t explode from the influx of power. Likely he would have, long before this spirit would have caused any real damage to the community. Best that he was saved, though. I would not wish one of my citizens dead over such a petty matter.”

  “Sure as hell didn’t seem petty to me,” I grumbled as Clovis stepped around me, surveying either his expert medical work or my stout, half-naked body. “Considering we were all inches from death and all that.”

  “And yet, no one died,” Sinclair countered. “And, to let me finish this tale for you based on the evidence I see, you succeeded in not only freeing Mr. Sanderson from his malignant mental guest but wresting control of the Star before the overwhelming magical energy burst the poor Garou asunder. All in all, a smashing and total victory.”

  He finally deigned to step into the basement proper, his toe claws clicking on the cement floor. “If I had truly been concerned that you three could not have handled it, rest assured I would have intervened the moment Reba informed me of the situation here.” The Drake walked right up to where Aelfread was now knelt over the broken fountain, the resting place of the Star as well, sifting through the remains with his quick fingers. “Which leaves only one stone left unturned or, in this case, loose.”

  Aelfie felt Sinclair’s looming draconic presence and looked up at him, just as Sinclair tilted his head down to match the Elf’s glance. “So, to repeat myself once more, an act that irritates me more and more with each cycle, where is the Azure Star?”

  The fact that the Governor was so focused on the stone worried me. Outside of his concern for our health, which was admittedly touching, he always returned to the Star, more focused on the artifact than the actual transdimensional incident we had just gone through. Sure, his utter confidence in our ability to handle the situation was nice for the ego, but it didn’t cover up his intense interest in the stone.

  Gears started to click into place in my brain as Aelfread put on an air of sorrow. “Unfortunately, Governor, I believe it broke, destroyed with the rest of this ancient altar,” he lied glibly. “I saw it fall from Patches’s neck as the spirit receded and dash into pieces along with the rest.”

  We all knew better, but I backed Aelfie’s play and, being an excellent liar myself, nodded sadly in agreement with his story. Bunny was less sure of what Aelfread was up to but still kept her silence, betraying nothing as she wrapped the blanket around herself.

  “Impossible,” the Drake scoffed. “Such an ancient artifact does not simply ‘dash into pieces’ when it falls a few feet.”

  I’m not sure what it was that Sinclair said then, maybe it was merely his utterly focused attitude, but it made everything fall into place. What really did it was realizing that the Garou art of morphomancy was far more expansive than I had realized before we saw Patches use it as he did. Siofra had taught me that each kind of magic out wasn’t limited to the Figments that specialized in it. Even humans could learn a discipline with the right training and a smidge of talent.

  Typically, that would lead such a disciple to be quite weak. Talent was the first law of magic, after all, and our attunements to our racial magics gave each type of Figment a significant head start in the talent department. However, with something like the Azure Star, someone would only need additional knowledge to tap into the outer limits of the art. The artifact would provide the talent and the power.

  It might even be enough for a Drake, let’s say, to use the magic of morphomancy to turn himself into a True Dragon.

  “Ah, but this was not any normal fall,” Aelfread countered as Sinclair’s motives became plain in my mind. “As Mary’s runes” – he gestured toward the still-glowing runeword chiseled into the floor – “quelled the enchantments on the Star, they must have also nullified the magic that ensured its fantastic durability. Between that and the tremendous magical stresses of the situation …” He shrugged and gestured helplessly at the shards and chunks of broken gemstone around him.

  What I didn’t see was the Azure Star. It took all my self-control not to break into belly-shaking laughter. The Elf had merely palmed the stone as he had been searching through the fragments. It was stage magic 101, the first trick of misdirection and sleight of han
d every carny magician starts with, and with Aelfread’s charm and natural dexterity, he had pulled it off with everyone watching, even under Sinclair’s suspicious gaze.

  The Governor’s draconic eyes narrowed as he seemed to look straight through Aelfie and for a split second, I thought he was about to do so courtesy of holomancy-induced eye lasers. After a second, he relented, glancing around the shattered bits and pieces before nodding slowly. “I understand what you are driving at, Prince Aelfson.”

  If he was disappointed or upset, the Drake hid it under a cloak of utter calm. At least he had learned how to handle his losses better than the last time we had clashed like this. “While I am certain the Garou Council will be saddened at the loss of such an ancient relic, I would argue that its destruction may be safer for the community as a whole. I will have to speak with them and Councilman Frizzoli on the matter later.”

  “About Mercutio,” Bunny cut in, having shifted back down to her human form (the better to accommodate the poor blanket) during this whole back-and-forth. To my surprise, though the rest of her clothes had been lost, she somehow was now wearing her combat boots. “Surely his statements in my presence and his connection to this entire affair are sufficient evidence to knock him off the Council. Even if you for some reason don’t issue an order for his arrest, there is plenty of proof of political corruption here.”

  I had acclimated to my half-nakedness at this point, so I flatly ignored Clovis’ quiet offer of a blanket myself. “Right, Governor! You even admitted to us that he’d gone too far this time. You’re not going to let him walk scot-free from this mess without even a slap on the wrist?!”