Inkway to Albreton

Chapter Nineteen

To her credit, her scream was silent, but that was probably only because she was too frightened to take a full breath in the first place.

"It is feisty," said the fish. Its breath swept over Salina, smelling of seawater, blood and grime.

"Yes-yes," said the little green man, hopping in front of her to spread his arms wide in presentation, "It would make a good, squirmy lure! No creature could resist! You would feast well for ages! Now what will you offer Frock? What will Frock get for it?"

The fish made a thoughtful noise that sounded like something being chopped and then ground into powder.

"A tooth," Frock offered, "Give frock a tooth and it's yours!"

"I have a better wager."

Salina turned wide-eyed towards the one who had spoken. Then for the first time she saw that the giant fish wasn't the only monster around her. From the man in casual clothes whose flesh peeled away as if it were dead to the ants three times Salina's size that scurried through the crowds to the mass of long, stringy grasses that lumbered on six legs through the place—it seemed they all were. She was surrounded by beasts, beasts who were bargaining over who would get to eat her, and all she could do was tremble.

Get a hold of yourself, Salina. Get up and shove past them all and run!

"Say your offer," Frock was telling the man with black eyes and shark's teeth who had interrupted the giant fish, "What will you give Frock for the human?"

The man ran a hand through his burgundy hair, slicking it back so it stuck out at the ends but was flat on the top like tiny sickles. "Fairies," said the man smoothly, "I got black and purple, blue and grey, white and red and mulberry brown. A wide assortment of rarities to be sure." And then with those black eyes of his he faced Salina and smirked and winked. If he were human and not surely intent on eating her the moment she was handed over, the gesture would have been suave.

"Frock doesn't need fairies," said Frock. "Go away. Someone else! Someone else say what they'd give for this human here! Come, come! Tell Frock your offers!"

The man with black eyes scoffed, crossed his arms. But he stayed there waiting, as if wagering what else he might have to give. Go on, said his eyes, said his teeth, go on and run. Look around, nobody will save you. I'd be doing you a favor, sinking my teeth in your neck. I'll find an object Frock can't resist.

That was it. Salina moved. She kicked Frock right to the ground and hurled herself in a random direction, rushing and rushing and feeling the heat in her legs and her stomach. She knew how to run. If nothing else, for at least ten seconds, she knew escape. But a burly hand with only three fingers caught her torso and plopped her right back where she stared. A creature nearing the size of a small dragon that stood upright on two legs and had skin the color of bedrock crossed its arms at Salina. Its face was scrunched like a pig's nose and it was hairless, fleshy and wrinkled. It scrutinized Salina, sniffed her. She didn't try to run again. All the monsters had formed a circle around her, closing in as Frock kept bargaining.

"I'll give you two sirena serpents for it," said one.

"A bottle of tanuki wine," said another.

Salina didn't know half of the things that were offered and she didn't particularly want to find out. She needed a different means of escape. She couldn't break free of the crowd now. She would have to wait until someone bought her, travel with them for a while (provided they didn't eat her on the spot or subject her to some other horrid fate) and then make a break for it when she was clear enough to see the forest. In the forest were her friends. In the forest she could hide.