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Well, today hadn't been going all that well, so I would have been quite content to settle down somewhere with a book and finish off my book of Sherlock Holmes mysteries.

Seline had other ideas, however.

Knowing Seline's love for flowers, along with her daily cinnamon bun I brought her a whole bunch of flowers which she ate quite happily.




Despite what else I may have offered her, she ate a good deal off my wild rose bush.



And while I was trying to salvage what was left of it, Seline went for a swim.

I don't think it was on purpose.

I heard Ghost shrieking -- she doesn't talk, but she screams and sings a little -- and I got really worried and ran. Seline was struggling along at the edge, but she pulled herself up out of the water without too much difficulty. She's okay. Ghost's okay. We're all okay.

Good lord, but my heart is still beating like a drum.

Ahhh, Saturday. Much studying to do today, but the weather has been very nice lately, although a bit windy.

First things first. I brought Seline her breakfast (Fresh bread and butter, a brownie, and some daisies I picked for her. Also the last of the cinnamon buns; I'll have to make some more.

Imagine my surprise when I saw the small flower and vine that has appeared on Seline's right foreleg! I gushed a little, but she knows she looks good without my interfering.

I let Seline out to graze some. The Ghost Weed was singing a new song this morning, and has been riding along with Seline by clinging to her neck.

That pond and Seline's fascination with it have been worrying me.

After a lazy morning where Hecate and I attempted to make daisy chains (they all fell apart, and then Seline ate them), I noticed Seline approaching the pond. Again. The Ghost Weed was hanging around, and seemed to be urging her on.

Well, heck in a handbasket.

"Seline!" I yelled and ran across to the pond. Hecate beat me there and scooped up the little, kicking, struggling filly.

"Now, now," Hecate soothed her, setting her on the ground again. "You can't swim yet. You can't go swimming yet."

Seline snorted disdainfully.

I stared at the pond. Now, it's been my swimming hole for a while now, and there's that one canada goose who flaps around it sometimes, and a handful of catfish lurking at the bottom, and I can't get rid of it. I can't.

"She does need to learn how to swim, if you're going to keep this pond," Hecate pointed out.

I sighed. "You have to help. I have no idea how to swim with four legs."

Seline whickered hopefully and pranced around us a bit. Hecate laughed--her laugh is really very horsey, but don't tell her I said that--and patted Seline. "Come on," she pleaded with me. "Seline wants to."

I nodded at last. "But around at the other end. It's shallower there."

I ran back to the house and changed into my swimsuit, and when I returned, Hecate and Seline were splashing around in the water. Seline kept trying to go deeper, but the centaur wouldn't let her until I came.

Bless her.

So, with Hecate on one side, and me on the other, we swam Seline out gradually into deeper waters, while Hecate demonstrated equine swimming. Actually, a swimming centaur is one of the funnier things I've ever seen, but I'd hate to wound Catie's pride by saying so to her.

We paddled around for maybe an hour, but it's still early in the year... it was so cold! We crawled out and dried off and dozed in the sun for a while.

So, Seline's first swimming lesson. Hecate promised to come back another time and help more until Seline gets the hang of it.

Hecate brought Seline a bag of lemon drops, by the way, and she thinks I didn't notice. I don't think I'll interfere with this illusion.

Seline was hanging around the pond all day today, and when Hecate finally showed up this afternoon, apologising for her lateness, Seline ran like crazy all over in excitement at her second swimming lesson.

And as neither I nor Hecate can keep up with her (so fast!) there was nothing to do but wait for her to calm down and come back.

Seline is taking to the water very well, and swam around a bit on her own today. I'm very proud of her, and so is Seline. If she could talk, I have the feeling she'd be saying "look at me!" over and over.

Hecate pointed out to me that some time soon we should all go for a day trip to the village market. Seline seems to like this idea.

Well, the weather's pretty nice and I finally tore Seline away from her Easter gifts long enough to get her to help me to set up the vegetable garden.

I was worried that Seline wouldn't like getting dirty, but she sees no problem in stomping around in the earth. This is good.

Anyway, we took down the fence, and dug out an expansion so we'd have room for the vegetables. I need to get more fence, now. Seline helped me turn up the earth, and we added some compost.

And eventually, we were done that. We took a long rest, and had some lemonade. Well, I had lemonade, and Seline had water. We both had lemon cookies.

After our rest, we planted all the vegetables. We have tomatoes, zucchini, lots of radishes, carrots, beets, potatoes, dillweed, basil, rosemary... also some broccoli, but I've never grown that before and I don't know how it'll work out. The radishes will be ready long before anything else is.

Seline is extremely impatient for these things to start growing.

Ceres has given (well, loaned) me and Seline a book which mentioned a special flower. We've decided to go looking for it.

The flower is only ever found in the northern reaches of the forest, near the foot of the mountains. It's a long way for us to go. I think I can do it. Seline, I'm a little worried about. She's built for speed, not endurance.

I've asked Hecate to come water our garden while we're gone. She offered to come, suggesting that she can carry a lot more than either Seline or I can, but I think this is just for us two.

We're packing tonight. We'll leave tomorrow.

We're off!



I'm excited. I haven't done any hiking in a long time. I dug out my old bush hat, and my old pack. Seline has the bedding; I have the food and the tent and the necessaries. We have water purification tablets, and trail mix (mostly nuts with chocolate and licorice allsorts. Don't ask about the licorice allsorts. It's a tradition) and Gatorade mix (A hiker's best friend).

We had a nice big breakfast this morning. No sense in rushing things.

Anyway, this is the book passage we're following:



So that's our mission: To find a masque orchid seed, bring it back, and grow it.

Messages can be left with Hecate, if there's anything.

Third Day on the Trail

Later:

I ducked into the tent for a bit, and when I came out, I heard that singing again. It's very beautiful, but... I wanted to know what it was. So, as quietly as I could, I followed.

I came up close behind Seline at the pool's edge. And I saw a very strange creature on the bank of the water, singing gently to Seline, who was listening with rapt attention.



I gave a gasp, involuntarily, and the creature stopped short. Before my very eyes it turned into water and splashed into the pond, disappearing. Seline was terribly angry with me for chasing away her new friend. I soothed her as best as I could... maybe it'll come back?

I think I've heard of these... a water Teshi...

I hope it does come back...

Fourth Day on the Trail

It was very reluctantly that Seline and I left the pool. The plan was to march a little up the slope of the mountain, just a little, and see if we could find anything before we headed back to camp at the bottom. There was no sign of the Teshi from yesterday when we left.

As we hiked along, though, we kept hearing that same song. Seline gave me this smug sort of look, but there was nothing in sight.

I'm getting worried. See, the problem with backpacking is that you're limited how long you can go by how much food you can carry. We have a few more days. We stopped by a river and fished a bit, and got some trout. The idea is to stretch our supplies as long as possible.

But a little bit of encouragement! We did find something that looks a lot like the empty seedpod of a Masque Orchid, just at the bottom of the slope as we started down. We'll look into this some more tomorrow.

The Teshi did reappear. It came to visit Seline, and it seemed much more at ease with my presence today. It's very wild, still, but it's fallen asleep between Seline's front legs. I think it's here to stay.

Seline and I had a small discussion (I mean, she doesn't talk, really, but we can make ourselves understood to each other anyway. I almost suspect, sometimes, that she could talk if she wanted to, but doesn't), and we seemed to have settled on calling the Teshi "Matar." It's the name of a star in the constellation Pegasus, usually translated as meaning "Rain." Seline seems sure Matar is male. I'll take her word for it.

We'll see how tomorrow goes.

Fifth Day on the Trail

We found three more empty seed pods, but no living plant or actual seed. Still, the day was enjoyable, with Matar bouncing along behind us, singing happily.

I have the feeling we're getting closer. Though, of course, even once we find it, we'll hardly have begun.


Back at Home: Hecate's Journal

The radishes are starting to sprout. I know they grow fast, but this is really, really fast.

I hope Sunny and Seline come back soon. I'm getting sort of bored.

So, today at last, we rounded each other up and went searching for the driest patch of earth we could find on my property.

We at last settled for under the eaves on the sunniest side of the house. That should be wonderful for this drought-loving plant.

Nothing to do but wait, I suppose.

The garden's gone crazy. I had a radish sandwich today. It was very good, but... it's growing crazy. Seline looks very smug, for some reason.

Alright, what's going on?

The vegetable garden is very early and near out of control. The Masque Orchid seed has already sprouted and is three inches high.

Plants should not be growing like this!

Seline is behind this, I know it, though I can't get anything useful out of her. Whether it's her directly, or the influence of the Ghost Weed whom she watered and brought to us, well... I don't know. For all I know, it could be the influence of Matar, the water teshi.

But everything green and growing here is growing fast and healthy. Not that I'm complaining. It's just weird, that's all.

The Orchid is already nearly a foot tall. I don't think it's supposed to grow this quickly. It's got plenty of leaves, and a few buds. I admit it. I'm baffled. This is wrong and confusing and I'm baffled.

Well, at last, although far too soon, the orchid has bloomed.

Seline came running to fetch me when she noticed. The Masque Orchid is, at this point, nearly as tall as I am, with a cluster of flowers at the top to about halfway down, like a hollyhock or a delphinium. Not all the buds are open, yet, but those that are are a pale, pale pink, with a dark purple horizontal stripe across the centre. I suppose this stripe looks a little like a mask. The leaves are dark, dark green.

It's a very, very pretty plant.

Seline wanted to taste one of the flowers. I let her eat one, but I told her firmly that was all. I think she really liked it.

I would be lying if I said I was much good when it comes to carpentry.

So, what it was we bought yesterday was a sort of kit to expand the stable. It will be simple, but most of the house is, after all. Me and Hecate (being the ones with, y'know, hands) started work early this morning. Seline and Matar were well-occupied with trying to convince the much more sedate Spica to come play with them, and Chou, who's a quiet sort of horse anyway, was off grazing.

As Hecate and I neared the halfway point of our project, she nudged me gently in the ribs. "Sunny," she whispered, "look at Spica."

"A way with plants," the goblin had said. Indeed! Seline and Spica were lying at the edge of the pond, while Matar, changing into water and back to a solid, was splashing in and out of the water, chirruping and singing. Spica gave a little shake of her mane to free herself from the flowers that were growing up around her. Seline was watching this with a quiet, reverent awe.

I put down my hammer and crept a little closer. My approach was noticed; Spica rose and came to greet me, and Seline trotted along behind her, whinnying in a pleased manner.

I stroked the Zhi's nose gently. "You're really something, aren't you?" I said. "What you can do with plants makes Seline's abilities pale in comparison." Seline nudged me, and I laughed and turned my attention to the changeling. "Mind you, thanks to you my garden is so thick I can hardly get at my radishes."

Spica nibbled on the hem of my shirt in a friendly way, and I stroked her horns. Matar jumped up and down. Seline leaned on me heavily. I thought.

Now, I don't know much about elemental magic. So I'm not really sure how I should deal with Seline. But with Spica and Matar...

"Spica," I addressed the Zhi, hoping she would understand and that the goblin had not exaggerated her intelligence, "can you help Seline with her abilities? I'm not too worried about what she can do with Water, after all... but I worry about the plants..."

Spica gave me a long look, and tossed her head, and butted me gently with her horns. She nudged Seline, and they walked off with Matar bouncing behind them.

"Well," Hecate said at my shoulder, and I jumped. "That was a bit of a waste of time."

"I'm not sure it was," I said.

The Masque orchid is fully in bloom, now.

It's covered in small purple and rose flowers. It doesn't show any signs of wilting yet. Ceres's book says it's a perennial, so... even when it does fade, we'll have more next year. I explained this to Seline, and she was most put out.

While we were looking at it, a small hummingbird, a rufous hummingbird, buzzed into sight, sipped at the flowers, completely ignoring us. Seline was very impressed. She thought this was great.

La.

I've noticed something about Spica the past few days. She has kept close to Seline nearly constantly, watching her.

Perhaps Spica did understand what I said?

Hm. I really am going to have to think about what to do about Seline's powers...

But for now, I plan to go patch up my finger where I burnt it on a soldering gun. Ow.

We sat down with grilled cheese sandwiches and pan-fried perogies and dill-pickles and salted garden-fresh radishes at the edge of the pond, today.

"Now, Seline," I said, "the garden has slowed down, and I'm happy about this. But... um." I pointed to where a small dandelion had grown up around her rear hoof. Seline whickered gently at me and ate it; the yellow of the dandelion smushed over her nose. Spica nudged Seline gently.

"Now, you're going to need a bath," I admonished. "You got yellow on you. Anyway, that's, um, not natural. Also, I suspect the number of thunderstorms we've had recently is also not natural."

Seline looked at me through narrowed eyes. She knew.

"But... help me, Seline, I don't know what I can do. I've been thinking this over for ages and ages and I don't know how I can help."

Hecate touched me gently on the shoulder. "Sunny... I don't think she wants help. She's learning."

I stared. Spica had rested her head on Seline, and Matar was snuggled up between them. Seline was glaring at me, defiantly. I shook my head. "I know you want to do this yourself, but..."

Seline looked at me. I nodded. "I know. I can't do anything to help you. Fine. I'll trust you, Seline... but don't let me worry too much."

At last, my changeling laid her head in my lap and whickered calmly.

It was hot and muggy today, and this afternoon, as I sat in a reclining lawn chair under the biggest tree, and let the rain begin to spatter down through the branches onto me, Seline trotted over, with an important neigh.

"What is it?" I rolled over to look.

Seline regarded me very importantly. I was aware of Matar and Spica some distance off, and Spica... well, call me crazy, but I'd swear Spica looked proud.

My changeling shook her mane, and... how to explain this... the rain parted around us, leaving us dry. I stared up. "Seline... did you do that?"

Seline nuzzled me. I took that for a yes.

Then, she knelt to the ground, and a small plant began to grow up between her front hooves. Within a moment it had bloomed. Seline plucked it up in her teeth and placed it in my lap.

It was a yellow rose. They're my favourite.

"Oh, Seline..." I hugged her around the neck, and I guess I surprised her, because the rain started to fall on us again.

"Hello-oh-oh-oh-oh." My voice echoed down the well. Seline snorted at me. "Well, I don't know. What do you bring back from a well? A glass of water?"

Seline pawed curiously at the edge of it, and a few loose pebbles flaked off.

"Well, I don't know. I'm thirsty." I lowered the bucket and hauled it back up. I raised the bucket to my lips to take a drink.

Something splashed.

I shrieked and dropped the bucket; water splashed all over my front and the bucket hit my foot and bounced away. Seline went to fetch it for me.

"Must've been... a newt or something..."

Sure enough, I caught a glimpse of the newt disappearing into the undergrowth. I sighed. "Well, okay, now what?"

Seline went searching. I lay down in the sun to try and dry off.

Presently, Seline came and dropped some dandelions on my face. I sputtered and brushed them off. "What! Seline, what's the big idea?"

She tossed her head importantly.

"Dandelions? Sure, why not..."

That would be item number four.

We're back at the base of the mountains, I see. Deja vu.

We wandered around under the shade of the trees for a while, not doing anything, my arms around Seline's neck. It's been hot recently, and it really takes it out of me.

We stopped by a small stream, and Seline nuzzled around in the undergrowth for something to eat. I took off my boots and waded a bit. Seline came and followed me, splashing happily.

She gave a sudden whicker of alarm and stumbled back onto the bank. "Here, here, Seline. Calm down."

Hooked onto one front hoof, without actually breaking the skin, was a small purple feathered fishing lure. I took it off and showed it to her.

Seline's nostrils flared. "Some fisherman must have lost it," I suggested. "Now, where can we put this so it doesn't get in the way of anyone else?" I wrenched off the hook without too much difficulty. "It's really sort of pretty."

Seline nuzzled at the soft, damp feathers approvingly. Feathers! She doesn't have a lot of experience with feathers, but she likes them, I guess. All right.

"Item number five?"

She looked approving.

Item One.
Item Two.
Item Three.
Item Four.
Item Five.

So. Okay. We arrived at the Headquarters tree, and sat under it to rest. "You know about this tree, right, Seline? It makes random stuff happen."

Seline laid her hooves on the trunk and reached up high. She knocked down a strange, spiky yellow fruit, and brought it to me.

"What the heck is that?" I asked.

She whickered.



The fruit looked... horned. I have no idea what sort of thing it could be.

"Well, it doesn't look that appetising to me, but if it's what you want..."

One to go, then... to the ruined dock tomorrow.

I rolled out of my sleeping bag this morning and discovered Seline munching on the horned fruit we'd picked the night before. I stared for a moment.

"Any good?"

Seline whickered and nosed the yellow fruit (the non-spiky one) towards me.

Well, I know about the fruit from the tree on the beach. Share a bite... and we get a sort of empathy.

Fine.

I took a bite. It was vaguely apple-like, and very sweet. I passed it to Seline, and she chewed it down.

We stared at each other.

Then, in the most distant corner of my mind, I felt a tiny presence. "Seline?"

Seline sent me a sensation of happiness, and pictured the dock.

"Yes, that's where we're going now..."

Seline had an easier time of the scree slope than I did, having four legs rather than two, but I urged her to use caution anyway. We didn't go straight up; rather, we crossed zig-zag, the safest way I was taught to climb scree.

Scree is essentially a long slope of gravel, rocks fallen from the mountain over many, many years. It slips out from under you with every step, and your feet tend to sink in it. It's only slightly easier to climb than sand, but heavier.

As evening fell, we reached the dark splotch on the side of the mountain. As expected, it was a cave, an opening large enough for me and Seline to walk abreast.

You don't usually get cave entrances that large. Not naturally.

I took out my flashlight and shone it ahead of us as we stepped inside. At first, there was very little other than darkness and the sound of our feet on the stone ground. Seline whickered nervously, and it echoed alarmingly.

"Shh," I urged her. I didn't want whatever might be in here made aware of our presence.

The cavern opened up from a tunnel to a room. There were layers of bat guano, and the rustle of wings above us. I aimed the beam of the flashlight at the ceiling, and thousands of tiny bodies stirred. It seemed to me that there was something else, something larger up there, too, but I couldn't see.

There was no bird, no raven. We moved through the cavern into another passage.

It was cool, the air moist, and a faint rumble of water could be heard in the far distance. I would've enjoyed it in any other situation. Go figure that my first spelunking expedition would be like this.

The tunnel got smaller, then opened up into another great underground room. The walls glistened with unmined ore and quartz crystals. I shone the flashlight around looking for a farther passage to carry on, but this seemed to be the end of the line.

A raven cawed, so out of place and so... wrong... in a situation like that. Seline reared and I spun the flashlight around. The raven sat perched upon an outcropping of rock, the silver coin clutched in its talons.

You came? How interesting.

The thought came into my mind like Seline's, though far more well-formed and coherent. Seline heard it too, I guess, for she whinnied.

"Who's that? Who's there?" I demanded.

My flashlight beam fell upon the face of a horse. Its eyes gleamed with intelligence and cruelty. A... changeling? Here? The changeling was a large creature, a velvety purple and almost black in colour. Its mane was short and bristly, like a donkey's or a zebra's, and black. One hind leg was white up to the knee. It was a pegasus--but then, not quite, I realised. Though it was winged, they were the wings of a bat, dark brown, torn and scarred. I wondered if it was, in fact, able to fly. More worrying was the changeling's hind legs, which were not the hooves of any decent horse, but talons with claws as long as my fingers.

"Oh, lord..."

Frightened, are you, human? the changeling hissed into my mind. Good!

"Are you responsible for this? Are you the one interfering?"

I am. The changeling neared us, its claws scraping on the stone. I am here to ask you to free the changeling you keep captive before you bind her to you completely.

"Free?" I felt Seline's angry bafflement in the back of my mind. "I don't hold her captive." Seline snorted her agreement.

You think so? How dare you, you foolish human, place any claim on her at all. How dare you limit her true potential by your own frail mind.

"I am not human," I told him, irritated.

You are an outsider. You do not belong on Mystic Island. Leave the filly with me, to her true fate, and do not return.

"I will not!" I yelled, even as I felt Seline's frightened panic in my mind. Screw the coin, screw everything, nothing was worth this. With my hand on Seline's mane, we turned and fled.

Something was in our way.

Sitting calmly in the passageway was a bat the size of a rottweiller. It was almost a bat, at any rate, but it seemed more adapted to walking on the ground, it had a thick, muscular tail, and its face was smooth and flat, with a small mouth and two large, perfectly round and luminous eyes, like twin moons. It shook its head very slightly at us, and we turned back to the changeling.

There was no getting out.

Seline whinnied shrilly, stomping on the ground.

You want to stay with her because you do not realise you are her slave! She limits your potential. The changelings were a great race once, but our slavery to the outsiders has brought us to our knees. The raven took flight, and the flashlight was knocked from my hands. It clattered away, with a sound of breaking glass, and we were plunged into darkness, other than the twin moons of the giant bat's eyes.

"You can't do this!" I yelled. "Just let us go!"

Silence! Out of the darkness came a blow, hard to my head, and I stumbled back into the wall, and fell.

I woke some time later, still plunged into darkness. I was alone, it seemed; I heard and felt nothing but the stone floor and the wall I was propped against, lying on my side. I could not move; it took me a moment or two to realise this was because I was tied. Where was Seline? Where was my child?! I struggled.

"Shh, my child," said a voice in my ear. I could not place it as either male or female, it was so inhuman. "I cannot release you, but I assure you are safe in my care. I have held your egg for you, while you slept. It is safe." It was tucked beneath my arm, and I clutched it to my chest; it seemed fine.

"Seline, then?" I whispered.

"She is with Alighieri."

"Who?"

"The dark changeling." A hand touched my arm, smaller than a human hand, and like a child's, yet it had a strength to it, and it seemed softly furred. It reminded me, oddly, of a raccoon's paw. "She is with Alighieri in his inner sanctum."

"Who are you? Let me go!"

"Alas, child, I cannot." The speaker had been resting out of my view, but it leaned towards me, and I saw the two, round, gleaming eyes of the giant bat. "I have made a deal with Alighieri, and I do not break my bargains."

"If you're so eager to help me, why are you helping him?"

The creature chuckled deep in its throat. "Child, Alighieri came to me long ago. He was a normal changeling once, as all begin, but his guardian had been a cruel and twisted human. Alighieri became a twisted changeling. Alighieri's human had been a wizard, interested in him for some arcane reason of his own. I won't presume to understand the workings of the human mind. He neglected the young changeling, exposed him to dark and evil creatures and black magics, to settle his own curiosity.

"I have lived in this cave for a long time. It suits me well enough. I have no one to bother me but the bats, and I am content. Alighieri came to me, lost and scared, a young stallion with no home, with scarred and broken wings.

"He told me his human had flown him to a far, distant peak to collect some ingredient the wizard desired. A sudden storm had blown up, as is common in the mountains. Alighieri expressed his desire to find shelter, and his human cursed him and urged him on. The wind and hail and lightning took its toll, and Alighieri was nearly killed. His human was.

"I took Alighieri under my wing, cared for him, healed him. He knew my kind. He begged a bargain."

"What are you?" I asked.

"I am called the Gorrimao. I am one of what has been called demons. I do not do favours easily; saving Alighieri was most likely the first I have done in many hundred years. But I make bargains, and Alighieri knew it." It seemed to me I heard a smile in his voice. "His bargain suited me. He performed me a great service, and I agreed to help him with revenge.

"Revenge is such a mortal thing. I do not understand it, but it fascinates me."

The Gorrimao shifted, and lay down beside me. "My child," he said, "I do not believe I like being party to this revenge of Alighieri's any longer, but I do not break a bargain. This is the heaviest bargain I have yet made."

"What does Alighieri want with Seline?"

"An ally. One who can help him convince the other changelings living on Mystic Island that he is right, to escape from the perceived slavery and slay the mortals who live here. You must have realised, child, that Seline is nearly grown, now."

"She is. What was the bargain you made with him?"

"I will not discuss that with you. But..." Again, the smile in his voice. "But it is possible for me to make a bargain with you. Simply guarding you is not covered by our bargain. Make me a bargain, and I shall untie you. I can do nothing else."

"I don't think I have anything to bargain with," I said.

"Then you will owe me a boon. I may keep it for a long time, but I will come, at some point, and claim my boon."

"What sort of boon?" I narrowed my eyes at him, useless in the dark.

"Nothing that will cause you harm. I do not ask for your mortal soul--though how anyone can own a soul is beyond me. In the past, I have asked for magical essences and relics, for a night's worth of dreams, for great deeds and little, and once, the saving of my own life." I heard him yawn, suddenly. "This bores me, child. Do you accept or not? I should tell you that Seline has been with Alighieri a long time already, and she may not be able to resist his will for ever. She is a strong-minded creature, and loyal to you, but she could be convinced all the same. If she cannot be convinced, he will kill her."

I swallowed. "Fine. I accept the bargain."

"I have told you my name, then. Tell me yours. Your full name, your true name."

"I am Bennali Sundragyn of the tribe of Last Home."

"Good." The cords at my wrists and ankles came untied, though the Gorrimao did not move. "Move quickly, child. Alighieri's sanctum can be reached by passing through the wall opposite us. It is an illusion. It is my illusion."

"Thank you," I said as I stood.

"No need to thank me. I am simply a creature of business." His eyes glowed at me, and he placed my flashlight in my hands. "Take that horrible instrument of yours, and make haste."

When I turned on the flashlight, there was no sign of the Gorrimao. I swallowed, and moved towards the wall. As the demon had said, it was illusionary; it slipped away from me and there was a passage.

I could hear Seline, faintly, echoing down the passage.

I gritted my teeth and hurried on.