Disclaimer: Not mine, not making any money. I'm just playing.
Shadow Puppets
Chapter 11
Stephanie pretended to watch some nameless reality show on Ranger's huge television while she tried to listen to the telephone conversation going on in his office. She could hear snatches of it, but not enough. She was positive that he was up to something. She'd caught the measuring looks out of the corner of her eye since he'd dragged her off the roof by her hair. Typical of him that he couldn't talk to her about it and leave her to find out about it by other means.
She turned the volume on the TV up. Some nameless 'Z' list celebrity was pouting at the camera and displaying her considerable assets as she took her shot at making it on to the 'Y' list.
"Yeah, I just got new boobs too," Stephanie muttered, "but even mine look realer that those puppies." She flicked through the channels and found a cop show instead. Sirens wailed and gunfire filled the room with a barrage of sound. "Perfect."
Under cover of the noise she slid to the couch, swung over the side and landed on her feet with practised ease. She skulked over to the door to Ranger's office and pressed her ear to the wall.
"…. that will do. Set it up. You can tell Hal; no-one else needs to know. I'll need a panic button…. It had better work. I need it, and she does too, even if she doesn't know it."
"What do I need, you secretive son of a bitch?" she murmured to herself.
o0o o0o o0o o0o o0o
Snow's petulant whining was starting to drill through Morelli's head as she trailed behind him on the path to her home village.
"I didn't need to be rescued," she wailed. "I was happy. They loved me. I had a boyfriend."
"We saw," he answered, "and that's another reason to get you home."
"Well why shouldn't I?" she snapped. "Lots of girls my age are already married."
Morelli stopped dead in the middle of the path. "What? I thought you were only fifteen?"
"And?"
"You can't get married at fifteen. Not in the U.S." Morelli realized that, wherever they were, it probably wasn't part of any country that he knew, the U.S. or otherwise. "Never mind. The point is, you're a minor. You're still a kid."
"I am not a child!" she flared. "I'm a woman. I was Tommy's woman."
"Tommy's just a kid too."
"I don't suppose I'll ever see him again now anyway," she said mournfully. "My father won't let him anywhere near me without a chaperone."
Morelli remembered what he had been like at fifteen. "Your father sounds like a sensible man."
o0o o0o o0o
Snow was sulking resignedly when Tank called a halt for the night. They set up camp at the edge of the forest where it met a wide grassy meadow with a stream crossing it.
Morelli took first watch, leaving Tank and Lula with one of the tents and Snow and Edna in the other. Lester slept in the open next to the fire again, rolled in the blankets that the dwarfs had pressed on them to help with the journey.
He was fighting off the urge to sleep after a long day's walking when Snow slipped soundlessly out of the tent and crept around to his side of the fire. She knelt in front of him and put her hands on his knees.
"Run away with me," she whispered.
"What?"
"I don't want to go back where they treat me like a kid all the time. It's boring, and I'm a woman now."
He stared at her in shock. "Jesus, Snow, you've got no idea what you're saying. Go back to bed."
She slid her hand on up his thigh. "I mean it. Come away with me and I'll be your woman. I'm the prettiest girl in the area, everyone says so."
He pushed the hand away. "You're a kid. And you were talking about Tommy all day."
"You were right, he's just a boy. Why would I want a boy when I could have a man like you?"
He raked his fingers through his hair and shook his head. "We aren't having this conversation. Go back to bed."
"Don't you want me?" Her brow was furrowed as if she couldn't quite believe it.
"I'm not even going to dignify that with an answer."
"You have to. It's important." Edna's voice floated over from the other side of the fire. He looked up to see a familiar hunched shape crawling out of the tent.
"What? Has everybody gone completely insane? She's a fifteen year old girl. What do you think I am?"
"Oh, climb down off your high horse, Joseph. Just answer the question."
"I don't want her. There. Satisfied? Now what the hell is going on? This is supposed to be a rescue mission."
"The offer is rejected," she said with satisfaction. "Snow, get back into bed before I tan your hide."
Snow nodded meekly, got up and crawled back into the tent.
Morelli shook his head again, trying to free it from the madness surrounding him. "What's going on, Grandma?"
"This place wants you."
"You're crazy."
"It's been said. But this time I just know. It wants you, and it's going to try to keep you."
"This is insane. I'm just a cop trying to save someone I care about."
"Even so. I don't know how far this will go. This isn't just about Stephanie any more, if it ever was. Be careful."
Edna followed Snow into the tent and pulled the zip down with an air of finality. It looked like Snow wouldn't be making any more appearances tonight.
Morelli cast his eyes around and lighted on Lester apparently sleeping soundly in his blankets. "You can open your eyes now, Santos. I know you're awake."
"Busted." Lester sat up. "Nobody's a heavy sleeper on a mission. I'm willing to bet that Tank heard it all too."
"Wonderful. So I have multiple witnesses to that little scene?"
"Hell, you got nothing to be ashamed of, man. You came through with flying colors. A man of honor."
"You're not telling me you would have been tempted?"
"Kids aren't my scene either. But give her five years and I'd have had tears in my eyes as I said no."
Morelli poked the fire with a stick moodily. "Been there, done that, got the tee-shirt. It's not what I want any more."
"Every great player loses his mojo eventually, but you'll be missed, man. It's sad to see the end of a legend, even if it leaves more for me."
"You're a sick man, Santos. You believe all that about this place wanting me?"
"Hard to say. Too much freaky shit has happened to just ignore it. Tank will say we should be wary whether we believe it or not."
o0o o0o o0o
The following afternoon, Snow led them into a bustling village surrounded by a wide expanse of bare ground where the forest had been cleared. "This is it," she said as she pointedly wrinkled her nose. "You can tell by the goat smell."
Lester sniffed and had to agree with her. The yard had a certain… rustic… odor.
The villagers in their leather and homespun goggled at the team and their outlandish clothing as they walked between the outlying houses and into the center of the village.
"Come on." Snow led the way towards an imposing lodge with timber walls and a thatched roof. A curious crowd gathered around them and followed in their wake. In the susurrus of whispers, the words 'giant' and 'Snow' could be heard.
"No chance of a discreet entrance then," Lester murmured to Tank. "How do you want to play this?"
"This shit about me being a giant is gonna take me out of play. Let Morelli do the talking. You look for the witch. I'll stay ready to handle any trouble."
"You gonna trust him that far? The boss wouldn't."
"Ranger's got a bug up his ass where Morelli's concerned, and Ranger ain't here. He's good and we're using him."
"No problem. Just call me Witchfinder General."
"The day I call you General is the day I grow fairy wings and fly, Santos."
"Piss the witch off enough and you might get your wish." Lester ducked as the big man reached out to cuff him round the head and walked forward to catch up to Morelli.
The noise increased to a roar as they entered the lodge. The crowd pressed in behind them until the main room was full to bursting, and the air quickly became thick with the smell of too many people in a small space. The weight of more and more people squeezing in forced them forward until they stood at the far end in front of a large man seated in a carved wooden chair.
Long gray hair blended with a thick grizzled beard to make him look like a huge, graying bear. He stood up to greet them, and his linen shirt slipped down to reveal whorled blue tattoos running down both sides of his neck that disappeared under the shirt that covered his paunch.
"Snow?" His face lit up. "My baby's come back!" He strode forward, picked her up like a doll and whirled her around, laughing.
She scowled in response and struggled to get away. "Put me down. I'm not a baby. Daddy, put me down."
He planted a smacking kiss on her cheek and let her down. "Still as prickly as ever, I see. Who are your friends?"
Snow shrugged. "Just people. He," she glared at Morelli, "said I had to come with them. They want to meet her."
"Snow," he said reproachfully, "Morwen's been your mother for three years. At least use her name."
"Just because you were stupid enough to marry that conniving bitch doesn't make her my mother," Snow spat. She swung round to glare at Tank where he stood quietly to the side. "I've done my part." She tossed her dark hair back over her shoulder, spun on her heel and walked out through a door behind the carved chair.
A few seconds later her voice penetrated the wall as she screeched, "Who's been in my room?"
Her father looked embarrassed. "They promise me that she'll grow out of it. All I have to do is not kill her until it happens or find her a husband, whichever comes first." He sighed. "I love her, but by the Gods, her temper's worse than her mother's was." He eyed Morelli speculatively. "You wouldn't happen to be single, would you?"
"Sorry, wife and three kids at home," Morelli lied.
"Any of them daughters?"
Morelli nodded.
Snow's father patted him on the shoulder. "You poor bastard, you have it all to come. A word of advice: If you lose your wife, don't marry again. You'll spend the rest of your life in a turf war that makes Goblin Hill look like a minor disagreement." He slung an arm around Morelli's shoulder. "Now, welcome to my house. I'm Botha, by the way. Let's get you all a drink and celebrate my baby's return. You're all welcome, even the giant."
o0o o0o o0o
Lester sat across the long table from Tank and Lula and enjoyed his second good meal since they had entered the forest. Botha had been expansive with both his thanks and his hospitality, and insisted that they all eat and stay overnight. After so long on trail rations, none of them had objected. Dinner had turned out to be a communal affair, and they sat at a long table with at least a dozen other people. Botha and his family sat at the head of the table.
He eyed the bowl of peaches in front of him and listened with half an ear to Botha's constant stream of loud jokes and stories while wondering if he could manage any more of the steaming meat in gravy and still have room for the fruit afterwards. It had become a point of principle not to admit it in Lula's hearing, but he was as sick of small game and trail rations as anybody else.
Tank and Lula sat opposite him and were steadily eating as if they planned to keep going all night. Morelli and Edna were further up the table. He slid his gaze over from where Morelli was listening to one of Botha's jokes, and instead covertly studied Botha's wife.
Just like the Wiccan back in Wisconsin, she looked like any other woman, albeit a pretty one, with her clear, pale skin and dark red hair pulled back in a single long braid. She also didn't look much older than her step-daughter, who was spitting at her like an angry cat from the other side of Botha. Morwen picked silently at the food in front of her and ignored both her husband's forced geniality and his daughter's hissing enmity.
Caught squarely in the middle, Botha kept up a constant stream of jokes and stories delivered down the table to the other diners in a booming voice. Every time he caught one of Snow's ice-laden sideways glances at Morwen he took a large pull from his wine cup and talked even louder.
There were plenty of them, and Lester watched him get steadily drunker and louder until finally he sagged slowly toward the table and his food-laden plate.
Morwen reached forward and deftly snagged his plate out of the way just in time. Botha's head continued to descend until finally he was slumped face-down on the table with his eyes closed.
That done, she rose from the table and left the room without a word, ignoring the torrent of insults that Snow threw at her departing back.
Tank caught Lester's eye and flicked his gaze at the door that Morwen had just walked through. Lester nodded, grabbed a peach to take with him and followed.
He slipped through the door into a darkened corridor just in time to see her shadow disappear as she walked through another door at the far end. He followed.
o0o o0o o0o
He emerged at the back of the lodge into the clear chill of the evening. The setting sun had left a faint wash of orange across the darkening sky and the tree line stood sharp and black against it.
Morwen was sitting on the top rail of a wooden fence around a small kitchen garden, staring out toward the forest and irritably kicking her heels against the timbers through her long skirts.
She didn't look round as he joined her. "You're one of the visitors."
"I am. You're Botha's wife."
"I am. Morwen."
"Lester."
"You brought her home."
"Sorry."
She sighed. "It's all right. He was so worried. He loves her so much. More than me. He doesn't even see me most of the time, not with sweet little Snow constantly reminding him of her poor, dead mother."
"Why did she leave?"
"He wouldn't cast me off and let her have her daddy all to herself. He may have spoiled her but he's not a fool; there are some things he can't get from his daughter." She laughed ironically. "I won't lie; I was relieved when she left. But after she left he went into a decline. He hasn't touched me in months. Not that he ever did that much before, at his age."
Lester raised his eyebrows. "You do know you're talking to a stranger, right?"
She turned her head to look at him properly for the first time. "Of course I do. You'll be gone in the morning. That makes you the best person to talk to. I can't talk openly to those cackling hens back there. Everybody gossips; there's nothing else to do around here."
"Then talk away, fair lady."
She laughed. "Courtliness. Now that's not something I get from Botha either."
He smiled, gently ran a finger across her hand and up her forearm and watched her shiver. "Anything I can do."
She looked away again into the forest. "Would anything include silence afterwards," she asked carefully.
"My lips are sealed."
Her own curved up in a tiny smile. "Only afterwards I hope."
She hopped down from her perch in one lithe movement, took his hand and pulled him in the direction of the forest.
"Ahh, Morwen, aren't we going the wrong way? The house is that way."
"As is my snoring lump of a husband. Which is why we go this way."
Morwen led him under the trees and the gloom of the forest swallowed the last of the evening light.
o0o o0o o0o
With Botha slumped to the table and Morwen gone, Snow was left alone at the head of the table. Tank watched as she reached for the wine jug and filled her water cup to the brim with the dark red liquid. She leaned forward and lifted the cup carefully toward her mouth with both hands.
"No." Edna was watching her with a steady gaze.
"But–"
"No."
Snow slammed the cup back down and threw herself back into her chair with arms folded and a sulky pout. Red wine slopped across the table from the discarded cup and ran over the edge to drip onto the ground. It soaked into the dirt floor at her feet like a slowly spreading bloodstain.
Snow scuffed the heel of her boot across it and glowered at Edna. Edna calmly ignored her and carried on eating. Finally Snow got up with a loud scrape of her chair and stalked out of the room, slamming the door behind her.
The other diners seemed to take that as their signal to leave and finished eating too. A few looked back at Botha as they left, but no-one seemed inclined to do anything for him as he snored face down on the table.
Finally Tank, Lula, Edna and Morelli were alone with Botha. The lodge was silent except for tiny plashing sounds as the last drops of spilled wine fell to the floor and an occasional rustle as something small moved in the thatch overhead.
Lula cleared her throat loudly and watched Botha for a response. He didn't twitch. "I reckon he's out for the count. So now what?" she asked Tank.
"Too dark to leave now, so we find somewhere out of the way to sleep." He got up. "Start checking rooms and ask anybody we find on the way. We'll use our own blankets."
They pulled their packs together and moved out of the dining room in the direction that Morwen and Lester had taken.
They moved along the corridor opening doors and checking rooms. Most were filled with food stores and supplies. One contained a frightening array of weapons.
The third door that Tank opened led into a large store-room with a collection of household items piled up in a corner. A few battered pots were stacked untidily next to an empty barrel that smelled faintly of honey, and a tarnished silver disc was propped against the back wall. The floor was clear and dry and had plenty of room for all of them. "This will do. We can leave the door open and catch Lester when he comes back."
They dumped the packs near the door and started to arrange their bedding. That done, they settled in to wait for Lester to return from his mission to check out the witch.
