Mikros Leonidas's Arc

Chapter 4 of 11

Cassandra bent over her template, humming. Mikros stayed on the stool. His stomach turned. Across the workshop, Maxx knelt by the broken spider rig. The charcoal creature ran one huge finger over the empty socket where the sensor had been. Orange cracks pulsed along its arms. Its tiny head swung toward Mikros and held there. Mikros had taken that sensor. He owed this creature something, and he did not know what. He climbed down and crossed the floor. Maxx rose. Standing, the creature filled half the room. Its chest was wide as a door. Its hands, tiny at the end of those thick arms, curled into fists. Purple fluid dripped from one knuckle onto the boards. "I broke your machine," Mikros said. He looked up the long way to the small face. "Tell me the price. A Spartan pays his debts." Maxx said nothing. The cracks glowed hotter. The tiny fists shook. Mikros braced his feet the way he had braced them against the manticore. Then his hand brushed his pocket. Something hard sat there. He remembered. On the beanstalk, climbing to reach the manticore, he had grabbed a bean caught in the leaves. He had shoved it in his pocket and forgotten it. He pulled it out. The bean sat in his palm, orange and purple, striped, with little tendrils that curled like living wire. Blue light ran through it in thin lines. It glowed against his skin. "I found this up the beanstalk," Mikros said. "I don't know what it is. But it's the only thing I own worth giving. Take it for the sensor." Maxx froze. The tiny head tilted. Then the creature leaned close, so close Mikros felt heat off the glowing cracks. Maxx stared at the bean like it saw a lost thing come home. A low rattle rose in the creature's chest. Its face twisted. For one breath Mikros thought it would crush him. Instead Maxx dropped to its knees. The huge arms swept out and wrapped him whole. The hug lifted Mikros off the floor. It smelled of hot ash and metal. He could not breathe. His ribs pressed. Cassandra spun from her bench. "Maxx! Put him down. You'll snap him." Maxx set Mikros on his feet, gentle now. One tiny hand cupped the glowing bean. The creature held it to its chest and rocked. The rattling turned soft, almost a purr. "I have never seen it do that," Cassandra said. She stepped closer, eyes wide. "That bean. Where did it grow?" "Up top," Mikros said. "Past the leaves." Maxx pointed one thick finger at Mikros, then at itself, then at the folded spider rig. The meaning was plain. The debt was gone. More than gone. Mikros had a partner now, one strong enough to lift a manticore. Cassandra grinned. "Champions have sponsors and smiths," she said. "You just got both, and a monster besides."