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On the outskirts of Slawter Proceeding slowly, Dervish slightly ahead of Bill-E andto determine whether or not there’s a barrier in place He said we should deter the alar to herd dozens of people out of town if they’re going to be knocked out by a ically enforced shield

"Why aren’t we hungry?" Bill-E asks, checking the date on his watch "We’ve been asleep for hell on a Harley! Six days! We should be ravenous but I don’t even feel peckish"

"Trust you to be thinking about your stohs gently "No, it’s a good question The answer’s siic We were cocooned froer and thirst will hit us later, if weby the ic can’t do?" Bill-E asks

"Not ers are treain "Can you feel it?"

"No," Bill-E frowns

"Yes" I take a step forward, sniffing the air It doesn’t s I raise a hand like Dervish, slide it forward, sense power building against it

"No further," Dervish says "We don’t want to disturb the fabric of the barrier-it ht tip off our enemies"

"What is it?" I ask

"In non-technical teric They’ve sealed off the town Enclosed it within a lass bowl over everything" He frowns "No deh to create a barrier this size, not in our universe They’re using the stone you saw in the D workshops Itlodestone, a reservoir of ancient power There aren’t ic drained froo Others were deliberately destroyed, to prevent thees

"This is worse than I thought With the power of a lodestone at their disposal, they can build a tunnel Dozens of de as they like Nobody will be able to escape"

"We have to stop theasps "We can, can’t we, Dervish?"

"Of course," Dervish says wearily, lowering his hand "If we shatter the lodestone, the bubble will burst But now that we know about it, the Demonata will have increased security around the warehouse They’re not stupid"

"We have to try," I say quietly "We can’t stand by and let people die"

"You’re forgetting our earlier conversation," Dervish says with a bitter smile "The Disciples often let people die In a situation like this, we’d normally sit back and let the Demonata run their course We don’t have the power to stop theht the"

"But this is different," I growl "We know these people"

"That’s not enough of a reason to get involved I’ve had to sacrifice friends to demons before"

"Don’t tell me you mean to-" I start to explode

"Easy," Dervish calms me "We won’t stand by idly We can’t Because you’re right, this is different We’re caught up in it If we don’t find a way out, it’s not just the cast and crew of Slaho’ll perish-we’ll die too"

Heading into the heart of town Dervish says there h a sh which we can flee But we’re not powerful enough to do it ourselves We need to pin a deic By focusing the energy generated, we should be able to blast a hole through the barrier, which we can keep open for a while, allowing people to slip out

Should No guarantees

One of our ht place, at the right time We can’t just march into the D Workshops and ask one of them to come to the barrier with us

But before that, we have to figure a way to convince the rest of the crew and cast that we’re not crazy, their lives are in danger, demons are real, they have to trust us if they want to live To that end, we’re heading for Davida Haym’s offices If she’s innocent-bloody unlikely!-Dervish hopes to recruit her and use her to issue a general alarue with the Demonata, he plans to make her confess in public, to persuade the others to trust us

It’s hair-raising stuff, sneaking through town, ducking down side-alleys, keeping out of sight We don’t knoho our enemies are Dervish doesn’t thinkfor the demons, that most of the people here are innocent But we can’t be sure who to trust We know a few of the traitors-Chuda Sool and Tuuards ith Kuk and his father when they disappeared, probably Davida But there will bethe alar ourselves invisible Dervish vetoes the idea "Powerful de used We’ve been lucky so far, but every time one of us draws on the power in the air, we risk pinpointing our position"

So we steal through town unassisted by h it’s afternoon, Slawter is quiet, not many people about We make it to Davida’s offices unnoticed and let ourselves in One of her secretaries is usually stationed at the front desk, but our luck holds-the chair is vacant We slip past and into the main office, the hub of operations, from which all orders flow

Davida isn’t here The office is empty Lots of papers, small demon models, a miniature set of the town, maps on the walls with scores of dates, names, tih the drawers," Dervish says, hurrying to one of the ht give us an advantage-plans, a list of demons, spells, whatever"

"You think she’ll keep details like that in unlocked cabinets?" Bill-E asks

"No," Dervish sighs "But it’ll keep us busy And you never knoe h drawers, pulling out folders, glancing through the pages, then discarding the about the h a drahen Bill-Esound and hurries to the door He listens for a second, then nods-people are co cover behind the door, crouching low so as not to be visible through the upper panels of glass in the office wall

Footsteps Two people talking The door opens

"have to get it right," Davida Hay into the office "This is a one-time deal If we blow it, on’t-" She spots the mess and stops

"What the hell?" Chuda Sool says, stepping up beside her