Page 52 of Coerced

Kerry

We decided to stick with the SUVs rather than fly, since Augusta was only two hours. We sorted through the camping supplies, ditching a lot of it, and settled Jax in the middle seat of one vehicle. Gigi climbed in and held his head while Gemma rode shotgun and I drove. Just after we started out, Travis called and I put him on speaker so he could share what he’d figured out about that weird summoning circle.

“I took photos of the entire site,” he started off, “for future reference. The weather had corroded some of it, but I could still make out a lot. What surprised me was the language of the inscription around the outside of it. It was more of a framework for a portal, not a summoning circle.”

“Help me remember the difference again,” Tara said.

“A summoning circle is for pulling a single entity into it, so it is temporarily in this world, but bound in the circle. It can’t be released unless the summoner allows it to or else screws up,” he explained. “A portal is like opening a door. Anyone who wants to can walk in or out. There may be some limitations to access, depending on size and the permanency of the portal.”

“Why wouldn’t you just use a portal?” Gigi asked.

“That takes a lot of power and a great deal of sacrifice,” Travis said. “I mean blood-and-dead-bodies kind of sacrifice. A summoning circle doesn’t. Whoever made this wanted a quick and dirty doorway for the Diabolical.”

“No ideas who?” Clem asked.

“No, but I could make out where it opened.”

“Well?” I demanded. “Where?”

“It’s written in lines of latitude and longitude. I’ll need to look it up.”

“Give the coordinates to someone else,” I said. “They can search for it on their phone.”

He rattled off a slew of numbers, and we were silent as we waited.

“Um, it’s our Sanctuary.” Maddy sounded shaken.

“That explains how the gremlins entered on Halloween,” Clem muttered. “We wondered about that. The whole valley is so layered in wards, it shocked us when they all triggered that night. Shook us up that a harpy could get in, let alone a few dozen gremlins. We spent weeks afterward going through the defenses with a fine-toothed comb.”

“Judging by the extent of the decay around the circle, that would fit the time frame,” Travis agreed. “Did the wardens find anything in the vicinity of the playground when they investigated the incident with the harpy?”

“With that many dead gremlins, the stench was all over the place.” Clem snorted. “And I was busy interrogating the harpy, although I doubt I would have found anything more than the others did. On the far side of the playground, the stink was the worst. The portal or circle or whatever it was probably opened there for the harpy, and she left the gremlins to guard it on the other side. Either someone closed it before we found it or time ran out on it.”

“Coulda been other things, too.” I scratched my head as I thought. “A cricket or rabbit might have hopped across the circle on their side of things. Hard to control nature. Clem, what did you find out from the harpy?”

“That’s part of an ongoing investigation.”

I blinked.

Huh?

“Argaud’s trial is over. He’s been convicted and sentenced. How is it part of an ongoing investigation?”

He was silent.

“He can’t tell you, Kerry,” John said after a moment. “Wardens are sworn to secrecy until an investigation is over and the findings revealed at a hearing with the Council.”

“Can I make some guesses?”

“Be my guest,” Clem invited.

“She was ordered to provide Argaud with anything he wanted or needed to continue his research for the Master. She didn’t know much about the research, but she admitted to using that quick-and-dirty portal at least four times.”

“Four?” Gemma asked.

“Once to make first contact with Argaud. Once with the thrall necklace for Aspen Abernathy. Once with the thrall necklace for Travis. And the fourth time was the check-in we interrupted. Am I right so far?”

Clem didn’t say anything.

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