As we moved toward the station, the sky bzed red and the citizens of Omedura left their residences, as calmly as if they'd rushed indoors because of a sudden downpour and not because the city guards had been killing bck market toughs. And probably bck market traders too. Come to think about it, I didn't know if Retana's campaign against the bck market was over. Maybe they'd continue rooting out everyone involved. Maybe the whole thing would st for days. Threatening a retive of the Megarchon's was all the excuse anybody would need to go on a rampage.

  I hated to consider that thought, but I couldn't look away from it, just like I had to consider the possibility of everyone in Vorsa being killed if the Megarchon died without a successor.

  Some of those people gncing at our carriage with mild curiosity were probably reted to somebody in the bck market. At best, the somebody was lying under stained burp in the main avenue and would never be connected with them. The worst possibility was being reted to one of the dealers, the ones making the real decisions, the ones who would've pnned the kidnapping of a retive of the Megarchon's. Because then the city guards had a very good chance of coming after you in the night, to ask about your own retion. And what could you do? Live day by day in fear, hoping they wouldn't detain you after all? Or try to escape, knowing that if they found you, they'd consider that an admission of guilt?

  Me, I'd probably try to escape—but what about my grandmas and cousins and Auntie and Untie? They'd be at risk if I escaped, but they wouldn't be any safer if I stayed put. Especially if I stayed around them.

  Was that all this hypothetical-but-likely-to-be-real person could do? Any other time, I'd say yes. Things had changed, though. Those rumors about the Megarchon dying? Retana apparently didn't believe them, or didn't want to look like they believed them, but that don't mean something isn't true.

  If I was that hypothetical person, I'd go and join the Rainbow Snakes. But then, that's pretty much what I was already doing.

  I retreated from my thoughts, still rattled. Just by being there, I'd ended up causing trouble for Torres and everyone else I liked. Not that they were involved with the bck market—well, some might be—but it's just not safe for hustlers and other marginal folks when guards go on a raid. And by the look of it, this was going to be one of the biggest raids I Doronte had ever seen.

  Of course it wasn't my fault. Of course, if Retana really wanted to wipe the bck market off, they would always have found another excuse. But I wasn’t just some farmer kid who did some hustling on the side anymore. I was one of them, and if I didn’t wise up real fast, a lot of people were going to get hurt.

  Valentino looked at me like dogs do when they're waiting for you to tell them what to do. I cleared my throat.

  “Sergeant Vargas, you're looking a lot fresher. Did you get to shower, at least?”

  “Your Excellency is observant. I awaited Mayor Retana at the station and took that chance to shower fast. One gets used to it in the guard.”

  Seeing how soon enough we'd be in a train going east, far from any curious ears that might be listening too close—such as the carriage driver's—I'd rather focus on something harmless. I put the bouquet aside—it slid to the floor—and took the wooden box. It contained half a dozen gss jars, as carefully packed as the wine. I held one to the fading sunlight.

  “Oh, it's caviar!”

  Valentino raised his eyebrows at my delighted tone. “Your Excellency likes caviar?”

  “Yeah. I know it's supposed to be an acquired taste, but I've eaten it before and happened to acquire it. Besides, eggs of all kinds are nutritious and healthy.” I couldn't recognize the bel, but it looked fine—not bad, but far from the absolutely very best, which comes from sturgeons grown in a specific ke in Quinoptra. They have to bring it to Zalmuric by ship, braving maelstr?ms in the way, so it's unreasonably expensive. A mere mayor would never be able to afford that. But then, it's not as if I could afford even cheap caviar, so I wasn't going to compin. “I'm gonna send it to my family.” Then I remembered the driver might be listening in. “I mean, I like it and all, but when I'm in Vorsa I'll be able to have all the caviar I want.”

  Not that Valentino seemed to mind dining leftover empanadas and the st kebabs. We were back on friendly terms. I didn't want to start thinking about dead bodies under stained burp. End of the story, at least for me.

  Unfortunately, there was something I needed to know.

  “Did you find out what was the deal with those bck market toughs?” I asked. “I mean, they obviously knew I was there. I really don't think you're the one they wanted, you just happen to stand out more. But what did they want? And how did they know?”

  Valentino took another swig from the water bottle. “I did find out, Your Excellency. If my intelligence is correct, they found out Mayor Retana wanted to invite Your Excellency to dine at the city hall, and somehow got it into their heads to hold Your Excellency hostage so that Mayor Retana would have to ransom you before word got out.”

  I clicked my tongue. Again, we sat side by side in the lower bunk. It looked pretty much the same as the st one. Well, it's not as if anybody would expect originality from these cheap provincial trains.

  “That makes sense,” I said. “Obviously they wouldn't expect to negotiate with Her Magnificence herself. Nobody's that dumb. There's something I don't get though. Mayor Retana wouldn't want anybody to know Her Magnificence's great-grandson had gotten kidnapped right under their nose, that's for sure. Me, though? What would stop me from telling Her Magnificence about it? Then all of them would be in trouble.”

  Valentino pondered this, staring at the bottom of my bunk. “I can't say for sure, but I think they underestimated Your Excellency. Specifically, they seem to have assumed Her Magnificence wouldn't listen to Your Excellency's words.”

  That sounded about right, as much as I'd rather not admit it. Everybody thought I was just luggage being carried along the roads, with about as much of a mind of my own as a box of caviar. Not that I expected otherwise from Retana, who'd come from Vorsa, or at least the general area. It did hurt a bit coming from other regur Doronteans, bck market or not.

  “Shows what they know.” I took Vanth's locket out of my shirt, running a thumb over its sides. Square and ft, it kinda looked like a tiny book.

  Valentino already knew about the locket, so there was no point in hiding it from him, but I wouldn't show it to Retana—not even to Torres. As long as nobody knew I had this connection with Vanth, we could surprise the necromancer. Safer for me, too. I trusted Torres, but not with my life. If someone who didn't like me found out he knew me better than most people, they'd go after him, and everything he knew would be used against me.

  Green coats fshed across my mind's eye. People in long rubber green coats.

  Shivering, I hugged myself. It wasn't really true I had forgotten. I'd never forget. I'd just swept everything I didn't want to think about under the mental rug. But now, the things I wanted to ignore were catching up with me. Soon enough, I wouldn't be able to look away anymore.

  Valentino stood up. “Excuse me.”

  He walked up to the window and closed it.

  “Careless of me,” he said.

  “I didn't even notice it was open.” I wasn't hungry anymore, but I finished the empanada I'd started. The half-eaten kebab went back to the box.

  I'd forgotten all about it, but right then I remembered I'd blown one of them before, one of the big bck market traders. I didn't know that's who he was until I was on my knees with his cock on my mouth and his hand clutching my hair, and I heard him talking with his friends-and-colleagues about the test shipment of counterfeit porcein. (They bring the counterfeits by train, mostly, and they bribe the inspectors. Or they used to, I guess.) I couldn't really hear much before he pushed me away, flipped me over the coffee table, and fucked me. All he cared about was his own pleasure, not even bothering to make me come. And that made me so hard, my eyes almost watered. The bathroom was full, so I jerked myself off in a dark corner. So good.

  And that man would be dead now. If he was lucky. At any rate, he'd be dead soon, just like all of his friends and colleagues. When you started a raid like that one, you meant it.

  It surprised me they'd even bother. The bck market was a parasite, but word in the streets was that Melibe didn’t think it worth the bother to clean it up. If they siphoned off money that belonged in the official channels, they made up for it by attracting plenty of visitors. And every once in a while they even deigned themselves to pay bribes, though they were often cocky enough not to bother.

  I guess the lesson was to always make sure to pay your bribes.

  “Retana looks like an ambitious one,” I mused.

  “Indeed, Your Excellency.”

  I yawned. “Do you think they want to go after Melibe's governorship? I mean, they don't look to me like the kind of politician who stays happy with a mayorship in a tiny province.”

  “I'm not paid to think, but if I was, I'd probably think so.”

  “Well, I'm not paid to think either, but I have to. And I think so too.”

  Valentino turned his head to look at me in the eye. “If Your Excellency ever has to choose between the both of them, may I be so bold as to ask which one would you choose?”

  Well, Valentino had helped me out so far. And any retive of the Megarchon, no matter how distant, would have political opinions of their own. More importantly, I didn't think it'd make a huge difference which one of these small-time officials I chose.

  And I had already made my choice, though I wasn't really pleased with it. Melibe was at least a known quantity. Retana was willing to cut a bloody path on their way up, and that never meant good news.

  “Hmm, I don't know. The Melibes have served our province for so long and they haven't made any huge missteps. It feels wrong to cast them out as soon as someone new shows up, y'know? Besides, ambitious isn’t the same as a good administrator.”

  The way Valentino looked at me, sympathetic and a bit sad, I almost suspected he'd guessed my real thoughts—that I didn't want to support Retana because of all the people they'd killed.

  And it's not as if Melibe had never caused any harm. He was the one leasing our nd to the people who poisoned rivers and built death-trap factories. He had a smaller body count is all.

  Next thing I knew, I was outside. In the dark, in the open. Not too different from the st night. Looks like I’d fallen asleep without realizing it—not surprising after such a tiring day. Was it asking too much to expect a quiet night's rest for a change, though?

  Even better: this nd and this sky didn't look even remotely familiar. A bit ahead of me rose softly sloping hills where nothing at all seemed to grow. Everything was dark, far too dark—if you didn't look closely, you could fool yourself into thinking the sky was covered by storm clouds, but that wasn't it. I couldn't recognize the substance above my head. It didn’t crawl past like clouds do.

  It's conscious.

  Once I thought that, I couldn't get the idea out of my head, no matter how hard I told me it was baseless. And the ground surrounding me, this thing wasn't sand. Or earth. Tentatively, I shifted my weight. The ground was firm, at least.

  It's alive.

  Something unfurled from the ground not far from my left foot; it looked like a small pnt, except that instead of growing, it seemed to be burrowing out. It had a handful of what looked like ridged leaves. Eyes opened in them, blinking at me.

  Well, this creature hadn't threatened me, at least. Better to be polite.

  “Good night.” I was whispering, as if I was afraid of being heard. “Or whatever time of the day this is. Do you have days here?”

  The pnt—if that's what it was—didn't answer. Well, it didn't have ears or a mouth—that I could see. But I wasn't going to assume it couldn't hear or answer.

  I wanted to ask if I had somehow arrived to the Underworld, but for some reason didn't dare say it out loud. Though that, too, was irrational.

  Before I could make up my mind, something stirred in the hills up ahead. Something rose above them. At first I thought that had to be a real cloud, or maybe some kind of insect swarm—nothing else could rise so high. But it was a single creature.

  The pnt burrowed into the ground again. As for me, I felt like I was the one who'd grown real roots. This creature had a recognizable head, and limbs, and something like a torso, and I guess you could call it vaguely human-shaped—except not really. Maybe it was closer something like a naked rat or monkey, or a lizard without scales.

  It's like nothing you've seen before.

  That, I wasn't arguing with. The thing was the size of an apartment building. Its owl-huge eyes were fixed on me, not that there was anything else to look at. Its wide mouth grinned even wider. Maybe it was happy, but I couldn't tell if that was better or worse for me.

  broccolifloret