Chapter Two hundred eight (Patreon)

Raff led the way through the streets, with Kaz close on his heels. Humans parted around the large male like a river around a stone, but Kaz was tossed around like a clump of dry moss. Only by staying very close to Raff could he be certain they wouldn’t be separated. That meant that most of his vision and attention was taken up by Raff’s broad back, but not quite all.

There were pictures everywhere. The walls were covered in them. Some were actually painted directly onto the false stone, while others were printed on some kind of paper or parchment, then attached to the wall with metal spikes or glue. Most of these were small, filled with runes Kaz couldn’t read, but a few? A few were huge, and colorful, and absolutely fascinating. It was almost enough to distract Kaz from his worry for Kyla, who was still missing.

Since Li was hidden beneath Kaz’s cloak, she was watching through his eyes for once, and together they wondered at the pictures of humans and creatures they had never imagined could exist. Graceful golden beasts with vast, furry manes and snakes for tails faced off against humans wielding swords even larger than Raff’s. Other humans faced off against enormous lizards or swarms of giant insects with stingers the size of their heads. Short, squat people who could have been husede other than the pale color of their skin and their long beards teamed up against groups of armored males and, if Kaz wasn’t mistaken, females as well.

<Is that a flying wolf?> Li asked excitedly as they hurried past one of the largest pictures they’d seen yet. The further they went, the bigger the images seemed to grow, and Kaz was beginning to feel as if they’d turn one more corner only to find that the things had come to life in front of their eyes.

Kaz turned back, trying to get a better look. It had indeed seemed to be a wolf with wings like a bird, but there was something strange about the creature’s feet, and the muzzle was more like a beak. He sent a feeling of uncertainty to the dragon, who still clung to his back beneath his cloak. She’d nearly fallen free a few times, after they were jostled particularly hard, but so far she always managed to catch herself. It would definitely be a relief when they got to wherever they were going, though.

Speaking of which. Kaz jogged forward a little faster, finding that he had to use a bit of ki in order to do so. Raff was almost jogging, and with his long legs, that meant he was moving very quickly. Kaz was as tall as Lianhua now, but that still left him a foot shorter than Raff, and he had to take two steps for every one of the larger male’s.

“Where are we going?” he asked, trying to project his voice over the ever-increasing noise of the crowd. This was worse than the time he spent in the mosui city. At least there he had been one of the tallest people, but here he felt as small as Li. Some people were his height or smaller, but they were of the short, wide race pictured on the papers stuck to the walls, and the crowd parted around them almost as readily as it did around Raff.

Raff glanced back, but didn’t slow. “I heard someone talkin’ a while back. Signups for the tournament are still open through today. Gave me an idea. Just keep up.”

Kaz and Li gave simultaneous huffs of frustration. What did Raff think they were doing? Wandering through a gathering cavern?

They continued onward as the crowd grew thicker and thicker. Then, abruptly, the flow of it changed, with more people moving ‘away’ than ‘toward’. Much of the pressure on them eased up, and instead shifted to the other side of the street. Apparently, the humans had some kind of tradition that if they were going in one direction, they had to remain to the right, but if they turned around, they should move left. It was yet another peculiarity, but a welcome one for once.

Raff made a pleased sound, turned, then came to a sudden and complete stop at the end of a column of other people. Almost instantly, more people came to stand behind them, and Kaz found himself trapped between Raff and a set of human males who looked impatient and unhappy.

Kaz edged up until he was standing close beside Raff, then asked, “Now can you tell me what we’re doing? I thought we were going to an inn.” Not that he was terribly excited by the idea of entering a den filled with humans, but at least there they would have their own small hut separated from the rest by solid walls.

Raff looked around, then held up his hand, tracing something on his palm with his opposite forefinger. “Can you do the, uh, hush hush thing?” he asked.

It took Kaz a moment to realize that Raff meant the sound obscuration rune, but then he nodded, and drew it on his own palm.  He still didn’t know how to use what Lianhua called modifiers to alter its shape and size, but now he understood that those modifiers were tied to her image, not his own.

It was still easier to use the rune than to just picture a dome of ki falling around them to muffle their words, but he could bring it closer, so it excluded those pressing in around them. Holding up his hand to show his palm, he waited. Raff began to speak, though the male’s dark golden eyes continued to flick over the crowd rather than focusing on Kaz.

“This tournament happens every year, but alternates between allowing locals only and including anyone who’s willing to come. This is one of the all-comers years, which is why this place looks like a madhouse. Everybody’s come from everywhere to see who wins. In the final round, the local champions from last year will compete against whoever wins this year.”

Kaz listened, not sure how all of this mattered to them, other than the fact that it meant the current state of the city probably wasn’t normal, which was a relief.

Raff took a step forward as the line shifted, then said, “I was plannin’ to find an inn, like I said, but I forgot what it’s like in an open tournament year. There won’t be anywhere safe to stay, and I don’t want to spend every night waitin’ for a knife in th’ guts. Plus, this is a great cover.” He grinned, clearly proud of himself.

“What is?” Kaz asked as they moved forward again.

Raff’s brows rose. “Enterin’ the tournament, of course,” he said, as if it was obvious. “We can stay in one of the barracks, and no one’ll question who we are or why we’re here. Plus, we can win at the low levels, easy, an’ make a few gold.”

Kaz had gold. Not a lot, since he’d been worried about over-filling his pouch or taking enough that the husede would notice. Still, he was fairly certain that twenty-four bars should be enough for a little while, at least. Well, twenty-three, now.

“But-” he tried to say, when the males behind them shoved forward, pushing Kaz into the small gap that had opened in front of him.

Raff turned to glare at them, but they didn’t back down, just glaring back angrily. The taller one was almost as large as Raff, while the shorter was a good bit larger than Kaz. Kaz was beginning to think he should have gone for more height, no matter how strange it felt for his perspective to be so far above the ground.

Kaz tugged on Raff’s arm, pulling the big male’s attention back to him. “But we don’t need gold. Do we?”

Raff hitched a shoulder. “Y’always need gold, Blue. But nah, this’s more about hiding in plain sight.” He gestured to himself, indicating his deep brown skin, then waved at those around them, who were almost all of some shade ranging from Chi Yincang’s much lighter brown to Gaoda’s pinkish-white. Lianhua’s skin, so pale as to rival baimo lichen, would have stood out as much as Raff’s dark tones.

“Mariners aren’t so common here, even now that one is a duchess. Bit too far from the sea for that,” Raff said. “One comin’ for the Tournament, though? Believable enough. Plus, people entered in the tournament get some special privileges, besides a place to stay if they don’t have one.”

They shuffled forward again. “First off, even if we ask a lot o’ questions, no one will think it’s suspicious. We’re strangers, eh?  Second, we get a bit o’ a discount on armor and weapons, an’ I need to replace darn near everything I own.”

Raff grimaced, holding up an arm which was only covered in fabric, with no leather or armor in sight. “I feel naked walkin’ around like this, but even if my gear wasn’t all beat up, it’d be too recognizable. Those are some nice benefits, but the third one is best of all.” He leaned down, though there was no way anyone could have understood what he was saying.

“I can use this as a way to let Jinn know I’m here,” he almost whispered. “There’s no way we’re gonna find her in a city th’ size o’ Cliffcross, but she sure can find us. If she’s here and paying attention, she’ll know I’m back, and exactly where to find me.”

Kaz tilted his head as the person in front of them strode away, revealing a row of tables with exhausted-looking humans sitting behind them. “How?”

“At the end of th’ day, criers’ll go around the streets, calling out the names of the winners for anyone who can’t read. When she hears mine, she’ll know,” Raff said, though he looked oddly unhappy about it.

The people behind them bumped into Kaz again, and he looked back at them. The shorter of the males was waving his arm, shouting something, though Kaz couldn’t understand through the muffling effect of his rune. Quickly, he rubbed his palm against his robe, allowing the image of the rune to vanish from his mind, and immediately winced as sound became something almost as physical as the hand that pushed at him.

“-turn, moron! Get moving!” A pointing finger indicated a person who was waving as Kaz and Raff impatiently. When he saw them looking, he pointed very firmly at an empty table where another human waited.

Raff threw one more glower at the pair behind them, then hurried toward the table. When they arrived, the person didn’t even look up, just sat with their pen poised over a page which was already partially covered in runes.

“Name and category or categories?” the person asked in a bored, high-pitched voice, and Kaz realized this was probably a female. She was dressed exactly the same as all of the other people behind tables, but her hair was long and bound up, much as Chi Yincang often wore his, and her form seemed a bit softer than most of the others.

“This’s Kaz,” Raff said, nudging Kaz forward. “We’re a Mage and Fighter team.”

The female sighed, rubbing her temple. This apparently wasn’t the first time she’d done so, because the skin there was smudged dark with ink. “Are you fighting as a pair or individually?”

“I’ll go solo mace,” Raff said, “and then Kaz an’ I’ll join the team battles.”

She looked up for the first time, eyes glancing around as if looking for another member of their party. “You know a team can be up to five, correct? But you don’t want to join as a pair instead?”

Raff grinned. “Bigger prize for the team category, right?”

The female sighed. “Yes, since it’s expected to be shared among all the members. But that doesn’t matter if you’re defeated in the first round.”

“Nah,” Raff said, “we’ll win.”

She rolled her eyes, but didn’t protest. Looking down at her paper again, she drew a short series of runes. Thanks to Lianhua, who had taught him a few more runes in between her eternal questions, Kaz now recognized these as the simplest version of his name. It was made up of runes that sounded correct, but had no underlying meaning. He felt his mouth stretch happily at the sight, but missed the motion of his absent tail.

“And your name?” she asked, pen poised.

Raff mumbled something, making Kaz and the female both look up at him.

“What was that?”

Raff sighed heavily, and said, “Big Bro Gravy.”