One, two three—Raya’s heart pounded in her chest. She was fit, and used to strenuous chases on her hunts. But she was not used to being the prey.
Through an alleyway her feet pattered, and out into the street. It was evening. The street was empty, save another of her pursuers, a man clad in hardened leather armour, with a whip in one hand and a hook in the other. Continue reading Raya 6
A knife’s blade, held delicately between two of Dago’s fingers, dragged through the cream foam he had lathered across his cut hair. Tiny black hairs were strewn across the blade as it finished its track, and a dunk into the washbasin removed them. Again, he pulled the razor across his scalp, and again washed it. It was a ritual for him, a shedding of the last two months of chaos and sin. Continue reading Dago 13
The sun was setting on Bellasa, at the end of the 7th Moon, but Lerran was just getting ready for his day. He awoke, in one of the spare rooms above the cobbler’s house, and dressed in a loose white shirt. Over it, he draped his black coat. He did not intend to fit in with Bellasa style—full of sashes and big brass braces. In Sheld, metal imports from Starath had supplied them with more than enough copper to get over any obsession to it. He hooked his scabbard onto his belt, and ran a hand through his brown hair. Continue reading Lerran 5
After her first week in Vagren, Raya had set up a few appointments. She had Urvin send some letters for her, asking lords of Royal Houses to speak with her or to consider Olston’s plight. She was no more skilled at penmanship and persuasive reasoning than she was confident that Olston should become indebted to the Royal House of a slaver city such as Vagren. As it was, slavers left alone the town as it, and many others, were protected by the Free Hold Policy, one of the few documents that all of the Royal Houses had signed to allow towns of enough size to function with their own governments. The incentive to the Houses was the production and trade merit of leaving such towns unincorporated to a competitive House. When wealth bought power in Vagren, the free public kept the standard from too great of an inflation. Continue reading Raya 5
Dago was more than a little irritated by the time he reached the city gate of Ith. It was after he had passed through the Highway checkpoint, and spent the night sleeping on the ground next to people who had spat on him and picked a fight with him. They stunk of the road, sweat and blood, and of illnesses their poor immune systems had failed to stop after spending their lives in brass bathing tubs and warm, feathered mattresses. Continue reading Dago 12
The Crimson Highway was smoother and faster to travel than the jungle terrain that surrounded it, but Dago quickly tired of the bland, grey cobblestones, stretching on and on. He was relieved when the city of Ith finally came into view. He could remember maps of the Highway, and the stretch between Elpan and Ith was one of the straightest. Continue reading Dago 11
Ahead of Raya, a makeshift palisade wall rose from the gradual slope of the hills, where the slums of Vagren were contained by their outer defenses. Over the wall and lean-to rooftops, she could see the old stone wall, worn and broken in many places, where the original city had developed. Now, almost all of that was owned by the Royal Houses—there was no palace or castle in Vagren save the private mansions of the aristocracy. Continue reading Raya 4
She left her town early in the morning, before the sun rose. Her parents woke up with her, but Novar just rolled off the couch and went into the bedroom to sleep, without saying a word. They were worried for her, but it was so much more complicated than that. If Raya didn’t return, they’d depend completely on the generosity of the somewhat hard people of Olston to bring them food, money, new clothes when they were needed. Continue reading Raya 3
They reached Bellasa as planned. Under Lerran’s orders, the ship flagged passing ships and asked those who stopped if they had seen Renado or Vanci, or even any ships in plight. No one had; a few demanded coin for the inconvenience of being stopped, and a few asked for payment before telling Lerran that they had, in fact, no information for him at all. A ship of similar size delayed them almost half a day, insisting on dinner before any business speech. Some ships recognized the Eye of Gharo flag that whipped in the wind above their heads and sailed right by. They encountered a few sizeable galleys, crewed by white-skinned folk as frequently as dark. Continue reading Lerran 4
Raya had always loved the art of Olston. Interconnected squares trimmed all the buildings, etched deep enough into the wooden frames to be clear. Sky blue paint adorned many of the doors, railings, and eaves, while a burgundy some of the children and women made from the shellfish of the Eremes River marked the road-posts and the occasional mural—usually drawings of animals that roamed the savannah—that decorated the town. Continue reading Raya 2