Now it was even worse. Had my talk with Sipponnii over summer break, had her drag me to that in-between place of hers. Knew they could touch along with scribble notes. In the dirt with Meteyos, in the dirt with the Killer of Fools.
Could feel him reaching from a world away and yet . . . so strong he can still touch me.
“You’re just Plutarch fucking with me,” I decided. “Knows about my brush with Meteyos and he’s trying to freak me out now that I’m tired and thirsty and feeling like shit. Wants me to beg him to let me out of the dirt.”
YOU ARE KING OF THE DIRT, WHY WOULD YOU WISH TO FORSAKE IT?
“You were always Plutarch,” I decided some more, despite all the evidence to the contrary. “Sending out your little fairies to fuck with me from the start.”
I AM NOT THE TOYMAKER, LITTLE MANCER. THE EARTH DOES NOT SHAKE AWAY TRUTHS. THIS IS BENEATH YOU.
“You’re beneath me.”
ONE DAY, PERHAPS. BUT FOR NOW I AM THE HOLDER OF ALL TRUTHS. THE TRUTHS THEY HIDE FROM YOU. THE TRUTHS THEY HAVE FORGOTTEN.
“Dark Side incoming, it must really be you.”
THE TOYMAKER IS PUNISHING YOU IN THE ANCIENT WAY. WHY?
Instead of answering his question, I asked one in turn, “Can’t Plutarch feel you?”
THE TOYMAKER LEFT TO MEET WITH THE LAKEBORN AND SHADOWKNIFE. HE IS DISTRACTED FOR NOW. THE LAKEBORN IS ANGRY OVER YOUR PUNISHMENT.
I worked my jaw at those words, thinking on the deeper implications of the titles. Lakeborn had to be the Lady. Shadowknife was Samson. Toymaker was Plutarch. I was the King of Dirt or the Dirt King.
Better than ‘fucktard’ I guess.
“Got any titles for the rest of my class or am I just special?”
QUEEN OF FIRE. DEAD PRINCE. REDWIND. FROZEN STATUE. DOG ORPHAN. THE EVERCHANGING.
“Not bad. Make sure you call Pocket ‘Fern Thrower,’ he likes that.”
NOTED.
“So, I’m guessing that since you know all this stuff—and that you know what’s going on with Plutarch this very moment—that his little spies don’t just work for him.”
HOW PERCEPTIVE OF YOU, LITTLE MANCER.
“I’ve been ignoring him and doing my own thing instead of learning at his feet and licking his boots clean, that’s why he’s punishing me.”
DEFIANCE.
“He won’t let me out until I ask for his help out of it. If I pool for more than thirty seconds the spies—whoever they’re really working for—will tell him about it. And I’m not strong enough to force my way out with my muscles so . . . yeah, we’re down to defiance. Down to holding out for as long as I can. Making a point about how I’m not the Toymaker’s toy.”
SO IT IS ONLY PRIDE THAT KEEPS YOU ABIDING HIS RULES.
“Pride and wanting to outlast his morality. Or the Lady’s leniency.”
WHY LEARN FROM A MAN YOU DO NOT RESPECT?
“No one else . . . and I don’t disrespect him—no more than any other teacher toeing the company line.”
I COULD BE YOUR TEACHER.
“Gonna pass on that one. Ya know . . . keep my soul and shit.”
I COULD FREE YOU OF YOUR PUNISHMENT.
“Told you . . . breaking the rules is just breaking the rules. Have to outlast him or . . .”
OR WIN WITHIN THE RULES?
I stared at those words for a long time. “How do I know you won’t betray me?”
I NEED YOU MORE THAN YOU CAN EVER IMAGINE, KING HENRY PRICE.
If I wasn’t covered with dirt, my hackles would’ve risen—my arms and legs would’ve been washed with goosebumps. As it was, I just felt colder than before. My bladder gave another sharp pain of greeting. My lips reminded me they were supposed to be pink not red. My nostrils, my mouth, my eyes all felt and tasted like they had dirt in them.
Plutarch was trying to break the earthquake, earn himself a prized stallion. Meteyos . . . I don’t know what the ancient fairy wanted with me. I had a feeling that one day I’d regret ever hearing the name, but for now . . .
“How could you help me?” I asked the dirt.
REACH FOR ME AND I WILL TAKE YOU SOMEWHERE ELSE.
Didn’t like how vague that was. “Sipponnii took me to a kind of in-between place and then spat me back out, you just had me in your dreams or you were in my dreams . . . which one you talking about?”
SIPPONNII DARED TOUCH YOU?
They were written the same as the other words, but I could feel the outrage in how sharp they cut the sand grains apart.
“She helped me find a mancer. An ultra.”
THE ETERNAL RIVER OVERSTEPS HERSELF.
“Wow, look at the ancient being of pure anima sulk. Tell me what you’re planning or you can fuck off, Meta-Yo-Yo.”
I AM WEAK IN YOUR REALM, YET STRONG ENOUGH TO GIVE YOU A PUSH IF YOU DO NOT FIGHT ME. FOR A BRIEF MOMENT YOU WILL BE BETWEEN SLEEP AND CONCIOUSNESS YET STILL IN YOUR WORLD. IN THAT BRIEF MOMENT YOU WILL TRAVEL AWAY FROM YOUR PUNISHMENT AND AWAY FROM THE TOYMAKER’S PETS.
I’m a dumbass.
We’ve established this.
I reached out.
Don’t reach out, kiddies.
Don’t be the dumbass.
Session 154
“It’s like being trapped in a cave with a rather large dragon, isn’t it?” Vicky asked as everyone in the room had our eyes on the unconscious woman handcuffed to a chair and not the massive and awe-inspiring corpusmancer wrestling exhibition that took place behind our backs. “Sitting there on the floor watching its chest rise and the breath exhale out of its nostrils . . . wondering just when it will wake up and get about to eating you.”
I kept my mouth shut on dragons, being as they’re not nearly as bad as the rap they get. Although I’m pretty sure Meteyos could have ate me at any time if that had been his intention. No one ever expects that the dragon’s loneliness is worse to bear than its hunger. “Wish we had more than the Cold Cuffs,” was what I said. “Like . . . duct tape or something.”
“You should all back away from her,” T-Bone advised, nervously keeping as far away from the unconscious Isabel as possible.
Me, I was right on top of her, studying her body. Not with a leering eye like I usually would a fine specimen of the female persuasion, but with the eye of a scientist. Veronica had gained about forty pounds in the last few minutes, the added fat some type of subconscious defense mechanism against the cold radiating from the cryo-anima in the Cold Cuffs. “That’s some freaky shit, ain’t it?”
“One second I feel like throwing up,” Welf said, his own study a bit more appalled with the findings than mine. “The next I feel like striking her with my cane . . . some trash mancer mad on anima sneaking her way into my bed like this . . . her of all people!”
“Join the club.”
“What does that mean?”
“Means that Val was a virgin when we hooked up for the first time a few months back. I was a little surprised being as all the times we’d had sex at the Asylum.”
Welf made a high-pitched, strangled noise, then yelled, “That’s bloody impossible!”
I looked back at him, nodding. Well, guess that’s one question answered on why that particular infatuation carried on over the years. “Got you too then. Pretended to be Hope for you also I’d bet . . . any memories of some particularly surprising nasty sex you wouldn’t expect out of a well-bred Hunting girl?”
He ran for the bathroom and made it just before the retching started in.
“Had the exact same reaction to the news, Welf.”
Isabel shivered in her slumber. I leaned in to check that the Cold Cuffs were in place. Those things were rated to hold a vampire—barring them breaking their thumbs like Annie B had done—with a thick reinforced hinge between the cuffs themselves. But I had no idea if it would be enough if Isabel hulked out on us. Or turned into a little kid for a second for them to fall right off. Or . . .
Or.
Didn’t have a clue what a Facechanger that powerful could do.
; Don’t have a clue what an Artificer that powerful can do either. Thanks once again, Ceinwyn.
“What should we do with her?” Vicky asked. She glanced with concern towards the bathroom door, the retching seeming to lighten up a bit as the seconds ticked by.
“We should contact security,” T-Bone spoke up from over on the other side of the luxury box. “See if they have a cell in the casino somewhere. With this many supernatural people around they must have designed one.”
Vicky was already shaking her head. “The casino is Were run and Were owned, even if mancers are allowed and some of us are silent partners . . . no, it’s not right. We would be putting her in their custody and . . . it’s very bigoted of me, but I wouldn’t trust Weres to do anything but play their own games. That’s assuming they even could keep her locked up if she managed to break out of the Artificial Prison.”
“She had help,” I said. “Wasn’t a lone breakout.”
Vicky frowned at me. “How could you know that?”
“We talked, before the whole underwear-on-my-head-tied-to-the-bed thing.”
Her frown turned into disappointment.
“She said herself that she was working for someone when she did that little crazy ramble there at the end,” I pointed out guiltily. “To spy on your brother and the rest of your family from what I can tell. Doesn’t seem likely, but it could be the Weres for all we know. So what we really need to do is question her until she answers the questions.”
“Question her how?” T-Bone asked. “You said she has Anima Madness.”
I shrugged at him. “It comes and goes. She tricked Welf for two months, didn’t she? Some sanity is still in there.”
“Even giving you the point that we’re starting to do this kind of thing more than is healthy,” T-Bone rebutted, “we don’t have the training for this. All you’ll get out of her is what she wants to give you. Or are you planning on torturing her?”
“I’m considering it,” I growled.
“King Henry!” Vicky snapped.
“Yeah, yeah . . . it was mostly just a joke.”
“Not funny!”
“Can’t make them all funny,” I grumbled, still eyeing Isabel’s unconscious form. I knelt down beside her, reaching out to pull up an eyelid and make sure she was still out of it. The chair was bolted to the ground. Her hands were pulled behind her back, under the armrests and cuffed behind her. She sort of hung there, barely supported.
Getting fatter by the minute. Fucking weird.
“Someone has to be at the Exhibition besides us, someone we can trust,” Vicky decided.
“No one official,” T-Bone said. “This is supposed to be off limits as far as the Learning Council is concerned. Sure, the guilds and societies sent contingents and some families like yours are involved, but no ESLED or Recruiters or anyone equipped to handle this.”
“Just us,” I said, “our problem to handle.”
T-Bone’s face lit up at an idea. “What about Eva?”
“Eva’s busy with her own shit.”
“Eva Reti?” Vicky asked. “What could she possibly do to help us?”
“Well, Tyson has a crush on her, so you should guard your man if she does pop out of some shadow,” I explained.
“Oh really?” Vicky said, giving Tyson some careful consideration.
“She snuck into the Los Angeles Vampire Embassy! It was impressive!” T-Bone deflected it all away.
“She did?”
“Yeah, yeah,” I said. “Eva’s like . . . Fines Samson the Second. But she’s hunting at the moment. Busy.”
“Unless she’s hunting Isabel,” Vicky pointed out.
“I know you two don’t get along—the whole spectro versus scio feud thing—but give the woman some respect, she’s moral enough to tell me if Isabel Soto had broken out of the Pit.”
“I hate that name,” Vicky whispered.
“Fitting name I’m told.”
Vicky shivered about as hard as Isabel was under the effects of the cryo-anima. “You have never been there. I have. Family outing, to forestall the question.”
“Most families go to the movies . . . or wrestling events,” I said, nodding out the viewing window, where the crowd was really worked up. No one had even bothered to turn on any of the televisions in the luxury box. It was dead quiet.
“I’ve never been to the movies . . .” Vicky whispered.
“I could take you if you want,” T-Bone immediately volunteered, crossing the room to stand next to her.
“Crazy chick in the room with us, lovebirds!” I reminded them before they could start grunting and humping on the sofa.
Welf chose that time to finally emerge from the bathroom, looking like he’d puked up breakfast and lunch and did do the whole wash his balls with bleach thing too. He squinted at T-Bone. “Did you just ask my sister on a date?”
T-Bone glanced at Vicky, received no assistance, then back to Welf. “Uh . . .”
“Man up or she’ll dump your ass no matter how big your black wang is,” I recommended.
T-Bone nodded, straightening his shoulders and his posture so he was taller—not as tall as Welf, but closer. “Yes, yes I did. She’s a very fine young lady and it’s a shame the way people are in fear of her family name and of who she’s related to . . . with those . . . dead things around all the time.”
“Someone earned a shit ton of Vicky Sunshine points,” I whispered under my breath.
Vicky, close enough to hear, slapped me on the shoulder.
Welf scowled at both his sister and T-Bone, but forced polite words out of his mouth, “Sadly, I don’t have time for this right now. I’m sure Father would love to take up the offer with you at a later date. For now we have a pressing problem and no one will be attending any events, be it the movies or an event more fitting for a Welf.”
“Like a prison?” I asked.
“It was educational.”
“Moira Welf’s Guide to Locking Up all the Wrong Elements,” I teased him. “I’m sure it was fascinating.”
Welf forced himself away from me and towards Isabel. “Has she gained more weight?”
“Ten pounds maybe. This rate she’ll be through the cryo-anima pretty soon.”
“How soon is pretty soon?” Vicky asked worriedly.
“Right now soon,” Isabel whispered, opening her stolen, slanted eyes and staring right at Welf. “I don’t understand why you’re mad at me . . . wasn’t I a good girlfriend? Didn’t I do everything you asked me to do? Didn’t I surprise you with tricks you never even asked of me?”
The only thing that stopped Welf from either pimp slapping her across the face or smashing the tip of his cane in her stomach was me putting a shoulder in his path. Even then he tried to reach around me until Vicky called out for him to stop it. He let out a long sigh before backing away, standing absolutely rigid, and when you’re that tall you can play the pole really damn well.
“I still have nightmares about that night,” he said with a hard voice. “Yet you’ve been in my bed these last couple months.”
“That was Catherine! She made me confused,” Isabel explained in a childish tone that wasn’t very reassuring. “I’m much better now. I will kill you if I have too, but I really don’t want to. Still . . . King Henry broke everything. Such a lovely plan. Now it’s all in pieces and you have me in a cage again. A very weak cage, but a cage nonetheless . . . I don’t like cages. They don’t call them cages in the Pit, but that’s what they are . . . even if the walls are fluffy like clouds.”
“Was she this confused yesterday?” Vicky asked me.
“Yesterday?” Welf repeated.
“King Henry made love to me,” Isabel answered in a swooning sigh, “and he knew me. We had a little talk . . . I showed him I’m a threat . . . so he wouldn’t tell. But he still told. Bad, bad, King Henry.”
“You slept with my girlfriend?!?” Welf yelled at me.
“It’s not like I fucked her and was all, ‘oh shit, it’s Isabel’ was
I? No, I did it expecting it was Isabel. I sacrificed my sanity and the safety of my own cock just to figure this particular mystery out,” I defended myself. “I’m the fuckin’ hero here . . . literally.”
Welf landed a jab into my nose that snapped my head back. Luckily my nose has been broken enough times that it barely registered as cartilage anymore and didn’t snap this time.
“Brother!” Vicky called again to calm him down.
Welf snarled at me. “You piece of . . .”
“Yeah, yeah. I deserved that one. It’s fair. No hard feelings, Welf. Might not want to fight like that in front of the problem child though.”
We all turned to regard Isabel locked in her chair.
“Think . . . they . . . can . . . keep . . . me . . . in a cage . . .” she whispered in singsong.
“Why were you spying on me?” Welf demanded.
Isabel’s gaze lingered on the arena floor. “Jason will be fighting soon,” she said to herself more than us.
“Yes, he will,” Welf agreed coldly. “Afterwards, he, Pocket, and Jesus will be returning here. Then, I will use Autumn to move you, still locked to the chair. We will all be surrounding you the entire way. You will have no chance to get away. Once in my suite you will be further bound and then you will answer my questions about who broke you out of the Artificial Prison. You will tell me why you are spying on my family. If you do this then I will turn you over to ESLED and they will likely return you to your old cell. I take it there’s some other poor girl locked up in there right now . . . disgusting.
“If you do not tell me all this . . .” Welf bent down so he could look Isabel in her stolen, slanted eyes. He used his cane to lift up her chin, like he was studying a dangerous animal. “If you do not tell me all this, then I will have Autumn rip your legs off, then your arms off, then twist your head from your torso. Each piece will be dipped in lime and burned separately as is the ancient way of slaying a Facechanger gone bad. I will do this on my own reckoning, I will bear the burden of the crime if there is any to be borne. I will end you, Isabel Soto, so you cannot do to others what you have done to me. YOU ARE BROKEN!”
“Brother . . .” Vicky whispered, that one word all the censure in the world.
The Foul Mouth and the Mancy Martial Artist (The King Henry Tapes Book 5) Page 31