(Excerpt from The Tourist’s Guide to The Blue Smoke Mountains.)
It was around sunset when they reached Stayout. From a distance it looked a little like Barleyfields-a cluster of stone houses perched on the mountain road, overlooking a series of terraced fields where most people who had a job worked.
The poles bearing the power lines continued through the town and up the road, but the only power junctures in town were jerry-rigged and clumsy-looking.
“Looks like a few people are pirating electricity and nobody else has any,” Vipin said, above the roar of the motorcycle’s engine.
“Yeah, that’s pretty much how it goes here,” said Rina. They entered the town and slowed down.
Unlike Barleyfields, there was no sign of any festivities, no lamps lit, no singing, no decorations on the houses.
They only saw one man, sitting in a chair outside his house, who stared at them with the dead, burnt out eyes of someone who’d been on one trip too many and never came back.
He was probably harmless, but Rina still found him disturbing. Instinctively, she hugged Vipin. Something about the deadness of this place and the people always got to her.
“I have the feeling one of us has to sleep with the bike to keep it from getting stolen,” Vipin said, even more quietly.
“That’s going to be your job,” Rina said.
“Any recommendations about who to talk to?”
“The mayor has a large house in the middle of town. He’s a drug dealer, but he doesn’t sample his own goods, and he at least tries to act respectable, since he has to interact with politicians from other towns sometimes.”
“You want us to stay with him?” Vipin asked incredulously.
“I want us to tell him about the Old Ones,” Rina said. “Someone has to be warned, and he’s probably the person most likely to do something about it if he knows. He might also be able to tell us about a place to stay.”
They pulled up in front of the mayor’s house. Vipin made it a point to park as close to the front door as he could, and very ostentatiously pulled the keys out of the motorcycle’s ignition.
“It would take most people about ten minutes to hotwire that thing,” He said to Rina. “I suggest we make it quick.”
“No one’s going to steal a bike from in front of the mayor’s house,” Rina said. “He would take it personally, and they don’t need their supplier mad at them.”
Vipin looked skeptical but followed her lead in marching up to the front door. Rina knocked on it.
A tall, tough-looking man came to the door. He would not have been impressive down in Rivertown: the average politician’s bodyguards would have had this guy for lunch. Still, he was impressive compared to most of the burned-out wrecks in Stayout.
The bodyguard glanced at Rina, but favored Vipin with a long assessing stare.
“What do you want?” The bodyguard addressed Rina, either because he could tell she was from Mount Snarl or as a way of putting Vipin in his place.
“There’s a problem on the mountain that might affect this town, and I wanted to tell the mayor about it,” Rina said. “I’d also like his advice about something, if he’s willing to give it, but that’s more by way of trade for the information I have.”
The bodyguard let them in without a word.
He steered them to a well-furnished but somewhat grubby front parlor and told them to wait. Rina sat down in a chair next to the window, and Vipin positioned himself in front of the window, and between her and the door into the parlor, and proceeded to keep watch over the motorcycle.
“I’d really like to be able to return that to the owner,” Was his comment when Rina asked him what he was doing.
About half an hour later, the world outside the window had gotten thoroughly dark, and Rina found herself very very glad of the mayor’s pirated electricity and the lights it powered.
And then the mayor came in. He had gotten even heavier than Rina remembered, and he wore only a monogrammed linen cloth wrapped around his waist several times. Rina wondered what they had interrupted, and then decided she didn’t really want to know.
“I know you-you’re that fashion designer from Thundermouth,” The mayor said as he plunked down on a massive throne of a chair in the opposite corner. “You said you have information for me?”
Rina nodded. “There’s some kind of creature or creatures loose on the mountain,” She said. “A big panther gone man-eater maybe. This man saved a child from it last night in Barleyfields.”
Vipin spoke up. “We also saw and heard things that made us think it was hanging around Goatsfart a day or two before that.”
Rina shot him a warning look, and said: “I wanted to make sure someone here knew about it-someone smart enough to figure out what to do about it.”
The mayor laughed. “That’s old news, and it’s no panther neither. It’s been dogging us since the smokeflowers bloomed. But thank you for stopping in to acknowledge who’s boss around here. Now, you said you wanted advice.”
“Is there someplace in town where we could rent a room?”
Rina blushed the moment the words were out of her mouth, when she realized how that sounded. But Vipin had volunteered to stay with her as often as he could, and in this town, she couldn’t help feeling like she wanted backup.
The mayor smirked.
“Most people here are not in a renting mood right now. But, at the end of the town you’ll find a house with a red oil lamp hanging over the door. She might be able to find you some space.”
Vipin crossed his arms.
“That would be fine,” Rina said quickly, before he could object. “Thank you for your time, sir.”
The Mayor bobbed his head in a nod of dismissal, and soon they were outside again. At least one local was hanging around the motorbike with an “I’m not touching it, just looking at it” expression that might possibly have fooled a vision-impaired five year old, but he moved off at a glare from Vipin.
It was something that rarely failed to surprise Rina: to her and to other women and children he was always gentle and courteous, but most men seemed to figure out quickly that this was not someone to trifle with.
“Please tell me that place he recommended is not what I think it is,” Vipin growled, once they were driving again.
“Yes, it’s the house of a woman in a certain line of work. Her name is Utiva, if I remember rightly. But there’s no man controlling her, she’s just an independent operator, and she’s not into drugs.”
“I thought I heard someone mention that name in Barleyfields,” Vipin said. “But maybe it wasn’t the same woman.”
“Utiva is a somewhat famous scandal on the mountain. She had affairs with both the mayor and his right hand man, which got the right hand man killed. This happened not long before the last Mountain King Wedding, which she was expected to participate in.” Rina said.
“What happened to her after the ritual?” Vipin asked.
“The priest here in Stayout is normally pretty easy-going about the ‘shunning’ part, where old-fashioned people pretend that the Mountain King’s brides really are gone. With women putting food on the table and getting the raw materials for their men to cook up drugs, he can’t afford to be harsh about it.”
“But for her he made an exception?”
“The dead man was his brother, and the priest blamed her for it, because he didn’t have the nerve to face off against the mayor. So, he dropped the hammer on her, hard.”
“How does she, erm, stay in business?”
“Everybody pretends that she doesn’t exist, but the men go to her place anyway, bring her food and clothes and wood for her fire.”
“If her...clients give us any trouble...” Vipin began.
“I have my pepper spray and you have your martial arts. It will be fine.” Rina didn’t want him going overboard about this.
The house with the red lamp was on the left side of the road. Actually it was off the main road, built in a field on the slopes below it, with a low stone fence to keep a couple of goats penned in. A wooden gate opened onto the main road, with a path beyond it leading to the house.
The red lamp above the door was only just barely visible from the road. Rina unlatched the gate and then the two of them walked the motorcycle down to the front door.
Utiva opened up when they knocked, and didn’t seem terribly surprised by their request.
“Not a lot of people you would want to share a house with around here,” She said, and named a price, more reasonable than Rina expected.
“That’s for you to stay in the house, dearie, and your friend to stay in the barn.”
Rina blinked.
“What? It’s not like you don’t entertain male visitors overnight here. Besides, I’ve traveled with him for several days without having any trouble from him.”
Utiva looked past her at Vipin.
“I allow male visitors that I know. Male visitors who answer to the mayor. I don’t have to take in some stranger from Down Below, on the say-so of a soft little girl from Thundermouth.”
“Considering that I don’t know these male visitors of yours, I don’t see why I should leave Miss Rina alone with you and them," Vipin said severely.
“How much would you charge us to both stay in the barn?” Rina asked.
Utiva looked panicked, probably about losing the extra money.
“Let me talk to your friend in private,” She said. “Maybe we can work something out.”
Rina moved reluctantly away while they talked in low tones. A yearling goat butted her leg for attention and she patted it on the head.
In the dim light, she had only a vague impression of what Vipin and Utiva were saying, but she had the impression that Vipin was perhaps taking all this more seriously than he needed to.
Finally, Vipin called her back over.
“She’s agreed to turn away all her usual customers and just put you up for the night, while I stay with the animals,” He said. “If you’re all right with that, then I am, too.”
Rina weighed up what she’d heard about the woman. Kajjal had stayed with her one time in a similar situation, but that had been several years back, which was why Rina wasn’t sure that she was still the go-to person for guest lodging.
Kajjal hadn’t had any trouble with Utiva stealing things or making trouble, so it should be all right.
“I would like to see the guest room,” she said.
It turned out that there wasn’t one, exactly, just a small storage room full of odds and ends. Utiva offered to give her blankets and so forth, but Rina decided to turn her purse into a pillow again, and use some of the spare clothes from her bag as blankets.
“Suit yourself, dearie,” Utiva said with a shrug.
Rina did not care for the fact that the door could not be locked from the inside, but at least it couldn’t be locked from outside either.
Whatever Utiva had said to Vipin seemed to have convinced him that this was a good idea, because he didn’t object to any part of this.
He did tell Rina: “If anything happens, anything at all, just scream. I will hear you, and I will come.”
“Even if I lock the door?” Utiva joked.
Vipin just gave her one of those remote looks. “Especially if you lock the door,” He said firmly.
Everyone said their good nights, and went off their separate ways. Rina heard the prostitute throw the bolt on first her front door, then her back door, and tried to snuggle more deeply into the makeshift pile of clothes she was using for a bed.
It was a nuisance that the buttons from the blouses she was lying on kept jabbing her in uncomfortable spots, and she could feel the dirt floor even through her bedding. This should have felt the same as that night in the goat shed, but somehow it didn’t.
There had been a curious edge to that night in Goatsfart, sleeping in the straw, with a strong, attractive man she barely knew lying only a few feet from her.
She had felt exposed and vulnerable, because the shed was so open to the elements, but at the same time she was reasonably sure that the locals would not have bothered her, and that Vipin would have defended her if they had.
But this was a sturdy house; she shared it another woman who was not in a nice line of work but who was more or less honest. She was worried somewhat for Vipin, but the small barn for Utiva’s goats was made of stone as well, and looked sturdy enough, so he would probably be safe.
But no matter how she reassured herself, Rina found it hard to sleep. Since that night on the bus out of Rivertown, this was the first time she wasn’t under the same roof with someone she more or less trusted. It shouldn’t have mattered but somehow it did.
She was too tense to drift off to sleep, but she managed to reach a state of tense drowsiness, where she was not awake but somehow felt like she was waiting for something to happen.
And then the scream jolted her fully awake. It was the same sound that woke her up in the goat shed, two days ago. It seemed to becoming from the side nearest to the barn.
Her room had a window on that side but it was shuttered, with only a few bars of blue-gray moonlight showing through the slats.
Rina groped her way to it and fumbled with the disused latch. It stuck at first, but finally she forced it open. She could not believe what she was seeing out there in the moonlight.
There was a good sized stone block in the prostitute's yard of a kind Rina had seen often enough elsewhere on the mountain-about three feet tall by seven feet wide, studded with metal rings along the sides.
People tied goats to the ring, when they wanted to milk them or shear them, if they were the long haired kind. But now...Vipin lay on his back on the stone, in the almost sacrificial pose Rina remembered from her dream.
A creature that could only be Bhana, the Mountain King’s sister, was crawling towards him on all fours. When she reached him, she stood upright-a skinny, sinewy creature a head taller than Vipin.
As in Raki’s story, she wore rags tied across her chest and around her waist; it seemed more a mocking imitation of human clothes than an attempt at modesty. The skin was a dark, sleek purple mottled with snowy white markings, both colors gleaming like silk in the moonlight.
The head was large and mostly smooth, though Rina had an impression of a crest like a lizard’s or a rooster’s running along the top of the skull, and maybe other ridges where the eyebrows should have been. The mottled white markings continued up the left shoulder to the neck and the left side of the creature’s face.
The lips were a darker purple than the skin, full and sensual, the most human thing about a not-too-human face. The eyes were orange red, with pupils slit like a cat’s even though a cat’s eyes would be dilated in this moonlight.
The creature looked Vipin up and down for a moment, sniffed him, and then moved forward. It explored his chest with three-fingered, claw-tipped hands that scratched wherever they touched.
“Leave him alone, you witch,” Rina screamed.
She grabbed her pepper spray and ran out of the storage room towards the back of the house.
She heard Utiva cursing at her, telling her not to unbolt the door, or leave the house but she didn’t listen. She was out the back door in a moment, snatching up a shovel with her free hand.
Bhana had paid no attention to her scream. Rina could not see his reactions clearly, but she could see that the creature seemed to be nibbling on his left shoulder with needle-like teeth. One clawed hand dragged across his chest, while the other slide down his belly, not quite hard enough to do permanent damage yet.
“I’m talking to you, witch, leave him alone,” She screamed again.
Bhana seemed to notice her from the first time, letting go of Vipin and turning toward Rina.
Rina suddenly realized that she was still afraid, had been afraid all along. Instead of paralyzing her, this somehow brought the whole problem into focus.
She had to dodge the thing somehow, get to Vipin and help him, and then they would both make a dash for the back door...
She heard the sound of the back door being closed and bolted again. Okay, not the door, but they could grab the bike and make a run for Thundermouth, maybe.
Bhana tilted its head on one side, and took a step forward, watching Rina’s every move. Rina started to shiver with fear at first, but then she realized that the thing was toying with her, just as it had with the little girl. That made Rina even more angry.
“Come here, witch, you want something? You want something? Come and get it!”
Rina brandished the pepper spray. Bhana took another step towards her, and Rina blasted it in the face with her pepper spray. The Old One snorted and looked puzzled but didn’t seem at all bothered by the spray. Rina’s heart sank.
Then suddenly Vipin snarled, not like an angry human but with that terrible sound Rina had heard before, that seem to come simultaneously from the bottom of his belly and the top of his nose. Rina caught that flash of gold in his eyes.
The stone lurched as he shoved himself upright and lunged forward. He seemed talled and leaner than before, though not as spidery as Bhana. His skin had turned a deep bronze that seemed to glow in the moonlight, and he carried himself with an inhuman grace.
Bhana turned back towards him with lightning speed, but he reacted just as quickly, grappling its throat. It broke free at first but he grabbed it again, and injured one of its legs. That made it angry, and it fought all the harder, but it was not as fast as it had been. Rina rushed forward, raised her shovel, and then hesitated.
She didn’t want to hit Vipin, even though she found his face right now terrifying: his eyes glowing gold yet cold and focused, his jaw set. But she got a clear strike at one point, and hit the thing hard in the shoulder. Vipin seized the opportunity and snapped its neck.
He rose to a crouch and then seemed to sag with exhaustion. The strange glow left his skin, and the tense, feline stance that was like his movements in the fight with Jabar, only a hundred times more so, was gone. What was left was the gentle, quiet intellectual he usually appeared to be.
Rina leaned on her shovel and offered him a hand up. He accepted it. The strong grip of a large, warm hand that felt thoroughly human to her was reassuring after what she had just been through. It did not make her any less mad at him, or any less confused.
“What the blazes just happened?” She demanded. “Why were you lying out here like that?”
“The lady of the house felt exposed, living so far from the rest of the town, with Bhana on the prowl. She relied on her customers for a sense of safety,” Vipin said.
“So how did you get her to turn them away? Was...this part of the deal?” Rina asked.
I didn’t want her customers bothering you, so I explained that I was here to kill the Old One, and she wouldn’t have anything to worry about. She didn’t believe me, wanted me to act as bait.”
“But you could have died!” Rina protested. “What if you hadn’t...changed or whatever it is you did...in time? You probably need a doctor, the way she was chewing on you-”
“It’s already healed,” He said firmly.
“What?”
Vipin took a deep breath, as though bracing himself for something.
“Rina,” He said. “You’ve heard the stories about how in the old days, the Zatas would take on humanlike forms, and intermarry with humans.”
“It’s in one of the scriptures, I think,” Rina said. “One of the ones they don’t teach that often.”
“The results were sometimes called Razatas, which means ‘Oldblood.’ Well, one of my distant ancestors, hrm, came from that kind of situation. I’m not entirely human.”
“Okay, I don't know how that works, but it explains how you can do what you do,” Rina said. “What I want to know is, why didn’t you do it sooner?”
Vipin seemed a little surprised by this response but he did answer the question.
“It’s...not entirely voluntary. My adrenaline needs to reach a certain level before the change is triggered.”
“And it didn’t trigger when she was trying to turn you into shaved meat?” Rina demanded.
Vipin chuckled nervously. That slow, lopsided smile spread up his face. By daylight it was cute, by moonlight it was downright enchanting.
“I...appreciate your concern for all the portions of my anatomy. But you've seen how Bhana works-used to work.” He amended. “She liked to toy with her victims. And she would have toyed with me a bit longer before there was any real danger for someone like me.”
He hesitated. “I was scared to death when she turned on you.”
“So was I,” Rina admitted. “But I didn’t want anything bad to happen to you.”
“We were both trying to protect each other,” Vipin admitted. “Thank you for your help. You did well in the fight.”
Rina blushed.
“I’m just glad that I didn’t mess up. And that neither of us died. And that...thing did.” She jabbed at the body with her shovel.
Vipin laughed heartily. “You’re a vicious one. But come on back to the house-you’ll catch cold out here.”
“So will you.”
“I was going to stay in the barn.” Vipin said.
Rina took his hand again.
“Then I will too.” She said. “After the way Utiva treated you, I’m not going back in her house tonight. I guess I will have to go back for my things tomorrow, but right now I just want to be with you.”
“Not like that,” She added. “But I could use a friend close to hand after...that and you’re the closest thing I have right now.”
Vipin ducked his head. “That’s kind of you to say. The barn it is then, I guess.”
The barn smelled of goat, but Rina found it borderline nostalgic under the circumstances. She burrowed into the straw and fell asleep.
Her dreams that night were not the kind she could remember later, and she awoke close to dawn to the sound of birdsong. She went to check on Vipin.
He was still asleep in his corner of the barn, curled up on his side. His face, as usual, seemed even sadder when he was asleep, and she once again found the rise and fall of his chest vaguely hypnotic.
He had a beautiful profile with that long, beaky nose. Why hadn't she noticed it before? She touched his forehead gently, on a scar right between the eyebrows. His breathing shifted slightly but he gave no sign of waking up.
She ran her fingers down the ridge of his nose, pausing at the tip, then sliding further down. His lips twitched when her fingers touched them. she wasn't quite sure whether the result was a small smile or an even smaller kiss. But his eyes fluttered open and his head turned to look at her.
“That’s the pleasantest wakeup call I’ve gotten in a long time.” He said with a fuller smile. “I guess you want us to be on the road soon, so we can eat in Thundermouth.”
“That’s not the only reason I want to be in Thundermouth, but yes, skipping two meals hasn’t been fun.”
“Well, then, let’s see about reclaiming your luggage from the lady of the house.”
Utiva was not in a mood to let them back in, especially after she saw the dead body.
“You people are dangerous,” she told them. “You’ll bring worse trouble down on us yet.”
“Even so,” Vipin said politely. “Miss Rina needs her things.”
Rina paid Utiva and then brushed past her, with Vipin following her. Utiva had not touched the mess of clothes Rina had left on the floor of the storage room, and when Rina checked her purse everything was still there.
Just as Rina and Vipin finished packing up, they heard their temporary landlady talking to someone outside.
“I don’t want any trouble in my house, you can talk to them when they come out.” She said, then came back in and told them: “Someone at the door for you.”
Rina did not like the look of the man they found outside waiting for them. A short but tough-looking character with a broken nose and small, deep-set eyes, he had the look of a dealer rather than an addict.
“What do you want?” Vipin asked, putting himself in front of her.
“I want my money.” The man said. “I was told that you’d have it.”
“I’m sorry, I buy cloth from this town sometimes, but I don’t trade in ergot-dust,” Rina said. “Who told you that we would have your money?”
“Amita. She buys stuff from my people and resells it in Summertown and Rivertown. She owes me money. Called me from Skymarket to say that she was bringing it.”
“And why aren’t you having this discussion with her?” Vipin asked.
“When she got here, she said the constable in Goatsfart was onto her, so she had to have a friend bring the money up. Skinny woman, snooty look, long wavy hair, nice clothes. That sure looks like you, sweetheart.”
“The rockfall on the road to Goatsfart,” Rina said thinking out loud. “Amita was upset about it crushing her suitcase. We couldn’t get it out from under there.”
To the dealer, she said: “You could try to get your money out of there. We certainly don’t have it.”
“Neither of you are leaving until I get my money,” the dealer insisted. He tried to push past Vipin to get at Rina, but Vipin shoved him in the chest.
“Take a look at the yard before you start anything you’ll regret.”
The dealer looked at the dead Oldblood and started, as if seeing it for the first time. Maybe he was addicted to his own stuff after all, Rina thought.
“You did that?” He asked Vipin.
“The lady and I did that,” Vipin emphasized.
The dealer peered past them at their temporary landlady. “They did it,” she said. “I watched them.”
Vipin tensed and shifted his weight slightly without taking his eyes off the drug dealer. That, and the rustling sound behind her, made Rina spin around and look behind her with her heart pounding against her chest.
All she could see was Utiva’s goats, calmly cropping grass in the field, with a low fence of undressed stones between them and the sheer mountain cliff beyond.
Whatever it is, you can handle it, she told herself. You handled last night just fine.
As if he could hear her thoughts, Vipin muttered, “You don’t need to worry about what’s back there.”
Rina watched as a large head appeared over the wall. It was shaped something like a frog’s head, but with the faceted eyes of an insect-or a Gnosha.
A moment later, the rest of the Gnosha came into view as he stepped gingerly over the fence: a green and yellow builder drone, only about six and a half feet tall, most of that in his spider-hinged legs.
His torso and forearms were smeared with sticky, dark-blue stains. Rina remembered the chittering sound she’d heard when they rescued the child. Perhaps this Gnosha had tangled with Bhana outside of Barleyfields, and been injured.
Rina heard a piercing shriek, followed by another shriek, pitched a little lower. She looked over her shoulder to find Utiva and drug dealer staring at the Gnosha with wide eyes and gaping mouths. Vipin also faced the Gnosha, but with a slight, unreadable smile.
“I wondered when you would catch up with us,” He said to the newcomer. “I am Vipin, with the Ministry of Culture.”
“I know that, because all my Hive knows that,” The Gnosha said, in the usual formula. “I do not know your ally’s name though.” He pointed towards Rina.
“I am called Zekull. I police the Stetemo Hive members in Summertown. The Queens sent me to investigate the report that there were Zatas-what you would call Old Ones-on Mount Snarl.”
“Hello, I’m Rina,” she volunteered.
Zekull bowed at the waist in acknowledgment, then addressed himself to the drug dealer.
“I do not know your name, man, but there was a suitcase that smelled of your drugs crushed under a boulder outside of Skymarket, as these two say.”
A strangled sound came from the drug dealer’s mouth followed by the words: “Where is it?”
“The constable’s office at Skymarket,” Zekull said. “There was paper money in it, not much harmed by the boulder. The police in Summertown will come to check on it. I think they will find traces of the drugs the suitcase held before the paper money.”
At the mention of human police, the drug dealer seemed to pull himself back together. He was probably more familiar with that kind of threat than either Gnosha, monsters out of the old stories, or people who could make those monsters very thoroughly dead.
Utiva, on the other hand, seemed to shrink in size. She muttered something about having to get her breakfast ready, and bolted back into her house.
“And when the cops come for the people who had that suitcase last, you two are going to jail,” the drug dealer sneered to Vipin.
“I watched the boulder fall,” Zekull said. He gestured towards the Bhana’s corpse in the yard.
“That thing,” he shaped the word with as much disgust as Rina had the night before, “Pushed it down on those humans. I was not close enough to stop it, but the humans got out of the way in time. Not-Rina was unhappy about losing her suitcase to the boulder.”
“Not-Rina?” The drug dealer asked.
“There was a third person with them,” Zekull explained patiently. “Not Vipin. Not Rina, but another woman.”
“Her name’s Amita,” Rina volunteered, even though Vipin caught her eye and shook his head slightly.
“Amita. Thank you. I will remember.”
The drug dealer threw up his hands in disgust. “I’m going to take this up with the Mayor,” He said, then added, with a glance at the monster lying dead in the yard, “And the priest.” He stalked off down the road.
“It sounds like we’d better get out of town while we can,” Rina said.
She helped Vipin roll his borrowed motorcycle out from the barn and up to the gate. Zekull talked as they went.
“The Hive dispatched me as soon as the Queens decided what to do,” Zekull said. “My mission was to observe the Zatas but not to try to stop them or interfere with human politics until it became necessary.”
“You look worried, Rina,” Vipin said.
“Mostly, I’m thinking how hard this will be to explain to the town council in Thundermouth,” Rina said. “But I guess having Zekull along would help.”
Zekull pivoted his head back and forth again, this time in a way that could only mean ‘no.’
“By the order of the Queens, I cannot interfere in town politics unless invited. I would not have fought with the Bhana the other day, if she had not attacked a child.”
“You were interfering just now,” Rina argued.
“I would not have talked to that criminal just now, except that he would have slowed you down, and you will be needed elsewhere.”
“Oh, I would have taken care of the drug dealer,” Vipin drawled, and Rina saw his eyes gleam gold for a moment.
“You could have beaten him soundly,” Zekull agreed. “But it would have made trouble for you here.”
“He could still make trouble for us here,” Rina said. “We’d better be on our way. Zekull,” she hesitated.
“Thank you. But you would not fit on the motorcycle, which is not exactly ours anyway. Is there some place in Thundermouth where we could meet you again?”
“Meet me this evening at the pass that leads up to the meadow above your town, the meadow where the Mountain King’s brides would spend the night,” Zekull said.
“Bring anyone whom you have managed to convince of what is happening. I do not want to be seen in town.”
“You were already seen in this town,” Rina pointed out.
“Here in Stayout, where half the people grow semi-legal drugs and the other half use them for dream-seeking or for pleasure, they are used to seeing...different things.” Zekull said. “The people of Thundermouth might not handle the sight of a Gnosha the same way.”
Neither Rina nor Vipin could say anything to change his mind, and before long, the two humans rode out of town on the borrowed motorcycle, while the Gnosha scrambled up straight up the rock face of the mountain like the insect he resembled.
Rina didn't bother with the grab bars this time, she just wrapped her arms around Vipin's waist. One hand wandered up to his chest as they drove, and he clasped one of his own hands around hers, as though he liked the touch of her.
We killed the Mountain King’s Sister, Rina thought. He killed the Mountain King’s Sister, and I helped. I still can’t believe it.
About an hour outside of Thundermouth, she told Vipin to stop.
“What’s the matter?” He asked.
“The wounds the Oldblood gave you may have healed themselves, but your shirt is still all bloody and torn.” She said.
“Oh,” He said. “I was going to claim that I had to swap my good shirt for some damaged rags in exchange for lodging at one of the places we stopped. They would surely believe things like that happen in Goatsfart, or Stayout.”
Rina sighed. “Why make things complicated?” She asked. “I’m pretty sure I have a t-shirt in here that will fit you.”
It was Vipin’s turn to sigh. “I really don’t want to bare my midriff thanks.”
“Wimp.” Rina smirked. She managed to find a hot pink, tunic-length t-shirt in her bag. “Try this,” She said, and handed it to him.
He looked at her suspiciously. “I would appreciate it if you would turn around,” He said.
She turned to watch the wind ruffling the carpets of blue flowers on the lower slopes, and did her best to enjoy the view she was given rather than the view she was denied.
Finally Vipin asked: “What do you think?”
And she turned around and surveyed him with a critical eye. As she had predicted, the t-shirt was long enough to reach his waist, but the short sleeves exposed an impressive set of biceps, and it looked like his chest and shoulders would tear through the shirt at any moment.
“I don’t mind you looking at me like that,” Vipin said mildly. “But it does make me think I’m not appropriately dressed.”
“I’m not sure what my parents are going to think at first, but they should behave themselves after I explain that you lost all your luggage and I agreed to lend you this t-shirt that they will unfortunately recognize. And once we get you settled, we can find you something else to wear.”
“Which means I’m not appropriately dressed,” he sighed.
“This is easier to explain than a bloodied dress shirt on a man who doesn’t have a scratch on him. And you are the most gorgeous thing I’ve ever seen.”
He blushed at that. “I could say the same thing about you.”
She giggled. “That doesn’t exactly make you a smooth operator, but I like that about you.”
He blushed even harder, and cleared his throat before changing the subject.
“Will it be hard for you to tell your parents that you’re not going through with the ritual?” Vipin asked.
“What makes you think that I’m not?” Rina said. “I’ve seen the kind of creature they would be given to. I’ve even fought that kind of creature. Sort of.”
“Most people wouldn’t even have done that,” Vipin said.
“I have a lot more faith in you putting the thing down than I used to, but those are reasons for me to go ahead, not to back down. Up here on the mountain, I’m expected to be the big sister to everyone younger than you-I can’t let those kids go into a danger I might be able to help protect them from.”
She paused. “Why are you smiling at me like that?”
The lopsided grin climbed even further up his face. “Because, Miss Rina, you are one in a thousand.”
He helped her repack her bag, and discreetly pitched his old shirt over the edge onto the lower slopes. And then they were off.
CHAPTER SIX