Crown of the Starry Sky: Book 11 of Painting the Mists by Patrick Laplante

Author:Patrick Laplante [Laplante, Patrick]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Patrick G. Laplante
Published: 2021-03-30T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter 19: Crown

Yelling and crashing tables greeted Cha Ming as he entered M&T Tailors. It was bright and early in the morning—well before normal working hours. The staff were already awake and going about their duties. War was being waged, but someone had to clean up.

Cha Ming briefly wondered what could have caused such a fight to break out in the first place. He soon stopped and decided it wasn’t worth worrying about. No one was panicking, and life was never boring with demons. So, he relaxed and waited for the first reasonable person to come his way, hoping that no one had died or been seriously maimed or wounded.

It was Silverwing who finally greeted Cha Ming at the door. He was scowling, but otherwise unharmed. A good sign. “I’m not sure how to explain this,” Silverwing said.

“Oh, I’m sure I understand who the ringleader is,” Cha Ming said. Eyes of Truth and karma aside, there was one demon who was literally waving a flag in the shop’s central courtyard. Battle lines were drawn, and the Star-Eye Monkeys had all summoned their demon weapons—staves, without exception. Everyone, including the monkeys, were covered in light scratches and bruises. Gua, the flag-waving demon, had more than most.

“Unruly wretches! I’ll teach you who’s in charge!” Gua said. “When I say scrub, I mean scrub.”

“We’re not slaves, and you’re no chieftain of ours,” their leader, Shallow Moon, said calmly. “We’ve been over this. We will perform our duties within reasonable limits. We will not give in to unreasonable demands. We are being paid, but things must be negotiated.”

“You ungrateful, useless—”

“All right, all right. Everyone calm down,” Huxian said, appearing between both groups. They looked at him uncertainly, but seeing the pressure he exerted, they calmed down.

Cha Ming walked into the courtyard. A few of the employees glared at him, but Gua did not. Fact: Having a bond of brotherhood with the leader of a group of demons, who happened to be a Godbeast, gave you a lot of pull with other demons. As a result, two full Huxians’ worth of calm finally entered the situation.

“What seems to be the problem?” Cha Ming asked.

“They’re lazy,” Gua said simply. “And they don’t respect me.”

“They ask for things we cannot do,” Shallow Moon said.

“They seek dominance because they are stronger demons,” Clever Dusk explained. “That would be acceptable in a tribe, but these are not tribe members. They cannot be tribe members, or at least most of them cannot. We are creatures of the forest, Clear Sky. We are not city dwellers. Our elements are not in alignment.”

There were grumbles of agreement, but Huxian calmed them down. He might not have prevented their fighting earlier, but he did now. Letting off steam might even be a legitimate tactic for calming demons.

“All right,” Cha Ming said. “Tell me, Gua. What did you ask them to do?”

“Basic wood shaping and reconstruction,” Gua said. “Growing plants. Weaving material. The kind of things monkeys should know how to do.”

“Which I have explained several times that we are not good at,” Shallow Moon said.

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