SHC vs. STAR, chapter 2
Viking Funeral.
Simon sits in his bedroom studying text and diagrams pertaining to some sort of spell. He thinks that, when executed properly, the spell will cast the nearby area into total darkness, but he isn’t sure. Nor is he certain as to what exactly constitutes the correct execution. I don’t know how Madorran does this shit, he thinks, running his fingers through his long black hair in frustration.
Someone bursts into the room. Simon is somewhat glad for an interruption.
“Simon!” shouts Madorran Kil with an air of emergency.
Simon wheels around on his desk chair, his umbrella in his lap, and pretends to have been tuning the mechanism and checking all the working parts, a tad embarrassed to be caught failing to penetrate the arcane symbols on his desk by a magician as skilled as Madorran.
“What? What is it?”
“We gotta go! Get your sword and come on!”
/Cut to Derrick’s parlor.
They stand over Derrick, who lies dead on the floor, single gunshot wound to the heart. On his chest are five iron tokens shaped like mullet stars, arranged in a pentagonal pattern.
“General…” Simon mutters. He bites his lip.
“Jesus… This is Derrick’s house.”
“I know,” Madorran utters solemnly, “It’s rather horrible.”
“Horrible? It’s flat out rude.”
Simon surveys the room. At least they had the decency to not wreck the place, he thinks. Then he notices the empty cola can on the floor. Snatching it up angrily, he crushes the can and growls.
“General, you’ve taken this too far.”
/Cut to Highway 40, south of Galler.
The entire Silver Heart Coalition is in attendance: Simon Black, Madorran Kil, Rosie Bloom, Baron Magnusson, Byrd Nimwise, Colin Rawke, and Garrol Smythe-Marrow. Derrick’s body is tied to the roof of Rocinante.
“Friends and comrades,” Simon speaks, standing on the hood of the car, arms dramatically outspread, “Today we mourn the loss of Derrick Magnusson. Friend, companion, brother-in-arms, brother-in-blood. He was the best damn roadwarrior since those movies with Mel Gibson, and the Silver Heart Coalition will sorely miss his skills, not to mention his companionship. But no one here, and I think even our dear Baron will agree, will miss him more than his greatest love, his bright and dear Rocinante.” He strokes the windshield of the car tenderly.
“I remember when she was once a broken, sway-backed shame. But Derrick built her back from the ground up into the invincible knightly steed that we all know and love - truly Rocinante, a nag no more! No one weeps for Derrick more than she.
“And so, given this fact, and Derrick’s heritage, I realized what ceremony would be most appropriate. Just as his Spear-Dane ancestors were seafarers, Derrick was a roadfarer, and Rocinante was his vessel. And so today we will send his body on its last journey, and release his spirit to whatever new road it is to fare, whatever new Game it is to play, in the hereafter.”
Simon gets into the car and starts it. He douses the back seat with a can of gasoline. With a cinder block in his lap and a torch in his hand, he puts the car into gear, lights the torch, throws it to the back seat, drops the cinder block on the gas pedal, and dives out of the car as it steams forward.
Simon gets up, dusts himself off and watches the car speed off into the Expanse.
“Good night, sweet prince, and flocks of angels sing thee to thy rest, as it were.”
Everyone bows their heads as the car is finally visible only as a bright burning dot in the distance, racing for the vanishing point. A distant explosion rumbles, and Simon calls for a moment of silence.
“Now,” says Simon, lifting his head with a devilish gleam in his eye.
“Something is rotten in the state of Denmark, as it were, and if Roe wants to play cheap, then we’ll just have to show him what happens to people who play cheap.”
He produces a rolled-up paper from his jacket and holds it out, letting gravity unroll it. It is a map of Galler. Two houses are marked with stars.
“Lead on, MacDuff,” Colin rasps through his spike-toothed grin, “As it were.”
Simon eyed Colin with a raised eyebrow.
“What?” Colin asks.
“That’s the wrong pl-that’s not even the correct qu-” Simon stops to collect himself. “Read a book, you jaundiced ninny!”
~-~
Just who exactly are these Silver Heart Coalition people? Why are those two houses marked? Why did General kill Derrick? Stay tuned as the story unfolds...