Miss Lynette Docea
The mountains loomed over us. They towered high, spikes of obsidian and marble and strange metals. Blue and purple and one that was crimson like it was dripped in blood. Strange shapes flew among them.
They must be huge to be seen at this distance.
"Anyone else need healing?" Angela asked.
"I took one in the leg," cried Deidre. She had blood dripping down her right thigh.
Angela darted over to her as Abigail was staring at a stele. A monument of stone that thrust out of the ground. She stroked over it and frowned. Curious, I drifted over to her, reassured that the Concubine-Maids and Slut-Maids had formed a perimeter around us.
"There's marking on this," said Abigail.
"Oh, my," I said, staring at the strange ones. It was like someone had drawn a horizontal line then drawn other lines straight down or at angles through it. "I've never seen anything like this."
"Let me see," Marsha said. The other scholarly maid arrived, pushing up her glasses. "Oh, that's very interesting. It's Ogham runes."
"Ogham?" I asked. "I only know the Norse runes."
"These are Celtic runes," she said. "Used in Ireland by the druids. Let's see, it's a grave marker for..." She blinked. "Balor."
"Balor?" Master Hayward asked, moving toward us. "Who's that?"
"The last Fomorian king. You see, Master, the Fomorian were a race of giants who lived in Ireland before the Tuatha de Danaan, the fairy, arrived. They drove them into the sea after Balor's death at the Battle of Mag Turied."
"I've heard of Balor," said Abigail. "He had the evil eye. It could curse anyone who saw it. He was a terrible ruler."
"But what's this about the sea?" Master Hayward asked. "Why would this be here if they were driven into the sea."
I looked up at the sky. The swirl of colors that were like... currents. Different hues of water that we were beneath. "Well, Master, the Sea is symbolic with the Abyss. The unknown. Death. It's from their black deeps that monster rise."
"It's beyond the pale," Marsha said, staring at the stele.
"This is definitely a place of immoral and disgusting acts," Sister Martha Ruth agreed. The Maid-Nun flicked her eyes around. "A place of complete moral bankruptcy. The Fomorians are just another name for the fallen angels, the Grigori, who were thrown into the abyss for meddling with mankind."
"I suppose you could say that," said Marsha. "But I mean in a literal sense. We are beyond the pale. That's what the English called the wall that marked the king's territory. The pales. Another name for a hay. And the biggest pale was the one used to demarcate what was the Kingdom of England's land in Ireland and what wasn't. What was Beyond the Pale was the rest of Ireland, and here we are beyond the spiritual pale in a literal place of chaos and death. The place where the Fomorians were banished by the Tuatha de Danaan. And they were, in a way, banished by Christianity, in turn."
"This is where faith drove us," said Cali. "Faith in reason and not myth. The world changed. Beliefs changed. We were trapped here. All of us forced together, killing each other, feasting, accumulating power to return, but..."
"You made a deal with Master Lance's ancestor and made the Hayward," said Abigail.
"I betrayed everyone." Cali looked away from the stele. From us.
"Why?" Master Hayward asked.
"That's not in my contract, Master." She walked toward a trail that led deeper into the foothills. "Your mother is still alive. We are getting closer."
Master Hayward did not look happy. I glanced at Marsha, Abigail, and Sister Martha Ruth. They had the same unease. We had to figure out who Cali was. Was she someone in mythology? What did she truly want? Why did she betray her people?
What were her goals?
***
Lance Hayward
How much control did I have over Cali?
That question worried me as she waited by the trail. Just what was this deal my ancestor had made that I was now bound by? I stared at her, but I couldn't get her motivations. She had a streak of heartlessness to her. She did not care about much.
That was worrying. She was my guide, and I was realizing more and more I didn't know what motivated her. How much could I depend on her? Just how tightly bound was she to me? And did she harbor any resentment?
Fuck.
"Let's move," I growled. "Come on. We came here for a reason."
The maids nodded. Nancy sprang into the lead with her Slut-Maids. The concubine maids formed up the flanks and rear around myself, Cali, and the other more vulnerable maids. We entered the stony hills, looking for dangers.
Crystals jutted out of the ground here of various hues. They were large, forming almost trees, or those cacti in Arizona that grew big and tall. The saguaro. They gleamed in strange ways, catching light in the parts that were shadowed. They erupted out of the earth, thrusting up through cracks in boulders or seams between layers.
The hills grew more and more rugged until we ended up in a canyon that reared above us, the ground piled upon itself in strange layers. Some looked like earth, but others were flesh that oozed a black liquid that trickled down the mountain. The flesh grew more diseased with ulcerated wounds dripped milky-yellow pus. The air grew foul.
From those pus-filled "caves," figures emerged, their heads smeared in blood. They stood half my height, their bodies slender and bony. They bounded forward with swords of bone. They gibbered as they descended upon us.
The flaming whips from Aunt Nancy and her girls lashed out. The fire struck the disgusting things, roasting their bodies. They erupted like they were made of dry tinder, screaming as they rushed at us with murder in their hearts.
My golden power became a spear I thrust between Deidre and Alice, spearing one of the little fuckers.
"For Master Hayward!" shouted around me.
The Concubine-Maids formed swords that cut the little monsters in half, cutting off their gibbering shouts that echoed through the mountains. Blasts of water room Kylie and her girls threw others back while blades of wind cut the stickmen in half.
"I think they're red caps," Marsha said before she sent a whirring chakram of air that sliced one in half. "Scottish fey that lurk on battlefields."
"Doesn't matter," I growled. "Keep moving forward. Burn us a path, Aunt Nancy!"
"Yes, Master!" she cried and slashed her flaming whip before her.
She struck two of them, setting them on fire. The other Slut-Maids did the same. Burning red caps gibbered before us, screaming as they burned while still trying to rush at us. Ms. Docea and Sister Martha Ruth whirled their hands and sent a tornado rushing ahead that flung more of them to the side. They struck the dies of the wall, their little bodies breaking.
The way was cleared. The harem charged forward. Angela ran at my side while Cali someone just strode unconcerned. She never once used her powers to protect us. She just guided us down the path. We moved through the canyon.
"Fire a blast of air behind us!" cried Mrs. Kenning.
"Right!" Ms. Docea shouted.
Ms. Docea and her three Scholar-Maids all turned and thrust their hands out together. A mighty wind howled out behind us and slammed into the horde chasing us. The little fuckers were thrown back, slamming into each other, snapping their slender limbs and dashing them against the cliff walls.
We moved through the canyon faster, killing them and fighting clear. The canyon wound around before it suddenly opened wide into a large space. A bowl in the canyon with obsidian walls looming around it. A perfect circle.
Unnatural.
At the far end, my mother was chained to the wall. She was shackled in place. She was stuck there. Hope surged through me. A smiled at the sight of her. I darted forward to push past Aunt Nancy and her maids screening us.
Cali grabbed my hand. "We should not have come here, Master. We have walked into her power."
Darkness engulfed us.
*********_***********
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