Heir of Iron

Chapter 5

The city of Jaitha clung like a barnacle to the south shore of the Amsadhu river. From atop the river bluffs the entire city stretched before them, running from the black marshy shores of the river to the feet of the bluffs and beginning to climb the slopes. In its center, hidden behind red stone walls, cluttered the old city's houses, markets, wharves, and temples, which stood on stilts to save themselves from the annual flooding. Encrustations of slums and warehouses and markets accumulated around the walls. Near the eastern tip of the city, at the furthest point from them, the Emperor's Bridge stretched like a chain of white marble across the wide, shallow river.

"The stars upon Jaitha," Taleg said, reaching his fists to the sky in an exuberant stretch. "One more night in the miserable hovels between here and Virnas and I might have gone mad. A great step down from the estate, eh, Navran?"

He elbowed Navran, who shrugged and looked away. Navran had barely said a word in their five days of walking. Without alcohol to loosen his tongue, he seemed determined to recede into that same hostile silence that had marked their first meeting.

Mandhi leaned into Taleg and wiped the dust from her forehead. "Come on. It's already afternoon, and we want to get to Paidacha's early enough to eat."

From the bluffs overlooking the city, the road plunged down to the floodplain and into the heart of Jaitha. Once through the boggy slums that sulked on the edges of the city, they found themselves in a cacophonous surge of bodies on the central road. Taleg took the lead, cutting through the crowd like a plow through mud, while Mandhi followed close on his heels to ensure she didn't get lost in the human froth. Navran took the rear. Kiosks and shops crowded in on the narrow, damp passage, the calls of the merchants mixing with the bleating of goats and sheep and the bells of chanting dhorsha. Ahead of them the cracked red wall of the old city loomed, decorated with reliefs of the sun and tiger icons of Chaludra, its crenelated top like broken teeth. From one direction the smell of incense and blood leaked out from a temple to Chaludra, while from the other direction the smell of grilling fish tempted them to a kiosk.

Taleg glanced down at the fat skewered eels. "I'd buy this man out of these if I had coin to spare. After a hard day's travel---"

"Paidacha has better," Mandhi said. Taleg looked over her head back into the crowd. "We should hurry on. Why have you stopped?"

"Where is Navran?"

She whirled. The street traffic flowed around them like water around a stone, but she didn't see Navran anywhere. She cursed under her breath. "That ungrateful worm. If we have to search the city for him...."

Taleg put his hand on her shoulder. "We'll find him. I've been finding him every day for a month."

"That was in Virnas. Do you know Jaitha as well as Virnas?"

"We'll find him. Follow me."

He forged ahead as quickly as he could push through the crowd, glancing back periodically to ensure that Mandhi still followed. Her eyes darted from face to face in the crowd, but no Navran. She saw no signs for beer-sellers that might entice him, and she wasn't even sure where to look for gamblers. Would Navran know where to go? It didn't matter. They couldn't have lost him for more than a few minutes, so he must be relatively near. But the side streets were a warren of swampy alleys and narrow, dark passages, and he could have disappeared down any of them. Her eyes peered into the gloom between the buildings at every passage, but nothing.

They had walked nearly back to the edge of the city when Mandhi tugged at Taleg's sleeve. "This is pointless. We'll never find him this way. You need to go digging in the sorts of rat-holes where he had been hiding in Virnas."