The road we traveled on slanted upward toward a shelf of cliffs that rose steeply at the border of the greenery, then sloped gently to the shores of the Lorus. It was as though the sand had simply blown away on the desert side, past where the roots could keep hold of the earth.
Cradled in that green was Dabsqin itself. The city was like nothing I had seen before. Homes and businesses alike were cramped together in the crux of two of the greatest cliffs. The sides of most buildings were all but touching, and some of the structures were built into the walls of the surrounding cliffs. One main road snaked between it all. I guessed there might have been smaller streets, but I couldn’t see them to be sure.
I glanced at Aella. She was watching me, eyes glittering over her kerchief. “You ready?” she asked.
I smiled sheepishly. “I’m nervous.”
“Don’t be. We’ll ride in, and we’ll find a place to stay. Mother and the seconds will meet with the earl—Dabsqin has an earl. When they’re through with that, they’ll come back to us and outline whatever assignment we’ve been hired for. We’ll go into town for midday, rest, have dinner, chat up the locals… then it’s bed, and the next day we hunt.”
“So simple.” I muttered.
She yanked the cloth away from her face. The smile under it was kind. “We won’t let anything happen to you. It’ll be drakes, or I’ll eat sand, but you won’t be in the thick of it. Not this time, nor your next time, I wouldn’t think. You’ll be in the back, minding for any that might come upon us or any that might try to slip out.”
“Does that happen a lot?” I asked, thinking of Miguel.
She had busied herself with retying the kerchief, and I could no longer see her face as she replied, “Not as often as it doesn’t.”
Aella was a seasoned veteran of the mercenary game, despite her age. She knew the routine, and it unfolded just as she described it. Unlike in Nophgrin, we were staying in an inn, rather than making camp outside the city limits. Before we could retire to our rooms, however, Aedith had to settle things with the innkeeper. The rest of us were left to idle in the shade of a courtyard, shielded from the sun by an awning made of great bundles of reeds that had been rolled and lashed together tightly.
“The temperatures out here are too extreme for us to camp this time of year,” Lucas explained as we waited for the rooming assignments to be sorted out. Like me, he was burned. Neither of us was strangers to outdoor work, but the sun to the south seemed to be stronger somehow. A strip of red stretched across both of our noses and cheeks. At least he had had the sense to wear a hat. Across my head where the sun had managed to pierce through my hair, my fair scalp was red and sensitive.
I touched delicate fingers to my cheeks and flinched. “No kidding. How does anyone live out here?”
“For those who wish to maintain more genteel complexions, there are balms and salves that can be used.” Aella yawned, ruffling her locks. She had fared much better on the ride. Though she was a bit ruddier than she had been at the beginning of the journey. “Luke knows that.”
“I was out by the time we made it north last year,” he said glumly. “Taryn, you want to come with me into town? I’ll share with you what I get until we get our payment, and you can buy your own.”
Feeling like a freeloader I nodded. “I’d really appreciate that. Aella?”
“I’ll come with you, but only if we get something to snack on until supper. I’m starved for something that hasn’t been salted and dried.”
That was met with hearty agreement from both Luke and me. We sent Aella to broker our release from her mother, who granted it. She looked at Luke and me over her daughter’s shoulder with as much amusement as pity. We were permitted to get salve, on the grounds that we not stay out any longer than it took to attend to our errand.
On our way to the inn, I had been fascinated by the many foreign scents, sights, and sounds. Back on the street I kept one hand on the back of Aella’s tunic so as not to lose her as we weaved through the crowds. Mouth agape, I absorbed everything I could manage.
As I had expected, I didn’t understand most of what was said. I didn’t speak the southern tongue, and people didn’t tend to speak Common unless they were talking directly to someone from out of town. The dialect I heard most often was a fast language, spoken from the throat, a blend of Elyrian and Oshkanese which was most common in the southern desert, since much of the land had belonged to each country respectively until only a hundred years or so ago. I hadn’t even the slightest hope of picking a familiar word from amidst the noises. I gave up and focused on looking, rather than listening.
First, there were the people. The citizens of Dabsqin were almost universally dark skinned—the opposite of Nophgrin. I recognized those with similar heritage to Nai, whose family hailed from southeastern Somerlarth, as well as those who looked western Somerlarthian like Aella and Aedith. The rest could have been from anywhere—Oshkana like Kaleb, Elyria like Dai, or even from across the Ocean of Sadai, as Ito’s family was. Surprised, and then embarrassment at my own shock at being in the minority as a light-skinned northerner, flitted through me. I was in the south. What had I expected?
However, that initial discomfort did not last for long. It was impossible to focus on myself when there were so many splendid things to see. Almost without thinking about it, I began to log away details as I had so often on the road with Aella. Everywhere there were brightly colored patterns. Many of the local women wore them as wrapped dresses and shawls, paired with solid-colored head scarves piled high on their heads. Some of them wore trousers with legs so billowy that they looked like skirts until they walked or crossed their legs. The men wore similar designs with wide-legged pants and long-sleeved shirts with square neck holes, their heads sometimes covered and sometimes not. Most everyone but the occasional peacekeepers and some merchants wore thin leather thongs on their feet rather than boots.
There was a gatekeeper at the entrance to the market. He was a tall, bow-chested man who looked us over briskly, and then barked orders that were a mix of both Common and Oshkanese, when he couldn’t remember the proper correlating word. Aella, who had spent many summers in the area since she was young, explained that he wanted to know if we had weapons. We turned out our pockets and submitted to a pat down before being allowed in.
Stepping through the gate and into the heart of the market was like stepping into another world. There had been people selling goods on the way to this place, but it was nothing compared to what I stood before now. I couldn’t decide where I wanted to look first. Stalls lined every spare space along the street, their owners hawking their wares loudly. At one, silk was sold by the yard in azure blues and deep plums. Another person sold tall urn planters and water jugs of orange clay with black kohl detailing that were fire glazed and stacked high on shelves.
Gems! One stall had piles of different gems in woven reed baskets. The baskets, one seller yelled to me, were also for sale. Never in my life had I seen a selection so grand.
Aella giggled, and I looked at her. She tickled my chin, and I shut my mouth. “You’re going to catch enough flies that you won’t need a snack with your mouth open like that.”
“I can’t help it—look at this place!” I gestured broadly, almost smacking a stranger, who yelled offhanded abuse at me without pausing in his rush to get wherever he was going.
When it came to the circumference of the city, Kaleb had been right, this place was comparable to Forklahke, but the sheer number of people crammed inside was at least triple that of the village by the mercenary barracks. As one of the most profitable cities of south Somerlarth, it was teeming with people from all over. The already warm day was ten times hotter amidst the crowd. All around us the press of bodies was thick with locals and fellow travelers. All of them seemed to be trying to push their way to a stall on the opposite side of the market. None of them had time for even the smallest holdup, like a girl from a small mountain village pausing to look back at a stall that held a particul
arly interesting set of wooden god statues and gem selections.
At that stand a tall cloaked man in a broad-brimmed black hat and an equally tall woman swathed from head to toe in silk robes inspected one basket of red stones. The woman grimaced as she picked through the basket of rubies, as though they weren’t up to her standards.
Dizziness struck me, causing the road around me to spiral in and out before steadying again. There was something about those two. Something that made them seem more real than the people around them. More saturated. I furrowed my brows, but that was silly. They were the same as any of the rest of the crowd. What was it about them? My legs and arms were suddenly plagued with pins and needles, as though they had fallen asleep. Almost stumbling, I tightened my hand on Aella’s tunic.
She glanced over her shoulder at me. “You all right?”
“Fine,” I mumbled, keeping my head down, gently urging her forward.
It was a sense of menace, I realized belatedly. For whatever reason, the stink of danger came from those people, as strongly as the scent of roses wafted from the oil perfumes that one merchant shoved under my nose as I walked. No matter how I sensed it, danger was the last thing I needed extra of in my life. I returned my attention to the street ahead, searching for something else to focus on.
The music of pipes, strings, and drums laced through the noise of dickering. Though we had similar instruments to the north, these were different from the counterparts back home, and the melodies they played were as well. They were less jaunty and more winding. Somewhere, someone was harmonizing with the music. Her high warbling song was strange and unintelligible to me, but not bad.
But what truly drew my attention were the food vendors. Curries were simmering on grates over fires, the steam which the scant wind carried to us was spicy and enticing. Others were selling chunks of vegetables and hunks of lamb roasted on skewers. Dai had not been lying. I saw one booth was frying grasshoppers with onions in broad metal pans—even they smelled good! My stomach growled. It all looked impossibly delicious to someone who had not had a real cooked meal in weeks.
Lucas pulled us off the main drag and into a shady stall. It was a respite from the busy road, with only a few other people perusing the wares. Silk draped coolly over the wooden frames that surrounded the woman vendor’s wooden counters, shielding us from the worst of the heat. Arranged across the counters were rows of clay jars in a variety of sizes.
The proprietor made herself known to us immediately. She was a short woman with golden tan skin, glossy dark curls, and large gray-green eyes lined in dark kohl to look like cat eyes. Her plump lips curved in a knowing smile as she looked at me.
“Something to make your skin easy, my darlings? What can Yahna do for you?” Her accent was thick but understandable Common. Clearly, we had been pegged for out-of-towners.
Luke pointed sheepishly at his face. “I ran out of sun balm. Is there any chance you have something that will keep me from getting singed every time I walk out the door?”
Yahna began to take him through the different products that she had displayed. While they talked, I covertly scanned the crowd for the man and woman I had seen. Now that I had a moment to breathe, I allowed myself to be curious. It had been so odd. What about them had seemed so dangerous? They had worn nothing to indicate that they were. One of my hands wandered to stroke a braid as I scoured the road. Whoever they had been, they were nowhere to be seen now. I gave the braid a tug, allowing myself a self-deprecating half-smile. I supposed I could chalk it up to the heat and hunger getting to me. People seeming more real than others? That was nonsense. The sooner we ate and were checked into our rooms, the better I would feel.
Luke decided on a salve made with something called aloe, among other things, trading a handful of coins for a satchel she had placed everything into. Yahna also tried to convince Aella to buy some sort of exfoliating scrub, but Aella declined with a derisive snort.
At Yahna’s affronted look, Aella waved a dismissive hand. “It’d be like selling the desert a broom. It might do some good, but not enough to be worth it.”
“You’ll be sorry when you’re older and your face is rougher than the sandstones you walk on,” Yahna insisted.
Aella smiled sweetly. “I doubt it, but if that turns out to be so, I promise to look you up.” She ushered us out of the stall before the woman could reply. “Honestly, my mother doesn’t bother with that stuff, and she looks fine.”
It was Luke’s turn to snort, and she shot him a dirty look, which he didn’t see; he was dabbing the salve on his cheeks as we walked. “Your mother’s cursed impressive in battle, and she’s fit, but no one would ever confuse her for a court beauty.”
He offered the jar to me, and I took it, uncertainly. It seemed similar to the lotions that could be bought in the mountains to protect from and sooth wind burn. I applied the stuff cautiously, taking a small bit on my finger and massaging it on my tender skin. I gasped. It was cool! The greasy poultice soothed the heat that had been radiating from my cheeks for the past week and a half, as though I had pressed a small handful of snow against it. I looked down at the clay pot, impressed.
“She doesn’t need to be a court beauty to be beautiful,” Aella said.
Capping the jar, I added my agreement. “Aella’s right. Aedith is…well she’s amazing, and I don’t say that from familial pride like Aella. How strong she is makes her beautiful.”
“Conner, how I miss you! What I wouldn’t give to travel with males my own age,” Lucas moaned, “rather than a couple of cantankerous womenfolk.”
“The right male friends would tell you the same as us. Conner certainly would.” Aella slung an arm over his shoulder. “And if the mood struck him, he’d go for the same girls as you.”
“You do that more than Conner,” he countered, but he was smiling. “Get off me; it’s too hot.”
She obliged him. “Yes, but when I don’t, aren’t I also an absolutely essential accomplice in romance?”
He glanced at the wide-eyed, innocent look she was giving him and groaned. “You’re the worst. What do you want to eat?”
“Anything. Taryn? What do you want?”
I handed the jar back to Luke, who tucked it into his breeches pocket. “Anything. I don’t know. I don’t recognize most of what I can see or smell. You pick something, and I’m sure I’ll love it.”
“You pick something, and I’m sure I’ll love it,” Lucas mimicked in a high falsetto, “You see what I mean?” He grunted as Aella elbowed him in the side.
“How about some stuffed grape leaves and hummus? It has been almost a full turn since I’ve had either.” Her smile was broad and toothy.
“Sure. Great,” Lucas wheezed.
I giggled and linked arms with Aella. “Lead the way.”
We ate our meal in a small shaded seating area by a circular fountain, sipping at spiced tea that had been iced with a charm so the flasks we had poured them into sweat. The grape leaves were stuffed with lamb and an herb called fennel, which I didn’t love, but then I was too hungry to be picky.
I tore in half a piece of steaming flat-bread that had come with the hummus, scooping up a dollop of the garlicky glop. As I chewed, I hummed in pleasure. It was different than what I would have eaten for midday in my home in the mountains. Actually, it was reminiscent of what Nai’s parents would have made if I were to visit for midday. We never had grape leaves, but they had the similar taste and ingredients as a pastry Nai was fond of eating. Realizing what I was doing, I quickly shied away from those reflections. I wanted to enjoy this. Thinking about Nai would only make me starting wishing she were here with me.
While we ate, Aella fielded questions from the occasional curious passerby. Our clothing—even our lighter summer clothes—marked us as mercenaries from the north. While travelers weren’t a novelty here like they had been in Nophgrin, there was almost always something new we could tell them. As was true everywhere, two sets of folks who lived even a town apart could hold entir
ely different news about the world outside of Dabsqin.
We returned the favor, grilling our inquisitors in our own turn. This required a certain amount of finesse on the parts of Luke and Aella. They couldn’t outright say that we were in the city for an assignment—we hadn’t actually gotten our assignment yet, and the commander wouldn’t appreciate us spreading rumors.
From what we gleaned, common knowledge was that some part of Dabsqin was experiencing a problem with a small nest of drakes. No few locals asked if that was why we had come. They were used to yearly visits from mercenary companies looking for work. Unfortunately, reports conflicted as to where exactly the drakes had nested. Aella wanted to know if we would be under the slums, under High Street where the nobles lived, or somewhere in the middle.
“It might not be right, but the poorer parts of town tend to be maintained and repaired less, and they get swept for monsters the least,” Luke explained to me, when I asked them why that mattered. He wasn’t looking at me, too busy reapplying the burn ointment. It was no wonder he had run out of it so quickly before— this was his third application. Not that I was shocked by his fastidiousness. Luke was aware of the perks that his dashing good looks afforded him. He had already told me that he had no intention of letting them fade or be marred any-time soon.
“That’s not right,” I said in reply to him. Not that I was outright shocked by that revelation. Lord Baron Peyter of Nophgrin hadn’t exactly troubled himself with caring for his citizens. Not when an epidemic had swept our town, and not when another noble had taken advantage of the people to whom Baron Peyter was supposed to owe his protection. “Don’t they realize that those problems they let continue for their ‘less important’ citizens won’t stay contained to those people? They can’t ignore it forever.”
As Luke sucked his teeth and seemed to be formulating a reply, I watched the crowd flow past us. My gaze snagged on a small girl as she detached from the crowd to march in our direction. She did this with a single-minded determination that caused at least one other walker to trip over her small form as it barreled past him.
Of Dragon Warrens and Other Traps Page 15
