Chapter 9

I waved off the rope and drew a throwing blade.

"That's not going to help you," Venus said.

"Why? What is going to happen?"

"Well…I don't know for certain since I've never gone in there, but first thing that happens is that you hear a roaring sound in your ears. Then the air fills with orange and purple smoke, you lose all sense of direction, which is bad since you've only got a second or two to get back through the gate before stone arms reach out from the ground to grab at you…"

"And then?"

Venus shrugged. "Who knows? Nobody has made it back to safety at that point."

"And you've never tried it yourself?"

Venus smiled. "I'm the captain of the queen's inner circle. My death is going to be recorded in our history books, so I can't die doing something irresponsible."

I sheathed my blade and grabbed the end of the rope.

"You might want to tie that around your waist in case I need to haul you back."

"I'll take my chances." I stepped past the fence and into the yard. There were dead trees here and dozens of skeletons littering the ground. Some looked fairly fresh, with tatters of clothing. Other were nearly buried in the dusts of time. I walked slowly with long strides in case I needed to turn on my heels to find my way back. Venus stood at the gate biting her lip, her fingers tensing on the rope. I took a long stride, and another and another, walking past outstretched skeletons and piles of bone. When I was about six paces from the door I looked back at Venus. "Is something supposed to happen by now?"

"I don't know," Venus said. "All I've heard is that nobody manages to reach the front door."

I walked up to the front door and pressed on it with my finger. It creaked open. "I think someone has been taking their ghost stories just a little too seriously."

Venus threw down the rope, drew a sword, and marched toward the house. "There are way too many dead bodies around here for this to be a simple campfire story. If the stories aren't true, then someone has been using this place as a hideout for generations upon generations."

"Maybe you should stay back while I check it out."

"Ha, Earthman, maybe you should stay back while I check it out. Whatever is in there, the queen needs to know about it."

She cleared half the distance between us when she dropped the sword and stared in terror. "Kunzite?"

"What?" I looked behind me, but the doorway looked pitch dark.

"Kunzite!" She screamed. "Kunzite! Follow my voice!"

"Venus!" I moved toward her as she staggered in circles, her face set into a mask of absolute terror.

"Oh, no," she stopped and stared down, pulling on her legs with her arms while her feet stayed firmly on the ground. She bent toward the sword but it was out of her reach. "Kunzite!" She screamed. "Kunzite! I'm trapped! I can't help you!"

I ran toward her. "Venus. I'm safe. Whatever you're seeing right now, it's not real."

She batted the air, them pointed upward with her arms. Two moons appeared above her and collided

"CRESCENT BEAM," she cried out and pointed her finger at me with her other hand on the crook of her arm. A ripple of energy formed around her and I dove aside as a blast of light emanated from her arm, felling a tree only feet from where I was standing. She spun and the beam sliced through the trunks of every tree in the vicinity before she pointed it skyward and used it to slice through the night air.

"Stop!" I shouted. "It's an illusion."

"VENUS LOVE ME CHAIN," A swirl of hearts appeared around her and she grabbed the end and cracked it like a whip. Where it hit, the dust swirled and the bones flew or cracked into powder. I stopped shouting. It was clear the evil magic that had invaded her mind made me invisible to her. She flailed at random, no direction was safe. Yet I had to get to her. The one advantage I had was that she couldn't move her legs. I kept low, dodging her attacks and weaving in until I was close enough to lunge at her. Then I sprung, pushing at her midsection until she tumbled backwards.

Still it wasn't enough. She looked at her ankles curiously. "How…" Then she screamed and began squirming with her feet and arms pinning themselves to the ground.

I grabbed her by the armpits and pulled her out the fence. Only then did her breathing slow. She looked up at me. "Kunzite?" She laughed and gave me a huge hug. "Kunzite! You saved me! I thought you were dead!"

I stood there awkwardly, then patted her on the shoulder. "I don't know how to tell you this, but nothing happened in there."

She looked in the courtyard with its felled trees and scattered bones. "What do you mean nothing happened?"

"You did all that by yourself."

"Didn't you see the smoke? The stone arms? The flying monsters?" She gave me a pitying look. "Oh, I get it. You don't remember."

I sighed. "Look at your arms. Do you see any bruises?"

She peeled back her gloves and sleeves and her eyes goggled. "So it was all an illusion?"

"A very powerful illusion." I retrieved her sword from the ground and walked back to hand it to her. "But one that only works on moon people I would guess."

Venus frowned at the house. "Ok, now I'm getting angry at whoever or whatever is doing this." She grabbed the rope and knotted one end to the fence and the other around her waist. "Let get in that house."

I had to lead her by the arm, and occasionally pull her along when she was convinced she was stuck. She closed her eyes and sang "not real" to herself over and over. Eventually we reached the door, now completely open as a result of Venus's random attacks. We entered and our warrior reflexes kicked in and we stood back to back, surveying our surroundings for possible avenues of ambush.

"Do you feel that?" Venus asked.

"Feel what?"

"The weakness. The dizziness. You know, it feels like I haven't slept in a week."

I cocked an eye at her. "I take it you have never actual gone a week without sleep? It turns you into a gibbering idiot."

You know what I mean. I'm getting drowsy. Like if I blink I won't want to open my eyes again."

"Probably another illusion. Or an after-effect of the last one."

Venus pointed. "What is that?" In the distance we could see a hemisphere of glass set in the ceiling.

At last, something on the moon I recognized. "That's a sun orb."

"A what?"

"A sun orb. It amplified the heat and light of the sun. If it were daytime you'd see a concentrated beam coming out of the center of it."

"To what purpose?"

"Mainly to heat water for use in our plumbing. See the big wheel near it? That allows you to turn the orb so that doesn't gather too much dust or snow. You don't use these on the moon?"

"No, we do not. Not ever in our history. Which makes it very curious what it is doing here at all."

Venus had run out of rope so she set about untying herself while I went toward the sun orb. I found myself in a octagonal chamber. Directly under the sun orb was a plinth with a black crystal on it. Around the plinth was a black pool of fluid that appeared to be boiling. The crystal was glowing, even in the darkness, and sent out seven beams of light, one for each color of the rainbow. Where the colored light hit was an ancient corpse, blacken-skinned and chained to a post. They all appeared to die screaming. I could see shadows on the wall, as if there were people standing there to cast them. I thought it might be residue of some sort, until I saw the shadows move to look at me.

I backed away from the room.

Venus was still trying to get the knot around her waist untied. "What's back there?"

"I'm guessing it's something very, very bad."

"Really?" She took a few steps forward and continued fumbling with the knot. "Like, how bad?" She took two more steps and a shriek filled the air. Then a beam of pure dark shot out of the room I was just in, shot right through me, and threw Venus back several feet until she landed on her back, eyes open and unmoving. Then the top half of her folded up into a seated position, her mouth opened and a light flowed out and shot right into the room.

Venus!" I screamed.

She fell back and didn't move.