Elfhome

“If it hurts him, I can cancel the spell.” She didn’t want to say more, not with her shadow possibly hearing every word, seeing every move.

There was a group hug, as if Rustle was going in front of a firing squad, and then the male came down the wide swimming pool’s steps to stand beside her. She tried not to notice that he was only a head taller than her and slender as a reed.

She canceled the healing spell that inked onto his arm. “Go stand in the middle. Be careful not to step on any of the glyphs.”

She paced around the outside of the spell, checking her work. Her insides churned with the fear that she might really mess things up. She’d run simulations, but she couldn’t account for all the variables because she didn’t really know which of the draconic powers the Skin Clan might have bred into the children. Nor, to be truthful, did she understand most of their powers.

Science was about discovering the unknown through experimentation and careful observation.

The dragons owed most of their powers to their dual nature, which seemed dependent on the presence of magic. Jin had asked that the enclaves defenses be lowered not to allow the tengu to enter, but so there was the abundance of magic necessary for Providence to manifest. When she first encountered Impatience, he’d been entirely animal, but after tapping the Spell Stones power through her, he gained “consciousness” enough to realize that he was hurting her and stop.

It stood to reason, if the kids had powers, much like her and Oilcan, they needed some type of trigger to be able to access it. If you analyzed the initialization spell, it became obvious that it used the least common phoneme in the Elvish language and one of the more difficult hand positions. Considering how much time one spent talking and waving hands around, it was good that it was nearly impossible to accidently tap the Spell Stones.

On the other hand, it was possible that the kids — like the dragons — simply needed a vast amount of magic focused on them before their abilities became apparent. There was the fact that while she and Rustle both had a broken arm, hers was nearly healed while Rustle’s was still barely healed. The spell used on both of them simply funneled magic into their natural regenerative powers. On her, the spell was doing that was expected, but not on Rustle.

She made another lap around the completed spell, making sure Rustle hadn’t smudged anything by walking through it and that everything was correct. It shouldn’t hurt Rustle, she told herself. All it would do was focus magic on him.

She bent low and activated the spell with command word. The first ring shimmered to life as the resonance of the phonemes triggered the spell. She stood and stepped back as the second ring flared to power.

The detection ring rose, instantly gleaming with the countless connections. So Rustle was just like Merry in that regard. The inner most ring kicked in — like the healing spell — its function was to focus latent magic to Rustle.

The entire spell flared to unbearable brilliance.

Oh, that did not seem good.

“Is it supposed to do that?” Blue Sky asked. “Is he all right?”

Good question.

Tinker shielded her eyes with her hand as she tried to make Rustle out inside the spell. There seemed to be things raining down inside, like exploding corn kernels in a popcorn maker. Oh gods, she hoped it wasn’t pieces of Rustle. She edged close as she dared and squinted at the odd shaped pieces on the edges of the glare. It was popcorn.

Somehow she doubted that Rustle had his pockets stuffed with popcorn. Where was it coming from? An iPod landed next to the fluffy kernels, trailing ear buds that floated down and settled up against the brilliant shell. The color of the spell changed infinitesimally, as pinpoints of blues and greens flared beside the ear buds.

Oilcan said that Rustle had been losing things right and left, including the expensive mpeg player. The male had been inconsolable over the loss and had torn the enclave apart looking for it. What if things had been shifting out of phase all this time — little things — like popcorn?

And with more magic did Rustle just shift out of phase?

“Tink!” Blue Sky cried. “Is he all right? What’s happening to him?”

“I’m canceling the spell.” She could recast it once she was sure he was fine.

“Inner breach,” Pixel announced. “South corridor, lone armed intruder.”

How did anyone get into the hotel without being detected? Oh gods, she should have known her shadow would be able to walk through all her defenses.

Tinker backpedaled from the active spell, waving a hand toward the main doors into the casting room. “We’ve got incoming! Pixel, system status?”

“Twenty-five percent monitor failure detected.”

Her shadow had blasted a hole in her defense. Was there a wave of oni following close behind?

Tinker tapped the spell stones and cast a quick scry.

Oni were pouring down Grand Avenue toward the hotel.

Part One of her plan was working. She just really expected more of a warning.