Kurush: The First City - Chapter 4

 Anka was running through the alleys of the Ekuan quarter for what felt like hours. In the darkness every dilapidated hovel looked the same. Eventually she came across a lisha sleeping on the ground with scars across his face, the same lisha who had been squatting in the room before Lydda had chucked him out. She stepped over him, turned a corner, and saw Oresh standing at the door of their flat. Anka ran up the steps and into his waist, squeezing him as tightly as she could.

“Whoa! Where have you been?” said Oresh, “I’ve been worried sick. Where are the other two?”

“Shanessa, she’s…”

Instinct had been driving her forward all night, but now she felt a wave inside herself rising and crashing over her walls. She burrowed her face as deep as she could into his waist and wailed like she had been trapped in a pitch-black, ice-cold pit with no hope of escape. Shanessa alone and helpless as she awaited her fate in the darkness, the lust in Staroz’s vicious face, abandoning her sister to save her own skin – these pictures would not leave Anka’s mind, as though she was cursed to relive this infernal night for the rest of her life. Oresh’s tunic quickly became damp with tears. She looked up at him, his eyes were wide with disbelief.

“You’re sure? You’re absolutely sure?”

“I saw it happen,” Anka said as she sobbed, “Let’s go inside”

Gishka was curled up in a corner snoring. Oresh went to wake her, but Anka stopped him. She opened the ceiling’s hatch and they climbed up onto the roof. The topside of the Ekuan quarter was like a vast, open, uneven plaza, criss-crossed by narrow crevices between buildings. Some of their neighbours were on their roofs chatting and laughing. Anka and Oresh sat against a low wall which gave them a modicum of privacy.

“What happened?” Oresh asked

“We lost Kisha in the market. Two lishas started following us, we tried to lose them, but they wouldn’t give up. We found a warehouse to hide in, but they trapped us there. The one that tried to eat me, I… I killed him,” Anka averted her gaze, knowing Oresh would never look at her the same way again, “I tried to save Shanessa, I really tried, but there was nothing I could do”

“But you saw his face, right? Let’s find a soldier, they can help us find him”

Oresh started to rise to his feet, but Anka grabbed his hand and gently pulled him back down.

“If they find him, he’ll tell them I killed his friend,” she looked down at her hands, still stained with blood, “we’re both murderers. He’d get the chop, and I’d end up in the stomach of an Ikarkur. ‘No hurum shall be eaten and digested, except those who commit the most heinous act of murder’, isn’t that what the Code of Makush says?”

“But it was self-defence, surely the Ikark wouldn’t say you should have let yourself be eaten?”

Anka shrugged, “The law’s the law. It’s now legal to eat me”

“There must be something we can do”

“There isn’t”

Oresh dropped his head into his hands. Anka looked up at the night sky and let herself become absorbed in the darkness without end.

“I have no family left. I’m the last to be eaten”

“You’re not alone,” said Oresh, “I may not be family, but I’m still here”

Anka nodded, “After my parents disappeared, I remember you kept telling me I could make something of my life, that everything would turn out for the best as long as I kept trying. I needed that, I doubt I’d still be here without a friend like you. But Kurush is a fucked up place, how will we survive it?”

“Well, we could change Kurush. If people weren’t starving, everyone would be safer an-“

“I don’t want to hear that guff,” said Anka, “I meant, realistically what do we do to survive?”

“I… I don’t know”

There was a noise from the room below.

“Maybe that’s Kisha,” said Oresh, “I’ll be right back”

Anka looked out across Kurush. Beyond the crooked maze of the Ekuan quarter, on the other side of the ships sleeping in the docks, atop the hill on whose slope she had woken up that morning, stood the Rush with its mountain-like mansions. There were hundreds of torches lighting up its towering walls and the gigantic statue of Makush at the peak, making the Rush seem like Kurush’s glittering crown. It had never felt as faraway to Anka as it did now. Was there any point in trying to reach it anymore?

She could hear talking from below. Kisha opened the hatch and climbed up onto the roof.

“This wouldn’t have happened if Oresh had come with us,” said Anka, “relying on you was a mistake I’ll regret for the rest of my life”      

“Don’t blame me, I got waylaid talking to a friend for a minute. It’s a great shame, Shanessa was such a sweet girl. I’m sure she was absolutely scrumptious. By the Sun I would have loved to eat her”

Kisha crawled over to Anka, who was enveloped by the shadow of her colossal muscular frame.

“It’s only a matter of time before you’re eaten as well. But I’m not going to let some random pleb have you. Why don’t we get it over and done with?”

Saliva dripped from Kisha’s gaping maw onto Anka’s cheek. Before she could scramble away, Kisha pinned Anka to the floor with her tree-trunk arms.

“Oresh!”

Anka curled up into a ball and kicked Kisha’s chin with both feet, enough to loosen her grip and allow Anka to roll out from under her. Oresh’s head appeared from the hatch as Anka leapt to her feet and Kisha turned to catch her. Without thinking, he grabbed hold of Kisha’s tail and yanked her back, before she could stop Anka from running and jumping over the alley onto their neighbour’s roof. Despite the kicks his sister was giving him in the face, Oresh dug his claws into her tail and pulled with all his might.

Anka heard Kisha’s roars but didn’t look back as she ran over the Ekuan quarter, jumping from roof to roof, scampering over makeshift bridges, bursting through gaggles of lishas and hurums, startling old women trying to enjoy the peace of the night. When she neared the docks, she found a staircase back to ground level, and skirted around the canal, half-expecting to see an amphora with a tail sticking out bobbing in the water. Her legs protested as she ran up the busy thoroughfare leading up the hill, as did several lishas and hurums she pushed past, but she didn’t allow herself to slow down. The high market was much less frenetic than it had been that afternoon, most of the merchants who were left were packing their wares away. She looked up and down the aisles, but didn’t linger.

She finally stopped to catch her breath outside the gate to the Rush. Two spear-wielding lishas, as well as the two monstrous statues guarding the gate, glared down at her with disdain. Anka realised that she was covered in dust and that her tunic was torn in several places. No matter how smoothly she could talk, they would never let her through. And there was no chance she could slip past - the gateway itself was so narrow that a broad-shouldered lisha would have to walk sideways to get through.

To her right, there were rows of palm trees, an artificial grove that took up one side of the square. There were no torches in the grove, making it shrouded in darkness, but hesitantly she walked in. She jumped when, within seconds, a lisha emerged from the shadows. She found herself backed up against a tree.

“What do we have here?” said the lisha as he advanced on her, his eyes alight with hunger, “How would you like to be my dinner?”

“I-I’m looking for Bukur?”

“Oh, sure,” said the lisha, the menace vanishing from his face, “Bukur! One for you here! Have a good night young lady”

Bukur was wearing a waistcoat open and shirtless, showing off the smooth scales of his toned chest to the world.

“Anka! You made it! Let me get you a drink”

“Bukur, wait. Shanessa… she’s dead”

“What?”

Bukur locked his eyes on Anka’s, searching for some trace of doubt or maybe a foul joke, but he only found pained desperation. Anka watched the wheels of his mind turning as his eyes became clouded with the first tears. Then he swung his fist at the nearest tree, with a roar as though he’d been stabbed in the heart.

“Who did it? Who was the bastard? I’ll rip his fucking tongue out!”

Anka looked at the ground, “I don’t know”

“Do you know his name? What did he look like? Was it a man or a woman?”

“Listen to me Bukur, we were kicked out of the house, I have nowhere to go. Can you get me into the Rush? I need to talk to your mother”

Bukur rubbed his forehead, “You were kicked out? I can’t get you in, but I can fetch her. Let’s go to the Sapphire Temple, you’ll be safe there”

On the far side of the grove was the semi-circular edifice, like the sun setting into the earth. It’s façade was embedded with hundreds, maybe thousands of azure stones. Few were actual sapphires, many were just dyed pebbles, but in the flickering firelight of nearby torches the temple looked alive with dancing stars. The doorway in the centre of the façade was guarded by a gruff-looking lisha, but he let Anka and Bukur pass through with nothing but a steely stare.

Pungent smoke, sweet and soothing yet so potent it stung Anka’s eyes, nose and tongue, flowed around the first hall of the temple, springing from a hearth in the centre on which a priestess was carefully sprinkling herbs and spices. Around tables or in booths lishas and hurums were cheerfully chatting and drinking, or flirtatiously whispering in each others’ ears. Anka’s eyes were drawn to a lisha who had a hurum in his embrace and was tenderly licking her cheek, but she looked away as soon as she realised.

A young priestess in long, flowing robes, who looked about the same age as Anka, accosted them. Her enormous, sparkling blue eyes were entirely free from worry – Anka despised her immediately.

“Bukur, so good to see you. And I don’t believe we’ve met?”

“Askura, this is Anka, an old friend. Could you look after her for a minute? I need to get my mother”

“No problem. Would you like a drink?”

“Just water”, said Anka   

She found a vacant booth and Askura arrived with two beakers of water more quickly than Anka had hoped.

“So how long have you known Bukur?” said Askura

Anka wanted to collapse from exhaustion and forget this day had ever happened in the nothingness of sleep, not endure small-talk with an upbeat stranger.

“For as long as I can remember. My family and his have always been close”

Across the hall, the lisha was licking the hurum in his embrace more and more passionately. The girl’s eyes were closed and her expression was breathless, as though she was sinking into ecstasy. Askura noticed where Anka was looking.

“Have you ever been tempted to come here before? We have orokosa if you like…”

“No, a thousand times no!” said Anka, “It’s sickening, how screwed up do you have to be to flirt with death like that?”  

“Well, that’s why a lot of lishas and hurums come to the temple. They know it’s perfectly safe here. And even though most hurums don’t want to be eaten, I think everyone has fantasies even they can’t make sense of. As long as no-one gets hurt, what does it matter?”

A smirking lisha in polished bronze armour came up to their booth, “Askura, how about we-“

“No, Etenkur”

“But, I-“

“I said no,” Askura’s eyes suddenly became stone cold, “please bother someone else”

Etenkur grumbled and walked away.

“You’re not an orokur?” said Anka

Askura leant towards her with a devilish smile, “I stick to virgins. I don’t want to be treated like I’m just something they found for dinner. But if a lisha has never eaten a hurum before, you’re the most delicious thing they’ve ever had”

Tiuk strode into the temple, her glaive in one hand and horned helmet in the other, with Bukur behind her. Heads turned across the hall, not just because of her stature, but also since it was rare to see one of Kurush’s most distinguished figures in the Sapphire Temple. She spotted Anka and marched over.

“Thanks Askura”, said Bukur

“Don’t mention it,” said Askura as she stood to leave, “Hope to see you again Anka”

Tiuk sat opposite Anka, resting her glaive against the wall.

“I can’t tell you how glad I am to see you”, said Anka

“Tell me what happened,” said Tiuk, “Bukur could only manage garbling”

“We were evicted from Hadash’s house. It seems our finances weren’t as healthy as we thought, and Gishka took out a loan from a shady character”

Tiuk sighed, “Gishka was never good with money. Our mother always spoiled her, and was always strict with me. Maybe I should be grateful. Go on”

“The loan shark put us up in a room in the Ekuan quarter. Me and Shanessa went to the meat market, but on our way back we were followed by a lisha. He cornered us and…”  

“It’s okay,” said Tiuk, “you don’t have to say it. It was just one lisha?”

“That’s right”

“Any patterns or markings on his scales?”

The arrowheads running down Staroz’s face flashed in Anka’s mind.

“I didn’t get a good look at him. Tiuk, please, you’ve got to get me into the Rush. I’m as good as dead otherwise”

“I can’t let just anyone into the Rush, and I’m on thin ice with the Ikark as it is. If I let you in, it could be just the excuse they need to push me out. That wouldn’t help either of us”

“But I’m in danger right now. Kisha tried to eat me as soon as she heard about Shanessa”

Tiuk rubbed her forehead, “I’m losing control of my own soldiers. Do you have any evidence?”

“No…”

“You might not know this, but Kisha has been busy making friends in the Rush since she joined the guard. I can’t punish her without clear evidence. Listen, your best bet for getting into the Rush is to get into the good graces of one of the Ikarkurs. You could try Myra, she’ll be tough to convince but she might see a bit of herself in you. Or Lurush, she at least tries to look like a good person once in a while. They’re all going to Alabaster Cove tomorrow, to drink and sun themselves and whatever else, frankly I don’t want to know. Do you have any money on you?”

“This is all I have”, said Anka, pulling at her dirty, tattered tunic

Tiuk rummaged in her pockets, checked no-one was watching them, and surreptitiously passed a copper ingot under the table to Anka.

“I’m sure I don’t need to tell you this, but the first step to getting into the Rush is to look like you already belong there. Bukur, I’m relieving you from your duties for the next few days. Protect her. Askura,” Tiuk waved her over, “can Anka sleep here tonight?”

“Of course!”

Tiuk got up to leave and put her hand on Anka’s shoulder, “Shanessa was a sweet girl. I’m sorry this happened under my watch. Don’t lose heart. Keep moving forward”

As Tiuk walked out, Anka slumped onto the table. That’s easier said than done, thought Anka, when it feels like your heart has a wound that will never heal. But the choice ahead was a simple one – climb the ladder or die.

Next chapter

Constructive criticism welcome

© Paul Bramhall