“Well, Alexandra,” George said, and she saw a glint of dark humor in his eyes. “I told you those damned gas-bags weren’t any good.”
“That’s exactly what Morry Garner said you’d say,” Alexandra said, reassured that his imprisonment hadn’t done him any harm. “Who are these people?”
“The DDEG,” George said, with a sigh. “Looks like Morry was right again.”
“What? What is this place? What’s in all those boxes?” Alexandra asked.
“Lamps,” George laughed bitterly. “Appropriate, isn’t it? Welcome to Enlightenment. Genie Central.”
“What do they want with us?”
“They want brownie points,” George said wearily.
“What?” Alexandra exclaimed. “They don’t get brownie points for kidnapping.”
“No, they want ours.”
Alexandra put her hands on her hips. “What for? Their magic is intrinsically more powerful than ours. They grant three wishes at a throw … Oh,” she said, light dawning. “They want to wish themselves free of the lamp. Not in the ordinary way, but with all the fringies still attached.”
“Exactly,” Albert Froister said, appearing in a puff of smoke beside them. Alexandra coughed and batted a hand to clear the air. The guildmaster smelled terrible. It was the stench of evil. Young Ray Crandall had given the FGU an important piece of information, but too late to do her any good. “And the sooner you and your members turn yours over to me, the sooner you can leave.”
“Oh, nonsense,” Alexandra said, picturing an infinity of empty suns in her mind. There wasn’t enough in the whole union pool to even start the process. “Do you know how many brownie points it would take to break the fundamental agreement between a genie and his lamp? Even one genie?”
“No,” Froister said. “Tell me.” He leaned closer, his eyes gleamed with a frightening light. Alexandra was terrified. The man had gone absolutely mad. Then her native obduracy took over, and she crossed her arms in defiance. She only looked like a fashion doll. She was not malleable by threat.
“I won’t tell you,” she said, her voice very calm. “That is not a legitimate question. And this is not a legitimate way to ask me. Mr. Froister, if I had to think of one way which would be unconducive to getting my cooperation, this would be close to the top of the list.”
Froister had evidently come to the same conclusion. He took her arm, led her to the cot and gestured for her to sit down. She frowned as he knelt beside her.
“Mrs. Sennett, as you have guessed, we need your union’s pool of free magic to liberate our membership from our traditional bond,” he said, sliding his cuffs down over his wristbands. “It has become onerous, and we crave relief. I am making a formal request for cooperation between two affiliate organizations.”
Alexandra laughed. “That’s impossible. Why, it would take—” She stopped short as Froister held up a warning hand.
“Just one moment, please,” he said. He turned to the young, apple-cheeked guard and taller, broader, rougher-looking guard standing close by. “Leave us now.”
They vanished in puffs of smoke, wafting upward into the rafters of the high ceiling. “All the way!” Froister shouted. In the corner of the room, Alexandra saw the two small clouds start with surprise. She hadn’t spotted them, but Froister must know all the tricks of his trade. The two youths vanished completely from the warehouse, and Froister returned his attention to his captives.
“Please go on,” he said.
“Not a chance,” Alexandra said, folding her arms. “Section 119 of the manual says that we cannot be coerced out of any benefit which may accrue naturally in the course of our duties, and RULE ONE says magic cannot be used for evil.”
“What makes you think we’d use magic for evil?” Froister asked nervously.
“Because this place stinks of it,” George put in. “As I have been telling you for a week. In fact, it’s getting worse. If you were ever doing your job properly, you’re not now. I bet you’re behind all those robberies. And rumors!”
“He is,” Alexandra said, as Froister pantomimed innocence. “I’ve had information from … a reliable source. Whether he is aware of it or not, he’s accruing their form of brownie points, and they smell of evil!”
Froister was not inclined to implicate himself. He smiled nervously, and stood up. “Well, you’ll stay here until you cooperate,” he said. “I can’t let you go now.” He vanished in the characteristic roiling fume. Alexandra jumped up to look for him, but he had disappeared thoroughly. In his place, the two young guards rematerialized, and took up sentry posts at opposite corners of the square. Alexandra approached the younger of the two. He looked as if normally he was good-natured, and he seemed frightened.
“Young man, let me out of here.”
“I can’t, ma’am,” he said apologetically. He stuck a hand out to her. She reached for it, but her hand bounced off an invisible barrier. Perhaps it was only at shoulder level. Alexandra tested the air at different heights, reaching up on her toes, but the invisible wall extended everywhere.
“He wished on me,” the boy whispered, his face hollow under his round cheeks. “We can get in, but you can’t get out.”
“My poor child,” Alexandra said. If anyone really needed a wish at that moment, it was this unwilling young guard. She’d have done it in a moment, but she was suffering from a double loss at that moment, her freedom and her wand. It wasn’t this child’s fault. She smiled kindly at him, and went back to the cot. George reached up and patted her hand.
“They took my wand,” Alexandra said, feeling woebegone as a tot.
“They took mine, too. First thing,” George said. “They don’t want us communicating with the outside world at all. And I’ve tried, believe me. I’m sure my wife is frantic.”
“My husband and children are going to go mad,” Alexandra exclaimed. “And so am I! They can’t keep us here indefinitely.”
George sighed. “They can. They have.”
“Will they at least feed us?” Alexandra asked.
“Oh, yes,” George reassured her. “Food’s pretty good, really. Three times a day. You have to make specific requests, though. Our young jailers,” he nodded to the young men, “haven’t got the slightest idea of what constitutes proper nutrition. Two mornings running, they brought me cupcakes and cola for breakfast.”
“Yuck.” Alexandra looked at the empty square. “We have to think of a way to get out of here!”
George lifted his hands helplessly. “If you have suggestions, I’ll bring them to the committee,” he said.
“Aarrgh!” Alexandra clenched her fists. She had an urge to rush at the barriers, testing them all until she found a little crack she could squeeze through. But she would be dashed if she would create a hysterical emotional display for Froister and his gang. Forcing herself into a calm state she only felt on the surface, she sat down on the floor beside the cot and rested her back against it. “Well, with all these lamps the least they could do is provide us with something to read. If he’s waiting for us to capitulate, we could be here a long time.”
Chapter 21
A carroty red light from a training wand joined the blue and deep pink glows as Ray and Rose, plus their visitor, searched among the Dumpsters and trash cans in the shadowy alley that led behind a row of apartment houses.
“I know I felt a string back here,” Ray protested. He was running point for Rose and Jeff Doyle. The other two were testing the air behind him with their wands as if they were feeling their way along with canes. He stopped, sure he’d missed the source.
“It doesn’t look like anyone lives back here,” Jeff said, brushing his hands as he eyed the unsavory piles of garbage bags. “There’s no room for a living body.”
“You’d be surprised,” Rose said sadly. “The homeless tuck themselves in wherever they can.”
Ray felt for that trace again. It hadn’t given him the impression that it was in the depths of despair, as so many of his homeless clien
ts had. It felt more confused, more lonely, and very small.
“Wait,” he said. “I’m on it.”
He swept the blue wand around in a circle until he felt the string push up from the surface of the air. Beckoning to the others, he followed the trail toward a dirty, red-painted Dumpster. He peered into it. It was empty, except for a stench that made him gag. Angrily, he pushed it aside.
Cowering behind it was a minute figure with tousled blond hair and a flowered overall suit. She looked up at the three adults with fearful brown eyes, her little pink lips quivering as if she was about to cry.
“My God, she’s a tiny one,” Ray said, hunkering down. “I don’t think she’s much more than two years old. Hello, honey. Don’t be afraid.”
The child’s eyes welled with tears at the kind tone of his voice. Jeff stooped down and picked her up.
“Hi, there,” he said. “Do you believe in fairy godmothers?”
“No,” said the tot positively.
“Then, we’re just nice people who found you,” he said, without missing a beat. “Are you lost?”
“Yes,” the child said, and then she did start crying.
“Ohh, don’t do that. Where do you live, sweetheart?” Rose asked, stepping close to dab the little girl’s eyes with a handkerchief.
“I don’t know!”
Rose turned to Ray. “She’s too little to have come very far. Honey, go out on the street and flag down the first patrol car you see. This child doesn’t need a wish, just some good common sense.”
Ray wove his way swiftly between the Dumpsters and cans, until he emerged into the waning sunlight. Halfway down the block he spotted a police car coming his way. He waited until it was closer, then jumped up and down, waving his arms. As it pulled up, he recognized the driver. It was the policeman who had been on his street the night of the fire.
“Hey, hero, how’s it going?” the sergeant asked.
“We’ve found a baby,” he said. “A little white girl.” He gestured back into the alley. “She’s with my friends.”
“You found her?” a woman’s voice exclaimed. Ray bent down. There was a young woman in the backseat of the car. She scrambled out, and ran around the back of the car to grab Ray’s arm. “Oh, show me! Where’s my baby?”
Ray led the way. The police officer followed them back into the alley, where they found Rose and Jeff singing a nonsense song to the child. The toddler let out a giggle, which turned into a wail as soon as she saw her mother. She held out her arms. The young woman seized her daughter, and kissed everybody.
“Oh, thank you!” she exclaimed, over and over, as the police sergeant led her out of the alley.
“You’re just doing good all over the place,” the sergeant said to Ray. “But I’d like to know just what you were doing back here.” He looked curiously at the three fairy godparents, evidently considering them to be an unlikely group.
“I was looking for something,” Ray said with complete honesty. “My friends were helping me find it.”
“You find it?”
“Yes,” Ray said.
“Then you don’t want to hang around back there, do you?” the sergeant asked, severely. Then his face softened. “See you around, hero.”
“Yeah,” Ray said, feeling another spark drop into his mental piggy bank. Oh, come on, he told the magic, that wasn’t that special. He threw the police officer a polite salute. “Later, sir.”
O O O
“Well, I am ready for a break,” Rose said, dusting off the front of her dress. The pervasive stench they had picked up in the alley was fading, and she started to think about something to eat. “How about you? I think Ray deserves a sundae for finding that little girl.”
“That wasn’t half so interesting as the little flourish he threw in for that girl at the zoo,” Jeff Doyle said with a grin.
“Yes, indeed,” Rose said. “I felt like breaking into applause right there when the giraffe came over to eat out of her hand.”
“That was nothing,” Ray said, giving Rose a sour look.
“It was great!” Jeff exclaimed. “I can’t wait to tell the folks back at our local. Granting the wish practically under her parents’ noses. Very neat. All they thought was they were raising another Doctor Dolittle. And she was so happy.”
Rose could tell that they were embarrassing Raymond, but she was truly proud of his progress. His confidence grew by the day. She was also enjoying their visitor. Young Jeff was not only remarkably good-looking, but friendly and enthusiastic. He and Ray were hitting it off splendidly. She hoped she was seeing the beginning of a long friendship.
“Well, the ice-cream stand is this way,” Rose said, getting in between the boys and tucking her hands into their arms. “So, Jeff, how did you get into the Fairy Godmothers?”
“I caught my brother doing magic one day,” Jeff explained. “I was absolutely fascinated. He’s pretty good, really, but he keeps getting into jams because he’s sort of on his own. He said this kind of talent runs in families, so I wanted to do some, too. My mother pushed me into this because she said it was more structured. The rules tend to protect you. I get to try out all sorts of things, all good for people, without any of the hazards my brother keeps falling over. Of course, I think he leaves himself open for them.” Grinning, he shook his head at the memories.
“He’s a natural magician?” Rose said, delighted. “That’s rare.”
“He’s a good guy, for a brother,” Jeff acknowledged.
“Things can happen to fairy godfathers, too,” Ray pointed out.
“Well, I just take them as they come.”
“You this cheerful all the time?” Ray asked, narrowing an eye.
“Well, you know,” Jeff said, with a conspiratorial wink, “the optimism comes from the Irish side of my family.”
“And which side is that?” Rose asked.
“Both!” Jeff laughed. “How about you, Ray? How’d you get involved?”
“My grandmother got me into the FGU,” Ray said. “She used to take care of me when I was a baby, and I guess she took me on missions with her.”
“Cool!”
“None of my children are interested, alas,” Rose said. “I have to rely upon adopted grandchildren, like Ray. Ah, here we are.”
Jeff sprang forward like a gentleman to pull open the door of the ice-cream shop. The cold air inside hit them all like a wall of snow falling on them. Ray held back a little, but Rose pulled him in with her. He had been trying so hard all day not to make any mistakes in front of their guest, and it was wearing him out. He was going to take a break if she had to sit on him. Jeff was new enough that he wouldn’t notice anything wrong if Ray had made any errors, and was too polite to say something if he had, so there was really nothing to worry about.
Rose felt her skin break out in goose bumps as she scanned the menu over the cases. This place was a delightful oasis in the neighborhood. The bright yellow-painted walls always looked so cheerful, and the floors and glass-topped tables were remarkably spotless. She had long suspected that a house brownie had this store under its care, but she didn’t quite know how to approach the owner to ask.
“Anything you want,” she said expansively. “We all deserve something nice, and boys are always hungry.” Ray and Jeff looked at each other with abashed smiles. She’d guessed they were looking at the big sundaes at the top end of the menu. “It’s all right,” she said. “Indulge yourselves. Once in a while is fine.”
Each of them selected something large and gooey, with four scoops, fruit, sprinkles, and two or three kinds of sauce. Rose took something slightly smaller, but just as sinfully rich. The sauces here were always so good, and the hot fudge never tasted burned. The three of them watched avidly as one colorful scoop after another was dished into paper bowls.
“Well, well, what have we here?”
She turned to smile at Fred Lincoln as the swinging door slammed shut behind him. The big, dark-skinned man wore a neat, short-sleeved denim shirt wet
around the collar with perspiration. He sighed with pleasure as the cool air enveloped him.
“We felt we could use a little treat,” Rose explained. “I’m rewarding Ray for a clever bit of magic. Not that he needs a reward, but you know, I’m a grandmother.”
“Yeah, I know,” Mr. Lincoln said, with his wide, generous smile. “Well, I felt like spoiling myself, and to heck with the diet.” He sucked in his stomach and patted it heartily with both hands. “I’ve had a few interesting calls today which I’ll tell you about when you’ve got some time.”
“Any time, dear,” Rose said sympathetically. “Bad?”
“Not all bad,” Fred Lincoln said. She eyed him to make sure that whatever was on his mind wasn’t urgent. He gave his order to the young man behind the counter, and pulled up a chair to join them at the table. His posture was relaxed, so Rose stopped worrying. Fred reached out a hand to their visitor. “Nice to see you again, Mr. Doyle. We’d like to propose sending some of our people out to your neck of the woods.”
“We’d be happy to have them, sir,” Jeff said, shaking hands. “I’ve been having a great day with Rose and Ray. They’re terrific.”
“Yeah,” Fred said, patting Ray on the back. “They’re as good as we’ve got.” Ray ducked his head modestly, and started spooning up ice cream faster. The counterman held up a big double-dip cone. “There’s my treat,” he said. “Be seeing you. Think it’s gonna rain.” He put up his collar with his free hand. Saluting them with his cone, he ducked out into the street.
“Oh, dear,” Rose said, peering out the plate glass window at the growing gloom. It did seem to be getting dark too early for the middle of summer. A quick glance up told her that Fred was right. Clouds had scudded in while they were slurping strawberry syrup. Condensation was beginning to form on the inside of the windows, obscuring her view of the street. “We may be in for a real downpour.”
Outside, the exhaust vents from air-conditioning units on the roofs of buildings spouted plumes of white steam. No one passing by with his head down against the first sharp droplets of rain noticed that some of the plumes solidified into human form. These slipped stealthily down the drainpipes and sank through solid brickwork to emerge at the street level in the narrow walkway between two stores. One of them, a white male in a black jacket, took the lead, directing his associates out of the rain.
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