Mandy, Sonia, and Lysa prepare to rescue Shelly. What will they find as they head into King Aeacus's lair, and why is he keeping her alive? Shelly will learn the true meaning of despair.
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Chapter 20
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Aeacus
Mandy waved as her lover flew out of sight. His eyes swept past her, unaware of her false smile, or the tears she fought hard to keep inside.
"They can't see us," Lysa's disembodied voice said. "I'm forcing the air around us to bend the light to hide us from the ants that are watching."
"Then how are we able to see?" Sonia asked. "If the light is bent around us, none should be able to reach our eyes to see them leaving."
Mandy didn't care about physics dictating what should be, or shouldn't be, possible. Her boyfriend was leaving with her girlfriend to face the Pillar of Darkness and a vampire. Oh, she understood that he couldn't be hurt, at least not permanently, but that didn't mean he was invulnerable to all things. He could be tortured, or locked away, or any number of other equally terrible outcomes. She imagined she could still hear his gurgled scream as the Myrmidon roasted his head. He was tormented, and nothing she could do harmed the wicked creature. Even Megan's bullets did nothing to the creature made up of ants. Shlee had changed forms, but her teeth and claws did nothing to stop Eldon from being hurt, either. His agony tore at her heart, made all the worse for her inability to help.
And now he was going to meet with the Father of Lies. The one person who her talent would help the most against, but she was being left behind. Mandy closed her eyes for a second, and stuffed her emotions down. She didn't know why Lysa wanted her in the group to rescue Shelly, but had to trust that the Pillar of Air had a plan.
"I didn't say that I was blocking the light from reaching us, but rather that I'm stopping it from reflecting more than three feet from us," Lysa explained in calm tones. "Light can get in so we can see, but the light bouncing off of us is redirected."
"That's ingenious," Sonia said with wonder. "But how do you stop the buildup of light within from hurting us?"
Mandy turned to chew them out for not focusing on their mission, and realized that Lysa's voice wasn't so disembodied after all. Her light blonde hair flowed in a slight breeze, as she looked at the android with her sky blue eyes. Mandy had rarely seen Lysa, and had always assumed it was because she was the Pillar of Air, and making herself incorporeal. Now she understood that she chose to remain invisible. Lysa was a beautiful woman by any accounts—all of Lyden's children were—so she didn't understand why she would choose to hide herself.
"I filter it out beneath our feet directly into the ground," she said. "If you were to step on someone and they were still able to see, they would get a confused impression of all the light immediately around us, jumbled and mixed. That is, if it didn't cause them to go blind."
"You could turn that into a weapon," Sonia said, rubbing her chin. "A focused beam, becoming a laser."
"A bright light, maybe, but not a laser that could kill or even harm," Lysa shook her head. "I'm not strong enough to focus light like that. Remember, I'm the Pillar of Air. I have to manipulate the air to bend the light."
Sonia was quiet for a moment, so Mandy decided to speak up. "Is that how you're planning on getting us into the Myrmidon's lair?"
"I'll also have to cover our scents, adjust our sounds, and a few other things," Lysa turned to talk to her. "There is a vacuum just inside where I'm bending the light so no sound can escape."
"You would make the ultimate spy," Sonia stated, sounding more wary than complimentary.
"I am," Lysa replied. Without another word, she turned and floated towards their destination. Mandy followed after, not caring to be touched by the vacuumed bubble surrounding them, and certain it was anchored to the Pillar of Air.
They travelled in silence, both internally and externally, for a bit, following the drag marks left by Shelly and her attacker, until they came across Lyden Snow's greatest triumph, and his downfall. The sideways cone shaped hill was perhaps twenty feet from tip to darkened opening, and still thrummed with the power and energy of the icons Lyden used to create it. Earth, and Fire, formed its walls. Air fed the Fire inside, and the outside shimmered with Light that had nothing to do with the eternal daylight of the Shadow World. The power of Water was already used to create the nearby lake where he'd defeated the Outsider controlled forces. She couldn't remember what Dark was used for, but was fairly sure it hadn't been used in the construction of the Outsider's destruction.
"I'm still surprised this is where King Aeacus has been hiding all these years," Mandy stated, breaking the silence as they faced the flame lit opening. Bars of molten fire lined the walls, and the heat baked the ground before them. "This place still stands as a monument to Ambassador Snow's fight for everyone's freedoms."
"And the heat keeps anything but those most closely tied to fire away from entering," Lysa replied in an even tone.
"There is a twisted sense of pride some evil people have in taking something important to their foes, and making it their own," Sonia added. "It's a psychological effect."
"Okay, fine. I understand," Mandy said, trying not to sound annoyed at the way Sonia talked down to her. Just because her brain was quantum, or whatever, didn't mean she had to act all high and mighty. Shlee was fascinated by the android, her dominant geek side coming out whenever they discussed what Sonia was capable of, but Mandy didn't understand her. She was a mass of wires and electricity, that'd somehow gained a portion Shelly's soul. That made her living in Mandy's book, and that was all that mattered to her, for now. But it didn't mean she had to like the synthetic being. "How are we going to get past that heat?"
Sonia looked at Lysa for a moment, and then gave her own answer. "Heat traverses areas of space one of three ways: conduction, convection, and radiation. It can't do the first two while the Pillar of Air maintains the vacuum. Radiation, which is merely light, will still work, but much slower."
Mandy nodded, understanding what the woman said, but still not liking her tone. How did Shelly put up with the woman?
"So we stick together and move through it fast," Mandy nodded and rolled her shoulders in preparation to make the dash.
"Running in there would be a mistake," Lysa said. "We'd likely end up bumping into one of the guards at the entrance to the lair they created at the far end. I'll merely reduce the amount of light that penetrates my filter, and move through. We'll remain silent and unseen, and most importantly, you two will remain unharmed."
She tried hard not to sigh. Why was she a part of this mission anyway, instead of being with Eldon and Shlee? Sure, she could fight, but not against Myrmidons. And trying to get one to sit still long enough to speak was all but impossible, so her curse of forcing everyone around her to be honest was also pointless. The other two women knew far more than she did.
She pictured them walking through that glowing opening, and shuddered. The ground was baked glass due to the heat, but the flames didn't lick across the open space, instead gliding along the inner walls, as though the Earth and flame were lovers, one gently caressing the other. No fear of their bubble being seen as a void in the fire as they progressed.
"Shelly's not getting any free-er with us standing out here," Sonia griped.
"Just remember," Lysa informed them, "they can't see, hear, or smell us. Don't get close enough for them to touch you, much less taste you and, and they'll never know we were here, until it's too late."
"What about our footprints?" Mandy asked, then blinked as she looked behind them. There was no trail.
"I've blown the grown to cover our tracks," Lysa replied. "And the ground in there is too hard in most spot to leave a trail."
"Shouldn't we be taking in some water, or something?" Mandy asked next, feeling her heart rise into her throat. There were literally thousands of very dangerous creatures in this world, but most of them left you alone, unless you bothered them or encroached on their territory. She was about to do both with creatures whose only weakness was water. And while she wasn't about to piss her pants, she didn't think she could come up with enough spit to do more than annoy the fiery ant-like creatures.
"We shouldn't have any reason to harm them, if we're careful," Lysa replied. "I know they're our enemies, but they serve a purpose in the balance of our ecology. I intend to get us in, and back out without anyone the wiser, until they discover my sister missing."
While Mandy couldn't find it in herself to agree with sparing any Myrmidons, the steely anger in Lysa's voice as she stated that last part sent a shiver through her. There were few laws in the Shadow World, and even fewer after Lyden's triumph over the Outsiders, but one that was simple common sense was that you didn't anger one of the six Pillars that held enough power to support the very existence of the Shadow World.
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Shelly forced herself not to groan as she tumbled through the air and stuck point first in the solid rock wall. The Myrmidon that'd captured her had left her in the hands of these smaller ones, and they enjoyed their game of seeing who could get her to stick in the wall, and who couldn't. Dizzying as it might be to flip through the air, her Murasame form wasn't balanced for throwing, and she ended up banging her hilt, or the side of her blade against the wall more often than not. As much as that hurt, she refused to change forms. She was safer as metal, than soft flesh and bone. Less likely to burn also.
She knew she was lucky to be alive. The Myrmidon that'd found her hadn't recognized who she was, and she'd had time to transform before it could. The monster had laughed as it swung her around, moving through various practice swings, though it was obvious the beast didn't know anything about swordsmanship. Sheldon knew how to move and dodge, and handle a blade like a pro. All the Myrmidon knew was hack and slash. Then it had the gall to drag her against the ground as it carried her back to its lair.
One of the creepy, claw tipped hands of the Myrmidon children gripped her hilt, and pulled her free of the wall. It chittered to its friends, the mandibles protruding from its almost human like head clacking as it spoke in its native tongue. She hoped they would tire of this game soon, and toss her into a corner where there was some small chance she might escape.
Her chances were slim, but it was all she had. She cursed herself for being so stupid. Hadn't she been the one to get angry about splitting up and the consequences of that? And then she went and did it herself, like a self-fulfilling prophecy.
The creature that had her handed her to another, and that one took aim before sending her flipping end over end, this time to clatter against the wall and fall to the floor. She was going to be seriously bruised when she changed back.
