"Come on." I stepped into the traffic. He followed me. We turned right and moved with the flow of the crowd. Beast trotted a few steps ahead of us, clearly in charge of the expedition.
To the left a small hooded creature darted through the crowd. A tall woman, skeletally thin and wrapped in hundreds of silvery chains, chased after it, yelling. The creature zigzagged and veered right. The woman tried to follow and collided with a large cloaked creature. He whirled around, his face an odd meld of dinosaur and human, and lunged at her. The woman howled and raked him with long claws. They ripped into each other, rolling on the ground. The crowd parted around them and kept moving, leaving them snarling and growling.
"Fun place," Sean said.
"Whatever you're looking for, you will find it at Baha-char," I said. "That includes trouble."
We crossed the street and turned left into one of the side streets, which was only slightly less wide. Here the traffic was lighter. To the left and slightly in front of us, two men walked shoulder to shoulder. The first wore leather pants, a white shirt with wide sleeves, and a leather vest over it. A wide leather bracer enclosed his left forearm. His hair, a rare blond shade, almost gold, hung in a ponytail down his back. He moved with a casual aristocratic elegance, perfectly balanced. Watching him, you had a feeling that if the road suddenly became a tightrope, he would just keep on walking without breaking a stride. My father moved like that. I sped up a little. We drew even and I saw a slender sword on his waist. That's what I thought. An expert swordsman.
I glanced at his face and blinked. He was remarkably handsome.
The man to his left was larger, his shoulders broader, his body emanating contained aggression. He didn't walk, he stalked, and you could tell by the way he moved that he would be very strong. His auburn hair looked like he'd rolled out of bed, dragged his hand through it, and gone on about his day. He wore dark pants and a black leather jacket that was more doublet than motorcycle. A ragged scar crossed his left cheek and when he turned his head, his eyes shone with yellow. Interesting.
"It's always work with you," the russet-haired man said.
"Some of us have to mind the safety of the realm," the blond said. A narrow smile curled his lips.
"I've given the realm eight years of my life. It can bite me," his stocky companion retorted. "How far is it?"
The slim man raised his left arm. A hawk dropped out of the sky and landed on his bracer. "We're almost there. Two blocks left."
"Good. Let's get this crap and go home."
They turned into the side street.
"That bird smelled dead," Sean said.
"Dead?"
He nodded. "A couple of days at least. Tell me something. Why live on Earth when you can live here?"
"Some people go to exotic places on vacation and fall in love with them. Some of them even stay and then, once the newness wears off, they find that this new place is just as rough and mundane as the one they left. Other people go to exotic places, visit, and then say 'That's nice, but I miss my house and it's time to go home.' Earth is home. There is no prettier sky, there is no greener grass, and there is no place that feels as right."
He mulled that over.
We made a right, then another right, and stopped before a large building. A rectangular doorway gaped in the middle, dark like the mouth of some beast. A gray-skinned woman blocked it. Her dark hair fell below her waist in thin dreads. She looked at us with gold eyes, saw my face, and smiled, showing a mouth full of sharp, triangular teeth.
"Greetings, Dina."
"Greetings, saar ah. Will the Merchant see me?"
"Nuan Cee always has time for you." Saar ah stepped aside. "Come on in."
The foyer opened into a large room. Large square tiles, gray with the familiar geometric border, lined the floor and climbed the walls. Green, blue, and dark purple plants grew here and there in ornate pots. At the far wall, a long slit spilled water across tile and it ran down the twenty-foot wall to fall into a narrow basin with a soft splash.
A low table, carved from a solid block of volcanic glass, stood to the left, surrounded by comfortable, dark purple sofas. Saar ah led us to it, smiled and showed her shark teeth, then went to stand by the wall. We both remained standing.
"What is she?" Sean asked me quietly.
"I've seen her people a couple of times, but they are reclusive and usually keep to their own world. I can tell you that for saar ah to serve a Merchant, she would have to be really good. There are hundreds of vendors at the Baha-char, but only a few dozen of them are Merchants. Merchants handle significant transactions and to become one, you have to have a fleet and show a lot of profit. Some of them specialize in large shipments. Some like Nuan Cee, deal in rare goods. Basically, if you want something you can't readily buy on the street because it's hard to find or you need it in a large quantity, you go to a Merchant."
"Anything I need to know about this particular Merchant?" Sean asked.
"Nuan Cee is vain, fussy, and difficult." I glanced at saar ah. "Anything I left out?"