Takayoshi was not sure what he had hoped for, but he knew it was not to enter what appeared to be a residence on the other side of the street, and step out the door of what seemed to be a smithy moments later. The sign above creaked in the wind, the anvil and hammer burned into the wood and cluttered in glistening cobwebs that spoke of an absence of proper cleaning. He did not have to look back over his shoulder to see that the inside was still a simply furnished sitting room, whatever the sign above the door seemed to state. He did anyway, letting his shoulders sag just a little at the sight of the well-loved plaid sofa in the corner, and matching chairs before the fireplace. Not a smithy.
"Can we call them now?" Estia asked, zir voice going up an octave on the last word as if ze could not quite get the words out past some feeling in zir throat.
Takayoshi shook his head.
"Why not?!"
"As you pointed out before, we do not want to run into who or what cursed Agape. If we shout now, we are likely to draw its attention." Takayoshi went back out onto the street, looking up at the sun. It was past noon, and all their provisions were with the horses. They would have to try searching some of the homes for food soon. "But we should find the others. As quickly as we can. It will be safer to remain together."
"Do you think we'll be able to find the horses?" Estia's hands had moved to fiddle with the hilt of the dagger on zir belt. Zir dark eyes bouncing from one thing to the next as they made their way down the street.
"I am not sure." Bile rose in his chest, making it burn. He did not like not knowing things. Yet, it seemed to happen increasingly since leaving Helio on his mission to help the people of Lunette a year and nine months ago. First it had been not knowing what to make of Cricket. Then it had been all of the things he had to learn from Cricket. To make friends, investigate, be kind, and even show mercy. Now, he was finding that there was more still he did not know. He felt... untethered.
"...because I am getting quite hungry, and I know you must be too. You Helions keep such a tight schedule, it must be Styx having to change it so readily when you travel." Takayoshi was unsure when Estia had begun speaking. He had been so lost in his own thoughts. Estia seemed to realize this, and stopped, frowning. "You weren't listening to me."
"I apologize." Takayoshi bowed his head. He had thought Estia might not even notice, ze seemed to often be off in zir own world.
Estia eyed him for a moment, then nodded. "You seem to have a lot on your mind. Do you want to talk about it?"
"Not particularly."
"Oh come now, there must be something you want to talk about. The prince of Lunette perhaps? You know, I heard a rumor before we left that he'd—"
"I do not wish to hear the driveling gossip that people have begun to spout about him. It is nothing more than a smear campaign. He is not a demon. He is not some kind of evil thing. He is a good man, doing the best that he can for his people." The words left him in a quiet, deliberate stream. Hard enough to not allow argument. He would not tolerate people continuing to speak of Cricket in such a way. His chest puffed with agitation.
"I wasn't going to call him a demon," Estia said, zir tone affronted. "Anyone who calls him a demon isn't paying attention."
"What?" Not the most intelligent thing he could have said, Takayoshi realized. But Estia was the first person to say any such thing outside of himself, and Claudia, who was mostly basing her assumptions on what she had learned of the young prince from Takayoshi.
"Well first off, dragons aren't demons." Estia shrugged, as if this was the truth of the matter and there could be no further argument.
Takayoshi blinked, and nodded. Of all the people he had met, Estia had not been the one he assumed would be open minded to Cricket's condition. If anything, he had thought that the people of Cytherea, if they found out about Cricket, would use it to their advantage.
"Secondly," Estia continued as if ze did not notice Takayoshi's surprised silence. "His uncle has been attacking some of the outlying villages of Lunette that border Cytherea for the last few months, and Cricket has been doing everything he can to fight back against him. How anyone can demonize a royal who is literally on the battlefield trying to save his people, I don't know."
"What?" Takayoshi croaked, his feet suddenly too heavy to move. How had he not heard of that? Someone should have told him if there was a war going on. Surely Atsuko would have sent a letter. Or one of the villagers would have mentioned it. Or... something. He would have known. He would have known and he would have been there.
Estia stopped just in front of him, and turned back, zir head cocked so strands of light hair fell into zir eyes. "You hadn't heard?"
"No. I had not heard." Why was his throat so tight? Why were his hands shaking? He could not breathe. Oh stars, he could not breathe! He felt like... like he needed to do something. Like he needed to be somewhere else. Like he was wasting his time searching for a library when he should be at his prince's side protecting him. What a fool's errand he was on!
"They're mostly small skirmishes. Nothing serious." Estia's tone had gone soft, gentle. Ze reached for Takayoshi, perhaps to put a hand to his shoulder, but stopped, zir hand hovering in the air unsure. "He could likely just send his army to handle them."
"Why has he not?" Oh, Helios, why did his voice sound like that? Why did it sound so small, and scared? Takayoshi tried to shake himself. Tried to remind himself that Cricket was a prince. A knight. A warrior. That Cricket was not weak. But it did nothing to help the feeling clawing its way up his throat. Oh, stars, he was going to be sick. Was that his heart pounding in his ears, or footsteps?
"Takayoshi. Yoshi." Estia's voice was somewhere off in the distance, drowned out by the thump thump thump in his ears. Takayoshi tried to meet Estia's eyes, to explain to zir that he could not breathe, that he could not hear, that he could not think. But the world had gone too bright, making him have to squint against the sunshine. "Breathe. I need you to breathe."
He was breathing. Was he not breathing? Stars, he was not breathing. Takayoshi took a deep breath, felt it rattle in his chest against whatever emotion had threatened to well up there.
"That's good. Just keep breathing," Estia said, soft and soothing. "Leo, do you have any water?"
Leo? When had Leo gotten there? Takayoshi looked up, the sun still too bright, burning his eyes, to see the shapes of Leo and Claudia standing above him. When had he sat down?
"Drink some of this." Estia held the water skin out to him, and he took it with shaking hands. "Just a sip at a time, don't rush it."
Takayoshi nodded, taking a small sip from the skin, and focusing more on his breathing.
"We should probably get some food into him too," Leo said, his voice strangely soft.
"We can check some of these buildings. Maybe if we don't shut the door they won't move." Claudia was shifting from foot to foot, her boots creaking softly as she did.
"Let's not take chances on that. We shouldn't get split up." Leo shook his head. "Not after it took us so long to find them."
"Right."
Takayoshi took another careful sip from the water skin, and forced his eyes to focus on the faces hovering above him. He could hear them now, although his ears had started to ring. A small improvement, but an improvement nonetheless. "Have you found anything?"
Claudia lowered herself to a crouch before him, and when Leo did not join her on the ground, she yanked his sleeve forcing him down beside her. "Not really, just a bunch of empty buildings, and the streets moving."
"Or the buildings."
"Or the buildings." Claudia nodded. "There aren't any signs of struggle, or an invasion. It looks like everyone just sat down what they had, and left."
"We were looking to climb one of the taller buildings to get a better lay of the land, when we found you." Leo flopped back onto his bottom in the dust, uncaring of the dirt that would coat his trousers.
"If the map piece is here, it's likely in the middle of the city," Estia said, thoughtfully.
"Good luck trying to get there." Leo snorted. "Whatever spell this is, it's nasty. We haven't seen the same building twice, and the needle on my compass was spinning so fast I think it came unscrewed."
"Well, if we get above it, like you two were suggesting, maybe we can see which direction to head in." Estia took the water skin from Takayoshi's no longer trembling fingers, and put the cap back on it.
"But how do we know that by the time we get back down to street level we'll be where we were when we went up the building?" Claudia's hands tightened in the fabric on her thighs, enough to wrinkle her trousers. "I don't like this."
"No one does." Leo rolled his eyes.
"I think it's our best option, at least for the time being. Maybe whatever is powering the curse is at the center." Estia moved to stand, and held a hand out to Takayoshi to help him up. Takayoshi took it, surprising everyone, including himself, and forced himself up on still wobbly knees.
"Thank you." He let go of Estia's hand, and tightened the muscles in his legs to keep himself up right. It had been such a long time since Takayoshi had a panic attack, that he had almost forgotten what they felt like. But the trembling of the afterwards... he remembered that. It was always the worst part.
"But first, we need to get some food. It's well past lunch, and we can't have anyone fainting when we go to climb a building." Claudia stretched, her lips twitching up in a teasing smile as she looked at Takayoshi. He resisted the urge to scoff at her. That would be unseemly.
"Let's try leaving the door open and see if we come out in the same place." Estia headed down the street to a building that looked to be a residence. "Does anyone have something to mark the building with, so we know we've been to it?"
"Just use your dagger." Leo rolled his eyes, grabbing the door to the house, and pushing it open, his hand still on the hilt of his sword. His head jerked around for a moment, then he nodded. "Nothing. Just more cobwebs."
"More of them?" Claudia moved up behind him to look over his shoulder. "Oh, that is more. Weird. The first couple of places we looked in didn't have any at all."
Estia pulled the dagger from zir belt, and carved an E into the frame by the door. "There. Now, let's go find something to eat. Hopefully not everything is spoiled."
"I'm sure they have some dry goods that we can eat. Crackers, and canned vegetables, and the like." Leo moved to hold the door open for all of them as they filed in. He grabbed a boot from the rug just inside, and placed it in front of the door to keep it open.
Claudia headed deeper into the house, finding the kitchen at the back where she proceeded to dig through the cupboards.
Estia sunk to zir knees to dig through the ones below, and let out a blood curdling scream that had Leo and Takayoshi rushing into the kitchen to see what the problem was.
"Kill it! Kill it! Kill it!" Estia shrieked, grabbing Claudia by the shoulders, and using her to shield zirself from the worm that had just crawled out of the cabinet.
Leo clicked his tongue, brushing past everyone to stomp on the bug as Estia continued to scream. "There. It's dead. See?"
"My hero!" Estia wailed, releasing Claudia to lean back against the counter in a dramatic slump.
Leo rolled his eyes. "Did you guys find anything to eat, or just bugs?"
"Crackers, and some canned peaches." Claudia thrust the items at him without looking in his direction. Takayoshi followed her gaze to the cabinet that the worm had crawled out of. Claudia crouched before it. "That's weird."
"What is?" Takayoshi moved to squat beside her.
"I've never seen silkworms in someone's kitchen before." Claudia reached in to poke at the webbing the little creature had left behind. "You didn't see any mulberry bushes out on the street did you?"
"No." Leo frowned, coming to look into the cabinet with them.
"Then what are they eating?" Claudia tilted her head, wrinkling her nose. "And it's too early in the season for wild silkworms. They don't usually hatch until late July."
"Well maybe these are magic silkworms. It doesn't matter, let's get some food and get out of here." Estia whimpered where ze was clutching onto the counter still as if zir legs would give out on zir at any moment.
"We'll go look around the other rooms." Leo rose, brushing dust from his trousers. He turned to Estia and held out an arm. "Come on you big scaredy cat."
"I wasn't scared. I just don't like worms." Estia lunged at it, clinging tightly enough to cut off circulation.
"Sure you don't."
Their voices faded as they left the dark kitchen. Claudia was still staring at the clutter of webbing inside the cabinet, her fingers tapping thoughtfully on her knees.
"Is this really something to be concerned over?" Takayoshi asked, hoping to draw her out of her thoughts.
"Maybe not. It's just..." Claudia sighed, standing up.
"Unsettling."
"Yeah, unsettling." She nodded, reaching for another cabinet to dig around for more food. "The sooner we find whatever is powering this curse, the better, I think."
"Mn." Takayoshi nodded his agreement.
Comments (0)
See all