Jacks back
It took only 24 hours to track down Jack and bring him back to the Palace, it also cost the lives of two goblin guards who were instructed to retrieve him. Prince Charming should have realized that goblins may be fast but they lack the more subtle communication skills. When the slower human guards arrived the were just in time to explain things in better detail and avoid Jack employing some nasty home made interrogation techniques on the other four goblins he had captured.
Jack had always liked and respected the old King and knew he was a great leader because he could make the hard decisions for his Kingdom, like the Giant and goose episode.
Jack also knew how heavily it weighed on his mind.
His tolerance for the Fairy folk was always his weakness and now it looked like his softness had been his undoing.
Jack took up his position as Captain of the Elite Guard as if he’d never left.
Jack’s investigation
Jack stood in the shattered doorway leading into the King’s chamber.
The large auditorium had been left as it was found. Even the King’s remains were left as they were in total disregard to all royal protocols. If Jack was to do his job properly and gain as much fresh information as possible, it had to be that way.
Jack had already spent an agonizing thirty minutes with the Prince. The conversation – if you could call it that – ricocheted from his angry call to quickly find his Father’s killer, his remorsefulness over all the lives lost, his theories on the Dragon he believed was responsible and to how he was going to announce the tragedy to the Kingdom and that he was now the King. In between this , Charming managed to express nearly every possible human emotion ending it all with confusion and deep grief.
Jack liked the lad and knew he had a lot to bear before this was all over. Jack simply patted the boy on the shoulder and said
“Leave it to me sire”
The look of relief on Charming knew he had the new King’s confidence.
Looking into the room Jack had already deduced that this wasn’t the work of a Wyrm.
There were no scorching or evidence of scraping of the beasts leathery wings, usually noticeable signs of Dragon attack. Even though the room was large, Wyrm’s still had a large turning arc and much more things would have been damaged. For instance the chandeliers were all still intact and why had the door only been blasted out? How did the Wyrm enter?
No. This was some other being, entity or demon.
Jack moved amongst the bodies, covering his face with his cloth. Things had started to get a bit gamy. After ten minutes of seeing the same sort of carnage Jack was starting to think that a pride of lions had been released in the room.
Moving further around to the corners he came upon his first piece anomaly. Lying badly mauled but unlike most other victims relatively in one piece was a body dressed in black. It’s outstretched hand had written what could only be read as EGG.
Calling an assistant Jack asked if anyone recognized who this man was and why he was not dressed in court robes?
The assistant couldn’t identify the face because of its condition, so Jack searched through the body’s clothing and found papers revealing it to be the Post Master General. The assistant concurred that the Post Master was roughly this shape, size and build.
What an odd scenario Thought Jack and then noticed his assistant was not far from throwing up. Since the word EGG had reminded Jack of his humorous sighting the other day he thought he would lighten the mood by telling him about his run in with the Market Controller and hopefully make the assistant relaxed enough so not to contaminate his crime scene.
On relating the story Jack couldn’t help but notice the assistant becoming increasingly agitated and his colour changing to a paler shade of green.
“What now?” he said, thinking his stories aren’t that boring.
The assistant gulped and nearly in tears said.
“Sir, the Market Controller has been dead for three weeks”
Jack grabbed the assistant and led him out of the room.
“Guards” Jack called “We are paying a visit to the home of the Post Master.
To be continued.......
Edited by Cathie Tranent, art by Simon Sherry
