Blaine Fox ran through the dark alley, wanting to get as far away from the burning building as he could. His sleeping granddaughter was wrapped in a bundle of blankets in his arms, her tiny hand clasped around a small, golden key. The smoke from the fire, which had engulfed her parents’ printing factory, billowed out in great black clouds, up into the starless night sky and onto the street. Onlookers gasped, pointing up at the building whose structure would soon collapse upon itself, leaving only a charred pile of ash in its wake as the first rays of dawn came to life over the horizon.
Blaine looked back over his shoulder, then darted around the corner of a tall building and down another alleyway, his only thoughts focused on getting his granddaughter out of this terrible place and into the world he knew would be far safer—at least for the time being. The stench of the smoldering wood still burned at his lungs, even though he had managed to slip far enough away from the fire so that he could conceal himself and the baby under the cover of darkness.
He took a couple more turns and found himself facing a brick wall, with nowhere else to go. With one last weary glance behind him, he pulled his army knife out of the pocket of his pants. He opened his hand so that it lay flat in his palm, and then held it at arm’s length. As the sirens blared in the distance, Blaine closed his eyes in deep concentration.
“Come forth the magic of Kelmar.…” he murmured. “Wand, reveal thyself to me!”
The old knife slowly lengthened in his hand, transforming into a long, sleek, red staff crowned with a glittering silver blade. Still clutching the sleeping baby against his body, Blaine extended his free hand. Gripping the staff tightly, he skillfully twirled it in a circle out in front of him.
A large golden circle of light drew itself on the ground at his feet, enclosing the both of them in its glow.
“Kelmar, I ask you to grant us passage into the magical realm,” he said, into the darkness. “Please see to it that we arrive safely through this Zohar Complex I command.”
Hurried footsteps were coming from a neighboring alleyway, not far from where Blaine stood in the shadows with his granddaughter.
“I know I heard something down this way!” Razok said, his raspy voice barely audible over the lingering sounds of the sirens.
“You’d better be right, or the Dark Master will have both our necks,” a brutish man replied, his breathing labored as he struggled to keep up with his accomplice. “Lucifer’s already scoured the area. There’s been no sign of the girl.”
“We cannot assume anything, Thor,” Razok said sharply. His eyes darted about the shadowy corridor. “The Dark Master will not rest until he knows for certain that the child is dead. If she is still alive, his soul will not have been freed, and we will have to answer to him.”
Thor shook his head. “Lucifer is the one who was responsible for making sure the plan was executed properly,” he said. “If anyone should be held accountable, it would be him.” Thor was unaccustomed to chasing down victims, usually opting to designate this task to others. His running had caused beads of sweat to form on his broad brow.
“You know as well as I do that the Dark Master does not think clearly nor act rationally when he is so incensed,” Razok muttered, his black robes sweeping the pavement as he hastened toward the source of the noise. “Making sure the girl is dead is all that matters to him right now.”
Blaine listened intently to the fast approaching voices, holding his granddaughter close as he prepared to depart. In only a few more moments, Razok and Thor would round the corner, just as a powerful swirling wind gusted around him—and then everything went to black.
Blaine was standing in the courtyard of the Kelmarian Parliament just before sunset. The pre-evening shadows had swept across the row of columns that stood at the front of the golden, pyramidal building, which sat atop a tall staircase towering high over the capital city. He carried his granddaughter up the many steps to the top of the pyramid. The pair of guards flanking the front doors greeted him with a simple inclination of their heads. Blaine walked past them and into the front hall of Parliament.
The day’s final cascades of light streamed in through the high windows of the prodigious room, settling on the large, golden Great Seal of Kelmar, which was inlaid on the polished floor. As Blaine entered the gallery, a tall sorcerer, who had been deep in conversation with a Kelmarian Parliament member at the far end of the hall, quickly silenced the discussion and crossed the room to meet him.
Blaine took in the dark-skinned man’s highly decorated military uniform in the Kelmarian colors of scarlet and gold. The golden scabbard suspended from his belt glittered in the sunlight as he strode over to Blaine.
“Did anyone follow you?” Reoc Haidar asked in a low voice.
“No. Mondalaus has them all still searching the city, but I was able to evade them,” Blaine replied. “He won’t give up until he finds her. That is why we must stay here until he finally leaves.”
“Are you sure there’s no chance that anyone saw you leaving the factory?” he questioned. “Lucifer won’t hesitate to interrogate anyone who may know anything—magic or non-magic.”
“I am sure I was not seen,” Blaine assured him.
Haidar looked sadly down at the baby girl asleep in the soft pink blanket in his comrade’s arms. He felt great sympathy toward her. Then he looked back up at her grandfather, whom he had come to know very well.
“We were informed that William and Isabella did not make it,” he said regretfully.
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