Bel stared at her tentacled friend. “You’re looking forward to being flung into the sky in a garbage pot?” Bel waved her hands to forestall Orseis’ response. “No, of course you are. James’ hot air balloons were safe – this is obviously more exciting. Who knows what we’ll smash into.”
Martinus cleared his throat. “The aim is really quite reliable.” He leaned in closer and whispered to Bel. “But, speaking of your brother, he said that he wouldn’t talk to me again until after you tell him that you’ve escaped the city safely.”
Is my brother blackmailing him? He’s so clever. Bel struggled to contain her grin.
“So you decided that you want some of his otherworldly knowledge?” she replied smugly.
“Well…” Martinus said slyly, “I’m interested to hear about some of his strange theories. Just out of curiosity, mind you. I think he’s probably crazy, but on the off-chance that the iced cream he mentioned is real, I want to be the first one down here to get the recipe, okay?”
Bel’s smug smile froze on her face. She’d heard of the otherwordly treat – on the really bad days, James wouldn’t stop talking about food – but was that really the best bribe? “Are there cows down here?” she blurted out, her mouth fixating on pointless details while her mind pondered her place in the world.
“Big, fat ones,” Martinus declared proudly.
“I think I’m missing out on a lot of things by leaving so soon,” Bel lamented.
“This is why I try to avoid getting involved with the gods. Or angering the unascended immortals who stalk the mortal realm.” He shrugged. “If it’s any consolation, if you stayed too long then I’m sure Technis’ servant would just find a way to kill you. Technis was known as a clever one.”
“Yeah,” Bel sighed.
Martinus clapped her on the back with a cheerful grin. “Well, best of luck to you! I’ve got to get back to my machines before one of my assistants breaks something.” He took several steps before half turning back to shout, “be sure to tell James how helpful I’ve been!” Then his legs blurred like bee’s wings and he was off.
The moment he turned the corner, the armored egg-woman turned to Bel. “We will not be taking this disposal device,” she declared.
Orseis groaned with disappointment, but then the egg-woman pointed to a second clay glider. This was already filled with a very large, very dead eel-like creature. “We will be taking this one to its regularly planned destination. We suspect that Martinus’ plan was compromised nearly as soon as he spoke it aloud.”
Bel watched with confusion as two dozen of the gorgons filed into the first glider, in spite of the egg-woman’s words. “What are they doing?” she asked.
“Decoys,” the woman explained. “They will lead our pursuers astray as long as possible, and, if their stars align, we will meet again inside the pillar.”
Bel watched the stony faced gorgons take seats along the inside of the glider and realized that they were all expecting to die. She locked eyes with one of them – a woman her own age with colorful snakes that had bands of red, yellow, and black. Bel recognized the woman from the pier although she couldn’t remember her name – something with a ‘p’ maybe? Bel felt shame that she didn’t bother remembering the woman’s name, and yet there she was, face full of determination and resolve and a white-knuckled grip on the glider’s edge as she risked her life to improve Bel’s chances at success. Bel blinked, searching for words, but she came up empty. Instead she nodded silently to the other gorgon. The woman nodded back.
Then, with a tremendous thump that rattled Bel’s feet against the ground, someone released the locking mechanism of the catapult and the glider was tossed into the sky. True to Martinus’ words, it easily cleared arrow range in a second, soaring like a leaf in the wind as it darted into the distance. From the corner of her eye Bel saw a shadowy mass drop from the sails above the city. Her eyes flicked over to it, and she realized that it was a large flock of birds flying off in the same direction as the gorgons. By the time she looked for the clay glider again, it had disappeared into the distance.
The remaining gorgons spent no time sentimentally staring into the distance. The ones operating the machine immediately began winching the ropes back into place. A few more dragged the full glider along rollers to put it into position, while another pair of gorgons worked another pair of winches to turn the catapult to a new position.
“But they – and you – don’t even know me,” Bel protested in a quiet voice. “You don’t know anything about my quest, or about Lempo or Kjar or Dutcha, or about the fight with Technis.”
The egg-woman shrugged. “You and your mother are change.” She gestured to the gorgons as they labored in their ragged clothing. “Change is what we need. We have turned people like your friend, Crecerelle, away in the past because we did not believe change possible. Now, with the goddess of change and upheaval behind you?”
She smiled sadly. “Now some of us have decided that we are tired of waiting with no results.” She lifted her egg in Bel’s direction, showing off the story painted onto the side. She tapped the serpent heads as they disappeared into the sea, only to return fully formed again. “This is our story, Bel. Suffering and death are inevitable, but we bear the blood of our sisters forward so that none of us die in vain. So long as some of us make it to a better place, then it is as if all of us have made it.”
Bel had never felt more humble.
This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.
The egg-woman lifted her chin at the waiting clay glider. “Come. Climb into the conger’s mouth and hide in its belly, so that we may leave unobserved.”
Bel wanted to object, but after hearing how much the other gorgon were willing to sacrifice she wouldn’t have been able to stand herself if she hesitated. She moved resolutely into the large eel’s gaping mouth and clambered into the humid, rotting interior, and Cress and Orseis quickly followed. The silk-wrapped egg-woman remained behind, but two of her guards followed them into the interior, along with another dozen working gorgons.
From the light coming in from the eel’s gaping mouth, Bel could see the two guards – the armored one and the one with the sling – take up positions on either side of the egg-woman. The armored guard anchored her sword into the eel’s flesh and wrapped her flexible shield around the egg-woman, leaving her arms free to cradle her precious clay egg.
“Why is this being tossed out?” Orseis asked, her loud voice suddenly spoiling the serious moment as everyone else braced for sudden flight. She poked at the inner wall of the eel’s throat with her tentacles. “It seems edible to me.”
“Because the smell of it attracts a certain flying pest that we do not want in the city,” the egg-woman answered. “This one is also full of parasites. Avoid touching the flesh with your bare skin if you can.”
Orseis yelped with dismay and braced herself with the butt of her spear instead of her tentacles.
“Good,” the egg-woman cheered, “we don’t want you to accidentally stab one of us with your weapon.”
A moment later the catapult launched them into the air and the sudden force shoved them up against the lining of the eels throat and stomach, despite their preparations. The sudden force was replaced by a stomach-churning sense of weightlessness a few moments later.
Bel realized that she’d neglected to ask for an important detail before then. “How do we land?” she shouted.
“With luck,” came the egg-woman’s reply.
“What?” Bel shrieked with dismay.
The woman laughed loudly, and Bel heard a quiet hissing that she thought must have been the woman’s snakes. “I am joking,” she finally said. “We will lightly skim the trees, like an insect sliding across the water’s surface.”
“Oh,” Bel replied with relief. “Grea–”
She nearly bit her tongue off as the glider shook violently. A constant barrage of small impacts rocked the glider from side to side as it “lightly skimmed” its way over a group of unfortunate trees. It only took a few heartbeats for the force of the impacts to drag the glider down underneath the tree line, at which point the small impacts grew heavy. Bel lurched from side to side, bumping into her companions until they all ended up in a pile, sliding up and down the eel’s throat. All around her, the rest of the gorgons were in the same hapless state, save for the two guards and the egg-woman. Bel caught an occasional glimpse of the trio as she spun around, amazed that they still stood upright and steadfast despite the chaos around them.
Then the glider struck what must have been a particularly large tree, and, with a sound like crunching bone, it shattered. Light exploded through the eel’s gills and mouth, just in time for Bel to see the ground rushing up to meet them. There was another heavy thud, announcing the end of the eel. It burst open like an overripe fruit, spilling its passengers into a thick, muddy swamp below.
Bel braced her arms in front of her face as she fell, protecting herself from the thin tree limbs that whipped at her body as she plummeted past. She grunted in pain as her body bounced off of one last limb, and then the wind was knocked out of her when she splashed into a shallow puddle. Her snakes shook with displeasure as the water closed around her head, but with a panicky surge of strength Bel pushed her face back into the air. Bel shook the water from her ears as she tried to get her bearings.
“I thank the Bargainer that I don’t have any arms to break,” Orseis groused from a tree above Bel’s head. Bel looked up to see that her companion had wrapped her tentacles around the trunk to arrest her fall. “Are you okay?” Orseis asked as she picked bits of eels from her body with a spare tentacle.
Bel spat mud out of her mouth as she struggled to her feet. Her snakes hissed at an errant chunk of eel that was lodged between their serpentine bodies. “Yeah, I’m fine,” she replied, wiping her hands over her body to thin out the grime.
Bel took a second look at Orseis and saw Cress sitting in the same tree, her wings having once again proven themselves useful. A few other gorgon perched in the trees as well and were busy scanning the area for threats, but most of them had ended up in the mud with Bel. She glanced around and saw one of her fellow gorgons struggling to rise with an obviously broken arm; Bel struggled through the mud to get to her side and help her up. Orseis jumped to a closer tree and lowered one of her tentacles, giving Bel something to hold on to for leverage as she pulled on the other gorgon’s good arm. She emerged from the thick mud with a loud sucking noise and nodded her thanks to Bel.
Cress shouted from above them, and Bel looked up to see what was the problem.
“Ah, it’s those things,” she said with dismay. When the egg-woman mentioned that something was attracted to the eel, Bel hadn’t realized that it would be the same creature with bat wings that she had seen at the river with the hair fish. Its stick-like legs were perfectly suited for the muddy environment, easily slipping into and out of the mud without getting stuck. Their wings allowed them to flit from one place to another, bypassing the worst of the mud as they picked through the bounty left by the destruction of the garbage glider.
They seemed to prefer the eel, but that didn’t mean they wouldn’t try to eat a gorgon as well. One of them landed in front of Bel and dipped its heads, threatening her with its horns. Orseis didn’t hesitate to throw her spear at the beast, but it tossed its horns, entangling the weapon and deflecting it to the side. Cress lifted her maul to help, but a second creature dove from her side, forcing her to block its attack instead.
Lucky for me that I can look after myself. Bel stepped forward, moving protectively in front of the injured gorgon, and attempted to glare at the threatening creature.
Predictably, it shook off her attack and lunged with its horns. Bel allowed the attack to strike her divine armor, trusting its impervious protection. The force of the blow slid her backwards, deeper into the mud, but she took the opportunity to wrap her hands around the creatures red-tipped horns. She heaved with effort as she used her high-gravity physique to force the creature’s tooth-filled mouth down towards the mud. It hissed with anger, and with her face pressed up against it Bel could smell the rot on its breath and the heavy scent of musk and death that clung to the beast. Bel grit her teeth, corrected her footing, and forced liquify into the struggling creature’s spine so she could snap its neck. Its core resisted her for a moment, but Bel pushed its face into the mud, breaking its concentration and then the vertebra in its neck.
She ripped the essence from its core as she pushed its limp body aside, more worried about keeping her strength than any etiquette around essence sharing. There was a loud shriek from above her head, and Cress’ opponent fell into the mud with a hole blasted straight through its skull. Bel look around, ready to rush to another gorgon’s help.
The scene was pure pandemonium, as an entire flock of the flying menaces had descended upon the burst eel and disorganized gorgons.