I watched in amazement as Sebille exchanged bolts of energy with something in the corner. Peering around the chair, I looked around for her nemesis, finding only a haze of smog and a potted plant with oversized, dark green leaves.
Whoever it was must be hiding behind the plant, I decided.
Then the leaves twisted and a large yellow flower emerged from their midst. Sebille, in her dragonfly-sized sprite form, buzzed behind the desk as a jolt of black energy shot from the flower and seared across the wall behind where she’d been.
She was fighting the flower? I blinked in surprise and, I’ll admit it, a little fascination. The world I’d entered was truly amazing.
And deadly.
I couldn’t forget that part.
I looked at Sebille, who was keeping the desk between her and the angry blossom. “What do you want us to do?”
The flower sent several bolts of its deadly energy into the desk, propelling pieces of it into the air in jagged strips.
In a moment of pure clarity, I realized it was trying to get to Alice.
Sebille dodged low to the ground and buzzed over to me, landing on my shoulder. She smelled of flowers and green growing things. “What’s going on?” I asked.
“What’s going on is that we’re not getting out of here with that suitcase,” she responded angrily.
I frowned. I couldn’t imagine why Gnomish, Inc. would be so determined to hold onto an old suitcase artifact that it would use deadly force to keep it.
I suddenly wished I knew exactly what that suitcase could do.
Alice’s face appeared at the end of the desk. The plant fired several more times, shearing off another chunk of her barrier. “It’s all gone to pot, ladies,” she said. “We need to scamper.”
Sebille rolled her eyes. “Now, why didn’t I think of that.”
13
Well, This Is A Bit Of A Damp Squib I’nt?
Sebille and I ducked as another round of energy blasted into the chair we were hiding behind. It blew the chair backward, turning me into a greasy splat on the wall.
Sebille cannonballed skyward before the plant had a chance to refocus and plunged downward, hitting the dirt in the planter and sending it into the air in a tiny brown geyser.
Almost immediately, the dirt lit up in a green haze that sent the plant into paroxysms of vibrating and wobbling. The frantic flailing had the plant’s wooden “arms” banging against the wall in an unsuccessful effort to rid itself of the “bug” infestation.
Energy seeped downward from the surface of the soil, even as dirt continued to geyser upward, painting the floor around the plant in a dusting of dirt.
With a final, violent wobble that nearly topped it to the ground, the plant finally went still, its stalk doubling over and shriveling up as if it had been dead for weeks.
Gasping and coughing up dust, the sprite burst from the soil and flew my way with dirt sifting off her wings.
In a blast of light and flower-scented energy, Sebille popped back into her human size. Wiping mud from her eyes, she headed for the door. “Come on, the alert has gone out. There will be a lot more trouble between us and the door.”
Alice emerged from behind the desk, the suitcase bouncing against her leg as she ran toward the door. I scraped myself off the wall and followed, wondering what in the world I’d gotten myself into.
It didn’t take long for me to find out.
Sebille cracked the door open and glanced around. Then she turned back to us and nodded, holding her finger to her lips for quiet.
She didn’t have to tell me twice. After being nearly drowned by flower petals and obliterated by a potted plant, I’d slither down the hall on my belly if I thought it would get us safely out of that horrible place.
We followed Sebille down the hall toward the stairs. She jolted to a stop on the top step, her body going rigid.
I peeked over her shoulder and gave a quiver of alarm.
The area at the bottom of the stairs was filled with waiting forms, their postures rigid and their gazes sparking with hostility.
The sinister cast to their lips had changed, becoming more menacing as they waited in silence. There were dozens of them, and every wooden face was focused on us.
It was the gnomes that had lined the wall in the lobby. Each one holding a spade, or a shovel, or a deadly-looking three-pronged cultivator in their knobby wooden grips.
Alice peered over Sebille’s other shoulder and grimaced. “Well, this is a bit of a damp squib I’nt?” she murmured softly.
Sebille snorted out a laugh. “A bit. Any suggestions?”
We shared a look. I was at a loss. Alice shrugged. Sebille sighed. “Alice, is that suitcase worth dying over?” she finally asked.
To my shock, Alice seemed to be giving that some thought. Finally, she said simply, “Yes.”
Sebille sighed again. “Okay, this is what we’ve got. Those things are wooden soldiers.”
My mind went blank on her words, picturing harmless toys that were safe for toddlers to play with.
She looked into my blank expression and rolled her eyes.
I was really getting tired of the rolling eyes thing. It was giving me a complex. I clamped down on the desire to remind her I was only two days into the job. But I was all too painfully aware of my inadequate knowledge of magic and magic users. I realized I should have been more curious growing up. As soon as I noticed the anomalies…the odd items following me around…the way electronic devices went snowy and jumped around when I passed by…I should have looked into the magic background I knew was my hereditary legacy.
I’d been a coward. And now I needed the Wizard to give me courage. “What does that mean?” I asked.
“They’re similar to a golem, but they’re made of wood.” Alice narrowed her gaze on me. “You do know what a golem is, right?”
Only about half, but I nodded. “Are they dangerous?”
“Very,” Sebille said. “They have only one purpose,
