Iris found tears threatening to fall as she walked past Anandra, but she wasn’t willing to let them. They would deliver this message and Anandra would be off, and maybe then, once she was gone, she would allow herself to cry. Anandra might have been cruel, but so had she, and their parting would have been painful no matter what treatment she received before she went home. She still didn’t know if Anandra’s tutor would even be successful, though, and she felt a slowly growing sense of fear threaten to outgrow her strong feelings of anger and sadness.
She could barely take in the room she had just entered, full as she was of intense thoughts and moods. She did notice the middle-aged woman on the lengthy couch, though, with silver and golden-blond hair flowing past her waist. The woman wore a crown and an anxious expression, her lips tight and her brows knitted together. She didn’t look as if she’d even noticed the women entering her room, but then she turned to them, straightened her back, and spoke. “I hear you have a message for me?” she asked Anandra.
“Yes, Your Majesty, I do. Your cousin in Fehl sent me, and he told me to get it to you immediately.”
“My cousin in Fehl?” The Queen sounded doubtful, almost like she didn’t even remember she had a cousin there, but then she stretched out her hand. “Give it to me, please.”
Anandra took the message from her bag and handed it to her, bowing slightly as the Queen took it.
Queen Yez whispered a few words and rubbed her hand over the message’s seal, and Iris grew tense as the seal started to move off the message, undulating onto the Queen’s dress. “Get it off me! Get it off!” She jumped up, trying to grab at it, but it still continued to travel across her skin. Then her eyes fell shut, but instead of falling into a faint, she smiled, a cruel smile that didn’t seem to belong on her face.
“Good,” she said. “It worked!” Her voice came out rough and hard, nothing like how it had sounded before. It was almost as if it were someone other than her who was now speaking.
Iris turned to Anandra, who hadn’t moved an inch, and she didn’t look nearly scared enough, considering all that had just happened. But that was the last thing Iris could register before she saw a cloud of black smoke come rushing at her face from Queen Yez’s direction. She would have screamed—oh, how she wanted to—but everything happened so fast she was only able to notice that she was falling backward, and she knew then that no one was going to catch her.
Chapter Fifteen
“Iris…Iris! Please, please be all right. I’m…I’m sorry for our fight. I just didn’t want you to leave…I’m so sorry.”
Iris barely managed to open her eyes. She had the headache to end all headaches, and a very worried-looking face was directly above hers. Anandra’s. She was kneeling and looked close to tears, but Iris had to wonder if they were real tears or faked. After all, she thought as she pushed up and saw a possibly also faked look of relief rush across Anandra’s face, everything that had happened, everything that had led her here, had been Anandra’s doing. Maybe she was in cahoots with Tressa, because the area Iris was now lying in had a distinctly labyrinthine feel to it. She noticed with fear that the room had about four exits, probably all leading to eventual doom. Or maybe not even all that eventual.
“This is your fault, isn’t it?” Iris grumbled, holding her head as she got up as quickly as she could manage. Her head spun a little from the effort, and Anandra reached forward to steady her. Iris allowed her to do so. After all, anything to put off her clearly oncoming death sentence, which Anandra had helped lead her straight to.
“I know you probably don’t want to trust me right now,” Anandra said, bowing her head.
“You’re right, I don’t.”
“But I don’t think you have a choice.”
“Oh, really?” Iris let go of her head, taking in the room more fully now. She had been right—there were exactly four exits, all well lit, and after peeking into each of their doorways, she saw that they all split off after a number of feet. So, which one to take? It probably didn’t matter in the end.
“You could always use this,” Anandra told her. She reached into her shirt and pulled out a candle…and her knife. Iris flinched as its cold, deadly metal glinted in the room’s torchlight, and Anandra seemed to notice, quickly lowering the hand that held it and sticking the knife partway into her pants’ waistband.
“You managed to hold on to my grandfather’s candle? Why would you do that if you didn’t trust him?” Iris was getting more confused by the second, but at least her headache seemed to be fading as she tried to figure everything out. “And what was with the message you gave the Queen, anyway? Did you enchant it?”
“I didn’t enchant it, no. To the best of my knowledge, her cousin sent it, although now I am starting to wonder if he was really her cousin or one of Tressa’s henchmen. And I kept the candle because I figured it would come in handy, and I…maybe I lied about trusting your grandfather.” Anandra looked away, biting her lip, then said, “Maybe I just wanted to be angry at you instead of…well, we should probably be on our way. Unless you have anything hidden on your person that can help us.”
“No, I…wait.” Iris now remembered the flower her grandmother had left with her, and she reached into her pants’ pocket. It was still there, looking a little smooshed and worse for the wear, but completely intact.
“I know that flower! It…it…I think it can bring things to you, if you wish on it. I’m not entirely positive, though. My tutor didn’t spend much time on flowers.”
“It’s probably worth a try.” Iris held it up to her face, shut her eyes tight, and searched for a wish. She found one almost instantly, a very clear picture of her grandmother popping into her mind.
“Where am I?”
Iris jumped, her eyes wide open now, and she spun around in the voice’s direction. No, it couldn’t be! “Sallie?”
“Yes, my dear,” said her grandmother, “in the not-so-flesh. It’s lovely to see you, of course, but how did I get here?”
“The flower you left me brought you. Thanks, by the way. I didn’t know what it was until now.”
“Flower? I may be old, but I’m not senile yet, and I never gave you a flower.”
“Of course you did. It was just like the ones in your garden in this world, with the blue petals, and…” Iris looked down at her hand, to show the flower to Sallie, but it was gone. And now Sallie’s words were sinking in. Shit! What had she done?
“We should make the best of a bad situation, pumpkin. I am at least grateful to get to see you again, although I must say, these are not the circumstances I would have hoped for.” Her grandmother’s projection had been glancing around the room after she’d appeared in it, and now she gave Iris a serious look. “It seems like you’re in a bit of a pickle, Iris. If I didn’t know any better, I’d think this was some sort of labyrinth. And if I still didn’t know any better, I’d think it might be the one of legend that Tressa supposedly had built in her nasty likeness.”
“I’m afraid you’re probably right,” Anandra said from behind Iris.
For once, Iris had completely forgotten Anandra was there, since she’d been so startled—and overjoyed—by her grandmother’s sudden appearance. “Sallie, this is Anandra. Anandra, this is Sallie or, as you might know her, Selehn.”
“My good Queen, it is truly an honor to meet you. I think it’s best if we save socializing for later, though, as I think we need to try to find a way out of here before Tressa finds us.”
“She may already know where we are,” Sallie said, “but there’s no harm in trying to escape her grasp. I hope so, at least.” She floated up to each of the doorways, peeking inside them. “My senses tell me we should take this one,” she announced, pointing to the one farthest away from them.
“Senses?” Anandra asked.
“My grandmother has psychic powers.”
“Ah, of course. Those must have been very helpful during the Great War.”
“Sometimes yes, sometimes no. But I thin
k they will be helpful now. Shall we, ladies?”
“I’ll be happy to follow you,” Iris told her grandmother. Anandra merely nodded in assent.
They started down the hallway Sallie had directed them to. Sallie went first, Iris second, and Anandra was the last to leave the room. Out of the corner of her eye, Iris saw Anandra draw her knife from her pants. She was hesitant about an armed Anandra walking right behind her, but she didn’t really have a choice, and besides, if Anandra had been planning to kill her, wouldn’t she have done it by now?
Sallie led them down passageway after passageway, pausing only a few seconds at each split in the tunnels before leading them in whatever happened to be her chosen direction. Iris was starting to wonder whether she knew what she was doing, but finally, it looked as if a bright light lay at the end of their current hallway. Was that the sun?
No, it wasn’t. Instead, an exceptionally large room was beyond that final hallway, lit by huge torches and full of statues. Very familiar-looking statues, Iris noticed at once. They were the same warriors she’d seen earlier on her travels with Anandra, the ones who worked for Tressa.
Yes, Tressa, who just happened to be sitting in a large, velvet-draped throne in the middle of the room. The warriors’ cold eyes all moved toward them seconds after they entered the room, and Iris got ready to turn and run. But before she could, two warriors grabbed her and began to drag her straight to Tressa, a self-satisfied sneer spreading across her bloodred lips.
“My honored guests, at last we meet. Why don’t you stay?” She cackled at her decidedly unfunny joke, and the warriors echoed her, the whole room filling with the sounds of their likely forced approval of her pathetic sense of humor.
Iris was feeling pretty pathetic right then, though, no longer in control of her feet or body. No, she wasn’t in control of anything at all anymore.
She tried to fight the warriors who were dragging her along, but her strength couldn’t even come close to matching theirs. And even if Anandra had a hundred of those stones from earlier, she wouldn’t have enough time to use them all before she was stopped, for the warriors numbered in the hundreds, if not the thousands. Iris stopped struggling against the warriors, instead looking at Anandra and her grandmother for what would probably be the last time. Now Anandra was being dragged forward as well, and the warriors had wrapped some sort of magical rope around her grandmother’s translucent wrists and were now dragging her along right behind Anandra.
When all three of them were lined up before Tressa, she rose from her throne and stared down at them. The scornful pride on her face showed that she knew she’d won. “Finally, Selehn, I have you on your knees. I knew your granddaughter was the only one who could wish you here. You don’t know how long it took me to get back here, or how long it took me to build my army back up, but—”
“Actually, I do,” her grandmother answered. “I’d guess about twenty sun-cycles or so.”
“Silence. You are now within my grasp, finally, and you will obey me!” Tressa reached down and lifted a tall silver staff, topped with a red-eyed serpent. Its eyes began to glow, and Iris watched in terror as light shot out from them, hitting her grandmother’s projection and quickly coating it with bright-red light. Her grandmother screamed for what seemed like a horribly long time, and then her head fell forward and the light disappeared.
Now her grandmother was flesh and blood, Iris could see. Now she was really in the room. Now, most likely, Tressa finally had what she wanted.
“You win, my old friend. Well played.” Sallie’s voice shook a little as she spoke, but her gaze was steady as she looked up at Tressa’s face. “What will you do now?”
“Take over the land, of course. My armies have already begun, and as we all know, you are the only one who could possibly stand in my way. But I did not know where you were, and I knew I could not use the wishing flower to find you. Only one who has a stupid, kind heart can use those flowers, as we all know. Now, it is time for you to die, Selehn, but first, I will take the life of your daughter’s special friend.”
While Tressa had been speaking, Anandra had managed to get her arm out of the warrior’s grasp, and now she slipped something into Iris’s hand. It was cool and slightly thick, and Iris saw it was her grandfather’s candle. But how would she light it, with her arms held so tight? And even if she could get free, what would she light it with?
Her first question was answered when Anandra fought the warrior’s other hand off her, and Iris watched as she stabbed one in the throat and sliced the other one’s head clean off. But just as quickly as its head had disappeared, another one grew back.
Her plan had worked, though, because now the warriors who had been holding Iris let go of her and began to grab at Anandra, who managed to just barely escape their large fists each time they tried to strike her.
Now it was up to Iris, entirely up to her. “Fuck,” she swore, “what am I supposed to do now?”
“You’ll figure it out,” Anandra yelled. “I know you’re smart enough to.” This time one of the warriors’ hands made contact, and Anandra doubled over as it hit. “Use your powers,” she groaned, and then she fell to her knees.
Her powers. Of course! Could she use them in such a tense situation, though? One where the tension didn’t come from arousal but instead a rather large amount of terror? Could she do this?
Iris screwed her eyes shut tight, praying that she could, and then she felt a light weight inside her till-then empty hand. She opened her eyes and looked at what that hand held. A long match, red-tipped and made of dark wood, lay there in her palm. Time for some famous last words, she thought, and she struck the match on the stone floor, bringing it to the candle’s wick.
“Please, please, light,” she begged, her words sounding much like the ones Anandra had said when Iris had come to. Anandra, who now had her arms bent behind her back, her head held in place by one of the warriors. Anandra, who probably didn’t have long to live. Anandra, who was now saying something, just as the candle’s wick began to burn.
“If I don’t make it,” Anandra said, then groaned. Her voice was weak but empty of fear. “If I don’t make it, I want you to know that my last thoughts will be of you, sweet Iris…my love.”
But before the warriors could deliver the killing blow, all four of them stumbled backward at the same time. Was it working? Iris looked around, watching as the warriors closest to them began to look strange around the tops of their heads, almost like they were…melting?
Yes, they were! First, the crowns of the warriors’ heads turned to liquid, running down their faces, past their eyes, eyes that were also melting now, and soon their lower heads melted, too. Next, their shoulders became soft, and then their arms, and soon enough, only a puddle remained where each warrior had once stood.
And Iris now stood up, holding the candle firmly in her hand as she rose. No way was she going to let go of it any time soon. No, she wouldn’t loosen her hold on the wonderful magic candle until it had done everything it needed to do.
As the warriors who had been restraining her grandmother also stumbled back and began to melt, she heard Tressa’s now-frightened voice call out. “No, warriors, seize them! Do my bidding! You…you must! No!” As she became more and more helpless, her voice filled with more and more fear, warrior after warrior melting into a puddle of useless liquid.
Useless to Tressa, at least, but very useful to Iris and Anandra and, of course, Sallie. Or Selehn, as she might call her instead. Iris knew she could never get used to calling her grandmother that name, any more than she could get used to this world. Or could she?
Iris watched now as Tressa’s staff melted, just as the warriors had. And then sparks started raining down from the ceiling, right above Tressa, hitting her throne and her head and shoulders. They fell faster and faster, soon just a blur of bright fire, until Tressa was completely enveloped in their reddish-orange glow. She opened her mouth wide and began to yell something, but she couldn’t get a single sound
out of her mouth, because with one last, gigantic circle of fire falling from above her, a huge flash of light spread from where she stood, and when it had faded, she was gone, only a pile of smoking ash remaining where she had once stood.
Iris’s task was clearly done, the large room now filled with dark, oily-looking puddles. She now had time to think for the first time in hours. Did she really want to return home? Or had this new world, full of epic magic, awe-inspiring creatures, and an awe-inspiring woman, become her new home? True, she had friends back on Earth, and her foster parents were there, too—she would have to figure out some kind of way to still see them, of course.
Wait. Was she really considering this? Was she actually thinking of staying here?
But then her grandmother turned to her, a bright grin lighting up her beautiful face, and her next words were all the answer Iris needed to help her make up her mind. “I think someone is waiting for the three of us outside. Two someones, actually…I think it’s your parents, and I think they’re waiting to see you. Yes! They are! Follow me, ladies, follow me!”
Her grandmother took off at a rather fast run for a woman her age, but Iris didn’t have time to wonder how a woman who’d said she needed a cane could book it like that. Instead, she turned to Anandra and held out her hand. “Are you coming with us?” she asked.
She didn’t have to wait long for an answer. Anandra took Iris’s hand in hers, held it to her lips, and then kissed it. “That’s the easiest question I’ve ever been asked.”
“Easiest? What do you mean? Is that a ‘yes’?” Iris kept her eyes on Anandra’s face, wondering what her words meant.
“It means yes. Yes, I most definitely am.”
They hugged each other for a few seconds, and then the words that Iris had whispered to Anandra the night before were now whispered back. “I love you, Iris. Please stay. Please. Now that you’re safe.”
“I most definitely will,” she answered, and Anandra laughed.
Out of This World Page 19
