When Darien was done, Pip lined up carefully to pee into the hole. “This is easier when I have three legs. Although I get to lift one, so I’m using three, so it should work. But I see why dogs on Earth don’t use toilets. Eek. Careful.”
Darien wiped a grin off his face. “Is it bad that I’m kind of happy you kept your dog form when we came here? I’m used to you this way, I guess.”
Pip did an odd shimmy to finish and trotted over to him. “I like it too.” His tail wagged fast. “Being a dog is fun, and I belong with you this way.”
Darien knelt and rubbed Pip’s ears.
“And that feels really good. Dogs feel things and taste things and smell things in fun ways.”
From behind the doorway curtain, someone cleared their throat, then Jasper’s diffident voice said, “Are you lot okay? I can show you where we’re meeting.”
“Just washing my hands.” Darien went and squatted at the niche in the wall to make it true. The water ran cool but not unpleasantly cold, and a rush of air followed to dry his fingers.
When he pushed the curtain aside, Jasper gave him a bright-eyed look. “This place is fascinating, isn’t it? I could spend years here and never run out of new information.”
“Would quickly run out of food, though,” Grim said from down the hallway. “Come along, no time to waste.”
The meeting room turned out to be another warehouse-type space, with empty shelves pushed back against the walls in what looked like a hasty clearance. Their whole crew, plus a couple of locals Darien couldn’t identify, sat on cushions on the floor at one side of the empty space. Their packs and Magda’s bag were stacked against the wall.
Darien headed over to an open cushion next to Silas. With everyone watching, he limited his greeting to a nudge against Silas’s thigh with his foot as he sat. “Is there food? And did you save me any cookies?”
“We’re keeping them for emergencies.” Silas passed him a slice of bread topped with cheddar cheese.
“Cookie emergencies,” Darien muttered through his first bite, just to be contrary. There probably was something emergency-solving about Mrs. Vaughn’s baked goods. She’d given them a small supply to take along, and Grim had thanked her rather thoroughly.
Professor Xsing got to his feet, stretching his arms high, then shook himself with a chiming sound the translation spell didn’t render. “Once you are all fortified, we should be ready to begin. Silas, do you have any supply needs I have not met?”
“I don’t think so.”
“I have rope in my pack,” Darien said brightly, drinking a gulp of the water in his metal tankard.
He was pleased to get a chuckle from Silas. “Essential. Definitely. No, Xsing, I think I’m ready. Or as much as I ever will be.”
“Who’s going, who’s staying?” Darien asked.
They all exchanged glances. Grim said, “It might be wise to leave someone familiar with Earth magic on the outside of the circle. If we don’t return in a reasonable time frame, they could still perhaps carry word back to Earth.”
“We need Jasper along,” Darien said, “for shaping the magic, Silas to get there, me for power—”
“Which leaves me,” Magda grumbled. “Again. Left out of the adventures.”
Silas gestured at the alien room, the glimmering figures of Xsing and Kii and the other locals. “This isn’t adventure?”
“Well. Relatively speaking.”
Kii said, “I’ll stay with you, mistress. If they do get into trouble, two heads will be better than one.”
“I will come,” Lyyll rumbled, deeper echoes underlying the translation. “I wish to have a word with these blocking gates.”
“And I, of course.” Xsing lengthened and shortened his legs, an effect like bouncing up and down without his feet leaving the floor. “To map out the power lines so they can be found. Although I would also come simply for the advancement of knowledge. I will produce a dozen scholarly works when this is over. Maybe two dozen.” He rubbed his three hands together.
Jasper turned to him. “How do you share knowledge within the science community? Do you have books? Or something more complex? An oral recording? I’m fascinated by the integration of magic with your technology.”
Silas coughed. “As intriguing as that is, we can’t get sidetracked.”
“Of course.”
Xsing tilted his head briskly. “I am also holding off a whole crowd of scientists, from magicologists to biologists to sociologists to historians, who would like time with our Earth and Yyygrdiil guests. We must let science slide in the name of action today.”
Pip looked up from the last bite of bread and cheese Silas had set in front of him and licked crumbs off his face. “Do you think more demons are going to Earth? How much time do we have?”
“No one can tell.” Grim stood and stretched, spurning the remnants of his pile of beef jerky with a front paw. Pip stretched his neck and licked up all the crumbs. Grim bopped his nose, though not hard. “If everyone’s fed, I think we should get going.”
The two unfamiliar locals crossed the room to stand by the doorway. “We will observe from here,” one said. “The magic portals of necromancers into the Veil have never before been opened on our world. We will create a circle around yours, to protect our world, should your spells have unwanted side effects.” The smaller one gestured, and a line of bright scarlet circled the room, met up at the person’s feet, and swirled into a barrier Darien could feel, like the hum of an electric powerline.
“Thank you, Conservator Kell,” Xsing said.
Magda turned to Silas. “Where do you want me, and what are you leaving behind?”
“No sense in us taking more than a day’s food,” Silas said. “We can’t last longer than that in the Veil. And if we don’t come back, you might need it. You should keep the extra.”
Silas set up a location for Magda and Kii inside the red circle but close to the door, and they unloaded the bulk of their food supplies at Magda’s feet. Darien shivered, watching Silas stack most of his provisions on the floor. We can’t last longer than a day in the Veil. No point in more food. That realm had been weird enough when it was just the route to the shore of the River. Who knew what they’d find in there this time? Hopefully fewer ghosts, ghouls, and demon-possessed sorcerers. He shouldered his lightened pack and forced a smile down at Pip. “More adventures.”
Pip’s tail wag came across more halfhearted than usual, but he took up a position by Darien’s leg as they formed up in a group. Xsing was talking to Jasper in low tones that sounded excited. Darien tuned them out to watch Silas.
The chalk in Silas’s long fingers was ordinary, no scarlet fire, no electricity, but when he raised it, they silenced. “I’m going to do this the only way I know,” he said. “Here’s hoping it works.” Matter-of-factly, he bent and began chalking a wide circle around them.
Xsing and Lyyll pivoted to watch him, appearing fixated on every gesture and rune. Silas focused only on the lines of chalk forming on the floor as he walked his path. Reaching the beginning again, he didn’t hesitate even for a second before scribing the lock to close the circle. Green shimmer ran along the lines and rose in gossamer walls. Darien wondered if he was the only one reading the relief in the easing of Silas’s shoulders.