"...st you?" I barely managed to hear. A new voice
"We've been traveling together for such a long time." I recognized Merlin's voice, "She never did this before."
"As far as you know." it was another squeaky voice, but it wasn't one I had heard before. This one, while it sounded like a woman, it sounded heavier, a bossy type.
"At least she didn't kill him." Merlin reasoned with him.
"Only because my subordinates intervened." was the reply.
"Why are you so quick to judge her?" Merlin asked.
"We've come across her type before." the voice replied, "Seventeen years ago."
"Seventeen years?"
"By one bite, they'd turn others into one of their own. And when they are, they're not themselves anymore."
"That sounds a lot like what Smith's Army does." Merlin spoke.
"Smith?" the bossy woman questioned.
"He's an... entity, that invades people." Merlin explained, "Changing them... reprogramming, I think they called it. Turning them into something and someone they're not."
"Which is exactly what vampires do." the bossy woman replied.
"But Saya is nothing like that." Merlin continued, "She's been fighting that army for as long as I've known her."
"So you keep saying but..." the woman stopped mid-sentence, "Hold on. What is it Foaly?"
"Foaly? Who are you talking to?"
Clearly, Merlin had never heard of radios before, and therefor didn't know how anyone could talk to someone that (as far as he could see) wasn't there.
"How can you be so sure?" she asked, "Merlin just explained to me..."
There was another pause, upon which she said: "You better be right about that... Don't push your luck!"
"What was that about?" Merlin asked her.
"I just spoke to our tech-wizard." the woman said, "He has thoroughly examined your robot friend."
"Murphy?" Merlin knew exactly who she was talking about, "Is he alright?"
"Considering he was at a quarter capacity when we found him, yes." the woman replied, "What you told me seemed consistent with a virus. Something of which Foaly didn't find any trace of in Officer Murphy. On top of that, he apparently knows your vampire-friend longer than you, and has confirmed everything you just told me."
"That's good, isn't it?" Merlin wondered.
"I wish." there seemed to be no way to satisfy this woman, "It still doesn't explain why several people have gone off the grid."
"Off the grid? What does that mean?"
"In case it escaped your notice, there was a wedding going on here, just when you crashed." the woman explained, "There were many guests, and double as many guards. But several of them have been disappearing."
"They have?"
"You wouldn't know anything about that, would you?" the woman asked, "It started at about the same time we found you."
"Why accuse us of this?" Merlin asked her, "What if there's someone here they're targeting."
I couldn't be sure, but the woman sounded like she was snickering. I opened my eyes just to see that.
"It's true, the master of the house has a lot of enemies." the woman admitted, "But he uses what he would call state-of-the-art security measures to halt any attempt on his life. Measures that are backed up by my people's technology."
"Well then?"
"But whoever's doing this, seems to know its way around all those measures." the woman further explained, "I cannot imagine Artemis sharing those secrets with anyone. At least, not if it meant exposing himself to any danger. And my people owe a lot to him, so none would want to kill him either."
Merlin had no answer at the ready. As he tried to think of an answer, he spotted me: "You're awake!"
He was about to run to me, but the woman, though half Merlin's size, could easily stop him from getting near me, simply by stepping on his foot and punching him in the stomach.
"Not just yet." she said, upon which she approached me herself.
I got a better look at her this time. Much like the other two I saw, she too had a strange skin and pointed ears. She also wore a combat suit, but for some strange reason, her hair was styled for some kind of special occasion, and she wore a lot of make-up.
"Hello, mudboy." she said, "I'm Major Holly Short."
That was Major Short? I was right to think that the name might fit, but... a woman?
"Can you tell me what happened?"
"Don't... bother..." Merlin only just managed to say.
"I'm not talking to you!" she snapped at him, then turned back to me, "Can you?"
I tried thinking back about the last thing I remembered. Saya asked me to come closer, then did something to my neck. Remembering that, I touched that very spot, trying to feel what she had done.
"Don't worry about that." Short said, "We've very good at healing."
"Can you also heal his voice?" Merlin asked, suddenly recovered from the blow he received.
Short looked at him: "There's nothing wrong with his voice."
"Are you sure?"
"If there was, my magic would have picked it up." she explained.
"Then I fear he can't tell you much." Merlin said, "He can't speak."
Short sighed: "Terrific. I have people disappearing, and only a malfunctioning robot, a vampire, a naive boy and a mute as my only leads."
"Fly up!" Merlin exclaimed, and suddenly Short started floating up.
"Hey!" she screamed, "Let go of me!"
"Back on my home world, I had to hide who I was." Merlin said, "So I just swallowed their insults. But since magic is commonplace here, I thought you might want to know I'm not that naive."
"No?" Short questioned.
From behind her, what looked like two veils appeared. Both of which were transparent, and started flapping, like the wings of a bird. With this, she broke loose from Merlin's grasp and flew toward him. Merlin shouted "Deflect!" and Short somehow turned left, causing her to scream words of confusion, just before she crashed into the wall behind Merlin.
"Are you done playing games?" that was Saya's voice... who was suddenly standing in the door to this room.
Without thinking at all, I jumped off my bed and ran to the other side, bringing as much distance between me and Saya as possible.
"Don't be frightened." she told me, "If I wanted to kill you, you would be dead now."
She still hurt me, so of course that didn't calm me down at all.
"If I waited for Fowl and his dumb-force to feed me, I'd have been long gone." she further explained, "Try and think of this as saving my life."
Saving her life... It did trigger a thought. Before I met her or Merlin, I had met others who died while trying to save my life. It somehow didn't seem fair at the time, and it still doesn't. It made me feel even more horrible when Merlin and Saya would risk their lives to save mine. Maybe this was the best way in which I could repay that debt. My breathing calmed down as that thought started to come to me.
"All right." Short spoke, "So you can do magic."
"I wouldn't be too sure." Saya said, "Last world we were in, he couldn't use any of it."
"But magic is all around here." Merlin explained, "So that shouldn't be a problem."
I could see the reluctance in Short's body language. Like she was tense one moment, but relaxed the next, though her bare teeth and squinted eyes told me she was still uncomfortable.
"At least now I know where I stand with you two." she finally spoke, "What about him?"
She pointed at me before continuing: "Will he be any trouble?"
"He won't." Saya answered, "I'll make sure of it."
I could feel my heart beating in my throat again.