Dawn came as a surprise. The light tugged at Ellis' consciousness
like an incessant child until he opened his eyes and stared blearily up at a
dimly lit ceiling of rock several hundred feet above him. It took him a moment to register what it was
and why he was seeing it all. He had
been dreaming about the Grand Chateau Von Spektr in Shalereef and had expected
to waken in his cosy little bed in the East wing, with Gulliver snoring on the
floor nearby, so the cool morning air and the distant, rocky sky were quite a
shock to the system for several seconds.
It wasn't until he heard a voice beside him saying, "Gods, that was
rough," that he began to remember.
He rolled over, briefly taking
in the sky, gradually brightening from purple into green to the south where the
arch of Upper Shadedstreams ended, and glanced at the fellow who had been
sleeping beside him, partially sheltered by a large, luminous mushroom.
"Remind me to find us an
inn or a boarding house next, eh?" the fellow continued, "I mean,
even running away from an army of officious border guards has to come with some
luxuries, right?"
Ellis nodded and tried to
remember how they had reached the strange fungal garden which had become their
bedroom for the night. He recalled that
there had certainly been an awful lot of running, first into the streets of
Shadedstreams, then through the alleys and back ways, and finally over fences,
through gardens, scrambling across low rooftops, all with the hope of losing
what little remained of the pursuing force.
The border guards must have been scattered across the district for miles
after chasing the circus-cum-army-cum-diaspora which, even then, was slipping
through their fingers. Ellis wondered
if they all got away, or if some were caught.
He thought of the Former Baron and of Nadiyya and Theophilus and the
half dozen or so other names and faces he had grown fond of during their
journey, wishing they were all okay.
Eventually he and his fellow
former-porter - a young man slightly older than he himself was going by the
name of Jakes - slowed to a steady march and made their way towards the centre
of the district: a maze of softly glowing gardens beneath the shelter of the
arch.
They must have walked half the
night like that until the stars above were blotted out by stone and the garden
they were currently reclining in presented itself as a source of shelter and
soft ground to pass the remaining hours of darkness. As it had happened, of course, the ground turned out to not be
all that soft, at least not compared to the comforts of a mattress and so there
as a great deal of stretching, clicking and cracking as Ellis and Jakes rose
from their dewy beds and prepared to head on to the rendezvous, which was
apparently at a small area of parkland at the Eastern end of the arch, where a
relatively inconspicuous ascent might be commenced upon. Ellis had no idea how all of this had been
planned and communicated without him knowing anything at all about it. It was quite disconcerting and, not for the
first time, he wondered whether the Former Baron didn't fully trust him,
although he couldn't figure out why that would be.
"We'd better get a move on
before it gets any brighter," Jakes said, pointing to the deepening green
of the sky visible to the South-East, "I'd rather not get caught rummaging
around in someone else's garden, if I can help it."
For a moment Ellis had a comic
vision of someone not unlike Beatrix Potter’s Mr. McGregor charging out of the
nearby hovel, shouting loudly as he chased the two of them away. That, combined with the thought of himself
with two long ears and a little blue jacket sent him giggling with Jakes
staring on in some confusion.
"Sorry, I'll try to
explain later," he said, once he had managed to get himself under control,
"let's get out of here."
As it was they managed to
escape that garden, and through several others, without being caught and were
soon back on the occasionally cobbled, occasionally merely mud path which
served as a kind of back street to these semi-rural dwellings. As the morning wore on so people began to
leave their houses and make their way
along the little back ways and Ellis and Jakes did their best to maintain the
appearance of the impoverished underclass.
Ethnic groups being as mixed in Shadedstreams as in many other districts
of Shadow, this wasn’t too hard to do, especially since they looked
surprisingly like they had spent the night sleeping under a bush.
By mid-morning they had made
their way over to the Eastern end of the great stone arch and here it became a
little more difficult to remain inconspicuous as the aristocracy had a vested
interested in keeping the parts of their vaulted paradise which actually
touched the earth from being mobbed by unhappy denizens of the lower classes
and so they had spent a lot of time and money ensuring that there was something
of a buffer zone between the pillars of stone and the great unwashed. Sudden the streets were much better paved
and the buildings rose in both quality and height until they had the
appearances of fortresses or great castle keeps and guards could be seen
patrolling the battlements and staring at the populace passing by, in all
senses of the phrase, beneath them.
Ellis and Jakes kept their eyes
downcast for much of their walk through this part of the district, sticking to
large crowds and moving with the kind of dejected purpose which suggested they
were on the way from one menial job to another. They only paused briefly when they passed through a wide plaza
between two fortresses where a figure dressed in a long red robe cried out to
all who could hear about Prophet who served their Khalif and of the wrath that
would be called down on anyone who refused to serve the great god Lakhma. Ellis listened intently for a few minutes,
figuring that the information could be useful, but soon found he had heard as
much as he could stomach.
They reached the rendezvous by
noon, stepping out into a lush oasis bathed in the searing light of the midday
sun just as the slums they had left behind were most in the shadow of the great
arch. Many others were there already,
milling about the park as if they were just enjoying a rare day of freedom and
not at all behaving like a large paramilitary organisation which had formerly
performed together once a night in a sawdust ring. Ellis did his best to remain nonchalant, until he discovered the
Former Baron sitting on a little woodworm-ridden bench, feeding some creatures
which looked remarkably like ducks.
“You made it then,” he said by
way of a greeting, trying to sound less relieved than he actually was.
“Of course I did Allgood, my
boy. It was my plan, afterall.”
“And did you ever have any
intention of telling me this plan?”
“And spoil the surprise? I should think not!”
“It was the bad kind of
surprise, Von Spektr – you’re supposed to spoil those!”
“Well, perhaps, somewhere in
the midst of all the planning and the details and the wrestling with those
wretched gutterjacks which kept stealing my pens, I might – just might, I might
add – have forgotten to mention it to you.
But you were keeping so busy and who was I to get in the way of your
making friends and improving yourself.”
Ellis
scowled, “I could have prepared myself.”
“Oh
preparation is for Chemists. All the
best plans have a bit of randomness to them.
Consider yourself that variable.”
“How flattering.” He sighed and glanced up at the arch as it
curved up and away from the park. “How
are we getting up there without making a scene then, if you can bear to spoil
the surprise.”
A gleam
lit up the Former Baron’s eyes and he smiled his thin smile.
“Oh, but
Olney, my dear, dear boy, this is one surprise I can hardly keep to
myself!”
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