Psychic

9. The Pirate

All through the cold desert night, Rai, Lestat and Kiyo walked up and slid down the sandy dunes. Rai and Lestat knew the way to Clement almost instinctively. They had visited the city many times in their lives so Kiyo followed their lead.

They were each wearing old tarnished leather backpacks where they were carrying extra clothes. They did not want to waste the coin everyone in Korrik had collected for them. Rai and Lestat agreed between each other that they should spend as little as possible but could not decide what to do with the coin that remained when they returned home.

Rai had on a black headscarf with gold accents wrapped loosely around her head and neck, which Lily gave her to wear. Jericho was running ahead and returning even with a small dog backpack on his back as well. Lestat was wearing a red sweater with symmetrical black shoulders and a stripe across the chest. There were multiple layers in it, visible in the two upturned collars. Kiyo had no clothes of his own. He had left behind most of what he had been wearing when he was lost in the dunes. Everything he had now had been given to him by Lestat, Cliff or Rai's other cousins. The nicest coat he had was given to him by Lestat, which was a gray zip up sweater with a loose material collar that scrunched around his neck like a scarf.

They arrived at Clement so early in the morning, the sky was still gray and the sun was not yet visible over the dunes. In spite of the early hour, the paved streets were bustling with people who all seemed to be rushing from one place to another. There were posters everywhere that advertised a fight for that same day and the entire city seemed to be preparing for it. They found The Ball and Chain, the place they were meant to go to, and found a massive crowd outside of it.

"The whole city's here," Lestat sighed.

"Placing bets on the fight," Rai yawned, covering her mouth and picking up Jericho.

They had to shove their way into the bar. It was dark, loud, crowded and smelled like onions. Rai, being the smallest, was able to squeeze through the small spaces between people. When she escaped the crowd, she looked back at it and saw people crowding the bar, holding out bags of coins and shouting names at the two hurrying bookies.

Kiyo and Lestat joined her shortly. A man keeping the crowd from spilling into the rest of the bar, saw them and gestured for them to go back into the crowd. "Place your bets over there. Back in line," he directed them, having to yell to be heard.

"That's a line?" Kiyo scoffed.

"Shut up."

"We're not here for the fight," Lestat told him. "You have any rooms available?"

"Five coins, twenty-four hours," the man yelled back over the noise. After Lestat dropped some coins into the man's hand, he told them, "come on, I'll take you to your room."

There was a door at the top of the stairs and after entering it, the noise from the floor below them was a soft muffle. Down the hall, the employee shoved his shoulder into one of the doors to get it open. "There we go." He pushed the door open and waited for them to go inside. "Just so you know, we're going to be pretty busy until midday when the fight starts."

"It's fine. We'll be okay for a while," Lestat said.

There were only two beds in the nautical themed room. Kiyo and Lestat shared one, both staying fully dressed and keeping far from each other. Rai slept comfortably on the other with Jericho. He slept in front of her with his head resting on the pillow too. He was pressed against her chest, her face buried in his white fluff, and she kept one arm sprawled over him.

*  *  *

They woke up when it was just beginning to get dark outside. Kiyo went downstairs first and found that the place was almost completely empty. The bartender was there alone wiping off tables.