Sonnet: The Cities of Steam, Brass, and Aether

Chapter Nine

What was going on? What is happening right now? Is Henry seriously saying that he wants to join Faye? But they are brutes, monsters even. Who cares if they married or raised children for that matter.

Anybody could do that, in fact there are dozens of girls in the Sylek district that are regularly popping out kids; some of them have two or even three by themselves, from different fathers too!

"Henry, you can't be serious?!" Blair asked him incredulously.

"Well if you are serious, lad, then I will certainly take you; although it will be a rough life, I'll not go easy on you. Also I expect you to be able to look after yourself, of course I will help teach you some things here and there." The giant hobgoblin said to Henry with a wink, before turning a peculiar gaze to her.

That was the second or third time he had done that, she was sure of it.

She was starting to get irritated by him, now she understood why her father didn't like hobgoblins. Of course, he was nearly killed by one when he was the captain of Lineejos keep; so his particular reason for disliking hobgoblins was entirely different than her own.

I wonder if that hobgoblin looked like this one. I don't think it was ever described to me, I'll have to ask dad about it. Mhm... maybe Uncle Vilgis would be a better option.

Wait. Did he just say he would take him?!?

"Don't forget me! I'm an orphan too, so you need to take me!" Lavender blubbered, although Blair suspected she was faking.

"I... uhh im not sure if that is a good idea. It's going to be a very long and difficult journey; and that is only after we are finished here which could take very many months."

What are they doing here anyways? Didn't Henry ask him that and never got an answer?

"Puh puh pleaseee!!!" She began to wail in a hysterical manner, this girl really was delusional. Perhaps she would fit in better with the mongrels then anyways.

"Really I dont think it is such a good idea, see I can already tell Henry is somewhat skilled with darkness. It will be easy for me to teach him things to survive where we will be; however, I can see no such skills emanating from you. I just don't think you have what it takes."

Uh oh. Big mistake.

Lavender's crying stopped almost immediately and in the blink of an eye, rose from her crouched down position with a twirl; sliding a small axe down the length of either arm as she stood, seeming to appear from out of nowhere.

Without missing a beat she continued her twirl, bringing both axes down in an overhead arc at Lance's head; Blair could have sworn she was gonna cleave his skull open in that moment. But for just a second she saw what appeared to be two images of Lance, before he was suddenly behind Lavender.

He laughed easily while reaching up to pluck the axes from the wild girl's raised grasp.

"Oh. You're fast." Lavender said with a giggle, twirling to face him and falling on her ass in the motion. She continued all the way through the motion until she was laying on her back and began laughing hysterically. "You are really, really fast!"

Holy shit. That was fast, how did he do that?

"Ok. Ok. I guess you are more than meets the eye. Or is the saying 'don't judge a book by its cover'?"

How does he know that saying? Or what a book is for that matter?

"So you know what books are?" Henry asked him, he seemed to be pleased with the answer that he could join the hobgoblin.