Barrol looked down at himself. “This is embarrassing,” he growled. “Swear you won’t ever tell anyone about this.”
Nelathen, Aliiana and Birgitte shimmered lavender and then became invisible, along with their equipment. Gornak’s equipment was disguised by the illusion, but he still clanked as he walked. My saddle was still visible so Aliiana dug out a piece of black cloth to wrap around it. It would blend with my fur at a casual glance.
We walked along the roadsides, seemingly just a human trailed by his St. Bernard and Corgi. We made better progress this way. I had to tell Gornak to relax and wave at farmers as we passed—his rigid stance and insistence on staring straight ahead were still too conspicuous.
We made camp that night hidden behind a dairy barn, and rose early in the morning before the farmer discovered us.
As we got closer to Chicago, there were more and more humans walking and driving around. From the slight shimmers in the air, I could tell that Nelathen had to duck out of the way of human pedestrians a few times to avoid being run into.
The Fermilab campus was easy to find. I knew the particle accelerator itself was underground, and the land above remained wild, with wetlands, prairie, and a captive herd of bison. As we walked along the perimeter, a man with a chocolate Labrador retriever stopped us. The Lab sniffed me and Barrol, and growled when he caught the strange cougar scent.
“Curious hunting dogs you’ve got there,” the man said.
Gornak was still uncomfortable with his human disguise. “Pardon me?” he asked.
The man gestured to us. “Well, a St. Bernard and a Corgi aren’t common duck retrieving breeds. Aren’t you here to use the dog training area?”
“Oh, yes, of course,” Gornak stammered. “Yes, exactly, we’re here for dog training.”
“The dog training area is over towards the east side.” The man waved at the prairie. “If you just follow the main road, you’ll find it near the nature area.”
“Yes, thank you,” Gornak said, and we hurried along. We entered the compound from the west, passing under a three-legged black archway.
“Strange,” the invisible Aliiana said. “If Angarath is here, he’s probably making quite a mess. I would expect a high alert situation from the humans. But I don’t see any police cars or fire engines.”
“For that matter,” said Nelathen, “there don’t seem to be any humans around at all.” Just beyond the black archway stood a small building that I guessed was an official guard station for checking IDs, but it was empty.
We cautiously walked along the central road. “That’s the main administrative building,” I said, gesturing with my snout at a building shaped like an upside-down Y. The parking lot was full of cars. A few yellow school buses idled at the edge of the parking lot, and their drivers sat unmoving.
“How are we going to find the Gem?” asked Gornak.
“The goblin said he was going to use the particle accelerator,” I said. “We’ll need to get into one of the buildings and down underground.”
“What exactly does the accelerator do?”
“It’s a huge ring with magnets to speed up the particles,” I said, remembering the television show my humans had watched. “The scientists run protons and antiprotons around in opposite directions and slam them into each other to see what happens.” Gornak still didn’t understand. “My guess is that he’ll put the Gem in the pathway of the collision to try to destroy it.”
“You’re pretty clever, little brother,” said Barrol.
“Which building do we need?” Gornak asked.
“I’m not sure,” I confessed. “The television show wasn’t geared toward people trying to break into the facility.”
As soon as we stepped onto the sidewalk on the opposite side of the parking lot, I knew we were making a horrible mistake. I wanted to get away from Fermilab as fast as I could—away from Illinois, away from the Gem, away from the fey. I turned tail and trotted back to the main road.
“Stop!” Aliiana yelled from my back. “Pippin! Slow down!”
I just kept running, picking up speed. I swerved towards a clump of shrubs near the road, running fast and ducking under a low branch to scrape Birgitte and Aliiana off my back. I heard them both thump on the ground but didn’t look back.
Running at a full gallop, I was almost to the guard station when Nelathen scooped me up, grabbing me around my chest. I tried to bite him but he was too quick.
“Pippin, stop,” he said. “It’s a compulsion spell. You need to relax and remember our mission.”
I stopped squirming and looked around. Now that I knew about the spell, I could sense it. It was a simple bit of magic for Angarath, a compulsion spell to prevent unwanted company while he worked. Anyone who approached the lab would feel an overwhelming desire to leave.
“I’m okay now,” I said. Nelathen put me down, and I hurried to the shrubs where Aliiana and Birgitte were picking leaves and twigs out of their hair. The fey were all visible now, my antics having broken their concentration. The illusion spell was broken also, destroying Gornak and Barrol’s disguises.
“I’m sorry, Mistress,” I said to Aliiana. “I feel awful for leaving you.”
She patted my head. “It’s okay, I know it was just the spell. But you’ll need to be alert for other spells.” She turned to the others. “Let’s check out the main building first.”
As I stepped up onto the sidewalk again, I told myself, It’s just a spell, it’s just a spell. I felt like running away again, but was able to mentally block it out. We cautiously approached the administrative building and peered through the glass door.
We discovered why we hadn’t seen any people.
An ugly greenish-brown fog crept along the floor of the lobby, eddying and swirling like a stream. Through the fog, human bodies were visible sprawled on the floor. Some people slumped in chairs or against countertops. All were unconscious—or maybe dead.
“Let’s go around to the other side,” said Gornak. Behind the building was the ring, marked by a road and earthen berm. I knew that the accelerator was twenty-five feet below ground level. We could see quite a few industrial buildings and power stations around the four-mile circumference of the ring.
“How will we know which building Angarath entered?” Aliiana asked.
Barrol growled. “We could just follow the bodies.”
We all turned to look where Barrol indicated. A human lay unconscious by the side of the ring road. It was an older man and he wasn’t moving. Further along the road another body sprawled, this one a young woman with a yellow hard hat.
I started towards the man to check for a pulse. Aliiana spoke gently. “We must find the Gem as soon as we can, Pippin. We can care for the humans later.”
I nodded, and we all hurried along the ring road. A quarter of the way around the circle we came to a short concrete building marked Authorized Personnel Only. Another body lay on the sidewalk in front of the building.
“In here,” said Nelathen, trying the solid steel door. It was locked. I sniffed around, looking for another entrance.
“We don’t have time to waste,” Gornak muttered. He looked at the electronic keypad on the wall next to the door, then hefted his battleaxe and bashed it. The keypad shattered, a tangle of multicolored wires popped out, and there was a click as the door unlocked. Gornak chuckled as he hauled the steel door open.
I held my breath, expecting more of the toxic brown-green fog, but the air was clean. The door opened onto a cinderblock hallway with harsh fluorescent lights overhead.
“I sense the Gem ahead of us,” said Birgitte. “I think we’re getting close.”
We hurried down the empty hallway to a red door that was marked Tevatron.
“That’s it,” I said, and pushed my nose against the door. We hurried down two flights of stairs to a control room. Dozens of monitors lined the walls, and computers hummed in the background.
A young woman sat in one of several swiveling office chairs, encased in
a block of ice. Only her arms and head stuck out of the ice. Her black hair was matted and there was fear in her eyes. She glanced at us as we barged through the door, then returned her attention to a dark figure in the corner.
Chapter 13
I only had time to turn my head toward the dark figure before I felt a scorching heat growing under my skin. It was a terrible pain, and I felt like my fur would burst into flames. I howled and backed up.
Barrol snarled and leapt over me toward the dark figure. He crossed the room in two bounds, but Angarath casually waved a hand, sending an invisible force that knocked the cougar back to the opposite wall.
Within the span of a few heartbeats, the small control room flared with magic. Aliiana and Birgitte threw spell after spell but Angarath easily batted them away. Nelathen and Gornak circled around to either side, trying to get close.
“Hot, hot, hot,” I growled. I still felt like my skin and fur were bristling with flames, but I knew I had to do something to help my friends. Ice, I thought. I ran to the young scientist imprisoned in the block of ice, jumped onto her lap, and pressed my body against the cool surface. I sank into the ice a few inches as my heat melted it. “Much better,” I said. The woman was still trapped and looked terrified. I gave her a lick on her cheek to reassure her and jumped down.
Nelathen had drawn his long sword. The blade gleamed in the fluorescent light as he slashed the sword with his right hand and tossed glowing white magic missiles with his left.
Angarath stepped forward to meet Nelathen’s attacks. He was dressed in black and red, with a billowing dark cape. He wore a necklace with an A picked out in rubies against an onyx background.
I looked closer at his face and blinked in surprise. “You’re human,” I said.
Angarath looked down at me with disdain. “Yeah, so?” he said. “Yeah, I’m a human. And you’re a dog.”
“I’m a Corgi.”
“Whatever.” He threw a spell at Gornak, hitting him in the chest. Gornak grunted and stumbled back, clutching his chest.
Nelathen shouted, “You destroyed Baern!” as he slashed with his sword, nicking Angarath’s upper arm.
“Was that the elf?” Angarath taunted. “Or the dwarf? Or a human?” He chuckled. “I lose track, I’ve destroyed so many.”
Birgitte had climbed up onto a desk and taken cover behind a computer monitor. She worked her tlaelar dust in her hands, forming rods of light to hurl at our enemy. The spells hit him, but didn’t do much damage.
Angarath glanced sharply at the young scientist. She had been rolling the office chair toward the door. He yelled, “Stop!” and threw a red streak of magic at her.
She winced when it struck her face and wheeled the chair back to the computer console.
“Get the Tevatron online now,” Angarath ordered her.
She nodded and tapped on the keyboard. “Yes, sir,” she said. “The proton and antiproton streams are in the main injector now, sir.”
I spared a moment to look over at Barrol. He was still sprawled on the floor where the force wall had hit him. He wasn’t moving.
Angarath dodged a blow from Gornak’s axe, striking back with a flaming whip of dark energy. “You think you can stop me?” he shouted.
“We will stop you,” Gornak wheezed. It sounded like his lungs weren’t yet back to normal after nearly drowning.
“You’re a fool,” said Angarath.
“Why do you want to end magic?” Nelathen asked, swinging his sword.
Angarath magically produced a black blade and swung it to meet Nelathen’s sword. When the two struck, sparks of blue and red fell to the floor. “You elves just think you’re so superior. I asked Baern to teach me elven magic and he refused,” Angarath said.
“But what about all the other magical races?”
Angarath grunted. “That flea-infested dwarf wouldn’t teach me magic, either. The world will be better off without all you freaks!”
“How did you steal their magic?” Nelathen huffed between sword swings.
“By being smart,” Angarath said. “There are much more powerful beings on this planet than you pointy-eared tree-huggers.”
“But you’ll lose your magic, too.”
“Wrong again, elf. The Gem is the source of good magic, but I happen to have arranged another source for my magic.”
Gornak ducked to avoid the black blade. “An evil source.”
Angarath shrugged. “Whatever works.”
Gornak swung again and again with his battleaxe, but the deadly blade missed by a tiny fraction every time.
“You stupid dwarf,” Angarath shouted. “You couldn’t even hit the broad side of a barn with that toy. Let me show you what real power looks like.” He waved his hands, forming a churning black cloud. The cloud twisted like it was alive and made growling noises. Angarath grinned, and hurled the cloud at Gornak.
Gornak screamed and toppled over onto his back. All his clanking armor couldn’t protect him. The black cloud writhed and snapped as it burrowed between the plates of his armor and under his clothing. His screams grew higher and higher pitched as he thrashed around in agony.
Nelathen and Birgitte had momentarily stopped their attacks in shock at the horrific cloud eating Gornak, but they both gathered themselves and started again. Nelathen continued to swing with his sword, only occasionally touching Angarath, and Birgitte threw spells as fast as she could form her tlaelar dust. But they were both weakening. Nelathen’s swings weren’t as powerful, and it took longer for Birgitte to cast each spell.
Aliiana ducked behind an office chair and started chanting a complicated spell in Elvish. I didn’t want Angarath to notice her casting, so I ran up to distract him. He didn’t see me as I dashed close to bite his ankle.
“Aah!” he yelled. “That hurt, you stupid dog.”
“I’m a Corgi!” I yelled as I zipped behind a computer which immediately exploded in sparks as one of Angarath’s spells hit it. I took cover behind another office chair.
Angarath hadn’t noticed Aliiana. A blue glow formed between her hands and she jumped out from behind the chair and threw it at Angarath. The blue light spattered against his chest, spreading out and sizzling as it burned his flesh.
The spell had injured him—but it had also infuriated him. “I’ll kill you, fairy!” he screamed. He made another growling black cloud and hurled it at her.
The cloud snarled as it flew toward Aliiana. It knocked her over and surrounded her. Through our telepathic link, I felt her pain as the cloud chewed at her flesh. I could barely stand from the agony I felt from Aliiana. I howled in pain and frustration. I paced around the cloud, trying to see a way in to help her, but it completely encased her. I turned back to see Angarath swing his magical black sword at Nelathen, cutting deep into his upper arm.
“You elves are worthless,” Angarath shouted at Nelathen. “How your race has survived this long is beyond me. But pretty soon you’ll wither and die, and I’ll be laughing over your rotting corpse.” Angarath swung again, slicing across Nelathen’s chest. Nelathen cried out in pain and fell backwards.
I looked around at my friends. Nelathen lay moaning on the tile floor, Barrol was slumped unconscious, Birgitte was panting with exhaustion, and Gornak and Aliiana were both surrounded by growling clouds.
Angarath had won.
Chapter 14
Angarath strode over to the young scientist. “Do it now!”
Her hands shook as she typed. “Yes, sir.” A tear slid down her cheek, and she clicked a red button on the computer. A loud whirring sound grew around us, louder and louder until it sounded like an airplane flying low overhead. “Any second now, sir,” the scientist said. Her computer monitor flared bright green, then went dark.
I whimpered. The Gem was destroyed. Aliiana would weaken and die without its magic, as would all the other fairies, elves, dwarves and sprites. I had failed my mistress.
Through my link with Aliiana, I felt her pain worsen every minute. Her skin burned
as the cloud dissolved through like acid. It pierced all the way down to her bones, and then scraped out along the bones to her hands and feet. I desperately wanted to help her, but didn’t know how to fight the cloud.
Evil. Aliiana’s voice rang in my head.
Angarath was certainly evil—he was willing to destroy magic because of his jealousy. I needed something good to fight his evil. But what could I do? I was just a Corgi, without opposable thumbs or weapons or magic. All I had was my saddle, my collar, and the necklace from the Prince.
The necklace.
I remembered it tingling when I tried to help Nelathen disarm the wards in South Dakota. And the Prince was certainly good—he wanted to preserve the source of magic.
I lowered my head and pawed the necklace off. It landed on the tile floor and I looked at it closely. The emerald pendant was in the shape of a leaf, inlayed with tiny silver veins. I picked it up in my mouth and looked at Angarath. He wasn’t paying attention to me, so I dashed behind him, shifting the necklace in my mouth. I chomped down hard on the back of his leg with the emerald on my tongue.
“Aah!” he shouted, louder this time.
I held on tight while Angarath kicked. I suddenly smelled the pines of the Prince’s mountain home, and heard the clear voices of singing elves. And through my telepathic link with Aliiana, I felt her pain disappear, replaced by a sense of relief.
Angarath’s shout turned to a scream, and he fell forward unconscious. I lost my grip on his leg as he thumped onto the tile floor. The black clouds around Aliiana and Gornak disappeared. I ran over to Aliiana. Her skin was red and pock-marked, but she was able to stand on wobbly legs. Gornak was in worse condition. His beard and clothing were torn, his skin was raw and bleeding, and he was moaning.
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