4

He went over to the plastic rod and handed it to Mr. Cobb. “Hold it and turn slowly” Larry said. “When you are pointing in your daughter's direction, the light will move to the end of the rod towards her. Once your done with it, break the stick and the spell will break.” He held up a hand before either of us could speak. “This has an effective range of about a mile, so you'll have to do a lot of moving around. There is no price, but just think well of me and mine. That will be enough.” I was so startled I gaped at him. Larry was a good guy and all but I've never seen where he'd do a spell for free. Mr. Cobb said “I always remember my friends, and my friends will never stand alone.”
That made sense suddenly. Larry just got a favor from the fae, and that probably is worth more than money. I smiled. Larry could have been a con-man and a good one. He ushered us out and began to clean up the room so no residual magics could cause problems. Mr. Cobb and I went back to my little car, and took off into the Dayning suburb of Halifax. Mr. Cobb held the wand out and swept it in a one hundred eighty degree arc to our front, hoping to capture a glimmer that told us which direction she might be.
We had been driving for an hour when we got a glimmer of movement from the mote of light in the rod. Cobb extended the rod past my face in the direction had flickered. “That way! She's That way!” he practically screamed in my ear. His face was transformed by hope, and the change was amazing. I had to tear my eyes away from him to make the turn and head more or less in the direction we wanted to go.
We followed in the general direction the wand indicated, which took us deep into Dayning. It led us into a area populated by Hamref. Hamref are about five feet tall, and look like a stiff breeze would break them in two, they're so emaciated looking. They are put together pretty much like a humanoid biped, two legs, two arms one head. But the differences are eerie. For starter's their nostrils are at the edge of each cheek, just about an inch below their eyes. Their eyes are huge, which one would expect from a night-loving species.
You'd be wrong. Their eyesight is just fine, day or night. In fact, they're supposed to have the equivalent of 6-power binocular vision. Their bodies were hard skinned, Fawn had talked about having watched 9mm pistol rounds ricochet off of them. Their hands were four-fingered claws. The one thing though that bothered me most was that every joint of theirs was almost three hundred sixty degrees of movement. They were incredibly flexible and able to contort though openings that an escape-artist could only envy.
They were predators, but weak ones. Any human could easily best one. Trouble is they attacked in groups. I may have felt nervous about being out amongst all the Hamrefs, but that was mine own human prejudice about so odd-looking a creature. Hamref were scrupulously honest.
I drove us up to an old post office building and parked the car. The street was empty except for a few cars that drove by as we exited mine. The building stood at the corner, a whitewashed bygone of earlier times. Windows were boarded over and painted with the same whitewash. I spotted a narrow alley to our left as we faced the building. It separated the post office and the adjoining building. We walked up to the front door. It was a typical glass door that had the glass painted over, and which had been padlocked. The chain and lock were both old and rusted, but still strong as a quick tug told me.
Cobb stayed a good ten feet away as I tested the chains, Fae and iron don't play well together. Failing to open the door, we walked down the alley to the back side of the building to see if there might be another way in. As we moved, Cobb checked the wand, and it indicated that his daughter was inside. I spotted another door in the back, and moved towards it. As I did Cobb hissed and suddenly grabbed me and dragged me back a few feet.