The Warlock Weapon

by Pearl Goodfellow

  I froze.

  Beastell was one of the names on the list. An icy chill wafted in my chest. I stared at my friend.

  “David, are we being played?”

  “Seems that way, huh?” He said. “I have a feeling that Burning Peak might have been a ruse. While we’ve been wasting all our time trying to fight a mythical threat, we’ve ignored the factual, material stuff. These hematite bombs.

  My mouth felt as dry as the bottom of a budgies cage.

  “Look, I have to go,” David said.

  “I know. Want me to come? As moral support?” My friend shook his head.

  “You go to North Illwind. Go. I know you’re interested in the lovechild story, Hat. Go for a history trip.” David offered me a wan smile and readied himself for the flight back to GIPPD.

  “David!” I called before he could lift off. The chief’s eyes met mine.

  “What was the first thing Spinefield told you? Before the commotion broke out, I mean?”

  David’s voice was flat. Almost resigned. “There were half the amount of pills left than there should have been. It looks like Kramp overdosed.” He took to the air before I could answer, leaving me to my confusion.

  Kramp committed suicide? I could hardly believe it. It didn’t make the slightest bit of sense. And, yet the evidence was there. Kramp had quaffed double the amount of tablets he generally took. I let out a deep breath. I guess I’d find out more about this from David soon. I looked at my cats.

  “You guys interested in a trip to Galedoom?” Already pointing my besom Northward. Just as we pushed off, a whoomph of flames jumped from the Jyldrar cavern.

  “Looks like Typhon’s thrown another forest on the fire,” Carbon snipped.

  We were airborne. On a flight path to North Illwind. Hopefully to find out what happened to Kramp’s little girl, Summer Greenfield.

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  “See?” Fraidy shrieked as we circled over the shanties of Galedoom, looking for a suitable place to land. “See why I said I don’t do places like this? Places with ‘doom’ in their name?” My scaredy-cat, paced back and forth along the length of the broom, looking down at the sprawling ghetto below.

  “You all know we’re gonna die here, right?” His eyes bulged. “This is it. This is where we meet our end.”

  “Bro, you’re practically foaming at the mouth. Chill, dude, you’re making me antsy,” Shade said, shaking his head. “It doesn’t look that bad,” he finished.

  I nosed the broom downward. “Woah, boss, let’s not be too hasty,” Shade bumped his head into my back. “How about over there?” Shade pointed to a spot the other side of a very long, ramshackle wall. The spot he pointed to was at the other end of the slum. “Might be a safer place to leave the broom too,” Shade encouraged. I nodded and landed the other side of the slum’s dividing line.

  “Okay, now, guys,” I said, tucking my broom in a shadowy nook of the fence. “We’ve gotta try our best not to stick out like a sore thumb, cool?”

  “Easy for you to say, when you’re not a talking cat,” Fraidy grumbled.

  “Look, just don’t act afraid. Show no fear, walk calmly and don’t make eye contact with anyone. Are we clear on this?” Four furry heads bobbed up and down, and we stole along the fence to find entry into the Galedoom shanties.

  We’d gone about ten yards when Onyx stopped. “Here,” he said. “I believe this will be a suitable embarkation point?” Onyx flicked his front paw out, and a large panel of fencing pushed inward. I gave my kitty a rub on the nose. “Nice one, buddy,” I whispered. We pushed our way through until we were standing slum-side.

  “I don’t like this,” Fraidy complained. “I’ve got a funny feeling about it.”

  “Sweetie, nothing’s going to happen here. We’ve left all the danger behind. Think about it.”

  “Well, there’s a pair looking to mug us already,” he hissed, casting a demented sideward glance at two young men standing against a rusty door in an abandoned shop front. They had their arms folded, and their heads moved as we walked. I felt my throat go dry. “Just act natural,” I warned again, trying to keep my walking pace at a constant, casual gait.

  “Killer at four o'clock,” Fraidy muttered from the side of his mouth. I turned my head a fraction, and a very well dressed man, black suit, silver tie, slicked back hair was surveying us from the other side of the road. He looked like a pimp. Goddess, I hope he didn’t think I was one of his ‘tricks.’ We kept walking our ears pricked, and our senses heightened. Luckily, not one of Fraidy’s labeled perps came after us. We crossed over a street that resembled an urban war zone. Broken down shopping carts, old clothes tossed like rags, garbage flowing in the gutters.

  A shabby tenement to our right caught my attention. “Let’s go there,” I said pointing at the building.

  I feel you’re correct, Seraphim.

  I nodded at Onyx. Thanks, buddy. I feel it too.

  “Aww, man. You think that little girl lived here?” Shade said, craning his head to take in the crumbling exterior of the building. I stabbed a buzzer number on the intercom.

  We waited. No answer. I punched the number next to it.

  “Who’s there?” A voice barked from the intercom.

  “Oh! Yes, hello, hi,” I stammered. “My name is Hattie Jenkins. I’m looking for information about a mother and daughter who might have once lived in this building? They went by the name ‘Greenfield,’ have you heard of them?” I smiled at the intercom, hoping it’d make me sound more friendly and nonthreatening.

  “Never ‘eard of ‘em.”

  Click.

  I sighed.

  Try Mrs. Janowski, Onyx thought-pushed me.

  I scanned the names, pushed ‘Janowski’ and stood back.

  “Hello, yes?” A thin, reedy woman’s voice enquired.

  “Hello, ma’am, I’m hoping to talk to somebody about a mother and daughter that once lived in the building? A Mrs. Greenfield … and her, uh, daughter, Summer?”

  “You knew Deevie?” The disembodied voice flooded with palpable emotion. “Come in.” The door buzzed open, and we tiptoed into the dreary building.

  The sound of a lock sliding across made me start. Right at the end of the hall, apartment number Fourteen’s door swung open, and a wizened face peeped out at the side at us.

  “You’re Deevie’s friend?” She asked as we approached her apartment.

  I smiled and extended my hand. “Something like that, yes. I’m Hattie Jenkins. And, you’re, presumably, Mrs. Janowski?”

  The woman’s eyes were milky. Almost as if some membrane had crawled across her eyeballs, and decided to settle there.

  “I’m the super,” she said. “Been here forty-six years now.”

  “Wow,” I gushed. “That’s a long time.”

  “I’ve seen so many people come and go,” the woman sniffed.

  “I can only imagine,” I said. “So, you told me you knew Deevie? And her daughter, Summer?”

  “Deevie always paid on time. I knew she had to beg, borrow and steal most months just to make the rent payments, but she always paid in full, and on time. Never had any trouble from Deevie and her girl.”

  “What can you tell me about them, Mrs. Janowski?”

  The woman’s eyes narrowed all of a sudden.

  “Who’s asking?” She slid back behind the door and pushed it nearer to the ‘closed’ position.

  “I’m an interested party, Mrs. Janowski. I believe I might know who Summer’s birth father might be, and where he is,” I half lied.

  “That girl needed a father figure in her life. Her mother was as honest as the day is long, but she was a depressive sort. Could barely get herself up out of bed in the morning. Even before they took Summer away, that child was dressing herself, making her own breakfast, and walking to school alone.”

  “She must have been a very brave little girl,” I said. “I wonder if you knew about Summer going to the Correctional School for Girls here in Galedoom?”
r />   “Yes, I remember it. A harsh place that school.”

  “Did you hear word from Summer after she was old enough to leave that place?” I asked. “Did you ever find out what happened to her?”

  “No, I heard nothing,” the superintendent said, shaking her head. “Hopefully, she’s off working a nice relaxing job in a garden center, or a rich person’s garden, maybe?” Mrs. Janowski’s expression looked hopeful.

  I chuckled. “What makes you say that Summer might like a job in a garden center?”

  “Deevie had a green thumb. My word, I remember the patio tomatoes she used to give me at the end of summer,” Mrs. Janowski said fondly. “Used to pop ‘em like candy, I did.” She grinned. “Anyway’s, Deevie taught Summer everything she knew when it came to plant cures and plant foods.” She shook her head. “‘Bout the only good education Deevie gave Summer,” the superintendent lamented.

  “Well, that’s great, Mrs. Janowski, I appreciate you answering my questions. Is there anything else you can think of that might help me locate Summer?”

  Janowski shrugged. “If I did, I’d tell you.”

  I smiled. “Do you happen to know where I could find the Correctional School? Is it still standing?”

  The superintendent bobbed her head. “I think it’s a young woman’s college now. Not much use for the kind of cruelty they used to inflict there these days,” she said. “It’s mostly about nurturing young women, in this day and age. Which is a good thing.” Mrs. Janowski raised a bony finger to emphasize her sentiment.

  “I agree wholeheartedly,” I said. And, I meant it. “So, you know where I can find this woman’s college?”

  “Next to Galedoom station,” she waved her hand in a vague westerly direction.

  “That’s great, thank you so much. Appreciate your time today,” I said, nudging my kitties down the hall as I turned. I set one foot out the front door when Mrs. Janowski shouted: “Give the little one my love if you find her.”

  “Consider it done,” I said. And, we stepped out into the dismal street once more.

  We walked in silence toward the hole in the fence to the side where the broom was parked.

  Fraidy was the first to speak, as we approached our entrance to the world on the other side of the slum. “Think Summer had a happy childhood?” He asked, still taking in the unpleasant surroundings. “I don’t know, honey, let’s just hope she --”

  Something flew past my ear. It must have been close to my head because the high pitched whine of the missile reverberated in my ear drum.

  “Did anyone see that?” I said, swiveling my head.

  “See what?” My kitties asked in unison.

  “Nevermind,” I said. “I guess Summer is a woman now and has most likely come to terms with --” Another rushing missile close to my right shoulder this time.

  I whirled. “You saw that, right?” I hissed, crouching to my knees.

  “Uh, boss, are you okay? We don’t see what --” Shades paws flew up to his head, and he lay flat on the ground. “What the heck was that?” He spat, utterly indignant at the fact that someone had taken a shot at him.

  “Okay, I’m not imagining it,” I said, staying crouched. “Guys, get over here,” I ordered Onyx, Fraidy, and Carbon. They pulled in close to the wall.

  “What’s being thrown, though?” Carbon said, craning his head upward and scanning the windows of the building opposite.

  “I don’t know,” I said, surveying the ground. “I haven’t actually seen one yet, but something is being hurled at us right now.”

  “I don’t want to say ‘I told you so,’ but --”

  “Well, don’t, then,” Carbon sniped at Fraidy. “It won’t help.”

  Shade lifted his head slightly and looked around. “Think we can make the dash to the hole in the wall?”

  I licked my lips. “That’s what we’re gonna try, buddy,” I said. “You guys go first, and I’ll be right behind you. Keep low. Keep very low.”

  My kitties dropped to their bellies and inched their way along to the trap-door in the fence. Staying low, I pulled up the hood on my hoodie. Just as I was about to pull the hood over my head, something tugged at it. With enough force, to make the body of my hoodie pull back against my throat. What the?

  I pulled my hood back down and shook it, and something that looked like a piece of hay, or straw fell to the ground.

  I reached for it. A dart? Huh?

  My hand had just closed around the missile, when Fraidy leapt on my head, shrieking “Duck!”

  I did a faceplant into the dust and debris that made up the ground, as another dart whizzed past my face.

  I turned my head to the side, blowing out a plume of dirt. “Thanks, sweetie,” I said, my breath hitching in my throat. Who was this maniac firing these things?

  I still had the dart I had reached for. I pulled it to my side, still staying flat on the ground, and, taking the end of it carefully, wedged it into a side pocket of my bag.

  Fraidy still lay across my head. I could feel his ragged breathing through his belly.

  “See anything, Fraidy?” I managed.

  “I pointed out all the killers earlier, why didn’t you listen to me?” He protested, and entirely unaware that he was digging his claws into my head. I winced.

  “Okay, but can you see who’s firing these projectiles?” I huffed.

  “What’s a projectile?” Shade asked. He was lying by my side, with his paws over his eyes.

  “Things that fly through the air and kill you.” Fraidy barked. My timid cat was not a happy camper right now.

  “Look, over there!” Onyx said, crawling about three feet in front of us and extending his paw to kitty-corner (ha!) from us.

  Not lifting my head, but raising my eyes as far as they would go, I just made out a shadowy figure sprinting across the street. The wraith ran to a burnt-out Plymouth Fury and crouched behind the rusting metal. Wearing a cape that obscured the attacker’s face, it was impossible to tell whether the being was male or female.

  “Oh, great. That’s just great.” Fraidy said. He was purring now. Likely to ease his stress. And, I have to say, it calmed me down a little as I lay on the floor of a slum in a foreign land, having potentially lethal darts shot at me.

  “Thought you said we had left the danger behind?” My timid cat moaned.

  I thought we had too. I really wasn’t expecting to come to North Illwind and be shot at from an unknown menace. Goddess, I wish I’d waited for David.

  Onyx inched forward again. “It looks like our hostile host might be reloading a …. well, it looks like a bamboo pole, if I’m to be honest.”

  Darts. The assailant was using darts. Amazonian Indian style.

  “Guys, we have to act fast,” I panted, taking the attackers re-loading time to get the heck out of here. “Carbon, get to the gap in the fence and hold it up until we’re through, got it, buddy?”

  My pyro-cats face was grim, but he nodded and crawled as fast as he could to our proposed exit. I watched him snake through to the other side and turned to my other kitties. I had to shake Fraidy from my head. “Go! Now!” I shouted.

  My cats did the belly-shuffle to the open portal, and as soon as the last black tail disappeared, I ran on my hands and knees to the opening. A high-pitched whine, and something caught in my hair. I felt it brush lightly against my temple, but it didn’t pierce the skin.

  Wow, that was close.

  I fell through the open panel to the other side, and Carbon let the flap of wood go. We tensed, not daring to move, waiting for the next missile to find us.

  Nothing. I snapped into action.

  “Come on,” I whispered, hustling toward my broom. The kitties trotted after me, eager as I was to get out of the menacing shanties.

  “What was that all about, boss? Were those darts?” Shade asked, his voice wavering.

  “Later, Shade,” I said, grabbing my broom and straddling it. “Get on,” I instructed my cats. In my haste to make sure we were flying
away from danger, my takeoff was a little on the wobbly side; I plummeted almost as soon as I had gained height.

  Fraidy let out a warbling cry. “Everyone had enough of GaleDOOM now?”

  “Zip it, Bro,” Shade said. “We’re not done here yet. We’ve gotta get to the school for lunatic girls yet.”

  I rolled my eyes and got the broom under control. “It’s a women’s college, Shade,” I said.

  “Oh, so now people are being taught how to be crazy? They just enroll in lunatic college?” Fraidy’s voice was getting more shrill by the second. I needed to put some distance between us and the hostile slum below. I pulled the nose of my broom upward and bolted east toward the central train station of Galedoom.

  After a minute or so I felt, rather than saw, my cats settle down on the broomstick behind me. I heaved a sigh of relief, and dropped my altitude a little, as the Galedoom shanties fell behind us. A firefly danced by my head. I smiled. It had been so long since I’d seen one of these beautifully luminous critters. I never knew the little bugs flew so high. A couple more points of lights dashed past my head.

  Wow, we really were at quite a height, here, so I was impressed by the charming insect’s audacity.

  “Can anyone smell smoke?” Shade asked. I could hear him sniffing at the air behind me.

  Carbon, who had his chin resting on my shoulder, while his belly was pressed flat against my back, said: “It’s in your head, brother. We’re all just spooked out, that’s all.”

  I reached behind me to give Carbie a little head rub.

  “Huh,” Shade said. “So, this fire here, it’s all in my mind?”

  Carbon and I swerved our heads slowly to look behind us. Fraidy blocked our view for a second as he leapt over my head to land in front of me on the stick. It was a pertinent move, because now at least he had a wall between him and the licking flames from the thatch of the broom. Another firefly rushed by. Only, I realized now that these points of light weren’t luminous bugs; they were fire-tipped darts, and one had successfully reached its target in the thatch of dried twigs at the end of my besom.

  Onyx and Shade were stunned into statues, their heads, pulling back into their bodies, was the only noticeable sign that they registered the fire.