7:8
Kim
A carbon nanotube beach-tumbleweed, a kinetic sculpture that never stops shifting and changing its configuration, it’s getting harder to get lost in the chaos of her mind.
The chaos would be a gift. Instead she’s found the cold, dead, empty place that used to be her retreat. That place that used to take discipline and ritual to get to had become her norm. Her numb.
Until…
PULSE
She shuddered against the table, breath the pant of a beaten dog, and fought the boil of tears that started somewhere in her mind, building momentum until they surged behind her eyeballs, the pressure fighting the bulwark of her will, and burned acid sharp at the corners of her eyes.
“Fuck-” pant pant pant – so lightheaded whether from the shallow breaths or the gnawing hunger inside of her, “you!”
“Little Rapunzel.” The light voice, sing-song, hardened Kim’s resolve. “So alone.”
Kim ground her teeth, grunted through them, “Little Kim likes to be a-fucking-lone, you BITCH!”
PULSE
Head back, Kim wretched, the bitter burn of bile clawing up her throat. If she’d anything in her stomach she would likely have choked and she would have welcomed the oblivion, but there was nothing in her. Nothing but bile and emptiness and a stomach heaving to expel the pain of this existence.
She panted. Reached for anything. Found nothing.
Little Kim was all alone. She closed her eyes, sunk her chin against her collarbone, and her back jerked with the tears she refused to shed, the sobs she refused to voice.
The jerks turned to convulsions as another Pulse tore through her pores, vibrated in her bones, ricocheted around her motherfucking empty soul.
The door to the Empty loomed inside her. She scrabbled at it, weak nails folding back, seeking asylum for just one fucking minute.
The line from Cornflake Girl about keys played over and over, a subtle taunt.
*
Ivan, with Ben draped over his shoulder in a fireman’s carry, took up the rear and the song Bridge Over Troubled Waters. The bridge that wasn’t a bridge but was a bridge in the sense that it was the connection between the group and the song and the Magick Patti called on making it possible to cross the electric pool of death, was spongy beneath Ivan’s feet. He thought light thoughts and adjusted Ben against his shoulder, never dropping the song and trying damned hard not to drop his friend.
In front of him Prairie walked softly, her head weaving side to side as she sang. Gwen was in front of her and seemed to have her hands planted in the small of Dempsey’s back as she sang loudly.
Siobhan was in front of Dempsey, having coaxed him to follow her and in front of her was Dan. In that way the nine of them, well eight and Ben over Ivan’s shoulder, traveled with careful steps and singing voices over the definitely, no questions asked, troubled waters. As each of them reached the arch to the stairway, they stepped off and down the stairs, still singing.
Ivan could see Gwen elbowing Dempsey when he appeared to stop singing. He let out a definite grunt, then his voice, grudging tone flavoring it, sang the next line about a second after the rest, an echo that drew a smile to Ivan’s lips as he stepped onto the landing. Ben stirred and poked Ivan in the back with what felt like a really stiff finger or maybe a knuckle.
“Let me down,” his muffled voice came clear as everyone stopped singing and Patti pressed a hand to the wall of the stairwell, her eyes closed, breathing deeply in an out through pursed lips.
Gwen bobbled around Dempsey and passed the others to rub Patti’s back. “You did good.”
Patti puffed one more time and raised a face framed by the faint wisps of damp hair at the temples. “I don’t think I have another one of those in me.”
“Okay. If something else comes up we’ll let someone else be the hero.”
“Hero?” Patti mouthed more than said the word.
“Uh,” Gwen lifted her brows and bobbed her head, “Duh.”
“I may have broken something.
“Yeah. My heart!”
Patti scrubbed a hand over her face, hiding her grin as Gwen clutched at her chest. “You are incorrigible.”
“Is that a word? I don’t think that’s a word. I think you made that up.”
“It’s a word,” Dan said all serious and calm to Patti’s other side.
Gwen turned to him and pointed a finger. “Says you!”
“Yep.”
“Did you hear Dempsey sing?” Gwen leaned in to whisper in Patti’s ear.
Patti nodded. “It was awesome!”
“Don’t tell him that.” Gwen pressed a quick kiss to Patti’s damp temple then moved back to stand next to Siobhan.
Patti pressed her hand to her temple and stared down in bemusement at Sass’s house swaying gently against her thigh. When Sass didn’t come to the window, she frowned and leaned over to the side to look in at the mouse. Sass was curled up in the bottom of the house, its head tucked into its side. Poor Sass looked as sapped as Patti felt.
“We ready to go down to the next level?” Ivan called up from down and around the bend in the stairs.
Patti pressed her hands to the wall, lowering her head between her arms, took a deep breath, then called, “Sure.”
Gwen walked up beside Patti and laid her hand on her upper back. “I can’t give you energy but I could give you a shoulder to lean on, if you need it.”
Patti lifted her head and turned it to look at Gwen. “Literally or figuratively?”
“Why not both?”
“Okay.” Patti pushed away from the wall and turned her face forward, lifting her arm to let Gwen’s slide around her waist. A measure of calm and confidence flowed through her with the touch, letting her find the curl her fingers around the strap of her shield and gesture down the stairs.
“Mr. Dempsey?”
“Just Dempsey.” Dempsey responded. “Or Tom.”
“Okay, Dempsey. Lead?”
“Sure.” Dempsey stepped up in front of Gwen and Patti and started down the stairs with his shield held at the ready. At the foot of the staircase he paused and called back, “Nothing!”
Ben hopped down the last few steps and sidled around Patti and Gwen to take up a position next to Dempsey who shifted his shield to accommodate Ben. Patti and Gwen stopped one step up from them, giving them a slight vantage to look over Ben’s head at the room which had a large trestle table in the center of it. Straw was scattered over the stone floor, obscuring the pattern of multi-hued and shaped stones. The curved walls held shields, hung in display. Interspersed between the shields were tapestries displaying scenes of hunts. From the ceiling hung a massive chandelier made of deer antlers, from which light bulbs protruded. The center of the table was lit bright as day while shadows danced along the walls.
“Nothing?” Ivan called down from several steps up and a little back around the curve of the tower.
“Nothing!” Ben pitched his voice to be heard.
From two steps above Patti and Gwen, Siobhan leaned over and craned her neck so she could see the room. “Looks like a dining room of a castle.”
“Dining rooms in castles often had dogs,” Dan said. “Are there dogs?”
Ben put his fingers to his mouth and released a sharp whistle. Lowering them he called, “Here, Spot! Here, Fido!”
“Spot?” Patti muttered to Gwen. “Fido?”
Gwen raised her shoulders, rolled her eyes, then called out, “Here, puppy! Puppy puppy!”
Ben flicked a look over his shoulder at Gwen to which she wrinkled her nose and called louder, “Puppy!”
There was no movement from the room or even the sound of movement to indicate any incoming threat.
Gwen turned her head to Dan. “Don’t think there’s any dogs. Got anything else?”
“Maybe it’s just a room?” Prairie suggested from behind Siobhan.
Siobhan hummed her agreement. “There’ve been a lot of other empty rooms.”
Ben laced his fingers then shifted his wrists to stretch the joints forward. “I’m going in.”
Dempsey grabbed Ben’s shoulder and halted his forward movement. “Why do you always go first?”
Ben shrugged. “It’s my job.”
“I’m going in with you.”
“That’s your call, bruh.” Ben twisted his shoulder out from under Dempsey’s hand and continued forward. Dempsey matched his movement with his longer stride.
Ben’s foot came down a slab of tan colored stone with a sandy finish. No sooner had his boot touched down than the stone crumbled and his foot sunk in a solid six inches. Before he could yank his foot back the stone reformed, trapping him. Dempsey with his longer stride had put his foot down on a rough-cut tile of cream marble. It didn’t crumble under his step. Instead its surface slipped away then snapped back. Where the stone touched his boot, the leather started smoking. Air ejected from his lungs on a ‘huff’. He yanked back hard. The stone clamped on his boot, compressing the bones underneath. He jerked again. The clamp tightened. Sucking a breath through his nose he stilled his motion. The clamping ceased, although it did not release him. He was well-trapped by the piece of marble.
Ben yanked back hard and the stone crumbled, releasing his foot and sending him stumbling back through the doorway. Gwen reached out to steady him, grunting as his weight drove her to sit on the stair behind her. Siobhan moved her feet quickly to avoid Gwen’s butt. Dan was a little slower and ended up with Gwen sitting on his boot.
“What the actual fuck,” Ben gritted, looking at Dempsey’s embedded boot.
Siobhan stepped down to squish next to Dempsey on the landing and examined his foot and the marble it was stuck in. “Can you get out?”
Dempsey’s gritted his teeth, the muscle in his jaw popping. “Every time I move it gets hot and tightens.”
“But if you stay still?”
“It stops.” Pain added gravel to Dempsey’s voice, “Doesn’t release, but it stops getting tighter.”
“How bad is it?”
“Ever dropped a ten-pound weight on your foot?”
“No.” Siobhan winced. “But I can guess it hurts?”
Dempsey pursed his lips and breathed out slowly. “Like a mother.”
“Excuse me.” Abe’s voice carried down the stairs and they soon followed. “Can I?” They looked to Siobhan, gesturing to where she was standing. She nodded and stepped back, causing Patti to step into her previous position on the stair above.
Abe squatted with their elbows planted on their thighs and leaned in to squint at the stone around Dempsey’s foot. They released a subtle ‘hmm’ then shifted to look at the other stones and ‘hmmmed’ again. Shifting slightly, they reached slowly for the stone encasing Dempsey’s foot with their unmarked left hand. As the tips of their fingers brushed the surface the stone rippled, surging upwards like a liquid instead of a solid. It moved so quickly Abe had to jerk their hand straight up in order to avoid getting their fingers snatched by the stone.
After drawing a wobbly breath, they shook their hand out and eyed the stone, poking their tongue into the pocket of their cheek as they did so. Then they nodded and rose back to a stand. Twisting their hand in the strap of their bag they looked at Dempsey with their lips curled in slightly, then turned to the others hovering on the steps.
“The stones are a construct but-” they wobbled their right hand, twisting at the wrist to show back, palm, back. “They are also stone.”
Gwen pretty much spoke for them all when she said, “Huh?”
Abe’s hand tightened on the strap of their bag as they shifted their gaze up and to the left. They contemplated that space for a moment, then drew an audible breath through their nose. “Elemental Magick has taken over the construct and is twisting it. So this,” they turned and jerked their chin towards the room, “is not stone. And not a construct. It’s the physical manifestation of the Earth energy. At least, I think it is. What I know is my Magick can’t touch them.”
“Your Magick can touch anything that’s a construct?” Siobhan asked to which they replied with a sharp nod.
“Yes.” Turning back to the room, they raised their right hand, the one with the heavy black tattoo, to their mouth and nibbled on the thumbnail. “I’ve never seen anything like this.”
Dan tapped Gwen on the shoulder, indicating with a jerk of his chin that he wanted to get to the bottom of the stairs. When she moved, he stepped up next to Abe. “Can I touch it?”
“I wouldn’t try.” Abe lowered their hand and looked at Dan. “I wonder if this is how the world is made. Someone or thing dictates that a thing has a shape, like they sculpt it from…” They petered off, fluttering their fingers as they sought the words.
“Possibility?” Dan shifted his toothpick and stared at the stones. “Chaos?”
“I’m not sure what to call it,” Abe said, their voice half whisper and half wonder, “but my Magick,” they turned their face up to Dan, “our Magick knows what it is and interacts with it. You can change things with words. I change them by drawing them or sculpting them. Whatever it is that creates the world to start with tells the energy what to be and the form it takes attracts different Magick that makes it real.” They huffed a breath. “I don’t know if that makes sense?”
Dan nodded. “Enough.”
“So,” Abe said, gesturing at the room, “What what’s happening here is Earth is taking the concept of earth that someone dictated and is-” they faltered, shook their head. “I don’t know. Owning it?”
“Yep.” Dan nodded again. “Seems like.”
“Guys, while this is very interesting,” Dempsey grunted, “And it is. How’s it getting my foot out of the rock?”
Dan tugged his earlobe. “It isn’t.”
“So, he’s here for, like, ever?” Gwen asked.
Abe rubbed their lower lip as they contemplated the stone around Dempsey’s foot. “What we need to do is make the Earth Magick leave the stone and I think it will become regular stone and then we can break his foot out. Maybe.”
“Maybe?” Dempsey flexed his thigh muscles, shifting his stance to rest his weight more evenly between his forward leg, foot engulfed in stone, and the backward leg on the landing.
Abe looked up to give Dempsey a tentative look and a very slight shrug. “Maybe?”
“How do we do that?” Ben asked, sliding over to look around Abe and into the room.
They all stood, silent, pondering the room. Then Gwen suggested tentatively, “Make it focus on something else?”
“That assumes it’s a single force, like an entity, and can only be in one stone at a time. What if each stone is separate?” Siobhan asked. “Someone could maybe toss something on another stone or stones to get the Magick to focus there but if each stone has its own Magick then the one holding Dempsey would remain holding him and we’d just have lost whatever we tossed in.”
“Dempsey?” Abe asked.
Dempsey was in too much pain to correct them. Instead he just said. “Yeah?”
“Did you feel any difference in the stone when I got near and it tried to grab me?”
Dempsey thought about it. “Not sure. Maybe?”
“Okay. When you stepped on the stone did it close on your foot immediately? Or if you’d moved real fast could you have gotten away?”
Siobhan craned her neck to look at the stone around Dempsey’s foot. “Are you thinking there might be a slight delay in which the Magick kindles where the stone would be in a fluid state?”
“Not exactly fluid but more like there would be gaps between the Magick and the construct that maybe you could slip through?” Abe shrugged and ducked their head, projecting apology.
“Hey, Abe?” Abe looked up at Siobhan’s question and she gave the blond a soft, smile of encouragement. “There are no wrong answers when we’re brainstorming a solution.”
“Oh, okay?” Abe’s head bobbed. They started to look down but then firmed their chin. “I think that the Magick will make the stone change to try to form around someone else and when that happens Dempsey can get free. That other person has to be fast so they avoid being caught but I think-” they gave a tight smile, nodded, “I think that’s how we get Dempsey free.”
“We also need a way across the room.” Siobhan pointed out. “You think every stone is going to do this?”
Dan and Abe eyed the stones, then almost in unison they said, “Yes.”
“The stone I stepped on caught me but I was able to get out. Why that one and not the one Dempsey stepped on?” Ben asked.
“Let me through?” Ivan called from up high. Siobhan, Gwen, and Patti stepped to the side so he could move to the landing. Prairie followed behind, stopping next to Siobhan so they were all now within sight of the room.
Ivan craned his neck to see over Ben and around Dan, eventually elbowing Ben to move out of the way. Ben slanted him a look then did so. Ivan squatted down on the threshold and ran an assessing look over the floor.
He turned back to Ben, “The crumbled stone there,” he pointed at the stone with his little finger, “is the one that you stepped on.”
“Yes.”
“Okay.” Ivan switched his attention to the stone from which Dempsey’s leg protruded. “So, immediate impression, they are different stones.”
“No shit? Really?” Ben drawled. Ivan curled his lip and slanted Ben a ‘shut up’ look to which Ben responded with a single finger. Ivan’s next look said he was not impressed.
“The stone that you stepped on, Ben,” Ivan gave Ben a significant look, “appears to be sandstone. Sandstone is a sedimentary rock which is formed by accumulating layers of earth hardening over time. Its fairly soft and breaks easily. Which is probably why you could get out of it.”
“The stone you stepped on Dempsey,” he shifted to look at Dempsey, “is marble. Marble is metamorphic which is developed through intense heat and pressure. Probably why it squeezed your foot. When you moved did it tighten?”
Dempsey nodded, “Yeah.”
“Yeah. Metamorphic rock grows slowly over time. So, if as Abe said,” Ivan shifted to shoot Abe a quick look of acknowledgment, “the Magick is interacting with the-” he paused, lifting his brows to Abe, “construct?”
Abe nodded. Bit their lip. Lifted a shoulder and curved their head so their ear rested on it, the movement bashful. “Yes.”
“So, the Magick is interacting with the construct, manipulating it to act, but maybe its constrained to keep close to the definition of what the construct is meant to be. Like, I can take iron, carbon, and nickel and make steel. But if I try to make, I don’t know, pudding with them it isn’t going to work because they are what make up steel and not pudding. Or, maybe a better reference is trying to make sterling silver with iron, carbon, and nickel. It won’t work because sterling silver is made up of silver, copper, and zinc.”
Ivan looked around to gauge if anyone was following him. Gwen squinted at him. Siobhan’s brows furrowed in concentration, like she found the information intriguing, but didn’t really have a frame of reference to follow the string of his thought. Patti just reared back, her mouth twisted like she was about to ask what he was getting at.
So, no, from that sampling, not following.
“The sedimentary rock will do what sedimentary rock does. The metamorphic what metamorphic does. And,” Ivan shifted his gaze back to the floor, “I think that the gray natural-shaped stones might be granite which is igneous. If that’s the case they’ll do what igneous rocks do.”
“Which is?” Siobhan asked.
Curling his lips over his teeth then releasing them with a pop, Ivan contemplated how best to put it. “Igneous rocks are formed when magma cools. So, if they stay true to form stepping on the granite will be-”
“Bad!” Gwen said, real loud, just in case anyone didn’t get the very nature of how bad stepping into magma would be.
Ivan nodded. “Bad.”
Prairie had moved up, quiet as a mouse, during the explanation and now spoke, “Is your suggestion we step on the sandstone pieces as we can break out of them and avoid the marble and the granite?”
Having been unaware of her presence, Prairie’s voice made Ivan jump and caused her to giggle. She raised a hand to hide her mirth but the eyes above her fingers twinkled. Ivan scrubbed his hand over the back of his neck. “Uh, yeah.”
“Okay,” Siobhan said. “We have a plan. First, we get Dempsey free. Then we cross the space stepping only on the sandstone, breaking free when it forms around our feet.”
“We can probably get up on the table and use the surface to cross most of the space,” Ben suggested.
Siobhan nodded. “As long as there are sandstone pieces close enough that we can stand on them to get up on the table, sure. We should cross that bridge, or jump up on that table, when we get to it.”
Ben tipped his finger to his brow. “Got it.”
Turning back to the room, he rubbed his hands together. “I’m probably the fastest out of all of us so I’ll step on the stone next to Dempsey’s foot. Dempsey?”
“Yeah?”
“You think you can move back on your own?”
Dempsey went quiet for a moment, his expression inward, then he jerked his chin down. “No.”
“Okay. So, Ivan,” Ben turned to look at his friend. “You should be ready to yank Dempsey back. Dan,” he shifted to look in Dan’s direction. “Maybe you too. Pull him back and to the right, I’ll jump back to the left. Everyone else,” Ben looked around to encompass the group, “I need you to step back to give us room.”
Prairie and Siobhan pulled back to the stairs, clearing the landing. Abe followed them with quick little steps. And Gwen and Patti stepped back up several stairs so Abe, Prairie, and Siobhan could get on the steps and free of the landing completely.
Once they were all clear Ben looked at Dempsey, then over to Ivan and Dan. “I put my foot down, the stone moves, you yank him back while I jump out of the way.”
Siobhan waved a potion. “Get him over towards me when you get him clear. This should fix him up.”
“Should?” Dempsey gritted out.
“The usual disclaimers and warnings. Results may vary blah blah.”
“Great.”
“It’s the blah blah blah that’s really reassuring,” Patti muttered to Prairie, startling a giggle from her.
“It’s better than trust me I’m a doctor.”
“Well, that’s a line.” Patti reared back gave Prairie an assessing look. “Someone said that to you on the job?”
Prairie slanted her a glance all full of mischief and dimples. “Who said it was on the job?”
A look of dawning transformed Patti’s features, chased quickly by a grin. “Ohhhh.”
Ben leaned his weight back and raised his front foot off the ground, like he was practicing martial arts kicks. Very slowly and with an admirable display of abdominal strength he lowered the foot until it was hovering just above the corner of the stone Dempsey’s leg was embedded in.
At his “Now!” he lowered his foot. The stone shifted towards him, sluicing away from Dempsey’s leg. Ivan and Dan, each with an arm looped under Dempsey’s from the back, elbow bent and fist pressed against his collarbone, threw themselves backwards, dragging Dempsey with them over the threshold and onto the landing.
Ben bunched his back leg and flung himself back and to the left, his foot just barely missing the bulge of stone that rose to grab it. Dempsey, no longer having to keep a brave face on it or keep standing for that matter, calmly and with no fanfare passed out.
Siobhan hopped off the stairs and administered the potion which should knit Dempsey’s bones, willing not too many had been pulverized by the press of stone, then looked up at Ivan. “We need to keep moving. Can you carry him?”
Ivan pressed his hands to his lower back and arched to stretch. “Sometimes I think I’m only along to carry things.”
“Well, yes. That is the case.”
“I feel the love.” Ivan patted his chest. “So hard.”
“The hardest.” Siobhan indicated Dempsey with a jerk of her chin. “Can you? I don’t think he’s going to be good to move under his own steam for a little bit.”
Gwen came to stand staring down at Dempsey, her hands planted on her hips. “I could heal him.”
Siobhan shook her head. “The potion will do that. It will also keep him under until its done. Probably about five minutes. We could wait it out but every minute we waste is-”
Gwen nodded as Siobhan looked to the side, swallowing hard. “We’ll keep moving. If Ivan can’t carry him maybe someone else can.”
“Got it.” Dan stooped next to Dempsey, carefully rolling him on his stomach then sticking his right leg between Dempsey. He grabbed Dempsey’s right hand with his left and draped it over his shoulder then planted his head under Dempsey’s right armpit, wrapped his arm around Dempsey’s right knee, squatted and pressed up to drape Dempsey over his shoulders. A slight bracing of his legs, a minor adjustment of Dempsey’s weight, and then he nodded. “Let’s go.”
Ben stepped on the shattered tan-colored stone. When nothing happened he scanned for the next one like it. To the front there was two pieces of marble and a gray natural shaped stone before the next sand-toned one. To the left and diagonal he’d only have to jump over two marble ones but that took him away from the table. He avoided the right where the marble stone Dempsey had been trapped in sat in case it was still active and might move if they went over it.
“Forward or to the left?”
Prairie flanked him to the left, Siobhan to the right, and looked over the floor.
“Which is easier?” Siobhan asked.
“I could do either but can Dan carrying Dempsey?”
“Good question. Dan?”
Dan shuffled up, shifting Dempsey slightly, and looked over Ben’s shoulder. “Go to the left.”
“Left if is.” Ben pushed off the leg still on the landing, easily shifting the leg over the two stones so he was left with his first foot on the original stone and his leading foot on the one further to the left. As soon as his foot hit the material under it caved away. He dropped forward, catching his weight in a soft lunge as the stone formed around his foot.
“Let’s see if this works,” he said, then jerked upwards to free his foot from the stone. It crumbled away, like dried mud flaking from his boot. “Yep.” He flashed a thumbs up behind him.
“Like Twister,” Patti said, moving into the spot Ben cleared on the landing.
Siobhan nodded. “If its all right foot tan, left foot tan.”
“There’s another one that I should be able to get my foot on straight forward and three up. Going for it.” Ben took a giant step, pressing up and swinging his back leg forward to land on the stone in front of the last. They all eyed the stone his foot vacated, seeing if it reverted to its original form or stayed caved in. When it retained the broken form, Siobhan nodded and shifted her gaze over the group. “Prairie? Your the lightest. And the shortest. If you can clear the spaces between the stones Ben steps on I think everyone else will be able to as well. You good to try?”
“Sure.”
Patti stepped back and Prairie shifted into the spot on the landing closest to the first stone Ben had stepped on. Moving slowly she lifted her leg and placed her foot gently on the stone, her gaze darting as she waited for the Earth to respond and close around her boot. The stone shifted, dust puffing up to settle on her foot then coming to drift down and form a light layer that barely encased her boot.
Looking back over her shoulder she nodded to Siobhan. “I can get out of this.”
“Okay,” Siobhan called, “Ben? Keep going. We’ll follow.”
Ben moved forward. Prairie flexed her ankle and the stone formed on her boot cracked and fell away, letting her lift up on her toe so she could stretch to reach the next stone. Siobhan held her breath as Prairie’s arms pinwheeled, bunching to lunge forward and grab Prairie if she started to fall. Prairie corrected and threw her weight forward, managing to get her foot on the next stone and Siobhan released the breath she was holding.
“Do you think it would be better to jump?”
“No,” Prairie said. “The stones are too small. They aren’t wide enough to take two feet. And I think some of the people with bigger feet are going to be on the balls of their feet or their feet will overlap the sides.”
Ben leapfrogged two more times before moving diagonally to the table. Pulling the heavy chair towards himself he used it as a step to get up onto the table. From there he was able to move quickly along the surface, crossing over half the room with ease from that vantage. “It’s a sturdy piece,” he called back. “I think it should be fine to cross.”
Siobhan eyed this action. “Prairie?” she asked.
“Yes?”
“You think you can get on the table.”
Prairie turned her head and eyed the chair and table configuration. “Think so.”
“Okay.” Siobhan nodded. She turned to look at the group. “I’d like Abe to go next, then,” she rubbed her chin, “I think Ivan should try see how the stones work with someone heavier. If that works then Dan can follow with Dempsey.”
“Sensible,” Ivan acknowledged. “Do we assume an empty staircase again or do we send either you or Gwen over before me in case we need a healer?”
“Good idea. Gwen? You go after Abe and before Ivan. I’ll follow Dan and Dempsey and Patti,” she looked over at Patti, “you take the rear?”
“Sure.”
“Okay. Abe next.”
In that order they all crossed the floor, stepping carefully from tan-colored stone to tan-colored stone. When Abe stepped on the stones they formed only a delicate crust. By the time Ivan hit the first one it barely shifted and the stone didn’t rise at all when Dan stepped on the first one. Maybe the energy was dissipating. Maybe it was being exhausted by the number of feet crossing.
Ben, Prairie, and Abe walked across the table, without difficulty but when Ivan tried to join them on it the wood creaked ominously. Ivan drew back to stand with both feet planted on the chair. “Not sure the table will hold me.” He said and eyed the chairs pushed in along its edge. “I’m going to try something.” He reached a leg forward and carefully nudged the chair next to his out. The stone tiles underneath it buckled and thrashed, the Earth grabbing the leg just as it had theirs. Ivan pulled his leg back . “Okay, that doesn’t work so great. New plan. I’ll wait until Ben, Prairie, and Abe get off the table then I’ll see if it holds me. Otherwise guess I’m going to be making a path around the table.”
At the end of the table Ben dropped to sit on the edge and stretched a leg out to place his foot on the closest tan-colored stone which, thankfully, was right next to the end of the table. He pushed off the table and swung his leg forward to get his forward foot onto the next tan-stone. Prairie followed in his footsteps a few seconds later.
Once Abe slid off the table edge and onto the floor Ivan placed lifted his right foot and put it gingerly down on the table. When the wood didn’t make any protest he shifted his other leg and his weight from the chair to the table. Bending his knees he gave a gentle bounce. The table stood firm.
“Okay,” he said, “Good. Let’s do this thing.”
Ivan turned back, dropped to his knees, and reached out to steady the chair he’d vacated. “I’ll hold the chair steady, Dan, so you can just focus on getting you and Dempsey up on it.”
“Yep.” Dan shifted his weight to his back leg, holding there with his knee raised and his free foot hovering off the ground until he found his center, then stretched the foot forward and planted it on the seat of the chair. Luckily the stone he was standing on was close to the chair, making it possible with Ivan bracing the chair, to get himself and Dempsey up on it. Luckily the chairs were as sturdy as the table itself, built with square legs at four inches across that seemed made to support the weight of bulky people possibly wearing armor.
Siobhan and Patti at the end of the line as didn’t have to break each foot free of the encasing stone before taking their next step, which was great because the amount of stretching and lunging they had to do to get from stone to stone was exhausting. If they had to break their feet out every step they’d probably have been too fatigued to get up on the chair and then the table. As it was Siobhan stumbled sideways and almost fell, only managing to grab the back of another chair to right herself. Heart thundering against her ribs, she shifted her weight sideways and got her foot up on the seat of the chair then pushed hard to get other leg over the gap. Her foot fumbled against the spindle before her boot slid into place on the support.
She took a deep breath, then stepped up on the table. Patti followed close behind, their weight not seeming to tax the table too much. At the end of the table they crossed back to the floor and the leg taxing work of stepping stone to stone until they were free of the room. Ben, Prairie and Abe had climbed a few stairs and taken a seat, freeing up the landing for the rest of them. As soon as they were clear of the stones, Patti dropped Dempsey’s shield which she grabbed for him, slumped against the wall, and pressed her hand to her chest, her hand rising and falling with her rapid breaths.
“I need to go to the gym more.”
“You and me both, sister.” Ivan said with a grin as he rested his shoulders on the wall beside her.
Dan moved over to the stairs and carefully lowered Dempsey to lie at the base of them. Dempsey stirred as his back touched the floor. He rolled his head against the stone and grunted, causing Siobhan to move over to stoop next to him and prod gently at his ankle.
“Is this okay?”
“Yeah.” Dempsey opened his eyes and turned his head to the side to get a look at the landing. “The stairs are on the wrong side.”
“We crossed the floor. Dan carried you.”
Dempsey grunted and turned his head to look at Dan. “Really?”
Dan left off rubbing his back and straightened. “Yep.”
“Thanks, man.”
“No big.”
“Yeah, big. Thanks.”
“Not going to say I want to do that every day, but-” Dan shrugged.
Gwen moved over and placed her hands on Dan’s back, closing her eyes to concentrate before pulling away and cocking her head at him. “If you did that every day you’d have no back left.” Gwen turned to look at Dempsey who had sat up and was starting to push to his feet. “I voted to leave you.”
Prairie giggled. “She didn’t.” She shook her head and smiled. “We didn’t vote. To leave you or not. She’s joking.”
Gwen tapped her chest. “I voted in my heart.” The corner of her mouth kicked up and she moved to offer Dempsey a hand up. Staggering slightly as he rose to his full height, she said, “Seriously. Stop. It’s getting hard to keep up my distrust when you do heroic stuff.”
Dempsey waved off the comment and looked around for his shield. Patti nudged it with her foot so it slid across the floor towards him.
Siobhan scrubbed her hands over her eyes then turned to look at the stairs Prairie, Ben, and Abe sat on. “Everyone ready to keep going?”
“Uh,” Patti said, “that would be a big no.”
Prairie lifted her shoulders. “I could use a few minutes rest.”
“Dempsey needs to sit his ass down,” Gwen said, pressing her hand to his side to nudge him in the direction of the stairs. He looked down at her hand, then back up to her face, then shrugged and walked over to sit on the first stair.
Though the need to move forward clamored at her soul, Siobhan could admit that they all needed a rest, so she nodded and sat down next to Dempsey. Closing her eyes she said, “Just for a few, then we need to keep going. Drink them if you’ve got them.” She cracked a lid and looked around, “Not joking. Drink. Do what you need to do to get ready. By my count we have two more floors to go.”
Enter The Woods 