Page 48 of Hallow Hill at Halloween: Part Two

He turned. “What a surprise.”

I couldn’t object because he was right. It wasalwayssomething. It couldn’t be easy to be my clerk, or neighbor, or friend, or solicitor.

I indulged in a little sigh of self-pity.

“Could you sit for a sec?” I motioned to the big leather chair.

“It’s a sit-down sort of surprise then?”

“Um. Possibly.”

He indulged himself in his own little sigh of self-pity, but sat down holding his unlit pipe and waited.

I told him the story about my visitors and how they’d been forcibly removed.

“Loki.” Lochlan said it all.

“I was coming to work with you, but I couldn’t stand the idea of not knowing what he did with Vuk and John David. So I called Evie and asked her to find them. She said, ‘How?’ I said, ‘How should I know? You’re the queen.’ Or something like that. Then she said, ‘The dogs! They’re hounds!’”

“Oh no.” Lochlan was shaking his head. “I don’t like where this is headed.”

“Just let me finish.”

“Must I?”

“Yes. I said I didn’t think the dogs could do that. She said, ‘Let’s ask Sigrid.’ So, she brought Sigrid here. She’s in the kitchen now having tea and almond squares.” Lochlan’s gaze drifted toward the door and back. “Sigrid says yes. Fraighounds can track people, but not when they’re as young as Fen and Frey.”

“I knew I didn’t want to hear the rest of this,” Lochlan interrupted.

“Come on. Angus and Aisling might even like it. It would be something different. I’ve read that working dogs, meaning dogs with special talents, like to work.”

Lochlan seemed to be considering that. Without warning he stood and marched toward the kitchen with me close on his heels.

He didn’t bother with niceties. He said to Sigrid, “See here. What would be required of my dogs if I agree to this outing?”

“It’s more what would be required of you,” Sigrid told Lochlan.

“What do you mean?”

“You would need to tell your dogs to pull my chariot…”

“Your what?” He was shaking his head. “That’s ridiculous. They’re dogs, not horses.”

“The combined weight of myself and the chariot would not be a burden for them. When your dogs don their true selves as fraighounds, they could pull a human train without straining.”

“See?” I told Lochlan. “A train is no strain.”

“Mom,” Evie said with her mouth full of almond square. “It’s no time to be funny.”

“Why didn’t I know this?” Lochlan said.

“I don’t know,” answered Sigrid. “Where did you get your hounds?”

“They were a gift that was a thank you for a case…” he stopped and tapped his pipe, “two magistrates back I believe. They didn’t really come with much in the way of information or instructions.” He felt in a breast pocket for a lighter, but came away empty handed. “Would there be any danger for them?”

“I would not let anything happen to fraighounds!” Sigrid was clearly offended by the idea that precious magical canines might come to harm on her watch.

“Is that all you’d need from Lochlan? Permission?” I asked.

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