Part 37 (2/2)

”Yeah. Good call.”

”... and we didn't have time.”

The lights were off in the travel agency and a handwritten sign taped to the cracked window said only, ”Closed for Renovations.” A poster advertising London at $549, Berlin at $629, and Gehenna at $666 was the only other visible indication that the store had ever been used. Either she'd really done some serious damage when she smacked the travelers back or they were too close to segue for any more tours to be booked. The Tailer of Gloucester still had bits off animal b.u.t.ts hanging in the window, so hopefully it was the former not the later.

Hopefully and animal bits; not the sort of things that usually showed up in the same thought.

”Next bench,” she murmured against Kris' skin. ”You've got to go first.”

Kris' reply was essentially unintelligible although the sarcasm came through loud and clear. Out from under the bench, she pushed herself up into a sprinter's start, and disappeared from Diana's line of sight.

Diana followed half a heartbeat behind, put a little too much push on the final slide, and would have gone right past the bench had strong hands not grabbed a double handful of clothes and yanked her sideways. Her face impacted at the join of shoulder and neck, her nose connecting painfully with Kris' collarbone.

”Is this the place?”

Blinking away tears, she lifted her head as far as the bench allowed. In the short time since they'd crossed over, the Emporium had come to look almost identical to the store in the original mall. ”This is it.”

The corridor was still empty. But then, why wouldn't it be? Why would the darkness bother running patrols this deep inside their own territory? They were a lot safer here than they'd been out in the lower concourse.

”I'm going to take a closer look.”

”We're going inside?”

”We have to. We haven't actually learned anything yet.”

”I've learned that you got no sense of self-preservation. I'm not going in there.”

”Good. You keep watch.” She was out from under the bench on her hands and knees before Kris could stop her, then quickly crawled across to the window for a careful glance inside. The window display was pretty much as she remembered it and so was the stock beyond. In the back corner . . . She shuffled forward just far enough to get a better angle. In spite of other changes, the mirror remained the Otherside edition, thick silvered gla.s.s in an antique wooden frame. She couldn't see any indication of Jack but figured he was probably watching the other store.

Dropping back below the window ledge, Diana crawled to the edge of the open door and, lying down, peered around the corner. No troll. Not even the shadowy suggestion of customers. Better still, no wards keeping people from entering, although the exit wards were still in place and would need to be dealt with later.

She flashed a quick thumbs-up back at Kris, who did not look happy, and slipped over the threshold into the store. The fairies on a stick had been marked down and the frogs in military uniforms had been joined by newts in science fiction costumes.

Who buys this stuff? she wondered crawling toward the back. The newts were a little weirder than even she could cope with. Skirting the rubber snakes, she sat back on her heels and peered up at the mirror. ”Pssst, Jack!”

The blue-on-blue eyes appeared almost instantly. ”Where the h.e.l.l have you been?”

”At the other end of the mall.”

”Doing what?”

”Getting caught in time distortions and fighting off a pack of traveling meat-minds. It's not like I forgot you or anything; this is the first time I've been able to get back.”

”They know you're here.”

”Here, here? Like here and now? Or just in the mall here?”

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