8:22
Up or down? Dan paused on the first stair leading up to the third floor terrace and considered his options. There’d been no books on the floor leading up to the stair. Up made the most sense. Cerberus came from this direction. Plus, if he wanted to go down he’d have to backtrack passed Abe and Prairie.
So, up it was. Leaning on the railing, he strained to hear any movement from where he’d left Abe, Prairie, and Cerberus. The high ceiling in the atrium, combined with the layout of terraces, warped sound, but he figured he’d at least hear something. He heard nothing. The wrongness of this settled in his lower gut, a combination of urgency and excitement giving his step a bit of pep as he began the slow, arching climb to the third floor.
The stairs were shallow, closer to a ramp than a classic staircase, causing him to have to adjust his gait to accommodate and his knees were not thanking him for it by the time the stair dumped out on the third floor. He did a few quick knee bends, wincing as his legs twinged, then started walking slowly along the terrace, eyes sweeping for any sign of a book on the floor.
He made it all the way around the terrace without finding any. Okay. He drummed his finger on his thigh and considered. Maybe up wasn’t the way to go? That didn’t click. Cerberus came from this direction. This had to be right. He eyeballed the nearest bookshelf, wishing again he understood the organization of the tomes.
Reaching out he pulled a book at random. Beginner’s Guide to Astrology Charts. Shelving that one he pulled another. Ancient Astrology Practive and Theory. This library made as much sense as Lewis Carroll’s Jabberwocky.
Tolkien near the card catalogs. H. G. Wells next to anthropology texts. A search for Cerberus leading to section on astrology. Complete alphabet soup.
Looked like he was going to have to embrace the suck and head back down. Maybe he’d missed something on the other terrace. Leaning over the rail he listened for Prairie and Abe again. Still nothing.
He had no clear idea of how long since he’d left them but it had to be at least ten meros. Ten meros was a long stretch when you were dealing with a giant, three-headed dog. He should be hearing something. Barking. Fighting. Not silence.
The acoustics could excuse a certain amount of quiet but not this much. The thought settled like a cricket in his gut causing it to gurgle loudly. That he heard. Bubble guts. But not a sound of fighting.
He moved quickly along the curve of the wall, hanging closer to the rail and keeping his ears peeled for any sound from the lower terrace. The alchemy torch bounced on his chest with his quick stepping. The light caromed. Up. Down. Up. Down. The rhythmic dance of light on the surface of water. The splash of it against the shelf to his right hiccuped, drawing his eye. He slowed. Stopped. Squatted to look at the second shelf up from the bottom where a book protruded, tipping forward to show a few inches of the tops of the pages. It must have been that the light caught on.
He pulled the book out, turning it so he could see the spine. Bibliotheca of Pseudo-Apollodorus. Son of a-
Cursing the tightness of his knees, he flexed his thighs and started to rise from his crouch. He’d argue he wasn’t getting old but his knees definitely were. His ear caught a sound of claws clacking on stone floor beyond the torch’s circle. He froze then carefully shoved the Bibliotheca under his vest. Once it was secure he drew a crossbow and rose to his full height, pointing the weapon in the direction of the sound.
“Abe?” he called into the darkness. “Prairie?” When they didn’t respond he raised his voice and tried again. At this point, with the sound of claws suggesting Cerberus found him, it didn’t make sense to maintain his silence. “Prairie!” he snapped, forceful but not loud; a commander calling his troops. “Abe!”
“Prairie!” Before he could repeat Abe’s name Prairie called from the darkness. “We’re hear, Dan.”
Abe stepped from the darkness, breaking the edge of the circle of the torch’s glow. Then Prairie stepped from the darkness, doing the same. Then Cerberus stepped from the darkness. And Dan yanked his crossbows out, holding them aimed at Cerberus, before Prairie’s hand resting lightly on the head closest to her registered.
“Prairie?”
“Yes, Dan?”
“Is that Cerberus?”
“Yes, Dan.”
“Is Cerberus walking next to you?”
“Yes, Dan.”
“Okay, Prairie.” Dan prided himself on being the usually calm center of their group but this was just… “How is Cerberus walking next to you?”
“On his legs, Dan.”
Prairie was close enough now that Dan could see the corners of her mouth tick up before she lowered her gaze and gently pet each of Cerberus’ three heads. The dog, last seen by Dan to be growling and snapping, rubbed its heads into Prairie’s palm, its eyes relaxed and its mouths gaping on a doggie grin.
Dan held his crossbows out for another mikro, then slowly placed them in their holsters. Then just as slowly he took a step back and then another until his shoulder blades came into contact with the book shelf. Suspecting questioning Prairie was going to lead to yet more confusion on his part, he crossed his arms over his chest and shifted his attention to Abe.
“Explain.”
Abe stepped back and held their hand above Cerberus’ tail region then looked to Prairie. “Can I?”
Prairie looked at Abe’s hand then looked at Cerberus. Silent communication passed between her and all three of the dog’s heads and then she nodded. “That should be okay.”
Abe gave Cerberus’ flank a gentle rub. When the dog leaned into the touch, Abe continued the petting while looking over at Dan. “It was weird. One moment Cerberus was all aggro, the next this.” They looked at Prairie. “Can you explain it?”
Prairie laid her hand on Cerberus’ shoulder behind the three massive heads. “Kerberos,” she pronounced it Cur-bur-rose and the way she emphasized it made Dan shift from the spelling Cerberus to Kerberos in his head, “is a guardian of the dead.”
Because that explained- actually… “Spirit?”
Prairie nodded. “It think so. Abe and I were holding Kerberos back so you could try to find his book and I felt this connection with him and then one mikro to the next I was in Spiritus.” She wobbled her free hand. “Partially. I was still aware enough of my body that I knew I was holding him but we were also in Spiritus. He drew me in because he felt a kinship with me. Didn’t you, boy,” she leaned over to grab his shoulders in both hands and jostle his fur then looked up at Dan. “He was confused, I think. He doesn’t use language as we know it but when we were in Spiritus I could understand what he was thinking and I think he understood me. He is sorry he attacked us.”
Abe looked up from petting Kerberos’ butt. “It was weird. Prairie went stiff for a few mikros at the most and then she released Kerberos and sat down. I thought I was going to have to hold him on my own, but then he laid down and put his head in her lap.” Their eyes widened, the whites taking on a green glow in the torch light, “It slapped!”
Dan nodded real slow. “I’m sure it did.” He turned his attention to Prairie. “I found the book.” He patted his vest. “We can return him to it.”
“He wants to help us find the lamp piece.”
“He told you that?”
Prairie nodded slowly. “Obviously, not in so many words but he let me know he wants to help.”
Dan couldn’t believe he was asking this but, “What can he do?”
“I don’t know.” Prairie moved around so she could look directly into all six of Kerberos’ eyes, or close as to make no difference. She tipped her head, then tipped it in the other direction. Unsure what else he could do, Dan settled on waiting for Prairie to do whatever she was doing with the dog. After several mikros she settled back on her heels and turned to Dan with a soft smile.
“Something else is loose in the library and it is possible it has the lamp piece. Kerberos can find it.”
“It?”
Prairie raised her shoulders in the most delicate of shrugs. “Again, he doesn’t use words. I got a sense of something very big and very dangerous.”
“Not sure I want to know what a three-headed dog finds dangerous,” Dan muttered beneath his breath, then focused on Prairie again. “Can he point us in a direction?”
Prairie looked into Kerberos’ eyes again. “Up?”
The dog tipped its middle and left head up. Its right one tilted in the classic “confused dog” look. Dan pushed away from the bookshelf and strode over to the rail of the terrace, then craned to look up towards the domed ceiling. He unclipped the torch from his vest and held it up to penetrate the darkness. “Nothing up there but-”
A rushing sound, like a kite caught in a stiff breeze, was the only warning before a bear’s foot came sweeping from the darkness. Dan fell back, narrowly avoiding taking a thick black claw to the eye. He swung the torch out in a wide arch over the railing, straining to see what lurked in the dark. Abe rushed over. They clenched their fingers around the rail and leaned out over the three-story drop. Dan clenched his free-hand in the back of their cassock, yanking them back. And just in time as another rush came from beyond the rail.
Wings like a bat’s, skin stretched between long, splayed phalanges, splayed some twenty feet on either side of a human torso. That torso was bare and the uneven light caught oddly upon it, like the skin was rough not smooth like a human’s. The rail cut off the view of all but the upper torso, wings, and the head which was that of a bald human man, though the ears rising to either side of the skull were elongated with pointed tips that almost protruded above the top of the head. It jutted its head forward and a mouth like a lion’s opened and from it emerged a roar that carried on it the smell of rotting meat.
Dan fell back, yanking Abe with him. He didn’t stop until his back hit the bookshelf. Prairie, Kerberos tight at her hip, scuttled over and jammed herself against the shelf next to Dan.
“I think we found Kerberos’ creature.”
Abe’s eyes were huge, focused on the railing at which the creature was throwing itself. It’s huge wingspan, needed to keep it aloft, hampered its ability to get over the rail although how long that would be the case was anyone’s guess. Being they were on the third floor there was no convenient terrace above them to make the space too tight for the creature to fit into, only the arching ceiling high above.
“No wonder Kerberos couldn’t describe it. It’s-” their voice petered off, like they were searching for but not finding the words to describe the thing. They turned their head and looked up at Dan. “What is it?”
Dan shook his head. Fuck if he knew. Only how could he say that when Abe was looking at him like he had all the answers?
“I need details.”
“It has wings. Like a Bat. Or a dragon.” Abe squinted into the dark. “I’d call its features demonic.”
“Bear’s feet,” Dan added. “At least they appeared to be a bear’s. Not many other animals you could mistake those for. We need to get down to the second floor before it figures out how to get to us back here.”
Both Prairie and Abe eyed the creature. At that moment it battered the rail, thrusting the edge of a wing over it so the claw at the tip of the wing could curve around the metal. Abe gulped, loud in the quiet space.
“Let’s go!” Dan snapped, back in Sergeant mode. He pulled his crossbows, aiming them in the direction of the creature. Instantly he felt more secure with the weapons at the ready. “Stay close to the bookshelves. Walk sideways. Don’t expose your back to it.”
With Abe to his right and Prairie to his left with Kerberos holding her far side, Dan scuttled along the bookshelf as fast as he could move without rolling over Abe. A wing lashed over the rail, the claw at its tip aiming for Abe’s face. Dan loosed a crossbow bolt. It tore through the wing. The creature let out a pained roar and fell back, his head falling beneath the line of the rail.
“Now!” he gritted. “Run!”
Abe pivoted and ran, Dan hot on their heels. Prairie ran up beside him, Kerberos to her left and closest to the rail.
“Once we’re on the stairs we’re easy targets,” Dan aimed at her.
Prairie didn’t slow, but she did look to him and give a soft smile. “Okay.”
She exuded calm, like there was a well of it at her core that was fathomless. In the face of it Dan couldn’t help but feel calmer. His shoulders loosened a measure, falling back so that the next breath he took was easier.
Abe hit the stairs a sparse mikro before Dan, Prairie and Kerberos. They were wide enough that all of them could run abreast, though it was a bit tight with the large dog to Prairie’s left. A whuff of air was the only warning before a large bear’s paw came sweeping for Dan’s head when they were less than halfways down the long, arching stair. He jerked his head back and to the side, then dropped his shoulder back and twisted from the waist to shoot a bolt behind Prairie’s back as a large wing came arching towards her.
The bolt hit with mikros to spare, causing the claw aimed at her back to snap out and away. The alchemy torch light wasn’t sufficient to get a clear picture of the state of the creature but Dan had a glancing sense of a large dark shadow spinning off towards the railing further up the stair.
Abe didn’t stop upon hitting the second floor. Instead they continued to run until the terraced third floor formed a solid ceiling above them. Then they skidded over to the bookshelf and dropped back against it with their shoulders to the books and their eyes to the sky beyond the metal railing. Mouth open slightly, they panted short and fast, gasping for air and, if the look in eyes white around the pupils was any indication, also for reason.
Dan planted himself next to Abe and shoved his shoulders back against the books. Eyes for the darkness beyond the rail he reloaded his crossbows blind, glad for the countless bells he’d spent perfecting the skill so that it was natural as breathing. Prairie pushed up next to him then looked down to where her hand rested on Kerberos’ shoulder.
Her chest rose as she drew a deep breath through her nostrils, then she turned her head up to look at Dan. “You should figure out what that is so we can figure out how to deal with it.”
Dan searched the dark again, senses keyed to the slightest movement, so much so when Prairie laid her free hand very softly on Dan’s bicep he jerked. Shaking his muscles loose, he shifted his attention from the dark to her.
“This is as secure a location as we’re going to find. The creature probably can’t get to us under this ceiling. At least not yet. There’s no better time to figure this out. Abe and I are good. We’ll cover while you figure out what we’re facing.”
Once more Dan felt her calm like a physical touch, softer than the hand she held to her arm. He sheathed his crossbows and leaned his head back against the books. Taking slow breaths through his nostrils, he let his control on his Magick go. It swelled in him and then he was having to close his eyes as image after image of page after page flicked through his mind, like a zoetrope spinning out of control.
He braced his shoulders against the bookshelf as his head went wobbly. Abe moved against him and then Dan felt a shoulder brace under the arm he didn’t even feel lifted. On his other side Prairie bumped up against him and then Kerberos plunked himself down on Dan’s feet.
With the three of them supporting him, Dan relaxed his control a fraction more. Points of data swirled in his mind, becoming a tight spiral of current on which his consciousness, a fallen leaf, bumped and tipped and careened wildly.
A flaming dart arched out of the darkness. Abe snapped the arm they didn’t have around Dan out, forming a shield of ink that largely stopped the dart, though the head of it did protrude through. The flame on it guttered and died, its light absorbed by the darkness of the ink. Prairie darted a look at Abe. Abe returned it with pursed mouth and wide eyes.
The dart added another point of data for Dan’s search. Bat wings. Bear feet. Lion’s mouth. Flaming darts. The edges of the cards in the catalog of his mind blurred then stopped with single card jutting above the stack. On it black stark against the white of the illusory card read, Pilgrim’s Progress.
Pilgrim’s Progress. Dan cast his mind back over the details of their opponent. It fit. Pushing his voice to carry he yelled out, “Apollyon?”
From beyond Abe’s ink a ferocious roar, not quite human not quite animal, rose.
“Damn.” He spat, vicious and low, “Apollyon.”
Prairie echoed. “Apollyon?”
Dan shook his head and forced his eyes to focus. “Apollyon. It means Destroyer. Apollyon is one of the antagonists from Pilgrim’s Progress.”
Prairie gave him a soft smile and he found himself responding to the wonder in her eyes. “What?”
“It is amazing to me how much information you can pull out of your head. If I had that ability nursing school would have been so much easier.”
Dan scoffed. “I’ve always been able to do it.”
“And that is amazing.” Prairie laid a hand on Kerberos’ center head and lifted her chin in the direction the darts came from. “What does he do?”
A whistle rent the air and another dart head pierced Abe’s shadow. It’s flame guttered and the tip went from white to red to a dull shade impossible to be certain of in the green light of the alchemy torch. Abe’s ink curved more, forming a cocoon trapping the light and creating an intimate glowing cave. Kerberos’ panting was loud in the space, adding to the closeness.
Dan jerked his chin, indicating the dart. “His primary weapon is flaming darts. In the story he threw them for over half a day, exhausting the hero, Christian.”
“Dragon wings. Bear feet,” Abe listed. “What else?”
“A lion’s mouth. We’ve seen that. Fish scales. He represented the four elements. Wings for air, fish scales for water, bear for earth, and the fire is-”
“Fire.” Abe said, all slow and serious, like they were imparting great wisdom.
“The fire is fire,” Dan confirmed. “He is man and beast and represents the struggle of spirit and mind to transcend the physical.”
“Spirit and mind,” Prairie mouthed. Then she slanted a glance at Dan, then looked at her hand scratching behind an ear on the central head. “Interesting. Was Christian spirit and mind?”
“In the context of the book he was.”
“How did Christian beat him?”
“He didn’t.” Prairie and Abe jerked looks at Dan. As did Kerberos with all three of his heads. That was a whole lot of eyes focused on Dan. “Christian stabs Apollyon with a sword but misses the heart. Apollyon flies off after that, swearing to return.”
“Maybe we aren’t supposed to defeat him,” Abe suggested. “We probably just have to find his book and put him back in it.”
Dan eyed the two darts protruding from Abe’s ink. “Likely.”
“And not get hit by flaming darts,” Abe added.
“Yes.” Dan waited a beat then added, “I can’t figure out how this place is organized. The book could be anywhere in here.”
Another dart hit Abe’s ink. The surface of it gave, bowing inward and then parting around the flaming tip of the dart. The fire remained for several mikros, the yellow and red and bright of it a halo in the green intimacy of the cocoon of ink. Abe flinched and curled their shoulders forward. Their arm shook and dipped slightly, but then they thrust their elbow forward and thrust out with their hand, pushing the ink out to reclaim the small amount of space they’d lost momentarily.
Dan eyed Abe. “You got this?”
Abe bobbed their head, all enthusiasm and determination. “I do.” They firmed their chin. “I definitely do.”
“Okay.” Prairie took a few more mikros to scratch behind the second ear on the central head then moving over to give equal attention to one of the ears on the left head. Eventually she left off her ministrations and looked up. “We should assume it’s organized. So, how do you normally find a book in a library?”
“With the card catalog,” Dan’s answer overlapped hers. She looked at him from beneath lowered lashes, a small smile tugging at the corner of her mouth.
Smart girl. “We need to get to the card catalog.”
Prairie bit her lip and stared intently at Abe’s ink, like she could see beyond it to the railing and the library beyond. “That’s a long way down.”
“It is.”
Prairie looked down at Kerberos, focusing intently on her hand petting each of his heads in turn. Then she looked up with determination to match Abe’s. “We should move then.”
“Abe?” Dan looked at the blond. “Will the ink hold?”
“Maybe?”
“Make a convex shield if you can, the thickest at the front, then curving to protect our sides. We’ll run behind it as long as you can hold it.”
Prairie nodded. “And if you start to feel like you can’t hold it any more let us know and we’ll figure something out.”
Abe bit their lip and nodded. “Okay.”
Dan found himself falling effortlessly into the role of leader. When with the larger group he never felt compelled to do so. There were better people who preferred doing it and he found he was very comfortable being the quiet guy in the back who didn’t say too much.
It was a discipline hard earned through years in the military where he’d learned to do his job, do it well, and to understand what was his job and what was not. But, here and now with just the three of them and one very large and intimidating dog he didn’t hesitate to step up. He also found himself using far more words than he normally would. Carl would be busting a gut laughing at him if he could see him. He allowed himself a fleeting thought of his brother and an even more fleeting thought that he wished him here, then he let it go and focused on the two faces – make that five faces – turned up to him expectantly.
“We’ll do the same thing we did upstairs. Stick close to the shelves until we hit the stairs. Then get down them as fast as possible while we guard from attack. Once we hit the first floor retreat into the stacks. They are beneath the terrace and its also a tight space. Apollyon won’t be able to fit.”
The look Abe gave him, all wet behind the ears rainbow on their first insertion, made him alternately want to live up to the trust the kid offered and also to run screaming from it. What had he gotten himself into?
They skirted the second floor, sticking close to the bookshelves. From time to time Apollyon would flick a flaming dart or twelve their way. The first few Abe blocked with their ink but when one slipped past their guard Kerberos leapt up, snatched the dart from the air with its left head then tossed the dart – still flaming – to the right head which gulped the dart down like it was a minnow. And a tasty one at that, if the way they licked their chops was any indication.
After that it became a game for Kerberos to catch the darts. They dashed this way and that, heads snapping at darts. In some cases they snatched three from the air at once, each one in a different mouth. The doggy grin they shot back into the darkness was the canine equivalent of the middle finger, or at least it seemed Apollyon read it that way as he started raining darts with more speed than precision at that point. By the time they’d reached the start of the stair leading to the main floor Kerberos had snatched probably twenty, maybe twenty-three, darts out of the air.
After each intercepted volley they’d look to Prairie, never stopping their forward run, and she’d shoot back, “Good dog!” This seemed to spur Kerberos on to greater feats of acrobatics. Only when the dog bunched its legs in preparation for a leap that would likely take it straight over the rail did Prairie curb his enthusiasm with a soft pat of her hand to his flank.
They stopped with the start of the stair directly in front of them. Dan slanted a glance at Abe. “I want you to just run down the stairs. Once you get to the base get ready to throw up a shield for us to retreat to the stacks.”
“Shouldn’t I cover everyone down the stairs?”
Dan shook his head. “If we really are depleting our Magick in here you need to conserve yours. We might need it more later. Prairie and I will be right behind you with Kerberos.”
He looked at Prairie. “I’ll take the back and cover with my crossbows. You need to get down the stairs as fast as you can and back into the stacks. You and the Hellbeast.”
“Death Beast,” she said real soft. At Dan’s frown she expanded, “He’s a death beast. Hell doesn’t exist in his mythology.”
Dan gave her a level look, reading her expression in the weird green light. Then he blinked. “Okay. You and the Death Beast head to the stacks. I’ll follow.”
He looked at Abe. “Ready?”
Abe eyed the distance to the stairs and their length, then swallowed and nodded before taking a ‘Ready’ position. “Ready!”
“Go!”
Abe left with the word, shooting forward like a bolt from a bow. Prairie and Kerberos followed at their heels. It was clear Kerberos was matching his strides to Prairie’s, herding her to the right so she bumped the edge of the stair furthest from the atrium Apollyon commanded.
The creature swept in, aiming a paw for Prairie’s head. Before Dan could loose a bolt Kerberos lashed out with his left head, sinking his teeth into Apollyon’s leg. Apollyon let out a roar of pain and brought its wing around to dash against Kerberos. Just before it hit Dan shot a bolt through the membrane of the wing. Apollyon let out another roar and turned his fearsome head towards Dan. Dan took that opportunity to put a bolt into Apollyon’s left eye. Head snapping back with the hit of the bolt, Apollyon careened off into the dark.
Dan didn’t hesitate. He ran fast and hard down the stone stair. His knees were going to be talking to him later about the abuse but in the moment, with the adrenaline flowing and the old training kicking in, he drove forward with the zeal of a wet-behind the ears recruit.
At the bottom of the stair Abe took up a position at an angle to the base and snapped out a wash of ink. Prairie and Kerberos flew by behind Abe’s back and Dan was only about five steps behind. Once Dan was clear, Abe looked back, judged their positions and began to walk backwards at an even pace, spooling their ink out in front of them in a convex shield. As soon as they cleared the first stack Dan snapped, “Pull it in, Abe.”
With a quick nod Abe complied, reeling the ink back and then side-stepping between the stacks next to Dan. They slanted their head up to look at Dan. “We should go to the card catalog now.”
Dan took a step out into the aisle between the two rows of shelves and strained to see or hear Apollyon in the dark beyond. “I need a breakdown of our resources. Abe,” he turned and looked at Abe, “how low is your tank?”
Abe went quiet. They screwed their mouth to the side then tilted their head. “I’ve used a lot of Magick but I think,” she wet their lip and scrunched up their nose, “I’m maybe at fifty percent?”
“Okay.” Dan turned to Prairie.
Prairie tapped the hilts of her daggers. “These don’t run low.”
“But you have to be close to hit him. Not ideal.”
“Abe?”
Abe looked up at him. “Yes?”
“Can you do anything offensive with your ink?”
“I’ve been practicing using it as whips. Kind of Omega Red.”
The corner of Dan’s mouth kicked up at the old school comic reference. “That could work. How accurate?”
Abe shrugged, deep and high. “Don’t know?”
“So, we keep that as a back-up then. Apollyon should not be your practice dummy.”
“Okay.”
At Abe’s glum look Dan added, “I’m not saying don’t. Just not yet.”
Abe visibly brightened. It took so damned little to change their expression. Everything they felt was written on their expressive face.
Damn, the kid made him feel old. Next thing he’d be quoting Murtaugh.
“I’m too old for this shit.” he muttered beneath his breath.
He realized he’d said the quote out loud when Abe blinked up at him. “What?”
“Nothing.” Dan thumbed his nose and stepped back into the safety between the two bookshelves. “My assessment is we need cover. I didn’t go back behind this shelf,” he tapped the one behind him. “Maybe we can find something back there that would work.”
“Like what?”
“A chair. Or a table we can hold over our heads.”
“I could use my ink.”
“Save it.” Dan stepped back into the aisle leading between the two shelves and toward the back wall. “If we don’t find anything we can do that, but its a library. There’s always some place to sit.”
With Dan in the lead they filed back to the wall, Dan and Abe spreading in one direction, Kerberos and Prairie in the other.
“Anything?” Dan called towards Prairie.
“No. You?”
Dan eyed the long length of smooth wall and considered a choice curse, then looked at Abe and bit it back. “No.”
Prairie’s voice grew louder as she walked back to join Abe and Dan at the center aisle. “Any other ideas?”
“Ink?”
Both Prairie and Dan turned looks on Abe at the suggestion. Dan struggled with finding another way. Prairie looked at Abe’s arms, then back into the darkened center of the library, then back to run another visual assessment on Abe.
“I think if Apollyon hit your ink from above he’d drive all of us to the ground. I’m afraid physics is against us there.”
“Oh,” Abe looked down, kicking their toe at the ground. “Okay.”
Dan clapped a hand on Abe’s shoulder. “You’ll get your chance.”
Abe continued to look at the ground, expression dejected. “Sure, I will.”
Dan slanted Prairie a look. Prairie returned it with a gentle smile. “How fast are you, Abe?”
“I am very fast.”
“Good.” Prairie turned her attention back to Dan. “I think we need the others. The three of us are okay to fight off a Morlock or,” she laid an affectionate hand on Kerberos’ shoulder, “a Death Beast, but Apollyon can fly and he has range with his wings and also with his darts. Normally we might be able to wait him out, let him exhaust his weapons, but you said in the book he throws them for more than half a day.”
“He does.”
“Then we aren’t waiting him out. So I say we get the others.”
Dan poked his tongue into his cheek as he considered the merits of the suggestion. It seemed like their best option. “That makes sense. We should be able to walk between the stacks as far as the front wall. From there we’ll need to get to the window and someone will need to get out of it and get the others.”
“It should be Prairie,” Abe said. When Dan looked to them for clarification, they added. “You have range with your crossbows and I can make a shield. We can cover the others coming in through the window.”
“Makes sense.”
Dan looked down at Prairie, who nodded. “It does.” She grinned. “Let’s do this!”
Dan nodded his assent and indicated with a jerk of his chin that Prairie, Kerberos, and Abe should proceed him through the stacks. From beyond the shelf separating them from the open atrium area there came the sound of claws on stone and then the bookshelf heaved slightly towards them, like maybe Apollyon was shoving at it, testing its weight.
“Move!” He snapped. He didn’t have to say it twice. Prairie, Kerberos, and Abe ran down the aisle, making quick work of the distance to where the stacks dumped out about four feet from the front wall. Dan pulled up short to not run into Abe’s back as they all hovered within the protection of the aisle.
“I’ll go first, crossbows ready. Abe you come in next to me. If I miss or he throws a dart block with your ink. Prairie move between us and the wall.”
Kerberos looked at him, all three heads focused on his face.
Dan wasn’t sure the dog understood him. Then again he didn’t know that he didn’t. “Kerberos, cover in front of her on my other side.”
It seemed the dog did understand. He stepped out, paws padding on the stone floor, and took up a position next to the wall. Then he turned and gave Prairie a pointed look from all three heads. She smiled and hurried to stand next to the dog, then gave Dan and Abe a thumb’s up. Dan took a big step out, clearing the end of the bookshelf with both crossbows out at the ready. Abe scuttled in next to him. As a tight unit they started along the wall.
Apollyon almost immediately came flying in at them, wings like sails of darkness barely discernible in the dim light of the torch sending a rush of air at them as Apollyon glided at them with both bear paws aimed at chest level.
“Go!” Dan snapped as he let loose a bolt, aiming for the thin membrane of the wing. He didn’t need to repeat himself. Kerberos and Prairie made a break for the window centered halfway across the expanse of the wall. Apollyon shifted, blocking the bolt with a curving claw that sat at the tip of the ulna of his wing.
Snapping back from the block Apollyon flung three darts from one hand. They arced, two going for Prairie and one headed towards Dan’s face. Abe threw their arm out. Instead of a wave of ink what projected from their hand was a whip, thick, like a cable. Omega Red, indeed. On its outward swing the whip deflected the bolt aimed at Dan and caught the closer of the two arrowing towards Prairie. Abe let out a cry, “No!”. They need’nt have worried as Kerberos right head darted out, snatching the dart from the air even as the dog continued to run cover next to Prairie.
Reaching the hole in the wall, Prairie grabbed the windowsill and threw herself up onto it. She gave a quick look back at Abe and Dan then jumped through the opening.
Dan looked at Abe. Abe looked at Dan. Kerberos trotted over, a big doggy smile on all three of his big doggy heads. Both Abe and Dan looked at the dog. Dan lifted his chin at their canine ally, then looked down at Abe.
“Ready?””
“I’d like to say- Whoof!” Abe snapped out their whip again, deflecting another flaming dart. “That was close!” They turned, standing square to the open space and shook out their right hand, sending the whip flying out to lie on the floor. Then they shot Dan a slightly apprehensive look. “I’m always-” they cut off, flicking the whip up as landed on the floor and began stalking towards them, his wings arched behind him and the claws at the tips screeching as they dragged the stone. From where they struck sparks rose from the stone.
Kerberos took a menacing step forward and growled. Apollyon growled back in a blend of a lion and man’s voice. It was all the more terrible for that. A lion’s roar from a lion’s maw, that made sense. But a man’s rage from a lion’s mouth? No. That was the stuff of nightmares. Abe swung their arm back, snapping the whip in the vicinity of Apollyon’s chest and driving the snarl back into his mouth.
“Ready.” They darted a quick look at Dan and grinned. “It’s what a hero would- Whoa! Back!” they made a rapid arm movement, jerking the whip back so it retracted partially into their hand, shortening the length and making it easier to make quick snaps at Apollyon to deter his forward movement. Kerberos snarled and snapped at the air with all three mouths. Even Apollyon, no matter how terrible, was not immune to the sheer bowel releasing terror of that snarl. He stopped for a mikro and threw a dart at Kerberos who plucked it from the air with one mouth without letting up the menace with the other two.
Using the distraction, Dan sent a bolt into Apollyon’s shoulder. Though it didn’t stop the creature he did pause to absorb the hit then yank out the bolt, buying Abe the moment to finish. “A hero would say!”
“Kid,” Dan gritted, loading his crossbows blind. “Say whatever you want. This here qualifies you as a hero.”
Abe snapped the whip forward, driving Apollyon back again, then looked at Dan. “Really?”
“Big Damned Hero, Kid.” He raised his crossbow and sank another bolt into Apollyon, hitting in the region of the creature’s side. Again it seemed barely deterred by the hits. In fact, Dan slanted a quick glance to where he’d shot Apollyon in the eye earlier and found no damage, it seemed like Apollyon was healing like the Morlock had. They’d made the right call getting the others. He and Abe just had to hold until they got here. Magick save them. “A Big Damned Hero.”
Even as he said it Dan added the caveat in his head, “As long as they weren’t a Big Damned Dead Hero.”
Enter The Woods 