Guild Of Immortal Women

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Guild Of Immortal Women Page 21

by David Alan Morrison


  70

  “Get these dogs off of me before I shoot them!” Mathers screamed, waving his badge and gun.

  Tomyris sighed and hit ‘pause’ on her iPod. “Men. Always playing with guns.” She whistled and the pair of dogs immediately backed away and sat at her feet. She turned to him and rolled her eyes. “What do you want now? More hair samples?”

  “Oh! Dear, me!” Ruth’s voice floated from the interior of the Bastille. “I shall call for Eleanor.”

  After Mathers watched Abbey and the Grim Reaper disappear into thin air, he set out for the Bastille at a full run. He hadn’t gotten halfway to the mansion when two large dogs appeared out of the woods that separated the mansion from the stable and herded him like a sheep towards the Bastille, where they kept him confined to the garden that separated the woods from the kitchen door.

  He looked at the woman with beaded hair wearing the sports bra. “Tomyris, right?” She nodded and reached into a leather pouch on her belt, withdrew pieces of meat, and tossed them to the dogs. “Abbey… she…disappeared.”

  Tomyris nodded and sighed. “Yeah. Pisser, isn’t it?” She adjusted the jewel in her belly-button and straightened the bells strung across her neck. “Do you like the jingle bells, or should I get fairy bells instead? The jingle bells are fucking grating on my nerves, but—”

  “Detective Mathers!” Eleanor said, rushing out of the kitchen and onto the lawn. “What on earth are you doing here?”

  “Abbey…” he had no time to finish as an arm wrapped around his neck and another wrapped around his chest. “Ow! That hurts,” he hissed as the elbow closed around his throat.

  “Boo, dear, please don’t strangle him until we know what he’s seen,” Eleanor said calmly. “And pray tell, why are you not searching the Faire grounds for the Doctor?”

  “Because Robert is no longer here and you know it!” the gruff voice behind him said.

  “Oh, dear!” Ruth whined, “please don’t kill him. He needs food.

  Shall I set another place for the detective at dinner?” Eleanor looked at Mathers. “Are you hungry, Detective?”

  “Abbey,” he gasped. “She’s gone.”

  Eleanor nodded slowly. “Yes, we know. We’ve already begun searching for her. When Merlin arrives, perhaps he shall give us more information about Robert.” She turned to Tomyris, who stood rebraiding her hair. “Have the dogs found Merlin?”

  Tomyris nodded. “They are bringing him now. Merlin is injured. Stabbed.”

  “Dear!” Ruth said, clamping her hands over her mouth. “I shall get the healing potions.”

  “Robert?” Mathers tried to say through his clenched windpipe. Eleanor motioned to Boo and the grip on his neck loosened. “You mean Abbey’s uncle Robert?” The arm wrapped itself around his neck again. “What do you know about Robert?” Boo shouted. “Where is he?”

  Mathers tried to shake his head. “I…don’t…know!” He gasped for air. “Lynn Swanson mentioned him. He is coming to the Faire with her tomorrow. She asked me to check on Abbey because her Uncle Robert told her Abbey was in danger.”

  “From who?” Boo demanded.

  “From you.”

  “Well,” Zenobia said, appearing in the doorway, “why should we take the detective’s word for it?” She looked to Eleanor. “I say we keep him in the basement until tomorrow night.”

  Livia appeared out of the thicket of trees. Her business suit remained perfectly pressed, although bits of leaves and twigs clung to the hem. “I have researched the detective thoroughly. I say we question him regarding the disappearance.”

  “Agreed,” Eleanor nodded at Boo. “Besides, a police officer would be missed if he disappeared.”

  “Damn,” Tomyris sneered at him, “he would look fabulous in chains.”

  “Can…you…let…me…go…now?” Mathers gasped.

  Just then a crash through the trees silenced them. Stumbling through the undergrowth was the horse that Mathers saw stabbed in the field by the Grim Reaper. It favored its hind quarters, where blood ran down its flank. Two of the large dogs that had herded Mathers towards the mansion accompanied it. The horse stopped, looked to the group, and spoke.

  “I seem to have run into a bit of trouble.”

  Mathers felt the arm around his throat loosen and he collapsed onto the grass, staring up into the eyes of the talking horse.

  “Well, Detective,” Ruth’s voice came from behind him. “Do you like roasted chicken and Couscous?”

  71

  Abbey chewed the dried meat and stared into the man’s deep brown eyes. “I’m your wife?”

  His head lowered onto his chest. A sob escaped him and he wiped a single tear from his eye. “You were taken from me.” He pointed out the window to the burning stake and the pyre. “The shock of the…” he paused before continuing in a broken whisper, “of your death was too much for you. I became erased from your memory. I have been pursuing you through time ever since.”

  “Why didn’t you contact the Bastille? Aunt Eleanor—”

  “It was your Aunt Eleanor who aided in this fraud!” Robert spat, leaping to his feet. “She was against our union from the beginning! When the King ordered your death, I tried to save you but those wicked women stood in my way.”

  Abbey swallowed the meat and shook her head. Her stomach began to churn and the headache began pounding again. “I saw what happened to me from the window. She took me through the Tapestry and she showed me…”

  “Showed you what?” Robert demanded. “Showed you burning as she stood watching with that whimpering Ruth? Showed you screaming in pain as she hid safely in the shadows?”

  “She said she arrived too late.”

  “She lied.” He knelt before her and rested his hands on her knees.

  “She wanted you to die, Abbey.”

  “But Aunt Boo—”

  “Boo is a crazy—”

  “NO!” Abbey screamed at him. “She showed me how the women replaced my charred corpse with an unknown girl’s, because my body was to be burned twice.”

  Robert’s eyes flashed in anger for a moment before more tears flowed. Within that moment, a key twisted in Abbey’s mind, unlocking visions of forgotten events. Hazy pictures flooded into her. She remembered Robert’s expression of hostility, his eyes narrowing into slits, his lips parting slightly as his teeth bit into his bottom lip.

  “Oh,” he said. “I did not realize they showed you that memory.” He looked into her eyes and smiled. But his eyes belied any sense of humor or compassion. His eyes reflected a glazed, distant rage. She suddenly felt afraid.

  “I suppose they also told you that you are Joan of Arc?” He sighed when she nodded. “I was afraid of that. Dear, you are not Joan of Arc. You never were. Immortal, yes. Fierce, yes. Desirable, yes. But a warrior child?” He smiled broadly and shook his head. He leaned in and hugged her tightly.

  “You are nobody important to the world. Only to me.”

  72

  “More lamb, Detective?” Ruth cooed, holding out another chop toward Mathers. He shook his head.

  “So Abbey chatted with a horse, disappeared into a piece of fabric, traveled through time, and now you’re going to find her with magic?” he asked the group. The women around the table nodded.

  “You need more wine,” Ruth said, filling his goblet. “These things make more sense with wine.”

  “Kinda sucks you have to find out this way,” Tomyris said, tossing a bone to the dog on her right, “but it’s a shitload of work to search through time. It’ll be a while before we find her.”

  “I shall brew coffee!” Ruth smiled. “We need coffee with the cobbler. Detective, do you like cherry cobbler or peach?”

  “Excuse me,” he said, standing up, “but I’m going to find Abbey.”

  “Detective,” Eleanor asked as he stormed out of the room, “how shall you do so?”

  He spun around to stare at her. “Start at the scene of the disappearance. Standard protocol.”

 
; “And then what? You saw her disappear. That is what you said, is it not?”

  He stared at Eleanor for a moment before responding. “I said that’s what it looked like.”

  “And we are telling you that is what it is,” she said, wiping her mouth on the silk napkin.

  “But that’s impossible.”

  “And we are telling you that it is not.” Eleanor patted the table.

  “Please sit down. Have some of Ruth’s cobbler.”

  Ruth nodded. “I have Rice Krispy treats, oatmeal bars—”

  “This is going to be a P.R. nightmare,” Livia said, laying her head on the table. “We must get a gag order against the detective now.”

  “Livia, you must relax. This is not the first time a mortal has become embroiled in the business of the Tapestry.” Eleanor reached out for Mathers’ hand. “For example, look at Elfi and Sarah Reisner.”

  Mathers stared at the woman. “I knew you knew something about them.”

  Eleanor laughed. “My dear man, I know everything about them.”

  He leaned in closer to her and stared into her eyes. “Then explain to me how they share your DNA.”

  “Oh, dear, no!” Ruth said, emerging from the kitchen with two cobblers. “And Elfi and Sarah are my descendants. Be careful, those are hot.” She motioned to the cobblers. “They are born from my granddaughter’s granddaughter. See, she bred with an Immortal as well and…”

  “Eleanor!” Zenobia cried as she rushed into the dining room. “I have a location on Abbey.”

  73

  She forced a smile as Robert tapped the end of her nose lightly with his finger. “Shall I bring more water when I return?” “Yes, please.”

  “Very well, my love.” He replaced the dishes on the silver tray. He leaned in to kiss her and Abbey turned her cheek to him.

  “What? No passion for your husband?” He grabbed the silver tray and headed to the door. “I shall only be gone a moment. Can I get you anything else?”

  “Only the tea, please,” she said, shaking her head. “This headache distracts me so! As well as upsets my stomach. I fear I do not feel well.”

  “Many women with child feel the same way,” he said with a wink. He left, locking the door behind him.

  Abbey leapt to her feet. She had no guarantee how long fetching tea would keep him out of the room. Before he returned she needed to see what, if any, she had at her disposal. She reached out to an enormous dark mahogany dresser with deep drawers and elaborate gold knobs. She flung the middle drawer open and explored its contents. Articles of clothing, scarves and other miscellaneous garments spilled out, but nothing to help her. Robert was lying. But lying about what? What was he hiding? She needed something to trigger her memory and fill in the missing pieces of the puzzle. More than that, she needed a weapon.

  She found nothing unusual in the second drawer, so she moved onto the next drawer with the same results. She repeated this maneuver with the remaining drawers but found nothing but clothing and trinkets.

  As she turned away from the dresser, her eyes fell upon a small bejeweled box sitting atop the dresser. Constructed of hammered metal with crudely constructed bolts, it looked out of place in these lavish surroundings. She snatched it up and flipped the top open. Several articles of women’s jewelry lay inside.

  Then she saw something lying on the bottom of the pile of jewelry. She dug into the necklaces and drew out a broach of wildly colorful jewels. Mickey Mouse. She had seen much of that icon lately, most recently in the Bastille while Aunt Ruth watched the evening news on television. The body discovered buried on the grounds of the Bastille bore a tattoo of Mickey Mouse. It struck the police odd that an old lady would have such a thing.

  Abbey dug around at the box and withdrew another chain. A thin piece of gold, perhaps eighteen inches in length, made of thin links. Strung in the middle of the chain was a single word—SARAH. Sarah. She knew that name, too. It was on the same news broadcast. The television anchor spoke of the unusual coincidence of the two bodies belonging to the same family.

  Abbey stiffened as the sound of the lock turned. Robert had returned.

  74

  “No!” Zenobia insisted, crossing her arms. “It is much too dangerous.”

  “I agree,” Tomyris said, kicking the pile of fabric.

  Eleanor sighed and crossed her arms. “Zen, dear, why did you prepare this section of the Tapestry to be repaired first? Surely you knew that this was the logical place to begin our search for Abbey. Once the preparations for repair have begun, we cannot use it to locate her.”

  Mathers thought he saw a flicker of anger flash across Zenobia’s face. “It had the most damage, Eleanor,” the woman responded. “It is the most in need of repair.”

  “If the Spell Zenobia cast showed Abbey can be reached through this section, we must unfold it and—” Boo began.

  “No! There is no time! If we unfold it now, then we must recast the spells before it is moved to the Faire site!” Ruth exclaimed. “We cannot break that spell!”

  Boo sighed. “Yes,” she said, turning to Ruth, “but we must have Abbey’s energy during the Ritual, which we will not have if we do not unfold the Tapestry tonight.” She turned to Merlin, who stood against the wall, scratching his hind end. His flank showed no signs of the earlier attack, yet the horse favored that side of his body.

  Merlin shook his mane and looked at Boo. “I must agree with Ruth. We wait until the Ritual has begun before we unfold this section of Tapestry.”

  Boo bolted over to him and aligned herself with his eyes. “That is almost twelve hours!” she screamed. “Abbey is in danger now.”

  “The annual Ritual is the coven’s first priority.”

  “She could be dead!”

  “If she is dead,” Merlin said firmly, “we would have felt her spirit within us. Abbey is very much alive.”

  “Dear, Robert did not snatch her back through time in order to kill her. He could have done that when he was in this century,” Eleanor said. Boo turned her aggression on Eleanor. “They why did he let her live?” Eleanor shook her head. “There is something he wants from her. That is how he operates.”

  “I find it appalling that we allow the girl to fend for herself for the next twelve hours while we do nothing.”

  “Dear, we will be doing much,” Eleanor corrected. “So much that I expect nobody will sleep tonight.”

  Boo turned and stalked down the corridor stopping only long enough to glare at Zenobia before disappearing around the corner.

  “Will someone please tell me what the hell is going on here?” Mathers asked.

  “Of course, my boy,” Ruth said cheerily. “You can help me with the dishes while I tell you. Oh,” she put her arm around him, “you didn’t get your dessert, did you?”

  75

  What are you doing?” Robert’s eyes flashed between Abbey and the dresser. “Were you looking for something?”

  Abbey smiled and wrapped the blanket around herself. “A dress. I’m chilly.”

  Robert smiled and walked towards her holding out a cup of steaming water. “Drink this. It will help your headache and warm you up.” Abbey took the mug from him and his eyes flitted from her to around the room.

  “It does seem like you were looking for something…specific.”

  “As I said…something for the chill.” She turned away, desperately seeking someplace where she could pour out the tea. She would drink nothing that he brought her. She stood facing the window when she felt his hands caress her shoulders.

  “No need to be,” he whispered in her ear. “I shall warm you.” He grabbed the blanket and pulled. Abbey tugged the blanket out of his hands and wrapped it tightly around herself.

  “I told you, I am cold.”

  “And I told you that I shall warm you.” Again, he pulled and she resisted. “Why are you doing this to me?”

  “I do nothing to you, Robert,” Abbey said. “I am cold.”

  “Are you saying I cannot be with y
ou? I cannot have you?” He spun her around to face him. Abbey took the opportunity to let the cup slide from her grip. It fell to the floor with a loud clang and the liquid spilled out over the stone.

  “Look what you did,” his harsh voice rang out. Abbey backed away from him, but he grabbed her by the arms.

  “Robert, you’re hurting me.”

  “You are my wife. I told you we will go to bed again and you’ll be warm.”

  “I don’t want to.” Abbey jerked away. “I hurt. I’m tired.”

  The slap came without warning. His hand landed squarely across her face and stung her flesh. “Look what you made me do. If only you would listen. You never listen to me.”

  “Don’t do that again, Robert.”

  “I am your husband. I will do as I see fit, woman.” This time when the hand connected, it was a fist. Abbey felt her head jerk and her legs give out from under her. Then the world went black.

  76

  Mathers took the dish from Ruth and placed it in the dishwasher. “You’re talking about time travel.”

  Ruth giggled. “That sounds so…television-ish!” She squealed with glee.

  “So, really, it doesn’t matter when you go to find Abbey, as the Tapestry will take you back to whatever time you want.”

  A horrified look spread across her face. “We love Abbey! The sooner we see her safely back to the Bastille, the better!” She handed the silverware to him. “These load on the side, dear.” She watched him slip the forks into the bin before continuing, “We don’t know where or when she is. We step through the Tapestry and we may find ourselves arriving at a place before she does. We go back to the exact time that you see in those little scenes sewn into the Tapestry.” She took a tall glass from him and set it in the sink. “These I wash by hand. They were gifts.”

  “So…but wait…” Mathers said, twisting the drying towel around a freshly washed set of forks.

  “It is really very simple, actually,” Ruth said, sitting Mathers down at the kitchen table. “Let us say you have this fork.” She took one of the forks from him and set it on the table. “In the old days, we made them ourselves. Nowadays, it is all machine-done. What a pity!” She sighed and stared off into space for a moment.

 

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