It was just that so much had happened since then, and so much of her thinking had altered. Her worldview had shifted and changed so rapidly that she felt like a new person looking back at the old Sarah like she was a stranger. She could understand why Jotaha found the experience so unsettling, and even frightening. It was like shedding the old skin of her past, but without knowing what would grow in its place.
She was actually having fun with a woman who should be hostile to her, or at least not friendly. Instead, Farona was an engaging companion, filled with amusing and outright hilarious stories about everything, including Jotaha’s youth. She also avidly questioned Sarah about Earth, and her previous life there. Sarah wished she could spin a tale as brilliantly as Farona did. Her past life sounded so boring and bland when she tried to relay it to the yan-kanat female.
Even so, Farona behaved as if the things Sarah told her were incredible and exciting. She wanted to know about airplanes and skyscrapers and smartphones and computers. She seemed fascinated with Sarah’s description of video games, saying it was difficult to imagine traveling to other worlds without ever leaving the comfort of your own home.
Farona had their purchases delivered directly to Jotaha’s housing pod, and she had bought several new shift-style dresses, and a chain-belted tunic dress with a plunging neckline that would have a much different look on Sarah than a yan-kanat female. Farona insisted that was a good thing, enhancing her alien beauty. She also added three wrap dresses, and had the vendor demonstrate on Sarah how to wear them.
Everyone they spoke to treated them with respect, and Farona’s curiosity and fascination about Sarah seemed to rub off on the others. Soon, Sarah was fielding so many questions about humans and their world that she was running out of breath trying to keep up.
They drew a crowd as they made their way out of the wing district and down into the sternum district. Beneath the shadows cast by the looming skeleton city, they entered another marketplace. This one primarily consisted of what appeared to be clubs and bars and eateries, with a few boutiques, housed in stone buildings or fancy wood and bone structures.
They businesses were clearly fancier than the food stalls in the wing district. Even here, the proprietors and employees appeared to know Farona. Many stopped to greet her and Sarah when they saw her, their curious gazes sweeping over Sarah before Farona drew her onward.
They ended up entering an eatery where the dishes being served were as fancy as the ones she’d tried in the temple.
Farona led her to a table where five other females sat, all of them sipping from delicate china-style cups, rather than the heavier glazed mugs that the yan-kanat called “crocks.”
All the other females greeted her, save one. The woman’s scaled face was pulled in lines of tight disapproval, and Sarah’s joy at being out and about with her sparkling companion dissolved as she recognized the hostility in the other woman’s eyes.
Still, the other four were welcoming and waved for her and Farona to take their seats on fanciful chairs made of twisted vines on a light wooden frame.
The other women chattered away with obvious excitement, regarding Sarah with deep curiosity. Yet she felt the antagonism coming off the woman named Ane-ata, though that one remained silent, only sipping her tea, her glare shooting towards Sarah from time to time.
The servers brought drinks for Farona and Sarah, and Farona recommended several items for Sarah, since they didn’t have menus.
“You are so interesting to talk to, Sarah!” a yan-kanat female named Rataka said, her high-pitched voice filled with enthusiasm. She was a lead sculptor who worked in one of Farona’s craft-rooms, and also seemed to respect her employer and friend, leading Sarah to believe Farona treated her people well.
“She is probably lying about everything, since her mouth is moving,” Ane-ata suddenly said, glaring at Rataka. She sneered as her eyes shifted to Sarah. “Isn’t that what nixirs do so well. Lie whenever their mouths are open. That’s when they aren’t stabbing those who dare to trust them in the back.”
“Ata!” Farona’s voice snapped across the stunned silence of the others like a whip.
Ane-ata visibly flinched, though her burning glare only shifted briefly to the furious Farona before returning to Sarah.
“You will speak to our guest with respect or leave this table now,” Farona said in a voice so chilly that Sarah felt like the temperature suddenly dropped below freezing.
The silence thickened as Ane-ata appeared to debate her choices. Her head bowed and her shoulders hunched inward when she shot an apologetic glance to Farona, yet she set her cup down and rose to her feet. “Kevos is right about her, Farona. She will hurt Jotaha. She will hurt all of us. That’s what the nixirs do.”
She stabbed a finger at Sarah, who reeled back even though Ane-ata was not close enough to touch her. “You don’t belong in our world!”
With that, she spun on her heel and stormed out of the restaurant, leaving a heavy pall on the conversation.
After that unpleasant encounter, Farona apologized profusely to Sarah, explaining that her friend was deeply in love with Kevos—who was apparently the big, mean bastard they’d encountered in the desert—and that he was trained, as Jotaha was, to view nixirs as the enemy. Clearly, his influence had rubbed off on Ane-ata. She was also probably angry that Jotaha had put Kevos in his place—and in a healer’s chamber—after a fight in the arena.
That fight had been over Sarah’s presence in Draku Rin, and that knowledge cast a cloud over the remainder of the meal for Sarah, despite the other females trying their best to keep a cheerful conversation going.
Finally, Farona settled with the proprietor and then joined them outside the eatery, where they parted ways with the other women, all of whom promised to call upon Sarah as soon as possible to show her around more of the city.
She and Farona ended their outing at the museum, where Farona had promised to take her to learn more about yan-kanat history. When they entered the building, she saw shelves upon shelves and table after table of artifacts. Farona explained each display as stone-faced guards looked on in silence.
They passed a table that was much different from the other—so much so that it served as a stark reminder to Sarah how out of place she was.
A cowboy hat sat on a stand beside a fancy belt buckle and a pair of boots with silver spurs. A heavy western duster hung on a body form beside the table. Other items included a .38 caliber pearl handled revolver and several cartridges sitting in a stone bowl next to it. A sheathed bowie knife lay beside the bowl.
There was an empty space beside the weapons, and the marks in the dust looked like a decorative comb and hairbrush had sat there. Beside those was a cameo, several silk ribbons, and a square of yellowed lace.
“Those items were taken from the last nixir female to mate with a resident from Draku Rin,” Farona said, coming up beside Sarah as she stood staring down at the display. She indicated the weapons, “and from one of the nixir males who came after her, crossing the boundary to try to reclaim her.”
There were other various items, like a small snuff tin and a flask, but she barely spared them a glance, zeroing in on the cameo, ribbons, and lace.
“Jotaha said she was a shataz. I wonder if she came from one of the brothel houses in the area near the mine.”
She also wondered what had driven the gunslinger that had apparently followed the woman to risk so much to get her back. Clearly, he’d failed, and had lost his life in the process. She hoped he hadn’t been a heartbroken lover of the woman and had instead been a villain, and the yan-kanat who took her had saved her from him. That made the idea of the woman being abducted easier for Sarah to accept.