“You'd think the artist could draw the difference between a lizard and a gecko,” I tell the two as we stand beside my wanted poster. “Look at that snout—way too narrow—and that skin. I'm going to go into the city and have a look around. I can stay on the rooftops and lie low. You two go in at sunup. Get passage on the boat and I'll join you.”

“What if you don't make it?” Taur asks.

“Don't worry about me. Just get on that boat.” I take off my belt with its two swords, which was muddy but is now merely filthy, and hand it to Taur so he can sell them. “Liana, why don't you get yourself nice clothes, shoes, and have your hair done—no twigs.”

“Someone will approach you today,” Liana tells me. “His hair is in a circle and the top of his head is bald. He needs your help.”

I round the bend in the trail, staying low, and see the city of Ankla. The trail winds down into a small valley, where I can feel the cool wind blowing in from the ocean, laden with moisture. In contrast to the salt flat, the sandstone hills, and the sand dunes, the city and the surrounding valley are green and cool. I crawl on all fours to stay low and inconspicuous. My flat body has a horizontal line running from my head to my tail, which breaks up the shape of my torso and makes me look flatter than I actually am. The Temple of God the Empowerer towers above the city, facing out to sea, side by side with the palace, but the red banner of Baal the Possessor has been draped over the spire to cover the iconic lightning bolt emblem of God the Empowerer, and the lightning rod has been torn down.

Beyond the sea, the horizon is aglow with the rising sun. I am moving furtively among the rooftops, clambering up walls and silently traveling beneath eaves. I make my way to the temple, where I have work to do while it's still dark.

I climb the spire of the temple, staying on the shadow side, where I watch Taur and Liana climb down the valley and enter the city at daylight. The sun is brilliant over the ocean, making the crests of the waves transparent. I am exhilarated watching the waves roll into the harbor and lap the shore as the fishing boats make their way to sea. The bull man and the albino girl are conspicuous on the streets. From my vantage point in the bell tower, I watch them as they move through the city.

Taur emerges from a shop with a fur cloak, and when he steps from another building he is clean, freshly shaven, and his horns are glossy as if they've been polished. There is a commotion below me on the steps leading into the temple, and a panicked watchman runs down the street. Liana steps from a shop and looks beautiful with flowers braided into her hair, and a new dress that is simple, though elegant, and even at this distance the fabric shimmers. The soft pink color of her dress accentuates the soft pastel colors of her eyes, I'm certain of it, even though I'm too far away to see it first hand.

The man that Liana described, with hair like a crown and a bald pate, walks down the street, accompanied by his portly wife in a brown dress. I slip out of the belfry like water pouring over the edge, so closely does my body follow the wall. I descend, staying in the shadow, and scramble briefly across the street before leaping onto a wall, where I travel perpendicular to the cobblestones. One block down and one street over, and I'm under the eaves as the man and his wife approach.

“Pssst.”

The man looks up, but sees nothing, so I climb down a bit further. “Pssst!”

The bald man is startled when he sees me and draws back, instinctively placing a protective arm on his wife. He looks around him to see if there are witnesses, then approaches, staring at me intently. “Is that you?” he asks while looking up at my spot beneath the roofline, where I am shadowed by the overhang.

“Yes. I am the vicar of God.” Now that he has seen me, I retreat, moving back up near the roofline where I am hidden.

He waves for his wife to join him. Once she gets close enough, she looks up and gasps when she sees me. Her husband places a hand on her arm to quiet her, and sings softly:

Faithful gecko, lowest among the animals of the earth

crawling on your belly in the dust.

You did not fear to bite the heel of the wicked.

For your faithfulness God has raised you

to the rafters of homes and palaces

to watch over the affairs of men.

In the still of the night your call

reminds us of the presence of God.

“It's best that you don't look at me when you talk, or it's too obvious to anyone who sees you that something odd is going on.” I'm hidden, but my view is obstructed. I want to get this conversation over with so I can get back on the rooftop.

“We have heard about the, uh, fall of the king in Baalrik...”

“St. Janith,” I correct him.

The nervous man looks about him, and his wife's heavy face is creased in fear. To anyone watching, he is talking to his wife. “Uh, St. Janith, and the fall of the demon bull. We are followers of Lord Riyel. What do we do now?”

“Move to higher ground,” I tell him. “Go to the temple of God the Empowerer, and his message to you, in all facets of your lives, is to move to higher ground. You don't place the lightning rod in the gutter, in the cellar, or even on the ground floor; you place it at the highest point, which is where you'll find God.”

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

“But the temple is full of...”

My firm voice cuts him off. “I've cleansed it. Move to higher ground.”

With that I turn, nearly folding my body in two. I crawl down a ways before I travel upside down for a while and roll over onto the roof. The warmth of the roof's tiles energizes me, and I see the growing crowd that has gathered in front of the temple. I approach from the back and climb, scaling the side of the temple until I am up high on the central spire, looking down on the steps where the public has discovered the bull has been desecrated.

The crowd points at the bronze bull, which has been gelded and its penis welded onto its forehead. Its testicles have been stuffed into its open mouth and welded in place. Its horns are gone, and seem to have disappeared completely, before a child in the crowd points out that its horns have been shoved into its anus and welded in place. The crowd becomes more agitated at the sight of their defiled idol and begin tearing their clothing and hitting themselves. Some are dancing, hopping in place as they shout in rage, working themselves into a frenzy.

A cleaning woman dashes out of the temple, shouting hysterically. No doubt she's discovered the bodies piled in the foyer: corpses of temple prostitutes, dram users, acolytes, a priest, and temple police.

At the far end of the city I see the ship has lowered its gangplank, allowing porters to begin carrying cargo aboard, while a simple lever hoists heavier freight over the edge of the ship. Taur and Liana are nearing the boat, when I spy a mounted troop formation assembling on the pier, blocking access to the sailing ship. Have they been alerted to the two? After all, both of them are highly conspicuous, unique individuals, so that a few words like “albino girl” and “horned man” could easily identify the two.

“Tuk-urr! Tuk-urr! Tuk-urr! Urr...urr...urrr.” I croak from the side of the spire, loudly enough for the entire city to hear, including the agitated crowd below me which is whipping itself into a mob. The crowd's gaze is directed upward. I nearly sigh when I see the troops at the pier ride into the city, headed in the direction of the temple.

I descend, spiraling until I come into view, provoking shouts and pointing fingers from the rabble below. I wait, safe on my spot on the wall for the moment. Once the gangplank is hauled in and the ship eases away from the wharf I spring from the wall and land atop the bronze bull, where I stand upright. Because the bull has no horns, I use the penis welded to its forehead as a foothold, which enrages the riffraff and fills me with joy.

“I'm here for the 500 hundred sovereigns!” I shout. The din of the mob grows silent to allow me to repeat myself. “I'm here for the 500 sovereigns!”

“Why would anyone give you money?” a voice shouts.

“I'll give you a cold blade!”

Standing atop the bronze bull, or more of an ox now, I wait my turn to speak. “The queen has promised 500 sovereigns for anyone bringing in the lizard man. I'm bringing him in. Is the queen good at her word?”

The mob roars, with everyone shouting at once. There are various suggestions for my death, and assorted means of torture endorsed to the crowd, each of them trying to get a following. A handful are able to clamber onto the disfigured statue where I stand, and I allow them up, because I want them to be seen. Several climb up over the bull's rump, aided by the bronze tail and the severed horns shoved into its rectum for purchase, while another is able to haul himself up via the bulging scrotum stuffed into the statue's mouth.

As the two groups converge and seize me, my hands burst onto flame, and I grab their throats. The pain in my hands is agonizing, but it's worth it. The two men I'm branding try to pry off my hands, but the manacles on my wrists become hot, and they snatch their hands back.

I spray acid into the face of the third, who topples off of the statue and rolls onto the landing, where a terrified crowd gives way.

I toss the two men I've burned aside, and their fall is softened by the bodies packed onto the steps. I begin to speak, but the guy I've sprayed in the face wails horrifically. Several times I start to speak, but he won't stop with the damn shrieking, so I'm forced to hop down off of the statue and kick him in the face repeatedly with a manacled foot until he goes quiet, at which point I bound back up to stand on the back of the bull.

“Anyone else?” I ask. “Either I get my 500 sovereigns, or the queen is a liar.”

“How dare you!”

“You're not even human!”

Once again there is bedlam, with a myriad different means of torture, death, disfigurement, and desecration of my corpse suggested, shouted all at once by hundreds.

“There!” a voice shouts. A man on horseback holds a heavy bag of gold aloft, but soon must drop it back down to his bridle due to its weight. The crowd parts, allowing his horse to slowly climb the steps.

When he reaches the top of the steps he draws his saber. “You'll have your 500 hundred sovereigns, and you can take them with you to the gallows, where the queen herself will watch you hang.”

He thrusts the tip of his saber through the top of the bag, but under the drawstring cord used to hold it closed, and hoists up the bag.

I hold my hands out as if waiting to accept the bag. At a distance where the soldier still thinks he is safely beyond my reach, I spring. A gecko the size of a man looks odd, comical, but a gecko is many times stronger and faster than a human. I hurtle toward the soldier, but because his blade is occupied holding the coin purse, he can't cut me. I pounce on him, knocking him off of his steed. He cartwheels into the crowd, slicing several with his sword as he falls.

I catch the falling bag of coins with my tail and fling it into the crowd. The bag has been sliced with a sword and tears open as I throw it. Coins whip out of the bag, striking the crowd like grapeshot, then roll and jingle on the stones. In a second the crowd flattens as everyone is crawling to get as many of the gold coins as they can.

With a yank on the reins I wheel the horse around and ignite my hand. I slap the horse's rump with my burning hand, which lands with a sizzle.

The horse whinnies and lunges through the crowd, plowing over anyone in its path as it races toward the line of mounted troops at the fringe of the mob scrambling for coins. A commander orders the men to close ranks, but I raise both hands as the horse breaks into a gallop, headed directly at the cavalry. Flames burst from my hands, and despite the pain I wish the fire to grow in intensity.

Frightened horses rear up, throwing their riders and circle away from my galloping steed. I zip through the line of cavalry and ride across the city to the docks, driving the horse into the surf, where I leap off into the ocean.

I swim well, with a sinuous side-to-side motion, snaking through the waves until I reach calmer waters. I am nearing the boat when Taur and Liana come to the stern of the ship, waving and yelling. Something is wrong.

On a hunch I dive below the water and see that I am surrounded by great white and tiger sharks circling me.