Chapter 113

“The ‘how’ of how all of these people get here,” Faiza says on a sigh, “is a more complicated question. Usually they slip through by accident. Or some are born here. But the why is not as difficult – the City of Life is the only place on this whole planet that isn’t a wasteland. I mean, you’ve got some people that live in the sad little town that surrounds your fancy palace,” she says, shooting a little glare Orion’s way. “But honestly, can you blame people for wanting to live somewhere that attempts to simulate the world that they left?”

“No,” I say, the world coming out on a happy little breath as I grin, kind of delighted by all the variety of life here in this wasteland of a world. I watch eagerly as a little dog with eight legs floats by, carried neatly by three sets of beating wings that mean none of its eight little feet ever have to touch the ground. “No, I can’t say that I blame them at all.”

“Don’t let her distract you, Princess,” Anton murmurs, giving me a little nudge with his elbow. “We’ve still got a job to do.”

“Oh!” I say, sufficiently reminded, tearing my eyes from all the fascinating sights around me. “Yes.” I give Faiza a little glare that makes her laugh before I lift my hand again, calling up another blue butterfly.

I again raise my hand high into the air, watching as the butterfly alights and takes off –

But to my dismay, as soon as it starts to fly, about twenty other identical blue butterflies appear in the air around it, all scattering in twenty different directions.

“Oh, god damn it!” I growl, stepping frantically forward, whipping my head around, trying to figure out which one was mine.

“Oh no!” Laila gasps. “Can you just call up a new one?”

I try it, but as soon as the bug alights from my hand twenty more butterflies again appear.

“It’s this one!” Anton says, darting forward, his eyes fastened on one of them. “I’m sure of it!”

Trusting him, we all dash after Anton down the street, doing our very best to follow the correct butterfly. But eventually it goes beyond us, and we’re left behind in the press of traffic.

“Another round?” Orion says, looking at me with a shrug.

I sigh and raise my hand again, summoning up a new tiny familiar and launching it into the air only to have it accompanied instantly by all of its mimics. This time Laila leads us, convinced she’s got the right one in her eyeline, and we tear down the street after it.

The entire damn day passes like this.

And while we do get closer to the temple, honestly by the end of it I’m not sure that we’ve made it more than six blocks.

“Are you sure?” I sigh, leaning hard against Anton, incredibly frustrated and out of patience. “I swear to god, Orion, you chased one of the mimics – we’ve been at this place before.”

“No, we weren’t June, this Inn is called the Sea Horse,” he says, gesturing a hand up towards the inn outside of which we all stand. “The last one was called the Thirsty Camel.”

“Its true,” Laila says, nodding eagerly. “I’d have remember that pretty seascape,” she says, pointing at the mural on the wall on the outside of the inn. “Reminds me of home.”

I sigh, glancing at the mural – which really is very pretty – and then back at my friends, and then up at the temple, which continues to glow in the darkness as it has done the entire time since we arrived.

“God damn it,” I sigh, sort of at the end of my rope. We tried all sorts of other spells to lead us more accurately through the streets, but the butterfly one worked best. And by now the city is just sort of filled with blue butterflies like we’re in some kind of strange migration pattern, making it even harder to follow the right one.

Luckily, the citizens seem to have been delighted by the development, murmuring about a miracle and laughing with joy as they caught the butterflies on their hands, some of them falling to their knees to pray to them.

But for me…it was less miraculous and more inconvenient.

“All right, I’m calling it,” I say with a sigh, putting my hands on my hips and letting my head hang a bit. “Life wins today. We’ll start again tomorrow.”

“So, what do we do now?” Blythe asks, wary.

“Well, there’s an inn,” I say, gesturing towards it.

“Fine by me,” Faiza says with a big grin, turning and starting towards it. “You’re paying, right? Drinks on you?”

I pull on the tether of her shackles before she gets too far, making her yelp and then stumble back, spinning her head to glare at me. “Gentle, highness,” she snarls. “I only accept that kind of rough stuff after you’ve at least bought me a drink.”

I do my best to hide my smirk, looking seriously at her. “Are we safe here for the night? Life isn’t going to try any funny business, is she?”

Faiza turns fully to me, a smile pulling at her lips. “Maybe she will.”

“I’m serious, Faiza!” I snap, stamping my foot a bit and regretting it when her smile widens. “At Orion’s mom’s house you said that Life was going to try violent things to keep us away. Was that just a bluff?”

Faiza sighs, turning to me fully. “Look, Princess, if Life wanted you dead, you’d be dead, okay?” She quirks an eyebrow at me. “Like I’ve said before, she’s rooting for you. She wants you alive just…frustrated enough with her world that you leave peacefully. But I promise you, you will be safe in the hospitality of her city, especially if you stop looking for a way to get to the temple.”

I raise my eyebrows at this, kind of intrigued. Because…I mean, that makes sense, doesn’t it? I look up at Anton for his opinion and he just shrugs at me, implying that he doesn’t see anything wrong with the logic there.

I turn to Orion next. “Is there any way you can confirm this?”

“What?” he asks, his face scrunching with confusion.

I roll my eyes at him. “She’s your aunt, Orion. Can’t you like…ask if we can sleep over, or whatever?”

He smirks at me and then turns his face up to the sky. “Hey auntie!” he calls, cupping his hands to his mouth. “We good here!?”

He drops his hands and we all wait for an answer.

Suddenly, of all things, a beer appears in Orion’s waiting hand. He gasps, nearly dropping it, then bursts out laughing as he turns to me. “Yeah,” he says, grinning at me and giving a shrug. “I…I guess she wants us to make ourselves at home.”

“Good enough for me!” I say on a happy sigh, turning towards the inn and striding for it, passively reaching out and snatching Anton’s hand as I do.

He laces his fingers between mine and gives my hand a squeeze, making me smile as I push open the door to the inn and step inside, looking curiously around. The main chamber of the inn is a tavern of sorts and I smile as my friends step inside, because it’s quite charming. Neat, clean, and sea-themed, which should make Laila –

“Oh my god!” Laila gasps, her hands flying to her mouth, her eyes delighted as she looks around. “Oh my god!”

“What?” I ask, spinning to her, staring, a little worried that somethings wrong as she turns in a slow circle, laughing for joy.

“It’s – this is home! This is from my homeland! This is exactly like the traditional taverns that we –“

She whips her head to the bar and then shrieks with happiness when she sees, behind the counter, a man standing there with wide dark eyes, wavy purple hair, and dappled skin just like hers. She dashes for him, calling her eager hellos. He laughs with joy, dashing out from behind the bar and sweeping our little Selkie girl up into his arms, twirling her around in a circle.

“Whoa,” I say, grinning up at Anton and then stepping closer to Laila, the rest of the group following.

“Welcome, welcome!” the bartender says, beaming down at Laila. “Oh, it is so good to see you!”

“Do you…know each other?” Orion asks, looking between the bartender and the Princess with wide, surprised eyes.

“No, we’ve never met!” Laila says, laughing and hugging the strange man around the waist with one arm, wiping a tear from her cheek with her free hand.

“We’re just…a very familial people,” the man says, his arms around her shoulders, equally overjoyed. “We are so rare here – it is just so wonderful to see another Selkie!”

“Aw,” I say, leaning against Anton and grinning between Laila and our new friend. “That’s nice.”

“Not very wolfish are they,” Anton murmurs, ducking his head so I can hear him better. “We snarl first, hug second.”

“Oh, I’m sure he’ll let you sniff his ass if you really want to, Tony,” I murmur, crossing my arms and keeping my eye on my friend.

Anton bursts out laughing, his head tilted back to the ceiling.

“Please, come!” the bartender says, waving all of us forward to the bar. “A drink, to celebrate! A Selkie’s friend is friend to all! And then you will stay the night in our finest suite!”

Faiza eagerly steps up, leaning over the bar, beaming eagerly at the bartender as the rest of us come forward as well.

“Is this the best idea?” Orion murmurs, glancing down at me after he steps to my side. “Should we be…more focused on our task?”

“Eh, let’s take the night off,” I say, grinning up at him and then turning my head to smile up at Anton too. “Besides, Laila’s happy and I’m tired. We deserve a break.”

“Break it is,” Orion says, putting his beer down on the counter and accepting one of the little glasses of liquor that the bartender passes around to each of us. “Bottoms up!”

“Bottom’s up, Prince,” I say, giving him a little wink.

Blythe and Anton both watch jealously as I toss my head back and drink the little tiny glass of liquor all in one go, choking a bit on the briny taste but laughing none-the-less.

“Come on, June,” Orion says, slipping an arm around my waist and starting to lead me over to a little table in the corner as Laila leans forward towards the bartender, starting to have an eager chat about his family and where he’s from. “If we’re going to settle in for the night? Let’s settle in.”