Hagan held out his arm and Amellia laid the bracelet over his wrist, tying a knot in the strings with trembling fingers.This was all so much more real and scary than it had seemed when she first heard about it earlier in her apartment.Efficiently Hagan returned the favor and Amellia had to admit she liked the pattern he’d picked for her unknowingly.
Cheline stood in front of them.“Cross your wrists together.”As soon as they’d complied, she waved the tip of the staff over their embrace, the great stone glowing fiercely.“None may put you asunder now until this task is completed.The power each of you holds has been amplified by that of the other.Truly you’re one in this quest tonight.”She added words in a language Amellia didn’t recognize, almost singing, and then stepped away, sinking into her chair.
Hagan uttered a pithy phrase in what Amellia assumed was his own language and her aunt nodded approval.“Yes, entirely proper to call upon your deities at this juncture.Well done.”
While Amellia was pondering where her aunt had learned Zackmarune, Cheline set aside the staff and rubbed her hands together.
“You need to bring me three essential ingredients for the spell I must weave to break the curse.I have most of the recipe but these will represent Earth, Air and Water, which will help to bind the curse to this world and prevent it from activating.”
“Not Fire?”Hagan asked.“On my world those are the four elements.”
“Here as well,” Cheline said.“I’ll provide the fire at the right time.Now you must procure the egg of a mawkhen, the pearl of a satin sea clam and the root knot of a mandrajoo pine.”
Amellia’s mind raced as she tried to decide where they could find such things at this hour of the night.“And get them to you here by dawn, right?”
“Absolutely or this will all be for naught.Time to be on your way.”Leaning heavily on her staff, Cheline rose and all but pushed them out of the room, through the store and out the door.“Hurry,” she said as she closed the door behind them with a definitive thump.Amellia heard the locks engaging.
She headed for the groundcar with Hagan and stopped abruptly, so he nearly ran into her.“What in the name of space is that?”
Drifting down the deserted street toward them was fog, but not like any other such phenomenon she’d ever seen.The cloud was gray with a green tinge and the wispy tentacles roiled as they extended, as if something behind them was breathing.She heard garbled sounds, like voices and thought she saw movement inside the fog bank, a few blocks away.
Dagan grabbed her hand and pulled her to the car.“I don’t know but we’re not waiting around to find out either.Get in.”He stood guard while she scrambled into her seat and closed the door practically on her heels.He did another quick recon of the approaching fog, which had covered quite a bit of ground in a short time, and then vaulted over the front of the groundcar, yanked open the door and threw himself into the driver’s seat while Amellia gaped at him.
“Quite a show.How did you?—”
He gunned the motor to the redline, reversed and made a U turn with assurance, accelerating away from the vicinity.“My people have extra muscular abilities we can call upon.Please tell me we don’t have to drive into the fog to get the items your aunt wants.”
“You think the fog has to do with the curse?”she asked, voice shaking a bit.
He glanced at her and flicked the switch to increase the interior heat level.“Unless you’re going to tell me the miasma is typical weather for this planet, then yes, I think the whole situation has stirred up forces we’d rather avoid.Where am I going?I doubt we can procure these odd ingredients at a market.”
“Hardly.”She turned awkwardly in her seat to check behind her.The store was dark inside but surrounded by a bright violet glow and the fog swirled around the building as if seeking a way inside.“I hope Auntie will be all right.”
“As do I but she seems powerful and knowledgeable.We have to achieve our part of the mission and we can’t waste time—we only have a few hours until dawn.”
Settling into her seat, Amellia bit her lip and considered.“Fortunately for us there’s a bird sanctuary quite close by.Get onto the main road and head east.I’ll give you more directions when we get closer.”
Hagan complied and the groundcar made a sweeping turn.He frowned.“These aren’t an endangered species are they?”
“No of course not.Just ordinary birds.They migrate though and this area we’re going to is one of the stops along their annual path.Fortunately for us, the flocks are in residence now.”She gave him a smile.“I might have gone on a few mawkhen egg gathering expeditions when I was a kid.They’re considered a delicacy when made into omelets with local spices and we used to sell them to the restaurants.The fact it wasn’t strictly legal appealed to us then and we had strict rules how many eggs we could take.It won’t do us any good to be stopped by a game warden tonight.”
“I’ll flash my badge and spout impenetrable interstellar legal nonsense,” he said with an answering smile.“While you climb the tree and snatch an egg.”
“I’ll try to get two, if the clutch is big enough.We might want a backup.”
He put the groundcar on autopilot and reached across her to open a small compartment, withdrawing a holstered service blaster.
“You’re not planning to shoot the game warden if we meet one, are you?”she asked, trying to keep her tone light.
“No but I didn’t like the suddenness or the appearance of the fog bank rolling in at your aunt’s store and who knows what or who might have been lurking under cover.Old fashioned blaster fire might not work on black magic but it’ll sure make me more comfortable, having it handy.”He studied her.“Does the weapon bother you?”
“No, I’m fine with it.We probably won’t have any trouble getting the egg but we have two more stops to make afterward and the mandrajoo pines are in a dicey area of the national forest.”
“Define dicey.”
“Umm, it’s rumored there are drug runners using the forest as cover for their operations, as well as other types of smuggling going on.The planetary police haven’t done a sweep in years and again rumors only but it’s said some of the local authorities might be on the cartel’s payroll.”Amellia wasn’t happy about driving into the forest in the middle of the night but she couldn’t think of anywhere else to obtain a root knot.“You probably know more about the area than I do, being an enforcement agent.”
He considered the issue while he drove.“I can tell you none of my current cases involves a forest location.I can’t confirm or deny anything else.”
