by Bryant Reil
“Yes, well, of course you'd be better at this. Tomorrow I'll bring some axes and we'll see how you do at a few minotaur games.”
It was a few minutes before Kyla turned her head enough to see the wheel spinning quickly around, driven by strong winds blowing at sails. Saul's handiwork, to be sure, and Aura, barely visible, was huffing and throwing wind into the device. Kyla strode up to her.
“Getting tired?” she asked.
“I am accustomed to working long hours.”
“Do you want help? I can go get one of those oscillator things.”
“No thank you, Kyla. I am rather enjoying this.”
“I feel like you're going too fast. You must be cutting daytime in half.”
“Perhaps.”
“Probably better this way. I think I like many short sleeps better than one long one. And work days will be so much shorter.”
Aura didn't reply.
“Well-guess I'll go back up to the surface then. Not much of a fan of the underground, you know.”
“I shall see you later, then.”
“Yup. Guess so.”
Kyla stood a moment. She hated to leave Aura alone. A sudden cry gave her reason to stay.
“You all wanted trouble? I told you there's be trouble. Now the aristocracy is getting involved. Might as well go home and start looking for new work!” The goblin marched into the cavern followed by a large man-shaped cloud. Rather, his head, arms and torso were in the shape of a man, though billowing as a cloud, and rather than legs a trail of mist snaked behind him. He was larger even than Heff and wore jewelry and medallions of blue and gold. Aura didn't look at him.
“Aura of House Ukko!” the cloud-man bellowed. “You are commanded to cease! You shame Aeolis by interfering in the affairs of groundlings, and you shame your father by making yourself a common laborer! Return home at once! Your time here has come to an end.”
Aura did not look at the cloud-man but her winds picked up even more speed. The residual wind was nearly enough to knock Kyla over, so she backed away and squatted against a wall.
“Look at me!” the cloud-man ordered. “Your father commands it!”
Aura still did not look at him. “If my father so commands, let him bear the message himself. I do not need to obey a mere messenger.” Her winds picked up more speed. The great wheel creaked and groaned.
“Stop it!” the old goblin shouted frantically. “You're going to break it! Do you have any idea what you're doing?” He grabbed at his wispy hair and ran toward Aura and then back again, unsure what to do. Heff and the elementals were standing back silently, though they appeared amused.
“I bear your father's message and thus his authority. You are to accompany me to Aeolis. This is not a question but a command!”
“Try to take me, if you dare. You shall regret it.”
The cloud-man looked angry but suppressed his rage before speaking again. “You have been on the ground too long. You have a home and family who care for you. They do not wish to see you embroiled in the petty affairs of the underground.” The earth elementals grumbled at this. “Your father has sent me but his heart is with you.”
Aura became suddenly opaque. She seldom showed any expression, but now her mouth and eyes were twisted. A gale whipped up and sent Kyla tumbling over. The sheets flapped wildly and sent the great wheel into a frantic rotation. “If his heart is with me then why not his body? His voice? His hands?” Aura's voice rose into a shout which echoed thunder and sparked lightning. “If he loves me then why must I always speak to him through messengers?”
Aura thrust a final great wind into the sails which ripped them from their anchors and sent them fluttering around the cavern. The wheel continued to spin but gradually slowed until it squeaked and sputtered and stopped. Aura was almost transparent again, and hovered silently with her head bowed. The cloud-man was silent. Kyla was the first to move. She stood up and walked over to Aura and grabbed her dress by the hem, but before she could speak Aura vanished and a wind whipped out the cavern and into the corridor.
Chapter Fifteen
Halloween Party
Dunkin was rather fond of prison. His cell was small but he had a better view through the bars than the balcony on Sulafat Station. There was noise. Screams, fighting, the curses of a thousand tongues. And the smells. Sure, the beefy odor of unwashed men was the same as it had been at Sulafat, but here it was mixed with blood and mildew. It was invigorating to have his senses refreshed.
The only problem Dunkin had with prison was his cellmate. Avek'lis, a wiry-looking lizard, shed his skin every two days. It wouldn't be so bothersome if he didn't consume the old skin when he was finished. It made Dunkin rather sick.
The solution came a few nights later when a deep voice wormed into Dunkin's mind as he was trying to sleep.
You are needed.
Short and simple. Dunkin appreciated Erebus' brevity. “What do you want me to do?”
We must recover the fragment at Equinox. Wards have been set up to prevent me and my Avowed from entering unnoticed. You must find a way to contact the elf girl and retrieve it.
Dunkin snorted. “I guess Linkin didn't prove as worthwhile as you hoped.”
He has his uses, but for this I need someone with more dirt under his nails.
“And blood.”
If it comes to that.
“Of course, my lord.” Dunkin was careful not to forget his graces. “Is there a deadline?”
Escape. I will mark your path.
Erebus' presence faded suddenly. The prison had wards of its own and perhaps the god of darkness sensed one about to go off. No matter. Dunkin had all he needed.
“Would you pleassssse be quiet?” Avek'lis hissed from his bunk.
Dunkin cracked his knuckles. “Yeah, sure. Just one more thing I want to do before you doze off.”
***
Marik had spent weeks carving the ivory hilt of his sword. It was the figure of a woman in a flowing dress, one hand on her hip and the other playing with her hair. Beautiful Carmin. This was the only way he would ever hold her again.
The alarm sounded and Marik threw his carving supplies back in his foot locker. He would have to smooth the edges. He sheathed the sword but kept his hand on the hilt as he ran. Carmin's rough elbow dug into his palm which served as a reminder that she was there.
There was no one else in the corridor. He looked around for help. The alarms went off all the time and many of the other guards were lazy about responding to them, because most often it was a simple case of one prisoner dumping the chamber-pot on the head of another. Yet even petty squabbles could turn violent and he didn't want to be alone because if it came to blows he didn't want to ruin the hilt of his sword before he was able to finish it.
Luckily Grobin and Dhilik turned into the hallway, with the dwarf waddling forward on his stumpy legs and the beast-man bounding ahead on all fours. Marik picked up speed as the first guard on scene was the one to take charge, and if there was a chamber-pot clean-up he certainly wanted to be the one delegating. Unfortunately, Dhilik, the beast-man, proved too fast and Marik arrived second followed by Grobin's phlegmatic breathing. When Marik saw Dunkin in the cell, and no Avek’lis, he was glad he hadn't arrived first. Dhilik looked around while the dwarf Dunkin leaned forward against the bars.
“Where did your friend go?” Dhilik growled.
Dunkin shrugged. “He's right there.” The dwarf gestured under one of the bunks. Sure enough a hand was sticking out.
“Come on! Get out of there!” Dhilik pulled a key ring from his waist. “If I have to come in you're going to spend the weekend washing every chamber-pot in every cell!”
There was no response. Marik held his sword at the ready. Dhilik growled and unlocked the gate. Ignoring Dunkin, he yanked the hand from under the bed, and jumped back when he saw it wasn't attached to anything. There was no blood so Marik thought it might be a fake, but he did recall that some lizard folk could cauterize their own wounds. Cauda
l autotomy, it was called.
Dhilik dove to the floor and started pulling other body parts from under the bed. An arm. A piece of a tail. A foot. He leaped up to face Dunkin and bared his claws. “Get him!”
Dunkin calmly turned to Marik and Grobin. “I'm afraid we have to stick together, don't we, Brother?” he smirked.
Grobin turned red. “I'm not your brother!” he spat. “Traitorous pig! No honorable dwarf would band with the likes of you!”
“I would,” said Marik, and he drove the point of his sword through Grobin's neck. Dhilik saw and howled for help, but Dunkin seized him. The beast-man fought bravely, though only briefly. He twisted, clawed, bounded, and bit, but in the end he was no match for the unnatural strength Erebus had granted Dunkin. The snap of Dhilik's neck made Marik's stomach churn. How unpleasant. He was all the more certain he had chosen the correct side in the coming war.
***
“The funny thing is that on Halloween many humans are dressing up to look like you – elves and demons and the like – and here we are trying to dress you up to look like them.” Denzig dug his claw into a container of black goop. “Hold still, Kyla, I need to sharpen your eyebrows a bit.”
“Why do we need costumes? We already look like humans in costume!” Kyla pointed at Saul's goat legs.
Denzig sneezed a puff of flame that made Aspen jump. “Pardon. Yes, but you look too real. It's really going to stir up trouble if anyone examines your ears too closely, for example. So I need to make them look like prosthetics.” As he said this he pulled out a container of wax, dipped a claw in, and smeared lines on Kyla's ears. “Makes it look like you stuck the points on there.”
“You said they wouldn't believe it anyway! I mean, you walk around with scales and a tail.”
“I've spent decades among humans and have slowly built an identity. This is your first unsupervised run. You're also new to town and more subject to scrutiny. There, it's done.”
“This is it?” Kyla found her costume a little disappointing. Denzig said it was some sort of space-person and very popular in the human world, but it was simply a blue shirt with some sort of badge over the left breast, black pants, and a belt with some decorative gadgets.
She grabbed the hand mirror from the table. “I feel like I'm dressed up like a confused version of myself! Can't I be something else?”
Denzig sighed. “A Vulcan is basically a human with pointy ears. It's an obvious costume for an elf.”
“The fact that it's obvious is what makes it not fun,” Kyla grumbled.
“They'll love it. Now, who's next?”
Aspen clapped as she bounced up and down. “Me!”
Denzig felt Aspen didn't need a costume. She was already partially decked in bark and flowers, and with her red-brown skin and green hair she could simply tell people she was a dryad. Aspen was so distraught at not being able to dress up, Denzig finally relented and gave her a pirate costume. This involved an eye patch, a plastic hook to go over her hand, a fake moustache, and some poofy clothes.
“You didn't make her go obvious!” Kyla complained.
Eunoe got a body suit of a tiger, so that her face was showing in the tiger's mouth. It had soft over-sized paws and a tail. It was adorable.
Saul's costume was odd, as Saul had so many parts that needed to be hid. In the end he got a very colorful outfit consisting of baggy pants, large shoes, a hat, dark glasses, and a lot of jewelry. Kyla was never clear what he was supposed to be, but the yellow and blue color scheme really drew the eye.
Aura wanted to go to Whitehall as it would annoy her father, but nearly refused when she learned they would be wearing costumes. Kyla convinced her to come by telling her she could just remain invisible instead. However, when Aura saw the costume Denzig had bought for her, she changed her mind. Denzig had determined that Aura would need to be covered completely, in case she started to turn translucent or needed to restrict her flow of wind. So like Eunoe she got a body suit, but hers didn't open in the face. Rather it fit tightly over her full body. Kyla couldn't even see her eyes but Aura said she could see out just fine. The costume was black with a white skeleton printed on it, so in the dark it should look rather like a skeleton walking around.
“I've always wondered what it would be like to have bones!” Aura laughed. “It must feel like you're all wrapped around a bundle of sticks!”
Kyla had never heard Aura laugh. This seemed an odd situation for it.
The final costume was for Lili. Denzig decided that in her case he didn't need to hide her horns; a demoness was already a plausible costume for a human. He simply put a ring of putty around the base of each to make them appear to be glued on, and gave her a black outfit covered in metal studs.
“I have my own studded clothing at home. Way nicer, too.” Lili wanted Saul to fetch it for her, but Denzig insisted they needed to head out so after a few more grumbles she consented to wear what she had been given.
“If my father saw this he'd kill me,” Aura said as Kyla zipped up her body suit. “I'm not supposed to let humans see me.” She looked proud to be defying her father, but it was another part of the comment that grabbed Kyla's attention.
“Hey Denzig! You said we were allowed to do this! Aura said we're not supposed to!”
“I said I'm not supposed to,” Aura corrected. “Well, the law applies to everyone in Aeolis. But we aren't in Aeolis, are we? I wonder if father will see fit to throw me in prison with commoners.”
Denzig pulled a whip out of a chest and gave it to Lili who was suddenly more pleased with her costume. “I'm not bound by the laws of Aeolis. And it surely doesn't hurt to consort with our most intelligent creations.”
“Our most intelligent creations? It was elves who invented them, not dragons!”
“Yes, well, you know what I mean.”
“Father despises humans,” Aura said. “It's hurricane season right now. He's working up a frenzy for them.”
“I've never seen a human!” Aspen was fiddling with her eye patch. “They do have odd stylish choices. I can't imagine why you'd want to cover your eye!”
Saul piped in as he always did when useless information was to be given. “That's not a human invention. It's a sailor invention. It keeps one eye accustomed to the dark in case you need to go to the lower deck of the ship.”
“I knew a dwarf who wore one because his eye had a parasitic worm in it,” Denzig added. “Kept it hidden. Frightful sight.”
***
When it was all done Kyla led the group down the mountain. Denzig had given her a map to help her find the proper house. She gave a stern warning to her friends not to walk on the road, as human vehicles sped at an uncomfortable speed.
“They aren't that fast,” Aura commented as one zipped by. “I can fly faster than that.”
“Yes, but you aren't made of metal and liable to kill anyone that steps in front of you.”
Aspen became excited when she thought she saw a roc flying overhead. Aura informed her that was another human vehicle which flew high in the air; these were often encountered by the air spirits, who didn't care for them because of the noise. Some of the grumpier air spirits would torment them by shaking the vehicle while it was in flight, and a few malevolent djinns had even been known to blast them out of the sky. This was illegal, as it killed the humans on board, though it was a law that was seldom enforced. This revelation deflated Aspen's spirits as she had seen many such vehicles fly over Arkwood and had always supposed they were giant birds.
“What are these for?” Aspen asked, putting her hand on a tall wooden pole stuck in the ground. There was a series of them tied together alongside the road. Kyla had seen them on her first trip with Denzig but hadn't thought to ask about them.
Aura lifted off the ground slightly and drifted back to the ground. “I can't fly in this costume,” she said. “Air can't get out fast enough. However, I've flown by those before. They are strung about everywhere. I've never thought to have a closer look, but I sense light
ning in the ropes that bind them together.”
Aspen gave a frightened gasp and quickly took her hand off the pole.
“You've seen a lot of humans, right, Aura?” Kyla asked. “I mean, you fly around everywhere. Have you ever met one?”
“I've seen them but it is forbidden for us to interact with them. I have flown over many of their cities as well. Some are very large and their buildings very tall. I have seen Whitehall as well, I think, though I'm not sure. I don't learn the names of the towns as I pass through. But there are no large cities around here.”
It was large enough for Kyla, as Whitehall was many times larger than Aspengrove. Then again, Aspengrove was very small, even by elf standards.
They arrived at Whitehall just after dark, as Denzig had recommended. The town looked very different at night. There were more tall poles here, some with lights on them that grew brighter as the evening grew darker. Many young ones walked about in groups, dressed in a variety of costumes. Aspen endlessly clapped and pointed in delight. Even Aura noted one or two that she found interesting, which were the more monstrous designs, whereas Aspen was more impressed with costumes of animals. The smaller children were accompanied by adults, though there were bands of adolescents. They all carried bags and roamed from door to door and when they knocked the door would open, and the children would shout something that sounded like 'Tricker tree!' and hold up their bags. The people in the house would drop something into the bags, and the band would move to the next door.
“Is that what we're going to be doing?” Eunoe asked. “It seems like it's mostly children.”
“I don't know.” Kyla looked at her map. It wasn't her idea of a party, but at least the children were having fun.
A stout stuffed bear walked into Kyla, making her drop the map. “Pardon!” the bear muttered. It reached down, struggled to pick up the paper with its great padded paws, and handed it back to Kyla.
“Thank you!” she smiled. The bear simply nodded and crossed the road.
