Diamond City

by Francesca Flores

  He was the same boy who’d cornered her in the alley after she’d killed the baker, the same boy who’d survived on the streets like she had. She ducked to avoid the strike, but his next punch was aimed at her side. Her head spun as he hit her bandaged bullet wound, the brass knuckles sharp and hard. The wound seared with pain, the skin tearing open and bleeding as she fell back.

  Then another shot fired, and the boy dropped in front of her, clutching a bleeding arm. Ryuu nodded at her from behind him, his gun still raised.

  She turned to the boy, on the verge of delivering a killing blow, but then she remembered his name: Olaf.

  And she remembered the hungry look in his eyes as they’d both begged for scraps in Kosín’s alleys. He’d ended up here the same way she had.

  She turned away and hissed at Teo to catch his attention. He fired at another Jackal, striking them in the chest, then glanced over his shoulder. She signaled to him to follow Ryuu.

  Ryuu jumped behind the next table for cover on his way to the grate. Bullets pinged against the table’s surface, one blasting through and nearly piercing Ryuu’s shoulder. To her surprise, he barely flinched. He moved toward the grate to begin breaking the lock.

  As Ryuu and Raurie slipped through the opening in the floor a moment later, Teo backed up next to Aina, and together they faced the last two standing Jackals. He fired at one of their hands, making the man howl in pain and drop the gun.

  When the last Jackal raised her gun, Aina threw her other scythe into the woman’s neck. She ran to retrieve the weapon, and on her way back to the sewer opening, ripped off the broken table leg. A second later, she dropped into the sewer where Ryuu and Raurie had disappeared. Teo followed behind her after taking out the last man.

  Once Ryuu closed the grate above them, Aina shoved the wooden bar through the lock, hoping it would hold against anyone who tried to break it. For a moment, they slumped against the wall to catch their breath. Aina put away her weapons, fingers shaking as she did. The Jackals had probably seen her as an easy target since she’d lost Kohl’s protection. She scowled, half wishing she could have fought them on her own to prove she was strong by herself, but that was foolish. If Teo, Raurie, and Ryuu hadn’t been there, she’d be dead.

  Teo stood apart from the others, staring down the dark tunnel ahead, while Ryuu leaned against the wall. Raurie placed shaking hands on her knees and took deep breaths.

  Blinking to adjust her eyes to the dark, Aina turned to Ryuu and muttered, “Thanks for your help back there.”

  He scoffed and pushed off from the wall. “You don’t need to thank me. I didn’t do it for you. I’m not going to sit back and let you get killed while we still need to help my brother.”

  His voice was harsh, but cracked a little at the end. He’d surprised her with how he’d come alive during the battle with the Jackals, how he’d been able to fight even if he was scared. If his aim was so good, he could have killed her when she’d attacked his brother last night. But he hadn’t.

  She couldn’t quite figure him out yet, but it was clear he’d do anything to find his brother. Even though she was going to betray him, she couldn’t help but admire him for that.

  “Let’s go,” Aina said, trying to sound braver than she felt with the darkness gathering around them. “We should look for an exit to the street.”

  “I have an idea,” Ryuu said. “This will lead to a sewer which should pass underneath the subway tunnels being constructed. We should go out through one of those.”

  “How do you know that?” she asked.

  “My family has been in the mining business for nearly a century. The Sentinel always wants our advice whenever they do underground construction. And whose equipment do you think they’re using?” He spoke with the typical entitlement of those born rich and unable tell the difference between their accomplishments and their inheritance. It didn’t help when he added, “Not so bad, having me around, is it?”

  “We’ll see,” Aina said, fighting the urge to roll her eyes.

  Ryuu led the way through the wide, dark tunnel. The foul stench of the sewers soon reached Aina’s nostrils. Water trickled to their right, so they stayed near the wall of the tunnel.

  Her bullet wound smarted with pain as new blood leaked out, but there was nothing she could do about it now. As they walked, she wondered why she’d allowed Olaf to live. It would have been easy enough to kill him and cut one more enemy out of her life. But she knew the answer, deep down, even if Olaf didn’t remember her—she couldn’t kill someone who’d spent his childhood on the streets like she had, who had few choices as it was. She’d wanted to give him another chance, even if he wouldn’t give one to her, and even if Kohl would call her stupid for doing so.

  Soon, the pathway sloped downward. Aina’s breaths grew shallow, making it difficult to focus on where she was walking. Her eyes flicked to every dark corner they passed. Unseen animals darted around nearby, their claws scraping against the tunnel walls and floor. She knew any other Blade would love the darkness for its ability to cloak them, and she used it when necessary, but she had learned to be quiet and deadly even in brightest day.

  There were many tunnels twisting underneath the city, but each one of them reminded her of when her parents had taken her to underground worship services for the Mothers.

  They’d taken a new secret entrance every week, and Aina could never keep track of where they entered or exited. Holding hands, they’d walk with bated breath and jump every time they heard someone else moving around in the darkness. Sometimes it was a patrolling Diamond Guard, and they had to hide until the guard passed. Other times it was another Inosen, holding a finger to their lips as they all proceeded to where the Sacoren held services with altars so dimly lit the faithful could barely see the prayers written in the religious text. It didn’t matter, since neither Aina nor her parents could read.

  The prayers in the old holy language spilled from her mother’s lips, memorized instead of read, and Aina had copied her even if she couldn’t understand what was being said. During most of these services, her attention had wavered, and instead, she looked at the statues of Kalaan with her red bow and arrow and Isar with her silver harp embedded in the rock walls. Sometimes she’d prayed too, for the Mothers to watch over them when they risked their lives to come here. Sometimes she’d prayed for her parents to stop, to be safe, and to say their prayers in their hearts instead of out loud where someone might hear them.

  In a way, her mother had been the first person to teach her how to be silent and secretive, not Kohl. Occasionally, she wondered if her mother had known they might be facing the wrong end of a gun one day, and had tried to teach Aina to be quiet, to be quick, and to escape before the gun could be turned on her too.

  Raurie was a steady presence walking ahead of her, and Aina tried to focus on her instead of letting the darkness swallow her. She was curious how involved Raurie was with her aunt’s faith. Did Raurie know the prayers, or had they trickled from her mind like they had from Aina’s? If magic got her aunt killed, would Raurie consider it a blessing or call it a curse?

  A half hour later, Ryuu whispered for them to stop and gestured to a ladder bolted into the wall. They climbed one after the other, exiting into another long tunnel one level up. The air was slightly warmer here, but dust cloaked it, making them cough as they walked. At the end of a tunnel, they reached a wide cavern with dim lights strung along the roof. The new light revealed the strange scene in front of her.

  Giant, hollowed-out hunks of metal sat in a cluster. Trains. It was like a mausoleum for the metal beasts that stretched twice her height toward the lights at the top of the cavern. News reports often proclaimed how underground train travel would bring Sumerand ahead in the worldwide rush to industrialize.

  They approached a ladder with its rungs dug into the wall, then climbed to another circular door. Ryuu pushed it open and light flooded through. A moment later, they exited onto a street a few blocks from Lyra Avenue.

 
They rushed to an empty alley between two shops, passing a wall covered in posters of Aina’s face as they did. Cold night air rushed in, making Aina shiver despite the lingering heat of the battle they’d fought. She placed her hand on the bullet wound in her side. New drops of blood dotted her shirt from where the Jackal had punched her. She tied the end of her shirt into a knot near the wound to cover it.

  “Wait a minute,” Raurie said, holding up a hand as Aina began to turn away. “I saw those posters. You’re the one who tried to kill Kouta Hirai.”

  Aina straightened, one hand going to the hilt of her knife, but Raurie shook her head. “I’m not a snitch. Do you think I want to help the Diamond Guards, when they’ve been arresting and killing people of my religion for years? I don’t care what their reward is when they would just as soon throw me in jail. But people are after you, and now you want to put my family in danger.”

  “About that…” she began, with no idea of what to say next.

  Ryuu spoke before she could come up with a reply. “Please, I’m Kouta’s brother. We’re trying to find him, not kill him, and we need your help.”

  Raurie took a step back from them. “My aunt is always risking something when she takes on jobs like these, but she’s not reckless. Do you think we’ll be safe if the Diamond Guards find out we helped a wanted criminal with that big of a price on her head? I can’t put her or my uncle in danger.”

  As she spoke, Aina turned slightly away from Ryuu. She didn’t need him figuring out that money wasn’t her main priority either. But then she remembered what Teo had said about Raurie working her whole life to get her family out of the Stacks. She hadn’t spoken personally to Raurie before, but she’d seen her in the black market all the time, for years, working in the same corner. Her uncle’s bar was popular with locals at the border of the warehouse district and the Stacks, but it couldn’t compete with establishments on Lyra Avenue or in the Center. She was likely making progress with her goal, but it was clearly slow progress.

  “Okay, what if Ryuu gave you enough money to leave the Stacks?” she suggested. “Twenty thousand kors should be enough to get you and your aunt and uncle a new place to live wherever you want. Your aunt does the spell for us, and then you leave. The Diamond Guards won’t find you if you move fast enough.”

  She held Raurie’s gaze as the other girl took a long moment to think it over, biting her lower lip. Then, Raurie let out a small, resigned sigh, desperation flickering in her eyes.

  “All right, let’s do it,” she said, nearly spitting out the words as if she was already regretting them.

  “Thank you,” Aina said.

  “What exactly are we up against, Aina?” Teo asked.

  “I’ve fallen out of Kohl’s protection,” she said with a sigh. “So the Jackals came after me. They can kill me without any retaliation from Kohl. Anyone who’s ever had a grudge against me and anyone who finds out I’m the one who tried to kill Kouta will come after me now.”

  “Anyone with a grudge against you or anyone who wants to make one hundred thousand kors?” Teo shook his head. “So, the whole city.”

  The real danger of what she faced for her mistake had finally settled. Her failure weighed on her chest, making it hard to breathe. Tears pricked at the corners of her eyes, but she fought them down. If she was going to betray and kill Ryuu once they found his brother, she refused to let him see her weak.

  She glanced at Ryuu who, despite his bravery in the fight, appeared tense and shaken now. But when she caught his eyes, he fixed his face into a hard mask.

  “That won’t interfere with our agreement, will it?”

  “Not at all,” she said in a flat voice. “We should go.”

  Before someone else tries to kill me, she thought.

  She tried to ease her nerves as they walked Raurie to where the hills began to dip down into the Stacks. They’d killed or injured half of the Red Jackals gang. That would place some fear in their bones for a while. But once they recovered from the shock and bolstered their numbers, they’d come after her, and they wouldn’t mess up again. For now, at least, she’d bought herself enough time to visit Raurie’s aunt and use the tracking spell to find Kouta.

  She no longer had a home. She had no guarantee that she wouldn’t be on the streets by tomorrow.

  She didn’t have Kohl to protect her. The loss of him—not only his protection, but his respect, and the hope that he might think of her as more than an employee one day—was nearly a tangible ache in her heart. Dreams of standing at his side, of no longer having to hide what she felt, trickled away, taking her bravery with them.

  Her life had changed completely in the span of a day, and the mere thought of it made her head spin. Teo would say she could stay with him, but that only made her wonder how long it would take him to get sick of her; how long it would take him to abandon her, like Kohl had.

  The sounds of rats skittering and quiet movements in alleys commanded the night as she, Teo, and Ryuu made their way to Teo’s apartment under the light of the full moons. Halfway there, Aina paused, her eyes trailing down one particular street. If she was careful, no one there would recognize her. Only for a few hours, to clear her head, and then she’d get back to the job.

  “I’ll meet you later,” she said in a low voice, and then left before either of them could ask where she was going.

  18

  Aina pulled her hood over her head and walked down the street. Voices from people speaking in Milano at a corner reached her ears. She understood some of it, but not all, and tightened her hood around her head to shield her features, her copper skin, her black hair, so no one would try to speak to her in Milano and realize she barely knew the language anymore. Milano citizens were a minority of Kosín’s population, but they’d formed a small community on this street and the surrounding blocks. It was always strange returning and feeling like she both belonged here and didn’t.

  She soon reached a house at the end of the street, one she didn’t acknowledge on a daily basis, but which was always there for her when she needed it.

  There were no candles lit in the windows. The family inside must have been asleep. A lump built in her throat as she climbed to the roof—the place that had saved her while the gunman filled her parents with lead. She stared at the roof’s surface and imagined the room below.

  She’d hidden here the entire night and the next day after her parents were killed.

  As night fell, she had woken up, flexing her stiff fingers and toes. Her lips were chapped and nearly stuck together with the cold air. Her voice ached from how she’d sobbed the night before. Her stomach rumbled for food.

  Had it all been a dream?

  The city looked the same. All the streets surrounding her were exactly as she’d always known them, a mix of rust and cardboard descending farther south toward the river and, in the other direction, ascending the hill toward the Center of the city. Most of the Stacks were under a dusky-blue evening sky since the sun had nearly set, its final red rays spreading over the western horizon likes the wings of a bird. The air still smelled like smoke, mixed with the scent of rice and beans cooking in a nearby house. A busker somewhere nearby played a flute. The music blended with quiet voices from beyond the thin walls of homes.

  It didn’t seem possible that something so terrible could have happened and not changed the way the whole world looked, smelled, sounded.

  It was a nightmare, she decided. Her parents were probably looking for her. Her father would have dinner ready soon.

  She scrambled to the edge of the roof and dropped to the ground, getting dirt on her pant legs. Her mother would scold her, but she was so hungry, it was hard to care.

  The back door to her house was dark. At this time of night, her parents usually lit a candle. Unless they’d run out, of course, then they would eat dinner under the Mothers’ moons outside.

  Right before she entered, a firecracker set off in a distant corner of the neighborhood, making her jump. A dog from the other si
de of the road barked. A door slammed nearby. These sounds were all normal, but for some reason now, they set her pulse racing.

  She pushed open the back door. “Mami? Papi?”

  Darkness enveloped her as she walked inside, leaving the door open a crack. A small sliver of light from outside spread over her foot and across the floor like a trail. A foul stench reached her, like old meat, but sickly sweet at once, clinging to her nostrils and clothes in a way that made her certain she’d never be able to wash it off. Her stomach turned over as she took tiny steps beyond the threshold of the house. Flies swept past her ears, their whining buzz setting her nerves on edge.

  Maybe I’m still in the nightmare.

  Fear gripped her. If this were the nightmare, maybe the man with the gun was still here.

  She called for her parents again and took a few more steps. No one answered.

  Instead of her vision getting used to the darkness, the shadows seemed to grow until they nearly consumed her. The flies came back, brushing against her face and clothes along with the foul smell.

  She took another step forward. The trail of light from outside reached past her. The buzzing flies followed the sliver of light toward the shape of a limp hand.

  She couldn’t breathe, she couldn’t move, but the reality hit her. Her parents were here, but they would never answer her calls again. They’d been swallowed by the dark, and if she didn’t leave right now, it might swallow her too.

  It was just a cold roof, poor in construction, no different from any other roof in the Stacks. But it reminded her that once, she’d had people who’d protected her instead of having to do all the fighting alone. Here, she could allow herself to remember her parents without feeling weak for doing so.

  Her parents had each been brought by their families from Mil Cimas when they were young, her father from the south and her mother from the north. People worshiped the Mothers not only in Sumerand, but also in Marin and Mil Cimas, so her parents had grown up with the religion.