7 - Boarri

The trip seemed to take far less time without her two companions incessantly trying for the verbal upper hand.  Or rather, Amaya amended her thinking, once Toneriko had mostly stopped, and Jouten had been forced to follow her example or else look quite foolish when his barbs were met with, at most, a raised eyebrow or rolled eyes.  In a shorter time than she would have believed possible, the walls of Boarri loomed on the horizon.  The amount of people they passed increased as smaller paths from villages and farmsteads intersected with and joined the main road, carts and carriages moving on to other roads, but others sharing their course.

“Mind your purse,” Toneriko cautioned as they at last drew near the South gate, one of the four large gates devoted to pedestrian traffic into and out of Boarri.  Pairs of guards stood at attention by the city wall, casting a wary eye over the crowd, occasionally taking someone aside for a search or brief questions.  “Though the guards mostly discourage them, the best cutpurse'll be smiling innocently two streets down by the time you notice your belt's any lighter.”

“Somehow I get the feeling you had a lot of practice with that innocent smile,” Jouten muttered.

Toneriko grinned at him. “I'll take that for a compliment.”  He chuckled, then caught himself and shook his head.

The sheer amount of people took Amaya by surprise-- to think, this was just one of the eight greater gates of Boarri, and never mind the lesser gates!-- and she had to remind herself not to forget herself completely.  Still, as they walked the wide main street, she couldn't help but stare at the myriad styles and faces, Toneriko pointing out the many fashions she didn't recognize.  There were copper-skinned Bak'kish, their black or red hair in braids occasionally dotted with tiny chiming bells, clad in flowing pants and long vests.  Dusky Arindi peered out with red or purple eyes from their draped cloth head coverings, the pointed toes of their boots just peeking out from the hems of their pants or robes, some wearing bracelets on their upper arms and thick collars of gold.  Some of the colors combined in their folded skirts and loose-sleeved blouses made Amaya blink.  Pallid Iduuvens wearing in cool pastels with scalloped hems drew even more attention to the striking contrast of their dark hair and decorations, the women with hair partially coiled at either side, supporting tall combs and lace veils.  Pale stones or delicate silverwork glittered as earrings on as many men as women, if not more.

But the majority of those present were Trovellian, dressed in slightly more elaborate versions of the familiar styles adopted by the villagers of Okome's Hollow.  Where hair was not clipped short, it was bound with cloth in a horsetail at the base of the neck, or caught up in a net on women.  Few sported jewelery, instead relying on intricate scrolls and panels of embroidery to brighten the otherwise subdued colors of their bell-sleeved outfits.  The women's full skirts ranged from just below the knee to above the ankles, always sporting several inches of embroidered or lace-edged layered petticoats and bright, sturdy boots.  Many women wore shawls looped around their elbows, the patterns of lace or embroidery coordinating with their petticoats.  The men wore snug breeches tucked into knee-high boots, their folded shirts reaching to the upper thigh.  Short, fitted vests with triangular hems at front were as common on both genders as multilayered fabric sashes that reached from hips to breastbone.  

The press of people around the gate gradually grew less as they moved deeper into the city along the cobblestones worn smooth by the passage of so many feet.  Buildings of three stories or more, made of pale brick and stone, supported slanting roofs of blue and green ceramic tile.  Each had an enclosed plot of carefully manicured ground out front, sometimes with a single graceful tree dripping fragrant blossoms over the street, others a tiny pond with miniature waterfalls ringed by broad river rocks, or occasionally a tavern with painted tables and benches, ivy covering the low walls accented with dark metal cages for light crystals.  Brightly painted shutters and doors advertised the services offered within as surely as displays of goods, with solid bands of color even on the most decorated doors to proclaim houses of healing, fabric shops, butchers, or one of a dozen other specialties.  As they went on, sedan chairs and carriages began to dot the traffic of the streets.

Amaya drank it all in eagerly.  She found that the constant activity of Boarri thrilled her, especially after the normal pace of life in her sleepy village.  Men and women strode with purpose, and she enjoyed feeling like a part of the bustle.  A man with a short knife in the palm of his hand ready to slice her belt purse “accidentally” bumped into her; before he could begin to murmur a facetious apology, she twisted his wrist back and to the side, his blade hitting the cobblestones only moments before he did.  Toneriko nodded in approval as he cursed and scurried off down a darker side street.  Yes, she rather liked the thrum of the crowd as they went about their business or pleasure, the very lifeblood of this vibrant city.

Their street widened as it intersected with several others, forming a broad square surrounding a tall statue of some long-dead queen on a plinth, her face serene and her hands folded on the pommel of an elaborately carved sword whose point rested between her feet.  They drew up near a rare corner where no musicians or tumblers were performing.  “Now's as good a time as any for me to be off and hearing what I can, in some establishments of a less than savory reputation,” Toneriko said, gesturing over her shoulder.  The street in that direction narrowed quickly, the buildings in varying states of lopsided disrepair, with no tiny gardens.  “You'll be wanting to go yonder,” she said, reversing her hand to indicate another, brighter street dotted with vendors.  “The Silk Quarter.  The merchant district proper.”

Jouten nodded.  “We'll be at Higa's store.  It's over on--”

Toneriko cut him off with a grin.  “I'll find it, not to fret.  Like as not, I'll even get there before you do.”  With that she turned and was quickly swallowed by the crowd, Jouten looking after her with a frown.

“To Higa's?” Amaya inquired of Jouten.

“To Higa's,” he affirmed.  “Come on, I know a shortcut.”  They, too, dove once more into the sea of people.

Further into the Silk Quarter, the plots of land in front of the shops often had covered stalls of goods on display.  The street itself was nearly as wide as the square they had left, with stands of every ware imaginable in a double line down the center of the street.  Hawkers eagerly advertised their produce and jewelery, some sporting trays of pins or trim hanging from their necks, other vendors selling meat pies or berry pasties from wheeled carts.  Determined haggling in half a dozen languages met Amaya's ears, coming from wool-clad commoners shopping for their own needs and neat servants sent on errands for their more well-off employers.

“Did you get lost the last time you used this shortcut, too?” she inquired after a while.  She wasn't certain when it had happened, but the stands around them now seemed to consist entirely of fishmongers.  She had a sneaking suspicion that Jouten didn't know when it happened, either.  With hardly a pause, he simply rolled his eyes and led her on down another collection of side streets, past taverns and inns with common rooms whose jollity overflowed into their gardens, weavers whose shops rattled with the clack of looms, smithies where the blows of hammer on hot steel rang out.  She would have liked to stop for more than the fleeting glimpses she caught through painted doors and shutters flung open wide to catch the spring breezes.  As she peered over a wall into a courtyard with dozens of caged birds like so many tiny singing jewels-- what practical use could those possibly serve?-- she thought they'd be lucky to find the shop they needed before nightfall, even without enough stops to satisfy her curiosity.  At least Jouten's route seemed to take on a tour through every street in the district, unintentionally giving her a taste of the many things found in the city.

When they at last turned onto a street of shops whose doors and shutters bore a double border of yellow and white, he breathed a quick sigh of relief.  “The yellow,” he explained, “means general items.  And the white...” He trailed off in disbelief as they approached a small figure leaning against a shop gate.

“The white means crystal matrices and other such modern convenience,” Toneriko finished with a smile as she left her gate to walk beside them.  “Told you I'd get here first,” she continued impishly.  “Did Joutei take you across the city and back thrice?”

Amaya smiled.  “I was curious about a lot of the shops.  I couldn't stop peering over the garden walls.”  It wasn't exactly a lie.

“And what about you?” Jouten said, nettled regardless.  “You're back so soon, I doubt you got any reliable information about--”

“Sometimes,” Toneriko broke in nonchalantly, though her eyes cast a quick significant look at each of them in turn, “it's best to be speaking of certain things elsewhere.”

Amaya frowned thoughtfully.  She supposed it was as much to protect their hides as the deserter Toneriko's, but she couldn't see the harm in even discussing secondhand gossip in a street too busy to be overheard.

“Someone is always listening,” Toneriko added as though reading her thoughts, barely loud enough to be heard over the babble of the crowd.  Jouten folded his arms across his chest and glared at her, but heeded the hint.

“Isn't Higa's shop nearby?” Amaya asked Jouten.

“It should be,” he said.  His brow furrowed as the normally steady flow of people slowed, clumping around the walls of a shop several buildings down to exclaim over something.  The green-plumed helmets of the city watch bobbed inside the garden, while another was visible just outside the gate, keeping people out.

“It could be the next shop over,” he said, without much conviction.  And sure enough, as they drew even with the crowd, it was plain that their focus was the very shop the three had been heading for.

“Of course it's not,” Amaya said under her breath.  “That would be making things too easy.”  Toneriko shot her a sympathetic half-smile.

“What happened here?” Jouten asked one of the bystanders in a neat apron trimmed in red embroidery, the mark of those who worked with and sold fabrics.

She cast an appraising eye over Jouten and returned his smile.  “Oh, hardly half a thing to fret over,” she said lightly, tilting her head.  “More's the fuss since it's so rare, in this quarter.  Higa had a break-in, scarce a handful of minutes before.  And were that not enough odd for you,” she continued, glancing at the broken glass scattered over trampled shrubs, “them that did it took but one thing.”  Jouten's encouraging “oh?” was hardly necessary; the aproned girl barely paused for breath before continuing.  Judging from the way his smile was taking on a decidedly fixed quality, he was wishing he had asked someone more succinct.  “They made such a ruckus I'm uncertain as to how they got away from the guard at all.  Though,” she confided in a whisper only slightly quieter than her normal voice, “it looked to me that with their guns they used magics.  Or mayhap they had some spellglows, but for certain sure, they--”

“How many of them were there?” Amaya interrupted.  The shopgirl only spared her a flicker of an irritated glance before addressing her considerably more friendly reply to Jouten.

“A pair.  I saw them through the window of Miss Mashi's, where I'll be reaching the end of my shift in no time at all,” she said, winking at him.

“What did they look like?” Amaya persisted.  Toneriko seemed to be too busy suppressing giggles at Jouten's obvious discomfort to contribute anything to the conversation.

The girl's irritation was more marked this time, and she darkly adjusted her hairnet before answering.  “They were around your height, both of them, dressed all in black.  Suits, like.  The girl was towheaded, and her friend was dark and had... red hair.  Yes, red hair.”  She made a face.  “Not my type at all,” she said, looking Jouten over once more and taking a step closer to him.  “I strongly prefer a more--”

“TIA!” a deep female voice bellowed.  Several members of the crowd jumped; the aproned shopgirl suddenly had the air of a cat caught shredding a silk gown.  “You've still a fair number of skeins to sort before you're finished, girl, and if you keep flapping your skirt at anything with two legs, you'll be staying late again, so help me!”  Tia tried to retain her dignity as she took her leave, though a fresh outbreak of bellowing made her beat a hasty retreat.  Jouten sighed in obvious relief when she left with nothing more than a meaningful glance.

“Oft times things can work too well,” Toneriko mused as she looked at the dispersing crowd, and ignored Jouten's scowl.  As though the shopkeeper's voice were some sort of signal, the erstwhile onlookers seemed satisfied that nothing else exciting was to happen, and wandered off singly or in small clumps to continue their shopping or return to tending shops deserted in the afternoon's excitement.  “But regardless.  We'll have to come back; we'll not learn anything more here now unless...” She trailed off.  A green-plumed officer looked directly at the three of them for a long moment, then disappeared inside the shop.  He soon reappeared for a few words with the guard at the gate.  “Mayhap we should leave.  Quickly,” she murmured.

“It might be too late for that,” Jouten replied in an undertone as the guard headed directly for them.  “But we should be fine.  You didn't slit any throats today, did you?”

She shot Jouten a dagger-laden glare, but the guard was too close for her to reply.  “If you three would please come with me,” he said.  Despite the phrasing, it wasn't a question.

“It's getting late, and we don't have plans to stay within the city tonight,” Amaya temporized, glancing at the sun's position.  “Surely this can--”

“I'm afraid it can't wait, miss.  Lodging for your party will be provided if you must be detained past sunset.”  Amaya wasn't certain she liked the sound of being “detained”.  “The city thanks you in advance for your cooperation.”  She exchanged a glance with her companions; Toneriko looked guarded but resigned, and Jouten merely shrugged.

“How do we cooperate, then?” Amaya asked, not seeing any other option.

The guard gestured to the gate of the shop's trampled garden.  “Inside the shop.”  Seeing no choice, the three went in the direction he indicated, the sound of the guard's heavy boots close behind them on the cobblestones.