Phayara Khado. Monstrous Vyrnna licked up between its wall; cathedrals built of joy which rose and fell in the space of a breath. Runners frolicked through them, throwing themselves against each other, not caring who or what was there to catch them.
Phado had returned!
Pilgrims streamed into the city from all sides. Soldiers, wanderers, rogues; supplicants who waited for audience with their goddess outside her temple; others who bribed priests at the door. Worship filled the city. The plants of Phyrnos grew towards the temple as towards the suns of Phyrnos; Uquelycra skittered outside its walls, Gilahawks circled its spires. The streets were packed so tightly their caravan could only travel by inches. They were locked in on all sides by pressing heat, pressing flesh. Phyrnosians shook their fists and danced over the top of the lifters, singing and yelling. A pack of older hatchlets threw shit at the sides of lifters. Drivers screamed.
“Nervous?” Vince said.
Howl shrugged.
“They’re clever enough!” Vince said. “You didn’t see the attack on Maiden coming, did you?”
The man with the metal eye sighed. “No. As Jacques reminded me. Don’t bury me yet, brother.”
“Hah, you’re perfectly capable of doing that yourself.”
“Have ye grown so tired of life, me scug? I’ll bowel ye, make sauages owt ‘o thy blood an vinegar!”
"They're not geckos," Vince said, "is all I'm saying."
Eve became agitated, sending a burnt scent up around them. “Rein her in, there, love,” Howl said to Gill, grabbing the Evok’s halter. "Alloah, what a sight.” He jerked his chin in the direction of a lifter filled with bodies. “Easy, old girl.”
Evoks, Phyrnosians and humans all lay tossed together in the lifter, a salad of soft, stinking flesh.
“Offerings! Offerings to Phado, here!” the attendant said. He was small, shifty. He had nervous eyes and weak, spongy claws.
“Clap eyes on that, an’ tell me that ain’t a gecko!” Howl said, elbowing the Knife.
Snopes tightened. “He's the sign,” he said. “This is where we turn. Hitch up quickly.” And indeed, with the sight of so much death as a signpost, the caravan lifters ahead that were filled with medical slaves groaned to the left, heading into the alley.
“Here we go."
“Keep all eyes lifting,” the captain said, “and thy wits about ye, boys. We’ve bad weather ahead.”
The entrance to the slave market was attended by a handful of distracted guards. The captain and his men were quickly waved through the dirty curtain. It was a rite of passage for young Phyrnosian monks to wander and observe. Their disguises rendered them all but invisible.
The acrid stink of illness, urine and unwashed skin hit them in nauseating waves. Vince took Gill’s arm, escorting her past the clumps of thin, dirty people, watching them pass with dull expressions. Children huddled together; men stood in unmoving clumps, as if they were already dead, broken, swollen in the sun. One woman wore a torn dress. Her eyes flashed on them. Gill’s head began to turn.
“Don’t look,” Vince murmured. “Remember why we’re here...”
The small, dirty tent opened into another and then another. They chanted a Phodiine prayer.
“Black and brilliant,
black and brilliant
a thousand years...”
"It has a spiral design to prevent escapees,” Snopes said. “And there's a courtyard in the center where they have auctions. But I think our friend here,” he jutted his chin at the slavedriver ahead of them, “is heading straight for the dealers to try and negotiate a better price. So stay close."
A sullen soldier leaned on a pole, cleaning his claws. His skin had a grey, bubbled look. Too much zuu. He sneered as they passed and caught Peregrine by the neck.
“State your business, witchchild. There's nothing for Phodiine to learn here. Unless you want to work for an education.” His teeth were long and yellow.
Peregrine stiffened.
Gill spoke quickly in the Phynosian tongue. “We seek only to understand, pairo,” she soothed, her voice whirring, “There is something we can learn from everyone.” Gently, Peregrine pressed a bag of zuu into the soldier’s claws. The soldier grabbed it and tossed Peregrine away like a chewed bone.
“Idiot greenie,” he said, ripping into the sack. In a moment he had the zuu out and was administering the drops under his tongue.
“Is there more where that came from?” the Knife said quietly, as they went away.
“Hell.”
“What’s that?” Howl said. They tried to look nonchalant as they followed the lifter and its hollow-eyed load.
“I- I could have sworn I had more.”
Howl exhaled sharply. “He robbed ye blind, son.”
“That will force our hand a little sooner, but just as well. Ah. This is it.”
“Weather eyes, gentlemen, weather eyes.”
The lifter made a final turn and descended into the tunnel system. They walked behind it, chanting softly. The driver turned and stuck his head out. “Hey,” he saidd. “Offer one up for me, will ya? This is my last load for a while; gotta help out.”
Howl gave him a Phodiine style blessing, complete with deep bow. The Phyrnosian driver bowed his head in thanks. Peregrine felt a small twinge for him. Slavedriver or no, he was a cog who was just doing his job. Of course, when your daily bread required you to traffic in pain...
Gill watched the people in the lifter. A man sat in the rear corner of the lifter, his arms crossed. He stared at them boldly. They were dressed as priests, after all: he was willing them to do something. She met his eyes, although of course he could not see her face beneath its heavy hood and veil. Although he would never know it, she was making him a promise.
He would not spend another night in that lifter. She noticed Howl touching the side of his head, the side with his metal eye. “Do you see anything?”
He nodded. “There's no more an’ a single system beneath the market, a few hidey holes, two exits.”
“It’s a floating market,” Snopes said, quiet. “They never have time to establish much more than that. They get run out. The slave trade’s a dirty secret. Most Phyrnosians prefer humans did not visit Phyrnos at all, but they don't wish them ill.”
The driver slowed to a stop and leaned out the side of his lifter. “Hoy!" he called into a hollow; "Wait til you see the lovely bunch of bags I've got today.”
A voice from the hollow grunted. "Enter." The lifter turned into the burrow and disappeared.
"Qabal's in there,” Snopes said, but Howl cut him off.
“There's two others with him. Mark now,” the captain said. “There’s the way we came in, and the one exits back into Phayara. Peregrine, you radio up our coordinates. We need a lift over Phayara's market smartaway.”
Peregrine nodded and pushed up his sleeve, revealing a silver forearm studded with buttons and screens. He typed rapidly. Just then, the lifter driver poked his head back out at them.
Peregrine quickly put his blinking forearm behind his back and they resumed chanting.
“Come on, don’t be shy,” the driver said. This is what you came for, isn’t it? The real deal? Step on in.”
They bowed to him and shuffled into the burrow. It was wide and deep and well-lit with lanterns. Cubbies had been dug more deeply into the wall and filled with heavy chests. Two Phyrnosian gobs walked around the lifter, sticking their claws into the pile of living flesh to examine arms, teeth, feet.
“Lovely bunch of bags, you say,” one said. “This lot's nearly dead. What you been feeding ‘em?”
The driver scratched his arm. “They were like that when I picked them. Starved down.” He stepped closer and pulled a woman out. He prodded her to make her turn in a circle for the buyers. “Gotta build em up slowly or they get sick. But look’a this one. You’ve never seen one so lovely. And such soft skin. Think of the price she’d fetch in the night dens!”
The woman’s eyes went flat, but her face was still lovely, especially in contrast to the lumbering gobs. Beside them, her delicate body looked fragile as a teacup. Her hair was a lustrous rose-gold, spilling like sunlight past her slender waist.
Gill’s eyes sharpened as they adjusted to the new darkness. She saw there was a third Phyrnosian in the burrow. He was covered in jewels, motionless, reclining indolently in the shadows. His long, sensitive mouth was tight with disdain. But his legs betrayed his interest. They twitched restlessly.
It could only be Qabal.
He waved his jeweled hand. “We’ll take the girl, and her companion. That one there in the corner, with the forlorn face. They look as though they’ve traveled a long way together. Wouldn’t want to separate them now.”
"And the others?"
He smiled. “Grind them up or take them to market, it's of no interest to me. Kai will settle with you for the two.”
The Evok began to smell sour.
Kai lumbered towards the chests.. Qabal turned to gaze at Howl and his companions.
“Ah,” he said. “We have tourists.” He stood. “Welcome. Have you come to bless me for my sins?” He sniffed the air, paused. A dangerous smile crawled slowly across the wide, heavily scaled face. "You are not Phodiine."
Howl nodded. Peregrine clicked his wrist, setting off an explosion. Behind them the tunnel collapsed like a vein.
The Evok plunged with fear. “Steady Evie, steady as she goes.”
The driver screamed and fell in a ball as Theo, the Knife, and Gill drew weapons. They stalked closer.
"Claws aloft, me good fellows! Hold em high," Howl Johnson said.
Kai and Qabal raised claws leisurely. Qabal looked amused.
"What do you want?" Kai rumbled. He was big, solid as a rock-face.
“We're here for Qabal. We have no quarrel with any of the rest of you,” Theo said. "Give him over and we'll be on our way."
"Qabal is dead," the old leader said. He clicked his jaws the way a man might snap his fingers. Kai exploded forwards with a snarl. Vince released a cloud of knives. They glittered through the air and through Kai into the wall.
The driver screamed again, crawling backwards towards his lifter. Peregrin tossed a star bomb at it.
"Back!" The tiny bomb caught in the lifter’s side and exploded, neatly destroying only the bars. The lifter fell to the ground. People spilled from the hole in its side. They stumbled to their feet and ran,
the driver with them.
Howl followed. "You, man! Stop!" He shot at the driver’s feet.
"Mercy, mercy, have mercy, I have a family!"
"Plug it. I've not boweled ye, have I? You're to carry a message."
"Yes, anything, of course!"
"Pass the word for Eriphet. Tell him the Rush has his father. He knows what I want." He kicked the driver tailside, sending the Phyrnosian tumbling forwards.
He scrambled and ran towards the sunslight. "I'll tell him, sir!"
Howl holstered his gun and trudged back down the tunnel.
Kai lay dying, looking at Qabal. “Is it true? Are you really him? ‘Course I know you can’t be, can you?” He touched his wounds. Blue and grey viscous material gouted from his sides; then a thinner, rust-colored substance, which came streaming like warm wax. His claws came away covered with it.
He looked at them. “It can’t be,” he said. "I'm not-"
“Call me the can man,” the Knife said. He tossed a final knife neatly between Kai’s eyes. The giant Phyrnosian lurched once and lay still.
“Now you’re just flexing off,” Howl said.
“Consider it a tutorial,” Vince said. He jumps to the lifter with Peregrine to help the last men and women escape. “Come on, we’re getting out of here.”
Qabal stared down at Kai's body. The other soldier cowering behind him. Qabal kicked him towards Theo, who shot him in the neck. It wasn’t enough to stop the soldier. He kept coming.
Theo shot again, but too late. The Phyrnosian soldier ripped into him, his claws sliding in and through Theo's chest. He threw him to one side like a doll.
Peregrin popped up from inside the lifter and raised his hands towards the soldier, who was staggering from Theo’s bullet, his claws clapped against his neck as he tried to staunch the flow of humors. Peregrine began to draw elements out from the soldier’s wounds so that a shadow made from his own humors hovered up behind him. The soldier moaned and then dropped to the ground.
His humors still stood behind him.
With a dark smile, Peregrine made the shadow dance like a puppet. The sight shook Qabal.
“You are Phodiine,” he said. "What do you want from me? You can have anything."
“No,” Howl said, “We are a brotherhood of men. We’re after safe passage, no more. If Eriphet gives us what we want, we'll be off, no foul done.” He waved his gun. “Be smart now. Come ahead. Unless ye’re ready to go out the hole at the top of the world.”
Theo lay white-lipped on the ground. Vince ran to him, pulling off his shirt for an impromptu tourniquet. Howl’s eyes remained locked on Qabal.
“My people do not leave our world,” Qabal said. “We are her, and she is us.”
“If you say so, me jelly. Now come ahead. Handsomely, handsomely now.”
The Phyrnosian stepped forward.
Peregrine's wrist lit up the folds of his robe. “Ship's here! We gotta move, now!"
They ran up the tunnel, their weapons pressed against Qabal's back. The slavetraders’s jewels sent reflections rippling down the walls. Theo, slung over Vince's back, watched them dazedly.
The world was gathering itself into a small sack for him to travel with. Everything became soft, fading, compact. Dimly he felt himself begin to fall down the Knife's shoulder. The big man hoisted him upright as gently as he could.
“Goddamn it,” the Knife said, trying to smile, “you’re bleeding out all over me. Come on now, stay with us.” He slapped the hunter. "Stay with us! Come on buddy, you got to--"
"I'm here," Theo said, faintly. “Present.”
“Good. Where’s Eve?” He looked around for the Evok “I’m bouncing him too much.”.
“Eve!” Gill said, sharply.
“None a’ that now,” Howl said, “she’ll find her way, sure enough.” The tunnel opened wide and they ran into Phayara, into the very heart of its marketplace. Vyrnna and music rolled around them as the human soldiers and their Phyrnosian prisoner stepped into the sunlight.
Their ship came down over them like a lid. It dropped a beam for them to climb. Gillian, Peregrin & Vince, still holding Snopes, held off the crowd while Howl hurried Qabal up into the ship. A few of the escaped slaves slipped out from a nearby lifter and flung themselves forward to be saved. One after another, humans climbed the glowing air into their ship and then plunged away, rocketing across the desert.
The whole exchange happened as quickly as a cloudburst. All its confusion was swallowed up in all the pleasures of carnival. In moments, it was if that cloudburst had never happened at all.
A lost Evok wandered into the crowd.
“Here now, you’re a pretty thing,” a voice said. “Where have you come from, then?” The Phyrnosian took the Evok’s trailing halter in hand gently. The animal seemed unhurt, but it was skittish and frightened. It cried softly, weeping sadness. The smell of it was like falling snow, like the feeling of falling forever without end. He wiped blood and dust from its face. “Come along. Take you someplace quiet, clean you up.” He led her away.
They cut a wide swath through the crowd.
Theodore Snopes was laid out on a table, his body small and cold as clay. His hand-fashioned uniform was hard with blood. His abdomen had been opened like a box, revealing the secrets of Theo: pale viscera, black kidneys. An innocent liver, a pendulous heart. They zipped him into the soft coffin that would be his last vessel.
Ten minutes ago he had been warm and alive; a person you might have had a conversation with. Now he was removed from them forever, no less dead than someone who had been dead for centuries. The thought was quieting.
Snopes’ mind sailed on as if it were still intact inside him. It sailed and dreamed; dreamed that on the table his body was given a miraculous heart and that he lived; recovered and found his Isela, that he made her his wife, that together they found new worlds and created others: in their children, in their stories... in his mind’s eye, the bounty hunter became an old man, he died a natural death. And with that thought, the mind of Theodore Snopes disappeared as peacefully as a candle flame, blown out to make space for the night.
Above them, Qabal was chained in the brig, hissing at Howl. “You waste time. I am not the one you seek. The Dragons will destroy you if you do not release me.”
“Oh so? When your wee white paragon comes storming my camp, I’ll have all the show-so I need.”
Qabal could only glower.