It was a relief, to be back in the wagon instead of trekking cross-country or even up and down the roller-coaster roads on foot, and Peace and Cheer showed no sign of strain from the exercise. In the interests of not giving them more work to do than necessary, although I wasn’t actually sure weight mattered, I switched to my human form, but I did it reluctantly.
We had a quiet day’s travel, along a road that was unusually straight for the Highnds and I was sure it was trending gently downwards overall. We paused for lunch in a ft area where water was actually tricky to get: we had to lean off the edge to get a bucket under the trickle of water coming from a spur of rock above us. That was less risky with Zanshe, on solid ground, holding the back of Serru’s belt securely, but it still made me nervous and I switched to my dragon form. We got the ornithians a bucketful each, and decided that was enough all around.
Because Aryennos had asked me about new skills in my other forms, I cycled through them to give him names and, when he wanted, descriptions of my expanded repertoire. I didn’t mind that he was keeping a list of the various abilities the Quincunx was giving me in each form. There was nothing secret in there, and it felt a lot like the public scope-of-practice guidelines spelling out expectations and limitations for paramedics.
Terenei was impressed by the list of alchemy formus I now had, even though that list had massively outstripped my ability to actually make them. Everyone was delighted by my Purification Rain.
Honestly, I hadn’t even looked at what else I had. While Purification was listed separately, I could also turn other healing abilities into a Rain form, via a drop-down menu—Anodyne, Panacea, Antidote, and Cleanse. Not Hardcure or Softcure, but I wouldn’t have been comfortable using those without individual diagnosis anyway.
Aryennos read it all back to me. “Is that everything?”
“That’s it. Neat stuff that I’ll never likely get the chance to use, since it should be a straight run from here to the Axis.”
“It’s still interesting. And we still have a lot of big unanswered questions, so who knows what you might need?”
We camped that night on the shore of a small river—the same one, Zanshe said, they’d been fishing in near the shelter. The ornithians, freed, charged into the water joyfully, and though I watched them worriedly, they stayed in the shallows and the current didn’t make them unsteady.
Serru pointed out that we were going to be making two pots of food for supper anyway, since each was enough for four, there were six of us, and Zanshe counted as two; that added up to seven, and that meant that if I happened to be in my dragon form and also need more, it would not be a problem. I took her up on it—and noticed, in moments, that Terenei had his sketchbook out.
If centaur was calm and confident, felid hyper and energetic, and aquian serene and mindful, what was this one? I couldn’t identify anything in particur. I just felt like... me.
Ft space was limited, around the wagon and the ornithian tent; we set up three tents, somewhat more scattered than we’d have preferred, and all were going to be a bit crowded. Somehow, I ended up in one, in my felid form, with Serru.
“Travelling was a lot simpler with just you and I,” I observed. “But I wouldn’t trade anyone for more speed.”
“I’m gd you got to meet Zanshe after all,” she said.
I hadn’t done my centaur trick to make the tent rger, since there really wasn’t enough room. That meant being in rather close proximity. I’d found myself, in the recent past, sharing beds with one or another of every st one of my friends, but somehow it felt different with Serru.
Not bad. Definitely not bad. Just different.
Although remembering that in a week I’d probably be home, if that was ever happening at all, did keep me from acting on any thoughts or previous invitations.
I woke with the two of us snuggled cozily together, and wasn’t in a hurry to move.
After breakfast, we got back on the road, and it was definitely trending downwards at this point, although it still had humps and rises.
From the top of one such rise, we saw the Bridge of Flowers under the te morning sun.
The bridge itself was stone, the glittery local sort in various colours, forming a gentle arch over a gash in the ndscape, but the side railings extended up to form several arches across its width. Between those arches was... well, something, probably, but it was invisible beneath the green leaves and the rainbow of bell-shaped flowers that canopied the whole thing. Rising up from the pilrs of the arches were spires, and on top of each was a rge sparkly ball.
“They’re the same flowers you have on your house,” Heket observed.
Zanshe ughed and nodded. “They are. They grow with enthusiasm and that makes them very well-suited to this kind of use.”
“The spheres on top,” Serru said, “are complex structures of lumina stones of several colours. They automatically brighten at night and illuminate the entire Bridge. It’s meant to be an intersection between engineering and nature and art, not just a practical crossing.”
“You guys are really into that approach,” I said. “And the results are spectacur.”
We didn’t make it much farther before a bck felid in bck leather dropped off the steep slope on one side of us to nd on the road directly ahead. He did not, I noticed, do so close enough to frighten the ornithians, who simply halted, despite how eager they were to get down the slope and out to the open nd visible across that canyon.
I swung over the side of the wagon and to the ground, currently felid form because being smaller was easier in the wagon, and strode out to face him. He was taller by several inches and seriously outmassed me in muscle. “What do you want?”
“Oh, Idunno,” he said. “To stop you from doing something even more stupid than usual? Do you still have a concussion or something? Even if she hasn’t figured out about the potion thing yet, I guarantee that she’s totally pissed at you about everything else. Her base power set involves pnts. You and your harem are heading right for the fucking Bridge of Flowers. There’s a problem here. The clue is in the name. Or, y’know, just look at it.”
“She would have to be here personally to do that,” Serru said, jumping down from the wagon’s front seat to stand beside me, but she sounded uncertain. “I think she would, at least.”
“Yep. She has a cozy little nest in the deep Forest and she hardly ever leaves it. She is hardly ever angry enough. When was the st time she was so completely humiliated? And I’m hearing rumours of someone telling her off, which I really wish I’d seen but I bet you all know something about it.”
“Maybe,” I admitted.
“Usual offer is that you and your friends, harem, family, whatever, are off-limits if you settle down somewhere and stay away from the Axis. I’d still go with that but, guess what? She sent me a message that just says to stay out of her way if I won’t work with her, and she does not mean the usual offer any more. So you might want to start taking this seriously, because when she goes after you to punish you, and I promise she will, it’s going to be a lot worse than you think. Like, tracking down birthpces and spawn camping to re-infect anyone who matters to you or even talks to you, over and over, levels of bad.”
I caught hold of Serru’s hand, and felt hers tighten to the point of pain.
“I’m not letting that happen,” I said quietly. Just the thought was nauseating.
“You can be in multiple pces at once, can you?”
“What are you suggesting as an alternative?”
“Well, first thing is, don’t cross Rainbow Canyon on the Bridge of Flowers. There are other ways across. They’re less of a straight line but she won’t be as prepared. Or have a crapton of vines and things right there waiting for you. People and animals here really aren’t into violence but pnts don’t care. Any idea how many ways vines can kill someone? And none of them are pretty. Your magic rain will only water the pnts, not stop them.”
“Or,” Serru said, “you could get across the Canyon alone. In the air, you could reach the Axis... today? Tomorrow, at the outside. And she’d have considerable trouble stopping you in the air.”
“Leaving you at her mercy,” I said. “That is not happening. I’m not going anywhere until I know for sure that potion is going to work properly.”
“Oh, it will,” the Zombie King said. “I know who’s behind this whole potion revolution and why they’re doing it, and I am not stupid enough to cross them. It’ll work.” He shrugged. “It’s still a bad idea to go to the Axis, but honestly, you’ve stirred up so much shit that it’s probably your best option at this point and you don’t listen anyway. Your harem here would still be targets while you do that and I doubt they want my protection even that long.”
“Your protection?” I was sure I sounded startled.
His hands curled into fists. “She tried to infect my dogs. You refused to hurt them. And I am not letting her do that spawn camping shit on anyone else if I can help it. And I might decide to ask you for help with something. Pick another way across, and come at the Axis from a different direction. She’ll still find you but she’ll have to regroup and won’t have you boxed in.”
“Are your dogs okay without you?”
“They’re safe.”
“All right. Makes sense as a strategy. Towards the Shallows? Water messes with mosslings, right?”
“Yeah. Eventually.”
“All the crossings towards the Shallows,” Serru said slowly, “are constructed bridges on significant roads. We would eventually reach the head of the river and would have to circle around through Crystal Pass. The water in the Shallows would be helpful but the route would be difficult.”
“Or,” Zanshe said from right behind me, “we could go towards the Grassnds and take the Goat Bridge. There’s very little green on or next to it for her to manipute.” I jumped and gnced back: everyone was out, Terenei and Aryennos fnking the heads of the ornithians and petting them soothingly. Myu was on Zanshe’s shoulder, the highest avaible perch.
“True. That would take us a couple of days, and that’s if the tracks are clear and we don’t get stuck or have bad weather.”
“I suspect,” the Zombie King said, “you’re going to have perfect conditions.”
“What?” I asked.
“You don’t think that snowstorm’s timing was an accident, do you? Or how you conveniently acquired a portable house and that bag that changes with you and fuck knows what else? There were not mushrooms or morning star crystals in that cave before and there was less water. You’re being maniputed but it’s probably keeping you and your harem alive after the decisions you’ve made so far so who am I to argue? Expect to roll a lot of nat twenties and for her to hit the odd nat one when you most need it, is what I’m saying.”
“Who... no, you literally can’t say, can you?”
“Nope. Cute cat. That the one you saved from the bitch queen?”
“Okay, and yes, she is. What’s the Goat Bridge?”
“That should be tons of fun with a wagon. You should sell tickets.”
“We are not abandoning the ornithians.”
“It’s a rough route cross-country from here to the Goat Bridge,” Zanshe said. “Maybe we could leave the wagon, only the wagon, with someone friendly? Terenei? Would your aunt be upset?”
“Not if it keeps us all safe,” Terenei said. “A wagon is just a wagon. The boys are what matter. They aren’t riding animals but I think we could invent something and persuade them to carry anything beyond personal bags for us. They’d probably be fine with rough ground and no road, as long as we don’t have to try to get them up or down any cliffs.”
“We should be able to avoid those, if we pick the right route.”
“Smarter pn,” the Zombie King said, eyeing Cheer and Peace. “I tested an early version. but the real ones absolutely sp. Anyone going to object if I say hi to them?”
“Nathan?” Terenei said uneasily.
“I really don’t think he’d hurt them,” I said slowly. “It’s all right.”
My friends still edged back warily. Terenei stayed close to the ornithians, though, despite the proximity of what they must have figured out by now was one of their ongoing threats. Trusting my judgement, I guess, but it still took courage I wasn’t sure I’d have had.
They sniffed at the bck felid’s offered hands, and Peace snorted, Cheer stamped once, but when he carefully slid his hands around to rub under their chins, they leaned into it.
Serru gave me a wide-eyed look, head tilted in his direction. I just shrugged.
“They like the tops of their beaks rubbed,” Terenei said.
“Up here? Oh, hey, they really do.”
They really did.
He backed up a few steps, gaze still on the ornithians. “Don’t let her have them. I might be over by the Goat Bridge. I don’t know yet.”
“Even the warning is helpful,” I said, and thought of the house in the middle of nowhere, the dogs who kept him from being alone. He wasn’t exactly good company, but no one should be forced into isotion, and I was developing some very disturbing suspicions. “If you want to come with us, we won’t tell anyone who you are.”
“I’ve got things to do.” He turned his back to walk back up the road, away from the Bridge.
I raised my voice. “I’m bad at saying no if someone asks me for help.”
“Yeah, I noticed.”
I took a deep breath, and looked at my friends. “All right. So we’re taking an alternative route.”
“Dogs?” Zanshe asked.
“Uh... when I came out of the st site with no disorientation and I had wings and Locate Person and Purification Rain... I might have paid him a quick visit? I was trying to figure out how much I could ethically say. He let slip a couple of things that I’m really not sure I have any right to repeat.”
“And, without repeating any conversation, he has dogs?”
“He has a house out in the Highnds, in a canyon a lot smaller than this one with a small river through it, and the house is absolutely beautiful. And he has goats that looked healthy and happy, and a pair of gorgeous dogs that adore him. I think it’s mutual.”
“Oh. That is... unexpected.”
“Extremely. There are gamers who spend an immense amount of time building things in the games that allow for that, sometimes spectacur structures with every detail perfect. They aren’t different from the kind of gamers who run around killing things. I mean, you need to collect resources and money and increase your level to get access to things or skills to use. But his is... wow. It’s sort of a blend of bits from different provinces and it’s gorgeous. At least from outside. He didn’t invite me in. Actually, he told me very strongly to stay out.”
“Did he, just in the abstract, happen to say anything that would suggest how he knows about the Moss Queen punishing people by finding where they were born and... I assume that phrase he used means she sits there waiting when they’re finally free?”
“That is what he means, and no he didn’t, not exactly. I am wondering just how much she’s been influencing what he does, though. How much of his behaviour is a reaction to hers, I mean. I don’t like his behaviour and I’m really not convinced that he handled any of it the best way. I’m still angry about being beaten and dumped in a cave. I don’t know that I would consider him friendly or trust him, exactly. But I think she might get some of the responsibility.”
“He likes animals,” Heket said. “And the ornithians liked him. The Moss Queen was willing to infect Myu. They are... not as simir as we’ve grown up believing.”
“No, I really don’t think they are. There are lots of ways of being unpleasant, but I think it might be more complicated than it looked. I think a lot of things might be.”
“I don’t think I’ve ever heard of a zombie animal,” Aryennos said slowly. “It was assumed that for some reason he can’t. Maybe it’s that he won’t?”
“I don’t know. I might actually believe that.”
“Grieving for a loved one lost to her,” Zanshe said quietly, “has never been as bad as grieving for one lost to him. It is rarely as long, and the effects after are never as devastating. And, now I think of it, I don’t believe it’s nearly as common.”
“Yeah. There’s something more going on. All right. It’s a shame to keep Terenei away from that bridge and the paintings I’m sure would happen, but safety first. Which way do we go, and where can we find friendly people who might be willing to put up with the wagon for us while we tackle rough ground again?”
