by Nick Harrow
“And you were worried about us attracting attention,” Aja snorted. “At least my tits are covered.”
“Sort of.” I searched the crowd for a pilot who didn’t look too drunk or crazy. “Let’s try this guy.”
My target wore a blue vest covered with overlapping embroidered circles of gold thread. His long mustache hung in oily strips on either side of his mouth, the braided ends so long they threatened to dunk into his bowl of soup as he shoveled spoonfuls of piping hot broth into his mouth.
“Not interested,” he grumbled when I drew up to his table. Greasy brown broth spilled over his lips and into his beard as he spoke. “I said fuck off!”
The crimson bear bristled in my core, furious that anyone would speak to her shaman like that. She wanted me to drown this fucker in his bowl of soup. I wanted that, too, but it seemed like a bad first impression to make on the other pilots.
“Sorry to have disturbed your meal,” I muttered and stepped away from his table.
“Over here.” A fat man with so many rings in his nostrils I was surprised he could breathe waved at us from a few tables over. He waited for us to reach him, then steepled his fingers and leaned forward until his belly shoved the table a few inches toward me. “You three look like you’re in need of a good river man. Am I right?”
“I’m looking for a pilot to take us downriver,” I said. Up close, it was obvious the guy was either very drunk or very high. His glassy eyes were out of focus, and his mouth hung open like he didn’t have the energy or coordination to keep his jaws together.
“How far?” He puffed on his pipe and unleashed a cloud of black vapor that smelled like wildcat piss.
I jerked my head away from the vile smoke, careful not to let any of it climb up my nostrils. There was no telling what effect that shit would have on me if I got a good whiff of it.
“I need to get to the Lake of Moonsilver Mist.” I dodged another black cloud. “How much?”
“Fifty,” the man’s words left his mouth in swirls of ebony smoke. “In advance.”
“Fifty imperials?” That was enough to buy a fucking horse and all the tack to go with it. Who the fuck did this asshole think he was trying to rob?
“Fifty celestials!” the man barked and jabbed his pipe’s bowl at my face. “Imperials, bah. Stupid grub.”
Celestial coins were worth ten times imperials, or at least they had been before I climbed Mount Shiki. This guy’s price was enough to buy a decent house back in my village. I bristled at the thought of just how hard this guy was trying to fuck me.
“Goddamned thief,” I growled.
“What did you call me?” The man’s eyes were suddenly as clear and sharp as a pair of glass knives. “My price is fair, you naked fucking savage. I oughta carve your spine out for your bullshit insinuation otherwise.”
The fat man shoved back from his seat and stood up. He wasn’t quite as tall as I was, but he had close to fifty pounds on me and an ugly knife in his hand.
“Whoa, easy.” I was sure I could take the bastard in a fair fight. I was also sure I’d still get some nasty cuts and attract all the wrong kinds of attention in the process. “I was just surprised by the price, that’s all.”
We eyed one another over the table, the threat of violence thick in the air. The spirits stood on either side of me, tense and ready to spring into action if push came to shove. I wasn’t sure what Ayo could do in a fight, but Aja looked like she could do some damage if she was backed into a corner.
“Get away from that fat fuck, kid.” A woman’s voice, brash and bold as a trumpet blast, sliced through the tension around me. “He’s too jacked up on lilis tar to pilot piss out of his dick, much less a sampan downriver. Come with me before someone sticks a knife in you.”
The speaker strode past me confidently, without so much as a glance for the pilot squared off in front of me. She was tall, and her long legs made the pair of tight black shorts she wore seem like they covered almost nothing. Like the other pilots, her shirt was so bright it made me want to squint. Unlike the other pilots, though, she left her dark hair loose, and the tangled curls spilled down her back almost to her waist.
I glanced at Aja and Ayo, shrugged, then followed the pilot through the crowded bar.
She tossed coins onto the trays of passing waitresses as she wove through the full tables, and the servers grinned and bobbed their heads in thanks. By the time she’d reached a surprisingly empty booth in the bar’s far corner, she’d shelled out at least twenty coins. It was clear this woman was a regular, and just as clear that the staff liked and looked out for her as thanks for her generosity.
“Gotta watch who you talk to,” she chided me and took a seat with her back to the wall. “That fat fucker is Guasil. He traffics in sweet flesh like your little friends here. If he’d got you alone on the river, the last thing you’d have seen was his knife opening that pretty neck of yours. Blood God, tall boy, sit the fuck down before I get a crick in my neck from staring up at you.”
“And you’re telling me all this out of the goodness of your heart.” I sat down on the rickety bench on the opposite side of the booth. Ayo dropped in next to me, and Aja pulled an empty chair from a nearby table and planted it on the outside edge of the table.
“I’m Jaga, and I’m telling you because I could use the coin, and you could use a pilot who won’t try to steal these sweet pieces of ass for the slave market.” Jaga leaned back in her chair and put her hands on the table. Her fingers were festooned with heavy rings, and the metal bands clinked against the table. “You told Guasil you wanted to go to the Lake of Moonsilver Mist?”
“That’s right.” I tried not to let my inexperience at haggling show on my face. “How much?”
“Not fifty fucking celestials, that’s for sure.” Jaga clucked her tongue against the roof of her mouth. “Let’s say twenty imperials, and you help me with a little issue I have.”
“Seems reasonable.” Twenty imperials was still a decent chunk of change, but it seemed a lot less like a ripoff than Guasil’s price. “Unless the favor’s going to get me killed.”
“Probably won’t.” Jaga leaned over the table and gestured for me to come closer. She didn’t speak again until I’d lowered my head toward hers. “I’ve got a buyer for materialized senjin containers. I need help filling them.”
“Sounds dangerous.” Unless Jaga was a practitioner, the only way she could fill senjin containers was to spend time near the dream meridians. I’d seen the corruption that oozed into the earth from around those lines. There’d be no telling what kind of trouble might crop up if she was intentionally gathering corrupted senjin.
“Probably.” She shrugged and leaned back. “But that’s the offer.”
This ride was a hell of a lot cheaper than the first offer, but it would put me and my companions in serious danger. Materialized senjin affected the world around it, and legends said that powerful sacred beasts often sought the energy to consume its power. Would corrupted sacred energy draw corrupted creatures to it? I didn’t know, but fighting monsters was not high on my list of shit I wanted to do before I died.
I also wasn’t sure partnering with someone who collected tainted senjin for a living was a great plan. Whatever Jaga’s customer was going to do with the poisoned sacred energy couldn’t be good. I’d come back to save the world, not let someone use its poison for dark purposes.
“No thanks.” I leaned back in my seat and crossed my arms. “I won’t get my people killed to line your pockets.”
“Ah, well.” She shrugged and gestured for me to get away from her table. “If you change your mind before tomorrow morning, I’m docked down below. Gold-prowed sampan with a red cabin. Can’t miss it. Now fuck off so I can eat and drink in peace.”
No other riverboat pilots stepped forward after Jaga’s rude dismissal. Left to my own devices I fumbled through one negotiation after another as the sun sank lower and my energy flagged. The spirits weren’t doing much better. Their cores were r
unning dry, and we’d have to recharge before we slept. That, at least, was something to look forward to.
“Thirty imperials,” the last pilot said as I flopped down in the rickety chair opposite him. “I’ve heard your other negotiations, and you and I both know this is the best price you’re going to get here.”
“Deal.” This fucker’s deal was more expensive than Jaga’s, but he didn’t want me to get us all killed fucking around with tainted senjin. Plus, I was too worn out to keep doing this. I needed to recharge and sleep. “My name’s Kyr.”
“Mokar,” the pilot said. “Pay me now, and I’ll meet you on the east shore at first light. My boat’s blue with a green cabin. Two silver stripes on the prow.”
“Half up front, half tomorrow,” I shot back. I was tired, not stupid. Before he could object, I dug a gold ring out of my satchel and slapped it down in the center of the table. “You’ll get another just like it once we’re on the river.”
Mokar glared at me for a second, then scooped the ring off the table and stuffed it into a pouch that dangled from his belt.
“Consider me hired, then,” he said.
“Thanks.” I rubbed my eyes and held out my hand to seal the deal. Mokar glanced at it, shrugged, and we shook on it. “Is there someplace we could stay?”
“You can rent rooms from Mama Buko,” the pilot said. “She’s the next building over. Her place isn’t quite as big as the bar, but you can’t miss it. Look for the blue torches.”
I thanked Mokar again, promised to be ready at the shore by dawn, and guided the exhausted spirits to our next stop.
Mama Buko took one look at my group, shook her head, and wagged a finger at me.
“If you want to hire out a hole, you pay my girls.” She pointed her lacquered purple nail at my eye. “Don’t bring those sluts in here.”
Aja growled like a hungry wolverine and shoved her face into Mama Buko’s.
“We’re not whores.” She clenched her fists so tight the knuckles crackled. “How much for a goddamned room?”
The innkeeper stepped back and spread her arms wide.
“My apologies. You look very much like whores playing dress up in that armor.” She stepped toward a rack of keys hanging on the wall and scooped a ring off the peg board. “Five imperials for the three of you.”
I opened my satchel, careful not to reveal the extent of its contents, and plucked out a golden ring with a cat’s eye agate mounted in its prongs.
“Will this do?” I put the jewelry in Mama Buko’s outstretched hand and hoped she’d accept it without argument.
“Hmm.” Her eyes flickered as she shifted into her spirit sight and inspected the ring. “Real gold. Gem’s flawed, though. Fine.”
The gold in the ring weighed more than twenty imperials, but there was no point in arguing. Jewelry wasn’t as easy to trade as cash, and I wasn’t in a position to bargain. After the physical effort of the past few days and the stress of negotiating with greedy sampan pilots, I was too exhausted to care that I was getting ripped off.
We found the room that matched the number on the key, and I managed to find the keyhole after only three tries. The script on the key triggered a matching script in the lock, and the door swung open. Yata fluttered into the room ahead of us, squawked once, and then perched on the windowsill.
Aja shoved the door closed behind us and pushed me toward the bed. We were all tired and hungry, but there was another, more desperate appetite that needed to be satisfied before we could worry about food or anything else.
“Come here, you,” Ayo said, her voice low and husky. She shoved my breechcloth aside with one hand and dropped to her knees in front of me. Her mouth closed over my cock almost before her knees hit the floor, tongue swirling in a hot spiral around its head, and she sucked until my knees buckled and I had to sit on the edge of the bed.
Aja pounced on the straw mattress next to me, closed her hand around my balls, nails gently grazing the sensitive skin. I grabbed the back of her head and pulled her into a fierce kiss. My tongue flickered over hers, tips brushing against one another. She sucked it deeper into her mouth and thrust her breasts toward me. With a snarl, she unbuckled the straps of her armor and shoved it to one side.
Despite everything that had happened, I had to admit that life was pretty fucking great.
Chapter Twelve
DESPITE MY FILLED CORE and the day’s physical activity, my sleep was fitful. The wound in my side had mostly healed, thanks to the constant cycle of rin and senjin purification moving through my body, but it started aching not long after midnight. The pain came and went, sticking around long enough to wake me up before it faded away.
It was annoying as hell.
But not nearly as annoying as what happened next.
In the darkest hours before dawn the smell of smoke and the piercing sound of screams dragged me out of an especially exciting dream about my time with Mielyssi. She growled inside my core at the sudden interruption, and I wondered just how much of that dream had been something else entirely.
“Fire,” Yata croaked from its perch on the sill. “Two buildings to the west. Doesn’t look good.”
I jumped out of bed, raising annoyed shouts from Ayo and Aja, and joined Yata at the window. The fire had consumed part of a building’s roof and sent its occupants scrambling outside with whatever possessions they could carry clutched to their chests. They shouted with fear and confusion and pointed excitedly toward something I couldn’t see down on the river.
“Find out what’s going on,” I said to Yata. Then to the spirits, “Grab your shit, we need to get the hell out of here.”
“Do you know how long it’s been since I slept in a real bed?” Ayo groaned. “It’s probably nothing to do with us. Let me sleep.”
I wanted to believe the spirit, but I couldn’t. A niggling voice of doubt at the back of my mind warned me to trust my instincts and get moving. Better to run like hell and be wrong about the trouble than to stick around and get my throat slit.
“Not now.” I grabbed my war club and ran to the room’s door. I hesitated before I opened it, listening for any trouble outside. We weren’t the only ones awake, but I didn’t hear any screams or sounds of real trouble in the inn. I eased the door open and peered out into the hall.
“What’s going on?” A woman in a red robe brandished a knife, as if that would convince someone to answer her.
“Fire,” I said and looked down the hall to see if there were any other signs of danger. I let out a sigh of relief when I didn’t see any threats.
“Shit. That’s bad.” The woman in red’s knife vanished into her sleeve, and she crossed her arms under breasts that threatened to spill out of her robes. “If it spreads, we’ll all be swimming.”
At the sound of Yata’s wings beating against the windowsill, I ducked back into the room and shut the door.
“Jade Seekers,” the three-legged raven squawked and ruffled its feathers. “Their leader has a giant sword that moans—”
“Like a woman.” My heart sank at the news. I’d dropped Jiro a few hundred feet into a rocky ravine. I had no idea how the bastard had crawled out of that, much less how he’d found where I was staying.
“Ah, motherfucker,” Aja snapped. “That’s the fucker who caught us looking for you.”
“Yep.” I slung my weapon over my shoulder and grabbed my satchel. “We have to get gone, like, now.”
I left the hotel room at a brisk walk that was just shy of a run. I didn’t want to attract attention; just another sleepy guy trying to figure out what the fuck had woken him up. Not that I thought that would hide me from Jiro Kos for long. If he saw a mostly naked man with a pair of hot spirits, he’d be on top of me in the blink of an eye. I had to be gone before that happened.
We threaded our way through the crowds gathered outside the inn, and I pulled my shoulders in and hunkered down to keep from towering over the rest of the crowd. I hoped that would be enough to keep Jiro from spotting me as he
burned the city to the waterline.
My stomach clenched at that thought. Everyone who called this village home would suffer because I’d decided to stop here. They were criminals, sure, but they didn’t deserve this kind of trouble. If Jiro found me, he’d probably kill a bunch of them for harboring a fugitive. If he didn’t find me, he’d still murder everyone out of sheer spite.
Goddamn, I wanted to kill that guy all over again.
“This way.” I pushed through a knot of pilots and broke into a jog. I needed to get to the shore and find Marok.
I spied his boat a few minutes later, docked in the midst of a few dozen other sampans. All the pilots were on deck, eyes wide in the firelight.
The blaze was spreading, and if someone didn’t put it out soon the whole village would be ashes by sunup.
I scrambled down the ladder to the riverbank and ran to the boat. Yata fluttered along beside me, and the spirits hustled to catch up to my long strides.
“Marok,” I barked as I ran up to his boat. “We need to go.”
“It’s still hours to dawn,” the pilot protested. “Far too dangerous. We’ll leave in the morning.”
“I can’t wait until morning.” I struggled to keep my voice even, but from the look in Marok’s eyes, I hadn’t succeeded.
“What’s the hurry?” The pilot didn’t even attempt to keep the suspicion out of his voice. He pointed at the fire. “Are you running from the assholes who did this?”
The last thing I wanted to do was explain to a smuggler that the Jade Seekers were on my ass. At best, he’d use that as an excuse to jack up the price, and at worst he’d sell me out to the hunters.
“It’s complicated.”
