Page 21 of Fire in Stone

I mimicked his pose, leaning with my forearms on my knees. It was best to say it as it was, I decided, just like ripping off a band-aid.

“I’m a thief, Elex,” I blurted out, staring at the asphalt under my feet. “I stole you from the warehouse where Madame Tan was keeping you. And I…” I drew in some air then said it quickly, as if leaping off a cliff, “I was supposed to exchange you for a lot of money,” I glanced at the clock over the train platform across the street, “ right about now actually.”

I didn’t want to look into his eyes after this confession, but I sensed he was staring at me.

“Madame Tan is not what she seems, Amber,” he said quietly. “Her real name is Ghata, and she was the Goddess of the Moon.”

“A goddess?” I frowned, turning to face him.

He read my skeptical expression correctly and lifted a hand. “Please, suspend your suspicions and disbelief for a moment and hear what I have to say. You can always doubt me later.”

“All right. I’ll try,” I promised.

At least he didn’t look angry with me for stealing and planning to sell him.

“Werewolves worship the Moon,” he started. “It’s their main deity—”

“Werewolves? Like with fur, teeth, and claws?” I tried, I really tried to suspend the disbelief as he’d asked, but dammit, how much of asuspensiondid he expect from me?

“Yes.” He looked frighteningly serious. “Werewolves live in the Kingdom of Sarnala in Nerifir. The Moon controls their shift to their beast form, similar to how the Sun controls the shift to stone for my people.”

I kept quiet this time, allowing him to continue.

“The gods aren’t meant to walk the plains of the living. They have their own realms, watching us from afar. Yet that wasn’t enough for the werewolves. They wished to have their goddess closer. So, they created Ghata, the embodiment of the Moon in blood and flesh. They built her a temple in Sarnala and worshiped her.”

Now, I listened, enthralled by his story. Somehow, it no longer mattered whether it was real or not. He had my attention.

“And then what?” I prompted eagerly.

“A goddess, brought to the land of the living, given a body, and made to live among us, becomes just as vulnerable to our vices as the rest of us. Over centuries, the adoration of her worshipers and the power given to her over them corrupted Ghata. She demanded more and more from the werewolves. Their firstborn sons became her monks,bracks, she called them. They abandoned their families to serve her. She took over their free will, turning them into her slaves in body and soul.”

“They have tattoos?” I asked, remembering the “staff” of the menagerie. Other than the skittish ticket girl whom I’d tried to speak to in the parking lot after visiting the fair, the rest of Madame’s employees were the nearly identical-looking men. Tall and muscular, they all had bald heads and matching full-sleeve tattoos on their right arms.

“Yes,” Elex confirmed. “They get tattoos when they become herbracks. She controls them through their body art. I saw it while at her menagerie.”

“What did she want with you?”

“To perform in her show.”

“What show? I’ve been to the menagerie. It’s just a curious collection of unusual things and animals. They sure are weird and neat, but they don’t perform.”

He gave me a sad smile. “The menagerie is just one part of what Ghata does. For a much higher price, the visitors can see her exhibits of sentient beings.”

“You mean people? She displays people, too?”

“She displays fae. I’ve heard she’s had a siren, a werewolf, even a gorgonian. She wanted me to become a part of that too.”

“You refused?”

“Of course I did. She allowed me to shift back to my current form once, just to lay out her terms—work for her for as long as she needed me to in exchange for her releasing me one day. Or remain in stone forever.”

A woman or a goddess, Madame didn’t play fair.

“What exactly did she want you to do?”

“She wanted me to shift in front of her high-paying clients. Gargoyles have more forms than one, and she wanted me to demonstrate them all to those who paid. To ensure I’d remain her puppet and not turn against her, she demanded a promise from me that would bind me as her servant.”

“How would a promise really bind you?”

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