And yet, here we were, still muddling through, all as a result of that moment, the day we’d been sent away from Earth. Kalvin was just another tragic loss in an endless field of death and destruction wrought by coldbloods of one faction or another.
A female shifter bustled out of the far room a moment later, wiping her hands on an apron. Blood seeped into the fabric. It didn’t take a genius to realize what she was doing back there: cutting something meaty up for dinner, by the looks of it. Mort had explained that the staple diet of a Mallarot-residing shifter was gumshi—the sour fruit with the noodle-like fronds inside—adding meat and any other delicacy wherever they could find it. I wondered where they’d found whatever she was hacking up.
On second thought, I didn’t think I wanted to know. Shifters were an addiction-prone species, craving more of whatever they had tasted and liked. I’d seen that on Earth, where they’d gotten a taste for human blood.
With a sudden shiver of fear, I wondered if we had unwittingly walked onto the menu.
“And here I was, thinking you were telling me great big fibs!” the rotund female cried, taking in the three of us with her bulging, red-veined eyes.
“Friends of Mort, by all accounts. Come to tell us some news or something.” Bosen plopped himself down in one of the armchairs, sending up a plume of reddish dust. I imagined it got everywhere, especially from the way he was furiously scratching at his neck folds.
“Well, the name’s Rini. Who might you be?” She offered out her fleshy hand, which I took graciously, forcing myself not to grimace.
“I’m Riley, this is my husband, Navan, and this is our child, Nova,” I replied.
“Well, aren’t you curious little creatures?” She eyed us more closely, a flicker of concern darting across her face as she noted the mixed nature of Nova. Her expression changed a moment later as her nostrils opened so wide they looked like two crevasses in her features, the sound of her sniffing loudly filling the air.
“Can I smell sweetblood, or do my senses deceive me? I must tell you, they rarely do.”
There was a hint of threat in her words, daring us to try to contradict her.
I lifted out the empty vial and waved it in front of her, showing her there was no liquid left.
“You can indeed, Rini. I gave some to Nova to settle her down, that’s all. A drop of it got into her bloodstream when she was first born, and she needs a taste of it now and then. I don’t like to give it to her too often, though. Just when she needs to drift off,” I lied, heeding the warning I’d remembered.
“A shame you didn’t bring more to share. Sweetblood is so rare on Mallarot these days. Costs a fortune at the marketplaces. Isn’t that right, Bosen?”
The brutish shifter lifted his head. “Huh?”
“Sweetblood. I’m just telling them they ought to have brought more to share.”
“What do you expect from a coldblood, Rini? Selfish from the moment they’re born. It’s why all their clothes have long pockets.” He snorted, amused at his own joke.
“Hush, you, don’t you be insulting our guests!” Rini smacked him on the back of the head. “Forgive my husband. He’s not used to visitors. A gumshi farmer through and through. Anyway, this girl here isn’t a coldblood, so you keep your opinions to yourself.”
“I would, if you’d let me,” he muttered, returning to the screen of a flat device with scrolling symbols I couldn’t read.
Rini gave us what I reasoned to be a smile. “Now, what is it you’ve come to tell us about Mort? What sort of trouble has he gotten himself into?” A sadness flickered in her eyes.
“He finally fed up with those rebel coldbloods?” Bosen chimed in. “He finally realized they’ll treat him like dirt, same way as a regular coldblood? You wouldn’t believe how many have come back with their flesh between their legs, wishing they’d never gone in the first place. I told Mort he should stay on the Junkyard, amongst the misfits and the outcasts… where he belonged. Under the thumb of some rebel coldblood is no place for a shifter, even one as useless as Mort.”
I tried to let their insults wash over me, knowing they came from a strained relationship that I’d only heard one side of, but I wasn’t ready to let anyone talk trash about the shifter who’d saved us.
Steeling myself, I prepared to break the news.
“Actually, we’ve come to tell you that Mort passed away about a week ago,” I began, struggling with exact dates and times, as we’d been traveling through space for what felt like an eternity. It was hard to keep track out there. “He was a dear friend of ours, who loved our daughter with all his heart. He helped deliver her and proved himself to be one of the most heroic men I have ever had the privilege of meeting. We didn’t always see eye-to-eye, but he was my friend, and he was there for us, in the end… when it mattered most.”
I paused, fighting off tears.
“He sacrificed himself so that we could live, taking on an enemy far more powerful than he was so we could escape. We thought it was only right that we came here to tell you what had happened so you could know that he was a good man. He made amends for the bad things he’d done in his life. He was a hero, and he died doing something so unbelievably selfless that I’m still trying to process it all.”
Bosen snorted from his armchair. “Good riddance. I was wondering when the little gumshi maggot would get into a fix he couldn’t wriggle free of. Looks like he finally met his match, eh? Well, at least he went down with some gumption instead of cowering in a corner. That’s one less disgrace to add to the list.”
“At least we didn’t have to bother with a funeral,” Rini agreed. “I hope they shot him out into space or something. Or was there nothing left of him, in the end? Probably for the best.”
I stared at them in disbelief. There was a hint of sadness in Rini’s voice, but not the kind of grief I’d have expected from someone who just found out their son was dead. All the bad blood between them shouldn’t have mattered anymore, yet they brushed off the news of Mort’s passing like I’d just told them we were out of ice cream. A disappointing inconvenience, but nothing too traumatic.
“Are you kidding me?” I spat, trembling with rage. I was glad I’d given Nova the sweetblood, because at least she’d sleep through the tirade I was about to launch at Mort’s parents. “Mort might not have been perfect, but he gave a damn about my little girl, and he—”
“Wanted us to come here—it was his dying wish, in fact—and tell you both what a loser he was. He told me to make sure I groveled for your forgiveness on his behalf,” Navan interjected, placing a hand on my shoulder and giving it a gentle squeeze, calming me down.
I wanted to ask what the hell he was thinking, but I could see the rationale written on his nervous face. Siding with Mort’s parents was the only way to get on their good side. And if we wanted a place to stay, and a set location for the others to pick us up from, we needed to stay there… on their good side.
Rini gave a raspy chuckle. “You almost had us fooled there, you weird little minx!” she said, giving me a playful shove in the arm. “I might have known he’d try and make amends. Nice to know he was thinking of all the ways he’d wronged us and brought shame on us, when he met his maker. I suppose there’s something good in that—makes having him in the first place seem slightly less pointless, though I still think it was a waste of my beautiful flesh.”
I wondered what that was supposed to mean but decided not to dwell too deeply on it. The thought of a shifter being formed from the actual flesh of another shifter was more than my churning, starved stomach could bear.
“At least he was thinking of all the right things when he copped it. I figured he’d only give two gumshis about himself when the time came,” Bosen added.
I knew he wasn’t talking about us or Nova when he mentioned all the “right things,” but I made myself believe he was, if only to stop myself from losing my temper again.
Rini frowned. “Can’t say we can forgive him, though, can we, Bosen? After
everything he put us through, I don’t think I’ll ever be able to.”
“Quite right, Rini. That gumshi maggot got what was coming to him. I’m just glad he didn’t cause us any more shame before he died.”
Navan squeezed my shoulder again, in an attempt to calm my rising anger. “Actually, aside from groveling on your son’s behalf, we were wondering if we might stay here for a couple of days?” he said tentatively. “Our pod could use some repairs before we get going again, and you seem like excellent folks. If it’s not too much of an imposition, that is.”
“Of course you may!” Rini clapped her fleshy palms together in delight, the sound of them smacking together making my toes curl. “We don’t have any space here in the house, as my Bosen likes to spread himself about, but we’ve got plenty of room in the gumshi barn over the way. Here, while my lazy spudnik husband sits and flicks through dirty pictures, I’ll show you the place.”
“I never look at ‘em while you’re home, I’ve told you that!” Bosen insisted, scratching harder at the back of his neck.
She put a hand on her wobbling hip. “You expect me to believe that? I’ve found the evidence, Bosen. I ain’t no fool.”
She turned back to us, ignoring our horrified faces.
“Now, if you’ll follow me.”
A warm wind was whipping up as we stepped back out into the fresh air, though the atmosphere hung heavy, a mugginess clinging to every breath like syrup. In the distance, I could make out a rusty-red cyclone spiraling up toward a gloomy sky filled with ominous, dark purple rainclouds. Soon, those clouds would be upon us, and I didn’t want to find out what a Mallarot downpour entailed.
Rini guided us toward a large wooden structure that stood at the far side of a barren paddock, unlocking the double doors and ushering us inside. She turned on the lights to reveal a barn full of giant canisters, each filled to the brim with gumshi fruit.
Bosen appeared at the doorway. He was smirking strangely.
“See, I told you I wasn’t looking at no dirty pictures,” he said, putting a casual arm around his wife’s shoulders. She shuffled him off a moment later.
“So, this is where you’ll be staying,” Rini said, gesturing up toward a hayloft that hung just shy of the barn’s roof. A rickety set of ladders leaned against the raised platform, a few splinters already showing. “It isn’t much, but it’s comfortable, and I’m sure you’ll be glad of it. Like I say, I’d offer you a room, but Bosen likes the run of the house at night, sleeping wherever takes his fancy.”
He grinned. “That I do.”
“If it keeps him out of my bed, I let him do as he pleases.”
“I wish you’d let me do as I please,” he muttered, looking away. It was hard to know who wore the pants in their relationship, though my money was on Rini.
“Now, is this to your liking?” Rini pressed on, ignoring her husband.
I didn’t like the way she was licking her lips as her eyes flickered toward Nova, no doubt scenting out the sweetblood in her veins. To be honest, I was glad that Bosen’s nightly peculiarities meant we couldn’t stay in the house. At least out here, there were plenty of escape routes.
Navan and I exchanged a look, knowing we didn’t have any other options. And, with the storm coming in, I didn’t want to be left outside with nowhere to go. The pod would shelter us, but another endless stretch cooped up in that ball would be enough to drive anyone insane. I was a bit worried about the height of the hayloft, but it wasn’t as if Nova could crawl yet—if we built a barrier with some of the gumshi fruit, and some of the boxes lying around, we’d be fine.
“Looks good to us,” Navan confirmed, putting his arm around my waist.
“Now, if you get hungry, feel free to eat all the gumshi you want,” Bosen said, gesturing at the skull-like gourds, stacked high in their silos. “The missus might even bring some of her preparations over to you in a little while, once you’ve settled in—a soup, or a gumshi cake, perhaps?”
Rini nodded. “Certainly, it would be my pleasure! My gumshi muffins are world-renowned.”
“All we ask in exchange is two vials of that sweetblood you were feeding your little one,” he added, his tone hard. “We’re no fools, coldblood. We know there’s got to be more where that came from, and we’ve got a hankering for a taste of some of that delicious stuff. Ain’t that right, Rini?”
She licked her lips. “That’s right, Bosen.”
“So, two vials and you get a roof over your heads and a belly full of grub. A fair exchange, I’d say.”
“A fair exchange indeed,” Rini parroted, leering past his shoulder.
I knew their hospitality had been too good to be true, and I wasn’t surprised when the words tumbled out of Bosen’s mouth. At least they didn’t know how much we had stowed away inside the pod. I’d just have to be careful when I snuck out to retrieve some more, later on.
“Two vials, and you leave us to our own devices?” I reached into my pocket and pulled out two of the fresh bottles.
“Deal,” Rini replied hungrily, her eyes widening as they rested on the sweetblood. Both of them had gluttonous looks on their faces, as though they’d gulp the whole batch down the moment they were out of sight. Heck, they might not even wait that long.
“Then, we thank you for your hospitality.” I handed over the goods. Rini snatched both bottles and slipped them into her apron pocket, keeping them out of her husband’s starved grasp. He looked disappointed, staring at her with almost comical longing.
With a terse farewell, the two shifters headed back out into the paddock, making for the farmhouse.
As they went, I could hear Bosen complaining, “Why won’t you give me mine now? One of ‘em is mine by rights!”
“You can have one when I say you can have one. Get that patch of gumshi harvested and I might think about it,” Rini retorted.
The slam of a door followed, with the soft hiss and thud of dirt being turned over reaching my ears a moment later.
Yeah, Rini definitely wore the pants. Although, maybe Bosen had a right to be scared of his wife. She might have seemed like the more innocuous of the two, but now I wasn’t so sure.
“There’s no way we’re both sleeping tonight,” Navan said, voicing my exact thoughts.
“Yeah, I don’t like either of those creeps. I wouldn’t be surprised if they tried to eat us in the night, just because they craved a taste.”
Navan shuddered. “I’ll keep watch while you and Nova sleep.”
“No way. We’ll take turns. You need to rest, too.”
“Why do I feel like I won’t win this argument?” He smiled, placing a tender kiss on my forehead.
“Hey, count yourself lucky you don’t have a Rini for a wife!”
He flashed me a mischievous grin. “Who says I don’t?”
“You better hope I don’t pluck your tongue out of your head,” I mimicked, feeling my nerves ease. With Navan around, I was more hopeful we’d live through this without being eaten in our beds.
Although, I figured it’d be just our luck to have endured everything we had, only to end up murdered in our sleep by two shifters.
“Come on, let’s see what we can do with this hayloft,” Navan said, chuckling to himself.
He took Nova from me and walked toward the rickety ladder. With one arm holding her tight, he climbed the treacherous incline with ease. At the top, he pulled himself up onto the raised platform and gently placed Nova down, before leaning over the edge and reaching a hand down to me. Ordinarily, I wouldn’t have accepted it, preferring to make my own way, but I was so weary I thought my legs might give way beneath me.
I clambered half-way up the ladder on wobbling legs and grasped for his hands, feeling his fingers coil around my wrist to get a better grip. In one swift move, he hauled me up onto the platform, a small shriek rising from my throat.
“At least we’ll hear them before they reach us,” Navan mused, setting to work on building Nova a bed in the corner, using a mound of blanke
ts and the dried-out fronds of the gumshi fruit, which felt a little like cotton candy once they’d lost their juiciness. I guessed this must be where Bosen and Rini’s farmhands slept, whenever they needed to call on extra help with the harvest.
“I hope so.” I peered over the edge; it wasn’t a super long way down, but surely we’d be able to hear them climbing the steps if they tried anything?
Finishing up Nova’s bed, he lay her down beneath the covers, tucking her into her warm cocoon of blankets. She was sleeping soundly, and I still had a few vials left with us, for when she woke up screaming for the sweetblood.
Right now, she looked so peaceful, curling her scarlet wings around herself, her fist resting on her cheek, her chest rising and falling with a soft snuffling sound. I still found it impossible to believe that something as terrible as the immortality elixir had come from something so perfect.
“Do you think the Stargazers will be able to fix what Ezra and his rebels have done?” I asked quietly, staring at my baby. I didn’t want her living in a world full of fear, where immortal coldbloods were roaming the universe, destroying and taking whatever they wanted.
Navan turned to me. “Stone seems to think so. I don’t know too much about them, but if they’re as powerful as they are in myth, then they might be the only ones who can fix this mess.”
“You know they’ll tear this universe apart if they can’t be stopped, don’t you? They’ll keep growing and growing, infecting everything like a disease. Then, one day, a very long time from now, they won’t have anything left to conquer or pillage… and everything will die around them. They will still be immortal, but at what cost?”
“They’ll have a universe of slaves,” Navan whispered, dipping his head in shame. “Ezra’s vision will be complete.”
“Then we have to pray these Stargazers are exactly what we need.”
He smiled. “I can definitely put my hands together for that.”
“I want our girl to grow up in a universe where everything is possible. Where she can be whatever she wants to be, exploring and learning wherever she goes. I refuse to see her enslaved or living in fear.”
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