Страница 4 из 56
A shadow rippled across the forest, and I heard footsteps, the crackle and snap of a figure moving over the fallen leaves of the forest floor.
“You may sit up, girl-human. I will not shoot again.”
I ain’t so stupid as to take someone on her word for a claim like that, so I moved slow as I could, inching up a little at a time. I was halfway up to sitting when I caught a glimpse of the creature speaking to me, and it took every ounce of willpower not to curl back up into a ball.
The speaker was a manticore.
Now, I’d seen a manticore or two before, locked away in cages, and those were frightening enough. But I ain’t never heard one speak – I didn’t even think they could. And this one was bigger than the caged ones, only about a foot shorter than me even though she stood on four legs instead of two.
She padded up close to me and leaned down and sniffed with her pretty human-looking nose, then settled down on her haunches, her scaly wings pressed flat against her back, her tail curling up into a point behind her head. Hadn’t been darts she’d flung at me, but spines, and poisonous ones at that, if the stories were anything to go by. I kept my eye on that tail.
“I only shot at you when I thought you were an ally of the wizard-human,” she said. “I do not care for the taste of girl-humans.”
“Oh. Alright.” I stood up, slow and careful. The manticore followed me with her eyes, which were the color of pressed gold.
“Perhaps you can help me,” she said.
Well, that stu
“Do you have a way off the island?”
It took me a minute to find my voice, and even when I did all I could do was stammer out the most drawn-out “no” in the history of time.
The manticore looked disappointed.
“What do you need to leave the island for?” I asked, mostly in a whisper.
“I’d like to go home, of course,” she said. “The wizard-human had kept me imprisoned for almost three life-cycles. I made my escape four days ago.”
She licked at her paw. My stomach twisted around and I stumbled backward, one foot splashing into the spring.
“And how…” I said. “How did you–”
“I ate him.”
She said it all matter-of-fact, like we were bartering trade in a day market. Sweat prickled out of my skin.
“I told you, girl-human, I do not care for the taste of your sort’s flesh.” She sniffed. “If you do not have a way off the island, why did you come here at all?”
“We were marooned.” I hadn’t meant to tell her, but I was so u
“We? There is another human?” She smiled, which was terrifying, her mouth all full of teeth. “A girl-human or a boy-human?”
I didn’t want to answer that. So I changed the subject.
“I may be able to get you off the island,” I said, quick as lightning. “But you’ll have to wait.”
“You said you had no ma
“I don’t. But a friend – a girl-human, like me, she might be bringing a ship and crew.”
The manticore’s face lit up. She fluffed out her mane. “And this friend-girl-human would be able to take me to the Island of the Sun?”
“Sure.” I’d heard of the Island of the Sun. It’s in the west, not lined up with any of the major shipping ports so not much use to anybody. Except, apparently, manticores. Papa’s crew always said it was a wasteland. “But you’ll have to wait till she gets here, like I said. And I don’t know when that’ll be.”
“That is acceptable.” The manticore stood up and arched her spine, wings fluttering. Her tail curled above her back. “I shall accompany you back to your dwelling.”
Naji. My stomach twisted again. Hopefully he hadn’t come back yet, and I could find a way to warn him. At least I didn’t seem to really be in danger – that would keep him from swooping in to save me.
“It’s small,” I said. “It’ll remind you of your prison, I’m sure of it. You’d be better to live out in the woods…” I swept my hand around and the trees rustled.
“Don’t be absurd, girl-human. You will leave me when the friend-girl-human comes. Show me the way.”
My brain spun round and round. All I could think about was Naji skulking in front of the fire, unaware that I was bringing in a monster keen on eating him. Was this how it all ended? Me not being able to out-talk a manticore and Naji winding up as its di
“Why do you dally?” The manticore’s voice echoed through my skull.
“Uh, I need to get some clean water. Hold on.” I felt around in the underbrush for the water bucket. The manticore regarded me with her big gold eyes. I dipped the bucket into the spring, and watched as the water flooded in. Every now and then I dipped the bucket so the water flowed back out again, blocking the manticore’s view with my back while I did it. All the while I scrambled to come up with some way out of this mess. Could you strike a deal with a manticore? Stories always made ’em out as monsters, teeth and claws and nothing else.
“This is taking too long,” the manticore said.
“Sorry.” My heart pounded. I let the bucket fill completely and then stood up. “Look, you gotta promise me something if I’m go
“A promise?” The manticore smiled again, teeth flashing. I regretted my words immediately.
“Look, if we’re go
“No,” the manticore said. “You would starve me?”
“Of course not! But you’ll have to be, ah, selective.”
The manticore unfurled her tail, the tip of the spine glistening. “I’m always selective with my meals,” she said. “I only ate the wizard-human out of desperation. I have never cared for the flavor of his sort. Much too stringy.”
“Uh, that’s not exactly what I meant…”
The manticore curled up her lip into a toothy little sneer.
“Why don’t you just ask me before you eat anyone? In exchange for getting you off the island?”
“I can agree to those terms.”
“And you have to not eat the guy if I say no.”
For a moment the manticore pouted. Then she licked a paw and ran it over her mane. “We shall see.”
Good enough. And if she didn’t like the taste of the Wizard Eirnin, maybe she wouldn’t have no interest in eating Naji, neither.
We walked side by side back to the shack on the beach. I sure as hell wasn’t letting her walk behind me, though she didn’t seem to much care one way or the other. She moved real quick even considering her size, though branches snapped, and leaves and pine cones showered over us every time she knocked into a tree. She made more noise than me or Naji ever did.
When we came to the shack, I smelled fish and wild onions frying on the hearth. I stopped. He came home, found me gone, and started cooking?
And then my heart started pounding again, cause now I had to find a way to warn him.
The manticore stopped outside the shack. “You are correct,” she said. “This is much too small for me.”
I prayed to Kaol and every other goddess I knew that Naji would stay inside. “Let me go in first, let him know–”
“Him?” One of her eyebrows arched up. She ran her thin pink tongue over her perfect lady’s lips.
“You promised you’d ask,” I said, and then I bolted inside, slamming the door shut. Naji looked up at me.
“I really expected you to do that sooner,” he said.
“What?” My breath was coming too fast, and I tried to rein it so he wouldn’t think anything was wrong.
“Run off. I didn’t think I could truly keep you locked in the shack.” He went back to stirring our meal. “I assume you went to get water? It seems like it was an uneventful trip.”
He looked at me again, and I could only stare back at him, stricken.
He frowned, and his eyes darkened. “What’s wrong?”
I set the water down in its place beside the hearth and tried to come up with the words. Course, I didn’t get the chance, cause the manticore bounded into the shack, damn near knocking the door off the hinges.