The Veil (58 page)

“How are we going to get onboard?” Hollie said, gesturing at the carriages as the station began to clear around us. “There’s no way we’ll all fit with our Unicorns.”

“Good point,” said Danny. “Excuse me,” he said in Qi’lern, tapping a Pixie with dyed green hair on the shoulder. The Pixie spun around and her heart-shaped face broke into an expression of surprise. “Oh…wow, you’re a Chosen aren’t you?” she said excitedly, prodding his face with a finger. “We rarely see your kind in this word.”

Danny gave a polite smile as he removed the Pixie’s finger from his cheek. “Yes I am. We need to travel with our Unicorns, but they won’t fit. Could you tell us what to do?”

“Oh that’s simple,” she said with a breezy smile. “Just wait for the next set of Cradle Runners. Each rotation alternates between big and small. Just be sure to ask the Lawbringer manning the runner, they can get a bit boorish if they don’t feel respected.”

“Thanks a lot,” said Danny with a wide smile.

The Pixie gave his arm a squeeze in response. “You’re welcome. Listen, I will be at the Jackalope and Hart later this afternoon. You should stop by; I would love to buy you a blackheart beer and hear more about Earth…. I’ve always wanted to go.”

Out the corner of my eye I was pretty sure I saw Hollie’s face flush slightly, but then she turned away. Danny gave an awkward laugh. “Okay, maybe…thanks again for the help.”

“Again, you’re welcome, Chosen.” She gave a wink and then hopped up the steps of the runner and squeezed inside, the door slamming shut behind her. A moment later the tracks had activated again and the fleet of carriages had vanished into the gloom.

“Someone’s popular,” teased Delagio, nudging Danny’s arm.

“Thanks Delagio, but I think I’d rather stick to my own species.”

At his words, Hollie gave a guarded smile and I found myself wondering if, with everything going on, I’d managed to miss a spark blooming between them.
I have to admit, they would make a pretty good couple.

“You don’t know what you’re missing, bud, trust me,” said Delagio with a wink.

“I’ll take your word for it,” chuckled Danny.

We didn’t have to wait long for the next Cradle Runners to arrive. The station was now almost empty, apart from a handful of different species, including a female Bloodseeker and her dozen Hiveminds, who had just stepped off the elevator behind us.

When the next run did arrive – as the flirty Pixie had assured us – the carriages were vastly bigger.

“Can we bring our Unicorns in here sir?” I asked the Coachman Lawbringer lounging in the seat attached to the runner. He was reading a book – the black cover with gold lettering seemed familiar, and a moment later I caught the title,
‘American Gods’
by
Neil Gaiman
– one of my favourite books growing up
.
I was a bit shocked. I hadn’t given much thought to what Pandemonians read in their world, but I certainly hadn’t expected it to be a book from
my
world. The Lawbringer slowly pulled his attention away from the page he’d been poring over, and gave me a non-committal glance and slow nod before tuning back to his book.

The interior of the Cable Runner was bright red and had rows of wooden seats adorned with matching cushions. There was a wooden pole running overhead to hold onto and chains to hook animals in place. The runner activated while we were still securing the Unicorns, and one of them almost went slamming right into Hollie.

The journey was manic, but mercifully short. Overhead, the tracks squealed and released a shower of sparks as the runner raced down the tunnel, creating a warm but welcome breeze that poured through the open windows of the carriage. Not long afterwards there was a grinding screech followed by an aggressive halt that forced us all to make full use of the support beams we were holding on to.

When we got off the carriage at the other end, I saw that we had arrived at another station that was similar in look to the previous one, but far bigger. A massive archway had been carved through the cavern wall at the far end. Across it the words CONCAVIOUS: THE SUNKEN FREEPORT CITY were written in large golden letters.. Beyond, I could see a vibrant and bustling metropolis sitting below a glass-domed ceiling.
At one time that was probably such a beautiful window into an ocean world.

We took hold of our Unicorns’ reins and guided them underneath the archway. Immediately our senses were hit with a barrage of sights, scents and sounds as the central district of the bizarre city opened out in front of us. Rows of shops with gold and copper facades and windows polished to a brilliant shine lined the maze of cobbled streets that sprawled out in front of us. Each one had the name of their establishments embossed on bold signs and written in a variety of Pandemonian languages. As we moved through the central area, we passed by
Harlena’s Haberdashery, Lifesource Apothecary, Fanglore Bloodbank
and
Blackstone Munitions,
which all had samples of their various wares proudly displayed in their windows.

Dotted on the streets in front of the various shops were tons of stalls, all covered by wide, dusty umbrellas that sported their names. They sold everything from Pandemonian livestock, to ancient looking machine parts, shining oddities, and old weapons that looked like they would fall to pieces after one use. Other vendors clearly couldn’t even afford stalls, so walked along the streets, announcing their wares to passers by. One of the vendors – an elderly Gnome with sporadic tufts of white hair growing from his head – carried a sack of mechanical birds, which he powered up by winding a tiny key at their sides and then released with a flick of his wrist. They went soaring and diving through the air before circling back and landing in his outstretched bag. He had a trail of excited Pandemonian children of all species following him at a distance. They weaved barefoot between older citizens, squealing and laughing in delight as they tried to grab the birds out of the air, much to the vendor’s annoyance.

Everything was watched over by the Lawbringers, who seemed to be Concavious’ own version of guards. The trenchcoat wearing Pandemonians patrolled not only the streets, but also metal walkways high above the city. To move between the suspended pathways, they jumped onto standing poles hooked to zip lines, crisscrossing overhead at rapid speeds. 

“This place its nuts,” said Hollie looking around her.

“Y’all think this is nuts, you should’ve checked out Misfortune Market. That was crazy,” said Delagio. “Drugs, interspecies prostitution, contraband, stolen artefacts. Oh and a psychopathic trying to trade Chosen for the highest price.”

“Sad I missed it,” said Danny, and everyone burst out laughing.

“Okay, we need find the stables,” I chuckled.

I stopped the old Gnome carrying the clockwork birds. He frowned at me for a second and then realising I was a Chosen, attempted to speak broken English. “Want buy, fly?” he said, gesturing towards his bag.

“Oh no, thank you.” I pointed to Isiodore. “Stables?”

His eyes widened. “Sales? Yes. Take!” He swung the sack from his back and slid it to towards me with a boot, before motioning towards the Unicorn’s reins. Isiodore let out a warning sound as his eyes started to change from aquamarine to dark blue.

“Don’t!”

I pushed the man back for his own safety. He stumbled over his own bag and landed on his backside on cobbled ground with a shocked gasp.

Oh crap.

“Sorry, sorry,” I said in Qi’lern and tried to help him up, but he batted my hand away, shouting at the top of his lungs for a Lawbringer.

“Well this is a brilliant start,” said Hollie.

I gave a long sigh and waited for the inevitable. When one of the Lawbringers did notice the commotion, it was a middle-aged Incubus, his bright eyes shimmering in the dim glow of the gas lanterns that lined the streets. He waved away some of the children who had crept close and were trying to steal some of the clockwork birds that had spilled out of the man’s bag. He helped the man up with one hand and then rested his other against a holstered shotgun, which was covered in wires and valves.

“What’s the problem here?” he asked the old Gnome in Dahari.

“This human said he wanted to make a sale trade with me for his Unicorn and then pushed me to the ground when I tried to collect!” he wailed.

The Lawbringer turned to me. “This true?” he asked in English.

“No!” I insisted. “I asked him where the stables where and he misunderstood me. I pushed him away because otherwise he would have had a Unicorn horn in his stomach!” I turned to the Gnome and repeated the same thing in his tongue. He waved a dismissive hand at me and swore under his breath.

“I think this is just a misunderstanding. Vendor, be on your way.”

The man started trying to protest, but the Lawbringer narrowed his eyes and wrapped his fingers around the butt of his gin. The man nodded quickly, scrambling to collect his bag and then scampered off, the trail of children running behind him.

“I’m really sorry about that,” I said when the Gnome had gone.

“Don’t be,” said the Lawbringer, moving his hand away from his gun and resting it on the lip of a large belt instead. “He knew what you were saying just fine. He was hoping I would enforce the trade. You’ve got to watch yourself in this city Guardians, plenty of people ready to take advantage of the unsuspecting.”

“How did you know we’re Guardians?” asked Danny.

“Because I have eyes. Now, can I be of any help?”

“We need to find stables so we can store our Unicorns for a short period of time whilst we conduct some business,” I explained.

“And what business would that be, Guardian?”

“We need to hire a mercenary fleet to get us to Yornheim.”

The Lawbringer whistled and then gave a light chuckle. “I hope you have bought some serious coin with you. Or something incredible to trade.” He gestured at the Unicorns. “I doubt even these beauties will be enough for mercenaries to risk their necks getting you to Yornheim.”

“Oh no, we don’t want to trade our Unicorns. We have money,” I said.

The Lawbringer nodded, sending his pale blonde hair falling down over his eyes. “Okay, well to find your way around the city, you follow these.” He patted a waist-height row of several pipes I hadn’t noticed, which ran into the distance in both directions. “See the symbols on here? These refer to the various sections of Concavious. See this one translates to
Da Ka’hari?”

“The Barn?” said Danny.

“Exactly. That’s where you need to go to stable your mounts.” He gave a smile. “I’ll tell you what I’ll do. Since I’m already here,
I’ll
take you where you need to go.”

“Oh, are you sure?” We don’t want to take up your time,” I said.

“It’s fine, I’m due a break anyway.”

“Then that would be great, thanks.”

“Not a problem. Follow me.”

The Lawbringer turned on his heel and started walking down the misshapen street, whistling the melody of an unfamiliar song and ducking as overhead pipes released streams of hot gas.

“How long has this city been around?” I asked as we walked.

“The site itself is very old, but as an actual city, about three hundred of your human years. Concavious is relatively new in this ancient world, but the message it carries transcends time.”

“What message is that?” asked Danny.

“That some of us want nothing to do with this pointless war and its politics of hatred and segregation.”

“Sounds like a good message,” I added.

“We like to think so.”

“There isn’t much ‘bout Concavious in Alliance records,” said Delagio as he stepped around two Skinshifter puppies, who chased and gave playful nips to each other as they rolled around like two balls of fur. “How did the city come about?”

The Lawbringer slid his hand along one of the directional pipes, raising his palm up each time he reached a valve. “Those who lived here grew tired of the fighting and turned it into a neutral city. Freed it from allegiance to any Pandemonian class.”

“What was it before that?” probed Del.

“As far as the rumours go, it was originally a deep sea drilling site created by the Umbra. You wouldn’t think it, but very valuable resources can be found beneath the seabed.”

Just like oil-drilling rigs on Earth.
“I don’t doubt it,” I said.

“Whatever resources existed down there have long since dried up, but at one time they were dragged up and traded to the Luminar for other useful commodities. Then the Ageless War broke out and the drilling port alternated between Umbra and Luminar control as both sides became involved in a perpetual arms race, trying to create the best resources to wipe each other off the map.”

“So if there was an arms race, then why haven’t they just nuked each other yet?” asked Hollie.

The Lawbringer frowned. “Nuked?”

“Yeah, like high powered weapons that wipe everything out in a massive radius,” she explained.

“Oh, you mean biological weapons of mass destruction. Neither side has done it because simply, it would be a very stupid idea. The world is already dying from the effects of war, weapons of that nature would kill it all the more quickly. Every Pandemonian knows the result of the attack on Fenodara’s Scholaris district when the Umbra toyed with unstable weaponry. That part of the world will be forever toxic. They learned their lesson that day. What is the point of trying to win a war when the land you claim as your trophy is inhospitable to any form of life? Why then bother to try and win it in the first place?