by Tim Paulson
“This one has given us back our claws... and we are grateful.”
“Your people didn't smash my stone, for that I am grateful,” Vex replied.
A black tongue flicked out of the lizard head, licking her right eye before retracting again. Celia watched the whole thing happen, fascinated.
“I hear things among our people. What you did at the clen, saving an akkikul boy, and this young woman. I also heard about the magic you used...”
“Salmu,” he said.
She nodded. “Your kind saved us from slavery.”
Vex laughed. “We tried. It was the death of the abzu that saved you.”
“But it's back... and now they have returned as well. Our enemies,” the lizard said.
“I felt it,” Vex said. “A tower has been raised. It's very close.”
“It is on an island to the west of Valendam. The humans do not see it,” she said.
Vex nodded. “As I would expect.”
The owahpi was unlatching thick leather straps from Celia's arms and legs, causing her to think back... What did she even remember of the inking? Little, honestly. She'd completely forgotten there were straps.
When she raised her arm however... she was surprised. Threads of shimmering black ran along her forearms. Occasionally symbols she didn't recognize were woven in among the swirling lines, creating a mesmerizing effect similar to movement.
“What do you think?” the owahpi asked. “It's not what I would have chosen for you, from an artistic perspective... but I think the execution is as good as I've ever done.”
“It's beautiful, thank you,” she replied.
It was hard not to notice also that her muscle tone had returned, as well as her shape. She looked strong and healthy instead of starved.
The chimera sighed, a long rasping sound. “I knew we could not keep them at bay forever. Eventually one of the unbound would be awakened. It doesn't surprise me those fools at Veil are to blame.”
Vex nodded. “I had a to chance to kill their leader but I let him live. It was foolish. I thought for sure I could stop it all, that I could bring another Dakul Shiwasuul.”
“What happened? Why did it fail?” the chimera asked.
“It didn't,” Vex replied. “Well.. of course the abzu has not severed, what I mean is that the device functioned as it was supposed to. That's how we did it before.”
“This time it just didn't work,” Celia offered.
Vex nodded. “Precisely. I don't know why.”
“So what can be done?” the chimera asked him.
Vex looked to her. “The tower must be destroyed.”
Celia frowned. “Won't he just make another?”
“He can, but it takes much power to do so. He can't make more than one every few days. The important thing is that it allows him to have a connection to his abnudu.”
“His what now?” Celia asked, wondering if it was possible to sit up.
“Creatures of stone... they make them to do their bidding. Stone is resistant to the power of magic so it's often used as a weapon or a defense. The stone warriors the humans made are similar, only far more primitive. While a sorcerer has a tower, he can control his abnudu directly with his mind. He no longer has to issue orders and he sees what they see.”
“So he is far more dangerous now,” the chimera said. She turned to the owahpi. “You can go Steffan. Prepare to do more... We cannot allow the dalkhu to return.”
The owahpi bowed. “Of course mother,” he said and left.
“Dalkhu,” Vex said, nodding.
“What does that mean?” Celia asked, finally feeling strong enough to push herself upright.
“It means demons, child,” the chimera replied. “And they are.”
“The tower is only the first step. The sorcerer must be killed and his lair discovered. Somewhere he has hidden a shiimti, a device that returns us from the green stones back into living breathing beings. My concern is that if he has such a thing, hidden somewhere, there may be more of them.”
“I've received word that the creature is currently leading an army of stone soldiers toward the city of Magenberg in Ganex.”
“Magenberg...” Celia said.
“You know it?” Vex said. “Is there some reason he would go there?”
“It's the largest city of the most powerful nation on the continent,” Celia replied. “I bet he's planning to kick humanity in the balls.”
“There is something else you should know,” the old mother said. “Both of you.”
“What?” Celia asked. Now that she was sitting up she could inspect her arms better. The swirls of ink ran up and down both of them but on her upper arms there were special places, almost circles that curled in on themselves. In the middle of each was a different symbol.
“Don't touch those,” Vex warned. “Not until we're outside.”
Celia's eyes widened. What did they do? She couldn't wait to find out!
“Please... continue,” Vex bade the chimera.
“As you are salmu... you may understand why we do not speak openly of it, especially now.”
Vex nodded.
From her robes, the chimera produced a golden pin with a small symbol in the shape of a dragon.
“Oh, is that a dragon?” Celia asked.
“What?” Vex said, jumping up. “They live?”
The old mother bowed her head. “There is but one remaining.”
Vex threw his tiny doll arms up. “This changes everything! We might actually have a chance!”
“Really?” Celia asked. “Why?”
“Because, my dear Celia... Dragons were created specifically to control my people.”
* * *
Thira sat in the carriage, with the tall dark-haired leothan on her right. His name was Tamu, it meant oath in the old tongue. Her mother would have called it a good name and told her to bow to him.
Across from her sat all three of his assats. They had told her their names. Thira had forgotten them. It didn't matter.
“So you didn't tell me how you came to be in Pyrolia?” he asked as he ran a claw through the fur along her shoulder.
“I was on a ship,” she replied.
“Of course she was!” snapped one of the three females, the shortest one. Thira had always wondered why the shortest of stature so often also had the shortest tempers. This girl was no exception. Though she was also quite young. She still wore the ahatki necklace with the layered colored beads that would have been woven by all her young friends just before she was forced out of her pride to find a mate. Thira felt for her.
Tamu snarled at the girl. “Watch your tongue. Thira was about to tell me what ship and from which country. Weren't you?”
“Yes. The ship was the Scarosian Queen and we sailed out of-”
“Valendam...” Tamu finished for her, laughing. He had a low rasping sort of chuckle that went on for far too long. It made Thira consider what it might feel like to strangle him.
Instead, she acted surprised. “Oh you know it?”
“Yes... As I told you before lovely one, I am an accomplished privateer. I know all the players in my profession, large and small. This one you traveled with. He is quite small. I am not surprised he has resulted in the arrest of your zikar.”
The word literally meant male but among leothans it was used only to refer to men of their own kind. She did not correct him.
“Yes... this is why I swam ashore. I have no weapons and no money. I needed help to gain his freedom and I'd heard there are many strong zikar in Pyrolia.”
“And you are his only assat?”
She nodded.
Tamu shook his head, disgusted. “A disgrace. Someone like you,” he said, staring at her chest now, “ought to be with a strong zikar who can keep you safe and does not fall prey to the schemes of third rate pirates.”
“I am bound to him in the manner of our people,” Thira said, innocently. “But once he is free... you could challenge him... If you were interested.”<
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Just saying it made Thira want to vomit. It wasn't that he wasn't beautiful, he was, absolutely gorgeous actually. It's just that like most leothan men, he was a pompous self-centered ass. Having lived with the humans for so long, and seen many males who didn't act that way, it was hard to listen to him pontificate without laughing in his face. She just had to make it to Dridar without suffocating him, somehow.
“Whatever that idiot MacCarron has done now it's no surprise its landed him in jail. What interests me, is why they're taking him to the capitol.”
“I wouldn't know,” Thira replied with a shrug.
Tamu patted her head. “Oh don't worry your pretty little head about it my dear. That was a rhetorical question. Of course you wouldn't know. The girls will fill you in on me I'm sure... I'm a man whose thoughts are too large to be contained within, they must be roared.”
Thira thought she might have seen an eye-roll from across the carriage. Not from the youngest with the beads but the oldest with the nick in her ear.
“There is also the matter of the goliaths,” Tamu said. He was of course referring to the two goliaths who'd arrived shortly after Robert had been arrested and his ship seized. They'd removed something from the hold of the ship which they'd immediately transported west toward Dridar. “I wonder if the rumors about MacCarron are true. Perhaps he finally smuggled something of value out from under the nose of the Veil Company. I would be very interested to know what it might be. Did you see anything on that ship of his?”
“I get very seasick,” she replied, which was true. She'd spent a large portion of the voyage dumping her stomach contents over the side. “I couldn't spend much time down below.”
“Did they have the hold locked?” he asked.
“I did not see it but another passenger did say the door to the hold was locked. She asked the captain about it,” Thira said.
“And what did he say?”
“He said to stay away from his hold,” Thira said.
“That language is far too plain to be the words of Robert MacCarron,” Tamu said. “I'd assume it was more colorful.”
“If by that you mean vulgar,” Thira replied, “then yes.”
Tamu nodded.
There was a knock from above.
“Oh... good. We're coming into the city now. If you look, you can see the lights,” Tamu said.
Thira was stupid and listened to him, turning to put her eyes to the tilting glass to her left. It took half a second for Tamu's thick fingers to find her backside. Inwardly, she sought the strength to refrain from tearing his arm from its socket.
Wilhelm had better have a damned good reason for what he'd said.
Outside the window she could see the lights. Light blue veil lanterns illuminated a city of red and tan stone. The seat of Queen Teresa Anna of Pyrolia, ruler of the largest empire in the world, if you counted the colonies, which the Pyrolians most assuredly did. Wilhelm had many times said it was only a matter of time before Pyrolia collapsed under its own weight. So far, he'd been wrong.
“You said you have contacts in the royal court?” Thira asked.
“I do... in a manner of speaking,” Tamu replied.
Thira whirled around, no longer content to allow him to handle her.
“What do you mean by that?” she asked.
“I mean I know someone there, just as I said,” he replied.
Thira narrowed her eyes. “But who, who do you know? What do they do there?”
“Well... it's complicated,” he replied.
“He knows a cook here. It's his mother,” replied the eldest of the assats, her arms folded.
“Serenna! Do not speak out of turn!” Tamu said, frowning.
“And how is your mother the cook to get me an audience with the queen?” Thira asked him.
“Well... I...”
“She won't is the answer,” Serenna said. “That dried up old prune already thinks he has too many wives to support and on this point only, I'm inclined to agree with her.”
The other two leothan women were nodding their assent.
Thira sighed. Once again, she would have to do everything herself. At least she'd gotten a ride to Dridar... relatively unmolested.
Tamu's expression seemed a mix of frustration and surprise. “Now girls... I'm sure momma could help. I don't see why she wouldn't-”
“No, forget about it. I'll get into the palace myself,” Thira said. “Thank you for the ride.”
Tamu shrugged. “We were going here anyway,”
“His momma sent him a very upset letter,” the middle female said.
There was a slam against the carriage as something heavy hit it from above.
Thira looked up, eyes wide. “What was that?”
Tamu shook his head slowly, sighing. “He's late. I would have expected him hours ago.”
Thira frowned. “What are you talking about? Who?”
“Sadu, the other zikar you met at the docks,” Tamu said waving a hand dismissively. “We compete in all things. He couldn't allow me to add a fourth assat. That would make us equal.”
“But he said he didn't have a carriage!” Thira replied.
“He probably borrowed one,” said Serenna, the eldest assat.
“Or stole one,” said the middle assat.
A huge lion head with a thick blond mane hung down from the top of the carriage, looking in the window to Thira's right.
“Come out!” a deep leothan voice yelled. “I am here to save you from Tamu's stupidity!”
Thira looked to Tamu. He just shrugged.
“Fine,” she said. “I'll deal with this myself.”
Thira opened the door on her side of the carriage. It revealed that they were still descending the sloping road that approached Dridar. Not four feet from the roadside was a steep drop down to a canyon below.
A thick hand extended from above, Thira took it, allowing herself to be pulled onto the top of the moving carriage. The driver up front, a human from the looks of him, was looking back at them wide-eyed.
“Stop this!” the driver yelled. “You'll spook the horses or drive us all off the cliff!”
Sadu ignored him, pulling Thira in close to his enormous body. From the contact alone she could feel the supple nature of his chest. It had been quite a while since he'd done anything other than lounge in his captain's quarters whilst being fed. It was a wonder he hadn't pulled his back jumping onto the carriage top.
“You're wasting your time with this idiot. He's a third rate captain. Come with me my love, join my pride. I will ensure you have everything you need.” As he said this she felt his hand creeping for her backside.
“You both call other men third rate, yet you both captain merchant ships bearing popguns,” Thira replied as she grasped his pinky with her hand, twisting it until he cried out in pain.
“Ow ow! Stop that!” the big lion said.
Thira then dropped her weight, slamming the heavy male on his back on the top of the carriage.
“Owww,” he cried, mewling like a kitten.
She looked forward at the driver. “How far to Dridar from here?”
The coachman looked back. “Just two miles left.”
“Then stop the carriage,” she said. “I'll walk.”
* * *
“How far?” Mia asked, impatient. Though her sensitivity to the veil gave her the ability to feel much of what was happening outside of Greta's goliath, it could not tell her where she was in Ganex. As before, the whole place looked the same. It was one set of rolling fields covered in snow after another and this wasn't even the dead of winter yet.
“Only a few miles,” Greta replied. “Whoa!”
“What?” Mia asked, but she felt it even before the response.
Javelins. A score of them had been launched into the air from the west.
“Incoming!” Greta yelled. “This will be difficult with the girl and her thieving friend.”
Mia nodded. She'd almost forgotten as well. Greta's goliath held
both Giselle and the weaselman cupped in its left hand.
They broke to the right, angling in.
“I don't understand how the enemy is so far ahead of us. We ran all night! No army can do that,” Greta said.
“Maybe it's not the enemy,” Mia replied. Perhaps a rearguard from those groups who'd fled from Aeyrdfeld earlier?
Greta waved her two-handed blade above her head as three more javelins rained down from above.
Mia could almost feel them coming in, their angle, their speed.
“Left!” she yelled.
Greta had her goliath break left.
A javelin came down, embedding itself twenty feet into the sloping hillside where they'd just been.
Ten goliaths emerged from a line of oak trees to their left, while another similarly sized group crested a low hill to their right. All were painted red with eyes that glowed that same fiery color.
“You're right! They're Ganex,” Greta exclaimed.
It wasn't long before they were shepherded into a new and much larger camp. When Greta and Mia dropped to the ground from the goliath they met with a familiar face.
“Claus!” Greta shouted.
“Ah, it's my blushing bride to be! I'm honestly surprised to see you alive,” Claus said. He nodded to Mia. “You, I'm not surprised. I don't know if anything could kill you.” He looked gaunt, as if he hadn't been eating.
Greta noticed as well. “Claus are you alright? You don't look well.”
“I'm fine,” he replied.
“I'm trying to get to Senfdorf,” Mia replied.
“Ah, right to business, as usual. And why would that be?” he asked.
“It's important to me,” Mia said.
“I see,” Claus said. “You're the last to arrive. Come to my tent. We'll talk.”
“Hey, hey hey! Where do you think you're going Mia? I need to talk to you!”
It was Giselle.
Mia sighed.
“Oh, you've passengers? That's a rough way to travel,” Claus said.
“And she never stopped! Not once! No matter how much I yelled.”
The weaselman walked up beside her, looking haggard. “Believe her, she yelled. A lot.”
Mia frowned, “I told you it would be a long ride.”
“You didn't say we wouldn't even be able to stop to... to... relieve ourselves! I feel about to burst! Are you even human?”