Free Zotikas: Episode 1: Clash of Heirs by Rob Storey, Tom Bruno Page A

bodyguard, but a close friend as well.
    Velirith adjusted the collar on her outfit and gently
arranged the stack of fake notes in her satchel of woven silver. She hung the
bag over her right shoulder and patted it with excitement. Adding s pike
to the punch, she thought.
    She took a last look in the mirror, practiced her best
look of pure childish innocence, and headed to the private tram to meet her
father and go to the gala.

Chapter
Six
     
    Kieler swore in his head, but his face remained
impassive, even nonchalant.
    The last agent slid onto the tram as the begrimed
bronze doors slid closed with a heavy thump. Both the doors and the agent
impressed him as being old without showing it properly. The doors were artfully
and sturdily built, at least a couple hundred years ago. Three layers of bronze
trim arched gracefully over the portal, strong and solid but tarnished with
time.
    While casually pretending to look at the tram doors,
Kieler peripherally studied the remaining agent. Kieler couldn’t pinpoint why
the man struck him as old. His face was youthfully unlined. Physically, the man
was below average height, dark haired, and had a pale, smooth complexion.
Perhaps the larger nose and ears, despite his clear complexion, made him look
like an older man. And his eyes, while not rheumy, were dull, as if the light
in them had waned.
    The tram climbed slowly, rising from the Glums toward
the brighter, higher level of Plaza Floraneva. These trams were built with a
tasteful elegance in an era when efficiency wasn’t defined by cutting back on
materials or energy usage. The vehicles were beautifully designed, monstrous
and enduring. Once Kieler was done redesigning the government, the engineer in
him would love to streamline these trams. It was said of the ancient vehicles,
“They were proof that with enough magal, even a mountain can fly.” Since House
Ek’s rise to power some eighty years ago, the aphorism was irreverently edited to
“with enough magal, Ek can move mountains.”
    But this man shadowing him did not work for Ek, Kieler
was intuitively sure. Probably Cortatti. But how did he know which
gate Kieler would use? Chance?
    Lumbering up the track, the tram approached the
underside of Plaza Floraneva. The Plaza’s tram station encircled one of the
ancient pillars that supported the plaza itself and the upper levels of the
city. In the Glums, these pillars were either covered with grime or, near Plate
level, covered with tenements and shabby businesses like The Bottom
of the Barrel .
    Several packed trams approached and departed,
spiraling in and away from the station. The tracks hung suspended from the
column like curving branches from a tree trunk. This was one of the busiest
hubs in the city.
    Consciously relaxing his jaw muscles, Kieler thought
about how he was going to lose his uninvited companion.
    Something else made the man seem older too. He didn’t
move enough. He just stood there, not looking around. If he was pretending
disinterest in Kieler, he was expert at it.
    The tram slowed as it sidled up to a curved platform
ringing the spire. When the doors opened, the man got off first and moved a few
feet onto the platform and stopped to wait for his charge. Kieler considered
just staying on and letting the tram take him to the next station farther west,
then doubling back. But he needed to climb the Grand Stair from Plaza Floraneva
northeast to Garrist Ring. So pretending to go on would just waste time. If he
hadn’t needed to get the sigil last night, he would have camped on top of the
Charlaise building and waited for the proper time to hop over to the party. But
now, he had to get there before full dark.
    His tail was just standing there, completely at ease
it seemed, as if he knew Kieler would be coming along and he needn’t be
worried. It was a little unnerving. Was this guy that good? Maybe choosing such
a well-known gate from the under-city was a bad call. Perhaps the Cortattis put
their best man on