The “music” changed at the same time, to something as loud, but more complex, almost pleasant.
A clawtip pointed to the curved counter. She understood. It had to get to work. There were stools there. An easy step from any of those, a leap, and she’d be at the door to Gurdo’s room and the stairs to Enris. Satisfied, Aryl nodded and followed the Carasian as it lumbered its way through the milling crowd.
Not that there was a free stool until Gurdo snapped a claw and two scrawny Humans jumped off theirs and disappeared into the shadow and smoke. Aryl didn’t bother trying to shout her thanks. Instead, she rapped her knuckles on the nearest part of the huge being, then took her seat.
About to turn to watch the stage, Aryl realized one of the many-armed servers behind the counter was asking her a question. “Yes?” she shouted.
The server’s mouth moved again. Aryl cupped her hand behind one ear and shrugged helplessly. Obviously used to coping with the din, three hands appeared with empty containers of different shapes.
It meant a drink, but what? Aryl looked at her neighbors. The most popular beverage had an alarming plume of dirty yellow smoke; those drinking it used a long spoon to approach from the side.
“Let me,” said a friendly male voice in her ear. “Two Pink Riders, Yirs.”
“Coming up, KaeCee.”
This KaeCee was tall for a Human. Aryl studied him warily as he took the stool beside hers. He smiled and seemed harmless. Seemed. “Thank you,” she said politely, when the drinks arrived and he passed one to her. It didn’t look daunting. A layer of pink froth over a green liquid. Fruit had been impaled on the stick rising from it, fruit cut in the shape of an implausibly endowed male. She glanced at her new companion to see where to start.
He pulled the stick and fruit from his drink and tossed it on the counter, then leaned closer. “Louli tells them to reuse the garnish.”
Whatever that meant. Aryl dutifully tossed hers aside with some regret. Enris wasn’t the only one to feel hungry. She sipped the froth, then gave KaeCee an appreciative smile. The pleasant taste included an interesting warmth down her throat. “This is good.”
“Better than the floor show, that’s for sure.”
The figures on the stage? Aryl watched for a moment, non plussed when all they did was sway in time to the music and shed their clothes. The fruit on a stick had been not only implausible in size, she noted, but the wrong shape. “Much better,” she agreed, and turned away again.
“Personally, I’m more interested in beautiful strangers than dancing boys.” He edged closer on his stool. “I’m KaeCee. Tell me all about yourself.”
Aryl, busy taking another sip, glanced up in surprise. “No.”
“Beautiful and mysterious.” The Human licked pink froth from the hairs above his narrow mouth. All of his features were narrow, as was he. The hair on his head, an improbable blue, curled to his shoulders. When he ran one hand through it, Aryl noticed his fingernails were the same color. “Play nice,” he urged. “You know my name. What’s yours?”
Aryl put down the drink and frowned. “Go away.”
Perhaps he couldn’t hear her over the music, for he didn’t move. Instead, his eyes traveled over her. “You have the most remarkable hair. And that net you wear. Old. A family heirloom? I’ve never seen work like that. Where did you get it?”
About to repeat her warning, much louder, Aryl hesitated. “From home . . .” she answered, losing whatever else she might have said. “Before we left.” On impulse, she lifted her arm and showed him her bracelet. “This, too.”
“Nice work. But new,” in a dismissive tone. “My specialty is the ancient. The rare. Rare like you.” The Human reached for her hair. “What is it about you?” he asked, his voice gone strange, his eyes not quite focused. “There’s something . . .”
Don’t attract attention. Blend in. Which precluded slapping his hand away, she decided reluctantly. Her hair promptly retreated, twisting itself into an uncomfortably tight knot at the back of her neck.
Encouraging that unwelcome hand to pursue.
Hair wasn’t, Aryl realized, particularly clever. She slid off the stool and away from the hand before it touched. “I’ll be leaving,” she said firmly and did.
“Don’t go!”
Aryl joined the others pushing their way into the crowd around the stage.
KaeCee, undeterred, followed.
Aryl?
Remind me to tell you how well I blended, Aryl sent, not holding back a snip of outrage. Which wasn’t all because she was forced to run away. There was being surrounded by too many Humans, everyone with sloshing drinks and foul breath. There was breathing smoke and enduring brain-numbing noise.
Not to mention the floor was sticky.
Without warning, Aryl found herself pressed against the side of the stage by the crowd. She looked up naked legs and other parts to find herself staring into golden eyes the size of her fist.
“You!” she shouted.
“Wait!” KaeCee cried from behind.
There were times no action would end well. Aryl stared up at her quarry, quivering with the desire to leap on the stage and grab it, knowing she shouldn’t. It, meanwhile, began a graceful gyration to the left, traveling away from her as quickly as it could given the lack of space between its fellows and their lack of cooperation getting out of its way.
Unfortunately, not moving gave the persistent Human all the time he needed to catch up and breathe down her neck. Aryl dug a discreet elbow sharply into his ribs. As he gasped, she took advantage of a gap between tables to go left herself, keeping the golden-eyed creature in sight.
Only wise, she told herself, to keep all options available.
A sweaty hand gripped her arm. Shields tight, proud of her restraint, Aryl glared into his flushed face and said very clearly, “I will break your wrist.”
KaeCee let go, but didn’t retreat. “If you want the Aala, I’ll hire him for the night. Just come back with me.”
Aala. The golden-eyed creature had a name. Was male.
Night? How could she know for sure, down here?
How could she believe anything this Human told her? Aryl forced the edge from her voice. “I don’t need him all night. I need him to show me how to reach the top layer of this city.” To free her people. To take them to the sun and sky. She hadn’t realized the urgency of that need until now. Her breath caught. “Can you arrange it?”
This produced a beaming smile. Two of his teeth, she noticed, had been inlaid with tiny stones. “My dear beauty. I can do better. You don’t need him. I can take you.”
“You know the way?”
“Of course. You don’t think I live here, do you?” He paused as if waiting for a reply, then continued more quickly. “My offices are in the Sun Layer itself. I come down occasionally. For the scenery.” With a move closer.
Moved or was pushed. The music had increased in tempo, causing a mass shuffle toward the stage among the spectators. To express disapproval? From what Aryl could see, those who made it close to the stage either threw items to impede the footing of those on it or slapped them.
Then she noticed how those on the stage came perilously near its edge to provide flesh to be slapped, and how each slap left behind a patch of gold or silver.
Not disapproval. As for what it was?
Aryl shook her head. Watching pox eat their flop-eared prey made more sense.
“Here.” KaeCee pressed something small and round into her hand. “Why should Brocheuse get them all?” With a wave at a nearby gyrating Human, whose bare skin sparkled with patches. Among other things. Flecks of metal pinched his skin along lines that suggested the seams of clothing. That had to hurt. Maybe those watching gave him the patches out of pity, Aryl thought dubiously.