Black Key

Chapter 3

CHAPTER THREE

I lifted an eyebrow at Tegan but he gave Matty the offered hand so I did the same. Our palms were turned upward to her and she cradled them both in her hands as she leaned forward. Her nose nearly brushed against our skin as she eyeballed the lines.

“Yes yes. . .” she murmured as she nodded. “That will do.”

Matty drew her hands away and held them up over our palms. A maniacal look appeared on her face as she held up her pointer finger on both hands and revealed two incredibly sharp fingernails. In one swift movement, she flicked her wrist and sliced our palms open.

“Ow!” I complained as even Tegan winced.

I instinctively drew my hand away from the crazy lady, but Matty grabbed our wrists and slapped our palms together. “Now a good rub,” she cooed as she blended our blood. “And it’s done.”

Matty thrust our hands apart and as she did so our blood remained in the same spot, hovering in midair and swirling together in thin red tendrils. She began to weave them together, slowly crafting a familiar document into existence. My eyes widened as we soon beheld our blood contract complete with words and our signatures.

Matty ceased her weaving and leaned forward to squint at the fine print. “Now let’s see here.”

I flexed my injured palm as Tegan offered me his handkerchief. I gladly accepted and removed the blood to reveal a clean palm. Tegan took the cloth and wiped his own hand to show his mark, too, was gone. He smiled and shrugged as he pocketed the handkerchief.

Meanwhile, our hostess was reading on and had reached the finest writing at the bottom. “This is a very good contract.” Her eyes flickered up to us. “Well, not good for you.”

“That ironclad?” Tegan wondered.

She nodded. “Yep. It says here that the contract can only be broken by mutual agreement unless one side voids the contract by putting them in mortal danger.

I snorted. “I think that’s already happened, but we’re still stuck in it.”

Matty rubbed her chin in one hand as she squinted at the finer details. “It says here that acts of God may be considered mortal danger.”

Tegan lifted an eyebrow. “Are there any details on those acts?”

Matty clapped her hands and the floating blood contract vanished. Our donated blood turned into a puff of red dust that blew away in the wind. “Nope. It’s one of those things where you’ll know it when you see it.”

“There doesn’t happen to be any god lying around who we can piss off, is there?” I spoke up.

Tegan shook his head. “None that I know of. We’ll have to figure out another way of getting close to Voran’s location.”

Matty turned her face away from us and her eyes flickered with many emotions. There was a touch of anger but some fear. She stiffened her chin and puffed out her chest. “I suppose I owe that old coot something.” She spun around to face us head-on. “There’s a way to stifle the effects of a blood contract. Mind you, it won’t void it, but you’ll have more freedom than you do now.”

“What’s the catch?” Tegan asked her.

She wrinkled her nose. “The catch is it isn’t easy to convince the hag to help you and she isn’t easy to find, either.”

I blinked at her. “Who are we trying to find?”

A heavy sigh escaped her. “My sister.” Tegan and I stared at her in surprise and she shot us a sharp look. “Can I not have a sister?”

I shrugged. “I just was, well, you didn’t seem like you were-”

“We’d be delighted to meet her if she can help us,” Tegan interrupted.

Matty scoffed. “You say that now but wait until you meet the wench. The trick is finding her as she’s liable to be anywhere selling those horrible concoctions of hers.”

“She goes from town to town?” Tegan guessed.

Our hostess nodded. “Like a dirty piece of trash blowing in the wind. The last I heard Mable was haggling her wares east of here in Conas. There’s a big party going on over there worshipping the moon or whatnot.”

Tegan folded his arms over his chest and furrowed his brow. “That sounds like the Luna Carnival.”

She turned up her nose. “They’d do better putting their efforts into resting these souls instead of hopping around feeding their faces.”

“What’s the Luna Carnival?” I spoke up.

“A celebration of the biggest moon of the year,” Tegan told me. “The werewolf clans gather to the north of Malartu where the rivers go into the hills and hold a festival.”

“Hold a waste of time. . .” Matty grumbled.

“Do you have to be a werewolf to join in?” I asked him.

He smiled and shook his head. “The vendors would never like that proposal. Anybody’s allowed inside and the more money spent the more they like you.”

“Then it looks like we’d better get going to Malartu,” I mused as I turned to Matty. “Thanks for reading our contract.”

She crossed her arms and frowned at us. “Don’t thank me. Just get that old coot out of trouble so I can see him one last time.”

“To hug him?” I guessed.

She sneered at me. “Of course not. I still owe him a nice slap on the face from the last time we met. The old fool forgot my birthday.”

Tegan smiled and inclined his head to her. “We’ll try our best to get him back here so you can fulfill your wish.”

We slipped out of the humble abode with the prize broom in hand and a direction to take. Still, I frowned as we strode into the woods. “So if we’re going to Malartu that means we’re going the opposite direction we need to in order to find out what happened to Zahn, right?”

My companion sighed. “Unfortunately, yes. We might have to stable the horse with our friends at Colun or the Scath Marshes, and travel by broom and wing.”

I frowned down at the sweeper in my hand. “Are you sure that’s a good idea? We might just need a new spoke on the wagon.”

The broom shuddered and leapt out of my hands. It looped around us once, causing us to stop, before it swept between my legs. I yelped and gripped the broom with both hands as I was flown upward out of the terrible Gallery and into the clear, clean air.

“You could have warned me!” I scolded my vehicle. The broom danced to and fro and I rolled my eyes. “Uh-huh. You wanted to do it as a surprise, huh?”

The broom bounced me up and down in a nodding motion. I gripped its wood stick tighter.

“Alright, I get it!” I yelped as I nearly hugged myself against the handle. “So what was that back there with you running away?”

“Matty’s question answers that,” Tegan spoke up as he flew up to my side.

I nearly tumbled off the other side of my broom. “Could one of you warn me when you come up on me?!”

Tegan grinned. “I was merely following your broom’s lead.”

“Well, don’t,” I scolded him as I glared down at my ride. “He doesn’t need his bristles puffed out.” The broom lifted its front a little and seemed to nod. I sighed and returned my attention to Tegan. “But what was it you were saying about Matty?”

“I think your broom wanted to help us find a way around our contract and thought Matty could help,” Tegan explained.

My broom hopped up and down so much that my whole body was rattled. “Alright! Alright! We get it! Calm down!” The broom went limp and seemed to droop. I sighed and patted its ‘head.’ “And thank you.” My sweeper danced about and wiggled its bushy butt. I gripped its handle tighter and glared at it. “Think calm thoughts!” The broom quieted and all I heard was Tegan’s chuckle. I glared at him. “Don’t laugh just yet. We need to find Matty’s sister at that carnival, hope she can get us out of our contract, and then we have to go see what’s going on with Zahn.”

Tegan’s eyes twinkled. “It sounds like a great adventure, doesn’t it?” He flapped his wings faster and pulled ahead of me. “I’ll race you to the carriage!”

“Cheater!” I shouted as he swooped down. I hurried after him and together we flew over the dead forest toward our carriage.