Badass and the Beast: 10

by Shrum, Kory M.

  Kaaaaaar, kaaaaaar, kaaaaaar!

  “Smoke?” Zoe frowned. She had never heard him make that sound before. She was standing when he dropped from the sky and his wings popped the air in front of her. Fluttering, he grabbed her sleeve in his talons and pulled. “What’s the matter?”

  Behind her, Sand also raised an alarm. Kak, kak, kak!

  You too? She turned to see what was upsetting the birds and froze. The devil cat ran along the base of the cliff, following her footsteps and her scent. On her arm, Smoke fussed and chattered. The air was too thin. Her head felt too far from her feet. Breathing fast and kneeling, a supplicant to war, her work-weary fingers unlaced the bow and pulled the three remaining arrows from the quiver. Two of them went between her teeth. She hoped they would be enough.

  Kak, kak, kak! Sand sounded more agitated than Zoe had ever heard, while Smoke, his gaze never wavering, shivered.

  Smart birds. Be smart. She stood, taking the stance she had seen her father make so many times, taking sight on his target. Now she too took sight on her target, and nocked the first arrow with hands that fluttered like the leaves on the birch trees beside their house, before the creek died, before everything went wrong.

  She pushed out the bow, fear and hours of work causing her arms to tremble. She felt giddy and unstable, as though she might vomit or wet herself or pass out. She prayed for none of those to happen. Her legs wanted to run, but she stood her ground. Running would not do any good. The devil cat was fast and close, and running was for victims. Unless a space mountain was chasing you. She laughed, nothing more than a shuddering, nervous bark, but it made her feel better. Fake it ’til you make it, sweetcheeks, she heard her mother say.

  The pelt bunched up over her arms, so she pushed it out of the way with her chin. “You’re mad. About this.” It made sense. Souls get angry. And the black devil cat bounding toward her was definitely angry. “You’ve come back for your skin.” Zoe swallowed. The taste of cat meat lingered on her tongue. “And everything else I took.” She pushed the bow farther, until the arrowhead jittered against her finger, drawing blood.

  Twang.

  True and dead on, the arrow spun away. Racing it, Sand veered off at the last moment, and Zoe watched the deadly head bury itself in the cat’s barely cooled footprints as the beast jumped to the side.

  “What?”

  The second arrow was nocked and flying before the word had died in the air. Baleful, the devil’s eyes glared yellow in the dusk. The arrow, seeking the devil’s heart, was again thwarted by inches, striking only a glancing blow as the beast lunged to the side again.

  “I killed you once!”

  Nocked and held, she waited. “You won’t have the chance to dodge this one,” she whispered. She focused on the chest, imagining the heart within. Did ghosts have hearts?

  Thump, thump. Thump, thump. Thump, thump. The cadence of the beast’s paws beat in time with her own heart. The third arrow, last and questionable, drew red chert circles in the air—please draw red blood—before springing away. The missile flew true for a moment, but then wobbled, breaking where she had tried to splint the shaft, and fell short. The devil cat, implacable, kept coming.

  Zoe grasped her papa’s knife and held it out before her. Always it had seemed large in her hand, but now it felt very small. “I won’t let you kill me.”

  Kaaaaaar!

  Smoke launched himself toward the devil, even as Sand dove yet again, talons extended. So should I. Her own cry joined those of her birds, and she charged into the pit and up the other side.

  The devil slowed, breaking stride to bat a paw at the birds, and stopped not twenty feet away, golden eyes sparkling. It sat back on its haunches and was still taller than Zoe, who stood poised at the rim of the pit. Overhead, the birds circled, waiting for an opening. Getting too close now would be certain death for either of them, but Zoe knew that they would both fly into those teeth to keep them from biting her. The thought made her heart swell and thunder.

  “Well? What are you waiting for? Stupid cat!”

  The feline head rose and the mouth opened. “For you to lay down your weapons, Zoe Quordova, before you harm me.”

  Zoe blinked. I dreamt that. “What?”

  “I’ve been looking for you for three years. It’s a pleasure to finally meet you, even if you did try to kill me three times.”

  “You’re…this isn’t…”

  “Happening? Of course it is. And now you must listen, this is important—”

  “What’s going on?” Hot nausea pushed up Zoe’s throat. The burning fear of dying was writhing into the cold horror of losing her mind. “What are you?”

  “Zoe! I may not have much time. You need to listen.”

  “You’re a ghost. The soul of the leopard I killed.”

  “No, I’m a púca, a shapeshifter. I’m a friend of your parents.”

  “My parents?” Images of her mother and father flooded Zoe’s mind. Her momma had gone out for a walk and never returned. Her papa had disappeared in the night after she had fallen asleep. You’re a murderer. “You killed my parents.”

  The devil leopard laughed. “More than once I’ve wanted to kill your mother, but no, I did nothing to harm your parents. They await my return—our return. I’m here to take you home.”

  This is my home. “Liar.”

  The black cat shook its head. “You are Gretchen’s child. Without doubt.”

  Momma? “Shut up! Just shut up. Don’t talk about my momma!”

  Smoke fluttered down onto her shoulder.

  “Zoe, we don’t have the luxury of time. This place is shutting down, and I’m not sure how much longer I have here, so it’s important that you listen to me. Do you remember your father telling you about that feeling? The sensation of being peeled out of this reality?”

  “What’d you do with my parents?” Zoe brandished her bow stave and edged forward a half-step.

  “Nothing! Winds of Fal!” The beast stood and Zoe threatened it with her weapons. “Honestly, you’re as stubborn as your mother and as obstinate as your father. Would you shut up and let me finish?”

  “Tell me what you did to them!”

  “I did nothing to them. This place did, though. It extracted them. Spit them out.” The golden eyes blinked. “And it’s about to do the same to me.”

  Zoe backed away, down into the pit. “Your words don’t make sense. Leave me alone.”

  “That absolutely will not happen. I’ve spent the last three years of my life running through this Far-forsaken zoo looking for you. Eating raw meat! Do you know how awful that is? I couldn’t keep my real form because the forage here is atrocious. But I did it. I changed into this dreadful shape and killed for food. I did it all, because my friends’ baby was lost in this hellish backwater and I wanted to help. This was supposed to be a quick in and out, and I surely thought you’d be happy to see me, but instead you tried to kill me.”

  “I saw you. Two days ago you killed that deer—”

  “I was hungry! What have you been snacking on? I can smell it from here, you hypocrite.”

  “What? What did you call me?”

  The beast shook its head. “Some stupid word your mother likes to toss around when she’s feeling salty. It means you’re guilty of the same thing you accuse me of. You also killed to survive, so don’t judge me.”

  Zoe regarded the claw-tipped paws, larger around than the clay plates her family had eaten from. She regarded the mouth, larger than the big bucket they had used to draw water from the creek, and inside that mouth, canine teeth longer and thicker than her thumb, glittered and winked white in the half-light. “I kill because I have no choice. You kill because that’s what you do. We’re not the same.”

  The beast exhaled in a gush. “This is not my true form! Stop interrupting me.”

  “Show me your true form then.”

  It glared at her. “I dare not.”

  “Then you’re a liar or I dreamt you into existence. Either way, I
can’t trust you.”

  “Oh, by Far and Fal!” The beast turned in a circle and swiped up a pawful of sand. “You are a frustrating foal!” It glanced at Zoe and its expression abruptly softened. “But you are just a foal. Just a child. Listen, this isn’t how I meant for this to happen. I never meant to frighten you or get into a shouting match. I’m sorry, all right? But it’s important that you hear me out.” It advanced to the edge of the pit and peered down at Zoe.

  Kaaaaar, kar!

  Smoke extended his wings menacingly.

  “You have loyal companions, but keep them off of me!”

  “They’re my family,” Zoe said. “The only family I have left.”

  “Oh, child, that isn’t true. Your mother and father are waiting for you.”

  “That’s a lie! They wouldn’t have left me here!”

  “They had no choice.”

  “They would have come back for me!”

  “They couldn’t. Whatever intelligence runs this place wouldn’t allow them back in. They got stuck here because the exit transitive was turned off or broken. And now, for them, the entrance pathway no longer works.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “Didn’t they tell you about the outside? About the transitives? There are a thousand worlds beyond this one and the transitives are the great roads that link them all. Paired, your mother tells us, one broad avenue going one way and another in the opposite direction. Gretchen calls them freeways. Your parents came here, not knowing what was down the road to here, and got stuck because even though the road in worked, the road out was broken. They were here for a while before she got pregnant and stopped looking for an escape.”

  “You’re trying to confuse me. Trying to trick me!”

  “No, I’m not.”

  “Lies!”

  “Shut up, kid. I’m not lying. Your mother was the first to get grabbed by the controller and stuck on the outside, only now she found she was unable to pass back along the transitive. It about drove her mad. Six years she’d been stuck inside, and then suddenly was out and wanted desperately to get back in, to get back to you and your father. Now they’re both out there, waiting for you. You have to trust me.”

  “How am I supposed to know that you’re not lying? What you’re saying is crazy. You want me to trust you, but how can I?”

  The cat’s face became thoughtful. “You can’t. But you should.”

  “I won’t.” Zoe backed up the slope, never taking her eyes off the devil cat.

  “Then just listen. The same thing that took your mother and father has me too. It’s only a few days or even minutes until I will be peeled out of this reality and banished forever.”

  “Good!”

  “No, not good. I’m your way back.”

  “That’s…no!”

  “I know the way out, more or less. Your mother figured it out, from the outside. You have to believe me.”

  “No!” My rescuer wouldn’t be a devil cat the size of Momma and Papa’s bedroom. Momma wouldn’t do that to me. “Just go away and leave me alone. This is my home. I’m not leaving.”

  “You must! Look around you,” the leopard said. “This place is dying.”

  “I just have to figure out how to get rid of that thing blocking the sky,” she pointed at the dark patch, “and find where the water’s gone.”

  “Zoe…I see you don’t know, you don’t understand what this place is or what’s happening to it. This isn’t a world. It’s not a planet.”

  “Yes it is! Momma told me it is. It’s Airzots!”

  The cat made an ugly face. “This is a menagerie—a collection of Earth animals and plants—that was tucked away in a pocket realm. A showplace or vacation spot, maybe, who can know with the Eì, what those mad gods were thinking? Perhaps it never should have been made, but it was and then left to run itself for untold centuries. But it’s inescapable that this place is coming undone. The heat is going, the water recirculation has broken, the sky magic is failing, and the dome is breaking apart! This realm is dying, and has been for years.”

  Zoe kept walking backwards, shaking her head. “What are you talking about?”

  “This isn’t real!”

  “It’s realer than you.” Zoe squatted to snatch up her pack and bowl. For a moment, they were distracted by more meaty-ores falling from space.

  “More real, Zoe. What are you doing?”

  “Going.” She held up the bow stave, ashamed to see it quivering. “Don’t follow me!”

  “You need the key.”

  “What?” She had a vague idea of what a key was.

  “Your mother thought you’d be able to find the way out on your own, if it ever came down to it, especially if you still had your birds to help you. She said, ‘Sand to guide her feet, and Smoke the doors defeat.’ She made them to be helpful. She used magic, on you and them, which may be what revealed her to the controller of this realm in the first place. But there were things she didn’t know at the time, things she found out later, things you’ll need. She put them all in a key and gave it to me.”

  Zoe paused. “Okay. So give it to me.”

  “It’s not a physical object. It’s magic.” The leopard crept forward. “I have to touch you, to pass it along.”

  Swallowing hard against her dry throat, Zoe shook her head and continued to back away. “Oh, no, you’re trying to trick me.”

  “No, I’m not!” The beast scowled. “You need to stop seeing this body and begin trusting what I’m telling you.”

  “So you can kill me?”

  “No. I could have done that many times by now, had I desired.”

  “You fear my knife!”

  “I fear failing after all this time. I fear being removed from this place and having to tell your parents that I found you, that I spoke to you, but I failed to impart the key because you wouldn’t trust me.”

  Images and memories of her mother and father flooded Zoe’s thoughts again. She remembered trusting them. She remembered the pain of abandonment and all of the difficult, lonely days since. She locked gazes with the beast that promised to end this loneliness—one way or another. “I hate you.”

  The leopard looked away. “Many do.”

  Beneath her feet, Zoe felt the throbbing from behind the wall stutter and change tempo and then stop. The cat’s head swiveled back to her. “You felt that? You know what that was?”

  Zoe shook her head. “No.”

  “One of the air pumps. The heaters have been failing, and the water pumps. The enchantment that makes the dome above appear as sky is failing. That’s why half of the sky is gone. Nothing ‘blocks’ the sky, Zoe! What you see is the rock dome over which the illusion of a sky is woven. But the illusion is coming undone and the magic that maintains the dome as well. This place will soon be no more. The lights will go out, the heat will fade, the air will still, and death will reign.”

  “I hate you!”

  The beast crouched and jumped the pit, landing with a thump ten feet from Zoe. “I don’t care. Love me or hate me, I’m not leaving you here.”

  “Stay back!”

  The golden eyes—gray now in the pallid moonlight—blinked out and reappeared. “Give up. You can’t stay awake forever.”

  Hopelessness welled up, and Zoe cried out before she could stop herself. Then I have to kill you now, while I still can. “All right.” Her voice quavered. “Come.”

  “Finally.” The beast advanced for a moment before catching the moonlit glint of the knife. It paused. “Put your weapons away. You don’t need them.”

  “Remove your teeth and claws! You don’t need them.”

  A sharp inhalation gave way to the devil cat’s sigh. “If I change my form, I will assuredly draw unwelcome attention and be expelled, and you will be stuck here forever.”

  “You said the world is dying. If that’s true, then why would the controller care? Prove to me that you are as you say, and I’ll put aside my knife.”

  “Perhaps what you
say is valid, but the risk is too great. Even now, I could be taken at any moment.”

  “Then why haven’t I been taken? How come I’m still here?”

  It blinked. “Please, Zoe! We don’t have time.”

  “How come?”

  “Because you were conceived and born here. The realm considers you a native.”

  Zoe shook her head, surprised by the answer.

  “Satisfied?” the leopard asked. “Let me touch you now. Let me share the key.”

  “Do it.”

  There was no motion save the distant rush and pummel of rocks upon the desert floor. Sand and Smoke shivered, and Zoe realized that the perpetual wind no longer flowed. In the dead air, despite the cold, beads of sweat worried her sides and brow.

  “I have wounds from talons and your arrow—a poor welcome, child. I have no desire to be stabbed with your dagger. Put it away.”

  The beast was close. So close that Zoe felt its heat and smelt its charnel breath. She remembered her thoughts from many days earlier, when she had pondered what it would feel like to die, what these last few moments would be like, whether she would be brave. I am about to die. Her dry tongue traced cold lips.

  “I am brave.”

  “You’re a fool.”

  Darkness moved within darkness, birds’ wings slapped the air as their cries shook it, Zoe felt a boulder of weight smack into her, and she sailed through the air to land hard and sprawled out across the sand. An immense weight pressed down on her chest, forcing a grunt from her throat, and in the stark and feeble illumination, the devil’s face hovered over hers and descended.

  Zoe struck. Her fingers, still wrapped around the knife handle, ached from their clench, and the blow sent a shock up her arm. The beast bellowed in her face, stunning her for a moment. She felt the furry face touch hers and a leaf-green radiance filled her mind—thoughts not her own, thoughts of magic and mathematics, of diagrams and concepts, of worlds upon worlds and the glowing white ribbons—paired roadways—that stretched through the inky space of night, linking every world. The thoughts were those of her mother; Zoe recognized the cadence and the essence, like a half-remembered scent. This was the key of which the leopard had spoken.