8:24
While Gwen was ministering to Patti, Ben slid along the bookshelves and approached Prairie. He shifted his gaze from her to Kerberos. “Can you get him to follow commands?”
“He really isn’t that kind of dog.”
The look Kerberos gave Ben from his center head, steady with a bit of lip curl to display a length of fang, made this even clearer. Funny enough, the right head tilted and gave Ben an assessing once over. The mouth on the left head lolled open, tongue out, in a grin. Clearly the three heads were not of three minds about Ben.
Prairie laid her hand on Kerberos’ shoulder, pushing out with her Magick to strengthen their connection. Kerberos pushed back a mix of support and excitement that Prairie interpreted as a possible willingness to hear what Ben had to ask. She translated this feeling into words.
“Ask. He can hear you and will determine if he will help.”
Ben leaned forward, meeting the eyes in the right head then shifting to meet those in the center and finally the left. “We need to get Apollyon down on the floor. I’m not heavy enough to pull him down but you and I could probably do it. If I can cut his wing we can grab him when he drops then throw our weight down to yank him out of the air. It’s not going to be pretty.”
Through their bond Prairie felt/heard/saw Kerberos chuckle. There was a sense of “we eat pretty for breakfast.” At her chuckle Ben shifted to look at her, a question in his eyes.
She rolled her lips and blinked, projecting innocence. “He can help with that.”
Another thought/feeling came through the bond. “As long as you can cut the wing he sees slash envisions slash projects,” she shook her head, “It’s hard to translate.” From Kerberos’ spirit came an image of him leaping, linking his paws around Apollyon’s legs while Ben hung from the back of them near the ankle where he couldn’t be clawed by the bear paws. “You need to protect yourself from the claws and,” another image, a sweep of wing in the dark, “you will probably be gored by the claws at the tip of his wing.”
“I’ll block that.”
Prairie hadn’t realized Patti was listening. The other woman had fallen back, out of the action for the moment as Apollyon was focusing his hits on Ivan and Dempsey and they were actively engaged in dancing along the stone floor, catching flaming darts and paw, claw, and wing hits on their shields. Some hits got through. The men grunted but did not cry out. As soon as they took a hit Gwen rushed in and healed them. She was swaying a little, suggesting the point of exhaustion was coming on quick. They needed to act now.
Prairie looked at Patti and nodded. “Okay. That can work. Abe?”
Abe walked over, shoulders up and chin dropped forward. “Ben, Patti, and Kerberos will get Apollyon down. You need to act quick. I don’t think Gwen is going to stay up much longer. Dan, have you found it yet?”
“Not yet. But I’m close.” Dan walked over, most of his attention on the open book. He quickly flipped pages. Scanned his gaze quickly over the words, then flipped to the next page. Prairie kept a small percent of her attention on his search and a larger portion on Ivan, Dempsey, and Gwen, glad for the training that let her split her attention and process multiple input at the same time.
“Hurry,” she murmured as Gwen swayed again. Dempsey turned back and snapped, “Stop healing us!” to which Gwen responded, “I do what I want!”
Before Dempsey could say anything more he had to turn back to catch another flurry of darts. The white flare of his shield called Gwen’s pinched features into stark focus. Prairie pushed another burst through her connection to Kerberos, projecting that she had to leave his side and asking if he was set with his plan. Sass gave a long Peep, drawing her eye. The mouse was hanging half out of its house. At her look it raised its chin and gave a sharp “Squeak!” She wasn’t sure how to interpret that, but she was really hoping that meant the mouse would help Kerberos if needed.
Nodding sharply to the mouse, she squeezed Kerberos shoulder then ran to stand behind Ivan. She pressed her hand to Gwen’s ribs and pushed her back against the bookshelf. “Stop!” She ran her fingertips over the vials on the strap across her chest, finding one with two dots. Pressing up with her thumb, she popped the vial free then pulled the top off and shoved the potion at Gwen. “Drink! Now!”
Gwen bit her lip then took the potion and quaffed it. When she canted sideways, barely catching herself on a shelf, Prairie pulled another energy potion from the strap and thrust it at Gwen. Gwen took it and swallowed it, then closed her eyes and breathed deeply.
“Better?”
“A little.” Gwen’s voice was weak, calling the statement into question.
“No more healing for you. There’s plenty of potions here.”
Again, it was a testament to Gwen’s state that she just nodded and then rested her chin against her chest.
Behind them Dan called, “Found it!”
Prairie spared a mikro to send a thanks to Magick for that. Then Dempsey cried out as Apollyon’s wing curved around Dempsey’s shield and the claw at the tip of the wing sunk deep into his flank. The hit sent Dempsey staggering into Ivan who braced to support Dempsey with his shoulder while still blocking with his shield. Prairie pulled a vial with a single dot from the strap, popped the top, and poured it into the wound. She wasn’t sure if it would work that way but they were too much in the thick of it to get the potion to Dempsey’s mouth. Hopefully the potion would hit his bloodstream, or whatever healing potions did, through the open wound.
Dempsey grunted and braced his feet, pushing back up to his full height. He slanted a quick glance towards Prairie. “Thanks.”
She only had time to nod her response before Apollyon made another pass and then there was no time for anything but responding to the attack.
From behind them came the sound of running feet on stone. Ben and Kerberos lead with Patti close behind, a look of determination and a raised shield showing her resolve. Behind her Abe ran, shaking their hands out at their sides, and Dan ran at Abe’s side, his hand in the book half-closed so he wouldn’t lose his place.
At Ben’s “Behind,” Ivan dropped back, corralling Prairie with a twist of his ribs and then firming his shield up in front of him. Dempsey fell back at a similar angle on the right side. Between the two men they formed a tight cave in which Prairie and Gwen were shielded from Apollyon’s swooping attack.
Ben came in hard in front of Ivan’s shield and swung out with his dagger, tearing the blade across Apollyon’s wing. Through their link, weaker now she wasn’t in contact with him, Prairie felt Kerberos’ intent a mikro before his large hindquarters bunched and he threw himself high into the air and onto Apollyon.
Apollyon drew his feet back to protect them but that wasn’t Kerberos’ target. Apollyon’s movement actually thrust his thighs and hips forward, making it easier for Kerberos to wrap his front paws around the creature just below the waist. He closed his legs around Apollyon, binding the creature’s legs together at the thigh. Ben came in from slightly behind and hugged his arms around Apollyon’s legs at the ankle.
“Now!” At his yelled command Abe came flying in from behind. Apollyon’s wings flailed, whipping through the air like sails. Patti charged in and blocked the clawed end, deflecting it so Apollyon’s wing stretched wide.
Ivan slashed forward with his sword, parting the distended membrane like a hot knife through butter. To the right Dempsey brought his shield down hard on the top of Apollyon’s other wing, driving it towards the floor and then stomping on it. Apollyon canted to that side, forced by Dempsey’s weight. As he yanked at that wing, striving to pull it from beneath Dempsey’s boot Abe reached out with stretched right hand and began to make a reeling gesture. To Prairie’s eye what appeared to be ash dancing on smoke poured from Apollyon’s wing and wrapped around Abe’s hand.
“Can you see it, Dan?” Abe yelled to be heard over the sound of Apollyon’s howls and snarls and Kerberos howls and Ben’s curses, muffled against bear fur, and Patti’s grunts as she punched the wing claw.
“Now the monster was hideous to behold;” Dan read in a loud voice, “he was clothed with scales, like a fish, (and they are his pride,) he had wings like a dragon, feet like a bear, and out of his belly came fire and smoke.”
The ashy smoke substance spooled around Abe’s hand then flowed back to glide into the book Dan read from. It happened fast. One mikro Patti was punching her shield into a wing, the next there was no wing as it unraveled, spooling through the air to Abe’s hand then from Abe’s hand to the book.
“And his mouth was as the mouth of a lion.” Dan continued to read and Apollyon continued to disintegrate to ash and words. First the wing then the arm scrabbling claws at Kerberos’ head. Then the shoulder, the torso, Abe and Dan’s Magick eating away Apollyon’s body like acid. A giant gaping void formed from hip to neck and then the head disappeared as well, the lion’s mouth giving one last snarl before breaking apart into wisps of ink.
The second shoulder quickly disappeared as did the other wing. Dempsey stumbled sideways as the thrashing length disappeared from beneath his boot. First Kerberos dropped then Ben did as Apollyon’s lower body disintegrated and danced across the air to Abe then to the book from which Dan read, “When he was come up to Christian, he beheld him with a disdainful countenance, and thus began to question with him.”
There was a soft thump as something fell out of the spooling ash and ink of Apollyon. Dempsey stooped down and picked it up, turning it in his hand to reveal a book picked out in glass and weld.
Dan closed the book upon the last of the ash-like ink. He gulped, forced a tight half-smile, then turned on his heel and marched over to the bookshelf where he thrust the book into the empty space there.
Ben picked himself off the floor, using the railing to haul himself up. Patti dropped her shield and her head forward, slumping her shoulders and releasing a long sigh. Sass leaned out of its house to pat her thigh. Patti just retained her slumped posture, the pose of someone who had no energy left. Prairie quietly approached her with an outstretched energy potion. Patti looked up, saw the potion, nodded and took it from Prairie. She then dropped the arm holding it back to her side and continued her contemplation of her feet.
Prairie left her to recovery as Kerberos shook himself vigorously then came galloping over to her with delight reflected on all three of his faces. Prairie dropped to her knees and wrapped her arms around his neck, burying her cheek against his chest as she engulfed him in a tight hug.
“Such a good dog,” she murmured into his fur. Feeling poured from him to her and back to him in a clean circuit and Prairie’s spirit surged, lifting up against the confines of her shell, buoyed by a sense of joy and rightness unlike anything she’d felt before. Tears burned against her closed eyelids. How was she going to let him go now?
Her mind understood. He was a fictional character. He was from a book. He had to return to it. But her heart, and her spirit, could not fathom the separation. They had only just met, spent little time together, and yet she a part of her already felt the loss of him like a punch to the sternum, all her air expelled and unable to draw another breath and knowing she was going to die if she didn’t breathe but her sternalis muscle was locked in a spasm and there was no air!
“We have the lamp piece.” Dempsey broke the silence. “We should leave. Before anything else attacks.”
Everyone else agreed that made sense. They gathered their gear and started the long winding descent down to the first floor. Prairie walked with her hand on Kerberos’ head, neither bringing up his imminent leaving nor letting herself dwell on it. For now she was just a girl and her dog. Her giant, three-headed dog. But all too soon they reached the bottom floor.
As everyone headed for the window to exit, Prairie turned to Dan who walked slightly behind her with Abe. She bit her lip, then looked down at her hand, resting on Kerberos’ shoulder. Ivan turned to look back at them and she waved him off.
“Does he have to go back?”
“He is a creature of Magick, not flesh. I don’t think he can exist outside of this place.”
Prairie blinked rapidly. A ball formed in her throat that she could not swallow down or around. She sniffled and rolled her lips, then leaned back to meet each set of Kerberos’ eyes. “Thank you, precious one. There are no words…”
Not that they needed words. His eyes spoke for him as did the sudden rush of feeling from him to her. It was a mix of acceptance and love and joy and something so right. Her spirit surged against her chest from inside, breaking free for a mikro and joining with his so there was no Prairie and there was no Kerberos there was just the two combined.
Then he drew back and Prairie tumbled back on her butt as her spirit snapped back into her and she was Prairie again and he was Kerberos again but there was a small shiver of Kerberos, like the glimmer of sun on water, along the edges that defined her. She wondered if he felt a small shiver of Prairie along his.
Dan drew a book from under his vest and paged through it. Eventually he stopped and raised his eyes to Prairie and nodded. Then he looked at Abe who stepped forward and reached their right hand out to Kerberos, making a plucking motion with their fingers.
Prairie couldn’t watch. She tightened her arms around Kerberos neck and buried her face in his fur. Tears burned their way free of her eyes, flowing into the thickness at Kerberos’ chest.
As if from a distance she heard Dan read, “A twelfth labour improsed on Hercules was the bring Cerberus from Hades. Now this Cerberus had three heads of dogs, the tail of a dragon, and on his back the heads of all sorts of snakes. When Hercules was about to depart to fetch him, he went ot Eumolpus at Eleusis, wishing to be initiated.”
As he did so Prairie felt the substance of Kerberos grow fuzzy and indistinct. He laid a head on the top of hers, his breath lifting her hair. And then that pressure was gone. Another head pressed to hers and then that too was gone. And so with the third. When the chest disappeared from beneath her cheek and her arms were looped around naught but smoke she drew a ragged breath and fell back on her knees with her head lowered and her eyes closed.
Her ragged breaths were the only thing she heard, the only thing she could hear, but then the rhythm of them was broken by a sudden exclamation from Patti, a trill from Sass either in response to Patti’s distress or perhaps expressing some mousey feelings of its own, and Abe’s huge, gulping gasp. The sound registered a quarter mikro before something hit Prairie from the side, driving her to the ground with her shoulder taking the impact of the hard stone. Her eyes jerked open with the impact.
Prairie shifted her eyes, looking for what dropped her. They skidded over Patti, fallen back with a hand pressed to her chest and her eyes wide on Prairie’s side. Then over Abe whose eyes were wide enough Prairie swore she could see the future in them like a crystal ball. The book fell from Dan’s hands, hitting the floor next to Prairie.
Ivan cried out in wordless concern and Ben uttered, “What the fuck?”
Prairie twisted her head to look at the fallen book. At the trail of ink flowing out of it, oozing across the floor to her like some alien thing with an intelligence of its own. Her side felt cool. She realized her shirt had hiked up to reveal a sliver of her waist. Lifting a leaden hand, she reached to pull the shirt back down.
The ink flowed across her exposed side and butted against her knuckles, a blind parasite nudging for entry. Finding no purchase on her fingers it slid back down, a silken flow across her side.
Heart hammering against her sternum, she lifted her shoulders and twisted at the stomach so she could stare at her side, uncomprehending. She slowly dragged her top up to just below the band of her bra and stared at where the ink was flowing into her side and pooling under the skin of her ribs and abdomen.
At that moment she realized her shoulder didn’t hurt where it had landed on the stone. Her lips were numb as was her tongue. She tested this, prodding her tongue against her lips. Absolutely numb.
A burning started where the ink pooled. It flowed over and through her and for a mikro she thought she was going to lose consciousness as her field of vision narrowed and her head grew light. Then, as quickly as the burning came, it passed, chased by a flow of cool that began where the ink entered her skin then poured outwards. When it hit her fingertips and toes it continued on, expanding her spirit beyond the barrier of her mortal shell.
Her spirit swelled. She was aware of it being anchored but also of it expanding beyond the barrier of her skin. A haze formed at the corners of her vision, pulsing with the beat of her heart. She had to close her eyes. And even then it was too much. Like Spiritus but she as still in the Physical.
Her ears filled with static and then she heard a gruff male voice, rich with odd harmonics. “Hello, My Bonded.” She swore she also heard “My Prairie” and “Prairie! Prairie!” overlapping the first, the voice in layers saying more than one thing.
She jerked up, looking around. Ivan, crouched next to her, was saying something, she could tell by the movement of his lips, but he made no sound Prairie could hear with her ears. Eyes wide she looked around, her gaze running over Dempsey who stood back with his gaze riveted on her ribs. His mouth was not moving. The voice was not his. She looked to Dan. Also not speaking. Ben. Again, no. And, universally, everyone’s gaze was riveted to her ribs. Normally, being modest, she would feel a bit weird about that but in a sea of weird what was one more drop?
Tossing modesty to the wind she yanked her top up to bunch at her armpit and focused on what everyone else was staring at. She blinked, her mind not completely processing what she was seeing.
From where the waistband of her scrubs cut across her belly to just below the band of her bra words formed in elegant script. “When Hercules asked Pluto for Cerberus, Pluto ordered him to take the animal provided he mastered him without the use of the weapons he carried. Hercules found him at the gates of Acheron, and, cased in his cuirass and covered by the lion’s skin, he flung his arms round the head of the brute.”
Or, so it should have read, if not for the fact that centered within the text was a perfect replica of Kerberos, three heads craning to look left, right, and center. All the words weren’t there on her skin but they… were… in her mind? No, Prairie realized, in her Spirit.
She ran shaking fingers over the length of Kerberos flank, positioned in such a way to show with a twist of his torso. Again, the voice, “Hello, My Bonded.”
Lifting her hand from her side she pressed it to her lips and blinked back hot tears. She heard the voice with her Spirit, not her ears.
“Kerberos?
“Yes.”
“You stayed?” she projected inside of herself. To Kerberos.
“I stayed. I will always stay with you, My Bonded.” For a dog that had expressed himself in images and feelings and thoughts he was suddenly quite articulate, with a clear grasp on human language.
“What does that mean?”
“All will be revealed in time.”
It was all Prairie could do not to bunch her hands at her sides and kick her feet like a four-year-old in a tantrum. How about all would be revealed right now? She found herself suspended in a weird state between understanding and confusion, standing dumbfounded at the intersection, scrambling to process. She really wanted to press more but part of her was so overwhelmed with how right this felt deep down in her spirit questions seemed almost redundant.
“Prair!” Ivan’s voice, harsh and low reverberated in her ear. She turned her head to look at him. For a mikro she just stared at him, unseeing as she processed, then she gave him a very tentative smile. “Hi, Ivan.”
“What the f-” Ivan visibly edited himself. “Prair?”
Prairie slowly rolled up to sit, then lifted her hand to let it hover in the air near Ivan. “Can you help me up?”
“Can I help you-!” Ivan threw his hands up, then dropped his shoulders. “Yes. Yes, I can help you up.”
He took her hand and very gently helped her to her feet.
“Thank you.” As soon as she was steady she pulled her hand from his and yanked the edge of her top down over her waistband. She lofted her chin then walked to the window and without another word or a backwards look popped through it to the center of the maze.
The others were left to follow her, personifying a mix of confusion – Gwen, wonder – Patti and Abe, curiosity – Dempsey and Dan, concern – Ivan, and nonchalance – Ben.
*
Kim and Siobhan looked up as Prairie popped through the book window. “Hey!”
“Hi.” Prairie returned Kim’s greeting with a small wave.
“Is everyone else-” Kim cut off as first Ivan then Ben, Dempsey, Gwen, Patti, Abe and Dan emerged from the window. As soon as his feet him marble Ivan came striding over to Prairie, a dark-storm of a look clouding his features.
“Prairie?”
Prairie studiously ignored Ivan. “Can I sit here?” She waved her hand at the table next to Siobhan. Siobhan shifted. “Sure.”
“Thanks.” Prairie turned, planted her butt and her palms on the edge of the table then kicked herself up to sit on the edge. Once settled she kicked her heels idly and hummed a wordless little tune while tilting her head back to stare at the sky slash ceiling with a contented little smile.
Siobhan shifted her gaze to Ivan who stood a spare foot away from the table with his fists jammed in his pants’ pockets. “What happened?” she mouthed.
“Ask her,” he mouthed back, widening his eyes and jerking his chin in Prairie’s direction.
Siobhan shifted her attention back to Prairie and asked in a very slow teacher voice, the kind that suspected mischief and wasn’t absolutely certain she wanted to know the answer because then she’d have to deal with the mess “Prairie? Did something happen in there.”
Prairie didn’t stop her contemplation of the sky ceiling. “Many things happened in there. Can you be more specific?”
Siobhan jerked her attention back to Ivan who mouthed, “What?”
Siobhan widened her eyes and jerked her head sideways to indicate Prairie. She flared her hands subtly then asked, “Prairie? Can I have my bag back.”
“Sure.” Still staring at the sky, Prairie pulled the strap of the bag over her head and shoved it blindly towards Siobhan. “Thanks. It helped.”
“Helped.”
Prairie suddenly tipped her chin forward and then brushed her hair behind her ear. “Siobhan?”
“Yes.”
“Do you think Magick has a plan for us?”
“Do I-?” Stuttering to a stop Siobhan looked to Ivan again. But it was Gwen who responded. She walked over to prop herself against the edge of the table next to Prairie.
“Prairie? Why don’t you show Siobhan your new friend?”
“And maybe explain-” Gwen quelled Ivan with a glare and he cut off mid-demand.
Siobhan easily picked up the hint. In a very gentle, there’ll be no punishment, voice, she asked, “You have a new friend, Prairie?”
Prairie gave a dreamy smile and nodded.
Siobhan leaned around Prairie enough to give Gwen a wide-eyed ‘what the?’ look.
“Kerberos manifested from a book and when it came time for us to leave the library he turned to ink and merged with Prairie.” Dempsey explained in a matter-of-fact voice then walked around to the back of the table so he could lean in and place the piece of glass he pulled from his pocket.
“Kerberos?” Siobhan blinked.
Kim, more prosaic, slid off the table and walked around to stand in front of Prairie. “Prairie!”
Prairie blinked and focused on Kim. “Yes?”
“You have a ride along?”
“Yes.”
“Is this something we should worry about?”
“No.”
“Okay.” Kim shrugged at Prairie soft reassurance, then pivoted and returned to her spot on the table.
“There.” Dempsey said, stepping back from the table. As one the group looked up to the sky, to see the image of a book projected next to the picture frame with the words “to go” weaving below it and flowing into the word “wish” and the words “back to” on the frame and the harp respectively. Even Prairie gave up her quiet wonder and contemplation to crane her neck back to look.
“I wish to go back to my palace and see my beast again.” Patti read, following the circle of words from the rose to the bird and back to the rose again. As if summoned by the words, probably summoned by the words because Magick, a chime sounded followed closely by the sound of a body hitting the floor and a feminine “oof” from the break in the hedge that lead to the path out of the center of the maze.
Turning in that direction the group saw a small woman with a flourish of dark brown curls pushing herself up off the floor. She raised haunted eyes, looking around at the hedge walls and stifled a gasp behind a raised hand. Then she looked further and saw the group clustered around the table in the center of the space.
“Oh!” She dropped her hand from her mouth and yanked at the hem on her short nightgown. The motion pulled the skirt down a scant inch, covering more of her legs but threatening to tear the thin straps cutting divots in her sharp collarbone.
Raising one hand she hooked her thumb under one of the straps, while curling her other shoulder up and digging that arm down deeper to hold her skirt in place. She blinked, eyes huge in her stark face. “Oh! You shouldn’t be here!”
Gwen was the first to respond. She jumped off the table and hustled over to the young woman. “Aillea?”
“Yes.” More blinking. “Do I-? Oh,” a beautiful smile transformed her face, softening drawn features. “Gwen, is it?”
“Yes. You remember me?”
“Yes. You came to visit my father with the Selectman.”
“Hi.” Ivan popped a finger in salute.
“Oh. Hi.” Aillea brushed a hand over her hair. “You shouldn’t be here. There’s a beast in here and he’ll-”
She didn’t finish. Or if she did her words were drowned out by the anguished cry of a beast from the path just behind her.
She turned, the hand she’d held her skirt with flying up in a defensive gesture with fingers splayed near her breast, and fell back several steps as Gryphon came stalking through the break in the hedge wall. His gaze was riveted on Aillea. He appeared to see nothing but her. Before she could fall back more than a few steps he dropped to his knees in front of her. Speaking in an articulated voice that should not have been possible with his Beast’s muzzle and jaw, he asked, “Beauty? Do you love me?”
Aillea’s hand fell slowly, like a petal on the breeze. She stepped forward, rose up on her toes, and placed her hand very gently on Gryphon’s head in front of his ear then dragged her fingers down the edge of his face, ending with her palm cupping the side of his neck. Leaning forward she braced her forehead against tbe far larger and wider one her lowered and whispered, “Yes, Beast, I think I might.”
Gryphon lifted one huge hand, the one with the glint of gold below a single knobby knuckle, and pressed it over Aillea’s and then he smiled. At first the smile was terrible, all black gums and fearsome fangs and Ivan lunged forward as if he would separate them before Aillea could get hurt, only to have Patti grab his arm and hold him back. But then it wasn’t so terrible. It was still a Beast’s smile, all black gums and fearsome fangs but there was too much hope in the trembling muzzle, too much belief in the dark eyes staring at Aillea, to be terrible.
A sound like children’s laughter and wind chimes and the sound of dry leaves swirling on an Autumn breeze and everything each person in the room found to be a sound of Magick filled the air. Quiet at first, but rising to a crescendo that made their heads swim, it burst over them like a wave so they swayed whether from some sonic force of it or from the sheer impact of what it contained. Gryphon let out a roar then collapsed to the black-and-white tiles. Hair receded from him, like water drawing back from the shore. His bulk shrunk, becoming that of a large man rather than a beastly thing.
It was hard for the eye to follow the exact details of the transformation, trying to do so made more than one member of the group dizzy and made Ben press a hand to his stomach and clench his jaw like it was all that was holding back a belch or vomit or something combining both. And it wasn’t instant and it didn’t seem painless as Gryphon let out a number of piteous groans before going silent.
Aillea remained standing, her hand cupping air where she had cupped Gryphon’s neck, for a mikro and then, as if her body realized she no longer had his support, she stumbled forward.
Gwen, closest as she’d been approaching Aillea when Gryphon arrived, lunged forward and grabbed the back of Aillea’s nightgown, managing to catch her before she toppled onto Gryphon.
“Oh!” Aillea cried, grabbing the bottom of her nightgown and anchoring it between her legs, perilously close to their juncture. As it was the back hiked up enough to show her panties. All the guys in the group respectfully shied their eyes, though Ben was a near thing before Kim slid over and smacked him on the shoulder.
“What?” He turned his pirate smile on Kim, who narrowed her eyes then did the two finger point at the eyes then at him thing to which he rolled his eyes. “I wasn’t looking.”
“Uh huh.”
Gwen released Aillea’s nightgown after determining the other woman could stand. “Are you okay?”
“Yes,” Aillea whispered. She shifted her gaze to where Gryphon lay. “Is he?”
“Not sure if he’s okay but he sure is naked,” Patti stage whispered to Dan.
“Yep.”
“Do something!”
Dan made a point of looking at his vest and his cargoes. “Got nothing to give.”
“Here.” Ivan shrugged off his jacket and walked over to drop it near Gryphon just as Gryphon slowly pushed himself to one elbow. Ivan’s eyes widened at the full-frontal and instead of dropping the jacket on the floor he planted it right in Gryphon’s lap. “There.”
Gryphon looked at him with bleary eyes, then focused on Aillea. “Hi.” He held out his hand to her to shake. As he moved it a ring slid off his finger and hit the marble floor with a clang, the sound of it far too large for such a small object. Maybe it was the acoustics of the space? Maybe it was Magick, but that clang drew everyone’s attention unerringly to the stray piece of metal.
Gryphon looked at the ring, shook his head, then focused on Aillea again. “Hi. I’m Gryphon.”
“Hi.” She let go the bottom of her nightgown and held her hand out. He immediately gripped it but didn’t rise from the ground. Maybe because he was naked. Maybe he was still weak. Either way he only sat there, holding Aillea’s hand, not pumping it, and staring into her eyes as she said, “I’m Aillea. It’s good to meet you, Gryphon.”
Gryphon only had eyes for Aillea, which made it a little easier for the others to look a little to the side while still paying intense attention to the exchange between the two. “Did you like the library?”
Aillea nodded and bit her lip. “I did. Very much.”
“Do you love me?”
“I’m not sure. I don’t-” Aillea gave a tentative smile. “Maybe? Maybe, I think I could?”
Gryphon wet his lips and returned the smile with equal amounts of hesitation which looked oddly vulnerable on his strong features. “That’s a start.”
With that he rose to his feet, still holding tight to Aillea’s hand with his while using his other hand to press Ivan’s jacket to his groin. Several sets of eyes tracked the movement. Several sets of brains went “whoa” or an equivalent. If the mob enforcer work didn’t pan out he could make a killing as a stripper. Or exotic dancer. Or whatever you wanted to call ‘shakin’ your shit for some serious coin.’
Once he was at his full height he looked at the ring on the floor then over at Ivan, closest to him still. “You need to take that and leave. They will know that we fulfilled the story and come for it.”
Siobhan sidled over, bag strap clutched in her hand. Dan was a mere foot behind her. “They?”
“Yes.” Gryphon nodded. For all he was very naked he was still an imposing sight, large and steady and with an inborn something that spoke of authority. His deep voice rang with it as well. “They put that ring on my hand and forced me to become The Beast. Then they made this story around me and kept bringing Aillea back into it. They spoke in front of me. I think they thought when I was The Beast I couldn’t understand but I was still me and I heard and understood everything.”
Gwen gave a soft gasp. “You were yourself, trapped in that?”
Gryphon looked at Gwen, his lips drawn tight. “Yes. I was The Beast and felt what he must have felt in the story, but I was also myself, trapped inside of the character. Along for the ride. Being a passenger let me listen, which meant I heard what they wanted and I fought to not let them have it.”
“And that was?” Dan asked.
“For Aillea to become Beauty and for me to be The Beast. It was supposed to unlock Magick which this,” he prodded the ring with his bare foot, “would collect. Then they’d take the ring and abandon us.”
Aillea gasped, drawing his eye. “You fought them?”
The corner of Gryphon’s mouth ticked up. “I was trapped. It didn’t mean I wanted you trapped with me.”
Aillea bit her lip and slow blinked up at Gryphon. “Oh.”
“I broke the lamp so you couldn’t say the enchanted words to break my curse and I made the rooms to hide them in. Like the library.”
Aillea shifted her attention to the open windows and the three closed ones. “You made all that?”
Gryphon nodded. “With my Magick. Like I made the library I gave you.”
Aillea’s eyes widened. “That’s an actual library?”
“Yes. I would give you a lot more. The world, if my Magick would make it small enough to fit in your hand.”
Gryphon shook himself and turned his attention from Aillea. It seemed obvious it was a challenge for him to do so. Whatever Magick had been applied to them might still be in effect. Or perhaps there was some deeper connection between them. Some Magick perhaps. Either way it was clear he’d rather be looking at Aillea then at the ring he glared at. “If you don’t take it and leave before they come back then I fought them for nothing.”
He gently nudged the ring with his toe, pushing it so it slid across the marble floor. Ben stooped to grab it but Dempsey was faster, coming in from the side with a speed that defied the large, stolid impression he made. He grinned as Ben glowered, then slipped the ring into the inside pocket of his jacket.
He patted the pocket with his hand. “Safe.”
Kim eyed the thick walls of the hedge maze. “Let me ask Air to look outside the maze and see if anyone is approaching.”
Her eyes unfocused for a mikro then she went wide. “Someone’s coming. Through the rose garden.”
Ben looked around the maze. “There’s only one way out or in. Maybe we can lose them in the paths that curve back on themselves.”
“And hope they miss us when we head for the exit?” Ivan asked.
“I have a better idea.”
They all turned to look at Dan who was staring intently at the closed window with the bracelet on it. He turned to look at Gryphon. “What’s behind that window?”
“The ballroom of my parents’ house.”
Dan blinked. “The actual ballroom?”
“Yes.”
“You stole their ballroom?” There was a note of admiration in Ben’s voice.
“Not exactly.” Gryphon screwed his mouth to the side. “It is the ballroom I remember from when I was young. I recreated it.”
“So, you brought it into existence by believing it was that room?”
“I never considered it, exactly, but, yes?”
“So,” Dan turned his gaze on Abe, “If we believe it is that room…”
“We could maybe make it so? Do you think that is how the teleporting thing you explained the bad guys’ do works?”
“It’s a theory.”
“An interesting one!”
“Ahem,” Ivan cleared his throat loudly, “This is great and, honestly, I’m interested in exploring the idea but we don’t have time.” He turned and looked intently at Abe. “Will it work?”
The small blonde shrunk beneath Ivan’s regard. They lifted their shoulders high, nearly swallowing their ears. “Why ask me?”
“Because-” Ivan trailed off. “Who else can I ask?”
“How would it work?” Siobhan asked.
“Uhm,” Abe shoved their clean left hand through their hair, making the fluff stand up at odd angles, “in theory we would tell The House that the window opens to Gryphon’s parents’ house and if we believed it did, and we told it it did, hard enough, it might work.”
“Might?”
If possible Abe’s shoulders rose higher. “It’s a theory.”
“One,” Kim said, blinking hard, “We need to try right now. Or disappear into the maze. They are almost here.”
Patti squared her shield. “Why don’t we fight them?”
“We don’t know what they can do,” Ivan said.
Kim bit her lip and looked at her feet. Siobhan’s fingers tightened hard on her bag strap. She took a step closer to Kim and placed a hand on the other woman’s shoulder. Kim started and stared at Siobhan wide-eyed, wild-eyed. Siobhan’s mouth firmed. “We do. To an extent. I think what we do know makes what we don’t too scary a thing to test. I say we try the window.”
It was saying something she preferred the unknown and possibly deadly option of theoretical teleporting than risking confronting Them. She must have projected that clearly enough either by her body language or the tone of her voice to make it clear because most of the group made affirmative noises or nodded or moved towards the window.
“A number of us have used a lot of Magick.” Prairie looked at Gwen when she said this. “So, fighting under those conditions could be dangerous. Besides,” she added, “we have Gryphon and Aillea to consider.”
“You could leave us,” Gryphon suggested.
“Alone and naked with people who are bound to be angry at you?” Ivan lifted his brows. “Not happening. Plus, think of Aillea. Do you want Them to get her, even without the ring?”
A fire lit in Gryphon’s eyes. He looked down at Aillea and shook his head. “We’ll go through the window.” Then as if realizing he was speaking for both of them he asked Aillea, “Won’t we?”
She nodded hard. “I think that’s smart.”
That settled, Ivan turned to look at Dan and Abe, then waved his hand at the window. “So, get to the Magick.”
Dan rolled his eyes, clearly projecting ‘oh, just get to ‘The Magick’. Sure!” but he did look at Abe then jerk his head at the window. “Want to try?”
“To kill all of us?”
“Positive,” his droll tone spoke volumes more than the one word.
Abe’s mouth quirked on a grin. “Actually. I really do!”
“Me too,” Dan muttered conspiratorially to Abe and then waked over to the window, cracking his knuckles.
“Would it help if we held hands or something?” Gwen offered.
“Or maybe I sang?” added Patti.
Dan considered both of them. “Yes. It might. But not if you are too exhausted.”
“I’m not.” Gwen looked at Patti. “Are you?”
Patti looked inwards a mikro then shrugged. “I could use a refill but I still have enough for at least one Song.”
Sass peeped, loud and strong and did mousey jazz hands. Guess they had something in them too.
Nodding to the mouse, Gwen turned back to Dan. “We can do it.”
Patti propped her shield against her shins and shook her hands out. “When you’re ready?”
Sass leaned out of its house and peeeeeped, then waved its paws energetically at the window.
At that kind of prompt what else could Dan do but turn their attention to the window. Dan slanted a glance at Abe. “How’s this going to work?”
“I think we need to look at the Words that make the window be here and then, uh, tell it it is at Gryphon’s house.”
Gryphon strode up, Aillea’s hand in one of his, Ivan’s jacket still pressed to his groin. “Would it help if I added my Magick.”
Abe considered the window, then considered Gryphon, then stared back at the wall with an unfocused gaze. After several mikros silence, into which Kim injected a terse, “faster,” they turned back to Gryphon, tilted their head way back, and met his gaze. “Yes. Yes, it would.”
“Do we need to hold hands or something?” Gryphon made as if to drop Ivan’s jacket and offer Abe his hand, to which Ivan loudly proclaimed. “I’m sure that isn’t necessary.”
“Seriously,” Gwen said soto-voce, “It’s just a penis.”
“It’s a large penis,” Ivan replied in a similar voice.
“Yes. It is.” Prairie said to which Ivan turned and glowered, then he turned back to Gryphon to reiterate. “I’m sure you can help without holding hands.”
A small smile curved Abe’s mouth, suggesting they were considering contradicting. Then they turned back to staring at the wall. “Gryphon, when you look at the wall what do you see?”
“A wall.”
“Seriously,” Kim said loudly, “Any meros now.”
Abe shot Kim a look. “It isn’t something you can rush. This is new to him.”
“Do you mean, look at the Magick that makes the space?”
Abe turned to look at Gryphon, their eyes huge. “Yes. Can you do that?”
“Yes. It’s how I see my Magick interacting with the world.”
“Okay, then focus on the Magick and then change it.”
“How do we all do that together?”
Abe looked to Patti, then to Gwen. “Gwen. Can you help people connect?”
“Emotionally. And that’s more a euphemism.”
“If Patti formed a bridge?”
“Maybe. I’ve never tried.”
“Faster!” Kim snapped to which Gwen crossed her arms over her chest, grasped her shoulders to stretch her back, then released her arms. “Guess this is a good time to try.” She looked at Patti. “You got this?”
Patti nodded. Sass peeped.
“What do you want us to do?” Dempsey asked.
“I need you to get the second side of the windows. Everyone else get through the window as fast as you can.” Dan said. “Hope it opens to Gryphon’s parents’ house and we don’t just trap ourselves in the one Gryphon made. And if we do, then stay very quiet.”
Everyone straightened or otherwise indicated they were listening and absorbing his suggestions. He looked at Patti. “Patti?”
Patti nodded and then she began to sing Sarah McLachlan’s Back Door Man. Sass came in, surprisingly melodic, weaving its trill into Patti’s register.
As she sang her Magick wrapped around the group, sinking beneath skin, under muscles, tunneling its way into their Spirits and Magickally drawing them together. Dan looked at Abe. Abe looked at Gryphon. Gryphon tightened his hand on Aillea’s and looked at the window with the chandelier.
As Patti sang the next line Abe’s eyes grow wide, Gryphon drew in a harsh breath, and Dan reached out to place his hands on left side of the window. Dempsey strode forward and put his hands on the right. Together they triggered the release of the window and swung it open. Abe, Gryphon, and Aillea stepped back to accommodate the swing of the heavy glass.
Without discussion Siobhan and Kim climbed through first, followed by Ivan and Ben, then Gwen grabbed Patti’s hand and they climbed through together, Patti singing line after line.
Dempsey picked Aillea up and lifted her through the window as her nightgown wasn’t great for climbing and Gryphon either had to go full nude and burly or maintain Ivan’s jacket as he hauled himself over the sill. He went with the latter, climbing in then turning back when Dempsey handed Aillea through. Then he climbed in and Dan and Abe came in right behind with Abe pulling the window closed behind them. As it closed with a snick, they thought, “Really hope this works or we’re stuck!”
As the window closed they heard someone call, “What?”
But it was too late. They were all through. Either into the replica of Gryphon’s parents’ ballroom or the ballroom itself. That was less certain. But at least they weren’t back in the center of the maze with Them.
Enter The Woods 