Fic: Scratch (8/12)
Title: Scratch Part 8
Characters: John Hart, Blowfish, Woman from KKBB, numerous OCs
Rating: Series is hard NC-17; this chapter is in the R range
Summary: A retelling of the Faust myth using TW characters.
Disclaimer: All canon characters are property of the BBC, all OCs are my own, and Faust is the property of Mephistopheles.
Kind thanks to used_songs and invisible_lift for the beta-fu.
Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Part 7
“I don't care, Kong. I need two people to do the lifting and carrying, and no way in hell I'm letting any one of you anywhere near the Lux.”
“Damn it, Coyote, I'm not letting him out of my sight!” Commander Kong was nose-to-nose with Coyote Walker, bellowing in his face. “He's trafficking weapons on and off my planet, he's involved in slave trading, he might be involved in genocide, and you want me to let him go with you?”
“I've known you almost as long as I've been on this planet, and I know there's no way in hell you're going to rest until you get those shady-ass four-eyed radishes off your planet, and you're going to get slaughtered like cattle and the ones who don't die are going to be as insane as I am unless you let me go get the one thing in the whole goddamn universe that will keep that from happening. And to do that, I need him, 'cause he knows where they are. Otherwise, your troops are going to die like flies because you didn't want to let me hold up my end of the bargain.”
“Kong.” Coyote Walker's voice was very, very quiet, so much so that Fjoaan Tsuhn had to strain to hear it. “I promise you that he will be with me. I promise you that we will deliver the psychic blockers. I promise you that I will do everything in my power to get those beady-eyed bastards off this planet. Deal?”
Commander Kong took a deep breath. “Asigawa goes with you.”
“No.”
“Then you don't leave.”
“Then you don't get the weapons and the Safri win.”
“That's fine, then. On your soul be it.” Commander Kong spun on a heel.
“Kong?” Coyote Walker's voice rang out across the room. “You're a battalion commander, right? That means you've got twelve companies, forty-eight platoons, five hundred and seventy-six soldiers? And you know what the Safri are going to do to them?” He paused. “Do you really want to call my bluff here?”
“Bark bark bark, Coyote,” called Kong over his shoulder as he retreated from the room.
The door closed, and Coyote Walker and Fjoaan Tsuhn were left alone in the room.
“Shit!” Coyote Walker kicked at the wall. He stalked over to the corner and slid into a sullen heap on the floor.
“What, not going to go chasing after him?” Fjoaan Tsuhn stared at the hyperfield around him, shimmering blue-white and just beyond his reach. “Not going to do anything, just going to sit there?”
The Earth-human buried his face in his hands. “Just...shut up, will you?” He sat on the floor and fiddled with the animal fur on his shirt.
Fjoaan Tsuhn wandered around the room. Just like being in jail, only in the jail cell, at least he was underwater. Sweet summer nights, he was so tired of being on land, away from the ocean, where strange creatures sucked the air out of his gills and birds had cameras shoved up their cloacas and Earth-humans squabbled about stupid things. He paced back and forth, remembering life in prison, how he learned how to do John Hart's books and how to make paper birds from Botis and how to shoot venom at the wall. Well, that might make him feel better. He extended his topmost spine and took aim at the wall.
It went through the blue-white energy barrier and hit the wall behind him.
Coyote Walker's head jerked up. “Oh, no. No, no, no. Don't you be starting that.”
“If you're not going to get us out of here, you can just shut up.” Fjoaan Tsuhn aimed a jet at the door, letting fly just as it opened. The blast caught a very surprised Lieutenant Milou full in the face.
“Aaaugh! What hell?” Lieutenant Milou staggered two steps to his left, bumping into the conference room table. While he rubbed at his eyes, the telltale stench of Caynnyd mating pheromone began to seep through the air. A flash of inspiration hit Fjoaan Tsuhn. Might not work, definitely worth a try.
“Coyote Walker, get over here.” Fjoaan Tsuhn ran up behind Lieutenant Milou and wrapped him up in his foreflippers. Shooting out his wrist-spines, he held one spine to a cursing Lieutanant Milou's gut and the other to his throat and hissed, “Teleport us out.”
Coyote Walker refused to move.
“Teleport all three of us out, or I'll give him another dose of venom and tie him to your leg.”
“You sadistic little worm-bait, as if I'd ever want to fuck an Earth-human...” That was as far as Lieutenant Milou got before Fjoaan Tsuhn released his grip about the Caynnyd's waist, squeezed a generous dollop of poison from his spine onto the free foreflipper, and rubbed it Lieutenant Milou's nose and mouth.
“Get enough of what I've got, and you'll fuck the table while your boss watched. Coyote Walker, get up.”
Coyote Walker remained where he sat, staring balefully at Fjoaan Tsuhn.
Lieutenant Milou was starting to shake in his grip and reeked of mating pheromone. He smelled disgusting and looked worse, but all Fjoaan Tsuhn cared about was getting out of the Army base, and this was the only thing he could think of. He shot another sticky handful of venom onto his foreflipper and wiped it across Lieutenant Milou's rapidly reddening tongue.
Interesting. Oolyllyr hadn't changed colour. Lieutenant Milou's skin, visible through the short-cropped fur, was flushing a pale pinky-orange as the venom worked its way into his system. Didn't really matter, but it was fun to watch him lose control of his body. Fjoaan Tsuhn seized him, picked him up right off the ground, and threw him face-down onto Coyote Walker. While Caynnyd and Earth-human attempted to untangle themselves, Fjoaan Tsuhn ripped his belt free and bound their legs together.
“Fjoaan, I'm going to kill you...” Coyote Walker tried to swing at him, but he ducked away and let Lieutenant Milou take the hit.
“Wait, no, Coyote, don't get the venom on you!” Lieutenant Milou groaned and tried to pull away. “Can't...oh, for fuck's sake.” With one hand he grabbed Fjoaan Tsuhn, trying to hold him still, but his other hand slipped. It landed on Coyote Walker's Vortex Manipulator, teleporting the three of them out of the room.
*****
When they rematerialized, Fjoaan Tsuhn looked around. They were back in Manon's casino, behind the wall of the loading dock where they'd met the Safri.
“Fucking hell, we have to get out of here.” Coyote Walker hit the button on his wriststrap.
They rematerialized again, this time on the bridge of the Lux Aeterna. While Fjoaan Tsuhn collapsed to the floor, choking on the sulphur stench he'd forgotten, Lieutenant Milou covered his face with his hands and fell to his knees. Coyote Walker cut through Fjoaan Tsuhn's belt with a knife, freeing himself and Lieutenant Milou.
“I really, really need to get to a lavatory.” Lieutenant Milou was shaking now, and strings of saliva were trailing from his mouth.
“Oriax!” called Coyote Walker, looking around. “ORIAX!”
The little creature zipped into the room. Taking the red scarf off his neck and tying it around Lieutenant Milou's eyes, Coyote Walker said, “Take our visitor to the head and stay in there with him. Don't let him come out until I tell you. But be nice to him, he's our guest.”
Oriax and Lieutenant Milou disappeared, Oriax guiding the sweating, panting, stinking Caynnyd with two limbs on his shoulders. As he walked away, Fjoaan Tsuhn fell to the ground, screaming. The hyperfield!
“Stop-no, fire and lava-aiiieeee!!!” He writhed under the electric shocks, screaming and howling.
Coyote Walker, meanwhile, was hitting something into his wriststrap. “Oh, suck it up.” He stalked off to the console, leaving Fjoaan Tsuhn to thrash on the floor.
Rolling over onto his front, eyes wide, spines out, Fjoaan Tsuhn sucked in his breath and fired a shot of venom at Coyote Walker. It hit him square in the middle of the back.
“What the...” He looked over his shoulder. “What the fuck!” Coyote Walker stripped off his shirt and trousers and flung them onto the floor, where they lay hissing as the venom ate through the hide. “I should have left you to Manon's tender mercies.”
He doubled over in pain as another shock racked them. “I got us out of there, didn't I?”
At that moment, Oriax returned, guiding a still-blindfolded Lieutenant Milou in front of him. Fjoaan Tsuhn smiled as they approached, giddy with relief at the abatement of the shocks. He spat ichor from his mouth onto the cool tiles of the deck.
“Steps, sir. Careful.” Oriax led Lieutenant Milou down the steps to Coyote Walker.
“You better?” Coyote Walker's voice was tight, tense, furious, and ready to explode at any moment.
“I just needed to take care of some business.” Lieutenant Milou sounded surprisingly calm given the circumstances.
“Are you alright? Do you need antivenin? What happened to your uniform?” When Fjoaan Tsuhn coughed, Coyote Walker spun to him and said, “Shut up. Right now. If you want to see tomorrow, you'll shut up.”
Fjoaan Tsuhn saw the look on his face, and shut up
“I'm fine, now. Is there somewhere I can sit?” Lieutenant Milou didn't wait for an answer, just sank down onto the floor. “As far as what happened, let me put it this way. Waterworlder venom is an incredibly expensive and potent aphrodisiac on my species' home planet.”
“Oh. So you...”
“Yeah. I'm fine now.”
Coyote Walker snorted and shook his head. “That would explain the lack of clothes, then. And that comment you made.”
“No offense meant, by the way.”
“None taken. Um.” Coyote Walker ran his hand through his hair. “Yeah. Would you like something to eat or drink while you're here? I've got some cheese and bread.”
Lieutenant Milou laughed low and deep and just a touch nasty. “It's not every day you get kidnapped and your captor remembers his manners. No thanks, I'm fine.”
“It's not every day you try and do the right thing and wind up kidnapping the guy who's supposed to be on your side by mistake. How did you...you're not ex-Agency, are you?”
Now Lieutenant Milou's laugh was loud and relaxed. “No, not at all. That was an accident. We're lucky we didn't end up a hundred years in the future or blown to pieces.”
“Right.” There was a long, awkward pause. “I have to let Kong know you're here, but I don't want to reveal my position or anything about my ship. Are you okay with an audio transmission only?”
More silence. Fjoaan Tsuhn sat down against the door.
“Only if you answer me a question.” Lieutenant Milou reached around with one paw to scratch an ear.
“If I can, I will.”
“What do you want? I mean, why are you doing this? You've got to know that everything you've done so far makes you look guilty as all hell here, even though aside from holding the Safri prisoner you haven't done anything. And they're not even allowed on this planet because of the interdiction, so technically you're still okay.”
Coyote Walker walked forward and put his hands on Lieutenant Milou's head; the Caynnyd flinched, shinking back as if expecting a blow. “It's okay. Relax.” He looked pointedly at Fjoaan Tsuhn and said, “I'm not going to do anything to you.” He untied the scarf and stepped back. “Open your eyes slowly, 'cause it's bright in here.”
Lieutenant Milou opened his eyes, blinked, and gasped. “What the...what the hell happened to you?” He pointed at Coyote Walker's body and its covering of twisted, ropey keloid scars
“You know the Safri do slave trading runs, right?”
Lieutenant Milou nodded, speechless.
“Most of the species they kidnap aren't, well, hmmm. They don't do captivity. And if you fight back, they do what they have to do to break you. It's been said that they live to torture. I'm not sure I believe that, but they do enjoy it, and they're very, very, very good at it.” He pointed at a long scar on his arm, one that looked like writing. “This one, they branded me. Property, it's somebody's name. Took ages to heal up.” He turned around and pointed to a jagged mess of proud flesh on his back. “These? Nine-lashed whip, glass fragments braided into each tail. And salt water. And acid.” Lifting up his left leg, he revealed a missing chunk of muscle from thigh to groin the width of one of Fjoaan Tsuhn's spines. “And this? They ate it. While I watched.” He spun on his heel and waved a finger at Fjoaan Tsuhn. “And you brought them here. And you too, Oriax.”
With each revelation, Lieutenant Milou took a step away from Coyote Walker. Swallowing hard several times, he said, “That's...that's... Fucking hell.” He wiped at his face and shuddered. “I thought there was somebody else involved? They're just the ship's crew?”
“Yeah, there's somebody else involved, the Safri have him right now. I'm going to rescue his sorry ass, and then I'm going to make sure he's healed from whatever they did to him, and then I'm going to fucking kill him.”
“Ah yes, true love.” Lieutenant Milou picked up the scarf and tied it back around his eyes. Very quietly he added, “How did you survive?”
Coyote Walker's reply was to turn away, flushing a dull ruddy colour, hunched over the console as he tried to raise the Army. There was a rasp, some static, and then the radio crackled to life. “Starboard Battalion Control, Starboard Battalion Control, Starboard Battalion Control, this is the Lux Aeterna, over.”
“Goddamnit, Coyote, where the bloody hell are you?” Commander Kong's furious voice roared into life from the speaker.
“I'm on the Lux, like I just said, and if you're looking for Lieutenant Milou, he's here with me.”
Lieutenant Milou piped up, “Good afternoon, sir.”
“Coyote, what the hell are you playing at?”
He answered, “Minor technical difficulties and a glitch with my Vortex Manipulator. Milou fell on me and triggered the teleport signal by mistake. He's unharmed-” Coyote Walker paused and looked over at the dutifully blindfolded Lieutenant Milou. “He's unharmed, but more than a little surprised. And needs a clean uniform.”
“Whatever. Milou, talk to me.”
Lieutenant Milou turned his blindfolded head toward Coyote Walker. He tipped it to one side, studying him. “Sir, I'm fine. I tripped. The first thing he did once we sorted out what happened was let me go to the lavatory, then offered me something to drink. If I'm being held hostage, sir, he's being quite a gentleman about it.”
Coyote Walker interrupted with a harsh snort. “Kong, you wanted somebody here to supervise, and you got it. So quit complaining.” He looked at Lieutenant Milou and mumbled, “At least you're smart. I don't know if Asigawa knows his ass from a hole in the ground.”
“I heard that, Coyote!”
“I meant you to. I've got enough trouble dealing with this dumb-shit fish, let alone with a mouth-breathing idiot like Asigawa.”
There was a long silence on the other side. Finally, Commander Kong gritted out, “The birds are gone. They'll be out an hour. You have one hour to show Milou what you need to, teeth and all that, and then all three of you come back here with those teeth things. If you don't, I will personally track down the Lux and blast it to pieces, no matter how well you think you have it cloaked. Understood?”
“You don't have a chance. Lux Aeterna out.”
*****
Coyote Walker left Lieutenant Milou and Fjoaan Tsuhn in the flight bridge while he went to find clothing.
Fjoaan Tsuhn wriggled his foreflippers, trying to stretch, when he saw a dark blue shadow coming for his face. He looked up just in time to see Coyote Walker throw something at him. A pile of fabric landed unceremoniously on his chest.
Coyote Walker sailed on by to Lieutenant Milou. “Take off that blindfold and put these on. Actually, wait a minute.” He tipped up his head and whistled something, a summons of some sort for Oriax who flew into the room. “Oriax, take him to the lavatory again?”
Lieutenant Milou gave Coyote Walker a suspicious glance, but followed without complaint.
Coyote Walker stalked over to Fjoaan Tsuhn, looking twice his regular size and rough and dangerous in a strange garment made entirely of animal skins. It was mostly gray, very rough, brought out all the gray in his hair, and made him look like...like he was part beast, part animal like Raksha, only Raksha was less frightening. He crouched down in front of Fjoaan Tsuhn, untied the gag, and stared him right in the eyes. There was something dark and dangerous and animalistic lurking there, something terrifying and wild and absolutely insane.
Fjoaan Tsuhn looked away first.
“Fjoaan. Look at me. We're on the same side. I want John back, you want John back, and I need your help.”
“Funny way of showing it,” grumbled Fjoaan Tsuhn.
“You want to get out of here, you do what I tell you to. And that includes keeping your temper under control, or I will firewhip you again. You're damn lucky that it's Milou's here. You try to pull that kind of shit with Ruakiwa and she'll have you gutted and skinned and served up with red sauce.”
“Why should I listen to you? You're just going to send me back to the army when you're done so they can put me in jail again.”
“When did I say that?” When Fjoaan Tsuhn didn't answer, he wagged his finger and said, “Ah ah ah. You listen about as well as you think. I never, ever said that.”
Fjoaan Tsuhn looked away.
“Put on the clothes I gave you.”
At that moment, Oriax buzzed back into the room, chittering and whistling about something. It was followed by Lieutenant Milou, who was scratching his head with one set of claws and tugging at its new blue-and-brown robes with the other. “Coyote, what's going on?”
“We're going on a little trip. Nudity is frowned upon where we're going, and your uniform is a bit of a mess.” He brushed past a hovering Oriax, ducking down to a hidden compartment. “Hey, get over here and help me open this.”
Lieutenant Milou waved its fifth extremity and asked, “Which one of us are you talking to?”
“Fjoaan.” Coyote Walker turned around. “Oh for crying out loud, get your clothes on. We don't have time to piss about.” With an almighty jerk, he yanked the compartment door open. “Fine. Oriax, I need a hand. Claw. Whatever.”
Oriax's sharp, ratcheting answer was mostly drowned out by the whirring of its wings as it settled down next to Coyote Walker
“Yeah, I know. Hold this open for me.” Coyote Walker descended to his knees, reaching down in the compartment. There was some scraping noise, followed by a dull thunk, and then he backed out, carrying a box about as long as his arm. “Ha. That was easier than I thought it'd be. Now go put your garment on.” Oriax took off towards the console, where another pile of blue and brown awaited it.
Fjoaan Tsuhn finished getting into the same kind of blue-and-brown robes as Lieutenant Milou. He fumbled with its wide blue belt, getting it tangled in his wrist-spines and caught on the scales of his skin. “Son of a...”
Coyote Walker lifted his eyes to the ceiling. “Give me strength. Oriax, go help him.”
Oriax apparently hadn't forgiven him for striking out earlier. It was brusque and rough and made a grinding noise the entire time. Fjoaan Tsuhn hissed, “Keep it to yourself.”
Oriax stabbed him in the abdomen with a spiky digit.
“Cut it out, you two.” Coyote Walker turned to Lieutenant Milou. “When the Agency disbanded, I got a job here making sure the casinos stay clean. We're going to go see a friend who helps me with that, and a few other things. Might even help with the Safri. Those two clowns don't matter,” he said, pointing at Fjoaan Tsuhn and Oriax, “but it's in your best interest to keep your mouth closed. If he so much as wonders if you're Army, he'll pitch us all out.”
“What are we doing?” Lieutenant Milou's ears swiveled back and his fifth extremity stood out rigidly behind him. “Coyote, you know if I see or hear something illegal I have to say something.”
“There won't be anything illegal. Just two old men talking.”
“Then what's in the box?”
“A present for him.”
“A bribe, you mean.”
Coyote Walker smiled. “No, a present. You might not believe this, but people do take gifts to people on occasion. The fact that I'm going to get something valuable from him in return is irrelevant.” He grabbed at a thick leather strap on the box and slung the whole thing over his shoulder. “Oriax, Fjoaan, come on over here.”
*****
They came out of teleport into a dark, dingy alleyway fetid with the stench of urine and rotting garbage and mercaptan and fuel oil. Only Oriax, whose people had a bare minimum sense of smell, seemed unaffected. Coyote Walker promptly tied his scarf around his nose, leaving Lieutenant Milou and Fjoaan Tsuhn to stand gagging and dry-heaving.
Coyote Walker led them single-file down the disgusting path, with Lieutenant Milou and Fjoaan Tsuhn close behind and Oriax bringing up the rear. They passed a series of tenement dwellings, an unremarkable door that reeked so strongly of time travel it nearly sent Fjoaan Tsuhn to his knees, and a pair of shops advertising the most bizarre assortment of foodstuffs he'd ever seen.
They stopped outside another unmarked door. Coyote Walker hopped up the seven small steps leading to the door, paused, and turned to face the other three. “You three, keep quiet unless I speak to you.”
The door creaked open. Leaving their filthy shoes in a small foyer, they trouped down a dimly-lit hallway, so saturated with the twin stench of time travel and aromatic oils that Fjoaan Tsuhn wondered for a moment if they'd teleported back to the Light-bearer.
“Pull your hoods over your faces.” Coyote Walker's grey head looked curiously bare amongst the blue-and-brown cowls. “Oriax, there'll be something you can touch down on.” He rapped on a panel made of dark smoky wood with a carving of fruits in a bowl in the center.
Ahead of them, another door swung open, its interior veiled by an energy curtain. “Who is it?”
“Yellow Dog Dingo. I'm looking for the Old Man, hoping to see him before five o'clock this afternoon.”
Wheezy laughter sounded out from behind the curtain. “And if I told you to go away?”
“I'd dance on a sandpile and bother you in your bath.”
“Well, I'm not in my bath right now, so you might as well come in.”
Coyote Walker grinned, toothy and amused, and gestured for them to follow him. The energy curtain parted to reveal a vast brilliantly-lit room, flames flickering and reflecting through the facets of a thousand crystals suspended in a giant, graceful chandelier. He unslung the box from his shoulder and laid it on the floor at the base of a massive wooden desk. Once Fjoaan Tsuhn, Lieutenant Milou, and Oriax were all inside, he pointed at a long, thinly-padded wooden bench. The ends were carved with a spiral pattern. “Have a seat.”
An ancient Earth-human sat behind the desk. Fjoaan Tsuhn flat-out stared-he'd seen pictures in that book of John Hart's of very, very old Earth-humans, but seeing the picture was so wildly different from seeing the real thing that he was glad he was sitting down. Wispy white fur, whiter than Lieutenant Milou's pelt, sagging skin covered in brown spots of varying size, rheumy red-rimmed eyes. Old Man is the most terrifying creature I've ever seen. He's worse than Laaessy and Oolyllyr combined.
When the old man spoke, he addressed Coyote Walker, who knelt before him, hands clasped behind his back and greying head bent to the floor. “Peace of the glory of the Stars and Heavens be upon you, my child, and may blessings upon you fall as stardust.”
“I offer all I am to the Looms of the Stars and Heavens, she-he who is was will be the weaver of all Creation, so that I might succor all of her-his treasures living and not.” Coyote Walker waited until the hoary Earth-human's hand touched him between the shoulder blades; at the contact, he stood and bowed. “May I sit, Elder?”
“Please do, and if you would, introduce your guests.”
Coyote Walker lowered himself to an ornately carved, gilded chair, the shape of which reminded Fjoaan Tsuhn strongly of Manon's creature Narasimha. He shivered at the thought-what if the chair were alive? What if it could move and attack him?
Coyote Walker's voice mercifully interrupted his mind. “From left to right, they are Milo, Feon, and Oryx. A friend of Feon's is in trouble, and they came to me for help. Friends, this is Elder Nicholas, trusted friend and Biscop of the Order of the Weavers of Time.”
Elder Nicholas nodded at them. “May blessings as stardust fall upon you, children.”
Surprisingly, Oriax answered, “And may the stardust light your path, Elder.” Lieutenant Milou and Fjoaan Tsuhn both craned their necks to stare at it.
The elderly man smiled. “What brings you here today, child?”
“I have a gift for you, Elder, one that I hope may interest you.” He bent down and retrieved the box, opening a pair of buckles on its near side. The old man leaned forward.
When the box sprung open, something inside glittered and glimmered and caught the light. “Oh, Coyote,” breathed Elder Nicholas, “You outdid yourself this time.”
Coyote Walker lifted the fantastic thing from the box. Heavy, golden, oddly-shaped and with a pair of serpentine holes cut in one side, it seemed to glow in the candlelit room. “Do you play?”
To his side, Fjoaan Tsuhn heard Lieutenant Milou's breath catch, felt him begin to fidget.
Elder Nicholas answered, “I don't, but I know who does.” He slid open a drawer in the desk and rummaged in it with a hand. “Where did you find this beautiful thing, Coyote?”
Coyote Walker bent his head. “I bought it from an elderly being who had fallen upon hard times, one who used the money I paid her to feed her children.”
“I see.” Elder Nicholas reached for the object, turning it lovingly in his hands. “Is there a bow?”
“In the box.”
A sharp rapping rang out from the other side of the door. Elder Nicholas looked up and smiled. “Come in.”
Another being entered, disembodied and swirling through the air. It reformed itself in front of Elder Nicholas's desk, genuflecting low, the twin of Commander Kong's creature Sioliolea. Fjoaan Tsuhn shrank back into the hard bench, causing Oriax to poke his side and Lieutenant Milou to hiss into his ear. “Settle down, it's just an Ouragan.”
Coyote Walker spun around and stared, hard, at the three of them. Lieutenant Milou bowed his head. His ears were pressed flat back to his skull, as if they'd been cropped off.
“Fieerliveela, do you recognize this? Elder Nicholas handed to object to the glittery blue being. Ouragan. Dangerous creature.
“Oh. Oh, yes, Elder.” He had the same bells-and-wind voice that Sioliolea did.
“Rise, then, and play for us, please.”
Fieerliveela knocked its head against the floor before standing and taking the golden object in its hands. It tucked the fat end under its chin and held the skinny end out at the end of its arm, and, taking a matching golden stick from the box, began dragging the stick across whatever it was.
Haunting, high-pitched, ethereal music threaded through the room. The Ouragan's arm slid back and forwards, rolling like waves over the shining surface, flooding the room with the joys of sound and candlelight and gold and water, almost entirely blocking the stench of time travel from Fjoaan Tsuhn's senses.
Oriax slid off the bench to the floor, prostrating itself and chanting something in its native language.
When the Ouragan stopped moving its arm, the glorious sound died. Elder Nicholas gestured for it to leave the instrument behind. “Thank you, Fieerliveela.
“My pleasure, Elder.” It bowed and departed.
They all sat in silence for a while, remembering the song. Elder Nicholas lifted the instrument and turned it over and over in his withered old hands.
“All of us woven in Creation thank you for your generous gift. The power of its song, we hope, will be enough to salve the broken hearts of the downfallen. The glory you give to the Weavers of Time is admirable, and her his children were are will be offering blessings upon you.” His voice wavered and broke several times during the little speech, making Fjoaan Tsuhn wonder, How much longer does he have to live?
Coyote Walker slid from the chair and genuflected before Elder Nicholas. The fur on his shirt reflected silver under the lights of the chandelier. Elder Nicholas watched him sink down, waited until he was bowed low, before grabbing a carved and bejeweled walking stick and doddering over to stand with a palsied hand on his greying head. A massive, fiery janas jewel winked from a ring on his finger.
“Now, Coyote, before I give you blessings, you must hear a story the Weavers told will tell me. The Looms tell us of a faithless woman, a vulgar creature who was so imprisoned by her love of material things that she once even betrayed her lover for a common gem. She was so blinded by her greed that she could not see the terrible consequences of what she did, no more than she could see the lump of coal disguised as the most priceless jewel of long-lost Arcadia. The quest for things distracts our souls from the most important thing of all, the love of each and every living being under the Stars and Heavens, love that connects us and through which even time itself flows. Without that love, we are but slaves to our most common desires. Be not like that faithless woman, she who would seek to enrich her body through the folly of others, yet has never sought to enrich her mind.”
“I hear the story, Elder, and I listen.” Next to Fjoaan Tsuhn, Oriax muttered the same thing.
“Good man.” He tapped the top of Coyote Walker's head. “Now, will you join us for our meal? It's bread and cheese tonight, if you can imagine.”
Coyote Walker laughed. “Bread and cheese? Fancy tonight!” He pushed himself to his feet. “If I'd known you were serving bread and cheese, I would have dressed for supper. Unfortunately we can't stay, Elder, but thank you for the invitation.” He offered an elbow to Elder Nicholas, who shook his head no and whacked him on the knees with his stick.
“I'm still not dead, Coyote. You can carry me to my meals when I'm dead. We've been over this before.”
“May I at least hold the door for you, then, Elder?”
“Fine. Make sure you stop by the sanctuary on your way out.” Elder Nicholas tipped his frosty head toward the bench. “Blessings on your friends.”
Coyote Walker led the way to an elaborately carved door, holding it open, awkward amongst all the finery in his rough animal skins. When Elder Nicholas passed through, he shut it with a quiet click.
“Time to go.”
They retreated back down the hall, Fjoaan Tsuhn following as close behind Lieutenant Milou as he could.
Once outside in the filthy alleyway, Lieutenant Milou threw back his cowl and shoved Coyote Walker up against the dirty wall. “You dirty, cocksucking bastard!” White claws poked out from under the sleeves of his robes and encircled the Earth-human's throat. “Filthy, corrupt BASTARD!!!”
Coyote Walker closed his eyes ever so briefly before flinging his arms up between his body and Lieutenant Milou's arms, pressing down so that Lieutenant Milou's arms were trapped well away from his throat. “Don't. Don't even start with me.”
“What the hell is wrong with you? That's Shahli-danylle's violin! It's a treasure of my people and it's been missing for three hundred years!”
“And it was purchased at a legitimate auction by a legitimate buyer.” He stared Lieutenant Milou full in the face before asking, “If I let you go, will you behave? We have to get back to Kong.”
“Where I report you for theft and bribery!”
Coyote Walker snorted. “And here I was saying you were smarter than Asigawa. I'm sorry, what part of legitimate auction and legitimate buyer didn't you understand?” He crossed his arms together and squeezed, making Lieutenant Milou gasp in pain. “What a legitimate buyer does with his legitimately purchased things is nobody's business but his own. And for it to be bribery, I'd have to be giving that in exchange for official favour of some sort, and if you know so much why don't you tell me what kind of favour was given?”
Lieutenant Milou struggled against Coyote Walker, trying to pull back, but when he found he couldn't move, he spat out, “Fuck all, you're a viper. You'd sell off the Caynnyd's heritage for a cheap buck, and you're dragging around a pair of thugs who should be in prison by now, and...”
Coyote Walker pulled Lieutenant Milou close, so close that their faces were mere inches from one another. “Remember what we talked about a little while ago, about why I'm doing this? Come with me, and learn something.” He twisted his left arm over Lieutenant Milou's body, holding him tight, and dragged him down the seven steps to the alley. “Fjoaan, Oriax, you too. Come along.”
Fjoaan Tsuhn wanted to do nothing of the sort, but Oriax stabbed him in the shoulder with a spiky digit, and he followed with ill grace. Coyote Walker hauled a struggling Lieutenant Milou about twenty paces further along, to another heavy wooden door. “Fjoaan, open it for me.”
Fjoaan Tsuhn needed all his body weight to push the door open. Coyote Walker shoved Lieutenant Milou through and herded him and Oriax inside the tiny vestibule. Pointing to a set of ill-lit stairs,
Coyote Walker said, “Up.”
When Lieutenant Milou made to push past Coyote Walker, the Earth-human caught both his hands, forced them behind his back, and pushed the Caynnyd up the stairs. “Stop making this difficult.” He guided them up, with Fjoaan Tsuhn behind him and Oriax trailing.
Up and up and up they went, higher and higher in what must be a deceptively large building, until they reached the top of the stairwell. Coyote Walker glided away down the dark hall, Caynnyd still held tight. Once he reached a battered, ancient door, he set Lieutenant Milou free.
He seemed unusually grim as he turned to face them. “All of you, absolute quiet.” Lieutenant Milou opened his mouth to protest, but was silenced by Coyote Walker's stare. “Good.”
The door opened onto a narrow balcony overlooking a huge room. Like Lady Manon's casino, it had a glass ceiling, allowing the pale light of the late afternoon sun to wash over everything within. While Fjoaan Tsuhn's eyes adapted to the light, he heard a gasp from his left and quiet chirruping from his right.
“Sssshhh!” Coyote Walker silenced them.
Lieutenant Milou walked to the railing, staring down at the theatre below.
Hundreds and hundreds of beings, mostly Earth-human but with a sizable percentage of others, lay in beds on the floor. Most of them were covered head-to-foot in bandages. A few were missing limbs, while others' eyes were covered with patches. Most were weakly crying in pain. Fjoaan Tsuhn's spines shot out, rending great holes in the fabric of his robe, when he spotted a pair of Waterworlders amongst the fallen-the first of his kind he'd seen since he left his homeworld. One was missing a foreflipper. The other, little more than a fry, lay in the defensive posture in a sleeping unit, with one of the Ouragan tending to it.
He ran out into the hall.
Several minutes later, Coyote Walker led a shocked Lieutenant Milou and shaking Oriax out. The group went down the stairs and out the heavy door, and once again, Lieutenant Milou exploded.
“What the hell is wrong with you? What the hell is going on in there? I swear, if you've had anything to do with that...”
“What?” Coyote Walker's arms flailed wildly around him, forcing Lieutenant Milou against the door. “You'll do what? Petition the government for their care? Volunteer to help them? Go help peel roots in the kitchen so they can eat? Build a proper hospital so they don't have to live in the converted sanctuary of an old religious building? What? What? Tell me, because I'd DAMN sure like to know!”
“But...”
Coyote Walker abruptly spun about and took off, stalking down the stinking alley. “Fjoaan, Oriax, with me.”
Oriax zipped after Coyote Walker. Fjoaan Tsuhn stared at Lieutenant Milou for a moment before following. He wanted to go home, get away from twisted minds and broken bodies, get away from this madness to whatever little life he could patch out for himself, and as long as John Hart was gone, Coyote Walker was his best bet. He wondered for a moment how low he'd fallen, that he'd sell his loyalty that cheaply.
Lieutenant Milou charged up behind them, slamming so hard against Fjoaan Tsuhn that he lost his balance and fell. Oriax, who had been flying just in front of him, was crushed under his body with a sickening crunch. Lieutenant Milou wrestled Coyote Walker to the ground and growled, “You're not done! Give me one good reason why I shouldn't drag you off to the Colonial Commission right now...” His words ended with an abrupt grunt as Coyote Walker heaved him into the wall. His head struck the grimy brick with a dull thud; he slumped down and lay still.
Fjoaan Tsuhn had rolled off the stricken, screaming Oriax, trying to hold together a huge, jagged wound in his abdomen where it had been ripped open by a pair of spiky digits. Sticky ichor flowed out around the webbing of his foreflippers. It hurt. It really, really hurt.
“Oh, fucking hell. Fjoaan, can you...fuck, he got you too.” Coyote Walker staggered to his feet, bleeding profusely from a long cut on his leg. Blood splashing onto Lieutenant Milou's unconscious form stained the white fur under the torn robes a shocking scarlet. “Bloody hell.” He grabbed Lieutenant Milou's hairy leg, dragged him over to Fjoaan Tsuhn, and said, “Lean on back of him.”
While Fjoaan Tsuhn arranged himself as best as he could on Lieutenant Milou's pelvis, Coyote Walker carefully gathered a still-screaming Oriax into his arms. Two limbs and a wing dangled sickeningly from its body, and a third limb lay shattered and broken on the ground. “Oh, my friend, I'm sorry, I'm so, so sorry.” Stripping off a shoe and grasping the shattered limb between the toes of his right foot, Coyote Walker grabbed Fjoaan Tsuhn's nearest foreflipper and one of Lieutenant Milou's paws and teleported them away.
*******
Previous
Next
Characters: John Hart, Blowfish, Woman from KKBB, numerous OCs
Rating: Series is hard NC-17; this chapter is in the R range
Summary: A retelling of the Faust myth using TW characters.
Disclaimer: All canon characters are property of the BBC, all OCs are my own, and Faust is the property of Mephistopheles.
Kind thanks to used_songs and invisible_lift for the beta-fu.
Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Part 7
“I don't care, Kong. I need two people to do the lifting and carrying, and no way in hell I'm letting any one of you anywhere near the Lux.”
“Damn it, Coyote, I'm not letting him out of my sight!” Commander Kong was nose-to-nose with Coyote Walker, bellowing in his face. “He's trafficking weapons on and off my planet, he's involved in slave trading, he might be involved in genocide, and you want me to let him go with you?”
“I've known you almost as long as I've been on this planet, and I know there's no way in hell you're going to rest until you get those shady-ass four-eyed radishes off your planet, and you're going to get slaughtered like cattle and the ones who don't die are going to be as insane as I am unless you let me go get the one thing in the whole goddamn universe that will keep that from happening. And to do that, I need him, 'cause he knows where they are. Otherwise, your troops are going to die like flies because you didn't want to let me hold up my end of the bargain.”
“Kong.” Coyote Walker's voice was very, very quiet, so much so that Fjoaan Tsuhn had to strain to hear it. “I promise you that he will be with me. I promise you that we will deliver the psychic blockers. I promise you that I will do everything in my power to get those beady-eyed bastards off this planet. Deal?”
Commander Kong took a deep breath. “Asigawa goes with you.”
“No.”
“Then you don't leave.”
“Then you don't get the weapons and the Safri win.”
“That's fine, then. On your soul be it.” Commander Kong spun on a heel.
“Kong?” Coyote Walker's voice rang out across the room. “You're a battalion commander, right? That means you've got twelve companies, forty-eight platoons, five hundred and seventy-six soldiers? And you know what the Safri are going to do to them?” He paused. “Do you really want to call my bluff here?”
“Bark bark bark, Coyote,” called Kong over his shoulder as he retreated from the room.
The door closed, and Coyote Walker and Fjoaan Tsuhn were left alone in the room.
“Shit!” Coyote Walker kicked at the wall. He stalked over to the corner and slid into a sullen heap on the floor.
“What, not going to go chasing after him?” Fjoaan Tsuhn stared at the hyperfield around him, shimmering blue-white and just beyond his reach. “Not going to do anything, just going to sit there?”
The Earth-human buried his face in his hands. “Just...shut up, will you?” He sat on the floor and fiddled with the animal fur on his shirt.
Fjoaan Tsuhn wandered around the room. Just like being in jail, only in the jail cell, at least he was underwater. Sweet summer nights, he was so tired of being on land, away from the ocean, where strange creatures sucked the air out of his gills and birds had cameras shoved up their cloacas and Earth-humans squabbled about stupid things. He paced back and forth, remembering life in prison, how he learned how to do John Hart's books and how to make paper birds from Botis and how to shoot venom at the wall. Well, that might make him feel better. He extended his topmost spine and took aim at the wall.
It went through the blue-white energy barrier and hit the wall behind him.
Coyote Walker's head jerked up. “Oh, no. No, no, no. Don't you be starting that.”
“If you're not going to get us out of here, you can just shut up.” Fjoaan Tsuhn aimed a jet at the door, letting fly just as it opened. The blast caught a very surprised Lieutenant Milou full in the face.
“Aaaugh! What hell?” Lieutenant Milou staggered two steps to his left, bumping into the conference room table. While he rubbed at his eyes, the telltale stench of Caynnyd mating pheromone began to seep through the air. A flash of inspiration hit Fjoaan Tsuhn. Might not work, definitely worth a try.
“Coyote Walker, get over here.” Fjoaan Tsuhn ran up behind Lieutenant Milou and wrapped him up in his foreflippers. Shooting out his wrist-spines, he held one spine to a cursing Lieutanant Milou's gut and the other to his throat and hissed, “Teleport us out.”
Coyote Walker refused to move.
“Teleport all three of us out, or I'll give him another dose of venom and tie him to your leg.”
“You sadistic little worm-bait, as if I'd ever want to fuck an Earth-human...” That was as far as Lieutenant Milou got before Fjoaan Tsuhn released his grip about the Caynnyd's waist, squeezed a generous dollop of poison from his spine onto the free foreflipper, and rubbed it Lieutenant Milou's nose and mouth.
“Get enough of what I've got, and you'll fuck the table while your boss watched. Coyote Walker, get up.”
Coyote Walker remained where he sat, staring balefully at Fjoaan Tsuhn.
Lieutenant Milou was starting to shake in his grip and reeked of mating pheromone. He smelled disgusting and looked worse, but all Fjoaan Tsuhn cared about was getting out of the Army base, and this was the only thing he could think of. He shot another sticky handful of venom onto his foreflipper and wiped it across Lieutenant Milou's rapidly reddening tongue.
Interesting. Oolyllyr hadn't changed colour. Lieutenant Milou's skin, visible through the short-cropped fur, was flushing a pale pinky-orange as the venom worked its way into his system. Didn't really matter, but it was fun to watch him lose control of his body. Fjoaan Tsuhn seized him, picked him up right off the ground, and threw him face-down onto Coyote Walker. While Caynnyd and Earth-human attempted to untangle themselves, Fjoaan Tsuhn ripped his belt free and bound their legs together.
“Fjoaan, I'm going to kill you...” Coyote Walker tried to swing at him, but he ducked away and let Lieutenant Milou take the hit.
“Wait, no, Coyote, don't get the venom on you!” Lieutenant Milou groaned and tried to pull away. “Can't...oh, for fuck's sake.” With one hand he grabbed Fjoaan Tsuhn, trying to hold him still, but his other hand slipped. It landed on Coyote Walker's Vortex Manipulator, teleporting the three of them out of the room.
*****
When they rematerialized, Fjoaan Tsuhn looked around. They were back in Manon's casino, behind the wall of the loading dock where they'd met the Safri.
“Fucking hell, we have to get out of here.” Coyote Walker hit the button on his wriststrap.
They rematerialized again, this time on the bridge of the Lux Aeterna. While Fjoaan Tsuhn collapsed to the floor, choking on the sulphur stench he'd forgotten, Lieutenant Milou covered his face with his hands and fell to his knees. Coyote Walker cut through Fjoaan Tsuhn's belt with a knife, freeing himself and Lieutenant Milou.
“I really, really need to get to a lavatory.” Lieutenant Milou was shaking now, and strings of saliva were trailing from his mouth.
“Oriax!” called Coyote Walker, looking around. “ORIAX!”
The little creature zipped into the room. Taking the red scarf off his neck and tying it around Lieutenant Milou's eyes, Coyote Walker said, “Take our visitor to the head and stay in there with him. Don't let him come out until I tell you. But be nice to him, he's our guest.”
Oriax and Lieutenant Milou disappeared, Oriax guiding the sweating, panting, stinking Caynnyd with two limbs on his shoulders. As he walked away, Fjoaan Tsuhn fell to the ground, screaming. The hyperfield!
“Stop-no, fire and lava-aiiieeee!!!” He writhed under the electric shocks, screaming and howling.
Coyote Walker, meanwhile, was hitting something into his wriststrap. “Oh, suck it up.” He stalked off to the console, leaving Fjoaan Tsuhn to thrash on the floor.
Rolling over onto his front, eyes wide, spines out, Fjoaan Tsuhn sucked in his breath and fired a shot of venom at Coyote Walker. It hit him square in the middle of the back.
“What the...” He looked over his shoulder. “What the fuck!” Coyote Walker stripped off his shirt and trousers and flung them onto the floor, where they lay hissing as the venom ate through the hide. “I should have left you to Manon's tender mercies.”
He doubled over in pain as another shock racked them. “I got us out of there, didn't I?”
At that moment, Oriax returned, guiding a still-blindfolded Lieutenant Milou in front of him. Fjoaan Tsuhn smiled as they approached, giddy with relief at the abatement of the shocks. He spat ichor from his mouth onto the cool tiles of the deck.
“Steps, sir. Careful.” Oriax led Lieutenant Milou down the steps to Coyote Walker.
“You better?” Coyote Walker's voice was tight, tense, furious, and ready to explode at any moment.
“I just needed to take care of some business.” Lieutenant Milou sounded surprisingly calm given the circumstances.
“Are you alright? Do you need antivenin? What happened to your uniform?” When Fjoaan Tsuhn coughed, Coyote Walker spun to him and said, “Shut up. Right now. If you want to see tomorrow, you'll shut up.”
Fjoaan Tsuhn saw the look on his face, and shut up
“I'm fine, now. Is there somewhere I can sit?” Lieutenant Milou didn't wait for an answer, just sank down onto the floor. “As far as what happened, let me put it this way. Waterworlder venom is an incredibly expensive and potent aphrodisiac on my species' home planet.”
“Oh. So you...”
“Yeah. I'm fine now.”
Coyote Walker snorted and shook his head. “That would explain the lack of clothes, then. And that comment you made.”
“No offense meant, by the way.”
“None taken. Um.” Coyote Walker ran his hand through his hair. “Yeah. Would you like something to eat or drink while you're here? I've got some cheese and bread.”
Lieutenant Milou laughed low and deep and just a touch nasty. “It's not every day you get kidnapped and your captor remembers his manners. No thanks, I'm fine.”
“It's not every day you try and do the right thing and wind up kidnapping the guy who's supposed to be on your side by mistake. How did you...you're not ex-Agency, are you?”
Now Lieutenant Milou's laugh was loud and relaxed. “No, not at all. That was an accident. We're lucky we didn't end up a hundred years in the future or blown to pieces.”
“Right.” There was a long, awkward pause. “I have to let Kong know you're here, but I don't want to reveal my position or anything about my ship. Are you okay with an audio transmission only?”
More silence. Fjoaan Tsuhn sat down against the door.
“Only if you answer me a question.” Lieutenant Milou reached around with one paw to scratch an ear.
“If I can, I will.”
“What do you want? I mean, why are you doing this? You've got to know that everything you've done so far makes you look guilty as all hell here, even though aside from holding the Safri prisoner you haven't done anything. And they're not even allowed on this planet because of the interdiction, so technically you're still okay.”
Coyote Walker walked forward and put his hands on Lieutenant Milou's head; the Caynnyd flinched, shinking back as if expecting a blow. “It's okay. Relax.” He looked pointedly at Fjoaan Tsuhn and said, “I'm not going to do anything to you.” He untied the scarf and stepped back. “Open your eyes slowly, 'cause it's bright in here.”
Lieutenant Milou opened his eyes, blinked, and gasped. “What the...what the hell happened to you?” He pointed at Coyote Walker's body and its covering of twisted, ropey keloid scars
“You know the Safri do slave trading runs, right?”
Lieutenant Milou nodded, speechless.
“Most of the species they kidnap aren't, well, hmmm. They don't do captivity. And if you fight back, they do what they have to do to break you. It's been said that they live to torture. I'm not sure I believe that, but they do enjoy it, and they're very, very, very good at it.” He pointed at a long scar on his arm, one that looked like writing. “This one, they branded me. Property, it's somebody's name. Took ages to heal up.” He turned around and pointed to a jagged mess of proud flesh on his back. “These? Nine-lashed whip, glass fragments braided into each tail. And salt water. And acid.” Lifting up his left leg, he revealed a missing chunk of muscle from thigh to groin the width of one of Fjoaan Tsuhn's spines. “And this? They ate it. While I watched.” He spun on his heel and waved a finger at Fjoaan Tsuhn. “And you brought them here. And you too, Oriax.”
With each revelation, Lieutenant Milou took a step away from Coyote Walker. Swallowing hard several times, he said, “That's...that's... Fucking hell.” He wiped at his face and shuddered. “I thought there was somebody else involved? They're just the ship's crew?”
“Yeah, there's somebody else involved, the Safri have him right now. I'm going to rescue his sorry ass, and then I'm going to make sure he's healed from whatever they did to him, and then I'm going to fucking kill him.”
“Ah yes, true love.” Lieutenant Milou picked up the scarf and tied it back around his eyes. Very quietly he added, “How did you survive?”
Coyote Walker's reply was to turn away, flushing a dull ruddy colour, hunched over the console as he tried to raise the Army. There was a rasp, some static, and then the radio crackled to life. “Starboard Battalion Control, Starboard Battalion Control, Starboard Battalion Control, this is the Lux Aeterna, over.”
“Goddamnit, Coyote, where the bloody hell are you?” Commander Kong's furious voice roared into life from the speaker.
“I'm on the Lux, like I just said, and if you're looking for Lieutenant Milou, he's here with me.”
Lieutenant Milou piped up, “Good afternoon, sir.”
“Coyote, what the hell are you playing at?”
He answered, “Minor technical difficulties and a glitch with my Vortex Manipulator. Milou fell on me and triggered the teleport signal by mistake. He's unharmed-” Coyote Walker paused and looked over at the dutifully blindfolded Lieutenant Milou. “He's unharmed, but more than a little surprised. And needs a clean uniform.”
“Whatever. Milou, talk to me.”
Lieutenant Milou turned his blindfolded head toward Coyote Walker. He tipped it to one side, studying him. “Sir, I'm fine. I tripped. The first thing he did once we sorted out what happened was let me go to the lavatory, then offered me something to drink. If I'm being held hostage, sir, he's being quite a gentleman about it.”
Coyote Walker interrupted with a harsh snort. “Kong, you wanted somebody here to supervise, and you got it. So quit complaining.” He looked at Lieutenant Milou and mumbled, “At least you're smart. I don't know if Asigawa knows his ass from a hole in the ground.”
“I heard that, Coyote!”
“I meant you to. I've got enough trouble dealing with this dumb-shit fish, let alone with a mouth-breathing idiot like Asigawa.”
There was a long silence on the other side. Finally, Commander Kong gritted out, “The birds are gone. They'll be out an hour. You have one hour to show Milou what you need to, teeth and all that, and then all three of you come back here with those teeth things. If you don't, I will personally track down the Lux and blast it to pieces, no matter how well you think you have it cloaked. Understood?”
“You don't have a chance. Lux Aeterna out.”
*****
Coyote Walker left Lieutenant Milou and Fjoaan Tsuhn in the flight bridge while he went to find clothing.
Fjoaan Tsuhn wriggled his foreflippers, trying to stretch, when he saw a dark blue shadow coming for his face. He looked up just in time to see Coyote Walker throw something at him. A pile of fabric landed unceremoniously on his chest.
Coyote Walker sailed on by to Lieutenant Milou. “Take off that blindfold and put these on. Actually, wait a minute.” He tipped up his head and whistled something, a summons of some sort for Oriax who flew into the room. “Oriax, take him to the lavatory again?”
Lieutenant Milou gave Coyote Walker a suspicious glance, but followed without complaint.
Coyote Walker stalked over to Fjoaan Tsuhn, looking twice his regular size and rough and dangerous in a strange garment made entirely of animal skins. It was mostly gray, very rough, brought out all the gray in his hair, and made him look like...like he was part beast, part animal like Raksha, only Raksha was less frightening. He crouched down in front of Fjoaan Tsuhn, untied the gag, and stared him right in the eyes. There was something dark and dangerous and animalistic lurking there, something terrifying and wild and absolutely insane.
Fjoaan Tsuhn looked away first.
“Fjoaan. Look at me. We're on the same side. I want John back, you want John back, and I need your help.”
“Funny way of showing it,” grumbled Fjoaan Tsuhn.
“You want to get out of here, you do what I tell you to. And that includes keeping your temper under control, or I will firewhip you again. You're damn lucky that it's Milou's here. You try to pull that kind of shit with Ruakiwa and she'll have you gutted and skinned and served up with red sauce.”
“Why should I listen to you? You're just going to send me back to the army when you're done so they can put me in jail again.”
“When did I say that?” When Fjoaan Tsuhn didn't answer, he wagged his finger and said, “Ah ah ah. You listen about as well as you think. I never, ever said that.”
Fjoaan Tsuhn looked away.
“Put on the clothes I gave you.”
At that moment, Oriax buzzed back into the room, chittering and whistling about something. It was followed by Lieutenant Milou, who was scratching his head with one set of claws and tugging at its new blue-and-brown robes with the other. “Coyote, what's going on?”
“We're going on a little trip. Nudity is frowned upon where we're going, and your uniform is a bit of a mess.” He brushed past a hovering Oriax, ducking down to a hidden compartment. “Hey, get over here and help me open this.”
Lieutenant Milou waved its fifth extremity and asked, “Which one of us are you talking to?”
“Fjoaan.” Coyote Walker turned around. “Oh for crying out loud, get your clothes on. We don't have time to piss about.” With an almighty jerk, he yanked the compartment door open. “Fine. Oriax, I need a hand. Claw. Whatever.”
Oriax's sharp, ratcheting answer was mostly drowned out by the whirring of its wings as it settled down next to Coyote Walker
“Yeah, I know. Hold this open for me.” Coyote Walker descended to his knees, reaching down in the compartment. There was some scraping noise, followed by a dull thunk, and then he backed out, carrying a box about as long as his arm. “Ha. That was easier than I thought it'd be. Now go put your garment on.” Oriax took off towards the console, where another pile of blue and brown awaited it.
Fjoaan Tsuhn finished getting into the same kind of blue-and-brown robes as Lieutenant Milou. He fumbled with its wide blue belt, getting it tangled in his wrist-spines and caught on the scales of his skin. “Son of a...”
Coyote Walker lifted his eyes to the ceiling. “Give me strength. Oriax, go help him.”
Oriax apparently hadn't forgiven him for striking out earlier. It was brusque and rough and made a grinding noise the entire time. Fjoaan Tsuhn hissed, “Keep it to yourself.”
Oriax stabbed him in the abdomen with a spiky digit.
“Cut it out, you two.” Coyote Walker turned to Lieutenant Milou. “When the Agency disbanded, I got a job here making sure the casinos stay clean. We're going to go see a friend who helps me with that, and a few other things. Might even help with the Safri. Those two clowns don't matter,” he said, pointing at Fjoaan Tsuhn and Oriax, “but it's in your best interest to keep your mouth closed. If he so much as wonders if you're Army, he'll pitch us all out.”
“What are we doing?” Lieutenant Milou's ears swiveled back and his fifth extremity stood out rigidly behind him. “Coyote, you know if I see or hear something illegal I have to say something.”
“There won't be anything illegal. Just two old men talking.”
“Then what's in the box?”
“A present for him.”
“A bribe, you mean.”
Coyote Walker smiled. “No, a present. You might not believe this, but people do take gifts to people on occasion. The fact that I'm going to get something valuable from him in return is irrelevant.” He grabbed at a thick leather strap on the box and slung the whole thing over his shoulder. “Oriax, Fjoaan, come on over here.”
*****
They came out of teleport into a dark, dingy alleyway fetid with the stench of urine and rotting garbage and mercaptan and fuel oil. Only Oriax, whose people had a bare minimum sense of smell, seemed unaffected. Coyote Walker promptly tied his scarf around his nose, leaving Lieutenant Milou and Fjoaan Tsuhn to stand gagging and dry-heaving.
Coyote Walker led them single-file down the disgusting path, with Lieutenant Milou and Fjoaan Tsuhn close behind and Oriax bringing up the rear. They passed a series of tenement dwellings, an unremarkable door that reeked so strongly of time travel it nearly sent Fjoaan Tsuhn to his knees, and a pair of shops advertising the most bizarre assortment of foodstuffs he'd ever seen.
They stopped outside another unmarked door. Coyote Walker hopped up the seven small steps leading to the door, paused, and turned to face the other three. “You three, keep quiet unless I speak to you.”
The door creaked open. Leaving their filthy shoes in a small foyer, they trouped down a dimly-lit hallway, so saturated with the twin stench of time travel and aromatic oils that Fjoaan Tsuhn wondered for a moment if they'd teleported back to the Light-bearer.
“Pull your hoods over your faces.” Coyote Walker's grey head looked curiously bare amongst the blue-and-brown cowls. “Oriax, there'll be something you can touch down on.” He rapped on a panel made of dark smoky wood with a carving of fruits in a bowl in the center.
Ahead of them, another door swung open, its interior veiled by an energy curtain. “Who is it?”
“Yellow Dog Dingo. I'm looking for the Old Man, hoping to see him before five o'clock this afternoon.”
Wheezy laughter sounded out from behind the curtain. “And if I told you to go away?”
“I'd dance on a sandpile and bother you in your bath.”
“Well, I'm not in my bath right now, so you might as well come in.”
Coyote Walker grinned, toothy and amused, and gestured for them to follow him. The energy curtain parted to reveal a vast brilliantly-lit room, flames flickering and reflecting through the facets of a thousand crystals suspended in a giant, graceful chandelier. He unslung the box from his shoulder and laid it on the floor at the base of a massive wooden desk. Once Fjoaan Tsuhn, Lieutenant Milou, and Oriax were all inside, he pointed at a long, thinly-padded wooden bench. The ends were carved with a spiral pattern. “Have a seat.”
An ancient Earth-human sat behind the desk. Fjoaan Tsuhn flat-out stared-he'd seen pictures in that book of John Hart's of very, very old Earth-humans, but seeing the picture was so wildly different from seeing the real thing that he was glad he was sitting down. Wispy white fur, whiter than Lieutenant Milou's pelt, sagging skin covered in brown spots of varying size, rheumy red-rimmed eyes. Old Man is the most terrifying creature I've ever seen. He's worse than Laaessy and Oolyllyr combined.
When the old man spoke, he addressed Coyote Walker, who knelt before him, hands clasped behind his back and greying head bent to the floor. “Peace of the glory of the Stars and Heavens be upon you, my child, and may blessings upon you fall as stardust.”
“I offer all I am to the Looms of the Stars and Heavens, she-he who is was will be the weaver of all Creation, so that I might succor all of her-his treasures living and not.” Coyote Walker waited until the hoary Earth-human's hand touched him between the shoulder blades; at the contact, he stood and bowed. “May I sit, Elder?”
“Please do, and if you would, introduce your guests.”
Coyote Walker lowered himself to an ornately carved, gilded chair, the shape of which reminded Fjoaan Tsuhn strongly of Manon's creature Narasimha. He shivered at the thought-what if the chair were alive? What if it could move and attack him?
Coyote Walker's voice mercifully interrupted his mind. “From left to right, they are Milo, Feon, and Oryx. A friend of Feon's is in trouble, and they came to me for help. Friends, this is Elder Nicholas, trusted friend and Biscop of the Order of the Weavers of Time.”
Elder Nicholas nodded at them. “May blessings as stardust fall upon you, children.”
Surprisingly, Oriax answered, “And may the stardust light your path, Elder.” Lieutenant Milou and Fjoaan Tsuhn both craned their necks to stare at it.
The elderly man smiled. “What brings you here today, child?”
“I have a gift for you, Elder, one that I hope may interest you.” He bent down and retrieved the box, opening a pair of buckles on its near side. The old man leaned forward.
When the box sprung open, something inside glittered and glimmered and caught the light. “Oh, Coyote,” breathed Elder Nicholas, “You outdid yourself this time.”
Coyote Walker lifted the fantastic thing from the box. Heavy, golden, oddly-shaped and with a pair of serpentine holes cut in one side, it seemed to glow in the candlelit room. “Do you play?”
To his side, Fjoaan Tsuhn heard Lieutenant Milou's breath catch, felt him begin to fidget.
Elder Nicholas answered, “I don't, but I know who does.” He slid open a drawer in the desk and rummaged in it with a hand. “Where did you find this beautiful thing, Coyote?”
Coyote Walker bent his head. “I bought it from an elderly being who had fallen upon hard times, one who used the money I paid her to feed her children.”
“I see.” Elder Nicholas reached for the object, turning it lovingly in his hands. “Is there a bow?”
“In the box.”
A sharp rapping rang out from the other side of the door. Elder Nicholas looked up and smiled. “Come in.”
Another being entered, disembodied and swirling through the air. It reformed itself in front of Elder Nicholas's desk, genuflecting low, the twin of Commander Kong's creature Sioliolea. Fjoaan Tsuhn shrank back into the hard bench, causing Oriax to poke his side and Lieutenant Milou to hiss into his ear. “Settle down, it's just an Ouragan.”
Coyote Walker spun around and stared, hard, at the three of them. Lieutenant Milou bowed his head. His ears were pressed flat back to his skull, as if they'd been cropped off.
“Fieerliveela, do you recognize this? Elder Nicholas handed to object to the glittery blue being. Ouragan. Dangerous creature.
“Oh. Oh, yes, Elder.” He had the same bells-and-wind voice that Sioliolea did.
“Rise, then, and play for us, please.”
Fieerliveela knocked its head against the floor before standing and taking the golden object in its hands. It tucked the fat end under its chin and held the skinny end out at the end of its arm, and, taking a matching golden stick from the box, began dragging the stick across whatever it was.
Haunting, high-pitched, ethereal music threaded through the room. The Ouragan's arm slid back and forwards, rolling like waves over the shining surface, flooding the room with the joys of sound and candlelight and gold and water, almost entirely blocking the stench of time travel from Fjoaan Tsuhn's senses.
Oriax slid off the bench to the floor, prostrating itself and chanting something in its native language.
When the Ouragan stopped moving its arm, the glorious sound died. Elder Nicholas gestured for it to leave the instrument behind. “Thank you, Fieerliveela.
“My pleasure, Elder.” It bowed and departed.
They all sat in silence for a while, remembering the song. Elder Nicholas lifted the instrument and turned it over and over in his withered old hands.
“All of us woven in Creation thank you for your generous gift. The power of its song, we hope, will be enough to salve the broken hearts of the downfallen. The glory you give to the Weavers of Time is admirable, and her his children were are will be offering blessings upon you.” His voice wavered and broke several times during the little speech, making Fjoaan Tsuhn wonder, How much longer does he have to live?
Coyote Walker slid from the chair and genuflected before Elder Nicholas. The fur on his shirt reflected silver under the lights of the chandelier. Elder Nicholas watched him sink down, waited until he was bowed low, before grabbing a carved and bejeweled walking stick and doddering over to stand with a palsied hand on his greying head. A massive, fiery janas jewel winked from a ring on his finger.
“Now, Coyote, before I give you blessings, you must hear a story the Weavers told will tell me. The Looms tell us of a faithless woman, a vulgar creature who was so imprisoned by her love of material things that she once even betrayed her lover for a common gem. She was so blinded by her greed that she could not see the terrible consequences of what she did, no more than she could see the lump of coal disguised as the most priceless jewel of long-lost Arcadia. The quest for things distracts our souls from the most important thing of all, the love of each and every living being under the Stars and Heavens, love that connects us and through which even time itself flows. Without that love, we are but slaves to our most common desires. Be not like that faithless woman, she who would seek to enrich her body through the folly of others, yet has never sought to enrich her mind.”
“I hear the story, Elder, and I listen.” Next to Fjoaan Tsuhn, Oriax muttered the same thing.
“Good man.” He tapped the top of Coyote Walker's head. “Now, will you join us for our meal? It's bread and cheese tonight, if you can imagine.”
Coyote Walker laughed. “Bread and cheese? Fancy tonight!” He pushed himself to his feet. “If I'd known you were serving bread and cheese, I would have dressed for supper. Unfortunately we can't stay, Elder, but thank you for the invitation.” He offered an elbow to Elder Nicholas, who shook his head no and whacked him on the knees with his stick.
“I'm still not dead, Coyote. You can carry me to my meals when I'm dead. We've been over this before.”
“May I at least hold the door for you, then, Elder?”
“Fine. Make sure you stop by the sanctuary on your way out.” Elder Nicholas tipped his frosty head toward the bench. “Blessings on your friends.”
Coyote Walker led the way to an elaborately carved door, holding it open, awkward amongst all the finery in his rough animal skins. When Elder Nicholas passed through, he shut it with a quiet click.
“Time to go.”
They retreated back down the hall, Fjoaan Tsuhn following as close behind Lieutenant Milou as he could.
Once outside in the filthy alleyway, Lieutenant Milou threw back his cowl and shoved Coyote Walker up against the dirty wall. “You dirty, cocksucking bastard!” White claws poked out from under the sleeves of his robes and encircled the Earth-human's throat. “Filthy, corrupt BASTARD!!!”
Coyote Walker closed his eyes ever so briefly before flinging his arms up between his body and Lieutenant Milou's arms, pressing down so that Lieutenant Milou's arms were trapped well away from his throat. “Don't. Don't even start with me.”
“What the hell is wrong with you? That's Shahli-danylle's violin! It's a treasure of my people and it's been missing for three hundred years!”
“And it was purchased at a legitimate auction by a legitimate buyer.” He stared Lieutenant Milou full in the face before asking, “If I let you go, will you behave? We have to get back to Kong.”
“Where I report you for theft and bribery!”
Coyote Walker snorted. “And here I was saying you were smarter than Asigawa. I'm sorry, what part of legitimate auction and legitimate buyer didn't you understand?” He crossed his arms together and squeezed, making Lieutenant Milou gasp in pain. “What a legitimate buyer does with his legitimately purchased things is nobody's business but his own. And for it to be bribery, I'd have to be giving that in exchange for official favour of some sort, and if you know so much why don't you tell me what kind of favour was given?”
Lieutenant Milou struggled against Coyote Walker, trying to pull back, but when he found he couldn't move, he spat out, “Fuck all, you're a viper. You'd sell off the Caynnyd's heritage for a cheap buck, and you're dragging around a pair of thugs who should be in prison by now, and...”
Coyote Walker pulled Lieutenant Milou close, so close that their faces were mere inches from one another. “Remember what we talked about a little while ago, about why I'm doing this? Come with me, and learn something.” He twisted his left arm over Lieutenant Milou's body, holding him tight, and dragged him down the seven steps to the alley. “Fjoaan, Oriax, you too. Come along.”
Fjoaan Tsuhn wanted to do nothing of the sort, but Oriax stabbed him in the shoulder with a spiky digit, and he followed with ill grace. Coyote Walker hauled a struggling Lieutenant Milou about twenty paces further along, to another heavy wooden door. “Fjoaan, open it for me.”
Fjoaan Tsuhn needed all his body weight to push the door open. Coyote Walker shoved Lieutenant Milou through and herded him and Oriax inside the tiny vestibule. Pointing to a set of ill-lit stairs,
Coyote Walker said, “Up.”
When Lieutenant Milou made to push past Coyote Walker, the Earth-human caught both his hands, forced them behind his back, and pushed the Caynnyd up the stairs. “Stop making this difficult.” He guided them up, with Fjoaan Tsuhn behind him and Oriax trailing.
Up and up and up they went, higher and higher in what must be a deceptively large building, until they reached the top of the stairwell. Coyote Walker glided away down the dark hall, Caynnyd still held tight. Once he reached a battered, ancient door, he set Lieutenant Milou free.
He seemed unusually grim as he turned to face them. “All of you, absolute quiet.” Lieutenant Milou opened his mouth to protest, but was silenced by Coyote Walker's stare. “Good.”
The door opened onto a narrow balcony overlooking a huge room. Like Lady Manon's casino, it had a glass ceiling, allowing the pale light of the late afternoon sun to wash over everything within. While Fjoaan Tsuhn's eyes adapted to the light, he heard a gasp from his left and quiet chirruping from his right.
“Sssshhh!” Coyote Walker silenced them.
Lieutenant Milou walked to the railing, staring down at the theatre below.
Hundreds and hundreds of beings, mostly Earth-human but with a sizable percentage of others, lay in beds on the floor. Most of them were covered head-to-foot in bandages. A few were missing limbs, while others' eyes were covered with patches. Most were weakly crying in pain. Fjoaan Tsuhn's spines shot out, rending great holes in the fabric of his robe, when he spotted a pair of Waterworlders amongst the fallen-the first of his kind he'd seen since he left his homeworld. One was missing a foreflipper. The other, little more than a fry, lay in the defensive posture in a sleeping unit, with one of the Ouragan tending to it.
He ran out into the hall.
Several minutes later, Coyote Walker led a shocked Lieutenant Milou and shaking Oriax out. The group went down the stairs and out the heavy door, and once again, Lieutenant Milou exploded.
“What the hell is wrong with you? What the hell is going on in there? I swear, if you've had anything to do with that...”
“What?” Coyote Walker's arms flailed wildly around him, forcing Lieutenant Milou against the door. “You'll do what? Petition the government for their care? Volunteer to help them? Go help peel roots in the kitchen so they can eat? Build a proper hospital so they don't have to live in the converted sanctuary of an old religious building? What? What? Tell me, because I'd DAMN sure like to know!”
“But...”
Coyote Walker abruptly spun about and took off, stalking down the stinking alley. “Fjoaan, Oriax, with me.”
Oriax zipped after Coyote Walker. Fjoaan Tsuhn stared at Lieutenant Milou for a moment before following. He wanted to go home, get away from twisted minds and broken bodies, get away from this madness to whatever little life he could patch out for himself, and as long as John Hart was gone, Coyote Walker was his best bet. He wondered for a moment how low he'd fallen, that he'd sell his loyalty that cheaply.
Lieutenant Milou charged up behind them, slamming so hard against Fjoaan Tsuhn that he lost his balance and fell. Oriax, who had been flying just in front of him, was crushed under his body with a sickening crunch. Lieutenant Milou wrestled Coyote Walker to the ground and growled, “You're not done! Give me one good reason why I shouldn't drag you off to the Colonial Commission right now...” His words ended with an abrupt grunt as Coyote Walker heaved him into the wall. His head struck the grimy brick with a dull thud; he slumped down and lay still.
Fjoaan Tsuhn had rolled off the stricken, screaming Oriax, trying to hold together a huge, jagged wound in his abdomen where it had been ripped open by a pair of spiky digits. Sticky ichor flowed out around the webbing of his foreflippers. It hurt. It really, really hurt.
“Oh, fucking hell. Fjoaan, can you...fuck, he got you too.” Coyote Walker staggered to his feet, bleeding profusely from a long cut on his leg. Blood splashing onto Lieutenant Milou's unconscious form stained the white fur under the torn robes a shocking scarlet. “Bloody hell.” He grabbed Lieutenant Milou's hairy leg, dragged him over to Fjoaan Tsuhn, and said, “Lean on back of him.”
While Fjoaan Tsuhn arranged himself as best as he could on Lieutenant Milou's pelvis, Coyote Walker carefully gathered a still-screaming Oriax into his arms. Two limbs and a wing dangled sickeningly from its body, and a third limb lay shattered and broken on the ground. “Oh, my friend, I'm sorry, I'm so, so sorry.” Stripping off a shoe and grasping the shattered limb between the toes of his right foot, Coyote Walker grabbed Fjoaan Tsuhn's nearest foreflipper and one of Lieutenant Milou's paws and teleported them away.
*******
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