Mist and Magic

by Lindsay Buroker

  “I wonder if there’s actually a cave anywhere.” Earlier, I’d jokingly wondered if something had been lost in translation when the ogre scrivener had recorded that address. Now, it occurred to me that the thought might have been more accurate than I’d suspected. If ogres all lived in caves, maybe they used that word for all dwellings.

  Willard shook her head. “I don’t care. I just want to end the murders. We’re getting to the bottom of this bloodthirsty tiger, and we’re finding Kwon. Today.”

  This wasn’t the time to get emotional, but it touched me that she’d added finding Michael to her mission.

  Willard stood up, but I held out a hand to stop her. “Are you really thinking of knocking?”

  “And showing them the warrant, yes. Even if I’m skeptical that the owners of this place are property-tax-paying citizens, I have to proceed legally and professionally. There are rules and procedures.” Willard gave me a flat look, as if to say she doubted I paid attention to such things.

  She wasn’t wrong. A part of me wanted to set up my phone to film what would likely be a ludicrous encounter, but a larger part of me knew a stealthy incursion would be better. Though maybe it was silly to believe we could enter stealthily. We’d killed their wolves and made a lot of noise doing it. Whoever lived here knew we were coming.

  Unfortunately, even though I could sense the magic of the structure itself, I couldn’t detect anything or anyone inside. The walls blocked my senses as well as my eyesight. Inside, there could be one dangerous guy… or a hundred. The log castle was large enough to hold an army.

  “Why don’t you do that,” I suggested, “while I climb up a tower and sneak in through a window?”

  “While you’ve got that charm activated?”

  “Yes.”

  “Would you be able to skulk around inside without leaving mud and puddles on the floor?”

  “I’ll wipe my boots on the crenellations before I go in.”

  Willard shrugged. “You don’t work for me, so I can’t tell you what to do. But I’ll assume you want me to keep them distracted for as long as possible.”

  “I’d appreciate that. Also, don’t get shot. Or eaten by a tiger.”

  “I had no idea you cared.”

  “I don’t, but I’d feel obligated to carry you out over my shoulder, and you look heavier than this cub.”

  “I’m barely one-fifty. If you can’t do a fireman carry on me, I’m going to send a personal trainer to your door after this.”

  “Better than the trolls and orcs who usually show up.” I grimaced, memories of the time Michael had been shot by trolls fresh in my mind. Shaking my head, I pulled out my phone. “Give me your number in case I need to text you.”

  I had one bar of reception. Hopefully that would be enough.

  “Here.” Willard pulled out her own phone and sent me a text without asking for my number.

  “You already put me in your contacts list? We’re destined to be besties. Maybe we should start practicing our fist bumps.”

  “Or maybe we should deal with the people in that castle.” Willard waved at me and stepped back out onto the path.

  “Wait.” I gave her two of the grenades I’d gotten from Nin. “Just in case they don’t want to talk to you.”

  Willard considered them, nodded with approval, then slipped them into an outer pocket of her pack. “Thanks.”

  I would win her over yet.

  As I tapped my cloaking charm and hopefully disappeared from the senses of the castle owner, Willard pulled a folded stack of papers out from another pocket. She truly did have a warrant. I would have laughed, but I was too busy sneaking away.

  Assuming the drawbridge had alarms or traps, I thought about swimming or trying to run and jump across the moat. A pair of alligators swam past, beady eyes and the tips of their snouts visible above the water, and I ditched that idea. My charm would keep them from seeing or smelling me, but it didn’t stifle sound, and it would be hard to swim without making noise.

  A hint of magic came from harnesses around their torsos, probably some compulsion that kept them from fleeing the chilly northwest and going south to a climate more appropriate for them.

  There were iron bands around the logs of the drawbridge, and I also sensed magic radiating from them. Alarms? Instead of investigating further, I stepped over them. The portcullis was raised halfway, as if in invitation.

  Willard could accept that invitation. I skirted the castle wall and jogged along the one-foot-wide grassy ledge between it and the moat. Another set of alligators swam past, and the cub offered a questioning, “Merow?”

  “Shh,” I breathed.

  Their beady black eyes turned in my direction. I ran faster, going as quickly as I could without making noise.

  When I was around the corner of the castle and out of sight of the main entrance, I picked a spot to climb up the wall. Having extra furry weight on my back made it more difficult than usual, but I found sufficient hand- and footholds among the bumpy logs and made it the fifteen feet to the top.

  A true castle would have had a courtyard to go along with the parapet and towers, but the interior of the structure was covered with a metal roof. Not seeing any doors or access panels, I headed toward the nearest tower, which also had the nearest window large enough to enter through. I climbed again, found the window locked, and rested my hand on it while willing my lock-picking charm to work.

  An interior latch clicked faintly. The circular, wood-paneled room inside was empty, the only motion coming from the dancing flames of a kerosene lantern mounted on a wall. I opened the window carefully, staying to the side in case someone was hiding. These looked like guard towers, so it was hard not to imagine brutes with firearms waiting to maim intruders.

  Nothing happened.

  A faint knock drifted up to my ears as I pulled myself in. Willard at the front door with her warrant in hand.

  I understood why she, an official government representative, felt compelled to obey the law, but I was used to doing things my way and much preferred sneaking in and figuring out what I was dealing with before announcing myself. But if whoever owned the castle focused on her and that kept them from looking for me, all the better. I only hoped Willard didn’t get hurt because she was out in the open and an easy target. Based on our brief time together, I had no problem accepting that she was a capable warrior, but she didn’t have my array of magical tools and weapons, so that put her at a disadvantage here.

  Once I was inside the castle, I could sense the magic that I hadn’t been able to detect through the outer wall. And I grimaced at the amount of it. Mostly artifacts—it was hard to tell what they did, but I suspected many were for defending this place—but also beings. At least one ogre and someone else I couldn’t quite identify. Someone powerful. I could usually tell someone’s species by their aura, but not this time. He or she vaguely reminded me of the nature-tinted auras that I’d been told represented elves, but that wasn’t quite right. The aura was darker and more ominous than that. Malevolent.

  There were also magical creatures prowling the hallways and rooms of the castle. More of the wolves. Since we’d defeated four of them, I should have been bolstered, but there were a lot of them in here. Even with magical weapons, I could only fight so many at a time. I would have to be careful not to be caught out in the open.

  Since Michael didn’t have magical blood, I couldn’t sense if he was here or not. Surprisingly, I didn’t sense anything like a grown-up version of the cub either. We’d heard those great feline roars outside but so far hadn’t seen or sensed the source of them. Maybe it was a mundane tiger that had been trained to kill, not needing any magical enhancement for the job, and that was why I couldn’t detect it.

  “Merow?” came a tentative sound from the cub.

  I winced. There was no way I could convey to her that we needed to be quiet. Nor could I see a way forward that wouldn’t put her at risk.

  “I think you better stay here, kid.” I eased the
pack off my shoulders and pulled the cub out. She sat and looked up at me, green eyes liquid and wan. “I have a feeling I’m going to end up in another fight—or lots of them. I don’t want you to get taken out. This is a nice room. Look, there’s a weapons rack you can nibble on.”

  She stood and nibbled on my bootlaces instead.

  “Funny.” I stroked her back a few times, then plopped her down by the weapons rack. I held my hands up as if I could command her like a dog to stay.

  Her sad eyes tracked me as I backed away, and she didn’t try to follow me to the door.

  “Stay here,” I whispered, my throat tight with emotion. “I’ll come back for you.”

  I hoped it wasn’t a lie.

  As soon as I shut her in the room, my sense of urgency propelled me across a landing and down a set of steps. The ogre and the mysterious being were on the ground floor near the back of the castle, but the hallways all directed me toward the front of the building. It looked like I wouldn’t be able to sneak around and come at them from behind.

  When I reached the ground floor and peeked out of the stairway, I spotted the first of the roving creatures. Four of the big red-eyed wolves trotted down a hallway, a faded gray carpet keeping their claws from clacking on the wooden floor underneath.

  I padded silently back up the stairs several steps and waited for them to pass. As long as I didn’t make a noise, they shouldn’t sense me through my camouflage charm, but if their route took them up the stairs toward me, they would get close enough to see through the protective magic.

  I waited with Chopper in hand. This time, I wouldn’t use Fezzik unless I had to, though that might be inevitable if I had to battle four at once. I touched the ammo pouches that held Nin’s grenades, half checking to make sure they were still there and half contemplating ways I might throw one to take out the maximum number of enemies.

  Two of the wolves trotted past without glancing up, the hulking black forms taking up most of the hallway. The second two paused at the base of the stairs. One looked straight at me, its eyes glowing crimson in halls dimly lit by the wall lanterns. One wolf’s nose quivered as it tested the air. I waited with my sword poised.

  A faint gray mist curled around the wolves’ legs, as if the outside was seeping into the castle. It seemed strange, but I was too focused on the creatures to do more than note it. Long seconds slipped past as the wolf kept sniffing, kept looking in my direction. The one beside him also turned to look up the stairs.

  Just as I was certain they knew I was there and would race toward me, both wolves’ heads swung back the way they had come. I hadn’t heard anything, but all four of the creatures reversed direction and trotted off toward what I guessed was the front door of the place.

  Worried they’d heard Willard, I followed after them. At an intersection, I peered down a hallway that looked like it led deeper into the castle—toward the being with the dangerous aura—but the wolves had gone straight toward what appeared to be a large foyer or grand entrance hall. I had to make sure they didn’t attack Willard en masse.

  As I crept after them, I scanned my surroundings with all of my senses alert. There had to be traps in here. I didn’t want to step in one.

  When I reached the entrance hall, the area lit by more kerosene lanterns as well as chandeliers hanging from wide beams near the ceiling, I almost forgot about the wolves. Michael lay on his side on the floor, gagged and bruised with his ankles and his wrists tied.

  The urge to sprint to him and cut his bonds almost propelled me into the hall, but I’d just been thinking of traps, and my instincts screamed that this was one. The wolves had parted and sat at the four corners of the large room. A wide back hallway headed toward the rear of the castle.

  Michael lay in the middle of a rectangular carpet. Walking on it might trigger a trap. I sensed magic emanating from the area. Or was it emanating from him? Next to the carpet, a rusty metal starburst was embedded in the wood floor like a decorative medallion. It also emanated magic.

  I frowned at Michael, trying to piece together the puzzle, but his eyes were closed, so he couldn’t give me any clues. I could make out his chest expanding and contracting with breaths. He was alive—for now.

  But something was off. Was that truly my Michael? Or might it be an illusion? If it was, it was a good one.

  I stepped out of the hallway, watching for tripwires, though the strange mist would have made it difficult to see anything small or thin. The air now even had a smell to it, like the damp forest outside, with a hint of something pungent and foreign.

  As I drew closer to Michael’s form, my senses and instincts grew more certain that something was off. If the wolves hadn’t been in the room, I would have tossed a coin at him to see if it passed through.

  I stopped at the edge of the carpet, though I could barely see it now. The fog had grown denser, that musty forest scent stronger, something about it making me think of sleep and how tired I was after being up all night.

  Between one second and the next, I realized that the fog wasn’t some innocent byproduct of the weather but was itself a threat. I backed away, not wanting to leave in case that actually was Michael but also certain that I would be in trouble if I stayed in the room.

  I stumbled as I backed toward the hallway and gaped down at my feet in betrayal and surprise. I had elven blood; I never stumbled.

  But abruptly my knee buckled, the weight of my body too much to hold up. Some paralyzing magic was stealing the power from my muscles and tilting me toward the black chasm of unconsciousness.

  The wolves heard me stumble. All of their heads swiveled toward me, and they ran in my direction.

  I could barely keep my fingers wrapped around Chopper’s hilt. There was no way I could fight them, not now. I dug into my ammo pouch and pulled out a grenade as I willed my legs to carry me back into the hallway. If there was any chance that was Michael, I couldn’t risk bringing the roof down on him. I had to get farther away first.

  Though I wanted to retreat all the way to the stairs, I only made it two steps into the hall before my legs gave way completely. I dropped to my knees, my hip banging against the wall, and slid down to the floor.

  As the wolves charged into view, I pulled the tab on the grenade and rolled it toward them. It bumped one of their legs and didn’t go as far as I wanted.

  I tried to pull myself backward, away from the grenade, but my numb hands and legs couldn’t even feel the floor beneath me.

  My last thought was that this wasn’t how I wanted to go out. Not only had I failed to redeem my promise to the cub and return to her, but I’d failed to help Michael. I hadn’t accomplished anything here.

  The grenade blew, its explosive charge amplified by magic, and I had the satisfaction of seeing fur and wolf limbs fly before the shockwave hit me and hurled me down the hall.

  With my body numb and unresponsive, I couldn’t curl into a ball or do anything to protect myself. My head hit the wall, and the unconsciousness I’d been fighting won.

  16

  As soon as they let me in, I joined Michael in his hospital room. He smiled at me and seemed in good spirits and fully alert and awake—maybe they’d only had to do a local anesthetic for the bullet removal. I knew from personal experience that bullet extractions were uncomfortable as hell even with numbing agents. I also had the added complication of healing quickly. Normally, that was a good thing, but not if it meant the wound healed around the bullet still lodged inside.

  “Sorry about that,” Michael said from the bed he was propped up in. “That wasn’t how I intended the evening to end.”

  “That’s my line.” The bed had rails around it, so I couldn’t sit at the foot with him. I pulled up a chair instead. “I’m sorry you were hurt. I should have rushed around the corner and cut them off instead of just telling you to run.”

  Then he wouldn’t have been in the trajectory of any bullets. During his surgery, I’d been sitting in the waiting room and second-guessing my actions that nig
ht.

  “Right. Because charging big guys with machine guns always goes super well.” He waved dismissively. “I had time to get behind your car. If I hadn’t been dumb enough to lean out and look, I wouldn’t have been hit.”

  But he’d looked because he’d been worried about me. That made it worse. This was my fault.

  “Michael…” I looked down at my hands and plucked at my sleeve.

  “Please don’t say this proves it would be a bad idea for us to live together. If you’re not ready for that, that’s fine, but don’t let this come between us.”

  I swallowed, the lump rising in my throat making it hard for me to reply. Not that I knew what to say anyway. I was horrible at this kind of thing. I had feelings, but I never knew how to express them. Even to people I cared about. Especially to people I cared about.

  “I don’t want anything to come between us.” I managed to look up and meet his eyes. “But I also don’t want you to be hurt again—or worse—because of me. Because we’re in a relationship and some enemy of mine figures that out and goes after you. This wasn’t even intentional. Think what could happen if…” I lifted my hand but then dropped it. The power to be blunt left me, and I couldn’t finish the sentence.

  “Like I already said, my life got more dangerous when I chose to involve myself in this underground world of the magical.”

  “It got a lot more dangerous when you chose to involve yourself with me.”

  “Yeah, but you’re worth it.” He smiled, but his dark eyes were wary. He feared he’d already lost the argument—lost me.

  Seeing that pain in his eyes made me feel like I’d been shot myself. I didn’t want to hurt him. And I wished it didn’t have to be this way, but me being lonely and liking his company wasn’t a good enough reason for me to have a relationship with him, to risk falling in love with him.

  Tears pricked at my eyes. Maybe I already had fallen in love. Damn it, when had that happened?

  “Thank you, Michael. You’re worth a lot too. Everything. But I couldn’t live with knowing I’d been responsible for your death.”