“Watch for the snake child.”

The Journals of William Harwood #2

Winter Secondmoon, the Ninth,
Year of Returning Light 644
Mordoba, The Venian Islands

After three days of guild business, I decided it was time to stretch my legs. Hel’eth. Three days. I felt the life sapping out of me with every dab of ink taken into that stony bureaucrat’s pen. And there were at least a million dabs. I think I’ll let Theo handle these meetings going forward. He has a greater reservoir of patience for them.

Now that I’ve had a chance to look around, I’ve seen that the city’s reputation is well earned. It would seem that you really can buy or sell anything in Mordoba. This isn’t always a good thing, mind you. While disreputable kinds of trade may still be illegal, as certain officials will be quick to tell you, it is a mere technicality that melts away upon sight of an apathetic guardsman standing next to a brazen flesh market. Of course, these aren’t ownership arrangements, more of a rental. They’re debtors mostly, indentured by bad decisions and foul circumstance. Not slaves, though. Certainly not slaves. Not in Mordoba.

I saw there was a disproportionate number of giants in the lineup, and plenty of buyers waiting in particular to purchase their services. One would think with such demand that the prices might rise in tandem, but somehow the auctions always settled at the same low numbers, a lot less than one would pay for an unskilled laborer in Suthport or Genassia for the same term. It all seemed at bit convenient for the bosses, that such strong workers would be made so readily available, and so cheap beside. I’d say there are more than a few winks and nudges along the way to the auction block.

On a whim, I decided to interject with my own coin. A weather-beaten colossus by the name of Tamuri was about to be taken for pocket change when I stepped in and doubled the bid. I withstood a few haughty glances, and a woman whispered to me about how difficult to manage the giants were, how someone inexperienced should be more careful. The previous bidder answered my insult by edging a bit higher. So I doubled the bid again, this time hearing the crowd hiss for my efforts. That same woman grabbed for my arm, but I was already making my way to the stage. “This man is not licensed!” one of them cried, but among the many freshly inked guild writs I was holding was one permitting access to city auctions of just this kind. The consternation of the crowd grew to near panic as I removed Tamuri’s chains and dropped them to the plaza’s cobblestones.

By Mordoban law, this man was bound to obey me for the next two months. I told him he was free to walk away at any time, but first I would like to show him something.

The chains, of course, were as real in Tamuri’s mind as they ever were about his wrists. My offer of freedom was nonsensical and soon disregarded. So he was obedient and followed as I returned us to the vibrant, music-filled streets of the high market. He stayed close, self conscious shuffling his bulky laborer’s body through crowds of merchants and gentrified artisans. He had to stoop and compress himself to fit through the front door of Madam Isa’s house, where Theo and I have been lodging.

Once inside, I retrieved one of the artifacts I’d acquired from Unjat, a bronze scepter topped with a multi-hued fist of unworked quartz. Along the shaft were a series of runes that were indecipherable to every scholar I had yet shown them to. If the island giants were indeed of the same culture, then perhaps something of that knowledge remained with them, so I showed the scepter to Tamuri.

He was puzzled at first, but a flicker of light came on as his fingers brushed past the polished grooves in the metal. “Naima,” he said. “Naima would know.” He retreated into himself after saying this, as if the words were forbidden, but with some effort I convinced him to take me to this woman.

Tamuri led me to Gulyi, a neighborhood on the leeward side of the city that baked in the midday sun, even in winter. Our roles changed as we came here, and I was the one with growing discomfort. I was a wealthy foreigner, and fool enough not to hide it. Among these hungry, tired faces lingering on porches and along alleyways, any could choose to gut me and feed themselves for years on the spoils. I had to put my trust in Tamuri as he was compelled to put his trust in me.

We came to a red shack, freshly painted. The skulls of large animals hung from the forward edge of the rooftop, adorned with feathers and strings of beads. Tamuri pointed to one of these skulls and said, “There be no fighting inside. Naku will stop it.” I could surmise that Naku was some kind of rhanna, akin to the living saints worshiped in Nibana, but the skull itself was nothing special.

An exotic bouquet of herbal scents engulfed me as I crossed the threshold. Inside were more remnants from animals, accompanied by wicker dolls and a single tapestry of black and gold, woven with exquisite detail. Looking closer, I could see at least one design in the tapestry that matched the style of the runes on the scepter. My apprehension at entering this place was subsumed by the excitement of an impending discovery.

Absorbed as I was in iconography, I didn’t notice Tamuri going into the back to speak with the matron of the house. I was startled when he announced she was ready to see me.

Naima was a stooped giantess covered in the crags and wrinkles of old age. One eye was milky white. The other fixed upon me with a ceaseless, unflinching appraisal. I presented the scepter to her and began to explain my intentions, but Tamuri quieted me with a shake of his head. The woman closed her big cracked hands over mine and looked into my soul.

“It is a sign of office. It belong to a fancy man. Man like you.” It took me a moment to realize she was talking about the scepter. “Master of a smithy. A big metal shop. I see him working this one with his own hands. There is taste of Estati in it. Big pride in this thing he made. There is taste of Finedi from years honest work. There is taste of Ganodi where the looters come to take everything he had. They rip the thing from his hands. Beat him with it. Bust his eye on the sharp stone. The thing change hands. Sit in the dirt a while. Is found, then sit in a box. All these years, never lose its shine. Is Anchuti made. That is your treasure.”

She released me then, and stepped away as though we were done. But I had so many more questions now. I’d said nothing of the Anchuti. Was she truly some kind of diviner to read such things? “Wait,” I said. “You recognize this as Anchuti? Please. Tell me. What do the runes mean?”

“The craft of those runes… that is beyond me,” she said. I detected a note of bitterness in the words. “But they Anchuti alright.”

I told her that I found the item in Unjat, and how I’d acquired a number of similar items while I was there. She listened with some interest as I described the things, but she knew little of their significance. It saddened me to see how disconnected she was from her roots. Here we had a wise woman of her people, and she could not read the letters of her ancestors. Knew nothing of their crafts. Could only describe the simplest of their customs.

I had taken enough of her people’s treasures. This one may as well stay with her. I offered Naima the scepter in thanks for her time, and I must say it was the first time I saw her taken in any way aback. She insisted on granting one more thing for me. She said that she would read my fate.

And the experience will haunt me for years to come.

Tamuri helped her to prepare a special tea for herself. All I needed to do was lay down on one of her incongruously beautiful carpets and try to relax. After imbibing, she seated herself above my head, and placed those great gnarled hands to either side of my face. For a while, I heard nothing but a repeated mantra in the melodic patois of her people, but then something fell into place, and the words halted.

“I see it. I see it now,” she said. “You will be known to many, Harwood. They tell stories about you. About you, and about the moon that float in your sky. She is a bright moon. As bright as a man can have. You will know it when you see this moon.”

A wife, she means? Typical fodder for the fortuneteller trade, of course. But she went on.

“You will see many things in this life. Always moving, you are. Your home is beautiful, but you never stay. Always the horizon for Messer Harwood. Always more to find, more to trade. And I see more money than hands can count. I see others with respect and jealousy for what you are. A man of great power.”

Success and riches, yes. My skepticism was growing.

“But then, something change.” I could feel her hands begin to tremble. “There is another thread that cross you.” I swear I could feel her skin growing colder. “So much hatred. So many years. So much hate. A child that feel no love. And the blood. The blood…”

Her hands pulled away from me, and I propped myself up to look at her. Naima’s head was thrown back. Her whole body was shaking. I looked to Tamuri, and he stood with his mouth agape. Clearly this was not an ordinary part of the proceedings. I reached for her shoulder to see if I could coax her free of this, but as I did so, her own hands snatched a hold of me. Her good eye came down to look upon me once more, her face twisted into a diabolical rictus. “Blood of the Nightmare Queen,” she said. “It stalk you in your stars. It take away your moon. It take everything. Watch for the snake child. Watch for her. Watch…” Naima collapsed before she could say another word.

Tamuri told me I should go, and I obliged with haste. I didn’t think about the hungry faces on the porches. I didn’t think about the appearance of my clothes or the audacity of my presence there. I simply ran. I didn’t stop until I was back in my own world again.

A hot meal and three pints later, I was able to sit here and record my thoughts at last. I don’t know if it was all for show. Assuming it was a lark, I can’t really say why they’d have done it. And if it wasn’t a lark, what did it all mean? A part of me calls it absurd, and another wants to do more reading. Ah, but who am I kidding? All of me wants to see what I can read on this.

I should see if we can find any good books for the library before we go.