Part Two
Later, as the pair of rings and disassembled nyereg, or saddle—a cylinder of [brass] that Etelka had created to fill the space within the pair of rings so that they could be worn in a practical fashion by a human. One end had a raised ring attached and the other was threaded so its raised section could be screwed and unscrewed, allowing the two large rings to be removed.
Constable Pool sat writing in his notebook, now and then glancing up to look at the newly cleaned gold rings.
Where to begin…We or rather the Baroness has recovered the pair of rings, two of the five Miss Tagore and I recovered frigid Muskovy, from Madam Lenkova’s archeological dig-site [two] winters ago. Was it only two winters? It seems half a lifetime ago that I learned for the first time of the secret truths, hidden from the populace or buried in myths.
That tale is recorded elsewhere, however, I will paraphrase it here, in the event my previous journals are lost to posterity. It has happened before.
Years ago, I was charged with a mission of utmost secrecy by the late Countess P of Isenberg, and under the direction of Baroness Kekszemu (who I now accompany) with the object of traveling incognito under Special Assignment by the Crown, to journey into the territory of the Khanate of Muskovy where Crown spies had uncovered rumors of an archeology dig in the wilderness of Siberia. I was chosen in part because my own departed mother had her origins in the East and I could utter a few words in that language.
Once nearly there, the most unexpected event occurred and itself changed my life forever after. A strange woman, possessing the most unsettling demeanor and suspect morality, caught up with me having followed my route from Kekszemu Manor. Like the Baroness, the pursuant Miss Tagore, had similarly dyed blue hair, an unlikely coincidence—but just that—a coincidence. The most surprising detail regarding Miss Tagore, is that she had only days before, reasoned the control mechanisms of the Baroness’s Time Traveling device, and had come from three centuries in the future.
Miss Tagore and I grew acquainted and with my meticulous attention to detail and her penchant for wanton destruction, we achieved our goal. The site was found and the mysterious artifacts were captured from the Muskovite professor, Madam Lenkova.
Among the objects that were recovered were five rings, each possessed of strange, unnatural powers—It was Miss Tagore who unlocked the secrets of the rings—powers imbued within them by an ancient beast.
Now, many will tell the reader that the myth of the Tigers and Dragons is just that, a myth. They will tell you what the folktales told them, that in the Dark Ages Terra was invaded by powerful sorcery-using Tiger-Demons from Space, who then laid wast to civilizations the world over, until their reign so enraged Dragons, fearsomely described arose from the ground or sky or mountains depending on one’s local to destroy the dreaded Tiger-Demons. They are more properly termed Rakshasa, and it was with great disquiet that I learned that they were, in fact, real and that the myths were true in a very literal sense. I have seen both dead and living rakshasa and fled the terrifying onslaught of a very real dragon itself.
As for Miss Tagore, my dear friend and companion in many adventures, she possesses modifications to her body that function like the mechanical computational devices like inventors today create, though they exist at such a small scale as to make them indescribable in these pages, and it was with these modifications Miss Tagore learned to communicate with the secret commands of the rings, rings which had been created and worn by the alien Rakshasa sorcerers.
As I have mentioned [above] Miss Tagore was engaged in a battle with an Alderman of N’Aurelia, this abysmal cesspit of a city, high above on this very mooring mast. In her victory, the second of the nyerek fell into the fetid water along with Alderman Stolison’s detestable corpse.
Pool was considering describing his treatment at Stolison’s hands, but the memory of it after all this time was still traumatic for him. He was thankfully interrupted by Etelka’s return from the cabin where she had been chatting with the captain and crew of Baba Yaga’s Hut.
“Have you figured out which is which yet, Pool?”
Work in progress. Mistakes and misspellings are present. This is a very rough draft. Copyright 2021 Ion Fyr
#science fiction #fantasy #sci-fi #writing
Ion Fyr 