The Leira Chronicles- The Complete Austin Series

by Martha Carr

  "For some reason I thought this role would be a little more complicated. We transported a small gargoyle through a portal and then went home."

  "You need a cape and a mask too."

  "I don't think things have gotten to that level yet but I'll keep you in the loop. Things have grown quiet. I'm not used to that feeling that all is well. Very unsettling."

  Correk got up and put the troll back on the couch, going back to the red chair. "I'm a grown Light Elf from the royal court and I'm hanging out in a guest house in Austin, Texas with a troll wearing a makeshift cape. Yes, folks that's my life right at the moment. Everyone who needs rescuing is safe and sound. Rhazdon is defeated and has slunk off somewhere to wither up like a dried mushroom. Sure, the natives on this planet are running amok but that appears to be an ongoing issue and none of my business. So, I'm the Fixer. I thought it would be more action, like Batman and less fixing like an electrician or a glorified babysitter." He threw his hands up in the air. "Hundreds of years of answering calls."

  "Hundreds of years of being of service. You like being of service. What else would you be doing with your time? Hanging with me?" The troll rolled back onto the couch, laughing. He stood back up and cheered at the TV before letting out a sigh and sitting back down. "You could always go back to Oriceran."

  Correk looked around the room again, not saying anything.

  "You don't want to leave her." Yumfuck threw the idea out there, his eyes glued on the television as he watched Batman sit on the edge of a tall building overlooking the city. It was giving him ideas.

  "What? Don't want to leave who?"

  The troll blew a raspberry. "It's not like you to wonder what to do next. You get an assignment, you go. Light Elves are not known for their introspection. You don't want to leave her."

  "Full sentences, nice. It's about time." He sat back, unwilling to say it out loud. I don't want to leave her. He shook his head. No, that can't be. "That can't be right. She's equal parts annoying and courageous. Half the time I'm wondering how to get out of here."

  "Maybe in the very beginning but things changed. You almost died, Leira got her entire family back. You fought side by side. You took a road trip together. Things went boom. It's like you've been doing the action hero's version of dating all along."

  Correk opened his mouth to argue again when the door burst open and Leira came barreling inside, almost dropping her purse on top of him.

  "You're here! Just the person I was looking for. I need to talk to you." Leira held her purse in both hands, looking around the room, wondering what to do with it. She walked into her bedroom and threw it on the bed and came back, pacing in the center of the room.

  The troll leaned to the left as she passed by so he could get a better view of the television, and leaned to the right when she passed back the other way.

  Leira stopped and looked down at him and looked over at Correk. "Is that supposed to be a cape?"

  "I am Batfuck," growled the troll.

  Leira let out a tense laugh. "Yeah, you are." She couldn't shake what she had seen and started pacing again, trying to figure out where to start. "It feels like I haven't seen you in a week instead of just a day. Packed a lot in while you were off being the Fixer. You must have a lot to tell me too."

  "Ha!" Yumfuck snorted without looking away from the movie.

  "You go first."

  Need to ease him into this shit show. "There's a lot. I'll give you the highlights because there's a big boom at the end. I saw Lacey Trader and she gave me a personal tour of the vault. We shut down that operation in Mexico and rescued all of the animals that were there. Not all of it went exactly as planned." She was talking fast, gliding over the details. Save the part about taking off the bracelet for later. "Louie showed up out of nowhere with some kind of magic sword to save the day. Jackson sent him."

  Correk sat slowly back in the chair, listening to what she was saying. He had missed all of it. "Did the bracelet do its job?"

  Fuck... Leira might not tell Correk everything but she wouldn't lie to him. "Mostly. Took it off because I had to. Got the bracelet back on and won't be taking it off again anytime soon. Not a smart idea. But that's not even the part I wanted to tell you."

  "Wait, what?" He slid forward to the edge of the seat but Leira was on a roll and kept talking.

  "I went to the sanctuary to see Perrom and get some answers." She brushed her dark bangs off her forehead. "Fuck, I'm not explaining this well."

  "You're doing fine." I don't want to leave her... but it's time to go. He put his hands together in front of his chest, lacing his fingers together.

  She stopped right in front of the television. "Hey!" barked the troll. "Move it or lose it!"

  Leira arched an eyebrow at him and took a step to the side.

  "He believes he's watching an instructional video. Like job training," said Correk.

  "For what, moody posing in a rubber costume?"

  "You saw Perrom?" He was helping her get back on track, watching her move, realizing she was turning to him because she trusted him. We have all changed when we weren't looking.

  "Yes, I saw Perrom," she said, pointing at him. "I went to the sanctuary to get answers to something. This bracelet is pulling in energy of a different kind, or maybe it's me. I keep feeling this connection whenever I'm close to the modified animals."

  "Is that what we're calling it now?"

  "Have to call that nightmare something. Perrom took me to where the rescued animals were being held and I felt it again. A connection!"

  "You don't normally get this excited."

  Can't jump to the end of this story. He'll never hear the rest of what I'm saying, if I do. "I touched the artifact connected to one of the animals. It was almost by accident and when I did I felt a surge of dark magic pour through me, almost as large as the light source. I could even hear the sound in my ears like it was real."

  Correk sat forward, tensing his muscles. "It was real. You don't see electricity but you know it's there. Darkness passed through you. Are you alright?"

  He's focused on me. Not going to be the point in about two minutes. Leira's eyes widened as she put up her hands. "The light joined the darkness, modulating it. The two joined together like one stream for just a few minutes. Might have been longer. Inside the stream time doesn't seem relevant. I saw things. A large estate somewhere, two of them, I think. There were Witches and Wizards gathering. I think it was the old families who still practice dark magic. Lacey said they're pissed off about human beings messing in their territory and turns out they're surprisingly proactive and really well organized. An anti-Silver Griffins. The magic showed me that down in some kind of basement from another era there was a... can't think of a better word than beast. Fur, fangs, stood upright and really angry, pulling at the chain around its ankle. I think it's living in one of the old homes." Reel out the rest of the story.

  "Like an eight-foot troll kind of beast?"

  Leira looked back at the five-inch troll who smiled up at her, showing all his tiny sharp teeth.

  "No, more gruesome but maybe that's because I know Yumfuck is on my side."

  "How do you know what the beast is for?"

  "That's why I was looking for you. I couldn't tell if that was past or present. Time bent back on itself. But he was wearing around his neck an old talisman with an infinity symbol on it."

  Correk felt a chill move through him. "Old dark magic. Rhazdon's old symbol. It must have been a powerful artifact filled with dark magic."

  "Yes, that's the dark stream that ran through me like I was a conduit for it. I became a human wand. It was ancient from before the gates opened the last time. Inside of the magic I knew what they were planning to do with him. They're building their own army of monsters to hold back the humans." Leira gripped Correk by the shoulders, her eyes widening from wonder at the horror she had seen and felt. "Right before the magic ripped me back and split apart, I saw something." She squeezed his shoulders, feeling the full meas
ure of what dark magic could do in the wrong hands. "It changes everything and we have to stop it before they can do it again. The beast... it shifted. I saw the beast become a man. Fuck." Leira took in a deep breath, nausea coming over her as she remembered the vision. "They're using people against themselves turning them into fucking beasts."

  "That's not possible." There was an edge to Correk's voice and his expression turned to stone.

  "Apparently it is because I saw it and I felt it." Leira swallowed hard.

  "They've unlocked the worst kind of magic. Rhazdon must have stolen it from the Gnomes' vault when she broke into it. The balance of power may be shifting."

  "Lacey called it. The old families are afraid that power could tilt away from them and they're ready to go there in order to keep it, or gain more. They're afraid of what the humans might figure out on their own and they've found a way to scare them back into their cages."

  "That won't work. People will bring out a bigger weapon and start a war. Hunt the magical community if they have to. Human beings don't take well to someone hunting them."

  "I knew you'd understand. We need to tell Turner Underwood and come up with a plan."

  "Don't you mean tell General Anderson?"

  "No, not yet. I can't tell him exactly where I saw the house or how many houses and I got the very real impression there's already more than one prototype. More than one beast, and not all the same. They're doing their own experimenting but with even darker intentions, if you can believe that. I keep thinking of a piece of advice Lois gave me early on that human beings have their limits when it comes to our kind. If he knew that humans were part of the experimentation all of our roles become different. He would feel compelled to tell others. Dark forces like Axiom would actually work with the government to stop it. Everything would become jumbled. I'd prefer not to get to chaos just yet, if I can help it. But I need your help if we're going to rein this in before it gets any further."

  The troll leaned over to give Correk a wink even as he stood up, listening in on the conversation. He hopped down and went over to Leira who scooped him and put him on her shoulder. Correk didn't look in his direction and focused on Leira, grimacing.

  "Turner Underwood went out for the night. He wouldn't tell me any more than that but he'll be back soon. Till then, we can spread the word among the kemanas. The old families are no friends of other Oricerans living on this world. They will run through the underground cities creating havoc if it helps them with their mission. And the beings who live underground can act as our lookouts, letting us know if they see things."

  "All over the world."

  "That's the idea. This will take some organization and planning."

  "We need to find Turner and come up with a plan. If we don't stop them this will make the prophets right but not in the way they expected. The gates will open to mayhem." Leira took out her buzzing phone and looked down. "It's my mother again. She keeps calling but not leaving a message. We should probably get over there. Who knows what else has blown up."

  Chapter Nineteen

  Turner Underwood was traveling to a kemana located under Paris. The entrance was near the Eiffel Tower that stood over the kemana like a giant iron antennae. It was built by the local magical community in the late 19th century and over the decades that followed different groups filled it with their own little bits of magic as a way to leave something of themselves behind in Paris. He went to the patisserie just down the street and waved to the owner who gave him a begrudging grunt and a nod as he passed through to the back, picking up a hard roll still warm from the oven as he went by.

  He got to the old kitchen that had ovens lining one of the walls. Most of them had been modernized but there was still one tall oven with a black iron front that had been in use for just over a hundred years and was said to put out the best baguettes. Turner pocketed the roll as his eyes glowed briefly and he whispered an ancient spell given only to the most trusted of magical customers. An old Norse spell from thousands of years ago.

  "Hniga dyrr soemiligr landi."

  The front of the oven creaked and easily opened, hinged like a door, revealing a staircase behind it that descended into the Earth. There were lanterns lit near the top to guide the way as Turner knocked his cane against each step and the oven closed behind him.

  The bakers standing around in the kitchen wearing grey aprons covered in flour barely noticed except to look up and see if it might be a friend. Beings had been using the shop since the tower was erected and the shop was built as an entrance. An older, redheaded baker with a cigarette firmly clenched in his teeth smiled as he saw who it was and went back to pounding out the dough, rolling it over as he blew a perfect O into the air.

  Turner walked steadily down the stairs, placing the cane on the step below and stepping down, one after the other. The descent was a mile into the ground alongside a dazzling yellow crystal. Many believed it was what gave Parisians so many inspired ideas about art and fashion and literature. Turner knew he was getting close when the lanterns gave way to the natural light given off by the pieces of the rock buried into the wall every few feet. It gave everything a warm, golden glow.

  Leira and Correk had caught up with him just as he was coming home from his date, singing a bit of the song he had heard earlier that night at Cheer Up Charlie's on Red River not too far from downtown Austin. He saw their grim faces, waiting patiently, leaning against the green Mustang and knew there was trouble.

  He frowned, tapping his cane hard against the next step, remembering what Leira had told him. "They've crossed a line!" he shouted to no one in particular. His words echoed off the walls and floated out into the opening that was getting closer.

  "There has always been an unwritten rule for the benefit of all of us! You leave humans out of it!" Anger plowed up through his chest making it hard for him to concentrate or to breathe deeply. For thousands of years purveyors of magic had agreed to the rule, despite whether they dabbled in the light or the darkness. "We can blow each other up, torture each other, concoct whatever horrible spells we want to but no one touches the native population!" He bellowed, his chin quivering with anger, shaking his fists.

  Only once before had anyone thought to menace the natives of the planet. The Atlanteans and their arrogance had spilled over and they meddled in local affairs, manipulating people. It didn't end well and the Atlanteans fled, went underground or were wiped off the map. Their kingdom was destroyed and sunk to the bottom of the cold ocean floor, eventually forgotten by time.

  Turner collected himself, pausing on a step as he took a deep breath, held it and let it out, remembering his morning meditations by the lake. He pressed down his purple tie, making sure the pearl tie clip was still firmly in place, and steadied his homburg, waiting till he was calm enough to walk through the crowds without being noticed. "Let's do this."

  He took the last steps and wandered into the French street scene that closely resembled what was going on upstairs with Kilomeas and Gnomes and Elves sitting at outdoor cafes, smoking little cigarettes and drinking endless cups of dark coffee arguing about the state of affairs. A pixie flitted by, close to Turner's head on her way to the cheese shop. Two smaller pixies floated by in her wake, following right behind her.

  The aroma floated out of the open door from the shop and caught Turner off guard making him instantly relax. He made a mental note to stop in there before returning to the topside. This city always did that to him, above or below ground. He could lose himself here for days and look at art or listen to people argue passionately about whether or not graphic novels were really novels or if coffee was better than wine.

  "It's not all happening today. There's still time," he muttered to himself.

  "Flowers?" An older gnome held up purple lilies wrapped in green wax paper, her other hand stretched out. Turner pulled out a small gold coin and placed it in the center of her palm, taking the flowers. This is better. I won't arrive completely empty handed when I share the dire news.


  He passed down the street, marveling at the parts of the Eiffel Tower that were below ground and most never got to see as he passed around to the left and took a side street that quickly turned into three-story walk ups that were renovated in recent years. The Willens that had lived in them for generations sold them for gold coins and were happy to move further down the street to let the Elves move in and redo everything. "Circle of commerce," muttered Turner looking up at a red brick building with a black door as an Elven father could be seen through the window lifting his small son in the air, making him laugh. "Might as well be the circle of life."

  A Willen in a worn printed silk black jacket hurried past him, the sound of metal clinking together from deep within the folds of his skin as he scurried down the road. Turner made a point to keep his distance, not wanting to lose his wallet without even knowing it. The Willen tipped his beret in Turner's direction and he returned the salutation, putting his other hand inside his coat to see if his belongings were still there, just to be sure. "Such clever creatures."

  He traveled even further into the older section, tapping his cane against the older pavers that still lined the roads in that part of the underground city. They had held up remarkably well even after hundreds of years. Pieces of the crystal were set into tall street lamps, lighting the way with the same golden light, giving the illusion of early evening.

  He turned down a narrow road between two houses, coming to a wrought iron gate, concealed by overgrown wisteria vines that were threatening to swallow it. Purple blossoms hung heavy over the top, hiding the latch. He lifted the vines and slipped underneath, lifting the old latch and started up the path that would lead him into a lonely part of the underground city.

  The old mystic who lived at the top of the road would know someone was coming long before they got there and she would prepare for their visit. She never received many visitors and knew long in advance who was coming and often had visions of what they wanted to tell her. It no longer surprised him when she told him what he needed to know before he had a chance to lay out his problem.