Leviathans

One foot. Then the next. A way out. She needed a way out. Her ragged breathing filled her ears. She could feel every desperate beat of her heart. A hand closed on her shoulder. She kicked back, and felt someone crumple. Tears threatened to flow but she refused to let them. Instead, she ran. People caught by the Peacekeepers tended to disappear. Permanently. If she could just out run them. Make it to the tower. She pushed past a group of people, crashing through them. They fell behind her with indignant yells of surprise.

A cart pulled up ahead of her, two Haralam jumped off of it. Their purple masks scattered the crowd almost as effectively as their almost driving a cart through it. They charged. She dove to the side to avoid their grasping arms, and then slid under the cart to the other side. Curses followed her. Rayne could hear the commotion. People were screaming. Some tried to get in her way. She shoved them. Hard. She couldn’t make it long in the rich district. She needed to get out. It was impossible to hide here. She paused for a moment, panting. A flash of memory from when she was a child. A hole in the wall that surrounded the district. There might be a way.

Just another street or two, and she would be there. She heard yelling. She started running. Almost there. Please Rayne thought, turning corner into the right alley. She whimpered as her eyes desperately scanned the wall. She jumped at every sound. She nearly began to sob as she heard the footsteps. But then, hope. The piece of wood that the urchins used to cover the hole so it would stay unnoticed. She ran at it, and pulled it aside. Relief flooded Rayne as she saw the narrow gap. Her knees met the floor, and she went in backwards, closing the gap behind her.

Her breathing echoed. Her lungs burned. Her whole body shook as she maneuvered herself so she was facing forwards. A stray rock jabbed into her thigh. Rayne bit her lip to stop from making any more noise. The hard sound of footsteps from the alleyway behind her. The Haralam were here. One hand in front of the other in the small crawlspace. Shouts echoed in the small space. Her eyes squeezed shut against the darkness. She smacked her head into a piece of wood. “ah, shit!” she breathed, her eyes shooting open as she rubbed at the bump.

Rayne reached out tentatively, her head throbbing. She found what she was looking for, and pushed. When it didn’t budge, she pushed harder. A small snap, and light rushed into the hole she was in as the wooden planks fell outwards. She crawled forward into the dirty alleyway, and sat up. She looked around. A group of kids was staring at her, their mouths agape. She smiled weakly. Suddenly she heard a scratching sound from behind her. The hole. She crouched down and looked in, a lump in her throat. She screamed and flailed backwards onto her backside when she saw the sequence of lights coming from the mask just a few feet away.

“Haralam!” she yelled at the children, whose eyes widened just before they ran. She followed suit, her hurried steps throwing up dust and sand. Another corner. She nearly crashed into a wall of people as she found a marketplace ahead of her. She let herself get lost inside of it. She needed to think. Her eyes darted from one side to the other. The raised voices around Rayne drowning out her gasping breaths. Less than a minute, and she saw one of the purple masks. She looked down, and tried to shuffle to the opposite edge of the market. Then, a thought struck her. She couldn’t go to the tower. They knew who she was. They would be waiting.

Almost to the edge of the crowd now. Her mind racing followed by her heart nearly stopping as a haralam passed close enough for her to see the individual hairs on his chin. She closed her eyes for a moment. A map of the city opened up in her mind. A line traced itself for her, finding a place for her to go. She opened her eyes. She didn’t know why talking about the leviathans as if they were real was forbidden. She had heard words like blasphemy being thrown around before, but – she shook her head. Not the time. She had to get somewhere safe. And there was only one place she could go other than the tower.

Rayne pushed out of the crowd, and then ran. A shout from behind her. Faster. Faster. She thought. She dodged people, jumped over merchant stands. She knocked over signs, and baskets. Desperately trying to keep those behind her away. She heard a scream and a crash. Grim satisfaction. There was another market coming up ahead, but she had to get to it first. Sounds followed her. She looked back into one of the purple masks. Dread filled her.

She started sprinting again, and almost ran into a Haralam who was trying to cut her off. She rolled to the side, and leapt onto one of the merchant stands. She vaguely registered the owner yelling at her to get off his vegetables. She glanced around her. There. A low roof. Rayne jumped, extending her hands. Fingers barely catching the ledge. One of the men grabbed her ankle, and she kicked him in the face. A dull crunch and he let go, blood streaming from his nose. She pulled herself up, and starting running across the roofs, jumping from one to the next.

She knew she couldn’t fight them off but she was nimble and strong. Thank you, hard technomage labor. From her vantage point, she could see the market full of people. Her chance. Rayne hung off the other side off the roof and dropped down, running into another alley, and then left into another street.

Rayne finished running down the street, and turned off of it into the open space, blending into a crowd. She saw her pursuers enter the square. Her heart felt like it was in her throat. Her lungs felt like they couldn’t pull in enough air. She was sweating, even though the coils in her coat should be cooling her down. She turned from the Haralm. Eye contact would make her stick out like a sore thumb. Everybody else was trying to pretend the Peacekeepers didn’t exist.

She maneuvered herself carefully through the press of people. Letting the motions of the crowd carry her forward. She stopped near one of the stands. A man selling cheap cloaks to keep off the heat. Rayne waited until she was distracted, and grabbed one quickly. Her mouth soured at her theft. Bigger problems. She moved a little more, and then crouched down and threw the cloak over herself quickly. Hopefully that keeps them off me for a bit. She thought, slowly moving towards one of the buildings. A jewelry shop. She’d been there before, to buy Lucy a birthday present. She knew there was a back door that could get her out of the market unseen.

She pulled the door open quietly, keeping her head down. The owner spared her a glance, but didn’t recognize her. Good, Rayne thought. The owner didn’t like her much. Fortunately, there was a small group of people distracting him. She thanked whatever higher power might exist, and ducked past him, and out the back.

A deep breath, and she started walking briskly forward. They didn’t know where she was anymore, and she needed to conserve her strength in case they found her. It would take another few minutes to make it to Lucy’s house from where she was. She silently thanked the Guild Master for all of the times that she had been sent to this particular part of the city for repairs.

She followed her sense of direction until she came to a part of the residential district that was a little better off than the surrounding area. Here, the homes were clean. Here, some of the luster of the stone shone through the dust. Small amounts of greenery decorated the homes. Wide arches and circular architecture, designed to generate as much shade as possible during the day. As she walked she saw the open yards, some with wells, or a single fruit tree in them. Another minute or so, and she came to a small two story house. The entrance was in a shadow cast by a small overhang. Tiny vines crept up the sides of the pillars that held it up. It was nicer than the homes around. More well kempt. Or at least, Rayne thought it was. She knocked on the wooden door, shifting her weight from one foot to the other. Nervous.

The door opened. “Rayne? What are you doing here?” Lucy asked, surprise coloring her voice. Rayne hugged her friend hard. “Hey, okay. What’s going on?” Lucy questioned, returning the hug. “I need you to do me a favor” Rayne answered, her eyes desperate. She couldn’t keep herself from looking down the street. Just to check. “I mean, what is it? Why do you look so scared?”

Rayne shook her head. “Haralam after me. I don’t know what to do, Lucy.” She said, her voice breaking.

Lucy looked startled, genuine fear appearing on her face. She looked around, and quickly pulled Rayned inside. “Explain please.” She ordered, and so Rayne did.