by Ellie Margot
“That kind of passivity is what got our powers taken in the first place,” said Guy. He slammed a hand on the table.
“They weren’t taken,” said Riette. Her mother’s words came tumbling out of her lips. “We learned to adapt. We may not have the powers we once had, but we are beautifully made. And—”
“Save it, Princess,” said Guy. He let out a choked laugh. “I’m not voting for it. I’m not even a part of that world anymore. I live here. I survive here. I fucking thrive here. You don’t have to pitch me on it. And this map? It wouldn’t get you down the street accurately, let alone to the other parts of Esper.”
Riette looked down at the map. She had worried about tucking it away, how it would tarnish it, and now Guy was saying it wasn’t worth the effort to throw it away.
She took a deep breath. She wanted the map to work. She needed it to. Without it, she didn’t have any control and still needed Guy. She didn’t want to need anyone, not outside of Mekhi and Cassian.
Guy walked over to Baron and came back with a blank piece of paper. “You’d have a better time starting from scratch than with that shit.” He looked at Riette. “No offense.”
He started to draw on the sheet. It was mostly crudely drawn lines and stick trees. He worked on it with them looking over his shoulders before he started speaking.
“See? This is where we are now. On the edge of the Broken Seas. On the far west?” He pointed. “You get into the Mages’ area. But be careful. You don’t want to get anywhere near Zeke’s territory.”
“Who’s Zeke?” Riette asked, and her tattoo tingled. There was something about the name that seemed important. Like she should know it.
“Zekariah,” Guy said. “The First Mage. Bad motherfucker and generally horrible person, but at least he’s dead now. Or in prison if you believe the legends. I don’t know too much about him, beyond the old stories that people tell to scare kids. Another day, another devil.”
Guy continued to sketch out a map on the paper, but Riette didn’t hear anything. The First Mage’s name echoed through her head, and a strange thrill rippled through her, although she had no idea why.
Cassian touched her chin to bring her attention to him, but she shook him off. She had to get her shit together ASAP, before Cassian and Mekhi both realized how fucked she was in the head over a simple name. Zekariah.
She busied herself by grabbing her bag and checking on Bark. He was still sleeping, as the liengs often did when they were close to planting age.
She didn’t want to think about planting him anywhere, though. The idea of not having him around, even when he was mumbling at her, was a loss she didn’t want to have to take. The monkey was still a statue as well, and Bark had wrapped himself around it as if the monkey was his own little blue toy. She smiled to herself and turned back to the table.
Then she heard a noise behind them.
Chapter 17
Riette turned and saw a group of guys walking into the inn. Baron came from around the corner, hearing the newcomers as well, and wiped his hands on the apron he had donned when he went out of sight. It was bright yellow and featured a smiling face. It would have made Riette laugh, but she was trained on the new people walking in. The one in the front already had his hands in fists, and he glared in their direction. One of the men with him cracked his knuckles and then stretched out his shoulders as if was gearing up for something.
“Shit,” said Guy, and he just sounded tired.
“What?” asked Cassian.
“My fan club just arrived.”
“You seem to make an impression,” said Riette. She looked at the men, and the one at the front looked back. Hard.
She turned quickly. Was it something the siren did? She had never had this much attention before. Period. People were usually too busy being afraid of her to bother being attracted. Now? She was like catnip in a den of kittens, and it was bothering the fuck out of her. She recognized the look on the man’s face instantly.
“He doesn’t know everybody,” said Mekhi. “He just knows a lot of people he’s pissed off.”
“People love to hate me,” said Guy.
“I don’t know if I’m up to fighting right now,” said Cassian. His face was tinged pink at saying it. He cleared his throat. “I’m not saying I won’t. We should just maybe not go out of our way to start shit.” He glanced in Riette’s direction.
“Why are you looking at me when you say that?” asked Riette.
“You’re our little instigator,” said Mekhi. “Everyone knows it.”
“I pegged that pretty easily when I first met you,” said Guy.
“Is this ‘Shit on Riette’ day?”
“I thought that was on Thursdays?” said Guy.
Mekhi snorted but then realized that by doing so, he was somehow in cahoots with Guy and glared at him quickly after.
“You’re saying I shouldn’t go say hi?” asked Guy. He stood up and stretched, and the energy in the room shifted. Riette heard more knuckles cracking and the sound of a table being moved.
“Well, why is the big one pissed?” asked Riette.
“Fucked his girlfriend.”
“Guy,” Riette snapped.
“Sorry, made love to his girlfriend.”
“Not better,” said Riette.
“Hey, it wasn’t his wife,” said Guy. He stretched out his hands.
“You shouldn’t be in this fight, Ri,” said Mekhi.
“I don’t think I have a choice,” she said.
“You always have a choice,” said Cassian.
“He’s looking like he’s going to come after me one way or the other. I might as well meet him.” Riette’s tattoo tingled again, and flames sparked on her fingertips. Guy’s eyes widened.
“No,” said Cassian. “Earth powers, maybe, but no flame wielding, all right?”
“Wait, you have two powers?”
“Don’t worry about it,” said Mekhi. “She’s earth wielding, okay? That’s all you need to know about.”
“Shut it, Mekhi,” said Cassian.
“But you started it with, ‘oh, but she has two powers.’”
“I swear on both of you all, I can’t take you anywhere,” said Riette. She let out a breath. “I’m both, okay? Don’t spread it around.”
“That’s not possible,” said Guy. His voice was low.
“I’d whip out the tattoo and show you, but we don’t exactly know each other that well.”
“How?”
“We have other things to worry about,” said Cassian. “Those guys are almost to the table, and they don’t look like they’re going to stop with just beating up Guy.” He stood and walked closer to Riette’s side.
The men who walked in found their way into the main eating area.
“I told you I didn’t want to see your face ever again,” said the guy. He wasn’t a cyclops, but his size could make him be mistaken for one. Tattoos in a jagged design ran up and down his arms and around his neck. They looked painful, angry, with pink scars, as if the tool used had been rusty and held by someone with a score to settle.
“And I told you that the idea of seeing your face while I was eating didn’t appeal to me too much either,” Guy said. “Scar face, meet my friends. Friends, meet this piece of shit.”
Riette rolled her eyes.
“You little fuck,” said the guy, but the men next to him held him back.
“Still babysitting, boys?” asked Guy.
“You could try not to piss him off,” said Mekhi in an angry whisper.
“That’s like trying to make Baron six inches tall. Some people are angry. Stoking the fire isn’t a big deal.”
“It is if I just said I didn’t want to mess with anyone,” said Cassian.
“Lovers’ quarrel?” asked the man. The words came out choked, but he also looked pleased at the idea that other people that Guy called friends would want to hurt him too.
“Can we not?” asked Riette. “I’m all for kicking ass, but I’m about
to eat, so...”
“Ladies shouldn’t talk like that.”
“Actually, real ladies do whatever the fuck they want, twice a day and three times on Sundays.”
“You aren’t going to talk to me like that, girl.”
“Riette,” Cassian said, grabbing her arm. She shrugged him off.
“Remember I warned you to leave when you’re dislodging your friend’s foot from your ass, okay?”
“Blow me, doll face.”
“Into pieces? Off the fucking realm? Gladly.” Riette nodded, and the flames in her hand burst to light.
“Shit,” said the guy to the left of the man Guy dubbed Scar Face.
“What are you, pretty thing?”
“Pissed the fuck off.”
Fire jumped from her fingertips and burned the man’s shirt. He smacked at it, but the flames didn’t go away. They grew taller.
His friends started hitting him in an effort to put the fire out.
“That’s enough,” said Cassian, and Riette rolled her eyes and pulled her hands back.
“Leave, now,” she said, and the voice she used barely sounded like her own.
They did leave quickly, and the four of them sat back down.
“Remind me not to piss her off,” said Guy just as the food arrived at their table.
Chapter 18
Riette was the last one to enter the room. She had paused downstairs to talk to Baron and to calm her adrenaline down. She had even walked outside to clear her head, just for a second, but the rain hit her as soon as she stepped outside. So she went back in and headed for the room.
When Riette walked into the room, the very second she did, she knew she wasn’t going to get any sleep anytime soon.
Guy was standing in one corner, his arms across his chest. His forehead was creased, and the skin under his lip looked red from biting it. Cassian was in bed, at least part way. He sat on the edge and bounced his leg as it sat crossed on top of the other. Mekhi was pacing. Riette couldn’t see a line in the floor from the action, but if she gave him moments more, she knew they’d show up.
The conversation stopped when she walked in. Cassian stood.
“Still in one piece,” she said. She shrugged off the cloak and bag and sat them in the corner. “No one has killed anyone else. My expectations have been exceeded.”
“Ha. Ha. Is it raining?” asked Guy.
“No, I decided to take a bath fully clothed so as to not excite the locals.”
“Is she always a smart ass?” he asked.
“Only when her lips are moving,” said Cassian.
She punched him lightly in the arm and sat on the other bed on the side closest to Cassian.
“I was just about to lay down some ground rules about how to handle yourself outside of Vitan,” said Guy.
“And I was just about to tell him where he could stick his ground rules,” said Mekhi. He had a small ball in his hand that he was tossing into the air and catching, just to repeat the action again. Riette wouldn’t have put it past him to have packed it in his bag.
He was chewing too. There were different ways to get the Vitan energy back into an Elf. One could wait until the powers naturally returned, one could hold Vitan tree bark and let the renewing energy enter the skin that way, or one could chew it, not unlike tobacco, like they could with any plant related to Vitan, but with all the splinters one would assume that would entail. It was an acquired taste that Riette had never formed.
Mekhi knew it was the fastest way and had been doing it since he was a child. Licorice was how he said it tasted. It actually tasted like dirt gone bad.
“He’s the expert,” said Cassian, surprising Riette.
“He’s the only one with any kind of experience here,” Riette added.
“Speak until you piss me off,” said Mekhi. He opened his mouth to spit.
“Cup,” said Riette. He rolled his eyes, searching around the room without standing.
“Bottom drawer, left side,” said Guy.
Riette cocked an eyebrow at him.
“What? It’s faster to re-up that way.”
“What do you have to re-up from?” Riette asked. “What would you even need it for?”
“Helps with recovery. Well after six hours of forceful fu—”
“Save it,” Riette said, cutting him off.
“I’m just saying. The technique involved—”
“That’s enough,” said Cassian. He cleared his throat.
“Prudes are adorable,” said Guy. “Honestly. The things I wouldn’t do to a good girl.”
“Didn’t you say something about rules?”
“Right,” Guy said. He stood a little straighter and shook his head. He cleared his throat this time, adjusting the collar of his shirt. He didn’t dress like an Elf. He dressed more like the people Riette had seen outside. Practical but dark. Nothing flashy. Nothing green though either.
“Don’t go out alone. You have to shit, you take a friend.”
“Do these rules apply here? Because that food—”
“Out there, dipshit.”
“Hey, he’s my family,” Riette said. “I’m the only one allowed to call him a dipshit.”
“What about pretty boy?” Guy asked, pointing at Cassian.
“I’m family too, and I resent that.”
“Family doesn’t look at family like you looked at her earlier.”
Riette and Cassian looked at each other. They both rolled their eyes.
“Yeah fucking right,” said Riette.
“She’s my sister. Just not blood.”
“Things must have gotten friendlier at home where family is concerned,” said Guy.
“Moving on,” said Riette. She tilted her head and was tempted to burn him to shut him up. The thought sobered her. Such thoughts were occurring much too often. Maybe she was getting bloodlust now. Burn lust? Was that a thing? She knew the fire-wielders tended to be a bit crazy.
“Out there, you don’t travel alone. You don’t make blood oaths or promises. You don’t make any deals whatsoever. You don’t look at people more than once unless you’re looking to fight or fuck—”
“Guy,” said Riette.
“You want the rules, or don’t you? They’re not going to edit themselves, Princess.”
“Don’t call me princess.”
“Aren’t you?”
“The last thing I need is people hearing your mouth and figuring shit out.”
“You have different and shiny painted on you like a second fucking skin, darling. I hate to break it to you.”
“Siren shit, okay? Not me.” Riette regretted saying it instantly.
Cassian frowned. “Siren? Sea siren? You said nothing happened with the siren.”
“Something happened,” said Riette, “but I don’t know what it is yet, okay? I’m freaking out a little.”
“You don’t have to figure it all out on your own, okay?” said Cassian.
“We’re your family; we do things together,” said Mekhi. He walked to her and wrapped his arm around her shoulders. She leaned into him.
“I’ll let you know if something changes,” said Riette. “I promise.”
She turned to Guy. “Explain the rules.” She combed her hand through her hair, trying to get it under control.
“That’s about it,” said Guy. “If you don’t know what to do, do nothing, see me, and don’t shit the bed in the meantime. And if we pass someone I’ve pissed off, let me handle it.”
“Why should we trust you at all?” asked Cassian.
“Because doe eyes here is the only way I get to go home.”
“You can’t go back and forth like that,” Riette said. “You acted like you hated it, and now you want to use me to get back in?”
“I don’t hate it,” said Guy. “Corin told me a lot about it. Sure, it’s fucked up, but it wasn’t my idea to leave.” He paused. “Maybe I’m curious now. Maybe I want to know where I came from. My ancestors.”
“Bullshit,”
said Riette, and she stood to put a point on her words.
“Not bullshit. Your mother—”
“My mother would never exile anyone. Ever. She never wanted anyone to leave. She forbade it.”
Guy took a minute. He looked at Cassian and Mekhi. Neither said anything.
He took another breath. “There seems to be a lot you don’t know.”
Chapter 19
Riette’s mother was the anti-traveler. She was completely risk averse. If she punished someone, she sent them farther into the Forests of Elan, not outside of it.
Shortly after that conversation ended, Guy suggested they go to bed. He pulled the small cot out from under the guys’ bed. Cassian and Mekhi settled into their normal formation that the ship had ingrained in them. Riette tried to settle into her bed.
The room went quiet.
She could hear Cassian’s soft breathing, Mekhi’s snores. She didn’t hear anything from Guy, and she searched him out with her ears in the dark. If she hadn’t known he was in there, she wouldn’t have been able to guess. It was disconcerting.
Riette tossed in the sheets. The quiet amplified every move in the night. It made everything sound deadly, broken, and after her. The streets still had the quiet shuffle of feet hitting dirt roads. There was the occasional voice in the darkness talking with another.
Riette had nothing to compare it to. She wouldn’t have had a chance to sleep at all if it hadn’t been for her time on the ship in the small hold with so many other bodies near her. It had unsettled her then, but now that experience helped her be able to sleep anywhere.
Riette kept her eyes closed and focused in on her breathing. She wouldn’t let herself think of Corin. She didn’t let herself think of the embers in the Vitan trees, the anger she felt at it, or the conversation that had sparked Corin’s leaving. The lists of things she could think about was getting shorter all the time.
It took moments of getting herself together before she realized she wasn’t alone in being awake at this hour. Guy was standing in the corner. He was at the window on the other side of the guys’ bed.