20
The eerie silence of the city made her heart clench in fear. The increasing downpour of the rain did nothing to quell those fears, either. It was as though she could hear every single drop of rain strike the ground around her. From soft thuds against the packed mud, to the lighter patter as the rain fell upon upturned cobbles that once lined the streets. There was no other sound.
Her clothes had become sodden and heavy, her hands slick against the shaft of her whale hook that she gripped tight, spinning to point it at any shadow, any trick of the diminishing light as the storm clouds blackened the skies above. To her sides, Shihiri seemed no less and no greater wary, walking as though travelling through any normal habitation, and Hatyara appeared to take the entire thing in her stride.
Barsa had not left Únik's side since making the first step into the outskirts of the city. His tail remained tucked between his legs, ears flat against his skull and, every so often, he would pause, growling into nooks and crannies, lowering his head, ready to pounce or run. Únik was not used to seeing her brave, loyal hound act in such a fashion.
The further they moved into the city, the more derelict the buildings became. Ancient stone buildings, that once may have been exquisite in their construction, now in complete disrepair. Some had collapsed against their neighbours, others had become nothing but rubble. Every so often, they would encounter a building, a home or an old business premises, that remained almost intact, tantalising them with their promise of sanctuary from the rains and the cloying, desperate feelings the city conferred upon Únik.
The streets began to fill with running waters as the rains continued to pour, making their footings more precarious, hidden potholes and dips, upturned cobbles and stones from ruined buildings making the path more treacherous to follow. It soon became clear that they needed to find higher ground, within the city, as the waters began to rise above their feet.
"I didn't realise that the city dipped so steeply." Testing the depth of the rain water with her staff, Shihiri began to frown. "It's like we're walking through a river."
"We'll move closer to the edge. Maybe find an old street higher up the valley side." Únik kept her eyes open for a turning. "Though I'd feel happier staying on this street, it seems to run the entire length of the city."
Indeed, as they had made their way into the valley and the city, Únik had noticed this wide thoroughfare and had made her way towards it as soon as she could. She had no idea whether it was a sound strategy, but she knew she would feel far more safe with space around her, rather than within the tight, twisting ruin of back alleys and side streets.
They had passed one large square after only a few minutes within the city and Únik had imagined the place in its prime, filled with people and market stalls. Folks mingling around the fountain in the middle of the square, now dry, listing to the side, the statue it once held nothing more than a weather beaten lump of shapeless stone.
"There! Look!" Hatyara, wading through water that almost reached her knees, moved to one side of the street, pointing with one hand as she held the skirts of her dress in the other, trying to lessen the prospect of having to walk with a dress leadened by water. "I see another street!"
Únik followed the direction of the pointing finger. The Ice-Kin was correct. There, between two buildings that had collapsed against each other, forming a pointed arch, Únik could see an alley leading up to a street that appeared dry. A smaller street, but Únik would take the more cramped path than this street that now resembled a river more and more.
As she had walked, she had seen evidence of flooding within the city. Mud and dead branches piled up against some buildings. Stones that had become scoured, over the centuries, by the passing of rushing waters and the detritus dragged along on the current. The foundations of buildings revealed as the surrounding soil had become washed away. Worst of all, what looked like tide marks that reached high up most of the buildings.
"Alright. I think we should consider finding shelter, too." She looked upwards into the thick black clouds, the heavy rain stinging her eyes. "I don't think this rain is going to end any time soon and we need to dry ourselves out."
She hated the idea. To set foot within any of these buildings, the mere thought of it roiled her stomach. It felt as though they trampled upon the privacy of the dead and her mind wondered which of those many, many piles of skeletons, in the field of bones, had owned which houses. Had they lived and loved as other people had? Torn from their homes and families to feed the lust for power of the Patrons.
The makeshift archway between the buildings seemed secure enough, though the gap forced them to pass through in single file. Barsa bounded from the waters onto the dryer cobbles and stood, whipping his head in each direction, as though warning away anything that may attack them. Even as Únik joined him, taking the passage through the archway last, the hound still held a low, rumbling growl in his chest.
Únik wished she could take that warning far more serious than she was able. She trusted Barsa's instincts. The hound had shown his worth time and time again where his grumbled warnings were ever concerned, but they had no other choice, now. They had to keep passing through the city. Happier, as Únik rubbed his rain sodden head, Barsa shook himself, sending droplets of water flying in all directions.
She heard Hatyara laugh at Barsa's attempt to dry himself and it felt so out of place within these abandoned wrecks of buildings, that seemed to deaden the Ice-Kin's laughter, turning it into something hollow and sinister. Únik couldn't even smile, her jaw ached from keeping her face set, ready for anything that may happen.
"I see a building. Patrons! It looks untouched! Roof and everything!" Shihiri set off before Únik could collect her thoughts, heading towards a large building a hundred feet, or so, up the smaller street. "We'd never have seen that from the main street."
"Shihiri! Don't get separated!" A flash of light lit up the skies above, followed a crack of thunder that almost shook the ground they walked upon. Únik grabbed Hatyara and followed Shihiri. "This storm is only getting worse. If we separate we might not even see each other through this Patrons damned rain!"
Shihiri had stopped outside the almost intact building, her head peeking inside as she waited for Únik and Hatyara to catch up. Únik didn't know if Fae had better eyesight than humans, in the dark, but she couldn't see anything beyond the open doorway of the building that loomed above them.
Taking up a good stretch of one side of the street, it appeared like some kind of business premises, or municipal building, with broken and weathered statues sitting upon plinths either side of ornate windows that would once have contained glass panes. The doorway stood almost eight feet high, double-width and would once have had large, heavy doors hanging from the now-rotted doorframe.
"I'm not sure." Again, Únik looked up to the skies. There seemed no end to the rain, as there seemed no end to the bulbous black clouds that stretched far in every direction. "I'd prefer something smaller. Something defendable."
"Defendable? The city is empty!" Hatyara began to step towards the doorway, the wet skirts of her dress dragging along the ground, stopped only by Únik's hand on her shoulder. "Let's just get out of this foul weather."
"Alright, but we go no further than the entrance." Únik released Hatyara's shoulder and the Ice-Kin became the first to pass through the doorway. "Shihiri, do you think you can find dry wood for a fire. Within sight of this building. I don't want any of us moving too far from each other."
"Chief, I think I can find dry wood in this building." Winking, Shihiri followed Hatyara into the large building.
With only Barsa left standing with her beneath the withering onslaught of the rain, Únik glanced down at her hound. He looked as forlorn and bedraggled as she felt. His dark eyes looking up towards her and not once did his tail wag. Únik couldn't help but think she had become too cautious, her natural Uriok superstitions taking hold again after she had spent so many years away, fearing nothing but what she could see.
Now, she seemed to jump at every odd sound, every strange looking object that became twisted and cruel looking in one light, innocent and unthreatening in another. This journey had taken its toll upon her and she doubted she could ever sleep soundly again.
She gave Barsa a jerk of the chin and the dog bounded into the building, out of the rain, stopping and sniffing the air as he passed the doorway. Únik remained outside a little longer, fighting against her own fears, allowing the rains to wash over her and, perhaps, to cleanse those fears away. She tried not to look at the tide marks upon the building, hoping that such occurrences happened on only on the rarest of occasions.
-+-
They had to stop Hatyara from undressing to dry her dress in front of the fire that Shihiri had seemed to create from the barest of materials. She wanted to return to her normal, silk gauze clothing, but Únik would have none of that. She wanted them all ready to move at a second's notice. If that meant sitting in wet clothing until the fire could dry them out, so be it.
Outside, the rains continued to pour down, but Únik took heart in the fact that they now sheltered away from the worst of it. Shihiri had scouted the entire building, despite Únik telling her not to go far, coming back with arms full of wood that had all but rotted away over the years. Pieces of chairs and tables that may once have looked as well crafted as any Únik had ever seen, now only vague memories of a civilisation lost to time.
She found comfort, also, in the fact they had not encountered any ghosts, or spirits, or blood-drinking skeletons. Though she still could not push away the gnawing fear that coming to this long abandoned city was a mistake. They had come to the city, however, and now she had to make the best of it.
In the light of the fire, punctuated by vast flashes of the lightning, outside, she made a circle of the room. It appeared as though it may once have held some kind of importance. Statues lined the walls, inset into alcoves, now crumbling and showing little of what, or who, they once represented. Art works, attached to the walls between alcoves, now peeling and faded beyond all recognition. She could imagine the city being a centre for the arts, once.
She couldn't help but wonder if this were the fate of all civilisations upon the face of this world, terrorised and loved by beings that tore it apart, rebuilt and reshaped it to their whims. That Uriok would one day crumble and fall beneath the might of the Patrons. That Hagragng and Alharai and all the great nations would one day become as lost and forgotten as Pithnar and its peoples.
Shivering, she returned to the fire, allowing the heat to wend its way into tired, soaked muscles. The ways of the Patrons were not hers to judge. The next Upheaval could occur centuries from now, it could occur next week, there was nothing any mortal could do against it. They may as well scream at a mountain and find a similar response. Silence. Cold, damning silence.
"We need to keep an eye on the waters. If what I saw of the rest of the city is right, the entire valley could flood if these rains don't disperse." She looked towards the doorway, where Barsa sat, watching the rain, guarding the entrance. "Somehow, we need to find somewhere above the flood line, but I don't want to go out in that rain."
"There are balconies upstairs. I could take a look from there?" Already rising to her feet, Shihiri looked to Únik as though she needed permission.
Únik nodded, wishing Shihiri didn't look to her for leadership and the Fae darted away, leaving through a near-by doorway further into the building. Looking to the side, she saw Hatyara scowling at the bottom half of her dress, brushing down the creases and trying to straighten the soggy material.
"This thing is ruined, of course. Poor quality workmanship with poor quality materials. My real clothes would be dry by now." Tutting, she picked at an errant piece of stitching. "You humans have such terrible taste in clothing!"
"When we don't have to be ready to run at a second's notice and we don't have to go through a human township, you are more than welcome to wear those tiny strips of material you call clothing." Reaching down, hiding her smile, Únik felt the bottom of her own breaches. They were still wet. "I'm sure everyone in Alharai enjoy showing every part of their body to all and sundry. Humans like to leave things to the imagination."
"I doubt anyone wants to imagine seeing your body." The Ice-Kin curled her nose and then her mouth and eyes opened wide. "I'm sorry. I just ... I have no excuse. I'm sorry."
"It's alright. You're not wrong." Looking down at her waist, she pinched a thick wedge of flesh between her fingers. She knew what she looked like. "I think I've lost weight over the past few days, anyway."
"You have. But that's no excuse. I've been awful towards you for so long." Placing her hands into her lap, Hatyara allowed her bright, white hair to fall across her face. "Where I come from, everything we say and do is a political strategy. Saying those things to you was an automatic way of putting you in your place. You don't come from my nation, you don't have the tools to fight back."
"I don't need to fight back. It's true, I carry more weight than I should. In the wastes, back home, extra layers of fat can mean the difference between living and freezing to death." With a wicked smile, Únik squeezed one of her breasts beneath her jacket. "Besides, it makes my boobs look bigger."
Hatyara laughed at that. A child-like giggle that belied her usual taciturn, empirical nature. The usual haughtiness falling away and revealing the girl, the woman, beneath. Únik could still not quite grasp Hatyara. She seemed to flit from one kind of personality to another within the space of a breath and not even pause. Shihiri would consider it all some elaborate ruse, no doubt. Únik wasn't so certain.
It felt as though the Ice-Kin fought against how she would act back in Alharai and how she had seen others act outside her homeland. Únik knew well that leaving somewhere you had lived your entire life, to find yourself in a completely different part of the world was not easy. It had taken Únik years to become used to the Hagragng folks in the local village and town where she traded and they to her.
At this moment, the Ice-Kin appeared genuine, though she had appeared genuine before. What Shihiri said about Hatyara still remained true. There was something that the Ice-Kin was not telling them. Únik couldn't say that for certain, but she could feel it in every conversation, every turned head, every pause before Hatyara said anything.
She looked at the Ice-Kin, now, and she could see the smile upon that ice-blue face that made her nose wrinkle at the bridge. Her almost-white eyes narrowing and lines forming at the edges. The smile looked genuine! But Únik still couldn't trust that it was and she found that a very sad state of affairs for them all to find themselves in.
Barsa stood up causing Únik to snap her head around to see the dog crouch, growling out of the doorway. His tail fluffed and held straight out behind him, the dog's growl became deeper and more intense. Únik reached down to her side, fumbling to find her whale hook without taking her eyes away from the dog.
Hatyara, too, seemed uneasy. She had spent enough time around Barsa, now, to know that the dog, though happy and friendly most of the time, did not growl at nothing. Remembering their encounter with the dire wolf, the Ice-Kin reached for a burning piece of wood, sticking out from the flames.
"You were right! Patrons be damned, you were right." Shihiri reappeared. She must have run the entire way from the upper floor. "The river? To the north? It's burst its banks. Water is pouring over the sides into the valley. Before long, this whole place will be a lake!"
Únik heard a noise, then, from outside and Barsa began barking. His deep, rumbling barks came in a constant repeat. Over and over as he bounced from paw to paw, glaring at something outside. Únik fought against her own fears to move closer to the doorway, holding her whale hook tight in her hands. Edging closer to the door, she suddenly understood what the noise was.
A carpet of rats passed the doorway. Hundreds, thousands of the creatures. Black furred, brown furred, even white ones, rats of all kinds and sizes, scurrying and chittering as they ran past the building they occupied. Barsa barked at any of the creatures that turned towards the door, but none entered. Not because of the dog, but because they knew the building was not safe.
As Únik looked out, across the derelict rooftops of the city, she heard the roar of rushing, oncoming waters. She turned to Hatyara and Shihiri.
"Run!"