“This is all very touching, but where are my shiny things?” I turned to see Gump and a group of his cronies, standing around the doorway of the inn. Pretty much every clawed hand was resting on the hilt of a sword or around daggers.
“You’ll get ‘em,” Gabe said. “Flea, look in the bag for the pistols. Watch the magazines.”
Flea looked at Gabe for a moment, then nodded and strolled over to the bikes. “Is that you, Natty Ferris?” Gump asked, “What are you doing, fraternising with monkeys?”
“Leading ‘em to you, Gump,” Natty replied, a quaver in his voice.
“As you should. So, these are my shinies?”
“They’re called guns,” Flea said, “and I’ll give them to you once we’re on the bikes.”
“That wasn’t what was agreed–”
“Nothing was agreed other than that we give you two. We are going to give you two, but if you think I don’t know that you’ll start aiming them at us the minute I hand them over, you’ve got another thing coming,” Gabe said. “Natty, you with us?” His eyes darted around, but he nodded quickly. “You know the way to the citadel?” Another nod. “C’mon, Ash, let’s go get your sister.”
I dumbly followed his direction, tucking my face down into his back, closing my eyes and hearing the sound of the bikes roar to life, smelling in his scent of smoke, laundry liquid, and musk.
“If you leave without handing over the shinies, I’ll–”
“You’ll alert every thug between here and the citadel, I know,” Gabe said. "This isn’t my first dance, Gump. I know your kind. Power through a network of alliances and backroom deals. We just want to get the girl and go back home and we have to do that by coming back here.” He slowly moved the bikes out to the road, Flea following behind and then nodded to Flea. He tossed the two pistols on the ground, closer to the bikes than the creatures, pulling his own gun out of his waistband when some of the furries took a step forward. “They’re there for the taking, just let us get clear of the place and you can take ‘em, as agreed.” I watched the muscle in Gump’s jaw flex and shift. He was trying for studied nonchalance, but the tension in his shoulders said otherwise. “You right, Flea?”
“Yep, Natty’s told me where to go. I’ll take the lead,” and with that, his bike roared off.
“Be seeing ya,” Gabe said and then took off after him.
25
Two things I learned about riding a motorbike in a pre-industrial society: one, riding on stone roads is a killer on your joints and two, it’s weird driving around in the pitch dark with no streetlights. We zipped down what seemed like the main road until we came to a large bridge that o indicated the end of the city. I strained my eyes to try and see what was out there, but all I caught were shadowy grey shapes. We rode in the darkness until I noticed Flea’s brake lights come on. We drew up beside him and he said, “Natty says there’s a town just up from here. We can’t ride in, we’ll wake the dead and freak out the locals. We’ll pull up at the town limits, then wheel the bikes in and crash at the local inn.”
“Might not be much more than a bed of hay in a stable,” Natty said.
“That’s OK,” I said, feeling the weight of the night now heavily. “Just somewhere to sleep is fine.”
“I’m surprised how accepting the innkeeper was,” I said as we walked into the sweet-smelling interior of the adjacent barn.
“Travellers come from all over to our world,” Natty said. “I sell goods to about five other sellers in alternate realms. They don’t travel outside the city as much, but Williamsburg is close enough to see some travellers. You guys at least look like monkeys.”
“Nice, so what is the deal with monkeys, anyway?” I asked, looking over one of the stalls and seeing a naked person curled up in a pile of hay within it.
“These would be the draft animals,” he said, pointing to the bigger, more muscular males. “These would be the milkers.”
“Milkers?” I swallowed hard. “They have women in there, to milk?”
“Well, yeah, tastes nice on cereal and a cold glass on a hot day. What?” Natty said.
“Women only produce milk when breastfeeding babies. Where're the babies?”
“They take ‘em when they are young, bottle feed them. If they survive, they grow up to be used around the place or sold to someone else. If they don’t, well, the meat is very tender.”
“You eat babies?” I asked, my jaw dropping open.
“Well, not me personally. It’s expensive meat, mostly only the hoity-toity class that buys it. That prince your sister is with. . . . What?”
“I think I’m going to be sick,” I said, feeling the tell-tale hot and cold feeling rising, along with my bile.
“Well, do it out there,” Flea said, dragging his saddlebags over to an empty stall and dumping them in it.
“Do you need some air, love?” Gabe asked, drawing me against his chest. I swallowed and swallowed again, feeling my stomach settle somewhat.