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But it wasn’t even close to the end. Even as the head and neck crumbled to black ashes and blew away, something very strange happened. I saw a twitching at the base of the thing’s neck—it looked like a swelling. Almost like an enormous blister was forming where the neck and head and once been.
Then, with no warning, the blister burst and out came not one, but two fierce dragon heads attached to long snaky necks. They shot out of the stump and grew to full size in seconds. The huge T-Rex body righted itself and the heads began diving and hissing at Rath, who was roaring and swinging at them with his war hammer.
“Oh, no!” I breathed. I hadn’t read many fairy tales as a kid—my Mom had actively discouraged it, probably because she wanted to keep me away from the magical world in every way possible. But I had been an avid reader of mythology. So I knew what the thing that Rath was battling was.
“A Hydra!” I exclaimed, just as he bashed in another head. “Oh my God—it’s a freaking Hydra!”
Even as I spoke, the head Rath had just bashed crumbled…and two more rose to take its place. They grew a lot faster than the first two, I noted, watching in sick fascination. The ashes of the ruined head barely had time to blow away before two more long, snaky necks and red-eyed, fanged dragon heads took their place.
Rath was fighting a losing battle. I could see that now. There was no way he could kill the creature completely because every time he bashed in one of its heads, two more grew. Even as I thought this, he dealt a death blow to head number two—or was it number three?—and immediately, two more popped up to take its place.
Now he was fighting a four headed monster that was half dragon/half dinosaur and it couldn’t die. He couldn’t go on forever—eventually there would be too many heads to fight. What was he going to do?
No, the question is, what are you going to do? whispered a little voice in my head. You have magic—you brewed that potion even though you didn’t mean to. That has to count for something—use what you’ve got!
But how?
Though I could barely stand to take my eyes off the action, I forced myself to close them as I took a deep breath. I concentrated on what I knew—both Goody Albright and Madam Healer had said I had magic and that the spell on me was fraying around the edges. What else frayed like that? A sweater…a sweater was made of threads. What if I tugged at one of those threads? What if I tried to use it in some way?
Closing my eyes even tighter, I pictured myself holding a glowing golden thread—a thread made of magic. The image was so strong in my head, I could practically feel it in my hand—like a hot wire across my palms.
“Grow!” I muttered to the magic golden thread. “Expand, get longer—get thicker too! And stronger!”
And here’s the thing—I could feel it happening. I watched in my mind’s eye as the golden thread that had become a wire suddenly grew into a rope. No, not a rope—a cable—like the heavy-duty ones that hold up suspension bridges, I decided.
I heard a roar from Rath and my eyes popped open. I saw that he was now fighting a beast with eight heads. His hammer was moving so fast it was nothing but a blur but the heads just kept on coming! Already I could see wounds on his back and shoulders, crimson blood was dripping from the gashes the long fangs had dug in his skin. He was in trouble and I had to help him.
Looking down, I saw that the magic cable I had been imagining was real. It was solid in my hands—I could touch it and feel the metal fibers that had been twisted together to form it. It was just as I had envisioned it.
Great—so I had a magic rope. Now what was I going to do with it?
I thought about using it to try and lasso the heads and tie them down—to a tree trunk perhaps? But no, I didn’t think there were enough trees that were big enough and strong enough in the area to keep all those heads contained.
What I need to do is incapacitate them somehow, I thought as I watched yet another one strike at Rath. It doesn’t do any good to kill them—I have to immobilize them without actually cutting them off or killing them completely.
Rath roared again and I knew I couldn’t wait any longer. Forming the cable in my hands into a large circle, I threw it into the air, aiming for one of the heads.
“Go—encircle the neck!” I ordered it.
To my surprise, even though the head I had aimed at was ducking and dodging, the magic cable circlet dodged with it and slipped over the angry dragon head.
“Good! Now tighten!” I told it. “Cut off the air but don’t cut off the head. Just keep it from breathing.”
As I watched, the glowing golden cable did as I asked. I saw it tighten around the scaly neck and then the head it was attached to began to thrash in apparent agony. I could see its jaws gaping wide as it gasped for breath, but the magical cable wouldn’t let it get in any air at all. It kept on tightening until the eyes rolled up and the neck went limp as the head fainted for lack of oxygen.
That was one head down, but in the meantime, even more had grown. Hastily, I fashioned another glowing circle of magic cable and threw it at another head.
“Rath, get out of the way!” I shouted at the big Orc. He was stumbling with weariness by this time, but still fighting. He was trying to get in reach of the body—I could see that. But in order to do that, he had to keep bashing heads out of the way, which only made more heads. It was, as I said, a losing battle.
But now I could help him. And the magic was flowing faster and faster—I felt like I had when my Mom first taught me how to crochet. At first I had been so hesitant, but once I got the hang of it, I could go as fast as lighting, making row after row of stitches.
Now I made circlet after magic circlet and threw them faster and faster. I aimed with my mind and my will much more than with my hands which seemed to work fine. Thank goodness because, as I said before, I have shitty aim—at least when only my hands are involved. But I was telling the magic glowing circlets where to go and what to do and they were obeying me.
“Go—get that head!” I shouted, pointing at one of the Hydra’s heads, whipping around on its snaky neck, and then throwing the glowing circlet at it. The circlet went without fail, slipping neatly over the thrashing head and then tightening until the eyes rolled up and the neck went limp and dragged on the ground.
Rath fell back to stand by me. He was breathing hard, his big body covered in wounds and blood.
“How… the fuck…are you doing that?” he panted.
