The Creature’s Court was the definition of sensory overload. With everyone on Enkaiein’s back and Enkaiein being one of the larger creatures there (though certainly not the largest), there wasn’t much danger of being trampled, but Jasmine and everyone else could tell that if they had been on foot they would have been ducking and dodging for their lives so none of the monsters would flatten them undertow.
There were too many sounds to keep track of coherently and the whole place was lit up by a squirming knot of Veins that hung overhead as the canopy of the giant trees arced over the edges of the clearing. Each Vein was a different color and their light, confused and overlapping, cast everything below into a disorganized, blending hue. Monsters of all shapes and sizes bustled about in a blur of ridiculous colors, into and out of variously sized huts that poked up in every corner of the Court. Some huts were large and in good condition, imposing tall and proud near the center, while others seemed so frail they might disintegrate if anyone looked at them hard enough. One particular hut even caught fire spontaneously as Enkaiein breezed past it, but Jasmine convinced herself that it was just her imagination.
“What is this place?” Jasmine asked in awe, watching as a herd of tiny pink elephants weaved between Enkaiein’s hooves and then conglomerated into a perfect square formation as they continued on into the rest of the crowd. Before, when they all had descended straight out of the sky upon seeing Salina as she was auctioned off, Jasmine had been too full off adrenaline to ask.
“I know you said before this was the ‘Creature’s Court’ but I have to agree with Jasmine,” said Prince Albert, still clinging on Salina. “I doubt any of us know what you really meant by that, Enkaiein.”
“Ah, yes,” Enkaiein said as if he had only just remembered he had people riding on his back who didn’t know the slightest thing about where they were. “Forgive me. In my haste to reach Salina I forgot to elaborate.” He paused after saying that for a long while, stepping over the creatures smaller than him and under the ones larger than him. Salina craned her head to see above her, holding her breath as they passed under the red-hot belly of a monster larger than any mythical beast she had ever seen or heard of before. Its bulk blocked the light of the Veins above and nobody could make out quite how large it really was, whatever it was. It smelled of ashes and fire and the skin on the forefront of its legs was armored, shining like shards of volcanic glass under the Vein-light when Enkaiein got out from underneath the thing.
“Well, elaborate!” Jasmine said impatiently once everyone recovered from the idea that something so large even existed in the first place, let alone alongside so many other unique and mysterious creatures.
“As you can see, the Creature’s Court is a place in Olden where creatures gather, for one reason or another.” Enkaiein hopped with the grace of a deer over a three-legged monster with no skin whose musculature clenched as it crouched in front of them. The red knight twisted to see the monster get up and continue walking on its way behind them. He made a scrunched face at it then turned back around to face the front.
“But for what reasons could so many different creatures want to meet,” asked Prince Albert. “I have never seen anything like this place, not even in the lands surrounding Kingdom Albreton. Not even in Kingdom Myriad!”
“It is remarkable,” said Salina.
“Think about it, genius,” Jasmine said. “There’s only one reason monsters would ever get together in such a large clump, and that’s to eat or make deals. At least that’s what I think.”
Salina swallowed, shuddering. And we’re the food, she thought.
But that was not entirely the case, because every once in a while she would glance down and see something that resembled a human. Perhaps they weren’t really humans, but they looked just the same from the angle she had, and none of them were being traded away like commodities. They weren’t even captured or here against their will, as far as she could tell.
“Tell me,” Salina said quietly, and Enkaiein spun one ear back to face her as he walked. “What makes me different from those walking down there, the other humans in the Court? I see a few, scattered around, mingling with the beasts, but none are captured or being sold.”
“Simple,” said Enkaiein, “They are not human. Although they may appear that way to you, I assure you, you four are the only true humans presently in the Court, at least as far as I am aware.”
Which pegged the question of what they are if not human, a question Jasmine dared not ask for fear of the answer. She changed the subject.
“So Kurventhor. Who can help him?”
“A great many can,” said Enkaiein, “Our trouble is finding one who will.”
“I assume whatever is capable of such a feat will not do it for free,” said the red knight.
“You assume correctly,” said Enkaiein. “Nor should we expect them to. It is a complicated matter, to be sure, undoing something a Vein has done.”
Jasmine held the pendant in hand, gripped it tight and tucked it back into her shirt so she could feel the metal cold against her chest.
“We will find a way,” Prince Albert said assuredly, earning a nod from Jasmine.
“Do you have any ideas who might be able to? Maybe we can break a deal,” said Jasmine.
“We are headed there now,” said Enkaiein, and then everyone realized he had been walking in more or less a straight line for a good time now, clearly with a destination in mind. The monsters that surrounded them all packed towards a certain hut, one made of straw and cloth and wood formed together, a hut large enough to accommodate Enkaiein’s size easily, but not one large enough for the more colossal beasts. As they entered, Jasmine scanned the room. And it was a room, true and true, with tables and chairs of all sorts and a very clear divider at the back where a man with black eyes and burgundy hair smiled with his shark teeth at those who approached him. Jasmine decided to ask the stupid question that had entered her brain.
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“Is this a bar?”
“Of sorts,” said Enkaiein. “I would advise that humans not drink anything served here.”
“That guy,” Salina said, pressing more of herself against Prince Albert as she pointed to the one behind the divider. He was serving a drink to a mermaid that hopped on its tail up to the bar to retrieve the mug before returning in the same manner to a corner table where three tridents leaned casually against one wall. “The man with black eyes,” Salina shuddered. “He tried to buy me off of Frock!”
“Well of course he did,” said Enkaiein. Prince Albert pulled Salina closer, glaring at the back of Enkaiein’s head.
“What do you mean ‘of course he did’?”
“He is also the most likely person to have a solution for Kurventhor,” Enkaiein said instead of explaining himself, “Which is why we are waiting in line to speak with him.”
Jasmine could hear Prince Albert’s teeth gritting behind her. She cleared her throat to deafen the noise. They were behind seven or eight monsters to get to the man behind the bar from what she could see, but she didn’t know whether to take the really tiny ones into account. She focused her attention on the place as a whole instead of worrying about how long it would take for them to speak with whoever this black-eyed man was.
The sheer scale of this hut was immense. Jasmine felt like she was walking into Castle Albreton all over again, except instead of the room being pristine and royal it was the exact opposite: chaos incarnate. From atop Enkaiein’s back she saw countless monsters, some of which she recognized from childhood stories. Imps, jackals, even a chupacabra cutting its way through the crowd like a shark with its dorsal spine… all of Jasmine’s campfire stories and more scurried through the room, some over and under each other while others—the more ghostly types—passed straight through the bodies in their way, or even flickered in and out of invisibility like a lamp going dead. So caught up in the weirdness was Jasmine that she didn’t know they were next to speak with the black-eyed man until Prince Albert made a throaty guttural noise like a dog.
“I do not see how this,” Prince Albert said angrily emphasizing through his teeth, “this thing is supposed to help us.”
“Victor knows nearly everyone in the Court,” said Enkaiein. Jasmine didn’t know why she was so surprised the guy had a name. Enkaiein had a name, after all, and he was far more beast-like than the black-eyed man before them.
“Thought you’d come around,” said Victor, and he winked at Salina flirtatiously. “A shame I didn’t have the means to purchase you. We could have had some fun.”
The red knight grabbed firm hold of Albert’s arm as the prince went for his sword.
“Easy there,” Victor said with a smirk that showed his shark teeth, “Nobody likes the jealous type.”
Jasmine felt the need to place herself in between Victor and Prince Albert so that both’s view of the other would be severely obstructed. Salina let out her breath, thankful for the maneuver. Not that she felt any better about Victor in the first place. He was still nothing but a monstrous creep as far as she was concerned.
“Victor,” greeted Enkaiein, “I have need of some information.”
“Oh yeah,” Victor said in a yawn as he slid a goblet full of some pinkish liquid across the bar to a troll with a red beard and bubbly skin. The troll lifted the goblet in thanks and downed the whole thing, sliding it back to him. Victor caught the goblet with ease, as if he weren’t even paying attention, and then rubbed it clean with a cloth he kept over one shoulder. “Got anything for troubling me?”
“Don’t tell me you’re charging too,” said Jasmine. Victor chuckled.
“Nothing is free, m’dear. Pay up if you want me to talk.”
Salina had to shove her back hard against Prince Albert’s chest so he couldn’t jump off of Enkaiein and beat the information out of this guy. The red knight made a face.
“Ah, Victor,” said Enkaiein with that charming old grandfather tone of his, “Unfortunately I have nothing to give you right now, but if you put it on my tab I will pay you back eventually.”
Jasmine blinked. Could Enkaiein really do that? Wait, tabs existed in this cluster-fuck of a hut? She guessed it really was a bar. It seemed to have the same rules as human ones, in any case. It was only the patrons who were different. Victor slapped the cloth he had been using to clean the goblet back over his shoulder and to Jasmine’s surprise there was not a single spec of dirt or grime on the thing. It was white as new in an antiseptic way. Magic, Jasmine concluded. It made sense, given the surroundings.
“Fine, fine. What do you want to know?” Victor put the goblet back underneath the bar, in a compartment hidden from view from the front but that Jasmine and the others could see the edges of because they were looking down from above.
“Jasmine here has a predicament of sorts to discuss with you,” said Enkaiein.
Victor arched an eyebrow at Jasmine, who pulled out Kurventhor’s pendant.
“There’s a dragon trapped in here,” she said, “And a wizard too. But I have to get the dragon free somehow. I asked the Veins and they wouldn’t do it.”
“That’s because the Veins are a bunch of fickle little hive-minders.” Victor held out his hand, “Let me see.”
Jasmine did not give it to him. He sighed.
“Look, lady, I can’t help you if you won’t cooperate.”
“You can see it just fine from here,” said Salina, a challenge in her eyes. Victor crossed his arms and shrugged with a wry smile.
“In that case, you’re outta luck. Too complicated for me to decipher what magic created it. Not many things can shrink down a dragon, you know.”
“It was created partially from unicorn blood,” said the red knight.
A silence fell around them, only in their corner of the hut. Creatures murmured nearby, speculating. Jasmine could practically see the eavesdropping drifting along in the air, like a sphere of interest where she and her friends were the epicenter. Someone slurped a drink. It echoed.
“And this,” Jasmine pitched in, suddenly remembering the scale she kept in the pouch at her belt. Pulling it out, she displayed it for Victor to see.
“Ah, a fastitocalon scale,” he said. “In that case, you’re all just a bunch of idiots.”
“What exactly do you mean by that,” said Prince Albert.
“I mean what I said,” said Victor. “You have the means to undo this pendant deal. You’re all just too chicken to pull it off.”
“Are you calling us cowards,” Salina demanded.
“That’s exactly what I’m calling you, tootse.”
Prince Albert didn’t know what the word tootse meant, but he didn’t like Victor calling Salina by it. He seethed quietly as Jasmine jumped off of Enkaiein, landing in a crouch right on the bar. That seemed to end the listening-in session the monsters around them were engaging in and those who were blatantly watching the scene unfold turned around to focus their attention once again on their drinks or the company they kept.
“Listen here, tooth-face,” said Jasmine, “There isn’t just one person trapped in here. There’s a really powerful wizard inside too, and if I undo what I did, he’s off Scott free. I can’t let that happen, so I need you to tell me someone who can free the dragon but keep the wizard contained.”
“Look at you, trying to be intimidating.” Victor said with an amused smile, “But I’ve decided on the price. How ‘bout I tell you what you need to know if you give me that pendant, wizard and all, once your dragon buddy is freed?”
Jasmine asked, “Really?”
“Really,” answered Victor. “And while you’re at it, tell that one not to kill me. I’m not interested in his little princess anyways. She seems like a high-maintenance chick.”
Salina flushed red but Prince Albert went slack with relief. The red knight rolled his eyes at them and sighed. Enkaiein spread his wings for a moment, stretching, and then folded them back down. A few of the creatures around them had to duck to avoid being slathered with ink.
“Deal,” said Jasmine. And she and Victor shook on it.