Spinning Tales

by Brey Willows

  “Well, it is.”

  Shamus sidestepped the body but bent over the blade lying in the pooling blood. He sniffed and reared back, then made his way over to the others.

  “A Red Guard blade.” He put his paw against Maggie’s hand. “She’s hurt, shepherd.”

  Kody paled and held Maggie at arm’s length. “Fuck monkeys. How bad is it?”

  Trembling, Maggie moved her hand away from the cut, and her blood covering her hand was the last thing she saw before her stomach lurched, the ground moved sideways, and the world went black.

  * * *

  The first thing to hit her was the nausea. The next was the pain. She groaned, but any movement hurt so she stayed still.

  “Hey.”

  She opened her eyes to find Kody looking down at her, and she liked the soothing way Kody was caressing her head…which seemed to also be pillowed on Kody’s lap. She closed her eyes again. She didn’t care. She was safe.

  “Mags. Come on, lovely. Open your eyes. I need you to try to drink some water.”

  The offer of water did it. Her mouth felt like a cat litter box. “Water.”

  “Good. Can you sit up? Nice and slow.” Kody’s arm stayed behind her, helping her into a sitting position.

  “Who knew a knife wound would hurt so much? The movies have a lot to answer for.” Maggie took the glass of water and drank deeply, feeling the cold all the way down. She held it out when it was empty and drank half the second glass as fast. Thirst sated, she looked around. She and Kody were on a cement bench, and Shamus and Brenda sat at a table a few feet away, eating. She turned to Kody. “Where are we?”

  “We’re at that food vendor’s stall we were supposed to meet at. Turns out, it’s not just Brenda’s favorite food. An old flame of hers works here, and she knew we’d be safe.”

  “And she knew I could find you here without a problem.” Di walked up with a thick packet in one hand and a drink in the other. “Your little stunt has done wonders for your reputation already. The market is all abuzz with the merciless new spinner.”

  Maggie winced and pictured the head rolling at her feet, an image that wasn’t going to leave her any time soon. “I didn’t mean to do it. It was attacking me, and…I just pulled out the brush and drew the first thing that came to me.” She wiped tears from her eyes. “I didn’t mean to kill it.”

  Kody put her arm around Maggie, but it was Di who spoke.

  “Spinner, people are out for your blood, and that one very nearly took more than you’d already given it. When it comes down to you or them, you have to make a decision. If you don’t fight, that means it will come down to them or someone else another time, and that someone may lose. Really, you’re saving other people when you dispatch those who would kill you.”

  Circular logic had never been Maggie’s favorite thing, and it wasn’t now. But she was too wiped out to argue, and Kody and Di clearly saw that.

  “Now, lift your shirt.”

  Maggie leaned back against Kody, who lifted her shirt for her. A thick bandage covered the three-inch-long cut, but blood had seeped through. Di deftly removed the bandage, not stopping when Maggie hissed through her teeth at the pain. Di opened the package she’d brought with her and pulled out green goopy stuff in a deep blue jar. She handed it to Maggie.

  “Trust me, you’re going to want to drink that, so you don’t feel this.” She held up the bowl of green goo.

  Maggie drank. It wasn’t long before she was floating, relaxed and empty in a way she’d never been before. Surely the weight of Kody’s arm was the only thing keeping her from floating away like a balloon. Distantly, the pain registered as Di smeared the goop on her wound, but it felt more like a memory than something physical. From a long way away, she heard Di laugh.

  “It’s good she has no tolerance. It will give the salve a chance to work before she comes back down.”

  Kody’s arm tightened briefly, and Maggie wanted to ask her not to leave, not to let her float away. She liked Kody a lot and wanted far more time with her. And she really wanted to know about her tattoos and that thing that made her really sad. She wanted to see what Kody’s eyes looked like when she was all sexed up, and see if she made an attractive or unattractive sex face when she had an orgasm.

  The thoughts drifted away, and she dozed, semi-aware of the noises around her but content to stay right where she was. When the floating feeling waned and the cement became cold and hard against her butt once again, she opened her eyes. Trillions of stars showed above them, and unlike at home, some of the shapes they made were so beautifully clear they took Maggie’s breath away.

  “Hey there.” Kody smiled down at her. “Welcome back.”

  Maggie groaned as she slowly sat up but more from having a stiff back and legs than from the pain in her side. “Thanks. Glad to still be here.” She looked around. “Where is everyone?”

  “They’ve gone back to the inn. I didn’t want to risk moving you and have you wake too soon, so we stayed put. But we can head there now, if you’re ready.” Kody stood and stretched, and Maggie could hear various muscles popping and cracking.

  “How long have we been here?” It had still been light out when she’d dozed off, she was sure of that.

  “About four hours.” Kody bent and touched her toes, swinging her arms to stretch her back.

  “Oh my God. You sat with me for four hours?”

  Kody shrugged, and that frown line between her eyes was back. “The least I could do. You could have been killed.” She stopped stretching. “Good idea, by the way. You sending out your emotion like that gave me a clear direction to go, even though I was in the wrong row and had to fight my way to you.”

  Interesting phrasing. “When you say fight your way to me, do you mean you were attacked too?”

  Kody nodded. “By the same type of creature. Fortunately, I felt him come up behind before he could get to me, and I left him where he dropped. I’m sorry I didn’t reach you in time to help.”

  Pride burbled up from a place Maggie hadn’t really ever known. “You know what’s cool? I did it on my own.”

  Kody’s smile was slow to come, but real. “Yeah. Yeah, you did, and now you know what the brush is for. With practice it’ll be a hell of a weapon, if you need it to be.” She held out her arm. “Let’s go.”

  Maggie sniffed at the amazing aroma in the air. “Can we get some of that food to go?”

  Kody shook her head. “I don’t know how you can always be hungry.”

  She went to the stall and ordered some things while Maggie waited at a table, and when she came back with a bulging sack of food, Maggie groaned. “How far to the inn? I’m starving.”

  Kody smiled. “Five minutes, maybe less. The crowd has thinned out, and trust me when I say no one is going to get within ten feet of you.”

  Maggie held Kody’s arm, and they took off down one of the rows. As they walked, she pondered Kody’s statement and one she remembered Di making before she’d put the goop on Maggie’s side. She reached across her body and touched it. Tender, but not agonizing. Her shoulder, too, hurt less, even though it was still in the sling.

  “What did Di use on me?” she asked.

  Kody frowned. “When it comes to Di’s potions, it’s better not to ask. But I trusted her, and I’m glad I did.”

  “Me too.”

  They made it back to the Key Keepers with no more incidents, though Maggie could hear whispers and caught quickly diverted gazes as they’d moved along the row and out onto the open streets. It brought with it a surprising feeling of power, and she liked it. A lot.

  * * *

  Brenda was right. The food was delicious, though Maggie hadn’t a clue what most of it was, and didn’t particularly care. All she could think about was getting more. The others had finished long before she took a final bite and sat back, pleasantly full.

  “How are you feeling?”

  Maggie nodded gratefully as Di poured something apple green and fizzy into her glass. “I don’
t think I’ve ever been so hungry in my life. But the pain in my side and my shoulder is nearly gone. Can we have some of that ointment to take away with us?” Maggie smiled to show she was kidding, but Di nodded like she’d been serious.

  “You’re probably going to need plenty of it before things go right side up again.” Di pushed something with layers of vibrant color and a thick, creamy top toward her. “It’s called shepherd’s parfait. Lots of layers and a sweet cream to go with it.” She winked, and her grin left no question as to what she meant.

  Maggie took a spoonful and didn’t look away from Di’s gaze, which held an undercurrent of challenge. It was almost sickly sweet, but she licked it from her lips like it was the best thing she’d ever have.

  Di laughed out loud and the challenge left her expression. “People are going to underestimate you, spinner. It will be the way you win.”

  “That and the fact that she’s probably one of the most powerful spinners we’ve had in a very long time.” Shamus had a dollop of cream on his whiskers and used his paw to wipe it off, and then he licked his paw clean.

  Maggie loved when he behaved so cat-like while sitting at the table eating dinner with the rest of them. It made her want to grab him and give him a squish, but she had a feeling that would go over about as well as the time she’d tried to put him in a cat carrier. “How do you know that?”

  “Are you kidding? You beheaded that fang-face with a paintbrush, while you were bleeding from a knife wound. Alone. In an alley. With one arm in a sling.” Brenda held the back of her hand to her head and pretended to swoon. “It takes most spinners years to really learn how to use their powers.” She blew Maggie a kiss. “It took you about an hour.”

  Maggie could still picture the thing’s head rolling along the ground, and it made her stomach lurch. She pushed the thought away, not wanting to get rid of all the nice food she’d already eaten.

  “It’s true.” Di lounged in her chair much the same way she had the night before, her legs over the side, her feet dangling. “Though I doubt any have been quite so humorous under the effect of sedation.”

  Her train of thought derailed, Maggie looked at Kody. “What does that mean?”

  Kody grinned but shook her head and kept her eyes on her glass. Maggie looked at Shamus, who just stared back at her implacably. Brenda was practically jumping on her seat.

  “Let me, let me!”

  “Bren, come on. That’s not fair.” Kody’s scolding held little weight, given the way she was smiling.

  “Maggie, you were amazing.” She held up her hand and started to tick things off. “One. You adorably said you like Kody a lot, and you want to spend more time with her, and that you want to know about her tattoos, which you totally should, because some of them are really amazing.”

  The balloon feeling. The thoughts she’d been having while she was floating. “Oh my God. Stop. Really.”

  Brenda held up two fingers. “Two. You wanted to know about the thing that made her really sad.”

  Kody’s smile faded slightly, and she shook her head.

  Brenda hurried on. “Three. You want to see what she looks like all sexed up, as you put it—”

  Maggie buried her face in her hands, remembering number four just fine. “Okay. Stop. No need to carry on.”

  Di, Brenda, and Kody all started laughing, and Maggie assumed Shamus was doing so as well, though his laugh sounded a little like the sound he made when he was coughing something up. She could feel the heat in her face. Apparently, she no longer needed to worry about telling Kody she found her attractive. At least there was a silver lining to her mortification. “Perhaps we could talk about what we’re doing tomorrow?”

  “Agreed, though I’m sure we’ll return to this topic again.” Shamus’s teeth were out in his little cat smile. His ears twitched, and he was once again the serious creature who had appeared in her living room that day. “I was thinking, Maggie. Did you bring the notebook from the dream seller’s office?”

  She’d very nearly forgotten about it. “I did. Want me to grab it?”

  He looked at Di. “I’d like you to take a look at it. I have a theory, and I think you could see if I’m right.”

  Maggie ran back to their room, glad to have a moment away from the embarrassment. With her attraction to Kody out in the open, would it change anything between them? She’d seen that look in Kody’s eyes the night before, when Maggie had intentionally stripped her top off, practically daring Kody to do something about it. There had been fear and guilt, but beneath it, there had also been desire. She wasn’t alone in this, whatever it was. And although she’d told herself nothing could come of it, she was beginning to wonder if that was true.

  She brought the book back and handed it to Di. Shamus came over, as did Kody and Brenda, and they all looked at it over Di’s shoulder. She skimmed it and gave a low whistle.

  “These are some serious names. Some not so serious, too, but these, with the little stars by them? They were serious players here in the marketplace. Nasty turd boils, all of them.” She stopped at one particular name and frowned. “Except this one. He always had a bad rep. I think his story always wanted him to seem worse than he was, but his heart was never in it.”

  “Who is it?” Maggie asked, since it was just a set of initials.

  Kody’s expression was hard to read. “BBW stands for Big Bad Wolf. The N beside it stands for Nick. That’s his real name.”

  Maggie reached blindly behind her for a chair and pulled it over so she could sink down on it. “I’m sorry. Can you run that past me again? Or explain it in some way I might think I’m not insane?”

  “Is it so hard to understand?” Di tapped on the book with her long red fingernail. “He obviously wanted a new life, so he took the opportunity to go with the other villains and start over. Good for him, I say.” She turned to Shamus. “What’s your theory, pretty pussy?”

  His eyes narrowed slightly, but he tapped the book with his claws. “I think we pick which villains we hunt extremely carefully. We only go after those who will have the information we need and who are currently causing the most problems in the other world. Maggie knows how her power works now, but she could be as adept at using it as she is in the kitchen.”

  Maggie started to protest, but there wasn’t really anything to be said to that. It was true. “So, who do we narrow that list down to?”

  Kody’s finger moved down the list as she read. “I say we start with Nick, with a relatively friendly face. Let’s see what he knows.”

  Brenda pointed to a set of initials. “This one. If there’s going to be someone doing damage, it’ll be Ju-Ju man.”

  “I’m not familiar with that one,” Maggie said. The name wasn’t exactly inviting, though.

  “He’s out of the African fairy tale sector. A kind of medicine maker, charlatan type. I think Brenda’s right.” Kody took a pen from the table behind her and circled his name.

  Maggie studied the list, waiting for something to jump out at her. A pair of initials made her stop, almost like they’d signaled to her. “Who is that?” The fact that they were all silent for a moment told her she was right. “Well?”

  “She’s devious, deviant, and utterly debased. I adore her, and she’s one of my kind. But she’s dangerous, and probably not a good one for you to face so early.” Di reached across the book and took a sip of her drink. A drop of condensation fell on it, and Kody quickly wiped it away, frowning at Di.

  “What’s her name?” Maggie knew this one was key. She didn’t know why, but it was true.

  “Kuma Lisa. I don’t know what name she might be going by in your world. She’s from the old Bulgarian tales, a woman who calls down the rain, who tricks people into giving her anything she wants, when she wants it. She’ll bleed them dry, both literally and figuratively, and leave them in the gutter when she’s done.” Kody ran her hands through her hair, her eyes not leaving the book.

  That explained why they didn’t think Maggie should go up
against her yet, though she couldn’t imagine how many years she’d have to be doing the job before she could manage to take on someone like that. “She’s a key to this. I can feel it.”

  Kody nodded. “Okay. That’s two. Let’s choose one more for now, and then we’ll see where we’re at.”

  “This one. Red Beard, from your sector.” Di took the pen and circled a name. “If only because he owes me money, and I want to take it from his…skin.” Her wicked grin suggested she’d definitely take it from somewhere else.

  “I’m not sure a personal vendetta is what we’re going for, but he’s not going to be doing anything charitable there, I can tell you that for sure. He’s a nasty piece of work. It took a lot of time and patience in the past to make sure he stuck to his part of the story,” Kody said.

  That was it, then. They’d chosen names to start with, and Maggie had her first villains to apprehend. It was exciting and terrifying in equal measure. A question she’d thought of before but never had time to ask came to her. “So, we go get the bad guy. I somehow capture him, using my kitchen-painter abilities.” She looked at Shamus, who seemed to be focused on pushing a glass closer and closer to the edge of the table. “Why do cats do that?”

  He looked up at her as though surprised she was watching. “It’s instinctive. There’s something magnificent about moving things and seeing them fall.”

  That made no sense, so she parked it and kept going. “Anyway. I’ve captured the bad guy. Then what do I do with him?”

  Kody started to speak, but Shamus pushed the glass off the table, where it bounced but didn’t break. If it was possible for a cat to look disappointed, he did. “I think we wait and see what the book has to say about that once we get back to the cottage.” Shamus perched at the edge of the table, and though he was talking to them, he stared at the mess of water on the floor.

  Kody frowned. “Why? I know what she has to do. Why wouldn’t I tell her?”

  His yellow eyes blinked back at her when he looked away from his disappointing moment of chaos. “Maybe the way you used to do things isn’t the way things are done anymore. Maybe you should double-check before you provide incorrect information.”