Bazza'Jo

Chapter 4

Two days after Marko had left their house in a fury he still hadn't returned.

It wasn't as if Marko had lived in their house. Mr. Ratherham had him assigned rather nice quarters, for a Padman, in the warehouse complex. Marko was an old bachelor with no family that they knew of so he had no real need for bigger lodgings. He could well be at home, sulking or nursing his pride over whatever he'd quarreled with Mr. Ratherham about. But to Raina something felt wrong. Her father had made no attempt to contact his old friend that she knew of, and Nana Lalia outright refused to talk about it. Raina had tried to distract herself by filling the hole Marko had left with thoughts of her Uncle, but she couldn't do it. Frustrated, she finally went down to the warehouses herself.

It was a cool day. You could tell the frost was coming soon, and the air had taken on a dry, biting character that the climate Godresland so rarely had. Raina wore a vest over her shirt and at the last minute had decided to sling the hide pouch across her body, purse-style. Ibli had given her a small gift for her errand too: some Bazza'Jo Ice grains that she had sprouted herself. The Baz was perfectly clear except for an oily blue streak down the middle, and could be Cast to protect you from the cold. Raina chewed up a handful of newly-sprouted grains one at a time as she walked briskly up the hill towards the looming wall that surrounded the huge buildings of the warehouse complex, warming up by intervals and watching her fingernails turn a deep, frosty blue as she got a handle on the Baz and Cast it.

The wide iron gate that guarded the entrance to the complex was thrown wide open and labourers staggered back and forth between the warehouses and the farmers' gaping carts which clogged the entrance way. The labourers were hauling huge crates bearing the shining new Bazza'Jo Ice logo, managing the weight with the help of a little Casting. A skilled labourer would guide their crate gracefully into the waiting maw of the cart; temporary workers hired just for the season had a rougher time of it. Their crates thumped heavily and noisily into the carts, or worse, had to be carried by brute strength with no Casting help at all.

 School had let out early today so that the children of the farmers could get home to help prepare for the planting of this new crop. It was an easy excuse for truancy, but none of the watchmen at the warehouses seemed to care. They knew Raina at a glance and waved her through the gate, restraining her only when a labourer valiantly struggling with two crates looked as if he might drop them in her path. Then they waved her on, dismissively, and she jogged off in the direction of Marko's quarters.

The room was housed in one of the central warehouses. It used to be a guard's office, but they'd fitted it with a more solid door for privacy and attached a kitchenette. It was rare to find Marko in his quarters. The old Padman spent most of his long hours at his desk or running tallies in the warehouses, and his non-working hours socializing with his many friends in their houses. Still, Raina thought she'd knock on the door just to see, or maybe ask the watchmen where he was. What she wasn't prepared for was to find his room gone.

The space was there, to be sure, but it was no longer Marko's bedchamber. The door was propped open with a large stone and two labourers lounged inside on cheap wooden chairs, laughing and sipping steaming drinks out of chipped mugs. Raina wandered in to their midst in a daze of disbelief. His bed was gone, and the big trunk that once held all his belongings. A potted tree he'd once doted on still sat in the corner, though it looked as if nobody had watered it today and it was already becoming brittle. The labourers went silent as Raina entered.

"Honey?" one of them, a big woman Raina vaguely recognised, addressed her after a moment of silence. "Do you need help? Your father isn't here today."

"No, I- I am looking for Marko. Where-?"

"Marko? Is he your friend, dear?" the woman spoke to her as if she were five years old. Raina scowled without meaning to.

"Marko. That old Padman who squatted here, remember Liza?" Raina recognised the other labourer too, a loud man newly arrived from Regalis.