“Hold on.” I lifted a hand, aware of Willard a step behind me, her pistol drawn and pointed toward the ceiling, ready to bring to bear if we ran into the thief—or, more likely, a booby trap she’d left. If she’d been there, I would have sensed her. Unless she had a camouflaging charm similar to mine. That was possible, I realized. Even likely. The doors to the building were monitored, so the thief shouldn’t have been able to saunter in during broad daylight. “I’m calling for back up.”
“Zav?” Willard asked.
“He’s still not on Earth.” I touched the feline-shaped charm on the leather thong around my neck and summoned Sindari. “Think furrier.”
The great silver tiger formed beside me in the doorway, a tight fit since he was over seven hundred pounds and his head came up to my shoulder. His green eyes closed to thoughtful slits, and he sniffed.
Where are we? He’d been in the building before but not in the windowless basement.
“Willard’s office,” I responded aloud.
It feels like a cursed shaman burial ground on the haunted world of Nagnortha.
“Sindari likes what you’ve done with the place,” I told Willard, who knew Sindari could communicate telepathically with me.
“I bet. Are we going in?” Since Willard was mundane, she couldn’t sense magic, but she ought to be able to see the fog and wonder what it meant.
“Is closing the door and forgetting this room exists an option?” I wasn’t one to shirk from duty or hide from bad guys, but the thief had clearly set this up for me—how she’d known I was here, I didn’t know—and it seemed dumb to stroll into a trap.
Maybe Willard thought so, too, for she considered her answer for a few seconds before replying. “We need to know what she took, and if she’s still around, we need to capture her. She’s been stealing a lot of priceless artifacts, magical and mundane, and she broke into a government facility and got a bunch of sensitive data off the hard drives there. Since she’s believed to be from a rival nation, that’s got my higher-ups twitchy. I can go in first.” She tapped my shoulder. “If you think there’s a trap set specifically for you.”
I grimaced at the idea of a trap set for me going off and killing Willard. “Sindari and I will check it out. You and Brisco stay in the hallway.”
I sense entities inside, Sindari told me.
Living beings? I stepped in and flicked the light switch. The fluorescents mounted on the ceiling remained dark. Naturally. I thought about activating my night-vision charm, but with the light flowing in from the hallway behind me, it would be too bright and hurt my eyes. Chopper’s glow would guide me.
No, he said. Malevolent entities.
Like what? I remembered his comment about a haunted world. Ghosts?
Your language may not have an exact term, but along those lines, yes.
As I walked down the first aisle, Willard and Brisco stepped into the room behind me, both with weapons pointed into the darkness to the sides. So much for my suggestion that they stay in the hallway. Willard also wasn’t the type to hide from bad guys. I trusted they were professionals and wouldn’t shoot me.
Something brushed my cheek, and I swatted at it. Nothing was there. I kept walking, wanting to check out the strange magic coming from the back corner of the room. Thanks to the floor-to-ceiling shelving units, most full of items of all sizes, I couldn’t see over there yet.
Another something brushed my forehead. Again, I found nothing when I probed my face with my fingers.
Sindari shook his head, as if a bug had flown in his ear.
Feels like cobwebs, I observed silently.
Yes. He sounded annoyed and prowled ahead of me, turning toward the corner when he reached the aisle running parallel to the back wall.
“That’s the spot where she was standing when the video went out.” Brisco pointed toward the shelves beside me while looking at a camera mounted on the back wall. Its power indicator light was on, and it appeared normal.
Though I wanted to stick with Sindari, I paused to examine the nearby shelves. They were stacked with old books written in languages like elven, gnomish, and dwarven.
“You’ll have to come see if any are missing. I can’t tell.”
Trouble! Sindari barked into my mind. A growl emanated from the corner.
I hurried to the back wall, but something much stronger than the earlier cobwebs clawed at my torso. An image flashed in my mind of skeletal fingers trying to pull me into a grave.
Instinctively, I spun and slashed at them with Chopper. I didn’t expect to hit anything, but the blade flared bright and met with resistance as it cut through something. Whatever it was, I still couldn’t see it, but the fact that something was there had my heart racing. A lot of somethings. I whipped my arms about as fast as I could in an effort to break all the holds on my body.
Again and again, Chopper’s blade met resistance. A faint clatter sounded as something I’d cut hit the cement floor. But as soon as I broke one hold, two more latched on to me, invisible grasping fingers seeming to grow out of the shelves.
More clatters sounded as a half-dozen more of whatever I was slashing at hit the floor. I spun, tearing free from their grips as I sliced at the threats all about me. Finally, the air around me was empty, and nothing more clawed at me.
I’d turned around several times and ended up facing Willard and Brisco with my sword aloft. They were staring at me as if I had gone crazy.
“You heard them hit the ground, right?” I asked.
They exchanged long looks. That meant no. All they’d seen was me fencing with an enemy they couldn’t see.
Another growl floated back from Sindari, then escalated into a snarl. Something crashed to the floor.
“I heard that,” Willard said. “Is your tiger breaking artifacts?”
Shaking my head, I ran around the corner at the end of the aisle and charged into the darkness to help Sindari. More invisible fingers grasped at me, almost tugging my duster off my shoulders as they strove to keep me from reaching my ally.
I wanted to ignore them and rush through—up ahead, Sindari’s silver tail stuck out from an aisle along the far wall, swishing as he faced something—but the fingers clamped down even harder. Once again, I slashed all around myself, slicing rapidly to break the invisible grips.
Something grabbed my braid and yanked backward, jerking my neck painfully. Roaring with anger and frustration, I whirled and swung. For an instant, as Chopper’s tip scraped the wall and tore out a chunk of cement, I saw something. A dark wraith-like figure in the hazy air. Then my blade bit into its torso, and a scream filled my ears. The figure disappeared, and so did the grip on my braid.
A crash came from the aisle where Sindari was fighting. One of the shelving units toppled toward him.
“Look out!” I yelled, running to help.
The unit slammed into the wall, clanks and shattering noises echoing through the room. Sindari roared and lunged, his tail disappearing from sight.
I intended to join him against whatever foe he fought, but a black box with its lid open came into view ahead of me, a purple glow emanating from within. It sat on the floor in the corner of the chamber. A second ago, it hadn’t been there—or I hadn’t been able to see it.
Barely visible shadows wafted out of it, and I halted several feet away. The impulse to slam Chopper into it flooded me, but I resisted, memories of my face-off with the fae artifact in the bog still fresh in my mind. Instead, I crept closer, thinking to kick the lid shut.