The Eternal City, Part 13

They could see the smoke from the cookfires of the bazaar from miles away. The forward rider occasionally rode ahead to scout, and when they were close enough, he told them the bazaar was well underway, and filled with people.

They reached the river just at a point where it turned north, and followed it west to the dike surrounding the bazaar. After that they followed it around to the gate on the south side, and were shown by a tall, curious Seraph named Maselin to a booth on the outer edge of the bazaar, right on the flank of the dike. It was a little out-of-the-way, but the steaders resigned themselves to it readily enough, just happy to be at the bazaar.

Nessa extracted the price of their protection from the unwilling grip of Stanold, and she and Kira made their way toward the island. On the way, Nessa did her best to point out the various kinds of people.

In one booth, a human dressed in heavy black garments stood behind several other beings, all wearing nothing but chains. These creatures were lizard-like, of a size with any other person, but slightly stooped. Their faces were elongated into a short snout, and their eyes were like those of a cat. Their short tails were constantly twitching. Each was scaled with a distinctive, bright color (one orange, one blue, one red), mixed with browns and blacks. Each had a low crest atop its head which ran part of the way down its back.

“That is a trader from Undertorch with his slaves,” Nessa said. “Undertorch is the only place in the world that still has slavery.” Her voice was thick with distaste.

“It is quite a risk for him, bringing his ghoks with him.”

“Why is that?” Kira couldn’t quite wrap her mind around the idea of ownership, especially when it came to a fellow person. “And why do they not simply turn on him? They could easily force him to release them.”

“The risk,” Nessa said as they continued on, “is that they might escape. As to why they don’t turn on him… well, that is a long and strange story, from deep in the ancient past. The ghoks who live among the folk of Undertorch have been bred for slavery, only occasionally mixed with captives seized from the deserts south of the city. It is a deeply ingrained idea that their masters are god-like and must be served.”

“I don’t understand,” Kira said.

“Yes,” Nessa replied. “I have a hard time with it, too.”

As they moved through the bazaar, Kira began to feel more and more confined. There were so many people here. More people than she had ever imagined. She suppressed the desire to simply flee, head for the gate and never return to this place.

Seraphs and Dwarrows still dominated here, though there were a few others, as well. Nessa pointed out to Kira a strange booth that appeared to have grown there. It was made of two trees, with the branches providing the shelter above the merchants. Kira’s first urge was to head for it and hide there.

Then, she caught a glimpse of the two inhabitants. They were almost invisible, as they mixed so well with their surroundings. They resembled trees so much that Kira first thought they were saplings. They were exceedingly thin, like a young tree, with two main branches extending from the trunk and ending in a collection of twigs they used as hands. At the top of the trunk, more branches grew leaves. Kira could not see below about waist-height, as a low-hanging branch of the booth was in the way, but they seemed not to move from their respective places, as if they had sunk roots there. She could see no eyes or other sensory organs.

“Druids,” Nessa said. “From the Treelands far to the south of Pass-by. Those two are probably the only Druids in the Freesteads.”

“What do they trade?” Kira asked, fascinated.

“They trade amber, mostly,” Nessa said.

“Can we talk to them?” Kira asked.

“Certainly,” Nessa said. “But, let’s do that tomorrow. I want to get us someplace to sleep, first.”

Their horses were as nervous as Kira by the time they reached the bridge that crossed over to Gate Island. The North-South road was crowded, and that didn’t change once they’d entered the town. It quickly became clear that they would find themselves sleeping under the stars again, this night. Kira was relieved, as she didn’t like houses. She had discovered this while she washed dishes in the kitchen at Bellows Howe. They seemed like crowded, confining caves.

They did find a young Seraph who agreed to care for their horses, and keep people from stealing their goods while they did their business the next day. They simply agreed to leave him with a share of the goods they acquired.