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“What is this city called?”
“We call it Grave City,” he says. “As you can see, this was once a primal boneyard. This is where the ancient ones came to take their eternal rest.”
“Oh, and you built a city over it?”
“It was a settlement that offered some protection to our ancestors, because many of the more dangerous creatures of the world avoided this place unless they were coming to pass away. Over time, the small settlement became a township, and then a city, and now we have this great metropolis.”
“Do primals still come here to pass away?”
“It has been a great many years since a primal approached the gates of the city.”
I nod. I don’t really care about the history, or at least, I don’t really want to care. Though I have to admit, there is something compelling, awe-inspiring, and even melancholy about the origins of this city. This is a place where early saurians, finding themselves sentient prey to beasts who were so much larger and more powerful than themselves, took refuge in moldering corpses.
What I really want to know is where the space ports are and how to get there. Usually, such structures are relatively easy to see if you have a bird’s eye view of a place, but I don’t see any obvious large swathes of flat land used for takeoff and landing. I can’t very well ask Thorn outright where my best point of escape is, so I am going to have to keep investigating. I also need to know what he did with my things and my suit. I know they will likely be locked away from me as securely as they can be, but I am a thief by nature and I’ll take what’s mine.
“Can I go, please?”
Thorn lets me down and his big palm pats my bottom. “Back to my bedroom,” he says. “You need to get some more rest.”
I am glad to escape the gazes of all these powerful male creatures. They make me feel small in that way I do not like. They also make me feel impossibly seen. Thorn exposed me in part. Showed them my bottom. Put my marks on display. I think he liked doing that.
* * *
Idon’t go back to the bedroom, obviously. I use the fact that Thorn is busy talking to all those other saurians. The rest of his house seems empty. Now is my chance to explore with plausible deniability of getting lost. If I get caught, I’ll just say that I couldn’t remember the way back on account of my broken brain.
Thorn’s place is huge. The stairs are exhausting to scale because they’re made so much larger than human-scaled steps. I have to lift my legs very high to get up each and every one of them and before I know it my thighs and ass are both burning for a whole new reason. This is good for me, I tell myself. I need conditioning. Most of my piracy has taken place inside a ship, which does not require much in the way of physical ability.
Climbing up to the next level, I find a great many rooms to explore. None of them seem to have anything actually inside them besides furniture. This place seems like somewhere that should be inhabited by a large family, perhaps several generations of such. Thorn doesn’t seem to have a family. I sense no wife, I see no evidence of offspring, and his parents and any potential extended family also seem just as absent. Thorn is a loner, I think. Like me, he seems to have made what passes for family by assembling compatriots and trusted friends. I hope those he trusts are better for him than mine were for me.
“What do you think you are doing!?”
My thoughts are interrupted as I am confronted by a tall, lanky saurian with a gentle face and a flared sort of crest extension from the back of his head. I notice when his teeth flash that they are broad and flat, and set in a face that is humanoid in the same way Thorn and his companions are, but less threatening. This saurian must be of herbivorous descent.
“Hello,” I say. “I think I might be lost.”
“These are the servants quarters,” he says. “You do not belong here. How did you sneak in?”
“I…”
I think quickly.
“I came in through one of the lower windows,” I pretend to admit. “I wanted to see what was in this big fancy house. I’m supposed to be passing through on a connecting flight, but I left the port and got turned around. Do you think you could possibly get me transported back to the port?”
This is quite the gamble, but I have to take it.
A pirate’s job is significantly comprised of convincing lying. I’ve lied a lot in my life, albeit without fear. I used to be able to tell untruths without so much as skipping a beat, but right now there’s a a fluttering in my chest and a general coursing of excitement that I have missed.
“You are in the home of the Grave City Alpha,” the servant says. “You are about as far from the port as it is possible to be. If you were to be caught here, you would be imprisoned for a significant length of time. There is no excuse for this.”
“I’m so sorry,” I lie. “I was really just trying to find my way back to the ship. This house is so large I thought it might be some kind of mall or information center. It looks like hundreds of people could work here. If you would be so kind as to send me back to the port, I promise I won’t set a foot out of line.”
I look at his face. I used to have some trouble working out what people were thinking and feeling. An effect of the chip, maybe. Suddenly, I have a flash of inspiration. I know what might tug at this guy’s heartstrings. He’s being very stern and officious, but I know he works for Thorn and the other carnivorous saurians. I’m willing to bet there’s a hierarchy there between plant eaters and meat eaters. Thorn’s his boss.
“I have a new position,” I explain to him. “I don’t want to let my new master down. He will be terribly disappointed in me if I miss the next shuttle out of here. I’ll be bringing shame to myself and to my family. It’s the first time I’ve ever been away from the colony. I’m truly sorry.”
I see him draw in a deep sigh and deflate slightly. “Very well,” he says. “I will call you a transport to the shuttle. Come with me. It would not do for you to be seen in the main house.”
I am all too willing to follow him. He takes me to a staircase. Not the large main one I just scaled, but a much smaller one made of wood rather than stone, winding down and around through the internal structure of the house. It’s not exactly dilapidated, but it is certainly much more unassuming. It’s darker and closer and I like the feeling of being inside it.
