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“I have no idea. One of my family’s weird magical powers is the ability to sense my stress levels so they can be sure to do something to escalate them. My mother was probably too busy to come bother me during this crisis, so she sent Granny.”
“I don’t know, I can’t imagine your grandmother ever being sent anywhere by anyone. She either goes of her own accord or doesn’t go at all.”
“And you still want her in your house?”
“I’m used to Gloria, remember?” Gloria was his foster mother, an elderly wizard just as fierce as my grandmother, though in different ways. “Besides, when I was in Texas, she talked to me some about potions, and I’d like to pick her brains. There’s plenty of potential research material there that doesn’t require magic.”
We passed over Union Square—or, rather, an open and partially greenish blur that I assumed was Union Square. I jumped and clutched Owen’s arm when something suddenly appeared in the air beside us, matching our speed. It took me a second to recognize Sam.
“I think you’ve picked up a tail,” he shouted.
I turned to look behind us. There were no other magic carpets in sight, and Sam was the only other flying thing I saw. “Where?” I asked.
“Look up.”
All of us on the carpet—other than the driver, fortunately—tilted our heads back to see a hawk wheeling in the sky over us. “A bird?” I asked.
“The elves have got some tame ones workin’ for ’em,” Sam said. “Featherbrained turncoats,” he added with a snarl.
“Do you know if this one is working for them?” Rod asked.
“Not sure yet, but better safe than sorry. Look out, and see if you can lose her.”
The driver didn’t say anything, but the carpet banked steeply to the left. I whimpered as I felt myself sliding, but the carpet soon leveled itself out as we headed straight up one of the avenues. “Why does it even matter if they follow us?” I asked when I caught my breath. “We’re not on the mission right now. We’re going to pick up my grandmother at the train station.”
“They don’t know that,” Owen said.
“Yeah, but we’d be leading them straight to my grandmother.”
“I have to admit, there’s some appeal to that thought.”
“We need to at least pretend to evade them,” Rod said. “That’s a big part of the game. They’ll be suspicious if we make it too easy.”
The carpet made another sharp turn and headed crosstown for a while before turning abruptly downtown. A few blocks later, we turned crosstown for a block and then back uptown. An overhead glance didn’t reveal the bird, but I doubted we could hide from it for long. The carpet lowered, then stopped to let us off on a side street. There we blended as well as we could into the usual midtown crush of pedestrians and headed to the station.
“Do you know where you’re supposed to meet your grandmother?” Owen asked as we approached the station.
“No idea. But if I know Granny, we won’t have to look too hard. She’ll be causing the kind of commotion that draws attention. I don’t know how long ago she called, but she may even have been there long enough to take over. We might be just in time for her coronation.”
Owen’s cell phone rang, and after a brief conversation, he closed it and reported, “Minerva’s people found a personal shopper reservation at Macy’s for a woman with the same name as one who’s engaged to a Jonathan Martin. They don’t know if she’s in any way connected, but since we’re nearby, we may as well check it out after we find your grandmother.” He checked his watch. “We’ve got about half an hour.”
As we rode the escalator down into the station, I said, “Listen for someone loudly criticizing something. That’ll be Granny.”
“Do you know if she came in on Amtrak or on New Jersey Transit from the airport?” Rod asked. “That could help us figure out where she might be.”
“I have no idea, as I said. For all I know, she flew in on her broom and thought this would be a convenient meeting place.”
We’d reached the food court area of the station, and I started to fear that I’d been overly optimistic in assuming I could easily find my grandmother. Even as colorful a character as she was could be lost in these throngs and in this noise. She wouldn’t even be the craziest person in this place.
But then I heard a piercing voice ringing above the din. “I think I’ve found her,” I said, grabbing Owen’s arm. The three of us followed the sound and found a group of young thugs cowering in a corner as a tiny old woman menaced them with her cane.
“Now, give the lady back her purse,” she said, giving one of the guys a threatening poke with the cane. He nervously glanced at her before meekly stepping forward and handing a purse to the harried young mother standing next to Granny. “Everything’s in there, right?” Granny asked him. He nodded mutely, and Granny turned to glance at the woman. “Check it out, honey,” she said, more gently.
The woman opened the purse and checked through it. “It doesn’t look like anything’s missing,” she reported.
“Okay, then, I won’t shrink your manhood to the size of a boiled peanut,” Granny told the guys, who all flinched. “Now, what do you say to the lady?”
“Uh, we’re sorry?” one of the guys ventured.
