by R. L. King
“Yeah, exactly. We get more of them now, but still not that many compared with other types of cases. I was hoping we wouldn’t get any more until she came back.”
“But you did.”
“Yeah.” He sounded tense, and didn’t look at Stone. “I could have justified turning it down if it was an adult—you know, saying we were too busy and recommending somebody else. But this is a kid.”
“I see. And you want me to do the tracking ritual in place of Verity.”
“If you wouldn’t mind. I just hate thinking about kids being missing, you know? If there’s anything I can do to help with that—”
Now both he and Amber were looking at Stone. He shrugged. “Of course. I’m happy to help, assuming you’ve got a tether object. You do remember it won’t work properly if they’re not in my range, right? We may need to do it more than once.”
“I know.” Jason didn’t look happy about it. “I’m really sorry to ask, Al, but—”
“No, no. it’s fine. I haven’t got much going on right now, and I can always take a break from the portal and finishing up my final grading for the quarter. Perhaps we’ll get lucky and the child will be nearby.”
“That’s my hope. Once we get closer, Amber and I can take over.”
Stone glanced at Amber. Her part-shifter heritage gave her some tools, such as enhanced night vision, hearing, and smell, that aided her in her side job as a magical bounty hunter, and even more in tracking mundane missing-persons cases. “I assume you do have a tether object?”
Jason nodded in relief. “Three of them, actually. The kid’s mom gave us some items.”
“Still using the ‘psychic’ thing?” Stone and Verity had talked about it before: sometimes Jason claimed to have an associate who was a psychic, to help explain how they found people with very few obvious clues.
“Hey, it works. People will believe anything if it helps them get their loved ones back.”
“All right. Brilliant. When do you want to do this?”
Jason and Amber exchanged glances. “Well…if you aren’t doing anything, we’d really like to do it the sooner the better. I mean, from what the mom said, the kid’s kind of wild, so it’s possible he just ran away from home. But if there’s a kidnapping involved—”
“—waiting can make things worse,” Stone finished. “Yes, all right. I can do it tonight. We won’t be able to use my big circle, though. It’s in use for the portal at the moment, and I’m not undoing several weeks’ worth of work without a lot more provocation than this.”
“That’s fine. Let’s finish up here and head over to your place, then, unless you want to do it here.”
“Not enough room here. Come on over. Raider’s sick of looking at me, so he’ll enjoy having some new visitors to ignore.”
3
Stone’s house was in Encantada, a tiny, secluded town in the hills not too far from Stanford. Raider greeted him, Jason, and Amber at the door as they came in, studying them with care until he was sure they were interesting, but not interesting enough to interact with. Then he padded imperiously off into the living room.
“Make yourselves at home,” Stone told them. “I’ve got a few things to drink in the refrigerator. It’s going to take me half an hour or so to put a new circle together. I’ll do it in the attic.”
“Can I watch?” Amber asked. “I’ve never seen anybody make a magic circle before.”
“Of course, but I warn you, it’s not terribly exciting until the actual ritual begins.”
“That’s fine,” Jason said. “I can’t sit still while I worry about this kid.” He carried a paper bag containing the three tether objects.
“Right, then—suppose you tell me about the boy while I work. I can make tracking circles in my sleep these days.”
The house had three stories, plus a basement and a finished attic Stone used as a workroom. All three of them trooped upstairs, followed by Raider. “Sorry, mate,” Stone told the cat as they reached the door. “You know you’re not allowed in here.” To Jason and Amber, he chuckled. “He always hopes that will change some day, but he could cause some serious problems in there if he started knocking things about.”
As soon as they were inside with the door shut, Stone immediately went to some shelves on the far side of the room and began gathering components. “Go on,” he said, indicating a sofa along one wall. “Let’s hear the story.”
Amber settled on the sofa, but Jason paced near it. “The kid’s name is Tyler Ellerman,” he said. “He’s thirteen years old. Only child of Sylvia and Marshall Ellerman. Marshall’s a mid-level executive at a software company, and Sylvia is a real-estate agent. They’re divorced. She lives in Cupertino, and he’s up in San Francisco. They share custody, but Ty mostly lives with his mom.”
Stone bent to sketch a six-foot-diameter circle on the floor with chalk. “Keep going. I’m listening, even if I look like I’m not.”
“He disappeared two days ago. He was last seen playing basketball with some friends at a school near his house, but he never came home.”
“I thought children were supervised constantly these days,” Stone said. “Didn’t his mother drive him to the game, even if it was a block away? You know, sit in the car park and watch?”
Amber rolled her eyes. “Not all parents are that bad.”
“Like I said,” Jason continued, “the school wasn’t far from the house. He goes there all the time.”
“But you said this time he didn’t come home.”
“Yeah. The cops questioned Ty’s friends. They said he told them he was going to stop at a convenience store near there, but he never made it. The clerk says he never saw him, and he doesn’t show up on any of the surveillance cameras.”
Stone stuck his piece of chalk in his pocket and stepped back to examine the circle. “You mentioned the boy was ‘wild’?”
“Yeah. His mom and dad don’t get along at all, and Ty didn’t take the divorce very well. He’s made no secret that he’d rather live with his dad. He’s threatened to run away before, and he’s gotten into a few mild scrapes with the authorities—tagging, shoplifting, cheating at school, that kind of thing. His mother thought he might have tried to get to his dad.”
“But he didn’t.”
“Not according to the dad. He’s as worried as the mom is.”
“And which one of them engaged your agency?”
“The mom. She heard about our record with missing people from one of her friends.”
Stone added a few more touches to the circle, then went back to the shelves to retrieve some crystals and stands. “And I take it the police haven’t got anywhere.”
“Not yet. They’re looking, but so far they have no clues. No witnesses to the kid being taken, nothing on traffic cameras near where he was supposed to be, no pings on his phone. Not even a ransom demand. It’s like the kid just up and disappeared. They’ve got alerts out—I’m surprised you haven’t seen any of them.”
“I’m not.” Stone paced the circle, carefully placing the stands and adjusting the crystals in each one. “I don’t watch much television as it is, and I’ve been so busy with the portal project and clearing out the quarter lately that I barely have time to sleep. But with any luck, we’ll turn something up.”
Jason dropped back on the sofa next to Amber, and the pair watched Stone as he finished placing the crystals, repeated the process with candles, and then stood back one final time to examine the circle.
“There,” he said. “That’s done. Now all I need is the tether object and we’ll see what we can find.”
Jason dumped the bag in his lap, revealing a San Francisco Giants baseball cap, a blue T-shirt with HAWAII and a palm tree on the front, and a baseball. “His mom said these are all important to him for various reasons. I think any of them would work equally well, so pick whichever one has the best vibes, I guess.”
Stone shifted to magical sight and examined all three items. Each one had a faint blue glow around it—not nea
rly as bright as an aura, but bright enough to indicate a recent emotional attachment. Both the hat and the baseball had autographs scrawled across them, but Stone couldn’t read them. “Let’s try the shirt. The hat is less likely to be washed, which means Amber can use it to track him more precisely when we find him.”
Jason flashed him a grateful look—obviously he’d picked up that he’d said “when” instead of “if.” He handed over the T-shirt. “Thanks, Al.”
“Well, don’t thank me yet. You know how this works—stay quiet, don’t distract me, and don’t break the circle.”
Jason chuckled. “Yeah—I’m used to this by now. Hard to believe I’m finally getting comfortable with magic. I guess marrying into a shifter family was the last straw.”
Amber smiled fondly and leaned her head on his shoulder.
Stone settled into the middle of the circle, then used magic to light the candles around its perimeter. One by one, the crystals began to glow as he fed energy into them. He laid the folded T-shirt in a brazier he’d placed in front of him. “Here goes.”
The beginning of a tracking ritual always involved a certain amount of tension, mostly because Stone rarely did them to search for people who weren’t in danger. There was always the possibility the target was dead, and he didn’t relish the idea of telling Jason and Amber, who were both already on edge, that the thirteen-year-old kid they’d been hired to find was never coming home. It was even worse than that, because tracking rituals couldn’t find dead people. The best the ritual could do was tell him the boy was dead, but what could Jason do with that information? Nobody would believe him, so would there even be a point in telling Tyler Ellerman’s parents?
You’re getting ahead of yourself. No one is dead yet.
He took a few deep breaths and dropped into the meditative state that made focusing easier, then shifted to magical sight and reached out to the faint energy hovering around the T-shirt. All he’d have to do was augment that energy, encouraging it to seek its counterpart out in the world. With any luck the boy was nearby, and Jason and Amber could have him home with his mother before the night was over.
The energy swirled around, then slowly formed into a tendril that snaked up and out of the brazier. Stone sharpened his focus, fixing on the tendril as it darted back and forth for several seconds, then shot up through the ceiling.
Yes. That meant it had found something, which in turn meant Tyler Ellerman was still among the living. That was good—but the next step would be equally crucial. That was when he’d find out whether the boy was within his range—about a hundred miles with his additional Calanarian powers—or whether they’d have to do this in a series of jumps. He hoped the latter wasn’t true, because he didn’t want to interrupt his portal construction with an extended road trip.
He’d know in a few more moments.
The tendril seemed to know exactly where it was going. It shone brightly against the room’s dimness, and he had no trouble following it even out in the light of the setting sun.
There you go…just keep that up, and we’ll have you…
The tendril moved around again, as if seeking something, then shot downward through the roof of another building. In the brazier, the T-shirt went up with a whoosh of flame and disintegrated to ashes.
Stone pumped his fist. Got you!
He studied the spot a moment to make sure he had it right, then snatched up a map of the area he kept nearby and stabbed a red Sharpie down on the spot.
When he shifted back to normal sight, he found Jason and Amber standing near the edge of the circle, watching him intently.
“Did you find him?” Jason demanded.
“I did.” He held up the map. “He’s alive.”
Amber took the map and studied it. “South San Jose. But that’s a big dot. How do we know which house?”
“I’ll know. Come on—let’s hurry while the trail is still fresh. When we get close, either you or I should be able to track it to the right place.”
Jason sighed. “Damn. I was hoping to just be able to send the cops, but I forgot you can’t zero in on a specific house.”
“I can get fairly close, but the houses are close together there. Even I can’t pinpoint it that carefully until we’re in the vicinity. Once we identify the house, we can keep an eye on the place and either go in if we have to, or alert the police. Your call.”
“Yeah, okay. Let’s go.” Jason sighed. “But he’s alive. That’s the important part.”
4
Jason drove, since it was easier for Stone to concentrate on tracking the fading energies of the search when he didn’t have to watch the road. As long as he kept his focus, he could maintain the link to the target location for about an hour, but if he let his mind wander it would drift away and be lost.
Jason and Amber remained quiet as they drove at a steady pace down highway 85. At least rush hour was over now, so the road was fairly clear. Twenty-five minutes later, Stone pointed ahead at the Bernal Road exit. “Get off here.”
He directed them down the road for half a mile, then off into a small neighborhood full of neat, two-story homes.
“Here’s where it gets a bit trickier. I’ll try to get you as close as I can, but we’ll have to do a bit of sniffing. Literally, in your case,” he added to Amber.
She didn’t reply. She already had her window rolled down and was staring intently toward each house as they drove by.
Stone checked his map, then focused on the tiny, fading tendril. “Okay. I think we’re within a few houses now. This is probably as close as I’ll be able to get. Park here and we’ll walk around.”
It was dark by now, but Jason looked dubious. “We’re going to look pretty conspicuous wandering out here this time of night.”
“I’ll use a disregarding spell, but we’ll have to stay relatively close together.” Stone got out of the car and looked around. “I think this is the right side of the street, anyway. It should be one of these three houses here.”
Amber was sniffing, her gaze sharp as a hunting hawk’s. “It’s there,” she said, pointing at the middle of the three houses Stone had indicated. “It’s not strong, but I’m definitely getting something.”
The house she’d pointed at was dark, with no car in the driveway. It had no personal touches like a custom house number or toys in the front yard. “Looks like a rental,” Stone said.
“Do you think they’re hiding in there?” Jason asked. “You don’t think they got away while we were driving, do you? You can’t track them if they move, right?”
“Not without a different kind of ritual.” Privately, Stone wondered the same thing. The houses on either side both had lights on, but this one looked empty. “Do you want to go in and check, or call the police?”
Jason looked troubled. “Technically, we should call the police. But what am I gonna tell them? ‘My friend the mage did a tracking ritual and we think they’re here?’ They’ll laugh me off the phone. But we can’t just break in.”
“I’ll go around the back,” Amber said. “Give me two minutes, and then knock on the front door. If he tries to run out the back, I’ll grab him.”
“Yeah, okay. We can’t let him get away with Ty if he’s in there.”
Amber nodded and crept off, disappearing around the side of the house.
Stone looked around; so far nobody seemed to be paying them any attention, but the disregarding spell wouldn’t help them forever.
The two minutes seemed to take an eternity, but finally Jason glanced at his watch and nodded. “Let’s go.”
They mounted the steps to the front door, and Jason knocked decisively.
Stone craned his ears for any sound from inside, but heard nothing. No one answered the door. “How long do you want to wait?”
Jason pulled out his phone and checked it. “Amber says it’s clear back there. We can’t just break in, though.”
“You can’t just break in,” Stone said. “I’m not bound by any pesky strictures like t
hat. And in any case…” He glanced at the door and a second later a tiny click sounded. “Looks like it might not be locked anyway.” He used magic to turn the knob and push the door open.
“Al, I don’t know about you sometimes.”
“A lot of people have said that. Now are you coming or not?” Without waiting for Jason’s answer, he stepped inside.
Jason sighed and followed, nudging the door shut with his foot. “Don’t touch anything.”
Stone brought up a faint light spell, shining it around. Now that they were inside, it became even more obvious the place was a rental. It had white walls, generic furniture in the living room, and when he peered into the kitchen all he saw were clean, bare counters and standard appliances. “Doesn’t seem like anyone’s here.”
Jason had gone to the back and let Amber in through the sliding glass door. “I think you’re right. Amber, are you getting anything?”
She sniffed again, pulling out two pairs of latex gloves and offering one to Jason. “He was here. I can definitely smell him. But I don’t think he’s here anymore.”
“Damn,” Stone said. It was the one problem with tracking spells: unless you built a component into them that allowed continued tracking—which added significant complexity and time to the spell—it only located where the target was at the time it was cast. “Can you tell where he was, specifically? Do you know if he was alive?”
“I’m sure he was alive. Give me a minute for the rest.” She stood in the middle of the living room, turning in place as she sniffed the air. After a few moments, she darted up the stairs.
Stone and Jason followed, stopping as she halted at the top and sniffed again, then pointed at an open doorway at the end of the hall. “There.”
All three of them headed there, but stopped without entering and looked inside.
The room was clearly unoccupied. It contained only a twin bed frame and mattress, a nightstand, and a single wooden chair. Blackout blinds covered the window.
“He got away,” Jason said in frustration. “How can that be? Al, is there any way he could have figured out you were looking for him?”
