Sky Lord by Rowan Erlking (that summer book .txt) 📕

the floor, weighed there by the demon chain. They went around and around until the cat, and then the dog, jumped on her back, forcing her to the floor. Guards scrambled to the center with their prods, but they were not fast enough to catch either animal. Some people started to laugh. They stifled it when they saw the Patriarch’s annoyed glare.

“Get them out of here!” he snapped. “This is not a place for animals!”

Tia lifted her head, bracing her arms up, watching the cat come her way, seeking a place to hide. Quickly thinking, Tia pulled down the neck to her dress, grasping through her sleeves to the collar. The cat jumped inside.

Someone burst into laughter, pointing at Tia as she hugged the cat still under her dress. The dog yipped at them both, but it gave the guards just enough time to grab it by its collar and haul it away. The cat meowed and then purred under Tia’s skirt.

Looking up at the Patriarch, Tia blinked her eyes.

He stared, seeing something that made him blink with surprise. Watching her skin suddenly change from a lovely tan to an odd shade of furry white, he saw her eyes turn yellow and her pupils enlarge and then thin into vertical slits. She shook loosely in her clothes as if they somehow no longer fit. Her face shrunk down, as did her shoulders. Then, as a tent sagging around her, the white dress collapsed.

“Meow!”

A guard walked over, lifting the dress with his electric prod. The dress was too long for that so he gathered it all up in his hands, taking the load off the ground and shaking it. On the ground were two cats, one asleep and the other sitting in a circle of gold with two bells lying on the ground.

“You beast!” the guard reached down with his prod.

The conscious cat hissed, leaping back. The man jabbed his prod in again, but the cat just pounced on his face, scratching deep with its claws before jumping onto his head and down onto the marble floor.

“The chain is off,” the Patriarch murmured. He stood up at once. “Catch her! The chain fell off! She can escape!”

Tia didn’t need for him to announce it. She had figured it out when the weight of the chain slipped right off her cat-like shoulders. It needed human shoulders to stay on, or a tight noose hold. It had been neither now that she didn’t struggle.

Scurrying over the marble floor with cat paws, Tia ran towards the crowd. Teams of guards ran to catch her, and more moved to shut and bar the doors. But Tia did not take a door. She dashed through the legs of the gathered mob of people on the opposite side of the hall and skidded into the drapes. Jumping, clawing and scrambling, Tia mangled a curtain on the way up to a window that was partially open for air. Everyone’s eyes watched the furry cat-that-was-Tia squeeze through the small gap to the outside window ledge. She leapt into the courtyard below.

“Open the doors and get out there!” the Patriarch bellowed with spit flying out of his mouth. He looked ready to climb over the table and chase her himself.

His guards obeyed quickly. They slapped on their sunglasses, pushed back the lock and pried open the doors again. Scrambling out, they hunted for the impossible. A white furry creature on white, she was gone from sight.

“Got out, huh?” Jonis said, strolling into the hall from the right side doorway. He was holding a sandwich jammed full of leafy greens and a slab of barbecued beef. Red sauce dribbled out of the corner of his mouth. “I told you she could escape from that chain.”

“You’re still here?” The Patriarch gaped at him. “I thought I told you to leave!”

Jonis shrugged. “And I told you I needed to get some supplies from the kitchen before I was off. Danslik makes me so hungry.”

They stared at him, watching the hunter chew away then take another bite of his monster-sized sandwich.

Guards ran back in, one breathless and shaking his head. “The Sky Child is nowhere to be found.”

“Meow.” The cat in the center of the room stretched and yawned. It then ran straight for its owner, shaking as if it had seen its own ghost.

Pointing with his sandwich hand, Jonis said from the side of his mouth between chews. “It looks like she took another form. I bet it’s a bird.” He then pointed to the white gown on the ground the guard had left. “Funny though, it is the first time I’ve seen her leave her clothes. Was she wearing anything under that?”

He crossed over to where the dress was then passed it to the demon chain laying on the ground. Jonis bent over and stared at it.

“Call out the hunters!” the Patriarch barked. He then turned to the clerics, hissing several orders at them.

Jonis tilted his head, asking, “Are you offering another bounty?”

The Patriarch glared at him. “I suppose I have to.”

“I’m game then,” Jonis said, standing up, propping his one free hand on his hip then took another bite out of his sandwich.

The hall cleared. The clerics trumpeted, announcing the end of that session of court for the day. The guards skirted around Jonis, picking up the dress from off the floor. They reached for the demon chain also, but Jonis placed his foot on it.

Pulling back, they looked up at his face, mostly fixing on his blue eyes. Though they looked ready to fight for the demon tool, the guards turned and carried only the dress away instead. Jonis smirked, watching them leave as he continued to eat his sandwich until nothing was left.

He wiped his hands on his pants, grinning with satisfaction. The room had cleared. Taking his foot off the chain, he squatted down and stared at it again, saying nothing. Then, he reached down with one hand and lifted it up by the bell. Both bells tinkled lightly. Jonis smirked, then gathered the entire chain in his palm and stuffed it into his pocket. He stood up and walked back to the right hand door that led to the kitchens to finish filling his pack.

 

Chapter Twelve: The Woman

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The mountain air was hard to float on. Diving down on air currents she was unfamiliar with, Tia landed on the rooftops of Gibbis. There she switched from a dove to a gray pigeon. She flapped for three hours by pigeon wings until she reached the forests of Gonn just north of the Stilson plains. From there she harassed a bunch of crows until she got a good hold on a large one and could complete the journey to the sea.

Stilson City was on flat land, some of it below sea level with dikes. The rest was built on large underwater pillars using the canals as streets, though closer to sea the homes were built on thick reed mats that floated on the fetid salt water. Tia landed on a particularly steep roof, the first one that didn’t look like it was near a busy military post. Her wings were aching from constant flying. Trying to get a grip on the tile with her bird claws, she slipped. One wing flopped up to catch the air, the other struggled to do the same, but her wings smacked against the roof with hardly any loft at all. Instead she plummeted straight into the canal.

The murky water in the canal soaked her wings almost the instant she was in the water, dragging her underneath the surface. Choking, Tia came up for air, splashing with her slick arms and treading water with her human feet.

“What are you doing swimming in that? That water’s filthy!” a middle-aged woman with thick brown hair and somewhat reddish, sun burned cheeks called out from a house window.

Tia could taste it. It was sewage water. How they could stand it, she did not know. There was a green film on the water top and plants growing in the well-fertilized water bottom as well as colorful lilies on top.

“I’m sorry,” Tia swam to the edge. She reached out, but then pulled back in, realizing that she had not taken her clothes with her this time. It was necessary abandonment, but now it proved embarrassing.

The woman trotted down inside her house, muttering complaints and curses as she went. When she reached the door she stood in it with an annoyed stare, grasping the jamb for support. “Come on. Get out before you get sick.”

Tia covered her bare chest with her arms. “But, I don’t…uh, have any clothes on.”

Blinking at Tia once and then shrugging, the woman said, “I got clothes indoors you can borrow. Now get out before you lose something worse.”

The woman’s hand extended over the edge of the canal, shaking to insist that Tia hurry.

Tia stretched out her slime covered arm and took the woman’s grasp. With a heave, the woman drew her up onto the stoop, muttering to herself. Immediately she wrapped her shawl around Tia’s shoulders, shaking her head with more grumbles. She shut the door behind with her foot, giving it a good kick.

“Alright, up the stairs with you to the bath. I won’t have you stinking up my house.” The woman heaved Tia, steering to a set of simple wood stairs. The entire house was plain. Tia had fallen right into the slums where, if it had been Calcumum, she would have felt right at home.

The woman opened a door then nudged Tia in. She dragged off her shawl, making a face at it. “Now more laundry to do.” She glanced at Tia once, nodding. “You get in that bath and wash yourself. I don’t want to smell that stink when I return. Got it?”

Tia nodded obediently, reaching over for the knob to the bath.

Thinking it wise to cooperate, Tia continued to do as asked. So far the woman had said nothing about her being a slave. That felt like good news, but too good. Besides, she agreed that she smelled awful.

The hot water that flowed in the tub steamed. Tia cooled it with cold until it was more than two thirds full and then climbed in. Immediately she dipped herself entirely under, rinsing off the slimy muck, then resurfaced, looking around for soap. The bathroom was simple and clean. There was a small basin for water and a basic chamber pot with a lid for a toilet. The wooden bathtub sat next to the window.

All along the window ledge were bottles of lotions and soaps. Tia picked up a pink one and twisted off the cap. It smelled strongly of grapefruit. She put it back. There was a white one she sniffed, but she recoiled, smelling a pungent coconut oil inside. Grabbing the last colored bottle, she opened it. Inside she smelled lavender. Shrugging as she realized she must give up her search for a non-perfumed soap, Tia rubbed the lavender into her hair and onto her skin, rubbing hard to get all the road dust and sweat off her body besides the raw sewage she had fallen into.

“Ah, that is a better smell.” The woman had returned. Standing just inside the door, she peered down at Tia,