Ali - Seven For a Secret

Tony was worried. Virginia hadn’t stirred from the upstairs room. The last time he’d looked, she’d still been curled up, pale and silent, on the makeshift bed. He didn’t think she’d slept at all. Whatever had happened between Wolf and Virginia - and she refused to say - it had not turned out at all the way Tony had hoped.

He sighed and rubbed his face, staring at his distorted reflection in the wide curve of the empty cocktail glass on the bar. He picked it up and rolled it in his hands, watching his reflected nose elongate. He had drifted back here last night after taking a discreet walk to find Wendell while Wolf went to talk to Virginia. He’d learned, during their adventures in the summer, to be discreet around the two of them - walking ahead, pretending he didn’t hear them talking, or that he didn’t see them holding hands. It made his heart sore and glad at the same time, watching their whirlwind courtship. And now ... now something was bothering him and he couldn’t put his finger on it.

“Oh yeah, something’s bothering me alright,” he said aloud sarcastically. “Could it be the dragon or my daughter going nuts or maybe being taken over by some loony-tune Oracle that’s all mouth when it wants something from me but no ACTION when we’ve got a crisis? Why would any of that bother me?!” He paused, hoping for the feeling that he’d learned came over him pre-prophecy, rather like a sneeze that never came. He felt completely helpless. But his nose didn’t tickle nor his throat tighten up. “Dammit.”

And now Wolf had gone to ground somewhere. That bothered Tony a lot. The glass warmed up in his hold as he searched through his mixed feelings about his half-wolf son-in-law till he hit the one of which he was most sure. Wolf worshipped Virginia. But once before, when she’d hurt him, he’d taken off without a word, Tony reminded himself.

“So what’s bugging me now?” he wondered aloud. “Crazy wolf’s probably off baying his heart out at the moon somewhere. I oughta be mad at him for abandoning Virginia when she most needs him.”

As soon as he said it, her realised THAT was what was bothering him. Wolf, in his way, had always been absolutely dependable - it was odd to think of someone so hyper and nervy and plain flaky as Wolf in that fashion but there it was. He’d demonstrated his - well, I guess you’d call it pack loyalty, Tony thought, shrugging, over and over again. Where Virginia was concerned, Wolf was as predictable as sunrise. When he’d left before Wolf had trailed them at a distance, saving their lives yet again in the Swamp. And even if he’d thought Virginia never wanted to see him again Wolf would never abandon his wife and cub, full stop. Multiply that by infinity if they’re in trouble.

“Even if Virginia sent him away, Wolf would still be here moping around somewhere. Probably pestering the life outta me.” Tony put the glass down with a ‘chink’. “So where the hell is he?”

Tony got up from the bar decisively. He had to get Virginia to talk to him. He couldn’t let this go on. He couldn’t let her sink deeper into confusion.

“And Wendell’s no help” he muttered, climbing the wobbling staircase. When Tony had finally found the king last night he’d barely been able to get any sense out of him at all. And that worried him too. He’d heard Wendell’s voice raised in excitement in the room along from the bar and since the door to the room was hanging off its hinges, Tony had tapped and gone straight in.

“Hey, Wendell, have we got a plan about the drag...??” The words died on his lips. The king was wearing a rust stained linen undersuit over which his footman was buckling the greaves of his armour around his legs. The footman’s expression was disapproving and Tony guessed that had to do mostly with the presence of that creepy pale woman who’d hissed at them earlier in the street. He knew how the footman felt. Tony was embarrassed, like he’d intruded on something private. The woman had turned those fierce ice-eyes on him and he was sure she hissed at him again, but a moment later the expression faded and he couldn’t be sure he’d even seen it. If he’d had to worry about the propriety of a half-dressed king in the company of a weird woman Tony rather thought he’d look po-faced too. Of course it could’ve been the armour. Boy, you sure never heard about that with the whole King Arthur deal; no one ever told you those ‘knights in shining armour’ stank like a mixture of a car workshop and a load of unwashed laundry.

“Err, hi there.” Tony raised an uncertain hand. “Wendell, I thought maybe I should come see how your dragon-slaying plans were coming along. I can see they’re coming along. Right? I mean, that is the plan, isn’t it?” He edged into the room, past the chair where the silver-haired woman sat upright.

“Anthony,” Wendell impatiently shook off his footman and clanked across the room to grab Tony by the hand, “I can’t believe you’d condone such a violent solution! Has that wolf been talking to you?”

Tony frowned, “My son-in-law,” he stressed, feeling an obscure need to defend Wolf, “has gone to try to talk to his wife, so no he hasn’t said anything about anything else. Come on Wendell, what else can we do here? Its not like we can sit down with it and negotiate.”

Watching the proud smile grow across the king’s face, Tony felt a familiar sinking feeling. “What? Wendell, no, come on you can’t be serious?”

Wendell wagged a finger. “I’m deadly serious Anthony. I really think there’s been enough bloodshed lately.”

Tony slapped his forehead in disbelief. “Yeah and none of the blood shed belonged to the dragon! A lot of your people have died here. And I’d like to draw your attention to the word ‘deadly’. It’s a dragon. It probably hasn’t even heard of the Geneva Convention.”

Wendell frowned. “The what?” He shook his head and held up his hand imperiously to prevent Tony from speaking. “No, don’t explain it to me Anthony, I’m still struggling with the concept of ‘elections’.” The king paced noisily up and down. (Step, clank, step, clank.) “Why does everyone find it so hard to understand? Dragons are noble creatures in all the stories. I’m quite sure I can get it to understand the devastation it’s causing.”

Tony and the footman exchanged pained glances. Then the footman shrugged, as if to say, ‘I’m only the servant around here, it’s not up to me to say anything.’

Tony scowled. “Wendell, why the armour if you don’t plan to kill it?”

“Well now, that’s Silver’s suggestion. Have you met her?” The king swivelled on his heel as if he intended to formally introduce them, but when Tony looked to where the creepy woman had been sitting, the chair was empty. “Where did she go?” Wendell said, visibly upset. “I wanted to introduce you to her; she’s simply brilliant and so beautiful. It was her idea that I wear the armour I brought because then if there were any teeny misunderstandings when I go to negotiate with the dragon when it next appears, then I’ll be protected.”

Tony sat in the chair himself, with his head in his hands.

“You’ll be roasted alive in a handy foil wrapping more like,” he retorted. “What’s with you and this woman Wendell? I’ve never seen you so stupid, not even when you had four legs and your idea of conversation was saying ‘big bone.’” Tony lifted his head and rubbed his nose. “It’s like she’s got you under some kind of influence, or spell or something.” He paused, the significance of what he was doing slowly dawning on him. He pulled his itching nose delightedly. “You’re bewitched Wendell,” he cried, grinning. “And that’s Oracular truth!”

Wendell stopped pacing at once, and glared at Tony, “I am not!”

Tony gave him his best ‘portentous’ look.

“Am I? ”

Tony reached the top of the stairs, slightly breathless, and shook his head, remembering the confusion on Wendell’s face. Am I the only sane one around here right now? It had taken all Tony’s influence as ‘Oracle’ - a title he was wholly uncomfortable with - to persuade Wendell to consider the fact that he might not be firing on all cylinders with his ‘dragon negotiation’ idea. And Tony suspected he wouldn’t have been able to get that far if Silver had still been there. I’d like to have a conversation with that lady, for sure.

Tony paused outside the room where Virginia had lain alone most of the night. He’d tried just sitting with her, but it had frightened him so much, reminding him of other silent, sleepless nights, that in the end he’d chickened out and gone back to the bar to wait for Wolf. His heart was pounding from more than the climb up the stairs. And that about brings us full circle, Tony thought.

He cleared his throat as he entered the room, feeling butterflies in his stomach. Going in was just about the bravest thing he’d ever done, up to and including fighting three ravening trolls.

“Now Virginia,” he began, “this can’t go on.”

His daughter was lying listlessly on her side with her back to the door, but he could see from where he stood that her eyes were wide open. She didn’t reply. He edged further in, stuffing his hands in the pockets of his brown velvet coat. It had been rather fine a few days ago. Now it was more than a little shabby. Story of my life, Tony thought, angrily. Something good gets ruined. Well, I’m tired of it. No more!

He stomped over to Virginia and shook her by the shoulder more roughly than he’d really meant to. When he stopped shaking her, she simply curled back up around her gravid stomach and faced away from him again.

“Virginia, listen to me. I haven’t seen Wolf since he spoke to you and Wendell’s under some kind of spell, I don’t know what. Honey, I need you and this is not helping.”

“Go away,” she said quietly. Her face was pale and drawn.

He stormed around the room, getting madder by the minute. Dawn was beginning to break across the horizon, he could see through the smashed window the line of brightness where the sun would soon come up. He’d meant to be gentle and caring but dammit! There wasn’t time for this! What if the dragon attacked again? As he thought that, his nose twitched. Aghast, he went cross-eyed, trying to stare at the end of his nose. What a time to be getting the hang of this Oracle thing.

“Well, okay! You just lie there feeling sorry for yourself while who knows where Wolf is - you remember your husband? And I’ll just go and try to stop the imaginary Wendell from being roasted by the imaginary dragon ... that’s okay!” He was really getting in to the swing of this now. “And when we’ve all been scorched crispy then you can have the comfort of knowing the world around you was real after all, and I’m sure you’ll feel much better for the five seconds before you become dragon snacked!”

He hunkered down and wagged a furious finger at her, “Y’know what Virginia? You always were a selfish little girl."

She flung her arm up and caught him a crack across the jaw as she sat up violently, her face contorted in a snarl. Tony fell over on his butt, astonished at her ferocity. Just what has that wolf been teaching my daughter?

“Selfish?! I’m selfish? Who made us stay to help Wolf at Little Lamb Village? Who set the birds free at the gypsy camp?

Tony said quietly, rubbing his aching mouth, “That was my daughter Virginia. I’ve been wondering where she’s gone.”

She glared at him, her blue eyes hard. Tony was just glad he’d managed to break her out of her self-pitying stupor. Being mad at me should at least feel familiar.

There was a timid knocking.

“What?!” they both yelled. Brock slid his bulky frame through the door.

“Hello...” Tony said warily. This guy was obviously a loony-tune. Even when Tony had first seen him at Wendell’s palace the guy had given him the creeps. Then, Brock had been exhausted but at least he’d seemed sane. Now - the man was sweating and his eyes skittered nervously from Tony to Virginia and back. “What do you want?”

“You are Tony and Virginia Lewis?”

For a man of his stocky build, the vintner moved quite gracefully. He stepped tentatively into the room.

“Last time I looked,” Tony replied sarcastically. Where had the guy been sleeping? He stank like a pigsty and damp straw stuck to his head and clothes. Brock ignored him, staring at Virginia.

“I have a message for you.”

He edged toward Virginia and held out a piece of paper in his trembling hand. Virginia took it, looking at him curiously. She unfolded it and read it and Tony saw her face drain, chalk-white. He didn’t think she could go any paler; he was distressed to find he’d been wrong. Wordlessly, she handed him the note, staring at Brock as if he’d grown an extra head to go with his truly world class stench. The note didn’t make any sense to Tony. He turned the paper upside down, and over and read it again right way up in the vain hope he might understand what had freaked Virginia out. He read it aloud.

“‘Wake up or all is lost’? What’s so special about that?”

“Who gave you this?” Virginia ignored him; Tony heard her tone and looked up from the perplexing note to see his daughter practically shaking with anger, her previously pale face flushed. She ignored his question as if he wasn’t there.

Brock looked as though he’d like to take a step away, but he held his ground, his mad blue eyes staring back at Virginia with equal intensity.

“You know who,” he replied shortly.

Tony chopped through the crackling silence between them with a downward motion of his hands.

“Hello? What are we getting all cranky about here? Anyone like to tell the all-knowing Oracle just what the hell is going on?”

Virginia scrambled to her feet, gripping a blanket around her shoulders and snatched the note from him, advancing on Brock.

“You’re telling me Snow White gave you this? I don’t believe you.”

“I don’t care whether you believe me or not. You two helped the kingdoms before and you’re the only ones I can trust. I need your help. Wendell is completely under that woman’s power.”

If Tony hadn’t been so busy at that moment trying to stop an imminent sneeze, he might have agreed with Brock, or he might have snorted ‘Snow White?’ he wasn’t sure which. But he screwed up his face and pushed his itching nose about with his hands, trying his best to hold in what he knew was coming.

Brock and Virginia fell silent, staring him as if he were a lunatic. Tony gave up. He grabbed Virginia’s hand and propelled Brock forward by his shoulder.

“Dad!”

“Unless you want to be barbecue, Virginia, I suggest we get out of here right now. The dragon’s coming and there’s somewhere else we need to be. Wendell!” he yelled as they got to the bottom of the stairs, “Wendell! Get your tin butt out here!”

Wendell poked his blond head out of a door further down the hall.

“Anthony, I’d appreciate a little more resp...”

Tony let go the other two and strode down the hall, grabbing Wendell and shoving the protesting king him in front of him. Wendell was wearing the breastplate of his armour, and clanking his helmet against it as he struggled to get it on one-handed. Over that noise, Tony could hear screaming begin suddenly outside, and then a high-pitched, continual shriek that made the hairs on his neck stand up and his spine turn to water. The certainty of what was about to happen was rushing into his mind like someone was shouting it in his ear.

He was a fraction too late. There was a deafening BOOM and half the roof fell in, showering them in sparks, dust and debris. Flames roared down the staircase, Virginia screamed, and Tony didn’t pause. He grabbed his daughter and dragged her out of the door, even as she choked and coughed on the smoke and dust. Wendell and Brock followed them onto the street. As Tony looked back he could see Wendell still trying to jam his helmet over his head and Brock bent double, spluttering. It was barely light; dust and smoke filled the air. Dozens of scared, screaming citizens ran past them.

The dragon swerved, beginning another dive.

“Come on Virginia, we’ve got to get out of here, or we’re gonna be toast!”

But Virginia resisted his tug on her arm, freeing herself as the blanket slid off her shoulders. Tony saw her hand tighten into a fist around the note Brock had brought her. She turned back to face the dragon’s progress, and over the greedy crackle of the flames Tony heard her say, “Someone’s watching us...” She scanned the dirty grey skies, fixing on some far off point, and Tony saw her frown and shiver. “Wolf?” she whispered.

Tony yanked at her arm again, “Virginia! That big flying lizard is gonna...” The rest of his sentence was lost in a terrifying sound like the whole sky had split. He ducked, half-expecting it to fall in two jagged halves of morning on his head, then he saw the dragon had pulled up from its dive and whipped around, speeding back the way it had come like a guided missile, flames pouring from its mouth. He realised then the beast had made the noise. His ears rang.

He looked down at his slight daughter. She was covered in dust and her hair smelled charred where sparks had landed in it. Wendell tapped him on the shoulder.

“What’s going on Anthony?”

Tony said, heavily, “Wait a minute Wendy,” and looked up and sure enough there they were. Six small black and white dots spiralling out of the smoke. One of them swooped, and something fell out of the sky and landed at their feet. Virginia bent awkwardly and picked it up. The small round disc glinted.

Brock said from behind them, hoarsely, “Gold, from the dragon’s hoard.”

Wendell took it from Virginia’s hand, and peered at it around the cheek guards of his helmet. “That’s a gold coin from my grandmother’s reign.” He sounded surprised. Another landed on his head with a clang and bounced off onto the cobbles. Tony caught the next one. He heard, faintly, an imperative ‘ack-ack’, and curled his fingers around the coin till the bevelled edges cut into his palm. His nose twitched. Oh no, not again.

“Right, you guys, come on, we’ve got somewhere to be.” Without his own volition, he stomped off in the direction of the mountains. Something else glittering dropped to the ground, and the magpie that had dropped it swooped low over his head. They are really getting on my nerves.

“Is this on the lines of an official Oracular pronouncement then, Anthony?”

“You bet your solid tin head it is, Wendy.”

“It’s all right, Wendell,” Tony heard Virginia say quietly to the king. “The magpies led us safely through the storm in the Swamp. Although...”

Tony guessed she was remembering what they had led her to. He wanted to say something comforting, but what came out of his mouth was, “Hello? Can I just remind everyone that what I say goes around here? Quick march, you guys!”

He followed the trail of gold the magpies dropped to the slopes of the mountain. Wendell complained the whole time, eyeing Brock with dislike. Uninvited, the vintner had simply followed them, and no amount of snide comments from Wendell could shake him off.

“If I’d known we were walking this far, I’d have got the carriage to take us Anthony. Armour’s just not designed for walking.”

“So take it off and dump it Wendell. It’s not going to do you any good.”

Tony was more concerned about how difficult the walk was for Virginia. She was silent, but he was relieved to note it was not the quiet of despair that had paralysed her before but rather a listening, focused quiet.

“Dad,” she asked him as they began the walk up the easy lower slopes of the mountain, “someone was watching us, back there at Kissingtown. I could feel them ... and,” she paused; Tony saw a trickle of fear cross her face. “Something bad’s happened to Wolf hasn’t it? I know it, he said he’d give me time; I know he’d be here. So where is he?”

It seemed the Oracle was prepared to let Tony do all the dirty work - as usual - because he knew it had no hand in what he said next.

“Honey, I’m worried about him too.” He took her hand, trying to help her over the rough, icy terrain, watching her with worry too. “So, you worried about a figment of your imagination or the man who loved you enough to leave you alone when you asked him to?” He remembered Wolf’s confusion and despair and felt briefly angry with his daughter. In that moment, he realised now, Wolf had reminded him of himself, twenty-odd years ago.

She avoided his gaze. “I’m here aren’t I?”

They spotted the next gold coin over a twisted rut in the ground and changed direction to the left to reach it. Tony could hear Wendell grumbling under his breath behind him. The rising sun was surprisingly warm on the back of his neck.

His nose twitched. “You need to decide, Virginia.” She looked back at him and he added solemnly, “That last bit was you-know-who.” One gold piece landed with a musical chink at their feet and Tony looked skywards to see the magpies fly away.

“Well that seems to be it, but it’s a dead end. That Oracle really knows how to waste your time huh?”

In front of them was a solid wall of ice. Wendell and Brock clambered up beside them, panting.

“What on earth are we doing here, Anthony?” Wendell gasped crossly. Tony’s nose twitched again and then he knew and he was gripped with a rage of which he’d never thought himself capable.

“Nothing,” he said quickly. “Let’s go, my mistake, c’mon Virginia.” He tugged sharply at her arm. Wendell stared at him in breathless annoyance. Brock simply stood.

But it was too late. That look of inner focus and concentration he’d seen on Virginia face earlier was back, and now he remembered where he’d seen it before. In Wendell’s castle, when Virginia refused to go through the mirror, back to New York. She looked as if something was speaking to her that only she could hear. She walked up to the ice and touched it gently, tilting her head to one side, the tip of her tongue between her teeth, frowning. From her fingers, a ripple spread through the ice. She captured his hand without looking back, and stepped through it. Tony felt someone - Wendell? - grab his shoulder and then the disorienting noise and light of mirror travel took over.

Though he was dizzy when he came out the other side, two things were immediately clear. Firstly, he saw Silver, sitting on the edge of some kind of pool with a smug smile of triumph on her face. And he saw Wolf collapsed in a bloody, motionless huddle at her feet.