The narrow little boat bobbed in the water with his movements.
“How is it?” Angelico asked.
“Much better. Thank you,” said Kennia, touching a hand to his bandage-wrapped eyes.
The physician had said he could take the bandages off this morning, but Kennia wanted to be extra careful.
Angelico could understand it. Kennia wouldn’t be able to fly as a raptor if the operation failed to fix his eyes.
Angelico and Kennia were headed home, westward, into the face of the setting sun. The blinding orange light stabbed out its rays through the treeline of the swamp.
Angelico winced and spurned the light from his face.
He gave the boat a push with his inner power, and glided them into the swamp channel that was the entrance to the Jawbone.
“You were limiting your spiritus this morning too,” said Kennia. “Is it a training recommendation from Master Akiyoh?”
“Actually, this is Lieran’s practice,” explained Angelico with a sigh. “I lost another wager to him, so I thought I should try it.”
“Eyes on the prize, I see,” said Kennia. He poked with the toe of his boot at the covered bundles of supplies they’d bought.
“Even though we need these things to curb the symptoms of our condition, of course no one would volunteer to run market errands for nothing.”
It was a relief when the sun finally died and the night’s embrace swiftly closed in around them. Angelico lit a lantern and Kennia held its post for him.
A storm had rolled in overhead, and it was just getting started.
The swamp’s regular symphony of chirping crickets and croaking frogs harmonised nicely with the pitter-patter of rain barely falling.
They took a bend in the river.
A harrier bird zipped past them, low over the water. Another harrier was hot in pursuit, chirping angrily.
Kennia swept the lantern out ahead of them where the noise had come from.
“Harriers,” said Angelico. “Having dinner, I think.”
“Dinner?” Asked Kennia. “Here?”
“There’s a carcass on the bank.” Angelico steered the boat towards the ruckus, where the harrier birds had flocked around a carcass, picking and tearing at it, squabbling.
At Angelico and Kennia’s approach they cawed, shuffling, reluctant to part with their feast.
Angelico opened out his dark wings and bat them a little to shoo the birds away.
The harriers grumbled and clicked their beaks, but hopped off the carcass so Angelico could see.
“What is it?” Asked Kennia.
Angelico hesitated. “Well… I don’t know. I guess it could be a deer. Or a goat.”
Angelico exchanged his steering pole with Kennia’s lantern and looked closer.
“But I think it might be something else. It doesn’t look normal.”
Disregarding the work of the harrier birds, Angelico described the animal’s carcass: a long flowing mane and tail; hooved legs without fur, flecked at the top and bottom with peculiar little scales, glowing white; and only one horn, the damaged stump of it in the centre of its forehead.
“So, what is it?”
“I don’t know either,” admitted Kennia. “A rare one-horned goat,” he hypothesized. “But more importantly, it wasn’t here when we came through this morning, was it?”
“No,” confirmed Angelico, following Kennia’s train of thought.
Angelico took the steering pole back from Kennia and pushed off the bank with more spiritus this time.
The harrier birds crowed in delight at their departure, eager to clean up the carcass unscrupulously discarded on the bank.
The rain picked up then, and the two of them pulled the hoods of their cloaks over their heads, as a mist began to form over the dark waters.
They proceeded into the Jawbone, Angelico’s wary eyes darting about all the while.
Somebody else was in their swamp.
Out of the mist, the vague shape of a large merchant vessel emerged, strange low-burning lanterns strung about its posts.
The silhouette of the Aven lookout on deck stirred to life, having spotted them. He gave a friendly whistle over the rain and waved both arms for their attention.
Angelico hesitated, but Kennia said ,“It would be more suspicious if we didn’t go.”
Angelico took them over, and read aloud to Kennia the script on the bow that identified the vessel as property of “The Honey Roe Company.”
They were greeted by a ‘ven wearing a relieved smile and a thick rainproof cloak that did appear worn, if somewhat new.
He looked not too unlike the few well-off folk of the floating market, the fortunate ones with a lucrative business in Hativa Quarter.
“Hello,” said the lookout, in good spirits. “Fine evening?”
“Yes,” replied Kennia, taking the lead with his handsome smile. “How do you do?”
“How do you do?” Echoed Angelico shyly.
Aven emerged from the cabin of the boat, and Angelico listened to their footsteps, trying to estimate their numbers.
One of them wearing an eyepatch joined the lookout at the edge of the boat.
With his cloak hood up in the rain, half his face was effectively masked. If Angelico had seen his portrait on a wanted poster before, he couldn’t be sure.
“Ara, who’s there?”
Ara, the lookout, turned as he was clasped on the shoulder. “Captain.”
“Fancy that,” said the eye-patched captain, peering overboard at the young pair of strangers. “These eyas are as lost as we are.”
Kennia brushed his frizzing bangs from his covered eyes. “Oh no, captain,” he said. “We’re not lost. We live around here, you see. We’re actually on our way home.”
“Your way home?” The captain turned to Ara. “I thought you said nobody lived in the Jawbone.”
“Oh, not in the Jawbone,” corrected Kennia. “Past it. Just outside of it, near a route back out towards a merchant course on Lake Heaven’s Mirror.”
“That’s right” agreed Ara, eyeing the covered-up wares on their little boat. “You must pass this way for the floating market.”
The captain stroked his chin. “Hmm. Then you wouldn’t mind showing us back out to the Lake, would you?” He gestured to Ara. “This one was supposed to be our local guide, but he got us all turned around in here once it got dark.”
“Of course,” said Kennia. “It’s not much out of our way, anyhow.”
“Umm…” began Angelico, switching to a whisper. “But their lanterns look…”
“It’s all right,” said Kennia. “Forgive my kith, captain. He’s worried about occultic talismans, but it sounds like you’re using spirit lanterns.”
“Indeed. They ward off curses and bad luck. The spellfire inside burns up in the presence of Death Sorcery and the like,” explained the captain. “Ara loves your local legends and superstitions. Hativa Quarter sure is a mysterious place.”
“I see,” said Angelico. “I guess it’s not wrong to help strangers.”
The captain shrugged, not offended. “It’s not wrong to be wary either, when it’s the two of you out here with just each other.”
“Yes,” murmured Angelico. “Just each other.”
Kennia plied the captain with pleasantries and polite questions: how was his Company’s business doing; had he trained in soarplay or spiritus; how far had he gone before altus sickness took its toll.
“If you’re interested in it,” said the captain, “You two should be flying high as you can while you’re still eyas, you know. Still young. See if you can become a raptor. Maybe go to the Inner Sky.”
Ara shook his head. “How can a raptor from Hativa Quarter go to the Inner Sky?”
“That’s what the Tower around here is responsible for,” said the captain.
Ara perked up. “Oh yes, that’s right, Hollowoc Tower. I bet none of you know this about the Jawbone’s fearsome reputation.”
“Almost a year ago now, a prison barge passed through here. Nearly a hundred criminals sent down from Mount Majwa, to be held in Hollowoc Tower while they were tried for their crimes.
But the barge never arrived at Hollowoc Tower. It stalled in the Jawbone, and caught fire.
The barge burned down. Officials from the Inner Sky came down to investigate, but there was nobody left alive. All they found were the grizzly remains.
The alligators and other swamp animals made a bloodbath, or perhaps the prisoners tore each other apart in the mayhem. Identifying all of the bodies was impossible.
Maybe some of them survived and escaped into the swamp with sorcerous techniques, and lie in wait for their next victims there…”
The captain rolled his eyes, and Kennia chuckled at Ara’s over-theatrical flair.
But Angelico couldn’t suppress a shiver. “I wonder, what were their crimes?”
There was a large old manor house further down another channel, distant but visible from here, and there was a lit lantern swaying on its porch.
The captain saluted Kennia and Angelico. “Well, we cannot thank you enough for your assistance tonight. In fact, how’s about a token of gratitude from the Honey Roe Company to ye?”
“Oh, I’ll go get it,” said Angelico. He clasped Kennia’s hand, letting him feel the sharpness of his unsheathed claws before he jumped aboard the Company’s vessel with a downbeat of his wings.
As he’d expected, there were nearly fifteen Aven on board. Likely with hands on their daggers under their rain-proof cloaks.
The captain handed Angelico a flat, finely decorated box. “Something delicious for you eyas to eat, eh?”
Angelico opened it.
It was a box of candied fruits. Orderly rows of little peaches and plums glistened in a thick layer of clear, sweet coating.
“Wow,” managed Angelico, “thank you.”
“And take these too.” The captain opened a pouch, showing Angelico a handful of peculiar little glowing white scales.
The boat juddered.
The crew startled. “What was that?”
Through the heavy and relentless rain, everybody tuned in keenly to the darkness of the night.
The dull spirit lanterns flickered imperceptibly.
Angelico flexed his claws around the gift box, braced for an attack.
Lightning flashed.
A silhouette appeared on the prow of the boat.
Drenched from head to toe, in only his threadbare robes, stood Lieran, delicately balanced on the prow of the boat, looking murderous as ever. His dark hair and feathers were plastered to his body in the rain.
Lieran flared out his wings aggressively, rocking the boat in the water.
“What is this?” Demanded the captain, approaching. He drew a dagger. “Can I help you?”
Lieran’s glared. The spellfire in the spirit lanterns started to simmer.
“This boat reeks,” said Lieran. “Violence. Blood. The source isn’t on board, but it’s about to be.”
All the rest of Angelico’s kith were flocking to the vessel’s railing and cabin, until they outnumbered the Honey Roe Company’s Crew.
“Wow, we haven’t eaten like this in a while.”
“We were wondering why dinner was taking so long,”
Lieran stepped onto the boat. The Company mostly stood their ground.
Lieran said, “Since you’re all raptors, you should understand this: I’ll only kill you if I can kill you. If you don’t want to die, you should do something about that.”
The captain twirled his dagger. “Aren’t eyas these days getting too cocky?”
“Whatever. I’m hungry. Thanks for the feast.”
Lieran dove at the captain’s throat.
The rain and thunder crescendoed, drowning out the fighting and screaming as the storm passed directly overhead.
All of Angelico’s kith joined the fray, and the spirit lanterns caught fire, burning up quickly.
Angelico dropped the gift box, salivating at the buffet underway all around him.
“This is crazy!” Sobbed Ara, brandishing his dagger at Angelico. “You’re not one of them, are you?”
Ara stepped into his space and slashed. On reflex, Angelico tackled him to the ground and dispatched him at the throat.
He twitched his blood-dipped claws and covered his mouth with his other hand so he didn’t drool all over the corpse.
Thunder rumbled furiously.
Kennia removed his bandages and flew aboard to join the frenzy, taking in the scenes of slaughter with his brand new eyes.
A screaming crewmate ran to jump overboard, but Kennia intercepted him, and tripped him to the deck with a smack.
“He’s still alive,” hummed Kennia, flexing his well-honed claws.
“Wait,” said Angelico, stopping him. “We should save something for Master Akiyoh.”
Kennia blinked, but relented. “My, my. How thoughtful of you.” He fell upon Angelico’s kill instead.
Angelico threw the unconscious crewmate into the cabin and barricaded it with a crate, before letting himself succumb completely to a haze of exhilarating carnage.
That night, underneath the brutal thunderstorm, Angelico and his kith feasted on a familiar taste from almost a year ago.
With the spirit lanterns’ spellfire completely consumed, there was no way to see. Everybody was moving with their other senses.
To them, there was no world except the mouthwatering smell that couldn’t be dampened by the rain, and the fresh-hot meal in their hands.
It was a dark world.
Only when lightning flashed could anyone see that the deck was running red with blood.
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