Free Chaos Tryst by Shirin Dubbin

shattered glass, and the earth shook in a deafening rumble. Chunks of stone erupted, displacing grass, thatch and insects. An angry swarm amassed, boacusts, their chorus sounding off a battle cry.
    Fury barred Bear from an appropriate show of concern over the swarm. He shook Ari again. She squared her jaw.
    “Something came over me. I can’t say what, but I needed to give her the necklace as much as she needed to take it.”
    He snarled, his teeth snapping centimeters from her nose. She neither flinched nor struggled in his hold. Her focus remained locked on his face. When she spoke, a fierce rasp trailed her voice. “If I could give you your parents’ sculpture back I would.”
    Truth, untainted. Stunned, Bear pushed her to arm’s length but didn’t let go.
    The buzzing battle cry escalated. The swarm approached. Their locust heads and snake-like lower appendages dodged the flecks of his and Ari’s seething magicks as they flew.
    Clockwork.
    Trust him to have chosen the field infested with boacusts, insects that devoured plants and small animals in an unceasing wave of destruction. Enough of them could take down larger creatures, as well. And trust the combo of the returner and him to have broken the wards holding the insects at bay without even trying.
    He cursed. From within Ari’s pack, a few feet away, Corbel shouted, “Oh now, that’s not right.” Trajan screamed, “I’m allergic to stingies, ain’t I?” The bag roiled, emanating a different buzzing than the din made by the boacusts.
    Bear looked at Ari for a mere second. Her confusion echoed his. They turned together, the zipper at the center of the pack peeled back, and amber bees rushed from the opening. His mother’s bees. They’d taken attack form, their bodies more freakish wasp than maker of honey.
    The two swarms collided in a chitinous tumult. The boacusts wrapped snaky bodies around the bees and crushed. Crushing proved ineffective against amber. The bees clamped down on their opponents with mandibles and sunk extended stingers through the boacusts’ scales. Insect screams met stinger strikes and boacust bodies littered the landscape. It took only moments.
    His mother’s bees. They had not lived since Valentina’s abduction. He clutched Ari tighter. “You have done this?”
    She gifted him such a gentle smile. “No. We.”
    Shifting her left arm Ari dipped her fingertips into the whirlpool of rose flecks still encircling them. The eye of the tempest realigned itself and began to flow backward, soaking into Ari’s palm when it reached her. His mother’s bees followed the flow but broke off to take orbit around the pair. Contented buzzing surrounded them. Ari hummed in concert.
    “You guys were amazing,” she said, her gaze darting to follow one, then another. “Rest now.” The swarm floated lazily toward the bag. Upon reaching it they disappeared inside.
    “There go my hopes of a quiet evening,” Corbel said from within the depths.
    Ari snorted. “Close things up for me, Trajan. Please.”
    A miffed squeak escaped the bag. “That’s what I’m here for, Madame Bossy Bits.” Zzzupp. The zipper sealed.
    Ari took a breath and regarded his were-bear face. His lip curled to greet her. She sighed. “Sometimes I lie. My parents and I don’t call it lying but deception is our family business. Everyone knows this.”
    Her face scrunched and relaxed several times. “My nose itches.” She shrugged in his grasp. “Can you help me out?”
    Bear licked her, the roughness of his tongue meant to ease the itch. Her expression wasn’t grateful. She looked incredulous and lovely. Damn her. And she tastes good too.
    A pause followed by a frown, then she went on: “I lie well but not often, and I don’t know how to trick folks into their greater good the way Okaasan’s kitsune and Baba do. I fail. I try. I fail more spectacularly. Like the time I tried to help Granny Ridinghood get her granddaughter to come over for a visit. Grandma got