Emerita Boxing Day, page 1
Luck’s Voice
Book 6:
Emerita Boxing Day
Written by
Daniel Schinhofen
Edited by
Sammi Katt
Copyright © 2023 Daniel J. Schinhofen
No parts of this book may be reproduced in any form by an electronic or mechanical means – except in the case of brief quotations embodied in articles or reviews – without the written permission from the publisher.
The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious. Any similarities to real persons, living or dead, are purely coincidental and not intended by the author.
Copyright © 2023 Daniel J. Schinhofen
All rights reserved.
Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-one
Chapter Twenty-two
Chapter Twenty-three
Chapter Twenty-four
Chapter Twenty-five
Chapter Twenty-six
Chapter Twenty-seven
Chapter Twenty-eight
Chapter Twenty-nine
Chapter Thirty
Chapter Thirty-one
Chapter Thirty-two
Chapter Thirty-three
Chapter Thirty-four
Chapter Thirty-five
Chapter Thirty-six
Chapter Thirty-seven
Chapter Thirty-eight
Chapter Thirty-nine
Chapter Forty
Chapter Forty-one
Chapter Forty-two
Chapter Forty-three
Chapter Forty-four
Chapter Forty-five
Chapter Forty-six
Chapter Forty-seven
Chapter Forty-eight
Chapter Forty-nine
Chapter Fifty
Chapter Fifty-one
Chapter Fifty-two
Chapter Fifty-three
Chapter Fifty-four
Chapter Fifty-five
Chapter Fifty-six
Chapter Fifty-seven
Chapter Fifty-eight
Chapter Fifty-nine
Chapter One
The car purred with power as it flew down the dark road… except it wasn’t a road. The car was driving through space. The bright lights of worlds still safe from the encroaching Darkness went by in a blur. Doc looked away from the window to find Lady Luck beside him in the driver’s seat.
“Lilly? Am I dreaming?”
“It’s not a normal dream, Doc. You’ve garnered enough faith, so we have a brief moment to talk.”
“It’s good seeing you again. I’m doing my best.”
“I know. You’ve faced troubles already, but have overcome them. Even raised up a precious little one to help keep my name going in Deep Gulch.”
“Posy,” Doc smiled. “She’s a good girl.”
“Devoted to you, and now, to me. We don’t have terribly long to talk. Faith isn’t unlimited, nor will these moments come often.”
“Tell me what you need to, Lilly.”
“Your plans look good. Bringing David Roquefell into your circle will be a major boon. He opens many doors that will benefit your endeavors to ensure the financial security of your plans.”
“I told him I’d ask—”
“My equals know about my gamble to save the world. Trade will be contacting him much like this in the future.”
“That’ll cement him as an ally, then.”
“More than you know. Trade and I have agreed to aid each other in this world. You and David are to help each other in your endeavors to spread our names; neither of us will look kindly on either of you turning on the other.”
“Not my style.”
“I know. David isn’t prone to such, normally, but he’ll be told just as explicitly as you are.”
“Thank you.”
“Doc, I should be the one thanking you. It’s a drop in the well at the moment, but it’s clear progress… enough progress that others besides Trade are now looking this way.”
“I’m happy to hear that.”
“Also… thank you for what you did before you left Deep Gulch. I know it gnaws at you, but leaving children behind gives me the chance to impress upon your descendants if the worst comes for you. They will be divine-touched, making it easier for myself or my contemporaries to reach out to them.”
Doc exhaled slowly. “I wasn’t sure, but I thought it might be that way. That’s why I agreed, as you obviously know.”
“Decisions where you call out to me to help choose, I will always know about. I know why you agreed, even with the hesitation and doubt.”
“Because hard paths have to be walked…” Doc murmured. “Leaving kids behind… that’s the hardest thing I’ve ever done. But it leaves a net for you and the others, so I put one foot in front of the next.”
“You’ve been the best gamble I’ve taken in eons, Doc. You’ve done exactly as you said, time and again: taking the boons you’ve had and using them to help people. Many others would stop at this point, letting the word grow slowly as they enjoyed the wealth and the love of their wives.”
“Would it be enough to save the world if I did?” Doc asked.
“I can’t see the future, Doc. I can judge odds, though, and right now, the odds still look terrible.”
“Then I can’t stop.”
Lilly reached over to take his hand. “Thank you.”
Doc met her eyes. “You might not see the future, but what odds did you have for my life being like this?”
“All the ladies who love you, you mean?” Lilly grinned. “Oh, the odds were good you’d end up with one, at the very least, but since you did the right things at the right times with each of them, you made this come to be. Sonya had the chance of hating you, even trying to kill you. Rosa might have sucked you dry— and not in the way you like— if not for you breaking her during her first encounter with you. Sophia wouldn’t have done as much if you hadn’t selflessly tried to help her father. Lia wouldn’t have loved you if you’d asked for her body when you helped her. Fiala would’ve been hurt if you’d accepted Sonya’s life debt when it was offered to you. Even Ayla would’ve gone down a worse road if you’d taken up her offer of her body to repay her debt.”
“Guess I was lucky, then.”
Lilly laughed. “Maybe, but not as much as you think. You stayed true to those you cared for in each instance… like when Sonya offered to let you touch her in the steam room. You declined because it might lead to more, but it was mostly because you hadn’t discussed it with Fiala.”
“True. I won’t cheat on them.”
“Even when they give you carte blanche to enjoy the Iniquitous Den?”
“Even then,” Doc shrugged. “Some might call me an idiot, but they aren’t me.”
“You have no idea how much your wives love you for that.”
“Hopefully as much as I love them.”
“Hmm… I’ll stay out of the eternal war of who loves who more.”
“Smart,” Doc chuckled.
“You should also cash in your belief for more gifts from me, Doc. You haven’t done more than briefly glance at the options since you got to Furden.”
“I was saving up to get more clerics, priestesses, or whatever the gift calls them… but now, I might need something else sooner.”
“To return souls from the stones. It’s there. You can afford it, though it will almost completely deplete your stored faith. Before you leave Furden, you should have enough for your other choice, too.”
Doc exhaled slowly as he looked back out the windshield at the glowing planets. “Hard roads… I can’t leave them to suffer at his hands.”
“Some would ignore their plight.”
“That’s not who I am.”
“I know. It’s one of the reasons I asked you to be my Voice.”
“Every day, Lilly… every single day, I thank you for this chance.”
“I know. I feel that prayer, my Voice. Sadly, it’s nearly time. Walk your own path, Doc. Your family is beside you, and you have friends and allies. You’re not alone in this world.” Her smile was bright. “I’m proud of you.”
Her smile and words reminded him of Theresa, his foster mother, for a brief moment. Warmth suffused his chest as he watched her vanish from the driver’s seat. His eyes grew heavy, and he slipped away into sleep.
~*~*~
Blinking slowly when he woke up, Doc saw Rosa watching him with wide eyes. “Creepy Weed…” Doc murmured.
“You spoke with her,” Rosa whispered in awe.
Doc grunted as he sat up. “Lilly, yeah. You saw that?”
“Yes. I’ve seen all your dreams.”
Doc looked around. “Where’s Lia?”
“On my way back. Is something wrong?” Lia asked, coming their way from the trees.
“Doc had a dream with Lady Luck,” Rosa said, her emerald eyes still wide.
Lia slowed, tucking a few strands of blonde ha
Doc met Lia’s jade eyes. “More. We didn’t talk very long, but she said it was because I’d accrued enough faith to speak with her.”
“She must’ve had something important to tell you, then.”
“She did, though mostly it was to thank me. The rest of it was to tell me that David would become Trade’s Voice.”
Lia closed her eyes for a moment to say a silent prayer herself. “Another god is going to help us?”
“Yes. She made it clear that neither of us are to turn on the other.”
“You wouldn’t, and as long as Trade tells David the same, then we can put any lingering doubts about him to rest.”
“Makes it easier to trust him to handle the business side of things,” Doc nodded, “especially with everything we have going on.”
“You’ve taken on a lot,” Lia said softly as she finished crossing over to the bedding. She slipped her green-scaled boots off before joining them.
“I want to secure things so we can keep pushing forward,” Doc shrugged.
“None of us is speaking against it.”
“Doc, we’re all with you,” Rosa murmured. She shifted closer to sandwich him between Lia and herself.
“Okay,” Doc murmured as he put his arms around their waists. “Guess it’s time to get up.”
“Hmm… maybe in a bit,” Lia murmured with a smirk. “Rosa, will you catch Doc a fish so he can prepare breakfast for us? I’ll make sure he’s ready to give you what you need when you come back.”
Rosa was out of the bed in an instant, going toward the river at a near sprint.
Doc laughed as he watched his beautiful dryad do what Lia asked. “She’s always eager to please.”
“Especially when it comes to you,” Lia whispered, kissing his neck. “Now, recline for me. I’m going to make sure I can fulfill my promise to her. You can play with my ears, but you aren’t allowed to control my head.”
Doc flopped onto his back as he met Lia’s eyes. “As my dear wife wishes.”
Lia leaned over him, nose-to-nose as she stared into his steel-gray eyes. “Thank you, Doc, for choosing this world. I would never have thought I’d love again. Now, every day is filled with love. More than that, thank you for accepting my needs.”
Doc reached up to push some hair behind her ear, as it had slipped forward. “All of my wives have their own needs, Lia. I’m happy to meet them for each of you.” His fingers lightly traced the sharp point of her ear. “Giving in to you is love, just as Ayla giving in to me is her love.”
Lia’s lips met his, silencing him, the passion between them growing. Rosa’s eyes blazed green as she walked backward into the river, watching them while still doing as she was asked. She could have a fish in seconds, but doing so wouldn’t give Lia the time she wanted with Doc. In the end, Lia would make sure to let Rosa be the one to finish Doc, so she could wait until she was called for.
Chapter Two
The ride back to the manor was quiet. Rosa was behind Doc, leaning into his back, still smiling over the “breakfast” she’d had.
“Lia, I’ve wanted to ask, but also don’t want to open old wounds,” Doc said. “So, if my question is painful, just say so.”
“About my tribe?” Lia asked softly.
“And the Heartwood tribe.”
“The pain has faded, so I can tell you,” Lia said. “It was the Bloody Flowers Wars.”
“Bloody Flowers?” Doc asked.
“When the Iberrans landed on the shores, they called the area ‘Flower’ because of the lush greenery,” Lia explained. “It’s the peninsula to the east.”
“Florida. Got it,” Doc said.
“Yes, they match,” Rosa murmured.
“I don’t mean to interrupt; I’m just trying to place things with my old world as reference. Iberrans would be the Spanish for me.”
“Yes,” Rosa murmured again, seeing what he was thinking.
“I understand, Doc,” Lia said. “Bloody Flowers were the three wars between the Wild Creek tribes and the governments. The first was against the Iberrans, but they quickly bowed to Emerita when they couldn’t hold off the tribes. It took years, but in time, the tribes agreed to a treaty with Emerita. They left the north of the territory for the central part of Flower.”
“Seminole Wars,” Doc said. “I remember something similar to those.”
“When Emerita broke the treaty a decade later, the Wild Creek tribes sent out word, hoping to draw others to aid them,” Lia said, her tone dipping. “My husband, wife, and I went with dozens of others from our tribes to assist. We knew that, if treaties were broken so easily, then none of us were safe. It took us time to get there, and when we arrived, we were hundreds strong.”
Doc knew snippets of history— he’d never delved into the Seminole Wars, but he knew that they’d happened.
“We arrived the day after the first attack from the tribes. They killed two units of the army marching between the forts. The next few years were all guerrilla warfare as we tried to force Emerita into leaving Flower to the tribes.” Lia paused, her face darkening at the memories. “The commander at the time didn’t attempt to find and fight us… he went after our supplies by attacking the homes, farms, and livestock of the tribes.”
“To put pressure on you to come into the open…” Doc murmured.
“We started to starve, but we didn’t give up. Then, General Jesup sent a flag of truce to discuss the war,” Lia nearly growled. “Two elders went to see if peace could be found… Jesup captured them, instead. One of them accepted banishment to the reservations of Oakhome while the other died being held captive. No doctor would see him.”
Doc felt terrible for bringing up her past, but he wasn’t going to interrupt her now.
“Even without them, we fought on,” Lia exhaled slowly. “My wife, Doe-eye, died first. We’d ambushed a supply convoy trying to get food. Luck wasn’t with her that day… one of the men shot her in the head during that first scramble. We didn’t know until we finished the ambush. We collected her and sent her back to the tribe. Bear-heart and I stayed to fight. It was from that point that I earned my feared name.”
Death Flower, Doc thought as he watched her back. Makes even more sense where the name came from now.
“Bear-heart got caught out in an ambush the following year while I was down with the flu. They brought his body back to me… I cried tears of blood that night. My fever broke, and I left camp. I became a wraith… my heart was dead, and I cared not for my body.”
Doc rode up beside her, reaching out to touch her arm. “Lia…”
Tears fell from her eyes, but she shook her head. “I spent years killing anyone who wore the uniform, Doc. The dryads helped keep me fed. Without them, I would’ve died. Some of the tribes who held on would give me what they could.”
“My sisters spread the tales to the rest of us,” Rosa said softly. “You were a ghost in all but body. I wasn’t sure you’d even survived until Doc found me.”
