Sergeant Marsden left Elion in an interview room. Beige walls and a table bolted to the floor provided nothing interesting to look at. Rings welded to the table offered a place to lock handcuffs. A plastic water bottle sat on the table next to a package of Oreos, but Elion wasn’t hungry.
A mustiness filled the room, accompanied by the burned smell of a heating system fired up for the first time that fall. Elion looked at the door, wondering if Marsden had locked it. Snickers prowled around the room, circling it repeatedly in a way that made Elion feel anxious.
He couldn’t tell if he was a prisoner or not.
Elion examined the red marks in his hand, welts formed from squeezing the Starholder pendant. Pulling the pendant out of his pocket, he held it in the air in front of him, watching it spin on the broken chain, glittering in the light. He set it down on the table and rummaged around in his backpack until he found a loose paper clip.
Slipping the paper clip through the links on the end of the broken chain, he fixed the loop, and put the necklace on. The newly repaired chain barely fit over his head. The paperclip rested on the side of his neck, right where he imagined the jugular vein ran. The star hung just between his collarbones. He tucked it beneath his hoodie.
He thought about what Zev had told him, before jumping through the portal. “Find traces of the Dorian’s warlocks,” Zev had said. Elion couldn’t decide if that was just something Zev said to make him feel better about staying behind, or if Zev really needed Elion’s help.
Elion thought about Hamilton, ripping a strip of cloth from a warlock’s robe and running away. He could look for that. Besides, he would feel terrible if something bad happened to the dog.
A few minutes later Sergeant Marsden returned.
“Well, it sounds like they got in contact with your aunt,” she said. “She said she’d send someone down to pick you up this afternoon, so you won’t have to stay at the temporary shelter tonight.”
Elion groaned internally. Too bad. I’d have preferred staying at the shelter. He never really got along with his cousins.
“Okay. Thank you for helping me.”
“No problem,” she said. “There’s still no sign of your sister, but we’ve got patrols out looking for her boyfriend, Keith.” Elion appreciated the gesture and tried to show it on his face, but he knew they weren’t going to find Liora.
I hope they scare the crap out of Keith when they find him.
He wondered what had happened to Zev.
Since Zev had targeted the pendant that Elion was now wearing, he half expected Zev to appear in front of him, confused about why the portal had brought him here. Elion didn’t know how long the portal’s teleportation would take. If Zev had landed somewhere on Earth, would he come find for Elion? Or would he stay away until the police stopped looking for him?
Maybe the portal had trapped Zev. He’d given it bad directions, so who knew what would happen to him. Nothing Elion could do about that.
In the mean time, I’d better find as many traces of the warlocks as I can. I have to assume that Zev is coming back. If he doesn’t… I can’t worry about that now.
“What about Hamilton?” Elion asked.
“Who?” Sergeant Marsden looked confused.
“The dog,” Elion explained, trying not to let his exasperation slip into his voice. She really did not care at all about anything Mrs. Phillips said to her.
“Mrs. Phillips dog? You said you’d send someone over. Can I go with them to help look? I’d rather not sit in this room all day if I have a choice.”
Marsden chewed on her cheek. Elion could tell that she hadn’t intended to send anyone back over to check on Mrs. Phillips and Hamilton.
“Sure,” she said. “I was just going to go get a CSO.”
“I can go with them? I’d rather not wait around in here all day.”
----------------------------------------
A short time later Elion stood back on Mrs. Phillips’ front porch, knocking.
“She’s probably out looking for Hamilton,” Elion said. “We should put up these posters.”
Earl Porter, a volunteer Community Service Officer, stood beside him. The tall black man was soft spoken, carefully choosing his words as he spoke.
“Maybe the dog came back, and she’s just out running errands?” Porter asked.
“She always leaves Hamilton in the backyard when she’s gone,” Elion said. “He’s not really house-trained, so…” he finished with a shrug.
They walked around to the gate at the side of the house and looked over it into the backyard. Hamilton did not come running up to the fence yapping at them. What if Hamilton had somehow been captured by the warlocks?
“He’s not back here,” Elion said, worrying about what the search for Hamilton might reveal.
“Maybe she took him on a walk?”
“Maybe. If she did then we can find her. She always walks around this block with him. She says she never walks across the road because it’s too dangerous. All the reckless young men in speeding sports cars and gigantic trucks, you know?”
“Let’s wait here until she comes back then.”
“Come on,” Elion said. “We should put up the posters.”
He couldn’t help Zev rescue Liora, but at least he could look for Hamilton. If the warlock’s robe had done something to the dog, then Elion needed to track him down.
Twenty-four hours. It’s more like twelve hours now. When Zev comes back in twelve hours, I’m going to have… stuff to show him.
“But if she found the dog—”
“I bet she’s out looking for Hamilton,” Elion said. “How about you walk that way, and I’ll go this way. If we run into her and Hamilton is safe, we can meet back here. We can put up these posters as we go!”
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
He handed Porter half the stack of missing dog posters they’d printed out at the police station.
Porter eyed Elion. Elion guessed that Porter’s implied assignment was to keep an eye on Elion.
“We’ll go faster that way, and it’s not that far,” Elion said. If he could split up with Porter, he figured he stood a better chance of being able to investigate anything he found. “Or you can wait here for her.”
Porter shrugged. “Fine,” he said, taking the posters and starting down the street.
As soon as Porter’s back was turned, Snickers darted into Mrs. Phillips’ backyard.
“Hey!” Elion said, following the cat. He didn’t want Snickers to become the next missing animal. Lifting the latch on Mrs. Phillips’ gate, he cautiously followed the feline.
Snickers sat along Mrs. Phillips’ back fence, looking bored. Beside him disturbed earth marked a shallow hole dug under the fence. Elion examined it, and decided that he looked at Hamilton’s handiwork. Or should it be paw-work?
Elion guessed that Hamilton had somehow sensed the magic happening across the street in Elion’s front yard, and had been whipped into a kind of frenzy. He didn’t want the dog to escape through that hole again, so he started pushing the dirt back, inhaling the smell of freshly turned soil.
Apparently the warlock’s distraction spell didn’t work on Hamilton.
Before he could make any progress, Snickers slid through the hole. Elion watched the cat, surprised the big creature could fit through.
“Come back Snickers,” he said. “We need to find Hamilton!”
But Snickers disappeared into the yard on the other side of the fence. Elion sighed, and refilled the hole, then made his way out to the sidewalk. Marsden had already disappeared around the corner in the other direction.
Hoping he’d find Snickers on the other side of the block, Elion made his way down the street, occasionally taping a poster on a telephone pole, but mostly hurrying. A few dead ends interrupted the sidewalk on his path. He scanned them for any signs of Mrs. Phillips before crossing the road, not sharing her fear of reckless drivers. He saw no sign of her.
This block was larger than most in the city, because one end of it held Clear Creek Park. Elion suspected that he would find Snickers there; and maybe Mrs. Phillips and Hamilton as well. He had to hurry to get there before Porter, even though he’d sent the CSO around the long way.
Elion had only put up a couple of posters by the time he reached the park, and wondered if that would seem suspicious. He scanned the park, looking for any signs of life.
The creek the park was named after ran from near where Elion stood through a densely forested part of the park. He followed the water into the woods, listening.
Over the sound of running water and rustling trees, he thought he heard an animal whimpering.
Sounds like Hamilton.
Rounding a bend in the river, he came to a small clearing. A rough circular crater several feet across had been scooped out of the ground; bits of severed tree roots sticking up out of the dirt. The hole looked an awful lot like the one in Elion’s front yard, where the purple portal orb had been.
He walked around the crater, examining it. A crater caused by an impact would have a debris ring, where matter from inside the hole was flung outside the hole. This crater didn’t show any signs of impact. All the roots had been cleanly severed; the inside of the hole almost smooth. Like someone had surgically removed this chunk of earth.
Zev had mentioned being lured away from the house. If Dorian and his warlocks had been preparing this for a while, this must be where they had been hiding. Elion remembered the dark figure standing out in the fields, watching his house. Had that been one of them?
Apparently the wizards or warlocks or whatever had teleported in here, maybe to avoid alerting Elion and Liora before they were ready to make their move.
Elion walked around the clearing, examining the ground carefully, desperately looking for anything that might let him help his sister.
Zev will want to see this when he comes back. I hope it doesn’t rain.
The wind whistled through the trees, and the babbling sound of the creek nearby drowned out any other sounds. A scrap of cloth fluttered from a nearby tangle of brambles. Oddly, the scrap seemed to be flapping against the direction of the wind.
Elion reached up to grab the scrap. The moment his fingers brushed the cloth, he felt an energy thrumming within the fabric. He tugged the cloth away from the thorns. Little more than a few silky threads woven together, the scrap seemed to have torn away from a larger garment when someone brushed up against the branch.
A buzz of energy vibrated through his fingers, like when he had held the wizard’s staff earlier, but weaker. He wondered if the cloth would also dissolve into a purple mist when he let go of it. Come to think of it, why hadn’t the cloth dissolved already? Maybe… the tree had been holding onto it?
Elion gripped the scrap in his fist, and felt a strange tugging, like something very far away was trying to pull it out of his hand.
A dog growling caught Elion’s attention. He headed down the path in the direction of the sound. The creek narrowed here, running stronger and faster.
A small dachshund hung over the fast running stream, suspended from a dead branch. Hamilton’s hind legs dangled uselessly in the air, occasionally scrabbling for purchase. The dog wrapped its front legs around a fork of the branch, holding on for dear life.
“Hamilton!” Elion exclaimed, springing into action to help the struggling dog.
Hamilton still held a long strip of black cloth in his mouth. Snarling, growling and whimpering, Hamilton refused to let go. The cloth pulled the small dog’s head around, flapping back and forth in the air with a mind of its own, paying no heed to the wind.
Elion pushed through the brush at the side of the creek, careful not to slip into the rushing water. He reached out towards the dog with one hand, but nearly lost his balance.
Elion still held the black scrap of warlock robe he’d found earlier. Regretfully, he let go of it, watching it vanish in a puff of purple smoke. Both hands now free, he steadied himself and reached out over the creek. He grabbed Hamilton by the scruff of his neck and pulled the little dog off of the branch.
As he collected Hamilton, he slipped, one foot plunging into the cold stream.
Hamilton collapsed into Elion’s arms, and Elion scrambled out of the stream bed, cursing his wet foot.
He cradled the dog, and wondered how long the little creature had been dangling from that branch. The strip of black cloth continued flapping around, hitting Elion in the face, and trying to pull itself from Hamilton’s grasp.
A closer examination revealed torn edges, and material similar to the scrap Elion found earlier. He eased the scrap from the tired dog’s jaws and felt the same energy puslating through the cloth. This larger piece of robe pulled at Elion more strongly than the other scrap had.
The cloth wanted to go somewhere, in a specific direction; but not a direction Elion was familiar with. It didn’t pull him left or right, up or down, forward or backward. But still it tugged on him.
Is it somehow pulling toward Kylios?
He carefully wrapped the cloth around his left arm and tied it off, then let go, watching carefully. The cloth did not dissolve into purple haze, so he figured that wearing it counted as holding onto it.
“Let’s get you back home,” Elion said.
Hamilton whimpered. Elion walked down the path, his wet shoe squishing with each step.
Heading back out of the grove of trees, Elion started feeling strange. Not sleeping at all in the last twenty-four hours will do that to a person, so he pressed on. But things started looking different, unfamiliar. The sound of the creek faded, the trees grew larger and older around him. Ground cover gave way and the path opened up into a larger clearing.
A ray of sunlight cut through the canopy overhead and illuminated a marble shrine. The statue of a woman stood behind a basin of water, glowing with reflected sunlight. A sense of calm radiated through Elion, and Hamilton stopped whimpering. The tugging sensation from the black cloth wrapped around Elion’s arm faded.
Elion took a few steps forward and felt cool grass brushing against his bare feet, which was strange because last time he checked he was wearing shoes. He looked down and saw that his clothes were gone, replaced by a simple, white drape, like a toga.
This was definitely not Clear Creek Park.