Whistlestop (32 page)

“
The tattooed demon,” she
replied. “Of course I know, but it still hurts.”

“
Who?” Bath
asked.

“
Linger Bartholomew
Breakneck, a demon from the Lower Realm,” Jeremiah began. “Long
before he installed Karl August Galantine Armstrong as Emperor of
the Universe, he knew your species was the greatest risk to his
power, which is also why I am here to recruit you to join our army.
What better way to weaken a race than by creating a false
separation between males and females? Haven’t you ever wondered why
there are only male trolls in the Woods of Elin? And where do the
male infants come from?”

“
They are gifts from God,
elf, every troll knows that!” Patron Bath exclaimed. Mira and the
other females began to laugh and Jeremiah only shook his head
slowly.

“
Then how do you know this
female’s name if you have never seen her before?”

“
Perhaps that tattooed
demon of yours put her image in my mind?”

“
I give up!” Jeremiah
cried. “This is hopeless!”

“
What is your name, elf?”
Mira asked.

He bowed and said, “Jeremiah
Beetleweed Mosscatcher at your service, milady.”

“
We’ll educate the fool,
Jeremiah. It just so happens that my daughter, Chase, is about to
give birth.” She motioned to the other females and said, “Let’s
take our guest to her cave.” The females jumped on Bath and lifted
him again by his arms and legs and walked out into the snow. Mira
turned back and said, “Jeremiah, you are welcome to join us.” He
hurried out after them.

Merihem was asleep on her cot in the
massive women’s barracks. Her dreams were filled with visions of
nuclear detonations throughout the realms, while her father and the
emperor sat back and celebrated the destruction. In her mind, she
wondered why her uncles and aunt had not been able to stop him.
Even her grandfather was nowhere to be found. She was shocked awake
by a hand on her shoulder. “Who’s there?”

“
My darling Daughter, what
have you learned?” Linger whispered into her ear.

“
No one will take me into
their confidence, Father. Do you think they can see through this
disguise?”

“
That is highly unlikely.
Please come with me and let us take a stroll.” She climbed out of
bed and followed him out of the barracks and down the narrow dirt
path between the buildings. “My dearest, I have the feeling you are
not telling me everything.”

“
Uncle Asmodeus was
here.”

Linger stopped and turned to face her.
“So you are saying our own family caused the anomaly here? Why
would they interfere with these mere mortals?”

“
He said you were removing
nuclears from this planet to use in the other realms. That isn’t
true, is it?”

“
Of course not, my dear,
why would I do such a horrible thing?” he laughed.

“
Father, it is possible
such an act could destroy the universe.”

“
Dear, I just said I wasn’t
contemplating such a thing.”

“
Why was there a fleet of
starships in orbit just yesterday morning?”

“
You would have to ask the
emperor that question. I have no idea what he does from day to
day.”

“
That is a damned lie!” a
voice shouted behind them. They turned to see Linger’s ten brothers
and one sister standing not twenty feet away. “You must stop this
foolish aggression, Brother,” Asmodeus growled.

“
Frankly, this is an odd
place for a family reunion,” Linger laughed. “I am touched by your
familial camaraderie though.”

“
Linger, we demand you
return those weapons to safe storage or we will throw them into the
nearest star along with your precious soldiers and ships!” Mithra
shouted.

“
We will not allow you to
end the universe!” Baal screamed. “We are not prepared to give up
our lives yet.”

“
I don’t know how you got
the idea that detonating a bomb or two will destroy the universe.
Really, that’s just silly. Each star is the equivalent of millions
of detonations per second, and they give life to the realms and to
us.”

“
So it is true, Father,”
Merihem interjected. “You are trying to become Emperor of the
Universe yourself.”

“
And what would be wrong
with that!”

Moloch said, “You know that will
disrupt the eternal balance. Don’t be stupid, Brother.”

“
The eternal balance is
nothing but the anthem of cowards who are unwilling to take their
appropriate place. I will prove you all wrong. We will rule once
and for all, as we should!”

“
We cannot and will not
allow that to happen, Linger,” Asmodeus said.

Linger put his hands on Merihem’s
shoulders and asked, “And what do you think, my darling? Do you
stand with them or your dear old dad?”

“
Father, please, I beg you
to stop this,” she replied with tears streaming down her
face.

Linger picked her up and threw her
into the others, knocking several to the ground. “So that’s the way
it is to be then. You are all traitors, and I know how to deal with
traitors!”

“
Don’t be stupid, Brother.
You cannot hurt us any more than we can you,” Mithra
laughed.

“
That is where you are
wrong, dear Siblings.” He opened his mouth wide and a huge cloud of
black smoke poured out and up into the sky. Within seconds, another
half-smoke, half-beast titan floated above them. “Mandrake, do what
you must to earn your freedom!” The titan swooped down and
swallowed the others. Linger snapped his fingers and the titan
dissolved into thin air. “Stupid fools, now they are truly lost.
All I can say is good riddance!”

“
Master?” a voice squeaked
behind him.

Linger spun around to see Brad Lincoln
peeking around a corner of the nearest building. “Bradley my boy,
tell me what you have seen here.”

“
I saw it all, Father.
Where did they go? Did that monster eat them? Is that even
possible?”

“
And how did the incident
make you feel? Are you angry with me too?”

“
No, Father, not at all,”
Brad replied, moving further back around the corner until just the
top of his head and one eye was visible. “You aren’t going to kill
me too, are you?”

“
Do you have a problem with
me removing the nuclears and possibly detonating them in the other
realms?”

“
Why should I care about
the other realms, Father? I would prefer if you did not destroy
this or my home planet, but other than that, it really doesn’t
matter to me.”

“
I’m surprised you care
about Bastion after your biological father sold you to
me.”

“
Please promise you won’t
kill me if I speak of that, Father.”

“
What have you done, Brad?”
he growled.

“
Nothing, I swear I haven’t
done anything, but there was someone else. Your children here and I
live in terror that you will punish us for what
happened.”

“
I swear on my father’s
name that I will not harm you or my children if you speak, unless
you or one of them is the guilty party.”

“
Shall we go to my office?”
Brad asked. Instantly, they were standing in a room in Linger’s
palace in the Lower Realm. Brad flinched and looked around
frantically, unsure how the change had occurred. Linger walked over
to a bar and filled two glasses with ice and whisky and offered one
to Brad.

“
Cheers!” Linger smiled at
they touched glasses. “Please sit down, my boy.” Linger walked over
to a set of four leather chairs around a small table and sat. Brad
sat on the chair opposite, still wondering where he was. “Please
tell me, Son.”

Brad was using two hands to hold the
glass because he was trembling badly. “It was a young girl,
Father.”

Linger laughed out loud. “You’re
telling me that my children cower in fear due to a small child?
That isn’t possible. Tell me the truth or I will kill
you!”

“
Father, I swear it was a
child. She is one of Jerry Winslow’s children. Her name is Lilian
Winslow.”

“
I knew I should have
killed that man when I first saw him, but no, Karl said we could
turn him. Was her father there too?”

“
No, she was alone the
whole time,” Brad began. “She froze me and then sent me to the
Upper Realm.”

“
Really?”

“
She said it was that
place, but I was only in a small room for a few minutes, so I
cannot be certain. When she came into that room, there was a man
with her. He had gray hair with a mustache and beard. I do not know
who he was, but Lilian called him Poppy.”

“
It was my dear Uncle
Emmanuel, no doubt. Please continue.”

“
I begged her to send me
back, but first she made me fall asleep and have a terrible
nightmare!”

“
Tell me. I am certain she
placed terrifying thoughts in your head. I had no idea she had such
power.”

“
Father, first I know it
was just a dream. In my dream, I was an infant again in my crib. I
crawled out and went to the front door. Outside I saw my mother
tied up to a tree with several of your children surrounding her.”
He wiped his brow with his arm and drained his glass. “It was only
a dream. Then you came along and sliced her pregnant belly open
with a long knife. The dead fetus fell to the ground and she bled
to death. That’s when I woke up back at the camp.”

Linger walked back to the bar and
retrieved the whisky bottle, refilling both glasses before he sat
on the chair next to Brad, placing his hand on his son’s knee. “I
cannot imagine how horrifying that spectacle must have been for
you. That girl must be an unfeeling beast to fabricate such images
for a poor man like you. Of course, they were all false images. I
am certain you know that.”

“
Yes, Father, I know you
could not have done anything like that,” Brad lied. He had already
witnessed all the people of Earth herded out of their homes and
into internment camps. He had seen the beasts raping and killing
the prisoners without feeling or remorse. And this very night, he
had seen him destroy his own family because they opposed his use of
nuclear weapons. “There was one other thing, Father.” Linger nodded
and patted his knee. “I have overheard some of the guards saying
Lilian turned them into butterflies. Another said he had been
changed into a cat! They may have been drunk and dreamt those
things. I never saw any of that.”

“
Turning my children into
cats and butterflies, eh? That sounds like the mind of a young girl
at work. It would seem that Karl and I have a new challenge to
face. It is unfortunate that my siblings will not be around to help
me. Clearly I have underestimated the Iron-heart
family.”

“
I don’t
understand.”

Linger snapped his fingers and Brad
was gone. He took a long drink and said, “I need to have Karl
accelerate our plans before more changes occur.”

Rachel woke in the dead of night to
the sound of laughter and conversation coming from downstairs. She
quickly pulled on her robe and headed toward the voices. She
thought she could hear Lilian giggling and rushed down the final
stairs and hallway, throwing open the kitchen door. Her husband and
great granddaughter were sitting at the table, each enjoying a bowl
of ice cream. Rachel hurried over to Lilian and pulled her up into
her arms, hugging her tightly. “Lilian, you’re safe. What happened
to you?” she cried as she frowned at her husband.

“
Please don’t be mad at
Poppy, Nana. It wasn’t his fault.”

“
Listen to the girl,
sweetheart. You know I wouldn’t dream of harming our precious
baby.”

Rachel set the girl back at the table
and turned to face her husband. “Where did you two go, and how
could you leave us like that?”

“
Don’t be angry dear, but I
can’t tell you.”

“
What? Okay Lilian, where
did Poppy take you?”

“
I already said he didn’t
do anything, and I can’t tell you where we were either.”

Rachel turned red in the face and
paced back and forth. Her expression softened and she touched
Lilian on the head. “It’s okay, dearest, I’m sure you have no idea
where you were. What’s your excuse, Manny?”

“
Oh, I know exactly where
we went and what we learned, Nana,” Lilian interjected. “I just
can’t tell you.”

Rachel grabbed her own head and
squeezed, trying to understand what she had just be told. After a
moment, she sighed heavily and sat next to Lilian and looked at her
husband. “Darling, what is going on?” He frowned and shrugged his
shoulders. “Okay, so neither of you can tell me anything. Okay, I
suppose I have to live with that. Can you at least tell me that
everything will be okay?”

Emmanuel sighed and replied, “I’m
afraid I don’t know the answer to that either. I hope everything
will work out, but our nephew had been doing some outrageous things
that should be impossible.”

“
You mean like what he did
with the titan?”