Both women looked toward the noise and watched as six men and three women came inside. Ryzaz recognized one of them to be the man that had told her to leave this place when she first got there. But what was really alarming was the fact that they were all armed. Axes mostly but a few knives as well. A couple had burning torches.
Immediately the vibe of the bar shifted. Ryza sat up straighter and her hand instinctively went to her shovel. But Snow from the other side of the bar ground her teeth together but she was smirking, “Well well. Welcome to my bar Roger.” The man Ryza had spoken to who was leading the group stood straighter at his name. “Can I get you something? A drink? We’ve got soup on the pot in the back.”
“You shut up monster,” he growled and pointed his axe at her. “Did you think after what you did we would just tolerate you staying here? No one else is going to die because of you. We’re going to get rid of you and everything related to you. Your stain has been here too damn long.”
Snow snorted, “You people have been obsessed with my family’s so called curse. You ran my parents out of the town and drove my Gran to an early grave. At least you got the balls to do it yourselves this time.”
“We should have cut the head off the snake with her,” another man said. “Who knows how much damage you all caused. Leaking your curse into this town’s roots. Dead crops. Sick children. Missing animals.”
“And you think that’s been my family?” She gripped the other half of the bar and Ryza heard the wood splinter. Her eyes widened as she looked back at her and felt it. The sudden surge of magic rippling off Snow in waves. The arms that had been slender had the hard lines of muscle like cords wrapped around one another.
This woman was no regular bartender and the assembled villagers knew that raising their weapons. Ryza got to her feet putting space between them. She was still a little unsteady on her feet from the energy Snow gave off. “I told you that it would be your funeral if you entered this bar,” Roger said. “She ain’t no human.”
One of the men walked forward kicking a table over. It broke once it hit the ground and then he smashed a chair to pieces. Snow jumped over the bar and the noise that left her throat was so far removed from human and Ryza shivered. The assorted villages steeled themselves as well but they didn’t feel the magic that was wafting off her.
The villages looked at one another and surged forward, spreading out as they went to surround her. One came forward axe raised above his head and Snow’s eyes went to first toward him then the weapon. Her arm darted forward punching the flat of the axe hard enough to send the man stumbling to the side.
Another came up from behind swinging with his axe. She turned on her heel and charged slamming into his chest. She wrapped her arms around his chest, digging her fingers into his sides and lifted him off the ground. Shouting she threw him to the side straight into a pair of others.
“Duck!”
Snow’s ears perked at the sound of Ryza’s warning and she went low to the ground. A chair sailed over her head, breaking against the bar and scattering what remained of Ryza’s dinner across the floor. A woman looked at Ryza as if Ryza had just insulted her family and threatened harm to her children.
She pointed the knives, meant for cooking than fighting, and ran at her. She swiped them at her and Ryza stepped back avoiding them. They were nothing like the attacks of the Ouroboros. Grasping her shovel, she hopped backwards and lunged stabbing the blade into her chest.
Ryza’s eyes flashed silver and so did the runes along the shovel. The woman jolted, taking a step back convulsing. Stumbling backwards she slumped forward and then she stared at Ryza. Her eyes were filled with light and Ryza saw her power take control of her soul. Ryza rotated her hand and pointed at one of the other men. The woman jumped, stabbing him in the back.
Ryza whipped her shovel into the air blocking another axe. “What did you do to her?” he shouted.
“I just decided to even the odds a little,” Ryza said with a small snarl.
Grasping the end of the shovel she turned and rotated the momentum kicking him into the bar. A scream echoed in the bar that morphed into a howl and Ryza’s hair stood on end. She whirled around and pointed the shovel at the source of the noise but she couldn’t even process what she was looking at.
Three of the villagers were on the ground, deep red gashes in their chest and faces, blood on the ground. Standing on one of their bodies was a tall wolf creature. It stood on its hind legs, with large black claws protruding from its fingers. It had long lanky arms, holding a man in the air. Its mouth was closed around the man’s chest, teeth red with blood and eyes a dull yellow.
Flexing its neck, it whipped the man to the ground and turned around, a bushy tail swaying back and forth. It looked at the villagers and they were apprehensive now, glaring at the beast but no longer sure that they could succeed. Ryza stared at the new creature and her eyes alit on her.
It was like another body was superimposed on the one in front of her. In one eye she saw the wolf creature in front of her. But through that she could see Snow, her face twisted in the same snarl. She looked up as the acrid smell of smoke filled her nose. She looked and saw the torches from the villagers had been tossed them into the bar. The flames were already spreading rapidly.
Instead of heeding the new danger Roger came forward reaching into his shirt and pulling out a shard of silver, like it had been broken from a piece of a mirror. The moment it was revealed Snow recoiled away raising a hand to her face.
“Finally, the monster shows its true self,” he said coming closer and Snow growled backing away slowly. The other villagers flanked her on both sides as she stumbled backward, stepping closer to the fire. Ryza had all but been forgotten about at this point which she was going to use to her advantage.
Snow held one large clawed hand in front of her face and swiped with the other at Roger. He stepped back avoiding the swipe and then lunged with the shard of silver cutting her arm. Snow howled recoiling back and holding her arm against her chest. She looked at her arm, watching is spasm and then at Roger.
Roger brought his axe forward and attempted to attack but he jerked backwards his axe slipping from his hand. The other villages turned and started shouting raising their weapons. Their fallen comrades with glowing silver eyes rose to their feet. They swung and they fought not even recognizing the fact that their organs were leaking out or the gashes that covered their faces.
As they fought, Roger looked past them all and stared at Ryza. He saw the glowing in her eyes and hands and made a face just as savage as Snow’s transformed one. “You’re just as much of a monster as she is. You both deserve to burn.” He coughed through the smoke premating the air and started moving.
Shoving his way through the zombies he dropped the silver shard and grasped his axe with both hands. Ryza watched him lean back and prepare to throw the weapon and she tensed ready to move. Before he could finish the swing though Snow’s jaws closed around his neck her hands gripping his shoulders tightly.
He screamed as she bit harder and then tore her jaw back. She dropped him to the ground and stood hunched forward. Ryza started to say something when the ceiling creaked and part of it collapsed. Snow jumped forward sliding along on all fours.
She stared at the fire, racing across her grandmother’s bar. Snow sank to her knees and despite her blood soaked appearance Ryza walked to her side. She wrapped both hands around her shovel and pointed, “We need to get out of here. Is there a back exit?”
Snow whimpered again louder, shaking her head and pounded a fist into the ground. Ryza stepped forward then and moved to stand in front of her. She touched her muzzle and forced her to look at her. As she moved the wolve’s face she saw the human soul within it. She met Snow’s eyes, “We need to get out of here. Or we’re going to die.”
Snow stared at her, growling but nodded. Standing slowly and towering over her, she turned. Snow took one of her hands and dragged her along. Loping forward she lunged beyond the bar and into the kitchen. Ryza followed after her as best as she could, wincing as Snow’s claws dug into her hand. The fire was spreading fast but the smoke was even heavier.
Tearing through the room, Snow burst through a back door. The moment they came out they were assaulted by the smell of smoke mixing together with trash piled up. Stumbling out together they kept running until they had put distance between themselves and the bar. Ryza panted, stumbling forward and fell to her knees.
Snow slowed down, sides heaving and she leaned on her forearms. She looked up at Ryza and Ryza saw her soul begin to glow. Ryza raised a hand to her face as the light engulfed her body entirely and when it died down she was on her knees, hands and mouth covered in blood, naked and shivering.
Ryza shoved her shovel into the ground and then pulled her cloak off. She wrapped it around Snow’s shoulders quickly. Snow pulled it close to herself and nodded slowly at Ryza. She turned around and stared at her bar, the flames having grown high and taking over the entirety of the building. She stared, the light dancing across her sapphire eyes and she pulled the cloak tighter around herself.
“That bar belonged to my Gran. All I had left of my family. And now it’s gone,” she laughed dryly and shut her eyes. Not turning to look at her she asked Ryza, “Why did you help me?”
Ryza looked at her and felt the soft paws of Shriek as he made his presence known to make sure things were safe. Ryza picked him up and stroked her fingers down his back slowly. She looked at Snow again and said, “I know what it’s like to be considered a monster by people who have no idea who or what you are. Who would rather kill you based on fear rather than facts. Never again. Not while I can prevent it.”
Snow finally turned around to look at her fully. Her matted silver hair blew in the gentle breeze, the braid a long forgotten memory now. “You’re a necromancer.”
Ryza winced shaking her hand out and looked at the minor scratch marks there. Snow looked at her and frowned. “Sorry about that. Claws are always sharp.”
“It’s fine. Happens in fights. But I don’t know what you are.”
She laughed and looked down at herself, “The villagers weren’t wrong. My family’s curse goes back generations. They like blaming us for everything but it’s only our problem. My Gran came here to make a life, but there was an incident with my parents. They were driven out of town and left me here with my Gran. For a while things were fine but eventually the curse manifested in me. The stress from taking care of me and working to hide me drove her to an early grave.”
Ryza frowned hard and lowered her eyes, “I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be. It’s life. Was making the best of it until now.”
“What’ll you do now?”
“Leave. Find someplace else to go. Can’t stay here. Only reason I stayed this long was for Gran anyway. Time to leave this shit hole of a village behind.”
She looked back toward the fire again and then looked toward the sky. She stared at the stars and the half full moon. Ryza stared at her and felt Shriek place a hand against her cheek. She looked at him frowning and rubbed his nose against her cheek and then looked at her. “What?” she whispered. “No, I couldn’t.” He continued to pester her and she scowled. “You won’t let this go, will you? Fine.”
“Do you always argue with your rat like that?” Snow asked smiling but Ryza knew that look. The look of she was being weird even for weird people. She’d seen it a few times in Alison and her brother.
“Yes. Shriek is a good companion. If not stubborn at times,” she glanced at him sharply and he got comfortable at her shoulder. “But he was suggesting that you should come with us. At least for the time being. You don’t know me so I understand not wanting to take the offer.”
“What? You mean like travel with you?” Ryza nodded. “Where are you going?”
“South. I’m looking for something that my brother buried. A journal about his research.”
“Your brother? Gonna go out on a limb and say he’s a necromancer too?”
“He was. He’s dead now. And I want to finish what we started.”
Snow stared at her, really looking at her now. Not as some customer from her bar or as the necromancer who saved her life. Just as the blanked faced, cold eyed woman, who was aggressively whispering to a rat at her shoulder trying to best hide her embarrassment.
Snow raised a hand to her mouth and started laughing. That same barking laugh that bordered between an animal and a person. And having seen her other face she could understand why that was. She smiled at Ryza nonetheless and nodded. “I have nowhere to go. So I can go with you. At the very least until I find some new clothes. Until then I’ll be holding onto to the cloak.”
Ryza blinked rapidly as she stared at her and finally smiled back at her, “It’s yours. But I’m going to want it back eventually.”
She grinned at her walking past the necromancer, “You’ll have to take it off me.”
Ryza watched her go and blushed brightly as she followed.
The Harlequin Library 