Magic Mirror on the Wall part IV

Antonio had not felt this relaxed in quite a while. Lying naked on Madame Moore's bed he thought back on the last few days, and in particular marveled at the skill and variety of the Madame's talents, and of the voraciousness of her appetite. Not the sort of thing Antonio expected when he first saw her cool demeanor. She was out of the room at the moment, relieving her bladder after another extended bought of love play, promising to return for more shortly.

Antonio turned lazily onto his side and gazed out into the afternoon sun. Suddenly he became aware of a familiar itchiness at the base of his skull. He sat bolt upright, all thoughts of a relaxed afternoon disappeared as he wondered what was wrong. There was no doubt in his mind that something was wrong, the sorte magic ran too strongly in the female members of Antonio's family for him to question his own premonitions.

Quickly he rose and began to dress, a pang of guilt rushed through him as he thought of his companions on the other side of one of those paintings. They were only supposed to be on an information gathering mission, seeking out Bruce Fern the painter and asking him some questions. There was nothing dangerous where they were, that is why Antonio had opted to stay behind and keep Madame Moore company. At least that was how he had justified it to himself at the time. The pang of guilt grew stronger as he remembered a few days ago when Dandelion was almost killed because Antonio had been distracted from his guard duty by Madame Moore's naked body. When was his dick going to stop getting him in trouble?

Grabbing his sword Antonio dashed from the bedroom and ran to the gallery where the paintings where hanging. Quickly he found the Avalon painting and turned to look at the reflecting mirror. There he saw a terrifying sight. His companions were being confronted by two huge creatures, one of them growing bigger even as Antonio watched. The other, Antonio recognized from the descriptions he had heard as the monster Grendel.

Recovering from his shock, Antonio steeled himself and jumped through the mirror image, just as Grendel dashed forward to grab his long time nemesis, Pistol. When he came through, Antonio quickly took in the scenario. Pistol was struggling in Grendels limbs, Avon was readying an arrow in his bow, Mordred was drawing his claymore and about to aide Pistol, Dandelion was drawing his pistol to do the same, and the new fellow Piers was about to get pummeled by the other creature now standing 12ft tall (and whom Antonio found out later was called Torag).

Seeing Piers flung aside by a crushing blow from Torag, Antonio jumped in to attract Torag's attention and delivered a flurry of attacks on the monster, most merely annoying him but a few managed to do some serious damage. In the meantime Pistol used his hard head to good advantage by head butting Grendel and managed to break free of Grendel's grasp. But not for long as Grendel quickly recovered and lunged again at Pistol, ignoring both the blows to the back from Mordred and shots from Dandelion. Once again Pistol used his head to good advantage and managed to break free.

This time Avon took the opportunity to let loose a well aimed arrow into the gaping maw of the monster. Staggering backward Grendel grabbed at the arrow protruding from his mouth and began to pull it free. Pistol took the chance to remove himself from Grendel's reach by jumping into Torag's den nearby.

Meanwhile Antonio was giving as good as he was getting. Unfortunately Torag could take a lot more than Antonio could, and Antonio was beginning to look the worse for wear. He had some serious looking gashes along his chest and down his right arm, but still he kept up his attack. Grendel by now had removed the arrow from his mouth and had turned his attack on Mordred, grabbing him in the same way he had Pistol. Yelling "You flamin' pukey ugly monster", Mordred used Pistol's example and head butted his way clear of Grendel's grasp. Avon again took the opportunity and shot an arrow directly into Grendel's scarred over eyesocket, tearing a scream from the big monster's throat, and causing him to retreat into the woods calling out to Avon "I will remember you".

Drawing in his last reserves of strength, Antonio called out to the fates woven into his blade and delivered a devastating blow to Torag. Torag screamed and was about to leap onto Antonio when Pistol emerged from Torag's den carrying what appeared to be a tray of cake. "Anyone loik some tea and cake," he called out. "Ooooh" called out Torag, momentarily distracted from his attack on Antonio. Antonio used the opportunity to strike again. This time Torag screamed and ran away, shrinking as he ran into his den, calling out "Big people hurt Torag."

Gathering Bruce Fern, who was hiding in one of his namesakes, the group helped Antonio back to the where they could exit through the mirror. There they held a brief discussion as to how they were going to bring back the piece of mirror that had been buried on that side. It was decided that they would just try and walk through with it and see if that worked. It did. Finding themselves back at the mansion, they quickly tended to their wounds,

Antonio and Pistol receiving some very skilled surgery from Dandelion who had obviously been practicing his surgery. Once they were all patched up, they tried to explain to Citizen d'Auvergne what had been happening and that Louis Malbruin was not who he said he was. That he was in fact Lucius Malveck, a despicable character that Dandelion, Borsten and Franz had dealt with before. Bruce Fern explained about the commission to do the paintings for Lucius. d'Auvergne still did not believe Louis was lying, so Dandelion showed d'Auvergne the Sidhe mirrors, the real magic behind the teleportation.

Just as realization began to dawn on d'Auvergne's face a loud shot rang out and d'Auvergne pitched back, a gaping bloody hole in his forehead. A few people ran to the stairs while the rest waited to see if anyone came through the trap door above. Sure enough the trap door opened and Malveck swung down and out through the mirror leading to the Misty Isle. Avon, Dandelion and Antonio leapt through after him, closely followed by Pistol and Mordred. Piers, being a little slow off the mark, took a bit longer to follow.

There they found themselves on the shore of an island. On the inland side the ground sloped up and a cave opening was visible. Dandelion saw Malveck dash into the cave and without hesitation ran up the slope after him, only to be quickly surrounded by a group of bloodthirsty Vesten thugs. Before the others could run to join Dandelion, they too were surrounded by Vesten thugs. A bloody battle ensued.

Dandelion was soon cut down, unconscious and very close to death. The rest battled furiously. Piers came through the mirror but was instantly dealt a debilitating blow. Malveck appeared at the top of a mound and began to draw pistols and firing. The bodies began piling up. Pistol took a gunshot wound and joined Dandelion and Piers in unconsciousness. Things were looking grim, but still the remaining warriors fought on. Avon desperately tried thinking of some way to take down Malveck. An idea came to him. He ran up the slope to where Dandelion lay and retrieved the piece of Sidhe mirror he was carrying. Down to the water he ran desperately called out to the Lady of the Mist to aide them. A swirling mist began to form and a voice came to him from far away. "The mirror," it said, "you must get the mirror." If Avon knew how to swear right then, he surely would have.

Most of the thugs were dead or dying when Antonio, once again bleeding heavily from several wounds, slipped on his own blood giving the particularly large Vesten he was facing the chance to bring him down. Mordred, himself looking about to drop, screamed at the Vesten and drew up his claymore, "Come on you pukey foreigner, let's see your guts." But fate stepped in and Malveck, impatient to get a shot in at Mordred, shot his own man down in order to get him out of the way. Before Malveck could draw another bead, Mordred grabbed one of his harpoons, ran forward, and hurled it at Malveck.

Both Mordred and Avon stood in surprise when the harpoon knocked the Sidhe mirror out of Malveck's hand, breaking the spell that was keeping the Lady of the Mists from materializing. Once the spell was broken a mist gathered around Malveck, a look of terror twisted his face as he realized what was happening. The Lady of the Mists was exacting her revenge. His body spasmed and then went rigid. The image of a beautiful woman, a look of terrible fury on her features, formed in the mist. "Now you will suffer mortal for what you have done". And with that Malveck and the Lady disappeared, leaving Avon and Mordred shaken and exhausted.

Gathering their wounded comrades together they dragged themselves back through the mirror, only to find that while they had been on the Misty Isle, two months had passed in their world.