by R. L. King
“So you’re saying you’ve dealt with worse than this?”
“Not worse, per se…but definitely things that were in the same general area of badness.”
She shifted her gaze back to the road. “How do you do it?”
“Do what?”
“Deal with this kind of stuff. You sound so calm about it. You sound like this is the sort of thing you just…get up in the morning and handle. You fight threats that would drive most people insane—literally—and it’s just…” She snorted. “…a regular Thursday for you.”
Stone chuckled. “No. Not a regular Thursday. And I’m actually somewhat terrified right now—I’d be a fool if I weren’t. But I think I’ve got a way to answer your question.”
“Try me.”
“Well…you’re a police officer. You decided at some point in your life that you wanted to protect your town’s citizens from threats. In your case, those threats were things like murderers, rapists, drug dealers…anyone who breaks the law and hurts people or their property, right?”
“Yeah. We have a lot of cops in my family. My dad was a police detective. He was the one who inspired me to do it.”
“So, you and your partner face dangers that would frighten the average citizen—things they’d never even consider taking on under normal circumstances—because that’s your job. That’s what you swore to do, and you take that oath seriously. Yes?”
“Well, yeah. Sure.” Another sideways glance. “Are you saying you’re some kind of—what—magical policeman? Did you take an oath to deal with magical threats?”
Stone shook his head. “No. I’m not a policeman, and I didn’t take any oaths. I used to avoid this sort of thing, honestly. I hid myself away, keeping my head down, doing my research, and did my best to stay away from magical threats. I’m a bloody university professor. We’re not exactly known for our swashbuckling derring-do.”
“Except for Indiana Jones,” Verity offered from the back seat.
“Yes, well, fictional characters don’t count.” Stone leaned against the door and shrugged. “I suppose there are a couple of reasons I do it. The first is because, as anyone who knows me will tell you, my curiosity about magical phenomena is rather…”
“Pathological?” Verity suggested.
“Hush, you. I would have said ‘overdeveloped,’ but Verity’s not wrong. Whenever I encounter a magical puzzle, I can’t put it aside and forget about it. I have to know.”
“Yeah, I can see that,” Dez said. “I barely know you and that’s pretty obvious. What’s the other reason?”
Stone hesitated. “This is going to sound a bit…conceited, and I do apologize for that.”
“It’s okay. Go ahead.”
“Well…as it happens, I’m one of the more powerful mages around these days. At least among those willing to get themselves involved in these kinds of things. What that means is that I’ve probably got the best chance of dealing with something like this.”
“With great power comes great responsibility,” Verity said, chuckling. “You should see his Spider-Man suit. He looks really cute in it.”
“Verity, you’re not helping.”
“Okay, okay, you’re right. You’re more Doctor Strange anyway. Same idea, though.”
“Is it?” Dez asked.
“What, Doctor Strange?” Stone sighed. “That isn’t—”
“No. Not him. I mean—you feel like since you’ve got this power, you have an obligation to use it to help people?”
“No. Not—not exactly. I’ve been studying magic since I was a teenager. I’m bloody good at it, and I haven’t got any false modesty about that. I do want to help people—I don’t like bullies, and when something like this goes against mundanes who can’t defend themselves, it’s hardly a fair fight, is it? But it’s not an obligation, unless you count keeping the world safe from extradimensional horrors as an obligation. That’s really more self-interest, when you get down to it.”
Verity snorted. “Yeah, you go right on believing that.”
Dez glanced at the rearview mirror at Verity, and then across at Stone. “Do you mind if I ask a question that has nothing to do with magic or extradimensional horrors or murderous high school students?”
“Might be a nice change,” Stone said. He checked the speedometer, frustrated at how slow they were going even though he knew it would be foolish to go any faster in the wind and rain while towing a boat. Dez was already probably driving faster than she should be.
“It’s none of my business, so don’t answer it if you don’t want to.”
“Let’s hear it.”
She paused. “Are you two—”
“Together?” Verity asked with a grin.
“Yeah. It seems like you might be, but I can’t tell for sure.”
Stone twisted around to exchange glances with Verity. “That’s…a more complicated answer than you might think. But I suppose the short, simple one is yes.”
“Okay, fair enough.” She let out a loud breath. “I’m sorry—I’m usually not that nosy, but I’m sure you can figure out that I’m pretty scared right now. I have no idea what we’re going to find, and I’m scared shitless I’m gonna end up having to shoot one or more of those kids to keep them from coming after us. I don’t want to do that. I didn’t get into this job to shoot kids—or anybody, really. I mean, we don’t shoot people in Treadley. I’ve never even fired my weapon on the job, except for at the range.”
“It’s all right,” Stone said gently. “I can’t tell you it won’t happen, but I will tell you I’ll do everything I can to make sure it doesn’t. We’ve got magical ways to incapacitate them—ways that won’t hurt them. You shouldn’t have to shoot anyone, if we do this right.”
“If we do it right. But you said yourself you don’t even know what we’re facing.”
“I’ve got a few guesses. And if we get there soon enough, I’m hoping we’ll catch the kids before they bring anything else over. That’s the most desirable outcome at this point.”
“Assuming they’re even there. You’re not certain they are, are you? They could be in that van, driving God knows where.”
“I honestly hope they are heading off somewhere else. Because if that happens, the authorities will stop them, and hopefully apprehend them in a non-lethal way. They’ll probably get locked up under far more security than before, but at least that way they won’t be out there doing what the Lurker wants them to do.”
Dez fell silent, concentrating on the road. It had grown narrower now as they approached the turnoff leading to the Nepauhauk campground, and the rain had picked up a little. “Not looking forward to slogging through this,” she said when she made the turn. “It’s going to slow us down if we have to get all the way up that hiking trail.”
Stone wasn’t either. Despite Aubrey’s best efforts in his youth, he’d never been much of an outdoorsman, and he preferred to fight his magical threats closer to civilization if possible. “It will slow them down too, though, I hope. It might work in our favor.”
Verity gripped his shoulder from the back seat. She probably wasn’t buying his words any more than he was, but she knew him much better than Dez did.
It was a good thing they’d brought the Jeep. The road to the campground, which hadn’t been well paved under dry conditions, was now a morass of pavement chunks and mud. Stone’s rented Ford wouldn’t have had a prayer of making it to the top. As it was, Dez had to concentrate hard to keep it on the track, especially with the boat swaying back and forth behind them. A couple of times the trailer’s wheels threatened to get stuck in the mud, but she kept a slow, steady pace and managed to pull them free before they sank too deeply.
“This will be a story to tell the grandchildren,” she said with a shaky laugh. “The time Grandma fought the Great Old Ones on Thanksgiving Day.”
“Don’t forget to tell them how great the turkey was,” Verity said. “Seriously, that stuffing was awesome. Would you give me the recipe?”
“It was Walt’s grandma’s recipe,” she said. “If he says it’s okay, I’ll give it to you when we get home.”
Stone, watching her aura from the passenger seat, smiled to himself. Verity’s effort to steer the conversation toward pleasant, everyday topics had worked, if only a little bit: Dez’s aura had calmed, the red flashes of her anxiety and growing horror settling back to their baseline level. It wasn’t much, but it was something.
They drove for another fifteen minutes. It hadn’t taken nearly that long to get up to the campground last time they’d come, but between the mud, the bad visibility, and the boat wallowing behind them, they could barely manage a couple of miles per hour. Stone gripped the arms of his seat and leaned forward in an unconscious effort to make the Jeep go faster, scanning the road ahead for any fallen trees or branches that might impede their progress. When he glanced back at Verity, he guessed from her focused concentration that she was doing the same thing.
Eventually, the road widened to reveal the now-familiar cluster of wooden cabins and firepit of the first campground. Dez pulled the Jeep up next to Cabin One and shut off the engine, slumping back in her seat with a tired sigh. “That kind of driving takes a lot out of me,” she said. “Do you see anything? I don’t. Looks pretty quiet here. If they were here, wouldn’t the van from the hospital be around here somewhere?”
Stone got out, shielding his eyes against the rainfall. “They might have driven up further to one of the other campsites where they can conceal it better. We’d best get moving. It’s going to be a long walk up that trail, and we’ve still got to find the building when we get there.”
They all clustered around the Jeep’s cargo area, pulling out and donning coats and hooded rain slickers. Verity was shorter and thinner than Dez, so she swam in her borrowed gear as much as Stone did.
Dez sat on the tailgate and pulled on a pair of rubber rain boots. “Sorry I couldn’t bring you any,” she said. “I don’t think either Walt’s or mine would fit you, and trying to slog through mud in boots that don’t fit would be worse than just getting wet.”
“Get your weapons,” Stone told her. “Keep your shotgun ready. I hope you won’t need it, but I don’t want you to be defenseless if something attacks us.”
Dez didn’t look happy about it, but she took the shotgun and a pistol in a leather belt holster from the locked box. She strapped the pistol around her waist and stuck several boxes of shells and ammo in her pockets. Then she handed a pair of aluminum baseball bats to Stone and Verity. “Just in case,” she said. “I hope the boys don’t notice them missing.” She pointed at the one she’d given Verity. “That one you’ve got is Noah’s lucky bat—the one he used to hit a winning homer in Little League last year. He’ll be upset if it gets lost. I looked for his other one, but it wasn’t there. I guess he took it in his room.”
“We’ll make sure to get it back to him,” Verity said. “He’s a good kid. You must be proud of him.”
“I’m proud of both of them. I’m amazed Walt got them to go to their rooms after all this craziness, actually.”
“Well, he did say he gave them pie. From what that smelled like, I don’t blame them for going just about anywhere for it.”
“Come on,” Stone said, reluctant to interrupt their conversation—keeping Dez as calm as possible would benefit them all—but impatient to get going. “We can talk on the trail.”
Dez hesitated. “Why did you have us bring the boat if we’re not going to use it?”
“I hope we don’t have to. As I said—just being careful.” Stone glanced across the campground. The lake, gray and choppy under the steely, cloud-choked sky, was barely visible through the skeletal trees. “I wonder if they’ve even got any way to get out on the water. I doubt they’re going to swim—not in this. And without a decent-size boat they’ve got no chance of performing a ritual out there.”
Dez’s eyes widened. “Is that what you think they’re going to do? Perform a ritual in the water?”
“I hope not. Remember, if our information is correct, the kids aren’t summoning the master. They’re summoning the creatures that will summon him. I’m guessing that has to be done near where the Lurker is. If we get to them soon enough, we can prevent that part. That’s what we’re trying to do. Come on.”
Stone and Dez headed off toward the trail, but Verity didn’t follow them.
“Wait!”
“What is it?” Stone asked, turning back. “Verity, we’ve got to—”
She held up a hand. “I heard something. Be quiet a second.”
Tensing, Stone returned to stand next to her, craning his ears to detect any unusual sounds beyond the faint rustle of falling rain and the creak of the trees in the light wind. He shifted to magical sight and scanned the area. Were the Ordo men hiding in the forest, waiting for something to happen?
Someone sneezed.
“Did you hear that?” Verity demanded, swiveling her head around and pointing back toward the Jeep. “It sounds like it came from that direction.”
“I did hear it,” Stone said grimly, scanning with magical sight again, trying to spot any concealed figures in the trees.
But something was odd. The sneeze hadn’t sounded deep enough to be a man. A woman? The Ordo had never included women historically, but nowadays—
The sneeze came again, high and abruptly cut off. But this time, with all three of them listening, the direction it had come from was obvious.
Stone, Verity, and Dez exchanged horrified glances.
The sneeze had come from beneath the cover of the boat.
“Oh, no, God, no…” Dez moaned. She dashed over and unhooked the rear of the cover, flinging it back to reveal the interior.
A small, blond figure sat huddled underneath. Round, miserable blue eyes looked up at them from a tear-streaked face.
Dez gasped. “Oh, my God—Noah!”
24
“H-hi, Mom,” Noah Griffith murmured in a shaky voice. “I’m sorry…I got sick back here…”
“Oh, God…” she moaned again. “Noah, what have you done…?”
Stone had already leaped up to climb inside the boat, trying not to show his dismay. “Come on,” he said to the boy. “Let’s get you out of there.” He offered a hand.
Noah took it after a moment, looking scared and still miserable. He wore a down coat, knit cap, jeans, and Nike basketball shoes, and clutched a chipped aluminum baseball bat in his gloved hands.
Stone hefted him, none too gently, and swung him over the boat’s edge into his mother’s waiting arms. “This is not good…” he murmured, catching Verity’s gaze over top of Dez and Noah. She looked as grim as he did.
Dez was fully focused on her son. First, she pulled him into a hug so tight he protested she was hurting him, then pushed him out with a firm grip on both shoulders and glared into his tear- and dirt-streaked face. “What were you thinking?” she demanded.
“I—I wanted to h-help,” he sobbed, rubbing his eyes with balled fists. “I heard you guys talkin’. Heard them talkin’,” he added, pointing at Stone and Verity. “This mornin’. On the phone. They were talkin’ about monsters. Fightin’ monsters out here. I wanted to help.”
With a cold flash of dread, Stone realized he hadn’t used the “cone of silence” spell earlier that morning when he’d been talking to Eddie, Ward, and Blodgett—and worse, he’d put the phone on speaker when Verity arrived. He remembered passing Noah, who’d said he was on his way to the bathroom, in the hall after they left the guest room. How much had the boy heard?
“Noah…” Dez’s voice shook with a myriad of emotions: anger, frustration, worry, terror. “Where do I even start? You know it’s dangerous to ride in the boat when it’s on the trailer! If something happened, you could have been killed! And why would you even think to try coming along with me when I’m doing police stuff? Come on, Noah, you know better than that!”
Noah’s face fell and he dissolved into sobs. “I’m sorry, Mom…” he blubbered. “I
’m sorry…I didn’t think. I just wanted to h-help! And then when you started movin’, I realized it was a stupid idea but it was too late to get out!” He flung his arms around his mother, his shoulders shaking. “And I got sick in the boat!” he wailed.
Stone and Verity exchanged glances.
“Dez…” Stone said gently. “We’ve got to go. We can’t wait any longer. Why don’t you and Noah wait here in the Jeep, and we’ll go on—”
“No! I’m not letting you go up there alone.” She pulled back from Noah again and glared at them.
“I…don’t see how we’ve got a choice. We can’t bring Noah along, and I don’t imagine you want to leave him here alone…”
Dez glared at Stone again, then back at Noah, obviously fighting an interior struggle against an unsolvable dilemma. “Darn it, Noah, I’m very angry with you right now!”
“I know, Mama…” The boy’s voice sounded younger now. “I don’t want to stay here by myself. I’m scared.”
“What about that convenience store down the road?” Verity asked. “Maybe we could—”
“It was closed,” Stone said. “I noticed as we passed.”
“But they have a phone, right? We could break in—”
“I don’t think we’ve got time,” Stone said. He pulled out his phone, hoping he might have service, but no luck.
Verity and Dez did the same thing, with the same result.
“What do we do, then?” Verity asked. “We need to get up there and find those kids, but—”
“Dez, I’m sorry,” Stone said. “I know you wanted to come along, but we’ve got to go. It’s going to take us at least an hour to get up that trail, and—”
“Doc?” Verity’s voice sounded suddenly strained.
“What is it?”
She pointed out toward the lake. “Do you see that?”
He followed her gesture, but saw nothing but the same dark trees, rain, and choppy gray water. “I don’t—”
