Tala Phoenix and the Dragon's Lair

by Gabby Fawkes

  “Oh, sorry,” I replied. “You mean the ‘professionals’ who won’t even help fight for their own home?”

  “That’s not what I’m saying,” Apollo said, a crease appearing between his sandy brows. “Only that we need to weigh our options and come up with a viable plan, like your friend said, before running over there. First, we’ll need to see whether Aphie succeeds in getting Hera and the others here. There may be no need for any attack whatsoever.”

  “Until the btsan and gargoyles come straight here to Speranţă,” I said.

  I started walking off. It was clear what I needed to do next.

  “Where are you going?” Axel said.

  “To talk to the Romms,” I said. “We need their help. This has gone on too long.”

  Luckily for me the unsettling, depressing scene the Romms were creating with their funeral rites meant that the kids (other than Timmy) were keeping their distance.

  Just like Owen had said, over the past few days, they’d out and adopted the kid like a second son; one who shared their twisted sense of humor and love of mischief. Not that it mattered now for what I was about to do.

  Finally, my PV said contentedly, Finally you are doing things the intelligent way.

  -No, I’m just desperate, I responded in my head.

  Yes, yes, PV said, fed up already, now, are you going to stand here arguing with a voice in your head, or are you going to get on with it?

  “Get on with it,” I hissed out loud.

  This time, the heat that snaked through my birthmarks was less violent, more like stepping into a warm bath. Like coming home.

  I closed my eyes and shifted. At first, even as I strode ahead on my four massive black limbs, none of the gypsies noticed me. They were still far too deep in their mourning. I was sorry for the fools’ loss, but this had to be done now. There was too much at stake.

  I exhaled, smiled. Yes. The fools would do what had to be done.

  “Tala?” the plant human asked. Apparently she’d followed me, now hovered by protectively. I nodded to her.

  “This doesn’t concern you,” I hissed.

  I turned my gaze to the hairy gypsy man, who eyed me dully.

  “You know why I’m here,” I said. “You know what I need you to do.”

  “But… the gold,” he said weakly, “But-”

  “You have lost much today,” I said. “I would hate for you to lose more.”

  He stared at me, hard and long. Then, finally, he gave his head an inclination to the side and walked off. I stood there for a moment. No fire? No threats? No dismemberment?

  Pity.

  “Dum spiro spero?” the plant human said.

  I whirled around to laugh in her face, but instead found myself falling to the ground. Dum spiro spero, indeed.

  When I woke up again, the whole castle was vibrating.

  Demi was perched over me, worried.

  “What’s going on?” I asked.

  “You forced their hand,” she said, worry changing to anger now on her folded lips. “I hope you’re happy.”

  “What are you talking about?” I asked.

  Demi gestured over to the center of the entrance hall. There, several circles of Romms, each smaller than the last, surrounded the flames. The final circle of two, Jules and Milsindra, were… standing in the bright white flames.

  “Uh - what?” I asked, groggily lunging upright.

  “That’s why they’ve been trying to get out of doing the shielding magic,” Demi said quietly, “It’s extremely powerful, dangerous, it might not even work. It could kill them, Tal.”

  “But I thought… Didn’t they move and hide the DSA base? How much different is this?”

  “A good bit,” Demi said. “According to Jules, the DSA had powerful totems for them to sap power from. Here, I guess they have to use fire.”

  Speranţă’s stone walls tremored. I steadied myself on Demi, although I kept my gaze on the circles of Romms. Each one of them was illuminated in a white glow, as if the fire was an actual energy, running through their joined hands.

  “Can they stop?” I asked, “Could this bring down Speranţă?”

  “I don’t know,” Demi said, shaking her head.

  The Romms began to shake. My stomach contracted.

  Why hadn’t I ever asked the reasons for their dogged avoidance of performing the spell?

  Sure, if this magical shield succeeded, it would be invaluable. At least according to what Artemis had told me, when I asked her. Speranţă would be virtually invisible, unfindable, except to those who had entered before, or who we invited in.

  But if this failed… was I willing to have the death of fifty or so people on my hands? Christ, even the murderous little girl was part of the circle, her hands joined with the others, face strained with pain as she muttered the same words as the rest.

  And that smell… acrid, burning…

  Suddenly, one older bony woman at the edge wilted and fell.

  Now the muttering became louder, the walls shook more.

  “What does that mean?” I asked Demi, but she didn’t respond. Couldn’t.

  It was horribly obvious now, the Romms weren’t strong enough. Their magic was failing, and when it fully failed…

  Someone rushed by. Kian took the place where the woman had been and clasped hands with the others.

  No.

  I raced forward, after her. To tell her that it wasn’t worth it. To tell her to let go. To tell them all to stop.

  Everything was shaking. Everyone was glowing, wailing…

  Then, just as I reached them, with an ear-splitting crack, they all fell to the ground.

  “Kian!” I screamed, reaching my friend, but too late.

  She was on the ground, not moving, not even breathing.

  For John’s sake, what had I just done?

  21

  I shoved my head to Kian’s chest, listening for a heartbeat. Nothing.

  A soundless scream tore at my throat as tears clouded my vision. My best friend. My Kian. She was – she couldn’t be…

  “No,” I croaked, crying, somehow staggering off.

  I had to help her. Had to save her. She couldn’t be… gone.

  Heat flamed through me and died. My PV whimpered.

  “Help!” I cried, wildly careening around. “Help!”

  If I could just get to Apollo, if I could just…

  Behind me, a sputtering, coughing sound. What the—?

  On the ground, Kian winced. “Mi… dio… amiga…” She let out a choking, crackling sound that took me a moment to recognize as laughter. “Cool your shit.”

  I scrambled over, falling to my knees. For John’s sake – she was alive. Kian was really alive.

  I practically sagged to the ground beside her, managing to ask, “You’re okay?”

  “I’m alive, aren’t I?” Kian said in a wheeze.

  I clutched at her. “I thought…”

  She patted me gingerly. “I know what you thought, but it’s good. I’m good.” She waggled a few fingers. “See?”

  “You guys did it,” Demi said softly, on Kian’s other side. “The spell succeeded. That’s what this means, right?”

  “I think so,” Kian said. “And we didn’t even kill anyone in the process, I’m pretty sure.”

  Around us, the other Romms on the ground were rousing, even the older bony woman who had fallen first.

  “I had no idea,” I said falteringly.

  “That’s just the point,” Milsindra said, striding by, already on her feet and scowling. “You’re just like all the other witches, shifters, humans and Olympians. Always willing to take and take, without even knowing what exactly it is you’re asking for.”

  “How many times did I ask you guys about the shielding spell?” I protested. “You could have told me about the dangers, that it would almost… could even kill-”

  She let out a short, bitter laugh. “The Romamagi do not mistake others for caring for us how we do. When it came down
to it, you would choose saving your friends and your home over us, would you not?”

  She left without giving me time to respond. Though I wasn’t sure what I would’ve said, anyway.

  That night, lukewarm soup and stale baguettes were served in the dining hall. No one seemed in a mood to cook – or eat, for that matter.

  The top Romm table had the most marked change of all. Even though it was crowded with almost its usual numbers, there was no talk, no laughter, no shouting, no singing, no dancing. It might as well have been empty.

  The next morning, they were gone.

  “I can’t believe they just left,” Demi said, clearly hurt.

  As weird a pairing as they had been, she and Jules had seemed to bond near the end. I guess crazier things have happened.

  “They can’t tell anyone about where we are, can they?” Jeremy asked, nibbling at his single piece of toast sullenly.

  He must have been really worried, because this was the first time I’d seen him eat anything less than five servings at any given meal.

  “No,” Apollo said. “To my understanding, the shielding spell protects Speranţă from anyone who would do it, or the people inside it, any harm. The only way they could be permitted entry again is if they had good intentions toward us. They could not come with secret DSA agents, for instance.”

  “That’s a relief, at least,” I said. “Any news from Aphie?”

  Further down, eating something that looked suspiciously like a fish stick TV dinner, Artemis just shook her head. “Not yet.”

  The Olympians didn’t say it outright, but I could see it in their faces. They doubted they’d get any word from her at all.

  My fingers clenched around my spoon and I stabbed at a cheerio so hard that my spoon bashed through it into the bowl and cracked it.

  Shit. But really, how long were we going to sit here and wait before we realized we had to go and help Olympus?

  Noise at the entranceway distracted me.

  It was Athena, who was shaking Hulda’s hand and speaking… was that German?

  “My sister always did have a wealth of talents,” Axel replied to my questioning look.

  “If only she could decide which side to use them for,” Apollo said darkly.

  “Hey,” Dion said, getting to his feet. “She’s here, isn’t she? Athena!” He walked over to embrace her.

  “I heard about Olympus,” she said. “I came to help, if you’ll have me.”

  I was about to ask about the whole shielding spell, but then I remembered that Dion had basically invited her here weeks ago. Clearly, she didn’t intend us harm, since that was the second part of who the shielding spell prevented entering. Not that I was thinking like that. Much.

  Impending battles made me a liiiiittle paranoid.

  Apollo rose but only went over halfway. “Since when did Hera’s misfortunes trouble you?”

  She eyed him coldly, flicking her wrist outward so the white-faced barn owl on her shoulder could take flight. “They don’t, frankly. I shall not deceive you and claim that if Hera gets captured, imprisoned, or humiliated in a particularly ghastly way that I’d be at all upset. But Olympus is my home, and the people there my friends.”

  “And yet, you come to us instead of going to help them directly,” Apollo said.

  Something like a sneer quirked on Athena’s rosebud lips as she ran a finger along the brim of her red feathered, gold-studded battle helmet. “As powerful as I am, I am one Olympian. I assumed that you would have a better plan than simply storming in. Perhaps I am mistaken?”

  Rising, Axel went over to shake her hand. “You aren’t. We’re just waiting for word from Aphie. We were hoping to be able to hide everyone in here until the danger passes, but…”

  “You haven’t heard from her,” Athena said. With one blink, her intelligent blue eyes had gleaned everything and made a decision. “I see no reason why we shouldn’t prepare ourselves.”

  And with that, she strode away.

  By that afternoon, word had gotten out that Olympus was in danger, and we might actually be going to help. The kids threw themselves into the practice drills with abandon. Sammy’s tornado picked Tania up and dropped her so hard that she passed out. Some fifth year’s wolf form bit a hole in another’s elbow that took Marley the rest of the afternoon to heal.

  Although their enthusiasm didn’t please me as much as it did Athena, who goaded them on with congratulatory exclamations and sometimes even personal compliments when they did something particularly impressive.

  “We can’t bring kids to the fight at Olympus,” I told Demi, who nodded.

  “Why not?” Jeremy asked, watching as Tamarin ran into Jenna’s legs with so much force she toppled over.

  Although we cracked up, I added, “Seriously?”

  “The older ones should be able to help,” Kian pointed out.

  Jeremy nodded in agreement. “The younger ones won’t like it, but yeah, we can’t have any ten-year-olds putting themselves in danger like that.”

  “Or thirteen-year-olds,” I said.

  “Or fourteen-year-olds,” Kian added.

  “All the Olympians shouldn’t have to put themselves in danger either,” Demi said, her nervous eyes flicking to Persephone. She’d gone up against two pretty freaky mid-year werehyenas and come out on top, so she was feeling pretty battle-ready.

  “Were you not here for the past hour?” Persephone demanded.

  “Persephone,” Demi said, in her mom-voice, “I’m not saying that you aren’t capable of holding your own. I’m just saying…”

  As they went at it, Kian, Jer and I edged away to continue our conversation.

  “Okay,” I said, “I guess it doesn’t hurt to let the younger kids train, though. We’ll break the news when we actually know what our plan is. No point in disappointing them or getting their hopes up before we have the complete picture of what our plan is for Olympus.”

  That night, we got the news.

  Aphie didn’t return herself, a blow to the hope we had all secretly been holding on to. A first-hand description of knowing what we were up against would’ve been invaluable.

  Instead, we received a visit from a bad-tempered and burned-looking cherub, who I could only assume Aphie had let in earlier. He flung a partially charred map at us before flying away, his ample scorched butt cheeks our last view of him before he disappeared from sight.

  Axel had confirmed, in an undertone, that he was from Aphie. We hadn’t seen her minions last time, since she saved them for special occasions. Made sense that your home getting attacked met that criteria.

  After Dion dashed off to fetch some port wine and red grapes, which lay untouched in the center of the dining hall table, the Olympians as well as Demi, Kian, Jeremy and I sat looking at the charred map darkly.

  “Does this mean what I think it does?” Kian asked, her tan index finger gingerly tracing the lines of smeared… lipstick? on the carefully delineated painted-canvas sections. Guess Aphie was a fan of cosmetics too.

  “That’s Aphie’s signature color,” Axel confirmed with a grimace.

  I felt less wiggling in my gut when, under the table, he squeezed my hand.

  “That must indicate how much land the gargoyles and btsan have conquered,” Athena confirmed with an abrupt nod. “So far.”

  I groaned. So far was still not good. I mean, judging by the maps’ lipstick smears, they’d already conquered a good third of Olympus. Even if we left now, how much more land would they have by the time we got there? Would there be anyone or anything even left to save?

  “None of the Olympians are at risk for being harmed,” Axel reminded me, raising our held hands on top of the table. “Although the villagers…”

  “We have to come up with a plan,” I said.

  “I’m all ears,” Artemis said. Her gaze was riveted on the map, too.

  I couldn’t take my gaze off it either, even though it was about the size of a placemat, and only showed how dismal things were. Sti
ll, I couldn’t help but think it somehow contained the secret to how we could make this thing work.

  I made a mental checklist of the areas it showed:

  the (conquered/ lipstick caked) Temple of Apollo, along with other temples and places I hadn’t got to visit.

  the (kinda conquered?/ lipstick scribbled) timples, fields, and Dion’s glen.

  the (not conquered/ lipstick-free) Hera’s palace, the village and… the Underworld.

  My gaze lingered there the longest.

  “They haven’t taken any of the Underworld yet,” I said thoughtfully.

  “Oh no,” Persephone said, holding up a finger. “Let me stop you there. Any plan involving my ex-husband is a very bad, very stupid, very bad, stupid plan.”

  “Maybe,” I said, “but it’s all we’ve got right now. Unless…”

  I looked to Athena. Earlier, Dion had been swearing up and down to Kian that Athena would have a way, had ‘special’ connections…

  “Don’t you, er, have lots of connections?” I asked, unable to fully meet her eye.

  Something about her stately posture and aura always made me feel like a bit of a kid around her. And out and out asking if she could save our butts seemed a bit much.

  She didn’t reply.

  “Tala, you were saying?” Axel said.

  “Now is not the time for me to use my connections,” Athena said firmly. She glanced my way, and, reaching over, put her hand on mine. “We have a plan. There may come a time when we do not have even a very bad, very stupid plan. That is when I save my contacts for.”

  “So you would let Olympus fall,” Apollo said, standing up, “rather than divulge your precious connections.”

  “Sit down,” Artemis said, tugging on his shirt. “You know she’s right. If someone’s attacking Olympus, this is just the first step.”

  “And there has still been no sign of Zeus?” Axel asked.

  No one responded until Athena, once again, gave an affirmative inclination of her head. “None.”

  Kian looked to me. “So, what’s this very bad and stupid plan?”

  Persephone made a distinctly displeased sound, but I plunged ahead. “Most of the area conquered is here,” I said, spreading my hand over the bottom part of the map, which consisted of the Temple of Apollo and other land. “But if we entered through the Underworld, and then came up this way, we could probably still make it to Hera’s palace. And if we got Hades’ help-”