Chapter 9
"I will stop him." the wizard said, while reaching for a jar on top of the shelf "Then I will deal with you."
In the jar were several small scorpions. He laid them on the floor and let them run free. "Go seek the one who escaped from me. Catch him and pick his bones clean."
Adam was back in the labyrinth. With luck he'd find his way back into Collinsport, and then he'd tell Angelique what he had found out, and Julia could start testing different types of blood...
The corridors seemed strange. Had he been around this place before? Or was he lost?
No, he could not be lost. His body had remained in Collinsport, in safety. It would drag him back, if only he allowed it to.
A thick cable fell in front of him. At least it seemed a cable. He examined it, but it told him nothing, not even where it had come from.
It had not hurt him and the fall had been gentle enough, yet it would be better to get out before more fell.
He now felt the pull becoming stronger and stronger...
More cables could be seen on the ground, as he advanced... then it struck him why the corridors loomed so large. He was still the size that the wizard had reduced him to. And those cables... they were not cables they were...
A huge forest of cables was in front of him. Only they were not cables, they were hair. And the hair belonged to the giant lying unconscious over the corridor.
No, not a giant. A normally sized man... and he looked familiar...
He was pulled towards him, sucked as if by the giant's breath and...
He opened his eyes. The giant was gone. And the corridors did not loom large any more... and he was wearing his clothes again...
He was back in his body.
But here, in the labyrinth, not safely at Collinsport?
Something had happened... the wizard had done it... or maybe...
Angelique had warned him that there was danger, and now he knew how dangerous that was.
The corridors led somewhere. If he kept in that direction, he'd get to Collinsport sooner or later.
What if he could not return? He could be there forever. He could die there, of hunger and thirst... or he could take the wrong exit...
He fought down panic. It would not help him any. He had to find the way back.
Next time, he promised himself, he would listen to what Angelique and Quentin had to say...
If there was a next time.
He rose unsteadily. He knew what direction he had come from. He had to go in the opposite.
And then he saw them advance. Five scorpions. Small, but with deadly tails.
Without thinking, he stomped on them, crushing them one by one, then he turned around and started the long way back.
The mangled bodies of the scorpions appeared before the wizard's eyes.
"How could he?" he said in spite of himself. "All five of them?"
He reached for another jar. Maybe the spy was stronger than the scorpions, but he would not be stronger than the ants. He upended the jar, letting a long stream of the deadly insects pour forth and disappear into thin air, in search of prey.
Angelique wished that she was wrong in this, but she was not.
She had to find Adam, and deal with the wizard herself, if need be.
To think that cutting Adam off would be enough to keep the wizard away had been wishful thinking of her part. The wizard would find a way to discover where Adam had come from and then...
Sitting here and hoping for the best would not avert disaster. No, the wizard had to be dealt with. And she was the only one who could do it. No one else was as qualified as she was.
Even in her state, she could not send anyone else.
She felt angry with Adam again, for risking all their necks in this crazy attempt at being a hero. She wished, earnestly wished that she could abandon him to his fate, and not worry more about him.
At least now, he would be sorely regretting not paying attention to her advice.
There was one thing to be done before she entered the I Ch'ing maze herself. She would risk her neck, if she had to, but not her child.
She turned to Amy.
"I want you to carry my child in you. Where it will be safe until I return."
Amy gulped. She wondered about her werewolf heritage, which could be transmitted to the child... but the risk was small compared to what Angelique faced. "You can trust me. I will take care of the child."
She might have misgivings she might have, it would be Angelique who would be braving danger. All she had to do was to keep and nourish the child within her body till Angelique came back. Of if she didn't, to carry the child to term, and give it to George to raise.
They stood naked, face to face, Angelique's distended abdomen pressing against her own flat one.
And then the skins seemed to grow together. And the flesh underneath. There was no pain, only this sense of movement, of something digging into her.
Angelique threw a loop of black thread around both of them and tightened it. They hearts now beat against each other as the child was conveyed, slowly, from Angelique's womb to Amy's
They did not say a word. Their hearts beat together, as if one. Calm, slow beats. And the child moved further into Amy.
Then they began to part, and the skin to close. Angelique released the thread and they stood next to each other. Amy's abdomen was distended with the child.. Angelique's was flat.
"Take good care of it." Angelique said.
"And you take good care of yourself.""
"I will."
She laid down the I Ch'ing wands and stared at them, while Amy kept her distance.
She looked hard, making the door come to her, wishing to be the door that led to Adam and the wizard. She tightened her fists. She was going through that door into her own body. If she had to fight the wizard, it would not do to diminish her powers in any way.
The door opened. She rose and walked into it. Then it closed behind her.
Amy looked at the chair where Angelique had been and at the wands. She would make sure that they were not disturbed in any way.
And soon, she hoped, Angelique would be back, and Adam, and the danger would be past, and they would have an answer for Tammy and Joe.