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“Legends say that a fierce storm from the sea destroyed it some thousand years ago,” he revealed as our slinky guide meandered us off the busy path and onto a wider side street.
“I guess that makes it too old for even Qita to know anything about it,” I mused.
Qita turned his head to one side to catch my attention with one yellow eye. “It is, but my great-grandfur told me the story when I was a kitten.”
I had to stifle my laugh at the title to avoid offending the storyteller. “What did he say about it?”
“He said that a great wall of clouds came from the sea and drove inland, leveling everything it came into contact with,” Qita revealed as he broke into a cute trot at the attention. “The capital at that time was close to the sea and very few people escaped the wrath of that storm. Many of the buildings were destroyed and the people fled inland where they built the new capital.”
“So what caused this huge storm?” I wondered.
Qita shook his head. “Great-grandfur didn’t know, but he said there had been trouble in the palace before everything happened and the people spoke of a curse on the king. That’s why one of the lesser houses came to the throne and that one was tossed out into the streets.”
I glanced up at Ben. “That didn’t happen to be your relatives’ house, did it?”
He shrugged. “I couldn’t say either way. There aren’t any first-hand accounts from the palace. It’s assumed that many of those inside its walls were killed during the destruction.”
Qita bobbed his head. “The king himself only survived because he was outside the city, not that it helped him with the people after he revealed himself to those who survived.”
“I bet,” I mused as I imagined all the disheveled survivors facing their pristine majesty. “I’m surprised they didn’t rip him apart then and there.”
“Oh, the king always has some guards around him,” Qita pointed out as he turned a sharp corner onto a very narrow street.
The way was so narrow, in fact, that Ben’s shoulders brushed against either wall. The ground sloped downward at a steep angle and the path was made up of more uneven steps than a road. The high walls created a tunnel effect around us that was punctuated by the occasional door or window. The crumbling state of the plaster and the piles of refuse told me we weren’t in the most fashionable part of the city.
A hideous stench hit my nostrils and I clapped my hand over my nose. “What is that?”
Ben flashed me a mischievous grin. “Let’s just say the plumbing isn’t the best in this part of the city.”
I winced and tried not to think about it. Qita had hurried his steps as we found ourselves traveling down to a large dip in the metropolis. We reached the bottom and discovered a small round courtyard with a well. A few women congregated around the watering hole cleaning their laundry and chatting away. At our coming, however, they cast suspicious looks at us. They wore cloaks and hoods that reminded me of Jania, and more than one sported a wart on their wrinkled face.
“Good evening, ladies,” Qita greeted them.
A collective gasp came from the women, and one of their number stabbed a finger at him. “We don’t want your kind in here!”
Qita’s tail twitched. “And what, pray tail, is wrong with my kind?”
“Bad luck, they is,” another chimed in as she spat on the ground. “Ever since the days of the old king.”
Qita plopped his butt down and turned his adorable nose up at the women. “Then we shall make this visit as brief as possible. Just tell us what we wish to know and we’ll be off.”
One of the women studied we three. “What is it yer here for?”
“We wish to know if we might find someone named Dakin,” Ben spoke up.
The woman slapped her knee and laughed. “You want to see Dak? What’s that old coot done now?”
“He may have some information that we’re looking for,” Ben told her.
She wrinkled her warty nose and rubbed the fingers of one hand together. “And what’s that worth to ya?”
Ben smiled and drew out his coin pouch. Its jingle caught the attention of the other two who jumped to their feet.
“I know where he is!” another of them spoke up as she scrambled toward us.
One of her companions snatched the back of her cloak and yanked her back only to take her place. “Don’t go getting greedy now! It’s mine to tell them!”
The one who had laughed drew up her cloak and dress, and revealed a rather unshaven and wrinkled leg. The eager pair tripped over her scrawny leg, but the force bowled them all to the ground in a flailing mess of limbs and complaints.
