“Sam! Finally!”
Saminique whirled around as a hand touched his shoulder. The person recoiled, stepping back.
“…Lord Azos?” The last time Sam had seen the Phoenix, Azos had looked a lot less like a drowned rat, but there was no mistaking the feather and flame tattoo on his left cheek, or the red headband with its sadly-drooping phoenix feather.
Azos nodded. “Sam, I need your help,” he said in a rush.
The Phoenix and the others of the Pantheon of Seven were supposedly the mortal incarnations of the gods, the rulers of the Golden City and the rest of the human world. The people respected them. Worshipped them as gods. They had a golden temple all to themselves and the Chende Guard to defend them and take care of whatever they might need.
So why was Azos out here in the middle of the night in the pouring-down rain asking for Sam’s help?
The urge to say “It’s none of my concern” and walk on overwhelmed Sam. He wasn’t part of the Chende Guard anymore, and owed no specific allegiance to Azos. And being outside of the law nowadays…he didn’t even have to oblige the Phoenix as a citizen of the Golden City.
Azos looked up at him with wide amber eyes, waiting for any answer. His normally shining garments of scarlet down feathers and gold were wet and plastered to his body, torn and splotched with mud. He may have been five hundred years old, give or take a few decades, but he looked very much like a lost young man right now.
Sam had never been able to turn down people in need, even if they were conceited Phoenixes with delusions of godhood. “All right, Lord Azos, what do you need?”
Azos glanced nervously over his shoulder, shifting from foot to foot with a bird-like hop. “I need a safe place to stay.”
A safe place to stay? “Why aren’t you at the temple?”
“I’ll answer all your questions when we’re safe,” Azos pleaded. “Just hide me. Quick. The Chende Guard--I barely escaped from them at the temple, they’ll be after me now--”
With a long-suffering sigh he slipped off his coat and tossed it to Azos. “Put that on. Gold isn’t exactly inconspicuous.”
"Does this--"
"Yes, I'll help you. Hurry up about it."
Azos pulled on the coat gratefully. “Eternal thanks, Saminique,” he said.
Sam gave a curt nod and began walking again, without waiting to see if Azos would follow. The Phoenix stayed right at Sam’s heels. Sam ignored him, focused on the route and the various consequences taking in the Phoenix might have.
Later he would curse himself endlessly for having missed the sight of two men armed with spears step out of an alley right before jumping them.
------
Playing with some ideas for a beginning of Rayle and the phoenix story. Introducing Saminique Taro as a major character. He was previously the mentor of a steampunk novel, but this steampunk...erm, morphed into this dark urban fantasy with Rayle and Azos. Yerp. Enjoy.
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