Smoke and Shadows (40 page)

“The Light of Yeramathia!”

“Okay.”

She blinked up at him, the edges of her eyes pink and swollen. “What did I say?”

He told her, then asked what it meant.

Arra snorted as she straightened and unbuckled her seat belt. “It means nothing. It was hope that became a lie.”

Since this was about as clear as her explanations usually got, Tony merely shrugged and stepped out onto the sidewalk looking for someone he knew. Someone who'd been on Arra's short list of the potential shadow-held. He looked for Dalal first, figuring that since the prop man was Sikh, this would logically be one of the places where he'd look for the light.

Barking drew his attention to the temple parking lot where an elderly man, who was definitely not Sikh and had probably just been out for an early evening walk, was attempting to control his dog. Breeds didn't mean a lot to Tony; dogs came either large enough to avoid or small enough to ignore and this was one of the former. And then he noticed who the dog was barking at.

Ben Ward, one of the lighting crew.

Also not Sikh and looking like he hadn't been home in nearly forty-eight hours.

“Arra?”

“I see him. Let's go.”

He glanced over at her. “Let's go? You make it sound like we're in an episode of
Law and Order: Magic and Mayhem
.”

“Don't laugh.” She started across the grass. “They pitched it.”

Actually, Tony wasn't laughing. “What exactly are we about to do?”

“I get close enough to haul the shadow out of him, then I destroy it.”

“That's what
you're
about to do.”

“While you make with the potion and come up with a plausible story.”

“Story?”

“For the three dozen or so witnesses.”

“Right.”

It looked like Ben had been heading across the parking lot away from the temple when he'd crossed paths with the dog. He was staring at it like he'd never seen one before. Maybe he hadn't. For all Tony knew, Arra's world didn't have dogs. Or, he amended, remembering his dream, dogs just hadn't been a part of the shadow's short life.

Too much to hope for that, even distracted by the dog, Ben wouldn't see them approach. They were still more than ten feet away when he turned, stared at Tony in confusion, then at Arra in fear. “You!”

Tony half expected to see the shadow surge out of him like it had out of Alan Wu but shadow-Ben smiled, winked, and ran toward an extended family piling kids into a minivan. He careened through them like an out of control billiard ball. A child screamed. Men and women yelled in two languages. Strong fingers grabbed the stranger and threw him away from the van.

Leaping out at the end of her leash, the dog kept barking.

Ben hit the ground and stayed there.

“It's left him!” Arra announced, panting a little as they quickened their pace.

“And gone where?”

In answer, one of the preteen boys raced away from his family and charged into a clump of older kids. More shouting. And a moment later, another body on the ground. The remaining teenagers scattered.

Men and older boys were running toward the parking lot.

Tony stopped at the edge of the asphalt. “Is that kid . . . ?”

“Dead?” Fingers closed around his arm as Arra leaned on him, catching her breath. “No, but if that shadow keeps moving through this crowd, I guarantee it's going to hit someone who can't handle it.”

“Like Alan?”

“Exactly like.”

“Where is it now?”

“I don't know!

Someone did.

Twisting free, Tony sprinted toward the old man with the dog, tripped over the leash, and ripped it free of a tiring grip.

The dog took off across the parking lot.

“Shania!”

“I'll get her!” Tony leaped to his feet and followed, ignoring the deserved string of expletives flung after him.
Sorry about your dog, mister. Trying to save the world here!

It seemed the shadow was still in one of the teenage boys. Great. They'd had a chance of pulling this off as long as it was in Ben, but the Sikh community was very protective of their own and Tony could only see this ending badly.

Still barking wildly, the dog slammed into a running teenager, flinging the boy into the outstretched arms of a middle-aged woman. She screamed as he sank into her embrace. He jerked, then stiffened and slid bonelessly to the ground.

Shania sailed over the boy and landed on the woman, making contact with all four paws. Ringed fingers stopped snapping teeth an inch from flesh.

This time Tony saw the shadow move.

Shania yelped once. Woman and dog collapsed together to the ground.

Tony got to the dog before the first boot could impact with her ribs. He took the blow on his thigh, gathered the trembling body up in both arms and rolled away yelling, “You don't understand; she wasn't attacking. This dog's a hero! We're from the health department,” he continued, not giving anyone else a chance to talk. “The first man who fell was contaminated by some stupid kid with a new designer drug. It's a dust that works on contact with skin, he passed it on to that boy who passed it on to that boy,” he jerked his head toward the two teenagers, now standing and being fussed over by family. “Who passed it on to this woman. The dog could smell it. This dog has kept everyone else from being contaminated.”

“You're touching the dog!” But the voice held as much confusion as anger and Tony realized they actually had a chance of pulling this off. Witnesses were still too spread out for mob mentality to have taken over.

“I'm immune to the drug, that's why we were sent.”

In the face of the inexplicable, people looked for explanations, something to make sense of what hadn't made sense. The explanation didn't have to make sense; it only had to sound like it did.

“And you're from the health department?”

“We are.” Tony relaxed slightly as Arra pushed through the crowd holding up what looked like official documentation.

“Get out of my way,” she snapped, “and let me make sure it ends at this dog.”

“We should call 911,” someone muttered.

They should, Tony agreed silently, but given cultural politics they probably wouldn't.
Lucky break for our side.

Dropping heavily to her knees, Arra pressed a hand against the dog's heaving ribs. Only Tony saw that the hand had slipped through fur and flesh and emerged holding a writhing shadow. Murmuring the incantation under her breath, she forced her hands together as the shadow struggled to survive, finally squashing it into nothing.

Shania whined, wriggled, and bit Tony on the hand. Hard. As he jerked back, she squirmed free and ran into the arms of her owner.

“Good,” Arra announced in a tone that brooked no argument. “The dog has neutralized the drug. Ought to get a medal. Now then, move aside and let me look at this woman. Thermos!”

It took Tony a moment to realize the last word had been directed at him and then he shrugged out of his backpack and pulled a thermos free.

“Eww.” A girl in the crowd wrinkled her nose. “It smells like that stuff in the back of Uncle Virn's garden.”

“Be quiet, Kira.”

“No,” another voice said thoughtfully. “It does.”

“Catnip is a medicinal relaxant,” Tony said with as much authority as he could muster. “Let's get those others over here, we'll need to have the . . . m looked at, too.” He'd been about to identify Arra as a nurse and changed his mind at the last minute. With his luck there'd be a nurse in the group and he didn't want them suddenly thinking they should get involved.

Arra helped her middle-aged patient sit up. “How are you feeling?”

“What happened?”

The wizard rocked back on her heels, and nodded toward the surrounding people. “Explain it to her.” She started for the teenagers as half a dozen voices began half a dozen different versions of the story. The younger teenager was protesting he was fine, the other, to Tony's critical eye, seemed to be milking his collapse for all it was worth.

Snagging Tony's arm as he tried to follow, she muttered, “I'll deal with the kids, you get as much out of the other thermos into Ben as you can, then get him into the car. If we give them time to think, we're . . .”

“Screwed?”

“Well put.”

Fortunately, Ben wasn't much bigger than Tony, and they were essentially being ignored. By the time he had the electrician in the car, Arra was crossing the lawn toward him. “Final words,” she murmured as she slid into the passenger seat.

“Thank you for your cooperation. If you have any questions, call health services.” About to remind them that the dog was a hero, he noticed the dog and her owner were nowhere around and decided not to bring it up.
Out of sight, out of mind,
he told the world silently as he started the car.
Do
not
let any of this come back on Shania.
Shifting out of park, he pulled into traffic and headed away from the temple faster than could strictly be considered safe. But safe, experience had taught him, was a relative term. “Where are we going now?”

Arra waved the second piece of the Yellow Pages at him.

“With Ben?”

“We don't have time to take him home. We'll do it after.”

“Man, the wife's going to kill me!” Ben slurred from the backseat.

“Let's hope not,” Arra snapped. “Go to sleep.”

There was a muffled thud as Ben's head hit the rear window.

“Health services?”

Tony shrugged as he slowed for a yellow light. “It worked.”

“Yes. It did.”

Safely stopped he turned to look at her. She was frowning speculatively. “What?”

“Nothing.”

“The trick is to keep talking so no one has time to ask questions and then, you know, you showed up with the paperwork. Official documents carry a lot of weight. The whole Canadian peace, order, and good government thing.”

“I'm sure. But there will be questions.”

“Not our problem, now they'll call health services.”

“And they are—specifically?”

“Good question. You okay? I mean you did some power stuff there.”

“Very little. I'm fine.” She sounded tired, but he wasn't going to argue. Tony didn't know how it worked on the wizard's world, but on this one
I'm fine
meant any injuries short of decapitation weren't to be discussed. “You?”

“I got bit,” he said as the light changed.

“No surprise. It wasn't a fun experience for poor Shania. Or the shadow. It must have thought the dog was a perfect host; four legs against two, we'd never catch it. But the dog didn't have quite enough sense of self to sustain it.”

“I was going to ask.”

“I know.”

“And,” he added, his leg throbbing as he remembered, “I got kicked.”

“Why?”

“They were aiming at the dog. Where are we going again?”

“Tsawassen. Near the border.”

“Right.” He headed up the ramp off Westminster and onto 99 South. “So the people are going to be okay? I mean, the shadow wasn't in any of them for very long.”

“The one boy may not recover.”

“What?” Tony fought the car back onto pavement as his jerk toward the wizard put the right wheels on the shoulder.

“The second boy, the older boy, was twisted—his pattern wasn't compatible. I doubt the potion will be enough.”

“Can't you do something?”

“Like what?”

His fingers tightened around the steering wheel. “I don't know; untwist him.”

“No.”

“Fuck.”

“This isn't all bright lights and vodka, Tony.” He would have protested he knew that, but the memories weighing down her voice kept him silent. “Stopping the Shadowlord is about stopping death and destruction. Only two dead and one injured; we've been very lucky so far.”

He supposed that was hard to argue with. They were twelve kilometers down the highway before he tried. “If we'd waited for Ben to come to the gate, this never would have happened.”

“But if he'd gotten through the gate, if he'd given the Shadowlord the information he needs to invade, it would start happening with a soul-destroying frequency.” After a long moment she sighed and said, “All the easy answers get lost in the shadows.”

They reached the South Delta Baptist Church at 8:10. Tony parked in the nearly empty lot, twisted around, and dragged his backpack out from between Ben's legs. “It's past sunset,” he told the wizard, nodding west to where the sky had turned a thousand shades of orange and yellow and pink. “I need to call Henry.”