Cogling

by Jordan Elizabeth

  Rachel punched, and her fist bounced off something soft. She screamed and bubbles escaped her mouth. Even though she clamped her lips shut, her lungs ached more fiercely. Foul water coated her tongue.

  Her head burst into the air. She gasped and gulped, then vomited.

  “Hang on, dearuh.” A male voice grated in her swollen ears. A huge hand struck her back, and she coughed. More vomit spewed from her mouth.

  “Yer safe now,” the voice said. A thick arm around her ribs kept her head in the air.

  She wiped her wet hands across her eyes and mouth, blinking.

  A tomtar grinned at her, revealing a mouth of missing and broken teeth.

  Harrison crawled onto the shore and collapsed. One leg remained in the river, waves lapping his skin. He turned his head to avoid gasping dirt. His chest heaved, lungs and eyes stinging. He wanted to lift himself, to crawl more, but his limbs had become lead weights.

  Edna, gone. His sister, who’d risked her life to save him from the hags, had drowned in the river. Lady Rachel, just as gone. Ike, his sister’s friend who smelled like magic—the odor had been ingrained in Harrison’s head—gone as well.

  Harrison tried to push himself up, but his body was too heavy. He closed his eyes to rest for a moment.

  Listen to me tell of this.

  ater shot from Edna’s mouth onto the ground. Heat soaked her front. She choked and gagged, her body wracked with heaves. Her lungs ached so fiercely she expected to taste blood.

  Edna staggered from the river onto the rocky shore and released the cameo. It pulsed while it pulled her from the water, but now it chilled. Magic residue tingled on her skin. “Curses on magic.” Without it, hags wouldn’t have kidnapped Harrison. Without hags, they would’ve never been in a locomobile tumbling over a cliff into Aubrey River.

  A snarl caught her attention and Edna lifted her eyes. A mechanical wolf stalked down the cliff face. A scream died in her throat. Five more wolves followed the first.

  Edna clutched the cameo with stiff fingers. Its rounded corners pierced her palm, but she held on tighter. The brooch would protect her from the wolves.

  It had to. It had kept the water from the coach.

  The evil whispered into her mind: Seven spirits.

  “Stay away.” Her voice trembled. “I’ve got this.” Holding the cameo between her forefinger and thumb, she flashed it at the mechanical animals. Two wolves advanced, snarling. She gulped past the knot in her throat.

  The end had come, arriving on the fangs of wolves with enchanted metal and clanking jaws. A wolf of blood and fur would’ve been a welcome adversary compared to this. Did she dare release the evil?

  The mechanical wolves stalked forward, crouching low to the ground, but a bullet tore through the neck of the leader. Fur peeled away from the metal hole. The wolf stepped back, snapping its jaw, and another bullet struck, this time hitting its cheek. The bullets, streaks of red light, sizzled when they struck the mechanical animal. Edna clutched the cameo tighter. She had to fight back somehow.

  Red bullets rained from the sky in a sparkling blur. The wolf turned, snarling, and the bullets ripped through it. As they hit other wolves, bared wires sparked in the machines.

  Within seconds, nothing except gears and wires remained. A few hunks of faux fur burned.

  She took her hand away from the cameo, gulping for air. “Did I call them from the sky? Odds bobs.”

  A crash sounded from above in the forest. No! Not more wolves! She craned her neck to see and fell onto her side in the damp ground. Pebbles bit her arms.

  Stout tomtars hurried down the cliff toward her, shrubs swaying in their wake. The two tomtars wore brown tunics and felt caps. Their short noses turned up like pig snouts, with thin gold loops through their nostrils. Leathery caramel skin mingled with round heads and elongated ears to give them a monstrous appearance. The tomtars she’d seen before had worn “normal” clothes: dresses and aprons, pants and jackets.

  One of the creatures stopped in front of her, his bird-like feet protruding from beneath his tunic. “We are glad you are not hurt.” Unlike the other, he wore an eye patch.

  She stiffened. “You knew I was in the coach?”

  “We looked for your companions,” the eye patch tomtar said.

  Breath caught in her throat and she pulled on one of her drenched curls. “Harrison and Ike? Rachel?”

  “Come with us,” the other tomtar, wearing a rope belt over his smock, said. “The others should be back there by now.”

  “I want my brother.” Her legs wobbled. She had to trust them; no other options remained. “Where are we going?”

  “To our village.”

  A strange roaring began in her ears, overpowering her weakened body.

  “I’m Nimey,” said the tomtar with the eye patch. “He’s Carthy.”

  “I’m Edna.” If they had really saved her friends, they couldn’t be too dangerous. So far the Nix and foxkins had proven valuable.

  The tomtars held her hands to keep her steady, their callused palms rubbing against her flesh like tree bark. Her skin crawled at their touch, so she clenched her teeth to keep from cringing. As they helped her stagger up the rock into the woods, the churn of the river faded behind them.

  They left the foliage for a narrow, well-worn dirt path. Light flickered through the branches above, splashing circles across the ground. Silver glinted from around their legs.

  “What’s on your legs?” Edna squinted at the thick bands above the tomtars’ bird-like ankles. A tiny blue light flashed on the corner of the silver.

  “It keeps us in our forest,” Carthy said. “If we go too far, it shocks us.”

  “The pain isn’t too bad,” Nimey said, his voice roughened. “The king doesn’t want us to go far.”

  “Why?” A breeze rustled her soaked clothes, making her shiver. “The tomtar slaves in Moser City don’t wear bands.”

  “We protect this stretch o’ land. Nobody gets in here.” Nimey raised his gun and shot a red bullet into the sky. It pierced the center of a maple leaf and Carthy hooted.

  Edna shuddered. “You appear free, but you’re still slaves. Protect from what?”

  “We mine for the king,” said Carthy. “We protect his claim.”

  “But who would try to steal from the king? Such an act would be treason, punishable by hanging.”

  “Lots of thieves in the world.” Nimey snorted.

  She pictured Ike, who wasn’t much of a thief, only a boy who’d lost his family and had to flee his home. Her soul ached for him. He didn’t deserve to be chased by wolves and tossed into a stream.

  “We mine coal,” Carthy said.

  Edna’s weakened knees gave out, and she stumbled before the tomtars helped her steady herself. She leaned against Nimey’s broad shoulders. He smelled of rich soil and peonies. The roaring in her ears intensified. “So tired, so sore.” She let them lead her and hoped her companions waited at the end of the path. Trust was all she had left.

  Edna expected a village, not a fort. However, the tomtars led her to a fortress surrounded by spiked logs. A tomtar stood at the entrance holding a spear. A corncob pipe rested on his black lips. His head sprouted two tufts of copper hair.

  “Ho,” Carthy called.

  “Ho.” The gate tomtar stepped aside, but kept his crow gaze fastened on her. She winced, watching the chiseled stone point of the spear. Even though these tomtars were ruled by humans, no one knew she was there. They could kill her, no one the wiser.

  Inside the village fortress, homes were built in rows, reminding Edna of horizontal tenements, but the king had never forced humans to live in them using shock cuffs.

  Female tomtars drew water from a well in the center of the village, and a little girl tomtar sat on a bench outside her home playing with a rag doll. They had to live rustically, in the woods of nowhere. “Do you have water pumps or indoor plumbing? Mechanical toys?”

  “Eh?” Carthy asked. “Don’t think so.”

 
The surrounding walls had to reach at least ten feet in height. Nimey led her toward a squat building and opened a door. Edna hesitated, but if they were going to kill her, they would’ve done it already. She had no choice but to move, to find Harrison and her friends.

  Edna entered, blinking against the decrease in light. A fire crackled in the hearth as the only source of illumination. The room contained two sets of bunk beds along the back wall. A table with chairs rested near the hearth. A steamer trunk served as the only other furnishing.

  Ike sat on the bench nearest the fire. He rose, gaping, his hands outstretched. “Edna!”

  “You’re all right!” She threw herself against him and tightened her arms around his neck. He held her close and spun her. She giggled into his neck. He wore one of the tomtar’s brown tunics with his own leggings and boots. The earthy odor reminded her of them.

  “Edna!” Harrison’s voice jerked her away from Ike. Her little brother grabbed her waist and shoved his face into her back. He was still alive, still real. She hadn’t lost him again.

  Edna turned, then scooped him up against her chest, as she’d done when he was younger. “Thank the Saints, you’re safe. How great it’ll be to get home, where I won’t have to worry about you disappearing on me into the wilderness.”

  Dark circles hung beneath his bloodshot eyes. He wore a tomtar tunic, but a spark of his old self shone in his face. “A whole fort of tomtars. Did ya ever think we would be here?”

  “Never.” She sniffled. “Harry-boy, it’s so good to see you.” Those words felt so weak, yet she loved them.

  “Aren’t you glad to see me too?” Rachel called from the bed she’d been sitting on with Harrison.

  “Of course,” Edna said, and realized she meant it. Despite Rachel’s prickly ways, Edna felt relief in her heart to see the young woman well, albeit garbed in her ragged dress and with a scratch on her cheek.

  “There’s vegetable stew.” Ike carried a bowl from the table to a pot simmering near the hearth. “We already ate, so have all you want.”

  “The tomtars told us they were fetching you, so we weren’t worried none.” Harrison’s tearful smile belied the words.

  She squeezed his shoulder. “You’re brave, Harrison. I can count on you to help us, to stay strong.”

  “We’ll be back,” Nimey said from the doorway. “Tomorrow morning, we’ll take you where you want to be.”

  “We’re going to Moser City,” Rachel said. “Home.”

  “We’ll do our best.” Nimey nodded before he shut the door.

  Sighing, Edna dropped onto the bench. She accepted the bowl of stew from Ike, but held it between her hands without eating. Warmth soaked into her palms. Harrison sat beside her to lean his head against her shoulder. Ike rested on her other side.

  A smile graced Edna’s lips. Her friend, and brother, and Rachel were with her.

  “We will succeed. Now we have tomtars to help us too.”

  You must listen, I do bid.

  imey woke the group at dawn.

  Edna’s arms ached to pull him back when Harrison crawled off the bunk and rubbed crusts from the corners of his eyes. Rachel straightened her clothes and Ike ran his fingers through his hair. They ate a breakfast of sliced beets in vinegar, with glasses of tea, which consisted of boiled water with parsley flakes. Edna shoveled the food into her mouth, gulping without chewing. The vinegar left a sharp tang on her tongue, but the tea calmed her belly. Real beets and parsley, grown in a garden instead of a factory.

  “Eat up, Harry,” she whispered when her brother poked at his beets. “We need the energy.”

  “This is commoner food,” Rachel muttered, but she finished her bowl and gulped the weak tea. “May I have more?”

  Nimey brought basins of clean water so they could wash their hands and faces. Filth discolored the liquid within seconds. Despite her matted hair and grimy clothes, Edna actually felt clean. She gripped Harrison’s hand as the group left the village, accompanied by Nimey and Carthy as far as the tomtar boundaries allowed.

  Tall trees shaded the path. Each snap in the distance made Edna jump. She watched the shadows shifting through the underbrush, expecting a mechanical wolf, but a only black squirrel scampered up a maple tree.

  They walked for an hour before Edna called a rest. They didn’t have time to waste, but Harrison looked pale and his legs wobbled. “My brother needs to take a break before he collapses.”

  Sunlight splashed through the canopy above, between branches woven together and trees grown close. They’d reentered the forest, and the temperature had dropped ten degrees. The sweat on Edna’s skin cooled, making her shiver.

  Rachel ceased complaining about the aches in her legs as she collapsed in the roadside’s shallow ditch. Edna sat beside her. Weeds stabbed through her threadbare clothes to prick her skin, but she hadn’t the energy to move. A sweet scent tickled her nose; a wild flower she’d never smelled before.

  “You think we’ll find water soon?” Harrison asked.

  “There’s bound to be some streams through here.” Ike plucked a green plant from the base of a maple and ate the leaf.

  “It looks like the mint in the Waxman garden,” Edna said.

  Rachel wrinkled her nose. “I don’t drink from streams.”

  “You will if you want water,” Edna snapped. “What’s it matter if the stream’s polluted when we’re this thirsty? Water’s water.”

  Ike ate another leaf. “Want one?”

  “If it’s safe.” Edna held out her hand. When he plucked a new plant and gave it to her, she bit into the leaf. The supple vegetation melted against her tongue with a stringy residue. She smiled. “No metal flavor.”

  “Listen,” Harrison said when Ike handed him one of the plants. “You hear that?”

  They froze. Edna peered along the trail. Something clattered against dirt. Mechanical wolves? Attacking villagers?

  “Let’s go.” Edna staggered up. Ike grabbed her skirt. “We’ll wait to see who comes. This is a main road from that village. We might hitch a ride.”

  Edna licked her lips. Although her instincts screamed to run, she sat again, tucking her legs against her chest. “A ride would save us time.”

  They waited in silence before a steam-powered wagon rolled into view. Edna nibbled her fingernail. Ike might’ve been right after all. He stood in the road with his hand raised.

  The driver slowed his vehicle to a stop. “Can I help?”

  “We’re headin’ t’ Moser City,” Ike drawled in a country twang.

  “On foot to Moser?” The man tipped his pink top hat to Edna and Rachel.

  Edna tugged Harrison up. “Remember, Mum says manners help life along.” When she curtsied, he bowed.

  “Aye. We ran across some trouble. Can we hitch a ride with ya?” Ike asked.

  The man looked them over. Edna stared back. He wore gray pants with leather patches in the knees and a black tweed coat. His top hat had a lantern attached to the front, with a wire leading down to his leather collar.

  “I’m heading that way,” he drawled. “Off to sell my wares. Get in the back.”

  “Thanks,” Edna began, but the driver held up two fingers.

  “For a fee.” He grinned. “I can give you a ride, but it don’t mean I will.”

  Edna gulped. “We don’t have any money.” The most wealth they had was the cogling evidence. They couldn’t surrender that.

  “I’ve got this.” Rachel stepped forward, pulling a simple gold band ring off her finger. She held it out to the farmer and curtsied. “Its all we’ve got, but if it’ll help, its yours.”

  “Then you’re all set.” He snatched the ring and dropped it into his coat pocket.

  “Where’d you get that?” Edna whispered.

  “The hags left it for me.” Rachel rubbed her finger where it had been. “I have more at home. It isn’t important.”

  Edna led Harrison to the back of the wagon. Ike and Rachel followed, and he unlatched the cargo hold for them
. The inside contained crates of chickens, baskets of carvings, and barrels of furs.

  “Disgusting,” Rachel hissed. Then she gasped as Ike seized her around the waist and swung her into the wagon. He grabbed Edna next, but when he reached for Harrison, the boy climbed up himself.

  “Doncha break stuff,” the driver called.

  “We won’t,” Ike promised.

  He couldn’t shut the door since there wouldn’t be enough room for them amongst the supplies, so they sat on the edge with their legs dangling off. Edna leaned against Ike, Harrison on her other side, and Rachel on the opposite end.

  Rachel clasped the door. “Horrible.”

  “At least we don’t have to walk,” Harrison said.

  “You think we can trust the driver?” Edna whispered to Ike.

  He shrugged, his brows lowered. She rubbed the cameo. If she could figure out how to use the magic, she could keep them safe.

  You will be safe if you believe.

  he wagon arrived at the city limits in the dark of night, at the meatpacking district, where three-story brick buildings rose alongside the road. Black windows glowered, most likely hiding scenes of death and pools of blood. Edna rubbed her hands against the goose bumps on her arms.

  The vehicle’s gears squealed to a halt and the occupants jerked forward, their legs swaying where they hung over the back. Rachel squawked as she jolted awake.

  Edna squeezed Harrison’s hand tighter. “After everything, we can go home. We’re finally back in our city.”

  “His driving leaves me in awe,” Rachel muttered.

  Edna stiffened, wondering if the man would take offense at Rachel’s sarcasm. He’d been kind to them; he deserved respect.

  The farmer took his brass pocket watch from his vest. “Just after eleven o’clock. I’m early.” His shoulders stiffened, as if the atmosphere bothered his nerves.