by Alicia Fabel
“Where do soul-eaters live?” Vera asked.
“Zerzura,” answered the oracle. “The realm of sand and giants.”
Kale clenched his fists at his sides. “It is not the best time for a visit. The Kings and Queens are just coming out of hibernation.”
“What’s that mean?” Vera asked.
“They’ll be cranky and hungry,” he replied.
“When do they hibernate again?”
“Not for five more years.” Damn the Infernals for the blasted timing of all this.
Vera shook her head. “We can’t wait that long.”
Kale forced his legs to remain still. “I know.”
Red stood. “Best of luck to you both. I need to leave. Your escort to the world-gate is on their way.”
“I thought we were escaping,” Kale said.
“You are,” assured Red. “With a little help. Don’t stop for any reason on your way. For your sake and humans everywhere, I hope you find the answers you seek.”
The oracle was only gone for a few minutes when a guard showed up, led by Prince Cato.
“Time for you both to leave,” he announced.
The world-gate was at the center of the Academy. A centaur guarded each turn and doorway along the way. None of them thought to stop Cato, though. When their group finally made it to a seemingly empty room, Vera couldn’t even breathe a sigh of relief that there was no hydra. Going home didn’t mean what it once did. There was no peace or safety there, just more danger and puzzle pieces. And she wouldn’t be there long before the next quest for answers. Cato instructed their escort to stay at the entrance of the chamber.
Quietly to Vera he said, “I can never repay you for saving my sister.”
“Yeah, well I also doomed humankind to servitude.”
Cato tilted his head with a funny look. “Do not be so sure. The leader of the human rights movement was prone to violence and was creating more discord than peace. Or so I felt. With him gone, someone else may have greater success.”
“You seem to know a lot about the movement,” noted Kale.
The prince didn’t reply, but the side of his lips quirked suspiciously. Vera wondered how he’d hidden his participation in the group from his father. She did not doubt that he was part of it, even if he was only a shadow figure.
“If you ever need anything, many here will stand behind you.” He gave a quick, short bow and then backed up.
Yelling echoed down the hall.
“You should hurry,” said the prince. “It’s about time for me to explain to my father that I misunderstood his instructions.”
Vera frowned. “How much trouble are you going to be in?”
“I’ve screwed up worse.”
“Stop them!” someone yelled.
“Time to go.” Kale grabbed Vera and leaped through the gate.
Vera looked back in time to see the prince’s eyes go wide with confusion as a guard charged into the chamber. She had to give it to him. He was a good actor.
10
Vera had wanted to be in Zerzura by now. Instead, she was on her way to visit a prisoner.
“I can’t believe you took her prisoner,” she told Mimi’s brothers. She wasn’t sure which was which. They looked identical to her.
“She wouldn’t stop coming into the meadow.”
“So keep sending her back out,” she said sharply. “Do the professors know she’s here?”
“Why would we tell them?”
Vera pressed fingers to her temples. “So no one calls the authorities and reports her missing. Because then they’ll send a bunch of people to investigate.”
“They would do that?”
“Yes!” Holy crap. “They might have already. How long has she been here?”
“Good thing we didn’t kill her like the Guardian suggested,” mumbled one brother.
Vera spun on them. “He did what?”
“He didn’t technically say kill her, but I understood what he meant.”
“No killing humans,” she said firmly. “At all.”
“What if they aren’t human?”
She’d never been so tired in all her life. “Ask me first.”
“You are gone a lot,” they pointed out.
“Then ask Mimi or Maiden,” she snapped.
“You mean Mother? Maiden never comes to the meadow. I think she’s overseeing Summartir.”
Vera kept forgetting that Maiden was Mother. And it was weird to think of Margory ruling their realm for her term. “How long has this girl been a prisoner?”
“Just since she showed up yesterday afternoon,” answered one of the brothers. “We found her drawing pictures of the gates and other creatures.”
“Probably so she could give it to humans as proof so they will raise an army to destroy us all,” said the other brother.
“No one is going to raise an army,” Vera assured. At least I hope not.
“How do you know?”
“No one would believe her,” Vera explained. “Humans would call her a looney.”
“What if someone came to investigate?”
Will these questions never end? “The meadow is warded, they wouldn’t find it.”
“She keeps finding it.”
“Have you asked how?” Vera asked.
“She won’t talk to us.”
“You probably scared her.” Let’s hope her mind isn’t broken.
They reached the end of the hall and one of the brothers knocked.
“Open the door,” the other barked through the barricade.
“No,” came a muffled voice.
Vera frowned. “I thought she was a prisoner. She’s locked herself in there?”
“We tried to lock her in a different room, but she kept getting out. She stays in there now.”
The other brother called, “It’s okay, I won’t let anyone hurt you. There’s someone here who wants to speak to you.”
A lock clicked, and the door cracked open. A familiar face peered out at the brothers and then she saw Vera. It was the artist girl. Jenna? No. Jemma. Jemma yanked opened the door.
“It’s you,” she said to Vera. “You should be dead. Like ten times over, but you keep living.”
“Yeah, that’s the story of my life,” Vera said. “Can we come in?”
Jemma considered the trio. “Not them.”
The brothers began to argue, but Vera cut them off. “Deal.”
It was Jemma’s room from before the meadow had fallen, but it looked different. She’d drawn all over the walls.
Jemma blushed. “I ran out of paper.”
That wasn’t why Vera was gaping, though. She recognized all the images—her and Addamas in a cyclop’s cage, the gorgon, Kale battling a ring of centaurs while she stood by with a blank expression on her face. And a dozen other scenes from the past months.
“Why did you draw these?”
“Ever since I met you, I keep having these scenes pop in my head, like short movies. I thought I was going crazy, but then I saw some of the creatures after the earthquake, and I knew I wasn’t crazy. They’re real, aren’t they? All this really happened, didn’t it?” Jemma talked rapid-fire.
“Yes, that all happened.” Vera felt uneasy. “Is that why you keep sneaking down here?”
“When I’m here, I can see better. Out there, all I get is flashes. It’s like a nightmare. I don’t know how it ends, but I have to know how it ends. Until there’s a happy ending, I can’t focus. I’m failing half my classes at this point.”
“You’re watching a movie of me in the back of your mind right now?”
“No, I don’t see it all the time. Mostly just when you’re in danger, I think. And then I watch until you aren’t.”
“Do you see anything else?” Vera asked.
“Sometimes. But I don’t know what I’m seeing. Sometimes there are people I don’t recognize. When I first met you and realized you were one of the people I see, it freaked me out.”
“Yeah, that
would freak me out too.”
“What’s wrong with me?” Jemma asked, seeming to shrink inward.
“Maybe you’re an oracle,” Vera said.
“Like the oracles of Delphi?”
“You’re familiar with them.”
“Well, yeah.” She hesitated. “My family believes in that kind of thing—divination, crystal balls, that kind of stuff. It seems insane to think I could be an oracle, though. Then again, after the stuff I’ve seen recently, maybe not.”
“What have you seen?” demanded a brother as he shoved through the door.
Jemma cowered.
“Don’t worry about him.” The other pushed his way between Jemma and his brother. “He won’t touch you.”
Jemma hid behind the gentle brother. Vera wondered if Jemma would be so trusting if she knew what that man was.
“Have you seen anything else?” Vera asked to get the girl’s attention again. “All of these have already happened. I’d like to know what could still happen.”
“This is all I have. I’ve seen other people, but I didn’t draw them, because I wanted to save the space to draw your scenes.”
“We’ll get you some paper,” Vera promised. “And we’ll send you back to campus.”
“No.” Jemma shook her head. “I don’t want to go back. It’s like having a strobe in my head when I’m there.”
“Someone is going to notice you’re missing. Not to mention, you don’t want to fail your summer courses.”
“I only took those classes so I could stay here. I used to be miserable, getting flashes of things I couldn’t understand all the time, but ever since the earthquake, it’s better. Only, the farther away I go, the worse it gets again. I tried to go home at the beginning of the summer. Then I talked my parents into letting me enroll for the summer semester so I could come back. I told them there was a special course that was only available now. And I don’t have a roommate, so there’s no one to miss me.”
Geesh, the girl should consider going to auctioneer school with all the words she can cram into one breath. “Your parents won’t call you?”
“I brought my phone with me.” She held it up as proof.
“It won’t work here,” Vera said. “Satellite signals don’t make it through the wards.”
“Oh.” She stared at the screen like it had betrayed her. “I hope they haven’t been trying to call.”
“You and me both,” said Vera. “Do they worry a lot?”
“My dad does.”
“You should probably leave the meadow so they don’t lose their minds with worry,” Vera recommended.
Jemma started chewing a fingernail.
Vera made an executive decision. “Why don’t you stay in your old room here, but still leave long enough to go to class and check in with your family regularly.”
“I can come back between classes and at night?’
“It doesn’t seem like we can stop you,” grouched the unhappy brother.
“What if someone on the other side hurts her?” asked the other.
“Why would they do that?” Vera asked.
“She must have magic if she is an oracle—siphons cannot be oracles,” explained the brother.
“Perhaps she is the human oracle,” suggested grumpy brother.
“There’s only one oracle for each race, right?” Vera asked.
“Yes.”
“Then she’s not the human oracle because I met the human oracle in Acadia. Vera took a quick peep and confirmed that Jemma did in fact have magic. It was so faint that Vera couldn’t identify it. But it would grow stronger and could awaken a siphon if they weren’t careful.
“Then I will protect her. Earth is dangerous for people with magic.”
“Is it?” Jemma asked Vera.
“Unfortunately.” Vera wished she could tell her otherwise, but she couldn’t. “Most people don’t even know that they can hurt someone with magic, though.”
“I can go with her and make sure no one siphons her,” offered the sweet brother.
Vera scrutinized the man. “You’d be okay with that?”
“I wouldn’t have offered if I wasn’t,” he replied.
Grouchy pants folded his arms. “It’s too dangerous.”
Well, that sounds familiar.
“What other choice is there?” sweet brother asked. “She doesn’t even know what she needs to protect herself from.”
“I’ll go,” said Grouchy.
“You terrify her,” countered Sweetie
“I do not,” Grouchy said. “Do I?” he asked Jemma, like he was daring her to confirm Sweetie’s claim.
Jemma kept her mouth closed.
“See?” said Grouchy. “I am stronger anyway and can protect her better.”
Sweetie seemed to consider and finally said, “He’s right. He’d keep you safer than I could out there.”
“Then it is settled,” announced Grouchy. “I will make sure no one harms the girl and bring her back to the meadow after.”
“I’m just gonna say it,” Vera said to Grouchy. “I didn’t think you liked the idea of her being here, so why are you volunteering to watch out for her now?”
“She is an oracle, and they are sacred—even if she is from Earth.”
“Yes, my brother will keep her safe,” said Sweetie. “And when she is here, I will watch over her.”
“Are you okay with that?” Vera asked Jemma.
The girl looked between the two brothers like a cornered mouse and nodded. Vera felt for her, but knew the men would keep her safe as promised.
“So, are you good at art?” Vera asked Grouchy.
“No, why?”
“Jemma is an art major. If you’re gonna shadow her, you’ll have to enroll too.”
His forehead creased. “Enroll?”
“Become a student,” she clarified.
“At a human school?” he asked with dismay.
“At this point, I think there are more non-humans than humans on campus.”
“Still. Is that necessary?”
“Yep. We’ll have to get you registered and explain the situation to Dean Harris. I’ll let Addamas figure it all out, but you start school tomorrow.”
He sighed heavily, resigned to his fate.
“Jemma, why don’t you go call your family, so they know you're okay, and then show your new shadow around campus?”
“I need to pick up some sketchbooks from the store too,” Jemma said.
“I’m sure he’ll love a car ride,” Vera said.
“Car?”
Vera’s lips quirked. Poor grumpy man.
Addamas blew across the messenger’s wings. “I’m wanted,” he told Kale.
“I’ll keep an eye on the gates.” The way things were going, Kale didn’t expect they’d be heading to Zerzura for a while still.
“Watch the Penglai gate. Someone’s been working hard to get through those bindings. The High Mother’s been restitching them twice a day.”
“Not going to be able to hold the realms off much longer,” observed Kale.
“The whole coven is working on a spell that’s supposed to make the meadow appear like the old one—as long as no one gets too far from their gate. Once they finish, we can release the gates and reassure everyone that everything is okay.”
“By we, you mean me,” Kale concluded.
“You’re the one they’ll expect to see.”
“But not standing on four legs.”
“That’s part of the spell,” Addamas explained. “The witches have teamed up with a couple of kargadan to integrate glamour into the magic. It’ll make you look like the old you.”
Kale was surprised that the witches and kargadan were working together. A collaboration between realms hadn’t happened in a long time. But if that was the case, they shouldn’t need him for their spell to work. “Why not make anyone look like me? If the witches can make me look like I’m walking on two legs, they can make whoever is on duty look like me too.”
> “Mimi said you’d be difficult.”
“I’m being logical. At some point, I will have to leave. Then what?”
“They’re working on a spell just like the one you described, but it’s more complicated. So until they figure it out, you have to keep your shit together.”
“If a wielder comes through a gate, they’ll see through the glamour,” Kale pointed out.
“Yeah, let’s hope no wielder gets curious and comes sniffing around.”
“If Mother has been working that hard to keep the Penglai gate bound and closed, chances are there’s an immortal on the other side.”
“We can hope it’s a kitsune.” Addamas rubbed the back of his neck. “But if we’re hoping for a kitsune, that means things are bad.”
Kale held back his agreement. Addamas began to pace. Apparently, verbalizing his doubts had agitated the satyr. I should’ve dropped it.
“Ferrox and I would enjoy a fight with a kitsune right about now,” Kale said.
Addamas nodded absently, staring at the dorm building across the parking lot. Kale knew that look. His friend was worrying about Mimi and everyone he cared about most.
“Everything will be fine,” Kale said, not believing it. “Go see what Mimi wants before she gets impatient.”
“She’s always impatient.”
Mimi and Kale had that in common. He was glad when Addamas trotted off. There were limits to how long he could pretend to be optimistic about their current situation. If the witches didn’t work fast, and if they couldn’t stop Suzie, the world was going to tear itself apart. And if he couldn’t keep it together, they’d have to fight him too. Split that many directions, they’d lose for sure. Kale walked the edge of the meadow, inspecting the doors with his limited abilities. Before, all he had to do was feel them out with his mind to make sure they would hold. Now he had to rely on his other senses, which were heightened thanks to the unnatural.
The gates to Saguenay, Atzlan, and Brasil seemed secure—no sounds or smells to be detected. Addamas was right about Penglai, though. Burning cinnamon stung his nose, and heat emanated from the door. Whoever was trying to get through had a fire-dog on their side. If that creature got through, there’d be no restraining it or putting it back. It would have to be put down. A fire-dog would not stop until it consumed all the lives here.
