We traveled through the alleyways and side streets, keeping our heads down and trying to look as inconspicuous as possible. The farther we traveled, the rougher the areas became. Thin, emaciated children roamed the streets, their eyes vacant and hopeless, likely orphans left to fend for themselves. Adults fared about the same. Their starving frames testified to their squalid conditions and difficult lives.
At least Ganya had looked healthy. She’d clearly been taken care of, fed and clothed, although likely through the thieving ways of a criminal father. At least the girl had something going for her.
These urchins on the street were prime candidates for abuse, slavery, black market sales or purging by Casimer’s goons. In this regard the smaller farrins show more compassion than Dwarkaa Farrin. We at least take care of our own. Orphans are usually adopted into another home and trained as warriors. We cannot afford to shun any of our numbers. There is too much war and violence between the farrins and we need every able body in our warrior troop.
The horrific odor of urine, feces and rotting flesh began to permeate the air in earnest as we neared the charred area Brone had told us about. Obviously the dead were disposed of in the fire gutted buildings that surrounded us. A convenient area to dispose of the murdered or starved but the stench that it produced was overwhelming. I was surprised that the starving masses didn’t eat their own dead.
Covering our mouths, we hurried past the burnt area and soon saw the blackened but still useable buildings that Brone had mentioned. People were wandering around, some were begging but with little success. Everyone was poor and starving here. Some looked at us with hope. Akiko and I were in fair shape and didn’t fit in with the gaunt population.
A woman at the corner caught my eye. She was dressed well, better than most and similar to us, even though not stylishly attired, and didn’t look as thin as the majority. Brone and Almana, our previous hosts, wore clothes that were a step above most of what I’d seen so far today. They had some money and could afford to dress reasonably. This woman looked like them, in that she dressed similarly. I wondered if this was one of the women we were looking for but I didn’t have the courage to ask anyone. Inquiring after someone’s identity could expose us further and so we found the alleyway Brone had told us about. We sat down on some soiled, torn and discarded pieces of clothing and settled in to wait.
The food Almana had packed for us tasted delicious after a day of starvation. I’d given Ganya a small piece of bread and some dried meat before I left her. Hopefully she wasn’t too hungry and would receive more food soon when she arrived at Brone and Almana’s home. Fantasizing about her well being would drive me crazy so I pushed thoughts of her from my mind.
“Shouldn’t we try to find the women?” Akiko finally asked. “That might have been one of them on the corner.”
“No, not until the other woman returns from the market.”
About mid afternoon a group of scrawny teens entered the alley and came our way. There was a mixture of girls and boys. I counted eight in all. Akiko and I stood to our feet and pushed our bags behind us. There was no way anyone would be stealing from us today.
The biggest of the group, I estimated he was around fifteen years old, approached and said, “Give us some food.”
“No. We have none.”
“What’s in those bags?” he asked.
“Our belongings, nothing more.”
“You don’t look like homeless to me. You’re too well fed and you dress too well.”
“Leave us alone and we won’t kill you,” I warned.
He chuckled. “We outnumber you.” He took a stubby knife from his belt and held it threateningly.
I took out my short double-edged sword, still covered in the thieves’ blood and waved it battle ready before the scruffy teens. Akiko also removed a weapon and took on a battle pose. I’m sure we looked threatening enough and I had no desire to add to the dead in this neighborhood. I hoped that our imposing stances and blood smeared weapons would be enough to scare them off.
One of the teens, a girl I estimated was around fourteen, said, “Let’s go. I don’t want to die today.”
One of the others also pleaded to leave.
“I don’t back away from anyone,” the ring leader declared.
“Backing away is sometimes great wisdom if the alternative is an early death,” I warned, hoping beyond hope that the teen had some sense.
The standoff in the alley with the scrawny teen gang could end badly for them. The ring leader didn’t look eager to back away or admit defeat. His greedy eyes still slinked over to the bags behind us. And I was determined not to be stolen from. I already knew how this would end. They would die and Akiko and I would be standing over a group of murdered teens, the ground willingly soaking up their blood.
Akiko and I stood our ground. As the ring leader moved in and some of the biggest boys with him also stepped forward, we moved to meet them and were about to attack when a voice halted us all.
“Stop! Stop! Stop!” a loud and authoritative woman’s voice said over and over. Hurried feet approached and a woman pushed her way through so that she stood between us and the teens and held out her arms in both directions to keep us apart. This was the woman we’d seen earlier on the corner of a street. She glared at the youngsters and said, “Get out of here right now. Unless you want me to notify the Royal Guard and you will all be executed by nightfall. Get out!”
That’s all it took for the teens to lower their weapons and retreat. Frustration filled the ringleader’s face and he grimaced in distaste. But it was clear that he was terrified of Casimer’s forces and also had respect for this woman. He slowly turned and walked back down the alley with his friends trailing him.
“Stupid kid. My sister’s son. He’ll get himself killed one of these days.” The woman watched the scraggly, starving group of teens leave the alley and disappear around the corner. She turned to face us and asked, “Who are you?”
I noticed that in the folds of her dress she held firmly to a double-edged knife. The weapon was well made and looked recently sharpened. I held an immediate respect for whoever this was.
“We are looking for two women, Bodil and Enyo.”
She nodded. “Then you must be Viveka and Akiko.”
“Yes.”
“Follow me,” she said without giving us her name.
We followed, trusting that we weren’t being led into a trap. The woman had defused the situation back there so we had no choice but to trust that she had only goodwill toward us.
She led the way down narrow alleyways until we reached a charred door which she opened. She turned, pointed inside and said, “Go in.”
We did as she asked and entered a wide foyer. There was a door to the right and a long flight of steps beside it leading up. We allowed her to lead the way. She took the stairs two at a time. At the top was a long hallway with many doors leading off of it, all of them firmly closed. The woman walked until approximately the middle of the long hall and rapped her knuckles on the door three times. Scraping on the opposite side indicated someone was undoing wood trappings that locked the door from within. The partition opened a crack and the woman with us pushed against it, opening it wide, and slipped inside.
Akiko and I followed her lead and she closed the door behind us and redid the locks.
Once safely inside, the woman who had led us to this place said, “Welcome to our home. You should be safe here for a time. My name is Bodil.” She pointed to the other woman. “And this is Enyo.”
Enyo looked at us curiously. “Come to the table and tell us of your tale.”
I handed over the bag of produce I’d brought as a gift. “This is from Brone and Almana.”
Bodil took it from my hand. “That is good. I don’t know how we will all find enough food. You will be expected to work, steal or help find food to eat.”
I nodded. “We will help.”
Bodil said, “We will first cook our evening meal and then we will talk.”
We all worked together to prepare food for the four of us. The meal was meager but sufficient.
Their living quarters was small and I wondered how all four of us would manage in the tight space. Their home was one room, a table in one corner with four rickety chairs. Beside it was a small cabinet with a washbasin. To one side of the room was a mat on the floor, someone’s sleeping accommodation no doubt. The mat was no more than hay, straw or grass covered by a dirty piece of fabric. There was another one on the opposite side of the room. There were no blankets to keep them warm at night. I had no idea where Akiko and I would sleep. There wasn’t any room for more sleeping mats.
I tried not to worry about that as Bodil asked us to regale them with the tale of our travels. We told them what they wanted to hear. We relayed our journey from Akoni Farrin to Dwarkaa on the ship, the rough seas, our arrival in the port, the upset stomachs, our long walk to the outskirts of the city, our encounter with Brone and Almana, the suspicion of the neighbor, the new plan, the thieves breaking in at the shop, the killings and the child.
Bodil and Enyo looked fascinated by our eventful excursions.
Enyo finally said, “If only I could travel on the seas. I would love to be an Apolake Warrior and serve Casimer on one of his ships, not only for the travel and adventure, but to be on the inside. Only those on the inside will have any chance of destroying Casimer.”
“Be careful, Enyo,” Bodil said. “You’ve said too much.”
Enyo looked annoyed. “I’m so weary of all the caution and restriction. I’m so tired of our state in life. I want to live, experience adventure and see the other farrins. I’d do anything to leave Dwarkaa Farrin.”
Bodil looked worried. Clearly Enyo hated being bound up in this repressive lifestyle. She could be our undoing. But I was shocked that she wanted to leave Dwarkaa Farrin. I’d always thought the Dwarkaa-born must be the most privileged of all people. After all, they lived on the ruling land mass. I always imagined that the Dwarkaa-born had advantageous lives that must be so much better than what we had to endure on the lesser farrins
Bodil said, “Although we are eager to promote the revolution, we have to remain vigilant. The Tonrar have learned to cloak their presence lately. Many, many of our fellow neighbors have been purged by Casimer’s Royal Guard in the last weeks. I think Casimer knows something is afoot and his fear is growing.”
I sat forward and asked, “What do you mean by the Tonrar and them cloaking their presence?”
Bodil answered, “We, meaning the populace, are having a more difficult time discerning when the Tonrar are in-coming or present. What we can determine is that they have learned a new skill, gone through a metamorphosis so to speak. Their usual heavy, oppressive aura has shifted to a more natural state of being.”
Enyo added, “Yes. They seem to have developed the ability to suppress their awful malevolence and can maintain a state of disguised peace, at least for short periods. With this deceptive ability, they are catching many people saying things that are absolutely outlawed to be spoken.”
“The simple act of warning others of the Tonrar’s new ability has led to the killing of some,” Bodil said.
“Is there no way of knowing when they are close?” I asked. “No way at all?”
“Yes,” Bodil said, growing pensive for a moment. “We have discovered something that takes place. Hopefully the Tonrar don’t learn to manipulate that as well.”
“What is it?” asked Akiko.
“Although the air remains relatively peaceful, if we pay attention, there is a slight inconsistency in the appearance of things when they are near, a change in the way the Tonrar cloak themselves. There tends to be a shaking or a vibration in the look of items, like the vision of things on a hot blistering day where heat waves distort the view.”
I asked, “Can you give an example?”
Enyo said, “Yes. I was in the market, when I noticed it at the far end near some booths. I noticed a shimmering, like the heat rising from the street on a sweltering day, where the booths of the buyers took on a disconnected appearance, almost like they were separating and tearing apart. I immediately hid my wares and acted as though I was a buyer, looking for produce. The oddity lasted only a moment but it was unusual enough that it placed me on guard.”
“Good thing too,” said Bodil. “Only moments later some Royal Guards entered the market and numerous people were rounded up. They’d obviously been spied on by the Tonrar and reported in saying what is forbidden.”
“Another danger to be on guard about,” I said, feeling despondent about our new home in Dwarkaa City.
Akiko spoke up. “Do you know the plan?”
“What plan?” asked Bodil.
“How we are to infiltrate Casimer’s inner circle. How is this takeover going to transpire and what is the timing of everything?”
Bodil and Enyo both stared at us with disappointment.
Bodil finally said, “We are simply providing a safe house for the main players. We thought you would have been given the plan before ever agreeing to come. You mean to tell us that you have no idea what you are doing?”
I cleared my throat and said, “Tarman Farrin has given us only enough information to get us here and make sure we are safe. This is the first step of the strategy. The rest will be explained and revealed in stages.”
They took their time to respond. Finally Bodil said, “Okay. Starting tomorrow Viveka will assist me at the dump and salvage anything we can use to make trinkets. And Akiko and Enyo will go to the market and attempt to sell trinkets and brainstorm how to get us food immediately. The trinkets we make don’t make much money and don’t provide enough for us to live on.”
Enyo said, “And for a place for Viveka and Akiko to sleep, I found another space in this same building just hours ago and secured it. The occupants were rounded up this afternoon and disposed of in the center square.
“You did?” Bodil asked in surprise.
Enyo smiled in triumph.
Bodil allowed a smile of her own and released a deep breathe. “The stars are shining on us this day and rewarding us for our part in the revolution.”
“I’m sure it’s not the stars but perhaps Tarman Farrin,” Enyo said.
“Well whatever or whoever, I am grateful for the extra space,” Bodil said.
“The room even has cots on the floor, an extra bonus.”
“We are grateful for anything you provide,” I said.
“Any enemy of Casimer is a friend of ours,” said Bodil.
Sudden screams in the hall caused all of us to fall silent. Bodil and Enyo drew their weapons, stood to their feet and faced the door. Akiko and I followed their lead. I knew what they feared. The Tonrar were in the building and had led the Royal Guard to arrest people, again. We all feared the same thing, that we’d been distracted and had been overheard speaking.
