by D. R. Perry
The rest of our table seemed to be reserved for professors from the College. I scanned the room, looking for Nox the Kelpie, and spotted her by one of the fire exits in a Security t-shirt. A lanky blond man only slightly taller stood on the other side of the door, wearing similar attire. He nodded at Jeannie, who murmured that he was Josh, the Alpha mentioned at the Lounge the night before.
The table closest to us was occupied by the entire Redford family, dressed like pioneers, Neil, his wife, Fred, and a boy of about ten. There were also two others I didn’t recognize, an older Troll man with another young enough to be his granddaughter. Squinting at their place cards told me these were the Tollands, ranked Admiral and Captain in the King's Navy. I’d heard of them, but we hadn’t actually met.
Off to the left of what looked like a dance floor was a string quartet tuning up. Two elderly women sat with a cello and a bass. An old man with a viola turned out to be Saul Kazynski. The violinist was a young woman with jet-black hair in a braid on one side of her neck. She looked so much like Saul had in his younger days, I knew this had to be the granddaughter in the photo I’d seen on his mantle. I blinked when she plugged her instrument into an amplifier, intrigued.
“Forgive me for my ignorance, Jeannie, but I didn’t know that violins are electric now.”
“Yeah. It’s more of an internet pop culture thing. Unless you’ve been keeping up by reading newspapers or watching TV, you wouldn’t know about Irina Kazynski. She’s graduating from the Boston Conservatory next month. Already has a huge YouTube following.”
“So, this is truly an important event, then.” I raised an eyebrow. “A celebrity’s donating her time to perform, Newport’s first shifter family is sending a contingent even though they are allied with the Queen, and half the tenured faculty are here.”
“Yeah, I told you.” She patted my arm. “And I would have shown up in a cheap Halloween costume or a little black dress with a bunny ear headband if it weren’t for you. Thanks again, Ismail.” I glanced down at her, that smile of hers threatening to steal my breath again. Yeva never had that much of an effect on me.
“I’d do it again a million times over.” Her blush was so deep a crimson that onlookers might have thought it made her look imperfect. To me, it only added to her charm.
Before I could say anything, a tired-looking woman with auburn hair and gray at the temples cleared her throat at the podium. There was no microphone, so she had to be an Air Magus. With those two clues, I knew this was Henrietta Thurston, Headmistress of Providence Paranormal College.
“Welcome, and thank you all for coming. It’s been an interesting semester at the College, and eventful in an entirely different way than I could have expected.”
Her voice rang out clear as a bell, but I could tell something in her energy was off. I’d heard the Headmistress worked hard, but that didn’t account for the low level of magic around a woman of her age and skill level. I wondered whether some magic-leeching beastie or other hadn’t been plaguing her as she slept. This distracted me so much I couldn’t concentrate on the rest of her speech. At the end, she sat down at our table, across from Jeannie. A fellow about a decade older than her patted her arm from the seat reserved for a Professor Watkins. They grinned at each other.
Neil Redford took the podium next, talking about new improvements in the historic building which housed the Senior Center. Listening to him, I knew he’d found his passion in making things with his hands. The life Neil used to know, of wandering the frontier aimlessly, had never truly been him, a fact I remember shocking him with the night we met. And I remembered what he’d said to me in response, that I’d better find someone to love, or I’d turn into a whole heap of trouble.
When Neil introduced Jeannie, I understood exactly why attending this event was important enough for her not to go into hiding with Maddie, the Umbral Magus. If Neil’s passion was building, Jeannie’s entire reason for being was making sure the people in her care could get what they needed. She’d chosen the same path I had, but for all the right reasons. Instead of serving to run away from something, she’d made helping her life, to run toward people in need or at risk. That courageous concern lit the patio up more beautifully than the stars at her back.
At the end of her speech, Jeannie introduced the quartet, three of whom were seniors served by the Center. I could almost swear she could do magic because I felt almost like we took flight when she laced her arm through mine and led me to the dance floor. We waltzed among several other couples though I didn’t bother much with looking at them.
“Jeannie, I think I want to tell you.”
“Should we sit down?”
“No.” I sighed as I spun her, watching as the spangles on her long skirt reflected light everywhere like a mirror ball. “It’s better for me to be doing something while I speak about this, I think.”
“Then go ahead. Say anything.” She tilted her head again as she had on the way there. I took a deep breath and finally ran toward instead of away.
“After I came back from the Under, I told myself that my wife and children needed me in the lamp in case the unthinkable happened. And it did. The Young Turks rounded them up, but Yeva didn’t summon me. They marched her into the deserts along with my son and daughter, and she didn’t make a wish. I could have come out anyway, bent the rules like I’ve done for you. But I’d heard rumors. I couldn’t bear to see them proved correct. I hadn’t the stomach for it.
“And finally, Yeva wished to be rescued. But I couldn’t bring myself to emerge beside her. I’d sensed some British Extrahumans on the other side of a dune. If they crested the ridge, they’d see everything. I left them a magical trail. After that, I dared to look. A massive rampaging dragon with blue and white scales spewed wind to rival a sandstorm from his mouth and rescued the victims.”
“That was Wilfred Harcourt.” The emotions in Jeannie’s eyes mirrored mine: fear, sadness, a dash of guilt. She understood.
“I came to Yeva’s aid too late to even see her fall. One of the guards stepped back, his scimitar red with blood. The children cowered back in fear as the man threatened them again. I knew what would come next, but I’d been a Magus as well as a Changeling before I tithed. My electrical magic was weak, but Yeva’s death came with a surge of raw power. I burst free of the lamp, slinging a bolt of lightning at the murderer. The hair on the children’s heads stood on end. The charcoal that was left of him clattered against the petrified lightning I’d made, then rolled down the dune.”
“So it was Wilfred who brought your children and the others out of Turkey.” She sighed. “No wonder you mourned him.”
“Yes, and he took mastery of my lamp, as dragons do when they find something valuable. A Djinn serves three masters each time one takes a turn in a lamp, but because Yeva died after just one wish that went ungranted, she didn’t count.”
“What did he use his wishes on, if you don’t mind my asking? And how did you end up at The Academy?” It was hard to think past the anguish, remembering it all caused, but Jeannie’s questions helped me move along and change focus.
“Wilfred returned to Turkey, rescuing any Extrahumans he could find. He exchanged their freedom for heirlooms, but it didn’t lower my opinion of him. A cowardly Djinn can’t exactly judge a profiteering dragon. He did the same during the Second World War. I helped when I could without using a wish, granting three over a span of decades. After that, he could have passed me to anyone. Instead, he left me in a peace I sorely desired back in those days. And then, he married Hertha. She couldn’t tolerate an Unseelie Djinn under her roof, so he donated my lamp to The Academy for study. When a certain Tanuki girl stole it and brought me back to Wilfred’s home, I hoped to see him again, but coincidence had other ideas. I was left to pay my respects instead.”
“Well, it’s a good thing I haven’t made any official wishes yet, then.” She gazed up at me. “I can’t even imagine being stuck in there forever, especially after you’ve been through all that. A profite
ering dragon and a cowardly Djinn turned out to be heroes. You deserve your freedom. Besides,” she grinned, “I’m not sure I want you designing gorgeous outfits for random women for the rest of time.”
I didn’t want to look away from her, but a tug at my sleeve meant I had to turn my head to see who dared vie for my attention. And I found myself frowning down at Kimiko Ichiro.
“Ismail, can I cut in? I have to talk to you.”
“You see me out here, trying to actually live a little as you always said I should, and decide to interrupt it?” I softened the frown. Kimiko was wily but ultimately meant well. “Perhaps it can wait?”
Movement from behind her caught my eye. Blaine fidgeted at the edge of the parquet dance floor, glancing back and forth between Headmistress Thurston and the Professor with her, a man named Watkins. I couldn’t see magic energy around him, so he had to be Psychic. But he looked almost as worse for wear as the Headmistress.
“It can’t.” Kimiko’s eyes widened, and her mouth dropped open as she looked at Jeannie and me, then out at the lagoon the patio overlooked. “It’s your Luck. Not you, your lamp’s. It’s turning the wrong way. That’s why Jeannie keeps having accidents, and everything you try to do is harder. It’s gone bad in a big—”
Before Kimiko could finish what she was saying, a shower of cold, brackish water rained down on us. Jeannie’s foot slipped in it, sending us both to the ground in a heap.
A monstrous, hulking, amalgamated thing had risen out of the pool at the center of Water Place Park, and no one at that illustrious gathering seemed to have the slightest idea what to do about it.
Chapter Thirteen
Jeannie
I didn’t know what that thing was besides ugly and enormous. It defied all Extrahuman or magical creature classification in my experience or education. Neil Redford stood up to it but got sent flying through the glass between the patio and the restaurant’s main dining room for his trouble. If it could land a blow on a Redcap that old, it’d be able to smack me for sure.
I shifted anyway. The outfit Ismail had made me didn’t tear into a million little pieces, just fell away like magic because that’s what it was. I let out a roar, unleashing the universal sign for “angry bear.” Josh Dennison had the same idea, howling up at the sky in what could only be a rallying cry. I never thought I’d hear hooves on parquet flooring, but Nox galloped beside us, her Water magic frothing up under her feet and flying from her mane in a shield against whatever that attacking creature was.
My ears twitched, and I wondered why both the Kazynskis were still playing. They’d gone from waltzes to The Devil Went Down to Georgia. A sudden impulse to kick whatever passed for the mysterious creature’s butt invaded my heart and mind like the aliens in The Day The Earth Stood Still.
“Luck tuuuuuuuurn!” Kimiko sounded like she was auditioning for a stage production of Inu Yasha and looked like she was doing the Macarena. Unfortunately, the whole effect and whatever Luck energy manipulation she’d intended failed when a ball of goo knocked her back. She floundered on the floor in her now-sodden costume. A heavy goblet rolled off the table above her and conked her on the noggin, and Kimiko went down for the count.
A rush of air whooshed behind me, and an angry reptilian cry rose in response to the Tanuki getting served. Blaine Harcourt’s big red dragon body stood on the steps between the attacker and us. He opened his mouth and promptly got a throat full of slime. His head and neck swayed as his scales paled from red to his usual skin tone, then, he shrank back to his human form right there in the creature’s path. I wondered how we were going to beat this thing if it had magic gunk that could knock us out of our shifted forms.
“The goo’s enchanted!” I heard Maddie’s voice coming from somewhere even though I couldn’t see her.
I watched Captain Gemma Tolland try to run for the steps leading down to the middle of Water Place Park. She dropped her glamour completely, revealing wilder hair and eyes than usual, plus a set of delicate, pearly tusks protruding from her lower lip. I’d never seen a Troll get angry before. Spikes sprouted across her back and down her arms, growing along with her rage. But just before she could go full-out Troll Berserker, Admiral Tolland sent a beam of silver light straight at her. It lassoed her waist, and he dragged her back with him into the restaurant and out of the battle. It made sense. Admiral Tolland had a reputation for not getting involved in mortal affairs unless he got paid.
Without Gemma as a target of opportunity, the thing went straight for Fred’s little brother.
“Not my baby!” Mrs. Redford was a Psychic Medium and thank goodness she’d brought her ghosts. “Get em’ guys!”
When ghosts attacked, no one could see them unless they were Mediums or had some sort of Psychic device. I knew they were fighting because of the glasses and cups hurtling through the air, thrown by invisible hands. Even when they moved on to chucking chairs and tossing tables, the thing seemed unharmed. It just absorbed the furniture. But the thing turned away and left the Redford kid alone. That gave Josh Dennison and the rest of Tinfoil Hat’s shifters exactly the opening they needed.
Josh darted forward, joined by a three-legged wolf bounding up from the bottom of the steps. That’d be his sister, Beth. A sleek, furry form splashed in the water, too, flanking the creature directly inside the lagoon. They dipped and weaved, distracting the thing long enough to protect Blaine and the Redfords until Fred got them out of the way. They all vanished into a patch of shadow in one corner of the patio, but Fred came back out almost immediately.
“It’s some kind of golem!” Fred shouted in our general direction and past us. Golems took a concerted effort of mortal magic, Psychic energy, and Faerie powers. For all I knew, there could be an army of Extrahumans powering the thing. I remembered Ismail behind me. I could use a wish if only I knew what would get rid of the thing attacking us. Maybe I needed to think of something besides banishing it.
“On it, sonny boy!” Neil Redford picked bits of The Capital Grille’s plate-glass window out of his sharp, pointy teeth and shook more off his now-massive and gray-skinned frame. He’d eaten the window he’d crashed into and gone full Redcap, dropping his glamour to call extra power from the Under. Fred’s dad leaped and bounded across to where Professor Watkins and Headmistress Thurston lay prone on the floor. He reached for Watkins as Ismail extended his arm toward the Headmistress. At least the unconscious faculty members wouldn’t get caught in the crossfire.
“No more ironic Unseelie heroics, Neil.” Professor Watkins sat up, and I grunted in shock. His eyes were glassy and his limbs oddly limp, like he was either boneless or not moving under his own power. His voice was all wrong, too, like someone else was using his mouth to speak. I remembered Professor Brodsky, a Psychic Summoner victimized by Mind magic, and wondered if this was something similar.
Neil scratched his head, shrugging at the floppy professor as though he couldn’t figure out what kind of threat he posed. That was when the thing from the lagoon slapped one of its long limbs across his face, knocking him out cold. Ismail jumped back and out of the way just in time. A renewed surge of music met my ears as the string quartet played faster. Something had amplified them, but I wasn’t sure what. Their audio equipment looked fried. But Saul Kazynski had Psychic powers to affect emotions. That had to be it.
The strike against Neil was a sucker-punch, and I knew it. I looked for the other attack, wondering where the next blow would fall. But why hadn’t the creature killed any of Tinfoil Hat, or Neil Redford, for that matter? Why would it pull its punches? And then I remembered that coincidence would slap any magic back on the caster. They’d all been attacked before, or in Neil’s case, places he’d put his heart, soul, and magic into building. This had to be the work of the Extramagus.
I was too late to block it when the creature flung one of the tables it had absorbed at the string quartet. I watched Irina Kazynski turn her instrument toward the incoming barrage, amazed that her music changed its course. It would have cru
shed her grandpa if she hadn’t. As it was, it slammed into his leg. I heard a wet snap, and he went down with a cry.
I snarled at Ismail, who crouched beside Headmistress Thurston. Wishes needed intent and words, but if I shifted, Josh and half his pack would be left to fight all by themselves. I used a claw to gouge two words in the slate of the patio, nonspecific and possibly a waste of a wish, but it worked. Ismail nodded, and a shield of crackling energy went up around the string quartet. Amazingly, Saul Kazynski and the rest kept on playing.
“Give me the lamp and the bear shifter and I’ll let the rest of you escape with your lives.” The voice coming from Professor Watkins’ mouth was even more wrong than before, like he wasn’t in his body anymore.
Josh growled, Nox snorted, and Beth barked, echoed by one which sounded like a seal from the lagoon. That had to be Ren Ichiro, Kimiko’s Selkie brother. I refused to be left out or let the kids in Tinfoil Hat fight this battle for me, so I roared again and led the charge.
If the Extramagus wanted me, they’d have to deal with my fangs and claws first!
Ismail
I watched Jeannie leap from the top of the steps outside the patio, closing the gap between her and the creature. I couldn’t let her grapple it. I knew what would happen. A golem like this had devoured an Allied platoon on the European Front in the Second World War before Wilfred and I stopped it. I’d held back this time because I told myself one of the high-status, wealthy guests would handle it, but they’d all either fled or fallen, and I had let a group of youngsters fight a battle I should have been at the front of. Two were unconscious, and the golem had injured one of my few remaining friends. Now it had hurt Jeannie. I couldn’t let that happen. I wouldn’t run away this time, even though I didn’t have an Air dragon backing me up.