Chapter 9
After our encounter with Sonyo, Inkiri said he wanted a quick word with Hove and led me to what would be the administrative wing in an Earth building. We went into a room at the end of a more ornate corridor. It was an open-concept office with connecting doors to other offices in the back.
There were several desks, and a few bagua—Raikengana—in black and taupe who appeared very busy with their individual tasks.
I couldn’t begin to understand what all the tasks that were being completed here were.
Some Raikengana noticed me and gave me polite nods that I did my best to return.
I was still sort of worried they’d throw rotten eggs at me or cuss at me since the attack on Esaka had happened because of me, but none of them seemed to see it that way.
I spotted Hove at his desk, which was just like everyone else’s.
On one side of the room, by a wall with a window, a large table held plenty of maps and piles of documents. It reminded me of scenes in movies where people planned out troop movements over a map table and moved little figures around to make it easier to understand what was happening.
I didn’t see any of that here, but with Esaka being a border town and with the Koa Esher crossing that border for attacks, this was probably a normal part of their job here.
Inkiri steered me to the opposite side of the room. A bagu at a desk there looked up from his paperwork, and he and Inkiri exchanged a few words.
“Sadir, will you wait a moment? You can relax here.”
He tugged me along by my wrist to a low table by the window behind the bagu’s desk. Floor cushions were laid out around it, and Inkiri being Inkiri piled three one atop the other before he decided it was good enough for me.
“I’m fine, really.” I sank down on the cushions while Inkiri clicked.
“Yes, and Gesango said to make sure you rest, and rest comfortably. Here, have some of these.” He pulled a plate of vinné that sat in the center of the table toward me. “You can have all of them. The Raiken makes them fresh every day.”
As if on cue, my stomach grumbled, and I picked out one of them. “Okay.”
My eyes widened when I realized this was a sweet version. There was a floral taste to them as well, and just like every vinné I’d had so far, I really liked them and was munching on a second before I knew it.
Inkiri looked as if he approved. “Good. I won’t be long.”
He left me munching away while the Raikengana in the room went about their work. I felt like I should be talking to them, saying hi at least, but Kinnek hadn’t taught me what to say in a situation like this, and I didn’t want to end up confusing anyone.
So vinné it was.
Inkiri went up to Hove’s desk and started talking to him.
I managed two good handfuls of vinné while I waited, and Inkiri clicked and kissed my wrist once he was done. We left the office, and Hove returned my wave of goodbye with his eyes crinkling in amusement.
“Where to now?” I asked once we were back to walking along the Raiken’s hallways.
“I thought the baths might be good.” Inkiri lifted a corner of my scarf. “These need to be washed, and a soak will be good for you.”
I looked around. “Okay. But if the doctors need me to help one of the survivors, are they going to know to find us there?”
Inkiri nodded. “Yes. I told Hove.”
A black-clad protector rounded the corner ahead of us, a pile of notebooks in hand. Inkiri stopped him, and they talked for a few moments. The protector bowed to me, then Inkiri, then continued on his way, his step quickening.
I looked after him. “What was that about?”
“He’ll let Lissir and the healer in charge know. We’re going to spend the night.”
“Oh, okay.” I wanted to ask why, but it made sense.
Lissir was busy, I might be able to use my magic to help someone, and maybe Inkiri was feeling just a little bit homesick.
Not that he ever seemed homesick. I liked it in Esaka, but I didn’t have a word for the urge to be in a place that was as far away from my home as it was possible to be.
At any rate, we made it to the baths.
I lost track of where exactly we were and wouldn’t have been able to make my way back to the hospital wing on my own—just one more reason to stick with Inkiri.
The baths of the Raiken were nothing like those at the hotel we’d been staying at. To get to them, we walked through a rectangular atrium with a walkway around it and a garden in the center.
I looked up at the sky above Esaka, mostly bright, but dotted with fluffy clouds. “What do you do if it rains? Or in winter?”
Inkiri slowed to let me look at the mossy garden landscape. “What do you mean?”
I gestured. “It gets cold, doesn’t it? You have to go past this to get to the baths to get your hot shower, and then you have to go back out here in the cold. I wouldn’t want to do that in winter.”
He chuckled. “There is another entrance, but this is prettier. It’s good to be outside, to let nature calm you before soaking. You don’t have to worry, sadir. I’ll keep you warm.”
I had no doubt.
We entered the baths through a sliding door, and it was indeed warm in here, and humid too. It was also very pretty, the walls whitewashed and painted in bright colors, sort of abstract florals and waves, with birds and fish that could have been made up or real Aer creatures.
The room was a bit like a changing room.
Those had always come with a sense of foreboding though, back when I’d been in school.
Here, that wasn’t really the case. Baskets were piled high on either side of the door, and there were also little cubby holes in the wall with Lugarran numerals on them.
They were there to store clothing, and some were already taken, though not many.
“This is big, huh?” I looked around and spun in place when I spotted several circular windows in the ceiling above us.
“The Raiken here is big. It used to be a koto-sa-ko a long time ago, a magic school. People came here to study from far and wide, as far away as Ogurra. Ogurra is… Hmm. Maybe like Russia or China in human stories of long-ago adventures. It’s very different.”
I tore my gaze away from the windows, my imagination going into overdrive.
“Do they have real dragons and strange creatures there? I mean, obviously that was just something travelers from the Middle Ages and before made up, but do you have that too? Stories like that? Or are you at war with them like you are with the Koa Esher?”
Inkiri clicked, then took two wooden markers off a hook before picking up a set of baskets.
“There are many old stories, yes. We aren’t at war with the Koa Esher in the sense that there has been a declaration or in the sense that we are trying to get territory from them.
They are aggressive and think the world is theirs.
They think all the hangua should be doing…
” He made a face. “They think hangua should accept that their lives are one assault after another, that they have no agency. I’m sorry, sweet thing. ”
I came up to him and laid a hand on his forearm. “Not your fault. I mean…you’ve been to Earth. We have that too.”
He clicked. “I know. But it hurts everyone.” He shook his head.
“I’m sorry. I’m very happy we were able to save all the hangua today.
” He smiled at me. “We did what every protector is supposed to do. As for Ogurra, we have a good relationship with them, but they’re far away.
Travel is done with koa to facilitate it, so it’s no longer a regular thing.
I think people in the city have ancestors from there though. ”
I nodded. That was a lot like any border town, or any place, really, that saw a lot of traffic from all over the world. Still, knowing that population movement like that happened elsewhere too made me feel a kinship to all things Aer, not that I needed to be convinced that I’d be fine moving here.
“Maybe we can visit sometime,” I said.
Inkiri nodded. “With yours and Vergis’s skill, many things are possible and even easy. But now we soak. Here, you put your clothes into the basket, and then we leave it on the table there to be picked up and laundered.”
I narrowed my eyes at him. “You want me to walk around the Raiken naked?” I brightened. “Oh! You’re going to walk around the Raiken naked. Wait. I need to decide whether I like the idea.”
Inkiri chuckled. “There are clothes in the next room, sadir. Shibiya, like we wore at the rikori—at the hotel. But if you don’t want them…” He pursed his lips and shrugged. Humorous mate indeed.
“I’ll take them, thank you.”
We piled our clothes into the baskets. The mud had gotten all over everything, and I didn’t envy whoever was doing the laundry here.
Maybe the younger protectors? It seemed like a job you’d give to someone who was just starting out, the hero who still had to discover how badass he was.
Or maybe that was too much human thinking there, too much of me remembering adventure movies.
Once we were both undressed, my human embarrassment came back, not that I’d ever really lost it.
We went through to the next room, which did indeed have clothes laid out neatly on the shelves, as well as towels and little containers too; probably all the things a bagu might need when visiting a bath.
We went straight through to the next room, which held the baths proper.
The baths were absolutely amazing. They had a cavernous look to them, but lights ran along the walls in lines that circled the entire room, which consisted of several big pools for soaking. Above, the domed ceiling twinkled with pretty mosaic tiles.
“You know what? This looks like a spa. I guess we’re having a spa day? It feels kind of wrong, just so you know.”
Inkiri huffed. “Why, sadir?”