“Spend all of it,” Leland said. “Shopkeepers aren’t going to sell to you, so Skye will have to initiate the transactions. Or you can offer a bribe. I’ll be downtown if you need anything.” He came up behind me, close, and dropped a thermos on the counter beside me that I guessed was full of moonale. “Try not to combust.”
* * *
There was a faster way to get downtown than how Skye wanted to go, but when I’d suggested porting, she’d turned whiter than death and claimed we didn’t have time to be slowed down bymy motion sickness. I’d mostly worked through my portstop-induced motion sickness by that point. But I said nothing. On foot it was.
The glass scrying orb followed and people stared, though never at the black cat tethered to Skye’s every movement, or its uncanny way of anticipating her random and roundabout methods of getting places, and her frequent, unannounced turns that sent me stumbling into tall, wet patches of grass. I was standing in a bed of yellow daylilies, waiting for Skye to tell me why she’d suddenly needed tozag, when the cat looped back to herd me along. It was the first time it had approached me, gently nudging my legs with the press of its head. I wanted it to like me, so I did what it said.
I caught up to Skye as the long path to town began to veer steeply down. “Who’s the cat?” I asked.
“The tiny angelic lion? That’s Nova. But don’t address her publicly please. She will come to you as she pleases.”
“Nova,” I said out loud to remember. “She’s your Familiar. When did you get her?”
“Did you not hear the tall one say we’re in the same year?” Skye glanced to her left, and I waited for her to finish her round of surveillance before we continued. “I haven’t been to Selection. How would I have a Familiar?”
The reason I asked.
I knew fromThe Allwitch Afflictionthat Familiars didn’t materialize until Selection. But I wondered — because of Ash — if there were exceptions. If some Aspirants were born with a Familiar while others never got one. Ash had never mentioned a Familiar in her letters. Then again, she also never mentioned being an Aspirant.
“I don’t know,” I said. “I just thought . . .”
“Nova is a highly intelligent animal. I have trained her well.” Skye tossed her a salmon treat. “That is why she’s a goodwalker.”
“So you’renotan Aspirant then?” I clarified.
“Yes.” She sped up.
“Yes?” I had to jog.
“I am sick with withdrawals. My skin hurts, ails me. I’m lost without my Counterpart and thirsting for the divine sap.” Skye coughed half-heartedly into her fist. “See? Aspirant.”
I side-eyed Nova. Skye wasn’t being mean, but either she didn’t want to talk about it, or I was missing something. Maybe shewasa Seven. Maybe acting disinterested when the Goddess blessed you with so much magic was the safest way to go about it. Though that’s what I’d been doing, and the Echelons still thought I was trying to undermine them.
I tried a different approach. “What school of magic are you selecting?” Ornotselecting — if she wasn’t an Aspirant. In which case she’d have no choice.
Skye lit up. “Elemental, for the mermaids. Air, fire, and earth are less interesting to me, but it’s only four years. Flick the fire, till the soil, then I’ll be a professional mermaid — the most majestic creature. Did you know they kill people? Mostly for the Echelons, but I’m hopeful it would be possible to kill for your own purposes and still get away with it.”
“No?” I hesitated a moment. “Um. Why do you want to kill people?”
“Some people deserve to die,” she said, her mouth a flat line as she gazed up at streaks of gray clouds.
I decided she was joking. It was more likely her choice had to do with her dad being an Elemental.TheElemental.
Nova darted across a busy pedestrian street. She followed the same pattern I’d picked up on from Skye — avoid crowds by changing streets, stay close to brick walls, never be out in the wide open. I could see why Leland trusted Skye to take me shopping. She was cautious and alert, and whenever I felt eyeson me too heavily, her pace quickened, speeding us past. Thoughwhereshe went didn’t always make sense.
We made a sudden turn down an alley with a dumpster. “I’m guessing you’re like a four in girl clothes?” she asked, then tilted her head to the side to ponder the size of my chest. “Maybe bigger up top.”
“Sure,” I said, looking around the quiet alley. “Are we avoiding someone?” I hoped it was only the claustrophobic alleyway — the muted red bricks, the gray sky above — giving the sense that something was off.
Skye didn’t answer. Instead, she walked to the end of the alley and scanned the intersection. Nova was at her side, flicking her tail in lazy swishes. I frowned up at the hovering scrying orb, and since we didn’t seem to be going anywhere any time soon, I messaged Leland.
Ember Blackburn:Stop Scrying on me.
Leland Stray:Can Creators Scry?
Ember Blackburn:Is Scrying odorless?
Leland Stray:If the orb is high enough.
