Knights Magica: An Urban Fantasy (Rosie O'Grady's Paranormal Bar and Grill Book 5)

by BR Kingsolver

  “Oriel once told me that the Fae wouldn’t stay quiet forever.”

  Sam nodded. “Well, I hope they decide to get noisy fairly soon. The Knights are an organized military group. We’re a rag-tag group of guerillas. Guerilla warfare tends to be a long-term strategy that wears down the enemy, but with humans in the mix, and the Church supporting the Knights, I’m not sure we have the luxury of fighting such a war. Oriel’s mother? I’m sure that was interesting.”

  “Yeah. It was a little bit unnerving. I’m not sure what to think about her.”

  “Watch your back.”

  “Funny, that’s what she said.”

  Chapter 6

  “You met his mother?” Jolene asked. “How old is she?”

  I was tending bar, and Jolene had come in for dinner. While she waited for her meal, I told her about Tiana.

  “Ancient, I’d guess. Her magic is as strong as Roisin’s.”

  Jolene’s eyebrows shot up almost to her hairline. “Damn. I know that Roisin was friends with Boudicca, and that was two thousand years ago.”

  “Yeah, well, the Fae are supposedly immortal.”

  “Unless some Roman centurion cuts off their head. She was in her human form?”

  “Yeah. She’s Unseelie, and I’ve seen Oriel’s Fae form, so who knows what she really looks like. But the scary thing is the Fae woman who was with the Knights.”

  “And Oriel said Reginn was his uncle? Are you sure he’s the Reginn of legend, or simply another Fae with the same name?”

  “Dunno. They say all myths have a kernel of truth. I know he was strong enough to be scary. But what about some of the Fae aligning themselves with the Knights?”

  Jolene shrugged. “They die just like the Knights do.”

  “And we do.”

  “Yeah. Depressing, huh?”

  As I put on my jacket to go home, my phone rang. To my surprise, it was Gabriel Laurent. I answered it, silently wondering what in the hell the vampire Master of the City wanted with me.

  “Long time, Monsieur. What’s up?”

  “Can you come to see me?” he asked without preamble.

  “Tonight? It’s a little late for me. And I work the next three nights as well. What’s this about?”

  “Someone is killing my people, and it’s not the Knights.”

  “How can you tell?” I knew the Knights slaughtered vampires and shifters any time they had the chance.

  “The method of death.”

  “Can’t this wait until Monday?”

  There was a long silence. Laurent wasn’t used to people pushing back about anything. Finally, he said, “Monday, nine o’clock.” The line went dead.

  I walked the block to where my car was parked and found Oriel waiting for me. I thought that was sweet, but the dozen Knights he had with him sort of took the glow off. I was already shielded, but I drew my sword and braced for battle.

  The Knights formed a loose circle around my boyfriend and my car. A couple of them noticed me and turned to face me.

  That was when more shapes appeared out of the darkness, converging on the parking lot. The seven-foot-tall man, with stag’s antlers that added another three feet to his height, drew my attention first, but none of them would have been mistaken for human on the darkest of nights.

  “Demons!” one of the Knights shrieked.

  Oriel changed to his Unseelie Fae form and grinned, showing teeth that would have caused a grizzly bear to hesitate.

  One of the nightmare figures that did resemble a cross between a human and a grizzly bear picked up one of the Knights—shield and all—and tried to bite off his head. The shield prevented that, but the Knight still screamed in terror. The grizzly guy, frustrated by the shield, stabbed the Knight with a long knife that penetrated his shield, then bit off his head. I recognized the knife as one I had helped Oriel make.

  The two Knights facing me hesitated. I stepped toward the one on my right, swung low, and took off his leg at the knee. Whirling toward the other guy, I blocked his overhand strike just before it would have hit my shield.

  We both took a step back. I circled to my left, forcing him to turn to keep me in front of him. Something dark and amorphous, straight out of a horror movie, grabbed him from behind and pinned his arms to his sides. I drove my sword into his chest. He dropped his sword and his shield, then the monster dropped him and spun away with lightning speed, looking for its next victim.

  The fight ended quickly, and I was left with a dozen bodies and six Unseelie Fae. A couple of them each grabbed a Knight and trotted off into the night. I had a terrible feeling that I didn’t want to know what they planned to do with the corpses. In an eyeblink, the Fae turned into some rather unusual-looking people.

  Oriel changed back into his human form and approached me. “Come on,” he said. “Let’s go home and take a shower.” He needed one, and a change of clothes. Luckily, I had found that washing his Fae-made wardrobe in cold water took out all of the bloodstains. At least he didn’t look as though he’d bitten anyone.

  Tiana stood by my car. “Nice sword work.”

  “Thanks.” I briefly wondered which of the monsters she was, then shied away from the thought.

  She held up a spelled sword Oriel and I had made. Blood ran down the blade. “I like this.”

  “Glad I could be of service,” I said, feeling a bit numb, and climbed behind the wheel of my car.

  “Where did they come from?” I asked Oriel as I put the car in gear.

  “I spotted the Knights lurking when I showed up,” he said, “so I called some friends to help us deal with them.”

  “Have they been hunting vampires?”

  “Huh? No, just Knights. Why?”

  “Gabriel Laurent called this evening and said someone—not the Knights—has been killing his minions.”

  Oriel was silent as we drove to my place.

  Before I went on my run the following day, I called Michaela and told her about Laurent summoning me.

  “Do you want me to go with you?” she asked.

  “I would appreciate it.”

  “No problem. I’ll ask around and try to find out what he’s talking about.”

  That evening, several people I suspected of being Knights in civilian clothes came into Rosie’s for dinner. I pointed them out to the rest of the staff, but in spite of my forebodings, they behaved themselves, and even stayed for an impromptu jam session by a few musicians.

  They left about an hour before I got off my shift. Steve walked with me to our cars, but we didn’t encounter any problems. When I got home, however, I could tell that someone had tested my wards.

  The following morning, I received a call from Frankie.

  “Erin, can you make it down to my office at eleven?”

  “I guess so. What’s going on?”

  “Some people from Washington and Salem are here. They want to discuss the lawlessness in Westport, and I wanted you to tell them about the Knights abducting you.”

  Great. “Did you already tell them about me?”

  “They already knew. Michaela said she will come.”

  So, I showered, put on some light makeup, and dressed in a nice top and a knee-length skirt. I figured it wouldn’t hurt to look as young and innocent as possible.

  Frankie had given me an access code so I could park under the courthouse where her office was, which meant I didn’t have to spend half an hour looking for a parking space. I took the elevator up to her office, and the receptionist led me to a conference room.

  Other than Captain Blair and Frankie, the only person in the room I recognized was a guy I had seen on TV—Allen Friedman, an investigator with the Senate’s Homeland Security Committee. He had been in Westport on and off since the Knights had blown the shadow world’s cover, and his visits usually drove Frankie to drink.

  Michaela showed up a couple of minutes after I did, magnificent as always. All the men in the room went goggle-eyed, and I had to hide a smile. She sat down, and Frankie intro
duced everyone. In addition to Friedman, there was a general, an FBI agent, and two more congressional aides from Washington. A colonel from the Oregon National Guard, a state police captain, and an aide to the governor were there from Salem.

  Of all the visiting dignitaries in the room, only Friedman could have walked into Rosie’s. Although he looked like a normal human, he was Fae. I wondered how Frankie could have missed it.

  “What we want to know,” Friedman said, “is why there is so much strife going on in Westport. Although the Knights Magica have a significant presence in other places, none of them have become a war zone the way Westport has.”

  Frankie took a deep breath. “That’s not what the news is reporting, or the FBI. But the number of magic users is higher here per capita than any city in the country other than Washington, D.C. Do you gentlemen understand about ley lines?”

  She went on to tell them about ley lines and how they worked—leaving out the recent disruptions, which we thought were due to the Knights.

  “Since Westport has two major lines intersecting just east of the city,” she concluded, “a significant number of mages have settled here over the past hundred and fifty years. Witches and supernaturals followed. The latest group to come here is the Knights Magica, and the locals haven’t responded favorably to their authoritarian tactics.”

  “I don’t understand,” the governor’s aide said. “The Knights are part of the Universal Church. It seems as though what’s going on here is an attack on freedom of religion.”

  I had to stop myself from rolling my eyes.

  “The other churches in Westport view it differently,” Frankie said. “They are concerned that the Universal Church is trying to establish itself as the only religious organization. The Knights have attacked the mosque here in town, and tried to intimidate the clergy and worshippers at numerous other churches.”

  Eventually, the topic turned to the Knights’ behavior and their kidnapping of Michaela and me.

  “I think we’ve all seen the video of you,” Friedman said to Michaela. “You murdered several Knights and a priest.”

  She smiled, showing her teeth, which was something she rarely did with humans watching. “I escaped, yes. Considering what they did to me prior to that, I claim self-defense.”

  Friedman studied her. “What kind of magic do you have?” he finally asked.

  “Why, none at all, although you might say I am magic—a creature that shouldn’t exist.” Michaela settled into her chair and surveyed the men sitting at the table.

  “Are you a vampire?” the general asked.

  “If I were, I wouldn’t be meeting with you in the middle of the day, now would I?”

  I loved her answer, which I could tell sparked a lot of new questions in their minds.

  “I was born in 1863 and moved to Westport in 1882,” Michaela continued, “so I guess you might say I qualify as an expert on the city’s history. Ms. McLane and I were having lunch at a local restaurant. In the parking lot afterward, we were assaulted and abducted by a dozen Knights Magica. Over the next month, I was held at the Universal Church monastery outside of town, repeatedly beaten, raped, and tortured by a number of fine, religious gentlemen, not to mention suffering through three exorcisms.”

  “And do you know why they did that?” the FBI man asked.

  “You say you saw the tape. They wanted me to endorse the Knights’ takeover and induce other supernaturals to surrender and accept the Church’s sovereignty. Much easier than slaughtering all of us, and much safer.” She leaned forward, putting her hands on the table. “Do not delude yourselves. The Knights now control the Universal Church, and their aim is global domination. They have taken over the governments of several countries already, and the United States would be their biggest prize. With your armed forces, they would set forth to conquer the world.”

  Amusement, irritation, and disbelief showed on the general’s face in quick succession before he schooled his features into a stony mask.

  “I find that difficult to believe,” he said.

  “You can believe what you like. Your beliefs can’t change reality. There’s an election coming up. I suggest you consider what you would do if Timothy Wheeler wins the presidency,” Michaela said.

  Wheeler had won the Universal Church’s endorsement, and his party was running strong, well-funded races for Congress all across the country. None of the visitors looked happy at Michaela’s statement, with the exception of Friedman, whose expression didn’t change.

  Friedman turned to me. “And why would the Knights want to kidnap you?”

  “They seemed to think I knew something about a group called the Illuminati.”

  His eyes widened, then he snorted. “The Illuminati are a myth.”

  I shrugged, not believing that he believed his statement for even an instant. “The Knights don’t think so. They spent a month beating and torturing me, asking questions that I didn’t have any answers for.”

  Frankie took out a small stack of photographs and pushed them across the table. She had taken pictures of my injuries when I escaped the Knights.

  “I personally took these after Ms. McLane was rescued from the monastery.”

  The photos were passed around, and I purposely didn’t look at them. I had seen enough in the mirror of what the Knights did to me. Most of the men spent a long time looking at some of the pictures, but a couple of them just glanced at the images, winced, and set them aside.

  “As you can see, what was done to her was barbaric,” Frankie said. “I can’t imagine what it would be like to live under the rule of such people.”

  “What kind of magic do you have?” the FBI man asked me.

  “My father is a mage, and my mother is a witch,” I answered.

  They all nodded as though they understood what I said.

  “And why do you suppose they thought you might have information about the Illuminati?” the FBI guy pressed.

  I shrugged again. I had thought about what kind of questions they might ask. “Some people say the Hunters’ Guild is part of the Illuminati. There were Hunters here in Westport last fall, and I scavenged a weapon from one of them. Maybe one of the Knights recognized it.”

  “What sort of weapon?” the general asked.

  “A knife.”

  “And how is that knife special?” he asked.

  “It’s spelled. It will penetrate a mage’s personal shield.”

  “I would like to see it.”

  “I don’t have it here. There are metal detectors in this building, you know?”

  They continued to question Michaela and me for another half an hour. Some of the questions were good, some inane. Friedman’s questions seemed to be aimed at downplaying our stories. Eventually, they all left after agreeing to meet with Frankie and Blair later that afternoon.

  “Well, you certainly put your foot in it,” Frankie said to Michaela.

  “How so?”

  “You know Friedman works for Senator Carswell, chairman of the Senate Homeland Security Committee?”

  “Yes?”

  “Carswell is a member of Wheeler’s party, and Carswell just endorsed him for President yesterday.”

  “Crap.”

  “Frankie,” I said. “Friedman is Fae.”

  They all stared at me.

  “Are you sure?” Michaela asked, alarm showing on her face.

  “Yeah.”

  “Dear gods, protect us,” Frankie breathed.

  “But why would the Fae ally themselves with the Knights?” Blair asked.

  Michaela was not only old and beautiful but also smart. She had been a pupil of Lord Guy Carleton, Westport’s late Master of the City and Governor of Canada in the late 1700s.

  “Cannon fodder,” she said.

  I nodded. “The Church wants to impose a theocracy,” I said, “and the Church is now controlled by the Knights. So, in essence, you’d have a magiocracy. And some of the Fae think they can control the Knights. Don’t forget that the Fa
e once ruled almost all of Europe, and some of them are still pissed off at the Romans for ending their rule. They see the Knights’ play as something they can take advantage of.”

  I told them about the Fae Oriel had found at the ambush and what Tiana had told me about Fae politics.

  “And if Wheeler wins the Presidency…” Blair prompted.

  “With the backing of the Church,” I said, “and Friedman and his Fae buddies in position to control Wheeler, then they’ve taken a major step toward a comeback. Right now, we think the Knights hold the Heart of Magic, but if a group of renegade Fae get their hands on it, then they’ll have the most powerful magical weapon in the world. The Knights are amateurs. The Fae will know how to use it.”

  I didn’t pay a lot of attention to national politics, but Michaela was a political junkie.

  “Do you really think Wheeler has a chance?” I asked her as we rode the elevator down to the parking garage.

  She nodded. “He’s already won several primaries and, at this point, is the frontrunner for his party’s nomination. The current incumbent is weak and faces a challenge within his own party from a rabidly anti-magic demagogue. If you, as a mage, were faced with a choice between a candidate backed by the Universal Church and the Knights, or one who wants to exterminate supernaturals and send all paranormals to concentration camps, who would you vote for?”

  “I’ve never voted for anyone. The Illuminati didn’t pay any attention to that sort of thing. They sought to control those politicians that they could and assassinate those that they couldn’t.”

  “Nice and straightforward.”

  I chuckled. “Not in the least. I know that most people tend to dismiss conspiracy theories, but I grew up in one. Something I do understand are fanatics. They don’t think the way normal people do.”

  She choked, then started laughing. “You think we’re normal?”

  “Yeah, I do. We have a lot more in common with humans who raise families and go to work every day than people who want to conquer the world.”