“We’re getting him back.” Ike pushed his hair off his forehead. “The hags have him at the factory.”
The Nix snorted. “That’s a foolhardy mission, and you”—he narrowed his purple eyes at Ike—“know better than to attempt such a thing. Everyone at the factory is best left there.”
“How do the Nix know so much about the factory?” Her body ached with hunger and weariness; the evil a constant burn. Edna shivered and picked up Silver for something to occupy her arms. He didn’t weigh much more than a large cat. She’d always wanted a pet—just not a dragon, and definitely not this one who’d killed Charles.
The evil faded back into her heart.
“Follow.” The Nix motioned to the left with his weapon. He stood at about five feet high, shorter than Edna. Before, he’d seemed so imposing, with his twisted humanistic features. His tiny nose stuck out over his puffy lips, and his long chin curved upward.
Ike hefted their bag. He couldn’t mean to… Edna gasped, grabbing his shoulder. Silver hissed at the sudden movement.
“You aren’t going to follow that thing, are you?” Edna snapped. “We need to reach the hags, not take a detour. The Nix might not have tried to shoot me, but we don’t need to go visiting.”
“He’s taking us to his village. We can rest until morning.”
“He might trap us.” Her voice squeaked. A Nix village couldn’t be more than dugouts. She pictured a wet hole that might cave in around her.
“I know a lot about the Nix.” He pressed his lips against the top of her head. “Don’t worry.”
She tightened her grip on him. “What’s going on?”
He shrugged off her hold; a muscle leapt in his temple. “Nix. What is your name?”
“Graymer,” it said.
“He is Graymer.” Ike shrugged it again. Right; knowing it had a name made everything better.
“Looks like we gotta make a decision now,” Edna whispered to Silver, while Ike trailed the Nix. “We go with them, or try to find a way to Harrison, and I still need Ike for that.”
Silver stared into her eyes and blinked.
She sighed. Charles had helped. Maybe the Nix could, too. Edna took a step and sunk into mud. She yanked her leg free, scowling at the sucking sound. “After this, I’m never returning to the swamp. Never.”
Graymer used an arrow to part a wall of hanging vines. Ike ducked beneath, tugging Edna by the hand as they followed the creature. Silver squeaked in her arms. The vines formed a curtain around the village to hide it from passersby.
“That thing lives here?” She gaped. “So much for them living in dugouts.”
Ike raised an eyebrow. “Dugouts?”
Edna shook her head.
Torches set in the ground illuminated domed-roof cottages, the fires within flickering from behind stained-glass windows. Bronze statues of the Nix adorned the pathway of stepping stones. The natural elegance left Edna speechless. Despite the modernity of Moser City, the peacefulness in the Nix village made her yearn to live in one of the cottages.
No one hurried to their destination or rushed to escape being assaulted. One Nix man strolled by with a stick resting on his shoulder. A dead bird hung from the end by its feet.
Lights glowed through the windows, giving the buildings a warm, comforting appearance. No weathered bricks or chimneys with sooty boys struggling to clean them. “I didn’t expect there to be anything as splendid as this in the swamp.” The dead bird might be gross, but the tranquility stole her breath.
“This way,” Graymer grunted. They followed him to the largest cottage and stayed outside while their escort went in. A minute later, he returned with another male Nix.
Edna spun the prayer beads around her wrist. “May the Saints protect us.”
“Time has passed,” the newest arrival said to Ike before facing Edna. “Human, you look tired and hungry. Go with my warrior. Graymer will see that you’re fed.” He turned to Ike. “You. Follow me.”
“You can trust him,” Ike said when Edna hesitated. “No one will hurt you.”
She whirled on Ike. “You don’t know I’m safe.” If she added how the Nix had tried to kill her with a blasted arrow, Ike would think her insane for dwelling on the fantasy.
The hairs rose along her arms. The Nix called her human, but they didn’t refer to Ike with that title. They didn’t call him anything.
“Go,” Ike whispered. “I promise to tell you everything later.”
If Edna didn’t believe Ike, she would have no one to help her. She glared at him before nodding. “You’d better live up to your word.”
Carrying Silver, Edna followed Graymer down a dirt path to a small cottage. The building was one story, but long, with five holes for windows. Her family could live in such a place. They could grow their own food, make their own clothes and supplies, and never have to venture into public, where people could hurt Harrison… or her.
Graymer knocked on the door and spoke to the female of his species who answered, their voices hushed. Edna shifted her stance, eyeing the other Nix who peeked from their cottages at her. She tried to recall ever hearing of the Nix, but couldn’t. People never talked about the creatures in the swamp, not even in fairy tales or gossip. Scientists might give her an award for discovering them. Edna shook her head. She couldn’t do that to creatures who preferred to live solitary lives. It would be her fault if they were enslaved or hunted.
“Come in.” The female smiled. “Call me Strossa.” She looked like the male, with horns and hooves, but she wore a sleeveless dress sewn of leaves, with a vine tied around her waist. The escort walked past her into a room.
“It’s late, but I have some food. Sit,” Strossa said.
Edna shivered, although the fire in the hearth warmed the cottage. Maybe she should pack more meat onto her scrawny body. She sat at one of the four stools around the table. How odd that these swamp creatures lived like humans. She wondered what constituted kindness for the Nix.
Strossa fidgeted with a box. “He’s my mate, one of the warriors. I don’t usually see him now, since he scouts at night.”
“You need warriors?” Edna tugged on her curls. Maybe the village wasn’t so wonderful.
“To protect us from the hags.” Strossa set a bowl of green mush on the table. “I hope you don’t mind moss stew.”
Bile rose in Edna’s throat. “I can’t eat moss!” After the words blurted from her mouth, she blushed. “I’m sorry, that was rude.”
Strossa shrugged. “Humans never come into the swamp and neither do dragons. How did you two end up here?”
Edna stared at the cold stew. “The hags stole my brother and replaced him with a cogling. Ike brought me here to get him back.”
“Hags are cruel,” Strossa muttered.
Edna nodded, numb. The Nix had warriors to protect them. Ike had been right, again, in taking her somewhere safe. She might not trust the Nix, but she had to trust him. He wouldn’t bring her somewhere with warriors to kill her.
“Be careful.” Strossa closed her eyes. “Things will happen, and they will be good for some, bad for others. I wish I could tell you everything will heal, but I cannot.”
Edna stroked Silver’s scaly back. “I couldn’t live if I didn’t fight for my brother.”
“You must fight for your family. We all do.” Strossa glanced toward the hallway.
Edna tipped her bowl. The mush crept up the sides. She dipped her fingertip in to avoid getting the food on her glove and held it out to Silver. The dragon sniffed, then reeled back and hissed. Edna’s stomach rumbled.
“I wish I could be as fussy as you.” She wrinkled her nose and licked off the mush. Despite being cold, thick, and chewy, the mush didn’t taste too foul. She dipped her finger in again and licked off more. She would need the energy for whatever lay ahead.
A door shut in the cottage. Edna’s escort to the village approached the table. “You eat?”
Edna nodded at the bowl. “Can I have a spoon, please?”
<
br /> “We use our hands,” Strossa said. “What does your dragon want?”
Edna sucked on her lower lip. “I don’t know what dragons eat. He isn’t mine, not really. Ike and I found him in our airship.” Ike should’ve taken him, if he wanted the dragon for a pet so much.
“Airship?” Strossa filled a pot with water from a wooden bucket.
“It crashed.” Edna avoided looking at Silver, lest blame shine in her eyes. He hadn’t meant to tear the balloon.
“Dragons eat bugs and small critters.” Strossa turned to her mate. “Can you get something for him?”
Graymer tapped his bow. “He should be happy with a swamp-rabbit.”
“Thank you,” Edna called to Graymer as the door shut behind him. “Where’s Ike?”
“Speaking with others.”
Edna ate the stew, although her stomach churned, while Strossa filled a cup with leaves.
“Put your head down while the tea boils and steeps. Hearty swamp tea will make you a heroine to your brother.”
“Thanks.” Edna smiled at the Nix before folding her arms on the table. Resting her head upon them, she closed her eyes; Silver curled on the bench beside her. The fire crackled, lulling her toward sleep, with tears in her eyes and the prayer beads warm against her wrist. Beneath her breath, she sang the lullaby from the train.
“Bloody rats all in a hat,
Upon which Victor Viper sat.
Little feet with little shoes,
Little people with little hues.
Flames and smoke all leaping high,
Upon which we all might die.”
Morning sunlight filled the room from the windows.
Edna stared at Ike over a cup of moss tea and yawned. “Before we go on, I need to know everything, Ike. No lies. No deceit.”
“Sometimes secrets must be kept,” Strossa said from the hearth where she stirred a cauldron.
Ike sipped his tea.
Edna rubbed her stiff neck. “How many days has it been since we left Moser City? Two, three? I feel further than ever from Harrison.” Her body quivered. “We can’t hide anything from one another in case it ruins the mission.” She stared at her gloves, the lace torn, splattered with mud. If need be, she would tell him about the evil within her.
Ike set his wooden cup on the table. “I promised I’d tell you.”
Strossa stiffened and Edna’s heartbeat increased, the evil pricking her veins. Whatever he said, she wouldn’t allow it to change her opinion of him. He’d helped her; that mattered.
“You should know things.” Ike helped Edna off the bench, then called to Strossa, “We’ll be back.”
“I know.” Strossa waved.
Ike clicked his tongue and Silver waddled to him. Edna picked the dragon up before Ike could and followed him into the swamp. Even though the sun shone, mist hung in the air, everything shadowed. The village no longer offered a sense of comfort.
“I want to go back to last week, when Harrison and I had joked on the way to work. Normal. Sane.”
Ike led Edna down a winding path between cottages, to pause on a tiny hill. A bronze statue of a female human rested in the middle, surrounded by wildflowers.
“They all loved her, and she helped them.” He cupped Edna’s cheek, forcing her to look at him. “She was my mother.”
Be a star and shine my way.
dna gasped. “Your mother was a Nix?”
He didn’t look like the little horned creatures, and neither did the statue. The bronze face, with a small mouth and a button nose, smiled. A flowing, sleeveless dress garbed her body. Her hands held a blossoming rose above her bosom.
“Not a Nix. She only lived here for the final years of her life,” Ike whispered.
Edna stepped closer to the statue to brush her fingertip over the smooth arm, slender and perfect. “Your mother was like mine, graceful and gorgeous. Was she awful sick?”
Ike rubbed his hand over his mouth. “She didn’t die like that.”
Edna touched his mother’s shut eyes. “I thought maybe she came here because she was sick, and people didn’t wanna catch whatever it was. Last year, one of the younger girls in my building came down with a rash and the doctor said it was leprosy. They sent her away so nobody else would catch it.”
“Was it leprosy?”
“I dunno. She… she never came back.” Edna trailed her finger across the statue’s cherubic lips. “The workmanship is exquisite, as though the bronze can move with life.” The woman’s high cheekbones and cleft chin reminded Edna of Ike’s face. “You’re lucky to have a statue like this to remember her.”
He sighed. “Three years ago the hags tried to usurp the kingdom.”
She laughed. “Ah, Ike. That’s funny. Wicked hags might make coglings, but they wouldn’t dare go after the king. When Harrison and I go to King Elias with our report of the coglings, he will see that none are ever made again.”
Ike pursed his lips. “Humans go around building steam trains and steam ships, traveling the world exploring and colonizing. All the hags have is a swamp and whatever work the humans offer.”
“Hags use nature.” Edna knelt across from him. “They manipulate it to help us when we need charms and medicine. Only a few are evil, right? Without hags, no one would have potions when they were ill. They can’t all be trusted, though.”
“About a thousand years ago, when the hags first mutated, they ruled, and the humans were their slaves.”
Edna frowned. “I’ve heard that.” She pictured the storyteller in Moser City, with his bells and wagon.
“The hags could control them with their spells. They stuck to herbs and blessings, but the humans started inventing. They made machines and weapons, and they brought the hags down. An enchanted scarf to keep your neck hot can’t stop a bullet. The machines were fireproof, and the hags weren’t.”
“The humans burned hags because they were evil.” Edna pulled Silver onto her lap. Ice crawled over her skin, and she felt as though the statue watched her. Condemned her. “What about your mother?”
Ike shut his eyes. “She was a hag.”
Edna blinked at him. “That isn’t funny. If you’d said she was a Nix, I might’ve laughed. Hag blood? Never.”
He reached for her hand, but Edna leaned back. “No more teasing.”
Silver purred, the sound deep in his throat.
“I’m half hag-blooded. My father’s human.” Ike picked at the hem of his long coat.
“Sane people don’t joke about being related to hags.” Hags had magic; they only helped people who brought them things, and—
“You want me to prove it?” He flexed his fingers. “If you touch me, I’ll send you a vision.”
Edna stared at his outstretched hand. Scars crisscrossed his palm. White patches showed where the dry skin peeled. He took jokes to the extreme. “Nothing will happen, because you’re not really a hag.” They didn’t have time for his joshing, but the statue’s presence compelled her to slide her fingers through his. Her heart knew something would happen and the evil twittered, but her mind stuck to denial. He couldn’t have hag blood. He was too normal, too human.
“Close your eyes,” Ike whispered. “I’m going to put a scene in your mind.”
“That’s impossible.” Edna’s eyelids lowered as if they had a will of their own. Blackness, tinged with orange from the light surrounding them, filled her vision.
“This,” Ike said, “is my mother.”
A woman appeared in front of Edna, as though she’d opened her eyes to witness it happening. Long brown hair curled around the woman’s pale shoulders, bare where her pink corset didn’t cover them.
“Where is she?” Edna tried to shatter the vision, but her lids refused to lift. The woman glanced past Edna and laughed. Light twinkled in her pale eyes, framed by dark lashes. “None of this can be real. More imagination, another fantasy.”
No, taunted the evil. All this time, she’d been with someone who had hag-blood. Edna moaned, so he tight
ened his grip on her.
Ike had meant it when he said he would return to the swamp, because his ancestors were hags and ogres. Edna shivered; he’d hidden it from her, hadn’t trusted her enough with the secret of his heritage.
“When the humans rebelled against the hags, the leading families became nobility,” Ike said. “Same went for the hags. Those who’d fought back the hardest, even though they lost, kept themselves in high esteem. My mother was one of those decendants.”
“She was a princess?”
Ike’s mother twirled like a dancer. Edna had never seen a hag as beautiful and graceful. Her love for Ike’s father must’ve made her pure.
If Ike could give Edna this image, what else could he do?
“Hags don’t have royalty. It’s an unspoken hierarchy,” he said. “She was supposed to mate with a human lord and spread her bloodline through those high ranks. The hags want everyone to have a bit of their blood so eventually everyone will be part hag or ogre. Humans won’t exist.” He blew a breath through his lips. “My mother was supposed to return to the swamp after she had me, but my parents fell in love.”
In Edna’s mind, a man ran to Ike’s mother and caught the woman around the waist. His brown hair brushed his shoulders, and he wore a white silk blouse with gold cufflinks. He lifted her, then spun in a circle, and she laughed, twining her arms around his neck. He looked like Ike, with the same strong nose and broad forehead.
A part of him looked familiar, too, as though she’d seen a painting of him somewhere.
“She married a human.” Edna’s heart melted at the loving gazes Ike’s parents swapped. She’d never been touched by magic before, but it felt warm, comfortable, as though their affection made it wonderful. Even though his mum was a hag, Edna sensed no evil. Yet it felt familiar, akin to whatever dwelt within her.
Ike sighed. “They couldn’t marry. There’s been a lot of illegitimate children born of humans and hags. The parents can’t wed. It’s against the laws of both races.”
Tears pricked Edna’s closed eyes. “What happened to them?”
“My mother moved in with my father in Flynt City for a while, but humans shunned her—and me. I was nine when we returned to the swamp.”
Cogling Page 11
