Now, she believed they could do it.

Given who she was and where they were, that might be enough.

And it might not, but the point is they're farther ahead than they were . . . oh no.

Someone zigged when he should have zagged. Golden hair blazed out under the edge of the helmet as the light caught one of the elves, holding him in place six inches off the end of the metal bench. Stewart. Half a heartbeat later, both Stewart and the old man were gone.

"Where . . . ?"

"We think he'll go back to the other mall." Kith sounded very young as she stepped out of the shadows. "But we don't know for sure."

Across the concourse, Arthur's army began to move out.

Claire looked for Sam but couldn't see him in the crowd. She did see Jo raise her bat to the place Stewart disappeared. From the look on her face, the security guard should thank any G.o.ds willing to listen that he wasn't in this reality and that Jo could never cross back.

But I can.

Claire added another note to her mental to-do list, after rescue Diana and save the world but before pick up dry cleaning.

"Come on." A hand on skinny shoulders got her escort's attention. "Let's do this."

IT BEGINS.

The declaration jerked Diana up out of her slump, spilling Kris' head off her shoulder. "What does?"

WHAT DO YOU THINK? IT!.

"Right." It. The battle. Her diversion. She shuffled around toward Kris, using the motion to cover an attempt to move the wand a little farther up her leg. "You okay?"

"Oh, yeah, f.u.c.kin' great. I wasn't asleep."

"Okay."

"I was just . . . you know."

Looking for an excuse to cuddle. Diana grinned. "Okay."

Kris flipped her dreads back off her face and sighed. "You have to sound so smug?"

"Pretty much, yeah." Keeping her back against the wall of the cavern, she got to her feet and held a hand down to the elf.

"So this where all h.e.l.l breaks loose?"

Someone had to say it, Diana reminded herself. It wasn't exactly a Rule. Some things didn't have to be. "Not yet."

With any luck, not ever.

Leaning out around the quartet of meat-minds left to guard them, she watched as the Shadowlord came into the cavern, not walking, striding, and being pretty da ... darned obvious about it, too. Over the whole black-on-black wardrobe, he was wearing greaves, vambraces, and a polished breastplate. Also in black. He pulled his sword, not black, Diana was happy to note, although it wasn't like he hadn't already beat the theme to death, and knelt by the edge of the pit.

"Is it time?"

IT IS. ARE YOU READY?.

"I am."

"Who writes their dialogue," Kris muttered as the Shadowlord stood, his blade lifted in salute.

Diana had a witty comeback ready, but it slipped off her tongue. The Shadowlord's hair, definitely blond on all other occasions, was looking more than just a little red. It might have been reflected light from the pit, but she had a horrible feeling he was about to earn a name.

Given who he'll be fighting, three guesses as to what name and the first two don't count.

Sam trotted along at Arthur's heels, vaguely aware that this wasn't the first time he'd gone to war, Angels being soldiers of the Lord and all that. He just wished he could remember more of his life before he became a cat. Well, he remembered the few days he'd been essentially a human teenage male, but since that had mostly involved being confused, hungry, and obsessed with genitalia, it wasn't a lot of help.

He would rather have been with Claire, rescuing Diana. He would rather have been with Diana right from the start, but no one ever listened to him.

This made his ability to stop Arthur from doing a little one-on-one whacking with the Big Bad just a little suspect. The access to higher knowledge he retained in this form was no help at all.

So.

What would Austin do?

"The trick in getting them to listen is making sure you've got their attention before you start."

"But how?"

Austin stretched out a front leg and flexed the paw. His claws sank a quarter inch into the sofa cushion. "Use your imagination, kid. That's what it's there for."

Well, if a cat could look at a king, he supposed it was only a small step from there to leaving scars. Feeling more confident, he began memorizing the places Arthur's padding didn't quite cover. Just in case things got unpleasant.

"Did you have a pleasant time at the shopping mall, Dean?" Meryat's voice was low and musical, her movements graceful, even considering she was still more than half corpse.

Dr. Rebik stared at her in open-mouthed fascination.

Dean stared in horror.

Austin seemed to have disappeared.

"You seem to have done some shopping," she continued, her eyes following the movements of the hockey bag. "Is it another kitty?" Her arm whipped forward with snakelike speed and one finger poked the canvas. The answering squawk was more indignant than pained. "No, not a kitty. If I didn't know better, I'd say you'd bought yourself a chicken."

Dean really didn't like the way she'd emphasized If I didn't know better . . . His grip tightened around the straps of the bag, the wrapped canvas growing damp under his fingers.

"Why don't you show me?"

Okay. He thrust the bag toward her. Austin's plan had involved getting Dr. Rebik out of their room, leaving the bag outside the door for her to find, a.s.suming she'd go after the life force of whatever was in it. She'd drag it inside, and open it, never suspecting a Bystander capable of delivering a mythological creature capable of turning her to stone. The threat of life sucking would be over and the basilisk would be safely contained until Claire came home.

Still, as long as he closed his eyes and got Dr. Rebik to close his eyes and a.s.sumed that Austin was somewhere safe, this should do as plan B. Given that the basilisk had been hiding out in a shopping mall with minimal statuary happening, it clearly preferred hiding over stoning. Stoneage. Turning people to stone.

Meryat pushed the bag back toward him. "You open it."