Carlotta and the Krius Scepter (Carlotta Series Book 1)

by John Booth

  “Your people have been active recently, especially David Mersey. I might not have put it together who the Council was if I hadn’t seen a few of them. You’re a very distinctive people, Carlotta.”

  I uttered a very unladylike word and then followed it with a couple more. I met other Fey so rarely it was easy to claim close family links to anybody who asked. But put a dozen of us in a room together and it soon became clear we were much more than that.

  “How do we get out?”

  Gil smiled. “I’ll give you an American and British passport before you go. You’ll need to die your hair black. I’ve made up dozens for you over the years, just in case. A US driver’s license too, that might help. You’ll find the keys to my Jeep over on the table. Go west and take the 90 towards Worcester, you might have to cut across country, but the GPS should get you there. I’d suggest bus or rail after that.”

  “Where’s the hair dye?”

  “In the bathroom upstairs.”

  I turned to Brian, who had been unusually quiet since we entered the house. “Go upstairs and dye your hair.”

  “And you?”

  “I’ll be up in a few minutes.”

  Brian slouched as he headed upstairs. I guess seeing me kiss an old man like that at the door had upset him. I’d sent him away rather than let him watch what I intended to do now.

  “You don’t have to,” Gil said as I started to strip. “It doesn’t matter so much to me these days.”

  “I should have come earlier. I’ve owed you for years.”

  “You’ve given me memories that make my life worth while, Goddess,” Gil told me. Then he was incapable of talking coherently for a while.

  I pulled the car away from the house very aware of the seething mass of emotions sitting in the seat next to me.

  “You did it with him, didn’t you? He’s … old.” As accusations go, I suppose it was fairly mild.

  “He’s a child compared to me. You all are.”

  Brian grappled with what he wanted to say. “I thought you and I were … special.”

  “It’s always special, Brian. That man probably saved our lives, would you begrudge him a few moments of pleasure?”

  “But…”

  We stopped at a red light and I was able to look him in the eye. “I’ve made love to men dying on the battlefield and of the plague. I’ve seen things so horrible you can’t conceive of them and I’ve seen things beautiful beyond belief. I’m old Brian. I’ve been a goddess and watched people come to me with hope in their eyes when the crops failed, expecting me to save them. I’ve found desperate people butchering their children in my name. IN MY NAME, Brian.”

  I shut up. The lights had changed and the drivers were honking their horns. I pulled away and we sat in silence for a long time. There was a roadblock set up out of town and a police officer shone his light into the vehicle and over us. We both had black hair and I had a driving license claiming I was Gil’s daughter. They let us through.

  “Carlotta?”

  I sighed, “Yes Brian?”

  “I love you and I’m strong enough to share you with anyone you choose.”

  I pulled the car off the road and Brian and I made love in an open field. The moonlight shone down on us and he was magnificent. He may even have set a record.

  27. The Hawks

  I woke in the field as dawn broke. I shook myself to get rid of all the plants and insects that decided to set up house on me. Brian lay snoring on the ground looking a little like the Scarecrow from The Wizard of Oz, except that the Scarecrow in the film always buttoned himself up and didn’t leave his bits dangling. I kicked Brian hard up the backside and he woke spluttering.

  “We need to get moving.”

  He looked a little dazed and shook his head. “Where are we going?”

  I smiled. “Back to your home town and our allies.”

  “I wouldn’t exactly call The Don and his men allies,” he grumbled as he dusted himself down and adjusted his clothing until he looked a little less comical.

  “Never knock those who fight on your side,” I told him. It was going to be difficult for Brian soon and ignorance was the only gift I could grant him.

  “Is that another saying from one of your philosopher friends?”

  I thought about it, “No, probably something George W. Bush or Dick Cheney would say.”

  “Don’t tell me you’ve met them too?”

  I laughed at the thought and shook my head. After all, I do have some standards. I’d met Obama though.

  There was a large black holdall filled with tools in the boot. I tipped out the tools and put the Thampthis Box inside it using a blanket around it to disguise its shape. The police wouldn’t be looking for someone smuggling it back into the city so that should be enough to hide it.

  “We need to dump this car somewhere it’ll be found. Gill will report it missing this morning.”

  “So how are we going to get back?”

  I grinned. “I have a cunning plan.” He didn’t get the reference; Americans watch so little British television.

  The railway station was crowded, but there was a certain amount of safety in numbers and I hoped our dyed hair would allow us to escape detection. There were surveillance cameras at the ticket office and I tensed when a couple of security guys walked past. Fortunately, I’d liberated a few thousand dollars from the Council Vault when I recovered the Box so we weren’t short of cash.

  The train was also crowded and a far cry from the luxury carriages we’d travelled in with Peleus. Brian took the window seat and stared out as the countryside whizzed by. I read a free magazine I picked up on the platform and tried to make myself look inconspicuous.

  This was hard for me. Though I rarely wear makeup, I attract the attention of men wherever I go. I kept the magazine high so it covered my face. The holdall sat on the floor between my legs, providing an obstacle for anyone trying to sit down on the other side.

  It was an interminable journey. Brian went in search of refreshments after a couple of hours and brought back sandwiches that looked as though they’d been made with real sand. I stayed away from the cans of cola he bought because I didn’t want to have to go to the toilet and leave the Box unguarded. Okay, technically I would have been leaving it with Brian, but that amounted to much the same thing.

  When we reached our destination it was getting dark. As we approached the end of the platform two people in trench coats and hats stepped behind us and I felt a gun barrel poking into my back.

  “Go to the emergency exit on your right,” my captor whispered in my ear. Something about the voice suggested it might be a woman. That inspired a revelation and I relaxed.

  “Do what they say, Brian,” I ordered. The last thing we needed was a fight between friends.

  Going through the emergency exit set off an alarm. Bells rang loudly. “Down the stairs and across the car park,” a familiar voice instructed.

  I grabbed Brian’s hand in mine. “Quickly, they’re on our side.”

  Fey can move very fast when we want to and the four of us were across the car park in less than five seconds. We would have looked like a smear on the security cameras. As we approached a black SUV its lights flashed. I opened the rear door and pushed Brian in, before flinging the holdall and myself after. The others got in the front seats and the engine started.

  “There’s a blanket back there. Throw it over yourselves and get down,” Sara instructed. I did what I was told and Brian and I crouched down in the space between the front and back seats with the blanket over us.

  “Who are they?” Brian whispered. I put my fingers to his lips and shook my head.

  We stopped after a minute or so and I heard an electric motor whine as the driver’s window wound down.

  “Hi officer, what’s the problem?” Torin sounded relaxed.

  “We’re looking for those missing kids.”

  “But they’re in Boston, why would they come back here?”

  I could almost
hear the officer shrug. “Beats me, I just follow orders.”

  “Well, if we see them we’ll be sure to let you know,” Sara put in cheerfully. “We’ve just come from the mall, is that where they were seen?”

  “No, the Railway Station. Thanks for your time, folks.”

  The window wound back up and we moved off. Some time later Sara tugged at the blanket. “You can get up now.”

  “Where are we going?” I asked.

  “The Warehouse. It’s the one place we’re pretty sure the Council doesn’t know about.”

  “You’re Fey,” Brian said rather obviously. “You must be part of the Hawks.” Hah, he’d figured it out.

  “We’re all of the Hawks, unless you count Cear. Welcome home, son,” Torin said with some feeling.

  “I think introductions are in order,” I said, though technically only Brian didn’t know who everybody was.

  “Brian Talbot, meet Sara Muldoon. She’s been resident in the city for over a hundred years and before that spent half a millennia causing trouble over in Ireland. She has been the chief and sometimes only Hawk during her years here.”

  Sara smiled and put out a hand, which Brian shook. She looked to be about thirty, which was a typical age-look for a Fey woman. She winked at me and put on a broad Irish accent. “Well sure, and what was I supposed to do when the Mafia started robbing hard working Irish families of what little they earned?”

  Torin pulled the SUV into an alleyway and then into the open doors of the warehouse before turning round in the vehicle to stare anxiously at Brian.

  “And this is Torin Dar. We have known each other since he led me into Queen Boudicca’s camp a few centuries ago. When he met your mother he was playing lead guitar in a British rock band and his stage name was Brian Lane. He’s also your father.”

  Brian’s mouth fell open and he stared back at Torin.

  Torin spoke hesitantly, “Son, I’ve wanted to meet you since the day you were born, but the Council forbade it. I’ve been watching over you your whole life. The only time you ever got away from me was that day in the stadium.”

  “Why…?”

  “The Council wanted to see if it made a difference to be brought up as a human…”

  “It was a mad idea,” Sara said with some feeling.

  “No it wasn’t,” I said and the others turned to look at me. “It may have been the only good idea they’ve ever had.”

  “To keep me from my father?” Bitterness dripped from every word.

  I looked at Sara. “A human child is going to die, but you can save her at the risk of revealing yourself. Would you?”

  Sara frowned. “No, not unless I knew her or her family.”

  Torin shook his head. “None of us would, except you, Cear. You’ve always taken insane risks for humans.”

  “Two of us would, Torin. Counting your son.”

  There was an office in the warehouse, a glass shed within a metal shed complete with fridge, microwave and electric kettle, not to mention a table and a set of plastic chairs. I’d been here a couple of times before, but tonight it felt like coming home. I was comfortable here.

  The other three were subdued. Torin and Brian wanted to hug each other, with neither willing to risk the first move. I could see it in their eyes. Sara made us instant coffee and avoided looking at me.

  “The plan worked after a fashion, but you should have told me about the Council, Torin.”

  “I wasn’t sure about them until they got hold of you and the Box. Greta rang me and told me what happened in Boston. Nevin is apoplectic with rage and he’s sure to come after you, all guns blazing.”

  I sighed, “Nevin is insane. Every bit as insane as Peleus and every bit as dangerous. Will Greta do anything to stop him?”

  It was Torin’s turn to sigh. “She can’t. Peter is under Nevin’s spell and believes all this nonsense about saving the world. It would be a two to one vote, and if she tried it they’d throw her off the Council.”

  “Why did Cear lose her memory?” Brian asked, “And why did she come to save me? She barely knows the city.”

  The easy questions I could answer.

  “Sara and Torin called me when they heard the Box was going to be stolen by The Don. I suggested putting The Don’s team into coffins to scare them off. Then they kidnapped you and I flew in from London to rescue you.”

  “Just like that?”

  I nodded at Brian. “Just like that. Torin is an old friend and you are his first Fey son. It was my fault they took you anyway. Also, I was worried that someone was after the Krius and I needed to get into The Don’s organization to find out exactly who was after it.”

  “It was always about the Krius first?” Brian made his question into a statement.

  I nodded reluctantly, but it was only fair he knew the truth. “Getting in was the problem. I figured The Don wouldn’t know much about female Fey and if I could trick him into thinking I wasn’t that dangerous, he’d keep me around. The hypnosis was supposed to stop me from acting too arrogantly and make the action real by reducing my strength.”

  “Cear’s so battle experienced she might have won even then, if she’d been herself,” Torin put in.

  “I got a stage hypnotist to do it. It should have worn off by the time I got up to the Penthouse and the fact that it didn’t screwed the plan.” I grinned at Sara. “By the way, your son is wonderful, if a little crazy. He tried to talk me out of going.”

  “Thank you. It’s hard playing an old woman around him, though. I wish I could see him more.”

  Brian looked confused.

  “Who’s her son?”

  “Rex King. The detective I mentioned. He’s a human.”

  28. Krius

  I took the Thampthis Box out of the holdall and placed it on the table.

  “All this fuss over that,” Torin said. “Is the Krius really inside it?”

  “Yes, hidden in the base. The instructions say if I strike it with my sword it will open. My sword’s in London.”

  Torin picked the box up and examined it before giving it to Sara. She ran her fingers over the scratches where my face had once been.

  “He must have loved you a great deal,” she said as she put the box back on the table.

  “Enough to kill the last of the magicians in the world to give me that box,” I said bitterly. “Yes, he loved me that much.”

  “But it worked,” Sara said in awe. “It’s kept the Krius safe for nearly five thousand years. And since you wouldn’t accept his gift, he removed your face from it so that grave robbers wouldn’t be able to use your likeness to find you.”

  “That’s one interpretation,” I admitted grudgingly.

  Brian picked up the box. I think it was the first time that he’d ever properly looked at it. “I don’t hear any voices. Did the voices name the sword you need to use as Excalibur?”

  I banged my fist on the table. I have hated that stupid name for centuries. “It’s my sword. I never gave it a damned name because it’s MY sword. It was Peleus that came up with the name Excalibur. Isn’t that typical of a man, they even name their body parts.”

  Brian looked down at his groin and blushed. Torin continued the argument for him.

  “The lad’s right. It might be that you can use any sword.” He sounded excited.

  I shook my head. That had to be the daftest idea I’d ever heard. Torin didn’t think so and continued with his argument.

  “The box is tuned to you and nobody else. Only you could hear the voices. Maybe it’s designed to open for you, not for any particular sword you wield.”

  I stood up in annoyance. “Since we don’t have a sword we can hardly test it, can we? Perhaps you could go out to a toy store and buy one?”

  It was meant to be sarcasm, but Torin left the room at a run.

  “He’s not actually going out to buy me a sword is he?” I asked Sara.

  “He doesn’t need to,” she said, a smile playing at the corners of her mouth.

 
I felt Torin coming back, his steps causing vibrations on the mezzanine floor. He burst into the room carrying a sword wrapped in an oiled cloth. Putting it down reverently, he looked at me.

  “My sword, from the time of Boudicca.”

  I remembered that sword. It was far too gaudy for my tastes, a lot of decoration on the hilt and its sheath, all polished mother of pearl and semi-precious stones. I always wondered how he could bear to take it into battle knowing it would certainly be damaged in a fight. I waited for him to unwrap the sword, but he just stood there waiting.

  Since he wasn’t going to do it I removed the oiled cloth to reveal the ancient sword. It was beautiful. Brian gasped behind me.

  “Do they all look like that?”

  I shook my head. “You’ve had it restored, Torin. It looks like it’s just been made.”

  Torin growled a reply, though I could see he was pleased at our reactions. “I just look after my things better than you, Cear, and I avoided a lot of battles you didn’t.”

  I pulled the bronze blade from its sheath and swung it experimentally. “A bit blade heavy.”

  “It wasn’t made for a girl.”

  “I’m not going to break something as beautiful as this on the box,” I told them. I meant it. This sword should be in a museum, not damaged in a futile attempt to get at the Krius.

  “Maybe you don’t have to,” Brian said quietly. “Not if it’s magic.”

  Sara took the box and put it on its side so its legs faced me. “Try tapping it.”

  Feeling more than a bit of an idiot, I brought the edge of the blade down gently on the box. “Open,” I commanded, though I might have sounded more embarrassed than commanding. “There, I told you nothing would happen.”

  “Look!” Brian shouted.

  A sliver of light shone from where the blade had touched the surface of the box. It spread in both directions cutting the box neatly in two. The halves fell apart as though someone was moving them and the Krius dropped from inside the base of the box onto the table. The light faded and we all stared at the Krius.

  Nobody made any move to pick it up. I was back in Atlantis, seeing Hankle with that broad smile on his face throwing the damned thing at me. Hankle had been so handsome, so alive, so full of himself. I felt a tear run down my cheek. Damn him and his friends to hell.