No Quest For The Wicked

“I’ve got a guest room,” Owen said. “She can stay with me.”

“Are you sure about that?”

“It won’t be any trouble at all.”

“I’ll owe you, big time.” I had no doubt that he loved me, but if he was willing to have my grandmother under his roof, then that was a true sign of devotion.

The flying carpet reappeared outside Merlin’s window, and he said, “You should go to the station. We will notify you if we find anything. In the meantime, I will focus my efforts on learning who could have—and would have—stolen and fused the Knot and the Eye. Whoever that is would be very dangerous, and letting that brooch loose on the world may be part of a greater agenda.”

As if I didn’t have enough to worry about, I thought. It was almost enough to make the prospect of another magic carpet ride less frightening. It wasn’t, however, enough to make stepping out of a tower window onto a hovering magic carpet less frightening. “You should install jetways for these things,” I said as I screwed up the courage to make the jump after Rod got on and extended his hand to help me. The carpet wobbled alarmingly as I boarded, and then again when Owen got on.

“Penn Station, my good man,” Rod told the tiny driver, and soon we were flying up Broadway. I suspected that in addition to the magical veil that kept people from seeing a flying carpet, there was a magical windshield that protected us from the full force of the air rushing past us at that speed—and from getting bugs in our teeth. My hair still blew around a little, but it was easier to conduct a conversation on a magic carpet than in a convertible with the top down on a highway.

“Why’s your grandmother visiting?” Owen asked me.

“I have no idea. One of my family’s weird magical powers is the ability to sense my stress levels so they can be sure to do something to escalate them. My mother was probably too busy to come bother me during this crisis, so she sent Granny.”

“I don’t know, I can’t imagine your grandmother ever being sent anywhere by anyone. She either goes of her own accord or doesn’t go at all.”

“And you still want her in your house?”

“I’m used to Gloria, remember?” Gloria was his foster mother, an elderly wizard just as fierce as my grandmother, though in different ways. “Besides, when I was in Texas, she talked to me some about potions, and I’d like to pick her brains. There’s plenty of potential research material there that doesn’t require magic.”

We passed over Union Square—or, rather, an open and partially greenish blur that I assumed was Union Square. I jumped and clutched Owen’s arm when something suddenly appeared in the air beside us, matching our speed. It took me a second to recognize Sam.

“I think you’ve picked up a tail,” he shouted.

I turned to look behind us. There were no other magic carpets in sight, and Sam was the only other flying thing I saw. “Where?” I asked.

“Look up.”

All of us on the carpet—other than the driver, fortunately—tilted our heads back to see a hawk wheeling in the sky over us. “A bird?” I asked.

“The elves have got some tame ones workin’ for ’em,” Sam said. “Featherbrained turncoats,” he added with a snarl.

“Do you know if this one is working for them?” Rod asked.

“Not sure yet, but better safe than sorry. Look out, and see if you can lose her.”

The driver didn’t say anything, but the carpet banked steeply to the left. I whimpered as I felt myself sliding, but the carpet soon leveled itself out as we headed straight up one of the avenues. “Why does it even matter if they follow us?” I asked when I caught my breath. “We’re not on the mission right now. We’re going to pick up my grandmother at the train station.”

“They don’t know that,” Owen said.

“Yeah, but we’d be leading them straight to my grandmother.”

“I have to admit, there’s some appeal to that thought.”

“We need to at least pretend to evade them,” Rod said. “That’s a big part of the game. They’ll be suspicious if we make it too easy.”

The carpet made another sharp turn and headed crosstown for a while before turning abruptly downtown. A few blocks later, we turned crosstown for a block and then back uptown. An overhead glance didn’t reveal the bird, but I doubted we could hide from it for long. The carpet lowered, then stopped to let us off on a side street. There we blended as well as we could into the usual midtown crush of pedestrians and headed to the station.