“Can’t you do it faster? These folk are dying of thirst over here.”
“You know, when we got out of the labs, a few of us dreamed of living in a place like this,” Dagger continues conversationally as he gestures around at the less-than-focused stares, crumbling paintwork and damp patches on the ceiling.
“Well... maybe not exactly like this,” he adds. “I remember sitting with my bollocks out on a metal bed, getting poked and prodded and then my body aching right down to my bones. I couldn’t sleep. Couldn’t eat. And my dick didn’t even work right. All I could dream about was heading back home to a little village where nothing ever happens, where I could do the same job my dad did, maybe have a couple of kids.”
“What happened?” I ask softly, not missing the way Aster leans in like he wants to hear this next bit too. I reach out to squeeze his knee under the table, and his amber eyes meet mine for a moment before darting away again with another shy smile.
“That,” Dagger mutters, jerking his head toward the bar. “I tried it for a couple of months. Headed back to my home town. But somehow people could tell that I wasn’t like them. They started treating me differently, talking to me like they’d never have dared back when I was fully human.” He shakes his headand clicks his tongue. “There’s no cosy small town living for us folk. Not even tucked away in the arse end of nowhere.”
It takes me a minute to understand why the big man is struggling with tapping the cask, or why they’re acting like he’s a nuisance rather than helping. Then I spot the empty sleeve below his elbow. He’s missing the lower part of his arm.
I frown at Dagger. “I don’t understand.”
“Can’t you smell him? If I had to make a guess, I’d say he’s got a three-legged moose inside him.”
“Is that a euphemism?” I glance at Aster, who looks just as lost as I feel. When his lips twitch into an almost-smile, I have to tear my eyes away as laughter threatens to bubble up inside me.
Dagger snorts. “He’s one of us. A moose-man. Except, they always smell different when they are born that way. Muskier. Less artificial. I bet that injury’s an old workplace one too.”
Keeping my voice to barely more than a whisper, I ask, “Are you telling me that you can not only tell that he’s a... beast-borne, but also exactly what animal he is?”
“Are you saying you can’t?”
I shake my head. “But surely most of the people here wouldn’t be able to tell?”
Dagger takes another casual look around and then wrinkles up his nose. “Nah, they’re human. Each and every one of them. You’d think they’d at least have one witch or sorcerer among them with the attitude they’ve got, but I’m guessing if they do, they wouldn’t mix with the riffraff in here.” He rearranges himself on the chair, almost as though he can’t force himself to sit still before taking another audible sniff of the air. “One of the humans smells like a relation of the moose-man.” He sniffs again. “His mother, I’d guess. Maybe he grew up like the rest of them and looked human for a while. Eventually, he’d have to shift, though. And it’s not like there are too many mooses...meese? In these parts. He’d stick out like a pair of antlers on the wall.”
Just as the words come out, the moose-man looks up and glares right at Bones.
“Took him long enough,” Dagger mutters.
Bones then starts shaking his head like a dog, sending sand flying all over the bar top while the barman roars with anger.
“Well, that’s my cue.” Dagger then strides up to the bar, straight toward the moose man who glares at him, his nostrils flaring.
Which leaves just me and Aster together at the small table. Our knees are practically rubbing together, and I lean back in my chair as I watch the scene unfold.
“Do you understand what’s happening here?” I ask him.
“I think...” Aster’s voice comes out hoarse before he clears his throat and tries again. “I think they’re offering him a way out,” he says. “They all talk a lot. The crew, I mean. Especially when they think you’re not really listening. Dagger probably has a pocketful of coins that he’ll slip to the beast-borne man in case he wants to try his luck in a bigger town, one where it’s not so obvious what he is.”
Huh. The crew might have an odd way of going about things, but they’re a good bunch of people.
I glance up at the moose-man who is shaking his head vigorously at Dagger before slamming a pint down onto the bar top and sending froth spilling over.
Dagger pauses for a moment before grabbing Bones by the ear and dragging him back to the table.
“Well, that was a waste of time,” Bones says. “The barman wasn’t a chatty guy and the town doesn’t even have a noticeboard, so even if we were all the kingdom’s ‘most wanted’, these folk wouldn’t know about it.”
“Moose-man refused my coin too,” Dagger says with a shrug. “I guess this place has sunk deep in the poor fella’s veins.”
“So, no information and no heroic saviour act either. Are we ready to write this trip off as a near-failure?” Bones asks cheerfully. “Of course, if we hadn’t got the eggs, it’d be a total failure. Unless you want to start a bar fight?”
Chapter 5
Reva
Later that night, I’m simultaneously exhausted but too wired to sleep. The house is silent while I make myself a cup of tea in the kitchen. On the ship, there was always someone awake, someone working. But here, there’s no need for anyone to be on high alert, waiting for enemy ships or adjusting the sails during the night.
