Ch: 91 Dancing On The Edge

With so many crafts in the family, they didn’t make many purchases on the way back home. Gary picked up some very fine angora cloth, woven from a local young man’s prize pet rabbits. Shai found a set of copper pots and pans for her kitchen and a quilt she absolutely had to have at any price. On most purchases, Shai haggled viciously, angling for iron bits as though her very soul were on the line. When the quilt of tiny and elaborate needlework fell under her eyes that all went out the window.

Thickly batted and stitched through to secure the filling perfectly, the coverlet was awash in a field of violets and the occasional wandering wild rose. The elderly seamstress had it behind the table, on a little shelf with a few other remarkable works of her art. When she saw the look on Shai’s face she cackled with mirth and avarice.

“I shall pluck this gosling and feather my nest for the summer methinks…” She looked the young woman up and down as though she were being led to slaughter. “What might I show you, young smith?” Her eyes fell on Gary and a certain twinkle told him this was going to be tough.

He was known to be loaded and stupid about money. When word got around about how much he paid for the harmonium, merchants started putting the screws to him.

Only shai’s public threat to take over all his finances and dealings stopped the hemorrhaging. Her reputation for brutal negotiations convinced the merchant populace to come back down from the rarefied heights they dreamt of.

Now, this woman saw a weakness in Shai’s armor and she clearly planned to exploit it. Gary of course, only understood that something was happening.

“I would hae that one wi the violets an roses mistress. How much will ye part wi it fer?” She asked, strangely subdued in voice and manner.

“Oh, that one, it’s my personal bedding, I just brought it out for an airing.” She lied unconvincingly, she even giggled and winked at a nearby vendor at the end.

“I suppose I could part with it for a bronze mark…” She mumbled, blushing at her own bloodless avarice. Her friend at the next table gasped and whispered to another vendor. It spread like a bad rash, leaping across the ward in just a few minutes.

The old woman had the quilt unfolded and draped carelessly across her table, pointing out the almost invisible needlework and precise, yet naturalistic design. Shai fondled it with open happiness and need on her face, usually so cagy when money was on the line, she was as giddy as a child.

“Tis so much like, as to be the twin of the one on me parent’s bed… I dinnae ken I hae ever seen another like.” She whispered, caressing the textile with gentle fingers.

Gary was fishing in his bag of coins for a bronze mark when Adele stampeded up in a fury. “Hold it right there Gary.” The small, but formidable Craft priest’s wife turned her gaze to the elderly seamstress. “Mathilda, I’m shocked at you. How much is that quilt for me, mistress Mathilda Angeline?”

“One copper mark.” She mumbled, abashed and embarrassed.

“Tell you what, One bronze mark, I’ll take all five of your best on that shelf. We have a lot of family now…” He passed over the fat bronze coin and grinned at Adele and the old woman as he tucked away the fat stack of quilts.

“I’m loaded and stupid for your daughter, whatever she wants she ge…”

As he finished making his purchases vanish, something struck him in the back, hurling him through the table of common quilts, into the Madeline’s front yard in a spray of wooden splinters and shrapnel.

Screams erupted all over the once tranquil market ward, as people fled in every direction. Gary was sprawled face down in the dirt of a vacant flowerbed, struggling weakly.

The shattered stump of a thick wooden bolt jutted from his back, waggling with his desperate, struggling breaths.

#

Becky was enjoying Levin’s warm presence at her side and his silly conversation. “...so this possessed centipede fifteen feet long, with face tentacles and a scorpion tail, it lands right on Malus while he was answering nature’s call. He’s got his pants around his ankles and this monster wrapping him up and going in for a sting and a kiss…”

Some sort of commotion up near the gate distracted the young man from his tale. Shouts, rising into screams as people began to run. The gate ward bell rang and was soon joined by all the alarm bells, once more shattering the peace of the town.

Becky produced a long spear from nowhere and pushed it into Levin’s hands as her own gear began appearing over her feast day clothes. “Stay close if you can, run if you have to Levin… this is family business I think.”

She cut through the crowd of fleeing people, most headed for gathering spots in the orchard and sorting themselves out among the trees. The fleeing people rushed by, grabbing up children and elders as they ran, darting for the treeline in small groups.

Near the gate she spotted the cause of the ruckus, a man in dark, common clothes was winding a massive crossbow and preparing to fire, as a furious Shai sprinted towards him, swords shining in the sun and murder in her eyes.

Adele and an elderly woman were dragging Gary’s weakly struggling form towards a house, in a near frozen moment of endless time.

Becky’s roar of rage joined Shai’s as she joined the dash for the crossbowman, knowing she was already too late. The man raised his weapon, drawing a bead on Shai’s heart.

A compact form in bright steel armor blasted through the assassin, smashing him aside and knocking his bolt off harmlessly. Rolf grabbed the figure by the shoulder and arm and entwined his legs among the man’s struggling limbs, imprisoning him in a crippling hold.

Becky and Shai hurtled at the struggling pair, when a moist tearing sound drifted over the suddenly very quiet area.

A rancid stench of putrefaction erupted from the form in Rolf’s grasp, as the arm he wrenched at tore away wetly, releasing a flood of small, red leechlike wriggling worms.

Rolf lurched away in disgust, horror, surprise and any number of other emotions… Several of which were related to the large number of squirming vermin attempting to enter his armor at every joint and opening.

“Skrigg!” Becky screamed, replacing her sword with her harp in an instant. She strummed her strings, trying to get her own developing gift to entangle and corral the creatures the way Gary did, they paid no heed to her notes, until Shai’s violin joined.

Her sister’s compulsion spell wound among the fast moving, slimy horrors, touching them and changing their movements and patterns to her will.

A few breathless moments later Gary's flute and familiar gifts wound out among the stalls and booths. Pulling the wormy outsiders back into the light.

Gary was propped up against a porch railing, with his flute to his lips. A triangular steel point and two inches of shaft poked out from his breast on the left side, right through his heart.

He played on and on, dragging the monstrous vermin out of hiding and back to the street. The undulating mass of worms abandoned the remains of whatever poor fool they had been wearing and crawled slowly up the street, They formed a vile wriggling mass near where Gary sat, bleeding.

Shai tried to put away her instrument and rush to his side, but his gift held her fast, keeping her at her bow, adding to his faltering music. His flute began to sour then sputter, as flecks of blood began appearing on his fingers, until he fell silent, his flute filled with foamy blood.

He dropped the clogged recorder to the dust and his eyes fluttered closed. From his slumped form, something stirred, a dusky figure of nebulous… nothing slipped into view, becoming more solid by the moment, it resolved into… Gary, a smaller, slender Gary, with spiky blonde hair and a skin tight shiny suit of red leather.

His face was painted in shocking white and vibrant, blood red to match his clothing. The paint depicted a white, blazing star across Gary’s familiar, unfamiliar features.

The strange figure drew Gary’s guitar from nowhere and began to play and sing, binding the entity squirming in the dust into a tight knot.

I saw my baby

Crying hard as babe could cry

What could I do?

My baby's love had gone

And left my baby blue

Nobody knew

“Skrigg...” Real Gary gasped over the music imprisoning the creature. “This is war between you and I, you know.” He wheezed. “Shai, Becky, please salt this asshole down.”

His magic released the pair of weeping, horrified women. Shai rushed to him, falling to her knees at his side, while Becky dutifully salted the filth he kept dancing to his strange, wild song, at the command of the starman in red and white.

Rolf came clanking over at full speed, once he figured out he was no longer being invaded. He charged up in his befouled armor, reeking of death and decay.

“Gary, Shai, I…” He began, helplessly, before staring at the odd being dancing around the pile of slowly fizzing, salted vermin.

What kind of magic spell to use

(Slime and snails) or puppy dog tails

(Thunder or lightning) then baby said,

Dance, magic dance (dance, magic dance)

Dance, magic dance (dance, magic dance)

Put that baby's spell on me

“Rolf.” Gary gasped. “Focus up and pull this thing out of me.” He pressed his blood flecked lips closed, squeezed his eyes shut and held his weeping woman tight, waiting. Becky finished her grisly task and joined her sister and brother by old Mathilda’s porch.

After a moment, he opened his eyes and wheezed. “Fucking hell Rolf. Pull out the arrow. I can’t ask Shai.”

The young knight grabbed his new friend by the shoulder, gripped the head of the bolt in one gauntleted fist and sighed. “It was good to know you Gary.” He said sadly, as he ripped the shaft free.

#

Shai pressed her palms down on his chest, trying to staunch the weak stream of watery blood pouring from his breast as she wailed. Becky pulled bandages and gauze from her storage, binding the hideous rents in his front and back closed and wept helplessly as the flow slowed and stopped.

At some point Tawny and Liam appeared, working briskly to wrap him up and load him onto a cart. They took him home with Shai and Becky riding in the bed beside him.

“H… How does he still live in this state?” Shai asked weakly from the bed of the cart.

“Gary doesn’t have a heart Shai, or lungs, or really even a brain. The organs exist inside him and perform their functions, but it is all for show, because when his body was born he had those things…” Tawny said softly. “This is simply trauma and blood loss. He will die when the void allows him to, not before… perhaps not then.” She looked around, before she spoke again. “As human as he appears, he is not anything like a human. Not like me, not like you, not even like Becky and the children. He is something far stranger, for good or ill. I am certain he will survive this… how close he can walk to that line and still return, remains an open question.”

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

She shot a questioning glance at the strange figure still playing softly and marching beside the cart. He winked and capered at her, swaying his hips and taking a twirl around the slow moving wagon.

There's a starman waiting in the sky

He'd like to come and meet us

But he thinks he'd blow our minds

There's a starman waiting in the sky

He's told us not to blow it

'Cause he knows it's all worthwhile

The creature sang, as if that were an answer.

“They can only sing their songs. They loan me their voices and music for a while, because only I remember…” Gary whispered from blood flecked lips, his eyes still closed.

“Shai, Becky, remember Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars, if you remember too…” He drifted off, as his strange friend played him a lullaby.

I searched for form and land

For years and years I roamed

I gazed a gazeless stare

At all the millions here

We must have died alone

A long long time ago

Who knows? Not me

Slowly, Gary fell into true sleep, drifting off into the music and Shai’s warm arms. Ziggy evaporated into a spicy smelling cloud and blew away with a cheering little farewell riff.

As long as we're together

The rest can go to hell

I absolutely love you

But we're absolute beginners

With eyes completely open

But nervous all the same…

#

“You’re back again…” Marduk said flatly. “Boy, I live here too, you need to watch what you do with your…”

“Shut it ducky, the Skrigg took a hit out on me. Now it’s war with that wormy shit. Help me get back in the game, I need to end his… well he doesn’t have an ass. He has a name though… and I still have a piece of him back home.”

Gary stomped into the garden and checked the crock under the hive, it was still nearly dry, only a few golden drops lingering. The bees swarmed and buzzed around him, bumping and nudging him frantically.

“Ok, I get it. Let’s go see who wants to play ball.” He strode to the garden gate, clapped Velvet on the shoulder, kissed Shai-lite on the cheek and slipped out into the crumbling, unstable edges of his domain, into darkness.

#

Khan and Luna were with the children, smiling casually and chatting about small things, but Amy and Wilford knew. The bath was sloshing and churning again, Gary was hurt, angry and icy cold inside. Sheets of ice formed on the surface briefly, before the turbid, churning waters broke it into slush and began refreezing.

When the wagon rolled in the gate, both kids hit the door and climbed up like monkeys, displaying uncanny skill and athletic ability for children so small.

“Gary is fine… he’s sleeping.” Tawny soothed as they leapt over the edge of the wagon bed and flopped down inside. “The… person that hurt him has been… caught and won’t hurt anyone anymore.”

Shai scooped up both kids as Tallum and Liam helped unload the blanket wrapped boy. Tawny bustled in with them, as Shai took the kids into Annie’s stable for some quality horsie time. Becky kissed Shai on the cheek and whispered.

“I’m gonna have Tawny put me out so I can check on him. Ok? Wake me up if you wanna trade.”

#

Gary was not at home… he wasn’t sleeping dreamlessly, she could feel him awake and active, he was… outside beyond, in the dark.

Becky jumped out of her dream bed and dashed through her garden and across the bridge. Velvet caught her at the gate, he grabbed her around the waist as gently as a mother picking up a newborn, arresting her headlong run without even a jolt.

“You can’t go out there. Something would snap you right up.” He spoke firmly and with none of Gary’s nonsense. Velvet seemed bigger, more imposing, more solid than Gary ever did, his firm resolve shut her down hard, just like he did with the pushy outsiders; no wiggle room.

“He’s out there and he’s hurt!” She snapped, trying to squirm free of his unshakeable grip.

“He’s not hurt, his body is, his mind is, but the soul, us? We’re fine. Marduk is smart, so are you, we know that… but we know what we know, even when we don’t know how we know it…? Look, I gotta keep watch outside too, ok?” He handed her to Shai-lite with a warning finger waggle.

“Don’t try to run for it. He’d feed me through the devourer if you got eaten or possessed.”

Shai-lite turned out to be just as intractable. Becky settled for waiting by the gate, pacing and fretting.

#

Out in the dark, among the tumbled stones and cracked soil of his wastelands, four indistinct figures lurked; three in shadow, one bright and warm as a forge fire. He strode up to the very edge and shouted into the void.

“You’ve been hanging around for a while now. Come talk with me or get lost, I have work to do and you are spooking the other outsiders.” He paused to kick a scuttling frog-scorpion in its crocodile mouth, sending it sailing off into the nether. After a moment, Marduk and Thirp joined him in the dark, musty, airless void.

“I’m guessing that’s Brigid and the Morrigan out there… I need juice, and I need it fast. If you’re bargaining, I’m selling!” He shouted again.

“Sweet essence of ether boy! Don’t just shout offers like that into the void, even the gods don’t know what could be within calling distance.” Marduk snapped. “You might as well pull down your pants and spread your cheeks!” He paused, smacking his perfect coral pink lips as though savoring a new flavor for the first time.

“Was that crude, biological humor? A salty mortal jibe?” He bounced on his toes in excitement. “Thirp! I busted Gary’s chops!”

“Yes yes! Very fine! Tonight, we watch something called ‘Eight Mile’... cutting insults and crude jokes are an important mortal touchstone!” Thirp enthused. “Mortal studies are so rewarding!”

“Ok nerds, I’m trying to sell some space in my soul, either get it together, or go inside. Congrats on cracking the code on butt jokes.” Gary grumbled, distracted by the divine antics of his friends.

He turned back to the distant forms and found them alarmingly close. A woman with dark red hair and dark tanned skin stood in armor of a deep golden hue.

Her elaborate plates overlapped and entwined into a complex garment that moved and flexed as though alive. Behind her, a spray of bladelike flames or leaves of some sort, fanned out like a compact peacock’s tail in keen edged metal.

The eyes were the thing, her eyes were roiling sheets of chaotic energy, contained, restrained and directed by her will. The palpable and welcoming heat she radiated washed over and illuminated the wastes all around.

“Lady Brigid, be welcome, please be seated.” He asked, finding himself unnaturally polite, without meaning to be. He flexed his will, summoning a table and a few comfortable chairs, as well as some braziers to light the area. On a whim, he created a ruined cathedral’s shattered walls and empty windows around them, adding mood and making him feel less exposed.

She nodded curtly and sat down while he addressed his other guest… guests?

The morrigan was a strikingly beautiful young, mature, old woman with dark hair and eyes that shone in much the same way as Brigid’s. Three pairs of eyes in three of the same face at three different stages of life stared back at him.

Her nebulous garments shifted from short skirts and jumpers, to long dark mourning robes, to black grave cloths, to a skin tight catsuit of patent leather, then a demure dress of muslin that dragged the dusty ground covering her from ankles to wrists, while leaving her breasts bare. “Lady Morrigan, welcome and please be seated.”

“Just Morrigan lad, here, let me help you.” She stepped to the left, right and forward at the same time, all three forms falling into line behind the mature, beautiful woman in dark mourning robes. She stepped up and took a seat with a grateful smile.

“I cannot approach the unliving without their call, thank you, dead man.” She said with a warm, quiet voice of welcome rest, after long toil.

“Mortals usually prefer the maiden and flee mother and crone, as though they could ever truly escape us. You seem undeterred by our aura… we have chosen well.” She smiled the way a parent might at a sickly child; warmth, concern, hope and fear all mingled together.

“What say you Brigid? He is as much yours as mine…” She asked the glowing figure seated nearby.

“It troubles me… I did not expect that it would become… this. I might almost suspect this to be some trick of yours.” She scowled in his direction, unwilling to look directly his way. “It was shaping up so nicely. What went wrong?” She demanded of the shadowy figure.

“Hey!” He snapped, drawing both entities’ attention. “If you want what I’m selling, let’s deal, talking over me is not helping.”

Morrigan giggled girlishly, shifting forms for a moment becoming a teenage girl in a short plaid skirt and a low cut top.

“Brigid is mad because you are currently closer to me in affinity. She assumed that you would be almost entirely hers, through her link with Joy and Craft.” The being giggled again, in a dry, dusty cackle that sounded warm and comforting somehow.

“She did not notice how moody and broody you can be, nor did she notice the aura of death that hangs around you even… especially, when you are most fully alive.” Crone cackled again.

“That is what makes you mine.” She cooed in that motherly voice of wisdom and comfort.

“Enough games, let us finalize this bargain and be on our way.” Brigid snapped at Morrigan. “His aura irks me and this place is dismal.”

The giggling young girl stood and came around the table, hips swaying in a very casual sashay. She plucked his collar between her fingers and pulled him to his feet with a delicate tug and a winsome smile.

“Gary, are you certain, the fae are… unpredictable and flighty…” Marduk began.

“Ducky, I am here to sell my soul and chew bubblegum. Bubblegum hasn't existed in… a hundred thousand years? More?” He turned to the slim, sensual creature, almost writhing in anticipation. “Ok, what’s the trade?”

“No trade boy, you Contract Brigid, then us. You do our will, we go on about our business. Mortals work our will because we wish them to…” She shrugged her shoulders, making things bounce… and keep bouncing. Halfway through she became the crone, without changing clothes. Still bouncy though. “Men… always the easiest to work with.” She sighed happily in that elderly croaking voice.

“Shh…” Gary hissed, finger to his lips. “Still bouncing.” He whispered, lost in wonder.

A sharp, barking laugh snapped the reverie, startling everyone but the woman in gold. Brigid kept laughing, until her metallic plates began to hiss against each other, sounding like the roar of a crowd, watching a spectacle.

“Very well. Come to me boy. Perhaps you will serve, after all.” She rose and strode around the table, pausing a few steps away, waiting.

Gary stepped closer and she opened her arms as though to embrace him. He stepped in and she swept him up in a warm, metal and spice scented hug. She took a deep sniff of his neck and sighed.

“I had finally given up on humans. You never remembered us, once you left your homeworld, fleeing whatever dark ennui drove us away from our home.” She sobbed. “The dryads cultivated you, as we learned to love you… then you were gone, never to look back.”

Gary wrapped his arms around her and squeezed. “I remember… Shai remembers.” He whispered, holding her close.

The golden being pressed him back a bit, then planted a long deep kiss, right on his lips. She released him after a dizzy, breathless moment and he gasped. Warmth showered from him as though a firework detonated in his heart, in the most pleasurable ways. He sagged over, catching himself on the table before he fell.

“Very well Morrigan, you were right, he’s perfect. He’s even in love, all the way through. So warm…” She sighed dreamily as she stepped away from the shaken boy. “I taste more of them on his lips. The old ones, untainted druids.”

Morrigan let out a triumphant squawk, a carrion bird’s call to the feast, as Brigid stepped back. Poor Gary never saw it coming. Morrigan grabbed him by the shoulder and spun him around with frightening strength.

She clasped her slender young arms around him, pulled him face first into that heaving, pale bosom and giggled happily.

Lost in a dark, warm realm of exotic scents of wood resin and spice, he smelled the familiar aromas of Shai’s bosom, and an uncounted legion of others.

Strong hands pulled him out from between those boobs and plump, moist lips found his. For an eternal moment he kissed women, old, young, demure, ravenous, lustful and shy, all of them. Her tongue battered against his lips and then his teeth, demanding entry.

Eventually he broke, and her dark power rushed over and through him in a torrent, cool and dark, assured of final victory in the end.

That tongue retreated, leaving a trembling wreck sprawled backwards over the table, in a deeply compromising position. Morrigan eyed the tent in his dream trousers and licked her lips hungrily. “He is in love… he refused my kiss until I channeled a bit of her essence… lucky girl.”

“Perhaps if the mother or crone had embraced him you would not have had to struggle so.” Brigid said icily, while eyeing her sister with suspicion.

“But where would be the fun in that? A chaste kiss, or a grandmotherly embrace…” She gave another short caw of delight.

“Just because you are happy with a mother’s kiss…” She ran her fingers down his chest, through the fold of his shirt trailing small circles just above his trousers, below his navel.

“Lady Morrigan, you skirt dangerously close to the edge of Gary’s personal autonomy. He is in a monogamous pairbond.” Thirp sang with more vigor than she felt, facing these beings.

“What happens in unremembered dreams may be forgiven by all…” She crowed. “A feast of life or a feast of death, I enjoy both so often… but when else will I feast on the life of a man both living and dead?”

“Run along godling, you go and hide in your hole, spider. Mortal men have ever been mine to savor, as I wish and will.”

The force of her will pushed them back, beyond the illusory walls of the broken temple. “Mmm, begone Brigid, you will not wish to witness our play… as you acknowledge, he is mine now. Soon yours, but for now…”

She peered at his supine, helpless form, turning her head this way and that, as a raven would eye a choice morsel of carrion. Ignoring Brigid’s protests, she vanished his shirt, then his pants with a wave.

“Hairless as a newborn… this Shai is kinky!” She cawed, delighted and ravenous at once. Dusky raven wings erupted from her back as she reached for her prize. “I’ll just take a taste, no harm done… well not much harm…”

She reached out her black taloned hand and gently tweaked his nipples, each in turn a few times. Gasping with hunger she took tiny, biting, nibbling kisses all over his bare torso. His unconscious body writhed and twisted with moans of animal pleasure at the touch of her hands and lips.

Gleaming white teeth and dusky red lips clapped onto his nipple, as a clawed hand reached for his throbbing, bruised looking, purple cock. It strained and twitched like a caged animal, his hips lurching in mindless struggle.

‘Morrigan. That one is mine. Will you tell me to run and hide in a hole?’ Beast asked, standing directly behind her in a small forest glade created of his own will.

#

Becky woke a few minutes after third bell, just as Shai and the kids joined her for their nap, with Tawny's assistance. She had only a few minutes to get them caught up, with Dannyl sitting nearby, armed and armored.

“A guard? Is that necessary?” Becky demanded, while wiping her face in irritation.

“Orders. You Shai and the kids are under guard until we are satisfied. That’s two attempts to snatch or kill him in a week, Rolf says it wanted Shai too. It could have gotten away if it hadn’t stayed for a second shot.”

Becky grunted and marched downstairs to bathe and think. Luna picked up her trail on the way down stairs and joined her in the hot water.

“The boy is in the grotto, with Tawny and Esperanza. He will be fine… somehow. The word is, he may wake soon.” She shrugged and relaxed in the swirling waters.

“The pools nearly froze over, they only became warm again a short time ago. Tawny declared that a positive sign.”

“Is this how it’s going to be? Arrows in the back? Knives from the dark? He can’t live like that, he’ll do something insane and dangerous.” She glared at Luna, because she was angry at everything right at the moment.

“Be careful if he starts moving, we have to protect him from himself sometimes too. He has some plan in the works already. Even the gods can never guess what he’ll do.”

She dressed and went out into the inn to face the mob of interested parties gathered in the common room and garden.

#