The Sun Spirit

By Robert Collins

Violetta is the cousin of the Lord of Crossroads. She has no interest in the usual pursuits of the nobility. She wants to be one of the Defenders and fight injustice.

However, Violetta has no ability to cast spells. What she does have is the ability to think, to reason, to lie, and to follow where the truth takes her. Twice before with Defenders she proved her skill and courage. She’s therefore sent to the Royal Academy of Magery to learn what the Defenders learn.

In these five novellas, Violetta travels the kingdom in search of cheaters, liars, and murderers. It’s not work for a Lady, but it is work for Violetta, the Sun Spirit.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Robert Collins
• Release date: May 1, 2018
• ISBN: 9780463740392

Robert Collins

Two people with different cultural backgrounds and ethnicities met at a European and Balkan music and dance ensemble named Koroyar and their lives became intertwined, combining their gifts to continue exploring life as an avenue of creative expression. Robert Collins has a Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology, and has been an educator in the Los Angeles area for thirty years. He studied writing with Joan Oppenheimer in San Diego, with Cork Millner privately, and also in the Santa Barbara Writer's Conferences. Elizabeth Herrera Sabido, at the age of sixteen years, began working as a secretary at the Secretaria de Industria y Comercio in Mexico City where she was born, then she was an educator for twenty-six years, and a teacher of international dance for The Los Angeles Unified School District. She has also studied Traditional Chinese Medicine, and is a Reiki Master Teacher. Attracted by the Unknown, the Forces of the Universe, and the human psyche, during their lives they have studied several different philosophies. Elizabeth has been involved with various religions, Asian studies, and Gnosticism with SamaelAun Weor, and Robert has explored spiritual healing practices in Mexico, and studied with Carlos Castaneda's Cleargreen and Tensegrity. Elizabeth and Robert start their day at four-thirty in the morning. They enjoy playing volleyball and tennis, and in the afternoons play music, alternating between seven different instruments each. Their philosophy of Personal Evolution has led them to explore over 110 countries between the two of them such as Japan, Nepal, Egypt, Bosnia- Herzegovina, the Philippines, Turkey,Russia, etc.

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INTRODUCTION

The subtitle of this work is A Defender Collection. You don’t have to have read any of the Defender stories to understand the events of these stories. However, you might be a bit confused about the world and the background of Violetta and the other characters if you haven’t, so you have been cautioned.

After finishing the last story in this volume, I thought I was going to write more stories of the Defenders and the Sun Spirit. Later I thought that the events of that last story were going to change the world in significant ways. That made me decide to rewrite the last few paragraphs.

For now, this puts an end to the Defender series. Perhaps one day I’ll return to that world. But for now, enjoy this last collection in this very long series.

At the end of this work you’ll find information on the series. If you like what you read, and you’re not already reading the series, please consider checking out all of the Defender stories. The first one is free as an ebook.

Robert Collins

Spring 2018

PULLING STRANDS

ONE

If you wish to follow the protocols of the nobility, you would address me as Lady Violetta. I am, after all, first cousin to Michael, the Lord of Crossroads. I’m not quite in the direct line, but I am the niece of the previous Lord.

If you wish for me not to glare at you as if you’d passed wind and pretended that it wasn’t you, call me by my name. I am Violetta, the red-haired cousin of Lord Michael who needed to be sent away.

I didn’t need to be sent away, to be honest. I had wanted to attend the Royal Academy of Magery for as long as I can remember. I had dreams that, when I became a woman, my talent for magic would appear. I would be escorted to the Academy and taught the ways of spellcasters. Once I graduated, I’d be allowed to make my own armor and mask. I would take my place as one of the Defenders, mages pledged to use magic for good.

You see, it goes back to my uncle. I don’t capitalize that, because he doesn’t deserve it. You’ve probably heard of him. He was born as Bertram, and when his father died he became the Lord of Crossroads. Most folk outside of Crossroads don’t remember his name. They know him by the name he gave himself: the Black Ghost. He was the most infamous criminal that lived. He was a thief, a killer, a cheater, and a schemer.

He was also a terrible husband. My aunt, Lady Giselle, was tricked into assisting in his escape, the first time he was caught by the original Defender and his wife, the Moon Spirit. He gave Giselle a potion, switched clothes with her, and that’s how he got out of jail. He used her feelings and worries to his advantage, then abandoned her. She knew nothing about managing a dukedom, much less ruling it, when he fled Crossroads.

Giselle made certain that Michael and I heard every story about the Black Ghost. She was hurt and betrayed by her husband. She didn’t want us to follow in his footsteps. Folk think the Black Ghost turned to crime because of some wicked influence, or because he cursed the Gods and they cursed back, or some other reason out of a grand tale. No, Bertram became the Black Ghost because he thought it was fun to be a Lord by day and an outlaw by night. He thought it amusing that he had to search for himself. He took pleasure in living well under the law and outside the law.

Michael and I were taught to be different. To respect others. To respect the law. To not think that the fortunate circumstances of our birth entitled us to behave like monsters. Most of all, we were taught to not let boredom lead us down any sort of dark path.

For Michael, those lessons from his mother made him into a kind and compassionate Lord. They had a different effect on me. I wasn’t likely to become the Lady of Crossroads. Michael would have had to die before his mother gave up her title, or die before he married. It was more than likely that I’d either marry the son of some local merchant, and live a dull life, or I’d be married off to the son of some Lord, and live a dull life.

You get the picture, I hope.

I decided on a third way. I was so caught up with the Defenders, not just the first one and the Moon Spirit, that I thought I needed to be ready for the day I was discovered. I studied crime and criminals. I put my mind to how I could catch them. I came up with ideas that might make it easier for me when I went to the Academy to become a Defender.

Of course, I couldn’t do all that reading and thinking and not leave the Lord’s Manor and try my hand at fighting crime. I wore down Michael until a crime happened that he was willing to let me work on. As it was, the new Defender in the city also investigated that crime. By then it was clear I wasn’t going to be able to cast spells. That still didn’t stop me.

Over the course of a few months I helped out in another case. That persuaded Michael and the Defender in Crossroads to recommend me to the Academy. I was allowed to move to Crown’s Hold. For the next two years I was under the instruction of S’Lora, who came to the Kingdom from the Witch Lands; Ginny, a poor woman who had become S’Lora’s lover; and David, who had been a student, but lost his place because a Lord got reckless and was replaced by the first Defender and the Moon Spirit.

Yes, they’re all interesting stories. Look them up, once you’ve finished with mine.

I had an idea or two of my own that I brought with me. Most of my time was spent learning what I’d been doing right, and more of what I’d been doing wrong. I learned how to ask the right questions. I learned how to make it appear I was asking the wrong questions when I was really asking the right ones. I learned to be persistent and to make decisions. I learned to pretend I was someone else. Aside from being able to cast spells, I learned everything I needed to become a Defender.

There was still the problem of magic. I could use magic. Anyone who learns the runes and can make their fingers move can use a flying wand or a listening stone. But I couldn’t create those enchantments on my own. I needed a mage to do that for me. While I could make my own leather armor and mask, I couldn’t cast spells on them to make them tougher than a stone wall. I couldn’t energize a Message Box that had a depleted powerstone. I couldn’t turn my red hair a more common shade in an instant.

What were they going to do with me?

While S’Lora and Ginny tossed my future back and forth, a message came from one of the Defenders. William lived in White Beach; he had since around the time I was born. I can name him because he’s better known as Master William, chairman of the White Beach Insurance Company. He ran it with his wife, Sophia. More about her in a moment.

His message was that he and Sophia had a concern about an insurance payout. Although he was a Defender, he was also head of the insurance company. He couldn’t leave his responsibilities to investigate, as the payout had been in another dukedom, Tallwoods. That place didn’t yet have a Defender, and even if there was one there, unless he was also with the company, it might raise an alarm if he checked into the matter.

If you couldn’t guess, when it’s known that a Defender is looking into something, that tends to cause any criminals involved to pack their travel sacks and race for the nearest road.

William’s message pleased S’Lora and Ginny. They could send me to him, and he could let me look into whatever was going on. I’d be away and able to prove myself, so that by the time I got back, they might know what to do with me.

As for me, I was more than happy to go. I hadn’t spent the whole two years studying. To learn, and to pass the time, I went through the reports of the deeds of the various Defenders. I made an effort to put them into coherent stories. My hope was that when other students arrived, they’d have an easier time than I did in figuring out what was worth paying attention to in those accounts and what wasn’t.

Since I wasn’t going in disguise, and probably wouldn’t have to fight anyone, I wasn’t given any armor, or a mask, or wands that created balls of fire or ice. I was given a new knife for my belt, a dagger to keep tied to one of my legs, and a flying wand. I left Crown’s Hold at sunrise, and landed just outside of White Beach an hour before sunset. I walked into town and directly to the home of William and Sophia.

I ate dinner with the two of them and their daughter, Lucy, who’s a few years younger than me. The dinner conversation was light as air. I talked about how I ended up at the Academy, and how my studies went. William talked about his days there. Lucy, it turns out, is interested in the news-paper trade, and that was discussed. Once dinner was over and the dishes and such cleaned, Lucy went to her room to study. I remained at the table with William and Sophia.

There isn’t much to say about William. He’s a nice man, several years younger than my parents, and not much to look at good or bad. Sophia, though, is quite different. Even though she’d had a child, and that child’s a teenager, she still has an attractive figure; round, but not at all fat. Then there are her eyes. They’re a shade of blue you can’t help but notice. Not the dull blue that most folks with blue eyes have. Sophia’s are halfway between that shade and the shade of the bright blue sky.

Her looks are remarkable, but so’s her reputation. She seduced, or was seduced by, a married man with a wife and children. He was so taken with her that he was willing to kill another man, burn down his own home, and make folk think he was dead to run off with her. I know there’s a suspicion that she wasn’t as innocent in the affair as she insists she was. Having met her, I have to say that I share those doubts.

That said, she is by no means an evil woman. There’s a woman somewhere in the Kingdom who is free, along with her husband, due to Sophia. It was she who all but ordered William not to bring them back. At the time, the woman was a girl, and was beaten constantly by her father. The husband was a homeless boy then, and he killed the bastard of a father, not out of love for the girl, but simply to keep her from being killed.

There’s the daughter of a local merchant, who’s now the wife of a merchant with a family. The daughter was kidnapped, and part of the ransom for her return was Sophia. Sophia was outraged that the kidnappers took advantage of the girl’s innocence to whisk her away, and at how little they seemed to think of women. She earned her freedom by helping William and the guards capture each of the kidnappers.

There’s also the creation of the White Beach Insurance Company. The idea for it came from Sophia, more as a way to catch a schemer than anything. But she saw the value in the idea as an actual business. Not only did she help get the schemer arrested and jailed, but she’s been part of the company ever since. She doesn’t suffer fools who deal with the company, but there’s not a widow, an orphan, or a common shopkeeper who has to beg her to get their benefit paid in full and on time.

All that said, it was William who started telling me why he’d asked for help. You know that we started out selling fire insurance, yes? he asked me.

I heard that, yes, I said.

Sophia thought would should create a new type of insurance: life insurance.

What’s that?

Fire insurance pays a benefit if you lose your home, shop, or trade due to fire, Sophia said. What happens if the man of the house or business dies, but not in a fire?

It goes to the wife or the children, I answered.

What are they to do for income?

That’s the idea of life insurance, William said. You buy a policy for yourself. You pay into it for a number of years. Your family will then get the benefit of the insurance if you die before you’re able to pass on your business.

I think I see, I told him. It’s a way to make certain your family will be cared for if you die younger than you should.

That’s right.

How long have you been offering life insurance?

About a year now.

What’s the problem?

The company has offices in the dukedoms around the region, Sophia said. We have to trust our representatives in those offices do right by us.

How?

I pay occasional visits. Knowing Sophia, I gathered that was a fair incentive to be honest.

Why do you need me?

There’s been a large payout at our office in Tallwoods. Fifteen gold, for a life insurance policy.

Fifteen gold? I sounded more stunned than I probably should have. Why so much?

The policy was on a Master Todd, William said, owner of the local sawmill.

That’s still a great deal of coins.

Sophia nodded. It is. That’s not the only questionable part of this matter. The next is that the contract was signed just two months ago. That itself isn’t worrying. Master Todd has had fire insurance since we sent Morris, our man there, to open the office in Tallwoods. But there’s the circumstances of the death.

Murder?

No, but it was odd. The report Morris sent us said that Master Todd died in a fall during a storm.

A fall? What sort of fall?

It seems that during the storm shingles broke off the roof of the house. Water was coming in, so Master Todd went outside to make repairs.

In a storm?

Water could have ruined the house, William said.

Sophia nodded. There’s that, and the fact that Master Todd owned a sawmill. Those men have to know carpentry to know how to find the right wood, how thin or thick to cut a board for a certain use, and so on. It wouldn’t have been odd for him to try to make repairs right away.

If it’s not odd, why are you suspicious?

The report informed us that Master Todd has a daughter about your age, by the name of Gabrielle. He also has a wife perhaps five years older than you, Felicia. The wife and the daughter share in the benefit payment. It was Felicia who was the witness to the contract.

Is there something wrong with that?

No. It’s important that the wife, or a child Lucy’s age or older, know what contracts the man of the house are signing.

What is wrong?

I can think of two potential ways for this to be a method of breaking the law, Sophia said, drawing out her words. One is that the daughter introduced a slightly older friend to her father, got them married, and that she and her step-mother conspired to kill Master Todd to collect the insurance payment. The other is that either the wife or the daughter conspired with someone else to kill Master Todd and collect the payment.

Both schemes made complete sense to me. I probably didn’t have to spend more than a day at the Academy to understand either one.

Why can’t one of you check into this? I asked.

I’m not just the chairman of the company, William replied. I’m the Defender. I can’t spend time looking into the matter and be away if I’m needed in either of my duties.

I thought about going myself, Sophia said. "The more I thought about doing that, the more I wondered if I’d be able to complete the investigation. If you couldn’t guess, folk find out when I appear in another city. If there is some effort to cheat the company at work here, those involved might flee the moment they learn I’m there.

"You might be wondering why we don’t ask Morris, our man in Tallwoods, to look into this. He’s a reliable man, Violetta. He’s worked for us for eleven years. He used to be a guard before we hired him. There wasn’t much on him then, and there hasn’t been much to add since he started working for us. I’m not sure he has the wits to look into this. Even if he did, he still might be too close to the folks there. He might not want to see whoever is trying to cheat us sent to jail.

It took me years to build connections to folk in White Beach. I had more to overcome than just about every man and woman in the Kingdom, but I made the effort. She took William’s hand. It was more for him than for me. She turned back to me. I’m smart enough to know that, if someone I have a real connection to is doing something wrong, I might not be objective. Since I can see that in me, I have to see it in others.

Like your man in Tallwoods?

Precisely. His report on the incident isn’t full of begging, or exaggeration. He might not be able to see that he, and us, are about to be cheated, because he thinks he knows the folk well enough to think they’d never do such a thing to him.

Sophia and I have talked about this over the last year or so, William said. We’ve wondered what we would do if someone tried to cheat the company on a life insurance policy.

You haven’t had that problem before?

William smiled. It’s a bigger risk with fire insurance. For one thing, you have to know how to set a fire that would damage your business, but not endanger anyone else’s. You burn down your neighbor’s shop, and not only do you not get the fire insurance payment, but you could be sued by your neighbor.

Whether they have insurance or not, Sophia added.

Life insurance is a different thing. We knew from the start there might be a temptation to do what Sophia’s suggested in this matter. We wondered if we could rely on our men to look into questionable claims, or if we needed someone who only investigated questionable claims.

That’s why I’m here, I said.

That’s it, Sophia said to me. Tomorrow you’ll go to Tallwoods. Talk to Morris first, then question the wife, the daughter, and anyone else connected to Master Todd. We need to know if we’re about to be cheated, or if we need to pay out the fifteen gold.

How long do I have?

We have to pay the amount within a month of the death being reported. Five days have already passed, so you have twenty-five days to figure this out.

What she didn’t say, what she didn’t need to say, was that I had twenty-five days to show that all the time and effort put into my education at the Academy, by me and by everyone else, was worth the investment.

Yes, I had trouble sleeping that night.

TWO

The next morning I flew from White Beach to the city and the dukedom of Tallwoods. One thing to say about flying: you appreciate how different each region and dukedom can be, because you see the changes from the air. Once you get used to seeing the land pass by you so fast, it’s usually beautiful to see.

On this particular flight the change was gradual. White Beach sits on the coast, near the bend in the coastline where it goes from being the southern coast to the eastern coast. The Woods River spills into the sea at White Beach. As a result of all this, the dukedom is partly a coastal plain and partly hilly, though the hills aren’t that tall or wide.

As you follow the river road, you reach taller and wider hills that have much more tree cover. The villages are carved out of forests, with farm fields as a buffer between the villagers and the wilderness. The hills get taller the farther north you go. The river ends in a little lake surrounded by wooded hills.

The city of Tallwoods is the first place you reach where fields aren’t between the buildings and nature. There are two sawmills along the river, with a row of important business buildings between them, including the Lord’s Manor and the guard barracks. Neighborhoods of homes sit at the north and south ends of the city. The business district sits in the center, mostly clustered along the river road and the next street to the east. East of that are where the two-story homes of the wealthier folk are located. Winding out of the city to the east and north are dirt roads going into the hills. Those roads lead to the lumber camps where trees are cut down and hauled into the city to make into the dukedom’s chief export, lumber.

I chose to fly high over the city, too high for folk on the ground to see me, to help me get my bearings. I landed on the river road a mile or so south of the city and walked it. The city would be in a lovely spot if it wasn’t for the fact that the hills closest to the city were stripped bare of trees.

I did notice plenty of saplings on one of those hills; I found out later that they’re part of an effort to regrow the forest so there are more trees to cut down. They’re doing that because, well, there’s not as much of a need for lumber as there used to be. In my time in Tallwoods, I learned a bit about the lumber trade. Most folk these days just need a few boards to fix old ones that rot or get damaged in rough weather, or they need shingles to patch holes in their roofs. Occasionally a house will burn down, and more lumber will be needed. Because of the need isn’t as great as it used to be, there aren’t as many sawmills in Tallwoods as there used to be. There’s two now, but I was told the city once had as many as five in operation. Traces of the others are completely gone; other businesses sit on that ground now.

Being a lumber town, I wasn’t surprised to see that every structure in Tallwoods was made of wood. Even the guards’ barracks, which in every other city is stone due to it also housing the jail, was here built of wood. Much of the wooden sides are whitewashed, but here and there are splashes of color. The city didn’t look like any other. The wooden structures give it the strange aura of being a city of houses. It’s an odd thing to say, I know. Most shopkeepers and tradesmen live above where they work, or have someone who works for them living there. But in other cities it appears as they’re living in shops. Here it felt more like they worked in their homes.

I was told that Morris worked out of the fire house in Tallwoods. Not surprisingly, the fire house was located right in the center of the city. It sat along the river road and the central east-west street. It faced an inn, sat across the river road from the Lord’s Manor and the barracks, and one neighbor was a bakery and the other a pawn shop.

I entered through the open wagon door. I found three men inside playing cards. I asked where I could find Morris. One, without looking up from his hand, waved towards a stairway in back of the fire wagon. The stairway let up to the second floor, where there was a wide room with cots and a smaller room with a closed door. I knocked on the closed door. A voice from inside the room told me to come in. I opened the door.

That’s when I got my first look at Morris. He was sitting behind a desk, looking at a parchment. What I could see of him was a round face, trimmed dark hair, and a trimmed mustache. He seemed to be a few years younger than my father would have been. He didn’t have a handsome face, but that was more due to age than anything else. In his younger days he must have appeared quite manly. What I could see of his arms and chest, concealed by his shirt, told me he probably still was quite the man.

He put down the parchment after I’d closed the door. Yes, young lady?

Are you Morris, the representative of the White Beach Insurance Company?

I am.

I reached into my cloak and handed over a folded piece of paper. Master William sent me.

Will? What for? He took the paper and unfolded it. He read it for a few moments, then dropped it and frowned at me. He’s not going to pay right away?

Not until he’s certain that no crime happened.

My word wasn’t good enough.

I gestured at the chair in front of his desk. May I?

Please.

I sat down across the desk from him. You have to admit that the circumstances, as you wrote in your report, seem unusual.

He shook his head. It’s not that unusual. Todd was a man who liked fixing things. He was a man who could fix things.

But to go out in a storm?

That house isn’t something he could allow to be seriously damaged by rain, young lady. He inherited it from his father, who inherited it from his father. That house has been in the family for a three or four generations, at least.

How bad was the storm?

Not terrible, as storms go. Wind and rain.

He didn’t want to wait until it passed to fix the roof?

Morris shrugged. I guess not. Not to sound patronizing, but you are familiar with storms, aren’t you?

I gave him a small smile. I am the cousin of the Lord of Crossroads, so be careful about that.

I was pleased that he smiled back. I beg your pardon.

Sure. I do know about storms. What is the point you wanted to make?

Storms can be random things. There can be a sudden burst of wind. The rain turns from heavy to a deluge in an instant. In any other storm, Todd wouldn’t have been in any danger. That particular storm caught him by surprise.

I see. Did he have the tools and such to repair the damage?

He does. Most of the men who work in both sawmills keep such things in their homes. His Lordship does, a few shopkeepers and tradesmen do, and we keep a few shingles, nails, and hammer in a box by the fire wagon. One of the benefits of living in a lumber dukedom, young lady.

Please, call me Violetta.

Certainly.

William told me the benefit would be paid to the wife and the daughter. How would the fifteen gold be split?

The normal way. Ten to Felicia, the wife, and the rest to the daughter, Gabrielle.

Has there been any trouble in the family?

No.