Kurush: The First City - Chapter 1

The sun rose out of the shimmering turquoise sea. The mountains of the mainland looked like shadows on the horizon in the morning haze. The silence was broken by the sound of the Sun Temple’s horn echoing in the streets. People came out of their mud-brick homes and the babble as they started their daily chores grew louder and louder.

Anka admired the view from the roof of her adopted home – the river winding its way from the hills inland, the dozens of wooden ships bobbing in the docks. But like a starved predator watching its prey, her razor-sharp eyes were focused on the Rush, the crown upon the hill on which Kurush was built. Behind its high walls Anka could see three-storey mansions, each storey smaller than the one below, making each one look like a small mountain. At the zenith of the Rush was a statue of a lisha. One of his clawed hands reached up to the sky, the other held an ingot. In the dawn light he began to glow like molten gold.  

“Each and every morning you look up there”

Oresh lay sprawled on a lounger facing the sun, his eyes drooping as though he was still dreaming. Anka dragged a terracotta pot that housed a bush with indigo flowers from some faraway land across the flat roof to her childhood friend and perched on its rim.

“Always start each day by staring at your goal square in the eye,” said Anka, “that’s what your father taught me”

“I’d say we’ve already got everything we need”

“You can never be too rich!”

Oresh smirked, “And once you get up into the Rush, what about us? Are you just going to leave us behind?”

“Of course not,” said Anka, “You’ll come with me. Shanessa will be my scribe. And you will be my very own poet, writing poems praising my loveliness and the size of my house”

“And what about my mother?” said Oresh

“Gishka can come too,” said Anka, “but do you think she’d ever leave here? It’s been almost a year since your father left. All his other wives have gone. When is she going to accept he’s not coming back?”

Oresh sighed, “I’ve overheard merchants saying that pirates are becoming more and more of a problem around the nightward islands”

“I’ve heard that too,” said Anka, “he was a good man. I’ll always be grateful to him”

“I keep wondering, if we are the children of the Sun, why doesn’t he intervene when we fight? Why does he tolerate such a needlessly violent world?”

“The world is the way it is,” said Anka, “it won’t change, so the only thing to do is protect yourself and those close to you as best as you can”

“The world does change,” said Oresh, “Four hundred years ago Kurush wasn’t here. Who knows what the world will be like in another four hundred years?”

“Who cares? What about those of us who live in the present?”

“How the world changes depends on what we decide to do today,” said Oresh, “Each and every little thing everyone does each day pushes the world in one direction or another. Together we’re the ones shaping the world. For instance, there’s so much more we could be doing for the lishas and hurums in the Ekuan quarter, they should be-”

“The world will never be as it should be,” said Anka, “it’s pointless to even think about it. Honestly Oresh, you need to pay closer attention to what’s in front of you”

“What do you mean?”

Anka climbed onto Oresh, who was almost twice her size, and lay on his stomach, stroking his smooth, leaf-green scales. The scales on his forehead had yellow patterns in the shape of arrowheads pointing upwards, making him look perpetually worried. His eyes were wide with terror as Anka pulled his face closer to hers, but he said nothing. His wide, crocodilian mouth was filled with savage-looking teeth, but they were so blunt that Anka could prod their points with her finger and feel nothing. She looked down into his throat, which was big enough that he could probably just about swallow her whole. Oresh took a deep breath.

“I’ve been thinking…”, said Anka

“Ooh, do tell!” said Shanessa

Anka jumped into the air, stepping on Oresh’s crotch and making him howl in pain, then slipped and fell to the floor in a heap.

“By the fucking Sun, Shanessa!”

Anka’s little sister peeked from behind the bush with a cheeky grin and a knowing look in her eyes.  

“What’s all the ruckus?” asked Gishka, as she climbed the ladder from inside the house to the roof, “the Sun’s barely up and you’re already yelling at each other”

“I need to get ready”, said Anka, brushing past Gishka to go down into the house

The windows of the house were small and far apart, but even in the low early morning light the bright colours of the frescoes on the walls were dazzling, showing scenes of the verdant forests and arid plains of lands few in Kurush had seen. The entrance hall had a fresco of a ship laden with cargo ploughing through the sea with wind filling the bright blue sail, Hadash’s pride and joy The Soaked Sapphire. To Anka the expansive two-storey house felt eerily empty. Until just a few months ago, the house had bustled with Hadash’s young wives and their children. Now there was just four of them left – Hadash’s first wife Gishka, her son Oresh, and the two adopted hurum sisters.

In her room Anka put on her favourite amber-patterned tunic, which she thought made her and her terracotta skin glisten like a polished nugget of gold. She tied a braid into her short, sleek black hair, then tucked a small gourd under her collar and put the string attached to it around her neck. She moved the straw mats she had slept on, revealing a small trapdoor in the earthen floor, out of which she dragged a bag of bundled dried leaves on top of some copper ingots and a bag of necklaces, rings and broaches. She picked a bronze-ringed necklace with azure gemstones to put on. The gemstones were so oversized and heavy that her neck hurt, and she wondered whether she was close to looking ridiculous, but she had to look the part.

She was just about to leave the house when she noticed Oresh in the kitchen, carefully lowering a raw steak into his mouth. He closed his eyes as he focused on savouring the meat, chewing it slowly and gently, as though he didn’t want to hurt it. When he swallowed and opened his eyes, he saw Anka peeking at him from behind the doorframe, her cheeks bright red.

“G-got to go!” she said as she turned and leapt through the front door

No sooner had Anka started walking up the dusty street, a teenage lisha tumbled out of the house opposite and caught up with her.

“You’re full of energy this morning Ekur”, said Anka without breaking her pace

“I wanted to tell you, I had a dream about you last night”, he said with a grin

“Your dreams are the only place you’re going to eat me. You’re barely taller than me, there’s no way you could fit me in there”, she said, poking his stomach

“I’m still growing,” said Ekur, “Maybe one day…”  

“I said, only in your dreams”

“Well, I suppose Shanessa might-“

Anka stopped in her tracks and pulled Ekur close, “Don’t you dare. Stay away from her”

“Good morning Ekur!” said Shanessa as she ran up the street

“Good morning,” said Ekur, “I’ll see you guys later”

“Shall I carry one of those?” asked Shanessa

Anka shifted the bags of her merchandise over her shoulder, “It’s fine. Be careful around Ekur. You’re sixteen, lishas are going to have sordid thoughts about you. And be careful around hurum men too. Actually, just be careful around everyone”

Shanessa sighed, “You worry too much. Everything’s fine these days. We don’t have to fear the lishas”

“Never underestimate a hungry lisha”

The hill they were walking up plateaued when they reached the high market, which was almost deserted. A baker sold the sisters two flatbreads, which Anka paid for with two thick, dried golden star-shaped leaves with deep blue veins. Shanessa waved her sister goodbye as she munched on her breakfast and carried on to other side of the hill to the scribe school, while Anka went to find her stall for the day. One advantage of being a hurum was that, while the lishas spent the morning sunning themselves, she could get a head-start. 

Sure enough, there was an empty stall at the far end of the market, on the edge of the square in front of the gateway to the Rush. Guarding the gateway were two statues of gigantic reptilian monsters, almost as tall as the walls themselves, with impressive horns, sharp teeth and ferocious looks in their eyes. Two lisha soldiers stood at their feet, trying to look as intimidating as the statues. Not far from the gateway, on the side of the hill facing the dawn, was the entrance to the Sun Temple, its semi-circular façade plated with bronze so polished it seemed to shimmer. Some pious lishas were sluggishly plodding to dawn prayers.  

The empty stall on the edge of the square was the first thing anyone coming out of the Rush would see, the perfect place to flaunt jewellery to socialites. But just as she reached it, a bald hurum man appeared from the opposite direction and dropped several bundles of knives onto the stall’s rug. The two glared at each other.

“There’s plenty of other places”, said the man

Anka turned her back on him, crouched down, then jumped back up and presented him with a clenched fist.

“Guess what’s in my hand,” she said, “if you’re wrong, I get the stall”

The man rolled his eyes, “Fine. It’s sand”

“Are you sure? Final answer?”

“Yes. Come on, I haven’t got all day”

Anka smirked, “Well, if you’re so sure…”

She drew close to him and he leant in, his curiosity piqued. She opened her hand, and blew the sand into his eyes. He wailed like a wounded animal and stumbled around as he tried to brush the sand out. By the time he could see again, Anka had thrown his knives into another vacant stall and was carefully laying out her jewellery.

“But I was right!” he said

“I never said what I’d do if you were right,” said Anka, “this is completely fair”

“How the fuck is this fair?!”

“Oh go home and cry about it to mummy if you don’t like it, you sandy wanker! Get away from my stall!”

The man sighed and cut his losses, leaving Anka to finish laying out her merchandise. She sat down and peered through the narrow gateway ahead of her at the brightly dressed lishas and hurums in the Rush. One day, she thought, I’ll be one of them.

For quite some time the market was quiet, but slowly filled with merchants touting their wares and chattering customers. The high market sold the finest and dearest goods in the known world – extravagant clothes, elegant furniture, rare delicacies. Anka was sitting on the floor of her stall yawning when a middle-aged hurum man with a substantial nose the shape of a lisha’s snout, wearing an intricately patterned red and blue tunic, strode past on his way towards the Rush. Anka leapt up and over her jewellery and jumped into his path.

“My goodness, what a handsome man! You took my breath away! A man as good-looking as you must have a stunningly beautiful wife, is that right?”

The man looked utterly baffled. Clearly his mind had been on other things when he was suddenly bombarded with compliments he had never before heard.    

“You must go to the classiest parties!” said Anka

“Er, no…”

“Really? Well, I don’t see why a man like you couldn’t. If your wife wore a necklace like this one, not only would it accentuate her beauty, it would make lishas and hurums realise what class of woman she is. Invitations to parties in the Rush would come flooding in! And as an added bonus, your wife would appreciate you even more. Today is the day your life changes forever, trust me! What’s your name, sir?”

“Er, Nashur”

“Well Nashur, this necklace is made from opals all the way from Avnua, and was diligently crafted by the finest smith in Kurush, and I can give it to you today for just two copper ingots”

“I, er, don’t carry that much on me,” said Nashur, “could you do one ingot?”

“One ingot and thirty oro leaves,” said Anka, “I can’t go any lower. You know, it takes a hundred days to get these opals from Avnua…”

Nashur stroked his chin, “Okay, deal”

Nashur walked away confident that he had just bought happiness, and Anka sat back down confident she would make a healthy profit today.

It was late morning when Anka received her first lisha customer, a tall woman who was already wearing an abundance of necklaces and rings. She looked down her snout at Anka.

“What a charming collection. You know, this one reminds me of a ring my aunt had before she was evicted from her home. She married three times, you know, her first husband was this horrible little Ekuan man. I don’t know what she saw in him, I mean, who in their right mind trusts an Ekuan? Oh and they’re so dirty, I can’t bear to even go near the Ekuan quarter the smell’s so bad…”

On and on she went, all the while looking intensely at Anka. She had encountered this before – a lisha would let their mouth run with the most inane thoughts, allowing their mind to focus on their prey. Anka had no doubt that she was imagining her between her jaws.

“And then her second husba-“

“Would you consider buying any of these?” said Anka

The lisha huffed, “I’m sure I can find better”

“Then please move on, so that other customers can take a look”

“What other customers?” said the lisha as she walked away, “Who would want to take a look at such a pathetic, shabby little stall?”

“Well, you’re a pathetic, shabby little bitch!” Anka called out after her

She spent a while thinking up cleverer insults she wished she’d used instead, and was only brought out of her moody reverie by Misha. She was another merchant in the high market, who sold chic clothing for wealthy hurums. Her black hair was short and scruffy, and she was wearing a short, frilly top which showed off her slender stomach. She was looking at Anka’s jewellery as though she was idly watching an insect crawl across the ground. Her face was red and her smile was quivering as though she was trying hard to stop herself from giggling.

“Everything okay, Misha?”

“Oh, yes, thank you,” said Misha, “do you see a lisha with eyebrows around?”

Sure enough, a few stalls along, there was a lisha with patterns over his eyes that looked like bushy eyebrows.

“Yes, he’s looking at you out of the corner of his eye”

Misha took deep breaths, “I think he’s hunting me”

“Have you got orokosa?” Anka asked

“Yes”

“Okay, be careful”

“Hey Misha, looking good!” said another lisha man

It was Bukur, Oresh’s cousin. Like Oresh, he had leaf-green scales and yellow arrowheads going up his face. But with his head held high and his cheeky grin, no-one could mistake him for his more reserved cousin.  

“Not right now, Bukur”, said Misha as she walked away with an absent look in her eyes

“No armour?” said Anka

“I’ve got the day off,” said Bukur, “me and some of the lads are thinking of doing some hunting around here tonight. Care to join us? We always enjoy the company of beautiful women”

The eagerness in his eyes left Anka in no doubt about what he was hoping for.

“No thanks. I’m sure your mother is proud she raised such an honest and forthright son, but you might find hurums will like you more if you look at them a bit less hungrily”

“Isn’t that a gourd of orokosa around your neck?” he said

“This is for emergencies,” she said, “don’t get any funny ideas”

Bukur laughed, “Okay, okay, I get it. Stay out of trouble”

“You too”

By the middle of the afternoon, Anka had sold most of her stock. Once she had a quiet moment, she packed the remainder away and left the stall. The heart of the market was crammed with lishas and hurums, and she had to squeeze between merchants and their customers not so much haggling as they were screaming and gesticulating in each other’s faces. Despite the awnings which protected the market from the overbearing sun, the sheer exertion of those who were ravenously chasing the best deal made the market steaming hot. Anka took deep breaths once she reached the far side of the market and checked her bags hadn’t been emptied by pickpockets.

“The parity of lishas and hurums is a lie!”

On the street corner, there was a lisha man with golden scales wearing a black toga and holding a burning torch.

“Most refuse to hear the truth, but the truth is undeniable! How could lishas and hurums even compare? Lishas embody the Sun’s strength and wisdom, it was by our toil that Kurush was built, and – ow! Stop it! Ow!”

Children were throwing stones at him, and when he gave up on his rant and ran away, they gave chase laughing maniacally. Anka started going down the hill, but stopped when she heard yelps coming from an alleyway. She checked no-one was watching her, then slipped off the street and toward the sounds. When she looked around a corner, she was not surprised to see Misha, her face petrified, sliding down the throat of the bushy-eyebrowed lisha. After a final gulp, he leant back against the wall and sighed with satisfaction.

Anka came out from behind the corner, “Did you drink her orokosa?”

He jumped, “Ah, yes, yes!”

“It’s a right pain when lishas like you do this in public,” she said, folding her arms, “I’ve got to be somewhere, but I can hardly ignore someone being devoured down a dark alleyway, can I?”

“S-sorry”, he said, looking at the ground

Anka looked at his now bulging stomach.

“So… did she taste good?” she asked

“Oh yes, she – hang on, here she comes”

He dropped onto the ground on all fours and started taking deep breaths. He rocked backwards and forwards, then suddenly opened his jaws as wide as he could. Misha came flying out, landing headfirst in a pile of rotten fruit. She rolled over and stared up at the sky catching her breath, not seeming to care that she was drenched in gastric slime.

“All okay, Misha?” said Anka

“Ahhh… that was amazing…”

“You’re very welcome to come over to mine tonight,” said the lisha, “for dinner…”

“Where’s the fun in that?” said Misha, “If you want me again, you’ll have to hunt me”

“Don’t encourage them!” said Anka, “Spare a thought for those of us who don’t want to be hunted. I need to go. Don’t get digested, Misha”

Near the base of the hill, in a courtyard behind the street that led from the Rush to the Bloody Gate, was Iddyr and Oddyr’s forge. Oddyr had biceps as thick as tree trunks, wild flame-red hair with missing chunks which had clearly been hastily cut off, and singed skin which obscured his youth. Iddyr was the older brother, but was bony and diminutive in comparison, and he had a very neatly trimmed goatee. While Oddyr worked the bellows, and Iddyr made the final touches to the waxen mould of a broach, Anka idly looked around their workshop. Her eye was caught by some rocks with a colour she’d never seen before – a matt red, like dry blood.

“What’s this?”

“That’s iron,” said Oddyr, “I’ve got a client who wants to find a way to smelt it”

“So this is what iron looks like,” said Anka, “who’s the client?”

“Mind your own business. Forget I said anything. Besides, it’s impossible. I spent all of yesterday on it, the kiln was hotter than I’ve ever got it, but as you can see, still just stones”   

“How much did you make today?” asked Iddyr

“Three copper ingots and sixty-three leaves,” said Anka, “so that’s one copper and twenty-one leaves for me, and two coppers and forty-two leaves for you”

Iddyr’s eyes widened as she laid out the earnings onto his workbench, “I still can’t believe you can get lishas and hurums to dish out this much”

“I still can’t believe you can get anyone to buy his jewellery in the first place!” said Oddyr

“Be quiet, you meathead,” said Iddyr, “stick to your spears”

“Well if you don’t want this much, I’ll be happy to take more of a cut,” said Anka with a smirk, “but I think it’s only fair that most of the earnings go to the master jeweller who put so much work into the goods”

“Trust in each other,” said Oddyr, “that’s what keeps Kurush going”

“Oddyr, have you met my friend Oresh?” said Anka, “You’d probably get on with him”

“Is he a lisha?” Oddyr asked

“Yes…”

Oddyr scoffed and returned to his bellows. An awkward silence hung in the air.

“Ready to go to the docks?” said Iddyr  

“Sure, let’s go”, said Anka

The shallow sea close to the mainland was treacherous to sailors, who would be lucky to avoid hitting any of the outcrops of rock under the surface. Instead the ships that sailed up and down the continent’s coastline had to go via the island on which Kurush was built. The island was also the first in a long chain that snaked nightwards, each island being colder, wetter and darker than the last. Kurush was at the crossroads of a trade network which connected tribes from opposite sides of the known world.

The docks were built on a long canal which provided safe harbour for dozens of ships. The canal joined the sea at the mouth of the river, and while the river snaked around one side of the hill, the canal curled around the other, almost making it an island itself. None of the ships looked alike – some had strange symbols or bizarre horned animals painted on the sails, and some had ridiculous faces painted on the bows making the ships look like monsters from a dream. There was a promenade on one side of the canal where merchants stood in front of their ships trying to sell off their cargo. Gulls with sky blue feathers strutted among the traders looking for scraps of food.

There was timber from the nightward isles, heaving sacks of grain from Parua, spices from Telua, animal skulls from Okulua, kosa bark from Reklua, pigs from Zemyz. Every language in the known world could be heard in the dockside market. Anka knew how to say ‘Hello, it is an absolute pleasure to meet you’ in six languages and ‘Your ship is so beautiful your wife must be jealous’ in three.

Anka and Iddyr were hunting for precious stones, and Anka cut a deal with a silver-scaled lisha from the arid plains of Avnua for some garnets. Iddyr was starting to run low on tin, but to her surprise, she could only find one merchant selling it, a sand-scaled lisha from Reklua.

“Where are the others?” Anka asked

“If they’re anything like me, they sold all their tin to contacts in the Rush,” said the merchant, “I sold most of mine to a friend up there today”

“How much?” said Anka pointing at the silvery ingots

“One gold for one tin”

“Please don’t insult me,” said Anka, “fifteen coppers for one tin would be fair”

“One gold for one tin. I’m not going to haggle. If you want tin, come back once you have gold”

 “How are ordinary forges meant to smelt bronze if they don’t have tin?”

“Not my problem”

Anka drew close, “Listen, just tell me what you want for the tin. I don’t care what it is, I’m not the judgmental sort, and I swear on the mansion that will be mine one day that I won’t tell a soul”

“No offence, but you don’t look that tasty”

Anka’s face grew red, “That’s not what I meant, you greedy piece of sh-“

The merchant chuckled as Iddyr pulled her away before she could say anything more.

“For Sun’s sake, what a pain traders can be. Can you make fake bronze? Like, paint some copper?”

“Even if I could, would that really be a good idea?” said Iddyr

Anka sighed, “If the Rush keeps hogging the tin trade, we might not have any other option. For now, you should focus on small items. Like rings”

“Will do”

The sun was starting to get low, and the whiff of something sweet made Anka realise she hadn’t eaten since morning. She followed her nose, and found a stall selling honeyed bread. Her waist was thicker than she would ideally like it to be, but the idea of going through a day without eating something delicious was not something she could bear thinking about. She gawped at the rows of honeyed bread, until she realised the lisha behind the stall was staring at her. He licked his lips.

“I’ll get these,” said Iddyr, “two please. Anka? You don’t want one? Where are you going?”

It was quieter further along the promenade. Iddyr caught up to her as she watched cargo being loaded onto a ship.

“I know it’s tough sometimes,” he said, handing her the bread, “after what they did your parents, what they did to ours. We’re a generation of orphans. But we have to live with them”

“In my case, I literally do. Thank the Sun there are lishas kind enough to restrain themselves. But it only takes one of them who’s hungry enough. The surest way to survive is to keep climbing the ladder, so that’s what I’ll do, until me and Shanessa are safe”

“At least we hurums have each other. Together, we can build a happy life for ourselves. I hope you know how grateful I am for all you do for me. I couldn’t sell water to someone dying of thirst! If there’s anything I can do for you, just say the word”

Iddyr’s eyes were wide with admiration, but when Anka noticed he looked awkwardly at the ground. He was only a couple of years older than she was, so she wasn’t surprised. And at least his eyes didn’t have the hunger that lishas’ did. But this was not something she had the time or energy to deal with.

She tussled his neat hair, “Don’t sell the water, just take what they have and walk away. I’m glad I have you as a friend Iddyr, but you don’t need to worry about me, I’ll be just fine”

They finished their bread, then said their goodbyes. Anka walked back up the hill, the streets now clotted with lishas and hurums shambling their way home from work, as she thought about how she would decorate her mansion in the Rush, the elegant clothes she would wear, the sumptuous meals she would eat. But she knew that it would be at least several years of hard work before this fantasy could ever become reality. As she turned onto the street she lived on, she spotted Ekur in the corner of her eye, down the alleyway beside his house. The teenage lisha was busy licking the belly of a hurum he had pinned against the wall, Anka wondered who it was.

“Shanessa!”

She marched down the alleyway and snatched her sister away from Ekur.

“What did I say, Ekur? What did I fucking say?”

His eyes darted everywhere, avoiding Anka’s fiery glare. He opened his mouth, but no words came out.

“Leave him alone!” said Shanessa, “What’s the big deal?”

“How many times do I have to tell you, be careful around lishas! He may look like a harmless idiot, but I guarantee there are vile thoughts inside that thick head. You can’t trust them”

Shanessa glowered, “You’re a hypocrite, I saw you with Oresh this morning”

“Oresh is different, you know that!” Anka blustered, “Let’s go home”

Anka grabbed her arm and dragged her out of the alleyway despite her protests. But she let go once she saw Gishka sitting on their doorstep sobbing. Oresh knelt beside his mother consoling her. A lisha woman with golden scales stood over them. She wore a ragged tunic, but had several necklaces around her neck and a sheaved dagger on her belt. When she noticed Anka and Shanessa, she came close and loomed over them with a glint in her eye.

“And what do we have here?”

Anka looked at Oresh, “What’s going on?”

Oresh’s eyes were glazed over, as though he was struggling to understand it himself, “We’re being evicted”

Next chapter

Constructive criticism welcome

© Paul Bramhall