Land of Smoke and Ashes

Sunshine in the Darkness

"Safe as anything." Serena had reached into one of the nearest crates, and Natalie caught a flash of silver as she transferred something from the box to the leather bag at her hip. "I pity the poor fool who tries to steal into my tent while I'm not here. Also it amuses me to think of that, so I hope someone tries."

"Nasty spell on it?" Jewels raised a brow, and when Serena snickered she nodded. "That's what I thought." She sighed. "Well at least we can be sure our things are safe here."

"Until we get back," Sam said grumpily, "and Serena steals all your jewelry."

"I don't steal, I barter." Serena said, but she didn't seem that bothered by the accusation. "Everyone ready?"

They were. Serena looked them over one more time, her gaze critical. "Alright. Let me do all the talking, and no matter what you do, don't let anyone know you have that necklace."

"Obviously," Jewels said.

Serena ignored this, turning for the tent's entrance. "Let's go. And Sam, I just have to say one more time, you're very convincing as a chimney sweep. Want to stop and do a few fireplaces on the way?"

Sam gave her a dark look, and Natalie followed him as he stomped out of the tent after Serena, wondering how long it would take for him to finally snap and call the whole thing off. Hopefully he had more patience than he seemed to.

Natalie had wanted to ask what the "barracks" were, but everyone seemed very grim and quiet as soon as they left the tent. In any case, she soon found out. They moved away from the market, through winding streets, past shop windows and then through neighbourhoods. As they went, the houses grew smaller and more cramped together, until they were walking through roads that were little more than alleyways, rows of run-down buildings that seemed to lean on one another, on the verge of collapse. These streets were still full of life, but they were not the same types of people crowding them. Here there were drunks stumbling over the cobbelstones, their bottles out, some of them singing at the tops of their voices. And there were children who sat along the side, backs pressed to the walls, dressed in little more than rags. Men and women too, and they all held out hats or tin containers, begging for scraps. Groups of ragged women scurried this way and that, keeping close together as they went in and out of shops displaying their meager offerings through dirty windows.

Most disturbing of all though, were the men who shuffled through the crowds, dead-eyed, heads down. They all had the same inky black veins snaking through their arms and up onto their necks. Some of them were so covered that black patches had crawled onto their cheeks and faces. One of them stumbled into their path and didn't seem to notice when they skirted around him. His eyes were glassy, and almost completely black, and Natalie had to repress a shudder as she passed him. The black veins were like the ones the pirates had on their skin, but these men looked somehow worse. Pale and drawn. It was as if the black stuff, whatever it was, was slowly killing them.

"What is this place?" Natalie whispered, and Jewels, who was the closest, glanced over at her. Her expression was sad. "What happened to them?"

"It's called the barracks because it's where the refugees come. The major settlement here is soldiers who have escaped from the queen. But so many of them go through withdrawals from her magic and end up dying. So there are lots of widows and children. The city has programs to help them, but there are so many, and more coming every day."

Sam looked wary as they made their way through the streets, his head swivelling this way and that. He kept opening and closing his fists on the brush he was holding, like he might use it for a weapon if they were attacked. "I don't like this."