Chapter 7 - Gram

 
 
   They were in a huge golden cathedral. They recognized it. It was the place where they had fought their Spirits.
   But it had changed. They were on the floor before the dais and the stained glass window. To the left was a massive black pipe organ. To the right was an equally massive silver pipe organ. Strings hung from the ceiling like the web of a colossal spider.
   And Yord was there. They could tell this time. Sarah could not be felt. Yord was everywhere, glaring hatefully at them. Yord did NOT like them. They were trying to take Sarah away from it.
   Lirael painfully dragged herself upright. Rana forced herself to her wobbly feet. Alanis barely managed to raise her head.
   Suddenly one of the black pipe organ’s keys thumped down, and three quick notes jarred their bones. Then all was still. There was nobody at the organ.
   Then the organ thumped the key again. Dum dum DAH[/i]…
   In the nearly deafening silence that followed the organ’s (extremely loud) notes, Lirael noticed a vague, eerie, trembling note. She looked up, and saw that the strings on the ceiling were vibrating, as if strummed lightly by phantasmal fingers. But there was nothing there.
   “I’m scared,” Alanis moaned, very softly.
   “I’m petrified,” Rana said, even more softly.
   “I wanna go home,” Lirael said, shocked at how much her voice was shaking.
   Alanis managed to sit upright. “Me too…”
   Dum dum DAH[/i]…
   Then a hoarse voice called, “Are you girls all right?”
   Miss Tiara and Miss Lena staggered into view. One of Miss Tiara’s ponytails was spilling over her shoulder. Her scarlet leather outfit was ragged and torn; she rather looked as if she had been dragged through a briar patch. Miss Lena was in worse shape; the pale silk of her sleeves had been shredded to ribbons, and the purple satin of her gown was as ragged as Miss Tiara’s leather. Both Princesses seemed to be in a very bad condition, and the three little girls weren’t much better.
   Then the organ rang out again. Dum dum DAH[/i]…
   And the other organ began to let out a high, shrill, lasting note. The strings above trembled down a scale.
   Then the black organ began to plink like a piano, tripping softly down five notes. The other organ repeated the five notes in a ghostlike wail. The black organ plinked five more notes, and the silver organ wailed them back. This happened again, and then the silver organ let out a new wail, and the black organ began to plink again. The strings above groaned up and down like violins, and the stained glass window vibrated like a gong.
   The lights began to dim, and finally, only a soft radiance from the stained glass windows remained. Then the girls screamed as a high scream came from the strings above, weaving up and down through the notes of a mysterious song. Combined with the eerie half-light, it was terrifying.
   “Miss Tiara, get us out of here,” Alanis sobbed. “I don’t like it…I want to go home!”
   “I can’t,” Miss Tiara said, her voice shaking, but her face quite composed. “The Throne of Yord won’t let me. I can’t do anything here.”
   “Not even if I boosted you?” Miss Lena inquired.
   Miss Tiara laughed mirthlessly as the strings squealed. “I’d need the entire Guardian World—at least[/i]!—to contradict the Throne of Yord.”
   “I’m sorry,” Rana said, biting back tears. “It’s our fault that you two are here.”
   “Nonsense,” Miss Lena said briskly. “If we can’t transport ourselves out of here, Tiara, then we’ll have to fight.”
   “We fought the Throne of Yord before,” Miss Tiara reminded her. “We lost.”
   “Yes, but the Throne had weakened us by turning us against each other,” Miss Lena said. “This time we are full, if not rested, and are free to use our powers to the best of our abilities. Not to mention that we have three other Princesses protecting our backs and are older, wiser, and stronger than we were the first time. That’s besides[/i] the fact Sarah seems to like the three of them and you, and has evidently collected enough power to send herself outside of the Throne. I would say we’d be hard pressed to ask for any more advantages against this foe.”
   Miss Tiara looked dubious, but nodded resignedly as the strings gave a particularly loud scream. “Stay close, girls. We don’t know what could happen.”
   Miss Tiara staggered backwards as Lirael, Rana, and Alanis slammed into her at high speed. “Oof! Steady!”
   “What we need to find out,” Miss Lena said quietly as the organs screeched at them, “is how the Throne will decide to attack us.”
   “It used Sarah last time,” Miss Tiara suggested.
   Miss Lena made a face. “Let’s hope it doesn’t again.”
   The suspense was killing them. The organs wailed on, the strings above thrummed, the stained glass shook with occasional gongs.
   Suddenly Alanis screamed, “What are you waiting for?! Get on with it!!”
   The music cut off instantly.
   For some reason, everyone’s eyes were drawn irresistibly to the dais in front of the stained glass Eye of Yord. And as they watched, a shadow materialized there.
   Alanis tried to hide herself behind Miss Lena. “I didn’t really mean it,” she whispered.
   The shadow stepped closer, heels clacking on the floor. Miss Tiara had opened the magic eye on her palm. Miss Lena’s flute was at her lips. Lirael was twisting her hair around her fingers. Rana seemed unruffled and serene, but fine beads of sweat trickled down her face. Alanis, as previously said, was trying to pretend she didn’t exist.
   Then the floor glowed with a bluish-golden light—and the figure was revealed.
   Miss Tiara gasped.
   “Gram?![/i]”
 
   It was immediately obvious that this man was not quite a man. His right side seemed normal enough, but his left was a metallic monster. His leg and arm were clawed metal paws. The left half of his face was covered in the same greenish-yellow metal with a large, staring green eye that had a dark slash shaped like a lightning bolt straggling down from it. A thin circlet set with a black gem was on his forehead, almost hidden by his long hair; bluish-lavender in shade, with perhaps a hint of pink. His clothes were rough and ordinary, but black ribbons writhed slowly around them, like malicious snakes.
   Miss Tiara seemed to be in shock. She said the strange word again; “Gram?![/i]”
   “Who’s this Gram-person?” Alanis whispered.
   “Tiara’s first partner,” Miss Lena answered.
   Rana gasped. “She had another Partner?! Why didn’t I know that? Why isn’t it in the library? Spill the details!”
   “Rana!” Lirael hissed. “Can that wait until we’re not[/i] in the clutches of something that wants to kill us?!”
   “Gram was Tiara’s very first Partner,” Miss Lena said, seemingly ignoring Lirael. “He loved her, but she had eyes only for Kagetsu. He tried to stop Kagetsu from leaving with the Throne, but Kagetsu neutralized him and escaped. That was when Tiara summoned Japolo.”
   “He’s[/i] our opponent?” Rana inquired in disbelief.
   “No!” Miss Lena said quickly. “It is the Throne of Yord! It may be using Gram’s form, but it is not[/i] Gram. Gram is dead; Kagetsu destroyed him.”
   Miss Tiara seemed to half-shake off her daze. “Yes…yes, you’re…you’re absolutely right,” she replied grimly. “That…is the Throne of Yord.”
   Gram (or the Throne of Yord) took another step, and his metal foot clinked on the floor. “Yes and no,” he replied breathily. “I am no longer animated by Tiara’s magic, so I am not quite the same…but I am[/i] Gram. Kagetsu—” he spat out the name like a curse— “merely dissolved the magic holding me in this world. I remained alive, and I stand before you now.”
   “Don’t listen to him,” Miss Lena urged. “If he isn’t sustained by you, he isn’t the same Gram.”
   “I was not created[/i] by your magic,” Gram said. “I was merely given form by your magic. With it or without it, I am still Gram.”
   “No he isn’t!” Rana cried. “If the Throne of Yord shaped him, he has the Throne’s wills on him! He is[/i] different! No magic can bring back the dead!”
   “Only I never died!” Gram said sharply. “Haven’t I just finished telling you? But even if I had,” here his face contorted briefly, “would you have cared? I watched you as you found my jewel—all that remained of me—and then, what did you do? You summoned that absurd, accented ferret and went after Kagetsu! When you returned, you were married to him! When did you spare even a minute to think of me? No, I did not die—but you thought I had, and you did not mourn!”
   “But she kept your jewel!” Miss Lena shouted at Gram. “Kept it, and imbued it upon Japolo, so that she would always remember you, so long as Japolo lived!”
   Gram’s mutated face twisted into a terrible smile. “Japolo? You mean this?”
   He spread the fingers of his metal hand—and revealed Japolo, his small body broken and bloodied. His narrow chest barely rose or fell, and blood was cascading from his throat, soaking his tail. Gram took him by the throat with two fingers, and gave him a brutal shake. Miss Tiara screamed.
   “JAPOLO!!”
   “It’s another trick!” Alanis cried, although her voice shook. “It must be!”
   “Have it your way!” Gram shouted at her. “If you believe he is a trick, you will not object to my snapping his weak, traitorous, replacing little neck!”
   Rana concentrated on Japolo.
   Suddenly Japolo’s eyes snapped open. With a quick, sudden jerk, he twisted his head impossibly sideways and sank his teeth into Gram’s hand.
   Gram’s face momentarily contorted in pain. Then he raised his hand over his head and threw Japolo onto the ground. There was a loud, sickening snap[/i]ping noise. One of Japolo’s fangs was wrenched from his mouth in a spray of blood, imbedded into Gram’s finger. Lirael, Rana, and Alanis screamed.
   Fury and hatred filled Gram’s face, mingled with triumph. He set his clawed foot lightly on Japolo and pressed. Blood gushed from Japolo’s mouth as he tried to breathe.
   In one moment, the three little girls exchanged hate-and-terror-filled glances. Then they acted en masse. Lirael threw images of wolves, panthers, tigers, manticores, and katra into her magic. Rana burst into flowers and reformed diving at Gram’s leg. Alanis dissolved into wind and dropped onto Gram’s shoulder with a piercing scream.
   As Lirael’s body warped into a strange combination of giant canine and feline, Gram overbalanced and fell over beneath Rana and Alanis’ weight. Miss Lena immediately trilled on her flute, and Japolo was teleported into Miss Tiara’s arms. Rana was calling Gram every name she could think of as she wrestled with his leg—Alanis settled for ear-bursting shrieks into Gram’s ear as she tried to lock his arm to his side.
   However, two little girls were absolutely no match for Gram. His fleshly arm stretched like elastic and grabbed both Rana and Alanis around the neck. He hoisted them into the air as he struggled to his feet, and channeled his power of lightning through his arm. Electricity zapped through both little girls, setting their hair on end. Rana gritted her teeth and tried to force him away; Alanis screamed in agony.
   Then there was the pounding of paws.
   Lirael the giant canine/ feline lunged for Gram and knocked him over again. Her heavy paws crushed his arms at the shoulder; her jaws locked around his throat. Her momentum carried them into the stained glass window. Rana and Alanis dropped. Miss Tiara shouted a strange word, and the eye on her hand blinked; the air around them whirled, forming cushions that lowered them slowly and softly to the ground. Although Rana’s hair was smoking and Alanis’ dress was missing pieces, they were still conscious, and not too badly off despite their brush with electricity.
   Lirael the monster growled and shook Gram like a rag doll in her immense jaws. She tried not to think about his blood oozing over her teeth or the strange snaps that were accompanying her shaking, because it was making her feel sick. She pretended she was a maraca and shook her head until her brain was knocking on the sides of her skull. Then she spat Gram out.
   “Gra~am[/i],” Miss Tiara moaned.
   “Japolo!” Miss Lena shouted at her.
   Tears trickled slowly down her cheeks as Miss Tiara pressed her magical eye to Japolo’s chest and her lips to his forehead. The easiest way for a Princess to heal her Partner was with a kiss. The ferret glowed with blue magic, and his many wounds began to weave themselves closed. Soon he unconsciously curled up in her arms and let out a small, contented snore.
   “If only it was that easy for us,” Miss Lena muttered.
   Lirael shrank back into her normal self and spat, trying to forget the taste of Gram in her mouth. “I need a mint.”
   “Coming right up.” Rana pointed into her hand, and a few green leaves materialized.
   “Thanks,” Lirael said sincerely, chewing the leaves.
   “Was that it?” Alanis asked. “It seemed too easy.”
   “You would rather it was harder?” Rana asked disbelievingly.
   “No, just…if the Throne of Yord’s so all-powerful, how could we defeat it so easily?”
   “An excellent point,” Miss Lena mused. “Gram must not have been its true challenge. Be on your guard. I have no idea what could happen next.”
   The second attack, however, was a complete surprise. Because it did not[/i] come from another front.
   Their only warning was a soft, strange, echoing sound and a short gust of wind. Then Lirael and Rana were pulled irresistibly forward. Alanis screamed. Miss Lena jumped as a flesh-colored whip lashed towards her feet.
   Gram pulled himself up from the floor, his head lolling slightly, deep teethmarks in his neck. His green eye was fixed on Lirael, who (it was now obvious) had been yanked off her feet by his arm, which had split into several whips which were now writhing along the floor.
   “You’ll die for that, little girl,” Gram whispered, a fine trickle of blood running down from his mouth to join the flood gushing from his neck.
   Then the song of a flute sliced the air like silver, and an invisible blade severed the whips dragging Rana and Lirael to their certain doom. Gram reeled with a scream as the magic flickered at him and slashed across his chest. Shreds of cloth clung to it, revealing it to be, not a blade at all, but a sparkling thread of magic.
   Gram whipped his arm up and around at Miss Lena, and his arm split like fraying yarn, whips lashing out at Miss Lena from every direction.
   Miss Lena was hovering on a thin ribbon of magic, her fingers flying across her flute, and as the whips homed in on her she began an intricate ballet in midair, dodging every whip almost effortlessly. The twinkling thread trailed from her piping flute and spun around her like a streamer as she ducked, twirled, and flipped, graceful as a dancer. Then Miss Lena unleashed a trill, climbing the scale with impossible speed—and the thread contracted from where she had woven it around the whips, and severed them all.
   Gram screamed again, but had neglected to consider his other foes. Lirael and Rana were up again, and when the gem on Gram’s forehead began to shine, they were ready. As lightning exploded from the gem and sped at Miss Lena, Lirael grabbed for her magic.
   Miss Lena was suddenly surrounded by a powerful barrier of pure magic, alight with the castings of a thousand shadows. The lightning glanced uselessly from it and left a hole in the ground. Rana and Alanis grabbed Lirael’s shoulder and lent her raw power—Lirael felt them dropping into her, Rana a blossoming jungle, Alanis a raging tempest, and felt the solidity of nature and the radiance of the wind merge with her vast power of darkness—and the small, black-haired girl unleashed a blast of iridescent energy that blew Gram into the wall.
   But Gram was still not done for. Because when he peeled himself from the wall again, blood streaming ever more copiously down his throat, there were two eyes staring at the group. One was the staring green eye that they had seen before. But his other eye, the eye that not even Miss Tiara had ever seen open…
   The “white” was blacker than the depths of midnight. The pupil was redder than the blood coursing from his wounds. And the iris was the color of fire, reds and oranges and yellows flickering around the blood-red pupil like a hellish inferno.
   Before Rana, Lirael, or Alanis could move, his eye had widened just slightly—and immediately all three were blown backwards with a triple shriek of pain, singed by a flame that was not there, struck by a hand that did not exist.
   Miss Tiara screamed. “Lirael!! Rana!! Alanis!!”
   Miss Lena returned to the ground and stared at Gram. “Tiara, it’s time.”
   Miss Tiara’s eyes were wet, but her voice was resolute. “Yes, you’re right.”
   Miss Tiara crossed her arms in front of her. Miss Lena held her arms out away from her.
   “Powerful spirits of the Guardian World, show me the source of your mystic energy!” Miss Tiara shouted.
   “Messengers that bear the legends of antiquity…” Miss Lena chanted, bringing her hands in front of her.
   “Fulfill your contract with me! Bring forth the powers of the Scriptures and place them on Tiara!” Miss Tiara shouted, drawing a circle around her head with her arms. The circle shone with magic, and symbols appeared, drawn over her body within seconds.
   “Come forth to this symbol with your powers…and offer those powers to me, Lena!” Miss Lena raised her arms into the air and linked her fingers together.
   “Fulfill your duty! I command you! Heil Endo Sabbath!!” Miss Tiara dropped her arms and a tornado of magic whirled up around her.
   “I order you to fulfill your contract! Helia Sum Lade!!” Tentacles of power wrapped up around Miss Lena, whirling madly for a moment before snapping tightly like a cocoon around her.
   Magic exploded out from them in a great wave. The tornado whirled up, thinner and thinner, and from the top emerged a lady with amber eyes and red hair like two huge wings, clad in tight black leather, magical runes flowing upon her forehead. The tentacular cocoon quivered slightly, then reversed its creation and soon disappeared, revealing another lady with long golden hair and eyes the shade of amethysts. Violet cloth swirled and twisted over her body.
   Heil Endo Sabbath whirled up into the air and plunged down towards Gram. Gram stared up at her, and his bizarre, never-before-opened eye met her amber ones stonily. Then the pupil widened just a fraction of an inch; and a column of bleeding flame exploded up around him and flew to meet Heil.
   Spirit and column collided in midair.
   Heil was thrown back by the sheer force of the flames, tinged with boiling blood that was dripping onto the floor. Although Heil seemed unharmed, droplets of blood from the flames (flames bleeding?) had splattered her face and chest. Incredibly fortunately, Heil Endo Sabbath was a Spirit of fire and darkness, and neither the searing flames nor the boiling blood could harm her. However, the simple force of colliding with ten tons of flame sent her flying backwards, into a wall.
   Gram’s tentacular arms reached for her.
   A storm of violet tentacles exploded upwards and attacked Gram’s own. Gram shrieked a violent curse and turned his attention back to his other foe.
   The tentacles had all come from Helia Sum Lade. The violet silk covering her body had somehow fired long, thick streamer-like ribbons of cloth (without detracting from the whole, which was good, because if Helia had a mere half-inch less on than she already did, she would be showing Far Too Much [as Lirael’s mother would say] ) which were now grappling with Gram’s “arms”.
   It was then that Heil dug herself out of the wall and lunged again.
   Lightning crackled and rose up around Gram, snickering along his appendages and radiating out into the air like malevolent breath on a winter morning. Helia’s cloth tentacles fizzled and fried—she was forced to release her hold on Gram before the electricity could catch her on fire. Seeing her friend in distress, Heil dived, and a burst of golden flames surrounded her like a shield.
   Then, as she came within ten feet of the lightning, she fell.
   Imagine the force of static electricity created by rubbing a balloon against your head multiplied by several hundred times, focused on one single person. Heil’s hair stood straight on end; and Heil plummeted, because her hair was her wings. Without her wings, she could not fly; and with her hair standing straight up, she had no wings.
   Heil slammed into the ground and sat dazedly up, her hair sticking out in a fuzzy corona about her. Had Helia or Gram had a sense of humor, they might have laughed. Gram’s strange, inverted eye flickered to the side, looking at Heil, and the pupil began to contract.
   Then a small silver blur came zigzagging out of nowhere.
   Japolo, wreathed in silver flames, went flying into Gram’s face and gouged deeply into his eyes. Gram shrieked and lashed out with an explosion of tentacles. Japolo hissed something incomprehensible and the silver fire about him flickered into a shielding globe of blazing silver.
   Gram shrieked again as the silver flames exploded up in his face. He tried to rip Japolo off his face with seven different tentacles, but Japolo’s silver shield flared brightly, and any tentacle that touched it was toasted.
   A single, pure note sounded.
   It started low, almost inaudible. But it grew, and grew, and grew, cutting through the melee with the clarity of perfection. It was just a single note; one long, pure, perfect, sweet tone, climbing in volume with every second.
   It was Helia Sum Lade. Her tentacles were moving, weaving slow, sensuous symbols around her willowy body—her crimson mouth was open, releasing the long, pure, perfect note that did not die away, but grew louder and louder until the glass of the stained glass window was vibrating with it.
   Heil pressed her palms against her ears and screamed, trying to drown out the sound. Japolo bounced away from Gram, trying to stuff his paws into his ears. Gram swung round and stared at Helia.
   The note was by now so loud that the very ground rumbled with it. The giant stained glass window cracked. The strings above screeched together in protest, but nobody could hear them. In their unconscious sleep, Lirael, Rana, and Alanis covered their ears and rolled over, trying to escape it. But it was Gram that the force of Helia’s song was focused upon. For now it was a song—Helia’s voice began to rise and fall, alternating between notes higher than the tallest mountain and lower than the center of the planet. The entire cathedral shook with her voice.
   Gram shrieked, a silent shriek that was far from silent, and seemed to thin, stretch slightly, become tenuous, then vaporous. Then he was gone.
   But the mighty effect of Helia’s voice was not over yet. Just as Gram disappeared, the entire cathedral shattered as if it were made of glass. It was like the sky breaking—huge, sharp-edged pieces fell, the entire cathedral dissolving into glassy shards that melted into darkness and became, instead, a huge forest of briars, black and thorny, a turquoise-and-amethyst sky covered by lace of clouds stretching above them. And Sarah was standing there, a luminescent candle amid the darkness of the brambles.
 

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