Larkspur (28 page)

“
Where’s the center?”
Jacob asked.

Gilfand flew around the fort. He was above
an enormous flat rock shelf when he started to sneeze.

“
There,” Delphie
said.

Jacob rubbed his hands
together until sparks lit up the edges of his palms. He clapped and
there was a little
boom
from under the large stone.

“
What was that?” Valerie
asked.

“
It was an elder tree,”
Jacob said. “They planted an elder tree over the last two. Here we
go.”

He closed his eyes to focus. When he opened
them, the stone had only shifted a tiny bit.

“
It’s held down by some
force,” Jacob said. “I can’t lift it.”

“
What if I hold your hand
or . . .?” Valerie asked.

Jacob shook his head.

“
And he can’t help?”
Valerie asked.

“
I cannot do more than I
am doing — showing some foreigners around our lovely island,”
Gilfand said.

“
We can go through the
bottom,” Delphie said.

Jacob looked at Delphie for a moment before
taking off down the mountain. When he was near the ribs, he skidded
to a stop. He held his hands out and called to the ribs. Nothing
happened.

Jacob sagged.

“
You can do this, Jake,”
Valerie said. “I know you can.”

Jacob glanced at her. Delphie arrived.

“
Draw what you need from
the island,” Delphie said.

Knowing that had worked before, Jacob
connected with the island. He felt a surge of power that he
realized came from Queen Fand.

“
Val! Give me the ribs!”
Jacob said.

Valerie ran the ribs to him. Jacob felt
almost drunk with the surge of power.

“
Ground, Jake, ground,”
Delphie yelled.

He glanced at her and nodded. He closed his
eyes. There was a rumbling sound from within the mountain. The ribs
sliced through the ground and turf. Jacob held out his hand and
caught them one at a time.

“
Where to next?” Jacob
said.

“
The White Lady,” Delphie
said.

“
I can take
those . . .” Gilfand said.

“
I think I need to keep
them,” Jacob said.

Gilfand nodded.

In the wink of an eye, they were standing
outside a row of suburban homes looking at a seven-foot-tall white
quartz standing stone. A crash came from inside the house in front
of them. Jacob glanced at the house. A nightgown-clad woman stared
through her kitchen window. The faucet was on. She must have
dropped a glass when she saw them appear.

“
Fuck it,” Jacob said
under his breath, and lifted the stone six feet into the
air.

Valerie ran to look in the hole.

“
There’s nothing there!”
Valerie said.

“
What do you mean?” Jacob
asked. “It has to be there.”

“
No.” Delphie shook her
head and pointed at the metal placard on the ground. “This plaque
says cremated remains lie here.”

“
Shit,” Jacob
said.

“
Jake, I think that lady
is calling the police,” Valerie said.

Jacob set the stone down in the middle of
the asphalt street. His eyes passed over the kitchen window where
the woman gawked at him. He rubbed his hands together until there
was a foot-wide halo around his hands.

A police siren sounded in the distance.

He clapped, and tiny flecks of bones flew to
him. The force of his electrostatic charge began to hold the
fragments of bone together until they formed a set of femurs. He
used his psychokinetic power to press the pieces together until
they were solid.

A fast-moving Isle of Man Constabulary
cruiser skidded onto the street.

“
Jake!” Valerie
said.

Jacob lifted the White Lady standing stone
from the street. The police sedan screeched to a halt. Jacob set
the stone in place.

“
Stop where you are!” a
Douglas police constable screamed.

 
. . .And
they were standing on a low bluff above the surf on the west coast
of the Isle of Man. The rain pounded down on them.

“
Jake!” Sam said. “It’s
about time you got here.”

Jacob hugged his father.

“
What’re you doing with
all these bones?” Sam asked.

“
They enhance my power,”
Jacob said.

Sam nodded.

“
Your mom helped us find
the cairn,” James said. “We think Queen Fand’s remains are
there.”

“
Show me,” Jacob said, and
nodded hello to Brigid.

~~~~~~~~

Friday night — 10:15 p.m. MST

Denver, Colorado

Jeraine opened his eyes and blinked. He had
no idea where he was. Before he could move, a pair of legs walked
in front of him. Jeraine’s eyes followed the man as he carried a
large box fan to the end of the medical office lobby. Jeraine
remembered where he was and what had happened. The man pointed the
fan out into the hallway and turned it on.

Jeraine realized that the intruders had used
some kind of gas to knock them out. Jeraine closed his eyes before
the man walked past him again.

Jeraine was sitting against a wall in the
medical office lobby. His hands were tied behind him with what felt
like a zip tie. Directly in front of him sat a row of Sandy’s kids
and their friend Teddy. They were unconscious and their hands
seemed to be tied behind them as well. His friend the gargoyle was
lying on the floor next to the chair he’d been sitting in.

Jeraine’s heart lurched.

Where was Tanesha?

Making sure not to draw attention to
himself, Jeraine’s eyes flicked around the room. He couldn’t see
her. He sniffed; he could smell her hair conditioner. He knew she
had to be near him. Relief coursed through him. He closed his eyes
to catch his panicked breath.

Jeraine’s extensive drug use was coming in
handy. They would have had to give him a direct dose if they wanted
to knock him out for very long. Tanesha would tell him he was a
fool, but he felt oddly proud. He was about to say something when a
man walked into the office from the hallway and went into the room
where Jill was having the babies.

“
How long?” the man
asked.

From where he was sitting, Jeraine could
only see the man’s wool slacks.

“
Hours,” a man in a white
lab coat said.

Lab Coat had a slight Hispanic accent that
was vaguely familiar to Jeraine.

“
I thought she was already
in labor.” Wool Slack’s voice rose in anger. “She’s supposed to be
in labor.”

Jeraine saw his gargoyle friend’s wings
flap. The men were standing right next to the gargoyle but didn’t
seem to see him move. Out of nowhere, an older gargoyle appeared
next to Jeraine’s friend. The older gargoyle glared at Jeraine, and
then attended to the young gargoyle on the ground. After a few
moment, the young gargoyle disappeared.

“
She was in labor,” Lab
Coat said.

“
Then why isn’t she now?”
Wool Slacks asked.

“
No idea,” Lab Coat said.
“There’s nothing we can do but wait for the Pitocin to
work.”

“
And if it doesn’t
work?”

“
It will work.”

“
You sure you can’t just
take them?” Wool Slacks was getting angry.

“
Not if you want to use
them,” Lab Coat said. “You said you wanted them fully
capable.”

“
I do,
but . . .”

“
Then you have to wait,”
Lab Coat said.

The older gargoyle appeared right in front
of Jeraine. He squelched a scream.

“
They cannot see you,” the
older gargoyle said. “What has happened here?”

“
I think they gassed us,”
Jeraine said. “Where’s my wife?”

“
She’s beside you.” The
gargoyle transformed into a man. He was wearing jeans and a white
work shirt. He helped Jeraine to his feet. The gargoyle-man snapped
his fingers, and the zip ties on Jeraine’s hands popped open.
Jeraine went to Tanesha. He touched her face and kissed her
hair.

“
She’s breathing,” Jeraine
said.

“
This one
is . . .” The gargoyle-man bent down to
Heather.

Heather was hog-tied with a rope looped
around her neck, hands, and feet. She was facedown so all of her
weight was on her pregnant belly. She had duct tape over her mouth.
Jeraine ran to her. The gargoyle shifted Heather to her side, and
Jeraine loosened the rope and removed the duct tape.

“
Why was this woman the
focus of so much wrath?” the gargoyle-man asked.

“
They can’t see
me?”

The gargoyle-man shook his head. Jeraine
went to the medical office.

“
I knew I recognized his
voice,” Jeraine said. “Tanesha made me get an AIDS test. She said
she would only trust Blane’s doctor because Blane went there and
said he was good. Some doctor.”

Jeraine crossed his arms and looked
incensed.

“
That’s mature,” the
gargoyle-man said.

Jeraine blushed.

“
Who is this man?” the
gargoyle-man asked.

“
The guy in the white coat
works for Blane’s doctor,” Jeraine said. “His name is Rubén. He’s
in love with Heather’s husband and thinks she stole him
away.”

“
He must know that’s not
love.” The gargoyle-man scowled.

“
Guess not,” Jeraine
said.

The gargoyle snapped his fingers and untied
Heather.

“
Where is that woman’s
daughter?” The gargoyle-man pointed to the birthing
room.

“
Why do you think I’m
going to tell you that?” Jeraine asked. “I don’t know who you are.
You could just as easily be with them.”

“
I would never be
with . . .
them
,” The gargoyle-man scowled at
Jeraine. “I am a faithful servant of Queen Fand, the fairy queen.
My name is Gilfand. My queen has taken an interest in the
girl.”

“
Yeah, whatever,” Jeraine
said. “What are you going to do to fix this?”

“
It’s not within my charge
to ‘fix this,’” the gargoyle-man said.

“
Why not?” Jeraine asked.
“You seem like a man and have powers and whatever; why can’t you
fix this?”

The gargoyle-man blinked. Jeraine gave the
man an indifferent shrug and began to check on the children.

“
What will it take for you
to help me?” the gargoyle-man asked.

“
I could ask you the same
thing,” Jeraine said. “Seems like my man Jacob is busting his ass
to save
your
fairy queen. And don’t pretend you don’t know him. You’re
wearing one of his work shirts.”

The gargoyle shifted back to his usual
form.

“
My son said you could be
difficult,” the gargoyle said.

“
That was your boy?”
Jeraine asked. “Hell of a singer.”

“
That
boy
is three hundred and twenty-four
human years old,” the gargoyle said.

“
Okay,” Jeraine said. “And
what are you going to do about all of this? We’ve got a pregnant
woman and her boys who need saving. We’ve got bad guys who need
rounding up. We’ve got all these folks who need protection. What
are you going to do?”

The gargoyle blinked at Jeraine. They glared
at each other for a moment.

“
What do you
propose?”

“
Send some of whatever you
are to protect everybody,” Jeraine said. “Make sure nothing happens
to anybody, including Jill. Oh, and let me call my dad.”

“
What do I get in return?”
the gargoyle asked.

“
You get to know where the
girl child is,” Jeraine said. “But I’ll tell you this, the boys
Jill is carrying — everybody wants them. Your queen is gonna want
to save them too.”

The gargoyle disappeared, and Jeraine was
sure he’d lost his bargaining. After a few moments, gargoyles
started popping up around the room. At least twenty tiny, blue and
pink fairies appeared along the ceiling, and the birthing room took
on a light pink glow. A woman who looked like Cleopatra appeared in
the middle of the room. She raised an eyebrow at Jeraine and walked
into the birthing room. While the men argued around her, she
touched Jill’s belly and whispered in her ear.

The woman sauntered back into the lobby.

“
You drive a hard
bargain,” the Cleopatra lookalike said. “Your father has received a
phone call from you. He will call his friend Seth. They will know
what to do.”

“
Are you Queen Fand?”
Jeraine asked.

“
Her sister, Liban,” the
woman said. “Queen Fand is stuck at Castle Rushen. Where is the
girl?”

“
Are you trying to take
over?” Jeraine asked. “Be the queen yourself?”

“
You mean, do these
men
work for me?” Liban
said the word “men” with disgust. “No. Fairies are incapable of
jealousy and envy. No fairy would want to displace our queen. She
works for us, takes care of us; no one will harm her.”

“
You’re sure?”

“
Fand and I are twins,”
Liban said. “I have been around since the beginning of fairies. No
one would ever even think of over-throwing our queen. Our minds and
lives are filled with living; we would not waste it on such
folly.”