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

The government of Brein Amon knew how dangerous the Underlord was. Hunting him here and there, looking among the dirty wretches of the city as well as among the aristocrats, they always missed him. His identity was safe simply due to one fact. No one knew his true name. Not even his own lackeys in his organization. Even if one or several of his operators had been caught, Mr. Hil Baker could never be identified as the Underlord. They had never seen him as that man. No one had, except Tia.

Tia had learned his identity by accident. In fact, it was how she first met him. She was a cat at the time and was sneaking mice from his baker’s cellar. In the age when Tia was starving and begging as a little girl, Hil Baker gave her a bread bun and told her to get away from his shop because she was bad for business. She had gone to his cellar as a cat several times, and each time as a different cat so she could still catch mice unsuspected.

One day she had followed him as a cat down the street hoping to get some fish or a piece of old mincemeat pie. But the day she followed him, she learned that he was the Underlord. She had overheard him meeting with one of his thugs who had just returned from harassing a local shopkeeper. That was also the day he picked her up and called her by her real name.

She did not know how he knew she was the cat. But he did know, and he picked her up to take her home—but not to the baker’s shop. His underworld dwelling became Tia’s new home. There he fed her and cared for her and claimed her as his own.

His underworld dwelling was greater than anything Tia had ever seen before. Not even the mistress’s home had been that nice, and her home was nearly a palace with rooms and land as far as could be seen. It took her an entire day to cross the mistress’s land on the way to Calcumum. But this place was more than a palace. It was a city under a city, and all the Underlord’s.

Tia wondered as she flew back over the city as a pigeon if perhaps he freed her because she knew his name. Not that she would tell, and not that the guards asked, but she wondered it all the same. Tia knew the government of Brein Amon would kill to know the whereabouts of the Underlord so they could put an end to him. And when she flew home among so many of the city’s pigeons, she wondered if possibly the Underlord might kill her too. 

She landed on a roof then peered over the streets where the barterers sold and bought. It was also where many of the men that worked for the Underlord passed by. She knew most of them. Her memory never let her forget anything she saw.

Down on the street, there were two walking with a heavy basket between them, carrying potatoes. Tia knew that under those potatoes was probably a stash of stolen goods, or possibly illegal imports from the Hann. She followed them, fluttering over the rooftops though she also listened to the cries of the city soldiers looking for her.

They turned into an alley.

Fluttering her wings, she perched on the potatoes and waited for them to notice her.

“Shoo!” One of the men waved his hand, trying to scare her off. “Get off! Go away!”

Tia fluttered up and settled on his head out of spite. She didn’t like him much. Never did.

“Get it off! Watch it!” that man yelled to his partner. He put his end of the potatoes down. Tia heard it clink on the stone. Flying up, she perched on a sign hanging near a door. She knew now that he was hiding some liquor, probably from Comar Bay.

The man picked up his side and continued on his way. Tia could already feel her birdishness falling from her, and she fluttered down near a rat she saw on the ground. This rat squeaked to get away. Possibly it was one she had touched before but she grabbed a hold of it with her suddenly human hand. Her feathers vanished. She was kneeling on the street now, holding the rat.

It took Tia some effort to catch up with the men. As a rat she had to run to keep with their long strides, but as a rat she also had lots of energy. However, also as a rat she had to work harder not to be seen, especially at the gates of the underworld.

Catching up with the smugglers, she jumped into the basket, this time squeezing in with the potatoes unseen.

“My Lord,” Tia heard a servant say to Hil as they neared his hall. “The Sky Child is free. They set her loose, and she has flown towards the city.”

“Good,” said the Underlord. “She will either come here, or they will find her and kill her. Either way that is good.”

Tia-the-rat shook. Of course he would consider both good. She knew he was right. She knew she was feared enough that the police would not halt at killing her. But then why didn’t they kill her in the first place?

“But sir, why didn’t they execute her in the first place?” The servant voiced her question.

“I’m not sure,” the Underlord said.

“We know,” one of the men carrying the potato basket answered.

Tia-the-rat listened.

“Well, speak. Why did they not kill the demon that has been haunting their city?” the Underlord said. “These days the hunters kill them on the spot.”

Peeking out and sniffing the air, Tia looked at the man to see who he was. It was man she did not know personally.  She crawled back down in the potatoes so they would not spot her.

“They know what she is, and they think they can get the treasure of Sky Lord,” the man said.

“The treasure is a myth,” the Underlord said dismissively, flicking his hand as if to shoo them away.

“The merchants of Hann don’t think so. And for that matter, I heard that the Patriarch of Brein Amon wants her to help them find it,” the man said.

The Underlord laughed. “Then the Patriarch of Brein Amon is a greater fool than I thought.”

He dismissed the men.

Hefting up the basket again, they carried their load to the kitchens straight away, potatoes, sloshing bottles of wine, rat and all.

As soon as they put the whole load on the table and started to unpack it the rat jumped out of the basket. She started to run for a crack in the wall to hide in, but upon seeing her, the cook screamed.

Both men in the kitchen scrambled to get brooms, whacking the table and chairs and anywhere else she ran. Tia scampered faster than they could strike, but unfortunately the underground room was nearly seamless and she could find no cracks, no holes and no escape from their attacks.

Still, something filled Tia like fire. Now that she knew why she was alive, she wanted to know more. There was a treasure. Fine. But even the megalomaniac Underlord did not consider it worth his while to find it. That was not what fueled her flight anyway. It was what Hil said, what he called her. Tia had to find out why.

They tried everything they could to kill the rat—pots, pans, rolling pins, broom handles—but this rat jumped, running fast as if it had rabies and wanted to infect the world. She ran up the broom handle as one of the men tried to swat her with it. Pouncing she jumped on his shoulder, biting his ear.

“Ow! You stinking rat!” He batted her away, but the rat jumped off as quickly as she had bitten him. He clamped his hand to his ear, pressing against the bloody welt.

Scurrying out of the kitchen, the rat’s little claws scraped on the stone tile. She squeezed under the door into the hall. They chased her out, running right back to the main hall where the lord of the underworld sat, commanding business to go forth before he went off back to his bakery.

Going to the one she hoped would save her, Tia scurried to the base of Hil’s throne then scrambled up with her claws. She jumped onto his lap and then clawed up to his shoulder, clinging and shaking for life.

“Rabid rat!” one of the men shouted, still clutching his bleeding ear and swinging his broom.

But Hil got over his shock, blinking at the rat that rested there. He reached up to pet her. “You have returned.”

Rat Tia nodded and climbed down his arm.

“I told you not to do animals, Tia. It frightens some of my men,” he said.

Tia nodded again with a squeak, climbing now onto the arm of the chair.

“Is that rat her?” the man with the broom exclaimed. “I thought she was going to escape as a bird?”

The Underlord smiled as he glanced at Tia. “You changed early. It seems your gift has increased. Doesn’t it usually take you hours to change back?”

It was true. Tia had only been a bird for a half hour. She had chosen to be a rat. Then the thought occurred to her—still a rat in mind, but herself also—possibly she did not have to wait until it wore off.

Taking a breath, she concentrated. In front of their eyes, Tia reemerged from the rat and stood before them, climbing off the arm of the chair, blinking her shining blue eyes at the men as she shook out her prison attire.

The Underlord nodded in approval.

But Tia no longer trusted him. She looked into his brown eyes, seeing his underhanded desires behind them.

“You do realize they will hunt you,” Hil said to her, speaking some of his thoughts aloud.

Tia blinked and then nodded. “You said they wanted me alive for some treasure.”

The Underlord laughed, but the laugh did not reach his eyes. “Myth, my dear.”

“Who is the Sky Lord?” she asked.

The men in the room seemed surprised.

“You don’t know the legend?” the Underlord asked her with a condescending nod.

Tia shook her head.

At once the Underlord leaned back in his chair and said, “Then you should find out. Go on a quest.”

“Why should I go anywhere if you can tell me?” Tia responded, standing firmer with her bare feet fixed to the ground.

The Underlord smiled more darkly, real amusement reaching his eyes now.

“Because I can only tell you what I heard. Not the truth,” he said.

But that would not do for her. Tia, for the first time, gave him an impatient glare. “Then tell me what you know.”

He drew in a deep breath. Letting it out in a long sigh, he nodded and waved her closer. “People talk of an island far in the sea where people have eyes the same color as yours. Legend has it that a man came out of the sky and visited this island. He fell in love with a local girl and had children with her. Then one day he left. Among that people these children were half demon, able to change shape at will like their father. He gave them dominion over the island. They tried to take over the world in military conquest. In fact, they overran our land, making the empire of Westhaven. We drove them out eventually, reestablishing the nation of Brein Amon. They say that somewhere in the middle of the war they lost the ability to absorb life and were conquered. Now they are good for nothing but to be used as slaves. Since that time the descendants of the Sky Lord have been sold all over the world. That is the myth. But you, a child of that line, have the gift. And I wonder about the myth as do many who see you on the streets.”

He then shook his head darkly. “The treasure of the Sky Lord is actually the treasure of