by Sam Cheever
Grym was immobilized, but his lips were parted. Sebille settled me onto the floor and plucked the chunk of cookie from the air. She broke the cookie and stuffed a piece between his lips.
We waited a beat…and then another one…and Mr. Peabody blinked, his arms dropping to his sides. He scanned a look toward Sebille, blinked again, and then focused on Sindra. His eyes went wide. “Is that a Fairy?”
It had worked!
Sebille gave Birte a bite of the cookie and the dragon came to, her eyes filled with surprise but no fear. She quickly returned to her human form and ducked into the bathroom with a squeal.
“There’s a robe hanging on the door,” Sebille called out to her.
Grym had come back to himself when Mr. Peabody returned. He didn’t return to his human form, probably because he had no clothes to put on.
Mrs. Foxladle wandered to the front of the store, looking perplexed but otherwise normal.
SB squawked enthusiastically, taking to the air in a messy jumble of shedding feathers and blue language.
I didn’t need a pirate translator to know he was annoyed by his recent loss of body. I didn’t know where he’d gone while Lea held his body, but I guessed, since he was technically dead, he’d waited in the ether somewhere until she’d vacated his skin.
Claudette took one look at the crowd of people and the state of the store and her knees buckled, sending her into a chair near the front window.
“What about Lea?” I croaked.
Sebille shook her head. “We can’t release her yet. Rhonda either. Not until you and I find our bodies.”
She was right. If we released Slimy from Lea and Rhonda…
We both looked around, wondering where Rhonda had gone. “She’s missing too,” I told Sebille.
The Sprite sighed. “We’ll deal with that after we find our bodies.” She nodded toward the snake. “I don’t know what’s going to happen with the Naga. Things might go badly. I’m inclined to wait on that transformation until you and I are fixed.”
“If you take a bite, you should return to your body,” I told her.
She shook her head. “Whoever set the spell took us somewhere. I don’t want to reactivate us until I know where our bodies are.”
As anxious as I was to get back to normal, I had to admit she was right.
Birte came out of the bathroom. “What about Theo?”
Sebille looked at me.
“We need our magic,” I said.
Sebille nodded. “We can’t release him just yet. Naida and I need to find our bodies so we can help restrain the Naga if it goes bad.”
She scanned Theo a quick glance, then took in the snake. Understanding lit her gaze. “Okay. I’ll stand guard here. If things go south, my dragon can hold the Naga off until you get back.”
“Thanks, Birte.” If my little froggy arms…legs?...had been long enough, I would have hugged her.
Sebille looked at the connecting door and nodded to her mother. “Will you see if you can unwind the spell on the lock?”
10
Teeny, Tiny Amphibian Diapers
The artifact library was too quiet. I expected the cats to assault us as soon as we opened the door, but they were nowhere to be seen. I had a sudden flare of panic that the imposter had hurt them, and raised my bulgy black gaze to Sebille Rhonda. “I’m going to try to sense the cats.”
She nodded and settled my squishy self onto Shakespeare’s desk.
The leather blotter warmed and rolled beneath my wide, green butt and I hopped in surprise, emitting a startled croak.
Sebille arched a brow at the suspicious trail of liquid I’d left behind. If I hadn’t been cold-blooded in that moment, I would have surely gotten heated cheeks.
Well…actually…I had gotten heated cheeks. Just not the ones on my face. “This frog bus needs tiny little depends.”
Sebille chuckled darkly.
I reached for the wisps of energy infused in the frog’s cells, tugging them slowly forward and coalescing them as best I could without a real sense of control or focus.
When I had a core of energy gathered, I sent my thoughts outward, picturing my form and Sebille’s.
A soft clang danced across the open space. Sebille and I shared a surprised look. The magic had found an artifact. But I hadn’t been looking for one.
“It came from upstairs,” Sebille said, pointing toward my apartment at the top of the stairs. She scooped me up and ran lightly up the steps, turning my tiny froggy brain to mush in the process.
I was dizzy and nauseous from the bouncing around by the time she reached the landing.
“Be careful,” I warned. “We don’t know what’s waiting in there for us.”
She nodded without giving me her patented Sebille glower. That was when I knew how discombobulated my assistant was from everything that had happened.
Grym’s voice called out behind us. Sebille turned to shush him.
I heard his heavy footsteps climbing the steps. The sound was a comfort. I might still be peeved at him, but he was a good man to have in my corner in a fight.
Sebille hesitated another moment.
I realized with a start that she was scared. In all the years I’d known the Sprite, I’d only seen her show fear a couple of times. The reality made my little froggy limbs tremble.
Without looking down, Sebille curled Rhonda’s lips. “If you pee on me, I’m going to make you eat bugs.”
I attempted a few frantic Kegel exercises in hopes of heading off disaster. But I couldn’t find any muscles to tighten.
Nope. Zero bladder control. Sebille was playing with fire by even holding me.
Sucked to be her.
“What’s happening?” Grym asked, trying to peer around Sebille and through the open door.
“The frog is about to pee on me again, and I’m going to hurt her if she does.”
Grym grinned down at me. “Again, huh?”
“Stop talking,” I said. But all he heard was, “Ribbit!”
He chuckled as if he’d understood me.
“She sent out her keeper energy and something clanged up here,” Sebille said.
Grym nodded. “Let’s go see what it was.”
Just that easy.
Alrighty then.
Sebille shoved Grym through the door first. She might be cocky and nearly fearless. But she wasn’t stupid.
He took a few steps and stopped, his big form going perfectly still.
Something was wrong.
Something was horribly wrong.
Trickle. Trickle. Trickle.
“Ew!” The Sprite held me away from her with a horrified grimace. I sent a quick prayer to the goddess that she didn’t fling me across the room.
“Sorry! This squishy green package isn’t very hardy.”
“You owe me lunch for a week,” Sebille said, still grimacing.
“Done,” I said, wincing internally. But it wasn’t going to be bugs.
Rubbing her wet hand on poor Rhonda’s dress, Sebille stepped forward. Her foot thumped against something. We looked down at the seeking rod the imposter had been using. It was lying on my carpet.
“I guess we found the artifact that clanged,” I told my assistant.
She nodded and walked into the apartment, her head on a swivel. Her gaze finally followed Grym’s and stopped as his had. The two of them were motionless.
I strained to see past the big Detective. “Ribbit!”
Sebille stepped sideways, giving me a clear view of the object of their horror.
Or should I say objects?
I croaked pitifully.
It was my body and Sebille’s. We were flung across the bed like discarded clothing, our limbs tangled and bent at odd angles. Our open eyes were black, empty, and our flesh was collapsed, like woman-shaped pillows that had been de-stuffed and rejected.
Wicked and Hex lay nearby on the bed as if keeping watch on our corpses. When he saw us, Mr. Wicked lifted his head and gave us a plaintive yow
l.
I realized in that moment my cat believed I was gone.
It just about broke my heart.
My little froggy form shuddered violently. It was a singularly unjolly sight.
Finally, Grym turned to Sebille, all trace of fun missing from his handsome face. “You brought the cookie?”
Sebille nodded, her gaze locked on the disturbing sight before her.
“Sebille?” I said.
She seemed transfixed. Rhonda’s face was slack with horror.
“Sebille!”
Nothing. Her mind seemed as empty as the shell of her body.
What if her mind had fled at the sight of her sunken, empty form? What if the imposter had left a spell in my apartment that stole her very essence? Would I be next? Grym? I panicked. “Sebille! I feel another pee coming on!”
The Sprite blinked, opened her eyes wide, and shoved a piece of cookie into my mouth.
She quickly set me on the floor and took a bite of what was left just as the world started spinning around me and my small, incontinent body fell away.
Waves of energy swirled around me. Purple waves that dove into my nooks and crevices and tugged at my flesh, shoving, plumping, and prodding me until it filled me to the brim, and then slowly receding. The energy left behind a slight ringing in my ears and a sour taste in my mouth.
Smacking my lips against the horrible taste, I opened my eyes and found myself staring at a familiar gray stain on the ceiling above my bed.
It had worked! I clenched my fingers and curled my toes, checking all my limbs to make sure they worked. My body felt heavy, swollen, and I figured that was probably because I’d been a frog for so long and had to adjust back to being normal size.
The bed moved, and I remembered I wasn’t alone. I slowly turned my head and looked into Sebille’s shining green gaze.
I’d never seen anything so beautiful in my life. We shared a smile, and Sebille reached out to clasp my hand in a tight, almost desperate grip.
I was touched by the act until I felt the cold, wet sliminess in her palm.
Her eyes turned hostile. “You will never pee on me again.”
I jerked my hand away, grimacing. “It wasn’t my fault.”
“Meow!” Wicked flung himself at me, purring so loudly it rumbled in my chest as he rubbed along my sides.
“Hey, buddy. I’m sorry I scared you.”
He rubbed his head against my chin, flopping down to roll around the mattress next to me. Hex came over and gave me a tentative nudge with her soft head, her dark gold gaze filled with concern.
I scratched behind her ears. “It’s all good, pretty girl.”
Sebille shoved upright, wobbling slightly before pushing to her feet. “Stop dallying, Naida. We have a thief to find.”
If Sebille wobbled a bit on her ugly red shoes, it didn’t take away from her exit. She held her head high, like the Sprite Princess she was, and moved quickly away from us, through the door.
I was a little surprised she didn’t run over to the sink to wash her hands.
That was the first thing I was going to do. The artifact thief could wait. I wasn’t walking around with frog pee on my hands. A girl had to have her priorities.
“Are you sure this is where you saw faux you climbing around?”
I nodded, my gaze scouring the shelves rising forty feet above our heads. “There’s nothing missing.” Back in my own body, I’d wasted no time reaching for my keeper magic and taking a quick inventory of the library. “There’s nothing missing anywhere. What do you suppose they were doing here?”
“Just because nothing’s missing doesn’t mean they weren’t looking for something,” Grym reminded me. “Maybe they just haven’t found it yet.”
I nodded. “But, if that’s true…” My eyes went wide. “They might have switched the search to the bookstore.”
Grym frowned. “It’s possible.”
Sebille shivered. “Is anybody else cold?”
As soon as she said it, I realized I was. Rubbing my arms, I glanced around. The library kept itself at a magically perfect temperature at all times. The only way that would have changed was if the magic was down.
It wasn’t down. I could feel it throbbing all around me when I reached for it.
Sebille and I had the same thought at the same time.
“The big door!” we both said at once.
We took off running around the shelves and headed for the main area of the library, Grym on our heels.
I saw the swirling eddies of snow on the concrete floor before we got close enough to see the sliver of daylight at the edge of the big sliding door.
Blustery air filtered through the two-inch crack, turning the area nearest the door cold and lowering the temperature in the remainder of the massive space by several degrees.
“The intruder left through here,” Grym said. He grabbed the edge of the door and shoved it further open, stepping out into the snow.
The overhead light shone down on his dark head, and the only snow in the air was a dusting of sparkling flakes the breeze had tugged from the thick cover on the ground and sent dancing across the open lot behind Croakies.
The storm had finally stopped.
Grym pointed to an area nearest the building, under the overhang of the roof. The snow was only about six inches deep there and I saw a distinctive trail of footprints leading to the corner of the building.
Grym pointed toward that corner. “I’m going to follow those tracks. I’ll come in through the front in a few minutes.”
I nodded. “We’ll meet you there.”
Two gray streaks shot through the door and followed Grym along the wall.
“You have Wicked and Hex,” I yelled out to Grym. He lifted a hand over his head to let me know he’d heard.
Sebille and I hurried back inside, shivering. We closed and sealed the door and headed back to the front.
A tall, slender form stepped from the shadows, startling us, and we turned to find Rhonda standing near the stacks, her gaze slightly dazed. “Naida?” Her voice was weak, breathless. “I…I’m…” Rhonda wavered on her feet. We hurried over to catch her, supporting her between us. “I feel funny.”
“It’s okay,” I told her, meeting Sebille’s gaze on the other side of the Banshee. “It’s all going to be all right now.”
Yeah, remember what I said before about my being wrong?
We walked Rhonda toward the dividing door, the Banshee getting stronger with every step as the effects of the spell fell away. Listening to Sebille explain to her about the hex, I shoved the door open.
And came face to face with trouble.
11
The True Soul of Christmas
Eattle stood by the Christmas tree, an ugly gleam in his beady black eyes.
Hobs stood a few feet away, clutching the partially unwrapped package he’d given me for Christmas.
Eattle extended a short, pudgy hand toward Hobs. “Give me the box, boy.”
Hobs wrapped his arms more tightly around the wrapped gift. “No. This is Miss’s box. I gave it to her.”
“You stole it from me,” Eattle charged.
Hobs shook his head. “It was in the throw-away bin. You didn’t want it.”
Oh, oh. I stepped into the room, dodging around the still-frozen snake and the immobile giant. “What’s going on?” I asked the Elf.
“Your hobgoblin stole my Soul of Christmas. I followed his trail here and I want it back.”
I glanced at Hobs. His gaze was watery with unshed tears, but his chin was firm. He felt he was in the right. “Hobs said you threw it out. Is that true?”
Eattle’s expression changed, became wheedling. “It was a mistake, Naida keeper. You know it is, with winter cleaning and all. The Misses just pitched it by mistake. If you make the boy hand it over, I won’t press charges.”
“I don’t make Hobs do anything,” I told Eattle. “He’s a free man.”
Eattle’s gaze went wide. “You’re kiddin
g me, right?”
“Nope.” I looked at Hobs. “Where was the box when you found it, Hobs?”
“At the old lady’s house,” he said. “Three big, brown houses up from here. She died, Miss. And her family didn’t want the box. They threw it out.”
They were humans, no doubt, and had no idea what the box was. Not that it would have mattered to them if they had. The magic only worked for the magical. “So, it was never yours?” I asked the Elf.
His expression turned dark, angry. “Earline and me found that box first, and I mean to have it.”
I shook my head. “If Hobs found that box in the trash, then it was fair game. I’m sorry, Eattle. But you aren’t getting the box. It would be best if you and Earline left now. The storm is over.”
Eattle growled.
Mrs. Foxladle stepped forward, giving the Elf a nervous smile. “I have a music box very similar to that one if you’ll consider a replacement,” she told him kindly. “I just don’t have any use for it.”
“You don’t need to do that, Mrs. Foxladle,” I said. The last thing I wanted was for the mean-tempered Elf to take something the sweet elderly woman offered just to make peace. “He only wants that particular box. And he’s done bad things to get it,” I said, leveling a look on Eattle.
“Nobody’s permanently hurt, are they?”
I glanced at the snake, which was like a giant dagger poised over all of us. “That remains to be seen,” I told him. “Now, please leave and take Earline with you. You’ve caused enough trouble.”
“Watch out!” Birte screamed.
I turned to see her running toward me, still wearing the robe and nothing else.
Cold metal found my throat. I went very still.
“Anybody moves and she dies,” Earline said, her voice cold.
So there she was.
Eattle stepped closer to Hobs, twitching his outstretched hand. “If you don’t want Miss to die, you’ll give me the box, boy.”
Hobs looked from me to Eattle. His teary blue gaze dropped to the box in his hands.
Something moved past the glass on the other side of the tree.