The Chimera

Chapter Twenty-Eight: The May Market

Between one second and the next, Jasper is in another world.

But he's used to that by now.

It's nearing noon, and the sunbeams apparently have a particular objective to dazzle his unsuspecting eyes. He could have sworn the bell had taken him to the citadel as it often did. But now, he seems to be outside.

As his eyes adjust, he finds that he remembered right about running into Edeline and Giada, at least. Both women stand by his side, looking as disconcerted as he feels. Jasper doesn't understand their confusion: he's the stranger here.

"What part of Beledon is this?" he asks them.

Giada's turns to him, incredulous. "Jasper, look around. Does this look like Beledon to you?"

Jasper looks.

The bazaar filters into his vision through colors.

Most eye-catching of these hues is red: cloths that form canopies over individual market stalls, feathers of birds in jeweled cages, strawberries and raspberries piled high in baskets.

Next, his sight pick out the yellows: lanterns floating of their own volition even in the midday light, glistening golden coins towering to improbable heights, the sun-warmed hue of the old bricks beneath their feet.

Blues emerge in the cryptic depths of liquid-filled glass bottles, bright sapphires amid mounds of jewelry, and the expansiveness of the sky. The last one is a comfort to Jasper. Despite this world's persistent unfamiliarity, at least its sky is the same.

Finally, he can make out the greens: the robes of the stall owner closest to them, the leather spines in a curated collection of books, the exquisite ivy leaves of a woven crown that sits as its vendor's only item for sale.

Outside of the profusion of colors and strangeness, the other startling aspect of this bazaar is its inhabitants. Jasper can't find anyone who looks like him. In fact, he can't immediately pick out another human at all.

A leopard lopes past them, eyeing the pile of strawberries. How will it pay for that? It doesn't exactly carry a purse around, Jasper thinks near-hysterically, alarmed at having the big cat so close.

Many of the other figures in the bazaar are robed and cloaked, but from their forms Jasper can see that not all walk on two legs. Even under the shadowed covering of their cloaks, he can distinctly make out scales, fur, or odd colors. One figure soars swiftly above them. Wings?

"All right, so we're not in Beledon," he admits in an unsteady voice. "Is this Antamery, then? The bell's never taken me here before."

"We're not in Antamery, and the bell didn't take you here," Edeline says, and the angry edge of her voice is one that Jasper hasn't heard from her before. "Giada did this."

She turns to face her sister fully. "What got into you?"

Giada, for all her usual fiery brilliance, now looks appropriately abashed. "Sorry, Edeline. I wasn't thinking."

"I know you weren't. But you brought us here anyway, and now the door is gone."

Edeline gestures behind them, where sure enough, the tall wooden door with the owl-shaped knocker is there no longer.

Giada crumbles at the sight (or lack thereof) of it. Edeline relents at seeing her younger sister's stricken face. "It's all right," she says. "Jasper can try taking us back to the citadel with his bell."

"Wait," Jasper cuts in. "Can't one of you explain to me how we got here?"

As the one who put them all in the situation, Giada reluctantly takes it upon herself to explain to Jasper about the citadel's dead-end door. While she speaks, Edeline looks around the bazaar, where their small group hasn't gone unnoticed. From under hoods or over stall counters, eyes flick over to them in hungry curiosity. They are so obviously out of their element, out of their world.