“Looksthat way.”
“There’san untold amount of history here.Rich architecture.Magical technology lost tothe ages.”
“Surelyso.”
“Andyou just want to talk about your genitals.”
Herlaugh echoed through the plaza.“‘Genitals?’That the book term for a twat?”
Isaacglanced up from his sketchbook, aghast.“Have you really never heard the word‘genitals’?I mean, gods.The propriety.”
“Squire,listen,” Zaria said.“I’m attempting to break you from your shell.Free yourmind from study.Stop you being so squeamish wheneversomeone mentions their leaky bits.Talk of my nethers is for your own good,really.”
“Oh.Ofcourse.You’re trying to help me.Why did I think otherwise?”
“Isaac,I command you to start cussin’ like a proper lad.None of this ‘genitals’nonsense, you hear?It’s a cunt.Say it.”
“Absolutelynot.”
Sheleaned down to his ear.“Cunt.Twat.Minge.Clunge.Snatch.Cock trap.Tinderbox.Axe wound.Winking—”
“Listento me,” he said.“I’m taking notes that will spur millions of gold inexpedition funds.Hundreds of people will be combing this city because of myscribblings.They’ll write treatises about this discovery for centuries tocome.So, if you’d be so kind, would you please—please—just let meconcentrate, for a moment.”
“Fine,fine.”
Isaacbegan to redraw the relief on his tablet.Zaria glanced around the desolateintersection, taking note of the knuckled plaza, the skull-shaped houses, thecourtyard fences that jutted and curved like ribs.The cartilage light wascoloring her fur the same gold as the rest of the stones, and the lightsthemselves hung in the sky like a dozen dimming suns.
“Probablyshouldn’t stand in the open like this,” she said, after a minute.“Best stickto the alleys.”
“Itreally doesn’t matter.”
“Isaac,I won’t question your book learning so long as you don’t question me onthievin’ craft.Heed my advice.”
Hecontinued to stencil the figure of a glass-domed man.“We’re in the sorceress’sdomain now, which is the same domain that sucked the wind from the desert, aswell as the life from all these bones.She can sense our breath like a torch inthe dark.She’ll always know where we are, no matter what.She might even hearour conversation.”
“Oh,”Zaria said.“Fuck me, then.”
It washard to draw.The cartilage light was dim, and it was tinged just the rightcolor for his stencil markings to fade into the parchment.He kept trying.Hisuncle had insisted on acquiring as many samples as possible, both for the sakeof history and his own posterity.Isaac couldn’t disagree.
“So,”Zaria said, after another short minute, “what’s all these carvings supposed tomean, anyway?”
“I’mtrying to figure that out,” Isaac said.
“Well,let’s talk it through, maybe.Share ideas.”
“I’drather you just be quiet.”
Thehyena blew a raspberry, kicking her foot at a broken knuckle in the road.
“Fine,”Isaac said, irritated.He took a moment to calm himself, because he knew sheonly wanted to talk.“I’m reasonably certain this is a creation myth.How thesociety was founded, its origins and heritage, that sort of thing.This one isabout livestock.”
“Livestock?”
“Sure.You’re aware of the Human Paradox?”
He didnot see her reaction, but he felt the confusion behind him.“Human pair of ox?Like, someone shaggin’ their plow steed?”
Isaacrestrained a sigh.“No.”
