Greater Treasures
Part of the DragonEye Series of novel and stories
By Karina Fabian
Genre: Fantasy/Noir/Mystery/Paranormal/Urban Fantasy
Pages 130
Synopsis:
Being a private detective in the border town
of the Faerie and Mundane worlds isn’t easy, even for a dragon like Vern. Still, finding the wayward brother of a teary
damsel in distress shouldn’t have gotten so dangerous. When his partner, Sister Grace, gets poisoned by a dart meant for him, Vern offers
to find an artifact in exchange for a cure.
However, this is no ordinary trinket—with a little magic power, it could
control all of mankind. Can Vern find
the artifact, and will he sacrifice the fate of two worlds for the life of his
best friend?
Excerpt:
Given
the day I was having, it came as no surprise that when I got home, I found the
dogs sprawled in a drugged sleep and the sounds of things being overturned from
within the warehouse. I decided not to bother with subtlety, but I did resist
the urge to burst in with flames going full-blast. I had questions first.
Naturally,
I walked straight in to find an automatic weapon—yep, a bona fide black-market
AK-47—and I thought only Faerie lived their clichés—and six other weapons of
various types pointed at me. I didn't stop, just closed the door with my tail
while I strolled in slow and placid-like. My visitors had shaved heads, faces
painted white with clown paint, and black t-shirts with swastikas in white
circles.
"If
you're the housekeeping service, you're fired."
"You
stay right there, or we gonna fire you!" said one guy from the sidelines
as he held his nunchucks at the ready.
What'd
he think he would do—whack me on the nose? I turned to the one holding the
assault rifle. "Scraping the bottom of the barrel with that one, weren't
you?"
"He's
right. You just stay still while we search the place."
"The
place" was a ten-thousand square foot warehouse with offices on the upper
floor. Boxes I still hadn't opened line the walls and made a maze in the second
warehouse room. I settled myself on the floor and rested my head on my crossed
arms. "Go ahead. I get half of anything you find."
They
stared at me, unbelieving. I smiled back. Mr. Cooperation, that's me. Finally,
Big Gun snarled for the others to get to work. As he turned his back on me,
Nunchucks muttered, "I got your half. Don't think I don't." Guess he
learned such witty repartee in Hitler Youth Summer Camp.
I
watched and listened and waited. With eight teenage skinheads trashing my
place, it was only a matter of time.
"I
wouldn't go in there if I were you," I suggested as Nunchucks made a grab
for the doorknob to Grace's workshop.
"You
gonna stop me?" He turned the knob.
"Nope,"
I said as I closed my ears and my eyes. Even so, I saw the otherworldly light
and heard the harmonious roar of Divine Vengeance followed by Mundane screams.
"The
Heavenly Host on the other hand…"
I
waited until the screams died down to whimpers before opening my eyes and
rising.
Four
of the skinheads were unconscious. Three may as well have been; they were
curled up in the fetal position, whimpering. Nunchucks was actually crying for
his mommy. Big Guns had collapsed to the floor as well, the gun thrown away
from him. He was sitting and rocking and making high-pitched keening through
the roof of his mouth.
I'd
tell Grace to tone down her wards some, except that the effect is directly
proportional to the evilness of the intent. Suddenly, I was feeling a little
shaky about my earlier entrance.
Knights
out of the armor now. I went around, collecting weapons in the office trash can
and poking through pockets. I found the usual stuff—driver's licenses, credit
cards, petty cash… One kid had a condom; wishful thinking on his part, I knew.
Another had a report card. MLK High. Wonder if he was the one beating up Faerie
kids? Honor roll grades, too. Of all the years I've battled evil, there were
still some things I didn't understand.
As I
was returning Big Guns' (aka Rick Matherston's) wallet back into his jacket
pocket, he blinked and focused on me.
"What
was that?"
"Angels,
kid." Actually a kind of magical shadow of the real thing, but close
enough.
"But I thought angels
were—"
"There's
a reason why their first words are usually 'Fear not!' whenever they meet a
human."
His
eyes returned to their unfocused stare. I almost felt sorry for him. Then I
noticed the letters FARISLAR tattooed on his knuckles. Faerie slayer.
About Greater Treasures
Most
people associate the DragonEye stories with high humor ranging from puns to
slapstick, and in fact, the first stories and the novels have certainly been
crazy fun. But the life of a cynical
dragon PI isn’t all laughs, and Vern has had a few chilling stories to tell
me. Some of these, I’ve sold to
anthologies, but some are too long for that.
Thus, I’ve decided to start publishing them on my own.
From the Author
One thing I like to do for DragonEye stories is watch old
noir films. Greater Treasures came to me while watching the Maltese Falcon. If you’ve never seen it, I recommend it. (Then, reread the story to see if you catch
the in jokes.) I needed something with
more “oomph” than a bird statue, and since Vern has some history with the Lance
of Longinus, it made a good fit. I
enjoyed looking up all the conspiracy theories about the use of the Lance by
Hitler, which is where the neo-Nazi angle came in. To say more would be spoilers, so please,
enjoy the story. And if you do, be sure to check out Vern’s other tales at
http://dragoneyepi.net.
About the Author
Winner of the 2010 INDIE for
best Fantasy (Magic, Mensa and Mayhem),
Karina Fabian has imagination that takes quirky twists that keep her--and her
fans--amused. Nuns working in space, a down-and-out Faerie dragon working off a
geas from St. George, zombie exterminators—there’s always a surprise in
Fabian’s worlds. Mrs. Fabian teaches writing and book marketing seminars, but
mostly is concerned with supporting her husband, Rob Fabian as he makes the
exciting leap from military officer to civilian executive, getting her kids
through high school and college, and surviving daily circuit torture…er,
circuit training. Read about her adventures at http://fabianspace.com. Find Karina at:
Website:
http://fabianspace.com, http://dragoneyepi.net
Blog: http://fabianspace.blogspot.com
Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/karina.fabian
Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/KarinaFabian
Google +: https://plus.google.com/103660024891826015212
Here are some other fun links she suggests:
Lance of Longinus: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holy_Lance
Maltese Falcon: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0033870/
Live and Let Fly: http://dragoneyepi.blogspot.com/p/live-and-let-fly.html
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