The Adventures of Milo and Fairfax by Alexander Karelis

Author:Alexander Karelis [Karelis, Alexander]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Vaughn Lock and Key
Published: 2021-08-28T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 8: Podarge

It was early fall in the misty hills. The morning air was crisp. From a distance I could see a young harpy leap from small rock to small rock, occasionally stopping to preen. As I got closer, she scrambled up onto a boulder and perched on it, surveying her domain. She looked like she was about to climb down when she saw Fairfax and me. She did climb down from the rock, then, and ran down to the road to meet us.

“Hello, little bird,” I said.

“Hello,” she said. “Can I pet your dog?”

I smiled. “You’d better ask her first.”

“What’s her name?”

“Fairfax.”

“Can I pet you, Fairfax?” she said. Fairfax licked the girl’s talon and rolled onto her back. The girl drew gentle circles on the dog’s belly for a minute with her claws, and then tried to pick her up. Fairfax tolerates kids okay. She lay there patiently while the harpy strained to lift her. She gave up after a moment. “She’s so heavy!”

“She is. Is your father nearby?”

“He’s up at the village.”

“Will you show me where it is?”

The girl pointed up the road. “You can walk with me if you like,” she said, and we set out. The village was only half a mile away. It was nothing more than a small circle of stone huts with a well in the middle. It was quiet, but it was early in the day, and adult harpies are most active at dusk. The girl’s father was in the kitchen, cutting up rabbit for her breakfast. When he saw me, he put down his knife and wiped his tattooed hands on his apron before coming over to embrace me.

“We all thought you were dead.”

“No,” I said, hugging him back. “I’m really hungry, Ulysses. Do you have anything I can eat?”

He smiled and clapped me on the shoulder. “Of course. Can I get Fairfax anything?”

“She’d probably appreciate whatever’s left of that rabbit after you feed your daughter.”

“Yes. Let me take care of Podarge, then I’ll make coffee and snake’s eggs for the two of us.”

I put down my bag and sat at the table while Ulysses brewed coffee in a French press that seemed out of place in the spartan kitchen. He got a pair of large, leathery eggs from an icebox, cut them open with a knife, and pan-fried them.

The girl gobbled down her bowl of raw rabbit while her father and I drank our coffee. I watched her with interest. “She’s your biological daughter?”

“Yes. They breed true.”

“She’s beautiful.”

“Thank you. What happened, Milo?”

I salted my snake’s egg and took a bite. “It was Lucien Murdock,” I said tiredly. “He’s got a small army of constructs, and he’s killing troubleshooters. Everyone he’s ever worked with.”

Ulysses gave a low whistle. “Is it true about Central Terminal?”

“It’s true that the serpents destroyed it when they razed Amsterdam Two, if that’s what you mean.”

Neither of us spoke for a while. Finally, Ulysses stood up and took our plates to the stone sink. “I liked that old place.

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