by Reilyn Hardy
“So who’s Coin?” I asked.
“Me,” Lerra’s brows furrowed like her own words hadn’t made any sense. “Well, part of me — me when I don’t feel like being me. I had a rough time when my mom died and I kind of didn’t know who I was anymore. Sometimes I feel like being a girl, and sometimes, I don’t.”
It made sense to me. I stopped wanting to be me a long time ago, and yet Mae was just as much me as Artemis was.
I expected Jace to get angry and he was, but not for the reason I thought.
“So you deserved that slap then and you just stood there and watched me take it.”
“Yeah.” Coin grinned. He was trying not to laugh. “She’s a feisty one. I’ll make it up to her. So, you two need to get to Barrowhaven? I think you should go to Edgewick instead if you really want to help.”
“What for?” I asked.
“Did you hear that Drarkodon tricked the dragon king into taking his side?”
“What’s that got to do with this?”
“Well, there’s rumors that there’s a stone in Edgewick that will free them. Supposedly the elf that helped Drarkodon move Mithlonde actually made two stones — one that would move the realm and one that would move it back. He gave the other to the Time Keeper.”
My grandfather.
“Why don’t you go, Coin?” I asked him. Edgewick of all places, and he was suggesting I go. I wondered if he knew who I really was.
“I have gone and I can’t find it. Besides, we don’t all have vampire trackers.”
He blindsided both of us with those words.
“Wait, you know?” Jace asked.
“That you’re a werewolf? Of course I know. I remember when your family came through here years ago. You’re a lot older now, but your face looks the same.”
“Told you you still look like a baby.”
Jace shoved me a little, but not as hard as he usually did. He wasn’t looking at me, he didn’t take his eyes off of Coin.
“I don’t remember you,” he said.
“You were like five years.”
“Seven.”
“Which means you’re two decades now, and we all know what that means, don’t we.”
“There aren’t anymore vampires in Aridete,” Jace said.
“Aren’t there?” Coin raised an eyebrow at him.
I was beginning to get the feeling they both knew something I didn’t.
“Why would we even need a vampire?” I asked. My curiosity was getting the better of me. I hated when that happened. It used to happen a lot when I was younger, and it was coming back with a vengeance.
“To find Mithlonde. He’s concealing their realm. Only one of his creatures can lead you to it and the only creature that might cooperate — that’s intelligent enough to cooperate — is a vampire. There was a whole town of them living amongst mun, wasn’t there?”
His eyes moved to Jace. He was asking, but it sounded like he already knew the answer. Like he was saying it to make Jace uncomfortable, and it was working.
“What’s it called?” He was teasing now. “Thealey?”
“How do you know all of this?” I asked. I could see Jace clenching his fists.
He clenched his jaw too.
“It’s my job to know. I help travelers, remember? That’s what I do. Most people think they’re all gone — the Reaper’s creations — and are happy with their ignorance. But some are still out there. Hiding. Waiting.”
“Okay, so you know where the vampires are — go get one yourself.”
“But the difference between him and me — they aren’t going to feed on him.”
“They’re just gonna rip me apart instead.”
“All of them?” Coin raised an eyebrow and Jace averted his eyes.
He did know more about Jace than I did.
Going to Edgewick wasn’t something I ever considered, but now I was, and due to my own curiosity. Curiosity of my best friend, or who I thought was my best friend. The longer we were around Coin, the less I felt like I knew him.
“Hag!” Someone shrieked suddenly, and chaos began to erupt throughout the village. People were running back and forth, and all courtesy went out of the window. Sirens blared loudly throughout the town, and bells were ringing while the uproar ensued.
“Come in here, quickly!” Coin held open a door that was originally concealed to blend in with the wall. “Before it sees you!”
When I turned to look at Jace, just past him stood a creature whose skin had a sea colored tinge. She was dripping wet, from her matted hair to the rags she wore. Her eyes were bloodshot and she was pulling her thin cracked lips back to bare her rotten teeth at us. The stench of dead fish was growing stronger. Seaweed, salty air.
Coin wrapped his fingers around my wrist and yanked me into the secret door of the inn. I was still trying to figure out what I saw and what was just staring at me. I tried to shake the mental image from my mind but my efforts seemed fruitless. She burned herself into my memory.
“You act as if you’ve never seen the hag before —” Coin frowned, and he shook his head at his realization, before a smile peeked at the corner of his lips. “Oh right, you’re from Newacre. You wouldn’t have.”
For some reason, it seemed like he was referring to only me even though we were both from there.
“That’s the Hag of Nevressea Lake. She comes out whenever the moon shines over the water.” Coin crossed his arms and leaned against the wall. “So do you two want to go to Edgewick or not?”
I looked at Jace. I could tell he didn’t want to go, but in all honesty, I didn’t want to see Ferris again, or the man that threw me off of the train the way children throw around their toys. To my relief, he nodded then, and I turned back to Coin.
“We’ll leave in the morning,” he said, and offered us a table.
* * * * *
“So people here really believe that the descendants of Glasskeep and Norhurst are all dead?” Jace questioned and pulled a fishbone from his mouth. We were sitting in the lobby of the inn, with plates of food covering the table. I couldn’t believe he was still hungry.
“For the most part.” Coin shrugged. “It isn’t like they’ve got reason to believe otherwise. I mean that’s what the papers reported. If Drarkodon was still out there, cage or not, wouldn’t things have gotten worse? Father Time’s been missing too. Guess people find comfort in assuming they’re all dead.”
“Maybe he was waiting,” I said absentmindedly. I focused on the pile of fishbones that sat on Jace’s plate. I still hadn’t tried fish but at this point, I doubted I could. I didn’t think I could stomach it. I saw more fishbones and dead fisheyes than actual cooked fish.
Jace pushed some of his remaining food toward me as if he could read my mind in some messed up backwards way and I pushed it back toward him.
I shook my head, no thanks.
“Waiting for what?”
“Well, forgive me if I’m wrong,” I started, not knowing why I said that, since no one else cared that they were passing around false information. I peeled my eyes away from the fishbones to look at Coin. “But despite the different variants of the story, I’ve only ever heard of one confirmed death — David Ryland of Barrowhaven — Amelia’s older brother. Father Time’s boys, they disappeared. Their bodies were never found, and I never heard of Alekoth dying for some kind of revenge. Drarkodon was supposed to be trapped in the cage the Immortal Ones created for him, that was sealed off in the Underworld, but something’s not right.”
I could feel Jace burning holes in the side of my head but I didn’t turn away from Coin. I ran my fingers uneasily through my hair. Maybe I said too much.
“So you think they’re all still alive?” Coin asked.
“Wait,” Jace cut in and furrowed his brows. “You think maybe someone’s trying to break him out now that people think Father Time’s dead?”
“Well, no one’s seen him either. Nearly just as long,” I said.
“Yeah — that’s why e
veryone thinks they’re all dead.”
“I’m so sick of rumors,” I grumbled. “The truth is, no one really knows anything. ‘The Grim Reaper was trapped by the Pryley eruption,’ some claim. ‘No, he died — so did Father Time when he went to get his revenge for his boys, not knowing he would die too.’ Does anyone even listen to the original story? The curse? One with the strength to kill and the other with the courage to resist. Father Time can’t murder anyone. He wouldn’t have gone after the gorgons in a rage or whatever because it would’ve been suicide.”
It was annoying to listen to people talk about things they knew nothing about, acting as though they were spitting out facts and not fabricated stories. Listening to those people in The Wet Fish pissed me off more than I wanted to admit.
“You okay?” Jace asked.
I sighed and I nodded. I was trying.
“All we really know is that David’s body is missing. No, I don’t think the Grim Reaper is dead. I never did, but I do think he’s still trapped.” I turned to Coin. “You’re the second person to bring up the dragon king and it’s one of the few things that make sense — or maybe I just don’t want to believe that a whole living species would just take his side — I don’t know. But if we can bring Mithlonde back and take that away from him, maybe we need to. We need to bring them back.”
“How are we going to find the stone?” Jace asked. “Other people have tried.”
“We’ll find it,” I insisted, because we had something those people didn’t. The grandson of the Time Keeper. The son of Father Time. My stomach flipped and flopped. I felt bad for keeping that part of myself hidden from him, but I couldn’t bring myself to tell him now. Not yet at least. I turned to Coin again. “Do you know if the Reaper knows yet? About the second stone?”
“If he doesn’t, I’m sure it’s only a matter of time till he finds out, and any of his creatures still in Aridete will be after it. The news is spreading like wildfire. You’re not going to be the only ones. Everyone wants to be a hero, don’t they.”
“I don’t,” I said.
“No? Isn’t that why you were on the train to Barrowhaven in the first place? To be a hero?”
“No,” Jace said before I could answer. “He did it because he’s reliable and dependable. He’s a good person.” He looked at me. “He’s here because he’s a good person.”
Coin sat back in his chair, staring at us.
“Then I hope it’s you two who find it,” he said. “That stone needs to be in the hands of good people. Whoever frees the dragon king and his colony, well it’s going to take one helluva person to do it. I don’t think King Solomon would listen to just anyone.”
There was a loud ruckus outside, and all heads turned toward the door that rattled, then stopped.
“Why hasn’t anyone killed that thing?” Jace asked about the hag.
Everyone was clearly terrified of it, but they all hid. We were among them.
“Because you can’t. It can’t open doors or windows, but it’s wicked fast and it devours human flesh. They’re always hungry. If you stay out late, that’s your own fault. Same if you leave a door or window open. We’ve got a curfew and warnings for a reason but you know, not everyone likes to listen. There’s always someone who thinks the rules don’t apply to them.”
“Have you tried?” He asked.
“Me? Kill the hag?”
“Don’t you want to be a hero?”
Jace was mocking him.
Coin grinned.
“Hell no. One, I don’t want to die. Two, I’m not a fighter. And three, I’d never risk my life for these ungrateful bastards!” His voice got louder toward the end of his sentence so that it would grab the attention of the many patrons in the inn. They all started muttering obscenities at us. “Yeah, you heard me!” Coin taunted and turned back to us. “People are too selfish here to care about anyone else but themselves. As long as they’re safe, they don’t give a damn what the hag does around town or to anyone else and that’s just how you have to think sometimes. Think anyone from here is going to look for the guardian?” Coin cupped his mug and slid it across the table to his other hand before rubbing the wet circle on the wooden table with his sleeve. “Personally, I think we deserve to be terrorized by a hag.”
“What? Why would you say that?” I frowned. Even in the company of selfish people, saying something like that seemed undeserving.
“You know what makes a hag? Extreme wrongdoing. Now, what exactly that is, tends to vary. In our case, we have the story of the Blind Woman. It’s more like a children’s rhyme that kids play games to but it’s based on a true occurrence of a woman who drowned in the Nevressea Lake when the village was first built.”
The blind old woman who drowned in the lake
was pushed in by villagers for a laughing fit.
Ignoring her screams were of no mistake
doomed Nevressea to be plagued by her spirit.
“Kids played games to that?”
“Well, the rhythm. But most of us only knew it as a stupid rhyme, or at least I did when I was growing up. But then a woman really did drown not too long ago and well — there you have it. Now we have a hag. Nevressea used to be quite a friendly place but everyone gives in to their dark sides sooner or later don’t they.”
Coin looked at Jace.
“No one helped her — no one saved her — and we’re paying for it now. That’s why villagers are so reluctant to newcomers nowadays. We just don’t want anymore trouble. You aren’t going to get rid of it for us — I mean why would you? And we just don’t want things to get worse.”
“We won’t be any trouble,” I assured him.
Jace was distracted now.
At least I wouldn’t be any trouble.
Coin stood up and motioned for me to stand too. He leaned in toward me and lowered the volume of his voice. “Now, there’s a room here, up the back corner stairs — two doors down. The key is on top of the frame of the door. Stay there for the night, and make sure you keep the window closed, yeah?” He pat me on the shoulder and left, disappearing up another set of a stairs. I turn back to Jace and saw the barmaid sitting on his lap.
I rolled my eyes and dug into my bag for the money Weylan had given me, but she just waved her hand at me and said it was on the house. I guess Jace’s flirting was good for something.
When she cleared the table and left with the dishes, I told him about the room.
“Do what you want but do not bring her up. I do not want to see — or hear anything.”
“I’m not going to — I don’t have the energy for that.” Jace chuckled as he got up. “I need sleep. I mean, I know I wanted to leave Newacre, but damn. We should just stay here a few nights,” he suggested as he followed me up the stairs.
I stopped in my tracks.
“We’re leaving in the morning, J. We didn’t leave home for you to mess around.”
“Doesn’t mean I can’t.” He shrugged and wiggled his eyebrows.
“Jace!”
“All right, dad.” He scowled.
Once we reached the top I walked to the door — the one two doors over from the stairs. I felt above the frame for the key. It was there just like Coin said it would be.
CHAPTER SIX
black waters
It didn’t matter how tired I was or how much I wanted to sleep. The night was far from an easy one. At least for me. While Jace laid passed out cold on the bed across the room from mine, my eyes were wide open while I stared at the ceiling. There was a scraping against the wood of the inn, and I kept trying to convince myself it was just branches brushing up against the building, but I knew better. Maybe it was because I hadn’t seen any trees near or in the town whatsoever.
It couldn’t be branches.
I shifted on the mattress as the hag crossed my mind, along with the rhyme Coin had told us. Extreme wrongdoing. Humans and those of equal or higher intelligence were often responsible for creating evils of the world. They knew better, we kn
ew better; but we chose wrong anyway. What was the real evil? Who was the real evil? Like Weylan said, we all had a choice.
My uncle was given the strength to kill — that didn’t mean he had to turn into a killer.
He made himself one.
Unfortunately, that didn’t make me feel any better. What if I made all of the wrong choices too? Would I know then that they were the wrong choices to make?
I didn’t think life was that simple.
I sat up and got out of bed and looked out of the window. There was nothing on the side of the building from where I could see, but the scratching continued.
I pressed my hand and my face against the glass to try to look further down without opening the window, but I still couldn’t see anything. Leaning my shoulder against the frame of the window, I kept my eyes on the water. The surface of the lake sparkled brightly beneath the light of the moon. It was massive, and I was sure everyone could see the lake from all parts of Nevressea, considering most of the town sat upon it. It was calming in the dark, without a living soul in sight, and the black waters were almost inviting.
It was deceiving, considering what came out of it.
My attention was drawn to the bridge when I saw movement — or thought I saw movement — and I pressed against the glass once more while trying to get a better look. My first thought was the hag, but instead there were kids. Boys. One was watching the other, holding him by his hand, as he tried to grab something from the water. On the other side of the bridge, stood the hag, and she eyed her prey hungrily with her cold, dead stare.
I was frantic. I started pounding the glass with my palm, and I yelled, trying to get their attention. But they never looked up at me.
I fumbled with the latch on the window and tried to unhook it, without taking my eyes off of the kids, and the hag that was dragging toward them. Managing to get my fingers beneath the frame, I shoved it up and forced the window open. I stuck my head out of the opening, and started to wave to them.
“Hey!” I yelled to them, but they couldn’t seem to hear me. “Run! Hey — the hag!” I shouted and shouted till my voice grew hoarse. The wind blew, and chilled my face.