Part 31

Fleeting.

Not the pain in my side, stitches hurt, especially when they’re done without anesthesia.  It was a glimpse of something, movement near the back of the tent.  “Shh!”  I exclaim.  Clutching my side, I swing my legs over the edge of the picnic table and glance at the corner of the tent where I see a serpentine tail disappear under the fabric wall.

“I saw it too,” Jason says.

I look to Martha, who’s face remains passive.  “Have you seen where we are?  I’m surprised I don’t treat more snakebites.”

“Jason, get Benny and go look,” I say, not ready to dismiss the reptile so quickly.  

I use the time to test myself, each step hurts my side, but limping only makes it worse.  I have just sat down when they come back in.

“Nothing.”

I glance at Martha, who shrugs.  “Told you.”

“What do I owe you?”  I ask her, trying to figure what I had that I could trade for stitches.  

“Tell Ol’ Jenny that her sister says hello next time you see her.”

I squint at her, and she smiles, and that is when I see it.  The way her eyes crinkled, the crease in her brow.  “Yes ma’am.  Thank you.”  I turn to leave, motioning for Jason and Benny to follow.

“And-“

I turn back around, almost knocking the old woman over.  Her breath is hot and smelled heavily of garlic and onions.  

She stands on tip toe, bringing her eyes almost level with my nose.  “I know what you’re up to.”  Her voice comes as a biting whisper and I try unsuccessfully not to flinch.

“What’s that?”  I ask hoarsely.

She cuts her eyes at me.  “Don’t you dare.  You keep her safe, and you see this through to the end.  I know you, Charlie, and despite everything you think, you are not a coward.  And-”

Our backs to the door, I do not see the man as he steps in to the tent, but I am fully aware of his presence.  I turn and behold a giant, the top of my head barely coming to his the top of his black robed shoulder.  I look up and take a step back, the huge equine skull mask he wears causing a chill to run down my spine.

“What is it?” Martha asks, unperturbed.  

I can not see the man’s eyes through the skull’s hollow eye sockets, but I get the feeling he is glaring at us.

“Bah!  Out with it,” Martha spits.

The voice that emanates from beneath the mask is far quieter than I expected, but still with a gruff edge, like a fine grit sandpaper.  “I just came from the shore.”

Martha groans, “Ok, so do you have more bodies?”

“No ma’am, it was two princes, and they disappeared before I got to them.”

Mary, Jason, Benny, and myself all exchanged glances, it had to be the Russian and who?  Was it Cyrus?  All three of us manage to keep our mouths shut.

“Are you sure they did not disappear together?”

“Positive.  One left, and about a minute later, before I could reach him, the other was gone too.”

“Were they hurt?”

“There was a lot of blood.  I don’t know if it was from one or the other, or both…”

“Thank you Karon.  You may, all of you that is, may go.”

“But-“ I managed but Martha cut me off.

“Go!”

Reluctantly my quartet exits the tent and are immediately assaulted by the noise of the bazaar.

“What now?”  Mary asks as she glances around.

“We came from that way,” Benny doffs his hat off, using it to indicate the street off to his left before scratching his head, “and Lampman was not there, so he must be…” He replaces the hat upon his head and shrugs.

“What say we begin to ask after him?” Mary asks and before I can stop her she has approached a rather colorfully garbed women selling roasted rats, still on the stick.

“And what can I do for you missy?” Asks the merchant, whose filthy yellow turban slides further down her back with each syllable.  She adjusts it as Mary answers.

“We’re looking for-“ She shoots a quick look my way but ignores the frantic shaking of my head, “the Lampman.  Can you point me in his direction?”

The vendor's teeth show as yellow as the cloth around her head as she grins madly.  “The Lampman? And what business does one such as yourself have with him.”

“Old friend,” I butt in, dragging Mary away by her arm.

“Hey!” She protests, but I do not let go until I see that, with a chuckle, the woman selling the rats has moved on.  

“What was that for?” Mary raises her voice at me.

“If you’re not careful, you’ll let Lampman know we’re looking for him!”

“And that would be a bad thing?  At least that way he’d be looking for us too.”

“Or he could go into hiding.  We don’t know if he’s heard about Cyrus, or if he even cares.”

“Oh… I didn’t think about that.”

“Fine, whatever, we just need to be more careful.”

“Ok,” Jason interjects himself into the conversation, “What’s the plan then?”

“I think it may be decided for us.”  I watch the yellow-turbaned woman as she stops periodically, sometimes exchanging cooked rats for bright baubles, and other times casting furtive glances our way as she spoke with our customers.  Sometimes they looked too, other times, they went about their ways.  

“I see,” my brother says, following my stare.

“Well, regardless, I’m starved, I would’ve eaten one of those rats if she’d offered,” Benny says, and I nod.  They had smelled rather appetizing.  

“Ok, food first, and then we continue looking.”  I manage to trade three nearly complete cigarettes for four skewers of meat and vegetables.  I decline asking what the meat is, and they are not forthcoming about it either.  It is a bit chewy, but otherwise not bad.  Refreshed we are looking for a place to discard the skewers when the crowd parts around a woman who could have been the rat sellers twin except for the large mole upon her right cheek and the turban, tied tighter, properly, in bright green fabric.  The smell of alcohol wafts from her as she approaches and I am about to send her on her way when she latches onto my arm.

“I hear that you seek the Lampman.  Lampman has gone beyond the waterfall, and if you are to find him, so must you.”

It takes but a split second for her to relay her message, a split second in which I swore the rest of the crowd grew silent and still, but as soon as she has said her piece, she is gone.  Frantically I search for the green turban in the surrounding throng of people but am unable to find her.  I turn back to the others, “please tell me you heard that.”

Part 30

We stride forward in silence and soon the flute is replaced by the beggars drum kit, a few paint buckets, a glass bottle, an acquired pot or pan.  Half an hour passes upon that narrow walkway as we cross the underground sea, the Black Bazaar looming ever closer.

A pair of torches burn high on either side of a large, rusted metal framework.  Equally rusty coiled springs hang at odd angles from it on our side, giving the impression that it had once been a mattress.  A broad-shouldered, olive skinned man stands, bare chested, the hilt of a large blade protruding over his left shoulder, on the other side of the portal.

“Um, hello?” Benny braves the man’s stare for a moment before shrinking to the back of our group.  The guard ignores him, instead fixing his green eyes upon the clean garments and up kept appearance of my brother.

“Well this is a pleasant surprise,” The olive skinned man’s stern expression finally breaks, and a smile of crooked whit teeth replaces his scowl.  “Step back,”  He says.  We do so and the gate swings open, the hinges silent despite their decrepit appearance.  

I look at Jason who nods and winks at me before stepping forward and embracing the big man.  “Kareem, I always wondered where you came by such exquisite works.”  And then to us, “Kareem here finds me some of the pieces I sell in my shop.”

“Yes,” Kareem says, “And I have another parcel to bring to you when this mess concerning Cyrus is over.”

“So news of his bid for power has reached even here?”  I ask.

“There is nothing that goes on, even above ground, that does not reach our ears somehow.  Your visit is somewhat surprising though?  What brings you here, Dairy Mary?”  He asks, turning his attention to her.

She blushes at the use of her unfortunate nickname, but recovers quickly.  “Just Mary, thank you.”  

Kareem smirks.  “It is a fitting name.”

Mary’s blush returns and she opens her mouth to say something, but instead scowls.  “Now see here!”  She raises her arm to strike him but I grab it, shake my head.  

“It’s not worth it.  Remember what we came here for.”  I say.

“And what is that?”  Kareem asks, turning his focus upon me.

“We heard that an old friend might be here and came to talk.”  I reply, trying to be vague.

“There are a lot of old friends here, but feel free to come in and look.  And Jason, come see me before you leave, I’ll give you that package.”

I limp past him and he pokes me in the gut.  I wince at the pressure on my wound.  “Third street, second tent on the right.  Have Martha look at you before you bleed everywhere.”

I nod and smile weakly.  “Thanks.”

We walk further beyond the gate and only then do I realize how many eyes had actually been upon our exchange with Kareem.  The first intersection we come to is full of people bustling in both directions, some pushing or pulling carts, others with bags slung over their shoulders. 

“So, what now?”  Benny asks, though I wish he had not. 

“We get you looked at again,”  Jason says, and takes me by the arm.

We shoulder our way through the intersection, ignoring the disapproving looks that seasoned traders are giving us newcomers.  We stop to let a large group of people pass in front of us, the smell of baked bread coming from somewhere within the huddle of people making our stomachs growl.  The third intersection is just like the first two, crowded and noisy, although the din from the drums has finally died down. 

I am looking down the street to my right when Mary steps up beside me.

“They’re gypsies!”  Mary whispers as she watches a woman walk by, decked in silk of every color of the rainbow and her face painted to match.

I pull Mary closer.  “They’re no more gypsies than you are ‘street people,’” I growl and stop her protest before it gets out of her throat.  “They are just like you and me.”

“Sorry,” She says under her breath as I nod to the painted woman, who glares at us as she walks by.

“Come on, this way,”  Jason says, having spotted our destination.

A drab green tent stands before us, both flaps closed, a white cross painted where they join.  “Hello?”  Jason calls out.

“Come in, I’ll be with you in a minute,” a female voice calls back, and is followed by a shout and a curse.

“Be careful woman!”  A gruff male voice says.

I push aside the fabric and wait for my eyes to adjust to the dimly lit interior.  

“Over there,” an old woman says, waving me towards a stool against the tents wall opposite her.

“Are you Martha?”  Jason asks, stepping in behind me.

“Yeah, and if you want me to look at the two of ya, you’ll have a seat over there.”

“Do as she says,” says the man who is laying on a table before her.

I watch as she pours a dark liquid over the man’s head, concentrating on the side hidden by his large 

nose.  

“Damn it!”  The man hisses.

“If you hadn’t let it get infected…”  Martha’s voice trails off as she dabs at the man with a stained piece of cloth.  

“Ow!”  He reaches up and brushes her hand aside before sitting up.  He nods toward me, but I can only stare at the hole where his left eye would be, the puckered skin around the wound bright red, despite the amount of the dark liquid that still remains on his face.

I hear a sharp intake of breath and finally I tear my eyes away from the man to see that Mary has come in.  She stands in the entryway, her hand over her mouth, staring at the injured man.

“Take it all in,” the gruff man says, grabbing a dark strip of cloth from a table near the slab he sat upon and wrapping it around his head, covering the wound.  

“Captain Sarin,” The seated man says, putting the final adjustments on the makeshift eyepatch.  “And you are?”

“Subway Charlie,” I tell him, and jerk my head toward my brother, “He’s Jason, and that there’s Mary,” I point.  

“What happened?”  Mary blurts and I shoot her a look.

“It’s ok,” The Captain says, "Let’s just say I had an unfortunate run in with a iron poker.”  

“Yeah, and if he had taken care of it, it would have healed by now,” Martha says, followed by “Stop picking at it.”  She slaps away the man’s hand as he reaches for the wound.

“I was just going to- bah!”  He says and rises.

“Don’t come back until you are ready to care for yourself,” Martha chides as he lifts the tent flap, revealing a black cloaked figure standing outside, a large black bird upon its shoulder.  The raven hops off onto the outstretched arm of the Captain and climbs up to his shoulder.  He looks back into the room and offers a sharp salute before turning on his heels.

“Now what can I do before you?”  Martha asks, and my attention turns back to the room, and the woman, who is standing before me.

I want to ask her how she knew it was me but think better of it and meekly lift my shirt.

“Up,”  she says, indicating the slab the Captain had just vacated.  Obediently I hop up onto the greying surface, finally recognizing it for what it is, an old picnic table.  

“That’s a nice one,” Martha says, reaching for the bottle of dark liquid.  “Mary, Jason, come help me over here.  He looks like a squirmer.”

Part 29

I resist the urge to head in the same direction the ferryman had gone.  “Come on, this way.”  I say, indicating the opposite direction.  

“But don’t you think-“  Mary says but I cut her off.

“Look, if that was Death, the means either Rush is alive and can take care of himself, or he isn’t, and whoever he was fighting with is coming for us now.  If it wasn’t, someone just got reinforcements.”

“They could be here to help us.”  Benny says.

I take a deep breath, steeling myself as I rise, ready to respond, but my brother does it for me.

“Or they could be here to hurt us.  I’m with Charles.  We keep going.”

I nod and check my wound.  There does not appear to be any new blood flow and I count myself lucky.  I set off at the best pace I can make, Jason beside me, steadying my every other step.  I want to shoo 

him away but am grateful he is beside me.

“So,”  He says, the pause tense.

“I’ve said I’m sorry-“

“Enough!  If I’m going to help, and it looks like I have little choice in that matter now, I guess I could lay down and let myself be over run by whoever is after us, I need to know what is going on.”

As we walk, Mary and Benny overtake us, and we walk in silence, alone with our thoughts.  Mine are the Black Bazaar, and what to tell my brother, before finally they move out ahead of us, Benny’s sphere leading the way.

“Okay,”  I finally say, “Let me start from, well, the beginning as I see it.”  I tell him of how I became an Underground Prince and my run in with the Troll King, leaving the fight with Rush out of it.  I fast forward a number of years, where I am established, a known Prince, and tell him of when I had seen Cyrus attack Mary in the subway station.  Hell, that felt like years ago.  I follow with the next encounter between Mary and myself.  I include all of the details, from the tarot card and our visit with the Snake Woman, Catherine to Cyrus’ and my meeting with Old Jenny.

“So, she wants to become one of these Princes?  A princess I guess?  And do you really think this is the best way to go about it.”

“Well,”  I pause as I think.  “Yes, I did”  I respond.

“I hear a ‘but’ that you are not telling me.”

“Yeah, but now I’m not so certain.  With all of the challenges we’ve faced…  You okay Benny?”  I call out and pick up my pace.

Benny is lying on the ground, holding his already damaged arm.  “I just landed on it wrong is all.”

Jason helps him to his feet while I kneel down.  “What did you trip on?”  I ask.

“I don’t know, something sticking out of the glass I guess,”

“Here,”  I say, brushing the pulverized glass off of what appears to be a large slab made from the same material.  “Clever.  Had you not tripped on it, we would have walked right past it.”  I sweep more of the glass from the slab before finding a seem.  “There’s more.”

Jason joins me in digging what soon becomes apparent is a walkway that leads straight into the rolling waves.

“Well, the path across the ocean.”  I say.  

“Hang on.”  Benny says, rushing away from the water, fishing in his pocket for something.

I can barely make him out, so far are we from the wall, but I can tell what he is doing.  It is not long before he is running a little farther away, and holding his sphere aloft, is back at the point next to the wall.

“What the-“  Jason says, his jaw slightly open.

“Remember how we got out of the VA?”  I remind him, and he nods.  I continue, “That’s how we did it.”

His mouth forms an oh, but no sound comes out.  Shortly, Benny rejoins us. “So who goes first?”

“I didn’t bring my swim trunks,”  Mary says, adding “But I’ll go.”

“No, I’ll go first.  You help Charles,”  Jason says, and to prevent any further argument, he leaps upon the uncovered path and walks toward the water.  “How is this supposed to work?”  He asks over his shoulder.  

“I don’t know.  Just keep walking,”  I tell him, and to his credit, he does.

The water slowly begins to swirl about his brown boots, but even as he steps further into the surf, it does not rise above his ankles.  

Mary grabs ahold of me.  “Your next, that way if you fall, I can catch you.”  I oblige and limp slowly out along the path.  The water is cold as it seeps through what little fabric remains on my tennis shoes.  Mary follows me and I can hear Benny’s heavy breathing, even over my own labored breaths, behind her.  

The pathway is no more than two or three feet wide at any point, and continues to be made of the same material, big stone-like slabs of the ground glass.  It is not long before we can no longer see the shore behind us and we count our blessings as the water remains no higher than out feet around us.  

We walk for well over an hour, afraid to rest lest the water, or something else, carry us off.  Shapes pass in the murky water to either side of us, and looking to my left I swear I see the shell of a turtle the size of a small car, but it is gone before I can point it out to anyone.  “Did you see that?”

But no one responds.  They are all looking ahead at the lights that are taking shape out of the darkness before us.  Hundreds of them.  Blinking and winking white lights like Christmas decorations, strung in both directions.  And the sounds.  I hear zydeco and something classical, maybe a flute.  Voices.  Voices too, someone is selling fish.  Someone has fresh mushrooms.

“Lady and gentlemen,”  I say, “It looks like we’ve found the Black Bazaar.”

Part 28

The Russian stands panting before Jason until his eyes finally regain their focus and see the blade in my brother’s hand.  “Jason, it’s me,”  He says and I watch as my brother squints.  “Look past beard, add fifteen, no, twenty pounds.”  Rush says.  

“Viktor?”  My brother asks and a smile eclipses the Russians face.

“You do remember,”  Rush says.

I glance at Jason, who shakes his head.  

“Yeah, I remember you,” My brother says before punching Viktor in the jaw.

Viktor falls to one knee, laughing.  “Yes, yes you do, but do you remember her?”

“Her name was Veronica, and she was wearing a blue strapless dress,”  Jason says.

“Haha, yes!”  Viktor continues to laugh as he rises.

“Ok enough, so what are you doing here?”  Benny asks, and both my brother and Viktor turn toward him.

Viktor wipes a trickle of blood from his mouth before responding, “Cat, the Snake Lady, came looking for you.”

“Yeah, she found us in the hospital.  That you sent us too,”  Benny says, cutting his eyes at the Russian.

“What are you saying?”  Viktor asks, rising to his full height and puffing out his chest.  

Mary steps in between the two men and immediately Benny’s demeanor changes although the Russian refuses to back down.  “Charles, we’ve found the glass shore, what’s next?”  She asks.

Rush glares at me but I ignore his look, “We’re looking for the path into the water,” I say, trying to remember if there were any other details.

Mary brushes past Rush who turns his glare upon her.  Suddenly, Mary turns around and cuts her eyes at him.  “Was there something else you needed?”

“She does have spirit, I see why you like her,” Rush says.

Mary almost hides her blush before she is storming off.

“How do you know it’s that direction?”  Benny calls after her.

“I don’t,” She calls over her shoulder.  

Benny rushes to catch up, and I look at Rush and shrug, “You coming?”  My brother falls into step beside me as I hobble my way behind her, holding my sphere aloft.

“Do you know what we’re looking for?”  Jason asks me quietly.  

I look over my shoulder to where Rush still stands before I answer.  “Not the slightest,” I admit.  “I can send you home if you want you know.”

“Ok, so how will we know when we find it?”

“I honestly don’t know.”

We finally catch up with Mary and Freak Beans, who have paused and are looking out over the gentle waves.  

“Do you trust him?”  Mary asks me as I glance back to where the Russian still stands in the distance, a silhouette outlined by the last rays of red light from the Devil’s Rib Cage.

“Sometimes,” I answer honestly.

”Hey, are you coming?”  She calls to him.

He turns, whether toward us or away from us I can not tell, the distance is too great and the light is behind him, but his reply reaches us.  “Run!”

He moves back toward the opening he came from and draws what appears to be a cane or a slender blade out of nowhere and swings it, meeting the advance of someone coming from the tunnel.  “Go!”  He shouts again, followed by the ringing of steel against steel.

I stand transfixed, watching the two forms dual, the clanging of metal on metal echoing off the stone wall to my right and the rolling tide to my left.

“Who is he fighting?”  Benny asks, stepping up beside me. 

“I don’t know,”  I have lost track of who is who, the bodies dancing, but one of them cries out in pain and staggers backwards, before lunging forward, re-doubling their efforts.

“He said run,”  Jason says, placing a hand upon my shoulder, “I think we should trust him on this one.  Besides, with you hurt, we need to build up as much of a lead as possible,”

“Yeah,”  I agree, turning, and dragging Benny with me, head off, leaving the sound of the battle behind me.

We run, well more like shuffle, for nearly half an hour, all of us looking over our shoulders, but no sign of pursuit comes.  Finally I can move no more and panting , I fall to my knees, clutching at wound, feeling the warm blood that has soaked my shirt.  “I… can’t… go… on.”  My breaths come in short, fiery bursts.

Finally I manage to catch my breath and a motion for my brother to come closer.  I lift my shirt, “How bad is it.”

“Not bad,”  He says, but he is unable to hide look of worry that crosses his face.

I reach down and my hand comes away sticky.  I crawl my way to the water’s edge and rinse my hand before reaching into my pack and pulling out a spare shirt, which I dip into the water and use to wipe the blood from my wound.  One of the stitches is broken, and blood continues to trickle out, but it does not appear to be gushing.  

“What’s that?”  Benny asks pointing out over the water.

I squint, but can’t see what he is pointing at.

“Is it a light?”  Mary asks.

I continue to stare, and sure enough, there does appear to be a light off in the distance on the water and it appears to be coming toward us.

Benny tucks his sphere back in his pack, and I place mine back in my jacket, leaving us in complete darkness.  

“None of you move,”  Jason says, putting his hand on my shoulder again.  Silently, afraid to breath, we watch as the light comes closer to shore before passing by, completely ignoring us, heading in the direction which we came.

“Was that Death?”  Benny asks once the light is finally out of sight, and I restrain myself from calling him an idiot.  I had seen the black-robed figure too, paddling the raft along the underground waterway.

Part 27

I am hunched over a pool of blood.  My blood to be exact.  The walls are red, the wood supports rotting and almost black, and the steam is oppressive.  

“What the?”  Jason asks but I am unable to respond.  I touch my stomach, my hand comes away bloodless, the stitches catching on my dry skin.  Finally I roll over, scoot myself so that my back is against the wall.

“-Able to jump to any of those we have made.”  I hear Benny offering an explanation to my brother, who I can now see is hunched over, leaning against the opposite wall.

“Are you okay?” Mary asks as she kneels down beside me.

I manage a smirk, “You’re not getting rid of me that easily.”

“Didn’t think so.”

“Why’d you take me to the VA?”

“Rush told us you’d been there before.”

“You saw the Russian?”

“He’s watching your things.”

“Shi-,”  A fit of coughing cuts the rest of the word off.

“Is he okay?”  Jason asks, standing over us.

“Yeah,” I say, holding out my hand.  He takes it and I gingerly stand up.  “What happened?”

“Cyrus stabbed you,”  Mary says, “And we ended up back with the Russian near your-“  She pauses, 

“Room?”  She says in a questioning tone.  “He said you had served and the best bet would be to go to the VA.  Luckily, Benny has a sigil near the hospital.”

“Ok, thanks, next time, just let me bleed.”  I say.

“And you’d probably be dead,”  Jason argues.

“And you would not be here in the Devil’s Rib Cage with us.”  I take three steps away from the wall, testing myself. 

“The Devil’s Rib Cage?”  He asks.  “Can any of you tell me what is going on?”  Jason looks to each of us in turn.  

I shake my head.  “What happened back at the hospital?”  I ask, staring at Benny.

“The witch showed up,”  Freak Beans shudders, “That snake was crawling on her shoulders.”  He shudders again.

“What did she want this time?”  Mary asks.

“Um,”  Benny says.

“She didn’t say or you didn’t ask?”  Mary again.

“Uh, both.”

“Can we get my stuff?”  I take a deep breath and walk over to Benny without faltering.  “Now.”  I grab hold of his injured arm stiffly, locking his eyes with mine, and hope that he did not notice my legs begin to buckle when I stopped moving.

“I told you, your stuff is safe with the Russian.”  Mary says in protest.

“I know, that’s why we need to get it.”  I tell her.

“But-“ Jason protests.

“Mary, fill him in if you want.  Benny’s taking me to get my things.  Aren’t you?”  I grip his arm tighter.

He winces and nods.  A few seconds later and we are standing before the Russian, who sits behind a small fire contained within a coffee can.  He reaches a gloved hand into the can and pulls out an open container of beans as we approach.  “Thanks,  I hope you don’t mind,” he says, nodding to the food.  

I glare at Benny, who smiles sheepishly, then turn my attention to the corner where my pack is.  I hobble over to it, the quick shifts having done nothing to help my equilibrium.  I sink to the floor, crossing my legs, indian-style, and dig through the bag.  My Sphere is on top, and I shove it into my coat pocket, my hand brushing the Wheel of Time.  “Change my ass,”  I say under my breath.

“What?”  Rush asks.

“Everything’s here, kind of,”  I say glaring at the can of food Rush is eating.  Using a stack of boxes, I rise to my feet, bend over and grab the pack, slinging it over my shoulder.  “Come on Benny, time to get back to my brother.”

“Jason is involved now?”  Rush asks as he rises.

I nod.  “Yeah, and we’ve left him in the Devil’s Rib Cage.  We need to get back.” 

“Yes, I see.  Luck be with you my friend.”

“Thanks,” I say as I grab ahold of Benny again, “Shall we?”

And Jason is seated against the wall, Mary beside him, and they are laughing about something.

“What’s so funny?”  I manage.

“You don’t look so hot,”  Jason says as he stands and comes over to me.

“I’ll be fine.  Here,”  I reach in to my pocket and pull out the tarot card.  Hand it to him, watch as he inspects it before pulling out the rest of the deck.  He slides the card in, shuffles the deck and cuts it.  Shows me the top card.  “The moon.”

“Really?”  He asks, looking at the card himself.  “Of all the cards…”

“What’s it mean?”  Mary asks.

“Have you ever done drugs?”  Jason replies.

“You mean like pot?  Once.”

“No.  Acid.  We’re in for a bad trip.”  

“Like melt your face bad or the sofa cushions are chasing me through the house bad?”  Benny chimes in, looking a little worried.

“Like there is something coming bad,”  I say as I catch a shape in the distant steam cloud.   Jason and Mary are on either side of me, and I have to push them off.  “Let go of me,”  I snap.

Benny takes the lead, with Mary close behind him and me third.  Jason is close behind me, close enough that I can feel his breath on my neck.  

Deeper into the tunnels we go, the glowing red walls shifting to crimson then to brown and finally to green.  With each shift in color, the wooden beams seem to become even more rotten until finally, with the green lit walls, the buttresses are gone.  At some point the ground has changed as well and with each running step I take, something crunches underfoot, but I am still to busy looking over my shoulder to investigate.

“Uh guys?”  Benny says as I stumble into the back of Mary who has stopped short.  I recover and step to her side.  An expanse of water is before us, small waves lapping at Benny’s feat.  He looks down and steps back, out of the water.

I reach into my coat and pull out my sphere, lighting the room around me with a soft white light.  We are in a large chamber, the only wall I can see being the one behind us, the only opening in it the tunnel Jason is still staring down.

I kneel down, trying to figure out what we have been running over, and it isn’t until I remember the Lampman’s riddle that it occurs to me.  I hold the small pebbles up to my sphere and watch as the light shines through the small glass pebbles.  “We’ve made it to the Shores of Glass.”

“Yeah,”  Jason says, pulling his knife from inside his jacket, “But so has whatever was chasing us.  Be ready,”  He says as a large flailing shape bursts from the opening, foaming at the mouth.

Part 26

In my younger, cleaner, I would have made a move on her.  I was stronger then too.  I try sitting up and grunt at the pain in my side.

“Careful, you’ll bust a stitch.” The doctor says.  She is young, at least ten years my junior, and smiles as she approaches the bed where I lay.

“Simone,”  I manage, giving her the best smile I could manage, which appears as more of a grimace as I lowered myself back onto the cot.

“Charles,” she says with a tone of admonishment, “Your friends would not tell me what happened, but whatever it was, you need to be more careful.”  She picks up the clipboard that is tied to the foot of my bed and makes a note on it.

“How long have I been here?”

“About three hours,” came a voice I recognize as belonging to my brother.

I glare at Simone who shakes her head, “He is listed as your emergency contact, I thought he should know that you had taken a knife that missed your kidney by less than an inch.”

“Don’t worry, I haven’t told mom yet.”  Jason says, stepping further into the room.

“I’m fine,” I say, taking a deep breath and let it out slowly through my teeth as I sit up.  I swing my legs over the side of the bed and rest, staring at my brother.  “How many stitches?”  I ask Simone.

“I said take it easy,”  She snaps at me, but her face softens.  “You’ve got twelve.  Do you know what you were stabbed with?”

“No clue.”

“Ok, I’ll leave you for now, but don’t go anywhere.  You were stabbed, the police are going to want to talk to you,”  I roll my eyes at this and she looks at Jason, “I’ll just be down the hall if you need me.”

“Thanks,”  He says and steps aside so she can leave the room.  Once she is gone, he addresses me,

“What are you messed up in, Charlie?”

“I told you the last time that I saw you, the less you-“

“Cut the crap.  I’ve been trying to find you since the other day.  I woke up the next morning and drawn on my window in black ink was the Wheel.”

“Wheel?”  I ask, and then remember.  I reach for the card in my pocket before remembering that my coat is not on.

“They even signed it with my signature!”

Something moves in the doorway over his shoulder, and he catches my glance in that direction.

“Back to finish the job?”  Jason says as he pulls a jewel-handled knife from his pocket and turns to greet our new visitor.

“No,”  I shout as Mary shies away.

Quickly Jason hides the blade under his jacket as Simone joins us.

“Is everything all right in here?” She asks, eyeing my brother and Mary.

“Yeah, everything is fine, thanks.”  I tell her and she raises her eyebrows but I nod.  “It’s okay.”
Her head bobs slightly as she snorts and leaves the room. 

“Jason, this is Mary, I suspect she is one of the reasons why I made it here.  Mary, this is my brother Jason.”

“Brother?”  Mary asks and I nod while Jason mumbles an apology. 

They eye each other suspiciously while I lower myself to the ground, leaning heavily upon the bed for support.  My knees start to buckle and they are both by my sides, Mary on my left, Jason my right, but I manage to stay upright.

“You going to tell me what’s going on now?”  Jason asks as I sit back down on the bed.

I ignore the question for a moment.  “Where’s Benny?”  I ask Mary.

“Having his arm checked out a couple of rooms down.  The doctor’s think it’s broke.”  She responds.

“Ok,”  I inhale deeply, hold the breath and let it out through my nose.  “First, answer me this.  You said the Wheel of Fortune was drawn on your window, is that all you noticed?  Anything else about it?  Or have you noticed anything missing over the last few days?”

“No, quite the opposite,”  Jason says, pulling a cardboard box out of his jacket.  “I found this yesterday morning inside my store, sitting near that skull you almost knocked over.”

I motion for him to hand it to me and he does so before crossing the room and leaning against the far wall.  I open the box, revealing what looks to be the rest of the Tarot deck that the Wheel of Fortune in my possession came from.

“Everything but the Wheel is there,”  He says, answering the question before I can ask it.  I fan through the cards anyway, and then square the deck and replace it in it’s box, making a mental note to add get the Wheel of Fortune the next time I have my coat on.  I toss the box to Jason who catches it and replaces it in his pocket.  “Okay, where to begin?  I guess it started just a few days ago really. I ran into Mary…”  I went through the entire ordeal, leaving out the bits about us moving around via sphere, or glossing over how we got from one place to the next, remembering how disturbed he had been when I conjured the fire.

I sit and rest while Jason mulls the tale over in his head.  Finally, I slide off of the cot, catching myself on it’s edge as my legs begin to wobble.  “Mary, help me get dressed will you?”

She hesitates, but pulls open a cabinet where my jacket is hanging. 

“What about my shirt?”

“Um, It was covered in blood, I think they threw it away.”

“They told me you’d need another shirt,”  Jason says and takes one from inside of his jacket, throws it to me.

“Anything else in there?” I ask, struggling to get the shirt over my head.  Finally, with Mary’s assistance,it slides down over my face and Jason is holding a pack of cigarettes. 

Mary drapes my coat over my shoulders and I am slowly, painstakingly so, making my way across the room when Benny barges into the room and throws the door shut. 

“We’ve got to go!”  He grabs Mary and me, and it is all I can do to grab ahold of Jason before we are gone.

Part 25

The Devil’s Rib Cage.  I could not have named this place better myself.  The walls are buttressed like an old mine shaft, the ancient wood bowing significantly under the weight from above and the walls, pocked with crevices and cracks, emitted steam like a pot of boiling water.  Forming an oppressive cloud that hung about the ceiling , the vapor had the three of us were perspiring within minutes.  I still had not figured out what was causing the red glow, and as I wiped sweat from my forehead for what felt like the thousandth time, I stopped trying.

“I don’t like this place,” Benny said, dabbing at his forehead with a crumpled piece of cloth.

“At least you’re not screaming like a girl again,”  I reply.

“Stop it,”  Mary glares at me.  “You both are welcome to go back, especially if you are going to fight like kids.  I agree with you, Benny.  I don’t like this place either.”  She takes the lead, negotiating a right turn, and then a left, the ever present red glow illuminating the way. 

It was not long after that we reached the first branch.  The tunnel splits off to our right, the light in it fading out to a dull green somewhere off in the distance.  I had to bend over sharply in order to fit in it, although Mary was short enough that had she let her hair down, she would have been able to stand upright, or at least only had to crook her neck slightly.

“No, I can’t think it’s down that way.  The red light continues this way,”  She says, pointing down the tunnel we are already traversing. 

A distant shout from down the red to green tunnel startles us.  A form resolves itself out of the shadows moving toward us at a fast clip.  “Move,”  I say and we break into a run, following the caverns ribs further from the Walking Rocks.

I think I make out the word ‘wait’ echoing down the corridor toward us but I do not hesitate, running just fast enough to avoid stepping on Benny’s heels.  “Come on,”  I say, looking over my shoulder.  I do not see our pursuer yet, but I can still make out the side passage we have left behind.  We take a sharp right, the glowing red rocks still with us.  We continue running, coming to another turn, round it and skid to a stop, almost running Cyrus over.

“I said wait,” he says with a wolfish grin. 

“How-  How did you find us?”  Benny stammers, pulling Mary back behind him.

“Freak Beans, how good to see you again,” Cyrus says, extending his hand to my companion who shrinks before the extended appendage as if it was a red hot poker. 

Mary glances at me and I shrug and shake my head slightly.

“Don’t think I’ve forgotten about you Charlie.”  He says, turning his attention to me. 

Mary uses the distraction stepping around Benny and delivering a kick between Cyrus’ legs, but the man deftly shifts, absorbing the blow with the inside of his thigh.  His face contorts for a brief second before returning to the wolfish grin.

“Is that any way to treat your future husband?”  Cyrus says, stepping toward her, his still extended hand reaching for her collar.

My blade is in my hand and I have it leveled at his chest before he can make contact.  “Close enough,”  I say, ignoring the sweat that has dripped into my eyes.

Cyrus snorts and steps back.  As he does so, he reaches over his right shoulder and grasps what looks like a piece of rebar that is strapped to his back.  As he extends his arm I see that it is indeed a piece of reinforcing steel, the ridges giving it away.  He holds the stick before him and it is then that I realize that its tip has been sharpened to a long point.

Mary and Benny step back, leaving only a few feet of open stone separating Cyrus and me.  I cast a quick glance to my right and my left, trying to gauge how much room I have to move.  I am glad I did, because as I refocus on my opponent, he takes a step forward, his weapon swinging at me in a sidelong arc.  I dance to my right and back a step, the tip narrowly avoiding my coat as it flows with me.  I swing the blade clumsily with all of my weight behind it, throwing myself off balance and stumbling toward Cyrus.  He tries to dodge but we collide and collapse in a tangle of limbs.  We both let go of our weapons and proceed to claw at each other until suddenly Cyrus slacks off.

“Enough,”  Mary says, her booted heel pressed firmly against the side of my foe’s head. 

I get in one last jab as I try to extract myself from the jumble and take one in the ribs myself. 

“I said enough,” Mary grinds her foot against Cyrus’ ear and he stops.  “I will never become your wife,” she spits at him. 

“You are lovely when you are mad,”  Cyrus says, his smile returning. 

Mary spits again, but before the glob has made it to its target, we are all blinded by the flash of a bright light.

“Damn it,” I gasp, rolling off of my stomach and rubbing my eyes.  “He gone?”  I ask as a pair of hands grasps me under the arms.

“Yeah,”  Freak Beans says, lifting me up with his good arm.  I immediately sag against him and he curses as I bump into his injured elbow. 

“Sorry,” I say, trying to straighten myself up and failing, slumping all the way down to the ground.

“You're bleeding!”  Mary exclaims.  The cold stone floor is cold against my cheek.

Part 24

I study the miniature version of us for what feels like an hour while Mary taps her foot.

“What are we waiting-“ She begins to ask, but I grab ahold of both her and Benny’s arms and yank on them, dragging them with me through the moving rocks, not stopping once until a curved wall stands before us, despite Freak Bean’s high pitched scream.  Hugging this outer wall, I glare at Benny, who shrugs in apology. 

I look to the left and then to the right but do not see an opening leading out of the chamber.  “So, which way?”  I turn my head toward Mary and ask. 

 “Are you crazy?”  Benny finally shouts, drowning out Mary’s response.

I look over Mary’s shoulder to where he now stands, huddled tightly against the wall, and say, “We were safe,” and it is my turn to shrug. 

“But how did you…?”

“If you would like to go back, I can show you,”  I offer but he shakes his head slightly.

“Didn’t think so.  Ok, which way?”

Mary looks in both directions and then points over my shoulder.

I pull a red marker from my pocket and try to make a mark upon the dark wall, but the color is not visible against the almost black concrete. 

“Here,” Benny says, reaching into a pocket and producing a white piece of chalk. As he extends his arm out to me, it comes in line with one of the passing rocks and gets clipped, the chalk launching from his grasp and curses flying from his mouth. 

I take a deep breath and jump around Mary after the car sized rock passes us by again.  “That’s going to be a nasty bruise,”  I say, looking at his elbow which has already begun to swell.  “I don’t think it’s broken though,”  I say, trying to be reassuring.

He cradles his arm against his chest, but moves closer as Mary crowds in behind me and hands me the chalk that she has managed to retrieve.

I use it to draw an arrow in the direction we are heading on the wall and then, waiting again for the massive rock to pass by, I resume my position in the lead and start along, keeping the wall at my right.  The car sized rock passes by us twice more, and we flatten ourselves against the wall each time it approaches, before we find an opening.

“This has to be the tunnel we came in,”  Benny says as I approach it.  I poke my head into the hole and have to agree. 

“This looks exactly the same,”  I say, watching the pebbles bounce across the floor.  I use the chalk and write the word ‘entrance’ beside the opening.  “You want to lead or do we need to swap?”  I ask Benny as we suck in our stomachs again to avoid the passing stone. 

“I’ll go first,”  He offers and begins to scoot along the wall, wincing every time his hurt arm brushes the concrete. 

One.  Two.  Three times I count the rock pass us before we get to the point where our arrow is drawn on the wall.  Benny waits for the large stone to pass us again and then turns to face us.

“What now?”  He asks and Mary answers before I can.

“Keep going, and mind the big rocks.”

Benny does just this and the rock passes us another four times.  I start to count the time between its passes when Mary blurts out “There,” and points at an opening a little further around the bend of the circular room. 

We continue our shuffle and, by the shaking of Freak Bean’s head, I know what I’m looking at before
I am even standing in the opening.  ‘Entrance,’ in my handwriting, is written in the same spot I had written it.

“Okay,”  Benny starts, and Mary cuts him off.

“I know, I know.  What now?”  She says with a hint of sarcasm before turning to me.  “What are we looking for next?”

I recite the lines in my head, but there is nothing beyond ‘through the walking rocks’ that I can recall about this part of the ordeal.  I begin to look around the small tunnel we are in, holding my sphere aloft as I get to its opposite end.  I inspect the wall closer, rubbing it with a corner of my long coat. 

“What is it?”  Mary asks, approaching.

“It says ‘Exit,”  I say, pointing to the familiar looking word.  I am pulling the chalk from my pocket when Benny draws the connection for me.

“That looks like-“  He runs back to where I had marked the passage earlier and calls back, “Yeah, did you write that?”

“Don’t think so,”  I say, but I go ahead and spell the word out below the original.

“You sure?”  Mary asks, looking at the two identical markings on the wall.

“I swear.”

Mary nods, “I believe you.  This has been weird enough already though.  What’s through there?”  She points past me.

I shrug, and pocket the chalk, peering past the illumination from my sphere, but seeing nothing, not even outlines in the dark beyond.  I extend my arm further, trying to force the shadows to retreat but am blinded by a bright flash of light.  I am still rubbing my eyes when I hear Benny.

“What was that?  Oh.  Oh, um guys?”

“What’s going on Benny,”  Mary asks from somewhere to my left.

“Did you guys see that?”  I ask as I finally am able to make out shapes again.

“Look out,”  Mary yells as she yanks me back into hallway, the Volkswagon sized rock careening through the space I had moments before occupied.

I stare blankly at the walking rocks, the word ‘Entrance’ written in chalk at my left.  “Benny, please tell me the word exit is down there now.”

“How’d you know?”  He asks, still standing where I had previously written the word ‘Entrance’ upon the wall.  “Um guys?”

Mary and I begin to prompt him for more information but the cavern beyond him has begun to glow red, casting a fire-like glow upon him, and everything else.

“The devil’s rib cage?”  Mary asks.

I shrug, “Only one way to find out.”

Part 23

I can feel the rumble in my teeth as we get close to where the hall should be.  It is obvious to me by the way they are rubbing their jaws that Benny and Mary feel it too. 

“What is that?”  Mary asks.

“Probably some processing plant or something,”  Benny says.

We round the final corner that the map says is between us and the Walking Rocks and I laugh.  The rumbling is causing pebbles to bounce across the floor.  I bend down and catch a few in my palm, where they sit, either well behaved, or completely inert.  I look around, we are in what may have been an old service corridor, there is a small branch off of the main tracks that ends not fifty feet from the junction. 

“Well, that was a bit anti-climactic,”  Mary says.

I dump the rocks back on the floor.  “Through the Walking Rocks it says,”  I recite what I had been told so long ago again.  “Well, here it goes.”  I walk through the room, feeling the rocks as they bounced against the side of my boots.  I make it to the other side of the tunnel, to where the tracks continue into a smaller tunnel.  The rumble gets stronger as I get closer to the smaller opening.  I hold my sphere aloft and immediately have to jump back, as a rock the size of a Volkswagen passes not five feet from me.

“Now that’s what I’m talking about,” Mary says, stepping on many of the pebbles in her haste to join me. 

I look over my shoulder and watch Freak Beans eye the pebbles cautiously, walking across the room as if he was on a balance beam, cringing every time one of them touched his shoes.

The three of us stood on the brink of the real hall of Walking Rocks, our lights shining in and illuminating their sliding movements, the friction against the floor not seeming to slow them down. 

“That must be what’s causing the rumbling,”  Mary said, and then she holds her breath as two of the massive stones narrowly avoided colliding with each other.  They pass by each other, and I hear the scratching as their edges barely touch but it does not seem to effect their direction. 

We stand there, silently watching the rocks moving, trying to establish a pattern that will allow us to pass through the room. 

“Can you see the other side?” I ask, and Freak Beans shakes his head no.  “So this could be twenty feet or two hundred.”

“Is there a pattern?  I mean, are we just going to play Frogger?”  Mary asks and I can’t help but laugh at the apt comparison.

“I guess so, but there are no retries if we get eaten by the alligators.”  I say, winking at her.

“Or the piranha,” Freak Beans adds, scowling at me behind Mary’s back.

“Ok, I’ll go first,” I volunteer.

“No, we go all at once.”  Mary says.

“Fine,” I say rather than arguing.  “Next time this one passes,”  I say as the Beetle-sized rock scoots by again.  We wait a minute before the rock shoots back by us and we cautiously walk behind it, looking both directions as if we were crossing a street above. 

“This is surreal,”  Benny says, reaching out and touching a passing stone.  “They’re cold,”  He adds.

We make it passed two more without a problem before we come to a spot where, not only do the rocks seem to be moving faster, but there seems to be more of them.  I see a gap coming that I think we can rush through, like dodging traffic on a city street, but it brings the rock we are in the path of awfully close to where we stand.  I point it out to my companions, and they nod, although the looks on their faces show me they are having the same doubts. 

“One, two three…”

We dart out behind the next rock, and I feel the rock we had just dodged brush my coat.  We have to pull up short as the next one speeds past.  We charge through the opening in its wake and I look back over my shoulder.  I can see the hallway we came through in between speeding boulders, but looking forward I still cannot see another opening.

Mary pulls Benny and myself past the next rock and then the next, tugging us to follow her as she jumps in the space left by a third passing stone. 

I stop short, even as Freak Beans follows her, and have to jump to avoid a small watermelon sized rock that nearly takes my feet out from under me.  Once my feet are back on solid ground, I step forward, joining my two companions.

“It’s calm here, “Mary says, and I have to concur.  We appear to be at the eye of the spinning vortex of rocks, our entrance is now no longer visible, but neither is out destination. 

“Let’s catch our breath,” I say and sit down on the floor.  “Um, look at this,” I say, pointing at a circle of small moving rocks near my right foot. 

“Is that?”  Freak Beans says, watching a number of small rocks spin around three tiny pieces of wood.

“Only one way to find out,” I say as I stand up, my eyes still on the wood, and take a few steps forward, watching the larger rocks out of the corner of my eye.

“Yep,”  Mary says, as I nod, watching one of the pieces of wood shift in the same direction I just had.

“And we just came from over there,” I say, walking towards the way we had come in.

“And this must be the tunnel we came in through,” Mary says, pointing at a scratch in the ground.  It looks to be in roughly in the same spot I suspect our tunnel was, so I agree and begin searching for a similar scratch somewhere on the other side.

“I don’t see anything,” I say.

“Ok, so whats next then?”  Benny asks.

“Well, I guess we go out that way,” I say pointing toward the far wall, “And hope we find an exit.”

“And if we don’t?”

“We can always go back the way we came.”

Part 22

We have made it past the first three turns according to the map, and its accuracy of our path seems to still be holding up, although there are definitely more branches in the tunnels than it shows.

We enter into another long abandoned train station.  Abandoned except for the group with the large television cameras.

“Perfect,” I hear a female voice exclaim as I extinguish my orb and pocket it and pull my coat tight, concealing my blade. 

“Um, excuse me,” the female voice says.  It belongs to a rather obese woman in a fancy pants suit, far too high dollar to be crawling around in the dregs with us.

I glare at her, but she ignores it.  “Can we talk to you for a minute, you know on camera?”

Mary looks at the woman and tells her “No.”  Keeps walking.

“We’re doing a piece on the street people that live down here.”

“Street people?”  Mary asked, her nostrils flailing.  “What makes you better than me?”

I tug at her sleeve.  We have all been in her position and I try to stop the fury that is welling up from within.

“Come on,”  Benny whispers, tugging on her other arm. 

“I will not come on.  Just because you have a fancy suit and happened to know who’s ass to kiss and when to do it does not make you better than me.  Does not make you better than any of us.  I’ve made more real friends, people who have risked their necks for me, in the month I have been down here than I had my entire adult life.  These ‘street people’ as you call them are better than you.”

“Close your eyes,”  I hear Benny whisper, and I watch as his hand slips inside his coat.  I squeeze my eyes shut and slap a hand, a little harder than I had intended to, over Mary’s.

“Come on,”  Benny says again a moment later and I pull my hand from Mary’s face and open my eyes. 

Amidst the swears of the camera men, I run, pulling Mary along with me.  She allows herself to be dragged, although protesting loudly.

I finally convince her to be quiet, although I can hear the news crew coming behind us, there vision finally having cleared.  We take four quick turns, two rights and two lefts, in that order, before we are certain that they are not pursuing us any longer.

“What the-“ Mary begins.

I raise my eyebrows and place a finger before my lips.

She begins again, whispering.  “What was that?”

“I dialed it to eleven,”  Freak Beans says, taking out his sphere, which begins to emit an almost white light, slightly tinged yellow, like a piece of aging newspaper. 

“Do we know where we are?”  I ask, pulling the map from my pocket and peering at it.  I find the old station we had just left and begin to trace the path we took, but of course the turn off is not shown. 

“We’re somewhere over here,”  Benny says with a smile, pointing to a blank spot on the map.

“Thanks,” I say.  “So do we double back and hope we make the right turns, or do we see where this leads?”  I ask, pointing further along the tunnel we are in. 

Benny begins to make a small pile out of trash he find lying about the tunnel.  “Let’s continue on for a little bit.  We can always come back here,” he indicates the marker he has just made, “If we decide it’s not going well.”

“Sure,”  I say.

Mary is still mumbling under her breath.  I catch ‘Who did she think she was?’ and tell her to let it go. 

“But-“ She begins, but I cut her off.

“You are about to become a Princess.  The first Underground Princess at that.  Let them have their ‘street people’ if that’s what allows them to sleep at night.”  I wish I had more cigarettes, but I am trying to save the few I do.

“You’re right,” she says, and goes to stand by Benny.  “Let’s get going.”

Benny and I both hold our spheres, him in front and me bringing up the rear.  “This looks like an old barber pole,” I say, stopping at something jutting up from the ground.  I wipe some of the dirt and grime from it and smile.  “I’ll be, it is!”  I shine my light upon the wall, illuminating a tarnished brass sign for the Barber shop screwed into the white tile wall.  A rotting news stand sits beside it, amidst a pile of broken tiles.  “All that’s missing is a shoe shine box.”

Benny clears his throat from a few feet away, where he has shifted a pile of debris, mostly rotting cardboard.  “It’s right here.” 

I put my pack down, undo the top, and dig around for a minute until I pull out a red chisel tip marker.

“What’re you doing?”  Mary asks.

I ignore her as I hold my Sigil Sphere aloft, peering through it at the wall, where I begin to draw my own symbol, one box atop another, slightly skewed, an S in the top and a C in the bottom on an unbroken ceramic tile.

I walk around the corner and test my handiwork, appearing back where I had just been standing.

“Oh!”  Mary says, realizing what I have just done.  “Is that all it takes?”

I sag, catching myself on the news stand with an outstretched arm.

Benny rushes over and helps me to the floor.  “Yes, that is all he had to do, but it takes a lot out of us to do it.”  He scowls at me, “Do you really think now is the time for this?”  He waves his right hand at my handiwork.

“Just in case we need to come back this way for anything.”  I close my eyes for a moment and then struggle to my feet.  “Lets get going,”  I say, taking the lead.  We go another two hundred feet before we come to an intersection.  “Right or left?”  I ask.

“If it goes through, left will take us back to the tracks.”  Freak Beans says.

“Left it is,” I say and head down that corridor.  A large cat, black of course, scurries out of our way, a recently killed rat the size of my calf muscle, hanging from its mouth. 

“Careful, kitty,” Mary says, adding “I hear there are alligators down here somewhere.”

“Alligators?”  I say over my shoulder.  “Doubt it, but there’s piranha if you know where to look.”  Walking in front of her, she can’t see my smile.

Part 21

“Just about,” I say as I skirt around the pile of boxes and out the door again, heading for my own room and, more importantly, my cart.  I empty the cart out, looking for a box buried beneath it all.  Clothes, a sleeping bag, three blankets, a few useless trinkets.  A dog-eared engineering book.  Finally, I find what I am looking for.  I lift the long, rectangular box out of the cart and rip at the tape holding it shut.  Small, white balls of styrofoam fall out as I open it and reach inside.  The metal handle inside feels cold in my hand as I pull it out.  The blade, all two feet of it, is spotted with rust.  I reach back into the box and pull out a worn leather sheath.  I slip it onto my belt and slide the blade in.  The weight feels unfamiliar at my hip.  I look at myself in the broken mirror, the worn fedora atop my head, the brown trench coat, dry for now, hanging loosely from my shoulders, the sleeves hanging to the middle of my long fingers.  I could use a shave, a haircut, and a sandwich or two, but this will have to do I decide.

I bend over and begin to throw my pile of belongings back into the cart and think better of it, stuffing a change of clothes into my backpack and tying a blanket to its top with some cord that I find on one of my shelves.  I finish replacing my stuff in the cart and grab another blanket, heading back to rejoin Mary and Benny, locking the door behind me. 
“Here,” I toss the extra blanket to Mary, and hand her some more string.  “Just in case.  I’m ready when you are.”

“Ok, where do we start?”  Benny asks.  In addition to his cane, he’s added some tan fingerless gloves and a backpack of his own, a blanket hanging below.

I pull the map back out from its envelope, lay it on a crate, and locate the spot noted “Walking Rocks.”  Tracing it back with my finger, I look for somewhere I know but come up with nothing.
“Ok, let me try this,”  I reach down and pick up a small rock from the ground and place it where we want to go and then search for a place I recognize on the map.  “It’s been so long since I’ve looked at this…”

“Let me give it a shot,” Benny says, elbowing me out of the way.  “So this is where we want to go?”  He asks pointing to the pebble.

“Yeah,” I say through clenched teeth.

“And we are… Here,”  He says stabbing the paper with his finger.

I look over his shoulder, “Yeah.”

“Ok, so if we go out of here and left,” he traces the map with his finger, like a child doing a maze on a restaurant menu.  He has to backtrack a few times, but eventually he makes his way from where we are to the Walking Rocks.

“All right, can you do it again?”  I ask, wanting to make sure we do not make the same wrong turns he just did.  Fingertip to paper, he traces the route perfectly. 

“Yeah, we go out the door,”  He peers at the paper again, “Just to be certain,” he winks at Mary, “And head left.” 

Mary catches sight of the blade I am wearing and eyes it suspiciously.

“Just in case,” I say, followed by, “Follow me!”  I pull my Sphere from its pocket and hold it aloft, casting the blue glow out the doorway.  I take a deep breath, “Here it goes,” I say as I exit the room, bring the soft blue light with me.

We hear rats and other creatures scurrying from the light, and the going is easy.  We make it about five hundred feet, our starting point lost in the distant gloom behind us before I manage to trip on something.  My sphere goes flying out of my hand, landing a few feet away amongst the muck.  I get to my knees with the help of Benny and am looking for a surface to wipe my hands on, when I see Mary bend over to scoop up my sphere.

“No!”  Benny and I shout at the same time, but it is too late.  I do not have enough time to cover my eyes and am blinded by the flash of light.  Rubbing them, I stumble over to where Mary now lays, unconscious.  I check her pulse to make sure that is all, and smile weakly when I feel the beat of her heart. 

“Benny, help me,” I say, grabbing her arms.  He grabs her feet, and we half carry, half drag her to the wall, where we prop her up into a sitting position.  While we are waiting, I retrieve my sphere and use my handkerchief to wipe it down.  Half an hour passes while Benny and I make small talk, mostly trying to figure out if we really think that what we are doing is a fool’s errand or not. 

Finally, Mary begins to stir.  Holding her head, she asks “What happened?”

“Well, I guess I should have explained that before.”  I tell her.  “No one can touch a sigil sphere without the Prince handing it to them.  It’s a protection built in to keep the people from trying to take them by force.”

“I see,” She said as she began to brush herself off.  “Anything else I need to know about the spheres, you know, before I have one of my own?”  She looks from me to Benny, and I silently shake my head at him while she is not looking at me.

“There is a kind of, I don’t know getting to know the sphere, process,”  He says and I sigh.

“Attunement.”  I tell her and she turns to face me.  “We’ll discuss it if we find one for you.”

“When!  When we find me a sphere.”

Part 20

“I’ll go,”  Freak Beans says, taking his hat off and bowing with a flourish of his hand.

“Thank you Benny,” Mary says, taking a step toward him.

I reach out and grab the map.  “I’ll hold that, but I’ll go, sounds like fun, and besides, some of the notes on this thing,” I wave the sheet of paper, “Are mine.  Rush, you coming?”

“No, I will stay and keep eye on Cyrus.”  He takes another swig from his flask and manages to avoid coughing this time. 

“Suit yourself,” I say and clap him on the shoulder with my free hand. 

“So where are we going?”  Mary asks.

“My best guess would be to try to find the Black Bazaar, Lampman always talked about the place like it was still around.”  I say.

“And where is it?”

I close my eyes, trying to recall what Lampman had told me so many years before.  “Through the Walking Rocks, past the end of the tracks.  Out beyond the Devil's Rib Cage you will find the Glass Shore, the waves grinding the brown and green bottles against each other until the shards are no larger than grains of sand.  Find the path into the water and walk the way, across the underground ocean.  Through the lightless tunnel you will find an island and upon that island the Black Bazaar.”  It comes back to me and I find myself smiling.  “Sounds like we have some walking to do.”

“Ok,” Benny says, “Let me go get a few things and I will meet you back here in two hours time.  I suggest you get some food together, this is going to be a long trip.”

Both Mary and myself cover our eyes as Freak Beans blinks out.

“I’d better be going too,” Rush says, adding “Good luck, tovarishch.”  He winks at me and nods at Mary before he too is gone.

“What’d he say?”  She asked.

“He once told me it means friend.  I sure hope so.”  I look away from her to hide the worry on my face.  “Do you have a stash of food or anything somewhere?”  I ask, still looking away.

“No… you do?”

I ignore her question for now.  “What about money, do you have any?”

She reaches into her pocket and pulls a wad of crumpled bills out.  “Will this do?”

I reach for it and think better.  “How much is it?”

She straightens the cash as best she can, “Seven dollars.”  She pats down her pockets.  “No, eight!” She produces another scrunched up single.

“It’s not much, but it’ll have to do.  Come on, we’re going shopping.”  I take hold of her empty hand and concentrate on my own sphere.

We appear in the alleyway behind a Fairway and make our way to the front.  Upon entering, I can feel the eyes upon us, but I ignore them and grab a basket.  First stop we walk to the small bakery.  “Do you have any day old?”  I ask the tattooed man that eyes me suspiciously.

Soundlessly, he points toward a bin on a nearby shelf.  I look over the loaves and throw one in the basket.  My next stop is the canned goods.  “Well?”

I pick a few cans of my own while I watch her struggle to decide between mushrooms and asparagus.  She finally decides on the mushrooms and hands the can to me.  I put it back on the shelf.  “Will you eat those cold?”

“But your sphere can start any-“

“Start, yes, but if we don’t have anything to burn, starting the fire will be the least of our concerns.”

“Oh,”  She grabs a can of baked beans and a few cans of cocktail weenies. 

I grab a can of Spam.  I count the items in my basket, mentally tallying the total.  “Do you have a water bottle?”

“No,”  She hangs her head. 

“Don’t worry,”  I say, leading her toward the kitchen gadgets aisle.  I find her a pink one, which she wrinkles her nose at.

She picks a purple one off the shelf and throws it in the basket.  “Anything else?”  She asks.

I pick through our basket, “No, I think we’ve got all we need for now.  Come on.”  We walk up to the check out lanes, followed by an older man whom I assume is the manager of the store.  Waiting behind a middle aged blonde woman, her child sitting in the seat of the cart, I grow bored and begin to make faces at the boy.  He sticks his tongue back out at me and his mother turns around.

“Can I help you?”  She growls.

“No,” I say and wink at the boy.  He giggles, and she turns on him, but he is fast and manages to maintain a straight face the entire time they are being checked out.  As they pull away from the counter, I wave at him and he waves back, earning me another glare from his mother.

“That will be fifteen thirty-two says the freckled brunette holding the scanner and smacking her gum rather loudly.  I reach into my pocket and pull out my own wad of cash, counting out three fives and a single, handing them to her.  Mary opens her mouth to protest but I ignore her as I receive my change and am handed the four bags of groceries.  We are watched by the hawk-eyed manager as we make our way out of the store.

“How rude!”  Mary exclaims as we the doors slide shut behind us.  “You should have blinked us out while we were still inside, gave them all something to think about.”

I smile. “Come on,”  I tear off the label and the price tag from the water bottle, using the water spigot on the side of the grocery store to fill it up, dumping the first full bottle on the ground.  I fill it a second time take a sip, spit it out and dump it again.  Repeat and the water tastes better.  I screw the lid on and place it back in the plastic bag with the rest of the canned goods.

“Now what?”  She asks.

In response, I hand her two of the grocery bags, freeing my left hand, which I use to fetch my sphere from it’s pocket.

“Now we find you a bag.”  And we appear in the stone room, deep beneath the streets above.  I set down the remaining two bags and tell her to wait here.  As I walk down the old corridor toward the room I call my own, I pull the chain from around my neck.  I unlock the door when I get to it, and sigh as my gaze falls upon the bed.  I can feel it calling to me but I ignore it, instead going to my cart, which I had pushed in after my visit to Old Jenny.  I dig through the clothes and find an old green-brown JanSport bag and check it over for holes.  There are a few but none that I am too worried about.  I keep looking and come across a second bag, a red and black plaid number with a brown stain along its bottom.  It is hole-less.  A little more digging and I find a thermos of my own.  I use the Sigil Sphere and I am back behind the Fairway.  I again use the faucet to clean out and fill my bottle before I blink back, surprising Mary in the process. 

“You couldn’t have walked back?”  She asks, rubbing her eyes. 

I hold my bottle up in response.  I hand her the plaid backpack.  “Fill this up.”  I say and begin to fill the green-brown one with the canned goods. 

“Are you going to take my money?”  She asks as she zips the bag shut around the loaf of bread sticking out its top. 

“Not now.”

“Then when?”

“Lets get through this and we’ll talk money then.”

A bright flash has me rubbing my own eyes.

“You guys ready?”  Benny asks, tapping a black lacquered cane upon the ground, the steel tip grating upon the old stone.

Part 19

I look to my right and am relieved that Mary appears to be in one complete piece.

Benny leans over and smiles at me, “Man, I’m glad you picked here.”  

I smile and shake my head.  Looking around, I realize I am weary of this room.  It is just as Mary and
I had left it a few days ago, cardboard boxes piled high against the walls.  I kick the metal box beside me and it hums to life, as do the Christmas lights it powers.

“So, she’s a witch?”  I ask, turning around and expecting to find the Russian behind me. 

He does not disappointed.  “With capital W.”

“And the snake?”  I shudder at the question, recalling the creature slithering from Catherine’s scarf.

“She’s a witch,”  Rush says, and spits on the ground beside himself for emphasis.

“But we’re safe now, right?”  Mary asks, looking each of us in the eyes.

I nod, as does Benny, but the Russian shrugs and snorts.  “She’s a witch…”  He looks to me and winks.

“So…”  Mary says.

“So,” Rush flashed his yellowing teeth in what could only be described as a sneer, “An Underground Princess?”

I am proud of her.  She stands her ground.  “I guess so.”

The sneer stays upon his face as he takes a step toward her.  “Princess Dairy Mary, I see it now.”

The sound of her slapping him echoes off the damp stone walls.  She inhales sharply and attempts to shake the sting from her hand.  Benny and I both step in front of her, forming a barrier between the two but it is not needed.

Rush is laughing, “That’s my girl.  Now you may call me Rush too.”

I sigh and step back to the side but Benny does not move.

“Benny, calm down,” I say, wanting to see how this plays out.  He looks at me, then at the Russian, and finally at Mary, who nods before he finally backs down.

“So, there are five missing Princes.  I know that Tibault was found dead by authorities and his family has Sphere now, but I know not where they are.”

“And Andreus’ Sphere is rumored to have shattered when he was pushed off that bridge.”  I add, trying to remember which bridge it was.

“That leaves Demetrius, Khaos…” Benny starts.

“No, Khaos’s sphere was taken by Christof.”  Rush interrupts.

“Ah, yes, sorry.  So Demetrius, Lampman, and…”

“The Bird Man,” I say, bringing our quintet to a close.  I scratch my chin, the stubble just long enough to itch.  “But which one will be the easiest to find?”

“Easiest? This not about easy.  If you want to find needle, you search haystack.”  Rush says, pulling a flask from his grey corduroy coat.  He unscrews the lid and takes a sip, coughing as the liquid burns his throat.  “Lampman!”

“What about him?”  Benny asks.

“I remember story he once told me.  He found the Glass Shore.”

“I’ve heard the story too,” I say, adding “And it wasn’t just the Glass Shore that he had found, but out in the underground ocean he found a passageway, and beyond that an island.”

“Wait, Glass Shore?  Underground ocean?  What are you guys talking about,” Mary asks.

Benny looks at me and it is my turn to shrug.  He begins, “Back during the rule of Samual, Cyrus’ ancestor that is,” he added, cutting off the question that had formed on Mary’s lips.  “It was rumored that he, he being Samual mind you, traded across an underground ocean that broke upon a shore of glass.  The tales suggest that there was some form of bazaar-“

“The Black Bazaar,” Rush says.

“Yes, the Black Bazaar,” Benny says and then continues, “across the ocean that Samual sent agents to to trade.”

“And you think The Lampman-“ Mary begins.

“Lampman, not ‘the,’ just Lampman,” I say.

“Ok, you think Lampman found this Glass Shore and the ocean, and the Black Bazaar.”

“It’s possible,” I admit.

“And you think that’s going to be the easiest Sphere to find?  What about Demetrius, or… or was it The Bird Man?”

“Last I spoke to Demetrius, he was talking about hopping a train to and heading west.  We could head west.”

“And The Bird Man?”

I look away and shake my head.  “No, he’s out of the question.”

“Why?” She asks.

“Leave it,” Benny says, but she does not.

“This is my future we’re talking about.”

“The Bird Man is in an asylum upstate.  He killed some man for killing his birds.”

“Oh, so he’s not dead?”

I shake my head again.  “No.”

“Ok, so Lampman it is.  Anyone know where the Glass Shore is by chance?”

I smile.  “No, last I heard Lampman talk, it was out passed the end of the line a ways.”

“I remember him talking about the constant thunderstorm that must rage overhead at the end of the line and how he could never find the storm when he went looking. And pipes!  He talked about pipes a lot.”  Freak Beans says.

“But the end of what line?”  Mary laments.

“I don’t know, but this might help,”  I say as I pull the envelope I picked up at the library from my within my heavy coat.  I unseal the clasp that holds the packet shut, reach in and pull out an ancient piece of paper, browning with age, and gently unfold it, setting it upon a carton for everyone to see.  

“Where’d you get that?”  Freak Beans asks.

“I found it,” I say without looking at him directly.  I use my fingertips to smooth out the paper, a map of the old subway system with numerous hand written notes scribbled all over it.

“Where?”

“Now’s not the time, Benny,” I say, looking it over.  “There!” I jab at the brittle map.  The others huddle around me.

“Where?” It is Mary’s turn to ask.

I move my finger, revealing a scrawl almost smudged away by time.  “I remember something Lampman said before he disappeared, something about the path to the Glass Shore led through the ‘Walking Rocks, and through the Devil’s Rib Cage.’”

Rush leans closer, “Yes, I think you’re right.  ‘Walking Rocks’ it says.”

“Ok, who’s with me?”  Mary says, picking up the map.

Part 18

The silver scarf hangs loosely about her neck and I can barely make out the tip of a tattoo, maybe a snakes forked tongue, poking above the fabric. 

“You must be Dairy Mary,” she says, her voice nasally and her words clipped.  She follows this with a forced smile, revealing porcelain-like teeth.

“Yes, and you are?”  Mary responds, trying to maintain an air of confidence.

“You can call me Catherine, or Cat if you must.”  She turns and peers down her beak-like nose at me.  I stand my ground and glare back, resisting the urge to look away.  She blinks first and glance at Freak Beans, who refuses to make eye contact with her.  As she turns back to Mary, her scarf slips down, revealing that the tattoo is indeed a snake.  I blink and I swear the snake moved. 

“Well Catherine,”  Mary says, “What can I do for you?”

Again with the blinding smile.  “I just wanted to meet the object of my Cyrus’ affections.”

“Your Cyrus?”  I ask, and the snake does move, slithers up her neck until I can see it’s entire head.  As if I am watching a 3-D movie, the snake peels away from her neck.  I shudder as I watch the snake taste the air with it’s tongue.

“Yes, he’s my, partner of sorts.”  The snake climbs further out of her coat, coiling about her neck and left shoulder.

“You can’t go in there!”  I hear someone shout out in the hallway and a moment later, the Russian bursts into the room and shoves Catherine.

“Come on!”  He says and grabs my arm, pulling me out of the room.  Benny does not need to be told twice and falls in line behind us.  I watch over my shoulder for Mary, who appears a moment later.  We run deeper into the hospital and Rush jerks me into an unoccupied room, followed closely by Freak Beans and Mary. 

Giving the door a kick, it closes behind her.  “What was that all about?”  She asks, but the Russian cuts his eyes at her, pulling aside a time-stained curtain and revealing a ladder mounted against the wall leading up to the next floor.

“Up!”  He says and pushes me toward the ladder. 

I look over my shoulder at him and he motions with both of his hands for me to get moving.  I begin my ascent and he herds my other companions into the corner and drops the curtain back into place.  As I poke my head into the room above the ladder shakes and I look down to see Benny right behind me.  I turn my attention back to the room I was entering.  A layer of dust coats almost everything, save a path from the ladder to the closed door.  A rusting metal rack lay on it’s side on the floor near me.  I climb out of the hole and into the room, coughing as I kick up some of the dust.

“Shhh!” I hear from below.

“What happened back there?”  I hear Mary ask again.

“Go.  Up.”  Rush says.

“Not until you tell me what that was about.”

“Nyeht.”

I can imagine him shaking his head.  I scramble further into the room as Benny climbs off of the ladder.

“Bah!” I here the Russian say.  “I do not trust witch!”  All is quiet for a few seconds and he joins us.  I look down through the hole and my head almost collides with Mary’s as she ascends. 

“She’s a witch?”  Benny asks, standing up and dusting himself off as he walks toward the door.

Rush nods.  “Yes, and she’s his witch.”

“It’s locked,” Benny says, his hand still on the doorknob. 

The Russian tilts his head slightly and pulls out his Sigil Sphere.  “Are you Prince?”  He asks, then adds, “Back to the tunnels.”

I close my eyes, but can see the bright flash of light through my eyelids.  I open them and he is gone, leaving Benny, Mary and myself. 

“What was that all about?”  Mary asks again, ignoring the choice before her. 

I begin fishing my own sphere out of a pocket and I see that Benny is doing the same.  I hear Cat’s voice somewhere below us, “I just wanted to say ‘Hi.’  I was hoping we could be friends.”  She shouts. I hear a door open below us, but no further noise.

“Come on, we’ve got to go now,” I say, holding out my hand so Mary can take it.  Benny does the same.

“Ah, there you are,”  I hear the metal grating against metal as the curtain is pulled aside in the room
we had just exited. 

Mary grabs both of our hands and as we all disappear, I hope that Benny picked the same tunnels I had to transfer us to.  The last thing I see as we blink out is the head of the snake appear through the opening in the floor.