by Indi Martin
“That is amazing,” she said as he finished his latest tale, a wealthy merchant in a distant city called Aphorat who managed to topple the entire merchant’s guild with one dark secret. “How do you manage to find all of these jobs? It seems like you’re always in the right place at the right time.”
He shrugged and walked a distance away to a felled tree, unpacking their provisions for lunch. She hobbled over to join him, as Kyrri peeled the top off of a beef tin. “I’m good at my job,” he said. “Part of that is knowing which jobs to take.”
“But why do you do it?” she pressed, sitting next to him on the log. “It’s not a very secure life.”
“I like it,” he replied, handing her a slice of bread and some jerky. “I’m sorry. It’s not any more complicated than that.”
Gina accepted the bread grudgingly. “Do you just write all of your stories down in your journal?” she asked, watching his face for a reaction as she chewed her bread.
To her shock, she got one. The man’s cheeks flustered into a bright red, and his eyes narrowed as he glanced over at her. “Do not touch my journal,” he warned.
“I’m not going to read your diary,” she laughed. “I just saw it in your bag and thought it was a curious thing for a mercenary to keep with him, that’s all.”
Agni didn’t answer, but ate his lunch quickly and mechanically in silence. Of course, his reaction sent Gina’s mind into a tailspin, and the mystery of the journal ate at her for the rest of the day. This was beneficial, as it distracted her from the pain of her steps, and they covered a lot of trail at a fairly good clip. Once she sat for the evening and began to unbind her feet, however, the journal was forgotten amidst a fresh wave of pain as air hit her soles.
“I’m sorry I snapped at you,” said Agni, who moved quickly building a fire.
Gina looked up at him and smiled. “It’s okay. I’m used to it. I question people for a living, and most of them don’t want to talk either.” Kyrri set his pile of armor on the log beside her and patted her leg before running off to hunt dinner.
Agni watched as Kyrri bounded away, waiting for him to disappear into the forest before turning back to Gina. “You’re right, though. I haven’t been completely honest with you.”
She tensed up. “What do you mean?”
“I didn’t find you by happenstance. I was tracking the Brotherhood, the cloaked men who have been hunting you, but ultimately I was trying to use them to find you.”
Gina screwed her face up in confusion. “Why?”
“My contacts passed me information that said you were wanted by the Brotherhood for allying with the Crawling Mist,” said Agni, prodding the fire. “I think you know the thing as Gavin Crowell. He has a thousand masks. The cloaked men who have been hounding your trail, the Brotherhood, they serve a different master. But they would gut you in an instant and light your innards as a sacrifice to just as dark a god.”
“I am not that thing’s ally!” gasped Gina, aghast.
“You did make a deal with him,” Agni pointed out. “According to your own words, he’s to enter the King’s palace with you.” The man’s steel-colored eyes held her gaze. “So I will remain at your side until he appears to take his bargain, and I will kill him.”
Gina blinked. “I’m not against that,” she reassured him. “But why go to such effort?”
Agni leaned back and stared into the flames. “I have been tracking the monster for years. Many years.” He ran his hands through his hair and exhaled deeply. “I’ve forged contacts across all of the civilized cities, and followed every lead to its end. I’ve never even gotten close, although really, it could have been right next to me and I would never know it. It can look like anything, anyone.”
“Cats can tell,” replied Gina. “Kyrri saw him from a distance.”
“That’s the first I’ve ever heard of that,” chuckled Agni. “But you’d better believe it went into my journal immediately.”
Gina was silent for a moment, turning his story over in her head. “Who did he take from you, Agni?” she finally asked.
Agni stared evenly into the flames, his face neutral. “Everyone.”
The word hung heavy in the air, and she let it dissipate into the fire. Through the hiss of the flames, she heard the crackles and snaps of Kyrri returning from her hunt. There was a thud of something heavy hitting the ground, and he mewed out for a hand. Gina struggled to get to her feet but Agni waved her back down and disappeared past the edge of the firelight, returning only a moment later helping Kyrri drag what looked like a small elk to the fireside. Agni was laughing hard, and Gina had to admit that his hawklike face could manage friendly every once in a while. Kyrri trotted around his kill, which was as large as he was, his tail held high like a flag.
“I had to get enough to last through tomorrow,” he explained, his whiskers high. “Since we’re staying here a day.” He pointed a paw at her feet, and Gina grimaced.
“Yeah, yeah,” she muttered, but she grinned at his prideful victory trot. “That’ll do it, I think.”
Her feet appreciated the full day off, and her mind did too, enjoying a full day in camp beside a roaring bonfire. She catnapped with Kyrri in the afternoon sun and played a dice game with Agni for most of the evening hours; Kyrri wanted to play, but he didn’t care much about the game itself, he just liked batting the dice around. She had resigned herself to the lost day early, so pushed aside the guilt of inactivity whenever it reared at her; it was necessary, she reminded herself, and not just for her. She enjoyed seeing Kyrri’s spirits rebound since they’d hired an additional hand, and surmised that the additional responsibility had been more than the young Cat had anticipated.
The next morning, she felt rejuvenated, and although her feet still pained her, they felt significantly better than they had before. The miles passed quickly under their feet, and Agni seemed less distant, telling them tales of the lands they passed through as animatedly as a practiced bard. The days passed quickly and largely uneventfully. There were a few attacks at night, but Gina and Kyrri never even awoke; Agni dispatched the tattooed men with haste and in silence, and it was only when they passed the bodies hastily hidden in the brush that she was aware of their presence at all. The mercenary’s apparent skill in dispatching human lives wasn’t something Gina was entirely comfortable with - but she was glad that he was on their side.
It was on the fourteenth day of their journey that he sighted the walls of Gak, pointing to the northeast horizon. Gina was ecstatic, and Kyrri mewed his excitement as well; their stores had all but dried up, and they had precious little water left. Agni knew the route well enough to have them fill all available containers at the last stream crossing, but it was still a sketchy route to take, and his admonishments against drinking more than they needed hadn’t helped to quench their thirst. The village was little more than an outpost at the edge of the desert, a home for those hearty enough to survive in the blistering heat and a stopping point for those adventuring into the dangerous sands of the Eastern Desert. The town’s single inn, called the Parched Harlot, was a raucous mansion, with a massive great hall dotted with several hearthfires and ale that flowed freely and cheaply. Gina had always equated the desert with a sort of Spartan aesthetic, but this place was anything but that. The outer building wasn’t much to look at, as dirty and sand-worn as the rest of the town, but once she stepped inside her eyes were assaulted by all of the colors of the rainbow, streaming from one ceiling beam to another, and an equally colorful assortment of brigands and archaeologists underneath the banners.
“We will need to book a room for a few days,” advised Agni, looking around the room with a wry smile. “I don’t know exactly where the old palace is, exactly, but I’m sure someone in Gak does.”
“I’m sure we can manage a few days of downtime,” laughed Gina, her spirits buoyed by the good cheer in the room. She could feel the energy crackling in the room, and waved away the buzz in her head; she didn’t need it. It was good to be around people again; she
loved Kyrri, and she had grown accustomed to Agni’s hovering presence, but there was something slightly claustrophobic about only seeing those faces each day. Gina embraced the reminder that even though this wasn’t her world, it was a world full of people, and most of their lives weren’t the least bit affected by her presence. She noticed Kyrri eyeing a couple’s plates eagerly, each laden with thick slices of red meat, and clicked her tongue at him. “Let’s get something to eat,” she said, licking her lips, and Kyrri bounded to her side.
Gina walked up to one of the two women working frantically to keep up with the patrons’ requests. “Busy today?”
The woman winked at her, and her chest heaved halfway out of out of her corset, eliciting cheers from the men surrounding the bar. “We’re the last refuge before the wastes. We’re always busy,” she answered, sliding two large mugs of ale down the bar.
“I see,” answered Gina, amused. “I need three of those and your largest platter of meat.”
“Coming right up,” replied the bartendress, pouring her three mugs and yelling her order back to the kitchen. “I’ll bring the meat out when it’s ready,” she said, sliding over to the next customer and barely acknowledging the coins Gina placed on the bar before her. She sat in a surprisingly comfortable chair near the fire, and set one of the mugs in front of Kyrri.
“Is that for Agni?” asked Kyrri, pointing at the extra mug and lapping out of his own.
“Maybe. If he gets back before I finish mine.”
“There was only one room left,” grumbled the blonde man as he crossed the floor to join the two, his scars growing deeper as he frowned around them. He accepted the ale gratefully from Gina’s hand, and took a deep swig of it. “But it looks secure enough.”
“Great,” replied Gina, feeling the ale warm her cheeks. “Hopefully it’ll only be a day or two and we can head back out on the road.”
“I did find out that there is a small arcane library maintained in town,” he said, sipping at his mug, his eyes darting around the room. He looked uneasy being surrounded by so many cheerful people. “We’ll head there at first light and see what information we can find. Surely someone there will know our best path.” The busty woman from the bar glided into view, weaving her way around people with a laugh and sliding a massive tray of meat on the small table that sat between their chairs. It dwarfed the table and was piled high, and Kyrri looked like he’d glimpsed heaven.
The next morning they woke at first light, their internal clocks still firmly set to the sun’s appearance. Gina remained under the covers, enjoying the feel of the mattress beneath her and the warmth of the blankets, and vowed never to take such a luxury for granted again. Agni, who had insisted on sleeping against the locked door, finished buckling his leather chestplate and waited impatiently for her to stir from her nest of blankets. She sighed and closed her eyes, enjoying the heat and the comfort, before throwing them aside and forcing herself out of bed. Gina hoped that they would stay at least one more night, but felt a pang of guilt for the wish.
Bright sunlight baked the packed sand streets of Gak, and the heat already sizzled off of the mud-bricked buildings. Gina was glad for her light linen dress, though it exposed her burnt, freckled shoulders to the sun. The library was a squat adobe building not far from their inn in the town square, and the trio ducked inside.
“Hey!” croaked a voice caked in irritation. She turned to see a hunched old man in a white and brown striped tunic, holding a pile of books and glaring at Kyrri, who stood halfway in the door with his paw lifted mid-step. “No pets!”
“Pet!” bristled Kyrri. “I am a Cat of Ulthar! I am no one’s pet!”
“You address a Cat of Ulthar,” announced Agni. “He is no one’s pet, and he will not harm your books.”
Kyrri looked up in surprise at Agni, and mewed a confused thanks. Gina sputtered a quick laugh. “You said almost exactly what Kyrri said,” she informed him when he looked curiously at her. The old man glared at the cat, but his response was muttered under his breath and inaudible.
“I took his spitting to mean something like that,” Agni replied.
“We’ve gotten off on the wrong foot,” said Gina, striding toward the man and holding her hand up in a wave. “My name is Gina Harwood. My companions and I are trying to find the palace of the King. Can you help?”
The hunched man looked up at her, his grey eyes alive with interest. “King Kuranes? The Dreaming King?”
She grinned with excitement. “Yes! Do you know where the palace is?”
“It has been several years since anyone was foolish enough to travel that way,” replied the librarian in a coldly excited voice. “I can show you where it is, follow me.” He laid his books down in a neat stack, pausing to even up the corners, and walked stutteringly past them to a wall filled with large scroll cases. He chose one, and pulled it smoothly out of its case, unrolling a large map onto the nearest table. Gina looked down at it excitedly - the only maps she’d seen were those on the ship, and they weren’t nearly as detailed or far-reaching as this one was. She could see the path they’d taken from Ulthar all the way to Gak, and her excitement dimmed as she realized how little of this massive world she’d seen. He could be anywhere, she thought as her eyes scanned all of the location names scrawled in perfect calligraphy across the land masses. The old man pointed a crooked finger at a single letter K, not very far at all from the labelled city of Gak. “Just head due east,” he shrugged. “Simple. Two suns’ walk.” Kyrri placed his paw on the edge of the table and drew himself to standing to view the map; the old man looked at him with disdain but said nothing.
“If it’s so simple, why did you call it foolish?” asked Agni, peering down at the map.
“The King died centuries ago,” replied the man. “But the palace remains a dangerous place. They say he set traps for those who would try to enter. Those who have returned from their expedition alive have never succeeded in getting past the outer walls. It is a cursed place.”
“The Cats think he is still alive,” replied Gina, trying to quell the dread that rose in her stomach. And Gavin Crowell thinks so too, she added to herself.
The old man dismissed her with a wave. “No one has seen him for centuries and the palace stands abandoned,” he said with a smirk. “Maybe he is alive. Maybe he just watches people die at the castle borders for fun.” He laughed grimly.
“What sort of traps?” asked Agni, pulling out his journal and flipping to a blank page.
“Ah, a fellow scribe,” cooed the elderly man. “Pleasure. I’ve documented the last few expeditions that returned, if you’re interested in further reading, but their accounts are not as… detailed as you would probably like.” He toddled over to another shelf and extracted a large, leatherbound tome. “Anyone who touched the walls or the door fizzled away, like smoke in the wind. That’s a direct quote.”
“That’s one trap,” replied Agni, scribbling furiously. “What are the others?”
The man shrugged with a gleam in his eye. “No one’s gotten past that one and come back to tell me what’s beyond,” he informed them. “If you do, please come back and let me know.”
“So the only people who have come back never even touched the wall?” clarified Gina.
“Or the door, or any part of the castle. They watched their compatriots disappear and turned tail.” He tapped his grizzled chin and looked up at the ceiling. “The last one was, oh, about two years ago, I guess. Before that, almost a decade.”
“Why did they go in the first place?” asked Agni.
“Curiosity, mostly,” replied the librarian. “They always seem to think there’s untold wealth beyond the castle doors.”
“Do you?” asked Gina, carefully opening the large tome and flipping through the first few pages. She handled it with much more care as soon as she realized that the pages were handwritten, not printed.
He shrugged. “From what I’ve heard, there’s only death. I don’t have any reason to believe otherwise.”
“Thank you,” said Agni, and he turned to Gina. “We know where it is, we can leave today if you wish.”
Gina winced. “Or we can read up on the past expeditions, which will at least give us an idea of what to expect on the journey.”
“Death,” commented the librarian, and he looked pleased with himself. “At least, that’s what the empirical evidence says.”
Agni ignored the interruption and nodded in response to her. “I think that’s wise,” he said as he turned to the librarian. “Do you have any histories that mention this King? I’d like to do some reading on him as well in preparation.”
“Of course,” replied the librarian with a sniff, and led him to a different set of shelves.
The trio spent the rest of the day, and the next, poring through the library, with Kyrri sitting next to Gina on a stiff wooden bench and reading alongside her as they explored past expeditions’ failures and ancient tales involving King Kuranes. The expedition recallings were gruesome and depressing, and the mythic tales felt exactly that - mythic. These were written in verse, and the footnotes indicated they had been passed down as bard’s songs for centuries before they were ever written down. All in all, they felt just as poorly prepared for their journey after the research as they did before, but she reminded herself that at least they knew how to get there. That was at least something.
It was on the morning of the third day in Gak that the trio packed their belongings and set out into the desert sun, the weight of their quest weighing heavily on Gina’s shoulders. She had clung for so long to the hope that this king would know how to find Morgan and how to get them both home that she felt a giddy anxiety at finally being so close to their goal. Hundreds of what-if questions floated in her mind, and though she did her best to push them away, the hours of walking seemed to draw more in. There was nothing for it but to keep walking, though, and she did so. Her feet had welcomed the restful days in Gak, and her back already missed the mattress. A few more days, she thought to herself, trying once more to quiet the fluttering in her stomach. A few more days and at least I’ll know if this has been worth it.