LeOmi's Solitude

by Curtis, Gene

  “Leo, your tactics leave something to be desired. I think you owe Miss Jones an apology.”

  “I was just establishing her…”

  “Leo!”

  “I do apologize Miss Jones, I see now that I should not have…”

  “Used her in that fashion.”

  “Yes, should not have used you in that fashion.”

  “This is such dirty business, I will be so glad when it is over, but let me tell you LeOmi.” Mrs. Shadowitz stood in front of LeOmi and held both of her hands and looked into her eyes, “You could not be where you are without your Profession of Faith.”

  Two little faces peeked out on each side of LeOmi’s head and then quickly retreated after Gunnison stirred uncomfortably.

  Gunnison aid, “The Neo-Phylum won’t be thinking about hurting her feelings.”

  “I know Leo, but we need to show that we are not like they are. If we start to allow things like that then how different are we from them?”

  Mrs. Shadowitz made three steaming cups of tea and motioned for LeOmi and Gunnison to sit. “Now, Vincent DuBose somehow –was in the labyrinth. He will not answer this puzzle for us and when he found that we had taken his signet, when others remained, he could only think about getting away as soon as possible.”

  “Bekka contacted your father. He has no information about Vince DuBose except that he worked in the Ship works there in New Orleans.”

  “Your sister and brother know even less.”

  “I had overheard my mother say that he was in an accident when they asked for the cause of death on my health records when I enrolled in school.”

  “Well, he is not dead. How do you think your grandmother will feel about that?”

  “My grandmother has gotten along without him. She is quite wealthy, and it appears that she has been for quite some time, but I never heard her speak of him.”

  There was a knock on the door. “Come in Bekka.” Mrs. Shadowitz nodded towards the tea as she entered the room.

  Gunnison asked, “LeOmi, will you ask your grandfather why he was in the labyrinth?”

  “Why would he tell me?”

  He leaned in again, “Bekka tells us that you have a knife that could have been a family heirloom.”

  “So you want me to show it to him to gain his confidence?”

  “Ahhhemm.” Mrs. Shadowitz as looking at Gunnison.

  Gunnison sat up straight, “Something like that. My men will be very close and as long as you are cautious, there shouldn’t be any problems.”

  “Quintus has assured us that no undetected metal can cross over the entrance/exit.”

  “My team knew when you carried it in and they knew when you carried it out.”

  Mrs. Shadowitz sat down her cup, “LeOmi, may we see it?”

  LeOmi reached into Aaron’s Grasp and pulled out the Ruby Knife and handed it to Mrs. Shadowitz.

  “It is terribly beautiful.”

  “Yes, terribly.”

  * * *

  LeOmi sat on the empty cot across from her grandfather. His eyes were still watery and glassy. He did not try to touch her or say anything. LeOmi smiled at him and pulled the Ruby Knife from her backpack. It was in the sheath that her mother had worn.

  He moved faster than she thought he would be able to, but LeOmi was faster.

  “You know that I am one of your grandchildren.”

  He looked at her and nodded. “A daughter of my Yvonne.”

  “Yes, now tell me, why were you in the labyrinth?”

  He pulled back from her, and then leaned forward, whispering, “Why are you asking? If you have that knife, you should already know.”

  LeOmi looked down at the knife and then back to him. His eyes seemed cleared now.

  “Perhaps you are unaware of what your mother knows.”

  “Perhaps. Since this is the knife that killed my mother.”

  He pulled back, “Anger makes you lose sight of your true purpose. The wild animals–they smell blood. Men are wild animals in the labyrinth. They are reckless, but calculated when it comes to spilling their life’s juices. Women are generally freer with their blood.”

  “She is dead. How much more free could she get?”

  “Anger?”

  “Yes.” LeOmi took a deep breath and calmed, “Anger.”

  “Good.”

  “The abductor needs the prisoner. The prisoner needs the abductor.

  The abductor hates and loves the prisoner, and vice versa. The prisoner hates and loves the abductor, but they both serve their purpose.”

  “So?”

  “You hate your mother, yet you love your mother. Your mother hates you, yet she loves you. You both need each other, even in death.”

  “You have a lot of wisdom.”

  “You have time to think in the labyrinth, when you’re dead.”

  Grand-Père took her hands, she pulled away, but he raised his hand for her to wait and one by one he held her right hand with his left hand and his left hand with her right hand. He kept his focus on her.

  A guard that stood behind her grandfather toppled over onto the cot, blood spilling onto the white linens. LeOmi tried to pull away from Vincent DuBose, but he crumpled forward, a knife in his back.

  Suddenly the Museum was a whirlwind of activity and Gunnison was hovering over LeOmi, with his sword drawn. Bekka and Mrs. Shadowitz were at her sides.

  “How could this happen, Leo?”

  “We had an infiltrator.”

  “Here at The Seventh Mountain? One of our own?”

  “It would seem so.”

  * * *

  Slone had already been there, laid out the food and disappeared.

  LeOmi grabbed some of her usual sandwich makings and went to sit down beside Gail, the girl who gave the top of the Nightingale Floors.

  Gail smiled and said, “I heard that they found the lost UT stone, an ancient cloak, an ancient manuscript—possibly the lost testament of Enoch, lot of old weapons, a few stones with pictographs and of course the sunstone and a hodgepodge of other things.”

  “Twenty four bags of stuff. Cataloging will become a major department, at least for a while. Volunteers from all the other mountains are coming to assist.”

  “Did you hear that Mr. Thorpe found Mark Young by the moat and sent a submarine down to retrieve the sunstone but left him by the moat?”

  “That’s Mr. Thorpe for ya.”

  “There were about thirty people left down in there until Mark brought them up.”

  “Mark Young has had a bad–and in some ways, good, couple of months.”

  “Mr. Diefenderfer’s brain damage is healed, from being in the labyrinth. Isn’t that amazing?”

  Slone came into the alcove and he took out a few things from Aaron’s Grasp and laid them on the front table, “LeOmi, you are to come up front with me.” He put a chair beside his.

  Then he spoke to the group, “We can now have the Meeting of the Courts, the formal end to our trial period. Indigenous followers of a pure or uncombined rank. Natives, Rex and His Royal Court.

  LeOmi’s little voice in her head said, Oh no!

  * * *

  Bekka had her notebook out writing everything LeOmi told her about Slone’s regal court.

  “Well, it would seem that there is no time to waste, we have to get that Journal open.”

  LeOmi took the Journal out of Aaron’s Grasp and the coneys scurried up the Olive Tree and then came down close enough to observe what was going on.

  “I can’t do it without damaging it.”

  “Well, maybe it is time to damage it. By the way, here is the Ruby Knife.” Bekka held out the knife. “You dropped it in the Museum.”

  “Thanks. I thought it had been taken by whoever killed Grand-Père or the guard.”

  “Let’s look at your mom’s journal again. Maybe there is a clue as to how to open it.”

  “I know that there must be a way to open it, but I don’t know what it is. From my research at the library, I kn
ow that this eight rayed star indent is the place for the key to fit and turn. Other keys from the same time period had slots and prongs to work with the base plate too so we can’t just make a star shape and hope that it will work.”

  “The symbols were just your standard run of the mill symbols that everyone was using back then.”

  “Sunset.” Charlie Goodfellow must have been on the upper level.

  “His shout is especially nice when it is unexpected.”

  “Yes, let’s go.”

  They both started clucking their tongues trying to persuade the coneys to come down. Then as if on cue, an animal of some type sounded. The coneys quickly, yet reluctantly, went into the bag.

  * * *

  “Sometimes, I wonder if it was a good idea to have you two coneys living in a dorm room. You are always getting into mischief.”

  Their home away from home in her book bag was getting a little small or they were getting a little too big. They needed to be out more but that was like moving the clock around to what LeOmi wanted. There were just certain things that were feasible and other things that were not. But she loved them so much; she couldn’t imagine how she could ever let them go.

  The bad thing was that they were always hungry, always eating and always making a mess of one kind or another.

  They spent so much time with her books that she was sure that they could read and write just as well as she could.

  Julia Diefenbuacher’s class had been so boring today that she had actually pulled out the Journal for a while and then put it in the book bag, with the coneys.

  Ever since then, they wouldn’t stay still. They were bouncing on and off each other and even popping their heads out occasionally; they hardly ever did that in Julia Diefenbuacher class.

  When LeOmi got back to the dorm room she laid her back pack on the bed as she always did. The coneys piled out, turned and looked at the bag, then at her then back at the bag.

  “What is in there, you sillies?” She looked in and pulled out everything in the bag. “Did you lose a piece of fruit in there, or a nut? There isn’t anything of any special interest. What…?”

  She turned just in time to see the coneys going after the Journal. When she tried to grab it one actually hissed at her. “Hey.” She slapped her hands together. The coney looked up at her and his eyes were actually glowing. She grabbed the book and held it up above her head.

  It was hissing, at the book, not at her, at the book.

  Something slid around in the book. She looked and there was a metal design that was lodged in under the leather.

  She worked it out and the metal piece was the key. Immediately she put the key in the indention and turned it until she heard a click.

  The coney’s eyes glowed reddish orange, and then, the intruders were in her room. There were two of them with hoods and masks over their faces. There was absolutely no way to tell what tribe they were from or if they were even from a tribe. Their chests were heaving up and down from breathing hard, as if they had run hard for miles just to get there.

  LeOmi dropped the Journal and immediately grabbed her sword from Aaron’s Grasp.

  The coneys scurried underneath the bed and one of the intruders reached for Journal but was bulldozed by Thorpe whose answer was to tackle everyone in the room, except for Mrs. Shadowitz. Bodies were flying everywhere.

  Suddenly the small room was full of Magi with drawn swords.

  Gunnison appeared at the door, “Grab them.”

  One of Gunnison’s men said, “I can’t they are all slippery.”

  “Tackle them! Throw the ropes”

  One of the assailants were tackled and bound and his mask was removed.

  “What happened to the other one?”

  “Whoever it was is gone.”

  Mrs. Shadowitz asked, “LeOmi, do you know this one?”

  LeOmi clutched the coneys in her arms, shaking her head back and forth.

  “They were just here, they were breathing so hard, like they had to work hard to get here.”

  “There are ways to do things like this, but it tasks the body greatly.”

  “Could they have used this same method to get to Grand-Père?”

  “I suspect so.”

  LeOmi said, “Mrs. Shadowitz, how did you know?”

  “We have kept a close eye on you since your grandfather was killed.”

  Mrs. Shadowitz walked over to the coneys, “What is wrong with his eyes?”

  “That is what I had just noticed when they showed up. The coney chewed on the corner of the Sumerian Journal Translation. That is when I found the key concealed in the leather lining of the cover. There was a… it should still be here, I don’t think they got a chance to get it.”

  LeOmi found the Journal under the bed, “The key was embedded in the cover.”

  Mrs. Shadowitz looked but she didn’t touch the book. “So as soon as you turned the key, these two villains showed up?”

  “Yeah.”

  “There are two things that concern me. The first is that they will return to try and get what they have not stolen.

  “And second, your coneys have been exposed to something saturated in the ancient leather. We should get them to the animal healers as soon as possible.”

  “Yes Ma’am.”

  “I am sorry, but I need to borrow this journal for a while. I also need you to report to the Council of Elders about this attack.”

  “Okay.”

  “I will keep your book as safe as I can. May I borrow your book bag? Do you have another that you may carry the coney to the animal healer?”

  “Uhhh, I guess I could use the pillowcase.”

  “Good girl. Thank you.”

  “All right, could you please put that in the book bag and give it to me, the less people that touch it the better.”

  Bekka pushed her way into the room, “Ma’am. Is everything all right?”

  “It will be Bekka, as soon as we get to the bottom of this. Do you know this man?”

  “No. Was he the assailant?”

  “One of them. The other got away. Apparently there was some type of alarm associated with the book.” She pointed to the book bag.

  Gunnison said, “Excuse me ma’am, we are ready to take him to Mattaraw Prison.”

  “Leo, what about the other one?”

  “He can’t have gone far.”

  “Thank you, Leo, and your men.”

  LeOmi retrieved the coneys from their foot locker and slid them into the pillowcase, talking and trying to reassure them the whole time.

  * * *

  Bekka went to the animal healer with LeOmi. The male coney had to stay for observation. They gave him lots of water and fruit to help flush his body. If that didn’t work they would put him to sleep and flush him out with a tube and warm glycerin water. It wouldn’t be pretty, but if he was poisoned, he might die.

  The female coney didn’t want to leave his side, and everyone thought it was best if she didn’t.

  * * *

  The Council of Elders was beginning to be a less intimidating place; LeOmi had been there so much.

  Mrs. Shadowitz began, “The villain was identified as a former student from several years ago. Actually it was thought that he was dead. It seems obvious that he allowed himself to be captured instead of his cohort. It is perplexing as to why that would be. There are several theories but of course none of them are pleasant.”

  “LeOmi, how long have you had the Sumerian Journal Translation?”

  “It was my mother’s. She had put it in a bus depot locker for me and my father to find. We retrieved it just before Christmas; I think that it can help me find my mother’s killer.”

  “You may be right, considering the events of this evening. Don’t you agree Council?”

  There was mumbling and conferring between the group.

  She heard the story of her mother’s death relayed to one of the elders.

  “Did you have your coney checked?”

  �
�Yes, they are monitoring the male. He had a reddish orange glow to his eyes. Apparently, he ate some of the corner?”

  “It would seem so.”

  “I usually keep the Journal in Aarons Grasp, but today when I gathered everything, I just put it in my book bag. The coneys were acting absolutely bonkers and as soon as I got to my room I let them out onto the bed. That is when I saw that the cover had been chewed and that the key was hidden there. As soon as I turned the key into place, I was rushed by those two and then Gunnison’s security team showed up almost simultaneously.”

  “Mrs. Shadowitz, did you find out anything about the Journal?”

  “We have sent it to the artifact specialists. I must tell you though, there has been a suggestion that we may need you to come and help us.”

  “Help?”

  “Well, obviously the thieves wanted you and the Journal.”

  “Oh.”

  “We would attempt to set off the alarm just the way that you had done.”

  “No one has opened it yet?”

  “No. We need to act as quickly as we possibly can. The enemy has not had time to plan, so now is when we need to strike back. Do you have any idea who may have been trying to get to the Journal?”

  “Julian Compton is the suspected killer. He is the man that Sergeant Polaris, back in New Orleans, thinks killed my mother and maybe a lot of other people too.”

  “Julian Compton has something to do with the Journal?”

  “Sergeant Polaris and I think he does.”

  * * *

  The next day, Bekka took LeOmi to the lab that the journal had been taken to.

  Mrs. Shadowitz was there, “LeOmi please observe at a safe distance, but not too far away. We may need your assistance.”

  A gentleman with a lab coat approached them. He was impeccably groomed with short salt and pepper hair.

  This is Mr. Sieggler. He is in charge of the study of new artifacts.”

  “Many of us are eager to take a look at the book. There is an oddity about the mechanism.”

  “The lock?”

  “Indeed, it seems to have had an addition to it recently. A power source of some type and something else, possibly a sensor. We think it must read blood or DNA and if it matches certain parameters, an alarm is signaled.”

  Mrs. Shadowitz said, “That seems outlandish.”

  “Nevertheless.” Mr. Sieggler seemed a little offended, “LeOmi, please attempt to open the lock.”