The Dossiers of Asset 108 Collection

by J M Guillen

  Nowhere to be seen.

  “Fine then.” I cleared my throat, and spoke louder. “The quickest way out is to follow the trail of broken junk. If you want to follow me, you can, but I’m headed deeper in.” I paused. “I’ll get out of here just as soon as possible once I’ve found what I came for.”

  “Do not be foolissh,” a voice croaked, a harsh, sharp sound.

  I whirled to my left, and my shoulders collapsed when I realized what had spoken. “Seriously?” I held my knives out in front of me, a habitual reaction to the kenku in patchwork leather. “Didn’t I already throw you into next week?”

  “You missunderstand,” the avian hissed at me. “Thingss are different now.”

  “Because there’s only one of you trying to murder me?” I noted the glyph no longer burned on its forehead.

  “You sshattered the cassque.” The corbie held up a piece of pottery. “It wass thiss that bound my clan.”

  “You aren’t his anymore.” My heart leapt in my chest. “That’s what you’re saying, isn’t it?”

  “This Aerinix iss itss own and its clanss,” the bird-man agreed. “I came to thank the Elissabeth Sshepherd. Even now, my clutchfolke esscape into the night.”

  “Mine are still here,” I told it in desperation. “My mentor has

  been bound by the Gaunt Man.”

  “Your masster iss likely losst.” The Aerinix shook its head woefully. “It is only by disstant fortune that you freed this Aerinix and itss people.”

  “Mentor,” I corrected him. “And some of my friends are still free.” I gestured around the store. “We got separated.”

  “Thiss plasse is an infinite piesse of an infinite realm,” the Aerinix informed me.

  “I came in right there!” I pointed at the path of destruction I had blazed through the store. “I can see the alleyway; that’s not infinite.”

  “Thiss iss how I found Elissabeth Sshepherd.” The creature tilted its head. “I wass outside, and I tracked her within, knowing her by the chaoss sshe caussed.”

  “The guys would’ve done the same thing,” I mused. “They should have run in right behind me, wanting to meet up.”

  “They were detained.” The not-kenku cocked its head. “As you ssaved me and mine, I came to esscort you out.”

  “I can’t leave.” I sighed. “Without my mentor, my problems only get worse.” I paused as one of the things it said clicked in my mind. “Detained?”

  “The sservitors of iron-lore followed you into this plasse. Your companionss fell back to allow them to passs.”

  “So they’re still outside.” I nodded as I turned down the trail of turmult I had left. “That makes things easier. We can just meet up.”

  “I would not sserve you if I did not urge you to leave this plasse.” The figure followed behind me. “And you would be a fool if you did not lissten.”

  As if to accentuate the idea, I heard another explosion, just like what I’d heard before. The lights flickered, and this time they stayed dark.

  Fallen Leaves lay shrouded in shadows.

  “I’m a fool.” I turned and stared at the bird-man’s silhouette as we walked. “But thank you. The sentiment of your advice is not lost on me.”

  The Aerinix nodded, little more than a moving shadow. Together we walked back along the catastrophe I had created to meet with my friends.

  The store loomed, eerily silent.

  4

  After it escorted me to the edge of the store, the almost-kenku left.

  I wished the avian had chosen to stay, as it certainly indicated it felt it owed me a debt. Apparently, that debt didn’t include an adventure the Aerinix considered suicide.

  “Liz!”

  I glanced up just as Alicia hit me with a bear hug.

  “Oof!” I all but fell over.

  “You’re alive!” Rehl exclaimed as he joined ’Licia in wrapping around me.

  “You noticed, huh?” I patted my two friends awkwardly and noticed Bax hovering in the background. “Come on,” I called. “Group hug!”

  He grinned and joined us.

  After a moment of celebration and not nearly enough planning, my friends and I crept inside the store.

  “The entire place is some kind of prison,” I whispered to Baxter as we crept through the shadows. “When I charged in here, all hell and fury, I shattered a lot of the Gaunt Man’s things.”

  “That’s apparent.” Rehl gestured at the mess around us.

  “When they shattered, the creatures they held were freed.” I put one hand on Alicia’s shoulder and helped her step past several broken dishes.

  We had only crept through the darkness of Fallen Leaves for a few moments, but already I missed the illumination. While the Valkyrie’s path of impact loomed large within the store, the mazelike passages around us were draped in shadow.

  At this rate, it wouldn’t be long before we moved in complete darkness.

  “I can call Abriel’s shine.” Alicia’s soft voice sounded troubled. “But it’s as good as holding up a sign telling everyone we’re here.”

  “Well, there’s also the ‘truth’ aspect of that light,” Rehl commented. “Do we really want to know the secrets of this place?”

  “I don’t feel like we have a choice.” I shook my head, even though no one could see. “Alicia?”

  Without a single word, an ember of furious, magnesium white light burst into existence above her head. That stark shine cast strange and darkling shadows all around us, and lurked in the bent aisles of the store.

  “That’s better.” Baxter didn’t sound completely certain. “Some.”

  “Simon called this place ‘the Menagerie,’” Alicia informed us. “Although I do not know if that was his name or another’s.”

  “Good as any.” Rehl turned to her. “Oh, Alicia?” It seemed as if he had just remembered something. “Do you have the … thing?”

  “The thing.” She shook her head. “The clarity of your verbiage astounds me.”

  “Earring, ya doof!” Baxter glanced from Alicia to me. “You brought the earring?”

  “Oh.” Alicia smiled. “Yes. I did.” She reached into her pocket.

  “What?” None of them made any sense.

  Alicia pulled out a familiar earring, the one I had worn for years. It had been the easiest way for me to get a hold of Simon.

  Alicia handed it to me.

  “It’s dead.” I shook my head at the sight of it. “I mean, good idea, but Simon thought triggering it while we were in the Gaunt Man’s craziness—with him still in the real world—drained it dry.”

  “Yet the Seals still function,” Alicia said slowly. “The earring had been intended to be used by Simon’s apprentice, who held much less power. Now that apprentice has come into her own strength. Think about the way the Seals you use burn blue as you channel the Wind through them. That power isn’t within the Seals. It’s within you.”

  “Okay.” I nodded. “So I might be able to use it, send Simon a message?” That certainly seemed reasonable. I had performed a similar effect without that earring a couple of times today. The effect had always been one way, however. I didn’t see how this could help us do anything other than possibly comfort the old grump.

  “True enough. It is partially bound to Simon’s tattoos,” Alicia agreed. “But Baxter came up with another idea.”

  “Do it, Liz. We’re gonna power game this thing.” Bax grinned, the same kind of smile he used when he had a secret plan. “It might not work, but if it does, we’ll be a lot better off.”

  I raised one eyebrow at him, uncertain what he was going for.

  But I closed my eyes. I let the capering, chaotic song of the Wind seduce me, dance with me, whirl my mind wildly to the end of all things. My hair whipped around my face, and I heard paper stir.

  I opened my eyes and gazed down at the symbols on the earring.

  “Simon,” I half-whispered, half-thought. My voice echoed about me, eerily. I felt the Wind cavort around me, w
ith all the joy of a child. It tousled my hair. Small pieces of trash and detritus blew away from me.

  Suddenly, the Empyrean Seals and sigils on the earring burst into blue, turquoise, and cobalt brilliance that far outshone any light that had ever burned there before.

  The Wind captured that one word, Simon, and whipped it away.

  In all the times I’d used this particular tool, I’d been alone. Simon had expected I might get into an occasional scrape and intended me to use the thing to call for help. I had never used it in the presence of my friends, save once in the anime room. And never had I used the thing in such a dark and haunted place, guided only by the light of one of the heavenly Watchers.

  Abriel, keeper of memory.

  Keeper of truth.

  Simon’s name spiraled into the Wind, caught and carried by it. The Empyrean sigils on the earring pulsed once more, and in Abriel’s light I saw the silken connection Simon had wrought into the item.

  The same light had revealed the illusion in the attic. It had exposed the red house that Lorne glamoured in front of his lair.

  Now it showed us the truth of the magic Simon had crafted.

  A silvery strand of gossamer nothingness stretched off into the darkness.

  “Ha!” Baxter pumped a fist. “That’s what you get for thinking like a munchkin!”

  “This will lead right to him.” I stared at Alicia, dumbstruck. “It’s better than a damn street sign!”

  “I expect it will fade.” Even so, she nodded with satisfaction. “You may have to repeat this several more times before we find him.”

  “This place is huge.” I couldn’t stop my grin. “I don’t know that it’s infinite, but it might as well be. I had absolutely no idea how we were going to find whatever trinket Simon’s been bound to. But now…”

  “It means we’ll get out of here easier.” Rehl grinned at me.

  “Hell yeah it does.” I tousled Bax’s hair.

  “I never would have considered such a use of the seventh lantern.” Alicia’s soft voice brimmed with pride.

  “You ready to get this done or what?” Rehl asked.

  “I am.” I turned to Baxter and gave him a wide grin. “You aren’t completely useless.”

  “Oh, I know,” he said as we began to walk into the shadows. “I mean, I’m the one who solves the riddles, I’m the one who power-games Empyrean magic…”

  “At least he has an understanding of how valuable he is.” I could hear Rehl roll his eyes.

  Together, we followed the silver thread into the labyrinth.

  5

  The sheer vastness of the creepy store boggled my mind.

  Though darkness no longer cloaked every wending aisle, everything around us loomed threateningly. Mannequins and dolls took on eerie, otherworldly forms and seemed to peer at us. Nooks and crannies that naturally occurred in the displays threatened to hold tiny, malicious creatures that could leap upon us at any moment. With every step we took, Abriel’s light cast haunted shadows across the walls.

  “Simon. We are coming,” I breathed as I clutched at the earring. As before, the piece of jewelry unfurled with otherworldly cerulean light. In the glow of Abriel’s truth, a filament of invisible essence showed us the way.

  I had done this five times now—and didn’t dare tell my friends, especially Alicia, I’d begun to tire. If she realized how exhausted I felt, I expected she would be angry with me for overusing my Grace.

  There was no way to know how close we were. We simply continued on.

  Several times we passed doors that had been set into one of the store’s walls. Rehl frowned at a couple of them, and eventually said, “This doesn’t make any sense.” Rehl traced his fingers along one of the wooden doors. “Walls don’t work this way.”

  “What do you mean?” I walked in front of the party, a knife in each hand.

  “Architecture.” He shook his head. “Not that I know much about it, but we’ve come across five or six of these doors as we wound through the aisles. Who puts walls out in the middle of things like this? Sometimes I think we must be about to turn and hit one of them—”

  “But we don’t,” Baxter whispered. “I’ve noticed too. I’ve kept track every time we passed one.”

  “A while ago we completely looped around a wall that had a door right in the middle of it.” Rehl shook his head. “No door on the other side.”

  We crept forward and peered into every shadow. I couldn’t help but feel as if this had gone almost too easily. I’d spent the past day fretting over every small thing, and in the end we’d scarcely had to face Mister Lorne at all.

  It was possible the Ass-hats had taken care of everything for us.

  Apparently, that thought seemed a little too optimistic for the universe-at-large. No less than ten minutes later, a rumbling explosion crashed through the air. Far closer than the previous concussions, we felt the burst against our skin.

  “Oh!” Alicia started.

  Several small items, a collection of papers atop an old writing desk and a small statuette, slid to the floor.

  “Good.” Rehl scowled. “I was just thinking things had gotten dangerously quiet.”

  “Me too.” I took a couple of steps and peered past a section of shelving that formed a wall to our left. “I think something’s getting close.”

  Without a word, Alicia doused Abriel’s light.

  “Let’s not break rule one.” I felt Baxter put his hand on my elbow.

  “Right. Definitely no splitting the party.” I nodded, even though none of them could see me.

  “Grab onto each other,” Bax said. “Liz, you’re in front.”

  “I know I’m in front,” I hissed. “Move slowly, I don’t want you all falling over me.”

  We slipped forward at a snail’s pace.

  Another fifteen steps or so of snaking around corners and trying not to knock over piles of dross and debris, we heard the sharp bark of a weapon. It fired once and then again.

  “Close,” Alicia muttered.

  “Too close now,” I agreed. “We can’t slip along in the dark forever, either. We’ve already lost Simon’s thread.”

  “They’re over there,” Rehl said, then amended, “To our right. I saw the flash of the weapon.”

  WHUF. While not exactly distant, the sound had seemed much larger when we had been outside. WHUF. WHUF.

  “The Assets are close.” I turned toward the silhouette I thought probably belonged to Alicia. “I think I should try to use the earring again. If we can just get a direction, we can douse Abriel’s light right after.”

  “Dangerous.” Alicia’s caution grated on my exhausted nerves, as I couldn’t tell her we needed to hurry because I was running out of steam.

  “I don’t know that we have a choice,” Rehl said. “If we don’t do something, we won’t even know what direction to go.”

  “I understand.” Alicia paused. “I suppose.”

  I reached up to my right ear and touched the hoop earring hanging there. It only took a scant moment of relaxation to collapse into the ever singing Wind that flared in my heart.

  “Soon, Simon. We’ll see you soon.” Empyrean sigils burst cobalt as I half whispered, half thought, and the words echoed around me.

  “Um.” Baxter’s voice quavered. “Liz?”

  Alicia said nothing, yet the light of Abriel ignited over her head, an ember of furious light that glinted on a slender filament which stretched away from the earring.

  I turned toward Baxter, disliking the concern I heard in his voice.

  Not four feet away, a slender being crouched half hidden behind a large display case.

  It stalked us. The thought came unbidden, and I shuddered. I couldn’t help but imagine the creature as it followed us through the darkness, slipping between shadows.

  Its white, reptilian skin looked unnatural, an inhuman, corpse-colored abomination. Naked, it crouched and glowered at us with huge, reptilian eyes that showed no pupil. Upon its head, a glyph burned
a filthy green.

  It opened a wide mouth, revealing hundreds of needle-like teeth, and hissed as its long tongue thrashed.

  “Shit,” Rehl breathed and brought his pistol up to aim at the thing.

  “Language,” Alicia responded automatically.

  We backed away as a group—

  The reptile leapt upon us.

  It moved fast, rapid in a way I hadn’t expected.

  It plunged toward Baxter, one arm raised, and slashed down, quicker than I could think. The claws of its hands curved wickedly.

  “Ah!” Baxter wailed in sudden agony and fell, a splatter of scarlet across his chest. “Fuck! Oh, fuck me!”

  “Shit!” Rehl yelled as he fired his typical double tap.

  I knew he struck at least once, as the enemy spun wildly to its left, and a splash of black gore erupted from its shoulder.

  “Liz!” The cry came from behind me, a ragged voice laced with terror.

  I turned to see Garret, three aisles over. Its eyes had gone wide, blood splashed liberally over its coat from a vicious wound, and its hair looked worse than ever.

  “I thought you all died.” Its voice held a panicked edge. “It’s been days. How have you survived in here all this time?”

  “Garret!” someone yelled in an Alabama drawl.

  The pale, fanged fiend screamed again and lunged toward Alicia.

  I whirled and frantically hurled my knife. What with the distraction, I hadn’t called up the Seal of A’grimm, so I simply hurled with desperate panic and instinct to guide my limbs.

  And yet, even without that Seal, the Wind responded. Perhaps a touch less focused, more ragged at the edges, but it burst forth from me, a tornado of force that flowed outward with my throw.

  The knife shredded the creature’s neck and exploded out its back in a gout of blackened blood.

  It screamed and thrashed wildly, scaly limbs a blur of motion. In its fury it lunged for us again.

  Rehl fired one more time.

  More blackened blood, this time from its chest.

  The albino freak convulsed and released a spray of brownish liquid from somewhere in its nether regions. The smell of ammonia and rot washed over us as it fell to the ground.