The Lure of Fools

by Jason James King

“About what?” Kairah snapped in what Maely thought was a more convincing expression of frustration.

  “The boy is not here.” The guard’s voice quivered.

  “Where is he?” she demanded.

  “Escaped sir.” The guard audibly gulped. “This afternoon, along with that voyeur monk.”

  “How?”

  The guard shared another look with his peers. “Someone let them out. We think they escaped the city through the sewer system.”

  Maely cringed as Kairah looked at her, eyes begging for direction. “Well, thank you for your time.” She grabbed Kairah by the elbow and gently turned her toward the door. “I trust you will not mention this to anyone,” she said to the guards in a semi-hushed tone. “No one must know of his worsening condition.”

  The three guards slowly nodded, each wide-eyed as they absorbed the implied meaning of Maely’s lie. “Come along, my lord. It is time for your medicine,” she added as she steered Kairah out of the jail annex and led her silently into a side alley.

  The noble woman returned to her true form, although her eyes still held that look of uncertain confusion.

  “That could’ve gone badly had those guards not been so afraid of getting in trouble.” Maely sighed.

  “What do we do now?” Kairah asked.

  “We,” Maely sarcastically emphasized the word, “don’t do anything. I am going to go try to find Jek.”

  “You will no longer help me?”

  “Look, Lady Kairah.” Maely rounded on the noblewoman. “I am not sure what you want with my friend, but you didn’t fulfill your end of the bargain to free him; therefore, we owe you nothing!”

  Kairah slowly nodded. “Your social strata are more fractured than I previously understood.”

  “What are you talking about?” Maely said incredulously.

  “Your place in the lower caste has instilled in you an animosity and distrust toward those of higher station.”

  Maely wasn’t certain what Kairah was saying, but it had the unmistakable sound of aristocratic condescension. “Look, I don’t care how rich and powerful you might be. Your kind may have wealth, talises, and education, but you don’t own us! You can’t tell us what to …” Screams and excited shouting rang from a neighboring street, immediately stifling her indignant tirade.

  Both she and Kairah turned to look in the direction of the clamor. Unable to help herself, Maely cautiously moved to the mouth of the alley and peered around the corner. She gasped as she saw what looked like an enormous statue tromping down the street, its footfalls kicking up bits of cobblestone road.

  “Oh no,” she heard Kairah gasp. She looked up to find the noblewoman leaning out of the alley over Maely’s head.

  The behemoth stood twenty feet tall, glossy in a way that made it look like it were made of glass, and it held a glowing jewel set in its face like a Cyclops’ eye. The living statue appeared oblivious to the panicked people, the fruit stands, and handcarts as it moved in a systematic pattern.

  Like it’s looking for something, Maely thought as suspicion began to germinate in her mind.

  “Golden womb of the goddess,” she swore. “What is that thing?” When no answer came, Maely turned to see Kairah moving quickly away from the mouth of the alley. Maely turned and jogged to catch up to her.

  “I need to leave the city,” Kairah said in an urgent tone.

  “That thing is after you, isn’t it?”

  “Yes,” Kairah said simply. “I do not know how he did it, but he has sent them after me.”

  “Who?” Maely caught Kairah by the arm.

  Kairah looked down at her in surprise. “My brother. He sent that talis and probably another to apprehend me.”

  “That’s a talis?”

  Kairah resumed her brisk stride. “Yes, a very powerful crystal golem.”

  Maely overtook Kairah and rounded on her to block her path. “Who are you?” Maely demanded. “You have a powerful talis, but you don’t act like a noble. And you don’t know things that everyone else knows! Things you should know.”

  Kairah’s eyes flicked to the side, but she made no reply.

  “Who are you?” Maely repeated and was startled as she felt the words accompanied by a rush of force, as though they were arrows striking their mark.

  Kairah’s eyes widened as she opened her mouth to answer, but was cut off as screaming flooded the alley.

  Maely looked passed her and felt her stomach clench. The golem stood in profile at the mouth of the alley, a mob of terrified people sprinting away from it. A group of Rasha’s guards rushed out of the fleeing crowd and hurled spears at it, but they bounced off the glass skin and clattered to the ground, causing the guards to turn and join the retreating mob. The golem slowly turned its head in their direction, its glowing jewel-eye bathing the alley in purple light.

  “Run!” Kairah grabbed Maely by the arm and hauled her into a sprint.

  The golem exploded into a run toward them, it’s pounding footfalls shaking the ground like small earthquakes. The buildings surrounding the alley trembled, chunks of stone and brick raining from their walls. The women dodged and hurdled over the debris, and Maely could feel as much as hear the statue was gaining on them.

  They reached the far end of the alley and darted out into the street where Kairah paused, her eyes darting in one direction and then the other.

  “Come on!” Maely snapped as she grabbed her wrist and yanked her to their right.

  They had only made it two dozen feet down the block when screams erupted from the crowd behind them. Maely cast a glance over her shoulder to see the golem exit the alley, smashing through two wares-tables and sending their merchants screaming in retreat. It paused, searching for its target. Tripping on some street flotsam, she stumbled, her palms throbbing as they caught the impact of the ground beneath her. Kairah pulled her to her feet just in time for the massive creature’s footfalls to resume.

  It’s spotted us. “We can’t outrun that thing!” Maely shouted.

  Kairah abruptly stopped running and turned to face the creature, her hands balled into tiny delicate fists.

  Maely pulled on her arm. “What are you doing!”

  Kairah didn’t answer, but instead closed her eyes as if in concentration or prayer.

  Maely felt the ground shake as the gigantic, translucent golem barreled toward them. She was just about to break away and leave Kairah to her chosen fate when she saw the golem stumble. With what appeared to be a disproportionate amount of exertion, the statue attempted to continue forward, but couldn’t seem to lift its leg. Maely’s eyes dropped to the cobblestone street, and she gasped. The ground, muddy and swelled with water, trapped the Golem’s legs in a thick mixture of dislodged cobblestones and mud. It struggled to loosen itself, but each time it pulled one leg out with a squelch, its other leg sunk further into the muck. It was stuck.

  Maely tore her stare from the Golem to look at Kairah. Her eyes, now open, lit with triumph. “How did…” she trailed off when Kairah turned and launched back into a sprint.

  “That will not hold it for long!” she called over her shoulder.

  Without looking back, Maely caught up to her. “What now?”

  “I need to get out of the city,” she said. “The crystal golem will depart once it realizes I am no longer here, and the wanton destruction will stop.”

  An idea popped into Maely’s mind. “Can that thing swim?”

  She shook her head. “It is not likely.”

  “Then we need to get to a riverboat!” Maely searched until she caught sight of one of Rasha’s canals. She redoubled her run, following the water as the canal snaked to the north. Renewed screams from the crowd echoed behind them, and she knew the golem escaped Kairah’s impromptu marsh and would soon be upon them.

  The boat was moving at a steady pace, like it was under ore-power from an unseen galley. Maely quickly made her way to the sheer edge of the canal. The boat was too far from the canal’s edge for them to jump onto it from the si
de, but they could jump onto its deck from one of the several high bridges which spanned the canal at regular intervals.

  The next one was less than a hundred yards ahead of them.

  “Come on!” Maely shouted as she grabbed Kairah’s wrist.

  They easily outpaced the boat, and it was less than a minute before they reached the canal bridge. As they turned left and began ascending the arch, Maely felt the ground shake and looked up to see the crystal golem closing the distance between them at a startling rate. Panic swelled her heart, beads of perspiration tickling the back of her neck.

  They reached the center of the bridge as the riverboat began to pass underneath. “Come on, this side.” Maely crossed to the other side with Kairah at her heels and swung a leg over the wooden rail. The bridge shook beneath them, and she nearly slipped as she brought her other leg over. She looked up to find the crystal golem tromping up the arching bridge.

  “Hurry!” she snapped at Kairah and helped the woman over the rail.

  The bridge shook again, drawing Maely’s attention behind them. The crystal golem bounded forward and was almost to the center of the bridge. She looked down and found the riverboat’s prow just emerging from beneath the shadow of the arch. She was going to have to time their jump just right, which meant waiting until the last possible second.

  Kairah gasped, and Maely’s head pivoted skyward to see the hulking form of the crystal golem looming over them. A quick check of the boat below showed only a few feet of visible deck. Another shake of the bridge hailed the golem’s advance, and Maely knew that they were out of time.

  With one last glance at the living glass statue, Maely threw an arm around Kairah’s waist and jumped. Her stomach rose into her throat as they fell, but before she had time to fully contemplate the situation, she slammed hard into the deck of the ship. Kairah hit a heartbeat later—when had she let go of the woman?—and rolled halfway off the deck. Maely caught her just before she went over and was able to haul her back to safety.

  “HEY!” a man’s voice angrily shouted. “Just what in the hell do you think you’re doing?”

  Maely looked up to find a leather-faced man with a knobby nose rushing toward them.

  “Get off my boat!” he demanded.

  “Please, sir” Maely began.

  The riverboat captain glanced over his shoulder to his crew and snapped at them. He’s going to throw us overboard she realized with a stab of panic igniting hot anger.

  She shot to her feet and hissed, “You are not going to touch us!” Again, that strange undercurrent of power accompanied the words, and somehow she felt as though she assailed the man.

  The riverboat captain flinched and he cowed. “Y-Yes, mistress,” he stammered.

  Mistress?

  Just then, the riverboat rocked backward, its prow suddenly rising up out of the water with a deafening crash and the cracking of splintering wood. Maely and Kairah began to slide toward the stern. As she desperately searched for something to grab onto, Maely looked up to see the crystal golem falling through the deck of the boat.

  It jumped onto the boat!

  She hadn’t expected that.

  Panicked shouts rang out as men dove overboard, some voluntarily and some involuntarily. A final loud crack signaled the boat had split into two as water rushed over the center of the ship. Without thinking, Maely gripped Kairah’s wrist, hauled her to unsteady feet, and then leapt off the prow. Her spectacles and hat flew off as she fell, gasping, into the cold river water. Every nerve tingled frozen, her senses clouded by icy liquid gushing down her throat and drowning her lungs. In the black starless night, there was no difference between water and sky, and disorientation took hold as she struggled to swim toward a gulp of life sustaining air. Summer days of swimming with Jek and Mulladin in a forest lake near Genra played across the shadows of her eyelids as she sunk toward a watery grave.

  Darkness encroached upon the edges of Maely’s vision, and a strange sense of oxygen-deprived euphoria began to take her. Her head felt light and, as inappropriate as she knew it was, she felt like bursting into laughter. Then the water expelled from her lungs in a rush of vomit and the relief of sweet air replaced it. Her vision cleared and she found herself lying on the stony edge of the canal, Kairah leaning over her.

  “What happened?”

  “The golem will be at the bottom of the river long enough for me to get away.”

  “I was drowning,” Maely said.

  Kairah flashed a smile. “I spell-casted the water to lift us out of the canal, and then drew the water from your lungs.”

  “You what?” Maely asked incredulously. “Just how many talises do you own?” That’s when she noticed the woman’s hair. It was no longer black, but a jewel-like shade of purple, and her skin appeared paler.

  “Your hair,” Maely gasped.

  Kairah’s eyes widened and she clutched at her neck, as though feeling for something.

  Her necklace, Maely remembered. She had been wearing a necklace.

  “Oh no,” Kairah looked stricken. “I lost it.” She jumped to her feet and ran for the cover of nearby trees where she could hide from the crowd of people amassing at the edge of the canal.

  Maely scurried after Kairah, her feet struggling for traction against the wet stone. The woman kept her head down, apparently trying to hide her hair but was doing a poor job of it. Maely caught up to her, grabbing her arm and forcing her to stop.

  “What are you?”

  Kairah’s eyes nervously darted around the street. “Someone will see me,” she hissed.

  Maely cast a glance over her shoulder to the crowd gathering to gawk at the wrecked boat. None of them looked back at her; all eyes were watching the crew swim to safety.

  “Come on,” Maely led her to stand behind a wagon stacked high with hay. “We just need to get you a cloak.”

  She nodded, her eyes still wide with fright.

  “Wait here,” she said. “There’s a general store just down the street. I’ll see if I can beg one for you.”

  Kairah nodded, and Maely quickly moved down the street through a mass of people. Scanning store fronts, her heart skipped when she located the universal bread symbol painted on a splintered marquee. General goods for sale. Found it.

  A bell rang as she entered the shop, and a fat, middle-aged man glanced away from a dirty window. “What’s going on out there?” he asked.

  “A riverboat sunk,” Maely said. It wasn’t a lie. She just didn’t tell the portly merchant a giant living statue made of glass sunk it. He wouldn’t believe her anyway.

  The merchant turned to stare back out of the window, unaware the spectacle was half a block upriver.

  “Do you have cloaks?” Maely asked.

  The merchant looked at her, apparently noticing for the first time that her clothes were soaking wet. Under the man’s scrutiny, Maely reflexively reached up to pull her hat down over her brow, but stopped as she realized she had lost the hat in the chase.

  “You’re as sodden as milk toast,” he said with a question in his voice.

  “I got splashed when the riverboat smashed into the side of the canal.”

  “It ran afoul of the shipping lanes?”

  Maely nodded and then quickly added, “It was scary.” That was too much, she chided herself.

  The merchant stared at her for a long moment before saying, “Two Aies.”

  TWO? Maely’s temper began to rise. Even though she had lost her bag, and therefore her coin, while running from the crystal golem, she was indignant at the price the merchant was asking. A good cloak rarely cost more than one Aies, and she was sure that the man was taking advantage of her because she was a young woman. But I don’t look like a girl, she remembered, but I am obviously young.

  “I don’t have any coin,” Maely confessed, working to keep the anger from her voice.

  “I don’t abide beggars, and I don’t have any work for you,” the fat merchant pointed at the door.

  “Please sir,�
� she said in her best orphan voice, “I’m wet, and it’s cold. I need something to wear while I dry my clothes.”

  “Go naked,” the merchant said apathetically as he turned away from Maely.

  So he does think I’m a boy, she decided. Or he’s a pervert.

  “Don’t you have a used cloak that I could borrow for a night?”

  “Borrow?” the merchant scoffed. “If I lent you a cloak, we both know that I’d never see it again. And even if you did bring it back, I’d have to drop the price because of its use.”

  “Please—” Maely began.

  “Get out!” the merchant shouted. “Or I’ll call the guard.”

  The offense tipped the scale and all of Maely’s stress from losing Jekaran, being chased by a living statue, and nearly drowning broke her emotional control and she erupted, “I want a cloak!” For a third time Maely felt a force thrill through her chest and strike out at the shop keeper. The man stumbled back, daze curtaining his eyes.

  “Yes, mistress,” the shopkeeper said quietly.

  Maely couldn’t help but smile to herself as she left the store, the man’s finest sable cloak folded and tucked beneath one arm. She had no idea why people were doing what she said, but she hoped the trend would continue. She jogged back to where she had left Kairah hiding behind the wagon.

  “Here,” Maely proffered the cloak.

  Kairah nodded gratefully, unfolding it to swing onto her shoulders. She then pulled the hood up as far as she could and tucked a few stray strands of purple hair into it.

  “Perfect,” Maely said.

  “Thank you, Maely,” Kairah said as she examined her reflection in the window of the building behind the wagon. “How did you acquire so fine a cloak with no currency?”

  Feeling smug, Maely grinned. “At first he didn’t want to give it to me, but then I got mad and demanded one. After that, he was more than happy to provide me his finest cloak at no charge.”

  Kairah turned to face her, eyes sharp with suspicion.

  “What?” Maely asked.

  She glanced down at Maely’s hands, then at her neck. Before Maely could ask what she was looking for, Kairah’s hand shot out and grabbed the front of her over-sized tunic.