by B J Hanlon
Edin’s stomach growled remembering the meal and wondered if he could find a place with equally as good food.
Surprisingly, there were no other people sleeping in the park. It felt oddly empty. Edin nestled himself between a bush and a tree. Something told him to push the weapons deeper under the foliage. He did so.
Edin closed his eyes and thought about the next day. He’d need to get some sort of long bag to cover the bow, find an inn, and then meet Arianne inside the north gate by nine in the morning. After that, they needed to find Ashica and a way to escape this place. No need to mess with the Darsol Rose or this La Fie.
15
Two cities in one
“Hey… ” A gruff voice called. “Blessed gods… you can’t sleep here don’t you know…”
The voice roused him from an instantly-forgotten dream. He hoped it was one not of that crooked old man.
Edin looked bleary eyed to see a man in a guard’s uniform standing above him with an almost confused look on his grizzled face. Edin rubbed his eyes and began to pull himself to a seated position.
“It’s the law… we can’t have people sleeping anywhere they please in uptown.” His voice was almost apologetic.
“Sorry,” Edin said, he took a moment to get his bearings. His eyes shot toward the weapons still hiding in the bush. If he’d been wearing those, this would probably be a different conversation.
“Here,” the man said tossing something toward Edin.
Reaching out, Edin snatched a small coin from the air. A silver. “Sir I cannot…”
The guard held out a hand, “check with Marina at the Brass Ape on Daley, tell her Foristol sent ya. She’ll sort you out.”
“But sir–”
“Quiet or I’ll arrest ya, you may be a deserter or some such. Or maybe ya ran off after being pressganged into one of them seedy crews. Don’t matter. You smell like you’d been sleeping in dirt for weeks. We can’t have no stink round here ya see…” Despite the man’s harsh sounding voice, there was a kindness in him. His eyes seemed to understand. “Get on going,” he commanded.
Edin nodded. “I will.” His voice cracked a little from the dryness… and from something else.
The man pointed him to the east. “On your left, can’t miss it.”
In that weird place between wake and sleep, he stood. He didn’t want to leave the weapons, but he had no choice. Pulling an arsenal out of the shrubs would’ve sent all sorts of alarms through the old man’s head and despite his generosity, he didn’t think the guard would’ve been too thrilled about surprise.
He stumbled out of the park on a gravel path, his feet kicking loose stone sending it chirping over the rocks and into the manicured grass like a wave.
Footsteps were behind him, they were a bit back, but clearly following. The park ended with a wrought iron fence on top of a small stone wall. Daley Road, the name painted in white letters on a thin sign appeared in front.
Edin found it only a hundred paces away. A bell clang above him as he entered. With the exception of the curt bell ring, it was quiet inside, with only the faint dins of metal pots somewhere in the back.
“We ain’t open…” A woman of about thirty said. Then she looked at him and let out a wheezing sigh that turned to a word. “Foristol?”
Edin nodded.
“Come on.” She waived Edin toward her and headed up a flight of stairs, then another and another. At the top of the fourth flight, she grabbed a small oil lantern on a wooden table then pulled a key from her bosom. She unlocked a thin door that seemed to be part of the wall and swung it open. Beyond it was another flight, thinner with a fair bit of dust on the wooden railing.
Up top was a warm attic with little light pressing in from dormers. White sheets covered unknown objects pushed into the eaves around the roof like merchandise not ready for sale. The roof rose at a steep incline meeting only a few inches above his head. At the back was another door, a small one that rose to his neck.
She opened it and held an arm out.
Edin ducked inside a tiny room. He could touch his arms to the pitched roof from almost anywhere. Taking up nearly all the floor space was a cot the size of one in the manor’s barracks and nothing else.
She ducked inside and stood next to him, her arm touching his. “This is our… suite,” the woman Edin assumed was Marina said.
Edin took out the silver that the guard handed him but she just waived it away and offered him a key. “There’s a bath out back… I’ll start it.” She said after a quick sniff. “Ya get three nights.”
“Thank you,” Edin said in a soft tone.
A smile crossed her face and Edin noticed crow’s feet spreading from young eyes.
“I have a friend,” Edin said.
Mariana held out her hand as if to silence him. “If ya want a share of the room I got no objections… long as nothing immoral happens.”
Edin frowned for a moment. He wasn’t sure what she meant, it didn’t matter. “It’s a she,” Edin said.
“Just know this ain’t a bordello… remember, I’ll have to clean those sheets…”
He felt himself turning red, hopefully the dim orange light of the fire covered up the change. “I understand.”
Marina nodded and ducked back through leaving the light.
He sat, the cot creaked under his weight. He wasn’t sure it’d even hold two people. Edin wished he knew the time. He had to get out of here quickly.
Arianne was going to attempt to enter the city about an hour after daybreak.
Edin had no idea how far it was to the northern gate. Before his trip up the wall, he and Arianne had combined their packs into hers. A pack was fine to move past the city guards.
But now, he had to collect the weapons and find her.
Edin stepped out of the small room and went to the stairwell. Every other plank creaked as he went down the dark staircase and pushed at the hidden door.
At the main floor, he glanced around for Mariana. He didn’t see her. Edin felt dirty and nasty and knew a bath would’ve been warranted. But he needed to find Arianne. If he hadn’t been sure Foristol followed him to the inn he would never have come. The guard would’ve found that as suspicious as him pulling out the weapons like a conjurer in a fake magic show.
A pair of men were entering, breakfast diners, others looked as if they’d just been seated, and a serving lady was heading off to greet them. Edin spotted an open door with sunlight entering a few feet away. Lowering his head, he took several long strides and slipped outside.
He kept his long gait as he followed the side of the inn until he reached a narrow pathway that led back to the road.
He made a quick mental note of the street, the park, and the inn. To the southwest, tall towers were peeking out over much smaller buildings. He saw the castle back there and four points above a dome. Edin had no idea what that was.
With the sun rising, the street was waking. Some people crawled through the streets, others nearly ran. Oxen and donkeys hauled carts filled with all sorts of goods past him and other folks.
Edin headed north. The road he followed was rather straight but narrow. Homes and apartments crowded the street towering over him like the redwoods from the forest.
The smell of baking bread came from an open window. His mouth watered. As more people began to enter the streets, his long strides shortened. He had to move in and around slower people who strolled as easily as a day out in the gardens. Did this happen in every city? Idiots stopping in the middle of the street clogging them up… Edin saw a particularly ostentatious man doing just that. He wanted to kick his knee.
Edin resisted the urge.
As more people streamed out of apartments, he began to feel as if the world was closing in on him.
The road crossed several large avenues before it stopped at an open square surrounded by some long but short buildings that didn’t stop. They seemed to act like a fence keeping the people penned in like hogs. But there was one that grew much hi
gher… maybe a hundred yards. It was dark black and was somehow… cylindrical.
Then he noticed the occupants. A group of at least ten men were striding across the square toward it. Their black cloaks floating behind them and anyone in front of them were scampering like rabbits before a forest fire.
Edin looked away as if staring would tell them he was a magus. He knew it was foolish, he was fifty yards away and looked like he’d crawled through a sewer, probably smelled that way too. But he didn’t want to be caught looking all the same.
With his head down, Edin started across the square still trying to head to the northern wall. Just outside the square, there were nicer townhomes and apartments, but soon those too gave way to a stretch of more dilapidated structures.
Roads began to end at buildings, they’d cut east or west in a maze. He tried continuing north but every few blocks, he’d be stopped.
It took another hour to find it. The entrance was packed. People were shuffling about in small currents flowing through breakwaters. A man with a harried look on his face and an armful of books tried pushing through a group of chatters. The books dropped and an ensuing shouting match included words he’d never heard but understood their intent well enough.
Backed against vacant walls were small stands with merchants probably selling at exorbitant prices. It happened everywhere according to Horston’s economics lessons. The Convenience Factor.
A clock tower just inside the gate read nine. About an hour past their planned meeting. Edin ignored the ghastly looks sent his way, the people cringing from him as if he were a dematian.
For a woman, Arianne was slightly taller than most. Though men here towered over her and some even towered over Edin.
Edin slid a hand on a man’s shoulder and muttered an apology as he slipped between him and the other two he was chatting with.
They locked eyes for a second before Edin passed through. At the center of the traffic was a small fountain. Sculptures of two half-men and half-goats were sprouting water from their mouths in unending streams that cast soft rainbows in the air.
Edin stood on the surround. It was a better vantage point though it didn’t seem to help. There were too many people.
For almost a half-hour, he stood there, sweating in the sun, feeling warm grease caressing and tickling his head and neck. Edin was keenly aware of his own stink, though it wasn’t half as bad as some of the places he’d been recently.
Even worse, his stomach was screaming. He hunched over and scooped a handful of water. Then reached into the small pouch in his tunic that held the single silver piece. He pulled it out and stared to turn it in his fingers.
He had to eat something.
Edin started toward the west end of the square where he’d seen street vendors offering their wares. It all smelled great to him, but he needed something cheap.
The choice was rice and beans and even so, his change was still only five coppers, half the cost of the silver.
“They’re bloody vultures,” a casual man’s voice said moving next to him at the stand.
The vendor shrugged, by his apathetic gaze, he was used to those slurs and probably much, much worse.
Edin turned away and scooped some of the warm food into his mouth. The flavor was diluted by the taste of grease. He was still certain it wouldn’t be a grand meal if his hands were clean and he were eating with a fork or spoon.
A hand clapped on his shoulder. “Come now,” the man said, “It was only a jest.”
Edin turned back and looked at the man. It took him a moment to realize it was the same one he’d pushed past earlier. “I took no offense.”
“Good.” The man had an easy smile beneath bright brown eyes. He had strong, angular features and his nose said he’d been in a fight or two. But his dress, the way he stood, and his shinny long hair pulled back in a bun atop his head spoke of a well-heeled man. Why was he talking to Edin?
They stood awkwardly looking at each other. It was as if the man were sizing him up or trying to read his thoughts. Edin kept his face as neutral as possible before turning and walking back into the crowd.
He’d only gone a few yards when he felt a tug at his arm again.
“What?” He said a little too loud.
Arianne looked shocked for a moment and then lowered her eyebrows. “What do you mean ‘what’? I’m searching for you while you’re eating like a pig in a slop.”
Edin hugged her quickly and she squeezed back. As he pulled back he spotted a small dollop of a yellowish sauce on her cheek. He reached up and wiped it from the side of her lip. He tilted his head slightly.
She shrugged, no apologies from her. “Let’s go,” Arianne said. She handed him the pack laden with all their gear which was mainly clothes and a pair of waterskins.
After they were clear of the crowd she told him that many people arrived in the night and camped outside of the city gates. Many had their own weapons. It was what took her so long.
“Where is my bow?” Arianne asked after she finished.
“Hidden,” Edin said, hoping it was still there.
“We need to hurry, we cannot let it fall into the wrong hands,” Arianne said. “An enchanted weapon in the hands of a mundane can prove disastrous.”
“Why?” Edin asked.
“They require a special will to handle them, like a magus… when mundanes get their hands on them. It does something to their minds and many end up becoming murderers. Vile murderers.”
Edin picked up his pace as they walked down the main avenue. He saw the tall buildings and tried to pinpoint where they had to go. It was difficult.
Eventually, they’d reach Daley Road. Hopefully without incident.
He spied a few different shops that seemed to cater to archers, but Arianne pointed out other men and women with bows strapped to their backs without carriers.
A lot of those seemed to be adventurers or sellswords. Edin remembered the man talking about a draft.
He found Daley Road rather easily and followed it toward the park. For a moment, they stood in the shadows and looked around for Foristol. The man wasn’t there.
They padded the gravel path and reached the tree where he spent the night.
Edin’s stomach felt in knots as they approached. “Please be there,” Edin whispered.
Arianne had a firm look on her face. It took him a moment to slide onto his stomach and reach under the large bush. He felt the sword and pulled it out. A moment later he gripped the bow, then the quiver.
They donned their weapons and glanced around. No one had seen them.
“I don’t think we should go back to the inn. It wouldn’t do us much good. We need to find that ship.”
Edin nodded. Though he felt like a complete scumbag blotard for running out on Marina and just taking Foristol’s coin but agreed. “We should look for Ashica... his type is probably in the undercity…”
“I agree… there’s an entrance around here somewhere…”
“There’s one over there…” He said. The short walk took them past the inn. Edin tried to look away so Marina didn’t see as he dropped the key just outside the front door.
Soon, he saw the stairs descending into the undercity as if it were a crypt. A guard stood in front of the entrance, though he was only looking at people coming up, not down.
As they descended, the air grew cold and felt somewhat stiff. There was no distinct smell but a mixture of almost everything known to man. The subterranean world was nearly twenty feet below the street.
Large stone arches and buildings rose into the roof… or the floor of the street above. Narrow roads, barely wide enough to pass a wagon wound in and around the supports. He wasn’t sure there was any real planning that had built the upper city.
“By the elevators,” Arianne said pointing off to the right. Edin saw a sign that said ‘Docks.’
Again, it took a long time. They passed ratty inns with names like Plug Drainers and The Rail Barrel. None of it made any sense.
Sunlight appeared as they reached the end of the city. Ahead was a long, open window into the sea. But what was most unbelievable was the open-air barrier. It was like the mouth of a rectangular cave. A string of unending arches ran the length offering windows to the outside world.
It felt like he was in a tower.
A boardwalk ran the length of the opening… about a mile Edin guessed and there was a small wooden rail that kept people from stumbling over.
Holding onto it helped Edin with his fear of heights.
The rising sun sparkled over the water and far below he saw the movements of the dockworkers and ship hands. Large and small boats filled the docks like bees do their comb and further out, a long narrow island burst from the ocean with a pair of dark stone towers at either end.
“There’s so many…” Edin said. “how could we know which is the Castilander…”
Arianne didn’t say anything.
“We should ask someone.”
“Who, the harbormaster? I’m guessing he’s probably the one with the shack down below.” She pointed directly down.
Edin leaned over to look, and found it destroyed the illusion and made him quite dizzy. Arianne pulled him back.
“Maybe later,” Edin said. Down here, Edin didn’t feel as out of place. Maybe he liked the dark, maybe it was the fact that these people seemed a bit more… free maybe?
“How about a tavern?” Edin asked. “There’s bound to be someone who knows of him there.”
She shrugged.
They found a place called ‘In the Dark.’ Edin was almost certain it was part of some poem, though he couldn’t remember it.
Inside was a busy dining room with men from all over plowing through large plates of food and vast amounts of ale on long tables. They sat next to each other a few seats from a pair of sailors with black ink tattoos that shined almost a light gray in the dim light.
“I don’t like this,” Edin whispered.