Harley Merlin 19: Persie Merlin and the Door to Nowhere

by Bella Forrest

  “Crap. We’ll have to talk about this later, or we’ll lose the pixies.”

  “Of course.”

  We carried on up the corridor from the Repository toward the point where it branched off to the right. Above, Boudicca did a rude mime that made it clear she wanted to strangle the life out of me before fluttering onward.

  “What’s the favor?” I asked Nathan, keeping an eye on the pixies.

  Nathan looked up. “Ah, well, I was hoping you might be willing to tell me more about what Leviathan is like from a personal perspective. Anecdotes from your mother and her friends, from their experience with Echidna, would also be welcome.”

  I mustered a halfhearted snort. “Would a page full of curse words do?”

  “There must be hidden depths to him, even if they are—”

  He came to a stop, eyes locked on Boudicca. She was waving maniacally from behind a rafter, her tiny colored dots flashing a red warning through the shadows. I frowned in confusion. Did she not want us talking to each other?

  Everything became clear as Charlotte rounded the corner, carrying one of the heavy metal folders that I’d seen during my exam—the folders that connected to the wider magical world through the Krieger Detection Technology, or the KDT, as it was more commonly known. She must have been using one of those private offices that Nathan had mentioned, and we’d been too busy talking about Genie to hear the door close. Seeing us, she halted abruptly, looking from Nathan to me, then back again.

  “You’re not supposed to be out here! Victoria put you on hexed lockdown!” She cast a conflicted look at Nathan. “And you… you should have stopped her. I remember what you said in the orchard, Persie, but I can’t allow this. I’m sorry, but I’m going to have to hold you here and call for Victoria.” She dumped the folder on the floor with an echoing bang and raised her hands.

  Finally, I’d get to see the famous Charlotte Basani in action—just not in the way I’d imagined. White sparks glittered around her fingertips, and I knew what was about to go down—the same thing happened when my mom got ready to use her Telekinesis.

  Here we had a classic preemptive strike (apparently, I had learned something in Hosseini’s class), and I dealt with those the pacifist’s way—by ducking and rolling. Silvery strands shot out of her palms, and I made my escape, diving under the Telekinetic trajectories. I hit the floor hard, a jolt of pain shooting through my knee, which had absorbed the shock.

  “Charlotte, enough!” Nathan stepped between us. “You may be Shailene’s daughter, but that doesn’t give you the right to attack us. What we’re doing does not concern you, and Persie and I will deal with Victoria once we’re finished.”

  Charlotte didn’t listen. Instead, she shot a strand of Telekinesis toward him. It took him by surprise, snaking around his waist. He lifted his palms to retaliate, but she flicked her wrist and threw him against the nearest wall before he had the chance to do anything. I grimaced as I heard the thud.

  Meanwhile, my hand clawed for the metal folder she’d dropped. I grabbed it before she could aim a fresh round of Telekinesis at me and hurled it at her head with all my might. She ducked, whirling around to watch it skid down the hallway behind her. I didn’t waste any time. Jumping up, I raced toward Nathan, helping him up.

  He groaned. “We need to get… out of here. We can’t… save Genie, if she turns us in… to Victoria.”

  “Way ahead of you.” At least, I’d thought I was, but Charlotte was facing me again, her hands raised and ready for more.

  “If you’re not going to come quietly, that causes a few problems for me,” she said. Closing her eyes, she slammed her palms into her chest, sending green ripples down her body.

  Nathan sighed. “Ah, crap.”

  “What?” I whispered, trying to hurry him away from the scene.

  “Charlotte’s best attack.” He dropped to the floor and pressed his palms into the ground, presumably preparing some kind of Earth-based defensive maneuvers. Beneath my feet, I felt a rumble growing. The polished concrete splintered just in front of Charlotte’s feet, and out slithered a tangle of vines. They crept up Charlotte’s legs, wrapping around her.

  It took a second for me to understand what was happening when her body began to transform. Her face morphed into a mask of pain as her shoulders broadened. She lengthened right in front of us, growing two feet taller. Her skin rippled, and thick brown hair sprouted rapidly. Muscles that hadn’t been there before bulged out, and I stared in disbelief as a snout formed and huge claws protruded from newly-born paws. It took less than twenty seconds for the process to complete, leaving Nathan and me standing in front of a freaking grizzly bear. The only thing that hadn’t changed were her hazel eyes, which glinted at us with very human anger.

  “She’s… she’s…” I remembered vaguely that she was a Bestia, but I hadn’t fully understood what that entailed until now. With a growl that shook the walls, she clawed away the constricting vines like tissue paper. And that meant nothing was holding her back from a full-on grizzly charge. Surely she didn’t intend to maul us?

  “We need to run!” Nathan urged. “I could hit her with everything I have and it wouldn’t bother her in the slightest, not in this state.”

  Just as we were about to whip around and flee, my own beasts reminded us that they were there. A divebombing unit of twenty-plus pixies plummeted from the ceiling, shrieking a deafening war cry. The bear looked up in bemusement as the creatures struck. Two of them went straight for the eyes, coming in for a dropkick with their tiny legs extended. The bear’s massive paws flailed in front of her face, trying to fend them off, but there were two more right behind, prepared and willing to temporarily blind Charlotte. A distraction crew circled her, tugging at her fur and generally trying to piss her off by socking her in the jaw and yanking on her ears. Meanwhile, two smaller groups had materialized curtain ties from who-knew-where. One team wrapped the velvet cords around her legs, crossing over one another in perfect unison as they pulled the cords tighter and tighter, like something out of a cartoon. The other team did the same with her arms, binding them to her sides.

  I wanted to give them a standing ovation as the bear came crashing down like a bowling pin. Charlotte roared as the distraction crew jumped on her head, dancing a jig and elbow-dropping into her fur, while others pulled at her bear ears, basically ensuring she kept her head down. Boudicca walked across the bear’s head, all the way down to the tip of her snout, lifting her hand in a salute before gesturing wildly at the now-clear hallway.

  “Sorry, Charlotte.” Grabbing Nathan’s arm, I pulled him past her. “I didn’t want you to get involved in this,” I said to bear-Charlotte. “But you wouldn’t listen. You’ll understand soon. I’m doing this to save both of our best friends.”

  If the pixies were right, then we’d be able to solve the mystery of the missing magicals before the night was over. I just prayed I wouldn’t be getting expelled for letting a horde of free-range pixies loose on a Basani-Bear.

  She attacked first. She’s the one who should be reprimanded. Defiant, I let go of Nathan’s arm and tore along the corridor, though I still had no idea where we were going. Once Charlotte broke out of her bonds, she’d probably go straight to Victoria and we’d be on the hunters’ most-wanted list, but we’d have to handle that after we saved Genie. I couldn’t waste this window of time worrying about what might happen, not with my friend in peril.

  The farther we ran, the closer we got to the unfinished part of the Institute. But that couldn’t be right. Boudicca landed on my shoulder and pointed forward as if I were her majestic steed. I glanced at her as I ran and she grinned back, her pulsating spots turning a vibrant shade of golden yellow—the color of friendship and triumph. Beside me, pixies crowded Nathan’s shoulders and head, enjoying a free ride. The rest flew above us as an aerial entourage, no longer worried about hiding in the shadows. Boudicca had spotted Charlotte long before we did, and I wondered if they had a way of sensing the hunters.

&
nbsp; “Are we going to the new wing?” I asked Boudicca.

  She nodded solemnly and swirled her hands over each other, as if trying to explain the unknown power that awaited us there. Her pulsating spots changed to a dark, foreboding purple. Knowing my color palettes had been a Godsend for breaking through language barriers with these pixies. They wore their hearts on their sleeves, literally.

  Sprinting onward, we pounded the polished concrete until we came to the stunning, half-formed entrance to the new wing. The darkness dulled the colors of the stained glass, giving the wing a gloomy feel, as though it didn’t want us to enter. Nothing penetrated the dense black beyond the archway. No workman’s lights, no fireballs, just endless shadow.

  “In here?” Nathan asked his freeloaders.

  The pixies jittered, trying to tuck under the lapels of his jacket, and hide behind his ears and his neck. A few slipped into his pockets, and one managed to fold itself under his leonine locks, trembling against his scalp.

  I shuddered, strengthened only by Boudicca’s steadfast face. “I think we can take that as a yes.”

  With a deep breath, I put my best foot forward and stepped into the breach. It might’ve sounded dramatic, but it felt even more dramatic. The moment I entered the half-constructed foyer, the shadows seemed to close in and darken further, reminding me of that endless, tarry black substance I’d been trapped in at the start of my nightmare. Had that been an omen of this? I couldn’t see Nathan or Boudicca anymore, which supported the impression that I was entirely alone in a world of impermeable black.

  “Nathan?” I whispered.

  “I’m here,” he replied from nearby, though the reverb made it sound like his voice was coming from everywhere at once. “I can’t see a thing,” he whispered.

  “Me neither.” I reached out, swishing my arms in front of me and hitting only air. “Can you find my voice?”

  “I’m not sure.” His tone was concerned, but not afraid, and that was comforting.

  “Do you have a lighter, or some kind of light spell we could use?” I all but begged. A moment longer in this darkness and I’d lose my mind. My breaths had already become ragged, and if I couldn’t fight it, the cold sweats would follow. And then, the inevitable.

  Just then, I felt tiny hands on my face and heard a soft hush from Boudicca. She smoothed her palm across my cheek, small as a dime, and whispered in her pixie dialect. The words made no sense, but the sentiment did. Boudicca—the pixie I’d put in a glass orb—had sensed my terror and was trying to comfort me. Through the dark, I saw her pulsating spots glowing white.

  “Thank you,” I murmured, feeling my breaths slow with every stroke of her small hand.

  She giggled and chattered something that sounded like: “No problem.”

  “Persie,” Nathan hissed. “Do you see that?”

  “What?” I whipped my head around, my eyes focusing on lights heading in our direction. I nearly shrieked, thinking they were hunters’ flashlights. But then I noticed the colors, burning bright at the center, encircled by a gaseous halo. Purples, pinks, greens, blues, yellows, all bobbing toward us. They’d come from somewhere within the unfinished sphere of the new Repository, though I had no idea which way I was even facing.

  I smiled as they illuminated the dark of the foyer, chasing the shadows back into the corners where they could lurk all they liked without bothering us. They were beautiful, like magical, dancing wisps. Just looking at them made my insides warm and happy.

  “The orbs came back,” I thought aloud, ignoring a frantic chirp from Boudicca. Her tiny hands tried to grab my face, but I was too fascinated by the lights to turn away. “Do you remember them, Nathan?”

  He stood beside me, looking up. “I do. They were in here last time, weren’t they? I… didn’t realize how astonishing they were. I expect you have to see them in the dark to fully appreciate their beauty.”

  “Didn’t you say they might be spirits of dead hunters?” I whispered, not wanting to disturb the wisps as they spiraled around each other and danced off in different directions, putting on a show just for us.

  “Hmm?” Nathan appeared just as captivated as I was. “Oh, yes, something to… uh, that effect. They might be the remnants of… What did you say again?”

  “Dead hunters’ spirits,” I replied.

  “Yes, they might be remnants of… a dead hunter’s magic, though I can’t think who they would belong to.” He giggled, his eyes wide as saucers. “They would have had to be… What was I saying? Um… exceptionally powerful to leave such wondrous fragments behind. And I can’t think… I can’t think… of anyone who would have fit such a bill recently. Maybe not even in the… the Institute’s history.”

  Grinning idiotically at the floating lights, I looked around in wonder as music began to play, melodic and sweet with an undercurrent of sadness that brought tears to my eyes. I could almost envision a chorus of angels, cheesy as it sounded. But music inspired imagination, and I’d never heard a sweeter or sadder song in my whole life.

  “Tell me you can hear that?” Nathan sighed, his eyes wet.

  I nodded dumbly. “It’s incredible. Do you know what they’re saying?”

  “It’s an old variation of Gaelic…” He hummed quietly, trying to find the melody. “But even my ordinary Gaelic is very rusty. I can only make out something to do with a broken heart and… eternal longing, perhaps? But it might be a stomachache.”

  Persephone? A not-so-melodic voice cut through my charmed thoughts. Persephone, can you hear me?

  Not now! You’re ruining it!

  Ruining what? He sounded bemused.

  The pretty lights and the beautiful music. It’s… the most incredible thing I’ve ever heard. I watched the lights flow balletically through the air, moving in time to the slow, bittersweet song. I’d appreciate it if you could get out of my head so I can keep on enjoying it. Why are you in my head, anyway? Weirdly, I wasn’t upset that Leviathan had made contact.

  The music is why I came. Your fascination with it. His tone carried a hint of concern, which annoyed me.

  Oh, so I can’t be happy or angry or sad without you showing up unannounced? Are there any emotions I can feel without you butting in?

  He chuckled softly. Your emotions are erratic. That is why I am here. There is something amiss. His laughter faded. Tell me about the lights and music.

  I don’t know. They just appeared, but I’ve seen them before—they’re these gaseous, floaty orbs, a bit like small, colorful comets. There wasn’t any music last time, though, I explained. I wished he’d buzz off so I could hear the music properly without him taking up headspace.

  Ah… A note of surprise punctuated the sound.

  I rolled my eyes. Ah? What does that mean?

  They sound like Will-o’-the-Wisps. I have heard of them, but they have never interested me enough to warrant my full attention. He paused. Now, however… Perhaps they have earned my curiosity.

  I tried to hide my excitement in case Nathan noticed, but I quickly realized he was too transfixed by the lights to even remember that I was here. The hiding pixies had come out to slap some sense into him, the one in his hair tugging on his locks, but he didn’t pay them any mind. I didn’t blame him. Who would want to be distracted from such a remarkable display? I definitely didn’t, but I had a nuisance in my noggin that wouldn’t go away until he’d done whatever it was he’d come to do, and I was anxious to return to the light show.

  Are you going to leave me hanging? I asked.

  He laughed. You know I would never do that, my Persephone. Will-o’-the-Wisps are elemental spirits. The lights themselves are candles of the dead. The spirits hold the candles, and they are the ones who sing, but you cannot see the bearers with the naked eye. They may appear to some as hazy figures. I am surprised you are not able to see them. He made a sound, as though he was slightly disappointed by this fact.

  Sorry that I’m not some almighty Mother of Monsters, I spat, becoming more and more frustrated by h
is voice. It was like hearing three songs at once, all the notes clamoring in my head and making my nerves bristle. Besides, last time we’d spoken, he’d told me about a Door to Nowhere, not elemental spirits or wisps. It sounded like he was making it up as he went along, trying to keep my attention.

  Anyway, that is by the by, Leviathan continued. The candles of the dead and the song of the spirits hypnotize people in order to lead them astray. Usually, it is to lead them from safe paths into bogs and marshland, to claim more spirits for themselves. However, it seems they have diversified.

  “Will you not listen to us?” whispered a soft voice, ethereal and sad. Almost as if they were pleading with me. “Please, hear our song. We sing it for you.”

  I nodded slowly. “I’m listening.” The moment I spoke, the connection severed and Leviathan vamoosed out of my head, just as I’d wanted. Now, I could give all of my focus to the hypnotic wisps, just as they wanted. I’d come all this way; the least I could do was listen.

  “Will you follow us, sweet lady?” the voice whispered again, gentle and warm. “Will you come to us? We can sing to you there. We sing for you.”

  I smiled shyly. “For me?”

  “For me?” Nathan parroted.

  “Only for you. Will you follow us?” The lights floated toward the dense black of the new Repository sphere, and my feet did the talking. I stepped forward automatically, eager to go wherever the Wisps were going. Beside me, Nathan did the same.

  “I’ll follow,” I replied dreamily, desperate not to lose sight of them.

  I’d walked a few paces when Boudicca put her fingers to her lips and gave the loudest whistle my eardrums had ever heard. En masse, the pixies surged toward the Wisps. The pixies’ pulsating lights burned with blinding brightness for a few seconds, the sudden ferocity chasing the Wisps away down the central walkway of the sphere and into the darkness below. The moment they disappeared, taking their heartbreaking song with them, I snapped out of whatever trance they’d put me in. It was like waking up after a long, strange dream, and finding that you’d sleepwalked into the kitchen for no reason.