“Not much. Like the rest of the prisoners at Harrowgate, we are avoiding sleep for as long as we can. We do not want it in our dreams.”
My eyes moved to the collar around her neck—the collar that was meant to keep our magic abilities suppressed, but for some reason didn’t work on her. “Are you able to keep it out?”
“I’m not sure that I can, but I do not need as much sleep as you do so I haven’t had to try yet.”
“Is there anything you can do for me and Alexa? Something to help us stay awake?”
Azlu nodded. “Yes, but it won’t be pleasant.”
“I’ve never shied away from pain.”
She turned her palm up and rubbed her fingers together. Between them was some of that sticky, translucent goop she was able to secrete. “It won’t hurt,” she said, “But I think your taste buds will be angry with you for a few days, at least.”
“Ah, crap. I have to eat some of that?”
“It’s that, or eventually fall asleep.”
I rolled my eyes. “Okay, fine. But you need to help me convince Alexa… for her own good.”
“For her own good,” Azlu echoed, as she moved to the edge of her cell. “Come. Nightfall approaches, and so does the devil.”
CHAPTER THREE
Azlu had a knack for going unnoticed. It went further than that, though. She wasn’t just easily unnoticed; she was also quickly forgotten. It was how she was able to spend entire weeks locked in the hole without anyone bothering her. It was how she had gone all this time rarely being picked on for being the runt of the prison.
It was how she managed to sneak into and then stay in our cell after doors closed. I watched the guards through the little square window in the cell door as they went up the stairs towards where Azlu’s cell was. I waited, wondering when they would realize she wasn’t in her cell and raise the alarm.
The moment never came.
Turning around, I found Azlu clinging to the top corner of the wall nearest the cell door, her long black hair drooping, her wide-set eyes narrowed. “Impressive,” I said, “How do you do that?”
Azlu tilted her head to one side. “Pheromones,” she said, “My body emits them, and with a thought I can change what they do to those who smell them.”
“That’s super weird,” Alexa said. She was standing on the other side of the brightly lit cell, her arms folded in front of her chest. “Can you come down? You’re creeping me out.”
“I would rather not,” Azlu said, “While I can fool people into briefly forgetting about me, it’s not magic. If they spot me again, they will remember… and they usually get pretty mad.”
“You can stay up there as long as you want,” I said, “Anyway, it’ll be good to have company tonight.”
Alexa’s arms tightened in front of her chest. I could tell she wasn’t totally comfortable watching Azlu clinging to the ceiling like a spider, but she was going to have to get used to that—and a lot more—if we wanted to make it through the rest of the night. None of us would be sleeping any time soon, or at all.
I had been about to jump onto my bunk when I caught myself, and stopped, my hands wrapped around the metal frame. Though the mattress I slept on was thin, it was still cushioned, and I had a pillow to slide under my head if I wanted it. That was enough to make me comfortable, but comfort was the furthest thing I needed right now.
Comfort meant relaxation, and relaxation meant sleep.
I stepped off the bunk, headed over to where Alexa was standing, and leaned against the cold, hard, concrete wall. I was determined to fight off sleep’s inviting embrace through sheer force of willpower—anything to avoid having to sample some of Azlu’s… mucus.
Gross.
A moment of silence passed, the only sound in the cell the faint hum of the air conditioning system. Down in the hole, the passage of time had gone unnoticed. Seconds, minutes, and hours blended into each other turning time itself into an ocean, instead of a line. Now that I was out here, though, I felt each tick of the clock as if we had one in the room.
“Anyone got any board games?” Alexa asked.
“Board game?” Azlu tilted her head.
“You don’t know what a board game is?”
Azlu shook her head. “Not really.”
Alexa glanced at me with her eyebrows arched.
I shrugged. “Your people don’t play games where you come from?” I asked. “Even my kind played games… though I guess most of them involved us beating one another.”
“It is difficult to play games when you can hear each other’s thoughts,” Azlu said. “I have watched inmates play a game called… poker? That would not work where I come from. But we would frequently engage in tests of skill and agility, only…”
I cocked my head to the side. “Only what?”
Azlu stared at us both, a grave look in her eyes. “We would eat the loser.”
“Oh my God, what?” Alexa shrieked and shuddered at the same time, as if a bucket of spiders had been poured on her. “You guys eat each other?!”
“I… I mean, I guess spiders in this world eat each other, too?” I said, trying to keep my revulsion in check. “So, maybe it’s not… oh man, is it cannibalism?”
Azlu’s face lit up. “I think I just made a joke?” she ventured, “Did I do it right?”
“Seriously?” Alexa asked, “Tell me you were kidding. Are you kidding?”
“Yes, I am.”
“Oh, thank fuck,” she said, breathing a sigh of relief.
I joined her. “Okay, good,” I said, “So, you don’t eat each other. That’s good to know.”
“Of course not. We aren’t savages. In fact, the Arachnon are classed as among the most intelligent species in our world. At least, I think so. That’s what mother says. I would not personally know.”
I lowered my eyes. “Yeah, I guess you wouldn’t.” I looked up at her again. “The amnesia didn’t hit you as hard when you fell, though, did it?”
“It did, but mother helped me remember some things. Or, she did when she grew strong enough to reach me through the rift. For a time, I was alone, even if it was a brief time.”
I paused, and watched her. “You’re saying I, and me a lot… but sometimes it’s us and we. Why is that?”
Azlu shook her head and smiled, her black hair following the motions. “I have to apologize. Sometimes mother speaks through me instead of conveying messages for me to relay. It saves time.”
“So, sometimes when we’re speaking to you, we’re speaking to a…” Alexa trailed off, “A what, a Goddess?”
“Something like that, yes.”
“Holy shit.” Alexa looked at me, wide eyed, then back at Azlu. “That’s amazing. Could I speak to her now?”
“No, mother is quiet. Even she has to conserve her energies, especially now.”
“Now?” I asked.
“Because of the devil, of course.”
“What does the devil have to do with mother?”
“At night she retreats, for fear that our psychic link will make me more of a target for the devil’s predations.”