“What’s an elf?” Joey asked.
“She’s still a girl elf, Keiko,” The boy insisted.
“What’s an elf?” Joey asked again.
“It means I have pointed ears.” Tinker tapped on her left ear. She used it as a distraction to put the knife on the shelves as causally as she could. The two younger kids studied her ear, but Riki and Keiko’s eyes followed the knife.
The coldness left Riki’s face, but he still watched her carefully. “This is Mickey and Keiko.” He released the littlest one. “And Joey. They’re my younger cousins.”
“Should we really be telling her our names?” Keiko asked. “What’s she doing here?”
Joey pulled off the adult-sized sweatshirt he was drowning in. Underneath he had a ragged t-shirt like the other two — the back torn open to reveal the elaborate spell tattooed from shoulder to waistline, in black. “Look, look, I have wings too!”
He spoke a word, and magic poured through the tracings, making them shimmer like fresh ink. The air hazed around him, and the wings unfolded out of the distortion, at first holographic in appearance, ghosts of crow wings hovering behind him, fully extended. Then they solidified into reality, skin and bone merged into his musculature of his back, glistening black feathers, all correctly proportioned for his thin, child’s body.
“Wow,” Tinker said. “Those are cool.”
Keiko hopped into the cote to catch hold of Joey and pulled him away from Tinker, giving her a dark distrusting look.
Riki said something in the oni harsh tongue that made the younger tengu look at Tinker with surprise.
“Her?” Keiko cried. “No way!”
Riki shrugged, making his wings rustle. “She’s the one that killed Lord Tomtom. The dragon went to her. I have to check.”
“Wait,” Tinker said. “This all about the tattoo you think the dragon put on me?”
“Yes.” Riki nodded.
“Are you nuts?” Tinker said.
“No, just desperate. Please, take off your dress.”
“Oh you have to be kidding.” Tinker took a step back and realized how crowded the tiny cabin had just gotten with tengu wings. “I am not taking off my dress in front of all of you.”
Riki touched Joey’s shoulder. “Wings, Joey. Keiko and Mickey, you too.”
The boys spoke spell commands and their wings vanished. Riki picked them up, one at a time, and swung them up to the loft bed. They sat on the edge, dangling down their three-toed feet until Riki said, “Nyh, nyh, all the way up. Quiet little birds.”
Keiko crossed her arms, flared out her wings, and leveled a hostile look at Riki. “I’m a warrior.”
Riki glared at the tengu girl until the girl added something in oni. “A witness? Yes, I guess you’re right.”
“Yeah, I’m supposed to act as if that’s better?” Tinker asked.
“Take off your shirt, let me look at you, and if you don’t have the mark, I’ll let you go.”
Tinker scoffed. “Yeah, sure.”
“I promise,” Riki said.
Like that was worth anything.
“Don’t be such a chicken shit!” Keiko said.
Riki slapped the tengu girl on the back of the head. “Hey, you’re not helping. Would you want to take off your clothes in front of strangers?”
Keiko blushed and stuck out her tongue at her cousin.
Riki returned his attention to Tinker. “Come on. Just do it quick and it’d be over.”
“I don’t have any mark.”
Riki’s face went neutral, if all emotion drained out, leaving only resolve.
Tinker considered if she wanted her dress forcibly taken off. There wasn’t any running away, and while Keiko was young, the tengu girl was as tall as she was. Probably if Tinker trying calling the winds she’d end up in a wrestling match before she got the spell off. “Fine. I’ll take it off.”
She struggled out of her dress, and as she feared, bra had to go.
“It would be over her heart, wouldn’t it?” Keiko looked as uncomfortable with Tinker’s nudity as Tinker felt.
“It should.” Riki took Tinker’s hands and examined her arms carefully, even to the point of undoing the bandages and peering under them. It wasn’t as bad as Tinker feared. She realized it was the kids’ presence; she trusted Riki not to do anything with them there — watching. Hopefully she was right.
“Okay,” Riki finally said. “You can get dressed.”
“Does she have it? Does she have it?” Mickey called from the loft.
“No.” Riki glanced down at Keiko. “Can you make it to the near cote without stopping? It’s going to be dark and we’ll need to move quietly and fast.”
Keiko screwed up her face, torn between saying yes and admitting the truth. Finally she hunched her shoulders, looked away, and said, “No.”
Riki tousled the girl’s short black hair. “It’s better that you tell the truth now. I’ll take Joey and then come back to guide you two. Rest up.”
“What about her?” Keiko asked, and then added quietly. “You promised her.”
If it wasn’t her freedom they were talking about, it would have been funny to see Riki realize how screwed he was. He could start to ferry the kids back home, but it would leave her alone with at least two of them. Taking her home meant all three kids would be alone for a much longer time — perhaps a very long time if he ran into trouble with the elves. He looked her in sudden panic.
She sighed and waved her hand. “Take care of them first.”
“Promise me that you won’t hurt them.”
She scoffed. “Who is going to protect me from them?”
A wry smile came and went. “I’m trusting you two to behave. Understand?”
“Yes, Riki,” Mickey said.
Keiko nodded, watching Tinker.
“Joey?” Riki motioned to the littlest tengu and the boy flung himself out of the loft into Riki’s arms. “Ooomph! Settle down, you little monster. Here, sweatshirt on first.” Riki knelt and pulled the sweatshirt onto the boy. “Remember, once we leave, no talking. Quiet little birds.”
Joey mimed locking his mouth and throwing away the key.
“Good boy,” Riki picked up the child and gave them a worried look. “Remember there are oni in the woods. Keep it down and no lights.”
“Quiet little birds.” Mickey said.
Riki wavered at the door, Joey clinging to his neck. “Tinker — I love them much as you love Oilcan. Everything I’ve done has been for them. Please — just — just wait for me to get back.”
The tengu kids took the loft bed and Tinker settled by the door, her back to the wall so she could keep an eye on them. Keiko continued to stare at her. Mickey swung his legs. Dusk fell on the forest and darkness crawled into the cabin.
“How far does Riki have to go?”
Mickey started to say something but Keiko poked him.
“We’re not allowed to say.”
“What are you doing so far away anyhow?”
“Joey just got his wings.” Mickey said. “We were on his first long flight and got cut off by a troop of oni moving through the area. We tried to go around them and got lost. When we hit the city’s edge, Keiko said we should call Riki. I’m the one that remembered the number.”
“Then all you would do was cry.” Keiko said.
Mickey pulled up his legs, curling into himself.
Keiko gave him a look of remorse and then swung down. She rummaged through the shelves and then handed up a bottle of water and a power bar to her younger cousin. “Here. You can have the last chocolate one.”
Keiko put a second bottle and bar up beside Mickey. Wordlessly, she left an offering of food and water for Tinker down on the floor, carefully staying outside of Tinker’s reach, and then swung back to the loft.
Tinker hadn’t had a power bar as an elf — she expected something tasteless. She was surprised how good it tasted. “Oh, these are yummy.”