Slip Song (Devany Miller Series)

by Jen Ponce

  “Mom?”

  I took a deep breath. “I’m going to go now. You guys be good for Uncle Trav, Ann, and Arsinua. I’ll be back. I promise.” They both hugged me and I held onto them for the longest time, wishing it could be different. “Okay. Okay, guys. I have to go.”

  I worried they would prolong the goodbyes but both of them stepped back, eyes dry. “We’ll be fine. You go, do what you have to do. Okay?”

  I smiled at my daughter then son. “Okay. Thank you guys for understanding.” I kissed them both then turned to my brother. “Time for me to get going.”

  “Just, go? Like now?”

  I hugged Travis too, noting the tense, stiff muscles in his arms and shoulders. “I’d better. Putting off the goodbyes will only make them harder.”

  “Shit.”

  “Uncle Travis!” Bethy grabbed his hand. “Come on. Let’s watch a movie. Bye Mom.”

  “Bye.”

  Liam waved then disappeared upstairs. My heart hurt. “You’ll make sure they’re safe? Loved? Hugged?”

  “Of course,” Ann said. “I will spoil them rotten. Go.”

  I looked at Jasper. “You ready?”

  He pushed away from the wall where he’d been leaning, watching Arsinua cook. “Yes. I will be interested to see you negotiate with a fleshcrawler.”

  I snorted. I’d be lucky if she didn’t eat me when she found out how hopeless I was at magic. Maybe Tytan could help. Who knew? “Come on.” I led him outside, unwilling to risk Bethy seeing us hook. I took Jasper’s hand and shut my eyes, not to concentrate on the hook but to reach out to Tytan. Once done, I hooked us to the swamp.

  Jasper wrinkled his nose when the smell hit him. “This place is awful. I never liked even being on the outskirts, when the caravan that kept me hostage would travel to the border towns.”

  “Well, this is the outskirts too. We’re going to wait on Tytan before we go in. I need to ask him a few things.” I rubbed my arms though I wasn’t cold. There was a slimy warmth to the air, oozing out of the anemic-looking trees scattered at the edge of the swamp. Far away, something hooted and another creature trilled in response. There was an abrupt scream and the trill cut off. Yuck.

  Tytan appeared shortly after. He looked Jasper up and down, then curled his lip. “You could do better,” he told me.

  “Uh, what?”

  “You want him. I can smell it on you.” He leaned in close to me and the warmth I always felt when he was close suffused my body. “You know I would be better in bed, right?” He winked and moved away so fast I didn’t have time to respond. “Why am I here?”

  “The queen wants me to reseal the pact. I don’t know what to do. So you’re here as my emissary and ear-whisperer if I need help.”

  “I told you, Ravana didn’t let us in on her little experiments unless they were designed to torture us. I have no idea how she did her magic.”

  “But you do know how to do Skriven magic and it can’t be all that different, can it?” I wanted to smack him but thought if he got too annoying, I’d wait until we were near one of the many slops of murky white water and give him a shove.

  “It’s different,” he muttered then waved his arm as he sketched an elaborate bow. “Shall we?”

  “No. We can jump there now. I just wanted to make sure you kept your eyes open and your thinking cap on.” I rubbed my palms down the front of my jeans. “Oh! I need to grab Nex. Hold on.” I made a hook before either one could speak and found Nex. He’d been floating in the shower, enjoying the water cascading over his entrails. They were actually clean for once, though they wouldn’t stay that way for long. They dragged the floor more often than not and he got frustrated with them.

  “You ready to talk to your queen?”

  He bobbed in place, his pale flesh glittering with water drops. “She is no longer my true queen. You are.”

  “No. No, no, no. I’m your friend.”

  He blinked.

  “Seriously.”

  A smile full of razor sharp teeth. Why the hell did I think it was endearing? I must be crazy. “Thank you. You are my friend as well.”

  “Good. Ready?”

  He nodded once again and I took him between my hands and stepped through the hook back to Tytan and Jasper. Ty had Jasper pinned up against a tree, his hands around the guy’s neck. When he saw us return, he released him and stepped back, not looking like he’d been exerting any effort at all. “Just a polite conversation.”

  I eyed Jasper. He looked angry not injured, so I let it be. If he wanted to talk to me about it he could but I wasn’t going to go there. “Keep your hands to yourself,” I said, then missed my kids at the phrase.

  “When I’m near you? Never.”

  I flapped my fingers and thumb together. “Blah, blah, blah.” Nex was floating beside me looking like a teenager above it all, Tytan like an fifth grader and Jasper his pissed off little brother. Sigh. And I was doing this instead of being home with my kids. “Better be worth it.”

  “I cannot see into the future with much accuracy, but right now things don’t appear too bad.”

  “Thank you, Nex. Are we all ready to hook to the queen? Or is there another way to go about getting a hold of her?”

  Nex bobbed a moment, silent, thoughtful. Then he said, “You might want to send a herald.”

  I raised my eyebrows. “Okay?”

  “Open a vein. A herald will smell the blood and fly to you. Then you will speak your message and the herald will take it back to the queen.”

  Just open a vein. Of course. Tytan was nice enough to materialize his too-familiar knife and hand it to me. I was surprised he didn’t offer to do the honors. “A vein? Really?”

  “A cut will do,” Tytan said.

  I jabbed my palm before I could change my mind. Blood welled and then dripped from my palm onto the bramble and leaf-cluttered ground. In moments I heard a loud buzzing and saw a gigantic insect coming our way. “Uh. Ew.” I shifted from foot to foot, ready to duck and swat if it came too close. “You didn’t say it would attract the local gross-life.”

  “That is the herald.” Nex said, looking unconcerned.

  “Oh hell no.”

  “Don’t be a baby, Devany,” Ty said. “You’ve faced worse things than giant mosquitoes.”

  “No I haven’t,” I said, curling my fingers over my palm as if I could somehow mask the smell. “That’s so disgusting. How did it smell my blood so fast?”

  “You’re powerful and strong magic has a strong smell.”

  I arched a brow at Tytan. “Are you saying I stink?”

  He grinned at me but didn’t say anything else.

  “They are foul beasts,” Jasper said, sounding more sulky than pissed off. I wondered what Tytan had said to him, then told myself it would be far less complicated if I didn’t know.

  “Of course. That’s why I have to talk to one. They talk? Really, Nex?”

  He didn’t look at me, too busy looking regal for his ex-wife’s messenger bug to acknowledge me.

  The pallid mosquito buzzed to a stop, bobbing in the air much the same way Nex was. I waited but it didn’t do anything. The buzz seemed to fill my mouth and burn through my teeth. “What now?”

  “Tell it you want to treat with the queen.”

  I looked at Nex. Talk to a bug? Great. “Okay. So, I want to treat with your queen.”

  The bug hovered. I cut my eyes to Nex. “Did I do something wro―oh holy fuck!” The thing swooped down and jabbed its sharp proboscis into my palm. It stung like a mother but worse, it was just so nasty. With a sharp flick of my arm, I flung the mosquito across the clearing, where it smacked into a tree. Righting itself, it flew drunkenly into the swamp.

  “Gross, gross, gross!” I shook my hand, then wiped it on my jeans, trying not to throw up or run, screaming. “You didn’t tell me it was going to sink a freaking turkey baster into me!”

  Nex eyed me. “My apologies. I didn’t know you were so squeamish.”

  “Anybody would
be squeamish having a bloated, freak-show bug take a suck on them. Trust me.” I shivered again, wiping my arm over and over on my sleeve until it was sore. I wasn’t 100 percent but I thought Nex was laughing at me. Deep down, somewhere in the cold, cold heart he didn’t have.

  “Let me,” Jasper said. He took my arm and laid his hand over the bite. Reciting a few words, he squeezed then released me. “There. It’s not perfect, but it ought to help.”

  I had a puckered scar in the spot where I’d cut myself and the bug had fed. Oh god. “Thank you.” It didn’t even itch anymore, though I’d remember how I’d gotten it for the rest of my life.

  Tytan snorted.

  “What? Like you could do better?”

  He gave me a look. “I could.”

  “Well, you didn’t offer. So my happy vibes go to Jasper.”

  Jasper smiled and Tytan scowled. I wondered what they would do if I kicked them both in the ass? “When will this happen, Nex? We’re burning valuable time just standing here, twiddling our thumbs.” I stuffed my hands in my jeans pockets and rocked back and forth on my heels. Boring. That’s what this was. Most of my adventures were the same way, too. Boredom for long periods of time interspersed with seconds of terrifying madness.

  “Maybe I need a counselor,” I said to no one in particular. “Do they have counselors here? Because I don’t think an Earth counselor would allow me to walk free if they heard my story about assassin spiders, vampires, demons, and floating heads. You know, my life as I now know it, forever and ever amen.” The shadows had been short, stubby things and now they stretched across the uneven ground to my feet. I squinted up at the sky, pretending not to see their exchanged glances. If they really wanted to be helpful, they’d rub my shoulders or, even better, they’d strip, lather themselves in oil, and wrestle.

  Tytan laughed and I glared at him. “Stay out.”

  “Does he invade your mind?” Jasper’s voice was undercut with anger.

  “No more than usual. Don’t worry about it.” I walked over to Tytan, hoping that would stop Jasper from getting any heroic ideas. “Knock it off,” I whispered.

  “I didn’t think he would be so much fun to bait. I do believe the dear boy is infatuated with you.”

  I eyed Jasper, who was looking none too happy I was talking with Tytan. Oh brother. “Yeah, well, he’ll get over it. Stop poking the bear.”

  “He’s no bear. A cockroach, maybe.”

  I raised my eyebrows. Before he could respond, we all turned at the sound of hissing. It was a quiet sound but it grew until it sunk into my teeth and made me clutch my hands over my ears. Tytan was trying to tell me something and I couldn’t hear a word he said. Just when I thought I would start screaming, it stopped.

  My ears rang with the silence.

  The queen emerged from the trees, her pale flesh gleaming in the twilight. Her black eyes appeared sunken in the gloom. She didn’t have any minions with her and I wondered if I should feel insulted she didn’t think of me as a threat. Then I castigated myself for that thought. I wasn’t a threat. I couldn’t even save Tom.

  She stopped well before the last streaks of light and waited.

  Nex glided forward. Seeing them together again reminded me how milky pale she was and how grey he’d become. Had he changed so much? “My friend Devany Miller does wish to treat with you, Queen Anyang, to strengthen bonds of friendship and foster a peace between her people and yours.”

  I did? I wasn’t sure what Nex was going on about, fostering peace and friendship. I could barely take care of myself back in the real world, how the hell could I be responsible for a peace treaty? Answer? I couldn’t.

  The queen turned her liquid black eyes on me. “Is this as the pegnon says?”

  Nex floated over to me. “It is.”

  “Nex, I can’t broker peace. I’m here to make a pact to keep the souls and the swamp safe. That’s it,” I said through gritted teeth, trying to keep my lips from moving so she wouldn’t know what I was saying. Doubtful she was a professional lip-reader, considering her kind didn’t have lips and all, but it paid to be circumspect.

  “The peace is between your kind, your spawn, and her kind. Fleshcrawlers. That is what is meant by friendship and peace between peoples.”

  “Oh. Well, that doesn’t sound so bad. That’s what she and Ravana had before, right?”

  He couldn’t shrug so he tipped his head to one side and back. ‘I dunno,’ is what that gesture meant.

  “Fine.” To the queen I said, “Yes, I come for friendship and peace.”

  She didn’t move from her spot, just took in Jasper and Tytan in the slow, deliberate way of a deadly predator. “You must come with me to the heart of my kingdom. We will prepare to consecrate our friendship there.”

  “Queen Anyang, she is mortal. She cannot breathe the Source as we can.”

  The fleshcrawler didn’t acknowledge his words. “Come.”

  “Um,” I looked at Nex, saw the worry wrinkles and probably adopted a few of my own, and said, “What about the whole mortal thing?”

  “I will grant you the Breath.”

  Nex’s sharp intake of his own was doubly horrifying since he didn’t have lungs.

  My hands were tingling and I rubbed them on my jeans, wishing I had gone to the bathroom before hooking over. Damn it. I hated that feeling of urgency. Combined with the complete uncertainty of not knowing when I might get the chance, I was miserable. “Why?”

  She smiled, showing off rows of teeth, hooked and sharp and yellowed with age. That patina somehow made them worse. “We have things to talk about, you and I.”

  Nex added, “It will give her access to you at all times. You would do well to protest this gift.”

  If he had fingers, I just knew he would have made those air quotes, maybe bending a little at the knee to really show off his sarcasm. “We might have things to talk about, but I don’t plan to get tricked or forced into something that doesn’t benefit me at all. So tell me, pros and cons.” At her look of perplexity, I said, “The good and the bad. Let me give you an example. You might say, ‘Hey, the good thing is when I give you the gift of Breath, you’ll be able to put out raging fires with one blow. The bad thing is it’ll let me totally jack your mind and convince you wearing mom jeans and plaid shirts are the next best thing to sex.’”

  She didn’t move, just stared. A horror-show bug landed on her bald head. It didn’t bite, just sat there, grooming its grotesque wings with its forefeet.

  I huffed. “Nex. The Breath?”

  “The Breath gives you access to the Source. Only fleshcrawlers can access it, or those to whom the gift is given.”

  And there was a great example of how not to answer a question. “How does one give the gift?” Hell, if everyone else was going to talk like they had Jane Austin’s boot up their ass, I could too.

  “It is conferred through a bite.”

  Oh for the love of Pete. “Of course it is. Tytan? Jasper? Either of you see any reason to believe or disbelieve her royal highness?”

  “It seems suspect she must bite you,” Jasper said.

  “It’s their thing. Blood transmits data from one entity to another. Think of it as downloading software to make you compatible with the fleshcrawler running system.” Tytan didn’t seem worried. Then again, he was immortal so what was he afraid of, anyway? Me, maybe. Ravana for certain, though she was dead.

  “So you’re going to bite me so I can breathe in the Source. Then we’ll prepare the ritual and get it over with and then, what? We’re done?”

  She inclined her head. “Yes.”

  “It’s no deal if it gives you a line into my mind. I’ve had enough strangers up there, I don’t need you there too.”

  “I will not take advantage of the link but it would be there as a result of the gift. I could not control you or make you do things you didn’t wish to do.”

  I reminded myself she needed me as much as I needed her. The Theleoni weren’t the only power-hungry group on Mid
ia. If the fleshcrawlers could access the Source, how long would it be before witches were here hunting the vampires and searching for the magic? It was the same as so many other Earth histories, California Gold Rush one of many that came to mind. “All right.”

  “Devany, are you certain you wish to put your life in this one’s hands?” Jasper looked upset, angry, and sick to his stomach. He was worried about me. That was nice.

  Tytan clapped me on the back, though not hard enough for me to want to slap him back. “She’s up to it. Trust me, Sir Galahad, she’d be able to kick your ass and still save the world.”

  Jasper growled something back and I stepped forward, “Um. Can we do this now?” A thud of flesh on flesh behind me, a grunt of pain, and I pursed my lips. “Right now?”

  -TWELVE-

  She led me away from the testosterone into the swamp. The smell of rotting flesh grew, thick and pervasive, one of the worst things about my last visit. My stomach churned and at one point I had to fight back a gag that almost got away from me. I threw up several times my last visit. I’d rather not do it again. Sorta made me look weak and I so didn’t want the queen to think of me as weak.

  Okay, so she probably already thought I was a weenie, but not a super weenie. If I threw up, though...

  “How far is it?” I had my shirt over my nose now and I breathed carefully through my mouth.

  The fleshcrawler didn’t answer. Nex was silent too. He looked sad, though maybe I was just projecting my feelings onto him. I couldn’t imagine how it would feel to see your wife and know she was the one who separated your head from your shoulders. He had to miss his home and the life he once had.

  Behind me, I heard Tytan and Jasper jogging to catch up. I wondered how they finished their argument, then told myself it didn’t matter. They were acting like assholes and they didn’t need me to validate their behavior.