by P. S. Power
They quickly made their way towards the basement stairs, only to find a different obstacle standing before them in the mouth to the hallway. It wasn’t a large thing, in fact it was a cute and rather tiny blonde girl. One with a large, bloody gash on the side of her neck, pulsing life energy and making a lot of very direct eye contact with Jonas.
“Oh, my, whatever am I to do with all this precious blood flowing freely from my body? If only there was a brave and strong Vampire around to drink it for me, before it gets all over the place?”
Richard rolled his eyes. It was silly to someone as old as he was, but it was a good trap for a very young being like Jonas. Rebekah let her own eyes close as well, getting the basic idea at about the same time.
“Just walk past Jonas.” Hally urged, her voice low and soft. “This has to be a test.”
It wasn’t that easy of course, even though the young man realized what was going on. The trap wasn’t that he was too stupid to know what he was supposed to be doing, it was that his Vampire nature screamed at him to act in a very particular fashion. Fighting it was a sign of age and control, a skill that some of their kind never truly mastered.
The blonde simulacrum taunted him cruelly. Flaunting her blood, straining her neck and moving it closer to him as he tried to pass, the scent doubling its intensity, then doing it again several times.
“Just a lick? It won’t harm anything. You can have a taste… I want you to. Don’t you like me?”
The others kept their mouths shut, except Mortimer, who tried to call out helpful encouragements, Richard thought. The words didn’t make any noise however, which made the little fellow seem very concerned.
“I can’t speak?” He gasped in relief on hearing his own voice.
Richard had to just shake his head then. “You can’t help him. He has to figure this out on his own.”
It didn’t seem fair, since they’d been allowed to call out hints to Hally, but Jonas was older and had to only resist temptation, not fight his worst enemy. It was still a real trial for him, it was clear. He stood, eyes locked on the young and succulent neck for a long time, before finally turning away and running past the woman, avoiding her hands as she reached out for him.
“Argh!” He sounded almost in pain when he made it to the far end of the hallway, gasping as if it had been a long run and he a human still.
The bleeding woman was gone, of course, vanishing a second after he made it past. Then Mortimer was faced with… Santa. The being was free, taller than he’d been before and blocking the door to the basement.
“Mortimer T. Elf. I should have known it would be you that shirked your duty as soon as I left for more than a few hours. You should be ashamed of yourself. This was all a test to see who the good elves are, and you failed. From now on you’re banned from my workshop. Go away and find some other place to ply your trade. Go!” It was hard and harsh, the voice lacking any of the jolliness that it had held earlier. The elf was instantly downcast however, his eyes filling with tears.
“I’m sorry Santa! We were told you had been taken prisoner and that we had to help you. I didn’t know…” It was sad and plaintive, but defeated at the same time. As if the tiny being truly expected such treatment from his boss. It didn’t seem right though and from down the stairs they could hear a voice calling.
“Mortimer? I’m down here! Don’t listen to him!” This was the much happier sounding voice from earlier, clearly still where they’d left him.
“Santa?” It was a high pitched sob, not a whine exactly, but a forlorn and distraught sound that set Richard’s teeth on edge a bit. “Santa!”
The fake being was bodily pushed to the side, showing a lot more power than would have been expected from Mort. He tried the door handle, jumping up to grab it, but it was too high for him to easily operate. Rather than let him kick it in, which seemed to be the next move, Richard sprang forward and did the turning for him, letting the whole thing open as the elf charged down the stairs without any concern at all for his own well being.
Theirs either, most likely, but he got to the silver chained form and was rapidly explaining things to him by the time the rest of them made it to the scene.
It was a high pitched and breathless tale, ending with the tiny man racing to the fur hat in the corner.
“So, the human elf girl said that we should try to use your hat, to hold the bag, in which the key was placed. That way we might make it to you in time, before it all returns to your workbench. Is it a good plan, sir?”
There was a great laugh then, which, surprisingly enough, actually did sound like, “ho, ho, ho.”
“Very good indeed! The important thing is that young Maci has been rescued. If I can be freed it will be just icing on the cookie, don’t you think?” He seemed optimistic about it, even though they weren’t any closer to actually doing that part of things than they had been hours before.
Mortimer wanted to stay with his friend, but Balthias shook his giant horned head and snorted a bit like a bull.
“No. Think before you react. You have the greatest chance of holding the magical items of Santa Claus. I cannot touch the things but for a few seconds, I do not think. These dead beings are not of a nature to do much better. Perhaps Lady Hally could manage it, but that is a chance we need not take. Only you have what is needed to save your friend.” It didn’t sound overly kind when he said it, but Santa chuckled.
“True Mortimer. You can do it. I know you can!”
That got them all arranging themselves again, after Rebekah ran up the stairs and shut the door to the basement, just in case anyone else came in. She didn’t mention that it would likely be Ma’at if that happened, or that they probably couldn’t fool her using something as simple as closing a door, but it was something to do and a good habit to keep themselves in, taking what precautions they might. Even if it didn’t help, it didn’t cost them much to do.
Then, Balthias put his hands out and waited for the others to grab hold, Mortimer reluctantly sitting on Jonas’s shoulder again, not wanting to leave his boss alone. Just before they left Santa stared directly into Richard’s eyes. His face held a smile, but it was darker than the voice had been even a few seconds before.
“Keep them safe.” It wasn’t an order, which wouldn’t have gone over well, even if he was a politician now. It was a request.
He just nodded, and vanished, the scene changing without even a blink.
Chapter six
The impression that he got, mainly from the snow on the ground and how Hally grabbed her own arms, shivering, was that it was cold being so close to the North Pole. Luckily for the human girl there was a tiny hut, a shack made out of well weathered wood, about the size of the shed in his own back yard, if not as nice, about ten feet in front of them. Without thinking about it he rushed forward, taking the girl by the arm, to try and get her inside as quickly as possible.
He half expected the inside to be dark and cold, but it was well lit and warm. He could smell chocolate and peppermint in the air. Cookies and candied fruit as well. The girl looked at him and nodded her thanks, not really chattering yet, since he’d moved quickly enough.
“Next time you should wear a jacket.” Or perhaps more substantial clothing, though he didn’t mention that part of things.
Hally wasn’t his to watch over, so it would be rude of him to tell her how to dress. Besides, as it turned out she really seemed to match everyone else in the room far better than the rest of them did. It wasn’t exactly the same, because the girl had tennis shoes on her feet, but it was pretty close. A thousand tiny eyes looked over at them, not stopping their work.
The elves were all at individual tables, their tiny hands moving so fast that they blurred. The fingers on some of them looked like blobs in the air they were going so quickly. Richard envied the quickness that implied. It was most likely some kind of time distortion field or magic however, rather than true raw speed. If it had been that, there would have been thousands of cracking sounds e
ach second from the breaking of the sound barrier.
After a few seconds they placed their eyes on their individual projects, setting them aside as another elf ran from one station to another to pick up the finished work in a small rolling bin. It was very efficient seeming and it was very clear that being there without doing his own part was making Mort very uneasy. His hands started waving in the air as if mimicking the work of those he watched. After a half minute of this he gestured several times at them to follow and scurried towards a door set at the back of the room.
That part was just as strange as anything else about the whole thing. From the outside it was at best a ten by ten structure that looked half ready to fall down in the next stiff breeze. Inside it was vast. Easily the size of several large sporting stadiums. The ceilings weren’t that high, only about ten feet, meaning that Balthias’ horns were only inches away from scraping them as he loped along, but the rest of them had plenty of head room.
“This way. Hurry. Hurry! Santa sent us on a mission! We cannot wait or linger.” The tiny voice was frantic now, and he moved fast enough that they had to jog to keep up. Hally fell behind anyway, and Jonas stayed with her, either out of pity or wanting to protect his new human friend. If there was danger here it was a good idea, so Richard didn’t call him on it. Letting the human girl die might just anger The Mistress of Souls after all. He really wanted to avoid that.
The room they went to was plain, with a hard wooden bench for sitting on, a sleigh in the corner that looked new and glossy, and a work table that had a large scroll on it as well as a well compacted snowball and a key, just sitting there, waiting for them. On the wall there was a wooden peg that held a velvet sack with white fur trim. It was tempting to just grab the things and go, but it wasn’t exactly that simple. The first portion of the problem was that Mortimer was the one that needed to do it, not any of the rest of them.
The next obstacle was that the little elf froze, his face confused and tense.
“I can’t do it. I know Santa said to, but we aren’t supposed to touch his things. These are part of Christmas, not toys for us to play with.” He pointed without being asked, stalling for time. “Look there? At the parchment scroll? It’s the magic list. The one that Santa marks each child in the world as naughty or nice. That crystal snowball is what he uses to watch them all, for his data collection efforts.” There was a wringing of little fingers and he stood back, his eyes so wide the whites showed, all the way around.
“And the key we need to save him.” Richard tried to make his voice soft and filled with warmth, which worked, but didn’t seem to make the elf feel better.
“I know. But it isn’t just a key, it’s the key. If you can hold it for any length of time, you can open any lock. No being with it could be trapped anywhere. The problem there is that the only being in the world that can hold it is Santa himself. If it were to fall into the wrong hands it would be catastrophic. Nothing would be safe. Even removing it from this room is wrong.” He took his hat off, a nice red and green thing that seemed made of felt, and worried it between his fingers for a few seconds. Then he stood straight, put his own hat back on and moved towards the magical sack, his hand inside Santa’s fur cap.
“There is no time for me to waste with my worry though. Come, Hally, please help me here? If you would use Santa’s quill pen to push the key into the bag? That would be the fastest way I think.” He jumped up to grab the thing off the hook, making sure it only touched the hat as he did it. He was deft and fast, but the bag collided with his body anyway. Luckily it didn’t go back on to the hook at all. He had to drag the whole thing over toward the table to get set up then, flopping the thing around without touching it, trying to get a bit of it open under the edge of the table as Hally tried, and failed, to make the key move.
“This isn’t working.”
Richard could see the problem she was having easily enough. Each time the pen rose from the table it tried to go back to its starting point in the inkwell. It was a great and drooping thing, without a lot of substance to it at all, except at the point that was used for writing. It just wasn’t a great tool for the task at hand.
“Why don’t you try using the scroll instead? Just make sure you don’t pick it up at all. Slide it around so that you’re using the end of it to push the key.” He spoke calmly enough, but there was a pained squeak from the real elf.
“No! She’s a human girl. If she touches the list it will automatically put her on the naughty list for peeking! Then she won’t get any presents at all.” He looked freaked out by the idea, almost as scared as he was about the rest of it, which was saying something.
Hally shrugged.
“I’m old enough to not need presents anymore. I probably won’t be on the list next year anyway, so why not? Rescuing Santa is more important than that anyway.” She sounded a little sad about it, but used the list to get the key into the sack without hesitation. The scroll made a soft, ugly sounding noise like an out of tune bell when it was touched and glowed an unpleasant green, but it let itself be used to move the key, which was what they needed.
Only after it was finished and the scroll returned did he think about the fact that he could have done it himself. He didn’t normally expect presents, as old as he was. Well, he could get the girl some things to make up for what she’d lost.
It was then that he realized something amazing.
“Wait… you were on the nice list? But you hang around with Greater Demons.” He didn’t expect her to answer, but Balthias laughed and Rebekah chuckled merrily at his outburst.
“Lady Hally is a very good girl. One of the best that I’ve ever met.” The Lesser Demon said, his voice gentle for all that it was deep and bestial normally. “It surprises me not at all that she would be on such a list. She is correct though, saving the spirit of Christmas is more important than mere gifts. Even I can see that, and trust me, I love getting things for free.” There was a dark grimace that went with that and a look that took in Rebekah for some reason that wasn’t clear.
It got a nod however, instead of a look of terror, so Richard figured it wasn’t a horrible thing. Not that he really wanted to know what kind of things a Lesser Demon might enjoy receiving as a gift. It probably wasn’t a coupon book or fine crystal. That did remind him that he needed to arrange for a few hundred gift baskets or something if he could. People loved getting things from politicians. It made them feel important. It was especially crucial if they really were. Big donors and political cronies, or in his case, would-be cronies. He was too new to pass up the chance to make friends.
Apparently he needed to see to one for both The Mistress of Souls and The Technician as well. That gift would have to be a bit more personal, or they might take offense. They did seem to eat a lot. Maybe some kind of fine food? Or a something of the month club for edibles? Fine cheeses or wine perhaps. He was thinking about that when everyone else started to move around him again, Mortimer climbing carefully onto Jonas again, taking great care not to let the bag with the silver key in it touch anything at all. It was a balancing act and the bag kept trying to swing a little, forcing the younger Vampire to bend over awkwardly so it wouldn’t touch anyone.
Balthias held his hands out, letting everyone arrange themselves, with a delicious smelling and warm Hally right in front of Richard again. There was a time, no more than a hundred and twenty years before when he seriously would have considered offering the young lady a position as one of his wives. She was pretty and had a sweet disposition, which should transfer over to being a Vampire, given how strong her will was. Not that he wanted to challenge for her. Not given that her keeper was a Greater Demon.
As before they stood in the snow in front of the cabin in Maine. The difference this time was that there was enough light to see by, the dawn coming. It meant he was running out of time, if he wanted to get back to work before his absence would be missed. His wives were going to be worried too, no doubt, so he’d need to at least call them as soon as possi
ble. That was a modern marvel that he’d enjoyed for decades, the telephone. They even had ones now that could be carried with you almost anywhere. Not here, he didn’t think, but near cities they were very useful. It was an amazing thing that most people had grown used to over the years. Not him, he still marveled at the idea, but that was just due to age.
“Shall we go in then?” He didn’t want to seem impatient, but the sooner they got to Santa, the faster Richard would be back to his day. Not to mention the fact that the less time he spent in Ma’at’s house, the better his odds of survival were over all in this situation.
The others just started walking, Hally looking tired and a bit scared again, her body stiff. The others were more relaxed seeming, though it was clear Jonas didn’t want to go back in overly either. It was the only way, and if he had the idea right, there was only one person with them that hadn’t gotten a personal puzzle yet. Him. No doubt that would be fun, but as long as it wasn’t more than he could handle, it should be alright. Shying away from it wouldn’t help anything at any rate, so he tried to look brave and bold as he entered the house.
Nothing happened in the front room, or in the back hallway. He felt a tingle of fear as he opened the basement door, everyone else behind him, not speaking at all. They all knew it was his turn too and didn’t want to distract him. For a few seconds he tried to wonder how his greatest weakness would be used against him. He couldn’t even imagine what it would be, to tell the truth. He wasn’t wild about fire, but he could face it at need, and had, many times, so it probably wasn’t that. Being killed… But everyone had that one and he’d lived long enough not to be overly concerned about not being part of the world anymore.
Nothing came to mind at all, until he saw the woman standing next to Claus. She was… Lovely. The most beautiful creature he’d ever seen. She was even dressed in the clothing of his youth, wearing a wonderful gown of lace and satin. The look on her face was transcendent. It was as if she were an angel fallen from heaven, come just to tempt him into making a misstep. After a few seconds, everyone else looking at her closely, observing her pale skin and auburn hair, Richard spoke.