Jack made sure the bolt was thrown on the door. He didn’t want anyone coming in
while he was working. Doctor Strange’s looks were a little on the squamous side.
And the tentacles could be a bit too much.
He called on the Doctor, asking for a diagnosis. Once he knew what was wrong, he
could think about how to fix it. He had an idea alchemy was involved in some way.
Montrose seemed to love it for the ease of use and criminal potions that could be
brewed.
The screens confirmed poison through the Lord’s body. It was a minor miracle he
hadn’t died. A counter started brewing inside the Doctor when he was sure that was
what he had to deal with to put a hamper in the Lady’s plans.
Jack injected the antidote and watched the screens. The poison cleared away slowly
as the cure worked its way through the victim’s body. A few days of rest, and then he
would have to work to get back in shape.
He couldn’t do anything to help that. He had to check on the boy, and see if he was
suffering the same thing. If he was, then he needed the cure and he would have to
rehabilitate himself like his father.
It looked like the maid would get her chance to move into the Ladyship if she played
her cards right. A lot depended on if the Lord would be grateful to someone nursing
him through his months of weakness.
He might send her away so he didn’t have to be reminded his wife poisoned him so
she could take over his estate and sell human beings to others.
Jack decided that what the Lord tried to do next was out of his hands. Once he had
mitigated the damage on the son, he would be done helping the family other than
what he and Josie were already doing. Lady Endwright was probably not going to
make it back to the household the way Josie was looking.
He found the maid in the room he had left her in. She stood by the door when he
cracked it open. She wore worry on her face.
“I need to work on the boy,” said Jack. “Lord Endwright is sleeping. When he wakes
up, he is going to need to be exercised and checked for sores. Then someone is going
to have to make sure he tries to walk three steps a day until he can. Do you
understand?”
“What kind of food should I get for him?,” asked the maid.
“Start with soup,” said Jack. “When he gets stronger, you can start adding bits of meat
and vegetables. Do not get him any elixirs, or other alchemical solutions, no matter
how hard he howls. It will set him back and kill him.”
“No elixirs, or potions?,” asked the maid.
“None,” said Jack. “If you want to check on the Lord and then get the staff together,
that would be good. I will be happy to repeat my instructions.”
“Thank you,” said the maid. “I don’t think anyone would believe you said anything
to me.”
“He’s sleeping, but you should be able to check on him,” said Jack. “Get everyone in
the dining room. Hopefully, no one is dead in there.”
“Thank you,” said the maid. “What was wrong with Milord?”
“Potions and elixirs,” said Jack. He waved her to get on with things before walking
to where the son slept in a coma.
Jack used his Doctor Strange persona on the boy after making sure the door was
locked. Having too many tentacles and eyes was not going to be good for anyone
casually looking in on what he was doing.
The boy was nearly dead, so he had to alter the cure to boost him to a better baseline
before he could start curing the rest of the damage. In a few months, he should be
working on walking again.
Flushing the poison out pushed the kid out of his coma and in a more normal sleep.
Someone had been taking care of him so he wouldn’t starve in his sleep. That
someone was probably the maid who had tried to protect the lord from him.
He decided to see if the staff had been gathered. Once he had said his peace, he could
pick up Josie and the Lady Endwright and talk about what they wanted to do next.
One thing about the uncertain future, Lady Endwright was not going to be facing it
for much longer.
Jack stepped over the sliced and shot traffickers on his way to the dining hall. He
wondered how Josie had managed modern bullets in a medieval world. He could ask
when he was done with this bit of things.
Hopefully he wouldn’t have to call on Blade and show these people how he really
went about his business.
No more than he already had anyway.
Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.
He walked into the massive room. People in livery clustered around the table. He
could tell he wasn’t what they expected. That was okay.
“Please be seated,” said Jack. He waved at the table. “This won’t take long.”
The staff looked at him before taking their places. They all wanted to say something,
but some of them had already seen him in action as Blade. No one wanted to have
something chopped off by a madman.
None of them had the makeover. That put them off the list of people that needed to
be killed in his opinion. They could always put themselves back on the list at a later
date.
“How’s it going?,” asked Jack. “My name is Jack. How many of you are loyal to Lady
Endwright?”
None of the staff admitted to anything that could get them killed.
“So all of you are loyal to Lord Endwright?,” asked Jack.
“He was fine until he got married,” said the maid. “Then he got sick, and has been
sleeping everything away while that woman tried to ruin his fortune.”
“The younger Endwright got sick too,” said one of the younger butlers. “They both
wound up in bed.”
“All right,” said Jack. “They were both poisoned.”
He saw that was an idea that had been discussed among the staff members.
“All right, I gave them a cure,” said Jack. “They will be weak for the next few
months. They are going to need to be nursed, and exercised. Potions and elixirs
should not be given to them. It will put them back in bed and probably kill them. Now
if they die, and I come back through here, heads will roll. Am I understood?”
He looked at the staff. They all looked back at him in various states of anger.
Obviously, he had hit a nerve.
“Now, who is the cook here?,” said Jack. Two women in blood spattered aprons
raised their hands. “All right. The Endwrights are going to need liquid food until they
are strong enough to eat real food. Soup will be the order of the day. After a while,
you can put in tiny amounts of meat and vegetables until they can handle real food.
Butlers, and groundspeople?”
“I’m Marl, the head butler,” said an older man in a suit marked with the Endwright
crest. “This is Casp, the master’s valet, and Ord, the son’s valet. The man over there
is Kirn, who is the head groundskeeper.”
“Both Lord Endwright and his son are going to need to be exercised and taken outside
to do things,” said Jack. “You four are going to have to get them into chairs and work
on getting their muscles back into shape. Same time every day would be ideal, but I
understand if you can’t do that.”
“What about Lady Endwright?,” asked the maid. Anything they did could be
overturned by the wife at any moment.
“What about her?,” asked Jack.
“When she comes back, she won’t allow us to help Lord Endwright,” said the maid.
She looked at her fellow employees. They all made gestures of support. “None of us
know how to fight to protect Lord Endwright.”
“Lady Endwright is not coming back,” said Jack. “She threw her lot in with a bunch
of human monsters, and she is going to pay a heavy price for that. There is no doubt
in my mind that she poisoned her husband and son for control of the estate. I would
apprize Lord Endwright that he has been sleeping under her care and he might need
to check how much money he actually has. Are there any other questions?”
“Lady Endwright’s cronies?,” asked Marl. “They do visit her when they can.”
“Tell them that Lady Endwright is dead, and they will be too,” said Jack. “If you
know their names and where they live, that might be something you should write
down for me to hand to my partner.”
“Will she kill them too?,” asked one of the cooks.
“Eventually,” said Jack. He watched Marl and Kirn talk and write about names they
were putting on the list. Marl had actual names while Kirn had estates. He glanced
over their shoulders. “You can mark Corle off. I killed him up north.”
“Chopped him to pieces, sir?,” asked Kirn. He waved at the house around them.
“I threw him off a great height,” said Jack. “He was trying to summon a monster to
invade the city. He could not be allowed to do that.”
Jack thought that was factually true since he didn’t want to get into Gravity and the
power the persona gave him. And it looked like Corle was going up to try to get the
Dark Rider to start down the trail.
There was no telling how much damage would have been done if the vengeful ghost
had actually made it to the gates of Hawk Ridge.
Taking the both of them out was a necessity and required under the quest list and Jack
didn’t feel bad about that at all.
“I think these are all the people that Milady Endwright dealt with since taking over
the Lord’s estate,” said Marl. He handed Jack the paper.
“All right,” said Jack. “I’m going to talk to my partner. She might be able to clean this
mess up for you. I expect one of you will have to keep an eye on the Endwrights until
they wake up, and then you guys will have to keep a lookout for anything that needs
to be nipped in the bud. Naturally anybody with markings like Lady Endwright
should be sent away and told they are marked for death just like her.”
“What do you want for this?,” asked Marl. As a senior, and in charge of the house for
the nobility, he was used to bargaining for things.
“I don’t want anything,” said Jack. “I have a job to do, and this is part of that. When
the threat is over, I’ll be gone and you will be back to doing things on your own. Just
look after each other, and the rest will work out.”
“We will do our best,” said Marl. He looked around at the staff. They all gave him
agreement.
“If you need something, send a messenger to the Silver Coin and leave a note with the
doorman,” said Jack. “They know me there.”
“All right,” said Marl. “I guess we should start cleaning up.”
“Just remember,” said Jack as he turned to leave. “You, all of you, are responsible
for whatever happens next.”
He left out the front door, looking for his partner. He had a list of names in his
clutches and a will to see what would happen if he and Josie paid them a visit before
they got out of town.
Blade had worked great in the house, but maybe he was too messy. He should try
someone who just left holes in his victims without leaving bodyparts everywhere. He
should ask Josie what she had been using.
He doubted the heroes he was familiar with that used beam attacks like Cyclops
would use the same attacks in their persona.
He found Josie alone with a notebook in her hands. She had it open to read the pages
with a finger to mark where she was. The frown was a cloud on her face.
“Ready to go?,” he asked.
“Yes,” said Josie. “The nobles?”
“Fixed,” asked Jack. “Could you clean up the place?”
“Really?,” Josie turned her squint of doom on him.
“Pulling out a tooth sometimes requires gum surgery,” said Jack.
“You’ll have to carry me back to the girls,” said Josie.
“Deal,” said Jack.