"Took you long enough to show up," Ulsper grumbled, tucking a throwing knife back beneath his sleeve as the presence he had sensed behind him shifted its hood. "Though I thought you knew better than to sneak up on me like that."
Seolosu came to stand by his shoulder, checking the street around them before muttering a reply. "Your precious Imperial Guard's been watching me for days," she said, a tense note of annoyance tinging her words.
"Really? I didn't know Kalasha had a thing for women," Ulsper replied, regretting his comment as soon as the general's elbow hit his rib. "Ouch!"
"If you're not going to be serious about this, I'm leaving," Seolosu said. A quarry wagon rumbled past their spot at the corner of the street, nearly drowning out her words. "Where's Saer Lon?"
No sooner had she asked the question than a group of children barely waist-high darted past like firefish, squealing and laughing as they chased the leader who held a hunk of bread in his grubby hands. Like nearly everyone else in this part of this city, the children's clothes were patched and thin, and judging by the red blotches on the children's cheeks, hardly sufficient to protect them from the cold spring air.
"She went to confirm Uhi's meeting spot is secure," Ulsper answered, clenching his jaw and pressing back more firmly against the wall of the shabby temple behind them as more people, goats, and horses passed by. Not for the first time that afternoon, he wished for a higher vantage point from which to survey the crowd around them. There wasn't enough room to move, here on the ground, and it was always important to have a place to jump to, if the situation got too dangerous.
"Has she been any better, lately?" Seolosu asked, and Ulsper flicked his gaze curiously in her direction. "The drinking, I mean."
Ulsper let out a breath. "Marginally."
Seolosu sighed and shifted against the wall, faded red paint dust flecking onto her shoulders at the motion. A quick check had Ulsper realizing that he, too, was now bedecked in the stuff.
"We're going to stand out like two glowing lanterns," he muttered in disgust, pointing at the general's own light green coat. She hastened to brush off the powdery substance, but it only seemed to spread and she soon gave up, as her frantic motions only drew more eyes in their direction.
"What can we do?" she hissed. "If I wanted to stand out, I should have just worn my red ceremonial cape, at this rate!"
Ulsper looked around. Aside from the throngs of worshipers coming to visit at the temple, there was an apothecary and blacksmith's shop across the narrow street, neither of which would be very useful in this case.
He looked back to the temple behind them, its pointed black roof just visible above the trees behind the courtyard wall.
"Let's go in," he said. "I think I have an idea. We'll look silly, but it should work."
Seolosu frowned. "What are you—ah!"
Ulsper grabbed the general's hand, pulling her into the throng of people that flowed toward the arched double doors at the temple's courtyard entrance. Each door was painted with scenes depicting the four realms of Mil-chi, the religion prominent in this region. At the top of the doors was the heavenly realm, painted in shades of blue and white that had faded to gray due to bouts of bad weather. Cloud-bearded gods rode upon glowing scaled steeds and held the stars at their fingertips. Below the heavenly realm were the beasts; the revered Five-Headed Hare with a head to look for truth in each cardinal direction and heavenward, the three-winged Green Serpent who brought law and justice from the gods, and the goat-headed Guardian of Mountains among the many creatures Ulsper could recognize in the various writhing and winged shapes depicted on the wood. The realm below, with humans, was just above the lowest realm of demons, and at times it was difficult to distinguish where the third realm ended and the fourth began. Ulsper shook his head at the depiction and stepped over the threshold, making sure not to lose his grip on Seolosu as the jostling crowd squeezed through the entryway.
YOU ARE READING
Secrets of the Swords, Book 1
幻想Acting normal is not the same as being normal. No one knows that truth better than Suthe Montikwe. Born with the unlucky genes of a distant druith ancestor, she's had to hide her talents in order not to be outcast by society. Her strategy is to s...
