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King Arthur’s Court. A legless armchair at a metaphorical fire. Somehow, and she had no idea how, that wasn’t as lame as it should have been.

Two more steps.“Looking at the bright side, continuing weirdness means there’s still some time before the segue. The more normal this place is, the closer the bad guys are to success.”

“Yeah, well, if it’s all the same to you, I’m gonna worry about what’s going downbefore the muzak starts play…Fuck.” She spat the profanity between clenched teeth.

“What?”

They were standing at the west end of the lower concourse. Behind them, what should have been another entrance to the department store the elves had claimed was, instead, a solid wall of glass. Diana could barely make out the barricade beyond it. To their right, a Mr. Jockstrap. Sporting goods. She tried to remember if the original mall held a store by that name but couldn’t. In a world with Condom Shack franchises, she supposed it was possible. The lights were low, the only sound the bass beat of a fast hip-hop track pulsing down from the upper level. Nothing looked particularly dangerous.

“It’s night.”

“Okay.”

“He’s here at night.”

“Who?”

“Some old security dude.”

Diana felt a chill run down her spine and really hoped it was a gust from the air-conditioning.“Walks with a limp? Kind of weaves his head from side to side like a snapping turtle? Mutters things like lithe and lissome?”

“I never seen a snapping turtle, but that sounds like the guy.”

“But he’s not in this mall, he’s in the other mall. The real mall.”

“Yeah? Well, he gets around. Don’t let him catch you in his flashlight beam. He nails you with that and you’re gone.”

“Gone?”

“Gone.” Kris rolled her eyes impatiently. “Speak English much? Gone. Not here. Now come on, we got some distance to cover.”

They stayed to the darker shadows of the kiosks and the potted trees; Kris leading, Diana half a pace behind doing her best to mimic the other girl’s economical movements. Their path led down the center of the concourse until they neared the second set of stairs when Kris began to veer left. She tucked into the rectangular shadow of the last storefront before a side corridor and motioned for Diana to join her.

“Shoe stores are safe,” she whispered in answer to Diana’s silent question, her mouth close to the Keeper’s ear. “What’s gonna come out? They watch these stairs,” she continued, softening her esses. “It’s why we couldn’t use them. We have to get to that hall up there. Where the sign for the security office is.”

The sign was across the side corridor and four storefronts farther east.

“We used to come down through the store at the end there…” A quick jerk of Kris’ head, the motion felt rather than seen they were so close together, indicated the corridor. “…another big one, like ours, but lately it’s been locked at night. Good thing we didn’t fuckin’ risk it.”

“Because it’s night.”

The elfin captain patted Diana lightly on one cheek.“Can’t put nothing past you Keepers.”

Diana felt her face heat up under its mask of lipstick. The store locked at night could only mean reality had found another foothold, but she decided not to mention that at the risk of being thought obvious as well as dense. She watched as Kris dropped to her belly and inched forward toward the corridor along the angle of floor and wall. Was she supposed to follow?

Apparently not.

Just as she began to seriously consider dropping to her knees, Kris began to back up. Feet under her, into a crouch, standing…warm breath against Diana’s ear. She clenched her hands to keep from shivering.

“It’s clear. Move fast, don’t make any noise, and try to look as little like a person as you can.”

“What?”

“If they see you, you want to leave some doubt about what they’re seeing.”

That made sense. Although“look as little like a person as you can” didn’t. Not in any useful sort of a way.

“All right. Let’s…”

shunk kree, shunk kree

Kris slammed back against her as a line of light split the concourse.

He was coming from the west. From the same direction they had. He’d been behind them the whole time.

shunk kree, shunk kree

Unable to use the possibilities, even in the minimal way she had in the original mall, Diana was left feeling like she imagined Bystanders must feel all the time. Helpless. Angry. Vaguely pathetic. How did they manage? Kris’ back pressed hard against her, warm and comfortingly solid. It helped. The cold glass and dark store behind her didn’t.

Shoe store, she reminded herself as the light swept through the shadows under the stairs.What could possibly come out of a shoe store.

Actually, she could think of a few things.

None of them good.

All of them thelast thing she should be thinking about right now.

shunk kree, shunk kree

She was listening so hard to the sound of the security guard shuffling down the concourse that she didn’t hear the music start inside the shoe store. By the time she noticed, it had already reached the chorus.

These boots are made for walking…