Luckily, my armor was still activated, helping me move, and I cocked Eneus back to throw. The figure held her hands out. “Stop, please. Parley!”
I narrowed my eyes as she stepped into the light, and I saw she was wearing Serpent colors. The stranger apparently took my silence for encouragement and whispered, “Some of us saw the fight. We couldn’t help, and it took a while to catch up, but luckily I did before the rotting Jackals could.” She spit and motioned to her chest. “Follow me! I can take you to safety!”
The Serpent was young, and part of me felt odd just standing there instead of fighting. I’d skirmished with plenty of Serpents during my time as a Jackal. This one was a shiner, with long, dark hair, pouty lips, and glinting earrings. I couldn’t believe she’d let vanity take priority over practicality, but then I thought about my long, dyed hair and realized I was mentally babbling. This could be shock; maybe I was fraying around the edges. I realized I’d lost floating time at some point while I’d been running. Damn, I thought.
“Why shouldn’t I just fly off? And why should I trust you?” I growled.
“You might be able to escape, but if you do, you probably couldn’t come back. The cultists will have the rotting sky locked down too, now. Trust me, I can explain later. As for why you should trust me...well, you don’t have many options left, right? The cultists have informants all over the city, and even you need to sleep, I think. It would be a rotting shame if the great Nora Hazard got shanked during a nap.”
“That’s a good point,” I conceded. “But you said safety...how can you have that?”
“Because even cultists and demons still fear the ningen, at least in the water.”
“Demons, ningen…” I shook my head. “Make sense, dammit. I’m tired and it’s been a long day.”
“We don’t have much time,” muttered the Serpent. “Look, what do you want?”
“Answers.”
“I can promise you answers. We, Serpents, can offer you safety in order to get them, too.” She held up a hand and amended, “Well, the best around Bittertown these days.”
Part of me wanted to leave, but I remembered how Enheduanna had sent me on this little vacation to begin with. Thinking of the demigoddess reminded me that I didn’t have much time until I needed to be in Mensk, at least if I was going to attend the Mensk academy. I wasn’t sure if I could walk away after seeing everything I’d seen, though. Damn Enheduanna, I mentally growled, but it didn’t have much heat to it. I had asked her for answers, after all.
The link between dark cultists, the Bittertown gangers, and Arren dying hadn’t escaped me. “How do I know you are telling the truth?”
“You don’t, but we need to go!” The Serpent was practically hopping from foot to foot now, and her hand nervously rested on the chain weapon on her hip.
“Swear it!” I demanded.
“I swear on my birth mother’s grave, and in my hope for rebirth in the celestial cycle.” The ganger looked me in the eye as she uttered one of the most sacred oaths I’d ever heard.
Behind me, I thought I could hear running footsteps in the distance.
As best I could, I reasoned through my options again, trying to be honest with myself. Retreat was not an option. Now that I knew my enemies, I couldn’t just leave this alone. Hesst Nimal—the Jackal leader—and Lisa also all needed to die. This was all true, but I was in no condition to be fighting any more tonight, especially since I still didn’t know exactly what I was up against. I’d grossly underestimated my enemy, and I didn’t want to run head-first into any more traps. Making mistakes was part of life, but making a mistake twice on a battlefield deserved death.
“Lead on,” I ordered.
“Gotcha, Hazard. Just keep the rotting relax switch on, fresh?”
I nodded, and began following the Serpent. If the ganger was aware that I’d prepared Eneus for a quick, upward thrust to her head if she betrayed me, she didn’t show it.
Forewarned
“How did you find me before everyone else?” I asked, keeping my voice barely above a whisper. We were nearing the outskirts of town, but weren’t out of danger yet. I could move a lot faster if I’d been by myself, but I still had no idea where we were going.
The Serpent shook her head. “We had fighters all over the rotting place to find you. One of us saw you get caught by that trap but we were too late. Then we got the signal to stay in place in case you made it out.” She shrugged. “We didn’t get to you first, more like you ran into one of us before the cultists found you.”
“Cultists.” I tasted the foul word and made a face. “If you were looking for me, why didn't you just come help me?” I frowned deeper. “Actually, how did you know I was in town? Why did you decide to find me to begin with? I am a Jackal.”
“You were a rotting Jackal,” the Serpent corrected. She ducked behind a factory building and motioned me to follow. I did, moving cautiously. After looking both ways, she explained, “The cultists were waiting for us to try it.” She grinned ruefully. “We don't bother calling them Jackals or Wyverns anymore, you know—just cultists. As for you being in town, everyone rotting knew you were in town!” She quietly laughed. “You are just a little rotting famous, and you weren’t exactly being very sneaky. We knew the demon-fucking cultists would be waiting for us to try helping you—not to run in—the same way we knew to find you—the letters.”
“Letters?”
“Some Serpents, the leaders and a few scouts like me, got letters from magical messenger birds starting about ten days ago. The letters didn't say who sent them but listed things from our pasts, and also a few predictions that all came true. Some of the letters were helpful, so we didn’t think they were from an enemy. We were max tested about it all at first, but had a meeting and decided that it wouldn’t hurt to see if the letters were right about you.”
“About me?” I eyed her out the corner of my eye.
“Yeah. Said you’d be in town and might need a guide to our base. We moved our base, obviously, at least from where you probably remember. If we’d stayed there, the motherless cultists would have gutted us ages ago.”
“Oh.” So that meant the warehouses I’d been heading to might have had even more traps. “Great.” I thought about what the ganger had just said, and absently asked, “What is your name?”
“Cat.”
“Do you have one of these letters I can see?” I was still not feeling very trusting. Dozens of Bittertown street fighters had just tried to murder me minutes earlier. On top of that, there were orb-Bonded in town, and I couldn’t even be sure yet that this Serpent was really a Serpent. Sure, in the past no Bittertown ganger would ever put on the colors of another gang, but in the past, there hadn’t been orb-Bonded cultists running around on walls, either.
Cat nodded and motioned me to follow, then vanished behind some old machinery. My eyes darted around, light from the stars and the oddly placed Bittertown light more than enough for me to see by. On one hand, doing show and tell out in the open would be rot-brained so hiding for a moment made sense, but this would be a great time for an ambush too. After a tense second, I made up my mind and followed, creeping around the machinery. When I rounded the corner, the young ganger smiled knowingly at me. “The letters actually said you might want to see one of them. They called you paranoid and grumpy, and other things.”
“What?”
Cat pretended she hadn’t heard me, quietly rummaging in a pocket until she pulled out a folded piece of paper. I snatched it out of her hand, squinting in the dim light to read.
Nora is both somewhat simple and unpredictable. Do not underestimate her, though. She’s smarter than she looks (I know, amazing, right?) and she’s good at seeing through deceptions. If you meet her, just be honest with her. She will still be ready to kill any of you, and she could do so easily. She may be terrible at relationships, doesn’t take care of herself, and doesn’t understand men very well, but she could probably split a fly with that (very interesting) spear
of hers.
Do not provoke her. She has no...what do you uneducated types call it? Relax switch? She has no relax switch. Yes, that was it.
You need her and she needs you, so just be honest and respectful to her or she might end up feeding you your ass through a new hole in your neck. I won’t be there, so everyone should play nice. You all have an important part to play in something. That is also why I will be away, making sure that some uninvited guests don’t come through any new doors. They have terrible manners!
There was a smiley face drawn on the paper before words continued again.
Good luck and have fun! You are all so cute, running around, playing army. Adorable.
Oh wait, I forgot to tell you about her fears. Nora used to be afraid of dying alone, but now I think she’s more afraid of not finding meaning and…
My eyes glazed over, first from shock, then anger. I recognized the writing. “Enheduanna,” I hissed.
“You know who wrote this?” asked Cat.
“Yes,” I grated.
She eyed me sideways. “I can’t tell if this person loves you or hates you.”
“Neither can I.”
“Wow, and I thought my friendships were fucked up,” Cat softly chuckled, then motioned me to follow again.
With a sigh, I moved out of our cover, alert, trying to watch every direction at once. I felt more certain that Cat wasn’t going to stab me in the back now, but I also wondered what the hell Enheduanna had said in her rotting letters.
Creator damn that woman!
***
Cat led me just outside of town, and I quickly learned why the Jackals hadn’t been able to kill this smaller enemy group.
Two longboats had been pulled up to shore, and Serpents seemed to materialize from nowhere, even dropping out of trees near the shoreline to begin filling them, preparing them for cast off. I counted about ten of them per boat.
Most of the Serpents spared at least one curious glance for me, but they moved with a purpose. I recognized the smooth motions and practiced teamwork of a group in mortal danger long enough, survival had become second nature.
Cat quietly ushered me into one of the boats. I eyed the vessel suspiciously—the Berber sea could be a very unforgiving place. Most people making a living off the sea or the distant ocean fished from the shore, or gathered from the beach. My father’s company had employed people to forage, and to cast large scoops into the water, dredging back sand and sifting it.
Commercial fisherwomen kept to very specific areas free of monsters, or home to such huge monsters that nothing else dared intrude on its territory. Mensk and Bittertown both had sand bars that allowed boats to stay relatively safe, and the Merfolk were bribed, so deaths were kept to a minimum unless boats went out in deep, unknown waters.
As far as I knew, the water here east of Bittertown was dangerous. At least I can fly, I thought. I’d decided to keep my feet on the ground until I met with the Serpents’ leaders, but I would blow my chances for revenge and get the hell out of the area if it looked like I might be eaten by some giant fish demon.
The quiet, smooth work around me drew my attention. Serpents, I thought, hit again by the strangeness of working with my former enemies. Now that I was sitting, I quietly minimized Eneus and watched gangers cast off. As the boats began moving, the women around me paddled into the dark.
With nothing else to do, in the near-silence, I thought of Enheduanna’s letters to the Serpents. If the demigoddess had wanted me to meet these women, what I was doing probably mattered to her somehow. I couldn’t think of any other reason for her to send dozens of letters, even though I knew she could create them quickly and easily using her glowing keyboard.
Once we were about a hundred yards from shore, Serpents at the front of each boat lit lanterns, providing some light in the gloom. Visibility was still terrible, though—fog drifted across the water, wrapping the boats like grey cloaks. Cat sighed and turned around in her seat to face me, fidgeting. Since she seemed to expect me to ask questions, I quirked an eyebrow at her. “What’s all this?” I asked, gesturing at the boats. “You friends were waiting for us.”
“I signaled everyone that I found you.”
“How?”
“Serpents secret.” She smiled, but I frowned in response. Swallowing, she said, “Uh...anyway, this is how we’ve survived for so long. Past about this range, those rotting crossbows can’t hit shit. They can’t follow in boats either. We have three water mages with us, and they all know how to calm the ningen. This is their territory. Every time we go to or from shore, we take two mages with us, one as backup, and one last backup at base.”
“Ningen?”
“I don’t know what their proper demon name is, but that’s what all the fishermen call them. They’re big, longer than a longboat, have a tail, and human-like arms. Their faces are blank and rotting creepy. They look something like Merpeople that got crossed with a candle and turned into giant monsters.”
“Sound fun,” I muttered. “So these things will destroy anyone in their territory unless they have a water mage, huh? Why don’t the Jackals just get a mage of their own?”
Cat looked at me like I was stupid and blinked a few times before answering slowly. “They are street gangs working with dark gods cultists. They don’t have any mages right now, so how would they get one? Put out a want ad? Most mages leave Bittertown for a better life. You’re from here, you know that.”
I suppressed the irritation I felt. Part of me wanted to intimidate this girl into talking respectfully, but I knew better. The deepest respect was earned, and I felt a little embarrassed. If I’d been using my brain, I could have reasoned out what she’d just said for myself. I cleared my throat instead as I began to respond, but some of my anger must have come through. Cat paled and suddenly stammered, “No offense, of course!” Some of the other Serpents glanced over, expressions nervous, and I thought I saw the girl behind Cat elbow her.
“What about the cultists? Couldn’t they supply them, mages I mean?” I crossed my arms.
“Well...maybe. We don’t know how many more there are.” The young Serpent seemed troubled, and I felt a petty thrill at turning the tables after my logic had been questioned. “I guess we need to hope they don’t, or that there are more important things going on in the world...which is what the letters said, actually.”
I nodded at that. Enheduanna had told me she’d be busy too. After another moment of thought, I asked, “Mages don’t usually stay in Bittertown, you’re right, so why do the Serpents have three?”
“Actually, we have five,” said Cat proudly. I looked a question and she continued, “The three water mages are actually family, a mother, her sister, and her daughter. The mother was a Serpent, the family fell on hard times, then they moved back to Bittertown. Our fire mage used to be a Wyvern, but she defected. Our healer, a body mage, was a surgeon in Bittertown but joined us to fight back!”
“Yeah, being one of the only men on the island probably sure hasn’t bloody bothered him much,” said one of the Serpents at the front of the boat in a carrying whisper.
One of the Serpents on the other longboat said, “You’re one to talk, S’laina. Didn’t you scrap with Marlane for trying to poach his time?”
Cat ignored the side comments, her genuine enthusiasm intact. “Not everyone in Bittertown is waiting to be stolen in the night! We don’t get many new recruits but we do get some.”
“Things are that bad?” I asked. “When I walked through town earlier it didn’t seem that way.”
“Oh? How many people did you see out on the street?”
“Not many,” I admitted.
“People are scared. The mayor has requested help from the Berber Guard and the military. No help has come. The Guard in town are either working for the cultists or cultists themselves. We think most communications are being intercepted, and right now, the capital is rotting distracted with the queen doing some sort of ceremony. People who leave town these days usually do
n’t make it, at least none have sent notes by magical messenger bird after leaving.”
I took a moment to digest that, and briefly thought of Reesi. There was no point worrying about her, though—I just hoped I’d eventually see her again. “What the hell is going on?” I wondered aloud.
Another Serpent behind me said, “Probably war. This isn’t rotting normal. We’re fighting because we have to, but we’re all scared. Plenty of us have lost family in Bittertown. They’ve gone missing or turned up dead. The cultists are hitting us where we hurt, and sending the fucking true-demons at night.”
I turned to see the Serpent who’d spoken was older, her hair gray, but her body sinewy and hard. “True-demons?”
Cat answered, “Yes. There were sightings up to a few months ago, but now we get randomly attacked at night by flying ones. If it wasn’t for Karen, we’d be fucked.”
“Rotting fucked,” agreed the woman behind me.
“True-demons?” I said again. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. “Demons” generally meant monsters on Ludus, creatures with unnatural abilities or an appearance that had been tampered with by some god or mage in the past, such as the legendary Lilith. Monsters and demons—the terms were interchangeable. Demons could live as animals, or even become Adom if they earned their personhood. True-demons were different, servants of the dark gods, created for nothing but misery and destruction. They were a forbidden existence on Ludus, just like the technology called electricity.
“Yes. In a few minutes, you’ll be able to see some corpses.” Cat’s voice was grim.
“If there are true-demons, why aren’t the rotting Dolos bots taking care of them?” I said. Dolos bots were feared for a reason. The powerful machines roamed the world, destroying every trace of electric technology...and true-demons.
“We haven’t seen a Dolos bot in Bittertown in years,” said Cat. “We figure that’s why the cultists are here in the first place, or at least why they are making a move.”
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