Heart of Ice (Deadman Series Book 6) Read online

  I, for one, was never so happy to see the Army arrive with its extra guns, wagons and doctors. I was correct in assuming the extent of my injuries: I had a concussion, a broken collarbone, and three broken ribs. My son Chance was in better shape except for the busted molars in back of his left jaw and a broken nose.

  It was a vast relief to be able to climb in back of the wagon and let someone else take over, although I kept jerking awake with leftover alarm. At one point, I remember gesturing for Private Trevance to come closer so I could whisper, “What are we going to say about the dead men on the Lindsay’s property?”

  The private had smiled. “I hated to do it, Mr. Wilcox, but I shot each of those men although, of course, they were already dead. Seemed to Mr. Lindsay and me that it would be easier to blame a bear or a wolf for the additional damage rather than trying to tell the truth. Did we do right, sir?”

  I had closed my eyes in relief and gratitude, nodding in approval. “Good thinking, Private. Now I know how Chance felt.”

  I think the private asked me what I meant by that but, thanks to a generous dose of morphine, I fell asleep instead of answering and didn’t wake up again until after the first of two surgeries were performed to repair my broken collarbone.

  Even now, months after the event, questions pop into my mind… Chance’s, too. Although by silent but mutual agreement we try not to dwell on what happened, we find ourselves questioning our own memories, our own sense of reality.

  Why did one of the monsters dissolve into a pile of silver goo while the other retained its humanity? Was it time, perhaps… so much time for the one creature that any spark of humanity was long gone and sublimated, or was it ‘goodness’ for lack of a better term? I do know that when the dwarf emerged from that pile of ashes that had consumed it, his inherent decency and “goodness” was clear to see.

  And what on earth were they? Annie found some obscure references to a creature the Indians called WENDIGO and God knows we poured over the newspaper accounts of the two Indian men who had gone on a “Wendigo” killing spree. But what do we really know?

  Maybe the monsters we fought were vampires or demons or… well, as you can probably guess, we will never fully understand or comprehend what those creatures were.

  The only thing I do know is that we survived thanks to the brave and selfless actions of a few good, decent men and women. Roy, Dicky, Abner, Samuel and Hannah actually refuse to discuss the events, partly because they are more than ready to forget and move on but also, strangely, because the monsters seem to be fading away in our memories.

  The more I try to think back on what the creatures looked like and how they acted, the harder it is to really remember. Even Chance, whose encounter was so up close and personal, can hardly recall the monsters in question now.

  For whatever reason—whether it is our mind’s attempt to shield our hearts from the unknowable or the fact that creatures from the supernatural realm are not meant to be observed or recorded in full—the Wilcox and Son Detective Agency has survived its latest case file and will move forward.

  Now, if only I can keep my boy safe from the actual human war that threatens this earthly plane… but that is another story altogether.

  THE END

  Sources & Bibliography:

  Blackman, W. Haden - Field Guide to North American Monsters (1998)

  Clark, Jerome - Unexplained! (1999)

  Guiley, Rosemary Ellen - Atlas of the Mysterious in North America (1995)

  Hauck, Dennis William - Haunted Places: The National Directory (1996)

  Personal Interviews Writings & Correspondence

  (C) Copyright 2002 by Troy Taylor. All Rights Reserved.

  A Sample Chapter from The Guardians: Episode 1

  Chapter One

  The Bruattam System; a huge, orange star with seven orbiting worlds.

  Beyond the yellow and blue gas giant in the nearest orbit, three of the remaining six were life supporting. The sulphur-rich atmosphere of the second planet had allowed the development of a plethora of seaborne creatures. The icy third planet contained an abundance of cold-blooded birds and creatures, mostly predators; living a dangerous dance of hunt and survival.

  The fleet had gathered above the fourth planet, where temperate climates and an oxygen-rich atmosphere allowed forests and seas to rise, teeming with life. They concentrated their scans on the equator, where the largest group of life forms seemed to reside.

  They scanned for several days, making their plans. Deciding their next move.

  *

  Pippa straddled a branch and peered down through large, fan-shaped leaves at the two people who followed her progress. She grinned when she saw her younger brother, Nantu, and his newest fem-mate looking up at where she hid, unseeing and oblivious to her presence. Carefully prying a seedpod from a cluster of leaves, she pitched it at Nantu, hitting him squarely between his wide green eyes. He let out a howl of rage and started climbing up the tree to where Pippa squatted, waiting.

  She smirked as she watched her brother’s progress until a strange movement caught her eye. Squinting against the sun’s dappled glare, she focused her eyes on the leaves, branches and vines that made up the landscape of her jungle home. Many creatures shared this land with the Loranians, some benign, many of them predators. Pippa’s heart beat fast as she pulled her blow stick from her tunic and prepared to kill what stalked them with a poisoned dart.

  Nantu saw the look of fear that came over his sister’s face and hissed, “What is it?”

  Pippa shook her head, and muttered, “Get Lini up here… now!”

  Wrapping his long, blue and green striped tail around the branch on which he crouched, Nantu hung upside and down and whispered, “Lini! Get up here… hurry!”

  Lini did not like her lover’s sister and was in no mood for being told what to do. She leaned against the Pile Tree’s mossy trunk, and drawled. “If your sister wants to give me orders, she can come down here and do it herself.”

  Nantu glared at Lini and started to say, “Don’t be stupid,” when he looked past her shoulder and saw something step out from behind a large stand of wri-wri trees. His mouth fell open in shock. It was a man, but unlike any man the young Loranian had ever seen before. This man was at least three times taller than the largest man in Nantu’s village, and as big as a mountain.

  The man’s skin was as white as the glass sands of Loran’s seas, and his eyes were as deep and black as the tar pits of Midu. He had long, white teeth that glittered in the jungle’s gloaming, and he carried an enormous metal crossbow. As Nantu watched, mesmerised, the man’s eyes glowed red; he hefted his weapon and let loose an arrow. The shaft flew through the air with a metallic howl and pinned his new fem into the side of the tree. Her blue blood flew through the air and she sagged against the tree’s trunk with a sigh.

  Nantu clapped a hand over his mouth to keep from screaming, but the alien’s eyes looked up into the tree and landed on the Loranian. Grinning, the creature pulled another arrow from the quiver on his hip and drew the string back, but young Nantu snapped out of his paralysis and bounded up the tree to where his older sister crouched.

  “Run!” Pippa screeched, scrambling up and out on the Pile tree’s sturdy black branches, her brother in hot pursuit. The Loranians often made their homes and villages in the uppermost treetops, away from the toothsome and always hungry animals on the ground below. The trees’ long limbs overlapped, lacing their leafy fingers together and where they did not touch, the people built bridges and platforms.

  The brother and sister raced across the treetop highway, howling and chittering in warning, but their cries were in vain. The paths and bridges were bereft of people and the youngsters were alone. They ran as fast as they could to their village and then paused, staring down at the fenced plateau on which their town resided. The ground was blue with blood, and Pippa’s bladder let loose with fear and shock.

  The village teemed with aliens. There were at least a hundred of the huge,
white creatures and every one of them tore and bit the Loranians they grasped in their powerful hands.

  Pippa and Nantu watched aghast, as the creatures sank long, white fangs into the blue and green skin of their family members and tribe-mates. Then they sucked upon the flesh of their captives until their small bodies held no more substance than that of a dried-out Drudu carcass.

  The victims cried out in fear and pain as they died. They prayed and sang songs to the Goddess of deliverance while Pippa and Nantu watching from above, wept in sympathy. The aliens were aggressive and deadly, but were indifferent as they soothed the ache of starvation in their bellies. The Loranians death songs sounded like nothing more than the screech of slaughtered animals. They did not know, or care, that the creatures they killed were a sentient species, registered in the Intergalactic Guild lists as transplants from the larger mother planet known as Loraneille.

  Pippa winced as she saw her mother and two of her younger siblings carried out from behind the village’s cooking house. Nantu started and began to cry out, but Pippa’s strong right arm seized him. One hand held him tight, while his sister’s other claw-tipped fingers clapped over his mouth, stifling his shouts of horror and rage. She leaned in close and whispered in his ear, “Don’t shout, brother. They will see us!”

  Nantu’s green eyes blinked frantically, but he nodded. Tears welled up and fell down his mottled blue cheeks as he saw his own mother bitten and sucked dry by the monsters that held her captive. He closed his eyes as the same fate befell his two youngest brothers.

  Pippa shook with sorrow and tension, but managed to keep her wits.

  “We must go to the shaman’s village, Nantu. We must warn them about these aliens so they can signal for help!” she hissed.

  Nantu nodded, and the two young Loranians made their way down and to the left, away from their village and toward the shaman’s holy huts; the place where scientists and priests controlled the mysterious machines and contrivances that had brought their ancestors to this world a century ago. Only the most learned, the most exalted amongst the tribes were allowed access to the strange and exotic equipment which sat humming in the temples of Austara.

  Pippa had often spied upon the holy temples. Constructed out of metal, they gleamed madly in the pink and yellow illumination of Austara’s double moons. Strange, multi-coloured strobe lights blinked off and on, and occasionally, strong beams of hot, violet particles shot out of the biggest temple into the heavens above. Once, Pippa had crouched too close to the structure when this happened and for days after, her eyes held purple stars and moons and her skin turned grey and ashen with burns.

  That was a few years ago, but even now Pippa’s heart filled with fear. The temples were sacred and for good reason, but she sensed instinctively that this was her people’s only hope. The youngsters leapt, swung and ran as fast as they could through the treetops. Often they paused, hiding amongst the tree’s large leaves as flying machines whizzed through the air above them.

  The ships were huge and hideous with large, ridged, bird-like wings and glowing snouts that shot balls of fire into the trees, etching the ground below in pulsing rivers of green light. Once or twice, the flying machines paused above the branches, as if scouring the ground below. Heated waves of air from their exhaust systems caught the trees aflame. The two Loranians yelped in fright and leapt out harm’s way, jumping onto smaller, lower trees with less travelled branches, in order to make it safely to the shaman’s temples.

  Finally, Pippa and Nantu reached the outskirts of the village. They sat and stared in horror through the leafy canopy. The holy village was all but destroyed, and what little remained sat in smouldering ruin as hundreds more of the large, white aliens danced and shouted in the rubble.

  Pippa gasped when she saw priests and scientists lined up in front of a makeshift altar. One by one, the white-robed Loranians stepped forward as the large aliens poked and prodded them from behind with long shafts of shiny metal. She wept as the much smaller blue and green holy men smiled enigmatically, even as their bodies were seized and sucked dry by the terrible white monsters.

  Pippa had learned in school that members of her species were quite small compared to other sentient beings in the universe, and it was never more apparent than now as she watched the slaughter of her people. The tallest of the priests in the clearing below barely reached the alien’s belts, which bristled with tools of murder, like knives, long silver whips and devices that resembled guns; a weapon she had only seen before in a drawing.

  Her people’s soft blue and green skin contrasted sharply with the alien’s white complexions, and their long flexible tails worked as a tool against them when the aliens picked them up sometimes and swung them around and around in the air for sport.

  Nantu elbowed his sister and whispered, “Pippa, look!”

  Following her brother’s claw with her eyes, she saw one young priest sneak around the back of the largest temple, the dangerous temple that had shot purple moons into her eyes. The brother and sister watched as the young man looked both ways and then crept silently into the building’s entrance portal. The aliens were oblivious, too caught up in their frenzy of destruction to see what had become of one of their puny prisoners.

  Suddenly, there was a shout from one of the horrible aliens. Looking down, Pippa and Nantu saw that they had been spotted. They tried to flee, to run back the way they had come, but a smaller version of the flying craft glided up into the air above them. Then the fiery snout at the front of the craft belched a ray of sunshine over the children, encasing them in a freezing light, so they too could be recovered by the aliens.

  The last thing Pippa saw before her eyes grew dim and closed forever were the holy purple moonbeams shoot out from the top of the temple into the vast, deep blue of the sky above them.

  Order The Guardians: Episode 1, now

  About the Author

  Linell Jeppsen is a writer of science fiction and fantasy. Her vampire novel, Detour to Dusk, has received over 44-four and five star reviews. Her novel Story Time, with over 130 4 and 5 star reviews, is a science fiction, post-apocalyptic novel, and has been touted by the Paranormal Romance Guild, Sandy’s Blog Spot, Coffee time Romance, Bitten by Books and 64 top reviewers as a five star read, filled with terror, love, loss, and the indomitable beauty and strength of the human spirit. Story Time was also nominated as the best new read of 2011 by the PRG! Her dark fantasy novel, Onio (a story about a half-human Sasquatch who falls in love with a human girl), was released in December 2012 and won 3rd place as the best fantasy romance of 2012 by the PRG reviewers guild! Onio also sports over 50 4 and 5 star reviews! Her novel, The War of Odds, won the IBD award for fantasy fiction and boasts 18 5 star reviews since its release in February of 2013. It also placed 2nd, as the best YA, paranormal book of 2013 by the PRG!

  Find more great titles by Linell Jeppsen and Wolfpack Publishing, here.

  Table of 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

  Epilogue

  A Sample Chapter from The Guardians: Episode 1

  About the Author

 

 

 
div style = " -webkit-filter: grayscale(100%); -moz-filter: grayscale(100%); -o-filter: grayscale(100%); -ms-filter: grayscale(100%); filter: grayscale(100%); " class="sharethis-inline-share-buttons">share