She looked at him horrified but kept silent the rest of the ride.
When Kate finally spoke they were back at Thaddeus’ office and she was sitting in the big cushioned chair behind his desk. “Ok, did he tell you how to send me back?” she asked in a low voice betraying the fact that she had really felt the chastisement that Thaddeus had heaped on her over her dalliance with Franz.
“No in fact he probably wants you dead,” said Thaddeus, “He didn’t come out and say that directly but he did ask me to turn you over along with any strange items you had with you. You worry him for some reason and if he is dealing in the kind of Magic that can bring people across from other worlds it’s no wonder he’s worried.”
“So are you going too?” she asked
“Going too what? Turn you in?” asked Thaddeus back, “I thought about it. He is offering me the world for your hide. The problem is I may be a shark and an unmitigated ass but I do not go back on my word. I promised to see you through this and I mean to do it.”
She didn’t reply for a moment or two but sat in the chair and pondered over what the Dwarf had said.
“I was thinking about when I woke up here and just before the one thing that sticks out in my mind is water.” She said looking out the window towards the docks. “I remember the roar of water not just the sound the river makes.”
“I can make inquiries.” said Thaddeus, “I’m sure that we can find out if the Senator owns property near the river. Stay here I need to go to the land agents office maybe even the register of deeds. My gun belt is in the lower drawer of the desk just in case”
With that Thaddeus left the office and the girl settled in reading a copy of “Harper’s Bizarre”. The subtle difference between this world and her’s fascinated her to no end. It was as if every fairy tale that had ever been had been allowed to run riot over the Earth but these fairy tale creatures really had had very little impact on history. The President was Grover Cleveland and she sort of remembered his name. Edison was in all the news his inventions making him a superstar and there was another Tesla. She had thought Tesla was just a band she vaguely remembered from elementary school days but here he was an inventor the rival of Edison and she sort of remembered that too from somewhere. Kate was so engrossed in the Magazine that she failed to see the two men step into the office but heard the door click shut. She looked up just as one man closed the blinds on the windows and the second covered her with a revolver. They looked to her like classic Cowboy villains that you see on some silly western movie. Both had the typical cowboy hats western shirts and chaps worn by all bad guys and they even had scarves over their faces.
“You boys really are stereotypes aren’t you?” She said in a matter of fact voice.
“Shut that Bitch up.” growled the man with the gun.
Kate rose to her feet just as the man who had closed the blinds reached her. With a blood curdling “Haaaaaaiiiiiiiiyaaa!!!”, Kate spun like lightening bringing her foot into contact with the man’s face. Blood erupted from his nose and splashed across the papers on Thaddeus’ desk. In a fluid rush Kate dove behind the desk.
“That cunt kicked me,” said the man holding his face in his hands, “She kicked me in the ever loving face.”
The man with the gun rushed toward the desk. “Don’t worry Sam she ain’t gonna kick nobody else after I blow her goddamn legs off.”
The sound of a gunshot crashed through the room and a suddenly wood dust fell from a hole that had appeared in the ceiling above the desk. Kate rose from behind the desk holding one of Thaddeus’s 45 caliber colts with both hands. She was shaking but the gun turned with purpose towards the man who had threatened to blow her legs off.
“Drop that gun on the floor and put your hands up.” yelled a visibly shaken Kate.
The man with the gun stopped looked at the girl and raised his gun level with her. “What we got here girly is a showdown. Now I don’t think you will kill a man. Personally I think that was the first time you ever fired a gun. So why don’t you put it down and we talk a bit, because just between you and me I am not convinced you can hit the broad side of a barn with that peace maker, and I know I can ruin your pretty little face with mine.” He stated it plainly and simply and looked at Kate in all expectation she would comply and she almost did. She had been kidnapped, beaten, left for dead, and scolded since she had been brought here. She thought about how lost she had felt just a few days before but how even in this short amount of time this world with its wondrous creatures had grown on her and she got angry. This bastard wanted to rape her she saw it in his eyes and he had surely been sent by that SOB Senator to finish the job of killing her and more anger emerged. Anger poured off her like lava and you could almost see the heat rising from her…..In fact the man looking at the girl expecting her to place the gun on the desk so that he and his friend could take turns with her, did see that heat radiating off of her. It came in waves and the gun she was carrying was red with the heat. Hell Fire burned in her eyes and it licked around the edges of the barrel of her gun.
“This Bitch is a Witch….” Screamed the man with the gun, he barely got that last stupid rhyme off his tongue before crimson and blue flames flew from the barrel of her gun to dance wildly across his body searing flesh and bone with each touch of a flaming tendril. The man who had been holding his ruined nose looked on in horror as his brother melted in those hellish flames. He turned to flee the gruesome sight but his movement drew the attention of the girl who now stood bathed in flame but who was not consumed. The fire again licked away from her and moved like a snake striking at the second man. He too melted into a ghastly heap that slowly turned to ash and ash to dust. The fire around Kate died and with its departure she collapsed to the floor behind the desk. Nothing was left to even suggest that the two men had been in the office except a bullet hole directly above the desk of the Dwarven Lawyer.
Thaddeus found Kate laying behind the desk his .45 in her hand and a blue welt the size of a small egg on her temple. He brought her around by lifting her head into his lap and applying a cold towel to her bruised forehead. “They were going to rape and kill me.” She mumbled and Thaddeus soothed her.
“You’re not dead and you still have all your clothes on.” He said in a low steady voice, “Looks like you scared them off before they did much more than give you a love tap.” He gestured towards the lump on her head. He wasn’t sure that was what happened but if it made her feel better then what was the harm. He got her into a chair and she quickly seemed to recover from the ordeal. Thaddeus prodded her for a bit more information but she protested that it hurt her head to think about it too much and he moved the topic along to something a bit more germane.
“Remember when I told you that those blue pants you wear reminded me of an archaeologist chap that came through here a few months ago?” asked Thaddeus.
“Yes,” she replied, “And they are called jeans.”
“Whatever.” quipped Thaddeus. “Anyhow that archaeologist wasn’t just a happenstance visitor. The Senator had paid him to come out here to work on a dig on some property north of town and next to the river. Filbert at the Land Office was more than happy to gossip about it because the Senator had tried to keep the fact he had bought the land very quiet even having the property put into the name of his nephew.”
“Ok, what does an Archaeological dig have to do with me being here?” asked Kate.
“I thought you might ask that.” said Thaddeus, “He produced a large book from his satchel. It was entitled “Dark Magical practices of the Mississippi Native” by Ben Franklin.
“Wait is that Ben Franklin the one I think it is?” asked Kate mystified.
“Yes, I know we have discussed this but magic may be a fairy tale in your time and place but here Ben Franklin is the father of thaumaturgical theory. That is he studied magic and wrote down all the laws that seemed to govern it. Hell he even started schools about it. I personally only dabble in it a bit but I knew enough to look up this book.”<
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Thaddeus opened the book and began thumbing through it. “Here it is.” Thaddeus pointed to a drawing of a series of standing stones. “These were found when the first survey was done here about a hundred years ago. The natives reported that the stones allowed them to walk between worlds and to converse with higher powers. The stones were buried and lost after an earthquake changed the course of the river in 1802 right after this drawing was made. That was over eighty years ago.”
Thaddeus closed the book and looked at Kate. “I believe the Senator used these stones to bring you here. I don’t know why or even how he did it but this explains a lot.”
“I need to see these stones.” said Kate, “If they can somehow get me back we need to go there now.”
Thaddeus and Kate crested the hill together. Below them laid out in no discernable pattern was a series of deep excavations. One of the circular pits was 100 feet across and 20 feet deep, you could see standing stones peeking out of the walls and at its center there were two huge stone pillars supporting between them a third. This almost looked like a doorway and the space in between was inky black. Off to one side lay a fourth stone like a table, four figures in hooded robes surrounded this stone obscuring the view of its surface. Here also twenty yards away Old man River rushed and plowed past these excavations held back by a long row of railroad ties backed by a thick wall of sand bags. Here and there water spilled between the sand bags making the floors of the excavated pits oozing bogs of mud.
“If you are planning to get back home,” screamed Thaddeus over the din of rushing water, “We need to get down there now.” Kate raced down the muddy bank towards the lip of the large excavated pit Thaddeus close on her heels. At the edge of the pit which contained the standing stones Kate lost her grip and slid head first down the bank becoming covered in a thick layer of mud and landing with a distinct smack that could even be heard over the roar of the rushing water. The four figures at the stone table turned as one toward the sound. Kate covered in mud and seemingly knocked unconscious by the fall was not readily noticeable, Thaddeus on the other hand standing at the top of the pit felt like he had a large target painted on his chest. Thaddeus reached for his pistol but before his hand could move more than a few inches one of the figures had raised a his hand and was chanting something that sounded like he had a mouth full of mush and another of the figures had produced a stub nosed derringer out of his or her cloak. The figure with the Gun waved Thaddeus over to stairs that had been cut into the earth wall.
“If you please Mr. Lawyer,” came the melodious voice of a person Thaddeus recognized as the Senator’s wife but her face was hidden under a cloak, “drop your shooting irons into the mud and come down here.”
Thaddeus carefully un-slung his gun belt and carefully allowed it to drop to the ground at the top of the stairs then he proceeded to climb down the steps. At the bottom one of the figures, which Thaddeus could make out as a local shop keep when he came close, frisked him.
“He’s not packing,” said the shopkeeper pushing Thaddeus toward the table and the rest of the group. Thaddeus shuffled along and moved just far enough that all eyes pointed toward him and would not be pointing in the direction of the large mud encrusted mound that still hadn’t moved.
“Ah, yes,” came the sweet female again, “And we all know that the celebrated Lawyer cum detective doesn’t have much use for magic. Do you Mr. Turnbuckle?”
“Well now Mrs. Steelhope, never say never, but in this case no, I haven’t a charm, talisman, or scroll anywhere on my person.”
“We are glad you’re here just in time for the ceremony.” said the Senator’s wife almost in a cackle. “I have it on good authority that your young friend ran off so my guess is you came here to find her.”
That comment seemed strange. The senator’s men who had come to kill Kate didn’t succeed but here the Senator’s wife believed they had. Maybe they had just not come back and reported so that they believed all had gone as planned.
“Yes,” Thaddeus replied, ”When I returned to my office this afternoon she was gone. Not that I care where she went my interest lies more in what you have found here.”
“It is a beauty.” She said and waved her arm around the circle, “All your dreams come true and for an amazingly small price.”
Thaddeus wondered at the price but had very little time to think because a low whine that had been hidden under the roar of the river now came to an almost deafening pitch and all eyes turned toward the Stones at the center of the circle that formed a doorway. The inky blackness now swirled into a million colors and Thaddeus had a very hard time looking at them without being nauseous but he could not take his eyes off what he was seeing. There in the center of the mass a figure appeared at first it was blurry and indistinct almost like a ghostly apparition then it slowly became crisp and Thaddeus could see that it was the Senator but he was not alone. In his arms he carried and young girl. She could not have been more than 13 or 14 and she seemed to be either in a deep sleep or drugged. The senator walked to the stone table that they were gathered around and laid her in the center of it. He then turned and looked at Thaddeus.
“I see our little friend has joined us.” He said, “Just in time for the main event.”
Thaddeus had a feeling what was going on but it had not really clicked until this moment.
“So you need a sacrifice.” Said Thaddeus “but why the young girl what was wrong with Kate?” that question sounded downright bloody vicious but Thaddeus wanted to get to the heart of the matter and if these fiends thought he was like them all the better more the chance he didn’t get his brain blew out before he could get that girl and Kate away from these maniacs.
“My Gods how I hate that place Kate is from.” Screamed the Senator, “there is not a drop of magic in the place. Do you realize how empty that feels when you go there and you can’t feel the power at your finger tips….no I guess not. In any case we need a virgin sacrifice to complete my run for President.”
“But,” interrupted Thaddeus “would it not be easier to get a virgin here?”
“Of course,” said the Senator “but he thinks it would be too easy.” The senator pointed back at the portal which still radiated the swirl of a million colors and emitted the high pitched whine. “He told us virgin blood here was too sweet that magic tainted the taste. He wants virgin blood from a world with no magic. Do you have any idea how hard it is to find a virgin in that bitch’s world?”
Thaddeus thought about it a second. From the way Kate acted towards the troll he had thought she had some sort of hysteria that women got when they went through trauma and had sought out the biggest strongest man to protect her. Now he knew her world was populated by women who were all slatterns. Maybe that was even normal there.
“I am sure I wouldn’t know.” said Thaddeus. He glanced back to where Kate was. She was gone the mound of mud she had been hidden under was now flat. “And just who is HE?” said Thaddeus pointing at the portal.
“We don’t know his name. Demons rarely give them out.” replied the Senator.”First law of Demonology if you can divine the true name you have power over the demon. He merely tells us what he wants and what he is willing to give.”
The Senator motioned to two of the cloaked men who advanced on Thaddeus. “Well this chat has been fun and we really should do this again sometime but alas you will be washing up down river as an unfortunate drowning victim.”
The two men reached to Grab Thaddeus by the arms while the Senator’s wife kept him covered with the gun. Thaddeus sat down and pushed himself off with his feet. In the slick mud he slide ten feet back almost to the base of the sandbags and railroad ties, which held the river at bay. He was now covered in Mud his immaculate kilt oozing with the stuff but he stood up and waved his arms over the sand bags.
His two would be assailants scrambled toward Thaddeus and the Senator’s wife brought the gun up and was about to fire..
Thaddeus yelled above the roar of the river and
the whine of the portal. “I am a Dwarf and as such I know all the magic of the earth. If you do not put down that gun I will command these sand bags to move aside and the river will rush in here and we all will be unfortunate drowning victims.”
The senator laughed,” You don’t know any magic. I have had you checked out. You’re a faker. Anyway that’s sand and mud not stone”
Thaddeus eyed the Senator,” Sand is just degenerate stone and mud is just degenerate sand, have you ever met a Dwarf who didn’t know at least a little about earth magic? If you think I am bluffing have your little wife there shot me and watch a ton of water come pouring in here.”
“Put the gun down Alice.” said the Senator” He has a point those sawed off fuckers know everything there is to know about dirt.”
She lowered the gun a bit then brought it back up, “You may be fooled but I don’t think I believe any of this malarkey.” Her finger was tightening on the trigger when she fell like a sack of potatoes. Kate had climbed up on the Alter table was holding the little girl in one hand she had a thick tree limb in the other which she had just used to knock Alice Steelhope senseless.
Monsters, Magic, and Machines (The SteamGoth Anthology Book 1) Page 10