Book 2 The Gods of Light and Liars

Chapter 11: A Good Man

The Archon told Hawk to go to the Temple's kitchens and "help", and he handed her off to a female acolyte in as few of the white robe layers as she could manage. This woman spoke just enough of their so-called Sacred Tongue to give Hawk a few bare orders—"go" and "Come" and "Bring that" seemed to make up most of the woman's English vocabulary, and it was enough to make Hawk mindful of her actions. It'd be far too easy for one of them to do something to give the other offence, and until she was back at the geode...Nexus...thing with the rest of the team, she needed these people to help her.

Following her helper's abbreviated instructions, Hawk collected several canvas bags, obviously made to be thrown over an animal's back. She'd seen huge creatures like over-grown Guinea pigs, and these strips of canvas would sit on their shoulders like a bookmark, so she assumed that they'd be riding something smaller, and hopefully more horse-like. Into these bags went travel rations. She'd expected something like bread and cheeses like Colby, possibly even something mystical and magical like elven bread. She seemed to have fallen into a medival world, after all.

But she was handed several dozen paper wrapped...somethings. They were hard. They had some of the same marks you'd put on a cracker. She took a square of it and unwrapped the outer tissue paper, which had been oiled. She tried to break a piece off, and discovered that it would not break. She tapped it on the table, where it made a very hard knocking sound. Finally a vague childhood memory of history lessons coughed up the word hardtack. It was, she realized, the most profoundly perfect word in the English language, because it perfectly encapsulated the nature of these hard little edible rocks she was apparently meant to pack as provisions. She was also handed four net bags of small orange-adjacent fruit, and four water-skins, already full of water. Hawk thought, shit, because she didn't know how to empty or, more importantly, how to fill the things. She was also handed a knapsack filled with white robes, chemises, and three extra pairs of shoes. These latter were simple wrap-around things that reminded Hawk a lot of the shoes the inhuman apes had worn, at the Bronx Zoo Event.

Hardtack. Oranges. Water. A change of clothes. This was nothing at all like the insane pageantry of the green-and-golds. She was able to carry the knapsack, two of the packaged bundles of hardtack, and both of the orange sacks. Her helper carried the rest, and moved through the dark, back hallways of the Temple towards some unknowable goal. She followed, unable to do much more than that. The music of the green-and-golds was loud, even in here, and not entirely pleasant. Maybe it was just her Earth-centric ear, and this pocket universe had developed a taste for discordance. And she was going to be behind all that noise for god knew how long.

They came out in what had to be the stables. It was a large, high ceilinged room made of yet more milk-crystal, divided by its main corridors into a cross-shape, the shortest arms being the entrance to the main Temple complex, which Hawk had yet to see, and the courtyard outside. At least, she assumed it was a courtyard. If you had stables, you had to have a way for the animals to get there.

And the animals were what drew her eye, immediately.

There were ten of them, and each was white, of course, without blemish or flaw or black spot. She thought they were rabbits, at first, albeit very large ones. Their heads were the most rabbit-like, with big doe eyes and buck teeth, and their ears were large, rabbit-shaped, and soft as velvet. She went near one to get a better look and was fixed by that large, brown gaze. Soft lips and a very pink nose sniffed at her, gummed her clothes. But up close she could see the lower anatomy was lean and long. Deer-like legs ended in soft paws, and the torso and hips were more horse-like than anything else. It had a rabbit's tail, though, and a long neck that turned curiously with every noise. This was where her guide left her, to somehow saddle up these beautiful creatures when she didn't even understand modern horse's tack, let alone whatever these things would use.