I grabbed his hand and pulled him quick into a doorway and held him.
“Tracker, what in all the fucks—”
“Men, two in number, following us.”
“Oh, the two men a hundred paces behind me, one in a blue cape and white robes, the other, open vest and white trousers like a horseman? Trying to look as if not in league with each other, but clearly walking together? I think, Tracker, they are following me.”
“We could lead them to that plank, and throw them off.”
“Are all your forms of fun this quick?”
I pushed him away. We kept on walking, past a number of steps I could not count, but I did notice the path took us right around the trunk, covered in little roofs, towers, and great halls, twice. And at almost every turn there was a new tree in the distance. And at every turn I was getting angry with Mossi and couldn’t explain why.
“A city with no children, and a queen hungry to get one, even from you. There is some honor in that, is there not?”
“No honor to such lowly customs.”
“And yet you dropped your robes, and rose to meet it.”
“What is burning you?” he said.
I looked at him. “I feel lost and I do not know what to do here.”
“How could you be lost? I am following you, so I am lost too.”
The men stopped waiting on us and were approaching.
“Maybe what you’re looking for is not a reason to fight, or to save the boy, but just a reason,” Mossi said.
“Fuck the gods if I know what that means.”
“I’ve spent my life on the chase for men. People are either running to, or running from, but you just seem to be cut loose. You have no stakes in this and why should you? But have you a stake in anything? In anyone?”
At this I wished for nothing more than to punch the next remark back into his mouth.
He looked at me, his eyes sharp, waiting for an answer. I said, “How shall we deal with these men? We have no weapons, but we do have fists. And feet.”
“Are they—”
“Do not turn around, they are upon us.”
The two men looked like monks, tall and very thin, one with the long hair and the cultivated face of a eunuch. The other, not as tall but still thin, looked at us for less than a blink before looking past us. Mossi clutched at his sword but there was no sword. They walked past us. Both smelled heavy of spices.
On the way back to my room not even the thought of the gods at peace could stop me from cursing.
“I cannot believe you fucked her.”
He spun around to me. “What?”
I stopped and turned back. Only one cart passed us. The street stayed empty, but you could hear buying, selling, and yelling down the bazaars in the lanes.
“You heard what I said. Thank the gods, I am just a low jungle boy,” I said. “She must think you’re an eastern prince.”
“You think that’s how it is, that you’re too low to be used and killed,” Mossi said.
“If she conceives you can thank the gods you are a father of multitudes. Like a rat.”
“Listen, you bush-fucker. Don’t judge me for something you would have done. Was there any choice? Do you think I even wanted to? What would you do, insult the Queen the night she gives you hospitality? What would have happened to us?”
“This is new waters for me. Never had I had a man fuck somebody else for my benefit. If she conceives they will come for you.”
“If she conceives they will come for everyone,” Mossi said.
“No, you.”
“Then let them come. They will learn there is one man who is not a coward in Dolingo.”
“I could strike you so hard right now.”
“You, the hound on two legs, thinks he can strike a warrior? I wish you would.”
I walked right up to him, my fists clenched tight, just as several men in the gowns of scholars came out of an alley and walked past us. Three turned around, walking with their group, but backward to look at us. I turned away and walked to my room. I didn’t want or expect Mossi to follow me, but he did and as soon as he came through the door I pushed him hard against the wall. He tried to push me off but could not, so he kneed me in the ribs,