by Charley Case
Remmy was on the couch, a small Switch controller in her hand, watching Finn muscle the two ladies inside. “Heya, Boss. Did you steal that girl?”
Finn chuckled. “No, Remmy. I didn't steal her. She needed our help, and we helped.”
“Kinda looks like Mila’s still helping,” Remmy said, crossing her short legs under her. “Either that or she found a replacement for you.”
Penny laughed and headed for the kitchen pantry.
“She’s not a replacement. We don't know what's happening. Mila grabbed onto her and they just froze up. Penny guessed that they might be in some kind of mind-meld or something. Stephanie had just used her magic for the first time and was kinda freaking out, then Mila stepped in, and they’ve been like this ever since. Hey! Don't do that!” He admonished Remmy, who had realized very quickly that the two women would stay in the position you put them and bent Stephanie’s fingers around until they were both giving the middle finger to the ceiling.
“Sorry, Boss. Gotta get your fun in while you can,” she said with a shrug.
“Wise words.”
“You betcha. Clan motto. I even have it in one of my tattoos.” She pulled down the waist of her jeans, and sure enough, it was written in runes on her hip.
“That explains so much about you,” Danica said, her arms crossed as she just shook her head in bewilderment.
“So, what do we do with these two? Are they going to be alright?” Finn asked Danica, who gave a shrug.
“I mean, their vitals are all good as far as I can tell. Nothing seems to be interfering with their systems, they’re just not moving. They still have pupil response, but no other kinds of reactions. I think we just have to wait it out.”
“This isn’t good.” Finn sighed, leaning his hands on the back of the couch as he watched Mila’s back rise and fall in deep, even breaths. “I need them to wake up. Stephanie has a way to contact her mother, who very recently just told me she wants to murder us all in exciting ways.”
“Whoa. Who’s her mother?” Danica asked.
Finn fixed Danica with a long stare.
“Oh.” The elf got it. “The Dark Star.”
Remmy and Danica both gawped at Finn.
“The Dark Star has a kid?”
“Why would you steal the Dark Stars daughter? Didn't we have enough to worry about without you kicking the hornet's nest?”
“I kinda feel like you're collecting women at this point, Boss.”
Finn gave Remmy a disapproving stare for that last one.
“It doesn’t matter she’s pissed at me, and you, by extension,” Finn argued. “She was going to carry out her crazy play to establish a country without my interference. Hell, if anything, I’m pushing her in before she’s ready.”
Danica opened her mouth to argue, but a gasp from Mila sent Danica to her side in an instant. A second later, Stephanie sucked in a deep breath that turned to panicked panting. Before anyone could try to calm her, she saw Mila lying on top of her and cried out with joy, pulling the dazed Valkyrie into a bear hug.
“Oh, thank you. Thank you, thank you.” She sobbed into Mila's shoulder.
Mila recovered, wrapping her arms around Stephanie and squeezing her tight. “Trust me, you deserve so much more.”
“What the hell is happening?” Finn asked no one in particular.
“I think you’ve been replaced, Boss. Sorry.” Remmy shrugged.
“I need a beer.” Finn headed for the kitchen, his head slowly shaking from side to side.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Finn opened the fridge and grabbed a beer, twisting the top off and taking a long pull from the bottle.
His pocket vibrated. He pulled his phone out, accidentally hitting the accept button in the process.
“Fuck.” He quickly put the phone to his ear. “Hello?”
“I never wanted it to go this way, Finnegan,” Hellena said in a calm voice. “I had a plan that would have cost some lives, yes, but it would have been quick and efficient, keeping deaths to a minimum. Then, you fell out of the sky and began rooting around in my plans like a pig snorting out truffles.”
“Hello, Hellena. Good to hear from you, too,” he said with a sigh as he fell back to lean his ass on the counter. The sound of the girls talking behind him made him keep his voice down. He didn't want to worry them too much if she was just calling to make idle threats again.
“You think you’re so funny, don't you, Dwarf King?” Hellena sneered. “Maybe this is all my fault. I wasn't clear enough right from the beginning. It’s like they say, ‘when you are training a dog, you first have to break its will.’”
Finn screwed up his face in disgust. “Fucking hell, woman. Who taught you how to train a dog? See, this is why people don't like you.”
“Your words don't matter anymore. You don't matter anymore. You stole the only thing holding me back. I was going to let Stephanie have her years at college, like a normal girl. My plans would wait until she was gone, protected from the coming war. But you rooted until you found her, then you twisted her to your will, and turned her against me. So be it. What is one more death when I have people to save.”
“That’s not how this went down at all, Hellena,” Finn said, boggled at how she twisted everything. “I didn't steal her away. You pushed her away. You’re supposed to be her mother, but she’s terrified of what you’ve become. She begged me to take her away from you. I’m not the monster of this story.”
Hellena chuckled. “Oh, we are all monsters in someone’s story, Finnegan. You just haven't been asking the right people. We’re not so different; we both are willing to kill to win. I just have higher aspirations than you. You may not think of yourself as a monster, but when the dust settles and my new nation is formed, who do you think will write the history books? Trust me. You will be seen as you truly are. A brute too stupid to know when to let well enough alone.”
Finn had heard plenty of big baddies talking like this over the years. Most of them were nothing more than dust in the wind at this point.
A sigh escaped his lips. “Do you want to know a secret? You want to know why I always win, no matter how many times I get beat down, slapped away, or how uneven the odds are?”
“Please. Enlighten me, Dwarf.”
“It’s because I don't quit. People like you never seem to learn there’s such a thing as a critter that might just keep comin’. So, I’ll find you in the end, I promise you that. Just as sure as the turning of the earth.”
There was silence on the line for a few beats, then Hellena started laughing. “A John Wayne quote? That’s your secret? You can live in your little fantasy world all you want, but out here, the world is going to move on without you. Terrible things are coming, Finnegan. And I want you to know that it’s all your fault. I warned you that I would find a way to use the Gjallarhorn. Now hear my triumph.”
Finn's jaw dropped open in shock, but the line went dead before he could respond. He spun around in time to see Penny’s eyes roll up and she fell limply from the back of the couch and hit the floor.
Danica was in the middle of healing up a few scrapes on Mila's leg from their fight on the mountain, when the warm blue light emanating from her hand turned to a torrent of water, soaking Mila and the couch, making her scream in shock. Danica abolished the spell, shaking her hand as if it had been stung.
A deep rumbling tone began to vibrate the windows. After a second, the noise started to steadily rise in pitch, making everyone clap their hands to their ears. In a matter of moments, the terrible noise culminated in a blast that set their ears ringing, followed by a ripping sound as if the fabric of reality was tearing apart. Glass shattered in three of the window frames, and books fell from the shelves as they vibrated over the edge.
The note cut off abruptly. Besides the ringing in his ears, Finn heard dozens of car alarms on the streets below.
Finn hurdled the kitchen island and slid to his knees beside Penny. He scooped her up and pressed her body to his ear
to listen for her heartbeat.
“What the hell is going on?” Stephanie asked, coming around to the back of the couch, along with everyone else.
“Your mother is going on,” Mila said heatedly, kneeling beside Finn. “Is she alive?”
Finn nodded. “Just barely. The effects are way worse this time. I’m pretty sure I know what Hellena’s machine is doing, and why. She’s using it to twist magic so much that the Gjallarhorn recognizes her as dwarven royalty. That’s what that sound was. She just used it on something.”
“That was my mom?” Stephanie said in shock.
“Yeah, and she’s going to keep using it until she starts a war with the Peabrains,” Finn said.
“How do we stop it?” Danica asked, her prosthetic hand gripping her other arm in a worried pose.
“Leave that to Mila and me. I need you to get Penny out of the city. She can't take this. That machine is making her magic work against her. If she stays here, she will die. Do you still have the key to Preston’s cabin?”
Danica nodded. “Yeah, it’s in my room.”
“Good, take her there. It should be far enough away that even if the machine affects her, it will be diminished enough, it won’t kill her.” Finn was cut off when Penny stirred in his hands.
He held her up, so she was close to his face. Her eyes opened, and she blinked slowly, obviously out of it. Finn handed Penny over to Danica.
“Take good care of her. It looks like the machine has been turned off for now, but Hellena could turn it back on any moment. You need to get out of here.”
Danica nodded and ran to her room to fetch the key.
A bubble appeared in the middle of the dojo, and when it popped, Hermin and Garret stood there, looking around with angry faces. Spotting everyone, they hurried over.
“That crazy bitch just blew up Preston’s estate!” Hermin screamed with rage.
“Somehow, she used the Gjallarhorn,” Garret added.
“I know. That’s why magic has been twisting on and off. She has a machine or artifact that is making the horn think she’s a royal dwarf. She and her people must have been testing it for the last few days.”
“You need to stop her. With that machine running, we don't have any way to take her out. We can still operate on the outskirts of its influence, but if she’s close to it, we would be useless,” Hermin said, his anger softening to horror.
“Don't worry,” Finn assured him. “Mila and I are unaffected by the machine. It doesn't work on me because it’s attuning magic to what I already am, and Mila uses celestial magic, so she draws her power from another source. Penny, on the other hand, is in a bad way. Hermin, I need you to teleport Danica and Penny to Preston’s cabin. Penny can’t survive that machine.”
Just then, Danica came out of her room, a sling made from a thin, green patterned scarf tied around her neck and torso, cradling Penny’s barely moving form.
“Danica, Hermin will take you to the cabin. You guys need to leave right now before she turns that damned thing on again. Garret, we’re going to need some kind of distraction to keep the Peabrains off the streets. The last thing we want is to defeat the Dark Star but still have a war because too many people saw too much.”
Garret nodded. “We’re way ahead of you on that front. Right now, the boys are down there, cranking up the snow production. We should have a pretty good blizzard blowing in about ten minutes.”
“Be careful, guys. I love you.” Danica shouted from the dojo, where Hermin was preparing to teleport. She waved with one hand while keeping Penny steady with the other.
“I love you, too. Take care of Penny. We’ll see you when this is all over,” Mila shouted.
“Look after her, and don't let her try and run off to join us. Trust me, she will try,” Finn warned with a wave.
Hermin formed a giant bubble, and they stepped into it. There was a small pop, and they were gone.
“What do I do?” Stephanie asked, an overwhelmed look on her face, yet she was still stepping up.
Finn smiled. “I knew I was going to like you. You, my dear, have the most important job of all.”
Her eyes went wide, and she brushed a thick lock of red curls from her face. “I do?”
Nodding, Finn put a hand on her shoulder. “You said if we helped you escape, you would tell us how to find your mother. It’s time to fulfill that promise. How do we find her?”
Stephanie swallowed and reached into the pocket of her jeans, pulling out what looked like a distress clicker an older person would wear in case of a fall. It was white and relatively thin and had one small button in the center of one flat side.
“She said if I was ever in real danger, I should press the button three times, and I would be taken to her immediately. She made me carry it all the time, even punishing me if she found out I left it at home. I asked her how it worked, but she wouldn't tell me, just saying that it would only work one time, and to be sure it was the last option.”
Finn held out his hand. “Sounds like a teleporter to me. That is exactly what I hoped for. Can I have it?”
Stephanie gave him a pained, tight-lipped smile and shook her head. “I can't.”
Finn's eyebrow rose suspiciously. “But that was our deal.”
“You don't understand, I can't give it to you because it won’t work for you. Mom made it very clear it would only work for me. I have to go with you.” She was shaking with fear, but her voice was steady.
Finn stared at Stephanie for several long seconds before turning away and staring out the window at the thickening snowfall.
“Fuck!” he shouted, his frustration getting the better of him.
A small hand tapped him on the hip, and he looked down to see Remmy smiling at him with her sharp teeth. “Hey, Boss. We want to help too.” She held up one of the in-ear comm devices they had used up at the lake. “You find the fight, and my tribe will meet you there. You’ll need lots of back-ups, I’m thinking. We goblins are good fighters, and we owe you one.”
Finn was shocked. He reached down and took the earpiece. “Remmy, you don't owe me anything. This isn’t your fight; there’s no need for you and your people to get hurt over this.”
Remmy scoffed. “Are you joking, Boss? How is this not our fight? If you lose, then the whole city gets blown away by some dumb horn. Fuck that. Goblins fight!”
Finn accepted the offer. “You’re right. I’m sorry, Remmy, it’s not my place to tell you what you can and can't fight for. You better hurry, though. I have a feeling this is all going to go down soon.”
Remmy gave him an evil grin. “Just tell us where to be, and we’ll be there with knives out.” She turned and ran to the door, throwing it open and dashing into the hall.
“Did she seem a little eager to you?” Mila asked, concerned.
“Finn, there’s something else you need to know,” Garret said, wringing his hands. “The Earth is not happy with how much corruption the Dark Star has been spreading. Whole sections of forest have been found flattened or burned, most likely tests with the Gjallarhorn. She’s taken notice and dispatched the Dirt Elemental to clean up the mess.”
Finn cocked an eyebrow. “The Dirt Elemental?”
“Yeah. He’s a bit of an avatar, and a bit of a sentient being. He’s the hands of Earth, going around fixing big problems that are getting, well, out of hand. We don't see him much, but when we do, it means trouble. He’s not all that fast of a traveler, but you just need to be aware he might show up.”
“What does he look like?” Mila asked, fascinated.
Garret shrugged. “Like a giant man of dirt and roots. What else would someone called the Dirt Elemental look like?”
“Good point.”
Finn crossed his arms. “If he does show up, is he going to fight with us or try and take us all down?”
“Oh, he will fight alongside you,” Garret assured him. “Earth has her eye on you. We’re pretty sure she likes you.”
“Pretty sure?”
Gar
ret waggled a hand. “Reasonably sure.”
Chapter Twenty-Four
“Okay,” Finn put a comforting hand on Stephanie’s shoulder, “you’re going to have to come with us, Stephanie. We’ll do our best to protect you, but I’m not going to lie, this is going to be rough. When we get there, I’m going to need you to find a good hiding spot right away. Can you do that?”
She nodded, her thick red curls bobbing up and down at the ends. “Press the button, find a hiding spot. Got it.”
Finn gave her shoulder a squeeze and walked over to the safe under the entertainment center. He entered a code and pulled the small heavy door open. Gathering up half a dozen healing potions and refilling any that were missing, Finn then gave two to Mila so she could do the same with the pockets on her corset harness. He gave the last two to Stephanie.
“These are healing potions. If you get hurt, pull the stopper and drink the whole thing. You have to drink the entire vial, or it won’t work. Keep them safe, the vials are tough, but they can break.”
Stephanie’s eyes widened as he explained what they were. “Healing potions are real? Why don't we have these everywhere?”
Mila chuckled. “I asked the same thing. Turns out, they are crazy expensive, and the reagents are hard to produce. But don't hesitate to drink it if you need to. No amount of money is worth your life.”
Finn checked to be sure Fragar was still in its holster, then patted down his pockets. His eyes widened in shock. “Oh, shit. I almost forgot.”
He jogged into the kitchen, opened the freezer, and pulled out a fresh box of Charleston Chew Minis. He slipped them into his inside jacket pocket.
Mila threw up her hands. “We’re going into battle. Why do you need candy?”
“Victory snack,” Finn said confidently. He glanced out the window and saw the snowfall had increased to the point that he couldn't even make out the building across the street. As he watched, the wind began driving the snow sideways.