Atney had a strange architecture. There wasn’t a primary city at any point in the theome, but rather there were clusters of spires all over. Everyone in Atney lived in a spire, it seemed to Denziu, who saw these looming metal buildings everywhere on the horizon from the theome’s edge. Most of the spires had skybridges linking them to their immediate neighbours. There were often secondary structures built up in webbings of support struts between the closest spire neighbours, with two to four spires holding an additional building up off the ground between them.
There were many dragons flying overhead between spires. It was obviously a populous theome and equally obviously the buildings were spread apart from each other with the expectation that dragons could fly between them. There! A dragon flying low and close enough that Denziu could recognize them for a swaivshon. The complex antlers gave them away.
As the caravanners plodded along one road with few turn-offs through a horizon dotted full of spires, Denziu wondered where the ground market was going to be. They saw only farms and stands of coniferous forest out here. The short growing season in Atney was in full swing. A great many of the farmergons were growing hardy northern vegetables such as asparagus, rhubarb, onions, and radishes. There were also fields full of an impressively bushy plant that Denziu didn't recognise, but which was apparently a major crop in the area.
Lorma was enthusiastic on the trail, trying to make them hungry by talking about all the dishes that Atney was known for, but as usual there was no meat in what Lorma highlighted. Omrezen eventually cut across saying, “Hey Denziu! Are dragons who don’t hunt really dragons at all?”
Denziu said, “I’ve been helping farmergons for decades! I’m used to farm produce!”
Mosdrao cried, “A point for Lorma!” Most of the caravan laughed, while Omrezen looked aghast.
“Don’t worry,” said Chatulerin, from next to Omrezen. “I’m sure there are livestock farms here, too.”
Eventually, Denziu saw ahead of them over the road the greatest cluster of spires zie had glimpsed anywhere in Atney. Here, a confusion of metal rose skywards, with limbs thrust into the ground all around it and great arches of metal holding up stacked layers of buildings in the middle between a dense ring of exterior spires.
"That's a city centre!" said Denziu, shocked by the construct.
"Locally, yes," said Ekis. "This place is named Akima. It must have consumed a fantastic amount of metal while it was being built."
An unusual voice piped up to speak then, as from the row of the caravan behind them Honom of Mosdenechrak said, "I think the swaivshon architects have their own secret to producing the metal that they build with."
Ekis called back, "I'm not sure about that! I think they use some kind of vrash-boosted alloying trick."
Lorma said, "Kalla! It's the kalla. There are kalla metal-working enclaves that don't trade on the open market."
"And how do you know about that?" asked Ekis.
"Oh... Er, I don't," said Lorma. "But I know that the kalla have unburnable hands and can create staggering forgeworks by focusing their gift."
Honom said, "Isn't being fireproof the swaivshon's own gift? Maybe they do their own metal-working."
"Iceproof, too," said Lorma. "Swaivshon resist everything. Maybe you're right!"
It was a lively conversation that held up for a while. The secret super-alloys used to create the spires of Atney were a mystery that Denziu hadn't thought to question, but apparently it was a big question. How did the dragons of Atney create such amazingly vertical structures?
This was apparently one of the great mysteries of Kelkaith in general. Swaivshon architecture was impressive in all of their theomes, but the methods and alloys used by swaivshon builders were unknown.
Meanwhile, the most impressive building that Denziu had ever seen continued to loom closer and closer. Zie got the feeling that the 'ground market' was actually the lowest level of a complex of buildings that could be ascended. As they approached, they passed a community of spire-homes near the road that were shorter than the average without skybridges linking them, and these had at their base izerah and a few kalla running about. It looked like this rare ground community of Atney was their home. The presence of a groundbounder community further strengthened Denziu's expectation that the looming complex of many spires and stacked layers of buildings was the "city centre" of Atney. Izerah settled everywhere.
As they passed alongside one of the great support arches for the vertical city, Denziu looked up and saw that a flight of stairs went along the top of the support arch. Were there more stairs inside the great cluster-building, Akima? For this was surely a great city on the vertical... A small, sardonic part of Denziu wondered, Is Atney the Theome of Stairs?
The central area had a great opening looming over the road ahead of them, but Choave directed the caravan off the main path to yet another caravanserai. The domed structure of the caravanserai under Akima was by no means small, as it was intended to house potentially several caravans of dragons and their wagons, but it looked bizarrely tiny with one of the great support arches stretching over it.
This was another caravanserai with an eatery inside of it, and unlike the great rates at Mosdenechrak, here the foods were moderately pricey. Choave authorised a general disbursement from the caravan fund for eating on, and Oghai handed out pouches of coins to the caravanners as they got unhooked in the wagon berths.
Denziu bought a garlic pepper stew and a fish fillet, and was surprised when Choave bought a bowl and brought it to Denziu's table. "We got here a bit faster without Serafustin mazing us for a day, and I'll admit that's my fault we've 'ad a risk of it," said Choave, gesturing with an unused spoon. "We'll be here an extra day for you to use. Two days of the Atney market."
"I wish I knew more about how to sell fine pottery," said Denziu. "Do you know any art vendorgons in Atney?"
"I don't know any art vendorgons anywhere," said Choave, dropping his spoon into his stew bowl. "I do know that Hydalath is still your best bet, but if you carry your wagon aloft, you can at least take it to the top-market here. Among the magic-item vendorgons up there, you should be able to find dragons with the budget to buy a fine pot. Oh, but I wanted to tell you not to bother opening your box of warming tiles."
"Why not?" asked Denziu.
"They're a local good in Atney. A substantial export. Commonly worn as jewellery here, even."
Denziu perked up interestedly. "I'm surprised the farmergons don't use them to grow southern crops," zie said, thinking about all the effort vrash farmergons in Tekagol went to in order to have perfect soil conditions.
Choave blinked, then shook his head. "They're not that cheap!” He huffed a brief laugh and then continued, “There are so many fliers in the area who'll carry a charm pouch that the price is up for every theome in the area that buys them for winter safety. So they're probably too expensive to bother restocking on, even though they’re a poor profit for the selling."
After they ate, Denziu set out at once to do an overflight of the stacked structure, this vertical city at the heart of Atney. Zie left zir wagon behind at first rather than be encumbered by it. The city was so surrounded by balconies that they seemed to fan open from the sides of it like a strange plant, and surely every level could be accessed that way by a flyer circling the building. (Denziu was not alone in the air!) The spires that held the interior up were fairly close together, so that Akima was really like one structure overall and not like the clusters of them which seemed to predominate elsewhere in Atney. It was truly gigantic! This was a singular place for countless dragons to meet and do business.
It was all achieved in white metal with red accents; Akima's exterior was all in the same white and the same red as had been the little posts which had a "Welcome to Atnypoltiai" sign hanging from them next to the road into the theome from Lorilaine. Denziu imagined this white and this red to be an iconic colour scheme in Atney.
The top layer of the structure was an open market with wide balconies, a final bloom atop the strange plant. There were lots of dragons with stalls at the market. The aisles between the stalls were full of browsing dragons. Almost everyone present was a vashael, vrash, or swaivshon, but Denziu could see great big stairways leading down into the vertical city-structure. Zie assumed that meant it was theoretically possible to make it all the way up here from the ground floor without wings.
Denziu landed on one of the balconies and was immediately surrounded by an impression of being priced out of everything. There were magic artefacts on half the stalls here. The remainder were all selling either enchantments or exotics. There was a blotchy green vashael selling spices from a floating cart! This was clearly a long-distance flyer's market for wealthy travellers to buy and sell at.
If zie had been there for zirself, looking around would have been instant rejection. None of this was within the budget of a merchantgon trading in soil.
Being there to trade in warming enchantments and exotic pottery, it was reassuring. Choave was right. This place might be able to make the exchanges that Denziu was looking for. Zir flying wagon would fit right in here, and zie felt proud of zir vest with its colourful ceramic bands.
Denziu noticed as zie went through the market that many of the dragons faintly steamed in the cold. Warming spelltiles adorned many necks. In the crowd of warmth-emitting dragons, the trick of wandering until finding the hot stall didn't work. Denziu had to ask at several stalls selling amulets to find one that sold warming tiles.
Sure enough, Choave's warning was apt. The price wasn't prohibitive, but it wasn't appealing either. Still, Denziu bought three! If there were flyers with charm pouches using this place to eke a small profit out on the wing, the price was logically still good enough for a small profit. Zie would've bought more, but enchantments were a painful thing to speculate on.
Pouching zir three new warming amulets, Denziu flew back down to the caravanserai at the foot of the vertical structure and returned to zir wagon. With a brief prayer to Radath (who was the land god of Atney) for the preservation of zir warming spell tiles, zie opened the necromantic box in which zie had been storing them, and stashed the three warming amulets with the last few warming spell tiles.
Denziu spared a thought to wonder how far away dragons flew with charm pouches. They were presumably the same kind of thing as necromantic boxes, and likewise therefore enchanted to prevent spontaneous disenchantment of magic items while moving between theomes. An hour on the wing would fly over a smaller theome entirely. How far away did the local warming amulets travel?
Hydalath was four hours' flight from Atney... and ten days walk! They wouldn’t outrange the flying charm traders. If flying wagons were not wildly expensive... Denziu imagined that despite the expense, they might take over trade someday.
Zie spoke to Lorvaza at the caravanserai, proposing that the two of them mount to the top market to sell fate-charms with the other merchantgons selling enchantments. She agreed and the two of them loaded charms onto Denziu’s wagon, then ascended.
Stolen novel; please report.
Even with a business partner on the wing, Denziu still thought about the business potential of flying wagons. If it weren't for zir inexperience as a merchantgon, the decision to freepact with Choave might be inexcusable from a profit perspective. Zie could clearly do better by flying between destinations.
Strictly speaking, running food to the deep-under with Ekis shouldn't turn as much of a profit as, say, running metal via flying wagon. Zie could carry ingots far from mines. It wouldn’t take an unmanageable amount of working capital to get started as a metal trader, and zie’d be able to run deliveries out to every individual blacksmith.
Yet Denziu wasn't likely to do it. Zie wasn't really trying to maximise zir profits, zie had to admit to zirself. Zie was just trying to have a profit while doing something new and interesting. Ekis' plan to travel to and from the deep-under with surface foods was surely more exciting than a scheme to fly back and forth across known surface lands.
The top-market in Akima was a crowded place. Drawn from zir thoughts by business reality, Denziu and Lorvaza circled the top of Akima looking for a place to set up shop. There was such an active market here! Dragons must be flying in from great distances. Denziu took a place on the edge of one of Akima's blooming balconies. It didn’t look like it was intended as a place to set up shop, so hoped zie wouldn't meet an official of the city looking to rebuke zir opportunism.
Unfolding zir wagon and piking up its top for a shop-tent, Denziu stood in front of it with zir vendorgon vest worn proudly as zie looked around at passers-by.
"Finest pottery of distant Denxalue," zie called to dragons passing by. "Pieces named and dated; own a piece of art history!" There was wealth enough here to buy out all zir pottery, zie could tell!
Wealth enough, but...
A day of fruitless hawking eventually turned up revelatory conversations. There was a major problem with selling pottery here. The visitors to Akima arrived on the wing and departed on the wing. What dragon would carry a painted pot through the air?
With one of these conversants, who was especially interested, Denziu agreed to close up shop to sell a pot to a pastel pink swaivshon. Zir departure was the occasion of a minor argument with Lorvaza, but though Denziu cringed at taking away Lorvaza's platform on a day that had been promising for the selling of enchanted fate-charms, zie was very dedicated to selling away the pottery which had brought zir out of Denxalue to the Tachanigh-Kelkaith in the first place.
Lorvaza eventually snorted and departed for the caravanserai while Denziu departed with the flying wagon, and thank the land gods for all their work on Fate, that beautiful pink swaivshon stayed patiently waiting until Denziu could accompany her home.
They flew a few minutes from Akima to a cluster of three spires. There was a triangular building that perched on arches in the middle of the three-spire triangle. Zie could see on approach that there was a great platform atop that in turn, blooming past the spires like a miniature form of Akima's top market with its broad, welcoming balconies. Denziu landed there with zir wagon. As zie opened the wagon up again, zie was swarmed by the residents as they examined the pottery together. A dozen dragons - Vashael, Vrash, and Swaivshon - shared the three spires as a single communal house.
The swarm of dragons bustled over the pots that Denziu showed them. The vistas of the swamp, so little loved by the merchantgons who passed through Denxalue buying painted pottery as though it were unmarked, finally here in Atney got treated as proper artwork!
As Denziu was setting out the pewter placards struck with artist names and months-of-manufacturing, zie boasted, "I spent years picking up scarcely more than one pot per year to assemble this collection. I was always searching for the most memorably excellent.”
"Scarcely more than one pot per year, you say! Why so few pots to show for that?" asked one of the customers, a blue vashael with purple fins.
"The pottergons in Denxalue are used to being taken for granted, and don't always put their best work in. Many of the pots made by the artists who produced these were of varying quality in the paints," said Denziu. "I was looking for that fraction of their work getting criminally underappreciated even by the artists."
"Oh, you mean work you were getting charged wholesale for!" said another of the group, a grey-black vrash, setting off laughter in the group.
"Yes, but for years!" said Denziu, anxious that they were trying to bargain zir down by revealing that. "If I can boost the legend of these artists, they'll have a greater prosperity at home someday, too."
"They should work more consistently, and then you wouldn't have to work so long and ask such a high price," said the pastel pink swaivshon with a confident grace in the carriage of her neck.
"Then buy another," said Denziu, "And I will give you a lower price. I've carried these across two continents though. Denxalue is by the southern tip of the Tachanigh-Kelkaith."
They did not buy two pots. Instead they dithered for a long time, very certain they were going to buy one pot or another. One of them was a muddy green colour, depicting a dragon poling a boat in the wilderness of Denxalue, and another one in fiery red on a sky blue base depicting Raul in the sky of Zyrine. Raul! A vast flaming sigil in the sky over the clifftop city, with a proud bit of city skyline depicted at the bottom third of the pot... It was a vista that Denziu had seen many times when visiting Zyrine, but which was new and bizarre to the swaivshon of Atney.
At length they picked the pot that depicted Raul in the sky of Zyrine, and gave Denziu the most exceptional price zie had gotten so far, so that Denziu trembled with excitement at the thought of bringing news of the pot's sale back to the artist in Denxalue.
When negotiations had concluded and Denziu had stashed away their coin in zir wagon, they gave zir an invite to stay for dinner that evening, and Denziu was happy to accept. Zie watched then as the purple-finned vashael carried the pot to a place in their central gallery. Half the swarm stuck around, tugging Denziu around the gallery regaling zir with all the stories of the pieces of artwork their little three-spire community had collected.
Zie found these dragons surprisingly tactile, so that all through talking about the artwork zie was feeling other dragons touching zir sides, zir neck, and zir tail. Denziu was eventually drawn into a soft room for a bit of overt cuddling while they waited for dinner to cook.
Personal space was restored by a call from the kitchen, and they shared plates while Denziu assured the group yet again that yes, the picture of a flaming sigil in the sky over a city was a literally depicted view not far southeast of Denxalue. They had never seen a land god such as the sky-dwelling Raul.
When Denziu had nearly finished eating and offered zir compliments to the chef, zie offered over zir plate a sincere invitation to the group to come visit Nidrio. This didn't have the impact that Denziu was accustomed to closer to home; none of these dragons recognised Nidrio as a former sacred wilderness, but thought that Denziu was politely referring to zir home theome near Denxalue. Nothing more!
Zie had been looking to set off a momentary frisson of scandalised interest that would develop into Denziu telling them zir father's tale: Taisach, whose simple love of the verdant mountains of Nidrio earned the love of the formerly murderous land god Praoziu. It was a good story and a strange origin, so Denziu forthrightly said zir mother was Praoziu, land god of Nidrio, and got to tell the tale from that starting point instead. There was some interest in actually visiting Nidrio after that!
Bidding farewell to dragons zie hoped would be future friends, Denziu departed back to Akima giddily reduced to five of the great painted storage pots in the wagon.
That evening, clouds scudded in thickly overhead so that there was no sunset, only a dimming of the grey sky.
They were here somewhat upland of the river Lorniven, and the many spires of the dispersed community of Atney were in the low forested hills of the Serhin Range. Rain and melt streams from this altitude created the Lorniven, which was a famed swift river though hardly navigable for most of its length.
They had little concern of rain under Akima, but Denziu was concerned that poor weather might suppress business at the top market. For what dragon wishes to fly and get sodden? The temptation to put off one's business for the next day must be very tempting to all of the dragons who visit the top market for luxuries. All the moreso that should they wish to avoid ruining expensive purchases, after all.
The weather the next morning was just as the evening had promised, with drizzling rain that was better news for the farmergons of Atney than vendorgons doing their business on the open upper deck.
Denziu spoke to Lorvaza that next morning. Over salads heavy on sliced roasted beets from Lorma’s stock, they talked about the top market. "I'm sorry again for departing like that," Denziu said.
"It'll be a less rude surprise the second time," said Lorvaza. "I'm willing to do it again. A few hours in the top-market is better for fate-charms than all day in the dingy interior marketspace I've used on other trips to Akima!"
"Do you think it's worth going to the top market despite the rain?" asked Denziu.
"I think so, though business might be slower. We still need to get out there at every opportunity. I'm glad your wagon comes with enough fabric to tent over our heads from the rain."
So they went topside again, and spent another day hawking pottery and minor enchantments. The crowds were considerably reduced today on a day when the rain dripped into the gutters of Akima and was directed by spouts off the top of the building.
"Finest pottery, shipping covered!" called Denziu into the wealthy top market, eyes chasing every passerby in hopes of drawing their attention. "Free shipping, anywhere in Atney or Ediveyrm!"
This last was a local theome of Denziu's knowledge. Shipping to Ediverym would involve a hard, high flight of over an hour each way crossing the Serhin Range, but it was a famous place that Denziu wanted to be clear zie would work hard to fulfil orders to. Just in case someone was visiting Atney from Ediveyrm!
Denziu would have called other theomes in the vicinity as well just to make sure that others understood that zie was willing to fly an hour or more to get their new pottery home, but in truth zie did not know the names of the other nearby theomes.
In any case, it was futile. Lorvaza did a good business all day, selling from her chest of fate-charms, but Denziu sold not a single pot. Zie suspected that the clearance rate of very fine pottery was too slow to make a good fuel for a travelling vendorgon to work from, and felt ridiculous for having embarked on this quest.
Zie was keenly aware that day that zie was depending on a stroke of luck: that there would be a vendorgon dealing in art objects in Hydalath that zie could find and meet during the day that zie would have at market. Zie thought zie might break with the caravan at that point, disentangling zir Fate from their Tekagoli charms and going zir own way. If Denziu couldn't find a dealer in artwork, or if Denziu found one and could not sell the rest of zir pots... The pots were good enough! They had been elevated from mere clay and pigment to become artwork. The problem was, zie knew of no single point of sale where a wagonload of artwork could be offloaded reliably.
Near the close of the market that day, a frustrated Denziu went down to all fours and clawed at the air before zir wagon.
"Don't go feral now," said a bemused Lorvaza. "That's a bad look for a vendorgon."
Denziu stood again, properly standing as a vashael should, up on zir hind legs. Yet zie sighed, and zir posture still drooped. "I don't want to carry these pots back home again after our journey."
"Sell them as pottery then, if you have to. Paints or no paints, they're still stoneware storage vessels. But I think you should hold on until Evonthe. Your sales pitch about holding a piece of art history might appeal to the curators of Evonthe, or the art-hungry dragons who live there," said Lorvaza. "They'll have Grezavent bending over to bless you for that."
“Grezavent?” asked Denziu.
“Evonthe’s land god, Grezavent. They’re not quite on the Tachanigh-Kelkaith, are they? You must have missed reading about them.”
"The caravan isn't stopping in Evonthe though, is it?" asked Denziu.
"You may want to break away from us there," said Lorvaza ruefully. "There's nothing you need at Wraquo if your priority is to have a market day at Evonthe instead."
"Frightful," said Denziu. "We might get separated. I'm a long way from home."
"Only a few days hard flight, worst case," said Lorvaza. "You can get back to Tekagol with four days of straight-line flight due south from Smaril, and for a vashael there's no question that the wind will cooperate."
Denziu thought about it. There were no other dragons browsing right now, and a few of the other merchantgons were already grumbling and closing up their stalls.
"I bet I could identify you on the road from a long distance away," said Denziu, imagining the caravan's 2x6 line on the roads, short just one element without zir own wagon.
Lorvaza smiled and said, "That's the right spirit! Just join up with us afterwards."
That was when Denziu decided that zie would stay with the caravan until they departed from Jiasote, then separate from them to visit Evonthe.
That evening, Lorma the Vegetarian came to the caravan with two crates of food while crossing Tirrtian Pass, and Orachu the Unambitious surprised the crew by showing up with one of his own. They all eschewed the pricey caravanserai eatery in favour of a mixture of green onion rolls from Lorma and steak and kidney pasties from Orachu. Most of them were quietly of the opinion that Orachu understood the desires of the caravanners better than Lorma, but Denziu thought the green onion rolls were glutinously exquisite and wonderfully spicy. Nibbling on one and trying to make it last, zie wondered if someday vegetarianism would be more common among dragons.