“I tried all that once. It didn’t work.”
“It’s been kind of pleasant being here with Thad and Amber.” No mention of the girlfriend. “Sometimes, you get used to being alone and don’t mind it, but then when you’re with others, you remember there are other ways to be.”
I knew exactly what she meant. I closed my eyes, regretting that I hadn’t come to visit her more often.
“It’s worse after they leave,” I said.
“Yes. Have you learned… Do you know of…” Mom trailed off.
What was this? She was never hesitant.
“Now that there are magical beings in the world, beings like dragons, do you know if there are any portals to other realms?”
“Like the elven world?”
“Veleshna Var,” she murmured.
“I’ve seen Zav make a temporary portal. It closed behind him, and I assume it went to his world.”
“A dragon could as easily open a portal to the elven world.”
“Do you want me to ask him if he’ll take you through?” I was joking and didn’t expect her thoughtful silence.
“Do you think he would?”
“Mom, you can’t leave Earth. What would you do there? They have magic. They don’t need trackers.”
“Retire.”
“I’m sure they’d take American Express and put you up in a nice villa.”
“I suppose that’s…”
A crash came from up the hill, and I didn’t hear the rest. I sat up, grabbed my weapons, and said, “I’ll call you later, Mom.”
I unzipped the tent and stepped out into the shadows, listening for more noise. It was about ten, so not too late, but full darkness had arrived. A few motor boats buzzed out on the lake, their owners not yet willing to end the day. But the noise had come from town, from the grassy park Shaygor had tried to torch.
A familiar pungent scent drifted down the hill. The sasquatch.
Glass shattered, and someone screamed.
I drew Chopper, my fist tight around the hilt as I snarled with frustration. I’d watched the sasquatch camp all day, deemed them harmless unless someone was controlling them, and left them alone. Had that been a mistake?
As I ran up the road from the campground and into town, more glass broke. Someone else screamed. A horn blared, followed by the thunderous crunch of a car crashing.
Two great shaggy black sasquatch ran along the sidewalk above the park, throwing rocks across the street. From farther down on the hill, I couldn’t see what they hit, but I heard more glass shatter. They were targeting either storefront windows or cars.
“Sindari,” I whispered, glad I hadn’t kept him in our world for his full daily allotment of time earlier. “I need some help.”
Silver mist appeared with Sindari forming inside. I didn’t wait. I ran across the park, intending to drive the sasquatch out of town with my sword if I had to, but a hint of movement came from my left, along with the faint sense of something magical in use. A goblin camouflaged by a charm?
I lunged to the left and spotted a dark figure squatting atop a picnic table. I’d stepped close enough to see through his charm or whatever trinket was responsible for his stealth.
Even in the poor lighting, I could make out green skin and white hair. He wasn’t facing me. His focus was on the sasquatch. The amount of shouting and glass breaking all along the street implied there were more than two of them.
The goblin gripped what looked like a platter made from folded street signs in his hands, its magic growing more discernible as I drew closer. I was about to spring and tackle him, but he glanced back, sensing me at the last second. Though startled, he leaped off the table before I landed on it.
Do I help you hunt goblins, Sindari asked from where he’d formed, or stop the sasquatch?
Try to scare the sasquatch out of town, I replied as I ran after the goblin.
My legs were longer, and I was on the verge of catching him, but he tucked his artifact under one arm and flung back dark pellets. They scattered across the ground like caltrops and exploded right in front of me.
I dodged to the side to avoid the brunt of them, but a few struck. Harsh, fiery pain bit into the back of my hand and my thigh.
Snarling, I sped after him again. If he got more than a few meters ahead, and still had his camouflage activated, I would lose sight of him.
Up on the street, Sindari’s roar rose above all the ambient noise. The crunches, bangs, and shattering noises faded, but my goblin did not slow down. He zigzagged through the trees as fast as his short legs could carry him, hopped a chain, and ran out of the park and onto a side street.
Again, I was almost close enough to catch him when he dipped a hand into a satchel bouncing on his hip and flung something else back in my path. A paper-wrapped cylinder that reminded me of fireworks.
I leaped high in the air to sail over it and landed several feet beyond it as it hissed and smoked. I thought I’d avoided the weapon, but then it spun like a top and spat tiny projectiles. Several slammed into my calves as I ran, and I swore in pain as tiny thorns of agony burrowed in.
The goblin glanced back as he ran around the corner of a building and onto a dark street paralleling the bike trail below. The thorns stung like rattlesnake bites, but I resisted the urge to hobble to a stop, instead sprinting around the corner after the goblin. He was fading from my sight like an erratic hologram.
“Enough of this crap,” I snarled and pulled out Fezzik.
Without slowing down, I took aim. I barely resisted the urge to shoot the bastard in the back of the head and chose a lower target. I squeezed the trigger, and a single bullet sped into his calf, in about the same spot where his vile metal thorns were digging into mine.
He flew forward and hit face-first on the pavement, the magical platter flying out of his hands and clattering down the street.
I had a hunch it was more valuable than he was—if this was the artifact camouflaging all the goblins, then taking it from them would put an end to how much trouble they could create—so I leaped over him and ran to pluck it up. It hit a boulder, bounced into the air, and almost went over the edge of a steep slope. But I jumped and grasped it, landing on the boulder myself and catching my balance. A stiff wind would have knocked me over the side, but I recovered and dropped back onto the pavement, wincing as fresh pain shot up my legs.
More roars came from the main street, but a large building blocked my view of Sindari and the sasquatch. I started back to collect the goblin but halted. He’d disappeared.
“That was fast,” I muttered, running back to the spot where he’d fallen.
That had been a hard fall, and he had a bullet in his leg, so I wouldn’t have guessed he could run off so quickly. Maybe I could get Sindari down here to track him by the trail of blood. I needed a goblin to question. Badly.
Before I could call Sindari, a thump came from above me. The goblin was being pulled up the side of the building on a rope by two more goblins crouching on the flat rooftop. They were both hazy, right at the edge of my range to see through the influence of their magical camouflage.
Was the platter still protecting them? The welded mashup of signs, everything from No Trespassing to Curves Ahead, was warm in my hand and radiated magic.
I pointed Fezzik, intending to shoot the rope, not the goblin being pulled up, but one of the rooftop goblins drew as fast as an Old West gunslinger and pointed something at me. A stick? No. Whatever it was also radiated magic. A wand, maybe, if that was a shaman.
The tip glowed red and pointed right between my eyes.
I didn’t know if it was something like a gun that he could fire, but his yellow eyes were hard, his expression confident that he could do some damage. I hadn’t taken my armored vest off for the day, but he wasn’t aiming at my chest. And there wasn’t anything nearby for me to duck behind.
Since he was holding his fire, waiting to see what I would do, I didn’t shoot. I hadn’t intended to kill the dangling goblin anyway. So far, they hadn’t hurt anyone, just vandalized the town. It was a crime, but as Willard had reinforced, they shouldn’t be killed for it. Just arrested. Somehow.
I lowered Fezzik. The shaman lowered his wand. He and the other goblin pulled their buddy up and leaned back out of sight. Back under their spell of camouflage.
Sindari? I headed back for the park, wincing at the pain in my calves with every step and hoping I wouldn’t find piles of bodies, not when I’d essentially let that goblin go. Those were wonderfully resonant roars. Were they effective?
All sounds of vandalism had stopped, though I heard a car drive through, tires crunching on glass, and someone was shouting angrily from the direction of the town tavern.
My magnificent and fearsome roars did scare the sasquatch. I also nipped at a few of their calves.
Calves are a trendy target tonight.
What do you mean?
Nothing. I doubted Sindari could help me pull the thorns out of my own calves. Later, I would spend an hour with a camp lantern and the pliers on my multi-tool, but first, I had to check on the damage. Is anybody wounded?
A man who drove a car into a telephone pole is groaning, but the sasquatch appear to have attacked only objects and buildings.
I suppose they’re heading back to their hidden encampment now?
They fled up a street heading east and into the hills. It is likely they can get from there back to those woods.
And where did the goblins flee? I wondered.
I never sensed them. They are using magic as irritatingly effective as your cloaking charm. Even more so, because it seems to hide a great number of them at once. Either that or they all have charms. If so, they’re not as rare as I thought.
Annoying when the enemy has the same advantages that you do.
Certainly so.
Whatever the artifact I’d snagged did, it apparently wasn’t responsible for their camouflage. Was it what had been controlling the sasquatch?
It grew cool as I hobbled up to the main street to take in the broken glass, battered automobiles, and a door that had been ripped off its hinges and tossed onto a rooftop to hang precariously over the sidewalk. Lights flashed on a sheriff’s SUV, and uniformed men were lifting their hands, trying to placate people. I spotted the mayor getting out of a car and peering around with distraught scrutiny. She looked like she had a headache—or would soon.