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  “Don’t you have communication devices?” I asked

  “There’s no cell reception here, and magic is severely limited.”

  Heloisa gave a shrill whistle, and soon her unicorn/horse came running. She mounted her steed with a flourish and said, “Wait here.”

  I put my hand on her saddle. “Heloisa, I want to help. You saved me.”

  “Yes, we all do,” Juniper said, stepping forward.

  Mitzi seemed fine to wait. “I’m good.”

  The guardian surveyed us and said, “No offense, but I can get more done without worrying about you.” And to me she said, “Stay put and take care of the girls.”

  I nodded, feeling important at being put in charge. We huddled together against the cold. Even though Susan wasn’t wild about my relationship with Mitzi, I glued myself to my wife and stroked her hair, cooing away the dark experiences she must have endured. Susan leaned in, too, not being dressed for the weather. Juniper went to work covering the trap door.

  “I have the strangest tingling in my shoulders,” Mitzi said, and broke away from me. “It kind of hurts.” I moved to rub them and noticed with alarm she had nodules growing larger before my eyes. Susan looked like her eyes were going to pop out of her head, and she was making noises we couldn’t understand. Juniper came over to see as wings started to break through Mitzi’s skin.

  “Oh my God!” I cried. “You have wings!”

  Mitzi turned her head to the left and to the right, trying to see them herself. She took a few test flaps and laughed. “I can control them.”

  Until now, the whole your-wife’s-a-half-griffin thing was just part of a tale. Now?

  “Can you fly?” Juniper asked, entranced. My friend was so comfortable with all of this.

  “I don’t know,” Mitzi said. She really looked quite cute, like an angel, but the wings didn’t look like they could hold her weight.

  “Try,” Juniper said.

  “Juniper!” I said sternly. Truth be told, I was frightened.

  “Well, wouldn’t you want to fly if you could?” The art diva was smiling.

  “I am kind of cold. Maybe this will warm me up.” Mitzi started running and flapping her little wings. She achieved a little air then came down again.

  “Mitzi?” I asked, in wonderment.

  She laughed and ran and flapped her wings. She also flapped her arms like a big bird, and up she went.

  “Ohohoho!”

  “Don’t go too high!” I called.

  “Let me just see what’s going on. I’ll be right back.” If I could have fainted, now would have been the time. I saw my wife fly up to the top of the trees and hover there like some helicopter.

  Juniper squealed. “This is marvelous!”

  “What, doesn’t your wife fly?” I said with a grin.

  Camp

  MORNING HAD BROKEN and the camp inhabitants were packed up and ready to go. Ravens had been circling all night, and there could not be a brighter neon sign pointing to them for Wolfrum to see than that. The dwarves were getting surly.

  “She put us here to be a decoy,” a heavily muscled warrior said, pacing the edge of the camp.

  “There’s nothing wrong with that, Chuk,” his buddy, Groh, said. “That’s how they got in the castle.”

  “If they got in the castle. For all we know, they could be dead right now.”

  The elves sat on their horses, noses and ears twitching.

  “They’re coming.”

  Chuk climbed on his sturdy steed. “Heloisa or no Heloisa, I’m ready.”

  “Stand fast,” Ernst, second in command shouted, for there was no more reason for stealth.

  From the trees surrounding the clearing, monk warriors poured out of the darkness with weapons raised. They chanted gutturally:

  “Wolves are always followed by ravens!”

  “Scavenging for the kill!”

  “Eat fast, ravening wolf!”

  “Ravens follow five and twenty!”

  “Cleansing the world of unworthy prey!”

  “Taking out the weak!”

  “Consuming the meek!”

  “Wolf-Raven cycles this world to the next!”

  The monks outnumbered them ten to one. The morning air was crisp, and Ernst opened his mouth to issue an order. Suddenly, Heloisa appeared, her horse in a sweat. She moved right in front of her motley group and breathed heavily. “Mission accomplished,” she said to her fellow guardians. “This is for Ehren’s son. Let’s go!”

  Wolfrum’s men should have studied British history in the early days of the colonies, or that of the American side in the Vietnam War. They thought their cause was so righteous no one could harm them. They thought their numbers and frightening visage were enough to win the day. Fortunately for those from the Hercynian Garden, they were wrong.

  Elves popped up from the treetops and, with their excellent marksmanship, took out most of the first two rows of horsemen. Others tripped on booby traps between the trees leading to the little encampment. Heloisa’s group hadn’t been idle while waiting.

  Wolfrum’s men got in their licks, too. The ravens did much of that work, attacking the tree elves. Suddenly, a sight none had seen in a good long time came before their eyes. The woman from America, who should have been in the dungeon back at the castle, literally flew over the skirmish, shouting, “This one’s for my half-brother I never got to know.” Then she said to the ravens, “You’re all eagles now!”

  The fighting paused as all looked up in disbelief. Mitzi surprised herself and didn’t know where the words had come from, only that her blood started to boil and her fighting spirit came to the fore. “You’ve already lost, you freaky whackjobs! For I am free and doing magic in your world.” With that, she flew away and most of the ravens followed.

  Without Wolfrum to explain what that meant, his warriors fled. The elves, dwarves, and other magical creatures were emboldened and chased the Wolf-Ravens from the clearing.

  “Enough. They will be talking about this for a hundred years,” Heloisa said. She was blood-spattered and muddy but looked triumphant.

  “As will we,” Chuk said and bowed. “You are my leader.” The prevailing Garden folk gave a cheer and sheathed their weapons.

  Heloisa raised her arm to get their attention. “As my new friend Juniper says, let’s roll.”

  They left the scene, with only a few serious injuries, and headed back to the Hercynian Garden. Heloisa went to collect her rescues, although she now knew at least one of them, Mitzi, had joined the ranks of the guardians.

  Merryville

  COUNCILMAN GARY SMITHERS’ number-two man, Brad, met with the councilman behind closed doors and filled him in on the conversation he’d just had with Detective Potts. “He says there’s not enough for a warrant on his own, wants you to make a call.”

  “What does he have?” Smithers said. He sat in front of a poster that read:

  Bringing Merryville Back to its

  Old-Fashioned Family Values

  “Well first, your cousin Gail...”

  “The neighbor, Brad. Call her the neighbor. Her last name isn’t Smithers. Let’s make sure any reference to my name doesn’t come from us.”

  “Okay, the neighbor called Detective Potts. He went to the Fowler house because Juniper Gooden’s wife was there.”

  “Very suspicious, but that’s not enough. And Brad, call them ‘domestic partners.’”

  “But the Supreme Court—”

  “Our Supreme Court made a mistake, one that will be corrected eventually.” He squeezed a rubber stress reliever compulsively. “In the meantime, this Juniper Gooden has brought chaos and shoved her ‘life style’ down my district’s throats. Did you see that GBLT exhibit?” His face was getting red.

  “Um, that’s LGBTQ,” Brad said.

  “LGBT, GBLT, please! Give me a BLT! I don’t care what these people call themselves. They’re disruptive. They’re hijacking this community, and that fiasco at the museum was just the latest proo
f of it. I know there’s something going on. Gooden is in the middle of it, and I want to know what it is. Now!”

  Gary walked to the window and looked out. Below his office, on the sidewalk, a small group of citizens carrying signs that read “Save the cats!” and “Homeless Lives Matter” were assembled. He shooed away a blackbird that had been camping on the sill with its friends.

  “They’ve been there since that Floodlight exhibit at the museum.” He returned to his desk, sat in his chair, and leaned back.

  “Who? The birds or the protesters?” Brad’s attempt at humor fell on deaf ears.

  “If only Dick Mortimer was still in charge at the museum. It was the crown jewel of my district before that lesbian took over. They used to show such nice art, very classic.”

  He sat back in his chair, made a steeple with his fingers, and tapped his lips.

  Brad hated to see his boss so upset. “He did say the backyard was dug up.”

  Without looking up, Gary said, “What if an anonymous call came in, saying they saw Panda and Juniper digging in the backyard before leaving the country?”

  “Boss, no one has—ooh, okay.”

  “Get me Judge Reed, the mayor’s brother. He needs to know about this. Detective Potts needs a warrant.”

  The light increased in the councilman’s chambers as the rest of the ravens flew away.

  ELSA AND EKK took full advantage of being alone and off duty and lay with Brutus on the couch sleeping. Their little bellies were full, and for once, they had a break in the action. Brutus had told them a few things, and they recharged their batteries, waiting for contact from the Hercynian Garden.

  POTTS HELD HIS cell phone to his ear, and as he looked through the window, he saw the cat sleeping with the dolls. “Looks like she brought in garden gnomes from the outside,” he said to Debra, the DA. “That’s kind of a tie-in with the backyard, which, like I said, has been recently dug up. God, they’re lifelike.”

  “Still not enough,” Debra said and hung up without further conversation. He could tell he was getting on her last nerve.

  Hercynian Garden

  HELOISA, MITZI, JUNIPER, Susan, and I arrived back at the castle after the triumphant cadre of guardians. Word had already spread of the magnificent rescue and rout of the evil Wolf-Ravens.

  Ehren himself was in the courtyard with the magical folk under his protection, and he wordlessly embraced Mitzi with tears running down his face. They spoke privately and he shooed us off to get our things. Time was growing short, and there was still much to do. Ehren had his healers working on Susan, who had sheepishly entered his presence. He cracked a joke that perhaps he should leave her that way. I sensed those two had some talking to do later. The big news was Valerie didn’t have to come here. Hercynian Garden archivists said the ritual could take place in Merryville, but they warned it wasn’t ideal.

  So much had changed. Heloisa brought a raven back on her shoulder and met with Ehren and his council. With the change of dynamics, Mitzi getting her wings and all, there was a chance for a new treaty with the ravens, who had cast their lot with Wolfrum eons ago. The compound was buzzing with possibilities.

  I kept my hands on Mitzi, first, because I missed her and, second, because I didn’t want her flying off. It’s one thing to have a wife with wings; I didn’t want to lose her again. Fortunately, her wings had retracted after the danger passed and were almost undetectable. We gathered our things and entered the throne room, ready to leave for the “real world” of our lives back in Merryville.

  “What I don’t understand is this,” I said to Ehren, my fatherin-law—still getting used to that. “Why Mitzi, me, and our two American friends, Valerie and Juniper?”

  “I was wondering that myself,” Juniper said, fully resplendent after a quick shower.

  “You don’t know?” Ehren exchanged a look with his chief advisor.

  “Know what?”

  A scribe-looking fellow stepped forward, an elf with a beard tossed over his shoulder. “Sun dogs appear as a rainbow around the true sun. It’s also called a solar halo. According to Hercynian Garden legend, the true sun is truth and peace represented by a raven, but that is hunted from time to time by the dogs of good and evil. Our worlds achieve balance for a time, but that balance can be disrupted by this heavenly phenomenon and greatly shape the way the next millennia will be. The use of the four elements to call this power to the Hercynian Garden is so old its roots are lost in the mists of time. We need a descendant from our world and a descendant of the Wolf-Ravens. We also need the love that those bonded to them generate. It would have been Mitzi’s brother, Ulf, but he was killed, and another, also dead. Now we need the four of you.”

  “We’re part of the magic ritual, too?” Juniper looked thrilled.

  “But that doesn’t answer Juniper’s question of why. Why the four of us?” I asked. “I can see Mitzi is your daughter, but who is Wolfrum’s daughter?”

  “I think it kind of does answer the question for me.” Juniper was excited. “Valerie’s mother told her a story when she was a child about their ancestors being warriors. Valerie and I met when I was doing an installation in Colorado on the reservation. She’s Native American.”

  “Wolfrum’s child can be any descendant, however distant,” Ehren said. “It’s probably magical that the four of you became friends. The wolf people, who were good, long ago came to what is now known as the United States. Valerie must be a descendant of one of them. The need to have spouses is the balance. Each soul has two parts, you and your wives complete each other. Time is short, however, and the risk of delay is great.”

  With another hug or two and my promise to “take care of his girl,” we took our bags and loaded up the Touareg.

  The ride back to the airport was quick, and the driver couldn’t speak to us because Elsa wasn’t with him and he apparently only spoke German. He handed us our tickets and left us standing with our bags. As soon as we got cell service, Juniper left a message for her wolf woman, letting her know we were on our way. To say our spirits were high is an understatement.

  “Hey. Only you got First Class,” I said to Juniper.

  “I didn’t make the reservations, love. See you in Merryville.” She waved her book at us and made her way to the line for First Class.

  “I don’t care. I’ve got you.” Mitzi hugged my arm and made kissy noises.

  I melted a bit. A woman behind me made a face. Ah, reality.

  We had more to look forward to when we returned home, but for now, our reunion was sweet and we had many hours in steerage to catch up.

  “Sure beats the dungeon,” she added.

  “I flew Business Class out here,” I said, smirking.

  She gave me a look. “It was miserable without you, truly.”

  “Poor baby. Maybe I should just fly us home.”

  “Yeah, Air Mitzi!” We laughed and got in the long, twisty line.

  BACK AT MERRYVILLE Police Station, the front desk took a telephone call from a man who said, “I need to remain anonymous because I’m scared. I’ve seen strange goings on in the backyard of that woman on Thistle Drive. Is there a Detective Potts there?”

  “He’s out in the field. Can I take a message?”

  “Yes, tell him to dig under the old oak tree in the backyard. That’s where you’ll find Mitzi Fowler.”

  The person taking the call rushed over to the desk sergeant. “What do you make of this?” He relayed the sensational tip.

  “It’s been in the news. Could be a crackpot, but call Potts and make a printout of the call.”

  By four in the afternoon, Potts had his warrant based on the anonymous tip, and a CSI team descended on the Fowler residence. Homeland Security confirmed someone used Mitzi Fowler’s passport, but they couldn’t be sure if it was her. All video from the airport showed a heavily shrouded woman being walked through the airport by another, older woman. Something very fishy about the whole thing. Either she was kidnapped or maybe she didn’t leave Merryville
at all.

  The police chief and Councilman Smithers were on hand for a press conference directly in front of the house.

  VALERIE WAS AT Babs’s house, and had checked over Henry, Babs’s father. He had emphysema and was having trouble with his oxygen. Once that crisis had passed, she was able to suggest a good hospice for him so that Babs wouldn’t have to keep paying a nurse at night. In the background, the local news blared. Henry had the TV on twenty-four-seven.

  “Now we’re going to a neighborhood in Merryville where we’re dealing with a real life mystery.” The camera zoomed in on a young woman with too blonde hair, who stood in the front yard of Mitzi and Panda’s house. “This is Wendy from Channel Five. In just a few moments, we’ll be hearing from the Merryville police chief about the stunning turn of events in this quiet neighborhood.”

  “That’s Panda’s house!” Babs exclaimed.

  Valerie reached for her cell phone and called her attorney. She knew from a text message that Juniper was still in the air and wouldn’t be landing for another couple hours. She opened her mouth to speak, but before she could say anything, she heard Alex say, “On it. If you hear from Juniper have her call me.” Click. Wow. Alex was good.

  Babs and Valerie sat down side by side on the couch. Babs turned up the volume with the remote.

  “Can you tape it, too?”

  Babs’s dad, Henry, turned up his hearing aid. “What’s going on?”

  Babs pressed Record. “Done.” Then she said to her dad, “My boss is in the news.” She looked excited. “Valerie, shall I get chips?”

  Henry said too loudly, “What for?”

  “They think she murdered somebody.”

  Valerie winced at hearing that word and prayed Alexandra Stephanovsky could set all this right.