"Hand over your royal marks, lady, else I shall be forced to deal ill with thee!" The tip of the highwayman's sword flexed lightly against my throat as I shifted somewhat uncomfortably in my seat. I grabbed the end of the rapier lightly between my fingertips and flashed a winning, albeit brief smile.

"Take the kids, man," I said, pointing to my younger cousins without shame. "They're still getting an allowance." Jessica and Emily gasped as the thief eyed them and me warily.

"Surely you must have something?" he suggested, rubbing his thumb across his fingertips, as if that was going to help.

"I'm a 24-year-old college student, man; the only thing I have in my pockets is unwashed lint and a coupon for CiCi's Pizza."

The audience roared around me and I rolled my eyes irritably. Visiting my aunt and uncle and their two daughters in St. Louis for Christmas break had seemed like a great idea at one point, back when second rate actors weren't hassling me. I realized this was the point of dinner theatre shows, so I was trying to be agreeable. Of course, that was before I became the center of attention here at Ye Olde Steak Castle.

"Come on, Daina," my mother whispered to me. "Smile a little."

"I did, Ma, I'm just tryin' to eat," I replied plaintively.

The actor playing the part of the villain apparently realized this, too, because he swept over to stand between Emily and Jessica. He gave them an evil glare and shouted, "Perhaps I shall do just that! You've all brought your little anklebiters with you, let's empty their pockets! No bubble gum, please, just hard cold cash and maybe a bit of candy or two..."

Jessica wasn't buying this, either, I could tell. "Take off," she said to the guy, without even looking up.

Emily, taking her cues from her older sister, stuck her tongue out at the guy and kicked him in the ankle. The poor guy bent double, grabbing his foot and dancing around and this time, even I laughed a little.

"Good shot, Emily," I grinned. She smiled back as the villain hopped away from our table and moved on to the next set of victims, saying,

"Anklebiters, kid, biters! Sheez!"

The audience filled the great hall with laughter again at this marvelously thought-out piece of wit and I shook my head. "The least the guy could do is get a decent costume," I muttered. "I mean, Girbauds and a tunic? Puh-leez!"

"Those two have pretty cool costumes," Jessie commented, pointing at the doorway. I looked over to where she was pointing and was duly impressed. There was a thin black woman standing in a diaphanous sort of white gauze outfit. I wanted to say it was a leotard, but if it was, it was amazing made to look like straight hanging mist. She was blowing some sort of dust from her open hand and it was carrying across the entire great hall. The guy next to her was dressed evil proper, replete with black cape, knee high leather boots, an all black tunic and undershirt, even a real sword. He was also huge, more like a small giant than a big human. His head was well past the top of the door frame and his bulk suggested a World Wrestling Federation candidate on steroids (which we all know they never do because it's against the law!).

The strangest part about these two was not what they were doing, but the effect they were having on the audience. No one was noticing them, even the people right next to them, whose view should have been blocked by their presence.

I take that back.

No one over 52 inches tall was noticing them.

Little kids from the tables closest to the door were standing up like zombies and wandering right out the front door. Not all of them were getting up, but enough of them that somebody, anybody, should have noticed.

"Yeah, they are kind of realistic looking...aren't they?" I said, casting a wary eye upward as I watched the dust arc dangerously overhead. Even my own parents and my aunt and uncle were completely oblivious to it. This was definitely not a good thing.

The girls, who had been sitting on either side of me, were right next to me now, their faces worried. I put my fork down gently and put my arms around both of them.

"Is that guy some kind of mutant giant or something?" Jessie asked me.

"Not sure," I answered briefly. "He might just be part of the show." A dangerous part of the show, I thought to myself grimly. I looked at Jessica and she frowned at me, reading the worry in my face that I was trying desperately to hide. "Can you and your sister do what I tell you to fairly quick, no questions asked?" I asked her, briefly checking the hang time of the dust once more.

"Yeah," she answered, her voice uncertain. I wanted to explain, but there wasn't much time for discussion if danger was the key word. The dust seemed to be making adults just forget, not go "Night of the Living Dead" like their kids. If I could take care of the girls, our parents should survive without any permanent damage. "Both of you close your eyes and hold your breath 'till I tap your shoulders...now!" I said.

"What's going on?" Emily asked me.

"Get down, Emmy!" Jessica said, pulling her down.

I closed my eyes, ducked my head and began to concentrate. I could feel the warm aura of my own magic (did I tell you I had magic?) engulfing me and, hopefully the girls, protecting us from whatever magic the dust had. I was hard pressed not to open my eyes and check the effect I was having, but I didn't want to risk getting affected by the dust as well. I waited until I felt Emily gasp for air, then I tapped them both and sat up.

More children had left the room and the audience was now watching a few guys in tin foil pretend to fence with the villain of the show. The giant and the lady in gaze were nowhere to be seen. The remnants of the dust were fading on the table and I breathed a sigh of relief. I did notice that all the adults at our table (my parents, aunt and uncle) seemed to be totally ignoring Jessica and Emily and even me. I decided since my family still saw me as a kid, the dust was probably making them not see me, either.

I could still see the girls, which meant it hadn't affected me and the girls weren't trying to wander off, which meant it hadn't affected them. Still, there were a lot of kids who were eventually going to snap out of their fog only to realize that they were...

"Where are they all going?" Emily asked me, pointing to a set of twins blindly walking toward the door like the rest.

"I don't know, kiddo," I said, with a frown. Where was that gauze girl and the guy...

Before I could finish my thought, the guy (who seemed to have gained a few feet now that he was right next to me, yanked me up by the collar, dangling me above the floor. "We got a resistor, here," he barked abruptly to his counterpart. "Smells like a sprite."

"Hey, I resent that remark!" I protested. He lifted me up like he was holding a kitten and looked me directly in the face.

"You deny that you are a sprite, then?"

"Well, no, not exactly..."

"Then shut up. Do something with this wench, Nume."

"I can't right now, I've got these sleepy little brats to watch," snapped the woman in gauze, whom I know saw entering from across the room. "You do it."

The big guy sighed. "You Faerie folk are so temperamental," he grumbled to me.

"Sorry if it puts you out," I grinned weakly. Then, to my parents, I hollered, "Mom, Dad, somebody, I need help!!!"

My parents and family turned to watch these proceedings with interest. "Thank God!" I gasped. "Get this guy off me!" To my surprise and dismay, they clapped and laughed as the guy hauled me away. Apparently, the dust had them also thinking their daughter's imminent demise at the hands of a well dressed 10 foot tall barbarian was all part of the show. Come to think of it, they probably don't even think I am their daughter!, I thought in a panic.

I did get some help, however.

Emily, whose ankle kicking routine had worked wonders in fending off previous hack actors, was actively scuffing up the guy's boot with her efforts, while Jessie's screams and poundings on the guy's leg had just begun to get his attention. Still, our parents didn't seem to notice anything out of the ordinary.

"Let go of my cousin!" Jessie was screaming.

"So, you've got relatives?" the giant grinned at me. "Good. We need more magic kids. As for you..." He didn't stop to get Jessie and Emily off him, like I thought he would, but, then, he didn't need to. He walked right past their killer offensive strike, dragging me along behind him, and over to a big post. He shoved me face first against it, then while I groaned in pain, he held me there so that my cheek felt glued to the post. This he did with one hand, then with the other, he took both my arms, wrapped them around the post and held them in place. "Hey, boss!" he yelled. To my surprise, the hack actor who'd first bugged us turned to answer the man.

"Drew, didn't I tell you and Nume to dress casual?" he sighed, still fencing the guys in tin foil with bored parrying strokes as he spoke.

"Boss, there ain't much in this realm that fits me and Nume does what she wants," the giant, Drew, answered.

"Temperamental Faerie wenches," he grumbled.

"I heard that!" she screeched from outside.

"What do you want, Drew?" the man asked patiently.

"This sprite chick was protecting these kids here," Drew replied, holding me up for his leader to see. "What should I do with her?"

"A sprite? Really? Adult?" Drew nodded as his leader thrust his rapier into one surprised actor and tossed the other to the floor. He wiped the blood off on his jeans, then strode purposefully toward us. As he did, I whispered to Jessica. She and her sister stopped their attack long enough to look up at me.

"Run, Jessie! Take Emily with you and hide somewhere!" I whispered to Jessica, my speech somewhat hindered by Drew's hold on me. "Preferably someplace with a lot of people between you and these guys. Don't go to our table because our parents are under a spell and won't notice us."

"But you're bleeding!" Jessica said, worriedly. I didn't blame the kid; I was worried, too and probably feeling a lot worse about our separating.

"I know," I said "and I don't want you to be, so go!" Jessica grabbed Emily's hand and scooted under the nearest table. I soon lost them in the tangle of legs belonging to people who had begun to go about their business as though the show had ended and their children were still sitting next to them.

"Let her down, Drew," the man said, having finally reached me. Drew graciously let me fall to the ground, then hauled me up to a standing position. "An actual adult sprite. I had no idea they had the sense to survive the rigors of this world past childhood. How did you learn to hide your wings and maintain this size? I wasn’t aware that the sprites of this realm had sure capabilities." He peered closer to me, the smiled pityingly. "Ah, but you’re a half-breed of some sort, then…I can see it in your magic. Too much of that disgusting human gene pool tainting you…what a shame."

I gave the man a withering look. I didn't want to get into a big discussion of how, thanks to my sprite grandmother, human grandfather and genetics, my mom and dad had become the proud but unknowing parents of a fully operational full blooded sprite baby, but I did want to slap him across the face fairly hard. I was about to fulfill this wish when he said, "Forgive me, lady, I realize from your expression I have offended you. I, too, am a refugee from the Lands Beyond. My name is Kalen and this is my assistant Drew. The fairy across the room is my slave Nume."

"Nume is slave to no one," she snapped, breezing past me with an icy glare.

"Shut up and do your job, Nume," Kalen muttered. "As you can see," he said, "I am in need of a suitable replacement through which to channel my spells and energies. Perhaps you are interested?"

"Perhaps I'm more interested in seeing Vanilla Ice make a comeback as star of his own tv sitcom," I replied sarcastically.

"Suit yourself," he shrugged. "Kill her," he said to Drew. I began to protest, but stopped, eyes wide at the ominous shing of a long blade being unsheathed. I had seen Kalen's lack of reserve in killing the guy he'd been fencing with and I didn't doubt Drew would be just as willingly callous. I tried to run, but immediately was shoved back against the post by Drew.

"Not now," Kalen said wearily, as if this were obvious. "Use her to get those other kids out from under the tables first, then get 'em on the truck and THEN kill her."

Drew slammed his blade deep into the post above my head, then Kalen tossed him a set of handcuffs. The giant snapped them across my wrists so that I was handcuffed around the post, then he turned and yelled, "Come out, little ones. Your cousin dies a horrible death without your help if you don't return!"

I saw Jessica's head pop up slightly and heard Emily gasp, so I shouted, "Stay hidden Jessie! You can't help! He'll kill all three of us if you try!" Drew caught my glance and looked in the direction I was. I turned away quickly, realizing my mistake, but he began peeking under tables, anyway. Nervously, I turned to Kalen "What are you stealing all these kids for, anyway? Don't you know their parents will come looking for them the minute they snap out of it?" I said.

"I need searchers," Kalen said, simply. "There's a dimension hole back to the Lands Beyond somewhere in this god-forsaken world and I mean to find it. I need little children to help me, though; easily frightened and manipulated magic using children. As for their parents, not all of the children you see leaving here are actually leaving with me. Most of them will come right back in here and continue their meal, never realizing anything has happened. The few that have use of magic I'll enslave with a binding spell and drain their magic. The ones that survive the spell return to their parents and live to be big boys and girls like Drew and Nume did. The rest..." He gave me a look like, "well, that's the breaks" and shrugged. "Their parents report them as missing, they grieve over the bodies found later, I move to another big city."

I gasped. This guy was ruthless. I knew Jessica or Emily didn't have any magic, but I wasn't about to take any chances. Of course, from where I was, there wasn't much I could do about it, either.

I heard Drew's "Ah, so there you are!" before Kalen did, but we both heard the screech and the little zap noise, along with Drew's bellow of pain and the resounding echo of his head hitting the underside of a table.

"Drew, what are you doing?" Kalen asked, going to see.

"The little one threw a powerball at me!" he whimpered, holding his head. Smoke tendrils were curling out of his recently fried hair and I laughed aloud. Come to think of it, I thought with a smile, my Aunt Mary has always reminded me of a VERY tall pixie elf...

"Well, kill the other one and that should fix her," Kalen said. Ice ran down my spine as he caught my horrified stare. "Children," he said, with a mildly reproving smile. "You have to set the proper example, you know."

Oh, God, no!, I thought. Emmy! I gotta help her! I peered around the post to try to look at the cuffs. No point in having these wonderful magic powers if they can't be good for something, I thought, concentrating for a moment. The metal bent ever so slightly, just enough to slide my hands painfully out of the cuffs. I was ready to run madly at the psychotic Kalen, but was yanked backward by some unknown force and thrown back against the post again. Over my own groans of pain, I heard Nume's voice behind me say,

"Going somewhere?"

"This isn't between you and me, wench," I snapped. I opened my mouth to yell for Jessica, but got a mouthful of bread instead. I turned to look at her and found she was now armed with dinner rolls.

"Shut up. I'm on your side. Now follow me," she said flatly.

I looked back in the direction of Jessica and Emily, still searching for their heads. I spat out the bread and said, "But the girls..."

"You'll do them no good here," Nume snapped. "That is, if you are any good." She dropped this line with heavy disdain and I bit like a freshwater bass.

"Heck, yeah, I'm good," I snapped, facing her.

"Then follow me," she said, turning and gliding out the door. I scuttled after her out the front door of the restaurant and around to the alley beside it. She talked as she led me to the back of a moving van. "Kalen has no real power of his own; it's all mine. The one spell he ever had was the one that magically bound my energy to his when I was four years old, back before he first got us lost in this dimension. He works within the guise of my illusions now and I let him, because I want to go home, too. He uses the children for me, to boost my power so I can send my magic out further in search of the portal that will send us home." She gave me a look, as if debating whether to go on, then continued.

"The children I am not responsible for; he takes what he wants by using my powers as his own and when he makes mistakes, they are costly ones. But, in a way, it keeps me alive, too. Concentrating on finding that portal really drains me and I don't have to tell you what happens when fairies lose all their magic." She didn't. My grandmother had told me of how she'd nearly lost all her magic coming to this dimension for my grandfather and how she'd had to recuperate for nearly a week afterward.

Nume stopped to open the van and I saw row upon row of children sitting on the floor of the van, still looking somewhat dazed. "Go," she told them, and they somewhat groggily began to wander out of the van. "He doesn't realize," Nume told me, "that only the ones with magic will get up, anyway. Drew knows, but they both count on me to tell them whether the children have suitable magic for me or not. Sometimes, I tell him the children have no magic, whether they do or not. Of course, when they make the mistake of displaying their talents, he knows and takes them." She pointed to a little case on the floor and I leaned down to open it. Inside were dozens of tiny little crystal statues, all of them resembling children and all carefully wrapped to prevent any damage.

"Fairy children?" I asked solemnly.

She nodded. "The magic is gone, but if I can replace it someday, they will come back. Of course, the other children don't become statues..." She didn't finish, but I knew this, too. For some reason, true fairies drained of magic became crystal, while other beings who lived with magic in them usually couldn't survive having it taken away, like cutting out their heart. Some lived an empty life and some never lived. Being only a half-blooded sprite, that would be my fate, if I ever ran into that problem.

"Maybe to a world they don't know anymore," I replied. "I mean, if you bring them back later."

"Maybe not. We might never leave this place, so I might get bored and give them all the magic I've got, anyway. Kalen is so caught up in the game, I don't think he really wants to return to the Lands Beyond, he just likes to toy with the people here and make me believe..."

I looked up at Nume's faraway face and suddenly felt sorry for this fairy. The more Kalen used from her and demanded she use, the more she needed to replenish her life's supply, but she was willing to die, to give up all her magic and become another crystal statue rather than spend her life in our dimension. True, she was helping to kidnap and murder children, but I almost could sympathize. I had been born here, but she had been taken by force from the same Land that my grandmother had come from by choice.

"Why are you telling me all this, then?" I finally asked.

She was now in the back of the van throwing clothes at me. "Put these own. You're going to have to force your hand by using his illusion against him. He's got his audience spell bound with my dust, so if you get their attention, they'll believe what you tell them or what you make Kalen tell them. They won't help you, because they'll believe it's part of the show, but if you can work within that..."

"So, you want me to play his game and make him lose?" She looked at me, as if to say, "is this a problem?" I sighed, then yanked on the somewhat oversized swashbuckler's white shirt, vest and strapped on the rapier she handed me. I quickly swished it through the air, then murmured, "Have at thee, villain."

She shook her head wryly. "You're as crazy as he is." Then she smiled and added, "It's perfect."

A little streak of brown darted out of the side door to the restaurant, nearly bowling me over. I could tell it was Emily before we banged into the opposite wall. She was terrified, crying and pounding on me as she screamed, "No! Let me go! Let me gooooo...!"

"Emmy, Emmy, it's me, Daina!" I rushed, kneeling down and grasping her by the arms. I had to shake her a little to get her to notice me. She stopped fighting me long enough to catch a glimpse of my face, then threw herself into my arms with a wild sob.

"Daina, Mommy & Daddy won't listen to me and Uncle Michael and Aunt Linda keep laughing at that man whose trying to get Jessie and me and nobody will help me, nobody!" Emily gasped hysterically.

"It's okay, Emmy, I'm here, sweetie." I reassured her, holding her tightly. "Where's Jessie?"

"She said to go different ways, so I ran outside," Emily said.

"Which way did she go?" I asked. Emily pointed up and I looked at Nume.

"Watch her," I said, "She's the one with the magic."

"No, she isn't," Nume said.

"What are you talking about? Drew said she shot a powerball..."

"That wasn't me, that was Jessie," Emily said, her fear replaced momentarily by awe. "It went right past me and it was really cool!"

Nume gave me a look that I rightly interpreted as worry. "When they find out she is the one with the magic, they'll try to drain her right there..."

I didn't stay to listen. My uncle was definitely not a man of magic blood, even if his wife was, which meant Jessie would be one of those children like me who was not wholly made of magic, but couldn't be separated from it, either. I ran inside and up the back stairs to the balcony. I looked out over the crowd and couldn't find Drew or Kalen, but when I looked toward the opposite balcony, I saw Jessica dodging between tables with Drew tripping over chairs a couple of feet behind her. Without thinking, I yelled, "Jessie!"

Jessica looked in my direction and screamed, "Daina, help me!"

I knew I'd never make it around to the other balcony in time...until I looked up. There was the chandelier and the rope it was attached to, tied to the balcony I was on. It was incredibly stupid and terribly cliché, but….

A quick slash with the rapier, a mad scramble over the edge of the railing and a daring leap got me airborne. The chandelier was definitely heavier than I, but my swing was strong enough and the rope long enough to get me across to the other balcony. Just before I reached it, I shouted, "Jessica, jump!"

She paused for a moment and I thought she wasn't going to make it. She was on the edge of the rail when I swung toward her, so I grabbed her by the waist and pulled. She fell easily toward me and our combined weight coasted us down to the floor opposite the chandelier.

The audience applauded as we descended gracefully to the center of the main stage. Jessica clung to my neck as she asked, "What is going on?"

"I can't explain it to you right now," I said, as we touched ground. "Emmy's outside. Go check..."

Suddenly, my hand felt as though it were going to be torn out of its socket. I grabbed the rope with my other hand quickly as I went flying upward, leaving Jessica on the stage below. Drew went cruising down past me on the chandelier with a grin and I gasped, along with the rest of the audience.

"Run, Jessica!" I yelled, feeling like that was all I had said that evening. She ran so fast, I thought she'd disappeared. When I finally jerked to a halt near the ceiling, I looked down and realized that it was a long way to the floor.

A loooong way.

I was in a major bind. For one thing, I had already figured out the floor was a lot farther down than it had seemed when I had been swinging across in the middle of the previous desperate moment. By the time I got enough momentum to get myself swinging again, Kalen was bound to have cut my rope and let me fall the hundred feet or so to my death. I grasped the rope around my wrist tighter and closed my eyes.

I had apparently assessed my situation accurately, I decided, as I heard Kalen strolling across the floor below me. I looked down and found him standing center stage with a grin on his face. "You needn't have worried about your little cousin, my dear," he called up to me. "The magic of an adult sprite would certainly be more useful to me."

"If you could have it," I retorted. The rope burns on my hand felt like they were on fire and bleeding profusely, but I wasn't about to let go and check.

"You're right," he said. "I can't. Nice outfit, by the way. Another of you magic talents?"

"More or less," I lied.

"Mmm. Well, the show's over here. All except the grand finale."

"Which is?"

"With the help of my assistant, a member of the audience make a daring attempt on the life of villain to rescue the children he's captured. The children escape, as does the villain, but the audience member dies a heroic, but misunderstood death by falling off the balcony..."

"You mean dropping 100 feet to the floor after you cut the rope she hung from," I corrected.

"...and the show moves on to another town amidst rave reviews by the local critics. Fitting ending, don't you think?"

"No way! What about that encore performance in the city jail?" I quipped, knowing how idiotic I sounded even as I said it.

"Couldn't keep that engagement anywhere," he said thoughtfully. "Always got a better booking in the next town. Well, I'm off," he added, callously. "Cut her down...no, wait...burn her down." Kalen grabbed a candle from a nearby table and lit the rope. Drew stepped off the chandelier quickly and held the rope for Kalen while the flame slowly ate away fibers.

Death was actually in front of me and I knew it. I was definitely going to fall; personal levitation was not one of my magic tricks. If I didn't die the minute I hit the floor, Kalen would finish me off with his rapier while I laid there suffering. I swallowed once, blinked back a tear as I glanced at my smiling parents, closed my eyes...then plunged to my doom...

Somehow, I had always expected that dropping 100 feet to the floor would actually feel like dropping 100 feet to the floor; a painful sort of cosmic squish effect, not at all like landing on an air mattress.

I opened my eyes and realized it wasn't what Kalen had in mind, either. He stared at me while I hovered in midair about ten feet above the floor. With a smirk, I said, "And then the heroic audience member is saved at the last minute by some unknown force. The evil villain is thwarted at last! But who can this last minute savior be? And will the villain be picking up his butt on the way out the door after confronting this magic user?"

He gazed at me in surprise for a moment longer, then yelled, "Shut up!!! NUME!!!"

"Not even close," a familiar voice rang out. We all turned to the door and even I gasped in surprise. There in the doorway stood Jessica, one hand outstretched toward me, the other pointing toward Kalen. "Sit down."

"How dare you..."

"Sit!!!" she snapped. A chair flew over to Kalen and he was thrown heavily into it. "Put those cuffs on him, Emmy."

"No problem," Emily said, skipping around her big sister to handcuff Kalen.

"Not so fast, Drew," Nume said to the huge man as he tried to slip out the back. A flick of Nume's wrist threw him into another nearby post so hard the building shook and Drew passed out. Yessss!, I thought, wanting to high-five Nume on the spot.

Kalen was obviously pretty hacked about the whole deal, but I was thrilled. Imagine my little cousin rescuing me and beating the bad guy! It was a strange thought, but my ego was strong enough to take anything, especially after it, along with the rest of my body, had come a couple of feet away from being pancaked.

Kalen's ego was not that forgiving, however. He glared at Jessica hatefully as Emily came up to him. "Hey Jessie, could you maybe get me down from here?" I asked, suddenly realizing I was still above ground.

"Oh, sorry," Jessica said, letting my body float easily to the floor. Just as I landed next to Kalen, I saw his arms moved upward. It was then that it occurred to me that Jessica had only made him sit, not frozen him to the spot.

"Emmy!" I yelled. I tackled Emily to the ground just as Kalen roared angrily and shot his own blazing ball of magic at Jessica. I felt like I was in slow motion as I screamed for Jessie to move, then watched helplessly as the ball exploded into her, engulfing her in a fiery burst of magic light. When the light had cleared, Jessica and Nume were gone.

Emily shrieked like an emergency siren beneath me and I just about matched her tone in my agony. Kalen, although too tired to move, laughed huskily next to us. "That'll teach her," he mumbled.

Shaken with grief, I grabbed him by the front of his shirt and dealt him the hardest blow with my fist I've ever dealt anyone. He fainted completely, but I was too upset to care. I kept hitting him and hitting him, the tears flowing down my cheeks and onto my bruised knuckles as I sobbed. I barely heard Emily's voice behind me, her light steps rushing off the stage as she shouted,

"JESSICA!!!"

"Barely" does not mean "not at all".

I looked up, gasping with fatigue, sure I hadn't heard correctly, then turned around and saw Jessica's smiling face.

"Man," she said, pushing back her bangs breathlessly, "that was totally cool!"

"Jessie?" I whispered.

"Daina, God, lay off the man," she said in response. "I think he's had enough. Besides, you should feel all the magic he gave me!"

"Gave you?" I questioned quietly. "You mean, you..."

"Absorbed it," she shrugged. Then, her face fell as she said, "Oh, no, you didn't know I could do that, did you?"

"We thought you were dead, you dummy!" Emily pouted.

"I'm sorry, I forgot you didn't know about my magic," Jessica said to both of us. "I was gonna tell you when we first saw that magic dust, but you said 'no questions' and then things just started happening really fast after that."

I thought for a moment about some of the other amazing, yet impossible things that had happened. "So when we swung over on that rope..." I began.

"That was me," she answered. "Otherwise, we were gonna hit the ground really hard and I figured you probably would rather me help than have both of use break our legs and then get in trouble with Mommy and Daddy and..."

I gave her so fierce a hug that she had to shut up. "You did good, kid." I said.

"Yay, we won!" said Emily. "Let's eat!"

Both Jessica and I gave the child an odd look, then I realized Nume and Drew were both gone. "Hey, where's Nume and Drew?"

"That big guy snuck out the back way," Emily said, as she made her way back to the table. "The other lady just disappeared."

I looked at Jessica, then ran to the spot where Nume had been last. Sure enough, there was a little crystal statue, no taller than my hand, sitting on the floor looking exactly like Nume. Jessica ran up behind me and gasped.

"Looks like Kalen gave you everything he had," I said softly. "Or she had."

"I better give it back," Jessica said, hurriedly about to try.

"No, wait," I said, looking over at the still unconscious Kalen. "If you bring her back, she'll be his slave again. She's free now and he can't do anymore harm to anyone. We'll do what she wanted and give her magic to the statues in the van, then we'll keep her for Gramma. She can send her back and give her her magic back, too."

Jessica looked agreeable, but then pointed to Kalen. "What about him?" she asked.

"Well," I said, "why don't you null the magic on the crowd so they can remember what this idiot did to their kids and let them take care of it?"

"I got a better idea," Jessie said. "Why don't we just let all the kids get him first? Then he can deal with their parents."

Jessica grinned at me.

I grinned at her.

Obviously, a lot more than just a little magic blood runs in my family, I thought evilly.

By the way, if you're ever in St. Louis and you happen to like dinner theater, stop by Ye Olde Steak Castle and see the "Whip Up On The Pied Piper" Show. It's been held over for 11 weeks straight now and kids with their own mauling weapons get in half price...