Origin (Scales N' Spells #1) - A.J. Sherwood Page 0,117
faint heat, a sign the spell had taken hold and worked. Good. All he had to do was maintain the energy flow and not drop the crystal and they were golden. But it also meant they had to stand right next to the mirror, which semi-blocked the view for everyone else.
Alric came to stand right at his back, hand resting on Cameron’s hip. He didn’t say a word, just stood there silently and watched through narrowed eyes.
Melissande navigated the cat about, walking casually along the streets. She’d added a cloaking spell onto the cat’s design, not wanting to catch the attention of any mage nearby. The cat was the easiest form to use as a drone, as it was versatile enough to climb under and over things. But no one wanted it to be seen or detected—not in that town.
The cat went up and down several streets before Melissande stopped it, right at the edge of a larger building with a security gate in front of it. It was the only building without a sign in front of it. Just the black, iron-wrought gates and two security guards standing on either side of it. The building beyond it was a depressing, unrelieved grey. Blocky, nearly windowless, it looked like a prison but didn’t have enough security around it for that.
Melissande turned the cat in, slipping through the gate, and took it around the outer grounds for a while. Nothing from the outside looked unduly suspicious, but it was odd. Aside from a parking lot, there was nothing out here. Not even an outdoor space for people to eat lunch in. Just grass and walls.
“Go inside,” Alric directed. He sounded calm, on the surface. Cameron could clearly feel his tension, though, pressed up against his back.
That turned out easier said than done. Melissande took the cat around the building three times, looking for any opening—an open window, a door cracked open, something. Anything. No luck. Cameron frowned at the building, not sure how to get past this. Should they even exhaust their magic trying? Or look through the rest of the town and come back here if they came up empty?
“We can’t see anything from here,” Ravi complained to them. “What’s happening?”
Alric turned his head slightly to answer. “The building is very secure, and we can’t find a ready opening. Lisette, how much time do we have left before we have to retreat?”
“An hour, two at most. Otherwise we exhaust ourselves.”
“An hour, then,” Alric directed her. “We can’t afford our mages to be magically depleted, nor do I want to abuse you so. Melissande, do one more circuit around the building. We’ll mark it as suspicious if we can’t get in, and look at the rest of the town.”
“Understood, Hoheit,” Melissande responded in her low contralto.
“Oh!” Elissa suddenly piped up, pointing. “Hurry, Melissande, there’s someone coming out a door.”
Melissande hurried the cat along and it sped through, slipping past someone’s ankles and through a side door at the last second. It shut with a hard clang and an electronic beep as the security system on the door reengaged.
Lisette leaned around Cassie to get a firmer look. “Melissande, turn the cat’s head to look at the door. Now that is odd. Why do they have electronic security up? Where are their wards?”
Cassie canted her head in question. “Sorry, why can’t they use both?”
“It’s not that they can’t, it’s just usually more trouble than its worth,” Lisette explained, still frowning at the door. “Electronic devices and magic don’t usually marry well together.”
Cameron had gotten this explanation already, and Lisette’s way of explaining it had been long-winded and somewhat confusing. He gave his sister the answer in a way that she could instantly grasp. “It’s like trying to run a Linux program on a DOS system. The two don’t like to talk to each other.”
Her expression was one of instant understanding. “Gotcha.”
“Now I’m confused,” Dieter muttered. “Was that supposed to be English?”
“Dieter,” Ravi sighed, shaking his head. “You’re so old.”
“Shut it, you,” Dieter growled back without heat.
Melissande fortunately remained undistracted by the sideline commentary and was weaving the cat through the building. It reminded Cameron strongly of a hospital facility. The back rooms of one—the part of the hospital that didn’t see patients but where all of the testing and such happened. It was uniformly white—the walls, the tiles on the floor, even the trim—all white. The doors had only labels of numbers on them, no words.