“I can’t leave here either,” she said. “The human lands are icy toward elves, the elf lands are windy toward gypsies. The trees are warm. We like each other.” She got a dreamy look in her eye and stared off toward the clouds.
“Mamba, darling,” Cindra said. “I’m going to need you to focus for a minute.”
“Mmm?” she asked.
“I can’t believe I’m saying this,” I said, “but you should come with us. We have food, and shelter. You can stay with us until you decide where you belong.”
She didn’t look convinced.
“Oh my,” Cindra said. “Ow, ow, ow!” She reached inside herself and removed the small pouch of jewels we had taken to Valleyvale. She tossed the bag to the ground, where the pull-string sack disintegrated before our eyes, leaving five clear stones behind. Heat rose from them, warping the light.
The black sludge on the ground rippled and rolled toward the stones. It narrowed into a thin cord that leapt from the ground and dove into one of them, turning it a cloudy brown and then an impenetrable black. The stone sucked in all of that dire ooze until the forest floor was clean again. The other four gems sat where they were, clear and cool.
I had cooled off too. Once the creatures had died, their evil smog dissipated, taking its magically induced anger and rage with it.
Mamba bent over the stones and poked the black one with a stick. “How did you do that?” she asked.
“I didn’t,” Cindra said. “We should ask Nola what she thinks.”
“Nola is the goddess I serve,” I explained to Mamba. “I’m the head priest.”
“Can I meet her?” she asked.
“If you come to the temple with us,” I said.
“I want to ride the donkey,” she said.
“You’ll have to ask him,” I said. I was joking, but Mamba walked over to the animal and put her hands on his face. She pressed her forehead against his.
“He said yes,” she said, “as long as I don’t summon any snakes. He didn’t like them.”
“Um,” I said.
“I’m kidding,” she said. “I can’t speak to donkeys. I’ll ride in the cart with you.”
“It’s a two-seater,” I said.
“Then we’ll squeeze,” she said.
+15
Vix sat in the middle of the path that led to the temple’s entrance, staring at her handiwork. She had created a beautiful stone door to cover the entrance to Nola’s temple.
“Great work!” I called as we approached on our donkey cart.
“I dunno,” she said, still staring. “I can’t tell if it’s level.”
“There’s a level up joke in there somewhere,” I said, “but I can’t find it.”
“I think it’s lovely,” Mamba said.
“Who are you?” Vix asked.
“Mamba Oph,” she said, doing a curtsy. “I’m visiting.”
“Enjoy your stay,” Vix said. “Once Master Arden here approves my stonework, I’m setting out for my next job.”
I approached the stone door. I had been looking forward to seeing Vix again, and the thought of her just leaving really hurt. The door was well made. It was a large round slab of brown rock with an intricate pattern etched into the front. I rolled it to the side easily, using an indented track that Vix had cut into the temple’s floor. When it reached the end of the track, it slipped into a deeper divot to hold the door in place.
“This is a brilliant design,” I said. “Will it hold up?”
“Will it hold up?” she asked. “I’m going to pretend you didn’t ask that.”
“What about a lock?” I asked. “You’ll have to make sure it locks before it’s done.”
“The locking mechanism is on the inside,” she said. “Don’t worry, I thought of everything.”
I wanted to find a flaw with the door, anything that would keep Vix here longer, but I couldn’t. It was exactly what we needed.
“I should give you this then, before you leave,” I said.
I handed her the outfit I had picked out in Valleyvale. In her hands, the top seemed smaller than I remembered. It wouldn’t cover much of her skin, even if it did provide some stat bonuses. She held the top between two fingers and stared at it, in apparent disbelief.
It was too skimpy. What was I thinking? All I did now was come off as a perv.
“This,” she said, “is… the nicest thing. Anyone. Has ever done.”
“Really?” I asked.
“Yes!” she said. “This must have cost a fortune! How did you afford this?”
“I sold my services,” I said. Suddenly I was the one who felt like I had whored myself out to Blade.
She took off her top and I looked away immediately. “You’re so funny,” she said. Beastkin aren’t shy like humans are. How’s it fit?” Her tail waved from side to side behind her as the leather top hugged her body, forcing her beasts together tight.
“It suits you,” I said. “But try on the skirt in private. This is a temple, not a brothel.”
She stepped toward me and placed a hand on my chest. “If it were a brothel, what would that make you?”
“Broke,” I said. “I wouldn’t let any customers lay a hand on you.”
“Good,” she said. “I may be in heat, but I’m not desperate.”
“Still?” I asked.
“It lasts a full week, and it’s only just starting,” she said. “It gets a little distracting until I take care of business to relieve the pressure for a little while.”
“That’s a lot of information right there,” I said.
“Well, you asked,” she said.
Four times, Nola said in my mind. Four times in one day she “took care of her own business.”
Nola!, I said. Can you speak with us? I need to report back on our trip.
Nola’s body still floated in her crystal shell just above the altar. She opened her eyes inside that jeweled case and pressed against the front panel. It separated from the crystal and hovered before her.
“I’m still resting,” she said. Her voice was sweet, but soft. “I’ll have to return to my cocoon soon, but I do need to speak with you all.”
Cindra, Vix, and Mamba knelt before the altar, as did I.
“Two of Duul’s operatives were in the forest earlier, but now they are gone,” she said.
“We killed them,” I said. “Their bodies seeped into the jewels we found in your temple. Someone in Valleyvale called them energems.”
“Oh!” she said. “I had no idea what quality those gems were. I’d never seen energems with my own eyes. If that’s what they are, they are truly rare.”
“We tried to sell them in the city, but there’s really not a black market for these,” I said.
“Few lay people know the full potential of these gems,” Nola said. “When fully charged, they are like putty. They can be molded to any purpose with the blessing of a god. Or, a god can consume them and take the energy the gems contain for him or herself.”
“What kind of purpose can they serve?” Vix asked.
“They undulate with power,” Nola said. “When that power crests, they can release an action. If you bent an energem to the purpose of shooting fire, it would. Every time its internal energy crested.”
“What about snakes?” Mamba asked.
“Excuse me?” Nola said.
“If we told an energem to create snakes, would it?” Mamba asked
“Ew,” Nola said. “I mean, yes, but ew. Who are you?”
“Mamba is a snake charmer,” I said.
“Well,” Nola said, “welcome to my humble temple. Anyway, you killed those two warriors in the forest. That’s the good news. The bad news is, there are more.”
“How many more?” I asked.
“Thirty, maybe ninety.”
“That’s a pretty big range,” I said.
“I’m working very hard to probe what’s out there without letting my psychic link to the gods reveal my location. If Duul knew where I was, he’d come kill me now. As it is, I think they’re scouring the forest for me. They must have sensed that I’m nearby.”