by K J Taylor
He stepped out through the waterfall, back into the open air where the rising sun was busy casting a pinkish glow over everything. There didn’t seem to be anyone about. Snarl followed him, climbing up onto a tall rock to check if the coast was clear. A moment later the Oracle emerged as well, squinting with his new eyes. ‘Let me see your hand, Chosen One,’ he said.
‘Only if you promise never to call me that again,’ said Ambit. ‘I have a name, you know.’
‘Show me your hand, Ambit,’ the Oracle demanded.
Ambit offered it up, displaying the scar. ‘There,’ he said. ‘Satisfied?’
The Oracle hissed to himself. ‘The mark . . .’
‘Is gone,’ said Ambit, ‘and we should be too, so hurry up.’ He walked off, limping, until he found a way through the mountains, away from the pass where the monastery stood, and took it.
The Oracle lumbered after him, with Snarl close by, and for now he went silent.
It took them a good while to leave the mountains, but eventually they emerged into the lowlands and stopped to rest in a lush pine forest.
‘This makes no sense,’ the Oracle said as soon as he had caught up with Ambit and Snarl. ‘Explain it to me.’
‘Explain what?’ said Ambit. ‘You’ve told us the prophecy, so now we know where not to go, and what not to do.’ He pulled his shirt up to check on his wound, and adjusted the bandage. ‘I think we’re safe out here, but they’re not going to stop looking for us, so the sooner we split up the better. You can go find yourself a lava bath or something, and I’ll be off to celebrate in the first tavern I can find. Job well done.’
‘B – but the prophecy,’ the Oracle stammered. ‘You were meant to go to the capital. I saw it.’
Ambit raised a blue eyebrow. ‘You want me to go around killing your buddies, then?’
‘Wanting never came into it!’ said the demon. ‘You are the Chosen One.’
‘Don’t care,’ said Ambit. ‘I’m not doing it. Snarl and me are going to keep going and . . . I dunno. What are we going to do now, Snarl?’
‘Whatever the hell we want,’ she reminded him.
‘That’s right,’ said Ambit. ‘Beer for me, rocks for you, and we’re happy.’ He finished fixing the bandage and started to walk on, heading back toward the same demon territory he and Snarl had crossed before.
The Oracle drew level with him, much more limber now his legs had had time to soften again. ‘How did this happen?’ he said. ‘You must tell me. What happened to the bellflower mark?’
‘Do we have to go into that?’ said Ambit, with a glance at Snarl.
‘You may as well tell him,’ she said. ‘He won’t stop asking until you do.’
‘Oh, fine, I’ll give you the short version,’ said Ambit, idly kicking a rock out of his way. Here, under the trees, the sunlight dappled the ground in patches of greenish gold, and the spear flashed randomly every time Ambit passed through the light. ‘I was born in a place called Vinewood,’ he said eventually. ‘Nowhere special. Had this stupid flower mark on my hand, right from birth. When I was little, my granddad started teaching me how to fight with a spear. I wanted to be off playing with my friends, but the old man wouldn’t have any of that. It was all training. Stand here and throw this spear until you can hit the target. All fucking day. I used to sneak off when he wasn’t looking so I could go steal apples. I figured out I could use the spear to knock ’em out of the trees, so everyone was happy.’ Ambit jabbed the spear skyward to demonstrate. ‘Then one day I wandered off into the forest and found Snarl here. How old was I, Snarl?’
‘Ten years old,’ she said. ‘I was only a little imp then. I wandered into human country and got lost, and then Ambit found me.’
‘It was great,’ said Ambit. ‘Finally someone interesting to talk to. We talked and got to be buddies, and I helped her sneak into the village one night because she always wanted to see what human houses were like. And she showed me demon country. We kept it secret, though. Vinewood was near one of the Nine Mountains, see, but demons never came into our country for some reason.’ Ambit twirled the spear idly while he talked. ‘And then one day granddad told me I was the Chosen One, and the day after that a whole pack of demons came into the village, burned the houses down and killed everyone and ate their bones. I ran off with granddad and a few other people, and some demons caught up with us. We fought ’em off, but I was the only survivor. Before he died, granddad told me the demons came because of me. They wanted to kill me.
‘He gave me this spear and told me to take care of it, and he said I should go to that monastery. I went back to the village instead and saw the demons eating everyone, which was a bit of a sight. I waited until they’d gone and then went in to see if anyone was alive, but the only person left was Snarl. She came looking for me, and when she found me she said . . . what was it you said, Snarl?’
‘I said I was so sorry,’ said Snarl, with surprising gentleness.
Ambit nodded. ‘That was it. And then, right there, standing next to my burning house with a heap of meat that used to be my family, I stood up and said, “Fuck it. If this is what being the Chosen One means, then they can forget it.” So I heated the spear up and burned the mark right off my hand, and that was it. Snarl and I left and went looking for something to do that wasn’t saving the world. But we decided we should find out what the prophecy was, so I wouldn’t accidentally make it come true.’
The Oracle gaped at him. ‘But you were meant to . . .’
‘Don’t care,’ said Ambit.
‘But the future . . .’
‘Can take care of itself.’
‘Don’t you at least want revenge?’ the Oracle said at last.
‘What’s the point?’ said Ambit. ‘It won’t bring anyone back. The way I see it, if people want to get rid of your sort, they can damn well do it themselves. I’m not the Chosen One. I’m Ambit, and Ambit does what Ambit wants.’
‘It’s true,’ said Snarl. ‘You should have seen him that time when I told him he couldn’t set fire to a tavern after they kicked him out. He sulked like an imp who’d lost his sapphire.’
‘I was only going to set fire to it a little bit,’ said Ambit. ‘You’re such a killjoy, Snarl.’
‘I’m a demon,’ she said. ‘I should be the one setting fire to things.’
‘Then why didn’t you? At least I could have watched.’
‘Because I didn’t want anyone seeing me,’ she said. ‘If you had your way, we’d have died three times by now.’
‘I’d say closer to six,’ said Ambit. ‘Life’s boring if you don’t almost die at least once a week.’
‘This is impossible,’ said the Oracle.
‘I thought impossible things couldn’t happen,’ said Ambit. ‘But it looks like this one’s happening. By the way, did you see anything about what I was meant to do after saving the world?’ When the Oracle didn’t reply immediately, Ambit shook his head grumpily. ‘See, no-one cares about afterward, do they? I don’t matter a damn unless I’m doing what people want me to. I’m not supposed to heroically die at the end, am I?’
‘Once the prophecy is fulfilled, you’ll be free to do what you choose,’ said the Oracle.
‘Why wait?’ said Ambit. ‘I’d rather do what I want right now. You put things off, you might never get to them. Anyway, what are you going to do now?’
‘I must go back to my king,’ said the Oracle. ‘My kind needs me.’
‘Good idea,’ said Ambit. ‘Put in a good word for us, why don’t you? And you can tell them there’s no need to bother sending anyone after us. I’m not going anywhere near any of the Nine Mountains, and I’m not fighting your king or anyone else. And you can tell ’em I said so.’
‘I will,’ the Oracle said slowly, and after that he went quiet again.
‘See, I knew he’d get the point eventually,’ said Ambit.
‘I think you’ve bewildered him into submission,’ said Snarl.
They travelled on for a few more hou
rs, until they reached the edge of demon country again. There, Ambit waved at the Oracle to go.
‘Home again,’ he said. ‘Enjoy.’
The Oracle took a few steps onto the rough stone of his native ground and stopped there, his craggy face blank with a kind of confused longing. ‘I never thought I would see it again,’ he said. ‘Real country. Real stone.’
Snarl waddled onto the hard ground, tail raised. ‘I miss it every time I have to walk on grass,’ she said with a sigh. She bowed her head toward the other demon. ‘Welcome home, Oracle. It was an honour to meet you. And don’t worry about Ambit. I’ll keep an eye on him.’
The Oracle gave her a long, slow look. ‘Be careful, Snarl,’ he said. ‘I saw more than him in my vision. I saw you as well.’
Snarl stared back at him for a moment before she answered. ‘Goodbye, Oracle.’ She turned and went back to Ambit, who waved to the big demon and left, walking along the edge of the blasted landscape and away.
Four
Ambit and Snarl followed the border of demon territory, heading roughly southward, and neither of them spoke until they were well away from the spot where they had left the Oracle.
‘So now we know where we’re not going,’ said Snarl, pausing to scratch her snout with a glowing claw, ‘but where are we going?’
Ambit shrugged. ‘Anywhere that isn’t the capital, and that has beer in it,’ he said. ‘And hopefully a few halfway good-looking girls. After all that I could use some relaxation.’
‘Beer and women – that’s all you ever think about,’ Snarl complained.
‘No, it isn’t,’ said Ambit. ‘I think about other things too.’
‘Such as?’
‘Warm beds, good food, interesting places to visit, how annoying you are . . . lots of things.’
‘Very profound,’ said Snarl.
‘Well, what do you think about, then?’ said Ambit.
‘Diamonds and rubies, and how much I want to find a lava pool to rest in,’ said Snarl.
‘Is that it?’
‘No, I also think about where we’re going to go next and how annoying you are, and how I wish we could travel together without anyone complaining,’ said Snarl. ‘I’m sick of having to hide.’
‘It’s a pain in the neck, but what else are we going to do about it?’ said Ambit.
‘We could find a place to go,’ said Snarl. ‘Somewhere we can live, where nobody will bother us.’
‘Boring,’ said Ambit. ‘Come on, Snarl, we’ve got better things to do than that. If you were human, I’d think you were asking me to propose to you.’
‘All right, but what are we going to do now?’ Snarl pressed. ‘We did what we were planning to do, but what’s next?’
‘For now we’ll keep on travelling and see what comes up,’ said Ambit. ‘It usually does.’
And, about an hour later, it did.
They had reached the river again, the same one they had followed to get to the monastery. From there they had to go back into demon country, looking for a place where Snarl could cross without getting wet.
‘I’d carry you over if I could, but I like my back better without even more burn scars on it,’ said Ambit.
‘You’d drop me,’ said Snarl, waddling along the bank and peering ahead. ‘I saw a narrow spot along here somewhere the last time. Keep your eyes open.’
‘Can do,’ said Ambit.
They hadn’t gone very far along the river when they heard a commotion of raised voices drifting toward them from behind a rock formation. Ambit caught the rumbling of demon voices and stopped, and then heard a higher-pitched voice mixed in with the others – a human voice. Lifting his spear off his shoulder and holding it ready in front of himself, he silently motioned to Snarl and started to walk quietly toward the outcrop. He and Snarl reached the rock, and peered around it.
Down at the riverbank, not too far beyond their hiding place, a young woman was arguing with a pair of demons.
The demons were both large, bulky specimens – taller than any human, and much wider. Next to them the girl looked even slighter than she already was, but that didn’t seem to be putting her off. In fact the demons had retreated slightly while she shouted at them. Her voice was loud and shrill, and as Ambit watched she advanced on the demons, jabbing a finger at them.
‘Just tell me what I want to know, or you’ll be sorry!’ she shrieked. ‘You must have seen something. Well? What did you see?’
The demons looked slightly bewildered. ‘You leave us alone,’ one of them rumbled, but with some caution. ‘We don’t know anything.’
‘Yes, you do!’ the girl shouted. ‘Don’t play with me, demon. You were there. Now tell me what you saw, or else!’
The larger of the two demons finally pulled himself together. ‘Or else what?’
The girl hesitated, but only for a moment. ‘Or I’ll throw you in the river. I know you wouldn’t like that at all.’
She had said exactly the wrong thing. The demons started to growl, and the bigger one started to push forward, looming over the girl, who finally shrank back nervously.
‘You’ve got a nasty voice,’ the big demon told her. ‘I don’t like it.’
‘Then tell me what I want to know,’ said the girl, her voice becoming even shriller than before as she regained her confidence.
‘No,’ said the second demon, ‘I think I’d rather pull all that nasty meat off you and eat your bones. What do you think, Chryso?’
‘It would shut her up,’ his friend agreed.
‘Aren’t those the two we saw last time we came this way?’ Snarl hissed to Ambit.
‘Yeah, Green Stone and Yellow Stone,’ Ambit murmured back. ‘Should we do something, d’you think?’
‘If you like, but I can’t see much point,’ said Snarl.
Meanwhile, the two demons had decided to end the argument the easy way. The bigger one with the yellow stone grabbed the girl by the arm, and the heat from his claws made her flesh start to smoke. She screamed, and the noise was so ear-splitting that the demon let go and backed off, clutching at his head.
‘The noise!’ he groaned. ‘You do it, Mal.’
The girl stumbled away, clutching at her burn. At least she had stopped shouting at the demons, but as the smaller one with the green stone came at her she started again. ‘Help! Someone help!’
‘I think this is my cue,’ said Ambit, finally stepping out from his hiding place.
‘No, it isn’t!’ said Snarl, darting after him. ‘You don’t want to be a hero, remember?’
But Ambit ignored her and strolled over toward the girl, who had started trying to run away. ‘All right,’ he said loudly, ‘what’s going on here?’
The two demons stopped and stared at him, and then hastily retreated.
‘Not you again,’ said the yellow-stoned one, Chryso.
‘Afraid so,’ said Ambit. ‘What’s this girl doing here?’
‘I don’t know,’ said Mal, the green-stoned demon. ‘We were minding our own business and she just came barging up and started shouting at us. She was asking who killed the big guy a few days back.’
‘But we didn’t tell her anything, did we?’ Chryso added hastily.
‘Why would we?’ said Mal. ‘We don’t know anything.’
‘That’s the ticket,’ said Ambit. He glanced over at the girl, who had stopped to watch with a puzzled expression. ‘She’s annoying, isn’t she? Got a voice like broken glass.’
‘I know, right?’ said Mal. ‘Can’t even bring myself to kill her. Why don’t you take her away and make her leave us alone?’
‘No way,’ Chryso interrupted, ‘I saw her first. A girl like that’s got to have good tasty bones.’
‘All right, you deal with her then,’ said Mal.
‘Fine, but I’m not sharing,’ said Chryso. He started to push past Ambit, who quickly moved out of the way to avoid a burn of his own.
The girl ran in a semicircle, avoiding the demon, but trying to get to Ambit. ‘Do
n’t just stand there. Do something!’ she shouted.
Ambit winced. ‘I don’t know. These two don’t seem so bad.’
‘They’re going to eat me,’ said the girl.
‘You were kind of asking for it,’ said Ambit.
Chryso tried to grab the girl again. This time she dodged it. ‘Help me!’ she yelled. ‘I order you to help me!’
‘Hey, Ambit don’t take orders,’ said Ambit.
The girl ducked Chryso’s arm. ‘I’ll . . . I’ll give you a reward if you help me!’
Ambit pointed the spear at the demon. ‘Oh, why didn’t you say so? All right, Chryso, let her go or we’ll have to get rough.’
The yellow-stoned demon stopped immediately and turned to face Ambit. ‘You keep that spear away from me,’ he rumbled.
‘Just let the girl go and it’ll be fine,’ said Ambit.
Chryso looked past him, then quickly stepped away from the girl. ‘All right,’ he said. ‘All right, it’s fine. No trouble. The other human can go. We don’t want any trouble . . . now, Mal!’
The green-stoned demon lunged at Ambit from behind. He saw the motion just in time and dived out of the way, but Chryso took his opportunity and charged at him. Ambit whirled around and thrust the spear at the demon, hitting him in the upper chest. The point sank through the demon’s molten flesh and, as he reeled back, Ambit pulled the spear free and stabbed Mal through the foot. The green-stoned demon roared and limped away, leaving his friend to attack Ambit alone. Chryso’s yellow stone flashed, and he spat a small flame. ‘You bastard.’
‘You started it,’ said Ambit, tapping the spear-point on the ground, so the dried lava broke off in flakes. ‘You want to cop this baby through the gut, or can we call it a day?’
Chryso bellowed and head-butted him in the face by way of an answer. Ambit staggered onto his backside, stars exploding through his head. Before he could get up, the demon had wrenched the spear out of his hand. Ambit shook his head and his vision came back in time to show the yellow-stoned demon take the spear in both hands and try to bend it over his knee. The leather wrappings started to smoulder, but nothing else happened. Chryso growled and tried again, but the spear refused to break. Ambit got up, dabbing at his bleeding nose. ‘You wand a hand wid thad?’