CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

“Sometimes your enemy proves an ally against a greater foe. Sometimes two enemies create a great large mess. Sometimes the catering table comes to life and devours its guests in a wave of plum pudding and irony.”

Cull dur Berbabeggen, formal apology to the hosts and survivors of the 56th annual Arallyne Magic Exhibition

If Tione squinted really hard, used her imagination and blurred her vision she could almost see the figures of Ruca and Luca standing over them as instead a shimmering tray of delightful breakfast foods, none of them coated with a tongue-numbing slime. Their shiny metal body parts aided in the illusion somewhat. “Now what do you want?”

Luca was still armed with that miniature handheld canon that he’d injured Geddon with previously, and he seemed ready to use it. “You know what we’re here for.” Behind a mess of gaudy pink and violet clothing and the glimmer of steel, he wore a faltering expression that either was heedful of what happened to them last they met, or was urging his enemies to just make things simple and give up.

“Breakfast?” Aleric ventured.

“To get tied up again?” Kao tried hopefully.

It was a terrible morning for a fight. The sunrise wasn’t beautiful at all. The sun rising groggily from behind the Lost Gardens sluggishly tinted the gray clouds above a sickly sallow orangish-gray. It was chilly. Everything was wet.

Baring her claws, Ruca made it painfully clear that she was not in the mood for nonsense. “Give us the boy!” she snarled. “Today we shall finally at last enjoy Captain Raezan’s approval and meet our quota of one kidnapping per season, thus gaining our prosthetics replacement plan benefits!”

“You have no idea how hard it is to maintain these metal body parts,” Luca frowned, rubbing his metal arm and moping gently at it. “Rust, water damage, tarnishing, dents, dings… the hazards never end.”

Xerei had snapped awake quicker than anyone else, and even seemed to be groomed and refreshed before Tione could even allow herself to be blinded by the morning light. “Well,” he huffed, “You incur that upon yourselves by corrupting your bodies with such things.”

Besides, it was eight versus two. Tione no longer saw what she had to fear from them.

As if in response, Luca, puffed up with pride, said, “Besides, no matter your numbers or previous victories, nothing can prepare you for our new weapon.”

Shani seemed more intrigued than intimidated. “So where is it?”

“Well, we don’t have it! It’s… much too large.”

“And besides, Captain Raezan would never entrust us with the…” Luca withered at his partner’s glare. “Er, never mind. Let’s get to the battle so I can have my morning coffee.”

“I concur!” Xerei snapped.

Kao sighed, looking rather put off. “Venatra sentrakri gennhorrostraphus!” The dull autumn air lit up for a moment as it glinted off the black and gold steel staff that Tione had seen Kao summon back in Cognito. Its razor edge trailing in the wet grass and its blunt club at the other end saluting the gray clouds, it seemed even more sinister than before. So he must have used a spell to summon it back then, too. “I slept poorly, so heed well the fact that I’m less given to care about subjecting my companions to all manner of unpleasant sights at the moment.”

Ruca seemed entirely fed up, ready to strike and shredding the turf underfoot with the heels of her boots like a bull pawing the ground. “Now listen, if you’d just…”

Katrina hopped over, her fists in anxious, delicate little balls. Her wings were vibrant and perky as the rest of her. “That’s so very mean!” she admonished ambivalently. “I really would rather not see anything dreadful, especially before breakfast.”

“We’re still here!” Ruca shouted, standing indelicately in the mound of upturned dirt.

The demon frowned at her, then sighed again. “I’m not letting them go without some answers first!” With disturbing fluidity, his grimace turned to a lascivious smile and his eyes widened excitedly. “Two neat little bundles of answers to all our questions, just standing in front of us ready to be cracked open!”

“Hey! I’m talking! Remember me, the one who’s talking?!”

“No one’s cracking anything,” Off White stated with such sureness that Tione didn’t doubt it for a second. Still, without turning away she drew her dagger and short sword from their sheathes still laying in the grass. “I’m not sure who you are, but why don’t you leave?”

That didn’t appear to be an option Ruca and Luca were willing to consider. As wordlessly, Luca raised his weapon to attempt forceful persuasion once again, the only one present who hadn’t had their say was Stupid, and he seemed determined to get his point across. Pumping his tiny paws, he squirmed free of Aleric and stepped before the two attackers, looking piercingly up at them like a lost traveler with a giant stone wall between him and his ultimate destination. He planted his paws resolutely as if against a powerful gale, bowed his head with a tiny growl, and then, its tiny teeth glinting and little black eyes burning, let loose a bark that echoed across the hills and shook the leaves of the trees nearby. The duo standing before it only backed away a few paces. At least it was more of a reaction than Tione anticipated Stupid would get out of them.

“Stupid, get away from there!” Aleric called, stricken with the thought of harm coming to the little ball of fuzz and readying his sword to prevent disaster, or avenge the pet, should he be too late.

That wasn’t needed. Instead, Aleric stood there gaping, and Ruca and Luca seemed confused at the hero, sword lowered and mouth agape, as over the startled combatants’ shoulders, the closest pilfer tree shuddered and its leaves bristled like the fur of a pouncing beast, just before the air was full of surging vines surrounding them on all sides.

It, admittedly, took Tione a few moments to understand the tree’s furtiveness, but then the tendrils snapped tightly around Ruca and Luca and had no difficulty carrying them, shouting indignantly, both into its canopy.

“Got too close,” Off White observed with a delicate cringe, stepping back in order to avoid doing the same.

The forest birds all seemed to stop chirping at once, and the wind to stop whistling. Only the sound of leaves rustling frantically signifying feeble struggling accompanying the crunching and grinding of metal sounding like a terrible screeching. Ruca and Luca seemed to not be in pain, and their screams were of panic and indignation, but not of clear suffering. But Tione couldn’t help but wince.

Poor Luca was just visible in the foliage. “You wouldn’t let us be picked apart like so much carrion, would you?!”

Ruca could not be seen, but she hissed, “What! How pathetic do you think we are, asking for their help?!”

“Right now,” Luca replied, “We seem quite pathetic to me.”

Seeming wracked with guilt, Katrina shifted around uncomfortably. “Oh, can’t we do something? I don’t know if I can stand it!” Wow, she looked just about ready to cry.

Ruca and Luca continued shouting, half at them and half at each other as the screams of metal being torn and pried free of joints accompanied in counterpoint. Tione found it a gruesome scene, even if no blood was being let, and she felt just a little bit ill. Even if she would feel no pain and lose no blood from the experience, she would hardly appreciate having her limbs torn away. She certainly saw Katrina’s point, but what could they do?

“Wh- what shall we do?” Geddon stammered. He was maintaining his distance, drawing his great white coat around him protectively as if the whole situation was making him cold.

Kao demonstrated Tione’s immediate answer to this query in action before she could suggest it. “I think this!” Clamping his hand around his staff tightly and taking a deep breath, he raced forward, cape and hair fluttering like a black wave behind him.

“Ah!” Luca could be seen, his good hand trying to wrest away the grip of a vine. “Thank you! You are truly…”

Kao shot by the stand of pilfer trees, and Tione’s suspicion was confirmed: with the feast of Ruca and Luca’s metal prosthetics, the pilfer tree was utterly uninterested in the measly little buckles on Kao’s costume, and he passed by safely. He whirled around, a brisk breeze at his back waving his cape at the rest of them beckoningly as he beamed, “No toll for me.” That little outburst seemed to have taken a lot out of him; Tione could just see him holding back a groan and clutching his arrow wound before he allowed himself to fall onto the grass with a grunt. He quickly hid it with a gleeful cackle.

“What!” Ruca could be heard hissing through clenched teeth.

“How could you!” Luca added. “Have you any idea how much that toll cost us?”

So much for saving the villains. “Come on!” Tione followed Kao, quickly followed by the rest of the party, with Aleric pausing to scoop up Stupid and Xerei trotting indifferently at the back. Just in time too; the tree spat Ruca and Luca back out over his head to land indelicately among the grass… and the remains of the campsite. They’d left their bedrolls behind, but at least the cost of new ones would be miniscule compared to the toll that that conman on the side of the road had been trying to charge them, Tione reassured herself.

Luca stumbled up and recoiled as Ruca swatted away the good hand he offered her. Just above the elbow, just a few shreds of gnarled, twisted steel remained where before had been the formidable metal hand. He did not appear to be in pain, at least, but he grimaced in embarrassed fury as Ruca stumbled to his side. Her entire left arm gone and the claws on her right, otherwise unmodified hand devoured as well, she was without a weapon, and her body didn't fare much better. The sturdy metal panels on her torso and legs appeared to have been nibbled at, behind which a sinister red glimmer that immediately made Tione recall those terrible metal dogs that had attacked them in Cognito wavered and blinked weakly.

In all the grim metal-tearing, it had taken Tione a moment to realize it, but they were past the toll station! They could continue on! Meanwhile, Luca and Ruca argued.

“Now what?” Ruca yelled accusingly at her partner. She appeared to have trouble standing, as some of the metal that had replaced parts of her legs had been eaten away, and the rough edges that were left behind seemed to be causing a lot of discomfort, though she appeared unable to bring herself to rest.

“We go around. The road’s over there!” Luca swung around fervently pointed to where the toll guard, immensely amused, stood watch. It was probably a fair assessment that the guard would have eagerly traded the toll for all eight heroes for the show that had just been put on before him. Now, he smirked as Luca and Ruca trampled dirt and grass to get back to the booth. “Let us back through?”

The guard inwardly seemed elated to finally be a part of the proceedings, and smirked accordingly, leaning on his broad, hairy hand. “And who are you?”

If the guard was elated, Luca was just the opposite, and from where Tione stood, she began to grow concerned for the snarky guard. Luca and Ruca’s weapons had been eaten, but she didn’t underestimate their ability to inflict harm on an unarmed, innocent person. “W… we just paid your ridiculous toll not an hour ago!” Luca gaped in disbelief.

And if the guard was to have felt intimidated, he was having none of it. He curled back his chapped lips and bore his stained teeth in a broad grin. “Listen, I can’t just not charge someone because they already paid at one point in time.” Managing to look put upon, he continued, “At what point do I stop letting people through who have come through recently and start charging again? An hour? A day? A week? You tell me that, boy!”

Ruca threw up her good arm and what was left of her other. “This is insane! Let’s just go!”

“Right!” her partner joined then back on the road, and then disappeared in an instant. One moment they’d been there, tramping through along the dusty path, then with a pair of startled screams, they’d gone, leaving the immensely-satisfied guard chuckling behind them.

Shani spoke the question on everyone’s lips. “How did he…”

Approaching, tentatively, closer, revealed the answer. It was just a pitfall trap with a wooden hatch that had been built into the road, deep enough to contain prisoners of exceptional height. Their undignified enemies lay sprawled in a pile at the bottom, collecting what shards of pride remained after the experience with a grumble and a groan. Well, Tione thought, the battle had hardly been epic, but at least it was over. Now, nothing was in their way between there and the Inter-City, and, aware of this, the party began to proceed down the road with little more than a collective shrug.

“Hold on, hold on,” the toll guard called slyly with what Tione suspected he thought was practiced guile. “What about your toll?”

Tione had utterly had it with tolls to the point that no matter how fair subsequent tolls would be, she would not deign to allow the prince to shell out their money by sufferance any longer. But Aleric stopped her from stomping over and communicating this directly to the source of her anger, and instead, went over himself, leaned into the startled guard’s kiosk and regarded him poignantly with an expression sodden with ardor. “Listen, you! Are you prepared to bear the burden of perhaps the most generous bounty in history?” He spoke quickly, allowing no room for interruption.

The guard blinked and shrunk back. “What?”

Aleric’s theatric zeal went on unabated. It was obviously a bluff, but it was barely different from the real fits of heroic passion that he would have at times. He raised a tanned fist, then swung it around dramatically to point down the hole. “These two are notorious traitors to the kingdom, bloodthirsty and merciless, and you’ll be responsible for their capture!”

Everyone hung back. Xerei held his face in his palm.

But a corner of the guard’s thick mouth turned up. “Me?”

“Yes! You could be hailed as a hero… even promoted!”

It was if someone had a bucket of concentrated joy and had dumped it over the guard. His eyes lit up, and he shook excitedly. “P… promoted? I could be… a castle guard? I have been practicing my ‘who goes theres’ you know!”

Aleric punctuated the act by slamming his palm onto the counter. “Well, keep practicing ‘em because that day’ll be here before you know it!” He sealed the deal with a wink and strutted back to his flabbergasted friends.

Wow.

They continued west for some time, toward a wall of gray storm clouds stretching across the sky like a misty mountain range, reaching Laviri Mountain by midday. It rose like a spike into the clouds, with very few uneven crags or ledges. The rock that rose above the vibrant autumn forest below seemed almost polished and sanded down, and grew smoother and more flawless the higher it rose—although, Shani pointed out, that could be an illusion caused by the upper reaches of the mountain’s peak being so far away that its details were obscured by sheer distance. Its very peak was out of sight, and trying to look straight up into the thickening, ominous gray-blue clouds that covered it made Tione just a bit dizzy. Instead, she looked to the ground. The mountain was easily bypassed, and the dry, dusty road split into northern and southern branches, each evidently leading to the northern and southern edges of Zorn Valley, and ultimately, to the Inter-City wedged in between like something hidden away guiltily as an afterthought. At least, that’s how the map made it look.

“I think it may rain soon,” Xerei observed. “While I have my doubts that we can make it to the Inter-City before it starts, we can get there as quickly as possible by not pausing for silly distractions and by planning the most expedient route.”

“The northern road is the shortest,” Aleric said. “It’s a bit rougher, but it’ll get us there in about half the time, so let’s go!”

Tione also noticed that it seemed to be the least traversed of the two roads, which led her to be tempted to ask just how rough it was. But the rapid swelling and darkening of the clouds portending unpleasant traveling weather quieted her comment. The clouds just grew heavier and grayer with each passing second, reminiscent of a titanic celestial beast puffing up its great chest in preparation for discharging devastation over the land. But at least the clouds weren’t purple.

There was little conversation to be had as they passed into the shadow of the mountain. There, the darkness spread by the dark clouds overhead was exacerbated into an omnipresent gloom as wind whipped and whistled, and rumbles taunted them from the direction of their destination, and if Tione looked off far enough, she could already see the broad, green expanse above the distant valley hazy with sheets of thick, pounding rain. From far off, it was serenely beautiful, but the storm was quickly sweeping eastward, and the road began growing spotted with delicate, dark craters of rainwater long before they’d passed the mountain and soon, the sound of raindrops pattering down through the treetops surrounded them like the delicate tapping footsteps of invisible pursuers.

Shani drew his arms in around his chest. “I hoped we’d have gotten farther by the time it hit us!”

“Well, we have been walking into it this whole time,” Off White pointed out.

Tione now wished again that she had a blanket or cloak in her possession. “Well, let’s get out of it!” As evening drew near and the remaining sunlight wavered, its beautiful display shrouded by the cover of storm clouds, the Inter-City had begun to light up in faint sparkles of gold at the floor of the valley below, and it was looking more inviting than any sight Tione could remember seeing. And it wasn’t long before they began their descent into the lush, rain-misted valley down a precarious, craggy path, with the city glimmering promisingly before them through the sheets of rain. Tione was now quite sure she would catch cold as she wrapped her arms around herself and huddled forward in a futile attempt to escape the downpour. She swore under her breath, and the curse materialized in a little puff of steam.

Kao seemed better off for all his thick clothing, but his hair clung around him and dripped water relentlessly down his neck. Fangs chattering, he scoffed, “Why now? We could have been through the Inter-City by late in the day and moved on to Florda.”

“Well…” Off White said with a bit of sympathy, “they do sell demons in the Inter-City. He oughtn’t not be blamed for being ambivalent about the matter.”

“Who’s being ambivalent?!” Kao snapped. “I’d just… rather… not…” he trailed off for so long that Tione became concerned and looked over. He seemed as if he were meticulously considering several factors. He frowned behind the jet hair clinging around his face. Suddenly, his expression twisted up into a strained grimace. “Ach-blegh!” he sneezed.

By the time the rain grew heavy, the trees of the valley floor rose above them. At least there was a lull in the storm as they continued toward the city, but by the time buildings began their rise above them along the valley walls, it seemed as if some supercilious soul, soaked with rain, had called up to Noll and asked if that was all he had, and the storm returned with renewed tenacity.

The first thing that could have been said about the Inter-City was that it was filthy. And unabashedly so; no one seemed to mind that there was a layer of grime on everything, that the gutters were filled with layers of unidentifiable filth untold seasons old, and discarded debris and garbage seemed to be left to lay where it fell. Tall buildings seemed to lean exhaustedly inward over the loosely-cobbled streets, and old laundry that seemed to have been long forgotten hung over like wraiths, dripping rainwater in steady streams. But happily, no one who lived there seemed to mind, as far as Tione could tell. Even in the rain and the filth, with water washing over the cobblestones and collecting in stagnant puddles, most everyone seemed fairly cheerful. The city stretched from one end of the valley to the other; this was easy to see because in the gloom of the storm, torchlight could be seen rising above them on all sides, flickering dimly through the haze. Above, a delicate mist could be seen twinkling in the light of the lamps, whirling in the light wind that twisted and curled through the streets. Deciding to ask someone who looked to be native to the city about a place to stay the night didn’t take long, and an aging man carrying a pair of empty wooden buckets directed them to the center of town to a place “stuck in a little paved square, past the market and near the auction district.”

Xerei looked down at his once-pristine white boots. It wasn’t as if they were clean when they’d arrived there, but he grimaced all the same. “Yes… is it a reputable establishment?”

“Yes, yes.” The man smiled. “The, um… manager of the Hog n’ Wash says that there is always room available.”

With a name like that, Tione had little curiosity as to why, but getting out of the rain took priority over misgivings over what that place happened to be called. Even though dubious glances were exchanged amongst the group, it was agreed to accompany her there, and to lodge there for the night as well, but Geddon suggested at least giving the inn a cursory inspection first before deciding, without stating specifically what sort of thing would make him disinclined to stay there for any amount of time longer than it took to see it.

The Hog n’ Wash, according to their guide, was at the center of the city in the heart of the business district, in the southernmost portion of the Inter-City’s most fashionable residential neighborhoods, precariously close (as Kao worded it) to the auction district, and comfortably outside the aurora district, famous for its unusually-high number of cursed spindles per capita.

And by that time, thunder was roaring overhead and lightning streaked across the valley like long, glowing serpents thrashing at the rim of a broad basin in an attempt to invade it.

“I’d be happy to see the inn even if it was next door to a dragon convention,” Aleric stated.

Down every street, smiles greeted them out of the haze. It certainly was a change from the eager queue of enemies that seemed impatiently waiting for their turn to beset themselves upon them. The natives continued about their business unimpeded by the storm, ducking under awnings to purchase goods displayed tenuously along the narrow lanes, stumbling in and out of taverns, and calling up into windows and down to the streets though the tapestry of wood signs, hanging laundry, awnings and shop canopies.

It was all very cheerful until a rain-drenched doublet splashed directly onto Tione’s head. Still, it was unsurprising; she imagined it was not an uncommon thing to happen in a place like the Inter-City, but in the space of a few minutes, everyone had been pelted with wet laundry.

Suddenly, Stupid growled. He’d actually been fairly content with trotting down the street covered by the ragged cloth that had dropped onto him, and somehow his sight hadn’t seemed compromised.

“How curious. Someone appears to be playing a naughty trick on us,” Katrina pouted.

This was not Tione’s idea of a pleasant stroll through town. “Ya think?! What did we ever do? Do they not like tourists, or what?”

It has always been fashionable for those who reside a city which is dependent in any way on tourism to despise sight-seers, thrill-seekers and travelers of any sort who plan to stop for longer than it takes to avail themselves of a privy and to ask for directions. I never quite understood why until I lived for a short time in Juste. Aside from the one month the city isn’t hammered by tidal waves from the bay and magic storms sweeping in from the east, all but the dingiest, disreputable establishments of leisure are overrun by cads in “I love Juste” embroidered tunics flashing their gold everywhere, tempting me more often than I’d care to relate to practice my pick-pocketing skills that Aleric taught me.

Aleric held up a stylish silk sark to see how it would fit. “I think it suits me,” he grinned over a snack of some sort of breaded meat on a skewer that he’d bought earlier.

“Hmm…” Shani mused. Suddenly he darted out from at Geddon’s side and seized it from Aleric’s hand. Everyone’s shock at this action was shortly surpassed by that at seeing him fling it end over end into the haze of the rooftops, watching it expectantly. Only Aleric watched the boy in disbelief; everyone else, heads skyward, witnessed a small figure leap from the shadows and snatch it up out of the air. It was like black lightning, but Kao grabbed it by its wet, streaming tail and pulled the figure down to the street unceremoniously. From the look of it, they’d been molested by a damp pile of rags with a long gray tail and an oversized battered felt hat for a head. Clutching Aleric’s meat in its gray paws, it hunched over its prize and devoured it resolutely.

“That’s what’s been after us!” Shani nodded, satisfied.

“M… my meat…” Aleric sighed.

“A vandalu!” Off White said distastefully.

Tione had only heard of vandalu—deceptively endearing cat people with agile limbs, strong, broad forearms and quick tongues. Their goal in life was to steal to get by, and to punctuate their thievery with as much petty mischief as possible. Not quite evil, but certainly not good. “Okay, Mittens, what’s the deal?”

The vandalu finished off Aleric’s meat patently, then stored the stick carefully in some sort of cache in the folds of his clothing before standing up. At full height, he reached only to Aleric’s waist and gazed up at them through shining green eyes set over a cute, abrupt muzzle dotted with a little pink nose. Surprisingly, his gray fur had an immaculate sheen to it, his whiskers were straight and orderly, and no dirt was present under his claws. “The girl thinks I am called Mittens. What a mistake, for I am Tulpa, master of mischief!”

Tione was about to proclaim him the soon-to-be master of having his muzzle ground into the dirt, but Katrina beat her with her own boring brand of admonishment. “I understand you like doing this sort of thing, but it really is not very nice to drop things on people.”

But Tulpa seemed more concerned with Stupid, who seemed to have found an arch enemy in his tail. Finally, Tulpa had to tuck the tail into his trousers to keep it from getting bitten. Then, regarding the party, he suddenly began dancing excitedly around Geddon. “Thank Ha, thank you, it’s a prince! I’ve pranked a prince!” he cackled. Splashing everyone else with rainwater, Tulpa did a jolly cross between a little jig and simply jogging in place. At first Tione thought he might dash off down the street, but instead he turned his attention to Kao as Geddon awkwardly tried to deal with being dealt such attention and having it end so quickly, his blush left behind as the only evidence. “What’s a handsome demon like you doing in a place like this?”

Kao sighed out of the corner of his mouth. “Being loyal to my friends, I suppose. Who you’ve wholly infuriated and stretched to the limits of their patience for cute furry pranksters.”

Tulpa did his jolly dance again. “You flatter me, demon!” He took Kao’s hand in his broad paws and shook it gratefully. “Now—as all of you have provided me so generously with such amusement, is there any favor I could proffer you in return?” He removed the black felt hat to expose his oversized pink ears, to hear any possible request all the better.

Tione didn’t trust Tulpa at all.

But of all people, Geddon stepped forward, and it could have been the only thing that could ever cause him to act in such desperation. “Yes!” He turned to the party guiltily, and blushing slightly. “I have been in search, vandalu, for a magic so elusive that even Sela does not seem to contain its secrets. And in vain, for weeks.”

Tulpa’s tail swished the air, and Stupid made clumsy attempts to pounce on it before the vandalu tucked it in again. “Sounds intriguing.”

“For the purpose of curing a mysterious disease,” the prince finished.

The vandalu’s muzzle twisted into a dissatisfied frown. “Not so intriguing. But you should turn to the center of the city, in the merchant district. Look for Began Tarn. He should be able to help you. Most of his wares have to do with healing and he’s old enough that I doubt anything of the sort exists he hasn’t heard of.”

“Is it near the Hog n’ Wash inn?” Off White quickly asked, bending slightly to Tulpa’s level as if to address a child.

The cat wore a wry smile. “Oh. Yes, indeed it is.” He rubbed his paws together. “I take it that is your choice of lodging for the duration of your stay in our humble town?”

She nodded.

“Well,” Tulpa said, straightening. “You’ve chosen well. Now…” He crept away hastily, hopping along the cobblestones deftly. “I have business to attend to. You can’t know how grateful I am for this encounter!” He barely allowed pause for Stupid to nip at his trousers once more before disappearing into the crowd.

“We’re going past there anyway,” Xerei pointed out. “We may as well look for this person, as it shouldn’t take us out of our way much.”

Tione was long tired of the rain, but she did suppose that Geddon’s search for a cure for the king was certainly more important. They agreed to make their way there to seek out this Began Tarn in the merchant district immediately, as Tione worked to proselytize herself into feeling as intrigued about the idea. After all, they were in need of new gear anyway, since much of it had been left behind at the stand of pilfer trees.

Further into the Inter-City, the grime accumulated eagerly on any available surface in a not-so-tempting glaze. Tione supposed that even the air was dirty enough that just walking around was dirtying her clothes. But at least the market district was covered with colorful, dingy and tattered tarpaulins over every street that kept the rain from drenching the market’s eager customers. The exotic smell of foods, herbs and all manner of magical ingredients spiced the hazy air. The lanes wove up and down, sneaking around corners surreptitiously and slipping down alleyways, all of which were buzzing with activity.

“Much of what happens here is reputedly of an illicit nature, but it generally has the sense to keep itself concealed,” Xerei reported warily. “If we are not careful, we shall be cheated of every coin we have.”

It was overwhelming. “It’s so… full!” Tione gasped, unable to manage a more colorful word. “Of life… of everything,” she added, her very perception of ‘everything’ broadening at every sideways glance.

“I don’t know,” Katrina shuddered, tucking her wings around her protectively. “It’s so crowded.” She cast a pout at Geddon. “Don’t you think, Geddy?”

Throwing careful glances side to side, he nervously gulped. “Indeed. I am afraid someone may recognize me who will have more wits about them than the guards earlier.”

Aleric had been wearing his most disarming silly grin since they had got to the market, and he appeared as if he couldn’t grow more blissful if ten beautiful and wealthy princesses had just asked him to rescue them from a prison made of gold. “This brackish air, stifling crowds, dubious clientele… how many people do you suppose are paying attention to any of us?”

Tione was unenthusiastic about admitting it, but he had a point. Everyone moved purposefully and privately there at the market. There was a noticeable need to take care of one’s needs and leave as soon as was possible. Tione and company appeared to be nothing more than tourists, which were of less consequence than the amount of salt on the greasy food they bought on the way back from the chandler.

“Stress drinkers! Suck away your worries! Painless! Relaxing! You’ll be a new person! Step up, lad!”

The man in the stall was calling at Xerei, who turned incredulously. The man, with a huge grin plastered on his face, pointed to Xerei directly. “Young lad, come here. That’s right, closer!” The whole party drew close through the riptide of passing customer to the stall following Xerei, who seemed not so much eager to examine what he was trying to be sold than to get the affair over with.

The man was grizzled as the city itself, with dark, bright eyes, deep, pronounced wrinkles, and a grin set eternally onto his face that yawned forward behind yellowed, chipped teeth like a bottomless chasm. He leaned over a battered, discolored and stained bit of wood that passed for a counter, shared by an odd black creature with slick skin, beady blank eyes and a long snout that trailed down and dangled, waving, over the counter in a manner that seemed entirely inappropriate to Tione.

“I can tell you’re a man under a lot of pressure,” the man called.

“You have no idea,” Xerei returned, eyeing the black creature.

“Even Xerei has no idea,” Kao quipped.

“Well, stress is unhealthy, yeah?” the man prompted, continuing his introduction. “The stress drinker is adapted to live on feelings of tension and stress, and…”

Suddenly, the black creature streaked through the air with a “braboo!” and latched onto Xerei’s head, wrapping its snout firmly around his forehead. As the thing began to pulse merrily, Xerei leaped madly around the square, screaming and flailing.

“Good gods! Get it off! Make it get off! Ugh!”

“Baroo!” the stress drinker chirped happily, only latching on harder.

“Ahh! It’s in my brain! It’s digging into my skull! Help!” He went on hopping about until he had managed to work his way through the bemused crowds to the other end of the street, leaned against a worn and tarnished statue of Corsi, the god of happiness, wheezing resignedly until the stress drinker, purring, uncoiled and fell contentedly into Shani’s waiting arms.

“Huh, sorry, lad!” the stress drinker’s keeper guffawed, jaw hanging even more slack than usual. “Got a bit too eager methinks!”

“Burboo,” the stress drinker gurgled, permitting Shani to stroke its head.

“Guess this one’s free,” the keeper sighed. “Dun matter, this city’s a goldmine of stress. But if ya feel the need, keep me in mind, huh?”

“Boooo,” the stress drinker agreed with mournful hope as it hopped back onto the counter. Its tummy seemed a bit rounder now.

“Right…” Tione mumbled at the same time as Xerei, turning around and noticing in the space behind her a sudden and distinct lack of Aleric. “Aler…” she began, when over the din of the crowd and the patter of the rain on the tarpaulin mesh above, she heard Aleric’s alarmed scream:

“No! No, never!”

Tione had nearly forgotten that there were plenty of enemies after them that might have followed them into the city. Fearing finding Aleric being captured by Silvers, she found herself tearing through the crowd, pounding the uneven cobblestones under her boots until her feet hurt, calling his name. Aleric! The cries continued.

“Let me alone, will you? You can’t have him!”

Huh?

Tione finally reached the scene with everyone else trailing behind. Aleric, with Stupid wrapped lovingly in his arms, was shouting over a makeshift table made from an old crate stamped “Wolfe Novelties—simply the best in fallaway houses in straw, stick and brick!” on its worn, chipped planks. Tione had heard the brick varieties had been recalled, having not fallen apart the way they’d been meant to.

“This puppy’s special!” Aleric was asserting, standing straight and proud as if he was speaking of his own son. “I won’t give him up for any price!”

The man looked like he was about to attempt a “charming smirk” contest with Aleric. He wouldn’t have won, but perhaps that’s why his budding smile turned into a tiny frown. Sitting behind the crate on an old rusty bucket, legs splayed and elbows resting on his knees, the merchant frowned more deeply, the dimple on his chin turning an agitated pink. “But I must have it. I must! The noble look on that canine face! I have not seen such a paragon of dogdom!”

A rebuking “ach-blegh!” from Kao signaled to Tione that her friends had caught up. Feelings of silliness for believing Aleric to be in horrible danger turned to curiosity. “What do you mean?” she asked. Stupid was, to her, just a wiggly ball of fuzz that chewed things and occasionally fell apart into smaller balls of fuzz.

The merchant molded a professional “I’ve got you” face with a sly grimace and a raised eyebrow, realizing that if he was truthful, those he were trying to convince may grow even more unlikely to accede to his deal. “Well…” he twiddled his thumbs, then scratched his nose, wrinkling his face until it resembled a crumpled rag. “Hard to say. I got an eye for quality though, and that little dog’s sure to grow into a prime specimen.”

Aleric hugged the puppy all the closer until its tongue stuck out a bit. “He’s already a prime specimen to me. Keep your eighty-five gold pieces!”

“Eighty- fuh?” Xerei pushed past Katrina and Geddon, gray-blue eyes alit. That was more or less the reaction Tione had just managed to hold back.

Katrina’s ears fluttered. “Oh, but we can’t sell Stupid, even for that amount, if he means that much to Aleric.”

Immediately, Xerei nodded. “Yes, you’re right. It would be inconsiderate to insist upon it.”

Wow, that ‘stress drinking’ stuff really seemed to work!

Shani turned to look up at him and said in a harsh whisper Tione could just hear, “If all the merchants hear try to cheat you, then what’s he really worth?”

Every aspect of that question left Tione boggled. “Okay, Grizzly, listen up. We’re not selling, but you’re telling us just what this thing can do besides chew things and fall to pieces. Because it’s not about to tell us.”

The merchant knew he had them on the ropes now. He started to lean back on his bucket until gravity politely reminded him there was nothing to lean against. Sputtering, the merchant righted himself. “Now, that’s hard to say just now. Puzzle dogs are troublesome, a handful. But creatures of cosmic longevity.” He waved his hand into the ether as if coaxing it to come forward and agree. “Er, at least in dog terms. They don’t even reach their prime until they’re round about fifty.”

“F—” everyone gasped, then stopped themselves from daftly repeating the word, instead letting it hang in the air with the haze—except for Xerei, who, with the skill of a mage beyond his years, transmuted it skillfully into a “Fff— for the gods’ sake!”

The merchant jabbed his finger at the air in front of them. His hands were so covered in cheap, tarnished rings, Tione wondered if he wasn’t trying to use them as armor against something. Setting his brows into an obtrusive ridge, he hissed, “Bad business giving valuable information to folks who ain’t payin’ for nothing.”

“Aroo,” Stupid whimpered disdainfully.

No matter, Tione thought. She would have relished flipping her hair over her shoulder, uttering, “fine,” and leaving. But Aleric pushed out his chest over Stupid’s head and continued to specify in increasingly grand terms how disinterested he was in parting with the party’s mascot.

“Gutterswill!” the merchant cursed.

They managed to extricate themselves from the merchant’s insistences, but Aleric was none too happy, despite being able to walk away with his dopey puppy and eighty-five gold pieces poorer. “I tell you. Some people have no heart when it comes to a boy and his dog. I’ve got half a mind to go back there and really let him have it. See if I don’t. Uh… with words, of course.”

“Aleric, you do have half a mind.” But Tione found herself chuckling.

She hardly had time to reflect on this before a slick, nasal voice screeched from the end of the street, “Crud and sludge!”

Tione attempted a brief prescient interpretation of this curse, and unfortunately, all that was brought to mind were her expectations of the food they would be served at the Hog n’ Wash. After all, she was quite hungry and it’d been a couple of days since they’d had a decent meal. The source of the cry turned out to be a spindly young man, even skinnier than Kao and only a little taller than Shani, wearing robes meant for someone about three times his size and bowed over his tiny kiosk and frothing over with rage. “God’s palls!” the man screamed, scraping the already severely faded and chipped gold paint on his stall with tiny hands. He swept back his graying, disheveled hair with a hand covered in some sort of pink ooze that had coated the surface of the stall, drew his hand away from his hair quickly and glared at the hand, grinding his teeth. “Raaaaagh!”

Somehow, Tione and company were the only ones who seemed taken aback by this. As the man attempted to scoop the pink ooze back into what remained of a broken glass container and howled as he cut himself, Xerei murmured, “Perhaps we can be of assistance to him.”

Off White, at his side, grinned up at him. “Hmm, that’s awfully nice of you. Maybe we should get a stress drinker to have with us all the time.”

Indignant, Xerei blushed. “It’s just the decent thing to do. And after all…” He cleared his throat. “If we can stop him screaming, it will make everyone else’s day that much more pleasant. And I can avoid another headache.” Xerei even seemed serious about his intent on helping the little man, as he was the first to approach his kiosk, undaunted by the continued screaming. “Do you require assistance, or is your incessant screeching just your method of ensuring everyone around you is as miserable as you are?”

Surprisingly, the man seemed far from being further enraged by Xerei’s query. Instead, he clapped his hand and a couple spatters of pink ooze hit Xerei in the face. “Oh, would you? I seem to have received a faulty beaker from my manufacturer. The thing just broke as I was handling it to place it on display, and I’ve no replacement. Raw magic isn’t exactly cheap, either! I can’t afford to just have it soak into the wood of my stall!”

Wordlessly, Xerei appeared to begin setting up to perform a spell, examining the shattered beaker and the mess that was meant to be contained in it alike.

Geddon fidgeted with the hem of his coat. “Sir,” he managed, “taking as granted that our companion plans to perform a service for you, would you mind telling us where we might find Began Tarn? If it’s not too much trouble. I apologize.” The prince winced, and Tione decided that his temperament was a better disguise for his royalty than any change in appearance or wardrobe could.

But the merchant seemed pleased to have someone asking something of him treading so lightly, wiping his slimy hands on his trousers and grinning amiably. “Mmm? Began Tarn? Mmm? Master of the healing arts, shrewd man of commerce and business, ladies’ man that would make a centaur appear lacking in nature, and five-time champion of the Asher Extreme Poultry Bake-Off? That Began Tarn?” He wringed his hands and bubbles of pink goo squeezed out around his fingers.

Tione was in no mood to pretend to be shocked when he revealed himself to be the one they were looking for, since that meant they’d be dealing with him for at least few minutes, forcing her to put off enjoying some of the roast pheasant she smelled cooking at a kiosk further down the street as well as a pale approximation of rest at the Hog n’ Wash. “So… you’re him?”

“Yes!” Began clapped his hands, and tiny sparks issued from between them. “Yes, yes! Yes. Yes. Now. Snoop around as much as you like while your friend works. Poke about. The two kiosks to my right are mine as well.” He waddled proudly back to one end, where there were two counters neatly stacked with odd paraphernalia Tione had assumed had belonged to some unwise merchant who had stepped away momentarily.

That thought was dispelled by a yelp of frustrated surprise from Xerei. Noticing him rifling frantically through his pockets, his purse and his pack like he had heard a baneburrow bug chittering in them somewhere, Off White cautiously approached him. “Xerei? What is it?”

“Silver spoon,” he muttered. He paused, continuing his search, and when no one inquired further, continued, “the ornamental silver stirring spoon I always carry. Gone.”

No remarks were made about the spoon’s inability to just walk off, as in Jigsaw that should never be ruled out as a possibility.

“When was the last time you had it?” Off White asked with a maternal tone Tione imagined was usually reserved for Indigo.

Xerei quickly returned, “Last night. Figures. My fault for bringing it along. My fault.” He sighed and brought out what he’d been looking for: a small black felt bag with a drawstring threaded with gold. He held it far away from his face, facing away from any of them, before pulling the little string free. As the mouth of the bag gaped open into the sky, a shaft of purple light shot into the clouds along with a cacophonous burst of sound that shut out all the sounds of the marketplace around them. Tione imagined this sound contained simultaneously everything anyone could ever hear. She thought of cattle, she heard bored mooing, when she remembered the Lost Gardens, she heard nothing but the grunting of beasts and the rustling of leaves, and when she thought of minstrels, she heard tasteless jokes about how many goblins it took to strike flint. This continued for a few seconds before the burst of magic sputtered off with an abashed coughing sound.

“Pardon my magic,” Xerei shrugged, bringing the bag back before the kiosk and blowing a cloud of it above the remains of the shattered beaker. Meticulously picking through the merchandise on the counter, he suspended each piece in the pink cloud and began muttering an incantation. As he did, the pieces slowly reassembled themselves. Occasionally, one would be incorrectly placed, and he’d have to backtrack. It seemed to require a great deal of concentration, and the whole process took nearly ten minutes by Tione’s estimation, but the finished product was a glass vessel that looked exactly like new. Stumbling forward, Xerei caught it as it fell, returning it to Began dispassionately.

The merchant perused his newly-repaired vessel, and, satisfied, began to do his best to scoop the pink goo back into it, meticulously cleaning every one of his wares of it. Whatever “raw magic” was, it must have been valuable enough to not want to let a single drop be wasted.

Shani coughed discreetly. “Sir, did you know that raw magic that’s lost some of its concentration by being exposed to air can have its potency restored by being boiled over a mixture of satyr’s milk and an extract of salamander lips?”

As Xerei, the spoon forgotten, leaned into have a stern word with the boy, Began made a gurgling sound in the back of his throat. “Huh! Huh, hmm… is that quite true?” Began seemed to be turning around the notion of it in his head for a moment before his eyes went wide, and his grip tightened on the vessel of raw magic so quickly that he nearly dropped it. “Yes. Yes, yes… yes. No, no. Wait. No, yes. Yes. Given those ingredients, and a slow, steady boil… yes, I suppose that’s logical.”

It disappointed Tione, but after a week, she understood a lot less about magic than she hoped she would. When Geddon, punching valiantly through his usual prison of sheepishness, directly asked if Began could advise him in the curing of a mysterious ailment, she was lost even more when they began discussing ingredients of some sort of healing salve based on the symptoms, but with combinations of certain symptoms taking priority over individual ones. She was fairly sure she’d never understand why cold sweat called for cockatrice toes, fever called for demonsbane, but bouts of both called for only the former.

“… and occasional delirium,” Geddon finished, sighing as if speaking so much made him truly nervous.

“Um… I haven’t noticed any big changes in how he acts after he got sick,” Shani coughed.

Taken aback, Xerei gasped. “Shani!” He patted the boy on the head, eliciting a small pout, and leaned over him to regard Geddon apologetically. “Prince, I’m sure you’re correct. His Majesty’s recent irrational behavior is nothing we’ve ever seen before.”

Ignoring all of this and hunched over with his head tucked between his shoulder like he was expecting to be struck, Began nodded. “Yes. Of course. Yes, yes. It is a complicated—no, no—baffling set of symptoms, isn’t it? Of course it is; you’ve come to me. You’ve come to me. No mere expert can unravel this medical mystery.” He twirled his index finger about in the air, declaring it to the world. “This is why—” He whirled around to face away from the party.

Tione wanted desperately to stage whisper her incredulity to her teammates, but decided that his good mood was frail enough as it was. Besides, Xerei, Kao and Shani were easily within view, and it was clear that Tione’s opinion of Began would not come as a shock to any of them.

“Gods damn it! Bricklebrit!” This followed a firm thunk from behind Began’s counter. The merchant bowed over, appearing to be gnashing his teeth. He stomped the wet, uneven pavement a couple of times, sucking his finger, which he seemed to have slammed in the door of a trunk. Thankfully, he didn’t seem deterred, and produced a small misty glass orb with a needle protruding from an ornate copper sheath at one end. Tione assumed it was a needle, but the end was tipped with a bit of cork, presumably to prevent accidents. “This. This is it. The… thing. Yes. Here we go.” He held it out before them and, after momentarily surveying his customers, proffered it to Geddon.

It didn’t look like much, but Tione recalled that the former duke of Green Leaf had said that about the Thimble of Horrific Dismemberment, and that had got him nowhere good.

“Isn’t it a bit ornamental for a meat skewer?” Kao asked, frowning distastefully at the thing.

Markedly offended, Began leapt in the air. “It is not an ornamental meat skewer! Ridiculous! That is ridiculous! Why would I sell you a meat skewer? What do you take me for?”

In reply, the demon eagerly opened his mouth to offer his answer to those questions, but Geddon quickly asked, “What… how does this work? Don't tell me…” He looked at the needle skeptically, and recoiled when Began held it closer.

“A more simple means of operation could not be found!” the merchant objected.

Every passing second made Geddon appear guiltier for considering turning down the enthusiastic offer. “That’s as may be, however…” He looked up at Began apologetically, “I’m afraid I am not deign to pierce my father with some magical object of unconfirmed merit.”

“That’s the beauty of it! You don’t have to! Even the child here could operate it!” he orated, gesturing to Shani, who pouted and folded his arms firmly.

“Sir, I could operate a manual magic field abacus with my eyes closed.”

Geddon smiled at his apprentice weakly. Xerei seemed painfully aware of Geddon’s growing discomfort at continuing to spend time at the stall without coming to a decision. He leaned in close. “It is Began after all. Pr—Geddon, you’ve come so far from home for a solution. Now that you’ve found one, perhaps you shouldn’t dismiss it so quickly.”

“You may be right.” Still, it took another couple of seconds before Geddon nodded stolidly. “How much are you charging for one?”

Began’s eyes lit up—but not before his eyes flittered about the marketplace nervously. Finally, satisfied with whatever he did—or did not see, he grinned. “Yes. How much. The price, of course. Well, there’s the equipment fee, and fees for the processing unit, processing plate, processing fluid, and of course, the handling and service fees when you deliver the results to me in my laboratory for testing.”

“Wait.” Tione finally felt the need to interrupt. She didn’t know anything about magic field abacuses or processing fluid or anything, and Began was speaking very quickly, but she knew a scam when she heard one! “Deliver? You mean we can’t just know what the results are right away?”

“Well… operation of the device is simple, but only a master of the healing arts such as myself can determine their results accurately. And that is why, for my rare talents, I charge a total of fifty-five gold pieces.”

At that point, everyone turned to Geddon; he was the one carrying the money. Resolutely, he reached for his purse before he could change his mind. But when he didn’t withdraw any money, but instead spun around and searched his entire person frantically, it was clear something was wrong. No one dared ask for the few seconds the prince was engaged in his search. Finally, defeated, he sighed and turned to the party. “Lack of funds, sadly, has precluded our quest. My purse is missing.”

Tione felt the hair on the nape of her neck stand up and her blood run cold. That wasn’t just Geddon’s money… that was everyone’s money! Doing her best not to let any of her anger into her words, she demanded, “When did you have it last?”

Kao’s reaction bordered on ferine. “Does this mean we have no money for the inn… or for food?!”

“That vandalu!” Off White realized. “If Xerei’s spoon is missing, and so is Geddon’s purse, it can’t have been someone just walking by us. It must have been someone we were with for at least a few minutes!” She clenched her fists, no doubt thinking of how happily the little furball had gallivanted off after their encounter.

Katrina frowned, and the pure whiteness of her feathers seemed to lose some luster. “What a mess.” It wasn’t much of a statement, but there wasn’t much else to say. A tiny, agile creature like a vandalu could have fled to the city’s borders by then if it wanted to. But she wrapped her arms tenderly around Geddon. “Please don’t feel guilty, Geddy. It isn’t your fault. I still love you!”

“Th… thank you.” Geddon turned to apologize to Began before Tione led them off down the street quickly. Tione wasn’t sure where they were going, since they now had no money for food and none to pay for their room at an inn. She tried to console herself by realizing that she was still better off than she was when she began her journey. Wait…

Tione hurriedly thrust her hands into the pockets of the big cloth bag she’d been carrying her belongings in. It wasn’t as if she were afraid that what she was looking for would suddenly disappear, and she was certain that Tulpa hadn’t gotten his hands on this. She pulled out the handful of coins that she’d originally planned to buy a new dress with back in Sheste, one of the few things she’d started her journey with. “Do you suppose this would cover one night for all of us?” Before anyone (namely someone like Kao) could joke about Tione holding out on them, she explained where the coins had come from.

Aleric dashed to her side and counted the coins, mumbling to himself. After starting over twice when Shani asked how much there was before he’d finished, he finally concluded, “Well!” He put his arm around Tione’s shoulder. “If not, we can haggle. I happen to be an expert haggler. No one haggles like me.”

It really was true. The latest spoils of Aleric’s impeccable talent for bargaining was a bag of melons that he managed to get its owner to pay them three silver pieces to take away on account of them being cursed by the spirits of vengeful fruit salad vendors.

Off White faced the group, her energy seemingly renewed. “All right, everyone! The inn isn’t far from here. Let’s eat when we get there! Meals just may be included, if we’re lucky.”

Finding their way to the Hog n’ Wash took some time. Off White had gotten directions recently, but she was distracted by Aleric’s tales of battling armies of disgruntled dire badgers in the Plains of Wailing Reeds or chastely liberating maidens of varying levels of extraordinary beauty from anything but dragons, and often instructed her tired retinue to double back down the street and take a different path. There was no sign she believed the tales, but she seemed to enjoy listening to them, and didn’t seem to mind entertaining his notions of dashing heroism. Tione missed most of the last story, because as the neared where Off White was now sure they’d find their destination, the air was alive with a stirring commotion just far enough away that Tione could no longer identify the lines of what must have been an exciting performance: after a jubilant shout and the sound of thumping about on a stage, cheers, laughter or whoops occasionally would fill the damp air.

“… and then the heirless dying king of the Aylgamir granted me the throne. Of course, I had promised the Skupi protection from the Horgun gang until the return of Bocu, their champion. So I had to decline his offer, naturally.”

“But what about the poor Aylgamir?”

“Well, of course I had to find them a suitable king, so I… say, is this the place?”

The uneven cobbled road ended in a torch lit small cul-de-sac bordered by a crescent shaped building with three stories and yellow-tinted (or extremely dirty) windows. As they approached the Hog n’ Wash, the lively atmosphere that was tense with yelling and cheering became stilled. The stuffy air of the marketplace turned cool and peaceful with a single step toward the old brick and mortar building, which seemed at the same time poised to cave in on itself and completely timeless.

“That’s quite a relief. All that commotion was giving me such a headache,” Xerei mumbled, rubbing his head. “Though I can’t imagine things will be much better once we go inside.”

Pardon me.

A voice rang out in Tione’s head—a serene, calming voice. She checked her companions, and from the way they scanned the street curiously, she suspected they’d heard the same. The sight of what had excused itself was even more surprising than hearing a voice in her head. Standing on legs that wobbled tentatively like four cabers stood on their ends and balanced by cloven feet as broad as dining tables was a gargantuan creature that looked out over the Hog n’ Wash as if it were using it for cover. It was covered in coarse brown fur, and did not appear to have a head or neck—though it was hard to tell looking up at it. A stiff, conical silver horn projected from the front of its face above large shining black eyes.

Do you know the way to Arallyne? I only know that I have a long distance yet to travel. The voice murmured like river water rushing over a sand bank on a peaceful night.

Only Xerei and Shani seemed undaunted. Xerei looked around only briefly to get his bearings, then pointed over the inn, to the northwest. “Past Sofia’s Great Wall, and the Gharness River. If you find yourself at Celestial Bay, you’ve overshot.”

The shaggy cloven feet shifted as the creature turned to where Xerei pointed. Ah. I see; no wonder I have ended up here. If only I had arms to hold a compass with. Somehow, a mental sigh washed over the whole party like a spring breeze fluttering past blossoms on a young tree. With that, the creature lifted its bony knees and stepped heedfully over the inn, and went on its way, not shaking the ground in the slightest.

A moment of awed silence seemed necessary as the creature faded from view into the haze. After this, Xerei explained, “Baalki. It’s odd for one to be in the middle of a city—though, it did appear to be lost.”

“I’d only seen them in books,” Shani murmured, amazed.

Jovially, Aleric pounded Xerei on the back with his palm. “Seeing a baalki’s supposed to be a sign that good things are coming your way for sure! Great, eh? Let’s get inside that inn and see if that’s true!” He strode off toward a set of double doors that were large enough for an orc to bound through on stilts.

“You know,” Shan was saying, “Baalki are quite common in Icyl. They love the desert, you know. They say one day, a baalki came to the king, with the proposition that…”

Ahead of them, Aleric suddenly let loose a scream almost as terrified as the one he’d managed while pinned by Fluffyhead, leaving Tione’s heart a few beats behind. And somehow, neither fleeing or bothering to attempt to ask Aleric what had got him so upset this time, Tione rushed through the double doors… and screamed.