“Very well,” Archer sighed. He pressed the button. “Hit her again–”
“Wait!” I shouted.
“Hold on,” Archer said into the receiver. His hand came off the button.
“You obviously know a good deal about Andeluvia,” I said quickly. “And you know about magic. If you do, then you know how much power an object like an amulet or a medallion can hold.”
He stared at me suspiciously. “Go on.”
“I’ll give you mine if you let Shelly go.”
“What?” he said, almost laughing.
“This is your last chance to take this deal,” I cautioned him. “You want to know what I know? This will tell you more than anything I could say.”
Archer paused. A grudging admiration blossomed on his face. “You play this game well. Especially for someone with so little to offer. All right, I’m curious. If you hand this medallion over right now, and I decide to accept it, then I’ll take your deal.”
Move and countermove. I slowly went for the silver chain that hung at my neck. Archer watched me carefully, his hand resting casually on his lap as he did so. My fingers slipped under the top of my blouse’s collar and touched Galen’s medallion.
Then I slipped my fingers to one side and grasped the second item on the chain. The medallion that Holly had pressed into my palm as she died. It was the only tangible item that I’d ever gotten from her. The only token of our short-lived friendship. And I didn’t even know whether Archer would accept the damned thing.
But I wasn’t about to hand over anything imbued with Galen’s magic to the enemy.
I yanked Holly’s medallion free. It made a plink as if it were in pain. I tossed it over and Archer snatched it out of the air with one hand.
He stared at the medallion as it sat in the palm of his hand. His eyes went wide.
“You were right,” he said, grudgingly. “This tells me more than anything you could say.”
What does it tell you? I almost screamed. Dammit, what does this man know?
Grayson Archer leaned forward again and touched a button on the table. “Release Ms. Richardson and leave the room.”
I watched as the green and blue-suited technicians removed Shelly’s mouth guard and began to undo her restraints. Archer had gone back to staring at the medallion I’d given him. He didn’t even look up at me when I stood.
“We’re done here,” he said. “Pick your friend up and go. And remember the rest of the deal, Dame Chrissie.”
“You have my word,” I promised. A click came from behind me, and I tried the door. It had been unlocked.
I didn’t waste a second. Off to one side, a door led to the stairwell. I pushed through, took the stairs two at a time, and burst into the room where they’d held my friend.
All the technicians had gone. Shelly sat on the edge of the table. Her hair was a fright wig, her eyes a pair of raccoon-like dark spots. She squinted at me as I ran over to her.
“Dayna?” she said, her voice shaky. “I can’t see all that well right now...”
I spotted her pince-nez glasses where the technicians had placed them on a nearby work bench. They’d removed them in order to put on the eye shield. I snatched them up and helped her put them back on.
“Oh, dear God, Shelly,” I said, embracing her. She hugged me back as tightly as she could. A smear of the gel on her temples oozed onto my cheek, making me worry anew. “You’ve been released, but I’ve got to get you out of here. Can you stand? Can you walk?”
“I’m fine, Dayna,” she insisted. “Right as rain, actually.”
“But...but the…” I stammered. “Your mind?”
“Strong as a steel sieve, as always,” she said. She lowered her voice as she added, “They strapped me down and covered up my eyes. Then I heard a man’s voice. He said that I was going to feel something press firmly against both of my temples. And that if wanted out of here, I had to scream as loud as I could every time they did it.”
“That’s all that happened?” I whispered in disbelief.
“That’s all. I heard the people in here talking, they didn’t hook up the electrode wires. In fact, they didn’t do anything ‘cept scare me out of a year’s growth.”
I cast a quick glance up towards the observation windows. The curtains remained open, but the room was dark and empty. If Grayson Archer wasn’t the shadowy ‘him’ I was looking for, then he was tied directly into the man. I was sure of that. He was an enemy.
But he had bluffed me today. He hadn’t needed to do that. If he’d gotten the staff of this facility to go so far as to put on a charade, he could have found someone to actually administer the shocks. The fact that he’d chosen not to hurt my friend spoke volumes.
My eyes began to well up with tears as I embraced Shelly again. Absurdly, I actually felt a surge of gratitude. Archer had manipulated my emotions in his favor again. Right now, I didn’t care. A couple of sobs escaped my lips.
“It’s okay, darlin’. It really is,” Shelly pulled back and added, “Buck up, okay? Can you do that for me?”
“Yeah, I can do that.” I wiped away my tears and did my best to hold the others back.
“Good. Save the waterworks for just a little longer,” Shelly said, as she pulled me towards the door. “Right now, I just want to get the hell out of here.”
Chapter Thirty-Four
The setting sun glared right into my garage for a quick moment as I opened the door with my remote control. However, as soon as I pulled the OME van inside, any possible sunset was blotted out by scudding banks of winter clouds. I shut the van’s motor off then slumped in the seat, eyes closed. By any account, this had already been one heck of a day.
The stress from dealing with McClatchy had metamorphosed into a knot in my lower back. My right shoulder ached from slamming it against the door of the observation room, when I’d tried to rescue Shelly. And in truth, I was more emotionally than physically exhausted by Archer, returning Shelly back home, and dragging myself back to work for a few more hours. With my luck, I just knew that a day like this wasn’t going to end easily.
So I knew that something was up as soon as I walked into the living room.
The spicy smell of Mexican food greeted me as I set my attaché case down by the side of the couch. Galen, still clothed and in human form, came out of the kitchen. In his hands was a platter of freshly microwaved taquitos. He smiled as he saw me, though his expression was a bit too earnest.
“Ah, you have returned from your source of employment,” he said brightly. “As you can see, I have prepared a tray of your favorite foodstuffs. Come sit at the kitchen table and you can relate the news of the day.”
“No thanks, I just want to zone out for a bit,” I said. I rubbed my back as I straightened up and took a couple more steps into the room. “Where are Liam and Shaw, anyway? I didn’t–”
“Bide!” Galen said, about a second too late.
I plunked my butt onto the couch. Then I let out an ‘eep!’ as I sank six more inches into the already saggy surface. My knees shot up to the level of my shoulders and the furniture’s springs creaked as they actually scraped the floor. Cushion stuffing billowed out around me in a sneeze-inducing cloud of shredded polyurethane foam.
“What the...” I gasped, as Galen placed the tray aside. He extended a beefy arm to help me back up. “What happened to my couch?”
“Ah, that’s part of what we should converse about in detail. Over some freshly prepared comestibles, say?”
“No!” I said, getting annoyed. “How about you tell me right now?”
“Well, in the case of your personal divan...Grimshaw fell asleep upon it.”
I rubbed my temple, trying to stave off a headache. Grimshaw had taken a liking to my couch from the first time he’d visited Los Angeles. Unfortunately, he far exceeded the weight limit for the thing’s coil springs. So, my couch had become as saggy as a horse with a severe case of swayback. But then I did a double-take.
“Wait a minut
e. Then why did the stuffing billow out around my ears when I sat down?”
“Alas, our intrepid drake had a dream.”
I looked back at my poor, destroyed couch. “A bad dream?”
“It was a good dream, at least to a griffin. He believed that he was participating in a hunt, and was busy tearing apart prey to consume it when he woke.”
“That’s why he’s not out here?”
“Grimshaw was afraid that you might be somewhat impassioned by the events of the day.”
“He should know that I wouldn’t get pissed off about something like that. And I don’t see why Liam’s gone to ground, either.” I turned towards my bedroom door and began to open it when Galen’s voice brought me up short.
“Bide!”
I closed the door, but not before I got a whiff of something...earthy.
“Okay, I’m listening,” I said, as a suspicion began to grow in my mind. “What happened?”
“Are you sure that you wouldn’t prefer a gustatory delight?” The wizard picked up the plate of taquitos again, a hopeful look on his face.
“Dammit, no! Spill it, Galen.”
He cleared his throat before he began. “All right. You may recall that, before you left for work this morning, you instructed us to stay inside for the day.”
“That’s right. You all should have had enough food, I stocked the fridge and the freezer in the garage for just such an occasion.”
“And marvelous preparations they were, too. You must be commended for that.”
“But...” I prompted.
“But...you neglected to provide toilet arrangements.”
That brought me up short. Crap, I hadn’t thought about that.
“This was not an issue for me, of course,” Galen said, a trifle proudly, I thought. “Liam found your facilities difficult to use, and fayleene anatomy did not allow for proper...shall I say, ‘aim’. Grimshaw, on the other hand, had problems relating to volume as well as anatomy.”
“Oh, no.”
“So, the only area that he could use effectively was your bathing tub.”
“Great,” I said, deflated. “Okay, I’ll go get the cleanser and a scrub brush.”
“I don’t believe you appreciate the sheer scale of the problem at hand,” Galen pointed out, in his politest tones. “I would recommend a shovel. And a couple of large sacks.”
I groaned.
“All right,” I said, as I took the plate of taquitos from him. “You win. I’m going to the kitchen to eat these first. Get the guys out here to join me. I’m not going to browbeat anyone for my lack of planning.”
I pushed my way over to the kitchen without waiting for his reply. I poured myself a glass of iced tea from a pitcher I had in the fridge. Then I plunked myself down at the table, gobbling down the food Galen had cooked. To be fair, the centaur had picked up on how to properly microwave food. The fact that I was starving also helped out in my appreciation.
Shaw and Liam crowded into the kitchen, each looking slightly abashed. Galen brought up the rear, looking on with satisfaction as I downed the last of the meal he’d prepared and finished off with a swig of tea. I put my elbows on the table as I leaned forward, finally sated.
“Dayna,” Liam began, with an adorable bob of his antlers. “We’re sorry about the mess we left. Galen and I could try to use some of our magic to–”
“Hold on,” I said, interrupting him. “There’s nothing to be sorry about. If anything, I should apologize to both of you, since I insisted that everyone stay inside today. And I’m glad that no one used up their magic on this problem. In fact, I have a hunch that I’m going to need everyone’s best efforts this evening.”
A relieved expression blossomed on both of their faces.
“Say the word, Dayna,” Liam said.
“Aye, we are at thy call,” Shaw echoed.
“Okay, here’s the deal,” I began, and I filled them in on the events from meeting McClatchy at the start of the day, all the way through dealing with Grayson Archer and my returning Shelly back to her house.
“I’m glad that your friend has been returned to a place of safety,” Galen said firmly, and Liam nodded agreement. “Perhaps now the healing that the Albess has put in place shall remain undisturbed.”
“And ‘tis certain that thou hast exposed a new foe!” Shaw declared, as he flexed his forepaws. “Should he show his face in Andeluvia, I shall carve it with mine own talons.”
“Archer is going to be a major problem,” I agreed. “But for now, we need to focus on our Seraphine issue.”
“Were you able to determine where Pirr went?” Liam asked, hopefully.
“I was able to make an educated guess. The remaining stocks of gasoline containing dimerized isobutene exist in three locations. Two are to the north, and one is east of the Los Angeles city limits. I’m hoping that there might be a way to narrow those three locations down to one.”
“Perhaps we could view the locations on a map, to start?” Galen asked.
“An excellent idea. Would you mind grabbing the case I left out in the other room?”
I finished off the last of my iced tea as Galen retrieved my attaché case. He returned, and Shaw ducked his head so that the wizard could hand it to me. With a click, I opened the case and pulled out the paper map I’d marked up.
Liam let out a gasp.
“Dayna, I’m sensing...” he struggled for words for a moment. “I’m sensing an extremely strong magical spoor from the container on your table. It’s the kind I sensed all around the Vale of the Seraphine.”
“I sense no spellcraft,” Galen objected.
“No, not the kind of magic used in spellcraft. It is...difficult to explain.”
“Do try, my friend,” Shaw urged. “‘Tis important right now.”
“There is a kind that spoor that imbues and animates many creatures with a magical component to their existence,” Liam said. “Few beside the fayleene sense this. Humans do not carry this kind of spoor. Neither did Magnus, when he was in human form.”
“That makes sense,” Galen put in. “Transformation is more than mere mask-wearing. For the duration of the spell, one has changed species as well as identity.”
“Yet centaurs in their native form do have a slight magical spoor.” Liam nodded at Shaw. “Griffins are stronger. Fayleene and pooka even more so. The most powerful spoors I’ve sensed come from dragons. And the Seraphine. You have a potent piece of Seraphine magic with you.”
Suddenly, I understood. I set aside the map and pulled out the plastic sample bag containing the orange-red shard. Liam nodded as I held it up by the light. How was this connected to the phoenix? I glanced out the kitchen window and was just able to make out Korr’s ‘Inert’ form out by the fire pit. In that form, he still looked like a big, egg-shaped ruby.
Then it was my turn to gasp as my mind did one of its weird little clicks. I really had to get that patented.
I stared down at the strange little sliver I’d pulled out of the shooter’s apartment. A sliver that might very well have been dropped by someone who knew Andeluvian lore and magic. I still couldn’t quite figure out what purpose it served.
But now I knew exactly what it was.
Chapter Thirty-Five
“This shard is connected to the Seraphine, and I think it validates some of their oldest lore,” I said, awestruck by my realization. “I picked it up from inside an apartment – the very one that Archer used to remotely fire on Robert McClatchy. I don’t think that’s coincidence.”
“Neither do I,” Galen said grimly. “But leave aside this ‘Archer’ for the moment. Pray tell, what is this mere sliver of substance?”
“The lab tests say it is chromium, plus an oxide of aluminum. I didn’t have time to look it up, but I’ll bet a month’s pay that it’s a crystalline form called corundum.” I turned the plastic sample bag over, and the shard inside gleamed back at me. “That makes this a splinter of pure ruby.”
Shaw spoke up,
invoking his near-photographic griffin memory. “Korr hath spoken before of ancient gemstones that gave his people the magic to speak. To fly. ‘Tis what gives them their birdlike, ‘Active’ form.”
Galen nodded. “Their so-called ‘Hearts of the Mother’s Body’.”
I looked to Liam. “Maybe this is a stretch, but...”
“Can I trace the spoor back to its source?” he asked, with a tilt of his antlers. “Maybe not exactly, but I can get a bearing on it.”
“I am ready to fly,” Shaw added, “if thou hast need of a second point of reference, as we have done before.”
“Only if there’s no other alternative,” I cautioned. “I don’t have another movie poster banner for you to use if we need to send you aloft.”
A deep chuckle came from the drake at that. “Indeed, this feels much like the first use of fayleene magic here in thy world.”
I nodded, recalling Liam’s use of his powers to locate the rifle that had been used to shoot the Good King Benedict. We’d had to link minds in order to bolster the young fayleene prince’s power, and the effort had left him exhausted afterwards. Liam was larger, older, and stronger now, but I hoped that we wouldn’t test his limits again.
As if picking up my thoughts, Shaw asked his friend, “Protector, do we need to link our hands and minds for thy power to work once more?”
Liam shook his head. “Not this time, as I’m not conjuring up an image, just a general direction. I just need the shard.”
I placed the plastic bag containing the ruby sliver on the kitchen floor. Liam carefully traced a circle around the bag with his nose, and then placed his forehoof firmly on top of it. He murmured under his breath. Once again, I recognized the liquid, musical tones of the ‘Old Tongue’ of the fayleene.
“Cith piléar a chaitheamh,” Liam recited. He repeated himself once, twice, three times. A blue-green flicker of energy ran up his hooves and then all the way up into his body. The air around us felt charged, as if right before a lightning storm.
We all leaned forward, expectant, as Liam swayed back-and-forth for a moment. Then, while he held his eyes closed, he turned slowly to his left. Shaw backed up a step as his friend lowered his head and jutted his antlers out before him. Liam held that pose, all four hooves planted firmly on the kitchen linoleum.
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