“And might that tell you something? Might it be some kind of clue? Julia, what are you doing out here? Do I ap pear lonely, in need of company tonight? Is this what's whirring about in your head?”
Julia opened her silver snout and showed him a row of razored teeth.
“I was somewhat anxious. I simply couldn't sleep.”
“Of course you couldn't sleep. You're not supposed to. You're a mechanical device.”
“We've discussed this before. You say I don't, I say I do. Finn, I have to tell you Letitia is handling all this much too well. She fell into bed, went right to sleep. She hasn't let herself believe what is happening here. Our imminent departure, the gravity of the event, the danger most apparent in such a voyage, has yet to fully hit her. When it does, I strongly urge you to be prepared for weeping and wailing, hysterics of every sort.”
Finn shook his head. “I had no idea you were qualified to give medical advice.”
“Play me for a fool if you like, but tell me I'm wrong. Tell me she will take your almost certain impending demise with perfect ease.”
Finn looked Julia in the eye. In a set of ruby, unblinking eyes, as it were.
“I grant your concern is well founded. Still, I believe she'll handle this better than you think. And, on two grounds, Julia, I have to say you're quite wrong. One, in spite of the fact that it's suicidal to even get close to a balloon, I intend to survive and get back here intact.
“Two, you mentioned our departure. It's not our departure, it's mine. You're not going, you're staying here.”
“What?” Julia gave a rude and horrid squawk, like the howl of rusty iron.
“You're joking, of course. You'd be daft to embark on such a treacherous journey without my presence. Why, you wouldn't last a day without me at your side. You've lost your reason, Finn, what little wit you have, you-”
“Stop. Right there.” Finn raised a restraining hand. “There can be no argument here. None. Stop squawking for a minute and listen to me. Yes, this is a fool's journey, I've the wit to know that. I feel I'll throw up a lot, and risk death a number of times.
“I could surely use your help. But I need you more here. I'll regret these words the rest of my life, but it's true you have uncanny senses, beyond the ken of any human or Newlie alive. You can hear things, smell things, see things no other creature can.
“What you can do is protect Letitia Louise. Warn her of danger, and fight all intruders, if it should come to that. This is why I need you here. I'm sure you understand, now that I've made it perfectly clear.”
Julia flicked her brass tongue. Her scales seemed to quiver, though the air was perfectly still.
“What I see,” she said, “is what you'd have me believe. What I'm thinking, is that while I am truly invaluable and superior to fleshly creatures in every way, Letitia is intelligent, resourceful, and completely capable of taking care of herself. You have left her alone before, and never mentioned any great concern. What greater threat do you feel is lurking about Ulster-East now?”
“You weren't there, or you wouldn't ask.”
“Wouldn't ask what?”
“The Prince. Aghen Aghenfleck. His eyes drank her in, Julia. Tasted her with his filthy gaze, as if she were some fine exotic wine brought to court for his pleasure. ‘I will speak to you more, my dear, at a later time,’ he tells her. ‘You could help me learn much of the Mycer folk,’ he said.”
“Surely a creature like the Prince befouls every female he looks upon,” Julia said.
In spite of a warming breeze, Finn felt a sudden chill. “Surely indeed. And many get more than a glance, and have no wits about them when the Prince has filled his needs. That will not happen to Letitia Louise. And, if I'm not thinking better on this on the morrow, I'll not take this damned mission at all. I will take you and Letitia and leave behind everything I've worked for here, and flee to some other land.”
“And where would that be?” asked Julia Jessica Slagg. “Where are the kings and princes wise? Where are the nobles truly noble, Finn?”
Finn, gazing off into the darkness of the night, had no ready answer for that…
NINE
Indeed, as Julia had said, Letitia was deep in peaceful sleep when Finn finally cast his thoughts aside and quietly joined her in the small bedchamber above The Lizard Shoppe.
Slipping out of his clothes, he snuffed the single candle and slipped in beside her in the dark.
As ever, Finn was awed by the touch, by the presence, by the magic of this lovely creature who shared his bed and brought joy to his life. Fate, he thought, not for the first time, bestows its wonders in ways no mortal can comprehend. Less than a year had passed since Letitia had come into his home as housekeeper and cook, someone to do those tasks that needed doing while he spent long hours pursuing his craft.
It was clear, when he hired her, that she was a most attractive Newlie, a charming Mycer girl with dark, iridescent eyes, small, but pouty lips, and a rather pointy nose that turned up nicely at the tip. Her ears rose to delicate points beneath her ashen hair, and her skin had the soft, downy texture of her kind.
All these qualities he noticed, but cast them in a corner of his mind for the time, most of his head being crammed, jammed with thoughts of silver wheels that whined and hummed, golden wires thin as gnat whiskers, tiny cogs and gears, and gems no bigger than poppy seeds.
Then, on a day much like the one before that, when a lizard that peeled potatoes didn't seem to work at all, he suddenly looked up and saw her standing there, holding a cup of clover tea.
Finn was struck dumb at the sight, dazzled by her opalescent eyes, eyes that seemed immersed in dark and fragrant oil. Stunned by the way every beam of sunlight shimmered in her hair.
That moment of wonder passed; nothing was said or done, nothing for a time. Letitia, though, felt a flush at Finn's glance that began at her toes and nearly exploded through the top of her head. For she had fallen for him the instant she walked into his house-and, until that moment, was sure he'd seldom looked at her twice.
Misadventure and dread, fearsome times kept further declarations at bay. But, as fortune would have it, these dire events seemed to bring them closer still, and, finally, toss them into one another's arms, and they had seldom been far from one another since
'How could I have been so blind?” Finn had asked her a hundred times since. “I should have known at first sight you were the love of my life.”
“The important thing is, you did come around, my dear,” she told him. “And, often, love takes its time to strike.”
Especially for the male, who has to be struck in the head before he can open his eyes…
'They would ever pay a price for their devotion, and both knew it well. They might be husband and wife to one another, but never in the public eye. Any sort of intimate relations between a human and a Newlie was forbidden by the law. While many folk no longer cared just who did what with whom, others were filled with righteous gall, wouldn't stand for habits different from their own, and handed out dread judgment in the dark of night.
Would it ever be different, Finn often wondered, or would the world always be the same?
The “Change” had turned the world upside down, and many Newlies-as well as humankind- thought turning beasts into something similar to Man had brought great sorrow to everyone.
Shar and Dankermain, the seers who'd done this deed three hundred years before, had paid for their crime with their lives. The spawn of their sin, though, were left behind to breed in a world where they didn't belong.
Now, as well as Mycers, there were Bowsers, Snouters, Foxers, Yowlies and Grizz. Vampies, Bullies, Dobbins and Badgie kind, strewn all about the known world.
And, if the Mycer folk were one of the Chosen Nine, and if a man named Finn fell in love with a being who was, truly, not solely a person at all, what was he to do- shut out his feelings, or sleep with one eye open, in case some loony decided to “purify” them both some dark and sorry night?
And you, Finn thought to himself, not for the first time or the last, why did you do the same, and break such
