Page 50 of Monster Married
“No, you fuckers!” Vergis screamed, shot, and ran. Toward where I knew the Koa Esher were. Where they waited.
My eyes flew open wide. Had they been closed all this time? “No!” You save my guys! I don’t care what you are, but you save my guys. I thought back to Cat and Jacob, who had died. Who I hadn’t been able to save. You save them!
As you wish, Rory. Call on me again soon.
The heat of magic flooded into me. We’d once been on vacation at a beach, and I’d been too sure of myself and got too close to a breaking wave that had dragged me under. The magic was like that, and just like the salty water back then, it terrified me, though I knew I couldn’t escape it.
The bagu guard with me said something. Even if I’d spoken the language, I wouldn’t have been able to make out the words over the ringing in my ears, but that odd knowledge told me it was something that roughly translated to “By all the bodies in the moor.”
Vergis had been furious because of what he’d seen around that corner, I knew. It was Nokim. Nokim’s heart about to stop had been the ice in my spine, but the heat of magic had chased that cold away.
I wasn’t aware of everything that was happening, but there were outlines, black and white, against the background swallowed by thick fog.
Vergis fired his gun repeatedly until he needed to reload, but he never got that far. Instead, he slashed with his blade, deep and wide.
With a sudden jerk, I knew he wouldn’t make it. Not to Nokim, who was falling, but also healing as he fell thanks to what I had wished. Vergis had no way of knowing that though. The others? My attention shifted as the magic in me grew hotter and hotter.
I gasped. Nokim would be fine—he already was fine. The magic to save him had been done—but the Koa Esher were seconds away from taking advantage of Vergis’s wild fury. They would grab him. The others weren’t close enough to prevent it. They’d miss Vergis being taken by seconds. I knew this, all of it, with the same certainty that had filled me before.
And I also knew what the Koa Esher would do with a captured mage, especially one who was hangu, young and strong and a powerful mage. I knew all the terrible things they would do to Vergis, soon after capturing him. It wasn’t just the commune back on Earth that didn’t care about a person’s right to make their own decisions. The Koa Esher were the same. Maybe worse.
Come back! I yelled. If you could even yell with your mind.
The presence heard, or it felt my terror at the thought of what they’d do to Vergis. It came back. I felt it rustling in my mind like a bird that had flown in through an open window and was looking for a place to perch. The magic was draining from my body, and my legs were going wobbly. The bagu with me was trying to steady me, but at the same time, I knew he was scared of touching me. He’d been told I was some kind of conduit, and he was scared he’d end up like the flowering branches, just ash on the wind.
You’re far away, so very far away, Rory. One must tread gently on foreign lands, said the presence.
I need you to make sure they don’t take Vergis. I don’t give a flying fuck what it takes. Fuck treading gently. It had to be okay to cuss in the privacy of your own mind, right?
The presence considered that. I felt it wiggle around—no. It was more like it was rolling its shoulders, stretching. Then it examined the situation.
One must tread gently, but Lady Death has the gentlest footfall of them all. May I ask her to aid me in this? All else might leave you broken beyond what your body can heal.
That was news. After the presence had made sure Nokim was okay, yeah, I’d figured it would be like back at the Stone, with me out for a day or two, but that sounded scary. I’d promised Inkiri I’d be okay.
Yeah, sure. Ask Death. Just do it.
It was the oddest feeling when the presence rustled around in my mind, not really leaving, but…opening windows? Looking outside and calling a name that was so foreign yet intimately familiar. Everyone knew that name, I realized, though it was never spoken in any language. It was the Lady’s true name, and she’d respond to it. The presence was calling Death.
I knew when it found her. The icy cold in my spine slammed back into me, and my legs gave out under me. The alley and the one bagu with me were barely a stage set drawn on cardboard at this point.
Something was exchanged between the Lady Death and that other thing inside my mind.
Done, the presence said to me. But the Lady takes a price for her service. It’s her nature.
I’d give it anything. Vergis wasn’t the nicest, sweetest, or easiest to get along with, but he didn’t deserve what the fucking Koa Esher were going to do to him. He didn’t deserve how that celadon head of the inner guard would enjoy every moment of doing it. No one deserved that.
Anything, I let the presence know. There was a rustling of ice all along my skin. Laughter?
You will not pay my price, Rory. But your will is done.
I felt it. More magic. Not heat going through me this time, but something far colder, so cold my muscles seized up.
Like pieces on a chessboard, the scene playing out shifted. Nokim came to, catching himself inches away from falling like the corpse he’d very nearly been.
The Koa Esher guard in front of Vergis, the one who was about to grab and twist his wrist, turned to ash, and Vergis, jerked out of his vengeful daze, saw Nokim scramble to his feet. His eyes went wide and his jaw dropped.
Inkiri, Fellisse, and Lissir opened fire. The Koa Esher retreated. My guys were safe.
