Anka was pacing in front of the gate to the Rush. It was still early morning, but the square was gradually getting busier. If Ragur or Etenkur happened to find her there, they’d no doubt whisk her away, never to be seen again. She thought about trying to hide amongst the beggars loitering in the shadow of the high walls, but since she was wearing a long, flowing dress with a floral pattern, that probably wouldn’t work.
A gaggle of teenage lishas planted themselves by the gate to
ogle at the hurums going in and out, whispering excitedly amongst themselves
whenever someone appetising passed by. Anka moved away from them, only to find
herself next to a gaggle of elderly lishas doing the same thing. When a lisha
entered the Rush carting an enormous amphora, Anka swore she heard something
moving inside.
As soon as she saw Oresh walking towards her, she ran up to
him, grabbed his arm, and span him around.
“We’re going for a walk today”, she said cheerfully
“Oh, okay”
She led him down the hill, and through the meat market and
the Bloody Gate. Oresh clenched his eyes shut to avoid the sight of gana
carcasses being butchered, so Anka had to guide him to the path that snaked
towards the centre of the island. Alongside it babbled the crisp blue river
that flowed down the island, like a leaf’s main vein.
“I’m sorry for what happened last time,” said Oresh, “for
storming off in a huff”
“Don’t worry about it. I’m sorry for suddenly springing that
on you, you obviously weren’t ready for it”
“You’re not taking me to the countryside so that we can… are
you?”
Anka smiled at him, “I just wanted to get out of Kurush and
have a walk with a friend, nothing more”
Before long, the rocky scrubland either side of the river
gave way to open fields of golden wheat, fed by little channels from the river
that Anka and Oresh had to step over. They passed sheds where ganas sat in the
shade or stared at the amblers with blank faces. Every so often, they passed a
lisha leading one of the lumbering, granite-scaled beasts towards Kurush.
“Your father once told me that half of the wheat grown on
the island is fed to ganas,” said Anka, “and half of the ganas are taken to
Kurush. A single gana would sink a ship, they can’t be imported. So the
villages focus on ganas and fish, and the rest of our food – the grain, the
pork, everything – comes from the other islands and Parua”
“So the island by itself can’t produce enough food to feed
everyone in Kurush,” said Oresh, “and with the pirates from the other islands essentially
blockading us, there isn’t enough food to go around. For all its high stone
walls, Kurush is pretty fragile”
When they reached a bustling village of cuboid, mud-brick
houses, they attracted a lot of stares. Like the Ekuans in Kurush, the lishas
had golden scales, the hurums had olive skin, and they all wore simple, undyed
tunics.
“It’s strange how familiar this feels,” said Oresh, “even
though it’s completely different to the Ekuan quarter. The houses look the
same, but they’re not crushed together. There’s no graffiti, no mounds of
rubbish”
“It still smells of shit”, said Anka
“Yeah, but at least this is the smell of gana shit. Look at
the flowers over the doors, they wouldn’t last a minute in the Ekuan quarter”
In the centre of the village was a stonewalled hall with an
upturned ship for a roof. Outside it a green-scaled lisha wearing a pristine white
tunic was badgering a gold-scaled lisha carrying an enormous basket of fish.
“That’s not enough to feed my family”, the gold-scaled lisha
was saying with a weary face
“I can guarantee you that if you take those fish to Kurush,
they’ll give you less for them. I want to do you a favour, just let me take
them off your hands here. You’ll be back home in time for lunch”
Anka marched up to them, “What’s the price he’s giving you?”
The green-scaled lisha stiffly turned his head, “Who the
hell are you?”
“He’s offering ten oro leaves for the basket”, said the
fisherman
“There’s got to be at
least fifty fish in there,” said Anka, “prices are going up, I’d say it’s worth
at least one copper ingot”
“I’ll ask again, who the hell are you?”
“Just someone who pays attention at the market. Now are you
going to give him a sensible price, or do I have to teach you how buying and
selling works?”
“If I wanted trick people out of their riches, I wouldn’t be
out here would I? I’m not here to make my fortune, I’m here to help”
“You’re here because you get a kick out of exploiting others,”
said Anka, “You don’t care how rich you are, as long as there are people
beneath you and you’re swindling them. Am I wrong?”
The scammer scoffed shakily, “H-how dare you!”
“When you grow up surrounded by devious lishas always trying
to get something from you, you learn how to read them. And I can see plain as
day that you’re a pathetic, cruel little man. I don’t have time to spend on
you. If you really want to help him, just give the man a good price”
Anka turned and strode away before he could say anything
more, rejoining Oresh, who was chuckling to himself.
“What?” asked Anka as they set off again
“You reminded me of something. We must have been eight or
nine. Me and Kisha were arguing over who the toy ship belonged to. Bukur and
Ragur were itching to fight on our behalf. But you stood between us, and made
us agree to let the other play with it on alternate days. You don’t just
negotiate for riches, you negotiate for fairness too”
“I have low tolerance for stupidity, that’s all,” said Anka,
“I can’t bear to watch a situation that can be easily resolved be bungled by
idiots. You’ve got to realise that everyone has to walk away satisfied, or
there’s no point opening your mouth in the first place”
“That’s one way to put it,” said Oresh, “wait, shouldn’t we
have bought some of those fish? I’m already starting to get peckish”
“Don’t worry about lunch,” Anka patted the bag slung over her
shoulder, “I’ve already got ours”
They carried on along the river path as the Sun hung high in
the sky, dousing the island in sweltering heat. In the middle of a hamlet near
where a tributary flowed into the river, there was a bridge made of two dozen
wooden stakes sticking out of the water with some shaky planks between them.
Nearby there were some lishas on the bank doing some washing and watching the
two Oshuans unsteadily cross the bridge. Anka turned to them, lifted up her
dress, patted her belly, then gave them a wink before scampering onto the
shore. The lishas gawped at her like they had never seen anything so delicious
before.
“Why did you do that?” Oresh hissed in her ear
“Just for fun. Right, now up the mountain”
“You’re joking, right? I mean, neither of us are exactly
fit. It’s been a nice walk, but let’s turn back”
“Come on, think of the view from up there!”
She dashed ahead, leaving Oresh with no choice but to follow
her. Of the five mountains that formed the island’s spine, they climbed the one
closest to Kurush. Apart from around the occasional olive tree, the ground was
bare rock. The path constantly wound this way and that, to avoid sheer ledges
and boulders that looked like they had been dropped there at the beginning of
the world. Several times, the path was swallowed by the rubble of a landside,
which they had to scramble over. Other than the eerie whistling of the wind,
and the huffing of the two climbers, there was silence.
“Can we please eat now?” said Oresh breathlessly, “I don’t
think my legs can take much more, and the Sun is already going down”
“Soon!”
A lisha with a gana pulling a cart came from the direction
of the fishing village on the other side of the mountain. Anka and Oresh stood
politely on the pathside to let him pass. He said nothing, but unashamedly
feasted his eyes on Anka as he passed.
“Let’s go this way,” said Anka, pointing towards a ridge
without a path, “I bet there’s a great view”
Oresh noticed the lisha look over his shoulder as he went
down the mountain, before following Anka off the path. After scaling an outcrop
of rock, they found all of creation laid out before them - the river snaking
towards the sea, the unnaturally jagged mound that was Kurush, the sparkling
turquoise ocean, and the shadows of the mountains of the mainland on the
horizon.
“Kurush just looks like a big ants’ nest,” said Oresh, “I
can’t believe the statue of Makush looks so tiny. Let’s eat, I’m famished, I’m
starting to feel faint. What’s for dinner?”
“Me!”
“Very funny. Seriously, what do you have?”
Anka tipped out her bag – it was empty. She stepped closer
to Oresh.
“I’ve worked up quite a sweat, I must smell amazing”
Oresh backed away, “What are you talking about? Wait,
where’s your orokosa gourd?”
“If you don’t eat me, then one of the villagers, maybe that
lisha we just saw, will find me and eat me instead”
“That’s why you flashed those lishas earlier?”
“Sleep here tonight, digest me overnight, then go back home
tomorrow. I didn’t tell anyone I was going to be with you today, no-one will
suspect you. It will be like I vanished into thin air”
“Do you even hear yourself? I’m not going to eat you!”
“I’m going to be eaten soon anyway,” said Anka, “I at least
want to choose who I’m eaten by. You’re the kindest, gentlest lisha I know. I
wouldn’t be here today without you. I want you to be the one”
“Why are saying this? What’s happened?”
“You’ll be safer if you don’t know. Do you remember the
Night of Hunger? You spent it patrolling the house with a knife, making sure
all the doors and windows were locked”
“I had a knife?”
“Yes. Then at some point, you came down to the basement to
check on me and Shanessa. I remember the hunger in your eyes when you looked at
me, I remember it like it was yesterday. You hadn’t eaten in days, and there I
was, a weak, tasty little hurum. It was just the three of us in your house, you
could have done it. I’m grateful that you didn’t, but there’s no point
resisting the urge anymore. Next week, you might hear that I’ve gone missing.
Just think of the regret you’d feel, that you had the chance to eat the hurum
you’ve craved all your life but you didn’t take it. You should be the one who
eats me”
Oresh rubbed his temples, “But you could do great things
with your life. Didn’t you tell me you were going to have your own mansion in
the Rush one day?”
“That was just a dream. Reality is cruel. There’s no point
swimming against the current”
“Yes there is, because you never know when the current will
change. You’ll never know how strong you are if you don’t keep on swimming.
Maybe the shore is closer than you think”
“There is no shore! My mother, father and sister are all
dead, and I’m cursed to carry on living with all the grief and fear until I
join them”
“I know we can’t replace them, but you’re not alone. You’re
a part of our family now”
“Oh lucky me! How wonderful to be a part of a lisha family!
For all I know, your parents were the ones who ate mine”
Oresh’s stomach gurgled angrily. His legs buckled and he
fell onto his rear. Anka stepped forward and stroked his muzzle.
“Just do it, please,” she said, her eyes hazy with tears,
“for me”
“Do you realise how painful it is to hear you say all this?
The Anka I know is ambitious, determined, decisive, down-to-earth, she wants
everyone to get along, she’s always ready to take action. You are a fantastic
person, you are by far the best person I know. If you died… I don’t know how I
could live with myself. I’ll never eat you”
His legs still wobbling, he got up from the ground and
walked back towards the path.
“Come on, let’s go back down and get some dinner in the
village”
“If you leave,” said Anka, “you’ll never see me again”
“If I stay, I’ll pass out and I don’t know what you’d do.
Come with me. As long as we’re together, we’ll find a way forward”
Anka sat on the ground and crossed her legs. She could see
the sorrow in his eyes as he looked at her one last time, then turned to go.
Once he was out of sight, she turned to the view and watched the Sun sink
behind the mountains of the mainland. The sky transfigured into gold, then
iridescent violet, then inky indigo. Kurush became a beacon of light in the
darkness as its citizens lit their torches and lamps. She hugged herself as the
cold air of the night swept in, and because she had barely eaten in days the
wind was piercing. Maybe it was a fool’s hope, she thought. The reason I trust
him, the reason I want him to eat me is precisely the same reason he never
will. If only he’d acknowledge that his desire is real.
At what must have been around midnight, the lights of Kurush
began to dim. No lisha had come to eat her, so she decided to go back down the
mountain. She passed no-one on the path. In the village, not a soul was awake.
When she reached Kurush, no-one was guarding the Bloody Gate. The meat market
was empty and silent. Lit only by moonlight and the only sound being Anka’s
footsteps, Kurush felt as though it was deserted, save the ghosts hiding in the
alleyways. She walked past a lone, snoring spearman slumped next to the gate to
the Rush. Even Goresh was asleep at his post, and Anka managed to inch past him
and through the doorway without waking him. As she crawled into bed and let
exhaustion overcome her, the Sun peeked over the horizon.
Constructive criticism welcome
© Paul Bramhall
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