SAVAGE SAINTS, page 7
“What’s that?” Tomas asks. He comes over to me and leans in to see the little pieces of fossilized shell.
“Ammolite.”
“Oh,” he says, smiling. “Like the scales on my legs.”
We both look down at his legs and then I actually laugh. “Forgot about that. I guess I should’ve just come to you in the first place.”
“Really?” He’s excited at the prospect of me needing him. “What for?”
“A spell, Tomas. I looked up magic rings and the only way to properly contain them is with a special dragon spell.”
“Really?” he exclaims again, this time louder. “What kind of dragon spell?”
“I need iron and ammolite.” I hold up the jar. “And dragon’s fire.”
Tomas squints his eyes. “You can have as many scales as you like. But I no longer have dragon fire. So I don’t know what you’ll do about that.”
“Oh, come on,” I huff. “Surely you have one more puff inside you.”
“No. I don’t.”
I sigh. I want to argue with him—make him admit that he could, technically, breathe a little fire for me if he really wanted to—but it’s not worth the effort right now. First, I need to find the forge and brush up on my chainmail-making abilities. So I say, “Whatever. I’ll be in the blacksmith building.”
“We have a blacksmith building?”
“Well… we used to. It’s only been about two hundred years since I was last in there. I’m sure it’s around somewhere.”
CHAPTER ELEVEN – PIE
Talina and I basically walk into Starbucks, but it’s not called Starbucks. It’s called Dragonbucks. And I gotta say… that’s kinda weird. Starbucks. Dragonbucks. I dunno. Maybe I’m just seeing connections where there aren’t any because I have a dragon friend and a buck friend in my new life now, plus there are a lot of other buck-like people walking around this place, but the whole thing reminds me of Bizarro World.
The logo isn’t green and white and the inside doesn’t look like a Starbucks. It’s not hipster, it’s actually very formal. Kinda Victorian. Which doesn’t make sense, either, because this is another world and that means there was no Victorian-era Europe to emulate. Also, there’s that clash again. The lacy, old-fashioned monster stuff and the flashy, gleaming modern stuff.
But this place does have a Victorian look to it. I mean, I’m no expert on eras or anything. But it’s all very… period piece, but with a modern twist. I feel like I just stepped into that over-the-top Marie Antoinette movie with Kirsten Dunst where all the royal women are trying on shoes and eating cakes.
The colors aren’t washed-out pastels—they are crisp, bright pinks, and spring-grass greens, and eye-popping lavenders.
It’s all very feminine, but somehow radiates power, too.
The tablecloths are made of thick silks and luxurious lace. Glass cases in the front are filled with elaborately decorated pastries. The coffee is served in fine porcelain. And the low, whispering chatter in combination with the delicate clinking of tea cups on saucers is a warm and welcoming kind of white noise.
“Wow.” I’m looking up at an intricately painted ceiling covered in naked satyrs and nymphs having sex. “That’s…” But I don’t have words for it, so I give up.
Talina elbows me with a giggle. “It’s a reimagining of a famous painting from hundreds of years ago. In the original, they were all prim and proper, having a very formal and boring dinner. The nymphs were buttoned up to their necks in fashion and it was against the law for the satyrs to”—she giggles again—“let it all hang out, so to speak.”
I’m still looking up at the ceiling when she says this, but then I quickly glance at her. “Wait. What do you mean it was illegal? They were forced to wear pants?” I almost can’t contain my snort.
“Yep. That’s why now—this is their excuse, anyway”—she rolls her eyes—“now they wear those pants so tight, they might as well be naked.”
I point at her. “Right?”
Talina covers her mouth, hiding her laugh as the line we’re in moves forward. The place is packed full and I’m starting to wonder how long it will take to get a table when someone calls Talina’s name.
We both look over to a corner near the front window where a group of smartly-dressed nymphs are waving. “Oooo!” Talina exclaims, waving back. “My friends are here.” She hooks her arm in mine and starts tugging me in that direction. “They’re gonna love you.”
My heart flutters as we weave our way through tables and people. I’m going to meet her friends. And now I feel like this is a first date that suddenly turned into a meet-the-parents kind of moment and my stomach fills up with butterflies.
Or… moths, maybe.
Gross.
There is a lot of squealing as we approach and the entire table of females gets up and starts hugging Talina. She lets go of me to reciprocate, and now I feel like the wallflower at a junior-high dance. So I stand there awkwardly while they all say hello.
Talina notices and pulls me towards her. “Girls. This is Pie. She’s my new boss.”
“Oh—” I’m just about to correct her. I’m nobody’s boss. But I don’t get a chance. All the squealing begins anew, only this time, it’s directed at me.
“I love your outfit,” one says. Her horns are short and stubby, barely peeking up from her luxurious honey-brown waves of thick hair piled on top of her head.
“Your hair is so pretty!” another exclaims. She’s wearing a pale-blue bodice embroidered with silver threads that glimmer and glint in the warm light.
“Wow. I’d kill for those legs.” This one is wearing a cream-colored jacket with a lacy top underneath. She’s got a sweet, round face with pink cheeks.
“And your horns!” This one has the greenest eyes I’ve ever seen. Almost chartreuse. And she’s wearing a black robe of sorts.
It’s like I was dropped in to a let’s-make-Pie-feel-special party. And I blush.
“You’re embarrassing her,” Talina says. “Stop it. We just came in for coffee. We’re super-busy working on secret projects, girls. We can’t be bothered with gossips such as yourselves.”
They all burst out laughing as Talina directs me to the side of the table with two empty chairs.
“Right,” Green Eyes says. Then she rolls those gorgeous green eyes and snorts. “Super-secret projects.”
“Talina has been telling us that for ages,” Sweet Face says. Her voice matches her looks. It’s very soft and feminine.
“And she has yet to provide even a single detail,” Blue Bodice exclaims.
“Don’t mind us, Pie.” Stubby Horns reaches across the table and taps my hand. “We’re incorrigible.”
“Always,” Talina sighs. “But I wouldn’t have it any other way. Now let me do introductions.”
She goes around the table, introducing them one by one. Green Eyes is called Esmah. She’s a freaking judge in the law courts.
Mikayla is the one with stubby horns and pretty hair. She owns a bakery and proudly proclaims all those elaborately decorated pastries in the glass cases up front were made by her bakers.
Blue Bodice is a fashion designer and she is called Akkaline. She beams a wild, devious smile at me and announces she has an upcoming show, and would I like to be one of her models?
This offer must make me blush, or something, because Talina skillfully redirects my attention to Sweet Face, who is really called Zantha. She’s a healer.
I say hello to each of them and settle a little bit as Talina, once again, tells them I am her boss.
I want to interject, say that’s not really true. I’m not boss material. But they are chattering and happy and I don’t want to be the center of attention. So I let it go.
We order coffee, and a box of pastries at Mikayla’s insistence, and then we leave under the pretense that we have important work to do.
Once outside in the sunshine, I let out a long breath.
“I know,” Talina says. “They are a bit much. And overpowering. But they are really great people, I promise.”
“Oh, I find them all completely fascinating.”
“They showed a lot of self-control this time, Pie. But next time we meet up, you will not be the brand-new girl anymore and they will pepper you with questions. So get ready for that.”
“Do they go there every day?” I ask. “And wow. That place. It was pretty great.”
“Not a regular date or anything. We all have different schedules and lives these days. We met in boarding school ages ago and never lost touch. And now, they are like family to me. But we all work around the Royal Court, so we frequently bump in to each other.”
“Royal Court?”
Talina smiles at me, pulling open the door to Tarq’s building. “You work in the most powerful, fascinating district in all of Vinca, Pie. I don’t know what your life was like before today, but I do know this—it’s never going to be the same again.”
I think about Talina’s words all the way back up to our laboratory, forgetting to pay attention to the route we take. My world has just completely flipped. And I’m not sure what to make of it.
I think back on this morning, waking up in my cottage with Pell. My sanctuary, and my monsters, and my curse. It seems so far away. Almost… fictional. Like this is the real world now and the one I came from is the fantasy place.
So weird.
Once we’re back in the lab Talina breathes out a sigh. “Well, I suppose we should put up a pretense of working, don’t you think?”
My coffee is gone—it was the most delicious drink I’ve ever tasted. But I barely had the chance to think about it because my mind is all ablur with new things. “Yeah,” I finally answer. “I guess. But, like I’ve already said, I’m not what Tarq thinks I am. I don’t do any of this.” I pan my arms wide to indicate absolutely everything in the lab. “I don’t have the first clue where to start.”
Talina points to the corner where the bloodhorn is growing. “There. Obviously.”
“But what do we do with it? And even if we do manage to concoct a potion—”
“Serum,” Talina corrects me.
“Whatever. Even if we do get a freaking serum, how do we know it will work?”
“We test it.”
“Test it how?”
“We make one of those.” Talina is pointing to my necklace. “And then we walk through a door.”
I let out a sigh. “OK. if you say so. But I’m—” I stop talking because this is the moment when I notice something on the center conference table. “What the…” I walk over to the table and pick up the book, just staring at the cover. “This is my debt! What’s it doing here?”
Talina comes over to me and studies the massive book in my hands. “Your what?”
“My Book of Debt. This is why I’m here.” I let out a frustrated breath because Talina is looking at me with confusion. “It’s a long story. But look.” I open the book and yep, there’s my name. “See?” I point to it. “I’m in debt. At first, I was in debt to Pell.” But then I pause. “Hmm. That’s probably not right. I think I was in debt to Saint Mark’s. But anyway. I came here asking Tarq for help. I needed to banish the sheriff of Granite Springs from the sanctuary and I needed a spell from the Big Important Book he’s got. Which he gave me, never telling me what it would cost, and once it was over, he was the new proud owner of my debt. That’s why I have to work for him.”
Talina is just looking at me with squinty eyes.
“What?” I ask.
“The Big Important Book?”
“Yeah. You know. Ostanes’ spellbook. The…” What did Tarq call it that day? “Oh!” I snap my fingers. “The source code. The source code book.”
Talina’s mouth drops open.
“What?” I ask again.
“He showed you the source code?”
“No. Not really. But he gave me a page from it.”
“From the source code?” Her mouth is still open.
“Yeah. Why? What’s the big deal?”
“So it’s… real?”
“What?”
Talina just blinks at me, mouth still open.
“What?” I exclaim.
“You’re… her!”
“Who?”
“Oh. My. Gods.” Talina places a hand over her heart and then almost falls over. I catch her just in time and lead her over to a chair. She sinks into it, breathless.
“What’s wrong?”
But she can’t speak. In fact, she’s panting really hard. She might be hyperventilating.
“Talina! Talk to me! What’s happening here?”
She looks up at me, eyes wide, then she slips down to her knees and bows at my feet.
“What the hell are you doing?”
She doesn’t get up. She’s pressing her freaking face to the cold tile floor. “Forgive me. Forgive me, Your Highness! I didn’t know! He never told me!”
“What. The actual fuck! Are you talking about!” I yell it. Loud.
She looks up at me. “Your Highness?”
“Stop calling me that! I’m Pie! I’m not a highness anything, I’m just Pie!”
“Pie.” She wilts, then bows her head back to the floor again.
“Stop it! Right now!”
“I’m sorry!” She looks up. “I’m sorry!”
“What are you doing?”
“You don’t know, do you? You really don’t know.”
“I don’t know shit! I’ve been telling you people that all freaking day!”
She gets to her feet, grabs my hand, kisses my fucking fingers, and says, “Princess Pianna! Welcome home!”
I slap her. Right across the face. So hard it makes a smacking noise that echoes up to the ceiling. And then I yell, “Snap out of it!”
I saw this in a movie once. It was effective.
But today, it makes Talina cry.
Shit. “Oh, my God. I’m so sorry, Talina. I just want you to stop acting weird. I’m not a princess. I’m a freaking… schizophrenic nobody! My name isn’t Pianna!”
Like… gross, right? Pie is cute. Pianna is just… no. Gross.
“Your Highness!”
“Stop calling me that.” And then I add, “That’s an order!” Just to see if it works.
It does. Talina snaps to attention and wipes her eyes. Breath still hitching, but she is suddenly stoic.
Better. I think. But still not good. “OK. Let’s be calm here. I think you’re jumping to a lot of conclusions and—”
“What is going on?”
Talina and I both whirl around to find Tarq looming in the doorway, his deep, rough voice still echoing through the room.
Talina falls to her knees again, bowing her head to the floor, mumbling, “I’m sorry! I’m sorry!”
I squint my eyes at Tarq. “Great. That’s just great,” I snap at him. “Look what you did! I just got her to stop doing that!”
“Talina,” Tarq barks. “Leave us.”
She scrambles to her feet and scurries out of the lab. Tarq closes the doors behind her and points to the Book of Debt, which I am still holding in my hands. “You wanted to know how the debt works. I’m here to explain that.”
“How about you explain her,” I say, nodding my head at the doors. “She thinks I’m some freaking princess. Some bitch called Pianna. What the actual fuck is happening here, Tarq?”
He seems… confused for a moment. No. Not confused. Conflicted. I’m familiar with this look. It’s the look people give me when they’re coming to a conclusion. Usually that conclusion is something along the lines of… Yeah. I thought she was normal, but she’s not. I need to end this relationship as gracefully as possible, then get the hell away from her.
This reaction is so common in my experience, it makes me tired. So I sigh. Loudly. “What aren’t you telling me?”
Tarq points to a conference table chair. “Sit down, Pie. We need to have a talk.”
“No. I don’t want to sit. I want to stand.”
“Fine. But trust me, you will need that chair.”
I turn away from him, place my hands over my face, and try my best not to melt down. I am so sick of being the weirdo. So damn tired of being the freak. I was having such a nice, normal experience for once. Coffee, and work, and girlfriends. I was having a Sex and the City moment. I was pretty, successful, confident Carrie for like ten minutes. Someone who fit in.
And now I have no idea what’s happening. The only thing I do know is this:
I am not normal.
I will never be normal.
Tarq takes the Book of Debt from my hands and drops it down on the table, the thump of thick bound pages crashing my pity party. He says, “Luciano mentioned that you left the building today.”
“What?” I turn to look at him.
“You left work.”
Shit. “Yeah. To get coffee. If that wasn’t allowed—”
“It’s fine. Did you run into any trouble?”
“Trouble?” It’s a weird word choice. But then again, maybe it’s not. “You knew.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Whatever this princess shit is all about. You knew, didn’t you? Talina thinks I’m some princess. Some missing princess. And you do too. That’s why I’m here, isn’t it? And that’s why you’re asking if I ran into trouble.”
He points to the chair again. “Take a seat.”
This time I do. He’s right. I need this chair.
Tarq walks around the table and sits across from me. We stare at each other for a moment. He steeples his fingers under his chin. “Forget about Talina—”
“No.” I say it loudly. “No.” Then again, softer. “I want to know what’s going on.”
“It’s a long story. Filled with nuances and—”
“Cut the crap, OK? Do you think I’m this princess?”
He nods. “I do.”
I look away. Stare across the room. Barely seeing what’s all around me. My face suddenly goes hot and I think I might cry, but I don’t have the faintest idea of why I might cry, which just makes me want to cry more.
