The Poison Princess (14 page)

Her princess, on the other hand, had no
limitation. That was one of the reasons that Scarlett was so
attracted to her. Why she chose her to bond with. She would know
greatness, and she would reach it thanks to the infinite darkness
brewing inside her soul. It was beautiful for the demon to
witness.

Scarlett made her way to a part of town where
storefronts like Luther’s lined the street. Why the tailor hadn’t
set up shop there, she didn’t know. Walking down the street, she
inspected each of the business’ signs hanging above the doors, in
the windows, or staked in the ground outside in search of one
advertising alchemical compounds. There was a gambling house called
the Weighted Die, a bar by the name of the Briny Barrel, and an inn
called the Whispering Walls. The names had such color. The demon
quite liked this place. Dark, dreary and colorful all at the same
time. She kept walking and found what she had searched for in the
form of a shop called the Copper Goblet.

The demon twisted the metal knob and opened
the creaking door, causing a bell overhead to chime. The shop’s
smell was incredibly musty and complicated, as various roaming
chemical aromas were combined in her nostrils. She’d only been in
Nabiria for a short time, and never before had she come across any
smells so amazing, and to have them all in one place made it even
more overwhelming. If her home were to have had a smell, she
thought it would be just like that little shop in the dimly lit
town carved into the cove of a great mountain.

As the name of the shop suggested, there was
a large copper goblet situated at the center of the room,
surrounded by a plethora of flowers, liquids sealed in glass tubes,
animal body parts, and arcane artifacts even her demonic eyes
couldn’t identify.

An older woman sat behind the counter of the
shop, slowly turning the pages of an old tome, licking her fingers
between each page flip. Her hair had greyed, and it was woven into
braids that fell to either side of her head and rested on her
shoulders. She wore a burgundy dress with a little black coat over
the top. Layers of jewelry hung around her neck, glittering and
reflecting the light of the candles that were lit around the edges
of the room.

Scarlett approached the old woman at the
counter and began to ask something, but the shop owner raised a
wrinkled finger up to silence her. The old woman turned the page of
her tome, while maintaining the finger in the air. The demon did
not like being made to wait. She had bided her time long enough in
the nether realm, and she now found her time too valuable to be
wasted. The elderly shop owner turned the pages in her book two
more times before finally looking up at Scarlett. When she did,
there was a glint in her eye that made the demon think, she’d
recognized Scarlett for what she was. That didn’t mean she was
going to say anything. The tailor and his daughter had indicated
that the people in Gloomport kept their mouths shut, when they saw
something that didn’t affect them. The old woman had thus far
followed that philosophy as well.

“Can I help you?” she asked, finally putting
her finger down. The woman then grabbed a long black feather,
placed it at the center of the book’s crease to mark her place, and
closed it shut.

“Poison,” Scarlett replied. “I need
poison.”

“What does a--” The old woman stopped herself
a moment before rephrasing. “What do you need with poison?”

“My needs are my own, which I suggest you
remember.”

“I merely wish to assess your requirements,
so that I can provide you with the toxin suited best for that
purpose,” the old woman said with a dry smile the demon didn’t
appreciate.

Scarlett shook her head. “That doesn’t
matter. As strong as you can manage, as deadly as you can
concoct.”

“It is death you seek then? I can create such
an item, but what do you have to exchange?”

The demon raised an eyebrow. The elderly shop
owner was up to something. “Is there something you have in mind,
crone?”

“You look like an individual who has access
to much…” she looked up to Scarlett’s horns. “Power.”

The demon smiled. She knew where the woman
was going. She would take full advantage. “Are you quite sure you
want to deal with me?”

“Are you willing or not?” the old woman asked
with dead eyes.

Scarlett shrugged her shoulders. “Fine. What
is it you want?”

“Youth.”

“Youth? Is that all?”

“I imagine it matters little to a timeless
thing such as you, but for a mortal, it is everything.”

Scarlett rolled her eyes. “Fine. It is your
choice, after all.”

The horned demon reached out and grabbed the
woman’s wrist, twisting it and holding it down against the counter.
The woman squirmed at the pain, but Scarlett held up a single
finger on her other hand, indicating for the crone to wait. The red
polished fingernail extended out into a sharp point, and she took
it and pricked the elderly woman’s index finger, causing blood to
flow out and pool there. Scarlett then let go of the woman’s wrist
and retrieved a furled scroll from the absence of space. She placed
it on the counter and unrolled it, holding it there in display.

“Sign it, and we shall have an accord,” she
explained coldly.

“There are no terms,” she protested.

“The terms have already been negotiated.
Youth for poison.”

The elderly woman’s eyes narrowed to slits,
but suspicions or otherwise, she looked down at the parchment and
scraped her bloody finger along the rough paper, signing her name.
Scarlett then took the vellum and furled it back up before tucking
it away where she had retrieved it from.

“Well?” the old crone said. “I don’t feel any
different.”

“Payment upon delivery. Brew the poison. Brew
it strong.”

The alchemist glared at Scarlett, but she
ultimately did as instructed. She got out from behind the counter,
when it was revealed that she was in fact, a great deal shorter
than she looked, having been standing on a stool. She hobbled
around the shop gathering ingredients of a wide assortment before
returning and throwing them one by one into a smaller cauldron than
the one on display in the center of the room. This smaller one was
attached to a rotating handle that allowed it to be pushed or
pulled out of the nearby-lit fireplace. Scarlett wasn’t sure what
all was thrown into the pot, but she recognized a handful of
things.

There were a few mushrooms dropped in, some
whole and some cut into thin slices. The woman poured in a foul
smelling liquid that the demon’s novice senses couldn’t quite
place, but it made her think of death or sickness. Next, the woman
pulled a pair of spiders out from a clear, glass jar and placed
them one by one in a clay mortar. Tipping a small sampling of a
grey powder in from a full paper bag marked with a skull and cross
bones, the old woman picked up a pestle as well. She ground the
spiders into a disgusting black paste, and when satisfied, dropped
the contents into the pot. After scraping every last bit of the
crushed spiders out of the mortar and into the cauldron with her
finger, the hag enthusiastically licked the finger clean. Lastly,
the elderly alchemist retrieved a section of a green vine and
dropped it into the mix.

The old crone pushed the cauldron over the
fire, and using a long, wooden spoon, stirred her concoction. She
then stoked the fire for a few minutes, until the dark green liquid
in the cauldron began to boil and bubble. The woman stirred her
mixture again, and after letting it boil so that it nearly bubbled
out, she swung it back around and out of the fire. Leaning over the
pot, she deeply breathed in the smell of the fluid and nodded to
herself.

“It’s ready,” she commented.

The woman grabbed a container that resembled
a flask that was made of glass, and she sat it on a table. Wedging
two thick books on either side to hold it in place, the alchemist
grabbed a pot with a long handle and dipped it into the murky,
green substance, careful not to let any of it touch her skin.
Grabbing a large batch of the liquid, she swung the pot over to the
flask and slowly poured the contents into the smaller container
with a precision that didn’t suit her age. Once the glass was full,
she poured the excess back into the cauldron and left the pot
leaning near the fireplace. Grabbing a cork, she then squeezed it
into the top of the flask, closing it tight.

The old hag picked up the container and
tentatively handed it to the horned demon. “And as for your side of
the deal?”

“It is done,” Scarlett said, snatching the
flask from her.

“Have you tried to trick me? I am the same as
ever.”

“I have given you your youth even if you
cannot yet see it. I have reversed your aging process, just as you
requested. Time now flows backward for you. Every day you will wake
up and be younger.”

“I will?” The old woman smiled, revealing
several black and rotten teeth. “Until when? How long until the
spell wears off? When will it stop?”

“Stop?” Scarlett giggled. “It will never
stop, you old fool. You will grow younger with every passing day,
until the one that you simply cease to exist.”

“That’s not what I wanted. That wasn’t the
deal!”

“Be grateful for what I’ve given you, witch.
You deserve it not.”

The horned demon then left the alchemist’s
shop, vial in hand, leaving the horrified old woman behind.
Everything she had said, of course, was simply untrue. Scarlett had
no such power to grant wishes based on deals like that. It was
utter nonsense. That elderly woman would die of age, that was true,
but it would be old age, not youth. She didn’t know where so many
people got the impression that demons of the nether realm could
grant such requests, but if they were foolish enough to believe it,
she would take them for whatever they were worth. After all, that
was the way of Gloomport - take what you can. She could, and she
did. Tricking the woman into thinking she would get the worst
variation of what she’d wanted had just been a bit of fun. She had
been cooped up in those caverns nursing Ruby back to health for so
long, that she needed to stretch her legs and enjoy herself, while
she could. Maybe she’d gone stir crazy down in those depths. It was
hard to say. Whatever the case, she’d enjoyed the deception and was
now eager to get back to her princess.

Walking back through the city, Scarlett made
her way toward the tailor shop. As she turned the corner onto the
street where the shop was located, the demon could see a commotion
rumbling just outside it. Her speed increased, fearing that her
princess may have already bitten off more than she could chew.
Getting closer, she saw her worries were justified, as Ruby was
surrounded on all sides by what she could only assume were members
of this Underlaw she’d heard about. Their motives looked grim, but
Scarlett would not allow harm to come to her princess.

Ruby was concerned about where her demon
servant had gone to. She’d given her specific orders to stay at the
tailor’s, while she got cleaned up, but now she was nowhere to be
seen. Scarlett had taken every opportunity to remind the princess
that she was loyal to her, but Ruby began to worry that she had
been deceived by the horned demon. Maybe she’d gotten what she
needed and was abandoning her now that she had form in the
world.

The princess decided to go outside to look
for her, but as soon as she stepped out the front door of the
building, she saw that trouble was on the way. A group of men
dressed in similar dyed red leather, carrying weapons ranging from
swords, daggers, bows and arrows, short axes, and even a few war
hammers. The man whose genitals she had rotted off stood with them,
but he needed help in walking and was propped up by another member
of the Underlaw. She smiled thinking about what she had done to
him.

A part of her, now buried deep inside,
regretted what she had gotten herself involved in and wished she
could flee, but the poisoned portions of her relished the
opportunity to do further harm to these men. Ruby walked forward to
meet them in front of the shop, having no sign of fear. The poison
had buried that wasted emotion, masking it instead with a dark
confidence in her toxic abilities. The idea that this was too much
for her to take on didn’t even enter her mind. Pride had clouded
her judgment.

The men of the Underlaw each stopped some
distance away from her, wrapping in a semicircle around the
princess. Each of them brandished their weapon of choice, eyeing
Ruby with malicious intent. She didn’t even notice, but the streets
had cleared completely except for them and her. There was no one
else in Gloomport with any desire to get in these men’s way. She
stood alone. Even Scarlett had left her. It mattered not. She would
handle these men before dealing with her demon’s
insubordination.

“She’s the one,” the recently castrated
eunuch declared.

“Hello…” she paused and thought for a moment
with a smile spread across her face. “What do I call you lot?
Underlawyers? That’s frankly not very intimidating.”

“It’s irrelevant what you call us,” another
of their number said in a harsh voice. “You won’t live long enough
to matter.”

Clearly, this was the man in charge. Covering
one of his eyes diagonally was a black cloth that wrapped around
and tied behind his head. The rag pushed up his shaggy brown hair
and partially covered an old scar that ran from under the cloth
down to his jawbone, where the hair of his otherwise full beard
didn’t grow. He was carrying a pair of battle-axes, one in each
hand, and he wore the same dyed leathers as the rest of his gang.
He stood more than six feet tall with a wide but muscular
build.

“Just try it,” Ruby said, as she gently
turned that lever inside her chest.