“You all right there, boyo?”
David awoke to the sound of wheels rumbling along the ground. He slowly opened his eyes to a room lighted by a lantern. He was inside one of the moving caravan wagons. All along the walls hung rows of rabbits, squirrels, ducks and geese, the spoils of the hunt and several nights’ dinners for the caravan. The room was saturated with the odors of meat and fur. The Scottish juggler was sitting next to him, smoking a long pipe. He had a snide smirk plastered on his face.
“You took my best puller. It’s a pain on the other horses to pull the train without that one,” he spat. “Fortunately the mistress got him back safe and sound, along with you.”
David blinked, and sat up on the straw mattress. “I’m sorry for taking the horse, Señor …?”
“Gullin. No Señor, or Mister, or none of that.”
“Now that one of you has decided to talk to me, Gullin, maybe I won’t have to act so rudely. I don’t suppose you could drop me off at the next town.”
Gullin chuckled. “Next town isn’t going to be for a while now. Here, drink up.” He handed David a clay stein. David welcomed the drink gladly, as he was very thirsty. He coughed at the potency of the unexpected liquor, having assumed it would be water.
The drink jostled something in his brain, and he recalled the events of the previous night. “What on earth happened? There was an inn, and there were all these man-sized dolls, living walking dolls! I think they wanted to drink my blood—”
“Ah, the Jenglots. Nasty buggers. They don’t actually ‘drink’ blood. They drink up its warmth until the victim is stone-cold dead. They need the warmth to stay alive. And the younger the blood, the better. ” Gullin stood up and moved to the other side of the wagon, where he rummaged through a wooden chest. “It’s a problem once you start crossing through the Curtain. You can never be quite sure what gates to the unknown you might stumble through when you’re alone out here. Luckily the mistress knows how to handle Jenglots and the like. This should help calm the mind a bit.” He took a small leather pouch out of the chest. He walked back over and gave it to David. “A secret family remedy for the spooks.”
David looked into the pouch, finding it full of pellets that smelled of sage, but he thought better of eating any of them, so he pocketed the bag. “What do you mean, ‘crossing through the Curtain’? I’ve never heard of a territory called that in these parts.”
“Not surprising. Most folks wouldn’t have heard it. You can call it the Veil, or the Gates, or whatever you please. Let’s just say, you best stay with the group. You’re not familiar with what this place can do.”
The younger man took a good look at his surroundings. “I suppose you’re going to give me some kind of punishment for having run away. She would probably be more than happy for you to do so.”
The juggler grimaced. “She didn’t eat a bite this morning, on account of you. She’s been sick as a dog. If she starves to death, I’ll smash your head against the first rock I find.”
David knotted his eyebrows. “You wouldn’t be happy to be free of her possession?”
Gullin gave him a long hard look. “Boy, you obviously don’t understand a blasted thing.” He sat back in a simple wooden chair, bouncing to the rhythm of the wagon’s movement.
“Do you honestly believe you are not under her control?” David inquired.
“The mistress doesn’t work that way.”
“She enchants you people to do her bidding. Don’t you even remember how she possessed you and the others to tie me up the other night?”
Gullin glared at him. “You were the one who woke us up with your bumbling, and you were holding a dagger up at the mistress. You should be thanking her. If she hadn’t stopped us, we would’ve beaten you to a pulp.”
David scratched his head. “But … she hypnotizes you all to sleep. I saw it.”
“Nothing wrong with sleep when you need it.” Gullin stretched his arms and neck.
“Is that a real Master Huntsmen’s crest on your arm?” David asked, pointing at the tattooed symbol. “Just who are you, anyway?”
The Scotsman sighed. He took the stein back from David and took a swig from it. “Now you want me to be getting personal. Boyo, I was a Huntsman—a very special class of the brotherhood, tells you how I know all about this side of the Curtain—” he gestured around himself with a broad sweep of his arm, “but it ain’t all you think it is. Frankly, it doesn’t provide steady income, ‘specially with monsters and the fairy tale types getting fewer and fewer. Truth is, the day I was on my last coin and about ready to call it quits with it all, this caravan came rolling by. I thought it might need a good pair of arms, and they seemed to be getting good money, so I asked to join up with it.”
“You joined on your free will? Did you know about her?”
“No, not at first, and I was a bit surprised, I can tell you. But the mistress is good. Makes sure we all have plenty to eat, treats us fairly, lets us spend the money we make. We’re like family. ” He took another long drink.
“But … she abducts people for her caravan. She kidnapped me! And she tried to rob me.”
Gullin raised an eyebrow at him.
“She did!” David insisted. “She broke into my room at the inn, and then I scared her off, but she dropped my purse on the floor.”
“Ay, that.” Gullin sighed. “Now an apology does need to be given, but not from the mistress. I’m afraid bad habits die hard for some of us. Isabella, the girl who gave you that dagger, was a pickpocket since she was wee. Only way she could survive on the streets. The mistress has been trying to break her of the habit, but Izzy couldn’t help herself when it was so easy for the taking. The mistress was trying to return your purse to you before you realized you’d been pilfered.”
David was about to argue that he had his purse with him the whole time, but it dawned on him that he hadn’t checked his pockets after his participation in the juggling act. He had gone straight to his room at the inn afterwards, so he hadn’t even thought of his purse before going to bed. Even if it were true the sphinx was only returning the purse, he noted, “Maybe, but she was still thinking about eating me. Why else would she be sniffing at me while I was sleeping?”
“Mibbae you smell funny.”
David furrowed his eyebrows, finding irony that the Scotsman thought he was the one who smelled funny. “So, you say you people are here because you want to work for this … this creature—”
“The mistress,” Gullin corrected him sharply.
“Yes, her,” David replied holding up his hands in defense. “But I don’t want to be. If she isn’t the kind to keep prisoners, then why am I one?”
Gullin sighed. “There are some rules about what to do with folks who ‘see the unseen,’ so to speak. Those who live on the other side of the Curtain went there to remain a secret, to live peacefully without humans trying to muck it up. You have to prove you’re good at keeping the knowledge secret, since if you went blabbing about it to everyone, it would cause a good deal of trouble. Can’t let you go starting up a panic, can we?”
David shook his head. “But no one where I come from believes the stories I tell. If I went back and told them I was kidnapped by a sphinx, who is going to believe me?”
The man shrugged. “Mibbae you’re here for another reason.”
David narrowed his eyes. “Such as?”
“The mistress’s wise. She might be wanting to teach you something. Her kind work in mysterious ways. Sphinxes have made poor men into kings, and been advisors to the greatest minds. Betcha didn’t know that, boyo.”
Actually, David had read a book or two that had said as much, but those were from myths. Plus, the tale of the sphinx in Greece who had led a man to become king also led to that king gouging out his own eyes. “How do you know she wants to teach me something?”
“Mibbae she does, mibbae she doesn’t. She might just want you around for another reason.”
“Like … food?”
Gullin laughed again. “Hardly. Let’s just say, I ain’t seen the mistress take a liking to anyone like she has to you in a long time. She might be feeling a bit lonely.”
“Lonely? She has all of you. Your ‘family,’ as you put it.”
“That’s not the kind of ‘lonely’ I’m talking about. You can be surrounded by people and still be lonely. Sometimes, you need just the right person around. You understand?”
David quickly changed the subject. “So, you’re telling me none of you are really under her enchantment?”
“Well, she had to give some of the others the glowin’ eye to keep them calm—you know, they get antsy around things they don’t understand. But most of us, we don’t cause trouble. We like the three meals a day.”
“And none of you explained this to me earlier because …?”
“The mistress doesn’t like us talking to a new member unless she’s sure he’s going to be part of the group. She don’t want us getting too attached if the guy’s not sticking around.”
“You think I’m going to stay?”
Gullin gave him a smirk. “That’s all up to the mistress now, ain’t it?”
The sphinx had not come out of her wagon even into the afternoon. When one of the gypsies peeked in to bring her herbal tea made from the sphinx’s favorite flowers, the creature stayed curled up in her nest and would not eat. The caravan folk worried that her illness was severe and they should make her some stronger medicine, but Gullin had another theory.
“She ain’t been acting right since she saved you from those Jenglots,” Gullin snarled at David as he grabbed him by the collar and shoved him towards the sphinx’s wagon. “You talk to the mistress,” he ordered. “Or I’ll wring your scrawny neck.”
David sighed, not sure how he was actually supposed to “talk” to her. According to myth, sphinxes were capable of human speech, and he was sure that she had spoken to the Jenglots. He approached the wagon and tapped on the side. “Hello in there. It’s me, David.”
No reply. David cleared his throat, irked that all the gypsies were staring at him. “I … I wanted to be sure that you’re well.” He paused. “May I see you?”
A soft murr came from inside. David and another man took hold of the wagon’s side and carefully lowered it open. The sphinx lifted her head, casting her gaze deep into David’s eyes. She arose slowly, her legs and wings a little stiff, and ambled out of the nest over to him. Her face was pale, her hair matted, her limbs seemed scrawnier, but more noticeably her normally healthy lips were dried and cracked. She more resembled a mangy alley cat than a majestic lioness. She moaned softly.
David wondered if maybe her encounter with the Jenglots had made her ill. He leaned in close, hoping the others would not hear. “I’m sorry that you are sick. You didn’t have to save me from the Jenglots, but you did. Thank you, for that.”
She smiled weakly.
“I want to make sure you get better. But I’m only staying until we get to the next town. Then I’m gone. Is that clear?” David said this knowing the sphinx would not respond, but he said it loud enough so the caravan folk would also hear.
With her paw, the sphinx picked up an orange from one of the food baskets, and held it up to David. He took the fruit, peeled it and took a bite. He pulled a slice from it and gave it to her. She hesitated in taking it, but then she bit down on it and sucked out the juice. She did not finish the fruit until he was done eating.
After the caravan train rolled across the fields, David and the sphinx sat in the bronze nest, sharing the herbal tea. Then she was treated to another nice, however reluctantly given, belly rub.
That night, David found himself staring out onto a shimmering sapphire ocean. He was lying on a grassy shore under a small birch tree, its leaves green and trimmed in gold. A gentle wind carried fresh fragrances of grass, flowers, and everything pure. He was not sure how he had come to be there, or where “there” even was, but he felt such peace that his whereabouts did not matter.
With him was a woman. He did not know how long she had been there before he noticed her, but she stood patiently, smiling. As she approached, he realized it was the sphinx, only completely human. Her paws were finely shaped hands and feet. She had no tail, and no wings. Her face was different too, particularly the eyes that were now an inviting emerald green. She was draped in a white dress fitted to her sleek shape.
David took a long look at the woman, before giving her a gentle smile. “Hello,” was all he could think to say.
She walked to him, and sat down at his side. She gazed deeply into his eyes, and as David gazed back, he could make out that the green of her eyes had a ring of gold around them, and the gold glimmered like sunlight passing through crystal.
“How did I get here?” he inquired.
You brought yourself here. This is your ideal place.
Her voice was crisp and clear, but she had not moved her lips to reply. The voice was inside David’s head.
He sat up quickly, frightened by how real this dream was, and of what the sphinx might be doing to him while he was distracted by this illusion.
She gently placed a hand on his shoulder and pushed him back down. There is no need to be worried. It is time for us to know each other better. I want to talk.
“Talk is fine … just please don’t … uh … you’re not doing anything strange while I’m sleeping, are you?”
No, you need not fear. I chose this form because it calms humans and makes them feel less intimidated.
“Ah.” A question popped into his mind, but the sphinx answered it before he could verbally ask.
Yes, a sphinx is normally able to speak as you humans do. But time has changed things. This is the only way I can communicate without … risking my health.
“Risking your health? How—”
She sharply cut him off. I don’t wish to discuss it. Her tone softened again as she said, I wish to discuss you. To know who you are, what you like, what you are thinking.
David gave the woman another good look-over. “The way you look reminds me of someone I knew once, back in Cervera. But that was a long time ago. She went far away, and I never heard from her again. She probably doesn’t remember me now, I don’t think.” He dismissed the memory quickly, reburying it in his past.
You humans make your lives so sad sometimes, because of fear.
“I don’t see why you want to ‘talk’ like this. I take it you could just read my mind and know everything about me that you want to know?”
Perhaps. But there’s no trust in that. I want you to trust me, David.
“Why?”
Because I want you to stay with me. I cannot force you to remain here, for you are more strong-minded than most. I’m using my abilities at their highest extent to create this reality for you.
David sat up again, brushing his fingers through the grass. “But it’s not real. It’s just an illusion.”
What is real is only what you can understand with your five senses. But if I breathe life into what you see, and hear, and taste, and touch … She placed a hand on his knee. And smell… She blew a soft breeze of lilac towards him. Then this place is just as real as any other.
David stared into her eyes. “But I know it’s not real.”
Why is that so important? Isn’t this your ideal place? Do you not like my appearance?
The last sentence she said startled him. Did she want him to think she was beautiful? “It doesn’t matter. It’s simply knowing. It’s knowing that outside all these beautiful things, I’m still prisoner to an animal who has me under her spell. It’s knowing that I’m not free.”
I gave you the chance to be free of me. You came back.
“I had to! I don’t have a choice when I’m out in the middle of nowhere, being attacked by bloodthirsty puppets, and my only way of getting back to civilization is to ride this nightmare train.” David stood up and walked a few feet away.
Am I so awful to you, David? he heard her ask. He cringed slightly as she said his name. He couldn’t help but think it was the loveliest way he had ever heard his name spoken.
“It doesn’t seem fair you should know my name, and I don’t know yours,” he noted.
You know my name. I am a Sphinx.
“I mean, your real name, not your species. You don’t call me Human, after all.”
I was never given a name of that type. I have always been a Sphinx.
“Then what do others call you? Surely your family gave you a name.”
No. My earliest ancestor was born of the Typhoon and the Great Drakaina. I and my kind have always been called the creatures that we are. What would you call me?
He stood silently for a while.
“I want to wake up now,” he replied.
The caravan train came to a sudden halt.
David woke up abruptly as the wagon came to a stop. The sphinx was curled up next to him, and she slowly opened her eyes. She stretched her muscles and yawned, her lips pulling back again in that wide frightening gape. David still had not gotten used to it. Yet she did look much better, her skin having returned to its golden hue and her lips no longer cracked. She sighed contentedly.
David pressed his ear to the wall of the wagon. He heard the gypsies scurrying around outside, and the sound of instruments being tuned.
“What are they up to out there?” he wondered. He unlatched the hooks holding the wagon wall closed. He paused, glancing back at the sphinx. She smiled at him, and motioned with her paw that he could go outside.
David lowered the wall and stepped outside. The gypsies were donning their performance outfits, tuning their instruments and readying their wares. Gullin was already practicing a warm-up routine with his torches, when he spotted David.
“Hey there, boyo! Time for another day’s work. Here, make yourself useful.” Gullin picked up an empty bucket and tossed it at David. “Think you can fetch a little water?”
David was piqued, as he had never consented to be Gullin’s lackey. Yet there wasn’t much else to do, and it did give him a reason to have some time away from the sphinx. It then dawned on him that there was no source of water nearby. In fact, nothing was nearby. Looking around, a great enclosure of cloudy whiteness surrounded them, and the ground beneath them was flat, grassless earth. He felt like he was in the middle of a giant wad of cotton.
“What water?” he demanded to know.
“Just walk a ways off there,” Gullin replied, pointing towards the fog. “But not too far. Don’t want you getting lost again.”
With a sigh, David walked a few paces, finding that even in the short distance he traveled, the caravan was already fading from view. He walked a little farther, but nothing changed. He paused, remembering how it had been a similar fog that had led him to the Jenglots’ trap, and he certainly didn’t want to stumble upon anything else by himself. He turned around and went back.
He walked over to the juggler. “Gullin, I don’t feel so—”
“Thanks,” Gullin replied, taking the bucket back, which was now full of crystal clean water. “Just in case anything goes wrong with my act, be ready to douse me, will you?”
David gawked at the full bucket. “But … how … I didn’t see any …”
Gullin snickered. “That ain’t the most surprising thing you’re going to see tonight, boyo.”
The same three painted wagons that the gypsies had taken into Orléans for their public performance were hitched up to the white horses, and the gypsy parade began through the fog. David hesitated, wondering whether to follow them or stay behind with the rest of the caravan train. He did wonder exactly where the procession was going, and while the thought of whatever lay ahead in the fog worried him, he was more worried about being alone with the sphinx. This, however, turned out not to be an issue, for the sphinx had left her nest and had come to stand next to him. She stood up on her hind legs, but not in the awkward way dogs or cats might do it, but naturally like a human. A white skirt wrap was tied around her waist to match her chest scarf, adding to the illusion of her seeming more human than animal. She curled her tail around David’s waist and led him along, tailing after the parade.
She’s coming too? He wondered silently. In what kind of place are we that she is not afraid of revealing herself?
The fog thickened, so much so that David eventually could not see the train of wagons or people in front of them. He could barely see his hand in front of his face. But the sphinx kept leading him on unwaveringly. The same deathly quiet he had experienced in The Poppet’s Pub was around him. He gulped, deciding to fill the silence a bit.
“You know, I’ve been trying to think of a name for you,” he said.
The sphinx said nothing.
“Would you like a name?”
Her tail squeezed his waist a little, which David took to mean yes.
“Well, I was thinking … I heard you like Egyptian flowers, which I guess makes sense since I’ve read a few stories about sphinxes that lived in Egypt. There’s a flower that grows in Egypt called an acacia, and it can be golden in color like you are. I think Acacia would be a good name for you.”
The sphinx was quiet for a minute, but then she nuzzled her head on his shoulder and purred softly.
He took that to mean she liked it.
The fog suddenly parted, and a waterfall of glimmering multicolored lights rose before them. There were soft, tinkling voices all around, like children laughing and singing. Fuzzy orbs of light floated through the air, alighting on each person’s head or nose. One gentle green light kissed David’s cheek, and he instinctively swatted at it. Acacia grabbed his hand and gave him a stern look, shaking her head.
“What are they?” he asked, even though he knew she couldn’t give him a direct answer.
Gullin shouted over the answer to him. “They are here to welcome us and bring us to our host for the evening,” he replied. “This is your first time seeing Will O’ Wisps, isn’t it?”
Will O’ Wisps? The fairy fires from folklore? David couldn’t believe his eyes. So this is what Gullin had been talking about, “crossing through the Curtain.” Acacia, being a magical creature, must have the ability to go back and forth between the human world and the supernatural worlds.
As the gypsies marched on, the floating lights swirled around them happily, as if wanting to be part of the show. David recalled what he had read about Will O’ Wisps, that they mysteriously appeared over marshes or bogs at night, for they had an attraction for water. But there was no water here—
Except for the clear blue water they were now walking on.
He hadn’t even realized it until he looked down. There was no more earth beneath them, just water as far down as he could see. But the water did not even make his boots wet, and the wagons rolled over the rippling sea as surely as if it were solid ground. David, although a perfectly fine swimmer, found himself clinging tighter onto Acacia as he stared down at the water, wondering if at any second he would plummet right down into the icy depths.
The sphinx chuckled at his anxiety. She nuzzled his cheek, as if to tell him not to worry.
“Just who is our host for the evening?” David called out to Gullin. “Some kind of sea creature?”
“The mistress never misses a chance to see her sisters,” Gullin replied, “and it’s the night of the Sea Song Festival. It’s good for us. We get paid well at these events.”
Sisters? Acacia had sisters? He looked at her. “More sphinxes, like you?”
Acacia shook her head, but grinned. She cooed a little melody, gentle like a breeze, and fluttered her wings a little.
David figured this was some kind of riddle, another famous sphinx trait. Singing … wings … was she indicating some kind of bird? These must be sisters in the figurative sense. He found it odd that the gypsies would perform for birds …
That’s when he heard actual singing, far off in the distance. A small island was appearing before them, rising out of the water in a wash of greens and blues. Great trees, with brightly blooming flowers, sprouted up all around the island’s shores. A stone structure was peaking above the treetops, resembling something like a cross between a mansion and a mountain. But the island’s beauty paled in comparison to its symphony. The singing was gorgeous, like something out of a dream.
He knew then that he was hearing the song of sirens.