Flanz - Terrain Shift

She worked threads between her hands and held her hands where Jay could see. The threads read:

DO YOU NOUGH THE WHAY OUT?

Nough? Oh—know. Weird way to misspell it.

"Squeak squeak," Jay squeaked, which was rat for "The same way you came in dumbass."

The faces of fauns and nymphs emerged in the light above and Lalum squeaked too before burying her face her hands. Makepeace said the monstrous women were once ordinary girls tricked by the archbishop. That in mind Jay could only feel sorry for Lalum. He remembered Pluxie, begging for help as she drowned in the mud...

He blotted his mind so he remembered nothing and tried to focus on escape no matter how improbable. It didn't matter. Above, amid the giggling faces, another face slowly drifted into view, and it was not giggling. Flanz-le-Flore.

"Oh dear. Have you gotten lost? I do apologize. I've made my court a labyrinth, haven't I? What a silly thing to do."

Snap. The first rock forming the crevice became sand. Snap. The second rock became water. The sand and the water splashed into Lalum and became mud, ruining her habit and causing her needlepoint limbs to slip and slide as Flanz-le-Flore's followers thronged her, uttering a low chant.

***

[9] The Same Wrong Even More Ruthlessly