Chapter 19

Emory, Richard and half the warriors strode down University Avenue toward the abandoned video arcade, Arthur, Lancelot and the other half crept quietly along an alley near 15th Avenue North East to the rear of the building. Emory did nothing to try to hide his progress, walking openly down the wide sidewalk in broad daylight, as if it was an everyday occurrence in the University District to see a hundred heavily armed fairies, in full armor. People in their path shrunk back and gaped as they passed. Surprisingly, no one seemed at all inclined to stand in their path.

Emory stood, hands on hips, to survey the front of the building. “What an ugly place. No grace, no style. A most befitting final resting place for such an ugly little man, don’t you agree, Richard?”

“Aye, Your Grace. I can think of no better place. I hope that nothing untoward has happened to the Lady Erin. Mordrant, at least, is bound by the laws of hospitality?” Richard looked the question at Emory, who merely shook his head and resumed staring at the façade, looking for something.

The sappers in Emory’s task force set shaped charges of C-5 plastic explosive on the glass and then fell back to arm them. A shock force of more than fifty hand-picked men-at-arms stood ready for the agreed upon signal to surge through the rear and front entries.

In rapid succession, two shots from within the building, followed closely by a scream, two more shots, and more screaming sent the delicately set timetable for the assault by the way-side.

Emory tapped his staff once on the ground, and a pure shaft of amethyst light shot straight into the air. At this pre-arranged signal, both assault groups sprang into action. With Richard close on his heels, Emory strode toward the arcade with a steely glint in his eye and a ball of purple fire playing on his free hand.

Richard followed the Duke with his broadsword in his right hand, and incongruously, a large carpet bag in his left. The bag contained various magical apparatus that Emory thought he might need. Richard had to keep pushing it with his left thigh to keep from becoming tangled up with it.

In a flash of light and smoke, the plate-glass windows in front dissolved into tiny fragments of safety glass. Like a swarm of angry hornets, these fragments were hurled into the interior by the blasts of flash-bang grenades. The warriors with Emory and Arthur stormed into the main arcade to be met with a tableau none of them expected to see. Arthur and the King’s Guard, entering from the rear of the building, drew up so short that those behind them had to scrabble to a halt so as not to run up their heels.

Erin knelt on the floor with Anna in her arms, softly brushing her hair and whispering encouragement. This was not that out of the realm of what Emory had expected, what caused everyone to draw up short was Jenny.