A few minutes later they arrived at a gate, and beyond the gate was a small courtyard, and therein were two more karkadann riders guarding four doors to four small homes, all with only the one exit through the gate. And, as they were informed, that exit was guarded at all times.
The woman then introduced herself as Sister Neelam, explained that supper would be delivered later, and then promised to return the next day to speak with them again. And she left with a smile.
Iyasu stood in the courtyard and watched her depart with the three riders from the street, leaving them in the custody of the two mounted guards who had already been there when they arrived. He turned and looked at Azrael. “We have strange luck.”
“Very.” She rested her hand on the back of his neck. “But I don’t suppose we’ll be prisoners here for very long.”
“No, no. I’m not worried about that. But we do have strange luck.” He watched the two karkadann standing by the closed gate. The bronze beasts shuffled their feet from time to time, and angled their heads to point their shining black eyes here and there, all while their riders sat motionless with their arms folded over their chests.
“You want to leave, don’t you?” Kamil asked him.
“Don’t you?” Iyasu turned to the boy.
“No. Why would I?”
Iyasu paused. “Well, never mind that. We’ll come back to that later. First, I want to meet our new neighbors.”
“What neighbors?” Azrael asked.
“The guards were here when we arrived,” the seer said. “So someone is already here being guarded.”
He knocked on the first door, and when there was no answer he tried the second and the third, again without an answer. But when he struck the fourth door, he heard a muffled voice followed by laughter. He knocked again, frowning as he strained to hear. There was silence, then a dull thud, and then the door flew open to reveal a tall muscular man wearing absolutely nothing except a brash smile on his bearded face.
“Good afternoon!” the man bellowed.
“Put your pants on!” A woman laughed from the room behind him.
“You first!” The man turned and ran back into the room, leaving Iyasu to stare through the open door as the man dove onto the bed, where his momentum carried him and the nude woman lying there completely off the far side and onto the floor with a loud thump, followed by another peal of laughter.
The seer turned back to the Angel of Death. “Very strange luck.”
Chapter 7
The seer stood outside the open doorway, facing the courtyard and trying not to blush as he called out, “My name is Iyasu. I’m a cleric from Shivala.”
“A pleasure!” the man called out. “I’m Rahm of Zathruda. I’m sure you’ve never heard of it. No one has, as far as I can tell.”
“Is it very far to the east?” Iyasu asked.
“Why?” The man leaned out the doorway, his pants on but not yet belted, his unbuttoned shirt hanging open from his huge shoulders. He peered down at the seer. “Planning an invasion?”
Iyasu shrugged. “Not today.”
“Ha!” Rahm smacked the younger man on the arm and ducked back into his room.
Iyasu winced and massaged his throbbing arm, and stepped a bit farther away from the doorway. “And your friend? I only ask out of curiosity, still no plans of invasion.”
Rahm roared with laughter. “I like you!” And then a bit softer, “I like him, don’t you? I do. Quiet little fellow, but there’s a wicked imp in him, you can tell.” And then louder again, “You’re about to have the most wondrous moment of your life, little man, as you are introduced to my incomparable wife, the crown princess of Sungarath, the radiant, the devastating…”
“…the impatient,” the woman in question said.
“Hadara!” Rahm strode out through the doorway again, this time with his shirts and coats all properly fastened and his long black mane tied back in a loose queue. He gestured to the doorway and his wife appeared, a woman no less tall or powerful or amused as her husband. She paced out into the courtyard wearing a lightly flowing dress of orange and gold silk, and her dark brown hair hung freely nearly to her waist beneath a gossamer drape of golden lace.
“Hello, Iyasu of Shivala,” she said with a smile. “It’s very nice to meet you. Won’t you introduce us to your friends?”
Iyasu paused to collect himself. He had certainly seen tall people before, and strong people, and beautiful people, but never all three at once, and never two of them standing side by side. They scarcely seemed human in their casual perfection, fearless and powerful and fiercely happy.
“This is Azrael.” He reached out to take her hand. “And this is Kamil. We rescued him from an island just yesterday.”
“Did you really? That sounds like a grand adventure.” Rahm beamed. “Tell us all about it!”
“Actually, there’s nothing to tell. We simply helped him to sail his boat across the sea to the coast near here.”
“Ah.” Rahm shrugged. “Well, not every day can be a grand adventure.”
“And then you had the misfortune of coming into this city?” Hadara asked.
“Yes.” Azrael turned her back to the guards by the gate. “Did you come here by accident as well?”
“No, not at all.” Rahm folded his bulging arms across his broad chest and eyed them all in turn. “We were sent here, with no warning at all of the welcome we would receive, and we’ve been here for nearly a month now!”
“A month?” Iyasu frowned.
“Yes, they say they’ll move us to other quarters when they can trust us not to try to escape so often.” Hadara smiled. “Apparently, they still don’t trust us.”
“Is there no way to escape?” Azrael asked.
“We’ve tried four times,” Hadara said. “And as you can see, we’re still here.”
“There was another man living there.” Rahm pointed to one of the open doors behind them. “He came with us when we tried to escape the second time. But the karkadann, well… he didn’t make it. Pity. I liked him.”
“I didn’t.” Hadara sighed.
“Wait, just a moment, go back.” Iyasu waved to catch the giants’ attention. “You say you were sent here? By whom? And why?”
The two of them exchanged a glance and the man said, “Let’s just say it was someone we trusted, and we were supposed to find someone here. Someone who could help me kill a demon.”
“At first we thought maybe one of the karkadann riders could be the warrior we were sent to find,” Hadara added. “But none of them will even speak to us, let alone help us leave.”
“What’s a demon?” Kamil asked.
Iyasu glanced at the boy. “Like an angel, only bad. Sort of. They’re very strong and sometimes very strange, and they generally want to kill you and eat you. Horrible things. Avoid at all costs.” The seer turned back to Rahm. “Not to pry, but I know a thing or two about demons. What’s yours? An ifrit? A ghul?”
“Ha!” Rahm shook his head. “My horse can kill ifrits and ghuls in his sleep. No, we are hunting the demon-lord of Messenad. He’s taken the king of Burzhia prisoner.”
“The king of Burzhia?” Iyasu frowned. “You two are trying to rescue… Wouldn’t a king have an entire army to come rescue him?”
Rahm rolled his eyes. “The king took his army to slaughter the demon, but the demon slaughtered the army instead. Only two men lived to tell the tale, saying that old King Kavad may still live in the demon’s cellars, somewhere beneath the desert.”
“Beneath the desert…?” Iyasu looked sharply at him. He grabbed Rahm’s arm in his enthusiasm and paused momentarily at the eerie sensation of the massive muscles under his small hand. “Uh, yes, very large arm there. Anyway, your demon-lord, it may have something to do with the attack on Shivala a few weeks ago. In fact, it may not be a demon at all. It might be a djinn. Your demon’s cellar may be the djinn city we’re searching for!”
Hadara pushed her husband aside and stood in front of Iyasu, tower
ing over him. “You know about these creatures? You know how to kill them?”
“Well… yes.” He nodded.
The warrior princess smacked Rahm on the arm. “You see! He’s the one who will help us kill the demon. He’s the one we were sent to find. And you thought she betrayed us.”
Rahm grinned and shook his head. “Never for a moment!”
“You thought who betrayed you?” Azrael asked.
“The one who sent us here,” Hadara said. “The angel Simurgh.”
Iyasu blinked. “You spoke to the angel Simurgh?”
“Isn’t that what I just said?” The princess narrowed her eyes at him, daring him to call her a liar.
“Yes. Yes, it is. Yes, it was.” Iyasu smiled and ran his fingers through his hair. “That’s uncanny, that’s impossible. That’s who we were sent to find. The angel Simurgh, she can help us find the djinn city. You can take us to her?”
“Of course not.” Rahm paced away.
“What? Why not?” the seer asked.
“Why not?” Rahm laughed and pointed at the two karkadann riders guarding the gate. “That’s why not.”
“Oh, that? Well…” Iyasu winked at the easterners. “That’s actually not a problem. We can leave whenever we want.”
“Oh, really?” Hadara’s tone clearly indicated that she thought he was an idiot.
“Really, really.” The seer nodded like a puppy wagging his tail, unable to stop grinning. “We can walk out that gate right now, if we want. Although I’d rather wait until after supper, seeing as how it’s getting a bit late and I’m starving, and once we’re on the run again, well, we’re not going to get much to eat, not even prison rations.”
“Prison rations?” Rahm snorted. “Look around, little man. This is hardly a prison. And the food is fit for a princess.”
“All the more reason to stay another few hours.”
“And then what?” Hadara asked. “You’ll swat the karkadann aside with those delicate little hands of yours? If Rahm and I cannot escape them, no man or woman can.”
“Oh, I don’t doubt that, not for a minute.” Iyasu went on grinning. “But we’ve got something much, much better than a man or a woman. We’ve got an angel.”
Rahm and Hadara both looked at Azrael.
Iyasu saw their eyes shift. “Really? You’re not even going to consider that it might be me?”
“Or me?” Kamil added.
“No,” Hadara said, still staring at Azrael. “So, is it true?”
“Yes,” the angel said. “It’s true. We’ll be leaving after supper tonight.”
Supper eventually arrived as a collection of covered silver platters on a small cart drawn by a sleepy-looking mule and driven by a very friendly young woman who backed the cart into the courtyard and then leapt down to unhitch the mule and ready the meal. The cart itself served as the dining table, and several small wooden chairs were quickly unhooked from beneath the cart and placed beside it. She then uncovered the dishes and produced several glasses, which she filled with water, and then when everything was set, she led the mule away from the cart and went to stand by the gate.
Iyasu watched the performance unfold with an amused expression and then took his seat with the others around the table. There was rice and flatbreads, spicy potatoes and even spicier lamb, and a variety of hot vegetables served with chilled dollops of yogurt. The seer found himself utterly entranced by the sight and smell of so much food, and he fell to eating without a moment’s thought for his company. Fortunately, everyone else was similarly distracted and seemed completely uninterested in making conversation.
Except for the angel. Azrael sampled the dishes one by one, as she usually did, but in the end she merely finished her water and let the others take what they wanted from her plate, as she had no need for it.
Iyasu felt her sitting beside him, not eating. He looked up several times to smile at her, and to try to make some semblance of conversation, but each time she smiled and shook her head, and let him eat.
So he ate until he was full, and then he ate a bit more just to be certain. Even before the long journey across the sea from the tiny fishing village, he had eaten sparingly on the road across the southern kingdoms, consuming only what he found or was offered, which was never much. And now his body demanded recompense for those many months of austerity.
But all too soon, the food was gone and the smiling young woman had the chairs and dishes packed away, and the cart was rolling out through the gate behind the sleepy mule.
This left the five prisoners standing in the yard as the stars emerged from the inky sky, and Rahm and Hadara stood side by side, staring coolly at the newcomers.
“All right then,” the princess said. “Supper is over. Let’s go.”
Iyasu patted his belly and winced. “Right now?”
Rahm peered down at him. “Right now.”
“As promised,” Azrael said. “But understand, once we start running I don’t think we’ll be able to stop, not until we’re far outside the borders of this place. And while I can protect you, I will not kill anyone. Not here, not ever.”
Rahm snorted. “Well, I can kill anyone.”
“No, you won’t.” Azrael gave him a stern look, and then walked past him toward the gate.
Iyasu sighed and rubbed his belly one last time, and then straightened his back and nodded. “All right. Here we go. Kamil, stay close to me. This may get a little chaotic.”
“No.” The boy shuffled back and leaned against the wall beside one of the open doors.
“What?” Iyasu turned to look at him.
“I’m not going. I want to stay here. This place is wonderful. The buildings, the machines, the food.” He gestured emphatically as he spoke. “And that woman today said they could teach me to be like them. Why would I want to leave?”
Iyasu blinked. “Well, for one thing, you’re a prisoner here and would never get to see the rest of the world. And the world is a very big, beautiful place.”
“But they said they were the smartest people in the world, and the things they have here can be found nowhere else. So why go anywhere else?”
Iyasu felt his pulse quicken. He glanced back and saw Azrael standing in front of the two karkadann riders at the gate. He held out his hand to the boy, beckoning to him. “Kamil, I’m sorry, we don’t have time to argue about this. Just come with us now, and I can explain it to you later, when we’re free.”
“No.” The boy shook his head.
Iyasu felt a flicker of hot panic in his chest as he found himself no longer in control of the situation. He could call to Azrael and hold off the escape while he tried to convince Kamil to leave, or he could ask Rahm to force the boy to come, but, in his heart of hearts, as he looked into Kamil’s eyes, he knew that there was no right way to make him leave.
He’s an ignorant child who spent his whole life alone on an island, and there’s no way a boy like that should be left to make life-altering decisions for himself.
But…
He is a genius. He sees things differently. He thinks differently.
And he wants to be here.
Iyasu swallowed.
Force him to go against his will, or leave him here?
Alone?
Iyasu looked at Rahm and Hadara, but they only looked back with raised eyebrows and curious frowns, offering him nothing. So he spun back and called out, “Rael, wait!”
But he wasn’t fast enough.
The enormous black wings erupted from Azrael’s back as a blast of hot wind tore across the courtyard, hurling everyone away from the gate. Iyasu shielded his face with both arms, and when the wind fell still he lowered his hands to see the two armored karkadann lying in piles of twisted metal and their riders sprawled unconscious on the ground beside them. Azrael’s magnificent wings swiftly faded into the darkness of the gathering night and she strode out into the street to look about. After a moment, she beckoned to him.
The seer spun around, but Kamil was gone. F
or a moment, Iyasu feared that the boy had been injured in the blast, but then he saw the closed door and knew that Kamil had barricaded himself inside, as much to survive the attack as to escape from his companions. Again, Iyasu looked at Rahm and knew that with a word he could have the giant warrior smash the door down and drag the boy out…
But why? For what? For my own sense of free will? Really? I would attack a child and drag him away against his wishes in the name of freedom?
Slowly, the seer backed away from the closed door, frowning and chewing his lip.
“Iyasu! Hurry!” Hadara yelled.
He saw the two giants standing in the street beside his beautiful Azrael, and he saw them together as a portrait of his future. Warriors, fugitives, battling and running, facing strange and terrible things, taking strange and terrible risks.
That’s my life now. And I don’t even want it. How can I ask someone else to share it against his will?
So Iyasu jogged across the courtyard and through the broken gates, and he took off running with all his strength down the paved avenues of Dalyamuun with the Angel of Death at his side and two smiling strangers leading the way.
Four times, they were attacked by the golden mechanical beasts and their silent riders, stampeding out of the side streets with their deadly horns lowered to skewer or shock the escaping foreigners. But each time Azrael would leap in front of the blades and smash the huge creatures with one swipe of her hand, sending them flying into the sides of buildings where they left craters in the walls, shattering windows and crushing all manners of bizarre contraptions inside the shops and homes.
Eventually they reached the edge of the city and ran on down a dwindling road through the moon-drenched fields of grass and wheat, and all the while scanning the horizon for signs of more warriors, more guards, more scouts.
But no more came.
If there were any more karkadann riders in those fields, they kept their distance and allowed the four captives to flee east and north away from the sea until the road became a path, and the path became a dry creek bed as the moon and stars progressed slowly across the sky. They finally stopped at the mouth of a cave just as the sun was starting to rise, and Iyasu sat down, his lungs burning and his feet throbbing, to watch the dawn.
Angels and Djinn, Book 3: Zariel's Doom Page 7
