License Invoked

Go away, she willed the calm, insistent voice. Go away. Elizabeth was just another manifestation of the evils that surrounded her, haunted her. She tried to shut them all out, using the ward chants she had learned from the books. Go away, pesty voice.

"Fio

She put her fingers into her ears. Two strong hands grabbed her sore wrists and pulled them away. She yelped, and went back to chanting.

"Fio

Fio

Liz stood up and nodded to Nigel Peters. "She'll be all right now," she said.

"My God, how did you do it?" Peters asked, staring at his star in amazement. Fio

"Departmental secret," Liz said curtly. But she gave Fio

"Let's get back to it," Voe Lockney said, fidgeting with his drumsticks. "We need the run-through."

"No," Lloyd said, cradling Fio

"Oh, no," Michael Scott said, his blue eyes ablaze. "We'll be rusty enough. I have to hear the acoustics of this place."

"Is she going to fold in the show?" Voe Lockney asked, looking at Fio

"I don't see what all the fuss is about," Robbie Unterburger said, sourly. "I've had worse burns from flash powder."

At the sound of the word "burns," Fio

"Godless," the keyboard player muttered. "Marry him already, woman!"

"The evil feeling has dissipated now," Liz said, as soon as she and Boo were out of earshot of the others. "Where did it go?"

"Where did it come from?" Boo asked. "We've checked all over this place. The portals were cleared. Everyone was clean. We missed a leak somehow. It'd have to come in a vent, or on a breach in the walls to the outside. Malignity has to be invited into a neutral space. The only psychic doodads here belong to Miss Fio

"Too deep for you?" Liz asked.

Boo gave her a glance full of meaning. "Not for our detection methods, ma'am," Boo said mysteriously. "Can't say more'n that."

"This isn't like anything I've ever had to deal with before," Liz said, pushing departmental rivalry aside until later. "Is she really under attack from some kind of malign spirit that follows her around?"

"I du

Liz only gawked. "Is there anyone in this town that you don't know?"

Chapter 10

The clean-shaven, heavyset man leaned into the SATN-TV camera lens. He was wearing a plain black tunic and breeches with white bands at his throat and wide white cuffs. The costume, coupled with the truncated-cone-shaped hat, evoked an image of a Puritan settler, but his speech had no relation to the founding fathers' simple message of religious freedom.

"Hate," he said, with all the flourishes and dramatic pauses of his profession, "liberates you. Hate sets you free. The ultimate freedom comes when you allow yourself to reach inside and draw out the burning fires within, to destroy your enemies and vanquish them into the netherworlds. Hate creates power."

Behind him was a clutch of stern-faced women dressed in a similar style, straight out of The Crucible. They were throwing handfuls of powder onto a fire that exploded in a flash and puffs of noxious, yellow smoke.

"Are you getting passed up for promotions because the boss likes a different candidate more than you?" the man asked. "Then, curse your rival! Curse the boss, too! There's no reason for you to take ill-treatment like that without calling down eternal wrath upon those who do you wrong. Join our congregation! We'll be happy to offer a ritual for you. All you have to do is send us a donation of $100, and we'll invoke Satan in your name. Watch our show, and add your prayers that vengeance will be yours. Now, here's that address. Send $100 to SATN-TV... ."

The slim man in khaki trousers waited until the a

"How dare you?" the head Puritan said, coming toward the producer with a face like an angry thundercloud. "Private worship is not for public display!"

"We could guarantee you a hell—sorry, Speaker—a heckuva lot more viewers in the prime time slot if you would make your pitch, you know, a little more adult-friendly?"

"You mean, washed in sin!" Downey stormed.

"I mean, that's what people want to see," the producer said, imperturbably. "What you're doing now is strictly daytime—bored housewives and unemployed people with the tube on for background noise. The real money is in the evening, if you wanted to cater to the public a little, or after midnight for really hot stuff. Sheesh! Some of the evil you guys espouse is obviously sadomasochism! You ought to... let it show a little."

One of the women sidled up to him, seductive even in the heavy-skirted costume. "You're a follower?"

"I..." the producer began, uncomfortable even while he was starting to look interested.

"We prefer to keep our show in the light of day," Downey said, angrily. "Night is for the creatures of the dark, like... like that druid's wench!" He pointed at a poster of Fio

"Now, now," said Augustus Kingston, coming out of the shadows and throwing an arm over Speaker Downey's shoulders. Only the ember of his cigar end had given away his presence to the others. As he got closer the producer could smell the tobacco over the sulphur from the brimstone incense. "Don't you get all het up about Miss Kenmare. She's go

"She wastes the otherworldly power, brother," Downey said, shaking his head. "Her motives are suspect! What fool would use magic and not employ it for personal gain?"

"Well, you are so right, my friend," Kingston said, smoothly. "And if I have not said it lately, I, and all of my people here," he pointed the cigar at the producer, trailing along behind them like a worried watchdog, "appreciate your help in dealing with wrongheaded women like Miss Kenmare, there. Yes, she's got wards around her. There're some busybodies interfering with right-minded people like yourself who quite rightly want to see her blasted into the underworld, but in the end those won't be a barrier. No one can stand against the might of pure evil."