IV

The Museo Curio’s fifty-some-odd guests cowered around the large hall, afraid of what might happen next. Many hid behind tables, chairs, and exhibits. Men and women alike clung to each other for comfort. No one spoke.

The only sound to be heard in the entire chamber was the spine tingling heaving of Doctor Ashley and the Lord Codstone as, with throaty gulps, the two men breathed in perfect unison. An unearthly stererosonic wheeze.

I rose from the prone Ashley’s side, vague on my next move but ready to take immediate action.

“Coddy?” The Lady Codstone emerged from the safety of an overturned table and approached her husband. “Codstone, you fool, what’s wrong?”

“No wait!” My warnings, of course, went unnoticed by the daffy Lady Codstone. She put a veiny hand on Codstone’s shoulder and tried to get his attention.

On contact, the old man’s eyes rolled into the back of his head. He and Ashley shared a deep intake of raspy air.

“Speak to me, Coddy,” the Lady Codstone said, unaware of the stranger goings-on.

Codstone’s head swiveled heavily on his loose neck and his unfocused eyes stared down through his wife’s worried, wrinkled face.

“Pow!”

“What on earth does that—”

“Er!”

With cumbersome arms, he reached up and grabbed his startled wife by her bony shoulders, drew her quickly in, and planted a sustained, open-mouthed kiss on her unsuspecting lips.

The Lady Codstone’s eyes bugged. The onlookers gasped and shifted uncomfortably at the sudden display of outward affection.

I moved to put a stop to the Codstones’ kiss, but instead received a sudden thwack at my chest. Boff had extended a scarred branch of an arm to hold me back.

He shook his head, No, gaze still affixed to the Lord and Lady Codstone. He wanted to understand what was going on. To see what would happen next. Scientists…

The Lady Codstone’s eyes rolled so far back into their sockets that both were soon no more than gaping trenches of brilliant crimson. Dusty tears pooled in her crow’s feet and ran ragged along her powdered cheeks. Her stately posture eased and everything sagged beneath a tranquil weight in the manner of a sponge put to hot water. In the seconds it took for the Lord Codstone to empty his lungs into hers, his wife irrevocably changed before our very eyes.

The Lord Codstone pulled away from his wife and let his arms drop back to his own sides in unceremonious conclusion.

The Lady Codstone’s head rolled freely on her neck from shoulder to shoulder as she grew accustomed to her new being.

The Lord Codstone took a slumping pivot and stood beside his wife as she raised her leaden head.

“Pow!” squawked the Lady Codstone.

“Er!” followed the Lord Codstone.

“Pow!” exclaimed the still horizontal Doctor Ashley.

And then a sustained silence.

Boff and I suddenly shared the same brainwave. “Tempest!” In only a few lengthy strides, Boff vanished up the stairs.

In the next moment, Ashley and the Lord Codstone were back to matched breaths. In and out in perfect unison. Now, with the addition of the Lady Codstone, the unearthly rasps reverberated through the cavernous hall and felt deafening.

In the crowd, a woman let loose a bone-tingling shriek. From across the room, another warbled, “Make them stop!”

“Everyone remain calm!” I yelled above it all. “Please,” I continued, a few careful steps toward the Lord and Lady Codstone, “everyone stay exactly where you are.”

The Codstones swayed gently back and forth like dead willows caught in a breeze.

“Can either of you hear me?”

“Pow—”

“Power,” I cut the Lady Codstone off. “We follow. That’s what you’re after, is it?”

The Codstones said nothing, but continued to gaze through to the horizon, never even blinking.

“Who are you?”

Still no response.

Had this spirit been gazing through anyone else’s eyes I may have been more sympathetic, but, as it was, my patience with the Codstones had long since extinguished.

“Why take the Codstones?” I asked. “Why Ashley? Tempest? What’s so special about them?”

“W— Were…” the Lady Codstone endeavored. The new words stuck in her throat.

“Were… Were…” The Lord Codstone made a groaning attempt, too.

“Were?” I asked. I was more than happy with the change in vocabulary, even if it didn’t make sense. “They were, what?”

“Were…” repeated the Lady Codstone.

“Thee…” creaked the Lord Codstone.

“Were thee?” I thought aloud. “You mean, ‘worthy?’”

“Were. Thee.” All three this time, simultaneously. A macabre choir. The effect was so unsettling that I actually took a few steps back, away from the Codstones. A fleeting, knee-jerk reaction. I more firmly planted my feet, stalwart. We were making progress and I wasn’t about to ease off.

“Worthy of what?”

But there was no chance for a reply. In an instant, all hell broke loose.

A man, slump-shouldered and stocky, his comb-over sagging just above the lenses of his wire spectacles, tried to make an escape. He bolted for the staircase from behind an open chest of shimmering jewels. The next few seconds played out in horrifying slow motion.

On the first hollow clap of leather sole to marble tile, the Lord and Lady Codstone went rigid.

By the man’s second footstep, the wraith-like trio was already engaging in their shared gulp of hot air. The man was wide-set, but covering ample ground, adrenaline coursing through his veins.

With his third step, he cleared K’Hor’s bronze armor. My own feet spurred to action, my muscles tightening from the ground up.

Four pounding strides in and the Lady Codstone swung on her heels. Her loose skin rippled as her arms shot out like javelins and locked in place. Her palms held out before her, open and expectant.

Five. I was suddenly frozen on the spot. The wind was knocked from my lungs as two great arms wrapped around me from behind.

Six pitiful paces were all he got.

There was, perhaps, a flash of realization behind his spectacles as the man plowed directly into the open arms of the Lady Codstone, but I doubt he ever really saw it coming. She caught him under the shoulders. His legs and arms blew out in front of him as though he’d run headlong into a guardrail. She barely flinched as the momentum forced him into the air.

Then, holding on tight, she sat back into her heels and brought the man down to her lips, like a granny greeting a babe.

Doctor Ashley held me in a constricting bear hug. His strength was incredible. He lifted me clean off the ground despite his round head only reaching my shoulders. His arms squeezed tighter and tighter. I kicked and struggled to break free, but it was terrifyingly futile. The world began to go a bit dark and I thought my ribcage likely to shatter.

Then, in the same swift move, The Lady Codstone and Doctor Ashley dropped their charges. The wide man landed on his feet as I was cast to the side and rolled heavily back toward the marble steps. I was dizzy and seeing double as the Museo Curio erupted in utter chaos.

The wide man, who’d barely had time to gain his footing, was already bent low over an elderly woman in a black bonnet, their lips sealed together. The Lady Codstone too was already reaching for the collar of a fleeing middle-aged man. The Lord Codstone had managed to spring himself into the center of a previously well-hidden quartet. Their numbers were increasing. The sickening chorus of steady inhalation was growing louder, rapidly overtaking the frightened screams.

“Stop!” I wheezed to Ashley’s broad back. “Come back and fight me!”

“Not. Were. Thee,” Ashley replied with hoarse, breathy grunts. He barely looked over his shoulder to me before catching a beak-nosed man around the waist.

“Not worthy?” I asked, frankly gobsmacked. I’d been toe-to-toe with false deities before, but I’d never been quite so insulted by one. Harnessing my wits and pride, I wrenched myself from the floor and clamored for Ashley and his beak-nosed captive.

Again, without so much as a glance, Ashley gave me a forceful shove and I stumbled backward against a wooden stand beset with a painted clay urn. As the urn wobbled and smashed to the floor, the beak-nosed man’s eyes slid back into his head and his body went slack.

I took hold of the weighty wooden stand and lifted it high. With only a few precise moves, I could charge ahead and bring it down across both the beak-nosed man and Ashley before they could lash out.

I swung the stand backwards for added momentum, belted forward, and instantly, it slipped from my hands.

I stopped, reeled around, my ire significantly up, and promptly threw a whole-hearted punch.

With a fair bit of luck, but more seasoned skill than anything, I brought my fist to a sudden halt mere centimeters from a scarred nose.

“Boff!” I hollered. “What are you doing?” Tempest’s face suddenly appeared, poking from behind Boff’s elbow.

“You mustn’t hurt them, Walter!” she cried, catching her breath. Her color was restored and she seemed quite back to normal, if altogether flustered.

“But—”

“They’re still in there, Walter. They can’t control what they’re doing, but they’re in there, terrified!”

“I’m sorry,” I said, suddenly embarrassed. “I didn’t—”

“There’s no time for that! We have to get Yxa out of here!”

“Yxa? Why, what’s wrong?” But I received no reply.

Tempest and Boff stood rooted to the spot, all the color drained from their faces.

I was suddenly aware of how still the room behind me had become. Boff moved to shield Tempest, but she darted in front of him, arms stretched behind her to keep him corralled.

“Walter. Now. Both of you. Run.”

I couldn’t help it. I heard the directive, but orders rarely register with me. Instead, I turned to share their view.

The exhibit lights glistened off a hundred watery cheeks. Wrapped all around us, every member of the Museo Curio’s guest list wore the same gaunt expression. Men and women of all shapes and sizes, near three score in total, breathed together in one solid rhythm. Their shoulders hung low and their arms swung gently, mindlessly and though their eyes were sunken and unfocused, there was no questioning where their attentions were fixed.

It started somewhere at the back of the room, far from the three of us…

“Worthy.”

A stunted groan, barely above a whisper.

Then, another voice, in the same throaty crackle:

“Worthy.”

“Worthy.”

Now from the other side.

“Worthy.”

Our heads whipped toward each new murmur.

“Get out of here,” I whispered.