by Luca Tarenzi
Her eyes started to get used to the darkness, bringing greater clarity to her surrounds. Needleye was behind her, sitting in the mud with her legs tucked against her chest. Verdigris could now feel her Glamour against her skin, like a gentle tickle, amazingly light even though she was so close. Needleye must have also been exhausted.
Verdigris propped herself up on her elbow to look at her. Needleye held her knees tightly in her hands, her eyes gazing distantly over the Lake.
Verdigris breathed a couple of times before she found the strength to speak. "Everything okay?"
Needleye nodded without turning around.
"The...the Sirens..." Verdigris swallowed and immediately regretted it as the water still seemed to burn her tongue, almost like acid. "They didn't eat us."
Needleye remained silent.
"What's wrong?"
In the darkness it looked like Needleye's lips were pursed. "Thanks."
Verdigris breathed in sharply. "For what? For having let both of us fall into the water without knowing if we'd survive?"
Needleye waited to reply and when she did her voice was firm. "For having come with me."
Isn't that what I always do?
Verdigris was amazed to find herself on the verge of saying it aloud. But she didn't.
"Why did Albedo bring you there?" asked Needleye a short while later.
"To speak to you when you appeared. To convince you to turn back."
Needleye turned to look at her. "Would you have done it?"
Verdigris opened her mouth.
Yes, to stop you from escaping and heading to who knows where to get killed!
No, because you would never have understood, you would never have wanted to...
She felt the anger rising up inside her. It was rage that was like an acid cloud, filled with confusion, but also harmful. She was cross with Needleye, Albedo...with everyone. Especially herself.
"You know I'm a coward."
A wave of scorching Glamour hit her, causing her to jump.
Needleye turned suddenly and faced her on hands and knees, her body tensed like a wild beast ready to pounce.
"A coward?" Her voice sounded like a growl cutting through the darkness. "The same coward who attacked Livid to allow me to escape? The same coward who jumped into the Lake with me?"
Verdigris felt her throat tightening up. "Stop it."
"The same coward who has fought at my side every time it was needed?"
"I told you to shut up!"
Needleye jumped at her and Verdigris instinctively rolled away. They both got to their knees, facing each other.
"You must shut up," hissed Needleye, her lips pulled back to show her teeth. "I can't stand those words any more. ‘I'm a coward! I'm a coward!'" Her tone went up a few notches, imitating Verdigris a little too well. "You saved my backside twice in the last day, without even stopping to think. What have I done? I ended up getting you into prison and then exiled." She opened her mouth, seemingly gasping for breath. "I got Stylus killed, I didn't even manage to save Thaw and still you are here with me!"
"Needleye…"
"Why did you do it?" Needleye stared at her, no more than half a inch away from her face, he eyes dilated and her clenched fists trembling. "Why do you always do it? Why do you always follow me when I do something stupid? Why are you always there when I turn around, ready to haul me out of whatever disaster I've cooked up by myself?"
"Needleye." Verdigris felt her own cloud sizzling with fury. "You know why I follow you. You sound like you’re hysterical. You realize that, don't you? You know we’re friends. You know that is how things are..."
"What, are you proof I don't know how to look after myself?" she interrupted her as if she hadn't heard her. "That I don't know how to look after anyone, that I can't save anyone, that people will follow me regardless, even into madness and death, as if my brother had ordered it with that monstrous voice of his?" She shook her head hard and the pitch of her voice went up again. "I don't have your powers. I don't have your Glamour and your magic. I don't have a place, a purpose. I don't have anything that..."
Verdigris jumped on her. They rolled around in the sticky mud, a whirlwind of elbows and harmless punches filled only with tiredness and darkness. Then, completely by chance, Verdigris ended up kneeing Needleye in the stomach, leaving her winded.
Verdigris straddled her, placing her elbow on her throat, as Needleye had so often done to her. "Quiet! Stop it. Stop these questions!"
The effort needed to shout made her head spin. She relaxed her arm and Needleye pushed it away.
Verdigris fell backwards and she rested on all fours, out of breath. "Don't ask me that. Don't ask me why. No more..."
They were facing each other again. Their mouths were nearly touching.
Verdigris felt goose bumps on her skin.
Needleye continued to look at her, unmoving. Her eyes bigger than ever, immersed in the crackling cloud that resulted from both of their clouds overlapping.
Verdigris closed her eyes and leaned forward.
Something erupted out of the Lake, cutting through the night like an animal roar. Needleye jumped so suddenly that Verdigris was knocked away. She landed in the mud and hunched back down again in an instant, just in time to see Needleye drawing her dagger from her belt.
They heard the sound of someone stomping in the water and then hair being shaken. Soon, they caught a gust of Glamour filled with cold and dew.
"Did I interrupt something?" Thaw's voice seemed more perplexed than amused.
Needleye jumped to her feet and ran towards him, throwing her arms around his neck.
"Ouch," said Thaw.
Verdigris remained still, kneeling. When she realized she was clenching her fists, she relaxed her hands, although it wasn't easy.
"How are you?" asked Needleye, the anxiety evident in her voice.
"Wet. Hungry. If you push me again, I'll probably end up on the ground."
Thaw limped forward through the mud and fell down beside Verdigris, who tried to look at him in the darkness. "How did you find us?"
"You were making more noise than two rats fighting over a bit of old meat. Luckily the others are right across the other side of the Lake."
Needleye came to sit beside them. "Are you hurt?"
"Some scratches."
"Let me see."
"What are you hoping to see? It's pitch black. Don’t you realize?"
Needleye kept silent for a while and Verdigris could sense the hum of her thoughts ticking over in her cloud.
"We must get away from the shore," mumbled Needleye eventually, "and find some shelter where we can light a fire. We need to get dry, tend our wounds and find food."
Verdigris swallowed. "Then?" she asked quietly. "What do we do after that?"
"We only have one option," replied Needleye without hesitation. "Attack the Boggarts."
12
Albedo stood on what remained of the walkway, looking at the floating ruins of the platform in the light of the torches held by a group of guards that were waiting for him on the shore.
He'd been still for a while already, hypnotized by the remnants bobbing up and down, and it was only when the ammonia-scented Glamour was right at his back that he realized someone was there.
He turned. Livid was still wet and his legs muddy up to just above his knees. He'd made it back to the shore over an hour ago, but he'd clearly not had time to dry off yet. His small nose hung crookedly.
"So?" asked Albedo, keeping his tone neutral.
The pale Goblin shook his head. "The patrol along the right bank is back and didn't find anyone." His broken nose made his hissing voice sound strange. "The left bank patrol will return soon."
Albedo looked back at the Lake again, then peered out into the darkness, up and down the far-off shores. "We're taking too long. We won't find them if they have time to get out of the neutral zone along the Lake shores. We can't follow them into enemy territory. It's too dangerous."
"We can't be sure they made it out of the water," he said eventually.
Albedo turned around sharply. "They definitely made it out."
Livid glanced briefly at the dark, oily surface. "Death lies beneath that surface."
Albedo shook his head. "Not this time. Not for them. Do you think it was an accident?" he said and then pursed his lips. "No. Definitely not. It was a cursed plan. The work of Needleye. I don't know how she did it, but she did. You saw the column of water. You saw it more clearly than anyone else." He looked at the load-bearing poles that remained, the only part still standing amid the brownish foam. "She didn't do all this simply to end up torn apart by the Sirens. She and her friends are alive and well somewhere out there. You must find them."
Livid remained silent and Albedo turned back to him again. "The others could spend the whole night wandering about and find no traces of them. But you, no. You see what they can't. I don't care how, but you have to find them and bring them back. Take as many men and weapons as you need, but do it quickly. Bring them back to me."
"All three?"
Albedo closed his eyes and breathed in deeply. "Needleye and Verdigris. They are important. I don't really care about Thaw any more. It's impossible to execute him in public now. But the other two, I want them."
Livid stayed silent again for a while before speaking. "What if you had to choose?"
"What do you mean?"
Livid hesitated, trying to find the right words. "If I find myself in a position such that I can only bring one back."
Albedo wanted to rub his eyes, but he didn't.
He tried to ignore the taste of bile in his mouth. "We cannot manage without a Sluagh. No, war lies around the corner. If there is no other option, if you have to make a choice, then take Verdigris."
Livid nodded, his dark eyes resembling open caverns below his polished head, and then turned to move off.
Albedo watched him go and, only once he was sure he was alone, did he allow himself to clench his fists so tightly he drew blood from his palms.
Why did you do it?
The breeze from the Lake ruffled his hair and the water lapped against the broken pilings.
Needleye, why have you forced me into this?
Livid knelt down and scraped up some mud with his forefinger. It was too dark to discern the color and there was no way he could use artificial light, so he held his finger to his nose to smell it. Blood. The smell of blood.
He stood up and looked around. The Lake formed a small muddy inlet here, covered in weedy grass with roots bigger than him stretching into the water. Only a handful of stars in a cloudy sky cast any light. Both of the Goblin patrols must have passed there without noticing anything.
Livid, though, had come to this point by using logic, not trying to look for tracks.
He'd carefully examined the Lake, noting this point was diametrically opposite the place where the platform had stood, the farther ashore. Plus, at this specific point, the vegetation was thinner and was the only nearby spot where someone swimming could easily get out of the water.
So, he'd set out on foot around the Lake until he reached there and now, he had found almost invisible tracks - invisible to all but him - that came out of the mud and onto dry land. Mud and blood.
Livid looked inland, seeing a few feet of weeds and then the Landfill. There was no way he could follow their tracks simply using his eyes.
He knelt down to gather up some mud, more this time, and closed his eyes. Forcing himself to ignore his own pain, he breathed in deeply three times and then once more, drawing his Glamour into his nose. He concentrated just like he would when turning some of his bodily fluid into poison, but at the last instant he modified his Glamour in a different way.
Someone more versed in theory might have called it a vestigial use of Gramarye, but Livid didn't delude himself that he had knowledge he knew he didn't possess. For him, it was but one of the many tricks he'd taught himself, through infinite trial and error. It was also one of the many secrets he kept entirely to himself.
He was only an expert in two things: death and poison. These two things were far more than his trade or part of his service to the king, they were the essence of his life - and had been since long before he was an adult. Plus, to administer the former, one required intimate knowledge of the latter. It was necessary to be able to generate the poison in the blink of an eye and then inflict it in precisely the right point on the enemy. It was vital to be able to change constantly one's poison and then, finally, it was critical to be able to recognize it.
His nose filled with Glamour sizzling like water drops thrown onto a fire, Livid brought the bloody mud to his face and inhaled deeply.
Poison had its own scent. Each one had its own unmistakable traits. The odor that Livid smelled this time was weak with something sickly-sweet, like a fine mist of sugar and old flowers.
It was a smell Livid recognized. More than once Livid had scented this from Thaw's blood.
He threw the handful of mud away and bent down to the ground, smelling carefully. Then, he stood up and moved into the weeds.
Trying to following their path through the foetid rubbish would certainly not be child's play. Livid was, though, as aware of his own limitations as he was calculatingly confident in his own abilities. His enemy would not escape.
Keeping his head close to the ground, Livid passed below a nettle bush and moved off towards the garbage.
His king had ordered him to return the girls and he was planning to use every means available to fulfil this command. The two of them clearly belonged to the king. Thaw was another matter.
Thaw was for him.
"Have I already told you that, of all your dreadful ideas, this is definitely the worst?" said Verdigris, breaking the silence.
Needleye just kept staring at the fire. "Three or four times since we set up camp."
Verdigris put down the sliver of plastic she was trying to wedge into the top of a piece of wood to make a spear. "We're tired and homesick. Less than three hours ago we were half-drowning and we haven't eaten enough. Our only weapons are what we can make out of thin air, practically. We're being hunted all around the Lake and you want to...."
"They won't find us here. We're outside the neutral zone."
"It's supposed to make me feel better that we're not within our borders?"
Needleye breathed in, glancing up at the sky. There were too few stars visible. It was impossible to tell what part of the Landfill they were in at that moment. They needed to wait for the sun to rise to get their bearings.
Assuming they'd swum to the other side of the Lake from the platform and they'd only moved away enough from the shore to be back among the garbage, then they had to be a long way from Goblin land and too far east to be on Boggart turf. Perhaps this was Sylph territory. Or Bwca.
If this area was under Sylph control, they were in trouble because this exceptionally paranoid tribe was maniacal in patrolling its borders from above. The Bwca would be worse, though. They were a large and uncharacteristically disciplined tribe for a Moryan people, driven to enormous savagery through years of food shortages. It was also the only openly cannibalistic tribe.
"Okay," said Verdigris, her cloud trembled, rather like a loud snort. "Let's pretend, just for fun, that the three of us actually manage to enter the Boggart encampment after having killed, largely with our bare hands, all the guards we come across before one of them sounds the alarm. And then?"
Needleye looked at her sideways. "We find the battery."
"Still the battery. You're obsessed by the bloody thing!"
"It is where everything began. Now, the Boggarts have it and it'll give them a major advantage when they attack us. They will attack us. For once my brother is completely right."
"Then? What is your plan once we've found this damn battery? Sneak away with it like it was a lizard tail? It's huge."
"I know that, of course. It's i
mpossible for us to carry it away. We can neutralize it."
Verdigris raised an eyebrow.
"We ruin it." Needleye looked at the knife she was holding. "We hack a hole in it and let all the acid leak out."
"We make a hole? How? The sides are made of thick, solid plastic. We couldn't even make a hole if we had a drill."
"You can't. But I can."
Needleye turned to look at Thaw, who was sitting on the other side to Verdigris and had, until then, not said a word. He had been too busy constructing weapons from a rusty old alarm clock that he'd found hidden among the trash. He'd taken it apart, using the frame as a sort of hearth around which their clothes were drying.
Needleye had carefully chosen the spot for them to camp, at the end of a narrow, deep valley with only two access points, both of which were easy to monitor. It would also have been unlikely for anyone to spot their fire from a distance.
"What are you trying to say?" Verdigris' tone seemed even more skeptical and irritated than usual.
Needleye looked sideways at her friend, who sat cross-legged at the edge of the light cast by the fire, with only a piece of dark fabric across her hips and another one over her breasts. Her light blue skin was quite hard to see in the shadowy firelight, but her Glamour was another story. Needleye breathed in, getting a clear whiff of the mold of tiredness from her friend's cloud, touched with the remnants of sour fear and something else, something that seemed like a burned match. Repressed rage? Frustration?
"That I can make a hole in the battery." Thaw continued not to look up from what he was doing. "The thought of all that acid going to waste causes my stomach to turn, but if I think about the Boggarts being able to use it, the feeling in my stomach is even stronger. I'm simply trying to choose what will make me feel nauseous."
Verdigris opened her mouth to speak, but Needleye spoke before her. "Are you sure you can do it?"
Thaw smiled slightly. "I need the right tool. I need to have eaten enough and I need sufficient time."
"How much time?"
Thaw shrugged his shoulders.
