by Alicia Fabel
“Comings?” asked the male.
“I comings,” she replied grumpily.
Vera frowned at the strange behavior. And then the woman wove her fingers through Vera’s hair and shook her. Not gently. The stars were back.
“Keepings quiets,” hissed the woman. “Him thinkings I’m not knowings him likings to steal girls suppers. But I’m knowings girls suppers not runnings away.” The woman shook Vera again for emphasis.
Vera took note of how far away the male was. Apparently, there was a range to their ears. She’d keep her lips zipped when any cyclops was in the vicinity of that range. Hopefully, she’d have a chance to get out before she became dinner. But she’d rather become dinner than a plaything.
Addamas sat inside a teepee-like cage made of small trees. He was propped up against one, with his legs splayed carelessly in front of himself. When he caught sight of Vera half stumbling, half dragged into the circle of the crude camp, he stilled. A lean-to of pine boughs to one side sheltered two round, wiggling bundles. The couple’s babies were big grubs with legs and hands. In other words, they looked just like their mama and papa.
“What are you doing here?” Addamas demanded.
Vera looked between the two cyclopes and shook her head at him but didn’t answer.
“You were supposed to go north. You do know what north is, right?”
Vera glared.
“Damn.” Addamas wiped the blood from her chin. “You okay?”
“Seeings? Satyr talkings too much. Wantings to killings him.” But the man ambled away toward a fire with a massive steaming pot while the woman tossed Vera inside.
Vera lifted a hand and pantomimed a talking hand puppet. Addamas frowned and Vera made her hand appear to be talking faster.
“We’re playing charades now? It doesn’t seem like the time, does it?”
Vera shoved her hand into Addamas’s face and then joined it by the other hand.
“Let me guess, that’s me. And I’m talking too much,” Addamas rolled his eyes.
Vera stomped a foot in frustration.
He sighed. “Ver-”
Vera slapped a hand over his mouth. She wasn’t sure if the cyclops man would recognize her name as a feminine one, but it wasn’t a chance she wanted to take. Especially now that the woman was over cuddling her grunting grub babies, and the man was lingering nearer the cage.
“Okay. I’ll play,” Addamas said. “Talking?”
Vera nodded and then pointed at Addamas before making the talking pantomime again. “I’m talking?”
Vera nodded vigorously, and then circled her hand in a motion for him to keep going and then made her hand talk faster. Keep talking, you dummy, she wanted to yell at him.
“You can’t talk?”
Vera dropped her hand and tipped her head back to stare at the sky in frustration.
“Can you talk?” asked Addamas seriously.
Vera nodded and gave a thumbs-up.
“But you don’t want to?”
Vera glanced at the male, who seemed focused on the fire, but she couldn’t be sure. She shook her head emphatically.
“Do you want me to stop talking?”
Vera shook her head vigorously. She tried again with the talking hand, making it jabber.
“You want me to keep talking?”
Vera smiled and nodded.
“Lots of talking then.”
Vera clapped.
Addamas considered the cyclops. “I don’t think our gracious host likes it that I keep talking. But his woman seems to wear the pants in this relationship, and he’s not allowed to kill me. Those little bundles of joy like their dinner fresh, and Mama Cyclops wants to give her babies what they want.” The male looked toward the cage and then at his mate with a frown. Vera almost giggled at Addamas’s narration of their situation. “But he’s not the only hungry one here. I’m starving. Did I ever tell you the story of Eury? He got so hungry that he ate himself. It’s actually a funny story. Maybe a little long. But we have time. Let me start at the beginning. Eury was a scrawny little thing…”
The longer Addamas spoke, the farther away the cyclops drifted. He stuck his hand into the pot to test for temperature and then threw more wood on the fire before marching into the woods—probably to find more firewood and speed up dinner preparations.
“He can’t know I’m a girl,” Vera blurted when he was gone. “He likes to kidnap the girls for himself.” Vera started flapping her hand again so Addamas would keep talking.
“So Eury could never seem to put on weight. No matter how much he tried. Used to make me so jealous…”
“Escape?” Vera prompted.
“Eury even wished that he had taken the time to awaken his morph powers so he could turn into a bird and fly away.” He gave Vera a pointed look, clearly not talking about the Eury dude anymore.
“Glamour?”
“Glamour wouldn’t make Eury small enough to pass through bars though. It only made him look small.” He bit his lip thoughtfully. “The last thing Eury wanted to do was make a demon mind link with one of those two. They’re tone deaf so my whistle wouldn’t help. You have any other tricks I’m not aware of?”
“I—” Vera pretended to cough, and Addamas continued his story.
Vera realized she might have a new trick. Hopefully, it wouldn’t come back to bite her. Literally. She slunk down to the bottom of the cage and let the sound of Addamas’s chatter fall away while she went hunting with her mind for a shy bit of twined vines in her void. It was hiding in a crevice, silently observing her other magical tidbits. Vera coaxed and hummed until the twisting magic snaked out. The kargadan watched curiously from its perch above. It was anti-social, not shy and skittish like the nymph vines were. She sent both magics a burst of reassuring vibes, but they backed away. It was going to take some time.
Something brushed the back of her neck. Her demas had no trouble looking for attention and affection. Vera patted it and sent it away. Then came the tricky part—asking her nymph to help her. She pictured the steaming cyclopes’ pot and imagined vines curling along the ground and up the sides to knock it over. Only, it occurred to her that with the fire, the plants would burn if they weren’t careful. The nymph leaped away from her and retreated into the crevice. Crap. She was still projecting her thoughts. Vera sent sorrowful thoughts toward the nymph. She was not trying to scorch the vines. If they didn’t help, she would be boiled alive, though. The nymph coiled, considering their situation, and began to swell. Whoop. The nymph is going to help.
Addamas was still blithering on about who-knows-what and lifted a brow when Vera opened her eyes. “Did I bore you?” He squinted. “Your eyes look like my mother’s.”
“You remember your mother’s eyes?”
Instead of answering, he noted, “Someone woke your nymph magic.”
“Yeah, but we haven’t had much time getting to know each other. We’re going to try, though.”
“By all means.” His lips quirked. “The ‘we’ thing is weird, by the way.”
Vera ignored that. She was already encouraging the nymph magic to reach out to the plant life. The ground trembled. Vera frowned, keeping her thoughts on the vines and grasses reaching out to flip the pot. The ground shook harder, and Vera’s eyes widened. Something was wrong.
“You thought an earthquake was the answer?” Kale asked.
“I can’t make an earthquake,” she said.
The baby cyclops screamed as branches of the lean-to fell on them. The male pounded out of the forest to rescue his family. The ground split then, roots curling up from the soil beneath the pot. Clods of soil and wet leaves smothered the flames. A root thicker than Vera’s torso knocked the pot away. It didn’t just tip over, it smashed into a boulder and splintered. Task complete, the roots retreated under the ground. Where the ground had once been level and flat, it was rippled and uneven.
“Huh. Good job,” Addamas said. “But why didn’t you have the roots break us out of this cage in
stead?”
“I wasn’t trying to make tree roots do anything. I was trying to get a couple of those vining flowers over there to tip the pot.”
“In that case, your aim stinks. But at least we have a bit more time to break out. Unless you can bring them back?”
“I could try.” Only she hadn’t been directing them, and who was to say what they’d do if she called them back? “They might spear us instead of help us, though.”
“Okay, let's leave that as a last resort. Shish kabob satyr is not a good look for me.”
“So, you have another plan?” Movement alerted her that the male was approaching, and she pinched her lips together.
Addamas twisted so she could see the ropes he’d been working on at the bottom of their cage. Ahh, that’s why he hasn’t moved from that spot. The cyclops male roared when he felt the broken pieces of his mangled pot. He shot them a blind glare as if it was their fault—well, technically it was. He collected what used to be the roof of his shelter and started stripping the leaves from the limbs with surprisingly deft fingers. Then he set about tying them together.
“That’s not good,” said Addamas.
“Shuttings up now!” The male chucked a stone at Addamas. It struck true, striking Addamas in the brow. The satyr swayed, blood welling from the wound. Vera jumped up and put her face in front of Addamas’s.
“I’m fine,” he said softly. “But that won’t last long once he’s finished building that spit. It seems we are to be rotisseried if we can’t get out of here.” He blinked a few times. “We’d better get out of here because I do not intend to have a sharp stick shoved through my back door. I will not die that way.”
Vera sat down beside Addamas, and reached back to scratch at the twine with her fingernails. Soon her fingers were as bloodied as his. And they were only through half of the rope.
4
Kalesius!
Kale surfaced. What?
Kale? asked Vera.
Kale’s knee-jerk reaction was to pull back, but Ferrox held him in place until he took in what was happening.
Just so you know, Ferrox said. I’ve been trying to wake you forever.
He slipped away so Kale could have full control of his mind and body. Around him was a misty forest. Ferrox had brought him to Acadia. Addamas lay unconscious on the ground, but he was still breathing. Vera hung by one arm from the grasp of a cyclops.
“Let her go,” Kale said.
The cyclops’s forehead pulled down. “Hers?”
The creature attempted to grope Vera. Like he wanted to verify her female status. Kale didn’t get a chance to intercede before Vera struck the cyclops’s hand with her newly formed scorpion barb. The male howled and dropped Vera, who scrambled away like a crab. She kept her eyes on the cyclops, and her tail ready to strike again.
“It stingings me,” howled the cyclops.
“What meanings you?” asked the cyclops’s mate, juggling two wiggling bundles as she backed away.
“Meanings I am eatings her inners before she beings dead.”
“Find a different dinner,” Kale told the cyclopes family. “This one is not for you.”
“Who beings you?” asked the male. “I’m eatings you next.”
“You wouldn’t want that,” Kale promised.
The creature took a lumbering step forward. With Ferrox’s help, Kale speared into both cyclopes’ minds. He formulated an image of himself and what he would do to them—beginning with their offspring—if they didn’t take his advice. The female took off running, not even waiting for him to complete his storytelling. The male seemed less inclined to leave behind his supper, no matter how gruesome the imagery.
Kale noticed Vera cringing and realized she was still linked to him with a front-row seat for the show. Kale cut off the assault. Blast.
Vera must have caught his regret. It’s fine. Believe me. I already pictured doing half of that to him myself.
Kale made his mind blank. Until she or Ferrox severed the link, he didn’t want her to catch anything else. Vera threw him a strange look as the cyclops shifted toward her.
“Come one step closer, and I’ll sting you in your twaddle next,” Vera threatened. “Or is it twiddle?”
Vera stood, and the cyclops finally took off after his smarter half.
“What is with you and weird names for male anatomy?” Addamas pushed himself into a half-seated position. “I feel like I ran into a wall.”
“Yeah, they look softer than they actually are.” Vera squatted next to the satyr. Her kargadan horn flared before Addamas knew what was coming.
Addamas squinted and turned away. “Why’d you do that?”
“I was checking for a concussion,” Vera answered.
In response, Addamas lunged away from her and puked. Once his stomach was empty, he lay back on the ground.
“Congratulations, you have one,” she said gently. “You need to get back to the meadow. How long before you can make a path?”
“Probably not long since I just heaved the last of the no-go from my system. Along with my spleen.”
“Can you path with your head scrambled like that?” Kale asked.
“Not well. Getting three of us home will be a challenge.”
“Then just get yourself home,” Vera told him.
“What about you guys?”
“I have a friend to help first,” Vera said. “And then Kale can get me to the world-gate.”
“I don’t think that’s a good idea.” Kale preferred she go straight home.
“Shocking,” Vera replied. “Good thing I didn’t ask your opinion.”
Kale clenched his jaw and refocused on keeping his mind empty.
“Yeah, I’m too tired to wait for you two to figure this out.” Addamas hunched over, grasping his head like he was trying to keep it attached. “Maybe a little time together will be good for you.” He took a step and was swallowed by a path.
Ferrox, take over, Kale instructed.
Vera stiffened and turned to glare daggers at him. “I swear, Ferrox. If you let him run away and hide right now, I will sing boy band songs until we get back to the meadow.”
Ferrox recoiled and settled more firmly into the back of their mind. There was no way for Kale to dislodge him. Vera seemed to understand that she’d won because her lips curved up smugly.
Can we at least cut off the two-way radio? Kale asked them both, but neither answered. Vera? She didn’t answer. Ferrox was already asleep. Apparently, that was enough to cut the connection between them.
“Who exactly do we need to save?” asked Kale.
“Addamas’s sister.”
“Where’s that book?” Vera asked as soon as Idan answered his door.
He bent to look outside behind her. “Where’s my son?”
“Home. Safe.” And Kale was hiding at the edge of the village. The rope bridge system was not meant for a man his size. She waved a hand to get Idan’s attention. “The book?”
“Come in. Half the mountain must know you’re here—it’s the middle of the day.”
Vera was going to argue but stopped short when she spotted Airlea propped up on a couch. The bleeding hadn’t stopped. It stained her entire clear body. “I didn’t know she was here.”
“Where did you expect me to take her?” Idan moved to a shelf lined with books that belonged to a nymph. “That cave in the side of the mountain? She would’ve fallen from that ledge and killed herself. If she doesn’t revert soon, she’ll die anyway.” He shoved the book at Vera. “Page two-sixty-seven.”
Vera opened the book to the correct page and took in the painted illustration. It depicted a monstrous snake rising from the center of a pool. Women fled in different directions, each with something glowing between their fingers
“I recognized the story of how the nymphs spread across the kingdom. No one knows how they picked up roots, but I thought this looked like a good place to start.”
Vera scanned the writing. The order of words was odd,
but she got the gist of it. “They each took a piece of their home with them. It wasn’t enough to let them wander forever, but long enough to find a new home.”
“That’s all?”
Vera scanned. “Looks like it.”
“I wonder why they didn’t just pick up and leave before now,” he said.
“Oh, I don’t know. Maybe it has something to do with you satyrs making sure they forgot their history, and then moving into their homes where all of their books and records are. I mean, it could have something to do with that.” Vera gave him her best evil eye.
He was good enough to look abashed. “I’ll collect some water from the pool for her.”
“No,” Airlea cried.
She’s not worried that the guy might decide to take a sip, is she?
The nymph tried to stand. “I’ll go. Only my people should touch the water.”
Apparently, that’s exactly what she’s worried about. “Lay down. I’ll go get the water.”
The offer didn’t seem to console Airlea. “It’s too risky. The call…” she eyed Idan, obviously not willing to divulge more about the properties of the water.
“I’m in touch with my inner nymph,” Vera reminded. “I’ll be fine.”
Idan cleared his throat. “The Aegis has decided to deny your request to unlock your nymph powers.”
“Gee. I’m shocked.” Vera rolled her eyes. “But it’s already done. Not that it’s any business of the Aegis.”
“You should revert,” Idan counseled Airlea. “This is unnecessarily dangerous.”
The young nymph wouldn’t answer.
“She doesn’t trust you,” Vera translated. “Can you blame her?”
“I’ll make sure she is taken care of.”
“What about Delia?” Vera challenged.
“Who?” he asked in confusion.
“Isn’t she your other daughter?” Vera turned to Airlea for confirmation. “I thought…”
“We are half-sisters. We share a mother only.”
