“I’ll be happy to,” I told Tykes. “But first how about you tell me what the bad guys really want? How do we stop this from happening again?”
“I don’t know, okay? My boss just told—” The sound choked off as Tykes’s neck began to bulge.
I said, “Vayl? I don’t think this dude’s all that fat after all. I think—” The upper half of his body exploded with a sound that I’ll never forget. Skin ripping. Bones cracking. Joints popping. Blood gushing out in a larval-clogged spray.
I closed my eyes in time, but it doesn’t do much good when your face is dripping with gore, and dozens of man-eaters the size of garden slugs are chomping their way into your brain stem.
“Jasmine!”
I couldn’t reply. Didn’t dare open my mouth in case one of them slid in.
I dropped Grief and grabbed at my nose, the stings on my upper lip telling me they had my airway nearly covered. I ripped a handful away and took a deep breath. I wanted to scream.
I felt Vayl’s hands on me. Tearing larvae and skin. Pulling out hair along with the nasties. He yanked off my shirt and I moaned. So many of them feeding at my legs and belly. But more trying to get at my neck, my ears, and I only had two hands.
Vayl came at me again, and then I felt warm liquid. What? Didn’t know. Didn’t care. Where it hit the larvae dropped. And it left behind a soothing tingle. I finally cleared my eyes. Yeah, my face was okay. I felt my head, my neck. All good.
I risked a look at Vayl. He’d stepped back. Okay, so he hadn’t miraculously discovered that Crindertab’s coffee killed gnome larvae. What—I looked down. At Astral. Who was spraying me. Out of her butt. Like a tomcat.
At her paws lay the larvae, twitching.
“What?” croaked Tabitha.
I kept running my fingers through my hair, over every part of my body. I didn’t feel anything. Could I really be free?
“Bergman? Why didn’t you tell me you’d invented a larval spray for Astral to carry? It’s knocked them out!”
Cole piped up. “I can see them through my scope,” he said. “I think they’re stoned!”
“How did she pass the spray?” Bergman asked.
“Ass projectile!” Cole hooted. “Took those larvae down like beer on slugs!”
“But it’s not nearly that potent!” Bergman insisted. “Just a mist that’s supposed to neutralize her scent in case the target has dogs!”
“What’s in it?”
“A few chemicals I’d rather not talk about. The base is salt water.” Tabitha’s screech didn’t last long, but it came straight from the heart.
CHAPTERTHIRTY-FIVE
Vayl and I raised Tabitha upright. She tottered slightly, but finally stood in place, like a life-sized collectible with a steel rod shoved up her back to make sure she didn’t slouch to one side and ruin her pretty costume. At her feet lay Tykes’s remains, his torso a mass of blood and pulp, made even more obscene by the perfect intactness of both his legs, encased in tightly creased gray trousers lightly spattered with red. They reminded me of the wooden figures old towns set up to commemorate historic events. Except they usually keep their mannequins out of the streets.
I leaned in, holding the tails of the shirt Vayl had lent me back so they wouldn’t touch her and somehow become contaminated. “How come you’re so ticked about the salt water, shammy?” She was so angry her hair shook as she said, “That’s what the nursemaids cocoon the larvae in, you interfering piece of shit!”
“Tut-tut. We can’t have the leader of a major religious movement like yours swearing in public, now, can we?” I asked.
Vayl said, “So are you saying the salt water triggered the larvae into beginning their next developmental phase?”
Tabitha sneered at me. “You like your lovers dumb, don’t you?” No thought. Just a windup followed by one hellacious slap that snapped her head sideways. I said,
“He’s too much of a gentleman to seek revenge for what you tried to do to him before. But I was raised by a woman who’s now doing time—in hell. I suggest you remember that before you insult him again.” Cole hissed, “Heads up! The Ufranites are coming!”
“Cassandra brought our reinforcements?” I asked.
“If you count the whole warren.”
“No kidding?”
“I’m watching them through my scope. Cassandra’s riding on a cushioned stool in the middle of the crowd. I’m not sure what that means, but considering all the adoring looks she’s getting, we may have to buy her a tiara for Christmas.”
Vayl adjusted Tabitha’s stance so her back was fully turned to the oncoming crowd. They came quietly, their approach made all the more threatening by the total absence of background murmur that let us know they’d come with an agenda.
He waited until they could overhear our conversation. Then he said loudly, “Go ahead, Lucille. I will allow you to execute Tabitha since her larvae nearly killed you just now.” I retrieved Grief. Made sure the shaman watched me chamber a round before I said, “You got any last words? Or are you okay with going down in history as the cult leader who was willing to sacrifice her flock’s children so Ufran could run around in his boxers all day?” Tabitha
