Bridal Jitters Read Online Free

“What do you think?”
    “The same thing you’re thinking, I imagine. It’s an illusion trap. I can feel the energy pattern. Someone left us a nasty little trick. I’ll bet it was some idiot who had one too many bottles of Green Ruin to drink last night. Probably thought it would be a great Halloween prank.”
    “I think he’ll change his mind when I find him,” Sam said softly.
    Virginia glanced at him, frowning slightly. “Don’t worry, it’s just a small trap.”
    “Can you de-rez it?”
    “Does amber resonate? Of course I can de-rez it. But I’mnot going to do it out here on the front step. Let’s take it into the kitchen.”
    She reached down and scooped up the box with a nonchalance that made Sam wince. He followed her into the big kitchen at the back of the house and watched her set the box down on the scarred counter.
    “You might want to stand back a little,” she said as she clipped the string. “Just in case.”
    “We’re partners, remember?” He moved closer to the counter.
    She smiled as she began to unwrap the package. “Yes, but you’ve never seen me work. I wouldn’t blame you for being a tad cautious. Even small, simple illusion traps can be very unpleasant if they aren’t untangled properly.”
    “I’ve spent a lot of time underground and I’ve worked with some clumsy tanglers. I’ve caught the flashback from an accidentally sprung trap more than once.”
    “Well, there won’t be any flashback this time. You have my personal guarantee.”
    Her cool, professional arrogance amused him. He watched her peel away the brown paper. A small cardboard box was revealed. With a good deal more caution than she had exercised a moment ago, she raised the lid and gazed inside.
    “Well, well, well,” she murmured. She sounded as cheerful as if she had just received a bouquet of flowers.
    Personally, he could think of a number of other things he would rather find on his doorstep first thing in the morning besides an illusion trap. But if the challenge of de-rezzing it lifted Virginia’s spirits and gave her something else to think about besides calling off their marriage, he might be willing to overlook the prank.
    “What is it?” he asked.
    “A very nice piece.” She angled the box to allow him a closer look at the object inside. “A little unguent jar. Museum quality. Not spectacular, but quite excellent. It would bring agood price in a gallery. I can’t imagine anyone in his right mind wasting it just to play a vicious Halloween trick.”
    Sam eyed the small green quartz jar. It was elegantly rounded in a shape that was not quite comfortable for a human hand. The top was carved in an airy, fanciful design similar to many he had seen in the course of his career. The art and sculpture left behind by the long-vanished Harmonics always reminded him of the Old Earth poet Goethe’s description of architecture:
frozen music.
    “You’re right,” he said. “It’s not unique, but it’s definitely valuable. Whoever our prankster is, he must be a wealthy collector if he could afford to use an artifact worth a couple of grand just to pull off a Halloween stunt.”
    An illusion trap had to be anchored to an artifact or to old green quartz from the ruins.
    “Probably too drunk to realize what he was doing.” Virginia carefully lifted the top of the jar and peered into the dark interior. “Okay, here we go. It’s a simple pattern. This won’t take long.”
    “Easy for you to say.” He looked down into the shadows inside the little unguent jar. The darkness there was not normal. There was a dense quality to it, the only visible warning of the tiny trap. In the eerie glow of the green catacombs of the Dead City it was all too easy for a member of an excavation team to mistake illusion dark for ordinary shadow, but here in the brightly lit kitchen, the difference was obvious to the trained eye.
    Obvious, but no less dangerous.
    He had seen other tanglers work, but this was the first time