Automatically, Erica paused at the edge of the oak-and-beech woods to check the more open ground for any signs of movement. True, she didn't need to fear running into Barry or Gord going about their jobs, but this would be a bad time to have an encounter with any unfriendly fae. Ironic, that, here in a place where time was running thirty-two times as quickly as in the real world.
Nothing. She crossed the open grassland quickly into the central core of the island: a small controlled and disciplined area, with nature permitted to take over more and more strongly as one went outwards. To whatever extent one could call it nature, anyway, since the lighting was an artificial construction laid over the accelerated time, and the seasons were similarly artificial, and the water and soil nutrients recycled via a magical system. But the greenery still provided the essentials of fresh air and food, and she suspected that the wetlands played a part in the constant purification of the water, even if the central fountain kept it all moving. It was a complex design, obviously created by someone who understood nature and respected its ability to maintain its own equilibrium. She was sure there'd been some limited wildlife or domestic animals or both here once, not just fae and pigeons and poultry and fish.
*Just past the wall,* she said.
*Good,* Des said. *Definitely in the boom-room. Suze and Theo are here with me, and our Spanish friends but they look so uneasy I doubt they'll come inside.*
*Probably just as well. I'd hate to see them get hurt because they got in the crossfire of our plan that we can't share properly.*
*Theo detoured to get Suzi at the stable and showed them Lloyd. That certainly got their attention. Anyway. I can hear Nestor muttering stuff to himself that sounds pretty grumpy. I think I caught something about, how dare anyone interfere with anything he chooses to do on his own island, or something along those lines.*
*Yeah, would have more sympathy with that if he wasn't doing the wizard equivalent of kidnapping a woman who turns him on and chaining her up in the basement. I wish he were outside.*
*I wish he was somewhere without a lot of magical junk we don't understand in easy reach. Or that we had any idea what he's doing in there.*
*That too.* At least the door was unlocked, yet another target in JC's campaign to remove every lock she possibly could. As long as no one tried to open a door or cabinet they knew they should not be able to open, which was unlikely, no one seemed to have any idea that locks were now extremely scarce.
*So we do this as fast as we can,* Theo said. *Like Jace said, immobilize his hands and gag him fast, then strip him and wrap him up like Lloyd. Hope you can do lots more silk, Suze.*
*I'm not sure how it's produced,* Suzi said. *Or whether I want to think too much about it just yet. But I haven't run out yet no matter what I do.*
*Good. Can we get in quietly? You got a peek at the layout when Jace did the door, right?*
*Yes,* Des said. *But whether he notices will depend on where he's facing and what he's doing. Whole inside is one big round room. You actually have to go down two steps to reach the floor, immediately inside the door. Stone countertops built against and into the walls most of the way around. No windows. One section of wall opposite the door has no counter and it's smoother, saw Phrixos writing on it in chalk once. Centre is all open floor, smooth, think for drawing things. But since it has a really lightweight door and that sort of blast-shield arc outside it, I think the four of us can get in without drawing attention immediately. I can go in first.*
*I should,* Suzi said. *There's at least a chance I can hypnotize him on sight, but other than that I don't look all that threatening. And you're sneaky, Des, but half the time I'm not even touching the floor. I might be able to get in and partway around the room to distract him while the rest of you are coming in.*
*That does make sense,* JC offered. *I'm not even allowed to clean in there, no one's presence is going to be exactly subtle, and if he's in a sulky mood he'll get pissed at anyone, but Suze's logic sounds pretty solid.*
*Pretty vulnerable, though,* Alison said worriedly.
*That's why the rest of us are here,* Erica said. *We all have weaknesses to go with our abilities. But we cover for each other, remember? I can go with the idea of Suzi first on condition of staying sneaky as much as possible until all four of us are in the room.*
Unlike the hulking monstrosity of a house, the boom-room was a simple circular structure with a domed roof, all of the same pale grey stuff that resembled poured and polished cement. Clearly it was designed as workspace away from the main house, where magical experiments gone awry wouldn't destroy the living quarters and anything crawling out of a test tube could be contained. The only way in or out was via the door, which had a sturdy cement-like wall, higher and wider than the door, built about four feet out from it. Des was probably right about it acting as a blast shield. The flimsy door, on the other hand, might make it harder for someone to be trapped inside, or maybe offered a pressure valve, or had some purpose she hadn't thought of.
All she could see of Des was a black tailtip extending past the edge of the blast wall, twitching spasmodically. Since this side faced away from the main house at an angle, Theo and Suzi and their two companions were against the side of the building where the two humans remaining in the house couldn't glance out a window and see them.
Theo's long vividly-blue hair was still shedding an occasional drop of water, most of it hanging heavily down her back but a thick hank was forward over one shoulder; in contrast, her pearly-white skin didn't look damp at all, nor did the length of fabric wrapped and tied into what passed for a dress. Suzi's wings kept fluttering, starting to spread and then settling again, probably in apprehension; her prismatic hair drifted around her in a nearly-weightless cloud as she fidgeted more-or-less in place, though at moments her contact with the ground was tenuous.
With them were Orfeo and Paz, who looked even more anxious. Orfeo kept toying with an acorn as though it were a worry stone, trying to watch every direction, and Paz's tail flexed and twitched, the long fur sweeping the ground behind her. Desite that, both were staying near Theo.
“Ready?” Theo asked out loud, although quietly.
Erica rolled her eyes and touched her throat, a reminder that out loud wasn't an option for her, but she nodded. Had she been able to, she'd have taken a deep breath or two. This could get messy.
Paz looked at them thoughtfully, forehead furrowed. She and her companion had a quick discussion, then the two of them and Theo had one of those rather bewildering multi-lingual exchanges.
“Light, dark,” Theo said slowly. “There's no windows... it must have a light source. Is it powered from outside? That would help, we can see in the dark much better than he can.” He said something to Paz, who beckoned.
“I'll stay here,” Suzi said. “Yell when we're ready.”
*Anyone know anything about an external power source for the boom-room?* Theo asked, following Paz around the building, Orfeo trailing behind. *Something that'll make it go dark inside? Paz seems to think we can make it go dark.*
Erica hesitated, then chose to stay with Suzi. Theo had company already, and Erica could reach her quickly if necessary, but with Des distracted, she didn't want Suzi alone.
*That would be amazingly useful,* JC said. *But sorry, if I knew of anything like that, I'd have suggested it.*
*No idea,* Des said, and the others echoed the sentiment.
A brief pause, then Theo said, *Seriously? Magic needs a freakin' fuse box? It's set into the wall and the cover matches, but it's not exactly hidden if you're looking for it. There are three crystals in a triangle inside, with what looks a lot like copper wire linking them, and the crystals are in copper clips holding them in place. And Paz thinks that if we pull these out, it'll go dark inside. Do I pull 'em?*
*It certainly doesn't sound like a trap,* JC said. *Even if she's wrong, it'll probably mess something up and give him a bad day. I can't really come look to see whether there are magic threads linking things just now. I think you should pull them all out.*
*Anyone have a different opinion?*
Silence.
*Pulling crystals. Hm, she doesn't want me to pull the bottom one. Wonder what she's seen? Anyway, top two are out, leaving them here.*
*He just started swearing,* Des said. *I'll spare you the wording. And the light around the door vanished.*
*Move, Des,* Suzi said. *Time for me to get in there.*
*How about I open the door for you instead?*
*Coming back,* Theo said.
Erica flattened a hand in the middle of Suzi's back and gave her a shove towards the end of the blast wall; Suzi caught it with one hand, wings fluttering, and swung around it to the inner face. Erica caught up to see her just slipping through the door Des was holding open, into the gloomy interior, and followed her—not without an internal wince over the necessity of being indoors.
Although it wasn't as bad as it had been the first couple of days after changing, something she noted for later thought.
The interior was seriously dark, and Erica resolved to stay as close to the middle as she could—there was, by JC's and Des' respective descriptions, a lot in this room that she had no intention of touching or allowing her friends to touch.
There was, however, one elderly wizard in relatively pale grey, and she didn't really need more light than she had to know that his expression was clouding like that of a small child gearing up for a Category Five temper tantrum.
“This is no place for the likes of you! Get out! Go on, you stupid little fairy, get out—you don't belong here! Is the whole island out to annoy me today?”
Oh, yes, it's all about you, Erica thought sardonically. Since Des was circling towards the left, she went towards the right.
In the dark room, the only sources of light were the indirect illumination from the doorway, and Suzi's own natural radiance. The latter increased significantly as she spread her wings, the shifting of the subtle patterns accelerating noticeably.
There was really nothing else to focus on visually.
Whatever protections Nestor had against fae mind control were stronger than they'd hoped: he spat a few syllables, hands twisting in a complex gesture, and pointed with each index finger.
A ball of diffuse orange-red flickering fire zipped from each fingertip.
Without the spotted yellow wrap, Des blended in with the shadows, tabby stripes and the variation between skin and fur breaking up outlines with nothing bright to fix on. Even to fae eyes she was hard to make out. Possibly Nestor hadn't seen her at all.
While nothing about Erica, not skin nor hair nor her apparent clothing, should catch the light and particularly draw attention, he'd probably seen something larger than Suzi block the light from the door briefly, and her camouflage was less effective under these conditions, making her a target.
She sidestepped. She could feel the heat against one whole side of her body, and several leaves of her skirt got scorched glancingly, an unpleasant sensation she couldn't really call pain, although she would've yelped if she had a voice to do so. It splashed against the cement-like wall behind her and, while it didn't ricochet as such, more heat blasted against her back, damaging further leaves in skirt and hair both and leaving the backs of her arms and shoulders tingling with uncomfortable warmth that she hoped wasn't real injury.
All things considered, though, she thought it was badly aimed to begin with, an off-handed gesture with most of his attention on the far easier target that was glowing, the door directly behind her, and who found dodging quickly problematic.
Suzi, probably on instinct, jumped straight up and curled herself together into an insanely tight ball, wings sweeping down and then folding; momentum kept her moving upwards. Her cry of pain as the ball of fire brushed at least the trailing edges of her wings made Des hiss in anger and lunge at the wizard with no further warning.
Theo, just reaching the doorway, chose to drop flat to the ground rather than stepping back and possibly getting caught in the backwash from the blast wall.
*Suze!* Theo said. *How bad?*
*Doesn't matter! Get him!*
Yellow-clawed dark hands snatched for the wizard's... wrists? No, his throat, nails digging in hard on either side, as a gutteral growl rumbled deep in Des' chest. Effective, but Erica strode hastily across the stone floor to help. She seized his right wrist and wrapped her own long-fingered hand around his, forcing it into a balled fist. With only one hand free, she couldn't do it again on his left, though she caught hold of his wrist.
He struggled, and spit out a couple of syllables Erica didn't recognize. Des hissed at him again and tightened her grip on his throat, and he choked.
Far away, Erica was conscious of intense concern from the others, with an overlay of protective anger. Wanting to know what had happened, but unwilling to risk distraction—which was just as well because no one had the attention to spare right now.
From the doorway, on her knees with one hand on either side of the frame, Theo started to sing.
*Seriously, Theo? Frere Jacques? A kids' song?* Erica said.
*I could probably sing the phone book off-key,* Theo said. *I don't have to think about this. Stop distracting me.*
To fae ears, Theo had a gorgeous voice, rich and clear and steady, with harmonics that made Erica think of water's song along a rocky streambed; the song might not be any real challenge, but she slid through the notes with the same effortless precision of her pronunciation of the words. Oddly, she could remember bilingual Theo, a very long time ago, getting annoyed at a classmate for mangling the song by memorizing only meaningless Anglicized syllables.
To human ears...
The wizard faltered with the fingers of his left hand already twisting into what was presumably the beginning of a spell. He didn't give in easily, though his fingers moved with sloth-like slowness.
Suzi uncurled herself, her minimal mass bringing her slowly back down towards the floor. Her wings extended in fitful jerky flutters; much of the outer edge all the way around was dark and, in a few places, uneven, but the rest of the surface area brightened as she spread them. Tears streaked her cheeks, glittering in her own light, and her breathing was fast and ragged, but Erica doubted Nestor was conscious of that.
Nestor's speed slowed further towards glacial. He managed a couple of unfamiliar syllables before Des' grip tightened again.
*Theo,* Des said. *Can you come hold his other hand while you sing? Want to start stripping him. The two of you together seem to be a bit much for whatever's protecting him, but let's see if it's something we can get rid of.*
Theo nodded and got to her feet. Concentrating in part on singing—and it was probably just as well it was an easy song—slowed her, as well, but it wasn't far to go. Both tentacles wrapped around his left wrist to pin it as she closed both webbed hands tightly around his, trapping it into a fist. Erica let go of that wrist and returned her grip to his right wrist, with some relief given how frantically he was struggling. It wasn't that he was strong, but his movements were unpredictable and increasingly determined, and she couldn't allow so much as a finger to flex.
“Here.” Suzi tore off part of her own spun-silk clothes and came forward, twisting it into a rope and tying a substantial knot in it. “Gag. For the moment.”
Des accepted it and released Nestor's throat to force the silk knot past his teeth and reach around him to tie it.
*Suze?* Des said. *How bad?*
*It hurts but I'll live,* Suzi said. *Nothing vital, just pretty painful. We knew we could get hurt. It's worth it if this all works. Here, want to wrap his hands? Then Erica and Theo can help more with getting him out of his clothes so we can get on with this.* Erica saw her swallow hard, and another tear slid down her cheek, unheeded. *Not sure how long I can keep pushing this away even for the best reason.* She reached to her navel and started spinning silk out between her hands, winding it quickly around the hand Theo held before it dried completely. Even to fae eyes it was hard to tell by the fluid light of Suzi's wings, but Erica thought the wisp's hands were trembling as she worked.
*Nestor's under control,* Erica reported. *I've got minor fire damage, Suze has worse, but we're both on our feet still. I think that might have been a lot messier without the room being dark, so we owe our friends on that one. Just need to strip him and mummify him.*
*Lucky for him I'm not there,* Zach said, and the undertone of anger was stronger.
*Kick him into next week,* Alison muttered.
*Incidentally,* Erica said, *Suze and Theo together seem to reinforce each other. I don't think we'll be much longer.*
*He's kicking up a fuss,* Des agreed, *but I don't think he has much stamina and it's getting weaker, and there are four of us, so he's screwed.*
*Then I think we can probably get on with things up here,* JC said. *Since it'll take a little time for the first part, before we need you here. Look after Suze and Erica.*
*I'm all right,* Erica said. *Leaves grow back, and the rest is uncomfortable but that's all. I think we'd better dunk Theo in some water once we're done here, though. Laundry room is probably simplest and closest. Might not hurt to do it to Suze too.*
*Thanks for the warning about an upcoming mess I'll want desperately to clean up. Ali, Zach? Shall we?*
*Enough talking,* Zach said. *Two left. Time to finish this.*
