Flux

landlord and he and Miner left.
    They knew they were getting close to their destination when the crowds thickened and few people even spared them a glance. In fact, now and then Miner spotted a passerby who had lighter hair; a few of these people were wearing foreign clothing. Some of them were dressed very much like he and Ennek had been when they left Praesidium.
    Miner startled when he saw a man leading three others, each of whom was dressed in rags and had a wide collar around his neck. The leader—their master, perhaps—was tugging them along by means of chains affixed to their collars, as if they were dogs, and the slaves kept their eyes downcast. As they passed, Miner turned to watch them and saw that one of the slaves had fresh lash-marks visible on his bare back. Ennek noticed Miner’s distress and laid a calming hand on his arm. “It’s all right, Mine,” he whispered.
    The houses and other buildings along the road became larger and more closely packed, people’s movements more hurried, the noises louder and more strident. The dirt of the road gave way to cobblestones that were less comfortable to Miner’s sandaled feet. Miner inhaled and realized that above the scents of humans and animals and stone and wood, he could smell the sea. Ennek could as well—he took a few deep breaths and the tension that Miner hadn’t even realized was there eased from around Ennek’s shoulders and back.
    And then at last they came to a great wall made of smooth, gray stone. Embattled parapets lined the top of the wall perhaps thirty feet above the ground. As Miner watched, he could see glimpses of movement between the merlons, no doubt as guards patrolled back and forth. The road had led to a huge gate with a tall tower beside it. A thick metal portcullis was raised above the gate, and several guards stood on either side, all of them wearing armor of leather and bronze, with elaborate metal helmets on their heads. They eyed Ennek and Miner especially closely as the two men entered the gates, but no attempt was made to stop them.
    Miner instinctively shrank against Ennek as they entered the city. Everywhere around them were noise and motion; a hundred different smells filled his nose all at once and he could feel the tread of thousands of footsteps, the pounding of cart wheels on the pavement, the heat of human and animal bodies. Everywhere he looked were bright colors, signs in characters he couldn’t read, people with strange clothing, and merchants carting items whose usage was a mystery. It was completely overwhelming and it took all Miner’s courage not to huddle in a ball with his eyes squeezed shut and his hands over his ears.
    Ennek strode confidently ahead, and Miner was suddenly terrified that they would become separated as two women and a teenaged boy squeezed between them. He pushed rudely past the interlopers and wound his arm with Ennek’s. He didn’t know how such public displays would be greeted in this place, but it was the only thing he could do to get past his fear of being lost.
    “It’s amazing,” Ennek said, almost shouting to make himself audible over the din. “It’s like every festival day I’ve ever been to, all rolled up in one.”
    “Do you know where the palace is?”
    “No. But it shouldn’t be too hard to find. Let’s follow this main road and see where it takes us.”
    Where it took them was past shops and homes and little markets with hawkers braying loudly at passersby. They went by a large building with fancy carved pillars and piles of flowers near its threshold. They went by two parks: one tiny, with two stone benches and a single willow tree, and another quite large, with a pond in the middle. The road took them down several blocks of imposing houses with ornate front gates—it was quieter there—and another area where the shops were selling shoes and slippers of every imaginable design and color. And then the road curved around several official-looking buildings of white stone, and Miner thought they might have reached the palace at last. But a few more yards found them instead at the edge of a great harbor.
    Ennek stopped so abruptly that Miner, still holding his arm for dear life, collided with him and almost lost his footing.
    The harbor was crescent-shaped, with the city crowding most of its perimeter. The farther edge of it, which lay to their left, rose into steep, tree-covered slopes, while the edge to their right was level and contained what looked from