The Demon Queen and The Locksmith by Spencer Baum

Author:Spencer Baum
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: urban fantasy, fantasy adventure, new mexico, ya fantasy, young adult fantasy, taos hum, fantasy suspense
Publisher: Spencer Baum

You Will Understand Everything When You Read It

Courtney Browne took her son, Kevin, to the library on Saturdays. It was on one of these Saturday outings that Courtney discovered her passion. While Kevin, only six at the time, looked through a stack of children’s fantasy books, Courtney opened a thick text that someone had left on a table: The Origin of Insect Societies by Peter Gerrard.

She had heard of Gerrard before, live in Turquoise for long enough and you’re bound to, but she had never paid him any attention. The first section she read gave evidence that termites were building complex, functional skyscrapers long before the first humans ever set foot on the earth. As she raced through the chapters, skimming information about the ruthlessness of an ant colony and the camaraderie of a beehive, she wondered how she had lived for so long, unaware of the amazing things happening under her feet.

That afternoon, Kevin left the library with a paperback titled Invasion of the Brain Sharpeners, and Courtney left with the text that became known in the Browne house as “Mom’s Big Bug Book.”

She stayed up all night to finish The Origin of Insect Societies, journaling her thoughts as she read. She spent the next morning in the backyard, looking at bugs.

A year after her first encounter with Gerrard’s text at the library, she published her first professional research article. It was about insects unique to Northern New Mexico, and was well-received in Etymology Review. She applied for and received a research grant to travel from Canada to Mexico and follow the migration of the Monarch Butterfly, just as Peter Gerrard had done in the 19th Century. Shortly after her notes from that trip were published, she received an offer to travel to England and meet eminent biologist Tristan Nelson III.

“I’m amazed at your work,” Nelson told her. “I have no doubt that had you started earlier, had you devoted your life to research as others have done, you would now be one of the greatest scientists of your generation.”

“That’s kind of you to say. Thank you, Dr. Nelson,” said Courtney.

Nelson wore beige and brown tweeds. His voice was soft and weak with age. They sat in his office at King’s College. It was nearing midnight on a Thursday. Only the cleaning staff joined them in the building.

“So many have attempted to follow Gerrard’s footsteps, but you captured the essence of what made his research so spectacular,” said Nelson. “It’s more than a passion for bugs that sets his work apart. It’s humility and awe at the accomplishments of the insect kingdom. That is what made Gerrard the greatest Etymologist of all time, and is why you are his legitimate heir.”

“His heir?” said Courtney. “What does that mean?”

Nelson unlocked a door at the back of his office, revealing a one-room library of antique books. Nelson ambled to the back of the library, motioning Courtney to follow him. He pointed at a metal safe on the bottom deck of a bookcase in the corner.

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