The Helicon Muses Omnibus: Books 1-4

by V. J. Chambers

  “Yeah, I better get back to the prop table,” said Daryl. He scurried off.

  Nora contemplated the envelope in her hands. It was thick, as if it were filled with five or six folded up pieces of paper. This was strange. She sighed, turned it over, and opened it.

  When she did, three squares of fabric fell out. It hadn’t been paper at all. The fabric had made the letter fat. She picked up the squares, holding them up so that a shaft of light from between the trees fell on them. One was emerald green. Another was a pastel color.

  Nora’s breath caught in her throat.

  She recognized the fabric. It came from the missing dresses. Sawyer’s May Queen dress. Her Maypole dancer dress. She could only assume the other piece of fabric came from Maddie’s dress.

  Her hands shaking, she fumbled to see if there was anything else in the envelope. There was a slip of paper. On it was scrawled a message, “I can get to any of you anytime I want.”

  Nora let the letter flutter from her fingers.

  From the stage came the actor who was playing Merlin’s voice, “What is that racket?” The other dancers were on their feet, hurrying to their places.

  Nora didn’t move. She sat stunned for several seconds. Then she gathered up the pieces of fabric and the letter, and she stalked to the prop table to find Daryl.

  He was carefully lining up a telephone and a sword.

  Nora thrust the letter against his chest. “Where did you get this?”

  Daryl looked flustered. “Lower your voice, Nora.” He reached up and took the letter from her.

  Nora did not. “Where did you get this?”

  Daryl’s voice was a furious whisper. “I told you. It was on the prop table.”

  “How did it get there?”

  “Nora, you’ve got to be quieter.”

  Nora didn’t care about the play or about noise right now. She had to make Daryl understand. “It’s from Owen.”

  Daryl’s eyes widened. He looked down at the letter, quickly scanning it. He held up the pieces of fabric. “What are these?” He wasn’t whispering anymore.

  “They’re pieces of our dresses. Mine, Sawyer’s, and Maddie’s.”

  If possible, Daryl’s eyes got even wider. “Maddie’s?”

  Nora nodded.

  Daryl swore under his breath. He took Nora by the arm and led her away from the backstage area, deep into the shadows. When they were far enough away that they couldn’t be heard, he practically exploded. “He’s after Maddie?”

  Nora felt close to tears. “He got our dresses. Somehow, he got our dresses. They were in our tents. He got into our tents.”

  Daryl shook his head. “Not necessarily. Maybe he took over someone’s mind, like he did at May Day. Have you been wearing your pendant?”

  Nora drew it out from underneath her costume. “All the time.”

  “And it never got hot when someone was around?”

  “No. I would have told you if it had. We agreed that we tell if they...”

  Daryl ran a hand through his hair. “So, that means one of two things. Either the pendants don’t work yet—they were prototypes. Or he’s doing it another way. He’s not taking over people’s bodies.”

  Nora swallowed. “What are we going to do?”

  “We have to go to Phoebe,” said Daryl.

  Nora shook her head. “No. She won’t believe me. Besides, I’m sure she’s watching the play. I doubt she’ll like being interrupted.”

  “She’ll believe you.” Daryl held up the letter. “You’ve got proof, right?”

  Maybe that was true. Nora chewed on her lip nervously.

  “If you’re worried about interrupting her, we could wait until after the play. You did miss your cue, but that’s not the only time the dancers are on stage.”

  Nora realized that her being missing meant there was a hole in the dancing patterns. “I can’t think about the play right now.”

  “But don’t you see? That’s what he wants. Owen wants you all flustered and scared. He wants to ruin any fun you could possibly be having. Why do you think he arranged for you to get it during the play? He was trying for maximum damage.”

  Nora nodded slowly. What Daryl was saying made sense. Owen had shaken her, but that didn’t mean she had to give in. “Okay. After the play. Can you hold on to the note? I don’t really have anywhere to put it in my costume.”

  “Sure,” said Daryl.

  * * *

  Phoebe held the note and the pieces of fabric in her hand. She looked around at the faces of Sawyer, Maddie, Nora, and Daryl. They were standing in the theater, which had emptied of its audience. Phoebe looked tired. “You found it on the prop table?”

  “Yes,” said Daryl.

  “And you didn’t see anyone put it there,” said Phoebe.

  “No. I have no idea how it got there.”

  Phoebe sighed.

  Nora stared at her feet. Phoebe wasn’t going to believe her, she just knew it.

  “You can’t still suspect Nora after this,” said Sawyer. “This is proof that Owen is actually after her. After all of us.”

  Daryl spoke up. “Maddie is my girlfriend, and I don’t like that somebody went into her tent and cut up her dress.”

  Phoebe gazed down at the squares of fabric. “It isn’t proof.”

  Nora’s heart sank.

  “If Nora is behind all of this, then she could’ve easily cut up the dresses herself and left a note for herself on the prop table.”

  “Nora wouldn’t do that!” Maddie burst out.

  Phoebe sighed again. “No, I don’t suppose you would think so. Either she’s fooled you all, or my suspicions are completely unfounded.”

  “Owen’s doing this,” said Sawyer. “I watched him kill someone. I know what he’s capable of. Now he’s somehow leaving notes and messages and making Nora see things. He’s supposed to be exiled, but he isn’t gone. You have to do something about this.”

  “I knew Owen when he was here,” said Daryl. “He was obsessed with Nora. Like, creepily obsessed. I know you have a theory that Nimue is behind all of this, but it’s really simpler than that. It’s about Nora and Owen. To Owen, everything is about Nora.”

  Phoebe took a ragged breath. “I’m going to keep the letter and the pieces of fabric. I need to think.” She turned on her heel and walked away from them.

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  Phoebe thought for over a week. During that time, things went mostly back to normal. Sawyer had had so much fun dancing in the past two events that he began visiting the dance enclave every day with Maddie. Nora could have tagged along, but she decided to get back to sculpture making. She was working in clay and stumbled back dirty and tired every day with just enough time to shower before dinner. As the days passed, she could almost forget about what happened.

  But at night, she had trouble sleeping. She would lie in her hammock, Catling curled up at her feet, and stare at the ceiling of her tent. She was worried about what Owen might do.

  The note contained an implicit threat, not just against her but against her friends as well. She knew that in Owen’s mind, Maddie and Sawyer were obstacles in the way of his getting her. The way Owen probably thought about it, he and Nora had been happy together before they came to Helicon. She knew he’d been jealous of the time she spent with her friends last year. Owen probably figured that they had sort of stolen her from him. He probably thought that if he got rid of them, he could have Nora back. For all she knew, he wanted them living just the way they had been before. In the mundane world, just the two of them. Maybe if he got her back there, he’d still be able to look into her eyes and convince her to do whatever he wanted her to do.

  The thought of it kept Nora awake. She had no idea what he might do to Maddie or Sawyer. She had a pretty good idea that it wouldn’t be good.

  Nora remembered the things that Owen used to do the people he thought got in the way. Once, a social worker had tried to separate them. They’d both been young. Nora didn’t think she cou
ld have been more than eight. Owen must’ve been about ten. Usually, Owen didn’t have any problem convincing people to keep them together. He’d just look deep into their eyes, and they would do whatever he wanted. Occasionally, there were people that were immune to Owen’s charms for one reason or another. Nora was never sure why. She still had no idea. And she didn’t know why it was that Owen had been able to control her in the mundane world but couldn’t control her in Helicon.

  This social worker couldn’t be controlled.

  But that didn’t mean that Owen gave up. Oh no.

  She remembered when the social worker had come to give them the news. She and Owen had been staying in a group home at that point. They never stayed in the group homes for long. They probably had only been in this one for a week or two. She couldn’t remember why they’d had to leave their previous foster placement. It might not even have been their fault—or rather, Owen’s fault. It might’ve been a lack of room, or routine shifting. She didn’t remember.

  The social worker had come to see each of them individually. They were staying in separate dormitories. When the social worker had told her that she and Owen weren’t going to be placed in the same house, she had sobbed and screamed. She had begged.

  Later that night, Owen had snuck in to see her. Gripping both her hands tightly, he’d told her not to worry. He was going to take care of it. And she’d known that he would. Even then, she knew Owen was capable of miracles.

  The next day when the social worker came back, ten or fifteen of the children began sobbing at the mere sight of her. They were inconsolable, shrieking if she came close.

  Owen had convinced them all to say that she was abusing them. Their emotional reactions were so vivid, so intense, that no one thought to question it. And no matter how the social worker declared her innocence, it didn’t matter. Not only did she lose her job, she went to jail.

  At the time, it hadn’t bothered Nora. She and Owen had been about to be separated. Now they could stay together. It was good. She was grateful to Owen.

  But looking back on it, it made Nora feel queasy. The social worker hadn’t done anything wrong, but Owen didn’t have any qualms about destroying her. And he’d been proud of himself. Nora remembered what he’d said for weeks and months afterwards. “Remember how I took care of that bitch who was trying to separate us? Remember how awesome that was?”

  What would Owen do to people that he thought actually deserved it?

  It wasn’t as if Nora hadn’t seen the Owen kill someone with her own eyes. If Owen had the chance, he might hurt Sawyer or Maddie very, very badly.

  Those were the thoughts that kept her wide awake at night. When she finally did drift off, she slept fitfully, and she dreamed... In her dreams, everyone she saw had blue eyes like Owen. They laughed at her. “Remember how awesome that was?” they said.

  “You’re mine,” they said. “I can get to any of you anytime I want.”

  So it was actually a relief to Nora when Phoebe finally decided her verdict. Since there was a good chance that all three of them might be in danger, Phoebe said they needed looking after. They had to move their tents out of the tweens and rebels enclave and into the security enclave. They weren’t allowed to leave. They could come to the council meetings and the drum circle, but they were forbidden to go anywhere else. That put an end to Nora’s sculptures. It also meant that Maddie and Sawyer couldn’t go to the dance enclave anymore. They were quite a bit put out. They moaned and complained.

  But Nora was glad. They were safer here.

  Maddie came around before Sawyer did. Daryl was in the security enclave, and she got to see him more often than she had in the past. Maddie was also better in general at seeing a silver lining in a dark cloud.

  For the first few days, they were incredibly bored. There was quite a difference between having the whole of Helicon to tramp around in and being confined to the security enclave. Not to mention the fact that nothing creative happened in the security enclave.

  But after a week, Daryl noticed their listlessness and asked them if they’d like to help out with the dimension-jumping machine. Apparently, engineering and security had been working on it with the fairies ever since May Day. Daryl said that even though Coeus was really excited about it, Alexander wasn’t particularly. This was understandable. Alexander wasn’t exactly excited about much of anything these days. He was doing better, but he was still grieving for Dirk. At any rate, Daryl was one of the few people who were actually assisting, and he thought that their help would be quite welcome.

  Nora and Maddie took to the idea immediately. Maddie because she could spend more time with her boyfriend, and Nora because she wanted something to distract her from worrying about Owen. Sawyer got a little prissy about it.

  “A machine?” he said. “With, you know, grease and stuff?”

  Daryl had shrugged. “I don’t think it’s particularly greasy.”

  “But I’ll get dirty, right?”

  In the end, Nora and Maddie had to tease him into it. But he insisted on borrowing old coveralls from the engineering enclave. He wasn’t about to ruin any of the clothes that he had made.

  The dimension-jumping device was actually in the engineering enclave, but because the engineering and security enclaves were so close as to practically be part of each other, it wasn’t considered leaving the security enclave. The device was housed in the main engineering enclave tent. Nora had been there once before, when she was helping Coeus with the Catling tracker last year. It wasn’t actually a dirty place, but it was covered in sawdust. Sawyer seemed glad of his coveralls.

  The device was laid out on a worktable near the back of the tent. Daryl led them there. Coeus was already at the table, surveying it. He looked pleased to see them.

  The device wasn’t large. It was circular, about a foot in diameter. Made of metal and about an inch thick, it had a hole in the middle, and around the hole were several dials. The dials each had arrows that could be twisted and turned to point at various symbols arranged around the circle. Coeus explained that different combinations of symbols corresponded to different dimensions.

  “At least in theory,” he said. “We’ve constructed this according to the fairies’ specifications, but we haven’t had a chance to try it out yet.”

  Coeus explained that when they got the thing up and running the hole in the center would light up with a sort of magical energy field. The energy field would power the device and transport the user to another dimension. It was quite sophisticated, apparently. It gave those who used it the ability to understand the languages of other dimensions as well. The energy field transmitted the information when it powered up.

  They were all gathered around the table, peering down at the device. Maddie spoke up. “How do you know which dimension you’ll go to? What do these symbols mean?”

  “Well,” said Coeus. “We don’t know yet. The fairies are working on a key to decode it.”

  “You mean they told you how to make it but they don’t know what it means?” Nora said.

  A chuckle escaped Coeus’ lips. “That’s fairies for you.” He turned away. “They don’t exactly have a work ethic, if you know what I mean. They’re kind of like most muses that way. Anyway, I think they’ve been spending more time in the music enclave than they actually have been helping us.”

  “That’s too bad,” said Sawyer.

  “No, it’s fine,” said Coeus. “They’re having fun. I don’t begrudge them that. And the device is really coming along. The only thing we have left to do is to construct the energy field. That’s where I’m going to need your help.” He walked over to a shelf on the other side of the tent. He picked up a wooden box and carried it back to the table. Reaching inside, he pulled out a rock. It was jagged and brown on the outside, but they could see something glowing orange was inside. “These come from the north edge of Helicon. They’re very powerful. Unfortunately, what we need is only a tiny speck inside each of these.”

  Coeus reached
under the table and came up with a big earthen jug. “The liquid in this will dissolve the outer layer of the rock. So what we’re going to do is to soak all these rocks—” He gestured at the wooden box— “in this liquid. It might take a little scrubbing to get the glowing center. But when we’re done, we’ll have a power source for the device.”

  Sawyer took the rock from Coeus. He wrinkled up his nose. “I knew I was going to get dirty.”

  Coeus laughed.

  Soon all of them were sitting on the ground with ceramic bowls in front of them. The bowls were filled with the strange rocks and the liquid. They all had their hands inside the bowls, agitating the liquid. Coeus had told them that this would speed up the process. For now, it seemed like slow going.

  Everyone was mostly quiet, concentrating on the rocks. Except for Sawyer, that is. He was complaining. Not often, and not loudly. Most of the time he muttered, and Nora couldn’t really make out what he was saying. But once or twice, she caught a snatch of words here or there. “... not only is it dirty, it’s boring.”

  Apparently, he’d said the last loud enough for even Coeus to hear. “Bored, are you, Sawyer?”

  Sawyer pulled his hands out of the bowl. “It’s not fair. Just because we could be in danger doesn’t mean that we should be punished.”

  “It’s not a punishment,” said Nora. “We’re safer here. If anything happened to either you or Maddie, I don’t know what I’d do.”

  Sawyer sighed. “I was having a lot of fun in the dance enclave. And now I’m stuck agitating liquid.”

  “You don’t have to help if you don’t want to,” said Coeus. “You can go back to your tent if you want.”

  Sawyer stuck his hands back in the bowl. “I’ll stay here.” But he sounded sullen.

  “Look,” said Coeus, “I really am grateful for your help. Most muses find it, like you said, boring. I’m of the philosophy that sometimes you have to push through the boring parts to get to the pay off. In this instance, it’s the dimension-jumping device. And to let you know how grateful I am, I promise that all of you can be present when we test it.”

  “Really?” Maddie grinned in excitement. “That’s awesome. Thanks so much.”