Loretta of the Lamp

Doua

"Most don't get away the first time," Bennou said soberly. He looked to Akil then back to Loretta, "but we all know the legends. You really should have said something yesterday when Akil asked if it kissed you. We might have been better prepared then."

"Or you could have left me behind," Loretta said, and quickly added, "I mean that would have been a good thing, to be fair. You would have been safe."

"Safe?" Akil spat the word out, and stormed on ahead.

That day they moved fast. Akil set the pace and he never let them slow down, not once. They didn't even stop for lunch. Neither Bennou nor Loretta protested because they were all afraid of what would happen after dark that night.

"Will we make it to shelter before night?" Loretta asked Bennou as he helped her up a hill that was pretty much a sheer rock face. Akil was leading them on a hard and direct route toward Doua. They had left the desert behind not long after midday, and for several hours now had made a direct climb up into the mountains. He took them away from the obvious paths that wound indolently up through the foothills of the red mountain range. The path he chose led them more or less as the crow flew, up through ravines and along cliff faces where the dry rocks and debris dislodged easily, showering them in dust and rolling stones.

Bennou sighed. "Honestly, I am not sure. I do not know these lands well. I went to Doua only once before when I was young with my parents. We took the main road, of course, and even of that I remember very little." He clasped Loretta's hand tight as he helped her up, and when she was steady again, he gave it a squeeze. "I know he's angry, but he is trying really hard to get us to safety before dark, surely you can see that?"

Loretta glared at Akil's back, several yards further up the mountain face. "He's only doing it to save his own skin," she said.

Bennou shrugged, "He could have left either of us behind, but he hasn't."

Loretta forced a smile, she didn't want Bennou to feel bad. She would be forever grateful that he had rescued her from the Jin attack, even if she was beyond redemption once night fell again. He did not need to know the real reason Akil had not left them behind.

Later, when the day turned and the lamplight began to flickers, their path suddenly re-joined the main road. Loretta expected Akil to cut straight across and keep going up the mountain. But he didn't. He stopped in the middle of the road and waited for Bennou and Loretta to join him.

He watched with an unreadable expression as Bennou took Loretta's hand for the hundredth time that day and helped her to climb up the last rock. Though Loretta was breathing heavily, she was thankful for the long days of solid walking through the desert that she had done prior to their hike, she knew there was no way she would have had the resilience to do it otherwise, especially not adding the dull pain she felt constantly in her arm where the Jin had kissed her. But she didn't have long to ponder or catch her breath, for Akil set off again immediately, sticking to the road now.

It was with a definite feeling of relief that she took on the next incline of their journey. The road was wide and well used, and if they had continued on up into the mountains, she really did not know where they would have gone. Beyond the next peak to their right, in the direction they could have kept going, was nothing. The bronzed sky seemed to go on, but the earth did not, they were up so high that she could not see the land below until they were beyond the next peak. The mountains had closed in tight around them, and the desert far below could no longer be seen either. The world had simply become the mountains and the road before them.

The next corner they rounded brought the walls of Doua into sight, and they all picked up the pace with relief. Their approach was spotted by scouts on the wall who Akil greeted warmly, and they were let in through the gate keeper's portal with little hassle despite the time of night and the gates being long closed.
The Gatekeeper welcomed them in though he was not impressed with their timing.

"Truthfully I cannot see what madness would find you out there after dark travelling without a caravan for protection," he shook his head at them and continued to mutter as he led them down the narrow tunnel through the wall and out onto the far side.

"What of the Jin?" Akil asked him suddenly.

The gatekeeper stopped dead in his step and turned to face him, "The Jin come further up the mountains every year. I have this season heard rumours in the nightwatch that shadows are sometimes seen moving in the dark from the walls even, though I doubt it is true. For thousands of years they have stayed close to the desert and close as they can to Misbah. That's where they have the best chances of picking off stragglers from the caravans after dark."

Loretta shivered.

The gatekeeper turned to stare into her eyes, "They won't find a warm bed of sand to sleep in for the day up here, so I do not know what draws them. We are too far for them to come to the city and go back to the desert before daylight." He turned back to Akil, "From whence did you make camp last night?"

Akil put a hand up for Bennou and Loretta to remain silent. Loretta knew the signal was mostly directed at her. "We camped in the foothills, keeping a steady fire and constant watch throughout the night, just beyond il Amran."

"The Towers?" the gatekeeper gave him a sly look, "You took a hard road up. Most use the king's road these days unless they want to avoid others."

Akil shrugged, "It was a matter of convenience. We were on our way from Hikari to the holy city when a change of plan took us. I have never been so close to the city of my forefathers."

The gatekeeper nodded, "I can tell much from the curve of your nose and the colour of your eyes about your family heritage. Your mother was wise to send you far from here after you were born with eyes like that. Where did they raise you?"

Loretta wondered if she was the only one who now saw the switch in Akil's face as he moved from planned story telling onto improvisation. She thought the gatekeeper's question was rather forward and presumptive and she guessed that, being the doorway to the city, any good stories which reached his ears were going straight out his lips and onto the ears of another for whatever reasonable price he could get.

"You guess my story wrong, good man. My family have been gone from the western mountains for more than four generations that I know of. I was born and raised in Dēng." He smiled straight into the gatekeepers eyes, "For my eyes, this is their first glimpse of a strange new city."

The gatekeeper nodded, "Te Ahi never leave the land long. That is what the legends say. Anyone with Te Ahi blood will eventually return, even if they do not intend to, it cannot be helped."

"Legends." Akil smiled courteously and patted the gatekeeper on the back before he strode around him and out into the darkened street. "An inn with room, perhaps?" he asked as he glanced back over his shoulder.

The gatekeeper gave him a sideways look and pulled on his long beard thoughtfully before he said, "Straight down this road to the centre. There is a square there, maybe your mother told you of it? Akil Te Ahi? Named after your family it is. There are a few good inns on the northern side and in the road parallel to the markets there."

Loretta was sure she heard Akil sigh as he turned away. He led them up toward the square. The road was fairly dark, but Loretta could see the opening up ahead, lit with thousands of lamps and teeming with people.

Neither she or Bennou said a word when Akil took a hard right before they hit the square and went around it.

"I remember a short cut," he said, by way of explanation.