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 them. 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 what 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 the 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 innermost 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 as 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 earbuds 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 earbuds.
Oilcan had said that Rustle had been losing things right and left, including the expensive MP3 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 defenses. 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.
“Pixel, sticks and stones, words will always hurt.”
“Broadcasting.”
Tinker shouted the command word for the spells scattered across the island. Her voice, amplified by dozens of hidden speakers, echoed up the river valley. There was a deep cough as the blast spell fired, and then a deep roar as flame engulfed everything.
“Incoming: rocket,” Pixel announced. “Impact in ten seconds. Nine. Eight. .”
She snapped up a shield wall between her people and the hallway just as a rocket blasted away the door. Flames blossomed in a deafening roar. The kids all shrieked counterpoint.
The children were not part of the battle plan — beyond a vague idea that they would serve as bait. She needed to get them out of the war zone somehow — all of them — and that included Rustle.
Tinker shouted out the cancelation command of the spell on Rustle. Her voice echoed up all around, still broadcasted over the hidden speakers. The spell continued to blaze with impossible brightness. “Oh fuck!”
“What’s wrong, little princess?” An electronically scrambled voice mocked her from down the now-darkened hallway. “Bite off a little more than you can chew?”
So they both needed time. Her shadow hadn’t expected her to be able to block that attack — and she wouldn’t have if she hadn’t realized her old numbering system allowed her to shortcut to spells she had memorized as a child.
It was a race now, but a race to what? What did her shadow need time for?
“Not as much as you have, Chloe!” Tinker shouted back, thinking frantically. She needed to get Rustle out of the spell and block whatever Chloe was about to throw at her. “I know it’s you. A pigtailed little girl, wearing pretty dresses, pretending not to be the monster that you really are! Nice cover, while it lasted. Too bad it’s over.”
“You were born on this island, and you’re going to die on it.” Chloe used her own voice this time.
“Actually, I was born at Mercy Hospital!” Tinker shouted back. “And if you were sure I was going to die here, we wouldn’t be having this conversation! You only talk when things don’t go as planned, when I’ve done something just so off-the-wall that even you couldn’t see it coming. I’ve figured something out about you: if you don’t understand what I’m doing, you can’t stop me.”
“What’s so hard to figure out? You just lost the child, and you have no idea how to get him back.”
Tinker hated it when the bad guy was right.
“No, I haven’t lost him.” Just temporarily misplaced him. Hopefully. The spell was out of phase but was reacting to music from the iPod. The dragons cast their spells via their mane. It was possible that the vibrating filaments set up harmonics that controlled their ability to phase in and out. Change the frequency and you could key into another universe.
When she applied magic to Rustle, she triggered his ability to step into another world. Oilcan was just going to kill Tinker. All she’d had to do was keep the kids safe. .
And with that, Tinker realized why Chloe was here. What the whole mess was about. The Skin Clan had bred the kids, but they didn’t know how to “use” the kids. It was nearly as complicated as Oilcan and her trying to figure out the Spell Stones without knowing of their existence. The Skin Clan might have several hundred children tucked in the wings back in Easternlands, but no way to experiment on them safely.
But Tinker was a clever, clever little tool. You just had to be careful when applying her to any puzzle that she didn’t figure out what you were doing. .
Close by, a Stone Clan shield flared across Tinker’s senses. One of the domana was about to join the battle. Since Tinker hadn’t passed out invitations, they were here on Chloe’s invite list, most likely under “secondary distraction.” If Tinker had to guess, it was Iron Mace closing fast.
“Get her!” Tinker dropped her shield and cast a force strike at the hallway to nuke it closed behind Chloe. “She’s going to try and run! Stop her!”