“That’s impressive. So did you find what you were looking for?”
He didn’t answer. I kept stirring the mud in the pot, not pressing the point. What he had found in the Shades’ library was his business, but I had a different question in mind. “When we broke in, I got the sense that there’s someone… trapped in one of the Shades’ human bodies.”
“Did you?” he asked. He sounded innocent enough, but I began to suspect Harutaka didn’t divulge knowledge easily. He knew what I was talking about, I was almost sure of it.
“These cult members. They get recruited to their cult, and they’re told that their soul is transferred to the shadow, leaving the body as a sort of empty husk. But that’s not what happens, is it?”
“I think not.”
“What actually happens is they summon something that takes control of their shadow. And they’re left stuck in their body, while the shadow moves it around, like a puppet.”
“It’s a demon,” Harutaka said. “I don’t know which.”
I shivered, remembering the desperate stare of the Shade when our eyes met. Pushing the image away, I turned the gas off, letting the bubbling mud cool a bit, and then poured some of it into a glass tube. I went over to the shelf, taking a dried mushroom from a jar and a small bone from a leather bag. I dropped them both into the tube. Then I picked up the jar with the distilled tear, where the silver liquid slowly formed in the bottom, and dripped three drops into the solution. The entire thing bubbled and frothed. Harutaka hissed in surprise. The color of the mud slowly shifted until it was golden, and glowed with a strange light.
“What is that?” he asked.
“A truth serum,” I said. “We’re going to use it to compel the mansion’s security chief to tell us the combination to the vault door.”
“And what else?” He seemed suddenly very excited.
I blinked. “What do you mean?”
“While he’s under the effect of the serum, he is compelled to give us the truth, right? Why not ask him the big questions? Is there a god? Do we determine our fate, or is it predestined? What is true happiness?”
“Um… it just compels him to tell us what he knows. Not all the truth in the universe.”
“Oh.” His face fell.
“We could get him to divulge his sex kinks, if it’ll make you feel better.”
“I do not think it will.”
I poured the liquid from the tube into a small copper vial, and corked it. “Sinead said you need my help to hack the server,” I said. “I’m going to the mansion tomorrow evening, so I’ll be able to hook you up.”
“Take this.” He pulled a chain from his pocket. A black stone was attached to it, with a single rune in dark red. The tip of a USB stick protruded from it, almost hidden.
“What is that, exactly?”
“It is a magical USB stick.”
I stared at him. “Seriously?”
“Very seriously. This is what I do, Lou. I write code, and magical runes, and I bind them together.”
I took the USB stick from his hand. A constant hum of magical power emanated from it. “What’s that?” I asked, pointing at the rune.
“Chaos,” he said, his tone simple. But he stared at me intently, as if the word meant something more.
“Okay,” I said. The chain was necklace-length, and I draped it around my neck. “So what do I do with it?”
“According to the blueprints Sinead showed me, all the rooms in the mansion are connected to the central heating, except for one.”
I nodded hesitantly. I remembered noticing it when we were poring over the blueprints.
“That should be the server room. It is kept cool because of the computers in it.”
“How do you know it’s not the pantry?”
“Because it’s not adjacent to the kitchen.” He raised his eyebrow. “You’re very weird, Lou Vitalis.”
“I’m weird. Right. Why would there be a whole room of servers?”
“Trust me,” he said. “For the security this dragon has, he needs some strong computers. I want you to go to that room, and just plug the USB key I gave you into one of the computers. I’ll do the rest.”
Chapter Seventeen
For the first time in many days, I woke up feeling almost like myself. I was walking Magnus, who was beside himself with joy at my recovery, when my phone rang. It was Kane.
“Hello?” I held the phone in my left hand, pulling the leash with my other hand while Magnus barked at a squirrel as if it was his lifelong nemesis.
“Lou! How are you feeling?”
“Better, thanks.” I tried to sound cool and professional, failing miserably.
“Glad to hear it. Are you walking your dog?”
Magnus stretched against his leash to the point of choking, his barking almost deranged with fury. This squirrel was clearly the source of all evil, and had to perish. The squirrel watched Magnus with the jaded boredom of one who had seen all the dogs, and found them lacking. I tried to pull Magnus away. “Yeah. There’s a… squirrel.”
“They’re the worst. Listen, can I drop by this morning?”
“Why?”
“I have the teleportation spell all figured out, but I need to practice it. I’ve never cast it before.”
“Don’t you need a dragon scale for that?” The squirrel turned away in disgust and hopped up the tree. Magnus whined, the chance to save the world from this vile presence forever lost.
“To actually teleport, sure. But I can practice the chant, the alignment of the mystical energy. I need to see if I can get the focal point of the arcane force to center on our combined entities—”
“Is this some sort of sorcerer’s techno-babble?”
“Of course not.” There was a pause. “Maybe. A bit. Basically, I need to train at casting the spell on both of us.”
“I need to be in the mansion this evening, Kane.” Magnus raised his leg and peed on the tree the squirrel had escaped to. He seemed satisfied with this outcome of affairs. He’d managed to have the final word. Or pee. Whatever.
“I know. I’ll be out of your hair by noon, okay? And I’ll bring brunch.”
“You could have started by saying that. See you in a bit.”
“Where can I draw a circle?” Kane asked, looking around my shop.
“I’m sorry?” My hair was a bit damp from the quick shower I’d taken. I told myself I hadn’t showered because Kane was coming over—I’d showered because I wanted to feel fresh. And if I wore my blue shirt with the nice cleavage, and my tightest-fitting jeans, it was because I wanted to dress nicely. It had nothing to do with Kane.
When he entered the shop, he paused for a long moment to look at me. His eyes lingered on my chest for a bit, and when he finally tore his eyes away, there was something hungry in his gaze.
Then he pulled a piece of charcoal from his pocket, and began looking at the floor of my shop in a way I didn’t like.
“I need to draw a circle to focus the energy. That’s how the spell works.”
“Then maybe we should have practiced it in your office. You’re not drawing anything on my floor, mister.”
“It’s just charcoal. It washes off.”
“Will you be the one doing the washing?”
He sighed.