Free Guardians (Chosen Trilogy Book 2) by David Leadbeater Page B

I don’t even feel like running. The depravity disheartens me.”
    “You feel trapped? I know. So do I.”
    “Not like me.” Felicia’s body shook. “A lycan will die of a broken heart if not allowed to run.”
    Ken was well aware they weren’t even half way through their journey if Dementia had made it down to the lowest level. “Try to stay positive,” he said. “Hey, you’re supposed to be the optimistic one. Not me.”
    “Well that’s the trouble with optimism. When it finally dies it dies hard. It crashes and burns.”
    They saw and heard the grand bazaar well before they reached it. Orange flames illuminated the black skies and gray clouds, and could be seen many miles away. Closer, the sound of strange music and hawkers yelling their wares, of creatures screaming and baying with laughter, of implements and machines being used or demonstrated, filled the air with life. Rich scents drew them closer, and Felicia forgot her melancholy to sniff out the best of them.
    “Meat ,” she said, her mouth watering. “And edible.”
    Ken felt his stomach growl. He couldn’t remember his last good meal. “What’s the plan here?” He turned to Lilith.
    “I could do it, but it’s risky ,” she said. “Every time I’m spotted increases the chances that Samael will find me. No human may enter, and a lycan would stand out like horns on a baby. I think only the evil ones should enter.”
    Ken wondered who she was referring to for a second before he understood. “Evil ones? Oh, you mean the vamps.” He smiled at Milo’s grimace.
    Eliza sighed. “And we’re the ones that don’t actually need the food.”
    Lilith shrugged. “Buy ega meat or blue spike meat. Both are edible for humans and lycans. Get it dried and salted. It will last longer. And water. That is also available. Also medication. A form of antibiotic is called Whalen and available in plant-like form. You can chew it or make it into a pulp. Very fast acting. There are other goods, more delicacies, but I think we should work fast rather than methodically whilst we’re here.”
    She pointed out the way to the three vampires. “Walk straight through the fiery pillars. You can’t miss it.”
    Ken looked around at the endless desolation. “So we have to wait here?”
    “No ,” Lilith returned. “We can watch from the rocks.” She gestured up at the clumps of hillocks and rocks that surrounded the area. “It’s how I first surveyed the bazaar and pinpointed where best to buy things. Come on.”
    The two groups separated, K en following the girl and the wolf along a short escarpment and then picking their way through a jumbled assortment of rocks. Lilith slowed when the rocks grew tall enough to hide them and settled down in a slight depression. Ken found his own little niche and appraised the view.
    Less than a hundred feet below the grand bazaar sprawled out in resplendent glory. It was nothing more than a disorganized jumble of colorful stalls and open squares where musicians and street performers played. Flickering torches sat on the tops of hundreds of dark pillars, illuminating the area, along with another several hundred being carried by hawkers and buyers. A tantalizing aroma of meats and spices drifted through the air. Ken was momentarily taken aback, this scene being so similar to many he had witnessed back home. A slice of normality, it shocked him.
    Then he looked a little harder.
    Lilith was pointing out the fiery pillars at the entrance to the bazaar. The three vampires were already there, entering the market and casting around. But Ken didn’t really hear her. His attention had just been seized by a staggering sight. The hawkers and the customers, the players and the wanderers, were all species of hellbeast. Not a one looked alike, not a one looked vaguely human. There were beasts that slithered and beasts that ran on spindly legs. Beasts that sported many tentacles and beasts that had dozens of trinkets dangling off curved horns.