Claimed by Shadow Page 0,12

a visiting countess-at least he claimed she'd had a title- one of which was an ugly ruby necklace that doubled as a talisman. It soaked up magical energy from the natural world and transmitted it to its owner, or in this case, to its owner's ghost. Billy's spirit had come to reside in the necklace, which gathered dust in an antique shop until I happened along looking for a present for my notoriously picky governess. I've been able to see ghosts all my life, but even I was surprised by my gift with purchase.

We'd soon discovered that not only was I the first person in years who could see him, I was also the only one of the necklace's owners who could donate energy in excess of the subsistence it provided. With regular donations from me, Billy was able to become much more active. In exchange, I got his help with my various problems. At least in theory.

He caught my look and shrugged. "This place has too many entrances. I couldn't watch them all." He glanced behind the mage. "He's got his helper with him.”

He was looking at what appeared to be a man-sized clay statue. I had mistaken it for one the first time I'd seen it, but it was actually a golem. Rabbis versed in kabbalah magic were supposed to have invented them, but these days they were popular among the war mages as assistants-maybe because it's hard to hurt something with no internal organs.

I reviewed possible strategies, but none of my usual defenses seemed like a good idea. The lopsided pentagram tattooed on my back is actually a ward that can stop most magical attacks. It was crafted by the Silver Circle itself and I had seen it do some fairly amazing things, but I didn't know if it would stop a nonmagical assault of that caliber. This didn't seem like the best time to test it.

I also had a bracelet made of little interlocking daggers that seemed to dislike Pritkin even more than I did. It had once belonged to a dark mage who had used it mostly to destroy things. He'd been evil, and I suspected his jewelry was, too, but I couldn't seem to get rid of it. I'd tried burying it, flushing it down a toilet and feeding it to a garbage disposal, but no go. No matter what ì did, the next time I looked it was on my wrist again, whole and shiny and new, glinting at me impudently. Sometimes it came in handy, and mostly it obeyed my commands, but it never passed up a chance to relive old times. All on its own it had sent two ghostly knives to stab Pritkin the last time we met. The hand with the bracelet was firmly in my pocket at the moment; no need to escalate this further. Fortunately, I had another option.

"Hey, Billy. Think you can possess a golem?" Pritkin's eyes didn't waver, but his shoulders twitched slightly.

"Never tried." Billy floated over and eyed the golem without enthusiasm. He doesn't like possessions. They sap his energy level and often don't work anyway. Instead, his favorite trick is to drift through someone, picking up any stray thoughts and leaving a hint or two of his own behind. But that wouldn't help us now. "Guess there's only one way to find out," he muttered.

As soon as Billy stepped into the thing, I found out why experiments are done under controlled conditions. The golem began careening about the outer office, knocking over tubs of plants and sending the girls screaming into the next room. Then it altered course and crashed into Pritkin, sending him sprawling.

I couldn't tell whether that had been deliberate, but I sort of doubted it when the creature started ricocheting around our tiny cubicle like a pinball on speed. It knocked me a glancing blow on its way to destroy the table and sent me stumbling into the mage. I started to yell at Billy to get out of the thing, but my breath was knocked out by Pritkin's knee, which came into contact with my stomach when I fell on him. To be fair, my high heel might have gotten him in a sensitive spot, but it had been an accident. I didn't think his knee was.

As I was struggling to get enough breath back to tell him off, a very familiar and extremely unwelcome feeling came over me. Time shifting is supposed to be under the Pythia's control,