Part 20 (1/2)

”I could be insulted that you refuse my hospitality, but you are of the Lineage, so I bow instead to your wisdom.” Suiting action to the words, he bowed where he sat and then straightened, flipping his hair back out of his face. His revealed expression was serious. ”So, Keepers, what are you doing here?”

Diana pa.s.sed the water bottle to Claire and told the story of the bracelet one more time.

”I don't remember your bits of the dialogue being quite so witty the first time I heard this,” Sam muttered.

Ignoring him, she told Arthur about the Emporium, the mirror, and the segue.

”That explains a great deal,” he said thoughtfully.

”Whoever is behind this no doubt allowed my people through in order that their beliefs hasten the reality of the mall, figuring to pick them off when their usefulness was done.”

”Yeah, we think so, too.” Diana fought the urge to be unreasonably pleased that Arthur agreed with her.

”They can't be happy that I have made them one people, strong and able to defend themselves.”

”No, they can't, mostly because these sorts literally can't be happy. The best they can manage is triumphant glee.”

”In order to complete their plan, they must attack us in force and wipe us from their reality.”

He caught on fast. Diana reluctantly admitted she liked that in an archetype. It made for less exposition. ”Yes, they must.”

”You must close the segue before this happens.”

”Duh.”

Arthur lifted a single brow. ”I'm sorry?”

”We have every intention of closing the segue before anyone is hurt,” Claire explained, shooting Diana a look that promised a future lecture on the inappropriate use of the smart-a.s.s response. ”Unfortunately, the anchor's hidden somewhere in the construction zone, and when we left the Emporium, we set off an alarm. The dark guards your . . . people call the meat-minds arrived before we could get to it.”

”And if that's not enough happy, happy,” Diana broke in, ”we can't seem to influence that end of the mall, so we're going to have to go into the construction zone through the access corridor.”

”Darkness has more deadly servants than the meat-minds patrolling the access corridors,” Arthur said quietly.

Claire nodded. ”We heard some, or one, right after we crossed over.”

”Some of them are large,” Arthur admitted, pensively rubbing a buckle between thumb and forefinger. ”Some are smaller but dangerous still. We've barricaded them out of our territory, but I fear they stay away more out of their desire than ours.”

”They don't push because, so far, they don't want to, not because they're afraid of you?”

”Of me and my people, yes.”

”That's not good.” Which, given the situation, was pretty much a gimme. Diana glanced up as the ceiling lights came on, glanced down to note that Claire's watch was still keeping speedy time, and decided not to worry about it. ”So, about your people; from what Kris said about living rough, I'm guessing no one's going to miss any of them back home?”

”Until they came here, they had no home.” Releasing the buckle, he curled his hand into a fist. ”They are the unwanted youth of your world. Rootless and wanting to be elsewhere. With the shadow mall in place, it took only the opening of a door to cross over. Most of them crossed when leaving the public washroom by the food court.”

”Oh, yeah, public washrooms,” Diana snorted. ”Always an adventure. The food court would put them pretty close to the Emporium and a whole bunch of the bad stuff.”

”This is why not all of them survived.” He studied all three of them for a long moment, his pellucid gaze moving unhurriedly from Keeper to Keeper to cat. ”You told them you are wizards,” he said at last, the sentence falling between question and accusation.

Diana's tone sharpened in response to the later. ”Keepers, wizards, it seemed the simplest explanation since it's essentially true.”