Forever Misplaced, page 6
“Okay, so go back to my people or live as a sideshow freak. Got it.” Kody left the bedroom so he could change, and flopped back on the couch, talking loud enough for him to hear. “How is this world better than Earth?”
Tristan took a long time to respond. He moved to the doorframe of the bedroom, wearing a deep blue shirt and tan pants that fit his muscular frame to perfection. He fiddled with the collar of the shirt as he met her eyes. “I never said it was better. I only said it was home.”
Kody rolled her eyes. Oh no, she wasn’t letting Tristan in a tight shirt sway her into a more biddable mood. “Right. Because you definitely seem at home here. You have what, one friend and a host of people calling you on your crystal ball that you never answer?”
Tristan shot Kody a glare that made her stomach tie in knots, and he disappeared back into the bedroom.
Kody busied herself with opening her new clothes. Tristan wanted to take her to a tavern for dinner and a show, or a ‘tale’ as he was calling it. He said story tellers projected a psychic image into the minds of those listening, like a magical stage performance or mental movie. Apparently, it was a great way to make money if you had the skill. It didn’t take magic or anything, just someone really good at focusing their thoughts. Kody was more than interested, but she worried about how others would respond to her.
While she’d been out with Peet, she saw a woman selling cosmetics and was so tempted to buy foundation to cover her now brighter swirls. But the other part of her, a smaller but passionate part, didn’t want to hide anymore. That part didn’t want to sweat in long sleeves in the middle of a heat wave, and just wanted to be confident enough to live her life without fear or shame of being different. And now here she was, taking her anxiety out on Tristan and trying to get him to cancel the outing altogether.
The bedroom door opened, and Tristan appeared. “Do you need anything in the bathroom? I’m gonna take a shower.”
“No, I’m okay.” She didn’t ask why he’d change if he was just gonna shower. In the tiny apartment, a shower was the easiest excuse for privacy, and she didn’t blame him for wanting to avoid her.
Tristan nodded and disappeared into the bathroom. Kody tucked her new clothes away in a bedroom drawer and snatched the deck of cards off the desk and set up a game of solitaire at the kitchen table. Kody longed for books in English or even a way to charge her phone and read the dozens of books already downloaded. She didn’t care that she’d read them before. She would happily reread the same book fifty times if only it provided something to occupy her mind.
Tristan emerged from the steaming bathroom and caught her rifling through her discard pile looking for the three of hearts, determined not to lose another game. He deposited his clothes in the bedroom and sat across from her.
Kody gathered up the cards and shuffled. “You know solitaire is only fun when you can get the computer to deal for you.” She glanced up and met his caramel eyes, framed with the wet strands of his hair. His eyes were still dark and broody, but the edge of his mouth turned up in the slight smirk she was growing used to.
“It’s not so tedious when you’re good enough to win a hand.”
Kody glared at him and started dealing rummy. “Not all hands are winnable, you know.”
Tristan picked up his cards and rearranged them in his hand. “With how many games you’ve attempted the last few days, the statistics on unwinnable hands must be high.”
Kody ground her teeth and flipped the top card off the stack. Tristan picked it up, and the game commenced. She won. Then he won twice.
They played a dozen hands before it was time for dinner. Kody checked the paper where they kept track of their wins. She was still up by a dozen points and smiled smugly while she grabbed her new cloak and Tristan ushered her out the door.
The Snarled Cello was a large tavern on the bottom floor of the Inn, with several floors of rentable rooms above. Kody tugged her hood up as they entered the large, boisterous dining room. Tristan maneuvered around the cramped, heavy wooden tables and chairs toward a table along the back wall. Kody kept her head low and her face covered though no one in the crowded room even glanced in their direction. She was bombarded by people laughing and talking with friends across the room. As they sat, she watched kids serve platters of roasted meats and vegetables or bowls of rice covered in thick stew. Everything was delicious and she relaxed into her chair.
A tall owl faced man with gray hair and a stern frown ambled over to their table and clapped Tristan on the shoulder. Tristan seemed to buckle under the blow but smiled up at the old man and gestured to Kody. She heard her name but understood nothing else he said.
The man seemed to frown down at her with the disappointment of a thousand school principals and said something in a booming voice she felt in her chest.
“He says you are very welcome here,” Tristan translated.
Kody shot him a look. “No, he didn’t.”
Tristan laughed and after the man shot a stern look at him, he translated.
The man glared at Kody again, his big caterpillar eyebrows raising with interest, then he turned and stalked away, moving well between the packed tables.
Tristan chuckled again. “That’s Graham. I told you about him.”
Kody let out a small snort of shock. “That was the kind, caring man who takes in homeless kids and teaches them a trade so they can find jobs and provide for themselves?”
Tristan laughed again and nodded before taking a sip of his tea.
“What did he really say?”
Tristan rolled his eyes. “I told him you were one of the new Misplaced, freshly arrived, and he said ‘Bah, another one? Well, you are very welcome here, child.’” Tristan said this in a deep aggressive voice and a scowl that totally mirrored the tavern owner. He laughed again. “He’s a good man, but he can take some getting used to.”
Kody frowned and watched the man as he moved around the tavern, greeting people and glaring at everyone he spoke to. “I think I had a substitute teacher like that once.”
As the evening grew late, empty plates were cleared, mugs and cups were refilled, and more and more people made their way to the tavern, filling every chair, perching on tables, and standing in the back. When the room looked near ready to burst, Graham stood at the front and spoke. Tristan interpreted, scooting his chair closer to Kody so he could whisper in her ear.
“He says there are two tellers tonight, so we should get about four tales or so, unless there are encores.”
A tall woman with blond hair and a cotton burgundy dress stood at Graham’s gesture and stepped onto the stage. The crowd cheered.
“Remember, relax your mind, don’t fight the vision,” Tristan said before the woman raised her hands and spoke. “Gather in close, and I’ll tell you the tale,” Tristan interpreted.
It was as if someone had flipped a light switch, but instead of being overwhelmed by darkness, she was seeing a castle with ornate wooden columns and a handsome man with armor striding up the steps. Kody blinked a few times, but the image didn’t clear. Somewhere she felt Tristan lean closer to her, felt the warmth of his body as his chest pressed into her arm.
“Before Kallen ‘The Foolish’ was known for his mistakes, he was known as Sir Kallen of Koom,” Tristan whispered into her ear.
Kody shivered in the warm tavern air and relaxed into the story as Tristan narrated the life of a man who wanted to be a hero, but ended up getting his family slain. The tale was suspenseful and tragic. Kody wasn’t the sort of person to cry at a movie, but there was something more real about this tale than any movie she’d seen. She felt for this man and the loss of everything he had, and at the end, she tried to subtly wipe a tear from her eye. The next tale was a love story that left her heart racing while Tristan whispered the details in his smooth voice. The third tale . . . It was Casablanca, like the actual movie. Tristan laughed at her shock and explained that some of the Misplaced often told tales in exchange for what they needed to get by, and once someone heard a tale, they could always retell it to others. “Kirk has told probably every major blockbuster from the last twenty years on Earth.”
Kody snorted and leaned against Tristan’s chest while he translated the lines, even though she had a general idea of the story.
They got seven tales that night, and two were movies she’d seen, while another was one of her favorite books. By the time the evening grew to a close and the crowd filed out to their homes or rented rooms, Kody felt relaxed and content. For a moment, she could imagine her life like this. Learning to read and speak the common language and listening to little pieces of her old life in tales a few times a week. Quiet evenings with Tristan, reading or playing other board games they could reinvent from their lives on Earth.
Her chest was full to bursting as they stepped out onto the dark street and Tristan led them back to his apartment. She didn’t want to lose this peace, but she also needed to be realistic. Sure, she and Tristan had gotten cozy back in the tavern, but maybe it was a fluke. He hadn’t been sending any obvious signals he was into her, and with her breakup with Roger so recent, she didn’t want to deceive herself into crushing on a guy who just saw her as a friend or someone he had a duty to help.
The humidity still hung over the city in the late hour. They turned from a well-lit street onto one with fewer light globes illuminating the path, and Kody pulled back her hood, lifting her hair and letting what cool air there was hit the back of her neck. A green light appeared at the end of the road, and it caught Kody’s eye. Most light globes she’d seen ranged from blue to white, but none so brilliantly green.
The light grew brighter for a moment, hovering chest high over the road, and moved. Kody blinked. Not just a light. A hand, glowing green under the light. A hand that connected to a figure in a dark cloak holding the light out before them. They turned toward Tristan and Kody. Tristan stopped and put a hand on her arm. As the person drew closer, Tristan pulled Kody back into the doorway of a dark building and stood in front of her. Kody’s heart raced as she pulled her hood back up and tried to melt into the shadows while still peering over Tristan’s shoulder.
The light grew closer and Kody could just make out the shape of a shorter person illuminated in the green glow under the long, flowing cloak. The person paused before their hiding space. Slowly, the stranger turned toward Kody and Tristan, and Kody could just see the lines of a soft feminine face, lit with green. The woman squinted into the dark before her and lifted the light. It grew brighter and brighter until its glow reached Tristan and Kody, and the woman grinned with triumph.
She spoke, and Kody, of course, understood nothing.
Tristan paused for a moment longer than Kody would have thought. The woman clearly saw them. Then at last he stepped forward and spoke. They exchanged a few words before the woman reached for Kody. Tristan blocked her, and she growled at him.
“What’s happening?” Kody asked, frustrated at her ignorance.
Tristan said something else to the woman, and in response, she pulled off her hood. She was beautiful, and about the same age as Kody. Her features were soft and somehow familiar, her large eyes and a wide nose that fit her pouty lips and rounded cheeks perfectly. But the most stunning bit about her were the brilliant green swirls streaked across her dark complexion, glowing gently, not in the light she carried, but with their own glow of power.
“Is she an Elv?” Kody asked breathlessly.
Tristan met her eyes and nodded. “She’s looking for her sister.”
Chapter Nine
Something caught in Kody’s throat. No, that wouldn’t do. She would not cry on this street just because some glowing green girl claimed to be her long-lost family. She dug her nails into her thigh, trying to distract herself from the rush of emotions.
The woman locked her eyes on Kody and didn’t look away. She spoke again.
Tristan looked at Kody, then back at the woman. The woman sighed and rolled her eyes. Such a relatable expression it caught Kody off guard. The woman clapped her hands together and the green light went out. A moment later, the swirls on her skin also stopped glowing. She opened her cloak revealing a pack and pulled out a small flower and held it out to Kody. It was hard to see in the dark alley, but it looked kind of like a lily or a trumpet flower.
“What’s it for?” Kody asked.
“I think it’s a language spell,” Tristan said. “They are usually in flowers. You inhale, like smelling the flower, and it kinda downloads whatever language into your head. That’s what I’ve been hoping Allen would send us.”
Tristan said something to the woman again, and she nodded, then gestured to Kody.
“Yeah, it’s a language flower, but she wants to see your face before giving it to you. In case her spell was leading her behind you and not actually to you.”
“Should I do it?”
“That’s up to you.”
Kody let out a deep breath. She gingerly lowered her hood, and the woman stepped forward. She lifted her hand and another small green light exploded from her fingertips and floated into the space between them. This time it was brighter and a lighter green, almost white. It illuminated the street. The woman’s stern face broke into a fierce smile, something glistening in the corners of her eyes, and she handed Kody the flower. Kody took it and looked down into the bloom, but it seemed like a completely normal flower.
The woman mimed lifting it to her face and taking a deep breath. Kody glanced at Tristan. “I think it’s safe,” he said.
Kody wasn’t reassured, but she couldn’t just stand out here all night staring at a flower. She wasn’t sure she wanted a long-lost family and all the emotional baggage it included, but she also didn’t want to be so afraid of disappointment that she missed out on something amazing.
Kody lifted the flower to her nose and took a deep breath.
She wasn’t quite sure what happened next, but when Kody did again have a grasp on the world, her head felt like it was splitting in two, and she was very aware Tristan had his arms wrapped tightly around her, holding her up.
“She’s coming to. See? She’s fine,” a woman said in a firm yet silky voice.
“How many languages did you load on that thing?” Tristan said, his voice rumbling through Kody’s back.
Kody tried opening her eyes and winced.
“The headache will pass in a minute. Just breathe through it,” Tristan said.
“Let me help her. I can soothe the ache,” the woman said.
“Just give her space.”
Kody found her feet and pushed Tristan away. Her stomach was turning, and her head buzzed like it was knitting itself back together. She kept a hand on Tristan’s arm and bent over, breathing deeply.
“I’m sorry, dear sister. I forgot these things usually take better in the young. I should have told the maker not to add the classic languages for now.”
Kody slowly straightened and opened her eyes. Everything before her swam like she was underwater.
“Classics? Seriously, what were you thinking? You’re lucky her brain isn’t dripping out of her ear.”
Kody knew now why the woman’s features looked so familiar. They were like her own. The same nose, same eyes, but where her sister was short, her face round, Kody was tall, her face longer and her features sharper.
“Quiet. I don’t need a Hu telling me how to treat my sister. Her Elv heritage is strong. She is not some frail thing.”
For the first time since coming to this world, Kody truly and completely believed all of this was real. She had absolute confidence this was her world, and she would never leave it.
“You realize your sister is half Hu, right? You might want to curb that prejudice a little.”
Her confidence and conviction only lasted a moment before the doubt this was all a delusion crept back in, but she ignored it.
“She is Hu, and she is Elv, and she is perfect. I have no prejudice against the Hu, I am only very aware of the lacking your culture brings to your spirit.”
It was strange. As her head cleared, Kody could make out the individual words the woman, her sister, and Tristan said, and she knew the words were wrong, not English, but somehow she understood everything perfectly.
Tristan put a hand on Kody’s shoulder. “Are you back with us now?”
Kody blinked at him. “I think so.” The words felt wrong in her mouth, but Tristan just nodded, understanding the language her brain had picked in reply. Kody turned to the woman. “Um, thank you for the language. I’ve felt isolated not understanding anyone but Tristan since I got here.”
The woman nodded. “It is my honor.” She glanced at Tristan, then back at Kody. “I’m glad you found someone in this village you could converse with. The Hu do not always take kindly to our kind. But that no longer matters. I will take you home where you belong. Our father is eager to see you.”
Kody took a deep breath, so many emotions coursing through her, but emotions didn’t matter. She would stick to the plan and make a conscious, rational decision about which was the most practical place to live and start a life. “I want to see your home and meet everyone. Tristan was going to take me in a few days, but I’m not totally sure I want to live there permanently.”
The woman frowned, and Kody tensed, sure she was going to say something harsh, or reject her, but then after a moment, her face relaxed.
“I understand. You don’t know us. This boy, though he is Hu, he came from your world, so there is understanding and familiarity. Take your time, get to know me and our people. We are Elv. Time is something we have plenty of.” She said this last part with a grin, like it was some kind of inside joke, and Kody found herself wanting to know everything she could about this woman.
“Thank you,” Kody said. “Um, do you have a place to stay tonight?”
The woman opened her mouth, but before she spoke, Tristan cut in. “If not, you can stay with us. My apartment is small, but you can bunk with Kody.” He nodded to Kody. “If that’s okay. I can even sleep in my forge and give you the whole flat if that’s easier.”
