Chapter 34 Hakara #2
Right. So we needed to find whatever resistance had formed within the city, and we had to find a way to warn them.
None of us spoke the language except Talie and Thassir.
That meant I’d have to send Talie out into the city, knowing that Lithuas was lurking somewhere within.
“Can Lithuas sense Talie if she shifts?”
Thassir shook his head. “No. That ability is linked to a blood pact between the elder gods. She won’t be able to sense Talie. But the godkillers can.”
Alifra joined us at the prow. “We’re here to renegotiate trade terms before Langzu is restored.
It’s what they would expect.” She pointed at Thassir.
“Obviously we needed an altered to help us get through the barrier. He learned the language from a scholar.” She looked to me.
“You’ll be the Langzuan representative. Thassir will translate.
The rest of us are sailors.” She studied her salt-stained clothes. “It’s the best we’ve got.”
“And Talie goes into the city to search for both the resistance and Lithuas.”
The calico padded up the stairs to the prow. “I’ll do it on one condition.”
We all turned to look at her.
“Thassir comes back with me. The gods are finally fighting back, and we need help. He will at least hear us out.”
Falin’s brow furrowed, but he didn’t ask any questions. Wise move, not getting caught up in this.
“That is acceptable,” Thassir said slowly.
The closer we got to the city, the more it was apparent that our strange ship had not gone unnoticed.
A retinue of guards greeted us at the docks, halberds in hand, a row of archers behind them, their bows trained on the deck of the ship.
Their skin was varying shades of golden brown, from a medium bronze to the rich dark of a tree hollow.
Each wore a light beige robe topped with an orange cowl.
A stylized sun was embroidered on the front of each robe.
I stood at the rail. “We are here to renegotiate trade agreements between Pizgonia and Langzu,” I called out in Langzuan. Thassir, next to me, shouted to the guards below in a language I didn’t understand, the vowels rounder and the consonants strange to my ears.
Someone emerged from between the guards, a young man in a steel helmet. He spoke in a clear voice, beckoning to us.
Thassir nodded, tucking his wings behind him.
“He says to follow him to the palace’s guest house, where we will be made comfortable before negotiations with the council.
” A crowd had gathered by the docks, people eyeing us past the guards.
No wonder – we must have looked a sight with our strange clothes and strange faces.
We lowered the gangplank and disembarked, but not before Talie leapt to the dock, swerving between feet and legs and disappearing into the crowd.
The guards closed in around us as we moved toward the city.
A wall surrounded the perimeter, rising above the sandy beach and the crashing waves, crenelations revealing more guards walking atop the walls.
The gates we passed beneath bore a decorated arch of carved stucco; it shaded us briefly from the heat of the sun.
The city beyond stole my breath. Streets were paved with flat stones, alcoves between buildings painted in bright murals.
And I seemed to find, tucked away in every alley and small, shaded square, tiled fountains in beautiful patterns, the water trickling out of spouts carved into the shapes of various animals.
Struts and reeds above kept the brightest sun out of the streets below.
A low hum of activity echoed off the rust-colored walls.
A crowd followed us through the streets, and every so often, a guard had to push away a citizen who had become a little too curious. Several managed to slip in and out of the crowd, keeping pace with us.
A woman caught my eye, her face veiled in midnight blue but for her eyes, a tall hat upon her head, draped in the same blue.
She studied each of us in turn as she walked just outside the perimeter of the guards, sliding ahead or behind each time the streets became too narrow.
A group of children ran ahead of her, feet slapping against the stone.
I didn’t know much about this continent we’d landed on, but I could smell a suspicious situation before most could. I drew in close to my companions.
She lifted a hand before I could speak a word to them.
Veiled men and women dropped from the tops of buildings or flowed in from alleyways, swords raised. They slipped beneath the halberds of the guards.
In the next moment, the veiled woman stood by Dashu. Another of the ambushers grabbed my arm. Dashu pulled his sword free from its sheath. To my surprise, the veiled woman seized his hand and, in a movement I couldn’t follow, took the weapon from his grasp.
“Agashu Indaya!” someone called from the crowd. The cry was taken up by others, passed as though from one set of lips to another. The guards stopped fighting back.
Someone dropped a bag over my head.
My instinct was to struggle, to claw and kick and free myself from whoever thought they could take me alive.
But I’d been here before, in this very same sort of spot, even if the bag smelled different.
A bit sweet, with a pungency I didn’t recognize.
“Don’t fight back!” I called to my companions.
“I think they may be who we’re looking for. ”
“Risky gamble, isn’t it?” Alifra’s voice drifted through the din.
A grunt of assent from Thassir.
I felt us being rushed through the streets, turns I couldn’t keep track of, quick flashes of heat against my shoulders as we moved from shadow to sunlight to shadow again. And then the warmth of the day disappeared as we were led down a set of stairs into the dark.
This felt so familiar. Except this time, I wasn’t tied to a chair.
Several more turns, whispers I didn’t understand. And then we finally came to a stop in a cool and silent space.
Someone lifted the bag from my head.
We all looked at one another and then around at the room. We were in a basement, signs of a pre-Shattering civilization scattered around us. An old, flaking painting was lit by a lantern against one wall; a few metal beams lay across the floor.
The veiled woman stood opposite us, twenty or so warriors arrayed behind her. “Leave us. Close the door behind you.” The draping on her hat swung as she turned her head. They obeyed without so much as a question. We stood there in the dark, waiting.
One woman. We could take her on. Alifra, next to me, shifted, as though she knew my thoughts.
Why would she want to be alone with the five of us?
She wasn’t even looking at us, Dashu’s sword in her hand as she ran her palm along the length of it.
She lifted it to eye level, studying the white enamel flowers on the hilt.
“It’s been a long time since I’ve seen this. ”
Dashu gripped his empty scabbard, his brows low over his eyes. “That sword has been passed through my family for generations. You know of it?”
She laughed, then said something in the very same tongue I heard Dashu often muttering to himself. His face paled. “I more than just know of it. I made this sword.”
Thassir took a hesitant half-step forward, his face alight with the sort of hopeful curiosity I usually only saw on children’s faces. “Velenor is supposed to be dead. Is it really you?”
She unwound the draping of her head covering, revealing not the structure of a hat, but two long antelope horns.
With graceful fingers, she pulled her veil down.
Her skin was dark as onyx, glittering by the flickering light of the lanterns, the faint glow of a god’s aura casting a competing light. “Yes, friend. It’s been a long time.”