An Ultra Violent Fairy Tale by Pete Bertino - HTML preview

27 AN ULTRA VIOLENT FAIRY TALE

He knew Eric would throw everything at that bitch to protect his brother, and wondered if he could use that somehow to his own advantage and get the wings. He had to get Glitterbelle’s wings no matter what. Paradine looked back over his shoulder at the door leading inside and felt his flesh tingle as he shuddered internally. The thought he might fail to get Glitterbelle and face The Lady again was still a possibility, but not as certain.

“What are you orders, Chief Marshal?”

“We go to Neon City, to the Crow’s Nest and wait. If Glitterbelle is like most fairies we wont have to wait very long for her to show up.”

The bigger problem was Eric Wheeler. Paradine knew he wouldn’t let soldiers of The Order come into his speakeasy to hunt for a fairy. A man like Eric traded in magic and technology and would definitely know the value of fairy wings and want them for himself. In a fight like that Eric would hold the advantage, especially if rumors about his having guns were true. Paradine could get hand cannons if absolutely necessary, their standard single, and triple shot crossbows wouldn’t do the trick in a gun fight.

Maybe an arraignment could be made, he knew Eric sometimes paid out lots of gold to Marshals and others in The Order to make sure his club, and many other places in Neon City kept operating despite the unlawful things taking place inside. If Eric wanted to keep his place from being destroyed by that crazy bitch he might be more open to his help and if he was only interested in the wings well, there were two wings and two of them. Paradine hoped Eric would be willing to share, if not well he had an army and a fleet of dragons that would turn everything to ashes if need be.

Neon City was a bustling city of a few thousand. It was a city built when the land here was in its infancy and was the first to have tall buildings made of glass. Because the land was forever dark, the original city builders lined their tall glass buildings with lights, bright colorful neon lights powered by gas that was being drilled in the city by drills hidden inside a few faux glass towers. Some skyscrapers blinking, some twinkling, others fading in and out quick and slow but forever burning.

The city sat in a valley of mountains so tall they always had snow at their tops, between the mountains that stood and the buildings between them were tracks for trains and autocarts that you could take in and out of the city but use to travel quickly throughout the metropolis as well.

Here was Detroit S. Dickie, who was named after the mythical Fairy Tale city that legend says the auto carriage and Techno music were born, he didn’t walk so much as glide down the sidewalk. He wore a dark suit, wing tips shoes, and a fedora with sharpest brim in the city. In his breast coat pocket was a teal silk handkerchief and on his face were a pair of glasses with a slightly teal tint to the lenses and pair of matching teal silk socks.