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“Just…all right?”
“I’m told she’s a very fancy kind of human. I like that. You’ve got to have standards. Honestly, though, the main reason I’m marrying her is so I can get a soul.”
Either there was something obvious I was missing, or that made no sense at all. “A soul?” I asked.
The genius’s eyebrows went up in surprise. He came to a halt, which I was grateful for, since it let me catch my breath. Exhaustion was taking its toll on me; I hoped the palace wasn’t far.
“It’s basic science,” the genius said. “Haven’t you read A Treatise on Creatures of Earth, Air, Fire, and Water, with a Special Appendix on Creatures of Blood, Phlegm, and Black or Yellow Bile?” When we shook our heads, he tutted. “You really should, it’s an essential alchemical text. I’m sure you know that humans are composed of an elemental body, a sidereal spirit, and an immortal soul, right? Whereas element-based creatures like myself only have the first two. However!” He lifted a wine-bottle-sized finger. “After marriage to a human, such a creature gains a soul. That’s why mermaids are always chasing after human men. It isn’t because an egg-laying amphibian wants a roll in the hay, I can tell you that!” He chuckled and walked on.
As Yudit and I hurried forward again, I could see her struggling to make another mental readjustment. “Well,” she said. “If you’re doing it for the sake of an immortal soul, that’s inspiring in its own way.”
“I know, right?” the genius replied happily. “You wouldn’t believe what you can get in exchange for a soul. There are demons who’ll give you practically anything. As soon as I sell that thing, I’m going to be living it up!”
My sister had nothing to say in response to that.
After about an hour of walking, we reached the genius’s palace. Its towers rose majestically out of the swamp, glittering confections of crystal and brass. The late afternoon sunlight turned them golden.
By then, I was so ready to drop that I barely took it in. Whatever reserves of energy I’d summoned to rescue the genius and walk to the palace were gone. I couldn’t bring myself to slap at the insects that alighted to sample my blood. I’d almost stopped caring whether or not the genius intended to kill us. The others were no better off. Stinky was practically asleep on her feet.
The genius went up to a metal door twice his height and pounded on it with his fist hard enough to produce an echoing boom. “Mother!” he called out. “Unbar the door, won’t you? I’m home!”
A short time later, the door cracked open and an elderly fire genius peered out. She overtopped her son by at least five feet. The violet wrap she wore was embroidered with images of phoenixes and dragons.
While her eyes were pupilless gold, just like her son’s, they were dull instead of bright, as if there was a film over them. Her deeply wrinkled skin was a bright shade of blue, and the fire on her head was the same color, with a wavering plume of white at the very center. It ran hotter than the orange one; I could feel the scorching heat of it from where I stood.
“Well?” she said. “Did you find it this time?”
He looked abashed. “No. I ran into a bit of difficulty.”
“That girl is more trouble than she’s worth. You should get yourself another one.”
“If I’m going to marry a human woman, I want it to be a pretty human woman. Anyway”—he made a sweeping gesture that took in the rest of us—“I found something almost as good. Friends! These two humans helped me when I was in need.”
“And two horses,” Sunbeam grumbled. “No one ever remembers the horses.”
“I’ve invited them to stay the night as guests.” The genius wagged a finger at his mother. “So be nice to them. No snacking.”
She squinted at us, bending down for a better look. It brought her head-fire uncomfortably close. I leaned back to get more distance.
“Hello,” I said. “Um, if your son is ‘the genius,’ then what should we call you?”
“ ‘The genius’s mother,’ obviously,” said the genius’s mother. “Hm. Are these humans pretty?” she asked, turning to her son. “Why don’t you marry one of them instead?”
The genius roared with laughter. “Mother! These are boy humans. You can tell by the way they’re dressed. They’re not allowed to marry other boys. It’s a human law.”
She took a deep sniff, like a hound trying to acquire our scent. “If you say so.”
“Sorry about that,” he said to us. “Her eyesight isn’t so good anymore.”
I’d actually heard of places where men could marry men, and women marry women, for that matter. I knew a sorceress whose sister was married to a fairy princess. It only made sense, I thought; why shouldn’t you be able to marry the person you loved?
All things considered, though, it seemed like a bad idea to bring that up just then.
“Well, come in.” The genius’s mother straightened up and flung the door open wide. “If my son says you’re our guests, then be welcome in our home, where you shall be treated with all due courtesy.”
She didn’t sound enthused about it, and I hadn’t lost my lingering worry that we’d end up on their dinner menu. But even that was beginning to sound preferable to another night spent in the swamp. I followed the genii into their palace.
Chapter Thirteen
