Eidolon Master: Tamer of Animal Women 2, page 21
And I really didn’t want to know what happened when the torches went out.
Meanwhile, Neoma’s tactic was to dart quickly between the mirror and the objects in the room. Every time I saw her, she was somewhere different. It looked kinda chaotic, but I knew the owl eidolon’s amazing eyesight meant she didn’t need to spend as much time looking at the objects. Plus, her sharp eyes would allow her to quickly pick up on the tiny details I might miss.
But, by the time I was about halfway across, I still hadn’t seen any discrepancies between the reflection and the room, and I was starting to panic.
Then Neoma let out a shrill, excited hoot, and I ran over to her. She was hovering in front of a high shelf on the right-hand side of the room. It was an area I hadn’t reached yet in my examination of the reflection, and the shelf was cluttered with various objects.
When I reached the owl eidolon, I had to take a few steps backward to see what she was looking at, since the shelf was so high up. I turned my head from the shelf to the mirror a couple of times as I tried to work out what difference Neoma had spotted.
It soon became clear there was a necklace lying on the shelf that didn’t appear in the reflection. It was gold and very elaborate with a huge blood-red gemstone centerpiece.
I didn’t want to touch anything until I was totally sure it was the right item, since I was pretty certain picking the wrong object would have drastic and deadly consequences.
But once I’d double-checked, I was confident the necklace really didn’t appear in the reflection. Or at least, it didn’t appear on the shelf in the reflection, and that was good enough for me.
I reached my arms up and stood on my tiptoes, but I still wasn’t quite able to reach the necklace. I thought about moving a chair to stand on, but I suspected even that might trigger something in this room.
“Can you get it without disturbing anything else?” I asked Neoma.
My owl eidolon gave a couple of happy hoots, and I held my breath as she very delicately picked up the golden necklace in her beak.
I’d hoped that would be enough to make the mirrored door slide open.
But nothing happened.
The torches continued to dim, and the door in the mirror didn’t move. Clearly, this necklace belonged somewhere else in the room.
“Fuck,” I muttered. “So we’ve got the right item, but we need to put it in a different spot.”
I ran frantically back over to the mirror and started to scan the reflection. Neoma was still clutching the necklace in her orange beak, and she began to dart back and forth again in an attempt to find out where it belonged.
As I urgently searched, the reflection gradually became harder to see. I rubbed my eyes, but then I realized the mirror was slowly fogging up like the one in my bathroom did when I had a hot shower.
I tried to wipe the glass with my sleeve on the off-chance that it behaved like condensation, but obviously, it didn’t. If anything, the speed with which it was fogging up increased.
The mirror was enormous, and I was pretty sure it would be totally impossible to see any sort of reflection before we’d had a chance to search it properly.
“No, no, no,” I hissed as the glass clouded over more and more. “Where the fuck is it?”
Maybe something’s wearing it, Tala said suddenly. Some sort of statue or ornament.
Tala’s suggestion seemed likely, given the sense of humor this temple had, and I started to search desperately for something with a necklace around its neck. There were plenty of marble busts and small figurines dotted around the room, and so I concentrated on locating them.
Finally, my eyes landed on a small marble statue of a woman’s head. Her face was turned slightly toward me, and although the mirror was almost opaque by this point, I could barely make out the glint of red at her throat, and that was our best chance.
Besides, the light in the room had become really dim. I didn’t think we had more than a minute before the torches went out.
And I didn’t want to stick around to find out what happened next.
I reached out for the necklace, Neoma dropped it lightly into my hand, and I dashed back across the room. When I reached the statue, I took a deep breath to try and stop my hands from shaking from the adrenaline coursing through me. I really didn’t want to brush the edges of the marble bust as I put the necklace onto it just in case that was enough to set off some hideous trap concealed in the room.
I undid the necklace’s clasp and very carefully draped it around the statue’s neck. I held my breath as I fastened the necklace and let it drop down to sit elegantly around the marble figure’s throat.
A grating noise came from behind me, and I turned to see the mirror sliding open.
“Yes!” I yelled and started to run.
Neoma flew alongside me, but when we reached the door, her six-foot wingspan was too wide to fit through the gap. So she landed nimbly on my shoulders instead, and we made it through the exit together right before the torches went out.
The mirrored door slid firmly shut behind us, and we found ourselves in a long corridor. There were no weird visuals or illusions in this one, which was a relief, but I was still cautious of any potential traps as I started to walk. My owl eidolon let out a joyful hoot at our success, and then she took off from my shoulders and began to fly lazily by my side.
“Well done, Neoma!” I grinned. “Tala, we did it!”
I was answered by silence.
“Tala?” I asked again as fear invaded my body.
My lover didn’t reply, and I looked down hurriedly to check I still had her ring on my hand. The black band with its glowing red stone was there, but my wolf eidolon was silent.
“Tala!” I shouted as I looked around wildly in the hope that she would suddenly appear.
She was nowhere to be seen.
I flicked my wrist to see if I could summon her, but no golden burst illuminated the room and no ghostly wolf form emerged.
Could she have slipped out of the ring? Did I move my hand as we were coming through the door and accidentally release her?
The blood rushed to my head, and my heart started to beat wildly. I threw my body weight against the door we’d just walked through, but it wouldn’t shift.
What if she was trapped on the other side?
“Tala!” I yelled again as my body became numb with panic.
Then, I heard a woman scream up ahead.
It sounded like Tala, and my mind went blank as I dashed up the corridor. I didn’t care about the possible traps or monsters lurking around every corner. Nothing was in my head now except pure, desperate determination to find my wolf-lover.
I heard another scream as I raced up the passage. This time, I knew for sure it was Tala.
But how the hell had she been pulled out of the ring?
I flew through the corridor and found myself facing two identical doors. My heart felt like it was about to explode out of my chest, and I knew I had to decide which door to pick.
Based on my experience so far in this temple, I knew choosing the wrong one might mean I never saw my wolf-lover again.
The next scream was much louder and sounded like it was coming from the door on the left. I moved forward and pressed my ear against it just in time to hear another scream and a distressed whimpering noise.
My concern for Tala almost made me yank it open right then and there, but something made me stop. This temple loved playing mind games, and I forced myself to consider the possibility this was another one. Perhaps she was actually in the other room, and the temple was trying to trick me into picking the wrong door.
I went over to the door on the right and pressed my ear against it. There was silence on the other side.
“Fuck,” I muttered.
I closed my eyes and tried to focus on the connection I had with Tala. I could still feel a hint of her presence, and although it was way weaker than normal, I directed all my attention to it.
It was pushing me toward the door on the right.
When I opened my eyes, I went and stood with my ear to each door again. The screams from the one on the left were even louder now, but I couldn’t feel my wolf-lover’s presence from behind it.
When I did the same thing to the door on the right, the silence was total, but I could sense Tala’s presence.
Was this another of the temple’s sadistic tricks? Rationally, I should choose the door the screams were coming from, but my connection to my eidolon lover was rebelling against that and pulling me to the door on the right instead.
I took a step back and looked at both options. Then I glanced at Neoma, who was hovering next to me. She seemed to sense my question and flew over determinedly to the door on the right.
“You think it’s that one, too?” I asked her.
She hooted her agreement and stared at me resolutely with her huge eyes.
Another scream came from behind the door on the left, and although part of me wanted to follow the sound, my bond with Tala was telling me to choose the other one.
And so was my owl eidolon.
I took a deep breath and launched myself through the door on the right. My connection to Tala was so powerful, and I had to trust it.
I burst through the door with Neoma behind me.
My wolf-lover was in the room in her human form.
And she was locked in a metal cage suspended about twelve feet above the center of a deep pool of water.
Her arms and wrists were shackled to the thick metal bars of the cage. She looked at me with imploring, icy eyes, and let out a blood-chilling scream.
“Tala!” I yelled.
Chapter 12
The cage suddenly jolted, and Tala screamed again. I watched in horror as the thick chain that held the cage began to slowly lower toward the pool.
Tala was going to drown unless we saved her.
I looked around the room quickly and tried to figure out the challenge. My head was scrambled, and I could barely think straight through my concern for Tala. Questions about how she’d been taken out of the ring and why she was human raced through my mind, but I pushed them away and tried to focus. The best thing I could do for my lover was to keep calm and think logically.
Apart from a door with a metal lock on the opposite wall, there was nothing in the room except the cage and the pool of water.
The pool was square. Each side measured about twenty feet, and I guessed it was around fifteen feet deep. There was a load of buoys bobbing at different depths throughout the water, and they were held in place by thin chains anchored to the bottom of the pool by heavy-looking weights.
Most of the buoys had small silver keys attached to them, but some had gems of different shapes and colors instead, and I guessed these were meant to be a distraction from the keys.
I glanced back at the cage Tala was trapped in.
There were a number of complex locking mechanisms on its door, and the shackles that bound my wolf-lover to the bars would need unlocking, too. The cage was still slowly descending, and my eidolon let out another imploring scream.
“I’m coming, Tala!” I called. “It’s okay, I’ll get you out of there.”
I wasn’t sure I’d have enough time to dive for all the keys, free them from the buoys, and unlock the cage before it was lowered so much the water went over Tala’s head. I guessed not all of the keys would fit the locks because that would make it too easy. Plus, the bottom of the cage was still about ten feet above the surface of the water, and I’d have to wait until I could reach the damn locks before I could help her.
But it was my only option.
I took my bag off my shoulder and dropped it with a thud. I was just about to unhook my weapons and dive into the pool when something held me back. I couldn’t quite place my finger on it, but it was some sort of instinct, and I wondered whether it was the same thing I’d felt when I had to choose which door to enter.
I’d listened to it then, and I’d picked the right room. I had to listen to it now, too.
I glanced back up at Tala and frowned. Something wasn’t quite right, but I didn’t know what it was.
“Are you alright, Tala?” I asked.
She looked at me with fear etched across her beautiful face, but she said nothing. As I looked closer, I realized there was something vacant about her eyes, which were always so fiery and so alive.
“Can you speak?” I asked her.
My wolf-woman whimpered, but she still didn’t say anything.
I closed my eyes and focused all my concentration on Tala. I thought about the smell of her hair in the morning, and how she’d smiled at me in Asheville as the sun danced across her face. I thought about her wolfish grin, the way she loved to tease me during the day and give herself to me at night. I had a vision of her in wolf form as she sank her teeth into some monster’s flesh, and I heard her triumphant howl of victory when she’d won a battle.
Then I felt a flicker of her presence somewhere inside me, and I opened my eyes.
The woman in the cage was still staring at me with her empty gaze, and I knew instantly the flicker hadn’t come from her.
That meant the real Tala must be safe. This was another one of the temple’s fucked-up ideas of fun. It had taken the thing I loved most in the world and placed an illusion of her inside that cage to distract me.
And it had almost worked, but there was no way the bond with my eidolon lover could be severed that easily.
Now that I’d focused, I could feel a tiny spark of reassurance, and I knew it was coming from the real Tala. I was grateful she’d managed to let me know she was safe, but I was still uneasy about the illusion in the cage. The doppelganger screamed again, and every part of me was crying out to dive into the water, find the keys, and rescue her, just in case I’d got it all wrong and my lover really was in there.
But rationally, I knew this was all one of the temple’s twisted tricks, and I didn’t have time to fuck around and rescue some illusion. Hell, even if I broke this vision free from her cage, there was no guarantee she wouldn’t rip my throat out.
I had to get us out of here so I could be reunited with my true lover.
“Okay, so what’s the real task?” I muttered as I stared into the pool of water.
If the keys were to unlock the cage, how the hell was I supposed to unlock the door?
That got me thinking, and I ran over to the exit on the other side of the room so I could investigate the door properly. Once I got closer, I could see there was a small wooden box attached to its face. The box was placed at about chest height above the lock. I tried to lift the lid, but it wouldn’t open, and there was no keyhole, either.
The box was simple, but, at each corner of the lid was a small, differently-shaped indent, as if something had been gouged out of the wood. Each indent had traces of color in it. One was a purple star, another was a blue circle, the third was a red diamond, and the final one was a black heart.
Tala’s double in the cage screamed again, and my heart clenched. It wasn’t my lover, but the temple knew perfectly well this trick was still enough to unnerve me. All I wanted was to break my wolf eidolon free and wrap her in my arms.
But I had to focus.
A trickle of calmness ran gently through my body, and I knew that was the real Tala reassuring me again.
I guessed there was a key locked inside this box, and I had to find the objects that would fit the lid and make it open. I suddenly remembered the gems attached to the buoys, and I ran back to the pool.
As I stared into its clear water, I saw a red diamond-shaped gem attached to a buoy nearby and decided to test my theory.
I quickly unhooked my mallet and saber from my belt so they wouldn’t weigh me down in the water, but I kept my dagger on me just in case.
It was never wise to be entirely unarmed in Fablewild.
It was also never wise to plunge head-first into things without checking them out first. I didn’t trust this temple for a moment, and I had a horrible vision of jumping into the pool only to discover it was actually full of acid or something equally vile.
I cautiously knelt down and dipped my pinkie finger into the water. The shock of the cold traveled up my arm and down my spine. It was fucking freezing, and I was worried that if I plunged into it, I wouldn’t last very long before hypothermia set in.
“Shit,” I hissed as I thought hard about what to do.
I could try to hook the gems out using my weapons. That might work for the red diamond, which was near the edge of the pool and not too deep, but it would be difficult at best, and I had very little time.
Besides, I hadn’t even located the other gems. What if they were further out?
Neoma was flying anxious circles over the pool. I could sense she wanted to help, but owls weren’t really designed for swimming. Anyway, I knew eidolons were ghostly spirit beings, but that didn’t mean she wouldn’t be able to feel the cold.
Then suddenly, it dawned on me. Before I’d gone to raid the Floating Temple, a water sorceress in Pearlfall had given me three potions. I’d used two in that raid, but I still had the third. The water sorceress had said it would heat up any body of water I might find myself in, and now seemed like the perfect time to use it.
I ran to my bag on the other side of the pool and searched through it. My hands finally landed on the small, warm bottle with the glowing lilac liquid, and I grinned.
When I looked into the pool from where I was standing, this time, I saw the black, heart-shaped gem. It was closer than the red one, and I decided I’d try to go for it first.
I didn’t know if the potion would work unless I was actually in the water. It was better to be safe than sorry, so I took a deep breath, braced myself, and lowered my body into the pool.
The cold hit me like a thousand jagged shards of glass, and my chest was so tight I could barely breathe. I opened the potion as fast as I could with my shivering hands, and I poured it into the water.
Instantly, I felt as if I was lying in a warm bath. The transformation was unbelievable, and my body warmed back to a normal temperature immediately.
I heaved a sigh of relief that the liquid had worked. I really needed to find another water sorceress, or go back and visit the one in Pearlfall. Her potions had been indispensable in the Floating Temple, and I had no idea what I would’ve done in this challenge without the water-heating liquid.
