Chapter One
In Search of a Red Horse
Claudius half-awoke to the sound of wailing. He wondered where he was, why he was there, and who he was until the other half of his brain awoke.
Meridian. School. Claudius.
Right.
The contents of his duffle, neatly organized by his mother, had become a wad of clothing, notebooks, scattered monetary notes. The stone medallion and letter of recommendation that proved his admission to Meridian Academy sat on top of the mess.
The professor who had given them had warned him that losing the letter was bad, but without the medallion his recommendation was rendered invalid and that “if you lose it, buy the first train ticket home.”
Even then he couldn’t help but pull them out to admire once again.
The train bell rang loudly.
He was finally in Meridian.
During his sleep the old lady who must have hated fun had been replaced by a man flipping through a newspaper and an exhausted mother trying to quiet to the source of the wailing: a pair of sobbing toddlers.
Claudius dispatched a duo of his hummingbirds to chase each other in a ring above the toddlers. The brightness and rhythm enamoured the toddlers enough to quiet them.
“Thank you so much. I have no idea why being on trains just sets them off.” The frazzled mother said, “Where did you learn that trick?”
“My grandpa used to do the same thing for me when I was little. It didn’t work, but I think he’d be glad it helped someone.”
“You have no idea,” She said.
Her name was Shae, and she’d just moved to the city with her husband a few months ago. The conversation drifted to mundane topics until Claudius remembered why he had approached her.
“Would you happen to know how to get to the Red Horse Inn?” Claudius asked.
The Red Horse was run by a friend of his grandfather’s who lived in Meridian. That friend had a standing offer of a free room for anyone in the Claudius’ family, not that anyone had taken him up on it yet. It was the only reason he could even attend school in the city; dorms at Meridian Academy were too expensive and apartments were not too far behind.
Shae frowned apologetically. “Sorry, I don’t know my way around well enough to give directions.”
“Thanks anyway.”
“You an academy student?” The man reading the paper asked.
Was that a hint of admiration in his voice? “Yes. First year, actually. How did you notice?”
“Lucky guess.” The man pointed to the medallion Claudius was absentmindedly fiddling with “Word of advice if you’ll take it. Don’t be so friendly carrying that around. City’s full of pickpockets.” He flipped through the paper, “And kids who lose their medallions usually end up begging on the streets or working in factories for chicken feed. Happens to a few every year.”
The train bell rang twice, signaling it was ready to depart.
Claudius imagined himself performing the Hummingbird Circus on some street corner for scraps, “Thanks for the warning.” He said to the man.
He waved at Shae, made a funny face at the toddlers, had the hummingbirds end their chase with an elaborate flourish and fly back into his satchel and began to disembark. Halfway through the doors, he turned to ask the man, “Would you happen to know how to get to a place called the Red Horse Inn?”
“Never heard of it.”
Claudius slipped his medallion back into his duffle, recalled his hummingbirds and took his first steps into Meridian.
And was instantly awestruck. Everything was so much bigger. The buildings were not just one or two stories like home, but stretched high into the sky with even taller buildings in the distance. This street stretched far into the horizon, far past the point of making out any detail. The sidewalks were filled to bursting.
Back home, everyone looked more or less like him. Rust coloured curly hair (or close) and blue eyes (or green or brown) and olive coloured skin (sometimes freckled).
People of all sorts walked these streets. Dark as coal or pale as snow, a head or two taller or not even coming up to his shoulder, types of clothing he’d never seen before.
This was not the Republics.
He quelled his amazement; it was time to find the Red Horse.
With nowhere to start, he picked a direction at random. There had to be an establishment somewhere that could give directions, or was it better to ask around? Maybe he should-
“Heads up!”
A bolt of searing hot fire passed in front of his face, two steps forward and he would have lost his eyebrows and probably a lot more.
A man towering over him stepped in close. “What’s the matter with you? Have you got brain damage?”
“What? Of course not.” Claudius said.
The man sneered at him, “Then you’ve got no reason to ruin my show like that. Are you gonna make it right or what?”
“Make it right?” Claudius asked.
The man stuck his hand out impatiently.
Claudius grabbed it and shook it.
“Are you joking me?” The man exploded. He pushed Claudius out of the way towards the road and said something that Claudius imagined was none too polite.
How rude, He thought, and gave the man a wide berth, eyeing him wearily.
The man resumed what he had been before. He waved his hands in some sort of dance and fire burst from them.
That display turned Claudius’ irritation into fascination; so, he was a Naturalist, one able to control fire. He almost wanted to go back and ask him question about it, figure out what other sort of things he could do, until he remembered how rude the man was. He kept walking and noticed more performers.
The street was full of them; performers of all kinds. More Naturalists, ones wielding massive globes of water just above the ground, large enough for fish to swim around in them and changing the shape upon requests into stars, squares, rings, or pyramids upon request, others danced with flames.
But it was not just Naturalists, there were Transmuters handing out metal shaped in impossible delicate ways, flowers.
Each was doing something unique, something he hadn’t seen before and many with crowds of what must have been tourists tossing monetary notes into bags or hats in front of them. It took all of his willpower to move on from one show to the next.
Except for the Animators. He could do was most of they were doing.
He forced himself to keep walking until he was clear of the performers and found himself on a street lined with restaurants.
Many of them looked far too fancy for him so he kept walking past them. At the very end of the street, there was a small restaurant. It was little more than a service window and kitchen with a home above it, with something that smelled very good inside.
The sign overhead read, in faded white paint, The Humble Dumpling. Slightly less faded yellow paint underneath read ‘Owned by Garin and Jedith Kulner’
Inside, a tall, dark woman stirred a pot of something while a gruff man slept in a chair against the wall. He waited in front of the window a moment before the woman realized he was waiting at their window and nudged the man awake.
“Dear,” She said loudly. The man didn’t budge. She raised a hand near his face and a gust of wind blew from it, strong enough that if the man were a child he probably would have been launched out of his chair.
The man jolted awake, more surprised than annoyed.
“What’d you-”
“Dear, we have a customer. Perhaps you should take his order.” The woman smiled sweetly before she returned to stirring.
She was a Naturalist then. Claudius leaned forward to question her about it when the man stepped forwards.
“What do you want?” He grumbled.
“I’m…not sure.”
The man scowled. “Don’t waste my time. You kids think its funny to waste my time, to interrupt my nap for nothing?”
“Sorry,” Claudius raised his hands defensively. “I…don’t know what you call them. I just smelled something amazing, so I came right over here. Two of whatever smells so good.”
The man looked skeptical and gestured up to the sign “What do you think we serve here? Two of those’ll be ten reels.”
“Are Republic Notes okay?”
“Cash is cash.” The man said.
Claudius pulled two bright blue slips of paper out of the jumble of clothes and books and handed them over. “Some dumplings, please. Mr. Kulner. Thank you.”
The grumpy man waved a hand towards the kitchen equipment, each of began to glow with the light of Animation as they floated towards him. Containers of dough, vegetables, and spices, knives, and things Claudius had seen his mother use but didn’t know the name of.
The grumpy man worked with the familiarity of something done a thousand times. Eventually he handed six fluffy looking balls of dough with meat and vegetables inside them to his wife.
She dropped them in a vat of oil and to Claudius’ delight produced bright flames out of her hands, holding them under the vat until it began to bubble.
A few minutes later, Claudius held a paper tray with two golden brown dumplings on them, with a light drizzle of brown sauce on top.
He reached for one, but the woman stopped him. She waved her hand and created a cyclone of wind over the tray, “Those might be a bit too hot.”
Once they were safe, he took a bite. It was just meat, spices, and dough, how could it be this good? He loved his mother’s cooking, but this was a whole new world of flavour.
“Another tray please,” He slipped ten more reels across the counter and added another ten, “What’s the recipe cost?”
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“Not for sale, but a lot more than that.” The grumpy man slid the extra money back to him, “Rare to see a kid your age with such good taste.” He did not look grumpy, he almost looked amused for a second, before he scowled again, “Not like them.”
Claudius spun in his chair to see who them was. A girl and boy wearing bright gold and royal blue jackets walked past the restaurant, unaware of the owner’s glare. A cat carved out of wood and several wooden mice followed the girl, each wooden animal glowing with Animator vitality.
“You know them?” Claudius asked.
“I don’t need to know them. All those academy kids are the same. Brats with no respect for anyone. Every minute they’re not in school they’re trying to walk all over everyone, acting like the city belongs to them.”
“I’m sure they’re not all bad.” Claudius said.
The man shook his head, “Live here a little longer and you’ll see. They’re all like that. You’ll see.” The man stomped towards an interior door. “Wake me when the next customer comes, I’m lying down in a real bed.”
Mrs. Kulner looked a little dejected at his departure and an awkward silence fell over them.
Claudius prepared to ask her about being a Naturalist, what sort of things she could do, but he exercised enough self control to ask what was relevant. “Do you know where a place called the Red Horse Inn is?”
The woman thought for a moment, “The Red Horse? That name sounds familiar…” Her face lit up in recognition, “Oh, that’s right. It was by the Gardens! Oh, that’s Glissner Street to Donhue Avenue. But there was something about it…they might have changed the name or done some renovations…In any case from here keep heading south until you see the Old Industrial District, it’s all abandoned buildings, then take a right – I’ll just draw a map for you.”
“You really don’t have to-”
His objection went unheeded. A minute later she handed him another tray of dumplings and a crudely drawn map and directions.
“Thanks so much,” Claudius beamed.
“It’s nothing.” She said, “My husband won’t show it but I know he’s glad that you like his cooking so much. Even a ‘rotten academy student’ like you.”
“It’s that obvious?” Claudius asked.
“I saw the medallion in your bag. Don’t listen to my husband’s complaining, he has his reasons, but not everyone feels that way. You’re welcome here any time.” She said with genuine warmth.
Claudius took his tray and left; it was best to get settled at the Red Horse right away – tomorrow would be a busy day – but he made sure to wave at her as he left. He was so busy waving that he nearly bumped into the girl seated at a table at the nearest restaurant, a girl with bright grey eyes and a long black braid.
…
The directions took him back in the direction he’d come from, towards the street performers. He looked up from the map to make sure he was on the right street when something, or rather someone caught his eye.
A man dressed in ragged clothes lying on the street, holding a hat with a few bills in it.
Claudius stared at him for a moment and thought about walking past him, but something made him stop.
Claudius was only here through the slimmest of margins; if that professor hadn’t arrived, he would have never reached Meridian at all. Even now his position wasn’t as infallible as he’d like to think. Enough bad days and he too could end up the same way.
He approached the man and offered him the tray of dumplings.
The man looked at him suspiciously.
“It’s yours if you want it.” Claudius said, “Not really hungry anymore.
The man took it and then nodded, his suspicion fading away, “Thanks, kid.” He grinned, “Not too much sauce, just the way I like ‘em.’
“How’d you end up here? If you don’t mind my asking. Were you an academy student?”
The man chuckled slightly, “Nothing like that. Got vitality sickness, lost my job and couldn’t pay rent anymore. Factory work was all I knew. No one wanted to hire me for anything else.”
Claudius frowned. “That’s so unfair.” He spoke.
“It happens.” The man finished the second dumpling.
The man’s face suddenly contorted in anger, and he raised a hand. Claudius thought he was going to hit him, instead a gust of wind threw him back, knocking him off him off his feet and onto something warm and soft.
Not just any soft and warm something, a girl, one around his own age with a long black braid and bright grey eyes.
Angry, bright grey eyes.
Well, at least she’s cute. He thought.
His brain worked to scramble together an apology that was both sincere and charming, but that thought vanished once he noticed her fingers closed around a medallion.
His medallion.
“Hey, um-” He said.
She slipped out from underneath him and sprinted in the opposite direction before he could finish the sentence.
The homeless man hoisted him up, “Saw her looking through your bag. I tried to stop her, didn’t mean to knock you ov-”
“I forgive you!” Claudius shouted back at the man before taking off after the girl.
She knew how to slip through the flow of foot traffic. Whether she had a destination in mind or was just trying to leave him as far behind as she could, only pure adrenaline kept her in sight.
The thief sprinted towards the street full of performers. She wove between the Transmuters creating flowers for their victims, she slid under the bolts of fire, wove through the pillars of earth erecting from the ground, and ducked the giant globes of water changing shape between her, drawing minimal attention to herself.
Claudius had no such grace. He charged through the street, trying to keep his disruption to a minimum but knocking Transmuters off balance. He shouted wordlessly in the hopes that the Naturalists would notice him and stop throwing fire. One bolt of fire singed the hair on his neck, a pillar of earth caught on his shirt and ripped it part way from the side. He ran through one of the massive globes, dousing his torse in ice cold water where something slimy and wriggled into his shirt.
He passed the last of the performers wet, gasping for air, and with torn clothing and for a moment feared that he lost her, that she had escaped with everything valuable to him until he spotted the very end of a black ponytail vanished around the corner.
He gave chase, some part of him expecting her to be completely gone but when he turned that same corner, she was further down the street, not running, but walking.
Limping away.
The sight gave him a moment of pause, but only a moment. She turned around, noticed him, and began running once again.
She must be hurt. He realized and wondered for a moment if him colliding with her had caused it. Either way, she can’t run forever.
The street was sparse, with only one person besides the two of them, a cloaked figure walking in their direction with a green bag slung over his shoulder. Up ahead was a series of old looking buildings, some with abandoned scaffolds halfway to the top but all of which looked deserted.
Abandoned buildings...
The Old Industrial District.
He would never find her if she made it there.
His panic renewed tenfold, and he forced his body to its limits, but even then she was still faster. He just needed to run faster. If only he could fly.
I’m so stupid. He dug into the satchel at his side and tossed five hummingbirds into the air and filling them with vitality. They whirred to life and darted forward far faster than he, or Thief, could have run.
Three of them swarmed around her head, ultimately harmless but distracting and impossible to ignore.
Thirty seconds, just buy me thirty seconds.
They bought it him five.
The bracelet around the thief’s wrist warped into a fist wide cudgel and she shattered them into clouds of dust. The vitality within the constructs puffed into a blue-white cloud and Claudius suffered sharp disorientation as each broke and the vitality instantly surged back into him.
He forced himself to ignore it and launched two more birds towards her. They didn’t swarm, but divebombed towards her, forcing her to dodge them. Each attempt only bought him a split second, but it was better than nothing.
Until those two were destroyed.
She’s still too far.
Claudius pulled out his final hummingbird and fought the urge to send it right away. She would just destroy it and it wouldn’t buy any time. He had to use this wisely.
Claudius stopped where he stood, calculating angles and velocities, and distances traveled, even the wind. With every factor taken into account, he launched his final bird.
The hummingbird shot forward, far in front of Thief so that she could see it and where it hovered.
Thief continued running, the cloaked person continued walking…
Now!
It shot towards her as fast as Claudius could manage, like a stone bullet, towards her right side.
Thief came to the same conclusion Claudius did; it was too fast to hit and too fast to let it hit her.
She lurched hard towards the left, to safety and crashed directly into the cloaked stranger.
The two crashed to the sidewalk, scattering the contents of the cloaked person’s and knocking the medallion out of Thief’s hand. Claudius whooped and cheered before running to the tangle of limbs. Homelessness didn’t await him after all! If he ever performed on the street corner for strangers it would be for fun, not for his next meal.
Thief was still getting her bearings. He stepped between her and his medallion, looking down at her with all the condescension he could muster, “That doesn’t belong to you, but you already knew that.”
She picked something off the ground and ran down the street.
“Yeah, get out of here!” Claudius shouted after her, “Steal someone else’s medallion!”
Thief vanished around a street corner and though she had a cute face, he would be glad to never see it again. He knelt down to help the person she had collided with.
His skin was the colour of rich soil, his hair was dark and tightly curled and his eyes were forest green. Up close his cloak was sewn together out of thick, hand-sized leaves, but the most striking thing about him was not his appearance, but his scent.
Earth and pine, a scent so strong it was like being lost in a forest.
Guess I owe him an apology.
Claudius knelt to help him pick up his belongings, beginning with a wooden hilted knife, until a vice like grip closed around his wrist.
“Unhand that, thief.” The boy said.
Claudius wrenched his hand free. “I’m not stealing anything. I was just trying to help you pick up your things.” The accusation caused a twinge of annoyance after the last few minutes, but anyone would have been grumpy after being knocked over like that.
The boy’s expression softened from anger into shame. “Forgive me for being…hasty. I was told this city is rich with thieves. Thank you.”
Claudius resumed helping pick up the scattered belongings, including a knife, a thick, green waterskin, lengths of string and rope among other things, “You were right about the thieves at least. That girl – the cute one with the grey eyes – she tried to me a few minutes ago. Helping you clean up is the least I can do, since I dragged you into my mess.”
Claudius noticed his new friend holding his medallion; seeing it in the hands of another person so soon made him a little uneasy. “Your stuff is all here. Can you hand me back that medallion?”
The boy stared at it as if in a trance.
“Hey,” Claudius said, “Hand me that back. I really can’t lose it again.”
“This is not mine.” The boy said.
“It belongs to me. Property of me. Like I said that girl from earlier robbed me and-”
“This is not mine. Where is mine?” He rounded on Claudius with realization, fury and panic, “You. That girl took my medallion because of you.”
Claudius opened his mouth to object, to insist that was not true.
She picked something off the ground before running away. It was a disc, about the size of my medallion. It looked just like mind, maybe she thought…
Claudius sharply inhaled his objection. He raised his hands defensively, “Ah. I’m uh, sorry about that but…” But it isn’t really my fault yours got stolen.
Then again, his birds had sent Thief careening into this forest boy and that he’d gloated as she ran away with his medallion.
“It’s not my fault she chose to be a thief, that had nothing to do with me,” Claudius said.
“This city,” Forest Boy said the word like a curse. “Where I’m from people are accountable for their misdeeds!”
“I’m sorry, okay?” Claudius said, “Maybe one of the professors can get you a new medallion, and-”
“I don not want a new medallion!” Forest Boy shouted, “My medallion is the only one that I want, I’d sooner pluck out my eyes than leave it in the hands of some common thief!”
“What do you want me to do about it?” Claudius said.
The boy’s eyes narrowed. “You’ll help me find that girl and get it back or…”
“Or what?” Claudius asked.
Forest Boy tightened his grip around the medallion. “If my medallion is not back in my possession before admission, I will grind yours into dust.”
He wouldn’t.
“You wouldn’t.” Claudius said.
A hairline crack spread across Claudius’ future.
If this was a bluff, it was a very convincing one.
He calculated his chances of winning a fight if it came to that.
On top of being taller, Forest Boy might be able to throw wind and fire and who knew what else at him, while Claudius only had the one clay hummingbird left.
Maybe he could distract him and try to snatch the medallion back, run, and hope for the best.
But this whole mess was…well not his fault, it was Thief’s, but Claudius had been the one to drag Forest Boy into his problem and then let Thief escape with his medallion. The least he owed him was helping get back what rightfully belonged to him.
Awful as he was.
“Fair’s fair.” Claudius said, offering a hand. “I’ll help you get a medallion before classes start and you return mine, unharmed.”
“My medallion.” The boy said.
“Your medallion.” Claudius said, exasperated.
That placated Forest Boy. He slipped the medallion into his cloak and stared blankly at Claudius’ outstretched hand for a moment. “She ran north. Follow me.” He said sprinted down the sidewalk.
Claudius had caught Thief and retrieved a stolen medallion back once before and so far, everything in life was easier the second time. Between the pair of them, that medallion would be back in his hands where it belonged in minutes, maybe he would even find the Red Horse Inn on the way.
Claudius set off after Forest Boy.