8:11
For the twentieth time or so, Kim walked a few steps into the maze, straining her senses while retaining her grip on her Magick so it didn’t automatically reach for Air. “I think I hear someone!”
Patti heaved a sigh and gently stroked Sass’s head. She’d pulled the mouse out of its house at about the same time Kim had started pacing the room, muttering to herself. Pitching her voice to carry through the hedges, she said, “You’ve said that three times already.”
“I think I’m-” Kim broke off, then released a ‘whoop!’ before back-stepping into the room. “right this time!”
Directly behind her followed Ivan, holding his hand to his side, Dempsey, Gwen held to his side by one arm so she half-stumbled and half- walked beside him, with Dan and Abe bringing up the rear with Abe, herded by Ben.
“I think I hear him!” Ben cried as Dan limped through the break in the hedge only to stop and goggle as Ivan, Dempsey, Gwen, and Abe were doing.
“Yeah, yeah,” Ben muttered, making a quick adjustment so he didn’t run headlong into Dan. “It’s impressive.”
Ivan folded at the waist, bracing his hands on his knees and dragging in long breaths. “How much time do we have?”
“Uncertain,” Ben said.
Siobhan, having pushed away from the table as soon as the others hit the marble floor, strode over to place a hand on Ivan’s lowered back. “Time to catch your breath.”
The glance she slanted at Ben was full of questions. Eyes wide he wobbled his head, swept his gaze over the five he’d collected, then shot a quick glance over his shoulder at the break in the hedge.
“I found Abe wrapping Gryphon in ink.” He broke off to look at Abe. “Good defense, by the way.”
Abe drew a shallow breath through parted lips. “Thank you.”
“I had them pull back their Magick. Explained that we think we need to use as little as possible.”
“Then immediately did the opposite and blinded Gryphon with shadows,” Ivan offered, head still down.
“I’m fresher,” Ben offered to the back of Ivan’s head, not really in apology. “Haven’t used my Magick at all since coming here.” He looked back at Siobhan. “We don’t have much time. So what’s the plan?”
Siobhan looked at Kim, at Patti, then at Prairie who all nodded, indicating she should outline what they’d discussed. “We have to find the pieces missing from the lamp.”
She gestured at the lamp in the center of the table. Dempsey and Dan looked at it and nodded. Abe took this a step further, tilting their head back to look at the image projected on the sky.
“Pretty.”
“Very,” Siobhan agreed with Abe’s sentiment.
Ivan continued to stare at the floor. Siobhan didn’t even want to imagine how much running they’d done to put Ivan in the condition he was in. He was the strong one, probably even more so than Dan, who, rightfully, was often compared to an oak with roots planted firm in the ground. But, he was also the one most likely to sacrifice himself. Siobhan was guessing that, as well as the physical challenges the others clearly had endured leading Gryphon around, evidenced by their draw faces, puffing breaths, sheen of sweat on all visible skin, and otherwise disheveled appearances, was making Ivan show uncharacteristic weakness. Gwen didn’t even make any pretense of strength, leaning against Dempsey with her eyes closed and an arm looped around his waist.
“He just doesn’t stop.” Ivan said under his breath. Dan and Dempsey nodded. Siobhan caught Dan’s eye as he limped by, heading for the table. He shook his head then kept going. Okay, then.
“We think the pieces could be in the rooms behind the stained-glass windows.”
Abe, fresher, likely due to their relative youth, walked over to the stained-glass window with the rose, their eyes wide as they took in the details of the piece. “There re rooms behind these?” They turned to look at Siobhan. “How?”
“Because Magick,” Kim and Ben said in unison, both grinning when Abe turned a shy look their way, shifting their attention from where Kim stood propped against the table which was large enough for at least six of them to prop against and still have room to swing a weapon, and Ben standing with an arm braced against the hedge break.
Without lifting her head from Dempsey’s side, Gwen said in a weak voice, “He’s coming. I can feel him.”
Prairie walked over to Gwen and lay a gentle hand on her arm. “You need to stop using your Magick.”
Slowly lifting her eyelids, Gwen raised her stricken face to her friend. “I can’t. It won’t stop. I established the connection and now it won’t break.” Heaving a sigh, she closed her eyes again and drew a shallow breath. “I’ve tried several times.”
“Damn,” Siobhan muttered, stepping back from Ivan. Then she paused and turned back, looking at his still bent frame before pulling a vial from her bag strap and thrusting it towards Ivan. “Here. Take this.”
Ivan turned his head to look at Siobhan’s offering. “Keep it. We might need it more later.” He pushed up to his full height, weaving slightly on his feet before bracing them to take a strong stance with shoulders and head back. “I’m fine.”
Siobhan eyed him with the subtle disdain of a healer who’d heard similar before combined with that of a teacher who could read bravado a mile away. “Sure you are.” When he continued to stare her down she muttered, “fine,” and pushed the vial back into its loop. “So, we are almost certain we need the pieces of the lamp to finish the phrase.”
“Phrase?” Ivan tipped his head back, saw the image on the sky, then said, “Oh, phrase. Got it.” So saying he tilted his head down to look at Siobhan. “Any thoughts on that?”
His voice was steady, no hint of the weakness he’d displayed mikros before. Siobhan turned to point at each of the stained-glass windows suspended in the hedge wall. “Each of the windows has a central image. Three of those images correspond to pieces in the lamp already. The harp,” she pointed there, then swiveled to point to, “the ribbons,” and then to, “the bracelet. Kim and Ben managed to open the windows. Behind them are rooms.”
She paused as Ivan turned to look at the windows, his gaze assessing. Once he’d given all three a quick look, she continued her explanation. “The harp opens to a music room. The ribbons to a sewing room. They didn’t try the bracelet but we’re guessing it opens to a room with a chandelier in it.”
Dan, propped against the table with one leg drawn up slightly, eyeballed the windows. “Makes sense. What about the other rooms?”
Ben answered this. “We were concerned there might have been something in them that might attack. We were holding off opening one until everyone was here.”
Ivan nodded. “Solid. So let’s open them.”
“He’s almost here,” Gwen said, interrupting Ivan, her words making certain any plan to open a window would be shelved for the moment.
“Okay,” Siobhan snapped. “We still don’t want to hurt him. I think our best bet is to scatter into B, C, and E.”
Ivan looked at her like she was speaking in tongues. “Huh?”
Siobhan spun, pointing at the hedge break to the left of the main entry point. “B. It loops back to the original entry point but also crosses over to F.” Pivoting she pointed to the entry opposite B. “C,” she redirected attention to the entry point in the same wall as B. “C loops either to B if you take a left at the end of the first long run. If you turn right just before it you’ll loop into the path leading back to D.” She indicated that break, across from the main entry. “E,” she pointed at the break in the right wall furthest to the back. “either ends at the F entry or you end up back at A if you go the long way around. You have the map right?”
“I have it,” Dan offered, digging a folded piece of paper out of one of the pockets on his vest.
“You don’t really need it, except it will help knowing what turns are ahead. Basically if you see a yellow flower towards the base of a turn do not take that turn.”
“Are they on the straight part or do you find the flowers once you’ve made the turn?” Abe asked.
“Good question. You’ll find the flower once you’ve made the turn,” Siobhan clarified, “If you turn and see a flower backtrack.” When Abe raised their hand, Siobhan lifted her brows. “This isn’t school, you don’t need to ask permission.”
“Oh, okay,” Abe ducked their head so their bangs flopped forward covering their eyes. “Are the yellow flowers all near the ground?”
“Yes.”
Gwen pushed away from Dempsey, giving him a quick look of thanks before settling into her own feet. “Gotta go.”
“We’ll wait until he get into the room, then,” Ivan clapped his hands together, “break. Run a short distance, stop, determine if he’s following. If he isn’t come back to center and start searching. If he is following just keep running.”
Everyone nodded. A roar presaged Gryphon’s entry to the center of the maze. Soon as his muzzle broke the line of the break in the hedge Ivan and Ben dove for the break in the hedge to the back of the right wall. Patti, Prairie, and Siobhan darted to the entry directly across from the one Gryphon roared through. Kim looked at Dempsey who half picked up Gwen and the three of them hauled for the break farther back in the left wall.
Dan looked at Abe. “B?”
Abe nodded and dashed in the direction of the hedge break closest to where Gryphon stood, arms loose at his side, gaze tracking each group as it broke off and charged for a different path. Maybe it was a trick of movement, perhaps being in Gryphon’s peripheral, but for some reason he didn’t lunge in that direction as Abe skittered and Dan limped at a quick clip into the hedge break.
Gryphon stood steps into the room for several mikros then lumbered to the right and the path Ivan and Ben had taken. Fairly quickly Siobhan, Patti, and Prairie realized they weren’t being followed. Dempsey, Kim, and Gwen had the added benefit of Gwen being attuned to Gryphon to let them know they also weren’t being targeted. Abe and Dan opted to go a bit farther along their path, compensating for Dan’s slightly slower pace, before taking the quick left and left again to come back into the center from the original entry point. The others just back-tracked, popping out of their respective paths at close to the same time.
“Okay,” Dempsey said, dropping Gwen to lean against the table then stomping back to Kim. “You know how to open the things. Open them.”
Kim scrubbed her hands through her hair, shoving her bangs back so they stuck up for a mikro before falling back against her skull. “Pick one.”
“Any thoughts?”
“There could be monsters in any of them?” Prairie offered helpfully.
“Fantastic,” Dempsey muttered then jerked his thumb back to indicate the window with the hand mirror closest to he and Kim.
“Okay.” Kim folded her hands together, bent her fingers back until a pop sounded, then folded them again. “I need you to press on the right side, right about here,” she indicated a spot about a third of the way up the large window. “When we do it together you should hear a click. If it works the same as the others your side will push in and mine will come out a little. Then I just have to figure out the lock mechanism. Ben was the one that popped the other two so it might take a few for me to figure out.”
“Would it be better if I did that side?”
Kim wiggled her fingers. “Smaller fingers. Easier to slide into the crack.”
“Fine.” Dempsey placed his hand on the sash where Kim indicated. “Ready?”
“Yep.”
Together they pressed. The window responded as predicted, dipping below Dempsey’s hand and popping open under Kim’s. Kim wiggled her fingers into the crack, angling them up as she’d seen Ben do. She slid them up until they met a piece of metal. From there she finagled and finessed, lower lip caught between her teeth in concentration, until she felt the metal move inwards and a latch pop.
“Got it. Now, push your side more.”
“Okay.” Dempsey did just that. The window glided in on its invisible pivot about another inch, maybe two, then stopped. Dempsey shot a look at Kim. She curled her fingers around her side of the window and yanked. It didn’t move. Not an inch. All she got for her efforts was aching fingers.
“Huh.” She pulled back a little, cocked her head to look at the revealed edge of the window, and gave another tentative tug. “Maybe its stuck? Push again.”
Dempsey pushed the window, really leaning in to it to the point Gwen called “don’t break the glass!”. It moved, oh, about a sixteenth of an inch and then kind of bounced back, snapping into the joints of Kim’s hand.
She stepped back and planted her hands on her hips. “Well, that’s new. Huh.” Poking her tongue into her cheek she crouched and looked at the slight pie-shaped sliver of space between the window and the hedge. Then she rose, tilted her head sideways and peered into the small crack on her side. “That’s not going anywhere.”
Dempsey gave up pushing the window and it snapped back to flat. “So, that didn’t happen with the others?”
“Nope. Want to try another?”
“Sure.”
“Painting?”
“Sure. It’s closest.”
They moved over to the window with the painting in its center and performed the same actions as they had to the mirror window, coming up with the exact same results.
“Well, that’s just fucked,” Kim muttered. Mouth canted to the side, she stepped back and stared at the window before turning to the others. “Anyone have any ideas?”
By looks and shakes of their head the others indicated they did not. And then there was no more time to consider it as Gwen stiffened then announced, “They’re coming.”
“Okay.” Siobhan surveyed the group with a sweep of her eyes. “Scatter again?”
Dempsey blew a sigh. “Stupid but what other option do we have?”
Kim shoved her hair back from her face. “We need Ivan to look at the window. And Ben. We have to try to get Gryphon to follow someone else.”
“How?” Patti asked. “Yelling ‘hear doggie, doggie, doggie?’”
Kim threw up her hands. “Fuck if I know. Maybe?”
Dan and Gwen pushed away from the table, then Dan cracked his back with a roll of his arms. “Ready?”
Siobhan curled her hand into the strap of her bag. “As I’ll ever be.”
“Bring it,” Gwen said, pressing a hand to her head before shaking off Dan’s extended hand.
Dempsey took five big strides across the black-and-white floor, bent, and scooped Gwen up against his chest. She popped him in the shoulder with her fist and snarled up at him. “I can walk.”
“You look like crap. Accept the help.”
“You know the way to really win a girl,” Patti murmured, sidling away from Dempsey and Gwen to position herself near the hedge break they were calling B. “Siobhan?” When Siobhan looked her way Patti asked, “Want to be bait with me?”
Siobhan pulled her flower wreath down hard over her forehead then moved to stand next to Patti. “Sure.”
In the mikros before Ivan and Ben came flying in through the initial entry point, Gryphon hot on their heels, Kim shifted her gaze between Patti and Siobhan, Dempsey and Gwen, and then over to where Prairie, Dan, and Abe had migrated to the far entrance in the right wall. Making a quick decision she headed towards Dempsey and Gwen. “I’ve got your back. Just in case.”
Dempsey nodded as Ivan and Ben hit the marble floor, their feet skidding a little on the smooth surface. Their eyes immediately took in where each of the group stood.
“You two stay,” Siobhan snapped. Ivan didn’t have time to argue beyond snapping “How?” because Gryphon took that moment to come lumbering through the break in the hedge, arms swinging low at his sides with claws extended.
Patti’s, “Here doggie!” died on her lips as Gryphon came to a stop two steps into the room, shook his head slowly, then tipped it back to look at the sky and the partial message displayed there.
“Howwwwww,” flowed out of his extended neck, then choked off and a convulsion started in his chest then rippled up his shoulders, along his throat, and over his features. In its path the flesh appeared to shrink, draw in out itself, and the hair, what little there was, drew back, flowing away like a receding tide and leaving human features in its wake. Rough features. Still with a touch of animal. But definitely human.
Gryphon’s chest collapsed forward. He dropped his shoulders and his still beastly knuckles scraped the marble floor.
Drawing in a sharp breath, Siobhan took a single step towards him. In Dempsey’s arms Gwen stiffened and twisted to look at Gryphon. “There’s,” she shook her head, “Talk to him quick!”
“Uhm,” Siobhan started, “Hello?”
Gryphon turned his head to look at Siobhan. Where before his eyes had been yellow with serpent-like pupils the irises were now light blue and the pupils were round. Human. As was the intelligence that showed in them. He still had a muzzle, though it was much smaller, looking more like a large if odd-shaped human nose than the black snout of an animal. His teeth were still sharp and they made the words he spoke next hard to translate.
“The lamp. I broke the… ram… raw.. Rawr!”
The transformation rippled from his forehead to his chest this time, his features bulging, his nose and mouth becoming a muzzle once more, hair flowing over smooth skin. One blink to the next he was a man and then a beast. His eyes changed last, yellow bleeding into blue, pupils elongating. The intelligence was the last to go.
“Run!” Gwen yelled. And run they did.
Kim, Dempsey, and Gwen ran for the break in the hedge before them. Prairie, Dan, and Abe dove into the one to their right. Ivan and Ben, left with no other option, ran into the first break in the right wall. And Patti squared her jaw, brought her cudgel down on her shield several times, and clearly called “Here, doggie, doggie, doggie!”
Maybe it was that Siobhan had been the one to speak to him. Maybe it was Patti’s call. Whatever the reason Gryphon lunged to his left, lumbering towards Siobhan and Patti. Fleeing with about a foot and a half between them and Gryphon’s claws, Patti and Siobhan ran pell mell for the break in the hedge.
Dempsey and Kim ran about ten steps before Gwen called them to a half. “He followed them.”
Dempsey nodded. “Okay.”
Gwen poked Dempsey in the chest. “You can let me down.”
Dempsey rolled his eyes and slowly lowered Gwen, keeping a loose grip on her until she stopped wobbling on her feet. “Whatever.”
“Yeah.” Gwen made a big deal of straightening the legs of her pants, then looked up at Dempsey from between lowered lashes. “Thanks.”
Dempsey didn’t reply. Just pushed past Kim and Gwen and headed back for the center of the maze.
“You so want to date him,” Kim whispered to Gwen. To which Gwen looked up and whispered back, “Maybe.”
Leaving Kim grinning behind her Gwen headed for the center herself.
Dan, Abe, and Prairie must have realized they weren’t being followed shortly after Gwen did, because they emerged form the hedge break a short time later. As soon as they were clear of the hedge Abe turned their attention to the window nearest their entry point, the one with the book in its center. A few mikros later Ivan and Ben came barreling out of the break they’d headed through.
Ivan’s eyes were hard as he pinned his gaze on the break Siobhan and Patti had dashed through, Gryphon hot on their trail. “Why did they do that?”
“Because,” Kim called, walking over to them rather than waiting for them to join the others, “We can’t get the damned windows to open. Or at least, we couldn’t get the mirror one to. The catch releases but when you try to swing it open it stops.”
“Yeah?” Ben shot his gaze to the far wall and the window with the mirror.
Kim scrubbed her hand through her hair. “Yeah. We decided we needed you and Ivan to figure it out. So Siobhan and Patti volunteered to switch with you guys and lead Gryphon off.”
“Stupid heroes,” Ivan muttered to which Kim lifted her brows, keeping her stare steady on Ivan until he muttered something less comprehensible and shifted his gaze. He didn’t stop until he saw Prairie standing in Dan’s shadow and then his shoulders visibly relaxed. “Okay. It makes sense. I don’t like it, but it makes sense.” He shifted his attention to Ben. “Want to try the same window?”
“Sure.” With that Ben strode across the marble floor, skirting the table, and stopped in front of the window with the hand mirror.
When Ivan came up next to him Ben pointed at the right side of the window frame. “Push there.”
Ivan did so and Ben mirrored him, so the window receded under Ivan’s hand and rose to meet Ben’s. Then Ben slid his fingers up under the window and triggered the clasp. When it released with a subtle thunk Ben grabbed the edge and pulled, frowning when it stopped an inch out from the hedge.
“The fuck?” Ben tilted his head, his cheek dangerously close to the hedge and its rose vines, and looked into the crack. “The lock released.”
Kim walked over, hands in pockets. “Same thing happened for me. You got any ideas?”
“Here,” Ivan said, “can you hold my side?”
Kim said, “sure,” and moved to do so, freeing Ivan up to go the Ben’s side. He was tall enough that he was able to loom over Ben without Ben’s head obscuring his vision at all.
“So, its a simple latch? Like a car hood has?”
“Feels like a spring release.”
“Can I?”
Ben stepped back so Ivan could run his fingers between the window and its frame. “Feels like it released.”
“Yep.” Ben pulled the window towards him. It came maybe another quarter inch before it met resistance on the right side and bounced back. Ivan snatched his fingers back so they wouldn’t get caught between the window and frame.
“Hmmm.” Ivan moved over a bit to the right then squatted, tilting his head so he could look up into the small pie-shaped space behind the window. “Can I borrow the extension mirror?”
“Yeah.” Ben dug in his interior jacket pocket and pulled out the pen-shaped device, handing it over to Ivan. Ivan extended it and flipped the mirror out, sliding the pole and mirror between the frame and the window then twisting it several times to get angles behind the glass.
Kim cocked her head like she could see what Ivan was seeing. “See anything?”
Ivan adjusted the stem again. “I see a room. Pretty dark.” Another twist. “I think there’s some mirrors.”
He rolled back on his heels, withdrew the pole and folded the mirror down along it before handing it back to Ben. “What I don’t see is a reason the window isn’t opening. It’s like its hitting a transparent surface.”
“Like glass?”
“No. Transparent like glass but it has some give to it.” He stroked his goatee, with one hand, drawing the fingers around and then down and together at the base. “More like plastic wrap.”
Prairie wandered over. “Plastic wrap?”
“Kind of. But thicker and with more give. It’s hard to explain.”
Prairie pursed her lips and looked thoughtful. “Maybe a barrier? Like a bubble?”
Ivan cocked his head to look at Prairie. “Do you have an idea?”
“I might.”
“It’s thicker than a bubble, but, yeah, I guess its bubble-like. Like the bubbles you can blow out of rubber that get really big.”
“Oooh,” before Prairie could say anything more voices came out of the hedge break towards the front of the right wall. Entrance F.
“I can do it!” Patti’s voice carried despite the sound distortion of the hedge walls, entering the room a mikro or two before she did.
“But,” pant, “should you?” pant Siobhan, well, panted, following directly behind Patti.
“Yeah,” Patti sounded a bit out of breath but nowhere in the vicinity Siobhan was trodding, “I want to.”
“Fine,” Siobhan skidded to a halt with her abdomen kissing the edge of the table. The lamp in the middle didn’t even jiggle with the force of the hit, a testament to the sturdiness of the table.
They both cast a look back into the maze then shifted their attention to pinpoint where the others were around the room.
Patti held up a hand towards the reset. “I’m going to try a Song. Stay over there just in case.”
With that Patti turned and took a deep breath. Then she stopped for a mikro, looking down at where Sass was hanging most of the way out of its house, tugging on the bottom of her tunic. Slowly letting the breath out then taking another, she lifted Sass out of the house and placed it on her shoulder where it grabbed hold of the longest part of her undercut. It straightened its wee shoulders and took a deep breath, mimicking Patti as she did the same.
Then she turned, waited until Gryphon’s muzzle cleared the bushes, and began to sing We Gotta Get Out of this Place by the Animals. Sass warbled, its little voice weaving under and around Patti’s.
Gryphon stopped, stock-still, in the break in the hedge. He turned his head, looked at Patti, then threw his head back and howled at the sky.
Giving no indication she was facing a very angry and very large beast, Patti poured on, putting some stank on it. Gryphon lowered his muzzle and took a tentative step onto the black and white tiles. Then another. Then stopped and rose to his full height before tipping his head sideways and slumping a little to that side, the picture of curiosity and focus.
Skipping a head a bit in the song, Patti dug deep and belted out the next line.
As she rolled into the next phrase the transformation sheeted over Gryphon, faster than before, flowing from chest, to chin, to forehead, smoothing out his features and leaving roughly human ones behind. As with the reverse transformation the last thing to change was the yellow of his eyes, blue pouring in along with a clear intelligence.
Patti dropped her voice about seventy-percent, slowing the tune as she eyed Gryphon. When he continued to stand there, swaying, she half-whispered the next line.
Again Gryphon looked at the sky. But this time he balled his fists up beside his temples and his features took on a mien of torment.
“Broke lamp. Hid pieces. Find!” He looked down, gaze fixed on Patti and by extension Siobhan slightly behind her, and a tear slid from the corner of his eye and down his cheek. Lowering his hands he stumbled towards where Ivan, Ben, Prairie, and Kim were clustered around the mirror window.
As one they fell back, back-pedaling so they could keep wide eyes focused on Gryphon. Kim held her hands up at her shoulders, fingers spread. No threat, the action telegraphed. Ben’s hand went into his jacket but whatever weapon he grasped remained there. Prairie gave Gryphon a sympathetic smile, jerking around to glare at Ivan when he dropped his hand on her shoulder and began pulling her back.
“I’m fine,” she hissed at Ivan.
“I’m not,” Ivan gritted through clenched teeth, “Keep moving.”
“I was,” Prairie shot back as she shuffled her feet to match Ivan’s longer stride. “I can move and be kind at the same time.”
“Of course you can.” Ivan’s tone was grudgingly accepting, like he knew better than to argue that logic.
Gryphon half-stumbled and half-strode, his long legs making short work of the distance to the window. Once there he pressed a hand to it, pushing so it closed with a click. A look of concentration crossed his face then he lifted his hand and moved to the window with the painting centering it. Another look of concentration, another move to the window with the rose.
Like people caught in a game of whirlpool, everyone except Patti and Siobhan who remained at the center table but closer to the front exit than the windows Gryphon was shuffling between drifted slowly and quietly around the circumference of the room in a clockwise motion. Without even asking Dempsey yanked Gwen up off her feet and proceeded to carry her as he moved with the flow.
When Abe, at the front of the wave, drew up to Patti and Siobhan they carefully stepped into the sweep of motion so they too kept a distance back from Gryphon who moved fro the rose window to the one with the book. He had just laid his hand upon that window when a ripple started in his face, the transformation sheeting over him like rain on a window, taking whatever purpose drove him with it as it washed away his human features and left those of the Beast in its wake.
Ivan and Ben at the back of the group and closest to Gryphon watched the reason fade from his face a mikro before Gryphon threw his head back and let out a roar that was rife with pain.
“Scatter!” Ivan yelled, diving through the hedge break nearest him with Prairie and Ben close behind. Gwen and Dempsey, being a short distance in front of the three, dropped into the next break. Abe, Dan, and Kim stepped back hard into the next gap and slightly in front of them Patti and Siobhan did the same, but with the next break in the hedge.
Gryphon ambled into the break Ivan, Ben, and Prairie had taken. Gwen poked Dempsey in the chest, indicating they weren’t being followed. He halted then turned back to carry her into the center once more. This time he strode to the table and placed her carefully on its edge. She took an perfunctory swing at him with her foot but either her heart wasn’t in it or she was exhausted from her connection to Gryphon so she really whiffed it, not coming anywhere near kicking him.
“Stay!” Dempsey said, pointing a finger at Gwen from a safe distance.
“Woof!” she replied without much bite, then found the energy to lift her hands in front of her, fingers curled forward, and make a point of panting at him. The corner of his mouth kicked up a mikro before he wrestled it back to its usual set line.
Kim, Dan, and Abe came back to center next, followed very closely by Patti and Siobhan who immediately focused on the windows Gryphon had touched.
“Kim?”
Kim ambled over to Siobhan who was staring at the window with the mirror centering it. “Yeah?”
“Help me with this? Where do I put my hands?”
Kim pointed at the sash to the right. “About there. Hold on.” She planted her hand on the left side opposite Siobhan’s. “Okay. Push.”
When the window receded under Siobhan’s hand and kicked up under Kim’s, Kim slid her fingers into the crack and popped the latch. Once it clunked, she looked at Siobhan. “Here goes nothing.”
With that she curled her fingers around the edge of the window and tugged. It swung out, smooth, on the pivot to Siobhan’s side. Kim stopped pulling when there was the crack between window and frame was large enough to poke a head through but, hypothetically, small enough that it could be closed quick if anything came raging out of the window. When nothing did rage out of it, Kim tossed her head to the side, indicating Siobhan should step back, then opened the window fully to reveal a room. It was hard to tell how deep it was as it was, as Ivan had indicated after his mirror search, dark. Just as Ivan had said there were a number of mirrors. These became very clear as a low blue light illuminated the space. It still was pretty much impossible to tell the dimensions of the room though as the mirrors distorted the space.
Kim squinted. “Wow. It’s a mirror maze.”
Dan came up behind her and looked in. “Yep.”
Abe, who’d followed Dan, stepped right up to the frame of the window, craning their neck to look in without actually breaking the plane of the frame. Smart. “Beautiful.”
The floor had a grid on it, broken up into triangles rather than squares or rectangles. The triangles were dark, the lines delimiting them lit up with a white glow. At each point a triangle’s corners met rose a post. These posts were connected by arches and they stretched as far as the eye could see. Or maybe they didn’t. Such was the nature of a mirror maze, to confuse the eye and change perspective.
“What is it?” Gwen called from her perch on the table. There was some shuffling as she adjusted, scooting around the curve of the table, so she could look across and into the window. “Wow.”
“Do we enter?” Patti asked, hovering behind Siobhan and craning her neck to look into the space.
“Maybe?” Siobhan shuffled so she could stand next to Abe and look fully into the room. The window was so large the two fit easily with enough room that Patti could lean in from the one side and Dan from the other to get an eyeball on the room.
Dempsey walked up, stopping next to Kim and turning his head this way and that to assess the space. “Maybe we should try the other windows Gryphon touched.”
Siobhan nodded. “That’s probably smart. At least there’s no threat in here.”
“No obvious threat,” Dempsey amended.
Kim shrugged. “Can’t argue with that. The next window?”
As a unit they moved to the window with the painting, leaving the mirror window open and the mirror maze revealed. This time Dan and Abe placed their hands on the frame, triggered the latch, and swung the window open. Like the mirror one it opened with no resistance to reveal a staircase leading up, its runners illuminated with a similar blue glow to the mirror maze. Everything else was dark, giving the staircase the appearance of hanging on nothing.
“Well, that’s not foreboding at all,” Kim muttered. “Who wants to climb the mystery staircase?”
“Let’s try the other window before we start debating that,” Siobhan suggested, stepping away from the window and the staircase. Again they left the window open, though Dan did walk backwards, attention on the staircase, just in case something came through. Siobhan slid a glance at Gwen. “Anything?”
“Besides weird stairways leading to nowhere?” Gwen shook her head. “Feels like,” she swayed, swinging an arm across her chest and grabbing her opposite shoulder like it would bolster her, “they are leading him through all the paths around here.”
Patti nodded and started walking towards the rose window. “Probably trying to buy us time. So,” she turned back to look at the others, “who’s going to open this window with me?”
With his long legs, Dempsey covered the distance to the window quickly. “I will.”
Dempsey and Patti popped the window. Revealed beyond it was a garden. One that drew Siobhan’s gasp.
“Wow.” She pressed a hand to her mouth. Kim sidled up next to her. “Wow?”
Siobhan’s head was moving like it was on a shutter. Back. Forth. Tick. Tick. She lowered her hand from her mouth to answer. “It’s amazing.”
Kim frowned, craning her neck to get a wider view. “It’s a garden.” She shrugged. Its a big garden but…”
Siobhan leaned forward, her head almost breaking the plane of the window. Dempsey dropped a hand on her shoulder, keeping her from doing so. So far nothing had come out of any of the rooms but better safe than having your face eaten off by some lurking threat.
“Its an alchemist’s dream.”Siobhan inhaled deeply, then frowned. “I don’t smell anything.”
Abe wended over and took up a position next to Siobhan. They lifted their darkened left hand, tracing their fingers a hair’s breadth from the window’s plane. “I think its waiting.”
Patti blinked and stared down at Abe. “Come again?”
Abe lifted their face to Patti, a look of quiet joy transfixing their features. “It’s not alive but its not dead. Its in stasis. Probably until someone enters.”
“Well,” Dempsey stepped forward slightly to brace his arm across the window right in front of Siobhan’s and Abe’s face, like he suspected it was only a matter of time before they gave in and walked through the window. “Let’s not do that yet. We should try one of the windows Gryphon didn’t touch. See what’s going on here. In case any one else questions the gift horse he handed us.”
“You think they’re traps?” Dan asked quietly.
“Maybe. Not sure. It just seems a little suspect that we couldn’t get into the windows, then Gryphon did something and now we can?”
“Maybe he’s trying to help us?” Patti suggested.
“And maybe he’s trying to take us out,” Dempsey countered.
“My song encouraged him to help us. Just saying.”
“And I’m not dismissing the possibility. I just want to check all the options before we dive into any windows.”
“Fine. But we should be quick. Who knows how long we have before he gets back here?”
“Soon,” Gwen said, her voice drifting off as she focused on the table surface. As they watched she swayed, bracing a hand behind her to keep herself upright.
Dempsey stomped over to stare down at her. He was that tall that he was still staring down at her even when she was seated on the high table. “You need to turn your Magick off.”
Gwen mustered up the gumption to respond with a “woof!”
Kim snickered at this. Siobhan lowered her head and bit her lip before turning to look at the next window. “Okay, he didn’t touch the next window. Let’s try it.”
Kim and she moved over and manipulated the window. It stuck as the others had before Gryphon touched them. Drawing a deep breath, Kim met Siobhan’s eyes with a knowing look. “Theory proven. He made them open somehow.”
“Magick,” Dan muttered.
Stepping back from the window Kim planted her hands on her hips and looked at Dan. “You think Gryphon is Magick?”
Dan shrugged. “Don’t know.”
“Is it relevant?” Patti asked to which Kim shrugged. “Don’t know.”
Before they could speculate further the sound of approaching footfalls reached them, muffled by the hedges.
“Coming,” Gwen announced, tightening the arm across her chest. Without asking permission, Dempsey promptly scooped her arms under Gwen and lifted her from the table.
“Which way?” he asked. Gwen nodded her head towards the entrance in the wall opposite the one they initially entered. With that Dempsey lifted Gwen against his chest and moved to the corner farthest from the break which happened to be between the unopened bracelet and bird windows. Eyeing them, he cast a look at Patti. “You going to sing again?”
Patti’s mouth firmed. “If I have to.” Determination added strength to her words. Sass, still on Patti’s shoulder, vigorously nodded too.
“Okay, then.” Dempsey cast a look at the two closed window and then moved himself and Gwen to the back corner near the open painting window, then pulled himself back against the hedge wall, ignoring the prick of the thorns through his jacket as he made himself, and by extension, Gwen as small as possible. Just as he did so Ben came running into the room. Prairie followed closely behind him, tripping over her feet as she hit the smooth surface of the marble floor. Ivan, right behind, swooped in to grab her elbow. It was a testament to how tired she must have been that she made no comment, instead reaching up to grab Ivan’s hand with her free one.
Patti didn’t hesitate. As soon as Gryphon stepped one foot onto the marble she began singing, “Watch my daddy in bed and tired. Watch his hair been turning gray.”
This time Gryphon responded almost immediately to Patti’s Magick. He stopped, arms loose at his side, and his expression went slack. Then the transformation flowed over him, again from heart to head. He turned intelligent blue eyes on Patti and clearly said, “Need her,” then turned slightly to stumble towards the book window catty-corner to the open rose one. As one the group shifted, once more flotsam in the tide sweeping away from Gryphon.
Coming to an unsteady stop Gryphon pressed a hand to his temple, then turned the palm to face his face, focusing on something there. He was too far away for anyone to see what he focused on, just that it held his attention for several mikros. Then, rotating his palm back, movements slow like he was moving against a hard wind, he pressed his hand to the window. Once more there was a look of concentration and then he moved on to the bracelet window. There was an urgency to his steps, as if he felt the press of whatever curse transformed him riding him. He didn’t stop at the bracelet window, but instead moved to the one with the bird.
This time he held his hand to it longer. His shoulders slumped forward. Then he straightened. He seemed to swell and he turned to reveal a fully transformed Beast. The transformation apparently revived his energy because he lunged forward, hoof falls clacking on the marble tiles beating a rhythm to the howl he released.
Ivan fell into defensive mode, thrusting Prairie behind his back as he divided his attention between Gryphon and the others. “We don’t know what’s going on so we should be the ones to lead him off again!”
There really was zero time to debate this as Gryphon cleared the distance from the bird window to where the group churned near the back corner. Siobhan jerked a glance at Kim. Kim nodded. And the two of them peeled off down the hedge break at the back of the room.
Ivan shoved Prairie in their direction. For a mikro she moved at his direction, picked up by the force of his push, but then she righted herself, gave him a dirty look, and ran back behind him and down the next hedge break. He had the choice of following or grabbing someone else to run fter her. No one else was close enough. Patti, Dan, and Abe had already dashed down the hedge break near the bracelet window. Dempsey had Gwen over his shoulder and was running after Kim and Siobhan. That left Prairie to run alone – unacceptable – or Ivan to follow her and let Ben pick where he wanted to go. Of course Ivan ran after Prairie. And, of course, Ben ran after Ivan, but not before veering to run across the room to grab Gryphon’s tail and give it a tug. Gryphon took the bait, turning to lumber after Ben.
Enter The Woods 