Chapter 1 - continued

The city guards, wearing their bright red uniforms, marched into the sweltering piazza right on time.

Leni had retreated by this time with many of his fellow citizens, into the little park on the south side, where saspia trees spread their broad leaves high above the cobbles in a serrated canopy. There was a smell of their sap in the air, and light-winged flies hovered about, making a dull droning buzz.

Here, Leni took to doing a few tricks to impress and titillate the crowd that stuck to him. It was a strange thing for him to be thus surrounded; this was the only part of today's unusual interactions that he was awkward with.

And it should be what I am most comfortable with, he reflected, even as he made a flashing coin disappear in mid-air, flipping it up with a flick of his thumb only to have it be swallowed in the brightness of the sun that shot a beam of golden light through the drooping leaves. A following breeze moved them and the trees seemed to applaud the simple sleight of hand, even though from their vantage point they could clearly see the lost coin hidden behind Leni's deft fingers.

It was right between his hopping toadstools and the silver scarf act that the Archers arrived, bustling past the crowded spectators to get the middle, the silent hub, the men and women transfixed by Leni's little tricks.

Amos sat beside him, radiant and beautiful. It was she who brought Leni out of the performance with a touch of her gloved hand on his arm. Of course, he'd noticed the guards pushing their way into the tight circle of enrapt citizenry, but this wasn't enough to make him stop; Amos's little hand, however, was all that was needed.

Leni looked up, smiled, and with a last little flourish, made the silver scarf burn away into a wisp of sparkling smoke. He stood then from where he'd been seated on the dusty cobbles; in a singular, fluid motion he was on his feet. His left hand came out and offered itself to Amos, who took it and sprang to her feet next to her fiance.

“Sirrah, are you he who slew the mercenary?”the Captain of the red-breasted Archers asked, in a dour and imperturbably demeaning way.

“Indeed, it is I,” Leni said, bowing like a true gentleman.

“Will you please allow us to escort you and your missus to the Red Scarp?”

Leni nodded and replied: “We were simply awaiting the invitation.”

The Red Scarp was the name for the old city wall, built a thousand years before, by the Velagio dynasty – those ruthless kings of old who had conquered Caza with wiles and wealth, then lost it after a long reign of cut-throat prosperity to a group of barbarians who backed Bolo the Bastard in his uprising against the Oligarchs.

Caza had long outgrown these ancient bounds, and had new walls, which bore long red banners draped over a high gray facade. The remnants of the old wall had long been torn down, all except for the massive and imposing guard house of the City Archers. The Red Scarp towered above all the antiquated, stolid edifices of the Sala District, where many offices of high prestige were housed, with the seat of the government residing at the heart of it all, at the Eneo Courts.

Every time he saw the last vestige of the old, red wall, Leni imagined what Caza had looked like a thousand years hence, when the wall had been first erected, and had contained the smaller population.

This time, however, he did not have long to gaze up and ponder; riding with Amos and the Captain of the Guard – the same man that had addressed him the park – Leni passed under Red Gate swiftly. Over his knuckles he was absently rolling a golden coin that caught in random glimpses the high beams of sunlight that penetrated the floating, veils of red satin of hung with the coach that bore them all.

The Captain looked down at Leni's busy hand. “Are you nervous?” he asked, studying Leni's face for any response.

Leni smiled; the coin ceased its nimble tumbling. “My mind is always working,” he replied, “unlike the vast majority of people you will find in every class – courtier to rapscallion, white-wings to red-coats!”

The Archer eyed him slyly, adjusting his scarlet tunic. “What money is that?”he demanded. “We have no such coinage as that in Caza.”

“It is Isparian mint,” Leni proclaimed and within the same instant he sent the gold coin flipping into the air toward the Captain, who caught it with some flustered surprise. Holding it up to the light, he squinted at the markings upon it.

“Yugu onan espia...” he muttered. “What does that mean?”

“It means, The Night Uplifts the Light. Isparia has a long history of being subjugated: the Upsoo, the Pylari, the Holuxum.”

“The Holuxum have never invaded that country.”

Amos gave Leni a sharp look, which the Captain noticed.

Leni frowned slightly, but it was obvious he had no real concern for the matter. He pulled out a pocket watch, mused over the hour, and muttered,“Haven't they? Must be biding their time.”

The coachman drove them into the Yard within the fortress walls. The Red Scarp also housed many prisoners, and was the principal armory for all the city. They came to a halt at the steps that led up to the main entrance.

Red-coats came to open the door, and one of them offered a hand to Amos, who took it in her gentile way. She stepped out into the heat, giving a huff of exasperation as the full blast of the sunbeams hit her. She struggled to open her parasol; when the same chivalric Archer offered to help her, Amos accidentally poked him in the ribs with the handle, then dropped her handbag, spilling its contents all over the Yard.

“Oh, shit,” she muttered, seeing that her ivory snuff box had fallen into a pile of horse droppings. She decided to leave it there and proceeded to collect her things while her heroic friend stooped to help.

“You're such a klutz!” Leni chastised, giving his bride-to-be a playful slap on her rump as he came out of the coach to find her bent over before him.

“This way!” the Captain said, proceeding up the stairs towards the great, pillared portico; then he paused and turned to Leni. “Forgive me – I nearly you deprived you of your treasure.” He held out his gloved hand in which the golden coin lay.

Without even glancing at it, Leni said, “You need it more than I do, mate. I'd hate to think you couldn't afford a replacement for such an elegant glove ruined.”

The Captain watched Leni as he lunged up the stairs, taking them two at a time without waiting to see if anyone was keeping up. It was only when a biting pain in the palm of his proffered hand brought him back into himself did he learn that the golden coin had somehow been switched for a little polished lens of the same size which had, in less than a minute, focused the rays of sunshine into a burning laser.

“Curses!”the Captain spat, flinging to the ground underfoot the coin that had as if by magic gone from gold to glass. With a surly, unhappy glower, he then examined the singed hole in his white glove.