6. Pie #2
“Well, the kind Molly makes is incredible. Best you could ever have. I’ll bring you one if you do something for me.”
When Pearl had tried to think of what to offer a creature who didn’t appear to have or want anything, the pie seemed as good a thing as any. If Driz would accept a pair of clothes, a delicious pie might be as tempting.
She reluctantly moved her hand away from her revolver and into her pocket, withdrawing a map. “A caravan should’ve arrived days ago, but it hasn’t. From the city. You know the road?” Pearl shook out the paper and showed it to Driz.
Driz’s gaze slid from Pearl’s face to the map, and back. She slowly stepped closer and reached, almost hesitant.
She carefully took the map. Her large hands were more elegant than Pearl had expected, the nails on the ends of her long, strong fingers sharp and clawlike.
“I have seen many roads,” Driz said. “I do not know what these lines mean. Show me.”
Pearl pointed out Salt Bluff, and the river, and the road, attempting to ignore the fact that she was standing only an arm’s length from a goyle.
Driz’s eyes tracked Pearl’s own hands, as if mesmerized by them, and Pearl was very aware of her cracked, roughened knuckles and nail beds.
“There should be five wagons, painted red. If you can tell me if they’re intact and on the road—or if they’re not—I’ll bring you that pie.”
“I can do that.” Her wings rustled, catching the light.
This had to be one of Pearl’s worst ideas ever. “Can you be back by dawn? We’re riding out then, and I wanna know what we’re looking for.”
“Yes.”
“Then I’ll meet you here.”
Driz flew through the night sky, following the lines of the road captured on the map Pearl had shown her.
She spotted several wagons along the route, all stopped as their occupants made camp.
Driz quickly dismissed them. Wrong number, and wrong color.
Someone was singing by a crackling fire.
Driz slowed, longing to linger and listen, but she had a focus.
She had a purpose. She moved onward, humming to herself, trying to recreate the tune.
Pearl had asked Driz for help. No one had ever done that, and Driz would not let her down.
The wind caught her wings and she used it to climb higher.
The stars stretched above in the clear sky.
Soaring under the endless stars was one of the things that had always brought Driz a bit of joy.
She loved it when it stormed and the rain dampened her wings, but she also loved it when it was so clear she thought she might see forever if she just looked.
Would Pearl enjoy this sight? Perhaps one day Driz could show her.
Driz appreciated the scene for a moment before she forced her gaze down and continued her hunt.
She only had tonight to search and could cover a lot more ground in the air than humans could on foot, but she couldn’t risk being late to meet Pearl in the morning. And her pie. Driz didn’t know what a pie was, but if it came from Pearl, Driz would accept it gladly.
She tracked the movement of the moon and the stars, stopping briefly to eat. Finding a handful of scorpions, she twisted off their spicy stingers first to enjoy, relishing the crunch.
The road led her until the lights of the outskirts city lit the distance. It wasn’t one of the main trio of cities that made up the human empire, but it was the one Pearl had pointed to. Driz had gone too far.
Circling wider, she started back, scanning the areas more closely.
She was passing over a series of brushy hills and valleys, imagining how a giant might have run her fingers through the landscape here, when Driz saw the canvas.
She banked to the left, drifting lower. Three wagons, painted red, rested along a dirt track running up a valley.
She had somehow missed them on the way east. Only three wagons, though.
A rocky outcropping jutted from the crest of a hill and Driz landed on it, pausing to survey the scene, catching another hint of white in the bushes. She inhaled and listened, her senses straining.
She moved quietly along the ridge. A camp was set up in a hollow, out of sight of the road and the wagons.
She made out half a dozen sleeping forms and one sitting up, the glow of the dying fire washing his face with warm light.
Behind them, stacks of crates and barrels rested.
Driz watched for a moment, to make sure no one else was nearby, and swooped low.
She passed the wagons sitting in the open.
She didn’t land, but she didn’t need to in order to see inside. They were empty.
The scene felt wrong. It wouldn’t make sense for Pearl’s townsfolk to unload their wagons and leave them so obviously in sight, right?
It reminded Driz of a creature that lured in unsuspecting prey by whining and pretending to be injured, only to strike them when they got near enough.
Driz had to warn Pearl.
She shot high, ignoring the road and taking a direct path back toward Salt Bluff. It was a while before dawn when she landed in the ravine. Her wings and back burned lightly from flying so far and long tonight, but she enjoyed the feeling. It meant she had been useful.
The clothes Pearl had brought her rested carefully where Driz had left them.
She slipped off the old leather cover she wore.
Many goyles didn’t bother covering themselves, though some clung to the vague recollection of the humanity in them.
Humans had been the base material for their creation, and Driz liked the reminder of that.
The trousers slid on easily, though they only reached to a bit past her knees, and the waist hung loose.
They shifted strangely against her skin.
Then she puzzled over the shirt. Humans didn’t have wings, and she wasn’t sure how to work the fabric around her own.
When she slid her arms into the sleeves, the top bunched beneath the joints on her back.
She hesitated to ruin the piece, but she wanted to wear it.
Extending a claw, she carefully ripped from the collar down to the middle of the back panel.
Her fingers were clumsy with the buttons, unused to the fastenings, though she got better with each one she did.
The collar gaped wide at her shoulders since she had torn the back.
Still, Driz was pleased. She used a strip from her old leather as a makeshift belt, slipping it through the loops on the trousers, and then looked down at herself, twisting and testing.
The fabric of the sleeves strained when she bunched and curled her arms, but they didn’t restrict her much. She grinned.
She felt different. She hadn’t ever considered finding human clothes that might fit her, and was grateful to Pearl for offering them.
Driz was suddenly ravenous for pie, whatever it was.
As the night drew to a close, Driz started pacing. She was eager to tell Pearl what she had discovered. What if she flew into Salt Bluff to find her? That was a terrible idea, so Driz settled for prowling up and down the ravine, poking her head out to look for Pearl.
The horizon lightened. She listened, waiting. But she didn’t hear or smell anyone coming.
Her excitement dimmed to worry, edged with something sharp. Pearl had said she would meet her before dawn. Dawn was nearly here, but Pearl was not.
Driz’s arms began to grow heavy. For the first time in a long time, she tried to fight it, but it was no use. The world narrowed and she was lost in the blank emptiness of stone.