Garan holds my gaze for several beats. An impish smirk plays across his features. “Riiight.” I feel the blush of my cheeks spreading down my neck and watch as his smirk spreads to a full-blown grin. He looks from me to Reyna then back to me again. His brow lifts, his eyes widening. He looks as if he’s fairly bursting to tease me and refraining from doing so is almost more than he can bear. I shoot him a look of warning, pleading with eyes that feel like they’re boiling to keep his comments to himself. He winks. “Well, I’ll leave you to get ready. Be back soon.” He turns and leaves us.
I close the door, thankful for the few seconds it affords me to compose myself. After, I walk to the side of my bed and pick up my sheath. I return my sword to it. “I guess we’re seeing Sinsity today.”
“It should be interesting. Given what we saw as soon as we got here, I’m thinking it’s gonna be very interesting,” Pike says.
“I agree,” Ara says.
“No argument here.” Reyna’s lowered sword rests with the tip of its razor-sharp blade in the carpet. She holds the hilt with one hand while her other hand is raised at chest-height, her palm facing out.
“Think it’ll be like that? I mean, do you think the guys fighting and one of them getting killed and people stepping over his dead body is how it’s gonna be?” Pike asks me.
I consider his question. I have no real way of answering him. I simply don’t have a real answer. “I hope not,” I hear myself say. Instinct whispers through me, breathing in my ear that blood and fighting will be commonplace in Sinsity. “Ara, why don’t you get ready first…since you love the bathroom so much?” The idea of washing up in that cramped little room makes my pulse speed up
“Really? I can?” Ara drops her bow and arrow on the bed. She clasps her hands in front of her chest.
“Yes, of course.” I can’t help but chuckle at her excitement. “Go.” I notch my chin toward the bathroom. “Don’t be too long, though. We all need to clean up before Garan comes back.”
“No problem. I won’t be long at all.” Ara disappears inside the bathroom. True to her word, she is quick. All of us are. Especially me. We manage to freshen up and are ready when another knock sounds at our door.
“Don’t hack my head off, please. It’s me,” Garan’s voice echoes from the other side of the door.
“What? What the heck are you talking about?” I hear Xan ask.
“Never mind,” Garan says as I open the door.
“This guy is weird,” Xan says and gestures with a nod of his head toward Garan as he brushes past me and walks into our room. “And not just because he’s an Urthman with a pile of hair that looks like snakes and fights on the side of humans.”
“Hello to you, too,” Ara laughs and says.
Xan softens as he always does with Ara. Smiling, he says, “Oh, sorry. Hello,” and sounds like a boy whose mother reminded him to mind his manners.
“That’s more like it.” Ara folds her arms across her chest and nods. She smiles, satisfied.
Micah say, “Hello, Ara.” Then to us, he offers a general wave.
“How’d everybody sleep?” The low-pitch of Kai’s voice fills the room. “I slept like I was dead.”
“Yeah, too bad sleeping like you were dead included passing gas like a living man who feasted on onion roots the night before.” Xan fans his hand in front of his face and scrunches his features.
Ara’s hand is clapped over her mouth. She’s trying desperately to smother a fit of laughter. Her face is crimson and her eyes tear. Reyna looks away, silent giggles making her body shudder. Pike smiles, about to laugh.
Kai shrugs with his hands out to his sides, a big smile lighting up his features and lending his looks a boyish appearance.
“It was gross, man. Truly gross.” Micah pats Kai’s massive upper arm. “Right Aaron?”
Aaron looks like a deer the way he halts, his eyes widening and his expression going blank. “I’m not a light sleeper like you two are so I didn’t hear whatever you guys say woke you.”
Micah tilts his head to one side, studying Aarons face. Aaron doesn’t flinch.
“Only a dead person wouldn’t have heard it, Aaron. Sorry, I think you’re full of whatever was coming out of Kai last night.”
Uncontrollable laughter explodes. Not one among us is able to contain it. Xan and Micah are doubled over, howling. After several minutes, the laughter dies down. Everyone wipes his or her eyes and is red-faced. “Oh man,” Xan gasps. “Are we ready to go?” he asks as a final few giggles seep from him.
“Yeah, we’re ready,” I reply.
“Let’s go then. Lead the way, Garan,” Xan sweeps his hand toward Garan and the door. All of us file out into the hallway, down the staircase and out the front door. Once on the pavement, the heat of the day grips us unexpectedly. Intense and identical to that which we experienced on the desert sand, the sun is inescapable, blistering from overhead. It takes several moments for my eyes to adjust. In that time, I’m jostled by people who walk in all directions, all so intent upon reaching a destination they’ll shove whoever’s in their path out of their way. In this case, that person is me.
“Come on, Lucas.” Xan yanks my arm and pulls me back to the group. “No time to search for your girlfriend now.” Everyone laughs and we continue along. On either side of us, large buildings sag in dilapidation. The smaller ones on the street are in far better shape and appear to be restored.
Garan takes his eyes off the oncoming pedestrians long enough to follow my line of sight. He taps my arms. “Those tall buildings you’re looking at used to be everywhere. Some are still standing, as you can see, but once upon a time, that’s all that lined this strip.” Wonder touches his words. “Hard to imagine, huh? When you look at them as they are now?”
I see an array of different colored structures. Chunks of debris are littered around them and broken windows give lifeless eyes to the macabre faces of the buildings. “It is,” I reply.
“None of them are safe to enter.” He points to the smaller buildings on the road. “Any of the stores and restaurants you see on the street here have been rebuilt. The only original structure that still stands and is functional is that.” Garan points in the distance to an enormous building. Rising from the earth and as black as night against the desert sand, the massive structure has outside walls in the form of four triangles that meet at the top. Darker than any other building and so tall that it looms, dwarfing all others, everything about it is intimidating. It stands out among an otherwise pale landscape, the apex of the pyramid rising, piercing the azure sky and looking as if it grazes the clouds…if there were any clouds in the sky.
“Whoa, what’s that? What’s in there?” I ask. “It’s as big as a mountain.”
“That’s where Volac lives. He and his guards. That’s his palace,” Garan replies.
“Can we go there? I’d love to see the inside of that place.” Ara’s green eyes sparkle with wonder and curiosity.
“No,” Garan replies quickly.
I watch as the light in my sister’s eyes fades as quickly as it appeared. The sadness left behind annoys me. “Why?” I ask more heatedly than I planned.
“We’d be killed on sight.” Garan reports this information as if he’s reporting to us that we’ll have rabbit for dinner tonight.
“Again, why? Why would we be killed on sight?” I demand.
Garan whirls on me. “Because Volac is the ruler of Sinsity and we are no one.”
“We are no one?” Pike asks. I catch the thick layer of sarcasm added to his words.
“Not in his eyes. Or in the eyes of his guards.” Garan splays his hands to his sides. “Or anyone’s eyes really. I could drop dead right here and the only thing that’d happen is my corpse would get trampled to shreds by the day’s end.”
He’s right, of course. I saw that for myself as soon as we arrived.
“Come on, there’s more to see than that.” He gestures with a nod of his head toward the pyramid. He leads our group down
the street, exemplifying how to bob and weave through the throngs of people pressing in every direction. He shows us where we can buy food, trade goods and find a companion for the night, if we’re so inclined to do so. The angle of the sun has lowered significantly when he stops at a cart. Steam billows from it, carrying on it the rich scent of meat and spices and another scent I cannot place. He stops and orders nine items to which he refers as hamburgers. Wrapped in a silver, shiny swath of material that I’m told I can throw away, the hamburger is handed to me. “You’re gonna like this, trust me.” Garan smiles then retrieves a wad of rectangular-shaped papers from the small pack at his waist. He hands several of the bills to the man who sells food from the cart.
“What is that?” I point the papers he surrenders.
“It’s Sinsity currency.” Garan thanks the man and turns toward me, holding his wrapped hamburger.
“Where’d you get it?” I ask.
“I cashed in a gold piece for it while all of you were still sleeping.” He looks directly at Ara, trying to spark a reaction from her. But she’s not paying attention to him. Not in the least. She’s already opened the wrapper and has taken a bite of her burger.
“Oh my gosh,” she mumbles with a full mouth. “This is soooo good.”
Garan laughs. “Oh I know.”
My stomach growls and my mouth waters at the smell wafting through the wrapping. Watching Ara’s face and hearing her carry on causes me to tear the shiny material from the hamburger and lift it to my lips. Sandwiched between two tan pieces of circular food I’ve never seen before, there’s a patty of meat, some sliced vegetables and a red sauce of some sort. I sink my teeth into it and immediately understand what caused all the fuss with Ara. Several flavors merge to form a perfect blend. Sweet, savory and tangy fuse. “This is…” I try to chew faster but don’t want to rush the experience. “Amazing,” I finally say.
Oohs and ahhs seep from Pike, Reyna, Xan, Micah, Kai and Aaron.
“What’s the tan stuff on the top and bottom?” Xan asks. “It’s kind of sweet.”
“That’s bread,” Garan answers while chewing.
“Well then, I love bread.” Xan bobs his head and chews, doing both with vigor and enthusiasm.
We finish the rest of our exotic treat in silence. I’m saddened when I take my final bite, finishing the hamburger and licking the thick, red sauce that dripped from it off of my fingers. Bellies full and sluggish from such a rich meal, I’m grateful when we begin walking again. We continue along but stop when we see the masses clearing out of the street. People scurry, darting to the side of the road with purpose rather than the aimless race to some unknown destination I now associate with Sinsity. “What’s all this about?” I ask, alarmed. But before Garan can answer, a large vehicle comes into view. Flanked on both sides by roughly two dozen two-wheel motorized vehicles, the truck has an open back that’s a flat platform. It rolls down the road slowly.
“That’s Volac and his guards,” Garan tells me.
A hush befalls the street. It’s as if the buzz of Sinsity has been temporarily silenced, replaced by the whine of engines and crunch of tires moving over pebbles on the asphalt. As the vehicle passes, droves of people drop to one knee, bowing their heads in reverence. Not a single man or Urthman among them remains standing.
“Are they bowing?” Xan stares, studying the people. “They are!”
“Lower your voice,” Ara warns, but I can tell she’s unsure why, exactly, we need to lower our voices.
“I bow for no man. Or Urthman.” Xan plants his feet and folds his arms across his chest.
“I’m sure you bowed for the Prince when you fought in the arena and you’ll bow now for the same reason: you want to live.” Garan’s words are urgent. They’re not a warning. They’re a plea.
I look at him, the question, “Really? We have to bow?” dying on my lips before it’s spoken. I see the answer in his eyes. I heard it already in his stressed tone. Reluctantly, I lower one knee to the hard pavement. The convoy draws closer, and as they do, the men on the two-wheeled vehicles, as well as the leader, Volac, come into focus. Bare-chested and heads shaved smooth, each of them has drawings covering their flesh. Dark and elaborately scrawled, I can’t make out what the drawing are. Regardless, I’ve never seen anything like it in my life and the sight of it unsettles me.
“Lower your head. They’re just about here,” Garan whispers to me out of the side of his mouth.
I do as he says but peek, lifting just my eyes not my head at first, and see Volac. Perched on the platform at the rear of the truck, he’s likely the tallest man I’ve ever laid eyes on. Marred with the same drawings the other men bear, his exposed skin is covered. His head is smooth, so smooth the sun glints off of it. Strange metal rings loop through his eyebrows, nose, lower lip and ears, quivering and reflecting the intense light of the day. Scantily-clad women surround him on all sides. Each of them is on her knees, heads of dark hair bowed, their demeanor even more submissive than that of the crowd on the street.
“Who’re the women?” I risk asking Garan.
“His wives,” Garan replies without looking at me.
“All of them?” I as incredulously.
“All of them,” Garan says.
“Really? There’s about ten of them,”Reyna whispers, her voice a bit too loud. Several dirty looks come our way.
Garan brings his index finger to his lips to quiet any more questions. Volac and his men are passing us, so close I can smell the sweat of the men driving alongside his vehicle. I lower my head, trying to keep my eyes cast to the pavement below as the group creeps by. But it’s a challenge. I keep straining to look up through my eyelashes. My view is obscured and minimal, at best, so I chance a glance. Lifting my chin, I gaze upward and am met with a glacial stare. Eyes so pale they appear gray are trained in my direction. While it appears as though Volac is looking right at me, I don’t feel the press of his eyes. I realize immediately that it’s not me he’s watching but Reyna beside me. Sensing it, she shifts her weight and looks up. And when she does, her gaze clashes with his. His eyes widen, an unreadable expression lighting his face as a sly smile lifts one corner of his mouth. The movement is almost imperceptible. I doubt anyone sees it. But I do. It sends alarm streaking through my body like quicksilver. That feeling multiplies tenfold when Volac continues to watch her, looking over his shoulder even after his caravan passes. Unnerved, I barely notice that everyone around me is standing. Volac and his men grow distant before disappearing altogether. I clamber to my feet. Garan is at my side. He looks directly into my eyes. “Now you understand why I told you that you couldn’t come here and tell the people of Sinsity to rise against the Urthmen, that you can’t tell them anything.” He scans the crowd, which moves once again at a frantic pace. “The only way to survive here is to lay low and keep your mouth shut.”
I nod in understanding. Seeing the reaction Volac garnered, as well as the general disinterest of the people of Sinsity in anything but themselves and their leader, I can’t imagine they’d ever rally against the Urthmen. Nevertheless, what just transpired leaves me uneasy. And I’m not alone in feeling this way. A sudden shiver makes Reyna shudder as if a spine-chilling sensation has just made her blood run cold. She wraps her arms around her waist, hugging them tight despite the draining desert heat radiating off everything around us. She looks over her shoulder, her ice-blue eyes haunted. Her expression traps the air in my lungs. Instinctively, I know I won’t be able to keep my head low and my mouth shut against anything or anyone who evokes such a response from Reyna. Even Volac.
Chapter 13
Clouds are tongues of fire lapping at the sky from the setting sun. They sky is ablaze, a palette of blood orange and gold flames that glow like hellfire.
“Look.” Xan points skyward. “It gets so hot here the sky explodes at night.” He grins, revealing teeth that have a wad of green stuck between the front two from lunch.
“I know, right?” Ara says. “I didn’t know
a place could be so hot. It’s a different heat than the forest, though.”
“Yeah. The air isn’t as damp here,” Pike adds.
“You’re right. It isn’t damp here at all. The air is dry. The desert has dry heat.” Aaron doesn’t look at Ara and Pike, even though his comments were for them. His eyes are glued to the sky. “Huh, it’s such a beautiful phenomenon.” He comments more to himself than anyone else.
“A beautiful phenome-what?” Xan stares at Aaron, one eye brow raised in confusion.
Aaron chuckles. “What’s happening in the sky right now…it’s beautiful.” He drops his gaze to Xan and smiles then resumes staring heavenward. “The way the shadows are deeper in some parts and outline the clouds in others really makes it look like the sky did explode, like you said.”
Puffing his chest out proudly, Xan folds his arms across his muscular chest. “It does right?” His words seek Aaron’s approval.
Knowledgeable about a broad range of topics, Aaron is far more humble than I originally thought. “Absolutely. It’s really the only way to describe what I’m looking at. Or the best way, at least.”
Aaron’s remark sends Xan’s spirits soaring. “Huh.” He smiles broadly and rubs his chin with one hand. He looks down and mumbles to himself, “The best way,” his smile widening further.
“It was so hot today. It’s a little cooler now, thankfully,” Ara says. “I don’t know about any of you, but my feet are throbbing.”
“Mine feel like they have their own heartbeat. A smelly, fast heartbeat.” Micah frowns and shakes his head. Ara giggles. Micah shrugs. “It’s the truth. Inside my boots is a funky mess.”
Ara throws her head back laughing. She looks like a little kid when she does. I can’t help but smile and laugh along with her.
“We’ve walked all day,” Garan says. “And thanks for the heads-up, Micah. I’ll be sure to be nowhere near you when you take your shoes off.”
“Good call, man.” Micah nods, his expression so serious it causes another round of laughter.
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