The Circle of Stars, page 12
part #3 of The Circle Series
I couldn’t be sure what had made me stop but there was something gnawing at me. My bracelet whispered as my inner creature attempted to get angry again. I was being led around without there being even the first consideration to what I may want to be doing. I was the master, the Guardian of The Circle yet I was being just taken along at the whim of others.
The bracelet whispered harder in response.
“We need to have Maria with us.”
I’d said it but it hadn’t felt like me speaking, nor did it sound like me. I’d drooled over the sharper letters and my voice had come out more squeaky than usual. Llewellyn’s handy work had made amendments to my vocal pattern as well.
Mike met my eyes and looked as if he was fighting against his inner anger, before easing and nodding. He spoke into a small phone before advising me to wait in the car.
Maria arrived in less than two minutes and was dressed in a very similar way to the rest of us, casual yet functional. Mike waved her into the car next to me before Mark put his foot down and sent us into the night.
10
The journey was fast and there wasn’t a word spoken by anyone for the opening five minutes. Mark was concentrating on the road, Mike just stared ahead and Maria remained silent but warily watched me, her brows knitted in concentration. It was the five minute mark when I considered just how unusual this must have looked to Maria, being summoned to a clandestine meeting and then sitting in a car next to someone she’d never met as her superiors drove her into the night. When we explained everything, she just nodded, fiddling with her glyph ring and looked deeper at my face, seemingly picking out any familiarity she could.
She was made of stern stuff.
I felt confident that my instinct had been on the money having her along.
Eventually, the car pulled up on the side of a road high up in the hills, away from the main route. We all climbed out and the familiarity of the place was striking. I’d been here once before, about a year prior, and the experience hadn’t been a good one. My demon self grumbled in reaction to the memory but there was nothing for it.
“We get through the barrier,” Mike began, “and Mark will lead the way through the shanty towards where we’ve done business in the past. I’ll bring up the rear of our group and make sure that we aren’t unduly delayed by sneak attacks but if things do go wrong, we’ll need you to carry us all away, My Lord.”
I just nodded again. I knew that everyone else had trust in me but I didn’t feel that confident in me. It’d just have to not go wrong.
We all cleared the fence and began heading towards the centre of the field beyond. The magical barrier was right where I’d left it and we all eased through it without issue. The shanty beyond was the same, save for the occasional different smell or light coming from a building. People and non-people were milling around the stubby buildings and there appeared to be the everyday hustle and bustle of any town going on. No-one had immediately stopped to stare at what we were or where we may have come from but they hadn’t immediately the last time either. There was just no other way around it, we had to move forward.
We all pulled our hoods up and began to make our way through the narrow streets. I could feel any number of interested glances as I passed by doorways and windows and my Dragon power slammed against my mind more out of an instinctual response than any real danger. The bracelet whispered soothingly as we continued deeper into the place and I just kept my gaze fixed resolutely on the ground ahead of me.
Streets widened as we went, changing from earthen tracks to stone walkways and the buildings on either side of us grew in height and permanence. The visible sky above us shrank and I could feel icy fingers reaching into my chest to grip my heart. We were heading beyond just the outer settlements now and into the potentially much more dangerous interior.
But we hadn’t been accosted in any way. I’d been able to sense the minds of those who watched us pass by but they’d all been casual glances rather than any real interest. My face must have been working.
After a handful of changes of direction, Mark came to a halt before a towering wall with a remarkably underwhelming six foot wooden door set at its base, with a single exterior light fixed just above it. The door just looked like something that you’d see on a garden shed.
He knocked gently and stood back to wait.
I risked a quick glance back at Mike but he just nodded back at me.
“YOU RANG?” boomed from the other side of that door and I was lucky that I didn’t fall over in shock.
“I’m here with my team to trade. We offer no threat but to those who would threaten us. Oh powerful watcher of the way, will you grant us entry to the citadel of The Witch?” Mark had delivered the words in his finest ceremonial voice and he casually filled the space we were in with his speech. My attention was everywhere at once, expecting something to jump out at us. If there was going to be an attack, this would be a pretty good place for it.
No response came from the other side of the door. We waited. Still no response. Still we waited.
Until the door fell forwards to clatter on the ground, exposing behind it, more wall. No doorway to pass through, just more stone. I turned to Mike to ask questions but his expression was one which told me I needed to stay still and calm.
Then the door moved.
It twitched and flicked slightly on the floor, scraping against the stone worked floor and producing silent moans of protest.
Mark whispered over his shoulder, “Just stay very still and very calm and we’ll be fine.”
What?!
You never tell someone to stay calm. That’s a guaranteed way to get them riled up and I didn’t need that.
Before us, the door stopped moving, before morphing and springing up in the very rough approximation of a human form. My whispering bracelet became slightly more insistent in my head.
The door thing jerked itself forward and began to sniff at each of us in turn. It had no features to distinguish what it was doing but it was at least placing its ‘head’ towards us. It passed over Mark before advancing towards Maria, and doing the same. I held my breath and it lurched at me, looking me over in whatever way it could. After an age, it slipped by me and headed to Mike and I let go of the breath I hadn’t realised I’d still been holding.
The door thing bolted back in apparent response to my breath to stare into me from an uncomfortably close position. The thing moved to be mere centimetres from me and continued to reach out to sense whatever I’d just done. It circled me, never making contact with me but making sure it was always far too close, and despite my absolute need to tear it to splinters and then burn them to ash, I remained still.
“ACCEPTED.” Dribbled from the door construct, like it was coming from very far away, and it slammed itself back into its alcove in the wall. It hadn’t even made it to Mike.
Mark turned to face us, a relaxed expression on his face.
“And we’re in.”
Behind him, there came a bloom of magical energy which filled the street we were stood on and filled my senses. Shards of power traversed through the stone of the wall like living things until they all converged on the single door. Then went out.
The door was then unlocked from the far side and it swung open to expose a hallway which hadn’t been there before, and a figure of about six feet in height, walked with the aid of a silver handled cane, and was completely cloaked in black wearing a black top hat and something close to a medieval plague doctor’s mask.
“Mr. Howells,” spoke the figure, the sound being muffled and distorted by the mask. “We’ve not been expecting you for some time. Is there a problem with your last collection?” Despite the sinister appearance, the person before us seemed relaxed.
Mark strode forwards and shook the person’s hand warmly.
“No problems, my friend. My Master has requested that a team of his do some asking around for information which may be considered ‘unconventional’. We’re here to find information and nothing more.”
The black-clad figure just nodded slowly and looked over us all. I still couldn’t be sure that they were male or female under all of that clothing.
“Very well. I’m sure that you’ve explained the rules of this establishment to your people but in the name of propriety,” they started. “The Witch is a massively powerful magical force in her own right but she holds this place as somewhere that has no boundaries. If you start violence of any kind, the response will be swift. We’re all friends in the home of The Witch and as such, must behave as such.”
We all nodded our agreement and our guide turned and headed back down the narrow corridor. We followed close behind and the door swung gently closed.
“My apologies for the delay in opening up to you, my friend,” spoke the figure to Mark as they walked. “It would appear that our ‘Door-Man’ picked up an odd scent on you. Most likely something you tracked with you through the shanty. I swear that the people out there are pushing the rules of etiquette as far as they possibly can.”
I didn’t hear what Mark said in response. I was too busy chuckling to myself at the idea of the guard outside being called a ‘Door-Man’.
We kept a brisk pace until the corridor opened out onto a seemingly endless hall of bustling energy and life.
Our guide just melted away into the crowded streets and we were left at the outer most edge of a space which contained buildings of a similar kind to that outside, but which were crafted from much more sturdy and apparently expensive materials, and those buildings weren’t only located to the floor area. Stretching towards the highest reaches of the building, towers of different shapes and sizes climbed to varying levels and from within that network of structures, makeshift bridges and lattice work came together to bring forth new areas to be colonised. Life of every kind was finding any and all vantage point to cling to the heart of this place. Swarming between all of these structures were wide roadways, all being filled with crowds of people and creatures of kinds I’d never seen before and some I was more familiar with.
My senses filled with the place as sounds of trading and conversation, smells of the most divine foods spliced with the most rancid of rot clambered over one another to be the one to draw my attention fully and the very atmosphere around us seemed to be charged with a mighty undercurrent of magical power. Garbled speech of so many variations just waddled around us that being able to isolate a single thread of it would be near impossible but English seemed to be very far from the premier language.
The environment was an assault on the mind but not one that was driven by malice. This whole place was one which existed as a new normal beyond any and all fighting. Dealings could take place here without the real world from beyond the shield wall intervening.
Mike nudged me in the back, gesturing for us to start moving into the throng but I just held my ground.
I’d been here before, with Mark, and the response I’d received hadn’t been positive. Looking around the space before us, at all of the life from all over the spectrum of good and evil that was just co-existing, I felt a stab of sadness that I’d been so soundly rejected the last time and that I’d been forced to resort to the lengths I had to conceal my identity. The whispering in my head began to become more insistent as I dwelled on that earlier encounter, now drawing anger at the past.
“It’s not fair, is it?” The question had been kind of aimed at Mike but to my surprise, Maria responded.
“Fair happens in stories. Out in the real world, we need to just do what we can.”
I turned to face her, before she added a hurried, “My Lord,” to the end of her thought.
My Dragon power dropped back inside me.
“Well said Maria. So let’s get moving.”
Mike slapped me on the back, just a little too hard, and signalled for Mark to lead the way.
The streets were ridiculous.
They may have been wider than the ones outside the wall but there were so very many people wedged in that movement was almost taking place by committee than individual will. The current was going one way, so you just had to go along with it until you could catch another road heading in a different direction. I was barged and buffeted as I moved through the crowd and I knew that my chances of keeping calm in this environment weren’t going to be high. I just kept my attention on the back of Mark’s head as he ploughed onwards and did everything I could to keep the outside world away from my mind.
The path we took couldn’t have covered more than five hundred metres as the crow flies but thanks to the crowds and almost deliberately awkward floor plan, it took us just over half an hour to finally reach the steps to the building Mark had been aiming us towards. One by one we were all ejected from the flowing mass of bodies and it was clear that we’d all happily not have to do that again. How Mark and Mike had ever done this in the past and willingly done it again was beyond me.
“So what’s the angle we use in here?” I asked in my still distorted voice. “Are we traders, or mercenaries?” Get the cover story right from the outset.
“We’re ourselves,” replied Mike. “Well we are but you’ll have to be a random member of the house team.”
“We’re allowed to be here and we’re allowed to be asking questions but The Guardians aren’t viewed with that much enthusiasm so you can’t admit who you are,” Mark added, both sadly and apologetically.
I just nodded.
There wasn’t really anything else that could have been added which wouldn’t make me seem like a petulant child and anything which stoked my anger was to be avoided. We all climbed the rough hewn steps to the giant doors at the top.
Now these doors looked more like they should be on the front of a castle. There was no hint of understatement here with two massive wooden panels held in place by blackened hinges of solid metal. Each door was fixed with a mighty knocker with a metre wide ring made from a dull, heavy metal, and I noticed that Mark had to put his back into raising one to signal our presence. It created a deep ‘BOOM’ with each strike and the vibrations coursed through the steps we were stood on.
“It won’t be long,” Mark reassured us and stood at ease to wait. “It’s just the house rules and everyone is expected to follow them.”
We didn’t have to wait long.
Crunching and clanking erupted from the other side of the door and chains could be heard sliding quickly through metal fixings. Clearly very secure.
I didn’t know what I was expecting to happen but I decided on the need for my own safety taking precedence over the good of the mission, and prepared to take the bracelet off and bring our big gun into play.
Finally, the multitude of locking mechanisms came to a halt and, with a casual ease that seemed utterly at odds with the entry way, the door drifted open to reveal our guide from earlier, still in the same black get up and unsettling mask.
“Welcome my friend. Please come in and partake as you need. I’ll be watching over everything so should you need my assistance for anything, I won’t be far away.” And with a cavalier flourish, the hat was removed and a deep bow was offered to us all. Whoever this person was, they were certainly keen to be the ever gracious host.
Mark bowed in return and we moved slowly past the help and into the building proper.
Looking around the place, it was hard to determine where was going to be the best place to start. Now, I’m a Star Wars fan so the scene in the first film in the rough cantina full of all of the dodgiest characters you could imagine had been bobbing at the back of my mind ever since Mark had suggested this place to me but it was tough to see that any size of special effects budget could manage to put this place on screen.
The room seemed to mirror the geography from outside, with towers and odd looking vines stretching between, but there were more alcove spaces on the various floors. The roadways outside were instead replaced with, well, nothing. The space was just that, space. There was just the room and it had been filled with tables and chairs in some parts, giving the feel of bars or pubs, recliners on the floor and also hanging from the multiple ceilings provided a more relaxed location for whatever was going on and there were spheres of bubbled power floating through the air, each filled with patrons going about whatever business they may have come here to pursue. Add in gambling of all flavours you could conceive and you had an idea of the things I could recognise. That was about twenty percent of what I could see happening.
I didn’t know where to look first.
“All I’d suggest is that you find a bar, have a drink, and just have a chat to whoever you find nearby. We’ll go about the business of finding out all we can about the armour,” Mike whispered from close beside me. It seemed like a good idea. I’d be able to do some asking of my own but just having me here was a risk so minimising what I had to do made sense.
“Maria. Will you please accompany our Master?”
Mark had asked the question with a solid determination and Maria agreed without hesitation. I think the determination was aimed at me though. He registered that I was about to protest.
“It makes more sense to have this cover for you, My Lord. If either myself or Mr. Christian were to be hovering around you it could draw attention. You look like a lower level member of our house so the two of you together would make more sense.”
He didn’t even wait for any kind of answer.
Instead, he strode into the throng of bodies and headed to the nearest huge tower, ducking through the entryway and disappearing.
Mike just laughed quietly.
“He’s learning very well, the importance of being strong in your orders,” before a gentle nudge in the side and he too made his way into the crowd, and I lost sight of him almost immediately.
There was nothing more for it.
Maria and I did exactly as we were told and aimed for the nearest bar we could recognise. We pushed into the crowd with as much swagger as we could muster and moved remarkably smoothly through the mass. Although not specifically marked out as such, we approached the nearest drinking establishment and made for the bar. Tables and chairs had been sprinkled around without any attempt at creating any order but it was nonetheless clear where the understood boundaries were. All of the tables were occupied in one way or another. There were those drinking alone, those deep in conversation with a group of people, examples of both business and pleasure being on display, and even the occasional couple who were staring longingly at each other as they held hands. Ahh, young love.
