8:23
“We need help!”
Ivan lunged forward as Prairie came tumbling out of the window. He made it across the floor in time to steady her when she stumbled slightly on the tiles. She tossed up her head, flipping her hair out of her eyes, a thanks freezing on her lips as she saw who had saved her. “Oh. It’s you.”
With that she took a step back from him, lofted her chin, and looked beyond his bulk to find the others clustered around the table in the center of the space.
Immediately on catching the attention of the others she repeated, “We need help!”
No one paused. Everyone jumped up, pushed away, or stepped out from the table depending on their position on or around it. Dempsey grabbed his shield and brought it to the ready. Patti clenched her shield in a tight fist and gave Prairie a determined nod. Ben was across the floor and at the window before Ivan could reel back from Prairie’s rejection.
Ben planted hand on the sill and stared into the library. “What are we facing?”
“Book characters come to life. Right now something called Apollyon. A monster that flies with a twenty foot wing span, claws at the tips of the wings, has bear paws for feet, a lion’s mouth and throws flaming darts.”
Ben jerked around to look at Prairie who scrunched her lips and shrugged.
“Also, we can’t kill the monsters from the books. Well,” she wobbled her head. “We can kill them but they don’t stay dead.”
“Then how do we fight them?” Dempsey strode over and peered over Ben’s head into the library.
“Dan and Abe figured out they can return the creatures to the books. We fight the creatures and in the lulls between killing them we search for their book. Then Abe and Dan take care of them.”
“Okay.” Siobhan flipped the strap of her bag over her head and settled the large thing on her hip. “So, we need to fight this Apollyon. Dan has to fin the book. And then he and Abe need to return Apollyon to it.”
“The library has three stories. Maybe millions of books. There is no obvious organization of them.”
“That does make it a bit harder.”
“Yes. But there is a card catalog. It will probably tell us where the book is but the library is designed around a large atrium that gives Apollyon plenty of space to fly and attack.”
“So,” Dempsey said, “distract Apollyon. Get to the card catalog. Find the card for the book. Find the book. Return Apollyon.”
“Yes.”
“Sounds like a plan.” With that Dempsey approached the windowsill. He turned back to look at the group, his gaze sweeping them until it landed on Gwen. “You should stay.”
Gwen, walking up with Kim, lifted her brows. “You should probably know that I’m going to do the exact opposite of whatever you say. I did fine in the mirror maze. Better than fine. I kicked Roly Poly Dempsey ass.”
Prairie darted a look at Kim who mouthed, “Later,” then looked at Dempsey. “I think if Gwen says she can handle it she can handle it. She’s one of our healers and you’ll need her in there.”
“You’ll?” Ben asked to which Kim nodded. “Yes. I need to stay out here to keep Fire from burning the maze down. That is if we want it to keep distracting Gryphon?”
Prairie gave Kim another confused look which Kim met with a quick wave of her hand at her side. No big thing. Talk later.
Ivan hovered over Prairie, his expression soft as he stared down at her. He bounced a fist against his thigh. “Maybe you should stay too, Prair. Regain your energy.”
Prairie tilted her head back and gave Ivan what could be interpreted as a condescending smile. The expression was foreign to the usually sweet and calm woman’s face. “You’ll need me in there.”
She didn’t explain why, just turned her back on Ivan and looked at the rest. “Whatever we decide we should make it fast.”
“I’m good,” Dempsey said and placed a foot on the windowsill then looked back at Patti. “Shields to the front.”
Patti nodded and stepped forward. Dempsey looked at Ivan who was staring at the back of Prairie’s head with a mixture of confusion and concern. “You too, Ivan. Get that fancy shield ready. We’ll need to block this flying thing so the others can get into the room.”
Ivan spared one more mikro on staring at Prairie’s head then he pulled back his sleeve to reveal the cuff encircling his wrist. “Set.”
Dempsey hopped up on the windowsill. Before he could enter the room Prairie called, “If you see a large dog in there he’s with us.”
Dempsey eyed her. She gave him a reassuring smile and widened her eyes, like that would convey her earnestness. He turned his head slightly to eye her from a different angle. “Really, he’s safe.”
“Big dog. With us. Got it.” With that Dempsey hopped through into the library. Ivan and Patti quickly followed. Then Ben popped through. That left Gwen, Prairie, Kim, and Siobhan. Gwen unclipped her plunger from her belt then headed for the window. She looked back at Prairie. “Coming?”
Prairie nodded and moved to the window, waiting until Gwen climbed over the sill and entered the library. She paused a mikro, assessing what she could see of the library and the disposition of her friends. Before she could haul herself up onto the sill Siobhan hurried to her side and indicated Prairie should hold her arms out. Prairie did, her expression a mix of serenity and question. That question was quickly answered as Siobhan removed her bag then looped the strap over Prairie’s head and settled it at the small of her back.
“You’ll need these. Remember one dot healing. Two dots energy. No dots,” she shrugged, “Well if the poop hits the fan start throwing them. Some of them have gaseous effects and some have splash so make sure you’re clear of whatever your aiming at when you do.”
Prairie’s eyes grew wide, then she nodded. “Okay.”
Kim gave Siobhan a confused look. “You aren’t going?”
“No. I’m staying with you.” Her eyes filled with ghosts. “You shouldn’t be alone.”
Her expression said there was no sense arguing. Kim, of course, didn’t heed it. “They need a healer.”
“They have Gwen and now they have Prairie. They’ll be fine.”
Kim stared at her, mouth pursed. Siobhan stared right back, brows lifted and expression determined.
“I really have to go,” Prairie said, breaking the silent exchange between Siobhan and Kim. With that she grabbed the sill, climbed up in the window, and entered the library to a scene of chaos.
As soon as her boots touched floor Kerberos came galloping up to her, jowls wobbling in his rush to get to her. She laid her hand on his head then pointed out each of her friends. “Friends!” she said. Spooling out a thread of Magick towards Kerberos she made a connection with his Spirit. Once she felt the sense of him flowing back to her, confirming the connection, she tried to project the feeling of what friendship meant, in case he didn’t know the word. She wasn’t really certain exactly how she was communicating with him, just that she was, so she figured it couldn’t hurt to use verbal as well as spiritual cues.
Dempsey, Ivan, and Patti held a line, shields raised to protect from the sweep of Apollyon’s wings. Apollyon swung a foot forward, landing a kick to Patti’s shield that sent her staggering back with her elbow bending to absorb some of the hit.
“Ow!” she cried out when her arm went off at a crazy angle. Gwen, behind the line and hidden from Apollyon by Dempsey and Ivan, tilted out and wrapped a hand around Patti’s arm. After a mikro the tight line of Patti’s shoulder loosened. She gave Gwen a quick smile then pulled her arm free of Gwen’s hand and shook it before stepping forward and holding her shield up again.
Gwen looked back, saw Prairie with Kerberos by her side, and drawled, “You said giant dog. Not three-headed giant dog. Big difference.”
She then grinned wide at Prairie’s “Whoops?”
Sass, in its belt house, gave a sharp peep, the sound a challenge not a cry. Kerberos gave Prairie a quick look with his left head then dashed off towards Patti then passed her to leap high, catching Apollyon’s leg in his center mouth. His left head snapped around, grabbing the leg beneath where the center head bit. And then the two head jerked and Kerberos ripped Apollyon’s leg off.
Blood, the black of Abe’s ink or so it appeared in the questionable light of the alchemy torches, arced from the bloody stump of Apollyon’s knee. Apollyon’s wings clapped, the whuff of fabric on the air, and he rose fast, that black blood falling like rain as he retreated.
“Ew!” Patti cried, throwing her shield up high to catch the blood before it hit her face. As it was it spattered off the surface of her shield, the fine mist of the spray seeming to suspend in the green phosphorescence of the alchemy torches. Sass drew back into its house to avoid the splash, then stuck its head back out and gave a sharp trill. Kerberos came trotting over, bear leg in its left mouth. He looked at Sass then his gaze shifted to Prairie near the window still. Doggy smile on his center and right heads he trotted over, claws clicking on the stone floor, and dropped the paw at her feet.
Prairie bit her lip and gently patted the left head. “Good boy.” Then she gently shoved the paw back towards him. “That’s your prize. I don’t need it.”
Kerberos gave her a look brimming with joy then bent down to retrieve the paw, adding a butt waggle in case Prairie couldn’t tell how happy he was with his treat.
“I thought the paw would disappear once it was removed from Apollyon.” Prairie turned at Abe’s voice. Abe, small and quiet, stood next to the window, propped against the wall, their gaze going over the chaos.
“Abe, I didn’t see you there.”
Abe shrugged. “I am small and quiet. Makes sense.”
“What were you saying?”
“I had an idea that if we ripped parts off of Apollyon it would break the cohesion of the structure of what makes him animate. But Kerberos has been ripping that same foot off for the last several meros and it always stays solid right down to the bone.”
“Maybe Kerberos believes its a paw so it remains one?”
Abe’s gaze lit at the thought. “Wig!”
“Wig?” Prairie mouthed but didn’t ask. From the context she guessed that meant awesome or cool or wowzers or whatever was up to the meros with the kids. Until Abe joined up with them she’d thought she was pretty… wig. Or fire. She knew fire was definitely a thing. She heard that at the hospital. Anyhow, enough wool gathering.
“Where’s Dan?”
Abe pointed towards the card catalogs at the center of the atrium. “He and Ben headed around to approach the card catalog from the back.”
“Hmm.” Prairie squinted in the direction of the center of the library. “Wig.”
“Fr.”
Ivan looked back at Abe. “How long before he comes back?”
“I don’t know. Maybe a meros?”
“Okay.” Ivan looked at Dempsey. “Think we should move towards the card catalogs to give Dan and Ben cover?”
“Not sure.” Dempsey looked up, squinting into the darkness. “Might draw attention to them.”
“Might also protect them if he sees them.”
“True. What do you think, Siobhan?” Dempsey looked back toward the window, frowning when he saw Siobhan wasn’t there.
“She stayed behind with Kim.” Prairie slid her hand under the strap crossing her chest, lifting it so the potions slotted along its length were thrown into relief. “She sent her stuff with me.”
Dempsey frowned. “Not ideal.”
“I am a nu-” Prairie broke off as a claw came arcing towards Dempsey from the darkness to the left. “Incoming!”
Dempsey responded to her prompt, shifting his shield to take the brunt of the claw hit. Then Apollyon released a barrage of flaming darts which Ivan and Dempsey caught on their shields.
“Damn,” Ivan muttered, “We could really use someone with control over fire about now.”
Prairie shifted to press her shoulders against the wall and crossed her arms. “Well, she didn’t come. Guess you’ll have to throw something else at Apollyon. You’re good at that. Throwing people and things.”
Ivan grunted at this then turned back to square his shoulder and take another dart hit on his shield. Once that was done he looked over his shoulder at Prairie. “You can let that go any time.”
“Can I?” Prairie put the weight of her disgruntlement at the way Ivan had taken her choice away from her into the words.
“Yes. Uh-” The last came when several darts hit his shield, pinging on the metal then careening off at odd angles.
Kerberos jostled against Prairie’s side. Neither a bear paw or a bone was clasped in any of his three mouths. Maybe it had disappeared when Apollyon came back. The creature stayed back in the darkness, apparently content to batter the group with ranged attacks from his endless supply of flaming darts, so Prairie couldn’t see if he had two legs again or was still missing the one. She suspected he had two. The Morlock on each subsequent attack had shown no trauma from previous defeats. It seemed likely Apollyon would have similar regenerative abilities.
At Kerberos’ nudge Prairie gently brushed her hand over each of his three heads. In the lull between barrages of darts she suggested, “We should figure out where Dan and Ben are searching and then cause a distraction somewhere else. Close enough to defend them if it doesn’t work.”
Ivan turned his head to look at Prairie. “That’s a good idea.”
Prairie wasn’t falling for his agreement. Or for the look of appreciation in his eyes. Or for his too darned handsome face. No. Not happening. She’d been around the big guy long enough, seen the way he fell into protector mode with others, and she knew if she let him put her in the role of ‘needed protecting’ he’d never see her as anything other than ‘less’. Weak. She wasn’t weak. She might be small. And maybe she seemed a little timid sometimes. But she was not weak. And she was not letting him relegate her to that role!
He might mean well, but she meant to be more than that.
“I have them sometimes.”
“Could we just stay here?” Patti asked. “He’s focused on us.”
Prairie shook her head. “He is, but when Dan finds the card for Pilgrim’s Progress we don’t want he and Ben to have to come back to get us and risk injury. It makes more sense to be closer to them.”
Dempsey squared his shoulders and loosed his sword at his side. “Then we push. On two.”
“Why two?” Gwen piped up from behind him. He didn’t respond just said, “One.”
On his “Two!” Ivan stepped to the right so Patti was bracketed between he and Dempsey. Once he was clear he pulled his own sword and ran forward. Patti didn’t spare any time looking at Dempsey or Ivan, just surged forward with her shield held out at the end of her arm and her cudgel raised at shoulder-level. In the house bouncing against her thigh Sass let out a pitched “peep!”. Gwen fell in behind them and a little to the left to cover Dempsey’s flank with her plunger. That left Abe, Prairie, and Kerberos to come in behind.
Prairie slanted a look at Abe and turned to face the wall. Abe nodded and did the same, then they both started moving backwards as fast as they could with Abe looking to the right and Prairie to the left, with her fingers working over the vials on the strap of Siobhan’s bag. One dot. One dot. Two dots. One. She kept count in time with her thudding foot falls on the ungiving stone floor. Next to her Kerberos ran, facing forward, matching her pace and sending slobber flying in all directions from his fleshy jowls. He was one happy Death Dog.
The sound of wings came a moment before a flaming dart flew from the darkness to Prairie’s left. Kerberos reached up with his left head and snatched it out of the air then gulped it down like it was candy. Prairie wasn’t sure of his anatomy, being he was a fictional character, but if he had a tummy he was probably going to have massive heartburn from his ingestion of flaming darts and bear paws.
“Shift!” Ivan yelled, angling out and to his right to change the way the group flowed so they could meet Apollyon’s attack full on. Dempsey slashed out with his sword. The blow glanced off Apollyon’s side.
“He has scales. Like scale mail. Didn’t make a dent!”
“It won’t,” Ivan hollered back, holding his swing. “You need a poignard. Something with a narrow, tapered blade that ends in a tip.”
“Oof!” Dempsey cried as Apollyon whipped his wing around and made hard contact with Dempsey’s shield with the claw at the tip of the wing. “Anyone got something like that?”
“Uh,” Patti grunted, stepping in to catch a tossed flaming dart with her shield. “No.”
“Ideas?”
“Hit him where he doesn’t have scale!” Ivan yelled.
“That would be the face!”
“Then hit him in the face!”
“Sure. Yeah. I’ll get on that.”
Prairie looked down at Kerberos, happily slobbering away at her side. “His paws aren’t scaled. Neither are his wings.”
“Dan hit him with his bolts.” Abe jolted to a stop when their back came in contact with Gwen’s where she’d stopped behind the shield line.
“Bolts are made to penetrate armor,” Ivan explained between grunts as he blocked a rain of flaming darts with his shield. “We could also bludgeon him.”
“Like this?” Gwen darted out from behind Dempsey, coming in low to whack Apollyon’s knee with her plunger. He appeared to absorb the majority of the hit but it was enough to draw his attention to her.
Before he could strike Patti stepped forward from the shield line. She let out a terrible cry, fear and determination intertwined and smashed her cudgel into Apollyon’s side. He felt that. Maybe not a lot. His expression didn’t alter from the horrible sneer, made large by a lion’s mouth, nor did the intensity of his eyes alter, but he definitely checked in his flight, shifting with Patti’s hit.
Kerberos separated from Prairie’s side and galloped around Ivan to launch himself into the air and grab Apollyon’s leg where paw met scale near the knee with his left head. As he came down he made a wrenching motion, tearing the paw clear.
Apollyon’s snarl turned to a roar as once more dark blood fountained from his leg. Kerberos adjusted, coming in with his right head and snagging Apollyon’s other leg. He proceeded to rip this one off as well then trotted back in the rain of blood to Prairie’s side with the paws grasped in his left and right mouths. “Such a good dog!”
Prairie, fairly immured to gore what with her job being an ER nurse, didn’t flinch but instead gently patted the center head and murmured, “Good Dog!”
Kerberos bumped her hand with his head, demanding more pets. His left and right heads happily worked teeth in their prizes.
Abe audibly gulped. “That’s freaky.”
“But effective.”
To prove her point Prairie turned to look to where Apollyon had abandoned the field, buying them a meros to move into the heart of the atrium where the card catalogs stood, tin soldiers, in two tall lines between which the green of alchemy torch revealed neither Ben nor Dan. The group surged forward to the end of the cabinets, then paused as Dempsey called out, “Dan? Ben?”
There was no reply. Then a shadow detached from the darkness to the right. It hissed in Ben’s voice, “Keep it down!”
The shadow moved, a subtle gesture to edge around the catalogs. He didn’t wait to see if they complied, just melted back into the dark.
“If they are that way we should take position in the center between the catalogs. It cuts down on Apollyon’s ability to approach on foot and also narrows the range he can throw darts from. He can still fly at us but we can prepare for that.”
Dempsey nodded. “Let’s set up a three point perimeter with you, me, and Patti. We’ll put Gwen, Prairie, and Abe in the center.”
“We-” Gwen started only to be cut off by Dempsey. “This is not a comment on your ability to defend. Its a sensible use of our shields. If he flies at us we can do a tortoise defense with the shields protecting the circle. If you’re on the outside of that circle that defense won’t work.”
The time to debate the strategy was cut short as Apollyon glided in from somewhere near the domed ceiling, flinging a spray of flaming darts. Ivan slid to the right, Patti to the left, and they raised their shields to block the darts. Dempsey held his shield up but slightly canted so he could assess Apollyon’s attack. When the creature reached the nadir of his glide Dempsey snapped, “Drop shields. Bludgeons out.”
Patti yanked back her elbow, drawing her punch shield back and swung her cudgel up blind. Dempsey stepped forward one step, giving Gwen the space to jump up, swinging her plunger. Patti’s cudgel got a glancing hit on Apollyon’s knee, deflecting the paw aimed at the group. Gwen’s upward thrust hit Apollyon squarely in the unprotected junk. Thankfully the light was too uneven to get a real good view of that region.
Apollyon’s breath left him in a huff and he let out a high-pitched squeal that was more animal than man. Or, you know, how most guys sounded when they took a junk shot. And just like most guys who took a junk shot, he dropped his hand to clasp the area, again saving the group from having to get a real good look at his dangly bits. He made a downward swoop of his wings, cupping air under them so he rose out of plunger range.
Gwen fell back and did a quick fist pump in victory. She added a bit of celebratory ass wiggle.
“My man,” Ivan muttered in sympathy. Apollyon was attacking them and all, but it was instinctive to feel a measure of kinship to genital bludgeoning. He stabbed upwards with his sword, using it more like a prod than a weapon but he needn’t have bothered since Apollyon disappeared into the dark, likely to nurse his injury.
A junk shot probably didn’t presage a regeneration so Gwen might have bought them several meros respite from attack while Apollyon shook off the hit to the groin.
Prairie turned as something tapped her shoulder and she nearly gutted Ben who apparently had thought it a genius idea to come up from behind the group. Kerberos stepped in front of her, hackles raised, and growled with all three heads. Ben held his hands up in defense and backed away several feet.
“Hey, Fido. Friend.”
The growl from Kerberos’ left head dropped to a low rumble. The other two heads kept up the chainsaw effect. Only when Prairie gently laid a hand on Kerberos’ shoulder and smoothed down his ruffled fur did the the rumble drop in pitch, though it did not stop entirely. Keeping their eyes and ears focused on the dark the group moved in close to hear Ben.
“Dan found the card. We need to go to the third floor.”
Prairie sighed. “Of course we do.” She looked over her shoulder, establishing where the others were in proximity to she and Ben. Abe was closest, Dempsey slightly to the right and bumping up against the cabinet there. Gwen was behind Abe and Ivan and Patti bracketed them. Out of all of them only she and Abe knew the challenges they’d be facing once they got to the third floor.
“Do you want to tell them?” she whispered to Abe.
“No. You do it.”
Dropping into Triage brain, Prairie listed the details with clipped precision. “The third floor forms a ceiling for the second so it’s tight enough Apollyon will have limited access to us. The third floor is open like this. He’ll do sweeping attacks when we’re on the stairs. They curve around the circumference of the room, winding about halfway around the space before you reach the next terrace.”
That established, she turned back to Ben. “We’re behind you.”
Ben didn’t hesitate, but slipped silently back down the space between the cabinets then turned left at the end. The glow of Dan’s alchemy torch formed a green circle at the other end of the cabinets, a target the group could aim for. Prairie nearly reached him before she heard a very slight twang and then the thump of a bolt hitting flesh. She immediately started running, Kerberos covering her right, open side. Dan was methodically reloading his crossbows as she reached him.
“Let’s go!” she yelled as she came skidding up to him, her feet sliding on the stone floor as she attempted to stop.
Dan didn’t question it, just turned and started running around the end of the cabinet, heading towards the opposite wall where, unfortunately the stairs began. This gave Apollyon plenty of time and space to come swooping in. Without breaking stride Kerberos launched up and forward and raked Apollyon with his claws. Apollyon’s scale might have saved him from the majority of the trauma from the hit, but he did adjust backwards, his wing tips snapping forward while his back bowed to absorb the hit. Dan dodged the one claw tip flying at him, Prairie twisted at the waist to avoid the other.
The sound of feet hitting stone behind them told her the others were close behind so she didn’t hesitate to aim for the stairs. She had to make a hard pivot, reversing her momentum and she staggered a little. Dan planted a hand on her shoulder, catching her, then pushed her forward. She thundered up the stairs, Kerberos at her right, Dan just slightly behind her on the left. As they reached the apex of the stair, Abe came sailing up the stair, showing no sign of breathlessness.
Prairie dropped aside so Abe could get ahead of her in case they needed the cover of Abe’s ink. The benefit of having the whole group was Apollyon had a lot more targets to aim for and they had a lot more shields, but it didn’t hurt to have one in front of her as well as behind. She heard thumps of darts hitting shield behind her, suggesting Apollyon was targeting those lower down the stair. She poured on speed, not stopping at the top of the stair but continuing around the curve of the terrace so the others would have a clear landing.
Kerberos matched her pace on the right, Abe on the left, and they continued around the terrace, hugging the bookshelves and aiming for the stair to the next floor. Prairie’s breath burned at the base of her throat, a high tight note she gulped through. No matter how fit she was she was not up and down two long curving flights of stairs twice in one day fit. She really hoped everything else was keeping up. If they got out of this, and she was determined they would, she might have to add some stair exercises to her daily routine.
Abe, with the unending fountain of energy youth provided, bounded along like they were having zero difficulty with breathing. Prairie threw a quick look over her shoulder to ascertain if Dan was following close behind. Seeing he was, she turned her head back so she could watch her steps and pitched her voice to carry, “Once we reach the third floor you take lead.”
“Will do.” Dan’s voice was strained. Seemed someone else might be regretting skipping leg day too.
Shouts from behind let Prairie know the others were coming. Good, because she didn’t have to spare speed to check their progress. Bad, because those shouts meant Apollyon was still actively engaging. Not that she expected anything less with the characters’ ability to reset back to their initial states.
As soon as she hit the third floor she dropped quickly to the side to hug the bookshelf and give Dan space to pass since where she went Kerberos went and he took up some space. As it was Dan stumbled slightly over Kerberos’ front paw.
“Sorry, man.” He ran about five feet forward then came to a stop against the bookshelf and pulled a small card from one of his vest pockets. He peered at it then at the bookshelf. Then he walked forward another few feet and stopped to look at a brass plate on the edge of a shelf. Once he’d read it he looked back at the card, then nodded and walked forward slowly, his eyes on the shelves.
Prairie walked a short distance behind him with Kerberos to her right, his right and center heads on a swivel with the right looking back down the terrace and the center focused on the darkness beyond the rail. He focused on Dan with his left head. The way he did this made Prairie appreciate the tactical advantage of three heads. He could watch their six, their side, and also where they were going.
Abe followed close on her heels, so close she could feel their breath on her neck. It should have been cloying but instead was comforting because that breath told her she had an ally as close as a breath away. In this situation with the unstoppable enemy and the uncertainty of the darkness making far close and close far she appreciated the assurance.
In a perfect world Dan would have found the book on a shelf close to the stair. But, of course, this was not a perfect world and though Dan stopped frequently he kept going passed the quarter mark of the terrace, then passed the half-mark.
Apollyon ramped up his attacks at about the one-third mark. And he didn’t center his attacks on a single person or group but instead swooped lazily back and forth, sometimes hovering near the railing, sometimes arcing high to send devastating barrages of flaming darts raining from above.
With eight people in their group, three with shields and Abe able to shield with their ink in theory everyone could have a shield buddy. In reality no one seemed to want to get that close to Kerberos to shield Prairie, but that was okay since Kerberos seemed to be having a fantastic time snatching darts from the air before they could get close to Prairie.
Again she wondered the state of his stomach after he swallowed the latest of four darts he’d snagged. You couldn’t tell by the happy expression on all three of his faces. Maybe he’d be fine. Who knew what the limits were on a mythological creature living on belief?
Abe kept pace with Dan, providing him cover to continue his search unimpeded. The others held back a distance from where Dan, Abe, Prairie, and Kerberos were, alternately hollering and attacking to draw Apollyon’s attention. Prairie laid her hand on Kerberos’ center head and reached out with her Magick, pushing the idea that she was going to use him to guide her so she could turn back to gauge the action and call warnings to Dan and Abe. His agreement brushed against her, spirit to spirit, and he also bumped her hand gently with his head.
Trusting in his ability to keep her on track Prairie turned and started walking backward slowly. With two torches between the five the area they were in was light Prairie could easily see what was going on.
Apollyon came gliding in from above, paws forward, claws spread like a raptor aiming to grab prey. Ivan moved the shield across his body to divert the hit, then swung it back to smash the edge of the shield into Apollyon’s side. This left his abdomen open to the wing tip Apollyon snapped at him, but Ben slid in front of him and blocked with crossed daggers. He then arced out with his right dagger, carving through the membrane of Apollyon’s wing. Apollyon roared and flung a flaming dart at Ben. Ivan brought his shield up high and across his face, catching the dart and deflecting it back at Apollyon by snapping the bottom of his shield up at an angle.
It was almost balletic, a combination of strength and calculation. Prairie’s breath caught at the beauty of it.
The injury to Apollyon’s wing must have done enough damage to the structural integrity of the wing because where he’d glided gracefully in to attack with his paw, now his flight pattern wobbled as he swept his wings trying to keep himself aloft.
He dropped in altitude, leaving his head vulnerable. Gwen ran in from the far right, plunger pulled back over her shoulder, and brought her weapon down hard at the juncture where Apollyon’s neck met his shoulder. He sank below the force of the blow, dropping from the air and landing awkwardly with one leg over the rail. His clawed hand scrabbled at the metal, fingers wrapping around the support to pull himself up over the rail. But, Dempsey was ready for that. He pulled back his arm, lifting his shield then bringing it down hard on Apollyon’s fingers. Apollyon let out an agonized roar and fell back, his weight yanking his leg off the rail. He fell below the terrace, disappearing into the dark.
“Moving!” Ben snapped and fell back to get the bookshelf at his back. “On two! One!” Ivan stepped back, providing Ben cover with his shield while focusing hard straight out into the dark where Apollyon had disappeared. To his right Gwen and Dempsey did a similar maneuver, with Gwen at the shelf and Dempsey shielding her with his eyes focused up and to the right. Patti to Ivan’s left dropped back so she was close to the shelves with her shield held ready and her attention focused out into the dark atrium and slightly to the left. As soon as she fell in, Ben said, “Two!”
“Now, one two three four five!” As one the group moved, walking sideways along the bookshelves. They stopped when Ben’s count did then Ivan called, “No movement.”
Dempsey echoed him. Then Patti did.
“Okay!” Ben called. “On two! One! Two! One two three four five.”
Again the group moved, stopping at the end of Ben’s count.
Ivan assessed the space directly in front of them. “No movement!”
Dempsey squared, turning his shield to the right. “Incoming!”
Flaming darts rained from high above. Dempsey and Ivan lifted their shields above their heads, blocking the hits. The darts hit the metal of Ivan’s shield and deflected. The ones hitting Dempsey’s shield stuck momentarily and then the shield flared with light and smoke rose where the darts had protruded from the surface a mikro before.
The next fall of darts came from overhead but forward of the group. Patti let out a cry and swung her shield back and forth, knocking darts out of the sky like they were badminton shuttlecocks. Swish, swish, swish, her shield cut through the air, catching one after the other. With every block she shouted “Ah!” forming an odd melody with her cries. She cried out, shrill, when a dart made it passed her and cut across hip, barely missing Sass’s house. Her weight went in that direction and she canted but then corrected by falling back so her back hit the bookshelf. Gwen darted over and laid her palm on Patti’s hip, focused a mikro then stepped back.
“Thanks!” Patti said, then followed it with a “Watch out!” as she brought her shield up to punch the dart heading towards Gwen’s head.
“Moving!” Ben barked. “On two! One! Two!”
Everyone moved, matching their steps to Ben’s “One two three four five!”
On five they all halted and scanned the sky.
From behind Prairie she heard Dan say, “Found it.”
She turned to look. He had his fingertips pressed to a book that protruded from the shelf a bare inch. He’d made the right call in looking for the card. Without it the chances they’d find a book protruding from the shelf that little were minimal.
Turning back around she yelled to the rest of the group. “He found it!”
“What now?” Ivan called back.
“I need to find the section where the fight between Christian and Apollyon is described. Or, where it should be. Then Abe needs to get close enough to Apollyon to pull the words out of him and I need to put him back in the book.”
The others scuttled closer to make it easier to talk, keeping their attention focused on the dark. Once they were within five feet of Prairie and Kerberos they stopped.
Ivan, holding his shield loose at the ready, scanned the darkness. “Abe? How close do we need to get you?”
Abe replied to Ivan’s question in a small voice, “Close. Touching close.”
“We need to get you close enough to touch the murder bird?” Ben drawled.
This drew a nervous laugh from Abe. “Yes.”
“Well,” Ben’s grin was a slash of brightness in the alchemy torch light. “That’ll be easy.”
“Incoming!” Dempsey called. “Above!”
Ivan and Dempsey raised their shields, blocking a volley of flaming darts. Apollyon followed this with a sweeping pass in which he aimed his paw, claws spread, at Patti. She let out an “eep!” and punched her shield out, catching the kick but being driven back several steps by the force of it. She lifted her cudgel up at shoulder-height in prep for striking Apollyon but he didn’t follow up on the kick. Instead he gave a hard downstroke with his wings, arching up and out into the darkness.
Dempsey and Ivan lowered their shields and scanned the air.
Gwen ran over to Patti. “Are you okay?”
“Don’t know how many more of those I can take.” Patti’s voice was strained. “He does not hit like a drunk.”
“He doesn’t. Can I?” Gwen hovered her hand over Patti’s chest. At Patti’s nod she gently placed her hand near Patti’s clavicle, drew a deep breath, and then held it for a mikro before stepping back. “Better?”
Patti’s shoulders visibly relaxed. She shook out the shoulder of her shield arm, then rotated her ribs forward a little from the cudgel side. “Better.”
Enter The Woods 