“Not for nothing, but I met all of you here.” Sammy grinned.
Van, Paley, and Daisy chuckled. No one else seemed to care for the selkie’s sense of humor.
Ferox introduced himself and then everyone else to Sammy.
“Pleased to meet you all.” Sammy bobbed his head, good-naturedly.
“A female selkie can shed her skin and come ashore as a beautiful woman,” Daisy said.
Kopius perked up. “Really? Tell me more,” he said, jokingly.
Daisy threw him a stop-being-silly glance and continued. “If a human man finds her skin, he can force her to become his wife.”
Sammy bobbed his head, again, making him look more like a seal than a human. “If I get back her skin, she’ll be able to leave the confines of her forced marriage and return to me, her real husband. Can you help?”
“What’s in it for us?” Kopius asked.
Daisy gave him a swift elbow to the ribs.
“Humans.” The selkie lowered his eyes. “Always in it for the gain.”
“These humans good,” Thyra said, heatedly.
“It’s not that we want something.” Van tried to sound compassionate. “We’re short on time, and we need to find the River Shade.”
“So I heard,” Sammy said. “That’s why I approached you. If you find my wife’s skin, I can get you a map to the River Shade.”
“We don’t need a map,” Ferox said. “The river has to be less than an eighth of a mile from here.”
“The River Shade isn’t on Cortica,” Sammy said. “It’s on another island. To find it, you must use a secret map—which I will gladly show you if you get my wife’s skin. It’s the only way she can return to me, and we can once again enjoy the open sea.”
“Can you ensure our safe travel to the other island?” Brux asked.
Sammy bobbed his head. “I can promise that no selkie will churn the sea around your ship.”
“How will we recognize your wife?” Ferox asked. “Do you know who kidnapped her?”
“His name’s Willie Pria. He owns Wild Willie’s—”
“We know who he is,” Pernilla interrupted, scowling. “I’m not surprised.”
“All you have to do is get me her skin. Then she’ll be able to escape. I can’t go on land with you. Male selkies can’t change form.”
“We’ll have it to you by sundown.” Ferox confidently struck a deal with the selkie.
They made arrangements for Sammy to wait for them by the docks near The Obelus. There, they would reunite with the selkie after retrieving his wife’s skin.
The team headed back through the swamp in good spirits. They cautiously and quietly moved through kludde territory—relieved the skeletal creatures chose not to tangle with them again.
Once they reached the dry path, they took a short break to rest.
Van’s clothes were soaked from wading through the swamp. She sat on a rock, next to Paley and they both took off their boots and wrung out their socks.
“Ugh, my back.” Van rubbed her lower back, then she stretched her hips. Her muscles tightened from not consistently doing yoga. She resolved to do the practice at least once a day.
Brux passed a wineskin filled with water to Ferox, who took a sip and passed it on. Everyone got a drink.
Ferox stood. “We need to get moving.”
Van reluctantly pulled on her wet socks. She stuffed her foot back into her hiking boot without checking it first.
Something nipped at her toes.
“What the—?” She held up her boot and peaked inside.
A squirrel-like creature gaped at her. It had slightly larger, more full ears than a squirrel as if flattened by a rolling pin. Its nose came to a point, like a mouse. When the kopidoden saw Van peering at it, it leaped from her boot, let out a squeak, and scurried behind a nearby shrub.
“Are you hungry?” Van asked using a baby-talk tone. “You were in my boot. I’m thinking you were looking for something to eat.”
Van picked an orange colored wildflower, moving slowly so not to scare away the kopidoden. She pushed the flower to the critter’s nose. It scrunched up and backed away.
“Don’t worry, the kluddes are gone.”
Brux came over to see what held Van’s interest. “For someone who always wants to get moving, you sure are taking your sweet time.”
“What do they eat?” Van asked.
Daisy came over. “They’ll only eat out of your hand.”
“Why?” Van placed the flower on her palm and extended it to the little critter. Of course, Daisy would know since she seemed to be the nature and animal loving expert on the team.
The kopidoden stretched its nose as if to sniff the flower, or to test Van’s trustworthiness, then began nibbling at one of the flower’s petals.
“He’s eating,” Van said, in an excited whisper.
Thyra came over to check out the kopidoden and nodded her approval. “Need to feed.”
“Why?” Ferox asked with trepidation.
Van remained crouched letting the kopidoden eat out of her palm.
“They can change this time of year and become harmful,” Daisy said. “They’re unpredictable as to when, though. If they eat, then they won’t turn. I’m not sure why.”
“It calm them,” Thyra said.
“But he’s so cute,” Paley whined. “I find it hard to believe this little guy would give us trouble.”
Pernilla squinted at the small animal. “It looks like trouble to me.”
“Let’s not take any chances.” Kopius peered into the trees. “It’s too quiet. I have a bad feeling.”
“Let’s get going,” Ferox said.
The critter finished eating the petals of the orange flower and happily scurried away into the woods, not glancing back.
Brux stiffened. “Don’t kopidodens travel in scurries?”
Suddenly everywhere Van looked she noticed kopidodens creeping along the branches of trees or peering out from their hiding spots under the leaves.
“Uh, oh,” Thyra muttered.
All of the kopidodens began hissing. Their fur lengthened and turned into sharp spikes like a porcupine.
“Swords up,” Ferox cried.
The kopidodens leaped from their spots, hurling themselves through the air.
“Ow,” Paley yelped, as one impaled her chest with its spikes and bounced from her body.
Van ducked, covering her head, as the creatures jumped from the ground and dropped from the trees. She felt pins and needles stabbing every time she got hit with a kopidoden.
“They’re trying to stab us to death!” Paley wailed.
“Death by a million cuts.” Kopius swatted away as many bouncing kopidodens as possible using his sword. “Daisy, stay behind me!”
Daisy curled into Kopius’s backpack, tucking into it like a pillow.
The needles from the critters continued to prick into Van’s skin wherever she got hit— abdomen, legs, head.
“We deserve it for invading their habitat.” Daisy covered her head with her arms.
“There have to be hundreds of them.” Brux had bloody spots on his face. He also used his sword to swat the bounding critters.
One after the other sprung from the ground and pierced them with their spiked bodies.
“Run!” Ferox shouted.
“Run,” Thyra echoed.
They tried to sprint away from the kopidodens, but the critters began to spin and lift off the ground, forming a swarm. It was like dashing through a swirling pin storm.
Van swatted one that twirled near her face, and the needly spikes cut deep into her hand, but if it had hit her neck, it would’ve sliced her carotid artery.
“Damn gnats.” Pernilla batted away the critters with her dagger. “Ouch!”
Van kept knocking them away, but there were always more.
“Ow!” Paley yelped. “I feel like a human pin cushion!”
“Circle around the girls,” Ferox hollered to Brux and Kopius. “We’l
l hold them off as long as we can.”
Van, Daisy, and Paley clung together, slightly less assaulted being surrounded by Brux, Ferox, Kopius, and Pernilla, who faithfully took a stand to be treated equally with the guys, and Thyra who also didn’t include herself as a girl.
Van heard screeches of pain coming from her teammates as the spiked creatures continued to impale them.
One of the guy’s blood splashed Van’s face as she breathed in, causing her to swallow some of the spray. She coughed and spit. Ugh. It tastes like metal.
No doubt, all of them were being slowly stabbed to death.
Over the noise of the commotion, sounds like crickets came from the surrounding trees.
The kopidoden’s attack slowed and then stopped.
Some zipped back into the trees, some hung in the air and clustered together, still spinning.
Van saw long, yellow snouts with pointed teeth break through the leaves in the trees above them.
Bright yellow creatures about the size of a monkey appeared on the branches. But they looked nothing like monkeys—these creatures had parrot-like bodies and almost wholly round heads.
At least twenty of them swooped down from the trees. Using their wings to jerk forward, they snatched the twirling, spiked kopidodens in their snouts. They crunched them, one at a time, with their sharp teeth as if eating a delicious snack.
“Yellow heimwatts,” Thyra said.
“To the rescue.” Kopius lowered his sword.
All the kopidodens gathered together, forming a massive swarm. They maneuvered away from the flying, snapping heimwatts in an attempt to escape.
But the heimwatts spread their wings and followed them, lurching and catching the spinning kopidodens in their long snouts as if it were a game.
“Let’s move,” Ferox commanded.
“Gladly,” Kopius muttered.
Van and the others took off down the path, away from the kopidodens and heimwatts.
From that point onward, the journey back to town was uneventful; however they all suffered from multiple pinpricks from the kopidoden attack and were still bleeding.
Ferox clutched his bleeding neck. “First stop, the Treasure Chest.”
Madame Vang appeared on the porch as they marched up the stairs, dripping wet and spotted with blood stains. She placed her hand on her cheek. “Oh, my.”
Again, Ferox paid the madame.
Pernilla and Paley cast furtive glances at the sexually explicit artwork as they walked through the foyer.
Several demimondaines clustered around Brux, trying to tempt him with their services.
The madame gave them a sharp look, and the women gracefully nodded and backed off.
Daisy clung to Kopius. Neither of them showed any reaction to the establishment. Kopius seemed more concerned with tending to Daisy’s wounds.
Thyra’s fish-like eyes opened wide. She stopped and said to Ferox, “I leave. Wait for you outside.” She dashed out of the foyer.
Madame Vang took them to the back room and started with Daisy, who appeared to be the most injured.
While the madame treated each of them, the team began to formulate a plan to get back Sammy’s wife’s skin.
“He wouldn’t leave it in his residence where his wife could find it.” Kopius began pacing the room.
“Where then?” Ferox asked.
“Willie has a safe in his office at the wax museum.” Madame Vang patted a cotton swab dipped in amber liquid onto Paley’s injuries. The cuts began to slowly heal before their eyes.
Kopius stopped pacing and twisted toward the madame. “I bet that’s where he stashed the skin.”
“He probably keeps all his valuables in there,” Pernilla said.
“No.” Van shook her head and waved her hands. “No way am I going back into that funhouse.”
Brux rubbed his chin, deep in thought as he considered Van’s feelings. His face lit up. “How about going as far as the concession stand?”
Van narrowed her eyes at him. “What do have in mind?”
He smiled. “Getting Willie to help me sell you and Daisy to Madame Vang.”
Chapter 38
After Madame Vang patched each of them, they went back to the inn, changed, dumped their backpacks, and headed to Wild Willie’s Wax Museum and “Fun” House to enact their plan.
Van felt like vomiting when she stepped through the wooden double doors.
A handful of male customers sat on the stools at the concession stand-bar, having a drink, nervously chatting with each other. Van thought they looked like wharf rats. Thugs who crept around the docks at night looking for things to steal, or people to rob.
Brux took a seat at the bar. Daisy and Van obediently stood behind him.
“Adults are getting sick now.” An older man sat slouched on a stool, cradling his mug, talking to the other patrons.
“King Nequus has the illness under control,” another said, as he took a swig from his cup. “Not too many of the sick have turned, I heard,” said a man wearing a black cloak.
“Not yet,” the older man said in a panicked tone. “People are saying Solmor is here.”
“Take it easy.” The cloaked man shifted uneasily on his stool. “There’s no need for that kind of talk.”
Hearing news that the illness had spread to adults gave Van a massive anxiety attack and made her feel like she wasn’t moving fast enough. Time was slipping away.
“Welcome Back!” Willie grinned and opened his arms wide as he greeted Brux. “Ready for another round?” His eyes darted to the lobby’s doors. “You didn’t bring those thugs with you, did you?”
He was asking about Ferox’s men who had broken in and saved them from the funhouse.
“Party poopers, the whole lot of them.” Willie directed his attention back to Brux.
“I’m here for something else,” Brux said.
“What can I do you for?” Willie asked.
Paley entered the lobby.
Willie glanced at her, looking eager to send her through the funhouse, then turned away when Paley sauntered over to the concession stand helper and applied her self-proclaimed best skill—flirting. She giggled and flipped her hair to distract the helper boy.
Paley still hadn’t recovered from her incident with the nixe, and after learning about her part in their plan, she said, “I’ll do it, but I’m not leaving with anyone, ever again.”
While Brux distracted Willie with the details of brokering a deal to sell Van and Daisy to the Treasure Chest, Paley kept the concession stand helper boy preoccupied. At the same time, Van knew Kopius and Ferox were sneaking in through the back of the building. Madame Vang had drawn a rough blueprint of the museum with directions for them to find Willie’s office and safe.
“Wonderful. It’s settled.” Willie leered at Van and Daisy. “Let’s take them in the back, so I can get a better look.” He winked at Brux and jerked his head toward a door behind the counter with a sign that read “private.”
Brux, a terrible liar to begin with, looked like a fish caught on a hook.
Daisy tensed.
Kopius and Ferox hadn’t yet entered the lobby, which meant they were still in Willie’s office trying to steal the selkie skin. Van stressed, wishing they would hurry. Kopius had boasted that he knew how to crack a safe. She hoped he was right.
“A specialty of mine,” Kopius had said. “I am, after all, a man of many skills.” He grinned at Daisy, who beamed at him. Brux’s jaw tightened at their intimate exchange, but he had held his tongue.
Not knowing what else to do, Van took action, using one of her all-time highest skills. She threw a fit.
“I’m not going anywhere! How could you even think of selling me to the demimondaines? I thought we had something special.”
Brux’s annoyance at Van’s outrage appeared authentic.
“You’ll do as I say! Both of you.” He slammed his fist onto the counter.
“I’m doing as I say!” Van stomped her foot.
“Me too,” Daisy said. “You lied to me!”
Van found it weird to see the usually serene Daisy acting upset.
“I’m the man,” Brux pounded his fist into his chest, like an ape. “I make the rules.” He roughly grabbed Van and Daisy by each of their elbows.
“Little spitfires,” Willie said, practically drooling. “They’ll be perfect, once they’re broken.”
Van struggled against Brux’s grip. “Let me go.”
“Give her a little crack across the face to keep her in line.” Willie waved his hand and gave Brux a knowing nod.
The other patrons minded their own business as if nothing was going on.
Willie walked to the end of the counter and opened a half door so Brux could bring Van and Daisy behind the concession stand. “Come on. Let’s go to my office.”
“Why do I need to go to your office?” Brux asked, stalling.
“I’m going to need a sample first before I introduce them to Madame Vang.” He jerked his head, indicating for Brux to get a move on.
Brux dragged Van and Paley behind the counter.
Willie led them through the door marked “private” and down a long, dim, carpeted hallway.
They bumped straight into Kopius and Ferox.
“What—?” Willie exclaimed.
Brux released his grip on Van and Daisy.
Willie raised his fingers to his mouth and whistled.
Three burly men dashed around the far corner and marched down the hallway toward them.
Ferox, Kopius, and Brux grappled with the men.
Willie wrapped his arms around Van and dragged her toward a nearby door.
Thyra and Pernilla bounded down the hallway, coming from the lobby, and joined the fight.
Van struggled against Willie’s grip, as he hauled her through his office’s door.
Daisy followed. She stomped over to them. “Stop.”
Willie chuckled. He unwrapped his arms from Van, yet still kept a firm grip on her wrist, and stepped toward Daisy.
“Come here, girl.” Willie grinned as he reached his free hand to grab Daisy. “The more, the merrier.”
Daisy let loose and kicked Willie in the crotch.
He let out a pathetic squeak, released Van’s wrist, and keeled over.
Van stood paralyzed for a second, unable to process what just happened. Then Daisy tugged her arm, and they turned to head out of the office.
Plague of Death Page 30
