The Center of the World - 5. City Life

By mid-morning Saghir was carrying Pireno on his shoulders through the city streets. When Saghir had built a fire in the courtyard to heat water and Pireno’s food, the owner of the inn had reacted as if Saghir were trying to burn the inn down, and ordered him to leave. Saghir took his time getting Pireno ready to go and gathering their possessions.

The sight of a giant with a hunting bow, arrows and a spear, carrying a young man on his shoulders, attracted stares on the street, many of them fearful, few of them approving. Pireno was still coughing but he was fully awake. He didn’t remember entering the inn, so Saghir told him what had happened.

“He charged you two gold pieces for some stew and a stall with the horses? I can’t believe it.”

“Was we hafta stop. Was you hafta sleep. Good for one night. Now we find place more good.”

“How long will we stay in Luzig?”

“Hafta stay three, four month. Winter now. From Luzig go north, ship, water. Cold now, water hard, hafta wait.”

“Too much ice?”

“Ya, ice.”

They passed a crew of workmen constructing a stone building. Some pointed at the giant. There were shouts, then the sound of stone sliding, then a collapse and yells of pain. Saghir put Pireno down and rushed to the building. A workman was pinned under a fallen stone. Saghir lifted it off him and looked at the collapse.

The men’s voices erupted in accusations and blame. They were pointing at each other, at Saghir, at the stonework, at the injured man. Pireno saw a man in rich robes arrive and start asking questions. Soon he was talking to Saghir, who shook his head, then pointed to various places in the stonework. Saghir drew in the dirt, pointed at the building, and pointed at the drawing, speaking continuously. The rich man nodded and followed Saghir’s explanations.

Saghir led the man out to the street where Pireno waited. “Bilinu, this man, Galipo. He make house. I show he how make more good. He want I work here.”

Galipo nodded. “Not just a house, a trading house. This is to be a big, important building. I had to settle for a master builder who was not all I hoped. Now I hope I’ve found a new one. Now, Mr. Saghir, you say you’ve done this sort of work before.”

“Ya. You have no idea.”

Galipo smiled. “I can pay you two silver pieces a day, if you can finish the building in three months.”

“Two silver piece and more, sleep-live place for I with Bilinu. He slave by I.”

“Is this true, Mr. Bilinu?”

Pireno nodded. “Yes, I am proud to be in daigitsa Saghir’s service.” And he coughed.

Saghir continued, “Bilinu sick. I work hard, but I go help Bilinu, short time, two-three time day.”

“Certainly, if you need to leave work for a short time a few times a day while Mr. Bilinu is getting well, that’s not a problem. You take very good care of your slave, I must say.”

Saghir shrugged. “Slave, friend, fuck, love -- word, word, word. All place I go, he go same.”

Pireno tried to read Galipo’s expression. He detected only amusement, not shock.

Galipo said, “There’s a little house I’m not using near here where the two of you can live. It might need a little fixing up, but it has one very large room with a high ceiling. I think you could manage there. Where are you living now?”

Pireno said, “We just arrived in Luzig. We stayed at an inn last night. We don’t have a place to live.”

Galipo said, “Well, then, I’ll take you to the house right now.”

Within the hour, Pireno and Saghir were settled in their new home. Saghir eyed the roof critically, but was pleased to see a well nearby and a supply of firewood stacked under the broad eaves. He built a fire and bundled Pireno near it, and boiled dried meat and forced Pireno to eat some. He decided to leave repair of the ill-fitting front door until later and went off to work.

Pireno stayed indoors for several days. Each night Saghir visited the merchants and the market and brought home something to make the house livable -- bales of hay for their bed, a table and chair, boxes and a chest, buckets and pots, lumber and tools for repairs, and food. By the third day Pireno was bored with inactivity and spent the day arranging their new furnishings and stowing their possessions.

As Saghir prepared yet another meal, Pireno asked, “Do any of the merchants mind selling to a giant? Do any of them give you a hard time?”

Saghir shrugged. “Some man see I, they fear. They think, giant hit all thing, bring all thing fall down, take thing not buy. Then I show gold, silver, and they not so much fear. If man sell thing one time, then not fear sell again.”

“How about working? Are the men following your orders?”

“Day one, they not like if I say, you do this, you do that. But, same, they not like old master builder. So I draw, I show they, make stone this way, not that way. I show how this way more good, they hear. They know mind by I. They want make house good, they see this way good, they do this way.”

“And Galipo? Is he pleased?”

“Ya. I draw, I show. He like. He say word work man, Saghir say, you do.”

“I would like to see it. I’m a lot better. I think I’ll be ready to go out tomorrow.”

Saghir smiled. “Good. You sick, I think very bad. Was, I concern. I not know, maybe you die.” He looked away, into the fire.

“Hey, it’s going to take a lot more than a cough to kill me. Balan-ush shaskagi-am diami-zu.”

Saghir picked him up and hugged him. “Ya, kill man not easy. Man all time come back.”

As always, Pireno’s best medicine was to sleep wrapped in the heat of Saghir’s body.

************

The next day, Pireno visited the building site. He could make out little of what was going on. He moved on to the market. Here there were covered stalls of all sizes, selling merchandise of all sorts. In particular he examined the offerings of the jewelry sellers. He expected that, in a city, he would see fine work he could learn from. To his surprise, most of the workmanship wasn’t as good as his own. There were a few superb pieces and a lot of mediocre rubbish.

He asked one seller, “Do you make all this jewelry?”

She answered, “No, I just sell it. The jewelers give me part of the price.”

“Who made this?” Pireno pointed to a particularly fine ring.

“That’s by Hesnik. Nice, isn’t it? You’ve got an eye for quality. His stuff doesn’t come cheap.”

“Where does Hesnik work?”

“He doesn’t sell from his workshop.”

“No, I just want to meet him.”

The seller, realizing Pireno would not be buying, lost interest. “He’s in the jeweler’s street. Just ask.” She turned to talk to a more likely customer.

Pireno eventually found the workshop. Hesnik was a tiny, gnome-like man, bent over his work table. Without looking up, he said, “How can I help you?”

“I wanted to watch you work. I’m trained as a blacksmith, but I’ve also made jewelry.”

Hesnik raised an eyebrow. “A blacksmith? A hammer and anvil will only take you so far making jewelry.”

“This is one of my pieces.” Pireno produced a small bundle from his coat and pulled Finlar’s pendant from its soft leather wrapping.

Hesnik glanced at it, then took it and examined it closely. “That’s really interesting. That shows some skill. I take it you taught yourself?”

“Yes, some things.”

“Well now, this is clever what you’ve done right here, in this part, but there are easier and smoother ways to do that. Let me show you.” Hesnik launched into a long technical discussion of methods and techniques. By the time he was done, he had invited Pireno to work as his assistant. “I can’t pay you regular wages, but I can offer you a share of anything I sell. I can’t always keep up with the orders these days. I haven’t taken on an assistant because I don’t want the quality to slip. But I don’t think I’ll have to worry about that with you.”

************

Pireno and Saghir settled into a routine of work and home life. Sometimes they wandered the city streets together. The stares never really stopped, but the two learned mostly to ignore them.

“Bilinu,” Saghir said once, “I see, man see I, he not like I, some time. Little, not much. But if man see you with I, hand by I in hand by you, I kiss you, he much, much not like. I think he anger, feel like see bug.”

“It’s called disgust.”

“Ya, disgust. Why, if he see you with I, disgust? This for I shaghurfin?”

“Being a giant with a human lover is part of it, I’m sure. They probably think you’re taking advantage of me. There’s also the fact that we’re both men. I mean, a giant and a man. Neither of us is female.”

“Why this not same?”

“To them it is very much not the same. They would have the same disgust if it were two human men, too.”

“Why?”

“Don’t giants have any strong opinions about males fucking with males?”

This was a new idea for Saghir. “Not. If two giant done grow, can be giant with giantess, giant with giant, giantess with giantess, all same.”

“Must be nice.”

“Nice?”

“Easy, simple, pleasant, good. Life would be so much easier if humans thought like giants.”

“All this from one thing: man think fuck bad. Why man think fuck bad?”

“I’m afraid I don’t have an answer to that.”

“I know this,” Saghir said. “Nice here with you.”

************

Two months after arriving in Luzig, Pireno saw a group of Imperial soldiers gathered in the street. One of them looked at him sharply. He took off his helmet, and Pireno recognized Zev. Zev waved to him and trotted over.

“Pireno! I heard you left the village. We wanted to have a victory celebration and make you part of it, and you just skipped town. Then I heard all these crazy rumors about you. And here you are in Luzig.”

“Yes, I’m here in Luzig. So are you. What brings you here?”

“Oh, we’re on our way west. Another day, another battle. I’m in the cavalry now. We just rode up from the South. How did you get here?”

“I walked.”

“You walked? From the village?”

“I took a detour first. But yes, I walked.”

“Through the mountains? That’s some trek. There are no roads.”

“I wouldn’t have made it without Saghir.”

“Who?”

“Saghir. The giant. I’m his slave, remember?”

Zev was baffled. “He got hold of you again?”

“I got hold of him. Zev, I owe you an apology. I lied to you. I let you think Saghir was holding me against my will. And I lied to him, and I betrayed him. What you wanted to celebrate was the moment in my life that I’m most ashamed of. But I found Saghir, and he graciously agreed to take me back into his service. We are here together. I love him.”

Zev opened his mouth to speak, closed it, opened it again, closed it again. Finally he managed to say, “You ‘love’ him. I don’t want to know anything about that. I guess those crazy rumors weren’t crazy rumors. You’ve gone over to them. The giants. The ones who took everything we had, killed people, walked all over us. The enemy.”

“Yes, I have.”

Zev stared at Pireno for a moment, then spat on the ground, turned, and walked away.

Pireno turned away as well. Was there a place in the world where this sort of thing didn’t happen? Suddenly impatient for spring, he longed to be on a ship with Saghir, sailing away from here.