“What? I don’t see anything that looks like a couple of camels,” Tess said, shielding her eyes from the southern sun.
“Well, it only looks like that from the east.”
“Are you screwing with me?”
I laughed. “Not at all. We can circle back around and I’ll point it out to you then.”
Tess studied the scene for a few more minutes and then turned back to me. “So, why’d you stop here? It couldn’t be just to show me the sights.”
“No, I thought I’d get a good look at the valley. The source is somewhere down there, probably between here and Pulpit Rock.”
“Pulpit?
I pointed again. “That one, over there. When you’ve seen enough, let’s continue.”
I stared out across the terrain and at the distant slopes of Cheyenne Mountain. With just a little self-deception, I could believe that I could see Joe’s cabin, but not even my enhanced senses could spot his place at this distance.
In a couple more minutes, Tess nodded and pulled back out onto Juniper Way Loop. I sped up, but kept Beast below the 20 mph speed limit.
The summoning remained focused off my left shoulder until we reached the intersection with Garden Drive. At that point, it was more behind us than off to our left. Parking Area 6 appeared immediately on our right, and I motioned Tess into it.
There weren’t a lot of visitors this November afternoon, and we were able to find a parking space for both motorcycles. I killed Beast’s engine and dropped his kickstand. Tess copied my actions, and we dismounted and stretched.
“Is this the place?” Tess asked, looking around.
“If you’d been paying more attention, you’d have realized that it’s just north of us,” I said.
Tess looked like she’d been caught with her hand in the cookie jar. She grinned sheepishly. “Yeah, I guess I was being too much of a tourist to really keep up.”
“Take a moment and see if you can locate it,” I said.
While Tess was trying to pinpoint the source of Verðandi’s summons, I studied the sky above us. There were at least four ley lines converging on the point directly above the summons. There was an incredible amount of power here for casting spells or opening portals. I could see why Rowle had chosen this spot for whatever mischief he was planning.
I pulled a small charm from my saddlebags.
“Okay, give me a second.” She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She pivoted around and came to a stop facing what we’d come to find. “There, you’re right. It’s that way, not far either.”
I cast a trigger spell on the charm, looked to make sure no one was watching, and tossed it into the scrub oak north of us.
“I place it as less than one hundred yards.”
“What was that you did?” Tess asked.
“I set a little trigger alarm. If any large amount of magic, like a portal being opened, is used within a half mile of that charm, it will ping my personal ward.”
“Great, now what do we do?”
“Now we wait,” I said.
“Wait? Just wait? How long?”
I shrugged. “I can’t be sure. Not more than a couple of days.”
“Days? We’re just going to hang out here for a couple of days? That’s how it works?” Tess sounded incredulous.
“We don’t have to be right here all the time. We can get here in five minutes from anywhere in town if we fly. But a lot can happen in five minutes.”
“Shouldn’t we be looking for the help Joe said you’d probably need?” Tess asked, looking north and shielding her eyes from the sun.
“That would be nice, if I knew where to look. I'm not really used to looking for assistance. I’ve had it a few times, but in those instances, I just happened to find temporary allies among people who were being affected by what I was there to take care of.”
Tess lowered her hand and turned back to me. “Like what happened in Huntsville.”
“Exactly, the local coven was trying to protect the grimoire that held the page Rowle was after. When he took it, they fought him while I joined in. It was a good thing they did; I couldn’t have stopped Rowle otherwise.”
“And the page? What happened to it?” Tess asked.
I gazed around, there was no one within earshot, but you never can tell with mages and witches. I triggered a tat on the left side of my neck. The air around us stilled.
“What did you do?” Tess asked.
“Privacy spell, it dampens any audio frequency within ten feet of me.”
“Then how can I still hear you?”
“Because ten feet is a circle around me, not a filled circle, but like a shield. It’s a line that sound waves cannot pass,” I explained.
“And you did that because you’re going to tell me a secret?” Tess said with a grin.
I grinned too. “Yep, I have the page. It’s in my grimoire now. I disguised it as just one more spell in a book of spells.”
“Like The Purloined Letter.”
“Exactly.
“But what are you going to do now? You can’t expect me to replace a coven in a fight.”
“Don’t sell yourself short, you’re learning fast.”
“Fast enough that you think the two of us can best Rowle and whoever is with him. Don’t forget that Joe said ‘hordes.’”
“I haven’t forgotten. I’ll do my best and if it isn’t good enough, well, then Verðandi had better have something in mind besides the two of us,” I said.
“Has she ever participated directly?” Tess asked.
I almost laughed. “No, Tess. The most she’s ever done was to pull you and me to Asgard when we were trying to get back home. The warning about the shades was as much help as I’ve ever gotten from her.”
Tess frowned. “That sucks.”
I did laugh then. “Don’t let it worry you. We’ll manage, somehow.”
“I wish you sounded a little more confident.”
“Beast believes that cockiness is the greatest cause of Wanderer deaths.”
“I don’t think showing confidence
