Menagerie - Martin Day [18]
'A scientist, eh?' said Oiquaquil. The small Captain rubbed his hands with delight. 'You are either very ignorant of our city, or very brazen. You'd better come with me.' He flashed the Doctor a brief smile lacking teeth and warmth. 'I think you're right. I think the knights will find you very interesting indeed.'
Cosmae could not get Kaquaan's face out of his mind. He saw her beguiling eyes, her full lips, her pale cheeks notched with tiny nicks of scar tissue. He remembered her hair, tumbling around her shoulders, and in his mind he reached out to caress her.
The fact that it was her face that ebbed and waned impossibly in his vision troubled Cosmae. He'd known many beautiful women, and quite a few charming whores.
Defrabax had said that, as Kaquaan was one of many, she'd soon be gone from Cosmae's mind, and that he lusted after her rather than loved her. After all, Cosmae had first seen her mere weeks ago, and he hardly knew her at all. He only knew her name because she'd le that slip when they had talked in bed earlier that evening.
And yet he wanted so much to know her better, to have a role on the stage of her life. If his passions had been inflamed by nothing more than lust, he postulated, his diseased mind would be taunted by images of her legs, her breasts, by the sounds of their lovemaking — but no, it was her face, her laugh, her eyes, her eyes, her eyes ...
He saw her eyes everywhere, but still he hadn't tracked her down. He had returned quickly to the street where he had most often seen her, but she was nowhere to be found.
Women with painted faces and dark robes paraded up and down, but she was not among them.
Cosmae sensed an extra tang in the air, and it was a deep fear, an amplification of the usual unease that was normal for any area where the Knights of Kuabris held sway. The creatures from the sewers, whatever they were, and whatever sort of connection Defrabax had with them, had upset what little calm existed in the city.
Up ahead there seemed to be a cluster of people, gathered around some central point, making excited, sighing exclamations of surprise and fear. Perhaps someone had been killed by the sewer creatures.
Cosmae ran towards the group, and heard a voice he recognized. He pushed his way through the mass of people, ignoring their scornful looks and their curses, until he was just close enough to see what was going on.
It was Kaquaan, and she was talking to a young knight.
The nature of her story ensured that the people's usual fear of the knights had for the moment waned. The entire crowd hung on her every word as if she were a master storyteller.
'It was a terrible grey thing of the graveyards,' she was saying. 'The creature didn't move — I didn't give it the chance. I just ran out of the door.'
Cosmae watched the young knight stand in thought for a few moments before he turned to one of a number of guards who stood behind him. 'Take her to Grand Knight Himesor at the castle,' he ordered. 'He will doubtless wish to question this strumpet at his leisure. And make sure you mention that it was Araboam who found her.' The knight could barely resist a self-satisfied smile.
Cosmae watched the girl being led away. The guard had a fistful of hair and yanked her head regularly. Somewhere Kaquaan had lost a shoe, and one foot was swollen and bloody. She hobbled to keep up with the guard.
Cosmae swallowed down his desire to smash the guard's face on the pavement, and slipped away from the crowd, following them towards the Castle of Kuabris at a discreet distance. At one point the girl seemed to look behind her and recognize his face amongst all the milling people, but the guard cursed and dragged her forwards again, half on her knees.
Imagination or not, Cosmae saw tears like jewels about her cheeks.
The creature sat in darkness, staring at the points of light just above its head. Through the metal drain cover it could see people's feet as they scurried about like overdeveloped insects. The clanging rhythm provided basic