CHAPTER 3
SEVEN
MADAGASCAR, PAST
Speechless, Clemson watched the glowing insect flutter across the ceiling, leaving a residual trail of shimmering light behind it.
"Hey, look at that", he said to Mea but got no answer. He glanced around. The other lemur wasn't behind him anymore. Now, a flash of fear coursed through him, scraped his bones to the marrow. He turned around and fled from the room at once.
"Mea!" The sound of his cry echoed through the empty corridor with an ominous hollowness –
"Clemson…?!" The android emerged from a door nearby. "No need to yell. I was just in that room over there." He jerked his head toward the other door behind him. "Nothing in there, except from tons of dust and cobwebs… oh, and an impressive collection of what looks like some medieval torture devices." Surprised to see the distraught look on his maker's face, he drew closer to him. "What's wrong?"
But Clemson looked past him, his focus flicking to the wall behind Mea. "Look, there!"
– There was the butterfly again right above them, darting in front of where they were standing before it rose above their heads, small and hovering, glowing like a golden firefly. Just then Clemson distinctly heard a soft chuckle, so soft that at first he wasn't sure if it had been there at all or if he'd just imagined it. He flinched, feeling his pulse lurch at the eerie sound. He looked at Mea. There was a confused, uncomprehending look in the android's eyes.
Suddenly the insect fluttered off again, heading back toward the main chambers where Clemson had been before. They ran after it. As they pushed the door open they saw it hover there in midair, as if waiting for them, fluttering gracefully… alluringly.
Without hesitating Mea drew his handgun and took a clear shot at it. The glowing insect disintegrated into a swirl of golden droplets. It parted into two smaller swirls, and then the drops blended together again… There were now two butterflies.
"What the –." Mea stared up at the insects. He fired again, twice – both butterflies were split into light dots by the bullets… and both swirls parted and blended again, so there were four of them. He fired again, and now there were eight. They were encircling the two intruders, illuminating the room with their mere presence, their dusky glow bathing the chamber with a fiery sheen. They kept on multiplying on their own now until there were dozens of them, until the whole room was illuminated by their golden glow; yet grotesque shadows seemed to lumber all around them.
Clemson moved in close to the android, who stood clutching his gun and gazing up at the glowing insects as though he couldn't believe his sensors. All around there was something in the air now, something strange and subtle, a foreign atmosphere, like a penetrating odor – the odor of something unreachable, something forbidden to the mortal world. It permeated the chamber, the entire castle, changed the taste of the air like the image of a far distant land whose mysteries no living animal could ever fathom…
And then a chilling voice, high-pitched and shrill, drifted to Clemson from the shadows –
"Who are you?"
He flinched at the whispered words; suddenly he found himself shivering, shivering all over, and no force of will would stop it. Whatever was happening here, he wasn't sure anymore that this was where he'd wanted to go, wasn't sure he wanted this to continue at all… but now there seemed no turning back anymore.
More voices came from every direction in the darkness, like the sounds of some passing spirit's sighs, and an icy breath froze his cheek fur –
"Who am I…?"
A tiny sound in the tense scene, a girl's chuckle –
Then the chamber began to spin around him, and his vision blurred. He saw only mists. Then, enshrouded in stifling vapors of gold, there was a flame – the fiery image began deforming, contorting; it became a circle, then a spiral. And then that fiery spiral expanded further and further, swelling in his vision until it filled his sight completely –
And Clemson turned his face away and flung himself against Mea's chest, fisting his fingers in his fur. Mea's arms came around him but only for a moment – then a fierce blast tore them apart from each other, its force sending them tumbling to the floor.
Clemson felt his consciousness slipping away; for a moment the world turned black.
When he opened his eyes the chamber was well alit, filled with laughter and voices. A pile of logs was now burning in the fireplace, and soft organ music was filling the room – he was surprised by the unexpected sight of a lemur now sitting at the console of the grand organ, manipulating the keyboards, pedals, and stops. The chandelier that hung from the ceiling was alit with about a dozen candles, and the grandfather clock in the corner was ticking with a deep, stately beat.
The long banquet table was now set; upon it a wonderful feast was piled, with many platters of the most delicious-looking mangos and coconuts a lemur could imagine. And there were plenty of lemurs sitting around it, chattering and toasting one another, their glasses filled with a rose-colored liquid.
But when Clemson looked at them more closely, he found that they didn't seem to be lemurs after all: their form was the same as the one of the statues outside the castle: they had crooked horns protruding from the fur on their foreheads and large, leathery wings lying flat on their backs… their entire bodies seemed half lemur and half giant insect. There was something very disturbing about these creatures, although Clemson couldn't quite put his finger on what it was.
He blinked his eyes a few times and found that he could hardly take in what he saw; all this seemed like a weird dream… A heavy paw was laid upon his shoulder from behind, and when he turned around, Mea was looking down on him, his eyes shadowed and suspicious.
"This isn't real. None of what you see is real. Don't let your eyes trick you."
"You… you think so…?"
"Whatever paranormal phenomena you think you're just experiencing… it's all in your head. It's only your mind playing tricks on you!"
Clemson nodded, although he had doubts. His gaze was drawn towards the armchair which was now turned around; in the firelight he discerned a slender figure sitting there… a lemur girl, younger than him. She was gazing across the room, silently staring in their direction… Then she beckoned them closer with a wave of her paw.
Clemson and Mea approached her seat; it was as though they'd emerged onto a stage. Instantly the chattering around the banquet table ceased, and a tense silence descended. Every eye in the place focused on them, every head turned in their direction; even the organist interrupted the smooth flow of his play to observe their encounter.
When they were standing before her, Clemson had his first real look at the lemur girl before him. She was sitting on the extreme edge of her chair, thin paws clenched together in her lap and tense rigidity in every line of her figure. She had black fur beneath which her skin was ghastly pale, with white patches on her flanks and belly area and a small one above her nose. She wore a dress of baobab leaves trimmed with wreaths of red roses and a cloak that seemed too heavy for her slim shoulders.
She was sitting so still that her very immobility served to draw attention to her flickering gaze; she didn't turn her head, only her eyes darted warily, searchingly across Clemson's face in an oddly questioning, oddly disturbing scrutiny.
"Welcome to my castle, traveling animals. I am Seven… the Golden Lemur."
She spoke with a slight accent revealing she hadn't been living in Madagascar all her life.
Clemson flinched at the sound of her melodious voice; it was the same voice that had spoken to him from the shadows before. He stared at her slightly parted lips and porcelain face. Wide-bowed eyebrows extended directly from a slim, sharp-edged muzzle above yellow, almond-shaped eyes, rising up a little as the red lemur now looked at her. Her long lashes lay stuck together in points against her smooth short face fur like the painted lashes of a china doll.
"I'm Clemson." He nodded a short greeting. "We've come a long way to meet you."
She reached a paw out as if to shake his, but when Clemson put out his own to take hers, his fingers passed right through hers – there was no flesh, just a touch of icy coldness, like a frosty breeze that had just blown across his fingers, colder than anything he had ever touched. He shivered, withdrawing his paw.
"Forgive me. It is always funny to see what kind of reaction this awakes in mortals." She laughed, a hollow, toneless, unreal chuckle. "You must know that I am not what you are; I am no longer a lemur. I have surpassed the mortal world long ago; now I am a ghost."
"Oh, really," Mea commented ironically, yet just loud enough for only his maker to hear.
Seven's gaze fell to the book Clemson was holding.
"You are the one who has broken my bonds and reopened the gate to the Light World for me," she said with great awe. At the quizzical look he gave her she took the book from his paws and took out the sheet on which the map and the pentacle were drawn. – "Years ago I was banished from the Light World – the mortal world, the one you live in –, never to return, to be locked forever here in this castle. My vicious teacher cast this spell upon me when she decided that my powers had become too great to let me dwell among the other lemurs any longer!" Her mouth tightened into a thin line as fury flitted across her eyes at this memory.
"Yes, I read about this in your teacher's book," Clemson said slowly, "It is true then…!"
She nodded. "I owe you my freedom, Clemson. After such a long time in captivity it means more to me than you could know; I shall reward you greatly for your service."
In the dimness of the firelight he watched her eyes squeeze tight and then blink. Once, twice. They were glowing in a rich amber color. – "What is it that you desire?" she asked him with a slight smile upon her face, "A golden key to ultimate power? The silver moon in the sky? I have many ways to make you a lemur of great importance – you will find that I am a truly mighty witch!"
"The hell you are," Mea scoffed, and this time she must have heard him. She rose from her seat to her full height; she was slender and graceful, noticeably smaller than Clemson and Mea. Her crimson cloak spread out behind her as she walked towards them. Every movement she made was exaggerated yet polished, as though she was acting out a play.
"You," she whispered and circled Mea, smiling again; but this time it was an eerie smile, the sort which was out of place and didn't quite fit with the wearer's persona. "You don't believe my word, do you. It seems that you were born with a strong resistance to magical power. You're the natural enemy of witches like me. No matter how much we turn your world upside down, you'll never believe in us. – But I shall prove you wrong in every syllable of that spiteful remark of yours!"
– Then she turned back toward Clemson, and her expression was soft again, her eyes sparkling with curiosity. "So what is it you wish? Riches beyond your imagination… a mountain of gold that you couldn't use up as long as you lived? Anything is fine – now that I'm free, I will give you all of it!"
Clemson could hardly believe his good fortune; he savored her every word and the light of sincerity in her eyes. All of these words held a promise of power of the most incredible kind, and she sounded so honest that he felt as if he could taste the sweetness of this power already now. Whatever had disturbed him earlier about her or the castle was now forgotten. This meeting was turning out even better than he'd imagined.
"I want to be king," he declared firmly, "I want you to make me the King of Madagascar. I want you to make the one thing I've been dreaming of all my life finally come true! Give me my own kingdom, a realm to rule over with complete sovereignty… I want every citizen of this island to swear loyalty and life-long service to me, to worship me as their one and only ruler, to obey my every command!" His eyes flared with greed at the thought, the memories of his past failures, of all the unsuccessful conquests he'd ever attempted triggering a bone-deep fury that he couldn't help. "I've never had the means to do it… I've never had enough support – no armies to fight for me, no weapons powerful enough to defeat and eliminate my enemies. But when I have magic to support me, none of that will matter anymore!"
"I see." The witch had listened to Clemson's words very attentively; when she spoke again she stared deep into his eyes. "That wish is strong within you… You wouldn't even have had to say it out loud. It's written on your face and in the corners of your heart! – I shall grant you all of this with pleasure; you deserve it ten times after all you've done for me. My magic will be yours to command… My Harpies shall become your army of doom!"
– She reached out her paw, pointing toward the long table where the winged lemurs now put their heads together, chittering excitedly; considering their exaggerated manner, their acting as if all this were a performance at a theater, and their slightly humorous style of talking, it was hard at this moment to believe in the great power they were said to possess.
Yet Clemson's heart leapt with joy at the thought of a swarm of these demonic creatures darkening the sky with an escalating thunderous roar before they would descend upon Julien and his followers and start attacking them mercilessly.
"No matter how numerous your enemies, with their help you shall win against them without fail," Seven promised with glowing eyes, "– Come, let's seal our alliance right away!"
"Aren't you forgetting something, Milady?" asked a voice from the other end of the room.
It was the organist who had spoken; even though he was sitting with his back turned to them, he seemed to be following their entire conversation. Now he turned around to them; the hood of his banana leaf tuxedo fell back, and dark curls of ash brown fur tumbled on either side of a delicate oval face. His fur was immaculately brushed; there wasn't one shiny hair out of place. An unreadable smile turned up at the corners of his mouth when he faced the red lemur, and for one confusing moment Clemson had the feeling he had seen him somewhere before but couldn't quite recall the occasion.
"And what could that be, Faraday?" The witch glanced up at him as he rose from his seat and came over to join them. – "This is Count Faraday, my head servant," she introduced him to Clemson and Mea.
Faraday folded his paws over his heart and took an elegant bow.
"In life I was once a lemur before I turned into a ghost; and like Milady I, too, am an experienced sorcerer. My knowledge and experience with magic might outweigh hers; my powers are inferior to hers, though. This is why I am a servant to Milady. If the two of you should ally, I will be at your command as well."
Clemson nodded his appreciation; this was all that mattered to him. "And why do you think we couldn't ally, Faraday?"
"I did not say that. I merely meant to remind Milady that even though you helped her regain access to the Light World, there's not much she can do there."
The witch pondered her servant's words for a while and then lowered her head.
"What he says is true," she murmured bitterly. Clemson gave her a quizzical look.
"But I thought you were free now…?"
"I am, thanks to you. However, I'm still a ghost, so whatever spell I cast, it won't have much of an effect on anything or anyone there. You see, I have no form… I don't have a body anymore. In life I was a lemur, so I once had a lemur's body; this is how you see me now. But it's a mere apparition of my former self… it has no substance. If I go with you into the Light World like this, the other lemurs will see me, but my magic will have no effect on them. They may be scared a bit but not for long since I don't really have any influence on them as long as I'm in that form. I need to materialize in order to help you change things in this world to your likings. I need fleshliness; a body which I can use, into which I will merge my soul by conducting a special ritual… a mortal sacrifice."
Her servant nodded, confirming her words. "This one would do well, for example," he said, pointing at Mea.
"Who? Me?" It was obvious that the android hadn't really been listening.
"Oh, yes." Seven gazed at him, her eyes glinting, flame-colored orbs in the darkness. "Wouldn't this be the perfect opportunity to show you how much of a witch I really am?" she asked in a sickly-sweet voice, sneering up at him. Mea spread his arms from his chest in an insouciant gesture.
"Well, bring on your best then… 'witch girl'," he boasted, his last words dripping with bemused irony. At that her face turned hard with anger; her right eye twitched slightly as she suddenly reached back as if to slap him across the face. But then she put her paw down again, and her burning yellow eyes glared into Clemson's instead.
"Are you giving him to me?" she growled. The snarl her small voice had suddenly turned into sounded very odd, like a child lemur trying to sound like a fossa. When Clemson looked into her eyes he knew that in her heart she was more ferocious than any fossa.
"No." He shook his head firmly. "What the hell are you thinking? You can't have him. He's with me."
"Then this won't work," she declared pointedly.
Disappointment washed all over Clemson like a bitter wave; it had all seemed so real to him already, the image of imminent victory so vivid and distinct that when he closed his eyes he'd already seen himself with a crown upon his head and a thousand animals bowing their heads before him in reverence… Now, none of this would ever come true.
Mea seemed to notice his discomfort and laid a paw on his shoulder.
"Give us a second to talk that over," he said to Seven and Faraday, taking Clemson aside for a private conversation. – "Just let her have this," he told his maker as soon as they were out of earshot, "I'm not afraid of her or anything."
But Clemson just shook his head at this. "Are you serious?! I can't let her sacrifice you!"
"Sacrifice? You mean, she wants to destroy me… kill me with magic, for whatever purpose that may serve, right? Well, let's just see her do that! Because how could something destroy me that doesn't even exist?!"
"How can you say that! You saw what happened to the butterflies, too…" – Clemson waved his paw across the room. – "You, too, witnessed how all of this literally appeared out of nowhere! How can you still refuse to believe in magic?!"
Mea took him by the shoulders, gently but firmly. "Well, why do you keep believing in that kind of malarkey?! Really, this has gone far enough; you've got to get over that silly notion! Look around you: all I see is a little girl, some guy who's probably her grandfather, and a bunch of costumed weirdos who are all trying to have some fun with us. I have no idea what they want or who they really are… probably some social dropouts of Madagascan lemur society who were tired of being ruled by a fool like Julien, just like you were when you met him for the first time back in the Central Park Zoo. – But they sure as hell aren't witches, ghosts or anything else of that sort."
His hands slid down Clemson's arms, and he intertwined their fingers. – "You know that you can always trust my word, right?"
"Yes… of course!" Clemson set their folded paws against his chest. The android sounded so convinced, and Clemson knew that his sensors were infallible – after all, he had constructed them himself –; and everything that had happened in this castle so far seemed so fantastical, barely believable… Suddenly he wasn't sure what to believe anymore.
For a moment he considered leaving and looking for some poor sap out in the jungle instead – a different sacrifice to bring to Seven, no matter who. But then he didn't dare to; now that the ghosts were able to leave the castle, how could he be sure they would still be here when he returned? If he left now, he would risk losing his one and only chance of getting to rule Madagascar after all.
"But all this… it seems just so real!" he said to Mea, "What about the pentacle that opened the door…?"
The android shook his head. "A simple mechanism, nothing more."
"And the witch – the girl… How could she turn from a single butterfly into a lemur?"
"Look, there's plenty of things that can produce what you'd call… well, 'ghostly effects'. Electromagnetic fields; optical illusions that trick the brain into seeing unreal images. Granted, those guys obviously master some pretty impressive tricks, but there really isn't any such thing as magic. Maybe it's not that easy for you to see since you don't have sensors like I do. But I can assure you with every partition of my hard drive that magic does not exist, so don't let them make you believe anything else, okay?"
Clemson nodded. "But what about that 'ritual' then? Why would you want to go along with something as absurd as this?"
"Well, whoever those guys are, they seem to be ready to work for us… to accept you as their leader. I say we should take that chance in any case. While they sure as hell don't have magic to offer us, they could still be useful to us, don't you think? After all, they're quite an impressive group… they could still be our army. If we don't spoil their fun and go along with their little play, we may be able to get them on our side… and then, with their support, we might actually have a realistic chance of winning a fight against Julien and the rest of his pack!"
"That's true. But…" Clemson's voice trailed off, and he moved closer to the android. "What if… what if there's something to it which both you and I couldn't know, simply because I've never experienced a similar thing before and therefore couldn't program you to know about it? I just don't like this… I don't like the thought of you being used in some crazy ritual sacrifice, Mea."
– That brought a soft smile to the android's face; he wrapped his arms around his maker and held him close for a moment. "Now look," he murmured, bringing a paw up to Clemson's cheek, "If you're so sure that magic exists, then I will tell you how it can still be beaten with logic: if I'm right – if magic is nonsense –, then the girl won't manage to kill me at all. If you're right – if magic exists, and she can manage to kill me, then she is also able to bring me back to life again with the help of magic. – That makes perfect sense, doesn't it? So no matter how this ends… in any case you and I will be together again after all." He leaned closer and gently brushed his lips over Clemson's once. "You see, whichever way things turn out, you don't have to worry about anything."
Clemson pondered this for a moment, but he had nothing to say against the flawless logic of the android's computer-based thinking process. He nodded slowly.
"Yes… yes, you're right."
He still felt a tug of worry low in his gut, but then he remembered everything Seven had promised him, and these glorious prospects made him forget anything else. He turned back to the witch, bristling with anticipation of all the things she would have to offer him.
"We are ready," he said to her, "And we agree to offer you the sacrifice you require."
Everybody seemed to be listening intently as he made this declaration; the Harpies jumped up from the long table and gathered around them, giggling and chattering and slapping a bewildered Clemson on his shoulders and back. Seven gave him a vicious smirk.
"Ah, I knew you couldn't resist!"
She took a piece of red chalk from her head servant's paw and, shooing the Harpies out of her way, began drawing a figure around herself and Clemson on the floor… the precise lines of a perfect pentacle.
"That's probably going to be some fine joke with a nice smoke and fire effect," Mea murmured to his maker; and indeed the way the Harpies were now lining up along the wall made the whole affair seem quite unreal, stiffly pompous.
Two of them separated from their fellows and latched onto Mea from either side, wearing strange smiles; they led him to the woven red curtain. To Clemson's surprise there was suddenly light shining out from behind that curtain – there could be no stone wall behind it; there had to be something else on the other side… another room.
One of the Harpies lifted the curtain hem a bit and all three of them peeked under it, but Clemson was standing too far away from them to see what was there. He only saw Mea glance over his shoulder at him, and suddenly there was something in the android's eyes that hadn't been there before… a very distraught look.
Then the two Harpies ducked under the curtain hem, dragging Mea along…
The curtain fell again, and they were gone.
Seven had finished the pentacle in the meantime; she and Clemson were now standing in its center when Faraday stepped before them.
Holding an unrolled papyrus roll in front of him, he read: "The following ritual will create a bond between an animal and a witch. This alliance is permanent. The bond can only be broken by death – on the animal's part – or by the relinquishment of magical power – on the witch's part. The alliance is based on reciprocity in the following way: in return for freedom and a mortal body to live in the witch commits herself to serve the animal by every means in her power. As a consequence of this the animal is also the only being the witch has no power over. Do you both agree to these conditions?"
Clemson and Seven glanced at each other, and when he saw her nod, he nodded, too.
The other Harpies, who stood in the background watching, began cheering and clapping wildly. Faraday waved his paw dramatically and stepped aside…
The rustle of fabric as the curtain moved was accompanied by a brilliant flash of light. Smoke swirled from under the hem and rose with unnatural precision towards the ceiling. An unseen wind whipped across the front of the room, clearing it.
Clemson closed his eyes and coughed as the smoke swirled into his face, laden with a sweet, metallic fragrance oddly reminiscent of the perfume of fresh blood. When he opened them again, he found the curtain drawn aside.
In its place stood a massive apparatus, the size and shape of a sarcophagus or a coffin for a lemur-sized animal. It had two large bulb-shaped applications stuck to the sides of it. By their unnerving shape Clemson could tell that with a big animal's strength something inside it could be tightened and compressed. Along the coffin lid and the edges there were numerous large stains, dark red in color, telling mutely but eloquently of its previous use…
All Harpies flitted into the room, forming a circle as they knelt down around the machine and took each other's paws. Seven walked out of the pentacle and joined their circle, and Clemson wanted to follow her, but she held up a paw to stop him.
"You must stay right here," she said, pointing down at the pentagonal center of the five-pointed star on the floor.
"– We are ready, Faraday," she called to her servant, who had taken his seat at the organ again, and its mighty sound flooded the room as it launched into a stirring voluntary.
Within moments the witch's eyes began to shine with a brilliant white glow, and a spiraling orb of light began flowing around her as she rose into the air and levitated over the compressor as if there were no gravity. Suddenly the whole chamber was flooded with butterflies again, like wicked stars that shone in the darkness. Her slender limbs caught their shine in narrow ribbons, her black fur was awash in golden light, and her whole body began to glow as if a stage light had been placed on her and was gradually starting to intensify.
Clemson stood frozen to the spot, watching everything that happened with a strange feeling of detachment; it was as if he were dreaming, although he knew that he was not.
The witch snapped her fingers, and the two Harpies from before approached the compressor and forcefully started tightening the large bulbs.
Suddenly the compressor began to shake.
It seemed almost as though someone inside that lemur-sized coffin was struggling desperately to get out… Turning them clockwise, they screwed the bulbs tighter and tighter.
As they did, an unearthly moan came from the inside of the casket.
It was almost drowned out by the sound of the organ, but Clemson felt his chest constrict with fear. – Just a joke with a nice smoke and fire effect…, he desperately tried to tell himself.
The Harpies had jumped to their feet and begun circling the casket; everything was so bright and blinding, Clemson couldn't even see if they were running or flying. Dancing a ghastly roundelay, they rose up around Seven in a frenetic chorus; they recited strange words that meant nothing to Clemson, over and over, a mantra or a prayer or an offering, spoken in low voices but faster and faster until the words seemed to blur together. Seven began singing with them; her voice was angelic, sweet and crystal-clear, yet her words sent shiver after shiver down Clemson's spine.
"Come, poor unfortunate mortal, and give yourself to me… now it's time for you to rest. I shall make you drown deeply, deeply, into the bottom of an indolent sleep. Come on, while you're still warm! I will cook you very well… with the spice of despair. I shall devour you, immediately! You shall become mine; you shall become a part of me… Ah, I've been waiting so long for this! Your laments are like a sweet orchestral melody. How beautiful your screams are! I get drunk hearing them."
Now the muffled moans coming from inside the casket were turning into sharp cries of pain that were so loud they even drowned out the Harpies' singing and the thunderously loud beats of Clemson's heart ringing in his ears.
Now he was able to clearly recognize the owner of this voice –
"Clemson!" Mea was screaming his name at the top of his lungs. "Help me, Clemson! Help me, please! – Don't do this. Please, I'll do whatever you want. Don't hurt me! – Oh help me, Clemson, please –!" His screams bled together, turning into one single shriek, a sound that rose and fell but never quite ended.
Clemson opened his mouth to yell at them to stop but found himself breathless, silent, as in the helpless terror of a nightmare. Fear was searing him deeply now, to the marrow of his bones, to his very soul. His knees went weak; he was paralyzed with fear, yet couldn't remove his eyes from the gruesome spectacle. Around this scene the glittering butterflies flitted through the darkness, mesmerizing, in a beautiful, beautiful dance… a funeral dance for a lemur's sacrifice.
"Come, fear the darkness in my heart," Seven kept on singing, making her voice grate mockingly, allowing the tune to waver. "Let us dance, tonight, alone… Dance! Let me hear the beautiful sound of your voice twisted in anguish… You can't run away. – Scary, scary, this game shall never end!"
Clemson clenched his paws into fists; his trembling paralysis became a sudden surge of fragile, terrified strength, and he tore himself free, broke out of the pentacle and threw himself at the Harpies.
But he couldn't break their dance; this ritual, once started, was not to be stopped –
The music kept swelling, and their chanting grew louder and louder, building into a thunderous crescendo, and Seven was shrieking her own insane aria.
"Now, your wings are broken… your butterfly has fallen from the sky. Rest in peace, poor soul – what remains of you shall now live within me!"
Don't do it, Clemson screamed, Please don't hurt him! Please, please…! But the words never formed on his lips; they died in his mind.
The world around him spun hard and fast, and then everything went dark.
When he opened his eyes, he was lying on the floor shaking all over. The singing had ceased. The Harpies were standing in line again with their faces turned toward him. They were gazing down at him with glistening eyes, as if something had filled them with victorious rapture.
A broad smile was playing across Seven's lips as she descended back to the ground, the light around her fading and her eyes turning back to their normal yellow color. She stepped towards Clemson, the red curtain falling behind her, hiding the Harpies, the butterflies, the apparatus… as if all this had been nothing but a strange dream.
"It is done!" she declared happily, her arms extending in a wide sweep. She offered Clemson a paw to help him up, and when he reached for it this time, warm fingers were closing around his; she was now completely solid like a living lemur. She smiled at him, her pale lips suddenly lush and wet and red, as if she'd just eaten well.
"Let's begin right away: let's start this tale of tragedy! I've prepared a truly mighty spell – you shall see!" And then she proudly raised her voice to chant once more: "Come rain, come winds, cut this island off from the rest of the Light World, so nobody will disturb this glorious tale of ultimate reign! Blow, wind – cry, thunder! Throw all citizens of Madagascar into another world, into a world where the only thing left for them to say is… 'All hail King Clemson'!"
