The Warlock Weapon (Hattie Jenkins & The Infiniti Chronicles Book 7)
Page 18
The Witch Fearwyn’s shoulders hunched forward, and her neck sprang out like a turtle. Her eyes tore through me, showing no mercy for my hiding behind my historical events.
A movement in the sky behind Portia’s shoulders caught my eye.
“What the heck is that?” I said, pointing to the lurching object that rose and fell in the sky behind the Custodians.
“Is it a bird?” David asked.
“Is it a plane?” Orville said.
“No, it’s Artemus Caves …. And … well, two other people,” Portia said, putting a hand up to her eyes and squinting up at the awkwardly maneuvering spectacle.
I saw a pair of thin, white arms jut from the side of Artemus, who was ‘driving’ the broom. Carpathia waved her hands dramatically, while an arm belonging to someone else made an appearance. Gabrielle’s dusty, clay-like skin was hard to miss. The former golem offered a polite, short wave.
“They’ve uncovered it,” David said, rushing forward to meet them at the crash-landing site.
The anomaly in the bell! They’ve got it!
Me and my kitties rushed over to greet our friends.
“We came straight away,” Artemus said. If Artemus’ voice was shaking, his hands were convulsing as he gave David the document recovered from the bell. The artifact that the lawyer, the late Morag Devlin had planted there just before Barnabus Kramp murdered her.
David scanned the letter. My friend had been fairly pale the last little while, but now his face drained of so much blood, he almost looked translucent. He shook his head and pinched the bridge of his nose. And then the chief looked back to the document.
“For Goddess sakes, man!” Portia barked. “Are you going to make us wait all day? What does the darned thing say?”
“Coles notes version?” David said. “The Warlocks have their dragon.” The chief handed over the artifact to Portia.
My friend looked at me. “They were right, Hat. The Warlocks were right. We’re too late.”
I scrambled to join the others behind the Witch Fearwyn’s shoulders. I studied the chilling words there.
A top secret document, branded with Gideon Shields’ gold, embossed letterhead.
The two ‘players’ in the transcript were Morag Devlin and Gideon Shields. It was noted that no other cabinet member was to know of the devastating secret the woman was harboring for the Warlock governor.
* * *
Morag,
* * *
The dragon lives. He is whole, and will only need another six weeks before he is mature enough to be taken to the Tiamat. Only then will my baby; my magnificent beast, breathe flames. It will be a breath of fire that acts upon the orders of the Warlocks only. It is OUR time now, Morag. The battle we’ve waited so long for … the end of the supernatural’s pathos, the human’s sentimentality, the Custodian’s stupidity, even!
Isn’t it marvelous? We have, in our hands, the most powerful weapon known to any race of being. Once he’s activated, he will be under our control. We will share this with no one. And, Morag, let’s not forget our plan of sealing off Burning Peak! Our opponent Wyrmrig, will either not gain access to the Peak, or he will, and we will be there waiting for him! Can you imagine? Two dragons at our beck and call? It all seems wickedly impossible. Once we get to this stage … once we get to seal off the Peak, we can finally close the Portal to Mag Mell. We can bring our fire-breather through the portal, and into the safety of the mountain. We won’t be needing any Unseelie assistance from this point forward. I trust you can handle these matters with our Fae relations? They’ve been so very ….. ‘handy,’ wouldn’t you say?
Morag, I’m beyond delighted. Truthfully, I am brought to my knees in gratitude.
Finally, we get to rid the world of the flotsam and jetsam of humanity.
Finally, it will be a Warlock led world.
A world where only the most powerful families will prosper.
I know you are as excited as I with this profoundly encouraging news.
Apologies for sending this the old fashioned way, but there are far too many bugs in electronic devices for my liking these days.
Burn immediately after reading.
None of this letter is to be seen or referenced by anyone other than you.
My devoted servant, I will speak to you on the ‘other’ side.
G.S
* * *
And, we thought that the hematite was the Warlock Weapon? We had been bluffed and bluffed again. The Warlocks had us running first to Burning Peak, to take the focus away from the last preparations of the hematite stones ruse. And, then we ran around the hematite leads, only to find that while we were doing that, Shields had given his dragon time to reach maturity. We’d been played like a fiddle.
The world swam before my eyes.
“Oh, my Goddess,” Orville said, tugging at his hair. “They have their dragon. Oh, my Goddess.”
“Calm down at once, boy! It’ll do us no good to --”
“It will do us no good to have no Dragon Steel ready!” Nugget roared. “We have nothing! We can’t get into the Glimmers, we don’t know who the Wyrmrig is or who he will be. Shields has a dragon for Goddess sakes’! A dragon! We have nothing!”
“Okay, kid, you’re freaking me out a bit,” Midnight mumbled from his spot under a shrub.
I stepped forward. “You do have one thing,” I said.
All eyes turned to me.
“You have one more Custodian.”
Epilogue
Summer Eve Fernacre awaits trial for the murder of her estranged father, Barnabus Kramp. David pulled some strings to get Eve’s remand period to unfold at GIPPD station. Steeltrap penitentiary would get her in the end, but the chief wanted to give her an easy entry into criminal incarceration.
Maude Dulgrey confirmed that Eve’s darts were tipped with Whitesnake Root. ‘Enough to drop an ox,’ she said. She also shared the results on the pills I found in Eve’s potting shed. They were the same drugs that Kramp had been taking.
Eve still has no regrets about taking Kramp’s life. I wondered if she could see that she had let her father win in the end. She had lost her freedom.
Ulrich Darkmore, Zinnie Kramp, and Gideon Shields were still at large. We couldn’t use the evidence we had photographed from Darkmore’s accountant, and by the time David’s department got a warrant, all operations; every single bit of proof of hematite storage, production and shipments had disappeared from their respective residences. Shields’ had his scapegoats taking the heat, of course.
The seven Warlocks that had been brought into GIPPD were swiftly convicted of arms dealing. The number of hematite grenades they had in their possession was enough to sentence them each to twenty-five years of imprisonment. The stashes found on their properties added another fifty to the sentence.
The Custodians knew that these Warlocks were used as pawns. They were there to divert our attention away from the Glimmer Mountains, and from Burning Peak.
And, it worked. Our heads were turned, and Shields’ dragon had grown enough to be nearly at the point to touch the Tiamat Stone. And, we had … well, still nothing.
The resentment I felt for the Chief Warlock was overwhelming. That he had David in some kind of Warlock hex, whose grip was strong enough to make my friend very ill, just made my fury simmer and gain bitter potency.
I don’t even know what to think anymore.
It feels hopeless.
I hope it isn’t hopeless. I really don’t.
* * *
THE END
* * *
More goodness on the following pages ..
Available for Pre-order: The Angel and The Dragon
Map of the Coven Isles
The Infiniti Chronicles Continues …
Up to date with the Chronicles? Your next adventure is ‘The Angel and the Dragon.’ Link below. If you’re diving into the mystery for the first time, check out the whole volume here:
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Afterword
Hello!
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About the Author
Who is Pearl, anyway?
* * *
Well, when she’s not talking about herself in the third person, she would likely describe herself something like this:
I’m a borderline crazy-cat-lady and I have an imagination much bigger than my small head can contain. So, I write it all out! I genuinely believe in magic of the Universal variety. A magic that can be accessed by every single human that’s lived, living or will ever live. I write about all this from a Witch’s point of view, of course. : )
I’m an English ex-pat living in Atlantic Canada in the magically beautiful province of Nova Scotia. I feel a Peggy’s Cove Cozy coming on!
Other larger than life passions I have are:
Concocting make-at-home, all natural lotions, and potions and teas.
Nature in all it’s outlandish glory. If I could get away with it, I’d literally roll around in nature from dawn to dusk, whatever the season.
Meditation and human connection are what drive me forward and what make me try to be a better person.
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