On the other side of the island of Avalon, Goliath and Lexington awoke to find themselves adrift, not far from the shore. Even after awakening, they were both still partially bound to the skiff and Demona was nowhere in sight. They slid off what was left of the rope, trying their best not to break it, and looked up and down the beach for a sign of her.
"I think we've been dumped," Lexington grumbled and Goliath growled a bit as he coiled the rope and stored it away below deck.
"She didn't take anything," he remarked, glancing at the supplies, including the bag she'd been given by the elders that contained the book she'd taken from the rookery at Bain Felix.
"She bound us down inside the boat, but she didn't tie it off anywhere," he added, clearly struggling to make sense of her disappearance.
"Guess she felt like a swim?" Lexington proposed, "If she walked along the water, it would hide her footprints and make it much harder for us to track her."
"Either that, or she was taken against her will by any of the magical beings that Lord Oberon has summoned here," he responded grimly.
"Well, should we go ashore?" Lexington asked, eyeing the beautiful island with a healthy mixture of longing and apprehension.
"Aye, we should," Goliath responded, realizing that guessing was getting them nowhere, "And then seek out our friends on the island, to see what help they might offer us. It's possible that Adelpha thought of going there as well."
Lexington's face lit up. Clearly, this was exactly the response he was hoping for. They skulled the boat the last bit of distance to the shore, hauling it well onto the dry beach, for neither of them could guess what sort of tides Avalon experienced or what forces might command them. As Lexington had predicted, there were no footprints on the beach to indicate which way Demona might have traveled and it unnerved Goliath a bit that the closest landmark was Lord Oberon's castle.
Just as they finished their work, they heard a call from above them, and rejoiced at seeing Gabriel and two of his brothers, gliding on the wind above them.
"Goliath!" he called happily as they landed beside them in the sand.
"Welcome!" cried a brother, "What brings you back to us?"
"And how is our sister?" asked the other urgently, then eyeing Lexington, "And who is this new friend?"
Lexington introduced himself to the three of them and Goliath explained their mission to find Old Felix with as much detail as he could, given that he had precious little to go on himself.
"We've not encountered a fairy by that name," Gabriel told them, "But the island is full of all sorts of magical beings now. They seem to be curious about us. We catch them sneaking up to look at us or listen in on our conversations."
"One of them tricked me into falling into a well!" one of his brothers interjected quickly, "I was just trying to fetch a drink for myself and I heard this strange sound-"
"You fell into that well yourself!" the other snapped.
"I didn't! I say it was a third race trickster!" protested the first.
"I say you were probably admiring your own reflection!" laughed the other.
"I thought it was a lost young woman, trapped inside the shaft, but it was a fairy and she-"
"So, aside from occasional, harmless mischief," Gabriel interrupted their bickering in a firm voice, "Lord Oberon's subjects have kept his command to not use their magic against us. But enough chatting on the beach! Please, come back to the palace with us. We saw you approachi ng the castle and our princess is anxious to see you again!" Lexington glanced at Goliath hopefully and Goliath nodded.
"We wish to see her too, as well as all the others. But we can't stay for long. Our task is very urgent, as the rest of the clan have no idea where we are. Every hour we spend here is a full day in our world."
Lexington suddenly looked worried.
"That means that while we slept, we've been gone for nearly two weeks already!" he exclaimed, momentarily forgetting his hope to meet other gargoyles, "They're going to be so worried!"
"And we seem to have lost one of our companions," Goliath added with a touch of hopefulness, "I don't suppose you've seen any sign of Demona? She disappeared from our boat as we slept and we've no idea where she might have gone."
"Demona?" Gabriel asked incredulously, "No, she's not shown herself at the palace. You brought her to Avalon? I…had the impression that she was your enemy."
"Actually, she kinda brought us here," Lexington reasoned.
"And she isn't an enemy…exactly," Goliath explained.
"I didn't care for her much, the last time I saw her," said one of the brothers flippantly.
"I didn't care for that weapon she had at all!" the other exclaimed bitterly, rubbing his shoulder as if he could still feel residual pain from the laser burns.
"She was under the control of the Weird Sisters then," Goliath reminded them, "I don't believe she would have tried to harm you if she'd been acting on her own free will. But we must find her and we only know that she was looking for Old Felix the Healer."
Gabriel seemed to consider the problem, finally explaining, "Most of our clan is away from the palace right now. We had a ceremony last night, to celebrate the union of two of our siblings. Afterwards, most of them took a picnic and went across the island to a place we know and enjoy, in order to carry on the celebration. Only the three of us remained to guard the palace."
He addressed his brothers, "Perhaps you two should go to the cave spring and find the others? Let them know what is going on and then begin to search for Demona. I think the three of us ought to return to the palace. Perhaps we might seek some help from its lord and lady?"
Goliath agreed and they parted ways. Meanwhile, the rest of the young clan was in no hurry to return to the palace. Upon awakening, they had resumed their celebration with more eating, loud jokes, passionate discussions, games, and dramatic diving and splashing into cool spring below the veranda. They were enjoying themselves so much, they didn't notice Demona, who had taken a position at the edge of the opening in the roof of the cave. She perched there on the mossy rock, unable to tear herself away, despite the urgency of her mission. The reflections from the torches on the surface of the water illuminated the longing in her face as she watched and listened. The vibrant voices of the young gargoyles recalled a swirl of memory for her as they reverberated off the stone walls of the interior of the cave. Mesmerized, she remained perched in her hiding place, even as she kept reminding herself that she was prying and had an important quest to attend to.
"Why do you not go down and show yourself to them?" asked a nonchalant voice. Startled, she looked up. On the opposite side of the opening, a familiar form was crouched, also observing the pleasant scene below them.
She'd seen him often, ever since Xanatos had installed his implants in her and made it possible for her to sleep and dream. And now he appeared to her just as he had in her dreams. His powerful form and intense, calculating continence were preserved just as she remembered them from her childhood. His face showed little aging and his hair, as deep a red as her own, showed no sign of graying, but his eyes now bore an emptiness that had not been there before. Such sorrow was the mark of a gargoyle that had been cast out of his clan. She'd seen it in the eyes of many rogue gargoyles she had encountered in the first few centuries of her own exile. She supposed her own gaze must contain the same emptiness now.
"Hard and unforgiving…," she whispered to herself, indulging a painful memory for a brief moment.
"What's that, lass?" the rogue gargoyle asked, raising a brow at her. She looked up at him sharply.
"How is it that you are here?" she demanded, shaking her head in consternation, "You should have died centuries ago!"
"What does that matter to you?" he retorted.
"What indeed?" she sighed and turned her attention away from him and back down to the youthful celebration below. The new lovers were embracing while the others cheered and congratulated them on their new-found happiness. How she wished she'd had a chance to write a note to Angela before she left. She realized that her daughter must believe she'd abandoned her yet again.
"Go," the rogue urged gently, "They are your children."
"What could I possibly say to them?"
"You might try the truth for once," he suggested with a hint of bitterness to his tone and she sneered.
"Xanatos' idea of 'treatment' has already stripped me of all the lies that were once my comfort and protection all these centuries."
"Then that ought to make this fairly easy," the rogue concluded.
She didn't respond, but continued watching them. After some time, the rogue sighed and asked impatiently,
"Do you not love them enough even to ask for their forgiveness?"
"I love them," she admitted forlornly, "But what right have I to ask for such a thing?" She shook her head.
"It is enough that I have seen them and heard their voices. My clan's children are safe and well here, far from the human world. That knowledge comforts me tremendously. But I can't face them."
She didn't look away from the party below her long enough to see the look of pity and disgust the rogue gave her, nor the flash of a strange, unearthly color in his eyes.
"I knew it," he glowered, but she didn't notice. So fixed was her attention on the children of her clan that she didn't speak to or even look at the rogue for some time. And when she did, at last, glance up at where he'd been perched, he had silently disappeared.