Shiff and Brite stopped at a junction between two aisles, the paths still visible under the debris, ash, and smoke burns. Several green bodies slithered through the small crevices, where it was dark and safe.
One last snake with diamonds across its scales curved around Annie’s foot. She jumped and bellowed; Bitherby screamed.
“What the hell?” Shiff asked. The snake glided away, joining the rest of the snakes under a large pile of charred wood from what looked like a storage unit that used to sit in market center.
“Snake,” Annie said through winded panic, “Around my ankle.”
Shiff and Brite chuckled and sent up a flash of light. It hung in the air, marking the spot for the zoology department to find the hiding animals.
“I’ll remember: no rats and no snakes,” Brite remarked. He led the team around a bend in the passageway.
“Sorry. They just give me the creeps.” It was that slithering thing that made her shudder.
A pack of elves huddled in the center of a junction between two aisles and cautiously observed the wizard guards as they neared the group. Recognizing a friend, an elf in a dirty pink dress ran for Bitherby. Her tiny hands gripped his shoulders tightly.
“Go away! The incinerators are burnin’ out of control!” she squealed in fear.
Bitherby, unsure of what to say, glanced at Annie, who kneeled beside the pair.
“We’re here to help,” Annie cooed with a gentle touch the elf’s arm. It did little to ease the creature’s fear; she had been through a lot, and was covered in dust and soot. Her matted hair was singed, and her distrustful eyes darted back and forth across the barren landscape of the market. “Head to the Patagonia portal. There’s help on the other end. Do you understand?” Annie placed her hands firmly on the elf’s shoulder. The elf shook her head again.
“Go, Sirina. I promise. There’s help. I go with Miss Annie to get the others. Go,” Bitherby pleaded. Sirina, wanting to believe Bitherby, nodded slowly before she scampered back to the rest of the elves. Her high, shrill voice explained the situation, and their heads nodded in understanding. Sirina waved to Bitherby, and the group ran toward the last remaining portal in or out of the market.
“They’re coming out of hiding,” Brite said as a single dog hiding under a fallen tent stuck its head out from under the canvas. Brite squatted beside the creature and lifted the tent. “There’s a pack in here. I’m going to lead them to the portal. There are just too many of them,” he volunteered.
“Direct them out. Send word to Milo that we need more help. There’s just not enough wizard guards here.” Annie sighed
“Be careful, and call if you need me,” Brite said. He reached for the bird still on Shiff’s shoulder. “Come with me. You’ll be safer in Patagonia.” The bird obeyed and joined the pack as it crawled out from the limp tent and followed Brite down the aisle.
“We’re almost here. This way.” Bitherby pointed around the final curve, where the incinerator door was off its hinges. The No Admittance sign lay on the ground, burnt around the edges. Thick smoke rolled out the door and billowed up through the protection spell.
“I can’t even imagine what’s going on in Busse Woods,” Shiff said.
The ground rumbled beneath them, shaking them. Bitherby grabbed Annie’s leg as she fell into Shiff.
“What the hell?” Shiff said.
“The incinerators are going to blow!” Annie shouted above the roaring fires.
“We need to go. Get out as many as we can, and then we leave!” Shiff said. They donned their masks, which were too thin for what they needed to do, and dropped to all fours, just below the smoke. The group trailed Bitherby inside; the smoke already choked them.
Maybe we shouldn’t have come.
Through dung and dirt and rancid smoke, they crawled slowly until the door to the dormitory came into view. Along the back wall, the door was open, and smoke billowed out. The fire roared, drowning out any other sound, except…
Are those cries from inside?
“No!” Bitherby ran from Annie and lunged for the entrance.
“Bitherby, no!” She screamed, but he was already enveloped in the smoke and fire.
“Crap, Annie, we have to get him!”
“Tell me something I don’t know!” Annie shouted and ran after the tiny elf.
Chapter 29
Over the course of six months since he made a permanent move to the Wizard Guard headquarters in Chicago, Lial Peng had proven himself to be the most proficient tracker in the department. Today was his biggest challenge: to find a powerful djinn in an ever-changing market—if the demon was even still there.
Hiding in one of the remaining standing tents, Lial unfurled a magically enhanced map of the black market and waited for it to catch up with the many latest changes. The map shimmered and then dematerialized, leaving the paper blank. After a few moments, the new map shimmered and revealed itself to them.
“How often does this update?” Gibbs asked.
“I’ve had this map linked to the market for years, so it changes as the market changes. It must’ve just changed,” Lial said.
Gibbs grabbed the map and looked outside the tent. When he finished, he tossed the map on the table and shrugged.
“Okay. I’ve placed us on the map, so it should reflect our location regardless of the layout changes. I also permanently marked the location that from what the elves told me would be Gladden’s tent.” He pointed to four red dots at their location.
“We’re here. And…” He bent over the map. “Oh. His tent is here. We’re pretty close.”
They followed the map to location where Gladden Worchester’s tent should have been. It still stood but had been attacked; embers had burned holes in the roof, and scorch marks stained the walls. A large plank of wood sat overturned in the corner, and papers were scattered across the floor.
“What the hell?” Spencer asked.
They took out their crystals, examining the air for magical trace. Cham stopped and turned on his spot.
“Did you hear that?” he asked.
“Hear what?” Lial stopped searching for magic. There was so much in this tent, it was difficult to distinguish the type of spell, the age of the spell and the owner of the magical trace.
“Shhh.”
Cham casually strode to the corner and removed the large plank of wood. Lying in the corner was a beaten and bloodied elf. Cham pushed the wood away. “We need medical attention,” he called out.
The elf glanced at Cham through swollen eyes and whispered something unintelligible through a split lip.
Lial stepped outside the tent and sent up red sparks of light into the air, alerting the medical staff that help was required. Spencer checked the elf’s pulse. The creature looked at him before turning away.
“Hi. I saw the sparks. How can I help?” asked a gangly man with floppy brown hair. Danny Chamsky pushed it from his face and grimaced when he saw his older brother Cham holding the elf.
“Hey, worm,” Cham said with a wary greeting.
“Damn.” Danny summoned a stretcher and unfurled the legs. “Put him on.”
Securing the creature, he placed an IV into the elf’s arm. “I’m good here. You guys finish what you need to. When he’s stable I’ll teleport him out,” Danny said. After so much pain, the pin prick had little effect on the elf.
“You sure? I can stay,” Cham offered.
“Go. I can protect myself and the elf. Just readying him for teleport.” Danny strapped the protective belts across the small creature’s chest, adding one at his feet to ensure he couldn’t move during teleportation.
“Call if you need me,” Cham said. “Didn’t know the medical students were helping.”
“It’s a madhouse at the mobile hospital in Argentina. Everyone’s helping. I’ll be in Patagonia soon. Be careful, or mom will get mad at me,” Danny added. He unlocked the wheels on the stretcher and pulled the elf from the tent.
The ground vibrated, and the ca
nvas tent shook wildly. Danny lay across the elf as the earth rumbled. Footsteps ran through the aisle, voices screamed, and angry grunts growled across the market.
Gibbs called Milo. The Wizard Guard manager currently patrolled outside the black market, searching for stray animals that didn’t belong and overseeing the magical preparations as they took place. “We need more help in here. There’s a stampede because of—”
The incinerators exploded. Several consecutive booms thundered across the remains of the market.
“Annie!” Cham shouted.
“The incinerators are blowing apart!” Gibbs shouted through the phone.
“Get the rest of the team and get out! The clearing is a mess! The nonmagicals have taken over. Just get out of there!” Milo yelled back. Gibbs’s phone clicked off without a sound.
“Milo wants us out, now. Danny, get the elf out of here. Grab whatever human or creature we find on the way out. Since I won’t be able to stop you, Cham, you get Annie and her team out of here!” Gibbs ordered.
While Cham ran in the direction of the billowing smoke, Danny and Spencer teleported the stretcher to the Patagonia portal while Gibbs ran through the market, looking for the last of the stragglers.
*
A thick layer of smoke gusted from Busse Woods, blanketing the entire Chicagoland area. Though the sun was out, the region was dark as if it were night. Because of the strange anomaly, O’Hare Airport was shut down and currently covered in a thick layer of ash.
“We’re lucky we got in,” Amanda said. Their plane had been the last allowed into the airport before it was shut down.
Jack glanced out the window with apprehension before disembarking; he had said little on the plane ride home.
I wish I never knew about Annie and magic. Maybe…
“You okay?” Amanda asked him as they waited at baggage claim.
“Yeah. I will be.” Jack hadn’t told Amanda everything, especially who and what Annie was, just that she was a colleague and the fire had something to do with her case. He dialed her as they waited for their bags, but the call went to voicemail.
“You couldn’t reach her?” Amanda asked. She looked stunning—well rested and tan, compared to Jack’s worry lines, long face, and tight jaw.
Even after a week in the sun, Jack was still pale. He grimaced and grabbed for the first of their bags. “I should go to the crime scene. I can’t reach Annie, and I’m concerned something’s happened.” The second bag came along the conveyor belt. He pulled it off and handed it to Amanda.
“Are you sure? We still have a few hours of vacation left.”
They followed the steady stream of weary travelers to the doors. “I’m sure. You take the taxi, and I’ll call you when I know she’s safe.”
“But Jack, are you sure this is the same case?” asked Amanda, clearly upset. They’d had plans for the night, a little time in bed watching movies before their vacation truly ended.
Jack sighed. “Yeah. I sent her the case. I know it’s related to that body dump.”
They spoke little as they exited the airport, and Jack waited until their pre-ordered taxi found them. “You go. I’ll see you soon.” He kissed her, long and soft. He really didn’t want to leave. The vacation had been too good to let it end like this.
“Don’t stay too late.” Amanda offered a concerned look as she climbed into the taxi, waving as her car sped away.
Sighing, Jack jumped into an available taxi. “Busse Woods please.”
“There’s a fire in the woods. They’re not letting anyone in for any reason,” the cab driver said.
Jack volunteered his FBI badge for reinforcement.
“Yes sir!” the driver responded and pulled away from the curb and out of the airport.
Thick smoke hung above them in every direction, blocking out the sun and the blue spring sky. It looked as though a storm was directly over them. “What have you heard about the fire?” Jack asked casually.
“It’s weird, they say. No one can find the fire, and the fire department has no idea what’s causing the smoke. You were lucky you were able to land. Airport’s closed,” the cabbie advised.
“Yeah. Heard that on the way in.”
The driver tapped his fingers against the steering wheel in tune with the music on the radio. “You think this is the same case as that dead body?”
Jack raised his eyebrows. He wasn’t the only nonmagical to make the connection, then. That worried him, for Annie, for her team, for magic. “Too much of a coincidence. Don’t know for sure, though. That’s what I’m trying to find out.”
The traffic moved at a snail’s pace. This was not completely abnormal for Chicago, but today it barely moved, taking twice as long to get onto the expressway than it normally would. Exiting onto Route 53, the on-ramp was merely a parking lot, housing thousands of angry drivers.
“Is there any other route we can take?” Jack asked after thirty minutes of stop-and-go traffic just to reach the freeway.
“Doing my best, bud. I’ll have you there as soon as I can,” the driver defended.
Over an hour and a half later, the driver pulled up to the side of the road, letting Jack out.
“Best I can do,” he said. “They’re not letting anyone into the parking lot.”
“No problem. Thanks for your help.” Jack paid the cab driver with a large wad of cash and watched him pull away into traffic.
The entire park was closed to the public; the only vehicles in the parking lot belonged to emergency personnel. Ten fire trucks, twelve police cars, and six emergency ambulances were parked haphazardly, ignoring the designated lines. One vehicle was parked across the entrance to keep nonessential personnel from entering.
It didn’t stop the hordes of onlookers from parking their cars along the sides of the street and heading into the woods, creating a larger traffic nightmare as a whole lane of traffic on either side of the four-lane road was unusable. Horns blared, and angry shouts rang out.
Jack grimaced and followed the other curiosity seekers through the trees. He trekked through snow and mud, covering his new running shoes with thick, heavy muck.
“I can’t wait to see this,” said a redhead to a brunette.
“Do you know what this is?” asked the brunette. They turned and smiled at Jack, who managed a wan smile.
“What?” asked the redhead. “You know, don’t you?”
“No. I wish I did. I’m just curious like you,” Jack offered.
It was the last he heard from the two women as they entered the packed clearing where John Doe had been found the week prior.
Police officers paced up and down the barriers, keeping people from entering the clearing. Their presence did little to keep onlookers from hiking through the trees. Some of the patrols entered the forest, but resources were thin enough that several people trekking to see the anomaly were finding their way to the fireless smoke.
Soot rained down, covering trees and turning the snow into dirty gray, muddy slush that clung to shoes and clothes. As Jack trudged through the dense undergrowth around the clearing, his eyes darted across the crowd in search of Annie and her team.
The crowd ebbed and flowed; the forest was swollen with people. If Annie and her team were here, Jack figured they’d be inside the portal.
Jack crossed into the clearing, finding a harried police officer ordering a group out of the trees. Jack flashed his badge.
“Special Agent Jack Ramsey,” he volunteered to the officer. “What the hell is going on?” He coughed. A heavy breeze was pushing smoke downwards. Jack inhaled the pungent smell of dung mixed with a musty scent of wet dog.
“The smoke is coming from somewhere in there, but we’ve been through those woods, and there’s no fire,” the officer replied. “No one knows what’s going on. It’s odd.”
“Sounds it. Mind if I head in?” Jack asked.
“If you think you know what’s going on. By all means, please. They’re looking for anyone who can figure it out. And se
nd anyone out who doesn’t belong,” he shouted after Jack.
Jack followed a path that had been beaten down by the hundreds of investigators and onlookers that had combed these woods for the better part of a day. Glancing through bare branches, he followed the billowing smoke until he was standing directly under the location where the smoke mysteriously appeared in thin air.
What the hell?
A strong odor wafted to him. He immediately could tell that it came from another place. It must have floated beyond what should be a protective shield holding the magic inside. Jack closed his eyes, thinking of the black market he had visited, a place where transactions of the legal and illegal variety took place, here and yet not, someplace he couldn’t quite imagine.
Smoked puffed out as if from a smoke stack. Jack could see the single column of blackness as it escaped.
There’s a hole in the protection spell?
Annie had once told him about the protection spell as not only protection for the market from exposure, but as a deterrent for nonmagicals from hanging too long near the portals. She described the icy air, the sense of dread that was always there in the forest. He closed his eyes and felt for the spell, for the chilly air that would be colder than anywhere else in the forest. He shuddered.
“What are you doing here?”
Jack scrambled around until he spotted Milo behind a tree, covered in soot, his clothes singed.
“I can help,” Jack said immediately.
Milo laughed as he pulled himself out of the brush and into the open. His eyes darted across the forest, through the trees.
He’s looking for nonmagicals,
“No. I think you’ve done enough. Good catch though.” Milo grimaced.
“Milo. I can help. Give me something to do.”
Jack felt naked as Milo regarded him and observed his slightest movements. After a moment, Milo waved him over.
“Fine, follow me.” Milo sighed. He led Jack farther into the woods, away from the billowing smoke.
As they walked through the dense underbrush, thick trees, and new growth, Jack found himself alone with the wizard guard behind a large clumping of trees. Here in silence, away from any investigators, animals, or living creatures, Milo gazed into the trees.
Wizard Hall Chronicles Box Set Page 61