The Upways was a narrow strip of the city. It was where the Drowns straightened their alleys, had its streets drier and most of the street-lights working, casting the swaying arc-light over the rounded cornerstones. It was a place up and coming, even that the ‘ups’ were coming for a very long time and still weren’t there yet.
The Drunken Mage was a corner building four-storey high, that used to be a grand marriage of bar and brother with a nice side dish of theatre. It had been just the place to be when you were planning a grand night on the town and didn’t want to see much of the town to begin with. Or at least that had been the case a few years back, until one evening a magical explosion shook the Upways to the core of its wooden-laid walkways. A magic heater ruptured and spilled the thaumaturgically-charged fuel all over, causing an instant fire to engulf the whole place in matter of minutes. Jay still remembered squeezing between the crowds that had come gawking. The curtains of normal, yellow flames had been laced with purple columns of magical fire, twisting and flailing among the conflagration. She remembered the crowd gasping when the plume of smoke, pulsating above the building, would shift into terrifying shapes of horned faces and long-clawed beasts. The howls of unseen throats from inside the darkened doors and windows, voices that had never been made inside a human throat, were permanently etched in her memory. No one would have even gone near the fire, the wise folk of Upways knew when to leave a magical disaster to itself or suffer consequences that went farther than simple burns and smoke inhalation. They had left it to burn and the magic to fizzle itself out. It had been burning and shifting across the magical spectrum for two days, just barely contained to this one spot with the efforts of the neighbourhood. Afterwards, it had never been rebuilt. The city construction companies were wary of sending their tradesfolk to a building that could still be magically active. And if during the day the place was suspect, during the night it looked positively haunted.
Luckily for Jay, she didn’t have to come close to the main door of this husk of the building that gaped with its burned-out windows like toothless mouths frozen in silent screams. She just had to come around, slip between the boarded passage and the stone wall to get inside the courtyard. She looked around the place and shuddered. It was not wise to be here for long. The magic and the fire had burned itself out, but something of the disaster remained. Something that was barely noticeable yet still present, like a movement from the corner of the eye- gone if you look at it straight. Even the shadows outside of the magic-touched building were a bit askew, not conforming very well to the sources of light. One of them seemed to almost move…
‘Girlie?’
Jay started. It was the shadow! It talked.
‘Nice girlie…’
The shadow moved even more, finally breaking off from the wall it was clinging to and stepping towards Jay. It wasn’t shadow at all. It was a large man, tall and muscle-bound, his chest as thick as an oil drum. He had his head set low between his shoulders, a mop of curly hair covering both sides of his face. He was grinning at her, the kind of grin a hungry longshoreman would give to his dinner. Jay wondered if this was the muscle Lethe mentioned. She spoke to him but the man interrupted her.
‘No, I don’t speak to girlie. Girlie just be nice.’
He lunged for her and made a disappointed grunt when she slipped away from his grasp.
Back in the past she had her own way dealing with those. She would let them close, close enough for them to think they could start making themselves comfortable. Then at an opportune moment, slash at their eyes with her little shiv and listen to a surprised howl. Listen the forthcoming curses as she’d run, knowing that she’s be a few streets away before they’d shake their surprise and let it turn into rage.
But now it was different.
The man made a grab for her again. She dove under his arm, grasped the thick wrist and started up, aiming a blow at the elbow. This was one that Lethe taught her early on. She braced herself for the gnashing of a joint breaking and the howls of pain. But there were none. Her palm bounced off the elbow as if it was made of granite. A shock ran through her fingers and up her arm.
The man laughed loudly and spun towards her. His fingers grazed Jay’s scarf and pulled it off her shoulders as she rolled away.
‘No tricks girlie, just be good now.’
He pulled the cuff of his shirt, revealing a band of blue crystal and copper on each of his wrists. Tiny runes ran alongside the crystal part of the bands, shining faintly in the half-light. Jay twisted her face in an ugly grimace. Magic. So those bands gave the man a protection in hand-to-hand combat.
‘Be good now girlie?’
Jay said nothing. She reached to her dagger, hidden in the folds of her clothes. She pulled it out of the sheath, not letting the man out of her sight.
‘He’s got protection bands?’ she thought stubbornly. ‘Let’s see if his balls have protection against a blade’ she thought crouching low to the ground and sat there unmoving.
She measured him up and down with her eyes. The man must have taken her stillness for a promise of compliance because he relaxed his muscles and approached her. She waited for him to reach out again, ready to slide between his wide-set legs and slash the crotch open as she went. But just before she was to move, a voice rang out in the courtyard, gravelly and unmistakeable.
‘What the actual fuck?’
Both the man and Jay froze in their tracks.
‘Ed, what do you think you’re doing?’ Lethe pushed himself between the boards and the wall, entering the courtyard from the same direction Jay did.
‘I…uh’ said the man. ’It’s a girlie see? So I thought-‘
‘No you didn’t. How would a random ‘girlie’ was doing here anyway? She’s with us you dumbass.’
‘But, she’s a girlie!’ protested the man but lowered his head, pushing it deeper between his shoulders. He dug his fist into the pockets of his trousers like a boy scolded by his teacher.
‘Yes. A ‘girlie’. A ‘girlie’ that is with us. She works with us. And will go on the job with us.’ Lethe was speaking slowly and accenting each word as if he was explaining something very complicated. ‘Got it?’
‘Yeah’ the man pushed a stone with the tip of his toes’ ‘Sorry. Sorry girlie.’
Jay spat under his feet and stood up, sheathing her dagger then picked up her scarf from the ground.
Lethe sighed deeply.
‘Remind me again why I don’t do crew jobs. Now that everybody is playing nice, we’re just waiting for the transport to arrive. He should be here any minute so be ready.’
As fi on the cue, there was a sound coming from behind the boarded entrance to the courtyard. Something was coming down the alley, something that was ringing and clacking and thumping next to the sound of wheels rolling over the cobblestones. The strange set of sounds was coming closer until it stopped right next to the boarded-up entrance.
‘Hey, anybody there? Lethe?’ called out a voice.
Lethe stuck his head out in between the boards.
‘Yeah well shout even louder, why don’t you? Folk at the Guardstation Main can’t hear you that well.’ He hissed.
‘Come on you two’ he said to Jay and Ed before slipping out of the courtyard. Jay followed him while Ed, unable to squeeze between the boards, just lifted the barricade up and put it aside.
Out in the alley, there was a cart and thin Nyrah man, his fair hair swept to the back and pinned with a leather clasp. He wore a spiked club at his waist and a long coat of the far-going cartmenthe exact shade of brown as his skin. His short frame was further dwarfed by a massive robo-horse that was hitched to the cart. The horse was one of those older types, the kind that had to be built large, before modern components and new-style runic inscriptions made it possible to make their belly smaller for the more efficient type of magic-imbued fuel. Jay looked at it with interest, never really being close to one of those mechanical draft animals. Its metal skin consisted of plates that folded over each other, bringing to mind an ancient armour.
‘Not only the stupid horse of yours makes so much noise but it turns out you have a mouth like an airship siren!’ Lethe was complaining.
‘Ahhh why do you say that? I muffled the hooves like you said!’
‘Yeah great but what does that help when the armour shakes and clatters like that?’
‘What do you want Lethe? Rosalie’s old. Even if I tighten the bolts there is only so much I can do. I only agreed for that job because it’s the only way I can afford new parts for her.
Rosalie turned her head to Jay, the crystal brain under the steel plates assessing her for potential danger or obstacle, then the robot horse swivelled its head away again. Up close Jay could see the clear signs of age over the horse- rust alongside the plate’s edges, worn-out surface of the ball-joints, crack alongside her crystal belly that was secured with a strip of metal with runes spaced evenly alongside it.
Lethe groaned.
‘Alright, alright don’t get your shirt in a mangle Goreem. Just drive slowly alright? The place will be empty with the owners gone but that doesn’t mean that their neighbours can’t wake up. Kid, Ed! Load your arses on the cart and don’t fall off, we’re going.’
Jay clambered onto the cart and took a seat close to the front and as far as possible from Ed. When they were all loaded up, Goreem took the reins and Rosalie’s command rod.
‘Fore Rosalie’ he called out and off they went clacking and ringing through the streets. Lethe whispered some instructions to him, street names and corners. Jay didn’t know most of them and that meant they were going towards the part of the town she rarely been to, too good for the street rat like her to walk around openly. She was paying attention, but she couldn’t tell where exactly they were going, except that they were turning away from the river and headed inlands. The thick magically-contaminated fog started to descend in earnest, giving the city an iridescent sheen and small halos to the arc-lights. Although it was now harder to see, Goreem was driving steadily, relying on Rosalie’s magical eyes to see through the fog. Jay couldn’t tell how long they travelled like that.
Lethe leaned towards Goreem.
‘Slow down now. As quietly as you can. We’re getting close.’
Goreem pulled at Rosalie’s reins and whispered a command. The robo-horse slowed down to a walk. As they pulled around another corner, they came into a view of a row of houses. They were wide, with bay windows and linked with each other by small, iron-wrought balconies, making them look like they were holding hands.
‘There is a service alley, find it.’
The alley ran behind the houses surrounded by low garden walls. The townhouses rose on both sides, their windows dark, their dwellers asleep. Jay hoped it would stay this way. At the very end was the place that was their target. Goreem turned the cart around, making sure Rosalie had her head towards the exit.
‘Well, ride’s over’ said Lethe quietly. ‘Time to go to work. Jay, check the back door.’
Jay hopped down from the cart and carefully opened the gate to the garden, making sure it wasn’t squeaking. Then, passing by some plant boxes, she approached the wooden door leading to the back of the house. She took out her lockpicks and went to work on the thick and heavy Mortice sashlock, firstly checking if there was no enchantment placed on it. She still remembered that night she broke into the grocery shop and how she was blinded by a magical discharge. She swore that would never happen to her again. The satisfying deep click of the lock was a reward for her efforts. Soon the three of them entered a small hall barely large enough to fit them, leaving Goreem outside as a lookout.
Just past the hall there was a kitchen filed with twilight. The main hearth was almost extinguished, the cherry-red coals swathed with ash, but there was light coming from a water heater and pump. Both were magically-fuelled, the swirling light they gave out was dancing along the white-tilled walls. Dark wood floor creaked a bit when they entered, but other than that all was quiet and still. There were a few doors leading out of there, one was open and a long dining room could be glimpsed through the opening.
‘Right’ said Lethe quietly. ‘This place should be empty, but I’m not taking the risk. I’ll check the ground floor, Ed find stairs and check the next floor. Kid, one of those doors should go to the servant’s quarters. They should be either out or travelling with their ‘masters and benefactors’, but you never know. Get!’
Jay opened the nearest door and peeked inside. There was a set of stairs leading down, cool air was blowing from somewhere in there, smelling of cold ash and damp plaster. There was a corridor beyond, with doors on one side, turning behind the corner further on. A row of slit-windows was located near the ceiling and letting the tiny bit of light that the arc-light lanterns gave to the street outside. Jay started to descend on the narrow stairs carefully, supporting herself with one hand over the wall. As she was nearing the bottom, something moved at the end of corridor. Jay stopped mid-stride. A human shape appeared at the bend in the corridor, coming closer and closer. ‘They’ll see me!’ flickered through her mind. There was nowhere to hide, no shadow to slink into, the moment she moved she’ll be as visible as white paint over a chalkboard.
The person in the corridor stopped. For a spit second, Jay saw a face and wide-opened eyes, stunned by what they saw. Then, the person gave a cry and turned around, bolting towards the bend. Without second though, Jay leaped, skipping the rest of the steps. She drew her dagger and flew after them. She ran around the bend, just to see a door starting to close at the end of the corridor. She picked up speed and rammed the door. They flew open and there was another cry as the person on the other side was struck by the wood and rolled on the floor. Jay saw them crawling away and huddling in a corner. There was only a bed and a small oil lamp burning on a table next to it in the entire room. In its unsteady light Jay could now see the person clearly.
It was an old woman, her long grey hair falling about her face in a mess, mostly covering the wrinkled skin of her face. Her thin frame was swathed with a cloth nightgown and her bony shoulders were covered with woollen shawl that had seen better days. The woman wailed, her head pressed to the wall, not even trying to look at Jay. For a split second Jay stood there, struck with the familiarity of the scene. A person huddled to the wall while another stood over them with a bared dagger in their hand. But back then it was her cowering under a wall, not knowing what will befall her next, and a person standing over her was Lethe…
‘Quiet’ she said and crouched next to the woman. Jay placed her palm over the woman’s mouth and pressed her head against the wall. ‘Be quiet, I won’t hurt you!’
In response, the woman wailed even harder, her muffled cries pushing between Jay’s fingers. Her eyes were wide with terror and full of tears.
‘Oh right’ thought Jay. She was still holding her dagger, the blade shining menacingly in the light. No wonder that he woman wouldn’t believe her.
Jay sheathed her dagger and spoke again.
‘I’m going to let you go now, just don’t scream alright?’
The woman nodded.
Jay took away her hand. The woman whimpered a little but otherwise remained quiet.
‘What is your name?’ asked Jay, relieved that there wasn’t more screaming.
‘M…Milvana’ said the woman, her voice weak and squeaky with fright.
‘Is there anyone else in the house?’
She shook her head.
‘Listen Milvana’ continued Jay, watching the old woman carefully. ‘I’m not going to hurt you, but the men upstairs…I’m not so sure about. What I need is for you to be quiet and stay quiet. Can you do that?’
‘Yes’ tears were still running down her wrinkled cheeks but the voice seemed steadier. ’I don’t…I don’t have much-‘
‘We’re not here for anything that’s yours’ said Jay. ‘When are your masters return?’
‘Tomorrow…I mean, in the noon’ Milvana mumbled.
‘Just hide, stay quiet and no one is going to come down here. Understand?’
Milvana nodded.
‘Now, give me a key to your room, quickly!’
With her hands shaking, Milvana pointed to the hook on a wall where a faded black dress was hanging from. There was a steel chatelaine weighing it down, keys and other implements were chained to it like an unruly pack of dogs. Jay brought the whole thing over, letting Milvana release a key. She handed it to Jay, but the moment Jay’s fingers touched the metal, Milvana grabbed her hand.
‘Thank you thank you’ she mumbled. ‘Good, kind girl you are thank you. The Lord and Lady bless you kind girl…’
Jay pulled away so fast she almost lost her balance. She took the key and almost ran out of the door. She shut them behind her and turned the key in the lock. She was hoping that the click will cut off the last sight that she now had of Milvana- a dishevelled old woman thanking Jay on her knees for not slashing her throat. Jay grimaced, feeling a wave of revulsion sweeping over her as she wiped her hand in her breeches. A revulsion for what? Milvana? Herself? The entire house?
She shook her head. There was work to be done. Jay intended to take the key with her, making sure the old woman wouldn’t get any ideas. She seemed harmless, but…Jay herself knew enough about how to call on people’s pity to appear that way.
She sighed, reached to her lockpick kit and pulled out a lock-kill. She rarely had a chance to use it, a blank key-with a deep notch designed to break easily in a keyhole. But now she felt that it would give her extra assurance. Jay put the lock kill into the hole and struck it with her open palm from the side. The metal gave way and the lock was jammed, making it impossible for anyone to open it again without dismantling the whole thing. Jay tuned around hurried through the corridor and up the stairs.
Lethe was in the kitchen back from his round.
‘Lethe there is a woman downstairs-‘
‘What? Shit kid, I thought you can be trusted with removing any problems.’ He reached behind his back and unsheathed his dagger. He turned towards the stairs Jay just climbed, intending to go down.
Jay grabbed him by the arm.
‘No, Lethe wait. She’s…she’s just an old woman. She won’t make any trouble.’
Lethe stopped and stared at Jay.
‘You’re soft, kid. But then if you’re sure, I guess there is no need for me to go down there. Is there?’
‘Yeah. I locked her up and jammed the lock. And…Lethe?’
‘What?’
‘Don’t tell Ed.’
Lethe sheathed his dagger.
‘Yeah. I guess he doesn’t need to know.’
‘No one there. Now what?’ Ed poked his head into the kitchen.
’Well what do you think? Go and roll up some shit, both of you.’
They started from the second floor. And while they did, it struck Jay how different this place was from the oppressive opulence of the Duke’s mansion. Over there all was gold and crystal, every surface overloaded with ornaments and unnecessary baubles. Here, there was softness in the rooms, a sense of cosy warmth. Jay thought that her new room in the Three Knocks tenements was cosy because the roof was not leaking and she had an actual bed to lie on. But here a sense of domesticity filled every corner. Here was a place where normal people dwelled, not the high and mighty members of nobility that might be divines’ cousins for all Jay could tell. People like Jay lived here, even that they would themselves never claimed kinship to someone like her. Jay shook the initial impression off her and promised herself that she’d at least will take a sofa throw from here to make her own place feel a little bit like a home where somebody wants to live, somebody other than a street rat like her.
Jay started to work her way through the linen cupboard. It was full of pristine sheets and soft blankest made of thick wool. She pulled down bedding and tablecloths, all thick and embroidered. From the bedroom she pulled down the curtains off the four-poster beds and covers so crisp and pressed flat they crinkled as she folded them. She loaded the cushions and velvety poufs into the bags- all to be tossed on the back of the cart. Then she went to work on the shelves and mantles of the fireplaces, sweeping all that was there to sweep. Candlesticks with shiny, silver bodies and small chests with contents rattling and loose inside, trinkets and ornamental plates, small vases full of flowers and inlaid with thin lines of gold. She carefully packed away two time-pieces. Their faces were glimmering in the half-light with magical sheen, the ticking of their mechanisms complemented with the steady murmur of magical energy within. As she worked, she glimpsed Lethe and Ed, rolling -up thick carpets from the floors and carrying them out like round beams, removing portraits from the wall, their heavy frames more valuable than whatever they held. Ed carried out tall brass lamps that resided in the corner of the rooms, their bodies full of oil or magical energy and their chimneys and shades laden with prisms and adornments.
One room had given her a pause though. As she entered, it was as she had suddenly grew in size, the room’s furnishing too small to be comfortably used even by somebody like her, one that never grew tall to begin with. She took a few tentative steps, her feet sinking into a pink carped printed in a pattern of interlocking daisies. There was a table and four chairs, so low to the ground Jay would have to kneel to use it. On the table there was a dainty set of pot and cups- too small to be held easily or to drink from. Colourful books, cloth-bound and cheerful, were piled next to the tea-set, some open and revealing illustrations that almost seemed to move in the low light of the room. To the right of the table there was a house- almost a perfect replica of the one she was in now. Even the reddish sheen of the pump and boiler were seeping from the kitchen windows. Next to the house stood a four-legged shape and Jay at first thought she is looking at Rosalie, somehow transported and shrunk to be no taller than Jay’s thigh. A robo-horse stood there and at the sound of her approaching, turned its head and struck its hoof against the floor, then looked away and was still again. Further on she saw two beds under the wall, their steel frames sloping gently and fitted with night-lights shaped like blooming magnolias. Both were too small for a normal-sized person to lay-in fully-stretched. Children…Children were living in this room. Children that played with the toy house and the small robo-horse. That read the colourful books and slept in those beds, never knowing the darkness of the night for the gently-glowing magnolias that shone over their heads. And never had their feet wet and muddy, the solid floor and the daisy-patterned pink carpet protecting their feet.
Ed pushed past her and looked around the room. He grabbed the robo-horse in one hand and the miniature house in the other, then gave her a nasty look.
‘Girlie better work. Stare later.’
Jay frowned and shrugged. The bastard was right. Why would she even care for some kids that lived there? They could deal without their toys and other fancy stuff for now, until their parents replace them. Jay stepped over some building blocks scattered over the carpet, got to the beds and started un-clipping the nightlights from the bed frames, then got to work on the beds themselves.
Slowly they worked their way down the house. Jay wanted to pick the lock on a large sideboard in the dining room but Ed beat her to it, ripping the dainty carved doors from their hinges. Silver cutlery spilled onto him, tiny pickle forks with bone handles pricked the linen of his shirt like burrs sticking to a mongrel’s hide. Silver plates and sugar tongs, salt cellars and tiny chalices to pour spirits that are better enjoyed in a thimble than a tankard- all jumbled and mixed together went into the bags. In the living room Jay was confronted with a hearth that was still lit and giving the warmth akin to a blazing summer afternoon. In front of the fire a sofa was lounging on a rug that seemed to be woven from the hair of an unknown beast, all soft and dyed in deep colours. The sofa was flanked by two high-backed chairs and a footstool that looked like a lapdog that was warming itself by a fire. The sofa itself had a throw, a heavy affair with fringe and was embroidered with strange animal silhouettes that walked all across its length. It was just a thing that Jay promised herself to get, a thing that will make her pallet bed looking more homely. But the moment she pulled the throw and turned to fold it, she stood face-to-face with a line of eyes. And all of those eyes were trained on her. Jay’s heart leaped.
There were rows and rows of animals lining the shelves and walls. The glass eyes watched her impassively, shining in the light of the fire. There were ducks and owls and large predatory birds with their wings spread wide. Cats sat with their bushy tails wrapped around themselves, some of them even frozen in mid-meow- their tiny, needle-like teeth bared. There were other creatures that Jay couldn’t name, their heavy heads decorated with horns that were spreading like boughs of trees. Others had fur so long they were wearing a blazing crown of hair in red and blonde. But there was one that especially caught Jay’s attention. It was a glass bell with a heavy brass bottom. In the bell there was a bough in full bloom, green leaves made of silk and wax grew out of a thin trunk adorned with tiny red clusters of flowers. Between the leaves and the flowers, two small birds were spreading their wings and had their dainty beaks opened as if they would burst into a song at any second. The patterns of blue iridescent feathers made her recognize her namesakes- jays.
‘Ha!’ called Lethe as he slinked behind Jay’s back. ‘Look at that stuff! That’s some collector shit right there. We’ll need someone who knows their business to sell it. But I guess that’s Munoz’s deal. Ed! Come over and help us carry that crap!’
Jay was carrying the strange husks of animals out with Ed and Lethe, but the jays she put aside. She wrapped them in the throw so the bell wouldn’t crack while jostled on the cart. This was hers now. She would take it for herself.
They re-grouped back in the kitchen. Jay could almost feel the dawn approaching, the night fading from wet ink to grey shroud. As they were getting to leave, Jay noticed one door that was left unopened.
‘Lethe I’ll just see what they got in there’ she said trying the door. They were locked and Jay once again reached for her lockpick set.
‘Ahh leave it’ said Lethe. ‘That’s probably the scullery. Nothing but dirty pots and pans in there.’
Jay knew that he’s probably right, but if she didn’t try she’d be thinking about that closed door for next few days. The lock clicked open and the door opened with a tortured creak.
‘Aw, shit!’ said Lethe peering over her shoulder.
In a pale light that the pump and boiler gave, a pair of eyes looked at Jay from behind bars. A pair of yellow Kou eyes. The creature was crouching in a cage, barely big enough for it to sit comfortably. It was dressed in a long linen shirt, too big for its frame. It met Jay’s gaze for a brief moment, then lowered its eyes again to the bare boards that made the floor of the cage.
‘Let’s go kid, nothing for us here.’
Jay turned to look at Lethe.
‘But… doesn’t that bother you?’
‘Of course it bothers me! But then what do you expect me to do with her?’
‘Her?’ Jay looked back at the Kou. When she stared carefully enough, she could just barely see a shadow of small, round breasts under the linen shirt. ‘But of course’ she thought. Lethe’s clearly a man, so why it is so surprising there are Kou women?’
Jay pressed her lips into a tight line. She kneeled next to the cage’s door and examined the padlock. It was just a simple one, wouldn’t take her long to open it. Jay rattled the padlock with her lockpicks and threw it away when it opened. She swung the cage’s door open. The Kou raised her eyes but remained motionless otherwise. Jay reached out inside the cage and took the Kou by hand, looking over the top of her palm. No mark, the green skin of the female Kou bore no trace of a magical ink. So the poor creature was not bought through the Labour Crossroads, but rather caught in the wild, Like Joshul and Damarten- Abzeda’s captives. And so couldn’t be traced and captured again if it escaped.
Jay pulled the Kou’s hand trying to coerce her to exit the cage. After but a token resistance, the Kou was outside the bars. She now stood straight, almost as tall as Jay herself.
Lethe sighed with exasperation.
‘Now what? Are you going to take her with you? Stuff her into your room in Three Knocks? Feed her too?’
Jay didn’t say anything. She pulled the Kou behind her, leading her by the hand to the back door. As she passed through the threshold, Jay was washed over by the chilly stream of pre-dawn air.
She stopped among the plant boxes and turned to look at the Kou.
‘You can go now’ she said. ‘Do you understand? Go.’
The Kou looked at her, her yellow eyes still and impassive.
‘Go. Go back home…Wherever your home is. Understand?’
No response, no change in the expression. Jay couldn’t tell if whatever she is saying getting anywhere near the female Kou’s understanding.
‘They do have homes, don’t they?’ thought Jay. ‘You never see them when it’s snowing, so they must hide somewhere. The Edge is full of places they can hide, right?’
It was Jay’s turn to groan with exasperation. She tore the cloak off her shoulders and wrapped it around the Kou. The thick green fingers caught the edge and pulled it tighter around her body.
‘Go. Home’ tried Jay again.
This time there was a reaction. The yellow eyes moved, looking first at the cloak then at Jays face. A short finger ending in a black nail appeared from under the folds of the cloak and touched Jay’s chest, putting just enough pressure for her to feel it. Then, as it a spell had been broken, the Kou bolted. Jay looked after her as she jumped over the garden wall. Then she scampered up the drain of a neighbouring house, pushing with her back legs and grabbing with her hands, just like Lethe does, just like Jay herself learned to climb drains. A few more pulls and she’d disappeared between chimneys.
Lethe appeared behind her, silently. Jay almost jumped when he spoke.
‘Now when you‘re done doing good deeds for the night can we finish this job? Please!’
Jay shrugged. Yes, that was pointless. Yes, she shouldn’t pay any attention to anything that didn’t involve folding things while on the job. She was half-angry at herself for it, for losing perfectly good cloak while doing it. But the thought of leaving the Kou behind that bars made her even angrier.
Jay turned around and ran back to the house to grab the glass bell wrapped in the sofa throw that she put away while she was opening the cage and came back running, just as Lethe and Goreem were finishing securing the load on the back of the cart. Goreem put up a canvass on the metal ribs over the cart’s bed so no one could see what they were transporting, or if the cart had passengers at all.
Jay scrambled up the cart after Ed and Lethe, past the heavy canvas curtains. She stuffed herself between rolled-up carpets and bags of towels, holding her glass bell on her knees. As Rosalie pulled, the whole thing started to roll noisily, the loot in the cart ringing out nearly as loud as the robo-horse itself.
They travelled with a decent speed through still-sleeping Arkilington. Despite the noise, the sway of the cart felt comforting. It was warm in here, the canvas cutting off the chill, and Jay found herself dozing off for a moment.
‘Cartman halt!’
A yell pulled Jay out of her dozing. Goreem stopped Rosalie and the entire cart came to a halt. Jay crawled towards the front and peeked out from under the canvas. She froze. Looking from under Goreem’s boot, she saw a couple of wide-shouldered silhouettes. One of them carried a lantern and in its cold glow she recognized the metal-clad cuirasses of the city guard. ‘Ironhats’ she thought. She felt the thick-fingered hand on her shoulder- Lethe. She touched his skin and tapped it there times-three guards. Then added three more taps- three guards further away. She could almost hear Lethe cursing silently.
‘Where to and where from, cartman?’
‘Off the countryside sir I am’ said Goreem, flawlessly replicating the countryside way of speaking, the sing-songy vowels that made him sound both simple and good-humoured. ‘Bit late I am too. Poor Rosalie here broke down the Garsend-way . A grocery shop in Upways waits for me to bring their groceries before they open a-morn.’
‘Upways, huh?’
‘So sir, it is.’
Lethe Jay’s arm and she let go of the canvas and shifted towards the back. She too heard the suspicion in the guard’s voice. Barely noticeable, but it was there. Lethe positioned himself on one side of the flap and Jay sat at the other. Ed placed his wide body in the middle, taking a stance, leaning forward.
‘Well then you won’t mind my buddy here taking a look at your turnips and onions then?’
‘Not at all sir. But those are eggs, bacon and flour only tho.’
The lantern light moved to the side of the cart, slowly sliding over the canvas. As it came to the end of the cart Jay held her breath. The guard on the other side of the fabric was now so close that she could reach out and touch him. Slowly a hand appeared grabbing the canvass to throw it to the side. Another hand, holding a sword appeared in the opening between the two flaps.
A sound rang out. A nasty wet sound of a face being bashed in. A spurt of blood landed on the canvas with a wet slosh somewhere in the front of the cart. The hand with the sword paused for a split second, but they didn’t wait for it to move. Both Jay and Lethe reached out to the guard outside and grabbed him, pulling with all their strength. The moment his head and shoulders appeared in the cart, Ed grasped the surprised man by the throat. There was sound of crushed bones and a gurgling. Jay glimpsed the wide eyes and open mouth before the guard went limp- his neck broken.
‘What…’Jay heard from the outside and then ‘To me! Get!’
‘Rosalie fore, fore, fore!’
The cart lurched. Jay rolled forward, barely able to stop herself from falling out. Heaving like a ship on the open sea, the cart rolled through the streets. As they took a corner at high speed, Jay found herself under a pile of furniture and fabrics, buried with the loot they took. She pushed with her arms, trying to hoist herself atop of it by grabbing the cart’sside. She emerged from under the mixed mess of furnishings, just to see Lethe putting his foot over the peaked helmet of the dead guard. One shove and the man fell out of the cart, his cuirass clattering over the cobblestones as Rosalie rattled and hurled forward with her load.
They didn’t slow down for some time after that, fearing that any other patrols would be after them. The guards that they left behind could easily contact the other post with either magic or light signals. Jay knew that they needed to get to wherever they were going to stash the loot or risk more guards after them. She rolled herself into a ball and clenched her teeth, feeling her heart surging with adrenaline. The sound of the cart clamouring over the cobblestones changed. It turned less hard and more wet. Jay recognized that sound immediately. They have just rolled into the streets of the drowns, the ever-present mud making a sucking sound.
‘Low-now, low-now Rosalie’ Jay heard Goreem calling softly. The breakneck speed of the cart went down to a more leisurely pace. Here in the Drowns there was less of a chance of pursuit or ambush. Folk harboured no love for the guards here and had wits enough to stay out of business of a cart that rolled in the night. But if the Drowns made Jay assured the sound that replaced the sucking and squelching of the mud made her wary again. The wheels of the cart rode into murky sloshing water and Rosalie’s steel hooves started to pick up slower as they entered the Edge.
‘We’re not going far in’ she heard Lethe, his grin almost visible in the darkness that filled the flooded quarter. ‘Nearly there kid.’
Lethe was right. No sooner than Jay managed to calm her breathing, the cart stopped.
‘All alight!’ called out Goreem, pretending to be an omnibus driver. ‘Last stop Edge- shady as hell warehouse!’
‘Fucking hell, Goreem’ called out Lethe jumping off the cart and laughed loud enough to stir the gulls sleeping in the nooks of the nearby buildings. ‘I almost pissed myself when you restarted that bucket of rusty bolts of yours!’
Jay slipped out after him, feeling the freezing waters of the Edge filling her shoes. She moved to the front of the cart, passing the blood stain that was clearly visible on the canvass.
‘Don’t be rude to Rosalie Lethe!’ said Goreem, wiping off blood from the spiked club. ‘She saved your bacon just fine didn’t she?’
‘That she did, pox on her but she’s a good one!’
Jay came closer to the now-motionless automaton and patted her steel-clad neck. Rosalie lowered her head and looked at Jay as if the robo-horse actually enjoyed the affection, then looked away and was still again. Jay giggled, feeling the tension leaving her chest.
‘Ey! Since I’m the ‘bacon’, then come over ‘milk’ and ‘eggs’’ Lethe addressed Jay and Ed who was just emerging from the cart. A huge red bump just started to appear on the man’s forehead, a mark of his close encounter with one of the heavier objects in the cart. ‘We have to unload this shit before dawn. Go on!’
Lethe waded in the water towards an elevated ramp. The ramp was leading to a set of doors, looking just like most doors in the Edge- worn and unused. But the healthy click and no squeak in the hinges told Jay that this place was especially prepared for them to stash the loot from this job. Lethe reached into the doorway and soon there was light spilling from it and lighting up the ramp. They worked in silence, carrying in the various furnishings into the storage room until the cart stood empty.
To Jay’s delight, she found out that the glass bell with the birds came out unscathed from the madcap run, the thick sofa throw saved it from shattering. The blooming bough and the jays seemed almost moving in the unsteady light.
‘Put that in with the rest of those’ said Lethe.
‘No…Those are mine’ said Jay. ‘I’m taking it with me.’
‘They aren’t worth that much you know?’
‘Yes. But I want to have them.’
‘Suit yourself’ said Lethe, shrugging. Jay noticed that he too took a small prize with him, one of the small jewellery chests that were locked and missing a key. Not that it would be any obstacle to him.
After all was unloaded, Lethe blew out the light inside the storage and closed up the door. Again the place looked like it wasn’t opened since the cold water of the river had rolled into the unlucky district all those years ago.
‘Hey Goreem, can you drop me off the Dockyard way?’ said Lethe climbing back onto the cart.
‘No can do. All that sprinting burned through the fuel. Rosalie’s almost empty.’
‘Three Knock’s then?’ said Jay hopefully.
‘’No, no I got to get fuel as soon as the factories stop and start selling their surplus from the night- cheaper this way. Through the Drowns and Upways then King’s Way to the Pull.’
‘Hmmm- hey kid, your place in the Drowns still stands? Can we crash there?’
Jay shrugged. She hasn’t been in her little lean-to for over two weeks.
‘Should still be standing. Something might have moved in though.’
‘Yeah we’ll evict it then. Drop us off The Magic Lamp, you know it?
He did. And soon enough Jay started to recognize the familiar alleyways of her old neighbourhood. They stopped in front of The Magic Lamp where Abzeda’s sons were in the process of removing the last of the patrons into the gutters alongside the contents of the tavern’s spittoons. Jay and Lethe parted ways with Goreem and his horse, leaving Ed to ride with them towards Upways.
‘Visit me in The Clockwork Whaler in the Dockyard in a few days’ Lethe said to them before they drove off. ‘I’ll have your money by then.’
Then the cart trundled down the road, clattering and ringing.
A few more minutes of brisk march and finally they stood at the mouth of the blind alley Jay was calling her home until very recently. Slowly and carefully they checked if the lean-to was empty. It was. It seemed like during Jay’s absence nothing took up the residence in the shack. Jay grimaced. She hasn’t been here for two weeks, only two weeks and in the end her former home seemed almost unrecognizable in her eyes. Once a place of refuge and a turf of her own, now just a derelict, barely worth anyone’s time unless faced with a choice between this and a doubtful shelter of a doorway. It was dark and damp inside. Luckily for them, there was still plenty of debris that Jay used to collect for burning in the brazier. Not too damp to burn either and soon yellow flames were hungrily devouring all that Jay threw into them, giving off light and warmth.
Jay gave a suspicious look to her old cot. The pieces of fabrics and leaves were still there. The weather was still cold so there was little-to-no chance of bugs or other creepy-crawlies to take a nest there. However there was always a possibility of something else deciding the place would be an ideal nest- rats or mice or maybe even ferrets. Jay gave the pile a good poke and only sat down when she was sure there was nothing lingering in it. She unwound the sofa throw off the glass bell and pushed the birds in the corner of the cot, so they would safe from an accidental spill.
She pulled of her wet shoes and breeches that were soaked and muddied up to above the knees from both the streets of Edge and Drowns. Left only in her long shirt, she pulled her knees to her chest, covering herself with the fabric, so the toes were sticking out, warming in the heat of the brazier. She sighed with contentment. This was a crazy night and she was glad for the cot and the brazier, even though those comforts lost their sheen.
In the meantime, Lethe perched the jewellery box on the edge of the brazier and tugged at the lid. He reached into one of his pouches, bringing his lockpick set. Jay watched as he worked, his thick fingers putting just the slightest pressure possible onto the iron rods. Gently he twisted the pick in the hole, his every move precise and smooth. Out of nowhere, Jay’s heart slammed against her chest.
‘What is this now?’ thought Jay. ‘I have seen him opening a lock a thousand times. Why is this now like…like…’
The lock yielded with a soft click, the sound sending shiver down Jay’s spine that travelled on toward the back of her thighs. A memory flickered in her mind like a moth near a candle’s flame, the memory of her resting between his arms that one time deep underground.
‘Oh not this again’ she said to herself wordlessly at the same time trying to contain the shuddering that overtook her muscles. Almost instantly though, she caught another thought that pushed itself inside of her mind.
Why not?
‘Why not indeed’ thought Jay, knowing that the strange feeling once chased away is bound to return. She watched Lethe poking inside the jewellery box. The box was lined in red velvet and he would pull a piece out of it, looked it over under the light of the flames and put it back again with a wide cheeky grin and a self-satisfied ‘mm-hmm’.
‘Lethe’ she said, her breath almost stalling in her throat as soon as she opened her mouth. ‘Can you…can you come closer for a moment?’
‘Hm? What? Why?’ Lethe took his attention off the jewellery and gave her a puzzled look.
Jay took a deep breath.
‘I want…I want to touch you.’
Lethe pushed away the box, making sure it won’t fall into the flames. He was still staring at her with this quizzical expression, but moved forward, standing between her and the brazier. His eyes seemed to be burning, the same colour as the flames.
‘What the hell are you talking about, kid?’
Slowly, hesitantly, Jay leaned forward. She extended her hand and touched his face, the coarse features that always seemed to her like hewn from rough jade. Then she leaned even closer and kissed the corner of his mouth. Then kissed him again, deeper and in the middle of his line-thin lips. He tasted of night air, of smoke and grime of the city.
She reached out, taking him by the hand. She guided his thick black-nailed fingers under the hem of her shirt. Made them travel up her leg, over the curve of her thigh, and leave warm trails as they passed over her skin. Too fast? Too slow? The trail ended at her hip. She cupped her palm over his, curving his fingers over her waist. And yet, all this time he hadn’t moved. Not even a muscle. Jay could no longer read the expression on his face, there was nothing there to read besides the intensity of his stare.
Jay shifted. She pulled up the hem of her shirt and spread her knees, exposing herself to him. She reached out to his other hand and gently pulled him towards herself, wishing that he but took one step between her open legs. But he remained unmoving and silent. Was this not right? Was she not doing it right?
‘Now what?’ she thought. ‘Should I scream at him to do it?’
Or maybe…
‘You don’t want me, do you?’ the thought was unpleasant and disappointing like a needle found in a soft cloak. That had to be it. Her mind flashed back to the type of women she’d seen him with- professionals with painted faces and lurid clothes.
She opened her mouth to say this out loud, but the moment she did, he took that step. She felt his arm wrapping around her, holding the small of her back and pressing her against his body. He moved his other hand in front of his breeches, undoing the lacing in the fly. Soon she heard the rustling of the fabric being moved aside and sliding down his thighs. She could now feel the touch of his skin on the inside of her legs and her belly, the warmth of his body spreading and seeping past her own skin and into her muscles. Lethe’s fingers found their way to her entrance, probing it like he’d probe a keyhole in the lock, with the same measure of caution and confidence. Jay quivered under his touch, letting out a small whimper, feeling herself soft and wet under his fingers.
He moved even closer to her. She could now feel his hot tip touching her, ready to push inside. Jay took a deep breath, preparing herself for pain. She expected it-tearing and burning, just like that time she sold herself for food money back when she was just a child. But there was no pain. Lethe entered her with a throaty grunt and for a moment Jay could only hear a rush of blood in her ears, the trashing of her heart against her ribs. She wrapped her arms around the back of his neck and shoulders, not knowing anymore what to do with them, feeling the strain of his muscles under the fabric of his shirt.
It was quick after that. She let him thrust into her, heaving and grunting, She was watching as her body is responding to the storm of sensations spilling from between her legs. With every push of Lethe’s hips Jay could feel something building inside her, causing a strained gasp to escape from between her teeth. She felt Lethe’s fingers grasping her hips tighter and tighter as she herself was growing tighter and tighter inside, pressing over his shaft and making him push with more urgency. The spasm of release came to her suddenly. It arched her spine backwards and she threw her head upwards. Surprised and flooded with unexpected pleasure, she let out one long half-hiss, half-moan. Soon after that, she felt Lethe’s body going rigid. A couple more thrusts and a deep almost-growl escaped his throat as he finished inside her.
Still half-stunned, Jay didn’t notice when Lethe disentangled herself from her, her body still pulsating with his touch and warmth. A few seconds later she was watching him lacing back his breeches.
‘Heh, not bad’ he mused to himself. Then he looked up at Jay, giving her a suspicious look.
‘This wasn’t something stupid was it? Like you trying to ‘repay’ me or something?’
Jay took a deep breath, still winded.
‘No’ she said firmly, her voice feeling a bit hoarse. ‘I just…I wanted to do it.’
Lethe held her in his graze for a second then nodded.
‘Thank you Jay.’
‘What? ‘Jay’? What happened to ‘kid’?
Lethe looked at the glass bell in the corner of the cot, at the lush leaves of the boughs and the colourful flowers surrounding the almost-singing jays. Then he looked back at her and shrugged.
‘You take what you want. I guess you’re no kid at all.’
He turned around and picked a few pieces of wood from the fuel pile. He threw them into the brazier. The flames, now growing low, bit into them hungrily.
‘Now move over a bit will you?’ he said. ‘It would be nice to finally get some shuteye after this incredibly eventful evening. Not that I’m complaining mind you.’
Jay grinned at him and shuffled to the side as he climbed over the cot. She grabbed the sofa throw and wrapped it over them both, just as she did the first time they’ve been crashing at her place. He fell asleep almost instantly, while Jay was laying there for quite a bit, looking at the flames in the brazier, the burning inside her finally doused.
