Muunas, High God, make those
shenning girls stop!
“Kyriala!” I was almost
wheezing. I wasn’t drunk at all any
more, chasing those... those... I had a choice.
I could get angry or just give up and laugh. The dawn was just over the Rim and the light
had gone from dim to the absolute crystal clear of what people call a ‘throne
morning’. Thank you Ten. Jitzmitthra seldom had rain but it could
have been miserable.
I was gaining on them fast, leaving a trail of my friends behind. Where they holding back? Good of them if they were. It was about time. A joke was a joke but it could be taken too far!
I was gaining on them fast, leaving a trail of my friends behind. Where they holding back? Good of them if they were. It was about time. A joke was a joke but it could be taken too far!
The women
were giggling I could hear that. All of
them. Even my mother was in the whole
swirling group of girls hiding Kyriala from me.
The whole lot of white-clad girls hopped the very same wash I’d fled
Sereniteers and I didn’t pause going over after them. Someone whistled as I did the same hand-flip
at speed to land in the middle of them.
“Ky? Ky?” Farasha was there too. And... Gan?
Now I’d caught up to them and there she was only one... “Forzak it!” Our friends were all around us... the men and the women... all of them getting in the shennen way!
“Minis! Over here!
I’m here!” That was her. The whole lot of them were working to keep us
two or three people apart. I grabbed
onto Resh and stretched between him and Fish and she reached toward me from
between Borasa and Amitza.
“Ky! I’m coming, these... these... people are getting in my way! We need to get married!”
“Minis! I’m here!
We need to get married! Oh, look
out for the—“ I saw the black-strap missile flinger and the children who have
mounted this on their fence manage to hit Gan with a bag full of pudding,
spattering me and Cream and Jorasa? Yes,
Jorasa.
I
wipe the pudding off my neck and jump over the spatter. “Hey!
Hey, it’s the backwards Imperator!” The children squealed and aim another
of their food missiles even as Ky and I were wheeled away from the incoming leaking
bolus.
“Save
it for the Regent!” I yelled back over my shoulder. "He’ll be out soon! I bellowed. It was true.
I caught Ky’s eye over Aisha’s shoulder she smiled and I tipped my head
behind us and she nodded.
“You...
you shen eaters!” I yelled, but
braked and she did too, sliding out of the girl’s grip and I left my vest in
Gan’s hands. We reached and caught hands, turned on our common point and
wheeled away from the whole raucous pack.
We
held our stretched out grip around the broken splashes of pudding on the pavement, the children struggling to re-load and we
fled together toward Ten Angels, before the whole street began flinging more
food.
“Tanifas
said he’d be there with everyone else!” Ky shouted, even as I
bellowed “I missed you!”
“I
missed you too and they’re gaining!”
“Salver’s
Alley?” I nodded and we slid sideways
into the narrow slot between Rose and Laurel’s and Conflagration Peak Goldsmiths
over to Fortunate Milliner’s Row, bursting out between the empty hat-racks. Not done, to display fine things when food
would be flung randomly.
“We’re
getting married!” We said
simultaneously, to each other, laughing.
She had a
purplish stain on her one shoulder and crumbs in her hair. A thrown cream-cake
caught me on the chin and I had to trust Ky to guide me for a moment while I
clawed cream off my face.
“I
love you, you madwoman! I love you, do
you know that?” I could say it out loud
and very loud in Jitz.
“Oh
good. Then I can say I love you wildly,
crazily, breathle--- duck!”
We
managed to avoid more than a shower of what turned out to be vegetable broth so
we were both dripping when we skidded around the corner to Presentation
Square... and saw our wedding party waiting for us.Everyone held fruit or cakes
and huge grins on their faces.
We
clasped both of our hands and pulled us closer together, put our heads down and
skated into the onslaught.