The Sylph Hunter

by L. J. McDonald

  “It’s been a long night,” he told her and slumped into his seat. “I’ve been walking since dusk.”

  “Whatever for?” she gasped. If she’d known he’d get so lost, she’d have guided him back to the harbor herself, though of course, she couldn’t if she wanted to keep her job.

  “I didn’t have anywhere to go.” He ran his hand through his hair wearily and looked around. “Can I stay here for a while? I mean if I keep ordering water or something? And food. I’m really hungry.”

  Zalia looked around at the nearly empty patio. “I think it’ll be okay,” she assured him with a smile and hurried off to fill his order.

  Devon was nearly at the end of his endurance when he found the restaurant again and actually saw someone he recognized. In that instant, Zalia was the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen in his life, and when she returned his smile, probably without realizing it, a lot of the tension that kept him walking all night eased. He was still exhausted though and he slumped into a chair, not wanting to go anywhere for as long as he could manage it. His sword scabbard banged him painfully in the leg and he shoved it out of his way with a sigh. When Zalia returned with a bowl of something that looked like brown paste, flat pieces of bread, and a pitcher of water, her second smile made him want to put his head down on the table and sleep, safe at last. If he hadn’t been so tired, he would have wondered about that.

  Zalia set the food before him and poured the water, smiling at him again as she did so. “The hummus is fresh,” she told him. “I hope you like it.”

  “Thank you,” Devon said, wondering what hummus was and what he was supposed to do without a spoon.

  “You scoop it with the bread,” she added as he stared at it.

  “Oh.” Picking up one of the pie-shaped pieces of bread, he spooned up some of the paste and put it in his mouth. The taste was smooth with a bit of tang but delicious.

  “Do you like it?” she asked hopefully.

  “It’s really good,” Devon said, chewing hurriedly and grabbing his water for a drink. It really was, though he didn’t recognize the taste at all. “What is it?”

  “Pita and hummus.”

  Another woman stepped over to them, touching Zalia’s arm with a distrustful look at Devon. It said different to him as clearly as if she’d shouted it. She whispered something to Zalia and hurried away toward the other customers, most of whom were staring at Devon.

  Zalia smiled at him again, and this time her smile was a little sad, as though she were reluctant to go. “Please let me know if you want something else,” she told him and hurried away. Stopping a few feet away, she looked back at him. “Oh, please see me before you go.” She blushed. “My father wants to meet you. I’ll explain later.”

  Devon watched her go, his food and water forgotten despite his hunger. She really was a nice-looking girl, he thought.

  She likes you, Airi giggled in his mind.

  Devon started at Airi’s voice, realized he was staring after Zalia, and returned to his food. “She’s just being nice,” he murmured before shoving more pita and hummus into his mouth. He wasn’t sure which was which, but he liked them.

  No, she likes you. Her pattern flows around yours.

  Devon almost gagged and had to take a quick swallow of the water. It wasn’t very cold, but it still tasted wonderful, even better than wine.

  “You’re crazy,” he told Airi, barely remembering to keep his voice down. He hated talking to her just in his head, always afraid he’d start thinking something he didn’t want to say and have her hear it by accident, but he didn’t want anyone overhearing him either.

  Am not, she retorted, a little miffed. Her pattern meshes with yours. It’s pretty. She likes you too.

  “I don’t like her,” Devon spurted, loud enough that the people at the nearest table turned to stare at him.

  Yes, you do, Airi informed him smugly. I can feel emotions, remember? You like her, she likes you. It’s fun.

  “I’m too tired to like anybody,” Devon muttered, though he didn’t really feel that way at the moment. Airi had never said this about any woman to him, though according to his own father, she’d done so once with him. That had been with actions then instead of words and had been when the man first met Devon’s mother. Airi had no interest in romance, but she definitely understood love.

  Devon watched Zalia come out of the kitchens with another pitcher of water for another table. She was demure and quiet, her skin darker than any woman’s he’d ever seen and her hair a wave of solid black that reached to the small of her back. Her nose was long and her cheekbones high. She looked underfed and almost scrawny, and now that he thought about it, she was the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen.

  See? Airi said.

  It wasn’t fair! He didn’t have time to run into some potential love of his life. Not in a city he didn’t know on the other side of the world from everything he’d ever known. Not when he was all alone except for an air sylph in an alien hive where his only allies had vanished, leaving blood trails and broken doors behind. He was supposed to go home in a year, only he couldn’t. Not when Heyou was waiting to tear his guts out, just in case he developed some sort of interest in his own biological child. The child he hadn’t wanted to help father. How could this get added to all of that?

  Because something had to go right? Airi asked reasonably.

  Devon almost snorted the pita, or perhaps it was the hummus, out his nose.

  Zalia’s shift was unbelievably long, even for someone born in Eferem, where there was no such thing as workers’ rights. Devon watched her serve water and food, clear tables, and clean dishes from when he arrived before dawn to well after dark. He stayed in the corner where she’d put him, paying a penny each hour for the privilege and to keep the water flowing, and probably slept in his seat for a portion of the day. At the very least, he seemed to lose track of a few hours.

  Finally though, it was night again and the oppressive heat fled. Zalia’s coworker, who’d glared at Devon periodically during the day—when she wasn’t ignoring him—wandered away into the darkness with the cooks from the kitchen, and Zalia came over to him.

  “Did you enjoy your nap, sir?” she asked him with a smile.

  Devon jerked upright. “Urg…wha—?” he managed. Airi started giggling and ruffled all the hair on his head straight up. Zalia started giggling as well.

  Normally, Devon would have been terribly embarrassed to have two females laughing at him, but something about Zalia made him feel too comfortable for that, and of course, he was used to Airi’s sense of humor.

  Without his realizing she was about to, Airi appeared at his side, solidifying into a young girl with hair as long as Zalia’s, though she was almost colorless. It was something she did extremely rarely; usually when Airi wanted a human to see her, she just pulled bits of fluff and detritus into her pattern and used them to form the outline of her shape. Going solid didn’t come as naturally to air sylphs as it did the other elementals. Devon stared at her in surprise while Zalia gasped with shock and, to Devon’s relief, delight.

  “Thank you for letting us sit here all day,” Airi said to Zalia.

  Zalia clasped her hands together. “Oh, you’re so beautiful! You’re really a sylph?”

  Airi nodded and beamed at the young woman, her hair blowing in a breeze that wasn’t there for the two humans. “I am.”

  Zalia looked toward Devon. “I don’t think I’ve ever really seen a sylph,” she admitted. “Not up close.” A sudden blush covered her face. “Well, just a few times.”

  Devon blinked, rubbing his stubbled cheek and really regretting what he was sure his breath smelled like right now. Through the fuzz and heat of the day, he’d noticed there weren’t any sylphs passing by. He’d hoped there would be, so he could ask one of them where the queen was. Perhaps they didn’t mingle with humans who weren’t their maste
rs here. “Do you know where the sylphs are?” he asked Zalia. Airi couldn’t sense any, but it was a huge city and they weren’t from her hive. She’d sense them if they were close enough, but until then they were lost.

  Actually, she’d sensed many battle sylphs during the day, but neither of them were prepared to go near that kind of sylph if they didn’t absolutely have to. Being surrounded last night had been bad enough.

  Devon shuddered at the memory, but Zalia didn’t notice, thinking. “I’m not sure,” she finally said. “I’ve heard rumors, but I’m not positive where to look. We should go and talk to my father. He wants to meet you.”

  So she’d said before. Devon stood, content with the idea of spending more time with her. “Lead the way,” he told her and saw her blush prettily and look down, a tiny smile on her lips. Devon’s heart gave a great thump and he offered his arm, wanting nothing more than for her to take it. She looked puzzled for a moment, but put her arm timidly around his and walked with him, Devon letting her take the lead through the darkened streets. Airi giggled happily and played with both their hair, tangling it together in the air behind them.

  The little arrangement of hovels was a dim shape in the darkness, intermingled with the warm glow of small fires lit for warmth and to cook food. Devon gaped, not able to make out many details but appalled by the poverty of it. Leon had told him about the place, of course, but Devon hadn’t really grasped how poor it really was, nor had he expected it to still be here. The city was huge. Why couldn’t they move there?

  Beside him, Zalia’s stomach rumbled loudly as the smell of food wafted to them.

  “Sorry,” she apologized.

  Devon stared at her. “When was the last time you ate?”

  “Before work this morning.”

  Devon stopped. “You haven’t eaten all day? They make you serve people food and don’t let you eat?” Guilt filled him. No wonder she was so thin. “Why didn’t you say something? I would have bought you something to eat!”

  Zalia stared at him for a moment, her mouth moving as she obviously tried to think of something to say. Finally, she dropped her hands away from her stomach and shrugged. “I would have been fired. I’m there to work, not to eat. A lot of people have left this place, but there are still hundreds of women who’d like to have my job.”

  Devon frowned. “Do you get any days off?”

  “No. I work every day.”

  He blew out a breath in exasperation. Zalia was no better than a slave and that was the sort of thing supposed to change with a queen. He had to make sure it changed.

  “Things will get better,” he promised her. “I mean it.”

  She shrugged, neither agreeing or disagreeing, and led him over to one of the fires where an older, gaunt man with thinning white hair stood to greet them.

  “This is my father, Xehm,” Zalia told him. “Father, this is Devon Chole.”

  “It’s good to meet you,” Devon told him, shaking a hand where the fingers were thin as bird bones.

  Xehm grinned at him, showing a lot of missing teeth. “It’s a pleasure meeting you,” Xehm enthused. “Mr. Petrule sent you then?”

  “He did, sir. Myself and my air sylph, Airi.” Airi swirled his hair, but didn’t make herself visible.

  They sat around the campfire, Zalia passing her father her wages and a waterskin. A pot of what looked like porridge was bubbling over the fire and Devon kicked himself. It hadn’t occurred to him to buy food to bring with him. Stupid, he told himself. He had to stop being stupid.

  You’re not stupid, Airi told him.

  The porridge was passed around. Devon tried to refuse, claiming he wasn’t hungry, but his stomach growled and Xehm gave him a hurt look. He accepted then, hating that he was taking any of their food. It wasn’t even very good and it certainly couldn’t be nutritious, but it must have been all they had. Zalia and Xehm shared it easily though and it finally occurred to him that it was part of the way they survived. They shared. Well, he’d have something to donate to the pot himself, he promised. He had a lot of money on him. It wouldn’t last forever, but surely it would feed these people for a good amount of time.

  “It’s wonderful to meet you,” Xehm told him. “Mr. Petrule said that he was going to send someone.”

  “Yes.” Devon looked around a little uncertainly. “I have to say, this isn’t quite what I expected.” He turned back to the old man, not sure how to phrase this. “I thought it would be different.”

  The old man’s eyes turned sad. “So did we.”

  Devon shot a look at Zalia and turned back to her father, feeling Airi’s presence against the back of his neck. She wasn’t playing with his hair anymore, instead listening intently. “What happened?”

  Xehm shrugged, staring down at the small fire that was their only source of warmth in the now frigid night. “What happened? Suddenly there was a queen, right here. Every sylph in the city rose up and hundreds died. Literally hundreds. They tore handlers apart in the streets and swallowed up the entire arena. The island that used to float over the city was hauled out to sea and dropped. Every sylph here gathered around this place.” He looked toward one particular hovel that seemed no different than any other. “Then a few days passed, your friend left to go home, and we found that the only thing that really changed was that no one was in charge of anything anymore.”

  “Didn’t the queen do anything?” Devon asked.

  “I don’t know. I never spoke to her. None of us did. The sylphs wouldn’t let any of us near her and then she went away with them. Most of the people in this city don’t even know there’s a queen, though I assume she’s still alive.”

  “So you don’t know where she is then.”

  “No. Only the sylphs do.”

  Devon looked away, shivering a bit in his clothes as he thought. He didn’t know what Eapha thought she was doing, but it obviously wasn’t any of the things Leon had told her. Solie never would have done what it seemed this woman was doing and this entire place would die if she didn’t smarten up. He thought of the blood on the Racing Dawn and shuddered.

  “Do you know any sylphs?” he asked. “Someone who could take us to her? I really need to talk to her.”

  Xehm shook his head. “Not personally. None of the sylphs come near us lowly people. And their masters…I haven’t seen anyone who is a master to a sylph. If they aren’t also kept separate, they hide what they are. I don’t blame them. I imagine there are a lot of people who would find it easy to blame them for what’s happened.” Devon sagged in disappointment and Xehm added, “But I have heard rumors of where they like to gather.”

  “Really?”

  “It’s said they get together at the gate to the world they came from,” Xehm told him. “It’s supposedly an endless celebration where they call new sylphs into this world and haul people off the street to be their masters, whether they’re willing or not. Here, the sylphs have all the rights to choose who will be their master.” Beside him, Zalia looked away.

  Devon noticed her reaction and noticed also his own response to the thought of her upset. His stomach flipped over and he cleared his throat, even as Airi giggled knowingly into his mind. “Do you know where this gate is?” he asked.

  At that question, Xehm grinned at him with his gap-toothed smile. “Oh, yes. That I do know. We’ll go there in the morning and see what help we can find.”

  Zalia guided Devon over to one of the huts, one abandoned by its previous owners when they’d joined the exodus. Well aware of her father’s eyes on them and of her own shyness, she kept her gaze locked on the sand under her feet, not aware of how Devon looked at her, though her father was.

  “I’m sorry I won’t be able to go with you to the gate tomorrow,” she said.

  “So am I.” There was something so wistful in his tone that she looked up at him despite herself and saw him start, turning away with an e
mbarrassed cough. “I mean, um, that is…”

  A translucent girl appeared on his other side. “He likes you,” she said.

  “Airi!” Devon barked and the sylph vanished.

  Zalia felt as if she had to be blushing to her toes and was glad that he couldn’t see it through the darkness. She just felt so silly, and excited at the same time.

  “I like you too,” she said, really hoping he didn’t hear her and wishing he would at the same time.

  He did. Even in the darkness, she saw him duck his head and smile. She’d never felt attracted to anyone like this and she found that something about Devon Chole, despite the fact that this was only the second time she’d met him, made her feel complete. That was really strange, since she hadn’t been aware that anything was missing in her life, but she liked it. She really did wish she could go with them in the morning to find the sylphs and beg them to take them to see the queen. She hoped even more that once he spoke with the queen, he’d stay, and perhaps take an interest in her. Zalia blushed and gestured at the tiny hovel. It wasn’t useful for much more than keeping the sand off, but all the hovels were like that.

  “You can sleep here tonight,” she assured him. “No one will bother you.”

  “Thank you,” he said. He hesitated for a moment as though he were about to say something else, and then vanished inside.

  Airi’s shimmering shape appeared beside Zalia. “He really does like you,” she whispered. “He’s just shy.”

  Zalia blushed even hotter, though inside she was delighted. “Why are you telling me this?” she asked. “Why do you want us together?”