Chapter 19
Sunday July 23 10:30pm
The man who met her at the terminal drove her a short distance to a sightseeing company. There she was directed to a helicopter that was idling on the pad. Once inside and buckled up, Iran handed her a set of earphones with a microphone attached which she put on. As Iran informed her that she had found no trace of Sakura, the helicopter rose up and started flying slowly back and forth over the city between the mountains and the sea.
Ieran had a bowl with water in it that she kept looking into while Tomoyo just probed the buildings below directly with her new Magic senses. She could feel the people in the buildings as they passed over them, but no sign of Sakura or the Cards. Ieran had even rented two helicopters so they would always have a full one while the other one was being refueled. "I wonder what that is costing her? But of course, cost would be no object to Ieran when her whole city as well as her own life is at stake." she idly thought.
After two hours over the downtown area they started searching further out. But after five more hours they had covered all the north side of the island and part of the mainland without any results.
"If they are being shielded we won't be able to sense them directly, but a Magic shield is never perfect. It will leak some Magic and we must find that. We will now try looking for anyplace that has the feel of strong Magic and investigate it." Tomoyo nodded, assuming that this method would work since she was confident that they would find Sakura.
The sun rose in a beautiful red and pink sunrise but neither Tomoyo nor Ieran even noticed it. They searched all day, covering the entire area that she could be in, landing and investigating one Magic user after another without any trace of Sakura, the Cards or a Magically shielded area. Tomoyo was getting really exhausted from straining her Magic as hard as she could for so many hours, so she took a break and tried to just clear her mind and rest. And almost at once she had an idea. "Ieran? Can you feel the energy that flows out of the earth?"
When Ieran replied, "Energy from the earth?" Tomoyo knew that she would have to do it herself.
"When I draw my power from the earth, I can feel the flow of it faintly from every square foot of the surface. Perhaps, if there is a magically shielded room somewhere it will show up as a shadow where I can't feel any energy."
"Why didn't you say that hours ago!" Ieran said angrily and her words cut Tomoyo like a knife.
"I just thought of it." Tomoyo said sadly,
"Stupid child!" Ieran commented sharply before instructing the pilot to start over and fly faster. Tomoyo felt a horrible pain inside. "I was SO stupid! I just went along with Ieran and didn't even try to think for myself!" As she was searching, it didn't occur to her that she was a sixteen year old girl who had only had Magic for a few days while Ieran was a Magic Master with many decades of experience, so it was perfectly natural for her to follow Ieran's lead. Instead she punished herself without mercy.
As they went back and forth over the city Tomoyo had her eyes closed and was concentrating on the Earth energy, looking for some place where she couldn't feel it. As the clock drew closer and closer to 11:00 Tomoyo felt the strain build. She -had- to find Sakura! Eriol had said that she had a high probability of success, so she -would- find the hiding place. Or so she kept telling herself.
Monday July 24 10:48pm
Finally she felt a hole in the earth energy. There was a large house far up the side of mount Ghough and there was no energy coming through the house. It was a completely dark spot. "I FOUND IT!" Tomoyo yelled into her microphone, and then she pointed to the house. "That house is shielded!"
"Pilot turn around. See the large white house with the red tile roof just a little to the left of where we are pointing."
"Yes."
"Land as close as you can to it, quickly."
But as they descended, the house suddenly exploded in a huge ball of flame. "NO!!" Tomoyo screamed as she realized what this meant. "THIS IS NOT...SUPPOSE TO...HAPPEN!!"