The younger female wizard was beginning to look behind the counter.
“He’s fixing a pipe in the access tunnel, I’m the assistant. What can I help you with?”
Harzl noticed that the younger female wizard moved back from the counter and over to the bulletin board. She probably knew that trolls could see through glamour spells, but maybe not. She was acting suspiciously, and it was hard for him to track what all three were doing at the same time.
The male wizard crossed to him. The shifter stayed by the train with her back to him. Very close to the edge of the tunnel. She was looking out into the darkness.
“Have you seen these two runaways?” the man asked as he held out the flyer without introducing himself or asking Harzl his name. Very rude.
Harzl glanced at it and looked the wizard in the eyes. “No.”
The wizard cocked his head for a split second. “Are you sure? You didn’t even look at it.”
“I saw that this morning when it was faxed to all the stations. If they came through, I would have seen them.”
“Indeed. Well, there’s a reward if they are found.”
The flyer made no mention of a reward. Which meant the wizard thought Harzl was lying and would sell out for money. It also didn’t say that the two were runaways. The wizard was lying about something.
“Try the Madison station,” Harzl replied as he noticed the shifter was now on the other side of the train looking into the dark. She had to be wolfen to see well into the dimly lit tunnel without shifting.
“Why, have you heard something?” the wizard asked as he put the flyer into his outside coat pocket.
“Kids like Madison, most runaways from around here head there,” Harzl replied as he went to his counter and reached for the phone he needed to call for an emergency team. Someone had cut the line, and cell phones didn’t work in the Liminal. The glamoured wizard was clearly avoiding his dark stare now.
The man continued, “I see. Well these two aren’t children and they aren’t from ‘around here.’ ” He was making fun of Harzl’s vernacular. “In fact, I heard from the Chicago station manager that they had been seen on the train that arrived before ours did.”
The female wizard glared at the male wizard, then stuck her tongue out at him. It was a strange gesture. She knew Harzl could see her, but the other two couldn’t. She was communicating something to him. Was she here to help the two in the bathroom? Or did she know who the man was? And why would she damage the phone?
The man saw where Harzl was looking and turned to see what was happening behind him. The female wizard ignored him and pretended to read a bulletin.
The shifter was now by the vending machines. She was sniffing for the pair.
“If you need change I can provide it,” Harzl offered.
She barely stopped what she was doing and glanced at the wizard, who gave her a slight nod. She went back to sniffing.
The female wizard walked between the man and Harzl, then stopped in front of the bathroom, blocking the shifter from her progress.
“I need to use the bathroom... please,” she called out to Harzl.
Harzl took a few steps away from the man and toward the bathrooms. Was it his imagination, or did the female wizard resemble Nancy? “The women’s room is closed. I can stand guard if you wish to use the men’s room?”
There was a closet space in between the men’s and women’s rooms with a locked access door on each side. An accomplished wizard could unlock it with magick. If she was here to help, she could tend to Nancy, and if she wasn’t, Snori would stop her.
“Is it gross in there?” she asked with feigned disgust.
“No more so than the women’s room,” Harzl replied with humor.
She laughed and went into the men’s room.
The shifter was now over by the alcove where Snori hid when passengers came through. She looked back at him in surprise. No doubt recognizing the smell of a mutual predator.
“Can I help you with something, ma’am?”
The shifter narrowed her eyes.
“Pay no attention to Jana, she works for me,” the man said.
