Heyna's Tale Chapter Eight (cont.)

Dead Fish

“We have to move,” Heyna said looking through a window. “Looks like the smoke has attracted attention.”

Across the way and down the street, Heyna saw a soldier who was angrily shaking his spear at a few citizens. They cowered and pointed in the direction of the warehouse.

“Now!” Heyna said.

“Sronban’s not ready.” Tooly looked concerned. “I can take care of the smoke.” Tooly poured water on the fire and started to cast a wide glamour and stopped. “The smoke is beyond my range. Glamour’s not going to work.”

“I’m so stupid,” Heyna said. “The dragons were sure to have a fire watch of some kind. “That soldier’s come to investigate.”

“You’re right,” said Sronban. “We should move.”

“You sure that you are up to it?” Tooly asked.

“I’ll be alright.”

“Okay. What’s the plan?”

“Copy the map.” Heyna said. “Go to the Palace. Get Xico. Go to the slave pens. Get Jaasi. Get out.”

“As?”

“Riri and entourage,” Heyna said. “I don’t think we have a choice.”

“Right! No point in being shy,” Tooly said, grinning. “How are you feeling Vonnie?”

“Shaky,” Sronban said, “but I think I can hold it together. We should be as quick possible. I don’t want to be in this city one second more than we have to be.”

“Okay, we’re sailors until we get out of this neighborhood. When we get close to the palace, we’ll switch to Riri and company.”

“Right!” said Heyna.

“Right!” said Sronban.

“Right!” said the glamoured guard. Heyna and her friends looked from the guard and then to each other and laughed.

“You’re a sailor,” Sronban said.

“I’m a sailor,” the guard said.

Heyna looked out the door.

“Wait!” she said, looking up and down the street. The soldier was not in sight and Heyna breathed a sigh of relief. A pedal cart was rolling their way, pulled by two bedraggled looking Ryujin. “I found our ride,” she said.

The cart was full of dead fish.

“Of course!” Heyna said.

“We’ll blend right in,” Tooly laughed, and glamoured the Ryujin. They piled in amongst the mackerel.

“Take us out of this neighborhood,” Sronban said, and the cart rolled forward on wheels of gutta-percha that bounced on the flagstones. This time the eyes of the poverty stricken Ryujin did not follow them. They were ignored as just another fisher family on the way to market.

When they had cleared the poor neighborhood. They became Princess Riri and her retinue in the royal coach.

“You are a royal coachman,” Sronban said.

“What?” said the fishmonger. He looked down at his body. Where there had only been scales and fins, there now was a sash of the finest cloth. “Why, I’m a royal coachman fer sure, m’lady! Where to?”

“Do not speak,” Sronban said. “Take us to the palace by the shortest route.” The fishermen, now coachman, snapped his imaginary whip at the imaginary team of slaves now represented by the second dragon.

They pulled the cart down the street again. Now there was commotion all along the street and people bowed as they passed. Heyna had time to get a good look at the city. It was crowded, very crowded. Was that what Hazu was talking about the Quetz having, “…no impediments to your frontier…?” The Ryujin cities are too full? They have nowhere to expand without building another dome. Such a project would take an immense amount of effort, raw materials and time. Could they even do that anymore? Was that it? Was that what made Hazu attack?

The cart turned onto a wide boulevard lined with Quetz-designed pergolas, balconies, and heavy faux-Gryphish architecture. The Ryujin were going for the monumental, but the mixture of styles was inelegant and clunky. Vines grew on the pergolas under incandescent lights that made the street as bright as the day was on the surface. Slaves were tending the plants in teams overseen by Erda who seemed to be specialists. Fruit hung from the vines. It smelled delicious. The plants looked healthy. What’s with that, Heyna wondered? Ryujin don’t eat plants.

Soldiers in Gryphish armor lined the boulevard every thirty yards or so. At every intersection, crowds strained for a glimpse of the, “princess.”

“Uh oh!”

“Yeah.”

“Just keep going. We’re in it now.”

The soldiers saluted in turn as the cart passed. Sronban waved, and the crowd responded with a roar.

“Stop that!” Heyna said. We’re attracting too much attention as it is.

“Sorry. Just playing the part.”

“That looks like the palace up ahead,” Tooly said.

In front of them the street came to an end. Smaller service roads lead right and left around the building.

“Not what I expected,” Heyna said.

“It is kind of dumpy for a palace,” Sronban said.

The building was of ancient coral blocks that had been crudely carved to try to represent a seascape, but the execution was amateurish and without a hint of panache. Columns supported part of a second floor with a balcony, that Heyna assumed was used for public addresses. A frieze bore a bas-relief of a scene of dragons in various poses. The second story was domed and painted gold. A statue stood at the apex. It was missing a limb. A staircase almost the width of the building led up to the entrance.

“Straight up and in,” Heyna said.

“Follow me,” Sronban said.

“Go about your business,” Tooly said to the fishermen, and the friends waited until they took the cart down a side street and was out of sight.

There was a crowd on the stairs that parted and bowed as they advanced. These were obviously the wealthy Ryujin. Heyna saw a fortune in jewelwood and blackwood on wrists, crests, shoulders and throats. Bright cloth of many colors swept the stairs as the nobles backed up and bowed. Common folk had advanced into the street behind them.

“Let’s get into the building,” Sronban said. “There are too many people. My jewel is pinching and my head is starting to hurt.”

“Okay.” Heyna said. “Try to stay focused, and keep moving! Tooly, can you help?”

“I got it covered, Vonnie. Ease off if you need to.”

Another squad of soldiers in ridiculous red pantaloons and carrying trident spears lined the colonnade and flanked the entrance. They saluted as Riri stepped onto the portico. The doors were weird and looked out of place. Heyna scented that they were Quetzish carved wood from Paititi. The wood was polished to a high, blood red gloss. Against the crude coral of the palace, they clashed and looked overdone.

“Oh, my!” Tooly said in mind speech. “Somebody is trying too hard… and failing.”

“We’re not here to critique their architectural styling.” Sronban said. “Let’s just get inside.”

Through the doors there was a large foyer with a grand staircase that led up to a landing, then split right and left to the wings of the palace.

“Sister! Sister, sister, sister, back so soon?” There was Hazu shouting down from the landing. Sronban paused. Heyna squeaked. Tooly froze. Hazu rushed down the stairs and spoke to Sronban/Riri in a harsh whisper. “I told you to stay out of the capital for a week. What are you doing here? What are you up to?” Hazu peered closely at his sister.

“Let him see what he expects to see,” Tooly said.

“I…” was all Sronban said, but what Hazu heard was, “ I’m tired. Don’t bother me now. We’ll talk later.”

“But, what about…”

“Later!” Sronban snapped. She pointed at a slave. “You! Lead me to my quarters.” The shocked Erda moved ahead of the group up the stairs to the right. Hazu stared until they turned the corner into a hallway.

“Not good!” Heyna said.

“At least, Riri’s not here.”

“That would have been awkward,” Tooly said.

The slave led them to a suite of rooms. Sronban turned to the slave.

“Where are the Quetz?”

“Majesty?”

“Where are the… guests? Are there any Quetzalcoatl in the palace? You know, hostages!”

“Ah, yes, Majesty! You told us to treat the prisoners well. They are well, Majesty! We have taken good care of them! Have they complained? Any offense was unintended. Please, Majesty!”

“Take us to them.” The poor slave trembled and Heyna thought she would collapse. Then she looked directly at Heyna with a puzzled expression. “Now!” Sronban snapped.

The slave led them through a door and towards the back of the palace. Up a side staircase was another door. A guard stood at the door who immediately bowed. The slave reached for the handle.

“Prince Hazu’s orders,” the guard said to the slave, not to Riri. “No one’s to see the prisoner.”

“You will let me pass,” Sronban said.

“I will let you pass,” said the guard.

“You will not tell anyone that we were here.” She included the slave in her gaze.

“I will not tell anyone that…”

Before he could finish, the slave shot back down the stairs. Tooly reached for the door and opened it. Their pet guard took up a position beside the other guard. The friends went in.

Beyond the door was a small suite. In one corner perched by a large window with the ocean on the other side of the glass, was Xico. Xico looked at them in alarm.

“What do you want now?” she squawked. “I told you that I won’t do it. Nothing you say…”

“Drop the glamour,” Heyna said, and Xico’s expression went from anger to shock to disbelief in a flash.

“Heyna? What…?”

“It’s me, Sheeshee,” Heyna said. “It’s really me.”

“Heyna? How? Who are these strange creatures?”

“Show her,” Heyna said. The glamour went up and they were the princess and entourage again. Xico, jumped back.

“A trick!” Xico said. “I told you…”

“Drop it,” Heyna said, and they were themselves again. “Listen, Sheeshee, we don’t have time to explain. This is Tooly. This is Sronban. They’re Fennec. They are helping us. We have to get you out of here. We have to get my brother. I know it’s crazy. Just go with it.”

“They’re Fennec? You’re Fennec? You’re a myth.”

“Legendary, is what my friends call me,” Tooly quipped.

“Legendary head size,” Sronban said, and giggled.

“Look, we’ll talk later. Right now, we have to go. The Fennec have… powers. They can make us look like dragons. Don’t freak out. Just follow our lead. Your a dragon now.” And in a flash, it was so. Xico looked at herself and trembled.

“Heyna! I can’t believe you are here! You are going to tell me everything, Girl, everything! But…” Xico ran to a door across the room and flung it open to a chorus of squawks. “They took them when they took me.”

“Shosha! Tesh! Veeter!” The chicks looked terrified. They shrank back as Heyna rushed to embrace them.

“Drop the glamour,” she said. When she was Heyna again, the chicks looked dazed.

“Heyna came to rescue us,” Xico said. “We’re getting out of here.

“Us?” Tooly said.

“Yes,” Sronban said. “All of them are coming with us.”

“How is that even possible?” Tooly asked.

“Plans change,” Heyna said. “We’ll figure out how as we go. I’m not leaving the chicks.” Xico wrapped Heyna in a tight embrace.

“Thank you!” she said.

“Okay, now Riri’s entourage is larger, that’s all,” Heyna said. “Now some of her friends or handmaidens, or whatever, are coming.”

“Ladies,” Xico said. “Royal favorites. Ladies.”

“Show us,” Sronban said. “In your mind. Picture them in your mind’s eye.”

“Okay,” Xico said, and closed her eyes.

“Got it!” Sronban and Tooly said together. “Now, no matter what happens, no matter what you see or hear, do not speak. Just follow our lead.”

In a moment, Princess Riri and a gaggle of her ladies stood in the room, along with the guard and one slave.

“Feathers!” Heyna said. The Quetz in their panic had started shedding feathers. “We have to cover those up too.”

“If we leave a trail of them…” Sronban said.

“They will reappear as we move out of range.”

“We’ll just have to chance it.”

“The air handlers cause a little breeze in the dome,” Xico said. “Maybe that will cover our tracks?”

“We can hope,” Heyna said.

“Right,” said Tooly. I don’t think that we should go out the way we came in.” Tooly opened the door and snarled at the guards. “Take us to the secret exit.”

“Yes, sir!” they said in unison. They turned and led them down the stairs and through another door, then down again.

“How did you know there was a secret exit?” Xico asked.

“It’s a palace. All the palaces in the story books have secret passages.”

“So, you guessed,” said Sronban.

“I guessed,” Tooly laughed.

They went down a damp staircase, poorly lit. Heyna smelled sea water, mold, rats and… dead fish.