It seemed to work. At least, nobody stopped what they were doing to gape at the obvious fugitives. Actually, things went really easily. Dodona was a huge, cosmopolitan city. Weird stuff happened all the time, and people just shrugged and went about their business. For right now, Joy was grateful for that, enough to give Hsiu-Mei some leeway to gape at the sights from the Lenart Memorial Bridge as they went back across the Ala-Muki in the twilight.
Their anonymity lasted up until they reached her apartment building. “Yoo hoo! Joy! How are you doing?” The voice belonged to Mrs. Jakuba, leaning out of the windowsill on the first floor, as usual.
“Hello, Tishka,” Joy replied, speed-walking to cut the distance between them. She doubted that they’d been followed, but she still wanted to keep Hsiu Mei’s presence here quiet.
“Out late this evening? And you have a friend. I don’t believe we’ve—“ and Mrs Jakuba’s expression switched to alarm as they got close enough for her to get a good look at them. “Goodness gracious! What has happened to you! Has there been accident? Are you okay?”
“Oh, we’re fine, Mrs. Jakuba. Don’t worry about—“
“You do not look fine to me. Come in so I can look after you. I need to check for myself that you are fine.”
Joy tried to refuse, but Mrs. Jakuba wasn’t the type to let an opportunity to fuss pass her by. Besides which, the more Joy thought about it, the more sense it made. Mrs. Jakuba was a lot better prepared to deal with starving refugees and really hungry journalists than Joy was on her own. At the very least, she’d have something in her stewpot. And her apartment had more places to sit down. Joy’s apartment was the very definition of small and spare—just shelving, her bed, a dresser, a writing-desk that was basically a wood plank set over some crates, and a second-hand office chair that was literally coming to pieces.
Seriously, her chair had a rip in the seat cushion wide enough for the stuffing to leak out. She’d patched it up with packing tape, but the tape had a habit of peeling off in wads that stuck to her skirt while she was typing. There’d been days where she’d ended up walking around in public for hours with tape stuck to her ass before she’d noticed. But even back when she’d been making a decent income at the Journal, she’d never bothered to put any money into furnishings.
She’d been expecting to be assigned to a position abroad, so why bother?
Mrs. Jakuba, on the other hand, had one of the nicer apartments on the bottom floor, and it was set up for entertaining. Mr. Jakuba had been an accountant with a Kossar trading company that brought him to Dodonna. Never a senior position there, from what Joy had been able to figure out, but he must’ve done reasonably well and invested wisely for his widow to live as comfortably as she did. The whole apartment had that comfy lived-in feeling and was covered in family history, and Joy always felt welcome here. She hoped Hsiu-Mei would get that, too.
Joy started right into the introductions.
“Hsiu-Mei, this is Mrs. Jakuba, but I usually call her Tishka, which means Auntie,” she started off in Xiaish, “She’s my neighbor and my good friend. We can definitely trust her. Say hello and I’ll translate.”
Joy relayed Hsiu-Mei’s nervous introduction, complete with apologies for intruding in her home.
“Oh, is no trouble. I love having people over. Sue May, yes? How is it Joy has not brought you over yet?”
“Well, we just met today,” said Joy. “Actually, she’s been having a really bad time lately, and I think we could use your help.”
Joy felt guilty roping Mrs. Jakuba into this mess, but she’d didn’t see any way of accepting her help while hiding what was going on, and she didn’t have the energy to try. She convinced Hsiu-Mei to lower her jacket to let Mrs. Jakuba see the chains and collar that they’d been hiding.
“I was investigating a story, and I managed to get her away from some bad people,” Joy explained.
Mrs. Jakuba’s eyebrows shot up at the sight, but she recovered admirably. “Oh, you poor thing. This is terrible to be happening in Dodonna in this day and age. And your parents, they must be so worried. What are those idiot guardsmen doing, to allow this to be going on?”
“Um, I’d say the City Guard definitely aren’t going to be any help here,” said Joy, “So I was thinking—“
“No help at anything, the City Guard! Mashers can accost decent women at work, and do they do anything? No—they sit on their butts and file reports. Same thing when old Matya’s store got broken into. Was the thief caught? Of course not, though Officer Blackerby made sure to file a report. And now this. Look at you—you look half-starved. And filthy. We need to get you clean. And fed. Come, sit! I will take care of this.”
Mrs. Jakuba gestured for Hsiu-Mei to sit on the couch, which she did, after a nod from Joy, who was wishing that their host would slow down and stick to one subject so she could have a chance to translate. She got a brief opportunity when Mrs. Jakuba bustled off to the kitchen, just enough to explain to Hsiu-Mei that their host was upset about Hsiu-Mei’s mistreatment and was bringing food, when Mrs. Jakuba came back in with a small half-loaf of bread and a salt shaker to go with it.
Hsiu-Mei’s eyes lit up at the sight of food. She started to reach for the bread, but stopped herself midway, a chagrinned look on her face. She smiled at Mrs. Jakuba and shook her head.
“Eh, she doesn’t want it?” Mrs. Jakuba said, turning to Joy. “Should I get something else—”
“No, no—it’s fine,” Joy turned back to Hsiu Mei, “She says, as your host, that she insists you accept her—”
That was all Hsiu Mei needed to seize the bread and start tearing off chunks. Joy had been impressed that she’d remembered her manners at all, considering how hungry she must be. Actually, now Hsiu Mei was wolfing her food to the point where Joy was about to step in to keep her from making herself sick, but Tishka beat her to it, scrubbing at her hands and face with a damp washcloth—so important to do before eating, and tsking over the barbarity of the manacles getting in her way here. What kind of monsters do this to a young girl?
These chains would have to come off right away.
It was right about then that Mrs. Jakuba noticed the egg-shaped lump of metal dangling from Hsiu-Mei’s collar, the one with the Nibiru insignia engraved on it, and proceeded to freak out like Joy had never seen from the normally unflappable woman.
She jumped back from Hsiu-Mei like she’d been burned and started yelling in Kossar. At least, Joy thought it was Kossar, but it was coming out in a torrent and she couldn’t keep up with it at all. She was maybe able to pick out every fifth word, but the rest of it was a jumble. The words for ‘evil,’ ‘unclean,’ and ‘cursed’ seemed to recur a lot. Joy spent the next five minutes between trying to get Mrs. Jakuba calmed down enough to talk to her again, and trying to keep Hsiu Mei from panicking in response, reassuring her that it wasn’t anything she’d done—the symbol on her amulet was bad luck, and Tishka was upset about that.
Finally Mrs. Jakuba calmed down enough to make sense. “You say she’s in with bad people? Who are these people and how is she in? How does she have that… thing on her neck?”
Wow, her hands were actually shaking, and when she pointed at the amulet, she turned her head to one side, like she was afraid of looking at it directly.
“Hsiu Mei doesn’t know anything about it, I’m sure,” said Joy. “She’s a war orphan, she got caught by the Triads to be sold to the, um, Nibiru cultists in—“
Mrs. Jakuba cut her off with an ear-splitting shriek and another torrent of crazy Kossar, before grabbing her by the shoulders and shaking her. “Do not say that name. Terrible luck will you bring with that. It is not to be spoken. Promise me you will not.”
“O-okay, Mrs. Jakuba. I’m not saying it. You can calm down now.”
“I will be calm when you promise. I did not hear promise.”
“Okay, I promise. I promise that I won’t say Nib… I mean, the name you said not to say.” While I’m in earshot of you, Joy mentally added. “
But what do you know about it, Tishka? Why’s this… um, Deep King so bad?”
Mrs. Jakuba glared at her. "It is best not to be talking about that. Only bad things will come of it. But did you say there are cultists of… of That… in Dodona?”
“Yes, and um… they include Chief Gallach of the City Guard and most of his lieutenants, I think—”
“Aigh, no wonder they’re so awful,” she said, rubbing her temples. “This is very, very bad.”
“I know,” said Joy. “And I’m sorry to get you wrapped up in this—”
“Oh, nonsense. Your problems are my problems, didn’t I say I was your Tishka? People need to stick together, or we all fall apart. First, we are getting those chains off, and out of my apartment. Very bad to be bringing that in where you live, not that I’m blaming you, dearie. Mr. Tanno down the hall, he has cousin who is a locksmith. I think we can get him over when I explain is emergency."
"Oh, you don't need to do that—"
"I most certainly do! That is terrible symbol, and is very bad for your friend as well. Not to mention just having any chains on her--how terrible a thing, for a young girl! No, we must—"
"No, I agree about the chains," Joy moved quickly to forestall another rant. "I meant we don't need to call anyone. I can get them off quicker. I can pick the lock. I was KIB during the war, remember?"
"Eh," said Mrs. Jakuba. "If you can get those chains off then why have you not done it already, you silly girl? Think of your poor friend."
"Well, my lock picks are up in my room—"
"In your room? And what good are they up there? All the schooling you have, and sometimes I wonder at your sense."
Well, you wouldn't be the only one, Joy thought to herself, but she was getting a bit annoyed at the criticism. "For goodness sakes, Mrs. Jakuba, I don't carry them with me. How—"
"And this is my point," said Mrs. Jakuba. "Such useful tools, and you leave them lying around. Then time comes when you need them, and do you have them, huh? What good is that fancy purse you carry always, then?"
"Umm..." Joy hadn't considered this at all. She couldn't remember the last time she'd needed to pick a lock. It never came up. She thought of explaining this, but Mrs. Jakuba was already shooing her to the door.
"Go! Get your picks and come right back. Hurry."
"Where are you going? What's going on?" said Hsiu Mei, who, of course, hadn't been able to follow any of the whole conversation.
"I'm just going to get tools to get those manacles off you," said Joy, switching back to Xiaish. "I'll just be a minute or two."
Hsiu Mei's gaze passed from her to Mrs. Jakuba. It looked like the thought of being left alone with the crazy shouty lady didn't appeal much.
"Don't worry. It's just the image of the strange god on your chains that upsets her," Joy explained. "Normally she's very nice. And I'll be right back. Oh, and if she offers you any more food or tea, you can go ahead and say yes the first time. It’s not considered rude in this country. Anyway, I’ll be back in a minute or two."
Joy had to go up three flights of stairs and down two hallways to get to her room. All the small rooms were up on the top floor. Walking into her apartment she was struck by just how spare and shabby it looked compared to Mrs. Jakuba's. It was more than just the furnishings. Mrs. Jakuba's place had an important feel to it; it was a home, a place where someone had constructed a life for themselves. Joy's apartment was the opposite. It was just a location with the bare necessities for living, sleeping, and eating, and no more. But it was always like this after going to visit her neighbor, the contrast always gnawed at her. Fortunately, she was too busy to dwell on this today.
She had to go into her closet and dig through her trunk to find her picks. Thankfully, it was right where she thought she'd left it, in with a bunch of her old military stuff, like her different uniforms, workout sweats, old field manuals--actually, she was surprised at all the junk she'd kept. There was stuff from academy, and her old high school, too—but she didn't have time to be organizing or tossing things out. She grabbed her picks and returned to Mrs. Jakuba's apartment, where she found Hsiu Mei polishing off the last of the bread while Tishka was puttering around in the kitchen. She emerged as soon as Joy came in, asking about the picks.
"Right here," said Joy, holding up the soft leather case, with individual pockets for each tool, and unrolling it. The design was such that it could be easily concealed, worn under clothing. And Joy supposed it could even fit in her purse easily enough—maybe Tishka had a point about that.
"And you are sure you can get those chains off?"
"Oh, no problem," Joy reassured her. "I had a look at those locks and they're nothing special. Plus, I'm good at this. I scored one hundred percent on the exit exams on the field course for lock-picking, and the instructor said—"
"Yes, very good. You start work now."
Joy sighed as she found herself led over to Hsiu Mei on the couch. Lock-picking had been her favorite part of the supplemental field training. It was like every lock had its own special secret, but one that could be discovered. There was an unshakable logic to how a lock worked. All you needed was training and tools, and it would open for you. Too bad the rest of the world didn't work like that.
Hsiu Mei's eyebrows went up as Joy unrolled her pick case on the empty bread dish. "Can you really free me with those?"
"Yup," said Joy. "Here, give me your wrist."
Joy started in on the lock. It took her a bit longer than she'd have liked to remove, considering how simple the lock was. She was a bit rusty, though thankfully the lock wasn't, ha ha. No-one was timing her, but it felt like maybe a whole two minutes might've gone by before she heard the telltale click, and the rod keeping Hsiu Mei's wrist captive fell away. That was a pretty poor time for her. She did much better on the second.
Hsiu Mei rubbed at her wrists, which had been chafed raw in a few spots. Those would need to be cleaned and bandaged. "Big Sister, who are you? How is it you know all these things?”
Now the adulation was getting embarrassing. "Oh, I worked for Kallistrate Intelligence during the war. That's where I learned this. It's not really that difficult. I could teach you, if you like."
"You mean you were a spy?" Hsiu Mei sounded even more awestruck. "Is that how you were able to beat those men up?"
"Well, yes," Joy admitted, squinting to get a closer look at the collar. It was the same easy lock as the manacles, but the angle made picking it a little trickier. Still not a huge challenge.
"Actually, I take that back,” said Joy. “The part about being a spy, I mean. I was an analyst, not an agent. Mostly I was sitting at a desk—Ah! There we go," said Joy, as the collar clicked open, and she was able to pull those nasty chains completely clear of the girl. "Now we've got you—"
The chains were ripped from her hands by Mrs. Jakuba, who threw them on a piece of scrap wood she'd laid on the floor, and started smashing away at the weird emblem of Nibiru with a cast-iron meat tenderizer, continuing the assault until the raised image of the weird god was an unrecognizable mess. Whoa. Mrs. Jakuba sure didn't like Nibiru at all. Joy noticed Hsiu Mei trying to hide behind her, and she couldn't blame her. This wasn't the normal Tishka she was used to. Her reporter's instincts told her there was a story behind all this, but whether now was a good time to try to follow up on it—
Mrs. Jakuba glared at the marred mess of the Nibiru emblem, like she was expecting it to make a break for it or something, before deciding there was no point taking chances, and rained down with a single, focused finishing blow. There was a brittle crunching sound, mixed with something new, a high musical chime, as the Nibiru emblem crumpled flat, and something shot out to the side in a flash of bright blue and landed spinning on the carpet at Joy's feet.
It was the largest glittering blue gem Joy had ever seen, bigger than a walnut. Mrs. Jakuba yelped when Joy picked it up, but Joy didn't pay her any mind. She was surprised at how round and smooth the sides were. She'd expected it to be faceted by
the way it glittered. But, upon closer examination, she realized that all the facets were actually strange structures beneath the gem's surface. How did they do that? Were those actually facets? The more she gazed into the jewel's depths, the more complexity she found. It had its own odd geometry, fascinating and beautiful.
A stream of rapid, mostly unintelligible Kossar snapped Joy out of her reverie. She managed to get the gist of it, though. Tishka wanted her to put the gem down.
"Do you know what this is?" Joy asked. "Have you seen something like this before?"
"No, but if it’s related to the Abomination, then nothing good can come from it,” she said. “Everything it touches, it taints. So put that down. We must destroy it."
"This is evidence," said Joy. Though evidence for what, she didn't know. She tried to remember everything she'd learned so far.
"Hsiu Mei, have you seen this before?" she said, switching to Xiaish, and holding it up for her to take a closer look at. "Did you know this was hidden in your collar?"
Hsiu Mei stared at the gem in awe, but she shook her head. Joy pressed further. "Do you remember when they put your manacles on? Was there anything unusual about it?"
You mean, aside from being chained up like an animal? Joy mentally added, kicking herself at the phrasing of her question, but Hsiu Mei didn't seem to take offense, brow furrowed in concentration.
"There was a foreigner there. He put the chains on. He chanted and gestured and waved a scepter around. And he even poured some red liquid on each of the symbols. Noriko said it was blood but I don’t think it was. It smelled wrong. But I couldn’t understand anything he said. It took a while and the guards were annoyed with him. It was strange. Does that help, Big Sister? It's all I can remember."
Hsiu Mei was so eager to please, it made Joy feel bad for putting her on the spot. But this was important. Any information could be helpful. "Anything else about his appearance that stood out? Do you think you could recognize him again if you saw him? Was he the same as the Guardsmen?"
The Legend of the Red Specter (The Adventures of the Red Specter Book 1) Page 26