The desk man approached, still grinning, with a bundle of clothing in his arms. He handed it to Jan. “Put this on.”
She let the clothing fall open and saw that it consisted of one of those baggy, one-piece suits she’d seen earlier. As she climbed into it—marvelling at the strange fastener down the front of it that didn’t feel sticky but joined together like magic—Tanith said to her, “How old are you, Jan?”
“Eighteen.”
He put his hand on her shoulder. “Is that all? Well, it’s time to see your new world. The place where you’ll be spending your remaining one hundred and eighty-two or so years—if you’re lucky.”
Chapter Seven
It was the smell that made the most powerful impression on Jan initially. Never before had she encountered so many unwashed human bodies in such close proximity. And there were other smells too—all of them bad. She noticed piles of animal dung on the straw matting that made up the surface of the ‘road’ and wondered why the people didn’t bother to gather it up and simply throw it out of the airship.
As she followed Tanith along the road she had to keep reminding herself that she was indeed on the Sky Lord. If it hadn’t been for the low ceiling with its bright-as-day lights she could have been walking through the main thoroughfare of some crowded but incredibly dirty town. There were shop fronts and a variety of other building façades with entrances and windows built into both sides of what she realized was a very wide corridor. And it was also a very long corridor—Jan felt as if she’d been walking along it for hours but knew it was probably only fifteen minutes ago that she and Tanith had emerged from the small, moving room that had carried them up from the decontamination section.
Her first close look at how people lived within the Sky Lord had come as a shock. None of her many imaginings since childhood about what went on inside the vast airship prepared her for the squalor or filth that greeted her when she stepped out in to the ‘street’. Apart from the crowds of people in their drab clothes—some were little more than dirty rags—there were many animals; goats, pigs, chickens and even sheep. There were also numerous children about, to add to her surprise, and of varying ages, which meant that the Sky People didn’t have a fixed breeding time. …
Jan attracted attention along the way, most of it antagonistic. Men, and quite a few women, jeered at her, calling her ‘amazon’, ‘earthworm’, ‘earth-scum’, and worse. At one point an angry man stepped in front of Tanith and demanded by what right he brought a disease-ridden earthworm into the centre of their town. Tanith put his hand meaningfully on the hilt of his sword and told the man to get out of their way. The man did so, but not before spitting at Jan.
A short time later Jan was caught off her emotional balance when a woman stepped up beside her and said to Tanith, “The child looks famished, soldier. May I give her this?” And she extended a large, red apple to Jan. Jan’s stomach immediately started to rumble, though at the same time she was suspicious of the gesture. Was there something wrong with the apple? Was it poisoned?
Tanith gave a shrug. Jan took the apple and mumbled her thanks to the woman. She studied the apple suspiciously but her stomach overruled the misgivings of her head and she bit hungrily into it. It was full of juice and tasted delicious. At that moment she didn’t give a damn if it was poisoned.
She was just finishing the apple when Tanith came to an unexpected halt in front of her and she bumped into his back. He took hold of her wrist and said gruffly, “Through here. …”
They had stopped in front of an open doorway which had a sign above it reading: THE GUILD OF GLASS WALKERS. Jan realized that this might be her last chance to try and escape from Tanith; despite her weakness from lack of food she was confident she was still capable of knocking him unconscious with a quick, surprise blow. The problem was where could she possibly escape to after that?. Swift recapture would be almost certain, and then would come the long drop. …
So she allowed Tanith to push her through the doorway and into a dimly-lit lobby. Two men were lounging on a low bench against a wall while a third sat behind a big desk made of wicker work. All three men were heavily built and dressed in black one-piece suits. Unlike the other sky people Jan had seen so far they were heavily tanned.
The one behind the desk put down the cup he’d been drinking from and said cheerfully, “Is this our new earthworm, Warrior Tanith?”
Tanith gave her a shove forward. “She is indeed.”
The man looked Jan up and down in the same slow way as the man in the quarantine room had. This time, at least, she wasn’t naked but it felt as if his eyes could see right through her clothing and her skin crawled just the same.
“Benny,” said the man. “Take them through to the boss.”
One of the men sitting on the bench got up and beckoned that they should follow him. Jan noticed that his only weapon seemed to be a small club hanging from his wide leather belt. He led them down a short corridor, then through a doorway and into a large room filled with a haze of perfumed smoke. The walls were hung with crude tapestries and large cushions covered most of the floor. Sitting on a pile of these cushions in the centre of the floor was the fattest man Jan had ever seen. To be totally accurate he was the only fat man Jan had ever seen—obesity being unknown among the Minervans. She supposed he must have weighed at least two hundred and fifty pounds. His one-piece garment, decorated with coloured designs, revealed massive rolls of fat around his stomach, chest and thighs, and his neck was so fat he seemed to have no chin at all.
But he wasn’t the only odd sight in that room. Kneeling behind the fat man on the pile of cushions, and gently massaging the back of his huge neck, was a young girl who, at first glance, appeared to Jan to be entirely naked. However Jan then saw that the girl was wearing a very small loin cloth that was little more than a few strips of leather. Her lack of clothing, and the obsequious expression the girl wore as she kneaded the fat man’s neck, made Jan feel both ashamed for her and disgusted.
“Aha, the amazon!” exclaimed the fat man in his deep voice as Tanith pushed her forward. “And a meaty little item she is too, by the look of her.”
As he leered at her Jan had the horrible thought that he was going to make her undress as well but to her relief he simply chuckled and said to Tanith, “She’ll make a dandy glass walker. Are there any other amazons to be had?”
Tanith explained what had happened. The fat man made sounds of regret then reached under one of the cushions and brought out a small leather bag that jingled metallically when he shook it. “Your agreed price, soldier,” he said and tossed the bag to Tanith. “You may go now.”
Tanith slipped the bag into his belt pouch without checking the contents. “Thank you, Guild Master,” he said then turned and exited quickly from the room. Jan felt a mild regret to see him go. He may have been her captor but he had been a tenuous link with her former life. She stared anxiously at the fat man, who had now picked up a wooden implement from a bowl in front of him and was sucking on it. Smoke poured out of the end, to Jan’s wonder.
“Well, amazon,” he said, “I hope you appreciate your position and don’t intend any displays of disobedience. I trust the consequences of such behaviour have been explained to you?”
She nodded and tried to look meek.
“Good. You look as if you’ll be a valuable worker. I’d hate to lose you too soon. And mind you obey whichever of my male slaves ends up with you. I hear you’ve been trying to keep up any of that Minervan foolishness and I’ll have you whipped. You live in a man’s world now, amazon, where women have no power at all.” He suddenly laughed. “Not that my late wife ever did accept that fact of life.”