The Jewel Thief

By J. L. Ender

Stolen again.

I’d recovered the jeweled pendant three times before, yet somehow the masked bandit always got ahold of it again. I got the call just before sundown and strode into the vault with beams of sunlight shining across the mahogany surfaces of the lobby behind me.

The detectives already on the scene shrugged. “No sign of him.”

“It was Waverly,” I said. The name of the masked bandit. The one thing we knew about him. He was the only thief in the city who could hide his tracks so flawlessly.

The massive door to the vault lay open. Millions in stacked bills lined the walls—untouched. An empty plinth stood in the middle of the room.

Growling in frustration, I laid a hand on my laser pistol, then removed it when a uniform stared at me. I tended to lose my temper when it came to Waverly. He’d evaded me too many times.

But not this time. My trap was sprung.

While I’d been hoping to catch him in the act, it would have to do.

“Today’s the day, gentlemen,” I said. “Bring in the witch.”

A tall, slender woman wearing a huge, floppy hat and a mess of colorful skirts strode into the room, carefully carrying a small, furiously bubbling cauldron in both hands. She set it down near the plinth and stared into its colorful fumes.

“Can you—”

“Shush!” she interrupted.

“But—”

“Buh-buh-buh,” she tutted, waggling one finger without looking at me. “He’s near the mountains of Tylon. Shall I send you there?”

“Yes.”

She dropped a ladle into the cauldron and scooped out some of the water. It glowed a greasy, yellow-green color.

“Take a sip. Not too much or you’ll turn into a pony.”

“I’ll what?”

She blushed. “I forgot to clean out the bowl after a bit of transmogrification.”

One of the junior detectives cleared his throat. “Shouldn’t you bring some backup?”

I shook my head. “No time. I’ll be fine.”

I couldn’t let Waverly get away. Feeling sick, I took the tiniest drink I could manage from the ladle. I blinked and found myself on a rambling mountain road. The dirt path wound toward the craggy heaps of a mountain range shaggy with immense evergreen trees. Two half-moons hung high in the sky, night having fallen.

I found a small camp not far up the road, half-hidden by grass and weeds as tall as a man. The masked bandit Waverly sat with his boots up to the fire, eating a shiny, red apple.

He wore the pendant around his neck.

“Reach for the sky,” I said.

The apple suddenly seemed like the most delicious fruit I’d ever seen. The only thing that could beat it would have been a carrot, or maybe a pail of oats.

What is wrong with me? I thought, suppressing a worried neigh.

The bandit stood. I held my hand out for the jewel. Instead, he took aim, pointing the gem at me. A beam of red light struck me in the chest, but seemed to have no effect. I fired, my laser blast striking the bandit in the shoulder.

He fell, clutching his shoulder. I held out my hand again for the pendant, and this time he ripped it from his neck and threw it at my feet.

“A magical amplifier,” I said. My voice didn’t sound quite right. I coughed. “Why waste a shot at me?”

“Thought I might have enough time,” the bandit replied, studying me carefully. “I was wrong.”

I bent to pick up the jewel, but my knees didn’t want to work quite right. They almost seemed to bend… backward. Adrenaline still pumping, I pushed the thought to the side and scooped up my prize. The apple was nearby, a little dirt sticking to the bite-marks. I grabbed it and took a bite from the unmarred side.

Reaching out with clumsy fingers, I pulled the bandit’s mask down, revealing…

“I have no idea who you are,” I muttered in disappointment. I’d been hoping to catch someone famous, like the mayor or maybe even a movie star. That would have made my career.

The bandit shrugged. A plain-featured, freckle-faced man in his early twenties, his most interesting feature had been his mask, which had been decorated to look like a skull when pulled up.

“No funny business now,” I said, digging clumsily for my handcuffs. My fingers felt thicker, no longer wanting to bend properly.

“You ok?” the bandit asked, glancing at me with a mix of awe and concern. “You sound like you might be a little horse.”

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

J.L. Ender‘s first published novel, Portal World, is available now. He has also released several short stories, including The Rocket Game and The Meek Shall Inherit. His new superhero series, Steel Fox Investigations, will begin January 2020. Ender has worked as a dishwasher, a beef jerky labeler, a warehouse worker, a shelf stocker, a greeter, a traveling technician, a laser engraver, a package handler, a copywriter, a graphic designer, a librarian, an editor, a dispatcher, and a phone operator. He lives in Ohio with his dog Bear.

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