An Affair Of Sorcerers

was just running out when I came up. He was tall-over six feet, I'd say. I didn't see the knife until it was too late; it just kind of flashed out at me. His hand was big, and I think he was wearing a diamond ring on his index finger.'

'Mad, how did you know they had me? How did you know where I was?'

She blinked rapidly, and her eyes went slightly out of focus as she absently touched her cheek. 'Didn't I tell you?'

'No, you didn't.'

'I received a telephone call. This voice-'

'Was it a strange voice? Distorted, like Esobus'?'

'Yes,' Madeline said, sounding confused. 'How did you know?'

'It doesn't make any difference. Go ahead.'

'The voice told me where you were,' Mad continued in a quiet, subdued tone. 'It said that the coven planned to kill you. I was told to call the police right away, and even told where the window would be open. When I called Garth, I was told he wasn't there. The police said I'd have to give my name before they'd listen seriously to anything I had to say. I gave them the information and told them it was a life-and-death emergency, but I just couldn't give my name. Then I panicked and came myself.' She paused and sipped at her coffee. 'Do you have any idea who might have called?'

'It was the same person you heard leading the ceremony tonight,' I said tightly. 'Esobus.'

'The man who slashed me?'

I slowly nodded, still staring down into the coffee. Now my stomach was tying itself into knots of nervous tension. At last, one more answer had come boiling up from the mixture of questions in my mind; the face of this one was leering and obscene.

'Mad,' I said, looking up at her, 'I owe you my life, so I really don't have any right to ask you for more. But I will anyway. If you'll help me, I think I may be able to clear this whole matter up.'

'You mean you think you can find Esobus?'

'Maybe,' I said, pushing my cold coffee to one side. 'I just may be able to produce physical evidence that will pin murder and extortion on those happy coven brothers.' I paused, added, 'The police are going to need it; there was nothing worth anything left in the coven headquarters by the time Garth got there.'

'I'm sorry to hear that,' Mad said, lowering her gaze. 'Did you. . tell Garth about me?'

'No, and I don't plan to. If you'll help me, there won't be any need.'

'You know I'll do anything I can, Mongo-as long as I don't get any publicity.'

'I want you to go for a ride with Garth and me. Garth already knows about your involvement with the occult, so that won't be a problem. You'll eventually have to make up a story about what happened to your forehead, so it may as well be sooner as later.' I lighted a cigarette, squinted against the smoke. I suddenly felt very tired. 'There's another woman I'd like to ask to come along. I'll need her expertise, as well as yours.'

Mad's blue eyes clouded, and she frowned. 'I don't know, Mongo,' she said hesitantly. 'My career is so important to me. Lately, I've begun to regret that I ever became involved with the occult.'

'I know. But this woman's a witch to begin with-and she's a friend of mine. You have my word that she'll keep your secret.'

Mad gave a slight toss of her head, then brushed her silver hair back and smiled easily. 'Your word's good enough for me. Where are we going, and what do you plan to do?'

'Let's wait on that until I get everything absolutely straight in my own head. When will you feel up to going out?'

Mad shrugged. 'I'm ready to go now, if it will clear this business up once and for all.'

'Tomorrow morning,' I said. I rose, took Mad's arm and helped her. to her feet. 'If you change your mind and want to wait a few days, let me know.'

'All right. But I won't. What time?'

'I have to check with Garth and the other woman, but let's say eleven.'

'Eleven it is.'

I walked Madeline to her car and drove her home. Later, I called Garth and April. My stomach wouldn't stop churning.

The city was aglow with copper light, and the late-morning air was oppressively thick, dirty and hot. Black- bottomed clouds had been scudding low across the sky for hours, phantom freighters impatient to unload their wet cargo. It was going to rain soon-and hard.

Despite the impending downpour, no one had suggested that we put off the trip. Events now seemed to be moving with a momentum of their own. Garth, Madeline and April seemed to sense that; I knew it. To put off this journey would only postpone the inevitable, and it was best to get it out of the way as soon as possible. That was what I kept telling myself. I was, after all, responsible for whatever was going to happen, and at the moment I was the only one who carried the burden of knowing just how ugly was the face of the secret we hunted.

The tires on Garth's car whined as we went down the entrance ramp and entered the maw of the Lincoln Tunnel. There'd been little conversation; everyone was waiting impatiently for me to explain what we were supposed to be doing, and the atmosphere inside the car was tense. Garth was driving his Pontiac, and Madeline sat with him in the front, staring moodily out the side window. April sat in the back with me, holding tightly to my hand. Her palm was wet and clammy. I was slouched down in the seat, wishing I were even smaller than I was. I puffed mechanically on a cigarette, blowing the smoke out the side vent.

'Are you sure you're all right, Doctor?' Garth said quietly to the woman sitting next to him.

'Yes, thank you,' Madeline said evenly. 'I'm just paying for my own stupidity. If I hadn't been so impatient and yanked on the chart, the rack wouldn't have fallen on me.'

Garth inclined his head back. 'Are you all right, Mongo?' he asked with heavy sarcasm. 'Are you alive, Mongo?' Anger and hurt hummed in his voice.

'I'm alive.'

'You're being very mysterious, brother, even for you.'

'Lay off for a bit, will you, Garth?'

'Come on, Mongo!' Garth snapped. 'The party's under way, and you're the host. It's time you told us where we're going, and why we're going.'

We passed out of the tunnel, into New Jersey. I flicked my cigarette out the window and straightened up in the seat. I'd run out of time. 'We're going to Philadelphia to look for Frank Marlowe's book of shadows.'

'What the hell?' Garth said, accidentally hitting the brake and almost sending us into a skid. Madeline had turned in her seat and, like April, was staring at me with astonishment. Garth started to pull over to the shoulder of the road.

'Keep going, brother,' I said curtly. 'At the moment, I'll feel better if we're moving.'

'Where in Philadelphia?' Garth asked, accelerating up past the speed limit and moving into the passing lane. The anger in his voice had been replaced by curiosity.

'To April's house-with her permission, of course.'

April gasped and put her hand to her mouth. 'Robert? I didn't take Frank's book of shadows!'

'Of course you didn't,' I said to April, squeezing her hand. 'I think your former husband put his book-or at least, the bulk of it-in your attic. That's what we're looking for.'

'Explain, brother,' Garth said quietly.

'Frank Marlowe wasn't working on a 'book of shadows' in the witchcraft sense of the term. This was his big book-the one he'd always wanted to do. And it would have been big; maybe it still will be. A coven: witchcraft, murder, extortion and sex-it had everything, up to and including some very big names in show business and politics. That was his book of shadows; he was probably even going to call it that. He'd been working on it from the first day he became involved with the coven.'

The rains came; or, rather, they attacked. The sudden cloudburst was a thick wall of water falling on us with the force of a giant wave. Sheets of rain swept over the car, instantaneously reducing visibility to zero. Huge droplets banged against the roof and windshield like the foot slaps of millions of running soldiers; their supporting artillery could be heard close by-laser rockets of lightning, explosions of thunder, their percussive vibrations felt