Chapter 4
Sunlight flooded the streets around Nokim, Lissir, Vergis, and me.
It was warm out; much warmer than it had been in Ireland, where it had been a pleasantly warm May.
Here, it felt like that hottest part of summer when you leave the windows open at night and spend your days in search of ice cream and cold drinks.
Of course, if the honk roar week happened after harvest, that made sense.
While we were nowhere near the market where the celebration was centered—or at least where all the foodstuffs were, as Nokim had been somewhat crestfallen to realize—I still couldn’t stop looking at everything around us.
It started with the houses. Most of them looked like they’d been built from wood.
Two stories seemed like the average, but some were taller.
Many had balconies that ran all the way around the second floor, though at least in this part of the city, I didn’t see too many gardens.
Houses stood close to their neighbors, and at most, small trees or bushes grew from pots set right next to low walls or fences.
The roofs curved slightly, reminding me of Chinese or Japanese architecture, though some houses had colorful rows of tiles that seemed entirely an Aer thing.
Then there were the people. I noticed the abundance of horns, obviously, but people kept them a lot more colorful than my guys, and I leaned over to ask Lissir about that.
“That bagu there, with the red rings around his horns. Are those normal?”
Lissir followed my line of sight. “Normal for some. It’s makeup.”
“Ahh.” That was fascinating and made me try to pick out who was putting makeup on their horns and who wasn’t. I looked at Lissir, Nokim, and Vergis. “You guys don’t use makeup. Or do you?”
Vergis snorted.
“I do sometimes,” Nokim said. “But I’m not good at it.”
Lissir clicked. “Which is why I keep telling you I can help you with it.” He turned to me. “Raikengana are supposed to stick to a dress code. No makeup unless you are attending a social event or need to blend in for some reason.”
“Ah. Is that because that Raiken thing is, like, a political entity? Or because it works like a school? I mean, my school had uniforms too.”
“Nepo baby,” Vergis said.
I blushed. “Well, I didn’t get a say what school I went to, okay? I mean, I got to choose the one with the good arts program, but there was never a question about me attending a private one. That was my parents’ decision though.”
Not that I owed him the explanation. Mostly, I figured my parents wanted me somewhere where they wouldn’t really be bothered, or where they could just make a donation in case they ever felt bothered. It had worked out okay for them.
“What’s a nepo baby?” Lissir asked, and Nokim looked just as curious.
I wanted to kick Vergis, but I knew he had knives. “Uh, I’ll tell you later. But about that makeup rule, is it like that?”
Lissir tapped his chin. “In a way. But maybe also not. Raikengana are supposed to be helpful to the people. When you approach a Raikenga, you’re supposed to see the Raiken as a whole and not the individual Raikenga.”
Was that like the military or the police? I wasn’t sure. I wanted to learn more about how the bagua did things, but out here in the streets, I couldn’t concentrate on all the questions that were forming in my head. I was beginning to see more and more of the people all around us.
Apart from the makeup, there were also distinctions in terms of clothing. Compared to Earth, the clothes people wore here seemed more elaborate and just generally more high-end, even to someone who’d had the spending money to go for all the trendy brands before the apocalypse.
I could kind of excuse Earth people not dressing as nice, what with the apocalypse being really bad for the fashion industry, but even so, athleisure or grunge didn’t seem to exist here, not even distant relatives of those particular fashions.
People here wore flowy layers of fabric that wound around their bodies or formed elaborate designs that hinted at complicated sewing techniques.
Many bagua wore something reminiscent of skirts or culottes.
All in all, they just knew how to dress, whether it was understated or more in your face. I admired that.
Next to me, Vergis heaved a sigh. “Why am I here, Lissir? You don’t need me to play dress-up with him.”
He didn’t point at me, but he glared. Okay. I had thought we’d bonded over the orange spider thing, but clearly that had been my mistake.
“You are here because I am determined to enjoy your company, Vergis.” Lissir had some serious masochistic tendencies, not that I was going to hold that against him.
We were making our way through the streets, wide thoroughfares with lots of food traffic, and Lissir kept a firm hold on my right wrist while Nokim was on my left. Vergis was on Lissir’s other side, the three of them basically shielding me and making sure I wouldn’t get lost.
Just like I was looking at everything and everyone around me, the people here were giving me curious looks. They weren’t staring like I had a second head or anything though, and no one seemed to be talking about me.
That made me wonder whether news about me had spread. Then again, my guys arriving here with bloody and torn clothes might’ve caused more of a scene than little old me. If anyone had reason to talk, it was probably about them and what had happened to them.
I didn’t want to think too much about what state they had arrived in though, didn’t want to think about what had happened back at the Stone.
“What’s this city called?” I asked.
“Esaka,” Nokim said. “It’s not really that big, but the, uhm… Vergis—” He said something in LaGuardia.
Vergis glanced my way. “Moors. There are moors here. Beyond the wall. The city itself is partially built on moorland too.”
Nokim brightened. “Ah! Yes, there are moors here, and they’re said to be haunted.”
“Which is bullshit,” Vergis said.
Nokim looked over at Vergis, who was walking with his hands behind his back, looking bored.
“I saw a ghost once. When we were crossing the border near here,” Nokim said.
I wasn’t sure I needed ghosts on top of everything else, but the border sounded interesting. “What border? Border with where?”
Lissir clicked pointedly. “To Kankarraz. It’s where the Koa Esher rule.”
“Huh?” I stopped looking at the people, whose skin tones, I’d realized, were in a darker blue and teal range, like Vergis and Fellisse. “You mean we’re right next to a country full of crazy, inbred assholes? Pardon the French.”
Vergis chuckled. “Finally cursing where it’s needed, little human.”
“I am not little.” Compared to them, I maybe was, but relatively speaking, I was pretty sure I was normal-person tall.
A small bagu rudely—or maybe just curiously—interrupted Vergis being Vergis.
The bagu kid was around waist height on me, and his horns were still stubby.
He came to a stop right in front of me all of a sudden, as quiet about making his approach as my guys.
Darn those sneaky cat feet. He sucked on his bottom lip as if lost in thought before turning to Lissir and saying something in LaGuardia.
The conversation between them went on for a few beats, then Lissir leaned down and grinned at the kid before he looked at me.
“This is Sonyo, and he wants to know whether he can look at your head. He finds it strange that a grown person has no horns. He can’t really believe it and wants to make sure. ”
A pair of huge periwinkle eyes with slitted pupils stared up at me. He looked as hopeful as any kid in a theme park would about getting to hug or talk to their favorite character. It was kind of adorable.
“Uhm, sure.” I squatted and ran my free hand through my hair to show the little bagu. He said something that started with a long oooh, so my hornless humanness seemed to be thoroughly impressive.
Nokim and Vergis began laughing.
“Sonyo says your head must feel very light,” Lissir translated. “That usually means someone daydreams more than they should.”
I stood back up. “Well, I can’t say he’s totally wrong on that count.
I mean, I thought about Ink ravishing me almost from the moment he decapitated a monster to save me.
” Oops. I hadn’t meant to say that, much less in front of a kid.
My cheeks heated. “Erm, I mean…” Not that my voice was very audible over Vergis’s laughter.
His laughter faded to a chuckle. “Sharing your sexy daydreams with everyone who didn’t ask for them, are you?”
“Ah, I… Sorry.”
Another bagu made a beeline for us, clearly coming after wide-eyed Sonyo, who looked back and forth between the four of us. I hoped he was awed and intrigued rather than scared of the hornless human.
The new bagu was maybe a head smaller than me, and his horns weren’t quite the impressively curving variety that most the older bagua sported, but they were getting there.
He inclined his head to Lissir and the others and put his hands on Sonyo’s shoulders.
He was the smaller bagu’s minder, a bigger brother maybe, although Sonyo was much darker in coloring than this teenage bagu.
They were both wearing similar copper-colored clothing though.
After some more talking in LaGuardia, the two of them left, and Sonyo waved to me as he went, a big smile on his face.
“They were both Raikenga,” Nokim said to me, then to Lissir, “Do you remember when we were that young?”
“Wait. That school place you all attended is near here?” I asked. “Near where the cola—Koa Esher come from?”
Lissir tugged on my wrist, and we walked on.
“There are several Raiken, not just one. There is one here, though we didn’t start here.
You don’t need to be scared of the Koa Esher.
There are many fully trained protectors stationed at Esaka’s Raiken because it’s so close to the border.
Also, while the moor is pretty on this side of the border, it is far more treacherous beyond the walls—”
“And more haunted!” Nokim chimed in.
Lissir sighed. “And more haunted on the other side of the border. Esaka’s city wall is old and strong, and has been built with magic that helps keep everyone safe. There is nothing to be afraid of here.”
Vergis clicked his tongue. “I almost forgot about the wall. Esaka’s pretty well known for its wall, right? Wasn’t the Esaka Raiken a koto-sa-ko before?”
Nokim nodded. “Yes. You know your Aer history well, Vergis.”
“Thanks. So do you.” Vergis’s tone was flat.
Lissir sighed. “Oh, stop this. Nokim doesn’t mean to offend you, and you know it. You’re right about the Raiken. It was a koto-sa-ko before, and there will at least be one mage stationed there to periodically check on the wall. Why do you ask?”
Vergis narrowed his eyes at me. “It means they have a library with ko texts left, if we’re lucky. If we’re very lucky, there might be something in there about whatever the hell this weird twink-magic of Rory’s is.”
“Neither a twink nor magic,” I mumbled. “Well, maybe magic. I don’t know.
How about we just forget about this whole magic business and never go back to the Stone of Destiny?
Wouldn’t that work for everyone? Then it doesn’t matter what magic I have or don’t have because no one can use it ever again, right? ”
Lissir clicked. “It works well enough for the next two to three hours, because we have other matters to attend to.” He turned a corner into a much narrower street cast in shadows thanks to the tall buildings on either side.
He stopped in front of one with a door that had a sign with LaGuardia writing mounted right above it and slid it open.
“Works for as long as it takes to get you two dressed nicely.”
I tried to stop, but Lissir pulled me across the threshold into an ocean of colors and fabrics.
They hung on the walls and on clotheslines.
Tailored shirts and pants, belts, and even shoes were set out on display shelves not too dissimilar from the ones in the department store where I’d first met Inkiri.
There was even a mannequin here, except this one had horns and was taller, though somewhat narrow in the shoulders, especially compared to Inkiri and Fellisse.
“Two to three hours?” I asked in a small voice when two bagua turned their attention to us in a salesperson-like way that was clearly universal.
They wore delicate-looking clothes that consisted of many layers, and both wore horn makeup—sunflower yellow and cherry, respectively—to match their clothes.
“Us two?” Vergis crossed his arms. “I didn’t sign up for this.”
Lissir turned on Vergis and grabbed his horn like he had done back at the house. “I got shot at. I bled. I nearly died. You will give me this, Vergis.” He wasn’t even overacting like I might’ve been. His delivery was flawless. He turned to me without letting go of Vergis’s horn. “Won’t you?”
“Yes!” Nokim said and clapped his hands excitedly.
I shrugged, not sure what I was getting myself into. “Sure.”
“Say that you promise.” Lissir’s coal-bright eyes twinkled.
Vergis hissed. “Let go of me already, dammit!” One of the salespeople, the one in sunflower colors, was cautiously advancing.
I lifted my chin. “Uhm, I promise.”
Vergis bit out a litany of sailor-worthy curses, before he, too, caved. “Fine, you overgrown ox, I promise.”
Satisfied, Lissir let go of Vergis’s horn. “Wonderful! You both make me so happy!”
He smiled at the salesperson, and they smiled back in a way that told me I was in for the kind of costume fitting I wasn’t going to enjoy.