“It’s possible,” he replied, “but if they’re not in the Wasteland, there must be something preventing them from escaping their city, except through possession of bodies in other places.”

“You said they described it as a prison.”

He nodded. “One of them told me that his home was a place of fire and death.”

“If they’re under the sun in the Wasteland’s desert that sounds about right,” said Henry. Listening to his desolate voice was like walking through a cemetery. “Not many residents of the Wasteland journey into the desert. The climate is too extreme.”

“Wait,” I said, “Jim, you told us the Blinding City was full of light, too, right?”

“Yeah.”

I turned back to Malachi. “I wonder if the Mazikin prefer the dark.”

He rubbed the back of his neck. “It’s possible. That may be one of the reasons they were so fond of my city.” His shoulders relaxed slightly. “Maybe they’ll be more active at night.”

“Active like how?” asked Jim.

“They’ll be recruiting,” answered Malachi. “In the dark city, they snatched people off the street, sometimes out of apartment buildings. They tie their victims to a table and perform a ritual where they burn incense and chant in their language. It calls up a Mazikin spirit from their realm to inhabit the body.”

Henry grimaced. “You mean, like demon possession or something? I’ve heard of that. Can they be exorcised, then? Is that what we’re supposed to do?” The expression on his stubbly face showed how uneasy he was with that idea.

Malachi shook his head. “There’s no going back once a Mazikin spirit takes hold. The body must be killed. It’s the only way to deal with them.”

“Not the only way,” I said quietly, remembering how Mazikin could be imprisoned in the dark tower. It forced all trespassers to relive their worst memories, and Mazikin got a double dose of that, having to endure both their own traumatic recollections and those of their human hosts.

“Killing them is the only way,” Malachi snapped. “Unless you want to leave human souls trapped in that place of fire and suffering.” He had been told by a Mazikin that killing the host body sent the Mazikin back to its homeland and liberated the human soul that had been exiled there by the possession.

I put up my hands to show I wasn’t going to argue with him. “Fortunately, it’s not as simple as grabbing someone off the streets here,” I said to Jim and Henry. “Most people would be missed by their families and reported to the police, which means the search would be on for them, making it more likely that the Mazikin will be found and exposed. But at this point, they must have possessed a few because every night there are more sightings.”

“At least a few?” Henry asked. “How many of these things are there?”