Parallel Inversion, page 34
part #1 of The Parellyrian Chronicles Series
“Congratulations, son.”
“Thanks, dad.”
“Well done,” Romanbak said, holding out his hand. Dalius shook it gladly.
As the sun began to rise, the party started dying down. The men had been drinking and celebrating all night, following their perceived victory over Levaricent's army. As a result, their energy was draining. While the will to keep drinking and dancing and singing and shouting was there, many began to pass out in their chairs, or on tables, or on the hallway floors halfway to the chambers of maidens they had been drunkenly courting.
Dalius, Terimor, and Romanbak indulged in what little celebration time remained before deciding to head home to spread the good news, both of Levaricent's defeat and of Dalius's tentative appointment to the head of the King's Circle of Knights. Romanbak carried them both, one under each arm, as he flew back to Phellanore.
Aralyn, concerned when she awoke to a vacant house, and further distressed after a full day had passed and no one returned, went out into town that morning to search for her family. She managed to find Mike, who was accompanying a number of meagerly dressed women to a funeral service for their bodyguard. She had not known Finn, and judging by the crowd heading to the service, she doubted whether she would have voluntarily associated with him anyway. Still, her curiosity was piqued, and she stepped out of her comfort zone and pushed through Mike's entourage to see him.
“Who passed away?” she asked, after getting Mike's attention. While intending to be respectful, Aralyn's question was met by varied reactions from the young women around her. Some fell into bitter weeping, while others stared Aralyn down trying to match what they perceived to be her rudeness.
“Finnegan Lanty,” Mike whispered to her, triggering even more tears from those around him.
The answer confirmed Aralyn's suspicions that she did not know the deceased. Yet when they arrived at the service being held outside, at the center of town, there were hundreds in attendance. Aralyn wondered how she had remained unaware of the existence of someone so prominent in town. But rather than asking and risking creating even more contempt in those around her, she chose to pursue her original concern.
“Have you seen Dalius, Terimor, Romanbak, or Niffain anywhere?”
Despite Aralyn's best intentions, the woman who had been weeping loudest now began to wail. A friend took her aside to comfort her, but not before glancing back angrily at Aralyn.
Mike looked around, peering over the heads of those around him. “There they are,” he said, looking back.
Aralyn turned, following Mike's gaze. There, indeed, were her husband and son, and Romanbak, approaching the service from the other side of town, all three looking like they had just stepped out of a tornado.
Satisfied that her family was safe, Aralyn remained silent for the funeral service, paying her respects to the deceased stranger. Immediately thereafter, though, she dragged Mike away from the scantily clad mourners he was with, and through the crowd to the three men, demanding answers.
“Where's Niffain?” she said, noticing off the hop that the dwarf was not present with them.
Terimor sighed. “That's going to take some explaining,” he said, wondering exactly how he was going to tell his wife everything. He and Dalius took Aralyn aside and began telling the story from the beginning.
Mike, meanwhile, felt his worry growing, and looked to Romanbak. “Where's Karen?” he asked.
“Karen went home.”
“To Washington?”
“Yes.”
“I came all the way here, and the bitch bailed on me?” Mike furrowed his eyebrows. Then, hopefully, he added, “Can you send me home too?”
Romanbak shook his head. “I don't think so. It took me twenty years to make it back to Parellyria, and I needed electricity to do it. That doesn't exist here.”
Mike's shoulders slumped, and he looked downward, nudging a rock around with his foot. He realized that he might never go home again, and he took a moment to accept his fate.
“Are you going to be all right?” Romanbak asked.
Mike looked up again. “You know, I think I'm going to be fine.” He gestured toward the group of mourners he had been with. “Those 'courtesans', as they call themselves, lost their bodyguard. Now, because I'm so tall, they asked me to replace him. That's pretty much my dream job. I mean, sure, this place doesn't have MTV, or basketball, or Quarter-Pounders with cheese, or Corvettes, or Super Mario Brothers 2, or pizza rolls. But it does have some pretty hot babes. And the beer's pretty good too.”
Romanbak chuckled. He patted Mike on the shoulder. “Whatever floats your boat, my friend.” He walked away laughing, confident that everything was going to be fine.
Still, he couldn't help but wonder how Karen had fared with Levaricent, back in her own world.
Epilogue
When he first signed up for the police force, David Benton had known to expect the unexpected. And in nearly ten years, he figured he had seen enough that nothing would surprise him anymore. From teenagers using a machete to hold up a liquor store, to an old man streaking naked through a garden show with a parrot on his shoulder, he thought he had seen it all.
But now, after spending the last twelve hours chasing unicorns through the woods with a tranquilizer gun, he was beginning to reconsider that opinion.
His partner, Willis, had given up long ago. He was now sitting in the back seat of the police cruiser, clutching his knees to his chest, rocking back and forth, and muttering, “No more...” over and over again. Benton expressed his disappointment in his partner's attitude, and tried to motivate him to help out, but Willis was far too disoriented to be useful.
Fortunately for Benton, the entire Tigermount University police force had dedicated itself to helping him track down and capture the roaming mythical creatures. They had found fourteen so far, and as near as they could tell, there were only one or two left. It had been quite a chore to catch those first fourteen. The unicorns were experts at hiding, and not hesitant to use their horns to try to impale anyone that came close to them.
Now the worst of it felt like it was over. Benton excused himself from the group, leaving the rest of the force to complete the job while he went home for a well-deserved rest. First, though, he decided to take one last look at Romanbak's laboratory, where the unicorns seemed to have originally appeared.
“Where are you going?” Willis asked from the back seat of the cruiser when Benton opened the door and plopped down into the driver's seat. The nearly catatonic officer's mental faculties were slowly returning, but he was still as stiff as a board.
Benton started the car and looked back at his partner, who was hugging his knees. “Back to Romanbak's lab.”
“What do you want to go there for?” Willis asked.
“I want to figure out where the unicorns are coming from.”
“Okay, but I'm staying back here.” As the car began moving, Willis was forced out of his fetal position. He stretched out across the back seat and tried to sleep, but found between the jostling of the road and his own shivering, he was unable to do so.
Benton accepted that his partner would still be no help to him, but remained determined to investigate the lab himself. He had not slept in quite some time, so decided that he would only take a quick look around, then go home and get some rest. He pulled up to the building and stepped out of the car. As he drew his pistol and flashlight, he found himself hoping that nothing would turn up.
It was very quiet in the lab, the only light streaming through the singular window on the ceiling. Benton clinged to the walls and swept the room for potential threats. He searched the perimeter of the room for any imperfection that might suggest a secret door or passageway to where the unicorns might have been kept. The whole idea of unicorns even existing seemed ridiculous to him, but after witnessing the magical beasts with his own eyes, he wanted to leave nothing to chance.
He shone his flashlight into the living quarters and proceeded inside. And then, in the darkness, he saw the reflection of two small eyes staring at him.
Benton aimed his flashlight at the owner of the eyes, only to discover that they belonged to a cat, who was crouched over his food dish on the floor, staring curiously up at the detective.
Benton breathed a sigh of relief and continued to scan the room with his flashlight. Out of nowhere he heard a loud buzz and a zap from the lab, accompanied by a bright flash of light, and followed by a dull thud. He stepped outside the living quarters, his hands crossed in front of him so the flashlight and the weapon faced straight ahead.
At first, everything in the lab seemed to be exactly as he had left it. The dim sunlight and his flashlight combined to reveal nothing out of the ordinary. Then a head popped up from behind the desk, and Benton recognized it from a photograph he had been given.
“Karen Volar?”
“Hi,” she said, looking around to see where she was. She smiled, pleased to find herself in familiar surroundings, and in the presence of a police officer who knew her name. She realized her disappearance had indeed had an impact on the people in her own world, as her absence had been reported to the police. She brushed her hair behind one ear and abashedly looked away from Benton, who was staring at her wide-eyed.
Her smile faded, however, when another, more sinister face appeared behind her, and an arm attached to it wrapped around her neck and pulled her back. Karen tried to pry the arm away, but she no longer had the strength to do so. Levaricent, the elf wizard to whom the arm belonged, pulled himself and Karen up to a full standing position and stared into the beam of light now shining on his face.
“Freeze!” Benton said, finally taking his attention away from the attractive woman his eyes had been trained on. He was now convinced he had found the one responsible for Karen's disappearance. He extended his weapon. “Let the woman go!”
“No,” Levaricent said, and he tightened his grip on Karen, who was still struggling to break free. The elf wizard raised one hand and tried to discharge a weak stun spell at Benton, but nothing happened. He tried again, but still nothing.
“What are you doing?” Benton asked, squinting through the darkness to try to make out if Levaricent was holding anything resembling a weapon.
Karen saw the elf wizard struggling. She stopped trying to break free of his grip and began laughing. She realized Levaricent was not able to use his magic outside Parellyria. Now it was just a matter of time before she would be free. The elf heard her laughter and deduced that Karen knew something about why his magic was not working.
Levaricent re-established his strong grip on Karen, now with both arms, effectively putting her in a choke hold. He stepped backward around the desk and away from Benton, who kept his weapon trained on the aggressor.
“I said freeze!” Benton repeated.
Levaricent did not understand the police officer's meaning. If his stun spell was not working, he highly doubted that a freeze spell would work either. Besides, it was unlikely his new adversary was requesting to be frozen. Levaricent began thinking that the room he was in might have some sort of buffer that was impeding his magic. He looked around for an exit.
Benton stepped forward slowly, maintaining a uniform distance from the aggressive wizard and his captive as they moved back. His light caught the edge of a large, metallic object in the middle of the room, and Levaricent looked at it curiously. The sheen and color appeared familiar. At first he could not place it, but then it struck him.
Nelodomite!
That was his escape. He forced Karen toward it, maintaining his grip on her. Benton stepped backward in reaction, never losing focus on his target.
“Touch it!” Levaricent ordered Karen, pushing her to within inches of the object. She reached forward and placed her palm on the device, worriedly remembering what had happened the last time she had done so. This time, however, there was no sound or bright light, and she and the wizard remained where they stood.
Levaricent scowled in frustration. He needed to get back to Parellyria to finish the work he had started, but nothing seemed to be working in his favor. He pulled Karen back to his chest and reversed into the wall.
Something hard pressed into his lower back. He reached back and placed his hand around a small, metallic cylinder. A doorknob. He had found another way out of the lab, even if it would not send him back to Parellyria. He hoped that an exit from the room would at least bring back his magic.
Levaricent's scowl faded into a hopeful smirk. He loosened his grip on Karen's throat as Benton shuffled toward them, keeping his weapon trained. Once the police officer was close enough, Levaricent released Karen and kicked her forward into Benton. The detective spread his arms to catch her, and they tumbled to the floor together. He dropped his pistol beside him upon impact, putting his hand to the floor to catch the combined weight of himself and the woman on top of him.
The elf wizard took advantage of the brief window of opportunity to grip and turn the doorknob. The door flew open, and sunlight blasted into the lab. Blinded, Levaricent leapt outside, right into the huge chest of Calidus Thorogren.
Calidus had been striding toward the lab, accompanied by Niffain, Elizabeth, Trevor, Beverly and Wilfred. Each was carrying a hamburger, and each was reluctant to enter the lab while a police car was parked outside. All except for Calidus, who had bravely approached the door, and whose burger had now been smashed into his chest by the elf wizard's head. He looked down and saw only Levaricent's hair, so, not recognizing the elf wizard, he grabbed him by the collar and lifted him up for a better look at the man who had ruined his meal.
“Levaricent!” he growled. The elf wizard gulped. He tried in vain to use his magic on Calidus before finally submitting when he discovered it still wasn't working.
Niffain handed Trevor his burger and walked up to Levaricent, who was being held motionless by Calidus. The dwarf closed his hands into fists and began pounding at the elf's midsection, shouting, “You killed my father!”
The helpless elf wizard took the beating, yelping in pain with each strike. Everyone else sat down on the ground and watched the entertaining scene play out.
Meanwhile, inside the lab, Karen had landed squarely on top of Benton. They lay face to face with their eyes closed, groaning from having had the wind knocked out of them by the impact.
Benton opened his eyes and saw Karen's face an inch away from his. “Hi,” he said, finally returning her greeting.
Karen felt the proximity of the voice and opened her eyes to see Benton staring directly into them. “Hi,” she said back, timidly.
“Do you want to stand up?”
“Oh right.” Embarrassed, she placed her hands on the floor on either side of Benton and pressed herself upward. She moved one knee next to her hand, careful to avoid hitting Benton in the groin, and stood up next to him. Benton followed, retrieving his pistol from the ground and holstering it now that the threat had left.
“You know, there was a missing person report filed for you,” Benton said.
“Really?” Karen replied, growing curious about everything that had occurred in her absence.
“Yes.”
“Well that's good,” said Karen, seeing a way to implicate Levaricent that would also explain her absence. She somehow doubted that a story about her being teleported to a fantastic world and confronting an evil elf wizard would hold up in court. “That jackass outside kidnapped me!”
“Who is he?”
“He calls himself Levaricent, and he thinks he's an elf wizard.”
Benton adjusted his shirt. “With what I've seen in the last twenty-four hours, that actually doesn't seem too far-fetched.”
Karen looked at him closely, wondering whether she should trust him with the truth. Something about him made her feel comfortable lowering her defenses, but she still felt he wasn't ready to hear everything.
“Well, I guess I'd better go after him,” Benton said reluctantly. He had been hoping for a chance to sleep, but now that opportunity was ruined by the need to chase a mentally deranged abductor of women through the woods. “I'm glad you're safe now,” he added, giving Karen's shoulder a comforting squeeze before stepping out through the door.
Karen followed Benton outside, where the scene of Levaricent being held immobile by Calidus while Niffain repeatedly punched his stomach unfolded before their eyes. She was surprised to see the dwarf and Dalius's brother both in her own world, but overjoyed to discover that they were alive.
Four onlookers, including two Benton had taken in for questioning, sat on the ground behind them, eating lunch. Benton remembered that he had left Trevor, Elizabeth, and Niffain alone in the interrogation room while he and the rest of the police force were chasing unicorns through the woods. He hoped that they would overlook his negligence if he overlooked their escape and chose not to take them into custody again. So far, they had not even seemed to notice that he and Elizabeth had exited the lab.
“Stop that,” Benton said. He pulled the dwarf away from Levaricent. The small audience groaned as their entertainment ceased.
“But he killed my father!” Niffain complained.
“It was an accident,” the exasperated elf wizard replied.
Accident or not, Benton had heard enough. He stepped up to Levaricent, pulled the elf's hands behind his back, and cuffed them. “You are under arrest under suspicion of murder, and for the kidnapping of Karen Volar.”
“What?” I never kidnapped any Karen Volar!” Levaricent struggled to break free, but between the handcuffs and Calidus's iron grip, he had no chance.
Benton looked to the police cruiser and saw that Willis was still cowering in the back seat. He looked up to Calidus, and saw in him the strength he had hoped his now catatonic partner would have developed. “Feel like giving me a hand?”
Calidus grinned. “Gladly.” They started walking toward the cruiser.
