Only one of the lights that normally shone down the staircase seemed to be working, and moonlight slanted across the walls. Before he could go upstairs to find Fleur and Ellie, he heard a hissing sound from above and looked up to see something dark spiraling down the stairwell, leaving a trail of sparkling dust in its wake. The shadows at the bottom of the stairs moved, seeming to billow toward him, and immediately the hairs on the back of his neck stood on end.
He caught his breath. Fleur had appeared out of nowhere, as if she’d materialized from shadows and dust. She was on one knee, one hand in front of her reaching down to the floor, the other stretched out horizontally in a balletic, warlike pose.
It was all an illusion. A bolt of black silk, clever lighting, and the sparkle of fake moonbeams. Exercise moves that had been subtly altered for effect. But Rick was transfixed, staring open-mouthed like a rabbit caught in the headlights. Nothing else was real, only this.
Fleur was dressed in a dark padded jacket, cinched at the waist by a wide leather belt, with a tracery of silver stars running down her arm and across her breast. Scuffed boots, which looked as if they’d been through a few battles, and leather trousers. She had dark make-up across her eyes in the shape of a mask, with silver and purple stars across one cheek, and her dark hair hung in a plait over one shoulder. A dagger was strapped to her arm and two swords were sheathed across her back.
She took his breath away.
Rick swallowed hard. It might be considered cowardice to want her to take him as her prisoner, and do whatever she wanted with him. Then he grinned as the spell broke. A scuffle sounded from beneath the stairs, and Ellie ran out, brandishing a small sword, and taking her place next to Fleur in a reasonable facsimile of her pose.
The little girl was a mini-warrior. The same dark clothes, the same star pattern on her sleeve. Her hair was tied in a ponytail on one side of her head, and she had pink stars and a mask painted onto her face. Rick wondered for a moment whether the face paint was non-toxic and decided that Fleur would have taken care of that. She’d clearly attended to every detail of the costumes.
“So you have reinforcements?” Rick resisted the temptation to run forward and hug Ellie, and found his voice. “That’s going to be much harder to handle...”
“Can you take him, Moonbeam?” Fleur prompted Ellie with a nudge of her hand.
“Yes!” Ellie jumped up gleefully, and Fleur nodded. His daughter brandished her little sword above her head, in what was clearly a carefully choreographed move, and then made a rush at Rick.
“Ow!” His daughter whacked his leg with the plastic sword, which bent almost in half. Rick fell to one knee, and Ellie poked her sword into his ribs.
“Do you surrender, Creature of the Sun?” Ellie snarled at him, and Fleur clapped her hand across her mouth in an attempt to hide her smile. Clearly she’d supplied Ellie with the line.
“Yes. Absolutely.” Rick held up his arms in an expression of compliance. “Who are you, masked creatures?”
Ellie squealed, capering with delight, thrashing the sword around. “It’s me, Daddy!”
“Ellie...?” Rick tried to sound shocked. “What did you do, sweetheart? Are you a warrior now?”
“Yes!” Ellie stretched out her arms in an expression of love, and Rick hugged her.
“You look fantastic, Ellie. I was scared out of my wits.”
“You don’t have to be scared of me, Daddy. We fight for justice and truth.”
“Ah...very good. And who’s this we?”
“Warriors of the Moon, Daddy. Like in my comic...” Ellie’s voice took on a Don’t you know anything? tone.
“Of course. Well, I’m glad to see that you’ve got the right priorities. Justice and truth are always good.”
“What’s priorities, Dad?”
“Um...the thing you think is most important...” Rick was in no mood to explain words to his daughter at the moment. Fleur had got to her feet, the slow grace of her movements concealing the fact that anything more athletic was beyond her at the moment.
“You like the costumes?”
Rick hugged Ellie to his chest. Staying on his knees seemed entirely appropriate. What else was a man supposed to do in the face of such terrifying beauty?
“I love the costumes...”
Ellie wriggled out of his arms impatiently, running away to try out a few battle moves against the bannisters at the bottom of the stairs. There was only Fleur. Only her eyes. She bent slowly, whispering into his ear.
“On your feet.”
Her gaze held his in thrall as he rose. She was proud, and brave, all the things he wanted so much for her. Rick took her hand, raising it to his lips.
“You scared the living daylights out of me.”