Long Hot Summoning by Tanya Huff Read Free Book Online Page B

on sale for five dollars,” Sam added. “There was a whole box of it at the back of the store.”
    “From the Otherside?”
    “No, I think it was from a Rottweiler.”
    Should have seen that coming. Reaching behind her, Diana slid the wand into a side pocket on her backpack. “Taking this across with us should neutralize it.
    You’re sure there was nothing else?”
    “A few Chia Pets left over from Christmas-made on the Otherside, but I checked their bar codes and they were all legally imported.”
    “Then our work here is done.” Diana nodded down the concourse toward the stairs. “Let’s go close this sucker down.”
    “Chia Pets are imported from the Otherside?” Sam asked, as he and Austin fell into step between the Keepers.
    “They were part of a whole Free Trade thing that fell apart over softwood lumber.”
    “That doesn’t make any sense.”
    “And that’s what I told them at the time.”
    “That wasn’t what I...” A half glance over at the older cat and Sam realized that it didn’t really matter what he’d meant. “Okay. Never mind.” There were more shoppers on the lower levels and a dozen senior citizens in the food court, having coffee and complaining about the way the younger generations were dressing.
    “I’ve had it with my granddaughter,” one sighed loudly as the Keepers and cats passed her table. “She’s constantly borrowing my clothes.” Her companion set down her blueberry bran muffin and smoothed her Canadian Girls Kick Ass T-shirt over artificially perky breasts. “I hear you, Elsie. I hear you.”
    “That was disturbing,” Diana muttered as they headed down the last short hall toward the Emporium. “Didn’t you find that disturbing?” Claire shrugged. “Not really, but then I’m not wearing the same shirt as a seventy-year-old.”
    “Hey, hers was red on white, mine’s white on red. Not the same shirt!”
    “Okay.”
    Marvin Travel, The Tailor of Gloucester, The Erlking Emporium . . .
    Trying to appear as though they were just resting, they sat down on the bench across from the Emporium and took turns glancing through the open door.
    “Is that your troll?” Claire asked.
    “Okay, first; not my troll. And second, why couldn’t he have a part-time teenager covering the weekend shifts like almost every other store in the mall?”
    “That could be a part-time teenager.”
    “Good point.”
    Given the wide variations in human physiognomy, the troll could pass-provided no one looked too closely and were willing to ignore an unfortunate truth; most humans his color had been dead for a couple of days. A couple of hot days. His head was bald, his goatee had probably come off a real goat, his sunglasses appeared to be Ralph Lauren. He was just over six feet tall and only one short third of that was leg. Huge fists dangled even with his knees.
    “At least he dresses well.”
    “Yeah. Nice tie. I wonder what kind of leather it is.”
    “Not what,” Austin said, jumping up onto the bench. “Who.”
    “Eww.”
    “His shoes seem to match.”
    “Like I said, eww.”

    “It’s your Summons,” Claire pointed out. “How do we get past him?”
    “We’ve got someone on the inside, remember?” Diana stood, stretched, and started toward the window. Do-it-Yourself Voodoo Kits were forty percent off.
    Faking an interest in the display, she slid sideways until she could see herself reflected at the very outside edge of the mirror’s curve. Blue-on-blue eyes drifted up from the depths.
    “Hey, Boss!”
    The troll’s head jerked around, taking most of his upper body with it owing to a distinct lack of neck. “Are you insane? What if we’d had customers?”
    “Then they’d probably be a little freaked by the way the rubber snakes are moving.”
    “What, again? I knew I shouldn’t have trusted that warty little reject from Santa’s workshop.” Bitching about the way salesmen took advantage of honest retailers, he stomped out from behind the counter and across