Immediately after she stepped out of the shop Kit felt that something was wrong. The walkways were empty . . . but it felt as though they weren't. Kit heard the soft rustle of clothes in the darkness. Or thought she did. The silhouette of a man stood in an alley, waiting. Maybe.
Kit paused and scratched a hand on her chin. She turned around, walking quickly down the street the other way.
In retrospect? Shopping after dark in the city of evil? Bad idea.
When she turned the corner, Kit saw an ethereal light floating down the middle of the canal. As it became closer, it solidified into a lantern dangling over a Ravosala, propped up against the back so that it hung over the vessel. She drew on her mark again, became Shy and slipped the bird's tongue into her mouth.
She waved down the Ravosala, a piece of copper pinched between her fingers, and the ferryman pushed it closer, relaxed and at ease. Kit glanced over her shoulder, watching for her pursuers. Nothing.
"Well hey there little lady," the Ravosala man said. The lantern was perched in the back and glowed a healthy orange, a little island of light in the dark waters of the canal. "Your mum and da know you're out this late, here?"
"I . . ." Kit blinked, her voice strange and high in her own ears. Her voice was rather high to begin with; with the bird's tongue warping her voice she couldn't it a grown voice herself. Best not deny it. She shook her head and forced herself to move on in spite of the strangeness. "Can't say they do, can't say they'd care. You know the way to Tarsin's?"
There was a flicker of something in his eyes. Something colder, maybe? But his voice was as cheery as ever. "Do I!" He said, pushing himself closer to the walkway. Kit glanced over her shoulder again, measured the Ravosalaman against the kindly one and stepped into the boat. "Steady there now, or you'll tip us over. You mind a little, ah, preemptive payment?"
Kit looked at the Ravosalaman straight on, reached into her pockets and pulled out a copper. "This might be all you get," she said in her too-high voice, laying the miza down with a clack on the wood of the boat.
What was with this 'little bird' thing? The Ravosalaman shook his head sadly, pressed his pole against the walkway and pushed off. "Girl, you're a cold one. Most runs? I'll get several coppers."
Kit breathed, tapped a finger against her thigh. The Ravsolaman's shadow fell over her as she tried to find some phantom of dishonesty in his face. Was he cheating her? Was he not? Kit wished she had paid closer attention toe the Ravosalas before, so that she could know for sure. Finally, reluctantly she pulled out five more coppers and slapped them in her hand.
One eyebrow rose and he smiled, with genuine mirth this time. "Thank you kindly, girl." He reached up and ruffled a hand through Kit's hair; the boat was too small for her to scoot away there wasn't really much she could do about it. They glided through the dark waters, the light of the Ravosalaman's lantern the brightest thing there was to see.
Three dark shapes ran somewhere to Kit's right. She heard their footfalls grow louder and louder and then softer and softer. Kit breathed a sigh of relief and eased some tension she hadn't known was there from her shoulders.
They passed beneath a bridge, and in the lantern's glow Kit saw a regal bust of a man erected into its side. It stared down on them with pupilless eyes and a smile . . . It was the smile of someone who'd an unpleasant surprise in store for whoever he was looking at. Was he looking at her, Kit wondered?
"You aren't from Ravok are you, lass?" Kit turned around, shoulders suddenly getting tight, but the man at the other end of the Ravosala was smiling. "Relax, relax. Rhysol's my god first god, but a generous rider?" He held the silver between his fingers and smiled something wicked. "My second. If it was a little lighter out, I'd offer you the full tour. For a price, of course."
Kit tried to measure his sincerity, but he had his back to the lantern, and much of his face was in shadow. "Alright," she said, and hugged herself a little tighter. "Alright."
"See? I ain't so scary. So tell me, what do you think of our good city?" Kit could hear pride in his voice. Best feed that pride, she thought.
Kit scratched behind her head and smiled sheepishly. "You know, I'll be honest was expecting something nasty. God of chaos, right? I thought, that can't be good."
"Yeah?" Some of the amusement had bled out of his voice.
"But look at this place," Kit said. "You ever seen a more beautiful city in your life? I ain't." Kit was sure that Ionu would understand that she was lying, and why. "You expect something nasty, and come on clean streets, and the people!" She said, and offered the Ravosalaman a smile. "I've never seen a better people."
Even before he spoke, she could feel satisfaction radiating off her guide. Some of that coldness went out of his eyes. "Aaah yes, there isn't a city as great as ours. With the Voice at our helm, there ain't no one who can bring our Ravok down."
It seemed to Kit that this was a speech that this man had prepared in advance and never got a chance to say. "The Voice?" She asked, egging him further on.
"The Voice!" He said, "Rhysol's wife and lover; she keeps the city sane and makes the gears go round year after season to season." A God's lover. She couldn't quite keep the shock out of her eyes, but the Ravosalaman seemed too taken up in his story to notice. "They keep us safe and give us purpose. You're a lucky girl, no matter where you go in this broken old world you'll never find a better place than this one. That I guarantee. So where you from?"
Where was she from, where was she from . . . "Alvadas, actually." Kit said. The truth; a lie's best seasoning. "We got a little group together, started traveling so we could get here, but Mom and Da . . ."
Kit could feel him looking her over. "Ach, sorry to bring it up. No need to go further. I gotta say though, I was expecting you to be from a bit further south."
"Like Ekytol, maybe?" Kit asked, and this time she was on familiar ground. She remembered what her friend back in Alvadas used to say when someone brought up the point and put on a jaunty smile. "Benshiran sailor came up the coast and did a little sinning, left my poor grammy with a big belly so he could cry on home back to Yahal about the mean temptress who'd seduced him."
Her guide made a tsk sound in the back of his throat. "Well ain't that the way of things? They'll call fire on you and me for our sins and turn around to do the same themselves and try to fix it all with prayer. Hypocrites." He spat into the water.
"Yeah . . ."
"Almost there, now. You got a name, sweetling?"
"I do. Shy."
"Shy? Curious name to give a girl."
"I think my Mom meant it more a prayer." She gave the Ravosalaman a winning smile.
When he threw back his head and laughed Kit knew she'd won him over then. "I like you, Shy. You're not like other outsiders. Tell you what, I've some advice. You can take it or leave it, but you're better off taking it."
He took Kit's silence for permission to go on.
"Tomorrow, you head to the Citizen Registration Office. The sooner you get that done, the sooner you'll be truly safe. You hear me? It'd be an awful shame if a gem like you got lifted off the street to hand off spoons in someone's kitchen."
"I hear you," Kit said, and wondered what he would think if he knew about the brand on her left shoulder. It was a good thing he would not.
"Well then, we're here. Glad to have met you, little Shy. Hope to see you again sometime soon. And if you ever wanna know something, give a little donation to a Ravosalaman, and you might learn just learn it."
Kit smiled, thanked him and eased herself carefully out of the Ravosala. Her guide nodded his head at her and gave a cheerful wave. She returned them both in kind and made her way into the Boarding House.
For the first time in seasons , Kit would finally wake up a free girl. She had next to nothing to her name, but that thought still warmed her little heart.
Tomorrow, Kit thought, I will be free! The rest she could work out later.
She practically skipped inside.
x
