Page 58 of Stitches
The lack of companionship, since Ashmedai began his trek alone, lessened the experience, but not so much that he wanted to turn around or leap into the nearest pool of darkness. He was thankful for his quick thinking in asking Dreya yesterday if they could skip today’s morning meeting.
The residential area had rows upon rows of buildings, some apartments with homes stacked atop one another, others simple houses with yards for play and gardening, or even a few larger yards for farming. One boon the curse had granted them was that every inch of the soil could bear fruit.
It was midmorning, and the streets were bustling with activity. Neighbors chatted, people left their homes headed for the market, many worked on extensions or repairs for their homes, or were out in their gardens. If the people hadn’t been monsters, the homes all at odd angles as if no right angle could exist in the Dark Kingdom, and the plantseffervescent with colors that glowed, the scene might have been like any happy kingdom.
Ashmedai wondered, waving and smiling at his people as he moved through them, if the other kings and queens of today walked among their citizens as he did. He supposed not, given what Levi had said, that the other Gemstone Kingdoms were very different from how they’d been a thousand years ago. That gave Ashmedai some trepidation over how they would be received once the barrier fell and they were free, but he couldn’t let the decisions of other kingdoms sway what his own people needed.
“My king!” a female voice said in surprise.
Ashmedai was passing a quaint farmhouse about midway through the residences. Shevah had just come outside, carrying her babe on her hip.
Since Shevah was first-generation born into the curse, her mixed parentage had resulted in a top half like a Gorgon and a bottom half like a spider. Her wife was also first-generation, from a centaur and a sphinx, and had ended up with her top half quite human looking, and her bottom half like a lion.
Therefore, the babe was a beautiful hodgepodge—with sleek fur like a lion, spider legs, the buds of snakes forming for her hair, and despite the fur on her face, a very human visage.
“Why, Shevah,” Ashmedai said with a reverent bow at the babe, “she’s growing quite magnificently, isn’t she? Forgive me, I’m a terrible king, but I believe I’ve forgotten her name.”
Shevah laughed, her white eyes darting downward at the attention toward her child. “It’s quite all right. You’ve been very busy. This is Eris. She’s three months now. The drawback of her getting mummy’s legs, though, is she’s already capable of skittering across the floor. Would you like to hold her?”
Ashmedai had recently blessed the births of many of his people’scoming children, but he hadn’t held Eris yet, not even when she was first born. He hadn’t held a babe since Kenner, and even then, only briefly.
“I would be honored,” he said and took the offered child.
Eris’s spider legs tickled as they kicked at the exchange, not because she wanted to escape, but simply getting used to the feeling of moving them. Ashmedai had no trouble holding her securely, and once he had her safe in his arms, he marveled at the way she marveled at him. Shevah had no irises, but the babe did, bright blue, though the whites of her eyes glowed like her mother’s, making her young gaze quite entrancing.
She had never known “normal.” Neither had Shevah or her wife. They had only known being monsters in a monstrous land, cursed with forever night, yet they would never see their existence as a curse, other than the threat of the barrier and memories of the demon. To them, to Eris, humans, elves, and dwarves were the strange ones.
“Are you all right, Ash?” Shevah asked.
Ashmedai looked up, realizing he’d gotten misty-eyed gazing at the babe. “Yes. Apologies. Your daughter reminded me how blessed we are with what we’ve been given.” He always used his claws with care, but he was especially careful to only run the back of his fingers along the babe’s sweet face.
She cooed at him, staring at the fangs in his smile like she might reach for one and latch on, finding them fascinating instead of frightening—like Levi.
Ashmedai passed the babe back to Shevah and thanked her for the chance to hold Eris. Shevah wished him well and continued through town. A great weight seemed to have been lifted, more in the act of holding that child and not shying from his own people than even lying with Levi. Ashmedai knew, however, that his change in perspective wasbecauseof Levi.
Levi made his penance feel more like deliverance.
Bright giggling caught Ashmedai’s attention from the neighboring house—Grillo and Yentriss’s house. It was also a farmhouse, for when Grillo wasn’t busy with carpentry, he grew vegetables.
It was Kenner giggling, no doubt, but Ashmedai smiled wider as he moved around the house, for the boyish giggling was not only accompanied by Grillo’s voice but by Levi’s.
“Keep left!” Grillo called cheerfully over the laughter. “Mind the moss-berry fruit!”
Ashmedai rounded the corner, bearing witness to a chase. Levi had summoned the vision of a serpentine dragon about the size of a hawk that was flying after Kenner without need for wings.
Levi gave chase too, as did the family’s rollhound puppy, but Levi kept his dragon closest at Kenner’s heels, until he suddenly thrust the dragon that much faster ahead to move through Kenner, whose steps stuttered in surprise when it appeared in front of him.
Levi scooped the boy up while he was distracted and spun a still-giggling Kenner in a circle before depositing him on the ground. The rollhound yipped excitedly, formed into a ball, and proceeded to roll right into their feet, where it toppled out of its ball form onto its back. They laughed again.
Ashmedai could easily imagine how Levi must have played this way with a brother.
“Ash!” Grillo called. The minotaur sat on the back stoop, looking weary but far better than he had while staying at Luccite’s. His lizard arm moved as naturally as his original one as he used it to push himself up to his feet.
Levi and Kenner turned to see Ashmedai as well, and Kenner gave a joyful wave while Levi smiled, not displaying nearly as much of the bashfulness that used to infuse his every expression.
“Yen went to the festival grounds, if you’re looking for her,” Grillo said, though his grin said he didn’t truly think that’s who Ashmedaiwas after.
“Merely out for a walk,” Ashmedai said, continuing leisurely into the yard, “and pleased by the company I’ve found. Are you well, Grillo? You look it.”
