10:10
Abe leaned forward, stepped into the gap, then lifted their knee to step over the bench so they could get in close to the canvas. The image in the painting was a room with a chair next to a small table on which a bowl of fruit sat with a pair of folded gloves next to it. It was painted in a style that was reminiscent of a movement from several hundred years before.
All that money spent on Abe’s classical education was finally paying out. Maybe. Because they’d swear they recognized the piece. Sort of.
“Does it look like its incomplete?” they asked mostly to themselves but Patti, closest to them, leaned in and squinted at it. “Maybe? Shit!”
She turned to block a small black cat that leaped from the darkness, claws intent on her face. “A cat? Really? A cat!” she yelled at the ceiling or the dark or maybe the cruel universe that threw a cat at her which was, basically considering where they were, The House.
The House did not answer. Shocking.
Kim flashed a look back over her shoulder. “Maybe. Or maybe its supposed to be empty? Falling back to my Art degree, which ps total waste of money and time but whatever, sometimes pieces are painted to evoke an emotion. Maybe in this case its loss? The space is abandoned. The gloves are left behind. They are either missing their owner or waiting for their owner’s return? Oof!”
The last came when something barreled into her from the left and front. She turned, threw a punch bolstered by the fire wreathing her fist, then returned her focus to the canvas and Abe. “Maybe?”
Abe shrugged. “Maybe? Can we move up to the next one?”
“Moving,” Dempsey called from his position towards the rear and the group shifted to follow his instruction.
Their footsteps tap, tap, tapped on the wood floor. Not that they were loud but loud in comparison to the hushed silence of the gallery space and the unnatural silence of the attackers that randomly sprang from the dark.
Ivan fended off a sword blow as they moved up along the left wall. Prairie gave a soft call as she fended off something Abe couldn’t see as they had their back to her and they didn’t want to shift their own attention in case an attack came between the two canvases. It didn’t, but it might have.
They lifted their cassock in their left hand and leaped over the corner of the bench in front of the canvas before it could ding their shin. Their feet made a dull thunk as they contacted the wood floor but that’s all the attention they gave to their footing, instead focusing on the canvas. The canvas that seemed to be missing something.
It wasn’t empty. No. It even had a figure in it, a fancy dressed gentleman standing next to a throne-like chair upholstered in velvet. The gentleman had a hand resting on the chair back and was looking down slightly at the seat with an indulgent smile lifting their handlebar moustache. The empty seat. Looking down with an indulgent smile at an empty seat. Two super cute spaniels with their backs to the viewer looked up adoringly at the empty seat.
“Hmmm.” Abe tilted their head then looked over at Kim. “So, what’s the chances two paintings are meant to convey a sense of something missing? I wouldn’t call this one lonely. Just missing something.”
Kim dropped back a few steps to stand behind the bench with her hands on her hips as she looked up at the large canvas. “Hmm. That’s a nice chair but I’m not sure if I was a dog I’d be eyeing it with love.”
“Right? Oh,” they flicked a jet of ink out past Kim’s back, catching a diving bird before it could impact Kim’s head. “Watch out!”
Kim turned her head in the direction of the ink then adjusted to look at the bird, it looked like a hawk, went flying out into the darkness in front of Ivan, its beak open on a silent screech.
“That’s weird, right?” Kim asked Abe.
“The silent scream?”
“Yeah.”
Abe nodded their head like a bobble toy. “Yeah. Weird. Want to check out another painting?”
“Yeah.” Kim pitched her voice back. “Moving forward.”
“Got it.” Patti called back.
“Grunt,” Dempsey grunted.
Dan stepped from within the circle and took up a position between Patti and Abe as they moved to the next spotlighted section.
Thump, thump, thump went their footfalls. Nothing, nothing, nothing went the room.
Kim took up a place to the right of the next bench and Abe slide in front of it to look at the landscape painting. A hunter on a horse held the center of the canvas down. Their red jacket and shiny black boots in the stirrups of their horse were definitely those of a hunter. And the riders in the background, the small detail of dogs dancing around and in front of the hooves of their horses, complimented the look.
There was a distinct empty space to the right and front of the main rider. A distinct empty space that should have had dogs, based on the composition of the other riders.
“Empty space.” Abe looked at Kim for confirmation.
“Empty space.”
“What does emptiness mean?” Dan asked, sidling up on Abe’s left.
Abe looked over their shoulder at him. “Emptiness can represent a lack of something. I know,” they shrugged, “obvious. But sometimes it represents a situation of waiting. It’s the moment right before something important enters or happens. Like the world is holding its breath.”
“So the paintings are waiting for something?”
“I don’t know.” Abe shrugged again, a big shrug that lifted their shoulder so high the hem of their cassock rose to show the tops of their boots. “That’s just one symbolic reference. It could also be representing loss. Uhm, like mourning.” They hummed. “Or Sadness. There’s so many options!”
“If we assume this is part of the test the obvious question is how would any of that be a test?”
Patti shuffled up and looked over Dan’s shoulder at the painting. “I’m not an art person but how about something is missing from the picture? Like a person? Or a guy on a horse with a bayonette. Or a bunch of hunting dogs. Or, you know the things that are attacking us? Ah!”
She turned and smacked away a hand coming at her with, yep, a razor-tipped fan. A pale hand at the end of a pale arm protruding from a dark bell-sleeve with a heavy fall of lace. A pale hand, pale arm, dark bell-sleeve and fall of lace just like the one that had gone for Prairie’s throat and Ivan had defended from.
“Can it be that simple?” Dan asked.
“Why not?” Abe replied.
“Because it’s art? And art is significant.”
Kim snorted at that. Abe shot her a quick grin.
Kim looked around Abe to Dan. “Or it’s a puzzle and we need to solve it.”
Around them the silence hung, punctured irregularly by attacks the others staved off.
“Let’s step in here,” Dan waved at the center of the oval.
Kim looked off to Ivan on her right. “You got this?”
Ivan stopped his intent staring into the darkness to look at Kim. “Yep. If you want to join the brain trust in the center we’ll tighten the circle.”
“Brain trust?” Kim snorted to which Ivan gave a big shrug and repeated, “Brain trust. I don’t know anything about this art stuff and you seem to so go for it, Brainiac.”
Kim flashed him a grin then stepped back into the circle. Abe and Dan dropped back with her and Patti and Ivan each took several steps to close the distance between them and the bench in front of the canvas of the hunters.
“Puzzle pieces,” Dan opened with.
“Puzzle pieces,” Kim nodded while staring at the canvas over the bench. “Missing puzzle pieces.”
Abe’s mouth fell open on an “O”. “Oh. Wow. Uh, folx,” they lifted their voice to be heard by everyone, “I think the attackers aren’t real. People that is. They are real. Real animates.”
“What?” Gwen shot back.
“I think they came from the art. Animated from the art.”
“Oh.” Gwen went quiet, then gave a grunt.
Abe swiveled to look at Gwen. She’d reached out and grabbed the arm of a small boy in a blue velvet suit who’d been in the process of trying to yank her hair. Gwen and the boy remained locked in a silent tableau for a mikro, then Gwen released the kid’s arm and took a stuttering step back while shoving the kid in the opposite direction. “No emotions. None.” She grimaced and rubbed her hand down her leg. “Gross.”
If that didn’t support Abe’s theory not much else would. Not people. Art. No emotions. No thoughts. And no sound because art didn’t make noise. I mean some did but that was like chimes and staybiles and stuff but not paintings.
And again, off target. Jeesh.
“Constructs?” Ivan turned to look at Abe, putting his back to incoming attacks. He pinned Abe with an intent look. “I’ve been experimenting with constructs but not like,” he sweeped a hand back at the dark, “that. Mine are mechanical constructs.”
A movement came from behind Ivan, drawing Abe’s gaze. Their eyes went wide as they saw a bird flying for Ivan’s head. Then Kirby came galloping in and snatched it out of the air with one of its mouths before spitting it out with a snarl.
Abe turned back to Kim and Dan as Ivan turned back to the dark. “The dogs and the birds and the lady with the fan and the knight and the horseback guy and the other stuff coming at us. They all belong in a painting.”
Dan eyed the painting again as he shifted his toothpick left to right. “I think so. It’s a good theory.”
For a mikro Abe got distracted by the toothpick’s movement. Was it the same one? One of many? Did Dan have an endless supply of them in his vest? Did he ever inhale one and choke?
Whoa. Way off target. Get it back on point, Abe, they cautioned themself.
“So, not alive,” Kim summarized, picking off points on her fingers. “Won’t die. And they keep coming back. Probably. So how do we counter or defeat them?”
“Turpentine?” Abe supplied then shrugged. “I don’t know.”
“Fire is working.”
“Well, art is destroyed by fire.” Abe looked back at the painting of the hunters. “But I hate to destory art.”
Kim lifted her brows significantly. “Art doesn’t seem to have a problem with destroying us.”
“Just please don’t destroy art.” Abe slanted an imploring look at Dan, “It’s a test, right? Destroying the attackers just feels too much like what we always do and I don’t see how that would qualify as a test. We’re good at that. Or at least I think we are?”
“Sure,” Dan said.
“Yeah,” Kim echoed.
“Compliment taken,” Ivan shot back, proving he was still listening while keeping up his defense.
“So,” Siobhan shot back without turning from her perusal of the space outside the circle. “What do you think the test is, Abe?”
Abe looked around. Searched the shadows. Looked at the painting of the hunters then shifted to look over Siobhan and Gwen’s shoulders to peer at the closest canvas on the right wall.
“Maybe we can try to figure out which attacker or attackers goes with which canvas and try to,” they trailed off, “What?”
“Get them back in the painting?” Kim suggested.
“How?”
“Like I know.”
Dan gave up eyeballing the canvas and turned his attention to Abe and Kim. “The worst that happens is we’re wrong.”
Kim rubbed her hands together. “Let’s throw some spaghetti against the wall!”
“Or art,” Abe corrected.
“Badum bum,” Kim made like she was hitting a high hat.
“Best bet for what or who goes where?” Dan eyed the canvas then looked out into the dark where attackers continued their staccato attacks on the group.
“Let’s move around the room and figure out what each piece of art is with a missing element or what we think might be missing something. Then make a list of what we are being attacked by,” Kim offered. “From there we can attempt to decide what goes where and pick one that is close or easy to test.”
“Because it will be that easy,” Patti threw this back over her shoulder while bashing away the sharp fan with her cudgel. “Seriously, Lady, take a damned break. Or target someone else!”
Dempsey snorted. Prairie called, “Not me, please.” And Patti made a grr noise, either at the attacker, the dark, or her friends. Maybe all of the above.
“It will be easy if we make it so,” Prairie added.
Ivan smiled down at her. “I love your confidence.”
“So,” Prairie continued, “will we be moving along this wall?”
Abe eyed the length of the wall, counting off spotlighted areas. Seemed like there were maybe five more on this side. Then, they strained to see the end of the room, five across the width, then back down the wall to the right. Maybe twenty-one pieces in total. That was—a lot. They drew a breath while shoring up their confidence then answered Prairie. “I think that’s a good plan.”
Abe looked to Dan and Kim.
“We should get back into the formation.” They pitched their voice to the others. “We should stop at each canvas so we can look at it and see if we can figure out which attacker might go in it. I think, maybe, the little boy that went for Gwen might go in the painting over there near Dempsey with the kids playing ball.”
“And it’s possible the fan wielder has left a pair of gloves behind?” Kim suggested to which Abe gave a visual shrug.
“I think that’s possible.”
Dan pulled a book from one of his vest pockets, snagged a pencil, and began writing. “Fan woman; empty chair with gloves. Boy in blue with other kids and ball. And,” he added, pointing his pencil at the hunter painting. “Four dogs probably go into this one. There are other dogs that look similar to them and I think this is a fox hunt so this hunter should have dogs.”
Abe nodded vigorously, then stepped up next to Ivan. “I think maybe yes. That makes sense.”
Dan fell in next to Patti and Kim split the difference. Once they were all in place, Abe said, “We can move now.”
Ivan started forward and the rest of the group followed, keeping their oval loose and open. They slowed their steps and pointed their weapons out in the dark while Kim and Abe stepped up to the painting. It was another room, this one with a clearly empty bird perch.
Kim shot Abe a look. “Hawk?”
Abe nodded. “Hawk.”
“Hawk,” Dan echoed, the soft scrape of his pencil carrying in the silence of the space. “Empty perch. Calling this number four. Starting one at the left next to the door wall. Moving?”
“Moving.” Abe nodded and shifted to walk sideways beside Ivan. In this way they made their way around the circumference of the room with Kim and Abe assessing the paintings and surmising what might be missing while Dan documented their guesses.
They eliminated a few without much question. There was an impressionist-style painting of flowers halfway down the left wall that didn’t make sense a figure would go in it. And they were pretty sure the ballet dancers that were next to the painting of kids in a garden didn’t fit any of the attackers. A seascape down the right wall got a second look then Kim said, “We aren’t being attacked by seagulls, dolphins, or sand. I think we can say that one is a no.”
Dan noted it in his book as he noted all the rest of their guesses.
They ended their circuit back at the painting with the discarded gloves.
“So,” Siobhan ventured. “We’ve seen all the paintings and you’ve best guessed what or who goes where. Now what?”
Abe rubbed their nose as they shifted their gaze from the canvas to the emptiness around their group. “Uh. Maybe we get the fan lady that we think goes here and we, uh, throw her into it?”
“Throw her into it?” Patti asked. “Just throw her in? She’s been trying to slash my throat? I’m just going to throw her in?”
“Patti has a point,” Dempsey said. “Gwen was able to grab that little boy but most of the attackers are armed adults or animals that want to bite us. How are we going to grab and toss her?”
“A net?” Ivan offered.
“You have one?”
“Funny you ask.” Ivan flipped up the flap of his messenger bag and pulled out a handful of something that looked silky.
Gwen stepped out to shoot him a look around the circle. “Really, Mr. Fix It? A net?”
“Never know when you might need a net. Dempsey?” he turned and when Dempsey looked at him he mimed throwing the bundle to the other man. “That chick seems to have a lock on Patti so you’re more likely to be able to net her.”
“Sure.” Dempsey tucked his sword into its scabbard and made a grabby hand. Ivan tossed the net to Dempsey who deftly pulled it from the air.
“It’s fibers are enchanted. Should hold a painted lady. Or a bear.”
“Well, let’s hope no bear presents itself to test that.”
Ivan’s expression took on an assessing air. “I mean…”
“No,” Dempsey shook his head and turned his back to shake out the net. “No bears. I am not going to be your test dummy.”
“Too bad.” Ivan turned back to looking down the length of the gallery in time to block the toddler running at him full speed with hands out. “Whoa, little man, no!”
He showed hesitation in hitting the child, but Kim showed no such qualms, sweeping out her hand and knocking the kid back with a well-placed fire ball to the chest. The kid’s form splooshed, bending back with the fireball hit and then exploded outwards in what Abe now suspected was a spray of oil paint.
Ivan looked at Kim. “It was a kid.”
“A kid that would have had no issue hurting you.”
“It was a kid.”
Kim sighed. “It was a kid. Made of paint. That will reform and probably try to groin punch you again.”
“Incoming!” Dan called as the lady in the dark dress came in with fan furled, heading, as suspected for Patti.
“Wah!” Patti blocked the hit with her punch shield, dropping back several steps with the impetus of the woman’s hit. The movement opened a space for Dempsey to step in and fling Ivan’s net.
“Patti, shield!” he yelled as he released the net. Patti pulled her shield in and the net, unfurling on the air, landed to blanket the fan woman’s form.
“Yes!” Patti fist pumped. Then she uttered an, “Oh, shit” as the woman’s form dissolved and she melted to a pool which got sucked into the floor, leaving the net lying forlornly on the wood. Patti stooped and scooped up the net, then turned and thrust its limp length towards Dempsey.
“Net fail.”
Ivan turned to look at her. “Net fail?”
“Net fail.”
Ivan pouted his lower lip out slightly then turned back to glower at the darkness. He muttered, “Sad Face,” just to get the point across as if the pout on the large man wasn’t a clear indication of his pique.
“New idea?” Dempsey asked the air.
Abe leaned out and peered at the place the painted woman disappeared. “They are solid when they attack?”
“Yes,” came from almost every defender.
“So we have to physically engage them and try to steer them to their painting.”
“Physically engage,” Patti drew out the words. “Would that involve being stabbed by razers?”
“They aren’t razers,” Kim clarified.
“Razer fans!” Patti yelled back.
“Razer fans,” the group echoed most of their tones poking humor at Patti.
“Oh, shut up. Every single one of you. I’m the one she’s trying to stab.”
“Sacrificial goat,” Ivan muttered under his breath.
“Ugh! You!” Patti hollered. “Oh, crap, incoming. Why me?”
Abe watched as the woman emerged from the darkness vaguely in the direction of the canvas Abe suspected she belonged in. “Because you are the closest to that canvas? Maybe?”
“Oh,” Patti danced around, blocking the woman’s strikes with her shield. “I can move!”
Abe watched Patti’s dance, eyes narrowed as a thought flitted into their mind. “Push her back towards the canvas with the chair and gloves.”
“Huh?” Patti shot a look back, the long part of her undercut sweeping against her jaw and half obscuring her face.
Abe made push-push movements with their hands. Patti gave them an ‘are you kidding?’ look. They made them again, this time with a slight grin.
“Push the stabby lady to the canvas?”
Push-push was all Abe responded. Patti shook her head slowly, her expression evoking sadness.
“You are so lucky you are cute.”
Push-push, went Abe. Up went Patti’s brows, but then she swiveled quickly to block the fan lady’s next strike.
Dempsey came in from the left with his shield forward, making contact with the lady’s side. Dan came in from the other side with his crossbow raised in one hand, his book in the other. He uttered a sibilant string of words and the woman averted her face, falling back with her fan blocking her eyes.
With her distracted he ran forward, shoulder down, and half-tackled her, shoving her towards the canvas. Dempsey pressed in from the left and Patti made pokes into the woman’s abdomen with her cudgel.
The woman retreated from the blows. Dan and Dempsey moved in to flank her sides with Dempsey scooping his shield under her elbow and lifting and Dan shoving hard at her ribs with his lowered shoulder. Between the two of them they swept the woman’s feet off the floor and rushed her towards the wall and the canvas with the gloves.
The woman’s eyes went wide enough the whites were clear in the dim light. She ineffectually slashed her fan at Dempsey then turned her gaze to Dan’s unprotected shoulder and torso
“Ah!” Abe yelled and flung a wash of ink into the woman’s face. They recoiled as their ink sucked at the paint making up the woman’s substance. Yuck. Yuck. The sensation travelling up the ink and into their arm was redolent of oil, must, and a little bit of rotting canvas.
Abe yanked the ink back, leaving a little to obscure the woman’s gaze. The woman continued to flail her fan about but with her vision blurred she couldn’t see to make contact and Dan easily ducked and dodged the random swipes.
“Ha!” Patti jabbed her cudgel into the woman’s abdomen and used it to steer her into contact with the canvas. Once she was squared to it Dempsey and Dan shoved hard from either side.
Abe craned to see the canvas. The woman was against it but a little too far from the seat where Abe believed she belonged. “A little to the right!”
Patti shot Abe a look then shuffled closer to Dempsey and used her cudgel to shift the woman along the surface of the canvas towards the right. “Good?”
“A little more to the right!”
Abe could tell when Dempsey, Dan, and Patti hit the sweet spot in the canvas. The woman stopped flailing and attempting to slash the three with her fan and instead went quiescent. One mikro to the next she went from a three-dimensional struggling figure to a one-dimensional one.
A tiny bit of air separated the flat woman from the canvas for a mikro and then with a subtle squelching sound the figure adhered to the canvas, fitting into the chair and settling back so where once there was just background now a young woman with dark hair, dark eyes, and pale skin leaned an indolent elbow on the side table with a fan hanging at an angle off her arched back hand. Her elbow was planted on the limp pile of gloves and her expression was off to the side, like she was looking at the artist painting the picture with an indulgent smile.
Patti prodded the canvas delicately with her cudgel. “No more razer fan?”
“No more razer fan,” Abe agreed.
“Hot damn!”
“You know,” Patti rocked back on her heels with her cudgel hand planted on her hip while she gazed at the painting, “she’s pretty when she isn’t trying to slit my throat.”
Dan scratched his head. “Right?”
“Okay.” Abe turned to address the backs of the others. Siobhan threw a potion into the face of the bayonette-wielder on horseback. Kim swept her hand and a gout of fire took a hawk out of the sky. Once their aggressors were dealt with they both turned to look at Abe as the others who weren’t actively engaged in defending them were.
“That worked.”
“Fantastic!” Prairie said. “So we know what to do now. No, Bunny,” she turned and stared into the darkened gallery, “Spit that out. Bad meat!” That said she turned back to Abe with a smile. “So,” she repeated, “we know what we have to do. Get the correct figures back into their paintings?”
“Yes. Maybe? I mean for sure get them back in but we won’t know if that’s the solution to this until we finish?”
“And we know which ones they are?”
Dan turned to face the center and the others. He held his hand up flat then tilted it side to side. “Potentially.”
“There are more paintings than attackers. I think,” Abe added to Dan’s assessment. “Some of them have to be wrong. Can everyone please list the things that have attacked them?”
Ivan raised a hand and answered without turning. “Birds. Fan lady but she seems to be done. Horse rider with bayonette. Little kid in blue. Maybe a stealthy guy in black but I could be wrong about that because he was stealthy and in black and also didn’t reach me before disappearing.”
“Dogs,” Siobhan added. “A set of four. A knight with a sword.”
“Black cat,” Patti added.
“A pair of twins. Girls,” Prairie said. “Maybe teens? Uhm, they were wearing fancy dresses and had those lace comb things in their hair.”
“Same kid in blue,” Gwen said. “Those twins tried to slap me. Twi- no three times.”
Abe counted on their fingers as the group reeled off their attackers.
“Oh,” Prairie added, “And a man with a rapier wearing a leather jacket. Also the hawk.”
Abe slid Dan a look. “Did any of the canvases look like they were missing,” they ticked off on their fingers, “a hawk, a cat, four dogs, a knight, a soldier on horseback, a little boy, twin girls, and a guy with a rapier?” They looked quickly around the defensive circle. “Did I miss anything?”
“Sneaky guy in black,” Ivan offered.
“Don’t refer to Ben that way!” Patti joked. “He’s a filthy rich guy in black.”
“Ha,” Ben’s laugh carried from the dark in front of Ivan.
“Sneaky, not filthy rich, or maybe filthy rich but sneaky guy in black,” Abe added to the list. “That’s all of them. Oh, wait I forgot the shepherdess. She was a shepherdess, right?”
“If the crook fits,” Siobhan nodded.
Abe nodded. “Shepherdess. That’s, uh,” they counted on their fingers, “Eleven in total, I think. Any others?”
There was a mikro’s silence then several affirmations from around the circle.
“So,” Abe turned their attention back to Dan. “Thoughts?”
“That is a lot of canvases to get things back into?’
“True that. But thoughts on which ones might fit which canvases?”
“Rapier Guy is probably the one in the painting with the fencer,” Kim suggested. “Maybe he isn’t just posing but is dueling Rapier Guy?”
“Good. Dan, that was on the far wall?”
Dan’s answer came slow. “Yes.” He pulled out his book and made a note. “Second in from this wall on the far end wall.”
“Whoa!” Gwen yelled, “Siobhan?”
Siobhan took a step out and threw a potion into the dark in front of Gwen.
“Thanks!” Gwen called.
“Welcome! Hey!”
Siobhan darted to the side and flung another potion in front of Dempsey who turned to look at her. “How many of those you got left?”
“Uh,” Siobhan paused then said, “five impact potions, seven explosives, and a full set of healing.”
“Hold off on throwing more of the damage ones. We don’t know how much more we’re going to face. Here,” Dempsey reached into his bag and pulled out a short sword that should not have fit. As in it was twice the length of the bag.
Magick.
Siobhan accepted the sword and turned back to the dark, holding the weapon loose at her side.
“Ivan!” Prairie called out then slid smoothly forward and to the left to block a rapier stab from the dark. Crossing her daggers, she kept the rapier trapped and snapped a look back at Abe, “Got the Rapier Man!”
Abe slanted a look down the length of the gallery. “I think it’s too far to push him down to his canvas.”
“Okay.” Prairie uncrossed her daggers and the rapier retreated into the dark. “That’s the goal? To get the people or animals back into their paintings?”
“It worked for the fan lady. So, yes. I think that is the goal.”
“Okay!” Prairie turned back to staring into the silent darkness.
“So,” Abe mused, “Fan lady is done. We’re pretty sure about the hawk and the dogs. And Rapier Man is the fencing painting. How about, hmm,” they tapped their chin, “the knight with the sword?”
“The battle scene,” Dan and Kim responded together, their voices overlapping. When Abe looked at Kim she elaborated, “There was a clear empty space in the center of that painting and all the other combatants were wearing armor and wielding hand-held weaponry.”
“Makes sense.”
Dan grunted and wrote in his book then looked back at Abe. “The horse rider should be easier?”
“Well, for sure he didn’t fit in that ballet painting. And probably not the lounging courtesan.”
“But sneaky guy might fit in the second one?” Kim offered.
“Maybe?” Abe shrugged. “I think he’s going to be hard. And the twin girls could fit in a few of the pictures? And I’m real unsure about the cat.”
They paused as Kirby dashed through the space between Siobhan and Gwen, chasing the four dogs again. Abe dodged to the side to avoid colliding with the dogs and Dan pivoted, making space for Kirby to drive the dogs between he and Patti.
Righting themselves Abe cast a quick look around the circle to see if there were any other immediate threats. Kim flicked several darts of fire off into the dark down the length of the gallery and Prairie lunged to the right, blocking another rapier thrust from that direction. Patti threw up her shield, falling back under the force of the sword stabbing it before taking two large steps forward and bashing the shield forward.
Satisfied everyone was handling their attackers without any major issues, Abe turned back to their speculation. “The boy might fit into the canvas with the kids throwing a ball?”
“Might,” Dan agreed. “Also Rapier Guy might fit with the full-body portrait of the woman? But,” he scratched the back of his neck. “I think Kim’s right about that one being the dueler. How about the twin girls? Their clothes seem to be the same era.”
“Maybe?” Abe rubbed the side of their mouth with their thumb. “The twins are a hard one because they could fit into the painting of the group hanging around that lady getting her portrait painted. Also, they could maybe go into that empty bedroom? Or, uhm, also the courtesan? If you wanted to get kind of icky about it. They are kinda young.”
“Girls,” Kim flicked another bit of fire into the dark then turned to Abe, “Frequently were exploited at a young age if they weren’t from wealth or powerful families.”
“So,” Dan said, “let’s shelf the twins. How about the shepherdess?”
Abe ran through the available canvases in their head. “Maybe one of the landscapes? I think maybe there might be sheep in one?”
“Good a guess as any.”
“The impressionist flowers won’t have anyone in them,” Abe continued on the thought. “We’ve already placed the dogs and the guy on the horse should go into the battle scene with the other guys on horses. It’s possible, a little, that maybe the twins or the lady in the fan might be walking in a landscape but I think that’s a stretch.”
Patti darted in from the left and blocked the hawk diving for Dan’s head with her shield and muttered, “You’re welcome,” when he turned at the motion.
Dan nodded and turned back to Abe. “Let’s put the landscape aside as an unlikely option for any of the figures.”
“Can we maybe start trying some theories?” Dempsey asked.
“Getting bored?” Kim shot back.
“Yes. Yes, I am.”
“I’m not bored,” Siobhan added, “but the silence and the random attacks are shredding my nerves.”
“Mine too,” Prairie added.
“Mine too,” Ivan echoed then looked down at Prairie with a grin. She popped him on the bicep with the hilt of her dagger and returned the grin before turning back to staring into the dark between herself and Gwen.
Abe, Dan, and Kim shared a look then Dan said, “Kirby’s been doing a good job of driving the dogs.” He pitched his voice to Prairie, “Can you ask Kirby to drive the dogs to the canvas with the hunters?”
“Uhm, hunters?” Prairie went quiet for a mikro or three then said, “One says they can do that.” Then she looked to the space out front of Siobhan and Gwen, “Incoming!”
Gwen and Siobhan split just as the four dogs charged towards their line. Kirby bounded in from closer to Dempsey, running at the dogs on an angle. The dogs shifted to avoid the large dog, shooting towards the space between Abe and Kim.
Kim fell back towards Ivan and furled her fingers, drawing them in towards her chest. A breeze kicked up behind Abe, then swiftly turned into a forceful wind that tossed Abe’s curls forward to obscure their eyes and swept their cassock forward with enough power that Abe had to brace their legs to not travel forward with the rush of cloth.
The wind hit the four dogs hard in the side and drove them forward to dart into the space between Ivan and Kim on a direct trajectory for the painting of hunters. Ivan dropped around to hem the dogs in from the right. Kim’s wind kept them tight on the left and Kirby galloped in, all the left and right heads barking with the center one locked intently on the target of the four dogs.
Gwen jerked a quick look over her shoulder then turned back to watch the dark to the right of the circle where Siobhan and Dempsey kept their attention. Dan and Patti locked in to watch their left while Abe scuttled up to watch the dogs as they were driven towards the canvas.
The dogs ran right up and then into the canvas, seamlessly flowing from three dimensions to two. From the angle Abe was at they could see the four dogs suspended for a moment in time and space with a thin line of air between them and the canvas.
Then from one blink to the next three of the dogs adhered to the canvas, taking up their place beside the lead hunter’s horse. The fourth failed to adhere, then flowed from two-dimensions to three and flew off the canvas like the painting had booted the figure.
“Ye–” Kim paused in her fist pump as the fourth dog came hurtling towards her. On a yelp, she released her fist and flicked her fingers. The wind followed the motion, sweeping the dog up and shooting it forward and into the dark.
Kirby, being in full chase, had to veer hard to the right and forward on a tight diagonal first to avoid slamming into the canvas and second to avoid being slammed into by the flying dog. Their claws skittered on the wood floor as they fought for purchase. They were slightly successful in they kept their feet and avoided being swept up in Kim’s wind, but slightly not in that they continued to careen across the floor instead of stopping.
Ivan scrambled to get out of the large dog’s way and only partially succeeded. Kirby clipped Ivan’s left hip, shoving the large man into Prairie to his right.
She started to topple and Ivan flung a hand out to wrap around her arm to stop her fall. Prairie shot a grateful look up at him. He held on for another long mikro, looking down in the petite woman’s eyes, then released it with a gruff, “Don’t fall.”
There was a slight hesitation in which Prairie perused the side of Ivan’s face as he stared out in the dark then she said on a very quiet breath, “I’ll try not to.”
She gave a shy smile then looked back into the dark.
Abe looked to Dan. “Well, that’s two locked down. We only have nineteen more canvases to go!”
Dan slanted a glance in Abe’s direction then shifted his toothpick. “Only nineteen.” He leaned heavily on the nineteen in emphasis.
Abe bounced on the balls of their feet and looked down the length of the room, gaze skittering over the pools of light in the dark. “Really there’s twenty-one canvases but I don’t think there’s twenty one attackers. More like eleven I think and we already have two,” they trailed off, then picked up again, “Two-ish because of that one dog. But that leaves like nine which really isn’t too bad!”
Dan shifted his toothpick. “Can’t argue that logic.”
“Oh,” Patti said, “I can argue the too bad.”
“Let’s move on!” Hands swiniging at their sides, Abe took off down the wall at a jaunty pace. As they walked away they heard Patti grumble, “Let’s.”
Enter The Woods 