by A J Gala
“And here you are taking care of it. Still.”
Lilu glared back. “You made an observation. Do you want to be congratulated for it? I will not—”
“I’m just a little surprised.” Talora closed her book. “It is an unusual thing for you to put effort into. To take care of something, to nurture it. That wasn’t something I thought you really understood.”
Lilu did not break her glare and further narrowed her eyes. “If you paid more attention to my actions, you could find yourself surprised a little more often.”
Talora bowed her head a little and folded her hands on the table. “I am sorry, Lilu. You’re right. Perhaps I’ve spent a lot of time misjudging you. You are what you are, but I am learning you are a more complex person than I thought.”
They both paused, uncomfortable with the direction of the conversation. Lilu started to pace up and down the library, between the old tables and dusty shelves.
They hadn’t been in the library for very long. By chance, they had passed each other in the courtyard and had made plans to meet within the hour. But the idea had been Lilu’s. Talora brewed with curiosity and anxiety, wondering what the daemon had found. It did not seem as though she had succeeded in an altercation with Canis as she had originally intended.
“I had a thought,” Lilu finally said. “But I need to know what we actually know first.”
Talora tapped her chin. “We don’t really know anything, Lilu. At least nothing we can act on.”
“Tell me. Remind me. I have been relying on you to keep track of it all so, when the time comes, you could just point for me, and that’s who I’d attack.”
Talora stifled a laugh and threw her hands up. “Well, alright. Louvita’s the one with the big plan, remember? She’s going to use Tizzy to enforce rules and make us live in some kind of territory that can function alongside common folk, but only if Tizzy winds up growing to be a strong Protégé. Not all of them do. Torah is in on Louvita’s plan, so it seems. And essentially, so is Korrena.”
Lilu put her hands on her hips. “Then explain Canis. Where did he come from? If he can’t do anything, what role does Louvita have for him? Why would she have agreed to let him in?”
“Maybe she didn’t.” Talora shrugged. “Remember the dinner party? It looked like Ilisha knew him. Maybe Ilisha made the call. Louvita has been known to give in to her if she persists.”
“But… but why?”
Talora folded her arms and watched as Lilu continued weaving around.
“You’re really on edge about him, aren’t you?”
“Something doesn’t seem right about him,” Lilu answered. “I don’t know what he is, but it’s not nobody. Nobody is nobody.”
Talora couldn’t find an argument, so she just sighed and nodded.
Lilu had another thought, but before she could elaborate on it, her senses picked up a familiar presence approaching quickly.
She growled. “Get ready for trouble.”
Talora sensed it too and braced herself for Louvita to find them.
The purple-skinned Mire Elf came in as expected, wearing a scowl that was meant for them both. She stood tall as she brushed her bushy white hair out of her face and put her hands on her hips.
“I seem to hear that you two are together more than you’re apart.”
The venom in Lilu’s eyes was bright yellow. “We’re settling some differences. Do you mind?”
“I mind!” Louvita snapped. “Now, I would like it if someone could tell me where the hell those two are.”
Talora was stunned to see Lilu’s attitude toward the Mire Elf. Once, Louvita and Lilu had conspired together on just about everything, though Talora would have still been careful to say they were “close.” She likened it to a younger sibling obsessively following around an older sibling. Or was Lilu more of a lost puppy to Louvita?
But something in Lilu was different. It had been different at the dinner party too.
Lilu shrugged Louvita off and found a bookshelf to gaze at disinterestedly. “Those two? Whoever do you mean?”
“Tizena and the bloodslave!”
“There is a third person missing as well,” Lilu muttered.
“I don’t give a shit. Where are they? I thought you were training Tizena! Why is she not with you?”
Lilu circled the table, her claws slowly running its perimeter. Her mind, furious and hot, was working away at something. Did Louvita always yell at her? Had she really never noticed before? Had she really allowed this woman to take such a tone with her?
“I don’t know,” Lilu answered her. “And I don’t care. I’m not her sitter. If she wants to fight, she’ll come find me, and we’ll fight. The rest is outside my capacity to care.”
Louvita stepped in close, so close to Lilu that Talora worried the daemon would snap. Rarely did she ever see a viciousness that could match Lilu’s, but Louvita was more terrifying in that moment than she’d ever seen her.
“You will find the capacity to care,” she whispered, “or I will have your caste come drag you back to the Hells where you belong, and you can face the justice they have for you.”
“Bullshit.” Lilu’s eyes shifted to her for only a second. “You need me, and you wouldn’t risk the lilitu caste taking me back.”
“With Torah’s sister and Aleth’s sister, I won’t have a fucking need for you at all, so once you bring her back, you can piss off.”
She walked out, leaving Lilu simmering with rage.
By the time the sun began to set in Mirivin, most of the Convent was buzzing about, hunting or haunting or feeding. With the weather clear, most of them had set their sights on Davrkton to take up their seedy habits in town. The mess hall was left empty save for Talora and Lilu. Their bickering bounced and echoed off the stone walls.
Talora entered with a scowl and a little extra heaviness in her steps. Lilu waited for her at one of the tables.
“Why are you back so soon?” she hissed.
“Why are you saying it like that?”
“If you’re back already, that means something went wrong.”
“You have no confidence in me!”
“No. I never have, and I never will.”
Talora grumbled and sat at the table, slumping over. “This is very exhausting, you know. Could you at least attempt to fake some sympathy?”
“Absolutely not. You have stupid abilities, and that isn’t my fault.”
“Stupid? Really!” Talora laughed in disbelief. “Yet here we are, so dependent on them! I don’t think you have a proper understanding of the word—”
They hushed their voices suddenly as the air around them changed. The sound of Ziaul’s footsteps preceded him as he walked into the mess hall. The gorgon was the unofficial leader of the Convent and owned both the land and the abbey. Yet he preferred to let Louvita bother herself with tasks of leadership.
He paused, regarding both Talora and Lilu on his way to the table. “I can hear you ladies from the courtyard.”
Lilu eyed him with suspicion as he carried over books, a roll of canvas, and a small box of instruments. He pretended not to notice her inspection and sat at the head of the table, rolling out the canvas to reveal a map.
“What’s the appropriate response to that?” she asked with a grunt. “Should I be proud of you for your superior hearing? Annoyed that you’re eavesdropping? I don’t understand. Why say such a thing?”
Talora sighed. “He means to tell us to be quiet.”
“I am not going to be quiet.”
Ziaul couldn’t hold in a chuckle. He took a deep, steadying breath, and one of his large snakes made itself comfortable on his shoulder. “I didn’t think you would, Lilu. What are you two doing on a night like this, anyhow? I didn’t expect to see you cooped up in this old place, especially not together. You two hated each other before I left for the Western Peninsula.”
Before Lilu could speak, Talora answered him. “We’re trying to help Louvita, actually. She’s misplaced Tizzy a
nd the bloodslave. I thought I might just peek inside Tizzy’s head and tell her to come back.”
Lilu huffed. “Or find out where she is, and I’ll drag her back myself.”
Ziaul cracked open one of the books and started referencing points from his map. “I see. And you’ve encountered a problem?”
Talora pursed her lips at his half-interest. “I have.”
“So what is it?” Lilu snapped. “You said you could do it—that it would be easy!”
“She has to be asleep. But she hasn’t been asleep all day, and neither has Amaranth! And Louvita didn’t exactly give us a timeframe, so I have no idea how long she’s going to wait before she snaps and sends the cavalry after you.”
“You sound like you’re trying to make this about me—”
Ziaul cleared his throat and looked up at them with his narrow eyes. “Might I make a suggestion?”
They looked back at him. He sat almost too dignified and studious to be in their presence. The other snake slid casually down his chest, peering at the pages of the book in his hand.
“You might,” Lilu finally said.
“There is a third person missing, isn’t there? I don’t believe I’ve seen Aleth since I returned.” He said it with the faintest smile. “Is it plausible to say he’d be with them?”
“Ziaul, I can’t!” Talora sputtered. “I can’t get inside his head again! That first time I did it, when Louvita wanted information from him when he first came here? That was the last time because I almost died! Can’t you just buy us a little bit of time with Louvita?”
“I have much less control over that woman than everyone thinks. You’ve done it once, Talora. You can do it again. The boy won’t kill you. You were much less welcome in his mind last time, as I recall.”
“Again, Louvita’s fault.” Talora folded her arms. “Why do the two of you hate him?”
“I’ve got nothing against him.” Ziaul licked his finger and turned a page. “Like him, I have also risen against a tormenter for my freedom, so I see a bit of myself in him at times. But it’s not my place to protect him or anyone else. That’s not what this place is for. There’s more to him than Louvita thinks, so I’m sure she’ll get a taste of her own medicine someday. But until that day arrives…”
Talora wanted to ask him how much he really knew but didn’t dare suggest there was a secret. “Fine. I’ll try. If he kills me, I’m going to blame all of you! Come on, Lilu. We’re going to the treehouse for this.”
“What makes you think he’s so likely to be asleep, anyway?”
Talora knew his habits and wanted to roll her eyes but didn’t. “Call it a hunch.”
10
Crana Camp
Tonight was one of the nights Tizzy had been warned about. It was loud and busy, and it smelled. Again. There seemed to be no remedy for the smell when Sheerspine was packed, but Tizzy contained her melodramatic sigh. As soon as she was finished drying Naia’s drinkware, she planned on sinking into a bath with a new book. No one was going to bother her.
She stared down the bothersome culprit in mind, the one sitting on the other side of the bar, down at the end, drunk and oblivious. He chatted with Yasuo about something that didn’t hold her interest.
“You’re slow.”
Tizzy continued staring at Aleth, ignoring Naia as the woman came out from the kitchen with a tray of food. Maran swept up the orders with a smile and set off into the common room.
“Sorry,” Tizzy said. “Must be because I’m a princess.”
“That excuse doesn’t fly. Titles have nothing to do with it! The prince over there can fold laundry better than May and Vel. Faster too. But he gossips just as bad.”
Tizzy cracked a smile and moved to the next glass. Working at Sheerspine Spire wasn’t so bad, and the feeling of dedication helped drown out the dread of chores. She owed a lot to Naia, Kenway, and the others. A little bit of cleaning was the least she could do while she and Aleth figured out their next course of action.
Mayriel and Velana were downstairs for a break. Even Troll Daughter had come out of her kitchen for a while and sat at a table by herself, chewing on the meat of some animal Kenway had brought back from a hunt. It was a nice—albeit busy—mundane night, Tizzy thought. But her concentration was broken when Naia started patting her arm.
“Look! Look, look!”
“Cut that out or I’m going to drop one of these!”
“Yasuo! Get over here!” Naia beckoned and he came over with a sigh. “Don’t you give me that. Look!”
She pointed across the room at a man who had come in only an hour ago. Tizzy acknowledged his rugged good looks but didn’t know him and went back to drying a glass.
Yasuo whistled and rolled his shoulders. “Damn. Would you look at that beautiful barrel chest. He almost looks like—”
“The dinghy guy!” Naia clapped, and the two of them howled with laughter. Tizzy gave them a wary side-eye, then looked at the man a second time. His chiseled jaw and cheekbones would have won over anyone, and his overgrown stubble and shaggy brown waves said he lived a life of adventure.
“The dinghy guy?” she asked.
“It’s not him,” Naia said wistfully. “But he looks just like him. Oh, Tizzy, this man was beautiful! You have no idea! Absolutely stunning, though maybe not as broad as this guy. We were trying to woo him all night, without success.”
Tizzy watched her pour them a round of shots of some dark-colored liquor from across seas. “Why do you call him the dinghy guy?”
“Because,” Yasuo started, “all he talked about the entire night was his stupid dinghy on the Undina Loch! I just wanted to grab his stupid, pretty face and tell him to shut up. No one cared about his dinghy!”
Aleth sauntered over and picked up a shot.
“I could tell you all about his dinghy.”
Naia’s jaw dropped as he knocked it back. “No way. You?”
“That’s not fair!” Yasuo threw his hands up. “Why you?”
Aleth shrugged, not paying attention to the shock on his sister’s face. “I don’t know. Just kind of happened. All he wanted to do—at first—was talk to someone about the damn dinghy, and none of you would listen.”
“So, who was he? Anyone important?” Naia asked, pouring him another shot.
“I don’t know. I never asked. Names never really came up.”
Tizzy stared at him, her eyes wide. “What’s a dinghy?”
“It’s currently a double entendre.” Yasuo slung his arm around her. “But generally speaking, it’s just a small boat.”
“It definitely wasn’t a small boat.” Aleth downed the second shot like it was water and raised his arms in the air. “Doddie!” He turned to her, and she waved from her table. “What are we playing? Dice? Cards? Let’s go!”
And he left, just like that. Naia took the shot Tizzy didn’t drink and corked the bottle.
“He gets all the attention,” Yasuo grumbled. “Jackass.”
Tizzy set down a half-dried mug. “What just happened? I missed something.”
Naia picked it up and wiped down the counter beneath it. “Oh, you didn’t know? Tizzy, let me tell you something.” She leaned over the counter and pointed to the front door. “If it’s walked into this place and is even mildly attractive, there’s a good chance he’s fucked it. Your brother is kind of a whore.”
She wondered if she should have taken the shot when she had the chance. “You’ve walked in and are also mildly attractive.”
“I’m flattered.” Naia met her glare and smirked. “That’s none of your business. Quit being so nosy.”
“He said he used to work here before all this, but he never told me what he did. He wasn’t—” she lowered her voice, “—was he actually a whore?”
Naia and Yasuo burst into laughter.
“No!” she wheezed. “But there’s an idea for next time!”
“So, what did he do? Just the same crap we’re doing now?”
Naia wiped away a tear
. “Sometimes. But on nights like this, where it’s real crazy, he’d sing. Him and Doddie had this whole thing. He was really good, but at the end of the night, he’d pick fights with patrons. After a really bad one, Kenway and I kicked him out. When he came back with you, that was the first time we’d seen him since.”
“I never imagined he’d grow up to be a drunk tavern singer.”
“I don’t imagine he’s grown up much at all.” Naia made a flat noise and kept cleaning.
Tizzy had no argument. She finished drying her last glass and freed herself from the bar, anticipating the bath and book she’d been working toward all night. But she stopped when she reached Troll Daughter and Aleth’s table. They had just set their drinks on the ground to make room for a game.
“Boy.” She folded her arms. “When you aren’t drinking alone, you’re the life of the party.”
He smiled. “I do feed off people.”
“What’s the game? I don’t suggest poker. You’re very expressive.”
He leaned his head back lazily, the same smile plastered to his face. “Expressive and attractive. Is it hot in here? It feels really hot in here.”
She put her hands on his shoulders and nudged him upright. “Keep your clothes on, killer.”
“I’ve got it! I know what we’re going to do, Doddie.” He put his elbow on the table. “Arm wrestle!”
Naia was at the scene as though the very words had summoned her. She loomed over the table with her hands on her hips.
“No. What have I told you two about arm wrestling?”
Aleth cleared his throat. “That it’s for fifteen-year-olds and pirates.”
“And are you either?”
He shrugged with a grin that Troll Daughter shared. “No. But we’re gonna do it anyway.”
Troll Daughter agreed and put her elbow on the table opposite his. She announced that she loved arm wrestling despite not being a pirate or fifteen.
“Of course you love it,” Naia said. “You win every time.”
“She’s not going to win this time!” Aleth sang.