Long Hot Summoning (10 page)

A teenage boy with a big honkin‘ sword.

“Will you take refreshment?” He waved at a stack of juice boxes.

“No, thanks.” Diana pulled a bottle of water and Sam’s saucer out of a side pocket. “We brought our own. We’re not staying,” she added, as Arthur began to frown. “And we’d just as soon not have our ears sharpened.” Wrapping himself in his tail, Austin glared up at Dean. “Just so we’re both clear on this, no cuddling.”

“Maybe you shouldn’t be sleeping on Claire’s pillow, then.” Setting his glasses carefully on the bedside table, Dean reached up and turned off the light.

“Suppose I wake up lonely and confused?”

“Lonely, confused, and
lipless
if you come anywhere near me.”

“No tongue . . .”

“Because I’ll have ripped it out and batted it under the bed!”

“Good night, Austin.”

“Eating or drinking while we’re on this side, will make it more difficult for us to cross back,” Claire explained.

“I could be insulted that you refuse my hospitality, but you are of the Lineage, so I bow instead to your wisdom.” Suiting action to the words, he bowed where he sat and then straightened, flipping his hair back out of his face. His revealed expression was serious. “So, Keepers, what
are
you doing here?” Diana passed the water bottle to Claire and told the story of the bracelet one more time.

“I don’t remember your bits of the dialogue being quite so witty the first time I heard this,” Sam muttered.

Ignoring him, she told Arthur about the Emporium, the mirror, and the segue.

“That explains a great deal,” he said thoughtfully.

“Whoever is behind this no doubt allowed my people through in order that their beliefs hasten the reality of the mall, figuring to pick them off when their usefulness was done.”

“Yeah, we think so, too.” Diana fought the urge to be unreasonably pleased that Arthur agreed with her.

“They can’t be happy that I have made them one people, strong and able to defend themselves.”

“No, they can’t-mostly because these sorts literally can’t
be
happy. The best they can manage is triumphant glee.”

“In order to complete their plan, they must attack us in force and wipe us from their reality.”

He caught on fast. Diana reluctantly admitted she liked that in an archetype. It made for less exposition. “Yes, they must.”

“You must close the segue before this happens.”

“Duh.”

Arthur lifted a single brow. “I’m sorry?”

“We have every intention of closing the segue before anyone is hurt,” Claire explained, shooting Diana a look that promised a future lecture on the inappropriate use of the smart-ass response. “Unfortunately, the anchor’s hidden somewhere in the construction zone, and when we left the Emporium, we set off an alarm. The dark guards your . . . people call the meat-minds arrived before we could get to it.”

“And if that’s not enough happy happy,” Diana broke in, “we can’t seem to influence that end of the mall, so we’re going to have to go into the construction zone through the access corridor.“

“Darkness has more deadly servants than the meat-minds patrolling the access corridors,” Arthur said quietly.

Claire nodded. “We heard some-or one-right after we crossed over.”

“Some of them
are
large,” Arthur admitted, pensively rubbing a buckle between thumb and forefinger. “Some are smaller but dangerous still. We’ve barricaded them out of our territory, but I fear they stay away more out of their desire than ours.”

“They don’t push because, so far, they don’t want to, not because they’re afraid of you?”

“Of me and my people, yes.”

“That’s not good.” Which, given the situation, was pretty much a gimme.

Diana glanced up as the ceiling lights came on, glanced down to note that Claire’s watch was still keeping speedy time, and decided not to worry about it. “So, about your people; from what Kris said about living rough, I’m guessing no one’s going to miss any of them back home?”

“Until they came here, they had no home.” Releasing the buckle, he curled his hand into a fist. “They are the unwanted youth of your world. Rootless and wanting to be elsewhere. With the shadow mall in place, it took only the opening of a door to cross over. Most of them crossed when leaving the public washroom by the food court.”

“Oh, yeah, public washrooms,” Diana snorted. “Always an adventure. The food court would put them pretty close to the Emporium and a whole bunch of the bad stuff.“

“This is why not all of them survived.” He studied all three of them for a long moment, his pellucid gaze moving unhurriedly from Keeper to Keeper to cat. “You told them you are wizards,” he said at last, the sentence falling between question and accusation.

Diana’s tone sharpened in response to the later. “Keepers, wizards-it seemed the simplest explanation since it’s essentially true.”

“Essentially,” Claire muttered under her breath.

“Essentially?” Arthur repeated. “Are you saying then that Merlin was of the lineage?” Full lips twisted up into a half smile.

“Sorry, classified. But speaking of Merlin . . .” Diana leaned left and peered past the television, searching the shadows around the stacks of boxed DVD players. “.

. . don’t you usually come with a side of fries?” Azure eyes blinked. “What?”

“Yeah, what?” Sam turned around on her lap, fabric bunching under anchoring claws, and stared up at her. “Even I didn’t get that one.”

“Extras. Baggage. Bad choices. Betrayal.” Diana sighed. “I could go on, but we all know the story. No Lancelot? No Guinevere?”

“Not so far.” Arthur looked pleased with himself and remarkably young. “I think I managed to ditch them this time. That whole star-crossed lovers thing-definitely getting tedious.”

“Tedious?”

When he nodded, Diana shook her head. “Nice try. But isn’t it part of what makes you Arthur?”

“Not in the oldest stories. In the oldest stories, I make one people out of a number of warring tribes and then lead them out to face a common foe. All the sex?

You can blame that on the French.”

“Actually, we can’t; it’s a Canadian thing. And,” Claire continued in her best
I’m a Keeper and you aren’t
voice, “none of that’s important. What’s important is that we close this segue down before there’s an open access into our world and before your people are . . .”

“Crunched?” Sam offered helpfully.

“I was going to say ‘attacked’, but ‘crunched’ works. Maybe a little too well

...” She started to stand. “Which means . . .”

“We’re going to need your help.”

Dropping back onto the sofa, Claire glared at her sister. “What?” Diana shifted around to meet Claire’s glare. The protest had been expected, an argument had been prepared. “These guys know every accessible inch of this mall.

Plus, they know the safest way into the access corridors, what to expect when we’re there, and how to avoid it.”

“They’re Bystanders!”

“So’s Dean.”

“I
knew
you were going to bring him up.”

“Who’s Dean?” Arthur asked.

“Something you can’t blame on the French,” Sam snickered.

Arthur looked confused, but both women ignored the feline non sequitur with practiced ease.

“Dean has nothing to do with this, Diana.” Eyes narrowed, Claire punctuated her protest with a stabbing finger. “I agreed to exchange information, but I draw the line at bringing Bystanders any further into our business.”

“First, it’s my Summons, so it’s my line. Second, this is totally their business.

This is their world now, they’ve changed too much to go home, and they have a right to defend themselves. Their best defense . . .” She spread both hands. “. . . and I’m willing to bet that it’s their only defense-is helping us to close this thing down before the bad guys make their move. Considering how complete things look-time shifts or no time shifts-that move can’t be too far off.”

“My scouts have reported more activity in enemy territory,” Arthur allowed.

Diana jerked around to stare at him. “You have
scouts?”

“Not the scary kind,” he reassured her. “No shorts, no apples.”

“Good.”

“Where were you?” Austin demanded as Dean closed the front door.

“Where I told you I was going, playing ball with some friends. Just like I do every Sunday afternoon.” Tossing his glove onto the counter, he headed for the kitchen. “The answering machine was on, and you were asleep.”

“Well, I woke up and I was hungry.”

“I left you a bowl of dry.” Something crunched underfoot and Dean noticed the kibble spread evenly over the floor. “Which you obviously found.

You think you could have caudled things up any more?“

“This is a big place,” Austin reminded him. “But before you start looking, how about feeding me.”

Head to one side, hair falling attractively, Arthur studied the Keepers. “If we have battle coming- which I’d be a fool to deny-why should I split my strength by helping you?”

“When we remove the anchor and close the segue,” Diana told him, peeling her bare thighs one at a time off the leather and scooting to the edge of the sofa,

“we’ll be able to influence the other end of the mall. Our influence could save your butts.”

“Even though our influence would be
totally
subconscious,” Claire added.

Diana waved off the warning. “And besides, you said it yourself, it’s part of your original raisin of the day-you make one people out of a number of warring tribes and then you lead them out to face a common foe.”

“Raisin of the day?”

“I assume she means
raison d’etre
.”

“Hey, I’m trying to keep the French out of it. We don’t need Arthur’s baggage finally making it through customs.”

Arthur glanced around uneasily. “Could that happen?”

“Keepers. Otherside.” Diana shrugged. “Anything could happen.” A siren shrieked out on the concourse.

In the heartbeat of silence that followed, Claire and Sam turned to stare at Diana.

“What? I didn’t do it!”

On his feet and running full out between one moment and the next, Arthur charged past them, clearing Electronics in three long strides and disappearing between the racks of winter coats.

“You know that question about us being a catalyst?” Claire snarled, swinging her pack up onto one shoulder. “This answer it?”

“Unfortunately!” Grabbing her own pack in both hands, Diana pounded after Arthur, Claire behind her, Sam taking the high road over the furniture to end up leading the way.

Chaos filled the concourse. Meat-minds, some wearing a fine dusting of ceramic cherub, lumbered after the more limber mall elves. Arthur leaped forward, shouting orders and using his sword like a baton to direct a reorganized defense.

Claire and Diana rocked to a halt in the entrance to the store.

Sam skidded out into the battle, claws scrabbling for purchase against the slick tile floor. When a massive foot slammed down in his path, he let his slide close the distance, bumping up against an enormous instep, sinking claws deep into gnarled flesh. Finally able to control his momentum, he pushed off and raced back to Diana’s side.

“You okay?”

Ears saddled, he looked as though he was trying to back away from his own feet. “Word of advice, don’t stick your claws in those things!” The meat-mind ignored him, pounding off after the tiny female elf in the PVC

corset.

“I thought those things got easily discouraged?” Diana protested.

Claire pointed to a tall, slender figure in black armor. The red plume on his helm bobbed over the battle. “Meet their motivation.” The figure turned to meet Arthur’s charge.

“A dark elf?”

“Given what the kids are turning into, it almost makes sense.” On one knee beside her pack, Claire rummaged out her bag of prepared possibilities.

“It looks like the barricade at the stairs is intact,” Diana told her, yanking a bulging belt pouch out from under the half a dozen cans of cat food in her pack.

“They must have come through another way.”

“The access corridors?”

“No. Arthur said they’re guarded. Someone would’ve given the alarm.” A pair of charging meat-minds crashed to the floor for no apparent reason. A pepper grinder in one hand, Claire glared at Diana.

“Totally subconscious, I swear; they just look
really
clumsy!” Here and now, she wasn’t going to risk feedback. It was one thing to break a Rule with only her own life hanging in the balance, it was another entirely to risk Claire and Sam and a group of teenagers she’d only just met. With a powerful enemy on site, any power she released would, at the very least, be sucked up and used against them. Definitely embarrassing. Probably fatal.

One of the meat-minds stepped on its own hand as the two she’d dropped scrambled to their feet. It bellowed in pain and swung what looked like a plastic tote bag at its companion, knocking it down again. One of the mall elves darted in, wielding an aluminum baseball bat, and it stayed down.

“You’ve got to like the kid’s enthusiasm.”

“I don’t have to like anything about this,” Claire snapped. “I’m going to try and take a few of those things out. You find out where they’re coming from and close the door!” Waving the pepper shaker, she plunged into the fight.

“How is seasoning going to help?” Sam demanded as Diana buckled the belt pouch around her waist.

“Peppercorns are seeds.” She stuffed the wand into a pocket, just in case.

“Seeds carry certain distinct possibilities.” A running dive took her past a meat-mind’s outstretched arms. “Claire has hers rigged for sleep,” she grunted, sliding into one of the plastic wood planters.

“But why pepper?” Sam jumped up onto the planter’s edge.

“Except for the Minute Rice, it was the only seed Dean had in the kitchen and Minute Rice comes with that unfortunate time restriction.“ Scrambling to her feet, she joined the cat and took a moment to study the battle. The clash of blade against blade and the distinctly less musical clash of aluminum against meat, echoed under the twenty-foot ceilings. From her vantage point, she could see that the meat-minds in the main concourse were fighting in a random pattern, but by the entrance to the short hall-the one leading to the entrance where Claire’d left Dean way back when-they all faced one way. Into the concourse. Even the bulky body stretched flat at Kris’ feet and being efficiently bludgeoned pointed in the same direction.