Part 37 (1/2)

Sunlight streamed down through the skylight into the food court, bright enough to wash away the light spilling from the bulbs over each table. Bright enough to wash away the shadows.

Kris frowned. ”There's never been sunlight before.”

”It's probably coming through from the real world. This end of the mall's almost totally matched up. We haven't got much time.”

”Is this the sort of stuff you and your sister need to know?”

”No. This is the sort of stuff we pretty much already knew. We have to go deeper in. We need to see who more than what.” Diana dunked her face into a filled sink, trying to rinse away the soap she'd used to remove the lipstick camouflage. Man, that stuff could remove freckles! When she surfaced, Kris was waiting with a paper towel. ”Thanks.” The towel was only marginally less destructive than the soap, and they were both an exact match for supplies in women's washrooms worldwide. Diana made a mental note to check the supplier when they got home. This could be a foothold situation that the Lineage had missed for years. And the toilet paper was definitely h.e.l.lish.

”So,” Kris grunted, leaning against a stall and watching Diana in the mirror, ”what now?”

”Now, unless we open the door and there's a power-of-darkness coffee klatch happening close enough for us to eavesdrop on, we need to get to the Emporium. It's as close to the anchor as we've ever come.” She tossed the damp paper in the waste-basket and turned to face a skeptical mall elf.

”It's where you two came through. They'll be guarding it.”

”You've taken me as far as we agreed. You don't have to go on.”

”Like I'm supposed to go back to the other wizard and tell her I ditched her kid sister just when things got tough? f.u.c.k you.”

”Okay. I mean, you're right,” Diana corrected herself hurriedly, hoping the flush she could feel would be taken as the result of strenuous exfoliation. ”Then if it's just meat-minds on guard, we'll go around them. If it's something else, then that could tell us what I need to know. I wish I'd been able to get a look under that dark elf's helm.”

”Before you slagged him?”

”Not much point after.” She glanced toward the washroom door. ”There's not going to be a lot of cover out there.”

”No s.h.i.+t. You'd think they'd leave all that suns.h.i.+ne for the end. Doesn't evil usually prefer darkness and all?”

”Common mistake. Evil doesn't care. The thing you've got to remember about evil,” she murmured, falling into step just behind the other girl's left shoulder as they headed for the door, ”is that it's an un-apologetic opportunist. It'll move in wherever there's an opening.”

The smell of fresh coffee wafted up the short hall.

The black clothes made them stand out against the pale green tiles like . . .

. . . like licorice in mints, like cow patties in the gra.s.s, like Goths in a flower shop, like the wipeout from the wand caused permanent brain damage. What's up with a.n.a.logies R Us?

Diana forced herself to pay attention just as Kris said, ”I don't see anyone . . . anything. Let's go.”

They turned left, away from the food court, staying close to the lockers and then ducking low to cross the open front of the sporting goods store. Diana thought she saw a rack of torture implements as they pa.s.sed, which was actually encouraging because she was fairly certain such stores didn't usually stock thumb screws in with their free weights in the real world. Although it certainly explained that whole no pain, no gain thing. Vaguely human shapes moved around in the big drugstore across the hall and she could only hope they were part of a darkside patrol. Customers, even faint images of customers, would be bad. Not that a darkside patrol would be exactly good. . . .

Kris' grip on her arm dragged her attention back to their more immediate concern, the length of corridor they had to cover unseen in order to get to the Emporium. The two planters and four benches provided the only cover. But, on the bright side, the corridor was empty except for those two planters and four benches.

Nothing ventured . . . Diana shrugged free, dashed forward, dropped as she pa.s.sed the first planter, slid the last five feet to the bench, and rolled under it at the last instant.

”What do you think you're doing,” Kris growled into her ear a moment later.

Diana turned and tried not to think about the confined conditions pressing them cheek to cheek. ”I was thinking that the Emporium wasn't going to get any closer and the longer we waited the more risk of someone coming through the food court and spotting us.” So not the time to say something like ”You smell incredible.”

”Next time, warn a person!”

”I thought you might protest . . .”