by Elina Vale
Earthmaiden is always a female. In addition to their singing, they also exude a scent that lures men in. They look like beautiful women, but they have very sharp teeth, strong nails in their fingers, and they can cut a man’s neck easily, like their distant relatives the mermaids can.
A particulate caution must be practiced when dealing with an old earthmaiden. Often the old earthmaidens control a certain area, their territory, fiercely. Younger creatures stumble here and there and act carelessly, but older ones might even negotiate proper agreements benefiting them.
Killing an earthmaiden is easiest if…”
Boa removed the wax from the other ear. “This is unfinished.”
Eavan grabbed the book and pushed it carelessly into her bag. “I haven’t had the time to write it. I have to get it ready before the end of the winter when the book house of Holli in Sungarden will start copying it.” She glanced him under her brows and bit her lip. “You might have read some of my other works. I have written three guidebooks before this. Lune the Lion is my writer name.”
“Guardians of Bottle Swamp?” Boa’s jaw dropped. “You’ve written it?”
She shrugged, and Boa stared at her, a little bit more respectful. If she had written that guide, it meant that she had been there. On Bottle Swamp. The book was a guide on how to handle the pythoncougars, which weren’t the nicest ones of the beasts in this land.
Eavan nudged her head up and lifted her hand as a warning sign. Boa fixed his eyes on the street. She came to stand next to him by the window, and Boa noticed that she didn’t have any wax in her ears. He might have to trust her knowledge, at least a bit.
First, all Boa could hear was the sound of his own blood rush, but then a light voice trickled through the wax. Boa glanced at Eavan. Her eyes were tightly fixed on the street. She looked alerted and tense, but yet he saw joy in her eyes. She was excited. The same feeling reached him every time before action. He had learned to love it, the rush and the excitement. Eavan’s full, red lips were slightly parted, and it was like stars glimmered in her eyes.
Her mouth then curved into a soft smile, and without looking at Boa she poked at him with her elbow, and Boa turned his eyes back on the street, trying to hold back the small grin that nearly had made its way to his lips. But the smile vanished from his lips when he saw the monster. A beautiful red-haired woman floated on the street. She wore thin, rugged strips of fabric that barely covered anything from her luscious body. But it wasn’t a woman, Boa had to remind himself. It was a creature, a beast, an earthmaiden.
The singing of the beast was incredible, intoxicating. High, atone notes, and weird, unrecognizable words echoed around the deserted street. The blood in Boa’s veins rushed, every inch of his body tingling when it sang the scary, luring song. The creature slid on the street and was soon under their open window. It was searching for something. Suddenly, it nudged its head upwards, and Boa was staring straight into its pitch-black holes of eyes.
The earthmaiden had noticed the open window, the only one in the entire town. It rose up in the air, lightly as a feather, and without making any sound but the song, floated in front of the window. A fire burnt inside its black eyes. The scent was intoxicating, filled with pheromones luring Boa, like honey to a bee. It’s long, bright red hair floated around its face like dancing flames.
Boa wanted to jump to it, feel the embrace and kiss those—
Eavan hit him to his shoulder and Boa startled, blinking his eyes, he took a step backward. The beasts lure was powerful!
The earthmaiden let out a shrilling scream and fixed its burning eyes to Eavan Firestone.
“What are youuu…? A female to interrupt my mating song! I have a deeeaaalll with this townnn. Onnne man everyyyy night, and Mmayor Horda shall be saved. Thissss is a mannnn, and deal issss a deallll…”
Its voice was soft and mellow.
“Your deal doesn’t concern us, earthmaiden!” Eavan shouted and pushed her small sword towards the creature. The sword looked tainted, and it was covered with something white. The earthmaiden screamed angrily, floated backward, and looked at Eavan with a scowl on its face. It started floating down, anger flaming inside its black, endless, void of eyes.
Eavan slammed the window shut, leaned her back against it and looked at Boa under her long lashes. “We have to go down and kill it.”
Boa opened his mouth to say something, but she grabbed Boa by his arm and dragged him away from the window before he had had time to say anything. She hurled through the door, talking while they ran down the stairs. She was out of breath. “I’ve faced one earthmaiden before. It hunted women for some reason, and it took me as its captive, and well…it wanted to do, hmm, all kinds of things to me. But I managed to kill it, by accident. You wanna know how? Salted steel! Or I think it was, because I was on the shore of the salt pond and I struck it with a piece of steel that was lying on the beach. It was covered with white salt.”
Boa listened to her babbling and tried to make a plan in his head. He should make Eavan Firestone lose the competition somehow, and the fool senatai had just told him how to kill the beast! Now, all he had to do was to keep the senatai away and kill the creature, and he would get the map to the pendant!
They reached the ground floor and rushed to the door. The creature would wait for them outside.
“Do you have salted steel?” Boa asked.
She glanced at him over her shoulder with a grin. “Naturally. I told you that this wasn’t a task for you. You should stay inside, Boa Riverson. It can’t get to you here. But don’t worry, I’ll protect you.” She patted Boa on his cheek, winked and opened the door, stepping outside without hesitation. Boa shook his head. She was the oddest senatai he had ever met. Though, he hadn’t met many, as he had kept his distance every time he had seen one. Eavan Firestone was...fun.
Boa frowned at his own thoughts, rushing to the door and peeking outside. Eavan approached the earthmaiden with her salted sword held high above her head. Did that woman know how to fight with a blade? If she did, it sure didn’t look like it. The creature screeched and screamed at the pure sight of the blade. Boa’s boot hit on something that rumbled across the floor. Saltrock pearl. More of those were scattered over the door frame. Those prevented the creature from entering the building. Boa glanced around in an empty dining hall. He saw a jar of honey and a jar of salt on a table nearby. He opened the jars, dipped his fingers into the sticky honey, and covered his curved blade with it, thinking how he would have to clean it after. Then he grabbed the salt and scattered it over the honey. He wouldn’t let Eavan Firestone kill the creature and steal the map, pendant, and his freedom from him. Never.
Boa rushed outside and took the two stairs down on the street. The earthmaiden noticed him. Eavan Firestone was driving it towards the wall of the opposite building, but when it saw Boa it flew over Eavan, hitting her on the head and knocking her down. It landed in front of Boa, and before he had even lifted his blade, it touched him with its cold hand and Boa froze.
His blade fell down.
Boa saw inside the creature’s mind. Flashes of brutal actions with the past victims, images of blood, images of fire. All the sense vanished from his legs, and he fell down on the ground like a wet rag. Boa laid down at its feet and was intoxicated. The sounds, the visions, blurred in his mind into one messy, colorful image. The earthmaiden purred. It leaned down and hovered above Boa. It reached to him, but jumped back when a white, small rock hit it in its head.
It hissed and glared around. Boa’s head cleared, and he jumped up just in time to see the innkeeper standing by the doorframe and the earthmaiden rushing towards him.
“Get away from him, monster!” The innkeeper yelled, and held a big kitchen knife in his hands. The earthmaiden made a weird, gurgling sound, and Boa realized that it was laughing.
“Foooolish man. The salt doesn't keep mmme outside. It nnever hasss…. If I can’t take the otherrrr onnne, thennn I’ll take you.”
Fast, like an attacking snake, the creature reached for the innkeeper and pulled him to its arms like he weighed nothing. His head slumped immediately. He was unconscious. The earthmaiden chirped with its clicking language and swooshed forward into the street, the man on its arms.
Boa ran to Eavan and kneeled beside her to see if she was badly hurt. When Boa laid his hand on her cheek to turn her head, she popped her eyes open and took a sharp breath.
“Where is it?”
“It took the innkeeper.”
Eavan pushed herself up, sitting, grimacing and holding her head. “Uh, it has some kick, the monster. We must be quick if we want to keep the innkeeper alive.”
Boa offered her his hand and she took it, stumbling up.
Eavan sighed. “We really should get going if we want to catch it. But…oh,” she said and rubbed his head.
Boa frowned. “Maybe you should stay here, Eavan. You know, because you’re hurt,” Boa said, and Eavan snorted. “Yeah, right. And let you win. Not a chance, Boa Riverson.”
She grabbed her blade from the ground, observed it a while, and tucked it into her belt.
“Come on then!” She splurged and sprinted ahead.
CHAPTER 5
“There, look!” Eavan said, pointing forward, Boa followed her finger with his eyes. A figure vanished behind the hill at the meadow beside the town. Eavan Firestone jogged forward. Clearly, the hit in the head hadn’t been that bad after all.
“Earthmaidens,” she exclaimed while running, “though extremely lethal and dangerous, are actually pretty easy to predict. They are completely driven by their instincts and act almost every time as assumed. Men often are unsuccessful in killing them, as they see the creatures as ‘her’. When they should strike, the pheromones will freeze them.” She grinned at Boa, who frowned at her. She paused for a while but continued, “The men will become intoxicated and can only see the beautiful woman instead of a vicious monster.”
Eavan rubbed the scar on her cheek. “I know this all, believe me. The death came very close when I confronted a certain earthmaiden not so long ago. You should understand something about them, Boa,” she said and climbed on top of an underground cellar roof. Boa followed her and kneeled down beside her. The roof was growing moss, now covered in snow. It was soft under his knee.
“They use men to have a cub. You know how it works... “ She rolled her eyes as Boa grinned. “And, no, it’s not something the men enjoy. The men die after. Luckily, earthmaidens are fertile only once in a decade. What they do to women…that’s just pure, brutal fun.”
Eavan quieted down and Boa studied her silently. What a weird senatai. Nothing like he had expected, indeed. Her eyes had had a glimpse of something, maybe fear, when she had talked about women and earthmaidens, but it was soon hidden again.
“How did you survive it?” Boa asked, and lightly swiped the red gash from her cheek, now healed.
She startled at Boa’s touch and shrugged. “It was a lucky coincidence that I’m alive. Thanks to the salted steel. If you would use regular, non-salted steel, the earthmaiden gets wounded, but it won’t die. The healing capabilities are amazing with these creatures, and injury must be really severe to even slow it down. There!”
She jumped down from the roof and started running toward the forest. Boa cursed and jumped down after her. He reached her and they jogged side by side. The excitement of the hunt made Boa’s heart race. He gave a glimpse at Eavan by his side, joy glimmered in her eyes. She jogged softly, almost completely silent on the snow-covered meadow, her black hair fluttering behind her, her lips curving into a soft smile.
Soon, the forest came near and they began walking. Trees’ long trunks reflected against the dark, gray sky. They stopped behind a pine tree, scouting for the monster, letting their breathing slow down. The air was colder again, and white puffs of their breaths vanished in the night. They shouldn’t rush straight into earthmaiden’s nest. There could be more than one of them, Eavan thought, though unlikely, and if there were, neither of them or the innkeeper would have any chance of survival at all.
They stepped into the forest, Eavan leading the way.
“We should have salted arrowheads, Senatai,” Boa whispered.
Eavan shot a look over her shoulder. “Yeah, we should, but I lost my bow in an attack just a few days ago. Some street muggers surprised me when I was asleep.”
“Shouldn’t you travel with someone?” Boa said. “Someone, more…”
She twisted around and placed her hands on her hips. “Someone more like what? A man?”
Boa squinted his eyes. “No. More like a fighter. The way you held that sword earlier made it very clear that it isn’t your best skill. Or am I wrong?”
Eavan cleared her throat, and Boa was sure that if it wouldn’t be so dark, he would have seen her face be flushed red. “I’m completely capable of taking care of myself, thank you. I have my magic. And no, I don’t need any—”
“Fine, fine!” Boa said, and lifted his hands up as a sign of surrender. Eavan snorted and turned around. Boa smiled behind her back. He had finally found a way to get under her skin. She was uncertain of herself. The bravery, the cockiness and all, were only an act. He could use it against, to win this contest and get the—
Something at the edges of his sight caught his eyes, freezing him on the spot. He grabbed Eavan from her arm and pointed at their left, where the creature just vanished inside a cave with its prey.
“We should’ve taken a torch with us. It’s gonna be pitch black in there,” Boa uttered, and Eavan lifted her eyebrows.
“What?” Boa asked.
Eavan sighed. “I’m a senatai. I have all the light we’ll need.”
Boa shook his head. “No.”
“What do you mean, no?”
“No magic.”
Eavan’s eyes rounded. “Are you serious?”
Boa took a step forward and wrapped his fist around Eavan’s coat's front and nudged her close to him. Their faces were barely inches apart. Boa could see into her eyes, so deep and mysterious. He tried to stare her down, intimidatingly.
“I hate magic. I have sworn that one day I’ll end all the magic in this world. So, no. No magic.”
Eavan wasn’t at least bit of scared of him. She tilted her head, stared straight back into his eyes, smiling, and whispered, “You’re not the ruler of me, Boa Riverson. I’m going to do as much magic as I wish. And there’s nothing you can do to stop it.”
Boa grunted. “Magic creates only misery. I’m not gonna let you—”
“Look. The innkeeper is going to die if we stay here arguing,” Eavan interrupted. Boa let go of her coat and she took a step back, pulled it straight, and turned her back at Boa.
“Now, let’s go. Remember, we need salted steel so I can kill it. You can take the poor man to safety and leave the killing part to me.”
Boa grabbed her arm again and twisted her around. “And let you have the map? Not a chance. I have salted steel too.” Boa lifted his blade in front of he face. The blade was covered indeed, but not with salt. It was filled with sand and dirt from the ground. They stared at it silently for a while and then burst out laughing. Eavan slapped her hand to cover her mouth, and Boa’s shoulders jiggled from the silent chuckle. Eavan wiped the tears of laughter away from her eyes and whispered, “I think we’re going to need my blade, Boa Riverson.”
“I think you’re right, Eavan.”
He tucked the blade away and they snuck into the cave.
Boa’s eyes quickly adjusted to the dark. Eavan didn’t create any magical lights, which made Boa happy, but he did stumble on the rocks and roots all the time. Following the earthmaiden was easy—it made a high-pitch, excited flickering noise all the time, that echoed in the tunnels, guiding their way. Forcing his pace to stay slow, Boa tried to be as quiet as possible. They should act quickly to save the innkeeper, but they had to keep the element of surprise in order to succeed.
&
nbsp; After few more moments, they made it to its nest. Crouching behind a boulder, they studied the cave when a small hint of light sent shivers down his spine. The nest was surrounded by bones and unrecognizable lumps that Boa assumed were bits and pieces of previous preys. It stank horribly. Eavan had explained that earthmaidens usually were prudent and didn’t leave a scratch behind, but this one clearly had more than it needed. Its nest was covered with clothes, and there were piles and piles of things stolen from its victims: swords, coats, hats, a stool even, a few bows, and some jewelry…
Eavan glanced at Boa and nodded to him. Boa had agreed that she could do one orb of light to confuse and surprise the earthmaiden, but was anyhow startled when she tossed it to the cave. Seeing magic made him feel highly uncomfortable. The earthmaiden screamed and jumped up from top of the innkeeper. He still had all his clothes on and didn’t look to be bleeding, meaning the beast hadn’t started its rituals yet.
Eavan jumped forward, holding her salted blade high, and Boa was sure she would get herself killed with her barely average fighting skills, but Eavan sliced with the blade and was at least able to startle the earthmaiden. Boa rushed to the innkeeper and made a quick study of him and was relieved to see that he was alive and outwardly unharmed. The earthmaiden screeched and howled at them, and then started to sing her luring song to Boa. Boa had tucked the wax back to his ears, but it didn’t prevent the pheromones. Suddenly he felt more relaxed, calmer…and then he shook his head to clear it from the haze. He wouldn’t let the beast take him. The earthmaiden noticed that Boa could fight the lure, and it stared at Boa, a deep, evil growl rising from its chest.
The creature squatted, clearly preparing itself to jump, but Eavan lifted her hand, palm toward the ceiling. She quickly made a fireball with her magic and prepared to throw it at the beast, when it made a grand leap towards Eavan. The fireball vanished and Eavan bowed her head, made a tumble, jumped straight up again and swung her blade towards the earthmaiden. It didn't hit, and the creature slammed the sword away from Eavan’s hand, and it fell on the cave’s floor with a clank.