Titans of Chaos

Vanity said, "I don't know. The ship goes where I tell her. But if I say, 'Find Victor,' can she findVictor?" Vanity shook her head sadly and, for a moment, looked very sober and grown up. "Weshould have performed experiments, found out what we can and cannot do, instead of spendingNew Year's Eve on a cruise ship, living it up with the money you stole from Taffy ap Cymru!"

Taffy had been one of the staff at the school, a member of one of the several factions ofOlympians seeking to take possession of us away from our headmaster, Boreas.

"I didn't steal it!" I protested. "I blackmailed him fair and square! Her. Whatever."

Taffy was a shape-changer like us: her real name was Laverna, the Roman goddess of Fraud. Shehad been the henchman (henchwoman?) of Trismegistus, the trickster god the Greeks worshippedunder the name Hermes.

But I hadn't actually blackmailed the money from her. She had scoffed at my attempt and given itto me. Strange. That had happened just after Lamia, the Queen of Vampires, had attempted tomurder Quentin. As if Laverna had wanted to help us escape. Why? And was she really workingfor Trismegistus or Mavors? Did Mavors want us to escape?

At some point, when I had time to think, I should puzzle that one out.

I turned to Colin. "Are your powers working?"

"Locked and loaded and ready to rumble!" Colin grinned, flexing his big rawboned hands as ifeager for mayhem. Who understands boys?

Who, for that matter, understands any of us?

We each came from a different version of Chaos, a different paradigm. Our minds somehowinterpreted the supernatural with mutually exclusive explanations. What looked to me likefluctuations of mind-body monads of time-space in the fourth dimension, Colin saw as passions,Quentin saw as magic, Victor saw as matter in motion.

We each could manipulate the Unknown in our own way: Colin's anger made him strong, hiselation made him fly, and his disbelief made him able to unmake deadly wounds and brush themaway; Quentin summoned up fell spirits from the night world with words of power, and boundthem to his service in circles of chalked sigils and the scents of talismanic candles; Victor couldelectromag-netically reorganize matter and energy in his environment; I could deflect gravity,walk through walls, or send my many senses ranging through the higher dimensions.