“You’ve kept your question in mind?” he asked.
“Of course. Tell me, now, what do they say?”
“They say…they say, ‘She will lose in the end.’”
“That is exactly what I wanted to hear. Thank you, husband.” She leaned down and gave him a kiss on the cheek, doing her best to not flinch as her lips met his leathery skin. Yes, she would have to find a new husband when she took over this land.
Now came the next step in her plan. She only had to wait until they reached the castle, because she knew the young woman would surely be able to do what she, the rightful ruler of this land, was going to trick her into doing. It was her birthright to do so, as her husband had read in the stones all that time ago. And the stones were never, ever wrong.
Chapter Eleven
Sadly, it was time to leave the magical—and extraordinary—circle of trees after what felt to Iris like far too short a stay. Anandra served her some bread and juice from her bag, eating very little herself. Iris wanted to tell her to have more, because she was almost positive a lot would be asked of Anandra during that day, but she was obviously an adult and could take care of herself well enough without Iris’s help.
She couldn’t resist asking if Anandra might want to eat a bit more before they left, though.
“I have eaten my fill, really, sweetness, I promise you that. I may not have had my fill of you, though!” She grabbed Iris, lifting her off her feet, and spun around in a quick circle. Iris squealed in delight, and Anandra laughed, a high-pitched laugh of complete freedom, one that Iris hadn’t heard from her before.
“You have a wonderful laugh,” Iris told her once her feet were back on the ground. “You sounded so happy, so glad to be here.”
Anandra gave her a pointed stare. “Of course I am, silly. I’m here with you, after all, aren’t I?”
Iris had to look away, because the way Anandra was looking at her spoke of more than just lust and sexual needs. No, it spoke of something far more intense and meaningful than that, and Iris wasn’t sure she was ready for Anandra to be looking at her that way, even though, upon gazing back at her, she was pretty much positive that her eyes and smile reflected Anandra’s stare and upturned lips. They happened to be lips that she wanted to kiss again, and so she did, still in Anandra’s arms, feeling her heat and softness against her own body, wanting to fall to the ground again and make lo…fuck again. Yes, fuck, she thought, not the other thing, because she would have to leave this place. Soon. Very soon.
“Should we get going?” She pulled out of Anandra’s arms and picked up her bag. “Isn’t it time we continued our journey?”
“Yes, I suppose it is. We will be coming to a town soon, I believe, one I haven’t been to before, but I have heard from the far-traveled of my home village that they have a wonderful restaurant. I would much rather eat there than dine on my bag’s bread, and I’d like to treat you to a good meal, a better one than the last time we dined in public.”
“Oh, yes, fewer Neanderthals and shitty drinks would be more than welcome this time. And thank you.”
“Neanderthals?”
“They’re a version of my species that came many, many years before Homo sapiens did, or people like me. Did your species evolve over time, too?”
“Evolve? We became this way, actually, when a mischievous winged creature decided to try to make friends with the sky. It happened ages ago, possibly millions of sun risings and falls. Before my time, in other words.”
“You really look like you’re closely related to the sky.”
“Yes, and my people stand out because of it. In the past, we were said to be able to grant wishes, were you to see a shooting star dance across our skin, but that power seems to have not remained, if it was even there in the first place.”
“That’s so cool. And you may stand out, but in a good way. I wish my skin was half as beautiful as yours.”
“Thank you, then. I must tell you, though: it is. Half as beautiful at the very least!”
Iris laughed. “Onward, then?”
“Yes, indeed, onward.”
They gathered up their bags and left the magical circle of trees, and Iris was less than thrilled to leave it behind. It wasn’t like she could ever come back here again, after all. She stifled a few sighs as they started down a thin dirt path, winding through knee-high grass and going up and down many small hills. After probably an hour of walking, they reached two towers and a gate, but no sentry or guard blocked their way.
“That was built during the Great War, most likely.” Anandra pointed to the gate and the towers, and Iris was relieved to see that she didn’t seem angry or devastated at the thought of what had caused her lifelong pain.
Maybe having that cry a while back had helped? Iris hoped it had, because she herself knew what it was like to carry the burden throughout the years of losing those you loved. Now that she could see her grandmother again, her burden had been lessened, but it seemed that Anandra would never be that lucky. Iris made a point to feel her gratitude fully in the moment when they passed through the towers, just as fully as she felt the warm sun once they left the tower’s shadows behind.
“I believe the restaurant is down Athet Street, which should be coming up on our left. That’s what the most-traveled people of my village said, Lacop and Therie. They’ve been together many sun-cycles, always adventuring together, and are very much in love. I have to admit, I’ve felt jealous of them at times.” Iris glanced at her face, and when Anandra saw her looking, she quickly added, “I’ve felt jealous because they’ve gotten to explore so much, of course. Obviously. Ah, look, Athet Street.”
A wooden sign with those words was nailed to a dark-brown pole, and off to their left, on a wide, crowded street, many people were sitting under dark-pink umbrellas at large blue tables, eating and talking and laughing. They were the first people Iris had seen since they entered the town. The area they had entered through seemed to be a part of the town that was much less frequented by the locals. But this restaurant was doing heavy business, by the look of things, and the enticing smells that reached Iris’s nostrils as they started down Athet Street quite unsubtly told her why.
A combination of foreign spices and herbs had delighted her nostrils by the time they reached the restaurant. She and Anandra walked through its wide-open front door. This place seemed a lot friendlier than their last restaurant experience, with people and creatures of many different ages and types inside, all the races and creatures mixed together at each of the tables and booths.
At least, it seemed friendly until the people and creatures began to notice them, and then a hush fell over the room. Did they really stand out that much? Iris felt almost as uncomfortable as she’d felt at the place in Rivest, even though these folks seemed far less scary and creepy than the men who had filled the room there.
Just as abruptly as the talking had stopped and the staring had started, it changed back, the people and magic beings turning back to their food. A short man with whiskers and orange, cat-like ears, as well as a striped orange-and-black tail, walked over to them, holding what must have been menus in his left hand. “Would you like a table for two?” he asked them. Or at least he asked one of them, his pale-yellow eyes with black, slitted pupils not leaving Iris’s face for a second.
“Yes, for two. Thank you.” Iris would have stared just as intensely at him if she hadn’t become rather used to the immense variety of beings and people in this world by now. Could he tell she wasn’t from this world? Was that why everyone there had stopped mid-bite and stared at them? But Iris couldn’t do anything about the staring, and besides, they had arrived at their table while she’d been mulling this over, and so she decided to turn her own attention to the restaurant’s wonderful scents and the view of a colorful garden right outside the window they were seated next to. A small bunch of flowers in a vase sat on their table, most likely from a bush of purple-fading-to-pink blooms she could see growing a few feet beyond the window.
“Would
you like drinks to start?”
“Do you have any ciders you’d recommend?” Anandra turned to Iris and winked.
“We have a local one, made from the freshest fruit you can imagine. One or two?”
“Do you want to give our ciders another chance?”
“I guess I will, but only because you’re paying.”
Anandra laughed at that. “Two, sir—two ciders.”
A few minutes later, two mugs full of red, fizzing liquid arrived. Iris took a tentative sip, ready to be disgusted again. “Wow, that’s really good.”
“Why thank you, miss,” their waiter said. “That means a lot coming from you.”
“Coming from me? What do you mean?”
“Oh, nothing,” he answered quickly. “Nothing at all. What’ll you be having, then?”
Anandra looked down at the menu, then back up at Iris. “May I order for you?”
“Sure, I’d prefer it if you did.”
“Two vren sandwiches and some chopped potatoes. Do those come with the usual dipping sauce?”
“Only the finest sauce in the village, if I do say so myself.”
“That sounds great, then.”
“I’ll be back with your order. And your food is on us today, miss.” Another sharp look came with his words. What was up with him? He was practically treating them like royalty, and Iris didn’t have any idea why.
“What’s with our waiter?” she asked Anandra, keeping her voice as low as she could as she leaned across the table.
“I have no guesses, but we should eat quickly and then go. And I will insist upon paying for our food. I do not want any favors when I don’t know why I’m receiving them.” Anandra’s eyes weren’t on Iris when she spoke. Instead, she had turned her head slightly away from Iris and appeared to be scanning what she could of the room. “I don’t know what’s going on, but I hope it’s nothing bad.”
“Me, too, Anandra, me, too.”
Their food arrived only moments later. Iris had no idea how they’d managed to make what looked to be two meat sandwiches and oven-baked fries so fast. Maybe…yeah, they’d probably gotten special treatment based on whatever the kitchen and their waiter thought was true about her and Anandra. Or just her, actually, because it was becoming clear to Iris that it wasn’t her friend who was getting everyone all worked up in a tizzy. She dug into her food, which turned out to be just as delectable as Anandra’s friends had said. But instead of lingering over each bite of the delicious sandwich, fries, and rich, creamy dipping sauce, she wound up eating as fast as she could, and then, her plate mostly empty, she made eye contact with Anandra.
“You ready?”
“Yes. But let me convince them to let us pay, first.”
The waiter seemed to have noticed they were getting ready to leave, rushing back to their table with a small plate covered in what looked like various types of fruit desserts. “This dessert was your mother’s favorite whenever she’d eat with us. I hope you like it as well as she did.”
“My mother? Who do you think I am, anyway?”
“Why, Selehn’s granddaughter. You have her eyes and mouth, maybe other things as well. You must be her daughter’s child.”
The name Selehn sounded rather familiar to Iris, but before she could ask him who this Selehn person was, Anandra rose from the table and threw some coins onto it. “I hope that’s enough for lunch. Iris, time to leave. Let’s go.” She pulled Iris up and eased her in the direction of the door. Iris was only able to look back for a few seconds, seeing a look of supreme disappointment on the waiter’s face.
He held up his hand during those few seconds, waving at her like she was an old friend. “Thank you for coming, miss! Please do come back—we’d love to serve you again! Any time, day or night!”
“Now what was that all about?” Iris asked once they were outside again. The waiter’s personal treatment had made her incredibly curious about who Selehn was and why she’d meant so much to this man, and now it was too late to ask him for any more information. “And why were you in such a rush to leave?”
“I…I don’t know. I just felt compelled to get out of there. The waiter’s actions were too unpredictable, as were the actions of the ones lunching there. And no way could you be Selehn’s granddaughter. That would just be too…too impossible.”
“Who was this Selehn person, again? Her name sounds very familiar to me, for some reason.”
“I’d rather not speak of her. She may have saved the land, but she wasn’t able to stop my parents from being killed. We should leave this town and quickly get back on the road, because I think if we keep on our way, we can reach the castle by sometime tomorrow.”
“That sounds good to me.” Iris wasn’t sure if she meant those words, but she wasn’t really fully present at the moment, anyway. She also wasn’t really paying attention to whatever it was Anandra said when she started telling Iris some kind of history of this city, learned from the friends who had visited here. No, she was mostly tuning out Anandra’s words, instead focused almost completely on what had happened in the restaurant.
She was still thinking about it when they reached the edge of the town a while later, but the appearance of a wide, fast-moving river up ahead brought her back to reality. “How are we going to get across that?” she asked Anandra. “I’m not that good of a swimmer.”
“I am good enough at swimming to cross it, but look farther upstream. There’s a Boat Sender and his raft a number of steps up from where we stand.” Anandra pointed, and now Iris saw a wooden raft up ahead, floating on their side of the river. Some sort of large bug seemed to be flying around above it, buzzing up a few inches and then down a few, a very strangely shaped bug.
“Is it safe?” she asked, following Anandra in the raft’s direction. As Iris had told her, she really couldn’t swim very well. In fact, if she fell into this deep-looking, fast-flowing water, she probably wouldn’t make it back out without a ton of magic. And a miracle—or two—would probably be required alongside the magic.
“The Boat Senders are experts, Iris. You have absolutely nothing to worry about.”
“That’s what my grandmother told me the first time I tried to learn to swim, actually. It isn’t really what I needed to hear.”
“Sorry.” Anandra sounded only slightly remorseful, but Iris decided that would have to do. And so would the Boat Sender and the raft, she decided, giving it a wary once-over as they arrived at its docking point.
A very small winged creature fluttered above the rope attaching the raft to the shore, wearing a brown cloth shirt and matching pants. He had wings that seemed decidedly fairy-like to Iris, blue and gold and slightly translucent, shimmering in the sun in a most captivating way. She easily could have stayed on shore and stared at his wings for an hour or two, instead of getting on the un-water-worthy-looking boards, bound together with thin, black rope and with very slight spaces in between their lengths. Now that looked like it could sink any moment, Iris thought with what she hoped was an imperceptible shudder.
“Are you all right?” Anandra asked. Imperceptible? Apparently not.
“I’ll be okay. Just promise me you won’t hesitate to give me mouth-to-mouth. After all, it worked pretty well the first time.”
“I’d rather give you mouth-to-mouth in private,” Anandra said softly, words that caused Iris to grin.
“What are you talking about, ladies?” the fairy-like creature asked. “Is it funny? It looks like it’s funny. I love good jokes, but I’m bad at telling them. Ask any of my friends.”
“That was funny, actually,” Anandra told him. “Now, what do you charge to take people across this river?”
“It was? It really was? I was trying to be funny, actually,” he said, but his words didn’t sound all that believable to Iris. He seemed sweet, though, and rather innocent as well. Hopefully he was as good at ferrying as he was bad at lying.
“Can you get us across safely?” Iris asked, scanning the water as it rushed past the lan
d where she stood.
“Yes, ma’am! I’m the best of the winged folk at ferrying. Everyone says that. I may not be funny, but I’m good at my job. And I only charge one gray coin per customer, too!” He sounded quite proud of all of this, and Iris hoped his pride was very, very justified.
“That’s quite the deal, little one,” Anandra told him. “The last winged woman who ferried me across a river charged two yellow coins and some bread. How about I throw in some fruit? Or cheefen?”
“Oh, no cheefen for me! I had it once and couldn’t sleep for three days! I have plenty of energy anyway, ask anyone!”
It sounded like he enjoyed being asked about, Iris thought. Either that or he was uncertain about what was true about him and what wasn’t. Iris hoped his statement about his skill at ferrying was true, at the very least, and so with a small gulp, she boarded the raft and sat as close to its very center as she could. Anandra boarded next, sitting beside her, and she handed the winged creature a small silver coin from her sack and a small, pink berry.
“Have any of those left?” Iris asked. Maybe eating on the way across would help to distract her.
“Here.” Anandra handed her three of the pink berries, and as the winged creature untied the rope and held out his arm in the direction of the other side, Iris popped all three berries into her mouth and began to chew. She had barely swallowed her small mouthful when the raft slowly floated upward and began to move across the river—about three feet above the water! Iris didn’t know if it made her more scared or less, but she realized that it meant Anandra might be able to catch her before she hit the water’s surface.
“So,” Iris asked the little guy, hoping he could distract her with some talking, “what’s your name?”
“My name? It’s Lutho, Lutho Bon Cari Wihld Shine. But you can call me Lutho. What’s yours? And yours?”
Iris was relieved that he didn’t look at either of them while he introduced himself. If it were up to her, he wouldn’t look away from the other side of the river for even a millisecond. “My name is Iris, and this is Anandra. It’s nice to meet you, Lutho.”
Out of This World Page 14
