Finally, Sawyer had the idea of sculpting her lying down, with her legs tucked under her body. Once they had that in place, everything began to go much easier, and they made a fair amount of progress. They began to laugh and have fun with it, hurling snow at each other in the middle of trying to figure out how to properly texture the snow to look like fur.
They were so engrossed that they didn’t realize that their example had caused the other muses to return to their sculptures as well.
* * *
The council meeting was packed that night. Muses sat and stood around the main fire pit, some holding mugs of hot cocoa, others clutching coffee that had been infused with some special seasonal liquor from the wine and spirits enclave. Nora sat on a bench with Maddie and Sawyer. They’d gone back to their tents earlier, and she’d been worried about leaving Catling there, but the little fluffy thing had curled up in a ball almost immediately and gone to sleep. She’d tied her tent closed as tightly and securely as she possibly could. Maddie had assured her there was no way the cat-duck could escape again.
All three of them were drinking hot cocoa. It wasn’t forbidden for the younger tweens to drink alcohol, but drunk tweens were highly frowned upon by the older muses, who found their rowdiness and occasional bursts of vomiting from overindulgence annoying, so when tweens drank, they usually did on their own. Nora had yet to have any alcohol in Helicon. Maddie wasn’t into it, and it wasn’t something Nora particularly longed for. Still, she’d noticed plenty of drunken gatherings in the enclave, with other young muses stumbling up and down the spiral staircase of the tree house and dancing in the woods.
Phoebe called the meeting to order and went straight to the business of the portal, since there didn’t seem to be anything else to discuss that night. She turned the floor over to Alexander Night, who told everyone what had happened.
“Four of the tweens found the portal,” he said. “One was injured but was healed by Phoebe and Coeus. Owen Asher and I went into the portal and were able to close it. That’s really all there is to it.”
The muses surrounding the fire pit erupted in simultaneous conversation, all yelling over each other in attempts to be heard.
“Silence!” thundered Phoebe, and everyone quieted. She took a deep breath. “Now, all of you know the proper procedure. You wait for me to recognize you before you speak.” She looked around as a number of muses either stood up or threw their hands into the air. Phoebe pointed at the muse closest to her, which happened to be Techne Lift, head of the science enclave.
Techne threw back her long blonde hair. “I think we have to have a conversation about Owen, don’t we?”
Owen stood up, looking annoyed. “Can I speak?”
Phoebe nodded. “Go ahead.”
“I had the floor,” said Techne.
“And you’ll have it back in a minute,” said Phoebe. “Owen?”
Owen took a step forward, looking out over all of the muses. He clasped his hands together in front of him. “Listen, I know I’m not a muse. And I know that my mother has caused trouble here in Helicon, but you have to realize that I don’t really know what that trouble was. I’ve had very little contact with my mother during my lifetime, and I plan to keep it that way. All I’ve wanted, ever since she took me away from this place, is to get back here. Helicon is the only home I’ve ever known. And I would never do anything to hurt the muses or to hurt this world. I don’t know how to prove that to you all, but I’d hoped that by joining the security enclave and helping to protect Helicon, in time, you’d come to trust me. Unfortunately, another hole opening in Helicon so soon after the last makes me look guilty. I know it does. But I didn’t create this hole. I can’t offer any proof of my innocence, but I can ask you this: What would I have to gain by destroying this world? Why would I fight so long and so hard to return only so that I could harm you all? And why, if I had created these portals, would I be taking such an active hand in closing them? If I wanted to let the Influence into Helicon, wouldn’t I try to keep the portals open as long as I possibly could?”
Techne folded her arms over her chest. “You could have all kinds of secret motivations that we know nothing about. As for the claim you make that you’ve spent no time with your mother, we only have your word for that. Why should we believe you?”
Owen scratched the back of his head. His expression was pained. “Because I need you to. My mother gave birth to me and then abandoned me every chance she got. She left me here in Helicon sometimes, but other times she left me places that weren’t so pleasant. I hardly remember that, not really. But she wasn’t... she wasn’t what you’d call a particularly active parent. I barely even remember her. All I know is that from the moment I arrived in Helicon, no matter what had happened to me before, or what kind of places I’d been, this was the warmest, most open, safest place I’d ever been. This is the only place where anyone’s ever cared what happened to me. This is only thing I’ve ever had that even resembles a home. Please...” He looked directly at Techne, and Nora realized there were tears in his eyes.
She wanted to get up, go to Owen, and give him a huge hug. She hadn’t seen him cry very often, and never in front of this many people.
Techne held his gaze for a moment. Then she looked away, clearly shaken. “If you didn’t create this rip in Helicon, who did?” she asked the fire.
“I don’t know,” said Owen, “but I’ll tell you one thing. Someone inside Helicon did it. The portal that I left open was clearly punched through from the outside. This one was ripped open from inside.”
Alexander stood up. “We can’t be sure of that.”
Owen furrowed his brow. “Absolutely, we can. It’s like when someone punches through a glass window. Whichever side the broken glass is on, you can be sure the person punching was on the other side. This is the same principal. It’s obvious.”
Alexander shook his head. “No, I don’t think so, Owen. We have no way of being sure how this portal was created. I will say that this portal more closely resembled the ones we saw before Owen and Nora arrived. It was smaller, and woven full of spells and repelling charms. I’d say there’s really no evidence linking Owen to it at all. These portals started before he arrived, and I don’t see how he could have had anything to do with them. I really hope we can put this nasty accusation behind us.” He shot a pointed look at Techne.
Techne looked much less sure of herself. She sat down.
“I still think this portal was created inside Helicon,” said Owen.
“There’s simply no way to know that,” said Alexander, and his tone made it clear that was the end of it.
Owen shrugged and sat down.
“Thank you, Alexander,” said Phoebe. She turned to the gathered throng of muses. “Anyone else like the floor?” No one spoke. It seemed that no one else wanted to accuse Owen. Nora was glad. “Well, then,” said Phoebe, “it seems that we’re under some kind of attack of unknown origin. We’ll need the security enclave to be on high alert. I’d also like to move that the engineering enclave begin working with the security enclave to work on making something that might be able to strengthen Helicon, to prevent these portals.”
“I second that,” said Coeus.
“Motion’s been seconded,” said Phoebe. “Any discussion?”
Silence greeted her again.
* * *
Sawyer, Maddie, and Nora sat on one of the lower platforms of the tree house. Above them, some of the older tweens were playing music and laughing. Nora was pretty sure they’d gotten their hands on some of the spiked coffee, judging from their level of raucousness.
“If it’s true, what Owen said, that the hole in Helicon was made from the inside, then wouldn’t that mean that someone inside Helicon is doing it?” asked Nora.
“Maybe.” Maddie shrugged.
“Well, then, are they going to launch a big investigation to find out who it is?” said Nora.
Sawyer and Maddie exchanged a confused look.
“What do yo
u mean, an investigation?” said Sawyer.
Nora thought she’d been pretty clear. “Well, I don’t know, like are they going to round up suspects and question them, look for evidence, that kind of stuff?”
“Phoebe said they’re going to work on strengthening Helicon to make it harder to rip holes in it,” said Maddie.
“But shouldn’t we figure out who’s doing it?” said Nora.
“If we can prevent them from doing it, that’s just as good, isn’t it?” said Sawyer.
“Not really,” said Nora. “Because if there’s someone out there trying to hurt Helicon, then we have to stop them completely. What do they usually do here when something like this happens?”
Sawyer and Maddie were quiet. They both looked like they were concentrating very hard.
“Well, nothing like this usually happens,” said Maddie.
“And when the portals opened before, we had a big council meeting, and we discussed it, and...” Sawyer raised his eyebrows. “And then nothing really changed, I guess, because someone’s still ripping holes in the fabric of Helicon.”
Nora was astonished. “You mean, they haven’t tried to catch this person?”
“Who would have time to do that?” said Maddie. “We’re busy creating and making inspiration threads all the time. That’s the most important thing.”
“What do the muse police do? They’re here to keep everyone secure, aren’t they?” said Nora.
“They, um, go pick up new muses in the mundane world when they feel them,” said Maddie. “And they work with the engineering enclave a lot to fix things. And they...” She turned to Sawyer for help.
Sawyer looked troubled. “We need to investigate, don’t we? Because if no one else is going to do it, how are we going to figure out who’s ripping these portals open and stop them?”
“Us?” said Nora. She hadn’t meant for it to be their job, exactly. “Well, I guess, if no one else is going to do it, then we should.”
“So how do we investigate?” said Maddie, looking excited.
Nora tried to remember all the detective shows she’d watched on TV. “First we need a suspect. Who could be doing this?”
“It’s someone who knows about the muse police weapons,” said Maddie. “Because Alexander said the portals were all similar, with the stuff woven into them to repel the police’s weapons.”
“Well, Alexander said that we couldn’t be sure it was coming from inside,” said Nora.
“Yeah,” said Sawyer. “That was kind of suspicious, wasn’t it?”
“You don’t think Alexander is making the holes?” said Maddie.
Sawyer shrugged. “Let’s think about it. He would know how to make things that repel the police’s weapons, wouldn’t he? He’s the head of the security enclave. He’d be really familiar with their weapons.”
“Maybe,” said Nora. “But why would he do that?”
“He was pretty pissed off when Phoebe shut down his idea to use muse energy to help starving people,” said Maddie. “Maybe it’s revenge or something.”
Nora thought about it. “He did seem a little bitter towards the muses at that council meeting we went to right after our portal was open. He said muses don’t do anything but lie around and have fun. Maybe he’s angry about all of it. He’s not creative, and neither is his wife, right?”
“Right,” said Sawyer.
“How does that work anyway?” Nora asked. “Muses occasionally have babies that aren’t creative?”
“Pretty much,” said Maddie. “It’s rare, but it happens.”
“Usually, it’s pretty obvious by the time the kid’s three or four,” said Sawyer. “Muse kids create stuff. Uncreative kids don’t.” Sawyer tapped his chin with one finger. “I never really thought about it, but maybe someone like Alexander could get kind of bitter about it. I don’t think anyone means to be deliberately cruel to people who aren’t creative, but they get excluded from things in Helicon naturally. They can’t do the things we do. So, he’s our suspect, then, right?”
That made Nora think of Owen. He wasn’t a muse. Did he feel excluded? She remembered that earlier he’d said something about the two of them drifting apart. She stood up and started for the spiral staircase.
“Where are you going?” Maddie asked. “If it really is Alexander, then we’ve got to figure out what we’re going to do about it.”
“I’m going to find Owen,” said Nora, heading down the steps. “This got me thinking about how he probably feels excluded too.”
“Seriously?” said Sawyer. “Why are you even with that guy anyway?”
Nora stopped on the steps, looking up at Sawyer. “What’s your deal with Owen? You seemed pissed at him when we ran into him while we were looking for Catling.”
Sawyer shrugged again. “He just...he rubs me the wrong way is all. I don’t know. It’s like an intuition or something. Besides, I remember him from when he was here before. He was a bratty kid.”
“Aren’t lots of kids bratty?” said Nora.
“Maybe,” said Sawyer. “You know him better than I do. If you think he’s okay, then I’m willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. He doesn’t seem to like me very much either, though, I might point out.”
“That’s probably my fault,” said Nora. “Like I said, I think he’s feeling left out. I think he was jealous or something.”
“Of me?” Sawyer laughed.
Nora had to giggle too. “I’m going to set him straight. Don’t worry.”
“Ask him about Alexander,” said Maddie. “Maybe he’d know if Alexander secretly hated all the muses.”
It was a good idea. “Okay,” said Nora. She skipped down the rest of the steps. It was dark outside now, so Nora picked up one of the torches that was sitting next to the fire and lit it. She traipsed under the archway, out of the tweens and rebels enclave, the fire of her torch reflecting against the white blanket of snow as she walked. The security enclave was camped near the main fire pit, so she had to walk across the stream to get there. Since it was snowy and cold, most of the muses were tight inside their tents, using the heaters they’d gotten from the engineering enclave or gathered around the fire pits in their enclaves. In the security enclave, it was the same thing. Nora hadn’t spent a lot of time here, since Owen usually sought her out, but she knew which tent was Owen’s.
She pulled the opening aside a little. “Owen?”
“Nora?” Owen was sitting inside on his hammock, reading a book that it looked like he might have gotten from the writing and poetry enclave. Looking excited to see her, he leapt up to open his tent the rest of the way and let her inside.
Owen’s tent was blazing hot, so she shed her coat and gloves right away. He pulled her into an embrace and kissed her. She hugged him tight, thinking that she really had been spending a lot of time away from him.
Owen planted another kiss on her forehead. “I’m so glad to see you.”
“I guess I’ve been a little preoccupied since we got to Helicon,” Nora said. “I’m sorry if I haven’t been around enough.”
“You have been kind of distant,” said Owen. He looked at his shoes. “I was starting to wonder if maybe you weren’t interested anymore.”
“In you?” said Nora. “Don’t be silly. You’re Owen.”
“Yeah,” said Owen. “And I’m not a muse.”
Nora’s heart went out to him. “Don’t worry about that stuff, Owen. Really. It’s not important to me. You’re important to me. You always have been, and you always will be.”
He looked back at her, a wry smile on his face. “Maybe I was being a little insecure. I guess back in the mundane world you needed me a lot more than you do now. I wasn’t expecting to...miss that.”
“I should have come to find you earlier,” she said. “When you said that stuff at the council meeting earlier, about your mother... “ She put her hand on his cheek. “You’ve never talked about her before.”
Owen moved away from her. He went back to his hammock
and began rearranging the blankets on it. “There’s not much to say, really.”
“Owen, what does she have to do with all of this? What did she do?”
He gave her a sharp look. “You don’t remember, do you?”
“Remember what?”
“She stole us from Helicon,” said Owen. “That’s how we ended up in the mundane world.”
Nora sat down on the floor of Owen’s tent. “I remember...” It was all sort of blurry. She’d been so young. “I remember you and me in the abandoned house in the winter. I remember the people finding us and putting us in foster care.”
“Nothing before that?” he asked.
She tried, digging deep into her memory for anything. But she couldn’t remember. “No. You know I never remembered Helicon.”
Owen fiddled with his blankets some more. “She left me in Helicon the first time when I was three, I guess. I don’t really remember that. Anyway, I must have only been here for a year or so before my father showed up.”
“Dionysus,” said Nora.
“Yeah,” said Owen. “They weren’t together or anything. My father told me that they had a fling in Helicon during one of the big festivals. She got pregnant and never told him. Anyway, my dad took me after that, but he didn’t keep me for very long either. He brought me back to Helicon when I was five years old. I got to stay here for another year before my mother showed up again. She wanted to take me again, but by then, I didn’t want anything to do with her. I liked it in Helicon. She took me anyway. She took both of us.”
“Why did she take me?” Nora asked.
Owen sighed. He came and sat down next to her. “Maybe that was my fault. She took you because you and I were inseparable, and I took you with me everywhere I went. She couldn’t get you away from me, so she took us both. But once we were out of Helicon, I took care of her, and we ran away. I thought it would be easy to get back here. But...it wasn’t.”
Nora thought this sounded pretty horrible. Owen’s mother—what was her name? Nimue?—sounded like a terrible person. But something else was bothering her. Something she couldn’t believe she’d never thought of before. “What about my mother, Owen?” She guessed that she’d spent so much of her life assuming that mothers were things that other people had that she’d never given it much thought. Owen never talked about his mother when they were small children. In some ways, she’d kind of assumed, with childlike logic, that whatever made them different from everyone else also meant they didn’t have parents. She’d never thought to question it.
The Helicon Muses Omnibus: Books 1-4 Page 9