Page 72 of Triumph of the Wolf
Maybe not, but I let Duncan guide me away. Bolin was speed-walking, and I didn’t want to lose him. Thanks to all the planters, raised beds, fountains, statues, and numerous paths meandering among them, the place was a maze.
“Have you ever heard of anywhere like this?” I asked Duncan, waving toward the distant Space Needle still visible between gaps in the plants.
“Oh, yes. There are artifacts that create pocket realms within our own world, and I’ve heard that powerful potions can allow people to access existing ones that are always there.”
I remembered the damp viscous stuff on the wrought-iron archway. Had Abrams sprayed that on to convert someone’s garden into a portal?
“These pocket realms are, however, rare,” Duncan continued, “and I’d not heard of any on this continent. They’re more frequent in the places where civilization existed in the times of stronger magic, back before it faded and those born with the ability to harness it and create artifacts grew fewer and fewer. On one of my treasure hunts in the Middle East, I once found an artifact that allowed me to visit a desert pocket realm. I almost died of thirst before finding a way back.”
“So, they can be dangerous.”
“Oh, certainly. Those who made them often left behind magical guardians.” Duncan lifted a finger, then paused to clamber to the top of a fountain with a statue of what looked like a thorn-covered bear spitting water from its broad snout. From a perch on its back, Duncan looked behind us and also in the direction we were heading.
I didn’t stop, not wanting to lose Bolin, who was not inclined to wait for us, but I did notice that Duncan’s gaze snagged on the way behind us longer than on the way ahead.
“What did you see?” I asked when he rejoined me.
“There’s a warehouse without any windows up ahead. It looks industrial and like it belongs in Seattle by the docks rather than in this realm, but it’s surrounded by plants and birds from here. Whereverhereis.”
“And what’s behind us?”
“Lykos and some men are coming.”
“More than the two men we saw earlier?”
“Yes.”
“That’s what I was worried about.”
We caught up to Bolin as he turned around a corner, pumping his arms in what looked like frustration that he couldn’t go straight. Jasmine was probably in the warehouse Duncan had seen, but spiky green cactus-like plants barring the way kept us from taking a direct route.
Bolin started jogging toward a four-way intersection that offered an option to continue in the right direction. Before we reached it, an eight-legged metallic bug skittered into view. It rotated toward us, showing two glowing dots for eyes and a circular orifice for a mouth.
I groaned. “Not those guys again.”
“Those aren’t the magical guardians I had in mind,” Duncan said.
“They must be Abrams’s specialty.”
“Since they’re mechanical rather than alchemical, that’s a touch surprising, but maybe he unearthed a stockpile of them someplace.”
“Those vapors they spit are plenty alchemical.” I well remembered the gaseous substance that could waft from their mouth-like orifices. During our previous encounter, the vaporshad almost knocked out Duncan and me. Had we succumbed and continued to be exposed to the tainted air, they might havekilledus.
In the intersection, another bug joined the first.
Duncan caught Bolin by the arm to keep him from charging toward it.
“They’re not that large.” Bolin pulled one of his spherical Orbs of Entanglement out of his pocket and fingered the vials on his bandolier.
“They exhale toxic gas,” I told him.
“Fortunately, we came prepared,” Duncan said.
“We did?” I grimaced as two more bugs skittered into view. Outside, the poisonous gas should dissipate more quickly, but I still wasn’t eager to get close.
A questioning grunt from the path behind us suggested we might not have any choice. I could sense Lykos back there as well as magical weapons. The brute squad was getting close.Herdingus.
Duncan tugged off his backpack and pulled out a nicer and newer version of the gas mask I kept in the leasing office. He handed it to me and drew out another one.
