Trio of Sorcery by Mercedes Lackey Read Free Book Online Page B

preparation and shielding, Di was going to stand out like a neon sign. Possibly she would even if she was shielded. Guardian magic could be damned inconvenient that way. It often decided to advertise, and the sign it put out often read GOOD EATS to things that liked to snack on magicians.
    Dammit.
    The best thing to do would be to get more information from that cop. And the best way to do that was to invite him into her apartment. Oh, hell no. That was not going to happen. She still didn’t know if this was one of the cops who occasionally harassed Lavinia, who’d just used her name to get himself in Di’s door.
    Righto then. Make an appointment to meet him at the station.
    For which she needed a phone, and she was not going to use a pay phone in this neighborhood. She had a healthy sense of where it was and was not safe for a woman to stand around on the street, preoccupied with talking. So, back home, phone the number on the card…or rather, hope that the line was free, because she had a party line, and then call the number on the card…
    Oh, jeez. Another complication. Hope that no one is listening in, accidentally or on purpose, because the very last thing I need is for my neighbors to decide I am a narc, an informant, or both. …
    All right, set up a spell to tell her if someone on the party line had picked up.
    I hate party lines. But it was all you could get at short notice in that building. And it was much cheaper than a private line.
    Do the magic, then phone Joe O’Brian. Complications. Always complications. Bloody hell.
    Set up an appointment that wasn’t going to conflict with her classes. Unless she could get him to give her more information over the phone, which wasn’t likely. Maybe phone Lavinia and ask her about O’Brian, see if he really was her cousin, or if Di was being set up.
    She shoved her hands in the pockets of her jacket and headed for the bus stop. An hour wasted that she could have used for studying. And it was getting colder.
    The ride back mirrored the ride out; the only person who wanted to sit by her was a tired-looking woman whohad some sort of uniform on under her shapeless coat. Probably a maid, she was so happy to have a seat on the bus that she would have sat next to a wino who drooled.
    Maybe Di was a little more sensitive than usual, but as she approached her building, still brooding about Tamara, she began to get prickles on the back of her neck. Not bad prickles as such, but there was no doubt that someone in the apartment building was fooling around with magic, and inexpertly. Fantastic. Just what she needed. Another do-it-yourself wizard trying to vibrate his way to Middle Earth. By the time she reached her own flat, the prickles had localized.
    To the apartment directly above hers.
    She groaned. Great. Just great. I have a budding wannabe Gandalf living upstairs. Just shoot me now.
    She waited apprehensively for some sign that this was yet another mess she as a Guardian was supposed to take care of, and finally breathed a sigh of relief when no such sign came. Then she made sure all the wards were up on her space, and strengthened them until she couldn’t feel the tingle anymore.
    There. That should keep what he was doing from interfering with what she was going to do.
    First things first. She set up a little ritual circle around the phone with chalk and candles. She generally used birthday-cake candles, since they were the right size and colors for such a small bit of magic. First, the chalk circle—inside her personal wards, this was more of a size-limiter than a protection. She used a simple piece of blessed chalk and a string and muttered the circle spell under her breath. Then she set up the candles and evoked each element in its proper space—yellow in the north for Earth, blue in the east for Air, red in the south for Fire, and green in the west for Water. With all that in place, she was ready to work the actual spell. This