Long Hot Summoning

They’d been chained in an alcove hacked out of the limestone walls not far from the throne room. Chained and abandoned; they hadn’t seen meat-minds or bugs since.

“How long do you think we’ve been here?”

Diana twisted her wrist until she could see her watch. “About six minutes.”

“Seems longer.”

“Yeah.”

The torches across from their alcove flickered although the air was still. In the distance, something screamed.

“So, about those Rules.”

When Diana turned, Kris’ expression announced I’m not fuckin’ scared as loudly as if she was shouting the words. The profanity was particularly obvious. “You want me to tell you about them now?”

Her upper lip curled. “You going somewhere?”

“Well, no.” Maybe defining a few metaphysical parameters was just the kind of distraction they needed. Maybe not, but it was all she had. Kris didn’t seem like the type to be interested in “the cute things my cat’s done lately” or what Ms. Harris and the graduating president of the chess club had been doing with two tubes of acrylic paint and a number three sable in the art supply closet on the last day of school. Which had only been…? Diana counted back. She’d traveled to Kingston on Friday; the same day school’d ended. They’d crossed over into the Otherside mall on Saturday. Was it still Saturday and, if so, which Saturday? That whole “time was relative” thing made her want to hurl—although in this instance the urge to hurl likely had more to do with the bug leg—arm? limb?—that had impacted with her stomach. Bruises were rising even…

“Hey!” Part summons, part protest, it yanked her wandering attention back to the alcove.

“Right. The Rules. The uh, the Rules impose order on the chaos of metaphysics. Magic,” she amended catching sight of bravado becoming impatience. “Right here and now, the biggest Rule to remember is that the Otherside is neutral ground, so neither good nor evil can control it.”

“Why would evil give a shit?”

“‘Because when you break the Rules, you sow the seeds of your own destruction. That’s also in the Rules.”

Kris snorted. “I think I read it in a fortune cookie.”

“Could have.” The lineage liked to spread the platitudes around.

“Although I’m sure it would be all awe inspiring or something if we weren’t chained to a fuckin’ wall.”

Diana thought about it for a moment, squinting up at the flakes of rust raining off the eyebolt as she yanked her chain against it. “Probably not,” she admitted.

“So what about that whole ‘bad guys gotta gloat’ thing?”

“Just basic psychology according to my mother. What’s the point of being an evil genius if there’s no one to tell?”

“No point, I guess.”

They hung in silence for a few minutes, then Kris muttered, “That dude on the throne, he didn’t seem like the genius type.”

“He didn’t seem like much of anything,” Diana agreed. As far as a meeting of good and evil was concerned, it was kind of a nonevent. “The bugs were cool, in an oh, gross, get it off me, get it off me kind of way, but he was bland. Boring. Disappointing, even.”

“Except that, you know, he won.”

“Yeah. Except for that.”

Off to the left of their alcove, claws skittered against stone, evoking an interlude of panicked struggles to be free. After a while, when the claws came no closer, both girls relaxed.

“It’s the fuckin’ waiting,” Kris snarled, kicking at the wall with the heel of her cross trainers. “Why didn’t they just whack us and get it over with?”

“I think they need us for something.”

“What? Getting their rocks off while we get peeled?”

Diana considered that for a moment. “No,” she decided at last, “that’s too direct for the Otherside.” The first time she’d crossed over, Claire had tried to make her understand that the shortest distance between two points was usually the long way around. Then she’d added that Diana was never, ever to think about the Smurf village again. Their mother had been furious about all the blue gunk on their shoes. “Plans on this side are always a lot twistier.”

“Okay, so if you breaking a Rule lets them break a Rule, then maybe they’re putting you in a spot where you gotta break a Rule to get free. You know, so they can break a Rule.”

Diana turned to stare at the other girl. “That’s brilliant.”

“Don’t sound so fuckin’ surprised,” Kris snorted. Her eyes widened. “Wait; you mean I’m right?”

“Probably.”

“Wicked.”

“Although it’s insulting that they think I’d break the Rules just to escape torture and death.”

“’Cause that’s not a good reason?”

“No.”

’Keepers could lie to Bystanders without breaking a sweat. To balance that, they could speak the kind of Truth that went straight to the heart.

Kris stared at her for a long moment. Then nodded. “Right.” And another long moment. “Okay. So, now how long have we been here?”

“Since the last time, about another eight minutes. Fourteen minutes all together.”

“Seems like longer.”

“Yeah.”

“Looking on the bright side, it’s a lot cooler down here.”

“Cooler than what?”

“Than it is back home.”

“Your home?”

“Yeah.”

“I wouldn’t know.”

“Right.”