The Icon Unbound

Chapter Eighteen, Part B - Saiph

This part of this chapter is the one that tears my guts out the most, because it is all about the question at the end. Enjoy, my lovelies! Leave me a comment or a vote if you liked this. --Elizabeth, UPDATED 06/19/2017

  Three scrawny boys with tape measures hung around their necks waited for them. All of them looked like they had been woken from naps.

One of the lanky kids, whose brown hair had a cowlick on one side, came up to Saiph. "First off, not a thing ready-made is going to fit ye, or yer looka-like over there, yeah? So, don't expect this is going to be quick."

Saiph took a deep breath and gathered his patience. Tried to, anyway.

"Don't move. Most no one comes to this backwash anymore, yeah? I'd be gone but my contract has another six months. Stand still. What'r'ye doing here, anyways?"

Apparently, this was not an actual question, because the boy chattered on, and on, until Saiph felt his ears go numb. The next hour passed in a haze that felt like half a day.

"This is interminable." Saiph muttered when Rigel stepped down from his platform.

"You just don't know how to spend the time. While you played the better part of a mannequin, I was actually talking to them. These guys know more about what's going on in this town than the resident Chosen does." Rigel nudged Saiph in the shoulder. Instead of his robes, he wore the costume much like Corwin's. A coral shirt with a pointed collar buttoned tight. A gray striped tie with a complicated knot was tucked into a slim fitting vest. Over all that he had a short wool coat with a double row of buttons and a large collar that could be pulled up against the wind. All of that made sense to Saiph, although it fit so differently from what he was used to. What he didn't understand were the pants. His own were fawn colored, and they...fit. They really fit. To the point where he didn't need the belt that the assistant insisted would be necessary. His old boots fit over the...waters receding, could he even call them pants? Did they qualify as leggings?

"You seem a little perturbed there," Rigel started to smile. To really smile, the first one Saiph had seen since Era died. Then Rigel spoiled it by continuing. "If you've got it, flaunt it. And I know you do, because I do."

"I am not perturbed. These clothes are immodest."

"When did you become such a stick in the mud? I remember a time when..."

"Rigel, please! Let's not, okay?" Saiph immediately felt like an ass.

"The purpose of new clothes is to blend in. Unless we decide to adopt the Icon's sense of fashion, that ship sailed."

"True. I'll bet the girls are in the same boat. Honor will be having a fit. Still, I wish we could get more of a feel for what's happening here."

"I don't think we need to know more about this town."

"Everything fits together, brother. What goes on in these smaller towns is probably replicated everywhere on a larger scale."

"Only you could figure things out by backing into them from a thousand miles opposite direction."

They walked down the stairs together while Butters worked on Corwin. Arrow had flung himself down on the landing to wait. Saiph slid down the wall to join the dog without hesitation. Rigel smiled a little and joined him.