The incessant howling of miserable beasts were what woke Zelgadis the next morning. Rising from his chair, he threw off the blankets, and blurrily made, his way to the window overlooking the palace courtyard.
Beastmaster knelt there, her arms around the neck of an enormous she-wolf, it's black fur overlaid with silver as if it had been dusted by a light snowfall. They were crooning to each over in a soft muttered language, overlaid with yips and growls.
Xelas must have been alerted to his presense, for she looked up, seeing him, and placed a finger to her lips. He nodded and stepped away from the window.
Xelas reappeared a few minutes later, brushing wolf hairs off her clothing. Zelgadis noted with some relief that she was wearing a tunic and a pair of baggy pants, strangely patterned with what looked like dead leaves instead of the short dress she had worn yesterday.
"What were you doing out there?" Zel asked.
"Telling Osaka-ma to watch the island while I'm gone. She's the leader of my island wolves," Xelas replied, worrying a strand of her hair.
"You should wake them up," she said, nodding at Ameria and Gourry. "I have a few more things to take care of, plus it's better for them to see a familiar face."
"We'll set off after that?" he asked, walking over to Gourry and nudging him with a boot.
"Yeah," she said absently. "Back in a flash."
She vanished and Zelgadis sighed. Bending over, he began to push the two sleepers towards wakefulness.
The golden light of a day lamp spread across the room, sweeeping the chill dark back into the corners. The nebulous servant then moved to the next night lamp and extinguished it, lighting the day lamp in it's place.
Zelgadis, Gourry and Ameria stood in a small circle, stamping their feet and yawning as they waited for Beastmaster to make her reappearence. Zel had woken them and then given them a condensed version of where they were and who they were with, but he wasn't quite sure how much of it had sunk in. With Gourry that was a given, but he had expected Ameria to find the highest point in the room, and jump into a headlong justice speech about wicked lords and evil plots. She had done neither. In fact, thought Zel, watching her closely, she had been unusually difficult to rouse. Usually Ameria was up with the sun and singing with the birds, but now she leaned quietly against a marble pillar, her eyes heavy-lidded. Her small hands were twisted into an uneasy knot in front of her, and what was most worrisome, her skin seemed to have taken on a bluish undertone that reminded him of thin milk, pale and unwholesome. He hoped she wasn't coming down with some illness that would require a nursemaid, and entertained himself with horrible visions of having to wait on Ameria hand and foot while she gazed at him lovingly, sure that his tender loving care had saved her from the teetering brink of death. Shuddering, he weighed staying there against going back to sleep, pulling the covers over his head and never coming out.
"Hiiiiiiii!!! I'mmmm hereeeeeee!!!!!"
Xelas danced into their midst, smiling wide enough to rival the sun. Jammed onto her mass of blonde hair was what looked like a upside down soup bowl painted dull green. Between that and the wide belts of what looked like small thick daggers that crisscrossed her chest, it was a wonder that she could move at all, much less dance.
"Ohayo!! I'm sure Zel-kun has given you the oriantation speech, but it's so much better to meet face to face, ne? I'm the Beastmaster, but you can call me Xelas-sama!!"
Zelgadis stared, then rubbed his eyes and stared again. "Hello??"
Beastmaster turned to him, still beaming. Leaning forward and cupping a hand around his ear, she whispered, "Don't you think it's better for troop morale to be happy and excited when starting off on a potentially dangerous and world-destroying mission then sad and mopey?? You'd think you'd realise that after being around Lina-chan and Xel-chan for so long."
Zelgadis stared. Beastmaster winked at him, then turned back to Ameria and Gourry. Zel blinked twice, then started forward, meaning to ask the question rising in his mouth.
Unfortunately, Gourry, though slower in brain was swifter in tongue.
"You're Xelloss's boss?? The one that tells him to follow us and smile all the time?"
Beastmaster grinned. "I told him to follow you, but I'm afraid the smile is his own contribution."
"Why?" Zel countered.
"Sore wa....himitsu desu," Beastmaster purred, dragging her tongue over every syllable as if the words tasted good. Zelgadis looked away, scowling, and Xelas smiled broadly.
"The acorn never falls far from the tree, you know," she beamed.
Right, Zelgadis thought sourly. And the turd never falls far from the bird.
"Ano......We will get Lina-san and Xelloss-san back from their captor, right?" a quiet voice said limply. Everyone turned to look at Ameria, who looked at her hands.
Cold fear bit at Zelgadis's heart, chilling his blood. Something is not right, he thought, and started towards Ameria. Before he could get to her, Xelas stepped over, took both of Ameria's hands in her own and squeezed fiercely.
"We'll get them back," she promised. "Even if I have to beat the Lord of Nightmares over the head with Her own shovel to do it."
How encouraging, Zelgadis thought dryly. Why do I have a bad feeling about this?
They set off, after waiting several minutes while Xelas cooed goodbyes to her "babies", as they sat around with drooping ears, and tails as flat as if they'd been stepped on. Chief among the mourners was a group of enormous wolves that crooned dirges in soft wolf-speak and pushed their giant muzzles underneath Xelas's face for a kiss.
After Xelas locked the castle door with an crumbling iron key nearly her height and double her weight, she proceeded to teleport them off the island, making both Gourry and Ameria sick in the process. "Transportation sickness," she explained. Cleaning that mess took several more minutes, and Ameria looked so pale afterwards that Gourry offered to carry her on his back. She agreed and they set off again, fighting their way through the thick underbrush, which Xelas sheepishly apologised for.
"Around my domain everything gets wilder, trees, plants, man-eating beasts...you get the picture," she said, neatly severing a hanging vine with a quick finger blast.
They stumbled through the brush, cursing, falling and snagging clothes and hair. Zelgadis had the easiest time of it, while Gourry's long hair made him a perfect victim for the many insects and tree branches in their way. Ameria clutched his neck and leaned against him, closing her eyes, appearing to sleep. Xelas had stuffed the rest of her mass of hair underneath her helmet and continued as leader, her bracelets making a light silver music as she walked.
They trudged on.
"Here," Xelas said, placing the herb compress on Ameria's forehead. The girl closed her eyes, and seemed to relax.
They had camped for the night in a small clearing Xelas had provided by a well placed fire spell. Ameria had grown paler and quieter as the day wore on, and Xelas called a halt around twilight, declaring Ameria needed to rest. Ameria had gone without complaint, and she was promptly tucked in, while Xelas set to brewing a remedy over the fire.
"There," Xelas said, her face pale beneath her tan. "I think she'll sleep through the night."
Zelgadis watched her from over his cup of coffee. "Is she sick?"
She shook her head. "It's not any illness I've ever seen. Something's wrong though..."
Xelas looked away, rubbing her elbows. "Damn me," she said quietly, too quietly for anyone except Zelgadis to hear.
"Ano??" Gourry piped up. "How far is this guy Dynast's place anyway?"
Xelas sketched a map in the air with her fingers, then muttered a word under her breath. The map sprang to life, glowing with colors that seemed to swim in the night air.
However it was written in strange runes Zelgadis had never seen, crabbed and dark with ancient ink. A sea monster had been inked artistically on the left half of the map while a five pointed star glowed on the right.
"Here," Xelas said, laying a finger against the bottom of the map, away from both the sea monster and the star. "My place." The words Wolf Pack Island seemed to write themselves under her pointing finger. "We're a little north of the island, but still in my domain."
"What're these two here? The sea monster's neat," Gourry asked indicating the star and monster.
Xelas's lip quirked. "This here," she said, pointing to the sea monster, "is the domain of my beautous older sister Nerissa, otherwise known as Deep Sea Dolphin. The Demon's Sea and surrounding marshlands. We'd do well to avoid that. This here," she exclaimed to the star, "is the Desert of Destruction, home to the former Hellmaster Phibrizo. But," she added, "I trust you're already familiar with that particular place."
Gourry blanched. Zelgadis looked back into his coffee cup and Xelas watched them with a small smile on her face.
"Enough," Zel said, recovering. "Where's Dynast Grausherra?"
"Here," Xelas said, pointing all the way up. "The North Pole, coldest and most inhospitable place in the entire world. Incidently, that's also a very good description of Dynast's personality."
Zel and Gourry looked at down at the finger on Wolf Pack Island. Then they craned their heads and looked all the way up at the finger on the North Pole.
They groaned in unison.
Xelas shrugged. "What, you expected it to be easy? The problem is, though," she said, growing thoughtful, "is that there's no one good way to go. You can't go up, because the Katart Mountains block the path. If we go sideways, we'll run into my sister's place, which would suck. The Desert of Destruction is nearly inpassable. On the other hand," she exclaimed, " I think we might be able to go roundabout by way of here."
They all crowded around the map. "You've got to be kidding," Zel said flatly. "Wasn't the barrier resealed after we came back from defeating Dark Star?"
Xelas cackled in glee. "Maybe to you puny mortals," she giggled, "but I can cross with no problem, being the all great and powerful Beastmaster!! I'll rig up some way to bring you all across, and then we're set!!"
Zel sighed, not sharing her optimism in the slightest. Behind him, Ameria stirred and seemed to wake, unsteadily trying to sit up.
"Hey," Gourry said, scooting closer to Ameria's bedroll. "You awake, Ameria? Feeling better?"
Ameria's eyes were open, but curiously glazed, as if she still slept somewhere behind them. She tilted her head up towards Gourry.
"Oh, please, we have to help them," she whispered. Gourry stared at her.
"Umm, Zel? Wolfgirl? Ameria's up, but she's talking funny," he said. Taking his large hand, he slipped it underneath her back, raising her to a sitting position. "Ok?" he said, waving his hand in front of her face.
"Help them," Ameria continued to whisper, rocking back and forth. "Gotta help, so much danger, so little time."
"Ameria? Who? Help who?" Xelas said, reaching to take her hands, but Zelgadis beat her to it. He grasped the cold hands tightly, stone shards digging into her skin. "What, Ameria? What is it??" he asked urgently.
"NO!!!" Ameria screamed, tossing her head back and forth like a lathered horse. Her words fell back into a feverish mutter.
"I see it, I can see it all, I see his eyes, they're so bright, he'll kill them both, no he'll kill Xelloss and leave Lina alive, and the world will end, all will be lost, the night, the night, the night," she whimpered. "I can see the death."
"Lina?" Gourry yelled. "Where is she?"
"Xel?" Xelas screamed. "Where, where?? Damn you, answer me!" she said, shaking Ameria violently. Zel pried her hands away, as Ameria fell back, breathing deeply and lay still, as her eyes closed. Zel poked her and received no response, then noticed her breathing was deep and even.
"Look, look, it's no good, she's asleep, she's asleep," he said soothingly, inwardly trembling. "What was that? A fever dream?"
"No," Xelas said thickly. "No dream, no real dream. It's a damn prophesy, don't you see? She's dreaming the future. They're gonna die and there's nothing we can do to help."
"Go," Zel said calmly. "Go to sleep. Nothing's set yet. We'll find them in time. Dynast won't be able to hurt them, we won't let him. Go to sleep."
"Yeah, sleep," she whispered. "I'll go." She stumbled to her bedroll, and lay down, first taking a swig from a vial filled with greenish liquid.
"What's that?" Zelgadis asked, pointing to the vial.
"Oh this," Xelas said, glancing at it as if it had sprung into existance only moments before. "Herbal tonic. Helps you sleep."
Zel looked at it suspiciously. Xelas tucked her arms under her head and closed her eyes, seeming to relax. In a few moments she was still.
Zelgadis turned from her to the rest of the camp. Gourry was staring into the fire, as if he meant to conjure Lina out of the flames.
"Go," he ordered.
"Lina's in danger," Gourry said softly. "And we don't even know where she is."
"Xelloss will watch her," Zel said, unaware he was giving the priest a measure of trust.
"GOD!!!!!" Gourry exploded. Zel stepped back, startled. "You think XELLOSS is going to protect her?? He's a Mazoku, he's evil, and my god, he's all that Lina has...."
"Sleep," Zel chanted wearily, pressing a bluish finger to Gourry's forehead before he could react. The swordsman toppled and lay still.
Zelgadis smiled ruefully, as he looked around, making one final check of the camp. Everything in order, he thought. One Dark Lord, one omen-dreaming Princess, and one hysterical swordsman. And a blue Chimera.
"Sleep," he said, crawling beneath his covers and pulling them over his head.
"Sweet dreams," he said to himself, then closed his eyes and dreamed of a little red haired girl sitting on a tanned knee, eating chocolate ice cream.