Voodootown

Chapter 36

Chapter 36

Blink

Blink looked around, saw the little tarp that had been hung above the roof of the stuffing salon where Camo was on look out.  The roof was scattered with bits of trash, mostly broken bricks that had settled there after the fight in Voodootown the night before.  He couldn't see anything else around him and he raised his head to peek over the lip of the building.

Something pushed his head back down.  A voice whispered in his ear.  "Stop that.  You always want to look around."  It was Camo.  He couldn't even see a shimmer in the air, she was so well blended into their surroundings.  Flow had made an amplifier charm for her, just like he had for Ju Ju, and it seemed to be working.

"How's it going?" he asked.

"Wow, I'm awake," she said.  Her voice was still very quiet, but it began to pick up speed.  "That Java charm works.  I'm not tired at all.  I don't know what Hehet's going through, but I'm not tired.  I could do this all day.  And the amp?  It really does go to eleven, just like you guys said.  They can't see me at all."

Blink waved his hands in the air, hoped he was aiming his palms at Camo.  "Uh, I meant down there."

"Oh," she said.  He felt movement in the hand that still held his head down and figured she was nodding her head.  "Down there, with Midnight and the kapos and thralls?  Yeah, that's really bad.  Those kapos showed him how to use the portal, and he's figured out a way to work it remotely for the thralls.  He's been sending them through in batches, hundreds at a time.  It's bad."

"Oh crap," Blink said.  He tried to sit up, but she pushed him back down. 

"Wait.  Wait.  You want to see?" she asked.  Before Blink could reply, he felt her drop onto him and hug him.  "Okay, look now."

He raised his hand, could only see the tarp above them.  She had wrapped her ability around him and he was momentarily jealous.  Blink had never been able to teleport anything other than himself and what he was carrying.  He had always wanted to travel with Ash, but it had been impossible.  He pushed those thoughts aside and looked over the edge.

Below them, in the street where they had fought Doctor Midnight, the rubble had been cleared away.  There was still the crowd of thralls, but not the unorganized mass he had seen before.  These were lined up in columns and rows, like soldiers standing at attention.  But as he watched one group march forward, past Midnight and through the portal, he was reminded of the green skinned soldiers marching into the witch's castle in The Wizard of Oz.

The biggest difference is that these dolls didn't have black fuzzy hats or spears.  They had collars.  And their arms were loaded with empty collars that would turn other dolls into slaves.

After watching another two groups go through, he turned away and sank against the wall.  He sat there, stared out, but couldn't focus on anything.

"I would have let you know, but then I would have had to leave and I was supposed to stay here and I thought I might see something important and I didn't know what to do," Camo stopped her java fueled speech when Blink motioned for her to stop.

As he tried to send an image of what he had seen to Ash, Blink turned, saw that Camo had stopped blending in with the background.   "Can you make it back?" he asked.

She nodded, kept nodding.

"Okay," Blink said.  "I'll see you back at Ash's house."  He thought that there was no place like home, and teleported back to the basement.

He looked up, was relieved to see Ash instead of the tarp over him. 

"What was that?" Ash asked.  "What did you see?"