Slip Song (Devany Miller Series) (39 page)

“
Well I hope it doesn’t happen again. I’m afraid I’ll screw things up so badly they’ll never be fixed.”

“
The stories almost always have a happy ending.” Her eyes went to Kroshtuka’s big body. “You talked to him that first night. Remember?”

“
Yeah.”

She nodded. “I can get you out of here, but I want you to do something for me, too.”

“Of course.” I hoped she would ask me to save her from her brother but she did not.

“
Do you remember Tam?”

I nodded. Thought of her red furred body in Jasper’s arms.

“I want you to take her with you. See if the hyena will take her in. My brother is planning something awful and she needs to be far away before he hurts her.”

“
What about you?” I didn’t want anything to happen to Tam but didn’t understand why Sharps couldn’t get away too.

“
I have to stay.” Her shoulders twitched and she paced back to the door. “I have to. I’m his anchor.”

“
He doesn’t need you. You don’t deserve to live like this.”

“
I have to. Without me he would spiral out of control.”

“
Maybe letting him burn himself out is the best answer,” I said, as gently as I could.

She turned. “What about the people who would die with him? He is the heart of this Carnicus. He worked magic to put himself at its center and those who are here are bound to him. If he dies, so do they.”

“Why would anyone agree to something like that?”

One thin shoulder shrugged. “They’ve been changed by the magic, either on accident or through force. The witch-folk won’t have anything to do with them and they know shit about the Anwar. What would you have them do? They need him and he needs them.”

“Are you bound to him too?”

“
Not in the same way. I’m the anchor. I can absorb the wild magic that rides him, keep it under control.”

I didn’t realize I was shaking my head until she reached through the bars to take my hand.

“Some day I’ll figure out how to get away from him. Until then, I protect the Carnicus from him and keep him sane. Tam isn’t bound but he will force the issue on her soon. Please. I can get you all out and away if you just promise to take her with you.”

“
I will. But I hate leaving without you.”

She tucked escaped strands of hair back under her cap. “That’s for another story, one you won’t be a part of, like it or not.” A shy smile. “I sometimes catch glimpses. Zed thinks I might have a talent for it if I can get away from my brother. But talk like that could get him killed and me hurt.”

“I’m so sorry. You don’t deserve his abuse.”

She nodded. “I know. So. I will help you gain your freedom tonight. I’ll free Tam and send her to let you out. I’ll try to find your bodiless companion as well. Quorra took him in again. She doesn’t remember him but she’s just as fascinated as she was last time.”

“Thank you Sharps.”

She nodded then crossed back to the door and sat in a chair next to it. She only said one more thing before she crossed her arms over her chest and appeared to fall asleep. “Don’t forget to change back.”

Before I did, I reached through the bars and touched my hand to Kroshtuka’s fur. He felt stiff but warm, like a living person experiencing rigor mortis. I pushed power into him, not sure how else to fix him. For a long moment nothing happened. I worried I’d blow him up like a balloon with too much helium. Then his leg twitched. His ears. In minutes, he was standing in his cell, carefully stretching his muscles.

‘
Thank you.’

“
Of course,” I said aloud. By this time Sharps was snoring though I had no idea how she’d gotten comfortable enough to do so. “Did you hear her proposal?”

He nodded his head once. ‘I want to rip her brother’s throat out.’

“I agree but if it’s true killing him will result in everyone’s death, then we need to be more clever in how we help them all.”

‘
Bastard.’

“
Yes he is. I’d like to dispose of him myself and I don’t say that often at all.” I shook out my legs and arms then asked, “Is it okay? Her proposal?”

‘
It will be hard for this woman. We will do what we can for her, but it will be her choice to stay or go and we won’t keep her from doing what she wants.’

“
Sounds like the best chance she has for a better life.” For a life, period. After we’d talked, I let Neutria come forward once more and it was a good thing because not long after, the wagon rocked to a halt. Noise and shouts outside as the Carnicus workers circled the wagons and made camp for the night.

Sharps had woken when the wagon stopped and now she stood by my enclosure, watching the Wydlings moving and stretching in their cages. “Leon will send someone to spell me. You might want to pretend like you are still paralyzed.”

The Wydlings did as she suggested and when the door swung open and the tall man ducked through, the animals were prone and unmoving. “Leon wants you,” Alton said and Sharps shot me a glance before she left.

Alton filled pans with water and slid them into the cages. Once he was finished, he went to the door. I thought he’d leave but instead he locked it, sliding a bolt into place. “I do not have long, nor do I wish to have any of you remember this as a kindness.” He stood between us all and pulled a length of string from his pocket. The string was knotted at intervals and he began to pick at them with his fingers. As he did, the rest of the Wydlings were released from the spell Leon had placed them under.

Once he’d freed the last knot, he caught the string on fire and it burned up to his fingertips and vanished in a puff of black smoke. “I fear Quorra will soon be inconsolable. I must attend her.”

As soon as he left the wagon, Wydlings twitched and stretched. Some of them staggered to the pans to drink. A pretty fox-like creature turned up her nose and instead sat in the corner with her beautiful tail curled around her body like a boa.

When full dark came, all of us were in watchful anticipation. I wasn’t sure if Kroshtuka could communicate with his people in his head too, if they were reading his body language, or if they were just confident he would get them out of this mess. Either way, when Tam slipped into the wagon, each one stood silently, watching.

The sight of all the animals took her aback. She stood, staring for an incredibly tense moment, her body poised as if she were ready to fly away. Her eyes darted around the room, then she crept to the first cage across from me, letting loose fox-girl and friends. She freed everyone but Neutria, her eyes wide as she stared up at us. Neutria wanted to clack her fangs at her but I counseled her to act as non-threatening as possible. Not sure how that worked, considering we were the stuff of nightmares for eighty percent of people in this world.

Kroshtuka padded over and nudged the hand with the keys. She looked down as if surprised she still had them in her hand then stuck a key in my door with a shaking hand.

Free. Let’s kill them all.

‘Nex isn’t here. And most of them aren’t bad people.”

Always you are too soft.

‘Not always.’ I hadn’t been soft with the Theleoni who held Cyres. Not with Yorloff.

True. But is past and this is now.

‘Go!’ I urged her on and she picked her way out of the cage.

Tam hesitated again at the door, cracking it far enough to peer out into the dark. She then swung it open and disappeared. We followed, Neutria slipping out leg by leg, making it look almost balletic. I joined everyone as they slipped through the sleeping wagons, the phrase going round and round in my head, “It’s quiet. Too quiet.”

Tam stopped at a wagon and rapped out a distinct pattern on the door. “The head,” she mouthed, her voice the barest rush of air. The door swung open and Nex floated there, his face looking better than last I’d seen him. Quorra stood behind him looking sleepy and wet.

“
I shall stay here, Devany. My Quorra needs me.”

The mermaid grinned, her vicious teeth glinting in the moonlight. I wasn’t sure whether to congratulate them or cringe. ‘Leon might hurt you.’

“Pain is a small price to pay for happiness.”

I wanted to hug him goodbye or at least pat his cheek. Instead Neutria reached out a leg and did it for me. Nex smiled, his teeth just as deadly looking as Quorra’s. ‘I hope it works for you both. And if you ever need me,’ I said, then didn’t finish the sentence. He knew.

“Of course. And I extend the same courtesy to you. For you are my good friend and I would not have found Quorra without that friendship.”

‘
Keep an eye on Sharps for me?’

“
I will.”

“
Nex? It’s cold and my skin is drying out,” Quorra said. Nex nodded at me and Tam shut the door on them.

“
That was a stupid waste of time,” she said, her brows drawn tight over her eyes. “Come on.”

Neutria hissed at her, though not loud enough to bring Leon’s Carnicus workers down on us. We made it to the edge of camp without further interruptions. Then a scream came from the far side of the camp and a whomp of noise. We all turned as a gout of fire exploded into the air.

Kroshtuka started toward it and Tam said, “Stop. It’s a distraction to help us get away. Sharps and her fucking explosions. Come on.” When no one moved, she stamped her foot. “Come on! I promise, no one is hurt. Sharps wouldn’t let that happen.”

‘
Is she telling the truth?” I asked Kroshtuka.

He lifted his nose and sniffed, getting close enough to her to smell the sweat on her collarbones. ‘I think so. No fear taint, but what she had when she came to us.’

Neutria didn’t like the fire. It made her jumpy and she was only too happy to follow the others out into the night.

The ease of our escape worried me, though. I didn’t trust that Leon wouldn’t have guards on the wagon. Had he been planning to ambush us and then Sharp’s distraction changed his plans?

Tam hadn’t changed so she was running along with us, already panting heavily. Kroshtuka changed into his human form to ask if she would like him to help her change. She’d refused, a look of horror on her face. “I don’t want to be an animal. I want to be normal. Why can’t I be normal?”

When I wanted to slow for her, he asked me not to interfere and pushed us onward. I guessed she would change or get left behind and once she was on her own in the dark she decided she needed to try. She didn’t change anymore gracefully than the last time I’d watched, but she was finally in wolf form and running with the rest of us. She didn’t come too close to Neutria, which was for the best since my spider self was daydreaming about how she would taste mid-change.

It wasn’t until the moon rose high in the sky that we stopped to rest. Tam flung herself onto her side, her tongue lolling out of her mouth. Neutria climbed the nearest tree and perched in the branches―a nightmare shadow waiting to pounce on unsuspecting prey. Kroshtuka laid down at the base and groomed his spotted fur. The whole time he lay there, I noted he kept his eyes moving, scanning for threats. He really cared for these people and it was evident in the way he worried about them and protected them, but let them take their own paths.

‘
We got away too easily.’

Kroshtuka raised his head, his eyes on Tam. ‘I’ve had the same thoughts.’                                                 

‘I think we can trust Sharps, but she will do what is best for her people and that might mean betraying us somehow. I don’t think that’s what happened tonight, though. I think Tam is here to tell Leon where your home is.’

Tam was across the clearing, still panting from the run, clearly unused to the difficulty of running in her wolf form. I didn’t remember having any of those troubles but I wasn’t Neutria, either. She was herself when we changed and I was just a rider in her mind. It would be different if I had to figure out how to walk, sense, see, and everything else she did as a matter of course.

Kroshtuka tipped his head to look up at us. ‘I hear what you’re saying. But I promised to care for her and I won’t go back on my word.’

The touch of minds was an interesting thing. I heard what he was saying but I also sometimes got an impression of what he was thinking. It wasn’t mind reading, but similar to reading body language, I guess, only mental body language. I sensed that he, too, had concerns and was working through a solution. I silenced myself so that he could think. While he did, I wondered what my children were doing, if they were safe. I thought about Tom and his soul tucked inside me and wondered if he would forgive me for the taking of it. It was strange, how grief worked, how it came piecemeal and without warning at times. How it could overwhelm me one moment and disappear the next. I assumed it was a defense mechanism. A way that the human mind kept itself from breaking under the weight of sadness, a pressure-release valve.

Kroshtuka saved me from further contemplation. ‘There is a group of our people living to the south. They are all wolves and prefer living in animal form. I don’t think that’s something she wants but it might be a good place for her until we know if we can trust her. I am not concerned for their safety as much as those in the village because they are nomadic. The ringmaster would have to do more than sneak up late one night to take them.’