A Place To Bloom

Who Makes These Rules

It was mid-afternoon. The blistering sun dominated the clear blue sky, and in the distance beyond the north wall, the Terbulin mountains shimmered in the heat of dry season. That slanted outcropping we'd come down on was barely a line in the distant past.

I brought my new team to the practice yard with bows to face off against a line of burlap dummies.

"This is bullshit," Haron spat in the tall grass. "We're the only ones out here. I say we take the rest of the day to relax and explore the city."

He'd been on my team for five minutes and already he argued with me.

"We only have two days," I reminded him.

Haron looked among the others. "This kid been here eatin' the food, nailin' his woman, I want to know what we fightin' for. They say this place is crawlin' with pussy; I say we go get us some. Who's with me?"

Aydel, Daemon, Josha, Montus, Turic, and Vayance all stood beside him. Renou translated for Kaye, and he sided with them as well. Tenae fixed his pitch-black eyes on me, so I explained in Goloagi. "They don't want to survive out there. They just want to party."

Rolon faced me. "How about tonight, we all agree on one night, we get a taste of the city, then starting in the morning, we train hard. Fair enough?"

Tenae turned to Renou, whose translation was... less slanted than mine, and both Tenae and Rolon stood beside Haron.

I was being deserted.

"What about this guy?" Turic pointed a thumb at the man with 2-226-1447A burned into his arm, where scabs still clung to several of the numbers. He was on the shorter side of average with medium-green skin, autumn-yellow hair, and eyes of dark gray. His skin sagged over his bones, and his back bore lines of scabs all over. And she wants to send him into battle like this.

"Aye," Aydel called to him. "You got a name, man?" He switched to Goloagi, but his Goloagi was... "How namest thou, good-sir?"

The man glanced between us and said nothing.

"How about we call him Free Shipping?" the Big Fat Guy suggested.

A woman's voice came from the side. "Ke sapeé vo?"

She was about average height for a woman, Na'uhui, with long white hair in pigtails held by large, gold orchid pins with mother-of-pearl petals. She wore a burnt-orange silk yithi with silver embroidery in circle patterns, a gold armband like a snake with sapphire eyes biting its own tail, and a delicate gold chain around her neck with a crescent-moon pendant.

The runaway leered at the pendant between her generous breasts. "Ajak."

She spoke Herali with the same accent as Ahmi's. "He says his name is Ajak."

"What language is that?" Aydel asked.

"Pandrassi."

Haron lurched forward and spoke to the pendant. "Ask him—"

"Ieé veut sab si vo prefit tak nwi poor zhayazh siteé ave k iles ou travieé kum selas?"

Ajak nodded and shuffled over to Haron.

My whole team mutinied. I was alone. "Can we at least... I dunno... do a fighting bracket or something? Call it a training exercise."

Haron looked at Turic. "Fightin' and fuckin'? I'm down with that!"

Turic nodded enthusiastically. "Might even get some drinking money out of it! Ta'o would know how to set that up."

"I saw him go that way," Montus pointed, and they all went off, leaving me alone with the mystery woman beneath the sweltering sun.