The commanders were too busy to use magic on the captives, so it was idea versus idea. Some fell in with Sylvester’s side, others joined the MSI side, and others just kept dancing. It was hard to tell how the fight was going, but I figured it was okay as long as no armies were leaving the building to go take over the world. I wasn’t even sure where they’d have gone.

I felt triumphant until I saw someone heading for the sound system. They must have realized that the soundtrack was no longer enchanted. I barely reached the sound system first and blocked it with my body. The elf tried using magic on me, to no avail. That confused him enough to buy me a little time. I hit the redial button on my new phone and shouted, “Sam! I need backup at the sound system.”

“You changed the music!” the elf accused.

“You enchanted it!” I countered. “There’s gotta be a special place in hell reserved for anyone who’d use disco for mind control to force people into an army.”

He lunged for the stereo, and I blocked him. I still had the iPod holding the enchanted music and he wouldn’t be able to re-whammy his army, but I figured if I didn’t put up a fight, he might get suspicious enough to look for the enchanted device. Besides, Jake would never forgive me if I let anything happen to his iPod.

I felt a rush of air as a small gargoyle I wasn’t familiar with swooped in and landed on top of the stereo. “Your DJ days are over, elf,” the gargoyle snarled. I dove out of the way as the gargoyle and elf launched into a magical battle, but everything the elf sent against the gargoyle bounced off an invisible barrier. Sure that the music was safe for now, I turned my attention to the dance floor and the portal.

I had to get our people back to this world—get Owen to safety. I hated to even think about what could have happened to him by now. One of the commanders had to have the key to the wards on the other side of the portal. The trick would be getting him to cooperate. I wondered if threatening to play Barry Manilow would work.

As the battle went on, sparks of magic flying through the air overhead, I started to realize that it wasn’t going our way. Some of the foreign elves were helping our people, but more of them were staying out of it or were helping Sylvester’s side, and there were more of Sylvester’s people here than I’d thought. We didn’t seem to be anywhere near subduing the fighters or getting anyone in a position to coerce them into bringing the captives home.

We were keeping them from leaving to try to take over our world, but how long could that last? If they overwhelmed us and got out, we didn’t have too many more reinforcements outside. I wasn’t even sure where they’d attack. Would they go after MSI while we were all here, or would they go after the Council? Or was it really all about controlling our world’s elves, and would the army first be used to subdue Sylvester’s opponents?

I’d done my part and it wasn’t my responsibility to manage the big picture, but at the moment I was probably the person who knew the most about what was going on—other than the ones carrying out the plan, of course. Surely there was something I’d learned in the elven realms that might be of use here. We couldn’t have gone through all that only to fail.

The portal shimmered, and a bunch of figures came through. I shouted to alert our people to the influx of more enemies, but then I recognized the first arrival and realized they were on our side, not more elven reinforcements. “Owen!” I shouted, running toward him and throwing my arms around him. “You’re safe! I was so worried.”

He held me even tighter than I was holding him. “I’m fine, I’m fine,” he reassured me. “The others came to my rescue pretty quickly. Are you okay? Have you been trapped here in the middle of this battle?” he asked.

“I’m fine. I got out, and then I came back with help. It seems the elf soldiers were enchanted and brought here the way we were brought there, and I broke that spell with Jake’s iPod. You broke the wards?”

He blushed and said, “It was tricky because elven magic is a little idiosyncratic, but I figured it out eventually. By then, Mac and the others had finished their riot, so here we are.”

“It was perfect timing because we need the help. Most of these soldiers don’t really want to fight, but they don’t want to help us, either.”

More and more former captives were spilling through the portal and jumping right into the fray. It looked like a war had broken out in a discotheque. There was something incongruous about that peppy music providing the soundtrack to a battle. It was hard to tell which of the lights flashing around the warehouse were sparks of magic from the fight and which came from the disco ball spinning overhead.