To the City of the Three Gods
The sun was not up when the helots, under the guidance of soldiers, took down a section of the fence that surrounded the travelling pagoda.
The path which through the pagoda had long ago arrived had grown over. The helots cut trees down and hauled brush out of the way, clearing the way.
As the sun rose Darken Gray, seated in the control tower, lifted the pagoda from the ground until it was floating three yards above the ground. With a careful hand, she sent it floating out, through the opening in the fence and along the freshly cut path.
Exiting the trees, she turned it sharply onto one of the main roads.
Soldiers went ahead to ensure the path was unobstructed, and block off the cross streets as the pagoda passed.
While early, it was not so early that the pagoda did not draw crowds, people watching as the structure floated quietly down the roads.
Ivory sat in the library with Hu, not being seen.
She wanted to be in the pilot's tower, or if not that, seated at the window, watching the city.
However, she had been asked to maintain a low profile as she left the city.
Apparently she had already attracted a little too much attention, at least according to Yoti.
She read a book, sitting on a chair that was too big for her.
The library would need to be better stocked, she thought.
Hopefully there would be time to make some stops to make purchases on the way out east.
She saw no reason that there would not be.
The pagoda continued along the roads, taking a circuitous route, to travel along streets wide enough to allow it through.
It was almost noon when the pagoda reached the docks, and then, gliding along like a ship at sail, smoothly passed out over the water of the river.
It swung to the East and headed upriver, a house, floating yards above the water.
No longer hampered by the construction of the city around her, Darken Gray gently pushed the throttle forward. Soon the pagoda was flying along at a little faster than twenty miles an hour.
It was not long before Lookshy was behind them. Ivory went to the front of the house, tossed open a set of windows and leaned out into the wind. Hu stood up on his hind legs, put his front paws on the windowsill, joining her.
Ahead of them was the broad expanse of the Yellow River. She could see ships that shared the waterway with them. Darken Gray kept them near the middle of the river, drifting it gently right and left to avoid any ships that also claimed the centre of the water.
Ivory watched people looking over the rails of the ships. She was not close enough to see their faces, but she imagined there wore expressions of amazement.
After perhaps an hour Ivory closed the window and ran towards the back of the house.
She exited, into a small, partially covered garden, and crossed to the control tower at the back. At the top of the tower, Darken Gray sat at the simple controls, piloting the travelling pagoda.
Ivory leaned over the piloting chair, staring out the windows.
"It flies well," Darken Gray told her.
Ivory nodded.
Three stories up and windows all about she had a much better view of the river around her and its banks on either side. "Please take it up to thirty miles an hour."
"Very well." Darken Gray pulled the throttle back, and the pagoda picked up speed.
Ivory left the tower and ran about the interior of the pagoda, making sure that nothing structural was stressed. She was fairly sure it would hold up to the speed, but she had not had a chance to test it.
Returning to the pilot room, she asked Darken Gray to take it all the way to forty miles an hour. Darken Gray agreed, and soon it was moving at the fastest speed it had been built for.
Ivory once more made an inspection, pleased to see everything was holding up.
"We're ready to test out my upgrades," Ivory said happily as she came up the stairs.
"Not until tonight."
"Fine," Ivory said, mostly agreeing with her.
"Go and read that book on Great Forks and then complete a book report before we stop for the night."
"All right," Ivory said, leaving the pilot house and going to the library.
It was hard to focus on the book and the report when all she could think about was putting the upgrades to the test. To see what she had created work flawlessly.
She knew they would work of course, but at the same time, she would not know for certain until they were thoroughly tested.
Had maintaining a low profile not been so important she would have happily pushed the pagoda to its new limits right then.
She would have done it while they were still in Lookshy.
Ivory had almost finished her book report when she felt the pagoda slowing. Looking her work over she made a few changes, decided it was satisfactory, then got up and ran to the front of the house. Out the windows she saw the pagoda was approaching the North bank, a broad, bowed out section of the river, where the slow water suggested great depth beneath.
The pagoda glided to a halt, perhaps a hundred feet off the bank, and settled until it was probably only a yard above the water.
Darken Gray came into the room a minute later, holding the report Ivory had left in the library.
"Satisfactory," she told Ivory.
"Thank you."
"Now, let's have dinner before darkness falls."
Ivory worked close with Darken Gray in the well-stocked kitchen, making the meal.
Apparently learning how to cook well was another important skill. Ivory supposed she was good at it, Solars tended to be at the very least good at most things, but as with anything that Darken Gray taught just being good was not enough.
Because she was eating what she made Ivory had good reason to wish to become better.
Eating was a lesson as well, etiquette and deportment. The table had been laid out in the style of the Varang City-States, and she had to learn all the aspects of a meal layout based on astrology.
Since getting rid of the stupid watch, she had hoped her days of having to care about astrology were behind her.
After the meal Darken Gray pointed out the places they could improve on, then went to wash the dishes, telling Ivory to wait for her in the pilot house.
Learning how to cook was important, learning to clean up like a domestic was apparently not.
Not that Ivory would complain, quite pleased to get out of such chores.
When she stepped out of the house, into the garden, the sun was nearly down. Ivory ran up the tower stairs, and in the pilot house she turned to the West and watched the sun setting.
The time of twilight.
Her time.
She prayed softly, a child's prayer for safety for those she cared about, with a selfish undercurrent of things she wanted.
As the sun began to fade below the horizon mist began to form on the river's surface, soon thick enough to hide the bank a hundred feet away, and the rest of the river.
It did not feel natural. When Darken Gray came up the stairs, Ivory told her as much.
"I arranged it," Darken Gray said. "I thought it best if what happens is seen by no one else." She took the pilot's seat.
"We disappear, people assume the pagoda failed and sunk into the river, or we set out over the land." Ivory nodded, liking the sound of that.
"Certainly for time." Darken Gray was looking at the pilot's station, running her hands over it.
Ivory was tempted just to watch her try to activate the advanced features, and then perhaps suggest that she should be flying. Instead she reached forward and ran her finger along the top edge of the controls. "Press hard, then ease off, then press hard when your finger nears the far edge," she said, explaining the combination.
Ivory's action caused the simple pedestal to unfold like a flower, revealing new controls and devices that projected gauges made of light in the air.
Darken Gray nodded and produced a gem a little smaller than the palm of her hand, a rose coloured, egg shaped crystal. She placed it in the hearthstone socket that was part of the control system.
"Well then, let's see how well you crafted."
The controls had come from Lookshy's boneyards, they had once been part of an undersea courier boat and warbird but now were something unique and beautiful and Ivory was quite proud of them. "It will be all right."
Darken Gray nodded and with a light touch sent the pagoda into a rapid ascent. Ivory felt her ears pop as in a minute they climbed to three thousand feet, far exceeding the three-yard ceiling it had been restricted to before Ivory had worked on it.
"That should be more than high enough," Darken Gray said.
"We could go higher," Ivory said.
"And perhaps we will, but today I feel like offering no insult to heaven."
Ivory was pretty confident that as a Solar she could fly as high as she wanted but said nothing.
Carefully Darken Gray pulled the sophisticated throttle array back, the pagoda picking up forward speed as she did. The structure creaked, a house in a high wind, as it accelerated past the forty miles an hour it had been earlier travelling at and neared almost eighty.
"Would you please examine the house, make sure all is well."
"Right."
Ivory ran down the stairs, eager to see all her work was holding up.
When she opened the door from the pilot tower, the wind tore it from her hands, and she had to grab it and push it closed behind her.
She pushed against the wind to cross the covered garden, then entered the pagoda, holding the door tight so she could close it.
Taking off at a run she checked each room, turning on lights as she did so, scrutinising the windows to make sure the high winds were not threatening to crack them or blow them from their frames.
Pleased at how things were remaining structurally sound she returned to the pilot tower, pausing just long enough to turn on some room heaters.
Altitude and wind were making things chilly.
Another crossing through the wind and she was back in the pilot house.
"Everything is fine," she said proudly.
"We'll hold this speed for a few hours then, heading east and south."
"We can keep this speed for more than a few hours."
"Perhaps, but we'll pass over Great Forks in less than a day travelling this fast. We will slow our pace a little."
"Why?"
"I plan to stop in Great Forks. I would rather Lookshy not know how much faster we can go. We will pass beyond civilisation soon enough. Then we can go as fast as we chose."
The travelling pagoda sailed upriver, to the confluence of the Rolling River and the Yellow River, at a stately twenty miles an hour. From a distance, it might have been mistaken for another ship or boat making its way towards the city of Great Forks, but as it closed on the docks, it drew more and more attention as people realised what it was.
Not that they stared opened mouth.
They were a people of a city where gods walked the streets, brushing shoulders with Fairfolk, spirits, elementals and even Celestial Exalts.
They would not allow themselves to seem overly impressed by such a wonder, even if that blasé attitude was feigned.
In the pilothouse, Darken Gray manoeuvred among the many ships that moved about the busy docks. Seeing an empty quay near one of the gates she neatly slid the pagoda into place, bringing it to a stop, leaving it floating high enough so the front door was even with the wood surface of the dock.
Ivory stood in the open door, Hu beside her. When the pagoda came to a halt, she neatly stepped down, picked up a coil of rope, one end secured to a dock post, and placed the rope beside the door. She did not secure it, for the Pagoda would not move, but it made it obvious she was claiming the location.
By the time one of the assistant dock-masters, a portly man in tight breeches and an open tunic, approached, Darken Gray was out on the dock with Ivory and Hu. She wore her pencil skirt and suit jacket, with her black, high heels. In her hand she carried a sheathed sabre.
It was a look intimidating enough that the assistant dock-master paused when he saw her and then bowed deeply.
"Honoured guest," he said, "you wish to dock?"
"We do," Darken Gray said, though Ivory thought it was pretty obvious they did.
He nodded, opened his mouth, then closed it, looking uncomfortable.
Like a little boy who was worried about doing something naughty Ivory thought. She supposed Darken Gray could have that effect on some.
"I believe this should cover two days docking fees, as well as paying to have some of your guards watch our method of conveyance and warn people off."
She held a small, cloth pouch out towards him.
He took the pouch, opened it up and looked within.
"Yes, yes, I will personally ensure that no one even looks too long at your magnificent means of travel."
"People are welcome to look, just not touch," Darken Gray said with a smile that the man answered in returned, beaming.
He provided a note of receipt to Darken Gray, called over a guard even as they waited. By the time Ivory, Darken Gray and Hu walked away four large, well-built slaves stood at the end of the dock, and another two near the entry of the house, while a pair of guards supervised them.
Ivory looked over her shoulder as they walked away. "I don't like him."
"Any reason?"
"He's dressed like a rent boy."
For a moment Ivory thought that Darken Gray might have smiled as if she were about to laugh, but all she said was, "I am glad you kept such observations to yourself, and you will find that many people in the city dress in such a manner. Showing off skin and athletic bodies have always been in vogue."
"He did not have an athletic body."
"Some people follow fashions, even if they should not."
As they walked along, moving towards the gate, they mixed among the crowds. While fewer people likely recognised them as those that had come out of the floating house, Hu's presence earned them looks and a respectable distance around them.
Ivory watched people. Visitors, city officials, slaves, and citizens who likely came down to the docks just to watch.
There were children there as well. Many were dressed in loincloths, or simple tunics, whether toddlers or older. Some, about Ivory's age, wore more adult style clothing.
Ivory asked Darken Gray about it.
"At about your age, children enter their apprenticeships, or further education and stop dressing like children."
Ivory was dressed in a light blue, knee length dress, with a dark blue jacket, white stockings and a pair of flat, polished shoes. The dress was silk and the jacket wool, vibrantly dyed so the colours were bold.
It all spoke of money.
The apprentices would be too full of their new status to play with her, and the children would avoid anyone dressed as well as she, at least on the docks.
Ivory had thought to stop at Vinleau on the way, but Darken Gray had convinced her not to.
'It might attract unwelcome attention, so soon after the events with the Wyld Hunt,' she had explained.
Ivory watched a group of children running down the dock.
"Perhaps we can arrange an opportunity for you to play later," Darken Gray said.
For a moment Ivory thought to deny she wanted such a thing, but instead only looked noncommittal.
They were two gods and a Solar exalt, but they entered without giving that away, and while the gate guards recognised them for significant individuals, they did not require that they see the Three.
They walked along the main thoroughfare through the South Quarter. There were vast warehouses, and many guards and officials who made sure the traffic that moved to and from the docks did so efficiently and without mishap. At first there were the crowded tenements and apartments as well as the warehouses, but as they progressed towards the centre of the city, the structure and types of buildings changed, becoming smaller, with more space between, more wealth displayed.
They left the South Quarter behind them and entered the temple district.
Ivory did not ask, but Darken Gray took her to a Temple dedicated to the Unconquered Sun. It was not the grandest of the temples there, but it was well built and well appointed. A few priestesses were about, young women in simple habits of white and gold. They watched Hu carefully, and did not approach too close, but did not complain about the tiger's presence.
Ivory was tempted to let them know who she was, but she kept such impulses in check. Instead she knelt at the shrine and prayed for a time while behind her she heard Darken Gray talking to the priestesses.
She stood, nodded politely to the priestess who Darken Gray was speaking to and left a few gold coins in the offering plate.
Outside she stopped and looked back at the temple.
"What are you thinking?" Darken Gray asked as she walked from the temple to stand by Ivory.
"That the Unconquered Sun's temple should be grander."
"In time perhaps it will. Such a thing will depend on what you and the others do."
"Yes." Ivory nodded. "I guess so."
She was still not entirely convinced.
Darken Gray took her to visit a temple of Luna, and the five maidens, and a well-appointed church dedicated to Lady Aisha Hikari Ex, Goddess of children. It was crowded, full of parents and other caretakers and many children.
"For any important point in a child's life parents might bring their children here for a blessing," Darken Gray said.
Ivory nodded.
"Go and pay your respects."
Ivory walked up to the centre of the temple, where an altar was raised. Children gathered around it, reaching out to touch the slab of white marble, either by their own choice or being directed by adults. Parents placed small babies upon the marble for a moment before whisking them off to make room for others.
Ivory paused and wondered at the white marble. Was there magic in it that kept it clean against all the children who laid hands on it over the years, or did the priests and priestess spend much of their time cleaning it?
She would ask Darken Gray perhaps.
Stopping a few steps from the altar, she reached up and touched the golden band in her hair, a gift from the very goddess the temple was dedicated to. Then she stepped closer, reaching into her jacket, pulling out a scroll, wrapped in a golden silk ribbon.
It was a letter, in her best calligraphy, to the Goddess of Children.
A gift, and a thank you.
Ivory placed it on the altar, pressed her hand to the cool surface, then turned and walked back towards where Darken Gray waited. A priestess laid a hand on her as she passed. "The Goddess' blessing on you child," she said.
Ivory looked at her, smiled. "Thank you."
Darken Gray was not looking at her but towards the centre of the building and the altar. "I'll be outside," she said and left.
Hu was outside, leapt upon a high surface to avoid the many children there that might think the tiger's fur was for petting.
He jumped down and took a seat beside Ivory, Ivory leaned up against him.
Darken Gray came out a few moments later. "Let us go Ivory."
"What were you looking at?" Ivory asked she walked away with Darken Gray.
"Your gift attracted the attention of my Lady. I was curious to see what she thought of the gift."
Ivory nodded, but in all honesty, beyond what proper etiquette demanded she cared little for the Goddess of Children.
"You have attracted her full attention to this temple, and for a time those children who come here will enjoy her blessing."
"I'm glad," Ivory said, though in truth she did not care that much about children she did not know. However she did not begrudge them the benefit they would receive.
While they had taken advantage of all the temples and churches, the real reason they had come to Great Forks was to shop.
Lookshy was a great military city, but it had lacked in some things Darken Gray had thought they needed.
In the Southwest of the city's core was the House of Learning, the city's first university. All around it was the places that catered to the scholars, including many book sellers. Darken Gray and Ivory poured through stacks of books, scrolls, even some rare First Age reading devices. They spent a small fortune to completely fill the travelling pagoda's library.
Afterwards, in an expensive restaurant just outside of the university they had an early dinner. Darken Gray quizzed her on much they had seen that day, and Ivory answered promptly and correctly.
It attracted the attention of a few of the university's teachers, and a Scavenger Lord, who were sitting nearby.
Soon the men had joined them at their table, interested in talking to Ivory, apparently fascinated by her knowledge and her youth.
"You have a quick mind, my dear," the Scavenger Lord said. "A smart young lady like you could go far."
Ivory only smiled and did not mention she had likely already gone farther than he.
"In a few years," the oldest of the teachers said, "you must attend the university. You will do well there I think."
"Thank you sir," Ivory said, tone polite.
Darken Gray sat silently, drinking a glass of wine, watching.
"You say you are travelling, seeing some of the world I take it?" another teacher asked. He was a young man with neatly combed hair. He addressed the question not to Ivory by to Darken Gray.
Darken Gray put her glass down. "That is so. I am to see to Ivory's education."
"Travel is a fine way to learn," the older said. "A basis to build upon. You are a lucky young lady."
"I am aware."
The younger, who was apparently flirting with Darken Gray said, "The opportunity to broaden the next generation's mind is a great one." He held up a wine bottle. "Another drink?"
"Please, and thank you. I am always pleased to meet those who share my passions for teaching."
And she was flirting back, Ivory thought.
When the meal ended, Darken Gray took Ivory to an Inn, close to the House of Learning.
The building was four stories tall, with a lounge and restaurant on the ground floor. Carpets or ceramic tiles covered the floor, polished, dark woods on the walls and ceilings. It was a restrained luxury.
She and Darken Gray had rooms on the third floor.
Ivory went to the window of her room and looked down on the streets below. She then crossed the hall and knocked the door of Darken Gray's room.
"Come in."
She entered. Darken Gray had removed her jacket and shoes, was seated on the bed.
"I want to go out and look around, maybe go down the docks and see if everything was delivered."
"Very well. Maintain a low profile please."
"I will," Ivory said, not asking what constituted a low profile.
If she did not ask she could not be blamed if her profile was too high after all.
Hu joined up with her outside of the Inn, walking at her side.
Since the tiger had been with her most of the day she considered having Hu with her was still low profile.
Even as the day reached its end Great Forks was still busy, the roads between the docks and the centre of the city still crowded. Ivory moved among wagons and their drivers, couriers and bearers of all sorts of cargo. Crowded as it was, the people gave Hu and, by the relation of her position at his side, Ivory, plenty of room.
They reached the docks without incident, and Ivory found the quay where the pagoda was tied up and guarded.
She did not recognise the guards, but they recognised her for one welcomed her back.
Likely few red headed girls in the city were in the company of a tiger.
The books, papers, pens and other various sundry items were neatly stacked on the dock, a tarp tossed over the boxes and parcels.
Ivory unlocked the pagoda's door, disarming the alarms at the same time.
Asking the help of some of the guards she got everything carried into the pagoda and placed in the foyer. She left Hu there to discourage anyone curious and made a quick tour of the pagoda, taking one of the smaller boxes to the library.
Satisfied that the pagoda was indeed secure and safe Ivory left, locking it up behind her.
As they walked towards the gate Ivory said, "I want to go up on the wall."
Hu paused, and then told her, "Climb on my back."
Ivory smiled and, careful with her skirts, climbed upon his back, her fingers gripping the fur of his back.
Hu moved fast, slipping into shadow, disappearing from the sight of those who were watching. He came out of another shadow, near the base of the wall, and went up the stone, fast. Ivory gripped tightly with her knees as Hu summited the wall, leaping up and then dropping upon the walkway along the top.
They had gone unseen for she heard no cry of alarm or surprise.
Ivory slipped from Hu's back and walked to the low parapet, looking down at the city.
The sun was closing on the horizon and the wall was throwing long shadows over half of the city.
Near the walls were the taller buildings and crowded tenements. Ivory had seen them from the ground, but looking down she had a much better view. People moving around, clotheslines stretched between buildings, rooftops covered in gardens. She could smell the scents of cooking, of hundreds of spices and wood smoke.
Beyond the tenements the city stretched towards the centre, the nature of the roofs changing the closer to the Palace of the Three.
"I could live here," she said after a time.
"What of the Ice Tree?" Hu asked.
Ivory did not answer immediately. "I don't like it there as much," she finally said.
"Because Sparrow brought in that Dragon Blood engineer?"
"Yeah, kind of."
"What about Heron?"
Ivory thought on that, trying to find a way to put confused feelings into words. "As long as I am a child I can't compete with Sparrow. I met him first you know, but she doesn't seem to care."
Hu did not answer.
She looked at Hu. "It's not funny."
"Did you think I was laughing?"
"Maybe."
"Your assessment is correct."
Ivory nodded, looked back at the city. "If I can't win I'm not gonna to play anymore."
"It's not a game you should have been playing," Hu told her.
The tiger's tone made Ivory confident that Hu was commenting more on her young age, but she did not press him. Instead she said again, "I could live here I think. If I can't go home."
"You may be able to go home. Things are changing. The truth of Solars is becoming known."
"That will take a long time."
"Decades at the very least," Hu told her.
"Decades?" Ivory said softly.
"It is not long, not really."
"I've barely lived one decade. I can hardly picture many decades, stacked one on top of another."
That was not entirely accurate though. Through Liger's eye, she had been given the sense of vast amounts of time passing.
But that was not the same.
Even a year seemed like a long time to her.
"I wonder how many other cities there are where I might live. I've heard their names. Chiaroscuro, Whitewall, The Lap, Gem, Abalone, and others. I want to see them."
"You can."
Ivory nodded. "But…"
"But?"
"I want to see them with others. I want to share it."
"I'll be with you."
Ivory turned and put her arms around Hu's thick neck, hugged him. "I'm glad. Will you always be with me," she asked into his fur.
"Yes."
Ivory thought that Hu was lying, but she did not mind.
She liked being lied to about some things.