Chapter 11
I was leaving fairground dirt in my wake, obvious on the polished white hospital tiles. Flushed, I walked quickly past the main reception desk. Ryan had texted me Cameron’s room number and I was anxious to see her. So much so that I’d left Benedict and Marty to park the car and come in alone.
Pluck padded along beside me. The shadow made Benedict’s absence feel a little less sharp.
Fortunately I was familiar with the hospital from my previous work as a sweeper, and I confidently headed for the secondary, seldom-used bank of elevators around the corner.
The shadow currently looked like an especially robust, powerful hairless service dog, one so well trained he didn’t need a leash.
Hopefully no one would notice his feet weren’t touching the ground and the hints of hair about his toes and tail and atop his head were actually a hazy mist.
My tension spiked when we turned the corner and the elevators came into view.
“Do you want to take refuge in your new stone?” He hadn’t thought a word the entire ride from Tucson to St. Unoc, avoiding the untuned moldavite and worrying me.
“It’s already wrapped. Just need to put it on a knotted silk string. ”
Pluck flicked a pricked ear and a ribbon of icy shadow splatted against the wall, melting into a dark haze that evaporated to nothing. No need, he thought, the words in my head making my teeth ache. There’s minimal dross here. I’m fine.
“It’s nice, isn’t it,” I whispered, glad the hallways were clear of dross and people both. Oh, many of the doctors and nurses here excelled in covert magic, but of all the professions, healthcare was the best at cleaning up after themselves.
An orderly looked up from his paperwork as I passed, his first impulse to tell me to take the dog out faltering when he recognized me despite my being in black pants and a black band tee and not my usual spandex bike kit.
I hadn’t been sweeping in months, but when you find and clear out an illegal dross dump leaking into the hospital servers, they tend to remember you.
Or maybe it was Pluck striding at my heel like a sleek dog from hell. The guy looked a little pale.
You used to make dross pickups here, Pluck said with a wolfy chuckle.
“Hospitals have their share of unique issues,” I said, and Pluck bumped into my hip to send a wash of cold through me.
He knew you. That, and your satisfaction for a clean floor is very loud.
I scuffed to a halt at the elevators and hit the call button. “Once upon a time.”
Pluck sat and waited, his pricked ears flat. There’s a dross pit here. I can feel it.
“They have one main and a handful of transfer stations.” I hit the button again to try to hurry it up.
I hadn’t checked in at the front desk, and that Pluck wasn’t really a dog would cause more problems, not less.
“The hospital isn’t under university mandates.
Ryan tells me they will put in the shadow release valve when they empty the vault again.
Few years? Until then, the loom operators will be required to check all bottles for shadow. ”
Understandable, but rife with opportunities for corruption. Pluck made a doggy huff.
The elevator dinged and I stood aside as a lab-coated someone exited. Mood closed, I got into the elevator and pushed the button for the third floor. The sound of Jimmy Tross was a faint hint, and I sighed, the forced immobility making me agitated as the lyrics echoed in my thoughts.
Can’t put it back, black coin ill spent. Ten thousand years, at detriment. Down in the earth, buried deep. Down where the demons sleep. Down where God can’t speak. Black coin spent, our soul to keep. Just killing time, as black coin seeps.
“You think he’s talking about dross?” I whispered as the mage-born musician wound into the climax, his rough voice faintly shouting “It’s killing time!” over and over.
That or oil, sifted coolly through me as Pluck twined a wisp about my ankle.
It wouldn’t be the first. Many nursery rhymes were actually messages through the ages, warnings or instructions whispered one generation to the next, and as the silver elevator doors opened and Pluck and I got out, my feet seemed to pound to one of my favorites.
One stick, two sticks, three, four, five. Stand them straight to stay alive. Six sticks, seven, eight, nine, ten. Shadow held, its strength to lend.
Pluck made a little huff. I’d say that one was about me, as no one ever needs more than three sticks to capture dross, and shadows are evasive.
“I’m not getting that part about held shadow lending strength,” I muttered, then brightened as I saw Lev in the hall.
The young man was sitting against the wall, his feet spread wide, elbows on his knees, head bowed. Dressed in jeans and a plaid coat against the morning’s chill, he looked as if he should be at a bowling alley knocking back a few beers, not sitting in a hospital—waiting.
“Excuse me, ma’am,” the nurse stationed at the desk said as I passed, and Lev looked up. “You can’t take a dog…Oh…”
I didn’t need to look at her to know she’d gone pale. It was in her voice.
Lev stood, his welcoming smile forced. Maybe I should…the shadow dog started.
Stay by my side? I thought. Good idea.
Pluck began to fade. My presence is not helping.
I dangled a hand into his icy, prickly not-there self. You are my friend. You shouldn’t have to hide.
Then why did we get a new lodestone? It would be easier if I hid, he insisted.
“Easy is overrated,” I muttered as I gave Lev a hug. His grip was tenuous, and he let go almost immediately, his mind clearly on whatever was behind that door.
Lev glanced at Pluck, the shadow dog’s ears pinned to his not-there skull. “Hey, Pluck,” he said, his brow furrowed in what might be guilt.
Pluck lifted his muzzle as if to say, “Yo.” Mist drifted from him to the floor in a ribbon of sparkles.
The nurse was watching, and I dangled my fingers in him to make him look harmless.
“We came as soon as we heard,” I said. “Benedict is parking the car. I didn’t want to bring Marty into this until I knew how bad it was. ”
She’s staring. I’m going to evaporate. Pluck flicked his ear and padded to the nearby bank of chairs, leaving only a thin trace of himself chilling my ankle as he slipped under them.
I frowned at his glowing green eyes. Get back out here, I thought. Let her stare.
A sulky, icy thought blossomed. No. It’s too hard to maintain a pleasant appearance when everyone sees me as a spit-dripping, decaying fiend.
“That’s probably a good idea,” Lev said faintly, oblivious to our private conversation.
I touched his elbow, and his attention sharpened on me. “How is Cameron?”
He took a breath, hesitating. “Stable?” he ventured, that same flicker of guilt marring his usually carefree attitude. “Petra, I am so sorry. I didn’t know she was your friend.”
“She isn’t,” I said. “She’s a marshal of the courts sent to find out if Pluck and I are responsible for the attacks on the vault construction.” That she had been assaulted by a shadow outside my apartment didn’t look good. At all.
“Yeah.” Lev ducked his head. “I figured that out when I found her ID. Ryan and a woman named Dana are in there with her right now.”
Pluck lifted his head, his skull taking on clear definition. “Dana? That’s not good,” I said.
Lev shifted from foot to foot. “She came in right after Ryan. How come that’s not good?”
I lifted a shoulder and let it fall. I trusted Lev, but I didn’t want to sound petty. “She’s a problem fixer the university brought in, and I tend to be a problem. How about you? Are you okay? Ryan said you were there. Jeez, Lev, you look awful.”
“I’m not the one in a coma.” Gaze furtive, he glanced at Pluck hiding under the chairs. “I didn’t even know she was in the building until I heard a thump. I thought it was you. Went to check. Your door was open.”
“She was in my apartment? Ryan said they found her in the hall.”
Lev’s expression became empty as he fell into “report” mode.
“I moved her there. She was in your living room when I found her. I made the mistake of not doing anything,” he said, then took a moment to clear his throat, gaze fixed on nothing.
“Until he turned into a man, I thought it was Pluck. That he was protecting you.” His eyes were haunted, and his iron hold on his emotions was breaking.
“I mean, she was in your home. I didn’t know who she was. ”
I touched his arm in support. “It’s okay.”
“When she went into convulsions, I knew it couldn’t be Pluck.” Blinking fast, he focused on the deeper black haze under the chairs. “You wouldn’t hurt anyone like that.”
I would if they came after Petra…fizzed through me as my ankle went cold.
“I’m assuming it was Thoth. He’s one tough mother,” Lev said as Pluck hazed out from under the chair. “Magic didn’t do a damn thing. I had to beat him off with your dad’s stick.”
I nodded. Not wanting to stand out at the rock and gem show, I’d left it by the door.
Lev looked at his hands, gauging their slight tremor. “I used it to gather the dross from the magic I’d just done on him. Hit him with it. He shrugged off the spell, but the dross he noticed. He fled.”
Pluck’s worry iced through me. The only thing Thoth fears is dross.
“Good luck I was out,” I said. “Bad luck that Cameron found him.”
Lev shifted from foot to foot, brow furrowed. “Petra, I could have done something sooner, but I thought it was Pluck. She was in your apartment. I’d never seen her before.”
“This is not on you.” I touched his arm again. “She’ll be okay.” Please let her be okay…
“I moved her to the hall so you wouldn’t be implicated.” Clearly distressed, he ran a hand over his chin. “I didn’t want the paramedics in your place.”
Shadow spit, he had been in combat mode. “Lev.” I waited until his eyes met mine. “Thank you for that. Listen to me. This was not your fault.” Maybe if I kept saying it, he would believe me. This wasn’t his fault.