No Quest for the Wicked (25 page)

A cheer rose from the crowd when the Elf Lord hit the pavement. “She has defeated the tyrant!” someone cried out, and then they all began singing. It wasn’t the tight harmonies and unearthly beauty of the elfsong I’d heard before. This song had a wild, undisciplined quality to it, but the way the crowd swayed in unison as they sang was hypnotic.

“All hail the conqueror!” they sang. “We must serve the one who frees us! Adore and acclaim our glorious queen!”

Then I realized they were singing about me. “Whoa! Hey! Stop!” I called out. “I thought you said you served no lord! You don’t want a queen! Especially not me. I’m human, and I’m not even magical!”

That didn’t sink in. They kept singing, moving closer to me, some of them reaching out to touch me, not going for the brooch, but just brushing their fingers against my sleeve, my hair, or the hem of my skirt. I skittered out of the way, protesting, but that didn’t stop them.

“If they won’t listen to me, then why are they worshipping me?”

“If it makes you feel any better, I think they’re worshipping the stone, and you happen to be holding it,” Owen said.

“I can see why Sylvester wanted the Eye. It definitely would have eliminated any resistance, and with the Knot added to it, no one would have been able to take it away from him.”

“That’s what he was doing?” someone nearby blurted, and I turned to see that Lyle and one of the other elves had arrived, panting and breathless. They looked down to see their ruler lying on the ground, and I tensed, anticipating their response, but they merely stepped over him on their way to me.

“You didn’t know?” I asked Lyle. “Sylvester had the Knot and the Eye, and he was the one who commissioned the brooch.”

“It’s true!” Earl said, stepping forward.

“Shut up—” Lyle started to say, then he frowned at Earl. “How would you know?”

“Because no one notices I’m around. Nobody listens to me. That means I hear everything, and I know what Sylvester was doing.” His voice rose, taking on a mad shrillness. “But we won’t fall under his rule! We will remain free! He won’t get the brooch. He doesn’t deserve it!” I didn’t think Earl had planned to announce his true allegiance, but it didn’t sound like he was thinking clearly at the moment.

Already seeing where this was likely to go, I moved out of the way of the arguing elves, but I didn’t move quickly enough. Earl spun and came at me. “It should be mine! I could rule! I’d be better than Sylvester. I wouldn’t oppress people. I’d let people finish a sentence!”

“Earl, you don’t want to do this,” I said, backing away from him and trying to keep my voice calm and soothing.

“Yes, Earl, be reasonable,” Owen added, sticking by my side. “You’re not like Sylvester, so you won’t give into it. You don’t have to listen to it. You know how to cut it off. Just tell it to shut up.”

Earl squeezed his eyes shut and shook his head, muttering, “Shut up, shut up, shut up!” as he did so. When he opened his eyes, the worst of the madness was gone, and he let out a long, deep breath. “Sorry about that,” he said. Then his eyes widened and he cried out, “Behind you!”

I turned, not sure what horror might be coming after me this time, but it was only Rod, reaching toward my pocket. Owen snapped, “Rod! Not now! Get a grip!”

Rod wiped sweat off his brow with a shaking hand and said, “I’m good, I’m good. But I think I’ll go stand over there.”

When we returned our attention to Earl, the madness was on him again, and he rushed at us. “Rod, now would be a good time to help us,” I said desperately. “You know, a little protective magic? That is, if you can draw your attention away from the brooch.”

Before Earl reached me, he jerked and flinched as Granny’s cane connected with his back. “Snap out of it, son,” she said. “Honestly, I’ve never seen such a weak-minded group of people in my life, and that includes the biddies at the beauty shop back home who believe everything they see on the Internet and then forward it to everyone.”

Earl hung his head and said sheepishly, “Sorry, Granny.” Then he slunk back into the crowd, keeping his distance from the stone.

All the while, the fairies and elves kept singing as they danced in circles around us, which added an odd contrast to the events. I waited for Lyle and the others to go on the attack, but instead they, too, joined the chorus. “Let’s get out of here,” I muttered to Owen, who resumed his protective position on my right side as we headed toward Fifth Avenue.

I worried that the procession of singers and dancers following me would attract even more unwanted attention. This was about as far as I could get from stealthily sneaking through the park. I felt like I was in an old musical, where suddenly everyone in town joins in the song-and-dance routine, knowing the words and the dance steps, even though they’re total strangers. Only, I didn’t feel like dancing, and I didn’t have the energy to sing.

I turned out to be right about drawing attention, but it wasn’t the kind of attention I’d expected. The park’s true wildlife was emerging from its hiding places. Birds flew overhead, and small furry things came out of the bushes and hedges. I didn’t want to think about what kinds of things lived in the city park, but I doubted they were all cute and cuddly.

“I feel like I’m in some demented Disney movie,” I said to Owen. “If they start making little outfits and singing to me, I may join Sylvester in la-la land.”

“They must sense the raw power of the Eye and be drawn to it instinctively,” he said.

“Then we have definitely
got
to destroy this thing. If it’s doing this on its own, without anyone directing it, then what could it do if someone actually tried to use it to gain power?”

“Merlin said it started wars.”

“That is
not
reassuring. I never imagined myself as a Helen of Troy type who could be the cause of a war.”

“It wouldn’t be about you. It’s all the stone. You just happen to be holding it at the moment.”

“That ‘at the moment’ disclaimer isn’t reassuring, either.”

A loud “ribbit” stopped me just before I put a foot down on a frog. Then I saw that there were several sitting expectantly at my feet. “I’d bet you’ve found the enchanted frogs,” Rod observed. “They must be transformed wizards who sense the power.”

I sidestepped the frogs and hurried away, trying to move quickly enough that they couldn’t keep up with me. “Uh uh,” I said, shaking my head. “Been there, done that, and I’m not doing it again. I know too much about what that can lead to. Besides, I’ve already got my prince.” I favored Owen with a smile, which he returned.

“Seems cruel to leave them like this, though,” Granny said. “I suppose I could help them out.” She bent to pick up one of the frogs, but it let out a horrified croak, and then all the frogs fled. “Suit yourself,” she called after them. “It’s your choice.” She snorted, then added, “You’re probably older than I am.”

That was funny enough to make me laugh in spite of the dire circumstances. “You know, in the morning, I’m going to wonder if I dreamed this whole thing,” I said. “This is the kind of nightmare I have where it’s so vivid that when I wake up, I think it really did happen until I remind myself of all the absurd, impossible details. Only this time, the absurd, impossible details are real.”

“You’ll have enough bruises to prove it was real,” Owen said.

“Oh, yeah, that one on my hip will be especially vivid. Can a bruise leave a scar?”

A cry of pain nearby told me that Rod had tried to creep up on me again, and Owen had knocked him aside. “He’ll have a few bruises, too,” Owen remarked.

“Sorry!” Rod called out.

“Distract yourself,” Owen suggested. “Think about baseball statistics or sing commercial jingles to yourself.”

“I’ll give it a shot.” He combined the solutions and sang “Take Me Out to the Ball Game” at the top of his lungs. If the singing elves and fairies hadn’t drawn attention, then that was sure to.

“Do the police not patrol the park at night?” I asked, glancing around. “I’d think they’d be drawn to this thing along with everyone else, and they’ve got guns.”

“There’s at least one patrolman in your entourage, but he’s currently dancing with a fairy,” Owen said. Then he suddenly spun me around into a dance hold and waltzed a few steps. “Why let them have all the fun?” he said. “Enjoy your moment to be queen.”

“Well, no one is currently trying to kill me,” I admitted. So far, the fairies and elves were willing to merely bask in my glory—well, the glory of the Eye—and their presence seemed to be keeping the power lusts of others somewhat at bay. Earl and the other elves from Sylvester’s crew were following me instead of chasing me, and even Rod seemed to relax once he got into the spirit of things.

I wasn’t a great dancer, but Owen, who had been brought up by the kind of old-fashioned people who would have made sure he knew what to do at a formal ball, was a good leader, and soon I was almost able to forget the imminent danger long enough to enjoy the fact that I, Katie Chandler, a woman who was so ordinary that it came back around to extraordinary, was waltzing through Central Park at night with a handsome man while a horde of adoring followers serenaded me, pledging their undying devotion.

It was too magical to last. So, of course, it didn’t.

Earl emerged from the crowd, his eyes showing the same kind of madness that Sylvester had. Instead of being lulled or distracted by the singing, he seemed to have decided that he wanted these people to follow him the way they followed me. “Listen to me!” he called out, raising his voice above the song. “You’re following a mortal woman, a woman with no magic! It’s the Eye of the Moon you follow, not the woman.”

Someone in the crowd laughed, and that laugh gave me shivers. “We knew that. Did you think we were so foolish as to follow an ordinary girl? We follow the stone. She rules us.”

I looked up at Owen as we stopped dancing. I knew they weren’t really following me, but it stung to realize that they knew it, too. More alarming was the fact that they had pledged their loyalty to a stone. That meant they’d willingly follow whomever held it.

Earl figured that out pretty quickly, himself. “You should follow one of your own,” he said, and then he rushed at me. “Give it to me. It isn’t yours!”

“It’s not yours, either,” I replied, moving out of the way. Then I played dirty. “Who do you think you are,
Sylvester
?” I asked with a sneer. “Are you that hungry for power that you’d do exactly what he tried to do? You’re even letting it affect you the same way.”

He froze, then shook his head. “I’m not like him! I’m not!” Then he turned to Granny. “Please, help me! I can’t stop listening to it, and it’s telling me that if I had it, people would hear me, for once. They’d do what I told them. They’d let me finish sentences.” He was pleading now, and I saw tears glistening on his cheeks. “I don’t want to be like Sylvester.”

“Come here, boy,” she said, her voice gentle. “Bend down. You’re such a beanpole I can’t reach you.” He went to her and leaned over. She reached up and touched the middle of his forehead with one finger. “Sleep now,” she ordered. His eyes closed, and then he slowly crumpled to the ground, where he curled up on his side. All the muscles in his body relaxed as he gave a little sigh.

“They’re so cute when they’re asleep,” Granny remarked as she watched him. “Now, we’d better get away from here before that stone proves more powerful than my spell. He doesn’t seem as far gone as the other one, but it’s best not to take any chances.”

We were near the edge of the park now. The traffic noises from Fifth Avenue almost drowned out the unearthly singing behind us. My—make that the stone’s—entourage had thinned somewhat as the less civilized park denizens withdrew. I noticed that there were fewer animals following us, too.

“Do we really need to leave the park?” I asked Owen. “These people are creepy, but they don’t seem to be going after the brooch, and, who knows, maybe they’d do something to protect it if someone else tried to take it.”

“On the other hand, if someone else does take it, they’d follow them just as readily, so it may be too risky to hang around here.”

“Riskier than being out there?”

He turned to look toward the busy street, then back at the crowd of magical folk. “I don’t know. I don’t think there’s a right answer, just a bunch of answers that are all wrong in different ways. I suppose it won’t hurt to stay here as long as we can, and then we can leave if we need to.”

We stopped, and then I edged closer to Owen as the crowd caught up with us and circled us, still singing to the stone. The air crackled with magic, and I wondered what those spells would have done to me if I weren’t immune to magic. They didn’t seem to affect Granny, but Rod swayed along with the crowd. As long as that stopped him from trying to get the brooch, that was okay with me.

Then I realized that there was one member of our party unaccounted for. “Where’s Thor?” I asked.

“I don’t know,” Owen replied, scanning the crowd. “Did he stay with Earl?”

“They had a truce, but I don’t think they’d yet become friends. Maybe he wandered off since he got his money. That was his main goal.”

“Yeah, and money’s probably more powerful than the stone to a gnome.” But Owen didn’t stop scanning the crowd. “It’s not like a gnome to blend in with elves and fairies, so he probably is gone,” he added.

“Granny!” I called out. “Have you seen Thor?”

“He was here with me a minute ago,” she said.

“Oh?” Now I was worried.

“He was very politely escorting me. Not that I needed any help.”

“Then where is he now?” If meek, gentle Earl had turned on us, I worried about what Thor would do. He’d gone after Mimi with his battleaxe, but the Knot had protected her. I had no such protection. My calf muscles twitched in anticipation of an axe blow.

A war cry rang out in contrast to the sweet singing, and I screamed and jumped. “Thor!” shouted Granny, her voice ringing with iron.

The war cry stopped, and I saw Thor swaying on the edge of the crowd, directly in front of us. “I need it,” he whispered.

“You have your money,” Rod reminded him. “Remember money? Put your hand in your pocket and jingle those coins.”