When they were free from danger, when the bubbles were no longer a threat, when the quills no longer tore at their feet, they took a collective breath. Kala sobbed relentlessly, fighting Rook’s protective hold and throwing a tantrum worthy of a dying element. Scar’s tantrum sounded the equal to hers, yet a thousand times more frightening. Rook held her close, both to calm her and keep her from running off. He wanted to scream in pain—his feet had to be nothing but raw meat—but that wasn’t his job at the moment. His job was to protect, and there was some satisfaction that they were all safe.
It was a hard-won and bittersweet victory. The girl was safe, they were all safe, but Scar didn’t deserve this treatment. He’d been a hero, much like Angst and his friends, and Rook wished more than anything he knew how to help the pup. Rook looked at the others and saw the guilt in their eyes. They’d had no choice, but it felt wrong. He held Kala close, and when her tantrum became long sniffs and caught breaths, Rook could hear Scar, the puppy, crying out in the night for his lost friend.
44
Tarness held Angst up as he struggled to find footing on shaky legs. Light streamed into the city from high above, thin beams tickling the buildings that rose almost as tall as the dome. The buildings were pyramids of different shapes and heights, wide squares and rectangles stacked high like layered cakes. The city was enormous, far larger than Unsel, or any other he’d seen. It also felt wrong, like it was covered in stale shadows. A city like this should’ve been exciting and noisy. Granted, there were creatures all around them, but the only sound was their strained breathing and the shuffling of many feet. They were surrounded by ocean, but the air was desert dry, and smelled of old fish. This giant domed city might’ve contained life, but the city itself had died long ago.
“Describe them?” Dallow asked, his eyes brightly reading from the catalog of information in his mind. “How many?”
“They look like short mermaid-men,” Tori said.
“Gargoyles,” Angst corrected. “My mermaid doesn’t look anything like this.”
“Your mermaid?” she scoffed.
“Not now,” Hector said in his gruff voice.
“Blue-green scales, large black eyes, fins behind their ears like gargoyles,” Tarness continued for Tori. “But they look...deflated.”
Dallow was shaking his head in frustration. “How many?” he asked firmly.
The sunlight dimmed, hiding the distant mob in shadows and making the city feel much smaller.
“I can’t tell,” Hector grunted. He sniffed deeply, looked around, and hopped up to try to see farther. “Maybe dozens?”
A bright flash of light caught Angst’s eye, and he spun around to see that Faeoris had spread her wings and was already hovering twenty feet above them. The light from her wings was like a deluge, making him wince. It created defining shadows along her muscular torso and reflected off her long boots and chainmail top as she slowly turned around to survey.
“Beautiful,” Angst said.
“Yeah,” Tori said to his surprise.
“Thank you,” Faeoris said, landing next to them. She adjusted her stance for battle, and wielded a longsword. “There are hundreds, maybe thousands of the things. Why do they not attack?”
The crowd appeared agitated or nervous. Most hid from the light behind long, webbed fingers, while others waved it away like swatting at a fly.
“Yeah,” Angst said. “They look like gargoyles.”
“No, they look like your mermaid,” Victoria corrected him.
“But they have legs, and the ear things,” Angst said, putting hands behind his ears and flapping them. “I dunno, they’re kinda greenish.”
“Didn’t Moyra say her people were trapped by that creature?” Tarness asked.
“Yeah, her story seems a little fishy,” Tori said with a smirk.
“Very funny,” Angst said, deadpan.
“I get the first hundred,” Faeoris said, stretching out her new skin and freshly-knit muscles. Her flexing made Tarness smile broadly, and she winked at him.
The creatures in front tried to get away, pushing back as far as they could against the crowd, but there were too many. They looked sickly, tired, and the absolute opposite of threatening. Every single one of them appeared more exhausted with every breath drawn. Slits on their scrawny necks opened and closed rapidly, their scaly chests stretching taught to show ribs and distended bellies. He and Tori were the only ones not to have wielded a weapon. Faeoris nudged him.
“An-gst,” he heard in his head.
“Wait,” he said, holding up a hand.
“I hate waiting,” Faeoris said, unwilling to lower her weapon.
“An-gst,” echoed in his mind. He pulled himself from Tarness’s grip and limped forward. “An-gst,” again, now from multiple voices. They became skittish as he hefted Dulgirgraut from the ground. He returned the foci to his back and inched closer. They backed away as much as they could, but it was a large crowd. A very large crowd. They had little room to maneuver. “An-gst.”
“What is that?” Faeoris asked in an annoyed tone. Her hands shifted on the hilt of her longsword, and she adjusted her feet, which were wide apart and braced firmly on the ground.
He turned his head to see Hector wiggling a finger in his ear. Dallow’s head was cocked to one side. Tori frowned at the crowd, her brows knitted in concentration.
“That’s what Moyra calls me. An-gst.” He struggled to mispronounce his name as she did.
“Oh, very cute,” Tori sniped. “What does it mean?”
“I think it means we’re safe,” he said. “They think we’re here to save them.”
“I’m not here to save them,” Faeoris said. “I’m here to keep you safe, and help find your friend.”
He walked into the crowd with his hands out. The creatures pawed at his armor like starving children reaching for food, saying “An-gst” as they made contact.
“It’s almost like they’re worshipping him,” Tarness whispered.
“Oh good. This won’t go to his head or anything,” Hector interjected.
“Have any of you seen Rose?” Dallow asked the crowd.
“Good idea,” Angst said. Moyra had told him she saw pictures when he spoke, so maybe it would help to think about Rose. He missed his friend, a lot, making it easy to picture her. He remembered her laughing at him, teasing him at the Wizard’s Revenge. Angst thought of her pale, fair skin. He thought of her long, fine red hair, her curvy body, the way she walked funny when she found someone attractive, and her thin, stick arms that hit him frequently. He thought of all this and asked firmly, “Rose. Where is Rose?”
“No. No. No.” The voices, hundreds of voices, rang in his head. “No. No.”
Everyone covered their ears, dropping to the ground as if pelleted with a barrage of stones. There was the noisy patter of running as the crowd dispersed.
“No. No. No,” they mentally shouted.
“Make it stop,” Tarness grunted.
Angst sought Dulgirgraut for help. He was Al’eyrn again, bonded to the foci, and it should know. It did.
“Tori,” he said aloud.
“What?” she shouted.
“You can fix this,” he said.
“I can’t,” she said. “I don’t know how.”
“I do,” he said, taking her hand.
“Oh,” she said in a quiet voice as she absorbed what he’d learned from the foci.
Her eyes glowed bright pink as she bravely stood to face the onslaught. “Silence!” Angst heard in his mind, and all was quiet once again. He stood, no longer plagued by the little fish-men yelling in his head. His friends were shaking their heads, stunned and amazed at the same time. Tori’s eyes still glowed bright pink, her hands pressed out as if telling everyone to stop.
“I don’t hear them anymore,” Angst said. “You can stop.”
“It’s gone because I’m still stopping it,” she said. “I’ll be done once they leave.”
“You’re powerful,” F
aeoris said, her thin eyebrows raised high.
“Don’t forget it,” Victoria said smugly.
“What did you do?” Hector asked.
“Tori can block out what she sees and hears in her mind,” Angst explained. “She did that for all of us.”
The creatures dispersed as quickly as they could, leaving Angst to wonder what about Rose had them so worried. It left him feeling cold, and he knew there wasn’t much time. He was relieved that she was probably alive, but how safe could she truly be? Would she even be the same Rose? He saw his concern in Dallow’s expression tenfold, and he went to him and gave him a brotherly hug.
“She’s alive,” he whispered. “Remember that.”
Dallow nodded, the creases in his forehead easing, slightly.
When Victoria lowered her hands and the glow from her eyes abated, she stumbled back in exhaustion. Faeoris caught her in one arm, and held her up and out like she had someone else’s baby and didn’t know what to do. Tori shrugged herself free, mumbling a thanks, blushing brightly as if she’d fallen into the wrong arms.
A small handful of creatures remained in their dim view. They stood within a stone’s throw, close but out of reach.
Angst held out both hands and approached them with cautious respect. “Can you help me?” he asked. “Can you help me find my friend Rose?”
Three of the creatures ran off, their arms flailing overhead, like crazed marionettes. It appeared that their fear of the dangerous Rose was too much for them, which made Angst chuckle. How frightening could his friend have become? The two remaining fish-men looked skittish, and nervous, but stood bravely. They wore the scantiest of disgusting, greasy leather loincloths that hung loosely from their hips. Broken copper chain armor covered their chests, and dented bronze weapons rested at their waists. Hands gripped his forearms and pulled him forward, urging him down a road. Tori shoved one of them off and held his hand firmly.
“Guard your thoughts,” she whispered in his ear. “Make an air shield, or a wall, around them. Ask Dulgirgraut how to keep them out, like it sometimes keeps me out.”
Tori’s head whipped about, blond curls bouncing along her shoulders, her eyes wide in surprise.
“What?” he asked.
“That was fast,” she said. “I already struggle to read you with Dulgirgraut, but I usually sense something. All of a sudden, it’s like your mind is gone.”
“It probably is.” He smirked. “But I didn’t really do anything.” Angst glanced over his shoulder at the sword and frowned.
After a long walk that painfully reminded Angst how big the city really was, they broached the barrier. The curse had cut off the edge of the city like a foci through monster. The invisible dome had clipped the tops of buildings and their rubble littered the streets. He could barely hear the constant rumble of the waterfall hovering over the edge of the city, a muffled drummer living in a neighbor’s basement. The waterfall circling the city was hard to comprehend. He’d swum to the outside of the barrier with Moyra, and hadn’t even sensed it. From above, it appeared to fall low along the bottom edges of the dome. Here, he could see it bubbling and storming overhead. He couldn’t fathom if it was magic, illusion, or simply too much to understand.
One of the fish-men took his free hand and lifted it as high as it could before releasing him. Angst continued reaching up in that direction until his hand met the shield. Before he even thought to wield magic, his hand began to glow. Dulgirgraut again? The foci was becoming invasive, but maybe it called itself The Defender for a reason. He sensed power in the shield. It was like the shock he felt when he rubbed his feet on Meldusian carpet and touched Alloria on the arm. That shock, suppressed but constant. And, he felt something else.
“It’s wet,” Angst said in surprise.
“Why is it wet?” Dallow asked, his voice filled with concern.
Hector held his ear to the shield and tapped a crack the length of his arm with a long dagger. Faeoris placed her hands on it. She licked the dampness from her palm then spat, looking as though she’d tasted bad meat.
“Salt,” she said. “This is a leak.”
“What could’ve done this?” Tarness asked.
“A foci,” Dallow said hopefully. “But why isn’t this one healing?”
“Good question,” Angst replied. “Did the other one heal completely?”
Hector sniffed loudly, his long nose close to the crack. He sniffed again and scritched at the barrier with a fingernail. “Look, it’s orange, like the Vex’kvette.”
Angst could barely make out the faint splatter of dry orange crust, like someone had thrown a thimbleful of paint at the dome. “Why didn’t I see that?”
“I’m here for a reason,” Hector said with a wink.
“A lot of reasons,” Angst replied.
Hector licked his finger.
“Eew,” Victoria said, grimacing.
“Copper...like it’s blood,” Hector said. “And something else. Honey? Molasses?”
Faeoris wielded her longsword, jerking Angst behind her as she stared beyond the shield. Victoria sighed deeply and Tarness chuckled.
“What do you see?” Angst asked, placed a hand on Faeoris’s shoulder.
She stared straight ahead, barely nodding.
“An-gst?” Moyra said in his mind.
He smiled in spite of himself. He stepped around Faeoris and reached out, pressing his hand flush to the dome. Thin, webbed fingers met his on the other side. Her beautiful face came into view, faint through the dim lights inside and the shield between them. Angst’s smile widened. Tori socked him on the arm, but he ignored her, focusing on his new friend.
“Are you okay? Are you safe?” he said, thinking what he was saying so it would be clear.
“This is your creature?” Faeoris asked. “And she didn’t eat you?”
“We’re close,” he said distantly.
“You are brave,” Faeoris acknowledged, sheathing her sword.
“He’s something,” Victoria said tartly.
“I was worried, when it attacked your ship.” Moyra sounded guilty. “I am sorry I left.”
“You don’t need to apologize. You had to save yourself,” he said. “And some new friends saved us.”
“They are dangerous,” she said fiercely, narrowing her eyes at Faeoris.
“She says the same about you,” he replied. “I consider you both friends.”
“Who is he talking to?” Dallow asked.
“His new girlfriend,” Victoria snapped.
“Here?” Dallow asked. “Oh, on the other side. How did she find us?”
Angst did his best to ignore them.
Moyra glanced over her shoulder nervously. “I have been coming back here, hoping to see you again, An-gst.” Her tail rocked back and forth in a mesmerizing dance, making her long blue hair sway from side to side, and giving teasing glimpses of her firm breasts. She smiled at his thoughts, and her tongue flicked the glass.
“Ugh. Gross,” Victoria said sharply.
“No, not really,” Tarness said, taking it all in.
“Is that her?” Moyra asked, her eyes narrow. “Your prin-cess.”
“Not mine,” Angst mouthed quietly. “But that’s her.”
Victoria frowned, stepping closer to the barrier.
“She is not as pretty as you think,” he heard in his mind, her voice but a whisper. “Nice body but not her face. She would look much better without her face. And she looks tasty.” She licked her lips.
Angst sucked in his breath at the cattiness. “No, you promised.”
“What did she say?” Victoria snapped.
Moyra stuck her tongue out playfully. “I promise,” Moyra said. “I am better for you. She is using you, An-gst.”
“Of course she is,” Angst said. “We all use each other. That’s how it works.”
Moyra’s blue eyebrows frowned at this, her head tilting to one side thoughtfully.
“I don’t trust her, but I agree with Tarness,” Fae
oris said. “She really is beautiful.”
This made Moyra smile widely. “I like that one.”
“So do I,” Angst grinned. “She likes you,” Angst said to Faeoris over his shoulder.
Faeoris eyed Moyra lustily.
The mermaid winked before her head jerked around. “It is coming.”
“Leave,” Angst yelled. “Now!”
“Be careful,” she said. “Save us, but do not die. Please!”
“I will,” Angst answered.
“I love you,” she said in his mind, and then swam off so fast she almost blurred.
There was a loud sliding noise against the dome as dozens of tentacles dragged alongside. Angst gritted his teeth, letting angry minutes tick by before turning to his friends’ shocked faces.
“Will she be okay?” Tarness asked.
Angst stared at Victoria. Her cheeks were red and her eyes filled with enough fiery anger to dry the ocean. She’d understood enough of the conversation to hate Moyra. Angst continued staring until Victoria rolled her eyes and sighed.
“I think she’ll be fine,” Angst answered.
“Why was she here?” Faeoris asked. “What does she want?”
“To make fish babies with Angst,” Tori muttered.
“She wants the dome gone,” Dallow answered. “She wants the curse lifted.”
“Yes,” one of the fish-men agreed. “Yes, please.”
“Can you show us where Rose went?” Dallow asked hungrily, reaching out and grabbing at the creature’s arm as if he could see.
Angst pulled Dallow’s hand free and patted it.
“Dallow, we’ll find her,” Tarness said. “Are you okay?”
“I still have hope that maybe Rose can...” Dallow began.
“We all do,” Angst agreed. “Save her, she fixes you, we save Unsel, and then retire. That’s not asking for too much, is it?”
Dallow smiled and patted Angst’s arm. Hector frowned at Angst as if worried he was giving Dallow too much hope, but Angst ignored him. Dallow, all of them, needed hope.
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