“See it now—now you don't; a trick you see, but soon you won't,” she chanted.
The bottle and cap shimmered red, then rainbow, then settled and looked normal again.
“I thought ‘Little Miss’ was a ‘little dud’ with no power,” Ethedra said.
“Something happened today.”
“Tsk, tsk,” Ethedra said, then she raised her hand suddenly. An eyeball popped out of a taxidermied fox pup on a shelf and flew to her. At the last minute, Abigail made a snatching gesture with her own hand, and the eyeball flew to her, instead.
“Cheater,” Ethedra said, then popped out the other eyeball and flew it to her.
Abigail held the eyeball to her eye, cupping her palm around it. She stared into the pupil until she saw what she was looking for. A silent view of the place that showed earlier that day, Sage had found her way in. First the hidden door was revealed, and then Sage entered, with emerald greenvvystall around her, hiding in her hair and her pockets, winding around her ankles, and surrounding her form. Sage looked around, touched a few things, walked deep into the place, then turned and ran out.
“Damn,” Abigail said, holding the eyeball to her shoulder. Her cask lifted his head and ate the eyeball in one bite, then laid down dead again.
Ethedra burned her eyeball up in flame in her palm. “’Little miss dud’ revealed the hidden door and opened it. Not so dud anymore.”
“This is bad,” Abigail said, irritation eating at her.
She held her hand up and clenched it, magically plucking an eyeball out of a mounted fox on the wall while Ethedra grabbed the other eyeball. This gave a better view, and thistime, it became clear that Sage was speaking to someone in the Templum.
Abigail looked up at the shiftsegen. She pointed. “That thing talked to her.”
Ethedra dropped the two eyeballs onto the plane between worlds, where they burnt up. “Maybe. Maybe not. Or maybe she thought it was a ghost. She ran out pretty quick.”
Near the door, a walkie-talkie squelched and Number Six spoke from it. “Missus.”
Ethedra raised her hand, and the walkie-talkie flew across the room to her. She grinned an evil grin, cleared her throat, and spoke into it, using Abigail’s voice.
“Yes, my lo—” she said sweetly, but Abigail was fast. She yanked the walkie-talkie to her withvvystand flipped Ethedra off.
“What?!” she barked into the radio.
“Missus. Those two KSRT wolves’re causing trouble out here.”
“Your instructions still stand. Keep them away from the inn until Sunday night but don’t kill them.”
“That’s a hard ‘un, Missus. These two, they just keep coming.”
Abigail considered. These two wolves would ruin everything if they found the Inn, and these two were the most likely ones to manage it. It would ruin everything—all her careful plans. Unacceptable.
“Drop them in the hole,” she said. “Kiki’ll keep them busy.”
“Ayuh, Missus,” Six said, his voice excited. “I’ll be doin’ that with a smile on my face—you ain’t gonna kill me iffen they get eaten?”
“Doubtful,” Abigail said. “Those wolves are harder than fleas to get rid of.”
Abigail dropped the radio on the table, noticing Ethedra was gone for good this time, without so much as a ‘goodbye’.
Now to deal with Sage.
52—Caged
Abigail returned to the cocoon of magical energy on the floor that enveloped her 11 times great-granddaughter.
“Molofi.”
Her hand lit in white flame. She used one finger to gingerly open up a tiny hole near the top of the cocoon. Looking down in it, she saw only a mass of messy brown hair. Abigail held the hole open.
