chapter Nineteen
At first, I thought I’d wound up in the wrong place, despite Owen’s assurances. This wasn’t some old warehouse where an alien army was being assembled. It was a New York City rave.
No, make that a disco, I mentally corrected myself, since the song currently blasting through the cavernous space was the extended dance mix of “I Will Survive.” A disco ball overhead sent shards of greenish light reflected from the portal around the room, and beams of colored light played around the dance floor as a mass of people—make that elves—partied like it was 1979.
In the middle of the elven version of Saturday Night Fever, nobody even noticed that someone had come through the portal. In fact, I stood out more by sitting still on the floor than I had from somersaulting out of the portal. I jumped to my feet and attempted to move like the dancers. Immediately, I had two elven soldiers move to dance with me. They glared daggers at each other, then the one who’d arrived a split second later sighed and backed away.
While I danced awkwardly in front of the gyrating elf, I glanced around the room. I wasn’t the only female present, but we were definitely in the minority, and we were very popular. Being an in-demand dance partner might make it harder to escape than any guards would.
Although I hadn’t anticipated landing in a party, I supposed it made sense. If you kept a bunch of elves cooped up in a big space like this, and if they were from another world and they were just discovering disco, this was what was likely to happen. I said a mental prayer of thanks to Saint Gloria of Gaynor because as weird as this situation was, it sure beat landing in the middle of drilling soldiers.
When the song shifted to a Bee Gees tune, I moved on to dance in front of another elf, aiming for the exit on the other side of the room. So far, no one had noticed that I was human or an outsider. It took four songs for me to get within clear view of the exit, and then my hopes fell. The party ended at the doorway. Beyond that, in the hall that led to the street entrance, there were several armed guards who didn’t look like they were having any fun. They were facing out, like they were keeping people away rather than keeping people in, but I didn’t think they were likely to just let me leave. I needed to find another way out.
During a group participation rendition of “YMCA,” during which I was unable to make any progress, I noticed a staircase leading to a balcony surrounding the portal room/disco. That gave me an idea. If some gargoyles had disappeared from here, that meant MSI security knew something about this place, and if I knew Sam, he’d be staking it out.
As soon as the song ended and a Donna Summer tune started, I danced my way toward the stairs. I might not be able to escape via the roof, but I might be able to get a message out that way. There were a number of elves hanging out on the balcony, watching the dance floor below, and I paused to do the same before moving on to look for a roof-access stairwell.
Although my mission was urgent, I forced myself to look casual. This was a clear case of nobody questioning you if you acted like you belonged. So far, I was getting along just fine in enemy territory, and I didn’t want to do anything to jeopardize that.
This building might have been Elf Central, but it was still in New York and subject to the building code, so there was an exit sign over a doorway, indicating a stairwell. Unsure if the elves’ lack of interest in me would extend to me going through an exit door, I leaned against the balcony railing for a while, watching the dance floor. It was hard to think of all these dancers as a potential threat to my world. Did they even know what they were being used for? And were they on board with this mission? Maybe all we needed to do to stop the elven invasion was introduce the would-be army to the New York club scene. Then Sylvester would have to turn to Plan B for taking over the world. These guys didn’t seem like they’d want to change or destroy a world with nightclubs in it.
When “Dancing Queen” came on, the partiers whooped with joy and enthusiastically threw themselves into dancing along. Even the elves on the balcony joined in the dancing. They were all so caught up in the music that they didn’t notice me easing open the stairwell door and slipping through it.
There were no guards in the stairwell, so I was able to run up to the roof level. I cautiously opened the roof door, made sure the coast was clear, then wedged a piece of wood I found nearby between the door and the frame so it wouldn’t close all the way, in case the door automatically locked from the inside.
At first glance, the rooftop seemed empty. The good news was that there were no elves up there, whether guards or partiers escaping the crowd. The bad news was that I didn’t see any gargoyles, either. Now would have been a good time to have magical powers, I thought. I could have sent up some kind of signal. A cell phone might also have come in handy. I was starting to rethink my stubborn stance on refusing to have one. Then again, even if I’d had one, I wouldn’t have it now, since it seemed like all our stuff had been taken away from us when we were sent into the other realm. I wondered if jumping up and down and waving my arms would do any good. The danger there was that I had no idea what I’d attract.
That made me realize how visible and vulnerable I was standing there on the rooftop. There was a waist-high wall around the edge of the roof, and I ducked so that I was beneath it. Crouching, I made my way around the roof, peering up occasionally. It would have been lovely if I’d spotted Sam perched on an adjacent rooftop, watching this place, but I didn’t.
What I did find was a fire escape on the opposite side of the building from the entrance. It was a long way down, but it was a way out, and I couldn’t forget that Owen was still in danger. I watched over the edge for a while, making sure there weren’t any patrols, then I gathered my courage and stepped off the roof onto a fairly rickety metal ladder. These things had to be inspected regularly, right? Elves might own this building, but they’d still have to have a working fire escape, I was sure.
The ladder rattled and creaked alarmingly, but it remained firmly attached to the building. I had to stop and rest with my arm hooked around the ladder every so often because my fingers grew tired and numb from the death grip I had on each rung. When I finally stole a glance at the ground below—which I’d been avoiding doing—it was near enough to be in focus, much to my relief. I came to the end of the ladder and stepped cautiously onto the part that extended to reach the ground. It shot downward so quickly I had to bite back a squeal of fright that surely would have alerted the guards on the other side of the building. Then again, they’d have had to hear it over the pulsing sounds of disco music. In this neighborhood, I figured the guards would have their hands full persuading outsiders that this really wasn’t a nightclub too hot to have a sign advertising it.
After taking a moment to catch my bearings, I ran away from the building. I quickly became acutely aware that this was the real New York, not the sanitized only-in-the-movies version where I’d been imprisoned. The city was generally safer than its public image suggested, but it still wasn’t the sort of place where it was smart for a woman to walk alone at whatever after-dark time it was. It must have been very late—or, rather, early—because the streets were just about deserted.
Now I really wished I had a cell phone. Since everyone else had one, pay phones had become scarce. Not that I had any change for a pay phone. Or money or a MetroCard for the subway. Or keys to my apartment. I was pretty close to Fourteenth Street, so I supposed I could walk home across town and use the phone there to call the office. That was, assuming my roommates were home and would open the door to me—and then not call the police because I’d suddenly returned from having been missing. I wondered how long I’d been gone. The weather didn’t seem too different from when I’d left, and the clothes I’d been wearing in prison were appropriate for the temperature, though I’d have been a lot more comfortable with the coat I’d left in the bookstore when we’d fled.
I reached Fourteenth and was wondering if I could convince a cabbie to take me home and then wait for me to have one of my roommates bring money for the fare when a voice called out, “Is that you, doll? I’ve been following you for blocks.”
I screamed and jumped, terrified that some late-night lecher was taking advantage of my solitude, and then I saw the gargoyle alighting on top of a nearby sign. I’d never seen a more beautiful sight. Tears of joy sprang to my eyes. “Oh, Sam, thank goodness! I didn’t know what to do or where to go and I have to warn Merlin.” My voice was alarmingly wobbly, sounding like I might burst into tears at any moment.
He hopped over to a street sign closer to me and draped one leathery/stony wing around my shoulders. “There, there, sweetheart,” he crooned in his gravelly voice. “It’s okay. I got you. But where the hell have you been for the last week? We’ve been lookin’ everywhere.”
“A week? That’s all it’s been?” Then I pulled myself together and told him, “We were captured by the elves—all of us, all the ones who’ve gone missing. Owen was with me, and Earl and Perdita were there, too. Dan showed up recently, and I just found Rocky and Rollo. In that warehouse there’s a portal to the elven realms. That’s where they had us, and we were under a spell that made us think we were still in New York, but we didn’t know about magic, and it’s all very complicated. What I need to tell you is that Sylvester’s bringing through an army from the elven realms. At the moment, they’re busy dancing the night away, but I think it could still be a problem. And everyone else is still trapped in the elven lands because they can’t get through the wards to the portal, and Owen’s under attack. He was in trouble when I left, but I had to go.” I stopped, totally out of breath and drained now that I’d accomplished my mission to warn someone.
Sam patted my shoulder and nodded. “Well, it’s okay now, doll. Lemme call this one in, and then we’ll get you to a safe place.” He reached up a clawed hand to tap his ear, then gave a rapid-fire series of orders. I was so relieved and exhausted that I didn’t even register what he said. I was too focused on what I’d managed to do and what there still was to do. I couldn’t forget the last glimpse I’d had of Owen under attack.
A moment later, Sam said, “I’m gonna put you in a cab, since I don’t think you’re up for a magic carpet ride right now.”
“Nope, I’m still not up for that,” I said, shuddering as I remembered my last experience with magic carpets.
“Then I’ll meet you back at the office, and we’ll talk to the boss, okay?”
“Okay,” I said meekly.
A cab pulled up a moment later, and it was only after I was safely ensconced in the back seat that I realized just how exhausted I was. I must have dozed off because it seemed like only seconds before a blast of chilly air woke me. I opened my eyes to see that the cab had stopped in front of MSI headquarters, and Merlin was holding the cab door open for me. He offered his hand to help me out.
I’d barely left the car when something struck me and held me in a viselike grasp around the waist. I started to squirm away, then realized it was my grandmother. Granny had never been much of a hugger, so this reaction told me how worried about me she was. Before I could return her hug, she released me and stepped away, her expression making it clear that this had never happened. “It’s about time you got back,” she snapped, only a slight rasp in her voice revealing her emotions. “What were you thinking, wandering off like that?”
I didn’t get a chance to reply before someone else caught me in a bear hug. “It’s so good to see you. We’ve been worried,” Rod’s voice said into my ear. He pulled away and frowned. “But what about Owen?”
“We should let Miss Chandler sit down before we interrogate her,” Merlin said. He tucked my hand into his elbow to escort me into the building and up to his office. Once we were there, he got me settled into a chair and handed me a hot cup of tea. Granny and Rod pulled up chairs nearby, like they were afraid to let me out of their sight.
“It is good to see you safe, Miss Chandler,” Merlin said, his voice gruff with a surprising amount of emotion. “We’d feared you were lost for good, along with the others. I know you need to rest after your ordeal, but I’m sure you appreciate the gravity of the situation.”
I swallowed the sip of tea I’d just taken and said, “I totally get it. That’s why I’m here, to spread the word and get help.” I drank the rest of the tea to fortify myself before I launched into the story, far more coherently than I’d told it to Sam. I left out most of the romantic comedy details, focusing instead on what we’d seen before we were captured, what we’d learned after we broke the spell, and what I’d discovered upon returning to the warehouse. “And I’ve only been gone a week?” I concluded. “It’s been a really, really busy week.”
“The enchantment likely altered your sense of time, and time does move differently in other realms,” Merlin said with a wryly amused smile.
“Does that mean I’m a month or so older than I should be?”
Granny snorted. “You’re too young to worry about that.”
Merlin’s expression grew more serious. “And now we must stop Sylvester’s army before he can act.”
“Not to mention gettin’ the rest of our people home,” Sam added. I hadn’t realized he was there, though now that I thought about it, he would have arrived far ahead of the cab. I must have been really out of it before that tea.
“From what I saw in that warehouse, I’m not sure the army will be too tough to deal with,” I said. “They’re having a big party right now. It seems they’ve discovered disco. I don’t think they’re true believers in the cause. I even wonder if they came voluntarily or if they were brought here the way we were sent into that other world and don’t know the real reason. If they’ve been enchanted, they may think this is something they have to do.” I sighed wearily. “But if that’s the case, I don’t know how to break the spell on them because it requires knowing something about their real lives.”
“How many of ’em were there, do you think?” Sam asked.
“A few hundred.”
“That would be enough to solidify Sylvester’s power and eliminate anyone who might oppose him, but not enough to take on the rest of the magical establishment,” Rod said.
“We could probably find a way to trap ’em in that warehouse for the time being,” Sam suggested. “Then Sylvester won’t be able to use ’em.”
“What we need is an iPod with a really good dance music playlist,” I said, half in jest, but in my exhaustion-addled brain, I had a feeling I was on to something. I babbled on while I tried to make sense of it. “Our music seems to be totally new to them, and they’re really getting into it. Elves have a thing for music, right?” And then something that I should have thought of earlier dawned on me. “Maybe that’s how Sylvester’s controlling them. There had to be someone from our world involved in it, because they were doing all the motions to ‘YMCA,’ and that’s not something you just know if you’ve never seen anyone do it before.”
Now even more about what I’d seen was making sense. “I think they were all under a spell. That may be why they didn’t seem to care I was there. The spell must be in the music, and it didn’t affect me since I’m immune again. But if we switched the music, they might still enjoy themselves without being under Sylvester’s thrall.”
The trick would be finding someone to DJ for the forces of good. Perdita would have been a good choice if she hadn’t still been a prisoner. My roommate Gemma used to hit the club scene, but she hadn’t done so in a while and I didn’t want to risk dragging her into this. She was disturbingly enthusiastic about magical missions. “Jake!” I said abruptly. Owen’s assistant was more into punk, but I was pretty sure he could put together a playlist that could save the world.
“I’ll get him,” Sam said. “He may even still be here. He’s been pulling extra hours while Palmer’s been missing.”
A few minutes later, Jake ran in, breathless. “You need me?” he asked. Then he saw me. “Katie! You’re back! You’re safe!” His gaze moved beyond me, searching, and I shook my head.
“Sorry, he’s not with me. I was the only one who could get past the wards to escape, but I know where he is.” I left out the fact that when I’d last seen Owen, he was about to come under attack by elven prison guards.
“But, getting through wards?” Jake asked, his forehead wrinkling. “I thought …”
I groaned inwardly. It had completely slipped my mind. After the number of times we’d explained Owen’s returning magical powers in the other world, I should have remembered that it wasn’t widely known in this world, either.
Merlin came to my rescue. “It’s a long story, and I’m sure Owen will explain it to you when he returns.”
Jake didn’t look too upset by the news. He merely nodded and said, “That would explain the books he was having me find on magical infusion. But I bet that’s not why you want me.”
“Actually, we want your musical knowledge,” I said. “We need the ultimate playlist.”
He looked even more taken aback by that than he had been about the idea that Owen had magic again. “A playlist? Why?” he asked.
I gave him a quick recap about the partying elven army. “I think their music contains a spell. If we could switch it, that might break the spell. If they really like the new tunes, then maybe they won’t want to go into battle. We might not convince them to go home, I suppose, but we can worry about that later.”
“So you want music fun enough to stop a war? I think I can handle that.”
“They were really grooving on disco, and remember, these are elves, so melody and harmony are important. They seemed to love the Bee Gees. Come to think of it, with those unearthly voices and tight harmonies, it would explain a lot …”
Jake grinned. “I’m surprised you hadn’t figured that out already.” He pulled an iPod out of his lab coat pocket and started scrolling through the screen. “Fortunately, my musical tastes are really broad. I’ve got a lot of stuff here that should work. Just give me a few minutes. How long a playlist do you need?” His thumbs worked rapidly across the device as he spoke.
“I don’t know. Say about half an hour, maybe?”
He didn’t look up from the screen as he said. “Okay.”
While he worked, I turned back to the others. “I think I can get back into the building and swap out the iPod in the sound system’s dock. All the partiers are blocking the portal, which should help keep anyone else from being whammied and sent to the other world.” I waited for someone to tell me it was too dangerous, but Owen wasn’t there. As annoying as his overprotective instincts could be, I felt a little lost coming up with a potentially dangerous plan without having to overcome any objections. Some of my best ideas came from addressing his concerns, so I hoped I wasn’t missing anything.
“I don’t like you going in there alone,” Granny said. “I’m coming with you.” Her objection wasn’t quite the same as Owen’s, but it did force me to think.
“That would be a bad idea,” I said. “Until I can switch out the music, the spell might affect you. And after having been under the elf whammy, I can tell you it’s not something you want. They can make you forget who you are. I have to go in alone on this one.”
“I’ll need your assistance,” Merlin told Granny. “You’re the one who has the best elf underground contacts.”
“You’re with the elf underground?” I asked her. Resistance seemed to run in the family.
“I met some nice people that night in the park when the Eye of the Moon was drawing them, and Earl introduced me to some others. We meet occasionally. And I didn’t tell you because secret organizations are supposed to be secret.”
“I’m going with you, though,” Rod said, his jaw set stubbornly. “I won’t go into the building until you give me an all-clear, but I’ll be on the roof in case you need me.”
“My guys and I will keep anyone from getting out into our world,” Sam said. “That just leaves neutralizing the real bad guys.”
“Leave that to me,” Merlin said.
“Do you just want dance music, or do you want some ballads?” Jake asked.
“A few ballads would be okay,” I said. “They did a nice sing-along with one slow Bee Gees song.”
“And do you want to replicate the songs they were already hearing or do all new stuff?”
“How about a mix? Start with the stuff they were already hearing so the switch won’t be so obvious. Then mix in new stuff.” I listed the songs I remembered hearing.
“Gotcha. Just a few more minutes. I’ll have to save this list for the next party I have. It’s nothing short of awesome, if I do say so myself.”
Sam flew over to land on the arm of the chair where I was sitting. “You know, doll, you’re not gonna like it, but there’s one good way to get you on that rooftop,” he said softly.
“Yeah, I’d already figured that out. If you can keep the antique zombie gargoyles away, I’ll be okay.” The last time I’d been on a magic carpet, an evil gargoyle attack had nearly killed us. It wasn’t an experience I wanted to repeat.
“I won’t let ’em near you, I promise.”
Jake finished his playlist, then handed me his iPod. “Take good care of her,” he said, his fingers momentarily clutching on the device before he gave in and released it to me. “I want to make sure I can keep that playlist for later.” He reached into his lab coat pocket and pulled out a cable with plugs on either end. “Oh, and you might need this. If it’s a real docking station, you can just dock it, but otherwise you can connect through an auxiliary input jack with this.”
Wary of the technical stuff, I thought about bringing him with me, but the same argument I’d given Granny applied.
“While we’re handing out technology,” Sam said as he flew to Merlin’s desk. He picked up something and flew back to drop it in my lap. It was a cell phone. “The numbers you’ll need are already in there.”
“I guess I couldn’t hold out forever,” I said, turning the phone over in my hands. When I needed a phone, I usually used Owen’s, since we were always together. Needing my own phone made me miss him.
“Call us when you think the spell is breaking,” Sam instructed. He looked back over his shoulder and said, “And it looks like your ride is here.”
I hated stepping out of Merlin’s office window onto the magic carpet, but time was of the essence. Sam hovered alongside me as I made the frightening transition, with a little help from Rod. The carpet was driven by a small pixie-like creature. These guys knew what they were doing, and my last driver had saved us in the middle of an attack, so I felt a little better. To distract myself during the trip, I focused on the mission: infiltrating the Elf Lord’s lair and confronting his whole imported army, armed only with an iPod. That was even more frightening than whizzing up Manhattan several stories above the ground.
“So, I’ve been gone a week, huh?” I said to Rod as we flew.
“Yeah. We’ve been worried.”
“What about my roommates?”
“I told Marcia you had to go on a last-minute business trip. I thought it would probably be best if they didn’t have reason to worry.”
“Thanks! I wasn’t looking forward to explaining where I’ve been. I’m still not sure I understand it.”
In no time at all, we were back at the warehouse, and the carpet was settling gently onto the rooftop. The door was still propped open the way I’d left it. Rod gave my hand a quick squeeze and said, “Good luck. Call if you need me—and then call when you think it’s safe.”
“Will do.” I hurried down the staircase to the balcony level, then cautiously slipped out onto the balcony. The party was still in full swing on the floor below, but there was something different about the atmosphere. It was less free-and-easy, more intense. Instead of free-form dancing for the pure joy of moving to the music, the elves were moving in unison, as though they’d been choreographed and directed. They weren’t smiling, either. This looked like serious work, not fun. The music hadn’t changed, so I suspected it was whatever lay behind the music. And if they were making the elves dance in lockstep, I was afraid they were stirring up their army for an attack.