Wouldn't you know it, I'd go and develop a thing for a guy who was way out of my league, in so very many ways. A super powerful wizard didn't really fit into my lifestyle. I could just imagine taking him home to meet my folks. I'd have enough trouble explaining my job to them. What could Owen possibly say about his job that wouldn't send my dad off to get his shotgun to scare this weirdo away from his daughter? It would be even worse if I'd inherited my magical immunity from my parents. Then the last thing I needed to do was let anyone magical into my nonwork life. Not that Owen would have the slightest interest in going to Texas and meeting my folks. Hadn't they said during my interview that I came from a very nonmagical place?
The department door opened and Sam flew inside, followed by a crew of large men.
"Took you long enough," Owen said, sounding more like his usual self.
"Aw, I knew you had things under control, boss," Sam said as he landed in front of the intruder. "Take him away, boys."
"Hold him in Security. We'll have someone talk to him later," Owen directed.
Sam saluted with one wing, then flew off after the security group that was levitating the petrified body down the hallway. Once they were gone, the sense of power and energy that had filled the hallway faded away. I tried to get up, but a hand on my shoulder pushed me back down. I looked up to see Owen leaning over me, his face full of concern. Then he turned around and said, "Everyone, back to work." I noticed people disappearing into labs up and down the corridor.
"Are you okay?" he asked me softly.
"I'm fine, really."
He shook his head. "No, I don't think you are. We need to get someone to take a look at you. And I suspect the boss will want to talk to you."
"The boss. You mean Merlin?"
"Yes, Merlin."
The fact that I was talking like I'd had a couple of glasses of champagne on an empty stomach was a pretty good sign I wasn't okay, but I wasn't sure I wanted to deal with Merlin in this state, and I was definitely sure I didn't want to deal with Owen right now. Dealing with Owen without making a total fool of myself required the ability to think straight, something I didn't have at the moment.
"Okay, I'm not so fine. Just a bit dizzy. There's a hospital down the street, though."
He got an arm around me and helped me to my feet. "That's not necessary. Mr.
Mervyn is a healer. He can see to you while we talk about what happened here."
"I'm not magical, remember? Immune. Magic healing won't work on me."
He chuckled as he draped my left arm across his shoulders and circled my waist with his right arm. That felt really nice, a little too nice. When was the last time a man had put his arm around me like that, whether or not it was for romantic reasons?
"Not all healing is magical. Mr. Mervyn was a Renaissance man long before the Renaissance."
"I'm about to find out what's going on here, why they brought him back, aren't I?" I asked as we made our way slowly to the turret escalator.
"Yes, I imagine you are."
Merlin/Mr. Mervyn met us at the top of the stairs. "Is she hurt?" he asked.
"I think so," Owen responded. "She hit her head."
"Get her to my office. The suspect's in custody?"
"Security has him."
Soon I was deposited on a soft sofa. There were more voices in the room now, but all I noticed was Owen's hand gripping mine. "I don't know how he got in, but if Katie hadn't spotted him ..."
"What was he trying to steal?" Merlin's voice came from across the room.
"Our research on the Idris situation."
"Then he's definitely worried, or he suspects we are." This time, Merlin's voice came from nearby. Something cool touched my forehead. It smelled good, minty and flowery. "Here, rest this against the lump. It should take down the swelling."
I opened my eyes to see Merlin kneeling beside me. Take away the business suit and put him in robes studded with stars, then grow his beard out to be long and pointy instead of neatly trimmed, and he was right out of a picture book about King Arthur I'd had as a child. "Merlin," I said. I thought I'd been musing silently, but I must have spoken out loud. "Mind if I call you Merlin?"
"Not at all, dear. Now, tell me what you're seeing."
"I see you, and Owen. And your office."
He held a hand in front of my face. "How many fingers am I holding up?"
I squinted at the wavering image. "Two. I think."
He exchanged a look with Owen, then the two of them helped me lie down on the sofa. Merlin put a pillow under my head, while Owen took off my shoes and covered me with a light blanket that I didn't remember being there.
Merlin knelt beside me again. "Katie, I believe you have a mild concussion. You need to rest awhile. I'll give you a cordial that should prevent a very bad headache, and the poultice will keep you from swelling and bruising too badly."
He went away for a moment, then came back and lifted my head gently as he put a small glass to my lips. "Now, drink." I obeyed, and a tangy, sweet liquid flowed down my throat. I sank gratefully back against the pillows.
I didn't fall asleep, but I let myself drift as the voices in the room began speaking to each other, apparently ignoring my presence. They sounded like they were having an emergency meeting. It had to be a meeting about the intruder, which must have had something to do with whatever was threatening the company enough that they'd brought Merlin out of retirement to deal with it. I tried to listen, even though I kept drifting away.
A voice I didn't recognize asked, "How did an intruder get in anyway? I thought that area was secured."
"It is secured," Owen protested. "All I can think is that the intruder tailed someone else into the building and into the department, using an invisibility spell." He groaned and added, "I'd just had Wiggram Bookbinder in, selling me a rare codex. The intruder probably followed him. Or, as desperate as Wig seemed to be, it's entirely possible that the whole thing was a setup to get the spy inside. If Katie hadn't been there to see past that spell, we'd be in big trouble."
"Maybe you'd better meet with your shady sources somewhere other than in a highly secured department," the other voice said, but then he seemed to swallow his argument before he got really wound up.
I soon learned why. "Gentlemen, I believe the real issue at hand is that Mr. Idris has been reduced to espionage," Merlin said, his voice sounding grim. I could only imagine what his face must have looked like. It would be enough to shut anyone up.
"But why?" one of the other voices asked.
"He wants to know what we're planning to do about him," Owen said.
"What are we planning?" another voice asked.
"That's the problem," Owen said with a sigh. "We don't have much to go on. If he'd managed to get his hands on these notes, he would have laughed at how ineffectual we are. All we know is what he was working on when we dismissed him. There's no way of telling what he's doing now until we find a copy of a spell. Even then, we don't have any control over what he does. All we can do is find a way to counter it."
"It's a little late to worry about that, isn't it?" the other voice asked. "We've heard he's already got some spells out there. They're not mass market, but he's got customers. Whatever he's doing has been unleashed on the world, and we don't know what damage will be done before we can develop a counterspell."
"Perhaps some of our panic is premature," Merlin said softly. "We don't know who might buy or use these spells. All we know is what he wanted to market through us, and that our corporate leadership found his ideas distasteful. There's a very good chance that the general magical population will find his ideas equally distasteful."