Lily harper complete s.., p.221
lily harper - complete series, page 221
“Ahh,” Annice said, while nodding in understanding. “I have heard of that before.”
I narrowed my eyes at her. “You have?”
She nodded. “Sex energy is a powerful force in its own right,” she answered. “And as it is the first of primal energy, it follows that it should hold much power.” She looked at me then. “You would do well to trust this visionary dream of yours.”
“It’s not so simple.”
She nodded. “Tallis?”
It was my turn to nod. “I love him,” I said with a shaky voice that made me sound like a little girl. “With everything I have. I don't want to lose that love over anything, even if it’s this important.”
“And yet you feel something just as strong for Pasiphae's son that he reciprocates to his everlasting sorrow,” Annice said as she looked at Asterion's broad back.
“Yes,” I nodded. “I’ve always felt like there was something… cosmic connecting Asterion and me. He’s always felt it too. Like this… indescribable power tethering us together.”
She shrugged. “It probably is cosmic.”
“What am I going to do? If we did this… it could end up hurting them both and me in the bargain.”
“It could,” she acknowledged. “Heartbreak is always a profound danger for any love. But here’s what I know...” She dropped her arm from my shoulders so she could take my hand. “All love is grounded in the bedrock of trust. You give your heart to someone, it's an act of faith. The true lover always makes amends and places your happiness even with their own.”
I looked at Tallis and then Asterion. Maybe it was my Self fueling my feelings, but I felt a surge of love for both of them. The feeling rolled through me like a tidal wave. “Both of them would do anything for me.”
“Then when the time is right, follow the dream and trust that they’ll still be the men you know they are.”
Tallis turned around and looked at me, calling out, “Ye alright, Besom?”
Clearing my throat, I said, “I’m good.”
“We're almost there,” Wally said.
I nodded but still felt that worm of worry burrowing through my heart.
***
I wasn't sure what I was expecting Wally's home to look like. But, a lighthouse that looked like it had been plucked out of a Norman Rockwell painting wasn't it. The whole place was made of glowing white stone that cast an eerie light on the green walls that circled it. Green walls that looked almost leather-like in appearance.
The illumination seemed even brighter when you contrasted it with the Void overhead. The only details that didn't fit with the lighthouse theme was the sealed dome at the top of it and the big metal telescope sticking out of the dome's right side. The vibrating green wall that wrapped around the base of lighthouse didn't fit with the aesthetic either. The wall completely sealed off any entrances the lighthouse might have had.
Wally cupped his hands and called out, “Hey, Joey! Any trouble while we were gone?”
The wall around the tower unwound from the left side in front of us, and looked like the body of a snake. As we turned one of the corners, my eyes went wide as the wall terminated in the shape of the head of a giant snake that appeared to currently be looking down at us. It looked like a king cobra. Its yellow, flat eyes latched onto us before it flicked its tongue out like it was getting ready to strike.
As my hand inched towards my blade, Ellie called up, “They’re with us, little brother! Now answer Father's question.”
I thought I saw a flash of anger in the snake's eyes as it glared down at Ellie. When it opened its mouth, I was convinced everything was about to go very wrong. Then the creature made a noise that reminded me of a cat clearing out a hairball. A couple more of those sounds and two metal balls flew out of its mouth, landing in front of Wally. I realized, with some horror, that the balls were what was left of a pair of Lemures. Their bulgy outer carapaces that made them look like big beetles were pitted and broken. I had a feeling this had been a really short fight.
“You'd think they'd learn after a while,” Wally muttered as he shook his head. Then looking up at Joey his snake son, he called out, “Doing good, kid. Mind letting us in?”
Joey hissed again and the green wall, that I now realized was his body, curled upwards in front of us. A pair of plain wooden doors awaited us on the other side, which Ellie quickly unlocked with a key she pulled out of her sleeve.
After she opened the door, she said, “For Joey's sake, let's get in quickly.”
I didn't need to be told twice.
We all went through the door as quickly as we could. Just after she shut it behind us, I heard a loud thump come down on the other side. While Wally's daughter locked the door again, I asked her, “So that green wall we’ve been walking next to this entire time… since we entered the Void, that was all… Joey?”
Ellie nodded as she put away the key. “He's big enough to circle the entire Void. Maintaining a perimeter around the road from the club is far easier for him.”
“Glad someone's got it easy,” a rough voice like two stones scraping together said from behind me, making me turn around.
While most of this bottom floor was in darkness, there was a prominently lit area near a set of winding metal stairs on the back wall. It showed off a draftsman's board, with a sketch of an intricate floor plan on it. Judging from the pencil in his hand, the artist was sitting in a backless swivel chair just behind the table. The first thing I noticed was that his right hand was missing, capped off by a metal band that covered his empty wrist. Then I took in his hard, flat, lined face that was crowned by a crewcut haircut, his thin lips which were somewhere between a scowl and frown, and his hard, black eyes that looked like two lumps of burning coal. He had a fairly impressive physique under the double-breasted blue work shirt and brown slacks. He looked like he was somewhere in his forties.
He grunted at Wally, “Took you long enough.”
“Hey, got here as fast as we could, Archie,” Wally answered, still all smiles and charm. “Ran into a couple of Greater Imps right outside the club.”
Archie didn't seem impressed by the excuse or Wally's attempt to charm. “Like they’d take more than two seconds for Ellie to wipe out.”
“Actually, just one,” Ellie said in a kindly tone as she walked over to Archie. Through her red veil, she kissed him on the forehead, before hugging him. “They had a pretty good menu at the club tonight. I wish you’d let me bring you back something.”
Archie gave the hug back. “I got enough.”
As they broke off from their embrace, Archie's eyes found Tallis. “Tallis Black.”
“Archie,” Tallis replied with a nod of respect. I was surprised to know the two were acquainted but, given Tallis’ past, I figured I shouldn’t have been surprised. He seemed to know everyone in the Underground City. Or had, at some point.
Archie gave a nod towards Wally before he looked at Tallis again. “Surprised to see you here with this reprobate.”
“Needs must, needs must.”
“Yeah...” He then glared at Wally. “Funny how that works.”
Wally completely ignored the insult. “How close are you on those plans, Arch?”
“Nearly done,” Archie replied, angling his head back towards the draftsman's board. “Just need to add a few more details and they'll be ready to look over.” Then his eyes fell on the rest of us. “So who else are you running with these days, Black?”
“Quite the odd lot, Ah'll admit,” Tallis said with a fond smile towards us. “Let me introduce ye...”
Given Tallis’ almost friendly candor, I figured this Archie character didn’t rub him the wrong way. Not like Wally had, at any rate.
Archie didn't say so much as ‘hell’ as Tallis called us by name. There was nothing unfriendly about it. It was more that he just didn't have anything to say. I got the impression he wanted to have some alone time with Ellie because he seemed impatient and he kept looking at her.
“We're going to go up to the telescope,” Wally announced after the intros were over. “Let me know when the plans are ready.”
“Yeah, yeah,” Archie said, turning back to his board. “Go play with your favorite toy while I do the hard work, as usual.”
Ellie put a loving hand on his shoulder while he put his pencil back on the paper. She stayed with him while the rest of us followed Wally up the stairs. Tallis was right behind our host with me, Asterion, Annice and Bill trailing.
As soon as we reached the second floor, Tallis said to Wally, “Ah'm amazed he hasn’t bashed your skull in yet, Wordsmith.”
Wally flashed him a sheepish grin. “So's Ellie most days. But I guess he's learned to put up with me.”
I took in all the plants on this floor as Tallis remarked, “Were Ah in his shoes, there'd be no such tolerance.”
Wally approached a trapdoor, leading to the next floor. “You two want to tell the rest of us what your beef with each other is?” I asked as I took turns looking from Tallis to Wally.
“Oh, I got no beef with Tallis,” Wally called back, opening up the trapdoor as he disappeared within it. “Matter of fact, I owe him for busting me out of one of Alaire's prisons a while back.”
“A mercy ye dinnae deserve,” Tallis scowled while he stepped through the door.
“So why'd you do it, yo?” Bill asked as the rest of us followed along. “You ain't the the type of mensch that'd give a guy you dislikated the time o' day if you could get away with it.”
“True enough, stookie angel,” Tallis admitted while I stepped into the deep blue light of the next level. “Let's just say he lied aboot why he was there in the first place.”
“Hey, I didn't lie to ya,” Wally countered while he pulled a lever to the right of the stairs. “I just... you know, omitted certain details that could have changed your mind.”
“So, why are you helping us?” I asked Wally, pointedly. “What’s in it for you?”
Wally faced me. “Let’s just say I’ve got my own beef with Theseus and if I can help you find your way to him and you’re able to settle an old score on my behalf… I can put that beef to bed.”
Tallis rumbled something unintelligible as the door at the end of the next flight of stairs locked in place.
Clearly, whatever the situation with Wally had been, Tallis didn't want to talk about it. I couldn't help but shake my head. How many secrets did Tallis carry with him? It was a question I knew would never have an answer. Just as there were parts to Tallis I’d never know.
ELEVEN
Lily
A few seconds later, we'd made it to the fourth and final floor. The dome towered over our heads like a great big punchbowl. This end of the telescope had a viewfinder on it so you could see through it with both eyes. Attached to it was a board full of sophisticated controls that made it totally mechanized. All those controls were just to the right of a seat that was little more than a repurposed recliner. The whole setup looked like something out of a steampunk version of NASA.
Wally affectionately patted the top of the telescope shaft. “Meet Stephen,” he said.
“As in… Stephen Hawking?” I asked.
“Smart girl,” Wally responded.
Something about his cheery, patronizing tone set my teeth. Wally sat down on the chair. While he was doing so, his fingers were already hitting buttons and flipping switches on the control panel. The telescope hummed as the floor underneath us started to shift. I started to lose my balance but Asterion caught me. I did my best to ignore how good it felt in his strong embrace as I looked up at him and said, “Thanks.”
He nodded back, his lips pressed tight like he was afraid to say more. Tallis seemed too focused on Wally to notice, for which I was grateful. The floor finally locked into position and the telescope began to move around while Wally adjusted it with a joystick. Finally, he nodded and pulled his head back.
“What do you want to look at first?” he asked as he turned to face me.
It took me one second to answer. “My mother’s house.”
He nodded and punched a few buttons as the telescope shifted. Then he looked into it. “Okay, we got a lock on your mom's house.”
“You're sure?” I asked anxiously.
He gestured at the telescope as he got out of the chair. “Come see for yourself.”
“This best nae be a trick,” Tallis growled at him while I walked over to the chair.
When I sat down, Wally said, “I got no reason to lie about something like this. It's bad for business.”
“So are other things, Ah caution ye.”
Taking a second to shoot an annoyed glance at Tallis' macho posturing, I moved my eyes over the viewfinder. I wasn't ready for the shock of realizing I was definitely looking at my mom's house, right down to the old grove of trees in the back.
All of a sudden, all my feelings about what my death had done to her came flooding back. Being told that I could never see her again by AE... finding a way to do so anyway thanks to Annice and Jenny at the Toy Store... Alaire's threats against her that had torn me to shreds for weeks... everything hit me hard. I could feel my breath catch as tears tried to poke through my lashes.
“Are ye right, Besom?” Tallis asked in concern.
“Y-yeah, I’m okay,” I told him, not quite trusting my voice. “Wish I could see Mom, though.”
“Allow me,” Wally said to my right, just before the telescope started zooming in. It settled on an upper window where I saw Mom through the window. She was reading a book.
“She’s alright, no?” Wally asked me.
“When Gwydion had her on the phone earlier, she mentioned something about a lot of... birds in the trees,” I said as I glanced up at him and frowned. I wasn’t sure why but that comment had stuck with me. It just seemed so minor and yet…
Wally's eyes lit up with understanding. “Let me sit again.” I was only too glad to vacate it for him.
“Got 'em,” Wally called out before standing up again. After he gestured towards the telescope, I stepped away from Tallis to take my seat. The telescope was pointed up at the trees now. There was a flock of birds sitting in the branches but they confused me. They looked like crows, but were three times the size of any crow I’d ever seen before. One unfurled its wings, leaning its head back which revealed its chest. Only it wasn’t the chest of a bird—it was a woman's chest. That's when I knew. “Harpies.”
“Harpies? As in the bird-brains that gave us hell at Blondie's place?” Bill asked.
“As in the ones who now consider me their leader,” I corrected, still feeling proud over how I'd gotten their loyalties away from Alaire.
Wally hummed while he nodded. “That'd go a long way towards explaining why Mag the Ancient was having that chat with Zeus at the club.”
I wasn't following him. “What does Zeus have to do with harpies or Mag the Ancient?”
“In my time, harpies were rightly known as the 'hounds of Zeus',” Asterion explained. “Displease the king of Olympus and they would make such displeasure known to the offender without end.”
“The old man kind of lost his pull when the harpies went all in with Alaire,” Wally continued to explain. “Guess now that their loyal to you, they started talkin’ to Zeus again.” He then smiled at me. “Gotta say you keep impressin’ me, girl.”
I stood up. “Well, impress me by giving me a look at the place we're going to break into.”
His smile got bigger as he took back the chair. “Aye, aye, Queen of the Harpies.”
That little turn of phrase threw me. I'd only sarcastically used that title for myself once and that had been in a private conversation. Maybe Wally had just randomly thrown the phrase out there because it was the easy joke to make? Or maybe he'd been watching us longer than we realized. I had to say I liked the first theory a lot better.
Another nasty thought popped up right behind. The surveillance Fletcher had set up on me at Alaire's behest... Fletcher had been able to spot me in a lot of out-of-the-way places where I didn't think surveillance was possible. Did he use Wally and his telescope to do some of the snooping? Did Wally’s telescope have a camera in it?
Before I could tumble a little further down that rabbit hole, Wally said, “Okay, got the exterior first. Once everyone gets a peek, I'll take her inside.”
Tallis walked up to the telescope and took a peek before he pulled away and snorted in contempt. “It's a tent out in the middle o' the desert.”
Annice strolled past him to take over Wally's seat. “Contrary to popular belief, my obstinate bladesmith, not all dune formations are created equal.” She put her eyes on the lenses. “If we need to flee the area in a hurry, it would behoove us to know the lay of the land.”
She didn't say anything more, just kept fiddling with the joystick in front of her, while occasionally humming. Then she nodded and stood up.
“Me next,” Bill said as Mantis jumped onto his head. Wally adjusted the telescope so Bill could see through it without crouching down. After a minute of looking, he said, “That tent might look tissuey. But it's got some seriously for-don't-fications of the demonic type.”
“How serious are we talking, Bill?” I asked.
He pulled his eyes off the telescope. “Palace-num grade. We're not knocking down that front door.”
Asterion stepped up and spent some time adjusting the scope with the joystick. I wasn't sure what he was looking for—a way out, water, a clear route to safety. But his tight jaw when he pulled away told me he hadn't found whatever he was looking for.
Finally, my turn came around. All I saw was a purple tent with red trim standing out against the yellow sand. I made out three dunes around the tent, but I doubted I'd have been able to tell them apart if my life depended on it. I pulled my eyes away from the lens and asked Wally, “How about that look inside?”
He nodded and started flipping switches and hitting buttons. “Go ahead and take a peek.”
