Pearl Before Swine ch 20: Fire

~THE PEARL~

The knife glitters, golden-white like daylight, but Halcyon does not just hold it. The blade is one of his fingers grown longer, flatter, sharper. A Dragon’s claw.

His eyes, metallic slivers of the sky, point at Jun’s hands on my wrists. “Do not touch.”

“No one’s touching you.” Pike leans across the table, palms hovering low over it as if to keep it from leaping, and his voice wavers beneath a forced buoyancy. “Seriously, Roomie, we’ve talked about being weird like this.”

Instinct wills me to place myself between the Dragon and the islander, but I lack the strength. Beneath my fingers, Jun’s blood dries and flakes. His skin seals, new and soft. I lent his body the energy to heal, but now I am empty. His grip is all that keeps me upright.

Warmth grows alongside Jun’s touch—a second set of hands. Sal’s hands. My vision swims, but for an instant, he fills my view. He stands where I should be, between Jun and Halcyon. Light plays with darkness, trailing streaks of color—the blue of Jun’s eyes, the rich brown of my hands. Sound and silence perform the same dance—Sal’s voice, Pike’s.

Jun’s grip tightens, though it feels so far away, as if these are not my wrists he holds. As if these arms belong to a fish at the very edge of my perceptions back when I would sink into another’s mind.

“Pearl, are you okay?”

Jun, do not let go. I am falling.

Sal’s salty scent surrounds me. His arms catch me, the crook of his neck cradling my face. My fingers tangle in his jacket, and I pull him closer. His warmth is energy. Perhaps he will not mind if I take just a little of it.

~THE SWINE~

He smells of death, and it takes everything in me to keep my face from twisting in disgust or pity. Every moment I’m even remotely near the islander, my gut turns in tighter knots. I take the first excuse to get away.

At least the Sky worm seems to be trying to hold up his end of the bargain. He keeps the Pearl from sitting next to Jun. So, when I spot Issoria, I go after her. In the hallway, she navigates the crowds. Her pixie wings bulge oddly beneath her jacket, though she tries to disguise it with a backpack.

Like me, she’s not old or strong enough to shapeshift on her own, and without her Essence’s support, her transformation’s coming undone. Does she miss flying at all? Much as I don’t want to admit it, I miss the freedom of swimming. This crowd wouldn’t be such a problem then. I could swerve over or under, not just around. The ocean regulates space much better than the land.

Maybe someday I’ll bring the humans there and teach them to make a home in the open waters. Mare will never allow it, but maybe her rule won’t last forever.

The thought is a tide, coming and going but never really gone. The humans are trying to kill her, and even if they don’t succeed, she has a new sibling. The Essence of the Night, a sister she’ll have to share her realm with part of the time.

She’ll hate it.

I’ve lost Issoria. I’ve lost myself, actually. From the pale blue tint of the lights set in the center of the wall’s cogs, I must be somewhere in the science wing, but beyond that—and how to get out—I have no idea. The corridor is narrow and tall. The lighting tricks the eye into believing the walls are purely vertical, but slight discrepancies in proportion give away the existence of higher walkways. This is an inverted pyramid. If Issoria can fly, she’s at an advantage here.

The further I walk, the less people there are, until I am alone. A thousand embers crackle at once, and I’m hurled into the wall. Fire crawls across me, burning into every seam in the weave of my skin. Tiny hands squeeze every organ. I can’t breathe.

Issoria alights in front of me, butterfly wings flashing gold and silver as they flutter. “Tell Halcyon to leave. If he doesn’t, I’ll kill you.”

I lift my chin, shoulder pressed against a spinning cog. It helps me straighten, but I don’t have the breath to speak yet. In lieu of words, my lip curls.

She points a long, black cylinder at me. “This is only a prototype, not nearly as strong as a Baker Arrow yet, but it’ll do the trick if I hit you enough times.”

“Halcyon doesn’t give a worm’s behind about me.” I swat at the black pipe. It’s nowhere near within my range, but the action makes me feel as if I have some control here.

Her needle teeth flash the same silver-gold as her wings as she grins. “Perhaps I should kill you in the name of research, then.” She twists and primes the weapon, each click louder than the one before, like footsteps drawing too close.

I shove off the wall, both hands splayed in front of my chest. “Wait, please? What even is that thing?”

“The wisdom of humankind. I’ve seen what they can do, Swine. Whether they belong here or not, they will rule this world.”

“That’s why you side with them? You’ll help them kill Caelus?”

She flinches, then steps forward and presses the pipe into my breastbone. “Think it’ll kill you faster this way?”

“How many of them know what you are?” My chest heaves, pressing the circle further into my flesh with every spasm. I’m about to lose my breakfast.

“I don’t want them to kill Caelus.” A sheen comes over her blue eyes. How alike they are to a Koa’s, but hers are so much paler, larger, shallower. “I belong to Caelus, but I want to continue seeing what the humans can make, even the things Caelus won’t like. He’ll stop them, or try, and I won’t let him. So, I can’t tell him.”

“Tell Caelus that.” My hand cups the pipe and forces it down one thread’s width at a time. “Not the last part. Tell him what you find so curious and how much you want more. He’s an airhead just like you. He’s bound to find it just as fascinating.”

She shakes her head, silver curls flying. “He won’t like them having something that can hurt him.”

“Does anybody?” I look pointedly at the prototype weapon she holds against my chest.

She fires.

~THE PEARL~

It is music, the rhythmic thrum against my cheek as energy seeps into me. It possesses a cold and hollow cadence, liquid yet crisp and heavy. How long have I been siphoning Sal’s life force?

I only meant to take a little. I must stop.

My palms flatten against his chest, and I push away, but it is not the green or gray of Sal’s eyes that meet mine. These are fragments of the sky, framed in bronze curls.

“You have no connection to an Essence,” he murmurs.

“Halcyon, what—” I try to pull away, but his arms form an iron cage around me. The thin metal chair bows beneath our combined weight. A struggle will likely snap it. Even if it survives, glass vials array on counters all around us, filled with liquids set aglow by the blue-tinted electric lights strung above.

I calm, though I do not lean into him again. “Thank you, Dragon, for sharing your energy.”

“Even from far away, I draw strength from Caelus, but Mare does not feed you. Eventually, that will kill you. You should not accelerate that by giving away the little you have.” He releases me and pulls a strip of meat from his satchel. “From the deer I had for breakfast.”

I accept it and chew greedily as I slide off his lap and stand. Steam cloaks the sight of the distant walls but not the sound. Gears churn. So do my intestines. “Does physical food not grant you energy?”

“Some. Yesterday, you said the dragon eats the deer if the dragon can, so today I decided to try one. Or five.”

“And?” I finish off my piece and peer hopefully at his satchel.

He hands me another. “The taste is pleasurable, but it takes a lot to fuel a Creature of Essence. Even a hundred deer would not replace what I get from Caelus.”

The Essence of the Sky has many Creatures in his Company, as does the Essence of the Sea. How powerful must Caelus and Mare be that they can give so much of themselves away.

Halcyon rises. He is a cliff, wily and serpentine. His pointed face pivots to keep his eyes locked on mine. They are narrow and almost entirely filled with metallic blue surrounding a pupil that is not quite round. “Why does she not feed you?”

I fight instinct and do not retreat from this mighty predator. The deer in my mouth bitters. “Mare has never fed me. I belong to Terra.”

“A Swine once wanted to belong to Caelus, so Mare killed him.” He swerves around me, scooping up a pair of vials. One contains a barely living flame. The other holds liquid shadow.

“She has granted me the chance to win my freedom.”

“Then why would she send a Swine here to fetch you?” He tilts a vial, and the shadow slides into the second tube. As it meets the flame, bubbles form, then foam. It has a certain beauty, yet it reeks with a dull, pulsing musk. “She wants you home. It is not safe here with humans.”

“Who is the Swine?”

He fidgets, voice so quiet, it may only be the breath of my imagination. “If he has not told you, then I should not either.”

“Where are Jun, Sal, and Pike? What is this place? Why have you brought me here?”

“Whatever you did to Jun made him lose his breakfast, and he went to the healers. Sal refused to share his energy with you, so I did.” He lifts the foaming tube. It is about to overflow. “I am not very good at science, but it is interesting.” He gulps the bubbling shadow, eyes shifting as he evaluates its taste.

I grab his wrist as if that can prevent him from doing what he already has. “I do not think you should ingest the humans’ experiments.”

He hiccups, and flames dance on his tongue.

I duck for fear they will leap out. “You failed to say what became of Pike.”

“Because I do not know what became of Pike. He is missing.”

Missing. My mouth forms the word with no voice. Ghostly fingers trail across the backs of my knees, and they threaten to buckle. A monster attacked Jun last night, and when I healed him, I made him sick. Now, something may have taken Pike.

A door squeals, and Beau saunters in. “You think they built it like that on purpose to prevent sneaking around?” His question does not appear to be directed at anyone until his eyes fall upon me. His brows rise, and his smile swells like a river gorging a monsoon. “Didn’t expect to find you in the Science Wing Study Hall, but I’m glad to have done so.”

“Have you been searching for Pike?”

“Why would I—” His smile withers as he traces my grip on Halcyon to the Dragon’s face. “You alright there? You haven’t been drinking this stuff again, have you?” He takes the vials from Halcyon and squints at the flames struggling to escape the Dragon’s lips. “Didn’t I tell you not to do stuff like this when you’re alone?”

“Pearl was here.”

A pillar of fire spears from Halcyon’s mouth, and we dive aside.

Beau is at my back, a hand on either elbow, though from our angle to the danger, it is not clear whether he would shield me or have me shield him. He smells of iron and something sharper.

“Pearl doesn’t—” He faces me with a renewed smile. “Glad to see you up, by the way. Our resident weirdo said you would be fine in a couple of hours, but...” He shrugs, and I turn toward him, trying to squirm out of his hold. “Professor Pi told Halcyon he couldn’t keep you on his lap like that, but he called you a dumb infant and insisted you would die if he left you. She eventually gave up arguing with him.”

“She banished me here,” Halcyon says with another plume of flame.

We duck.

“Yeah, I remember that now. This thing with Issoria just had me distracted—”

“What happened with Issoria?” Halcyon’s long, slender hands grip Beau’s shoulders, pale spiderwebs against the deep blue of his jacket. He is huge for a human, a head and shoulders taller than even Jun and with Sal’s breadth.

Fire licks at Beau’s hair, and he swats it out. “You need to keep your mouth shut for a while.”

I tug him free from the Dragon’s grip. “Was this before Pike went missing?”

“Weirdo number two is still gone?” Beau grimaces, and his hands drop. “I thought he was just ditching Professor Pi’s class since they have a lot of differing opinions.”

I shake him. “Did you not even search?”

“I have better—”

The door squeaks again, and as if summoned by my worry, Pike appears in its frame.

“Excuse me.” He bumps Beau aside and stops, a package held on upturned palms as he bows. “For you, Milady.”

The scent of fire and all things burnt clings to him even more than Halcyon. I gingerly take the cloth-wrapped item, though it is heavier than I assumed and my grip must stiffen to keep from dropping it. The wrappings flap open to reveal a plaque. An inscription darkens the wood in the most elegant script I have ever encountered, so fresh, smoke and heat linger.

Your ire turns me inside out

I might as well be a trout

Won’t you please forgive me

Let our friendship be as eternal as the sea

The flow is crude, nothing like Terra’s poetry, yet it owns a sincerity and quaintness that reminds me of the golems’ thought patterns. A silly grin leaps upon my face, and my heart pinches. This must be what he was working on when he hurt his hand this morning.

He points below the final line, where his name is scrawled in crimson. “I signed it in red, like blood, but symbolic blood. It’s not real blood, I promise.”

“Why so morbid, Pike?” Beau slaps him on the back.

At the same moment, a fiery belch escapes Halcyon, rattling the vials.

Eyes wide, Beau turns to him. “What are you, a pig?”

My ears perk. Are not a pig and a swine the same?

Pike’s cheeks flush, but with a long blink, he straightens, and his voice emerges evenly. “That shouldn’t be an insult. Pigs appreciate the finer things in life, probably more than you.”

“I appreciate pigs.” With a wicked grin, Beau folds his hands behind his head and closes his eyes as if he dreams of a better locale. “Bacon is delicious.”

Pike resembles a porcupine—a million disjointed angles. “Would you say that to a pig’s face?”

“Yes.” Beau peeks sideways at him. “The pig wouldn’t understand me.”

“Some would,” Halcyon whispers. More vials occupy his hands.

Beau snatches them away. “You mean the mythical Swine? It’s a cruel world. Not even Mare’s Sea Swine are safe from predators.” He pauses in deathly silence, and the non-sound pounds in my ears. Then his seriousness breaks into a toothy smirk. “If they’re even real.”

“They aren’t,” Pike insists.

Halcyon performs something between a cough and a grunt.

Pike swivels to him. “You have something to say?”

“I…also like the taste of bacon.”

“Funny.” Pike glares. In this lighting, his eyes appear almost as blue as Jun’s. “Anyone want to hear the mess this dragon left me yesterday?”

Halcyon stills, and my breath hitches. Does Pike know what Halcyon is? Because Pike is the Swine?

He hooks a thumb in the direction of the Creature of the Sky. “I get back to my room after a long day to catch this guy slinking out the door, and something smells off, you know, so I ask him what he’s been up to.”

“Cleaning.” Halcyon hunches his shoulders.

“Which is what you called it then, too, and I thought, ‘Okay, cool. How nice of you. I’m lucky to have at least one roommate who knows the meaning of the word hygiene.’ But.” He pauses, and every line of his face flattens. “Setting the bathroom on fire is not cleaning.”

“It does kill germs, though.” Beau chuckles and throws an arm over Pike’s shoulders. “Or are you against killing germs, too?”

With a scoff, Pike spins on his heel and heads for the door.

Before he passes the counter, Halcyon blocks his path and stands like a monolith. “Why do you say you do not believe in the Essences?”

“I came here to be a man of science.” His eyes glitter. I could believe them stone like the golems’.

A slow smile crawls over Halcyon’s thin lips. “Why do you want the Pearl?”

My breath stills. How does he mean this question? As a Creature of the Sky asking the Creature of the Sea what he wants with me? Or as someone who cannot feel love asking a human if that is at play here?

Pike squints at him.

Halcyon glides closer. Grace and power ride in every curved line, promising a strike at any moment, and I open my mouth to remind him that Pike is not a deer.

Halcyon speaks first. “The dean wants her here because the scientists do. Same with Issoria. Same with me. Yet, she is more relevant to your project than we are.”

“What does he mean, Pike?” I say instead, and my musical human glances back at me.

He shakes his head. “I don’t know, I—”

“He’s obsessed with the sea.” Beau approaches me from behind again and rests his hands on my upper arms.

I want to pull free, but that would mean stepping closer to Pike, and I am not certain I should. The gears of the walls still groan as they spin, but my insides turn faster, coiled in impossibly small, painful whirlpools. “Pike?”

“Look, I grew up on the sea.” Each word lolls on the tip of his tongue, not quite in song. Each word slows my heart. “My mother and her armada do what they want out there with impunity, a queen of the sea uncontested by some ethereal rival.” A chuckle shakes his shoulders, but it bears a deadly edge. “Or maybe my mom is Mare. Aren’t I lucky? The Essence of the Sea dotes on me.”

Continued in chapter 21

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