The Sigil Detective: a Riga Hayworth Short Mystery by Kirsten Weiss

Author:Kirsten Weiss [Kirsten Weiss]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: misterio press
Published: 2022-07-30T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 6

Riga sat at the top of the mound and stilled her mind. “I call on my guardians, here for my greatest and highest good. I call upon the Divine.” She saw white light cascade through her body, and her scalp tingled.

“Direct me to the sigil app.”

The pendulum hung, unmoving.

She sighed. When spell casting, you had to incant like you meant it. “Direct me,” she boomed. Her voice echoed across the darkened courtyard. A light flicked on inside a hut.

A warm, night breeze blew across the mound, and for a moment, she thought the pendulum wavered. Then, it stilled.

Frustrated, Riga rubbed her thumb against the crystal’s sharp point. Had the hard drive been destroyed for good, the app gone, rendering the pendulum useless? Or was the pendulum working, but she couldn’t connect with its magic?

Riga whisked her hand along the pendulum's chain, clearing the energy. “Where is Jeff's stolen hard drive?”

The pendulum didn't move. She wanted to cry. She couldn’t even do basic—

The crystal trembled, and she held her breath. Heat flowed up her arm. The pendulum swung in widening arcs, north to south.

She clambered to her feet and moved north. An unpleasant, itchy feeling pinged her solar plexus, tugging her backward.

Riga turned south, and the feeling evaporated. She continued in a straight line until she faced the wall of the three-story pub. Riga walked around it. The pendulum reoriented, leading her past the pub.

She moved behind the cluster of longboat-style buildings, past smaller, less decorative wooden huts. The pendulum swung toward a wooded area of towering redwoods. Riga walked into the dark woods.

An acrid scent thickened the air. The pendulum stopped dead.

Riga stopped, listening hard. Pulling a flashlight from her satchel, she scanned the leaf-strewn ground with its amber beam.

No hard drive.

Riga pocketed the light and whisked her hand along the pendulum's chain. “Show me where Jeff's stolen hard drive is. Please,” she added.

The acrid smell thickened.

The pendulum bounced twice, then resumed swinging, pointing deeper into the massive trees. Riga followed its motion. Her eyes burned the deeper she went into the small forest. Smoke scalded her throat. The smell was chemical. Choking.

Pulse hammering, she stopped and untied the scarf from the strap of her leather satchel. Riga made a bandana of it, covering her nose and mouth.

The pendulum led her to a clearing. A bonfire burned inside it, flames crackling and snapping around the remains of a hard drive.

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