The Composer of Screams Read online

  “Nothing much,” Fevered Day said. “We'll even return her to you, as sane as when we got her.” Her perpetual smile widened. “I swear it on the Zero Forge.”

  This was always the case with the fey. It took a lot of haggling to even get them to accept money at all. Normally, they preferred people. Very specific people. Usually, they were never returned. Occasionally they escaped, with no memories of their previous lives, and became changelings.

  Glasya rubbed her forehead. “Let me guess. The same as you wanted for the toy box: A dozen virgins, six male and six female, all eighteen.” She locked gazes with Fevered Day. “The answer is still no.”

  But the grin didn't disappear. “Oh, Honored Nightstalker, this is why I love you. You never give up on your principles. But I just want one this time.”

  “I'm still not going to give you some random—”

  “Her,” the fey said. It took Jelena a second to look up and realize what was going on.

  Fevered Day was pointing at her.

  “No,” Glasya said instantly. “No, no, no. No way in the blackest night.”

  “You'll get her back...”

  “No!” Glasya was standing now, the chair flung back against the wall. Her rage was barely contained—at least she hadn't actually attacked Fevered Day. “I refuse!”

  The Crone sighed. “Really, dearest, one little girl is hardly anything in the grand scheme of things.”

  “No, I refuse to sacrifice—”

  “I'll do it.”

  Both women turned to stare at Jelena. The shock on Glasya's face was expected. But she was surprised to see, however briefly, a similar look on the fey's. She hadn't thought she'd get her way. But that didn't make any sense. The fey were arrogant bastards who were convinced they would always win.

  But the look was gone so fast Jelena could almost convince herself she had imagined it.

  The naked woman stood, strode forward, and gripped Jelena's arm tightly. “Good choice, Honored Nightstalker. I'll send the information back once we've reached my demesne.” She turned to the warlord. “Three days, Noble Glasya. And then you'll have her back.” She grinned again. “Wouldn't want you running out of tea, now would we?”

  As the Queen-Mother of Fevered Day dragged Jelena out of the room, she glanced back to see one of the most powerful women in the city on her knees, sobbing.

  She looked exactly as if she had just been told her best friend was dead.

  Chapter 10: INSIDIIS MURES

  DELPHIE

  Delphie Murinae was a murid, a mouse kemo. They were not exactly a very organized culture, but they did have one warlord: Delphie's sister.

  Like Delphie, she still looked baseline, with long brown hair tied up in an elegant bun. She was taller than Delphie by a good foot, which put her a little above average, with the same chocolate-colored eyes as Delphie. But unlike Delphie, she always had an unflinchingly serious look on her face, as though she were doing the most important thing in the world.

  She was dressed in furs and leathers—mouse furs, which were a lot harder to stitch together nicely than you'd think. Some people didn't even realize it was clothing at first, she wore so much of it. But that wasn't what marked her as the Alpha of the murids.

  Sitting lazily in her lap was a lean and dangerous rat, six feet long with a tail of equal length. Panay was currently curled up in a ball, asleep, but Delphie knew he would be awake in seconds if his mistress was in danger. Unlike his wild brethren, his fur was clean and groomed, but he was not pampered. He had to catch everything he ate, he was just well-trained enough not to overeat like most of his kind. Combined with his buffs, the result was a creature of whip-like muscles and unbreakable teeth that could kill a baseline bear without any difficulty.

  Like Delphie, her sister had internal pheromone buffs that let her control rats and lesser rodents. Unlike Delphie, she used hers to recruit and train an army of animal companions.

  The Queen-Mother of Fevered Day smiled at them from where she stood before Delphie's sister's chair. “So why have you called me here, Plague?”

  Delphie's sister had a real name, which Delphie thought was quite beautiful, but she disagreed. She insisted on being called the Lady of the Plague, referencing her power base—dangerous, disease-carrying rodents. She didn't seem to notice how pretentious it sounded.

  She answered the fey instantly. “We need to get in touch with the Composer.”

  She hadn't gotten to be warlord by being polite and gentile.

  To her credit, the fey just raised an eyebrow. “Oh? Interesting. May I ask why?”

  “You should know. Weren't the fey planning to join him?”

  Fevered Day grinned. “Perhaps. Perhaps not.” She leaned forward, eyes narrowed. “Either way, I doubt you want to become an amhránnaí or caoin. No, you want to become like the Paladins. A cainteoir.”

  Delphie's sister stroked Panay behind the ears. “If that's what you want to call it.”

  “Well, unfortunately, we have had very little luck finding the Cumadóir. Whenever we think we might be zeroing in, it moves.” Fevered Day shrugged her naked shoulders. “I am sorry. We had a number of questions we wished to ask it as well.”

  “I really thought you would already know. My spies tell me the burners were looking for Killing Sparrow.”

  “They didn't find her.” The fey did not elaborate.

  Delphie's sister closed her eyes. “Please don't be difficult. I don't see a reason why we cannot work together towards a common goal here. We both want to meet the Composer. We can do that, if we share information.”

  “I remember what happened last time we worked together,” Fevered Day said with a giggle. “I put you in a toy box, stuffed you with enough buffs to become a warlord.” Her gaze, no longer friendly and happy, turned to Delphie. “And in exchange, your sister took enough fertility drugs to let a corpse give birth.” She grinned cruelly. “Which reminds me... how are those triplets of yours doing, dearest?”

  Delphie bristled. “You know I'm staying out of their lives.”

  Fevered Day shrugged. “Understandable. Though you should know, little Melanie recently decided she wanted to be an Alpha when she grows up.” The grin came back, and her eyes flicked to Delphie's sister. “Interesting, don't you think?”

  Delphie stalked forward, but her sister grabbed her arm before she could do anything too rash. It didn't stop her from talking, though. “You stay away from them. If I hear you've so much as touched them—”

  Fevered Day rolled her eyes and waved her hand, dismissing Delphie's threats as empty air. “You don't even know where they are. What are you going to do? Ask MC to search for every three-year-old in the city?”

  “She can narrow it down by birth date, and the fact that they're triplets will make it easier too.”

  The cruel grin returned. “Who said I put them in the system under their birth dates? Or kept them together, for that matter?”

  Delphie ground her teeth together. “You crazy—”

  “Stop,” her sister said, and she did. “You gave them up. Deal with it.”

  Chastised, Delphie nodded. Her situation was hardly normal, but she had made her choices. And teenage parents who put their babies in orphanages were common enough that she didn't really have a right to complain in normal company.

  However, when one of the people she was talking to was her sister, who had children nearly as old as Delphie, complaining was just plain stupid. She was a better mother than Delphie could ever hope to pretend to be.

  Fevered Day's gaze turned to Delphie's sister. “That reminds me. How are your little ones? Your son is... eight?”

  “Ten,” she corrected. “Gwenyth is eight.”

  Fevered Day nodded. “Right, right. Knew one of them was eight.”

  Delphie's sister had never been one for small talk, and this was quickly straying into forbidden topics. “Is there a point to this, Crone? If you can't help us find the Composer, I think this meeting is over.”

&nb
sp; Fevered Day shook her head, her long black hair becoming mussed. “So impatient... tell me, Dame Plague, why exactly do you want to find the creature who is stalking your streets?”

  “I told you. We want powers.”

  Fevered Day scoffed. “From an unknown, insane zombie lord? Please. You're far too careful to trust your fate to anything you don't understand.” She leaned forward. “So why don't you tell me what you're really after.”

  Delphie's sister didn't speak for a few moments.

  “The toy maker,” she said finally, “was the most important advancement the human race has ever made. Clarke and Butler leveraged it into essentially owning this city.” She narrowed her eyes. “And now we have superpowers running around.”

  Fevered Day grinned. “You want to be the Cumadóir.”

  Delphie blinked at that. It was beyond what she had expected. Her sister had always been ambitious, but this was a bit of a leap, even for her.

  “Whoever the Composer is, he doesn't know what he's doing. In his position, I would use and dole out these powers far more responsibly.”

  “Somehow I doubt that, sweetness. I also doubt you'd have a chance against him. He's eluded Necessarius for some time now, which speaks volumes. And I'm sure you've heard the rumors.”

  Delphie's sister rolled her eyes. “Yes, that he's an immortal body-jumper from an ancient civilization that destroyed itself in its own hubris. I heard.” She waved her hand airily. “But if he was immortal, he wouldn't be bothering with the whole show—he'd be fighting on the front lines.”

  “And that last part is clearly a ripoff of the Atlantis myth,” Delphie said.

  Delphie's sister nodded. “That too. Memetic mutation is spinning his reputation out of control, but that's nothing new. I'm sure you remember the rumors from right after Orcus died.”

  Fevered Day chuckled. “Oh, yes, those were entertaining. I especially liked the ones about him returning as an undead prince bent on vengeance.” She grinned. “There were some people who really got into it, too. Read anything under the name 'Tenebrous' and you'll see what I mean. They're very entertaining.”

  “Back on topic,” Delphie's sister growled—literally. “Can you help us or not?”

  Fevered Day grinned. “Not. And honestly, I wouldn't even if I could. You have little to offer me.” She rose to go.

  “Wait.” Delphie's sister looked pained, but she spoke without hesitation. “If you help us, I'll give you Heather's body.”

  Delphie felt like her heart had stopped in her chest. She couldn't actually be thinking...

  Fevered Day's grin seemed to split her face in half. “You'll actually give me your daughter's body? No strings attached?”

  “Heather's body,” she insisted. It wasn't that she didn't view the girl as her daughter or anything like that, but she had another daughter to worry about, and with the fey you had to be specific about that kind of thing. “Payment upon delivery of the information. Deal?”

  Fevered Day paused, thinking, then shook her head. “No. That could be months. She's been dead for days already. Payment now or no deal.”

  Delphie's sister ground her teeth. “Fine. She's stored in the Warren of the Unforgotten. I'll let the gravekeeper know you're coming.” She reached for her phone in her pants pocket, but Panay squealed slightly in protest.

  “No need to hurry,” Fevered Day said as she rose. “I don't quite have time right now anyway. Just make sure you call before the end of the day.” She brushed her hair carefully. “One of my other homunculi is escorting a package, and I need to keep my attention on that.” She winked at Delphie slyly. “Thank you for the hospitality, girls. I'll show myself out.”

  Chapter 11: INUIDIAM

  AKANE

  Monday night, History class. Akane was sitting with Derek, Lizzy, and Adam, same as always, listening to the old cane droning on about the first moon landing. How old did he think they were? Akane swore, every history teacher felt the need to rehash everything else they had been taught.

  Her armor, such as it was, was working out pretty well. She and Derek had only taken six jobs since Friday, and they needed a bit of a breather after the constant fighting. But still, the Minerva silk was holding up nicely.

  Adam's astronaut was in 'sarian custody, as expected. Word had already spread about the mutiny and the USP takeover. It didn't affect the city directly, but a lot of Domina's supplies came from free colonies, so they'd be hit hard regardless. The big nations never liked their investments deciding to simply go independent.

  But they weren't talking about that here. No current events, or indeed anything within the last twenty years. The old cane refused to even touch upon the toy maker. Ridiculous.

  Lizzy, of course, was her usual bubbly self. All the horrors of the city never seemed to touch her. If anything, she seemed happier. Probably because the screamers hadn't affected her at all, plus she was at college. She always did love meeting new people.

  She was having trouble understanding what the teacher was saying—as always—so she kept leaning over to ask Derek for help. He tried to explain everything as best he could, but he kept getting distracted by her cleavage. He avoided looking if at all possible, but that in itself was obviously costing him effort. He didn't look at any other girl on the planet like that. What made Lizzy special? They met first? Unfair.

  After about half an hour of this little dance, Akane had enough. she couldn't watch it any more. But what was she supposed to do? She couldn't just ignore it since they were right in front of her. She couldn't tell them to knock it off since they weren't actually doing anything wrong. She got up and ran out of the room as fast as she could without resorting to her power.

  She heard the teacher's voice cry out behind her. “Why do you people even come to my class!?”

  She stopped in the hallway, breathing heavily. It was a stupid, childish overreaction. She should have just buried it down and dealt with it, like she always did.

  Footsteps behind her. Her hand went to the throwing knives Maria had gotten her for her birthday, holstered at her elbow, as she turned around.

  But it was just Adam, wearing a concerned frown.

  “What's with you? You feeling all right?”

  Akane let out a weak breath. “Yeah, I'm fine. It's just...”

  He looked back into the classroom. “Ah. Yeah. I can see how that would upset you.” He patted her shoulder and tried to smile. “Derek's just a moron. Don't worry about him. He'll come around.”

  She barked out a laugh. “No, he won't.”

  “Who won't what?”

  Derek had decided to follow them, Lizzy in tow. She, of course, clearly had no clue what was going on, and clearly didn't care. She was always very... zen.

  Akane sighed. “Nothing. Don't worry about it.”

  He shook his head. “It's not nothing if it made your run out of class. What's going on?”

  Akane rubbed her forehead. “Just... a headache, that's all.”

  Derek nodded in understanding. “Yeah, I get those a lot too.”

  That finally made Lizzy speak up. “You really need to see a doctor about that. If nothing else, I have some pills that might help...”

  “No, I'm fine. It's—” He blinked, and grinned at Akane. “It's nothing important.”

  She sighed again. He still didn't get it.

  Maybe she should just leave. She didn't trust herself around them right now, and she had a few other things she could be doing.

  “Akane was just saying she was going to go see Doctor Clarke after class,” Adam said, “but I think she should go now.”

  Derek nodded. “You should. In fact, I'll go with you.”

  “No,” Akane said quickly. “I can go on my own. And this is... different from your headaches. I'm sure it's nothing. I'll see you later.”

  He looked like he was about to say something, but Lizzy grabbed him by the arm. “She said she'd be fine. C'mon, the professor is going to be mad enough as it is.”

  Der
ek nodded, and they all went inside, Adam giving Akane a reassuring look as they did.

  She leaned her back against the wall and took a deep breath. She silently thanked Adam for coming up with a way to keep her out of the classroom. She would have been fine, she was sure, but she needed to be alone for a little while.

  “Akane?”

  She looked up to see Flynn walking down the hall towards her.

  Not now. She had been avoiding him for over a week. She had even skipped kendo. Now was not the time to talk this out.

  “Flynn,” she said coldly by way of greeting. Hopefully he would take the hint and find an excuse to leave.

  He didn't. “I didn't know you had class right now. I haven't seen you since your party. You all right?”

  She took a step away from him, then kept going, walking back towards the dorms.

  He followed. “Hey, you can't just ignore me.”

  “Can,” she said.

  “Look, we seemed to be hitting it off, and you even—” He stopped as they passed a maintenance man, installing a new speaker in the corner. Once they were out of earshot, he continued. “—you even showed me your powers. If you have a problem, I want to talk to you about it. Figure out what's wrong. Or are you seriously just going to avoid me forever?”

  “Yes.” She didn't want to explain further. She didn't have a chance with Derek. She knew that. Even if Lizzy didn't exist, he would never look at her like that. She had known that for eight years.

  Her “feelings” for Flynn were just the result of her heart trying to find a viable target. He was an emotional substitute, nothing more. But if she pretended he was something more, things would quickly spiral out of control.

  ...but he had kept their secret.

  He didn't have to. Musashi's sword, it was becoming more and more clear that there was no real need for it to be a secret. But he had kept their trust regardless.

  Akane stopped and turned to face him. He swallowed anxiously, but held his ground.