12:4
“Here,” Dan walked over and hauled Patti to her feet. Once she was settled he gave the water a hard look. “The story has to be lived.”
Patti jerked him a look. “What does that mean?”
Prairie walked over to Dan and gave him an assessing look. “I think that we can’t step too far outside of the parameter of the story. Is that right?”
“Feels right.”
“So, maybe we should figure out what story it is? Do you have any ideas/”
“Not much to go on.”
Ben wandered over to stand near the river but far enough back that his feet weren’t at risk of being engulfed. He dug his hands into the pockets of his pants and rocked back on his heels while staring downstream. Abe walked over and stood next to him while Ivan walked over to stand next to Prairie.
“What do we have?”
Dan pulled out a book and flipped to a page, then pressed his finger to the words there. “A male and female. Grew up together. Not much to go on.”
“Is there any other details we can pull from Gia and Erik’s story?”
“Erik may have changed recently,” Prairie offered.
Dan tapped his finger on the page. “Still not much.”
Dempsey leaned down to squelch mud from his pants. When it proved to be a losing proposition, he stood to his full height and looked at Dan. “What fairy tales have a boy and girl in them?”
“Hansel and Gretel. Jorinde and Jorindel. Brother and Sister. It isn’t a huge list. Many are variations on similar themes. But they don’t line up with what we have. Most of the characters are siblings. Erik & Gia are not.”
“How about we approach this in a more systematic fashion?” Dempsey offered.
“Expand.”
“We are pretty sure the stories correspond to the members of Rapunzel’s group, right?”
“Hmm.”
“So, we go over the stories we’ve already seen and cross-reference them with the member of Rapunzel’s group they go with.”
“Okay.”
“Then we figure out who doesn’t have a story yet and maybe that narrows it down.”
“Well,” Gwen planted her hands on her hips and gave Dempsey a long stare. “When did you get so smart?”
Dempsey raised his brows. “Birth.”
Gwen chewed on this for a moment. It was pretty clear by her expression she was working on a snappy response but before she could get there, Siobhan. “It’s a good idea. So,” she looked to Dan. “I’ll assume you have a list?”
“Yes. Maise shared the information with me.” Dan dug into the side pocket of his cargo pants and withdrew a book. He flipped through the pages then stopped and ran his finger down a page. “From the start. Mal was Jack and the Beanstalk. So,” he ticked a line on the page. “Jack’s covered. Then Bisman was Bluebeard.”
He stopped and pulled another book from his vest pocket. Stooping he laid the first book on the ground and pressed a knee to it to keep it open. Then he flipped through the pages of the second book before stopping on a page and holding the book open between his thumb and little finger.
“The list of the founders is Jack, Rapunzel, Nyx, Maureen, John, Regan, Maise, Cerise, Regina, Sonya, Djinn, Tod, Chrys, Bart, another John, Fiamma, Babs, Sirena, Magus, Blanca, Fay, Karo, and Ruby.”
“Hold on.” Siobhan raised a hand to stop Dan. “I want to write this down.”
She dug around in her bag and pulled out a notebook and pencil.
“Yeah. Me too.” Ivan added then produced his own writing materials from his jacket pocket. “Go on?”
Prairie walked over and gently pulled the book out from under Dan’s knee then held it open for him. “Better?”
“Thanks.”
“Okay,” Siobhan looked at Dan. “I got that list down. Continue?”
“I’ll start with the stories we’ve seen. Jack is Jack. That was Mal. Rapunzel is Rapunzel. Llora. The rest are less obvious. Regan and Maise are Beauty and the Beast. Gryphon. The first John is another Jack. Jack the Giant Slayer. That was you, Siobhan.” He pointed his pencil at Siobhan, then went back to the list. “Bart is Bluebeard. Maureen is Cinderella. That was Diana. Nyx is Snow White. Nieve. Cerise is Red Riding Hood. Roanne. Regina is the Princess and the Pea. Grace. Sunny is Sleeping Beauty. Bria’s story.”
“Got it.” Ivan frowned at his list. “That’s only ten.”
Dan looked up and over at Kim. “Maise and I have discussed what happened with Kim. We think that was the Little Mermaid, Sirena’s story.”
Kim wrinkled her nose. “Really?”
“Just a guess. Most were more obvious with how the story unfolded as we moved through it.”
“So,” Ivan asked, “which ones don’t we have a story for yet?”
Dan referenced the book Prairie held. “Tod, Djinn, Fiamma, Chrys, John, Babs, Magus, Blanca, Fay, Karo and Ruby.”
“What are their stories?”
Dan looked down at the book held between his fingers. He scanned the words with his eyes then flipped a page before looking back to Ivan.
“Tod is Father Death. Djinn is the genies that are in the Arabian Nights. Fiamma is the Matchgirl. Chrys is Goldilocks. The other John is Iron John. Babs is Baba Yaga. Magus is Rumplestiltskin. Blanca is the Snow Queen. Fay is Thumbelina. Karo and Ruby are Diamond and Toads. Sisters.”
“The last two are sisters.” Siobhan tapped her notes with her pencil. “Are there any brothers and sisters? Or male and female paired friends?”
“I’ve read various versions of the Fairy Tales since Maise gave me the list because some of the stories aren’t very familiar.”
“Yeah,” Patti offered, “like who is Iron John?”
“Iron John is a story of a giant with iron skin. Doesn’t fit.”
“Oh.” Patti nodded.
“How about Baba Yaga?” Gwen asked.
“A central figure in several tales. A crone who lives in a house with chicken legs. She controls the cycles of the day in one of the more popular tales.”
“Any boys and girls in her stories?”
Dan shook his head. “A female character, Vasilisa the Beautiful is in one of the most popular stories, but no male character. She goes on a singular journey, challenged by Baba Yaga.”
“So, probably not her either.”
Prairie cocked her head. “How about the Snow Queen?”
Dan studied her for a moment then slowly nodded. “That works.” He shifted his attention to the others in the group. “It’s a long story in multiple parts that starts with a moral tale and then goes into the story of a boy, Kai, who is changed by a magic item that forces opposite perspective. A mirror. Or a very small piece of a mirror that gets lodged in his eye. He is carried away by the Snow Queen and his childhood friend, Gerda, goes on a quest to find and rescue him.”
Ben wandered over and stared down at Dan. “Gia. Gerda. That’s a bit on the nose.”
“Seems like.”
“But Erik isn’t close to Kai.”
“Is Diana close to Cinderella?” Kim asked. “Or Nieve close to Snow White?”
Prairie bit her lip. “Nieve is snow, so, yes?”
“But Diana? Or how is Grace close to Regina?”
“I think we are getting off track,” Siobhan said. She wrote down a few more things in her notebook, then looked around the group. “I know it is important to start connecting things like this but for now I think we need to focus on Gia and Erik.” She looked to Dan. “I’m not familiar with the Snow Queen story.”
“Me neither,” Patti added.
Prairie shrugged. “I think I read it as a kid but I don’t recall the details. All I remember is it was very long.”
Dan tapped his pencil against his book. “Kai is taken by the Snow Queen. Gerda goes on a journey to find him.” He shifted his gaze to the river. “She rides in a boat and gets caught by the current. She’s fished out of the river by a witch who tries to keep her by making her forget Kai. Something about roses.” He scratched behind his ear with his pencil. “I need to refresh.”
Ivan shoved his notes in his jacket and then slapped his hands on his thighs. “We have the first part. A river and a boat. Stands to reason we need to follow.”
Patti lifted a finger. “But we can’t walk along the river’s edge.” She turned to glare at the mud.
“So,” Ivan turned to stare at the water and scratched his neck. “We need a boat.”
Ben made a big show of patting his jacket and pants. “Let me pull one out of my pocket.”
Gwen poked Dempsey in the side with her elbow. He looked down at her. “What?”
“Do you have one in your bag?”
“It’s a bag.”
“And your point is?”
“How would a boat fit?”
Gwen gave the bag a narrow-eyed look. “How does a shield?”
Dempsey frowned but said nothing for a moment before finally shaking his head in the negative. “No boat.”
“Too bad.”
Ben sidled over, attention on Dempsey’s bag. Dempsey tapped Ben’s hand as his fingers got close to the flap. “No.”
Ben shifted his gaze to Dempsey. Then he shrugged. “Worth a try.”
“Sure.” Dempsey’s dry tone argued the opposite.
“Maybe we can ask ARFA?” Everyone turned and looked at Abe. They ducked their head. “It worked before.”
Almost as one the group turned to look at Prairie. “I’m no expert.”
“No. But you’ve seemed to have some connection with ARFA in the past.”
“I could try,” Abe offered. “We had a good talk last time.”
“Sure.” Siobhan nodded to Abe. “If you could?’
Abe nodded hard enough their hair flopped into their eyes, They slapped it back with their unblemished left hand then reached their darkened right one out, palm up. “ARFA?”
A small tendril of black lifted from their palm and flowed towards the picturesque clouds in the equally picturesque sky. They shifted on their feet and their expression turned inwards. A larger flow of ink went from palm to sky, flattening and spreading out to block the perfect sun and cast them in shadow.
“Huh.” Their look of concentration grew, as did the black umbrella above them. Finally, after a long mero or more, they lowered their hand. The ink eeled across the sky and returned to their palm.
“No?” Siobhan asked.
They shook their head and their mouth turned down. “No. Nothing.”
Ben considered the clear sky then shifted his attention to Abe’s hand. “Maybe it helped the last time because it was leading you into that trap.”
Abe frowned. “I don’t like that.”
Patti walked over and threw her arm over Abe’s shoulders. “Me neither. I’m sure Ben is just being pessimistic.” She shot Ben a look full of ‘zip-it’. Then for good measure she lifted her free hand and slid it across her lips while holding Ben’s stare.
He rolled his eyes but then he grinned wide and repeated the zipping motion before taking a step back and pointedly staring at the river.
“So,” Ivan asked, “if ARFA isn’t going to deliver and we can’t walk along the river’s edge, we’ll have to figure out this boat situation. Can anyone find me some materials?”
“Uhm,” Kim lifted a hand, “how many materials do you need to make a boat?”
Ivan brought his thumb and forefinger together then pulled them apart about a finger’s length. Then he stared at the space before moving his forefinger out further. “About this much.”
“Translate that into a weight or measure?”
“Literally I need about this much.” Ivan pulled his forefinger in to touch his thumb then pulled it out again.
Dempsey leaned in to measure the distance between Ivan’s fingers with his gaze. “That much of what?”
“Wood. Metal.” Ivan went quiet, staring at the space between his fingers, then shrugged and looked at Dempsey. “That’s about it. Wood and metal.”
“Any specific kind of either one?’
“More wood than metal. I only need the metal to hold the wood together.” He shifted a look to Siobhan. “I assume it just has to float, not be seaworthy?”
“Yes. Float. And hold us all.”
“Then,” Ivan adjusted the space between his fingers until his forefinger was stretched nearly to its full length. “I’ll need this much.”
“Here.” Dan thrust a handful of pencils at Ivan. “Wood.”
Ivan eyed the pencils then shrugged. “I can work with this. But the metal holding the erasers on is too malleable.”
Dempsey held up a finger then opened the flap of his messenger bag. Without looking down, he thrust his hand in. Almost to the elbow. Which defied the dimensions of the bag, but Kim had long accepted that the messenger bag was not so much a bag as a magic item in the shape of a bag. And what rules really applied to such a thing? None. That’s what rules applied. None.
Walking over to Ivan, Dempsey withdrew his arm and held out a handful of nails to the other man. Ivan looked down at the nails, then up into Dempsey’s face, then back to the nails before picking them out of Dempsey’s palm.
“Any Magick properties I need to know about?”
“Strong. They are strong. Maybe twenty times that of normal nails. That’s about it.”
“Good.” The corner of Ivan’s mouth curled up. His dark eyes lit from within with what might have been described as youthful glee. “I can work with that.”
“Good.” Dempsey slammed his hand down on Ben’s hovering above the flap of his bag. He shifted to look at the other man. “Really?”
Ben didn’t even pretend chagrin. Instead he grinned. “Worth a try.”
“You’d think you’d get tired of trying.”
“Never gonna happen, Warden.”
“Are you ever going to let that go?”
“No.” Succinct and to the point, that Ben.
Dempsey just sighed then turned to look at Ivan. “Is that all you need?”
“Yeah.” Ivan bounced the nails on his palm. “This. Some time. A bit of Magick. I’m just going to go over here.” He jerked his head to indicate behind him. He walked over and lowered himself to sit on the grassy verge of the river, far enough from the edge to avoid any mud.
Ben wandered over and stood over him, hands in pockets, eyes following the quick movements of Ivan’s hands.
Dan shifted to sit and began reading intently from one of his various books. Kim was hoping he was refreshing his knowledge of the Snow Queen. She wasn’t going to bother him to find out. Instead she walked over to where Gwen and Dempsey stood staring at each other from the corners of their eyes and cleared her throat loudly.
“How ‘bout those cardinals.”
Dempsey looked at her like she was nuts. Which, yeah. Gwen just grinned and stared at the sky. “The birds?”
“Sure.”
Siobhan walked over and looked up at the sky. “Birds?”
Kim nodded with inflated gravitas. “Cardinals.”
“Hmm.”
“So,” Dempsey ventured, “You all have these kind of deep conversations often?”
Gwen grinned. “All the damned time. We are amazing conversationalists!”
Before more could be said – with great eloquence – about cardinals or other incredibly interesting topics, Ivan stood up and came striding over. His hand was closed around something. He thrust it out and opened his fingers with great fanfare to reveal a dragon boat that was small enough to be origami. The sides of it were yellow, #2 pencil yellow. It shifted delicately on its keel, shifting a little in his hand as he moved his fingers.
“Uh,” Gwen leaned in to peer hard at the miniature boat. “That’s a real nice toy you got there, Ivan. Real nice.” The smile she gave him was one she’d normally bestow on a five-year-old or a particularly dumb golden retriever.
“Can a toy do this?”
Ivan strode over to the edge of the river. His feet instantly sunk into the mud, halting his forward movement. He looked down, shook his head, then looked back at Kim. “A little help here?”
“What’s the use? It’s just gonna grab you again. As long as you are along the river’s edge is my guess.”
“Well, that really cuts down on my majestic drama moment but fine.”
Ivan turned back to the river. He stooped down and leaned forward to set his little boat adrift. Instantly a water lady came flowing up looking like a ribbon of white water. She curved around the small boat then manifested hands so she could pick it up and hold it to her face to examine. After a moment she turned to look at Kim and waved then pointed at the boat.
Ivan turned to look at Kim too. “Can it be put back down? I’d hate to hurt your—uh, water.” Clearly he couldn’t see the lady’s form, only the water lifting the small boat off the river’s surface.
“Sure.” Kim held her hand out to catch Water’s attention then motioned to the river. She projected ‘please’ and made a patting motion on the air. The lady gave her a mischievous look then lowered the boat back to the surface where it instantly bobbed and started flowing away on the current.
“Uh,” Ivan ran his hand over the back of his neck. “Can you get that back?”
“Put it down. Pick it up,” Kim said in a sing-song voice, then focused on an image of the boat coming to rest near Ivan and remaining steady in the stream.
The little boat reversed itself, pushed by another water lady who held it in place so it defied the current.
Ivan turned and looked at Kim. “Thanks.”
“Don’t thank me. Thank them.”
“Uh,” Ivan turned back to the river. He made a small bow and then projected loudly, “Thanks!”
The distinct sense of amusement radiated from the water. Not one, not two, but three ladies separated from the current and washed up against the shore. They rested their elbows on the edge and their chins on their hands, then they sighed and a spray of water brushed across Ivan’s legs.
Ben jumped back to avoid the water. Ivan’s feet were still calf deep in mud, making jumping a challenge, so he instead he bowed deeper. It would have been great if he was actually facing the ladies but by their blissful expressions it was the thought he put into showing respect even though he couldn’t see them that was the point.
Ivan cast a look back over his shoulder to Kim. “Will the water be hurt if the boat gets bigger?”
Kim eyed the ladies, then shook her head in the negative. “No. Don’t think so. Water kind of,” she waved her hands, “Adjusts. Not sure you can hurt it.”
“Great!” Ivan turned back to look at the little boat bobbing gently on the water. “Zhǒng!”
No sooner had the word left Ivan’s mouth than the small boat became a large boat. Big enough to easily hold all ten of their group. It was long, narrow, with five oars projecting off of each side and at the front was a stylized dragon’s head with mouth opened on a roar. The sides were still #2 pencil yellow, though they had stripes of slate gray. Or maybe graphite gray was a better descriptor.
The dragon’s head was yellow. Its tongue was also graphite gray and there were bright splashes of silver decorating the mane that spoke to where the aluminum ferrules from the pencils had gone.
“Whoa!” Gwen exclaimed and ran over to stare at the boat with her fists on her hips and her feet a sensible distance from the muddy riverbank.
Patti walked over and stared at the boat, measured it with her hands, then turned and made a similar measurement of Ivan’s hand. “How?”
Ivan flared his fingers. “Magick.” Then he shifted his attention to Kim. “Could you?” He waved his hand at his still encased feet. His features creased with concentration as he made a clear effort to move his feet from the mud.
“Whoops. Yeah. One mikro.” Kim crouched and pressed her palms to the earth.
Earth? ARFA? Earth ARFA?
The image of a gem formed in Kim’s mind. It was unlike any gem she’d seen before. Like if you took a diamond and gave it more facets than any stone could hold then bent a rainbow through it. Interesting.
Hi.
The gem expanded, iridescence dancing on its surface.
We’re following the story. We won’t walk along the river’s edge.
Another pulse then the squelch of mud came from Ivan’s direction. Kim lifted her head to look at him in time to see him pull free of the mud and step back from the river’s edge.
“Thanks.” She nodded at his thanks then sent her own into the earth.
Thanks!
The gem expanded again. Multi-colored light flared from it then the image of the stone faded from Kim’s mind. She pushed off the ground with her palms and rose to her full height before looking at the boat bobbing on the river, held back from the current by two water ladies who had gravitated to the prow.
“We should be okay to approach the boat now. All aboard!”
Ivan gave the mud so recently the home of his feet the hairy-eyeball but then valiantly stepped towards the river’s edge again. This time the earth remained firm. He gave a tentative bounce of his knee. Once. Twice. Only when his feet remained firmly on the surface did he turn and smile at the group. “You heard her. All aboard.”
He swept his hand towards the boat, indicating the others should approach and take a seat. Prairie was the first to step up next to him. He offered her his hand to help her embark, then placed a foot on the side of the boat to keep it steady as she moved up the length of it and took a seat at the front of the boat to the right.
She looked back at Ivan. “There are twenty seats and only ten of us. How should be handle seating?”
“I think we stagger it. One to the right, next row back to the left, and alternate it.”
“Okay.” Prairie pulled up an oar and laid it across the width of the boat, bracing it on the gunwale. “Next?”
Kim walked over and climbed into the boat then moved up to take the left seat in the row behind Prairie. Ivan kept his foot on the side to keep the boat steady though it wasn’t really necessary as the water ladies were holding it just fine.
Abe followed Kim. Siobhan followed Abe. Then Patti, Gwen, Dan, Ben, Dempsey, and finally Ivan took the final seat at the back of the boat.
“We good?” Ivan pitched his voice to carry the length of the boat.
Prairie dipped her oar into the water. Kim did the same, then let out a laugh when one of the ladies grabbed the wood and gave it a small tug. She turned to look back at Ivan.
“All good.”
Everyone else got their oars situated and then Ivan reached out with his oar to push off the shoreline. The water ladies facilitated the movement, launching the boat into the center of the river where it immediately caught the current and started floating downstream at a clip.
“Woo!” Gwen hollered. “Almost don’t need to row!”
“Which,” Patti added, “Is good as I have no damned clue how to.” She proved her point by slapping her oar against the water rather than dipping it in.
Kim cast a look back to Patti. “Turn the oar so the blade cuts into the water.”
“Oh.” Patti nodded then shifted the oar in her hand and tried again. “That’s way better.”
The river was horribly picturesque. Okay, maybe horribly was the wrong term. Very. It was very picturesque. Like storybook picturesque. Which, uh, made sense because story.
The grass on either side of the river was the definition of verdant. Wildflowers grew in clusters and swathes, adding variety to the carpet of green. Stately trees grew along the water, casting dappled shadows over the water that didn’t quite reach the center of the river where the boat floated along. They were moving too fast to really appreciate the view but not so fast that it was a blur.
A brisk breeze kicked up as they moved down the river. Kim tilted her face into it, smiling when several air ladies shimmered into existence and raced along either side of the boat. They wove in and out, making a game of navigating between Kim’s friends like they were cones in an obstacle course. In their trail they left a lot of fluffed hair.
Siobhan removed a hand from her oar to slap it down on her flower crown before it went flying off her head. She gave Kim’s back a light kick and when Kim turned to give her a look she narrowed her eyes and stared at where the wind kicked around and through the group.
Kim shrugged and crinkled her nose. “Not me.”
“Not you stopping it either.”
“They are having fun.”
Siobhan gave a snort, narrowed her eyes at Kim, then grinned. “Fine.”
Next to Siobhan Patti started humming something that went perfectly with the movement of the oars. Kim focused on the sound, trying to identify the tune.
She turned to look at Patti. “Don’t stop believing?”
“It works!” Patti stopped humming long enough to call into the light breeze then went back to the humming.
“It does!” It was the perfect tempo for the medium speed rowing.
Kim started humming along. Then Prairie picked it up. Then Siobhan. In almost no time everyone was humming along with Patti. Whether it was a product of her Magick or just the rhythm directing their movements, they began moving in perfect synchronicity.
The pace, already quick with the help of the water ladies, picked up until they seemed to be flying over the water. The air ladies let out joyful sounds which probably sounded like gusts of wind to the others but Kim could clearly pick out the bell-tones of laughter. They picked up the speed of their weaving, tossing hair left and right and once more threatening to decrown Siobhan.
“Ugh!” Siobhan took her hand off her oar and snatched her crown off her head. She secured it in her lap then went back to rowing and humming.
“I think I see something,” Prairie called along the wind.
Kim shifted to look to the right. “I’m not–”
“Up there!” Prairie lifted her oar to point forward with the tip.
Squinting Kim kind of made out a dock projecting into the water. “You have good eyes!” She twisted to call back down the boat. “Moving to the right. There’s a dock.”
“Got it!” Ivan called back.
They all shifted to row to the right. The water ladies picked up Kim’s intent and helped, directing the current so it took very little effort to head towards the shoreline. In almost no time they bumped up against the dock. Ivan grabbed the edge of it to hold the boat steady. Kim grabbed it too so the boat snugged up nice and neat against the dock, making it easy for the others to debark. Once everyone except she and Ivan were clear she looked down the length of the boat.
“Getting out.” As she climbed onto the dock the boat shifted beneath her feet, the front half drifting away from the mooring. Ivan grunted as he compensated for the movement, drawing Kim’s attention to the problem. It took very little Magick to call to the water ladies to hold the boat in its place. Ivan slanted her a look and called, “Thanks!”
“You should be able to debark. The boat will stay against the dock.”
“Got it.” Ivan clambered from the boat, then reached down to touch the gunwale and murmured, “Suō.”
Instantly the boat went from a full-sized vessel that could hold twenty to its original origami-size pinched between Ivan’s forefinger and thumb. He stashed it in the interior pocket of his jacket. “Just in case.”
Gwen pressed her fists to her lower back and stretched. “That was harder than I thought it would be.”
“But easier than it could have been.” Kim leaned over the dock and trailed her fingers in the water, sending her thanks into it. Then she rocked back on her heels and wiped her fingers on her pants before rising to stand and stride off the dock.
Prairie had already wandered off the dock and up into the rolling grass. She pointed up a ways. “That looks like an orchard.”
Siobhan turned to Dan. “Any mention of an orchard in the story?”
“I hadn’t read too far but,” he pulled a book out and scanned a page quickly. “Yes. A cherry orchard. Should be a red house with stained-glass windows. Red and blue. Thatched roof. Wooden soldiers.”
“Damn,” Patti pulled a face. “That’s some detail. Usually it’s just a cottage. Or a cottage made of candy.”
“Wooden soldiers?” Ivan wandered close enough to look over Dan’s shoulder at the book.
“That’s what the story said. Wooden soldiers. Presented arms.”
“So, animated.”
“Possibly.”
“Sounds like a potential threat.” Dempsey hefted his shield in front of him and stared over its edge towards the trees in the distance.
“Yep.”
“Nothing to it but to do it!” Ivan snapped his shield out from his arm and squared up next to Dempsey. He slanted the other man a quick look. “Good?”
“Yeah. Let’s do this.”
It was a testament to the group dynamics that they fell into an easy formation without any further discussion. Ivan and Dempsey strode forward with Ben, Abe, and Dan ranged behind them. Prairie, Gwen, and Siobhan followed with Patti and Kim taking up the rear.
Together they tramped over the springy green grass, avoiding the clusters of wildflowers, and headed towards the trees which, unless something was way off, were a cherry orchard. Soon enough they were in site of the trees and based on the absolutely gorgeous cherry blossoms covering the limbs Kim was going to say they were cherry trees. Not that she was an expert.
She leaned forward and lightly tapped Siobhan’s shoulder with a single finger. Siobhan turned her head without slowing her steps. “What?”
“Cherry trees, right?”
“Yes.”
As they moved under the flowering trees petals cascaded down on them, a soft and fragrant rain. Kim looked up, momentarily transfixed.
“Wow.”
An air lady coalesced next to her and flowed up into the branches of the nearest tree. A moment later she returned with an intact cherry blossom which she solemnly handed to Kim.
“Thank you.” Kim took the blossom from the lady and pushed it into her hair where it promptly fell out. How did other women do that effortless flower in the hair thing? Clearly they did not have super fine hair. Ugh.
Before the flower could hit the ground, or even really get as far as Kim’s knees, the air lady swooped in and caught it then reversed direction and presented it to Kim again. She took it with a small smile then eyed it. After a moment she leaned forward and tapped Siobhan again. Again Siobhan turned her head. “Yes?”
Kim presented her with the flower which she took with uplifted brows and tucked into her flower crown before turning back to looking where they were walking.
Gwen turned around and made ‘gimme’ hands to which Kim shrugged and showed her empty palm. Nothing to see here. Gwen grinned and turned back to her walking.
The cherry orchard was large. Like not quite industrial farm large but maybe like CSA large. What? It was a thing.
It wasn’t until they were towards the end of, completely unmolested, that a small house came into view. Red. Like Dan said. With red and blue stained-glass windows. Also, like Dan said. Well, it seemed like they weren’t the only ones that needed to stick to the story. Looked like ARFA did too.
“Thatched roof.” Ivan’s voice carried from the front.
As did Dempsey’s, “Yeah.”
“No soldiers.”
“Not that I can see.”
As a unit they cleared the orchard and walked up to the house. Patti turned slightly to hold her shield out to the left and back of the group. Kim shadowed her movement, but to the right. She didn’t summon flame or make any other call to the elements seeing as there didn’t seem to be any major threat. Which proved to be really stupid about a mikro later when a line of soldiers shimmered into view behind the group. They had wood-grained features, intricately carved, and moved with a precision which also spoke to them being crafted by someone with skills.
“Guys!” Kim twisted her wrist, summoning a flame into her hand. “Soldiers.”
Dempsey was the first to spin around, shield at the ready, but the others weren’t far behind in turning to the threat. Potential threat.
The soldiers weren’t advancing. Instead they sorted themselves into two neat rows, five each. Then they slid into a new formation with two at the front, three behind, three behind that row, and two at the back. Kinda like the formation Kim’s group had moved through the orchard in. No, not kinda. Exactly like. That was made super obvious when the two soldiers in the front suddenly had shields. The three behind were empty-handed, like Dan, Ben, and Abe had been in the trees.
As Kim watched one of the soldiers manifested a book from thin air. Or maybe the book manifested itself. Like she knew. What she did know was one moment the soldier’s hands were empty and the next it was holding a book. And the one to its other side was suddenly holding two daggers. A super quick look at Ben showed that he had, in fact, pulled his daggers out and was holding them loose and ready at his sides.
Testing a theory Kim lunged to the side. A wooden soldier mirrored the move. This soldier was empty-handed which made sense if you thought about it. Wood and fire? Not really friends. Half of her was curious to see what the “Kim soldier” would do if they engaged. She didn’t use weapons and she really, really hoped that the wooden soldiers didn’t use Magick. Although was it actually the soldiers they faced or ARFA? Because sure as shit ARFA could use Magick.
It didn’t take more than a mikro to find out the answer to her question as the soldiers shifted their formation again, moving as a single unit and advancing on their group. Patti met the forward thrust of the first soldier with her shield. Kim flicked her wrist, sending a ball of fire flying at the soldier next to this one. It met the strike with its shield which blocked the hit but not without taking some damage.
Kim quickly snapped her hand out, deflecting the trajectory of the fireball before it could hit Siobhan who had fallen in behind her. She then called out to the air lady who had given her the cherry blossom, the image of the wooden soldiers falling like bowling pins firmly in her mind.
Air responded to her, rushing in from various directions and sweeping up the soldiers to hold them with their feet above the ground. The soldiers legs continued to march on the air and they held their formation rather than going flying. But, at least they had lost the advantage of advancing.
“Do we want to destroy them?” Kim shot back to Siobhan.
“I’m not sure. Maybe? I guess?”
“Okay.” With that Kim turned back to the floating soldiers. Sending her Magick out in a wave she summoned several fire dogs. They came loping in from behind the soldiers and instantly fell upon them. It seemed the air suspending the soldiers fed the fire as the dogs expanded until they were the size of dire wolves. The wooden soldiers didn’t stand a chance. Or they wouldn’t have if not for Prairie crying out in pain behind Kim as one of the wolves took down a soldier holding two daggers.
Kim whipped around, watching as Prairie fell to the ground and then rolled like she was on fire. Which, Kim squinted and cursed, she was. Or at least her clothes were in the process of smoking.
“Shit!” Kim watched as Dempsey brought up his shield to block an invisible attack. She turned back to see another fire dog taking down a large soldier with a shield.
“Shit!” It bore repeating.
She yanked back on her Magick, calling the dogs away from the soldiers.
“Fire bad,” she yelled to Siobhan.
“Yes.”
From behind Kim she heard Dan utter a word that she didn’t quite catch. It became clear, or sort of clear, what it was when chains formed out of the air, flying passed her shoulders to loop around the body of the first of the soldiers.
Ink whipped in from the space between she and Patti and swaddled another floating soldier and then a wave of shadow flew past to wrap around the heads of several more of the suspended figures.
And Siobhan cried out as her arms were trapped against her body and her legs locked together. Next to her Gwen looked around frantically, her gaze falling on nothing. Suddenly from her left Kim felt Patti’s shield connect with her shoulder. She whipped around in that direction to see that Patti was staring at nothing with wide eyes while bracing her legs. She swung her shield to the left and then the right before pulling it in close to her chest. Sass peeped and hung out of the house on Patti’s belt, staring up at Patti.
And then Ivan cursed. Kim snapped around to see that his arms and legs were also locked so he stood an immobile column.
“Crap. Dan! Can you cancel that?”
“Yes.” Dan said something else. The chains looped around the one soldier retracted, flying back to disappear into Dan’s book. And Ivan suddenly was able to move.
Yep. “Abe?”
“Got it!”
The ink retracted from the other soldier and then Siobhan was free. She fell back a step and grabbed the strap of her bag. Her fingers played over the vials looped in it but she didn’t pull any free. Instead she stared at the suspended soldiers and it was pretty clear her brain was ticking.
Meanwhile Patti shook her head and focused her gaze on Kim who turned and looked at Ben. Ben nodded and made a point of shoving his hands into his pockets.
“Okay.” Kim turned back to eyeing the soldiers. “We seem to still have our feet on the ground. That’s something.” She shot Siobhan a look. “Just leave them?”
Siobhan narrowed her eyes and pursed her lips. “I guess.” A frown creased her brow. “I don’t like that we are still on our feet.”
“You’d rather be floating?”
“No.” She shook her head. “It’s just a weird detail.”
“Maybe suspending them doesn’t count as an attack? Maybe it’s only attacks that are being mirrored?”
“But why? Why wouldn’t being suspended be an attack?”
“Well, Prairie wasn’t really on fire.”
“But smoke?” Prairie asked.
Kim narrowed her eyes., “Was there really smoke?”
Prairie looked down at the sleeves of her hoodie. Then unzipped the front and checked the top underneath. “No?” She frowned. “I thought there was. But, no?”
“Hmm.”
“Hmm?”
“It’s possible,” Kim spoke slowly as she worked the idea out, “We were only perceiving the attacks coming back on us. Like we see the “Prairie soldier”,” she made air quotes, “on fire so Prairie seemed to be?”
“How?”
“ARFA?”
“Actually,” Dan spoke up. “The themes of changed perspective and mirrors are central to the Snow Queen.”
“So, are we going to be unable to fight anything on this mission?” Leave it to Dempsey to cut to the heart of the issue.
“Unknown.”
“Guess.”
“No.”
Dempsey just looked at Dan. Dan just looked at Dempsey. It was a staring contest between a rock and another rock. Or a rock face and another rock face. Or something totally unmoving against something else unmoving. The point was neither was budging. Finally Dempsey turned his head and stared hard at the suspended soldiers. Then he looked at Kim.
“Can you hold them forever?”
“Forever? Eh. For long enough that we can keep moving. Yes. That’s for sure.”
“Then,” Dempsey swept a glance over the group. “I vote to keep moving.”
Gwen lifted a hand. “For once I agree with Dempsey.”
“Me too,” Patti added her agreement to Gwen’s. Almost immediately Abe lifted their hand. “I vote to move on.”
Siobhan studied the suspended soldiers then looked over at Dan. “What purpose did the soldiers have in the story?”
“Undetermined. It was just a small detail in a large story.”
“Then I say we move on. Kim,” she turned to Kim, “hold them until we get into the house. The way these things go I’ll bet once we clear that door there will be no going back so it won’t matter if the soldiers remain or disappear.”
“Okay.”
Siobhan looked at Ben. “Check the door?”
Ben cracked his knuckles. “My specialty.”
He walked over to the little house and tested the doorknob. It turned without resistance and the door swung open. Ben turned and looked at the group. “Yeah, I don’t trust that.”
“Too easy?”
“A little too spider and fly. Like we enter and bam we’re in an oven.”
“That’s Hansel and Gretel,” Gwen said.
Ben looked at Dan. “Anything in the story say we’re walking into a trap?”
“Haven’t finished it but no. The witch in this part of the story makes Gerda forget Kai by removing roses that remind the girl of him.”
“So, there’s a witch.”
“Maybe.”
“No oven?”
“No oven.”
Ben gave a dramatic shrug then stepped into the house. Immediately the door slammed shut. Ivan dived for it. His palms slammed against the wood and rebounded. From behind the door Ben could be heard to shout though it was largely muffled by the wood.
“The fuck?”
Before Ivan could say any more or anyone else could think to respond, the door swung open and Ben poked his head out. His grin was so big it practically ate his face.
“Kidding.”
Ivan growled. Actually growled. “Dick move, man. Dick move.”
Ben showed absolutely no remorse. He, in fact, laughed before stepping back against the door and gesturing to the interior. “After you.”
Ivan kept his gaze narrowed on Ben as he pushed past his friend and into the house. He blocked the door with his broad shoulders as he hovered on the threshold. His head went on the swivel. Left. Right. Left. Right. He took a step into the house then did the swivel again. Another step. Another swivel. Then finally he turned back and looked at the group.
“Clear.”
“I could have told you that.”
The look Ivan gave Ben could have cut glass. Ben met it with an even bigger grin if possible then he chuckled. “Yeah, it was a dick move.”
“Uh huh.” Ivan looked at the others and jerked his head, indicating the interior of the house. “Let’s keep moving.”
Enter The Woods 