~
The morning sun was bright, and the air clean as the carriage took them through the market district. Lovely rounded dome buildings with blue faces and white roofs, shallow canals with flagged gondolas ran beneath cobblestone bridges and elegant curved walkways. Scaly birds with long bright tails hopped and bobbed about on the flagpoles, searching with their large black eyes for any dropped morsel. A child out shopping with her mother dropped the bread she was munching on, only to have it snatched away by a diving bird before it even hit the ground.
Agaprei looked hungrily at the strawberry crepe Storgen handed her.
“You know, I really should be more annoyed at these transparent attempts to get me to like you, but they’re so blatant there’s no sense at getting angry at it. It’s like being mad at the ocean because it’s wet.”
She took a nice long soothing bite, taking the time to really savor the flavor. Her eyes rolled back a little and for a moment she forgot herself, letting out a blissful little moan. Her long pointed ears perked up at the sounds of giggling, and she noticed Kaia and Storgen were snickering at her from the other side of the carriage. Crossing her eyes, she noticed a dab of crème clinging to the tip of her nose.
They laughed even louder when she blushed, and then she began laughing along with them. Playfully, she wiped the dollop off her nose and flicked it at Storgen.
~
The gypsies played their instruments, streams of magic winding their way through the carnival tents, carrying little colored flags and trinkets for the children to scoop up if they wished.
“Ooh, here, I’ll win you a prize,” Storgen offered, throwing down a coin at the hatchet throwing booth and picked up one of the cheap little weapons. “They had one of these back on Ápinso. I used to play all the time.” Testing its weight, he threw it down range and clipped one of the vases, knocking it over and smashing it.
Kaia cheered, but Agaprei rolled her eyes. “Is that the best you can do?” She threw down her own coin and slammed her fist on the table, flipping the hatchet up into her hand. Deftly spinning it on the tip of her finger, she took aim and threw it downrange, striking an urn center mass and shattering it to pieces.
“Very nice,” Storgen praised as he threw down another coin. “But, I notice you only hit one.” He grabbed a fresh hatchet and whipped it like a discus, smashing through one urn before arcing and destroying a second farther down.
“Oh, is that how we’re doing this?” she asked.
Storgen breathed on his fingernails and polished them against his chiton. “If you can.”
Agaprei grinned competitively and threw down two more coins. Flipping one in each hand, she threw them both at once, smashing two urns simultaneously.
Storgen whistled in praise. “Nice.”
“Was it?” Agaprei asked coyly. “I wasn’t even trying.”
The meek little vendor pointed at one of the smaller prizes. “You are welcome to choose any color of…”
“We haven’t even started,” Storgen announced, slapping down another pair of coins, then flinging two more hatchets. He flung them both before him, crossing his arms to give them a good spin. They each passed perfectly between a pair of vases, clipping the arms of each and sending four urns falling to the ground.
Agaprei put up her hand and rocked it back and forth. “Not bad, but you only knocked them over. Let me show you how it’s done.”
Kaia watched as Agaprei and Storgen went back and forth, upping the ante at each turn. The vendor watched in disbelief as the pile of coins before him grew larger and larger. Storgen threw and cheered, Agaprei threw and hollered; shattered bits of clay littered the ground in ever-growing piles until the vendor finally held out his tiny hands.
“Stop!”
Storgen and Agaprei stood before one another, breathing heavily with exertion.
“We can go one more round,” Storgen said, reaching into his money pouch and finding it empty. “Um…can I borrow a few pennigs?”
“It doesn’t matter, I’m all out of urns.”
Storgen and Agaprei looked out at the destruction they had caused, then looked at one another and began to laugh.
~
Kaia walked happily behind Storgen and Agaprei as they walked through the carnival grounds, carrying a stuffed jellyfish doll as big as she was on her back. She sang a little song, and the spell wove itself around the doll, lifting it up behind her like a balloon on a string.
“I feel bad I spent all our money on that game,” Storgen admitted. “I had a lot more stuff planned here.”
“It’s all right, it was fun,” Agaprei admitted, a happy little sing-song quality to her voice. “Besides, it’s all right if I pay for a few things.”
He gave her a jestful nudge with his elbow. “Not on your birthday, it isn’t. It wouldn’t be proper.”
She nudged him back playfully with her shoulder. “Oh, so NOW you care about etiquette, do you?”
Before Storgen could answer, a nearby announcer raised his voice. “Come on folks, don’t tell me none of you are brave enough to get into the ring with the Brawlers!”
They looked over and saw a crowd gathered around a makeshift platform, a pair of hulking, oily men flexing their muscles and shouting out challenges and profanities in a number of tongues.
“We need two, yes two of your best fighters,” the announcer said again into his magic horn, his voice ringing out over every tent. All the men in the crowd looked away, pretending to be distracted by a nearby clump of grass or a skittering animal.
“Five hundred pennigs goes to any pair who can last five minutes against the Brawler Brothers!”
Storgen and Agaprei looked at one another and grinned impishly.
~
The crowd was completely silent as Agaprei and Storgen proudly walked away from the ring, two very oily and very unconscious Brawler Brothers laying sprawled out on the mat as Kaia counted the money.
~
“Oh hey, they’ve got a seer, let’s have them see our future.”
Storgen opened up the flap of the colorful tent and beckoned her inside.
Agaprei rolled her eyes. “You know I don’t believe in that stuff. Besides, it’s a waste of money.”
“You know, you’re surprisingly skeptical for someone surrounded by magic and gods all the time.”
“You know what I mean. Future gazing is notoriously unreliable, because the future isn’t fixed.”
The cheap incense in the air nearly made them gag as they approached the aging sphinx based behind a dusty crystal ball.
“Glimpse into your future for a fee, young man,” it said disaffectedly.
Storgen happily placed the money into the waiting urn. “Here ya go.”
The Sphinx blinked its clouded eyes at Agaprei. “A siren, eh? Well, that’s okay, I cater to demi-sexuals as well.”
“Ewww, don’t use that word.”
“What? You’re a demi-human, he’s a human.”
“You should know that is a highly offensive term. The politically correct phrase is beastman, and we’re not a couple.”
“All right, all right, I meant no offense. What would you like to see?”
“Can you show us what our kids will look like?” Storgen asked.
Agaprei smacked him on the shoulder.
“What?”
“You’re getting creepy again. We’ve talked about this. Just because we were together in our last lives doesn’t mean we will be together in this one.”
“Fine, can you show us what our kids WOULD look like IF we got together?”
He turned to Agaprei. “Better?”
“Only slightly.”
The sphinx closed its eyes and the crystal filled with dark smoke. Storgen waited excitedly for something to appear, but nothing ever did.
“Hey, your crystal is broken.”
“It most certainly is not.”
“Well then, why don’t we see anything?”
The sphinx opened its cloudy eyes.
“Because you won’t have any kids. You will never be together.”
“See? Told you so,” Agaprei said sadly.
Storgen waved it off. “Pfttt, whatever. You’re right, Ms. Sonata, this is just a scam. Try to work on your customer service there buddy, okay? Come on, there’s a boutique over here I think you’ll love.”
~
Agaprei stepped out of the changing room and admired her new outfit happily in the mirror. High-laced sandals and a light summer dress. She looked young and exuberant, the dress flattering her hourglasses figure beautifully. Her lavender hair was done up, accenting her deliciously feminine neck, a trio of silver rings along her elegantly long, pointed ears. The color accentuated her eyes, an exotic amber color that was spellbinding to Storgen when she gave him a shy glance, as if secretly hoping for his approval. She was hauntingly beautiful.
“You look wonderful,” Storgen answered her wordless question.
“Thanks,” she said, swaying in place, enjoying the sensation of the light fabric against her skin. It surprised her how much she loved wearing it. No man had ever bought her clothes before. “I was gonna--whaaaa!”
She tripped on her sandal and fell to the ground.
Kaia burst out laughing.
~
Storgen ran up excitedly, hiding something behind his back as Agaprei held some ice against the swelling bruise on her forehead.
“Here, I got you something to cheer you up.”
“It better be a pie,” Agaprei groaned, removing the ice and testing the tenderness of the goose egg underneath.
“It’s a pie.”
She perked up. “Is it really?”
“Yup.” Storgen pulled the pie out from behind his back. The golden crust looked absolutely scrumptious, and the cinnamon smell was intoxicating.
“Ooh, give it here,” Kaia demanded.
“The birthday girl gets first bite.” Storgen carefully prepared a fork-full and held it out to her. “Say ahhhhh.”
“AHHHHHH!” Agaprei screamed.
“No, that’s the wrong kind of ahhhhhh…”
She swatted the fork out of his hand. Kaia screamed as well when she saw it, kicking the pie out of his grip.
“What in the world…?”
He glanced down at the ruined mess, the fruity filling spreading out on the flagstones.
“Oops, apple pie…right…Sorry.”
“Are you trying to kill us!” they screamed in unison.
~
Agaprei felt relieved as the carriage pulled away from the festival grounds. The raven bracelet she wore was a clear sign that she was the champion of Fovos, and the attention was beginning to weigh on her. So many sidelong glances and hushed whispers, little fingers of children pointing, only to be shushed by their mothers.
The sun was high in the sky when they reached the outer wall, which on the east side was little more than a tiny gate carved into an enormous rib bone, forming a tall barrier stretching out for miles in both directions in a gentle ivory curve.
“You’re going to love the next part,” Storgen boasted as he poked his head outside and looked ahead. “…but I just remembered. I need to grab something. Keep going, I’ll catch up.”
“What are you…?”
Storgen squirmed out the window and scampered up the side of a building, disappearing over the side of an awning and startling a few birds. Agaprei looked ahead to see what had spooked him. At the gate was a crooked body with chained robes, searching each wagon and cart as it departed.
Kaia gave a little tug on the reins and the carriage came to a stop. The dark servant poked its head inside and began to sniff around.
“His stench is all over you.” It spoke, its voice a cacophony of screeching insects. “Where is XVII?”
“I don’t answer to you or your master,” Agaprei responded. “If Master Kynigó has a question he can submit it to me in writing.”
It reached out with a bend limb and grabbed her arm, twisting it up to inspect the raven bracelet she wore. “Fovos cannot protect you from us forever,” it hissed.
The servant flinched in pain and withdrew its arm, a black obsidian dagger had been run straight through the palm of its hand.
“The next time it will be your throat,” Agaprei warned.
The crooked servant pulled the knife free and tossed it inside the carriage. “The Tower always gets what it wants.”
“Why are you even still after him? You got the blood you need.”
“For one stone, yes. But, why make one when you can make two?”
“So, you plan on putting him back in a cage, draining his blood and freezing him, keeping him alive for another four centuries like some sort of living raw material?”
“What business is it of yours how we treat our property? Is he dear to you?”
Agaprei opened her mouth, then closed it again. “As you can see, he is not here, now let us pass, or this will constitute a violation of the Amstaad Treaty, which we will prosecute to the full extent of the law.”
The servant balked and motioned to the guards. The portcullis was raised, and with a flick of the reins, the carriage passed through the bone gate.
Agaprei felt like a wretch. She could imagine the tiny cage they must have kept him in, the tiny drawing of her they kept on the wall to torment him. The sorrow he must have felt, the hopelessness. She wondered how many times he had tried to escape, his only thought to find her. And now, here she was, preparing to ask him to take her back to that place.
She pulled her knees up to her chest. “I’m awful.”
Storgen ran across the top of the wall and jumped off the side, landing on the roof of the carriage with a heavy thud.
“So, what did I miss?” he asked, slipping through the window and acting like nothing happened.
The shrill shriek of an insect filled the carriage, and Agaprei lifted her arm to discover an alchemic spider had been placed there.
“Eeeahhh!”
Agaprei flicked the thing out the window, shaking her hands and squealing in disgust as she squirmed, while a louder, much deeper shriek answered the call from behind them.
Storgen poked his head out the window and saw the twisted servant disintegrate into a mass of spiders, moving like a black carpet over the road, catching up to them with frightening speed.
“Time to go a little faster.” He swung himself up to the driver’s seat, and pulled off the leather straps for the land-dragon’s armor. It fell away with a clatter and he gave each beast a solid whack on the rump. Relieved to be lightened of their burden, the dragons kicked up their pace, the heavy footfall of their claws rattling the carriage as it sped down the road.
“I try to be nice, I try to be diplomatic, and what do they do? They attack my carriage.” Agaprei pulled a pouch from her belt and extended the wick. Scraping her dagger against the iron door frame, she made a spark that lit the wick, and threw it out the back.
Their artificial abdomens burning like eerie green lanterns, it was like a sea of darkness filled with beady, green flickering eyes. Her pouch hit the ground and was enveloped by the mass. A second later it exploded, spraying black ichor and spider fragments everywhere.
“How do you like that, huh? Maybe next time you’ll respect champion immunity!”
Several of the spiders fired webbing from their spinnerets, latching onto the carriage and attempting to slow it down. Storgen climbed down and gave a kick, sweeping the threads clear.
“We need to lose them in the river, can you take this thing off-road?”
“I can’t now,” Kaia called back. “We just entered the forest road; if we turn off you’ll die.”
“Oh, great.”
As the swarm moved closer, several of the spiders combined together, their bodies merging in disgusting alterations, forming spiders the size of a watermelon. One fired out a thick, steely strand that attached itself to Storgen’s arm. Storgen pulled back, yanking the spider off its feet and sending it towards him. He punched the insect wh
en it reached him, and the bug exploded in a spray of chitin and fluid.
“Kaia, do you remember the Trammel Aria?” Agaprei asked as she carefully measured out powders from her various pouches, mentally doing the calculations as she filled a vial.
“Um, I think so,” Kaia answered back, barely able to stay on her seat amid the jarring.
Two of the larger spiders shot out their webs, attaching to the back of the carriage. The spiders dug their alchemic pincers into the ground, tearing up the flagstones as the carriage was yanked slower by the drag.
Storgen grabbed the heavy thread but could not yank it free. Pulling to give himself some slack, he threw the thread into the spinning wheel hubs. The spiders were yanked forward, winding up to the wheels, then spun around, smashed into the ground and run over by the wheels over and over again until there was nothing left but black spray.
Kaia sang out with her siren voice, the notes spreading around her like spectral seeds. Ghostly thorns and brambles grew up in the road behind them, choking out the pathway. The larger spiders were slowed, but the smaller ones passed through unimpeded.
The swarm was nearly on top of them now. Storgen clung to the back with one hand, punching, kicking, and swatting spider after spider as it jumped up at him.
Agaprei adjusted her glasses. 100 grams guano saltpeter, 15 grams marrowood charcoal, 10 grams sulfur seed, 50 grams dragon scale, 21 grams griffon claw, and…
She looked around, then reached out through the back window and dug her pinkie in Storgen’s ear.
“Ah, what the crap?”
“Sorry, I need three grams of wax, so I’m borrowing some of yours.”
“Use some of your own!”
“Sirens don’t have ear wax!”
Wiping in the final ingredient, she corked the vial and gave the contents a good shake. “You might want to get inside.”
Agaprei threw the vial out the back. She and Storgen hit the floor just as the vial entered the swarm and detonated.
The air became greasy, as a black cloud built and rolled across the swarm, orange flames exploding up inside like boiling tar. The air compressed in waves, sending out flaming globules of burning jelly in all directions, sticking to everything and setting it alight.
Spiders shrieked and burned by the thousands, some incinerated instantly, others towards the edge jumped on their backs and tried to extinguish the flames, but the sticky jelly continued to burn, even when it was smothered. Still others, beyond the initial blast ran off the road, only to be hit by the falling droplets like burning hail.
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