by BJ Hanlon
Dorset sneezed.
They turned left and followed the corridor about ten feet before coming to a door. The old man grabbed the knob, there was a click and the door opened.
He waived them inside. “Behind the armor is a small ladder to the roof. It’s for maintenance.”
“How’s that going to help?” Rihkar said. “We’ll just be trapped on the roof.”
“Outside it’s pretty vacant of onlookers…” He looked toward Edin and winked. “No one is on the streets and I believe a fog is coming soon.”
Edin’s mouth dropped as the man closed the door and disappeared on the other side.
“Did he just make you as a mage?” Dorset asked.
“Maybe he’s psychic.” Rihkar stated as he began toward the armor.
It was a big suit, too big for many people and something not seen in Bestoria in a long time. Mostly the knights use little armor as speed is more useful to the modern soldier than durability. At least that was what the war books he’d read behind his mother’s back had said.
On the chest was painted a giant green dragon outlined by white.
Rihkar stepped through a thin gap between the rear wall and the armor and to a ladder. He grumbled.
“Trying to figure out how to climb one-handed?”
“I can do it,” he grumbled again. “I did it to save you and the army.”
“Do you not remember what actually happened? Did you think I was just sitting around drinking whiskey and wine?”
“Might as well have been,” Rihkar said. Edin thought there was a joviality to the words despite the danger.
“Shut up you two and go,” Dorset said. He was behind Edin and staring back at the door.
“Someone will need to open the trapdoor,” Rihkar said. “That is too much for a one-armed guy.”
Edin pushed past him. He climbed quickly, found a thin metal latch, and threw it open. For some reason, it wasn’t padlocked. Maybe thieves didn’t care about what was in the library.
Outside was just as gloomy as before and the rain was trickling just a bit harder. He saw the castle, dark and silent with few fires blazing inside.
The rest of the city was the same. Edin looked past the walls and toward the river heading down from the mountains. He could barely see it in the fog, but it was raging and the water was completely white.
Rihkar appeared. “Help?” he called out, his voice straining. Edin bent down, grabbed the pit of his half-arm, and helped him climb to the roof.
As he looked around, he saw they were about twenty feet from the dome and he couldn’t see inside. Edin hoped the difficult angle was enough that the Por Fen couldn’t see them either. Then he noticed there was a shorter building to the right and beyond it one that towered over the library by at least thirty feet.
Dorset appeared a moment later. He lowered the trap door quickly and turned. “They were at the door, pounding on it. I don’t remember the old man locking it.”
“Doesn’t matter, come on.” Edin grabbed his shoulder and they started running toward the smaller building. They had to pass one of the towers that rose up above the roof. Edin saw a door in the tower. Did all of the towers have stairwells to the roof?
No, at least there wasn’t in the first stairwell he ascended.
Rihkar jumped off the edge of the building as Edin and Dorset rounded the tower.
They moved to the edge. There was a three-foot span to the next building whose roof was ten feet below.
Edin looked straight down and began to feel woozier. This cold would do nothing for his sickness. “I shouldn’t have left the bed today,” Edin said.
Dorset leapt like a daredevil and then from behind him, Edin heard thumping of something on wood. Edin swallowed and leapt after.
He was weightless for an instant and thought about using the air to buoy his decent, but it wasn’t that bad. Compared to the dive with the Cliff Raptor, this was nothing.
He landed hard on a slate roof that slanted slightly toward the alley. Dorset grabbed him as a foot slipped. Rihkar was already running across the roof toward the much taller building. One that’d be impossible to get on top of.
They followed Rihkar to the next break between the buildings. There was the same three feet gap between them and now a fortyish foot drop to the alley below. To the right and left were streets, though they were mostly empty.
“The old man, he wanted you to use the talent, right?”
Edin nodded.
“Can you?” Rihkar asked. “You’re not too sick?”
“I can, just not all of us at the same time,” Edin said. “You two go first.”
Dorset swallowed. “Are you sure about this?”
“Pretty sure…” Edin said. “I’ve done it before, and I’ve seen Arianne do it.”
“But she had much more training than you. You’ve been a wind mage for just over a month.”
“Closer to two.”
“It is either this, or that,” Rihkar said and pointed behind them. Appearing from just over the roof was one of the Por Fen. Rihkar grabbed Dorset’s arm. “Just don’t let us break our legs.” Rihkar jumped and pulled Dorset with him.
They dropped quickly. Edin shot out a hand and let a thick wind catch them like a pillow about ten feet above the ground. Then he let go.
“Abominat—” was all Edin heard before he leapt too. Four seconds later, he was on the ground and they were sprinting south and out of the government square toward the docks.
After turning down a few streets and alleys, they took a staircase into the underground.
Here though, it was more packed than he could imagine. Hightown was like an open field compared to this place and the smell up there was like it’d been filled with wildflowers while this was wildflowers left to decay and rot in the cold, but not freezing north.
This level was the underworld if that truly existed. There were masses of people all around. There were some huddled together in doors and alcoves with others lying prone on the stone floor without movement or any sign of life.
Edin took a breath and nearly threw up. This wasn’t a good place for his illness. Ahead of him, the open-air edge of the city looked out blankly over the gray sea.
He took a moment to try and get his bearings. Though he’d only been here a short time, he could still picture the outside of the barber’s and the area around where he’d first met Flack and the Raven.
He hoped they were still there.
Edin coughed and started to head deeper under the city. “This way,” Edin said and began heading further into the darkness. After a while, nearly all of the light that seeped in from the open air was gone and the place was lit by oil lamps. Though there were fewer people around here, he began to notice their state was even worse than near the entrances. People were nearly skeletons, some of them, Edin was certain, were dead. He turned down the narrow street he believed held the barbershop and followed it. It was dirtier than ever; doors and windows were boarded up. Or had been and the boards had been ripped down.
There were few men around, young boys and geezers yes, but the only ones in between those ages were deformed. He saw a few men, three in total, that looked to be of good health, but as soon as he’d spot one and lock eyes with the man, he’d disappear.
Criminals, exactly what he was looking for.
In a thin alcove, he spotted two kids, probably not more than four, wrestling over something. A moment later, a much bigger boy ran up, barreled the two over and snatched whatever it was they were fighting over and then darted off. Both boys started to cry.
“I cannot believe these people call us abominations…” Dorset whispered. “There’s no way we would do things like this.”
“If you had little food and resources you would,” Rihkar said. His voice was calm and even and he spoke with such a certainty that he convinced Edin with only those words.
He saw the barbershop and the sign. It was boarded up and written on it was ‘Closed.’
There was
nothing else. Edin walked up to the door and tried the handle. It was locked. He could break in but decided against it. He looked to a homeless, dirty person covered in soiled rags a few feet away.
“Sir,” he said in as nice a tone as he could, “do you know what happened to Darl?”
“Sir?” she coughed. Just that word told her it was a she, a very dirty and disgusting she. “I’m a lady. I was very beautiful and now—” she coughed again and looked up at him. He saw she had blue eyes that may have once been bright but now looked like the ocean during a cloudy day. A day like this one. “Now I’m confused for a man.”
His cheeks flushed but he did not walk away. “Darl? The barber, have you seen him?”
“No,” she said flatly.
“What about the Raven? Have you seen her?”
The woman looked immediately away and wouldn’t look back.
“Who’s the Raven?” Rihkar asked.
“A friend, and the crime boss here.”
They moved on, at one point, Edin had to pick his way over a track of bodies, stepping between legs and over shoulders. He was following the same route he’d taken to get to the place he first met the Raven when he spotted someone that looked rather familiar lying next to a nearly shattered barrel.
A moment later, the clothes gave it away. He wasn’t sure of the woman’s name, but it was one of the Foci Dun Bornu’s women. Her animal skins were filthy.
Edin walked over and saw her mouth seemed cracked and dry and her cheeks were shallow. Edin popped the cap on his waterskin and trickled it into the woman’s mouth. After a moment she blinked her eyes open. Edin smiled at her. “Dorset, find out where the rest of the tribe is.”
Dorset bent down and spoke. As he did so he examined her. She spoke softly and Edin could barely make out her words. “Around the corner,” Dorset said as she pointed deeper into the underground. Then he said, “help me carry her,” and began to pick her up.
Edin did and a few minutes later, they were walking into a cracked and creepy alleyway with little light and black bundles shaped like humans on the ground. The Foci were everywhere, and they moaned, groaned, or were silent.
Edin and Dorset set her down. “She has a broken wrist,” Dorset said. “Block the entrance.”
Dorset began healing her while Edin summoned a small ethereal ball to try and find Suuli and Aniama. After a few minutes he found the old seer. He was pale in the light and his breath was ragged. There was little life left in him.
The old man’s lips were cracked too as if they weren’t getting any water either.
He knew there were two rivers on either side of the city as well as wells that were always full. Edin summoned bits of water from the air and set it onto the man’s lips and poured some down his throat. “Aniama?” Edin asked.
Suuli just shook his head.
What did that mean? Where was the anthropologist? “Dorset get over here.”
A moment later, Dorset was by their side and speaking. His ability for languages was spectacular. “He’s ill, and his people are starving… there’s not enough food in the city,” Dorset said but he was speaking fast and trying to keep up with Suuli. “Aniama went west to look for his son.” He paused. “The Baron got us in the gates but then left us. His people are down here too but he is in a mansion.”
“Probably eating and drinking his fill,” Dorset scoffed. “Blasted nobles.”
“Edin is a Baron,” Rihkar said.
“And he can be a jerk too,” Dorset smirked. He ran his hands over the man’s arms and legs. “He’s sick… I think he is dying.”
He felt someone pawing at him and reaching for Edin’s arm. Another Foci, a warrior he recognized and saw that he had chapped lips too.
“Why don’t they have water?” Edin said. He summoned more water into his cupped hands this time. Then he let the man drink.
Suuli spoke and Dorset translated. “They are not able to use the wells for water because they are savages. They have to sneak, and no one has the energy to do so anymore.”
“Blotards. These city dwellers are such monsters,” Dorset said.
“Every large city is filled with people like that,” Rihkar said. “Selfish blotards, nearly all of them.”
“We need to get them all water and get them out of here.”
“We’re being hunted, or don’t you remember that?” Rihkar said. “You don’t even have your sword or weapons. And we don’t have the duke’s missive. He should’ve given you something that said you were under his protection.”
“I don’t need protection.” But then Edin thought for a moment and put his hand to his pocket and pulled out the signet ring. “Rihkar, find Henny. Dorset get water for these people.”
“It’ll do little for the Foci,” Dorset said. “They’re starving and nearly dead.”
“Well, get them as healthy as you can, you’re going to take these people to the isle with you. If the captain objects, throw him overboard. Henny should still have the missive.”
“And you?”
“I need to find the Raven. She can help get word to the duke and prince and get me out of this place.”
“What about Berka?”
“He’s probably with El, let them stay that way.” He looked at Suuli.
The old seer was looking around with glazed eyes and seemingly little strength. “Try and get him better. I’ll see if the Raven can help.”
It took longer than he thought to find the Raven. She wasn’t in her hideout or even in Lowtown. Edin spotted one of the men he’d met the first time through, though he couldn’t remember the name, in the midst of a great pool of people. They were pushing toward a man standing on a cart and handing out bread.
The man was watching, guarding really, and helping to make sure people didn’t hoard the loaves and even breaking some pieces up so that one person wouldn’t have a single loaf to themselves. Edin caught his eye.
Recognition came over him a few moments later but he didn’t seem to have time to simply walk away. After nearly an hour, the bread was gone though there was still many people who went home or to their street corners hungry.
“I never thought I’d see you again, not after the attack.”
Edin nodded. “Where’s the Raven mister…”
“Around, I am known as Jicalo,” he said.
“Does that mean something?”
The man was short and stocky with a body that was as squared off as one of those dwarven statues, though his eyes were soft. “No.”
“I need to speak with her.”
The man eyed Edin over and nodded. A few streets over, Jicalo reluctantly led Edin up the eastern most stairwell to Hightown. The sun was out now and there were only a few puddles of water left in the shadows. They followed a few streets and then slipped into an alleyway that had huge stone gates with wrought iron spikes above it. A very wealthy neighborhood.
They stopped at a wooden gate in a wall and Jicalo knocked in bursts. A long four-knock burst with two hands that got Edin thinking about a song. And the last musician he really knew, Dephina. Were she and Grent still in the city? Next to the door were chopped up tree roots, pulled bushes, and flowers and groundcover.
The door opened and they stepped into a dirt courtyard with a single cobblestone path heading toward a large house. In the mud, Edin saw men dropping seeds into hoed lines.
“She’s gardening?” Edin asked.
“She’s trying to get everyone to… as much food as we can get,” Jicalo said. He opened the rear door and pushed into a small stone kitchen. “The boss?”
A man in a chef’s hat didn’t look at them and simply pointed toward a stairwell to their left. They ascended a flight and came out into a long hallway. Jicalo moved toward the center and a wide doorway. They went to the center and Edin found a room that ran the length of the building. A dining room, or ballroom. Or it had been.
One half was completely empty, while the other was crowded with stacks upon stacks of crates, statues, and furn
iture. Expensive looking things. A long table was on its side acting like a fence to keep people away from the artifacts.
Near the center of the room was the Raven. She was talking with two men. Carpenters by the looks of their toolbelts.
“Ma’am, are you sure?” one said.
“Yes, three high, eight on each wall. The same upstairs. Nearly fifty per room.”
“Where are they going to eat or go to the bathroom?”
Yassima, the Raven, already looked stressed. Her palm was at her forehead and she seemed like she was trying to fight the urge to kick the men. She exhaled, her black hair dropping around her shoulders and for a moment, he saw gray in it.
“Boss,” Jicalo said to get her attention.
Yassima turned toward them and saw Edin, her brown eyes lowered as she looked him over and back up. She wasn’t as vivacious as she’d been on their last encounter, but she offered a smile. “How’s Flack? Ashica said he is getting along fine on the isle.”
“Last I knew, he was.”
“Good.” Then she sighed, “I didn’t expect to see you ever again magus.” The two carpenters looked at each other and turned nearly white. Without looking Yassima said, “You tell anyone, I’ll kill your families. Now go procure the wood we need. Jicalo take them.” The stocky man escorted the two carpenters out as Yassima sauntered over toward Edin. Despite the weary look in her, it was something she seemed to do with such ease that it seemed natural.
“Redecorating I see,” Edin said. “It looks nice...”
“A necessity I believe. I haven’t gotten to where I am today without knowing how to prepare.”
“And how many others with your assets and wealth are trying to build shelters and turn their back gardens into actual gardens?”
“Not many,” she said. “The dematians— I can’t believe I’m saying that, have been all anyone can talk about. So many refugees have flooded in over the last week. Entire towns are gone, swept off the planet like Mr. Whiskers over there knocking something off the table just to see it drop.” Edin turned and saw a fat tabby cat sauntering into the room. For a moment he smiled.