Lucky Rabbit

As soon as they were all through the door, Beeswick turned around and headed back toward the library. Pandy looked back, hoping to wave to Thaniel and the others one more time, but found that she couldn’t see anything except a haze of light. Beeswick paused just in front of it, his features sharpened into something unfamiliar and vaguely threatening by the contrasting shadows.

“I’ll begin changing the entrance back as soon as I return, but it takes at least a few hours. In the meantime, you won’t be able to enter, and none of us will be able to exit. Try not to get into too much trouble, hmm?”

Augustus was still in the dark room, which Pandy could now make out by the soft glow of a candle that looked remarkably similar to the ones they’d used for Idomoros, the fourth day of the Fall Festival. Another candle approached from the side, and Glory asked, “Where are we, anyway?”

The Dragon’s eyes sparkled, but he was perfectly serious as he said, “Inside Knightmere. That’s all you needed, wasn’t it?”

Glory held her candle up so she could scowl at him properly. “I don’t like the smell of this place. Can’t you-” Professor Beeswick cut off her question through the simple expedient of reentering the library and closing the door. Glory clicked her teeth together in frustration and turned her glare on Pandy and Augustus. “Did he tell you where we are?”

Augustus shook his head. “No, though I can guess. Over the centuries, a few of Elarion’s old doors have been lost or abandoned. I suspect this is one of them. It will be within Knightmere, and if he didn’t believe we could find our own way out, he wouldn’t have sent us here.” He cast a glance at Glory, one brow quirking above the rim of his glasses. “It’s usually best not to challenge him.”

Glory snorted and shrugged, looking away. “I stand by my words. As long as we’re inside Knightmere, I’ll get us to Eurydice’s wreck of a house.” She flicked a glance at Pandy, then raised her candle, puffing out a breath that made the flame waver dangerously as she admitted, “It’s just that this place reminds me of the underground. It’s not the same, but there’s something about it…”

Looking enlightened, Augustus said, “That actually makes sense. There were a few government buildings that were closed off when they built over the old port.” With a distinct twinkle in the glance he sent Pandy’s way, he added, “Though I believe one of them burned down recently.”

“You mean Professor Beeswick had a connection to the enemy headquarters all along?” Pandy squeaked, remembering possessed spiders, poisoned chancellors, Shadow Exchange thugs, and the prisoners escaping in the dark. “We could have just gone through a door and been safe at school?”

The twinkle faded as Augustus grimaced. “Unfortunately not. As you saw, it takes quite a while to change the connection, and for the sake of security, Elarion shut down the defunct doors. We’re lucky they still exist at all. Our friend is loath to give up any advantage, and sometimes having access to long-forgotten places is a very useful thing.” He waved around in a very As You Can See kind of way.

“Yes, yes, he’s a very smart librarian. Let’s go,” Glory’s voice came from outside the small room in which they stood, which Pandy finally realized was filled with empty bookshelves. Small, dark things skittered in the darkest depths of those shelves, wherever the candlelight didn’t reach, and Pandy edged a bit closer to Augustus.

There was no way the Knights had found all of the spiders, not by a long shot. Even if they weren’t possessed and controlled by the Exchange, arachnids had never been among Pandy’s favorite things. She believed in live and let live, but she wasn’t certain anything with that many legs could be on the same page as someone with only two.

Augustus looked a bit surprised as she bumped up against him, raising his candle so he could see her face. “Are you worried? I’d think you’d feel perfectly at home here.”

At first, she wasn’t certain what he meant, but then she realized there was another option for ‘Thing That Dwells in the Dark’, and could have smacked herself in the face. Of course there were Duskins here. Even if they weren’t in the same area she’d found with Isidor, the little elementals loved forgotten places, and this was most definitely that.

Pandy’s face heated, and she tried to step away from him, but he caught her hand with his free one. Holding her in place for a moment, he leaned closer, until their foreheads brushed. “You are one of the bravest women I’ve ever known, Pandora S. Boxx,” he murmured, “but if there is ever a time you feel your courage fail you, know that I will always be there for you.”

At that, Pandy’s courage absolutely did fail her, and, feeling her face catch fire entirely without the help of the little candle, she said, “Eep,” and cancelled Shifting Faces. Shrinking down to a small and theoretically helpless rabbit was absolutely the coward’s way out, so when Augustus chuckled and scooped her up, tucking her beneath his arm as he followed the footprints Glory had left in the dust, she concentrated very, very hard and thought,

Augustus’s step hitched, but before he could answer, Empress Glory’s patience finally ran out, and she called, “Unless you two want me to leave without you, you’d better get moving. I don’t mind the Duskin, but there’s something else moving around out there, and I don’t want it to think I look like a tasty snack.”

That definitely caught both Pandy and Augustus’s attention, and the chancellor hurried forward, passing through several more rooms until he came to what was obviously the front of the building. The final room was quite large, and there were built-in cabinets and counters no one had managed to take with them when they left. It looked like it might have been some kind of licensing bureau, where people would have sat behind those counters and exchanged papers and goods with the people who came in. Its true use would have to remain a mystery, however, because Glory was out in the dark, dusty street, and she wasn’t alone.

The Empress had raised her candle as high as possible, and it was guttering as if caught in a breeze. The small light the candle put out reflected back at her from a pair of eyes set about three and a half feet from the floor. Not an intimidating height, other than the fact that this place was supposed to be empty of all but them and a lot of Duskin. What would you call a group of Duskin, anyway? A Doom of Duskin? A Gloom? Gloom sounded better, but Doom had alliteration going for it, which-

“It’s a Tenebron,” Glory whispered, eyes wide and shining almost as much as those of the elemental. “I’ve never seen a wild one before. Plenty of Duskin, but-” Her voice cracked, and she lowered the candle, pulling it closer to her body as she extended her other hand. “Hello. I’m Empress Glory. Would you like to form a contract with me?”

It was difficult to make out the elemental’s form in the darkness, but Pandy had the impression that it was bipedal and vaguely… fuzzy? Not furry, but soft around the edges, like a ball of cotton. It didn’t seem to blink, staring fixedly at the hand extending toward it. Just as Glory’s arm extended fully, a wide gash opened in the fuzzball, revealing rows of small white teeth, each shaped like a tiny triangle.

Augustus had stopped in the door that Glory left open behind her, and now he started to take a step forward, but the Empress yanked her hand back before she lost any fingers. Those little teeth, like the edge of a serrated blade, clicked together as the face returned to its seamless whole. The eyes finally blinked, and something like a small, high-pitched giggle echoed from all around them.

For a moment, Pandy missed Keros, who definitely would have had something to say about all of this, but Augustus completed his step – much more slowly than he’d begun it – and murmured, “They’re curious elementals. About as intelligent as a dog, but if you can show them something they’ve never seen before, they’ll stay, hoping for more. They like salty food. Their contracts have to be simple, but be careful, because that very simplicity can trap you as well.”

The look Glory shot him was openly incredulous, but she shifted, dropping her bag off one shoulder so she could swing it around. The Tenebron watched her cautiously, flashing a hundred sharp teeth again when Glory moved a bit too quickly. She kept a wary eye on the elemental, but didn’t flinch away from it. The Tenebron, for its part, didn’t actually seem aggressive, only cautious and, as Augustus had said, curious.

Reaching into her bag apparently at random, Glory pulled out a metallic tube. It glittered in the candlelight as she clamped her teeth on one end and pulled it free. Spitting out the end of the tube, Glory used her fingers to roll up a smooth, glossy lump of bright red. Lipstick. Raising it slowly to her face, she drew a clown smile across her own lips, smearing the crimson cream almost to her ear on one side, and up toward her eye on the other.

The Tenebron giggled. Glory drew a red spot on the end of her nose, and the elemental laughed again. It edged toward her, a slightly more defined section splitting off from its body to reach toward the lipstick. Glory released it into the elemental’s grasp, and it promptly began applying the contents to its own not-entirely-corporeal form.

Meanwhile, Glory delved into her bag again. This time when her hand emerged, it held a piece of waxed cloth that Pandy recognized as this world’s version of plastic wrap. It was used to keep everything from bread to butter or fruit from drying out and getting dirty. Glory shook off the cloth, and the pseudo-arm grabbed it on the way down, depositing it into a mouth that opened so wide the whole head split nearly in half. The Tenebron chewed, seemed undecided regarding the taste or texture, and followed it up with the lipstick, tube and all.

The thing that had been inside the waxed cloth turned out to be cheese. Probably part of the same enormous wheel of cheese Pandy had helped Glory carry into the Avington House kitchen not that long ago. It had a few crescent-shaped chunks taken out of it, but otherwise it looked delicious, and Pandy felt something in her middle twist in what might have been hunger. It was very disconcerting after so long just ingesting food because she liked the normality of it.

With a flick of her thumb, Empress Glory broke off a chunk of the cheese, and the Tenebron didn’t even appear to notice how close it had to come in order to snatch up the tasty lump, which it ate with what seemed like far more enthusiasm than it had shown for either cloth or cosmetics. Glory held up the rest of the cheese – which the glowing eyes followed closely – and said, “Until I die-” then stopped, looking helplessly back at Augustus.

He shook his head, ever so slightly, and said, “Contracts aren’t exactly a specialty of mine, but they all started somewhere. Just make sure you mention that it can’t hurt you or anyone else, agree to share magic, and state clearly that the contract ends on your natural death.”

Glory tossed the Tenebron another chunk of cheese, which it ate while eyeing the large piece still in her hand. It didn’t look like it was a fan of delayed gratification. Pandy could practically see the Empress’s brain hamsters burning up their wheel, until the woman finally drew in a breath and started again.

“Join with me, and let us share our strength instead of our fear. Until I die by means other than your hand or your doing, neither of us shall harm the other. You shall not harm any whom I do not willingly permit you to harm, and I shall freely share my magic and my cheese with you. When my natural death comes, our bargain ends, and we shall part, owing one another nothing.”

Augustus choked on a laugh. “Was that from The Tradesman’s Daughter?”

Glory’s cheeks were almost as red as the lipstick smeared across them, but she didn’t look away from the Tenebron. It just continued looking at the cheese, though it wasn’t advancing anymore. After a moment, Glory said, “Is that… it?”

“Give it some of your magic, not just cheese,” Augustus said a bit dryly, and Glory twitched. The woman had far too much pride, and Pandy had no doubt Glory would be compelled to level the playing field between her and Augustus at some point, but for now, she held out her hand. Keeping a cautious eye out for teeth, she concentrated, her brows drawing together. Pandy could almost feel the magic rolling off the other woman as she repeated her slightly-ridiculous contract offer. This time, the Tenebron surged forward.

Pandy started to leap toward them, not certain what she could do to prevent Empress Glory from losing an arm as well as the rest of her cheese, but while the Tenebron fully engulfed the woman’s hand, Glory didn’t scream. In fact, her eyes opened wide, and a huge grin spread across her face, turning the smeared lipstick into a true clown’s smile. The fluctuating shape of the elemental surged up Glory’s arm, to her chest, then settled there, wrapped around her torso, giggling softly to itself. The cheese was gone.

Tension drained from Augustus, and he said, “You know you’ll have to report it to the palace and go for testing, correct? Most Tenebron are tier two, but a few have tested just within tier three, and their contractors require additional training as well as a permit. Usually the palace prefers you get the training before you attempt to form a contract, but that can be overlooked, especially if you have a recommendation from a high-ranking official.”

Some of the joy drained from Glory’s face, but since she was busy petting her own chest, it wasn’t much. “Right. And what would I need to do to get such a recommendation?” She sounded more than a little cynical.

Augustus sighed. “You have it,” he said softly. “You’ve risked yourself again and again – for strangers, for Eurydice, for Eleanor, and for Thaniel. That’s more than enough to earn a letter it will take me five minutes to write. Congratulations.”

In spite of the slashes of crimson smeared across her face and the pulsating darkness wrapped around her body, Empress Glory was dignified as she smiled back at him, her shoulders straight and firm. Her elemental giggled, blinking bright eyes from somewhere around her collarbone.