Chapter 25
The Dragon's Horn
It took another hour to maneuver through the Maze, but they knew the door without even consulting the map. It had a pulsating vibration, like the room itself was breathing. Jeremy pushed the door open and they all slipped through, backs against the wall. It was a large room, seemingly without end. The ceilings were low and were held up by marble pillars. There was a dampness to the place, like a whispered conversation in close quarters. Gold chests littered the floor of the room.
"Intimate," said Jeremy.
Lyrna meowed. "I start?"
Jeremy nodded sadly and gave his thanks. Maren and Tina followed suit. Together they watched as Lyrna slinked away, crouching low to the ground. She approached a gold chest some twenty feet away, leaned up on it, and pressed her body against its hinges. It didn't move. She turned back to Jeremy.
"Use your paws," he offered a little more loudly than he'd meant, ducking down with a guilty look on his face.
Lyrna pawed at the chest hinge, batting it with increasing vigor. The small, rapid movements were pathetic. Jeremy sighed.
"This isn't going to work. We need to use our hands."
Lyrna backed up, her fur slightly raised, and then she charged the chest. She disappeared.
Jeremy bit his lip. "What's she up to now?"
The chest rattled slightly, then stopped. Something meowed inside. Jeremy, Maren, and Tina stared on. In the silence that followed, they could make out a distant scream from somewhere in the far reaches of the room. Lyrna appeared in front of them.
Jeremy, startled, pushed back against the wall. "Hey, what happened?"
Lyrna flattened her ears. "Inside chest. Silver brush in Haze separate!"
Jeremy sighed, "Of course. There was a piece of a soul in the brush?"
"Three. Cheetah take woman. Bear take bit of man. Third bit—demon eat." Lyrna shivered.
"Ugh!" Jeremy massaged his temples. "We didn't think this through so well. And there's no way you could contain the object when you got into the Haze?"
"No. Souls want sort." Lyrna mewed sadly.
"Maybe we shouldn't mess with the objects," said Maren, standing now. "I mean, I don't much like the business of dealing in souls."
Jeremy turned on her. "Don't you remember what we've learned about demons, Maren? When they eat you, you go straight to Hell. We'll let Lyrna sort the soul parts later. In the meantime, we need the leverage. We need Fedonis's protection against the demons!"
Maren opened her mouth to protest, but Jeremy ran off to the nearest chest. He flipped the latch and threw the lid back. A thin, yellow vapor rose in the air and Jeremy pulled his head away. Maren and Tina called out to him.
"It's nothing," said Jeremy. "Just dust, I think. The chest is empty."
"It would be," murmured Tina, tossing back her hair. "Fedonis said, you know, that this place has been picked over. We'll have to go far back to get to new objects."
The party waded through a sea of chests.
Jeremy stooped down and laid his ear on the top of a chest. Silence. "Okay, wish me luck." He took a deep breath and then worked quickly to unlatch the chest. Inside, he found a pile of multi-colored rocks. "Strange," he said, fingering a stone. "It's almost like a plum pit. See? It's not entirely solid." He passed the stone back to Tina, who cradled it in her hands. Maren declined. Lyrna growled and looked away, feeling the trapped soul within.
"And here," Jeremy hopped to the next chest over. He pulled at the hinges and shook the chest. Nothing. "Locked." He attempted to lift the chest, but found that it was too heavy. "I could," he was quick to add, "but I don't want to hurt my back."
"Let me have a try," Tina offered.
Jeremy pointed to a small hole in the lock, and Tina poked at it with her acrylic nail. "I could break a nail," she said, laughing. "I mean, I'm offering—you know, like, I could break one of my nails and we could use it as a lock pick."
"A true martyr," said Maren.
Lyrna and Maren watched Jeremy and Tina fiddle with the lock. "Lyrna?" Maren whispered. "Are the souls sad? When they're contained in the brush, are they sad?"
"Some, yes. Some angry. Some very happy. But wants sorted, always."
Maren wondered if they should accept protection in exchange for enslaved soul remains. Why were their lives more valuable than others? Unless Jeremy was truly an agent of God's will. But that was just one theory. And even if he was, what justification could she offer? She wasn't special.
A stream of light shot upwards, and Tina fell back. Jeremy towered over her, his hair on end and electric.
"Got it!" he yelled. He threw back the lid to the chest and crouched down to inspect the chest's contents.
"How did you—" began Maren.
"Fried it. But look at this! Lyrna, is it a good soul?" Jeremy lifted up what looked like a lopsided attempt at a bowl. It was brown and had rings of different thickness banded around it.
Lyrna crept over to him. There was a low growl in her throat. "Very bad," she whispered.
"Oh?" Jeremy frowned. "But maybe it's powerful, since it was locked up?"
"Belong in Hell," said Lyrna.
"But we need to figure out what it does." Jeremy protectively wrapped his arms around the bowl, shielding it from Lyrna. "You can sort it later."
Maren stood up. "Jeremy, Lyrna doesn't like it. See how puffed she is?"
"Of course I can read the emotions of my own fizdruft." Jeremy passed the bowl back to Tina, who graciously accepted it. "We'll take the bowl back to Fedonis, see if it means anything to him, and get protection from the demons. Then Lyrna can steal it back and sort it."
"Lyrna is celestial; you're asking her to go against her nature."
Jeremy smiled a wicked little smile. "Lyrna is loyal and patient."
Tina had wandered four chests over. She called out to Jeremy in her most sultry voice. "This one's locked too. I bet it has a powerful rock inside. You and I should do this one, Jeremy."
"I think I will." Jeremy smirked and strode over to the locked chest.
Maren set her lips in a tight line. "Lyrna, Tina's enabling him to be a bastard."
"Own person," mewed Lyrna.
Maren frowned and tucked her blonde hair behind her ears. She watched Tina laugh and twirl around Jeremy. "Anyway, I'm staying here. He knows where to find me."
Jeremy and Tina could just make out Maren and Lyrna, who were now small figures in the distance. Tina's arms were filled with numerous objects, all retrieved from locked chests. "This one really is beautiful," she said, holding up a gold necklace.
"They always are," said Jeremy with a sideways glance.
Tina blushed. She tossed her hair in front of her and attempted to scrunch it. Some of the objects in her arms fell to the hard stone floor with a crash.
Jeremy laughed. "What are you doing?"
Tina whipped her hair back, and an object that had gotten tangled in her loose brown curls smacked her shoulder. "Ouch!"
Now Jeremy laughed even louder and Tina laughed too.
"Just scrunching my hair," said Tina at last as she caught her breath.
"Preening," he offered.
"Maybe...." Tina drew in a sharp breath. She took a step closer to him and set the pile of objects down at her feet. "But what did you mean by beautiful?"
"Hm?" Jeremy squinted at her and shook his head.
"I said that the necklace was beautiful and you said... something."
Jeremy grinned. "Oh, I see."
"What do you see?" Tina looked at him pleadingly.
"Tina, I only meant that dangerous things are often beautiful."
"Oh." Tina looked down and then back at Maren and Lyrna. "Maren's pretty, huh? I don't think of her as dangerous. Do you?"
"No, not her." Jeremy shook his head and looked down at his feet. He had a strained expression on his face.
This gesture only emboldened Tina. "Do you think I'm... dangerous?"
Jeremy inhaled sharply and ran
his fingers through his hair. "Tina, this isn't the time or place."
"So you do? You think I'm beautiful? Because I think you're gorgeous, and, I mean, of course you are, and you know this. But I think there's something between us—"
"Tina—"
"—and I'd do anything for you. I've known since the moment I—"
"Tina—"
"—met you. I'd make you so happy! And Maren's so cold to you; she's not half as affectionate as I am! I'd kiss you all the time, everywhere, and I'd let you hold me so tight. You could do whatever you want to me—"
"Tina, enough!" Jeremy looked up at the ceiling, which was impossibly high in this section of the Dragon's Horn, and then off in the distance. He kicked an object gently with his foot, and it turned over. "You remind me of a time, of some people...."
Tina's eyes glazed over with tears, but she waited expectantly.
"When I was at the Donegall estate, there were women there—lots of women—who were... What I mean is we were..."
"The Donegall estate? In New York? Were you an actor or a model?"
"That Donegall estate, yes. I was the er... resident artist."
"You were Jacey Moon! Of course, you disappeared with Maren. It was all over the news! I should have known you were Jacey Moon!"
"Listen, Tina. I was kept there for three years. Ms. Donegall had plans for me to be a male escort. The women there..." Jeremy sighed and checked to see Tina's reaction. She hadn't comprehended it.
"There were women there, just like you, Tina. They were desperate to enter the entertainment industry, or to become models. They wanted constant validation. They lived there, at the Donegall estate with me, only they were escorts, not models."
"Oh... So then?"
"I wasn't a prostitute, yet. But I was being phased in. They were waiting for me to turn eighteen. But I would give private performances, dance, sing. I had some photography work done, all very classy, I guess." Jeremy rubbed his forehead with the back of his hand. "Christ, why am I telling you this?"
"It's okay. I think I understand." Tina bit her lip and sighed. "I've been taken advantage of more times than I care to remember."
Jeremy let out a soft laugh and slid down to the floor beside her. "Me too."
Tina sniffled. "I mean, people can be so aggressive."
"They prey on desperation. I wanted to be loved and adored. What are you after, Tina? I mean, what are you really after?"
Tina's eyes glazed over with tears. "You think I'm desperate?"
"Don't sell yourself short. You're smart, charming, and beautiful." Jeremy wrapped his arms around her and she sniffled.