She's No Faerie Princess (31 page)

find the right scribbles to tell the amulets 'shove off.'"

Walker deciphered that breathless ramble—frighteninglyquickly if he'd stopped to think about it—and swore. Loudly.

"You were right," he said. "The demon is trying to break free from the summoner, and it thought the way to do that would be to feed on something a little more potent than a human."

Fiona looked equally grim. "That's what it sounds like." She turned back to the imp. "Where did the amulet comefrom, Squick? Did you find out anything else about it?"

"Some-some. The demons don't likes it 'cause it look like

the sun, all goldy and sparkly. And the center they says got a big, big rock in it. One of them kinds that looks all dark and rainbowy. They likes the rock, but not the rest." He swished his arrow-tipped tail. "Some says it come from home, a long, long, long, long, long time ago."

"Home? From Faerie?"

Walker needed to break her of that bad habit—callinganyplace but right next to him home.

"Yup. A kings used it in the fights, they says, and it made

the demons stop and do whatever he says to 'em."

Fiona's eyes widened. "So the amulet isn't summoningthem, but it allows the summoner to control them. Butwhy would it be necessary for a summoner to use anamulet? The control of the demons is part of their art."

A very disturbing idea began to niggle the edges of

Walker's mind. "But what if the amulet was powerfulenough to allow someone who
 
isn't
 
a summoner to callthe demons? Someone who normally wouldn't have theskill. That person would need help to keep them in line,even if he figured out a way to call them."

"But they're demons. They need to be forced to do what you want them to. That's why there are summoners in the first place. It's not like any Tom, Dick, or Harry can just say, 'Hey, demon! Get over here!' and one shows up. You've got to have really strong magic to keep control of a demon. That's why there are so few summoners around."

Squick nodded meaningfully. "Any summoner what can'tcontrols the demons end up a magician kebab."

"It also doesn't help their population that the only demons who usually hang around and listen to a summons are ones who are looking for a quick snack. I'm pretty certain that the abundance of things like Faerie wards around the borders of this plane and sunlight
 
on
 
this plane keep all but the hungriest and most reckless of them from letting anyone learn their true names."

"I admit I'm not the demon expert here," Walker said, "but I know a few things about the way magic works in this world. From what I've always heard about demons, they're constantly looking for ways to get back into our plane. Have been ever since your ancestors kicked them out. The only reason they haven't found more ways in is because of those wards. But wards don't work against something that's been invited."

"Summoning isn't really an invitation. It's more like a

command."

"Yeah, I get that," he nodded, "and from what I hear, that pisses the average demon off. They get to come to our world, but they have to be at the beck and call of some maniac of a magician. So don't you think the idea of answering an invitation rather than an imperial summons would sound pretty appealing? After all, if they got through the barriers without being bound to some summoner, I bet this place would look a lot like a demon's idea of an all-you-can-eat buffet."

Fiona stopped, as if she needed a second to let her mindcatch up with his reasoning. "You mean someone whoisn't a summoner invites the demons in and then… tricksthem?"

"Like a mousetrap. From the evidence our friends so far have presented us with, the species doesn't strike me as all that bright. All the summoner needs to call it is its name and a few simple spell components, and Tess told me earlier that lists of names are passed around in the community like code words. They don't worry about humans getting ahold of them, because humans can't do magic. But if someone had an amulet like this, if they learned a name and placed the call, they could actually manage a summoning. The demon would see the opportunity for a free meal, take the bait, cross into our world, and
 
wham
 
! All of a sudden it's not a free ride, because the first course turns out to have a piece of jewelry that works better than any spell to keep demon appetites in line."

"Oh my Goddess," she breathed. "It almost makes sense. That's why I couldn't read most of the glyphs. I was trying to read them like a spell, but there wasn't a spell attached to them. There's magic, sure, but it's a totally different

kind."

By this point, Squick was jumping up and down on thebed like a miniature two-year-old with ADHD. "I gotsmore!" He waited until they looked back at him, thenpuffed his chest out and continued. "I hears all kinds ofstuff when I Below, Miss Fiona. I sneaked real good andmaked sure no ones seed me. I gots real close when Iseed demons talking together in their nasty demon ways.

I heared stuff. There is rumors down there that would turnyour stomach over like a pancakes."

"What kind of rumors?" Walker demanded.

The imp ignored him. Pointedly.

"What kind of rumors, Squick?" Fiona asked.

"The kinds that says something big is coming soon," he hurried to answer, glancing sideways at Walker to be sure the Lupine had noticed. "I heard demons say they was gonna come above and gather up some strength before they does the real baddie-bad stuff."

"I wonder what they consider bad if none of this

qualifies?" Walker muttered.

"The
 
point
," Squick said, glaring at Walker before he remembered he wanted to ignore him, "is that if the demons gonna do baddie-bad stuff just 'cause they wanna do it, they gots to know a way to make it so the amulet won't bother 'em no more."

Fiona looked at Walker, her eyes wide and troubled. "Ithink he's right."

"Of course I is right." The imp crossed his arms over his

chest and preened. "Now what is you gonna do about it?"

Walker leaned forward and glared at the creature, who,he was discovering, was a big ball of obnoxious crammedinto a tiny red package. "Watch it, pipsqueak. Showbetter manners to your princess."

"Don't threaten Squick. It was an honest question." When the imp stuck his tongue out at Walker, Fiona turned the look in his direction. "Even if it was rudely phrased."

At least she was an equal-opportunity scold.

Walker snorted. "What? You're supposed to go stand infront of a rampaging demon and tell him you'd reallyprefer it if he didn't break the hold of his magicaloppressors and go on a bloody rampage through thepopulation of Manhattan?"

She smiled. "Relax,
 
mo fáell
. I'm not planning on turningkamikaze on you. In fact, my plan was to call inreinforcements." She turned to Squick. "Have you toldany of this to Babbage yet?"

The imp snorted. "Why I stop to tell that puny pixie? Hearen't nobody important."

Squick glanced over at Walker when he said that. Toinclude him in the group of the unimportant, apparently. Walker just glared back, which made him feel ridiculous. He was fighting with an imp who had the maturity level ofa toddler and the grammatical skills of a non-native-speaking toddler with brain damage. What the hell hadhappened to him?

"Have you spoken to him since the other morning?" Fiona

asked.

"Nope, I hasn't. I's been busy getting all this super-duper informations for you, Miss Fiona. I not have time to talk to no pixies."

Walker saw Fiona's frown. "Is there a problem?"

"I'm not sure. I just would have expected to hear back from him by now. Or for him to at least have gotten a message to me or to Squick."

"Oh, he wouldn't talks to me, Miss Fiona. He hate me almost half as much as I hates him." The imp gave a broad shrug. "He probably gone back to Faerie for to tattle to the queen on how we isn't supposed to be here."

Fiona didn't look convinced. "But I sent out a call. Youanswered, and you were Below. He should haveresponded right about when you did."

Walker put a hand on her shoulder. "After everythingthat's happened lately, I don't blame you for worrying. Would it make you feel better if I went out and looked forhim?"

"Only if I went with you."

He stared at her for a long moment, then sighed whenshe merely stared back. "You're getting ready to tell methat if I'm going, you're going, right?"

"Right."

"So it would be a really big waste of time for me to ask you to stay here where I know you're safe and let me do the missing pixie search."

"Colossal."

Grimacing, Walker pushed himself off the bed andreached out a hand to help Fiona to her feet. "Just solong as we understand each other."

CHAPTER 23

They didn't head straight out to hunt pixies. First, Walkerhad to get in touch with Graham and give him an update. It was either that, Walker explained, or take the chance ofthe pack leader deciding to vent the frustrations of thehuman negotiations on his liver. Better to get theinformation update out of the way.

Fiona also took a minute to put out another call beforethey left, and she carried the little pouch of glass with herjust in case. She wished the call could reach all the wayto Faerie, but it seemed that whatever curse had madethe glass explode before was still forming a barrierbetween the worlds.