by Brian Olsen
Jasmine blinks. “Mrs. Kumar?”
“No, Jaz, the Nightmare Queen.” I lead us off the path, through a copse of trees, to hide us from view. “It must be taking a lot of effort to keep the minotaurs from—”
A loud, low bleat cuts me off as I round a large tree. I jump back in surprise, summoning flames around my hands before I even register what I’m seeing. A minotaur sits on the ground, his back against the tree, his axe lying ignored in the dirt. He shivers, whipping his head back and forth, and moans in misery.
“Dead.” His voice is a low bass. “All dead.”
“Hey.” I call to him softly, then a little louder. “Hey. Can you hear me?”
He moans again. “My calves, my beautiful calves, all dead. It killed them all.”
We come a little closer. He gives no sign of noticing.
“What the hell’s wrong with him?” Nate asks.
“He’s having a nightmare,” Alisa says. “Like you on the bridge, Chris.”
I put out my flames and kneel next to the suffering creature. “Sounds like his nightmares are about his children dying.”
“Oh.” Jasmine takes a tentative step closer. “Poor thing. Can we help him?”
“Maybe I can cut through the nightmare,” Alisa suggests. “Make him see the truth.”
“Are we sure we want to?” Nate asks. “He might not be so harmless if you wake him.”
I stand back up. “We can’t leave him like this, and maybe he can tell us something useful. Give it a shot, Alisa.”
“Hold up.” Nate grabs Jasmine and pulls her back. “Company.”
Another minotaur, a woman, charges us from farther down the path, her axe over her head. Whatever she’s seeing, she’s not scared of it enough to hide behind a tree.
“Grootslang!” she roars. “Grootslang!”
“Alisa?” I shout. “Maybe wake her up first?”
“Working on it! I need a second!”
Nate and Jasmine are clear, but the minotaur is heading right for me and Alisa. If we split up, she might follow Alisa instead of me. So I run straight at her, to give my friend time to work her magic.
I am running directly towards a giant muscled cow-woman with a battle axe. Not my best plan.
A few feet before she’s close enough to slice me in two, I fly up over her head. She skids to a halt and pivots to follow my motion, ready to go for me again when I land.
I’d better not land, then. Sun. I go a little higher, keeping my eyes on my would-be killer.
My head smacks into something. A tree limb. The pain shatters my concentration and I fall. I land hard in the dirt, knocking the wind out of me.
The minotaur roars in triumph. “Die, grootslang!”
“Truth!” Alisa runs up behind her. “Truth!”
The minotaur freezes. She gives out a confused moo and looks down at me.
“Human?” she says. “Where did the grootslang go?”
I take a deep, wheezing breath. “No grootslang here,” I cough out. “Whatever a grootslang is.”
“Where am I?” She touches a tree. “I don’t recognize this place, but it is not the cold cavern we have been trapped in.” She yawns. “I feel as if I were asleep. Do I sleep still?”
“No.” I get to my feet. “No, you’re awake now. Do you remember—”
“Nate!”
Jasmine’s scream makes my heart jump. I push by the minotaur, past Alisa, and run back towards where we left Nate and Jasmine. The minotaur who had been cowering by the tree is up on his feet, holding his axe over his head. Nate’s in the dirt, holding his hand up to ward off the fatal blow.
“Murderer!” the minotaur roars. “Slayer of children!”
I can’t make it. I’m too far away.
Axe, become too hot to hold. No, he’ll just drop it on Nate! Minotaur, catch on fire. No, same problem! Uh…uh…do something! Anything! Shit!
Too late. I’m too late.
The axe comes down.
Twenty-nine
The minotaur suddenly shakes, throwing off his footing. The axe slips and strikes a tree root instead of Nate. The creature continues to vibrate violently, then his body distends and warps. His head pulls like taffy while from the neck down his body narrows. He thins out and stretches, his whole body, axe included, reaching towards me, until the distortion hits his feet and he leaves the ground like a snapping rubber band. The compressed man-bull flies along the path, flapping like a streamer. I leap out of the way as the strand of stringy minotaur zips by, then flies past Alisa and the other minotaur, then off the path and into the trees, headed towards the pond.
I turn back to check on Nate. Jasmine is staring at me with a thoughtful expression. She’s still hugging that pink elephant backpack, but when I meet her eyes she jumps a little, drops her bag, and throws her arms around Nate, sobbing. I run for them, followed by Alisa and the minotaur woman.
“I’m okay, babe.” Nate pats Jasmine’s head, then rubs his own. “He took me by surprise. Knocked me down. Is he back in the trophy?”
“I think so.” I grab his shoulder. “Sorry. Couldn’t think of a spell. I kind of froze.”
He smiles reassuringly at me. “I’m good, dude. I’m good.”
The remaining minotaur drops the head of her axe into the dirt, resting her hands on the end of the handle. “I require explanations, young humans. Are you logomancers? Did you bring me to this place?”
While I help Nate and Jasmine to their feet, Alisa answers, “No. I mean, yes, we are logomancers, or two of us are. But we didn’t bring you here. My name is Alisa Green. What’s yours?”
She snorts. “Strange name for a human. I am Oosan.”
“Oosan, can you tell us what you remember?”
“I was with my mate. We were trapped in a strange cavern with no food or water with the rest of our kind for…I do not know how long. There was no way to measure the passage of time there. Weeks, I think. We set out to explore, but the cavern’s passages had no end. We stopped to rest, then…” She flicks an ear. “I dreamed of the grootslang.”
“And what’s a grootslang, exactly?” Nate asks.
“A fearsome cave-dwelling creature,” she replies. “But I have never seen one.”
Jasmine picks up her backpack. “Do you have nightmares about it?”
She shrugs. “Not since I was a calf. Minotaur parents tell their children the grootslang will eat them if they are bad.”
I look through the trees. In the distance, more and more minotaurs charge towards the park entrance. “So this grootslang probably shows up in a lot of your people’s nightmares, then?”
“I’m sure it does.” She picks up her axe again and slings it over her shoulder. “I was certain I was fighting a grootslang. It seemed so real. Instead I was about to murder an innocent human.” She turns and takes in the sight of the other minotaurs in the distance. “Are all my people under such a spell?”
“We can break it if we can get over there.” I point out the near shore of the park’s large pond. “But it’ll send you back to that cavern.”
She shudders. “Better that than to be mindless killers. Lead the way, young logomancer. I will protect you.”
I put my hand up to shade my eyes. “I think I know where the other minotaur got pulled. Everybody grab on. Now that I’ve got a destination I can teleport us there.”
Alisa, Nate and Jasmine each put a hand on me, and the minotaur follows suit with a questioning moo. I take us across the park to the spot I was looking at, right on the edge of the pond, about twenty feet back from where the minotaurs have been appearing. A few new ones just appeared but they’re already running down the main path, screaming about grootslang. One wanders off in a different direction, bleating in misery, but most are following the herd. So to speak.
“There, look.” Nate shades his eyes. “It’s sitting out in the grass.”
The little trophy that used to rest in the display case in the boys’ locker room at school is lying on its side on the ground. The dark
blue pedestal is hard to see from this distance but the gold bull on top stands out clearly. We rush over to it, dodging little piles of goose turds.
“Careful,” I say. “More could pop out any second.”
“But where’s the Nightmare Queen?” Jasmine asks.
“More importantly…” Alisa crouches and runs her hands through the grass. “Where’s the book?”
She’s right. The trophy should be touching Creatures of Myth and Legend if creatures of myth and legend are coming out of it, but all that’s underneath it is grass and dirt.
I smack my forehead. God, we’re dumb. “We assumed the artifact and the book needed to be together to work because that’s the only way we ever did it. But what if you only need the book and it doesn’t matter where the artifact is? We never tried that!”
Alisa puts her hand to her chest and I know she’s imagining a couple million elves bursting out of her blouse. “How do we stop it if they’ve got the book somewhere else?”
The trophy shakes and we jump back. A minotaur extrudes out of it like spaghetti from a pasta maker, then snaps into his full shape, landing on his hairy feet with a heavy thud. He looks to either side and snorts in panic, completely missing the five of us just a few feet behind him. With a roar, he hefts his axe and charges straight ahead, down the path.
“There are so many,” Jasmine says. “Do you think everyone’s okay?”
“You said the Nightmare Queen does this?” Oosan stomps her foot. “I have heard of this human queen and her monstrous husband. Are they behind our imprisonment as well?”
Honesty is the best policy. On the other hand, timing is everything. “Not exactly. We’ll come and find you when this is done, Oosan, I promise. We’re working on a way to free you from that cavern, but we’ve got to solve this problem first.”
She lifts the axe. “Should I smash this icon?”
All four of us yell, “No!”
Alisa puts a hand on her arm. “Your people are inside. Destroying it will kill them.”
I snap my fingers. “I have an idea. Be right back.”
I teleport to where we left Lily and Mr. Ambrose, and immediately dive for cover behind a parked car. Minotaurs are everywhere. Center Street is a disaster. The creatures have smashed in doors and windows and…
Oh, god. There are bodies. Anyone who hid in a building instead of running. The minotaurs are dragging them out into the street and killing them. I can’t tell how many. I see two near me, but there could be more. There must be more.
I don’t see Lily or Mr. Ambrose anywhere. I hope they retreated somewhere safer. I teleport myself a little further down the street, behind another car. Still no sign. I teleport across the intersection with Charles Street, to the opposite corner. There are fewer minotaurs down here but they’re starting to spread out through the city, leaving the streets bordering the park. The news van I saw earlier is here but the front of it sports a huge axe-sized dent and there’s no sign of the news crew.
“Psst! Chris!”
That sounded like it was coming from behind me. I’m in front of Carelli’s, the Italian restaurant where Zane and I were supposed to have our date last night. The big front window is smashed and I don’t see anyone inside.
“Look up, stupid!”
I look up. There are three floors of apartments above the restaurant, and Lily is above them all, looking down at me from the roof. I teleport next to her.
“Ah!” She jumps back from the ledge, holding her heart. “Geez!”
“Sorry. Where’s Mr. Ambrose?”
“Over here.”
She leads me back behind the stairwell bulkhead. A barricade of identical sandbags blocks the door into the building. There was probably only one sandbag originally, used to prop the door open, and Lily copied it. Smart.
Mr. Ambrose sits leaning against the wall. His eyes are closed and he’s sweating. “Disrupt,” he mumbles. “Disrupt.”
“The more they spread out, the harder he has to work,” Lily explains.
He opens his eyes, sees me, and lets out a loud breath. “I can’t do it. Too many phones. I’ve kept our faces from being recorded but the minotaurs…there are too many cameras on them.”
“It’s all right.” I grab Lily’s wrist. “Come on. No time.” I touch Mr. Ambrose’s head and teleport the three of us back to the book.
“Ah!” Lily jumps again. “Warning next time. Minotaur! Split!”
She gestures and breaks Oosan’s axe into two equal pieces. They drop from our new friend’s hand into the grass.
“My grandmother’s axe!” the minotaur cries. “Why would you do such a thing?”
“It’s all right, Lily.” Jasmine pats Oosan’s arm. “This is a nice minotaur.”
“Chris!” Mr. Ambrose gets to his feet. “What have you done? I’ve lost the spell, I’ll have to start over!”
I grab the trophy and shove it in his hands. “Disrupt this, Mr. Ambrose! Disrupt the connection between the trophy and the book and this all ends!”
He stares at the trophy for a second without doing anything – I think he’s still a little dazed. But then it shakes in his hands and he grits his teeth.
“Disrupt!”
The trophy stops shaking. Oosan starts. She moos loudly once, squishes into a minotaur-colored noodle, and vanishes into the little golden bull.
“Aw.” Jasmine pouts. “I liked her.”
“Ssh.” Alisa puts her finger to her lips. “Listen.”
I hear alarms, from cars and destroyed storefronts. But that’s it. No screams, no bullish roars, no smashing. I don’t hear the minotaurs.
But now I see them. Long strings, brown and black and gray, whipping through the air across the park towards us. One by one they strike the trophy and disappear inside it.
Mr. Ambrose holds the little statue tight in his hands, but after the first few hits rock him backwards he has to drop it. I help him to his feet and we watch the last wave of creatures return to their prison.
Mr. Ambrose lets out a huge breath and bends over, resting his hands on his knees. “Oh, that was exhausting.”
“Nice one, Mr. Ambrose.” Nate slaps his back. “Way to save the day.”
Mr. Ambrose stands up. “Smarter.” He winks at me. “Not tougher.”
Mr. Liefer appears a few feet away. He looks haggard as hell and his right arm is bleeding badly. “What happened?”
“It’s done, Ronald,” Mr. Ambrose says. “They’re back in their artifact.”
Liefer takes us all in without a word. He turns and looks behind him, back towards the park entrance, and makes a beckoning gesture. Andy and the original Lily appear next to him.
Andy is covered in blood, and I don’t think any of it is his. “Is it over?” he asks.
“Apparently.” Liefer looks me up and down. “Chris, you were supposed to stay out of the way. Instead you send Zane and your elf friend into the thick of the battle, and now I find the rest of you standing over the trophy that caused all this?”
“I—”
“What will it take to get you children to do as you’re told?” He gestures and the trophy appears in his hand. “Do I need to resort to force once again?”
Nate folds his arms. “How well did that work out for you last time, Mr. Liefer?”
“Don’t push me, Nate. Your friends aren’t the only ones who have gotten better with their magic since then.”
“That’s enough, Ronald!” Mr. Ambrose snatches the trophy out of the former headmaster’s hands. “While you were busy butchering the minotaurs, who were as much the victims in all this as anyone, Chris used his brain and tracked down the cause of the problem. Maybe if you were a better leader there’d be fewer dead bodies littering the streets of Charlesville right now!”
Liefer turns beet red. I think if anyone else talked to him like that they’d be at the bottom of the pond by now, but Mr. Ambrose doesn’t seem the tiniest bit concerned. He holds up the trophy, examining it from every angle, as if Mr. Lief
er doesn’t even exist.
Lily frowns. “Sorry to interrupt this tender moment, but the third me is on her way back.” She points to a far corner of the park. “Mr. Liefer, can you—”
He gestures sharply and another Lily appears, mid-run. “Ah!” She skids to a stop, sweaty and out of breath. “Geez, a little warning next time. What happened? I went outside and all the minotaurs were—”
“Out with it!” Liefer snaps. “What did you find?”
Lily pulls her head back. “All right, don’t snap your jock. Everybody in the police station was out of it. Crying and drooling on the floor. They started waking up just a few minutes ago.”
Behind them, way back near the entrance, I spot Zane and Tannyl. I wave, and they run towards us.
“Can you…?” I say to Mr. Liefer.
He shoots a look over his shoulder at them, then sneers. “I’m not a taxi service.”
I want to say something nasty back but I can’t think of anything to beat Lily’s ‘don’t snap your jock.’ Instead I teleport to them myself, grab each by the arm, and teleport back.
“—completely irresponsible!” Mr. Liefer roars. “What if someone saw you?”
“Nobody did.” I let Tannyl go and take Zane’s hand. “And if I’m wrong, the only people programmed to attack me are on your side, so maybe I drummed you up some new recruits. You’re welcome.”
“Okay!” Alisa steps into the middle of our group. “Enough! Miller and the Nightmare Queen are what’s important right now. They weren’t here with the book, which means they’ve still got it and can do all this again. We have to find them.”
“We should get of here,” says the Lily who just arrived. “The Nightmare Queen was keeping the emergency services occupied, but that’s over. They’ll be here soon.”
“If I may,” Tannyl says. “I aided your resistance for a time, through Ree. You made informed speculations on the scope of the Nightmare Queen’s powers. Do you not remember?”
Liefer shakes his head. “Very little. The nightmares she’s been giving us have made it hard to concentrate. We haven’t recovered many new memories. It’s hard enough to hang onto the ones we’ve got.”
Tannyl nods. “I do not believe she was this powerful before. There are reports of her incapacitating small armies, yes, but only when she was nearby. Lily, you say she did so to your city guard?”