by Tanya Huff
“Hey! I was just checking to see if you packed my hairball medicine!”
“You don’t have hairball medicine.” She pulled out a second tuna sandwich. The wrapping had been holed and a fair bit of the tuna excavated. “You have your own food!”
“Yeah? So?” He licked down a bit of ruffled fur. “You going to eat that? I mean, since it’s kind of covered in cat spit…”
Diana sighed and handed over the sandwich.
“You shouldn’t let him get away with that kind of behavior.”
As Sam retreated to the edge of the firelight, she turned a pointed look on her sister. “Like you’re the expert. Austin totally runs your life.”
“Austin and I have an understanding.”
“Yeah, that he runs your life.”
“A reconnaissance mission has merit,” Arthur announced suddenly. From his tone, Diana assumed he’d done some thinking about it while she’d been dealing with Sam. “But are either of you well enough to go? Both of you were injured in the recent battle; perhaps two of my scouts…”
“No.” Claire was using her don’t-even-bother-arguing-with-me voice. “It has to be one of us. Your people can’t see what we need to know.”
“And I’m fine,” Diana broke in. “Headache’s mostly gone, I had a nice nap, I have two working arms…it has to be me.”
Claire nodded agreement. “You’re right.”
“And Claire obviously got hit on the head and we never noticed.”
Arthur turned an anxious expression on the older Keeper, but she waved him off. “Diana’s just trying to be funny.”
“Now is not the time.”
Apparently a sense of humor was not a requirement to be an Immortal King. “Sorry.” The apology slipped out before Diana remembered that Keepers never apologized.
Still suitably serious, Arthur nodded. “Then, as you request, Kris will accompany you. She has been into enemy territory many times and is therefore your best chance to not only get in but get out again.”
“Out again, that’s the tricky part,” Kris muttered.
“When should this…” He stumbled a bit over the shortened word. “…recon mission take place?”
Claire held out her good arm. The hands of her watch continued to spin wildly. “As soon as possible.”
Kris rose fluidly to her feet. “I’m good.” She raked a critical gaze over Diana’s clothes as the younger Keeper stood. “You’ll have to change. Dark colors, nothing to catch the light.”
“I brought jeans.”
She gestured back into the store, her rings glittering in the firelight. “We’ll find you something better.”
* * *
“You should have been there last night, Austin, those guys kicked tall ass!” Dean stepped back from hanging a signed picture of the team on the wall of the office and turned to grin at the cat. “You missed a great game.”
“I also missed being smuggled into the arena in a gym bag,” Austin muttered without lifting his head from his front paws. “Pass.”
Before Dean could answer, the phone rang.
“If it’s three bears,” the cat announced as Dean’s hand closed around the receiver, “tell them we’re full. That one only ever ends well for the bears.”
* * *
Black leggings, black tank, black zip-up sweatshirt, black socks, black canvas fanny pack, black leather driving gloves—Diana wore her own hightops and drew the line at using a black lipstick as camouflage paint. The line stayed drawn for about fifteen seconds.
“So you’re not as pale as your sister…” Finished wrapping the last of her dreadlocks up into one long tail, Kris reached for the tube. “…you’ll still show up in the shadows.”
“I’m a Keeper…”
“And I know what I’m doing. Hold still.”
* * *
“I’m sorry, Sam, but you can’t come.”
His eyes narrowed, flaying Diana with amber scythes. “You’re ditching me so you can be alone with your new friend, aren’t you?”
“No!” She dropped to one knee and beckoned him closer. “Look, I’m really worried about Claire. She’s not used to being without Austin. I mean, one of those meat-minds actually hit her with his little concrete bag thing. How weird is that? Claire never gets hurt. I’m afraid of what might happen to her if there’s no cat around at all.”
Sam snorted. “What a load of crap.”
“Fine; I need someone here who can remind Claire that she’s not always right, that this was my Summoning. I’d rather you were with me, but I don’t want her screwing things up from this end.”
He thought about it for a moment. “Okay, that one I’ll buy. Be careful.”
“You, too. Remember, she gets cranky when she’s crossed.”
“Please, if Austin can handle her, how hard can it be?”
* * *
They took the first set of stairs down to the lower level, past a pair of elves standing guard who might have been fifteen in the outside world but here were becoming ageless.
“It’s sort of neutral territory between these stairs and the next ones,” Kris murmured as they descended toward the lower concourse. “The meat-minds never go much farther than the stairs they chased you and your sister up, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t some nasty shit hanging around. There’re a few storefronts you don’t want to get too close to.”
“In a way that’s a good thing.”
“Yeah? I doubt you’ll think that when the pieces start rolling out of the Body Shop.”
Pieces. Body Shop. Evil was remarkably literal-minded at times.
“You smell something like a seaweed emulsion,” Kris continued, “you haul ass. You hear me?”
“What’s a seaweed emulsion smell like?”
“Dead fish and seagull shit.”
“Okay.” Diana took a vigorous sniff but could only smell the perfume/plastic mix of the lipstick smeared all over her face. And maybe, just maybe something warm and spicy and slightly intoxicating rising off Kris which she was going to work very hard at not thinking about until they were safely back in King Arthur’s Court.
King Arthur’s Court. A legless armchair at a metaphorical fire. Somehow, and she had no idea how, that wasn’t as lame as it should have been.
Two more steps. “Looking at the bright side, continuing weirdness means there’s still some time before the segue. The more normal this place is, the closer the bad guys are to success.”
“Yeah, well, if it’s all the same to you, I’m gonna worry about what’s going down before the muzak starts play…Fuck.” She spat the profanity between clenched teeth.
“What?”
They were standing at the west end of the lower concourse. Behind them, what should have been another entrance to the department store the elves had claimed was, instead, a solid wall of glass. Diana could barely make out the barricade beyond it. To their right, a Mr. Jockstrap. Sporting goods. She tried to remember if the original mall held a store by that name but couldn’t. In a world with Condom Shack franchises, she supposed it was possible. The lights were low, the only sound the bass beat of a fast hip-hop track pulsing down from the upper level. Nothing looked particularly dangerous.
“It’s night.”
“Okay.”
“He’s here at night.”
“Who?”
“Some old security dude.”
Diana felt a chill run down her spine and really hoped it was a gust from the air-conditioning. “Walks with a limp? Kind of weaves his head from side to side like a snapping turtle? Mutters things like lithe and lissome?”
“I never seen a snapping turtle, but that sounds like the guy.”
“But he’s not in this mall, he’s in the other mall. The real mall.”
“Yeah? Well, he gets around. Don’t let him catch you in his flashlight beam. He nails you with that and you’re gone.”
“Gone?”
“Gone.” Kris rolled her eyes impatiently. “Speak English much? Gone. N
ot here. Now come on, we got some distance to cover.”
They stayed to the darker shadows of the kiosks and the potted trees; Kris leading, Diana half a pace behind doing her best to mimic the other girl’s economical movements. Their path led down the center of the concourse until they neared the second set of stairs when Kris began to veer left. She tucked into the rectangular shadow of the last storefront before a side corridor and motioned for Diana to join her.
“Shoe stores are safe,” she whispered in answer to Diana’s silent question, her mouth close to the Keeper’s ear. “What’s gonna come out? They watch these stairs,” she continued, softening her esses. “It’s why we couldn’t use them. We have to get to that hall up there. Where the sign for the security office is.”
The sign was across the side corridor and four storefronts farther east.
“We used to come down through the store at the end there…” A quick jerk of Kris’ head, the motion felt rather than seen they were so close together, indicated the corridor. “…another big one, like ours, but lately it’s been locked at night. Good thing we didn’t fuckin’ risk it.”
“Because it’s night.”
The elfin captain patted Diana lightly on one cheek. “Can’t put nothing past you Keepers.”
Diana felt her face heat up under its mask of lipstick. The store locked at night could only mean reality had found another foothold, but she decided not to mention that at the risk of being thought obvious as well as dense. She watched as Kris dropped to her belly and inched forward toward the corridor along the angle of floor and wall. Was she supposed to follow?
Apparently not.
Just as she began to seriously consider dropping to her knees, Kris began to back up. Feet under her, into a crouch, standing…warm breath against Diana’s ear. She clenched her hands to keep from shivering.
“It’s clear. Move fast, don’t make any noise, and try to look as little like a person as you can.”
“What?”
“If they see you, you want to leave some doubt about what they’re seeing.”
That made sense. Although “look as little like a person as you can” didn’t. Not in any useful sort of a way.
“All right. Let’s…”
shunk kree, shunk kree
Kris slammed back against her as a line of light split the concourse.
He was coming from the west. From the same direction they had. He’d been behind them the whole time.
shunk kree, shunk kree
Unable to use the possibilities, even in the minimal way she had in the original mall, Diana was left feeling like she imagined Bystanders must feel all the time. Helpless. Angry. Vaguely pathetic. How did they manage? Kris’ back pressed hard against her, warm and comfortingly solid. It helped. The cold glass and dark store behind her didn’t.
Shoe store, she reminded herself as the light swept through the shadows under the stairs. What could possibly come out of a shoe store.
Actually, she could think of a few things.
None of them good.
All of them the last thing she should be thinking about right now.
shunk kree, shunk kree
She was listening so hard to the sound of the security guard shuffling down the concourse that she didn’t hear the music start inside the shoe store. By the time she noticed, it had already reached the chorus.
These boots are made for walking…
And over the faint, tinny music, another sound. Heels. Rhythmically hitting cheap carpet.
Diana winced. That can’t possibly be good.
SIX
CLAIRE WATCHED DIANA follow Kris past the guard and almost instantly disappear into the shadows of the concourse. She should have been visible longer, even dressed like a department store ninja, but this was the Otherside and the usual rules of perspective and perception didn’t always apply. Their farewells had been short…
“Remember you’re only gathering information.”
“My Summons, Claire.”
“Just be careful!”
“Well, duh.”
…and now all she could do was wait. And gather what information she could from talking to Arthur’s scouts. And help secure this end of the mall against another attack. And find an exit that could show her what was happening outside because there might be something there she could use. And check the lock Diana had set during the battle. And lock any of the other storefronts the elves didn’t actually use; the damage had sounded extensive, but the travel agency could be up and running again at any time.
But mostly, wait.
For her little sister to return safely from enemy territory.
Claire envied the other Keepers—all the other Keepers—who had no siblings and would never know how it felt allowing the person who’d taken their first steps with chubby fingers wrapped around yours to walk blithely into danger when every instinct screamed, “Stay here where it’s safe. I’ll do it,” no matter who logic declared was the better choice for the job.
If something happened?
She had a brief, horrid vision of explaining the situation to their parents. Infinitely worse than trying to explain how she’d only turned her head for an instant and two-year-old Diana had eaten the entire tube of yellow poster paint.
And vomited it up on the white wool rug.
So nothing would happen. Nothing bad. This was the Otherside; all she had to do was hold tight to that belief.
Holding tight, she returned to the fire and sank down on her cushion beside Arthur’s empty chair. First, she’d talk to the elves who’d raided the food court earlier in the evening. They’d have the most recent information about that end of the mall. Arthur would know who they were.
As though her thoughts had called him, he appeared, walking around the fire with the loose-limbed self-confidence of a young man who’d never been called geek, who’d never had a girl turn him down for a date, who was captain of both the football team and the debating club…Claire shook her head and rewound the thought. He was walking with the confidence of a young man wearing a huge, mythical sword strapped to his back. A huge, mythical sword he knew how to use.
“I have sent word to Bounce and Daniel that you wish to speak to them.” Arthur sank into his chair and flipped his hair back off his face. “They’ll be here shortly.”
“Are they out scavenging again?”
“No. They’re taking advantage of the darkness to…” He finished the sentence with an incomprehensible gesture.
“To?” Was he blushing? He was. The Immortal King had turned an uncomfortable looking shade of deep crimson. Suddenly, Claire got it. “Oh. To…” She repeated the gesture. “They’re being safe, right? I mean, these kids didn’t come from the best of backgrounds and you have no idea of what I’m talking about, do you?”
“They’re in no danger.”
“Okay.” Probably best to leave it at that. Feeling, well, old in the face of Arthur’s embarrassment, Claire searched for a less loaded topic. “So, the darkness—I’m a little surprised it’s lasted this long. Time’s been moving fairly quickly up until now.”
“The darkness last as long as the fire does.”
Were it not for the implications of that statement, his relief would have been amusing. Claire glanced down at her watch. The second hand lay motionless over the two. “Great.” Once Diana reached the area controlled by the dark forces, she’d be moving in a totally different time. At a totally different time? Prepositions just weren’t set up for this sort of thing.
According to her watch, Dean and Austin weren’t moving at all. On the bright side, that should keep them out of trouble.
* * *
Austin poked Dean’s rigid arm with a paw and snorted. Walking around the phone, he took a closer look at the watch on the wrist below the hand holding the receiver. Stopped.
“Fortunately,” he said, trotting to the end of the counter and leaping carefully down, “time waits for no cat.”
And with any luck, the frid
ge door would be open.
* * *
The weight of a constant regard between her shoulder blades spun Claire around. “What?”
Sam blinked. “Nothing.”
“Well, stop it.”
The weight didn’t change. She turned again. “What did I say?”
“Weren’t you listening either?”
“Did Diana tell you to watch me?”
“Why would she do that?”
“Are you watching me?”
He licked his shoulder. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“A cat may look at a king,” Arthur observed, grinning.
“Yes…” Claire shifted emphatically on the cushion, feeling a bit like a butterfly on a pin. “…but he’s not looking at you.”
* * *
shunk kree, shunk kree
You can’t see me. You can’t see m…us. You can’t see us.
Diana repeated the mantra silently, hoping it would be enough. She could make it enough. The smallest act of will would slide that flashlight beam right on by. But the smallest act of will would break the Rules, strengthen the bad guys, and get her in major shit with Claire and the rest of the lineage.
So all she had was hope.
Hope, and Kris’ warm body pressed tightly against her as they squeezed into the darkest part of the shadow.
Okay. The situation wasn’t all bad.
The glass behind her shivered at a sudden impact, but the beam never wavered and the step/drag of the old man’s approach didn’t change. How had he not heard that?
“I know you’re here. Soft, round flesh not to be touched.”
shunk kree, shunk kree
Maybe he hadn’t actually crossed over. Maybe he couldn’t hear the music and the boots banging against the glass because he was walking the borderland between the world and the Otherside.
“Pliant, flexible, heated limbs. Can’t hide forever. I will find you. Oh, yes.”
