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‘Excuse me?’ Agatha hadn’t expected anyone to happen across her in the middle of the forest, but the voice was polite enough, and she looked up with a smile that showed only the tips of her fangs, smoothing down her olive dress self-consciously. It felt strange to be wearing it now — when she was a wiggler she’d thought she was olive, her blood had been a little bright but she hadn’t seen it often and her lusus had been so sure. She pushed the smoked glasses up unnecessarily over her too bright eyes and looked up.
The troll standing there was a seadweller. There were smoked glasses over his own eyes, but the rich violet clothes were hardly necessary to determine the colour of his blood, not with the frilled ear fins. His horns were tiny, elegant barbs, barely clearing his hair but looking like they could leave a nasty tear if he used them on someone. His ear fins flicked down slightly when she flinched.
‘I didn’t mean to alarm you,’ he said. ‘My house is near here, I wondered if you were lost?’
‘Oh, no. I’m waiting for someone.’ She wasn’t sure whether to hope Zeetha got back quickly or stayed away — she’d certainly know how to deal with this better than Agatha did. As much as anyone could deal with a sea troll, even a polite one.
‘You could wait up at my house. It’s not far,’ he said, gesturing with one hand. His claws were lacquered, slightly rounded, like he’d never even fought. Agatha’s were needle sharp, these days, because Zeetha’s idea of pale activities included sitting Agatha down and carefully sharpening every single one. Didn’t mean she had any illusions she could take a sea troll in a fight. They were bad news, but so was saying no to one. And this one was…cute.
‘Okay,’ she said. ‘Just let me send Zeetha a message.’
She pulled out her husktop.
- - clayTrilobite [CT] began trolling amazonAstray [AA] - -
- - AmazonAstray [AA] is idle - -
CT: This sea troll wannts mme to comme annd wait inn his house.
CT: He seemms pretty nnice but I donn’t thinnk I cann say nno. I knnow you’ll be able to track mme.
CT: See you later <>
- - clayTrilobite [CT] stopped trolling amazonAstray [AA]- -
‘I’m done,’ she said, and when he offered her a hand she took it without thinking and let him lift her to her feet.
‘I should introduce myself,’ he said, bowing slightly over her hand. ‘Tarvek Sturms.’
‘Ah. Agatha Claius,’ said Agatha.
He paused half way through straightening up, and she realised he was looking at her shoulder, eyes widening behind his glasses. She stopped herself from covering it self-consciously — she’d been wearing her sign smaller, lately, but trilobita wasn’t that rare a sign. A troll without one would stand out even more, and besides, not having it felt wrong. (His was lilium. That was pretty rare.)
The mansion he led her to was nice, but not sea dweller palatial, perched on a mound of rocks with cave entrances showing here and there. ‘Aren’t you a long way from the ocean here?’ she asked tentatively. Wouldn’t he have an aquatic lusus?
‘There’s a lake,’ he said. ‘I’ve never even seen the ocean.’
‘Oh.’ It wouldn’t be polite to ask why not.
The door to the mansion was opened by a robot. Strangely elegant with long, swept back horns and a flowing dress. ‘Oh!’ said Agatha. ‘That’s beautifully made.’
The robot tilted her head, regarding Agatha with glowing cerulean eyes. ‘Thank you,’ she said.
Agatha was about to say something about the AI when she realised the robot had a sign. Gladius, in cerulean. ‘Oh,’ she said, softly, feeling it was probably about time she stopped saying that. ‘Um.’
‘This is Anevka Voraus,’ said Tarvek.
‘The ghost in the machine, you might say,’ said Anevka. ‘Please do come in, it’s been a while since we had guests.’
Quadrants? Agatha wondered. They almost had to be, to be living together, but she couldn’t guess which. ‘You’re a ghost?’ Agatha asked. ‘I’d heard of soulbots before, but I thought someone had to be psychic.’
‘I was,’ said Anevka. ‘Rare for a cerulean, I know, but not unheard of. Tarvek isn’t, of course, but he’s very clever. Are you hungry?’
‘Oh. Yes, please.’ She’d been waiting for Zeetha to kill something for dinner. Something other than fresh killed meat would be really nice. She followed them through to the dining room — they actually had a dining room, not just a respiteblock. ‘Do you mind if I ask what happened?’ she tried.
Anevka and Tarvek looked at one another. ‘Anevka’s lusus ate her,’ said Tarvek.
‘What?’
‘Of course he was very upset about it afterwards, losing his charge like that,’ said Tarvek, voice full of frustrated anger. ‘He nearly killed me just for being here when she wasn’t.’
‘But wouldn’t you have gone back to your own house?’ said Agatha.
‘I don’t have one.’
‘But you’re…’ A violetblood. Even with things as messed up as they’d been since the Last Condesce died violetbloods still got housing wherever they wanted it.
‘I don’t have a lusus.’ Which meant he was on the orphan cull list, although it had been a while since that had been enforced. It also meant he was fair game for any other troll or their lusus, and especially would have been when he was younger. ‘I never have. Anevka’s didn’t mind her having me here. I used to help feed him but I…wasn’t, I thought Anevka could manage it by herself, and then I came back…’
He looked so miserable Agatha almost wanted to pap him. Except she hardly knew him and it would be cheating on Zeetha. Anyway, she still wasn’t sure what quadrant he and Anevka were — no, not pale, Anevka was watching him almost like she was enjoying seeing him hurt, but it was too cold for black. There was no passion there. ‘I’m sorry,’ she said, instead, not sure which of them she meant it for. Her own lusus had always been so gentle (she missed her so much, she could still see the dragon claws ripping through her patched together shell).
Anevka shrugged and walked out of the room. Agatha was saved from the awkward silence by her husktop chiming. She glanced at Tarvek for permission and got a “go ahead” gesture.
- - amazonAstray [AA] started trolling clayTrilobite [CT] - -
AA: *pouncegreet*
CT: Hi, Zeetha!
AA: You went off with a SEADWELLER. Are you INSANE?
CT: He’s nnice.
AA: You think EVERYONE is nice.
CT: I donn’t!
CT: Kalaus Wulfenn isnn’t nnice.
AA: Heh.
AA: Gilesh? Σ:P
CT: He’s nnot nnice either!
CT: (nneither are you)
AA: PFFT
AA: Still not smart of you to go off with a seadweller. What’s he even DOING in a forest?
CT: He lives here. He’s nnever evenn seenn the sea.
AA: Oh NO.
AA: You don’t have to get CONCILIATORY towards everyone you meet either.
AA: And I’m NOT jealous, I’m WORRIED. Just because YOU want to help THEM doesn’t mean they feel the same way.
CT: I knnow you’re nnot jealous.
CT: But that’s nnot why I’mm stayinng.
AA: Oh?
CT: They’re feedinng mme.
AA: *snort*
AA: My hunting skills aren’t good enough? NOW I’m jealous.
AA: Be safe. I’ll catch up and keep an eye out from outside. SOMEONE should watch out for you.
CT: You always do.
- - clayTriblobite [CT] stopped trolling amazonAstray [AA] - -
‘The person you were waiting for?’ asked Tarvek.
‘My moirail,’ said Agatha, flushing slightly green. She still wasn’t used to having a quadrant. ‘She’s going to catch up later.’
Anevka returned with three plates of an elaborate fish dish, which, after weeks of whatever Zeetha caught seared over a bonfire, Agatha pounced on with impolite speed. There was wine, too, which she sipped more cautiously. Far too cautiously to account for the strangely light, muzzy feeling spreading through her. Oh no, she thought, the thought strangely distant and not transmitting itself into an urge to do anything. Zeetha was right. I hope she gets here quickly. Something was moving underneath the house, she could hear a soft, pervasive vibration getting closer.
Tarvek leant forward and, almost apologetically, removed her glasses. A moment later his eyes were wide and his ear fins flared. ‘You’re a LIME?’
Agatha squeezed her eyes shut. But it didn’t even matter now. ‘I didn’t even know growing up,’ she said, still feeling dazed. ‘I thought I was olive. Even when my lusus gave me the glasses. Then I got caught up in Wulfen putting down a rebellion and his descendant saw my eyes.’ She swallowed. ‘I’ve been running away, but now you’re going to kill me for something not even related.’
‘Lime,’ he said. ‘And trilobita. Anevka.’
‘Too late,’ said Anevka. ‘Much too late.’
The door to the dining room pushed open, long, searching white legs sliding through it. The body that followed was huge, fat, a giant spider gorged on trolls. There was a jade collar around its neck, like a slash of green pinching its narrow throat. It barely fitted through the door, but it did, walking with ponderous grace towards Agatha where she sat screaming silently at her body to move.
‘Father,’ said Tarvek. ‘Not this one.’ But he’d moved back, ear fins flicking down, head tipping up to show his throat. He wasn’t preparing to fight.
The spider rocked back on his six hind legs and lanced the forward two at Agatha with a thrust so violent she choked on surprised when she found herself lifted rather than spitted. She was being lifted towards its mouth, she wouldn’t even get the mercy of a swift death before those serrated mandibles tore at her. Zeetha! Then it tipped its head back and continued pulling her towards its throat, as if it would tuck her under its chin like a baby purrbeast.
Lightning arced through her, snapping her spine back, and she finally screamed.
‘Anevka, what the hell?’ Tarvek was bending over the huge spider, ignoring the sharp, spasming legs waving close to his face as it died. It wasn’t even his lusus, but Agatha could see the shock and grief even half dazed.
‘He wasn’t going to eat her,’ said Anevka, bending over Agatha, dress now smouldering rags. ‘That necklace is possessed. She must have seen something here she wanted.’
‘The Outsider? Why would she?’
Agatha, shaking with aftershock and still half drugged, tried to understand what was happening. The Outsider had led a series of devastating attacks across Alternia, somehow bringing in minor horrorterrors to do their bidding, before vanishing completely. What did they — she? — have to do with this? ‘Did you save me?’ she asked Anevka.
‘No,’ said Anevka. ‘If she’s that interested in you then you still have to die.’
Behind her a jade-green swirl was winding out of the stone, feeling its way across the floor towards them. Agatha closed her eyes. ‘If the alternative is the Outsider coming back…’ she said. Then, small and frightened, ‘I couldn’t run?’
‘She’d catch up,’ said Anevka, one metal hand closing on Agatha’s throat.
‘Anevka. Stop. Let go of her.’ Tarvek’s voice sounded harder than Agatha had heard it yet, a growl vibrating through it. He sounded like a highblood.
Anevka’s hand jerked back. ‘Tarvek, what?’
‘An override.’ His voice was still vibrating in the base of Agatha’s horns. ‘I built it into the body. Touch the necklace.’
‘No!’ But Anevka’s hand was already closing on it and, whatever the cloud of green had intended, it swirled into the soulbot. Agatha thought she saw something cerulean, some wisp in the air for a moment, and then it was gone.
The soulbot stood and plunged one hand into its chest, pulling something out of its heart and dropping it, smeared cerulean, on the floor. ‘If you thought you could lure me into a body you could command then I fear you were mistaken.’ She tipped her head back, running hands smeared with blood — no, oil — over the metal curves of her body. ‘A touching sacrifice. But I can simply take the limeblood as well.’
There was a snarl and something sleek and green flung itself across the room, knocking the Outsider back from Agatha and then rolling and coming up facing her, swords out.
‘Zeetha!’ Agatha cried, the word almost a sob.
‘Get out of here!’ said Zeetha.
Agatha scrambled to her feet, still shakey and uncoordinated. ‘But…’
Zeetha flicked her head at Tarvek, triangular horns making little arcs through the air. ‘Make yourself useful. Get her out.’
Agatha found herself lifted and struggled against it, panicked at the thought of leaving Zeetha against such a terrible enemy. ‘Don’t, you’re the one she wants. Zeetha can run once we’re gone,’ he said, and Agatha struggled anyway, until they were down in the forest among the trees and he finally let her go.
Agatha turned on him with a snarl and was startled to see tears tracking down his face. Pink tears. ‘You’re tyrian.’
He blinked at her and then took his glasses off. He was older than her, rather than her lime-streaked eyes his were a solid pink.
‘I didn’t think there were any left,’ said Agatha.
He pulled out a handkerchief and wiped his glasses, then his face. ‘There weren’t meant to be,’ he said. ‘The bluebloods didn’t want us back, and there were no more lusii for us.’ He smiled at her slightly, not happy but a little hopeful. ‘Like limes.’
‘The rule on killing lime grubs hasn’t been strictly enforced since the Last Condesce,’ said Agatha. There had been a couple of very famous ones in the previous generation, who even the highbloods had generally regarded with public approval even if they’d privately considered them disruptive.
‘The Outsider was a jadeblood,’ said Tarvek. ‘She passed out tyrian grubs to politically minded trolls who might have a use for them in future and were willing to get them to adulthood without lusii. That was before she started summoning horrorterrors.’
Agatha put her hand on a nearby tree to stop herself weaving on her feet. ‘I just nearly got possessed by a conspiracy-minded ghost!’
Tarvek held a hand out to her. ‘I’m sorry. I had no idea about the necklace.’
Agatha growled and whirled to glare at him. ‘No. You were just going to feed me to a giant spider. No harm meant at all!’
He dropped his hand. ‘I’m sorry.’
‘Yeah, you’d better be,’ said Zeetha, swinging down out of a tree.
‘Zeetha!’ Agatha threw herself at her hard enough to send both of them tumbling into the ground.
Zeetha laughed and tapped their horns together. ‘Yeah, I’m fine. Couldn’t destroy the body without freeing her from it, but I’ve left her some repair work to do.’ She tipped her head back. ‘What are you going to do with him?’
Agatha sat up, feeling foolish. She shouldn’t have tangled herself and Zeetha up like that in front of a potential enemy, even if Zeetha wasn’t saying so. She should feel more like Tarvek was a potential enemy. He’d given her no reason to trust him. ‘Nothing,’ she said. ‘He’s not my problem.’
‘I could be useful!’ he said. ‘If the Outsider’s interested in you then pretty soon the whole conspiracy will be, and you don’t know enough about them. Besides, you’re out here on your own.’
‘I’m out here with Zeetha,’ said Agatha. ‘Who I trust.’
Zeetha hugged her. ‘He does have a point, though,’ she said.
Agatha growl-grumbled. ‘Why don’t you go back to your conspiracy?’
‘Because they’ll probably kill me with Anevka gone. I told you, the Outsider handed out a lot of grubs. Everyone has their favourite and the rest of us are competition.’
Agatha put her face in her hands. She didn’t want him dead, although she wasn’t sure why considering what he’d just put her through. Maybe it was fellow feeling for someone else everyone wanted dead for a blood colour they’d been born with.
‘The sun’s going to be up soon,’ said Zeetha. ‘If we don’t find some thick cover we’ll all be dead.’
‘Fine,’ said Agatha, standing up and brushing off her skirt. ‘You can stay with us for the day, anyway.’ She doubted he knew how to find thick enough cover to escape the sun anymore than she had when she’d first been out by herself.
They slept curled in a thicket, twigs pressing against their skin, Tarvek curled in a ball as far from the other two as he could get snarling and whimpering in his sleep. First time sleeping dry, Agatha though sympathetically. She didn’t try to get close to him, not when he could lash out in his sleep like this. They all had nightmares. But maybe that was part of the reason why she didn’t bring up sending him away again the next morning when he followed them. It took him most of the day to ask where they were going and Agatha surprised herself by still not pointing out that he wasn’t coming with them.
‘There’s a cove,’ she said. ‘My lusus said to make for it before she died.’
‘Did she say what you’d find there?’ he asked.
Agatha shook her head. ‘She wasn’t that good at communicating.’ She’d used to curl around Agatha, wrapping her in many segmented shell, communicating comfort and protection. She’d been Agatha’s own lusus and she never would have asked her to hurt anyone. She smiled uncertainly at Tarvek. ‘At least you’ll get to see the sea.’