Time's Children

by D. B. Jackson

  She glared at him. A moment later she walked away at demon speed.

  Teelo looked at Tobias again. “What was that?”

  “She said she knew of someone who could help us, but she wanted payment, and she hinted that she wanted it from…” He stopped himself before using the princess’s real name. “From this one.”

  The demon stared at the spot where his sister had stood. “I wonder who she was thinking of. Did she say anything more?”

  “She said we weren’t safe, but she wouldn’t tell me why. Then she said she knew of someone who could help – someone, she said, with ‘real power.’”

  Teelo nodded. “Ujie.”

  “What?”

  “She meant Ujie. I’m certain of it.”

  “Who is that?”

  He looked past Tobias to the boarding house. “Not here. I’ll tell you later. Meet us on the outer shelf, at the stairs.”

  “And my payment?”

  Teelo went still, weighing the question. “I don’t know. Don’t bring the girl.”

  “I thought you said you’d keep your sister from hurting her.”

  “I did. But I didn’t say anything about protecting her from Ujie.”

  A chill ran through Tobias’s body. “I don’t know when I can be there. If I’m not going to bring–”

  “Come when you can. Call for us.”

  Teelo left them, giving Tobias no chance to say more.

  The canvas behind him rustled.

  “Time to eat,” Kaarti said.

  Tobias scanned the path and the cavern one last time, but saw no sign of the demons. He walked to the doorway, pausing when the old woman remained in his path.

  “Who were you talking to?”

  He bounced the princess in his arms. “This one, of course.”

  Kaarti appeared unconvinced, but she led him inside.

  As the three of them ate – fresh bread, and a fish stew redolent of bay and tearroot – Tobias thought about the Tirribin and the Seer. He wondered who this Ujie might be. Kaarti regarded him throughout their meal, but nary a word passed between them. Not long after they had finished and cleared the table, Tobias bade Kaarti goodnight, and carried Sofya into their room to put her to bed.

  He lay down as well, but he kept himself awake, listening to the innkeeper as she rattled about in the kitchen and larder, waiting for her to extinguish the candles in the common area and retire to her room.

  Even after she did, he remained abed, giving her time to fall asleep. Sofya’s breathing deepened into a steady slow rhythm. Noise from beyond the canvas walls of the boarding house diminished.

  When Tobias was convinced that Kaarti was sleeping, he rose, checked on Sofya, and stole from the shelter onto the cavern’s stone shelf. He saw no one.

  The night had grown cold, and he walked toward the shoreline with his hands in his pockets. Vapor from his breath billowed and vanished in the intermittent torchlight.

  Once he crossed into the Outer Notch, he saw more people walking along the stone pathway, drinking in front of shelters, kissing in shadowed recesses. He kept his head down as he neared the brothel, ignoring the entreaties and laughter of the women he passed there. He slowed as he neared the Seers’ shelter, but smelled no Tincture, and assumed that they slept.

  Striding by the mouth of one last cavern, he came around a shallow bend and caught sight of the gulf, her waters sparkling with moonlight. Torches burned on the stone shelf and a few couples lay together on blankets, some clothed, some not.

  Tobias walked to the farthest end of the shelf, beyond the last torch, and said, “Teelo, Maeli,” in a low voice. He didn’t think he would need to shout for them.

  The Tirribin appeared before him on a narrow ledge along the rock face outside the shelf. Even if the couples had been looking, they wouldn’t have seen the demons.

  “What did you bring us?” Maeli asked, her voice as cold as starlight.

  “Nothing.”

  “That wasn’t smart. We don’t offer help for nothing.”

  “You’re not being nice.”

  She glared at Teelo. “We’re Tirribin. We don’t feed on nice. We don’t feed on favors. We don’t feed on charity. You forget that too often, brother.”

  A memory stirred in Tobias’s mind – something Wansi had told him long ago.

  “I don’t have payment, but I have a riddle.”

  Teelo regarded him avidly. Even Maeli appeared intrigued, though she tried to mask her interest.

  “We like riddles,” she said. “But it had better be a good one. We don’t like easy ones. A poor riddle is worse than no riddle at all.”

  “All right,” Tobias said. “Listen carefully:

  Down I live, up I die,

  In dark I thrive, in day turn dry;

  Half of a whole, I mirror my twin,

  But lack the glory, of her tresses and skin.”

  It was an old teaser, one that children puzzled over in the northern isles. He hoped the Tirribin didn’t know it.

  Sister and brother both blinked several times and then bent close to each other, whispering frantically.

  “You promised me help,” Tobias said.

  Maeli frowned at the interruption, and annoyance flickered in Teelo’s face as well. She turned toward the waters of the gulf and said, “Ujie.”

  Then they were whispering again. Tobias didn’t dare disturb them a second time.

  Barely a tencount passed before someone – something – stepped from the surf below, crossed the strand to the stone stairway and began to climb. Tobias watched the figure, fascination and fear warring within him. It looked to be a woman, naked, black hair flowing to the small of her back, wet skin the color of sea water and glistening with starlight and torch glow.

  She moved with liquid grace, turning the simple act of ascending the stairs into a sort of dance. Tobias stood transfixed, unable to look away, embarrassed and aroused by the gentle swing of her breasts, the lithe beauty of her limbs.

  When she finally reached the top of the stairway, she turned unerringly and walked to where Tobias stood with the Tirribin, her steps leaving damp footprints on the rock. Her face was as beautiful as her form, her cheekbones high, her jaw tapering softly to her chin, her lips full and sensuous, her eyes widely spaced. With her perfect features and gleaming black hair, she seemed a full grown version of the time demons. Only her eyes marked her as different. They were completely silver, without distinct irises. In place of round pupils, she had slitted ones like those of a serpent.

  “She summoned me on your behalf?” the creature asked, her voice like waves crashing against stone.

  Her scent reached him: brine, seaweed, rain, the sweet residue of lightning. It was intoxicating.

  “Yes,” he said, remembering that she had asked a question.

  He could guess what she was, though he had never seen her kind before. The eyes, the sculpted, naked form, the long hair, and, of course, the fact that the creature had emerged from the water: these were all the hints he needed.

  “You’re an Arrokad demon.”

  “I am Arrokad, yes. Demon is a moniker your kind use to describe those of us who are strange to you. I am no more a demon than the Tirribin or Shonla.”

  Tobias had never encountered any Shonla, but he knew them as mist demons. Nevertheless, he didn’t argue.

  “Forgive me.”

  “You have paid the Tirribin?”

  “In a way,” Tobias said. “I refused to give them years, but distracted them with a riddle.”

  She gazed at Teelo and Maeli, her grin revealing teeth much like theirs.

  “That was cleverly done. But you will have to pay me as well.”

  “I haven’t asked you for anything. I don’t even know what I would ask if I could. Maeli summoned you without telling me what she was going to do.”

  “Yet, I was summoned. There is a price for that.”

  Of course. “What price?” he asked, his voice leeched of emotion.

  In a
nswer, the Arrokad brushed her gaze over the length of his body, at the same time tracing a finger lightly from the base of her throat, between her breasts, to her navel.

  “A small price, really. One you might enjoy, if you can withstand it.”

  Tobias took an unsteady breath and looked off to the side. Somehow her scent grew stronger.

  “The idea of lying with me makes you uncomfortable.” Her voice had turned soothing: surf lapping at sandy shores. “Perhaps you would prefer one of my brothers?”

  “It’s not that,” he said, his mouth dry.

  She stepped closer. “Then what? You fear me? Perhaps you have heard that the act of love with my kind can be perilous? I promise to be as gentle as I can.” She laughed and caressed his cheek with a crooked finger.

  Her touch was as cold as ocean fog, and yet it set his pulse racing and lit a fire in his chest, his stomach, his loins. He took another ragged breath.

  “You are not as you appear,” Ujie said, withdrawing her hand, her smile slipping. Her eyes strayed again to the time demons, the slitted pupils widening slightly. “A Walker, then. More youthful than you appear. I should have known. What do you require of me?”

  “I don’t even know.”

  “Why did the Tirribin call for me?”

  “I asked her if we were in danger, and–”

  “We?”

  He didn’t falter for long. Arrokad were known to be as capricious as the sea, but from all that Tobias had heard and read of Ujie’s kind, he didn’t believe she would betray him. “I’m harboring the princess of Hayncalde, and have been since–”

  She made an abrupt gesture, genuine disappointment manifest on her lovely face. “We do not involve ourselves in the squabblings of your courts.”

  “She’s a child – she can’t even walk yet, or speak – and men are trying to kill her.”

  “Which is why we want nothing to do with matters of this sort. Your kind are like animals. You are governed by your most base instincts. You know nothing of nuance, of compassion, of the subtler arts.” Her laughter was the frothing of sea foam. “And you dare to call us demons.”

  “You save ships from storms. You grant wishes. You… you heal and give knowledge. All I ask is a bit of help to keep a child alive.”

  “And yourself?”

  “Yes, and myself. I’m all she has. I’m responsible for her.”

  “Where is she now? Surely if you are responsible for her, you would not leave her alone, untended.” She quirked an eyebrow. “Unguarded.”

  “She’s safe,” Tobias said, hoping it was true, and fighting the urge to run back to Kaarti’s shelter. “For now, at least. But we need to leave this place. Can you help us?”

  “I cannot,” Ujie said. “I do not care to take a hand in your fight, and my powers do not allow me to transport you both. If you were alone, and willing to… to give yourself to me, I could carry you with me through the depths.” She gestured toward the shoreline and the water beyond. Tobias shivered.

  “But both of you?” she continued. “I have no help to offer you. As recompense for refusing you, though, I shall demand no payment for my summoning. I consider your debt to me paid in full.”

  She started away from him.

  “No!”

  The Arrokad stopped in mid-turn, a menacing gleam in her silver eyes.

  “What other payment can I offer? There must be something I can give you.”

  “You refuse to lie with me, but would you offer a life?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Another. Someone with whom I might… play, without having to concern myself with being gentle, or kind. It has been too long since I had such sport.”

  Tobias managed to keep from showing his distaste. “I’d rather not.”

  “I thought as much. For a barbaric species you are squeamish about the oddest things.”

  “There must be something else.”

  “I have no use of material things. I know more of this world than you ever will. What could you have that I want?” She leered. “Aside from the obvious.”

  “I have powers.”

  “I know this already.” Her gaze narrowed. “Still, you would offer to Walk for me, to move through time?”

  “That’s right. I might be able to help you in return for whatever help you give me.”

  “You speak of a boon.”

  “Yes.”

  “Any boon, even one you have refused to give me tonight.”

  “All right.”

  Her lips curled, quickening his heart again. “And I could claim this boon at my whim?”

  Tobias sensed that he had sailed into uncertain waters. It was said in the northern isles that only a fool bartered with demons. A desperate fool. “As long as it doesn’t compromise in any way my ability to keep the princess safe.”

  Her eyes narrowed again. “To what end? I have already told you: I will not resort to violence on your behalf, and I cannot spirit you from this place. What else would you ask?”

  What indeed? Despite his misgivings, he sensed that this was an opportunity he couldn’t afford to squander. Even if the Arrokad couldn’t help him now, eventually she might. “I’m not sure,” he said, knowing better than to lie. “You have other abilities, and long after we leave this place, we’ll still be in danger.”

  She appraised him anew. “You are foresighted for a human.” After a fivecount, she lifted an aqua shoulder, the gesture strangely ordinary for such a creature. “Very well. An exchange of promises then. Boons to be determined in the future.”

  “Yes.”

  “That is fair.” She made an odd, circular motion with her hand. “We have a bargain, you and I, freely entered and fairly sworn. Yes?”

  He nodded, certain that he had made a terrible mistake, but unsure as to what it was exactly.

  “Say it.”

  “We have a bargain. Freely entered, fairly sworn.”

  Her smile dazzled, made him forget his fear, if only for an instant. She reached out to touch him again. Tobias flinched and she hesitated. “I will not harm you.”

  He winced, an apology. “I know. Your touch is… unsettling.”

  “It can be much more.” The look she gave him stole his breath. “Another time, perhaps. If I may…” Her eyes widened, a question in their depths.

  Tobias dipped his chin once, held still as her fingertips pressed lightly on his brow. Again, the cold penetrated his skin, but then warmed as it spread through him.

  “We are linked now,” Ujie said. “You do not need the Tirribin to summon me. Simply speak my name, and I will come.” She held up a finger. “Provided you are within a league of seawater. That is as far as my demesne goes. If you are too far from the shore, I cannot help you.”

  “I’ll remember that.”

  She faced the time demons. “Cousins!”

  Teelo and Maeli took only a single step, but in an instant they were standing directly in front of Tobias and Ujie. They paid the Arrokad little heed. Rather, they stared up at Tobias, wringing their hands, their bodies quivering.

  “What is it?” Teelo asked, his voice higher than usual. “You have to tell us what it is.”

  Tobias had no idea what they meant.

  “Your riddle,” Ujie said.

  “Oh, of course. Tree roots.”

  Both of them closed their eyes and sighed, as if they had just eaten the most satisfying of sweets.

  “A good riddle,” Maeli said, eyes still closed. “You must ask us another some time. That was better than feeding.”

  “I take my leave,” Ujie said.

  The Tirribin looked up at her.

  “He’s made payment?” Maeli asked.

  “We have an arrangement. You need not concern yourself with the terms.”

  The girl frowned, but asked no more questions.

  “Farewell, Walker,” Ujie said. She crossed to the stairs, her hips swaying, torchlight shining on her shoulders.

  Teelo sighed again, watching as she beg
an her descent to the shore. “She’s beautiful. Sometimes I wish–”

  “Don’t,” Maeli said, a warning in her green eyes. “That’s just disgusting.”

  After watching Ujie make her way into the gulf, Tobias bid goodnight to the Tirribin and hurried back through the Outer Notch. He had no trouble ignoring the invitations of the women outside the brothel. After speaking with Ujie… Well, he would need a good night’s sleep to get the Arrokad out of his thoughts.

  As he approached Kaarti’s inn, he heard soft singing from within. Shouldering the canvas aside, he found the woman sitting in the common room. A candle burned on the table beside her. Sofya lay in her lap, eyes closed, thumb in her mouth.

  The matron glowered.

  “What happened?”

  She held a rigid finger to her lips.

  He crossed to them and squatted before the chair. “What happened?” he asked again, this time in a whisper. “Is she all right?”

  “She’s fine. She woke, started crying. I thought for sure yous was gonna wake up, too, and take care of her. Feed her, and change her swaddling, or whatever it was that woke her. But no, she just kept up her squalling.

  “Finally I gets up to see what the matter is, thinking yous might be dead or something. But it’s worse than that. Yous was just gone. For all I know, yous ain’t coming back.”

  “Of course I’d come back,” he said, offended.

  “How am I supposed to know that, eh? Yous was gone, without a word.”

  Tobias swallowed his first answer. “You’re right. I’m sorry I left.”

  His apology seemed to sap her anger. She lifted Sofya into his arms and stood, stretching her back.

  “Where were you anyway?”

  “Outer Notch.”

  Her brow buckled in disapproval. “What were yous up to there?”

  “I had a conversation. Nothing more.”

  “Folk don’t usually go to the Outer Notch for conversation.”

  “It’s the truth.” He brushed a strand of hair from the princess’s face. “I’m tired. I’ll see you in the morning.”

  “This have anything to do with the voices I heard out front before supper?”

  He tensed.

  “I thought I heard yous talking to someone, and I thought I might have seen yous with a child. A boy. He was there and then in a blink he wasn’t and I wasn’t sure if I’d imagined it.”