Gilded Latten Bones

31

"I'm frightened. Strange things are happening. They're outside my control. I don't deal well with that sort of circumstance."

She spoke like she wanted me to understand, not like she wanted to be comforted, which was how my head worked when she was around.

"I'm lost but I'm listening."

"Otherwise, I'm not sure what my problem is. Actually, I just know that one is shaping up. Besides being able to stroll through the air I'm strongly intuitive, but randomly. I can't control it and don't dare rely on it. Right now I intuit that something abidingly dark is afoot. Powerful people are trying to cover it up. I can't understand why."

"You wouldn't be one of those yourself, would you?"

She seemed genuinely confused. "What do you mean?"

"Last time I was involved in weird goings-on involving secret labs and illegal experiments, your daughter and her friends were in the middle of it. You and your father went balls to the wall to make sure they didn't get eaten alive for their foolishness."

"Kevans isn't involved this time. I don't think any of the Faction kids are."

Kevans' gang of misfit genius friends called themselves the Faction.

"How come it sounds like you're trying to convince yourself?"

"I admit it. Kevans does lie to me. When I see her. Which is hardly ever anymore."

"She's not living with you?"

"She has her own place. I don't think she learned much last time. And I'm scared that some of her other friends might be involved. Or might know who is. And Kevans wouldn't say."

"Teen solidarity. But, involved in what?"

"Exactly."

"Teen solidarity usually collapses in the face of real consequences."

"I don't think Kevans is involved." She was waffling based on wishful thinking. "But she might be close to someone who is. I don't want to press her. Our relationship is complicated and fragile."

"I know. But how come you're here?"

"Let me tell you about my week." Which she did, wasting few words. "When the business on the edge of Elf Town broke Prince Rupert asked me to investigate. That ended after we found the warehouse where somebody was using parts from dead bodies to assemble custom zombies."

"Singe told me."

"I thought she would. She got warned off before I did."

"Uhm?"

"What did she tell you about that hellhole?"

I sketched Singe's report.

Furious Tide of Light said, "The girl who stayed in that room and slept with that stuffed bear was no captive."

Singe was sure the room's inmate had been a girl, too. "Singe said she was young."

"In terms of socialization, possibly. But no child would have the strength and knowledge to do what she was doing."

I ruminated briefly, then said, "An old woman. A goat cart. Something that behaved like and might have been a giant slug. Two dead men, cut down by sorcery. ."

"Who have vanished. I was kept away from them. The old woman vanished, too. Cart and goats have gone the way of the dead men."

"And nothing has happened since." I guessed because I hadn't even been fed what the mushrooms get.

"Nothing."

"But you're worried about Kevans. You've developed some disturbing suspicions."

"Not really. I have some fears. I've been unable to support them, which is a good thing. I am intuitively convinced that we're dealing with someone young, female, powerful, rogue, and entirely amoral, though."

"I see. But back to basics. How come you're here? What do you want from me?" I was determined to make a fully adult effort to remain faithful to the redhead in my life.

"I want to hire you. I think. I remember you from before." The lighting was feeble but it was enough to reveal her embarrassment.

"I'm taken."

Wan smile, without comment, in a manner that said exactly what she was thinking. My defenses were male defenses. And she did have a power besides intuition and flight. She could excite the statue of a dead general if she chose to turn it on.

I had seen her reduce a crowd of skilled tradesmen to drooling idiots with no conscious effort.

But tonight she was totally serious.

I wished I knew her situation better. She said she was estranged from her father and daughter. How much so? Her father had run every detail of her life, back when, despite her being one of the most powerful sorcerers in the kingdom. She had not been long on social skills. I couldn't imagine yesterday's Furious Tide of Light surviving on her own.

I shifted the subject. "What about the other Faction girls? I don't recall them that well. Could one of them be our resurrection man?"

"I only knew the ones that came to our house. They were all odd. There were more than I saw. Kids came and went. Some never really belonged to the clique."

"And some were cross-dressers. Including Kevans."

"That, too."

"Any of those kids connected to the Royal Family?"

She shrugged, not surprised. She had considered the question. "Not that I know of."

"What's the mood on the Hill?"

She frowned. Maybe she hadn't thought about that.

"This will reflect on all of you. You want to police yourselves. This makes it look like you need outside help. The villain fled to the Hill twice."

"No. Toward the Hill."

I had to give her that. The monster may have done that as misdirection. "What are your neighbors saying?"

"I don't know. I don't have much to do with them. I'm not comfortable with the ways they think."

The mental work behind the mad laboratory only exaggerated the attitudes of most Hill folk. Furious Tide of Light was the most sane and least dangerous of any I'd ever met.

"All right. Let's lay it out. Straight up honest. What do you want?"

"I don't want to be shut out. I guess Prince Rupert doesn't trust me after the thing with the giant bugs."

"Understandable. That involved another secret lab."

"I know. I see why he might think what he's thinking. That doesn't change what I feel. I want you to help find out what's really going on."

"All right. You're worried about your daughter. But why not stand back and let the professionals do their job?"

She did not offer an answer.

"So. You're not just worried. You want to be a step ahead so you can cover for her again. Even if she's behind the ugliest criminal incident we've seen in years."

"Yes. Sort of."

"Then Prince Rupert did the right thing when he shut you out."

"She's my baby, Garrett. I can't just let her. ."

"And you can't keep covering. If she can't get a handle on the concept of consequences she'll just keep getting into trouble. You saw the inside of that warehouse. And six people died in two days. You can't make excuses and cover up something like that."

She shrugged. She was near the point where many women turn on the waterworks. She refrained.