They waited on the boardwalk outside the perpetually closed junk shop, watching the road to Murk as the storm built and blew inland. Ribbons of moisture whipped up under the eaves, licking their faces and bare arms. The ocean and docks dissolved behind the curtains of rain and the mist it drummed up out of the surf.
“Luca’s gotta be half drowned,” said Gallina. “Kinda feel sorry for him.”
“I’ll feel sorrier if he finds that satchel,” replied Viv, her hands gripping the boardwalk railing tight enough to creak.
At last, Luca stumbled into view from between a pair of dunes, hurrying toward the fortress walls, head bent. His lantern flashed at his hip, where the weak flame gleamed against the glass.
“Can you tell if he’s got it?” asked Viv anxiously.
Gallina shaded her eyes as though that might improve her vision. “Nah, can’t tell. Too far. Only one way to find out.” She glanced at Viv. “You stay here, stumpy. I’ll go check.”
Viv opened her mouth to protest, but the gnome bolted off the boardwalk and hurried through the wind, her hands over her head to deflect the pelting rain.
Gallina disappeared around the opposite row of buildings, leaping nimbly between the growing puddles where hard-packed sand didn’t swallow them up.
Drumming her thumbs on the railing, Viv leaned out,letting the rain catch her more fully. She considered her leg and contemplated following Gallina, but she controlled her impatience as best she could.
Still, it was taking entirely too long.
“Hells, don’t you remember where I stowed it?” said Viv under her breath.
Then Gallina rounded the buildings again, and even at a distance, Viv could tell she was grinning, with the satchel held across her belly, both arms clutching it to protect it from the rain.
At last, as she stood dripping on the boardwalk, Gallina unslung it and brushed away wet sand. Combing locks of wet hair out of her eyes, she groused, “If this thing is filled with a change of clothes, I’m gonna be real pissed.”
“Oh, thank the Eight!” cried Fern when they entered the shop together, Viv dripping and Gallina sodden. Potroast hooted anxiously and ran in little circles before them both, fluttering his vestigial wings. “What the hells happened?”
“Well,” said Viv, “you don’t have to worry about any trouble from our friend in gray anymore. And neither does anybody else.”
“Dead?”
“Couldn’t be deader,” supplied Gallina, doing the best she could to stamp clots of wet sand from her boots.
“What took so long?” Fern hurried over to them. “And what is… Is thathis?” She pointed at the damp satchel.
“It’s a long story,” replied Viv. “We had to dance around Iridia a little first.”
“And yep, it’s his,” said Gallina, smiling triumphantly. “Igotta know what’s in this, and as the wettest gal in the room, I should get to do the honors.” She trotted over to the pair of chairs and set the bag on the side table. The gryphet followed, his stubby tail practically vibrating with interest. The hurricane lamp on the wall seemed to hiss louder, as though stoked by an errant breeze.
“Just be careful!” warned Viv.
Gallina shot her a reproachful look.
With a flourish, the gnome unclasped the front of the satchel and tossed the flap back with a creak of leather. She pried the top open further and peered inside, and then her brow wrinkled in consternation. “What the hells?”
“What is it?” Fern moved to get a better look.
Gallina shoved her arm in and drew out something long, knobbly, and cream in color. “It’s just a bunch of damnbones.”
21
“That’s it?” Viv loomed over the proceedings. “You’re sure?”
“Hang on,” replied Gallina, and Viv could swear she was up to her shoulder in the bag, which shouldn’t have been possible. “Definitely other stuff in here…” She grunted as though stretching out her fingers to barely reach something, bit her lip, and then withdrew her arm with a glass bottle clutched in her fist.
Fern examined the bone the gnome had first retrieved, squinting as she tilted it in the light of the lamp. “Is this what I think it is?” she said.
Gallina held up the corked bottle and shook it. “Somethin’ in it. Looks like sand? Who carries around bones and a bottle of sand?”
