“You should close down early.” Oilcan motioned for them to follow him. “Your boss will understand. You shouldn’t be here when the oni sweep into this area. You can come with us if you want.”
The girls looked through the big storefront window to Guy standing by his flashy pickup, glanced at each other, and nodded.
“We need to lock up first.” The taller girl opened the cash register, took out the bigger bills, and dropped them in the store’s safe. The shorter girl started to close lids on bins and to turn off lights. “It will just take us three minutes!”
“We’ll wait for you.” Oilcan walked across the street to their convoy of three pickup trucks. The kids were deciding who would ride where. Thorne and Moon Dog had gotten their range weapons out of the crate strapped onto the back of the flatbed. They were standing guard, scanning the area, bows in hand.
Oilcan did a head count and came up short. Who was missing? He ticked through who they’d brought: his five kids, Blue Sky, Spot, Thorne, Moon Dog, Guy, and Andy. “Where’s Rebecca?”
“Scouting,” Guy pointed skyward. “Ninja-like.”
Oilcan pointed toward the ice cream shop. “Those girls are coming with us. Let them ride with you.”
The teenaged cousins both nodded. Andy was older by two years but, judging by his expression, was confused by what was going on. Guy was only sixteen yet he looked as solemn and determined as a veteran soldier. Oilcan was glad that Guy would be driving. He seemed to have a better grasp of the risks involved.
Blue Sky unlocked the driver’s door of the flatbed. “Where are we going to?” He shook his head even as he asked, “Back to Sacred Heart?”
It was a bad sign that even Blue Sky recognized that as a horrible idea. By his tone, though, he was willing to try if Oilcan committed to it.
“No, not back to Oakland,” Oilcan said. If the oni were hunting down domana, then Forge and Jewel Tear’s presence at Sacred Heart was going to make it a prime target. Oilcan and his kids would have to cut through the thickest of the fighting to get to questionable safety of the half-finished enclave. “We need a casting circle.”
“Tinker blew the one at the hotel to hell along with Chloe Polanski,” Blue Sky said.
“Yeah, I know.” Oilcan held out his keys. “Why don’t you drive my pickup?”
Blue Sky gave the key ring a wary look. “Why switch?”
“If we get in a running fight, I want to be in the heavier truck,” Oilcan said.
“Okay.” Blue Sky tossed Oilcan the flatbed’s keys. “Then I’ll have all the other kids with me?”
“Most of them.” Oilcan trusted Blue Sky to cut and run if he knew that the others depended on him. “I’m counting on you to get them someplace safe if the shit hits the fan.”
The boy nodded solemnly.
“If you need a casting circle,” Guy called, “my brother has one at his shop.”
“Okay, we’re going there, then,” Oilcan said. One problem solved. But how did he get the spell to Tinker? He needed to copy it first. He grabbed his tablet out of his pickup. He put the paper on the flatbed and photographed it several times, focusing first on the tangled knot that was the spell he never seen before and then instructions written in crayon around it.
He emailed the photographs of the spell to Tinker with a note to cast it immediately. He didn’t bother to explain how he got it. The problem was Tinker would only get the pictures if she knew to check her email. She could be literally anywhere in the city; knowing her, it was someplace with an internet connection. Email, though, was probably the last thing on her mind. He might be able to count on her to know, the same way that Esme knew it was him on the phone looking for Tinker without being told. He didn’t like the idea of leaving it to some weird magical talent. Tinker could get laser focused on her own goals and ignore the rest of the universe until something whacked her hard.
He needed something to catch her attention. Wait, he could try a version of the “battle code” that the Harbingers were doing that morning.
He tapped the Spell Stones, summoning power. He dismissed it after a second. He tapped it a second time, holding it longer, dismissed it, repeated it. Short and long. Two shorts. One extra-long. He waited a minute and repeated the cycle. Email.
From somewhere north, a flare of power flashed. Held for a long moment. Another short flash. Roger.
Good. Another problem down. He just needed all his chicks gathered together so they could flee the area.
The ice cream girls came out of their shop, locked the door, and then hurried across the street. As they climbed into Guy’s cab, Oilcan double-checked who was in his pickup with Blue Sky. Rustle was in the cab since he had the broken arm, with Merry taking up the middle of the bench seat. Spot and Baby Duck were in the bed with the puppy Repeat. It put all the younger kids in one vehicle, but Barley and Cattail Reeds had gotten into the bed of Guy’s pickup. Oilcan wished he could send someone older with the little kids. Neither Barley nor Cattail Reeds would be much of a help in a battle. Moon Dog was a possible addition but Oilcan couldn’t trust Blue Sky to keep his temper around the outsider. At least they were only ten minutes or so from Gryffin Doors.
Oilcan patted the door. “Go to Geoff’s place. We’ll catch up. If Geoff’s isn’t good, head to your brother’s place.”
Blue Sky nodded understanding. He started up the pickup and headed west.
Where was Rebecca? Oilcan didn’t want to leave her.
Moon Dog suddenly sprinted away, heading east, nocking an arrow even as he dashed down the street.
Chaos came around the corner, a confusion of bodies and wings. Oilcan wasn’t sure where the swarm of wolf-sized hornets came from but at its heart was the tengu female, fleeing for her life. Moon Dog raced to meet Rebecca halfway, firing spell arrows. The wooden shafts transformed to light as they left the bow. The brilliance lanced through the swarm, cutting through several hornets at once. One or two dropped from the sky, but many of the others merely flashed translucence, revealing that the creatures were magical constructs. The massive insects were a solid illusion projected by a smaller creature within the puppet shell.
They were like the foo dogs that had attacked the salvage yard. Illusion or not, the hornets would be dangerously strong and hard to hurt.
“Go, go, go!” Oilcan yelled at Guy.
Guy didn’t like it, but he understood he was responsible for Barley, Cattail Reeds, and Andy. He roared off even as Andy shouted, “What? Wait! Rebecca!”
Oilcan ran toward Moon Dog. The sekasha’s personal protective shield haloed the warrior with a dark gleam. The spell couldn’t take fast repeated hits over a short period of time. A machine gun could eat its way through the shield. The swarm of giant hornets might be able to breach it. Nor would Moon Dog’s shield protect Rebecca; the spell only extended a hand’s width from the male’s body. Oilcan needed to get close enough to cast a domana shield on the two.
It will be just like playing backup for a band, coming in for the chorus, Oilcan thought to calm himself. Prepare for the chord. He tapped the Spell Stones, pulling power to him as he ran. Wait for the beat. As he closed on Moon Dog, Rebecca cried out in pain and tumbled onto the ground by the elf’s feet. A hornet clung to her leg, lancing her with a glistening black stinger the size of a butcher knife. She whimpered as it struck her again even as she tried to wrestle it off her. Behind her was a dark flood of giant hornets, loud as an entire orchestra of angry violins.