Rags & Bones: New Twists on Timeless Tales by Melissa Marr and Tim Pratt Read Free Book Online Page A

say we are twins.”
    “Your sister, then, who had become unhoused and traveling. Also, if you are the Darkness, why are you illuminated?”
    “There is no difference between us,” replied Yuddra, stretching her arms up toward the padded ceiling—paddedthese last twelve years, I might add, since the unfortunate overturning of a carriage that was inhabited by the Prince-Incipient of Enthemo, resulting in his crown being forced down over his ears, the ceiling back then being considerably harder—a stretch that made me catch my breath, I confess. I reached out to her, and to my extreme disappointment, found my hand passing through the waistI had hoped to encircle, Yuddra proving no more substantial than a wisp of steam.
    “There is no difference between us,” repeated Yuddra. “In fact, we have swapped roles many times over the past millennia. Sometimes I stay in the temple, sometimes Pikgnil does.”
    “But now you are both wandering,” I said, essaying to lift her hand to plant a courteous kiss, but with the same result as my previousattempt. “Out of your temple, far from your power, and pursued by your priesthood. What has brought you to this pass?”
    She smiled at me and leaned in close, with just as much effect as if she were normal flesh and blood, perhaps even more so, given that the tantalization of not being able to touch is well known as an erotic accentuator, one employed to great effect in the theater of … yes, yes,you know what I’m talking about, I’m sure, puppet excepted.
    “Just such a matter as now concerns us both,” she said. “I am jade and air, and have always been so, save for brief periods of corporeality. My sister, as always, is the same, and both of us … want more.”
    “So you are able to assume a fleshly form?” I asked, this being the chief part of her speech that I had taken in. “For some shorttime?”
    “Yes,” said Yuddra. “But it is difficult. Pikgnil and I want to permanently assume mortal form, so that we may experience in full the experiences we have heretofore only … tasted.”
    “What do you require to assume a mortal form?” I asked, being driven by curiosity as always. “For those short periods, I mean.”
    “Blood,” said Yuddra, and smiled again, showing her delicate, finely pointedteeth. “Mortal blood. A few clavelins might grant me an hour, but where to find a willing donor? It must be given freely, you see.”
    A clavelin? A small bottle, about so tall, so round, commonly used here for young wine. Not an excessive amount and, though I am no barber-surgeon, I knew that a man could lose more blood than that without fear of faintness.
    “I should be happy to oblige Your Divinity,”I said. Long caution caused me to add, “Two clavelins of blood and no more, I can happily spare, and indeed I would welcome a charming and
touchable
companion to lessen the drear of this journey.”
    She smiled again and agreed that such a diversion would be pleasant, that in fact a great part of her desire to assume a permanent mortal form was to engage in just such activities as I suggested, buton a more regular basis. I must confess that I had expected her to use those sharp teeth to draw my blood in the manner of those creatures some call the vampire, but rather she had me use my penknife to make a cut on my hand, and allow blood to drip into the saucer of one of the teacups provided by the Cartway, along with the samovar that had been bubbling away since Orthaon. As I let the dropsof blood fall, Yuddra licked the liquid from the saucer, very daintily, after the fashion of a cat. As she consumed the blood, I saw her grow more corporeal, the pearly light fading and her skin becoming … real, I suppose, though still extraordinarily beautiful.
    I shall draw the shades on the window of this retelling, as I drew the actual shades in the carriage. Suffice to say that time passedall too quickly, and far too soon I found her growing once again incorporeal, though there