by Reilyn Hardy
“Wait, it’s not going to stop?” He started to laugh as I continued, “I’ve never even seen a train! How am I supposed to jump onto one?”
“Don’t worry,” he said, tightening the straps of his bag over his shoulders. “You won’t fall.”
I closed my eyes. I tried not to imagine myself being too slow and not making it. Not getting run over by the train. I shook my head, trying to shake the thought too. I moved the strap of my satchel around my neck and tightened it.
We ran with the rest of the people from Newacre and one by one, they leapt from the ground and onto the steel machine. Some weren’t fast enough, but none had yet landed near the tracks.
Jace was beside me, and the next second, he wasn’t.
“Come on, Mae!” He yelled at me from the train. “Run faster!”
My heart pounded and my lungs were restricting. I thought all of my organs were going to burst. I jumped. My fingers dug into the side of the train as I tried to find a grip. I didn’t quite make it and I hung off of the side, feet dangling near the tracks. Jace grabbed my wrists and yanked me up with ease. I collapsed on the floor and tilted my head back to look at the men still running after the train.
The rest didn’t make it.
I was the last.
I didn’t move from my spot. Still lying flat, I felt every track as the train ran over them. I rolled my head to the side, and saw Jace leaning back against the wall of the train, near the opening. His eyes were starting to close. I doubted he got much sleep last night.
I looked up when something hit my shoe and groaned when I saw Ferris standing over me. What did he want now?
“I see you took your nail polish off. Decided it was too girly?” He asked and I sat up, but Ferris wouldn’t let me stand. “Tell me, what are you really doing here? You think you’re gonna be able to find the guardian? Think it’ll make you a man?” He used his foot and forced me back to the ground by stepping on my shoulder.
“Why don’t you pick on someone your own size?” Jace cut in.
“Like you?”
Ferris was taller than Jace, wider too. His expression faltered slightly, a little offended by his careless remark. At his side, Jace curled his hand into a fist. He took a step back, and punched him in the face. “I told you it would hurt just the same,” he said and helped me up. Ferris staggered backward and had his fingers pressed to his bloody lip. “Next time I’ll knock you out,” he warned. “Stay away from my friend.”
“I’d like to see you try.”
“Yeah?”
I noticed more men had gotten to their feet and I pulled Jace away from Ferris.
“Cut it out,” I mumbled.
“I can take them,” he said. Cracking his knuckles, he tightened his fists at his sides.
“Yeah but you don’t have to. Relax. This isn’t you.”
He clenched his fists one last time, and finally released them. Jace raised his hands in surrender and backed away. Just as the other men turned around, Ferris took a step forward and shoved me. My foot slipped out of the opening of the train and Jace grabbed onto the strap of my satchel just in time to keep me from falling. He pulled me back up and turned around. I glanced out at the rocks down below and the water that crashed against it.
My heart pounded ferociously.
Ferris took a step back, his arms were wide open and a smirk spread across his face as he waited for Jace to take another hit. “Going to knock me out now?” He taunted. “You sure you wanna do this? I don’t want to mess up that pretty face of yours.”
Jace smiled. “Take your best shot.”
Ferris threw the first punch, but he missed. Jace was too fast for him. He grabbed Ferris’s wrist and yanked him forward. Jace moved behind him and slammed his face into the steel wall of the train just above me, and I scurried out of the way. Ferris turned around, and wiped the blood that dripped from his nose. His eyes had darkened, but he didn’t take his focus off of Jace. He was about to take a step forward and Jace punched him in the neck, causing the back of his head to knock against the wall again.
He slid to the ground where I had been sitting, and Jace didn’t stop.
I tried to pull him off of Ferris.
“Jace — stop!” I shouted. “You’re going to kill him! Jace!”
He finally stood up and shook me off. He took one look at his bloody knuckles and wiped them on his pants. He turned around and I was staring at him — maybe a little horrified.
“He almost killed you,” he said quietly. He sounded like a child all of a sudden, like he was embarrassed.
“I told you things would be different, Jace. You have to keep yourself under control. If you don’t — ”
He averted his eyes and nodded. Brady knelt down beside Ferris and checked his pulse. He nodded toward me, and sat down beside him.
“I don’t need little kids causing trouble,” someone said from behind us. We turned to see a large, bald man. Neither of us recognized him. He must’ve been on the train before it had reached Newacre. “I’m going to have to ask you to leave.”
“Leave?” Jace asked.
The man’s arms were bigger than our heads.
“Get off of the train!” he shouted. He grabbed my arm and the front of my shirt, and threw me out of the opening. Luckily for me, the train was passing a field and I hit the ground immediately, the grass burned against my cheek as I slid.
Jace landed on his feet right beside me. Of course he did.
He offered me his hand and pulled me up, nearly yanking my arm out of its socket in the process. I winced and grabbed my shoulder.
“You nearly dislocated my arm!”
His eyes widened and he backed away from me suddenly.
“No, it’s okay,” I said quickly. It hurt, but I lifted my arm and bent my wrist toward me as I rolled my shoulder. “See? It’s fine. Guess you really don’t know your own strength anymore.”
I forced a laugh. I was okay.
“Yeah,” Jace said, managing to fake a chuckle too. “Guess not.” He crossed then uncrossed his arms and stuck his hands into his pockets. He didn’t know what to do with himself. So I changed the subject.
“I can’t believe we got kicked off of the train.”
“I can,” he mumbled. “You think he’s gonna — be okay?”
“I’m sure he’s fine. Are you?”
Jace ran his finger along the strap of his bag. His eyes darted back and forth, and he avoided making eye contact with me. “Yeah,” he said and nodded. “I’m good.”
When I didn’t say anything in response, Jace turned to look at me. I raised my eyebrows.
“You sure?” I asked. Jace was about to nod again, but instead he shook his head.
“No, I’m not. He was going to kill you, Mae. I could — I could see it in his eyes.”
“Jace —”
“I’m telling you, he would’ve done it.”
“So you were going to kill him?”
“I wasn’t trying to. I just — I couldn’t stop myself, but I was going to stop him.”
“I didn’t come with you so you could turn into a murderer. If you killed him, they would’ve thrown you in the Pitch, you know that, right?”
The Pitch was in the depths of the sea, Beinyth’s territory. Prisoners were fed crystallized seaweed that would immortalize them during their sentence, while they drowned again and again. The Immortal Ones had created it during the Grim War as a punishment to the living whom had sided with the Grim Reaper.
“I wasn’t thinking.”
“Okay, but you have to start. Things are different, you’re changing. You have to change with it.” I dropped the strap of my bag onto my forearm and dug through it for my dagger. I took it out and slung my bag back onto my shoulder before spinning it in my hand. “I’ll take care of myself.”
“You were prepared to use that against Ferris?”
“Ye — no. I’ll figure it out,” I said. “But what are we going to do? Are you sure you don’t want to g
o back home? Weylan and I, I’m sure we can figure out the first full moon. I mean, it’s just that one, right? Then you can change at will?”
He nodded. “Yeah, but I’m not going back. Not yet.” He started to smell the air. “We have to find David first.”
“What are you going to do? Sniff him out?”
“No,” he growled. He closed his eyes and inhaled deeply, taking in the scent of our surroundings. “Can you smell that?”
I sniffed the air.
“I smell grass, and dirt,” I said as I dusted blades of grass from my face.
“Go fish, Mae.”
“What?”
“Nevressea Lake,” he said and inhaled deeply again. He hit me lightly in the stomach with the back of his hand. “I’ll race you.” He took off across the field before I had a chance to protest.
“Ja — come on! That’s not fair!” I shouted after him but he kept going. “I know you can hear me!” I gripped tightly onto the strap of my bag with one hand and spun my dagger again in my other. “Really!” I shouted, but still Jace ignored me.
He ran with no signs of stopping or slowing down which gave me no choice but to follow. I trudged through the thick grass that shrouded my feet.
“I’m not like you,” I grumbled to myself. “I don’t have this kind of energy.” I slipped my dagger back into my bag and started to walk a little faster before he completely disappeared from my sight.
He did eventually fall back in line with me once the lake was in view.
“When I was a young kid, my family travelled through here,” Jace said as we approached the village. That was only the second or third time he had ever mentioned his family so I didn’t interrupt. I wanted to hear more, but that was all he said on the topic. “They have the best fish and friendliest people.” Jace took another deep breath. “Smells the same.”
Now that we were closer to the town, there were odd smells circling my nose. Ones I wasn’t used to, or at all familiar with. Thick smoke came first, and then the reeking, putrid smell of fish soon followed. I wrinkled my nose. I wasn’t sure how Jace could be enjoying it. I never tried fish, but now that I knew what it smelled like, I had no intention of doing so. I pretended to rub my nose with my hand as I tried not to gag.
Most of the buildings were made of wood, all far too old to still be standing. Floorboards creaked below us with each step taken and I thought I’d fall through at any moment. I was cautious, especially once I reached the bridge. Jace ran across it while I gripped onto the rail. I let go just enough so that my hand could glide over it while I walked, but I made sure to grab it if I needed to; if one of the boards gave out beneath me.
I focused on the ground and watched my feet as I stepped down on the wooden boards. I stuck my foot out in front of me, and pressed against each one with the tip of my boot to see how much it gave, before putting my weight on it. I looked up again just in time to see Jace disappear into a pub. It had a sign over the door that read The Wet Fish in white letters through a large painted green bass on the front.
The Wet Fish.
Appetizing.
CHAPTER FIVE
coin
I didn’t notice the barrel beside the door until I reached the pub, and by then, it was too late. It was filled to the top with fishbones. I put my hand to my nose and turned away from it.
“Not a fan of fish, aye?” One of the villagers questioned me as he opened the door. “Yeh must not be from around these parts.”
“No, I’m not —” I said, my hand still covering half of my face. “I mean I’ve never had it and don’t take this the wrong way but it stinks.”
He laughed.
“Tastes better than it smells,” he claimed. “C’mon,” he nodded in toward the pub, “yeh don’t know what yer missing.”
He was uncommonly kind to me which made me uneasy. I knew Jace said they were friendly here, but people are rarely kind without reason. I was put more at ease once I spotted Jace and made a beeline for him immediately — but not without noticing someone watching me. I’ve been getting that feeling a lot, that I was being watched. It made me more alert, or maybe just paranoid, and my stomach twisted when I realized those feelings were right.
I ignored her and focused on Jace. He was sitting at the other side of the bar with a mug of cider, while a barmaid attempted to flirt with him.
A small smirk appeared on my face.
He had no clue she was even trying, and started ignoring her the second he saw me. He was completely oblivious to her efforts, while she continued to fill his mug and bat her eyelashes. She touched his arm, his hand — but his attention only moved from me to the food that was placed in front of him. I sat beside him and ran my hand over my stomach. I thought I was hungry too, but the smell of those rotting fishbones seemed to linger in my nose.
My appetite was ruined.
“So what brings two travelers so far down this way?” Questioned a drunk man who sat on the other side of Jace.
“We were thrown off a train headed to Barrowhaven —well, he was thrown off the train,” Jace nodded toward me when he corrected himself. “Just hanging around here till we figure out how to get there.” He said, and returned to shoveling food into his mouth.
“Thrown?” Piped someone from behind us.
“I don’t like troublemakers.” A loud voice rumbled through the pub.
A few simple words cause many to whisper all around us and the original friendly, welcoming atmosphere of The Wet Fish disappeared.
“Yeh get thrown out yer town too?”
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw someone holding a blade.
I glanced at Jace and thought about reaching for mine while we slipped off of our stools. Not that I knew how to use it against someone, but a bunch of drunk men had surrounded us. Maybe I wouldn’t have a choice.
“Hey now, we don’t mean any trouble,” Jace said.
“I thought you said these people were friendly,” I whispered when he stepped back beside me.
“Well, it was a long time ago.”
“You don’t say.”
“We didn’t get kicked out of Newacre,” Jace assured them, his voice deepened a little. “Like I said, we were going to Barrowhaven.”
“What for?” An elderly woman scoffed. “What business do yeh have with the guardians?”
“Drarkodon,” I started, “the Grim Reaper — we think he —”
She snorted. “Drarkodon is dead, boy,” she hissed. “And he took Alekoth with him!”
“Good riddance too,” another villager agreed while he sloshed his beer around in his mug. “Those chronomancers and necromancers, nothing but trouble they brought us.”
“We’re still cleaning up after the mess they left behind, aren’t we!” Another shouted.
I hadn’t noticed my fists balled up until my nails were digging into my palms. I relaxed my hands and crossed my arms.
“What makes you say they’re dead?” Jace asked. “It was said the Pryley trapped Drarkodon in the Underworld, but it didn’t kill him.”
“Didn’t it? Poor Alekoth died trying to get revenge on those gorgon sisters.”
I look away, this wasn’t a conversation I want to hear, considering most of them had no idea what they were even talking about.
“That guardian died. Father Time, he fell into a depression, didn’t he? He went mad. Probably the curse that finished him off.”
“But David’s body is missing. Explain that.”
“He died a very horrific death. I wouldn’t be surprised if his little sister took him to lay him to rest, rather than let him be encased in Barrowhaven, like some kind of display.”
“Sounds like bullsh —”
“Let’s go,” I cut Jace off. “No one’s gonna help us here.”
I looked over at the woman, who had been watching me since I entered, and she was coming toward us now. She had a mess of long black curls draping on her shoulders. Her brown skin had a blue-red undertone which was complemented by her g
ray shirt, blue-green vest and long black skirt. She wore boots that were nearly tied up to her knees and they showed themselves beneath her skirt when she walked.
She was beautiful really, and she introduced herself as Lerra Thompson. I could see Jace out of the corner of my eyes, fidgeting in his seat. He ran his fingers through his hair, pushing it out of his face and he smiled.
Here we go.
“Don’t mind them,” she said, but she wasn’t looking at Jace. She was looking at me. “You should talk to Coin. He can help you get to where you need to go. He does business with a lot of the travelers that pass through here. We don’t really like strangers.”
Neither did I.
Her dark eyes swept over toward Jace and his gaze shifted.
“You looking for Coin?” Someone else asked.
Another young woman approached us and she adjusted her bosom as she did so. Her auburn hair draped over the front of her shoulder and she was staring at Jace like he was a piece of meat.
“If you see him,” she began in a sultry voice while she took his hand, and slowly brought him to his feet again. “Give this to him for me, will you?”
She batted her eyelashes in my direction briefly, and I flinched when she smacked him right across the face. She hit him so hard, that she left behind a reddening print of her fingers on his cheek. She smiled then, said hello to Lerra, and walked away without another word.
“For a second there, I thought she was gonna kiss you,” I said.
“So did I,” he mumbled as he rubbed his face.
“I guess Coin’s worse than you are.” I grinned and he shoved me in the arm.
“Shut up, Mae.” He laughed.
Lerra led us outside as the sun began to set. She pulled out a cap from her pocket and started stuffing her curly hair beneath it. She turned around to face us and used her sleeve to wipe the make up from her face. she then untied her skirt from behind her, revealing the black breeches she wore underneath. She resembled a boy now, her features were more defined, while they seem softer when her hair was draping in curls over her shoulders. Jace was frowning, as if his brain couldn’t process what he just saw.
“I am so confused,” he said.