The Night Market (10 page)

“Not sure,” Jenny said, wiping her mouth with the back
of her hand, her eyes distant. “A couple weeks? All I remember was the last
place I found enough water to take a bath. I was probably mostly walking in
circles. Me ‘n Fenrir tripped over this area last week and we’ve been hanging
around ever since. A few people come through, a trade route or something. How
did you get here, anyway? No way you crossed the Waste with clothes that
clean...”

They were far from clean, but that was all relative.
Jenny’s clothes were uniformly coated with a layer of dull white dust the
consistency of chalk. In any other context, Yael would have thought of her own
clothes as embarrassingly filthy, but by comparison, she was no more than
dusty, thanks to the frictionless surface of her tights and windbreaker.

“I came up from the Underworld,” Yael said, trusting
that honesty was the best policy. “I was brought across the Vale of P’nath by a
very brave cat named Tobi, who stayed back to fight a monster that was chasing
us. He is a very strong cat, so I am certain that he won – though the monster
was rather large, and I expect it was quite a battle. After we parted, I
climbed a long stair to the surface, and partway up, an Eater-of-the-Dead told
me about you...”

“Eater-of-? Oh, you mean a ghoul. Yeah,” Jenny said,
hunkered over her bowl. “I remember that guy. Seemed like the nervous type.”

“You might just have that effect on people. Well,
ghouls
and
people.”

“Didn’t understand a word of your story besides that.”

“I am not surprised. Why did you come here, Miss
Frost?”

“God, you manage to be polite and a bi – a brat at the
same time. Back off, I said brat. Besides, I thought you already knew. I’m
going to that city, wherever the Unknown Kadath Estates are.”

“Unknown...?”

“Yup.”

“What... what is that, exactly?”

“It’s an apartment building.”

Yael shook her head in disbelief.

“Oh.”

“Why is it ‘Unknown’?”

“Dunno,” Jenny said, shrugging with an absolute lack
of interest. “Ain’t been there yet.”

“...oh.”

“I don’t even think it’s that nice,” Jenny said,
flopping back on the sleeping bag with her hands folded behind her head. “You
ever notice how they always call shitty apartment buildings ‘Le Chateau’ or
some sh-”

“Miss Frost!”

“Huh? Oh. Right. Sorry.”

Yael stared at Jenny suspiciously, but she betrayed no
indication of noticing.

“Why are you going there?”

“What’s it to you?”

Yael glanced up at the sky, and wondered if there
would have been any stars on the other side of the angry clouds that scarred
the darkening sky with a baleful red luminescence.

“Because we are travelling companions, Miss Frost. And
to pass the time, companions exchange stories across the campfire.”

Jenny laughed. Actually, it was more than that. She
made a scene, rolling in the dust and slapping the ground with her palm. Yael
glared at her until she regained a semblance of composure.

“Where did you learn that stuff?”

“My brother.”

“He travel a lot?”

“Every night.”

“You mean dreams? That doesn’t count.”

Jenny tossed the empty stew tin over her shoulder and
Fenrir appeared from nowhere to nose over it hopefully.

“Nothing is real, Miss Frost,” Yael said charitably,
shaking her head at Jenny’s ignorance. “All experience is relative.”

“You are a spooky little girl.” Jenny pulled the
yellow pack of gum from a pocket and shook a foil-wrapped piece free, glancing
at Yael’s hopeful face without a trace of pity while she pocketed the remainder.
“Anyone ever tell you that?”

“More than once. I propose a deal, Miss Frost.”

“Another?” Jenny leaned forward, her eyes reflecting
the light of the fire like two mirrors. “You do love bargains, don’t you? Last
one left me stuck walking your ass across the Waste. Not sure I’m interested in
another.”

“You will like this one, I believe. A question for a
question, a story for a story. For the duration of the journey, Miss Frost. Unless
you are frightened?”

Jenny shook her head slowly, her expression impossible
to read in the advancing shadows encroaching on the dying fire.

“Why?”

“Because we are on a journey, Miss Frost,” Yael
explained gravely. “Everything is permitted.”

“I think maybe you’re just hungry,” Jenny said,
tossing a candy bar at her with no warning. Yael didn’t manage to get her hands
up in time and it hit her in the cheek. She was forced to scramble in the dirt
after it.

Yael tore the wrapper open with utter disregard for
civility, cramming her mouth full of the sickly sweet mess of nuts and
chocolate. Her stomach briefly threatened to rebel as she choked it down, but
Yael clamped down on it, determined not to embarrass herself further. She could
not prevent herself from licking her fingers.

“Miss Frost? Thank you.”

Jenny lay on her back, staring at the darkened,
featureless sky, and said nothing. Yael tucked her knees underneath her
windbreaker and listened to the crackle of the diminishing fire and the faraway
roar of the wind.

Gradually, the fire died and night began to creep into
the camp, but Yael did nothing to hurry Jenny along. She had done what her
dreams had told her to do, after all, and Yael’s dreams were never wrong.

“Okay,” Jenny said abruptly, rolling to face Yael and
scratching her side lazily. “I go first, though. If your answer doesn’t make
sense, then it doesn’t count. Deal?”

“Deal,” Yael affirmed.

“Why did you run away from home?”

Yael sat up on her hands.

“How did you – ”

“Easy there,” Jenny chuckled, feeding more sticks into
the ashes of the fire. “Save the questions for your turn.”

Yael hesitated, not because she planned on evasion,
but because she hadn’t yet articulated her motivations inside the privacy of
her head. To her surprise, Jenny waited in silence, coaxing the fire back to
life.

“My brother is gone. They took him, and they took his
name and his face. And no one knows but me.”

Jenny paused in the act of pulling a blanket around
herself.

“Wait. I don’t get it. Who took your brother?”

“Them,” Yael said, annoyed at the interruption. “The
Visitors. You know.”

“No. I have no idea. Who are they?”

Yael smiled bitterly.

“That is a different question, Miss Frost.”

Jenny swore. Yael let it pass.

“Fine. Go ahead and finish.”

“My brother was a very experienced dreamer. Much of
his time was spent sleeping, mapping the country of dreams and beyond. When he was
awake I would listen to his stories and help him make sense of the things that
he saw. Sometimes he would have objects clutched in his hands or lying next to
him on the pillow when he woke, artifacts that he brought back from his dreams.
One afternoon the whole house heard him cry out in excitement when he woke. He
came straight to me to show me what he had brought back.”

“The Silver Key,” Jenny said, endearingly enthusiastic.
“Right? It was the Key, wasn’t it?”

“Yes. That was the last day. He said that he had made
a bad deal, a bargain with the wrong party. I tried to calm him, to tell him
that he was safe in our home, but he did not believe me...”

Yael remembered the clammy skin of his forehead
resting on her shoulder, his body trembling with anxiety. Her arms barely reached
around him, and she held on tight as if she were afraid that he would drift
away. Maybe she was.

“The next morning his bed was empty when I woke. That
afternoon, no one seemed to understand why I was worried. By the evening his
room had become a guest room, and my stepmother was annoyed because I kept
crying. The next morning I couldn’t remember his name, his face... all sorts of
things. Then I noticed something hanging from my mirror – the Silver Key dangling
from a piece of a string. He left it to me before they took him. If he hadn’t,
I’m not sure that I would be able to remember him at all.”

“Wow.”

“I know.”

“I still don’t get how that led to you running
away...”

“That’s just it. I’m not running from anything, Miss
Frost. I want what was taken from me. I’ve mean to take it back.”

Yael found an unflattering satisfaction in Jenny’s
surprise.

“I misjudged you, Princess. You’re crazier than I
thought.”

Yael caught herself staring longingly at the empty
candy bar wrapper and forced herself to look away.

“I am not at all crazy. Miss Frost, if your brother
went missing, wouldn’t you at least want to be able to remember him?”

“Is that your question?”

Yael shook her head hurriedly.

“Forget I asked. How did you find yourself in the
Waste, Miss Frost?”

There was something subtly off about the proportions
in Jenny’s face, Yael decided, an unusual contour that was obvious only in the
firelight.

“Long story. Short version – I had to get a job. I
suppose everyone does eventually, though I never figured on it. I’m here with
Fenrir on business.”

“That’s it?”

“That’s it. I was trying to spare you a story that
people seem to find upsetting. It’s not like I mind telling the story if you
wanna hear the details...”

“Let’s not,” Yael snapped. “Ask your question.”

Jenny laughed, wedging herself between Yael and the
fire.

“How did you expect this  to work? Assuming you didn’t
bump into me, how were you going to survive the trip?”

“I have confidence in myself, Miss Frost,” Yael said,
wishing her voice sounded surer.

“Well, that ought to do it.”

“What are you trying to say?”

“In my experience, people who say they are confident –
as a rule, they aren’t.”

Yael tried to ensure that she looked as indignant as
she felt.

“I invite you to consider me as an exception, Miss
Frost.”

Jenny laughed again and Yael liked it even less the
second time.

“I just might. Anyway, my turn again...”

“What! No way! You just went!”

“And then you asked me to explain myself,” Jenny crowed,
poking absently at the burning embers near the edge of the campfire with her
fingertip. “Which was a waste of a question, but that’s too bad.”

Yael ran her fingers through her tired, greasy hair.

“You are not as stupid as I thought, Miss Frost.”

“Don’t give me any chances. I will disappoint you.”

“Ask.”

“What about your parents?”

“What about them?”

“You haven’t said word one about your dad, and barely
mentioned your stepmother. How do they fit into this?”

“My father is busy,” Yael said, the words turning
bitter in the air in a way that took her by surprise. Yael did not think that
she resented him. It was something she had accepted long ago. “My stepmother forgot
her stepson and was probably pleased to do so. I would imagine neither of them
misses me too terribly. What more do you need to know?”

“What about your mom? Your real mom?”

The smile was perfect. Yael had many opportunities,
after all, to practice it, given the number of times she had been asked that
question. She might never feel good about the situation, but at the very least,
it didn’t have to show – a sentiment that she had learned, oddly enough, from
her stepmother.

“She died when I was a baby. I don’t remember her at
all.”

“Won’t your parents call the police? Put your face on
the back of milk cartons?”

“What?”

Jenny gestured in the air in the shape of a box.

“You know, milk cartons. The paper kind that comes
with school lunch. Pictures of missing kids on the back. Any of this ring a
bell?”

Yael shook her head slowly.

“That seems weird; a world without milk cartons. Or,
maybe – hey, are you rich?”

Yael might have been spending too much time wearing a
mask. Because her face didn’t seem to want to disguise anything.

“Cool,” Jenny said with satisfaction, lying back on
her elbows. “Bonus answer. That must be great. I always wanted to be rich and
never have to try at anything.”

“My turn,” Yael snapped defensively. “What about you,
Miss Frost? What did you leave behind?”

Jenny blew a large pink bubble, then popped it, the
routine so graceful and thoughtless that it must have been the result of long
practice.

“Bad experiences. That is just the kinda place I grew
up. Nobody stays in Lost Creek if they can figure a way out.”