Chapter Ten
“Bea!” Piper yelled at the spot she had disappeared. “She can’t go alone.”
Will looked desperately at Loki. “We have no way into the Underworld.” He gazed where Bea stood.
“Not without an invitation. And now our gorgon has the trident,” Loki said in a low voice.
“Why did Eve say the landmerrows had it then? Why didn’t she use…” I then realized that I had messed up Bea’s plan. “She had the trident and was going to use it when I stabbed Eve with the sword.” I looked away knowing I screwed-up Bea’s intention.
“It’s the past, it’s done and gone and you can’t change that.” Will gazed down at me.
“I have complete faith in our little gorgon’s vindictive intentions. At least Eve doesn’t know she has the trident.” Loki shrugged his shoulders.
“We have no way to help her, and by staying here we are sitting ducks.” Piper jumped up and down trying to stay warm.
Loki turned his attention to the sculpture. “Any ideas on how to make that work?”
Will shook his head. “I’ve tried everything, it’s blocked, and with Lyra contained, there’s no way in.”
“What about the green man?” Piper stood with her wings fluttering behind her excitedly.
Loki looked at Will with doubt, and let out a sigh as he tilted his head to the sky and then glanced at Piper with raised eyebrows.
“Oh, come on!” Piper stomped her foot. “What else are we going to do? Wait for Angus to show up or keep ringing on Iethia’s doorbell? Not only do we need help, but so does Bea.” She motioned behind her. “She’s alone with her mother.”
“Better than the green man,” Loki said shaking his head.
“Piper’s right. We’ve got no other options, and if we don’t do something quick, then we’ll be dealing with Angus. At least we have some protection, and we’ll be out of the weather.” Will cut in, glancing at them both. “We’ll go to the green man’s place of residence, and Piper will lead the way.”
“Come on then, we’ve got a long walk ahead of us.” Piper waved her arm for us to follow. “And the glamour is dissolved, so be careful.” She folded her wings inside her coat and skipped ahead of us like a child would do.
“I have a bad feeling about this,” Loki said leaning towards Will. “Tinkerbell here is high on whatever the green man does for fairies, and I don’t think it’s the thing to do. We don’t need to bring in any others to our little adventure here.”
“There is no other way. We can’t help Bea or ourselves by just standing around waiting for something to happen. I can’t get through to Iethia, and we are stuck here in Chicago.” Will’s eyes shifted to me. “We need to get to a safe place, at least for right now.”
“I’m just saying that I’ve got a bad feeling.” Loki repeated. “We need to watch ourselves, because there’s more to Chicago than a few bad humans.”
Piper was right when she said it would be a long walk. I have never been to Chicago, but seen lots of beautiful pictures of it, and always wanted to see all the tall buildings, go to the art museum, and Navy Pier. I always knew I would come here one day, but never thought it would be with a glass person, entity, and a fairy.
The coldness only made me walk faster as we passed several tall buildings, and turned many corners. I didn’t take anything in; I was too cold and nervous about everything.
“Where are we going anyhow? Are we getting close?” I asked through chattering teeth.
“Yes, and we are going to the Fisher Building,” Piper said walking beside me.
“The Fisher building,” I repeated.
“It’s the home of not only the green man, but several other enchanted beings, and also librarians.” Loki walked behind us with his dark eyes gazing all around. “Will, my feeling of dread is growing. Does that mean anything to you?” He asked with eyebrows raised.
“Wait—librarians…” I asked wondering how librarians fit into the picture.
Will stopped and turned to him.
“Will, its cold…we’re just about there.” Piper protested.
“Where do you suggest we go?” Will’s voice was sharp.
Loki stepped back. “I…I don’t know where else to go.” Loki seemed surprised by Will’s question. “Entities don’t have any hideouts here.”
“Then, this is what we are doing, and all we can do is watch for anything bad that might come our way.” Will’s eyes were steady on Loki.
“I know it’s all we can do, I’m just saying, this feeling is bitter.” His eyes shifted to me. “I can sense us getting closer to it, and I still don’t like it,” he set his gaze back to Will, “but I will follow you.”
Will nodded his head, and then wrapped his arm around me as Piper jumped up and down either out of freezing or glee, because it looked like a smile was frozen on her face.
The Fisher Building was tall and old with architecture that looked like a work of art. Windows gleamed in the sun, some being arched and others square. Small niches containing stone fish carved in fluid curves, sat frozen as if caught in mid-swim. And many other aquatic animals graced the corners and lined the windows. It almost looked like a gothic church mixed with an aquarium with all of the attention to detail, only instead of saints, sea creatures were used as decoration.
“Do people from Atlantis live here?” I asked looking up at it.
Will smiled as he too, gazed up at it. “No, but I can see how you might think that.” He pointed to the medallion that hung over the large, glass, double door containing two cherubs holding a wreath while riding on a mythical sea creature. “This is not only apartments for humans. It’s also apartments for certain enchanted beings and those who oversee them.”
“You do make the watchdogs over the enchanted creatures as you call us, seem like they’re kind and helpful, not harsh at times, and nasty.” Loki cocked his head side to side. “What are you going to do—sugarcoat everything for your pet here?” He pointed at me with his eyes.
Will drew in a deep breath. “Loki, let’s just get inside and see if the green man is available to assist us.” He smiled at Loki with tight lips.
“Come on guys, the doorway doesn’t wait for lagers,” Piper said as we went through the revolving door.
Will pulled me close and intertwined his fingers through mine. I glanced up at him as his pale eyes flickered with the changing light. The people around us became a blur, and everything faded into a swirl of colors. It was like everything was put into a blender, and mixed on the pulverized button. I latched on tighter to Will’s hand, part out of fear, and part out of how comfortable it felt.
When the spinning stopped, we were standing in a large lobby. Several hallways jetted off, and a large domed ceiling loomed over us in a depthless dark blue. I couldn’t help but to gaze up at it thinking it reminded me of the night sky. As I stared up into it, I thought I could see distant twinkling of stars.
“It’s a portal,” Piper said pointing up at it. “I wish I could go there.” Her voice seemed reminiscent.
“Where does it go?”
Piper looked at me then back up at the portal. “Avalon,” she said in a low voice as her wings popped open behind her.
“Come on fairy, we don’t have time to sit and wonder what all the boy fairies are doing.” Loki pulled on her arm. “And put those things away, you’ll draw attention to us.”
“No one’s around,” Piper jerked her arm back. “Besides, they need to air out or I’m going to get flyers fungus.” She then fluttered her wings expelling glitter around Loki as he waved it off.
“Don’t tell me about everything that ails fairies—I don’t want to know.” Loki brushed the iridescent glitter from his coat. “Disgusting,” he whispered as Piper chuckled.
“What apartment Piper?” Will asked looking down each of the hallways.
Piper turned all around tapping her finger to h
er chin. “Well,” she started to say.
“You don’t remember…that’s great, just great.” Loki lifted his hands and then slapped them to his side as he paced around us.
“I had too much to drink last time I was here and…I’m…” Piper stopped just as the elevator dinged, and doors opened to reveal a red haired girl staring back at us.
We stood frozen as it was too late to run and hide. She was dressed in a long green velvet coat and wore what looked like a derby hat, and carried a large leather briefcase under her arm.
“Hello, there,” she said in a pleasant voice.
No one replied as we looked like a bunch of deer mesmerized by a semi truck’s headlights, and if we didn’t move, we’d be road grease pretty soon.
“Can I help you?” She gazed at all of us setting her eyes on Piper.
“Oh, you must be here for Jack.” She talked to us like we were normal humans, and motioned towards Piper.
“Jack?” Piper questioned.
“He went away for the winter…vacationing in Atlantis.” She smiled as if she just told us he was wintering in Florida. “He’ll be back in the spring. Can I take a message for you?”
“Oh, Jack…no…I mean, no that’s alright. I’ll just get with him in the spring.” Piper slowly took a few steps backwards.
The woman eyed us with curiosity, when suddenly her phone rang. She hastily answered it.
“Let’s get out of here,” Loki said in a hushed whisper in Will’s ear.
“What about the portal?” Piper pointed at it with her eyes and pulled on Will’s arm.
The woman was engrossed in her conversation and left with a quick smile and wave as she went down the hallway.
Loki tilted his head back, closed his eyes, and let out a relieved sigh. “That was close…way too close.”
“Who was that?” I asked as he turned to me.
“One of the most feared, loathsome, dreaded by most enchanted creatures, and sometimes, just downright nasty things you’ll ever meet.” Loki looked at me. “That my little kitten was a librarian.” He said the word librarian as if he was calling the devil himself by his true name.
“Librarians aren’t all bad.” Piper crossed her arms. “You just had bad run-ins with them.”
“I don’t care, she’s gone and there isn’t any more around,” Loki said waving his hands in front of him. “And just to let you know,” he said looking at me. “Librarians are responsible for the imprisonment of enchanted creatures—bad ones mostly, but some aren’t bad, only misunderstood. Books are their prison cells, and each one is designed to contain and torture its occupant.” His eyes widened.
I smiled letting out a giggle as Loki looked appalled at me. “It isn’t funny,” he said sounding like a child.
“It’s just that librarians are people who work in a library, help you find books, check books out for people and other stuff. They aren’t to be scary.” I shrugged my shoulders looking between Will and Loki second guessing myself, and realizing this was a different breed of librarians. “At least the librarians that I know are…nice.”
“These are different librarians, kitten.” Loki turned his attention to Will. “What now, glass boy? I don’t like it here, and…I have that itching of a bad feeling again.” Loki warned with his eyes darkening.
“Ah, here everyone is!” said a voice from behind us.
We all turned to it, but nothing was there, at least not at first. Emerging from the shadows, a tall, slender, curving shape uncoiled itself from the darkness. I recognized it immediately gasping in horror. Will pushed me behind him, and Loki faded from sight as Piper fanned her wings out and stepped towards Angus with a growl.
“Please,” he said in a reasonable tone, and…almost human. “I do believe we share the same enemy.” His black eyes gazed at all of us as he stood there with his many thorn-like legs all folded neatly into his belly. “Eve has the trident, and things with her daughter aren’t going well.”
“Why are you telling us? You are nothing but a cheat and a liar.” Will’s voice was stern and strong compared to my knees that shook with fright.
“I know I have a bad reputation, and as you know, I do have many doubles that I can’t speak for their mannerisms, but I do know when I need help. And you can help me like I can help you. Like I said, I mean no harm here, and we do share an enemy that will soon gain power if we let her.”
Suddenly behind Angus, Loki’s image formed.
“Run!” He yelled as Angus turned and pinned Loki with his thousands of tiny legs to the wall hissing in his face. Loki looked horrified, and unable to move as his attempt to subdue Angus horribly backfired.
“I don’t want to hurt you, but if you fight me, I’ll fight back!” He warned Loki. “Do you wish to fight?”
Loki pressed his body as flat as he could into the wall as Angus scanned him with his black eyes.
“We don’t wish to fight,” Will said stepping beside him. “Like you said, we have the same enemy—no sense in fighting among ourselves.”
“Good answer,” Angus said as he slowly pulled out one by one of his needle-like legs from the wall, and releasing Loki. “I’m calling an armistice—at least a temporary one.”
Angus turned back to Will as Loki stepped quickly away from Angus. “Your homeland is crumbling, and if you don’t want the rest to fall, then agree to my treaty or let your precious Lyra die.” His voice was passive. “I’m not the one creating this mess. I’m simply playing by everyone else’s rules.”
Will and Angus studied each other as if communicating secretly between them. I watched, glancing from one to the other wondering what was going on between them.
“What do you want us to do?” Will asked as his eyes turned solid white.
.