16 -- Life in the Chair Lane

It didn’t take very long, fortunately, or I would have been very bored. I figured one thing I would buy Raikas was a pair of faib skates too. He’d probably learn quick. I crossed my one skated foot up on the other knee and spun one of the wheels with my finger. Skates were very, very expensive, every pair hand made, the click click click of the precious metal parts inside each resilient little wheel illustrating why.

“Joras!” I waved him over. “Flag me two express chairs and have them waiting.” He nodded, a quick jerk of his chin, and glided off down the corridor, gloves clasped behind his back.

Karas Raikas came down the stairs leaning on his boy. He stared at me impassively, almost indifferently. I hid my grin and looked him up and down and sniffed. “You see, boy? That loincloth was just not meant for his coloration.”

“Raikas.” I addressed him in Enchian. “I’m taking you shopping. Even during Jitzmitthra.”

"So I understand.” He was being very neutral and I thought he was being pretty good, neither rude enough to piss me off, nor sycophantic which would have been unrealistic.

He did stare at my feet, at the faib skates, openly curious. I hopped down off the desk and glided over to him, jumped onto the step behind them with one foot and along it, then down again and stopped in front of him. “So come along then, that rag is disgraceful. I have carry chairs for you so you can keep up. I’m not in the mood to walk today.”

I skated backwards in front of him, down the hall, confident that someone would open the glass door for me. Joras opened it, I felt the tug of the wind behind me. “You like my faib skates? Idiesas, show him one of yours.” The Mahid lifted his one foot, standing still on his other skate, and held it up in front of Raikas’s face for him to look.

He raised one hand and held the heel of the Mahid’s skate with it, tilting it gently to take a close look at the row of wheels running from toe to heel along the plate at the bottom of the leather boot, spinning one with a finger.

“Stop playing with my Mahid, Raikas! Grab your boy and lets get out of this stuffy building. You’ll be able to watch the city go crazy a different way today.” I’d stopped in the colonnade, Joras holding the door still.

“As you wish, Spark of the Sun’s Light.” He waved Skorsas after me. I tapped my fingers impatiently as he got his sword out of the arm’s trust and I hopped down the steps.

Then I had to wait while he examined the express chairs. There were lanes for the fast carry chairs in a lot of the streets, maintained by Marble Palace slaves. Even though the lanes were kept smoother than any other outdoor space the slaves had big sprung wheels on their boots. They were big men, big enough to carry people in the chairs at speed. There were small emergency wheels on the legs of the chairs and straps to hook onto the shoulders of the slaves’ harnesses. The lead chair bearer of the two had his whistle in his mouth and the Marble Palace license on a strap around his neck.

The seats in both were padded with silk and tasseled and the fittings of the chairs were brass shined to look like gold. The front chair had a solid sunshade while the back one had no roof at all, lighter for speed. “You want the faster chair Raikas? Or the shaded one?”

“Oh, the faster one, of course.” So I had them switch around. Once I saw Raikas settled, his boy sat down into the back chair as though he did it every day, I swung into the lane in front of them, Idiesas and Joras on the street beside.

“Keep up!” I commanded and went as fast as I could down the street, taking advantage of the downslope toward the Avenue. I could hear the lead carrier’s whistle shrilling behind me and Raikas’s whoop as we took off, an impromptu parade that was moving as fast as a horse could run, then even faster. I turned toward the Main Gate giggling, swooped around the Carter’s Honour statues and then dodged into the turn-around loop, my skates screeching metal against stone at the sharpness of my turn and headed back towards the Marble Palace, both my Mahid stretching to keep up with me.

I was fat but I skated a lot, sometimes hours in the night along the glass-slick hallways of the palace. I found peace in it and when I could go fast, out in the city, I laughed and laughed.

From behind I could hear Raikas calling to his bearers even though they couldn’t understand. “Faster, you sluggards! Catch that boy!” and from further behind the boy’s higher shrilling, in Arkan. “I don’t know what the FIK you’re saying but SHUT THE FIK UP!”

“FASTER!” Raikas called. “If I had two legs I could skate rings around you!”

The lead carrier had the warning whistle in his mouth so couldn’t say anything and what the back carrier said was carried away in the wind of our passage.

I giggled and pushed harder. If I got up enough speed I might even leave the ground coming off the Horse Bridge entering the fessas quarter. “Faster!” Raikas was whooping and cheering his carriers on to try and catch me.

“Shut the FIK up, Lightning Loner!” I heard a faint yell from Skorsas.

“That’s it! That’s it! We’re gaining on the little brat!” I snatched a peek back as I hit the Horse Bridge, tucked and left the ground going over the crest, a long, long jump, longer than I had ever gotten.

“Yeah! What he did! Do what he did!” I grinned, thinking of the curses the bearers would be showering, un-knowing, on his head, or just in their heads, saving their breath and strength to keep up. “We’re all going to DIIIIIEEEEEE!” That was Skorsas again.

I straightened, slowing, as we came up on the fessas thoroughfare and turned almost sedately into Enlightened Labour Road. I was breathing hard and sweaty but I felt very good.

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This scene from Chevenga's point of view