“A MOME agent brought me here and left me in the canyon,” I said, thinking back. “Come to think of it, that lady brought me here and put a new set of manacles on me as soon as we arrived, saying they would keep me from using my magic.”
“And did they?”
I considered for a moment.
“Well, I thought they did, because my magic wouldn’t work, but after I got to the top Azrael said that was the canyon and not the manacles.”
“So she probably brought them simply to make certain that you were restrained,” Siara surmised. “Certain seams will not allow people through if they are restrained, others remove the restraints.”
“Really? How does that work?”
“I do not know, youngling. I only know that it is true.”
“That makes seams sound sentient,” I said, feeling decidedly creeped out by the idea.
Siara shrugged.
“Many things in the universe have a form of consciousness. Perhaps seams do as well.”
And with that, Siara stood up and started walking away from me.
“Siara,” I said, causing her to turn and look back at me over her shoulder. I was about to tell her that she was headed the wrong way, that she had started walking in the direction of the “trap” that MOME had set for anyone caught in the floods, but those words died on my tongue.
“What in the hells is that?” I asked instead, as something blotted out what little portion of the orange sky could be seen from the bottom of the narrow canyon in which we stood, and a horrible screeching filled the air.
“YOU BRILLIANT, BRILLIANT, genius of a woman!”
That was what I chose to believe Azrael was screeching at me as their red-skinned, fluff-tailed body came flying at my head from the sky. But of course, since we were once more in the canyon, and Azrael was in their demon form, I could only hear what sounded like a banshee and a demented cat having a screaming match.
“What is that?” Siara asked, her nose wrinkling as though Azrael had brought more of the sulfurous stench with them, while the creature collided with my torso and knocked me back into the canyon sand.
“It’s Azrael,” I said, once I could breathe again. Siara only a raised a single eyebrow at me. “The succubus who was helping us back on Earth?” I clarified. “They helped us find you. They were keeping the vampires busy while we came to your rescue.”
That didn’t seem to do much for Siara in terms of a memory jog, so I just shrugged and returned the manic embrace that the squirrel demon had me in.
“I think I saw that whole shadow thing you were talking about, Az,” I said, not knowing what else to talk about. “You blotted out the sun completely, and it wasn’t just lucky positioning. You were HUGE.”
Azrael nestled up against my ear and then pulled emphatically on my ear lobe. I didn’t know what that meant, but decided it was supposed to be affectionate and patted their head in response.
“Where is everyone else?” I asked, after a brief pause for squirrely affection. And then I wanted to smack my head against the wall of the canyon because the response was, of course, a heinous shrieking directly into my ear.
“Never mind!” I shouted. “You can tell me later. Maybe we can play charades for now? Please remember that I can’t understand you down here.”
Azrael nodded once and shrugged. Then they leapt from my shoulder and ran off down the canyon.
“Az, wait!” I shouted, but their four legged form was hustling away from me with a hustle that seemed less than casual. “We’d better follow them.”
“Don’t you mean, him?” she asked, gesturing at Az’s retreating form. And yeah, Az looked decidedly male in their naked squirrel demon form, but…
“I should ask if they want me to change pronouns when they’re in demon squirrel form. Az has never expressed a preference, actually. They never correct anyone who chooses he or she, but they seemed pleased when I started using ‘them.’ Still, I should really ask.”
It wasn’t as if I’d had a ton of time to kick back with Az and talk preferred pronouns, but even so, it was only polite. I needed to make time.
Siara looked at me briefly, then shrugged and hustled after the red-skinned squirrel demon. She moved quickly and with purpose, but there was something about her gait that seemed off. I wondered if she was injured from her time in the dungeons, or if perhaps the reaction between the Technetium and dark matter was only slowed down by the canyon, and not completely stopped. That was a terrifying thought. Deciding there was nothing I could do about it either way, I hurried after Siara and the quickly fading shape of Azrael the squirrel demon.
~~~
“This isn’t working, Az.”
I shook my head again, as I failed, for the hundredth time, to turn Az’s jerky, random motions into some sort of coherent meaning.
“A cat is being mangled repeatedly in a washing machine?” Siara guessed for the third time.
“If that wasn’t right the last two times, why would it suddenly be right this time?” I asked.
She shrugged.
“That’s just what it looks like.”
She wasn’t wrong.
“Az, seriously. We have no idea what you’re trying to say. How can you be this bad at charades?”
Az leveled their gaze at me and gestured their tiny squirrel hands up and down their red-skinned squirrel body.
“Ok. Fair point, well made. You aren’t exactly built for the human game in this body,” I admitted.
Azrael collapsed in a heap on the tiny rock ledge that formed the “balcony” of the small cave (cave was a generous term, it was more of a slight indentation in the cliff side) that would be Siara’s shelter for the foreseeable future. Since Az had led us up here and then proceeded to shoo us inside the small depression, I didn’t think they were trying to warn us of some terrible fate. But I couldn’t for the life of me figure out what they were trying to tell us.
“If I am going to marooned here with that creature, I am likely to fling one of us from this cliff ledge.”
That garnered cold looks from both Az and me.
“That squirrel is more difficult to communicate with than General Aira, and she is a dragon who speaks in three word sentences and acts as though emotions are things that only plague other people.”
“I’m starting to get the impression you’re not a huge fan of your general,” I offered, happy to talk about something other than the ways in which she was annoyed by Az.
Siara sighed.
“She is very good at her job. However, she is blinded by her prejudices and her own past.”
I chuckled a bit.
“She sounds pretty human,” I offered.
Siara’s mouth curved up, on one side only.
“Do not tell her you think so,” she advised. “She is entirely dragon, though she has a human form she takes often enough when it suits her.”
I wasn’t sure I’d ever heard of full dragons taking human form before, but given what I’d just learned about Siara’s ancestry, it made sense. Dragons mating with humans in dragon form sounded… awkward. I shook my head, and decided to add it to the pile of things I would ask about later. Right now I needed to do my best to keep Siara safe and alive.
I took a deep breath, looking between the exasperated squirrel demon and the overwhelmed weredragon. I had a feeling I was going to regret this later, but…
“Siara, are you ok if I leave you here for a bit?” I asked.
Siara looked pointedly down at the bottom of the canyon and then up towards the top.
“Where exactly do you think you’re going?”
I sighed.
“Unfortunately, I think the only way we can figure out what Az is trying to say is if I climb out of here and let the translation magic that normally works in this realm kick in. Then I’ll have to climb back down here and tell you whatever it is.”
At my words Az sat up and began nodding enthusiastically.
“This had better be as important as you�
��re making it seem,” I muttered to them.
Siara looked at me as though I’d started growing a second head.
“What?” I asked, not entirely sure I hadn’t started growing another head. My life had been so batshit nuts lately, and this realm was so much weirder than most, that I would hardly have been surprised.
“It seems a great risk to take,” she said, and I could tell she was leaving something unsaid.
“If you think I shouldn’t take the trouble to go up there and come back down, because you’re planning to just die down here and save everyone the trouble, then we are going to have to have words when I come back,” I said, channeling my own mother as best I could, an effort I had never made before, but suddenly found all too fitting. “You’re Rhelia’s family, and mine, now. If you think I’m just going to leave you here to rot, you’ve got another think coming.”
Siara turned away and stared at the back wall of the cave for a moment.
“Victoria, I would not forgive myself if something were to happen to you while you were trying to assist me.”
I shrugged and stood up.
“And I won’t forgive myself if I don’t find out what Az is trying to say and it winds up being information that could save your life. So, we’re at an impasse and, as only one of us can leave this place without taking the whole universe down with her, I guess you’ll just have to hang out here while I try not to die. Ok?’
Siara smirked and nodded.
“You are more like your mother than I first supposed,” she said.
Which felt like a punch directly in the gut.
“You knew my Mom?” I asked, sitting down again without really meaning to.
Siara raised an eyebrow.
“You didn’t know that?” she asked.
I put my head in my hands.
“My parents never told me anything about this world, about magic or shifting, or any of it before they… disappeared.” I was going to say died, but I found the word harder and harder to form these days, as everything about their death—and lives, for that matter—seemed less and less clear.
“I knew that, but… surely Rhelia or Trevor mentioned—” she looked at me and started shaking her head back and forth, as though trying to shrug off some insect that buzzed her head. “Those children… honestly… they are far too used to keeping secrets for my liking. I understand the necessity at times, but this? Why wouldn’t they tell you?”
No longer having any clue what we were talking about, I just stared at her, wide-eyed, reminding myself to blink.
“Your parents sought refuge in the dragon realm for a time, in their attempts to evade MOME, before they… disappeared.”
I noticed that she used the same word I had, but more cautiously, as though she wasn’t sure what its exact meaning was.
“How long before they disappeared?” I asked, wondering how much more of my parents’ lives I knew nothing about.
“Months. The dragon realm is barred to anyone who isn’t led there by someone who is dragonkin. My ancestors chose it for that purpose eons ago, or so the stories say. It makes an excellent hiding place for those trying to avoid an association like MOME—one that is decidedly unpopular with all dragon kind. Unfortunately, your parents eventually decided that their presence in our realm was too great a risk. I am not clear on their exact thinking, but I got the impression they were worried that MOME would figure out a way into our realm and hurt us in an attempt to get their hands on your parents. I never understood how they thought such a thing was possible, but I believe it is what led them to abandon the dragon realm and continue their circumnavigation.”
I really wanted to ask a hundred other questions, but Az was jumping up and down like a kangaroo on a pogo stick and gesturing wildly at the top of the cliff.
“We need to continue this conversation,” I said, looking between Az and the top of the canyon, or at least the line between the rock and the sky. “But apparently I need to get my ass in gear.”
Az nodded emphatically, and Siara merely sighed and nodded towards the cliff face.
“Good luck, Victoria.”
“I’ll be back soon.”
If only I’d known how big a lie that was.
THE CLIMB TO the top of the canyon was substantially less exciting this time than it had been the last time. For one thing, the red-skinned squirrel demon did not launch itself at my head this time. For another, I wasn’t completely haggard from days without food or water, exposure to the elements, and breaking out of my bonds. Instead, I was just a bit tired from our master escape plan of the night. My whole body felt somewhat heavy with exertion and my scars pulled periodically as I stretched for some of the farther holds on the way up but, for the most part, the climbing was smooth and steady. Also, perhaps most importantly, I knew what awaited me at the top, so I wasn’t constantly checking the horizon to make sure nothing was trying to kill me from above.
In retrospect, that might have been a mistake.
Regardless, I made much better time than my previous ascent, and reached the top only partially exhausted, though not at all looking forward to the downclimb that would return me to Siara’s ledge.
“Ok, Az,” I huffed out, as I collapsed a few feet from the edge of the cliff it had taken me two hours to ascend. “What the fuck is going on?”
“First of all, can I just say how bloody brilliant you are for thinking of this canyon? I don’t know if I would have come up with that on such short notice, and I live here.”
“Thank my subconscious. That was a blind leap for me, I reached for the seam and hoped for the best. I guess some part of my brain remembered that the canyon suppresses dark matter, but honestly, that wasn’t a conscious thought of mine when I grabbed Siara. I was just desperate to keep everyone I loved from dying.”
Azrael poked his long, red nose in my face from above where I lay.
“Are you telling me that you grabbed her, expecting to die, and just did your best to take her somewhere else so that she might not kill the rest of us?”
I grimaced and nodded. It had been one of the dumbest things I’d ever done, but I hadn’t seen any choice really, and then I’d been incredibly lucky. Or maybe part of me had suspected what would happen. Who knows.
“You absolutely moronic, lovely, brave, mad individual!” Azrael was bouncing up and down on my chest now, too light to knock the wind from my lungs, but not particularly comfortable either. They were rather large for a squirrel. I sat up when they latched onto my shoulder in a way that I assumed was supposed to be a hug, but it was difficult to tell, and one small squirrel hand was far too close to my boob for my liking.
“Thanks? I guess. Look, I’ll admit it might have been mad, and was probably stupid, but what else was I supposed to do?”
“Nothing! Die horribly, I suppose? I dunno. But I’m very glad that you did what you did.”
“Look, Az, I appreciate the love fest and all, but what were you trying to tell us earlier? It seemed important.”
Az blinked for a moment.
“Oh yes, that. Mostly I just wanted to get you up here to talk to you, but I was trying to say that the spot Siara is in could be good for the long term, as the next time there’s a stampede it will likely provide her with some much needed food. Quite a few of the folks who run from the storms fall into that canyon.”
I stared at them for a moment and blinked.
“You made me climb to the top of this canyon to mention that there might be falling snacks?”
“Well, yes. It will be enough to keep her alive and keep her from attempting to leave the canyon before it’s safe for her.”
“But... I climbed for two hours, Az. TWO HOURS! So you could tell us about snacks? What if I’d fallen? What if I’d fallen and wiped out Siara on my way down? Seriously? How could you be so bad at charades that you couldn’t manage to sign FOOD?!” I held up a hand and made the Earthwide accepted gesture for food—sandwiched fingers towards a mouth making eating motions. Then I sighe
d, thinking about how far I’d climbed and how much farther I’d have to downclimb just to deliver the message: beware of falling snacks. “I can’t believe you brought me up here just for that.”
Az’s squirrel form frowned, and it booped its elongated red nose against mine.
“I brought you up here so I could tell you that you’d better start workin’ out how to get yourself home, ‘cause everyone thinks you’re dead, Luv.”
I just stared at Az for a moment.
“You didn’t tell them where you were going when you left?” I asked.
Az shrugged.
“I came here on a guess, Luv. After the world didn’t explode, and we made our way back out of that damned concrete dungeon.”
“Thought I left you on the upper floors?”
“The whole bloody building’s a dungeon, love. No better word for that many cubicles.”
Az’s whole squirrel body shuddered and I was forced to laugh.
“I did join the fray in the basement, though,” Az added, after a moment.
“Oh?”
“Well, Trev was screaming his bloody head off as soon as you disappeared, and then it was only a matter of time before the jig was up, so we ran to meet Sol, and the bull and wolf joined us on the way down. Everyone was cryin’ and fightin’ and determined to find Emil before they left, but… I ran to the seam and decided to test a theory.”
“So, they really think I’m dead?”
Az nodded, somberly.
“I had a hunch, though. Thought that you might have headed here and that you might need my help. Didn’t want to get anyone’s hopes up, though, so I just told them I’d be back when I could.”
I was quiet for a bit as I considered all the implications of that. I didn’t like the idea of my friends thinking I was dead. I knew firsthand how painful it was to lose someone close to you. I didn’t want them feeling that kind of grief, if they didn’t have to. But for now I had other things to worry about.
“Az, what am I going to do for her? Just because she won’t starve thanks to your falling snacks, that doesn’t mean she’ll survive… or want to. How can we fix this?”
Victoria Marmot- The Complete Series Page 46