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Puppet Strings - Chapter 23
By Kudara
Disclaimer: All
the characters appearing in Gargoyles are copyright Buena Vista
Television/The Walt Disney Company. No infringement of these
copyrights is intended as this is a not for profit fan fiction
work. All original characters are the property of the author.
Warning: None
Notes: I am giving the
Gargoyles universe technology equivalent to today. We cannot
build semi truck sized laser weapons and they had laser rifles
and pistols. I think it is safe to say that universe has some
technology even more advanced than our own today. Nightstone
Unlimited’s Special Projects Division was introduced in
TGS episode Prophets and Angels. Candice, Dominique Destine’s
personal secretary was introduced in TGS episode Prophets and
Angels.
Rating: Teen
Feedback: Always welcome, feedback is what encourages me to keep
writing. Please let me know what you like and what you dislike
about the story.
Revision History: 04/30/08
****************************************************************************
The wind howled through the boughs of the
trees and slapped the rainfly in an irregular beat against the
tent wall. The day was overcast, very windy, and very cold.
The two women huddled together with the sleeping bag pulled up
almost over their heads. A burning globe of nature energy in
the center of the tent kept the interior at a barely tolerable
temperature due to the cold wind leaching away the heat as fast
as the globe could produce it.
“Less than one day left,” Kendra offered,
listening to the wind outside.
“Thank goodness,” said the redhead, “I
can’t wait to get back to civilization. You will love my bath
at home its large enough for me to sit in with my wings
extended.”
“Goddess,” moaned Kendra, “you, a hot bath
and a warm room, that sounds like heaven right now,” she buried
her nose in the fiery red tresses of her lover.
Dominique’s lips curved in a smile that did
sound like a very good idea right now. The smile faded as she
listened to the wind outside, she sighed, unfortunately the
reality of it was still a few days away. It was still only
midmorning; they had several hours to go until the evening.
“I’d change into my were-jaguar form for
the fur coat, but I don’t want to go out there and cook the food
I’d need to sustain it,” Kendra grumbled.
The redhead grimaced, remembering how
enjoyable making breakfast had been, it seemed like it had taken
forever for the simple meal to cook and they had huddled near
the open side of the propane stove to help keep the wind from
blowing out the flame. She searched her mind for something to
do besides listen to the wind outside, after last night she
didn’t feel like discussing the past today, it would have to be
something else. “What technologies were you talking about that
I might be interested in for Nightstone?” she asked her mind
finally seizing upon an acceptable topic. Her lips curved
upward and her eyes lit with amusement as she saw the bemused
expression on her lover’s face.
“Umm,” Kendra said and then stopped with a
frown.
Dominique began chuckling.
“Yea, yea, you do better without any
preparation or research,” Kendra groused with a smile. “I’m
trying to remember here…” she got a faraway look in her eye,
“let’s see there are a few different types of light sources
their working on to replace traditional and fluorescent lights
that use much less electricity and then there’s the different
types of fuel cells that are under development.”
The redhead’s eyes narrowed in thought, “I
believe I’ve heard something about hydrogen fuel cells, they use
liquid hydrogen and produce water vapor as waste correct?”
Kendra nodded, “there are different types
of fuel cells though, and the one I’m thinking about for
Nightstone is the one that uses biogas as a fuel.”
“Biogas?” Dominique asked, “You mean like
methane?” she guessed.
The black haired woman nodded, “exactly,
and I happen to know that New York City has been considering
renovating one of its sewage waste treatment centers into an
anaerobic digestion facility to help cut down on the amount of
organic waste that they burn and ship out to landfills.”
Dominique leaned back and eyed her
suspiciously, “you aren’t seriously suggesting that Nightstone
get involved with sewage treatment?” her voice held disbelief
and a touch of indignation.
“Why not?” Kendra replied calmly, “if you
do decide to that fuel cells are of interest to you then it
would help to have a method of obtaining cheap biogas to fuel
them, and even if you don’t it’s an investment in the
environment. I’ve been thinking of investing in both
technologies simply because I think their development needs to
be encouraged. The world’s oil won’t last forever and besides
its terribly polluting to the environment. We need to find
other ways to produce the power we require.”
“You’re serious,” Dominique said, eyeing
her thoughtfully.
Kendra nodded, “I am, I know the fuel cells
still need some development, but they hold such promise
Dominique. If the lifetime of the components can be doubled or
even better tripled, and the cost to manufacture them can be
cut, they hold the promise of producing energy for substantially
less than the cost of current methods. Think of the effect on
prices if the energy cost to produce any item from start to
finish was cut by one quarter.”
Dominique was thinking of it, and there
were several interesting scenarios running through her mind.
However, everything depended on whether or not the fuel cells
could be developed to the point that they produced energy for
substantially less than that produced by current technologies.
“You really think that can be done?” she prodded, trying to see
how certain Kendra was about this idea.
The black-haired woman shrugged, “I don’t
know for sure that it can be, but I don’t see why a company that
can develop hand held laser weapons can’t manage to engineer a
cheaper and more efficient fuel cell. I’ve heard of your laser
rifles and to produce a coherent laser beam you must have a very
powerful and efficient power source in them.”
The redhead’s eyes narrowed, this time in
true irritation, “Those are highly sensitive military contracts;
no one working on them should be talking about them so how did
you hear about that?” she asked sharply.
Kendra grinned lazily, unmoved by her
lover’s show of temper, “I told you I’ve kept up with what
Nightstone’s been doing. You know you can’t keep something that
interesting completely under wraps. Besides, I haven’t heard
anything specific, but then again I don’t need to. There are
some things that one just has to know some basic physics to
understand, and the amount of power needed to produce a laser
beam is one of those.”
Dominique let go of her temper with a sigh,
what Kendra was saying was true, all someone needed to know was
that a hand held laser weapon had been developed to know that a
matching advance in power sources had to have been developed as
well for a working weapon to even exist. “So you think the
technology Nightstone developed to supply enough energy to
produce a laser beam can be adapted for fuel cells.”
“I don’t know can it?” Kendra inquired,
arching her eyebrow at her lover. “I don’t know anything
specific about what Nightstone developed, just that your company
had to have made such an advance.”
“Find out, come and work for me,” Dominique
asked impulsively.
Kendra stared at her, surprised, “And do
what?” she asked, not agreeing or disagreeing as yet.
The more Dominique thought about the idea
the better it sounded to her. “You said you wanted to help me
fulfill the tasks the Ancient One gave me. Help me figure out
if there’s any promise in these new technologies, help me figure
out how to the help the other gargoyles.”
Kendra’s eyes wandered over the delicate
features of her lover, she asked quietly, “we haven’t discussed
how much we want to see each other when we get back, are you
sure you want me around every day?”
Dominique stared at her uncertainly, “I
hadn’t thought about it…I just assumed we would spend as much
time as we could…would you rather not?”
Warm blue eyes met and meshed with green,
“no, I’d rather spend time with you. I just wanted to make sure
you had thought about it before offering me a position where we
would be seeing each other in a boss employee setting every
day.”
“Will that be a problem for you?” the
redhead asked hesitantly, “Me being your employer?”
“Just so long as you don’t go getting any
ideas about how much control you have over me once we leave
work,” Kendra commented
Dominique smiled wryly, “even at work I
suspect you will have your limits.”
Undoubtedly,” agreed Kendra with a smirk.
The redhead snuggled closer to the
black-haired woman’s warm body, “Special Projects,” she said
suddenly, and then she grumbled, “no wait, I already have one of
those.”
“What?” asked Kendra, confused.
Dominique responded, “I was trying to
figure out a position for you, I already have a Special Projects
Division in Research and Development so I can’t use that,” she
frowned. “New Technologies…” she shook her head, “no that
wouldn’t cover everything.” Her face cleared, “New Technologies
and Special Projects Director…perfect.”
She could feel Kendra chuckling silently
beside her, “Nice title, but what would such a person do?”
“Explore the viability of new technologies
out on the market to see if they’re of interest to the company
and other projects that would require specialized handling such
as helping the various gargoyle clans,” Dominique replied.
Kendra was intrigued; having an official
position at Nightstone Unlimited to do what she planned to do
anyway would definitely make things easier.
“You like that idea don’t you”, said
Dominique satisfied
Kendra grinned, “it does sound
interesting,” she admitted, “why don’t we see how it goes for
both of us, maybe a trial period of a couple of months?” she
offered.
Dominique nodded reluctantly, she wanted to
make the position permanent, but could see the sense of seeing
how everything worked out. “I’ll announce it as soon as I get
back to Nightstone and work out a salary offer for you.”
“Mmm,” Kendra murmured snuggling down
further into the sleeping bag, “I’ll work for stock options too;
I have confidence in Nightstone with you at the helm.”
The redhead looked over at her, her cheeks
flushing in pleasure at the compliment.
*******************
It was the tenth day, it was night, and
Dominique and Kendra were crouched behind pine trees as they
watched for Rachael to indicate that it was safe for them to
approach her home. The only thing that truly concerned Kendra
was the few dogs that she could see wandering around the small
town, they seemed to be having their own social a few yards down
the street from Rachael’s home.
Kendra’s attention returned sharply to the
red brick single story home, there was movement in the doorway;
it was Rachael motioning for them. Running in a low crouch,
they made their way to the door and slipped past her into a
small entryway. One hesitant bark indicated that one of the
dogs had seen or smelt them; it was followed by a few more. As
Rachael shut the door behind them they straightened, and gave
almost simultaneous relieved sighs, they were back to
civilization. The dogs outside barked a few more seconds before
settling back down to whatever they had been doing before the
interruption.
Rachael turned towards them, “I bought some
jeans and sweaters for you a few days ago if you would like take
baths and change into something clean while I heat up dinner.”
Thoughts of immersing herself in warm water
filled Dominique’s mind, “That sounds nice,” she said
gratefully.
The Cree woman smiled, “I thought that
might be the case, especially after the temperatures dropped
yesterday.” She stepped back and pointed down the hallway to
her left, “your bedroom is the last door down this hallway, and
the bathroom is the last door on the right. Take your time, I
have a chicken that I need to put in the oven to cook so it will
be about an hour until dinner is ready.”
One very warm bath later, Dominique paused
in the door of the bathroom with a towel wrapped around her to
kiss Kendra. “I hope I left enough hot water for you, I tried
not to be too greedy with it,” she smiled.
“And I thank you for that,” Kendra replied
with a matching smile. She looked up the hallway toward the
rest of the house, “Rachael needs help with dinner once you get
dressed. I set the table, but there are still a few things left
to do before it’s ready. She’s got quite a spread planned for
dinner, we’re going to be stuffed.”
Dominique inhaled, “it already smells
wonderful.” The thought of eating a dinner that wasn’t cold in
five minutes and then slipping into a real bed with Kendra
beside her was sorely tempting. However, they needed to make
the amulets tonight for first thing in the morning they would be
pretending that Rachael had just found them hiking into town
after ten days of hard travel through the wilderness. “I’ll go
and see what she needs done as soon as I dress,” she assured the
black-haired woman, “now go take your bath.” Kendra grinned at
her and shut the door slowly, forcing the towel wrapped redhead
to retreat to keep it from touching her.
Dominique made a face at the door before
smirking in amusement and turning toward Rachael’s guest
bedroom. A few minutes later, she walked back wearing stiff new
blue jeans, thick socks on her feet and a soft cowl necked
cream-colored sweater. She walked down the hallway looking
around curiously; blankets, which she guessed were locally
woven, hung on the walls adding a warm touch to the simple white
walls. Next to them were simple charcoal drawings, they varied
wildly in their subject matter from landscapes to animals to
simple portraits. Dominique leaned closer to one, curious as to
whom the artist might be, but she couldn’t see the name it was
hidden by the frame.
The redhead followed her nose and was soon
stepping into the kitchen where Rachael was slicing tomatoes.
The Cree woman looked up from her task and smiled, “You look
more relaxed and comfortable.”
“I am,” Dominique acknowledged, “thank you
for the clothes.” She hesitated, Rachael’s home indicated the
woman was not poor, but certainly not as well off as she was,
“If you will let me know how much you’ve spent on us I’d like
pay you back.”
Rachael shook her head, “the clothing is a
gift from me to you,” she said firmly. Seeing the argumentative
look on the redhead’s face she added, “If you feel the need to
give a gift in return you could always donate to the tribal
youth fund, it’s what pays for the equipment I use when I take
the children out into the bush. Something’s always being
damaged and needing to be replaced.”
The green eyes narrowed, meeting the brown
ones of the senior Owl’s chosen in a brief test of wills before
Dominique nodded, “Very well. Now is there something I can help
you with?”
Rachael nodded and reached up into the
cabinet bringing out a box of Duncan Hines Dark Chocolate Fudge
Brownie mix, “Would you like to make the brownies for desert?”
Dominique’s eyes widened, feeling slightly
embarrassed she admitted, “I’ve never actually made brownies
I’ve always bought them from the bakery down the street.”
“That’s alright their easy, you’re just
adding water, oil and an egg to the mix and then stirring in the
fudge, and I’m right here if you have any questions,” Rachael
assured her.
The redhead accepted the box from her,
glancing down at the back where the instructions were clearly
laid out, “Where do you keep your mixing bowls?” As Dominique
pulled a mixing bowl from underneath a counter, she added with a
smirk, “Besides I’ve been missing real chocolate, those meal
replacement bars may have claimed they had a chocolate coating,
but it tasted suspiciously like chocolate flavored paraffin.”
Rachael chuckled, “I can assure you those
brownies will not taste like that.”
*******************
It was the tenth night since her mother and
Kendra Canmore had been kidnapped, Angela had expected news
tonight when she had awoken. However, as with the previous
night and the night before that there had been none. She had
come out onto the battlements to get away from the dour looks of
Brooklyn and her father at the continuing news that neither
Demona nor Kendra Canmore had been found though the Canadians
were still diligently searching for them.
She had asked Lexington how cold it was
where the plane had crashed and his answer had troubled her. It
was cold in New York City tonight at 33 degrees, but where the
plane had crashed it was minus ten degrees. She didn’t really
feel the cold tonight, but she had no doubt that if it were as
cold here as it was there that she would be feeling it, gargoyle
cold tolerance only went so far.
How were her mother and Kendra Canmore
surviving in such conditions? The young gargoyles thoughts
faltered as she acknowledged her own strong doubts that Demona
would actually help a human across 350 miles of rugged, cold
terrain. Yet it had been ten days now without sign of either of
them, and Angela could only think that so much time had passed
without either being found because Demona was traveling with
Kendra Canmore and they were limited to the human’s pace.
She knew that her father, Brooklyn, and
Elisa thought that Kendra Canmore was already dead, either by
Demona’s hand, or because Demona left Kendra behind while the
immoral gargoyle made her way back without the much slower
human. However, each day that passed without news made Angela
more certain that both would be found, and more certain that her
mother had important plans she for which required Kendra Canmore.
The young lavender female didn’t know why her mother needed the
Canmore woman, but she was certain that sooner or later the clan
would find out, and that whatever scheme her mother was planning
that the immortal gargoyle would try once again to persuade her
daughter to join her.
Angela breathed out an unhappy sigh; no
matter what her mother tried, no matter what lies she told this
time, she would be ready. Her mother using her to try and kill
Goliath had finally shown Angela that the rest of the clan had
been right all along, her mother could not be trusted and she
would not forget that bitter lesson.
***********************
The three women had adjourned to the living
room after their dinner where a fire crackled merrily in the
fireplace. Dominique and Rachael were enjoying small glasses of
ruby port, while Kendra pronounced herself, after one sniff of
the port, happy with another glass from the second bottle of
white Bordeaux they opened with dinner.
The sound of the stove timer went off in
the kitchen; both Rachael and Dominique put down their glasses
and began to rise. The two women looked at one another
indecisively, Rachael said, “I need to show you how to check for
doneness anyway.”
Kendra rose and followed them, she leaned
on the door and watched as Dominique pulled the rectangular pan
out of the oven and placed it on the cooling rack. The smell of
chocolate filled the air as Rachael inserted a wooden toothpick
in the center and pulled it out, showing the redhead the clean
end. “If there had been batter still uncooked you would need to
put it back in for five minutes and check again until it’s
cooked all the way through. Now it needs to set for fifteen
minutes and then we can slice it into squares.”
The way Dominique was staring wistfully at
the brownies was too cute, Kendra decided, the redhead obviously
had been missing her chocolate fix. Still it would be fifteen
minutes before the brownies were ready. “When are we going to
make the amulets?” she asked curiously, reasoning that it was a
good question to distract the two women from watching the timer
impatiently.
“We can start at any time,” Rachael
answered. “It won’t be that hard, but it will require each of
you to transform at least once, so I wanted to wait until I’m
sure there won’t be any unexpected visitors tonight before
starting. Unless it’s an emergency no one will visit after ten
o’clock, so after that I’ll turn off the lights and we can be
fairly certain of being uninterrupted while we work.”
“That sounds like a prudent idea,” observed
Dominique. “What exactly will we be doing and why do we have to
transform?”
“The amulets are supposed to be the means
by which you shapeshift. I want you to watch what happens to
the life and nature energy in each of you while you transform.
Once you do, it will become fairly obvious what energy signature
the amulets need to carry for them to appear as if they are
allowing you to transform,” Rachael explained.
Dominique frowned thoughtfully, trying to
imagine what the Cree woman was describing, she still wasn’t
certain how they would get the energy signature into the amulet
though she had an idea of how it might be done. Two nights ago
the Ancient One had shown her how to mend the small rips she
made in the sleeping bag by manipulating and repairing the
lattice-like structure of the nature energy that formed the
material of the bag. It wasn’t that hard to imagine that you
could overlay more energy onto the nature energy lattice of the
amulet or even slightly change the structure of the amulet’s
nature energy itself.
“Trust me,” Rachael said, “it will make
sense once you watch Kendra transform.”
A knock on the front door startled all
three women.
“Darn it,” swore Rachael softly, “here take
your glasses and go to the guest room I always keep that door
closed so it won’t look suspicious.”
They grabbed their glasses and turned to
leave, behind them they heard the Cree woman mutter, “thank
goodness we already cleaned up from dinner, that would have been
hard to explain away.”
As they went by the living room, Kendra
looked inside double-checking that they hadn’t left any evidence
that Rachael had company tonight. The bottle of wine and the
bottle of port were sitting on a side table; Kendra took a quick
detour inside the room and grabbed the wine bottle. Dominique,
who had been staring after her with a puzzled frown, nodded and
mouthed silently, ‘good catch.’ They hurried down the hall and
closed the door behind them as the Cree woman went to the door.
Through the closed door, they heard her
say, “Good evening Chief, what brings you by tonight?”
A gravely male voice answered, “Those two
women who were kidnapped, the Mounties think that if their still
alive they might be somewhere north of us by now. They asked us
if we could send out a few search parties to look for them. The
search planes haven’t spotted them, but if their hiking through
the forest it would be hard for them to find an open spot to
even signal a plane.”
“You want to know if I’m interested in
going?” Rachael asked.
“That,” the male voice hesitated, “and if
you had heard anything from the wind people about them. With
the weather as cold as it has been and with nether woman
familiar with living in the bush, I’m just not sure…”
Rachael interrupted him, “They are still
alive James, the animal spirits are guiding their steps in their
journey and it will end when the spirits guide them out of the
bush.”
Dominique was surprised that the Cree woman
had given the man so much of the truth, she frowned, Rachael
hadn’t said anything about this James being one of them.
There was a long moment of silence before
James spoke again, “when I asked you to go to the spirits and
ask that they guild their path to safety I was not expecting the
spirits to take such an interest in them. They are not Iiyiyuu.”
“The spirits are of the land not our people
and they may speak to anyone with the ears to listen and the
heart to hear their message,” Rachael said in a chiding tone.
Dominique bowed her head; Rachael’s words
seemed to be meant for her as much as they were for the one she
called James. The gargoyle was only too aware that it was only
because of a series of unrelated events that led her to having
the open ears and heart the Owl’s chosen was speaking about.
She felt Kendra shift beside her and the black-haired woman’s
arms were around her pulling her tight to her lover’s warm
body. She turned so that she could fit more comfortably against
the other woman and rested her head upon Kendra’s shoulder.
“Yes elder,” his voice sounded abashed.
There was another moment of silence, “I can’t exactly tell the
Mounties that the spirits are guiding them. I didn’t believe in
the spirits as anything but tribal tales until that blizzard
that almost killed me, and the wolf spirit lead me to safety.”
Rachael responded, “Then simply don’t tell
them, I’m sure Dominique Destine and Kendra Canmore won’t
mention anything directly either.”
“Probably not,” he agreed, “they told me it
was exhaustion and the onset of hypothermia that caused me to
hallucinate.”
“But you’ve never thought that, the first
thing you did when you got out of the hospital was come to me,”
Rachael said.
They heard him chuckle, “I know I didn’t
have a clue where I was by the time the spirit came to me, so
there’s no way a hallucination of mine could have lead me
through that blizzard directly back to the village. I came to
you because I knew you were the one who could teach me how to
thank the wolf spirit for saving my life, and that’s why I’m
glad you’ve agreed to join us tomorrow.” There was a short
pause before Dominique and Kendra heard his voice again. “I’ve
got a few more houses to visit tonight so I need to get going.
I’ll see you around eight in the morning?”
“I’ll be ready,” Rachael assured him. The
two women heard the door open and then shut again a few seconds
later. Dominique pulled reluctantly away from Kendra as they
heard footsteps come up the hallway. The door opened, Rachael
sighed, “Well I guess you two will be waking me up pounding on
my door to get in from the cold earlier than I had originally
thought,” she said with an amused chuckle.
“Does that mean you won’t have coffee ready
for us then?” asked Kendra cheekily.
Rachael stared at her for a moment in
surprise before breaking out in laughter. When the laugher died
down she said, “I should show you the amulets I made, they
turned out rather nice I think.”
She led them down the hallway past the
living room and to the opposite end of the house from the guest
bedroom. The room was as different from the rest of the house
as could be imagined, the floor was covered with large white
tiles and workbenches along two of the walls were covered with
different types of equipment. Along the walls, shelves were
hung with what looked like jewelry in various stages of
production upon them.
“You cast metals,” Dominique said sounding
intrigued.
Rachael turned and looked at her, “You’ve
cast silver before?”
The redhead nodded, “and gold and copper.
I have a similar room in my house, though I don’t have quite
the extensive setup you do.”
“I make jewelry pieces to sell at the gift
shop,” Rachael explained. She picked up two pendants on one of
the shelves, one black and silver and the other dark red and
gold. They glittered in the light as she handed them to the two
women.
Dominique looked down at the simple oval
pendant; there was a large dark reddish stone with bands of
white running through it, which she suspected was treated
sardonyx. The oval stone was set in an elegant gold setting,
and carved into its surface was the outline of a female human.
The lines of the carving were simple and yet they managed to
convey the sense of the elegance and beauty of the woman. She
looked over at Kendra’s pendant, it was similar to hers except
that it was set in silver and the stone in the center was black
with white lines and was probably onyx. Dominique wasn’t
surprised to see the image of a jaguar carved into Kendra’s
stone. The way the carvings were drawn looked familiar, but she
couldn’t place the context.
“It’s beautiful,” said Kendra sincerely
staring down at the carved jaguar image. “You did the carvings
yourself didn’t you, they remind me of the charcoal drawings you
have hanging up.”
Rachael nodded, “I’ve been drawing for many
years now, first with charcoal on birch bark and then with paper
and pencil. I still prefer charcoal though; sometimes the
pencil just makes too harsh a line.”
“These are very beautiful pieces,” agreed
Dominique examining once again the carving on hers. Now that
she knew Rachael had drawn these, she could easily see the
resemblance between the carving and the drawings she had noticed
earlier.
Rachael looked at the watch on her wrist,
“In another hour we can start, it should be late enough then
that no one else will drop by to see me.”
******************
Early the following morning it was time for
their deception to begin and Rachael was much more awake than
either Dominique or Kendra. “Ok, I’ve got some sweats here for
you two to change into after your baths,” the Cree woman
announced. “I’ll put the survival gear you were wearing into
the washing machine along with a second set that’s close enough
in appearance for it to have come from the same place. When
their done I’ll ask you if you want them back and you will tell
me no, then I’ll put them with the rest of the winter gear we
keep for the camp. They’ll get mixed in and no one will be able
to tell which pieces were yours.”
“You keep spare winter clothing around?”
asked Kendra curiously.
Rachael nodded, “I keep spare clothing in
the shed for the children to use while we are out in the bush.
They grow so fast that it’s just easier that way rather than
their parents buying expensive hiking gear every year.”
Dominique took the last sip from her mug of
coffee, “Alright,” she said, “So I guess the next step would be
for us to take quick baths?” Both Kendra and she were wearing
white robes, their clothes already having been appropriated and
thrown into the wash to be mixed in with Rachael’s clothing
until they got ready to leave.
The Cree woman nodded, “As soon as one of
you is done and the other one in the bath, I’ll call up the
tribal police to tell them you showed up on my doorstep about
thirty minutes ago and were both not particularly interested in
talking to anyone until you had baths, fresh clothing and
coffee.”
“That would have been accurate enough,”
Dominique agreed with a smile. She shuddered, “I can’t imagine
how horrid those clothes would have been after ten straight days
in them.” She looked over at Kendra, “You want to go first this
time?”
Sure,” the black-haired woman agreed
easily, rising from her chair and placing her coffee cup in the
sink. Dominique turned to watch her walk gracefully down the
hallway on bare feet, then again everything her lover did was
graceful she reflected. She turned back to the table; Rachael
was watching her with a small smile upon her lips.
“I can see that you two have become even
closer,” the Cree woman noted, “Have you talked about what will
happen once you return to New York?”
“She’s coming to work for me to help me
with my tasks,” Dominique responded. She smiled, “I’ll be
making up a new department just for her, New Technologies and
Special Projects, they will do research on companies and
technologies that Nightstone might be interested in acquiring as
well as troubleshooting.”
“You’re planning on using her gifts then,”
Rachael commented perceptively.
“On the tasks the Ancient One gave me, yes,
I am. I’d be a fool not to,” the redhead stated firmly. She
continued in a grimmer tone, “I wouldn’t put it past Goliath to
warn the clans about me if he heard or even suspected I was
trying to make contact with them. Chances are I’ll have to send
Kendra to deal with the clans rather than going myself. At
least she’ll have a chance at getting them to listen to her
whereas I might not if Goliath does what I’m almost certain he
will. Hopefully after a year or so he’ll decide I’m not evil
incarnate anymore and I won’t have to worry about it.”
Rachael winced, “I didn’t know it was that
bad between you and your clan.”
“It is,” Dominique replied sadly, “even
between me and my daughter.” After a quick glance at the clock,
she began telling Rachael about what Kendra had referred to as
the last parting gift from the Weird Sister’s enchantment. The
plans she had made with the Assassin to deceive the clan and
kill Goliath that had fallen apart so badly the weekend just
before the kidnapping. As Kendra walked back into the kitchen
she was saying, “The human I had hired told them everything,
Goliath escaped and the last thing my daughter said to me was to
save what I had to say to her for my next performance,”
Dominique said sadly. “So now you know why I said that
attempting to tell them about what’s happened during the last
week wouldn’t get me anywhere, they simply wouldn’t believe me.”
Rachael looked like she was having
difficulty finding something to say in response.
Dominique chuckled sadly, “It’s alright. I
wouldn’t believe me either if I were them.” She looked over at
Kendra, “And I see its time for me to start my bath,” the
redhead returned her attention to Rachael, “and for your phone
calls to begin.”
Rachael and Kendra heard her mutter
sarcastically as she left the kitchen for the bathroom, “This
should be fun.”
Kendra chuckled quietly at the comment.
“Are we ready?” Rachael asked picking up
the phone
“I think it’s more of a ready or not
situation,” observed Kendra dryly, “since I don’t think we can
sneak back to New York and pretend we were never missing.”
Rachael chuckled, “that would be much
easier wouldn’t it, but unfortunately too many people know.”
She started dialing a number, “Hello,” she said into the phone,
“Is Chief Winters there?” A moment later she said, “James, I
was out checking my gear for the search party today and guess
who I found walking out of the forest.”
Kendra could clearly hear the shouted, “You
found them!” from where she was sitting across the table.
Rachael jerked the phone away from her ear,
“James, my hearing is just fine, no need to yell,” she said
grouchily.
From the phone in Rachael’s hand, Kendra
heard the distinctive gravelly voice from last night ask,
“Dominique Destine and Kendra Canmore are at your house?”
“Taking warm baths as we speak, and I’m
about to make breakfast for them,” Rachael confirmed raising the
phone to her ear once again. “For some reason anything other
than food bars sounded good to them,” she added in a dry tone.
The Cree woman listened for a little while
longer before saying, “they look alright to me, and I’ve already
checked their hands and feet for frostbite before letting them
bathe. But you’re probably right it would be a good idea to get
Dr. Meadows to look them over.” She listened for several more
seconds then said, “Alright I’ll expect you and the doctor in
about thirty minutes.”
Rachael hung up the phone and turned back
to Kendra, “Eggs, bacon and biscuits sound good?”
“Wonderful,” responded Kendra with a grin,
“what can I help you with?”
Four hours later, Dominique heaved a sigh
of relief as the door shut behind the two detectives from the
Royal Canadian Mounted Police and Tribal Police Chief Winters.
Dr. John Meadows had left several hours ago after pronouncing
himself surprised at their excellent health considering the
conditions they had hiked through for ten days. Both Dominique
and Kendra had downplayed the lack of any injuries, merely
saying that they were both in excellent health when the journey
had begun and that had obviously helped them survive it. The
snowy haired doctor had shook his head and told them they were
both incredibly lucky as well, good health and conditioning did
only so much when stacked against cold weather.
Kendra looked the elderly man in the eye
and replied, “I know we are lucky, I knew something was watching
out for us when we crawled our way out of that cage they put us
in and we found the kidnappers dead in the front of the plane.
We probably should have died there but we didn’t, and we were
incredibly lucky to find good places to shelter and get warm
every night.”
Dr. Meadows sat back in his chair and
stared at her, “The spirits must have been watching over you,”
he finally replied, “being able to warm up every night is
probably what saved you from getting frostbite.”
Knowing that the tribal police chief was
watching them keenly, Kendra and Dominique allowed themselves to
share a long look. “I’m certain that they were Doctor,” the
redhead finally replied, “And I’m very grateful to them that
they decided to help us,” she finished sincerely.
The doctor seemed surprised at her words
while James Winters nodded as if they had answered a question
for him.
Dr. Meadows left immediately afterwards and
they had sat down and waited for the Royal Canadian Mounted
Police detectives while having round of coffee. Once the two
detectives had arrived and joined them at the kitchen table the
questions about the kidnapping and their journey began.
With Rachael helping they had come to an
agreement on what story to give the authorities last night.
Except for a few changed details it was essentially the truth.
They had been talking in Dominique’s office before heading down
to the gymnasium to spar when the helicopter had shown up
outside the building. The helicopter door had opened and they
realized someone inside was pointing a weapon at them just in
time for the glass to shatter. Kendra had noticed the gas
grenade, but had been unable to get to it before falling
unconscious from the gas. The next time the two women had
awoken, they were in cages in the hold of a plane. Yes they had
seen one of their kidnappers, but he had been wearing a mask and
didn’t speak to them he had just given them a food bar and a
water bottle and left once again. When the plane landed, he, or
someone else about his size, had shown up again and shot them
with tranquilizer darts. The next time they woke the plane had
crashed and they were freezing but the cage had been warped
enough for them to force their way out.
Neither of them said much about the trip
except to say that they had covered as much ground as they could
while it was daylight and then found or made shelters during the
nights. It had been difficult, but with the compass they had
headed due south through the woods where it was warmer. Yes,
they had heard the planes a few times but they hadn’t seen them
due to the thickness of the tree canopy. The past two days had
been hard with the colder weather, but they had pushed though
realizing from the topographical map that they were at last
close to a town and the end of their journey.
After the questions were done, the RCMP
detectives asked them to make themselves available for future
questions and to please not discuss the case with the news media
as it was an ongoing investigation of a federal crime in both
Canada and the United States.
All of that had taken approximately four
hours, and now it was just she, Kendra and Rachael once again.
“So,” Rachael’s voice had Dominique opening
her eyes once again, “now that their gone did you two want to go
shopping for something other than sweats?”
“That would be nice,” Kendra responded
promptly.
The redhead looked down at the worn sweats
she was wearing with a frown at the idea of appearing in public
with them on, she sighed in resignation, “I guess it would look
odd for you to have bought us clothing before we arrived
wouldn’t it.”
The Cree woman grinned, “I got the jeans
and sweaters in Alma so no one would associate my purchasing
them with your arrival, but no, there’s no way you can show up
in them this morning it would look too suspicious.”
“Let’s get going then,” Kendra said,
glancing over at Dominique, “the faster we buy something the
sooner we can wear something else.”
The redhead wracked her brain; there was
something she knew she was forgetting. Her green eyes opened
wide, “Nightstone,” she exclaimed, “I haven’t called them yet.”
“Opps,” chuckled Kendra, “I guess that
would be a good idea wouldn’t it, and we need to go ahead and
arrange for transportation back to the city as well.”
“Candice can do that,” Dominique said,
heading back toward the kitchen, she paused for a moment looking
back at Rachael, “this shouldn’t take me long, but I need to let
them know I’m alright and will be at work and expecting updates
next week.”
The Cree woman waved her hand in a shooing
motion, “I’ll go work on some jewelry orders, come up and get me
when you’re ready.”
Dominique nodded; she looked over
inquiringly at Kendra.
Kendra picked up the newspaper, which had
been placed on a table just inside the front door when James
Winters and Dr. Meadows had arrived, “I’d like to take a look at
the newspaper, find out what’s been happening in the world.”
The redhead glanced at the newspaper in her
lover’s hand, that was a good idea, but it was something she
would have to do later today. She walked to the kitchen and was
pleased when Kendra followed and sat down at the table with the
newspaper.
She dialed her secretary’s desk number and
waited impatiently, on the fourth ring it was picked up,
“Candice Greene…”
Dominique didn’t wait for her to trot out
the standard greeting, “Candice its Ms. Destine, I need you to
arrange for transport tomorrow from Alma Quebec to New York,
just after lunch would be preferable, and inform the division
managers I expect reports from each of them on my desk Monday
morning first thing,” she said briskly. A quiet snort had her
glancing over at Kendra with an arched eyebrow and inquiring
look.
The blue eyes were dancing with laughter,
but Kendra just shook her head and looked back down at the
paper.
Candice still hadn’t replied, there was
absolute silence on the line. Dominique frowned at it wondering
if the connection had been dropped when her secretary finally
responded in a very hesitant questioning voice, “Ms. Destine?”
She was about to snap irritably when she
looked up and saw Kendra watching her, she sighed, reminded of
her promise, “Yes Candice its Dominique Destine, I assure you
I’m quite alive and well even though it was a bit of a hike to
find a phone,” she said dryly.
There was another amused snort from the one
person peanut gallery.
There was silence once again before her
secretary asked hesitantly, “Was that a joke Ms Destine?”
Dominique rolled her eyes, “Apparently not
a very good one,” she responded wryly. “Now that we have
established that I am indeed alive did you hear what I said
before?”
“Yes…” the initial answer didn’t sound as
certain as she would have liked, then Candice’s voice firmed,
“you need me to arrange transportation for you from Alma, Quebec
back to New York City tomorrow around one to two in the
afternoon, and to inform the department managers that you expect
reports for each department on your desk Monday morning by ten
am?” the last a question.
“Ten will be fine,” Dominique confirmed,
“Is there anything I should know about right now?”
She listened intently while her secretary
filled her in on what had happened during her absence. There
hadn’t been much; apparently everyone had been waiting for news
on the search and rescue operation. The different departments
had coasted along working on the last projects she had handed
out before the kidnapping. It could have been much worse she
reflected, they could have assumed she was dead and started
fighting among themselves over who was in charge.
“Oh two other things Candice,” she said
deciding to get some things started so that she could get
Kendra’s position mostly set up on Monday. “Tell Research and
Development to rename the Special Projects division to Research
and Development Special Projects division. There’s going to be
a new executive level division that has special projects in its
name and I want to make sure there’s no confusion between the
two. Also set up a meeting with the head of Human Resources on
Monday at,” she hesitated a moment thinking of how long it would
take her to get through at least some of the work that had
certainly piled up over the last eleven days, “eleven o’clock.”
Her secretary asked tentatively, “A new
executive level division?”
Dominique could imagine the interest on the
woman’s face; a new executive level division was fairly big
news. “Yes, New Technologies and Special Projects,” Dominique
responded, reasoning that it wasn’t a bad idea for the gossip to
go ahead and make its way around the company. That way HR would
be ready for her on Monday morning, “Ms. Canmore will be heading
up the new division for me.”
“Ms. Kendra Canmore?” Candice asked her
surprise clear.
“That would be the one,” Dominique
confirmed. “When you talk to Mr. Cleveland let him know that
part of what I would like to see from him on Monday will be an
appropriate executive management level salary and stock option
offer for Ms. Canmore,” she knew that Candice would pass on the
emphasis she had placed on the words executive management level.
“Yes Ms. Destine,” her secretary responded
promptly.
“Thank you Candice,” Dominique replied,
congratulated herself for remembering not to use her usual crisp
‘that will be all’ at the woman.
“Yes…” Candice’s voice trailed off and
Dominique frowned wondering what was wrong, “Umm… I mean you’re
welcome Ms. Destine. Where may I contact you to let you know
the transportation arrangements from Alma?”
Dominique raised an eyebrow at the hesitant
response before replying, “You may contact me at this number, if
I’m not here just leave a message on…” she paused trying to
remember Rachael’s last name, but it wouldn’t come to her, “just
leave a message on the answering machine here,” she finished.
“Yes Ms. Destine, I’ll start making those
arrangements for you now,” Candice assured her.
“Very well, goodbye Candice,” Dominique
said impatient now to end the phone call.
“Goodbye, Ms. Destine,” her secretary
responded, and with a relieved sigh Dominique hung up the phone.
“Did you realize we missed Thanksgiving?”
Kendra asked.
The redhead stared at her in surprise; she
glanced at the calendar noting today’s date, Thursday, December
4th. “No I hadn’t,” she said, “I don’t celebrate it,
it’s just a day I have to pay people for not being at work.”
She frowned, belatedly aware of what the statement said about
her attitude towards the idea of her employees taking holidays.
Macbeth had never resented the days his people celebrated the
various human holidays, he had seemed to take as much enjoyment
in them as they.
“Take it one thing at a time,” Kendra
advised her gently, “your attitudes towards humans have been
built over centuries, they won’t change in one day or week or
even months.”
Sometimes, Dominique thought ruefully,
Kendra was startlingly intuitive when it came to knowing what
she was thinking. “Shall we go tell Rachael that we’re ready to
go shopping?” she asked.
***************
“After ten days of search and rescue
efforts Dominique Destine and Kendra Canmore walked into the
small Cree village of Mistassini, Quebec early this morning.
The Canadian Mounted Police say that despite having hiked across
over 350 miles of rugged snow covered terrain both women are in
excellent health. The RCMP declined to release any details
about what the two women had to say regarding their kidnapping
citing their on-going joint investigation with the FBI.”
The brief news bulletin on the radio had
Professor Lennox MacDuff looking abruptly up from the paper he
was grading toward the radio. The dreams he had from a few
nights ago would not leave him alone, he couldn’t get out of his
mind Demona’s anguished cry of “Luach,” and the tears of grief
she had cried when the spirit had restored the memories the
Weird Sisters had blocked. The dream had been so vivid, had
felt so real. He couldn’t shake the feeling that it had been
real in some way, that some spirit had taken pity upon them both
and freed them from the Weird Sisters enchantments.
It wouldn’t be hard to find out if it were
true, he reasoned to himself, just one moment of pain would
answer the question of whether or not the link between them had
indeed been broken as the spirit claimed. Besides he wanted to
see her again, see if the hardness in her eyes had changed as he
remembered from the dream. If it were indeed possible that
after all this time they could become friends once again, that
there would be someone with which he wouldn’t have to pretend to
be Lennox Macduff.
*****************
“Here we are,” Rachael said as they pulled
up in front of a small cinder block building. Behind it was a
single runway with a few hangars along its side for the few
planes that were kept here. Dominique eyed the small jet
waiting on the runway. It was the only jet there and she
guessed it was the one that Candice had chartered for them.
She looked over at Rachael; she had been
considering this since they had left, but didn’t know if the
Owl’s chosen would be interested. After all, they had taken up
quite a bit of Rachael’s time in the past week. “Solstice is
coming up soon,” she broached the subject, “As the shortest
night of the year, it was the only holiday that my clan
celebrated. It served as both a new year’s celebration and when
we would give thanks for the good fortunes of the past year.”
She looked away from Rachael’s wise dark eyes, “I haven’t
celebrated winter solstice for a very long time,” she said
quietly, “it’s simply been too bitter a reminder of all that
I’ve lost over the centuries,” she admitted.
Kendra’s hand squeezed her shoulder,
“that’s not the case this year,” she commented quietly.
Dominique lightly gripped the hand on her
shoulder and held it there as she turned and smiled back at the
black haired woman. “That isn’t the case this year,” she
agreed. She turned back to Rachael, “If you don’t already have
something planned, I’d appreciate it if you would come and
celebrate it with…” she glanced back at Kendra questioningly.
Kendra snorted, “You are so funny, no I
wasn’t planning on going anywhere over the Christmas holidays.”
Dominique smiled, she glanced back to
Rachael once again, “If you would celebrate it with us,” she
finished asking.
Rachael smiled, “I need to be back for
Christmas Eve, but otherwise than that I don’t have anything
planned for the days right before then.”
“Excellent,” Dominique said happily,
“Winter Solstice is the 21st this year; I’ll charter
a plane to pick you up on the nineteenth or twentieth?”
“The nineteenth will be fine,” responded
Rachael with a smile of her own.
“On the nineteenth then and bring you back
on the twenty-third,” the redhead said, “I’ll have a use for the
first time for my guest room.”
They got out of the jeep and went around to
the back to get the two duffle bags that held the purchases they
had made at the village, and the jeans and sweater Rachael had
bought for them.
Kendra was the first to turn to Rachael and
hug her, “Thank you,” she said simply, her blue eyes echoing her
gratitude for everything the Cree woman had done for them.
When Kendra stepped back, Dominique didn’t
hesitate to take her place. She had already made a generous
donation to the youth fund as Rachael had suggested, but it
still didn’t feel like enough to convey her thanks for what the
woman had done for both of them by traveling several hours
though the cold to bring them supplies and then again to bring
them to her home. The redhead stepped back, “Thank you for
everything, and if there is anything I can ever do for you let
me know.”
“Get to know Robert,” Rachael answered
immediately, “his aunt and uncle see to his material needs, but
I don’t get the feeling that they really care for him. He needs
someone closer than me to talk to and who can take him out
shopping or to get something to eat without making it feel like
he’s a burden to them.”
Dominique’s eyes narrowed in anger at what
Rachael’s words implied about Robert’s life. “I will,”
Dominique promised, “I’ll contact him this weekend.”
“We both will,” Kendra added.
Rachael looked over toward the building, “I
think your pilot’s waiting on you,” she said nodding toward it.
Dominique turned and looked in the same
direction, there was a man standing in the doorway looking at
them uncertainly.
As soon as he saw her looking in his
direction, he walked toward them, “Ms. Destine?”
“Yes,” Dominique responded crisply, “are
you the pilot of the plane Nightstone chartered?”
“I am Ma’am, may I take your bags for you
and stow them on the plane?” he asked politely.
“Be careful with them,” the redhead
instructed him, “they have some breakables in them.”
“Yes ma’am I will be,” he assured her as he
took their bags, “will you be much longer? I was wondering when
to start my final flight check.”
“Go, I’ll see you on the nineteenth,”
Rachael said.
“I’ll dust off a bottle of my fifty year
old Oban for us to enjoy,” Dominique commented.
Rachael’s eyes lit with interest, “I’ll
look forward to it.”
With final waves, the two women followed
the pilot into the building and then out to the tarmac and onto
the plane for their journey back to New York.
When the plane became airborne, Dominique
looked out the window at the dark green of trees and the
occasional brilliant white of snow. She was going to miss it in
a way she realized with surprise.
“I do want to come back during the summer,”
Kendra said from the seat beside her.
Dominique nodded, “So do I.”
|
