“But the bracers can’t be stolen by force,” Finn stated, speaking without thought, “they can't be removed!” He froze and bit his tongue, chiding himself. The beggar gave him a funny look and went to stare at Finn's arm. Finn hid his hands inside his food bag, pretending to rummage for a tart.
“You know much about them Star-Children for one who claims he doesn't!”
Goblin gave the man a slice of bread and the beggar’s suspicion dissipated.
The beggar nodded. “The king knows they’re hard to remove. He has his Paladins carry scissor-like weapons. Arm-Bitters they call 'em. Slip through skin and bone all surgical-like. King will have his way no matter what, I guess.”
Finn shivered. “Has he killed a Star-Child yet?”
The beggar laughed out loud. “I doubt it! Based on what I've heard, Paladin bodies dot the land like rocks in a field! I bet it's drivin' our generous king mad! Hope it rots in his bones, I do! Serves 'im right for not caring for us humble folk. His late father was much better. Too bad he drowned in some swamp.”
Finn and Goblin thanked him and stood in preparation to leave. The beggar stopped them.
“Last warning for you good men: careful out there if you mean to continue your journey! They say something dark moves from the South. Many cities have disappeared or grown silent. All trade’s stopped in that direction. Rumor spreads of a Star-Child with an army, killing and destroying. Others say it's a demon horde, finally arising to finish off this wretched land.”
The beggar's words made Finn hesitate. There were powers out there far beyond what he'd seen. By the stories alone, they sounded far worse than Nozgull. He tried to imagine someone more evil than the EarthBreaker and it made him shiver.
As they walked away, Finn forgot to cover his bracer-donned arm under his cloak. The beggar spotted it, his yellowed eyes growing wide and his mouth hanging open. Not knowing how to respond, Finn pulled free a gem from his pouch and tossed it to the man. “We aren’t all evil.” he told the beggar.
The beggar caught the treasure, gripping it tight enough that the veins on his hands bulged out. There was a strange gleam of both wonder and respect in his eyes. The man bowed, “SunRider.” and ran down the street.
“Come-on. Nothing-good-can-come-from-that.” Goblin stated.
Finn nodded and they hurried out of town, crossing a plaza and losing themselves between the many trading carts and crowds of traveling people. Soon, they'd left Wyrmroost far behind, still moving East, deeper into the heart of Lenova.
On their travels, Goblin mentioned something to Finn that made him startle. “I've-been-having-these-dreams-at-night.”
“What about?” Finn asked, turning to his friend and adjusting his travel bag.
“It-doesn’t-happen-all-the-time-but-once-in-a-while-I-see-this-woman.”
Finn laughed. “Oh, so it’s one of those dreams.”
Goblin's face flushed. “No! There’s-this-old-woman-that-stays-in-the-background… guiding-me.” Finn thought of Lady Tuliah. “She-smiles-and-whispers-to-me-yet-I-can'-tell-what-she's-saying. I-feel-comforted-though. Strange-isn't-it?”
“What are the color of her eyes?” Finn asked.
“I-don't-know. I-can-never-see-her-clearly. That's-a-strange-question-to-ask.”
Finn waved a hand dismissively, ending the conversation. It could be Tuliah, watching from some distant plane of existence, or it could be wild food-induced dreams. If it was Tuliah, why would she visit his friend and not him? Had he not a special connection with her?
Their exploration of the land continued and one night, Finn took the time to scratch out Tuliah’s words on a stretch of parchment he’d once used to annotate ore veins in the mines. Using a piece of charcoal, he recorded the entire prophecy. During the process, Goblin finally asked him what’d happened beyond the stream. Knowing if he couldn't trust his friend, he couldn't trust anybody, Finn told him of the secret underground chamber, the lava canal, and the Bird's Window. Goblin listened, mesmerized by the story. Afterwards, Finn read the prophecy and the two had fun trying to guess its meaning.
“Here she says, Evil seeks to change all we hold dear/Will one save us, protect us, take away our fear? What do you think she means by evil?” Finn contemplated, “Do you reckon she meant the Star-Children?”
“What-if-she's-talking-about-the-king?” Goblin asked. “He-hasn't-exactly-been-caring-for-Lenova.” He nudged Finn’s shoulder. “Remember-what-she-said-though-none-of-this-could-even-matter-or-be-correct.”
Finn snorted. “But then why tell it to me in the first place?”
Goblin sighed. “Does-it-look-like-I’m-an-all-knowing-seer? To-me-it-seems-more-like-a-warning-of-the-potential. It-could-still-be-useful.”
Finn shrugged in agreement. “Well what about a curse? It talks about that too.”
“No-idea-what-that-could-be.” Goblin shrugged. “I’m-more-focused-on-the-fact-that-you-danced-with-an-ancient-entity. Was-it-love-at-first-sight? What-drew-you-in? The-wrinkles-or-the-white-hair?”
Finn put away the parchment and rolled his eyes while Goblin roared in laughter at his own joke. “Funny. Go to bed.” He lay on his sleeping mat and stared at the sky. “Maybe I'll pray for Tuliah to remove your voice.” he whispered under his breath. “That'll teach you.”
“What's-that?” Goblin asked, yawning.
“Nothing.” Finn responded.
The following day, they stepped back out onto the highway from the hidden grove they'd slept in. Even though it was early in the morning, people already walked the road carrying belonging or pulling carts. Finn and Goblin joined the crowd, allowing traffic to guide them. They were passed by rich nobles sporting various house emblems and riding white steeds. Their many belongings trailed behind them in wagons pulled by teams of oxen. Soon they came to a wooden signpost stating they were approaching Kazma, a city Finn had never heard of. As well as citizens, many trading caravans passed them, some heading the other way to the rest of Lenova. Finn asked a stranger why the crowds were so large. The woman explained that Kazma was one of the larger trading centers of Lenova; in fact, it was the capital of business. Many rich company owners and merchants lived there. She told Finn the city’s layout was—literally—magical. Feeling curiosity and excitement grow within himself, Finn picked up his pace, nearly dragging Goblin along.
As they walked, they continued to hear rumors of Star-Children and dark forces brewing in the South. Yet mixed with the foreboding words were songs and lute-music. A passing entertainer sang a tune about a horse with no legs to the great amusement of a group of children. There was so much culture and so much to experience. Finn was more alive than he'd ever been.
They topped a steep hill and beheld an incredible sight. Ahead of them was the citadel of Kazma. But Finn couldn’t even begin to comprehend what he was seeing. At first he mistook it for a mirage, but after rubbing his eyes, deemed it real. The citadel was in fact, two circular cities; one just happened to float hundreds of meters above the other. Finn imagined a plate hovering above another plate and it was the only description that came close. Goblin grabbed at his arm, gasping.
The ground-planted city had a massive gray wall, thick as a house, running in a circle around the condensed space. Casting a massive shadow about the land, the second city—floating above the other—was made of a yellow rock carved with arches and large runes. Finn speculated that perhaps the runes were what kept the city up, but none of it was explained it to him. True magic. Never had he conceived such power could exist in Lenova. How did people live their lives within such a place? How could they ever think it as a normal existence?
Drawing near to the phenomenal location, Finn could better contrast the two halves. It was easy to see the floating city was a richer, cleaner, and a better-put place compared to the ground. The bottom city resembled more of a stone fort, full to the brim with compacted buildings and claustrophobically stacked homes, forming man-made canyons. There was a strong distinction of class and wealth. Those rich l
ived high in the sky, while the poor and common lived on the ground.
How would it be like to wake every morning and look outside, seeing that even the bottom of the floating city was cleaner and nicer than where you lived? How could one even reach the floating half? He couldn’t see any form of stairs leading upward. As if in answer, when he was but a kilometer away, Finn spotted a cylindrical tower rising from the center of Kazma, connecting the two halves. It was like the axle between two sideways wagon-wheels.
As they approached the massive gates to the ground city, Goblin and Finn were compressed shoulder-to-shoulder within the thick crowd. Above their heads and hanging over the archway, flags with the silhouette of a black water-scorpion and the motto To Cherish our Keep fluttered in the breeze. Overworked soldiers carrying silver spears attempted to control the flow of commerce, but due to the volume of people moving about, Finn and Goblin made it inside without being harassed by the armed men.
Immediately, their senses were assailed by shouts and loud talk, voices overlapping each other in waves that made their ears ring. They were pushed and shoved as citizens of Kazma went about their daily lives. The rich, with lifted chins, were escorted by walls of dim-eyed guards heading toward the connecting tower. It seemed as if they were trying to spend the least amount of time on the ground as possible.
A green-skinned man riding a large dog moved by and a flock of saddled red birds locked behind stable doors fluttered in a panic. A mousy girl set a round table in the middle of the street and offered palm readings. The smell of meat and sweat was strong, and food vendors preyed on people’s hunger, dangling seasoned chicken legs in front of faces. A group of young boys laughed far above and jumped the gap between buildings, their feet treading on air over the crowd. A baby cried and three minstrels were booed off a crate. Finn gripped his satchel of gems tightly, worried for pickpockets. Five stories up, a woman leaned out of a window and dumped a bucket of dirty water down a sloped roof. The water trickled all the way to the ground where a gathering of street cats and mangy dogs lapped it up.
Goblin froze, reached out, and grabbed Finn's arm. He looked to have all his muscles clenched at the same time. Finn followed his gaze and went still himself. Panic fluttered in his stomach and he fought the urge to run. It was like a cold finger was running down his back.
Directly in front of them were rows of market stalls. Other stalls were stacked above, with wooden catwalks running between, crisscrossing and overlapping. If one stared straight up, it was like looking at a cobweb of bridges, pathways, and hanging clothes. Goods and artifacts tempted shoppers, bringing profit to the sellers. Glowing pendants passed hands and feeble boneless mice wobbled in small glass bottles. Everything one could think of was being sold: armor and spices, weapons and pets; even plants.
Shopping at a second-floor stall, ahead and above, were a boy and a girl. The girl had a lithe frame, black hair braided into a ponytail, and close-fitted leather clothing. Finn thought her beautiful. The boy, maybe in his early twenties, had long blond hair flowing free to his waist. He held a jovial grin: a troublemaker's look. But what stuck out the most was what rested on their arms. Both were wearing Star-Children bracers.
CHAPTER TWENTY:
Moths and Honey
—Circa 5,612 E.E. (Economic Era-The 17th Era): A young girl by the name of Sia is taken to the Crust to work in the Hub. She meets Finn SunRider but for a brief moment, saving him from a severe beating against a supervisor. He thanks her as he wipes the blood from his face and they are never given the opportunity to speak again. Sia watches SunRider from afar, in love with the boy. Months later, Sia is pushed out of a high window by her master for dropping his drink. Her body would have lain on the desert ground for days if not for SunRider, who risked his life to sneak away from his cave-diving shift to bury her. Wild flowers now grow on her grave, the only green vegetation as far as the eye can see.—
Finn crouched in the middle of the street. He forced Goblin down as well, causing passing citizens to give them strange looks. They moved to a nearby vending stall where a man with an impressive mustache and a heavy brow claimed his many collections of moths were, in fact, tiny monsters. They wove through the crowd gathering around the vendor and hid behind a stack of crates. Finn and Goblin peeked over the boxes and watched the Star-Children—they were young.
For some reason, Finn had imagined all Star-Children—apart from himself—as grizzled adults with poor hygiene. Sitting on a crate inside a jar beside Finn's head, a moth fluttered in agitation, as if annoyed Finn was hiding beside it.
“It's true! They’re smarter than you think!” the vendor was saying, his mustache bobbing up and down. He pulled out a glass bottle holding a fat wide bug with purple wings. “The matriarch moth controls 'em, telling the rest what to do! They took the lives of four of my men before I was able to capture 'em and plead a bargain with the lot! They like honey, you see. So I goes and tells the matriarch moth, listen here, if you let me keep you around, I'll feed you honey and let you rest fat and content the rest of yours lives!”
“You talking to bugs now, Quinta? You've gone daft, you have.” someone yelled.
The two Star-Children were now bargaining with a trader for a crossbow. The girl was pulling out coins while the boy paced around the second-floor catwalk, looking annoyed and bored. Unlike Nozgull, they weren't flashing their powers and killing everyone. Neither were they acting rude or...evil. The people about them seemed to notice the bracers, yet only gave them space. They didn't run or scream. Why were these two different? Could perhaps Finn have been wrong? Were the metal bands they wore not Star-Children bracers? No, Finn was sure they were. He had stared and fiddled with his own bracer enough times to know what one looked like. Near his head, a moth buzzed angrily, as if telling him off. They were unusual creatures. Instead of gray or brown, they had bright blue fur enveloping their bodies, giving them a puffy appearance.
“Now these babies aren't your typical pet.” the vendor kept talking, “They'll live for dozens of years and even bring you good luck! Ah bet if one'o you were to buy a moth from humble ol' me, you'd find coins on the road, your ol’ lady will be healed from 'er bunions, and you might even keep your teeth 'til you're fifty!”
“Too bad you didn't find them sooner Quinta! Maybe you'da kept some of your own teeth!”
A couple of people in the crowd laughed, coming closer. Others, those with more sense, rolled their eyes and walked away. Someone bumped the crates where Finn and Goblin hid and a jar smacked Finn on the nose. The moth inside hummed even louder, the noise now sounding more like high-pitched swearing. Above them, between the many stacks and stories of vending stalls reaching high into the air, the two Star-Children were finishing their purchase.
“Ey! Don't crowd about too much!” the vendor Quinta said nervously. “Matriarch here don't like being hassled!”
“You say they’re smart? You say they're monsters? Looks to me like they're hairy moths painted blue!” someone yelled.
Many few citizens looked to the stall and Finn pushed himself farther back into the shadows, trying to hide. “Shut up!” he hissed to the blue moth near his face. The moth froze and drew close to the jar wall, as if peering at him. It shook, as if angry.
“Stop buggin' us!” Vendor Quinta was yelling. “If you’re not here to buy, get out! You’re all makin' her angry!” The man patted his bottle. Inside, the wide purple moth was moving in circles. “Don't listen to 'em matriarch! They're fools!”
“You're the fool Quinta! Let me see that bottle!”
“No, you can't!”
Near Finn's head, the blue moth was smashing itself at the jar, as if trying to get to Finn. Goblin was grabbing onto his shirt and pointing to the Star-Children. The boy and girl were walking away with the crossbow they’d bought. They stopped, staring curiously at the commotion coming from Quinta's vending stall.
Blast it! Why had they chosen the worst place to hide in all of Kazma? Finn gritted his teeth, trying to cover h
is bracer. So far the Star-Children hadn't noticed him.
There was a crash from the front of the stall. Finn glance over. Quinta was yelling at a fat man with a blacksmith’s apron while on the ground between them, the glass bottle lay smashed open. The wide purple moth was fluttering around their heads.
“Now you done it! Now you made 'er mad! We're all doomed I tell ya! I need honey! Anyone 'ave any honey?”
The crowd was laughing at the poor vendor as he scrambled about. The purple moth suddenly dove for the blacksmith.
“Hey! What's wrong with your bug? Leave me alone!”
The moth dove for the man again, a strange bell-like sound coming from it. All around the stall, the many hundreds of jars containing bright blue moths shook. Quinta stopped, a look of horror coming over his face. Scores of people were now watching him.
“M—matriarch, what’re ya doin'? C—calm down and I'll get you some honey. What's that? No! He's not a jerk! He doesn't—no, don’t attack ‘im!”
The purple moth dove, hitting the blacksmith on the face. Quinta tried to catch the moth, but it slipped between his fingers. The blacksmith sneezed and grabbed at his nose, which started swelling.
“Wad you dud to mhe? De moth makin' mah node shwell! Wad you dud?”
Another bell-like ring came from the moth and Quinta dove for the ground, trying to shout a warning. With an explosive shatter, all the jars ruptured and hundreds of blue moths flew free. They swarmed the place, spinning in a furious cloud. Every time they brushed against someone, they left behind welts that swelled to ridiculous proportions. The jar beside Finn's head burst and the angry blue moth dove at him. Finn ducked and rolled away from the crates. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the two Star-Children spot him. Even worse, his bracer was exposed.
SunRider: Book 1 (The SunRider Saga) Page 18
