Blessings from Khaos

|I Must Have Loved You A Lot|

The Amazon Jail was at the top of a storage aisle, sixty feet in the air.

Hylla led her up three different ladders to a metal catwalk and along crates of jewelry.

A hundred feet ahead, under the harsh glow of fluorescent lights, a row of chain-link cages hung suspended from cables. Medea and Magnus were in two of the cages, talking to each other in hushed tones. Next to them on the catwalk, three bored-looking Amazon guards leaned against their spears and gazed at the tablets in their hands like they were reading.

She passed a pallet of crates marked 24-CARAT BLUE TOPAZ RINGS, then another labeled SILVER FRIENDSHIP BRACELETS. An electronic display next to the friendship bracelets read: People who bought this item also bought GARDEN GNOMESOLAR PATIO LIGHT and FLAMING SPEAR OF DEATH. Buy all three and save 12%!

She wondered if she could get something similar to the matching bracelets Drew gave them.

"Here are your friends," Queen Hylla stated as she walked her over. "Chrissy and LuLu will take care of you." She nodded her head to the guards in front of her; the former who glared at her a bit. "I have a meeting with the investors so do take care of her."

Hylla turned to leave. Leaneíras waited until her steps receded down the catwalk. She walked over the cages, tilting her head to look back at the two. Behind her, she could sense the guards moving around.

"Lea," Medea said, crouching down towards the other. Leaneíras smiled lightly, raising the hand that held herring to her chest. It was already pulsing lightly. There was a light glow to her eyes.

"Spider, O Spider, pray why do you spin your pretty white web so fine and so thin?" Leaneíras murmured. A very special spell that she learned from Lou Ellen; one the girl had made to against the Sixth Cabin in Capture the Flag. A very special spell that summoned spiders. "To catch fat flies and make them into pies. Spider, O spider, pray, do you not see? Here comes a big, buzzing, blundering bee. He'll spoil your fine net while you fume and you fret, but no mercy you grant, and no mercy you'll get."

One of the guards walked over to her, brimming with excitement. "So, you truly are the Twice-Blessed," the girl asked. Leaneíras chanced her a glance, knowing that her eyes were glowing just a bit. She shrugged.

"That's what my blessing calls me and well, his Mother called me that too."

"Wow," the guard breathed. "I can't believe a god-consort is in our base."

A what now?

Something brushed against Leaneíras' leg. "I get that a lot," she lied, "but I also hear: Ladybug, Ladybug, fly away home." The girl's eyes flashed green as the compulsion spell set in. "Hand over the Amazon card." She turned around to the others, the light of her ring pulsing once more as she took the card in hand. "Hear me, Heed me. Run Away. Live to see another day."

The guards rushed away and with the swipe of her hand, the spiders — thousands upon thousands of creepy little critters — followed after them. Leaneíras swiped the card. The doors popped open.

"What's the plan now," Medea asked as they let Magnus remove the bands from around their wrists.

"Back to the throne room," Leaneíras said. Alarms began wailing throughout the cavern. "Shit. Our weapons and supplies are at the end of the catwalk. There's a doorway in the throne room.

The first part of the escape was easy. They retrieved their things with no problem, then started climbing down the ladder.

The next part got a bit harder. The Amazons had equipped themselves with blowtorches for her little spider friends. And Leaneíras understood exactly what Hylla meant by foreign mageia not being allowed; she could sense the spell spluttering out in places.