The Helicon Muses Omnibus: Books 1-4

by V. J. Chambers

  By now it was early evening. A huge golden sun was beginning to sink over the sea. It was quite beautiful, but none of them really noticed. After all the complaining and urging Sawyer had done that day, Nora expected him to be angry. But Sawyer seemed only stricken. He didn’t say much. Daryl, on the other hand, was positively livid. He ranted and raved about their stupidity—about his own stupidity—for what seemed like a very long time.

  Nora’s stomach growled. Longingly, she thought of Helicon, where there was food around the main fire pit. What were they going to do? Was there anything they could do? They stood on the beach, watching the long shadows of the apple trees. Everything seemed hopeless. “Coeus will figure it out,” Nora said. “When he sees that the dimension-jumping device is gone, he’ll know that someone used it. He’ll find us.”

  “How will he do that?” Daryl said. “Even if he does figure out that we used the gadget, he won’t know which dimension that we jumped to. And he won’t have any way of getting to the dimensions.”

  Sawyer laughed darkly. “He’ll probably form a committee.”

  Nora swallowed. “You might be right. But we can’t afford to think that way. We have to stay hopeful, or else...”

  “Or else what? Is there any way we could possibly make things worse?” Daryl kicked at the sand, sending a cloud of it spraying out.

  “Yes,” said Nora. “We could give up. That would be worse.”

  Daryl shook his head. “I can’t believe I got myself stuck here with you two.”

  Daryl was just angry. Nora decided not to feed into it.

  “I never should’ve let myself get so deep in with Maddie. I was never supposed to have any actual feelings for her. Now I’ve gone and gotten myself into the worst mess I could possibly...”

  “Remember how I was saying you weren’t a jerk earlier?” Sawyer’s face looked haggard. Nora tried to tell herself that was only because twilight was coming and everything looked dark.

  “We should find something to eat,” said Nora.

  “Like what?” Daryl said. “There’s nothing on the island, or hadn’t you noticed?”

  “There are apples,” said Nora.

  “We can’t survive on apples forever,” said Daryl.

  “Well, one a day is supposed to keep the doctor away,” said Nora.

  “What?” Daryl said.

  “It’s something they say in the mundane world,” Nora muttered. “It’s fruit. It’s got vitamins, and it’s juicy, so we’ll stay hydrated. It could be worse.”

  Daryl’s face twisted into an ugly smile. “Not by much.”

  Nora looked to Sawyer to back her up, but Sawyer wasn’t saying anything. She squared her shoulders. “I’m going to go pick us some apples, then.” She came back with three for each of them. At first, she thought Daryl was going to refuse his share. But it seemed that hunger had overtaken him, and he ate the apples along with the rest of them.

  The apples were the most wonderful she had ever tasted. They were yellow, something like the golden delicious strain that she’d seen in grocery stores. But these apples were a deeper shade, reflecting the golden tinge of everything in that dimension. The flesh was sweet and juicy. Unlike apples she’d eaten before, the skin wasn’t hard or bitter. Instead, when she took a bite, it seemed as if the apple skin almost melted into the flesh of the fruit.

  Sawyer and Daryl seemed to think that the apples were good as well. When they had finished eating, Sawyer made another trip into the orchard and brought them each back two more.

  Though the meal shouldn’t have even been a meal by all rights, Nora felt satiated. With her belly full, she felt a little better about their situation. “We’ll have to camp out here tonight. I guess we can stay by the beach.”

  The others seemed in a better mood as well. Daryl produced some matches from his pocket. “If we can gather up some wood, we can have a fire.”

  Since it was getting dark, they decided not to split up. They went into the apple orchard together, searching the ground for downed limbs.

  But they were shocked when they saw a small cabin sitting right along the path. Smoke was coming out of the chimney, as if someone was home.

  Nora looked at Sawyer and Daryl. “You see that?”

  Sawyer nodded slowly. “That wasn’t there before.”

  “Should we knock?” Nora said.

  Daryl looked uneasy. “No, I don’t like the look of that place. Leave it alone.”

  “But what if Maddie is inside?” Sawyer said.

  “If they can make their house invisible, they must have magic. Maybe they can help us get back to Helicon,” said Nora. She approached the cabin and knocked.

  The door opened immediately. A very old woman stepped outside. Her gnarled hands (gnarled just like the trunks of the apple trees) clutched a cane for support. She was bent over nearly double. She raised glassy eyes to them. “You,” she croaked. “You have been eating our apples.”

  There was real venom in her voice. Nora took a step backward. She wasn’t sure what to say. “Oh. I’m sorry. We didn’t know the apples belonged to anyone.”

  The old woman was pushed out of the way by another woman, just as old. The new crone shook her cane at them. “Thieves,” she rasped. “Burglars.”

  Nora took another step backward. How were they to know that the apples were off limits? There hadn’t been any signs. They hadn’t even been able to see this house. If they had seen the house, they certainly would’ve asked before eating any apples.

  But before she could begin to mount her defense, old crones began pouring out of the door of the house. There were nine of them in all. They were all ancient and hunched. And at the top of their lungs, they were all railing against them for eating the apples.

  Daryl held up his hand. “Now, hold on a second. We’ve been wandering around this island all day. We haven’t seen you anywhere. If you didn’t want us to eat the apples, you should’ve showed yourselves before now.”

  “Justifying your thievery, eh, boy?” said one of the crones. “Doesn’t matter what you say. As far as we’re concerned, a thief is still a thief.”

  “Please,” said Nora, “we didn’t know we were stealing. We’re really sorry. Isn’t there anything that we can do to make up for it?”

  One of the crones stepped forward, a crafty look on her face. “Well, now. There might be something. If you can repay us for what you stole, all will be forgiven.”

  “Repay you?” Sawyer said. “How can we do that? We didn’t bring anything of value with us.”

  “You can work it off,” said another of the crones. She pointed a few feet from the house, where a well stood. It was complete with a wooden roof and a dangling bucket. “Draw us nine buckets of water from the well, and we will make you a nice supper of bread and milk.”

  Nora thought that sounded fair. She opened her mouth to agree, but Daryl spoke first.

  “That’s ridiculous,” said Daryl. “We weren’t really stealing. We had no way of knowing anything about those apples. We aren’t going to do your dirty work for you.”

  “Daryl!” Nora said.

  But the crones were all filing back inside their little cabin. They slammed the door shut, and the cabin disappeared.

  As they stood gaping at its absence, the sun sank even farther over the horizon, and it was dark.

  “You shouldn’t have said that,” said Sawyer. “I don’t get the impression that these are the kind of women we want to make mad.”

  “We didn’t steal anything,” said Daryl. He shrugged. “Let’s go make camp like we were going to before we saw them.” He started walking in the direction of the beach.

  Nora went after him. “What are we going to eat in the morning? Now that we know the apples belong to those old women, we can’t very well eat them again. We need to apologize somehow.”

  “Good luck doing that. Their house disappeared.” Daryl kept walking.

  Sawyer caught up to Nora. “The cabin did disappear. I guess we’ll just ha
ve to make the best of it.”

  They arrived back at the beach and realized they had been going to make a fire. Daryl wanted to go back and look for tree branches, but Nora and Sawyer talked him out of it. They were both worried that the old women would be doubly upset if they had not only eaten their apples but also stolen the wood from the trees and burned it.

  The full moon rose above the water, blue and silvery. The moon was cold. When Nora looked at it, she felt as if ice seeped into her. In the distance, they heard a howl.

  “What was that?” she asked. “If there were wolves on this island, we would have seen them before, wouldn’t we?”

  Sawyer was hugging himself. “Maybe the sound is coming from another island?”

  Even Daryl had his hands inside his sleeves. “I don’t know very much about wolves. Maybe they’re nocturnal. Maybe they hide during the day. Maybe that’s why we didn’t see them.”

  Nora shuddered.

  “If we had a fire,” said Daryl, “maybe that would scare them away.”

  “It’s too dark,” said Sawyer. “You’ll never be able to find wood.”

  The three were inching close to each other. “It’s so cold,” said Nora.

  They were all quiet. The howl came again. This time it sounded closer.

  Sawyer’s voice was a whisper. “Let’s just ignore it and try to sleep.”

  A chilly breeze came in off the water, so they decided not to sleep on the beach. They retreated to the edge of the apple trees and each found a spot on the soft grass to curl up on. Nora wrapped herself into a little ball, clutching her knees to her chest, but she was still cold. Her body was racked with shivers. Her teeth started to chatter.

  There was more howling. This time there was more than one voice. More than one wolf. There was something about those piercing howls. They were cold. Cold like the moon.

  Daryl’s voice. It was shaking. “No one take this the wrong way, but maybe we should get close for body heat.”

  “Good idea,” said Nora. She was cold and terrified. Being close sounded safer.

  “Definitely a good idea,” said Sawyer.

  Within seconds, they were all lying next to each other on their backs. Nora was in the middle. Their shoulders were all pressed together, but despite the cold, they hadn’t gotten any closer.

  More howling. Nora’s teeth started to chatter again.

  Sawyer’s arm slipped under her shoulders. He pulled himself closer to her. “Your teeth are chattering.”

  Daryl pressed closer too. “So when we find Maddie, we don’t tell her that I spent the night cuddling with her best friend and a gay guy, right?” He was trying to be funny, but there was something strained in his voice.

  Even so, they all did their best to laugh.

  And there was another howl. The closest one yet. It sounded like it was just a few feet away.

  Nora buried her face in Sawyer’s chest. “Wolves don’t really eat people, do they?”

  “I don’t know,” said Sawyer. “I don’t think so.”

  “There’s nothing on this island except apples,” said Daryl. “Wolves need meat to survive. They’re probably really hungry.”

  At this, they all pressed even closer together. Oddly enough, Nora didn’t really feel any warmer. But her teeth had stopped chattering.

  The wolf bounded over their heads. Landed in front of them.

  They sat up. Scrambled backwards. Nora was too surprised to scream.

  The wolf turned, facing them. The silvery light of the moon lit up half of its face. Its mouth was open, its tongue hanging out, glistening, salivating. Its teeth were long and white. Sharp. Glinting. It was grinning.

  But the worst was its eyes. They were dull red. Beady eyes. Like dead embers of a fire kindled deep inside the wolf.

  It snarled at them.

  Clutching each other’s hands, they ran.

  The branches of the apple trees reached for them, knotty skeletons grabbing at their limbs. They paid no attention to the direction they were going. They just ran, dodging tree trunks. And always, the sound of the wolf behind them. His hot, panting breath at their heels. Urging them forward.

  They ran until there was a searing pain in Nora’s side. Until her breath came in burning gasps. Until they were clear of the apple trees, and they emerged on the path.

  Nora glanced over her shoulder, certain she would see a gaping maw and rows of sharp white teeth.

  But there was nothing behind them. Nothing at all.

  She whimpered in disbelief. She halted, and the other two stopped as well.

  “Where is it?” Daryl rasped.

  She spun in a circle, peering out in the darkness. She didn’t see anything. But ahead of them, almost lit up with a golden glow, was the well.

  Nora marched over to it. “We’re drawing the water. Nine buckets worth.” She looked at Daryl defiantly, as if she expected him to disagree.

  But he only nodded. “Good idea.”

  The bucket was attached to a rope. Nora lowered it down into the well. When it was full of water, she tugged it back up. When the bucket reached the top, she realized a problem. “How are we supposed to draw nine buckets of water with only one bucket?” She detached the bucket.

  As soon as she had done so, a new empty bucket appeared.

  It must be magic. Nora lowered that bucket and filled it as well. When she detached it, a new bucket appeared.

  They took turns lowering and filling buckets, until they had nine.

  When Sawyer set the last one on the ground, the cabin appeared directly in front of them. The chimney was coughing smoke merrily into the night sky, and the windows glowed gold and welcoming.

  The door to the cabin opened. But instead of an old woman, a young lady came outside. She had long streaming blonde hair and a face like springtime. She laughed when she saw them, a light and airy sound. She clapped her hands together. “Come and look, sisters. They have brought us the water after all.”

  Nora was confused, especially when eight other golden-haired women, each as pretty as the first, pranced out of the cabin giggling. The cabin was not very big. Nora didn’t see how it was possible for nine old women and nine young ladies to live in it comfortably. She reasoned that possibly it was like the TARDIS, bigger on the inside.

  The nine young ladies rushed out and gathered up the buckets of water. “Come inside. Come inside,” they urged them.

  After freezing to death and being chased by a wolf, they didn’t need much convincing. The three followed the young women into the cabin.

  The cabin was not actually bigger on the inside. They were ushered into a small room that contained a table with nine chairs around it and a hearth, where an iron cauldron bubbled over a fire. It was quite a tight squeeze. Especially with all the buckets of water.

  The young women were pouring them into a huge barrel. But as they poured the water, Nora could see that it wasn’t water any longer. It was golden. From the smell, she realized it was apple cider. She raised her eyebrows. Water into apple cider, huh? There was definitely magic on this island. But where were the nine old ladies? She could see a doorway to another room in the house. Perhaps the old women were all asleep.

  “You must pardon us for our behavior earlier,” said one of the pretty ladies.

  “We tend to be grumpy when the sun is going down,” said another.

  “Of course, you really oughtn’t have eaten those apples,” said another.

  Nora thought the apple cider smelled divine. “But we didn’t see you before. We saw the old ladies instead. Are they all asleep?”

  The nine pretty ladies giggled again.

  They thrust earthen mugs full of apple cider into each of their hands. “You are our guests. We get guests so rarely. Tell us, what brings you to the Isle of Avalon?”

  Avalon. So that’s where they were. She wished she knew more about Avalon. She looked at Daryl and Sawyer, hoping there would be some answers in their faces.

  “Is King Arthur here?” Sa
wyer asked.

  The ladies giggled again. “There are many things here on Avalon. But not all are easy to see.”

  Another lady spoke. “You answer our question with a question. That’s very rude, you know.” She stuck out her lower lip and pouted.

  “We’re sorry,” Daryl said. “Very sorry. We won’t do it again. We’re here because we’re looking for our friend. We thought she might have come here, but we didn’t see her.”

  “There are many things here on Avalon,” said one of the ladies. “But not all are easy to see.”

  Nora furrowed her brow. “Are you trying to say she is here? Our friend Maddie?”

  At this, there was a cacophony of giggles. The ladies began calling out, “Maddie! Maddie! Come out. Come out.”

  And Maddie appeared in the doorway to the other room.

  At first Nora couldn’t believe her eyes. She was actually here. She hadn’t been taken by Owen.

  Daryl ran to Maddie, and Nora and Sawyer followed suit. There were hugs all around.

  “I’m so happy to see you,” said Maddie. “How do you know where to find me?”

  Daryl fished out the dimension-jumping gadget. “We didn’t change the setting. We figured it would take us to the same place it took you. Looks like we were right.”

  “And you’ve met the sisters?” Maddie said. “Aren’t they just wonderful?”

  Nora didn’t know if she would use the word wonderful, exactly. They were strange. “Where are the old ladies? Were you with them?”

  Maddie laughed, and it sounded strangely like the giggle of the sisters. “They’re the same, Nora.”

  “The same?” Nora was confused. What did she mean, they were the same?

  “The sisters are the old women and the young girls. They are reborn each night when the moon rises, and they wither and fade all day long,” said Maddie. “They are the guardians of Avalon. The summer country.”

  “You could say that about Helicon too,” said Daryl. “It’s always summer there.”