by J. Stone
“I’ll find it,” Scarlett said. “Just wait here.”
There was little else she could do, but Ruby nodded all the same. Her demon servant went down an alleyway where a large amount of the poison had washed into, while the princess attempted to catch her breath. Every inhale of air felt like too little coming too late. She needed more than she was getting. She spent too much of the poison to drive the men of the Underlaw back. Looking back up, she realized that it hadn’t been completely effective. The leader of the gang had braved the toxic liquid washed all across the street, brandishing his pair of axes and walking toward Ruby. He was alone, having lost many of his men from her toxic maelstrom, but that made him no less dangerous.
“You killed my men!” he shouted. “I’ll have your head, you little whore!”
The princess looked around in an attempt to find the war hammer that she’d previously used. The weapon too had been washed away from her and was some distance out of her reach. Feeling around inside herself, she tried to find any last pocket of poison that she could use to fight this vicious man. There was nothing. She was quite simply tapped.
He was on her. The gang leader swung down with one of the axes. Ruby raised her hands defensively while simultaneously shifting away from the attack. The blade of the axe swiped cleanly across the fingers on her left hand, cutting off all four but leaving the thumb in place. The dismembered digits fell and landed in the shallow pool of poison beneath her.
She was too much in shock to have screamed out from the pain. Before, her injuries had led to bleeding, but now it seemed there was nothing but the noxious venoms dwelling within her. No red blood trickled from the wounds, just more of the dark purple liquid. She had none to spare, and as she saw it dripping from her stumps of fingers, her vision became blurry. It was only a matter of time before she passed out.
The gang leader snarled at her and raised the other axe in the air, preparing to strike once more. Before he could, he was tackled by Scarlett and knocked into the remnants of poison covering the city street. Though clearly harmed by the toxins, he still managed to kick the demon off him and stand. Half of his body was covered by the sludge, and the tumble had dislodged the dirty rag covering his scarred eye. It too was now layered in the poison.
The gang leader grimaced from the pain, as the toxins ate away the flesh of his face. He ignored what was happening to him and rushed forward, still wielding one of the axes. Scarlett, meanwhile, had found the poison flask and slid it through the sludge toward the princess. She picked up the glass, uncorked the stopper with her teeth, spitting it out to the ground, and then drank a healthy portion of the poison.
The effect was instantaneous. Her power was restored, and along with it, Ruby could feel a connection to the toxins eating away at the gang leader. She found herself hating him, and rather than simply killing him with the venom, the princess opted for another direction. Ruby communicated with the poison sinking into his skin, and she forced it to push deeper. The semi-sentient fluid delved toward the man’s brain with incredible alacrity and precision.
The leader of the Underlaw stopped his blade inches from the princess’ smiling face. She had found a way to control him with the poison flooding his system. The possession wouldn’t last forever, and she had to assume he was in terrible agony by the facial expression he wore, but Ruby had done it. She had conquered him. Now, he would do her bidding.
Chapter 16. The Black Wave
“Why do you still have fingers?” Ruby asked her demon servant through gritted teeth. “I thought we were connected. I thought you felt my pain.”
“We are connected, but it is at a mental level,” Scarlett explained. “I felt the pain of the attack, if that is of any solace to you. I know what you experienced.”
“But it is dulled for you?” The princess looked down at her fingertips leaking the purple poison rather than blood. “I don’t know how you can stand it otherwise.”
“Yes, it is dulled, but our connection grows stronger with every passing moment together,” Scarlett explained. “Soon we will feel everything as one.”
Ruby and her demon had left the poisoned streets of Gloomport, finding temporary solace near the docks that ultimately led out of the mouth of the cave. They both sat on either side of the wooden planks on crates that had been left there, waiting for a specific ship to make port. The purple imp, Sniggle, meanwhile had survived the blaze in the tailor shop with only minor scalding to his semi-liquid body, and he had slept through the maelstrom that the princess had unleashed. He sat next to Ruby on the unclaimed crate continuing his slothful slumber.
The leader of the Underlaw, who she now knew was named Wesley, thanks to her poisonous possession, stood with them. The name seemed a fairly inapt moniker for such a violent and malicious villain like him. Ruby took great pleasure in sucking information from his mind and dominating his actions. Using his knowledge revealed that there was a ship called the Black Wave coming into the harbor that day that they could commandeer and use to leave Gloomport. In addition to controlling the Underlaw gang members in the city, he also had a crew of what were essentially pirates that held up trading vessels on the sea. Surely then, Ruby thought, she could give the order to have him command the crew to take herself and Scarlett to Elythine. That was her hope, anyway.
While they waited, the princess stared down at her dismembered fingers lying in her lap. She’d collected them after she had acquired control over Wesley and her hope was that she could reattach them somehow.
“Scarlett,” she began. “You know a lot about magic. Can you cast a spell to put these back where they belong?”
“I’m sorry, my princess,” her demon replied. “Right now my magical abilities are limited. Our bond is not strong enough to perform such feats. We need to grow closer, before I can hope to accomplish anything like that.”
“I’d feel closer to you, if you could reattach my fingers.”
Scarlett smiled pleasantly. “Then allow me to suggest an alternative, my princess.”
Ruby looked up at her demon with a raised eyebrow. “Which is?”
“Something more mundane.” Just as when she had pulled the scythe out of thin air, Scarlett now retrieved and brandished a simple needle with a spool of thread. “I believe I could sew them back in place.”
“What good would that do me?” Ruby asked. “They wouldn’t be the same as they were without some magical intervention.”
“The method may be mundane, but the individual is anything but. You are extraordinary, my princess, and the magics you have flowing within you may compensate for your loss and reconnect the tissue and bone as they should be.”
Scarlett had a point. In the past, when she was injured, her body was able to heal itself with the aid of a toxic substance. There was still about half of the poison flask left, and she suspected that it would be more than enough to restore four little fingers.
“Okay,” she finally agreed. “Do it.”
Scarlett laid the needle and thread down on the crate the princess was seated on and pulled another crate closer. She sat down, retrieving the tools once again and threaded a bit through the eye of the needle. Starting with Ruby’s pointer finger, she pierced the skin of the dismembered limb, and then, holding it to the injured hand, did the same with the very tender flesh near the cut. Ruby groaned, gritted her teeth, and clamped her eyes shut, as she felt the needle slide through her skin, wishing she had something to numb the pain. Scarlett worked as quickly as she could, but the princess just wished that the experience would end. She dared not look at the act, fearing it would only expose every unbearable penetration in excruciating detail.
The pain of the piercing needle soon stopped, but the throbbing sensation left behind stretched all the way down to her elbow. Ruby opened one eye, allowing an oily black tear to slide down her cheek. Forcing herself to look down, she saw that Scarlett had placed the needle and thread down, replacing them with the glass flask of green poison. The demon uncorked the vial and c
arefully slanted the flask over her hand, allowing the tiny drop to dribble onto the freshly stitched wound. The poison leaked through the crudely sewn together skin, mixing with the bit of purple ooze leaking out. As it did, however, the liquid sucked itself back inside her finger, and the jaggedness of her flesh aligning with itself evened up. The pallor of her dismembered digit grew slightly more flush, matching the rest of her admittedly pale skin. Scarlett then put the flask down and caressed the very tip of Ruby’s finger, looking up at her with hope in her eyes.
“I feel that!” the princess exclaimed.
“That’s great,” she said. “One down, three to go.” Scarlett offered her a little sympathetic smile.
Ruby shivered and released a sort of whimper in response. Again, she told her demon, “Do it.”
The other three fingers’ reattachment went similarly as the first but no easier. Every time the painful needle pierced through her flesh, Ruby bit down on her teeth. By the end of it, greasy black tears stretched down both her cheeks, and Scarlett’s hands were covered in the poison that was now essentially the princess’ blood. Just as she had done on the first three fingers, the demon poured a small drop on the fresh wound, and the flesh, bone, and muscles underneath mended themselves. Though they had been reattached, her fingers were still quite sore, and the injury had not yet vanished. She suspected that the hand would be weak for some time and the fingers susceptible to falling off again if put under too much pressure. Her whole body was still shivering as though she was cold, and she yearned for more of the poison from the flask.
“How do you feel?” her demon servant asked, vanishing the thread and needle back to whatever dimension she had pulled them from.
“They hurt,” Ruby replied. “I need--”
“Take a drink,” Scarlett interrupted her with a nod. “But you need to conserve it. That bottle needs to last until we make it to Elythine. I don’t think I can get anymore from here. I may have burned that particular bridge.”
Ruby nodded in reply and took the poison flask from her demon servant. She cupped both hands around it and raised the noxious green fluid to her lips. The liquid dripped down and coated her dry throat, soothing her every ache. She would have kept drinking it until its end if Scarlett had not grabbed it and stopped her. Ruby looked longingly at the scant amount that remained in the bottom of the flask. She looked pitiable, but her demon servant did not waver.
“You can’t have anymore, my princess,” she said solemnly. “I’m sorry.” She picked up the cork, plugged the top of the flask, and with a roll of her fingers, displaced the poison from Ruby’s sight.
The princess wanted more, but she knew her horned demon was right. She needed to distract herself from the poison and pain. She looked away toward the open cave exit. “Where’s that ship?” she asked rhetorically, changing the subject from her throbbing pain.
“Does he know anything?” Scarlett replied, indicating to the nearly comatose Wesley, standing some feet away.
“Nothing specific. Just that they’re supposed to be back today.”
“Mmm.” Scarlett then stood and approached the edge of the dock, leaning down and running her hands through the water to clean the poison from them. “What do you intend to do once we get to Elythine?”
“Go back to Lavidia, of course. My sister needs me.”
Scarlett looked back up at the princess. “Ruby, you can’t rush into this. Your sister is bonded to the craggy hand demon. If you hurt him, you’ll only be hurting your sister.”
She knew that her servant was right yet again. She had at least given some thought to where she might find answers, but there was something in her that made her just want to hurry toward the craggy hand demon, so that she could crush the life from him. When she thought like that, the life of Leina seemed to fade into the background of her mind. She couldn’t allow herself to think in such a way.
“Elythine is supposed to be the home of many great sorcerers,” Ruby finally replied. “Maybe they could teach me something about how to separate Leina from the demon. I also thought about a place called the Cloister. The monks there are supposed to have studied the nether realm greatly and developed an understanding of its relationship to our own. I could look there as well.”
Scarlett stood back up and returned to the princess, sitting beside her rather than across. She took Ruby’s good hand in her own, holding it in her lap. “It sounds like you’re on the right path. I’m sure together we can find something.”
They sat there on the docks for a couple hours, where Ruby knew no one would have come looking for them, before they saw the ship on the horizon. The light of day was beginning to fade, but the vessel’s outline could barely be made out against the dimly lit waters in the distance. Both women stood up, shuffling Sniggle behind them, while Ruby commanded Wesley to prepare to talk with the pirates.
A few minutes passed before the ship made it through the cove and to where it docked in Gloomport. The pirates laid out the wooden ramp leading down to the dock, where she sent Wesley to intercept them. A man that Ruby learned was the captain through her mental connection to her poisoned slave was the first to descend the creaky ramp and approach the Underlaw leader.
He wore a garish blue vest and matching trousers made of exotic and expensive fabrics, and his dirty blonde hair was wild and long, falling behind him to his shoulders and back. The exposed skin of his arms and chest were covered in tattoos, and he had a black bandana wrapped around his bicep. Hanging from his waist was a pair of bells that jingled softly with each step he took.
“What happened to your face?” the captain asked in a strange accent she didn’t recognize.
She wasn’t interested in Wesley answering the question. “I need you to take me and these women to Elythine,” Wesley said at her command.
“What?” the captain asked.
“We just got here,” one of the pirates behind him complained. “You can’t send us out again already.”
“You’ll do what I say,” Wesley was ordered to speak. Ruby also had him grip the handle of the axe at his waist to intimidate any of the crew that weren’t taking the command seriously enough. “Unload the haul and prepare to ship out.”
The men took notice of the bloodied axe strung through his belt and the generally horrible shape he was in. Without saying anything else, the crew began to unload the ship of the stolen cargo. The captain, however, was not as quick to relinquish his power over the crew and his vessel.
“I don’t know what’s happened to you since I was gone, but our arrangement hasn’t changed,” the captain replied. “You may scare the people of Gloomport with your little Underlaw gang, but the Black Wave is my ship. You need me, so silence your little threats and get out of my way.”
Wesley’s operation in the dark city may have needed the pirates to bring goods in and out of Gloomport, but Ruby had no such need of them. She only needed transport to Elythine. Beyond that, she had no loyalties or designs on them. The captain was the only one not afraid of Wesley, it seemed, so he needed to be culled. The princess forced her poisoned captive to grab the axe at his side, and she had him swing it across the pirate’s neck. Blood spurted out at the gang leader, spraying his face in the warm liquid. Though it wasn’t her own skin, Ruby could almost feel the sticky, wet substance dripping off his face. The pirate grabbed his throat, attempting to stymie the blood loss, as he fell to his knees. Wesley moved forward, brushing him to the side, causing him to fall and land with a splash in the murky waters beside the deck. Wiping the blood from his axe on his pants, he boarded the ship.
“Does anyone else have anything to say?” Ruby forced him to ask.
There was no response from the clearly intimidated pirates.
“Then unload the haul, prepare to ship out to Elythine, and extend every courtesy to our guests.” The dominated gang leader gestured back to Ruby and Scarlett, and the terrified pirates set to following his orders. The princess grabbed Sniggle, resting her poisonous pet on her shoul
der and accompanied Scarlett up the ramp and onto the deck of the ship.
The Black Wave’s crew was dressed in varying clothes, having no standard uniform to speak of. The one thing they did have in common, however, was their salty, sweaty stench. After prolonged time on the water and poor grooming practices, they had acquired a particular smell that hit Ruby like walking into a wall, as soon as she stepped on board the vessel. This scent was enough to unbalance even the princess, and she was forced to wave a hand in front of her face in an attempt to rid herself of the odor.
The men, meanwhile, went below deck, gathering various crates and chests and carrying them onto the docks. Some of the cargo was fairly standard and probably not worth much, but others matched the stories she had heard of pirates looting chests of coin and treasure. One pirate carried such a haul past the princess, but he stumbled, and a bit of the contents tumbled out and onto the deck of the ship. Catching her eye was a brooch made of shining white pearls, combined together into one large piece on a silver backing.
Picking up the brooch, Ruby asked, “What is this?”
The pirate put down the chest and picked up the other dropped items, as he seemed hesitant to answer her.
“She asked you a question,” she had Wesley say. “I expect you answer her.”
“Yes… yes, of course,” the subservient pirate answered to Wesley. Turning back to Ruby, he explained, “That particular item came from a woman on a vessel from the east… madam.”
Ruby turned the collection of pearls over in her fingers. “And what happened to the woman that had worn it?”
The pirate would not meet her eyes. “Dead, madam.”
The princess thought she should have been angry that these men had likely raped and killed the woman along with whatever other crew was on board her vessel, but that didn’t matter. She needed their help to get out of Gloomport. Besides, as she looked into the perfectly spherical orbs, Ruby lost any conscience for this piece of jewelry’s former owner. Now, it was hers. She pinned the brooch to her purple dress, just below her left shoulder. The fingers of her left hand resisted such delicate work, but she forced herself to use them in an attempt to hurry the healing process.