by Gabby Fawkes
As I was getting ready for bed, a knock at the door surprised me.
"No Kian," I said. "I'm not playing Go Fish-"
“And why not?” she said, clearly offended.
I smirked at her AC/DC PJs, which were 100 percent a gift from Dion. “You guys make up?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she said breezily as Demi and Jeremy joined us. We all smirked at her until she grumbled, “Amor vincit omnia, okay!”
“Uhh, are we supposed to know what that means?” I asked.
“Love conquers all,” Demi said happily.
“You guys said the L word?!” I asked.
“Ugh, no,” Kian said. “Was just waiting for a chance to use that one. Although he did teach me a new Latin phrase: in vino veritas!”
Demi looked scandalized. “And what exactly did he say that meant?”
“That in difficulty lies truth… he was full of shit wasn’t he?” Kian realized, seeing Demi’s face.
“Er, it is a slight mistranslation,” she admitted.
“Guys, this is great, learning Latin and all,” I said, growing impatient. “But what are you doing here?”
I didn’t mean to be blunt, but I was perpetually worried someone was going to discover some sort of deal breaker enchantment/monster here. And if that was the case, then I wanted to know sooner rather than later.
“Hold up,” Kian said, prodding Demi. “What does in vino veritas mean?”
“In wine there is truth,” Demi admitted guiltily.
Kian stormed to the door. “I’m going to kill him!”
Jeremy grabbed her arm. “Not until we talk to Tala you aren’t.”
Kian paused, her eyes narrowed. She took a breath. “Oh, right. Fine.”
“About before,” Jer said. “Did you mean it?”
I eyed him blankly, then guiltily. “We have to do something.”
“You’re right,” Demi said. “Part of me hoped we could just stay here and they’d forget about us, but…”
“There’s about as much likelihood of that as there is of Jenna suddenly growing a conscience,” Kian said.
We were quiet a minute. The others sat down on my bed.
“I like it here,” Demi said simply.
“I do too,” Jeremy said. “I think you were spot on, Tala. I think we should stay.”
“Yeah?” I said.
“Yeah,” he said. “Where else can we go?”
Kian wiggled an eager hand up, but we ignored her.
“But we’ll still need a plan,” I said.
“Of course,” Jeremy said. “Maybe we can get other Olympians or witches to help us. But we’re not going to find a place better hidden or protected than here.”
Or with more soulfully-pleasing riches, PV added unhelpfully with a sigh.
“At least we still have a bit of time to come up with something,” I said. “The DSA don’t even know what world we’re in.”
“For now,” Demi warned, then switched her frown for a smile. “But yes. Mind if I check on my roomwarming gift?”
“Sure,” I said, gesturing over to the succulent on my bedside table.
It had been looking a bit brown and crispy lately, so some attention from Demi would probably do it good.
My friends stayed another half hour or so, and we even ended up playing Go Fish to appease Kian. Anyway, by the time they left and I slung myself into bed, I was more than ready to fall asleep.
It seemed only minutes when I was stirring again.
Want to see something interesting? PV asked.
-Depends, I replied, does it involving burning them all?
No.
-Burning someone?
No.
-Something?
No. Do you want to see or not?
-Fine.
Your eagerness astounds me.
So I followed the little voice in my head telling me to leave my room and walk down the hallway. I stopped at the doorway once I realized we were heading for the dungeons.
-I don’t want to see some impressively burned prisoner, no thanks.
It is not in the dungeons, fool. Now carry on.
-And it’s nothing that will give me nightmares?
I have no concept of what gives fools nightmares.
“Fine, whatever,” I muttered out loud, keeping my gaze firmly ahead as I went past the dungeon’s doorway to the corner that was empty.
My PV yawned loudly.
-Is this your idea of a joke?
Being stuck in your head is my idea of a sad joke, but no. Look around.
“I am looking,” I grumbled, content to talk to myself out loud since there was no one around to see how crazy I appeared.
Looking around found the stone walls inlaid with cracks, cobwebs and a general air of neglect. One part a bit further down looked like a skeleton face, with two holes for eyes and a wide gaping mouth.
Good. You did manage.
“I don’t like this.”
Go to bed then.
But I didn’t. I crouched down to get a better look at the skeleton’s face. Skull, I guess. Its eyes weren’t actually holes – they had another layer further in. They didn’t look accidental, but they didn’t look purposeful either. Almost as though–
Do I have to spell it out? PV asked with a sigh. Cough – push the buttons – cough
“Hilarious.”
I reached out and, with a quick jabbing motion with my thumbs, did so.
An ominous creaking noise filled the corridor. I backed away to see – nothing. Looking around found nothing unchanged either.
My PV was clearly unimpressed.
Well, I have been quite misinformed.
And then the wall in front of me fell away.
Aha! PV said, and I resisted the urge to do the same. Not until I knew where it had led me.
As I drew in, my gaze spanned long and wide. The unmistakable air of stuffiness and something a bit off filled my nose.
I hesitated.
Not going to draw back now? my PV teased. Though it didn’t need to. I wanted – maybe even needed – to find out what this place was, creepy entrance and aura be damned.
"Oh, so glad you came!" a delighted female voice said.
I spun around to see… Nothing.
And yet, the voice had seemed to come ahead of me, where there was no one visible… I quickened my pace to the far wall. There, the light glinted off something gold… something round… A crown.
As I whirled around, my eyes picked out similar shapes, lit by more torches. All crowns.
My gaze returned to the one in front of me, and my eyes bugged. Holy shitballs. It was a work of art. Gold of course, but instinct and gleam told me, only the choicest, the most ornate…
Do we not care that you just heard a voice? PV said slyly.
-Oh yeah, you're right, I said sarcastically. It's totally in my head too. Do you think I'm losing it?
My PV snorted, but shut up.
Although it did have a point. I scanned the tops of the walls for some pipe or something that might've carried sound from somewhere else, but didn’t see anything.
"I told you she'd come, did I not?"
Okay, I had definitely just heard a voice, and it wasn’t coming from my crown but one a little further down.
As I drew closer to the brilliant crown, studded with rubies and sapphires, I noticed something else arranged around its points, something that looked like bone. Were those massive pointy things dragon teeth?
Something Persephone had said days ago echoed in my mind, "In death, other than their gold, of course, what dragons most often kept was their teeth, mainly due to their intrinsic importance. Once they lost their teeth, they couldn’t rip their enemies’ heads off nor breathe fire properly anymore. Most dragons lost them in death, but others who’d suffered a large fall from grace were known to lose them too.”
I reached out my hand and ran a finger along the tooth thing, base to tip. That was definitely a dragon to
oth all right. Had its owner lost it and the others or – I shuddered – had them pried out after death and arranged here?
I looked around. But where was the voice coming from? Or who?
"Should I ask her?" the voice asked from directly behind the wall in front of me. I jumped.
"Yeah, yeah, get on with it," said a surly older male voice. "We all know what her answer is going to be."
I took a step back, my mind racing horribly. How could there have been other creatures here this whole time without us noticing? Were they incredibly small, or were they magical creatures that had the power to pass through walls?
"You performed admirably with the booby-traps, dear," the female voice continued.
"Uh, thanks," I said, drawing back further. "What are you exactly?"
"Really, though," she continued in a ringing voice, "they're still talking about it, you know. How resoundingly you defeated those dreadful bone dragons. King Lucretius installed them only recently, and many were against them if I'm perfectly honest with you. Poison-tipped bones? Too brutal. But you performed mightily. And how you found this place, our home, so quickly! Many rulers don't ever bother to appreciate it, while others take decades to stumble in here."
"Get on with it!" the surly male voice said.
"Yes, yes," the female voice said irritably. "I was just getting to the point. That is, a powerful and knowledgeable shifter such as yourself. One with many wonderful abilities-"
"GET ON WITH IT!" flooded a whole course of angry voices.
I took several steps back.
"I'm just going to go get my friends," I said.
Whatever these creatures were, I was clearly majorly outnumbered.
"No, please," the female voice said. "We cannot harm you."
The male voice grumbled something which distinctly sounded like, "Only annoy you."
"May we show ourselves to you?" the female voice asked timidly. "Please?"
I don't know what made me do it. My PV itself was saying, Do not. But I was at the edge of the room, and ready to take off at a moment’s notice. I also had my hands clenched, ready to shift if need be. But I guess, when it came down to it, it was how pitiful the voice sounded.
"Okay," I said, bracing for the worst.
"Yay!" the voice said.
And then a figure burst through the wall, through the crown I’d been looking at.
She did a curtsy, although I was looking more at her consistency than her movement if anything. She was sheer, shimmering, had to be…
"Yes," she said sadly. "Lowly ghosts. Many of us are never seen at all, left here to rot and suffer."
"Yeah, yeah, give her the whole sob story," the male voice said as another ghost floated up beside her. He had curly hair to his shoulders, which he ruffled angrily.
The woman straightened her bonnet and crossed her arms over her ample chest. She had tightly bound hair, but a full figure and merry eyes. I suspected in life she would've been quite jovial.
"Although I have to thank you ever so much," the woman continued. “As soon as I saw your Highness, I knew that you were a woman of remarkable wit and character."
"She's not any highness now, you dolt," the man said, floating away.
"He is right," I admitted. "I only found out I was a dragon shifter months ago."
The women gave a dismissive wave of her hand. "You have more valor than any that have resided here before. And I shall proclaim it so and not hold it back for naught."
"Convenient, how you find your courage now that the former rulers are all gone," the man called back from another room.
The woman shook her head sadly. "He's gone to check his dungeon, Horatio has."
That jogged my thought process.
"So, who… Are you exactly? Are you the former kings and queens?"
She gave a loud, delighted laugh. "Oh, no, no, no. The rulers would not be given such ignominy as to be trapped here in the afterlife, no. That is reserved for the defeated, the scorned, the ill-used."
At the last part, she raised her chin, and there was no doubt in my mind which category the woman saw herself in.
She held out her hand. "Mitzi, at your service."
Instinctively I reached out, but when I touched her, I got a shock.
She burst into tears. "Ooo, I'm so sorry, I do forget, you know. They keep us trapped behind that wall." She stabbed her finger out at the wall without looking at it. "But the few times we do get to came out, I just lose my head."
Timidly, she lifted her hung head to look at me imploringly. “But now, you are here and they are not. And you would let us go anywhere, is that not so?"
Something told me to be a bit wary as to the actual consequences of this. This Mitzi ghost seemed nice enough, but what were the others like?
Without waiting for my answer, she turned her head with a sweeping arm motion and said, sure enough, "Come on, you all, you heard her! We can come out!"
Just then, the temperature of the room lowered several degrees. As ghosts spilled out of the wall before me, I could only stand there in a half-terrified awe. Most of the spirits wore older-style garments like Mitzi, although their faces and heights showed they were all ages, races, and demeanors. Some gave me pleased waves while others didn't even give me a second look.
"Splendid," came another voice from right beside me although I sensed its owner was much further. "You have discovered what many rulers before you have not cared to."
I spun around. It didn't look like any of the ghosts had spoken, although Mitzi’s face had a look that was hard to place. "Oh, him."
Footsteps. At the door was a man. He was tall, beardless, with long flowing white hair like a mane. His smile had the most brilliant white teeth I'd ever seen.
As he walked toward me, his long simple cloak wafting around his legs, his face came more into view. It was lightly lined, with brilliant blue eyes. Stopping in front of me, he nodded.
"I have been waiting for you for some time."
"Here?" I said blankly.
His eyes twinkled as he said, “More or less."
"But why?" I asked.
His smile was kindly, but firm. "Unfortunately, I can't make that known to you. At least, not just yet."
He held out his hand, and this time I hesitated before shaking it. I didn’t have a great track record with people who kept things from me.
Although when I finally stuck my hand out, and we made skin contact, the feeling was normal. "Walario,” he said.
"Tala,” I said.
He gave me another smile, and I suspected that if he spoke, he would've said, "I know."
All around us, ghosts were ambling about, conversing, some floating through the walls and back again. I was quite at a loss for what to do or say, although Artemis's words returned to me: “Supposedly, he’s the oldest witch/warlock ever. And supposedly, it’s because he's part Olympian. Or at the least a demi-god of some variety."
"Did you help the Phoenix clan with this place?" I asked, since I wanted to know more than if he was part god.
He gave his head a tilt to the side in the affirmative. It was then I noticed that his cheeks were naturally rosy, as if he was the healthiest seventy-something-year-old ever.
"I know, based on what you have seen, and based on what you've heard, you may think ill of me. Or, like others, believe that I am power-hungry, greedy." He spoke simply, as if he were reading out of a book, and though his voice was melodious and sonorous, it seemed to fill the room. "Perhaps they are right. All I know is that I only serve The Fate."
"The Fate?" I said blankly.
Was I in for some magical version of some New Age psychobabble?
"Yes, what will happen. Must happen."
"Which is…"
That would be a super handy thing to know right about now. This whole place was growing on me, and a large part of me wanted to know if my friends and I really could stay here.
"I cannot say," he said. "No one can. I only know my part to play. The part
shown to me in my dreams. Long ago, I dreamed that I came to Speranță and helped the Phoenix clan make their stronghold impenetrable."
"This place is called Speranță?" I asked.
Another nod. "It is a sacred name. One I was allowed to know as another reward for my work here. One the Phoenix clan would not be happy for you to know."
"They’re alive?" I asked. "Where?"
"I cannot say."
I would have been frustrated with him, except the sadness in his eyes made me realize that he wasn't just being glib. The guy really didn't know and it made him sad not to.
Although I still had a hella lot of questions.
"You’ve just been waiting for me here?" I asked.
His laughter was wonderful- warm, loud, so infectious I almost started too. "Oh, no, no. It's a manner of speech. As soon as I dreamed of our meeting a week ago, I have been waiting for you, in a sense. But I have travelled all about in my waiting. Visiting friends, enemies who call themselves my friends, new lands and old."
I studied him. "So, you're not with … the DSA, are you?"
Yes, because an evil warlock would tell you he is such, PV pointed out sarcastically, but aptly.
Walario’s grin spread wide. "Your dragon sense does not like me. Good. You have proper, healthy instincts then. Dragon shifters have never trusted witches, especially not since the Unforgivable War."
"It is not the DSA you should most fear,” Walario continued. “Nor what they are capable of. It is who influences them who is the most vile of all.”
"There's someone influencing them?" I asked.
Now Walario’s face was almost unrecognizable, a collection of angry wrinkles and furrows, his eyes blazing.
"Yes. For a long, long time, he too has waited, biding his time. Only now is he starting to act out his plan."
"Who?" I asked.
"Ulrulu," Walario said smoothly. “Although that is not the name he goes by here on Earth, the one he permits his followers to use.”
“What’s that name?”
Walario shook his head. “If I knew that name, if any of us did, then I’d be of much more service to you than I am.”
“Us? There’s more of you?”
“That is not what I came here to tell you.”
“What did you come here to tell me then?” This was getting more than a bit frustrating. Like playing whack-a-mole, but with questions.