by Mel Dunay
A creature that could only be Bhana, the Mountain King’s sister, was crawling towards him on all fours. When she reached him, she stood upright-a skinny, sinewy creature a head taller than Vipin.
As in Raki’s story, she wore rags tied across her chest and around her waist; it seemed more a mocking imitation of human clothes than an attempt at modesty. The skin was a dark, sleek purple mottled with snowy white markings, both colors gleaming like silk in the moonlight.
The head was large and mostly smooth, though Rina had an impression of a crest like a lizard’s or a rooster’s running along the top of the skull, and maybe other ridges where the eyebrows should have been. The mottled white markings continued up the left shoulder to the neck and the left side of the creature’s face.
The lips were a darker purple than the skin, full and sensual, the most human thing about a not-too-human face. The eyes were orange red, with pupils slit like a cat’s even though a cat’s eyes would be dilated in this moonlight.
The creature looked Vipin up and down for a moment, sniffed him, and then moved forward. It explored his chest with three-fingered, claw-tipped hands that scratched wherever they touched.
“Leave him alone, you witch,” Rina screamed.
She grabbed her pepper spray and ran out of the storage room towards the back of the house.
She heard Utiva cursing at her, telling her not to unbolt the door, or leave the house but she didn’t listen. She was out the back door in a moment, snatching up a shovel with her free hand.
Bhana had paid no attention to her scream. Rina could not see his reactions clearly, but she could see that the creature seemed to be nibbling on his left shoulder with needle-like teeth. One clawed hand dragged across his chest, while the other slide down his belly, not quite hard enough to do permanent damage yet.
“I’m talking to you, witch, leave him alone,” She screamed again.
Bhana seemed to notice her from the first time, letting go of Vipin and turning toward Rina.
Rina suddenly realized that she was still afraid, had been afraid all along. Instead of paralyzing her, this somehow brought the whole problem into focus.
She had to dodge the thing somehow, get to Vipin and help him, and then they would both make a dash for the back door...
She heard the sound of the back door being closed and bolted again. Okay, not the door, but they could grab the bike and make a run for Thundermouth, maybe.
Bhana tilted its head on one side, and took a step forward, watching Rina’s every move. Rina started to shiver with fear at first, but then she realized that the thing was toying with her, just as it had with the little girl. That made Rina even more angry.
“Come here, witch, you want something? You want something? Come and get it!”
Rina brandished the pepper spray. Bhana took another step towards her, and Rina blasted it in the face with her pepper spray. The Old One snorted and looked puzzled but didn’t seem at all bothered by the spray. Rina’s heart sank.
Then suddenly Vipin snarled, not like an angry human but with that terrible sound Rina had heard before, that seem to come simultaneously from the bottom of his belly and the top of his nose. Rina caught that flash of gold in his eyes.
The stone lurched as he shoved himself upright and lunged forward. He seemed talled and leaner than before, though not as spidery as Bhana. His skin had turned a deep bronze that seemed to glow in the moonlight, and he carried himself with an inhuman grace.
Bhana turned back towards him with lightning speed, but he reacted just as quickly, grappling its throat. It broke free at first but he grabbed it again, and injured one of its legs. That made it angry, and it fought all the harder, but it was not as fast as it had been. Rina rushed forward, raised her shovel, and then hesitated.
She didn’t want to hit Vipin, even though she found his face right now terrifying: his eyes glowing gold yet cold and focused, his jaw set. But she got a clear strike at one point, and hit the thing hard in the shoulder. Vipin seized the opportunity and snapped its neck.
He rose to a crouch and then seemed to sag with exhaustion. The strange glow left his skin, and the tense, feline stance that was like his movements in the fight with Jabar, only a hundred times more so, was gone. What was left was the gentle, quiet intellectual he usually appeared to be.
Rina leaned on her shovel and offered him a hand up. He accepted it. The strong grip of a large, warm hand that felt thoroughly human to her was reassuring after what she had just been through. It did not make her any less mad at him, or any less confused.
“What the blazes just happened?” She demanded. “Why were you lying out here like that?”
“The lady of the house felt exposed, living so far from the rest of the town, with Bhana on the prowl. She relied on her customers for a sense of safety,” Vipin said.
“So how did you get her to turn them away? Was...this part of the deal?” Rina asked.
I didn’t want her customers bothering you, so I explained that I was here to kill the Old One, and she wouldn’t have anything to worry about. She didn’t believe me, wanted me to act as bait.”
“But you could have died!” Rina protested. “What if you hadn’t...changed or whatever it is you did...in time? You probably need a doctor, the way she was chewing on you-”
“It’s already healed,” He said firmly.
“What?”
Vipin took a deep breath, as though bracing himself for something.
“Rina,” He said. “You’ve heard the stories about how in the old days, the Zatas would take on humanlike forms, and intermarry with humans.”
“It’s in one of the scriptures, I think,” Rina said. “One of the ones they don’t teach that often.”
“The results were sometimes called Razatas, which means ‘Oldblood.’ Well, one of my distant ancestors, hrm, came from that kind of situation. I’m not entirely human.”
“Okay, I don't know how that works, but it explains how you can do what you do,” Rina said. “What I want to know is, why didn’t you do it sooner?”
Vipin seemed a little surprised by this response but he did answer the question.
“It’s...not entirely voluntary. My adrenaline needs to reach a certain level before the change is triggered.”
“And it didn’t trigger when she was trying to turn you into shaved meat?” Rina demanded.
Vipin chuckled nervously. That slow, lopsided smile spread up his face. By daylight it was cute, by moonlight it was downright enchanting.
“I...appreciate your concern for all the portions of my anatomy. But you've seen how Bhana works-used to work.” He amended. “She liked to toy with her victims. And she would have toyed with me a bit longer before there was any real danger for someone like me.”
He hesitated. “I was scared to death when she turned on you.”
“So was I,” Rina admitted. “But I didn’t want anything bad to happen to you.”
“We were both trying to protect each other,” Vipin admitted. “Thank you for your help. You did well in the fight.”
Rina blushed.
“I’m just glad that I didn’t mess up. And that neither of us died. And that...thing did.” She jabbed at the body with her shovel.
Vipin laughed heartily. “You’re a vicious one. But come on back to the house-you’ll catch cold out here.”
“So will you.”
“I was going to stay in the barn.” Vipin said.
Rina took his hand again.
“Then I will too.” She said. “After the way Utiva treated you, I’m not going back in her house tonight. I guess I will have to go back for my things tomorrow, but right now I just want to be with you.”
“Not like that,” She added. “But I could use a friend close to hand after...that and you’re the closest thing I have right now.”
Vipin ducked his head. “That’s kind of you to say. The barn it is then, I guess.”
The barn smelled of goat, but Rina found it borderline nostalgic
under the circumstances. She burrowed into the straw and fell asleep.
Her dreams that night were not the kind she could remember later, and she awoke close to dawn to the sound of birdsong. She went to check on Vipin.
He was still asleep in his corner of the barn, curled up on his side. His face, as usual, seemed even sadder when he was asleep, and she once again found the rise and fall of his chest vaguely hypnotic.
He had a beautiful profile with that long, beaky nose. Why hadn't she noticed it before? She touched his forehead gently, on a scar right between the eyebrows. His breathing shifted slightly but he gave no sign of waking up.
She ran her fingers down the ridge of his nose, pausing at the tip, then sliding further down. His lips twitched when her fingers touched them. she wasn't quite sure whether the result was a small smile or an even smaller kiss. But his eyes fluttered open and his head turned to look at her.
“That’s the pleasantest wakeup call I’ve gotten in a long time.” He said with a fuller smile. “I guess you want us to be on the road soon, so we can eat in Thundermouth.”
“That’s not the only reason I want to be in Thundermouth, but yes, skipping two meals hasn’t been fun.”
“Well, then, let’s see about reclaiming your luggage from the lady of the house.”
Utiva was not in a mood to let them back in, especially after she saw the dead body.
“You people are dangerous,” she told them. “You’ll bring worse trouble down on us yet.”
“Even so,” Vipin said politely. “Miss Rina needs her things.”
Rina paid Utiva and then brushed past her, with Vipin following her. Utiva had not touched the mess of clothes Rina had left on the floor of the storage room, and when Rina checked her purse everything was still there.
Just as Rina and Vipin finished packing up, they heard their temporary landlady talking to someone outside.
“I don’t want any trouble in my house, you can talk to them when they come out.” She said, then came back in and told them: “Someone at the door for you.”
Rina did not like the look of the man they found outside waiting for them. A short but tough-looking character with a broken nose and small, deep-set eyes, he had the look of a dealer rather than an addict.
“What do you want?” Vipin asked, putting himself in front of her.
“I want my money.” The man said. “I was told that you’d have it.”
“I’m sorry, I buy cloth from this town sometimes, but I don’t trade in ergot-dust,” Rina said. “Who told you that we would have your money?”
“Amita. She buys stuff from my people and resells it in Summertown and Rivertown. She owes me money. Called me from Skymarket to say that she was bringing it.”
“And why aren’t you having this discussion with her?” Vipin asked.
“When she got here, she said the constable in Goatsfart was onto her, so she had to have a friend bring the money up. Skinny woman, snooty look, long wavy hair, nice clothes. That sure looks like you, sweetheart.”
“The rockfall on the road to Goatsfart,” Rina said thinking out loud. “Amita was upset about it crushing her suitcase. We couldn’t get it out from under there.”
To the dealer, she said: “You could try to get your money out of there. We certainly don’t have it.”
“Neither of you are leaving until I get my money,” the dealer insisted. He tried to push past Vipin to get at Rina, but Vipin shoved him in the chest.
“Take a look at the yard before you start anything you’ll regret.”
The dealer looked at the dead Oldblood and started, as if seeing it for the first time. Maybe he was addicted to his own stuff after all, Rina thought.
“You did that?” He asked Vipin.
“The lady and I did that,” Vipin emphasized.
The dealer peered past them at their temporary landlady. “They did it,” she said. “I watched them.”
Vipin tensed and shifted his weight slightly without taking his eyes off the drug dealer. That, and the rustling sound behind her, made Rina spin around and look behind her with her heart pounding against her chest.
All she could see was Utiva’s goats, calmly cropping grass in the field, with a low fence of undressed stones between them and the sheer mountain cliff beyond.
Whatever it is, you can handle it, she told herself. You handled last night just fine.
As if he could hear her thoughts, Vipin muttered, “You don’t need to worry about what’s back there.”
Rina watched as a large head appeared over the wall. It was shaped something like a frog’s head, but with the faceted eyes of an insect-or a Gnosha.
A moment later, the rest of the Gnosha came into view as he stepped gingerly over the fence: a green and yellow builder drone, only about six and a half feet tall, most of that in his spider-hinged legs.
His torso and forearms were smeared with sticky, dark-blue stains. Rina remembered the chittering sound she’d heard when they rescued the child. Perhaps this Gnosha had tangled with Bhana outside of Barleyfields, and been injured.
Rina heard a piercing shriek, followed by another shriek, pitched a little lower. She looked over her shoulder to find Utiva and drug dealer staring at the Gnosha with wide eyes and gaping mouths. Vipin also faced the Gnosha, but with a slight, unreadable smile.
“I wondered when you would catch up with us,” He said to the newcomer. “I am Vipin, with the Ministry of Culture.”
“I know that, because all my Hive knows that,” The Gnosha said, in the usual formula. “I do not know your ally’s name though.” He pointed towards Rina.
“I am called Zekull. I police the Stetemo Hive members in Summertown. The Queens sent me to investigate the report that there were Zatas-what you would call Old Ones-on Mount Snarl.”
“Hello, I’m Rina,” she volunteered.
Zekull bowed at the waist in acknowledgment, then addressed himself to the drug dealer.
“I do not know your name, man, but there was a suitcase that smelled of your drugs crushed under a boulder outside of Skymarket, as these two say.”
A strangled sound came from the drug dealer’s mouth followed by the words: “Where is it?”
“The constable’s office at Skymarket,” Zekull said. “There was paper money in it, not much harmed by the boulder. The police in Summertown will come to check on it. I think they will find traces of the drugs the suitcase held before the paper money.”
At the mention of human police, the drug dealer seemed to pull himself back together. He was probably more familiar with that kind of threat than either Gnosha, monsters out of the old stories, or people who could make those monsters very thoroughly dead.
Utiva, on the other hand, seemed to shrink in size. She muttered something about having to get her breakfast ready, and bolted back into her house.
“And when the cops come for the people who had that suitcase last, you two are going to jail,” the drug dealer sneered to Vipin.
“I watched the boulder fall,” Zekull said. He gestured towards the Bhana’s corpse in the yard.
“That thing,” he shaped the word with as much disgust as Rina had the night before, “Pushed it down on those humans. I was not close enough to stop it, but the humans got out of the way in time. Not-Rina was unhappy about losing her suitcase to the boulder.”
“Not-Rina?” The drug dealer asked.
“There was a third person with them,” Zekull explained patiently. “Not Vipin. Not Rina, but another woman.”
“Her name’s Amita,” Rina volunteered, even though Vipin caught her eye and shook his head slightly.
“Amita. Thank you. I will remember.”
The drug dealer threw up his hands in disgust. “I’m going to take this up with the Mayor,” He said, then added, with a glance at the monster lying dead in the yard, “And the priest.” He stalked off down the road.
“It sounds like we’d better get out of town while we can,” Rina said.
She helped Vipi
n roll his borrowed motorcycle out from the barn and up to the gate. Zekull talked as they went.
“The Hive dispatched me as soon as the Queens decided what to do,” Zekull said. “My mission was to observe the Zatas but not to try to stop them or interfere with human politics until it became necessary.”
“You look worried, Rina,” Vipin said.
“Mostly, I’m thinking how hard this will be to explain to the town council in Thundermouth,” Rina said. “But I guess having Zekull along would help.”
Zekull pivoted his head back and forth again, this time in a way that could only mean ‘no.’
“By the order of the Queens, I cannot interfere in town politics unless invited. I would not have fought with the Bhana the other day, if she had not attacked a child.”
“You were interfering just now,” Rina argued.
“I would not have talked to that criminal just now, except that he would have slowed you down, and you will be needed elsewhere.”
“Oh, I would have taken care of the drug dealer,” Vipin drawled, and Rina saw his eyes gleam gold for a moment.
“You could have beaten him soundly,” Zekull agreed. “But it would have made trouble for you here.”
“He could still make trouble for us here,” Rina said. “We’d better be on our way. Zekull,” she hesitated.
“Thank you. But you would not fit on the motorcycle, which is not exactly ours anyway. Is there some place in Thundermouth where we could meet you again?”
“Meet me this evening at the pass that leads up to the meadow above your town, the meadow where the Mountain King’s brides would spend the night,” Zekull said.
“Bring anyone whom you have managed to convince of what is happening. I do not want to be seen in town.”
“You were already seen in this town,” Rina pointed out.
“Here in Stayout, where half the people grow semi-legal drugs and the other half use them for dream-seeking or for pleasure, they are used to seeing...different things.” Zekull said. “The people of Thundermouth might not handle the sight of a Gnosha the same way.”
