4. A Confusing Bargain is Struck
A Confusing Bargain is Struck
A blinkboar stood on the bank twenty paces away. Its wiry hair stuck out even in the rain, tusks curving as long as her arms. It must have scented the blood, pungent and fresh.
Fear wasn’t a sensation Pearl cared to acknowledge.
But it drifted around her now. Humans were soft and squishy, easily taken down by bullets, and always predictably terrestrial.
A blinkboar’s hide was thick and their shifting reality made them difficult to fight.
Unless she got incredibly lucky, her bullets would only annoy it, perhaps slow it.
Pearl hadn’t brought any blight-packed bullets with her.
She blinked and the creature was closer.
She stepped back. Like most of the beasts that roamed this land, they were scavengers first and had easier meat here than Pearl. She started to edge sideways, hoping to move around, but a second blinkboar stood by the tree line.
The water was quickly becoming her best option, and it wasn’t a good one.
The first blinkboar snuffled the air as it padded forward. One moment it was twenty paces away, but the next it was ten, shifting through space in a way that shouldn’t have been possible.
Pearl retreated, walking backward up the gorge, the exact opposite direction she needed to be.
The sun had set beyond the heavy clouds, the world already darkening with the shadows of dusk. She was out of time. She raised the weapon and fired.
The beast blinked forward and to the side. It would’ve been a good shot, but as it was, it only hit because it was such close range. The bullet sank into the blinkboar’s front haunch.
It squawked and grunted, stumbling. But it didn’t stop.
Shit. She turned to run.
A massive shape swooped above her, sending a gust of grit swirling into Pearl’s eyes.
The blur of wings picked up the rapidly encroaching blinkboar. The boar squealed as muscled arms clamped around it, claws on the ends of large hands digging into its bullet-slowing hide and leaving bloody marks.
The blinkboar struggled as the gargoyle lifted it into the air. Pearl watched in shock as the two shot into the sky until she could barely make them out. Then the goyle released.
The boar fell. It flashed erratically, moving sideways and back up, but not enough to stop the fall.
It crashed into the water, sending a spray and wave up the bank.
It appeared once as it was swept away by the swift current, blinking on the other side before disappearing, leaving a terrified squeal.
The goyle landed in a crouch, the thud reverberating up Pearl’s boots. Slickrock-colored wings, like dusty leather and velvet, flared as it bared its fangs toward the remaining blinkboar.
It was a terrifying face. The features resembled a human, but in just the wrong ways, exaggerated and contorted into something entirely different. Against earthy skin, hair the color of red dirt tangled around two low horns curling back from the skull.
Pearl had seen the silhouette of a living goyle before, on a distant moonlit ridge, and once, when she was young, had encountered a sleeping stone one during the day.
It was one of the few times Pearl remembered hearing alarm in Sheriff Oak’s voice, when she warned Pearl never ever to go near one, and to walk lightly.
There was nothing worse than waking a sleeping goyle.
This one wasn’t stone, though. It was very much awake.
Goyles had been shaped by a long-dead god, one of the many that had perished in the Sundering War that established the Amelior Empire hundreds of years ago. Their form was designed to instill fear. And doing a fine job.
The goyle bellowed at the remaining blinkboar, which didn’t stick around to be the next victim.
The sound sent shivers of terror over Pearl’s skin.
The boar ran, blinking rapidly back up the gorge and out of sight, and Pearl wished she could follow it.
She stood perfectly still instead, not breathing, feet unsteady beneath her, knowing she couldn’t outrun the goyle.
Perhaps if she didn’t move, it wouldn’t notice her.
Just as she thought that, the goyle unfurled from its crouched position and faced her.
The creature loomed against the darkening sky, at least seven feet tall.
A poorly constructed leather garment didn’t conceal much of her figure, wrapping over one bulging shoulder and ending around her muscular thighs.
Her features were still alarming, but at least she wasn’t baring her teeth.
She was a deadly statue brought to life.
And why in the hells was she here, looking at Pearl?
“Hello,” the goyle said. Her voice rumbled like rocks over a riverbed.
Pearl jerked in surprise. She hadn’t expected her to speak. Pearl leveled the revolver at the goyle’s face. “I didn’t think your kind ate humans.”
Wings twitched and the goyle recoiled into a defensive crouch on the ground. “We do not.” She still looked just as massive.
Lightning streaked across the sky and thunder rolled right after. Pearl glanced at the river. She needed to get out of here.
“What d’you want?” Pearl asked. To her alarm, the gun started to waver. Her grip was always steady. But her body was protesting. She ignored it.
The goyle tilted a horned head. “To…help?” she said, as if asking a question.
“Me? Why?”
The goyle didn’t answer. It was growing too dark for Pearl to see well, and her nerves jittered.
“What d’you expect in return?” Pearl asked again.
“Nothing.”
Pearl didn’t believe her. “Folks don’t do things for no reason, and you’d no reason to do that. So what do you want?”
After a long pause, the goyle finally spoke. “What is your name?”
Pearl didn’t think it was dangerous to give away that information. If the goyle was speaking to her, she wasn’t skinning her with those claws. “Pearl.”
“Pearl,” the goyle repeated, the name rolling and rumbling in chorus with the thunder.
Pearl slowly edged sideways, and the shape of the horned head tracked her. The goyle shifted to mirror her, effectively blocking her.
“State your price,” Pearl said. “Lemme go and I’ll do whatever you ask.” It was a terrible promise, but Pearl was desperate.
“My name is Driz.”
Pearl gritted her teeth. The goyle, Driz, spoke slowly and carefully, and it did nothing to help Pearl’s agitation. Cornered, she had to quell the reaction to lash out. She didn’t feel like dying if she could help it. “Alright, Driz. Answer my question so I can leave. What do you want?”
The rain fell harder and she could see even less. She moved sideways again, the other way.
“Time,” Driz finally said, and Pearl stopped.
“What?”
“I want time.”
Pearl scowled into the darkness. “I can’t tell if you’re being serious.”
“Why would I not be?”
“I don’t have time right now. And that’s not something you can bargain for. Just tell me a thing you need. Anything. Like supplies, money. Or what about new clothes? Because whatever that is—” Pearl gestured toward the hazy shape of Driz’s body. “—is just dreadful. No offense.”
The goyle looked down, running those large hands over her torso. “Very well. I would like clothes.”
“Great.” Pearl was still wary. Driz had agreed too easily. “What sort?”
“Like yours.”
“Done. Gimme a few days to get them pulled together.” Pearl took another tentative step, and Driz didn’t attempt to stop her.
“You will bring them to me?”
“Sure.”
“Where?”
Pearl thought quickly. “You know where Salt Bluff is?”
The head tilted again.
“The nearest town. Below the bluffs with the big salt fields?”
“Yes.”
The speed of that answer disconcerted her. “There’s a ravine just south of the bend in the river. I’ll meet you there in three days.”
“At dusk?”
“Sure.”
“I will be there.”
Pearl nodded, afraid she’d just made a deal with a devil. Not that they had any of those anymore either. She edged past, and the goyle did not stop her.
So she turned and ran.
Driz tried to keep her distance as she followed Pearl.
Pearl. Driz repeated the name to herself, relishing it.
Pearl’s human eyes struggled and the rain slowed her progress. She must have been exhausted, and still she ran with a purpose regardless of the uneven ground that grew slick with rain and mud. When she stumbled, she got up again.
Driz buzzed with excitement that she had spoken—actually spoken—to a human. To Pearl. And she would again. In three days.
Driz watched and listened for other things in the night that might also be watching.
A pack of coyotes caught Pearl’s scent, but when Driz landed near them and growled, they scattered.
Few things would challenge a goyle, even in flesh form, when the terror of their nature flared.
Driz hadn’t needed to use it often in her life.
She was a little scared of the thrill it gave her.
As she followed Pearl through the night and made sure she was safe, it filled a void inside her.
It satisfied a drive that had never found direction.
She had been created as a guardian but had nothing to protect.
She defended her trove of treasures from passing curious beasts, but it wasn’t like this.
She needed to be careful.
Rain dripped decadently from her wings. She tracked Pearl easily, both from the air and on foot. The human didn’t notice her, which was the point. But Driz wanted Pearl to notice her. To look at her again. Even to threaten her again with her weapon.
Driz suddenly worried about the wound on Pearl’s arm. Driz didn’t know much about human healing, but they did heal. How fast? Driz didn’t have to worry much about that herself. She was young enough that the stone sleep erased most injuries in a single day, sometimes two.
Driz thought about swooping down and gathering Pearl into her arms to carry her back to the humans of Salt Bluff.
It would be so much faster, and they would know what to do for her.
But Driz worried Pearl might shoot her if she approached.
Driz wasn’t certain a single shot could kill her.
If it were aimed right, especially this early at night, it might.
So she did her part by sweeping the area and making sure Pearl’s long, arduous journey home went as smoothly as possible.
It was near midnight by the time the lights of the town appeared, and after midnight by the time Pearl reached it. Driz landed on the roof of a shed, which creaked beneath her weight, and watched Pearl stumble past the swaths of square, drying salt fields, reverted to a shiny brine by the rain.
Pearl made it safely into town, and Driz was glad. But she already itched to see her again.
Driz slid to the ground and crept closer. She loved to watch towns, but she always kept her distance. Tonight she was reckless and emboldened by her conversation.
The town of Salt Bluff was oriented along a main road, with a few clusters of houses scattered off the sides of an intersecting street near the center.
The buildings crowded close together, many sharing walls and standing two stories, made of wood or of mudded bricks.
Despite the lateness of the night, lamps burned beneath eaves on covered porches.
Pearl walked under one to enter a structure near the center of the main road.
Across the street from that, light poured out from an open doorway, along with voices and a bright, vibrating music.
Momentarily distracted, Driz listened, trying to memorize and follow the pattern of sounds.
She longed to get closer, but she was already too close, so she tucked herself against the side of the building at the end of the main row and waited.
She didn’t have to wait long.
The door Pearl had entered burst open, and a different woman exited.
She was tall for a human, like Pearl, her dark-and-silver hair braided over her shoulder, her hat and long coat in a similar style to Pearl’s.
As she strode across the street, Driz noticed her gait was not quite even, the sound of her footfalls different from each other.
One thudded unexpectedly. It did not diminish the confidence in her walk.
She marched into the noisy building and emerged again holding a man by his collar. She dragged him behind her as he laughed and stumbled, until she rounded on him. He went silent and nodded, straightening his shirt and running away down the street, returning with a leather bag.
Driz remained there as long as she dared, pressed against the wall. The sounds of the boisterous building dulled, and people staggered away, out into the night and to other buildings. One came toward her and she flattened herself, going motionless. A door right behind her opened and closed again.
Driz shouldn’t have come here. But she didn’t leave.
She didn’t see Pearl or the other woman again, but at some point, the man and his bag exited. Only when the faint light of dawn glowed on the horizon did Driz slip away, slinking on foot until she was past the second line of salt fields, where she opened her wings.
She had things to do before the sun broke the sky.