lily harper - complete series, page 222
When I did, the scope's field of vision was filled with the entrance to the tent.
“What do you see?” Wally asked me.
I looked down the scope and saw swirls and dots of light against a black background. “It… it almost looks like a gateway to another dimension?” I answered, frowning.
“Pocket dimension, actually,” Wally corrected. “Prince Asmodeus used that crown to carve out a nice little spot away from the rest of the Underground City. Makes it harder to have his harem snatched.”
The bright bits and blackness finally gave way to a richly appointed room. Four ivory pillars held up the ceiling with a small wading pool standing in the center. Plants hung off the pillars but they were black where they should have been green. The floors were made of sheer marble, alternating tiles of black and white. And every other spot seemed to be filled by some impossibly beautiful woman wearing a skimpy outfit. It looked like a Hollywood version of a sultan's palace.
“You seeing the inside okay now?” Wally called out to me.
“Yeah,” I said, pulling away to look at him. “It's... wow. I...”
He put a fatherly hand on my shoulder which I shrugged away. “It's a lot to take in, I know. While I handle the joystick, I want you to confirm whether certain things are still there.”
“Okay,” I said and I put my eyes back on the scope to see. It began panning around the room like a movie camera, no doubt courtesy of Wally. I spotted some Greater Imps walking among them, armed with swords.
I nodded against the viewfinder. “How will I recognize Ariadne?” I looked back at Asterion. “Maybe you should do this instead?”
Strangely, he shook his head. “I don’t believe… I can control my rage, depending upon what I might see…”
I swallowed hard and nodded. The last thing we needed was for him become a raging bull.
“Look for a small mole on the left side of her forehead,” Asterion instructed.
By then, the scope had come to land in front of a stone arch with a furiously spinning red swirl inside it. “I think I see some sort of portal,” I said out loud. “At least that's what it looks like to me.”
“Private entrance and exit for Asmodeus’ palace,” Wally proclaimed. “That's one spot we're gonna need to avoid.”
I frowned at what I saw next to it: one of the women laying on a divan. Two things stood out about her: she looked like the most beautiful one of the crowd and she was asleep. Everyone else was up and moving around. Why wasn't she? Wally moved the view over to the left and I put it out of my mind. It probably wasn't important.
“I'm seeing some sort of wardrobe. Dark brown wood... slightly open... gold handles... one of the women is grabbing an outfit from it.” I didn't see any reason to mention this woman was moving like a zombie or that she was totally naked from her time in the pool. Even though her back was facing me, something about her seemed familiar. Then when she turned around to put on the outfit, I got a good look at her face. “Oh my God, that's Liz Taylor!”
“The wardrobe, Lily,” Wally prompted me. “Is the door still open?”
Forcing myself to look somewhere other than the bare chest of my mom's favorite actress, I answered. “Yeah... kind of hard to see inside.”
“Can you make anything out?”
“Nothing... not even a swirl. Wait... she's grabbed something. There's a swirl in the wardrobe too. Maybe it's another portal?”
Wally sighed and I heard him scratch his head. “Looks like Archie called that one right. Ellie's never gonna let me hear the end of it.” The telescope started moving again. “Okay, see if you can get a head count of the guards.”
I started counting off the Greater Imps. “One, two, three, four...”
The total count was eight, so far. The telescope zoomed in enough for me to see other familiar faces: Marilyn Monroe, Rita Hayworth, the model, Gia Marie Caragni. All of them either languished in the pool naked or shambled around like the living dead, their outfits—or lack thereof—leaving nothing to the imagination.
I was about to count the ninth, tenth and eleventh guards when I realized what the guards were doing. They had one of the women pressed against the far right pillar, taking turns rutting her from behind. However vigorous their movements, her face registered nothing, her eyes as empty as the Void outside.
“See any more of 'em?” Wally asked, but I barely heard him. Instead, I felt horror spreading through me at the tableau before me. Why? Because I’d spotted a small, dark mole on the left of the woman’s forehead.
TWELVE
Tallis
I can be a right idiot at times. I'd been watching “Wally” so closely, I did nae see Besom's flight from her chair till it was too late. “Too late” is also a good way to describe me grab at her arm. When I saw the wild look in her eye as she rushed past, I got fearful. Couple that with the naked blade in her hand and I knew she meant to get bloody.
I was first down the stairs after her, though I could hear the others right on me heels. “Besom, wait!” I yelled, knowing she'd do anything but. My warrior woman had gone well beyond the pale of reason. Now ‘twould take drastic action to get her to snap out of her fury.
As fast she took her steps, me longer stride helped me catch up with her. I was no more than a couple of spear lengths from her by the time she made it to the bottom floor. She made it to the front door when a knife flew out of the darkness at her sword arm. She deflected it with her blade and jumped away from the next knife flying at her right foot. I believed ‘twas Ellie doing the throwing and I was rightly pissed at her for keeping up with that rain of blades, even if none of them were anywhere close to being fatal. Though the flying steel slowed her some, Lily just kept bobbing, weaving and blocking them.
Meanwhile, the silhouette of someone large stepped in front of the door. The shadow's eyes flashed a sheer white while a peel of thunder echoed through the whole lighthouse. The ruckus was enough to stop everyone dead in their tracks, Besom included.
His point made, the eyes lost their lighting and their owner stepped close enough for me to see it was “Archie”. He looked down at her and said, “Don't make me grab Crusher, kid.”
Me love was shaking at this point, her blade barely staying in her hand. Not from fear—she was beyond the pale of that one too—but from impotent anger and outrage.
“You-you don't understand,” she choked out. “I have to…”
“I do understand,” Archie said, putting a brotherly hand on her shoulders. “There was a time when I would have done the same. Now... put it down.”
Besom seemed to calm down at his words, for which I was grateful. Her sheathing the blade was reassuring, anyway. Still, when she turned back around, I could tell she wasn't more than a hairsbreadth away from losing control again.
“We can't leave Ariadne in there. Whatever it takes, we're getting her out.”
“And we're gonna do exactly that, honey,” Wordsmith assured her, holding up his hands as he pushed ahead of everyone. “I swear by Yggsdrasil, we'll make it happen.”
As he stood to the right of me, I flattened me hand on his chest. “Should ye be faithless to that oath, Wordsmith, ye best start runnin'.” I was glad to see the proper fear from me words, but I was less reassured by them. I still wasn't completely convinced that what had happened wasn't owing to one of his games. Still, hard to see what he was after if he’d been running such a game.
When the man-bull took the time to cross the space between the stairs and Besom, I cursed meself for giving the Wordsmith so much mind.
At the man-bull's nod, the draftsman stepped away from Lily to pick up Ellie's knives. I stepped past him as I went over to the man-bull and Besom, who by this point, were embracing. The sight was enough to cause me heartbeat to increase and anger to course through me. But, I calmed meself. They were friends, after all, and friends did comfort one another.
“Now you know why I refused to look through the telescope,” the man-bull told Besom in a gentle tone. “Had I seen something happen to Ariadne, not even Crusher would have deterred me from going out that door.”
I felt hope spring in me breast as he said this. Maybe he'd get back with Ariadne once we freed her and that'd be the end of this nonsense betwixt the three of us.
“And you would have died for your troubles,” Ellie told him, taking her knives back from Archie.
By then, I was right at Besom's shoulder, ready to take her in me arms if she'd have me. Seeing me, the man-bull began to pull away, but me love tugged at him.
“No, stay.” I felt me heart sink at her words. I began to step back. That's when she surprised me by snagging me hand. “You too, Tallis.”
As much as her much shorter arms would allow her, she hugged both of us with a grip that felt harder than the steel of her blade. “What did I ever do to deserve you... either of you?”
I kissed Besom's cheek. “Ye were brave enough to be you, Besom.”
The man-bull grunted agreement he began stroking her shoulders.
“Hey, what am I, the sixth wheel?” the stookie angel demanded to know as he got in front of us. From his perch on the angel’s shoulder, Mantis buzzed in his ear. “Yeah, that's the expressaying,” he told his gold bug.
“What are you talking about?” Lily asked.
I breathed in deeply as the three of us separated. This tension between us would have to be addressed at some point, though that time was not now.
Annice approached and gave her niece a hug. “I know the last few moments have been difficult for you,” she said as she held Lily tight. “But did you get that final head count of the guards?”
The embrace broken off, Besom swallowed hard. “I saw twelve of them before...”
Annice gave Lily a quick pat on the back to let her know she didn't need to say anything else. Meanwhile Archie was back to his drawing board with Wordsmith's daughter in tow.
“Yeah, that's the usual number of guards,” he said, picking up his pencil. “Not something I'd have taken on even in my prime.”
The stookie angel pulled his head back in appreciation. “If this is your molden years, pal, you must have been something back in the day.”
“Suffice to say, we were all different back then,” Ellie said, stroking Archie's shoulders with a tenderness I'd never have guessed she had. “Only my brothers have stayed the same.”
“So you got the layout for the seraglio done, Arch?” Wordsmith asked, stepping into the light of his partner's workspace.
“Since five minutes ago,” Archie confirmed. “So if you're done upsetting our guests...”
That earned him a sharp, disproving look from Ellie. That, in turn, cause him to throw up his hands as if to say “what did you expect?” I couldn't help but smirk a bit. Archie had always been easier to get on with than Wordsmith.
“Alright, gather around, everyone,” Archie said he faced each and every one of us. The man-bull and I had no trouble looking over his shoulder at the meticulously drawn floor plans on the board. Besom and Annice lacked the height, but I heard the latter mutter something under her breath. When she finished, both of them floated a foot off the floor, just high enough to see the drawing.
A pained cry and the flapping of wings told me Mantis had tried to lift the angel’s bulk again. The stepson of Minos solved the problem by reaching down to the stookie angel and lifting him up onto his shoulders as if the angel weighed nary anything. The gold bug flew up, annoyance radiating from its wings. It made its displeasure known to the man-bull before settling on his other shoulder.
“The main entrance to the Desert of Lust is here,” Archie said, tapping a spot on the right of the map with his pencil. Then he went over to another less thick line on the bottom. “Procurer's entrance...” He shifted up to the octagon in the center. “That's the pool...” He moved the pencil to the upper left corner. “Here's the gate to Asmodeus' palace...” Then he shifted it to a rectangle on the lower left corner. “And there's the wardrobe... we ever find out if there's a gate inside it?”
“I think so,” Lily said. “I spotted a black swirl in there when I got a look at it.”
Archie gave his drawing a grin that looked downright unpleasant before turning said grin on Wordsmith. “What was that about me and Ellie seeing things?”
The man I hated third most in the universe chuckled—something which sounded more nervous than he likely wanted it to. “Hey, why do you think I wanted that second opinion from our guests?”
“Where's this wardrobe gate go now?” I asked.
“Going by the fashions that come out of it, Dis,” Ellie said. “The lingerie stylings are too distinct.”
Besom shuddered in sympathy. Archie leaned back into Ellie's stomach and gentle arms and sighed.
“So... we're staying with the fake procurers plan?” he asked, looking at Wordsmith.
“It would be the easiest identity to fake,” the man-bull asserted. “What more plausible reason would there be to enter?”
“One big worry I have is winding up a sex zombie for these bastards,” Besom asserted. “None of the women looked like they were even aware about what was going on. They were in this strange… trance.”
Annice frowned at the drawing. “Are there enchantments in this place that dull a woman's mind, especially with prolonged exposure?”
“Yes, yes and yes,” Wordsmith told her, pulling out a pair of stones. Both of them were emblazoned with the Futhark letter Algiz, which looked like a cross betwixt a tree and a Y with a longer stalk.
“Hey, yo,” the stookie angel piped up. “Don't know if you can keep count, Whack-A-Mole, but Annie only asked one and a half questions.”
Wordsmith handed Besom and her aunt the stones. “But the next question is usually 'have you got something to beat it?' So I thought I'd save us some time.”
The moment they left Wordsmith's hands, the runes glowed and spread a bubble of green energy around both women.
As the bubbles faded, Annice said, “These will do quite nicely.”
“Is there any other way we could shut that zombie enchantment down if these happen to fail?” Lily asked.
Wordsmith looked like such was the last question he wanted to hear. “Well, uh, there is, but...”
“Uh, uh, no halfway measures,” Archie told him. He tapped the drawing near the infernal gate. “Aphrodite—the one everyone knows to be Aphrodite—is there… sleeping. As long as she's out, the enchantment remains.”
“So why don't we just wake her up and cancel it once and for all?” Besom asked.
Ellie gave her a stare as pointed as any of her knives. “A question I have been asking Father for some time now.”
“You know why, girl,” Wordsmith countered. “Doing so would get Asmodeus’ attention for sure.”
“What do you mean?” Lily demanded.
Wordsmith looked at her. “All those women suddenly come to their right senses? Aphrodite being the most powerful among them… it would be attention we don’t need. The best offense is one that’s secret and quick.”
Annice nodded. “The iron rule of these missions is always the same: save the scandal until the end. We do this right, we'll be long gone before they figure out what we've done.”
“Won't anyone notice Ariadne's gone the second we pull her out?” Lily asked.
Archie scoffed. “As many toys as Asmodeus has in that box? Asmodeus won't notice one's gone until who knows how long. And he'd be the only one that'd care.”
“If Storytime has concluded for the moment,” Ellie asserted. “I'd like to get our lady guests into some proper clothes.”
Annice lowered her hand and she and Lily floated back to the ground.
“And in the meantime, gents,” Wordsmith said, slapping his hands together. “I've got the latest in Slaver wear for you.”
THIRTEEN
Lily
I didn't think anything like a sun existed down in the Underground City. But in the Desert of Lust, it apparently did. A red glowing orb burned in the sky over our heads while our covered cart crossed the equally red sands.
From my seat in the back, I could see the eight-legged horse that pulled us along. Wally called him “Sleigh”. Even with double the legs, he had a hard go getting through the dunes. Whenever we got stuck in the sand, Asterion and Tallis had to take a break from pretending to be guards to give the cart a heave-ho. Bill would sometimes “superadvise”, as he called it, from his perch on the cart's roof while they did so.
More than a few times Tallis snapped at Bill to mind his business, which was looking out for trouble. And seeing as how Mantis could snuff out trouble before any of us, it was a valid concern.
But safety was especially a concern for Annice and me. While Archie had the reins to Sleigh and Wally was riding shotgun, my aunt and I sat under the hot canvas, wearing seemingly authentic iron chains to sell our captivity story when we reached Asmodeus' people.
Every time I glanced down at my body in the see-through outfit Ellie had given me, I got cold sweats. Flashes of my time as a prisoner to the spirit of Persephone kept going through my head. I was anxious—my palms a sweaty mess. Not even the rune pendant I wore around my neck could do a thing to comfort me.
It was the sixth or seventh time I got those sweats that Annice reached out to me. I hadn't realized how badly I'd been shaking.
“Though we absolutely must show our physiques,” she told me, gesturing to her own generous body under her outfit as her fingers brushed her own pendant. “Intimate contact isn't necessarily a guarantee.”
“Yeah, tell that to Ariadne,” I replied, feeling my shivers get worse when I remembered what I'd seen in the telescope. I was beyond glad Asterion hadn’t seen it and, furthermore, I hadn’t told him what had happened. “Besides, as far as Asmodeus is concerned, we’ll be fresh meat.”
“If he’s even there.”
I took a deep breath. “And if he’s not, we have those Greater Imp guards to worry about.”
“While as a rule, demons are stupid, impulsive and cruel, they do understand hierarchy. Taking what is rightfully their prince's before he can do the same would be a major breach.”
“What do you see?” Wally asked me.
I looked down the scope and saw swirls and dots of light against a black background. “It… it almost looks like a gateway to another dimension?” I answered, frowning.
“Pocket dimension, actually,” Wally corrected. “Prince Asmodeus used that crown to carve out a nice little spot away from the rest of the Underground City. Makes it harder to have his harem snatched.”
The bright bits and blackness finally gave way to a richly appointed room. Four ivory pillars held up the ceiling with a small wading pool standing in the center. Plants hung off the pillars but they were black where they should have been green. The floors were made of sheer marble, alternating tiles of black and white. And every other spot seemed to be filled by some impossibly beautiful woman wearing a skimpy outfit. It looked like a Hollywood version of a sultan's palace.
“You seeing the inside okay now?” Wally called out to me.
“Yeah,” I said, pulling away to look at him. “It's... wow. I...”
He put a fatherly hand on my shoulder which I shrugged away. “It's a lot to take in, I know. While I handle the joystick, I want you to confirm whether certain things are still there.”
“Okay,” I said and I put my eyes back on the scope to see. It began panning around the room like a movie camera, no doubt courtesy of Wally. I spotted some Greater Imps walking among them, armed with swords.
I nodded against the viewfinder. “How will I recognize Ariadne?” I looked back at Asterion. “Maybe you should do this instead?”
Strangely, he shook his head. “I don’t believe… I can control my rage, depending upon what I might see…”
I swallowed hard and nodded. The last thing we needed was for him become a raging bull.
“Look for a small mole on the left side of her forehead,” Asterion instructed.
By then, the scope had come to land in front of a stone arch with a furiously spinning red swirl inside it. “I think I see some sort of portal,” I said out loud. “At least that's what it looks like to me.”
“Private entrance and exit for Asmodeus’ palace,” Wally proclaimed. “That's one spot we're gonna need to avoid.”
I frowned at what I saw next to it: one of the women laying on a divan. Two things stood out about her: she looked like the most beautiful one of the crowd and she was asleep. Everyone else was up and moving around. Why wasn't she? Wally moved the view over to the left and I put it out of my mind. It probably wasn't important.
“I'm seeing some sort of wardrobe. Dark brown wood... slightly open... gold handles... one of the women is grabbing an outfit from it.” I didn't see any reason to mention this woman was moving like a zombie or that she was totally naked from her time in the pool. Even though her back was facing me, something about her seemed familiar. Then when she turned around to put on the outfit, I got a good look at her face. “Oh my God, that's Liz Taylor!”
“The wardrobe, Lily,” Wally prompted me. “Is the door still open?”
Forcing myself to look somewhere other than the bare chest of my mom's favorite actress, I answered. “Yeah... kind of hard to see inside.”
“Can you make anything out?”
“Nothing... not even a swirl. Wait... she's grabbed something. There's a swirl in the wardrobe too. Maybe it's another portal?”
Wally sighed and I heard him scratch his head. “Looks like Archie called that one right. Ellie's never gonna let me hear the end of it.” The telescope started moving again. “Okay, see if you can get a head count of the guards.”
I started counting off the Greater Imps. “One, two, three, four...”
The total count was eight, so far. The telescope zoomed in enough for me to see other familiar faces: Marilyn Monroe, Rita Hayworth, the model, Gia Marie Caragni. All of them either languished in the pool naked or shambled around like the living dead, their outfits—or lack thereof—leaving nothing to the imagination.
I was about to count the ninth, tenth and eleventh guards when I realized what the guards were doing. They had one of the women pressed against the far right pillar, taking turns rutting her from behind. However vigorous their movements, her face registered nothing, her eyes as empty as the Void outside.
“See any more of 'em?” Wally asked, but I barely heard him. Instead, I felt horror spreading through me at the tableau before me. Why? Because I’d spotted a small, dark mole on the left of the woman’s forehead.
TWELVE
Tallis
I can be a right idiot at times. I'd been watching “Wally” so closely, I did nae see Besom's flight from her chair till it was too late. “Too late” is also a good way to describe me grab at her arm. When I saw the wild look in her eye as she rushed past, I got fearful. Couple that with the naked blade in her hand and I knew she meant to get bloody.
I was first down the stairs after her, though I could hear the others right on me heels. “Besom, wait!” I yelled, knowing she'd do anything but. My warrior woman had gone well beyond the pale of reason. Now ‘twould take drastic action to get her to snap out of her fury.
As fast she took her steps, me longer stride helped me catch up with her. I was no more than a couple of spear lengths from her by the time she made it to the bottom floor. She made it to the front door when a knife flew out of the darkness at her sword arm. She deflected it with her blade and jumped away from the next knife flying at her right foot. I believed ‘twas Ellie doing the throwing and I was rightly pissed at her for keeping up with that rain of blades, even if none of them were anywhere close to being fatal. Though the flying steel slowed her some, Lily just kept bobbing, weaving and blocking them.
Meanwhile, the silhouette of someone large stepped in front of the door. The shadow's eyes flashed a sheer white while a peel of thunder echoed through the whole lighthouse. The ruckus was enough to stop everyone dead in their tracks, Besom included.
His point made, the eyes lost their lighting and their owner stepped close enough for me to see it was “Archie”. He looked down at her and said, “Don't make me grab Crusher, kid.”
Me love was shaking at this point, her blade barely staying in her hand. Not from fear—she was beyond the pale of that one too—but from impotent anger and outrage.
“You-you don't understand,” she choked out. “I have to…”
“I do understand,” Archie said, putting a brotherly hand on her shoulders. “There was a time when I would have done the same. Now... put it down.”
Besom seemed to calm down at his words, for which I was grateful. Her sheathing the blade was reassuring, anyway. Still, when she turned back around, I could tell she wasn't more than a hairsbreadth away from losing control again.
“We can't leave Ariadne in there. Whatever it takes, we're getting her out.”
“And we're gonna do exactly that, honey,” Wordsmith assured her, holding up his hands as he pushed ahead of everyone. “I swear by Yggsdrasil, we'll make it happen.”
As he stood to the right of me, I flattened me hand on his chest. “Should ye be faithless to that oath, Wordsmith, ye best start runnin'.” I was glad to see the proper fear from me words, but I was less reassured by them. I still wasn't completely convinced that what had happened wasn't owing to one of his games. Still, hard to see what he was after if he’d been running such a game.
When the man-bull took the time to cross the space between the stairs and Besom, I cursed meself for giving the Wordsmith so much mind.
At the man-bull's nod, the draftsman stepped away from Lily to pick up Ellie's knives. I stepped past him as I went over to the man-bull and Besom, who by this point, were embracing. The sight was enough to cause me heartbeat to increase and anger to course through me. But, I calmed meself. They were friends, after all, and friends did comfort one another.
“Now you know why I refused to look through the telescope,” the man-bull told Besom in a gentle tone. “Had I seen something happen to Ariadne, not even Crusher would have deterred me from going out that door.”
I felt hope spring in me breast as he said this. Maybe he'd get back with Ariadne once we freed her and that'd be the end of this nonsense betwixt the three of us.
“And you would have died for your troubles,” Ellie told him, taking her knives back from Archie.
By then, I was right at Besom's shoulder, ready to take her in me arms if she'd have me. Seeing me, the man-bull began to pull away, but me love tugged at him.
“No, stay.” I felt me heart sink at her words. I began to step back. That's when she surprised me by snagging me hand. “You too, Tallis.”
As much as her much shorter arms would allow her, she hugged both of us with a grip that felt harder than the steel of her blade. “What did I ever do to deserve you... either of you?”
I kissed Besom's cheek. “Ye were brave enough to be you, Besom.”
The man-bull grunted agreement he began stroking her shoulders.
“Hey, what am I, the sixth wheel?” the stookie angel demanded to know as he got in front of us. From his perch on the angel’s shoulder, Mantis buzzed in his ear. “Yeah, that's the expressaying,” he told his gold bug.
“What are you talking about?” Lily asked.
I breathed in deeply as the three of us separated. This tension between us would have to be addressed at some point, though that time was not now.
Annice approached and gave her niece a hug. “I know the last few moments have been difficult for you,” she said as she held Lily tight. “But did you get that final head count of the guards?”
The embrace broken off, Besom swallowed hard. “I saw twelve of them before...”
Annice gave Lily a quick pat on the back to let her know she didn't need to say anything else. Meanwhile Archie was back to his drawing board with Wordsmith's daughter in tow.
“Yeah, that's the usual number of guards,” he said, picking up his pencil. “Not something I'd have taken on even in my prime.”
The stookie angel pulled his head back in appreciation. “If this is your molden years, pal, you must have been something back in the day.”
“Suffice to say, we were all different back then,” Ellie said, stroking Archie's shoulders with a tenderness I'd never have guessed she had. “Only my brothers have stayed the same.”
“So you got the layout for the seraglio done, Arch?” Wordsmith asked, stepping into the light of his partner's workspace.
“Since five minutes ago,” Archie confirmed. “So if you're done upsetting our guests...”
That earned him a sharp, disproving look from Ellie. That, in turn, cause him to throw up his hands as if to say “what did you expect?” I couldn't help but smirk a bit. Archie had always been easier to get on with than Wordsmith.
“Alright, gather around, everyone,” Archie said he faced each and every one of us. The man-bull and I had no trouble looking over his shoulder at the meticulously drawn floor plans on the board. Besom and Annice lacked the height, but I heard the latter mutter something under her breath. When she finished, both of them floated a foot off the floor, just high enough to see the drawing.
A pained cry and the flapping of wings told me Mantis had tried to lift the angel’s bulk again. The stepson of Minos solved the problem by reaching down to the stookie angel and lifting him up onto his shoulders as if the angel weighed nary anything. The gold bug flew up, annoyance radiating from its wings. It made its displeasure known to the man-bull before settling on his other shoulder.
“The main entrance to the Desert of Lust is here,” Archie said, tapping a spot on the right of the map with his pencil. Then he went over to another less thick line on the bottom. “Procurer's entrance...” He shifted up to the octagon in the center. “That's the pool...” He moved the pencil to the upper left corner. “Here's the gate to Asmodeus' palace...” Then he shifted it to a rectangle on the lower left corner. “And there's the wardrobe... we ever find out if there's a gate inside it?”
“I think so,” Lily said. “I spotted a black swirl in there when I got a look at it.”
Archie gave his drawing a grin that looked downright unpleasant before turning said grin on Wordsmith. “What was that about me and Ellie seeing things?”
The man I hated third most in the universe chuckled—something which sounded more nervous than he likely wanted it to. “Hey, why do you think I wanted that second opinion from our guests?”
“Where's this wardrobe gate go now?” I asked.
“Going by the fashions that come out of it, Dis,” Ellie said. “The lingerie stylings are too distinct.”
Besom shuddered in sympathy. Archie leaned back into Ellie's stomach and gentle arms and sighed.
“So... we're staying with the fake procurers plan?” he asked, looking at Wordsmith.
“It would be the easiest identity to fake,” the man-bull asserted. “What more plausible reason would there be to enter?”
“One big worry I have is winding up a sex zombie for these bastards,” Besom asserted. “None of the women looked like they were even aware about what was going on. They were in this strange… trance.”
Annice frowned at the drawing. “Are there enchantments in this place that dull a woman's mind, especially with prolonged exposure?”
“Yes, yes and yes,” Wordsmith told her, pulling out a pair of stones. Both of them were emblazoned with the Futhark letter Algiz, which looked like a cross betwixt a tree and a Y with a longer stalk.
“Hey, yo,” the stookie angel piped up. “Don't know if you can keep count, Whack-A-Mole, but Annie only asked one and a half questions.”
Wordsmith handed Besom and her aunt the stones. “But the next question is usually 'have you got something to beat it?' So I thought I'd save us some time.”
The moment they left Wordsmith's hands, the runes glowed and spread a bubble of green energy around both women.
As the bubbles faded, Annice said, “These will do quite nicely.”
“Is there any other way we could shut that zombie enchantment down if these happen to fail?” Lily asked.
Wordsmith looked like such was the last question he wanted to hear. “Well, uh, there is, but...”
“Uh, uh, no halfway measures,” Archie told him. He tapped the drawing near the infernal gate. “Aphrodite—the one everyone knows to be Aphrodite—is there… sleeping. As long as she's out, the enchantment remains.”
“So why don't we just wake her up and cancel it once and for all?” Besom asked.
Ellie gave her a stare as pointed as any of her knives. “A question I have been asking Father for some time now.”
“You know why, girl,” Wordsmith countered. “Doing so would get Asmodeus’ attention for sure.”
“What do you mean?” Lily demanded.
Wordsmith looked at her. “All those women suddenly come to their right senses? Aphrodite being the most powerful among them… it would be attention we don’t need. The best offense is one that’s secret and quick.”
Annice nodded. “The iron rule of these missions is always the same: save the scandal until the end. We do this right, we'll be long gone before they figure out what we've done.”
“Won't anyone notice Ariadne's gone the second we pull her out?” Lily asked.
Archie scoffed. “As many toys as Asmodeus has in that box? Asmodeus won't notice one's gone until who knows how long. And he'd be the only one that'd care.”
“If Storytime has concluded for the moment,” Ellie asserted. “I'd like to get our lady guests into some proper clothes.”
Annice lowered her hand and she and Lily floated back to the ground.
“And in the meantime, gents,” Wordsmith said, slapping his hands together. “I've got the latest in Slaver wear for you.”
THIRTEEN
Lily
I didn't think anything like a sun existed down in the Underground City. But in the Desert of Lust, it apparently did. A red glowing orb burned in the sky over our heads while our covered cart crossed the equally red sands.
From my seat in the back, I could see the eight-legged horse that pulled us along. Wally called him “Sleigh”. Even with double the legs, he had a hard go getting through the dunes. Whenever we got stuck in the sand, Asterion and Tallis had to take a break from pretending to be guards to give the cart a heave-ho. Bill would sometimes “superadvise”, as he called it, from his perch on the cart's roof while they did so.
More than a few times Tallis snapped at Bill to mind his business, which was looking out for trouble. And seeing as how Mantis could snuff out trouble before any of us, it was a valid concern.
But safety was especially a concern for Annice and me. While Archie had the reins to Sleigh and Wally was riding shotgun, my aunt and I sat under the hot canvas, wearing seemingly authentic iron chains to sell our captivity story when we reached Asmodeus' people.
Every time I glanced down at my body in the see-through outfit Ellie had given me, I got cold sweats. Flashes of my time as a prisoner to the spirit of Persephone kept going through my head. I was anxious—my palms a sweaty mess. Not even the rune pendant I wore around my neck could do a thing to comfort me.
It was the sixth or seventh time I got those sweats that Annice reached out to me. I hadn't realized how badly I'd been shaking.
“Though we absolutely must show our physiques,” she told me, gesturing to her own generous body under her outfit as her fingers brushed her own pendant. “Intimate contact isn't necessarily a guarantee.”
“Yeah, tell that to Ariadne,” I replied, feeling my shivers get worse when I remembered what I'd seen in the telescope. I was beyond glad Asterion hadn’t seen it and, furthermore, I hadn’t told him what had happened. “Besides, as far as Asmodeus is concerned, we’ll be fresh meat.”
“If he’s even there.”
I took a deep breath. “And if he’s not, we have those Greater Imp guards to worry about.”
“While as a rule, demons are stupid, impulsive and cruel, they do understand hierarchy. Taking what is rightfully their prince's before he can do the same would be a major breach.”
