Sell you a Bridge chapter 279 (Patreon)

June 13th 2016 The Street of Gods 8:00 PM EDT

We  stepped down from the carriage and into the street as a group. Everyone  had come along, and we were all prepared for some trouble, strapped  with every powerful artifact and tool they had available. Taylor had  even shared some of his stash, and Suzie had let Artemis borrow a few  guns, which my surrogate sister seemed to be geeking out about more  emphatically than I'd seen her react to anything since we got here. I  hadn't brought anything extra, though I had my gun in easy reach, not  that I was sure the damn thing would work on the entities that lived  here.

The street of gods was...crazy. The bones of it was  pretty straightforward. A long, crowded thoroughfare lined with large  buildings. Lots of columns and the like and very obviously full of  temples and religious buildings. That was where the image of a normal  street broke down though. Abundance of columns aside, the temples were  all very distinct. Some were made of white stone, some brick, some  stacked rocks like a caste. One large building was made of what looked  like black chitin, and one squat building of blood red wood had a black  pool in front of it that fountained poison green flames.

In  the shadows between the big temples were smaller locations. Some  simpler, just normal looking houses or boring looking offices, and some  just shacks held together with duct tape and paperclips. I even saw a  few cardboard boxes with signs outside them proclaiming them to be  churches. The alleys and spaces between were much less orderly too, with  the smaller structures jammed in between buildings three or four at a  time so they could fit as many as possible on the street, where real  estate was obviously at a premium.

What made the street  the most surprising to look at though wasn't the buildings, it was the  residents. Gods walked among us. All types of shapes and sizes and  creeds. Evil dark beings of profane hatred crouched on the edges of  rooftops while gossamer clothed saints smiled benevolently down at the  hungry and the ill, healing them with a touch. There were robots,  goblins, werewolves, giant squids, monkeys, and any number of other  strange and alien beings all proclaiming for their own churches and  religions.

Some of the buildings were just attended by  priests. I saw normal looking men in bland clothes with quiet,  thoughtful expressions having thoughtful conversations with lost souls  even as lunatic preachers howled tales of the end times from their soap  boxes less than a dozen feet away. It was, without a doubt, the  strangest, most terrible, most beautiful place I'd ever seen, and even  the rest of the Nightside fell short of the sheer grandeur present in  the street of gods. It was truly a place that defied description.

It  was also a mess, and I had no clue how we would be able to find Kit  here, so I turned to the expert on this place. "Alright John, where are  we supposed to head from here. You said you recognized the place from  the memory right?" I asked anxiously. I didn't want to get lost here. I  got the intense feeling that this was not the kind of place anyone  rational would want to expose any sort of weakness, and definitely  wasn't the kind of place where people who got lost had a good end. John  was going to be our best chance of getting out of here alive, because I  could implicitly sense multiple beings here that might be able to hurt  me, even without aura sight to make it easy to tell.

The  blonde detective had a wistful smile on his face as he glanced around,  and at my words, his head jerked up in surprise. "Right. Yes. Sorry.  It's been a while since I've been here.  We're heading for the Seventh  Savior's Gossamer Cathedral." He pointed down the street into the  distance. "It's that building WAY down there that looks like it's made  of translucent cloth stitched together with starlight." I gazed down the  road off into the distance, and sure enough I saw the place he meant.  It was breathtaking to behold, and I found myself staring hard at it for  a minute.

I shook off the awe, expecting to be  reprimanded, but I turned to find the others just as distracted. I  cleared my throat and they all turned to me, most looking sheepish.  Sindella was smiling at us widely. "Don't be so embarrassed. We all  stared our first time on the Street. This place isn't like anywhere else  in the world." She turned to John. "Do you know how to get us there  quickly? You know as well as I do that space here isn't so stable that  we can just trust our eyes. Walking straight down this road could drop  us in Cairo depending on what day and time it is. I never learned to  navigate."

"I'm out of practice." John said with a  grimace. "But I have a friend who would definitely be able to lead us  safely. Follow me. I know where he usually spends his time." He gestured  down one of the alleys, leading us around a few small buildings between  the chitin temple and the one made of stacked grey rocks. He walked us  down the side road, steering us around a few people until he finally  came to a small, very dirty looking shack. It was made of pressboard  held together with cheap nails, and it had a corrugated steel sheet for a  door, held closed by what looked like a wooden stick in a terracotta  pot full of cement.

John ignored all of that and walked up  the the building, rapping on the metal sheet in front of the entrance.  Once he was done, he waited a minute or two and the metal door scraped  open as the pot was pushed away. A head stuck itself out, a haggard  looking man in with dirty, matted hair in a long ratty coat. He glanced  around placidly, seeming almost unsure where he was, but when he saw  John he smiled. "Junior. It's good to see you again. I'd thought you  moved out of the Nightside and were living back in London. What brings  you here?"

Much like several other  beings I'd seen here, this man gave off a subtle sense of danger when I  looked at him. He wasn't outwardly scary or intimidating, he looked like  a shabbily dressed homeless man. He wasn't even particularly intense,  seeming almost disconnected from the world around him as he looked at us  like we weren't even really there. Still, something about him just  screamed at me that he was dangerous, and I listened to my instincts  when possible. I stepped surreptitiously in front of as many of my  friends as possible in case he was hostile.

"Eddie,  it's good to see you mate. How have the streets been treating you? Been  eating well?" He turned to us with a fond smile. "Guys, this is Razor  Eddie, punk god of the straight razor. When I was living on the street  here he looked out for me. Made sure I got fed and had a warm place to  sleep. Eddie is good people, we can trust him." His voice was, for maybe  the second or third time since I'd met him, completely lacking any sort  of sarcasm of bite. He spoke with complete sincerity about his friend.

Taylor  and Suzie were obviously less convinced, given they were looking at  Eddie like a particularly pissed off viper about to strike. Still, they  didn't contradict him, so I figured we could actually trust this guy.  Sindella looked perfectly at home around him, and when he saw her, the  clouded, remote expression seemed to clear slightly. "Sindy? Is that  you? I heard you'd died. I was heartbroken. You were one of the few  people who actively sought me out to bring me food. I miss those grilled  cheese sandwiches you used to make. I don't suppose you brought any  with you?"

Sindella  giggled. "No Eddie, I'm afraid I didn't, and it's good to see you too."  She pointed behind her, at the rest of us, but specifically at Zee.  "This is Zatanna, by the way, my daughter. Askim ,  this is my friend Eddie. He used to tell me the most wonderful stories  when I was a girl." She stepped forward and pulled the shabbily dressed  man into a tight hug, which he returned with a warm smile.

Suzie  was fuming with rage. "See! This is why I've always hated you! Everyone  loves you, it's sickening. I have no idea how you survived growing up  here while being like this. Anyone else would be dead ten times over, or  worse." Despite her not saying it though, I could hear the lie under  her words. How it wasn't fair that Sindella could be so happy despite  being in this terrible place. How she wished people would love her like  they loved Sindella. But deeper down, under layers of jaded disaffected  anger and bitterness and snark, I heard the tiniest whisper. About how  much she respected Sindella for being such a kind person even after  living here. About how the other woman gave her hope. And how she knew  Taylor wouldn't choose her over Sindella, because even she wouldn't make  that choice.

"All  I do is treat people kindly." She paused. "Well, some of them. Even I  know some of the people in the Nightside aren't safe to be around. I'm  an optimist, not an idiot. Still, Eddie isn't like that. He's a good  person." She gave an embarrassed smile. "Though actually Eddie, we  didn't just come to visit. If I'd thought about it I'd have brought you a  sandwich though. Rain check on that. We were actually hoping you might  be willing to play tour guide? We need to get to the Seventh Savior's  church, and Little John says he doesn't remember how to navigate the  street like he used to."

I  saw John wince slightly at the incredibly childish nickname, but he  adored Sindella, so he didn't complain. I had to smile internally as I  saw that. She was so much like Zee, but turned up to eleven. My girl was  the sweetest, most lovable person, but she was also shy and  disconnected because of how she grew up. Sindella was what Zee could  have been if she'd been out in the world, spreading that sunshine to  everyone else. It hurt my heart knowing what she'd lost out on because  of her father, but I would make sure she had plenty of adventures and  made plenty of friends now. I wouldn't let Giovanni Zatara take away  Zee's chance to be this kind of person.

Eddie  smiled at Sindella, seeming to ignore Suzie altogether (a skill I  suspect not many people managed to perfect) "Of course I can take you."  His smile faded a bit. "But we'll need to go carefully. I recognize that  boy you're with. And there are people looking for him. People that I  don't think should find him if you're at all fond of him." His hazy eyes  focused again, this time on me. "I'm not sure who you've angered boy,  but they are powerful and very petty. This is where they've been trying  to get you, so you'll need to be on guard."

As  he said that, I began to get a very bad feeling. I'd kind of assumed  the people behind the attempted kidnapping were working for Neron, but  the style of the two people didn't really mesh. Whoever sent Suzie and  Belle after me wasn't the kind of patient hunter Neron demonstrated  being. The fallen had baited a trap and waited like a spider, sending  mercenaries to drag me here would have been contradictory. Which meant  one of two things. Either Neron had lackeys who liked to go off and do  shit on their own, or there was a second group of people looking for me.  Given my luck, I was betting the latter. Now I just had to figure out  who I might have pissed off this much. Joy.