City of gods - Hellenica (25 page)

“Come here,” he said.

Saoirse came near, keeping some distance in case someone sprang at her.

“You’re a worshipper of Poseidon, just like me,” said the old man. “Undercover.”

Saoirse could tell that he was genuinely mistaken and  didn’t  see her as a god.

“I’m not,” she said with a smile.

“Ahhh, you and I are the only ones in the courtroom not wearing Babylonian clothes, so I thought you were with me,” he said. “Still, just the fact that you’re not one of Dagon’s henchmen gives us kinship. My name is Melicertes;
Mel
for short.”

“I’m Saoirse,” she said.

“Pleased to meet you,” said the old man. “Yeah, it was a real show in there all right. Everyone in the court was on Dagon’s payroll, including the judge; probably the court-appointed lawyer too!”

The old man coughed, and then spat on the courthouse steps.

“Dagon’s public relations machine will always win out. They say his docks represent
progress
, but at what cost? His district brings the conurbation food, but puts more pollution into the air than all the other districts combined! There’s no crime in his district, but that’s because if you do anything to get in the way of his money, one of his goons will make you disappear in the middle of the night. There
are
murders there, don’t you worry about that. Miss a tax payment and you’ve got a one-way ticket to the sea, and you won’t return.

“I don’t blame anyone for not following Poseidon; there’s no profit in it. I’ve followed him my whole life and he’s never helped me once.”

“With all due respect Mr. Melicertes,” asked Saoirse, “if he does—”

“Call me Mel,” he said.

“Of course,” said Saoirse. “So
Mel
, if your god doesn’t help you, why
do
you follow Poseidon?”

“I wish I didn’t have to,” said the old man with a laugh, “but I must, for the conurbation. Dagon’s council is right; our society is falling apart, but it’s not Dagon that’s keeping us from collapse, it’s my god, Poseidon, though not even
he
knows it. Dagon sells the conurbation food, but the fish come from Poseidon’s ocean. Poseidon sends rain, and his plankton cleanse the air of pollutants. If Poseidon were to disappear, we’d be in big trouble. It’s my job to make sure he stays where he is; I’ve dedicated my life to it.”

Saoirse paused for a moment and contemplated whether she could trust the old man Melicertes. Understanding animals came naturally to her, but humans took work.
Humans are simply sentient animals,
her teacher Manitou once told her.
Read them just as you’d read a wolf.

She sensed she could trust Melicertes. He seemed genuine, and more, he seemed lonely.
If he wanted to tell my secrets,
thought Saoirse,
he’d have no one to whom to tell them.
Couch your query so he does not think you insane, and see what he tells you.

“Mr. Melicertes?” she asked.

“Mel,” he said. “That’s what I like to be called.”                           

“Forgive me,” said Saoirse. “Use of formal names is due to my training; I’m a reporter.”

“A reporter!” he laughed. “Doing a story on
show trials
, I take it?”

“No,” she said, “I’m investigating a rumor, a bizarre rumor that I don’t fully understand. I’d love your thoughts on it.”

“I’ve got nowhere else to go, darling,” said the old man with a smile.

“There’s a theory that Dagon captured the Mermaids to control them. One Mermaid made a deal with the King Basilisk to give him beauty in exchange for sending his basilisk children out to attack a certain …
district
. After the basilisks bit members of that district, demons invaded their victims’ dreams, causing some to go insane, and some to be controlled by an external force.”

Saoirse thought that chain of events silly as it came out of her mouth, but noticed that Melicertes was nodding in agreement.

“Sounds like Dagon,” he said.

“Really?” asked Saoirse.

She smiled but tempered her excitement and regained her reporter’s composure.

“Go on,” she said.

“Dagon pulls convoluted maneuvers like this all the time,” said Melicertes. “He’ll send gods to bribe mortals to build a labyrinth to trap a rival. He’ll blackmail a nymph to lure an ordinary man away from his wife so that she’ll miss a minor council vote. To the world he’s just a thug, but he achieves his agenda through
schemes
. These schemes have so many steps that they’re talked about by conspiracy nuts perhaps, but they’re never traced back to him. And Dagon’s strange plans always seem to end up working.”

“What does he hope to achieve by sending demons into dreams?” asked Saoirse. “Demons tend not to be so controllable.”

“Listen to me closely, child,” said Melicertes, leaning in. “Whether he sends a tame Mermaid or a wild demon, Dagon has but one goal:
more
. More land, more ocean, more rights, more money, more worshippers and just …
more
. When you get to the bottom of this rumor and find yourself tied to a chair, being interrogated by his Babylonian goons, remember that though his schemes are complicated he wants only one thing. His only agenda is
more
.”

/***/

Saoirse draped a cloth over her head, put on her oversized dark glasses and crept back quietly through the Yōkai district. She looked odd, but in this district of Japanese spirits she was just another castout.

Gunnar was the one who had decided to hide them in the Yōkai. They could have gone to the Manitou or even fled the conurbation altogether, but Gunnar liked the central location of the Yōkai slums. It was close enough to explore the mystery wherever it led them, but bizarre enough for them to avoid notice. 

Saoirse looked up at a half-decayed flophouse and saw some graffiti on the side, written in crude Yōkai pictographs. She understood a little of it from Elysia’s language training.

P
owerful gods never suffer,
it said,
someone else always pays.

Saoirse laughed; it was true. Powerful gods had struggles, to be sure, but they never seemed to bear the consequences. Poseidon might lose a rigged trial here and there, but he wouldn’t
suffer
like the Yōkai. The Japanese Yōkai were gods, but weak gods, so weak that mortals often employed them.
They’re esoteric forest sprites with unclear powers,
thought Saoirse.
They’ll never escape this broken-down district.

Saoirse realized that the only entity that had an interest in protecting these creatures was the Academy.
They saved me from a life as a Hetaera,
thought Saoirse.
Perhaps if I save the Academy, it will one day help save these Yōkai
.

Saoirse stopped at the stoop of their tenement; it rose upwards endlessly into the grey haze. She entered the building and the Tanuki landlady came out with some cookies and smiled at her, pointing cheerfully towards the attic where the other Horsemen were housed. She was a raccoon-like Yōkai, but her fur was mottled, filthy, and smelled of urine; she was cheerful but oblivious to the ways of modern life. The Tanuki landlady smiled and said
”Up there,”
as if it were news that the Horsemen were in the attic. Saoirse felt warmth from the Tanuki landlady, but knew warmth wouldn’t conceal them. If Spartan guards came searching for them, the Tanuki landlady would simply smile, offer cookies, and say “
Up there
.” 

Saoirse went upstairs to their safe house, and then went upstairs once more to reach the attic.  She gave a coded knock and Gunnar let her in, soon followed by Kross, who jumped on her and started to whine. She imagined his anxiety; what would it be like to be thrown into a world where no one but your master shares your language? She pet Kross and hugged him.

Don’t leave more,
he said.
Don’t leave more.

She told Gunnar of the trial and then of the old man. Gunnar shot a knowing glance to Tommy and then sat at the table in the middle of the room. Gunnar spread out a map of the conurbation and pointed to a far corner of Dagon’s docks.

“Dagon keeps his Mermaids here, in his aquarium,” said Gunnar. “We’re going to break into it and question them. My responsibility is to get us in and out, but Saoirse, can you speak their language?”

“With time,” she said. “Mermaids don’t have a hidden agenda, but they always seem to speak in riddles and metaphors. It will just take time.”

“We’ll get you there, but we might not have time,” said Gunnar. “Dagon loves his aquarium, and most of all his Mermaids. Some alarm somewhere might go off.”

“It will take time,” said Saoirse. “Mermaids are odd …”

“If she needs more time, Gunnar,” said Tommy, “we can give her more time.”

Gunnar nodded at Tommy; they had a secret plan in case everything went badly.

Gunnar got Kayana to stop meditating and brought her over to the table. He pointed to Dagon’s docks and then looked at the team.

“We’ll enter Dagon’s district in the cover of night; Spartan mercenaries aren’t allowed there, so we won’t need disguises. We’ll find our way to the aquarium, break in, and the Mermaids will tell us what’s happening, and perhaps even clear our name.”

“What about my hyaena, Kross?” asked Saoirse. “Can we bring him?”

“Dagon’s district is a bizarre place; pet hyaenas patrolling the streets are not uncommon. He can come with us,” said Gunnar. “As long as he can swim.”

/***/

They left their tenement at sundown; the Tanuki landlady arranged a ride for them. It was a covered, half-broken rickshaw with a boy driver who looked to be twelve years old, but it concealed them well. Citizens of the other districts were so accustomed to ignoring Yōkai rickshaws that Saoirse and her group were all but invisible.

The rickshaw driver called back to them and said that they were going on one of the long-distance trains. Saoirse peeked outside and saw that workers were loading the entire rickshaw on the back of the train.
They ignore the Yōkai so much that we could travel a thousand kilometers without them pulling back this curtain. We’re beyond invisible.

They rode on the train for an hour. Kross kept asking Saoirse where they were going, but Gunnar bid the hyaena to be quiet.

“We’ll be able to speak freely once we’re in Dagon’s district,” said Gunnar. “Dagon’s greedy, but if you aren’t hurting his bottom line, you can say whatever you want.”

They eventually got off the train and were ordered by Dagon’s border patrol to exit the rickshaw.

“It’s okay,” said Gunnar, “they’ll let us through; do everything they say.”

Two of Dagon’s patrolmen chattered in Babylonian with each other, one with an Algonquin accent and one with the accent of Hellenica. They inspected Tommy’s suit and allowed him through without making him take it off. They gave Saoirse’s hyaena a once-over and let him through. Kross actually said
Thanks
in his tongue, and though the guards did a double-take, they simply found it funny. Kayana and Saoirse went through easily, and after finding that Gunnar had brought eight weapons, they let him through and gave him the weapons back without even registering them.

“Punishment is severe in Dagon’s district, so severe that he doesn’t care what you bring in as long as you don’t use it,” said Gunnar. “Even Zeus would be afraid to let his lightning loose here.”

They walked through the gates and saw that Dagon’s district was bustling with a continuous stream of activity, from the train station on to the horizon.
It’s midnight,
thought Saoirse,
and still the streets are filled.

“Dagon’s docks run continuously,” said Tommy. “We studied them on Lepros. Fishermen come in at every hour, and the fish are processed and sent out within five hours of landing. The cannery has three shifts of workers.”

Saoirse looked around and saw workers just starting their day and outgoing workers headed to the pubs.
The pubs are probably owned by Dagon too,
she thought.

They walked by shops owned by ex-Celts, Spartans, Apaches, and even immigrants from the Yōkai district. There were tea-houses, bakeries, medicine-huts and shops that seemed to sell just about everything. Every shop prominently displayed a picture of Dagon in the window.

This place is odd, to be sure
, thought Saoirse,
but all come here willingly, and then stay. The Yōkai shopkeepers are clean, without mottled hair. This place is disquieting, but Dagon’s society isn’t without its draw. Everyone who comes here will have a “place.”

They came to the edge of the main business district and then got in a line for water taxis. Dagon had flooded some streets to make canals and the quickest way to get around was by boat, even if you were going inland.

They got on their water taxi and asked the driver to take them to the aquarium.