Page 8 of Leviathan's Song
My eyebrows drew together. “I just keep the chips and shards leftover from heartstones on previous constructs, or my dad gives me his so I can have more chances to experiment. They aren’t large enough to create anything big. I just use them for little stuff I want to tinker with.”
I watched her eyes brighten with evil delight. “Like your wasp?”
* * *
The next daywe closed the shop early and headed down to the Gate for Dry Gulch. We were currently sitting on the bus looking a little worse for the wear. After I’d finished the blood magic hex and we’d binged on cheap takeout for dinner, we stayed up way too late discussing Sidney’s ideas for my wasp construct.
She’d decided we needed some kind of drug or venom for the wasp to carry, since it was small, discrete, and easy for me to keep with me. I’d declared her idea absurd and highly unethical, and we’d argued about it for hours.
Eventually, we’d fallen asleep in my bed—I wasn’t going to let her sleep on my too-small couch and she refused to leave me alone in my house—and spent the night trying not to elbow each other in the face. Sidney was a wild sleeper.
After I’d attached a stinger to the wasp this morning, she’d convinced me to let her pick up a venom sample she knew of that would “simply knock a person out”. I’d asked her if it was a legal substance and her response had been to shrug one shoulder and mutter something along the lines of, “Everything’s legal until you get caught. It’s fine.” So, you know, super reassuring.
So here we were, looking a little wrecked, with Sidney glued to her phone watching an eBay auction for a small sword and me wondering how I’d gotten to this place in my life, when I felt a familiar magic.
The bus pulled to a stop, the front doors opened, and Levi stepped on. The siren’s magic wrapped me up in seafoam and the gentle crash of waves without him even knowing, because he never looked up as he grabbed the standing rail and leaned his face against the back of his hand.
I took advantage of the fact that he couldn’t see me to watch him as he swayed gently with the motion of the bus. His eyes had dark circles under them, and he looked as tired as I felt, but with the sun backlighting his blond hair, he looked positively ethereal. My heart dropped a little to realize he looked a little sad or run down. Both times I’d seen him previously, he’d had a brilliant smile or mischievous smirk on his face nearly the whole time we’d interacted. I wondered what his life was like.
Three stops later it was our turn to get off, and I turned to tap Sidney and stood. I looked back to find Levi staring at me. The sadness on his face melted into what I could only describe as utter devastation before he turned and disappeared into the crowd. I stood in place, blinking and trying to make sense of his reaction, until Sidney grabbed my arm and pulled me bodily from the bus.
We made our way into Dry Gulch, with me worrying all the while what Levi’s look had been about, until I finally shook myself free of it and resolved to puzzle it out later.
Though the Gate was relatively close to the Golden Laurel Gate, the cities themselves were nowhere near each other within the Boundlands. Traveling via Gateways could be a little confusing because the Gateways had been created as there was need for them, organically, and not necessarily with the best foresight and planning.
But if you knew the right combination of Gates to take through both the Void and the Boundlands, you could travel from, say, Seattle to Brazil in a matter of a few hours, with just a pit stop in London, Morocco, and a few cities in the Boundlands along the way.
I tried to focus on keeping up with Sidney, which was proving difficult because she’d apparently forgotten I had little legs. “Slow down, you absolute giant! I can’t walk that fast.”
She gave an amused bark of laughter. “I’m not a giant, you’re just a fairy. Keep up, pixie. We’ve got to make it to the warehouse district by nightfall.”
I wasn’t quitethatsmall, and we were a long way off from nightfall yet. “Brat,” I grumbled, earning another chuckle.
Dry Gulch spread out around us, not particularly attractive but certainly thriving. The city used to be an old watering hole, which had long since dried up, but eventually became the sprawling, grungy metropolis it was today. Boasting swarming crowds and more heat than most places in the Boundlands, it wasn’t my favorite place, but the street markets and warehouses were full of any kind of supplies you could imagine, which meant I visited occasionally to pick up something or other.
Sidney and her younger brother, Josh, both felt perfectly at home here, and they’d found an apartment to rent as soon as we’d graduated from school. She’d offered to find a three-bedroom so I could join them, but even though I occasionally found myself enjoying bartering in the street markets here, the general feel of the city was too rowdy for me to want to live here.
As we wove through the crowded streets, she filled me in on the plan. “Alright, when we get up here, I’m gonna have to leave you behind for a bit. Don’t… don’t look that guy in the eye. Get behind me.” I dodged behind her as a towering lich with an aura of… plague bending strolled past me.What on earth?I shot a look over my shoulder at him as I struggled to catch back up.
“My guy is in a warehouse down on 11th Ave.,” she continued, “and I don’t really feel safe taking you in with me. There’s this market here on 9th you can shop in while you wait, lots of people around, and I should only be a few minutes tops. Sound okay to you?”
I glanced around as we came to a stop among street stalls spilling out into the road, each one draped in fabric to block out the glaring sun. Hawkers called out their wares and tried to catch my eye.
“Uh, yeah, sure. Sounds good.” I’d shopped alone in Dry Gulch street markets before. Of course I’d be fine. “Since when are you such a mother hen?”
Sidney came to a dead stop and turned to look at me. “Since my best friend had some creep try to force his way into herhouselast night. Just… stay here.” She motioned to the general area. “Don’t talk to people. Don’t go anywhere with anyone.” I gave her my crazy eyes. It might become my permanent expression.
“Right. Okay. Fifteen minutes. I’ll be right back.” She turned and darted off, her magic fading into the crowd and finally disappearing to my senses as the distance between us grew.
With a sigh, I turned to the nearest booth. I might as well get some shopping done and see if I could find anything interesting. As I browsed the booths in the first row, I was immediately disappointed. Some cheaply made clothing, assorted soaps, and random dishes were displayed haphazardly on vendor tables. I picked up a plate and looked at the back, doing a double take.Made in China. I… what? What a bizarre thing to smuggle into the Boundlands. The vendor gave my side-eye a dispassionate shrug.
I passed a booth selling questionable potions stored in what appeared to be old plastic Gatorade bottles labeled with marker. Another booth had wall hangings and hastily made talismans boasting poorly drawn runes. I wondered at the state of the population that kept these vendors in business. I’d never shopped in this particular district before, but I hadn’t missed much of value.
The last booth in the row sold finely woven linen scarves, hand dyed in a variety of beautiful patterns and colors. Many of the women in the streets wore them around their heads to keep the sun from beating down on them during the hottest parts of the day.
I reached out to touch one, noting its softness as the vendor engaged me, telling me about his different varieties and showing me how thin the fabric was. He was a sweet-looking older man, with dark skin like my father and an impression of elemental earth magic, a low level of alchemy perhaps. I wondered if he used it to help dye his scarves somehow.
As I was looking through a stack of fabric to my left, and simultaneously trying to pay attention to the chatter from the vendor, I heard voices to my right.
