The Lily Harper 8 Book Boxed Set

by HP Mallory

  Bill’s aura picked up some extra glow but there wasn’t anything new to see. The whizzing noises kept flying past us in the dark, although none came any closer than the first two. I kept my eyes open for trouble beyond our pool of light before asking a question of my own to Asterion. “So why aren’t you and Uriel still… friendly?”

  The Minotaur held up his whirlpool hand. “Because of this, the destruction of the maze unleashed Charybdis. No matter where we went in the Underground City, it trailed us like an omen of doom.” He frowned. “We managed to avoid it many times but it only takes once for it to win. It ultimately plucked Uriel from the air when we were on the border marches of Dis.”

  Bill’s mouth flew open. “An’ ya did nothing ta help him?”

  Asterion stabbed Bill with an angry glare. “What could I have done? If he’d been on the ground, I was still too far away to assist him. I could only stare helplessly as the hideous maelstrom finally consumed him whole. Now the only powerful being that ever showed me mercy is lost forever.”

  Not exactly forever, I thought, my mind flashing back to a photo of Uriel chained up. Gwydion had sent us the picture via text. Uriel appeared to be locked up in one of Alaire’s prisons, so we’d all wondered what could be powerful enough to kick the shit out of an archangel? Asterion’s story provided part of the answer.

  While all this was going through my head, Bill had another question. “The way yer talkin’, sounds like Charred-Rib-Ditz obliterstructs anyone who gits close enough ta git caught up in it.”

  The Minotaur’s eyes softened. “That is also what I thought for a time. Until Minos told me something that contradicted that.”

  And here we go, I thought, the missing piece of the puzzle.

  Tallis raised his eyebrows. “Well, dinnae keep us in suspense. What’d the Lord High Judge say?”

  Asterion wet his lips with uncertainty. “In the event that any being passing through the center of the maelstrom survives, there is a place where such a survivor can wind up.” Then he looked ruefully at the ground. “I regret to say that moment made me so angry that I stopped listening to Minos entirely. Now, I would dearly like to know exactly where that place is.”

  While we were talking, the whizzing noises became more and more distant. Evenually, they stopped altogether. Even so, just to be on the safe side, both Tallis and I kept our swords out.

  I did one visual scan of the perimeter before speaking to Asterion again. “Well, since we’re going to be seeing Minos soon, maybe we should ask him that question?”

  Asterion’s eyes went right back to the ground. “I wonder if he will feel inclined to be so generous with his knowledge.”

  Tallis shrugged. “If he wishes ta be difficult, ye can always threaten nae ta watch his gate. Ah imagine that would be enough ta change his mind.”

  Asterion shook his head so fiercely, it looked like he was trying to shake off a fistful of fleas. “I have already told you, his sworn officers, that I shall guard the gate. If he puts the question to you of whether I will, you will be compelled by the magic in your oaths to speak the truth.” He stopped shaking and aimed his eyes ahead once again. “One of the few things we have in common is a severe distaste for deception.”

  I reached a hand out to grip his massive arm. He just seemed like he needed a friend. “Then I guess we’ll just have to persuade Minos while he’s still being honest.”

  The look in Asterion’s eyes didn’t dare acknowledge the hope I saw shining in them. “Do you really think he—”

  I squeezed his bicep before letting go. “You’re standing by us now. We’ll stand by you later.” I looked over at Tallis. “Isn’t that how it works, Tallis?”

  The reluctant response from Tallis wasn’t exactly helping my case. “‘Tis how it should work… though nae always in practice.” I sent him a “not helping!” glare and he thankfully seemed to get the message loud and clear. “But aye… Ah too shall plead yer case afore the Judge oopon our return.”

  Bill raised his own hand. “I, three… although there ain’t gonna be a lot o’ pleadin’ when I gits ta talkin’.”

  The Minotaur looked at all of us in gratitude. “I sincerely thank all of you. May we be successful in our goals.”

  The lingering look he shot my way made me wonder if one of his goals involved me.

  ###

  The first things I saw were the dim flashing lights. Bill’s aura emitted enough light to see for the most part, but the darkness around us was so infinitely vast, any sort of light would stand out like glitter on a black blanket. Weak emanations kept poking their way through, looking like blinking Christmas tree lights. I thought I saw big and solid things in the background.

  Tallis sighed and sheathed his blade. “Fireflies… ye only see those ‘round the Grove.”

  I kept looking as far as I could see, halfway expecting the buzzing noises to come back for an ambush. I held out my sword. Tallis saw me and made a sound. “Ach, put that away, Besom. We could scarcely be safer than if we were back in yer apartment.”

  Asterion put a gentle hand on the blade itself. “He speaks truly. We are safe.”

  Bill stroked his chin as we got closer. “An’ me without a jar…”

  The light from our walking angel lamp revealed the big things the fireflies were avoiding were trees. But these weren’t just any old trees. Oh, no! They had glossy, smooth bark with regular grooves carved into them, open holes that looked like mouths, and thin branches that couldn’t have taken much to snap off.

  I’d skimmed through my copy of Dante’s Inferno during the two weeks we spent in the apartment. I remembered one section that I was fairly sure was where we were right now: the Wood of Suicides. I was halfway tempted to break off a branch just to see if it would bleed or talk. But only halfway tempted… My curiosity wasn’t going to lead me to possibly hurt someone.

  As we approached the trees, I heard someone whispering. Not the whispering I heard out in the endless void when I was separated from Tallis and Bill but reassuring whispers of someone trying to comfort someone else. I instantly thought of my mom. Whenever I was sick, she’d come by my apartment and insist on staying with me until I got better. If my malady really got me down low, she’d softly stroke my forehead and whisper that everything would be okay. The only difference between her voice and the voice I heard now was the deep timbre of the latter. Only a man’s voice sounded like that.

  No one, not even Bill the Chatterbox, dared to interrupt the voice as we neared it. There were more trees beyond, making the woods thinner than a forest but thicker than what you might find in a city park.

  The trees eventually opened up to a small clearing, where we saw a man in a black, flowing robe. His thin face had a scraggly beard but nothing as magnificent as Minos’. He looked like he hadn’t eaten anything in more than a few weeks, which was supported by what little I could see of his body under the robe. He was leaning against a tree, stroking it the same way my mom stroked my forehead.

  At one point, he turned around to face us, his voice still soothingly reassuring the tree. That’s when we got a good look at his eyes and their faded, empty blue irises. Despite the glowing brightness of Bill’s light, the man never blinked. And he kept whispering away like we weren’t even there. That’s when I finally figured it out: he was blind.

  The tree in his arms suddenly seemed to shudder and moan in despair. Then it started rocking from side to side. I got the impression that if this tree could have pulled its roots out of the ground and run away, it would have. The blind man shushed it, increasing his stroking of its bark as he did.

  “I know, Phillip, I know. It is so terrifying to let go. But what good has hanging onto your pain brought you? Is it not time to simply accept that all this happened so that you may be free at last?”

  The tree gradually stopped moving, although it did moan again more quietly. Why did it sound scared? The man kissed its bark like he was kissing a cheek.

  “No, it can never be the same after
this. But that is just as well. And think of how much better you will feel when it is over.”

  At those words, the tree seemed to sag toward him. The noise it made sounded like a heavy exhale… like it was taking its last breath. As it neared the end of its breath, I saw a flash where the man stood. While it lacked the headache-inducing factor from one of Bill’s aura flashbangs, I still had to blink away the bright spots. When I could see again, I spotted a pure ball of white floating away from the tree before moving on to the outer edge of the grove. The light began to dim as it flew past us. When I looked back at the man again, I was surprised to see the tree had darkened into a deep brown color and the man had turned into a woman.

  As a female, she didn’t look much different than she had as a man. As if she were his sister, her face had a strong familial resemblance to the man. Also, she looked about the same age as her bearded counterpart, and her eyes remained as vacant and unseeing as his. The only real difference was the hint of a decent bust underneath the robe, even though her thin body looked well beyond the point of being anorexic.

  She smiled in our general direction as she pushed herself off the tree. “Hello, Asterion. I see you have brought some friends with you this visit.”

  Asterion grunted. “I remain uncertain if my traveling companions yet qualify as ‘friends,’ Tiresias.” Then he glanced back at me guiltily. “Perhaps that is untrue.”

  “We are your friends,” I said.

  He nodded and gave me a smile.

  I inhaled a quick breath as I faced Tiresias. This was the final person Cassandra told us to seek? I couldn’t decide if I were intrigued or freaked out by the way he/she flipped genders so easily.

  Bill cleared his throat. “An’ uh, no offense, lady, but it don’t look like yer seein’ much.”

  Her laugh had a musical lilt to it that I couldn’t help liking. “Figure of speech, little one.” She stretched out her hands as if she were looking for something in the dark, which was kind of true.

  “Now come closer, everyone, so that we might become acquainted,” she said.

  Once we got the nod from our Minotaur guide, we all did as she asked. Her outstretched hands found Asterion’s body first. She felt all the way up his chest and arm before lingering over the hand that he shot Charybdis with. “This is new.”

  He seemed a little self-conscious. “No more than an hour gone, by my estimation.”

  Her smile broadened as she patted the top of his hand. “Well, I daresay you shall never be a captive again, my dear Asterion.”

  I’m guessing the clink of my chainmail drew her to me next. Her fingers delicately traced their way across the cool metal links before reaching my face. “I feel the handiwork of Afterlife Enterprises on your fair features, youngling. What were you called in life?”

  I licked my lips. “Lily Harper.”

  She lovingly patted both my cheeks before caressing the sides of my neck and both my shoulders. “Lily. You are a good soul.”

  Bill was doing his best to get close to me, his eyes looking wary. Tiresias sighed as she knelt down before him. “While I understand your apprehension, little angel, Asterion was quite correct in saying you are safe here.”

  For the first time ever, I saw Bill squirm when a female pawed him up and down. “So ya heard all that?”

  “Just as clearly as I heard your footsteps and felt the warmth of your shining aura.”

  Bill looked like he didn’t know how to take that. Our hostess’s fingers ran over his face when she explained, “Oh, it is only my eyes which are powerless. I have been blessed with four other senses that more than compensate for my blindness.”

  Tallis stood behind Bill, looking like he was trying not to laugh. “Never thought Ah’d see the stookie angel so flustered aboot bein’ ‘round a fair, decent woman.”

  The musical laugh came back on Tiresias’s lips as she rose to her feet and stretched her hands out to Tallis. “Now there is a voice I have not heard in far too long.”

  Even though the blind woman was a little taller than me, she barely came up to Tallis’s breastbone. That’s why her hands could only go as high as his shoulders. Her expression hardened a little while she felt him up. “Why did you not come to me sooner, Tallis? The demon inside you nearly cost you everything you hold dear.”

  Shame darkened Tallis’s face. “Ye know why, Tiresias. How could Ah face ye after failin’ tae listen when Ah needed tae most?”

  She grabbed his forearms and squeezed. “Aeneas said the same after the fall of Troy. So let me tell you what Cassandra told him: we prophets do not hold grudges against any who refuse to listen to us. We simply wait to see if they shall need us later. So no more self-loathing, understood?”

  My bladesmith was visibly relieved to hear this admonition and he almost smiled. “Aye… an’ Ah thank ye.”

  She gave his arms one last squeeze before turning to the rest of us. “Speaking of thanks, I greatly appreciate you waiting until I finished with Phillip before beginning this conversation.”

  I would have replied that it was she who started things off, but that sounded rude. “So was Phillip a suicide?” I asked.

  “Oh, of course… every soul trapped within these trees is a suicide.” She turned around and opened her arms wide like she wanted to give the whole grove a hug. “The guilt, the pain, the self-loathing follows them from life into death, leaving them rooted in the barren soil of their past mistakes.”

  Bill gave the tree she’d been working with a heavy squint. “But Phil there’s gone, totally evapofaded from the premises.”

  Without turning around, she nodded. “Quite true, William. It is by no means a speedy or painless process but I have managed to soothe the pain of a good many souls here. And as you no doubt witnessed, it is their final release—not striking a pair of snakes—that changes me to the opposite sex.”

  Asterion frowned. “Ovid wrote so many lies in his Metamorphoses.”

  A reedy voice from the Grove’s shadows responded to his statement. “Surely you recall it is always the victor who authors history. History is not written by the failures.”

  Bill sprinted over to the voice, revealing another figure in a black robe. This was a man who looked so ancient, I was amazed he was still alive. His yellowish-white beard fell on his robe to the middle of his chest, and all the hair on top of his head was gone. His spotted forehead sprouted a few strands of hair that looked were roughly the same length as the beard.

  He kind of reminded me of the Cript Keeper, though not quite as scary.

  Tallis grew visibly concerned at the sight of him. “Ye’re lookin’ rather poorly, Ull.”

  The chuckle Ull gave him back sounded more like a soft cough. “Well, it would not be the first time, dear Tallis. It is good to see you.” He slowly shifted his head to the Minotaur. “And you as well, Asterion.”

  I was going to ask a question when I heard that buzzing noise again, coming from the shadows past Ull. This time, the buzzing just kept going, echoing across the trees like the world’s largest bee swarm on the warpath.

  Asterion strode up to Ull’s side. “What happened?”

  The old man winced as he gently leaned against Asterion. “It would be far easier to show you. If your celestial friend will light the way?”

  Bill got in front of the pair and the trio led the rest of us. I made a move to take Tiresias’s arm to guide her but she gently pushed me away. “If I did not know every inch of this Grove, the birds make so much noise that even the deaf could follow them.”

  Those were birds?

  I saw what she was talking about when Bill’s light got close enough. Gigantic flashes of silver flew back and forth from a great tree a hundred feet away. They soared a little too fast to see the overall shape of them, but the general movement was definitely that of birds. The tree from which they flew towered over the second-tallest tree by one-and-a-half times as much. Its many branches were laden with what looked like golden delicious apples. Several apples lay at
the tree’s massive base.

  The sight of all this made Ull sigh. “Why did I not listen to you when you foretold the coming of the Stymphalians?”

  Tiresias came over to Ull and patted him on the shoulder. “They never thought Alaire would dare violate the Grove’s sanctity in order to block Idun’s tree. It was unbelievable, even for one of my prophecies.”

  I glared at the swarm surrounding the tree. “So Alaire is trying to starve you out?”

  Ull and Tiresias traded a look between them that seemed like a private joke. Then the old man spoke to me. “In a manner of speaking, Tiresias had the foresight to act on their prophecy before these metallic, carnivorous flying monsters arrived.”

  Bill gestured towards the right of the tree. “Hate ta say it, kids, but the bad news don’t stop there.”

  Tallis looked disgusted. “Oh, fer the love o’ Bran!”

  The soul we came to retrieve made a slow circuit around the trunk, staying as far beyond our reach as the moon.

  FIFTEEN

  Lily

  No one could do anything but stare at the hideous flying flock for a few seconds. Then Tallis straightened his back and got a steely look in his eye I’d come to know all too well. “Well, if we’re gonna git what we came fer…”

  I tried to grab his arm. “Wait a second!”

  But it was already too late. My fingers missed his biceps by inches before he crossed into the outer edge of the flock. He didn’t get far, no more than a couple of steps before those whizzing birds sliced him up at least a dozen times. Crying out in pain as he stumbled backwards, he let me finally grab his hand and I yanked him back to relative safety. Asterion caught him from behind before he collapsed.

  Bill got a good look at Tallis’ injuries and clenched his teeth hard. “Yeezus, Conan… I’m surprised they didn’t take some o’ those balls ya was so busy showin’ off fer a trophy, yo.”

  He wasn’t exaggerating. Tallis’ arms, chest and legs were ragged with long, deep gashes that spurted out rivers of blood. Worse still, every single one of his wounds was throbbing and red, which indicated there was much more on those talons than just razor sharp points.