by Jeffrey Hall
“You still have your tail?” said Wish, glancing at the Eclectun who tottered behind Moso. Despite what he had said yesterday, he was glad to see the monkey alive.
Moso smiled. I’m actually up. It’s amazing what a few good bets will do. Told you there was nothing to worry about.
“You could have told me without the threat of a thug.”
You’re a hard person to talk to sometimes, said Moso.
“What do you want?”
This one’s been looking for us. Said something about a box.Moso yawned. Says there’s a job involved.
As if he knew he was being introduced, the Eclectun stepped forward and bowed. “Ati Bibango, it’s a pleasure to finally meet you.” He sucked at the top of his beak with his small tongue before talking again. “I must say that I thought someone with your reputation would be much easier to find.”
Tough to find a man who hides in the jungle, added Moso.
“Your associate, on the other hand, makes quite a scene,” said the Eclectun.
Moso smiled.
“Who is it?” Wish’s father yelled from the back of the room.
Moso peeked around Wish and waved.
“Moso, you blasted monkey. You better not be taking my son back into the jungle without at least bringing me beer—”
Wish exited the doorway, closing the door behind him.
Moso laughed. Why can’t you have more of your father in you?
“Who are you?” Wish asked the Eclectun, once more ignoring his partner.
“Call me Wings, my master does anyways.”
“Your master?” said Wish.
“The man interested in the box you found in the jungle yesterday. The one who sent me to find you. Do you have any idea what you stumbled upon?”
Moso and Wish met eyes. The Chassa shrugged. Wish shook his head.
“Exactly as we suspected.” Wings sucked at the top of his mouth. “It is said that you are both resourceful people, capable of finding things.”
“I suppose one could say that,” said Wish.
“Exactly as we had hoped,” said Wings. “My master would like to speak with you further this morning. He has work for you.”
“What kind of work?”
“The finding things kind of work,” said the Eclectun.
Wish looked to Moso. Let’s see what they have to say.
“You assume I still want to take jobs with you.”
C’mon? Because of a little spat like that? I’m up. No more betting. Nothing else for you to worry about.
“I’ve heard that before.”
“Well?” said the Eclectun.
Wish looked at his partner, smiling carefree back at him. He wanted to punch that smile off his face, but kept his hands at his sides.
He sighed.“One moment.” He cracked open the door to his house. His father perked up at the sight of him. “I’ll be back.”
“Where are you going? The jungle again?” said his father.
“It’s about a job,” said Wish.
His father slumped back in his seat. “Don’t do anything foolish just because of a veiled threat, Ati. If you jump every time the Green Men talk, you’ll hop right out of Fangmora for good. But maybe that’s what you’ve always wanted.”
Wish went to close the door, but his father slapped his cane against the floor to regain his attention.
“I’m serious, Ati! You think you’re helping me, but do you have any idea what you’re doing? Do you have any idea how hard it is for a father to sit back and watch his son spend his blood to keep his old bones attached to his skin? You think you’re keeping me alive, but you’re killing me.”
Wish wanted to hear him, but couldn’t. What was he supposed to do, let his father die? What kind of son would he be? Wish shook his head. “Just stay put, and don’t answer the door unless it’s me.”
“Stay put? I am in our home, Ati.Where else would I go?”
Wish closed the door behind him, letting his father’s words chase him out.
They followed the Eclectun out of the Trough, through the Gold Row, and into the Chatter District, a bug market given the name because of the constant clicking, buzzing, and clacking of the millions of live insects sold across the hundreds of stalls that occupied the cluster of streets that made up the place.
Wish was thankful for the incessant din of the market. It allowed Moso and him to converse in private as the strange Eclectun waddled on ahead, his talons crunching the assortment of escaped beetles that scurried across the cobbled roadway. It allowed him to tell off his partner without showing a potential employer their discord.
“You do that to me again, and I’ll take your tail myself.”
Moso just kept smiling, as if he had heard the threat a thousand times before. There won’t be a next time, so there won’t be any reason for me to introduce you to Rogi.
Wish grunted, refusing to believe his lie. “Well, when there is a next time, you can go to Lavender’s on your own.”
Did you not hear what I said? There won’t be a next time. The smile left. His tail folded and twisted in quick, firm patterns, a sign of his seriousness.
Wish peered down at him. “You’re really up?”
Moso stared at the Eclectun ahead of them and nodded.
“You’re really done?”
Done, Moso’s tail flashed.
Wish had seen Moso say that before, but never with such conviction. Maybe his partner had finally learned his lesson. Maybe after all these years it had only taken the threat of losing another part of his body to make him finally step away from the pits and the beer and the brothels. Wish exhaled. “Then maybe after we hear what this bird’s master’s job is we can celebrate properly.” He said it half-heartedly. There would be no time for celebration with the Green Men breathing down their necks, yet still, it seemed the thing to offer to prevent his partner from slipping down his self-destructive slope again.
You mean with beer and betting?
Wish shook his head.
I am kidding. Moso wiped his nose. Maybe after we do their job we’ll have enough lunars to spare for some new boots.
He pointed down to their mud- and bur-ridden pieces of footwear. They had seen miles of travel through the dense jungleand incurred rips and bites from creatures waiting in the underbrush. They were long overdue for new boots, yet anytime lunars were earned they were spoken for. Between paying the taxes from the king and the Green Men, providing food for his father, and the occasional donation to Marli and his daughter… He doubted this job would give them any sum of moons that would change that status.
“Did he mention anything about payment?” said Wish as he stepped to avoid a Pangolian bug-monger chasing after a tarantula slowly making its way from its poorly made cage. The Green Men’s demand lingered in his thoughts.How would he raise seventy-five lunars in a week? Perhaps the Eclectun’s master was the serendipitous solution he needed.
Moso shook his head. Not a thing.
“How did you meet him?”
At Lavender’s. The great fire was peering through the windows. I had just put down my last beer and what do I see waiting on the other side of the mug, but him. Says he’s been looking for me. Looking for you. Says his master heard from Boz. Says he has a job. That’s all I needed to hear. They walked beneath a break in the market stalls where the light of the great fire blazed. Moso put his hand to his eyes and shrunk from it as if it were a monster.
“How much beer did you have?”
Moso made a rude gesture with his tail.
“That much, and you still had enough to pay off your debt with your winnings? You must have had some night.”
Better than yours I bet. You saw her, didn’t you?
Wish tried to look away, but he felt Moso tugging on his shirt.
Look at all these burs on you, he said as he pulled away a small seed stuck on his jerkin. They weren’t there yesterday. What did she say to make you go running to the jungle?
Wish chewed his
lip.
Or did she finally undo that robe again and scare you off with those—
“She still won’t admit that she’s mine.”
The baby?
Wish nodded.
Don’t blame her.
“What does that mean?”
Moso licked his hand and ran it through the fur atop his head. You spend more time in the jungle than you do in a proper bed. You run to it like a child anytime you get spooked or anxious or unsure. You’re about as pleasant as a mating broadback and wound tighter than a snake on a tree. No offense, my friend, but you’re not exactly father material. And if she tells you that it’s yours, then she’s stuck with you, a jungle-diver trying to cut his way through to her daughter’s heart like he would an overgrown trail in the bush.Not to mention one who could barely scrounge up enough crescents to keep plina on their table. She’s from the streets, yes? She wants security. She wants safety. And she’s not going to find it in a man who scrapes the forest floor for money. Who wants that for their child? Not even a religious trit like her. My advice? Take a hint and move on. I know plenty of women who would happily wet your member or play daughter without all the stuff that comes with it.
Wish knew he was right. He didn’t do well behind walls, nor did he do well with the interactions that took place between them. He was no figure worth emulating, no person to count on. But that didn’t mean he couldn’t be that.
For a brief moment in time, Marli had shown him what it was like to have a life like the countless others he had seen living within the walls of Fangmora. In those few weeks where she had seduced him, tricked him into thinking that she wanted something more than just his baby in her belly. Those weeks where they walked beneath the old patter trees, needles falling like strange golden rain onto their heads, as they talked and explored each other in ways Wish never knew were possible with another being. It was a short time, but in it she showed him what it was like to do things other than pillage the jungle and scrape up moons, what it was like to share things, what it was like to feel safe, a feeling he only felt in the jungle anymore, as strange as it was to say. And in that time he finally felt like something other than a jungle-diver. Something besides an outcast. Something like a true member of society. A person capable of being a lover, a husband, and a father.
But that was all thrown away when she retreated to her church, and he found out the truth of her purpose with him only a year later when he saw her walking amongst the Gold Row, child in hand.
Since then he had gone to her, trying find that elusive person she had once made him, only to return to the jungle more often than not, and find its welcoming comfort as it accepted him for who he was and not what he wanted to be. But even still, he knew he could still be that, if she would just be willing to give him a chance.
Just say the word, and I’ll have someone in your hands in an hour ready to make you forget all about them, signed Moso, taking Wish from his thoughts.
“I’ll pass,” said Wish.“Besides, I’d rather not be anywhere your doka has already touched, which I am sure it has with all these women you could find.”
Moso smiled. What do you want from me? I like exploring. I’m a jungle-diver, remember?
“You’re a fool who’s going to get his tail tacked one day if you’re not careful.”
Moso’s smile left. Maybe one day you’ll be right, my friend. I just hope you won’t be.
At last the Eclectun stopped at the edge of the Chatter District in front of a small hut erected next to a stand peddling full hives of juice wasps, insects with an abdomen full of sweet, syrupy liquid that could be sucked out once the stinger had been removed.The buzz of the creatures was so loud that it was difficult to hear when the Eclectun stopped and said, “We’re here.”
Wish looked at the hut with surprise. Its black mud walls and its roof, a loose weave of snaghairs, gave the place a poor look, as if it belonged with the rest of the houses in the Trough and not near some mid-city market. It was a wonder that its occupant could afford an assistant. His dream of a big job with a big payday was quickly dwindling.
The Eclectun pushed aside the door and revealed a poorly lit stairwell leading deeper into the ground, a strange piece of architecture unlike any place Wish had ever seen in Fangmora. He and Moso exchanged a look.
“My master has hobbies that require low natural light,” said Wings before entering the hut.
“What did you get us into?” said Wish.
Me?said Moso. It’s your damn box that this is all about. Besides, I am okay with the lack of light at the moment. He rubbed his forehead.
They followed the Eclectun into the hut. The warm, dry air of the outside was quickly replaced with a cooler, damp atmosphere. A sweet smell met Wish’s nose, one that reminded him of crushed froogoo fruits. When the door swung closed behind them, darkness momentarily enveloped them before a soft purple glow at the bottom of the stairs replaced it.The Eclectun stopped there, and brought one of the lights to his finger.
It was a beetle the likes of which Wish had never seen before. It had large, serrated wings, and markings that looked like those of a dagger. Its thorax glowed purple, shedding a light strong enough to fill the rest of the stairwell.
Wings waved them to his side. Once there they saw the reason for the structure’s subterranean construction.
Night plants.
A species of plant that thrived only in the dark. Countless examples of the vegetation hung or grew or lay in rows across the chamber. Wish could tell what they were by the dark veins that pulsed in their stalks and the even darker petals of their flowers. The various species coiled over rafters or rose up from pots, forming a small jungle for the hundreds of glowing beetles that flew about, casting their strange light like amethysts come to life.Only the small rows that separated the plants allowed for any movement in that room.And at the end of the closest one, plucking black fruits from a tree with leaves as dark as night, was a shirtless human man, a pair of beetles perched on his shoulder.
“Master,” said Wings, and the man turned, revealing sunken eyes and ears pierced ten times over, each shining with a jewel, a cornucopia of wealth studded in his lobes. He nodded at the sight of them, as if their arrival was always expected and long overdue, and walked forward, the basket of black fruits swinging in his arms.
“Wish Bibango. Moso Orini.”He bowed to each of them as he spoke their names.He produced two of the black, round fruits from the basket. “A star blossom to bid you welcome?”
Moso grabbed the fruit without hesitation. Wish eyed it suspiciously, having never eaten anything grown from a night plant.
“You live up to your reputation as a man of the jungle to hesitate in eating an unfamiliar fruit, but I assure you it is not poisonous. Only an offering of good faith in hopes of a business opportunity to come.”
Tastes like sweet bark, said Moso.
Wish took the fruit, but did not bite it. “And you are?”
“Call me Dargu.Most people find that easier to pronounce than my full name, anyway.”
“What do you do...here?” said Wish, admiring one of the nearby night plants.
“I am a botamancer with a specialty in night plants, as you can see. I find this place, with little hope of light, to be suitable for their cultivation.”
I thought night plants often feed on living things? said Moso. He must be a fool to trust these.
“What did he say?” said Dargu.
“He said that he thought night plants only fed on living things,” said Wish.
“He’s right,” said Dargu. “And I am fortunate enough to be in good enough graces where they’ll refrain from attacking whoever I say.”
“Your skills must be strong,” said Wish.
Dargu shrugged.
“Your assistant tells me you’ve interest in the box I brought to Boz,” said Wish.
Dargu smiled. “Batting aside the pleasantries in honor of business—I appreciate it.”
“I find myself short on time
and in high need of work at the moment,” said Wish.
Moso’s brow furrowed with confusion.What happened? You place a few bets last night without me looking?
Wish ignored him.
“I think our desires will align nicely,” said Dargu, and he waved them to follow him into the plant-made row in the room. They did, turning sideways to avoid the overgrown leaves and stalks from the night plants. Wish was surprised at how long the room was, and how many plants grew within it, both things he could not see directly when they’d first entered. It seemed that every step they took deeper into Dargu’s chamber revealed some new swath of vegetation. Plants with leaves that were shaped like claws, vines that expanded and contracted upon the rafters they hung from as if they were breathing, dwarf trees with sections of bark that protruded like spearheads... everywhere Wish looked was some new spectacle that he had never encountered throughout his countless years within the jungle.
It made him feel humbled, in awe of the forest’s unfathomable ability to generate life and his inability to even know a fraction of it. For a brief moment it made him forget his troubles and his purpose for being in that room. For a brief moment he felt safe
When they reached the back of the room the garden stopped in favor of a small study.A desk of dark wood rose from the corner, and upon it was a jar of the glowing beetles that fluttered about the room and a potted plant with flowers whose white spots looked like open eyes. But at the desk’s center was the box Wish had found in the trogi’s den, open, the scrap of paper on display. Dargu stood before it, running his finger over the edge of the box.
“Do you know what this box is?” said Dargu.
Wish shook his head. “I was hoping you could tell me that.”
Dargu and Wings exchanged a glance. “Does the name Tabari Tree-Song mean anything to you?”
Wish shook his head, but Moso intervened, surprisingly.
Tabari Amisi Tree-Song, the greatest botamancer in all the Time of Twenty. She was responsible for convincing the jungle that once grew where Fangmora now stands into moving aside.
“How do you know that?”