Six months ago, Ess’Siijiil
“Are you sure about this, Issa?” Kyrae hissed at me.
I looked down at my sister. The young elf’s shaggy, dirty black hair fell just across her eyes. She was lanky—the kind of lanky you get when you’re growing, but not quite all at once—and wiry, dirt blending into her skin that was a shade darker than my own. Her hands shook like they always did when she got nervous. I needed to be confident for her!
“Sure am!” I replied proudly, smiling wide. “Listen, all we gotta do is wait for that guy over there to slither off to go take a piss or somethin’, and we go straight through that gap and under the building. There’s gotta be a way up from down there!”
Kyrae’s eyes narrowed and her hand worried the top edge of her frayed cloak. “I don’t like it.”
“Aw, come on!” I rubbed my sister’s messy mop of black hair. “We got this, easy! We pull this off and we’ll get off the streets for good.”
“That’s just the thing,” Kyrae caught my hand in hers, mindful as always of my sharp nails. Her callouses rubbed against the smattering of fine, dark green scales on the back of my hand—I could feel her shaking. “This is too easy. Something’s up.”
I slithered closer to her, lowering myself to her eye level. “Come on! We don’t need to be scared, Sis. Sure, something’s up—they’re guarding a run-down place like this at all. It’s probably just illegal stuff or something. Our fence can move whatever we find.”
Kyrae’s stomach growled, and mine matched it. She didn’t shake any less, but her dirt-covered hand grew steadier in mine and she looked me in the eyes. “If anything suspicious is going on, we’re out of there. I don’t care how hungry we are—this isn’t worth dying over.”
I opened my mouth and closed it again at the intensity of my sister’s green-eyed stare. Her eyes matched my own emerald ones, in color, but not shape. Slowly, I nodded. “Yeah, it isn’t.”
Kyrae nodded back, trying to convince both of us we didn’t need this score. Truth was we did—and we needed it something bad. There’d been a lot of people coming to the city lately, and it meant more competition; I could see my ribs, and I could almost see the bones in my arms.
I was lania’el and I didn’t eat enough to make venom, so we got pushed out of wherever we tried to set up. The handouts we used to get—the pity—all of it dried up and was replaced with an uneasy tension that hung around the city like sores on a wharf rat.
We were hungry, tired, and this rumor from one of our few contacts still working the streets was our last chance at a way out of this life. It was nights like these I almost regretted getting kicked out of the orphanage.
Almost.
I looked down at Kyrae and smiled, wide as I could. I’d go with her to the highest mountain and the farthest shore. The orphanage wouldn’t have been worth it. Just because she was newbloom and the old snake who ran the place couldn’t accept—
“Let’s go,” I cut my own thoughts off and held tight to Kyrae’s hand. “Guard’s not there.”
“Yeah…” Kyrae agreed slowly. Together we slipped out of the alley and across to the warehouse, briefly lit up by the waning moon overhead. I didn’t miss how my sister’s hand rubbed across her chin, pausing on the small stubbled growths she couldn’t get rid of.
That was something I didn’t have to worry about. Lamia—both kinds—had wider jaws, flatter noses, and fine scales scattered on our torsos rather than hair. Not to mention we had proper lower bodies to slither with—not those weird sticks Kyrae had to balance on.
And at times like these, Kyrae’s legs caused problems. My sister tripped and I caught her with shaking, too-thin arms, but the noise drew the wandering guard’s attention. We slid into the mud under the sagging wooden building before he turned, but it was a narrow thing. We could only hope he thought nothing of it—the big ke’lania wouldn’t have any issue wrapping us up until some mean city guards came by and threw us in a cell.
At least then, we could eat—if only for the night. We probably wouldn’t lose a hand.
A crab, disturbed by our crash entrance, skittered by us out of the mud and into the open. The guard muttered a curse and turned his attention away from our hiding spot. We watched his tail swish side to side under the dim moonlight, away from our hiding spot.
I gave Kyrae a sideways smile. My one fang that never could stay tucked poked down, getting me in the lip. I winced and licked at the droplet of blood that formed, but the brief smile that crossed my sister’s face was worth the pain a hand count times over.
Kyrae struggled up into a crouch, the small damp space too short for either of us.
I tilted my body close to the ground like I was trying for speed. “That trapdoor’s gotta be around here somewhere. And if it’s not, we can probably sneak in by the water.”
More crabs buried in the mud and several large rats hunting them skittered away as we searched around the underside of the building, keeping mostly toward the back by the water. This place faced a narrow, muddy channel and a clump of thick mangrove spilled out between two other buildings across the way. In a pinch, we might be able to escape that way—I certainly could, but legs weren’t as good for swimming as my tail was. No way I’d leave Kyrae either.
“I found something,” Kyrae whispered urgently. “Let’s hurry up and see if it leads inside There’s sharp stuff in this mud and I don’t have your scales.” She had both hands up against a dark square of lines in the wood, just visible in the darkness.
“Nice!” I hissed a whisper back and slithered over, keeping low. “Locked?”
Kyrae pushed against the trapdoor. “Something’s on it.” She looked up and stuck a finger into the gap between two boards. “I’ll look from over here—try to see if you can tell what’s on it.”
I nodded and felt around above me. The warehouse was totally dark inside (and under it) washing the colors out of my sight and blurring the details. My fingers found a knothole, my sharp nails catching the rotting edge.
I twisted around so my torso was facing up and lifted myself to the knothole. By sheer luck, it was angled toward the trapdoor. I could see crates and shelves in the distance and, as my eye focused, I made out a single moderately-sized box place right on top of the trapdoor.
“Can you see anything?” Kyrae asked. “I can’t quite make out what’s on it.”
“A box,” I said softly. With a twist, I turned my body back around and slithered over to my sister. “Let’s try to slide it off.”
“Issa! Did you see what was in the box?” Kyrae grabbed my hand before I could shove.
I shook my head.
Kyrae swore under her breath. “Don’t just push it up then! We don’t even know what side this door’s hinged on.”
“Okay,” I withdrew my hand and met my elf sister’s gaze. “How do we get it open?”
Kyrae thought a moment, running a hand along the edges of the small trapdoor above us. “Push on each edge and the one that moves least has the hinge.”
“Got it!” I smiled, wider than the elf could.
“Gently!” Kyrae hissed, though a smile tugged at the edges of her lips.
I knew she was having fun, even if she’d never say as much. For a moment, we were on an adventure—we had a goal and we didn’t have to think about being hungry.
With another nod, I coiled myself up under the door and pushed slowly and firmly on each side. Just like Kyrae had said, one didn’t move.
“Good,” Kyrae whispered slowly. “Okay, now push opposite that. Slow and steady.”
I did as she asked, using the strength of my tail through my thin arms. The door moved upward slowly, and with a soft sliding sound, the box moved off it while both of us held our breaths. With the box off, I lowered the lid slowly and we waited, staring out at the faint outline of the guard’s lower body somewhere toward the street side of the building.
He didn’t move.
Kyrae exhaled first, looked at me and nodded. “Let’s do this. We take what we can sell, and we don’t make noise. Any danger and we run—okay?”
“Okay,” I relented. “And we’ll meet up at our spot if we need to run.”
The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
With one last nod from Kyrae, I pushed myself up and slithered into the warehouse. The scent of odd spices met my nose and tongue to ride along under the usual smells of mud and water and city and people. Habitually, I glanced at the front door and then the back doors. Barred and closed. Dim moonlight came in between the old wood of the warehouse—just enough to see by.
“I’ll look high, you look low,” I told Kyrae and she nodded nervously.
“Can you keep where I can see you?” she asked from behind me.
“Sure, I guess.” I couldn’t keep excitement out of my voice as I slithered off toward the tallest and fullest of the shelves along the walls.
I swayed and moved through the shelves, eyes darting over anything small and valuable. Several trinkets of shining metal went into the small, dirty sack I carried. The stuff in here was weird—a mix of probably foreign trinkets and art I didn’t recognize at all. Some of the stuff even looked like it might’ve come from a merfolk city. I kept my ears tuned for any sounds other than from where I knew Kyrae was searching. The elf was peeking in crate after crate, but hadn’t taken much yet.
The last shelf in the row, closest to the front door, had a sturdy-looking wooden box at the top. Pushing up on my tail tall enough to be wobbly, I tried to lift the box. No luck—it was too heavy. Instead, I carefully opened the lid, using one hand to steady myself against the shelf. I could hardly see inside, but I caught the dark glint of polished metal, or maybe even a gemstone.
I grabbed for the item inside. The object’s smooth surface was cold and it was heavy in my hand. Pulling it out carefully, I could see the odd object was a fist-sized idol made of a polished black stone I didn’t recognize.
My fingers felt over what looked like a bundle of smooth tails. I turned the idol and saw at its center a single eye. The pupil was somehow darker than even the rest of the tar-black object. I didn’t have time to contemplate how the pupil seemed to swirl before I felt a jolt run from the idol up my arm and straight into my head.
Agony. Cold.
Empty.
I shrieked and dropped it. The black stone idol fell to the floor, pupil-less eye staring up at me the whole way. The stone hit the wood with a crash and shattered violently, as if driven apart by some force. A splitting headache sent shivers across my body, and I grabbed at the shelf, shaky hands almost pulling it down on top of me as I fell to the ground in a heap of twitching coils.
“Issa!” Kyrae shouted, and the sound rang around my stinging head. I heard her footsteps pound over to me, getting less harsh as she approached and my head started to clear.
“I…” I mumbled, blinking. Shadows swirled around the pieces of idol in front of both of us and I swore I could feel them.
“Your eye!” Kyrae gasped, her own going wide in shock.
“My eye, what—” I cut off when we both heard a heavy sliding. The front door next to us started to open. “The guard!”
Kyrae didn’t speak, she pulled on my hand and pulled my upper body toward the trapdoor. I tried to uncoil myself, but my lower body was still numb. I couldn’t move, and Kyrae struggled to pull me. We need to get out of here. Move! Do something! Anything!
The door opened, and the ke’lania guard, even bigger up close, bore down on us.
I shrieked again and the odd shadows writhed and slipped over me. Reflexively, I pulled Kyrae closer, out of the way of his charge. I tried to brace and squeezed my eyes shut, holding in my next scream.
There was a weird feeling of weightlessness and sliding on something soft, cold, and slick. I felt like I’d taken a punch to the gut, but his coils never swung around us. Never started to tighten.
I opened my eyes slowly, too scared to move in case he’d somehow missed our huddled forms in the dim light or gotten caught up on something. I had to blink, then rub my eyes with the arm Kyrae wasn’t doing her best to crush. “Where… What? How…”
Kyrae opened her eyes and looked around. “We’re back in the alley. But how?”
I felt something slither coldly away from us. We were in a patch of dark shadow, and the warehouse was across the street. Through the wide-open front door, I could make out a commotion inside.
“We need to go—now!” Kyrae pulled herself up on my arm and tugged again, nearly pulling it out of the socket.
I hissed and uncoiled myself, still mostly numb. I felt tired, too—exhausted and hungry. I’d dropped the sack somewhere inside and it hadn’t made it out with us. “The stuff—”
“I have my bag,” Kyrae said shakily, continuing to lead us away and to our hiding spot. “We need to get you looked at.”
My hearts still hadn’t caught up to what was happening. “Why?”
“Your eye, remember?”
“My eye?” I looked up from the alley floor and met Kyrae’s gaze as she turned back to me.
“Your left eye, it…” she trailed off, eyes frantically searching over my face, before a look of confusion spread across her features. “It was black. Like solid black.”
I couldn’t help but bring my free hand up to my face, feeling the skin and fine scales under my eyes. “Is it okay now? I feel fine.”
“They’re both normal, yeah.” Kyrae turned hesitantly away in time to steer us around a barrel. “What happened, Issa?”
“There was this…” I frowned. The memory of the idol and what happened was hazy in my mind, like it had escaped elsewhere. “This idol. Black stone and many smooth tails, and it had an eye. An eye with no pupil.”
***
Once Kyrae and I had arrived back at our spot—the half-collapsed basement of an abandoned building—fatigue hit me like a punch to the face. I was unfortunately well-acquainted with that particular feeling.
My sister set the bag down and collapsed onto the driest part of the floor with a yawn. “We’ll sell this stuff in the morning.”
“Mhmm,” I yawned, coiling protectively around my sister and our loot. She laid her head down on a relatively clean spot on the top of my lower body, cushioning against my emerald scales with one dark arm. I turned my torso and laid down next to her. We pulled each other close and I fell almost immediately to sleep.
On bad nights, I would dream of the orphanage: of the day Kyrae got kicked out, and the day I followed her. We’d hoped the temple in the city would lend a friendly ear, but they did little more than send us out onto the street with fruit, jerky, and empty promises.
We went back several times, but received less food and more judging glares each time. If we really, really needed to eat, we could go there, but if our crimes got found out, we’d be punished—and severely. I dreamed about that happening too. Often, my nightmares took these forms.
Tonight, there was something new. The moment I fell asleep, I woke up in a black void, surrounded by pressure and deafened by silence. I waited for something—anything to happen. Time dragged on and nothing changed. Even after I realized it was a dream, nothing could truly change the blackness around me.
As I pushed and pulled and prodded, I found that something in the darkness responded to my will. Just as I felt the shadows stirring, I felt a pulling sensation and black nothingness resolved into eyelids. I opened them to find Kyrae stirring awake in my coils. When I uncoiled, the sleepy elf awoke with a yawn and a grumbling stomach.
I felt like I’d hardly slept—and maybe that was true. I was certainly less tired than last night, but the thought of maybe going back to that void so soon sent a shiver down my very long spine.
My sister looked exhausted and haggard; I’m sure I was the same. Neither of us spoke about our dreams. I especially didn’t want to tell Kyrae after what she said my eyes did last night. She didn’t comment this morning, so I assumed they were back to normal. However, I couldn’t shake the cold feeling somewhere down in my tail that something was terribly wrong.
What’s happened to me? What did that idol do?
We had to wait until evening to sell our loot, so I got the job of securing us something to eat. If I was lucky, I’d get given something—although getting lucky was rarer and rarer these days.
With a smile and a “good luck,” I set out onto the streets to look for a meal. Hopefully we’d get good money from what we had to sell, and soon.
The streets were full of people. Mostly lamias of either type and elves, but there were a few merfolk and humans. The latter were my competition. Being a lamia kid helped, but street vendors had been stingy of late, and on guard against stealing.
For all they made my life harder, I pitied the humans. Fleeing from somewhere across the world just to be stuck begging on a street was worse than my lot in life. Some had better luck, and I passed a human couple dressed nicely enough to show they were kss’kaa, the highest class a foreigner could achieve.
I tried each of my favorite vendors, but no luck. The wealthy, likewise, guarded their persons and purses more closely these days. Kyrae was the better pickpocket between us, anyway. I’d gotten my tail grabbed a few too many times to try something when I was this tired. Still, I watched the places people touched that showed where valuables were hidden. I was big for an underfed young lania’el, and that same size would make it more difficult for me to bump someone and slip away.
But then, I passed a prime target. He was alone, preoccupied with yelling some nonsense at a vendor, and just out of the flow of traffic by an intersection. I slithered closer, at an angle and looking away. I moved into the shadow of a building and shivered as I felt something more in the shade.
The ke’lania man finished his rant by throwing one of the merchant’s fruits back at him. When he turned was my chance, but I was too far away. The shadows slithered cold over my hand and I reached out. As if guided by an unknown instinct, I twitched my hand like a puppeteer. Before my eyes, the shadows from the building above us twitched and snatched. The man’ coinpurse was pulled from his pocket by a rope of shadow, and the shadows almost dropped it in my surprise.
Coins jingled, but the incensed man slithered away, none the wiser I’d stolen his coinpurse. I darted forward and caught the purse in my hands, mouth open in shock. The shadow rope vanished in the light and I shivered from a rush of sudden cold. What happened?
I looked at the lamia vendor, who was cleaning pulp off his face with a grumble. I tried to slink away, but he noticed me before I could hide the stolen coinpurse. Instead of bolting, I froze. The entire shadow thing had thrown me off and I hesitated. He caught me. He caught me!
“Buy something and I won’t tell anyone,” he rumbled, looking down at me, dressed in rags and covered in dirt. “That bastard’s no friend of mine.”
He must not have seen whatever it was that I did with the shadows!
“Thanks,” I mumbled and I reached into the coinpurse. “I’ll take two—no, four—of those.” I pointed to a large fruit I knew Kyrae liked.
The coinpurse was full of fangs and tails and the silver and copper coins shone like gemstones in the light. We usually avoided robbing ussen, because nobility often had guards of their own and would just as easily kill us as stop us. But this… so much money!
I brought out the coins and met the man’s gaze. He flinched.
“What?” I asked, suddenly afraid. Did he change his mind? Am I going to get beat up?
“Your eye,” he whispered.
“Huh?” Coins still clutched in my hand, I rubbed under both eyes and blinked a few times before looking back up at him. “What’s wrong?”
Confusion crossed the man’s features and his dark eyes searched mine. “I—nothing, I guess. I just thought… it must have been a trick of the light.”
I blinked again. “Yeah, uh. Prob’ly.”
I handed him the few tails the fruit cost and took my prize. As soon as I had them, I had to force myself not to bolt. I made my way back to our spot, coinpurse safely rolled in my ragged shirt and fruits in my hands. I hissed at anyone who drew close. My food! Our food! And money, too! We could afford new clothes maybe, or even a nice place to stay for a little bit if we were lucky.
We’d probably just use it for food, honestly.
I glanced at all the shadows I passed. The coolness I felt earlier lingered, but I didn’t feel the connection to the shadows I had felt when I did the shadow-rope thing. If I could learn to use it, and maybe even do what I did back at the warehouse…
Then maybe we could get off the streets!