Zabukama

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Green ash floated around Appo’s feet as he trudged along. He couldn’t bring himself to look ahead. Only by the gentle push of Isbibarra’s knife was he pressing forward.

“Keep moving,” Isbibarra commanded. “We are close.”

Appo obeyed. He’d been pondering who this blind man had been this whole time. Isbibarra, someone Appo believed would deliver him to the cure of the plague, had just killed two children without an ounce of remorse. All just to drag a man to the middle of the Eivettä with the sole purpose of sacrificing him.

Isbibarra was a monster. Even to stop the Screaming Plague, it was too much.

They’d walked for half an hour now, having left their camel on a stone outcropping shortly after they passed through the gates. The thick fog left Appo nearly useless, seeing only more than a few meters ahead of him. And the day was growing dimmer.

“Wait,” Isbibarra said, keeping his bonsai dagger pressed beneath Appo’s scapula. “Hold out your necklace.” Appo refused to move. After a few seconds, Isbibarra reached over Appo’s shoulder and pulled the necklace out underneath his robe. “Stop being obstinate.”

“Fuck you,” Appo spat.

Isbibarra shrugged off the insult. “If dragging your corpse were not so inconvenient, I would save us both time.”

A shriek bellowed from the distance. Appo’s body grow tense. The Krazeek had been killing screamers, it seemed. But what if there were more here? This was the source of the plague, after all.

Dread enveloped Appo. The hair on his arms stood and his breathing slowed. He felt the cold sensation of a hundred slender fingers caress his body, flowing over him like a wave. Through the fog, Appo felt watched by invisible eyes. Even Isbibarra huddled behind him, burying his face into Appo’s back.

Then in an instant, it was gone. The heat of the sticky fog returned in full force.

“The spirits are strong here,” Isbibarra said, “but they acknowledge your God.”

Appo pushed Isbibarra away from him. “Ghosts don’t exist,” he said, not believing himself.

“Sure. Tell yourself that if it helps.”

“So that’s all it is, then? You used Gizzal to get through the wall, and you’re using me to get through the city?”

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“Believe what you want. Did I envision holding hands with you as we strolled through Zabukama? I at least hoped you would understand. Digram Gizzal sent countless men to their deaths, and countless more built his fortune. If a life has to be offered, whose would be more deserving? A raider? An old man?”

“He didn’t have to die.”

“Yet so many do.”

“Yeah,” Appo said, his thoughts wandering back to Tomi and Uten. He thought of their family, knowing they would be waiting two more nights at the least. As stubborn as Erish and Garabi were, Appo figured they’d wait indefinitely.

As the two wandered, immense shadows emerged from the fog. One after the other, clutters of slender pyramids came into view. They arranged themselves in haphazard congregations like jagged teeth piercing the emerald sky. Many slumped into the ground at an angle, and even at their gargantuan size they seemed destined to be swallowed by the desert.

A child’s laughter broke Appo’s concentration. Giggles echoed through the fog, coming from every direction.

“What’s that?” Appo asked, his hatred lost in the shock of awe and fear.

“No lingering,” said Isbibarra, pushing Appo forward. “One hears many cries in the Black Waste.” Appo wondered whether they were walking through an ether of some sort, conjuring hallucinations or illusions. Maybe he was imagining everything: he and Isbibarra could still be traveling with Uten and Tomi and Gizzal. Maybe it was all a dream.

But Appo knew he would not wake up any time soon.

The pyramids of Zabukama appeared from nothing, cutting into the roads. Cobblestone paths haphazardly tore through the city, barely wide enough for a single carriage, let alone elephants or crowds. It felt condensed and crowded, even without people.

Appo would have given anything to see another person. Someone living. Someone other than Isbibarra.

Isbibarra slowly led Appo through the labyrinthian city. It was a wonder he could have memorized it, for Appo became completely lost after only a few turns. The sun was only getting lower and Appo was losing what little sight he had left. With Isbibarra’s perfect memory, Appo grew more nervous at the prospect of his uselessness. He could not even defend himself.

Except Appo did: he still had Garabi’s gauntlet. And as far as he knew, Isbibarra was completely unaware of its existence. Appo had never mentioned it prior and never used it against the Krazeek. If he needed to escape, he had a way out.

“But do I?” Appo thought. “He’s killed everything that’s come our way. If he wants me dead, I’m dead.”

The two entered a clearing, in the middle of which stood a pyramid wider than the others. Its base was more equilateral, but sunk into the ground. The visage of Lowya’s crisscrossed lines swayed from the top of the pyramid down to its base, outlining the only nondescript image that broke from its black limestone.

“Do you see it?” asked Isbibarra. “Lowya’s symbol?”

“You know better than me. Why even ask?”

“Just keeping you honest.”

The two stood in the courtyard for just a moment, Isbibarra holding Appo tightly again. Looking at the Temple in its entirety, Appo came to a horrifying realization: Isbibarra could navigate this city with a perfect recollection, and the fog neutralized whatever advantage Appo had with his vision. Isbibarra still needed him for something.

Isbibarra needed a sacrifice to enter Zabukama. It was very possible he needed another to leave.

Appo recalled what Isbibarra told him the night he awoke from his bloodroot-induced coma. He had said treasure filled the pyramid. During his travels, Isbibarra listed as many jewels as he could name. Appo was only now making sense of it all.

“We’re not here to return the necklace, are we?”

Isbibarra said nothing.

Appo shut his mouth. He rubbed his arm over his gauntlet, feeling the plate that covered his forearm. He would just need one chance, once lapse of concentration. Even if unsuccessful, Appo would kill himself before he let Isbibarra offer him to the Krazeek.

But not now. For now, he would wait.