He shrugged. “It was printed on the badge hanging at your belt.”
I sighed. “Okay. So, how did you bring me here?”
“I set a pair of enchantments on a medallion of King Benedict’s reign,” Galen replied. “One was to bring you here, to our world. The other was a geis, what we call a ‘spell of obligation’. To ensure that the medallion wasn’t lost.”
“Yeah, about that,” I said wryly. I fished the damned thing out of my pocket and held it up in my palm. “Can you, I dunno, revoke that? I don’t want to have to carry this thing around like pocket change for the rest of my life.”
“Certainly.” Galen covered my hand with his. He spoke a word or two of some guttural, Nordic-sounding tongue. I felt a tingle in my palm, and then I felt the strangest sensation yet. A ‘snap’ like a cord of filament line around my wrist had just been cut. “There, now you should be able to throw the medallion away.”
I cocked my arm as if I was about to fling the little golden disk away—and then I curved my arm so that I stuck the medallion back into my pocket. Galen started. His nostrils flared and he flicked his curly chestnut tail. I pulled the coin back out and tossed it to him.
“Just kidding,” I said. Galen stared at me for a second before breaking into a grin. I returned it. “So, you’re the magic guy here, are you?”
“I’m the wizard for the court of Andeluvia, yes.”
“Well, then I suppose that you were ‘tasked’ to bring me here. Care to fill me in on what King Benedict had in mind?”
“That would be quite difficult,” Galen said, and his face took on the brooding aspect that I’d expected to see from someone who could’ve stepped off the set of Fantasia and into the world of Wuthering Heights. “You see, that’s goes to the heart of why you’ve been summoned.”
“Oh?” I didn’t like where this was going.
“You see, Good King Benedict’s been slain.”
“Slain. Ah.”
“Yes. He met his end two days ago.” Galen gestured with a sweep of one mighty arm. “It’s imperative that we unravel the mystery and expose whoever murdered him.”
“Imperative?”
“Oh, yes!” He stomped one of his black forehoofs in emphasis against the stone floor with a loud clack. “Why else would we need the services of a crime scene analyst?”
It figures. No one ever invites me anywhere for the sparkling conversation.
(…continued...)
The full manuscript for Centaur of the Crime
can be found at all major eBook retailers.
Also by Michael Angel
Fantasy and Sci-Fi Novels
The Detective & The Unicorn
Centaur of the Crime
The Wizard, The Warlord, and The Hidden Woman
The Adventures of Amanda Love
Strangelets with a Side of Grilled Spam: Season One
Treasure of the Silver Star
The Fringe Space Series:
A Shovelful of Stars
Pay To Pray
Dogfight
A Planet Torn
I Married the Third Horseman (Paranormal Romance and Divorce) Page 17