by Jae Vogel
Emily yanked on his hand and Sean tried to figure out if the object the woman held was some kind of recording device. He wanted to look at her longer as the dress she wore seemed natural and not the sort of pattern he saw anywhere around his neighborhood, where the clothing material tended toward polyester. She had the largest copper medallions dangling from her tiny ears.
Finally, Emily pulled him along and he broke contact with her eyes. Sean continued on with the rest of the group.
“You have a fiancée and don’t you forget about it,” Emily whispered into his ear.”
The girl who talked into the rectangular object watched the group vanish into a store and returned to speaking into it. “What year did you say this was? Really? I need to put this thing away because they won’t have anything like it for another twenty years. See you in five minutes.” She placed the object into a purse she carried and vanished down the hall.
Chapter 9
Hobbs, the troll who supplied Dion with so many things, was waiting for the group when they stepped into his store. It resembled any other combination book and music store with too many psychedelic posters. However, the owner could get you anything you might need to battle or control the rogue elementals who wandered in silence through the mall. Dion even had a line of credit with him.
“I was expecting you today,” Hobbs told him. “A package addressed to you arrived this morning, so it only made sense you would be by for it later in the day.”
Hobbs reached below the counter and pulled out a box with postal labels all over it. “This one came from overseas, so whoever sent it must be using a crystal ball. It has to be a good one too, because none of the ones I carry see that much detail.”
“Let’s see what’s in the box,” Dion said as Hobbs began to open it up with a letter knife.
Lilly noticed it wasn’t a regular letter opener, but one made of silver with mystic symbols on it. She guessed it came in handy if the box contained something the sender didn’t want on the run once it was free.
Emily noticed a small terrarium near the wall and went over to see what it contained. She walked over to it and looked inside. There were ten large rodents in it, but they seemed to be gathered around something in the middle. At first, she thought they might be artificial, but the creatures all turned and looked at her simultaneously. She was startled to notice they were joined at the tail.
“Don’t get too close to that tank,” Hobbs yelled to her. “They don’t like to be bothered.”
“What is it?” she asked. The rodents started to move at the same time to the other side of the aquarium. She wondered how they used the exercise wheel in the opposite end of the tank.
“A rat king. Like I said, don’t get too near to them, they get anxious around people. The man who bought it from me is supposed to pick it up today. You don’t want to know about all the regulations I had to go through to get it brought into the country. Damn customs officer acted like I wanted to import Black Death.”
The postage box was opened a few minutes later and Hobbs poured out all the packing material and picked up the shipping manifest as he pulled out the contents of the box. He carefully sat it down on the counter so everyone could look at it.
“I think I’ve seen one of these in a church,” Emily said as she went over to the counter and looked at the object.
It was about five inches tall and made out of brass. About the top of it was engraved a seven-pointed star with words around it in Greek. It was oblong and had holes punched into the top. The top portion was removable and was attached to the bottom with a series of chains. It had a small stand on it and a wooden handle on it so it could be carried across a room when in use. The top cover was to keep wind from blowing out the coals, which were placed in the bottom of the brass container.
“What is it?” Lilly asked as she bent over the object to look at it.
“It’s the censer,” Dion said. “The one for use in the fire elemental part of the mall. See? The coals go in the bottom. It doesn’t work unless lit, so I’m going to need some charcoal from you Hobbs.”
“I have just the thing,” Hobbs told him as he brought up a small package and shoved it to Dion. Next, he followed it with a pack of matches. “I know how you feel about smoking so I went out and got you some of these too. The charcoal is mixed with gunpowder so it’s self-igniting. I’ll put it on your bill.”
“Is this the kind Edward told us about?” Lilly asked him.
Dion nodded.
“You can use this against fire elementals?” Sean asked Dion. He couldn’t see how it could be used as any kind of weapon. “What happened to sacred swords and knives?”
“You pick the right tool for the right job,” Dion explained. “It just so happens this little censer is what you need to contain a fire elemental. It works on everything from random spirits to full-fledged salamanders. All I need to do is light the charcoal inside, toss in some frankincense and it will pull any fire elemental into it from a hundred foot radius. Oh, shoot.”
“What’s wrong?” Lilly said.
“I need frankincense. Do you have any, Hobbs?”
The small man vanished behind the counter and came up with a small bag of amber crystals. “I have only the best. Blessed by a holy man in a monastery outside Beirut.” He shoved it toward Dion who took the bag and placed it in the pocket of his jacket.
“Thanks, Hobbs. I wouldn’t know what to do without you.”
“Always glad to be of help.”
Dion bade his friend and supplier farewell and then left the store with his companions. They went right to the door for the passage they used to take them to Hobb’s store.
Just as before, Dion opened the door and held it for his friends to pass in front of him. He waited until they were all inside, which allowed Sean time to check for the little woman who spoke into the tiny rectangle. Dion closed it behind him as he entered it.
This time the door opened into a huge department store.
Dion and his friends looked around. People were beside them busy with their shopping as usual, and didn’t notice their sudden appearance. Dion turned around and looked behind him. Perhaps he’d grabbed the wrong door.
There was no door behind them.
“Where are we?” Lilly asked. “I didn’t even see the corridor we took the last time. What happened?”
Dion rubbed the back of his neck. “This sometimes happens. These temporal passages don’t always work like they’re supposed to work. I just hope we ended up inside the same mall we left.”
“What do you mean?” Emily said. “The door opened right up to this place.”
“These things don’t work on physical reality. They can dump you just about any place if they’re not functioning right. I’ve heard stories of people ending up in the middle of a jungle after they used one to get around in a building. The temporal authority is supposed to adjust them every month, but I’ll bet my uncle paid someone off.”
“So we don’t even know where we are,” Sean said.
“I don’t think we’re too far away from where we started,” Dion explained. “Look at the people around us; they seemed to be dressed the same way were.” He looked at his wristwatch and compared it to the one on the wall. “Same time too. I don’t think there is much to worry about.” He walked over to a lady shopping with three small children. He tapped her on the shoulder and asked for the date.
“Same date as when we last used the door,” he returned and told his friends. “We’re simply in a different part of the mall than where we want to be. All we need to do is find our way outside and I can continue on the quest. Shouldn’t be much of a problem.”
No one was familiar with the name of the department store- Crowley’s- but there were many stores inside the mall they didn’t know about. The four of them spread out and tried to figure out the best way out of the store. They were in some kind of huge furniture center where tables, chairs and desks made it hard to get around. As a matter of fact, it appear
ed the entire floor level was dedicated to furniture.
“I didn’t know there were so many bedroom sets to choose from,” Lilly said. “This place is full of them. How many levels are in this store? Are you sure we’re in the same mall?”
Dion walked over to a window and looked outside. This had to be the same place. He could even see some cars in the parking lot he recognized from the last time today he’d looked out the window. There were in the same mall at the same time of day they’d crossed through the door. He simply had no idea what part of the mall they were inside. Other than the red color, which predominated and told him they were in the section dedicated to the fire element, he didn’t know. With the map partially destroyed, there was no way to be sure.
“So no one knows where we get to the main floor,” Lilly asked Dion. “I’ve never been inside this one before, I’m guessing it’s connected somewhere to the rest of the mall, but who really knows for sure?”
“You ever been in this one?” Sean asked Emily.
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.”
