Chapter 15

  Heidi Sheppard

  With Chthkashk still recovering from his injuries, Severard dead and Fifteen missing, Heidi had to assemble a new squad of freaks for her next venture. She could not go with Ruth and Bahamut alone; they both insisted on it. Baha hung his head, ashamed to admit that he could not protect her alone. Lady Chains had wounded him, though Heidi could not tell where or even how. But he was slower now, and he moved with a care that in humans meant only injury or extreme age. She hugged him. She told him he was brave. He perked up after that and wrapped gingerly around her in a cold, scaly embrace. Weird how quickly she had become used to that. Used to the looming terror of Ruth at her side. Used to all of it.

  She had no shortage of volunteers to accompany her. Not one of the guards seemed put off by the ill fate that had met the last venture. Heidi was coming to understand that the fact they were here, at the prison, on Orpheus, meant there was little if anything capable of putting them off. As well, everyone had seen the battle of the three heroes against Lady Chains. Although Heidi knew she had done little of substance in that encounter, she had nevertheless impressed the guards. She’d had their loyalty. Now she had their respect. It felt wrong.

  Ruth helped her choose three new companions, for he seemed to know them all. Three, plus the two of them and Bahamut, was a good number for expeditions deeper into the Metal Moon. Fewer, and you couldn’t watch every direction. More, and you risked attracting the rue.

  So they gained Luki, who wore a heavy, rusting, old-time diving suit with a little round faceplate through which nothing of his or her or its face could be seen. They gained Winnow, a rare female (maybe?), whose skeletal face and hands were chalk white, and of whom nothing else could be seen under the pale lengths of moldering rope that grew from her scalp like dreadlocks and spilled down around her in writhing coils. And they gained Splitter, who gave Ruth a run for his money in the horrible monstrosity rankings. Splitter had six long limbs, each with multiple elbows that could bend in any direction, each terminating in a clawed hand with long, skinny, multi-joined fingers. He (Ruth called it ‘he’) appeared to have no right way up. Several yellow slit eyes and gaping sharp-toothed maws decorated his pale, bulbous, headless body. He wore no armor and carried no weapon, but unnerving purple words written in strips of jagged script stretched across much of his rough skin. He was on her side; Heidi had to keep reminding herself of that. But the first time she saw him, Heidi thought that if she encountered something like Splitter in a videogame, she would be expected to destroy it at once, by any means necessary, no questions asked. Or, depending on the game, flee in terror.

  His voice, though, was normal. If she closed her eyes when speaking to him, she could imagine he was some big guy with laryngitis and a faint German accent. So there was that.

  She left orders with the aid of Balazar. Watch out for Lady Chains (but do not engage). Keep an eye on Vyrix and Cazzie. She had tasked Balazar with finding out what he could about those two, and about Abraham Black. Balazar claimed to have many contacts all over the Narrative. Heidi believed it. Many of the outcasts and flotsam that washed up on the Metal Moon originated from the Dark World.

  She left with her new crew the day after Lady Chains’ attack. What, Luki had asked, was their destination? He/she/it was the only one to do so. Luki liked to talk. This was fine with Heidi, for Luki’s voice was a comfort. They always sounded so cheerful, like a happy-go-lucky androgynous tourist excited to see the next sight, their voice echoing comically inside the heavy steel helmet.

  “Answers,” she told Luki. Someone, somewhere on Orpheus, knew about the Bleak Machine, the rue, the bale thorn. Heidi understood, after seeing Vyrix and Cazzie, that figuring all of this out must be her priority. Why? That was another question that needed answering. But for her, for now, it was enough that there was something that needed doing, and that she was expected to do it. A job had been created, just for her. Laying aside any complaints about her lack of choice in the matter, that simple fact thrilled her. She had a job to do. She might as well do it. And she might as well do it right.

  They spent hours traversing the ever-changing landscape of the Metal Moon, hopping from lorn to lorn, descending deeper. Heidi grew in proficiency at surfing the unpredictable gravitational tides. They fought rue, and on one occasion they stumbled upon a machine from the Dark World, some kind of massive killer robot that had been trapped and partially crushed between two skyscraper-sized lorn shards.

  They moved quickly, furtively, like fish in the reefs darting from coral to coral. Ruth stayed close to Heidi as though he had made himself her personal bodyguard. Luki talked too much, was much too cheerful. They used an anchor on a chain like a grappling hook to get around, and they made a lot of noise clanging around and landing. Their noise didn’t make a difference, not with the discordant ringing of the lorn shards everywhere. Winnow, on the other hand, moved like a ghost. Sometimes Heidi glimpsed her ashen ropes darting squid-like in the shadows, but usually Winnow went unseen and unheard. Splitter cartwheeled through the dark, where that eerie purple writing all over him glittered faintly.

  The Burning God texted Heidi again hours into the journey, when they had posted a watch and settled down for some rest. They had made good progress into the interior of the Metal Moon and had encamped on a broad open plain on one of the bigger lorn. Gravity was strong and relatively stable here. They hid themselves under a sheaf of spiky protrusions that angled up from the cold surface, but a watchman, in this case Winnow, could perch up top and easily see anything coming from half a kilometer away. Winnow was a good choice to keep watch because she claimed that she saw light and dark in reverse: she saw more clearly the darker it became, whereas increasing light lessened her vision. Luki had asked about pitch darkness; she had said it was too much, just the way too much light overloaded normal eyes.

  Heidi’s reaction to the new red text was the same as always: initial excitement at receiving a text, followed by harsh disappointment upon realizing who it was.

  BG: Okay, fine, you were busy all day, I get that

  BG: But NOW you can talk, RIGHT?

  Heidi sighed. Might as well. She scratched Bahamut the way he liked—hard, with a knife. He didn’t really feel anything less. His body undulated like a cat being pet as she dragged the knife down his spine.

  HS: We can talk.

  BG: Great!

  BG: So first, sorry for being pushy or whatever

  BG: Even though I wasn’t REALLY being that pushy

  BG: I think maybe you’re a little sensitive, but that’s OK too!

  HS: Do you have a name?

  BG: Why?

  HS: All of the other gods have names.

  HS: You’re still just “BG.”

  BG: Why do you care?

  HS: I don’t, really.

  BG: Well good

  BG: I don’t care about YOUR name either

  BG: Wait, is that your angel?

  HS: Bahamut? Yes.

  BG: You have a black angel?

  BG: An angel that’s a BLACK SNAKE?

  HS: Yeah.

  HS: Does that mean something? Everyone else has white angels.

  BG: Hells if I know.

  BG: Anyway, about Black...

  HS: I should find him?

  BG: Well, it wouldn’t hurt.

  HS: I know what you are doing.

  BG: Ok yeah?

  BG: What am I doing?

  HS: You want Abraham Black to kill me.

  BG: Whaaat?

  BG: pfft!

  BG: Would I do that?

  HS: I think so, yes.

  HS: You tried to ignite an open cask of kerosene in the supplies closet when I was in there.

  BG: Ha!

  BG: “tried”

  BG: It went eventually

  HS: For a “burning god” you don’t seem to know the difference between flammable and combustible.

  BG: Fine! You got me!

  BG: But here’s something that’s not a lie: Abraham Black has those answers you want so much

  BG: ALL the answers

  BG: All of them

  BG: ;)

  HS: You just won’t give up.

  BG: I have literally nothing else to do but sit here and try to kill you

  HS: Why is the Burning God not able to do more than light some stuff on fire?

  HS: Maybe you should be called the Burning Nuisance.

  BG: Oh, I’d love to be there in person

  BG: It wouldn’t be much of a challenge killing you then

  BG: I guess it’s more sporting this way, since I can’t get in there with you

  BG: But you’ll be the first to know if that changes ;)

  HS: That I believe.

  BG: I guess I could make you uncomfortably warm when you try to sleep

  BG: Maybe light your clothes on fire from time to time

  HS: Feel free.

  BG: OOH I call your bluff, ‘hero’

  BG: You just wait

  HS: Are you sure there’s nothing else for you to do?

  BG: Oh I can always make time for my friend

  BG: Because we’re FRIENDS, remember?

  HS: Do you always try to kill your friends?

  BG: What do you mean ‘try?’

  HS: Nevermind, you don’t seem like the ‘friends’ type.

  BG: Oh, I’m not

  BG: Not at all

  BG: And yet...

  BG: Here I am!

  BG: Life’s funny, isn’t it?

  HS: Funny.

  HS: Sure.

  BG: Aaand speaking of friends, I just found an old one!

  BG: Nice!

  BG: I’ll talk to you later, human

  BG: If you’re lucky

  The guards were playing that game when Heidi looked up from her phone, the one where they took turns placing bets on how each of the others would die. Not much of a game, actually. A morbid way to pass the time. And, in some cases, a contest of evocative imagery. Luki, for all their cheerful voice, was a font of imagination when it came to the demise of Heidi’s other companions. Heidi had declined to join in, so they thoughtfully left her own fate off the table.

  “Bet you’ll die to a rue,” said Splitter to Ruth in his hoarse German accent.

  “Crushed, cut, smothered?” questioned Winnow from her perch above them

  “It’ll be cracked,” said Splitter thoughtfully, as though he were predicting this evening’s weather. “Cracked open. Like a shellfish.” He demonstrated this with a vivid and unsettling gesture. Ruth tilted his head slightly in what Heidi now, after a few days with him, believed to be a thoughtful expression. “It’ll be a big one, though,” said Splitter as though in comfort. “Maybe the ol’ queen herself.”

  Ruth nodded, the sign that he had accepted his fate. Someone else’s turn. “No rue for you, friend,” Luki cheerily informed Splitter, reaching out to place a heavy diving-suit glove on one of Splitter’s arms. “Bet you’ll die by Logoi!”

  “Come to finish the job, eh?” One eerily long and multi-jointed finger briefly traced the purple text on Splitter’s body.

  And so on.

  Heidi’s phone buzzed again. She almost ignored it—but what if? What if it was not a smartass evil god but one of her friends?

  The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

  It turned out to be neither.

  DX: hEy

  DX: no nEed to reply

  DX: i’lL be qUIck

  DX: word of Advice:

  DX: lISten to blAck

  DX: he’S the Same kind of cREature as you rIGHt?

  DX: a hUman

  And that was all. Heidi was still working through this (who was DX?) when a sharp whistle from Winnow above warned of danger incoming. The game stopped at once; Heidi’s phone was replaced by the strange crystal weapon designed for rue; Winnow dropped down among them in a knot of crumbling rope.

  “Him,” she said, her voice dull and neutral as always. “Black. Near.” The ends of several of her ropes drifted up in the same vague direction.

  Heidi adjusted her headband. “Alone?”

  “Alone.”

  Why alone? “Watch our flanks,” she said. “Might be more.”

  Heidi glanced up at the sharp lorn on which Winnow had crouched above them. She couldn’t climb that. But she didn’t need to.

  With one hand, she made a small sphere of circles, glowing gold. The arrows tended upward; the sensation of weightlessness exhilarated her. She tapped the ground with her feet, propelling her up to the edge of their cover. She stopped herself with a touch and peeked over the rim, beyond the outcropping. Black was there, approaching with a steady step. His long dark coat drifted sideways as though in gravitational tide, though Heidi couldn’t feel anything. He was already within shouting distance. His weapons were holstered, but that hardly mattered. He looked a bit intimidating—maybe it was the easy confidence evident in his stride—but not terrifying. Not like the monster that had shot her in a dream, leaving a wound that was still sore.

  He was a minute out at his present pace. He looked ahead, but his face was in darkness and she couldn’t tell if he saw her.

  She drifted back down to her team, released the orb, and dropped back into normal gravity. A slight sideways tide tugged at her, but she leaned against it automatically. “Get ready,” she said. They had already done so. Ruth required no weapons; he was always ready. Splitter now held several mysterious weapons, dripping dark mucous. Had…had those been in his mouths? Luki had affixed a lumpy box of wires and lights onto his left diving glove. In his right hand he wielded his heavy anchor with a chain affixed to the end. The box could shoot forcewaves strong enough to shatter small lorn; the anchor could be used as a weapon, a grappling hook for maneuverability, or in defense. Luki was strong, but slow. And finally Winnow, whose ropes now gripped razors in their frayed ends. They could strike like snakes, with deadly aim and surprising reach.

  Could she, a wounded Bahamut, and four monsters defeat Abraham Black? She had no idea. She saw a terrible vision of all four of them, Ruth, Luki, Winnow, Splitter, lying bleeding and dead on the lorn, gunned down in a single second by four perfectly placed bullets. Would that actually happen? Could it? Was Luki’s faceplate bulletproof? With Black, would that even matter? Heidi nervously felt her own body armor. It was bulletproof to her own handgun; she had checked. She had abandoned the armored coat for a full-body suit of dark armor with a helmet. She felt well-protected, but the truth was that any of her companions could probably kill her in seconds if they had a mind to. She was fragile.

  A scaly hand touched her leg. She didn’t need to look to know it was Bahamut, looking up at her without eyes, telling her to calm down.

  Listen to him, DX had said. He’s a human, like you. But who the hell was “DX?”

  Logically, if they could avoid a fight, that was the smart thing to do. If she could talk to Abraham Black, then she should. Because maybe then there wouldn’t be blood. Maybe she would get answers. But a vision of the other Black, the Monster Black, kept floating before her. Alan shot dead.

  Heidi wanted help. She needed somebody to help her, to advise her, to tell her what to do.

  “Close,” whispered Winnow. Her razors scraped slightly as they dragged on the lorn.

  Heidi heard the boots, clacking on the metallic surface. She took a deep breath, then acted without allowing herself to think about it. Like surfing.

  “Abraham Black!” she called. Her voice sounded small and plain in her ears. It sank and drowned in the darkness, in the ringing of the lorn.

  But Abraham Black heard. And he stopped. “That’s me,” he replied. So normal, that voice. Easily the most normal voice Heidi had encountered from any creature on her moon. Not all that different in tone and accent from Alan. Just a guy. A very serious, confident guy.

  “I…” What to say? “I want to talk!” No need to sound so desperate, she scolded herself. But that wasn’t too bad for a start. It wasn’t stupid.

  “I didn’t come here to talk,” came the reply.

  “We—we’re talking now!” Heidi regretted this at once. She put a hand over her face. Had Eric rubbed off on her? A small sound made her look up. Winnow was trembling, making little puffing noises. This alarmed Heidi at first, but then…was she laughing?

  Abraham Black took a moment to reply. “…Yes, we are,” he said at last. He sounded a little lost. Maybe thinking, ‘this isn’t how this is supposed to go.’

  What next? Heidi was improvising and having an important conversation all at once—two things she’d never been good at. “Did…did the Burning God tell you where to find us?” That might be good. It should give him something to think about, whether it was true or not.

  “She did,” he said. “She told me to come kill you.”

  Heidi swallowed. The others tensed. Luki gripped his anchor; the chain rattled slightly. Ruth rustled, chittered. Splitter, who in this dim light really gave Ruth a run for his money in the horrific-nightmare contest, switched which hands he was standing on, flexing his long, long fingers, gripping those weird weapons. Razors whispered against metal as though Winnow was gently sharpening them on the lorn. Heidi signaled for them to remain still.

  “Do…” She cleared her throat, spoke louder. “Do you know why?” She paused, then added, “Because I don’t.”

  “Do you not?” His voice was soft now, so soft Heidi had to listen close to hear it. And the hearing of it chilled her blood. Death, verbalized. “She told me that you killed Elysia.”

  “I…I don’t even know who that is!” Had she killed anyone since coming here? Well, yes, there had been that one Darkworlder. “I’ve only been here…” How long? It felt like weeks. “A few days.”

  He was quiet for a long time. The image came to Heidi of Abraham Black slipping out of his clacky boots and tiptoeing around their cover, catching them by surprise and gunning them down in his socks. The thought was silly and terrifying at the same time.

  But at last he spoke. Softly again, as though speaking to himself. “I had wondered about that.” His tone suggested that he probably hadn’t wondered enough to stop and ask about it before gunning her down.

  “I think,” said Heidi, trying to keep her voice cool and steady, “that the Burning God is lying to you. She is trying to kill me.”

  Another uncomfortable silence. Then, “A fine method she chose. If true.”

  “I don’t know Elysia,” Heidi said again, trying as hard as she could to sound earnest and convincing. Although it was possible, just possible, that that one single Darkworlder she had slain earlier had been someone named Elysia. How would she have known? She had not had a choice. It had been self-defense.

  “Come,” he said. “Look me in the eyes, hero. And say it.”

  Heidi stood very still, trying to think, maybe trying to think harder than she ever had in her life. If she accepted, if she went and stood in front of him, he could kill her. No doubt. But maybe he would listen to her. And if he did, maybe he would believe her. But if she refused, a fight looked likely. Back to the old question: could they actually beat Abraham Black? He had to know she was not alone. Yet he had come alone himself, confident. And serious. Very serious.

  “Revenge,” she whispered to herself. He wanted to kill her because the Burning God told him Heidi had killed someone named Elysia. She must be dead. He must have cared enough about her to come avenge her. The same way that Heidi was quite sure Alan would track down anyone who murdered her, Heidi. Abraham Black must have cared about Elysia.

  That meant he was not a monster, not entirely. But it also meant he might be a little out of control. Maybe he would just shoot her. But wait. Earlier, he’d been meant to deliver her to the Dark World. Alive, right? But no, that was stupid; he’d come here to kill her. What had he said, exactly?

  She spent what felt like a very long time trying to think of something. What was the right answer? The best she could come up with was a system of mirrors so that she and Black could be face-to-face without her being in danger, but that was simply too stupid. Heidi spent some time cursing her own stupidity, fidgeting with her headband.

  It was Abraham Black that ultimately resolved the problem, though he seemed to be talking to himself. “Would the guilty consider for so long?” And then, “I never trusted the gods.”

  He raised his voice so they could all easily hear. “I’m coming over there,” he said. “I will not touch my weapons, if you do not.”

  Coming? “Wh…” She swallowed. “Why are you—uh, shit—why is that…necessary?”

  “I wish to see you,” he said, “whom a god desires to kill. Upright, clearly, without an eye thief on your back.”

  Heidi looked at her companions, afraid that her gaze was maybe a little wild. But they only passively met her eyes. They would do as they were told. They trusted her. Did she trust Abraham Black?

  She looked at Bahamut. He returned the gaze. Her call.

  Her call. She absolutely fucking hated that it was her call. But this, too, was part of her job. Abraham Black was dangerous, legendarily so. But if he really just wanted to talk…

  And he must have cared. Who was Elysia?

  “Come on,” she said, surprised at the strength in her voice. “We will be on guard. But we will put away our weapons.”

  Luki did not hesitate to fasten the anchor-and-chain on the hook on the back of his suit, and to stow away the boxy attachment. Winnow did not remove the razors, but she shifted her ropes so they weren’t visible. Good enough. Ruth did nothing; he could not cease to be as dangerous as he was at any moment. And Splitter—yep, he was shoving those weird spiky weapons down his several drooling maws, reaching further down into them than seemed possible. Splitter was incredibly swift, which was probably why he gestured for Heidi to position herself behind him. She obliged, and she shivered in revulsion when some of the narrow yellow eyes on the other side of his body turned their beady red pupils toward her, and one of the razor-toothed mouths split in a wild grin diagonally across the pale, fleshy, violet-scarred mass.

  Abraham Black could not hide the approach of his boots. It was a tense moment indeed when he crested the overhang and dropped down exactly where Winnow had minutes before. He held out his hands, clearly empty. He paused when he landed from the drop, then slowly rose to his full height. His dark eyes searched them, one by one, before fixing on Heidi. A smile twitched at the corner of his mouth, maybe at seeing her hiding partway behind Splitter.

  They locked eyes, and Heidi did not look away. She had never seen eyes like that before, though she couldn’t say why. They were dark, deep, intense.

  “So,” said Black. He lowered his hand slowly to his sides, but his coat remained between them and his guns. Still, the guards tensed. “Why does the Burning God wish to arrange the death of a Hero?”

  Heidi spoke without thinking. “That’s what we all want to know.” She caught herself. “The heroes, I mean. The gods are out to get all of us.”

  “So it’s true,” said Black, musing to himself. “I heard Lady Chains attacked your prison.”

  Heidi nodded. Her left leg began to ache, and she realized she was standing stiffly, too tense. She forced herself to relax, take a breath. Black really did look like he just wanted to talk. He wanted answers, like her.

  “You have the witch?” he asked after a moment.

  Witch? “Vyrix? We have her. She’s covered in bale thorn. But she’s not dead. Do you know why?”

  A bleak smile stretched his pale lips. “She is a true witch, and truly cursed for her hexerei. Once a slave. She knows why. She knows about the Bleak Machine, more than I. She paid a high price for the knowing.”

  “She wanted something in exchange for me. Something from the Dark World. What did she want?”

  “The Machine cursed her,” said Black. “But the Dark Ruler has greater power. She seeks a cure for her curse.”

  “Do you know the Dark Ruler?” It suddenly came to Heidi that this topic, the Dark Ruler, was of even greater importance than all that she was doing here on Orpheus. Eric and Kate had explained it to her: they needed the dark key. That was how they won.

  Black slowly raised a hand and put a pale finger against his lips. “Sshhh.”

  “Then,” Heidi desperately searched for the correct follow-up question. Anything to keep Black talking, keep him explaining. “What does he, the Dark Ruler, want so badly with me?”

  “Not just you,” said Black. “All the heroes. And to kill you, of course. With no heroes, he will not be stopped, sooner or later, from opening that door.”

  “Is that also what you want? To open the door? To kill us?” These were dangerous questions, and Heidi’s companions knew it. They all shifted, ready to spring to action. At that moment Heidi thought she had the answer: that at least in this present situation, Black could not defeat these four monsters. Not in these close quarters. Surely it was impossible. Yet his calm confidence did not waver, and fear crawled inside of Heidi.

  Black shook his head slightly. “I don’t care for keys or doors. Not gods either. And not heroes. Not Lords, not Ladies. Not dreams. Not stars.” The cacophony of lorn ringing in the background seemed to fade when he spoke, and in his eyes was a faraway look, as though he saw beyond all of Orpheus to something more distant.

  “What is it, then?” Then, unable to stop herself, Heidi added, “Elysia?”

  That one word deflated him. His cool assurance dropped away. He slumped, he cast down his eyes, and all at once he didn’t seem so dangerous anymore. He muttered something that Heidi didn’t quite catch. Things change?

  He reached a hand up and rubbed the back of his neck. He chuckled, but it was bitter. “She wouldn’t like…this.” With his other hand he made a gesture that included all of himself.

  And it was like a switch being flipped inside of Heidi’s brain. She saw Alan there in front of her, back on the island, saying almost the same things and acting almost the same way when Heidi had questioned him a year ago about the woman he had once loved. How she wouldn’t like what he was doing now, morally questionable work for October Industries. Alan had never forgotten Maggie, a woman Heidi had never known, but he had found a new purpose in Maggie’s daughter. Heidi Czeslaw.

  Abraham Black and Alan Sheppard, for one brief instant there in front of Heidi, were the same person.

  Black was looking at her curiously. Because she was staring at him, mouth slightly open, like an idiot. She tore her gaze away. But when it returned, Abraham was smiling. And it seemed, for the first time, like a genuine smile.

  “I know you did not kill her,” he said. “In fact…you remind me of her.”

  He tipped his hat to her, and it was not in the least cheesy or cliché. “I’ll be on my way, then,” he said. “For now, at least, you have nothing to fear from me…er…”

  “Heidi,” she told him. “Heidi Sheppard.”

  He nodded and tried out the name. “Heidi Sheppard.” Without more delay, he turned and stepped past Ruth and Winnow, boots clacking as he strode off over the lorn.

  Heidi’s phone vibrated before he had gone three paces. No doubt the Burning God, ready to throw a fit because her plan backfired. But it wasn’t the Burning God.

  CG: yeah well isn’t it just like him to fuck up any of Akkama’s plans

  CG: pretty fuckin fantastic actually

  CG: the irony

  CG: I’d honestly just let it happen just to see her fuckin pitch a gods damned fit

  CG: but I need you dead too

  CG: so if that bitch couldn’t kill you with fuckin Abraham Black then maybe I can do it with shadows

  CG: I guess they listen to me or whatever

  CG: so here we go

  A rue cried somewhere nearby. And then another, in the other direction. And then more: above, around.

  Heidi had been told that the rue were solitary. Seldom did they congregate. This was a good thing, very good, for they were exceedingly dangerous in groups. They could bleed into each other, coalesce, magnify.

  Abraham Black’s boots stopped clacking on the lorn. Not far away, he paused to look around.

  The rue appeared all at once, maybe a dozen of them. They dropped like folding, flapping birds of coal-black paper from the dark skies, and they slipped up from the shadowy cracks and crevices in the lorn.

  Abraham Black quickly backed toward Heidi and crew, step by step. His guns were out now, two shining revolvers glinting silver in the dark. But as the flood of shadowy monsters closed in around them, shrieking their terrible cries, neither Heidi nor any of her guards worried about that.