Promise the Sky

Chapter 37

Having satisfied myself that the parts of this city that should house its darker aspects are filled with pristine workers and inns to house kings, I fight against my instincts and head in a direction that I hope will find me in a central location. Perhaps this place is simply built inside out and I will find my beggars and whores where the proud city hall usually stands.

My footsteps echo hollowly in the empty streets as I walk. I really cannot get over how wide they are; six or seven carts could pass abreast and unless the Mirror City regularly has entire armies march around town, I can see no point in it.

Even an hour later, when instinct tells me I am approaching something more central or important and the streets slowly begin to fill with traffic, their broad expanse gets nowhere close to full. I furrow my brow, keep my pace steady and just cannot get over it. It seems so pointless, and at the same time so beautiful. There is none of the hustling and animosity of Harborne on a busy market day. If we tried to put this many people in the same hot street at home, there would be deaths. But here, in this place of magic and dreams, the shadow stretches languidly out from tall eaves and the atmosphere is pleasantly subdued.

I wish Ben were here to see it. He seems to know more than I of the city that they call the cradle of magic. He seems to know the sayings and the stories. All I know are the rumours of dragon scale streets (which I have yet to see) and the multitude of names: the Mirror City; the double city; the two headed coin; the city of sin; Cradle and Grave. I even heard one girl call it the Above and Below and get corrected by the rest of her group who stated it was more like the Sun and the Rain, Night and Day, Lust and Love, Heaven and Hell... the rest of their argument escapes me.

Now that I think of it, not many of those names are particularly pleasant. Especially considering the eternal beauty of this place.

And then I remember the conclusion of their argument:

"Let's face it, it really is best described as the Mirror City. A place with a reflection so perfectly opposite that it looks the same."

"But they're not the same, Alice. At all."

"No. They're opposite, like when you look in the mirror and your right is your reflection's left. If you're too dense to get the subtlety of the metaphor, Bruce darling, stick to calling it heaven and hell. That's really what it is for people of class. Like us."

I'm not even sure what she had meant but I start to think I don't like it. I'm not people of class and neither is Ben. I am really starting to wish he were here.

I turn another corner, ignoring the excited babble around me as I try and deduce meaning from snatched conversations and forgotten stories. It is already beginning to stir my mind up into a paranoid jumble when I step into what can only be the town square and all foreboding is forgotten.

"Oh by all the Gods in heaven." I breathe, literally struck motionless in my wonder.

No one around me seems to have noticed my awe, and certainly no one shares in it. If I was not so busy trying to take in the sight before me, I would be unable to comprehend their indifference towards what can only be described as the most amazing thing I have ever seen. As it is, their easy acceptance goes entirely unnoticed.

It was true. It was all true.

Dragon scale.

I can hardly believe it, and in a strange way, it makes me want to cry. This is, quite literally, a child's bedtime story in the flesh. Literal story. Literal flesh.

Stooping slowly, I brush hesitant fingers across the sparkling flooring. The square, whilst larger than any manmade space I have ever come across, is filled with people. I cannot see across it, except for a brief view of some beautifully ornate building that occupies the far corner.