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“It’s molded to my behind,” I added helpfully. At least I restrained myself from smacking said behind in demonstration. I pulled my black onyx worry stone from my pocket and held its comforting weight in my hand. The tension was getting to me, and while I never felt like the black onyx did all the anxiety relieving it was reputed to do, giving my hands the freedom to move as needed kept my attention focused.
Officer Smith closed her eyes and let out a sigh before giving in. She was either extremely powerful, which wasn’t good for us, or unafraid of us, which wasn’t wise for her. It would have been nicer for us all if she would just ride with her partner. Then we wouldn’t know what we were getting into, of course, but it would spare us from these not-so-subtle power plays. I climbed in after her, giving her what space I could on the bench seat, and the black SUV pulled onto the street behind us. Lucy turned the key. The old farm truck roared to life with a belch of exhaust and a clatter of leftover woodchips in the bed. We knew where Mills Park was, but since the officers were determined to lead, she followed the SUV. I turned to keep an eye on the officer, keeping my hands on my knees, where I could reach the door handle if necessary. Her eyes dropped to my hands as I rubbed the smooth indentation in the stone with my thumb.
“My commander said your address had some powerful Greens, one of who was particularly skilled in mushrooms. We have had some incidents in the park, and we’re considering the possibility that it’s related to a mushroom several people have reported seeing.”
The Grove did have some powerful Greens who could do all things plant related, but neither Lucy nor I were one of them. The real mycology lover and powerful Green had stayed in our cottage for a couple of weeks while she sorted out a domestic situation with her home Grove. Since Groves are like clans, movement through the Groves like that wasn’t normal, so we didn’t want to advertise that fact. Then again, things associated with me were rarely what you might call “normal”.
“What mushroom? And what kind of incidents?” Lucy asked, slamming the shifter down into third and narrowly missing the officer’s knees as the truck whined and accelerated.
“All I know is that a park patron reported finding a mushroom they’ve never seen before. No description and no other information given in the report. There was a couple chasing their dog through the park, and they all disappeared. There’s video of them entering, but not leaving. That’s the incident we have the most information on. We have a few other missing people with connections to the park, but I don’t actually know if they are related.”
“So multiple missing people, but you don’t know how many; and you think it’s due to mushrooms, but you don’t know what kind or where?” Lucy’s voice rose. “We aren’t trained investigators. Why can’t you just search the park?”
“Maybe multiple missing people. We don’t have confirmation of anything. And we have searched the park. We can’t find strange mushrooms. There’s nothing anywhere, except for some people who get sick after they search.”
Lucy turned her eyes to the officer but didn’t say anything. It was another power play, and Officer Smith fell for it. She continued, “They feel faint and can’t finish searching, and several have passed out. There’s nothing unusual to see in the park from a helicopter, and nothing we can find from searching on foot, but we have intelligence that it’s something that a Green can help us understand.”
Magic had come roaring into the world after space Dust blew in around the turn of the 20th century. It had killed off a large swath of people, animals, and plant life, but some of those who survived the Dust cloud discovered they could manipulate magic. They were divided into clans or other groupings based on their affinities, which were mostly along color families. People with a Green affinity had magic related to plants, whether it was growing them or communicating with them. Enforcement coming to us with what they thought was a Green problem probably meant they didn’t have a Green in among their Enforcement group to ask.
When Lucy didn’t ask, I spoke up. “Why don’t you use your own Greens?”
Officer Smith hesitated for a fraction of a second, then shrugged her shoulders and lifted her empty hands.
Those were textbook mannerisms for, “Trust me, I don’t know.” I know because I had memorized the textbooks. But her hesitation told me she had some ideas and she didn’t want to tell us about them. That could be dangerous for us.
Before I could ask for clarification, Lucy said, “Weird assumption. We’re on loan to you from the local Grove, but you can’t ask us to hurt ourselves. We need to be ready for whatever this is. Should we have brought gas masks, or maybe hazmat suits?”
Officer Smith shook her head, her long black hair bobbing. “Neither of those have any effect. People still react if they’re going to, no matter what protective equipment they are wearing.”
“You’re not giving us confidence that anyone is safe there, Officer Smith,” I said.
“You’ll be just as safe as we are.”
“Like I said, no confidence.”
Chapter Two
Mills Park was nothing special in terms of plant life or aquatic features. Our area of Wisconsin boasted a wide variety of trees, from stunning sugar maples to the solid white oak, and there were just the usual suspects in sight in terms of plants. What Mills Park lacked in uniqueness, however, it more than made up in human activity. The perimeter buzzed like a kicked wasp nest with enforcement vehicles and people in black, while what I could see inside the park was calm and empty of people. This was far too many Enforcement officers to be just a small incident. In fact, this was probably multiple groups of officers from different areas and different specialties.
What was actually happening?
I climbed out of the truck and backed along it, grabbing our backpack from the bed as Officer Smith slid out and leapt down to the ground without using the running board.
Maybe she had some Crimson affinity? I couldn’t check without outing my own non-Green skills.
Lucy came around the truck and the three of us stood, each waiting for the other to lead the way to the cluster of black garbed people. I didn’t want one enforcement officer in front of me and another behind. The only clue Officer Smith showed of her annoyance was a subtle flattening of her mouth, but I caught it. She was becoming more demonstrative of her annoyance, which didn’t bode well. I flicked Lucy a glance as we trailed behind and her tiny nod told me she saw it, too. We weren’t on solid ground ourselves, so we couldn’t push too hard. We couldn’t make enemies of Enforcement if we wanted to stay free.
Resetting my face into my impassive mask, I let Lucy watch for trouble while I breathed in the forested park and opened my connections to the plants. The air felt charged, but it was hard to separate the plants and growing life in the park from the agitation and fear of the people that milled around the perimeter. I really did have some strong Green skills, especially with trees, but I could do mushrooms, too. Green was all I could show here. It just wasn’t my real strength. Lucy also had other strengths, so this would need to come entirely from me. And we’d need to get away from close observation to figure it out.
The breakdown they gave us at the scene was nothing new. The area where the dog walkers had disappeared was near a small clearing bordered by a mix of red oak and white pine trees. Grasping the bag with my equipment and her random selection of herbs, Lucy and I squatted at the edge of the park and put our hands into the unmown growth. The country had long ago banned cultivated lawns and gone back to natural prairie grasses and native plants.
I saw my own magic as threads of color, and I could pull what I needed to use depending on the situation. But these plants didn’t have any interest in me. I could barely connect, even if I tried hard to enough to make my eyes bleed. Sunshine, moisture, insect life, and the family of bunnies nearby weren’t important to me. And the grasslands were completely unconcerned with anything humans would care about. I pushed out a few more green threads to feel the energy of the switchgrass and bluestems. Maybe a higher buzz than I would expect, but no more than the anxiety from all the pressure of the situation might make me project. At my side, Lucy tensed, and when I glanced at her, she shrugged.
“Just feels weird doing this with an audience. They’re all puffing out their chests and staring at us,” she murmured.
I felt the weight of their eyes, so I looked for myself. The whole contingent of Enforcement types had formed a line where the pavement met the vegetation. They stood in various power poses as they watched us. My response to intimidation was usually to push back, but my situation now meant that I rarely could. Definitely not with anyone in black. I waved a hand at them and turned back to Lucy.
“Let’s go to the trees,” I said. They were easier for me to read and farther from the line of demarcation Enforcement had drawn. I stood and turned away, but Lucy cleared her throat and used her head to indicate the bag.
