Larkspur (33 page)

She looked at Rodney and he nodded.

“
Here we go,” Honey said.
“Wiggle your fingers the second you feel the pressure
ease.”

The man nodded, and Rodney started to dig.
He made a quick and easy semi-circlular moat around the man and
then carefully scooped the dirt closer to him. He wanted to leave
enough dirt to keep the pressure on his wound, but not so much that
they couldn’t get him out.

“
Give me a lift,” Honey
said. “When he’s out, you know what to do?”

Rodney nodded. He lifted Honey into her
chair.

“
Rope,” Rodney
said.

A long stretch of bright red rope appeared
in his hand. He dropped to his knees and wrapped the rope around
the man’s chest, just under his shoulders, and tied it tight. He
tied the other end of the rope onto Honey’s chair.

“
Try it,” Rodney
said.

Honey started her rugged mechanical chair.
It moved an inch and was stuck. Rodney removed more mud and rocks
from around the man.

“
Go,” Rodney
said.

Nothing happened.

“
We’re pretty close.”
Rodney dug out another inch of dirt. “Okay, try it now.”

Honey jerked forward, and the man slipped
toward her. Rodney used his shovel to remove as much dirt as
possible. Honey slowly pulled the man from the mud. Rodney ran to
the man.

“
Where’s your injury?”
Rodney asked.

“
Don’t touch me, you
animal!” the man said.

Abi dazed the man with a flash of light from
her wand. Rodney looked up at her.

“
He’s gross,” Abi
said.

Rodney turned the man onto his left side and
found his wound. The window had all but cut his leg off at the
knee. Shaking his head, Rodney tied the tourniquet and applied the
anti-coagulant. He was almost done when a National Guard medic
dropped down from the wire.

Rodney stepped back.

“
Great job!” Abi
said.

“
But?”

“
There are more,” Abi
pointed.

“
Honey?” Rodney
yelled.

“
On my way.” Honey took
off toward the next person. Rodney grabbed Honey’s gallon of water
and ran to catch up.

~~~~~~~~

Friday night — 11:17 p.m. MST

Denver, Colorado

“
Hey,” Bumpy
said.

Jill gasped and sat up. She looked around
the room. Camille was standing near her head. Bumpy rubbed her
back. Camille gave her a glass of water.

“
You’ve been given Pitocin
to induce labor,” Bumpy said. “You’re too far along into labor for
us to back out now.”

“
What happened?” Jill
asked.

“
According to Jeraine, you
were gassed by some men saying they were going to take the boys,”
Bumpy said.

“
I know he’s your son and
all,” Jill said. “But, Jeraine isn’t the best judge of what’s going
on.”

“
I heard that,” Jeraine
yelled from the waiting room.

Bumpy chuckled and Jill smirked.

“
Where is everyone?” Jill
asked. “My family. The kids. Mike. When I passed out, Mike was
right there.”

She gestured to her right.

“
They’re in the waiting
room,” Camille said. “They were tied up and drugged. Tink and
Jeraine are the only ones who were able to shake off the drugs.
Everyone else is completely out.”

“
Practice has its
privileges.” Jill smiled.

“
Damn straight,” Jeraine
laughed from the waiting room.

Jill laughed and grimaced with pain.

“
Dionne’s out there
assessing them. A couple of them might need to go to the hospital,”
Bumpy said. “Jeraine is helping her.”

Jill nodded. Tink stuck her head into the
room. Mack was sucking his thumb from his vantage point on Tink’s
hip.

“
I’ve checked on the
babies,” Tink said. “They seem scared, but all right. Jackie,
Maggie, and Rachel need to eat. Do you think it’s safe for me to
get some of the breast milk here?”

“
I wouldn’t risk it,”
Bumpy said.

“
There’s breast milk in
the refrigerator in the room at the end of the hallway,” Jill said.
“It’s for Maggie and Jackie. We brought it when we came down.
There’s enough for all of them. Do you know how to warm
it?”

Tink nodded. Jill smiled to encourage her,
and the girl disappeared from the doorway.

“
Are the police here?”
Jill asked.

“
Your father and his
friends,” Bumpy said. “They wanted us to wait before calling the
police.”

“
Why?” Jill
asked.

“
They’re concerned that
this looks too weird,” Bumpy said. “Don’t quote me. That’s just
what I think.”

“
Do you know where Katy
is?” Camille asked. “We haven’t been able to find her.”

“
What do you mean?” Jill
asked. “She’s in the compartment in the wall.”

Camille gave a slight shake of her head.

“
What do you mean?” Jill’s
voice rose with panic.

Her anxiety brought a wave of contractions.
She gasped at the contractions and grabbed her belly. Camille
coached her through deep breathing. For a moment, it was all Jill
could do to keep from screaming. When the contractions eased, Jill
looked at Bumpy.

“
Where’s my Katy?” Jill
asked.

“
Jeraine remembered her
going in there.” Bumpy pointed to the wall. “The fairies came to
check on you and her. He said they looked into the cabinet and saw
her. There was one who said Katy had a fairy with her to protect
her.”

“
Maybe she’s there, and
the fairy made her invisible,” Jill said.

“
We thought you should
take a look,” Bumpy said. “Maybe she’s visible to you and not to
us.”

Bumpy helped Jill off the table. When her
feet hit the floor, she crumpled. He caught her before she hit the
ground. Camille came around to hold her up. They shuffled over to
the compartment in the wall. Bumpy and Camille helped Jill kneel
down to look in the compartment.

The space was empty.

“
Katy-baby?” Jill felt a
wave of overwhelming sadness. “Katherine Anjelika Roper-Marlowe,
you show yourself this instant.”

Nothing. A fat tear slid down Jill’s
cheek.

“
Katy?” Jill
asked.

She put her hand in the upholstered bottom
of the cabinet.

“
Still warm,” Jill
said.

“
We think she was there
until just a moment ago,” Bumpy said. “We heard a
noise . . .”

Bumpy looked at Camille.

“
We’ve been trying to wake
you,” Camille said. “Then we heard a whoosh, or maybe a scrape,
like ice from a windshield — you know,
shkkratch
.”

Jill couldn’t take her hand off the spot
where Katy had been. She saw crumbs. She swept them out of the
compartment.

“
Brownies,” Jill said. “We
made brownies last night.”

She picked up a tiny piece of blue
taffeta.

“
Hey Jeraine,” Jill
yelled.

“
What?” Jeraine’s surly
voice came from the other room. “I’m kind of busy here
administering to
your
family.”

“
Were any of the fairies
wearing blue taffeta?” Jill asked.

“
Baby-blue, sure,” Jeraine
said. “There were these tiny fairies. They weren’t bigger than a
dime.”

“
She has a fairy with
her,” Jill said to herself.

“
That’s got to be good,”
Bumpy said.

Jill looked at him. Although his voice was
reassuring and confident, his eyes betrayed his belief that Katy
was in real trouble. Jill gave him a curt nod. She felt the boys
move and put her hand to them.

They told her that Katy was safe for
now.

For now.

Jill swallowed hard.

“
There’s nothing we can do
now,” Camille said. “Your father knows all of this. He can take
care of it. Let’s get you back up on the table. We’ll have two
healthy baby boys soon.”

Jill nodded. She let Bumpy and Camille help
her onto the table.

“
The dogs?” Jill
asked.

“
They’re in with the
babies,” Bumpy said.

Scooter didn’t go with Katy. Jill bit her
lip to keep from sobbing.

“
Hey.” Jeraine stood in
the doorway. “Julie’s on the phone. She wants to see if we have
Paddie. She put him to bed and now he’s missing.”

Jill’s heart lifted as she recognized the
truth.

“
Paddie’s with Katy,” Jill
said.

“
Any idea where? They’re
ready to call the army,” Jeraine said.

“
I don’t know where my
baby is,” Jill shook her head.

Camille helped her lie down.

“
I’ll call Seth and see if
he knows anything,” Bumpy said. He left the room.

“
Come on,” Camille said.
“Let’s pray for Katy.”

Jill nodded. Even as her mouth moved with
the words, her heart filled with despair. Her precious Katy was
gone. She began to weep.

~~~~~~~~

Jacob was fairly certain he’d never been as
tired as he was at this moment. On any normal day, he would have
made a joke about being tired, but today, Valerie had given him a
lecture about “the pain and suffering of childbirth,” and how “this
was the least he could do since Jill was having twins,” and “why
did he have to be such a selfish bastard?” and . . .
He wasn’t sure what else because he’d glanced at James. James was
rolling his eyes at Valerie.

Jacob grinned.

“
I think it’s up here.”
Delphie pointed to a small hill.

Jacob groaned. James fell in beside him.

“
Come on, super-hero,”
James said. The more tired he became, the more of James’s Irish
accent came out. He was beginning to sound like his brother, Cian,
the baker. “What’s one more hill?”

“
Any idea what ‘raising
Manannán’s army’ means?” Jacob asked.

“
Sure,” James said.
“What’s he say?”

James nodded toward Gilfand.

“
He just gave me a
thoughtful look and said he’d get it done,” Jacob said. “Oh, and
when did we need it?”

“
What did you say?” James
asked.

“
As soon as we put the
bones in place,” Jacob said. “If the goal is to reverse the curse,
we need Manannán.”

“
And you’re sure the book
says to raise Manannán’s army,” James said.

“
There are pictures of
ghost-like figures on horses,” Jacob said.

“
More ghosts,” James said.
“Lovely.”

“
My thought too,” Jacob
said. “Any ideas?”

“
There’s an ancient burial
site called Meayll Hill or Rullick-y-lagg-shliggagh,” James
said.

“
Uh, what?” Jacob
asked.

“
It literally means the
graveyard of the valley of broken slates,” James said. “Dates back
to 3500 BC. It’s near the very tip of the south end of the island.
Just west of where we were at Balladoole.”

“
That’s got to be it,”
Jacob said. “According to Seth, Manannán’s army is located just
west and south of where we found the first bones.”

“
At the Viking
ship?”

“
I guess the book predates
the Viking ship,” Jacob said.

“
Interesting,” James said.
“There’s supposed to be a ghost cavalry at Meayll Hill. I’ve never
seen it.”

“
Gilfand?” Jacob asked the
gargoyle flying near them. “Is that it?”

“
Yes,” Gilfand said. “It
can only be raised under the right conditions.”

“
What are those?” Jacob
asked.

“
I’m not actually sure,”
Gilfand said. “Once we restore the queen, I believe the army will
appear to the challenge of Celtic born. But I’m not sure. I will
have to consult with Delphie about the images, and then with our
librarian. I’m wondering if we have a copy of this book in our
library.”

“
You have a library?”
James asked.

“
Of course we have a
library,” Gilfand said. “We’re not barbarians!”

James looked at Jacob, who shrugged.

“
False alarm,” Delphie
yelled up ahead. “But I think we’re on the right track.”

They continued hiking up the hill for a
while.

“
There’s a stone circle at
Meayll Hill,” James said.

“
Like Stonehenge?” Jacob
asked.

“
Very much like
Stonehenge,” James said. “There are twelve burials in the stone
circle. Most people say the army is protecting the people in the
circle.”

“
I can assure you that
it’s Manannán’s army,” Gilfand said.

“
How do you know?” Jacob
asked.

“
I was there when they
swore an oath to spend all eternity waiting and watching for his
return,” Gilfand said, and flew off to where Brigid and Delphie
were talking.

“
Who knew?” James asked.
Jacob laughed.

“
Jacob!” Valerie yelled
from up ahead. “Hurry up.”

“
Yes, do hurry up,” James
said in a low tone. “Older sisters. They are
so . . .”