Chapter 3
Chapter
Three
I felt better after I woke up the next afternoon, having slept like the dead from the moment I’d crashed after my long, delicious bath. I’d also napped a bit in the tub, but that’s what happened when a building fell on top of you.
After I finally dressed, I looked like a fairy garden threw up on me. I hadn’t noticed the sparkles on the slim floral pants while I was in the shop. Oh well. They went with the sparkly slippers with embroidered flowers all over them. They weren’t cozy slippers. Nope. They were pointed and had a small heel, but weren’t terribly uncomfortable. I could wear my boots, but they weren’t spelled to keep me out of harm’s way, so I wore the fairy slippers along with the rest of the garish costume. Oh well. No one would recognize me in these clothes, particularly once I put on the wide-brimmed hat with flowers poking up all over the brim. They swayed as I walked, carrying Yaga in my arms as the final accessory of my outfit. No, that was the broken harp I still had slung over my back.
The new sushi place was in a part of Song I didn’t usually visit, not that I really had time to hang out in Song even if I had the motivation. I felt better, more hopeful after my rest, and I was humming under my breath as I took the stairs from the apartment through the Lydian, and down into the bowels of the earth where it became a different building filled with infernal creatures. I didn’t see anyone on the stairs, like monsters preferred elevators.
“Where’s a pretty little girl like you going all by yourself?” A monster growled as he came into sight as I neared the bottom floor. He was half-shifted, so his ears and fur let me know exactly what I was dealing with.
I smiled brightly. Werewolves were the backbone of the musician’s group I was slowly gathering from Song. “Your voice is splendid! In the lower ranges? How high can you sing?”
He gave me a double-take and pressed himself to the wall as he came towards me, obvious fear in his eyes. “You don’t look like the new music master.” He sniffed and then flinched. “You are the new music master. Look, I don’t want any trouble. I’m just here to visit my niece. Neither of us have good voices.” He spoke with a gurgle, like he was intentionally trying to distort his tone.
I sighed heavily but still passed him my card as he tried to slip by. “If you should change your mind, or if your conscience presses upon you along with the weight of Sing above us, always threatening to fall into Song and crush everything unless we uphold the city with the power and magic of song, give me a call.”
He took the card then, once he was safely past me, sprinted up the stairs like a monster was after him. I was smiling rather cheerfully after that. Nothing felt better than putting the fear of musical responsibility into a werewolf.
The streets weren’t terribly busy, but shops were starting to open for the night shift, the time when Singsong’s undercity really came to life. Ha. As if you could call the shuffling undead alive.
As I walked towards the new sushi place, I checked my phone for directions. It should be directly past this block. A building with enormous lion sculptures guarding the steps, made out of beige limestone, stretched up to the cavern’s roof on my right, and on my left was a garden with a distant castle poking up behind trees. The distance to the castle wasn’t possible since you could see above the garden another building through the block that should have come down much closer than the other side of the castle. It was a pocket of extra space tucked into Song. Was it legal to put something like that in the undercity? It couldn’t be structurally sound. I had no idea about licensing, but the magical garden and distant castle were very pretty. Several pixies and vampires walking towards me then turned through the gate, arrows pointing to ‘Wonderland.’
Ah, Wonderland. That’s right, one of the werewolves in my singing group had said something about losing his shirt in Wonderland, which was apparently a casino where you went because you wanted to lose your shirt. I looked down at my floral robe and underneath to the tight tank top with a flower-shaped cut-outs along the hem which was a few inches above the line of my floral pants. They probably wouldn’t take my shirt or my robe. So why did that make me happy? It did. I felt happier than I had in a long time, maybe because my dreams had been filled with ogres rescuing me even though I absolutely did not need anyone to rescue me, particularly an ogre. Except that without that monster, I’d be dead. He’d saved me for no reason that I could tell, simply because he’d wanted to.
There was good in the world, and that meant that there was hope. If an ogre could do good, then surely there was a reason to smile. The lamps down here were tuned and sang beautifully for me, like they recognized me as a friend, and I sang back, not loud enough for anyone to notice, but greeting them like old friends. Had I tuned this part of town or had Libby? Either way, it was lovely.
When I got to the corner past Wonderland, the street to my left was filled with pawnshops and a place advertising rooms by the hour. A brothel? Shudder. My brother used to go to a brothel frequented by vampires and poison them with his angel blood. It was the weirdest thing to think that he’d willingly let an infernal creature chew on his skin, but he said it was quite enjoyable, relaxing, like getting a back massage or getting drunk. He couldn’t get drunk, not really, and a massage with his huge angel wings would be terribly awkward, so I wasn’t sure how he knew that they were similar. Anyway, my father had been quite displeased at my brother openly going to brothels to get blood-sucked, but since it wasn’t immoral, he couldn’t stop him. Eventually, he was banned by the brothel owners themselves, because sick vampires were bad for business, I guess. Angel blood was addictive and practically irresistible, but someone had resisted and Richard had spent weeks afterwards playing music with me until he found a new hobby in the weapons forge.
My interests never changed. And here I was in Singsong City, the most musically magical city in the world, slowly bringing the music back to life. How could I help being happy? I stepped off the curb, hurrying across the street before the spider-looking vehicle got to me. You know, legs instead of wheels, and some top-hatted infidel riding on top of the mechanical and magical creature. I’d seen those kinds of things on battlefields. It was ludicrous to see an enormous spider mech being ridden down a mostly civilized street. I stood on the curb watching him ride by, staring too openly because he noticed and raised his hat.
I stepped back when I saw the small horns, the glittering black eyes, the red wings and tail and then he was around the corner, heading towards Wonderland.
I watched the upper-level devil riding a battle bot until he’d entered the portal and the last leg had disappeared into that other world. Devils were cousins to demons, less physically powerful but twice as wily. And he was at home in Singsong’s underbelly. Why was I here again?
I turned around to continue on my way and saw a flash of a handsome face sporting delicate tusks before a spell hit me, paralyzing me and making me blind. I froze up stiff like a board and would have fallen like ‘timber’ but he caught me, putting me over his shoulder like a pole, completely ignoring all the defenses my silk robe was supposed to have. I was blind, but I could still feel his hand gripping my calves and higher while he carried me, incapable of movement, but filled with a rising sense of absolute outrage.
How dare some person throw a spell like that in public?! Didn’t anyone else see? Someone must have noticed, but did anyone care in Song? I struggled fiercely against the bindings of the spell, but I couldn’t move enough to even bite my lip to summon the blood necessary to unravel his bindings. It was an ogre. What in the world would an ogre want with me here? No one knew that I was the daughter of the Commander of the Holy Order of the Swords of Truth. Otherwise, my dad would know that I was the current music master of Singsong city, and he wouldn’t just leave me here. Because I was too defenseless for someone so valuable. Was this about controlling his forces? Ransom? The last time I’d been kidnapped by ogres, my dad had paid whatever price they’d asked of him to get me back. That wasn’t going to happen again, but how could I get away when I couldn’t even move?
He only carried me for a few minutes before the chill air warmed and he tossed me. I landed and bounced on a bed. In a flash of light that left me blinking, the world came back into focus. I glared up at my captor, who was none other than the pretty ogre from the mayor’s office the day before. I still couldn’t move, but I could glare. Not that I could narrow my eyes, but I could certainly convey a world of rage in my gaze if he had even a semblance of awareness of other people’s emotions, which he probably didn’t because he was an ogre and went around kidnapping people.
He studied me where I lay on the bed beneath him with a slightly cocked head, looking me up and down as if analyzing the pattern of flowers. “Nice spelling,” he said conversationally. His voice was rich, melodious, the kind of voice that could blend in a choir to elevate its overall tone or stand solo.
Wait. A tall, strong, brutal male was standing over a young woman on a bed. I wasn’t the most beautiful creature in the world unless I was playing an angelic harp of heavenly gold which absolutely made me glow, but I was decent enough, young, and maybe looked like an innocent. I wasn’t experienced with men in the ways of romance, first because my father would kill any man who dared touch me, but mostly because my heart was fully occupied with music as its first and only love. If this ogre thought that he could subject me to his lustful ways, or sell me into some revolting sex market, I was in luck. The second the spell relaxed, I’d fill him with bolts of heavenly lightning until he was lit up with it. He’d change his career fast enough after that.
“I apologize for your discomfort,” he said and then had the nerve to bow! Like an apology worked while he was still doing the thing he was supposed to be apologizing for. Idiot. He tapped his full bottom lip with graceful fingers while he kept staring at me like he wasn’t sure what to do with me. If he was an experienced kidnapper of young women to sell into a sex ring, he probably wouldn’t look like that. Also, he was quite pretty if you didn’t mind tusks. If he went to a bar where women who consorted with males went, no doubt he could find someone who was interested. No, and he wasn’t looking at my body like it was an object, but my face, my eyes, like he was gauging my character or staring at me as though I was breathtakingly lovely.
He snapped his fingers and the spell partially released. Ah, he’d been mentally altering the spell, not just staring at me like I was too beautiful to be real. That did make more sense.
“How dare you take me like that? And this?” I looked around, finally able to move my head. The room was dingy, all shades of brownish gray, and the bed looked like it had massage settings, or it used to before it broke fifty years ago. “Is this the hourly motel place? It is! You put me on the bed of a cockroach-infested, disease-ridden brothel?” I snarled and tried to gather up my music magic to burn him to nothing, but the magic had a damper on it, like he’d drugged me. “Did you drug me?” I sputtered and stared at the monster before me. How dare he? He just stood there studying me thoughtfully, perhaps weaving more invisible spells, perhaps considering what to do with me. And I was in a brothel! Maybe he did mean to sell me to this place. My eyes widened while horror eclipsed the outrage. If my dad ever found out that I, the daughter of the Commander of the Holy Order of the Swords of Truth had been sold to a brothel, he'd marry me to the most unyielding lion that would take me and I’d be locked up forever.
His voice was an attractive low rumble. “I did inject you with a small cocktail that should wear off before too long, but do not worry, I will protect you until it is dispelled.”
I snorted. “Oh, thanks. Now I’m so assured. Are you insane? You don’t kidnap people in brothels and then expect the victim to be fine with it. Release me at once or I’ll summon my fierce familiar and it will devour your soul!”
He pursed his lips slightly. “It bothers you to be found in a brothel or to be kidnapped?”
“Bothers me?” I sputtered for a few seconds. Seriously? He was still staring at me like I was the weird one around here. Yes, I was wearing florals, and yes, my hat had flowers growing out of the brim, but I wasn’t running around kidnapping people, dragging them to brothels and expecting them to be fine with it.
“You seem unsettled,” he said smoothly, like I hadn’t noticed.
“You kidnapped me!” I roared. “Yaga, attack!”
Instead of my chicken appearing in a flurry of feathers and flames, I found myself with a strong, blue-hued hand over my mouth.
“Let me reassure you that you are the first female I’ve kidnapped. I only meant to use these few hours in conference with the noble music master of this fair city, not as any sort of depraved practice involving your virtue.”
I glared over his hand, which smelled strangely home-like, jasmine wood polish and cold wind. An odd embarrassment crept through my rage. He was suggesting that I was a virgin, or that I wasn’t a virgin, but either way was absolutely not something we could discuss. Was I blushing? At this stage of yelling, he probably couldn’t tell.
He continued with an odd gentleness. “If you summon your familiar again, after exerting yourself and the creature so much yesterday, you’re bound to harm one of you. Do you promise to listen to me before you shout for your creature? Although, to be honest, I’m not sure what it could do to save you.”
I glared at him. Sure, I’d totally promise to listen to him. Right. And then I’d take him to the authorities.
He slowly pulled his hand away, his hands the perfect mixture of graceful and calloused.
“You’ve kidnapped other music masters?” Not that I was the actual master of singsong city, but I was too happy to think such depressing thoughts. Ha! As if kidnapped victims had the luxury of being in a good mood. Yaga would show up soon enough on her own whether I summoned her or not. I spent months after I’d left home trying to get rid of her after I nursed her back to health when I found her on the side of the road. I’d been hitchhiking across the country, so it wasn’t exactly a great idea to have a flaming chicken with you. The ogre didn’t know the kind of chaos a flaming chicken could cause. Then again, he was an ogre, and what were the odds that he’d hesitate to eat her? Sometimes I was tempted to eat her.
His voice was soothing. “No, but artisans of various positions the world over. Ogre society is changing from the simple war machine they’ve been traditionally into tradespeople and…”
He kept talking, but I couldn’t hear him through my own laughter. Sure, the ogres were going to put up their battle axes and open hat shops. The thought of the massive ogre who had saved me yesterday handing people hats to try on and grunting his approval when the customer picked out a winner had me gasping for breath. In my mind’s eye, I dressed him in a three-piece suit with a top-hat like the devil had been wearing. I suddenly stopped laughing, and found my captor studying me with a brow raised, like he wasn’t sure if I’d gone insane. That big burly ogre would look shockingly good in a three-piece suit with or without the hat.
“I beg your pardon for my outburst,” I said, all starchy good manners. “You want to discuss ogres opening a music shop in singsong city with me?” The second I got a chance, I’d stab a dagger in his eye and run.
He frowned slightly. “No, I already have a music shop here. That’s what I was waiting on the mayor for. He’s shown the usual reluctance most of that kind give when asked to allow an ogre for a license, but he gave it to me. Down here in Song there are more illegal businesses than legal, but I wanted to make certain it was strictly legal because ogres tend to be disliked even by the variations of the chaotic division. Being strictly legal means that I can address the mayor when the vampires want to throw us out.”
He sounded so sincere and his voice was annoyingly delicious, hitting me in the music feels like a well-tuned cello. He also spoke like this was a serious situation that we had to be prepared for because vampires just didn’t want to give ogres a chance. Poor things. I sniffed and narrowed my eyes at him. Even if he had a delicious voice, there was no way I was listening to him. “Oh the injustice. How sad that the ogres don’t have rights, says the guy who kidnapped me taking away all of my rights!”
He smiled at me like I was being funny. Agh! Was there anything more frustrating? Also frustrating was how handsome he looked with those soft lips curved, revealing more of his delicate tusks. How could anything ogre-related be that pretty? After ten minutes, I was already showing signs of Stockholm’s syndrome. Just what I needed. He continued, “I apologize. I tried to speak to you yesterday, but you ran away from me. That’s how it usually goes, which is why I began kidnapping those I wished to speak with. Things go much smoother that way. Forgive me for taking your time. I will get to the point. You want money. I want my niece placed at the Music Hall directly under your care. I believe that we can come to a mutually satisfying arrangement.”
I stared at him while my sense of outrage competed with my absolute bemusement. He wanted me to take in a young ogre musician? If her voice was anything close to his in smoothness and tone, I’d accept her. I’d accept anyone who had the money to pay. But sadly, the fact that he’d kidnapped me did not bode well for the state of his wallet. Except that he was dressed very well, his suit clearly tailored to fit his own muscular frame. I needed to repair the music hall, fund a music school, and give Tiago the raise that he deserved. Ah, but Master Cutter was currently at my hall, meaning that I had no hall where his niece could stay. There could be no deal. Of course, there could be no deal. You didn’t make deals with ogres, particularly the ones who kidnap you and drug you with potions and spells that he shouldn’t know would be your weakness.
I smiled, trying to mimic his own gentle amusement. “I don’t make deals with terrorists. I refuse to make special allowances for someone whose merits are based solely on her uncle’s ability to force others to his will.” I sniffed and raised my chin, trying to ignore the itchy feeling spreading over my skin at the thought of what kind of bugs were probably crawling around in this room, visible and invisible.
His smile faded. “You refuse a grant for your music hall?”
Until he showed me the money, it was just smoke and mirrors. Also, I didn’t have a hall at the moment. “I refuse to make deals with kidnappers. And she’s an ogre. Without an audition, how could I possibly accept someone who probably has no ear, no tone, no talent?”
He crossed his arms and frowned at me. Finally, a rational expression on his face. “I can arrange an audition.”
I snorted delicately. Right. I don’t snort delicately. “And we’re out on a date eating sushi together. You can’t kidnap people and call it a business meeting.”
“I can. I have several times.”
“You can’t kidnap me!” I screeched at him while my skin shivered from the probable lice that I would never get out of my long hair in a million years. I tried so hard to move, but I could barely shiver. I felt like a bug pinned to a board with him standing over me, judging me, not remotely interested in having his way with me. I was probably more attracted to him than he was to me. Stupid Stockholm syndrome.
He took a step back and his pleasant expression became quite serious, quite severe. “I see. Well, I can’t keep you here in a public hourly hotel until you’ve capitulated, so I will have to render you unconscious. My apologies.” He came forward and then stabbed me in the neck with a syringe. The nice thing about the potion he’d shot me up with is that it loosened the spell he’d cast on me, or he’d dropped it once he’d administered the drug.
I was in a public place. I started screaming, lurching towards him and the door, but my legs were already long strands of noodles and I only succeeded at tripping and falling into his arms. I took a breath to scream again while looking up at his impassive face.
Instead of screaming, I slurred, “There are silence spells on this room?”
He raised one brow. “It is one of the benefits of having an hourly room. They update their silence spells regularly, otherwise they’d have to provide better insulation.” He picked me up, tossing me slightly, so I was more comfortably in his arms, then snagged my harp and carried me towards the door. My eyes were drifting closed, however hard I tried to keep them open.
“I can see that I approached this the wrong way,” he murmured. I hated how smooth and silky his voice was with this ripple of growl along the edges.
“It’s almost like ogres have no sense of what civilized looks like.”
“Mm. I will have to work on it. We are determined to make civilization an option for anyone who wants it.”
“Such…enlighten…” I drifted off mid-word and probably had the best sleep I’d had in a long time.