Chronicles Of The Keeper - The Long Hot Summoning Part 31

Okay, that's not poss . . . Biting the thought off before Kris crashed through acoustic fibers and aluminum strapping that couldn't possibly hold her weight, Diana sat in the fountain, drew her feet up next to her b.u.t.t and, pus.h.i.+ng against the side walls of the alcove, stood. Apparently, she was supposed to follow. No matter how imposs . . . She bit that thought off, too, and concentrated instead on doing the mother of all chin ups. Sneaker treads gouging at the wall, she managed to hook first one elbow behind a cross brace and then the other. A little involuntary grunting later, her upper body collapsed across the dusty inner side of the ceiling. Strong hands pulled her farther in and dropped the open tile back into place.

For no good reason, there was enough light to see a path worn through the dust. It headed off to the right on a strong diagonal. Southeast, Diana figured after a moment. Directly toward the food court. They were going to reach the food court by traveling inside a dropped ceiling, something it looked as though the elves did all the time.

Even though it couldn't be d ...

It could be done.

It had been done.

A lot.

Hold that thought, Diana told herself as she crawled after Kris. Don't even consider thinking about how stu . . .

Fortunately, crawling after Kris provided its own distraction.

Her knees were raw and the lump on her forehead where she'd cracked it on a pipe was throbbing when the path stopped at the edge of a concrete block wall. Kris motioned for silence. Diana tried to ache more quietly.

Another tile was lifted carefully aside and, after a moment, Kris dropped down out of sight. Her head reappeared almost instantly and then one arm, beckoning Diana forward.

They weren't in the food court.

They were standing on the sinks in the women's washroom.

Together, they replaced the tile and one at a time, jumped down.

"This is the way you always go?" Diana asked quietly.

Kris nodded and pulled her bound dreads back with one hand, bending to drink from the taps. "Meat-minds have never caught on," she said proudly when she finished drinking. "It's like they can't wrap their tiny f.u.c.king brains around the idea."

That's because acoustic tiles and aluminum strapping could barely hold the weight of a full-grown mouse and certainly couldn't hold a couple of full-grown elves. Or even mostly grown elves. Definitely not an elf and a size twelve Keeper. People, or in this case, elves, who believed that a dropped ceiling provided a secret highway between distant destinations got their information from bad movies and worse television. The meat-minds, who watched neither, knew that no one could travel by way of dropped ceilings. No wonder they couldn't wrap their tiny brains around the idea.

Believing seven impossible things before breakfast was pretty much standard operating procedure on the Otherside, but even in a place where reality depended on definition, some things were apparently too much.

Diana said none of this aloud. Had no intention of ever mentioning it.

The certainty of the mall elves that it could be done because they'd seen a hundred heroes and an equal number of villains do it, had created the pa.s.sage. She had no intention of messing with that certainty. Certainly not while they still needed it to get home.

Only the full toilet paper dispensers in every stall and the lack of graffiti scratched into the pale green paint suggested this wasn't the actual women's washroom in the actual mall, another indication of how close the segue was to completion.

Kris opened the door just wide enough for the two of them to slip through. Moving quietly from shadow to shadow, they peered out into the deserted food court.

Diana's nose twitched at the smell of freshly brewed coffee. She must have made a noise because Kris grinned and murmured, "Starbucks."

"You mean an Otherside corruption of Starbucks."

"Is that what I said? I mean an actual Starbucks."

"Man . . ." Diana shook her head in reluctant admiration. "Those guys are moving in everywhere."

Claire yawned, rubbed her eyes, and realized that the lights had come back on in the department store. The fire had gone out. She checked her watch; the second hand was revolving at significantly better than normal speed. Time had become relative again. When she glanced up, the fire pit was gone and one of the mall elves, a dark-haired pet.i.te girl who looked capable of precision kneecapping, was sweeping up the ashes. Jo, Claire remembered after a moment.

"You done with us, Keeper?"

Daniel was lounging back against the few remaining cus.h.i.+ons, one long, denim-clad leg draped over Bounce's lap. The other boy had his eyes closed, a glistening line of drool running from the corner of his mouth and down the side of his chin. They hadn't been able to tell her much; only that the food in the food court was a lot less weird than it had been and as the food got more normal, the meat-minds patrolled more frequently.

"And at certain times of the day, there's like a bazillion old people hanging around."

"Are they eating?"

"Listen, much?" Daniel had snorted. "I said they were hanging around. Kind of dropped down from the ceiling like big old wrinkly spiders."

"Are they dangerous?"

"Nah, just a big fat pain to get around."

"Keeper?"

"Thanks, guys. I'm done." A little sleep would be nice, Claire thought as she watched Daniel rouse his friend and the two of them disappeared into the depths of the store, but she couldn't risk it. The first year she was on active duty, a Keeper had fallen asleep on the Otherside; fallen asleep and dreamed. He'd woken up at his old high school . . . naked. Fixing the resultant fallout had definitely been one for the history books.

Right after the Riel Rebellion. Some nice black-and-white pictures, too. They'd pulled all the copies from circulation, but Claire knew a couple members of the Lineage who'd kept personal copies, allegedly for research purposes.

Arthur touched her lightly on the shoulder as someone carried away his chair. "I must attend to the business of the realm. If you require me . . ."

"I should be guarding you." Claire stood and smoothed down her skirt. "They could send an a.s.sa.s.sin." It would cost them a lot, single travelers always paid a premium, but she didn't doubt for a moment that if they could pay, the darkside wouldn't hesitate. Kill Arthur; destroy the united defiance raised against them.

"They would kill the Immortal King?"

"Don't get too attached to the label," she told him acerbically. "Just because you never stay dead doesn't change the fact that you die and kingdoms fall every time you're removed from the equation."

"I have doubled the guards on all points leading to this level and I will be careful. But if you have nothing better to do than to act as my nursemaid .. ." He bowed slightly, hair falling into his face and swept up as he straightened. ". . . then I will be honored by your company. Although I had thought you wanted to take a look outside."

"I do."

He smiled and waited. He had a way of waiting that reminded her of Austin.

"All right, I'll go have a look out the nearest doors, but I want you surrounded at all times by your best."

"My very best went with your sister."

"Fine, your second best, then, until I get back. I'll be as quick as I can. Sam, you coming?"

"Nope. Not even breathing hard."

Claire stopped, and the orange cat b.u.mped into the back of her calves. "What?"

"It's just something Diana says."

"Why am I not surprised?"

"If you actually want me to answer that, I'm going to need more information," Sam pointed out as they began walking again.