Chapter 4 #2
I try to block out Dagger’s loud voice and tune into the mutters of the locals, especially when Bones joins him and they start making bets with each other.
“A sock for a pair of diamonds.”
“My trousers for an ace.”
Oh Mother Ocean, they’re betting on their clothing.
Although it sounds a bit like they’re doing everything back-to-front.
They’re also garnering more attention than they should be.
We should have slipped in here, unseen and unheard.
Instead, it feels like the entire pub has paused in what they’re doing and is watching the two of them like they’re a great source of entertainment.
Maybe this was a bad idea. If these two start getting naked, then there’s no chance we’ll be able to blend in.
“Might be a good idea to keep your kit on,” I murmur, just loud enough for them to hear. Bones pulls a face, and Dagger opens his mouth as if to argue, but then shuts it again with a salute.
“All right, boss.”
Bones kicks his feet up, taking a swig of his pint and sitting so far back in his chair he’s in danger of slipping right off. He gives me a wide grin. “I got some eggs. This shitty town’s good for something, after all.”
Of course, he says it at full volume. People definitely heard it, considering how the temperature seems to drop a good ten degrees. Bones absolutely couldn’t care less, though, judging by the way he finishes his drink.
“Anyone want another?”
“Not one you’re buying,” I mutter. “I’m fairly sure they’ll spit in it.”
“Ah, angel, it just adds to the flavour.” He winks before striding off to the bar.
“I have no idea what Cookie sees in him,” Dagger mutters.
My eyebrows shoot up. “They’re together?”
My mind goes back to the first attack I experienced on Captain Finch’s ship. The way Cookie practically carried Bones down to the med bay and then could barely take his eyes off him while I tried to fix him up.
Dagger runs his hand through his hair, screwing up his eyes in concentration. “They’ve been together at least ten years, I’d say. It’s a long time when you can’t escape each other on the ship.”
He continues laying out cards while I take a sip of my drink.
Dagger then twists in his chair, crossing one ankle over his knee as he watches Bones being ignored by the barman.
As we watch, a man with shoulders broader than Torin’s staggers in from the back room.
He’s hefting a huge wooden cask under either arm, struggling to shut the door behind him and then deposit the casks onto the floor.
The barman ignores him entirely, rubbing a grimy rag over the bar top while the big guy slowly sets up each of the casks.
“Can’t you do it faster? These folk are dying of thirst over here.”
“You know, when we got out of the labs, a few of us dreamed of living in a place like this,” Dagger continues conversationally as he gestures around at the less-than-focused stares, crumbling paintwork and damp patches on the ceiling.
“Well... maybe not exactly like this,” he adds.
“I remember sitting with my bollocks out on a metal bed, getting poked and prodded and then my body aching right down to my bones. I couldn’t sleep.
Couldn’t eat. And my dick didn’t even work right.
All I could dream about was heading back home to a little village where nothing ever happens, where I could do the same job my dad did, maybe have a couple of kids. ”
“What happened?” I ask softly, not missing the way Aster leans in like he wants to hear this next bit too. I reach out to squeeze his knee under the table, and his amber eyes meet mine for a moment before darting away again with another shy smile.
“That,” Dagger mutters, jerking his head toward the bar.
“I tried it for a couple of months. Headed back to my home town. But somehow people could tell that I wasn’t like them.
They started treating me differently, talking to me like they’d never have dared back when I was fully human.
” He shakes his head and clicks his tongue.
“There’s no cosy small town living for us folk.
Not even tucked away in the arse end of nowhere. ”
It takes me a minute to understand why the big man is struggling with tapping the cask, or why they’re acting like he’s a nuisance rather than helping. Then I spot the empty sleeve below his elbow. He’s missing the lower part of his arm.
I frown at Dagger. “I don’t understand.”
“Can’t you smell him? If I had to make a guess, I’d say he’s got a three-legged moose inside him.”
“Is that a euphemism?” I glance at Aster, who looks just as lost as I feel. When his lips twitch into an almost-smile, I have to tear my eyes away as laughter threatens to bubble up inside me.
Dagger snorts. “He’s one of us. A moose-man. Except, they always smell different when they are born that way. Muskier. Less artificial. I bet that injury’s an old workplace one too.”
Keeping my voice to barely more than a whisper, I ask, “Are you telling me that you can not only tell that he’s a... beast-borne, but also exactly what animal he is?”
“Are you saying you can’t?”
I shake my head. “But surely most of the people here wouldn’t be able to tell?”
Dagger takes another casual look around and then wrinkles up his nose.
“Nah, they’re human. Each and every one of them.
You’d think they’d at least have one witch or sorcerer among them with the attitude they’ve got, but I’m guessing if they do, they wouldn’t mix with the riffraff in here.
” He rearranges himself on the chair, almost as though he can’t force himself to sit still before taking another audible sniff of the air.
“One of the humans smells like a relation of the moose-man.” He sniffs again.
“His mother, I’d guess. Maybe he grew up like the rest of them and looked human for a while.
Eventually, he’d have to shift, though. And it’s not like there are too many mooses...
meese? In these parts. He’d stick out like a pair of antlers on the wall. ”
Just as the words come out, the moose-man looks up and glares right at Bones.
“Took him long enough,” Dagger mutters.
Bones then starts shaking his head like a dog, sending sand flying all over the bar top while the barman roars with anger.
“Well, that’s my cue.” Dagger then strides up to the bar, straight toward the moose man who glares at him, his nostrils flaring.
Which leaves just me and Aster together at the small table. Our knees are practically rubbing together, and I lean back in my chair as I watch the scene unfold.
“Do you understand what’s happening here?” I ask him.
“I think...” Aster’s voice comes out hoarse before he clears his throat and tries again.
“I think they’re offering him a way out,” he says.
“They all talk a lot. The crew, I mean. Especially when they think you’re not really listening.
Dagger probably has a pocketful of coins that he’ll slip to the beast-borne man in case he wants to try his luck in a bigger town, one where it’s not so obvious what he is. ”
Huh. The crew might have an odd way of going about things, but they’re a good bunch of people.
I glance up at the moose-man who is shaking his head vigorously at Dagger before slamming a pint down onto the bar top and sending froth spilling over.
Dagger pauses for a moment before grabbing Bones by the ear and dragging him back to the table.
“Well, that was a waste of time,” Bones says. “The barman wasn’t a chatty guy and the town doesn’t even have a noticeboard, so even if we were all the kingdom’s ‘most wanted’, these folk wouldn’t know about it.”
“Moose-man refused my coin too,” Dagger says with a shrug. “I guess this place has sunk deep in the poor fella’s veins.”
“So, no information and no heroic saviour act either. Are we ready to write this trip off as a near-failure?” Bones asks cheerfully. “Of course, if we hadn’t got the eggs, it’d be a total failure. Unless you want to start a bar fight?”