by Lori Woods
“We’re very sorry about that, Grun,” Lola said. “But you are certain you don’t know anyone who still owns one of those?”
“No,” Grun said. “Grun not ever seen one himself. Grun mad now. Cove dead, now no one ever believe Grun that merman flood Grun’s home.”
“How is a merman supposed to do that, Grun?” Dereck questioned.
“Grun not know,” Grun said, standing upright and stomping his foot in frustration, causing the ground beneath their feet to shake. “Grun mad!”
“Well, we’re sorry,” Dereck said. “And, knock it off before you cause the pavement to crack.”
Grun stomped throwing his tantrum. “Grun going home!” he declared.
“Fine,” Dereck said. “But don’t leave Warlor anytime soon. I may need to follow up with you about last night once I confirm when you actually left the event.”
“Grun left because Cove there – Cove flood Grun’s home,” Grun said, already starting to storm off. “Grun no go anywhere far.”
“Thank you,” Lola said as she watched the troll disappear in the distance.
“Hmmph!” Pim-Pim exclaimed as he was still fluttering about. “Glad he’s gone! I’m just glad I have a witch as a tenant, or I don’t know what I would have done about those broken windows.”
“Grun didn’t seem to know that Cove was dead,” Lola said. “Trolls are not exactly skilled in deceit. Do you think he really didn’t know?”
“Possibly,” Dereck said. “I wouldn’t put anything past him, though. Don’t want to make assumptions too soon.”
“What was all that talk about his home being flooded?” Pim-Pim asked.
“Probably just some rain, and he decided to throw a temper tantrum and blame the first person he thought of,” Dereck said. “Trolls can be so temperamental.”
“And stupid,” Pim-Pim said under his breath.
“Easy, Pim-Pim,” Lola scorned. “He’s definitely worth looking into, though. If he really thought that Cove had damaged his property, whether Cove did or not, that would be enough for a troll to get violent.”
Dereck nodded. “Exactly.”
Chapter 6
Once ensuring that the shop was still in one piece after a few repairing spells, Lola went with Dereck towards the springs. Personally, she was looking forward to seeing Nawfar – though she was certain the mermaid would be rather bitter after spending an evening locked in a floating cage, the woman had a tendency to make her feel better whenever her stress reached its peak. There was something about her generally sassy nature that tended to put a smile on Lola’s face.
They touched down right near the pond, and Nawfar started in on them immediately. “It’s about time!” Nawfar yelped. “I thought you were coming first thing in the morning – least that’s what I heard. I’ve been waiting around on you two half the day, and here I am still just bobbling around inside a glorified bird cage!”
“Let it go, Nawfar,” Dereck said, kneeling down beside the pond, his wand held out in front of him. “You know you did it to yourself, don’t you? You didn’t have to take off like that.”
“Merfolk nature,” Nawfar said with a handwave.
“Before I let you out, I need a favor,” he said.
"Oh, perfect – now there are stipulations," she said.
“Nothing like that,” he said, laughing. “I need you to ask around about Cove for me.”
“Oh, is that all?” she asked.
“I can’t exactly dip down into the river or oceans and speak and breathe underwater,” Dereck explained. “I have plenty of witnesses to interview whom I can get in touch with a bit more easily without having to cast some underwater enchantment. I just want you to ask around to your merfolk to see if anyone saw anything suspicious. And… to find out if Cove knew any magic.”
“Magic?” Lola asked, not quite sure what Dereck was getting at.
“Magic?” Nawfar questioned as well. “Do you mean like selkie magic? Singing…”
“No, I mean something closer to what you would see a warlock doing,” Dereck said.
“That’s ridiculous,” Nawfar said.
“Just ask around for me, would you?” Dereck demanded.
“Fine, fine,” Nawfar grumbled. “I’ll ask around about Cove for you.”
Dereck, feeling satisfied, waved his wand and released Nawfar from her imprisonment. She zipped around the pond for a moment before reassuring them she would help and then diving down below the surface, probably to take some time to stretch her fin from the overnight stay. At last, Dereck and Lola mounted their brooms. “I’m headed to meet with Antioch next,” Dereck said. “See if he saw anything. Plus, with the way he was talking about merfolk last night, I can’t say that he doesn’t raise an eyebrow.”
“I’ll go with you,” Lola said, and they both kicked off. Once they were in the air, Lola asked, “Why were you wanting Nawfar to find out if Cove knew any magic? Don’t you think that’s a little silly?”
“Yeah, but Grun’s little tantrum was bothering me a bit,” he said. “Just thought I’d see what she could find out for me. Who knows – maybe that troll knew what he was talking about.”
Soon they were flying in at a large mansion on the outskirts of Warlor. It was a large piece of property surrounded by magical gates; they landed outside of them, and after a few minutes a serving owl-humanoid hybrid opened the gates for them to enter, muttering something about Antioch expecting them. Eventually they were entering into the large foyer, and sure enough, Antioch came in to greet them only moments later. "Detective Dereck," Antioch said in a friendly tone. "I was told you would be coming by. I'm not sure how much help I'm going to be, though."
“You have a beautiful home," Lola could not help but say, eyeing the enormous ceilings and the walls lined with art and various antiques.
“Oh, thank you,” he said. “I see you looking at my wife’s portrait.”
It was true, Lola's eyes had lingered on the painting hanging up in the foyer for a while. It depicted a lovely young witch adorned in all sorts of jewelry, her necklace, in particular, had caught Lola's eyes as it was exceptionally lovely. "I didn't know you were married, Antioch," Dereck said.
“Widower,” he said. “Died years ago. Let’s go to the sitting room while we talk.”
They followed him, and Lola was once again distracted by various assortments of ancient collectibles. Clearly, the man had more money than he knew what to do with. Once they were seated, Antioch had his humanoid-owl servant bring them tea while they chatted. Dereck, once he had tea in hand, cut straight to what they had come to talk about. "I want to know if you ever had any previous encounters with Cove prior to last evening."
Antioch grumbled. “I try not to associate with his kind.”
“His kind?” Lola questioned.
“Merfolk,” he said. “They are deviant creatures – hyper sexual filth.”
A part of Lola wanted to zap him with her wand, but she kept her mouth quiet. Ticking him off wasn’t going to get them any answers. “That’s a bit uncalled for, don’t you think?” Dereck asked, and Lola was thankful he said something so that she didn’t have to.
“Hardly,” he said. “Frankly, I don’t know why I even go to the Spring Welcome anymore. I was thankful that most of the trolls decided not to come this year. Honestly, those things are just too stupid to even function properly in society.”
Dereck decided to ignore this comment, it seemed. “You’re telling me you have had no previous encounters with Cove previously?”
“Do I look like someone who would associate with creatures like that?” Antioch asked. “No, none that stand out, that is. I’ve only seen him in passing at events at the springs.”
They asked a few follow-up questions, but it became increasingly clear that Antioch did not run in the same circles as Cove. Soon, they were headed out, and Lola was grateful. She didn't want to listen to the man’s opinions any longer. Plus, he had insisted on a tour of his study and had shown off various an
tiques and paintings. Dereck had spent a considerable amount of time staring at a podium thinking it was a piece of artwork itself, and Antioch had picked fun at his intelligence (in a ‘joking’ manner, of course) for not realizing it was just an empty podium with a missing piece of artwork. At last, she and Dereck stood outside of his gates, both with a foul taste in their mouth about the man. “I think we should follow up with Grun about what happened to his home,” Lola said as she stared up at the gates. “I agree with you that something was definitely up. I’m not sure what, but I am sure that Grun was pretty hot and bothered this morning. He’s a troll through and through, but he doesn’t exactly have a history of being so destructive.”
“I agree,” Dereck said. “I’m going to head out to the mountains to talk to Grun. Maybe he has calmed down some since this morning, and I can get a legitimate discussion out of him.”
“I’ll go with you,” Lola said. “I think Prim-Prim can handle the shop for another hour.”
They pushed off, and they sped their brooms through the skies towards the mountainous region where the local trolls lived. As they gazed down at the mountains, something quite alarming came into view. “Dereck! Grun was right – the valleys are flooded!” Lola exclaimed, and they descended towards the valleys. They found a patch of dry land up the mountainside where a grouping of discontented trolls were all gathered, Grun among them. They were digging into the mountainside, trying to create for themselves dryer habitats.
Grun growled when he saw them. “Why detective man here?” he demanded, waving a giant stubby finger in his direction. “You no believe Grun before.”
“You told me a mermaid did this,” Dereck said, staring out towards the new lake that had formed over the lower caves the trolls had once called home. “Was anyone hurt? When did this happen?”
“No one hurt. But this happen weeks ago,” Grun said. “Cove did this.”
“Grun, how on earth could a merman possibly do this?” Lola asked.
“Grun no know,” Grun said. “But merman pretty boy did this. Grun know it!”
Lola and Dereck exchanged glances. Neither of them could wrap their heads around how a merman could have pulled something off like this. After a moment of debate, they decided to return to the springs to see if Nawfar had managed to find anything out for them.
Chapter 7
Lola and Dereck arrived back at the springs, and they sat at the water’s edge. A few mermaids were swimming about, but they did not see Nawfar so asked one of them to fetch her. The young mermaid whom they had asked this task of disappeared and returned only a few minutes later with Nawfar. Nawfar swam to the water’s edge and propped her elbows up on the nearby stone to keep herself upright while she spoke to the land dwellers.
“I know we only sent you on your mission a little while ago,” Dereck said. “But did you find anything about Cove for us?”
She smiled. “Of course I did,” Nawfar said. Lola noticed that Nawfar had a water satchel around her side which she pulled up onto the stone. Nawfar opened it up and pulled out a water scroll, unrolling it for them to enjoy. “There is an underwater cave near where the river empties out into the ocean. That’s where a lot of the Atlantians like Cove stay when they come to the springs here in Warlor – there is a merfolk resort there. I went there first to see if Cove had been staying at the resort, and surprise, he was. The resort staff found this in his room.”
“It’s a map of Warlor,” Lola said curiously.
“Not unusual,” Nawfar said. “A lot of merfolk have maps of lands they wish to travel – so that they know where the bodies of water are. The rivers and ponds.”
“Look,” Dereck said, pointing to the mountains. “He has the valleys drawn in. This map didn’t use to have the valley’s flooded, he drew that in.”
“And look here,” Lola said. “And here… and here… he’s added a bunch of rivers and streams on the map that don’t exist.”
“This isn’t a map,” Dereck said. “It’s a plan.”
“That’s what I thought too when I saw it,” Nawfar said. “It looks like Cove wanted to have rivers and streams built from the ocean leading into Warlor. This is only one of the maps I found, though. He had dozens of them with different towns – all with rivers drawn and mapped out on them.”
“It’s like he was planning to have rivers dug out or something,” Dereck said. “Warlor would never approve something like this. The way he has it drawn out if the tide was high, half the town would flood."
“Adding in manmade rivers is not a terrible idea,” Nawfar admitted. "Would be very beneficial to merfolk who need to travel from town to town. We have to travel in portable fish tanks and leave our lives in the hands of land dwellers if we need to do extensive travels through the land. But, he doesn't seem to care where the rivers go – it’s all about the conveniences of merfolk on here. He had this one drawn right through a neighborhood.”
“How was he even planning on doing this?” Dereck questioned. “Even with magic, this kind of work would have been extensive.”
“Oh my goodness, Dereck," Lola said, slapping her forehead. "Isn't it obvious? The answer is right in front of us. Cove wanted to add these rivers and lakes in regardless of how the people of Warlor felt about it. So he did. He did it with the Troll Pass Staff!”
“The Troll Pass Staff!” Dereck exclaimed. “Of course – he really did flood Grun’s home! I feel terrible, we should have listened to him. He made a path straight from the ocean towards the mountains and completely flooded the valleys. That was just the first step of his plan.”
“A river through the mountain range would have opened up a lot of travel options for merfolk. It would have given them access to lands they never have been able to reach before, but he clearly wasn’t any good at operating the Troll Pass Staff. He flooded half the valley,” Lola said. “Not that he cared, I bet.”
“So, Cove had the Troll Pass Staff this whole time. It makes sense. Grun probably saw him with the Troll Pass Staff and killed him with it for revenge,” Dereck said.
“I don’t know,” Lola argued. “Why would he have been looking to give Cove a truth potion if he had already killed him?”
“He probably didn’t even realize he killed him, Lola,” Dereck said. “Grun’s a troll. They’re not exactly the smartest creatures.”
“I found one other thing in his room at the resort,” Nawfar said. “Not sure if it means anything,” she said, digging through her satchel. “The maps were a bit more alarming to me than this. Here…” She placed a beautiful necklace down on the stone. “Very pretty. I assumed he had himself a girl he was trying to impress.”
“You found this in his room?” Dereck asked, picking up the necklace. “It’s very nice.”
“Very,” Nawfar said. “Found it in his traveling bag. It was carefully wrapped up and placed inside a small bag for safe keeping. Must have meant something to him.”
“Wait!” Lola exclaimed. “I recognize that necklace!”
“Really?” Dereck questioned. “From where?”
“Don’t you remember? The portrait hanging in Antioch’s mansion of his wife – the one who died? She was wearing this necklace!” Lola exclaimed.
Dereck thought for a moment and then nodded. “You’re right – I remember. Very observant, Lola.”
“I like jewelry,” Lola admitted. “Couldn’t help but to notice something that pretty.”
“If this is the same necklace from the portrait…” Dereck pondered out loud. “If this belonged to Antioch’s deceased wife, how then did Cove come across it?”
“We never asked Antioch how his wife died,” Lola said. “Do you think Cove had anything to do with it?”
“I don’t’ know,” Dereck said, standing upright. “Thanks for the intel, Nawfar. We appreciate the help – especially after we locked you in a birdcage overnight."
“I knew it was a birdcage,” she said bitterly. “Just find out what happened to Cove. The other merfolk are all pretty shaken up
by the whole thing. They’re scared.”
“I understand,” Dereck said. “Don’t worry. You tell your friends that we are on it. We’ll find out what happened to Cove. I promise.”
Lola stood upright as well, summoning her broom that was leaned against a nearby tree. It zipped towards her, and she mounted it immediately. “So, are we going to go speak to Antioch or not?”
Dereck nodded and mounted his broom as well. “We’ll keep you posted on anything we find out, Nawfar.”
Nawfar nodded approvingly and then dove beneath the water, swimming off to the other side of the pond. Lola and Dereck kicked off, and soon they were zooming through the air back towards Antioch’s mansion on the opposite side of Warlor.
Chapter 8
Dereck and Lola flew right over the magical gates sealing up Antioch’s manor; Dereck used a reflective spell permitted for use only by law enforcement that allowed them past the magical barrier. They landed amongst his hedges, and almost immediately they were noticed by the owl-humanoid creature that was Antioch’s personal butler for he was trimming the very hedges they landed in. “Honestly!” the creature hooted.
“Sorry,” Lola said. “Rough landing.”
"You could have just come in the front gate," the creature said, still sounding very bird-like with every word he uttered.
“We need to see Antioch – immediately,” Dereck said.
The creature looked quite alarmed by this demand, but he nodded and bowed his head. "I'll let him know you are here. Perhaps I can bring a pot of tea to the gardens?" he waved with his enormous wing-like arm towards the side of the house where some stone patio furniture was set up on a cobblestone porch. Dereck nodded in agreement, so he and Lola went and sat down. The owl-man returned before Antioch, pouring each of them a bit of tea. "He is coming down now," the owl-man said. "He was in the middle of a bath. Good thing you didn't use a spell to zip your way right into his manner, then, aye?" The owl-man spoke in such a tone so as to let them both know he was still hot and bothered about them bypassing the fences.