Alone, I looked at the ape. Its snoutless face and lanky limbs seemed squished or distorted, like someone pulled a dragon out of shape and peeled their scales off. I hissed at it, but seeing the gore below its head relaxed me just a nudge. It wouldn’t, couldn’t, get back up and haunt me. Right?
pungent, like a metal dying.
walk on those forelegs. Did it walk only on its hindlegs? How did it not teeter over? And was its underbelly exposed as it moved?
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I had never guarded anything before, but I tried what I could. Which meant idly looking around and up, for all the nothing that it did. My frills still were fanned, and my tongue flicked out every twelve or thirteen heartbeats, scenting the air.
walk back home.
I murmured, and the voice was definitely Kinri, all Kinri. She sung:
“From not the calm of night nor court of day
“Shall your high course be shadow’d, study’d nor sway’d;
“In places lonesome or in midst of noise
“Your visage limns naught save the utmost poise.
“Till ruin betides the mighty and asqualled
“You’ll rise with the mantle of the eld heroes called—
“Specter! unseen agents of shadows stark;
“Specter! for lofts high and by keen stars mark’d.
“Know that when fools had stood atop the world
“We wielded light with lucent cloaks unfurl’d;
“Know that when dusk at last overrose the Sky
“We deigned that peace on wings of words should fly.
“Till starless foes above have languishèd,
“Our family alone distinuishèd!
“House Specter shall overmaster rot and dearth;
“House Specter shall unite the heaven and earth!
“From out the stars of night and dance of day
“Will our high course be but the only way;
“In all the world’s woes and in all life’s joys
“Our visage limns naught save the Specter poise.
“…Now sleep, O heir of Specter???—??my Kinri.”
me, yet only dances since I heard (and not really listened) to it simply being played, for crowds, at gatherings. And yet, I still remembered it with that long since dried voice and destroyed key harp, because there was something deeply personal, some verity, that the rote recitals???—??backed instead by high strings and drums???—??seemed to lack; something that had came aflame when she limned it with her violin and restrained voice.
Thank you, miss. You’re a savior.” The sifter turned around again, and began stepping away. They glanced back. “Get home safe, alright?”
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Faint flaps came from high in the air. A different, familiar shadow glided or fell downward. Some of my fear slipped away. Hinte had finally returned! But her descent looked unsteady, and from her legs swung big forms.
fly with this weight! Hinte could barely glide down with it, and she was bigger… stronger than me.
could point out that she was injured too, so her argument didn’t fly anymore; but my injury hurt my walking, and hers didn’t. She was right. This was important. No time for pettiness.
bleeding!” I said as I stepped closer to Hinte, reaching to get some bandages or something out of her bag. “Where’d you put that ointment from earlier?”
Ugh. So stubborn! I placed and adjusted the last body without saying anything. The rope was looped twice around Hinte, and I let her tie the knot.
It’s like it’s us versus the rest of the family, right, sis? My headband was uneven. I straightened it with an alula.
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