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“He was here with me a minute ago,” she said.
“Oh?” Now I was worried.
“He was very politely escorting me. Not that I needed any help.”
“Then where is he now?” If meek, gentle Earl had turned on us, I worried about what Thor would do. He’d gone after Mimi with his battleaxe, but the Knot had protected her. I had no such protection. My calf muscles twitched in anticipation of an axe blow.
A war cry rang out in contrast to the sweet singing, and I screamed and jumped. “Thor!” shouted Granny, her voice ringing with iron.
The war cry stopped, and I saw Thor swaying on the edge of the crowd, directly in front of us. “I need it,” he whispered.
“You have your money,” Rod reminded him. “Remember money? Put your hand in your pocket and jingle those coins.”
Thor did so, a look of pleasure so intense that it was nearly obscene coming over his face. While he enjoyed a special moment with his money, Rod crept over and reached to grab the axe. Unfortunately, he didn’t make it in time.
As though sensing Rod’s approach, the gnome jumped to attention, got both hands on his axe, then ran right at Owen and me, shouting, “The brooch is mine! It will bring me much gold!”
Some of the elves and fairies in the circle rushed forward, surrounding him and keeping him away from me. A melee ensued as the elves and fairies fought first against the gnome and then against each other. The stone seemed to feed on and encourage hostility, and soon the love-in atmosphere was gone.
“Okay, now we get out of the park,” I said to Owen. We had to fight our way through the other side of the circle. Hands grasped at me, but I kept moving, glad I’d thought to pin the brooch to the inside of my pocket so it wasn’t easy to take. If I moved quickly enough, they didn’t have time to unpin it before I swatted their hands away.
The battle cry rang out again, and Owen shoved me forward, but at his yelp of pain I rushed back to find him on the ground, his hand clasping his calf. Thor lay motionless nearby with Granny and her cane standing over him.
“Oh my God, Owen,” I cried out as I knelt beside him. “Are you okay? Did he get you?”
“Just a glancing blow,” he said through clenched teeth. “It’s not deep, and I don’t think he hit the Achilles tendon.”
I touched the wound and my fingers were immediately covered in warm, sticky fluid. “You’re bleeding pretty badly,” I said. “We’ve got to get this bound up.”
Granny joined me, already digging in her copious tote bag. “I’m sure I’ve got something in here,” she muttered to herself. To Owen, she said, “Pull up your pants leg, son, and let me get a look at it.” She pulled a vial out of the bag and poured a liquid on the wound as she said, “I’m not sure how well this will work on you without magic, but at the very least, it’ll kill germs.” I clutched Owen’s hand as he hissed in pain. Then she pulled a length of cloth out of the bag and said, “I’ll have to buy a new pair of support hose, but these’ll do for a bandage for now.” She wrapped the hose securely around his leg, tying them off and tucking in the ends before pressing her hands on the bandage and murmuring a few words. “There, that should hold back some of the bleeding. I don’t know if the spell will help, but it can’t hurt.”
Owen started to get up, but I put a hand on his shoulder. “No, rest for a moment. They’re leaving us alone for now. I guess all the blood scared them away.”
“There are things that are drawn by blood, and you don’t want to meet them,” he said, his voice shaky even though I could tell he was trying to sound strong and steady.
“Let me guess, they’re power hungry, too.”
“Of course.”
“Look, maybe you should stay here,” I said. “I can go on. Granny can protect me. We shouldn’t have to hold out much longer.”
“I’m not leaving you alone with that thing.”
“What good will you do? You won’t be able to walk much, probably won’t be able to run, and you don’t have magic.”
He shrugged his shoulder out from under my hand and pushed himself to his feet. “I can walk just fine. And I’m not leaving you alone, so don’t waste your breath arguing.”
“I won’t be alone.”
“No, because I’ll be with you.” He took a step toward me, demonstrating that he could walk. He barely limped, but I could see the pain on his face. I was about to argue some more, but his phone rang.
“Hey, Sam,” he said. “What is it?” His eyes widened as he stared past me, and then he slowly said, “Uh, I think they’re already here.”
I turned and saw a whole gang of puritans, including Mimi’s ex-minion, approaching us, and they looked like they meant business.
“Get here as soon as you can,” Owen said into his phone. “It looks like we’ll need backup.”
Chapter Sixteen
