The Veil Page 51

  Dotted on the streets in front of the various shops were tons of stalls, all covered by wide, dusty umbrellas that sported their names. They sold everything from Pandemonian livestock, to ancient looking machine parts, shining oddities, and old weapons that looked like they would fall to pieces after one use. Other vendors clearly couldn’t even afford stalls, so walked along the streets, announcing their wares to passers by. One of the vendors – an elderly Gnome with sporadic tufts of white hair growing from his head – carried a sack of mechanical birds, which he powered up by winding a tiny key at their sides and then released with a flick of his wrist. They went soaring and diving through the air before circling back and landing in his outstretched bag. He had a trail of excited Pandemonian children of all species following him at a distance. They weaved barefoot between older citizens, squealing and laughing in delight as they tried to grab the birds out of the air, much to the vendor’s annoyance.

  Everything was watched over by the Lawbringers, who seemed to be Concavious’ own version of guards. The trenchcoat wearing Pandemonians patrolled not only the streets, but also metal walkways high above the city. To move between the suspended pathways, they jumped onto standing poles hooked to zip lines, crisscrossing overhead at rapid speeds.

  “This place its nuts,” said Hollie looking around her.

  “Y’all think this is nuts, you should’ve checked out Misfortune Market. That was crazy,” said Delagio. “Drugs, interspecies prostitution, contraband, stolen artefacts. Oh and a psychopathic trying to trade Chosen for the highest price.”

  “Sad I missed it,” said Danny, and everyone burst out laughing.

  “Okay, we need find the stables,” I chuckled.

  I stopped the old Gnome carrying the clockwork birds. He frowned at me for a second and then realising I was a Chosen, attempted to speak broken English. “Want buy, fly?” he said, gesturing towards his bag.

  “Oh no, thank you.” I pointed to Isiodore. “Stables?”

  His eyes widened. “Sales? Yes. Take!” He swung the sack from his back and slid it to towards me with a boot, before motioning towards the Unicorn’s reins. Isiodore let out a warning sound as his eyes started to change from aquamarine to dark blue.

  “Don’t!”

  I pushed the man back for his own safety. He stumbled over his own bag and landed on his backside on cobbled ground with a shocked gasp.

  Oh crap.

  “Sorry, sorry,” I said in Qi’lern and tried to help him up, but he batted my hand away, shouting at the top of his lungs for a Lawbringer.

  “Well this is a brilliant start,” said Hollie.

  I gave a long sigh and waited for the inevitable. When one of the Lawbringers did notice the commotion, it was a middle-aged Incubus, his bright eyes shimmering in the dim glow of the gas lanterns that lined the streets. He waved away some of the children who had crept close and were trying to steal some of the clockwork birds that had spilled out of the man’s bag. He helped the man up with one hand and then rested his other against a holstered shotgun, which was covered in wires and valves.

  “What’s the problem here?” he asked the old Gnome in Dahari.

  “This human said he wanted to make a sale trade with me for his Unicorn and then pushed me to the ground when I tried to collect!” he wailed.

  The Lawbringer turned to me. “This true?” he asked in English.

  “No!” I insisted. “I asked him where the stables where and he misunderstood me. I pushed him away because otherwise he would have had a Unicorn horn in his stomach!” I turned to the Gnome and repeated the same thing in his tongue. He waved a dismissive hand at me and swore under his breath.

  “I think this is just a misunderstanding. Vendor, be on your way.”

  The man started trying to protest, but the Lawbringer narrowed his eyes and wrapped his fingers around the butt of his gin. The man nodded quickly, scrambling to collect his bag and then scampered off, the trail of children running behind him.

  “I’m really sorry about that,” I said when the Gnome had gone.

  “Don’t be,” said the Lawbringer, moving his hand away from his gun and resting it on the lip of a large belt instead. “He knew what you were saying just fine. He was hoping I would enforce the trade. You’ve got to watch yourself in this city Guardians, plenty of people ready to take advantage of the unsuspecting.”

  “How did you know we’re Guardians?” asked Danny.

  “Because I have eyes. Now, can I be of any help?”

  “We need to find stables so we can store our Unicorns for a short period of time whilst we conduct some business,” I explained.

  “And what business would that be, Guardian?”

  “We need to hire a mercenary fleet to get us to Yornheim.”

  The Lawbringer whistled and then gave a light chuckle. “I hope you have bought some serious coin with you. Or something incredible to trade.” He gestured at the Unicorns. “I doubt even these beauties will be enough for mercenaries to risk their necks getting you to Yornheim.”

  “Oh no, we don’t want to trade our Unicorns. We have money,” I said.

  The Lawbringer nodded, sending his pale blonde hair falling down over his eyes. “Okay, well to find your way around the city, you follow these.” He patted a waist-height row of several pipes I hadn’t noticed, which ran into the distance in both directions. “See the symbols on here? These refer to the various sections of Concavious. See this one translates to Da Ka’hari?”

  “The Barn?” said Danny.

  “Exactly. That’s where you need to go to stable your mounts.” He gave a smile. “I’ll tell you what I’ll do. Since I’m already here, I’ll take you where you need to go.”

  “Oh, are you sure?” We don’t want to take up your time,” I said.

  “It’s fine, I’m due a break anyway.”

  “Then that would be great, thanks.”

  “Not a problem. Follow me.”

  The Lawbringer turned on his heel and started walking down the misshapen street, whistling the melody of an unfamiliar song and ducking as overhead pipes released streams of hot gas.

  “How long has this city been around?” I asked as we walked.

  “The site itself is very old, but as an actual city, about three hundred of your human years. Concavious is relatively new in this ancient world, but the message it carries transcends time.”

  “What message is that?” asked Danny.

  “That some of us want nothing to do with this pointless war and its politics of hatred and segregation.”

  “Sounds like a good message,” I added.

  “We like to think so.”

  “There isn’t much ‘bout Concavious in Alliance records,” said Delagio as he stepped around two Skinshifter puppies, who chased and gave playful nips to each other as they rolled around like two balls of fur. “How did the city come about?”

  The Lawbringer slid his hand along one of the directional pipes, raising his palm up each time he reached a valve. “Those who lived here grew tired of the fighting and turned it into a neutral city. Freed it from allegiance to any Pandemonian class.”

  “What was it before that?” probed Del.

  “As far as the rumours go, it was originally a deep sea drilling site created by the Umbra. You wouldn’t think it, but very valuable resources can be found beneath the seabed.”

  Just like oil-drilling rigs on Earth. “I don’t doubt it,” I said.

  “Whatever resources existed down there have long since dried up, but at one time they were dragged up and traded to the Luminar for other useful commodities. Then the Ageless War broke out and the drilling port alternated between Umbra and Luminar control as both sides became involved in a perpetual arms race, trying to create the best resources to wipe each other off the map.”

  “So if there was an arms race, then why haven’t they just nuked each other yet?” asked Hollie.

  The Lawbringer frowned. “Nuked?”

  “Yeah, like high powered
weapons that wipe everything out in a massive radius,” she explained.

  “Oh, you mean biological weapons of mass destruction. Neither side has done it because simply, it would be a very stupid idea. The world is already dying from the effects of war, weapons of that nature would kill it all the more quickly. Every Pandemonian knows the result of the attack on Fenodara’s Scholaris district when the Umbra toyed with unstable weaponry. That part of the world will be forever toxic. They learned their lesson that day. What is the point of trying to win a war when the land you claim as your trophy is inhospitable to any form of life? Why then bother to try and win it in the first place?

  “Fair point.”

  “But going back to Concavious’ great history. It was about three hundred human years ago that the Luminar miners who were in control at the time grew tired of the Ageless War, and what it was doing to the world. Rather than abandon Pandemonia as so many others had, they decided to create a city that stood outside of that conflict. So they used their skills to build instead of dig. Word of what they were trying to do got out, and others travelled from all over the world to help, so that they could have the opportunity to live there too. There were no restrictions on Class or species. Anybody was welcome, just as long as they contributed and didn’t cause any trouble. Each original creator – or ‘Brinah’ as they were called – brought ideas with them from their homelands, which helped shape what was built. This included Pandemonians who had escaped to your world and came back through, looking for a second chance at life in this world.

  The Lawbringers were created soon after the city itself. We were formed to be a rotating set of well-trained guards who keep the wheels of the city turning and most of the trouble at bay so that everything and everyone can continue to thrive. A Lawbringer has to have lived in the city for twenty consecutive cycles to be allowed to wear the uniform, and then it’s for twenty cycles only. After that they have to let the role pass on to someone else. The idea behind the rotation is to keep the position short enough so that pride in the job doesn’t give way to corruption. Although…. that doesn’t always work.” He spread out his arms. “And that, Guardians, is how Concavious was born.”

  “It sounds like an amazing city,” I said.

  The Lawbringer gave a smile. “Thank you…sorry what was your name?”

  “Alex,” I said.

  He paused. “Thank you, Alex. This place is my home and I care deeply about it.”

  “What ah don’t get is why Hades hasn’t tried to destroy Concavious yet. Surely this place is a middle finger to Umbra supremacy?” said Delagio.

  The Lawbringer turned his head to look at the Kinesist. “Because a city where anything can be bought and sold – including information – is a very valuable place…to everyone.” There was a slight edge to his words that made me wonder just how much underhandedness went on in the city.

  “Your English is fantastic,” said Hollie as we carried on walking with the Lawbringer down the narrow streets of the city. “Plus you seem to know quite a bit about our time and other things. Have you been to Earth before?”

  “That’s very kind of you to say, Guardian. But no, never.” The Lawbringer jerked a thumb behind him. “Did you see Readers Digest that we passed back there?”

  I tried not to burst out laughing. “I’m sorry, Reader’s Digest?”

  The Lawbringer kept talking with a completely straight face. “Yes. It’s a bookstore. One that contains hundreds of novels from your world that can be borrowed for a small fee, and even some that can be purchased for the right price or trade.” He opened his jacket and pulled out a dog-eared copy of ‘The Fellowship of the Ring’ from inside. “This is what I’m reading at the moment. Such a fascinating place that this author visited, very unique lifeforms. Have you read it?”

  “I have. It’s part of a very popular trilogy of books in my world,” I replied.

  The Lawbringer’s face fell. “Trilogy? As in there are three of them?”

  “Yes.”

  “Great,” muttered the Lawbringer, stuffing the book back into his pocket. “Reader’s Digest only had this one by that author. Anyway, I got a little side-tracked. The point is that there is very little Pandemonian literature left in the world. Most celebrated novels and poems were destroyed as by-products of the war, and life outside of Concavious doesn’t allow for luxuries like reading, unless it’s ancient manuscripts on battle strategy. Although we do have a few aspiring writers in the city, as well as Scribes Inc. Printers to produce their work, there is nothing really worth reading.” He sighed. “But your world? You have an abundance of talented writers. Earth’s books are among the most popular commodities in this entire city.” The Lawbringer tapped his jacket. “It makes sense why this one was so expensive. But three of them….” He groaned.

  “But isn’t it confusing? I mean how do you have a point of reference for our world and what our words mean?” Danny asked.

  The Lawbringer smiled. “We start with basic English lessons, move to dictionaries and encyclopaedias, then work our way up.”

  We entered a food district, where the Victorian style of Concavious was lost among a mishmash of contrasting restaurants and regional food stalls. Tall, unstable looking Pagodas – painted either purple, red or blue, and trimmed with gold – released powerful aromas as Yokai and Oni’s prepared dishes from their regions and sold them through the various windows of the buildings, which were accessed by crooked staircases filled with queuing diners.

  Bunched between the pagodas were small, open huts with raised fire wells in their centres. The wells were crisscrossed by long iron skewers, which grilled spiced meats over the open flame and released a blend of mouth-watering scents. As the various diners waited for their food to finish cooking, ancient looking Gnomes, Goblins and Redcaps alternated between skinning, gutting and carving up a variety of animals, preparing them to be added to the bundle of waiting skewers resting against the walls.

  We passed by hundreds of other restaurants and stalls, all completely different in style and design. It was both impressive and amusing to see that no attempt had been made to make the numerous regional restaurants and stalls look in any way uniform, like they would have been in a modern Earth city. They had been built the way the owners had wanted, in the style of their homelands and there was no ounce of compromise. The further we walked with the Lawbringer through Concavious, the more it felt indicative of the city in general. The whole place felt as if it had been built from the hand-me-downs of other civilizations.

  It was fantastic.

  Concavious was even larger than it looked, and it took us some time to reach the Barn. When we finally arrived, we were met with some kind of shantytown ranch house – massive but fall–down–any–minute wonky and made from a clashing mix of metals and wood. It had been built on a grass–filled patch of land in an enclosed offshoot at the far end of the Freeport. As we approached, the smell was definitely reminiscent of a barn and I was pleased to see that there were a lot of other animals already present, including a handful of Unicorns, who seemed happy enough in their stabled area made from old copper pipes and wire.

  The Lawbringer made the process all very straightforward for us. We paid the owner – a Yokai with black birthmarks over his red face and a missing horn – a few of the square coins and then he signed and handed over a document that explicitly stated in a variety of languages that ‘I understand that the owners of the lifeform(s) being housed in the barn have paid for temporary residency and I will not attempt to resell or trade them for anything else during their agreed stay.’

  “Where to now?” I asked the Lawbringer, when we had left Da Ka’hari and made our way back towards the central area.

  “The Jackalope and Hart,” he said. “It’s where any mercenary worth hiring spends most their time between jobs.”

  “Oh the Jackalope and Hart you say? Interesting,” teased Delagio, ignoring the pleading stares from Danny. Once again Hollie’s face flushed and she muttered someth
ing not too friendly under her breath.

  “Sorry, did I say something wrong?” asked the Lawbringer.

  “No,” I chuckled. “Let’s keep going.”

  *

  The Jackalope and Hart was a squat building hiding under the shadows of a towering network of gigantic pipes that clung to the moss covered walls on the outskirts of Concavious’ nightlife area. Its facade was a mix of copper pipes and black columns that ran down in front of a window that looked as though it hadn’t felt the gentle caress of a cleaning cloth in centuries. A black fascia ran around the front of the building, its hanging gas lanterns highlighting the name written in once-white letters. As we approached, I could hear the sound of music coming from inside and the strong smell of tobacco.

  “Most mercenaries are hot-headed to say the least, and outright dangerous to say the most. Be polite and to the point,” warned the Lawbringer. “And if they refuse the job, don’t press them.”

  “Okay,” I agreed. The Lawbringer pushed open the narrow door, gesturing for us to follow him.

  The pub looked almost normal compared to the rest of the city. It was cozy but not small, with hundreds of gold-tinged photographs depicting picturesque areas of Pandemonia, presumably before they had been too badly damaged by the war. The walls were bare brick, and the tables and chairs naked wood, dotted among chesterfield-style sofas. A set of steps at the back led up to a door marked Overnights Only in seven different languages.

  The bar itself looked like a mad scientists lab, with an array of whirring machines that pumped out liquid into decanters, and dusty shelves lined with grimy jars of different coloured substances. The upbeat almost Irish style music we’d heard playing outside came from a unit in one corner that was pretty much identical to a jukebox, complete with bright lights and a track selection list.