The scent from that day in the cave, when he woke up bound with rope, a captive due to his own shortcomings.
The scent of his abductor.
He moved his head, in the direction it came from, but it was a single, thin strand, tantalizingly present one moment, gone the next, in a thicket of threads all weaving in together. He couldn’t hold onto it.
Was it really even there? Could he trust himself? Or were his senses going awry again?
There was a burst of laughter again from the group. He was still honed in on the sound of her delight. It was another reminder, one he needed whenever he felt his yearning for her start anew. He was cut apart from the group, and needed more than ever a chance to reinstate himself within it.
This could be it.
Except he didn’t scent it again.
* * *
“I’m part of the Ops team here,” Cadmus lied, desperately trying to remember Jordy’s prattling about her job. “I’m doing spot checks of our employees in action so we can make sure we deploy the right number of staff throughout the day at various locations.”
The little girl was bored with Cadmus’ answer, and clung to her father’s hand. The father squinted his eyes, skeptical, sweeping over Cadmus’ attire, or rather lack of brightly colored lanyard emblazoned with the word “STAFF.”
“Undercover,” Cadmus said. “So I can also report on employee activities.”
The lie worked. The man shrugged. “Sorry for disturbing you, then.”
“Daddy, I want some ice cream.Now!!!”
He shrugged again at Cadmus, and turned with his spawn to walk away. His tone was considerably gentler as he addressed her. “You can have some ice cream, Rikki, after we get you some lunch.”
“With rainbow sprinkles, Daddy!!”
Cadmus cringed. He was about to pick up the binoculars again, when a sudden thought occurred to him.
Something that he should have adjusted for already, if his thinking weren’t so clouded.
The pendulum he had charged would bring him within proximity of the creature he was looking for. That’s what it was meant to do, if it was still working. That meant that Cadmus should have thought to use some cloakingmagick. It would obscure his presence even more than the ugly clothing he was forced to wear. It wouldn’t make him invisible, but it would lessen his chances of being spotted by the man-wolf before he was ready. And keep him from being disturbed again by the mundane and their annoying whelp.
He prayed that it wasn’t too late, and that he had enough on him to create a strong enough cloaking spell. As quickly as possible.
Nothing like creatingmagickunder stress, under a hot sun, at a place he wouldn’t normally be caught dead in, wearing clothes that made him want to die.
And limited to whatever he had on him, or could find around him. It was like a challenge on a game show, or a test he would give to a recruit after a year of training.
It was like an exercise he had once given Micah, after the boy had begun showing exceptional skill. When he was eight.
Micah.Right.
Cadmus was energized, and began searching for objects he could use. Ugh, even that candy wrapper he had kicked aside, that found a new crevice to get caught in. It was metallic and shiny, and could be used.
He found other objects, a twig, a pebble, three coins from his pocket, and added some hairs plucked from his head, and a few drops of blood from the last victim, that he had kept in a vial pendant dangling inside his shirt. Victims’ blood in a pendant was like a DarkMagickcredit card; he never left home without it.
Cadmus gathered together all the ingredients into a small bundle with the wrapper, and silently invoked all four directions, before intoning the ancient syllables of a cloakingmagickspell as he walkedwiddershins.
He could feel the energies coming up through the earth, curling in with the vibrations of his voice, wrapping themselves around the bundle, extending their tendrils around him and enveloping him in a layer ofmagick.
It wouldn’t render him completely undetectable, especially if someone was deliberately looking for the use ofmagick, but it would make it more difficult to spot him in general.
That is, if they hadn’t already noticed a tall man on top of a hill walking counterclockwise, muttering gibberish out loud.
And to top it off, the spell was temporary, as it was hastily cobbled together out of what he could find.
