“Huh?” Darien stared at him.
“The antique shop. We’re going to stand and stare in at the goods, with the familiars concealed by our bodies, and wait for Ferngold.”
“Browsing the Mickey Mouse kitsch. Not what I expected for my next assignment.” But Darien scooped Pip up in his arms and walked down the sidewalk to stare in at the dimly lit shop window as directed. Jasper carried Xsing against his chest and went to stand beside him, his back to the street, and Magda followed with a huff of breath.
Grim looked up at Silas. “I’m going hunting. I hear mice, and I’m tired of beef jerky. Don’t worry. I know what both Ferngold’s cars sound like.”
Silas wasn’t about to try to stop him. He hefted his pack over one aching shoulder and headed for the antique store.
Darien had underestimated the quality of the goods, but not by much. There was no Disney on display, but Silas spotted more than one cow-themed creamer set, and enough chubby, red-cheeked figurines to populate a kindergarten class. He tried to look deeply interested in a “genuine Imported” cuckoo clock. Or a set of dishes with pictures from the 1900 Paris Exposition, done in lurid shades of green and pink.
Eventually, Jasper said, “You know, Clarice’s taste in knickknacks begins to seem almost tasteful.”
Xsing wriggled in his hold. “I’m having trouble adjusting the sensory inputs in this form. Its vision is blurry, hearing is far too loud, and there are smells everywhere.”
“I know!” Pip turned to him, his tail bumping against Darien’s arm. “When I became a dog, I was almost overwhelmed with the scents. Even with all my training.”
Silas held back a chuckle, imagining what Grim would have to say about Pip posing as an expert.
“You say this is a raccoon?” Xsing held up a front foot to look at it. “I have not studied the fauna of Earth. At least it has hands. That could be highly useful.”
Jasper said, “Procyon lotor. An intelligent, nocturnal omnivorous mammal with the ability to climb, run, and swim well.”
“And fly?” Xsing asked hopefully, peering at his shoulder.
“No, sorry. No wings.”
“Oh well, given my first attempt at locomotion, perhaps that’s for the best.”
“You’ll get the hang of it, I’m sure,” Pip said. “When we studied four-legged locomotion in school, none of us took more than a week to stop falling over.”
Darien asked, “How does it work, anyhow, the turning-into-a-familiar thing? You don’t get to pick, right? You just arrive and… hey, presto, you’re a dog?”
“It’s a camouflage spell that my people developed eons ago and now it’s part of our basic nature,” Xsing said. “Our planet outside our cities is harsh and there are many bigger predators. Also extremely wary prey. The spell is designed to reach out in moments of stress and select a good local match, then transform our physical shape to reproduce it, including a scattering of local substrate to stabilize the form.”
“Yes!” Pip gave Darien a doggy grin. “If we arrive on Yyygrdii as a small friend, there are a few local forms we might take. But if we arrive on Earth, the spell has all kinds of choices. That’s one reason I wanted to go to Earth when I graduated. Much more exciting. When I got pulled to Earth early, totally by accident—” He turned to Xsing. “I didn’t mean to. I was hugging my brother and he was summoned to Earth, and, well, I ended up here too. Not on purpose at all, but I’m glad I’m here.” He looked back at Darien, his tail wagging rapidly. “Anyhow, my spell must’ve cast about and found a rat terrier nearby and decided that form fit my needs. And I love it.”
Jasper nodded. “I bet there were raccoons in the alleyway behind the house where we arrived. And their dexterity and problem-solving skills fit you, Xsing.”
Xsing shrugged both shoulders a few times. “This form feels settled. Back Home, when the stress is past, the spell would fade and we’d revert to our natural form.”
“That doesn’t happen here.” Pip cocked his head. “It might be fun to try other shapes, but I don’t mind staying a dog. If I changed forms, I might not be Darien’s familiar anymore, and I wouldn’t like that one bit.”
Suddenly appearing at Silas’s knee, Grim said, “Being summoned offworld locks in our forms at the first transition. Probably due to ongoing metaphysical stress. There’s a research forum at the Institute looking into changing that, but the spell is so integral to who we are that no one wants to experiment on live subjects. I, for one, am deeply grateful to have landed as a cat and not… anything else.” He ran a paw across his whiskers. “By the way, Ferngold’s car is approaching.”
Silas glanced toward the curb and saw Ferngold pulling up across the street in his older Chrysler Imperial.
Darien murmured, “Good thing he didn’t come in the Coupe de Ville. We’d have had to sit in his lap.”
“I’m sure none of us want that,” Silas whispered back.
Ferngold stopped and gestured imperiously through the windshield. When they approached, he rolled down his window to say, “Thornwood in the front. Quickly now.”
Silas rounded the hood and got in beside him, stuffing his backpack at his feet and suppressing a grunt as Grim leaped up, planting a foot in his stomach. The others climbed into the back, squeezed together by packs and familiars despite the relatively spacious nature of the car. Silas noticed that Ferngold had draped some kind of sheet over the back seat. Was he worried about fur on his upholstery?
He turned around and grabbed the dashboard as Ferngold accelerated away.
“Soooo.” Ferngold drew out the word. “I expect a full report of why you neglected your duties to the council and this region to go gallivanting off. We had three more demons come through in the last few days. Three! And you were nowhere to be found.”
“Was Worthington able to deal with them?”
“Yes. Along with that Spry woman who may not be as useless as I feared. But that does not excuse your dereliction of duty.” Ferngold flicked a glance in his rearview mirror. “Helping Jones obtain a familiar is hardly a sufficient cause.”
“Have there been any demons in the last—” How long since we cut the final portal channel? “—twenty-four hours?”
“No. But I imagine it’s just a matter of time. And you will be responsible for the next one.”
“Yes, of course. But I hope there won’t be a next one for a while.”
“Explain yourself.”
Silas said, as obscurely as he could, “It’s a long story. The short version is that we were able to trace the excess of demons to a shift in the relative metaphysical position of the hells and Earth, which facilitated transitions between the two. We traversed to a location where we could use a standard portal spell to pass into the interworld void and sever the connections, allowing Earth’s Otherworldly distance to be regained from the hells.” He stopped there and allowed himself to enjoy the way Ferngold’s brow furrowed as he mouthed several phrases and cleared his throat twice.
The third time Ferngold cleared his throat, Silas added, “Of course, there’s a wealth of detail you and the rest of the Council should be advised of. Shall we say tomorrow? Around ten AM?” A full night’s sleep was the least he and the others were owed.