"My Lord!"
A middle-aged woman with greying hair rushed over. A basket hung over her left arm, piled high with chunks of fish. Their wet scales flashed in the sun, drawing attention away from Huan's knife.
"My Lord Omi," the woman said again. She came to a stop in front of Omi and fell to her knees. She held the basket high above her head. "I know river fish are your favourite. I spent all of yesterday catching these for your greatness. Please accept my unworthy gift."
Omi's eyes fell away from Huan to the woman. He stared down at her and the basket of fish with some confusion. Unconsciously his hand fell away from his sword as he reached for a chunk of fish. He brought the meat to his mouth and chomped down. His expression didn't change.
When he swallowed he stepped back as if to get a better view of the woman. "Fisher Zien," he said. "You've outdone yourself."
The village, including Nova and Meeka, breathed a collective sigh of relief. The stall-holders returned to normal business while the man in the stall next to Huan's grabbed hold of the other man's arm and dragged him away from the street, into the nearest building. The woman with the basket of fish beamed up at Omi, her face glowing with pleasure.
"I will award your house fifty silver for such a gift," Omi said.
The woman nearly dropped the basket in her hurry to bow before Omi. Her head dropped to the dirt three times before she stopped long enough to beam back at Omi.
He took the basket from her and shoved it at one of his guards. The man fumbled for the handle and caught it just in time to stop the fish from falling out over the ground. Omi nodded at the woman and cast one last look to where Huan had been standing before moving on.
Nova glanced at Meeka and relaxed her shoulders. "Well that was close."
"It's still not good," Meeka said. "Omi will be in a bad mood after this. Why did Huan have to open his mouth?"
"Why did he?"
"Because Omi killed his father," Meeka said under her breath.
They were walking down the middle of the road, out of hearing of the villagers.
"What?" Nova said, her steps faltering.
"His father was an elderly man, nearly seventy and his eyesight wasn't good. He accidentally sold Omi some bad meat. And of course, he was punished."
"What do you mean 'of course'?" Nova asked, horrified. "He was an old man, he made a mistake!"
"I know." Meeka hung her head and stared at the road. "I tried to reason with Omi but he was sick for two days after eating that meat. He was furious."
"But that's—"
"That's Omi," Meeka said. "I'm lucky Huan still talks to me. He's not always nice but he's the only one who will stock my inventions."
Meeka's gaze slipped to the water transporter.
"I don't blame him for hating Omi," Nova said. "I hate him and he hasn't done anything that bad to me."
"Huan hates all kinds of authority," Meeka said. "He hates everything about Chindo. It's a wonder he's survived this long."
Nova nodded but said nothing. She also gazed at the spot where Huan had been standing. There was defiance in his eyes, the kind of burning desire for change that she'd seen in lots of revolutionaries. Hell, she'd had that same feeling herself when she looked at the Confederacy. Maybe Huan would be the one to bring change to Chindo; he clearly wanted to get rid of Omi.
"Omi's looking at us, we should keep moving," said Meeka.
They came to the end of the stalls, although Nova's enjoyment of them was coloured by the recent incident. After the market stalls were a handful of shops. The first had a wooden sign dangling above the door with a picture of a small rodent on it.
Nova shrugged and pulled off her boots. She left her shoes at the door and pushed past the thin screen. Inside a handful of candles cast fluttering light against the thick darkness. Their intermittent glow bounced off the walls and lit up the cold, dead eyes of a hundred animals.
Nova's heart leapt into her throat and she took an involuntary step back. From every shelf and every spare inch of floor, animals looked up at her. Or at least, they used to be animals. They were frozen in animated poses, their eyes dull, glassy. Most of them Nova didn't recognise, although a monkey-like creature stood beside the door wearing a long coat.
By her left foot crouched a small orange creature that looked like a fox and behind that was a rodent, similar to the one on the sign above the door, which looked just like a rat. On the shelves birds looked down at her with sharp eyes and in the corner a bear-like monstrosity towered over her.
Past the stuffed animals stood a rack of furry skins. The fur had been cleaned and brushed to a bright sheen.
She stood at the doorway with an expression of utter confusion.
"It's like I've stepped back in time," she whispered. It wasn't something she said lightly, considering she had actually stepped through time.
"You must have such shops," Meeka said. "Where else would you get warm clothes? I don't like the stuffed animals but lots of people do."
She looked at the bear, mouth turned down.
"We—" Nova tried to answer Meeka's question but she didn't know how to explain that most of their clothes were assembled molecule-by-molecule, by machines. She gave up and settled for taking a slow walk around the store.
At the very back, leering out at them from behind the counter, sat a woman in a black shall.
"If it isn't Misfortune herself," the woman said, her voice cold and scratchy.
Meeka didn't reply.
"And you. Make me tarnish my reputation by making me look after that filthy, dishonourable companion of yours." The woman's eyes bore into Nova as she snorted and spat a goblet of mucous at the floor. It landed and quivered on the floorboards by Nova's bare foot.
Nova's eyes widened. "You're the one that was looking after Orion?"
The woman scowled. "The dishonourable one. It's a shame he didn't die, even though I did my best. At least now he's not my problem."
"You what?" Nova took three quick steps forward until she was leaning over the woman, her fingers splayed on the desk.
"Nova, not now," Meeka said.
"Do what Misfortune says," the woman squawked. "And maybe she'll smile on you."
Nova's teeth ground together. "You tried to kill Orion?"
"Bloody bastard wouldn't die," the woman said. "I don't know what demons he's made a deal with, but I wouldn't want to meet them."
"You ugly—"
"Nova," Meeka warned. She grabbed hold of Nova's arm and tugged her towards the door.
Nova let herself be led away but she kept her eyes on the woman. The woman glared after her, not blinking.
As soon as they were in the daylight Nova wrenched her arm free of Meeka's grip. "She tried to kill my friend!"
Meeka nodded, her eyes darting around the street.
"She was supposed to be helping him! Did anyone else know? Did Omi tell her to do it?"
"I don't know," Meeka said. "But please, here is not a good place. She has an important place in this village and if you speak badly of her they might take it out on your friends."
Nova's mouth snapped shut. She couldn't imagine such a foul woman holding any kind of power, but this was a strange place. She hoped that the woman tripped in her store and was impaled on a bear claw.
"I don't know how much more of this I can handle," Nova said.
"There's only a couple more stores to go. Then Omi can tell Toro that you saw everything and everyone is happy."
"Yeah, okay," Nova said, following Meeka towards the next store.
She kept her mind open in case Cal or Crusader could reach her, but so far she'd heard nothing. It was as if they'd completely disappeared. A sickening sensation sunk through her stomach at the thought that something bad must have happened. She couldn't think of any other reason why Cal and Crusader hadn't come to save her yet.
A bell jingled above the door as they walked into the next store. An open window let in a gentle breeze and lit the store with warm sunlight. Herbs and flowers hung from the ceiling and dangled above the window while little clay jars with tiny labels filled hundreds of shelves, more sturdy than the walls of the building.
A wizened man hunched over a workbench at the back of the store, using a mortar and pestle to crush green herbs. He glanced up as they came in and then went back to work without acknowledging them.
Meeka leaned in close to Nova's ear. "He's the village healer. He's the one looking after your friends now."
"Is he trying to kill them too?" Nova asked, instantly on edge. She'd already taken a step towards the man before Meeka could reply.
"No!" Meeka said and tugged her back. "Doctor Yana is ok, he's a traditionalist but he takes his work seriously. He won't let them die."
Nova nodded, staring at the man for another five seconds before returning her attention to the jars. There were so many things here that she'd never heard of; essence of Murtlap, dried Grosens, pickled Quib brains.
On one shelf, pink embryos floated in amber fluid, their overlarge eyes stared, unseeing, at Nova. Next to them was a jar of eyeballs and a box of talons.
Nova's face twisted and she took a step back towards the door. If these were the ingredients the healer was using on her friends, then she didn't hold much hope for them. She backed out of the door and relished in the sudden brightness of the afternoon sun.
From there she moved as quickly as she could through the rest of the town and then hurried after Omi towards the mansion. She'd seen more than enough of the village to know that there would be no help from them. Even the fruit she'd got at the first stall looked wrong, like she'd find the insides rotten, and she handed them to Ree as a gift as soon as she could.
Ree's eyes lit up. "Surely I can't…"
"Take them," Nova said, leaving Ree gaping after her in front of the kitchen.
***
Nova sat with Meeka in her room, both of them eating from a tray using the small tongs. Nova had become somewhat more accustomed to the food although she'd do anything for a plate of chicken and chips.
"I can't believe how they looked at us today," Nova mused.
Meeka nodded and pointed to her eyes. "It's the curse."
"It's ridiculous."
"You have no idea. They would rather die of starvation than take anything from us."
"You're exaggerating."
Meeka dropped another white tentacle into her mouth and shook her head. "I give food to the poor," she said in a whisper. "But I have to do it in disguise because otherwise they'll throw the food out."
"No!"
Meeka nodded. "The first time I did it I didn't think they could be so foolish. There was a woman whose husband had been killed by Omi. They had seven children and they were all starving. I thought the least I could do was give them food. When I arrived with a basket she looked at me with disgust. I handed her the food and she tipped it into the dirt right in front of me."
"That's disgusting," Nova said, the food turning to ash in her mouth.
She forced herself to swallow the mouthful but placed her eating tongs onto the tray, unable to face another bite.
Meeka hung her head and also discarded her tongs.
"If I were you I wouldn't feed them," Nova said. "If they're going to be so stupid, then let them starve."
"They only know what they've been taught. I can't hate them for believing what they see."
"How can they see it?" Nova said. "There's no such thing as cursed eye colour!"
"But don't you see?" Meeka said. "It's a self-fulfilling prophecy. Since I was born with blue eyes I was given the worst of everything. I was banned from school and I'll never get married. Doesn't that sound unlucky to you?"
Nova's reply died in her throat and she snapped her mouth shut. In a way Meeka was right; when she said it like that it did sound like a cursed life. Nova shook her head and glared at the ground; the sooner she got away from Chindo, the better.