by Gabi Moore
She tossed her hair to one side and turned to look back at him. “No, it doesn’t look familiar at all.” Emily crinkled her nose and looked over at a perfume counter. Women in black were busy trying to attract the attention of shoppers who wandered by.
Dion was about to say something when he noticed a security guard wandering inside the building. This was not one of Karanzen’s usual goons, this man was different, and he had a look of steel attention to him. He scanned the store with intensity, as if he was searching for something. Even the uniform he wore wasn’t the same as the normal guards in the mall wore. This man was from some kind of outside contractor service. Where were the usual guards who gave him so much trouble?
Dion still had the censer with him. He was carrying it in a plain paper bag, which Hobbs used to place it inside. Hobbs didn’t care for designer bags our anything else with his logo on it. His feeling was that the reputation of his shop was all he needed to make it successful. Since he was the only person in the United States who could get you certain items, word of mouth propelled him along. Dion had been there one day when he was placing a selection of arrows away from prying eyes.
“Silver-tipped,” Hobbs told him. “Works against werewolves, but I’m only supposed to sell them to people in law enforcement.”
Dion checked the censer inside the bag and made sure it was still intact. The charcoal and incense packages were next to it along with the matches. If any elemental in this section tried to make a run at him, he had adequate protection. It all depended on how fast he could get the charcoal lit and the incense in the chamber. Some elementals communicated by smells; they would be able to detect the censer from the other side of the room.
“Did you notice the guard,” Sean said as he slipped up to him. “Something about that guy worries me. He doesn’t seem to be one of the usual ones Karanzen’s had around him. Does he work for the store?”
“Outside contractor,” Dion said. “Check out the uniform. Not the same one Karanzen’s men wear. Something odd about him.”
Dion closed his eyes and left the visible circle of time where the store sat. His body might remain there, but it allowed him to see things not visible at the level where he stood. He avoided any examination of the store and focused on the security guard who was just at the edge of their visual range. And then he knew exactly what they were up against. Before he returned to his body, he looked out into the floor of the store where the guard was located and saw two more security guards. They all had the same characteristics.
Dion opened his eyes and looked at his three companions around him. “They’re salamanders. The security guards in those new uniforms are fire salamanders.”
“A little big for a salamander,” Lilly snickered.
“Elemental salamanders come in all sizes,” Dion told them. “I think this store might be another trap. My uncle has diverted us here and he doesn’t want to let us out.”
“He can’t keep us in this place forever,” Sean said.
“He doesn’t have to. All he needs to do is keep me busy while he continues to cook up some scheme. This department store is part of his plan.”
The four of them moved to another section of the store, this one that also sold furniture, but of a different suite. They moved around older styles of cabinets and tables, still tracking the movement of the security guards. All of the new guards appeared to be related and wore the same grey uniform. The all had red hair and wore peaked caps. None of them was using their radios for communication.
“What do we do about them?” Emily asked. She was behind a large shelf and tried to get a glimpse of the new guards without giving away their position.
“I can bind them with the censer if they get too close. All I have to do is fire it up, drop in the incense and they’ll rush to it in their natural form. I’m hesitant to do it, though, because their natural form is a ball of fire. Imagine what would happen if you had fire balls shooting across the room.”
“A lot of wood around here,” Emily agreed. “They could set this place on fire.”
“Exactly. I don’t want that to happen. My uncle knows it too and it’s why he’s sent them. Plus they’re elementals and he has bought some kind of control over them.”
“I see an escalator,” Lilly said. “Why don’t we head for it and check out the lower level. If nothing else, it will force them to follow us.”
Dion agreed and the four of them went down the moving stairs. In a few minutes, they were at the bottom of the escalator and looked up to see three of the new security guards starring down at them. As they headed away, the four friends could see the security guards walking down the escalator steps to follow them.
“I swear their eyes were burning,” Lilly said.
“It wouldn’t surprise me,” was Dion’s response. “They are born of fire, so what do you expect?”
The second floor was dedicated to bathroom furnishings. Amongst the towels, bathtubs shower stalls, they meandered around it, trying to find a way out and to stay ahead of the guards. This was not the easiest thing to do since the guards seemed to slide around the displays on the floor. Dion realized after a while they were slowly boxing them in with their technique. They didn’t want to catch them so much as to force the group to remain on the floor with no hope of escape.
This became evident when the number of security guards increased to eight.
Dion had led them to a display of a traditional bathroom where the shower was separate from the tub. The towels were all neatly folded in some free standing cabinets and the paint on the fixtures smelled fresh from the factory. This was a display some visual expert created with a great amount of love and devotion. It was also big enough for them to take refuge from the security guards.
Dion stepped behind the rear of it and looked out at the floor behind him to see four more guards at the line of the wall that had them under close observation. The guards did their best not to appear interested in the part of the floor where they stood, but Dion knew otherwise. He also understood they’d count them off. There would be no way they could exit the floor without encountering one of the elemental guards.
“We’re trapped,” he said as he returned to the display where his friends waited. “The entire place is surrounded by these new guards.” He sat the bag down he’d carried around on the toilet and looked at the censer inside. “I just might have to light this thing to get rid of them.”
“Are you sure that is such a good idea?” Lilly asked. “Didn’t you say they might revert to their original forms and set the place on fire?”
“It might be the only thing we can do. I’ll see about bringing them closer. If they are standing about five feet from me, when I fire up the censer it might be safe to use it.”
“And then we’d be surrounded by eight fireballs,” Sean said. “Not really a good option.”
Dion rubbed his head and looked around the corner at the guards on the wall. Still there and not moving. The guards had them surrounded. “I’m not sure we have any options left. They don’t appear to move and I don’t know what will happen if we make a run for it.”
As Dion sat there and tried to come up with a plan, the light around them began to fade. Soon it was absorbed by the darkness, which enveloped them, and there was nothing that could be seen. This had happened before, so Dion wasn’t afraid. Soon, the light returned and increased in intensity so they could see where they where.
They were in a library. It was not part of the mall and a fire blazed in the fireplace behind them. Outside, it was snowing and the drifts where high in the moonlit night. Dion looked around and saw the same big stuffed chairs, paints and books as before. He knew where they were before the door to the room opened.
Chapter 10
Once again, the door opened to reveal Edward in a smoking jacket with a glass of something in one hand. He shut the door behind him and waltzed in without a care in the world. He looked at them and sighed. It was plain to Dion he didn’t care much for visitors and
only brought them here when it was an absolute necessity. He seated himself on of the stuffed chairs and motioned for them to sit down in the others.
“Welcome again,” Edward said. “You were trapped in that store and I am forced to break protocol and intervene again. The last time got me in a lot of trouble; I suppose my superiors will be furious at me for doing the right thing for the wrong reasons once more. However, I wasn’t about to allow you to be stranded in that hideous store forever. Trust me, you weren’t going anywhere. Those fire salamanders have long lifespans and would’ve guarded you for three lifetimes if so ordered.”
“We owe you our thanks, Edward,” Dion said. “I get the feeling it will be our last meeting.”
“You are most correct on that observation. I have used all my allotments up and then some to bring you here. But, to the subject matter. You were in a store, which didn’t have any exit you could have located. The shoppers were from a time similar to yours, but not exactly the same as your mall. The shoppers knew how to get around inside it, even if you didn’t. Your uncle played unfair by confusing you with the passage redirect. I have just showed him there are people who can play even worse. I will send you back to the fireside of the mall where you stood before you decided to pick up the censer.”
“What you need to understand,” he continued, “is that each of these elementals has a particular stone which attracts them. The gemstone, which appeals most to the salamanders, is a fire opal, as I have said. I’m going to send you back close to a jewelry store where you can get what you need to counter anything they try to do without causing a bonfire. Just be careful because opals crack if you drop them and a broken gemstone will have no functionality.”
“Got it,” Dion said.
“Thanks for your help, Edward,” Lilly said to him. She got up, walked over to Edward’s chair and gave him a kiss on the cheek. He tried hard not to blush.
“Be gone, my lions!” he said and they vanished.
The light resumed around Dion and company to reveal themselves back in the mall. They were in another store. Not the big department store from where there was no escape, but another one. This was a small store in the main red elemental section where the concourse was easily visible from the window. They blinked and looked around.
The man behind the counter looked at them in fascination. He was bored that day, but the universe burped five seconds ago when four young people materialized into his store. He was the only one to see them because he’d been left alone by his manager. One minute he stood there and wondered when someone would come into the store and buy something, the next he faced four young kids. Either a miraculous event just took place or he was on the point of losing his mind. He betted on the second option.
Dion looked around and decided to make sure. “Is this the Fromatius Mall?” he asked the man behind the counter.
There was no point in denying what just took place. The man was there when they transferred in from Edward’s study outside the time circle. Dion needed to make sure was that it was the right time circle.
“Yes it is,” the man told them. “And you are on Earth. Do you want me to call the president?”
Dion starred at him in disbelief. This one was going to be a challenge. “No,” he told the man. “That will not be necessary. Whom do I have the pleasure of addressing?”
“Hiram,” he told Dion. “Hiram Abendroff. Are you from the other side?”
‘No, we are from down the road. You possibly noticed our sudden appearance. It’s from a test being conducted and you need to keep it quiet. Top-secret government stuff. What do you sell here?”
“We are the finest tableware company in the country,” Hiram boasted. “You will find five place settings, seven place settings, fork, spoons, kitchen knives, pie knives and dish packs. If it needs to be on the table, we can supply it for you.”
Dion and his friends began to look over the selection of forks and spoons in the store. Most were laid out in a display case where they could be picked up and examined. Most had numbers stamped on the back.
“So what’s with the numbers on the back of the silverware?” Sean asked.
“Tableware,” Hiram corrected. “Nothing we make here is from silver. You are using the wrong term. What we sell is made from stainless steel. The numbers you see show the percentage of nickel and other alloys used in the manufacture of the steel.”
“Thanks,” Sean told him. “I learn something new every day.”
“I thought, perhaps, you might be from the other side because his return was predicted a long time ago,” Hiram continued. “You made me hope he was about on his way back and you a vanguard.”
Now all of them turned and starred at the little man behind the counter. Finally, it was Emily’s turn to speak.
“We didn’t mean to startle you, sir. Exactly what are you talking about?”
“This company, Anita Tableware, was founded by the Reverend Charles Obadiah over a hundred years ago. He was a minister who predicted his return from the other side someday. We have suffered through much to keep this company running because we want to be here when he returns so he can use it as a base of operations.”
“I see,” Dion said to him. “So you expect him to return from death and reestablish himself on Earth?”
“He never left a successor. The church became a corporation fifty years ago when we decided his time to return might be longer than we hoped. Since then, we have established stores across the world which sell our fine tableware.”
“I have to admit,” Lilly said as she picked up a butter knife, “they do look good. I like this style. How many do you have?”
“Four hundred and thirty-six,” he told her. “What you are looking at now was personally designed by the Reverend’s senior wife. She spent five months working on the pattern with his other wives until they came up with the design. It’s one of my personal favorites.”
“I’m sorry to disappoint you, but we are merely human,” Dion said. “Just don’t talk too freely about what you saw. Like I said, top secret.”
“Of course. I will wait for another day to come. We have waited a long time, I can wait much longer.”
They thanked him for his time and quickly vanished out the door.
“Well, that was more than a little odd,” Sean said to his friends. “I guess he thought the prophet had returned and it was us.”
“Must’ve been quite a let-down,” Lilly said. “I could see the disappointment in his face.”
“He’ll go on hoping,” Emily said. “I wonder if he’ll spend the rest of his life waiting. I’m sure many people already have.”
“Sometimes the waiting is the most important thing,” Dion said to his companions as they headed down the hall. “So long as people like him have something to look forward to, they have a reason to get up in the morning. It’s easy to laugh at them, in spite of what we’ve already seen here, but so many people don’t have a reason to live, I’m glad when I run into someone who does. As for me, I still need to obtain full powers for the fourth element of fire.”
“But anyway,” Dion continued, “the next thing we have to do is find the jewelry store which sells the fire opal. It was supposed to be around here. At least Edward promised us we’d be dropped near the place that sold them.”
They stopped and looked around.
The concourse was full of stores and it was difficult to tell which one was a jeweler’s at a distance. The scanned the line of stores. Meanwhile, the shoppers continued to walk past them.
“I’ve hated shopping ever since I was a kid,” Sean told Dion as he kept one hand on Emily.
“Why is that? “ Sean asked him. He peered down one side of the concourse where it seemed one of the stores might be a jeweler.
“I saw Santa Clause wipe blood off a kid.”
Dion whipped around. “What did you just say?”
“I was six years old at the time but I never forgot what I saw,” Sean told him. “It was Christmas and we we
re in my dad’s car waiting for my mom to come out of one of the department stores at a plaza. There was a guy inside playing Santa Claus for the holidays. Kids would go in with their parents and get their picture made. Some kid broke away from his parents and hit a glass window, busting his head. Then Santa Claus went over and fixed a bandage to his head while they waited for the ambulance to show up. I hear the kid turned out all right, the head wound looked much worse than it really was, but you can imagine the shock to a kid who had to see that. I’ll be a lot of kids continued to believe in Santa Claus for years longer than they normally did.”
“I don’t think I ever had a Christmas memory that was bad,” Dion said.
“There it is!” Lilly shouted and pointed down the concourse. “I see it!” They turned in the direction she pointed to see a large plastic diamond turn on an axis over a store.
It only took them a few minutes to reach the store, even while they constantly checked for any signs of security guards it the background. There were none, at least no one interfered with them and they reached the jewelry store without trouble.
Once inside they were greeted by a tall man in his twenties who was dressed in a suit and tie.
“Thank you for coming into Plus Diamonds,” he told them. “Is there something special I can help you find?”
“I’m looking for a fire opal,” Dion said. “Do you carry those?”
“I believe we do.” The man slid behind a counter. He extended a hand to Dion. “Ted, I’m the manager at this branch.”
“Glad to meet you, Ted, I’m Dion and these are my friends.”
Ted unlocked the glass case with a key on his ring and pulled out a selection of them mounted on a small rack. He sorted through the gemstones on the rack and pulled a ring off after he’d glanced at them carefully.
“This is one of two rings we have and it is in a sterling silver setting. Note the fine work that has gone into its construction. We can have it sized to specification, but it will take a week because our jeweler comes by every three days. I can size you right now or you can bring it back later to have it done with a sales slip.” He handed the ring to Dion.
