The Case of the Singing Sword (The Billibub Baddings Mysteries) by Morris Tee

Author:Morris, Tee [Morris, Tee]
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub, mobi
Publisher: ImagineThat! Studios
Published: 2012-03-08T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Nine

Any Friend of Lou’s...

The best after-dinner mint I could think of after my face-off with Capone was a long, hot shower. My clothes reeked of garlic, along with traces of pipe and cigar—not a sweet-smelling combo.

After a soothing moment under the warm water, I decided to make the shower cold to counter my adrenaline rush. Shivering under the bombardment of frigid droplets that bit into my skin like a swarm of flesh-gnats, I confronted the reality of what I had just stepped into.

Just what I needed: a good, old-fashioned slap in the face.

My fast-wrinkling fingertips passed across a trio of permanent welts starting at my lower back and abruptly stopping just short of—well, where a human’s kidney would be. The cold water was turning them a darker shade of pink, making them look a lot nastier that they were in truth. Still, on certain days—usually before a snowstorm—I still feel a tingle from them. I felt that same tingle now, the sensation taking me back to a battlefield and a thunderstorm with rain as cold as the stream I was standing under.

A few years before the big mission for the Nine Talismans, the Black Orcs had overrun a number of elf villages along the border realms, and we were called in to take them back. As far as the Elvish Intelligence (in all their infinite wisdom) reports went, the Black Orcs had not yet discovered the libraries in the villages of Aeryn’s Harbor, Chi-ya-Nah, and D’Hargoh Pointe. The Elders kept many of their more powerful spell books in these three villages, making them very strategic territories. Fortunately, what Black Orcs have in strength and ferocity, they lack in brains. In other words, we had time on our side.

Fighting orcs is a lot like facing off with Capone or Moran and their boys. You go in with a simple strategy: Hit these bastards with everything you got. We planned a full charge on these border villages, starting with Chi-ya-Nah because their libraries’ spell books would prove to be the most dangerous if read by the wrong set of peepers.

I was fighting alongside this human by the name of Kev, a swordsman with whom I had two big things in common: We both enjoyed an evenly matched fight on the battlefield and a passion for our favorite weapons. Kev took his broadsword technique seriously, often needling me with his remarks that a battle-axe was best used for chopping wood. (I always fired back that broadswords made for great back-scratchers.)

So, we made a bet before this great push: Whoever killed the most orcs would buy the drinks afterwards. We kept score during the fighting, and Kev could not help but be impressed by my numbers. I’ll admit I was having a particularly good day. My battle-axe was cutting down orcs like wheat at harvest time.

We remained neck-and-neck through most of the battle, the rain showing no sign of letting up. The bad weather was actually driving us harder, I think. By now, I had taken down my twentieth orc, and was really getting into the love of the kill.

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