Infidel drew her knees up to her chest, resting her chin on her arms as she stared out over the dark bay. Boat lanterns twinkled like stars across the water.
“Maybe I’m tired,” she whispered.
“Maybe?”
“Screw it,” she said, raising her chin. “I am tired. I mean, I’ve had fun. Stagger led me on some wild adventures. I’ve had experiences I couldn’t even imagine when I was fifteen. My life hasn’t been boring. But…” Her voice trailed off as she shook her head.
“But?”
“But maybe I’d like boring.” She took a deep, weary breath. “Maybe I’d enjoy sleeping in a real bed at night, and wearing clean clothes every day. Maybe I’d like to walk down a street where I’m not looking over my shoulder wondering who’s about to jump me with a shadow blade. Maybe I’d like to meet a stranger and not instantly start thinking about how I’m going to kill him if things turn ugly. Maybe thirty-year-old Infidel doesn’t want to live her life trapped by choices made by fifteen-year-old Innocent.”
Her eyes were narrowed as she spoke. She sounded so angry. I’d never suspected. What kind of friend had I been that I’d missed this?
She finally relaxed, and said, softly, “The closest I ever came to feeling normal was when I hung out with Stagger. This is… this is crazy. But I used to imagine me and him getting out of here, finding some little village where no one knew who the hell we were, and settling down. Maybe find a little peace and quiet and normal.”
I’d dreamed that too. Why hadn’t I told her?
“Why didn’t you tell him?” asked Aurora.
“We… we…” She cradled her head in her hands. Her voice cracked as she said, “There are things that are wrong with me.”
“Stagger was wild about you. You have a crazy streak, sure, but anyone could see that he loved you.”
Infidel closed her eyes and clenched her fists. She looked as sad as when she’d sat at my grave. She was silent for a long time. Finally, she relaxed her hands, and sniffed. She whispered, “Normal couples can… they can do stuff. Intimate stuff. And I wanted that. I wanted that so badly.”
I wanted that! I wanted that so much it hurt. Why didn’t I have the courage to tell her? If I’d still had lungs, I would have cursed the sky for my cowardice.
“I’m guessing Stagger would have been okay with, um, intimacy,” said Aurora, with what might have been a grin, though her tusks made it hard to tell.
Infidel shuddered. “My strength makes touching things tricky. I try to slap a man, and I smash his face in. It took me years to learn to pick up a glass without breaking it. I’m more dangerous than people know.”
“You seem to have it under control.”
“I could have held his hand without crushing it, sure. Maybe even kissed him without breaking his teeth. But… but all my muscles are supernaturally powerful. Even ones… even ones I don’t always have full control over.”
“Oh,” said Aurora. Then, she said, “Ooooh,” in a way that made it clear she understood what Infidel was getting at.
Suddenly, I understood as well. Ordinary coupling could have left me maimed and mangled, if not outright dead.
“So…” said Aurora. “You’re a thirty-year-old virgin.”
Infidel shrugged. “I’ll die one, I guess. I’m never going to know anything like love. But, at least when I hung out with Stagger, I felt… I felt happy.”
I’d been happy too. And, even with my fantasies of shared sexual bliss crushed by Infidel’s physical realities, I still would gladly have gone with her to that quiet little village and lived out my days beside her. I’d loved her without even so much as a kiss for years. I could have accepted anything to make her happy.
“And now you’re unhappy,” said Aurora. “So what? The plan is to go get yourself killed by Greatshadow?”
“No,” said Infidel, sounding deadly serious. “The plan is to go get myself rich. Not pirate booty rich, not ancient artifact rich, but filthy, filthy, filthy rich. Because if there’s one thing I learned growing up in my father’s court, it’s that if you’re filthy rich everyone will bend over backwards to tell you you’re clean. If I show up in my father’s court with sole possession of Greatshadow’s treasure, I’m confident I’ll have a full pardon in my hands inside of ten minutes. The church might not be happy about this, but I’m betting after I donate funds to build a few new cathedrals, they’ll come around. I’ll be rich with my own money, not my father’s. I’ll be free to live where and how I wish. I’ll have my own palace with silk sheets on a bed so fluffy you’d think it’s stuffed with clouds. Every day I’ll take a hot bath while musicians serenade me and I’ll get out of the water and put on clean freakin’ underwear. And when I walk into my own damn dining room, people are going to run up to me with trays full of goddamn cake!”
Aurora nodded slowly, contemplating the dream. “And this is going to make you happy?”
Infidel shrugged. “I’m not shooting for happy. I’m aiming for comfortable and fat.”
“You’ll achieve more than this,” said a voice from the branches above. Infidel jumped to her feet. Aurora jerked her head up as a sheen of ice grew across her clenched fists. It was Relic. How the hunchback had climbed into the branches without us hearing him I don’t know. It seemed like a bit of a stretch that this could have been where Infidel had thrown him.
Relic peered down at the two women. His eyes glowed faintly golden in the darkness. He said, “You shall be beloved by all mankind, princess. You will be the champion who slew Greatshadow. For centuries men have perished due to the unpredictable malevolence of fire. Castles, hovels, entire towns have been reduced to cinders with no warning, killing young and old alike. Once Greatshadow is dead, fire will be a trusted tool of mankind, fully tamed, a danger no more. Children will sing songs about you a thousand years hence, just as they sing the tale of how the first Brightmoon vanquished the dragon of the forest. As for seeking the forgiveness of the Church of the Book, remember you won’t just return with the dragon’s treasure. You can also return with barrels of fresh blood, replacing the dwindling holy relic you stole. You can claim you were driven by divine visions to renew the blood. One day you’ll be regarded as a saint.”
Infidel looked up the slope of the mountain, toward the glowing caldera. “And maybe one day I’ll sprout wings and fly. Because if there’s a Truthspeaker on this quest, then I’m never going to be part of this dragon hunt.”
“Assuming there’s still a hunt,” Aurora said. “The Truthspeaker’s charred bones are probably at the bottom of the bay with the rest of the king’s fleet.”
“Nah,” said Infidel. “My father’s a jerk, but not an idiot. He sent those ships in to give the dragon a chance to feel like he’d finished off the threat before it even reached shore. It had to be a distraction. Tower and his team are already on the island.”
Relic nodded. “I concur. It’s only a matter of time before they contact the Three Goons. We must prepare for this moment.”
“Prepare how?” asked Infidel.
“You will need a disguise that Lord Tower cannot see through,” said Relic. “I have just the persona in mind.”
“Forget Tower. How am I supposed to fool a Truthspeaker?”
Relic’s glowing eyes twinkled as he chuckled. “That, my dear, will be far easier than you may think. Few are as easy to deceive as those most confident of the truth.” Then he cast his gaze toward Aurora. “The deception will require your cooperation, as well as the silence of the Three Goons.”
Aurora nodded. “If you promise to help me recover the Jagged Heart, I pledge to keep my mouth shut. As for the Goons, they’ve been hired as muscle; there’s no clause requiring them to disclose everything they know. We can buy their silence with a non-competing contract for those sub-rights.”
“I vow that recovering the Heart for you will be my second goal, though ensuring that Greatshadow dies remains my top priority. If you accept this, then we have a deal,” said Relic. He held out his gnarled hand. Aurora placed her giant hand upon it. Infidel laid her smaller hand against the ogress’s knuckles.