“No!” Agathe cried, lunging for the baby bird she’d just healed. Her fear that it would plummet didn’t materialize.
Despite never having flown before, instinct had the little ostrawk spreading its wings and hovering.
“Caw. Caw.” The mother echoed the joyful sound. The pair of them hung in the air, and Agathe could have sworn their beaks smiled.
It warmed her inside. She kept smiling as, with a final cry, momma and baby flew off.
A moment later, Hiix leaned over the edge and said, “Brat! It’s a good thing my heart’s young, or I would have died when you jumped off the edge.”
“It was a controlled descent,” she muttered.
“That still could have killed you, you idiot,” Hiix shot back.
“While you’re ranting, mind tossing me a rope?” Because climbing the sheer rock would be difficult.
“I swear, one of these days…” A familiar grumble as Hiix disappeared with a yelled, “Give me a second to pull one out of the pack.”
As Hiix looked for rope, Agathe nudged the lumps in the nest, noticing that something glinted among the bones and lost feathers.
She reached without thinking and found herself holding a shard from a mirror. Immediately, she dropped it. In the past, they’d led to nothing but trouble. But at the same time…how odd that they kept turning up. Maybe rather than allow her repugnance to hold sway, she should take more time to study it.
Using her sleeve so it didn’t touch her skin, Agathe grabbed the piece of mirror and stuffed it into her pouch. Just in time, as the rope dangled over the edge.
“Climb. Because I am not hauling your dumb ass,” Hiix notified her.
“Love you, too!” she shouted back, climbing even as Hiix and Venna hauled.
Wearing a smile, she rejoined her group. “Thanks!”
“Bah.”
“What Hiix means to say is, you’re welcome. I don’t suppose there were any eggs left behind in that nest?” asked a hopeful Venna.
Agathe shook her head.
“Pity. You could have cooked it with your hands and used the last of the salt to season it.”
“You and your appetite.” Hiix sniffed.
“I didn’t see you complaining about my cooking when you were taking that second helping.” Venna didn’t hold back the sass.
“Just keeping up my strength.”
Agathe bit back a smile. I don’t know what I’d do without them.
Late that afternoon—not far from the town set away from the cliffs atop a hill, providing some protection—they transformed Hiix from a stern woman into a stern man. Not an easy task. They braided her hair in the style of the men who lived in Grasstown, tugging and shaping it to cover her chin. A shorn lock of it and some goop provided a mustache that wouldn’t pass scrutiny, hence why their group—husband, wife, and cousin—arrived just as the suns set and shadows began to creep.
The guards at the gate didn’t give them a second look, merely yell-whispered, “Get in quick if you’re planning to stay. We’re about to shut for the night.”
This town had apparently learned a lesson when it came to monsters. Agathe noted the symbols carved into the wooden palisade as they passed through the town gate. She nudged Venna, who nodded in understanding. She’d try and discreetly find out more about who’d put them there and why.
On their own, the lines and squiggles simply made a drawing. They required magic to give them purpose, something Agathe could feel by simply stepping close to them. Someone had infused these, and recently. She could taste the power within the sigils slowly fading or being leached. She wondered how long the town would last once the protection ran out.
As they passed through, the guards followed, pulling the gates shut as another pair dropped a heavy bar, bearing yet another symbol, into the brackets over it.
She pointed. “What is that for?”
“Good luck,” one of the guards said.
“Who put it there?”
“The King’s men,” he said.
“They did? Why?” Since when did soldiers do magic?
“I ain’t got time to jabber. Gotta make sure the missus locked up the house tight.”
“Do you have many problems with monsters?” Agathe questioned, despite his palpable need to leave.
“Enough that I’d recommend getting inside. The walls don’t stop the flying ones.” Said with a distrustful glance at the sky.
“So, how do you protect from the avian beasts?”
“Got archers at the four corners.”
A glance along the wall showed the old towers patched, their cupolas at the top a good place to watch. If they stayed awake. Did they know to wear helms against the insidious whispers of the vhampirs? They were the most frightening of all the monsters because they could get inside a person’s head and do horrible things.
“The inn’s straight ahead,” the guard announced, pointing with his stave.
“Thank you!” Venna replied and hooked her arm with Hiix’s. “Come, husband. I, for one, would love to sit. I can’t believe you lost our only mule on this trip.”
“This trip was your idea,” was Hiix’s low grumble.
“Like another honeymoon.”
“Kill me,” Hiix mumbled, and Agathe heard the guard chuckle as he hurried down the street.
They’d passed the first level of scrutiny, now to the next: the inn.
Venna led the way on the main street, which ran straight. It held only a few people hurrying to get home.
“Do you sense anything?” Venna asked, noticing how Agathe stared overly long at a few houses.
“No. So far, this place appears clean.” The mist hadn’t managed to leave its mark. Not yet.
The inn proved easy to spot. A sign with a bed drawn upon it hung out front.
The door was closed and latched, meaning they had to knock. Rather than open, a voice said, “Who is it?”
“Visitors seeking a room for the night.”
A scree as wood slid. A slot appeared, filled with a set of eyes. “Show me your faces.”
Apparently, they passed in the waning light, for the door was unbarred with a rattle and swung open.
“Enter. Let me feed you. For a price, of course.” The innkeeper steepled his hands and charged them dearly for the soup and bread. Even more for a bath. The married couple got the large room and double bed. Agathe would have a mattress in the attic, which suited her purpose.
They escaped to their rooms the moment they finished their meals, Agathe taking the first turn in the bath at Venna’s insistence. Still mothering her, even as they all looked the same age—in the blush of womanhood.
She then left them arguing about who would go next. Hiix would because Venna wouldn’t be bathing quite yet. She’d be down in the kitchen, yapping with the staff, getting cozy with a maid or maybe the innkeeper’s wife—as if she’d pass up the opportunity for companionship.
Agathe lay on the mattress, which was actually a pair stacked. It was soft enough that she sank and stared at the ceiling of planks. The oil lamp she’d also paid extra for hung on a hook, the flame barely enough to illuminate the space around her. There was no window. Just one way in via a hatch that needed the ladder she’d pulled up after her.