As it turned out, a stealthy night entry or a tunnel underground hadn’t been needed to enter the governor’s mansion at all. Illusions, transformations, and nonmagical disguise were all skills beyond me, but with the right uniform and some lies, people believed you’d belong.
Or, in this case, the right armor. The guards at his gate had stood up much straighter when Uvaia and I approached in the emblazoned garb of the Ebon Company, and a few words from me with a nod to our “cargo” let them step aside and let us in with no questions. I’d had doubts how quickly Macodes could supply us armor and uniforms, but my new asura ally had let me leave with several sets, and plenty of time left in the night.
“Wow, you were right. It really worked,” Uvaia told me quietly, her talons clacking on the stone floor as we entered the manor proper. Her talons stuck out awkwardly beneath her plates of mismatched steel, but the gate guards hadn’t questioned her disguise. Honestly, I was glad we’d found armor that could fit around her wings at all.
“Of course it did. I’m always right.” I looked at the two demons we had between us, draped in rope tied in knots that looked impressive but would, in a pinch, do nothing to actually restrain them.
Seeing as these two were Sedum and Crassula, that was just what we were going for. “I wouldn’t go that far, but looks like you were right about the poor sods in here, too,” Sedum spoke, looking around with a dark expression at the manor inhabitants. “Tolmbudh below. How many of ‘em are there?”
There were more guards posted in the hall, and a few housekeepers still around despite the late hour. But whether they were wearing cheap leather armor or untailored servant’s clothes, there was one common trend around each of their necks. Slave collars. A weighty metal mark of ownership.
“Hundreds, probably. Depends how many he had killed rather than just kidnapped.” I’d thought the governor didn’t have the Ebon Company guard his home because he didn’t trust them, or was planning to relocate them elsewhere, but the real answer turned out to be much dumber and more banal. According to Macodes, her boss thought guarding the manor as well as the city would warrant a second contract with Governor Kimmei, given the size and scale of his home. That meant new monthly payments, and that meant more expenses than Kimmei was willing to pay.
So instead, he’d bribed individual Company members eager for money on the side. They’d drag in demons from the slums and clap them in collars. Known thieves and criminals, in theory, to make a show of cleaning up the city and making it safer for the rest. Not simpler, but cheaper, especially over the long run. Evidently it had been working for him so far. But that wouldn’t last much longer.
“Can’t be all of them are slaves,” Crassula spoke up, thankfully not needing a reminder to whisper. “No one to keep them in line? Whole place would collapse quick.”
Which was true. The guards outside and those with the governor earlier hadn’t been wearing collars, but it could be they’d just been removed for public appearance’s sake. Or they were loyal enough to not require it.
“Well, that’s why we’re here, isn’t it?” Sedum asked, voice a growl. “C’mon.”
I nodded, beckoning them but putting a finger to my lips when I was sure no one was looking our way. “We’re looking for a particular demon who does just that. No more talking from you two until I give the word.”
They followed me down the opulent hallway, conversation on pause between all of us. I’d initially thought Sedum might give me more pushback on this plan, but when I’d mentioned the governor’s slaves we’d be helping he’d agreed without a second thought. Needing to play a slave hadn’t been as easy a sell, but we’d agreed it wouldn’t require anything too degrading for him.
I located one of the slaves apart from the others, a vanara judging by the monkey features and tail but the lack of fur all over. He looked especially tired, slowly wiping off a bronze statue of a muscular fishlike form as I approached.
“Got a couple fresh ones to deliver,” I said, nodding to Sedum and Crassula. “Where’s the Pain-Eater?”
The cleaner stiffened up as I asked that, fatigue wiped away as fear flashed in his eyes. “He’s in his room, ma’am,” he said, with the air of an unsaid ‘and thank the gods for that’.
Not as informative as I’d have hoped. “Escort us to him. I want to make sure everything’s running smoothly.”
“What?” He jolted, gaze darting around in search of escape before he stopped, rubbing fingers on his collar with a wince. “You can’t – ma’am, I really don’t think I’ve done anything to deserve that…”
Well, tough luck for him, as we needed to find the slave-trainer if this was going to work. I opened my mouth to insist on the point, before Uvaia brushed my arm with a wing. She looked at me in mute appeal, glancing towards the vanara.
I nodded to her after a slight hesitation, and Uvaia stepped forward. “We’re not going to do anything bad to you. My partner and I are new recruits, so it’s our first time doing this.” She spoke softly, meeting his eyes with an earnest look even as she veered far closer to the truth than I’d wanted to admit aloud to anyone. “We just need directions to his room, and we’ll be out of your hair?”
I was expecting it to all go wrong – surely that would be too suspicious, new recruits here at such a late hour, and showing respect to the slaves to boot?
But the vanara just relaxed, sighing out as tension slid off his shoulders. “Better you than me, I’ll tell you that,” he told Uvaia, bowing his head. “The Pain-Eater’s down in the cellar, he has a room past the wine barrels.” He looked at Sedum and Uvaia, hesitating like he might say something more, but settled on just a grim nod.
“You might want to come along after all,” Sedum spoke up unexpectedly, and I swallowed a curse, glaring at him. Damn it, people, stop going off-script! “See something satisfying, that way.”
The vanara jumped as the tied-up orc spoke, giving Sedum a bewildered look but one that slowly melted into curiosity. “I’m going to stay far away,” he pointed out, but followed as we moved on, still holding uncertainly to his towel.
No one else stopped us as we went downstairs, but over the musty smell of dust and barrels, venturing into the basement brought with it the smell of blood. Nearing a stone slab of a door, I could see a puddle of it leaking underneath. I took a breath and pushed the door open.
The scent of butchery that hit me was almost a physical wall in itself, but I pushed past it. There was one living demon in the room. The other bodies were clearly that. Living people had more organs. And limbs.
A pale, dark-haired incubus lounged in a chair amid a series of spiked metal and wood devices, bodies stretched over them in a grisly tableau. Under other circumstances he might have been called handsome, with a well-toned physique he showed off by a lack of clothing save a loincloth. I didn’t know if it had been red originally, but it did match well with his wings, horns, and eyes.
His long nails were coated with blood and flecked with bits of gore, and as his crimson eyes flicked my way he licked a piece of flesh off one claw. “What’s this? More toys needing to be taught to behave?” he asked in a smooth voice. For a second I thought we’d need to fight earlier than intended, before I realized he was looking past me, not at me. “Come, come, bring them in.”
I looked at the others. Both Sedum and Crassula were visibly wary now, and I saw Crassula herself look at me in a distrustful way, but as I gestured they came forward into the room.
“New slaves to be broken in, yes.” I turned so the sheathed sword I had was on the side facing Sedum. Then I frowned, realizing someone was still outside. “Uvaia,” I muttered, giving her a sharp look.
Uvaia made a soft whining noise, but stepped inside with me. The haft of the heavy axe strapped to her back was visible beneath her wings.
“Good, good, I was hoping to have more delivered. As you can see, these ones here,” the incubus waved a hand idly at the maimed corpses, “Broke.” He smirked at me, lowering his voice. “Have you checked in with the majordomo yet? If she hasn’t heard there’s two of them, well, I could reward you if you didn’t let that detail slip.” His voice came out a purr.
I felt a haze trying to overtake my mind and a flush of heat in my face and lower throughout my body, but I forced back the sensations, focusing on my purpose here. “No, thank you. But I could do you a different favor. Clear some space for the new ones?” I gestured to the still-filled torture racks.
He looked towards where I was gesturing, and I snapped my fingers.
Several things happened fast. Uvaia yanked with both wings on the ropes binding Sedum and Crassula, and the quick-release knots came undone, bindings falling to the ground. Crassula grabbed her axe and I was ready for Sedum to draw the sword, but he lunged forward instead as the incubus was turning back. A gnarled fist smashed into the Pain-Eater’s face and his head snapped back with a startled hiss.
Then Sedum reached back and drew the sword, as Crassula pushed forward around me, swinging her axe at the incubus.
He jumped back from the blow with a beat of his wings, but the room was tight quarters and he couldn’t keep that up for long. He darted back at her with enough speed that he blurred, but she caught his claws’ blow on her large axe blade with a screeching sound of nails on metal. His tail lashed out like a whip towards Crassula’s neck but she caught it in one hand, grinning as it whipped around, trapped. His eyes glowed red and Crassula abruptly seized up with a rasping scream, echoing off the walls as he flooded her senses with pain.
Sedum struck out at his chest with the stolen sword, and the incubus whirled aside, fluttering, but his tail was still held tight and the blade carved into his upper arm. The incubus let out a startled shout at that, which turned into a high, shrill laugh before Crassula hit his neck with a blow that took off his head.
She gasped, strained and panting, as the incubus head bounced on the ground. The amber gem on Sedum’s sword glowed bright white briefly and there was a rushing sound as a shimmering haze flowed between the demon’s body and the knight’s blade.
Then it was over, the sounds of dripping blood and catching breaths the only noise in the room. I’d have to look into that later, but for now we had more to do.
“He’s done,” Sedum called back into the hall, after staring down briefly at the sword. Crassula was twitching slightly as she stood there with sharp breaths and wide eyes, and Uvaia reached out a wing for her hesitantly but the goblin jumped at the touch and they both drew back. “But uh, y’ might not actually want to see…”
Too late, as the monkey-faced vanara was already peering into the room. His eyes bulged and he gagged at the gory surroundings, but his jaw dropped as he took in the beheaded torturer. “He’s dead? He’s really dead?”
“That’s right. We’re busting you out of here.” Sedum’s voice was firm.
“What is going on?!” The vanara’s voice rose to a disbelieving shriek. He looked at me wildly. “And you’re, you– but the governor always said the mercenaries would kill us if we tried to escape!”
“There’s been a change of plans.” I supposed having him here could save some time after all. “Go with the orc and goblin, stay quiet but point out anyone you trust to help escape. You two,” I added to Sedum and Crassula. “Kill the gate guards first, then this majordomo, and anyone without a collar. Except the governor,” I warned them.
“You don’t plan to let the bastard get away?” Sedum growled. Behind him, Crassula was angrily shoveling the headless incubus into her mouth.
“He won’t, I’ve got plans for him. But we don’t know how powerful he is, so it’s not the time to risk a fight. Salix, Perpetua and Eupatorium will be along to help soon, but stick to the plan. Unless you want Uvaia and Lady Hydrangea to hear you got killed.” Adding the last for Crassula’s benefit, I beckoned my harpy. “Uvaia, you’re with me.”
“R-right.” She nodded quickly, coming to my side as I hastened out of the torture room. “Time to steal and find information?” Uvaia asked me quietly.
“Among other things.” Looking like Ebon Company should let us search without much trouble, but there was another part to the plan I hadn’t mentioned to everyone. Before the city awoke, we’d be making more trips in and out with ‘slaves’ to deliver.
I couldn’t depend on this being enough on its own; the governor enslaving citizens might provoke some outrage, but he’d targeted criminals and less fortunates for a reason. If more people had cared, the disappearances would have damned him already. That’s why I had the three others making up for that now. I’d picked them not just for strength and fierceness, but a shared moral unburdenedness.
- - -
By the time morning had come, a mob had already formed. I didn’t know when exactly, as I’d only fallen asleep close to dawn, but I’d asked Uvaia to wake me when a commotion started outside, so unless she’d fallen asleep while keeping watch I assumed I hadn’t missed much. Stumbling through the bleariness, I told her to get some sleep herself, and let my tired harpy in to flop on my bed.
I left the Ebon Company armor locked up inside. This would not be a good time to be seen wearing it.
Gia was standing by the inn’s windows with Lycoris, staring outside as I came downstairs from my room. “Ann- Anthurium, what’s happening out there?” she asked me, worrying her lip.
“Can’t say for sure, but it could be dangerous. Stay here.” That was bullshit on a couple of levels, but Gia still seemed to hold some sway in my opinion, looking anxiously between me and her recent arachne friend.
“I’ll keep you safe, Lady Hydrangea.” The half-spider girl smiled at her, though not without casting a nervous look herself out at the demons in the streets. “Let’s just have some tea and wait for this to be over.”
Sound advice, really, but I had to stay in the middle of it, to make sure all proceeded as planned. I waited for them to leave and then knocked on Byzantina’s door. “Come on, it’s time,” I called in to the jackalope.
The long-eared hare demon gave me a baleful look as she opened the door, but she did follow. She hadn’t been happy with Gia’s and my leadership, but I’d told her I’d release her and Boquila from their oath of fealty if she helped this last time. If all went to plan, we shouldn’t need them anymore.
The multicolored, many-limbed mob of demons was making a lot of noise, shouting threats or incoherent sounds of anger, but they weren’t moving especially fast, so we could catch up before they reached the governor’s manor. I could make out shouts of “Kimmei is scum!” and “Kick the bastard out!” among similar, more colorful phrases, so things did seem to be on track so far.
There were no guards anymore at the manor’s gates, just a puddle of dried blood underfoot on the stonework, so the mob smashed through the gate and assembled on his lawn, shaking claws or paws and shouting.
“Kimmei!” “Get down here!” “Come out and face us!” Roars went up from the angry crowd.
Only silence answered from within the mansion windows. So after a few minutes of that, someone had the bright idea to break down the doors, and with smashing sounds of timber the mob poured into the mansion halls, yelling and trampling on his floors.
This part, I’d expected to be chancy. Demons can do dangerous things when cornered, anyone can, but a natural response to finding one’s guard and staff vanished could simply be to flee. But I didn’t think he would run. Hide, perhaps, but you don’t rise to power without pride in your station, and he had a great deal of wealth and belongings here he couldn’t bring on his own.
Still, when the fish-faced demon swept out to look down at us from the top of a long staircase, I did breathe a sigh of relief. “What is the meaning of this!” Governor Kimmei shouted, oily stateliness of the previous day forgotten. He looked disheveled, unbalanced, his silk clothes rumpled and creased.
“We know what you’ve done, Kimmei! You’ve been using those thugs of yours to kidnap and enslave your own people!” One voice rose above the rest, and a raccoon face and fluffy tail physically rose above the rest as he spoke. A tanuki, with a familiar ring to his words, one of those who’d spoke out against the governor yesterday.
“Ridiculous!” The governor scoffed, though I could see him looking ill at ease. “I would never do such a thing to fine, upstanding citizens like yourselves! Have you forgotten what I’ve done to keep us all safe from Hesperia’s dangers, both within and outside our walls?”
There was some angry but less directed muttering from the crowd at that, so I tapped Byzantina on the shoulder, whispering into one long ear. “Wouldn’t you?” She echoed my words, magnified with her sound projection Art. “You’ve been using the mercenaries to prop yourself up, and keep you in power!”
A rumbling of angry agreement came at that. Everyone knew he had hired the Ebon Company, so no matter if the details were true, the first bit of truth was enough to hook them for the rest. “Right! Of course you’re the one who sent them to my house!” another demon shouted, bolstered in confidence.
“Who said that?” Kimmei demanded, looking around. “Who would accuse me of this, after all I’ve done for you?”
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“They broke into my house last night, too!” another shouted, a spider-like jorogumo whose voice I also remembered. “They pulled me right out of bed and beat me unconscious, and I woke up tied up in your home! A spartolos and two others all in armor, said this was what I got for speaking out against you!”
The Ebon Company really would have been better off if they hadn’t become willing to recruit anyone who could fight. Though, of course, having Macodes on the inside willing to fast-track the process for us certainly helped.
“Ah, I remember that one! He burned me with his sword and wouldn’t stop until I told him where to find my neighbors who were at the rally!” a new voice cried. “They brought me to be enslaved, too…”
“Me, too! But I got right up and ran like Tombudh himself was after me. You must be losing your touch to let us escape, Kimmei!”
“This is absurd!” The governor was sweating more. “I would never order such a thing! These, these mercenaries must have been acting on their own! No, one of my enemies paid them to do this!”
I’d been hoping some of the slaves we’d freed might speak up here; point out he had ordered worse than that done to the demons he had taken for his household, those sent to the Pain-Eater for ‘discipline’. But after getting away, I guessed they hadn’t wanted any more to do with him. Still…
“You did! I have your records right here! The payments you made for them to capture us!” Another voice spoke up, waving a ledger above the crowd. Ah, good, so that part had worked out. “A harpy helping us escape showed me! Look!” More angry murmuring crescendoed as the papers were passed around.
“What?! I would never!” Kimmei looked aghast. Which was half-right; he wouldn’t have written such transactions down, in plain words. Uvaia hadn’t been wrong when she said so about his off-the-books work. But in a ledger clearly for the governor’s finances, a few edits for clarity wouldn’t go amiss, And a different hand could be excused by the many people staffing a mansion. “This is a trick! Slander!”
The angry shouts were growing louder. I looked around, pulling Byzantina with me to the side of the crowd. This would be a great time for a certain someone to show up, but no sign of her yet.
“Traitor to Hymetos!”
“Death to the governor!” Voices started to clamor above the rest, and the mob surged forward towards the large staircase and man atop it.
“No! Stay back!” the governor shouted, body suffused with a cyan light, and there was a rushing, rumbling sound. From behind and around him, water poured out of nowhere, waves crashing down the stairs and coursing around him like he was a stone pillar unmoved by the tides.
The people were not so lucky. Waves of water crashed against the living wave of demons, and screams were drowned out by an aquatic roar. Demons were swept downwards as water spilled over the staircase and coalesced on the floor, and though most of those knocked down struggled quickly to their feet, a good number of bodies did not.
“This is my home, you ingrates! This is my city!” Governor Kimmei roared, eyes ablaze. “I don’t need the mercenaries! And I don’t need you! Leave here at once, or I will drown anyone who does not!”
There was another angry rumbling as hundreds of eyes looked up at him filled with anger, but that show of power had clearly sapped their confidence. The rear of the crowd was beginning to back out the door, now. I gritted my teeth, but beckoned Byzantina with me to follow.
At best, they’d just been delayed, but something might have gone wrong. I might have been able to make the mob attack Kimmei again, with some choice projected words in his own voice, but I didn’t see the point. Even if they won it would be at great loss of life, and with no point other than simply killing him. The relationship between him and the Ebon Company would be weakened severely even if he lived.
“Clear the way!” a woman’s gruff voice barked in a military shout, and I perked up. There we go.
Macodes’ large, striking figure cut through the crowd, parting around her and the column of armored mercenaries at her back. There were bruises, cuts and dark patches visible on her skin, but she was here, and alive, and no one was still bold enough to pick a fight with her.
“There you are! What in Suanil’s name took you so long, I sent for your commander an hour ago! I had to disperse these rabble all by myself,” the governor ranted as she made her way up the stairs, those on their feet fleeing more quickly. “Someone has been slandering my good name, lieutenant. I want a full investigation, anyone that might have been acting behind your backs…”
“Sure, sir. I’ll take care of it for you. Nothing to worry about,” Macodes told him easily. Then she drew her lightning-bladed sword and drove it deep between his ribs.
There was a loud, crackling bzzzrt and a sparking burst of light around them both, and the governor spasmed in unnatural jerks like a puppet thrown from its strings, eyes bulging out of his head. Lightning arced down the long pool of water on the stairs, and there were some high, short screams, before he slid off her blade and dropped to the ground, smoking.
My own attention was on the demons at the foot of the stairs. From the sounds just now, a lot of them had still been alive after Kimmei’s waves hit them. Had.
“Man, I wish Nyctocereus had gone down that easy,” Macodes said, walking down the stairs with a grin as she trod on the other demons she’d fried. “You left me with a bitch of a fight on my hands when he got the call from this old guy. Even surprising him myself, wasn’t an easy fight.”
I shook my head slightly, focusing on the newly ascendant Ebon Company leader. “It’s good to see you managed it. Were the soldiers I gave you helpful, I hope?” I hadn't wanted those three anywhere the mob could see them, so I thought they might as well back her up with the last part of the plan.
“Against him? Guess they distracted him for me a little, but the beasts’ll both probably die. Got them bad with his venom, spartolos was the only one it couldn’t hurt,” Macodes said, voice casual. “But hey! We won. Make sure to return that armor once they die, alright?”
I swallowed. Byzantina was looking at me with horror and a rising anger on her face.
But Macodes was right. This was a victory. We’d looted the governor’s stores of money, and I had freed the Ebon Company from their contract with him. A feared mercenary group was now at my beck and call, a force strong enough to take on Aconite, and to be a crucial element in future victories. I couldn't let myself be bogged down in the details.
That just left one more matter to take care of in the city. One of the most important.
- - -
“This is really the way to see your friend?” Gia asked me as we walked, the city’s noise fading as we passed into rundown streets.
“Yeah, it’s just a shortcut through here to her district…” I slowed my pace and stopped, making a show of looking around. The landmark I needed, a sign with Sasquatch Shoewear scrawled on it, jumped out from just a few paces away. But that was nothing I wanted to point out to Gia. “Hmm. This place doesn’t look like I remembered.”
“Maybe we can go back to the inn and ask Lycoris?” Gia asked, some nervousness on her face now. “I mean, just if you don’t remember the way, but it would be fine if you don’t.”
“Leaving so soon?” a coarse voice came from behind us, laced with amusement. I saw Gia tense up, and turning around revealed a tall, broad-shouldered oni woman, dressed in ragged clothes and with a heavy spiked bat slung over one red-skinned shoulder. “Nah, I don’t think we can allow that. She looks like the one to me, boys.”
Out of alleys and dark streets, two more demons emerged to flank us, wearing malevolent grins. One was a green-skinned bestial creature on all fours, with an unnaturally wide mouth full of fangs and an amphibian cast to its bearing. One could have mistaken it for some freakish animal if it weren’t for the gleam of intelligence in its black eyes; this was a taotie, a gluttony demon that could and did devour anything. The other was bipedal like the oni woman, with an elephant’s head atop a more rotund frame than hers, a brown potbelly poking out from his clothes. One of the Vināyakas, I was fairly sure, who apart from their own bodies’ strength could possess other creatures. He’d be essential to kill first, and quickly.
“Stay calm,” I muttered to Gia, who was paling now. I stepped in front of her and raised my voice, addressing the oni. “What do you want with me? You don’t look like Aconite’s lackeys.”
The oni laughed, a sound that set my teeth on edge. “I wasn’t talking about you, four-eyes. Pinkie back there’s the one we want,” she said, lifting one hand and pointing at Gia.
“What? Why her?” I asked, and added out of the corner of my mouth to Gia, “Get ready to run.”
“I don’t think you need to know that. But you do look like you’re gonna try and get in our way…” She looked past me, smirking. “Groundsel, Colocasia. Either of you boys feel like a snack?”
“They both look tasty to me, Peri,” the taotie rasped in a slobbery voice. Gia shuddered, and I felt her grab and squeeze my hand.
“Eh, you always say that.” The oni waved a hand dismissively.
“But he might be onto something this time,” the vināyaka said, his own voice thick around his trunk. “If that one’s as strong as you said, why should we even take her back to the client? Can’t be paying enough to pass up a chance like this.”
“Hmm.” The oni woman rubbed her chin, before a grin spread on her face, fangs gleaming among her teeth. “You know, maybe you’re right! To hell with making some rich shrew stronger. With the power boost I’ll get from eating up Pinkie, who gives a damn whether she’ll pay or not. Once I’m done with her, people will quake in fear at the name Peristylus…”
“And just why should you get to have her?” the taotie growled, hackles raising as he slammed a clawed paw against the ground.
“Oh, don’t whine. You can have the other one, be happy with that,” Peristylus said, glaring at him, and two of three’s attention off us was good enough for me.
“Maybe we can cut the strong one into pieces, and each have some of her flesh – hey, they’re trying to run!” the vināyaka shouted, trumpeting in alarm as I hauled Gia away from the trio.
“Groundsel, get ‘em!” The oni’s voice was a shout, before there was a rumbling rush of winds and I yelled in alarm at a strong force tugging me off my feet, Gia screaming as she was pulled into the air with me. The taotie’s fanged mouth was wide open as we hurtled on a cyclone pulling us towards it, a greed Art I had not expected from the gluttony demon…
“Gia!” I screamed over the winds, heart in my throat, no time or thought for appellations. This was bad, this was much worse than I’d planned for, if those jaws closed around us I might die in a single bite – “Kill him, kill him now!”
There was a fleshy crunching sound from just nearby, and sheer panic overloaded my mind for a second before I hit the ground, and though the rolling impact against stone was painful, from Gia’s own grunt on impact I knew it wasn’t either of our bodies that had been bitten.
“Nnnaaaagh!” I heard an agonized, strained scream from close by us, and managed to raise my head to see the source. The taotie Groundsel wasn’t dead, but his inhaling mouth had been shut tight with excessive force. Blood was leaking out over the demon’s chin, jaws looking like they’d been practically welded together, and I was fairly sure I could see some long teeth jutting through the underside of his head now. His muted scream twisted into whimpering, and I watched him collapse onto the ground, two claws desperately trying to pull his fleshwarped jaws apart.
“Groundsel!” the vināyaka Colocasia shouted, alarmed, as I pushed myself to my knees, gasping and looking at Gia. “Shit, what did she do to you?” I could hear him stomping over, closer to taotie and us.
“Okay, good enough, get the elephant next. Just now was a surprise, but that one could possess us–” I whispered urgently, before it dawned on me that Gia was still groaning on the ground, noises pained as she struggled, remaining facedown. Was she… actually hurt?
“Oh, fuck me,” I heard the oni growl from concerningly close, before a tight grip squeezed the air out of my already bruised ribs, hauling me up off the ground. I couldn’t say any more as I came face to face with a glowering Peristylus, one hand big enough to span my chest and waist.
“No more of that, you hear?” she told me, glaring, before a cruel smirk spread once again on her face. “Looks like you can’t do a thing like this, huh? Much better.” She squeezed me again and I felt ribs crack and break. I would have screamed if I’d had any air in my lungs. “Fleshwarper, huh? Yeah, you do seem the type. Should’ve known that little butterfly would have a strong guard.” She grinned wider at me, mouth slightly open. “Sure sucks for you that she’s helpless herself, huh? Yeah, don’t be surprised, I’ve already heard. So what I’m gonna do is eat you in one bite, and then enjoy myself having Pinkie for seconds…”
“Let her go!” I heard Gia’s semi-breathless scream, and a wrenching rip tore the air as the oni roared out in pain. I felt myself falling, saw blood fountaining from Peristylus’ shoulder, and realized Gia had torn the arm holding me clean off before I hit the ground again, knees buckling under me.
“Ann, Ann,” Gia gasped, and she was at my side again now, breathless but not bleeding, thank gods. “Oh, thank god… Ugh, stupid thing still holding you,” she said with a glare at the now severed arm, and there was another crackling noise as fingers bent back to free me. “There, good, are you okay?”
“Ribs,” I grunted, breathing now possible but a sharp, painful effort. One of the ribs she broke might have punctured a lung. Then in a burst of adrenaline and desperation, I frantically added, “Duck–”
Gia flinched, but obeyed just in time for the oni’s club to miss her, downward swing whistling inches over her head. If she’d been hurt just now I did not want risk that blow beheading her, but as it smashed into the ground and chips of stone flew every which way, I heard Gia let out another pained cry. Damn it, what was happening, why was she vulnerable now?
“Fucking bad information,” Peristylus gasped, shoulder still gushing blood as she lifted her weapon up, glaring at us with murder in her eyes. “I’m going to kill that Ebon bitch for lying about you. Fine, I’ll eat you both now, and I better get the strength to heal myself from it…”
Gia drew a sharp breath, looked up at the oni, and one more crack split the air. Peristylus stood still for a second, no longer looking at us, her head now twisted around to face the opposite direction. Then she fell backwards, already dead as she landed on her face.
“Thank you,” I forced the words out to Gia. I didn’t say it much, even with two whole lungs, but saving us twice if not thrice certainly deserved it. “There’s – one more. Can’t run like this…”
Gia’s face was drawn and ashen. She didn’t answer aloud, but she did turn around to look at the oni’s two minions, and I staggered around to follow her gaze.
The taotie was lying in blood, and had gone completely still, just a few feet from us. The elephant-headed Colocasia was looking down at him in dismay, but as he felt our gazes he looked up, raising hands with a panicked look. “Wait, wait. You don’t need to do this…”
“Why did you do this?” Gia asked him, voice hollow-sounding, empty. “We weren’t hurting anyone. I never did anything to you. Why would you try to kill us?”
“It, it was this woman who hired us. She told us about you, she wanted you alive for herself. She said you were amazingly powerful, but you wouldn’t fight back.”
“Did anyone see you?” I asked Gia. The words were still an effort, but essential right now. “Sense you? When you came back to camp last night?”
Gia’s shoulders hunched up, and she bowed her head. “Maybe. I don’t know, I wasn’t… wasn’t looking. Wasn’t thinking about something like this.”
“Soft, just like she told Peri,” the vināyaka mused. I glared at him and he held up his hands, flinching. “Which is fine! I respect a demon who’d, who’d consider mercy?”
“Gia, this is the one who could possess us,” I told her, clenching my teeth. “Force us out of our bodies and we’d never get them back.”
“I won’t! I know you’d kill me if I did, I, I can see that now.” Sweat was beading on his gray-skinned forehead. “Just let me go, you’ll never see me again…”
“I can’t do this for you, Gia. He could kill me right now. You’re the only one who can keep us safe.”
“I would never! Please, mistress, fealty. I’ll be your demon now, if you give me a chance.”
“Gia, I need you to do this…”
Gia cut off my words with a high, long scream. Then there was a wet squelch, the splat of flesh hitting the ground, and the vināyaka slumped, and keeled over. His heart throbbed on the ground, burst right out of his chest.
Gia stared glassy-eyed at the bloody scene she’d arranged, and then fell to her knees and started sobbing. She held her face in her hands, and I reached an arm around her.
“I killed him. He was begging to live, he begged and I still killed him,” Gia gasped between thick, ugly sobs. “God, they’re dead, they’re all dead…”
“It was the only way, Gia. He could have done worse than death to us if he’d tried.” Hesitantly, gingerly, I patted her shoulder. “This one wasn’t Crassula. You did what you had to, to keep us safe.”
“I didn’t want this, Ann. I don’t want to kill people.” Gia shook her head, crying. “I thought we could be safe here! I thought we could stay and we’d be safe. That there wouldn’t be more killing…”
“This is life as a demon.” Even as my ribs creaked in protest, I knelt down in front of her. Blood pooling around my feet, I guided her tear-streaked face to my chest, holding her in a loose hug. “It’s kill or be killed. You saved both our lives, Gia.”
“You’re the only one I care about saving,” Gia muttered, something bitter and caustic running deep through her words. “You said we could live a peaceful life here, Ann. You promised me we could.”
“And we will. But we need to make that life for ourselves first.” I swallowed down my guilt and patted her on the back. “We can’t stay in Hymetos anymore, Gia. If these demons came after you, if someone powerful is after you, more could easily do the same.”
“I know,” Gia whispered, weakly, wetly. “I know.” She sniffed, coughed, wiped her eyes. “This is all my fault, Ann. It’s all because of me. I’m sorry.”
The guilt was too much to swallow, that time, but I spoke around it in my mouth. “Let’s get you back to the inn, Gia. You can rest there, under guard, everyone keeping you safe.”
“All right.” Sniffling and wiping her eyes, she stood up again. She had a glassy-eyed look in her eyes seeing the bodies, but focused again seeing me wince. “You’re still hurt, though…”
“I’ll get Vaeri to heal me up.” And she was closer right now than Gia would know. But seeing as we’d made it through the attack in one piece, I’d rather take the pain of walking back with broken ribs than raise suspicion by bringing her out. They could be healed, anyway, even if fleshwarping couldn’t.
She’d wanted me to give Gia reason to leave, and it hadn’t been difficult to set up. I’d given Macodes instructions for hiring some thugs and where to find us, unaware they’d be going to their deaths. And I’d already seen how Gia was willing to kill to save me. With the right pressure, with no one else who could step in, she could do again what she’d need to do to become a ruler.
But just in case something went wrong, I’d brought Vaeri in early to wait at the ambush site. When the city guards were on your new ally’s payroll, sneaking an elf inside turned from implausible to possible. And if she wanted us to leave so badly, she could damn well be my backup, ready for emergency healing or killing if either was needed to save us.
Even so, looking back and seeing her peering out the door of the cobbler’s store, an unmistakable resentment filled my chest. She’d made me break Gia like this. And even as one step towards reforging Gia, that wasn’t something I’d forget.