To the sound of the ensuing rumble, the Ravenlord muttered:

*I do not envy it ... Shall we proceed to the angel's study?*

The Ravenlord moved off. John arched an eyebrow, shrugged, and
followed the Nightmare. As they moved up the stairs, a loud crash
echoed down the through the House to them. John felt the odd,
shifting sensation again, like he felt in the presence of the Scarlet
One. The Ravenlord didn't appear to notice, as he continued to
flow
up the stairs. John was going to mention it, but his eldritch
companion was set on his course, and he let the thought slip away.

Deeper in the house, an enraged Rhio chased the Scarlet One down the
hall that led to the great library of the House, hurling whatever she
could get her hands on at its darting form. The Scarlet One dodged
through the air, a mad grin stretched across its face. Rhio reached
up and grabbed a corner of reality, turned the page, and reappeared
at the entrance to the library, right in front of the speeding
Scarlet One. Rhio couldn't suppress her grin when she saw the
Scarlet One's expression shift from manic glee to shock and
surprise
as, with cat-like skill, she snatched it right out of the air. The
library doors swung-to behind Rhio as she held the Scarlet One by its
arms, its feet kicking wildly.

"Gotcha," she hissed, eyes sparkling like she had just caught
a
tasty, scarlet canary. But then, the Scarlet One's own Cheshire
Cat
grin spread wide across its face, so much that Rhio thought it would
split its head in two -- and that was a pleasant thought, to her.

That thought was lost in the next moment as the Scarlet One almost
sang in reply, "My thoughts, exactly."

Rhio felt herself lift from the floor. She tried to release her grip
on the Scarlet One, but could not. She looked and saw that bands of
coursing, black energy held her hands fast to the rising Scarlet
One. With a jerk, it shot forward with frightening acceleration,
taking Rhio with it into the library doors. The doors exploded with
the sound and substance of shattered crystal; this is what echoed
through the House. The Scarlet One dropped the stunned Rhio as it
crossed the threshold. Her wind was knocked out of her as she hit
the floor with a solid thud. Then the sickening, shifting out-of-
phase sensation sliced through her, and the world went black.

After a time, the spinning in her head subsided enough for Rhio to
roll over onto her stomach and push herself up. She realized that
she might have moved too soon as the room took another sudden,
violent turn, and she fought an urge to void the contents of her
stomach. She rested her head on the cold stone, and moments passed
before Rhio assured herself that she should be able to move without
retching. Taking note that nothing seemed to be broken, save the
library doors, she steadied herself enough to rise up to a kneeling
crouch. She looked around, and what she saw almost made her loose
her balance again.

She looked through the shattered threshold to the hall beyond, but it
was not the hall she knew. There were more shadows than she
remembered, and these shadows moved with a will of their own. They
clung and writhed along the walls; they stretched and shuddered from
the lanterns. The sounds their slither made called up sensations of
harrowing tears and frightened screams in Rhio's mind. Disquiet
filled her. The shadows roiled closer to the gaping entrance to the
library, and Rhio saw the teeth -- large, fierce teeth that flashed
like icicles in the winter moon. Another memory stirred in Rhio, a
voice ... the Ravenlord's voice. She remembered something he
said
once:

*These shadows have teeth ...*

These shadows do, she thought, and they looked hungry. Rhio stood,
still somewhat unsteady, and backed away from the door. The shadows
seemed content to lurk at the threshold for the moment. She felt she
should ward the entrance, just in case. Leaning against a bookcase
for support, she tried to summon up a barrier ... but nothing
happened. She tried again, stretching her feelings out to the magic
of the library -- and again, nothing. Her disquiet deepened as she
realized that she did not feel the library, that she was separated
from its spirit.

She looked around, and saw that the library itself was changed.
Everything seemed washed in a sickly, green hue. The bookcases
appeared warped -- stretched in some places, broken off in others,
with their contents spilling onto the floor. More shadows were here,
and these slid along the shelves like huge, tenebrous serpents. They
twisted and vanished round the corners of the cases, penetrating
deeper into the maze of stacks. These paid no attention to Rhio.
Then there was the ever-present music, sounding like someone had
drowned chamber musicians who -- unaware of their watery demise --
continued with submersed melody.

She had to force herself to breathe slower, to focus, to center. She
had to find out what happened. She had to find out what the Scarlet
One had done to her, and the library. And then ...

"I'm going to kill that little fucker," she whispered.

As though on cue, she heard something else in the distance --
something that sounded like someone humming. Rhio's ears
twitched,
and she set off in the direction of the sound. Her eyes almost
glowed with a feral, icy-green light. Though she wasn't
connected to
the library, she had other skills. She could still hunt.

Quickly and quietly, Rhio moved deeper into the stacks, stealing past
the shadows. She sniffed the air, and took another path. The
humming grew louder. She was close to her quarry. As she listened,
she realized that the Scarlet One was singing now -- singing the
names of titles and authors. It had reached the verse that contained
authors whose names began with the letter "M", and as Rhio
spun
around the corner, it reached a crescendo with ...

"Michael Moorcock!" the Scarlet One exclaimed. It pulled a
book from
the sweeping shelf and turned to face Rhio, who was now stalking
towards the floating, red-robed figure. She was taking her time.
She wasn't going to underestimate it again. "Ah," it
continued,
smiling, "you've come to. Lovely. I was beginning to
worry."

"You should worry," growled Rhio, noting that it had floated
to a
height just out of her reach. She considered that it could be toying
with her, but Rhio was betting the Scarlet One didn't know how
high
she could jump. She stopped just short of beneath it.

"What have you done to my library, and me?" Rhio demanded.

"One is as much the same the other," it replied, musically.
"In
truth, I needed you to complete the task. My thanks."

It had just begun to float off when Rhio pounced. She caught it by
the ankles, and was about to sink her nails -- now looking much like
cat's-claws -- into the Scarlet One, when she was buffeted about
the
head and body by dozens of hard-bound volumes. The books were
flapping about her like mad birds, and in trying to shield herself
from the attack, she lost her grip on the Scarlet One and fell to the
floor. She looked up to see the errant books swirl over her head,
and then spin back into their respective homes on the shelves. The
Scarlet One was grinning, again.

"I always liked that trick when you did it," it said. Rhio
just
glared at it with eyes that would have burnt it to ash if they
could. "So," it continued, "you want to know what has
happened?"
Rhio held her angry gaze on it, but she nodded. "Very well, I
will
give you this much, but this much you should know. We are in the
Shadowlands, the realm of Nightmare, as the House appears there. I
needed you in the library to complete the shift, and I needed you out
of the way for what is to come."

Thoughts spun through Rhio's mind. The Shadowlands? She was in
the
Ravenlord's realm? How? Why?

"Out of the way for what?" Rhio nearly shouted, her rage
building
again.

"For the battle, of course," the Scarlet One said. It turned
its
attention to the book in its hands. It opened the book and began to
rifle through the pages, jade eyes flicking over the text. Rhio read
the title on the book's cover, and that feeling of disquiet sank
in
again. The Scarlet One was paging through Moorcock's
novel, "Stormbringer." She looked up to see the Scarlet One
staring
at her again.

"One of the things so magical about books," it mused, "is
what you
take with you when you've finished them." To punctuate the
statement, it drove its hand into the pages. Flames exploded from
the book's center, and Rhio backed away, covering her face. The
Scarlet One pulled its hand back from the book and let it drop,
smoldering, to the floor. What it now held made Rhio take another
step back, and the disquiet she felt flooded into full-blown horror.

The Scarlet One held a large, black sword that darkened all near it.
The ruby-red runes etched into the blade glowed and pulsed like a
heartbeat. A soft, yet ravenous moaning emanated from the blade.

"This should do the trick," the Scarlet One said.
"You'll have to
find your own way back to Arcadia, and I fear it won't be an easy
trek." It started grinning again. "You could try to
turn-the-page,
but you won't like how it falls. You'll like what's on
the other
side even less."

Rhio could taste the loathing for the Scarlet One in the back of her
throat. "Ravenlord will know where I am. He'll know what
you've
done. I know he will."

The Scarlet One cocked its head to the side and said, lightly,
"Will
he, now? I feel he will see, as I will see. Haven't you figured
that out, yet? Good hunting!"

It vanished with the soul-devouring blade, and Rhio could hear an
echo of its voice, whispering, "Mind you, those shadows won't
settle
on the threshold forever."


Poe