City of Demons by Kevin Harkness

Author:Kevin Harkness [Harkness, Kevin]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2012-06-29T04:00:00+00:00

The pair remained silent as Salick led him across the Palace plaza towards the Temple. There were fewer people on this side of the plaza, and they moved slowly, their eyes on the ground before them. Many men and women walked in the gardens, travelling the twists and turns of the patterned walkways as if in a great, slow dance. Garet paused, captured by their peaceful movements.

Salick smiled and said, “Don’t worry, we’ll come back another day.” Tugging lightly on his sleeve, she added, “We still have one task ahead of us. An official one, this time.”

Garet reluctantly followed, skirting the smallest Temple on the north end of the complex. The white walls were blinding in the sun, making them waver before their eyes. The round blue-tiled roofs seemed to float above those blazing walls rather than rest on them. Salick had to keep her hand on his arm to guide him around Temple-goers as he refused to take his eyes off the buildings to look where he was going. The last of the Ward gates in the wall surrounding the plaza was only half open. A knot of men and women, most uncharacteristically, at least for Shirath, wearing drab grey tunics were working under the orders of men in the subdued leather and brass armour of Ward guards.

One stout guard was directing the group with a stream of splendidly abusive language. “Jaws bite you! Pull harder there!” He pushed a fellow guard into the effort. “All of you Beast-born weaklings, pull!”

The chains they had attached to the cross beams of the gate groaned as they tightened with the workers’ efforts. After a squealing protest, and an ominous sound of snapping metal, the gate began to open wider. A cheer went up and the supervising guard removed his helmet, the brass scuffed and the plume bent, to wipe his brow.

“Gonect!” Salick called. “What have you done to the gates?” She smiled at the short man whose prominent belly strained at the straps of his armour.

He tossed his helmet through the open window of the gatehouse and grinned at the Banes. “Salick! I haven’t seen you in weeks. And a Gold now!” He enfolded her in a bearlike hug. “Your uncle will be happy to see you again,” he added, holding her at arms length. “And, for your information, these gates are trying to recover from another of our Ward Lord’s brilliant ideas.” He pointed to a set of bronze springs fixed to both the wall and the gates themselves. “Those are supposed to let one guard open and close the gates more quickly.” He released Salick and waved angrily at the contraption. “But they don’t allow us to open the clawed thing at all!”

Salick laughed and said, “Don’t worry, Gonect. I have to see Lord Andarack today—as well as my uncle,” she added, to forestall the guard’s protest, “and I’ll pass on your high opinion of his latest project.” She turned to Garet. “Gonect, this is a friend of mine, Garet.

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