The Princess and the Blood of Eternity

Chapter 13: A Deal with the Devil

The sun disappeared behind one of the conical pyramid-shaped spires dotting the top of Mont Qerath's palace. It was still hours until nightfall, and yet the sun had moved enough to hide behind one of the palace towers built upon the highest point of the entire island. Too bad the shade did nothing for the sweltering heat that held the world hostage.

Davik swallowed his impatience as he surveyed the area from an alcove situated down the street from the entrance to the palace. It was a stone, sunken hollow that receded off the main avenue. A hundred generations of constant use had worn the cobblestone street to a smooth finish. The palace sat at the end of the majestic street as a de facto cul-de-sac. Leading to the palace, there were four-story buildings, squat massive structures that lined the narrow street and leaned in, creating a kind of narrow ravine.

The cluttered layout fashioned the upscale area into more of an alleyway than a proper avenue in a major city. Let alone structures housing the city-state's wealthiest families. Unlit glass and iron oil lanterns hung from tall iron poles to provide light. Banners and various paraphernalia marked various names and great naval generals. Random statues and street benches, sat ignored and unused.

White stucco that was outlined with stark blue to match the city's colors decorated the face of each building. Shallow balconies lined with iron-wrought fencing dotted the top floor of the buildings. Each floor had an assortment of wide, decorative windows, fixed with wooden shutters.

If the city had a theme, it was chaos. A design born out of a reactionary need to build and provide housing for a fast-growing population. Wealth and prosperity typically was accompanied by an influx of people. As such, a majority of the buildings seemed to be stacked precariously. Multi-family buildings that played loose with gravity. City-planners often built the higher levels wider and with more space than the lower levels beneath, heightening the effect of a cave-like experience at street level.

The city's streets themselves were thin avenues that combed their way through steep apartments and homes, and businesses that were intermingled amongst the residential architecture. Even now, he could still hear the constant clang of the multiple open-air blacksmiths busy at work. The few he'd seen had been built behind four-story apartments located close to the harbor.

Something about the day had put him on his heels, and it wasn't his annoyance for the liberal use of indigo on the architecture, or rampant disorganization of the urban planning and the subsequent problems that arose for one such as himself.

The air smelled stale, hot, and underneath hung the stench of mildew. Mold congregated wherever the shade held sway, and the congested architecture kept the sun from shining.

Fumbling for the metal flask in his coat pocket, he frowned upon noticing there was only enough to wet his lips. The Matriarch preferred wine, and therefore, so did the merchants. Finding anything that could be categorized as a proper spirit had been rather difficult.

His weeks of waiting on the island of Mont Qerath had soured his outlook on the mission. Searching every inch of the city, interviewing dozens of dockworkers, and still no word that he was even on the correct path. Each morning, he woke up feeling older, old enough to match the age he was trying to ignore. The marrow in his bones hurt, and his skin was feeling stretched and dried.

And it wasn't only that. His search had run into issues with the murders that kept popping up within the city. The worst of it was the mutilated bodies discovered by the city's citizens. Most people believed it to be the work of a wild animal brought to the island by a foolish merchant or trader since the island hadn't hosted a creature larger than a cat or pelican in a millennium. Whatever was going on, it didn't look good to be an outsider poking his nose in things he shouldn't. The people were on edge, which multiplied his own issues. Not to mention, as a person in the intelligence business, it looked ridiculous to have such a severe event happening right beneath his nose.