Yddris didn't speak to him again. Several times, Jordan contemplated saying something, but didn't know what or why he even wanted to. The Unspoken was only marginally taller than he was, but seemed much bigger in the silence. He hadn't realised how much he relied on seeing a face.
The streets they walked down were long and winding, lined with brightly-lit shops selling all manner of things. There were bakeries and tailors, grocers, butchers and apothecaries. The occasional shop filled from floor to ceiling with books, vials and other oddments. For the most part, shoppers left them alone aside from the occasional glance, and judging by their attire and the fact that no one was pissing in full view of the street Jordan gathered that this was a more upmarket part of the city. Occasionally he would pass a door that let out a warm gust of air and shuddered, longing for a fire to sit beside so he knew what his nose and fingers felt like again.
"Where are we?" he finally asked, cringing as his voice cut through the quiet. He glanced nervously down a darkened alley as they passed it and drew closer to Yddris as the ghosting sensation of a cold blade tingled on his throat.
"Merchants' Quarter," Yddris replied, and to Jordan's relief he didn't move away. "The main shopping district, for future reference. Are you hungry?"
Jordan hurried to catch up to him. "Starving."
"I believe that to be a slight exaggeration," the Unspoken muttered, but nudged him towards the door of a nearby shop. "In there."
Jordan stepped into a halo of candlelight. The room beyond was warmly lit and filled with cushioned benches, and against the far wall was a long counter of food. Through a small doorway in the back corner Jordan heard the hiss of something frying, and his mouth watered at the smell of meat. The thin gruel he and Grace had been given in the dungeons left a lot to be desired.
"I'm going to take a wild stab in the dark and guess that you don't know what any of that is," Yddris muttered, gesturing to the counter, "So you'll have to just trust me on this one."
Jordan scanned the counter. Yddris was right. Some of the food was vaguely recognisable, but he wouldn't have put any money on naming it. He eyed a small pile of blood-coloured fruits lying in a puddle of dark juice at one end and frowned. "I don't think I want any of whatever those are."
"They taste as good as they look," Yddris said with a chuckle, and rapped on a nearby table.
A very tall man emerged from the doorway, face splitting into a grin when he saw Yddris. His skin was weathered and laced with scars and tattoos over bulging muscles, and his eyes were an unnerving shade of yellow. Jordan realised with a start that what he had at first glance taken for wonky teeth were actually filed sharp, and took an involuntary step backwards. The movement drew the man's eye.
"You've been busy, Yddris," he said, in a thick accent Jordan could barely understand. "Been hunting otherworlders, ay?"
"I'm babysitting," Yddris replied. The man growled a laugh and fixed Jordan with a beady stare.
"He's small."
A protest rose and died in Jordan's throat and prompted another terrifying laugh.
"This is Vek," Yddris said to Jordan.
"Short for Vekrathnelariniel," the man added, grinning, "But I don't mind if you use Vek."
Jordan nodded, eyes wide, as Vek shuffled his enormous frame behind the counter. On such a huge man, the little white apron tied around his waist seemed out of place.
"Just the one, Vek," Yddris said, as Vek picked up two enormous knives and began to rub them together. The sound made Jordan cringe. "In a hurry today."
"For the small one?" Vek nodded when Yddris did, and offered a fanged smile for Jordan. "You don't want people in it, eh?"
Jordan blinked. "People?"
Vek just cackled and turned away. Jordan turned to Yddris, who shook his head at him and mimed quiet. The image of the man's sharpened teeth flashed in Jordan's head and he suddenly didn't feel quite as hungry.
"Nika dropped in yesterday," the giant said in a conversational tone, but the way Yddris stiffened suggested it was more than small talk. When the Unspoken replied, his voice was strained.
"Oh. He's in town again, is he?"
"Ay. For the dark season, he said."
"He never stays for the dark season."
"This one he said he is staying for," Vek said, turning around with what looked like an overloaded sandwich clasped in his hands. He continued as he wrapped it in wax paper. "He said this one feels different and he'd prefer to stay in the city for it. He asked after you."
"What did you tell him?"
"I said I hadn't seen you for a long while and couldn't say. Here you go, small man."
Jordan inched forward, waiting until Vek had put the knives down before taking the food with a tiny 'thanks'. It was warm and heavy in his hands, grease already soaking through the paper. His stomach growled loudly enough for all three of them to hear it.
"Maybe you weren't exaggerating," Yddris muttered, as Vek chuckled. Jordan offered a timid smile and began peeling back the paper. He glanced at Vek.
"No people?"
The giant laughed, "I promise no people."
He took a bite. The bread was dark and tasted smoky, the meat salty. It was only the company that stopped Jordan groaning, and with a pang he wondered if Grace was getting food half as good as this. Then again, he didn't count on it lasting for him, either.
Yddris flicked a coin across the counter. "Thanks, Vek."
The giant nodded, stuffing the money into the pocket of his apron. "Good to see you, Yddris. You come and have drinks again sometime. I'll drag you from the castle myself if I have to."
"You could try."
The cold air outside was a harsh slap compared to the mugginess of the shop. Jordan clutched the sandwich close, trying to make its warmth spread further than his fingers, and ate faster than was probably advisable. He glanced at the Unspoken walking beside him. For once, he wasn't smoking.
"He's not a cannibal, is he? That was a weird joke, right?"
"He wouldn't be allowed in the city if he was." Yddris's voice was distant, but he seemed to shake himself out when he realised Jordan was staring. "He's a former Varthian tribesman, though, and the Varthian tribes are pretty well-known for eating their enemies after they kill them."
Jordan's mouthful jammed in his throat. "Oh." He coughed. "I thought he was joking."
"He was." Yddris shrugged. "If you'd been from here you would've got it."
"So you're friends?"
"We are."
"And you and that other bloke..."
"Arlen is a contemptible shithead," Yddris interrupted, "Who no one in their right mind gets involved with. He won't bother you again if he knows you're with me."
Jordan nodded slowly, trying to conceal his relief with a bite of his sandwich. "So.... Is Nika an Unspoken, too?"
Yddris stiffened. It took him a long moment to respond. "He is."
Jordan dropped it, the tone of Yddris's voice suggesting he'd be lucky to get more than that. He wasn't eager to piss off the only man who'd been halfway decent to him in this place so far. He didn't want to end up abandoned in a gutter as demon food.
Yddris led him through more streets of shops. The crowds were thinning out, and some windows were dark already. The air had a bite to it that hadn't been there when they had left the castle, cutting at Jordan's exposed skin to the point where he envied Yddris's cloak. If the cold was bothering the Unspoken, there was no sign of it.
He pulled his hands inside his sleeves, letting out a long stream of foggy breath through his nose, and thanked what little luck he had that the portal had appeared somewhere cold. If they had been on holiday in southern Europe and he'd fallen down here in beach shorts he'd have died of pneumonia by now.
It was the little things, he supposed.
A long, low moan echoed across the city from somewhere nearby. As it faded Jordan convinced himself it was the wind, right up until he heard screaming. His heart stuttered, the hastily-eaten sandwich boiling in his stomach. He walked into Yddris in his attempts to keep away from darkened alleys and the streets where the lights had gone out, casting around in the gloom for the source of the noise. Yddris put a hand on his shoulder.
"Keep walking," he muttered. "We're almost there."
"What was that?"
"A demon," Yddris said, in the same low tone, "Keep your voice down."
"Aren't you supposed to like, kill them?"
"There's already someone dealing with it. Keep going." He started walking faster, pulling Jordan along with him. "If it runs from them it'll come this way."
Jordan swallowed bile and sped up to a jog to keep pace. He was out of breath within a couple of streets, but another long moan from behind them spurred him on until every part of him ached. The wind whistled in his ears, deafening him to anything but his own breathing. He didn't notice that Yddris had stopped until the man grabbed the collar of his coat and yanked on it.
"We're clear," Yddris said. He didn't even sound winded.
Jordan's breath clawed its way up his throat, deafening in comparison. His chest ached. It was several moments before he could speak.
Then he noticed where they were, and his thoughts fled from him.
A vast stone bridge stretched ahead of them, spanning a river that was black as pitch. The dark water rushed underneath and foamed into a weir before continuing into the city, winding amongst the docks and lines of riverside cottages. In the distance, a few lone boats drifted on the surface with lanterns at their helms and the dark humps of people huddled inside.
"The Aven," Yddris said. "This is its widest point in the city." He pointed to the other side of the river, where more lights glittered. "We want the inn over there."
Jordan squinted. The buildings were formless blobs to him, aside from their windows. He looked back down the shop-lined street they had run through and thought it looked more inviting than it had any right to, considering it was crawling with nightmare fuel.
"It won't follow us, will it?"
"I would hope not," Yddris said, "Considering it's dead."
"How do you know that?"
"I felt it," Yddris replied, as if it was just a throwaway comment about the weather. He clicked his fingers. "Got snuffed two minutes ago, just like that. So if it's following us, we've really got something to worry about."
He set off across the bridge and, not wanting to repeat the events of earlier in the day, Jordan hurried to follow on legs that felt like jelly. The bridge was a plain affair, the deck cobbled and the guard rail a long procession of posts linked by metal bars. Lamp posts lined each side with tiny flames flickering inside. What it lacked in decoration it made up for in sheer size.
"This place is so big," he murmured, unable to keep the fear out of his voice or his eyes from the sky that had spit him out.
"You don't have cities this big on earth?" Yddris asked.
"Yes, we do, but...." Jordan scanned the river and shuddered. It was so dark. "They don't feel as big. The buildings are so much taller and you can't see how far they go. It actually feels cramped in some places. But this," he pointed out at the vast spread of Shadow's Reach on either side of the river, "I've never seen anything like it."
Yddris grunted. "You wait until the next Light Fayre. You don't know what cramped is until you've been to one of those."
They passed a man pulling a wagon in the other direction and fell silent. Thankfully it seemed to have grown dark enough for Jordan to go unnoticed, and he hadn't seen anyone look straight at the Unspoken walking beside him since they'd left the castle. He wondered if it bothered the man, and concluded that he was more likely just used to it.
"Is it the magic?" he asked, to distract himself from the yawning body of water on either side of them.
"Is what the magic?"
"Is it the magic that makes people avoid you?"
"You noticed that, did you?"
"It was pretty obvious." Jordan swallowed. "No offence."
To his surprise, Yddris laughed. "Nict's balls, boy, you'll have to do more than that to offend me. You're doing better than most by standing within two feet." He pulled out his pipe for the first time since they'd left the shop. "Yes it is. Makes people uncomfortable at best, downright murderous at worst. But you get hanged if you assault Unspoken, so they just stay away."
It was a struggle to remember how to blink. "Wow. Okay."
Yddris chuckled. "Not that you'd win if you did pick a fight, mind."
They stepped off the bridge, and Jordan jumped up and down a couple of times on solid ground, relieved. He was trying to process it, but couldn't. The sensation of being rubbed all over by a very static balloon didn't seem to warrant wanting to kill someone. He had to be missing something.
He didn't get to ask, though.
"This is the place."
Yddris pointed at the building beside the bridge and Jordan froze, peering up at it. The inn was clean and squat, made of dark brick. A thick chimney billowed smoke into the night air and he could hear the murmur of voices behind the door. A sign creaking in the breeze above it, as Yddris said it aloud, read Demon's Brew Inn and Freehouse below a bad painting of a leering monster, and above that a window stood wide open, allowing the sounds of enthusiastic sex to interrupt the silence of the road outside. Jordan grimaced.
"Someone's having fun," Yddris said. He bent down and picked something up off the ground, and before Jordan could say anything, the Unspoken had lobbed a shard of stone through the open window. It found a target that made a very loud screech, and a moment later the silhouette of a man appeared in the gap.
"What the fuck do you think you're... Oh."
"Shut your window. No one cares to hear it," Yddris said, knocking his pipe out without even looking up. Jordan stared, horrified. "She's definitely faking that, by the way. Is your father in?"
The man in the window paused, but his stance instantly relaxed. "Oh, fuck you, Yddris." He turned away and disappeared, calling back, "He's in the cellar."
"Cheers."
"I can't believe you just did that," Jordan muttered, following the Unspoken up the steps when he beckoned. Yddris only laughed.
The main room of the inn was warm; as Jordan stepped inside, he sighed in relief and rubbed at his arms to try and get some feeling into them. People were ranged around the place, clustered most densely around the roaring hearth fire. It was low-ceilinged and all made of stone, even the bar. It looked as if the entire inn had been carved out of a single lump of rock.
People glanced at them and then away again. Jordan felt their eyes return to him as he passed them, felt the stares like crawling on his neck. He ducked his head and observed them too from under his hair, and concluded with a sinking stomach that he never would blend in. Jordan's hair alone felt positively garish.
He looked at the man beside him and briefly wondered what he looked like under the cowl.
Yddris led him around the side of the bar, where there was an open hatch in the floor. From the bottom of a short flight of wooden stairs Jordan heard grunting and the clink of glass bottles, which stopped when Yddris bent down and called, "Ked!"
A head poked out of the hole. The man was bald, his skin a deep, red-toned brown, with dark grey eyes and beard. Jordan stepped back as a white grin split his face and he hauled himself out the rest of the way. He was huge as Vek had been, but in a way that suggested that he had been muscular once and it had been many years since he'd used it. Jordan vaguely wondered if everyone Yddris knew was gigantic.
"Yddris." Ked's voice was deep and seemed to rumble through the foundations of the inn itself. His eyes slipped to Jordan, hovering at Yddris's shoulder and trying not to look like he was hiding. "Who's this?"
"This is Jordan," Yddris said. "Jordan, this is Kedrick."
A huge hand came towards him in greeting. Jordan put out his own, which seemed so small in comparison, and watched in consternation as Kedrick completely bypassed his hand and grasped him at the elbow. The enthusiastic pump up and down that followed almost pulled it out of joint.
"You don't shake in otherworld?" Kedrick asked, amused. Jordan stared at him wide eyed.
"Hands. We shake hands." He gently flexed his arm to make sure it still worked. "Not elbows."
The massive paw came out again and grasped Jordan's, completely swallowing it. "Like this?"
"Yeah." Jordan attempted a smile, and it came out more of a wince. "Like that." He swallowed. "Hello."
Kedrick looked down at him for a moment before turning to Yddris. "He's small."
Jordan scowled.
"He needs a job," Yddris replied. "I was wondering if we could talk about that."
Kedrick's face became serious, and when he looked at Jordan again, his stare was appraising. "Temporary or permanent?"
Jordan glanced between them, lost. He had thought he was getting a bar job, but he couldn't shake the feeling that both men were talking about something else.
"Temporary," Yddris said heavily. "Most likely, anyway."
Kedrick hummed, still staring at Jordan, and then glanced at Yddris. The Unspoken shook his head in response to a silent question, and Jordan bit down on his frustration. After all he had been through in just a couple of days, people thought it was okay to keep things from him? He'd been held at knifepoint just a few hours ago. Tears burned at the back of his eyes and he refused to let them form, even though there was an unlit, dusty corner at the back of the inn which looked very inviting for curling up in and never leaving again.
"I'm sure I can sort something out," Kedrick said. His face remained serious. "Come with me."