The Shadow Companion - Laura Anne Gilman [28]
Gerard was about to say something, when he yelped an embarrassingly high-pitched noise.
“What’s that?”
Newt had, somehow, forgotten about the thing on Ailis’s back. It had crawled out from under her shift and poked a squared-off snout over her shoulder and through the tangles of her hair.
“Oh. I think that’s what was following us,” Ailis said. “It seemed really interested in my magic.”
She reached back over her shoulder and coaxed the thing out into plain sight. It was a lizard of some sort, almost an arm span long, with black eyes bulging slightly from the side of its flat, rounded head, a narrow but muscular body running into a long tail, and four short, muscled legs with round, webbed feet underneath. Its skin was a mottled green, with two dark red stripes running down its back. It glistened slightly, as though it were covered in sweat, but Ailis handled it calmly, without revulsion.
“What is it?” Gerard seemed taken aback, but Newt, predictably, was curious. If it was a creature of any sort, Newt was fascinated.
He raised a hand, prepared for it to back away or hiss, or exhibit any of the usual reactions wild animals might have to a stranger, but instead the creature raised itself up to meet his touch, pressing the flat top of its head against Newt’s palm like a dog anticipating its master’s touch.
The skin was cool, drier than he expected, almost like one of the parchments from Merlin’s study. Newt could feel an odd thrum through it, as though the creature were purring with satisfaction.
“What is it?” Gerard asked a second time, trying to get a better look. The thing moved gracefully off of Ailis’s shoulder and up onto Newt’s arm, staring back at Gerard with an unhurried, not at all frightened stare.
“I don’t know,” Newt said, oddly unsettled by the way the thing had taken to him, “but it seems to like me.”
“More than it does me,” Ailis noted, pointing to the way its tail was now curling around Newt’s arm, as though to brace itself, or indicate a connection of some sort. It ducked its head down to Newt’s sleeve, and a narrow pink tongue came out and touched the skin of his hand. Satisfied with whatever it tasted, the lizard climbed farther up his arm, sliding around his neck and nesting as best it could in his collar.
“Whatever it is, I think you’ve got a new pet,” Gerard said.
“Very funny.” Newt squirmed a little at the unexpected weight, but decided to leave it be.
They packed up what few belongings they had, and set off to follow the knights back to the encampment.
“So where do you think it came from?” Gerard asked. “You think that’s what you felt watching us? Why?”
“I have no idea,” Ailis said. “It doesn’t seem to be particularly intelligent—”
“Hey,” Newt protested, already oddly possessive of the beastie.
“I’m sorry, Newt, but it doesn’t.”
“Smarter than some knights,” Newt muttered, reaching up to stroke the lizard’s head. The purr increased slightly in vibration.
“It was attracted to my making the fire,” she said thoughtfully, taking Gerard’s lead in ignoring Newt’s comment. “I think it was cold.”
“Not from around here then, is it?” Gerard joked. It was a relatively warm day, now that the sun had fully risen, and they were all sweating more than a little from their exertions.
“It’s definitely not from around here,” Newt agreed, feeling it tickle against his skin. “I think—it’s too big to be any kind of lizard I’ve ever seen before, and I don’t recognize the markings, but I think that it might be some kind of salamander.”
“A what?” Gerard asked.
“A salamander.”
Ailis began to giggle. “You mean it’s a newt, Newt?”
“Very funny.” He scowled.
“It is, actually,” Gerard said, grinning.
Newt managed to hold his expression for a few strides, then even he had to see the joke in it. They all crossed out of the trees and back into camp, laughing.
Several of the men from the Quest who were in the act of taking down tarps and chopping firewood stopped to stare at them. On foot, with dirt ground into their clothing and Ailis’s hair still loose and windblown, their laughter