Chapter Seventeen
Nora was terrified. If Owen could control the minds of Agler and Maddie, maybe he could control everyone’s mind. Maybe even Phoebe’s or Coeus’. And the threat he’d made to her could extend further. He said that if anyone got in the way, he’d do whatever he could to get them out of the way, even if he hurt them. She couldn’t involve anyone else—not anyone. No, it was better if she got away from everyone. That way, no one could get hurt. Maybe, if she disappeared for a while, Owen would calm down or give up or... she didn’t know. But she didn’t want to endanger the muses either.
At first, she considered going back to the mundane world. She could hide there, and as long as she didn’t create anything, she’d be safe from the Influence. But she knew that Owen had been able to control her in the mundane world, and she didn’t want to run the risk of his finding her there and doing it again. So instead, under the cover of darkness, she took her tent down. She was going to move it away from the tweens and rebels enclave, where no one could find her. She dismantled her hammock and picked up all the rugs and blankets she had on the ground, folding them into a big pile. As she did so, she yanked them away from the corner where Catling was always meowing and quacking, and she noticed a pile of little red circles underneath.
Nora gasped. Those were the circles that appeared when the Influence came through the portals. She remembered picking one up right after they’d arrived in Helicon, and how weak it had made her. Why were they here? Was this what Catling had been making so much noise about?
Catling waddled over to her and squawked at the red circles.
It must be. How had they gotten here?
Using one of her blankets, Nora gathered up the circles. She wasn’t sure what to do with them, but she knew she wanted them away from her. They couldn’t be a good thing.
But she needed to move the tent. She wanted to be away from Owen. So she packed everything up, and, with Catling following her, set off into the woods. When she’d traveled a good distance, she simply dumped the gathered-up red cylinders and went on.
She found another spot, deep in the woods, far from everyone, where it would be hard to find her. She put her tent back up, reassembled her hammock. She was exhausted and fell into her hammock, held Catling close, and fell into an uneasy sleep.
Days and weeks passed. Nora didn’t leave her tent except in the dead of night, when she carefully would sneak to the food enclave to get things to eat. If she saw anyone, she hid herself until they were gone. She’d been worried that the muses might be looking for her, but it didn’t seem to be the case. At any rate, they hadn’t found her.
Her creativity was returning. Dirk must have been right. She’d felt exhilarated and inspired when she’d come back with Agler, and now she was able to draw again. But it hardly mattered, because she felt so much despair. She was frightened of Owen and everything seemed hopeless.
But as time wore on, she began to formulate a plan. If he was the problem, then she needed to stop him. She went over it in her head again and again, and one night, she snuck into the tweens and rebels enclave in the darkness. She went to Sawyer’s tent, because she was convinced that Maddie was still under Owen’s thrall.
She could hardly make out the shapes in Sawyer’s tent, but she thought she knew where his hammock was. She tiptoed forward. “Sawyer,” she whispered.
“Nora?” came the response. “Nora, are you here?”
“I’m here, Sawyer.”
“Nora!” He threw his covers off, leaped out of his hammock, and flung his arms around her. “I’ve been so worried.”
“I’m okay,” she said, “but I have to stay away, because Owen—”
“I know,” said Sawyer.
“You know?”
Sawyer pulled her down on his hammock, so they sat together. “Look, when you disappeared a month ago, I was worried. But I was the only person who was worried. I went to Maddie and Agler, and they both acted like it wasn’t a big deal. That totally freaked me out, so I went to talk to Owen.”
“Why’d you do that?”
“I figured he was behind it somehow,” said Sawyer. “Anyway, he seemed pretty annoyed that you were missing, but he said he’d find you eventually, and I shouldn’t worry about it. Then he started mumbling stuff underneath his breath—”
“He did that to Agler. It turned him into a zombie or something.”
“Yeah,” said Sawyer. “I’ve seen it. Anyway, it didn’t work on me, something that really pisses him off. I tried to go to someone about it after that—Alexander. But Owen had already gotten to him, and he brushed it off. So I went to the head of the clothing and fabric enclave. At first she seemed really concerned, and she said we’d do something about it, but Owen showed up. And as soon as he talked to her...presto! She no longer cared.”
Nora covered her mouth with her hand. “He’s awful.”
“So at that point I stopped telling people,” said Sawyer, “because I figured that everyone I told would just end up brainwashed by Owen. I wanted to go to Phoebe, but what if he started controlling Phoebe’s mind? What would happen then?”
Nora took Sawyer’s hand. “I’m so sorry about this.”
“It’s not your fault.”
“We have to get rid of him,” said Nora. “I came here to ask for your help.”
“You know I’ll help. Since his mind tricks don’t work on us,” said Sawyer, “so there’s got to be something we can do.”
“I wonder why he can’t control us,” said Nora.
“Does it matter? We need to stop him.”
“I wonder if it has anything to do with the fact we both lived in the mundane world for years,” said Nora. “Because when Agler got to the mundane world, it seemed to break Owen’s hold over him.”
“Could be,” said Sawyer. “But who really cares?”
“Well, if there were other muses who’d lived in the mundane world for a long time,” said Nora, “maybe we could get them to help us. Can you think of any?”
Sawyer was quiet for a long time, an expression of intense concentration on his face. “Actually, I can’t. It’s not something that muses tend to talk about much. If there had been other muse babies with us in the babies and toddlers enclave that came from the mundane world, maybe I could think of them, but I don’t think there were.”
Nora chewed on her lip. “It’s up to us, then. And I’ve got an idea. We need some rope. Can you get some from the fabric enclave?”
Sawyer grinned. “I like the way you think, Nora.”
Dancing Days Page 50
