Larkspur (24 page)

“
My mom used to
subscribe,” the doctor chuckled.

“
I never realized they
were such vultures,” Mike said.

“
I don’t know that they
were when we were kids,” the doctor chuckled. “I’m a bit older than
you are, but . . .”

Sissy could have sworn there was someone
standing just at her side. She looked into the gloomy tunnel and
saw nothing. She swallowed hard and moved closer to Mike. She got
too close and knocked into him by accident. He caught her arm to
keep her from falling over.

“
You okay?” Mike
asked.

Sissy gave a nervous nod. He gave her
another one of those annoying pats, and kept walking. She glared at
his back.

“
Come on, Sissy,” Mike
said. “You’ve got to keep up, or the tunnel ghosts will get
you.”

“
Tunnel ghosts?” Sissy
asked.

Mike had always said he didn’t believe in
ghosts. He even said he didn’t believe in Mrs. Celia, whom Sissy
had seen lingering around the Castle. Mike gave her a bright smile
and she jogged to catch up.

“
Did you say ghosts?” the
doctor asked with a chuckle in his voice.

“
Sure,” Mike said. “These
tunnels are notoriously haunted. They used the tunnels to move
bodies out of Cheeseman.”

“
When it was a cemetery?”
the doctor asked.

“
Exactly,” Mike
said.

“
I’ve heard that story,”
the doctor said. “It was a Jewish cemetery?”

“
That’s right,” Mike said.
“When the light is exactly right, you can see the burial mounds in
the grass at Cheeseman Park.”

Sissy began to feel like she’d been in this
tunnel most of her life.

“
I will tell you there’s a
kind of ‘close feeling’ in these tunnels,” the doctor said. “I keep
thinking there’s someone just right there. But when I
look . . .”

“
Nah,” Mike cut off the
doctor. “No one can get in here. It’s sealed off completely by
Homeland Security.”

“
You must feel safe,” the
doctor said. “I’ll tell you that I was impressed with all the
security you have there at the house.”

“
Isn’t it amazing?” Mike
asked. “Jake set it up. Of course, it’s mostly to keep the press
out, but every once and a while, we get a drifter or drunk from
Colfax.”

“
You’re close to the
street there,” the doctor said.

“
I think there were a
couple murders down here,” Mike said. “You remember that Saint Jude
thing?”

“
The serial killer?” the
doctor asked.

“
He buried a few people
along this coal line,” Mike said.

“
He buried some under our
house!” Sissy said.

“
Very creepy,” the doctor
said.

The doctor gave Sissy a patronizing smile,
and she felt stupid. She glanced at Mike. He was usually her big
defender. Whenever Charlie or Nash made Sissy feel stupid, Mike
always spoke up for her.

Not tonight.

Sissy couldn’t believe it. She was about to
say something when she felt someone near her again. Mike and the
doctor kept walking. She stumbled and fell. The big guy who was
Teddy’s guardian stepped out of the gloom. He grabbed her elbow and
set her on her feet. She was so surprised she almost fell again. He
winked at her, put his finger to his lips, and stepped back into
the dark

Sissy looked ahead at Mike. When she looked
back for the big guy, she couldn’t see him. Mike stopped
walking.

“
Sissy?” Mike squinted
against the dim light.

“
I fell.” Sissy ran up to
them.

“
Try to keep up,” Mike
said in a stern voice.

Sissy was so surprised her mouth fell open.
She was about to protest when she realized that Mike was playing a
game. He was pretending to be a jerk so the doctor wouldn’t catch
on to what was going on. Feeling like a secret agent, Sissy stood a
little taller.

“
Yes, sir,” Sissy
said.

Mike’s eyes flicked to Sissy. His lips
turned up in a partial grin before he asked the doctor a question.
They continued along the coal tunnels. Sissy felt people around
every once and a while. She kept her mouth shut and pretended to be
a good little girl. She grinned at her own pretense. She wondered
if she’d see her idol, Alex Hargreaves, in the tunnels. Alex was
Mike’s friend and the big guy’s boss and . . .

Sissy was so lost in thought that she walked
right past their stairwell without giving it a glance.

“
That’s our neighbors,”
Mike lied. “We’re just up ahead.”

The wood barrier, that usually sat next to
their wooden stairs was gone. They were now walking in a part of
the tunnel Sissy had never been to.

Sissy shivered. This part of the tunnel was
way creepier than where they usually walked.

“
Just up here.” Mike
pointed to a set of stone stairs.

Sissy thought they might still be under the
Castle but she wasn’t sure. She tried to catch Mike’s eye, but he
refused to look at her. She swallowed hard and followed.

“
Please.” the doctor
gestured for Sissy to go up the stairs first.

Sissy glanced at Mike, and then started up
the short stairwell.

“
It always surprises me
when young people don’t know their manners,” the doctor said as he
followed Sissy up.

Sissy came to a door. Because she couldn’t
think of anything else to do, she opened the door and stepped
through. They were standing in gloomy stone hallway. She took a
step forward and heard the door close behind her. She put her foot
out to take another step and she felt a man’s arms around her. She
gave him a strong elbow, but he didn’t let go. He pulled her into a
dark corner. His mouth was right next to her ear.

“
It’s Sensei, Sissy,” he
said in her ear. “Use your other senses.”

Like he’d taught her, she took a deep breath
in to use her other senses besides her eyes. She could smell his
distinctive cologne. She could feel his powerful hands, and the
warmth of his body. He felt safe. This was Mr. Colin’s teacher.
Even though he was blind, he was an incredible martial artist.
Sissy let him pull her deeper into the gloom.

“
What’s going on here?”
the doctor asked.

“
You’ve got some nerve,”
Mike said. “You think you can sell off Jackie’s blood and stem
cells and get away with it? Sell my sister and her children to the
highest bidder?”

Mike’s terribly scary father stepped
forward.

“
We’ll take this from
here, son,” the man said.

“
You won’t get away with
this,” the doctor said.

A few other men stepped out of the gloom.
Sissy only recognized the really big, pale white guy who was
usually with Teddy’s guardian.

“
It turns out that a lot
of people are looking for the owner of Experiri Genetics,” Mike’s
dad said.

"I have no idea what you're talking about,"
the doctor said.

"You slipped us in the hospital," Mike's dad
said. "After we were nice enough to take you when you… hurt
yourself. But look around. You're not getting away this time."

“
I want my lawyer,” the
doctor said.

“
We’ll get right on that,”
Mike’s dad said, and the men in the room laughed. He turned to Mike
and said, “Jillian needs you.”

“
Where’s Sissy?” Mike
asked. “Sissy?”

Sensei let her go, and Sissy ran to Mike. He
gave her a hug and whispered, “Sorry,” in her ear.

“
Can you get us out of
here?” Mike asked Sissy.

“
Follow the gargoyles,”
Sensei said.

Sissy turned to look at him.

“
How did you know?” Sissy
asked.

“
I can see them.” He
smiled at her.

“
Gargoyles?” Mike
asked.

With those words, a gargoyle appeared. It
guided Mike and Sissy the end of the hall and up another flight of
stairs. They were almost to the top when Sissy heard Mike’s father
say, “You picked the wrong family to fuck with.”

She shivered at his voice. She would have
looked back, but they turned the corner, went through a door, and
were suddenly, miraculously, standing in the kitchen of the
Castle.

“
This way!” the gargoyle
said.

They followed him to the room where Jill was
in labor. Heather and Tanesha met them at the door.

“
What’s going on?” Mike
asked Tanesha.

“
Jill is in labor,”
Tanesha said. “But Katy says the babies are too afraid to come out.
Your mom’s here. Your brother, Steve, got here a few minutes ago.
Jill thought you might be able to help.”

“
Candy? Meg?” Mike asked
about his sisters.

“
They’re on their way,”
Tanesha said.

Mike let Tanesha lead him to Jill.

~~~~~~~~

“
Where are we going?”
Valerie asked James as they crossed the street toward his
car.

Since the fairy magic didn’t work on James,
they’d decided to take his car to where he thought the Celts might
have buried Queen Fand. Sam and Delphie chatted with Celia behind
them. Jacob was talking with Gilfand, the gargoyle, on the other
side of James. When Valerie asked the question, everyone fell
silent to listen to the answer.

James gave her a soft smile and walked to
his car. Valerie got into the passenger seat; Sam, Delphie, and
Jacob squeezed into the back of the small sedan. Gilfand landed on
Valerie’s headrest. When everyone was settled, James cleared his
throat.

“
There’s a historic site a
couple miles from here,” James said. “It’s called Balladoole. It’s
also the site of a large Celtic fort. My guess is that they had to
break up the magic of Fand and Manannán to gain power specifically
for this fort.”

“
They would have needed to
keep her body close,” Delphie said.

“
Like a talisman,” James
said. “I thought the same thing.”

He started the vehicle and pulled onto the
street. They drove through the small city of Castletown and started
on the A5.

“
Is Balladoole a
cemetery?” Valerie asked.

“
No, but there was a
Viking burial there,” James said. “Someone of some significance was
buried with his ship. The site was excavated in 1945 by a German
imprisoned at a POW camp on the island. I’ve always wondered if he
got something wrong.”

“
Why?” Jacob
asked.

“
Because he only found the
remains of a man and an
adult
woman,” James said. “Vikings usually burned
a
young
female
slave alive when they buried their powerful leaders. These remains
are said to be of an adult woman who was buried quite some time
before the Viking.”

“
Queen Fand,” Sam
said.

“
My thought,” James said.
“We’ll have to dig her up.”

“
If she is Queen Fand, I
will take her remains back to the monolith under Castle Rushen,”
Gilfand said.

“
And break the curse,”
Delphie said. “That’s brilliant.”

“
The question is: How are
we going to do the digging?” James glanced in the rear view mirror
at Jacob. “It’s the wee hours of the morning. I left my shovels at
home.”

“
I can get you shovels,”
Gilfand said. “I may be male, but I am fairy-kind.”

James smiled. They turned off the highway
toward the Irish Sea, went down a low hill, and parked near a
thicket. They set out on foot across a wide footpath.

“
This is where the Celtic
fort stood.” James pointed to the rocks and ruins of the
fort.

“
It’s a good spot for a
fort,” Jacob said.

“
Especially if it’s
protected by a fairy queen,” Gilfand said bitterly.

“
Indeed. This way.” James
pointed across the low grass of the monument. “You can see the
outline of the Viking ship over there.”

They stopped at the edge of what had been
the Viking ship. Large boulders marked the oval outline. The wooden
ship had decomposed, leaving a depression in the grassy field.

“
The ship rotted away,”
James said. “They found the bodies, a shield for the man, lot of
nails, stuff like that.”

“
When was it buried?”
Gilfand asked.

“
Tenth century,” James
said. “Sometime around 900 AD.”

“
Does the timing fit?”
Delphie asked.

“
It does,” Gilfand
said.

Without warning, the gargoyle transformed
into a human-looking man of medium build. He looked strong and fit.
He had long, dark hair, light chocolate skin, and a fierce brow. He
wore the exact thing Jacob wore — jeans and a dress shirt, but he
still had pointed gargoyle ears and sharp claw-like
fingernails.

“
That’s an impressive
trick,” Sam said.

“
I thought you could use
some help digging,” Gilfand said.

The fairy clapped his hands, and a variety
of shovels appeared.

“
Sam, why don’t you get
what you need?” Delphie asked. “Jacob and I will see if we can
intuit where her remains lie.”

Sam nodded and started looking over the
shovels. Jacob and Delphie moved out into the depression where the
Viking ship had been buried.