River’s End ch 37: A Million Colors and Every Bad Smell

For an elongated moment, the Shlykrii-na king’s words echoed. Are you truly one of those monsters we have vowed to eliminate?

“[Why would you even ask her a question like that?]” Ferrina scoffed. “[She’s obviously going to say no.]”

The king’s stare remained on my face, eyes like fading firelight. A straight line of the universe’s darkest corner sliced that mesmerizing color. I needed to look away, but I couldn’t, as if those burning spears of black had harpooned my soul and laced through every segment of my attention span.

“[Why should she be asked, Cousin? To see if she will lie. Will you lie to a king while looking him in the eye?]”

To save myself, yes. But how to do so convincingly? If I now said I was anything but Seallaii-na, he wouldn’t believe me, and he would add to it by condemning my character. He would use it to prove us the monsters he had declared us to be.

I couldn’t give him more reason to drag my people’s reputation through the mud.

I couldn’t tell the truth either, not unless I was willing to die here, and I really didn’t want to die.

“[We all await your answer,]” he pressed, ears erect and angled toward me. His sharp teeth added a cruel glint to his smile. “[How patient do you think we are?]”

‘Rosa, look at his ears. That’s a predator’s body language!’ Fredo’s mental voice trickled from the far reaches of the universe. ‘Back away.’

I could only stare. My guard seemed so far, like an echo in a dream. There was something about this king, something that kept me still, as if that was right. He was right, no matter what.

“Charisma.” The word slipped out in Sishgil.

His ears twitched. “[Come again?]”

My eyes sought relief in a long blink. I shook my head, then squared my shoulders with a deep breath and stood at my full height, fists clenched. “[You think I’m Seallaii-ku because of their rumored charisma, because Ferrina did as I ordered her.]”

My eyes snapped open, and I glared at the king with centuries of historical prejudice poured into my stance.

“[You are Grenswa’s mortal enemies. You attacked us for no reason and ran with your tails between your legs when we fought back. We prepared ourselves in case you ever returned.]”

“[You’re saying you stole Seallaii-ku charisma? Or developed it yourselves?]”

I grinned. “[Your society is built upon your pheromones. The lower castes are enamored with the favor of the higher. Caste One rules because everyone wants to please you, and that is why you despise Seallaii-kus, because their charisma is even more powerful. You called the Sojourners who visited your world Caste Zero, didn’t you?]”

This was all ancient history, no longer how the world of Shlykrii worked. Yet, the king’s gaze narrowed, ears not so upright as they trembled. “[You did not answer the question.]”

“[Yes, we did both.]” I stepped closer, feigning bravery I did not feel. My stomach churned, but I had to make this convincing. “[We know your weakness, and now we can exploit it. I tried it on Ferrina, and it works.]”

“[That is disappointing.]” The king did not step back, too close to my face, and I fought the overwhelming urge to retreat. His breath reeked of bitter spices and meat. “[We had hoped to break the Opal prince and use him to break all of Grenswa, but if they would make themselves kings above any Caste One, they should be eliminated immediately.]”

Hent. All those taken. He would kill them because of my lie.

“[It’s synthesized,]” I admitted quickly. “[We studied the Seallaii-kus who helped us rebuild. We shamelessly stole from their bodies because we’re survivors. We concocted a perfume, which I tested on Ferrina, but I’m the only one who has any. The River Guardians chose to work with me because they have a thing for pink eyes.]”

My voice cracked on the word “pink” as Lord Sjaen bubbled up through my memories. What had become of him in Tils? He likely blamed me for the attack.

I wanted to smack my own forehead.

“[Yes, those eyes of yours are very pretty.]” The king caressed my cheek, and this time I did step back, skin crawling. How I missed my veil. He stayed with me, spongy fingers creeping up my jaw to my temple. “[The scales are…interesting.]”

I swallowed hard, wanting to claw at that hand, at his large, staring eyes. I knew I shouldn’t, but my elbows bent anyway, fingers curled.

Fredo screamed for me, distant, lost in my mind and abandoned. I froze.

‘You are not a mykta,’ the vedia charged, and my hands balled into fists again.

‘He is if I say he is,’ I growled.

‘He is dangerous.’ Something dark eked out of her and clouded my vision. ‘He is meant to destroy.’

‘So, he’d fit in fine among these Shlykrii-nas, like you?’ I batted at the haze in my mind, and it only grew thicker. ‘Do they not know you’re Seallaii-na?’

‘Where are you?’

I didn’t want her to know. Already she had invaded my mind, interfered in and insulted my bond with Fredo. I didn’t need to meet her in person. I didn’t need her thinking she could save me, that I would owe her, belong to her.

I imagined a cave in. Huge chunks of rock crashed against solid, unshakable ground and sealed off the passage from her to me.

A previously unnoticed weight flinched, flying off like startled birds, and the mental smoke dissipated. The scene cleared to reveal the king reclining on his throne’s plethora of cushions. Metallic threads glittered in the engines’ undulating glow behind him.

“[Grenswa-kus are rumored to be the best entertainers in existence.]”

I would have agreed with that except I was supposed to be one, and I would have to be an exception to that wonderful reputation. Any audience of mine would die of boredom or laughter.

Could those be viable weapons now?

Before I had decided, the king’s fingers snapped, and someone tossed me a rulina. The instrument’s hollow, log-like body landed in my hands with a musical thump. Nine metal strings shone blue in the light from the windows, pale and sharp against the smooth, dark wood beneath them.

The conical bow hit my arm a moment later, and I fumbled to catch it.

With a generous wave and a smile that reminded me of a scyuen toying with its prey, the king ordered, “[Entertain us. Play that instrument and sing us a song of your homeland.]”

He surely meant I was supposed to sound more amazing than a songbird and have no resemblance whatsoever to the screams of claws gouging metal.

Gulping in a breath, I looked down at the rulina and strummed the bow over the strings. In competent hands, the instrument would have had the voice of a raindrop plopping into a shallow pond. For me, it screeched like a tortured feline.

All around, ears folded back and lips piqued in grimaces, sneers, and snarls, but no one put me out of my misery by taking the noisy thing away. Instead, they cleared a space around me as I opened my mouth to spill a translated version of the song from the Harvest Festival.

“[When the wind rushes past ears scaled in azure, does it sound the same to those with eyes of green?]” The words were a strained whisper, following the melody decently but drowned out by the single, indecipherable note I strummed on the rulina.

The king laughed. “[Are you even trying? Ferrina could do better.]”

Ferrina preened, shoulders rolling back and scowl still in place. Her ears pivoted forward, gaze on me intent and challenging. “[Ferrina would at least dance.]”

Of course she would. She would also breathe fire and defecate glitter, but this was my performance, and my pride stung. No, I couldn’t play the rulina. Yes, I was way beyond too freaked out to sing. But I was trying, and they showed not a smidgen of appreciation.

I closed my eyes and envisioned the ambiance of the Harvest Festival. Music streamed from every direction and filled me, overflowing into movement. Ghosts of Hent’s arms encircled me, and I followed his lead.

The gravity was different, and Hent wasn’t really there. I leapt into a wall hard enough to evoke a yelp, and several Shlykrii-nas laughed.

Teeth grit, I shoved off the partition, tunelessly strumming the rulina with the full force of my ardor and frustration. A Shlykrii-na met me, chortling as he took my wrists and spun me around. This put a stop to the rulina’s screeches, at least. His long face called up thoughts of a melting statue, features wide and slanted as if designed for shocked scowls and nothing else.

“[Does the rain taste any different from fingers dipped in crimson...]” I continued to murmur the song as my partner shoved me away.

My back crashed into another, and his arms looped around my waist. The room was a blur as we whirled. He licked his lips, wet tongue close enough to my ear, its slosh and smack were all I heard.

Lyrics dead in my throat, I squirmed, and he flung me.

In the low gravity, I bounced more than landed. My wrapped feet felt every notch in the textured floor as I stumbled to a stop in front of the king.

“[That was an awful display.]” He lounged sideways again with only one ear twisted in my direction. “[Grenswa should be ashamed to call you one of its own.]”

“[Is that what happened to you? Is that why you live on a River Guardian ark, because Shlykrii is too ashamed to claim you?]”

He sat up, frown deep and eyes bright. “[You understand so little and speak so big. Shlykrii is the name given to the worthless scum loitering on our homeworld. We are the last of that land’s true owners.]”

Pieces of history slid into place, and I whispered, “[Not long before they had reliable space technology or that name, Shlykrii had a revolution. The lower castes learned to inoculate themselves against the pheromones, and they killed off everyone outranking Caste Four. The River Guardians must have given this ship to the refugees.]”

“[The Seallaii-kus feared Surra would destroy itself in that revolution.]” The king’s ears were huge in their full upright position. The vertical slits of his eyes dilated into ovals, giving him a softer, tamer appearance. “[They took a sample of every life form and environ of that world and launched our ancestors into space. Thanks to them, we have been homeless ever since.]”

“[That’s why you want to destroy them? Because they saved you?]”

“[It was their fault our ancestors needed saving. The filthy lowers used Seallaii-ku charisma in their inoculation.]” He stood up, a large, dark figure nearly a silhouette against the engines’ blue. “[If the Seallaii-kus did not exist, it would not have happened. If the Seallaii-kus had never come, it would not have happened. If the Seallaii-kus could control their curiosity, it would not have happened.]”

“[Curiosity is good. It motivates us to unravel secrets until all knowledge is revealed.]”

“[You sound just like them. Admit you are Seallaii-ku.]”

“[So you can kill me in good conscience?]” I scoffed. I thought about throwing the rulina at him, but that would have been disrespectful to the instrument.

“[Destroying a Grenswa-ku should hardly bother one’s conscience, especially such an awful specimen. Yet, the king would think twice about throwing away a Seallaii-ku who might prove useful. Some are repentant of their past atrocities, and they help us. Some, like the one who brought a tracer to Grenswa’s island capital so we would know where to strike.]”

The rulina slipped from my fingers and clanged on the floor as my jaw dropped. My mind whirred too slowly to stop myself from blurting, “[That in itself would be an atrocity! Do you know how many people died in that attack?]”

“[Seventy-three souls were lost from this ship. Five hundred and four Grenswa-kus were confirmed slain, another two hundred fourteen confirmed gravely injured, and thirty-two captured.]”

My mouth snapped shut, brows furrowing as tears gathered. The barest whisper escaped my lips. “[And Seallaii-kus? How many of them?]”

He grinned crookedly, one sharp fang exposed. “[There were only two Seallaii-kus present. One, Alaysq has asked to keep as a pet. The other has unpleasant memories of burning vistas, and he did not handle the battle well. The king is disappointed in him. He will be punished.]”

A murmur whipped through the crowd, but I barely heard it.

Two. Only two. Me and Fredo. I had been taken as a pet. Fredo’s earliest memories were of an island on fire where everyone died. Welts and blisters covered his tiny arms. The scene on Grenswa’s capital was too similar. Of course he didn’t handle it well.

My eyes widened. Was that why he pushed me out of his mind?

What did this king mean, saying Fredo would be punished?

“[Don’t you dare touch—]”

The end of my word turned into a squeal as the floor beneath me dropped like a trap door and gravity responded accordingly.

“[You must be the most boring Grenswa-ku in existence.]” The king’s voice followed as I plummeted, deep and echoic in this chamber beneath the floor. Two stories down, I sunk into soft muck, like pudding made of a million colors and every bad smell. “[Perhaps this will be more entertaining.]”

I couldn’t breathe. Well, I literally could. Air rushed in and out of my lungs, but it did little good, thin and practically devoid of the nitrogen I needed.

Gravity was weak, and the door wasn’t too high. Gaze on the silhouettes watching from above, I aimed to leap out of here, but my feet were stuck. My legs wiggled and twisted, hips sashaying. The bright orange and red of my dress dazzled as spotlights snapped on above like a pair of eyes blinking to life on either side of the trap door.

I only sunk deeper.

With a whirl of motors, the floor lowered. Water cascaded in from all directions, and I plopped on my side. The muck swallowed my arm. Cheek against the rainbow slime, I coughed and retched. The stench of a thousand sewers seeped into every fiber of my being.

It stung, both warm and cold, like menthol, and as soon as that feeling crawled into my core, it wanted out. It insisted, tearing through my stomach and up my esophagus. It pushed everything I had in front of it and threw it across the muck’s slick surface. Where the substances touched, smoke wafted, just as colorful, beautiful, and alarming.

It somehow smelled even worse, like manure dipped in turpentine and glazed with rotten milk. Add a sprinkle of Ferrina’s defecated glitter, and the scene would have been complete.

Actually, tiny shards of glass slithering through one’s colon would have been very uncomfortable. Would I be a bad person for wishing that fate upon her?

As tepid water spread across the floor, the gunk stiffened and expanded in branch-like fractals. It transformed into giant, warm snowflakes colored like abalone and woven in a reef-like structure. This new construction was slick and sharp as if made of oiled blades. As I extricated myself carefully, my eyes never left the slowly closing hatch above.

I leapt, hands above my head. My fingers curled around the hatch’s edge. Under my weight, the door hesitated, but the cold metal offered no traction. My grip slid off as the crack between the panels disappeared.

I screamed as I fell, more frustrated than scared, plummeting slowly in this weak gravity and thin air. They threw me down here where I couldn’t breathe and it smelled worse than anything’s behind, and for what? Entertainment, they said, but they weren’t even watching.

Unless there was a camera.

Smile, I told myself. Don’t give them the pleasure of seeing you break.

Then I recalled the reef at the bottom of this shaft was very sharp, and I was falling toward it.

With my arms extended in some attempt to direct my course, I glanced over my shoulder, and my eyes widened. My fake smile opened in a gasp as I hit water.

The reef had swung aside like the trap door, admitting me to a lake. Darkness claimed the waters not far below my feet, and I kicked frantically back to the surface because: One, it was creepy. Two, the air might have been thin, but at least it was better than breathing water. Three, those first two reasons were more than enough.

As my face touched the air, I gulped an unfulfilling breath, panted, and coughed. The splash from my entry rained gently on my head. My arms waved, keeping me afloat, but with the lack of precious nitrogen, my muscles cramped. I wasn’t sure how long I could keep this up.

What was the purpose of this place? How was this supposed to be entertaining? What could possibly be intriguing about watching me drown in dark, smelly water?

Jaw set, I glared at the closed door above, not caring how the spotlights stung my eyes. I would get out of here, even if I had to punch my way through a wall.

First, I would have to find a wall. The shaft I had come through ended at least a story above my head. So, I ventured left. Into the dark. My skin prickled, instincts warning I shouldn’t go where I couldn’t see.

After what felt like forever, my fingers brushed more reef, smooth like glass but vaguely pliable like the boughs of an ancient tree. At my touch, the material gave a low moan like the whistle of wind through a cracked window.

A screech answered the sound, piercing my eardrums and capturing my heart in the stiff, frigid hands of terror.

Images of kronlind floated to the top of my mind—those saw-like teeth that had nearly clamped down on Niiq and I. Ghosts of weeds stilled my legs as panic poured over me. I had been trapped, and had Hent not severed those vines and fought off those giant fish, I would have rotted in pieces in their bellies.

Hent wasn’t here to help me. I had no weapon. I didn’t even know if my charisma would work underwater.

Before I realized it, I climbed two body-lengths up the wall. Another screech bubbled through the lake. I tried to swallow my fear and be rational, level-headed, smart.

This wasn’t a kronlind. They hadn’t screeched like that, and this ship, this River’s End was an ark for Shlykrii-na creatures.

My oh-so-helpful imagination supplied gruesome facts about two dozen Shlykrii-na ocean predators.

So, how many of them can climb? I forced myself to reason as I felt around for my next handhold. How high can they leap above the water’s surface? If I’m quiet, will they detect me?

Light snapped on above, and I flinched. Grip lost, I fell half my own height before my hands found purchase on the shiny, rainbow reef wall.

“Right,” I grumbled, “because what’s the point of watching someone get mauled if you can’t see every gory detail?”

A splash gurgled behind me, and every hair on my body stood on end. Heat spread across my spine, and I glanced back. All I saw was ragged, gray fur before an arm thrice as thick as my torso wrapped around me.

Like plucking a berry, it yanked me from the wall and curled back on itself, retreating underwater. Shock held me motionless for several moments. As the sting from the slap against the lake’s surface swelled across my cheeks, sense gradually returned.

Eyes closed, I squirmed, and my hands pressed down on the vice around my middle. It was like a boa constrictor with long, coarse hair protruding from its spine. On its ventral side, infundibulum muscles created vacuums against my skin.

I slammed my knees and elbows into it, struggling harder as my eyes peeled open. As I had feared, this was only a limb of a much larger creature. The main body waited some distance below in darker water, blurry but vaguely peanut-shaped and covered in moldy, gray fur. Dozens more tentacles protruded haphazardly from everywhere, varied in size and all writhing. They churned the water into clouds of bubbles.

I couldn’t tell where its head was, but I had to stay away from its mouth, and the best way to do that was to keep as far from the main body as possible. I had to get free of this tentacle.

Thrashing, I dug my nails into the soft flesh around the suckers, gratified and encouraged when the creature flinched. The cinching of muscles squeezed me tighter. The mass of squishy, slimy flesh spiraled past my shoulders and trapped my arms.

As it neared my face, I bit it, teeth sinking into rubbery skin that tasted like moldy cottage cheese.

A low rumble shook my bones, and the main body surged toward me. I continued to wrench and wiggle, slipping my knees, then my toes within the coiled tentacle. With all my might, I stretched out, and the coil loosened with a sticky, ripping sound.

Shirking the limb from my shoulders, I shrank into a ball, elbows on either side of my knees. Then I straightened in a leap. My hands pressed together and cut the water. Like a hurled spear, I broke the surface and flew into the air, curling in again as I neared the ceiling.

Four stories above the lake’s choppy waves, I hit the partition that divided this space from the floors above, and a thud reverberated through the thin air. Yet, the ceiling was flat, slick metal with only condensation to hold onto.

I fell slowly. The torn, sheer cloth looped from my shoulder blades to my wrists fluttered like broken, burning wings.

As my toes tapped the water, another tentacle caught me, and this one had a mouth because of course it did. What better place could there be for a gaping maw with rodent-like teeth the length of my forearm?

“Stay away!”

I punched. My fist disappeared through skin and muscle and jarred against vertebrae.

I pulled my hand back just as fast, gagging at the stringy gore stuck to my fingers. At least the mouth stopped snapping at me. Jaw slack, it released a hissing whine. Dark gray blood dribbled from the corners of wrinkled lips, and the appendage limply splashed back into the water.

I scrambled atop it and ran, trying to fling the nastiness off my hand to no avail. I wished so very hard for a nice, peaceful shower.

One foot in front of the other, again and again, I saw no particular destination. Reckless leaps carried me from one arm to the next as they curled back into the water or whipped at my head.

Yes, they were properly called arms, I determined, as they had infundibulum all along their ventral sides. Technically speaking, tentacles only had a grouping of suckers near the ends. Where this creature had mouths.

Octopi mostly had arms, squids mostly had tentacles, and this creature had the creepiest, most annoying appendages in existence. What was this animal anyway?

Logic said if this was an ark designated for the preservation of Shlykrii-na life forms, then this creature should have been of that world. My panicked, nitrogen-deprived brain couldn’t find a match for this nightmare.

And the king called me a monster.

Would my charisma work on it? If the arms had mouths, were they heads?

Still running, I batted away more sets of jaws with the heel of my hand as I tried to calm my racing breaths, pounding heart, and frantic thoughts. My charisma would only work if I had a clear, simple purpose to convey.

Terror filled every bit of my being, but I was more than scared prey. I was intelligent and powerful, above anything this creature could defy with impunity.

With this thought held firmly, I grabbed the next maw that neared, palms cupping its cheeks as my teachers sometimes did when they wanted my full attention. It was mid-sized, only about as thick as my chest, teeth no longer than my hand.

Horrible that I could call that mid-sized.

The slick, moldy fur beneath my feet slid away as I gripped the smaller tentacle, staring down its throat. Either determination or disgust roiled in my gut. I inhaled deeply, thoughts clear and focused, ready to ride on my released breath.

I hit the water, hide stinging from the impact as the surface disappeared beyond a foam of dark bubbles. My shoulders crashed against the wall. A myriad of tiny branches stabbed into my skin and broke off as the arm shoved me further between the wall’s larger fractals.

Throughout my life, this was always where Fredo showed up and saved the day.

Actually, he usually saved me before this point, often before I realized I needed his aid. He was the best guard and best friend I could have ever asked for, and I had taken that for granted.

I had never needed him more than now, but I determined not to call out to him. I curled in on myself both in my mind and in this underwater grave. There was nothing he could do. Why make him experience that helplessness? Why force him to live through my last moments with me?

Surely, our bond wasn’t anything near complete. If he had any chance of surviving its end, I had to make sure he wasn’t here with me in my mind when I went.

I had never felt so alone.

As if from a great distance, teeth scraped and thudded. Flesh whipped the stiff reef as the arm strained against the opening, too broad to follow me in here any further.

It was nowhere near as loud as the flames in my lungs—sirens seducing the air from my chest to escape as a steady stream of tiny bubbles.

Ice crawled from my extremities, curious of the fire at my core, and I stared at my blurry hands. They no longer appeared corporeal, instead wispy and porous, nets made of flares, energy, and light.

A voice just as ethereal wrapped me. ‘What frightens you so? Where are you?’

‘I don’t need your assistance, evil vedia.’

‘You are dying. Let me help you.’

‘I notice you didn’t deny being evil.’

‘You are drowning. Su dropped you somewhere, didn’t he? Probably some simple puzzle to prove your intelligence. Unnecessary, since I have already claimed you. Let me see your surroundings, and I will give you the answer.’

Bitterness burned in my throat. ‘Don’t you want to see if I’m smart enough to figure it out on my own?’

‘I do not care if you are stupid. I only need you to keep existing.’

My bitterness grew thicker, like chains dragging me into some mythical underworld. I wished I could spit in her face. ‘Then I’ll die just to spite you.’

‘And your Fredo will die with you.’

My eyes snapped open, lips parting in a gasp, but water rushed in, and I choked instead.

The branches nearest my face crumbled. Their smoke swirled in the eddies from the creature’s thrashes.

Some simple puzzle, she had said. Did this snowflake rainbow moldy reef react to something in my saliva?

How was I supposed to use that? Lick my way through an escape route?

The mold had smelled like the fermented urine of some monster entirely made of curdled dairy. I didn’t want to know what it tasted like.

A crack shattered my thoughts. The wall’s broken fractals winked in the spotlights as they fell away, and that mohawked tentacle shot toward me.

Not yet! I haven’t made up my mind yet!

I dodged to the right but had nowhere to go. The arm took up the whole narrow cavity.

Rolling, I spat at the reef beneath me, and smaller branches withered. Slender ribbons of multi-hued smoke streamed past my face.

Faster!

Brittle branches broke within my grasp as I hauled my aching body through a slowly growing tunnel.

Fredo didn’t survive that burning island so long ago just to die because I couldn’t get out of something as stupid as this!

My tired, desperate speed wasn’t enough. The tentacle looped around my hips and pulled me back. I kicked, and those spade-like teeth speared into my side.

Continued in chapter 38: What Does One Spark Matter?

Thank you for reading!