The Helicon Muses Omnibus: Books 1-4

by V. J. Chambers

  “Helicon,” said one of the sisters. “Did we know that Maddie was from Helicon?”

  “I think she might have mentioned it at some point,” said another.

  “Did she give us word of what happened to Nimue?” asked a third. “Wasn’t that the place she was so dead set on going to?”

  Nora went cold all over.

  “I don’t believe we asked,” said a fourth sister. She turned to Sawyer. “Is Nimue in your world now? Did she manage to get a muse child?”

  Sawyer’s face had turned white. He shook his head. “No,” he managed. “She isn’t there.”

  The sister shrugged. “Well, that’s just as well, I suppose.”

  Maddie gave the sisters an apologetic look. “It’s hard for us muses to talk about Nimue, you see. She came to Helicon years ago, and she massacred the muses.”

  “Massacre?” said one of the sisters. “Why, I seriously doubt that. All the muses that she brought here. There couldn’t have been any left to massacre.”

  “What?” said Nora. Nimue had brought muses to Avalon?

  “You’re interested in Nimue, then?” asked one of the sisters.

  “Yes,” said Sawyer.

  “Let’s sit down,” said a sister, gesturing to the table. Nora realized that somehow there were enough seats for all of them now. They sat down.

  “What do you want to know?”

  Sawyer looked like he was thinking hard.

  Nora was too. She was trying to remember the story Ned Willow had told them. “Was she ever the Lady of the Lake?”

  The sisters shook their heads. “The Lady has faded. She could go into the mundane world and communicate with humans. She was powerful. But we haven’t seen her in a very long time. We think she is gone. Nimue was a human. She came to us from the mundane world. She used to come often, but she hasn’t been here in quite a while. Perhaps she has faded too.”

  “Why did she come here?” Sawyer asked.

  The ladies looked around the table at each other, shrugging. “We never asked,” one finally said.

  “She had her son with her for a while, didn’t she?” said another. “I think she hoped that he would be something other than he was.”

  One sister’s face lit up in recognition. “Oh yes. She had hoped he would be half-muse, didn’t she?”

  “That’s right,” said another. “Then she found out the father wasn’t a muse at all, but some wine god from the south. Oh, she was angry.”

  The sisters all giggled.

  “She was really quite unpleasant when she was angry,” said another of the sisters. “And she took it out on the boy the most.”

  “Well, yes,” said another, “but mostly, she just ignored him once she knew she couldn’t use him.”

  “No, no,” disagreed another, “she ignored him after she brought all those muses here. Do you remember that? It was so crowded!”

  Nora wasn’t sure she was following this. “Tell us about when she brought the muses here.”

  One of the women shrugged. “Not much to tell, really. She wanted muse power for some reason or other, and she’d gotten herself pregnant so that she could have a half-muse child. When she found out he wasn’t a muse, she flew into a rage, and the next thing we knew, there were muses everywhere.”

  “Do you think that was the massacre?” asked Maddie. “Do you think she didn’t actually kill the muses, just kidnapped them?”

  Well, it fit, sort of. Nora shrugged. “It could be.”

  “What happened to the muses that she brought here?” Sawyer asked.

  The ladies once again looked quizzical. “Maybe they’re still here,” said one. “After all, there are many things in Avalon, but not all are easy to see.”

  “I think she sent them somewhere else,” said one of the sisters. “She used their power to open different dimensions.”

  “It was so long ago,” said Nora. “Wouldn’t they be dead by now?” She didn’t think the muses power to halt aging worked outside of Helicon.

  “Not if they’re here,” said the first. “Nothing ages or dies in Avalon.”

  “Oh, and that was the worst of it with that little boy,” said another sister. “He was here for hundreds of years, but he was still a little toddler. All that time with his mother not paying a bit of attention to him. It’s no wonder he couldn’t even speak.”

  Poor Owen. But Nora didn’t want to feel sorry for him. So, he’d had a terrible childhood. At least this explained the gap of hundreds of years between the massacre and Owen arriving in Helicon for the first time. He’d been in Avalon.

  “Well, she took him away eventually,” said one of the sisters. “It was too little, too late, of course, but she did eventually get him out of here. I can only assume he grew up like a normal child after that.”

  Another sister pressed her lips together disapprovingly. “She only took him out of Avalon because she wanted him to get her a muse child.” She shook her head. “I remember the way she would sit with that boy for hours drilling him on how to find a little girl muse and make her dependent on him. She was going to go back to Helicon once he’d done it.”

  Nora suddenly felt like she couldn’t breathe. “Drilling him?”

  “Oh yes,” said one of the sisters. “She was adamant that the boy find a child.”

  “We thought she’d be back here with both of them, didn’t we?” said a sister, laughing.

  “To be honest, we were glad to see her go. She was entertaining, but she was also not very nice, you know.”

  Nora closed her eyes. Nimue had wanted her. Owen had gotten her for Nimue. But when Phoebe had asked him if he’d been working for Nimue, he’d said no, and he couldn’t lie at the time.

  He didn’t remember! Nimue had drilled it into him so deeply that he didn’t remember. But what plans did she have for Nora?

  “You’re looking pale,” said one of the sisters to Nora. “Perhaps we shouldn’t go on about Nimue anymore, since she bothers the muses so.”

  “It’s not that,” said Nora. “It’s only that it happened. Nimue’s son found me, he got me to depend on him, and then she stole us away from Helicon.”

  “Oh my,” said a sister. “But then you have seen her.”

  Nora shook her head. “Not since I was too young to remember. Owen says he got us away from her.” But she no longer believed anything Owen said. Owen claimed he hated his mother. Maybe he did. Certainly, if Nimue had wanted to use Nora for some dark purpose against Helicon, she would have done it by now. But Nora was seized with a sick fear that there was more to it than that. Owen’s mother was powerful. How likely was it that six-year-old Owen could have stopped her completely? Maybe Nimue had a plan. And maybe Nora was still part of that plan, whether she knew it or not. Nora swallowed. “What did she want with the muses? What was she trying to accomplish?”

  “She was angry that the magic was fading from the mundane world,” said a sister. “She had a plan to restore it. But she didn’t tell any of us what it was.”

  “She frightens you doesn’t she?” The sister looked into their faces.

  Another sister spoke up softly. “Sometimes she frightened us too. We think she may have brought the wolves.”

  One of the sisters stood up briskly. “Let’s have no more talk of this. In Avalon, we do not dwell on unpleasantness. I believe that we promised you a supper of bread and milk if you drew our water from the well. Let’s eat.”

  Immediately, food appeared before them on the table. Nora realized that she was actually quite hungry. It had been a long time since she’d eaten the apples.

  “Well,” said Maddie as she dug in, “I guess since you brought the gadget, you can get all of us back to Helicon.”

  Daryl shook his head. “The stones that power it didn’t come along with us. It’s useless.”

  Maddie was disappointed. “I thought you guys did a better job of it. I figured you used it on purpose. I was just messing around with it when it went off.”

  “Actually,
” said Nora, “that’s sort of what happened to us too. I don’t think that thing is very stable.”

  One of the sisters asked to see it, and Daryl handed it over. She turned it over in her hands. “Looks like fairy work. Would the power source go here in the center?”

  “Yeah,” said Sawyer.

  “You might try using one of the apples,” said the sister. “They are quite powerful, or at least they can be. They also happen to be very tasty.”

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  The apple did indeed work to power the dimension-jumping gadget. However, for reasons they didn’t understand, when the dimension device brought them back into Helicon, it didn’t bring them back to the spot they had left from. Instead it dumped them back at the main fire pit, where they discovered that they had somehow been gone from Helicon for a matter of weeks instead of days.

  Coeus had figured out what happened to them when he saw that the device was missing, but he’d had no idea where to look for them. The muses had been at their wits end and had practically given up on the four of them. They were happy to have them home safe and sound. However they were forbidden near the device for any reason. Though it appeared to work, Coeus said it still needed testing. Furthermore, they would not be the ones to test it. He thought the loss of time might be attributed to a defect in the gadget. However, he thought it was just as likely that the different power source had caused it to behave erratically. Also, he supposed they couldn’t rule out the idea that perhaps time just worked differently in Avalon.

  When they told Coeus and Phoebe what the sisters had said about a large group of muses arriving in Avalon, they thought it was quite likely that it had coincided with the massacre. Both of them were very excited. Once the kinks were worked out of the dimension device, they planned to use it to look for the missing muses. It was possible that they were still alive.

  The four had been gone so long that they had completely missed the science and math gala. They were a little disappointed, but Sawyer said they would make up for it by having the best Halloween ever.

  Since Owen hadn’t been responsible for kidnapping anybody, and he had told Phoebe under the influence of the truth candle that he was unable to access Helicon, they were allowed to return to the tweens and rebels enclave. When nothing strange happened for weeks, they began to settle back into their routines. Nora decided to take up wood carving. She wasn’t very successful at first, at least not at anything besides cutting herself. But as time went on, her whittlings began to take familiar shapes. Sawyer went back to the clothing and fabric enclave and began working on a dress he said was “too awesome.” Maddie and Daryl were closer than ever. Nora never saw one of them without the other. When Nora and Sawyer talked about it, they kept their comments only to how great they thought it was for Maddie and how glad they were that she was happy.

  But Nora thought that they both were beginning to miss relationships a little bit. For some reason though, she felt awkward talking to Sawyer about it. At any rate, she found herself looking forward to Halloween, when Agler would come back. She knew now that Owen wasn’t responsible for what she had seen. She couldn’t explain it. It must have been the alcohol. Anyway, surely if she apologized to Agler, he would forgive her. Maybe they could pick up where they left off. Or maybe he was going to hate her forever. She wouldn’t know until she saw him. As August wore into September and September wore into October, Nora thought about it more and more.

  * * *

  Nora sat down with Sawyer and Maddie in the food enclave, pulling a sweater tight around her shoulders. Halloween was in two days. She had woken up just a little while ago to brisk autumn air and leaves that had gone red and gold overnight. She loved that Helicon gave her just a taste of the seasons, not enough to get sick of any of them. If she did get sick of summer, a quick taste of fall generally set her straight.

  “Where’s Daryl?” she asked.

  Maddie had a plate full of French toast, which she was cutting into little pieces. “I don’t know. I haven’t seen him this morning.”

  Sawyer chuckled. “You must be worried. The two of you have been Siamese twins lately. How does it feel to be disconnected?”

  Nora thought Sawyer’s comment was a little on the catty side, but Maddie only laughed. “A little relieved, honestly. Being around someone twenty-four/seven can get a little annoying. At first I thought it was just because I disappeared into Avalon, and he was worried about me, so I let it go. But lately, I’ve been feeling a little smothered. You guys are so lucky not to have a boyfriend.”

  Nora pushed her breakfast around on her plate. “I don’t know. I’ve been single for a while. Maybe it would be nice to be with someone again.”

  Sawyer glanced up at her then quickly looked back down at his food. He turned to Maddie. “So let me get this straight. You’re done with Daryl?”

  “Of course not. I’m happy to have a morning to breathe is all.”

  Nora shrugged. “You know, that was how I started feeling about Owen at the end.”

  Maddie stopped in the middle of cutting up her toast. She pointed a knife at Nora. “Daryl is not Owen. It is possible to feel smothered by a guy without him being an abusive asshole. Thinking like that is why you lost Agler in the first place.”

  Agler. Nora had been thinking about him a lot lately. “You’re right.”

  “Now hold on,” said Sawyer. “Agler went off to another dimension and abandoned you. That was his choice. It was not your fault.”

  “Well, I did sort of accidentally accuse him of attempted rape. I’m not sure that really helped.” Nora buttered a bagel.

  “Whatever,” said Sawyer. “If he really liked you, that wouldn’t have mattered.”

  Maddie rolled her eyes. “Come on, Sawyer. Everyone has a limit.”

  “Not if you really like someone,” said Sawyer. “If you really like someone, it’s unconditional.”

  “Are you saying that I don’t really like Daryl then? Because he’s annoying me with his smothering?”

  Sawyer ate some grapes and chewed thoughtfully. “Well do you really like him? I know he likes you. He was out of his mind when you were missing.”

  “Yes, I like him.” Maddie shoved some French toast into her mouth.

  “Why?”

  Maddie swallowed her food. “I don’t know. Because he likes me. Because I just do. I don’t have to have a reason.”

  “You know,” said Nora, “you don’t have to stay with Daryl just because he’s the first guy who ever showed interest in you. If he’s not what you want...”

  Maddie glared at them. “I think you guys want me to break up with my boyfriend so that we can all be single together.”

  “I wasn’t saying to break up with him,” said Nora.

  “It sure sounded like that to me,” said Maddie.

  “We just want you to be happy,” said Sawyer. “We don’t even mean to talk about Daryl anymore. We could talk about something else.”

  Maddie narrowed her eyes. “I know what this is about. Agler and Jack are coming back from the fairy world in two days, and you guys are both freaked.”

  Nora suddenly wasn’t very hungry for breakfast anymore. “Maybe a little bit. I mean, do you think he’ll still be mad at me?”

  “What do you care?” Sawyer said. “I’m not worried about seeing Jack in the least. He made it clear how he felt about me, and I’m completely over him.”

  Nora pushed more food around on her plate. She wasn’t eating it, but she was moving it. “I don’t know if I’m over Agler. In some ways, there isn’t even anything to be over. We were never really together. It just seems like, for us to break up, we should have had an actual relationship.”

  Maddie sniffed. “You totally want to get back together with him. And Sawyer, you might talk big, but I don’t buy it. You want Jack back too.”

  Sawyer shook his head. “I don’t think I do. Honestly, I’ve been kind of confused lately.”

  Trust Sawyer to always know exactly what she wa
s feeling. Nora nodded emphatically. “Me too. I have been completely confused.”

  Sawyer gave her a funny look. “Really? You have been?”

  “Yeah,” said Nora, “because when I had Agler, I didn’t want him. And then as soon as he was gone, I wanted him back. How screwed up is that?”

  Sawyer got interested in his fruit. “It’s not screwed up.”

  “Maybe it’s a tiny bit screwed up,” said Maddie. “But it’s only because lots of screwed up things have happened to you Nora. After everything you’ve been through, you can’t expect to be over it all at once. Now that you and Agler have had some time apart, I’m sure the two of you will be able to work everything out.”

  Nora smiled. That was what she had been secretly thinking. “I hope so.”

  “What if you couldn’t work things out?” Sawyer asked.

  “Sawyer!” Maddie said. “Why would you even say that?”

  “Because they might not be able to,” said Sawyer. “You think you might get interested in another guy, if Agler was out of the picture?”

  “What other guy?” Nora looked around the food enclave as if another guy was going to pop right up. “Agler has been gone for six months. If someone wanted to make a move, it’s not like he hasn’t had a chance.”

  Sawyer sighed. “Right.”

  Nora surveyed her friend. “If you’re so over Jack, how come you haven’t started dating anyone else?”

  Sawyer’s jaw worked for a little bit. Then he shook his head. “I don’t know.”

  * * *

  After breakfast, Sawyer told the girls that he was going to work on his Halloween costume and went back to his tent. But his costume was mostly done. He laid it out on his hammock and looked at it. He hadn’t really wanted to be around anyone for a while.

  He hadn’t told anyone what he was going to be for Halloween that year. When Nora and Maddie had asked, he’d said, “It’s a surprise.” Taking their cues from him, neither of them had revealed what they would dress up as either. Looking at his costume now, he wondered if the whole thing was a very bad idea.

  But then he couldn’t help himself. He put it on.