“Yeah, you're right,” Killian said. “We'll scry them next.”
“Good,” Murdock said. “Now, what name do I put on the extinguishment order?”
Killian and I grimaced.
“Do not make me write down Pearl Thief,” Murdock growled.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Murdock filled in the extinguishment order with the name “Kumiho Murderer.” That worked for all of us. And it was only a matter of time before we discovered the man's name. We had his home address now. And his home.
With the extinguishment warrant taken care of (Murdock promised to email it to the Incheon Wild Hunt team), we scried the High Fairy Council and discussed the situation in Korea with several of the high council members. They decided it was too early to evacuate, but they would warn the fairies in the area about the threat. Hopefully, that would only put fairies on guard and not cause a panic. But better panicked than dead.
We had just finished our scry when my scry-phone went off. All of us had scry-phones. They were slices of enchanted crystal balls, roughly the shape of cellphones. They even had leather cases like cellphones. It was a lot easier to carry one than to cart a crystal ball around, and cellphones don't make planet-to-planet calls.
I opened the leather case and drew my finger over the slice of crystal, currently full of mist. The mist took on color, then coalesced into the face of Hunter Do-hun. His anxious face.
“What happened?” I demanded.
“He attacked us,” Do-hun said.
“What?!”
“He attackedme,” Hunter Mi-cha shouldered Do-hun to the side and came into view. “I went out for some fresh air this morning and saw him standing across the street. So stupid of me, but I didn't want to lose him, so I didn't call for help. I ran over to him. He sprayed something in my face, and I was instantly ill. As I lay on the ground, writhing in pain, he took my handcuffs.”
“Your handcuffs?” I asked.
“Yes.”
“Magic-suppressing cuffs?”
“Yes.”
“Fuck,” Killian growled. “What did he spray you with? Do you know?”
“Oh, yes. It became clear very fast,” Mi-cha said. “It was iron. We had to summon a healer to cleanse me. It was close. The iron had coated my lungs.”
“An iron mist?” I asked.
“Fucking bug spray for fairies,” Killian growled. “This is bad. Really bad.”
“I need to tell Uncle Dylan about this,” I said to Kill. “Maybe he can come up with something to counter it.”
“What?” Killian scoffed. “If there was something that neutralized the deadly properties of iron, he would have found it already. The only way to guard against this attack is to wear a mask.”
“I'll call the other houses,” Do-hun said. “We need to let the fairies here know to wear masks outside of the house.”
“That will look odd.”
“This is Korea. Wearing masks is not unusual. Sick people wear them as a courtesy. Some people wear them just so they don't have to put on make-up, and celebrities wear them all the time. It was even a teenage fad for a while.”
“Oh. Well, then, tell them to mask up,” I said.
Hunter Do-hun bowed to me and took off.
“Are you all right, Hunter Mi-cha?” I asked.
“Yes, Ambassador. But I'm not happy about the attack or the theft.”
