Page 11 of Monster Married
Next to me, Vergis heaved a sigh. “Why am I here, Lissir? You don’t need me to play dress-up with him.”
He didn’t point at me, but he glared. Okay. I had thought we’d bonded over the orange spider thing, but clearly that had been my mistake.
“You are here because I am determined to enjoy your company, Vergis.” Lissir had some serious masochistic tendencies, not that I was going to hold that against him.
We were making our way through the streets, wide thoroughfares with lots of food traffic, and Lissir kept a firm hold on my right wrist while Nokim was on my left. Vergis was on Lissir’s other side, the three of them basically shielding me and making sure I wouldn’t get lost.
Just like I was looking at everything and everyone around me, the people here were giving me curious looks. They weren’t staring like I had a second head or anything though, and no one seemed to be talking about me.
That made me wonder whether news about me had spread. Then again, my guys arriving here with bloody and torn clothes might’ve caused more of a scene than little old me. If anyone had reason to talk, it was probably about them and what had happened to them.
I didn’t want to think too much about what state they had arrived in though, didn’t want to think about what had happened back at the Stone.
“What’s this city called?” I asked.
“Esaka,” Nokim said. “It’s not really that big, but the, uhm… Vergis—” He said something in LaGuardia.
Vergis glanced my way. “Moors. There are moors here. Beyond the wall. The city itself is partially built on moorland too.”
Nokim brightened. “Ah! Yes, there are moors here, and they’re said to be haunted.”
“Which is bullshit,” Vergis said.
Nokim looked over at Vergis, who was walking with his hands behind his back, looking bored.
“I saw a ghost once. When we were crossing the border near here,” Nokim said.
I wasn’t sure I needed ghosts on top of everything else, but the border sounded interesting. “What border? Border with where?”
Lissir clicked pointedly. “To Kankarraz. It’s where the Koa Esher rule.”
“Huh?” I stopped looking at the people, whose skin tones, I’d realized, were in a darker blue and teal range, like Vergis and Fellisse. “You mean we’re right next to a country full of crazy, inbred assholes? Pardon the French.”
Vergis chuckled. “Finally cursing where it’s needed, little human.”
“I am not little.” Compared to them, I maybe was, but relatively speaking, I was pretty sure I was normal-person tall.
A small bagu rudely—or maybe just curiously—interrupted Vergis being Vergis. The bagu kid was around waist height on me, and his horns were still stubby. He came to a stop right in front of me all of a sudden, as quiet about making his approach as my guys. Darn those sneaky cat feet. He sucked on his bottom lip as if lost in thought before turning to Lissir and saying something in LaGuardia.
The conversation between them went on for a few beats, then Lissir leaned down and grinned at the kid before he looked at me. “This is Sonyo, and he wants to know whether he can look at your head. He finds it strange that a grown person has no horns. He can’t really believe it and wants to make sure.”
A pair of huge periwinkle eyes with slitted pupils stared up at me. He looked as hopeful as any kid in a theme park would about getting to hug or talk to their favorite character. It was kind of adorable.
“Uhm, sure.” I squatted and ran my free hand through my hair to show the little bagu. He said something that started with a long oooh, so my hornless humanness seemed to be thoroughly impressive.
Nokim and Vergis began laughing.
“Sonyo says your head must feel very light,” Lissir translated. “That usually means someone daydreams more than they should.”
I stood back up. “Well, I can’t say he’s totally wrong on that count. I mean, I thought about Ink ravishing me almost from the moment he decapitated a monster to save me.” Oops. I hadn’t meant to say that, much less in front of a kid. My cheeks heated. “Erm, I mean…” Not that my voice was very audible over Vergis’s laughter.
His laughter faded to a chuckle. “Sharing your sexy daydreams with everyone who didn’t ask for them, are you?”
“Ah, I… Sorry.”
Another bagu made a beeline for us, clearly coming after wide-eyed Sonyo, who looked back and forth between the four of us. I hoped he was awed and intrigued rather than scared of the hornless human.
The new bagu was maybe a head smaller than me, and his horns weren’t quite the impressively curving variety that most the older bagua sported, but they were getting there. He inclined his head to Lissir and the others and put his hands on Sonyo’s shoulders. He was the smaller bagu’s minder, a bigger brother maybe, although Sonyo was much darker in coloring than this teenage bagu. They were both wearing similar copper-colored clothing though.
