"Every exit is an entry somewhere else." — Tom Stoppard
"Do you trust him?" Amelia asked as she shut the door behind her.
The Chimera unbuckled his sword belt and slung it over the back of a chair. "Right now it’s not a matter of trust," he said. "We don’t have a choice. According to Jarix, we could search from now until Ceiphied returns and never find this Temple we’re looking for. But the full moon is the day after tomorrow." He untied the laces that held his cloak and shrugged it off his shoulders, and hung it on the hook in the wall. He looked over at Gourry, who was mechanically doing the same thing on the other side of the room. The tall swordsman had not spoken since his attack on Jarix earlier. He’d finished taking off his armor and was now sitting on the other bed pulling at his boots to get them off. When they were off, he put his head in his hands and leaned his elbows on his knees.
Amelia looked up and met her lover’s eyes. He nodded and moved forward just as she did. Each of them took one of Gourry’s arms and pulled him up from the bed.
He startled and looked up at them, from Zelgadis to Amelia and back. "What? What are you doing?" he asked in surprise.
"We are going to cheer you up," Amelia said as they led him over to the fireplace. Zelgadis used his power to start a fire and they sat Gourry down on the thick furs that covered the floor in front of the hearth. Zelgadis sat down close to the hearth and leaned against the stone; he could take the heat better than either Amelia or Gourry. Amelia pulled Gourry’s arm around her and leaned against him, hugging him like a small girl hugs her older brother. Speechless, Gourry couldn’t think of anything else to do except put his arm around her and return the hug fondly.
"Thanks, Amelia, but I’m not sure—"
"Amelia’s right," Zelgadis said, putting his elbows on the hearth and leaning back with his legs stretched out in front of him. The heat of the fire felt good on his back. "You need to stop moping and get your act together."
The older man bristled and glared at Zelgadis. "Look, Zel—"
The Chimera leaned forward and fixed him with an intense stare. "No. There is no ‘look, Zel.’ You’re not doing yourself any good and if you keep on this way, you won’t be doing Lina any good, either. You need to be your at best when we go up to that Temple tomorrow."
"Yeah," Gourry looked at his hands, resting lightly on his crossed ankles. "About that. I was thinking, Zel, perhaps it would be better if you tried to get the sword."
Both Amelia and Zelgadis looked at him in shock. "What makes you think that?" Zel demanded.
"It’s just…It’s a magic sword. You’re pretty good with a sword, and you know magic; I don’t."
"Don’t be ridiculous. My sword skills pale beside yours." Zel leaned back and glared at his boots. "To beat Xellos, we’re going to need the best swordsman around—and that’s you. Besides, Lina is your wife, so you’re the obvious choice."
"But—" Gourry started to protest.
"No buts," Zelgadis snapped. "Gods, Gourry, you’re acting less like yourself and more like me every day. And you’re really starting to annoy me."
Suddenly angry, the other man sat up straight. Amelia pulled away from him, frightened of the intense emotion she felt within the usually mild-mannered swordsman. "Well, excuse me!" he snapped. "I’m so sorry for not being made out of stone—" He broke off suddenly as he realized what he’d said. His eyes went wide. "I—I’m sorry, Zel. I didn’t mean it—"
The Chimera turned his dark eyes on him and shook his head. "Gourry, if anyone else had said that, I would have throttled them. Coming from you, though, it doesn’t bother me, because I know you really didn’t mean it. However, at this moment, you need to find some stone to shore up your spirit. Otherwise, you’re not doing Lina any good. You’ve got to believe in yourself."
The blonde man sighed and his shoulders drooped. "I try, but then I think of Lina—"
"Think less of Lina and more about yourself, then," Zelgadis said sharply.
"Zelgadis-san!" Amelia protested. "Please!"
"No, Amelia. Gourry’s got to face facts." To Gourry, he said, "Do you want her back?" Without waiting for an answer, he continued right over Gourry’s sputterings. "If you want Lina back, you’ve got to want to do it for yourself, too. You are so focused on Lina that you forget to think about yourself. At this stage, you cannot afford to lose sight of your goal." Zelgadis’ gaze was sharp as glass as he pinned his friend with it.
"You’ve spent so much time relying on Lina to make all your decisions you’ve forgotten how to be selfish. For L-sama’s sake, be selfish! Lina is your woman! You chased the Lord of Nightmares into the Sea of Chaos to get Lina back! Xellos is nothing compared to Her! Don’t just stand by and watch someone who isn’t even human claim her as his own!" Amelia paled, but Zelgadis ploughed on mercilessly, his voice low, intense and filled with anger. "Are you going to let him want her, touch her, lie with her in ways only you should?"
Zel didn’t even pause at the look of horror upon Gourry’s face. The swordsman needed to hear this and was going to hear it if Zel had to ram it down his throat. "Amelia and I can’t do this for you; you have to be the one. You’d never forgive yourself or us if we let you back out of this now, and I know Lina wouldn’t forgive you, either." He paused and considered his next words. "Frankly, if you aren’t willing to pull yourself together enough to take Lina back from Xellos, I don’t know if I can continue to think of you as my friend." He heard Amelia gasp in shock; he held up a hand to silence her as his eyes remained fixed on Gourry’s.
As he stared at him, Gourry’s face underwent a series of changes: Shock, anger, guilt, and finally determination. "You’re right," he said in a hard voice.
"I know I am. Lina is our friend, too. We’re counting on you to bring her back so we can have the pleasure of her loud-mouthed, obnoxious self at our wedding." He smiled to take the harshness out of his words.
Gourry stared at him a moment then smiled. He looked down at Amelia and squeezed her shoulder. "Don’t worry. We’ll both be there. There’s no way we’d miss it."
"Good. Now, let’s get to work." Zelgadis sat forward and crossed his legs.
"Work, Zelgadis-san?" Amelia asked.
He nodded. "I want to try the summoning spell again. Do you think you can try and contact Lina this time, Gourry?"
The tall man nodded. "I’ll try." He took a deep breath and thought about the girl with the hair and soul like fire. He brought up his most treasured images of her, taking them out like the iconograph he kept hidden in his pack and savoring them. He cleared his mind and thought only of her—
And instead got a strange mixture of memories long buried: Sandoria, the sea-dragon, that hated dress Lina and Amelia had forced him to wear. He could hear soft laughter that trailed off into heart-wrenching sobs. A longing for him that broke his heart.
His eyes snapped open and he gasped as the contact was severed. He realized that he was breathing heavily, as if he’d just been in a fight. Someone was also calling his name. For a moment, he thought it was Lina, but when it was repeated, he realized it was Amelia.
"Gourry-san!" she said again, her voice anxious. He looked at her, crouched in front of him and clutching his hands tightly.
"What?" he asked. He looked from Amelia to Zelgadis, who was beside him and looking just as concerned.
"You’re all right!" Amelia threw herself into his arms and hugged him. He looked down at the little Princess and hugged her back. It felt good to be hugged.
"What happened?" the swordsman asked, confused.
"You tell us," Zelgadis said.
"I—I don’t know. I thought there was something, but then I just got a strange mix of my own memories, things I’d forgotten until just now." He looked confused and put a hand to his head. "Give me a sec and I’ll try again so you can do your spell."
"Gourry," Zelgadis said. "I’ve already done it. You’ve been sitting like that for over half an hour. We were starting to worry. Especially when you startled like you did. You looked like you’d seen a ghost."
The swordsman looked at him in shock. "But…I only just now tried! It didn’t work!" He transferred his confused gaze from Zelgadis to Amelia.
"Something worked," Zelgadis said, sitting back. "I was able to get a fix on her location. Next time, I think I’ll be able to break through." He clapped his friend on the shoulder.
The other man stared at him in disbelief. "I—I was only gone for a minute or so. It can’t—" Then Zel’s words registered. "It worked? You mean you were actually able to find out where she was?"
The chimera nodded. "It’s only a matter of time before she’s back with us, driving us mad again." He grinned at his friend as that sank in. Gourry’s face, which had been unusually grim over the past ten days or so, filled with the light of hope.
"We’re finally getting close, aren’t we?" he said in a voice filled with restrained emotion.
"We are, Gourry-san. We are." Amelia flashed him a ‘Victory’ sign and smiled hugely. "Xellos had better be ready because we’re on our way and nothing is going to stop us now. The three of us will bring the Hammer of Justice and True Love down on his head but hard!"
"That we will, Amelia," Zelgadis said, smiling slightly at her enthusiasm. If nothing else, he was grateful that it affected Gourry in such a positive manner. The other man looked ready to take on anything; a far cry from the dejected, positively grim man he’d become. They’d rented only one room because he and Amelia didn’t feel they could trust Gourry alone for any length of time, especially after the episode with Jarix.
He stood up and headed towards the bed. "Right now, we’d better get some rest because we’ve got a busy day tomorrow."
The other two nodded their agreement and got up off the floor and moved to get ready for bed. All of them went to sleep that night with hearts just a little lighter for the knowledge that they were getting closer to finding a way to rescue their friend. Even Gourry slept well that night, though he tried to ignore how empty he felt at the sight of Zelgadis and Amelia curling together for warmth in their bed. Although, for some reason, his sleep was haunted by a bizarre kaleidoscope of images involving a sea-dragon and a large warrior who was intent on winning his hand in marriage.
* * *
"So, are we all ready to go?" Jarix smacked his gloved hands together and rubbed them briskly. He walked up to the little group that was sitting around one of the tables in the common room of the inn waiting for him. They’d just finished breakfast, and were nursing their coffee more for warmth than for the stimulant effects while waiting for their guide. "Wonderful weather for a little jaunt through the Lancre mountains," he said cheerily.
Gourry glanced out the window and bit back a groan. During the night another foot of snow had fallen on top of what there had been previously. He was beginning to understand Lina’s aversion to the stuff; his feet and hands were already cold and stiff and he shivered under his fur-lined travelling cloak. This was the first significant amount of snow he’d seen since the Ancient Dragon Shrine; Lina tended to map out their travels to avoid places that got really cold. And he didn’t look forward to trudging through all this stuff on a journey to a temple they weren’t even sure existed. And with this insolent bastard as a guide.
"You never did name your price for guiding us," Zelgadis said flatly.
Jarix pulled out a chair and sat down. "I said we’d discuss that after we got to the Temple. That’s fair, isn’t it? I take you to the Temple and you don’t even have to pay in advance."
"I don’t like it," Zelgadis said. "I want to know your price before we get there."
"Then you don’t have to go, do you?" Jarix reached for an empty coffee mug, but Gourry put his large hand over it.
"If those are his conditions, we have no choice. And if we’re going to go, let’s do it," he said without looking at Jarix, but at Zelgadis and Amelia.
"All right," Zel said, getting up. He settled his sword at his hip and Gourry did the same. Holding out his hand to Amelia, the Chimera, the Princess and the swordsman turned to their guide. "Are you ready?"
Jarix stared up at them, looking a little shocked. However, that didn’t last long. Smirking, he stood up and faced the three of them. "Don’t waste any time, do you?" he asked. "I like that." He turned and led them out of the inn and into the snow-covered lane outside.
Outside, he put his hood up, covering his silver hair. Gourry noticed that it looked even more silver today; the dark strands that had given it a tarnished look appeared lighter in the directionless light.
Their guide looked up at the sky and shook his head. "Looks like we might get some more snow. Are you sure you want to go today? It’s not going to be easy going," he said.
"You lead us, and we’ll make it," Gourry said with unaccustomed steel in his voice. "No matter how hard the going gets." He glanced at Zelgadis and Amelia; the former nodded and Amelia flashed him a quick, confident grin.
The guide shrugged and turned away. "I was only thinking of the girl. Perhaps the Princess should stay behind if you’re that anxious to reach the Temple; she’ll only slow us down."
Princess Amelia bristled and stepped up to him, fire burning in her eyes and her fists clenched at her sides. "A pure heart is a strong heart! Justice burns in my heart and it shall bear me up on this journey, no matter what the hardships! You needn’t worry about me, evil-minded swindler of the Innocent!" She gave him one last glare and stalked off down the lane.
Jarix stared at her back, dumbfounded, then looked back at Zelgadis. "Is she always like this?"
Her groom-to-be nodded. "Always." He was trying hard not to smile; even Gourry couldn’t hold back a grin.
"Amazing. I don’t know how you stand her."
Zelgadis’ smile disappeared and he turned his stony glare on the other man. "It’s part of her charm and I wouldn’t change it for the world. And you might keep in mind that I just happen to be her fiancé."
"And she’s my friend," Gourry added, coming up to stand behind his friend, hand not-so-casually placed on the hilt of his sword.
"All right, all right. No need to get huffy, is there?" Jarix held up his hands and backed away. "But you’d better go get her before she gets too far."
"Why’s that?"
"Because," the silver-haired man said. "She’s going the wrong way. The Temple is this way." He pointed in the direction opposite in which the Princess had huffed off in.
Zelgadis sighed and shut his eyes. "Now you tell us. Amelia!" he shouted as he ran off after her.
Jarix and Gourry watched him go; Amelia had already gotten out of town and disappeared out of sight around the bend. Turning to the taller man, Jarix eyed him curiously. "Tell me, what exactly do you hope to find in the Temple?"
Gourry’s hand tightened on the hilt of his sword and he looked down at it. The maroon scarf he’d tied around the hilt fluttered gently in the cold breeze. He let go of the hilt and fingered the scarf gently. "Revenge," he said, voice as cold as the snow that lay around them.
Slayers copyright 1991-2000 by Hajime Kanzaka/Rui Araizumi/Kadokawa Shoten/TV
TOKYO/SOFTX/Marubeni.
The other characters copyright Wendy W Lee.