Owen reached down, grabbed his jacket, and slung him under the nearest table. Meanwhile, Mimi shrieked at Sylvester, “This is the second time you’ve attacked me. What is your problem?” She raised her voice and shouted, “Security! Is security here? Get over here, this instant!”
Several men in uniform rushed forward. Sylvester raised a hand, stopping them in their tracks. The guards wavered, caught between the compulsion to obey the owner of the Eye and Sylvester’s spell holding them motionless. It didn’t help when Mimi shouted again, “Well? I said get over here. Deal with these men. They’re trespassing.” I worried that the guards would spontaneously combust from trying to simultaneously obey two mutually exclusive compulsions.
Owen used this latest outburst as an opportunity to make another attempt. He had the fake brooch in his hand, ready to slip it into Mimi’s pocket, but the puritan minion came to his senses at the worst possible moment and turned just in time to notice Owen. He caught Owen by the arm, grabbing him hard enough to make him wince.
I looked around for help. Thor was still vibrating under a table, Earl was pretending to be Sylvester’s loyal servant, Rod was on the other side of the huge room and visibly fighting off the desire to go after the Eye, and I couldn’t see Granny anywhere. That had me almost as worried as the fact that Owen had been caught. Owen was pretty good at taking care of himself, with or without magic, but I wasn’t sure what Granny might be up to or how the Eye was affecting her. I didn’t want to find myself in a situation where I’d have to take down my own grandmother to save the world from her tyranny.
Sylvester inadvertently came to Owen’s rescue. He’d apparently decided that going with the fiction of being the band for the event was his best chance of staying near the brooch, as he got up in Mimi’s face and said, “You wouldn’t dare fire us. You wouldn’t be able to replace us. How many of the unemployed musicians you have on call can do this?” Then he opened his mouth and sang.
I’d thought Earl’s singing was sublime, but this was beyond that. Earl’s voice still existed in the mortal realm. It was beautiful, but there were human singers who could do almost as well. Sylvester sounded like I’d always imagined angels must sound. The security guards quit struggling, Owen’s captor released him, and everyone in the room stopped what they were doing so they wouldn’t risk missing a note.
Once he realized he had the room in the palm of his hand, Sylvester signaled to his flunkies, and they joined in, creating an otherworldly harmony that soon had everyone in the room in tears. The magic of it didn’t affect me, but I still found it breathtaking. My brain didn’t seem to want to work anymore. It just wanted to listen to this lovely sound.
“That was close,” Owen said, rejoining me after escaping the minion’s grip and propelling me behind a sculpture.