Silver Basilisk - Zoe Chant Page 0,81

that was a bad thing or a good thing.”

A lot became clearer to him then, and gratitude filled him.

She went on, “Bird and Mikhail thought that it might be better to wait to tell Godiva about Joey’s ability. Let her get used to the shifter world first. But Joey felt that you had to be the one to decide that.”

He was about to thank her, but the words fled from his brain when there was another crash behind them. Mikhail staggered back against a table, sending dishes rattling and one mug falling to the tile floor. Nikos sank slowly into a chair in the opposite corner, his head in his hands.

Joey Hu and two other people Rigo did not know also sat, strangely silent, their faces an unpleasant gray tinged with green.

Rigo followed Jen, who was rushing to Nikos’s side. He said to Jen worriedly, “It’s seven. Aren’t Mikhail and Nikos supposed to be in the air?”

“Yes,” Jen muttered, as Nikos put his head in his hands.

Jen turned to Doris, who was talking urgently on her phone while unhappily eyeing Joey.

“Doris?” Jen said. “What happened?”

Doris held out a hand, talked rapidly into her phone before turning it off. “More zombies on the move,” she said tersely. “When did I ever think zombie was a funny word? Cang’s gang seems to have spent the entire night charming random people. But at least Godiva’s women are so far batting a thousand.”

Jen said, “Okay, but what happened here?” She opened her hand toward Joey, Mikhail, and Nikos.

Joey said weakly, “Shiftsilver.”

“What?” Doris gasped.

Joey closed his eyes as if gathering strength, but before he could speak, Mikhail straightened up with an effort that Rigo could feel. He looked around, and seemed to recognize everyone in the bakery. The owner was still in the back, making more coffee.

Joey visibly gathered his strength to say hoarsely, “The pastries. Were dusted with shiftsilver powder. Probably while the other person. Was knocking over the coffee. And the dishes.”

Everyone looked at each other. Doris said, “Then they were here.”

Mikhail said tightly, “We still have to get to the palisade. But . . .” He pressed a hand to his head.

Jen set down her tea. “I’ll do the flyover.”

Doris shook her head. “You’re queasy. You can’t fly on an upset stomach.”

“It’s mild,” Jen said—then hiccoughed.

Rigo stepped past Jen. “I’m here as backup. Seems to me that this here situation is one that calls for backup. Let me go. I even know where that palisade is, as the first pair of shamblers I followed went straight to it, and I’ve flown over it a few times.”

Mikhail’s gray face eased a bit, and Joey Hu let out a sigh of relief. He lifted a hand toward Rigo and Jen, clearly too ill to speak if he didn’t have to.

Jen grinned at Rigo. “Come on. Let’s do it. Who knows, maybe being my phoenix will get rid of the morning queasiness.”

Rigo felt the impulse to call Godiva, then reminded himself that she was undercover—and she tended to use her phone with the speakers on. Anyway, she’d be busy for the next few minutes. “Lead the way,” he said.

They walked out. Jen said, low-voiced, “In case we see trouble. My power is a spurt of sunlight in fire form. It burns out fast, so I don’t want to use it if I don’t have to. Other than that my phoenix isn’t a fighter. Not the way I am as a human.”

“I’m a basilisk,” he said. “I can fight.”

Jen gave a single nod. “Then how about I be lookout?”

“Let’s go,” he said.

She didn’t waste any time beyond that. They turned a corner, into a narrow driveway leading to the alley behind the bakery and its adjacent businesses. She swept a look around, then leaped into the air, turning in a golden flash to a phoenix. Rigo shifted into his basilisk and with two beats of his wings caught up with her—then shot past, straight up into the air.

So far his patrol flights had produced nothing whatsoever, so he expected the same as he began sweeping his eyes over the town below.

So he was completely unprepared for Jen’s mental cry, Look out above!

Rigo turned his eye upward, to where a huge red dragon arrowed down from high in the sky, dropping to the attack.

So this was what Cang had been planning, Rigo saw between one heartbeat and the next. All those zombies below, even the super-strength charm—it was all deflection, intended to draw Joey Hu’s army into