by Aisha Saeed
“Now what?” the demon snarled, jerking back to look at her.
It was now or never.
Diana popped the lid off with her thumb, careful not to drop the container. Before the demon could say anything more, she leaned forward and splashed the potion on him.
Like the bird and the boulder, the liquid went straight through him.
He glanced down at his torso and then at Diana.
“Trying to hydrate me?” He smiled. With a finger, he flicked the canteen from Diana’s hand. It clattered to the ground.
Diana’s hopes wavered—they’d gambled on the potion Augustus had whipped up, but the demon looked as powerful as ever. Had it really failed? A botched experiment they would pay for with their lives?
“I must say, I did not take you for being quite this silly. The things children do—”
His smile froze. The sound of sizzling filled the air. Then steam began rising rapidly from his body—no longer compact, his body morphed and expanded around him.
Angry howls tore from him and echoed through the night sky. “What have you done?” he growled. “You stupid, stupid girl!”
His hands flew to his face, releasing Diana. His mouth twisted into an angry slant. He groaned and bent at the waist. His eyes blinked rapidly. He jerked forward and back, as though trying to expel the liquid—but it was too late.
Falling to the ground, the demon writhed and moaned. Diana held her breath. Waiting.
After a few tense moments, the demon rose. Diana jumped back. He lunged at her but then froze in midair before falling to the ground. He groaned as his body began to grow limp.
Vapors rose from his rapidly deflating body like steam emanating from a boiling pot of water.
“Big—mistake—girl,” the demon panted. “You have—made him—mad.”
“Who?” Diana shouted. “I deserve to know!”
The demon’s voice grew quieter. His figure began to fade in and out of focus.
“He…always…gets…what…he…wants.”
More sounds tumbled from his lips, but they were scrambled, garbled as he rapidly evaporated into the night sky. Diana strained her ears to make sense of them, but it was no use. Diana, Augustus, and Sakina stood motionless, watching as the demon grew more and more translucent.
And then he was gone.
Diana let out the breath she’d been holding.
“And now the game is over,” she said evenly.
“You did it, Diana,” Augustus breathed out.
“We did it,” Diana told them. She leaned down, picked up the Lasso of Truth from the sandy beach, and tucked it in her belt loop. “We all did it together.”
“Way to go, pretending to be enchanted,” Diana told Augustus. “You had me completely fooled until you winked at me.”
“Same here.” Sakina laughed. “I really didn’t want to battle you.”
“My father didn’t manage to get all the petals out of my ears.” Augustus grinned. “Turns out even a few fragments will do. I decided to take a calculated risk and see if it could work out— Your hand!” he exclaimed at Diana.
Diana glanced down at her wrist. The burn from where the demon had held her stung. Her wrist and palm were scorched red and throbbing. But, looking at Augustus, she could see that his wounds were as severe as her own.
“I know.” He nodded and winced. “It still hurts. I can get something for both of us,” he said. “It’ll be easy enough to whip up a concoction.”
Villagers began emerging from the tree line. Their pitchforks and flaming torches were gone. Grass and dirt smudged their clothing. Some limped. For a moment Diana worried—the demon was gone, but did his spell remain?
A woman with ginger hair in a billowing cotton dress approached them. Diana recognized her as Thea, the woman the demon had commanded earlier.
“Augustus,” she asked. Her blank expression was now replaced with concern. “Are you all right? What are you doing out here at this hour? What am I doing here?”
“Why is the golden chariot set out on the runway?” a man asked. “It can’t be there unless Zeus himself is here.”
“Was someone going to steal it?”
“My head hurts,” another moaned.
“I had the strangest dream.”
They glanced at one another and then looked at Sakina and Diana.
“Who are they?”
“What is going on?”
“It’s a long story,” Augustus said. “Someone evil was here. A demon. He forced us to do awful things. He was about to have us set our own nation on fire.”
The villagers exchanged horrified looks.
“But he’s gone,” Augustus assured them, “and we’re safe now.”
“But where did he come from?” someone asked.
“How did he convince us to do his evil work?” asked another.
“I would never set my own home on fire. Do you hear me? Never!”
The conversation grew louder as people began speaking over one another.
“I’ll explain soon,” Augustus promised. “But in the meantime, I have to help…my friends.” He looked at Sakina and Diana. “Come with me, please. I’ll get you all the things you need to return home.”
Home.
Diana felt a burst of emotion rise within her. They may have defeated the demon, but the women of Themyscira still needed her help.
Diana looked to the horizon as the sun began to rise in the distance. The sky became streaked with purple and red as the night disappeared and a new day rose over the village. Though the sun brought with it light, all Diana felt was the darkness of despair. Too many worries still crowded her heart. Augustus said he could create an antidote to wake the women, but what if he couldn’t? And then there was the other matter—she looked back at the empty golden chariot still resting on the runway and fidgeted remembering the demon’s final words: He always gets what he wants.
Who was he? Was he still going to try to find her?
The sun shone bright over Sáz now. The room they were clustered inside was tiny—off the apothecary’s main store. Diana watched Augustus crush a petal in a mortar and pestle. He twisted a seed from the inside of a berry and inserted it into a glass vial. He was a good potion maker, Diana reminded herself. There was no doubt about it. But it was a brand-new potion for him….She hoped with her whole heart that it would work; the fate of Themyscira rested entirely upon this antidote.
Glancing out the window, Diana saw the bonfire was out at last. People cleaned up charred branches and swept away debris. The sound of children’s laughter and the humming of music could be heard through the windows of the tiny space. Was her own homeland as silent as she’d left it? The urgency of returning home ate away at her. She looked down at the clear lotion Augustus had applied to her wrist, where the demon’s touch had burned her. To her relief, it was healing.
“I still can’t make sense of how you broke out of the handcuffs,” Sakina said. She turned to Augustus. “I wish you could’ve seen it. They were made of solid steel.”
“That is fascinating,” Augustus said. “Squeezing your hands through the cuffs is conceivable, but tearing them off? That goes against the laws of physics. How did you break them?”
“I don’t know,” Diana said. She herself couldn’t believe all the feats she’d managed to accomplish. For the first time she realized that, as much as she didn’t know about the world, there was just as much about herself she had yet to discover. But one lesson she learned today: she was stronger than she had realized.
Augustus pulled out a pot, filled it with water, and placed it on a burner.
“It’s a kind of magic, what you do,” said Diana. “Seeing something that doesn’t exist and imagining it into being.”
“Thanks. Maybe one day my father will agree with you, too.�
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Diana thought of her mother and their endless circular arguments about her training. Thinking of her mother now, trapped in an eternal sleep, made her ache. She’d give just about anything to wake her.
The back door creaked open.
“I’m almost done, Mr. Broderick,” Augustus said. “I mixed the powder first, like you said. It should only be a few more minutes under the heat and then it needs to cool.”
But it wasn’t Mr. Broderick. The person who stepped inside was Brutus—Augustus’s father.
“Thought I’d find you here,” the man said. He shut the door behind him.
“Y-you know about my space for potion making?” The boy stared at his father.
“Of course I do,” he said. “You’ve been coming here since you were about eight, haven’t you?”
“Y-yes.” Augustus blushed.
Brutus turned to the two girls.
“I came to apologize to you. All of you,” he said. His eyes were fixed on the floor. “I can’t begin to tell you how sorry I am. I don’t understand how I could have been so ready to hand over my own son.”
“It wasn’t you, Father,” Augustus said quickly. “Everyone was under his spell.”
“A part of me was locked away,” Brutus said, “telling me my actions were wrong, but I couldn’t access my free will. His words felt so right. I should have fought it. I could have tried harder.”
“We’re okay now, Father.” Augustus hurried to Brutus and hugged him.
“Augustus invented a potion. It destroyed the demon,” Diana said. “He came up with it on the spot, all by himself.”
“Is that true, son?” Brutus looked at Augustus in wonder.
“It wasn’t too difficult,” the boy said bashfully. “Once I thought harder about his composition, I worked backward to discover how those properties could be easily disrupted.”
“You saved this town,” his father said.
“Not alone.” Augustus smiled at Sakina and Diana. “We were a team. But yes, I helped. The potion was an important part of taking him down.”
Augustus’s father studied the boy quietly.
“I’ve always been afraid of your potion making desires,” he said. “Don’t understand the first thing about how it works. But maybe I should be less afraid and more open to you following your dreams.”
“Are you saying…?” Augustus’s voice trailed off.
“You can do both, can’t you?” his father said. “Help me with chariots and study potion-making with Mr. Broderick?”
“I already do,” Augustus said shyly.
“Maybe you can teach me a thing or two.”
Brutus leaned down and embraced his son. Diana smiled with pride for Augustus just as the clear liquid in the vial turned a sunflower yellow.
“It’s ready,” Augustus said. He stepped away from Brutus, placed a sprig of mint inside the vial, and screwed a misting-spray top onto it before handing it to Diana. “Shake it and spray inside and outside the palace. Everyone asleep on Themyscira will be awake within moments.”
“Is the force field around Sáz gone?” Sakina asked.
“It was as soon as the demon was destroyed,” Augustus said. “You’re free to go home anytime.”
They left the shop and walked toward the dock. Turning down the main street, people burst out of their homes, hurrying toward them.
“How long were you going to stay cooped up in Broderick’s shop?” a woman huffed.
“You knew I was there?” Augustus said.
“It’s a small town,” a young girl giggled. She took a step forward and clasped her hands. “I can’t believe I got to meet real live heroes. My friends won’t believe it.”
Heroes? Diana chuckled. But it was true, wasn’t it? The three of them had been brave—and they had saved the day.
“Thank you,” a woman said. She approached the trio and handed the girls a basket of fresh blueberry muffins.
“This town owes you an enormous debt,” said a man. It was Marco.
“You shouldn’t have had to save us,” an older gentleman said sadly. “You’re children.”
“Don’t understand how a thing like this happens,” another said, shaking his head.
“We’ll be sending a message to the gods to let them know what happened,” said another. “They will not be happy when they find out.”
The townspeople walked the girls to the first plane. They stood at the edge of the woods and waved.
“I wish you could stay a bit longer,” Augustus said wistfully as they neared the chariot. “Now that everything is safe again, we could actually have some fun. There’s a cave not far from the shore with the most beautiful stingrays….”
“The sooner we get home, the better,” Diana said, worried about her mother and the others who were still motionless on Themyscira. She glanced around the island. Everything seemed idyllic now, but whoever he was who had commissioned the demon to capture her was still out there. The quicker they could reach home, the better.
A cream-colored chariot awaited them on the runway.
“How will we get this back to you?” Diana asked, gesturing to the chariot.
“It’s yours,” said Augustus, waving a hand at the transport.
“Augustus, it’s beautiful! But it must cost a fortune.”
“Well, what’s the going rate for saving an entire town?” Augustus asked with a laugh. “I helped make this one myself, apprenticing with my father last month. I would be honored if you would take it with you to get home.”
“Thank you,” said Diana, bowing her head.
“Maybe one day you can use it to come visit.” He handed her a bag. “There’s enough powder in here for many flights.”
“Not ‘maybe’! Definitely,” Sakina told him.
Diana smiled and nodded.
The three embraced, and then Diana and Sakina hopped into the chariot. Mira grabbed the lead rope and lifted it with her beak. They sprinkled the powder and waited—within seconds the powder was absorbed and the chariot lifted into the air. Augustus jumped and waved as the chariot rose higher and higher. Soon the palm trees, the sandy shores, the cliffs, and the lava river along the middle of Sáz grew smaller and smaller until the island completely disappeared from view.
Diana held up the glass vial. It was still yellow, and its consistency was the same as it had been when they’d left. She wanted to trust it would work, but her optimism cracked a bit. An eternal sleep meant forever.
“I’m worried, too,” Sakina said, watching Diana’s pinched expression.
“It’ll work.” Diana swallowed.
It has to.
Diana stood straighter as Themyscira came into full view. The sun shone bright above them, on the cloudless day. There they were, the jagged cliff-lined shores, her favorite olive tree jutting over the sea, the stone temples, and the cream-colored palace—her home. She felt a rush of relief at seeing the familiar rosebushes and gardens.
The chariot touched down on the shore, and they hurried past the empty white tents and bare tables still set up for the Chará festival. Heaviness settled over Diana. The tents should have been filled with people today, laughter and conversation flowing everywhere she turned. There should have been women practicing combat moves and trying out different weapons in the coliseum. Her mother, along with other leaders, should have been huddled close in deep conversation.
But the island was silent.
The girls parted the palace doors. They stepped onto the marble tiles and rushed down the hall, straight to the guest quarters. Diana put a hand to her mouth when they stepped inside. The scent of oranges was gone, but the scene remained, the same as the night before. All the women were exactly as they had been: asleep.
“Well, here goes nothing,” she said. She picked up the glass misting bottl
e and sprayed the perimeter of the hall. Unlike the citrus smell of the original potion, this one had no discernible scent save for a hint of mint. Diana traversed the hallways, misting the potion, and in every room she passed she found at least one sleeping woman.
Joining Sakina in the main hall, they watched the women. And waited.
“It’ll work,” Sakina said. “Right?”
Diana bit her lip.
She weaved through the women sleeping on the floor until she reached her mother. Diana kneeled down to watch Queen Hippolyta’s sleeping form move almost imperceptibly with each breath.
“Any sign of your mother coming to?” Diana asked Sakina.
Sakina crouched by the velvet sofas, next to her mother, Queen Khadijah. She swallowed and shook her head.
A few more heart-pounding moments passed. Diana shivered. Augustus was a good potion maker, this much she knew—but what if this potion was the one that failed?
But then her mother yawned.
Another woman coughed.
Others began to rouse.
“I shut my eyes for two seconds,” a woman grumbled. “How is it already daylight?”
“I nodded off with my wine goblet still full?” another woman said in disbelief, staring at the cup in her hand.
“You fell asleep, too?” someone asked.
Suddenly Queen Khadijah woke with a start.
“Mother!” Sakina cried, reaching over to give her mother a hug.
“Such a greeting!” Her mother rubbed her eyes, returning her daughter’s embrace. “What did I do to merit such a warm hug?”
“Wait. Did everyone fall asleep? How?”
Voices began to overlap one another.
“I’d like to know the same thing,” Queen Hippolyta said. She rose from her chaise longue.
“Mother!” Diana’s voice rose. She turned toward her mother.
The queen placed a hand on her hip. Concern etched her face.
“How did all of us fall asleep at the same time?”
“It was an enchantment,” said Diana. “A potion put you to sleep late last night while you were relaxing in this hall. Something called the misting potion of eternal sleep. But we managed to get the antidote.”
