The Wind City

by Summer Wigmore

  He got out his iPad – the Hikurangi had wi-fi, apparently. How? – and Googled, for a start, the name ‘Rongo’. Then he wished he hadn’t. He was willing to accept a lot, because so much evidence couldn’t be denied by any rational man, but – no. That was. Too much. No.

  His shoulders twitched nervously. Someone was reading over his shoulder.

  “Could you perhaps stop that?” Steffan said. “Please.” He glanced at them and, again, wished he hadn’t.

  “All right, mate,” they said amicably, and went to sit back down at their own table. His? Her? It was difficult to tell; they were formless, bony angles draped in a massive coat, their face thin with a beak of a nose and a fluffy mop of hair.

  Steffan swallowed his surprise. Fear was just an excuse for ignorance. “I – excuse me,” he said. “You look rather… feathered. Would you mind telling me what manner of atua you are?”

  They grinned. “What would you guess, looking at me?”

  “Uh,” Steffan said, and stalled. “Something… albatross-y?”

  There was a round of laughter, and Steff, face flaming, pretended to stare intently at his iPad.

  “Tasty, albatrosses,” said a large woman a few tables over, unexpectedly. She had what looked like paua shells where her eyes should be, shiny and slick. “Good with some camembert, maybe a light salad.”

  “Brie,” said the person sitting with her, who was chewing slowly on a giant weta and had three eyes, two black and unblinking, the other smaller and set in their forehead.

  “No, no, camembert much better compliments the texture, the subtlety of… ”

  Steffan tuned out, picking up a newspaper and flipping through it. Things had happened. People had done things. There was weather. The cartoon was about politics and tried its hardest to be funny. There was a disembodied hand on the table.

  Steffan squeaked and pushed his chair back, staring at the hand. It was a perfectly normal hand, except for not being attached to anything. As he watched, it flipped itself up and scuttled crablike to the cover of the tree growing through the hole in the centre of his table. It dived into the foliage and was gone from sight.

  There was a long pause.

  “… So there is a curse!” Steffan said weakly, once his voice wasn’t in danger of wobbling. “That’s interesting!”

  He was a massive geek, he knew that – Saint had told him so, more than once. Actually a lot more than once. But it helped, silly little jokes like that. Meant he could get back to focusing on gathering as much information as he could.

  He looked around and could see more of them. There were hands clinging to the vines trailing from the ceiling (if it was a ceiling), and hands hanging in chains like they were vines themselves, and hands half-hidden in the nooks and crannies of the trees and shrubs that filled the room. No one seemed to notice them – or, wait, no, there was one sneaking towards a bright green woman’s neenish tart, and she just flicked it away casually and went on talking. So the atua noticed them, they just didn’t see anything out of the ordinary there.

  Steffan stared at a tree which had a few hands in it, and then squeaked and fell out of his chair. There was a head. Sitting in the crook of one of the branches there was a head, a head with a smooth blank face which just had bumps and hollows to suggest nose and eyes, a disembodied head just sitting there like it was perfectly normal.

  “This place literally couldn’t get any stranger,” he said.

  “Need a hand?” someone asked, taking pity on him.

  “No thanks!” Steffan said, and then smiled expectantly. “Ah, that – that was meant to be a pun,” he added, and there was another round of laughter, not unkind. Fondly condescending, if anything. These people weren’t all that bad.

  Then someone sat across from him, an arrogant pale redhead in a nice suit. He met Steff’s gaze with eyes as blank as the sky. “Odd for a normal human to be here,” he said.

  Steffan put his iPad down. “I’m just curious about things,” he said. “On that note. The… the hands. And the heads. The disembodied hands and the heads and – good gracious, that one’s floating, all right.” He rallied himself. “The hands and the heads, what’s… I mean, not to seem ignorant, but what’s the deal with those?”

  “Oh, you get those in forests sometimes,” the man in the suit said dismissively. He leaned forward. “Who are you, to ask questions of me? What gives you the right?” He smiled soft and dangerous. “Are you under someone’s protection, to be so bold? Because if not, then I’d tread with care, were I you. Asking fool’s questions can lead to a fool’s death.”

  Steffan shuddered. The man was so so pale, his hair so red, the contrast as startling as blood on cold skin. He was reminded of his nightmare.

  “I just – I don’t mean any harm,” he said, faltering.

  The pale man smiled. “I do,” he said. “Your folk killed someone who was mine to kill, you see.” He leaned forward still closer, so that Steffan could feel his breath, cold as mist. Up close his eyes were terrifying. “And what,” he whispered, smiling all empty, “are we to do about that? I could kill you just for the crime of being human, and I’m not the only creature in this silly little café who would, however easily you’re fooled.”

  Steff couldn’t find words, couldn’t think of anything but women in comas, children drained of blood, patupaiarehe, patupaiarehe.

  Fortunately at that moment a Māori woman hurried over, glaring. “Ariki!” she snapped. “Leave him alone.”

  The pale man – Ariki – hissed, dissatisfied. “He could be associated with the killer,” he said, leaning back and waving a hand languidly in Steffan’s direction.

  “I’ll deal with it,” the girl said, and after staring at her competitively for a few moments the man stood up and left. She waited until he was several metres away before slumping down into the seat opposite Steffan with a sigh. “Sorry about that,” she said, and gave him a tired smile. “Hey! I’m Tony. Ariki can come on a bit strong, but he means well. Or… I mean, he doesn’t mean badly.”

  Steff, in the excitement of seeing and learning so many new things, had almost forgotten where he’d started: with the murders, the couple whose minds had been wiped clean into a coma they never woke up from, the body found drained of blood…

  The girl felt safe, somehow, warm and friendly like you could trust her. “I’m Steffan,” he said, and gathered his courage. “That man. Is he… safe?

  Tony blinked. “What do you mean?”

  I think he may’ve killed people, Steffan didn’t say. It wasn’t really any of his business. He was here in the name of scientific enquiry; he couldn’t take a side. Besides, even if Ariki had killed people, there was no guarantee that this girl hadn’t. “Nothing, really. He just scared me.”

  She frowned.

  “But, I mean, that doesn’t mean anything,” he said, hasty. “Most atua scare me. First one I met tried to kill me.”

  Tony ran a hand through her hair. “First one I met did kind of worse than that,” she said. “But she’s okay, really. I think. They’re all okay, I think, once you get to know them.”

  Steffan shifted uncomfortably. “Sure,” he said, and then, more certain, “I did meet some nice ones, earlier, a – a tipua, I think, and a city spirit named Cuba.”

  “Wait, what,” Tony said, “city spirits? What?” And then her eyes lit up. “Oh! I saw those while I was out walking once, I think. Hrm.” She looked around frowning. “There don’t seem to be any in here… This place is for all atua. And if the city ones don’t come here they won’t have been warned yet.” She buttoned up her coat, scowling. “I’ll check them out.”

  She looked tired. “Can I help?” he asked on impulse, and then he shook his head. “No, I, I take that back, I… I do not know why I said that, I’m, I’m trying to avoid being involved or taking sides.”

  “Naw, fair enough,” Tony said, waving a hand. “It’s not your fight. You’re kinda cute when you’re flustered, though – hey. Hey.” She rubbed her c
hin thoughtfully, looking at him. “Heyyy. Are you single?”

  Steffan blushed deeply.

  Tony burst out laughing. “Oh, Christ – I’m not asking for me, dude, I have this friend who wants… Oh, never mind, I doubt you’re her type anyway.” She stood up. “I better get back to work.”

  “I won’t keep you; it’s past time I went home anyway,” Steffan said. Don’t get involved, don’t take a stance, you don’t know the rules of this world yet, you have to know the rules –

  But he had to know everything, he always had. He couldn’t help it. So, “… The city ones won’t have been warned, you said. Warned of what?”

  Tony looked serious. “A murderer. Working under Māui, or he is Māui. No one’s clear on the details yet. This – actually, this might not be the best of times to be hanging around here.” She stuffed her hands in her pockets, frowning. “I mean, you’re safe here, in this place, everyone is, but with everything that’s going on… You might want to do your studies some other time? Not going to tell you what to do, just figured I should warn you.”

  Steffan rubbed at his face. A little red paint came off on his hand, and he surveyed it. Hadn’t done much to keep him safe from Ariki now, had it? “No, yes, you’re right, I’m not very well equipped to deal with this world yet,” he said. “I need to know more… ”

  Tony shrugged. “I don’t know all that much about it, and I’m doing fine,” she said. “Of course, I’m also a mighty mythological seadragon, so.”

  “Oh. Uh. All right then.”

  “Did you know that in some stories taniwha eat people alive?” she added with a wink.

  He paled. She laughed, trying to hide it behind one hand.

  “I’m sorry,” she said through her laughter, “you’re just so alarmed by everything, you’re precious – seriously, what do you think of my friend over there?” She tilted her head. Steffan followed her line of gaze. A woman beautiful as a supermodel looked up and met his eyes. There was a chunk of raw meat on the end of her fork.

  “She’s terrifying and I want to stay as far away from her as humanly possible,” Steffan said.

  “Yeah, that’s wise.” Tony grinned. “Anyway. Stay safe, I guess! I better go look after her, she’s a menace.”

  “Ha, I know what that’s like,” Steff said, and Tony bestowed one final grin upon him before bouncing off to deal with her friend.

  And then he was thinking of Saint, and how he’d perhaps been a little unfair, and… It was odd, but. Back in high school Saint had generally been just about the only person who could get him away from his studying long enough to go to parties or on ridiculous adventures or to introduce him to girls. And he doubted he’d have had half as much fun his first year in uni if Saint hadn’t been there to drag him into trouble. It was just downright strange to be meeting new people and doing new things without Saint by his side, and suddenly Steffan missed him.

  He texted him, but Saint didn’t respond. Huh. Steff wondered what he was doing. He wanted Saint to be there, so that he could apologise for not believing him, so he could see what Saint thought of this place – he’d take to it like a duck to water, Steffan bet, and he would’ve probably taken Tony up on her offer too. Tony’s friend was just the sort of alarming that Saint would take as a challenge. Steff wondered where he was.

  He was bored with his research, suddenly, bored and annoyed, and it was the strangest thing. He would never have thought he’d miss Saint being an asshole and distracting him from scholarly stuff.

  Steffan left with a busy mind and a heavy heart, and the wind walked him home. Curled around his hair and played with the edges of his jacket, and whistled past the bus, and boomed menacingly as his little cable car ground its way from the road up to the house. Wailed softly past the windows as he sat at his limbic computer chair and rested his head in his hands and eventually, accidentally, slept, because the wind was unnerving in a way, but it was still better than silence, and silence, these days, was something he was far too used to.

  Hinewai had been disdainful when they entered the Hikurangi. “A laughable pretence,” she said. “As though we could have anything even like real forest here in this crowded mess. But it’s comforting. I suppose. In some small foolish way.”

  Which Tony took as praise. It was nice, sitting at a table with Hinewai, just talking about things – though she had to get up and move around fairly often, talking to individual atua about the hunting parties and security measures and all the rest, checking in, keeping things on track.

  But that was almost good. A good distraction. Truthfully, she …she couldn’t sit down at a table for very long without remembering sitting with Whai, what seemed like a lifetime ago. Her heart ached at the thought. So. Distractions. And Hinewai’s mildly ridiculous true-love-quest was as good a distraction as any.

  “Hey!” Tony said, brightening. “I met that guy yesterday. Maybe he could be your true love!”

  In a weird but neat coincidence Saint had just entered. Maaan, Tony thought, wondering. How unlikely was it that he knew about atua too? The odds of that! But he was impossible to mistake: handsome and magnetic, with a swagger to his step and a crook to his smile, his coat flaring around him as he swirled to survey the room.

  “Um,” Hinewai said.

  “What’s up?” Tony asked absentmindedly. She was busy waving, but Saint didn’t see them, sitting in a corner as they were. A lot of the others had left, that cute student guy and even Ariki, who she’d been expecting to hang around heartbrokenly for a lot longer than he did. Atua just didn’t feel things like humans did, she was learning.

  Case in point: Hinewai, at this particular moment, acting all shifty and weird.

  “I have certainly never seen him before!” Hinewai said.

  “Cool, then, he won’t hate you yet,” Tony said. She dropped her hand and gave Saint a thoughtful look. “Wow, he looks even more dashing than he did before.”

  “I certainly wouldn’t know, in the least, as I’ve never seen him before and thus wouldn’t know,” Hinewai said furtively, and Tony, quite used to her weirdness by this point, just frowned a bit and nodded and leapt to her feet.

  “C’mon, let’s go say hi – he’ll get cornered by some jerk otherwise,” and she towed Hinewai over despite the patupaiarehe woman’s startled protests. Honestly. This was what she wanted, so she could at least be a little more enthusiastic.

  They reached Saint before anyone else did, and Saint, for some reason, flinched when he saw Hinewai. Odd behaviour to see from someone so full of smugness and bravado. Tony positioned herself between him and her in order to avoid any confrontation. The mistgirl was a little too inclined to attack strangers if she didn’t like the look of them, though what anyone could find wanting in the look of Saint, Tony didn’t know.

  “I didn’t know you knew about the iwi atua!” Tony said delightedly, seizing his hand and shaking it before he could bow again or something. It was a relief for a normal human to be there; she’d spent too many of the last hours trying to explain basic morality to the atua, some of whom seemed to think it was a sound idea to torture random humans to see if they ‘knew anything’. This world was far from perfect. It was good work, what she was doing, but she was exhausted.

  “I didn’t know you did,” Saint said, tearing his eyes from Hinewai’s face in order to look at her. He looked a little drawn, just at the moment. Otherwise he looked remarkably well, even better than before because he looked much more sure of himself. Which… well. He’d looked plenty sure of himself before, to be honest. This was maybe an excess of surety. “Always so awkward to mention in casual conversation, you know how it is – ‘Nasty weather lately, how about them politics, by the way I’m aware that the city’s host to a thriving population of fairies and goblins hey why are you backing away in an alarmed fashion stop that!’ Not really what you want to open with, when meeting new people.” He shook, his grip warm and steady, and grinned at her cheerfully.

  “Fairies and goblins? Really? Yo
u’re really gonna go with that with as a description?” Tony said, not sure whether to be amused or offended and settling for a bit of both.

  Saint looked blank for a second. “I… can’t say I know much about atua etiquette,” he said. He glanced at Hinewai again, like he couldn’t help it.

  Tony frowned. “Something wrong?”

  “I have to admit, it’s a little overwhelming,” Saint said. “I mean, it’s my first time coming here – had a hell of a time finding this place, I mean really, wow – and I expected… ” He paused. “Well. I didn’t expect this many patupaiarehe.”

  “There are two of us,” Hinewai said, speaking for the first time. “In the entire city.”

  “Two too many,” Saint said, savagely, and Tony blinked at him, startled. He must’ve caught the look, because he said, “No, sorry, I’ve – I had a bad experience with one of ’em, that’s all. I don’t even remember who it was, really, just… ” He kneaded his forehead like it hurt him.

  “Oh, man, I so completely know the feeling,” Tony said sympathetically, and then she brightened. “Oh hey – we were gonna go out clubbing or to a bar or something anyway. You can come with us! So you can get used to atua in small doses,” because he had to be even newer to all this than she was, “and you can get to know Hinewai so you’ll know she’s… ” Uh. ‘Not that bad’ wasn’t true at all. “Pretty,” Tony finished lamely.

  Saint glanced around the Hikurangi. “Swell,” he said, “excellent. And then I’ll walk you home in a dashing and chivalrous fashion.”

  “It’s probably a bit out of your way?” Tony said.

  “I’ll call you a taxi in a dashing and chivalrous fashion,” Saint corrected himself, gravely. “Much harder than it sounds!” and she laughed.

  “Yeah, okay, dude, whatever you want, just – come ooon!” He’d thrown another glance at Hinewai, a thoughtful but nervous sort of glance, and she didn’t want him to bail out on this. Even apart from spending time with someone who seemed like the kind of person she would totally love to be friends with, Saint was probably one of the few human guys who was eccentric and nice enough to actually consider dating Hinewai, on the off-chance he felt so inclined. Tony didn’t want to neglect Hinewai’s quest in favour of her own; she would keep her bargain, regardless of how many chumps she had to shove in Hinewai’s way first. “We are overdue for that beverage-snagging.”