Smiler's Fair: Book I of The Hollow Gods

by Rebecca Levene

  He made it halfway before the first creature appeared, its claws extended and teeth glittering in a wide grin.

  He slowed but didn’t stop, hands held in front of him to ward it off. ‘Please. I helped your friend. I just want to get out.’

  He didn’t know if it could understand him. Its head cocked and its claws retracted and then re-emerged as it flexed the muscles in its forearms. It looked at him for a long moment, then stepped back into the darkness.

  He gasped in a half-sob of relief and ran on. No more creatures appeared and the only soldier he passed was dead, body twisted and half-eaten on the floor. Then Krish was at the door, where he turned for one last look at the room. One of the creatures peered back at him. He thought it might regret letting him go, but its next step took it into the weak daylight radiating from the doorway and it hissed and turned back. Where its foot had been it left behind a black footprint and a wisp of steam.

  Sunlight hurts them, Krish realised. The old tales were right all along.

  But sunlight wouldn’t drive back the soldiers and he could hear that some were still alive. Voices yelled in terror and there was the screech of iron against rock as a blade must have missed its mark. He half expected more of the soldiers to be waiting outside, but they’d left only their mounts, a string of sorry-looking donkeys. He used his belt knife to cut through the animals’ tethers, slapping them on their rumps to send them ambling off. That should slow down any soldiers who survived.

  When he was sure the others were well away, he mounted the last remaining mule and pointed its head away from the ruins and towards the setting sun. The hill was steep but his mount was built to climb it. He clung to its neck as it scrambled over the rocks, and wondered if this journey would ever end.

  The donkey reached the top of the hill and Krish looked up wearily for the next rise. But there was none. Beyond the brow of the hill was only grey sky, as if he’d reached the end of the world. He kicked his mount on and then the land opened out below him, a great green plain spreading in all directions towards the horizon. Beneath the donkey’s feet, a cliff led down and down and down, thousands of paces to the endless plain. He’d reached the border of Ashanesland. The King’s reach ended here and freedom lay beyond.

  PART II

  Meetings

  17

  On the first day of their journey, Radek clipped a Rah slave collar round Eric’s neck and then untied him. Until the moment he’d been sold, Eric had believed slavery wasn’t allowed in Ashanesland. But then again, he didn’t think it mattered. If he ran away, Radek would have him back. The other man had made very sure that Eric was aware of the two knives hanging at his belt and how wickedly sharp they were. Eric had no friends here and Smiler’s Fair grew more and more unreachable with every mile they travelled east. He’d given up thoughts of escape many miles and days before.

  Besides, Radek wasn’t cruel. He wasn’t kind either, just demanding and short-tempered and not a man you’d sit and laugh and have a beer with. He was a mix, Eric had realised, Ashane and part something else, maybe even the folk of the far savannah. That made Eric feel a little warmer towards him. He was a misfit too, in his own way, and the people they passed cast distrusting glances at them both.

  Radek did think the day should start too bloody early, though. As far as Eric was concerned, if the sun hadn’t risen it was still night. Radek had other ideas. Eric grunted as the taller man kicked him in the stomach. ‘Up, boy. We’ll reach the coast today and you’re nowhere near ready.’

  That was the other thing about Radek: he insisted on trying to educate Eric. Eric had lived sixteen happy years as ignorant as a rabbit. Now Radek was forcing him to learn about history and other lands and, worst of all, giving him lessons on how to speak proper. Properly, Eric corrected himself as he rolled from his sleeping mat and went to the creek to splash his face with icy water and fill the pot for their morning tea.

  Radek had already pulled on his fur-trimmed robe and was sitting hunched beside their fire, feeding it logs and prodding it back to life. ‘Bring that water here, boy. I’m gasping for a warm drink.’

  Eric did as he was asked and then waited in silence as the water boiled. Radek dropped in the tea leaves and watched them swirl in invisible currents. They’d camped in a small clearing in a patch of woodland, its branches winter-naked and the brambles that twined round them nothing but stick and thorns. It was a mellow day, though, and Eric thought he felt the first hint of spring. There was a cluster of snow blooms under one of the trees and now he looked more closely he could see ripening buds along its limbs. The world was coming back to life.

  ‘Well,’ Radek said, ‘I’ll be rid of you by sunset. And you’ll be rid of me, which no doubt will swell your heart.’

  Eric didn’t bother to deny it. ‘You said the coast? Am I going on by boat, then?’

  Radek laughed. ‘Not quite. Now listen. I’ve got a very good price for you and that’s because they think you’re better than you are. Where you’re going, you don’t ever admit to being a whore, you understand me? You’re a young shiplord or whatever you forest savages call it, picked especially for this great honour.’

  ‘What great honour?’

  ‘You’ll see. And make certain you speak properly, the way I’ve been teaching you. And for the sake of my ancestors, don’t let them know you can’t read. I’ve shown you your letters, though the gods know it hasn’t been easy with your slow wits. Find some books when you’re there and practise till you can read without disgracing yourself.’

  ‘Right,’ Eric said. ‘And I’m to do all this so you don’t lose no money. Pardon me if I don’t feel much inclined to help you.’

  Radek lashed out in that horribly fast way of his, slapping Eric’s face before grabbing his wooden collar to pull him close. ‘I’m sure you don’t feel inclined to help me, but if you’ve any sense at all you’ll help yourself and do as I’ve said. Things will go much better for you if the people I’m selling you to think you’re what I’m telling them you are. Understood?’

  The grip on his collar was cutting off Eric’s breath, so he just nodded sullenly.

  ‘Good boy.’ Radek sat back to fumble in his pack, coming out with a book in his hand, the same bloody book he’d been torturing Eric with for near on a month. He flipped halfway through and held it out. ‘Now tell me, what letter is this?’

  Eric had wanted to stop for lunch two hours ago, but Radek kept pressing on despite his complaints and now he saw why. He’d been smelling the sea for a while, only not realising it, and suddenly here it was, bashing itself silly against the rocks forty paces below them. There were clouds towards the horizon, a boiling mass of them that seemed to be moving closer. It didn’t look like good sailing weather, but then there was no boat in sight and no way to climb down the cliffs either.

  ‘We’re a little north of where I planned,’ Radek said, frowning.

  Eric prodded the ground with his foot and saw a chunk of it fall away to be lost in the waves below. ‘I ain’t climbing down here.’

  Radek tutted. ‘I’m not climbing down here.’

  ‘That makes two of us, then.’

  Radek ignored him, turning a circle in place as he scanned the surroundings. There wasn’t much to look at. This portion of Ashanesland was sparsely populated, with nothing but heather and thistles over rolling hills and the occasional wild pony cropping at it. ‘This will do well enough,’ Radek said. ‘Get a fire started, boy. We need to send a signal so she can find us.’

  Eric thought about refusing, but what was the point, now he was about to be rid of Radek for good? He looked at the restless sea and imagined travelling across it. Where would he be heading? Would they sail to the Hundred Islands where the purple sorghum grew that the mages bought and turned into bliss pills? Or he’d heard there was a place to the south of the Eternal Empire where the trees hung heavy with fruit and no one had to work, only needing to reach up to pluck their day’s food. That might not be so bad.

&nbs
p; ‘Stop daydreaming! I don’t want to waste any more time.’

  Eric sighed and went to pull up some of the nearest bushes. He tossed them in an untidy pile at Radek’s feet.

  ‘I need foliage too. That pine over there will do.’

  Eric looked at the tree, a good hundred paces away. ‘But that’ll just make it smoke.’

  ‘That,’ Radek said with heavy patience, ‘is the idea.’

  It was a long trudge to the tree and back and Radek made him do it three times, but when he was done the wood and pine needles were piled as high as his head. Radek took some time striking a spark to the kindling. The fire was reluctant to take hold, crawling up the lower logs and lapping uncertainly at the pine, until finally it decided to catch and a gush of smoke poured upward.

  ‘That should do it,’ Radek said, folding his arms and standing back.

  ‘How long till they’re here?’ Eric asked.

  ‘Hard to judge.’ Radek gazed along the shore, then shrugged. ‘Not long, I think.’

  ‘And are you ready to tell me where I’m going? Seeing as I’m about to get there.’

  The other man looked back at him, hard eyes assessing. ‘There’s no harm in it, I suppose. You’re going north. Far north, beyond the edge of the known world. There are … people there who have need of men and pay well for them.’

  ‘Men like me?’ Eric asked doubtfully.

  ‘Close enough. Here – you won’t be needing that any more.’ Radek unclipped the slave collar from his neck and then turned away from him to study the coastline, his mouth back to being as tight shut as a clam.

  North. Well, that was something he’d learned, he supposed. Beyond the edge of the known world. Outside the borders of Ashanesland and beyond the Moon Forest, then. Beyond even the Great Nothing, maybe. Smiler’s Fair never travelled that way. Eric had always assumed it was just ice and wolves in the far north, but maybe there were people. There must be, or else why would Radek send him there?

  ‘Ah, there she is!’ Radek said.

  Eric squinted out to sea, but there were no sails on the water from horizon to horizon.

  Radek laughed and added, ‘Look up.’

  Eric craned his neck to follow the direction of the other man’s gaze and froze. There was a black blot in the sky, heading down. He hoped it might be close already, otherwise it was frightful large. But as time passed it and it kept on winging towards them, he knew that it must be vast indeed, as big as a house. Bigger. Almost the size of Lahiru’s shipfort.

  He’d thought it a bird; now he saw that it was something else. There was fur on its legs and its wings looked like leather, but there seemed to be metal plated across its back and chest. As for its face – he preferred not to dwell on that. Its nose was blunt like a cat’s and its mouth was horribly fanged. After he’d seen that he looked away.

  He knew more of monsters than the Ashani or any other peoples of the south. The Moon Forest was full of them, or why would his folk tithe their children to the Hunter for the killing of them? He’d even seen one once, a blue-scaled lizard as tall as him peering out from between the branches of an ice oak. But he’d never seen, never heard of anything like this.

  When it was almost upon them, the air churned with the beats of its huge wings and the overpowering smell of mouldy cinnamon washed over them. Their horses screamed and bucked against their tethers, and Eric would have liked to do the same.

  ‘Sweet Hunter, what is that thing?’ he yelled.

  ‘I am Rii.’ The voice boomed out from the creature itself, distorted by a mouth that hadn’t truly been designed to form words.

  The beast – Rii – hovered above them a moment longer, so that Eric was able to see the double row of teats in the matted fur of her chest. Then she landed and he had no choice but to look at the huge head with its large, pointed ears, its filthy fur and its misshapen, massively toothed mouth. It was a bat’s face, he realised, expanded to a thousand times its natural size.

  ‘You took your time,’ Radek said, speaking to the creature with the same casual disdain he showed Eric.

  Rii huffed out a breath that nearly blew Eric from his feet and he grabbed Radek’s arm. ‘You can’t … You sold me to that?’

  ‘I did not buy thee,’ Rii said.

  Eric dropped Radek’s arm and backed away, wide-eyed with fear.

  ‘What use have I for a morsel such as thee?’

  ‘I … I don’t know.’ For the first time he noticed her eyes, each barely bigger than his closed fist. She was blinking at him as if she found it difficult to focus on his face. It made her seem – well, not pretty, obviously. But not quite so frightening either. ‘If you didn’t buy me, who did?’

  ‘My masters. I am to carry thee to them.’

  Eric swallowed, wondering what thing this monster might call its master. ‘You’re saying I’m supposed to ride on you.’

  ‘There is a saddle upon me,’ she said, and he saw it was true. It had been strapped to the dull grey armour on her back, tufts of greasy fur poking out around it.

  ‘Is it safe?’

  ‘I will not drop thee,’ Rii said, which he couldn’t help noticing wasn’t really an answer.

  ‘But first,’ Radek said, ‘my payment.’

  ‘Thy chest is upon my back. Take it and be gone.’

  Radek smiled and scrambled up her flank without fear. It reassured Eric a little that Rii didn’t immediately attempt to eat him. When he climbed down again he was cradling a chest in both arms, large enough to contain at least a thousand gold wheels.

  ‘You got me off Babi cheap,’ Eric muttered.

  Radek shrugged. ‘We both got what we wanted. Now it’s time for goodbye, young Eric. No need to look so glum. If you remember your lessons you won’t find it so very awful. You can get what you want out of it too, if you’re clever about it.’

  Eric flinched away as Radek pinched his cheek and then the other man was striding towards his horse and Eric was left alone with Rii.

  ‘Thou must climb to my back if I am to carry thee,’ the monster said.

  Eric nodded, his eyes still turned to watch Radek as he fastened the chest of gold behind his horse’s saddle. The slave dealer dumped the bags from Eric’s horse on to the ground, then drew the two nervously prancing animals along the path that led inland. Eric watched him all the way to its end, where it dipped downhill and out of sight, and Radek didn’t look back at Eric once.

  When he couldn’t even hear the jingle of the harness any longer, Eric trudged over to the tree and the saddlebags, then turned back to face Rii. ‘Can you carry these? It’s just a few clothes and a bit of grub.’

  ‘I am strong enough,’ Rii said, and when Eric still didn’t move, ‘Thou must bring them to me. I am not thy beast of burden.’

  ‘I’m afraid of heights,’ Eric told her, still unmoving.

  ‘Then thou wilt not enjoy this journey.’

  Eric laughed a little wildly, though he didn’t really think the creature had been joking. ‘Don’t suppose you’d consider just letting me go, would you?’

  Rii seemed to have realised that he wouldn’t be moving closer. Her great leathery wings flapped and she hopped-flew nearer to him, squashing a bush and a terrified rabbit beneath her as she landed. ‘I have been commanded to bring thee to my masters. I must obey.’

  Eric nodded. He hefted his bags, then gazed uncertainly at Rii’s back. There was a tangle of ropes hanging from the leather saddle. He guessed that some were intended to secure her rider, but he could probably use the rest to tie on his bags.

  There was no getting out of it. He really was going to climb up on this creature and she really was going to carry him over the sea to who knew where. His stomach had knotted itself with fear and he wasn’t altogether sure it wouldn’t empty its contents all down Rii’s furry back as soon as they took off. He turned for a last look at the land he was leaving. It wasn’t much, if he had to be honest – scrubby and unloved. But it was familiar, and everyone he’d ever met or car
ed about was on it somewhere. He’d be leaving them all behind, too.

  But then again, none of them had ever done him much good, had they? Not even Lahiru. ‘All right then,’ he said. ‘I suppose we’d better get going.’

  He was forced to take handfuls of her greasy fur to climb her side. It must have been painful, but she didn’t complain, and then he’d reached her armour, which, he was horrified to see, seemed to have been melded to her skin. He was glad he’d been horse-riding this last month, at least. His muscles had strengthened and it shouldn’t be murder on his arse like his first few days on Radek’s old nag.

  ‘Secure thyself,’ Rii said.

  Some things Eric didn’t need to be told. He fastened at least five ropes around himself, using his teeth to tighten the knots, before tying on his saddlebags. And then, before he’d had any time to prepare himself, he felt her muscles bunching beneath his thighs. With one powerful downstroke, she was airborne.

  His stomach felt like it had been left behind. The air was ripe with Rii’s sweet-rank smell, and the wind threatened to tear him from his seat despite the thick ropes around him. His ears were filled with a high, thin, horrible sound. When he realised it was his own scream, he snapped his mouth shut.

  ‘I have been told that the ascent is the most difficult,’ Rii said, her huge voice vibrating through him.

  Her wings flung the air away from them and they rose towards the clouds. Once Eric’s stomach had reunited with his body, it wanted very much to empty itself, but he swallowed back the spit that rose in his throat and concentrated on looking straight ahead, where there was nothing to see but blue.

  After a length of time he couldn’t measure, they stopped climbing and the feeling that he was about to fall to his death receded, though the air felt almost too thin to breathe. It was bitingly cold, but Radek had at least been thoughtful enough to leave him furs, and he fumbled them from his bags and clutched them round him.