Mindgasm - A Bad Boy Romance With A Twist (Mind Games Book 3) by Gabi Moore (23)

Emily closed her eyes, but the scene did not come back. She needed to focus on her future, but decided to put it off for another day.

Chapter 4

“Can I see the map?” Sean said to Dion. “You’ve talked so much about it I want to have a look at it.”

“Of course. Just be careful about it. It’s the only one there is and I don’t know how to go about finding another one.”

“That’s because there is not another one,” Mrs. Jehuti said from across the sand. “It’s the only one which was ever made. It’s possible to make another one, but the research could take years. This one came out quickly enough because we were able to draft it while the mall was under construction.”

Sean unrolled the papyrus and looked at the symbols. It showed the two levels of the mall and the two basements beneath it. The descriptions of each store and what it sold was spelled out in very clear English. The passageways mentioned by Dion and the others were indicated on the map as well. It was a huge map and had to be at least forty inches in length.

“What happens when a store changes hands?” he asked. “Do you have to get a new map?”

“No,” Mrs. Jehuti said, “the map changes to reflect the new owner. You can watch it happen on the day the new store opens. It might happen today, since there is supposed to be a new coat shop going in.”

Just as soon as she’d said the words, Sean noticed one of the box diagrams on the map began to shimmer. Lines emerged on it and lettering filled in the space where it was located. Before his eyes, the map changed to show the location of the new store and what it sold. If he had ever doubted the ability of the map, they were gone. Before his eyes, the name of the store spelled itself on the papyrus and more letters described what corporation owned it. The final words appeared within thirty seconds.

As Dion told him, there were all kinds of passages and places marked out on the map, which would never appear on any other one. It showed the secret entrances to stores which were closed to the humans. It showed how the residents of the subbasement moved in and out of their domain. It even showed where the power lines and ectopic transmission points were located. The four parts of the mall were divided up by their elemental designation. They had left the one for “air”, just as Dion told him. However, there was one thing missing on the map.

“Why is the center of the map blank?” Sean asked Dion. “There is nothing listed here. I thought you said the management and builder of the mall resides in the center where the clock tower is located?”

“The builder of the mall doesn’t want anyone to know what’s on the inside. You won’t find that part on any map. It’s right over the entrance to the abyss.”

“Even we can’t find out what is inside the tower,” Mrs. Jehuti explained. “Whoever stands watch over it doesn’t want the inside of the tower known and has gone to extraordinary means to keep it that way. The only way to find out what is inside that tower is to gain entrance to it.”

“Not even a door,” Sean said. “Not a single door is listed on this map.”

“Like I said, they don’t want anything known about it. It’s one of the reasons they’ve gone after Dion. When he gains all elemental powers, he’ll be able to breech the entrance to the inner tower. If he gains the power over the fifth element, the residents of the tower will be subject to him. They will do everything they can to keep this from happening.”

Sean returned the map to Dion. “I’m in with you all the way,” he said. “This is something I’ve only read about in books. By the way, who was that funny little man in the officer’s uniform we saw you talking to just as we pulled up?”

“That was Edward,” Dion laughed. “Do you know him Mrs. Jehuti?”

“Oh yes, I’ve known Edward a long time. He did a lot of damage the last time he was around, but he now has a chance to fix things. Don’t worry about him; he has your best interests in mind. He might have a strange way of showing it, but listen to him because his advice will be sound.”

“Excuse me!” a voice said behind them.

It was the same man Dion and Lilly had seen the last time they were here.

They turned around to face him; once again, he held a set of plans. He hurried over to Mrs. Jehuti and pointed out something on the plans. “Look at this!” he said hurriedly. “The angle is too steep! I knew it! The structure will not be able to hold up under all the weight. What are we going to do? The rains will be here in a few weeks and I’ll lose all that help when the farmers go back to their fields.”

“Reconfigure it and take all this into consideration,” she told him. “You have gone far enough with the stones to see the problem, now you’ll have to bend in the top so the rest of it doesn’t collapse. We don’t need that to happen again.”

“Of course! That’s the solution! Reduce the angle of inclination so that it bends inward! Thank you, now I know how to fix the project!”

He ran back to the work crew with the plans under his arm. Dion could see the man was excited by the news Mrs. Jehuti gave him. In the distance, more carts pulled by oxen moved the stones toward the structure at a slow pace.

“It is time to return,” Mrs. Jehuti announced. “Dion has the map and needs to resume his quest. Pleased don’t lose it again because there is not another one.”

The air temperature changed while the scene about them slowly shifted.

Emily had a glimpse of herself in a medical lab coat as she supervised a nurse and then she found herself back in the mall. She looked at her friends who were in the middle of some experience themselves.

The looked down and discovered their clothes were the same as they were when they left. They were still next to the waterfall. Mothers were playing with their children next to the pond where the waterfall descended.

Lilly looked up and saw the departing form of the bird, which had delivered the map to Dion. It was almost gone and soon the sky was devoid of its form. She looked down and wondered if there would be any sand on her shoes, but they were clean.

“Mutual hallucination?” Emily asked the rest of them.

“Only if you believe it happened in the detail,” Lilly said. “I don’t recall having the same dream with anyone. Ever. What happened to us can’t be explained by any logical terms.”

“You mean we really were all transported to ancient Egypt?” Sean asked. He looked over and noticed Dion holding the map to the mall. “Okay, guess we were.”

“I’m sorry for the way I ran off yesterday,” Emily said to Lilly. “But that experience in the basement was just too much. They kept me locked up down there all the time you were running around trying to find me. I don’t ever want to go back to that place.”

“No need to apologize. I can’t even imagine how horrible it must have been to you.”

“I thought they were going to build the theater into the mall,” Sean said as he looked at the form of the cinema beyond the parking lot. Why did they put it on the other side over there?”

“If you looked into it,” Dion said, “someone would give a very logical reason on paper which would make all kinds of sense. But I think the real reason was that it would have conflicted with how the mall was built. They don’t want it to take up too much space that the rest needs.”

“The cheerleaders are supposed to be here today,” Sean announced as they started to leave the waterfall. “Something to do with a fund raiser for a football team. I don’t think the football team is supposed to be here, but you never can be sure.”

“Never had much interest in football,” Lilly said. “Even when I was dating a football player. I must be the only girl in school who doesn’t follow it.”

Emily had a better experience with the team from the guy she dated who was on the starting line-up. She would go and experience the lights of autumn. She liked to watch the guys line up and be psyched over their game. She had fond memories of sitting on the bleachers and allowed to watch the games from up close. It was a different experience for her, but, now that she’d broken it off with the guy, she wasn’t so interested in the game. Besides, it was spring and the sport wouldn’t kick in again until the fall.

Sean couldn’t understand the fascination the male part of the school had with cheerleaders. He wasn’t impressed with their routines and thought they weren’t very attractive. Granted, the professional ones who ushered in the pro games resembled perfection, but the ones at their school were far from attractive. They weren’t even very athletic. He couldn’t recall a single routine any of the girls had done which captivated him. Perhaps it would be different when he went to college.

Even the school didn’t have that much spirit. He recalled a “pep rally” where his homeroom starred at the proceedings with bored amusement. They were supposed to get up and cheer every time someone ran around and waved a stick. They stood there and watched the guy who held it run in circles. For some reason, school spirit was in short supply at the high school. He thought it might have something to do with all the imports into the student body from the air base, university and general transfers with all the companies in the area. It was hard to feel much about a community when you just moved to it. You could tell who’d relocated into the area just by who they associated with at the high school. It was the sound of the crowd, which attracted them.

Dion rolled up the map and placed it under his arm. He knew the air elementals would try to keep him from his destination. Not all of them. Most of the elementals didn’t care who mastered the elements, but he knew there were a large number of them who didn’t relish control by any human. Dion had no intention of lording it over them like some master of the temple, but the elementals had no way of understanding this. And they would try to get at the map to prevent him from moving around the mall.

Lilly desperately wanted Dion to succeed in his quest. She was drawn to his sense of power and his mysterious side. Part of her wanted to protect him. She wanted to help him get his parents back. She couldn’t imagine being on her own without hers. It was something too dreadful to even think about it. She stayed by him every chance she had.

The whole trip to Egypt had altered Emily’s way of thinking about Dion. When she first met him, months ago, Emily couldn’t see the attraction he held for Lilly. He was just another silent boy who didn’t fit in with the rest of the kids. The school was full of them and she had no use for anyone who would accept their lot in life. But now that she’d seen his abilities and how he could manipulate the elements, she wanted to find out more about him. Okay, maybe Lilly had first bids, but she hadn’t told her Dion was off limits. He didn’t seem to be in the boyfriend zone anyway. As far as she was concerned, he was fair game.

This left her with a little problem: Sean.

Sean was nice, but lately he’d taken to following her around at school. There had to be limits on what relationship she allowed him to claim. Again, Sean was nice, but she had her pick of nice guys at the school. Plus, she’d seen the end result of nice in the form of her father who was so nice to his ex-wife that he continued to send her money in hopes she would come back home. Nice didn’t cut it, as far as Emily was concerned. Control was what she needed. She needed a reasonable provider, but someone she could be seen in public with who didn’t consider her an asset. Nice was for the men who did their job and came home to the white picket fence. She wasn’t going to attend college in the fall if a white fence was all there was at the goal post. She wanted more and didn’t see how Sean was part of her overall plan. So she needed a way to push him aside with minimal interference. Sean might have some heartache, but he would get over it.

Sean located the source of the crowd’s attention without much trouble. It was the sound of clapping which attracted him in the first place. He heard them at a distance and slowly moved through the crowd to get closer to the source of their attention. Several hundred shoppers were looking at something which took place on the concourse. He wormed his way through the crowd to see what it was. All thoughts of his companions were momentarily abandoned as he went in search of a shiny object.

And then he saw them.

Cheerleaders.

Here were twelve in their uniforms at a clear spot inside the mall. Even the security guards were fascinated by what was in front. The forward row consisted entirely of middle-aged men who were reliving their youth. Most of their wives were still shopping, which left the men to roam free. Of course, they were trapped in the mall when the manifestation took place. They were mesmerized at what was before them.

Twelve cheerleaders wearing the colors of a school Sean didn’t recognize. He didn’t care because they were all stunning. The cheerleaders were of all races, but they had perfect figures. Each wore a thin short skirt of synthetic material and a top, which barely covered their slender bodies. Some were buxom, others slight, but whoever designed the routines knew how to work the body types into the performance.

As Sean watched transfixed, a tiny girl who looked Asian jumped on top of the pyramid formed by the others. The precision of their actions was unbelievable. No one in the crowd had ever seen such work. They were all used to the dull, halfhearted local high school shows during halftime. The best they could hope for was someone who twirled a fire baton. Even that was rare as it involved a certain amount of risk with flames. None of the local girls he saw on the cheerleading squad had one-tenth the athletic ability of these girls. Even the pompoms they shook looked to be made of gold.

Where had they come from? Sean couldn’t read the name of the school on their outfits; try as hard as he might. He noticed they were blue and white in color and the name of the school was hard to read. One finally stopped and turned her back to him, which allowed him to see the name of it. He looked at it closely and finally made it out: Aerophane High School. The name of the team they cheered for appeared to be “The Sky Spirits” and their symbol was a triangle that pointed upward with a line through it. Where had these cheerleaders come from?

“Sylphs,” a voice said next to him. “It’s one of the major air elementals. I wondered what form they would take. Mrs. Jehuti said I’d recognize them right away. Now I see what she was talking about.”

“So, what do we have to worry about this time?” Lilly said as she watched one of the cheerleaders do a complicated back flip in front of the others. “These seem harmless enough.”

“Like the ghoul cleaners were harmless?” Dion said. “Never underestimate the power of these elementals. You are not seeing their true forms, I will tell you that.”

“What do they look like in their natural state?” Sean asked, as he watched the tallest cheerleader jump up and land in a perfect pattern. “I’ll take them in this form any day of the week.”

“Gusts of wind. You wouldn’t be able to tell them apart from any cloud formation unless you knew what to look for. It’s why you see them in this version. They need some way to gain people’s trust and get inside the mall in a corporal form. And who suspects a cheerleader of doing anything bad?”

Sean expected all kinds of things from cheerleaders. None of which he ever thought would happen in this world. As far as he could tell, the girls who became professional cheerleaders only became more unapproachable as time went on. If they were stuck-up now, even the ones of such low caliber as his high school, he could only imagine the attitude they had at the professional sports level.

One of the cheerleaders accidentally let loose of a pompom and it flew across the floor. Sean saw where it went and quickly ran to grab it. The pompom landed behind the cheerleaders and no one else made an effort. For some reason, the audience was focused on the performance before them and nothing else registered. The cheerleaders continued their stunning display of gymnastic ability while the one who lost her pompom stood to one side and pouted.

Sean grabbed her pompom off the floor and held it up in the air for the lone cheerleader to see. She spotted him behind the rest of her team and swiftly bounced to Sean. She grabbed the pompom from him and plastered a kiss on his cheek.

Stunned, Sean looked at her in fascination. She was a blond girl with long straight hair tied in the back to keep it in place. He had never looked into eyes so blue or deep. Sean’s heart began to beat faster and he looked to see if Emily noticed what had taken place.

Although Lilly stood next to Dion, Sean could tell Emily’s attention was focused on the tall, dark elemental worker. It suddenly hit him she had been focused on Dion all day long. Why did she even want to take him along on this adventure? Oh, yes, she had told him she needed some back up, that was right.

It was always that way, he realized. Always the “friend” to the many girls he pursued in school. Always he had to watch the girl his heart burned for run after the latest bad boy and leave him in a minute. Even at his parents’ church, it was that way. How many of the girls he knew there were paired up with some gang member or motorcycle rider? Even his mother grumbled the church girls weren’t the little angels everybody assumed. Oh, they were angels, Sean knew, just not the kind his mother would approve.

“Thank you so much for grabbing that for me!” the cheerleader said to Sean. “I’d never have found it without your help!”

“Really,” he tried to say to her, “it was nothing, I just saw it and…”

She planted another kiss on him. “My name is Randi. What’s yours?”

“Sean. I’m with….” He turned to see Emily in a conversation with Dion on the other side of the line of cheerleaders, “…no one in particular. You said your name was Randi? I don’t think I’ve ever heard of your school before.”

“It’s a private one.” She stepped closer to Sean and made sure he could feel the warmth of her face near his. Her eyes were hypnotic. “Could you be a dear and do something for me?” she asked while squeezing his hand.

“What’s that?”

“Your friend Dion has something I really want. You seem pretty cool and could help me get it.”

“I don’t know….”

“You want my phone number? Maybe we could talk about it later. You drive? I think there is something playing at the ‘Mont’ tonight.”

Randi had referenced the local drive-in movie theater, locally known as a “passion pit”.

Suddenly Sean had all kinds of second thoughts. “Okay, maybe I can help you. What is it you need?”

“That map,” she whispered in his ear, her hand on his back. “I really need to get it for someone. I’ll be real grateful if you can get it for me.”

Meanwhile, Emily, Dion and Lilly were still observing the cheerleaders’ routines. Actually, most of the lower level of the mall was enthralled by them too. Dion expected the store managers to be on their phones right now with security with complaints, but something told him this was all part of a general plan. It fit in with the mall owners and their operations. Therefore, it was time to take some precautions.

He looked over and noticed a clear gemstone in a ring Emily had on her hand. “What kind of stone is that?” he asked her as he pointed to the ring.

“Topaz. It was a gift from my grandmother a few years ago. Why do you ask?”

“Can I borrow it for a few minutes?”

What were the odds? Emily had the one gemstone, which could be used for what he had in mind. She shrugged and handed it to him. Dion pulled out a handkerchief from his pocket and wrapped the ring in it. What he needed to do could damage the ring and he didn’t need Emily mad at him.

Dion walked over to the line of cheerleaders who were still in the middle of their routine and stopped. They continued with their show, but fixed their attention on Dion. Even Randi, standing with Sean turned to look at Dion. Dion continued to stand in place.

Then he tossed the ring, still wrapped in the handkerchief, into the middle of the cheerleaders.

They halted the routine and focused on the bundle beneath them. One of the cheerleaders reached down and picked it up. The crowd continued to watch on in silence. Whatever hold they had on the crowd had yet to be broken. The cheerleader who picked up the bundle unwrapped the handkerchief from the ring and held it up.

The light from overhead flowed through the stone on the ring and reflected across the cheerleaders. Suddenly, the light increased in intensity and sparkle as the cheerleaders began to shimmer and change. While they stood in place, the girls faded from view. It took place over a minute with the cheerleaders losing their individual identity to the viewers until the space they occupied was empty.

The ring, held up by nothing, fell to the ground and plopped on the handkerchief. Dion walked over, picked the ring up and returned it to Emily.

The crowd began to thin out, unable to recall why they had stayed in the back of the mall, unable to remember what drew their attention in the first place. All they could remember was some kind of performance took place there, but now it was over. Soon, everyone was back to shopping and walking through the mall. The four friends remained in place with Emily sliding the ring back on her finger.

“What just happened?” Lilly asked Dion.

“The topaz. Sylphs are attracted to the gemstone for some reason. When I dropped it in their midst they all had to look at it. However, with their concentration gone, they no longer could keep up the appearance of cheerleaders. They had to return to their normal state or risk becoming bound to the ring. I think they chose the right course.”

Sean joined them again, but said nothing about the offer Randi made to him. He still noted the way Emily paid more attention to Dion than him. The cheerleader had given him a way to even things out. Perhaps he lacked the charisma of Dion and his superpowers, but there was still one card he could play.

They were interrupted by the sound of applause. They turned around to see the lone form of Edward clapping his hands together.

“Bravo!” he cheered. “Now that you got rid of them, what is your next move?”

This time he wore a cowboy shirt and blue jeans with a western style hat. A pair of pointy boots adorned his feet and a bolo tie was around his neck. To complete the ensemble he wore a pair of sunglasses. All of his jeans and jacket were decorated with imitation rhinestones, giving him the appearance of a rodeo clown.

“No lasso?” Lilly asked the little Englishman.

“They wouldn’t let me bring one. I was refused a horse too. Imagine this, a cowboy without a horse? How dare they?”

Dion was about to tell him it seemed a good idea when Edward cut him off.

“You do realize they will be back, don’t you? Also, they will have the same form. It worked well enough, but they won’t fall for the topaz ring trick a second time. I’m letting you know this because it will happen sooner rather than later.”

“I’m glad to see you are so fond of us, Edward,” Dion said. “Have you much experience with sylphs?”

“Not the elemental kind. But these are more difficult to deal with than anything I’ve ever encountered. They don’t like you and will do anything to keep you away from the Grandmaster. I suggest you prepare for them. And prepare well. They seem to have a way to mesmerize the uninitiated. They’ll make you all kinds of offers, but in the end it’s only to get what they want.”

“Why cheerleaders?” Lilly asked. “I can’t understand their reasoning.”

“Think about it,” Edward said. “The very image of innocence and beauty. Who would imagine them capable of anything sinister? In such a form, they can have and do anything they want. It was very little effort for them to hypnotize the audience. They could have picked everyone’s pockets and the audience wouldn’t have moved. The power of the cheerleader is immense, and they have found a way to turn it to their own benefit.”

The four nodded their heads in agreement. “They always did get the special attention,” Emily said with a little snark to her speech.

“Then you understand,” Edward said. He looked down at his belt buckle, which had a watch face mounted in it. “Alas, time is up and I have to go. Take care.”

And then he was gone again.

“He tends to disappear like that?” Sean asked them. This was the second time, but he was noticing a pattern.

“So far,” Dion said. “I guess we’re stuck with him for the time being. Anyway, we have a hobby shop to find.” He took out his map and consulted it. “It’s on the main concourse this time. Nothing too strange around it, but we can expect another appearance by our new friends on the way. Let’s go, but remain on your guard.”

They began to walk down the concourse in the direction of the hobby shop. As they left their former location, a lone security guard watched them go and made a report to the main office with a radio.

Chapter 5

“Yes, I am aware of them… very good, keep the four of them in sight I want to know every move they make…”

Officer Karanzen, sitting at this desk, placed the receiver from his radio back down on his desk. His security guards were doing their job today. There were four this time, but that only meant it would be easier to keep them all in sight. He had faith in his boys, they were all good men and fiercely loyal to him. Sometimes they made the occasional mistake, but it wasn’t something he could avoid. So long as they did their job with diligence, he was pleased.

This Dion and his family… he was different. Not a year since the mall was open and already a wild card to which he needed to pay attention. He couldn’t believe the kid’s grandfather had been his commanding officer in Korea, one of the few people who knew what happened at the Chosin Reserve. It was unnerving because he thought the man was dead. Yet, there he had been, big as life and in his face.

“You know,” the man who sat across from him, said, “they are not pleased. Not one bit. They expected you would handle this kid on the first day. Now he’s back and with what he came to get on the first day. All he has to do is the same stunt the next three days and we’ll all be cooked.”

“I tried to tell you,” Karanzen told the man, “this kid has all kinds of connections. It might have been nice if you’d have told me about some of them in advance.”

“It was a need-to-know basis,” he informed the officer. “We thought you could deal with him without us getting involved. Now we see that isn’t going to happen. We are forced to take a direct approach from here on out. Do you think you can handle his friends at least?”

“I’ve kept this place free and guarded from anyone who tried to cross it. No one in the country has a loss prevention record better than mine. Isn’t that good enough?”

“Not for this mall,” the other man said firmly.

The man who sat across from Karanzen wore a tailored three-piece suit with matching cuff links. His tie was silk and shoes Italian leather. He smoked with a cigarette holder, although he waited until leaving the building to light it. His name was Matt and he was the liaison between the daily mall management and the tower. The clock tower was where the mall builders had their offices, but no one was allowed inside it other than Matt. Most people didn’t even know where the door into the tower was located. He did. It wasn’t a door in the traditional form, but they didn’t need to know about that.

“So what do you propose I do?” Karanzen asked. “I can’t just grab that kid out of the mall without some kind of reason. I have enough problems with parents who think their darling little baby boy can’t possibly boost TV’s. You even show them the photos taken from the security cameras and they swear it’s someone else. The only thing I can do to stop him would be to ban the little punk from the mall. I can put out a notice to the guards that he or his friends are not welcome in the mall. Oh, we’ll have to deal with his family, but better that than the FBI if he comes up missing.”

“Just stay out of the way,” Matt told him. “We have this covered. All you need to do is have your men stay clear and let our people do what they need to do.”

“Fine. Just keep me informed as to what’s happening on the tower’s end. I don’t want any of my boys to be hit with something they don’t know about. You have some cleaners or even postmen show up and do strange things, I want to know about it. No reason to get my people injured interfering with an operation from the tower.”

“Don’t worry,” Matt said as he got up from the chair, “we’ll let you know before anything goes down.”

Karanzen watched Matt leave the room. There wasn’t much he could do. The man represented the people who controlled the mall. He suspected they were listening in on every conversation in this place. And there wasn’t a whole lot he could do about it.

Still, he didn’t trust the secret masters of this suburban temple. Too many unanswered questions about their real motives. Sure, he had a decent job as the guardian of this abyss, but it wouldn’t be hard for them to find someone else. There were plenty of people with his abilities out there, some less advanced than him, sure, but they would be grateful for the opportunity to have this position. Any one of his security guards might think they could handle it as well.

Sometimes he was ready just to leave. Let the masters of the mall have someone else take over this place. The constant balance between keeping the shoppers happy and finding the shoplifters was too much for any one man, no matter what their background.

He thought for a few minutes and then decided to take a walk with a few of the guards. They needed to be brought up to speed as to what was taking place in the mall. Not all of his boys needed to hear about it, just a select few. The fewer, the better. They could have a few drinks after their shift ended and he could give them a heads up as to what was taking place. But first, he needed to meet with them, and then he could decide what to do.

Karanzen was outside the mall.

It was another fine day with hardly a cloud in the sky, which was fine for him as he needed a secure place to talk to his men and didn’t need any interference from the mall owners. That little jerk, Matt, was not what he needed right now. He had to deal with the official representative for the mall every week when he came by for a conference. Up until now, it hadn’t been much of an issue: show the suit some graphs, let him know how things were proceeding and go from there. He wondered how Matt came by his job. Was he related to the mall builders and owners? Did he have some family connection to them? He wanted to know, but doubted there was an easy way to find out.

After Matt left, he reviewed the security tapes and watched Dion and his fine-feathered friends enter the mall. He had to switch tapes constantly into the player to find the right ones. They only had a few of the bulky cameras located in the mall and there were still places they didn’t cover. The official reason was the enormous cost of the audiovisual installation, but Karanzen speculated there were parts of the mall the owners didn’t want taped. The tape recorders were expensive and few malls had them, he understood this, but why did they cover only a few parts of the concourse in each section of the mall? Why was there only one camera to cover the parking lots and why was it conspicuously aimed away from the clock tower?

He didn’t like reviewing the tapes here. Karanzen suspected they were watching him inside his own office. Sure, he could never find evidence of a camera of any type, but it was just like the owners to have something hidden he couldn’t locate. Given who opened the mall, he didn’t think they would employ a physical camera to watch him. They had other ways to observe their charges in the mall.

He looked down at the ashtray, which was made of a fine carbonite stone, and reflected the light in mysterious ways. It had the name of the mall and management company carved into it. He’s seen these things all over the mall. Funny, the management banned smoking on the inside when the mall opened. He couldn’t recall too many places with this rule. Why did they have these fancy ashtrays in every office and secure room in the mall? If smoking wasn’t allowed, why did they insist everyone display them as a token of the management’s esteem? He’d picked one of the ashtrays up one afternoon and examined it when these thoughts had crossed his mind. It sent a tingle through his hand and almost caused him to loose physical form. The ashtray was tied in with the mall builders, he was certain and it was not just a little token thing. Furthermore, when they were first issued, every place where they were sent was informed they were never to leave the mall and to be displayed in a prominent place at all times. There was even a section on the security log to check where the “mall ashtrays” were seen. A clothing store manager tried to take one home one night to show her family and had a phone call the moment she arrived home. She was informed the ashtray was mall property and to be returned immediately. She drove all the way back and returned the ashtray to her store. The next day her corporation terminated her and never gave a reason, but he was certain it had to do with the ashtray.

Karanzen saw the two guards walk up to him as he stood on the edge of the parking lot with a clipboard in his hand. He didn’t know how far the eyes of the mall management went, but if they could see him in the lot, he had an excuse to be there with the clipboard. They needed to police the lot and he could always say the guards were with him to look over the sewer inlets and check on the electrical conduits.

He cursed himself for his subservience to the mall owners. They’d found him just before he was ready to cross over and made him the offer. Now he was in their thrall. Sure, he could do the nasty little pestilence tricks to transform himself into a cloud of insects, but what did it accomplish? It scared the stuffing out of most of the miscreants he caught who needed a little demonstration of his power, but it left him in a vulnerable state. He never bothered to show the security guards what he could do. It wouldn’t impress them anyway. They were good men who happened to be some trouble when he found him. They were intensely loyal because they knew working for him was the only way they would ever keep a job. He had plenty of information that could put every one of them away for years.

One of his first hires thought he could lift something and no one would notice. Karanzen called him down into his office the next day and showed him, lined up on his desk, five “diamond” necklaces of the same appearance and quality.

“I just thought you should know, Amon,” he told the man. “I know what you took yesterday. Don’t worry about bringing it back because we’ve already taken it out of your locker and returned it to the case. It had no value, just like the ones you see here. They don’t leave real ninety-carat bracelets out in the open as you thought they did. They don’t even lock the case, so you didn’t get lucky. But they do watch who from the mall staff walks around and does his rounds. I just wanted you to know, because if I ever catch you doing it again I will have to let some federal people know where they can find you.”

Karanzen never had another problem with the man.

It reminded him of the last panhandler he’d dealt with in his former position.

Karanzen had been a security guard outside a store in the Washington District in Scipio. The Washington District was an old entertainment division in the city. At one time, it was very fancy and held a lot of restaurants and theaters. But the business had moved elsewhere ten years previous and the city was desperate to renovate it and get some tax money generated. As it was, the district was a tax sinkhole and the only people found inside it after dark were single men shopping at the disreputable stores, which lined both sides of the streets. Fights were common when the bars closed and shootings happened on a regular basis.

An older restaurant got it into its mind to hire him as a parking lot attendant and security guard for the weekend. Business was dropping off because people didn’t like to be hassled by the street people who lined the block every time the police car left to deal with another issue. As soon as the cops left, out would emerge the mentally ill and mendicants. The state hospital decided the year before to release many patients to group homes. Many had been patients for years. This was humane, but it meant many people were walking the streets that needed better care. Many people who babbled at the air.

Karanzen’s job was to make sure they left the patrons alone. He’s just finished his latest stint with a security guard company and hated the low pay. This job didn’t pay much better, but at least he wasn’t stuck riding around from one rabbit-tripped alarm to the next. At one point, he thought about mowing the weeds around a bus under his watch because he was tired of the animals using it as cover. They slipped under the gate where they would inevitable set off an alarm. The company who employed him didn’t care because they made extra money each time the alarm was tripped. He cared because every time an alarm tripped he had to haul rubber across town and respond to it.

For his latest position, most of the time he didn’t have any trouble. The street people would see him and scuttle away, to bother someone else for spare change. One look at his black uniform and silver badge was enough to send them in full retreat. Every now and then, one of the miscreants would stop at the edge of the block and yell. He didn’t care so long as they stayed away from his turf. After he’d ambushed one of them the first week he had the job, they stayed away.

This particular night he was on his way to work and was out of uniform. Karanzen would park in the back of the restaurant most of the time, but this evening he was forced to take a bus into work because he needed to get his car repaired. He had non-standard windbreaker jacket and pair of rumpled pants. His uniform he never wore outside of work and always kept it in the same locker room the cooks used.

He was on his way down the street to the restaurant, ready to start his shift when a familiar tone rang behind him. “Excuse me, sir,” the voice said, “I wonder if you could help me.”

Karanzen turned around to face a slovenly dressed white youth with a silver pendant dangling from his neck. The man appeared to be twenty years of age and was in bad need of a shower. Karanzen felt his blood pressure begin to rise. He’d seen this punk on the roam outside his place of work. The kid stayed far enough away from the parking, so he had no idea how Karanzen appeared up close. This was the reason for a very bad mistake he’d just made.

“I need fifty cents,” the man said to Karanzen.

“What do you need it for?”

“A pizza. I’m hungry and need to buy a slice of pizza.”

“Really?” Karanzen snapped back at him. “I’ll go buy you one. I don’t start work for another half hour. Come on; let’s go get you something to eat.”

The young man’s face changed instantly. “Uh, no, that’s alright, I’ll be moving along.”

Karanzen could tell the panhandler’s eye had spotted another mark and he was about to move on. The young man tried to move away from him, but as he did, he felt a vice tighten around his shoulder. As he winced in pain, he turned around and saw a hand clamped on him.

“Where you going? I thought you were hungry and wanted something to eat. Are you going to turn down my hospitality?”

“Please,” the mendicant said, “I need to go. Please, I didn’t want to start anything…”

Karanzen saw his opportunity. There was an alley between the nearest two buildings and it was still too dark for anyone to see what was about to happen. As the young man struggled, he pulled him to the passageway between the two buildings.

Karanzen slammed him up against the wall and starred right into his eyes. “You know what, sonny boy?” he snarled at him. “I think you have been driving business away from my boss because you don’t like to work. I think you have some serious issues which need addressed.”

“Please,” he cried out, “just let me go.” The young man didn’t think the man who held him to the wall could see his hand slip down to his pants’ pocket, but he was wrong.

The knife hit the ground as Karanzen used his other hand to smack it out of the street person’s hand.

“Not smart, punk. You lied to me about being hungry didn’t you? Now why don’t you look into my eyes and tell me the truth?”

He looked into Karanzen’s eyes and watched the pupils disappear. They were replaced by the image of something that had no form a sane mind could comprehend.

No one was close enough to the alley to hear the screaming, which lasted for a good two minutes. When it ended, Karanzen continued on his way to the restaurant and his shift, a big smile on his face. The day had turned out decent after all.

Three days later the state hospital took in a new patient they’d never seen before. The police brought him in and let the orderlies strap him down as the young man was found walking down the street while crying at shadows in the air. He claimed the ground was full of tiny creatures who were laughing at him. It took a long time for the duty physician to get his hysterics under control. It was another three months before they located his wealthy family in New York and told them their wayward son was located in Scipio, Ohio.

A few minutes later, two of his boys, Lab and Woody, were with him walking around the outside of the mall. To everyone coming inside the mall, they appeared to be on their rounds, in the performance of some job crucial to the security of it. One or two people stopped and asked them if everything was all right, Karanzen assured them he was in the process of checking out some electronics in the lot. It satisfied them and he continued on his tour with the two men.

“The mall owner is not happy about what happened yesterday,” he repeated to them from the message from Matt. “We need to do better if all of us want to continue working here. I happen to like my job and I don’t need to worry about making the people in the tower mad.”

“I don’t know what else we can do, Boss, “Woody said to him. “We did everything we were supposed to do yesterday. No one was hurt and you had those kids in your office for a while. I thought everything was fine.”

“They’ve got it in for those two. I don’t know why, but they don’t want me to ban that kid Dion or any of his little friends from the mall. They seem to think they can handle the situation better than I can. Fine. We’ll be on standby until they want us. In the meantime, continue to watch them and look out for anything funny. Keep in mind there are four of them today.”

“Funny like those cheerleaders who just disappeared?” Lab asked him. “They just popped away when that Dion kid faced off to them. The weird thing was that no one seemed to act as if anything strange happened. The audience walked away as if they’d never been there.”

“Keep a record of those kinds of incidents,” Karanzen said to them. “I want to know about them. The management may be playing with fire and I don’t want to get burned.”

“What do you think they might be up to?” Woody asked. He tended to be the suspicious one. Years of clandestine missions in the jungles of South East Asia had taught him not to ask too many questions. It also made him suspicious of the motives of anyone who gave an order.

“I’m not sure. I don’t like it, I will tell you that. Right now, we work for the mall directly, I’m sure they’d like to save money and hire an outside security contractor. If that happens, we’d all have to find new jobs. Not right away, but I can assure you they would try to replace every one of us.”

“Not always.” It was Lab, who looked on the positive side of life. “I worked for a post lieutenant who kept his job through five different contract companies. He had some inside with the plant management so they always had him appointed as lieutenant.”

“I don’t think we’d be so lucky,” Karanzen told them. “Just watch for anything strange and careful what you say inside the mall. Too many ears in those cornfields. I don’t worry out here because I doubt the management can reach this far. But I can’t be sure. If I suspect anything else we might have to start meeting off-site.”

He didn’t tell them what he knew about the nature of the mall. All of them would quit if they realized they were positioned over the abyss. Who would stick around if they knew they were supposed to guard the passage over the bottomless pit of midnight? He felt guilty not telling them the truth, but the truth was more than anyone of them could tolerate. Even he couldn’t fully deal with the truth and he knew what the mall was all about the day they hired him.

Karanzen closed his eyes and tried to forget the day Matt had found him living in the van near the Atlantic shore. He’s been sleeping in it every night since the dreams started. The dreams, which took him, back to Korea and human wave assaults. Every night he would find himself walking out from behind the tank to see the endless wall of Chinese soldiers walking down the hill in his directions with their bayonets fixed. He couldn’t tell them about it, not the gunfire and the solid steel pin of fear that went through him when he saw what he was up against. Not the cries of his men as he turned and ran in the other direction. No one knew about it, except Matt when he knocked on the side of the van and told Karanzen he had a job for him.

“You alright, Boss?” Lab asked.

Karanzen opened his eyes and saw the two men starring at him. “I’m fine,” he said and turned in the direction of the mall. “I thought about another meeting after work, but I’ll hold off for the time being.”

Chapter 6

“I think we need to go back and see Hobbs.” Dion said to his friends as they wandered through the mall.

Something seemed very wrong about the atmosphere of the mall. Dion had the map and knew where the location of Jupiter Hitch’s hobby store could be located, but the cheerleaders’ sudden appearance worried him. The elementals knew he was there and would do everything possible to keep him away from the Grandmaster. Plus there was the issue of the security guards.

“Why do we need to go see him?” Lilly asked. “You need to buy something else from his store?”

“I might. I’m not sure about the kind of people who are inside this mall. He might have something to help me plan things out today. If anyone would have what I needed, it would be him.”

“That short guy who runs the head shop?” Sean asked him. He wasn’t sure if Dion had noticed him talking to the cheerleader Randi or knew that she wanted to get the map away from him. It still sickened him that Emily paid Dion so much attention. Why? Couldn’t she just leave him to Lilly? What was it that these girls had to compete for attention? It made no sense to him.

“That’s the man I’m talking about,” Dion said. “We need to go back to the other side of the mall and have a word with him.”

The trip to the part of the mall where they had been the previous day went quick. Lilly noticed a few of the ghoul cleaners who bowed to Dion as they went past, but otherwise didn’t say a word. The whole atmosphere changed in this section once they were inside it. Dion was master of the earth elementals and they were prominent in this section.

She also noticed the bull platform was gone, hauled off since it hadn’t done what it was supposed to do. Even the pharmacy where he’d been bestowed with the full powers of the earth elemental was closed. There was an “On Vacation” sign on the window with a notice of who to call until the owner returned. Lilly wondered if the owner, the Earth Elemental Grandmaster, Athena West, hadn’t planned that vacation a long time ago and waited until Dion came to her before she took it.

Emily found the little underground shop where Dion took them to be funny and amusing. It wasn’t the sort of place she would have willingly spent much time, but she enjoyed it. She liked the abundance of black light posters on the wall and the record bin full of ninety-nine cent specials. Then there was the stuffed bear at the front. It, like everything else, was for sale. But nothing had a price tag she could find. What matter of store lacked price tags? What kind of place was this?

“Hello again, Dion,” the short man from behind the counter said. “I see you have some more friends with you. How did the seer stone work out?”

“Good, I have it in my pocket today, although I don’t think I need it. We have the map back and the lettering is stuck on English. Is it locked in place because of the stone?’

“No. The stone makes it possible for the holder of it to read the map and anyone close to him or her. If you can read the map and not hold the stone, then the map was fixed on the last language used. It depends on the map, but most of the maps made for what you are using it don’t have that ability.”

Sean had found the aquarium with Emily. Both of them were looking at the strange creature inside it. Sean tried to move close to her, but she only let him casually make contact. The moment he brushed up against her, she pulled away. He doubted she would do that if Dion bumped into her.

“You have any idea what this thing it?” she asked Sean. “It doesn’t appear to be a mouse or any kind of rodent I’ve ever seen. Wait, I think there it is again.”

The creature poked its head out of a hole and crawled over to a water pan where it took a long and slow drink out of it. Now that she could see it better, Emily realized it was some sort of lizard. It only had two front legs, but resembled a reptile in every other fashion. It was about ten inches long and turned to look at her with a scowl. Whatever it was, the creature didn’t seem to like them starring at it.

“A tatzelwurm,” Hobbs called out to them. “Be careful and don’t get too close. He’s harmless most of the time. I keep him around because he lets me know if anyone is trying to shoplift.”

“It can do that? How would it know?”

“Go ahead and reach behind the counter,” Hobbs told her.

Emily shrugged and stuck her hand on the other side of the glass case.

The moment her hand touched the other side of the case, the creature in the aquarium turned and looked at her. She looked back at Hobbs with a “Well?” expression on her face. Nothing had taken place.

Then a loud wail came from the aquarium, which caused every other customer in the store to turn in its direction. The wail emerged from the small lizard inside it. As Emily jumped back, she heard it continued to make the wail with its snout open. How could a little thing like that make such a loud noise? The moment her hand was down by her side, the wail began to die down. Soon it was gone, but the tatzelwurm continued to glare at her, its tail twisting inside the aquarium.

“Now do you understand?” Hobbs said. “Just don’t do it to spite him, because then he’ll get really mad.”

Emily backed away slowly from the tank and walked over to Dion. Sean followed. He made a mental note of how she’d instinctively gone to Dion and ignored him when she was frightened.

What am I, invisible? he thought to himself. All this time and she still can’t fall back to me when she’s scared. It made him recall all the other times Emily had called him for support, only to find reasons not to take his calls later.

“Where did you get that monster?” Emily asked Hobbs. “That thing scared me to death with that scream.”

“I thought it was time I showed him off. I’m sorry if he frightened you, but it’s been too long and people tend to forget he’s in the aquarium.”

Hobs turned back to Dion. “So what did you need this time?”

“Those security guards are a nuisance,” Dion explained. “Whoever owns this mall has them following me all over the place. Every time I turn around, they are there. Do you have something which will let me know when they’re about to show up?”

“I have just the thing for you,” Hobbs announced as she ducked below the level of the counter again and brought up another carved box. This box was much larger than the last one and he sat it again on the counter. As the four friends looked on, Hobbs unlocked it with a key from a collection of them in his pocket. He opened the lid to let them see what was inside.

It was a crystal ball. A plain crystal ball. The exact same kind used by fortunetellers. The ball was the size of a sixteen-pound cannon ball and polished to a smooth finish. Light passed through it, but was bent in strange patterns as it came out on the other side. The ball sat on a base of black velvet and was in the shape of a complete sphere. This one had no flat resting side ground into it. It had no fissures, cracks, or any imperfections on the surface.

“Where did you get that?” Dion asked. “I haven’t seen one of these in a very long time.”

“I doubt you’ve ever seen one like this. I bought it from a clairvoyant who was down on her luck. Too many unforeseen circumstances.” Hobbs snickered on the last comment.

“So if it didn’t work so well for her, how is it supposed to work for me?”

“It works just fine,” Hobbs said, his hairy fingers in movement across the smooth surface. “But it won’t work for just anyone. You see, the ball will tell you what you should know, not necessarily what you want to know. She bought it from some place I know nothing about, but I’m sure whoever made it knew what they were doing. You might ask how I would know this. I know this because the ball has allowed me to see things I found out later were true. Sometimes it shows me future events, but if I take precautions, they don’t come true. Now how is that? If it was something from the future, should it not happen anyway? I don’t know, but I suspect the ball fixes on the person who looks into it and allows them to see what they should. I think the ball is good at making estimations. It estimated that there would be a revival of black light art and I bought the stock of posters you see in the shop. It estimated water beds would pass as an interest, but they still sell in some parts of the country, just not like they used to sell.”

“How does it work?” Lilly asked him.

“Simple, you look into the crystal ball. Just like in the movies. You don’t ask it anything; you look and see what it will show you. If the ball decides you are worthy, it will let you see what you should know. The fortuneteller thought the ball would tell her the future, but it doesn’t always do that. Try and use it to make money and it will tell you falsehoods. Too many of her customers found this out and abandoned her. Now she’s selling real estate in Florida. Maybe she’ll be able to predict the market future, but I doubt it.”

“I don’t want to look into it,” Lilly said and turned away. “There is too much in the future and present that I don’t want to know. I’m afraid and I don’t want to know any more.” She moved away from the ball and turned her back on it.

Sean looked at the ball. It drew him in. The surface was smooth and the depths of it clear. Was there something inside the ball? He couldn’t tell. It was a clear crystal, but there seemed to be some reflection of light on the inside. He looked closely at it again and the light merged into a face. Sean blinked his eyes and the face became focused. It changed color and merged into the image of Randi, the cheerleader. She blew him a kiss.

Sean shook his head and the ball was clear on the inside again. He moved away from it. That thing was dangerous.

Then he saw Emily looking at Dion with the same look of longing she always showed him. She hadn’t looked in the ball, but Sean didn’t need to do it again to know what that represented. He turned away from the ball and faced the wall too.

Dion stared into the crystal and watched closely. He needed to know where the security guards would appear again. He might return and use the ball for more information, but he needed to know what they were up to at that very moment. He waited and the ball allowed him to see where they were throughout the airside of the mall.

The second thing he wanted the crystal ball for was to locate some place Karanzen and his goon squad would leave them alone. There had to be some place where they could go that the security chief would avoid. Within the mall were many places unknown to the regular shoppers who frequented it. All they had to do was to find the right place and make a straight line to it. But where could he find it?

Dion looked into the ball and the sparkles on the inside began to swirl and shift. He found himself pulled into the vision before him. Inside the ball, he saw a man working at forge of some kind. He had long hair and a beard to match. In one hand, he wielded a big hammer, which he used to pound at a piece of hot metal on an anvil before him. The man, a Viking from his clothing, began to sweat as he slammed down the hammer on the object in front of him. He constantly pounded away until the metal began to flatten out. This was serious work and he applied himself with diligence to it. Dion could hear the ringing of the hammer as it pounded downward on the hot steel before him.

Then the vision began to swirl again and he saw a stand in a market where the same man sold his wares. Other Vikings walked up to the objects on display and examined what he had for sale. The man who had pounded them into shape now expounded on the value of each one as his potential buyers nodded and looked them over. A few men reached into pouches and their hands emerged with gold coins to drop into the hand of the smith.

Finally, the vision faded away and the sphere was blank on the inside. The crystal ball had shown him what he needed to see that moment.

Dion looked up; he knew exactly where to go in the mall to get away from the security staff.

“There is a knife shop,” he told his companions. “We need to go there.”

“A knife shop?” Lilly said. What was it with the quest he was on and kitchens? “You mean like the cookware store where we lured the bull into yesterday?”

“No, this place sells collectable knives and weapons. They have a large medieval reenactor client base. I’ve been in it before and the ball advised me to go there. I suspect there is something to do with what it sells and Karanzen. We need to go there as soon as we can.”

Dion looked up at Hobbs. “I don’t know how to thank you for your help, but I can’t lug this ball around with me. How much do I owe you? Is there some way I can have it shipped to my aunt and uncle’s house?”

“Don’t worry about it. You can come back and use it whenever you need to. You family helped me out a lot over the years and I don’t forget people who do me favors.”

Hobbs closed the box and locked it. In one swift motion, he returned it to the space under the counter.

They found the knives shop quickly with the aid of the map. It showed them the best way to get to the location by way of a spotted line when Dion touched the shop’s location on the map with his finger. The line drew itself across the map and through the mall, avoiding the passageways, which only the mall employees knew about. It was a simple matter to walk the distance and consult the map at each junction. Dion noticed it changed directions several times, which he decided had to do with the locations of the guards and the human traffic in the mall. It was crowded in the main concourse, as the shoppers were there to take advantage of all the sales. A few times, he noticed the spotted line fade away, then reappear on the map, and show a better way to get to the shop.

“How does that thing work?” Lilly asked him as she watched him consult the map. She was astonished how effective it was when the lined reappeared a second time.

“I have no idea. It’s part of a system I know nothing about. But it seems to be actively finding us the directions we need.”

“Imagine having something like that in your car,” Emily said. “You’d never have to pull over and ask directions again. I used to work in a grocery store near an exit ramp from the interstate. We had to give people direction four and five times a day who were lost. With this map, it would never happen. All they would need to do would be to ask it for a location.”

“It’ll never happen,” Sean spoke up as they looked at the map. “No way would the map companies every allow that to take place. Not to mention all the stores which depend on people wandering in, trying to find something that isn’t there?”

“At least it works for us,” Dion said. He rolled the map up and placed it under his arm. Now that he had a chance to see what it could do if it was truly needed, he understood why so many of the elementals wanted to get it away from him. The map was a unique device and was worth its weight in gold many times over.

Chapter 7

Sharper Edges stood in front of them. In the display case a selection of bladed instruments were available for passer-byers to look at. Some were fancy, some plain, but all were the product of exquisite craftsmanship. They could see the blue reflection in some of the weapons at the distance and admired the scabbards and other accessories, which went with them. So far, they did not see any of Karanzen’s men anywhere around the store, but they might show up without warning.

Thor Chariot stood at the counter where his wares were on display. He watched the four young people enter the small knives shop he maintained inside the mall and looked at the display. Thor liked to stay on the customer side of the display cases as it allowed him a chance to interact with his potential buyers. This was his first store inside a shopping mall and he had a difficult time when he bought the permits to open it. The local zoning board looked at a knives store only slightly better than a tattoo shop and those were restricted to outside the township limits. It took him an entire day and a suit with tie to convince the hearing board his knives were works of art and would not be coveted by the average street criminal. It was only when he offered to post a large indemnity bond they relented and approved his permit to sell edged artisanal creations in the mall.

He’d expected these four. Something was in the air today. The people who worked in the mall, both human and not, told each other what was going on at any given time. There was an informal network of gossipers who were sure to let the store managers and their employees know if gangs of shoplifters or building inspectors were on the prowl. The mall was free of most thieves because the ones which escaped, or were lucky enough to be arrested, warned the others what waited for anyone who was caught. No one wanted to spend an hour or two in Karanzen’s holding cell. It wasn’t what was done to you; it was what you saw while you were inside it.

Thor was aware of the true nature of the mall and what it hid the first day he opened his store. He cast the runes on the counter that day and they told him all he needed to know. The place stood over an entrance to something ghastly. It seemed Valhalla was relocated and placed on the plains of Ohio for people to find at their own pace. But something was brewing inside that clock tower and he didn’t like it. Should the sensations he received become too intense, he would look elsewhere for a store location.

The word on the sales floor was that the mall management had it in for some tall kid who would be in the mall all week. He was trying to find something and they didn’t want him to locate it. What it was, no one knew, but the cleaners had unsuccessfully tried to keep him from reaching a pharmacy in the other section of the mall. Today he was in Thor’s side of the mall and things were stirring in the air. He’d seen the cheerleaders with a whole group of enthralled men who watched them in silence as they did their routines in the main concourse. It wasn’t the sort of thing the mall management would normally permit, so they had to have some kind of reason to have them there.

“Would you like to see anything?” he said to the group as they walked inside. “We have some of the finest steel on this side of the planet.”

Dion walked over the nearest case and looked inside. The prices were steep, but he could see the signs of the metal folding in some of the knives. He noted the expert care which went into the construction of the handles. Each of these weapons was designed to hold up under the worst situations imaginable. Not one of these blades would snap if pressure were applied to them.

Emily couldn’t understand the reason for this shop, but she followed Dion into it because he said the security staff wouldn’t come inside. Right now, there were no other people in it besides themselves.

Sean was surprised at how Emily reacted to the display of cold steel. She walked around and looked at each one with keen interest. For the first time she turned her attention away from Dion and stared at the edges and patterns before her. None of them could be handled unless the storeowner took them out of the case, but it didn’t stop her from gazing over them. The knives and swords, which he had on display behind him, held her fascination. What was it that attracted her attention in a way he’d never seen until now?

“And you must be the kid who has attracted the mall management’s attention,” Thor said to Dion. “I don’t know what you did, but they are looking for you today. They don’t seem to want to prevent you from coming into the mall, which makes me believe you’re not a thief. So you must have something they really want down in the tower.”

“It’s what they don’t want me to possess,” he said. “There are places in this mall they never want me to reach. If I succeed in my quest, they never will be able to carry out all their plans.”

“Plans? What kind of plans? I didn’t think that bunch in the tower cared about a thing other than the bottom line.”

“I’m not sure what they’re up to,” Dion said. “But whatever it is, they want me out of the way. They’ll do anything to keep me under control. Right now, they’ve managed to get several people into the mall I need to see. So long as I have to see them, they can control my access.”

“How long have you had this store?” Sean interrupted. “It looks pretty new.”

“Five weeks, at this location. I was in several places before I signed the lease for this one. I hope I made the right decision coming here. The foot traffic is much better than the old place, but the sales haven’t picked up that much. I’ll see how they look in the upcoming months. I had three other locations before I came here. None of them seemed to generate the foot traffic I needed to make this a going concern. Two of them had enough space for my foundry, but I’ve since moved all my equipment out to a shed behind the house where I live. I decided it was time to separate the production end from the sales part. I spend two days in the shop and five here. Haven’t had a vacation in years, but it’s the price you pay for being your own boss. I spent years on the renaissance fair circuit chasing sales that way, but I got tired of all the moving around. Finally decided to settle down in one location and here I am.”

“Wow,” Sean said, “you’ve always made swords and knives for a living? That is so cool. It sounds like the life we’d all like to lead.”

“Not so exciting when you have to get a blade forged to have something to sell because you don’t have any money left to pay bills. I’ve been up until two in the morning pounding steel because I needed inventory for a show. I’ve worked as a vendor all weekend only to have one sale, a ten dollar polishing cloth. But at the same time, I’ve sold enough steel in one hour to make the next month tasty. You can never tell in this trade how you will do from one year to the next. And by the way, I’ve done a lot of jobs beside this one while I was learning the trade.”

“What kind of work did you do besides this?” Emily said. This Viking, or whatever he was, seemed pretty cute and she wouldn’t mind spending more time in the store.

“I had plenty of stupid jobs,” Thor told her, “but the one I liked best was being a stunt dummy for the cops. I’d go back and do that one again because it was fun.”

Now the rest of the group was interested. There was no one else in the store and Thor leaned back on the counter and began to spin his tale. He’d told it so many times that he could recite it in his mind. He didn’t care, the day was slow and they seemed to want to hear it.

“I was working nights at a diner as a cook while I built my stock of knives up. One day I had a customer come into the diner and start talking about how he was a professional target for the cops. I couldn’t believe what he told me. It turns out when they train cops; they use Hogan’s alleys or mock-ups of buildings and cars for them to simulate real situations. The guy belonged to some kind of actor’s guild, which hired themselves out to the cops for training. You see, they need to make these scenarios realistic to be useful. So what do they do? They hire people to be the bad guys in the getaway car or the bum on the couch who has to be woken to tell them where the suspect is hiding. It sounded like fun, so I asked him if he was looking for anyone. This was before I had the long hair and beard, but I guess I look enough like a bad guy so he hired me on the spot. It was a great job for about a year, I had a blast.”

“Sounds dangerous,” Lilly said. It wasn’t her idea of a career to be smacked around by the men in blue with guns. It sounded downright scary.

“Not really. The guns are using blanks and they’re not even allowed to use those most of the time. My last time I was playing a guy passed out on the couch at a party because they were trying to find a drug dealer. I was supposed to play possum and they were going to force me to wake up and give some information. When I sat up, a man jumped out from behind another couch, aimed a wooden pistol at the cop trainees and yelled ‘Bang! Bang! Bang!’ By the rules of the scenario, they were all dead and had to start over again. Also, I got to play the chase vehicle with a beat-up Ford while some rookie cops ran after me in an old cruiser. They managed to force me off the road, and then they had to use the proper method to get me out of the vehicle. Failed that one too when I pulled a dummy gun out of my waistband, pointed it at the cop walking up to me and said ‘Dead!’ Yeah, it was a lot of fun, but my own calling needed attention and I had to quit.”

“Well, at least you get to do what you want to do,” Sean said. “We’re about to graduate high school and I don’t think any of us know what to do. Except Dion.” Sean glared at Dion with the last few words.

Emily noted Sean’s animosity, but said nothing about it. She knew there was no love lost between the two, but it was too bad for Sean, as he’d agreed to come along. For all she cared, Sean could be trained as an Elvis impersonator.

“It’s not a bad career,” Thor told them, “but I wish the money was better. At least I had some careers before this one to compare. Again, the police dummy was fun, but it made me worry about the cops.”

“Why?” Lilly asked him.

“The ones with a military or previous cop background had some smarts. The ones right out of college who’d decided they wanted to be a cop; they had a long way to go. It takes years to build up those survival skills. I worry there are too many of them who are going to make a wrong move because they’re too new to be on the street.

“I’ll keep it in mind,” Dion said. He still didn’t understand why neither Karanzen nor any of his security staff would come into the store. It made no sense, but perhaps there was some contradiction in this part of the mall which kept them out. He reminded himself to look it up when got home. There was a well-thumbed copy of the 141414, or The Elemental Worker’s Desk Reference in his room. Supposedly, they were coming out with a new edition. This one weighed in at ten pounds, he couldn’t fathom how heavy the next one would be.

Dion turned to the windows. Still no sign of the security staff. Good. They could leave this place and get over to the hobby shop where Jupiter Hitch worked. If everything went according to plan, perhaps he could get home by the early evening and figure out how to find the next Elemental Grandmaster tomorrow.

“Thanks for your hospitality,” he told Thor, “but we need to keep moving. Our destination is down the next hall and we need to get there before the mall comes up with another barricade. It seems to be good about throwing them up in my way.”

“Sometimes I think there is no mall management or builders,” Thor sighed. “I can’t help but wonder if this place just grew overnight and we’re all inside the belly of some primordial monster. No one has ever seen the mall managers and I’m not sure they even exist.”

They left the store and proceeded down the hallway where the hobby shop was located.

Emily didn’t know a lot about hobby shops, they seemed to appeal to the boys in her school, although they quit using them after a certain age. She remembered a few kids down the street who were heavily into model rocketry and who scared the stuffing out of her father when one of their attempted launches went off course and landed in their backyard. The kids jumped the fence the next minute and retrieved it, but not before her father had yelled at them.

She watched a few of their launches, some that had better success than the one which landed in her yard. To hear the kids tell it, they were going to the moon. It all seemed like a big Fourth of July show to her, with the exception of the colored sparklers. Soon, the neighborhood kids had moved onto something else and were no longer interested in the space patrol. But the memory of rockets into the sky remained with her.

All I have to do is get the map from him, Sean thought to himself. Just get the map away and hand it to that cheerleader. So easy. Then what would Emily think when her beloved Dion didn’t have so much power after all? It sickened him that Dion could get those girls to swoon over him just by walking into the room and he had no way to get them to look in his direction. All he had to do was find a way to get it out of his hands and transfer it to Randi.

Dion felt something from Sean. He couldn’t put a name to it, but this kid Emily had dragged into the quest seemed to have something going on inside him that wasn’t good. It was a brooding nightmare and he could feel it. There was something very wrong with his head and the way he looked at the world. What the hell was wrong with him? Why couldn’t the girls see it? He could understand why Emily wouldn’t notice anything, but Lilly? She was very close to him. He could feel her attraction and enjoyed the sensation. Emily, she had some pull in his direction too, but it wasn’t as intense as what he felt from the other girl. Funny how he could start to feel these things, it had to be a by-product of his years of elemental studies.

Dion made a mental note not to turn his back on Sean or drop guard. If he was under the influence of some elemental, he could easily betray them all and never realize it. He made certain to keep him in visual range at all times.

A few minutes later, they came to the hobby shop. Dion stopped everyone and looked around the perimeter. He wanted to make sure no further surprises awaited them. After yesterday’s unexpected interference from the ghoul cleaners, he was ready for everything. He closed his eyes and concentrated with his other senses, but felt nothing. The only movement he saw was from a small shop, which sold wristwatches, on the other side of the hall. There was only one lady working inside in it and she didn’t pay him any attention. If the elementals or mall has something planned, he was unable to figure out where the attack would originate. For now, it appeared they were holding back. Which was fine with him.

Dion walked right up to the store and pushed on the door. It didn’t move at all. He pushed on it again and looked down. He turned the clasp was turned and found the store was locked. Dion turned and saw the notice in the door: “Back In Thirty Minutes”.

“The mall won’t like that,” Lilly said to him when she saw the sign. “He could get fined for not being here when he’s supposed to be. They don’t like it when the store doesn’t open on time. Shoot, even the security guards walk around and note what time these places are open. It’s part of their contract and I would expect he’d know it.”

Dion rubbed his hand on his forehead. “Unless this is a plan by the mall to delay everything,” he said. “Get the owner away from the store so I can’t meet him and have my second mastery handed to me.”

They stood there in front of the store and waited. “He’ll have to come back eventually,” Lilly said. “You think it might be safe to stay here and just wait for him?”

“I’d like to, but I’m not sure if that is such a good idea with these elementals trying to get in the way. I can guarantee you that the mall is behind his absence. They probably have him down in an office right now going over a list of stupid issues they want him to see just to get him away from the shop. They might have found a reason to get one of his employees out of the way too. I wouldn’t put it past them.”

It was Emily who first saw the cheerleaders. They didn’t appear at once this time, but out of the crowd. She saw the first one walk up to them and stop. Then another one came down the hall and blocked their retreat in that direction. Another appeared from the other side and stood watch in the other direction. More of them emerged from the crowded shopping mall and filled in the gaps between the first two and the rest. Soon, there was a solid cheerleader semi-circle that surrounded them. The shoppers knew to avoid them and continued to walk past the half circle as they made a barrier around the four friends.

Sean stood close to the one called Randi. He was closer to her than any of the other cheerleaders. She looked at him with her deep blue eyes and he felt his knees go weak. He turned and looked at the people he stood with and noticed Emily sliding up to Dion for protection. Lilly was already holding onto his hand from the other side. Sean felt his inner rage take control of him. Oh, it was fine for Emily to drag him along to this for a small thing, but if she was really scared, it was Dion she ran to for help. Not Sean who’d carried the banner for her longer than he could remember. What was it that made her look down on him? Perhaps it was the time his mother browbeat him into calling her to come along to a family picnic. They’d only gone out once, but his mother decided that, since his cousins had girlfriends along, so should he. Sean was humiliated and he knew all his mother wanted to do was show her off. And perhaps let everyone know her introverted son was halfway normal. It never happened and it was months before he could phone her again. He still shuddered at the memory of calling her up from his mother’s prodding.

Randi stood there and looked at him directly. Her eyes shifted in the direction of the map under Dion’s arm. He knew exactly what she had in mind. She smiled at Sean, allowing him to see the white teeth beneath her lips. Sean looked across at her and saw the clear, tanned skin on her arms and the glow in her hair. She’d done her best to make herself up to be the kind of young woman Sean had dreamed about all his life.

The shoppers continued to walk past, oblivious to what took place in front of them. If someone had stopped to take the tableaux in, it wouldn’t have made much sense. All they would have noticed was a squad of high school cheerleaders in their tight little uniforms standing out in front of four kids of the same age. Unless the onlooker knew anything about the mall or who built it, they would be clueless as to what was unfolding. A close examination might show the hair of the cheerleaders blowing behind them although there was no wind or air currents in the mall. The cheerleaders all had long hair, even the ones with curls. It rose up behind them in a golden and black pattern to merge into one harmonious mane. The stood there and remained silent while people avoided them as they went through the mall.

Dion turned and saw the eyes of Sean fixated on one of the cheerleaders. He realized what was taking place before him and tried to break their hold, but it was too late.

Chapter 8

The combined power of the air elementals disguised as cheerleaders was too much for Dion.

He wanted to reach across the void to his friends, but they were no match for the strength of the elementals multiplied by a factor of twelve. He could feel their energy pulse across the floor of the mall. A kind of bubble was developing around them all, with the shoppers going around them to avoid the give and play of their standoff. Dion knew he would have to fight hard to save what he could, but there was still a chance.

He lacked the power to bind them and they knew it. The whole incident was arranged to get him close to the hobby shop and then pounce on him through his friends. He could feel the cheerleaders’ wills merge into each other and overpowering his. This was their intent all along: to get Dion into a location where they could focus on him and strip him of his abilities. But he still had a few games to play, they didn’t.

“Don’t look at them!” he yelled, but the others already were entranced by the cheerleader elementals. Sean’s eyes had expanded so that the pupil almost occupied all of his eyes. Emily stood motionless with her mouth slightly open. Only Lilly turned her head away from the sight before them and tried to focus her eyes in another direction. The cheerleaders’ eyes began to glow as they attempted to take control of their minds. Dion realized he dealt with something far more powerful than had ever been sent against him.

Sean couldn’t hear Dion. All he could see was the eyes of Randi in front of him. She was beautiful, lovelier than anything he had ever seen before. Sean had a girlfriend once, or thought he did. He was only fourteen at the time and it ended all too quickly leaving him wounded on the inside and a sucker for any high school girl which would give him the time. Randi offered him a lot more. He could hear the blond cheerleader talking through the noise around his head. There was too much noise with the shoppers walking past and thinking about the purchases they wanted to make the deals which could be found the colors they needed to match the shoes they needed to buy and more. The noise began to scream into his head and threatened to drown him out.

Sean was in a nightmare world where the ghosts wouldn’t shut up. They wouldn’t stop screaming over his thoughts and they wouldn’t leave his head.

All except Randi, who locked into his mind and soul. She told him there was a way out and she could help him. Sean just wanted the noise to stop and this very nice girl could take care of him. She looked divine and the light from behind her lit up her flowing hair. Her hair shimmered in the air as silk did when the summer breeze struck it.

Dion grabbed hold of Lilly and pushed her face into his jacket. If he could prevent her from seeing the cheerleader elementals, he still had a chance to save them all. He could resist, but his three friends were a different story. He would have to fight the elementals for possession of their minds. Lilly he could keep from looking at the cheerleaders. As long as he moved her vision from theirs, she was safe. The other two were different stories.

He saw Sean looking directly into the eyes of one cheerleader and she began to walk closer to him. If he didn’t do something soon, he could lose him completely in the mirror maze of Sean’s mind.

The elementals would find the one thing that a person desired above anything else and promise to give it to them. They would reach into their heart and make them all kinds of false hopes they had no plan to fulfill. If the victim didn’t realize what they were doing, they could go mad forever. Dion wasn’t about to let that happen and tried to remember how to break the concentration of the combined elementals.

Emily was lost too. Dion could see her standing in place gazing into the unknown. The elementals were pushing a lot of their power to her in an effort to gain control of Emily’s mind too. They didn’t want Sean or Emily, but knew they could use them against Dion, which was their intent all along.

Dion watched Emily’s jaw tighten and knew she was dangerously close to losing herself in the abyss over which the mall was placed.

It was coming down between the two of them and he didn’t know if he could rescue them both. This was something he had to do alone. No matter what the cheerleader elementals represented, they were nothing compared to what awaited him inside the tower. If he couldn’t break their hold on Sean and Emily, how could he stop the mall builders when he was on their own field?

Sean was no longer in the mall. He was sitting in his parent’s car at the local drive-in watching a horror movie his mother would never allow him to see if she knew what he was doing. But all objections his mother might have were dashed when he brought his new girlfriend over to the house to meet the parents. His dad nodded while he watched the game on TV, but his mother fawned over Randi that evening. She tried to find out what church Randi attended. Randi deflected everything she asked. And why not? Wasn’t Sean the most popular guy in the high school with scholarships waiting for him at twelve different schools that wanted his talents? Did he have a whole group of cool friends who would do anything he asked? Randi was just the latest girl to bring home and meet mother.

Dion saw in horror what she was doing to Sean’s mind and turned to pull him out of his fantasy world. The elemental that was in the form of a cheerleader named Randi was closer now. She reached out her hand and extended it to Sean. Dion fought the stream of consciousness, which arced across Sean to him. He couldn’t see much, it wasn’t possible to examine the inner workings of another soul in total, but what he saw shamed him to no end. All Sean wanted was Emily’s attention and he’d been the subject of it. The elementals knew it and were using it against Sean. If they could trap him in the fantasy world, he would do their bidding until someone could pull him out.

Dion gasped and slowly pulled himself over to Sean. It was the only thing he could do. He sensed Emily wasn’t as far gone as his friend. They were using Sean to get at Dion and Emily was just a sideline. Dion kept Lilly from looking at the cheerleaders; it was the only way to keep her from falling into the same trap.

Emily was somewhere else too, but she knew it didn’t make sense. She was home with both her mother and father. They were a family again after all the years her parents were separated. Her father was sitting on the back porch with his arm around her mother and all was good. The barbecue was fired up and the steaks on it were cooked to perfection. Even her grandparents, dead many years, were supposed to come over that evening.

The cheerleader nearest to Sean reached out suddenly and made contact before Dion could reach him. Then two things happened at the same time.

Sean grabbed the map from Dion, moved quickly to Emily and grabbed her, then they disappeared with the cheerleaders, leaving Dion and Lilly alone in the mall.

They stood there for a few minutes as the situation became obvious to them. The air was still but people were in motion. They continued about their way, clueless to what had occurred in front of them. Somehow, the cheerleader elementals had created a scenario where no one outside of their own enchanted bubble could notice what took place. Dion had watched several people who walked in their direction turn and move away as they approached them.

The air around them continued to grow still until the mall began to fade. It became dark and the sounds of the shoppers decreased in volume slowly but with fortitude, as they became echoes and then whispers.

Lilly looked up at Dion in fear.

It was obvious to her he didn’t know what was taking place about them. The atmosphere was dense and the sounds were dampened as if by cotton. Soon, everything about them had gone black.

Dion could feel Lilly by his side, but he had no control over what took place about him. Even with his mastery of the earth element, there was nothing he could do because the transition had taken him away from anything which appeared normal.

The light began to return and they found the atmosphere around them returning to normal. Soon, there were shapes which resembled objects they remembered: chairs, tables and even a floor. Light filled the room and they could see. However, it was most definitely not the mall where they were sent. This was somewhere different and outside the time circles that Dion understood. How had they been sent to this place and for what reason?

They were in a small room with shuttered windows. In front of them was a fireplace where a log crackled away. It was still early spring and Dion understood the reason for the heat, but most places around him didn’t need fireplaces to keep the house warm. Most had central heating which, gas, oil or coal did the job nicely. His aunt and uncle’s house was provided with a forced air oil heater, which was placed in the basement and did its best to warm up the rest of the dwelling.

They were standing on a large rug in the middle of a wooden floor. The chairs in the room were all facing the fireplace, which is why Dion assumed it was to keep the house warm.

Dion looked at the walls and noticed strange paintings of unknown creatures with three eyes and six legs. Over the fireplace was mounted the head of a tiger with its teeth posed to strike.

The walls were lined with bookshelves. Lilly could read the titles from where she stood and saw them to be printed in gold with authors such as “Cornelius Agrippa” and “Simon” displayed all over the shelves. She couldn’t tell the subject matter, but guessed it had to do with their sudden translation to his point in time. She also noted all the books were of the same construction. She could even smell the leather from where she stood.

In between the chairs was a silver tea service. A few scones where on a tray next to it and the steam continued to rise from the teapot. The service was polished to a reflective shine, which showed their images in it. She noticed an owl motif on the tray and the small creamer pitchers next to the empty cups. There was a plate with piles of sugar cubes.

“You have any idea where we are?” Lilly asked Dion.

“Not the slightest. I’m guessing it has to do with those cheerleaders who took Sean and Emily. I hope the person or persons who sent us here are on our side because I don’t think any of my abilities work in this place.”

“Why? Is there some kind of lock on what you can accomplish?”

“No, but I don’t think it works here. We’re not in our world any longer. I don’t know how we got here or who sent us, but I suspect we’ll find out pretty soon.”

Dion went over to the bookshelf and looked at the titles up close. Some of the authors he recognized. There were ones by Kenneth Grant and C. S. Lewis. As Lilly had noted, the binding was the same on each of them: fine vellum with the author’s name stamped in gold letters. The titles seemed to be of less importance than the author. Most were of the same thickness, although it appeared they were all special editions. The name of the publishing house was not listed anywhere.

Lilly focused on the wall paintings. She couldn’t recognize the artist, but was sure it was someone whose work she’d seen in the past. The colors used on each oil painting were brilliant and bright. The scenarios varied, but the colors used made them appear to be jungle landscapes. Whoever did these paintings had some real talent, but she didn’t recognize the initials at the bottom of each one. All were framed and illuminated by a candle beneath them. Someone had wanted to give each one respect and dignity. She was reminded of the paintings in a Russian Orthodox Church she’d seen a long time ago and the way they were mounted with care and decorated with silver. However, these paintings didn’t appear to be devotional, but the result of a trip to another planet.

The voice cried out to Dion as he reached out to pick a book off the shelf.

“I wouldn’t do that,” a familiar voice said behind them. “Most of those books have leather which was post cured by smearing dog feces on them. I don’t touch any of those books unless I’m wearing gloves.”

They turned around to face Edward again. This time he was wearing a smoking jacket with a fez on top of his baldhead. He wore a pair of pajama bottoms and his feet were encased in Turkish style slippers with the toes curled up. He held no cigar, but did have a glass of something in one hand. As he sipped the glass, Edward closed the door behind him and entered the room.

“It’s true, you know,” he told them as he tossed the glass back and sat it near a clock on a table. “Most of the time the books were done that way to counter the action of the tannic acid use to treat the leather in the covers. There used to be a profession called ‘Pure Finder’ where people went out and looked for the best doggie doo to use and sold it to the tanneries. Imagine that, having to earn your living chasing after pooches all day long. I suppose we all have to make money, but I’ve never been able to figure out a way to do it. Not much call for a mystic, I’m afraid.”

He walked over to the teapot and poured two cups out. When finished, he placed each in a dish and looked up at Dion and Lilly. “Do either of you take sugar in your tea?”

They shook their heads.

“Good. I could never understand why someone would flavor their sugar with tea; it seemed to defeat the purpose to me. However, I have never been able to understand why you Americans like your tea served cold. Seems beside the point as well. Scones?”

Again, their heads shook.

“Also good, I’ll eat them myself. These days I don’t have to worry about my weight. Unbelievably I used to be the epitome of good health. I even went mountain climbing in the Himalayas. Had to give it up when my money ran out.”

He stood up, took the teacups in the saucers to them, and handed each one a cup. This he followed with a towel.

“Sorry, I don’t waste good money on paper. I feel you should clean up the mess with a towel. Saves money and is less wasteful. But what do I understand about things? I spent my youth waited on by servants. I’ve had to learn to do many things on my own.”

Lilly and Dion took their cups and starred at him. Both had expected the transformation might have something to do with Edward; he tended to pop up at moments where he was needed, so it only made sense.

“Please, sit down,” he said motioning to the chairs on the right. There were three of them and they faced the fireplace. “We need to talk and figure out what to do next.”

Chapter 9

Lilly sat down between Dion and Edward. The chair was leather and upholstered with a fine layer of fabric. She felt the stuffing in it, but the chair wasn’t hard. She could feel the springs in the bottom as she sat down in it.

“In case you wanted to know,” Edward told them, “I had you brought here instead of going to see you. I managed to put in a request for your transportation when I saw those air elementals were about to do you some harm. I didn’t have enough time to make the trip to where you were and I’m running low on my time allotment. So I sent word to the right people of quality and you were pulled out of that nasty situation and sent to me. Sorry, I didn’t have time to explain it, but my time was short and I needed to get the both of you out of there.”

“Why didn’t you pull Emily and Sean out of there too?” Lilly asked him. How could Edward have saved them and left their friends to the elementals?

“I could only save two of you and they were lost already.” His glass was refilled and appeared on the table between him and Dion. Edward picked it up and took a big sip before placing it back on the table. “They had built a trap in their minds and took them away before I could do anything. It’s how you lost your map again, dear boy. They knew which one was the weakest link in the chain and they fixated on him. Emily was only a bit less weak, so they concentrated their power on her next. They would have had you, my dear girl, if your friend hadn’t pulled your eyes away from them. They knew, so long as Dion was focused on saving his friends, he would be vulnerable. All they had to do was show your friend Sean a mirror of his innermost desires and they had him. They did the same to Emily, but on a smaller scale. Had you looked in their eyes too, Lilly, they would have trapped your soul as well. But Dion held you away from them which allowed you to escape.”

“So how are we supposed to get them back?” Dion asked. “I have lost the map again and I can’t use it to find wherever they took them to. I suspect they’re inside the tower, but I have no way to find the entrance to it without the map.”

“They won’t be in the tower. That would be too obvious. I’m sure, given time, you could find a way into the tower on your own. They will take them somewhere else where you can’t reach. They know you need to get to them or you’ll never be able to achieve your abilities.”

“Can you send us to where they are now?” Lilly asked.

“I can have it done, yes. But you need to listen to me. The elementals who took your friends have trapped their minds in a cage of their own construction. It won’t do me much good to send you there to rescue them unless you have the key. Sean’s ego has been battered down since the day he was born. His mother had constantly told him he was worthless every time he did something that displeased her. The combined effects are not physical, but mental. A person can only take so much abuse and then they start to shatter every time a rock is thrown at their fragile shell. I don’t see a good future for him unless he gets away from the dominance of his mother. In some cases, the boy’s father could have stood up to her, but he’s become weakened too. I say this not as something you need to know, but as something, you have to do if you are truly going to help him.

And what happened to Emily is what happens when the child feels she is the cause of her parent’s breakup. She has built a cage of her own inner torment and she must be freed from it. It is again a cage of her own construction, but it’s as real as any made from steel. The elementals figured it out early on and realized there was a way to use them against you. They would have found some way to get at Lilly too, but she latched onto you. You were able to keep her from looking into their eyes and she was able to resist their power. I can’t say what might’ve happened had I not been able to pull you out in time. I fear they might’ve returned and taken her as well. They can’t touch you, but they don’t have to so long as they can strike at those around you.

I have a way to distract them, but if I give it to you, you must be ready to use it. And you must get your friends away as fast as you can. These elementals are dangerous and they will use all their power to trap them and you. They realize grabbing your parents was only a distraction.”

Lilly stood up and walked around the room while holding her cup. The tea was very good. She’d remembered to add a little milk to it to kill the effect of the leaves, but it was worth the effort. Lilly walked around and looked again at the paintings. Once more she thought the style seemed familiar and she seemed to recognize the artist. The colors on the painting seemed to leap out and trapped her eyes in a swirl of emotions. They seemed surrealist, but those were much older than anything she’d ever seen before.

“Do you like them?” Edward asked her.

“Very much. I don’t recognize the artist. They all seemed to be painted by the same person.”

“Yes, they were, and I know the artist very well. You might say he was a close personal friend.”

“What’s his name?”

“Edward. I’m the artist.”

“Really? You did all these? I’m impressed.”

“Unfortunately the critics were not,” Edward sighed. “I spent a year in Austria trying to be successful as a landscape painter, but no one took me seriously. Then I came back to England and tried to apply myself to literary ambitions. The literary critics were impressed even less. I was only able to do this because I inherited a large fortune from my family and I could afford to travel around the world. But I did learn one thing.” He paused.

“So what did you learn?” Lilly asked.

“I learned there was a reason in this world why we have rich people. Because without the great wealth I inherited to spend on trivial pursuits, none of this would have been possible.”

“You seemed to have a charmed life,” Dion said. “Did the silver spoon taste bad in your mouth?”

“My family was very religious,” Edward continued, “so I have some empathy for your friend Sean. I understand the horror of having your mother use higher forces as punishment. My mother passed on while I was still young and only in my later years was I able to get away from her dominion. I lived a life of debauchery and paid for it later on. When my literary and artistic pursuits failed to bring me solace, I went after baser desires. And now I am here to help you because of the mess I caused.”

Lilly looked around the dark room, the candles and the portraits on the walls. “Are we dead?” she asked. It was the only thing that made sense.

“No, I am afraid you are very much alive. You are in between worlds, which is why this place seems so familiar. I can’t keep you here much longer; there are always rules to be followed. And please don’t ask me about the meaning of existence or the purpose of life. I’m not allowed to answer those kinds of questions even if I did know the answers. Just bear with me long enough and I’ll take you to where the elementals have trapped your friends. Just remember, they have them in a mental cage. You will have to get them out, but they can only come out by their own free will.”

“And how will we free their bodies?” Dion asked him.

“With this one little object which will mesmerize the elementals to the point of stupidity,” Edward told him as he held up a ring. Attached to the ring was a series of keys, and an emblem dangled from it.

“Car keys?” Dion asked. “I can lure them away with car keys?”

“Note the logo on the car keys,” Edward said.

Dion took them from Edward and held the keys up to the light. The emblem attached to the keys was that of a 1953 Eldorado Cadillac Seville. It had a special emblem he’d never seen before on any car keys set.

“The 1953 Eldorado Cadillac,” Edward told him. “Considered to be the best model they ever created. The only people who would possess that key set are those who can drive one. The manufacturer was quite specific about which ones were allowed on the market. Show them the keys and all their power will evaporate. Just don’t let them make physical contact with the keys, and they will try to touch them, of that I can guarantee you. Once they see these keys, you must not let them out of their sight or it will ruin the effect. You must also take your friends away from the mall and let them rest until they have recovered from the mental trap where they have been imprisoned. Since you cannot leave the mall, I suggest finding a particular furniture store and letting them sleep off the effects of the mesmerization in the back room on a waterbed they keep there. You will find a place called Watermatts that sells those waterbed atrocities and I think they have one or two in the back for special customers. Tell them I sent you and they can sleep off the effects of the elementals. Then you can return to your quest.”

Edward gave them the name of the store manager and told them to memorize it.

“I’d like to spend some more time in this place,” Lilly said. She never knew Edward was so talented. “Perhaps when Dion has finished his quest, we can return?”

“When he finishes, I will be able to visit one more time. Perhaps longer, but the important thing is for him to rescue your friends. I don’t think it wise to send you to the same location he will be sent, but there is no arguing in this case. Both of you were taken from the last world, both of you must be returned to it as well and in the same general location. No, you will not be sent back to the mall, but very close to it. Dion, you know what you have to do. Lilly, you are not an elemental worker, I recommend staying close to Dion and learning from him, it might come in handy later. Also, do not look any of those women in the eyes or they will have control over you.”

“Alright,” Edward concluded. “Time for all of us to go. Dion, go join Lilly.”

Dion stood up and walked over to her, clasping Lilly by the hand. She looked up at him with her brown eyes and focused on his strong face. She was grateful to be sent back with him, but a little bit scared at the same time.

“You have the keys, Dion?” said Edward, who now stood in the center of the room. Lilly noticed he held a staff in one hand, but she hadn’t noticed one there before.

Dion held up the keys.

“Good. By the power of the rod!” Edward chanted and brought the end of the staff down on the floor three times. On the third rap, the two in front of him vanished.

“I just hope he listens to what I said,” Edward told himself as he left the room, the door closing behind him.

The scene faded back in and both Dion and Lilly felt the ground beneath their feet. Dion blinked and looked down at the blacktop beneath him. He could see the parking lot all around them and the white paint for the parking spaces. He glanced at his wristwatch and noted their actual time was three minutes difference from the moment they encountered the cheerleader elementals to their return. The sun was high in the heaven and he felt it on his back. Now he needed to locate Sean and Emily while he still had the time and ability to rescue them. Edward claimed the keys would work. It seemed silly, but Edward had never lied to them yet. And all of his advice was golden so far.

The cheerleaders were twenty yards in front of them. They were in the process of loading the dazed forms of Sean and Emily into the back of Emily’s car. Dion couldn’t tell from this distance if they had anything in mind or just wanted to get them out of the parking lot. What frightened him was the absolute look of serenity on Sean’s face and the calm face of Emily. He’d never seen them this way before and it told him something was definitely wrong. Now he understood the “cage of the mind” Edward had informed him about. These two were somewhere else entirely.

Dion counted twelve cheerleader elementals around the car. They would only need one to drive the car, one or two more could ride-along and the rest could transform into wind gusts. Edward was correct again; they didn’t plan to put them inside the clock tower where his parents were imprisoned. For some reason, the elementals had decided to take them off-site.

Dion had no way to know what they were up to, other than some other plan, which involved the abduction of his friends. It didn’t matter; they would use them as pawns again, pieces in the game to manipulate him.

They’d cornered him right outside the hobby store and used his need to make contact with the Air Elemental Grandmaster to trap his friends. He had to do something, but the only tool he understood he had was the Cadillac keys Edward handed to him before they were sent back to this world. It was a crazy idea, but the only one he could play right now. Whatever earth elementals he could summon would be useless against the ones from the air.

“Stay behind me and don’t look at them,” Dion told Lilly. “You heard what Edward said. They get inside your mind and make a cage out of it. Look what they’ve done to Sean and Emily. I can’t let them do it to you.” He dropped one hand down behind himself and let her clasp it gently.

The cheerleaders stopped what they were doing when they saw Dion approach them. The one called Randi was closing the door on the backseat where the smiling forms of Emily and Sean were seated. Another one of them nudged her and she turned around to face the advancing form of their nemesis.

Sean walked up to them slowly and continued to shield Emily behind him. In his fist, he held the Cadillac keys and made sure they could not see them. He had no intention of playing this right away. They might want to get Lilly too, but he wasn’t about to use her as bait.

“Hello, Dionnnn,” a line of four cheerleaders said at the same time. Their voices merged together and created a melody of venom.

Chapter 10

Dion realized the sylphs were the modern equivalents of the sirens, the deadly creatures from ancient Greece who lured men to their death on the rocks by singing to sailors when their ships passed by the cliffs. He didn’t need to put wax in his ears; his own will was powerful enough to resist them. But he understood they had tremendous power, which could be wielded against anyone else.

It wasn’t just the power of their voices. The cheerleader elementals radiated innocence and purity. Dion wondered how many men had been suckered by them. He could feel the charm they were radiating at him with their unblemished skin and bright white teeth. Their hair was clear and glowed in the sun. They might be of different races, but the bodies were a statement of perfection. They showed just enough of what they had to make susceptible men believe them to be the fountain of youth. These were the deadliest of the sylphs, those who were self-aware and saw humanity as a harvest to be sheered.

“Do you have something for us,” one of the cheerleaders taunted him as they began to take formation around him. Dion saw them do the same configuration they had done in the mall. Four of them approached in a line and the rest spread out.

He realized this was the classic envelopment strategy used on battlefields for thousands of years. The cheerleaders were going to surround him slowly until he couldn’t find a way out. This was the deadly bowl of doom, which would turn into a trap he could not escape unless he did something. Right now, he had one weapon which was supposed to work. Dion didn’t want to depend on it, as the keys might not work. Granted, Edward had never lied to him, but there was the possibility someone had lied to Edward about what these Cadillac keys could do to the sylphs who confronted him right now. It was poor strategy to depend on one weapon form, no matter how good you might be with it.

They were starting to surround him and he could feel it. The four cheerleader elementals in the front slowly began to walk to him as their eyes began to shine. Even in the bright sunlight, Dion could see the light from their eyes. It could only mean they were powering up, the same way they had done it in the mall.

Lilly began to see things in her head she hadn’t thought about in years. She heard her sister arguing with her parents about who she could go out with tonight. She saw her sister asking Lilly to cover for her while she went outside the window to meet some guy. Her parents asked her where she was and did they know where her sister had gone. She was terrified for her older sister’s safety and felt guilt that she’d help her leave the house. Her sister was married and everything was all right, so why was she scared something would happen to her? All she could think about was what might happen to her and it was all her fault.

Dion heard the crying sounds from behind him. The elemental had breached Lilly’s mind too. He used his peripheral vision and could see four cheerleaders on each of his sides. As he expected, they’d left Sean and Emily in the car and were focusing their attention on him. It was just what he wanted, but could he stop them before it was too late? Dion had lured himself right into a trap, but he was ready to spring one on them. If Edward was correct, all he had to do was let them get close enough to see the keys. Just a few more minutes.

He could see them on the sides. There were only two on each side right now, which meant two more were moving into the rear. They thought he was cut-off and had no means of retreat. Dion heard the pair of elementals behind him sliding into position. The next thing they would do would be to advance on him until they were just close enough from each other to trap him in a circle. They would cause something to happen to Lilly and break his concentration long enough to capture them both.

He didn’t know exactly what they planned, but he could pick up the strands of communication between them to realize what they were up to. The four cheerleaders in front of him joined hands and he could feel the energy crackle in the air. They were very close to the point of complete entrapment, which had been their plan all along.

Dion looked across the parking lot and realized they were in a section which had little, if any, traffic. The cars and pedestrians found reason to go somewhere else every time they drove too close to their part of the lot. The cheerleader elementals once again created a bubble around them no one could penetrate.

When he saw out of the corners of his eyes the last of the cheerleaders join hands, Dion raised the keys over his head. In that instant he felt the energy around him decrease.

The cheerleaders lifted up their heads and looked at the shiny Cadillac keys. They saw the limited edition emblem dangle from the ring. Dion could see the look of fascination in their eyes. The light, which shined from their faces, focused on the keys and what it represented. He could see them drop their hands and stare at the ring he held.

“You like this?” Dion began to taunt them back. “It’s the keys to a 1953 Eldorado Cadillac. A convertible. The best one ever made. It has chrome all over it. There is tire kit in the back with big chrome straps on it. You know what the best part of it is? The color. That’s right; the caddy is a nice powder puff pink. You want to drive it? Think about how nice you’ll look in it. All your friends will look at you with envy. You’ll be the most popular girl in school.”

Although the elementals needed nothing to travel in, Dion realized they’d been captivated by the images of the cheerleaders and everything they represented. The elemental sylphs were just as susceptible to the same wants and desire as any human in that form. All he had to do was play on those wants and desires. It was why Edward gave him the keys. So long as he kept them out of their reach, he had control over them.

There was just one small problem: he didn’t really own a 1953 Eldorado Cadillac. He didn’t even know where he could find one. The keys would eventually lose their ability to bind the elementals once they realized there was no real Cadillac around them. He had to use the keys to keep their attention until he had Sean and Emily out of the car. Until then, he needed to keep their attention.

The bull was easier to control. It was possessed by a single elemental which wanted to get out of the plastic statue it was imprisoned in. It was animated, but his onyx stones could be used to make it focus away on something other than what it was charged to accomplish. He needed to place the onyx stones around its neck and the bull would revert to its original form. Today he’d managed to coax more earth elementals into it for a few minutes, but it was a simple task. Now he had a good twelve elementals to control and keep away. Should he lose his power for just one minute, they would unleash themselves on him and Lilly. It was a much more dangerous situation he found himself today.

“Okay,” he shouted to the assembled cheerleaders, “Who wants to play catch?”

Dion sent the keys high into the air in an arch, which would take it as far as possible from the car where Emily and Sean sat. The cheerleader elementals saw it fly up in the sky and ran to be at the place where they expected it to land. At that very moment, Dion grabbed Lilly’s hand and ran with her to the car where his two friends were sitting.

“I hope she left the keys in the ignition,” he huffed to Lilly as they ran across the distance. “Because I need to get that car close to the mall in a hurry.”

The key chain came back to earth at the bottom of the cheerleader elementals that were fascinated by it. One let out a squeal of joy when she grabbed the keys, but the real excitement was yet to begin.

Dion threw open the car door. There were no keys in the ignition or anywhere else inside the car. He looked at the floor and then ruffled through the glove compartment. The keys were gone. Emily might know, but he had no time to wait for her to leave her mind cage. Dion, as Lilly looked on, threw open the passenger door to the back seat and grabbed Sean by the shoulder. Lilly saw what he did and went to the other side and took Emily out of the car.

The elemental cheerleader who grabbed the keys was holding them up in triumph when another one of the cheerleaders tried to grab them from her. She snarled at the one who tried to take them and let loose with a solid push, sending the imposing one to the ground. However, this allowed a third cheerleader to grab the keys from her. The original holder of the keys jumped on top of her and soon the entire squad of cheerleaders was a solid mass of elementals striking and poking at each other.

If anyone had watched, the mob of cheerleaders turned into a whirlwind as the keys were sent out and beyond their ability to grab them. The cheerleaders turned into a swirling cloud of dust, which rose into the air before the parking lot and ascended to the air as the elemental merged into one continuous sylph that had lost its collective identities in a mass of anger. The cloud soon reached the sky and broke up as the sun baked it apart.

“Just keep walking them,” Dion said. “We need to get them someplace they can sleep this off. The charm of the elementals won’t last very long now that they’ve dissipated into the air. We’ll take them to the furniture store Edward told us about and see that they are sound asleep in a few minutes.”

“What happens if those cheerleaders return?” Lilly asked him. “Why wouldn’t they try and get them back?”

“They’re out of power. They exhausted everything they had today on us and the keys finished off what was left.”

It only took them a few minutes to take their friends to the furniture company and find the contact Edward had mentioned when they were in his realm. The walked both Sean and Emily into the store with ease and asked for the name they’d had memorized. The saleslady they met nodded and went back into the back of the store and returned a few minutes later with an older man who wore a suit and tie. He introduced himself as the manager of the store.

Most of the people shopping in the store were couples looking to buy furniture for their new homes or apartments. Lilly noticed the sales staff would take them through an entire sales procedure, which involved selling them the most expensive item and gradually working their way down the less expensive models. There seemed to be a whole technique to what they were doing, but she couldn’t figure out what it was. The mysteries of the sales world were almost as dense as the elemental one, but not so flamboyant.

“Edward gave me your name,” Dion told him. “I was informed you were someone we could trust to take care of our friends until they’ve had a chance to sleep. He told us you have a waterbed in the back which people sometimes use for demonstration purposes.”

The man looked at them, and then looked at the mesmerized couple with him. Dion could tell he was weighing something in his mind.

“Alright, I can help, follow me.”

They turned and walked with him as he disappeared into a door in the back.

It was a small room beyond the storage area, which was designed as a bedroom. The waterbed was resting on the floor with several brochures about its use around it. The fluorescent lights in the ceiling were subdued and designed to give it a soft glow and served as an additional selling point.

Lilly led Emily to the bed and laid her down, while Dion did the same to Sean. In minutes, they were peacefully asleep. The manager led them out of the room, turned out the light and shut the door.

“They’ll sleep undisturbed in there,” he told them. “But you have to come here by the end of the day and pick them up. I’ll let the staff know they’re not to be disturbed.”

“Thank you,” Dion told the man as they left. “You’ve been a great help. I’ll make sure to come back by then.”

“No problem. Edward and I go back a long ways and he’s helped me a lot in the past. I owe him quite a few favors.”

Outside the store, they found a bench to sit down on and think about what to do next. It was still the afternoon, but the encounter with the cheerleader elementals left them both exhausted. Dion worried about Emily, as this was her second abduction by the elementals in two days. He hoped there would be some way to keep her at a distance from the mall in the future.

“And you’re sure we don’t have to worry about them while they’re sleeping?” Lilly asked him once again. “I worry about leaving them alone, even under the watchful eye of that manager.”

“Edward recommended him. If Edward trusts him, it’s all I need to know. So far, he’s helped us every step of the way. I can’t complain about the assistance he’s given us.

“So what do we do now?” It was a warm day and she’d worn a casual outfit. Lilly liked to appear a little better when going to the mall. But today was not another shopping expedition to the department store.

“Let me think of something. I need a way to get to the hobby shop and meet with the Grandmaster. We don’t have to worry about those cheerleaders for a while, it will take some time for them to reconstitute now that they’re in their original form. They’ll be back, I can guarantee you that, but not today. The mall builder worked to bring them here and I’m sure he has more trickery to show us.”

Although Lilly was worried about her two friends, she was glad to be with Dion. To watch him take on the cheerleader elementals twice in one day was the subject of legends. It still made her upset with the knowledge they’d been inside her head, but at least the elementals were gone. If only there was some way to get the next few powers Dion needed with ease, but it was useless to think in those lines. He had to fulfill his quest before he could truly become a master of all the elements. And what was the fifth one he constantly talked about?

“Should we go back to Hobbs?” Lilly asked him. “Does he have anything else you could use?”

“He might, but I don’t want to get dependent on him. Hobbs has things in there he doesn’t like people to know about. Things, which we could use to reach the rest of the elemental grandmasters without any kind of interference. But if they found out I’d made use of them, they might not grant me the ability to fully work the element they rule. They would eventually find out and pull the authority if they discovered what I’d done to reach them. They are very precise on how my quest has to be carried out. I have to accomplish this as much as I can on my own without any significant help. Having you and the others along didn’t count as significant help. Summoning questionable forces from beyond with a bit of forbidden lore would not be looked upon favorably. Besides, the ultimate reason I’m here is to get my parents out. I can’t do that until I have full elemental abilities.”

“You told me your parents were kidnapped. How long ago did it happen?”

“A year ago. We were in California at the time. It’s why I was sent to live with my aunt and uncle.”

“Where you there when it happened?” Lilly glanced around the concourse where they sat. She had a strange sensation they were being watched, but she couldn’t see any security guards and no security cameras were on display.

“I was away at school. It was in the spring, almost a year to the day,” he began. “The bus let me off right at the end of our block and I went up to the house and felt something odd. I turned and saw this big black van pull away from the front of our house and head down the street. I didn’t see the license plate because I didn’t think anything was wrong. When I went up to our house, I found the front door unlocked and when inside. My mom never left the door unlocked, so I thought it was strange the door was open. I went inside and couldn’t find anyone.

Dad worked a lot from home, so I expected him to be in and out all day. Mom didn’t work after we moved to California and I could never understand why. My father was an engineer and mother would help him on the projects he did out of the house. From what I understand, she’d been an engineer too, but quit to help him manage the business he ran. Dad was often at some conference of one kind or another and mom would stay home and help him out by referencing whatever plans or documents he didn’t have with him. Same if he was at a client’s site. She would conference with him on the phone and they would work things out until both of them were satisfied. I never developed any interest in what they did, but it must have been important because they were busy most of the time.

Anyway, I walked in the house and they were gone. I went into dad’s study and looked for him, but it was ransacked. Papers tossed everywhere and plans thrown all over the place. I was very worried and went to call the police, but the phones were ripped out of the wall. I went next door and used the neighbor’s phone. The police came and took the house apart trying to find something, but they never did. I stayed with some neighbors until I was placed with my aunt and uncle.”

“And there was never a ransom note or anything?”

“Nothing, but I wouldn’t believe they were dead. I could feel something because dad was an elemental worker and I felt his trace after I came home. I believe whoever took them wanted me to be upset and give up with my training. I’ve learned to work with different elementals since I could walk.

Six months ago I received a note in the mail written in alchemical symbols. I recognized enough to them to understand it was a warning from whoever took my parents. The note confirmed they were alive, but warned me not to continue my training if I wanted to get them back.

And then the mall showed up quickly and I put it all together. After talking with some other element manipulators, I found out that all four elemental grandmasters had stores in this mall. This couldn’t be an accident, so I began to investigate the place. Sure enough, the mall was built over something to serve as a bridge to it. I had enough ability to work the elements and find out what I needed to know. I decided this would be the week to obtain all four of my powers. I just have the one now, but I’m determined to get the rest.”

“And I’m determined to help you,” Lilly said as she put her hand over his.

“I don’t want you to get harmed in my quest,” Dion said. “I’m the one who must ultimately confront the mall builders and get my parents free. Look at Sean and Emily; they’re back in the rear of that furniture store sleeping off their encounter with the elementals. I’m responsible for what happens from here on out.”

“Sean was doing it to impress Emily,” Lilly said. “He’s had a crush on her for years. I was afraid he’d do something stupid today. I know why Emily brought him along, but I think she thrives on the attention she receives from boys.”

“I picked it up too. Sean is head over heels in love with Emily, but she doesn’t give any back. Maybe today she’ll learn that she can’t continue to play these little games with someone like Sean.”

“Sean doesn’t have the best home life,” Lilly said. “It’s not that he lacks for anything, but his mother is obsessive about him. I’ve seen her in action and when she is done manipulating him, he’s ready to give up. The best thing about today is he might have some backbone after it’s over. You don’t go up against what he did and come out ready to go back to the way things were.”

“On the other hand, he might be damaged on the inside,” Dion said. “I’ll know when he wakes up. It will take hours of a sound sleep to get him out of the trap the elementals built for both of them. We’re dealing with some dangerous sylphs here and I worry about the harm they caused. Not too much any normal person can do against them. I did my best and it took a lot out of me.”

“I know. I’m grateful. I’m certain Sean and Emily will be too once they wake up.”

Dion sat there for another five minutes with Lilly. By now, it was the late afternoon and he decided to make another attempt at the hobby store.

“He has to be back by now,” Dion said. “No way could they shut that store down too long without letting the other stores know something was wrong in there.”

The stood up and walked down the hall in the direction of the store. Dion and Lilly walked across the concourse and looked at the other store windows as they continued on.

The mall was successful in luring several big national retailers into the facility. She saw the names of several name brand clothing outlets and at least one record store. The album covers lined the display window of a new band everyone thought would be very popular. Next to the display was an album cover for a band which was rumored to be another popular act recording under a different name. Lilly couldn’t keep up with all the band gossip.

They stopped to look at a display of glass-blown animals, all of which seemed to be a variation on an eagle. In the window, Lilly watched the glassworker manipulate the molten silica until he had the object he wanted to make. She was fascinated by the way they could create figurines from colored glass rods, but knew there was a special technique to doing what they did.

While they watched the glass blower at work, Dion turned to see a man in an expensive suit walk in his direction. His elemental sense tingled and he was certain this was someone he knew. The man appeared to be somewhat familiar and looked directly at him. Once again, the sound in the mall began to disappear, which let Dion know there was some kind of elemental work in the building. This wasn’t on the same level as what he’d experienced when the cheerleader elementals tried to corner him, but there was a level of power, which he felt for the first time from this man.

He was a young man, definitely in his twenties and with the look of someone who got what he wanted. But it was obvious he worked for someone else. This was the chatelaine of the castle, not the lord who ruled over it. He wore sunglasses inside the mall, but Dion could tell he was the subject of the man’s attention. Lilly was still captivated by the glass worker, so it was up to Dion to act as a defender if he needed to do so.

Chapter 11

“Nice job,” the man said as he slid up next to Dion. “I really have to admit I didn’t think you would be able to take out those sylphs. No one has been able to resist them before today. The cheerleader form is the one they like to use the most because no one suspects who they really are.”

“I had the impression they’d used it before,” Dion said as he extended a hand. “I’m Dion, but I suspect you already know my name.”

“Enchanted,” he said while shaking the hand. “Matthew is the name, but you can call me Matt.”

“So how do you figure into my quest?” I don’t get the sensation you mean me any harm, nor goodwill either.”

“I work for the mall. At least for the people who run and built it.”

By now, Lilly had noticed the conversation and turned to see the suited stranger who talked with Dion. She too could feel something was wrong, although not on the level of the cheerleaders or cleaners. This man was human, but had his own script.

“So what do you want?” Dion asked. “I know what I want, how do you fit into all this?”

“My boss wants to talk with you. I’m just a corporate messenger boy today. As I said, we were all impressed by how you took down the cheerleaders. He has your map too, so it might be a good idea to meet with him.”

“This sounds like a meeting where only one party returns. What if I don’t want to meet with your boss?”

“Then you won’t get your map back. I’d agree to the meeting, if I were you. He’s willing to guarantee your safety for the duration of it. He’ll also guarantee the young lady’s too if you want to take her along.”

“What about my friends who are sleeping away?”

“The same. He’ll leave them alone.”

Dion thought for a few minutes. “Tell you what… he guarantees my friends who are napping upstairs suffer no ill effects from the action this afternoon and we have a deal.”

“That’s a tall order,” Matt said. “I have to check on it. Give me a few minutes.”

Dion watched as Matt walked over to a payphone mounted to the wall, dialed a special number and waited. He had a brief discussion with someone on the other end and walked back.

“He’s good with your demands,” Matt informed him. “You must rate highly, because I’ve never seen him agree to something like this before.”

“Alright,” Dion said. “So when do we leave? Where do we go?”

“You’ll see in a few minutes. We’re not going to leave the spacial boundaries of the mall, but we’ll be outside its time circle.”

Dion decided not to ask any more questions. Something was about to happen that he barely understood and he decided it was best to wait and see what the man had in mind. He doubted he would go back on his word, but nothing made logical sense in this mall.

“About thirty seconds,” Matt said as he looked at his expensive Swiss wristwatch. Its housing was in glass and you could see the gears in the watch turn.

The air froze around them and the landscape went black.

Dion held tight onto Lilly as they were sent somewhere else once again. It seemed the entire mall opened up to some place other than where it stood. How strange that the entire mall was a gateway over the abyss at the same time. He didn’t worry because the man who ran the mall could easily have launched a total assault on him if he really wanted to take Dion out. The only reason he hadn’t’ tried to do it was because of the negative publicity the mall would receive.

The surroundings changed and they found themselves back in the desert. But this was not the desert that Mr. Jehuti and his wife took them, but somewhere else. No human activity could be seen in the distance and it was pitch black outside with a full moon in the sky. The stars shone bright in the heavens and Dion could feel the sand under his feet.

This time he wore the same clothes as when he left. It was also very cold outside. Fortunate for them, there was a campfire burning next to them. The fire gave enough heat to let them feel the warmth from them all.

“Sorry about the weather,” Matt told them, “We can’t fix everything. He should be here in a few minutes.”

Lilly held tight to Dion and looked at the surroundings. They were made of rock with sand scattered everywhere. It was deadly quiet and then she heard some animal making a yipping sound in the distance. From the volume, whatever made it had to be a good mile away. The fire cast eerie shadows on the rock wall next to it.

A new figure emerged out of the darkness. He wore a burnoose around him and a turban on his head. This was the form of a tribal leader, a sheik with plenty of influence and someone not to cross unless you had plenty of your own back up. He was an older man with a grey beard, which highlighted the eagle eyes on his face. The man had eyes of blackness and a powerful gaze that took everything in as he surveyed them. Lilly felt a sharp knife of fear pierce her heart and Dion knew this was the man behind everything. Here was the person responsible for the abduction of his parents and the building of the shopping mall. He walked slowly and came up to them, as his robes made a swishing sound in the dust.

“I brought them right to the place you asked,” Matt said to the man. “Any reason for me to stick around?”

“No,” the man said in a deep bass voice, “you may leave. I will call you later about some other matters we need to discuss.”

“All I needed to hear.” And he disappeared into the night.

The man turned and listened to the noise in the distance. “Hyenas,” he said as he turned back to face them. “Disgusting creatures, they are carrion eaters, much like the vultures in the daytime. I suppose they have a reason in the great ocean of life, but it escapes me. Don’t worry, the fire scares them and they won’t approach our encampment.”

“Who are you?” Dion asked. “You seem familiar. I know you are the man behind the mall and my parent’s disappearance, but I don’t know your name.”

“You may call me Mr. Seth. It will do for the time being. As for who I am, I am your uncle. Please don’t call me Uncle Seth.”

“And how do I know this is true?” Inside he could feel the family attachment. He told the truth, no matter how much Dion wanted to believe it a lie.

“You know it,” Mr. Seth said to him. “You feel it in your bones, don’t you? Elemental workers can sense each other. Isn’t that true?’

Dion turned his head and looked at the man. He could see the resemblance to his father and other uncle. His father had not talked much about family, only the nature of their abilities. His father seemed to think that it was best not to be too close to the other elemental workers. He knew there were other members in his dad’s family, but his father never spoke very much about them. The only relative he’d ever spent time with was the uncle who he came to live with after his parents disappeared.

“So why have you kidnapped my parents?” Dion demanded from him.

“You were supposed to be my son, did you know that?” Mr. Seth said, ignoring him. “Your mother was promised to me, but she decided on your father instead. My own brother. He couldn’t even hold to the pact we made when we were much younger. I was enraged. Do you know what I did?”

Dion said nothing.

“I planned a party. I was so angry I wanted to kill him. I had a special car I knew he would want to drive. No one else knew what I had in mind. I rigged a bomb inside the car. I knew he would try it out and it would explode on the highway, eliminating my brother who was also my rival. It was the perfect plan. I managed to get him drunk at the engagement party I threw for him. When he was good and soaked, I showed him the car. It was a Maserati, who could resist such a thing? No one else could see us, because we were in the back of the place I rented for the party. My plan was to give him the keys and he would have to take it out for a spin. If he didn’t drive it off the road, the bomb would see to his demise. I was so clever. I was certain no one would link the death to me. Why would I kill my own brother?

But your mother showed up and stopped me. She took your father out of the car and brought him up to me in anger. She wanted to know why I would do this to my own brother. I told her it was her I wanted and if I had to do him in, so be it. She was angry with me and threatened to see to it I would be banned from the family. I told her to go ahead and try.

I spent my time learning how to amass money and build a profitable business. There are many ways to earn money if you can manipulate the elements.”

Now I have more money than any of them combined. I built the mall without floating a single loan. And from within the mall, I rule. Nothing happens inside this mall that I don’t have some control over. I built a security force from the people who would have unquestionable loyalty to me and the mall. There are no mall builders, in spite of what people believe. There is only me. The mall sits over the abyss between worlds, and do you know why, Dion?”

Dion shook his head. He felt the fear inside Lilly, who had enough fright for the both of them.

“Because I know how to work the fifth element. I alone have learned the ability. I did it without training from any other elemental master. None of them knows the secret and thinks you have to learn the power of all four elements before you can work the fifth. But I have mastered the fifth element without any need to learn the basics of the other four. They said it was impossible to do it and I proved all the other elemental workers wrong. They hate me because of what I represent. But I am more powerful than they will ever be.”

“And you kidnapped my parents because you wanted access to my mother? I think it would have the opposite effect.”

“She loves you deeply, Dion,” his uncle told him. “As only a mother can love her son. She’s begged me to leave you alone and she will be mine. I only have to leave you alone, let you have your powers and free your father. I think she’s willing to tell me anything if it gets her son back. I want you to convince her to be with me and I will allow your father to leave my captivity. So, will you do this for me, Dion?”

Dion looked at his uncle for a long time and didn’t say a word. So this was the hidden master of the clock tower who had imprisoned his parents. No wonder Edward hadn’t said anything about who had done it. He wanted to spare Dion the shame of knowing his own family was responsible for abducting his parents. But if his uncle was foolish enough to think Dion would cast aside the quest, he was beyond hope. The blind hatred and rage had consumed his uncle to the point he would do this to his own family.

There was nothing he could do now in this place. He was in his uncle’s territory and needed to get back to the mall to find Jupiter Hitch the Air Grandmaster before it closed. Since he was in a different time circle, he could be sent back to the exact moment he traveled to this realm. But it was time to go.

“Can I have my map back, please?” Dion finally said to him. “I was told you would return it to me if I agreed to this meeting.”

His uncle handed it to him. Dion rolled the map out and looked at it. This one was authentic, although he didn’t expect his uncle to pull a cheap substitution trick as the ghoul cleaners tried to do. Dion rolled it up and slid it under his arm.

“Well?” his uncle said. “Have you given any thought to my proposal?”

“Uncle, this has gone far enough. Send us back and I will continue my quest. I will free my parents personally if you don’t want to. I don’t know who you think you are, but you have brought down the wrath of the universe with your actions. Send me back now.”

“You little fool!” his uncle snapped out at him. “I will send you back and let us see what happens. You had the option to take the easy path and resolve it all. But you think it’s possible to stand up to me. Go ahead and continue this pointless quest of yours and we will see who triumphs in the end!”

The desert night faded around them, unit they were in the black of the interzone. It was only a brief moment and they found themselves standing back in front of the glass blower. He finished the bright bird figurine he’d started the moment Matt made his appearance.

Dion looked to his left and saw Lilly standing with him. He gave her had a slight squeeze and turned back to the concourse.

“How long were we gone?” she asked him.

“Two minutes according to the watch. He could have sent us back at any time. The laws of physics which apply to our world doesn’t hold true in his.”

“Your parents never mentioned this uncle?” she asked.

“Maybe a few times. There was plenty of family I never met when I lived in California. The only family outside my immediate one I knew about was Uncle Rich and his wife. I’ll have to ask him about the new revelation. I’m sure he’ll have something to say.”

They continued walking in the direction of the hobby shop. So far they’d not run into any of Karanzen’s men, but Dion was certain it couldn’t last much longer. Since he’d turned down his uncle’s offer, he expected the opposition to become much worse. Dion continued walking to the hobby shop expecting at any minute an appearance by Karanzen. But it didn’t happen and they continued to plod forward through the shoppers on their way to the holiday spring specials.

They didn’t see them until Dion and Lilly were almost in front of the hobby shop. Dion had turned out of a hallway to enter the concourse section where the hobby shop was located when he spotted the first guard. He saw him milling around near the store but not too far from it. He grabbed Lilly and stopped.

“I see one to the right,” he told Lilly.

“And I see one to the left.”

As they covered their approach behind a support pillar, Dion and Lilly spotted four of Karanzen’s men guarding the way to the hobby shop. It wasn’t as obvious as they expected it to be. They were still doing their best to pretend to cover the entire space and acted as if they were on a routine assignment. One of them even pretended to check the key station near the stairway, but he didn’t have the big round clock he would’ve needed. Besides, Dion was certain none of the guards carried those gigantic clocks to hang across their shoulder during the rounds. It made the place look too much like a paint factory.

“At least the sign is gone,” Lilly said. “And it appears to be open.”

“First we have to get past Karanzen’s boys in blue,” Dion said. “Earth elemental powers won’t do me much good in here. I can’t just open up the earth and let them fall in, as much as I might want to. Innocent people could be hurt.”

“Should we make a run for it?” Lilly asked him.

“It might be the only thing we can do. Just march up there and try to force our way inside.”

Then he noticed something else: sylphs floating in the air just over the heads of the guards. Most people lacked the ability to recognize these airborne spirits, but he’d inherited the ability to recognize them and take advantage of their uses. However, these weren’t the kind he could use, they were much more powerful. And then he recognized them: the same twelve elementals which terrorized them earlier in the day. The difference was they were in their natural form. It would take another day for them to assume the cheerleader format, but a combined force of wind inside mall could still be effective if used the right way. He was certain they’d joined forces with the guards patrolling on the ground, even if the guards had no way of knowing they were over their heads.

“Those elementals are here,” he told Lilly. “The ones who kidnapped Sean and Emily.”

“Where? I don’t see them anywhere.”

“You wouldn’t. You have to be trained to know what to look for in one of them. They’re the same ones, just in their sylph form. It will take a long time for them to return to the cheerleader version, but they’ll do it if they get the opportunity.”

Dion sized up his chances. The sylphs and guards were out in force in front of Jupiter Hitch’s hobby shop. They knew he and Lilly had to get through them to reach the Elemental Grandmaster. The sylphs were double worried because if he were granted full air elemental power by Hitch, Dion would have control over them. Bound to someone they tried to stop was not something the sylphs wanted to contemplate.

“I don’t see any other way to get inside it,” Dion told her. “We’re just going to be forced to make a line for the store and hope we don’t get stopped by the guards and their airborne allies. Come on, let’s start walking.”

Through the mass of shoppers, Dion and Lilly trudged forward. They were determined to get to the hobby shop no matter what the opposition tossed at them. Dion took Lilly’s hand and began to walk forward, slowly, but picking up speed as he went along. They seamlessly flowed through the crowd and hoped no one would notice them as they moved along.

It almost worked.

They were within twenty yards of the door to the hobby shop when two of the guards at the same time noticed them. One of them signaled to the other and they began to walk rapidly toward Dion, trying to act as normally as they could. Apparently, Karanzen had informed them to take him down quickly, but not to cause any problems. The other two guards saw their quarry and began to walk in the same direction. Soon, Dion saw them moving to create a line of interception in front of the store.

The second thing he noticed was the wind.

The air suddenly began to blow in his direction, slowing down his rate of progress to the door. The sylphs were alerted to Dion and Lilly’s presence and decided to take care of them too. They couldn’t use their full wind force, as they were inside the mall and Dion’s uncle would be furious. But they could impede his passage to the store.

For a few minutes, it appeared his passage to the hobby shop was blocked by Karanzen’s goons and the air sprits. The combination of bodies blocking the entrance and mysterious wind blowing against him seemed to bring everything to an end. Dion was frustrated as his own air elemental ability was too low to be of much use against the powerful sylphs. The few air elementals he could summon were too weak to be of much use. The ones he was against were from full of the gale force wind.

Dion put his head down and tried to march in the direction of the store.

Then a sound came out of the other side of the concourse. It was the sound of a motor roaring in the air and it drowned out the noise caused by the wind pushing against him. It emerged from the ceiling and began to descend down to their level.

Dion saw two of the guards look up as the source of the noise descended to their level. When they had a good view at what cause it, their mouths popped open. Even the sylphs stopped working their howling wind against him and Lilly.

It was a helicopter. A small, miniature helicopter and it was slowly coming down to their level in front of the store. Dion and Lilly themselves stopped to watch it spin around the concourse and hover in place. Most of the shoppers did the same thing and looked up in amazement.

Lilly had read about these tiny helicopters, but had never seen one up close. She assumed they were too specialized and expensive for most people to own. Even radio controlled airplanes, which she would sometimes see flying around the open fields, were too expensive for most people. However, the hobby shop was the right place for someone to go shopping for one. Many devices could be radio controlled, such as model cars, small sailing ships and, of course, helicopters. She could smell the gas fuel burning from the helicopter. It couldn’t have a large tank on it, but maybe it didn’t need one.

As the people on the floor watched, the tiny helicopter which even had a miniature pilot inside, hovered around in front of the store, spotted the guards and immediately changed its course. It spun down at one of the security guards with collision as its intent. The guard yelled and tried to escape, but smacked into a support pillar before he could move away fast enough. The tiny helicopter missed him by a few inches and spun back up into the air. By now, people had scattered and moved away from the path of the little ‘copter.

It did a small turn and went back down, its props neatly disrupting the flow of the sylphs who were in full retreat. The sylphs tried to rally higher, but the helicopter soared up to their level and neatly fractured through them. The sylph air spirits were unable to merge together and form an effective counter attack and rapidly began to leave the mall through any open door they could find. People who pushed doors open noticed extra gusts of wind as the sylphs fled the mall. They decided whoever controlled the helicopter could launch whatever attack they wanted against them. They didn’t need to stick around to be broken up by the blades.

The helicopter, when certain the sylphs were no longer a threat, swooped back down at the security guards who fled to the side of the concourse as they attempted to avoid it. One guard was almost clipped as it came down next to his head, but he jerked in the other direction and managed to escape injury.

By now, there was only one security guard on the floor between Dion and the entrance to the store. He turned and began to walk in Dion’s direction when the whirl of the helicopter came at him. The guard turned and saw the blades near his face and ran back to the side of the concourse, leaving the pathway to the hobby shop open for Dion and Lilly.

In front of the hobby shop, the radio controlled helicopter hovered and continued to roar out its challenge to anyone who would block Dion from reaching the store. It was silver metallic in color and displayed the masterful technology used to create it. The little helicopter moved back and forth slowly to let everyone know it stood watch over the gate to the hobby shop.

“I guess it’s clear now,” Dion said to Lilly and continued forward. No one attempted to stop him this time.

They walked under the little helicopter as it continued to fly in place. Dion gave it one final look as he and Lilly pushed the door open and walked inside.

Chapter 12

Jupiter Hitch leaned across the counter in his store with the controls to the helicopter in his hands. He was a large man, although not a tall one. He had thick glasses and a Hawaiian shirt on as he manipulated the controls for his radio-controlled helicopter, which still hovered outside of the store. On seeing them walk inside, he briefly raised one hand in salute.

“Just give me a second,” he told them. “I’ve almost got this thing finished. I need to land it somewhere. It’s a toy, but an expensive one and I don’t want to lose it.”

He made a few movements with his hands and the helicopter began to rise in the air. After a few more minutes, he had it over a service platform on top of the elevator shaft. Concentrating as hard as possible, Hitch brought it down gently on the platform where he could leave it until the miniature helicopter needed to be brought back down later. He made a final adjustment and the sound of the helicopter died down as the engine shut off.

“Glad you two made it inside when you did. I don’t think I could’ve kept it up for much longer. I might have used all the gas I had in it just to land the copter on that platform. I’d hate to have to get somebody up there to retrieve it, but I might have to do that.”

He put the control box down on the floor and came out from behind the counter. Dion saw how big the man really was at this point. He was over six feet in height and had to carry at least three hundred pounds on him. Jupiter Hitch rattled the floor when he walked. He walked over to the door and put the closed sign up while turning the latch in the door.

“I’ll catch a lot of grief from the mall for closing early again and flying the helicopter, but I can deal with it. Besides, they didn’t tell me what was so important that I had to run down to the security office today when I arrived. That cursed Officer Karanzen kept me in the lobby for a good two hours waiting. When he came out, he claimed it was a big misunderstanding and they didn’t need to see me at all. Of course, they pulled it in the middle of a busy day when I didn’t have any one to mind the store for me. I should charge them for the two hours of business I lost.”

He turned his attention back to Dion. “So you’re the young man all those elementals are scared about, huh? I can’t see why. You look harmless enough to me. I talked with Alexandria and she told me you are cleared to use your full abilities on the earth elements. She also told me the ghouls tried to keep you away from her pharmacy. Something is up from the top level, I can feel it. There are some powerful forces at work here.”

“They don’t want me to obtain all four of the elemental powers because then I can gain the fifth. I need them all because my parents are held inside the clock tower, where the offices are located for the mall.”

“Do you feel you can handle the responsibilities which come with being a Master of the Air Element? I understand you have the power over the earth elementals, but the ones in the air are not so easy to control.”

“Yes, I am certain. I have not come this far and learned so much to back down now.”

“Very well. Come into the back room and we will see what can be done.” Hitch turned to Lilly and looked at her with concern. “This is only between Dion and myself, I hope you understand.”

“I do,” she told him. “The Grandmaster of the Earth Element said the same thing.”

“It shouldn’t be too long. It’s just a matter of knowing he’s ready.”

Lilly leaned on one of the counters and watched him go in the back room with Dion and shut the door. She’d learned the process, test, or whatever the Elemental Grandmaster administered made no light or noise. It didn’t happen at all like one saw in the movies.

She wandered around the hobby store while they were in the back room and looked at the merchandise. There was an entire wall dedicated to model cars and airplanes. She remembered when building model cars were all the rage in her neighborhood with the boys. Then it was model ships and planes. Somewhere in the meantime the kids began to build the plastic movie monsters too. Later on, many of the plastic models would be smashed when they fell off the table or end up in the trash by an over-zealous parent who needed to clean.

She noticed the paints were displayed by code and tied into whatever model needed to be painted. It seemed like a lot of money to pay for a small bottle, but she never did understand why so many places charged so much for so little. She found the lengths of balsa wood, which was used to build model airplanes. Some of the planes were wire guided, but the better ones were radio controlled. It seemed the way of the future, especially after she saw the stunts performed by the miniature helicopter. It was almost magic watching it do those maneuvers out in the concourse.

The door opened and Dion emerged with Jupiter Hitch. Dion had a smile on his face, the first one she’d seen all day.

“Congratulate the new Master of the Air Element,” Hitch said to her. “He passed with flying colors. Now you can make those sylphs do whatever you need. Just heed the warning I gave you.”

“Is there anything else I need to know about the air elementals?” Dion asked the older man. “They seem to be very independent minded. I didn’t get such resistance against the earth ones.”

“They’re all over the place and congregate whenever there is a storm. They’ll do what you tell them in the future, but don’t push them too hard or they’ll find a reason to mess up whatever you attempt to accomplish. Always follow through on anything you might promise because they have long memories. I have met air sylphs who still hold a grudge against Paracelsus for revealing too much about them. And don’t be tempted to use your abilities the moment you leave here. I’m sure the mall owner has all kinds of opposition to throw at you, but resist the temptation to escalate.”

“Thank you,” Dion said to Hitch as he turned to leave. “I will do all I can to be worthy of your trust.”

“I’m sure you will,” Hitch called to him as they left the hobby store. Dion turned and saw the “open” sign flipped back as the door was left unlocked when they left. In spite of his high reputation among the element manipulators, Jupiter Hitch still had a business to run and couldn’t afford to miss a sale. Dion wondered when Hitch would try to get the miniature helicopter down from the platform on top of the elevator shaft.

The mall had returned to normal. Shoppers were going about their business and no one talked about the miniature helicopter which buzzed the security guards. Given the short attention span of most people he encountered, Dion wasn’t surprised by this revelation.

He was accustomed to people who didn’t care much beyond the end of their street corner. He’d grown up in a different world where his parents had scolded him if he even tried to use his elemental worker abilities on a pool of water or on the stove burner. They made it very clear to him it was not for uninitiated eyes.

He could sense the air elementals floating around the top of the mall. They knew he’d achieved full power. The only ones who’d actively opposed his attempts to gain full power over them were gone; the helicopter drove them outside the mall and into the atmosphere to regroup. These sylphs were not the sort who would give him any problems. Other than some help in wind gusts and weather control, the air elementals weren’t the sort to be of much use.

He looked up and saw several spinning in the upper rafters. This part of the mall was dedicated to them and they enjoyed being inside this place.

“You have half of your powers,” Lilly said to him, “are you going for the remainder?”

“Of course,” Dion said quickly. “It’s not a question of want. I need all four to work the fifth. I don’t know how my uncle managed to obtain the fifth without the others, but something tells me this is why he’s gone out of his mind. The power he obtained isn’t supposed to be gained on its own. The other four abilities support it. He’s a table without legs floating in an ocean of chaos. Somehow, he thinks possessing my mother will make him free of his inner torment. It won’t happen. The only person who can free him is himself and he may be too far gone to save his own soul.”

“So are you going back home?” she asked. “To your aunt and uncle’s house?”

“No. I need to find out more about my uncle and his background. I can’t do that here, so I’ll have to find a travel agency which can take me where I want to go.”

“You mean like that place we were in yesterday?”

“No, I need to find a travel agency which can take me to a place of my own choosing. I need to find one that can take me outside this time circle. However,” he said while unrolling the map, “I have a way to find one.”

He traced his finger on the map and Lilly noticed a red dot appear in the map. She looked at it and saw the dot was located in a section of the mall right outside Jupiter Hitch’s hobby shop. The dot indicated where the bearer of the map was at any given time.

“It appears there is a travel agency which can take me where I want to go just down the concourse in a back hall under the stairway. It’s here on the map.”

Lilly looked at where he pointed and the map showed a location called Purple Zone Travel. It was shaded in such a way to indicate that it wasn’t open to normal mall patrons. Since they’d wondered into the last place which took them outside the mall by accident, Lilly could only speculate what this one was like on the inside.

“So who is this travel agency meant for?” she asked him.

“Travelers. But not always human ones. The place we were at yesterday was specifically for human travelers. The place we are going is for any creature that needs to travel from one point in the multiverse to the next. They have stations everywhere and can generally get you where you need to go.”

Dion took both of her hands in his after he rolled the map up and placed it under his arm. “I want you to understand you can wait for me outside or just leave. You’ve been through a lot already and it will only get worse. I can take Emily and Sean home this evening on my own; all I have to do is phone my uncle. I can give you the keys to my van and you’ll be able to leave this place.”

“I don’t want to go,” she said as she let go of his hands and wrapped her arms around him. “I’ve gone this far, I’ll see it through.”

“I’m glad to hear that,” Dion said as he leaned over Lilly and lightly kissed her on the lips. “We need to get moving if we’re going to reach this place. Let me check one more thing.”

Dion rolled the mall map open again and checked the path it showed him to the travel agency. “Good, it recommends a direct route. I guess this means Karanzen knows his men were unable to stop me again. I’m sure we’ll deal with him later, but not right now.”

They continued down the concourse, waving at a few friends from the high school. As this was spring break, there were quite a few kids from the school out today. All the stores were decorated with their special savings signs and the full weight of consumer culture was on display. Every other person was weighed down with a shopping bag or carried some box. All the major department stores in the area were represented by whatever they had in their hands. It was a grand parade today of endless packaging. Dion and Lilly didn’t stop to reflect on the contradiction between the mall culture and what it was built over, but continued on their way. The travel agency would be hard enough to find without the mobs of people blocking the entrances to the stores.

Purple Zone Travel didn’t even have a sign outside to tell the potential customer what it was. There was a blank storefront window where the travel agency was supposed to be located. Dion walked up to the storefront and looked at it. Most people would have assumed it was closed or not yet opened. The mall tended to put facades over closed stores or ones, which hadn’t been opened. It looked bad on them when there was a blank space, so they did everything they could to hide it.

Dion looked at the glass door, which lead to the inside, and saw a small notice on the door right above the handle. He bent down and read it.

“PZ Travel,” the small sign, no bigger than six inches read. “We are open by appointment only. Please call this number to arrange an appointment.”

There was a phone number listed after the notice, which would probably go directly to an answering machine so the owners of the travel agency could screen the callers.

Dion placed one hand on the door handle and tried it. It was loose, but he felt a tingle in his hand as if the door had examined him. The door was tuned to let only those inside who needed the services of the company and to keep out the idle visitor. Dion turned and looked back at Lilly.

“It’s open, we can go inside,” he called to her.

They pushed the door open and went in. As they heard the automatic door closer swoosh behind them, they examined the room they’d just entered.

It was painted black. Everywhere. Even the ceiling was black and Dion wondered how they’d managed to paint it without spilling the paint everywhere. The floor was a shiny black color and reflected their images as they looked at it. Lilly thought about how difficult it must be to keep the floor clean and free of scratches.

Artifacts and paintings lined the walls. For a minute Dion thought, he’d made a mistake and walked into an art gallery, although it would be odd to see one in a shopping mall. There was faint light, which was provided by a series of candles, which were strategically placed over the inside of the room. It created a sense of unreality. It was hard to believe they were still in the mall.

Before them, a man sat behind a huge desk. This was an antique desk which was carved from wood and made by carpenters who distained the use of nails. Lilly knew a few things about furniture and estimated the desk to be over a hundred years old. It would not have looked out of place in an antique auction where people in eveningwear bided with sums higher than most made in an entire year.

The desk was neat and orderly with stacks of paper over it. Behind it, in a wooden chair, sat a bearded man. He wore glasses and was very thin, not more than a hundred and twenty pounds. His grey hair was long and cascaded down his back; although it was obvious, he was bald on top. He was in the process of stamping out a clove cigarette in an ashtray made of a single piece of polished stone when they opened the door.

“I know,” he said as the cigarette smoke vanished into the air, “no smoking in the mall. Please tell me you’re not with the building inspector. I don’t think the door would’ve opened if you were, but put my mind to ease.”

“No, we’re not,” Dion said. “We’re here to plan a trip.”

“Glad to hear. Please come over here and sit down.” The man pointed to a seat by the desk where two chairs were positioned. “I need to fill out some forms. You are over eighteen, right?”

They both nodded.

“Good, that way I don’t need parental permission forms.” He detached a sheet of paper from the clipboard he held and placed in a drawer.

Lilly and Dion seated themselves by the desk and waited to see what would happen next.

“You’re in luck today. It’s been slow in here so I have the time to fill out the forms for you. I just need some basic information.”

He proceeded to ask them their names, addresses, birth dates and other contact information, which he wrote down with a silver pen. His eyes glanced over his glasses when Dion told him about his current living arrangement, but the man asked no further questions beyond occupation, which both told him was “student”.

“Anything to declare?” he asked them again. “I don’t think you do since neither of you have any luggage, but I have to ask anyway.”

The shook their heads.

“Okay, on to the reason for you coming inside. Where do you need to go?”

“My uncle is the man behind the mall,” Dion told him. “I need to learn his background. He told me a little bit about it last night, but I know very little of my family’s history. I need you to send us back to the beginning so I can view it all and know what I’m up against. I need it done in observation only.”

The man behind the desk let out a whistle and leaned back.

“Tall order, kid. You want me to give you information you can use against my landlord? Now I have no love for Mr. Seth either, but I don’t need to get into hot water with the old coot. If he finds out, and I know he will, that I helped you, I could lose my lease. Then I’d have to get another one. Do you have any idea what it takes to run this franchise? You have no idea what standards I have to meet. I might end up moving my office halfway across the planet to keep my franchiser happy.”

“In other words,” Dion said, “this is going to cost me a lot.”

“Precisely. I hope you have enough money to cover it all.” The man took out a slip of paper and wrote a sum on it, and then he handed it to Dion.

Dion looked at the paper and nodded. “You are right, it’s not cheap. But I can afford it.” He took the paper from the man and wrote down an address. “Bill my aunt and uncle; you know they are good for it.”

The older man looked at the address on the page and then to Dion. “I won’t do this for anyone else, keep it in mind.”

“Your help will be rewarded, don’t worry. Now what else do you need from me?”

“Fill out the destinations you need on the form and how long you want to be there and I will see you are on your way.”

Dion spent thirty minutes filling out the form and adding the destinations he needed on the back. When he was done, he handed it to the man across from him. The travel agent looked at the locations and placed the form into a folder, which was then put in a file cabinet behind him.

“So, how do we travel?” Lilly asked them. “Is there some door we need to pass through to get there?”

“You’re thinking of the other place,” the man told her. “We do it differently at PZ Travel.”

Lilly blinked and the room disappeared.

Chapter 13

The background changed instantly to the desert setting she had visited before. This time she still wore the same clothes, but the chair remained as well. Both Dion and she were still seated in with the man at the desk in front of them. They were in a desert and the sun blazed overhead, but the working part of the office had gone with them.

“You know,” the man behind the desk started to say, “We were never introduced. I see your names on the form, but you don’t know mine. It’s Lou.” He extended a hand over the desk, which both Dion and Lilly shook. He sat back down in his chair. “Is this the setting you wanted?” he asked Dion.

Dion glanced around and his eyes focused on a series of rocks piled up near them. “Yes, you took me this time to the very place I wanted. And we will have the time I listed on the form?”

“No problem,” Lou the travel agent told them. “Everything is squared away on my end. Now if you will do me the honor, please rise.”

Dion and Lilly followed his instructions and stood up.

“Thank you,” Lou said. “Enjoy your trip.”

The chairs, desk and travel agent vanished. They were alone in the desert.

The heat was worse were they stood. Lilly couldn’t understand why it felt so much hotter in this part of the desert as opposed to the one she had been in several times before with Dion. She felt the heat drift across the sands and turned to look at the source of the intense heat, which raked across her face. It bubbled not three hundred yards from her.

It was a volcano crater. Lava glowed red and flowed out of the opening while poisonous fumes blew from it too. She stood there in wonder as it breathed fire across the plains of the desert. Wasn’t she supposed to be in ancient Egypt or somewhere like it? Lilly couldn’t recall there being active volcanoes in the Egypt of history. Something to do with the continental plates where Africa met with the rest of the landmasses.

Dion starred at them too. There were three of the craters and the fissures on the side glowed as lava poured out of them.

“Aren’t we too close?” she asked him. “I thought you needed fire suits to be this close to an active volcano.”

“You should see them at night. It’s when they really look beautiful. Don’t worry about the heat. We’re beyond these things.”

“Beyond getting burned alive?” Lilly snapped at him. What was he talking about?

“We aren’t really here,” he explained. “We’re sitting in that office in the mall until our trip ends. Our elements have moved outside the time circles where we are sitting. Think of it as an elaborate movie you can watch inside at the theater. We’re here while at the same time we’re not. Does that make sense to you?”

“Not in the least bit.”

“Don’t worry, just follow me and do what I do. You won’t be able to interact with what you are about to see, although you will feel some of the effects of it. Just bear with me for the next hour or two.”

Lilly shrugged and turned to look at the rest of the desert.

It was beautiful in its essence. The sun had baked dry everything as far as they could see. Any flash rainstorm would be dried by the intense heat, which followed them. It was the primordial part of life. Where the first civilization began before recorded history. In the distance, humanity had risen and made itself master of everything it saw. But the sun ruled all in the horizon.

“Quiet!” Dion said to her as Lilly started to ask a question. “Look over there.”

Lilly became silent and turned her gaze to one of the massive broken rocks before them. She could see a lone figure reclining on the rock. From the distance, it was hard to see what the person was up to and she returned her eyes to Dion with a look of confusion.

“Let’s move closer,” he said. “She can’t hear or see us unless we make a real loud noise. Even then, she’ll probably think it was a jackal or hyena, so I wouldn’t worry too much.”

They walked across the sand and through the field of stone toward the figure who continued to recline on the rocks. As they came closer, they saw she was sleeping. The shadow of the sun hadn’t reached the cleft where she slept in the heat of the day. The moment Dion stopped, the first rays of sun drifted over her face and she opened her eyes.

The women wore a long Egyptian style wrap-around dress with bracelets on her wrist. She was dark in complexion and appeared to come from the Ethiopian or Sudanese part of Africa. As they watched, she sat up and starred at the rising sun. Lilly noticed the crown on her head resembled two horns with a large disk between them. Although her crown appeared heavy, it gave her no problem as she sat up and stood on the rock. She held something in one hand and Lilly noticed it was an ankh, the Egyptian symbol of life. She swerved and held the ankh up to the rising sun three times before placing it in the belt around her waist. She jumped off the rock and headed away, as if she had an important meeting scheduled.

“That was my grandmother,” Dion whispered.

The woman walked along the desert sand and they followed her. After a few minutes, Lilly noticed she had a staff in one hand, which she used to work her way through the sand, which soon turned to hard rock. Lilly held Dion’s hand as they followed her.

“And she can’t hear or see us?”

“Not as long as we remain quiet.”

The woman turned the corner around a large hill and starred out to the plains before her. It was in that moment Lilly noticed a man standing in the distance. He was dressed in the robes of a court official from the fifth dynasty and wore the single crown of the king of Lower Egypt. Both hands were crossed over his chest. In one hand he held a flail and in the other a crook. She was once told that the scepters the pharaohs carried were to represent the different forms of agriculture.

“My grandfather,” Dion told her.

The man and women were facing each other. She saluted him with her staff and they walked off in the direction of the rising sun.

To Lilly, it seemed their bodies faded into the rays of the solar orb as it flooded the landscape with heat. “What did I just see?” she asked. “Are you trying to tell me your real grandparents are Egyptian gods?”

“Oh no,” he laughed. “It was their wedding. I wanted to see it again. The first elemental workers were from Egypt and they were preparing for their wedding feast. I’d look again at the actual ceremony, but I don’t think it has any bearing on what I’m up against.”

The Egyptian sky faded and turned black. Lilly found herself in a wooded scene at night. The air was much cooler this time and she felt relieved to be out of the hot sun. They faced some kind of stone niched carved or formed naturally in a rock facing and looked inside it. The moon was full in the sky and the light of it illuminated the inside of the niche.

Lilly looked inside to see if anything was contained in the niche. It was the form of a woman. She was very pale, so pale Lilly didn’t think she was alive. The woman wore a black robe and had her arms folded across her.

Just as Lilly was about to ask Dion who she was, the woman opened her eyes and stared up at the ceiling in the small niche. She rose up slightly, tossed her legs over the stone where she lay and stood up. She faced the moon in the sky and smiled.

They followed her until she met up with a man and woman who were dressed in the fashion of medieval peasants. She left with them and walked in the direction of the moon, although the three of them were silent every bit of the way.

“Now who was that?” Lilly asked Dion as they walked back in the direction they came.

“Her name is Lilith. Your namesake. I think that was your parents with her. But I can’t be sure.”

Lilly watched them as the faded into the trees. Her mother and father were quiet about family too and she never visited more than a few cousins or aunts. And those were only from her mother’s side of the family. Her dad never talked about his and she’s never met anyone from it.

Once upon a time, she asked her parents why she was named Lilly. Was it for a flower? She was told it was in the honor of a close friend of the family who was no longer around. It seemed a good answer and she never pushed them for an explanation.

They stopped to watch a procession pass by them. It was impossible to tell who was in the procession since none of their faces was exposed under the hooded capes all of them wore. Lilly and Dion watched in peace as they went past them. Each member of the procession carried a lit torch. Lilly counted five members in it until the robed torchbearers continued on their way up the path. The last thing she saw of them was the light of the torches, which illuminated the forest.

“Who was that?” she asked Dion.

“I really haven’t a clue. It happens that these trips show me things which have only a little to do with what I’m trying to find out. Perhaps further along I’ll understand the meaning, but today, I just don’t know who they are or what they’re doing here. Let’s move along.”

They emerged from a clearing at a party of some sorts. It had to have taken place years ago since the styles of clothes and music was well into the past. By Dion’s understanding, these were all people from at least twenty years ago, perhaps more. This was far before he was born. There were all kinds of cars popular to the time period parked on the lawn of some massive country estate. People were leaving their cars and making a path to the action, which took place outside. Once again, they ignored Dion and Lilly who were but spirits in the night, casting brief shadows.

“You have any idea what is taking place here?” Lilly asked him.

“I think it was the night my uncle tried to kill my father. It’s the approximate date I put on the paper I handed Lou. I’m basing it on the period. It’s a wild guess, so who knows where we will end up.”

They followed the crowd in the rear to the party. It took place in the rear of the estate and was catered by servants in uniforms. If this was his family sponsored the party, Dion was heir to a lot of money. Unless it was all gone.

They stopped and admired the decorations and care put into all the food. No one was asked for an invitation, the party appeared to be open to everyone in the neighborhood.

“Do you see your parents?” Lilly asked. “You might not recognize them if they’re a lot younger.”

“I don’t see them anywhere. Let’s check inside the house.”

A servant was stationed at the base of the staircase and served drinks. He also kept people from going upstairs, Lilly noticed. She pointed him out to Dion who agreed with her that it was the best source to check out that evening. Since he didn’t notice them, they had no trouble slipping past the servant and walking up the stairs.

At the top of the stairs, they heard a loud set of noise emerging from a room down the hall. It was easy to find the source: a room with a closed door. Inside the room, they could hear people shouting at each other.

“You think it’s wise to go in there?” Lilly asked Dion. “Won’t they notice the door opening?”

“They will, but they’ll not say anything if we hurry inside. They’ll assume the wind blew it open or something. Trust me, I’ve done this before.” He put his hand on the doorknob and pushed the wooden door open.

There were five people in the room: two women and three men. They turned at the sound of the door opening and starred at Dion and Lilly. As she expected, they couldn’t see them, but the two slid to one side of the room, as the oldest man walked to the door, and shut it.

Now they could observe the proceedings in silence.

“I thought that door was locked,” the man said as he slid the latch in place. “Did either of you boys manipulate anything into opening the door?” The man looked around the hall to see if anyone or anything was there.

“Not me, dad,” one of the men said who was sitting in a chair across from the women.

“Me neither,” the other man said.

The entire group was seated in stuffed leather chairs when the door opened. The room was some kind of study with large bookshelves and floral prints adorning the walls. Brandy sniffers were placed on the tables next to the chairs. All the room needed was a servant in white gloves pouring drinks, but they were all busy with the party in progress.

“Tried to kill your brother, did you?” the older man said to the younger one on the right. “I should have you locked up, but the scandal would destroy everything I’ve built. Not to mention the attention it would bring to all of us by the English. I suppose you’d like that, to see everyone locked away in cages while some scientist tries to figure out how we manipulate the elements.”

It was that moment Lilly realized who they were looking at this very moment. The older man was Dion’s grandfather and his grandmother stood with him. She remembered them from the standoff he did with Officer Karanzen the other day. Across from him sat Dion’s parents and his uncle. What they witnessed was the events, which took place immediately after Dion’s mother had caught his uncle in his murder attempt. This was years before Dion was born.

“It’s a lie!” his uncle cried out. “Why would I do such a thing?”

“Because you are jealous of your brother, that’s why!” his grandmother thundered back. “You were rivals for years and he’s with June. You can’t stand it and tried to kill him.”

“We raised you better than this, Seth,” Dion’s grandfather told him. “I have every reason to have you cut off from the rest of the family, but it’s not our way of settling matters. I’m still shocked at your actions.”

“Look, dad,” Dion’s father spoke up. “I don’t want much more than the woman I love.” Dion’s mother and father held hands so tight their knuckles were white. “I’m willing to leave if it helps things. There is no reason for me to be around if it’s going to cause trouble.”

“You’ve caused enough trouble already, Marsh,” Dion’s grandfather said to him. “Not only did you marry a woman without my permission, but you married someone who is also an elemental worker. Do you have any idea what that means? Your children will either have no abilities or more power than you can ever dream of. Good lord, Marsh, you have two elemental powers, if she has ones you don’t, your son could become a fifth element worker.”

“I could become one too,” Seth snapped back.

“I’ve told you what I thought about that charlatan,” Dion’s grandfather said. “Think you’re going to become a grandmaster by working with him? There are no shortcuts to the fifth element. Either you are born with the ability to acquire it, or you spend a lifetime trying to acquire it. It can’t be obtained overnight.”

“I’ll go,” Dion’s father said, “I have enough money to start my own company and it will provide a means for us to live. June’s pregnant and I need to provide for the both of us.”

“If you must,” his grandfather told him. He turned to his other son. “But don’t think you’ll get off so easy, Seth. I will keep you on a tight leash. I know what you’re capable of doing and I’ll never turn my back on you. It disgusts me because I was willing to divide my entire business with the both of you. Now I don’t know what will happen.”

“I think we’ve seen enough,” Dion said to Lilly. “I would’ve wanted to visit some other places, but I feel we need to move on.” He looked up into the air. “Okay, Lou, send us back.”

Lilly blinked again and found herself in the room they’d left before the trip to Egypt. She and Dion were still seated in front of the older man with glasses. The same candles were burning and he was extinguishing another cloves cigarette.

“These things are addictive,” he told them. “Did you find out what you wanted to know? You paid for more time than you used. I can give you credit for any future time you need to spend if you return.”

Lou handed Dion another form to sign. “This one is for the attorney general. It says I did not force you to pay for any service you didn’t need and you came in here on your own free will.”

Dion looked at it and signed. “They sure make you go through a lot of paper.”

“Red tape,” Lou grumbled. “It’s getting so bad I spend most of my working day on forms. Maybe they’ll figure out a way to computerize it someday, but I doubt it will improve anything.”

“Have you been busy lately?” Dion asked.

“Not enough traffic coming through here. My best customers are people like you who want to experience and observe incidents outside the time circles, but I do get a lot of customers who physically travel. Not enough that would justify my little operation, but enough to help pay the bills. For instance, that door behind the curtain,” he said and pointed to a section of the wall, “takes you just about anywhere you might want to go, but it’s a one-way trip. You can’t back up, unlike my competition over in the other side of the mall. I have all interesting sorts who come through. Sometimes they pass through the door to the mall; sometimes they take another door to some place else. Depends on what form they have.”

Dion thanked Lou for his help and left the office, the door latching on its own behind them.

“So what did you find out?” Lilly asked him. She scanned the hall for any sign of Karanzen’s men, but didn’t see them anywhere.

“It left me with more questions than answers,” he sighed. “I did see why my parents left their town and went to California. Now I know why we had so little contact with the rest of the family. Father was worried about my uncle finding us. Looks like he had reason to fear.”

“You never knew very much about your uncle?”

“No, they wouldn’t speak much about him. I knew about his other brother, who wasn’t in the room we saw. And Uncle Rich never talks about the family. I understand why, with Seth doing everything he can to gain more power. I was always told you couldn’t acquire the fifth elemental power unless you had the other four. Even those of us who are born to ability need a lifetime to train for the ones we don’t have, so it’s beyond the scope of most people.”

“I’m still unsure about the meaning of the people carrying the torches,” he said to her. “It could be anything, but I’ll have to think about it. I don’t recall asking to be dropped any place which would involve them. They were right behind your namesake, but other than that, I can’t imagine what role they would play.”

“You need to tell me more about this Lilith person,” Lilly said.

“I will when we have the opportunity.”

“Well, if it isn’t our young conjure man,” a voice said behind them.

Dion and Lilly turned to face Detective Jones, the police officer who they’d seen the day before. He was standing there with a pack of playing cards.

Chapter 14

“Good day, detective,” Dion said. “I see you have a pack of cards ready. Is there something you wish to show me?”

“No, I don’t think I have anything which could match your feat yesterday. I was hoping perhaps you could show me a little something?”

“My list of card tricks is very small. The one you saw yesterday was one of the few I know. What I know tends to be physical rather than the mental tricks you perform. I can’t master the mental ones, too hard for me to remember all that information.”

“So what brings you back to the mall?” Lilly asked the detective. “Buying something else for your wife?’