Chapter 24
The new year began with cleaning up the street, which is not what Noah, or anybody, wanted to do.
They were still figuring out the best way to remove the pile of dragon poo when Samiah returned to tell them that several of the houses they’d been working on had been set alight overnight.
The fire hadn’t spread as they’d begun putting it out before the human firefighters arrived, but it was going to set back the completion.
Noah sat on the steps of the pub, staring at the pile of poo that somehow smelled less vile this morning, or perhaps he was growing used to it, which wasn’t a comforting thought. His cheek was still tight from being wiped with selkie goo, and the healing cut itched.
“Do you think it was the same people?” Samiah asked, tilting her head at the street.
What did it matter if it was or wasn’t? The result was the same, and the cops didn’t care. “Some of the humans are annoyed that your houses are getting fixed first.”
Or at least that’s what they had claimed last night.
Noah was glad none of the humans had brought weapons beyond plastic pitchforks, bags of dog shit, and bottles of beer.
The footage from other cities and the troubles they were facing was all over the internet.
While Noah was tempted to post the results of last night’s confrontation, he wanted to keep what he posted hopeful.
To show something other than fighting and pain.
“Because we are fixing them.” Samiah slapped her chest. “What else are we supposed to do? Wait until everything else is fixed with the hope that they will turn their attention to us? Years will pass.”
Noah nodded and took a drink of water. He was going home tonight for a shower and a roll around the bathroom floor in the coat. Sometimes not being human felt far too good.
Pan had skipped out of cleaning to go and talk people into taking the dragon poo, and the Strega had gone with him. They probably had magic and fate to discuss. More important godly things to do than sweep up broken glass and pick up plastic bags.
He stared up at Samiah. “What would you like me to do?”
“We need the knight to arrest them, charge them, and dole out punishment.”
“Except we don’t have a knight. And we can’t prove who lit the fire, and the human cops, our knights, are trying to stop people from looting the stores, and raiding the food deliveries.
” Using the dragons for delivery runs meant that people were keeping their distance, at least until the food was in the store.
Then they were rushing the store and trying to get as much as possible.
They were shoving packets down their pants and hoping no one noticed.
Liam said it was terrible. People were begging for extra, and there wasn’t anything they could do. When begging didn’t work, they threatened violence—not realizing that if they took extra, someone else went without. There were now cops at the store when it was open.
All the vegetable gardens that had been planted over the last few weeks wouldn’t be ready to eat for months. It was cold and only going to get worse as winter set in, and everything was fucked.
And it didn’t matter how much he tried to unfuck things; it made no difference. So much for a hopeful new year. It was just a bigger pile of shit, literally.
He leaned against the door frame. “I’m sorry, I don’t know what to do. I wish it wasn’t like this.”
Samiah sat on the step next to him, her anger softening. “I’m trying to be positive. I like having something to do and feel as though I’m making a difference. And then it gets burned down.” She swore in something other than Tarikian.
Lots of the mythos had other languages. Drak and dragon, the unspoken vampire language. He didn’t have time to learn them all. He didn’t have time to do everything that needed done. No one did.
“Same.” Noah offered her a fist bump, but she stared at his hand. “You’re meant to tap your fist against mine in a show of solidarity.”
“Oh. Like this.” She punched his hand.
“Ow.” He shook it out, his knuckles smarting. “No, gently. Put your fist out.”
She did, and he tapped it. “It sucks when someone comes along and tries to undo all your work. My mother would say if I’d done a proper job, it wouldn’t be happening.
” She’d be telling him not to waste his time because it wasn’t going to do him any good getting involved with those people.
She’d said the same about counseling—why would he want to spend time with people who couldn’t get their lives together?
He was one of those people.
Samiah stared at the street and nodded. “My father would say they were jealous. While you create, they can only destroy. But both must exist.”
“Why must they both exist? Why can we not have nice things without some asshole coming along and having a dummy spit because they don’t think they’re getting enough?”
She lifted one eyebrow and pulled a face. “Shall I pretend I understood all of that?”
Noah gave her a weak smile, forgetting that her English was good but not perfect. “It doesn’t matter. I am miserable and annoyed and poor company today.”
Even Pan hadn’t wanted to stick around. After last night, before the protest, he’d thought something had changed. Or almost changed. Maybe. Whatever. Who was he to guess at what a god wanted?
Samiah held out her fist, and Noah gave her a fist bump. “So today we are miserable and tomorrow we find a scrap of hope and move on.”
“I guess so. What will you do about the houses?”
“Repair what we can and salvage the rest.” She shrugged. “What else can we do? The longer we stay in the rec center, the higher tensions become between kinds.”
“My uncle, the principal of the school where the humans without houses are staying, said the same thing.”
“Water is a problem for us and the businesses over the road. We want to make a deal with them, but we aren’t sure what is considered fair, and I am of the understanding that a verbal agreement is not binding here. Your word is not taken seriously.”
“When it comes to money, that is true. What kind of deal?”
“They will pay to have the water connected faster, but they want to know how our toilets work because they need them.”
Noah grimaced, recalling Feryn’s horror that water had to be paid for.
“There are many problems with that. Once the water is connected, you will need to pay, and without jobs, you will not be able to. Once the business owners understand how your toilet works, they will create more and sell them to other humans, so you get nothing.”
“I see.”
“We do have something similar, but it isn’t widely used, and I suspect that it is not approved for residential areas.” He didn’t know enough about water and sewage, and he didn’t know who to ask. “Perhaps offer to install them, and request payment.”
“And the water?”
“At the moment, the city has to provide it for free because so many are without. I know that means carrying it.”
“We are also collecting it, putting our bathtubs outside along with jugs.”
“Rainwater tanks are a thing…but they cost money.”
“Everything in your world costs money; you do not trade or offer favors.”
“Amongst friends, we may swap or trade or help each other out, but not with businesses. You ran a carpentry business. Did you accept favors?”
“Yes. There were times when we needed something, and instead of payment, we offered a trade. The butcher needed a new bed when he got married; we accepted a deer carcass each month for three months. Besides,” She pulled something out of her pocket.
“Some of us have money.” The coins on the leather strip jangled.
They were gold and silver with a hole through the middle.
“But we do not know what they are worth.”
Noah gave the coins a poke with the tip of his finger. “Are they pure gold and silver?”
“Yes… What else would they be?”
“They are worth a lot. Anything you have that is made out of gold or silver is worth a lot, and you would do well to warn others that all wealth and jewelry should be hidden from the greedy hands of those who would take advantage of the situation and your lack of knowledge of this world.”
“Yet you give this knowledge freely without payment.”
“I have an agreement with Silas.”
Samiah’s lips curved and her eyebrows lifted, suggesting the agreement involved sexual favors. Noah’s cheeks heated. He couldn’t deny it without her wanting to know the truth. “Mmm. He is acting lord and you are his…assistant.”
When she said it like that, it sounded even worse. “I can sense magic, but I cannot use it.”
“Oh…” she nodded as if that explained everything. “You are working to bring magic back.”
He wished it was that clear, or that easy. “We are…just working.”
“We are thinking of turning the first house that we pulled apart into the memorial. Jarot has almost finished his sculpture. I said I would build a surround for it, and I think Pan would appreciate it.” She gave him a curious glance. “Silas says he has been offering blessings.”
“I think that is a good idea.”
“It is hard to pray when it feels as though no one is listening. I usually cast my wishes for Lugh, not a popular god in this city-state, but there were enough of us that we felt as though our voices were heard by him.”
“Perhaps the lack of magic means he cannot hear.”
“Or he is dead.” She stared out across the road at the pile of dragon poop.
“I have learned that is another difference between us and humans. We acknowledge that our gods are mortal, fallible. They are not perfect, and they make mistakes. However, they are connected to magic in ways we cannot imagine. Without them, magic would be a wild and uncontrollable force, the way it was when the worlds were created.”
“I don’t know that story. Here, some people believe the world was created in seven days and that there is only one God.”
Samiah laughed. “I have heard your tales because a priest came to the rec center. He was very keen to talk but not to listen. I hope most humans are like you and not like him. Because people who do not listen are unwilling to learn and adapt.” She drew in a breath.
“I will add my prayers to the others for Pan, and perhaps we can gather a mote of magic for him to bless us with.”
“I am sure he will appreciate it.”
She gave him that look again, and Noah suspected that she knew the truth but was unwilling to be the first one to say it. “I feel it would be good for the people to hear from one of the gods.”
“You are not the only one.” But he couldn’t force Pan to do anything. No one could. “Perhaps when the shrine is complete, everyone can make the same prayer.”
Her pale eyebrows drew together. “One prayer instead of hundreds. Since there is less magic to carry it to his ears, perhaps we need to speak with one voice. Wise words from a human.”
Noah smiled. He wasn’t human, not really. The only people who’d noticed were the werewolves because they smelled the sea on his skin, and the drak who claimed his aura was that of a selkie. “They are only words.”
“Words have power, Noah. Even without magic, they can heal or wound.”
“True.”
“And because you have shared wisdom with me, I will share with you. Your friend with the dark hair.”
“Web?”
“You would be wise not to trust him.”
Noah silently groaned. What had Web done now? “He is struggling with all of this.”
“Mmm. That is an interesting way of putting it, but that is not what I’m talking about. He is jealous of you, and not in the way that friends often are while still wishing you the best.”
Noah raked his teeth over his lip. This was not the first time someone had warned him about Web.
And to be honest, it was something he had noticed himself before the collapse.
It was why, when he went looking for what he now knew were magical items, he never invited Web, because Web would try to take them for himself.
If Web knew about the coat, he’d probably steal it or try to destroy it. Which would kill him. He shivered and tried to blame the cold.
“Thank you for the warning…but I don’t know how to untangle myself from that friendship without creating more ill will.”
“You should have cast it into the fire last night.” Samiah stood and offered her hand to help him up.
His ass was cold and numb from sitting on the step. “Human New Year will be here soon enough, perhaps I’ll do it then.”
“Human New Year?” She laughed. “That has no significance. Better to use the winter solstice fires.”
That was a major tidal event, the shortest day of the year. After that, the days would lengthen. Looking back, whenever he’d gotten together with Liam and Web on the solstices, something had always felt different. “That’s a good idea. Thank you.”
“I will let the palace know when the memorial and shrine to Pan are ready.” She walked away, and Noah stood there for a moment, not sure what to do next. He should probably help with the records that were taken last night.
They’d need to make copies and take them when they finally got a meeting with the council. There was that feeling again that he was swimming so far out of his depth that the bottom no longer existed, and all he could do was continue or drown.
Did selkies drown?