Diamond City

by Francesca Flores

  “I’m fine,” Ryuu grumbled, but he hid his wallet better anyway as they set off.

  Aina led the way out of Rose Court, down a hill, and through narrow roads until they approached the Center. Dimly lit bars were already packed with railroad and factory workers as the sky darkened to navy. Lampposts flickered on. It was as they crossed into a small, open square that she saw Teo’s head and shoulders bobbing above the rest of the crowd.

  “There he is,” she whispered.

  “Wait,” Ryuu said, grabbing her sleeve before she could move too far. “Do we really need his help? I don’t want too many people knowing what we’re doing.”

  Yanking out of his grasp, she said, “Don’t grab me like that again unless you want me to punch you in the face. And don’t you remember our deal? I say what we’re doing. Your job is to pay for it and keep quiet. I usually stay away from people who use magic, so I don’t know where to find them. He will.”

  When they caught up to him, Teo let out a sigh of relief.

  “Aina, you’re all right! I’ve been going around, listening to conversations to try to pick up who’s heard about—” He saw Ryuu then, and his eyes slid between them, probably wondering why she was hauling around a young Steel and whether she was planning to barter him off somewhere.

  “Teo, this is Ryuu,” she said. “Ryuu Hirai.”

  Teo’s mouth fell open. A moment later, he pulled her a few feet away so Ryuu was out of earshot.

  “Why the hell are you with him?” he asked. “Does he know about his brother?”

  “He knows I was the one hired to kill Kouta, but I need him around for now,” she whispered. “He thinks we’re helping to find his brother, so he trusts me enough. Relax, I didn’t tell him you had anything to do with last night.”

  Teo stared at her like he’d just seen cows flying. “You think I care about that? If you go down, I’m going down with you whether you like it or not, Aina. Why would you talk to him? Has that Kohl taught you nothing?”

  Her face burned. “Kohl has taught me enough. Now, we need to find someone who can do a tracking spell. Can you help?”

  He shook his head and cast another suspicious glance at Ryuu, who frowned at him, as if he’d just recognized Teo from last night.

  “All right,” Teo said with a sigh. “But once we do, you have to tell me what’s going on.”

  As they walked, veering toward the southern half of the warehouse district and the beginning of the Stacks, Aina kept her eyes peeled for any older people who might be magic practitioners. It was that feeling of when you searched for something, it was nowhere to be found, but if you stopped searching for it, it would appear. Right now, she could swear every person over the age of thirty had decided to hide inside their homes for the rest of the night.

  With mud up to their boots, an early spring wind playing in their hair and mixing with the stench of the river, she, Teo, and Ryuu walked through alleys deep in the warehouse district until they reached the back entrance of a quiet storage building.

  With a furtive glance around the corner to make sure no one was watching them, Teo led the way inside and to the building’s dank basement. Secret meetings and markets were often held in the basements of warehouses and factories or in the tunnels that ran beneath the city. Ryuu nearly spoke a few times, but Aina hissed at him to shut up each time. When they reached a door with the smallest of cracks near the ceiling, Teo spoke a password, then slipped a few kors through the crack. The door slid open.

  Smoke filled the air so thickly, it was hard to see more than a few feet ahead. They weaved through the crowds, which mostly gathered in the pathways between the different vendors of the market. The flickering orange flames of candles spread throughout the market were caught behind silk flowing from the ceiling and blown glass sculptures that turned the light violet, cerulean, and crimson.

  Along the walls, she could make out the dust-coated, crumbling altars that had been used down here to worship before the warehouse was built over it and the Inosen’s lives snuffed out. The dim light lent an eerie glow to the sculptures still molded into the walls and ceiling in the figures of the Mothers, Kalaan and Isar. Their faces had been smashed to the point that they were barely recognizable. Kalaan, the goddess of love and war, carried a bow and arrow, painted red, while Isar, the goddess of hope and intellect, held a silver harp. The paint had chipped over the years, leaving all the statues with a muted gray cast.

  People sat upon rugs smoking, drinking, and chatting among themselves. Vendors sold their wares to any number of shady characters. Hooded Durozvy arms smugglers huddled in a group, their eyes watchful and mistrusting. Most arms in the city were sold through the main supplier Kohl had always sent her to, but some other sales made their way through markets like these. Kors were slipped under tables and within handshakes. No one looked too closely at her, so engrossed in their own crimes, they didn’t seem to notice one of the most wanted people in the city walking among them. Still, she was careful not to meet anyone’s eye.

  Teo led them past a section of Linasian reindeer fur and velvet traders, nodded at them and mumbled a greeting in their shared language. They finally stopped in a darkened corner, and Aina smiled a little. Despite the general shadiness of the place, it was somewhere familiar and welcoming to her. It was almost like being back in the Dom.

  “Is this the illegal black market?” Ryuu whispered loudly, his eyes bigger than the moons.

  Ignoring him, Teo asked Aina, “How did Kouta survive? And why are you with him?”

  She waved a hand at Ryuu in frustration. “He saved him.”

  “With magic? That’s the only way you could stop that much bleeding.” When Ryuu nodded, Teo turned to Aina, his eyes narrowing. “Have you seen Kohl yet?”

  Her hand moved to her temple, feeling the bruise that was surely purple by now. “He wasn’t thrilled.”

  Teo frowned and reached out to touch the bruise. Aina winced, not just because it still hurt, but because she knew Teo wouldn’t understand.

  “He hit you?”

  “What do you expect?” she asked, stepping back. “I messed up. I’m lucky he’s giving me another chance.”

  “That’s bullshit,” Teo said with a shake of his head. “What are you going to do now?”

  She nodded toward Ryuu. “He’s going to help us find Kouta by paying for a practitioner and any bribes we need.” Swallowing hard, her eyes focused on anything but Teo’s face, she muttered, “Kohl took my money as punishment.”

  “All of it?” Teo asked in a flat voice. “Everything you earned since you were twelve?” When she nodded, he said, “You can use my half of the earnings, Aina—”

  “No,” she snapped. “You earned that, and you need it for your mother. I’m not going to take it from you.” She locked eyes with Teo and hoped he would realize that she still meant to kill Kouta, that this partnership with Ryuu was just temporary. “Ryuu is paying me double what Kohl did to help find his brother alive. So, who do we ask to track him down? You’re friendlier with people. No one would trust me if I show up on their doorstep asking about magic, and we can’t just ask anyone. You never know who will snitch.”

  Teo bit his lip and glanced around, checking for any eavesdroppers. “The wrong people could catch us for this at any moment, especially if we use magic. You should lie low until this blows over. Make a job for yourself. Don’t let Kohl decide who you are anymore.”

  Her hands curled into fists. “Kohl decides nothing. He’s made it very clear he’s not my boss anymore. But the whole city will be after me for the Sentinel’s reward now that I don’t have Kohl’s protection anymore.”

  “Not if you kill him first. That would earn you all the respect you need.”

  Aina rolled her eyes and stomped her foot. “Come on, Teo! I understand if you don’t want to help, but please think about it.”

  “I could pay you to help us find him,” Ryuu proposed. “What do you need?”

  The idea zoomed through her thoughts,
and she nearly jumped up and down to suggest it. “Teo, what about medicine for your mom? Ryuu could pay for it.”

  “A lifetime supply,” he added with a wide grin. “I’ll pay upfront.”

  With a frown, Teo said to Aina, “You know I’ll help. I don’t like seeing you in danger, especially not because of that boss of yours. Let’s get you out of this mess as quickly as possible.” Then he turned to Ryuu. “I earn my money, Hirai. Maybe you look at me and see a criminal, but I keep my work as honest as I can, and I don’t take handouts. Once we know where to find your brother, you’ll get the medicine for my mother.”

  “Done.”

  “It’s pretty easy to get you to do things once I start pressing the right buttons, did you know that?” She winked at Teo, who shook his head in exasperation, but she saw a smile tugging at his lips.

  Ryuu shrugged. “It’s easy to get anyone to do something if you put enough money in front of them.”

  She tilted her head to the side. “Must be nice to buy solutions to your problems.”

  “Must be nice to threaten your problems,” Ryuu countered with a raised eyebrow.

  She couldn’t help but laugh a little at how serious he looked.

  Teo led them to a spot in the far west corner of the market. Beyond a haze of smoke was an attractive girl about seventeen or eighteen years old with ochre-brown skin, soft features, black hair, and bright, cedar-brown eyes—features that meant her ancestors had come from the country Marin. There, people still spoke a version of the old holy language to this day and worshiping the Mothers wasn’t outlawed. The girl sat at a table, barrels of alcohol around her, and argued with a man on the price of a jug of liquor he’d smuggled in from Kaiyan.

  “Isn’t that Raurie Coste?” Aina whispered.

  Teo nodded. “Her aunt uses magic. Whenever Raurie’s not working at her uncle’s bar, she negotiates prices on imported liquor here. Helps her uncle’s bar keep the best stock, and other owners pay her for her input. The people who sell to her don’t expect her to be so good at it because she’s young and pretty, but then she outsmarts them. She’s trying to earn enough money to get her family out of the Stacks.”

  “Good for her,” Aina said with an approving nod.

  As they approached Raurie’s table, she sensed Ryuu gazing around the black market with cautious eyes. She’d known most of these people her whole life. To bring Ryuu into this circle of people that he could never understand felt like she was betraying them. What did he think of the rags the women wore, the unshaved faces of the men, the people missing teeth, the grungy interior?

  As the man left with his payment for the liquor, Aina took a seat directly across from Raurie.

  “You’ve seen me around before, haven’t you?” she asked as a greeting. “Have you heard anything about me recently?”

  Raurie frowned and shook her head. “Nothing recently; I’ve been here all day.”

  Aina nodded, relieved that she saw no deceit in the other girl’s eyes. “I know you’re a busy woman, Raurie, so I won’t waste your time. I need something from you. He can pay you whatever you want.” She nodded at Ryuu, whose eyes widened. “Seriously, name your price.”

  “When did I say she could—”

  “Be quiet, Ryuu, she’s thinking.”

  Raurie grimaced, then tapped her fingers along the wooden table while she considered. People from the Stacks never heard that they could name their price, so she was smart to be suspicious. Aina considered her, wondering how much she was involved in her aunt’s magic practice, if she knew how dangerous it was, if she cared.

  “What do you want?” she asked while putting away the Kaiyanis man’s bottles of liquor with a studied mask of indifference on her face. “Some things don’t have a price.”

  “Nothing bad, just illegal,” Aina said, waving a hand dismissively. “Teo tells me your aunt offers certain … services. We’d like to pay her a visit to help us find someone. So, name your price.”

  Raurie smiled, then. “One thousand kors.”

  “Come on, Raurie, be more ambitious!” Aina urged as Ryuu shook his head in disbelief.

  “Is it your personal goal to watch my family go bankrupt?”

  “That’s just sort of a bonus for me.”

  “Five thousand,” Raurie suggested, raising her hand as if she were at an auction.

  “Done!”

  As they shook hands, Raurie said, “You’ll need a piece of the person you’re tracking, though. A strand of hair, a fingernail, anything.”

  “Gross,” Teo said, but Aina was already pulling out one of her diamond-edged daggers, suddenly glad she hadn’t had time to clean her weapons since last night.

  “What about this?” Tilting the knife, orange lamplight shone on Kouta’s bloodstains. Ryuu quickly turned away, looking ill.

  Raurie nodded. “That will work. We’ll need to be careful, of course. The Diamond Guards aren’t going easy on anyone now. Since the Linasian princess is visiting soon, the Sentinel is trying to stamp out all crime to make the city look more respectable,” she scoffed. “Good luck to them. But there’s so much going on in the Stacks, the Diamond Guards can’t keep track of all of it. We’ll be fine as long as we’re careful.”

  As she finished speaking, a door slammed shut. Aina pulled out two knives while tucking away the dagger with Kouta’s blood on it. A gun was already in Teo’s hands, and he passed another one to Ryuu. Raurie stood and withdrew a hammer from under the table.

  The chatter of the market died down as everyone turned to watch what was about to happen. For a second, Aina assumed some Diamond Guards had tracked down the place, and all it would take was a few well-placed bribes to keep the night going. But then, roughly twenty people wielding a mix of knives and guns parted the crowd, backing the four of them into a corner. All had the same tattoo on their left forearms of a jackal’s bared jaw, stained bloodred. Nearly half of their gang seemed to be here. The two Jackals who’d nearly beaten her in the alley worked their way to the front of the group. The girl held up a single strand of black hair.

  “You should watch where you leave your things,” she said, tossing the strand to the floor and grabbing a gun from a holster at her thigh in one smooth movement.

  A jolt of fear shot through Aina, making her take an involuntary step back. She was about to find out whether Kohl’s protection was truly gone.

  One of the men nodded at her.

  “Miss Solís. I hear you’re no longer employed.”

  She said nothing, only narrowed her eyes at his challenging glare. Teo’s hands gripped his gun tighter.

  “What are they talking about?” Ryuu whispered, far too loudly.

  Her shoulders tensed, and she bent her knees slightly, waiting for her hunter to make his move.

  The man lifted his gun and fired straight at her face.

  17

  She ducked just in time. Screams filled the market as people crashed into each other, trying to escape through the only exit. Wild gunshots punctured the air. She skidded toward the back wall, covering her head as best she could with Ryuu running half crouched behind her.

  They reached a low table, and she flipped it on its side so it could serve as a shield. Ryuu ducked behind it, clutching Teo’s gun.

  Peering over the table, Aina aimed and flung one of her daggers. The blade whistled through the air, then slashed through the neck of the girl who’d cornered her in the alley a few days ago. She collapsed, her blood staining the floorboards deep red.

  At the same time, Teo began firing at the Jackals, his aim flawless even with bystanders speeding past his view.

  Bodies dropped everywhere in the crossfire as she and Teo fought off the Jackals. Raurie slammed her hammer into the head of a Jackal who’d tried to sneak up behind her. People leapt over bodies and ran toward the door, but Aina noticed some of them standing over the bodies of fallen Jackals and rifling through their pockets for whatever could be taken. Whistles blew and heavy boots pounded on the floor of the
storage building above, probably Diamond Guards rushing toward the sound of bullets. If any of them caught her here, she’d be taken straight to General Bautix.

  Ryuu rose above the table and shot a Jackal who’d been approaching Teo and Raurie from behind with a knife. The bullet hit the man directly between the shoulder blades and he collapsed, blood pouring out of his back. When shots fired at them next, leaving smoke in their wake, Aina pushed Ryuu’s head down behind the table.

  “Where did you learn to shoot like that?” she asked. “You never mentioned you’d be useful in a fight.”

  “There’s a lot you don’t know about me,” he whispered, a tense smile tugging at one side of his lips. A shot knocked one of the wooden table legs nearly clean off, and they both winced. Aina shook her head to try to clear the sound of bullets firing at her from every direction. Ryuu’s eyes blazed with a fire so different from what she’d seen until now. The change shocked her, but she wouldn’t complain about having someone else to help against the Jackals.

  A bullet hit a wooden barrel near them. The barrel was knocked over, alcohol pouring out of the new hole in its front. As it rolled away, brown liquid spilled into a drainage gate next to it. A small padlock was around the rusty handle, but it looked weak enough to break.

  Aina couldn’t believe what she was about to suggest. One of the only things she hated more than the darkness were spiders, and the city’s underground network of tunnels promised both.

  “See the handle in the floor there?” she asked Ryuu, passing him one of her scythes. “Take this, break the lock, and open the grate. We’ll make our way out through the sewers. Try not to get shot.”

  Before he could say anything, she stood and faced off with a man sneaking up on them. She twisted his wrist so his weapon dropped, then sliced through the side of his neck. Just then, another Jackal swung a fist adorned with brass knuckles at her head.