Ch: 143 Necromantic Moon
Shai arrived back at the orphanage from her mystery errand and seemed less than excited by his innovative garden solution. “Aye, tis very good boy. Where be Becky and Tawny?”
“They went with Liam and Dannyl to the duke’s palace. Everyone thought I should stay here with the kids.” He mumbled happily, obviously too tired to be worth much until he got a nap.
“That were uncommon wise… What hae done thee in so thoroughly? Ye seem exhausted beyond endurance.”
“I was working on something out back with the extra space…” He snuffled, as he made himself comfy on her lap on the sofa by the fire. Her beloved roundhouse was in the back of the garden now, looking out on the vast public baths.
A naturalistic garden path wound from one point of interest to another, encouraging wandering and exploration. It led all through and around the thirty two giant ivory white stones, where the garden turf met and surrounded the water features.
Bubbling hot and cold springs fed concealed pools here and there, bowers of flowering vines and sweeping arbors festooned with bat and bird nest boxes lined the walk. Raised garden beds held all the specimens from Liam’s garden; from humble wildflowers, to showy, glistening, Dewblossom bushes, surrounded by swarms of butterflies and hummingbirds.
The little ones were in the pool under Otho and Annie’s observation, while Luna and Khan wandered the garden together. All the younglings and tweens were busily making holy havoc in the water, enjoying themselves for all they were worth, when he slowly faded out.
Gary woke up with Otho the dog, under a fine, colorful quilt. With a grunt and wheeze, he crawled over the dog to escape, surrendering the covers in the process. Ivy’s mutt grumbled and snored as he rolled over to completely take over the quilt.
He staggered out to the big pool, teeming with elders and floating people, under Tawny’s firm direction. “None of your shenanigans right now Gary, this is quiet time.” She called softly when he emerged. “The kids and Shai went to the house, Dannyl, Otho and Liam will walk you home.”
“Guards… That’s getting really old really fast.” He grumbled, then gave a whistle. Otho came bumbling out after a moment, still looking sleepy. “Did you put Shai’s quilt away?” He asked, with an annoying grin. The mutt looked mildly displeased, huffed through his nose and toddled back inside.
“I’ll help him in a minute, mutt’s kinda a blanket hog… he can struggle with it for a little bit.” He stretched and yawned mightily, before going inside to help the poor dog fold the blanket.
“I’m going straight home, I’ll be fine.” He complained, while scritching the red gold dog behind the ears.
“Orders from the duke, Otho… not the dog, and Naomi, none of us wander alone. You, Becky and the kids are always to be with at least one of us… unless you would prefer a trio of ducal guards following you everywhere?” Liam asked sweetly.
“We are going to negotiate that next time Leo comes over… I’m not going to live this way, certainly not in town.” He grumbled, while Dannyl and Liam got ready to ‘escort’ him home.
They prepared as though a half mile through town and across the bridge was the adventure of a lifetime…
“If I don’t make it back, remember that I love you…” Dannyl gasped and wept in Tawny’s arms, beating his breast and trying to tear at his garments in ‘distress, grief and woe’, or so he claimed, while declaring his love and eternal fidelity. Liam looked on in a fine mix of amusement and annoyance.
“See you in an hour, lover.” Tawny sang, as they marched away.
#
Thankfully, neither wore armor or carried obvious weapons, they did insist on acting like overprotective bodyguards, constantly circling him.
“You guys suck. Without you goons along, I could slip into the crowd and be home without ever being noticed…” He griped softly, as they walked through town.
“Why are people looking at me like that?”
More than one familiar face on the street did a double take before bustling off on their own, suddenly urgent business. A few came up and began hesitant, careful pleasantries, before making excuses and slipping away.
“Gary, many people think you were killed in the market that day… The rumor mill has circulated the story and spread it far and wide. A highly edited and circumspect version of the truth is also circulating, but harder to credit.” Liam whispered.
“Most folks assume you were either terribly wounded and whisked to Healer’s temple, or that the entire thing is some elaborate hoax.”
“How did they explain away all those dead slavers and the battle in the woodcutter’s forest?” He asked mildly.
“No one needed to ‘explain away’ anything… slavers exist, they are a blight that cannot be expunged. The two survivors will be tried. Once they are convicted, no doubt they will suffer permanent indenture to War or death.” Liam explained patiently.
“Rumors and supposition will embark on their flights of fancy regardless… we simply let them fly as they will.”
“So now I gotta explain that I’m still alive… sorta… to all these goofs?” He waved his arms wildly, indicating everyone.
“No, you ignore it and let gossip do what it does best... get boring.” Liam spoke with the conviction of someone about whom gossip had been percolating for years.
“Even something as salacious as a slaver attack or a murder in the festival market will get old. Someone will sleep with someone else’s spouse and a whole new fire will ignite.”
They walked on in silence, as fourth bell began to peal. The last notes were still singing out when they hit the dock ward and marched across the bridge.
“Otho! Are you dragging nasty strays home again?” Ivy yelled at the dog, as he romped and frolicked up to his mistress.
“Oh, to be welcomed home so pitifully… we weary travelers, who have come so far…” Dannyl moaned, staggering beneath an imaginary heavy burden.
“Yeah, your buddy ‘Leo’ and his wife are here, asking about our trip. He’s really interested in Figaro’s story… and what happened after…” She glared around cagily.
“Yeah, gotcha. He’s pretty stoked, I suppose.” He grumbled. “Not now though, I gotta get into the grotto and sleep… pushed too far. Storm’s comin…”
He bumbled past, waved to friends, family and notables, then vanished into his hidden grotto in the private bath.
#
A few minutes later, a sudden crack and roll of thunder swept up the valley, borne on a freshening breeze that quickly became a steady wind. Clouds stacked high into anvil shaped thunderheads scudded into view, obscuring the sun.
“Another violent, unseasonable storm…” Leo remarked over his tea.
“Expect these… and more before Axio finishes settling his affairs to your north and east. His activities are changing the local climate.” Plumeria was seated beside Tawny, on the piano bench. She held a sopranino recorder in her hands, taking her first steps into human musical forms. “Mmm, I do like this sensation, creating these sounds is a powerful feeling…”
“Let’s just practice breath control first my dear, that was dangerously loud.” The golden priestess said gently, when the ear splitting shrill ended.
“Blame your druid… he made these lungs, that was quite an achievement all its own.” She sulked for a moment, then began her breath control practice.
“He ‘made’ lungs?” The duke whispered softly.
“It’s a tiny enchanted bellows… I took a peek while he was making one. Her doll body is a wonder in so many ways, it’s a little terrifying to think of…” Tawny replied just as quietly. “The boy is mad.”
“The boy be mine, Tawny.” Shai butted in, blushing fiercely. “An his grace wishes tae gain me boy’s ‘wonders’, he does ken our price. Tis passing fair, by any measure.”
“Yes, Shai, you are quite correct. ‘No freebies’ as Gary likes to say, usually right before dispensing a ‘freebie’. We should be circumspect while he is sleeping. He did look pale, I’ll just go check on him.” Tawny bustled away and vanished into the gloomy cavern entrance.
“Even my own daughter is sharp dealing…” The duke groaned. He winked at Liam, for some reason, while scooping Wilford and Rio up in a hug. “Come on Amy, let’s see what we can plunder… I mean, find in the kitchen. I have a genius idea for a sandwich, hear me out... Jellied seafood bisque, on sweet rolls!”
“Shai, we have another boy in the kitchen, he’s making sadwiches.” Amy shouted with disdain. “He’s even weirder than Gary!”
Dutifully, the womenfolk came over to save the day. The duchess and the blacksmith waded into the duke’s mess in progress, aided by a small but ardent cheering section. The little ones were seated at the bar with their instruments, playing a merry song.
Five feet high and three feet wide…
No one's ever eaten the whole thing and survived!
Amy sang and strummed wildly, swaying in her seat. Only Gary’s super strict ‘no feet on food places’ rule kept her from dancing on the bar.
Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.
The ultimate sandwich uses weapons grade ham,
To awaken your passions, make you feel like a man!
“Amy… Sweety, what is that terrible, nonsense song?” The duchess demanded, still giggling at the silly sandwich lyrics. “Demon bakeries, weaponized cold cuts and the dance…”
“Well, ya see… Wilf and Rio wanted to watch a ninja movie…” The following five minute long, breathless ‘explanation’ left her deeply confused.
“You wanted to ‘watch’ some entertainment, and couldn’t find it, because Gary had too much music stuffed everywhere…?” Celeste asked very carefully, trying to keep the thread of the narrative.
“So instead you found, ‘The Ultimate Sandwich’, by ‘Ninja Sex Party’… a musical group Gary likes…” She said just as carefully.
“Yup. I don’t sing the dirty parts, cause Shai would get mad…” Amy sang, helpfully. “Even though she likes dirty songs more than anyone!”
“Amy!” Shai snapped, while trying to hold in a giggle. “Gary kinnae help what ye brats root up in his brain while he sleeps! Ye should nae learn filthy songs… show me, this very night where ye did find these things!”
She turned on the two boys, restraining herself with great effort. “Yer sister be older than thee, but naughty, Wilford. Dinnae let her lead thee an Rio intae the depths of wretchedness that poor boy hae seen. I shall be discussing this wi Thirp, ye may be assured.”
Celeste watched and listened hoping for some clues… she was deeply disappointed and very curious about the unsung ‘dirty parts’ from Amy’s silly song.
“Shai… that song… in its complete form would be just the thing for an upcoming garden party…” She whispered, once the children were eating.
“Nae, Celeste. Many of his songs be unfit fer any ear. An Amy says it were dirty, ‘twill be explicit and no doubt insane.” Shai confided. “I shall see whae it be, mayhap twill be fitting.”
Tawny emerged, declaring Gary fit, but ‘over cultivated’.
“Feed him when he wakes and put him in bed for as long as he will sleep. No cultivation or strenuous training tomorrow, physician’s prerogative. Shai… nothing strenuous.” One golden brow lifted, as she eyed the big smith girl.
“He is still struggling to settle into iron rank, his body, mind and soul are poorly interfaced, thus cultivation poses special challenges for the poor boy.” She explained to the ‘disguised’ nobles.
“Special challenges? What does that mean?” Leo asked with interest. “Otho seems to have discovered some new method of cultivation…” Leo grinned under his silly, horse hair ‘stache.
“He and Naiomi are in seclusion, completing their transition to gold rank as we speak.” The lord became quite animated and effusive while discussing a favorite topic. “Those two should have some ideas in a day or two!”
“There have been a number of… let’s call them ‘inputs’ into his soul lately, they are highly disruptive.” Tawny lectured, still speaking softly, since the children were still nearby.
“Inputs? Trelawny? Please be precise, we are professionals and your parents.” Celeste demanded gently. Tawny shrugged helplessly and turned to Shai in desperation.
“He hae… Fie… He ‘consumed’, be the wrong word, but is closer than any other. He hae consumed some outside creatures and spirits of late. None can say whae may result.”
Her concern and worry surfaced, as she glanced over to her carefree little ones, giggling together by the fire.
“As you see, we are doing what we may with what we have… so far our results have been at least satisfactory.” Tawny said firmly, fixing her folks with that same gaze and raised brow.
Cracking thunder and sheets of driving rain washed over the home at that moment, drenching all of Wheatford in minutes, driving the people indoors.
Most of the people… one figure slipped from the cheery, brightly lit inn, vanishing into the stormy woods alone. He scurried through the darkness, moving from one pool of deeper gloom to another, unerring and silent.
In the deep shadows of a maple grove, he paused, standing stock still under the boughs, seeming to be little more than a pillar of slightly deeper darkness.
There he stood, silent and imobile as the storm raged around.
#
Gary woke and strolled out of the grotto, while the storm was raging. It swirled and howled, tossing wavelets in the big public pool, even inside the sheltering walls and garden.
He plopped down at the piano and began a soft, tinkling tune. Gentle trills and runs on the treble side slowly led into a driving bass line, hidden in the stormy wind and thunder, until it was too late.
When the conferring grownups and responsible parties looked up, all three little ones were on the stage. Shai shook her head in amusement and went back to her high level and very important consultations, with high level and important people...
“I do worry that cultivation will damage his soul further, an we press hard as some would wish… Her glare at Luna was a little sharp, despite the smile that the music was slowly dragging across her face.
She smiled finally, but paid little mind, when Becky’s harp joined and Tawny took Gary’s place at the keys. Only when Amy’s clear, shimmering voice of crystal chimes broke into the conversation did they really notice… by then it was far too late.
Humidity is rising,
*uh rising*
Barometer's getting low,
*how low, girl?*
Wilford, Rio and Becky were backing her play, singing the responses to her call, while Tawny had the keys in hand. Smiling vacantly, Gary laid down a bass groove on a giant instrument in the corner. It was all Amy, all the time, as she spun, kicked and whooped through the strange song.
According to all sources…
*what sources now?*
The street's the place to go!
*we better hurry up*
'Cause tonight for the first time
*first time*
Just about half-past ten…
*half past ten*
For the first time in history…
It's gonna start raining men!
*start raining men*
The song settled into Gary’s familiar ‘disco’ format once they got into the first chorus, dragging Shai into the scrum like iron filings to a magnet.
They hammered and swayed through the wild, upbeat and ever so mildly naughty song, stampeding into ‘Girls Just Wanna Have Fun’ without a pause.
Amy took that one for a ride, letting her falsetto out to play on the vocal fills and accents, exploring and playing with her vocal gift in the free and easy form. She was flushed and gasping by the end, having finally run dry.
She sagged onto a child sized stool in relief, just strumming her uke.
“That was very fun kids, Gary, we are having a serious…” Celeste found herself drowned out by a strange wailing sound from the mad boy’s fiery red viol. It swooped and swelled, as Rio took his bongos in hand and Wilford started stroking a stick down a guiro with his right and hitting a cowbell on his left.
The quiet, dusky boy with the close shorn cap of midnight curls opened his mouth and let something very odd fall out.
Rio’s voice was no shining crystal bell like his sister’s, but it was warm and rich, with rolling soft accents and soaring, breathy high notes.
She's poetry in motion,
When she turned her tender eyes to me.
As deep as any ocean
As sweet as any harmony…
Mmm, she blinded me with science,
*She blinded me with science!*
And failed me in biology, yeah!
Wilford came in with his old man voice on the backbeat, lending a strangely surreal flavor to the song. They carried on long after the storm had spent its fury on the town and blew up the valley, performing strange and mysterious songs into the cold, clear night that followed.
#
In the deep dark woods, beneath the maple trees the figure stooped and began to drive tiny wooden pegs into the soft leaf litter, stringing a cord of braided spider silk on the little dowels.
Tiny ornaments of bone and ribbon dangled and swayed in the breeze, even in the sheltered dell raising a soft clatter in the silence. He circled the construct several times, dancing widdershins, against the moonlight.
A faint, wispy fog rose from the soil inside his fence, shifting and twitching to music inaudible to mortal ears. The wind failed utterly to touch the shade inside his circle, as he finished his last, spiraling circuit of his construct.
“Hello Olivia… remember me?” He asked the figure contained within his tiny ritual fence of wood, spider silk and bone.
“Hah! You died too!” She crowed in victory. “I knew we got you!” Her cruel, spectral smile faded when he shook his cowled head and laughed.
“If you tell me who hired you, I can try and help you get free of your fate…” His shadowed smile gave her pause, even in her current state.
“As it stands, by the next full moon, your soul will be enslaved and subsumed into a faceless unliving abomination, bound for all eternity in suffering and woe.” He smiled again, darkly pleased by something unseen.
“This is a limited time offer, in a week, you will be bound in servitude to your god forever…” He looked up to the sky and smiled once more, darkly satisfied with whatever he saw there.
“Or until I finally get my hands on that shithead. It’s likely that once I murder your god, you assholes will all be freed… to face a very angry cosmos.”
“Cosmos my ass, boy. You have no grasp of the forces I serve, my god has seen my worth and will take me to his bosom…” His harsh, barking laugh echoed from a vast distance, shaking the air around the magic circle and disturbing her vapors.
“Your god sent a Skrigg to murder me while you guys were on the job… He showed up like two days after we kicked your asses. How’s that for your god seeing your ‘worth’? You weren’t even trustworthy enough to snatch me.” He sighed happily, with the aura of an open grave.
“I beat Skrigg’s wormy backside and took him out of the game forever. He’s my friend’s pet now.”
She swirled and lost cohesion at that claim. “Nonsense, great Skrigg is eternal!” She snapped. “Even the gods of man are helpless before my lord’s servitor!”
“You know I can’t lie to you, any more than you can lie to me. Skrigg is done for, I could have slain him outright, but it pleased me to imprison him first in mortal flesh, then in a crystal of salt. He now entertains a spirit of the earth, for eternity.” The shade sat down on a stump with a happy sigh.
“I tell you this, because either way, you are doomed. If I release you, you will linger here for another few weeks, then be taken into the shadows and consumed. If I send you into the arms of the god Secret, you will rejoin the cycle of life and rebirth.”
He gave an almost careless snap of his fingers, aimed at the cloudless sky above. Somehow, in the vast cosmic distance so far away, a glaring nebula of red and swirling violet came into view.
“This is the Devourer Of Souls… Think of them as the universal source of all beginnings and endings…” He smiled at the entity, shooting them a cheerful thumbs up.
“I can send you to them, to be cleansed and rejoin the dance of life and spirit… so that you can begin making amends for your crimes.”
It flashed redly, seeming eager… somehow. “Yeah, you can’t speak under their gaze… they see all you have ever been and done. They are weighing you, dispassionately. All the rubbish will be scoured and stripped away, leaving a clean, pure soul… innocent and ready to be reborn.”
He resumed his slow, swirling, twirling, ecstatic dance. “Beautiful isn’t it, an endless cycle of birth and rebirth… the pain, sorrow and woe are only temporary, life is eternal.”
He continued spinning in his slow, measured orbit around her shade, smiling that terrible, haunted grin.
“So you claim, but you are dead too! I smell it on you, see it in your shade!” She snapped, when the eye of the Devourer slowly closed above her.
“Dead is a spectrum, like all things in life… I’m only somewhat dead… In that big taqueria in the sky, you bit the big burrito, I only had the fatal flan.” He sang, as he danced around the infuriated spirit.
“My body is a few miles that way, having a good old time, you are only worth sending my shadow for.”
He slowed his dance and shook his hood sadly. “I’m done with you, for now. Think on what I’ve said, when next we meet, that will be your final chance.”
With that he stopped his dance and reached down for his tiny fence. With a quick tug, he yanked it up and tucked it away. “I will be visiting the shades of your comrades too… perhaps they will be more amenable to reason… and self preservation.”
“Fool! You think we were the only warband at our lord’s command? You will be caught and flayed alive for the entertainment of…” She shrilled into the darkness as she faded back into the soil.
#
Once more, his tiny circle surrounded a patch of moonlit soil. “Hi, Daggett, remember me? This is a limited time offer, buddy…” He whispered softly….
#
“Gary… my love, heart of mine… where is yer damnable shadow?” Shai asked the smiling musician, so very sweetly.
He smiled and shrugged. “I’m a ramblin’ man, made a lot of stops… all over the world…” He sang happily.
“Nae, Gary, where be yer shadow?” She demanded more sharply.
“Some-where, across the sea… My lover stands on golden sands…” He crooned and vamped a very compelling song… but that was not an answer to her demand.
Seeing a stranger’s eyes behind her boy’s face was unsettling, on a number of levels. His inability to answer in anything but short snippets of song was reassuring at least…
“That’s Pianoman… Regular Gary went for a walk in his shadow…” Amy sang happily as they slipped into another light and breezy number.
“Amy, Rio, Wilford, ye must tell me ‘ere Gary sneaks out suchwise, tis unsafe an naughty.” She sat on the edge of the stage, while they played idly, noodling between songs.
“He didn’t sneak, he just went… shadows are just naturally sneaky.” Amy insisted. “He’s trying to be good, but he gets really mad sometimes.”
“Kids… are ye currently doing some magical tomfoolery wi that man of mine?” She demanded, hearing a whisper of his voice on the wind.
“No es… It’s not Tom Foolery, Gary sings with the voice of Santa Muerte tonight.” Rio whispered over their drifting tune.
Shai grabbed her smiling beau by the ear and dragged him off to the workshop door and down the stairs, while he kept smiling and strumming in a very disturbing way.
Downstairs, she conjured a bright lamp, then another, she brought a number of lights into the space, shining them all down on the happy, clueless ghost haunting her boy.
Finally a faint, wispy shadow appeared, flickering at his feet, barely a hint, but enough.
“GARY WARD, GET YER HAUNTED BACKSIDE HOME!” Her shout rattled the stones of the house, echoing back at her from the workshop walls.
#