Sondre gave her a look. “Are you able to handle this hunt? I can—”
“I have Ellie,” Prospero said, which was sort of an answer.
“I see that. Miss Brandeau.” Sondre dipped his head to her. “Is it… Aggie?”
Prospero shook her head. “Dionysus.”
“As in thegod?” Ian exclaimed. “Let me stay with you. I could change my thesis and—”
“Hush.” Prospero rolled her eyes. “Go home, Headmaster. Take the child with you.”
Sondre gave her a long look. “How did you know I wasn’t going to accept Grendel?”
“You’re a good man, Sondre. Go home to your family. I’ll handle this one, although I may ask for aid with the last Grendel.” Prospero turned her back on him and called out, “Clancy?”
“Grendel? As in from the book?” Ian sounded like all his birthdays were coming at once. “Oh. I’ll be good. Let me stay! I just—” His words cut off as Sondre and Ian departed for Crenshaw.
The hob appeared again, and Prospero held a hand out toward Ellie.
Not two moments later, Ellie and Prospero were standing at the doorway of what appeared to be a biology lab—at least ithadbeena lab before House Dionysus arrived here. The room was formed in a rectangle with tall, glass windows, so passersby could look into the laboratory-style classroom. Even with the crowd, they could see the tall, black-topped lab tables with sinks in the surface. Shelves lined the back wall, still visible over the heads of the writhing, drunken, dancing crowd.
At least one window was broken, and an amorphous blob with one milky eye stared up from the glass that was littered around it like shards of ice. Whatever had been in the jar had been tossed at the window, apparently. Now there was a decaying specimen, glass, and a foul odor.
“Are you ready?” Prospero asked, pulling Ellie’s gaze to her.
“No. You?”
Prospero laughed. “Use the stones. Try to avoid magic, but if it’s either magic or death, use the magic. Do you hear me? We’ll deal with any complications later.”
“I do.”
Prospero pushed open the door and they waded into the crowd.
It only took a moment to find their quarry. Allan, Lord Dionysus, was standing on a makeshift throne that had begun life mostly as a beer keg. Now, however, the whole of it was decorated with bits and pieces of things. A painting of a farm was lashed together with a houseplant to make a chair back, and the arms were fashioned of empty water bottles in vibrant patterns. Dusty silk flowers were woven onto a tangle of fabric to create the seat of the throne. The whole mess was twisted together with enormous grapevines that dripped from grape into wine that was caught in bowls and other containers around him.
The problem, aside from the whole using-magic-in-the-world, was that this room had obviously been a lab of sorts. Animals soaked in formaldehyde were spilled across the floor in a horrific mess. Rats, snakes, fish, and others she couldn’t identify had been dumped out, and those same glass vessels were now being used as punch bowls for magically created wine.
“Formaldehyde and wine,” Ellie muttered. “What could possibly go wrong with that?”
At her side, Prospero looked at several motionless bodies who were sprawled on the lab floor as if they were no different than the creatures in the jars. “Death. That’s what usually goes wrong.”
Ellie felt like the eels in her belly were swarming.People died here because of his hubris.It wasn’t surprising. On some level, she’d expected it after the mess across campus. What was surprising was the apathy of the crowd. People stepped over the dead bodies as if they were mere inconveniences, tripping on them as they came for refills of the poisoned wine.
“No magic outside of emergency?” Ellie asked, staring at the wine. “Not even a little ‘change this wine into water’?”
Prospero shook her head. “Life or death only, and even that magic will be unpredictable. He’s destabilized everything, so any magic outside of spell stones is not going to react as it should.”
Ellie saw a fire alarm on the wall. “Be right back.”
“Allan?” Prospero called.
Ellie looked over and realized that the head of House Dionysus was wearing dark sunglasses, so that it was impossible to tell if his eyes were open or closed. He looked like an old lecher in modern clothes.
As Prospero approached the drunken man on his odd throne, Ellie wove through the crowd to reach the far wall. She pulled the alarm, and instantly, the wail blared into the existing chaos. The crowd, however, was unconcerned.
“Dance! Dance, my faithful!” Allan’s proclamation boomed louder than the siren, which shifted into a song at his apparent command. Chanting voices and drums suddenly replaced the alarm, and the crowd gyrated throughout the room.
The music seemed to draw acolytes from beyond the lab, and soon the crowd swelled to double the size.Just what we need: more bodies.Minute by minute the crowd seemed spurred to a frenzy, moving faster by the moment, as if they couldn’t stop dancing.
