CITY OF THE GODS: FORGOTTEN (24 page)

Namtar held the bottom of his beak between two fingers as he tried to assess the situation. It wasn’t the first time someone hoped to buy a friend to save them from a life of servitude. Ultimately, it didn’t matter to Namtar one way or the other, as long as the best price was offered. Kafele could do whatever he wanted with Princess once he had paid for her. “She goes up for auction this very day. If you wish to buy her, you can bid on her like anyone else. Just know that she will get a good price, so be prepared to pay a hefty amount.” Namtar crossed his arms and stepped slightly to the side, to allow Kafele a better view of Princess.
  

“Certainly my word and yours that she is a virgin should be more than enough for anyone,” Kafele said to Namtar.

“Yes, of course. You can take our word for it, Magni,” Namtar said curtly.
 

“Ahh, I don’t really care.
 
I was just having some fun Namtar. What do you think she’ll sell for, anyway?”
 
Magni asked.

While Namtar and Magni speculated on what she would bring, Kafele leaned in close to Aavi. “Are you unharmed?” he asked. He noticed just how beautiful she looked.
 
Dressed as she was, she was quite stunning.
 

“I’m not hurt. I don’t want to be here anymore,” Aavi whispered. “I’ve seen things I -I don’t want to remember.”

Aavi listened as the High Sulgi and the other gods continued to use the word ‘virgin’ as they looked at her. She still had no idea what that meant. Somewhere in the back of her mind she felt she knew the word, but had no idea why it was so important. “Kafele, what does -?”

Before she could complete her question, Namtar tugged her chain. “Get up. Other buyers need a better look at you.”

As Aavi stood up, Kafele put a gentle hand on her shoulder. “I will try to buy you at the auction,” he said quickly. Aavi desperately wanted to cling to Kafele but she couldn’t. The fear of punishment was too strong. Namtar pulled Aavi along and she disappeared into the throng.

She put one foot ahead of the other and tried to ignore the stir as people stared at her and fired questions at Namtar. Was it just fear of a beating that kept her from resisting? Or was there a part of her that was made to comply? Aavi was so consumed by unanswered questions about her nature that she bumped into the High Sulgi’s wings as he abruptly stopped. She quickly took a step back, hoping he hadn’t noticed.

He turned with a slightly annoyed look then motioned for her to come forward. “Here she is.
 
Princess was just confirmed by the healer to be a true virgin.”

The jovial god Cai Shen was excited to see her again.

“Perfect!” he exclaimed at Namtar’s announcement. “Are you going to tell us how you got this jewel, High Sulgi?”

“If I told you how we find our best inventory, we might lose our competitive edge,” Namtar evaded in a friendly but firm manner. “Of course, it was perfectly in line with the Council’s edicts. Look at her hands, so soft and tender. Certainly she was no scullery maid or farm worker.
 
That’s why I named her Princess. She must have lived like a Princess before we obtained her.” Namtar craftily brought the audience’s attention back to Aavi’s attributes rather than her past.

Cai Shen was all smiles and nodding as he continued. “If I win her at the auction, I’ll be sure to treat her like a Princess once again. She might become my most favored concubine.”

Aavi wondered what a concubine was and what their duties entailed.

A familiar voice came up from behind Aavi. It was Kafele again. “Namtar, when does the auction for Princess start?
 
I may need to go get some additional funds.”

Namtar looked over his shoulder to Kafele. “You have almost an hour before she goes up for sale.”

“I see. I’ll be back soon, Aavi.” Kafele turned away and quickly walked out of the auction hall. Aavi strained to keep him in her sights as he left, but within a few seconds he was gone.

Cai Shen was perturbed by Kafele’s intent to compete in the bidding for Princess, and his sharp ears noticed every one of the healer’s words. “He knows her real name,” the god said suspiciously. “What aren’t you telling us, High Sulgi?”

“It’s nothing,” Namtar dismissed. “He is the healer who confirmed she is a virgin,” Namtar explained. “It seems he has taken a liking to the girl.”

“We’ll see if his purse will stretch as far as his heartstrings,” Cai Shen said with a slight smile, as he instinctively reached down to the leather bag tied to his belt. He wanted to assure himself that his abundant gold coins were still at the ready.

Namtar chuckled with more than a little pride. He knew that Princess would bring a good price now that word had got around about her. Namtar dragged Aavi onward.

Like the day before, she was pinched, rubbed up against and fondled in various ways. Some shoppers even made her open her mouth to check her teeth. But so far, no one had investigated the sash around her waist that hid her lack of a navel.

Just before Namtar led Aavi back to the stage, he stopped at the food area and got mugs of liquid. He gave one to Aavi.
 
“Drink this sweet water,” he commanded. “You might be asked to sing or talk and I don’t want you sounding poorly.”

“Thank you, High Sulgi,” she said. As she sipped from the mug, she peered over the top of it at him with those blue-violet eyes.
 
She looked at his chest to see if she could read his heart glow. For the first time she saw that the High Sulgi had a warm friendly glow emanating from his heart. Most times it was an angry dark red or dark green.
 
But this one time, his feelings were a warm yellow, which to Aavi meant he felt good thoughts towards her.

“You have obeyed properly today, Princess. If you behave like this for your new owner, you will probably be treated well,” he said.

His praise confirmed that she was getting better at reading the colors that glowed within those she gazed upon. But it had to be someone she knew and she had to concentrate. She rarely saw any color glows at all in strangers, and there were still colors she didn’t understand. It was only through observing people’s actions that she was beginning to connect colors to intent.

“What are you staring at, Princess?” Namtar asked.
 
She had been looking at his chest for several seconds as she sipped her drink.

Aavi quickly shifted her eyes to the ground. “I - I’m sorry High Sulgi. I was just day dreaming. It won’t happen again.” She took a bigger sip from the mug and looked up at his bird headed face. She had begun to suspect that her ability to see people’s true feelings was some special thing that not everyone could do. She also had decided not to tell anyone else about it after what had happened when she tried to tell Es-huh about her necklace that apparently no one else could see.

Namtar dipped his beak into his own mug and sucked in liquid, judging her silently as he swallowed. “I know what you are dreaming about. You hope that your healer will bid enough to buy your freedom. Perhaps he will, perhaps he won’t. He might just buy you to be his slave. Then he can do with you as he will. Remember, he came here not looking for you, but to buy a slave.”

Aavi started for a second. She hadn’t really thought about that. Maybe she would be Kafele’s slave. He didn’t say he would free her. If Kafele did not, Aavi suspected D’Molay would not be too happy about that. He would surely demand that Kafele let her go. But in truth, Aavi had no idea how the rules in the City worked, so who knew what would happen. Kafele had at least treated her nicely. Maybe it was her fate to be a slave. She thought she’d rather be the slave of someone she liked than someone she didn’t even know.

Namtar took another sucking gulp. “Do not set your hopes too high, Princess. He is just a priest with healing powers. Any of the gods who have seen you today will be able to bid more. Now finish your drink. We are due at the auction stage.”
 
He waved his mug to emphasize the point. As he did, a few drops splashed on to Aavi’s neck and face. He noted that the dark liquid immediately rolled off without leaving a trace. The drops that fell on her clothing, however, left splatters on the blue fabric.

Aavi quickly put her mug down on a table as Namtar started to walk away. Pulled along by the silver neck chain, she had no choice but to follow. She was led up some short steps and onto the wooden auction stage where Namtar handed Aavi’s lead to Oloth. “Hold her tightly. Don’t be fooled by her beauty.
 
Princess is just as likely to gouge your eyes out as kiss you,” he lied to the muscular servant. Namtar thought it wouldn’t hurt to keep the guard on his toes. The earlier appearance of Kafele was unsettling and he wanted the guard to be ready for anything, just in case he had some crazy plan to free Aavi instead of buying her.

As she stood at the back of the stage against the stone wall, Aavi could see the whole room and the many buyers, gods, servants and onlookers who had come for the morning’s slave sales.
 
The viewing and non-bid sales of slaves that been going on since early morning continued. As Aavi listened to the business, she learned that one hundred gold coins was the base price for a non-skilled, plain worker slave.
 
Weak or damaged slaves were sold at a discounted price near eighty gold. Though they had been cleaned up a bit, Aavi saw that most of these slaves were similar to the ones she had seen in the slave stables the other day. These worker slaves were thin and bruised. Aavi felt their spirits were somehow broken. They seemed defeated and resigned to a sad life of menial servitude. She wasn’t able to see their heart glow, but wondered what color it might be if she could. As she looked at their sad faces she wished that at least some of them would end up happy like Es-huh. Aavi wondered what all the slaves were needed for. If she had known that many of them would be cut open for sacrifices, used for strange magical experiments, or simply abused and worked to death by their masters, she would have been horrified.

Namtar moved to the front of the stage. Working as the chief auctioneer was a duty that the High Sulgi enjoyed fully. Even someone who couldn’t see his heart glow could tell he loved this. It was more than a duty to be performed. It was a matter of pride and skill. A servant brought a male slave whose skin was the same color as Kafele’s to Namtar. Like Aavi, he wore a collar, but his hands and feet were also chained to prevent him from running or fighting. He was clean, healthy looking, and had a black page boy haircut.

“I present for bid this Egyptian sculptor,” Namtar began, immediately riveting the attention of the audience with his firm voice. “He has been trained in stonework since boyhood and can write and read hieroglyphs. He is twenty-four, and has spent his whole life as a slave to Hapatsu. He would be there still, if it were not for Hapatsu’s recent punishment and the loss of her temple rights. This slave has many good years and is highly skilled. Shall we start at two hundred gold?”

“Two hundred!” a voice cried out.

“Two twenty-five,” a woman countered.

“Two fifty!” another said.

Namtar almost missed a bid of two hundred seventy five that came from a soft spoken, elderly god.

“Three hundred and fifty!” came a feminine reply.

Then there was a pause. The High Sulgi spoke up again. “Three hundred-fifty? Are there any more bids?
 
Last chance. No?
 
Sold for three hundred and fifty! Come up to make the exchange.”

The winning bidder approached the stage. Aavi saw a pale blue glow coming from her heart. She wasn’t completely sure, but she thought that color was one of ill intent. For the sake of the stoneworker, she hoped that she was wrong. Either way, there was nothing she could do about it.

Aavi observed a few more sales and soon had a good idea of how the auctions worked. She anxiously scanned the crowd in hopes of seeing Kafele. She craned her neck and moved forward a little, only to be pulled back by Oloth. “Stop moving,” he said gruffly.

Aavi looked at Oloth’s heart glow only to see that it was a light orange. Aavi then knew he wasn’t as angry as he sounded. She straightened up, smiling at him. “I’m sorry, Mr. Guard.”

Oloth couldn’t help but smile at her a little. No one had ever called him ‘Mr. Guard,’ but he quickly recovered his stoic composure.