Page 124 of Mud

“No, no, I?—”

“Oh, you want to know a necromancy spell? I heard the floating head giving you the clue—necromancy, huh?” She wiggled her brows. “We’ve had that before, I think. Turned out great.” And she winked dramatically, as if she meant anything but what she said.

“Food,” I blurted before she could cut me off again. “I wanted to ask if I can get food anywhere around here and maybe a bathroom.”

“Oh!” she said. “Silly me—of course! I’ve got some crackers here somewhere. You just wait.” She hurried all around the snake’s skeleton again, and behind the counter, while my stomach growled. I tried not to seem too relieved or too happy at the thought of eating. Crackers sounded mighty fine at the moment. I wasn’t about to complain.

“Thank you so much. I have money to pay you.” Poppy had put some dollar bills in the front pocket of my leather pants.

“I’m afraid we don’t take that here, child,” said the elf when I put the bills on the countertop.

“Oh.”Well, fuck.

“We do trade goods, though.” She put a transparent box on the countertop full of crackers and pulled the lid off. “These are on the house—for those laughs. Good ones. Good ones, indeed,” she whispered to herself, shaking her head and grabbing her rag again, cheeks pink and a smile stretching her thin lips.

“Thank you,” I said, right now only concerned in getting as much strength as I could. Those crackers were the best I was going to get, so I ate like I hadn’t in years.

“Somebody’s hungry,” the elf said. No point denying it, so I just stuffed the last of the crackers in my mouth. “What’s your name, child?”

“Rora,” I said, and it came out likeWo-wa.

“I’m Erfes. Happy to make your acquaintance,” she said with a nod, then stepped onto her stool again, becoming almost eye level with me.

“Likewise,” I said, wiping the crumbs from the cornersof my mouth. “I don’t really have anything to pay you with.” And why wouldn’t she take dollar bills? I wasn’t sure if I’d ever read anything about what type of currency worked in the Roe. Not even in my wildest nightmares could I have foreseen that I’d one day be standing where I was standing now.

“You sure about that?” said the elf, looking down at my torso with an arched brow.

“Yes, I?—”

“I smell a lot of metal on you, Wowa,” she said.

“It’s actuallyRora,” I corrected, looking down at my jacket. “I have weapons—that’s what you’re smelling.”

Elves and orcs and other species came from magic, let off magical signals, but they didn’t have active magic that they could use at will to alter reality, like Iridians. Even so, their bodies were much stronger than that of a human. They healed much faster, fought off diseases with ease, and their senses were much more enhanced, which was why Erfes could smell the metal on me. I’d hate to part with my weapons, but I could give her what she wanted in exchange for some real food and a shower.

“Oh—Rrrorrra,” she said, tasting the name on her tongue with those heavy R’s. “Yes, yes, I see them. Fancy. Pretty. You must be well off out there.”

Her smile had changed to something…less pleasant when I opened up my jacket a bit to show her my leather holster and my sheaths, my knives and guns.

I pulled my jacket around me tightly again.

Suddenly I felt like I was standing on needles.

“How did you bring those in, is my question. I get a blade, butallthat?” And she waved her hand toward my chest.

Fuck, I shouldn’t have showed her anything.

Clearing my throat, I tried again. “I need food and I need a shower. What would I?—”

“Better yet, how much magic do you have? Which challenge are you coming from? You know everyone goes to different parts of the Roe after the first one, right? Wherever your thoughts are, that’s where the game takes you,” she cut me off, leaning closer until her elbows rested on the countertop. Her eyes looked so wide and glossy now, so damn curious she looked about ready to cut me open and see into my insides.

But what she said did make sense.

After those puddles of blood, all I’d wanted, all I’d thought about was to be in a place thatsmelled nice, not like blood. The game had taken me to the Tree of Abundance.

And after the Tree, I’d thought about a city at night because that’s what the darkness and the twinkling lights in the distance had looked like to me from the branch. Now, here I was.

Not that it mattered, anyway.

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