Daisy leaned over and kissed Gary on the cheek. “I want to see it all.”

  Gary looked at Sasha. “And what about you? Will you stay. Will you let me show you?”

  “I’ve already answered Gary.” She kissed him on the other cheek. “We are one, Daisy and I, you and I, you and Daisy. You couldn’t get rid of us if you wanted to.”

  Chapter 22

  The door to the roof cracked open and Morven popped his head round the side of it, eyebrows already raised in expectation. “So, all finished I see.” He stepped out in his grey suit and walked towards Gary and the others, a measured clip in his stride. “That’s a blessed relief. He really would have ruined everything. There’s enough magic in this world already, but if the gates had been pulled open fully, well… It would’ve been like flooding an anthill with honey and then watching what crawled out.” He snapped his fingers, as if to clear the air of residual spell-dust, then beckoned them. “Come, I have your suite prepared. You must be exhausted.”

  They walked back to the lift, Sasha and Daisy on either side of Gary, their hands twined at the small of his back. The corridor was empty and silent, a palace of glass above the sleeping city.

  “So, people, creatures from other worlds are here in our world?” asked Gary, looking at his reflection in a mirrored panel of the lift. He barely recognized himself. Tousled, beaten up, but grinning like he’d won the lottery and lost his mind on the same day.

  “Indeed,” said Morven, his clipped accent sharpened by the excitement and relief he was trying to conceal. “The portals open periodically and some slip through. There are some of us from all worlds that try and keep it under control, you understand, search for stray dragons, capture misbehaving demons, return them to their own lands. The Arch is our meeting place. A sanctuary where creatures from all worlds convene, under the laws of neutral ground, to discuss and manage the various contretemps that occur.” He smiled at Gary’s reflection in the doors.

  The lift whirred and descended.

  “Does that mean there are more like him?” asked Sasha, voice thin and pale.

  “In a sense, yes. When the boundaries are thin, almost anything can leak through. We’ve hosted vampire parliaments in the ballroom, had to negotiate peace between rival kitsune clans in the penthouse, there was a rather memorable incident with an incubus convention that required three weeks of fumigation. We’ve even had the odd human wander in, though they rarely remember.” Morven watched the floor numbers run down. “Our job is to keep the masquerade intact, you might say.”

  Gary tried to process this. The sanitized, hotel-lobby version of the supernatural war he had just survived. “So, you’re like… customs officers for other dimensions?”

  Morven considered. “Not inaccurate, though we prefer ‘arbiters’. Some worlds have their own systems. Here, it’s us. We have a duty of care to both local and visiting populations. The consequences of neglect can spiral quite badly, as you’ve just observed.”

  The lift pinged and the doors opened onto a carpeted hallway, blue and white. Morven strode ahead, shoes clicking, and led them through labyrinth corridors as they made their way to the presidential suite.

  “So, why didn’t you stop the King?” asked Sasha. Why couldn’t you just… freeze him, or call security, or whatever it is arbiters do?”

  “We couldn’t. Only someone with the same power source could stop him in this world. It had to be you.”

  “What made him do it?” Daisy’s voice was raw, the last syllable trailing out with a kind of anger that expressed her outrage at what the kind had done.

  Morven turned to face them, his expression grave, but a glint of mischief still alive in his eyes, as if recounting the king’s history was a sort of private sport now that the danger had passed. “Ah, the king. He’s been many people, but always an interesting character. He was one of us at the beginning. A wanderer, a connoisseur of the odd, a lover of ideas. He could talk the bark off a tree and often did. Before any of this, he was an advocate. A champion of our mission. He visited more often than any other, and for a while we thought he might end up head of the council.”

  Sasha looked up. “But something changed.”

  Morven nodded. “Many things, but mostly time. He came to believe that the difference in time between the worlds was not just a curiosity, but a cataclysm-in-waiting. One month here, a year there. He watched as the world outside this hotel window went from gaslight to neon to LED in what felt like a single summer. And on his side of the portal, he saw that the progress in the four lands was, I won’t say stagnant, but cyclical. They reinvented, reinterpreted, but never really progressed. Not the way humans do.”

  For the first time, Gary saw Morven’s confidence falter. The older man’s voice lowered, as if a hotel corridor could have listening ears. “He feared this world’s technology would soon outstrip the magic of all the others. We all argued about the mathematics of it, but he was stubborn. He thought it was only a matter of time before the balance was shattered and the other worlds would be colonized or destroyed by this one. So, he hatched a plan. Years in the making, but we didn’t see it. We assumed he was too invested in the council and the culture to ever break the rules.”

  Gary said, “So, he wanted to beat them to it? To rule here before someone from here could rule there?”

  “Exactly. But his plan was always on the edge of reason. And then Professor Wiseman happened.”

  Gary blinked. “I thought Wiseman was just some eccentric academic. What does he have to do with all this?”

  Morven grinned, but it didn’t reach his eyes. “He is more than eccentric. He is the definition of a clever idiot. Well-intentioned, in the infuriating way only academics can be. He worked here the summer before his PhD. The management thought he could help with the maintenance, but with access to hidden areas of the hotel, he wound up learning far more about the Arch than anyone expected. He met the king. He got drunk with the king. The king told him stories of the four lands, of the sacred river and the councils, and Wiseman, the clever fool that he was, took it as a personal challenge to build a bridge between the worlds away from the controlled portals.”

  Sasha shook her head. “So that’s what started everything. A summer job and too much ale.”

  “Not just that.” Morven’s face darkened. “Wiseman believed, with the sort of zeal only the truly unworldly have, that he could perfect the portals. Make them safe, regulated, and efficient. He published a paper on it, hidden in plain sight inside one of those journals no one reads. The king found it. And that’s when everything changed. The king realized he had to act quickly. His plan became urgent in his mind.”

  Gary tried to process this. “But then Wiseman realised the mistake he’d made and wanted to stop the king.”

  Morven shrugged. “You can never really know what goes on inside the head of an academic. Maybe he hoped you’d close the portal, or at least slow things down. “He’s not evil, Gary. Just reckless. He needs someone to direct his energy safely. I think we can all see that now.”

  Daisy pursed her lips. “So, what happens now? With the king gone, is that it?”

  Morven’s mouth twitched. “There are always issues arising. That is why we at the Arch are here. But time to put this behind you. For now, at least.”

  “But where does that leave us?” asked Sasha. “Do we go back to our regular lives?”

  Morven looked at her with something like affection. “You can. Or you can stay. The Arch always needs people who know both sides of the story. There’s an office on the top floor. They keep a running list of all the things that slip through the portals. There’s always work to be done.”

  They reached the penthouse and Morven opened the door. It was luxurious. A floor to ceiling window that stretched round two sides of the building gave a panoramic view across the night sky of London. A huge bed dominated the room, and a one wall was a wine fridge stocked mostly with champagne.

  “Passing between worlds can be quite exhausting,” said Morven. “Champagne seems to help the body recover. Something in the bubbles I believe or at least so I have been told by someone who is probably a little too fond of Dom Perignon, so they may harbour a minor conflict of interest. Regardless, help yourself.”

  “But we can’t afford this. I don’t think I’ve ever bought anything out of a minibar let alone stayed somewhere like this,” said Gary sweeping his hand around at the luxury laid out before him.

  “Oh, you can afford it,” said Morven. “The four lands have a standing account with the hotel, and it is very much in credit. With the king gone, I think we can safely say you three are Cockaigne’s representatives here at the Arch.” Morven walked over to the fridge, opened the door and pulled out a bottle. He peeled back the dark foil top and holding the cork he twisted the bottle, uncorking it without a single drop being lost. He then filled three Champagne flutes and passed one to each of them. “You will find this useful during your stay,” he said picking up a small briefcase and opening it. The briefcase was packed with bundled notes. Gary stared in disbelief. “Small change from your account but it will give you some spending money while we organise a corporate credit card in your name.”

  Gary put his glass down and took the briefcase from Morven. He pulled out some of the bundles. There was a mix of denominations, ten’s twenty’s, fifty’s and hundred-pound notes. “Unbelievable,” he mumbled.

  “Is it a lot?” asked Daisy.

  “It’s more than I’ve ever seen.”

  “Thank you,” said Sasha.

  “No, thank you. Thank you all. One more thing.”

  “Yes.”

  “You are now of this world and the four lands. You need to nurture both sides.”

  “What do you mean?” asked Gary.

  “Well… how can I put this delicately? After the exertions of the last few hours, you will need to do what would nourish you in the four lands and you will need to do what would nourish you here.”

  “What? I don’t understand,” said Sasha, shaking her head.

  “I think I do,” said Gary. “We need to make love and then feast. Is that what you’re saying?”

  “Very well put,” said Morven. “And often, I should add.”

  Gary looked at Sasha and then at Daisy. “I think we can do that, don’t you?” They both smiled and nodded.

  “I’m willing to give it a try,” said Daisy, her rabbit ears popping out of her hair as she spoke.

  “Well, I better leave you three to it. Get some rest and I will send up a banquet breakfast in the morning.”

  ***

  Professor Wiseman stared at the three young adventurers on the bed. “Yes, yes but did you save the multiverse?”

  Morven appeared in the doorway behind the professor. “Yes, James he did, no thanks to you. Are you done with all your meddling now?”

  The professor’s head drooped and suddenly he looked more like a naughty schoolboy than a university professor. “I didn’t mean any harm.”

  “Not meaning harm and doing harm are two entirely different things.”

  “I know, I know. I’m sorry, but if it wasn’t me, it would be someone else. Science never stops.”

  “Perhaps so, but can you just let it be someone else next time? Give us some space to prepare all worlds for the reunification.”

  “I want to see the other worlds so badly.”

  “I know you do, but that’s not a good enough reason to destroy this one.”

  The professor nodded sadly. He looked up at Gary. “Are you okay Gary?”

  Gary smiled. “I’m fine. More than fine actually.”

  “I took care of your grades and your absence from classes. Your course is waiting for you when you’re ready to return.”

  Gary looked at the professor, then at Daisy and Sasha, then back at the professor again. “You know what, that’s okay professor. I don’t think university is right for me. I’m going to do something different.”

  “Like what?”

  “I don’t know, but I’ll figure it out.”

  “There have been some reports of a stray dragon in Siberia,” said Morven twirling his moustache. “If you were looking for something to do, we could use your help tracking it down.”

  “I’ve never seen a dragon,” said Sasha.

  “Me neither,” said Daisy.

  “Okay,” said Gary, “I guess it’s settled. We’re going to Siberia.”

  “Would you… do you think that maybe…possibly…”

  “Ok professor, if it will keep you out of trouble you can tag along.”

  The End

  I hope you have enjoyed Lycanthrope Maidens.

  It would be great if you would leave a review on Amazon.

  Reviews help other readers find stories to both enjoy or avoid.

  cfcooper.author@gmail.com

 

 

  Cooper, CF, Lycanthrope Maidens: A Portal Fantasy Satire

 

 

  Thank you for reading books on GrayCity.Net
Share this book with friends