Chapter 6 #2
Eiko tripped over a rock, but Ky was right there, so fast that he must have been watching and waiting for her to fall. “What weird girl?” she asked, marching onward with a very boisterous level of forced, performative energy. In truth, she was running on fumes and pure, undiluted denial.
She wasn’t walking to Goldmoor with a monster.
Her monster wasn’t a bloody baby.
She was fine, everything was fine.
“The weird girl was walking around in circles before,” Ky explained, keeping his voice low.
“She’s also been talking to herself this whole time.
I don’t know how she managed to Silence a monster; she’s thin as a wisp, and her eyes aren’t all there.
And before you ask: she’s been talking to herself since she boarded the Kingsweep in Windspire, so she can’t be talking to a monster. ”
“You think she’s dangerous?” Kaito was already assessing threats, and they had only been recruits for three seconds. “Could her monster break free?”
“Any of our monsters could break free,” Rion reminded him. “Well, except maybe Eiko’s.”
I would never, Hymn promised. You saved me.
“My monster is actually eternally grateful,” Eiko told them. “No breakouts planned in the near future. Stop shaking your heads at me. I can hear it.”
Ky chuckled. “Only you, Eiko.”
What do they mean by that? Hymn asked curiously.
I’m somewhat … accident-prone, Eiko admitted. Not that you’re an accident, but I wasn’t planning on Silencing any monsters today. No offence, but I guess it’s typical of me to nab myself a little sunshine monster while everyone else is negotiating with psychopaths.
Hymn’s little fizzle of pleasure at her words was … adorable.
You’re the nicest person I’ve ever met, he told her.
You used to live in the Quiet. I believe that. Why were they hunting you?
I don’t know. I only came into my powers today—it happens after a hundred years, if we survive that long.
Eiko felt her face pulling into a frown. What are your powers?
I’m … not sure, he hedged. He seemed reluctant to touch on the subject, which was perhaps understandable. His kind had decided to hunt him down for whatever powers he manifested.
What about the second sight? The colours? she asked.
Oh that. His voice immediately returned to normal. I’ve always had that. It’s my second sight. And now it’s your second sight. Or … your first sight? I’m so sorry, have I offended you?
“Dark be damned,” Ren suddenly swore. “This asshole just told me that as soon as he breaks out of my mind, he’s going to pick the flesh from my fucking bones and then use them as toothpicks.”
“Mine just apologised for possibly offending me,” Eiko said haughtily, because she still hadn’t forgiven Ren just yet.
He’s looking at us, Hymn suddenly whispered.
Who?
Chasin.
The commander was still with them?
Don’t worry, she tried to reassure the little monster. He’s not going to choke me twice in one morning.
But he’s still looking.
“Well, he can look all he wants,” she grumbled aloud.
“Who in the Quiet are you talking about?” Rion asked curiously, before, “Oh … the commander.”
Ky groaned under his breath. “Eiko, please don’t make this a thing.”
“He strangled me,” she hissed back.
“He … held you,” Ky corrected. “It just happened to be by the throat.”
“Thank you for that distinction.”
“Stop fucking around and march!” a voice barked, causing them to jolt in surprise and pick up their pace.
“Who was that?” Eiko whispered. “One of the Godsguard soldiers? They’re still here? They didn’t get on the train?”
“They’re probably here in case we’re too weak to control our monsters, and they break out before we get to Goldmoor,” Ky answered. “Can’t have a monster on the loose in the capital.”
“Enough gossiping!” The bark was doubly as loud and doubly as annoyed this time, and Eiko was now fairly certain it was directed at their group.
The air thickened with tension and the lingering scent of sweat and fear.
It was also unnaturally cold, a biting, creeping chill that reminded her of frost eating patterns into windowpanes.
She fingered the torn sleeves of her dress, fraying about her elbows, and then dropped her hands in subtle despair.
What she would do for a bath … but that wasn’t a likely event in her future.
The Kingsguard barracks were known to be luxurious and opulent, only the best for the ceremonial soldiers.
She had absolutely no idea what the Godsguard barracks were like.
She had never even met a person who had met a person who had met a person on the Godsguard.
Truly, she had no idea how anyone knew anything about them.
She felt the stutter in the steady gait of her friends before she picked up on the footsteps coming towards them.
Slow and measured, long strides, far too quiet.
Eiko felt the air tighten as Hymn coiled into a tight little ball, trembling in the cradle of her palm with a fear so sharp it made her flinch.
Chasin.
He was close, and coming closer.
Ky’s hand brushed hers briefly. It was a silent warning, a comfort, and a plea to shut up for once in your life, and she gladly obeyed. She was already on the back foot with a commander who apparently wanted to choke her and could only communicate in a language she couldn’t see.
The footsteps drew unbearably close and stopped directly in front of her. She pulled up short. Ky edged away. Their entire group stopped moving. Nobody said a thing.
Light above, not this again.
She reached up and quickly covered her throat.
He’s going to choke us! Hymn squealed dramatically.
A large, gloved hand slid around her wrist, but it wasn’t threatening.
The pressure was almost gentle—or it would have been if that hand had belonged to someone less death-scented.
As it was, the single, gentle movement had her spine locking tight in terror.
He pulled her hand from her neck and turned her palm up between them.
Hymn screamed inside her head. A high, ringing squeal, as he zinged up her arm and twisted frantically around her ribcage.
Don’t let him touch me! Don’t let him touch me or he’ll tear me out! Eiko, he’ll kill me. He’ll—
She squeezed her fingers reflexively, accidentally clasping the gloved thumb that had settled into her palm.
Chasin froze, and a slow, barely perceptible sound of unhappiness vibrated from his throat.
He raised her hand higher, turning it slowly, examining it.
She could feel the awful, prickling awareness of someone studying her with morbid curiosity, making her feel like an ill-fitting puzzle piece about to be thrown out or hammered violently into place.
Then he traced one finger over the inside of her wrist. The spot where Hymn had been curled only moments before. It was just one touch, one single, slow line, but her entire body shuddered.
Eiko was a woman constantly surrounded by touch.
Either Ky, Rion, or Kaito were attached to her, acting as her eyes while they went about their days and nights.
And when none of them were around, Ren was dragging his hands across her flesh in every frenzied, secret moment that he could steal.
She was, in no way, unaccustomed to touch, but Chasin wasn’t trying to communicate with her.
He wasn’t offering to guide her. He was warning her.
She had no idea how she knew, but it was there in the gentlest glide of leather over skin.
I know what you’ve done.
She felt herself shrivel, felt Hymn tremble.
What’s happening? she asked Hymn desperately.
Monsters know each other by touch, Hymn whimpered. And … his monster is old, Eiko. So old. He has eaten dozens. Maybe hundreds. He’ll know I’m not trained. He’ll know I’m small. He’ll know I’m scared.
Eiko concluded, He knows I Silenced a bloody baby.
Chasin released her wrist and stepped back.
“Uh, the commander is, uh—” Kaito started, before cutting himself off sharply.
From the loaded pause, Eiko could only assume Chasin had spoken in his language again and had quelled Kaito with a dark look for awkwardly pointing it out again.
“Recruits!” the booming voice from further ahead shouted. “MOVE YOUR ASSES!”
Their entire group lurched forward. Eiko swallowed hard, her cane tracing patterns through the dirt and rocks ahead of her.
Hymn cowered behind her ribcage. The little monster felt small, cold, and terrified, but the silent prince had disappeared like a shadow, footsteps so light she could barely make them out.
Gradually, Hymn loosened his trembling death grip and rippled back down to her wrist, circling it before hesitantly nuzzling into her palm.
Are you a snake? she asked him.
I’m a monster, he answered.
A monster … in the shape of a snake?
Snakes don’t have wings.
Do you have wings?
She felt something unfurl against her wrist—not the velvety ribbon shape she had experienced so far, but an expanding sort of membrane that hooked and wrapped around the circumference of her wrist before retreating again.
Yes, I have wings, Hymn told her.
Eiko was fairly sure her feet were bleeding.
She had never walked so far, for so long, before in her life.
When the sun began to set, she could feel it on her skin, soaking through the thin, stained black fabric of her dress and prickling across her exposed forearms and shins.
Until then, all the recruits had been giving each other a stubbornly wide berth, but with their protection beginning to sink into the skyline, they drew closer together.
Eiko could now hear the crunch of their footsteps and the low murmuring of the Oakensnare men.
She could also hear the lilting, whisper-like quality of the girl from Windspire’s voice as she muttered to herself.
“The ponytail, it swish-swishes,” the girl sing-songed.
“Shut the fuck up about my ponytail, wimp,” a rough male voice snapped.
“The eyes are blind, the eyes are blind, the cane it tap tap taps.”