The Tree

  “Yes, and we have spoken. Our world is more important and so we will help you complete your quest, so perhaps you can help us in return,” Kima said.

  Lil frowned but said nothing. She would not turn away help that could be critical in reuniting with her sibs, but they would get nothing in return. There was no point in a revolution. Lil needed to focus on how to survive the coming dissolution of everything she had ever known. She promised nothing. She owed them nothing.

  ThenComeAlongWeGoTo

  CollectMySibsAndTwoAntes

  WhoAreAlliesOfMineIKnow

  WhereToFindThemButItIsVery

  NearTheRulingCourtsSoWe

  MustTravelInDisguise.

  Kima looked over at Quinn who smiled and nodded.

  “I know just the thing.”

  Quinn hurried upstairs to the room she shared with Hlani and quickly returned with a roll of paper in her hands.

  She unrolled it and Lil realized it was a map of Zebub painstakingly rendered down to streets and buildings, many tagged with notes. There were scatterings of colored dots here and there.

  “Can you point out where they were?”

  Lil nodded and looked down to study the map. She found the Ruling Courts on the map, a mass of black dots on the them. Perhaps black meant Antes? She used her finger and traced the street to the building she remembered. She let her finger rest on it for a moment before pulling away.

  Quinn leaned over to look at the place her finger had marked, then looked up with a large smile.

  “They’re at a House of the Madame.” She said.

  Lil rocked back at that news. June’s house. She hoped June had survived whatever Mayer had planned for them and whatever Chayyliel tried to pull. She tightened her hands to fists at the thought of that monster, and the way he had betrayed her. Lil paused, if she meant Mayer or Chayyliel.

  Quinn looked up at Uchel and waited for a nod before continuing.

  “We have used the Houses of the Madame as sanctuaries and meeting places before. They are sympathetic.”

  AreThey?

  She had no way to communicate her suspicion and disdain for their naïveté with the branch, but her face must have said it.

  “They have never betrayed us and have submitted to every security measure we have ever requested,” Uchel said firmly.

  Lil nodded.

  “I have the perfect outfits for us.” Quinn quickly rolled up the map and disappeared back into her room. When she returned she had an armful of fabric. “The Houses of the Madame cater to an . . . unusual clientele, and ‘dants and Antes mingle freely in their Houses. This is to our advantage. One of the problems with disguises is that when you try to blend in and hide, you look suspicious. If you distract with your clothes then ‘dants will remember that and not your face.”

  Quinn shook out a purple dress which turned out to be a long, layered robe. Separate thin gauze layers of different shades of purple that blended into a darker royal shade when they lay against each other.

  “Hold out your arms, Lil.”

  Lil eyed the ‘dant suspiciously but did as she asked.

  The robe fell around her body like chill wind, not fabric. She turned to face Quinn and the woman belted up the front with a thick piece of silver twine that crossed back and forth from her chest down to the floor. She pulled out a dozen ribbons of silver. She approached Lil and gestured for her to lean down. When Lil did the ‘dant attached the ribbons to the little hair Lil had left.

  “Now just a little of this.” Quinn pulled a small bottle of powder from her pile and uncorked it with her teeth. Placing a finger over the opening, Quinn upended the bottle, shaking it. Putting the bottle right side up she took her finger coated in the brown powder and patted it around Lil’s mouth. “This will hide the visible scars.”

  “And as for the fingers, well, gloves. She looked at Lil’s damaged hands and took tissues, stuffing the two fingers of the one glove and the one finger on the opposite glove. When Lil glanced in the mirror she saw someone bright and busy. The face was boring; the body and the ribbons that fell like silver hair were what caught the eye.

  In moments Quinn had the rest of them dressed similarly: Assan was draped in red and orange that made him look like living, moving fire. Kima wore black, but her face was painted a bright silver with crystals across her eyelids and down the right side of her jaw. Hlani’s pale skin and red, fiery hair were accented by a blue robe similar to Lil’s own purple one. The exposed skin of her arms had been painted the same shade as her hair and she wore a half-mask of pure white.

  Quinn herself had on white that made the golden tones in her skin more prominent. She took her dark hair and bathed it in a solution that studded it with gold dust. She painted her eyes wider in the mirror herself, accenting them with gold and black until they seemed to take up half her face.

  Uchel had not changed anything about her appearance. When Lil looked at her questioningly the old woman laughed a bitter chuckle.

  “I do not need a disguise. I am old, that is enough to make me invisible to most.” They all donned large black robes with hoods to keep their brightness hidden until they were closer to their destination. They moved through the forest quickly and emerged behind a large, crumbling building of dark blue stone.

  Kima leaned back from where she was leading the way. “This is the best approach to the city. Few people are ever here.”

  Lil nodded and they turned, emerging into an abandoned, quiet street. Most of the buildings looked abandoned, but Lil caught hints of habitation. Food and human waste was carefully corralled and placed far away from the living spaces. Squatters. They moved through the neighborhood with no problem. As they crossed another street Lil realized they were close to the place where her parents’ home had stood. She refused to look in that direction as they passed by.

  They arrived in the center district of the city. It was known by no ownership title because, unlike the rest of the city, no particular Hive claimed it. It belonged to all of the Ruling Courts and none at the same time. Antes who were not part of any Court or did not rank highly in their Houses lived in this district.

  “We may remove the robes now,” Kima said. They all did and, following their example, Lil tossed the robe into a convenient alley. “Keep your heads up, remember—pride and arrogance.”

  They moved through the streets, illuminated by light vines whose bulbs had been coaxed to grow along doorways and windowsills. There were some Antes and ‘dants out and about; more of the former. Most of the ‘dants were accompanied by an Ante or dressed elaborately like they were and heading in the same direction.

  They arrived at The House of the Madame just in time to see ‘dants and Antes alike fleeing the house. There was a great commotion inside and Lil heard screams. Screams she recognized.

  The branch that had been wrapped around her waist underneath her robes whipped out and straightened into a staff before landing in her palm. Lil stared at it in wonder; she had no idea it could become a weapon as well. The thorns under her palms turned soft and the others longer and sharper. She spun it in her hands.

  She looked at the others. Both Kima and Assan had their guns out. Quinn was whirling a pair of swords around in her hands, each one longer than her torso. Lil had no idea where she had hidden such weapons, but was glad that she seemed to be an expert in their use, from how she wielded them. Hlani reached down to her boots and pulled two short hammers from them. The heads looked heavy and dangerous enough, but the opposite sides had been sharpened into spikes.

  Uchel was palming something in her hands and Lil looked at them no more as another scream sounded. That was Min. Lil moved toward the door before anyone could think to stop her and ready to kill anyone who tried.

  AREL & JAGI

  Arel and Jagi did their best to entertain the pups. They had been in the new House of the Madame for two days and still had not left the room they had arrived in. They were cramped and bored. Unlike their first hiding spot, this House of the Mada
me was in the city center, too close to the Ruling Courts. It had already been searched so they need not worry about that, but it was much busier than the other House had been. And most of the visitors were Antes, coming under cloaks of magic or darkness—whatever was convenient to hiding their patronage of such a house.

  The Door who had greeted them on the other side of the tunnel was completely different from the one they had just left. This Door was all angles, not the lush welcoming fullness they had left behind. Their skin was a pale white with blue undertones that made them look on the edge of freezing. They had no smile lines about their mouth; in fact, their face was totally smooth, absent of any lines.

  Still, The Door had welcomed them and not been stingy on what they could provide—clothing, food, and even books to entertain them. They could not leave the room, however, and that had started to wear on Min and Davi after the first few hours. Now two days in, even Arel and Jagi found themselves short on patience with one another. They stayed awake as the pups dozed between them, wrapped in the interweaving cocoon of their extra appendages. What had started as a comfort for the two Antes, knowing their charges were safe, had turned into something the two ‘dants seemed unwilling to sleep without.

  “What is our—” Jagi started. plan/next move/goal? his tentacles finished for him.

  Arel was silent at first. He could feel the fear and nerves in his companion, in the shaking at the places they touched. “We must—” find/locate/reunite/join with Lil.

  A knock at their door interrupted their conversation and they untangled themselves and hurried to answer before whoever it was woke the pups.

  “There is a new guest,” The Door spoke.

  Arel and Jagi looked at one another.

  “Is there something unusual about this guest?” Arel asked.

  The Door nodded. “A ‘dant. Not one I know.”

  Arel and Jagi understood immediately. This House of the Madame was centrally located, more expensive. Most ‘dants would not be able to afford the services of the House or any of its companions. And any that could? The Door should know immediately on sight.

  “Describe him.”

  They talked about his light brown skin, red hair, and the spots across his face and finally his two companions. Arel and Jagi realized it was Byron. The boy whose idiot friends they had wanted so badly to kill. Arel and Jagi shared a look acknowledging that they should have eliminated the threat when it first presented itself. They would not make that mistake again.

  “Did he ask about anyone?” Arel asked.

  The Door shook their head, “No.”

  “Be careful of him,” Jagi replied. “We will prepare should we need to run again. Let us know if anything bothers you about him. No matter how small.”

  The Door nodded and left. Arel and Jagi returned to their previous position, but, too nervous to speak, they simply stayed awake late into the night watching Min and Davi.

  They’d fallen into a fitful sleep at some point when a sound startled them all awake. Arel and Jagi froze in the darkness waiting for it again and when it came they realized it was not a noise so much as a vibration. Slowly Arel and Jagi withdrew back into themselves and stood. They were on either side of their still-sleeping pups, trying to pinpoint from which direction the feeling was coming from. The door to their room flung open; the Door of the House stood there, obviously woken in the middle of sleep. There was a frown on their face.

  “Come. Quickly.”

  Arel and Jagi did not hesitate, each one scooping up one of their charges and hurrying to follow.

  “I was asleep and the House contacted me and showed me that that ‘dant somehow was able to use power on me. Here! In my own House!” The anger in The Door’s voice turned it into a growl. “The ‘dant questioned me about you, when you had arrived, and how. I told him everything. I apologize.”

  Arel and Jagi ignored the apology and hurried along. Min was stirring at the rapidness of their movement though Davi still hung limp in Jagi’s arms.

  “I went to confront them and confine them to their room until I could speak with you but they were gone. The House does not have much concept of time so I do not know how long ago they left.”

  They were hurrying through the main room, following The Door somewhere, when they were all thrown off their feet. They looked to the front door, but it was the floor that was bucking and bursting. It came from beneath them in a shower of dirt and it was all that Arel and Jagi could do to leap out of the way and shield their charges. They saw The Door churned under the ground in the explosion from beneath. Arel reached for their hand but they fell beneath the loose dirt before the two could connect.

  What came out of the ground was huge; larger than Arel and Jagi combined. Its body was squat and thick, close to the ground, moving on dozens of articulated limbs that ended in what looked like ‘dant feet, if the toes were three times as long as they should have been. Its neck was long and curled to and fro. Swiveling on the end of the long neck was a ‘dant face: a young girl screaming and screeching, no intelligence in her eyes. The lower part of her jaw stretched away from her face, showing row after row of sharp teeth. The teeth glittered, as black as the rest of it.

  For Arel and Jagi it did not matter that they had never seen anything like this before, they recognized it from the whispered stories they had been told as pups themselves.

  “Maasu,” they whispered in unison underneath the wailing of both Min and Davi.

  The legendary animals of war. The created monsters that the Ruling Courts had been so free and loose with early in Corpiliu’s development. The secrets of creating Maasu had been lost and none had been seen since the beginning times. It should not have existed. The depictions of Maasu in the old texts and stories was often of wanton murder and destruction. They were made of pieces of living beings, enhanced with mechaniques and power, with instinct and knowledge from the component pieces. They were horrific tools of murder.

  And here one was in front of them.

  Arel passed Min over to Jagi’s other arm.

  “Go.”

  Jagi hesitated for a second but nodded and moved to the right while Arel stood taller. His apertures opened and he let his other appendages slip out and spread around him. He whipped them at the creature’s head, narrowly avoiding the thing’s fanged jaws. Arel used his tentacles to spin himself across the room. It bit into one of them and he growled and used his momentum to rip it from the Maasu’s mouth. What gushed out of his injured appendage was the black sludge, the trash and darkness that was his power. He watched Jagi run as quickly as possibly with the pups in his arms.

  The Maasu spun and lifted the massive trunk of a tail that swayed behind it. It crashed down in front of Jagi, who barely avoided slamming into it. Jagi spun back, but the only other way from the room led upstairs: a dead-end.

  He put Min and Davi on the first step.

  “Min, protect your brother,” Jagi said.

  The little girl nodded, even as her lip trembled and tears slipped down her face.

  “When you see a chance to get out of here, you take it. Okay?” He had both of his hands on her shoulders.

  The girl nodded and Jagi smiled, leaning forward to kiss her on the forehead.

  “It will all be alright, Min. You shall survive this,” Jagi whispered.

  Then he did the same for Davi, gave him the same benediction and hoped he was not lying to them. Jagi turned to where Arel was fighting the thing and losing slowly. He growled low in his throat, his apertures snapped open, and his own extra appendages slid out. Jagi whipped one across the room, catching the Maasu in the face so that it turned its rage toward him.

  It roared and charged, and Jagi let out a battle cry of his own running to meet it.

  LIL

  Lil was through the door. The first thing she saw was Min, standing at the far end of the room. She had pushed Davi behind her and was holding him there with one arm. The arm they had taken, the one that Lil had replaced, was held in front of
her, fingers splayed, drifts of frost floating before it. Lil looked at the creature that filled most of the room and the two Antes fighting it. Arel and Jagi were quite the sight. They distracted the creature, ran around its attacks, and used their tentacles to hurt it from all sides. Every time they got close enough to lay a hand on it, a part of its black carapace dissolved under the touch.

  Lil’s entire body lit up with triumph. She had found them and they were unharmed, except that she had to act fast if she wanted things to remain that way. Lil picked up a rock and threw it so it landed at Min’s feet. Her sib looked up at her and opened her mouth.

  Lil quickly held up her finger to her lips and Min contained her noise to a small yelp.

  Davi looked in her direction and started smiling through his tears. The thing’s tail was still draped between her and them but that was up to her to change. Lil pulled her dagger free and sliced a finger through the glove. She painted the symbols on the blade that had made it strong enough to penetrate the armor of the creature that had hunted her before. Lil slammed the knife down into the tail just as the rest of those who’d accompanied her came through the door.

  The thing roared but moved its tail from the spot, and Lil quickly gestured for her sibs to run to her. They did and she hugged them before passing them over to Quinn.

  The branch flew from her hand to hover between them.

  TakeThemOutsideProtectThem.

  IWillComeAfterThisCreatureIsDead.

  Quinn nodded and gathered the children to her. Min started to struggle but Lil placed her hand on her head and she stopped. She leaned over and kissed her on the cheek, doing the same to Davi and tasting the salt of tears that still flavored their skin.

  Then she shoved them towards Quinn who ran out the door with them. Lil turned to the monster, which was whirling in pain and confusion. She grabbed for the branch and it became a staff again. Lil waited for the right moment then struck, pushing the thorned tip through one of the holes that Arel or Jagi had burned in its hide.