Page 10 of Suncatcher

“Sure.”

“I will be there.”

Pearl nodded, afraid she’d just made a deal with a devil. Not that they had any of those anymore either. She edged past, and the goyle did not stop her.

So she turned and ran.

Driz tried to keep her distance as she followed Pearl.

Pearl. Driz repeated the name to herself, relishing it.

Pearl’s human eyes struggled and the rain slowed her progress. She must have been exhausted, and still she ran with a purpose regardless of the uneven ground that grew slick with rain and mud. When she stumbled, she got up again.

Driz buzzed with excitement that she had spoken—actually spoken—to a human. To Pearl. And she would again. In three days.

Driz watched and listened for other things in the night that might also be watching. A pack of coyotes caught Pearl’s scent, but when Driz landed near them and growled, they scattered. Few things would challenge a goyle, even in flesh form, when the terror of their nature flared. Driz hadn’t needed to use it often in her life.

She was a little scared of the thrill it gave her. As she followed Pearl through the night and made sure she was safe, it filled a void inside her. It satisfied a drive that had never found direction. She had been created as a guardian but had nothing to protect. She defended her trove of treasures from passing curious beasts, but it wasn’t like this.

She needed to be careful.

Rain dripped decadently from her wings. She tracked Pearl easily, both from the air and on foot. The human didn’t notice her, which was the point. But Driz wanted Pearl to notice her. To look at her again. Even to threaten her again with her weapon.

Driz suddenly worried about the wound on Pearl’s arm. Driz didn’t know much about human healing, but they did heal. How fast? Driz didn’t have to worry much about that herself. She was young enough that the stone sleep erased most injuries in a single day, sometimes two.

Driz thought about swooping down and gathering Pearl into her arms to carry her back to the humans of Salt Bluff. It would be so much faster, and they would know what to do for her. But Driz worried Pearl might shoot her if she approached. Driz wasn’t certain a single shot could kill her. If it were aimed right, especially this early at night, it might. So she did her part by sweeping the area and making sure Pearl’s long, arduous journey home went as smoothly as possible.

It was near midnight by the time the lights of the town appeared, and after midnight by the time Pearl reached it. Driz landed on the roof of a shed, which creaked beneath her weight, and watched Pearl stumble past the swaths of square, drying salt fields, reverted to a shiny brine by the rain.

Pearl made it safely into town, and Driz was glad. But she already itched to see her again.

Driz slid to the ground and crept closer. She loved to watch towns, but she always kept her distance. Tonight she was reckless and emboldened by her conversation.

The town of Salt Bluff was oriented along a main road, with a few clusters of houses scattered off the sides of an intersecting street near the center. The buildings crowded close together, many sharing walls and standing two stories, made of wood or of mudded bricks. Despite the lateness of the night, lamps burned beneath eaves on covered porches. Pearl walked under one to enter a structure near the center of the main road. Across the street from that, light poured out from an open doorway, along with voices and a bright, vibrating music. Momentarily distracted, Driz listened, trying to memorize and follow the pattern of sounds.

She longed to get closer, but she was already too close, so she tucked herself against the side of the building at the end of the main row and waited.

She didn’t have to wait long.

The door Pearl had entered burst open, and a different woman exited. She was tall for a human, like Pearl, her dark-and-silver hair braided over her shoulder, her hat and long coat in a similar style to Pearl’s. As she strode across the street, Driz noticed her gait was not quite even, the sound of her footfalls different from each other. One thudded unexpectedly. It did not diminish the confidence in her walk.

She marched into the noisy building and emerged again holding a man by his collar. She dragged him behind her as he laughed and stumbled, until she rounded on him. He went silent and nodded, straightening his shirt and running away down the street, returning with a leather bag.

Driz remained there as long as she dared, pressed against the wall. The sounds of the boisterous building dulled, and people staggered away, out into the night and to other buildings. One came toward her and she flattened herself, going motionless. A door right behind her opened and closed again.

Driz shouldn’t have come here. But she didn’t leave.

She didn’t see Pearl or the other woman again, but at some point, the man and his bag exited. Only when the faint light of dawn glowed on the horizon did Driz slip away, slinking on foot until she was past the second line of salt fields, where she opened her wings.

She had things to do before the sun broke the sky.

5

A Grave Big Enough for Four

The horse moved fluidly beneath Pearl as they galloped over the drying earth. The storm had moved on and the warmth of the morning was already stealing the moisture for itself.

Sheriff Oak rode beside her as their mounts ate up the distance with ease. A few others from town would follow with a new pair of mules for the cart unless Pearl and Sheriff Oak headed them off. Pearl pushed her horse to go faster.