Long Hot Summoning (18 page)

“You’ve taken me as far as we agreed. You don’t have to go on.”

“like I’m supposed to go back to the other wizard and tell her I ditched her kid sister just when things got tough? Fuck you.”

“Okay. I mean, you’re right,” Diana corrected herself hurriedly, hoping the flush she could feel would be taken as the result of strenuous exfoliation. “Then if it’s just meat-minds on guard, we’ll go around them. If it’s something else, then
that
could tell us what I need to know. I wish I’d been able to get a look under that dark elf’s helm.”

“Before you slagged him?”

“Not much point after.” She glanced toward the washroom door. “There’s not going to be a lot of cover out there.”

“No shit. You’d think they’d leave all that sunshine for the end. Doesn’t evil usually prefer darkness and all?”

“Common mistake. Evil doesn’t care. The thing you’ve got to remember about evil,” she murmured, falling into step just behind the other girl’s left shoulder as they headed for the door, “is that it’s an un-apologetic opportunist. It’ll move in wherever there’s an opening.”

The smell of fresh coffee wafted up the short hall.

The black clothes made them stand out against the pale green tiles like . . .

. . .
like licorice in mints, like cow patties in the grass, like Goths in a flower
shop, like the wipeout from the wand caused permanent brain damage. What’s up
with Analogies R Us?

Diana forced herself to pay attention just as Kris said, “I don’t see anyone . . .

anything. Let’s go.”

They turned left, away from the food court, staying close to the lockers and then ducking low to cross the open front of the sporting goods store. Diana thought she saw a rack of torture implements as they passed-which was actually encouraging because she was fairly certain such stores didn’t usually stock thumb screws in with their free weights in the real world.
Although it certainly explained that whole no
pain, no gain thing.
Vaguely human shapes moved around in the big drugstore across the hall and she could only hope they were part of a darkside patrol. Customers, even faint images of customers, would be bad. Not that a darkside patrol would be exactly good. . . .

Kris’ grip on her arm dragged her attention back to their more immediate concern-the length of corridor they had to cover unseen in order to get to the Emporium. The two planters and four benches provided the only cover. But, on the bright side, the corridor was empty except for those two planters and four benches.

Nothing ventured . . .
Diana shrugged free, dashed forward, dropped as she passed the first planter, slid the last five feet to the bench, and rolled under it at the last instant.

“What do you think you’re doing,” Kris growled into her ear a moment later.

Diana turned and tried not to think about the confined conditions pressing them cheek to cheek. “I was thinking that the Emporium wasn’t going to get any closer and the longer we waited the more risk of someone coming through the food court and spotting us.” So not the time to say something like
“You smell incredible.”

“Next time, warn a person!”

“I thought you might protest . . .”

“Yeah. Good call.”

“... and we didn’t have time.”

The lights were off in the travel agency and a handwritten sign taped to the cracked window said only, “Closed for Renovations.” A poster advertising London at $549, Berlin at $629, and Gehenna at $666 was the only other visible indication that the store had ever been used. Either she’d really done some serious damage when she smacked the travelers back or they were too close to segue for any more tours to be booked. The Tailer of Gloucester still had bits off animal butts hanging in the window, so hopefully it was the former not the later.

Hopefully
and
animal bits;
not the sort of things that usually showed up in the same thought.

“Next bench,” she murmured against Kris’ skin. “You’ve got to go first.” Kris’ reply was essentially unintelligible although the sarcasm came through loud and clear. Out from under the bench, she pushed herself up into a sprinter’s start, and disappeared from Diana’s line of sight.

Diana followed half a heartbeat behind, put a little too much push on the final slide, and would have gone right past the bench had strong hands not grabbed a double handful of clothes and yanked her sideways. Her face impacted at the join of shoulder and neck, her nose connecting painfully with Kris’ collarbone.

“Is this the place?”

Blinking away tears, she lifted her head as far as the bench allowed. In the short time since they’d crossed over, the Emporium had come to look almost identical to the store in the original mall. “This is it.”

The corridor was still empty. But then, why wouldn’t it be? Why would the darkness bother running patrols this deep inside their own territory? They were a lot safer here than they’d been out in the lower concourse.

“I’m going to take a closer look.”

“We’re going inside?”

“We have to. We haven’t actually learned anything yet.”

“I’ve learned that you got no sense of self-preservation. I’m not going in there.”

“Good. You keep watch.” She was out from under the bench on her hands and knees before Kris could stop her, then quickly crawled across to the window for a careful glance inside. The window display was pretty much as she remembered it and so was the stock beyond. In the back corner . . . She shuffled forward just far enough to get a better angle. In spite of other changes, the mirror remained the Otherside edition, thick silvered glass in an antique wooden frame. She couldn’t see any indication of Jack but figured he was probably watching the other store.

Dropping back below the window ledge, Diana crawled to the edge of the open door and, lying down, peered around the corner. No troll. Not even the shadowy suggestion of customers. Better still, no wards keeping people from entering-although the exit wards were still in place and would need to be dealt with later.

She flashed a quick thumbs-up back at Kris-who did
not
look happy-and slipped over the threshold into the store. The fairies on a stick had been marked down and the frogs in military uniforms had been joined by newts in science fiction costumes.

Who buys this stuff?
she wondered crawling toward the back. The newts were a little weirder than even she could cope with. Skirting the rubber snakes, she sat back on her heels and peered up at the mirror. “Pssst, Jack!” The blue-on-blue eyes appeared almost instantly. “Where the hell have you been?”

“At the other end of the mall.”

“Doing what?”

“Getting caught in time distortions and fighting off a pack of traveling meat-minds. It’s not like I forgot you or anything; this is the first time I’ve been able to get back.”

“They know you’re here.”

“Here, here? Like here and now? Or just in the mall here?” Faint blue frown lines appeared as he worked that out. “In the mall.”

“Well, gee, that alarm we set off probably had something to do with that.”

“You th . . . Who’s that?”

Diana jumped as Kris’ hand came down on her shoulder. “You’re talking to a mirror?”

“You’re turning into an elf?”

“Yeah. Okay. Fine. Your point.”

“I thought you weren’t coming in?”

“You were taking too long.”

“Hey!”

Both girls looked up.

“You want to save that? This is not a place you should be hanging around.” Diana nodded. “You’re right. We’ve got to go farther in.” Jack’s eyes widened. “Are you nuts?”

“Exactly what I keep asking,” Kris muttered. “But she’s not answering me.”

“Look, both of you, we’re on a scouting mission, trying to find out who or what we’re dealing with darksidewise, and so far, we have found out nothing. There’s nobody around. Nobody lurking. Nobody skulking. Nada. I keep going until I get a look at something. No farther . . .” She raised her hands as both Jack and Kris began to protest. “. . . so I don’t cut off my escape route. Unless . . .” Locking eyes with Jack. “. . . you’ve got new information for me.”

“About who’s behind this?”

“Well, yeah.”

“No. He’s never come out this far, but I have heard a compelling kind of voice coming out of the storeroom, so he could have been there.”

“A compelling kind of voice?” Diana repeated. “What does that mean?”

“A voice that compels. A voice belonging to the kind of guy who could put all this . . .” His eyes rolled around the mirror. “... in motion.”

“If not
the
big cheese; one of?”

“That’d be my guess.”

“Okay, I’ll check the storeroom for residual energy.”

“Be careful. If you access the possibilities, they’ll know exactly where you are.”

“Really?” She frowned at the mirror. “I never would have remembered something so crucial to my own survival.”

“Well, excuse me for being concerned.”

“Sorry. It’s a polarity thing. They’re bad, I’m good. Opposites attract. Good can, therefore, track evil, no accessing of the possibilities necessary.” Turning to Kris she nodded at the storeroom door. “You coming with?”

“Not so fast.” The mall elf held up a cautioning hand. “Good can track evil?”

“Yeah.”

“Then evil can track good. Can track you.”

“Only if they know I’ve been there. But unless they walk in
while
I’m there, why would they know that?”

“You make it sound so easy,” Kris snorted. “And we both know it isn’t.”

“Well, yeah. But why make it harder than it has to be? You don’t have to come . . .”

“Right. Again with the ditching as things get tough; not going to happen.”

“Good.”

“Yeah, good.”

Still on her hands and knees, Diana headed for the storeroom, not entirely certain if anything had actually been resolved.

The storeroom seemed empty of anything relevant although it was difficult to tell with all the basilisk sculpture stacked along the walls. She walked to one end then zigzagged her way back. Nothing. No sign of major evil. No minor evil. Not even a hint of metaphysical PMS.

“Where is everyone?” she demanded, yanking at the locked drawers of the filing cabinet. “This is nuts!”

Kris snorted, leaned back against the door, and folded her arms. “Stress much?

Look you’ve got to get a bit more relaxed.”

“No. I’ve got to get farther in.”

“Yeah.” The mall elf sighed. “I knew you’d say that.” Abandoning the files, Diana crossed to stand in front of Kris, her eyes narrowed. “You don’t have to . . .”

“. . . come with, I knew you’d say that, too.” She straightened, then leaned slightly forward, capturing Diana’s gaze with hers and holding it. “Now, what am
I
going to say?”

Hopefully not “get your hands off me you lezzy pervert.”
Their faces were so close together, their breath mingled.

Diana moved just a little bit closer.

As first kisses went, it was kind of a nonevent, but no noses ended up out of alignment, no teeth got cracked, and Kris seemed, if not enthusiastic, at least receptive. Diana would have considered it a promissory kiss except she knew the danger in foreshadowing.

“You’re thinking,” she said quietly, “that you’d rather be with me than waiting here in the storeroom all alone.”

Kris nodded, her expression confusingly noncommittal. “Close enough.” Reminding herself that closing the segue and saving the world had to remain at the top of her to-do list, that she and Kris were now literally from two different worlds, that she was an idiot, Diana stepped back, turned, and cracked open the door to the access corridor. Her line of sight was limited, but she couldn’t hear anyone-or anything-hanging about. When Kris moved up close behind her, a crystal shot glass in the B cup of her slingshot, she opened the door the rest of the way.

The access corridor was just as she remembered it, an empty concrete tunnel; although a little darker and a little smellier and the stains seemed to be from something a lot less pleasant than merely urine. Going left would take them back into the mall. Right would take them behind the construction barrier.

Which was where they needed to go.

Touching Kris lightly on the arm, Diana pointed to the right. The mall elf nodded and moved out in front, silently indicating it was the best place for the person with the missile weapon to be. Given that the alternative would be the perfect setup for a shot glass in the back of the head, Diana decided not to argue.

Moving silently, they slipped along the wall and around the corner.

Unfortunately, the meat-minds were waiting just as silently.

The shot glass thudded into the middle of an approaching body without slowing it down.

“Run!”

It wasn’t meat-minds behind them, cutting them off. Meat-minds didn’t move that quickly or look that dangerous.

Hanging from the taloned grip of her captor, Diana shot a glance at Kris who had finally worn herself out and was dangling quietly. Nothing they’d been able to do had had any effect on the grip of the long legged, multijointed, vaguely buglike bad guys, so she’d stopped’ Struggling early on and tried to memorize the path they’d taken down past the construction barrier and into this ornate and, frankly, overdone throne room. Walls of etched gold, a floor of polished marble, the heads of various creatures displayed on wooden plaques, torches-who used torches in the twenty-first century?

Her nose was bleeding again. All she could do was let it drip.

Claws skittering against gleaming black stone, the two bug things carried them toward the massive jeweled throne and the silver-haired man who sat on it, one elegantly clad leg crossed over the other. He smiled, showing very white teeth as they were dropped unceremoniously to the floor, and then leaned forward with pale hands spread in a mock welcoming gesture.

“I knew you would come to me eventually, Keeper.” Diana bunked, took a second to make sure Kris was moving, and sat up to find cold, corpse-gray eyes staring down at her with triumphant familiarity. “Right,” she said, wiping her nose on her sleeve. “Who are you?”
EIGHT