Chapter Nine

“Are you sure you have to leave here?” Milean asked, arms crossed and frowning. “You’ve been a big help.”

Leas scowled and looked at Ariya. “Even if little Ariya had to twist your arm.”

He held a hand over his stomach and went green. Maybe he was remembering Lusya’s portal thing. Ariya didn’t get why the adults acted like that about it. Going through that thing had been fun.

There was one pressing issue though. Ariya crossed her arms at him and huffed. “I’m not that little.”

“I am sure,” Lusya said. “I planned a route and I would like to stick to it. You have helped and taught me as well, and that is appreciated. But this is where we part ways.”

Buro snorted, like a pig. Mama would have said that was rude, but Ariya didn’t say it out loud, so it was fine. Besides, Mama would have said that Buro was rude too.

“What’s so great about Gavamir anyway?” he asked. “Never got how those city folk can handle being so tightly packed. Barely even room for air in between ‘em.”

“That aside,” Milean said. “You have a Sacred Blade. With someone of your caliber, we might even be willing to scrape some coin together and pay you as a bodyguard.”

Lusya was quiet for a second, then shook her head. “That is a tempting offer, but I will decline.”

Milean sighed. “All right, I won’t try to force you.” He patted Lusya on the shoulder and she stared at his hand. Lusya cocked her head far to the side and blinked twice. Ariya had been trying to figure out how to tell what Lusya was thinking and Ariya was pretty sure that meant Lusya was confused or curious. “Best of luck in your travels. Maybe we’ll see you again someday.”

“I would not object to that,” Lusya replied. “May I ask a question?”

Ariya beamed. She had been right. Maybe she was getting even better at this than she had thought.

Milean shrugged and gestured for Lusya to go on.

“What is the purpose of that gesture?” Lusya asked.

He tilted his head the other way and his face scrunched up in something like a scowl. He was definitely confused. Compared to Lusya, he was an open book.

“What gesture?” he asked.

Lusya patted his shoulder in imitation.

His face lit up in realization. “It’s supposed to be encouraging.”

Lusya blinked. Ariya wasn’t sure what that meant, which was kind of a damper on her newfound confidence. “Why?”

“I’m…not sure, actually,” Milean said. It sounded like it was the first time he had thought about the question. He shrugged. “Lots of people do it. My father did it to me and I always found it helpful.”

“I see. So you inherited it and understand the purpose, but not the reasoning.”

He nodded. “You could say that, I guess.”

“Papa does it to me too,” Ariya said. It was unusual that she got to be helpful in grown-up discussions, so she wasn’t going to pass on the chance. “He usually does my head instead though.”

“My father did that as well, though I believe the intent was slightly different,” Lusya said. She nodded to Milean. “Thank you, that was informative.” She turned away and started walking. “Farewell. Come along, child.”

Ariya hurried to catch up and settled into a walk beside Lusya. Lusya still walked pretty quickly, but it wasn’t as hard to keep up as it had been that first day, so she must have slowed down a little for Ariya.

“Why did you want to leave them?” Ariya asked.

Lusya didn’t answer for what must have been at least half a minute, so Ariya assumed she wasn’t going to and stopped paying attention. Of course, that was right when Lusya decided to respond.

“I do not wish to visit Willowrun,” she said without any warning or preamble.

It took Ariya a second to process that. She didn’t really know what this Gavamir place they were going to was, but she did recognize the name Willowrun. It was a small town that had gotten famous because it was where the Hero of Balance was from. Being dead meant he couldn’t go there anymore, but now lots of other people were going to make up for it or something like that. Even Mama and Papa had talked about making the trip. Ariya wondered if her little cabin would be famous one day, after she was done with whatever it was Lusya wanted her to do.

“Why not?” Ariya asked.

“I am not sure,” Lusya said. “Perhaps it is because my father perished during the war. Whatever the reason, I do not want to go there.”

“That’s too bad. I kind of wanted to see where the Hero of Balance was born.” Ariya shrugged. “I guess it’s fine, though.”

Lusya nodded and didn’t say anything else. They walked on in silence for a while. Ariya wasn’t sure how long, but after what felt like hours, some kind of big brown rock appeared on the horizon. It didn’t look like a mountain. Not that she had ever seen a mountain in person, but it didn’t match the descriptions she had read or the pictures she had seen. No, it was way too boxy to be a mountain. It got bigger and closer by the second as they kept moving toward it.

There were some dots Ariya assumed were people going around the bottom and top of the rock. She had heard that people looked like that if you got far enough, but this was her first time seeing it happen. She had seen how people looked smaller and less distinct from a distance when approaching Whitehill, but it had never been so drastic. These people almost looked like ants.

Ariya tugged on Lusya’s cloak and pointed at the rock. “What’s that?”

“That is our destination, Gavamir,” Lusya said.

Ariya’s jaw dropped and her eyes practically bulged out of her skull. “People live in that big rock?”

How was that possible? Was it hollow? Ooh, maybe they had some kind of caves or tunnels. That would be amazing, almost like a secret hideout. Except for the secret part, since everybody except her seemed to know about it already.

“Those are its walls,” Lusya said. “It is rather famous for them.”

At that moment, Ariya wished, more than ever, that she could undo the last couple minutes. She knew about city walls. She had even seen pictures of them in books. It had been a golden opportunity for Ariya to show Lusya how smart she was. But no, Ariya just had to forget and make herself look like the world’s biggest dummy.

Lusya wouldn’t laugh, at least. Well, Ariya thought she wouldn’t. While Ariya had assumed at first that Lusya’s lack of expression translated into a lack of emotions, Ariya was pretty sure that wasn’t the case now. That was why she was trying to figure out how Lusya’s feelings manifested. If Lusya had an equivalent expression to laughing, however, Ariya had not found it yet, so Lusya could have been making fun of Ariya in silence and in secret, for all she knew.

“Stay near me within the city,” Lusya said. “And avoid speaking unless you are directly addressed. If you say something unnecessary, you may jeopardize our journey.”

“I’m a big girl,” Ariya said. She huffed and put her hands on her hips. “I can take care of myself.”

Luysa looked down at her and blinked. “Neither of those statements is true. You will listen to my instructions.”

Ariya groaned, but gave a nod all the same. “Yes, Lusya.”

“Good.”

#

It was much more obvious up close that the walls of Gavamir were not, in fact, one big hunk of rock. They were constructed of some kind of brick and there were parts where they jutted out or sunk in. Ariya thought she saw windows up higher too, so maybe there was some kind of tunnel system. She was going to believe there was, both because she still thought it was cool and because it made her feel less stupid.

The gate she and Lusya were approaching was another hint. It looked like there was a big wooden door that could be raised or lowered with chains, but right now it was wide open, giving a glimpse into the city within, where Ariya could already see way more people than had been in the caravan, walking every which way.

Getting closer also made it more obvious how gigantic the walls were. The people next to the walls had looked like ants, and now Ariya felt like an ant gazing up at them. That could have been scary, but instead she found herself smiling from ear-to-ear. There were all sorts of cities in her books and Mama and Papa sometimes talked about them too. Ariya had always wanted to visit one, but she had never thought she would get the chance. She was so glad she had decided to go with Lusya.

On either side of the gate was a pair of guards holding spears. Only one of them looked like he was doing a very good job of, well, guarding. The other three were leaning against their spears or the wall and one even looked like he might have been asleep standing up, with his eyes closed and his head bowed.

There were plenty of people ahead of Lusya and Ariya walking into the city and a steady flow of walkers or wagons heading out. The alert guard seemed to be watching them, but he didn’t say or do anything except return a greeting every once in a while.

“I’m telling you, new guy, you’re too tense,” the alert guard’s partner said as Lusya and Ariya drew near. “It’s a tranquil age. Out in the country they might be having problems, but Gavamir is fine.”

“It won’t be if we let our guard down,” the alert guard replied.

His partner seemed about to reply, but the alert guard stepped away, into Lusya’s path.

Lusya stopped and cocked her head, a little less than she had before. Ariya didn’t have a good enough view to tell if Lusya was doing anything else. “Is something wrong?”

“You look like you’re trying to hide your face,” he said. “Lower your hood.”

“She’s not,” Ariya said with a scowl. She wanted to explore the big city, not listen to this guy pick on Lusya. “Lusya always wears her hood like that.”

“It is fine, child,” Lusya said. She lowered her cloak’s hood. “Is this satisfactory?”

The guard studied her face for a minute. Ariya couldn’t blame him for that. Lusya was pretty, even if her hair was kind of messy.

At last, he nodded and stepped out of the way. “Yes, that’s fine. You don’t resemble any wanted persons that I know of. Go on, then. I apologize for the inconvenience.”

“Your apology is accepted,” Lusya said as she put her hood back up. Ariya wasn’t sure why she always had it that way. “Come, child.”

Ariya stuck her tongue out at the guard as she followed Lusya through the gate. He smiled, probably to hide how embarrassed he was. She kept on shaking her tongue at him as long as she could to make sure he knew he had messed up.

Once he was back at his post and the wall hid him from view, Ariya turned her attention back to the city before her. Her jaw dropped and stayed agape. This wasn’t just more people than the caravan, that didn’t do it justice. The street was wide enough to fit at least four carriages side-by-side, yet there were so many people that most of them were walking shoulder to shoulder, barely a few inches between them. Sometimes they even had to twist or turn to get around each other.

The few carriages that were among the crowd were forced to move with all the speed of Papa getting up in the morning to avoid running anyone over. A few walkers tried to clear space for them to move ahead, but not enough to make a difference. If the caravan had been a pond of people, this was the oceans. All of them. And they had barely gotten into the city.

Then there were the noises. The footsteps alone were a thunderstorm. Then you added in people talking, a musician playing a flute close by, that man shouting as he haggled with a street merchant, and some dogs barking in the distance. It almost made Ariya dizzy.

“Are you feeling unwell?” Lusya asked. She, of course, gave no hint of being overwhelmed. “You look unsteady.”

Ariya looked up and blinked as she refocused. “No, I’m fine. It’s just…so many people. This has gotta be the biggest city in the world!”

“Gavamir is fairly middling as far as proper cities go,” Lusya said.

“Oh.” Ariya looked around again. The buildings were as tightly packed as the people. She saw some towers in the distance too, the kind she had only seen in storybooks before, along with a huge circular building. Was that an arena? She had always wanted to see one. “What does that mean?”

“It is not small, but it is not especially large either.”

“You mean there are bigger cities?” Ariya exclaimed. Her eyes felt about ready to pop out with how wide she opened them.

Lusya nodded. “Many of them.”

That was hard to imagine. What would a city with more people than this even look like? Maybe the people would squeeze out all the air like Buro said? Or maybe they would have to ride on each other’s shoulders to fit in the streets? Now Ariya wanted to see one of these bigger cities.

“Do you think we can go to one of them?” she asked.

Lusya nodded. “I believe we will visit at least one before our journey is over.”

Ariya jumped and let out an excited whoop, pumping both hands in the air.

“While we are here, we will need to secure lodging first, then supplies,” Lusya said.

“Don’t forget your promise,” Ariya said. She was not going back to those scraps after all the yummy stuff she had eaten with the convoy.

Lusya nodded. “I have not forgotten.” She glanced around. “Stay close, child.”

“I know,” Ariya said with a roll of her eyes. How many times did Lusya think Ariya needed to be reminded?

They walked onward and Ariya’s mind continued to explode as the crowd somehow got bigger and denser. Her focus shifted from Lusya to the crowd. It was a little frightening, but it was also amazing. Not only were there more people than she had ever seen before, but there were more kinds of people too.

She saw her first reltus other than Lusya and her first tiransa. At least, she thought so. That last one could have just been a really tall guy with a skin condition. There were also people dressed in colors and clothes she had never seen before, from light, flowing robes to weirdly tight armor. Some of the people had weird skin or hair or eyes too. She felt like she could stand here all day, just watching people go by, and never run out of something new to see.

If she had one complaint, it was that the place stank. Ariya didn’t think she—or Lusya, for that matter—smelled like fresh flowers at the moment, but hundreds of sweaty bodies so close to each other was a new level of reek. She thought she could smell fresh bread and other food mixed in, but that just made it worse somehow.

There was also the distinct lack of green. There wasn’t any snow here and it was nice and sunny, yet there wasn’t grass anywhere to be seen. The road was paved in bricks much like those in the walls and all the buildings were brown, gray, or beige stone. Some of the buildings had pots or planters set out with flowers in them, but that was about it.

How could a place where people lived be so different from villages like Whitehill? It got both her imagination and her curiosity running wild. Maybe Lusya could tell her more about these things. Lusya was smart, even if it sometimes seemed like she didn’t know simple things.

Ariya turned and looked up into the face of a stranger who kept on walking without a glance. She started and cast her gaze about, in every direction she could think of. Even down and up, in case Lusya was on the ground or in the air for some reason.

But Lusya was nowhere to be seen. In this sea of people, Ariya had somehow managed to end up by herself.