The Shape of Time by Ryan Calejo

Author:Ryan Calejo
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Abrams
Published: 2023-07-25T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TWENTY - SEVEN

TRANSMU—HUH?

1

From the second we climbed out of the busted spaceship, Magdavellía and Navigator were at each other’s throats. Mags clearly wasn’t her biggest fan (“How can a former soldier of Agartha, even one as vulgar and self-serving as yourself, deny her citizens assistance?!”) and Navigator didn’t really seem to give a rip (“With my tongue and with my lips,” she said, strapping on a rucksack). So they argued (“I command you,” shouted Magdavellía, “by the power of the EverRisen Sun, to take us to Rymworld!”) and argued (“I’m not taking the likes of you anywhere—by the power of EverRisen Sun or by any other power!”) and argued (“You violate Rymworldian law!”) and argued some more (“You find me colluding with a skoöl of space scum aboard a thrice outlawed vessel, and you still somehow figure I give a flipper ’bout Rymworldian law??”) until Navigator finished gathering her things, and she and her Martian friend set off under a scorching sky toward the shimmering desert horizon. Something told me that she was still pretty sour over the whole losing-a-diamond-the-size-of-one-of-Jupiter’s-smaller-moons thing.

“You wanna just follow them?” I said, turning to Mags, who was sitting on a hump of hot orangey sand, examining that strange metal orb we’d found inside her bot. Probably checking it for damage or something.

“No,” she snapped angrily. “No, I do not! The entire Rym now stands on the doorstep of doom, and that morongus is off chasing rocks!”

Beside her, Deus Ex, who was back in spider mode now, scuttling up and down the sand dunes, beeped and buzzed in apparent agreement, while everybody’s favorite chipmunk chased after her with excited little chitters. This might’ve been the first time he’d ever stepped foot—er, paw—outside of Bermythica. Or maybe he was just happy to still be breathing. I know I sure was.

“Merfolk are a stiff-necked and salty people,” grumbled Magdavellía.

“Wait. Is she, like, a mermaid?”

“I would’ve thought her gills would have given it away . . .”

“What I mean is, mermaids exist?”

“This surprises you? Haven’t there been countless merfolk sightings in inworld? Rumor tells that their kind swim beneath the Ice Ring all the time.”

“Well, yeah, people claim to have seen mermaids and stuff. But no one actually believes them.” And I guess we had the Flat Earth Society to thank for that. Keeping all the coolest stuff from us inworlders. Bunch of buzzkills.

“Did you know that they are the only ‘civilized’ species (and I use the term civilized in its absolute loosest sense) whose governing bodies still sanction piracy? Piracy! Think of it!” Yeah, her blood was still boiling.

“But, if she’s a mermaid what is she doing—not in water?”

“Because she’s a mudder. Only half mermaid. You can tell by her gills. They don’t reach all the way around to the back of her neck. And some mudders they keep, some they exile. I think it’s safe to assume she’s part of the latter group.” Magdavellía gave her head a frustrated shake. “She’s nothing more than a petty chancer, anyway.

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