by Patty Jansen
"Heard about him." Her heart thudded.
"Well, he wanted t' marry this woman from here. Youz know how Traders do that thing with th' cloak?"
She nodded.
"Well, he did that, but he din' know that she's already taken. Rule number one fer any place youz visit: don' mess around with th' Chief Councillor's woman, not even if youz are a rich Mirani Trader."
"He didn't know that she was married?"
"Not married, no, but spoken for. Rule number two if youz visit a strange place: don' mess with th' Chief Councillor."
Her heart thudded even louder. "So, what happened after that? She refused the cloak, and then, what did he do?"
"He left with th' army at th' end of the war. Then he came back fer a bit. Some people said he asked her again, some said he's even bought a house. He was here a lot, always tryin' t' tell th' Mirani how t' behave. People said th' council was buying lots of stuff off him, like stuff t' fix th' buildings 'n' that. Th' Exchange got a new core. They's said that he got a good deal fer them. I dunno what's true, but we's always poked fun at him fer sharing th' woman with another man. Y'know . . . there's rumours I could tell, but t' be honest I's no idea if any of them's true. Probably not. They's pretty colourful." He laughed.
Shivering, Mikandra asked, "Is he still in town?"
"No. Haven't seen him for a while, t' be honest."
"One day, your big mouth will get you into trouble," Dalit said while sitting down on Jocassa's side with a glass containing something that looked suspiciously like water.
"What trouble? I was jus' filling Eydrina in. She wanted t' know what Arit's singin' was all about." He upended the glass into his mouth and lunged for the bottle in the middle of the table. "She's gotta know all these things or she won' understand any of th' jokes. I did what youz said 'n' not told her any of th' rumours."
Dalit sighed and rolled his eyes. "If one day, someone decides to follow you around and frame you for something you didn't do, they could get you into jail in a heartbeat."
"No, they can' 'cause I tell everyone everything. I got no secrets, mate. Secrets are fer people with with money. I got none of that, either."
Jocassa poured and then held out the bottle to Mikandra. "Here, youz half-finished the glass."
Before Mikandra could say anything, he had re-filled her glass. She protested. "I don't know if I can—"
"What's wrong with a bit of drink 'n' fun?"
"It's poison." She put her glass down, feeling cold all of a sudden. "The fungus contains a poison that accumulates in the body's fat and only slowly leaves the body. If you drink too much, it builds up. There is a limit you can drink before you die."
He frowned at her. "What are youz, a healer of some kind?"
"Of some kind, yes."
"Hey, I din' know that." Then he raised his voice. "Hey, boys, youz can have Eydrina here look at yer bad bites 'n' she can give youz something t' put on it."
Mikandra cringed and looked away, trying desperately to think of a change of topic. This was way too close to home.
Jocassa started to talk to Thasep, and Dalit seemed lost in his own world.
Thasep related a story about how he had outsmarted the liquor vendor who had tried to charge too much, but when pressed about amounts of money, it was clear that the vendor had the better of his Mirani customer. Thasep didn't get it. Jocassa didn't get it either, but Dalit looked in Mikandra's direction with a sad expression that said they can't help it and the sense of failure hung between them.
By now, her glass was again half empty, but she guarded it so that no one could put any more in. In fact, she was already looking for a way to wriggle her way to those potted trees over there so that she could empty the rest of the vile orange stuff over the soil.
Her head swam and it was as if every time she moved her head, the rest of the world took a while to catch up.
The rain had stopped, the courtyard had filled up with people and more were still coming in from the street. Many of the newcomers were also locals and tailed Pengali, many of the latter barely dressed, dancing and singing and talking. Mikandra studied all of them carefully, but most of them were young and many female and none looked remotely like the wiry criminals with dreadlocks who had robbed her. Pengali, she decided, did not come in one flavour.
One group brought a strange instrument that looked like it was made from hollow pieces of wood. They set it up in the middle of the courtyard. One of the Pengali mounted it like a riding beast and beat a sweeping rhythm on the hollow logs. Each piece was a different length so their tones were different and formed a tune. It was strange music with an uneven rhythm which she couldn't place, and one which had certainly never been covered in her gentile music classes. Mikandra had never been good at music, and this type didn't fit what she'd learned about beats and bars. Liseyo would know. She knew all about music—
Liseyo—
—looked at Mother as she sat at the table. Mother was biting her lip. A tear rolled down her cheek.
She said, I can't stop them. Father is trying, but I don't know that he can stop them either.
Mikandra wanted to shout out, stop what?
Then I will go by myself! Liseyo rose from that table and made for the door.
Mother cried, Liseyo, please, it's bad enough that we lost one of you already.
Liseyo met Rosep who was coming into the dining room, carrying a try. Mistress, you don't know what these men will do to young and pretty girls like you.
I don't care! Liseyo's cheeks were wet with tears. I want Father to come home.
Liseyo! Mikandra reached out for her sister, but instead hit a Mirani soldier sitting next to her in the courtyard. He yelled out, "Hey!"
"Sorry." She shifted away from him, her vision still blurred. Her heart thudded like crazy. What in the ancestor's name was that? Not a memory, because she had no idea what Mother and Liseyo were talking about. Father couldn't come home? What had happened in Miran?
She remembered that meeting of Mirani Traders and the speech by Aithno Ilendar at the Guild. Maybe the political movement behind him spanned more than just the Trader Guild. Was this what Dalit's mother was involved in?
Aunt Amandra had been concerned that militant supporters of Nemedor Satarin might try to harm her. Could they be trying to harm her family instead? Had she misunderstood Father's objection to her joining the Guild?
Heart thudding, she stared into the crowd, heaving to the music. No one seemed to have noticed her dizzy spell.
Chapter 18
There was a commotion on the other side of the courtyard, men's voices yelling somewhere near the entrance which was obscured from Mikandra view because of the crowd.
The music stopped. A male voice yelled a few words that sounded like an order in keihu. The light under the balcony behind Mikandra went out. A number of people, mainly Pengali, pushed between the tables, into the shadow of the overhanging balcony. A number of them went up the stairs.
A group of about ten men came into the courtyard. The golden curls gave the leader away as a Mirani Nikala, and although he was not in uniform, he walked like a soldier, held himself like a soldier and gave orders like a soldier. The others in the group were mixed: some Pengali with matter dreadlocks—Mikandra shivered—some keihu and a few mixed-race people.
"What's going on?" Mikandra asked, but she couldn't see Jocassa in the dark and none of the bystanders responded to her question.
The group's leader barked an order in Mirani, "Disperse."
The men fanned out through the courtyard two by two. Each of them carried a pearl light on a long stick, holding it aloft over the heads of the partygoers. Its greenish-white light showed sweaty faces and eyes wide with fear. No one said a word.
For a while, the thugs merely walked backwards and forwards between the partygoers as if they were looking for someone. Mikandra held her breath. They could not possibly have been sent by her father, could they? He would be crazy enough to do something like that. She looke
d over her shoulder. People stood jammed together on the stairs, hiding in the dark.
Then there was a protesting squeal from amongst the crowd.
Two thugs dragged a young man into the centre of the courtyard, one of the tailed Pengali, who protested loudly in his language. No one dared move to help him. While one man held his arms behind his back and dodged his whipping tail, another man held the pearl light close to his face. There was a moment of silence as if they expected a reaction, but nothing happened. They let their captive go without speaking a single word. He scurried into the arms of a Pengali woman.
Another duo plucked someone else from the crowd, also Pengali. The same thing happened: they held the light to his face and waited, then let him go. No words were said. And so it went on. The thugs walked through the crowd in a zig-zag pattern and picked out some of the locals, Pengali or keihu, to subject them to this curious treatment.
Mikandra whispered, "What are they looking for?"
People around her made shushing noises.
Now a couple of men struggled out of the crowd with another Pengali, a woman, who fought and kicked the men wherever she could.
Her shrill voice echoed in the courtyard. "You filthy worms. You childfuckers. You mother-raping slime!"
Pretty impressive knowledge of Mirani obscenities.
Her tail lashed one of her captors in the face. A third thug came to help his mates. They forced the woman to her knees, shone the light in her face, and something flashed in her face.
Someone shouted. Any Pengali and keihu still around Mikandra started pushing away from the thugs, except there was no room for them to go. The space under the balcony and leading up to the stairs was full and the way across the courtyard blocked by the thugs. At the back of the crowd a Mirani voice yelled to stay calm.
Meanwhile the thugs pulled a blindfold over the woman's eyes and dragged her towards the entrance, still struggling and screaming obscenities. They'd tied her tail to her leg. The brown-and-white banded tip of it wriggled furiously.
The remaining thugs came closer to where Mikandra stood. They picked someone else out of the crowd, about three rows before Mikandra. This was a young keihu man, protesting loudly in keihu while they held his arms behind his back.
They shone the light into his eyes—
—and a beam missed his face, cut across the crowd and hit Mikandra's face.
Her vision blurred. Her legs went weak and the world spun around her.
She was falling—
She was drifting in a stream—
Flying through the air where there was no up or down—
Her knees hurt. She sat on the ground amongst a forest of legs. Her hands and knees were muddy from a puddle. Someone was pulling her under her arms, trying to get her up. Mikandra looked up. Jocassa's face was blurry before her eyes.
"Eydrina, please get up or they's take youz, too."
Mikandra struggled to her feet, feeling sick and panicked that she might throw up on someone. Her head hurt so much.
Jocassa said, "C'me on, get up, quick—let us through, all of youz. Let us through!"
People parted. Jocassa dragged her through the crowd, pushing people aside until they were in the shadow of the balcony and then to the stairs to the upper floor. Here it was so crowded that they could go no further than a few steps. Someone whispered that the upstairs balcony was full and mentioned a door being closed.
So they stood on the stairs, Mikandra still feeling unsteady on her feet, and Jocassa sheltering her from view of the courtyard.
It was hot here, and smelly with the sweat of many different people.
"What was that?" Mikandra still felt dizzy. She stood jammed up against Jocassa and a few keihu women, whose eyes were all wide with fear.
Jocassa said in a low voice, "With some people, when they's been drinking, they see things when they's in a bright light. In some people, it's so strong, th' light shines back. Those ones they want."
"Only when they've been drinking?" Her thoughts went to Leitho.
"Yes, th' Pengali call it avya. It happens with them 'n' th' keihu. Never seen it happening in a Mirani before." He squinted at her. "Is it because youz are from Bendara? Youz have any keihu blood?"
Mikandra shrugged, wishing he'd stop repeating her own lies back at her.
"Who are these men?"
"Mercenaries."
"Who pays them?"
"Dunno, but th' Barresh guards are always absent when they's come so they's probably have something t' do with it."
"Do you mean they have these raids often?"
"Mos' nights they come t' one of th' guesthouses. Mos' times people know where they are so they make sure they get out of th' way. They don' normally come here until late at night."
"Does no one do anything about it?"
"Like what?"
"Like go to the guards?"
"When you's Mirani, th' Barresh guards are not yer friends."
"That woman was Pengali. The others they tested were keihu. Doesn't anyone care about them?"
"They's don' belong t' th' families anymore. They don' have jobs that th' people call respectable. No one cares about them."
The homeless of Barresh. It hit her like a shockwave. She'd worked amongst them in Miran and had lived amongst them here without recognising it.
"What happens to the people they take away?"
He shrugged. "There's rumours they's get paid money but no one's been able t' tell for sure. Not sure what they's get paid for either."
"Don't they ever tell you when they come back?"
"They's don' come back."
"Never?"
"No one's seen any that they know of—careful." He pushed her head down while a beam of light lanced over the heads of the people jammed on the stairs. Between the people on the step below her, Mikandra could make out the Mirani leader standing at the bottom of the stairs, looking up. The light angled on his face, and she saw that she'd been wrong: he was not Mirani. The bottom half of his face was covered in a fuzz of dirty-looking hair. His eyes were cloudy grey, not dark blue. He stood with his hands at his sides. His hands were hairy, too, as were the parts of his legs below the knee that poked out from under his short trousers that were stained with grime.
Who was this disgusting man?
She closed her eyes and held her breath, sheltering behind Jocassa's body. No one spoke. No one dared move.
When the light vanished and the man moved on, Mikandra could almost feel the relief in the people surrounding her.
Down in the courtyard, the thugs completed their lap and held a few others in the light, but none showed any reaction. They left in total silence, taking their charge with them.
When they were safely gone, people streamed off the crowded stairs back down into the courtyard. Voices of protest went up, and someone wailed. Most others just looked scared.
A breeze of cool and humid air over Mikandra's wet clothes made her shiver.
"Come on, we's safe now." Jocassa started down the stairs. "They's gone fer th' night."
But going back to the party was the last thing she wanted. "Jocassa, I'm extremely tired. Can you show me where I can sleep, please?"
Jocassa gave her a strange look, and she realised she'd forgotten to tone down her speech and had spoken to him as she would speak to Rosep.
Poor Rosep.
Poor Liseyo missing her sister.
Poor Mother, worried about her oldest daughter.
What was happening in Miran? Who would hurt Liseyo? What was Father trying to stop and why couldn't he come home?
"All right. This way."
Jocassa took her across the courtyard and up another set of stairs, out onto the upper floor gallery, where there were more tables and chairs and where doors opened into dormitories.
The dormitory at the very end of the balcony was surprisingly large and airy, with a huge window looking out onto another courtyard on the far side. The room held three rows of beds and a couple of mattres
ses on the floor between the beds.
"Youz can have this bed." He indicated a low bed by the door. It had only a mattress—quite disgusting probably—and no blankets. She tried very hard not to think of her comfortable bed at home.
"You all sleep in this room?"
"My bed's over there." He pointed. "'n' Dalit's next t' me. If youz need anything, y'know . . ." He spread his hands.
"I'm fine." Perhaps a bit too harsh, but she sure wasn't going where he was hanging out his fishing line. Jocassa was a lot of things, but dumb wasn't one of them. He knew, or suspected, that she wasn't a merchant's daughter. So how could you tell someone of the Endri? They had no significant hair anywhere except on their heads, and the women didn't bleed.
His cheeks had gone red. "But youz might want t' wait to try t' sleep. There'll be a racket when everybody comes in."
"I'm fine, really." Please go away and stop being nosy.
Jocassa nodded and left.
Mikandra sat on the bed. It was quite hard and there were no pillows. A squally breeze came in through the far window and went out the door.
Two people sat on a bed talking in a corner, but Mikandra was too tired to care. Too tired to contemplate the happenings, too tired even to worry about having to find a job. Or about having no clothes other than those she wore. Which were still wet, and smelly.
She took off as many of her clothes as she dared and sank down on the bed. It didn't take long before she slipped into a dreamless bliss.
Chapter 19
Mikandra woke up feeling disoriented. She turned on her back, looking at a ceiling with cracked plaster spotted with age. It took her a while to remember where she was, why she was here and what had happened last night.
The light in the room was still blue and dark as on Miran's snow days. An unfamiliar rushing sound came in through the open door behind her.
She lifted her head. Her muscles hurt from lying in a fixed position on that hard mattress. She had barely moved throughout the night, and whatever noise the partygoers had produced when they came in, it had not woken her up.