The Magorn Tunnel

By Rob Summers

What with doing the laundry and preparing for her son Danny’s fourth birthday, does innkeeper and young mother Julie Himmel have time to deal with arch-villain Blackroot? Then the drop-in guests start to arrive at the inn: Magi, good fairies, evil fairies, English royalty, her husband Bob’s aunt and uncle. Looks like it’s going to be another one of those days.
This, the last book of the Wizards’ Inn series, will make clearer than ever that saving the world does not require one’s full-time attention.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Rob Summers
• Release date: Nov 1, 2020
• ISBN: 9780463180099

Rob Summers

The author of the Jeremiah Burroughs for the 21st Century Reader series (and many novels) is retired, having been an administrative assistant at a university. He lives with his wife on six wooded acres in rural Indiana. After discovering, while in his thirties, that writing novels is even more fulfilling than reading them, he began to create worlds and people on paper. His Mage powers include finding morel mushrooms and making up limericks in his head. Feel free to email him at [e-mail]

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The Magorn Tunnel

Book 6 of the Wizards’ Inn Series

By Rob Summers

Copyright 2020 by Rob Summers

All rights reserved

Smashwords Edition

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

No actual persons are represented in this book.

To my nieceling Isabel

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Chapter 1: Cooperate With Kidnappers

Chapter 2: Communicate With the Dead

Chapter 3: Support a Traitor

Chapter 4: Swim Without a Lifeguard

Chapter 5: Drop Everything for Sightseeing

Chapter 6: Sup With the Devil

Chapter 7: Take Your Eyes Off the Road

Chapter 8: Coddle a Murderer

Chapter 9: Mock Your Guests

Chapter 10: Gloss Over Your Crime

Other Titles by Rob Summers

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Chapter 1 Cooperate With Kidnappers

Oh, better far to live and die

Under the brave black flag I fly,

Than play a sanctimonious part,

With a pirate head and a pirate heart.

—W.S. Gilbert

Himmels’ residence.

Having answered the ancient, rotary-dial phone, Ellen Manke lowered her thin frame into a living room armchair, brushed aside her long brown hair, and listened intently.

Excuse me, but Danny’s at your house? she said, alarmed that the boy, just turning four this day, was not in the front yard where she had last seen him. How did he get there? Is he all right? She turned her head from the receiver and yelled for Julie Himmel, the boy’s mother. We’ll be right over, she said to the caller. What’s your address? She struggled to find a piece of paper and a pen. Oh, you’re Bob’s uncle! But you must be a mile away! How did Danny?…a half mile then.

She turned from the receiver and yelled for Julie again, with extra emphasis. That Danny would be with Bob Himmel’s uncle was scary, for from what she had heard, Dave was a hard, mean man. He didn’t sound angry at the moment, but…

"Me? I’m Ellen, an assistant innkeeper. Oh, but we don’t answer the phone saying it’s Wizards’ Inn because our guests don’t ever call. I’d find that hard to explain to you, Mr. Bernard. Right, no web page either. Yes, I’m from Mercury. No, I don’t live in town anymore—my parents do. I live here at the inn in the new addition. What? Is it paid for? Well, that’s not something that I…that I…"

She knew the addition was only mostly paid for, but that was hardly any business of Dave Bernard’s. She also declined indignantly to answer his next question—how much she was paid.

All she got was room and board, but that made a kind of sense because innkeepers Bob and Julie Himmel were paid nothing by their guests, which lately had been an assortment of Magi staying overnight, one permanent Mage resident, and (until later this morning) a fairy. Even unpaid, she had been relieved to have the inn to escape to since her relationship with her parents had gone bad, and then worse. And then worse.

Ellen’s parents had expected that long before now she would have landed either a husband or a classy job or both. But she had foolishly dynamited her engagement to Stan Morrison and in her late twenties still had only a part-time paying job—at the same Quali-Mart where Bob Himmel was an assistant manager (for he had kindly hired her). For work shifts she drove several miles to little Mercury, Indiana, which was many miles from anywhere at all.

Before becoming an assistant here, she had been completely rejecting of whatever devilry (as she had thought it) the Himmels were up to, but she had been won over. She had learned to like the human wizards and the assorted non-humans and did her best to serve them well. And the job was far from dull. Something rather wild was happening nearly every day, and though she often objected to the irregular and unsafe magical doings, she had found herself gradually objecting less stoutly and less often. Also, she was learning, as do all innkeepers of Magi inns, the fabulously old language called Kreenspam, spoken by all Magi.

All in all, it was not too bad really.

But she paid a price in reputation for getting chummy with Bob and Julie, who were known throughout Rayburn County, Indiana, for keeping this bizarre inn, the site of weird happenings. Everyone gossiped about them. Ellen’s parents believed the young couple to be involved with a spooky religious cult. After Ellen had moved into the inn, mom and dad had waited for her to come to her senses, had waited what they had considered to be far more than a reasonable amount of time, and then—as a last and desperate attempt to influence her—had cut her off without a phone call, a dime, or an email. They had arranged with the post office to forward her mail. These days they did not even invite her over for holidays. That should have brought her around, except that she found it so much more comfortable to accept their ostracism and so avoid their questions and reproaches. Until she was cut off from them, she had never known how peaceful she could feel inside.

Mr. Bernard was saying to her on the phone that she ought to leave the inn because Bob and Julie were known to be cozy with the mafia.

We’ll come get Danny right away, she interrupted breathlessly. No really, you’ll bring him here? Julie! Oh, there you are.

Julie Himmel had come into the room. She was short, chubby, pleasant looking, and in her mid-twenties, wearing a flannel shirt against the cool of October. She looked calm and cheerful despite Ellen’s tone of near panic.

Julie, it’s about Danny. You better sit down before I say it.

Don’t tell me. He’s scampered over to Dave and Marci’s and got himself captured, right?

While Ellen looked her amazement, Julie took the receiver from her. "Hi, Uncle Dave. I think you should either keep Danny and raise him, or if you have to, bring him here and I guess we’ll take him back. OK. Tell that little varmint to be good. She hung up. You look perplexed, Ellen. I guess you missed the other two times this has happened, maybe when you were on shifts at the Quali-mart. A few weeks ago Danny roved over there, and they collared him and brought him back. Anyhow, Dave is… Wait a minute, I think the apple pickers just arrived."

They went to the back door and saw a van stopping in the gravel driveway. It was full of teens and twenty-somethings, most of whom Ellen knew as fellow employees at the Quali-Mart, some wearing their red Quali-Mart caps. They were here to make a little extra money by harvesting the apples from Wizards’ Orchard, a small but lucrative side business of the Himmels. Bob, tall and blonde, came from around the side of the house, greeting them cheerfully.

Parked near the driveway were, not only the Himmels’ two vehicles and Ellen’s own coupe, but also the little gray Scion that belonged to her ex-fiancé Stan Morrison, the other assistant innkeeper here. After receiving an unexpected inheritance, Stan had been away most of last year, using the windfall to complete his Bible College training for ministry. Now graduated, he was coming to the inn almost every day to help out, while applying for pastoral positions. Ellen also saw him at the Quali-Mart when their shifts happened to overlap. She was pleased to be seeing him so often, for without quite saying it to him, she was trying to make it clear that she would like to revive their engagement.

Just lately she had been much encouraged in her hopes because her competition, a younger and prettier girl, was about to leave on a long trip. Light Mage Deirdre Bernard, the daughter of the Dave Bernard who had just called, had the inside track with Stan, but not anymore if all would go well.

Stan had arrived before breakfast, and he, she, and Bob had pulled a small freezer out of the hatchback of his car and lugged it upstairs to put in one of the bedrooms. This was just one of the odd accommodations required for this kind of inn. If a guest wanted to nap in a freezer and, as was the case, Bob and Julie had no room in the freezer compartment of their refrigerator, then they did their best anyway. This second-hand box had come amazingly cheap in a yard sale that Stan had visited yesterday.

As the apple pickers got out of the van, laughing and happy in the autumn sunshine, Julie put a hand on Ellen’s shoulder. I need to be here for when Uncle Dave brings Danny, she said, but I was about to go upstairs and check on our guests. Would you do that for me? With everyone moving in and out, they’ll have some needs. Don’t let Miss Crow and Deirdre get away without our goodbyes.

When Ellen reached the second floor hallway, she paused just to the left of the stair she had ascended. She had noticed to her dismay a foot-wide hole broken into the interior of the wall. A great deal of plaster and broken pieces of laths was spilled on the floor beneath, making a mess that she would have to clean up. She suspected that the Juggling Mage Mr. Gamboni had had an accident. Well, he should have cleaned up after himself! She had no patience or sympathy with people who did not take responsibility. In contrast, the Himmels always took such things cheerfully. In a Magi inn, they had told her, something was always getting broken, scorched, lit up, or made invisible, and you just had to find the fun in it. Sometimes she did find fun in it, but this was just too much!

Pursing her lips with anger, she knocked at Mr. Malory’s half open door and put her head in. The elderly man, dressed in an old fashioned suit and tie, was seated on the made bed and looking into an open cardboard box.

Ah, good morning, he said in answer to her greeting. I have presents here for the boy’s birthday, and I brought things for his little sister too so she won’t feel left out. Do you think they’ll like them? And forgive me, but is this the right day?

Stepping closer, she saw that the box contained children’s clothing from the 1940’s, even including shoes and hats. Danny would be dressed like a little Jackie Cooper and Ella like Shirley Temple. A Time Mage and former funeral parlor owner, Mr. Malory had a few years previously left his home in Philadelphia of the 1940’s to retire here. It appeared that he had recently slipped back in time to his own era in order to buy these things.

Because his time traveling ability was limited to the past and future of wherever he happened to be, he had not been able to travel directly from modern Indiana to 1943 Philadelphia; but by passing through a magic portal in the inn’s living room, he had arrived in a house in Philadelphia of 1863 and had time traveled forward from there. The house of 1863 stood on the same site that in 1943 was the site of his mortuary, the Malory Funeral Parlor.

He and Ellen knew he was not supposed to time travel anymore. The Himmels had kindly and firmly extracted his promise to refrain, for he might too easily grow disoriented and confused due to the mental slippage that had brought on his retirement. Even if his little excursion to the funeral parlor had not been all that dangerous, clearly it had been followed by a solitary downtown Philadelphia shopping trip that was.

She assured him that this was Danny’s birthday and that the kids would love their presents, while wondering what Bob and Julie would think about his outing.

He seemed to know from her facial expression what she was thinking

Dear Miss, uh…

Ellen, she supplied.

Yes, Miss Ellen, uh, Manke. I know I’ve made promises, but you see, I have no way to shop here without troubling Bob or someone else to drive me into Mercury. I was having a good day yesterday, and so I ventured to go to the parlor. I took the bus from there to Gimbel’s. A very limited use of my Time Mage power. Really quite safe.

He looked at her in hope that she would accept this. She did not.

"It’s just as unsafe as can be! Furthermore, traveling around Philadelphia by yourself, in any era, is not much better than if you were to take a whirl at disappearing into the Dark Ages, possibly never to be seen again. It’s the big city! I would have been glad to drive you to Mercury myself. Let this have been the last time, right? But anyway—do you know anything about what’s happened to the wall?"

Dear me, no. I heard it, of course, when someone was breaking it, but I thought it had something to do with installing the freezer. Since then I’ve seen that someone’s made a mess.

She soon left his room and, crossing the hall, looked into what overnight had been the room occupied by Mr. Gamboni, her prime suspect for the wall damage. She had made the bed and straightened up in here early this morning, so a glance at the room’s unchanged neatness told her that the Juggling Mage must have left the house just after breakfast. He would have passed through a magic portal in a field just west of the inn, one that took him to Africa. She would never have the chance to interrogate him about the wall.

As she continued in her round, from down the hall she heard loud exclamations and laughter and made out little Ella’s voice in the babble. She passed in front of the bathroom door to reach what for years had been Miss Crow’s room. The noble fairy lady was leaving this morning to attempt to return to the land of Faerie. Looking through the open door, Ellen found her in conversation with Light Mage Deirdre Bernard, who would travel with her. Miss Crow was robed in white, Deirdre dressed in ordinary clothing with her knees showing through her blue jeans.

It’ll be long enough, Deirdre was saying to the tall and ethereally beautiful fairy. I’ll just—oh, hello, Ellen. I was just reassuring Miss Crow that I can talk Queen Tanaquill into letting her back into Faerie. For sure, for sure.

I stole her crown, Miss Crow said sadly. She will think a thousand years little enough for the period of my banishment.

Ellen thought privately that ten thousand would be lenient for this nearly immortal lady, but did not say so. After all, Crow had not only stolen the crown of Faerie from its queen but had joined with the wicked King Nessan in armed opposition to Tanaquill’s rule. Anyway, just maybe Crow was overdoing the role of the sorrowful exile. The light haired noblewoman with glittering eyes was always composing sad songs and singing them while accompanying herself on her red lute. Either that or wandering nearby fields in the middle of the night and spooking passing motorists. But now really, what was so tragic about living here with humans?

Ellen chided herself inwardly for always wavering back and forth in her opinion of Crow. Why did she not settle on disapproving of her? Probably because she was in awe of her. From time to time she wanted to declare herself as the lady’s obedient servant, just as Stan had once done. Fairies are hard on one’s consistency.

I wish you success, she said to Crow with some enthusiasm. Deirdre, you’ll be back soon?

Deirdre turned her dark eyes to her. You know I’ve told you I’m out of here. If you see me within six months, you should be surprised.

Ellen barely suppressed a smile, for she wanted desperately to believe this. Yes, because it’ll take time to get permission for Miss Crow to approach the throne, you said, and more time to persuade the queen, and more to work out the details. The wheels turn slowly in royal courts.

Right, you got it.

But how’s Stan taking it?

Usually she did not like to make mention of anything acknowledging that, since Stan’s return from Bible college, he and Deirdre were dating again; but for the moment she saw this as an opportunity to probe into just how serious their relationship was. Perhaps chilling a bit?

He’s taking it pretty well. He understands that it’s partly just to get me away from our new Head Triumvir, who I love like poison. Tell her that for me.

Ellen, who was already tense in this conversation, tensed more. I certainly will not. Mrs. Henwood is doing the best she can with a new role. In a few more months we’ll all adapt to each other.

Fine, yes, Deirdre said smoothly. Who wouldn’t want to be on her anniversary celebration committee?

Ellen knew this was sarcasm. Deirdre and most of her fellow Magi were trying to avoid new leader Nan Henwood’s idea of what a proper celebration should be for the two-thousand year anniversary of the Orb Pendragon. (An orb was a group of wizards’ inns located in many times and places and connected by magic portals. The Magi of each orb were guided by a head triumvir and two other triumvirs.) This Orb’s Magi were busy with their real interests and had scant enthusiasm for a huge splashy party that would include at least two dull and lengthy speeches by their new leader. Nan had been often telling them they ought to celebrate and this had escalated into an or else. The majority of the Magi had replied that they preferred some homey little dinners here and there through the Orb. Nan had then made it a formal order.

Do you need anything? Ellen said to Crow.

Ellen had been talking through the open doorway, and Crow now beckoned to her to enter. I won’t be here for my godson’s party this evening, she said, but I have left things for him.

Ellen stepped in and was surprised to find, in the center of the bed and on Julie’s largest serving platter, a huge birthday cake in several layers. Beside it were boxes holding presents, but the cake was so fascinating that Ellen paid attention to it only.

Unlike any other cake she had ever seen, it was high on the sides and much lower in the middle, like a fort or castle. The icing was dark as night and sprinkled with star-like points of light that, though they must be reflecting, seemed almost to glow of themselves. She wondered if such sparkles were for show or could really be eaten.

How did you bake it? she said weakly. Even if you did the layers separately, the bottom layers are too wide to fit in Julie’s oven. Is it magic?

It’s magical, Crow said, looking at her with eyes of inhuman beauty. It’s a memory cake from my own memory. The presents too are magical. Only the cake is to be given to Danny immediately, and he will of course share it with the guests. If Deirdre is successful in my behalf and I reside again somewhere in Faerie, then his parents must give the presents to him year by year as he grows.

No offense, Ellen said, but what happens to someone who eats a piece of it? Crow stared at her coldly and did not answer. I’m sure the kids will be very grateful, she added while determining within herself not to sample this perilous wonder. Uh, Deirdre, are you leaving something for Danny too?

Dang, I forgot. Maybe I can have something delivered later from Faerie.

Deirdre looked not at all ashamed, which did not surprise Ellen. Before becoming a Mage and a Christian, this girl, now twenty-two, had been an alcoholic juvenile delinquent, the talk of Rayburn County. Even now she was no angel.

Ellen felt almost happy to learn of this most recent lapse of Stan’s girlfriend. A sort of contentment had been building in her all morning as she had learned of not only this latest fault of Deirdre’s but also Mr. Gamboni’s irresponsibility and Mr. Malory’s promise breaking—and had even pondered the ancient sins of Miss Crow. She did not quite tell herself that she was glorying in superiority over them all. Nevertheless, she was rather pleased. Sometimes she could not help it. She had hoped to leave behind such haughtiness long ago, but it was her besetting sin. Unfortunately, it was not a fault she could easily hide. She felt that everyone who knew her was aware of it. Perhaps it didn’t matter all that much? Didn’t everyone sacrifice a little humility in return for clarity of thought?

Julie says to, please, not slip out on your journey without saying goodby to her and Bob, she said to them. And again, if you need anything before you go, Miss Crow, just let us know. Oh, and do either of you know how the hole got in the wall?

Nope, said Deirdre. "Must have happened when I was out in the woods with Miss Crow, watching her create the cake. You don’t even want to know what it’s made of."

Ellen felt more sure that she would eat no cake.

The damage is disturbing, added Crow. I think that it was not the Mage guest Gamboni who caused it. If I weren’t leaving, I would investigate it thoroughly, and you may tell Bob and Julie that I said so.

Ellen agreed to this and crossed the hall again. This last of the four rooms on this floor had been Deirdre’s on nights when she was not staying in Victorian era Philadelphia. Now it was about to be occupied by another visitor, one who was not human. This room too was open and was the source of the hilarity she had heard before. Stepping inside, she found Stan holding little Ella on his hip, and standing beside them was another Mage, a young woman named Alice, who this morning would be moving into what had been Crow’s room. All three were laughing. Lying on the bed beside a few small pieces of packed luggage was the huge black dog Hades that belonged to Deirdre and would be staying with the Himmels while she was gone. He was almost laughing too, judging from his bright eyes and apparent grin. She guessed, at any rate, that he was able to laugh inside himself, for he was a Mage dog, which meant he had amazing intelligence.

The inn cat Scorcher wandered in with only the slightest contemptuous glance at Hades and rubbed against Ellen’s leg.

Again! two-year-old Ella demanded.

Watch this, Ellen, Stan said and beckoned to her to join them beside the little freezer that she had helped to bring up the stair that morning. A light on the front of it and the low hum of its motor confirmed that it was plugged in and operating.

As she came and stood by the others, Stan slowly lifted the lid of the freezer, gradually revealing a sight that, if Ellen had not been ready for it, would have been nightmarishly horrifying. Lying on his back at the bottom of the freezer was a man-like, dwarfish thing with leathery skin and huge ears and nose. His tiny body was out of proportion to his large head and long, big knuckled hands, and he was wearing hand-me-down clothing that had belonged to Danny. Ellen knew this creature to be hundreds of years old.

The Frost Gnome winked.

Ella burst into renewed laughter. Shut it, shut it!

Alice shut the lid.

Again!

Actually, maybe that’s enough, Stan suggested.

Ellen gathered that this had been going on for a long time. Ella liked to repeat some things endlessly.

Again!

I just wanted to ask if you need anything, Alice, Ellen said while diverting Ella by wiggling her fingers toward her stomach as if to tickle her.

Nothing, thank you, the lovely, blonde girl said in an English accent. I’ll settle into Miss Crow’s room after she takes out her luggage.

She was a Sleep Mage who was a native of medieval England and had since learned modern English. She wore a thick pullover sweater and blue jeans.

OK, and sorry you won’t get to have that place that’s always warm by the interior wall, Ellen said to her. She gestured toward a conjured area in the room, something a Mage guest had done long ago, but you did particularly request a south facing room.

Perhaps the Gnome and I will trade rooms on very cold nights, Miss Ellen. What about removing the anti-sleepwalking alarm?

Ellen looked to Stan. Blond and almost as fair skinned as Alice, he turned close-set eyes to her, looking at her over a long nose. I’ll have to go pretty soon because my dad wants me to help with his leaf raking, but later today or sometime I’ll remove it from the bed.

Still diverting Ella, now with playful tugs on her shoes, Ellen absorbed this with a frown of disapproval. Deirdre’s not taking it with her?

No, she says it’s a lot of trouble to lug along with her and that anyway she doesn’t sleepwalk much anymore.

Well, that’s wise! She’ll break her neck, Ellen said without thinking and then inwardly corrected herself. Always smugness and superiority. When would she get over it? She continued more calmly, I mean, what if she lights up while she’s asleep in an upper story somewhere and sleepwalks? So she floats out through an exterior wall, turns off her light while she’s still sleeping, and falls!

As a Light Mage, Deirdre could do that, passing through walls like a ghost. Before she had started using the device, built for her by another Mage, there had been some close calls.

Yeah, that’s what I said to her, Stan replied calmly.

Again! Ella squealed.

I better get her out of here, he continued while swinging the toddler this way and that, so the Frost Gnome can settle in.

Still unable to control her tongue, Ellen pressed the matter. What did Deirdre say about falls? She’s being careless and irresponsible.

Ya just gotta let Deirdre be Deirdre, Stan said as he carried Ella out the door and turned around to face Ellen. I’m a little worried, but hey, I’m more worried that she’s going into Faerie, which is a lot more dangerous than, well, than anywhere.

Letting the matter go, she remembered to ask about the wall damage, but Stan and Alice also knew nothing about it. Alice said that the kids had been playing in the hall that morning, so could they have done it?

When asked, Ella’s reply was as vivacious as it was incoherent.

Soon Stan had to go, and then Alice and Hades left the room and went downstairs.

While moving Deirdre’s scant luggage to the hallway so the gnome could finish moving in, Ellen fought not to blame Stan for his nonchalant attitude about the anti-sleepwalking device. She had to admit that he was right about Faerie being far more dangerous, for he had been there and knew. Though she had not been there, she had heard enough about it to know that a human would be better off playing with dynamite than to show up unexpectedly in ‘The Land.’

Yet against all common sense, she had more than once caught herself daydreaming of visiting there. What was that about? Didn’t she have enough dangers from being in this bizarre, heavily conjured inn every day? Was it just her awed admiration for Miss Crow that caused her to want to mix with the lady’s uncanny, unpredictable kin? And how would she ever get back to anything like a normal American life if she were to become enmeshed with the Good Folk, as some called the fairies? What nonsense. Fortunately, she was too bedrock sensible ever to go there.

After returning to the room for a slight straightening of the bedclothes (shooing the cat off the bed) and a quick dusting of the freezer (in which the gnome was now probably napping), she went downstairs and out to the backyard.

Bob and the apple pickers were not to be seen, so they must have gone to the orchard. Stan was driving off, waving goodby to her. Another vehicle had arrived, a gleaming BMW, and standing in the driveway beside it was a middle-aged man she had never met. This was presumably Bob’s Uncle Dave, for Danny was in his arms, his legs hanging down, looking alert, peaceful, and unrepentant.