"We're here," someone called from the front of the army, and Lilia's blood ran cold, her heart skipping a beat.
"By 'here,' do you mean the Wizard's...residence?" Connor called. The message was passed along and soon, a reply returned.
"Yes."
Forgetting their protective layers, Connor and Lilia pushed through the ex-Slaves and stopped cold at the sight ahead of them.
There was an elaborate stone archway with carvings of faces in torment - not exactly comforting - etched into its sides and a word that Lilia couldn't understand written on the arcing portion. There was no building behind the doorway, but instead of there being a view of the forest through the opening, there was a square of blackness. Rather than be a still screen of darkness, however, it rippled as if it was alive.
Connor bent, picking up a twig, and threw it into the portal. It disappeared, causing slight waves to ripple out from its entry.
"How do we know that it's safe in there?" Matt asked, joining them.
"We don't," Connor said darkly. "It could lead anywhere."
The group was silent, staring at the portal until finally, Lilia took a deep breath and announced, "You know what, we're this close, this is where the Wizard has been seen emerging from, and I really just want to get home." The last part was a lie - she was still struggling internally with whether or not she would truly return to Earth when the time came - but she wasn't about to just turn around at a little fear. The past few days had been practically nothing but fear - how could she be deterred now?
She took a step forward, fully prepared to jump through the portal, but Connor grabbed her forearm. "Are you crazy?" he hissed angrily.
"What?" Lilia asked defensively.
"You can't - I don't want you getting hurt!"
"Stop acting like I'm some helpless damsel in distress," Lilia snapped, suddenly angry at the way he was treating her. She had been the one to cut Connor down from Winfrith's trap. She had been the one to kill the hellhound. She had been the one to save him from the Improbable Slaves. She yanked her arm from his grip and glared defiantly at him. She wasn't about to let him treat her like a weakling when she had proven herself over and over.
Connor deflated. "You're right. I'm sorry." He sighed, glancing at the knife on her hip. "Please be careful."
Lilia nodded, nervousness rendering her wordless. Now that she was about to do it, jumping through the portal was the last thing she wanted. She faced the portal and summoned all of her courage.
Then, she threw herself into the darkness before her own thoughts could paralyze her.
It was a strange feeling, but not entirely unpleasant. The portal engulfed her, and she felt as though the strange, almost liquid substance was adhering to her like a second skin. Then, she was through the portal, and on her feet.
No - on her side. Or was the world on its side?
As a wave of dizziness struck Lilia, she toppled to the ground - or the wall, she wasn't quite sure yet. She squeezed her eyes shut and waited for the vertigo and nausea to pass.
When it finally did after what was doubtless only a few seconds but felt like much longer, she climbed shakily to her feet, cursing herself for not checking for enemies sooner, vertigo or no. She was safe, however - and very much alone in the room she had been spat out into.
It was a plain cobblestone room about as big as her bedroom back home, with a large wooden door that was firmly closed. At Lilia's feet, the husks of a couple of bugs she didn't recognize, some twigs, and a few pebbles lay. Wanting to inform Connor that she was safe, she picked up a pebble and lobbed it back through the portal, hoping that she wouldn't accidentally clock someone in the head.
She took another look around the room for the source of the gentle light shining on her, but couldn't find one. The light seemed to be seeping out of the walls, floor, and ceiling.
Shrugging and dropping the puzzle for now, Lilia pressed herself against one wall to clear the portal's ejection space and waited for the arrival of her friends.
It didn't take long. Matt tumbled into the room and Lilia watched with amusement as he toppled to the floor. Alia was next, luckily staggering to the side rather than falling on Connor, nearly reaching Lilia before falling to her knees and hands.
Lilia moved forward and helped the woman to her feet, escorting her to the wall so she could lean against it. She just giggled as Matt staggered into an upright position.
Matt glared ather, clutching his stomach. "I thought we were friends," he wheezed, betrayed as he joined Alia against the wall.
"What are friends for if not to laugh at one another?" Lilia pointed out innocently. Matt just muttered something under his breath, cracking his neck.
One by one, the army came through the portal. Soon, the little room was crowded and near to bursting. The last person to try and come through got stuck in the portal, and they sent him back to tell the others the situation.
Soon, Connor stuck his head through the black substance. It looked strangely comical, his disembodied head floating in the black, liquid-like substance. More than a few people hid smiles behind their hands or masked chuckles with coughs.
Connor grinned, the humor of the situation not lost on him even in this dire time. His eyes met Lilia's and softened in relief.
"What should we do?" she asked.
Connor thought for a moment, glancing around the room to assess the situation. "Well, chances are, either you're in a soundproof room or you're in an empty area of the castle, since nobody's heard your arrivals and talking yet." Some chatting ex-Slaves fell silent with guilty looks on their faces.
"Good point."
"Alia?" Connor asked, looking around the room for the woman. She stepped forward, inclining her head to show that she was listening.
"Open the door, please. Lilia, come here."
Lilia walked closer to the portal as Alia pushed through the crowd of ex-Slaves to get to the wooden door.
"If there's something dangerous, I want you to jump back through the portal," Connor said quietly.
"I'm not going to abandon these people, Connor!" Lilia glanced over her shoulder at Alia, who was struggling with the heavy door.
"They'll follow. They're not stupid. Please, agree to this."
Lilia knew that if there was something bad on the other side of the door, her instincts would likely force her back through the portal as it was. She nodded to pacify Connor.
Finally, Alia managed to force the door open. It happened so quickly that Lilia didn't have time to prepare herself for whatever might await them.
Nothing stood on the other side of the door.
Lilia breathed a sigh of relief as Alia stepped into the space beyond. "All clear," she called over her shoulder, and the ex-Slaves started filing out of the room and into the hallway. As they did so, Connor's head disappeared back into the portal to supervise the remainder of the army and more "soldiers" started coming through.
Finally, Lilia was the only person left in the room. Connor stepped through the portal and hugged her tightly, surprising her with the sudden show of affection.
He pulled away from her, although not releasing her, looking down at her. "Ready?" he asked quietly, his eyes sad.
"I'm ready." Lilia nodded as if the motion would somehow make her words true.
With that, they followed their army of former Slaves into the Wizard of Improbability's lair.
*
Connor and Lilia took the lead instead of attempting to replace their intricate layers of guards. There was no point, not with an abandoned hallway, not when they were so close to their goal. The hallway had ended shortly to their right, so they had turned left and hoped for the best.
They had only been walking for a minute or so when they came to the first fork in their path.
As Connor glanced down both halls, Lilia sidled closer to him and whispered, glancing around to make sure they weren't going to be overheard, "I don't like this. The Wizard wouldn't leave the only entrance into his castle unguarded."
Connor held up a finger. "You forget, this is the heart of his territory. It is likely that he would guard the portal, which may not be the only entrance into his castle. It is unlikely that it would be unguarded."
Lilia sighed, passing a hand over her face. "This is exhausting. I just want things to make sense again."
"Without the field of improbability, we wouldn't have survived this long," Connor reminded her. "Nor would I have told you how I felt."
Lilia blushed as Connor chose the right-handed passageway at what seemed like random. "True. And me, you."
They walked for some time down the long hallway. Lilia wondered offhandedly how big the castle was. She had never been inside a castle on Earth, so she had no sense of how large the buildings usually were. Rather gargantuan, she would guess.
"I wonder what all these rooms are for," she murmured as they passed yet another door, from which no sound emerged.
"Maybe this wing's abandoned," Connor suggested.
"Maybe." It didn't make Lilia feel any better, though.
They arrived at another fork. "Left or right?" she asked Connor.
"Left," he said decisively.
"How do you know?"
"I'm trying to get to the heart of the castle. I'm just guessing that the portal's on the edge."
Lilia made a quick mental map of the area they had already covered. It made sense, she supposed - their staggered path was cutting deeper into the castle based on Connor's guess as to where the portal had been located.
Finally, they came across signs of inhabitance.
A door to one of the rooms hung open. Lilia glanced inside, her gaze quickly arrested by what she saw.
The ornate bed's blankets were in disarray, bunched at the bottom of the mattress. The wardrobe was wide open and several gorgeous ballgowns had crumpled out of it. There were several face-down cavasses, and anything that had been on a shelf was on the floor, shattered if it was at all fragile. It looked like a tornado had torn through the chambers.
"What happened?" Matt breathed, peering over her shoulder. Lilia shrugged, speechless.
They had no choice but to continued onward. Lilia's bad feeling got worse. The Wizard was deranged, she knew that much from being in his forest. What would happen in his castle, the heart of his land?
When Connor suddenly halted, Lilia didn't know why until the wall diagonal from them rippled.
The army behind them was muttering with the sudden halt. "What's happening?" Alia demanded, pushing to the front of the group and raising her sharp branch at the ready.
Lilia raised a slightly shaking finger and pointed at the area of the wall. As if on cue, a figure-shaped part of the surface broke away and began walking toward them.
It was so disconcerting that it took Lilia several seconds to realize that it was, in fact, a person - or a humanoid, at least. Its skin matched the wall exactly, giving it the ability to blend in perfectly. It was certainly a girl, because it was naked - while it didn't seem to have genitalia, its curves betrayed its womanhood. She had had her eyes closed, Lilia realized, as she opened them to reveal strangely large, green orbs.
"We've been waiting for you," the creature said, revealing her mouth. Her voice sounded like rocks being tumbled together.
"Who is 'we?'" Connor asked cautiously as the ex-Slaves immediately behind him tried to explain the sight before them to those in the back of the army.
"Don't be intentionally stupid, Connor," the creature said disdainfully. She turned and beckoned for them to follow her as she started down the hallway.
Connor and Lilia glanced at one another. "What do you think?" Connor whispered.
"I think I don't trust strange wall people," she replied, quietly enough so that the woman wouldn't hear her.
"So what do we do? Do we...fight her?"
"Come on," the woman said impatiently. "You want to get to the Wizard, don't you? You didn't come all this way to stand in the hallway and gawp like idiots."
Connor shrugged and started forward. Nervously, Lilia followed him, a bit bolstered by the crowd of able-bodied men and women who followed them.
They weaved their way through the castle's passageways, taking turn after turn until Lilia was completely lost. She could only hope that Connor or some of the ex-Slaves were keeping track of their path.
Finally, they stopped in front of huge, oaken double doors. They were similar to the other doors in the halls and the one leading out of the portal room, but much larger and more ornate. They looked insanely heavy, but the stone woman reached forward, pressed her hands against the wood, and pushed, opening them easily. They swung completely open, revealing the room beyond in its entirety.
It was an office.
Lilia blinked, completely taken aback. She had expected a throne room or something similar to show the power and influence of the Wizard, not a simple office that looked exactly like her father's home study.
Her jaw dropped when she saw the computer on the glass desk, identical to the work laptop her father had and completely out of place in Dwirinel.
"Hello, Lilia," a voice said. "Do you like it? I made it just for you."