My hope had been to grab and slash her wrist. In reality, I grabbed and slashed the snake.
My footing disappeared, and it was all I could do to pull my arms away from the jagged edges of the aperture before I got slashed.
I fell and was shunted, relocated to the window at the end of the hall. I was dropped unceremoniously on the ground, and felt my body react to the impact.
‘Ground’, in my case, was limited to the floor that others could see reflected when they looked at the glass.
See being an operative word here. They were looking at me now.
When I raised my head, gathering my bearings, I saw the Maenad passing off her snake to her nearest neighbor – the animal had been sliced to the spine, muscles and guts severed. It bent in an angular, forced sort of way where it had been cut.
Cords stood out on her neck, veins visible here and there across her body, but her face was eerily blank, all of the emotion in her eyes, lower lids raised.
When she moved, she moved fast. A lunge, crossing half of the hallway.
I ran. She shattered the window behind me.
My travel from one pane of glass to another was nearly instantaneous. She matched me in speed. By the time I arrived in the next picture, her clawed hand was already slashing toward me, skin marred by a dozen light scratches.
I moved, then moved again, without looking. I heard the two pictures break in short succession.
She didn’t give me a chance to think, much less act to stop her. She came after me, moving to hit the surfaces I occupied. Every wall was littered with pictures of nature and sublime landscapes, and she seemed to increase in speed as she found me in each one, hitting a picture before the glass had finished falling to the floor from the last.
I could have slipped away, moving halfway across Jacob’s Bell, but my gut said I shouldn’t.
Didn’t want to rely on my gut or my heart alone. I’d made that mistake before.
Couldn’t duck into the mirror in the library. There was no patch of light, either because the door was closed, or Rose had covered it.
Without the time to form a complete thought, I had to form a half-thought instead.
I moved, I ran, and I crossed the hallway, zig-zagging.
Her companions were fast enough to move out of the way as she came through the group, chasing.
The hollers were faint, but I could hear them cheering her on.
With the vapors of wine and smoke heavy in the air of my mirror-realm, I felt my awareness slip. I moved too slowly.
She shattered a picture I occupied.
I was shunted to the next.
She shattered that one too.
I wasn’t able to ground myself. Something felt wrong with my body. I was in an unfamiliar hostile environment, and it took me a second too long to reach the next place.
That one second was enough time for her to get impatient, using one hand to sweep three pictures from the walls. One hooked on the peg, and flew through the air across the hall, punching through the window at the far end.
I found my feet. She was coming right for me, hands outstretched as claws.
I didn’t have time to run. I thrust out with the Hyena instead, stabbing at one of the reaching hands. The blade penetrated the glass, and I felt it make contact.
I dodged out of the way before the footing was completely gone, crossing the hall.
She grabbed the now-empty frame off the wall, hurling it at me, then turned on her toes, following after.
I crossed the hall again.
She followed, reaching-
And stopped.
Her claws were an inch from Jeremy’s face. She panted hard, painted nails twitching.
Damn. That half-plan had been to try and bait her to hit the one person who wasn’t fast enough to duck out of her way.
It seemed her loyalty to him overrode her anger.
“Stop, Kakia,” he said.
“Serpent… was… gift…” she said, panting out one word between each quick inhalation. She still dropped her hand, her face close to Jeremy’s, eyes not leaving him.
“I know. I was there when he gave it to you,” Jeremy said. “I’m not pleased either.”
I didn’t need to catch my breath, but I did need my bearings. I took stock of my surroundings.
Three reflective surfaces here. Once they were gone, I could only go upstairs or down.
“You’re the mirror dweller Sandra mentioned,” Jeremy spoke.
“Yeah,” I said.
“That snake was a gift from my god to a favored servant,” he said.
“That’s unfortunate,” I answered.
He turned until we were facing one another. His maenad lowered her head until her forehead rested on Jeremy’s shoulder, still panting, fingers held in a claw-like position to the point that the straining of her fingers made them each move independently, as if she couldn’t hold them completely still. The wounded hand bled, blood dripping down her fingers.
“Unfortunate,” he said, as if he were trying on the word, “You have little idea how right you are.”
“That sounds ominous,” I said.
“You’re crossing a god,” he said. “It should.”
“I’ve seen a god,” I said, “I think, anyway. I haven’t seen your god, though.”
“No? I thought we’d crossed paths.”
“You came after me in Toronto,” I said. I thought back to the conversation and intimacy I’d seen just a short while ago. “I believe it was on Sandra’s behalf?”
“If I did, it was for her, yes,” he said. “I don’t remember you or what I did to you.”
“You sicced Conquest on me,” I said.
“Was that what I did? Hm. Set it all in motion.”
I could see the restlessness on the part of his people. They formed a protective circle around their priest, but they couldn’t sit still.
“Hey, Jeremy,” I said, conversationally, “Would you happen to know what protocols are for dealing with very abstract demons?”
With the word ‘demon’, many of the Satyrs and Maenads tensed.
“You’d have to be more specific,” Jeremy said.
“Any protocols at all,” I said.
“I know of the most important one,” he said. “You don’t deal with demons of any type. Common sense.”
“Which is why you left the Etobicoke imp alone? Pauz?” I asked. “And the demon in the oil factory?”
“Yes.”
“I’ll give you a little lesson then, no reciprocation asked for,” I said. “When a demon is abstract, it’s not necessarily bound to all the normal rules we are, in terms of shape, state, time or place. With me so far?”
“I wasn’t the most exceptional student, when I attended school,” Jeremy said. “I struggle with lectures.”
“Try,” I said. “Commit this to memory. Of the two abstract demons I’ve met, both followed the same minor rule. If you see it in a reflective surface, that’s because it occupies that surface. Your eye is reflective, Jeremy. The eyes of your minions serve too. Look directly at it, and it has you, and it isn’t ever letting go.”
“How inconvenient,” he said.
Very,” I said. “As far as I’m aware, there’s one in this house.”
Give Jeremy a cookie. He didn’t look half as scared as even his murderous maenad did. She didn’t move her head, but her eyes widened. The others reacted, looking at one another.
“You could be lying. There are no guarantees you’re bound to tell the truth.”
I shook my head. My vision wavered. I was feeling the influence of this heavy perfume, smoke, blood, and wine that all sat so thick in the air. “Not lying. If I am telling a deliberate falsehood, I give your god permission to strike me down.”