“Cameron!” came a shout from outside the bathroom door.
I flinched, wondering in sudden guilt whether I should’ve been rationing the water. “I’m indisposed!” My voice echoed slightly in the tiled room.
An ominous silence followed. “When you are no longer indisposed,” Merulo said finally, “come to the library plaza. You know where that is.”
“Okay, will do.” I listened for the click of a closing door, then reluctantly extracted myself from the bath. A soft cloth hung from a hoop, which I used to dry myself. With a grimace, I re-dressed in the stained, torn corpse clothing.
By the time I exited the inn, night had fallen. Without that faint trickle of sunlight, the electric bulbs of the resort burned at a higher intensity, making the geometric buildings and streets appear brighter, sharper, more alien. I plodded down the road, feeling the absence of people like a weight. The dragons might be used to living in a tomb, but my imagination strained, filling in the crowds that must once have churned down these walkways. Their conversations and laughter were nearly audible, as if the vast time that separated us was only paper-thin.
When the library came into sight, I felt enormous relief.This quickly turned to puzzlement. Someone had laid a tablecloth across the ground, weighing it down with plates of food and a single package wrapped in thin brown paper. Hydna and Merulo sat at opposite corners of the tablecloth, looking uncomfortable. At least they weren’t fighting.
“What’s all this?” I asked, jogging slightly to reach them. The food looked wonderful—bread rolls, fried fish, and sautéed vegetables in greens, reds, and yellows.
“I portaled into the local town.” Hydna gestured a muscled arm at the spread. “To get us something nice. As I heard it wassomebody’sspecial day.”
A smile pulled itself across my face, and I swallowed a squeak of joy. If she’d been standing, I might have tried to hug her.
“It isnothis birthday.” Merulo unfolded himself from his seated position, snatching the parcel from the tablecloth. “Here,” he said. “Because, as you said, we did miss the date, which has evidently upset you.”
It had mostly been an attempt to get out of being yelled at, but I would never let him know. I took the parcel eagerly, tearing apart the paper to find—fabric!
My breath caught. I pulled out a soft, emerald-green tunic and a set of breeches in what looked to be dyed brown cotton. Last in the package was a pair of polished leather shoes, complete with copper buckles.
“I found a guy who looked well dressed and politely asked him to strip and sell me his clothes. He was about your size.” Hydna’s grin made me think she’d been less than polite. “It was Merulo’s idea. He said you have a garment obsession.”
The sorcerer had put himself in my reach. Takingadvantage of this, I threw my arms around him. At first, he stiffened and cursed beneath his breath, but after a moment I felt a spidery hand pat me awkwardly on the back. “Thank you,” I said, sniffing and wiping my eyes before stepping back to examine the clothing. “These are far too small.”
“We can fix them with magic,” Hydna said impatiently. “Or I can.”
She stepped forward for her own hug, her arms crushing the oxygen from my lungs. As I squirmed, ribs cracking and eyes bulging, I caught sight of Merulo over her shoulder. He’d turned from the sight, to shoot a look of pure death into the empty air.
That spelled trouble.
Gasping, I begged my way free of her grip. “Thank you,” I wheezed, my eyes overflowing with either gratitude or pain. “Thank you both, very much. But, ah, you in particular, Merulo, as it was your idea.” The sorcerer nodded, and I fought down a grin. I’d been noticing some distance from him—that it might bejealousybrought me dangerously close to laughter.
It was all quite flattering, really, but I wouldn’t let it get to my head.
CHAPTER 34
In Which Glenda Is Feeling Light-headed and Slightly Nauseous and Doesn’t Want to Think About How Far Away the Ground Is, or How the Air Would Whistle Past Her Face if She Fell. In Which Her Stomach Feels Like It Is Caving In on Itself. In Which She Wonders if She Could Spit Out a Levitation Spell in Time, but In Which She Admits to Herself that Most Likely, She Would Only Get It Partially Out before the Grotesque Crunch and Splatter of Impact.
Glenda was afraid of heights.
She could have spent the flight in relative comfort, lounging in the coach’s cushioned interior and only faintly feeling the rattle that followed each beat of its great leafy wings, but the mongrel witch had wanted directions.
“The mad sorcerer travels through portals,” Glenda had protested, staring up at the chimeric offspring of a swan, a stagecoach, and a flowering vine, but the mongrel witch had only clucked her tongue.
“This ‘mad sorcerer’ might be happy to fling himself through space and end up God knows where, but I prefer to see where I’m going.”
Which left Glenda crawling on her belly up the extended neck of the carriage, to peer dizzily at the ground far below. With great relief, she spotted the outline of a town, and slid back into the carriage through the soft curtains.
“We’re close,” she said. “It’ll be harder to orient without the sorcerer’s fog as a landmark, but if we land now, it should only be a couple of hours ride.”
“We can’t fly the entire distance?” Reclining on a spread of hand-embroidered cushions, the witch looked perfectly at home. She made a careful selection from a jar of biscuits, plucking a specimen dotted with nuts and the crimson flash of berries. Pressing it past her rosebud lips, Domitia chewed without hurry.
Glenda tried to think of a reason that didn’t involve the upcoming inversion of her stomach. “I can spot large landmarks, like my outpost, but the field won’t stand out by air.”
“Very well,” said the witch, and the carriage descended. Glenda’s gut plunged; she gripped the wooden walls for support, wondering at how the witch could maintain her calm even through this horrible dropping. They touched down with a clatter, bringing Glenda’s teeth together in a painful click, but the impact caused no damage. Its movements smoothed, the carriage rolling on freely.
