Page 81 of Search for the Lost

Crispin patted him on the back. “Good points. All right, our goal is to find the witch, I suppose. Or Mother. Whichever comes first.”

Leo bit his tongue and managed not to say that, in his opinion, Crispin’s mother was a witch—personality-wise and sort of literally. She’d tried to poison him once. She’d caused them to switch bodies. She was definitely not a Leo fan and didn’t hesitate to show it. But she was also Crispin’s mom, and if he needed to find her, then Leo needed to support that. I hope she’s not the witch we’re supposed to kill. “So, finding them. How do we do that?”

“I don’t….” Crispin’s shoulders sagged. “I’ve no idea.”

Neither did Leo, but then, he wasn’t much of an idea guy. And when he did come up with a plan, things generally went south pretty quick. He chucked a finger under Crispin’s adorable chin. “Of course you have an idea. You just don’t know what it is yet. You’re clever, dude. You get things done. You’re the king.”

Crispin blinked at him for a few moments before a slow smile spread over his face. “You believe in me.”

“You bet your sweet bippy I do.”

“What’s a bippy?” That was Dietrich, who was looking Crispin over carefully, as if some new body part might appear. To be fair, that wasn’t entirely impossible, given their previous adventures.

Leo blinked. “Wait. Didn’t we leave you behind at the Royal⁠—”

“You can’t get rid of me so easily.” He winked at Crispin, who rolled his eyes.

“Whatever.” Leo ignored him. Dietrich looked as if he was going to ask again about the bippy, until Aspin whispered something in his ear. Dietrich’s eyebrows shot up and he dropped the subject.

Crispin, who apparently hadn’t noticed any of that interchange, pulled Thea out of his pocket. “Can you tell us where to find the witch?”

“No can do, bossarino. My circuits get all mixed up on Earth One.” She made a sound remarkably like a hiccup. “’S kinda fun, though. Party time!”

With a sigh, Crispin tucked the phone away. “It was worth a try. Leo, how would you go about finding something here?”

“Um, I guess I’d probably google it.”

“What’s googling?” That was Dietrich again.

Leo rolled his eyes this time. No one respects the bounds of space and time in this crowd.

Again, Aspin whispered something to their one-time tour guide. This time, Dietrich clapped a hand to his mouth and looked shocked.

“I don’t think that’s possible,” said Crispin, who’d spent enough time with Leo to know what he was talking about. “Is there a way to search for things without the google?”

He kinda gets it. Was there a way to search for things without going online? Back in the olden days there were paper maps and Yellow Pages, but those had pretty much gone the way of the dodo.

Okay, how else did people find things? You could ask for directions, but at this time of night, everything downtown would be all closed up. Even if they were in a residential area, they couldn’t just knock on random doors and ask for witch directions. There was no yellow brick road. No Officer Friendly. No bloodhounds. No— Wait.

Leo pulled one of the mouse-WOLFs from his pocket. It was Dave, and he wiggled his whiskers cutely as Leo held him in front of Crispin’s face. “Tell him what to search for, Crispy.”

“That’s ridiculous,” said Cypher. “How can a mere rodent⁠—”

“Shh!” Crispin shot him a glare. “Leo believes in me, so I believe in him. If he holds the opinion that this creature can assist us, then that must be the case.”

Huh. It felt good to know that someone was confident in you. It was empowering. Leo grinned at him.

Crispin turned his focus on Dave. “Please guide us as directly—and safely—as possible to the witch.”

Dave did the whisker thing again and emitted a squeak that was probably his current version of a howl. In Leo’s pocket, the other three mouse-WOLFs chimed in with their teeny-tiny versions. Dave lifted his nose into the air and took several deep whiffs, then swung his head decisively to the right. “Dave knows the way,” said Crispin.

They walked through the darkened streets, sometimes going forward for several blocks, sometimes turning. Dave sniffed the air at every intersection. They were probably a suspicious-looking group, especially since they were accompanied by what appeared to be a young boy who kept pausing to look in windows and make faces at himself in the glass. Fortunately, almost nobody else was out and about.

After a while, Leo grew tired. But Crispin continued to act as if Leo were purposeful and confident, so he kept his complaints and doubts to himself. Which was growth, he supposed. Up until recently, he would have bitched openly, but now he knew that there were occasions when it was best to keep your trap shut—as long as it wasn’t cursed shut, that is. He hadn’t liked that at all.

They reached a part of the city that felt, well, creepy. Weird shadows. Businesses with signs in languages that weren’t remotely familiar. A faint smell that reminded Leo of Fourth of July fireworks. A few strains of music reached his ears, very faint but also familiar. He hummed along until he remembered what the song was. “Funiculì, funiculà?”

“Pardon?” said Crispin.