Free The Other Normals by Ned Vizzini Page B

throughthe land. The Appointees are detaining anyone suspected of working with Ophisa. These are dark times.”
    “Sounds like you need a hero,” I say, thinking, You’re lucky this is my territory. “What’s Ophisa like? Serpent? Humanoid?”
    “He’s a horrific mutant beast that combines the insectoid and reptilian, with a hundred ten eyes and poison fangs, as tall as a tree,” Ada says.
    “All right!” Mortin steps back from the wall. “Perry, you’re fine. You can get up now.”
    “What?”
    “Reading’s done. Ada has proven sufficiently distracting—”
    “But it was just getting good—”
    “Your ankle’s okay. It’s not going to cause any problems for your correspondent—”
    “Who is that? What did you do?”
    “Explanation time is over, Perry. I’m taking a quick smoke break, and then we’re sending you back to camp.” Mortin grabs some pebbles from behind a barrel.
    “Hey!” Ryu says. “What do you think you’re doing?”
    “Calm down, pipsqueak.” Mortin lights up. “Get your boss in here if you need someone to yell at me. I’m not gonna be lectured by a kid with a cheap lip ring who’s got a crush on my intern.”
    “Excuse me?”
    Mortin blows a smoke ring at Ryu. The pebbles don’t make him calm the way cigarettes make Sam calm; they make him giddy and, I think, they convince him that whatever he’s doing is cute. “Pretty soon people are gonna be tripping all overthemselves to give me my job back for saving the princess! Ophisa’s gonna be a thing of the past, all thanks to me and Perry here, and some attenuate errand boy is going to tell me how to live my life? I don’t think so. Get out!”
    I expect a reaction from Ryu—verbal if not physical—but he takes the suggestion. He blows a kiss at Ada, sneers at Mortin, ignores me, and leaves the room. Just like that.

33
    ADA BANGS HER FIST ON MORTIN’S CHEST. “What is wrong with you? You can’t smoke here! He’s going to get Gamary!”
    “So? The old joker’s just trying to look tough. I’m not going to let him push me around.”
    The door slams back open. Ryu and Gamary enter.
    “Look at that!” Mortin says. “Just talking about you two. Sorry, I know no smoking. Putting it out now. Got a little carried away.” He dumps the pebbles on the ground and smiles, but Gamary just points at him, a deep distance in his expression. “That’s him, Officer.”
    Three monsters enter the room.
    They’re all hybrid other normals— ingresses , I remember from Ada’s introduction. The front two are men from the waist down, or at least from where their legs come out of their getmas, and fish creatures above, with scaly chests, spindly arms, fins sticking out of their backs, purple bulbous eyes, and jagged teeth. They wear belts with handcuffs hanging off. Their stench hits me—like rotting fish and beached seaweed—as they stand at attention with spears. The best Ican say for them is that at least they’re up front about being monsters.
    The third one is more subtle. He’s a human from the waist up—if he held your gaze, you’d think he was just a dour man with a thick, dark mustache—but his lower half is composed of thick, slimy octopus tentacles. He makes puckered sucking noises against the wood as he approaches. He’s the leader; the other two stand still as he moves. He’s shirtless, wearing a long burlap skirt ( kilt , I correct myself), underneath which his tentacles bloom. He has a lantern-jawed face, brown hair, and controlling eyes. He rotates his palm on the hilt of a conspicuously large sword in a jeweled scabbard as he looks at Mortin, Ada, and me.
    “Mortin Enaw, you and your associates are under arrest.”

34
    I’M READY TO RESIST. I SIT UP, BRING MY fists to my face, and, even though I’m facing two fish-men and one octopus-man (and even though my ankle is still tied to a rope), move my hands in little circles like a boxer. I figure I’ll wiggle out, jump at the octopus-man, push him into