Cinnabar Shadows Chapter 9: Into Codesh - The Hunt for Kakzim on the Killing Ground

Book: Cinnabar Shadows by Lynn Abbey | Series: Dark Sun - Chronicles of Athas, Book 4 | ISBN: 0-7869-0181-0

This chapter is a ride. Pavek takes his crew into Codesh, the most dangerous slaughterhouse village on Athas, looking for a tunnel to the underground reservoir. What they find is Kakzim, a mob of butchers, and a fight that almost kills all of them.

Slipping Out of Urik

Dawn finds the four of them tying sandals by the front door. They need to get out of Urik before Hamanu’s palace enforcers come calling. Pavek has left a sealed note with Initri explaining their plan. Until someone reads it, nobody knows where they are.

The templar quarter is busy with bleary-eyed officials heading to work. Mahtra’s white skin stands out in any crowd, and their homespun clothes scream “not from around here” in a neighborhood where everyone wears yellow. But templars are professionals at not seeing what is right in front of them. In their own quarter, they are very nearly blind.

They eat breakfast at the western gate. Sausage and bread. Pavek calculates their gold will run out in six or seven days. Then he calculates that by then, money will be the least of his worries.

Nunk and the Gate

Getting into Codesh is easier than expected. Through sheer luck, Pavek knows the instigator running the gate. A man named Nunk, with two rows of rotten teeth that ruin his chances with the ladies, same way Pavek’s scar ruins his. It is a funny detail. Abbey has this talent for making you like minor characters with one sentence.

Nunk has heard the rumors. Pavek is the one who brought down a high templar. The one who made Laq disappear. The one with a gold medallion. Pavek shows him the gouged ceramic instead and says, “Rumors lie.”

Nunk fills them in. Since Escrissar’s fall, Hamanu cleaned house thoroughly. Marched through the quarter himself, calling out names. The corrupt ones went to the obsidian pits. The city is cleaner than it has been in generations.

But there is a halfling. A “lune” living in rented rooms along the abattoir gallery. A doomsayer who preaches the great conflagration a couple times a day. Nunk does not know the name Kakzim, but the description fits.

The Killing Ground

Nunk assigns an elven regulator named Giola to escort them. She charges four bits and demands Mahtra wear a cloak. Fair price, fair request. She also tries to talk Pavek out of carrying his metal sword, suggesting she would be a better wielder. Pavek shuts that down with a templar phrase that makes her back off.

Codesh itself is horrifying. The streets are barely wide enough for two people. Every cobblestone is stained the color of dried blood. The dust is dark red. The garments are dark red. The skin of the people is dark red. Death sounds fill the air constantly. Bleats, wails, truncated screams as the axe comes down.

Pavek thinks about the sausage he bought at the gate and feels sick. But this is Athas. You eat what you can get. He swallows his nausea and keeps moving.

At a Codesh plaza, women wash laundry at a fountain. Water splashes and flows between cobblestones until it disappears into the ground. Pavek asks where the water comes from and where it goes. Giola stares at him like he is an idiot.

But it is the right question. Where does the water flow? Underground. To the reservoir. Pavek is close.

Then Mahtra speaks up. She describes a building: walls as tall as they are wide, flat roof, one door, a hole in the floor that goes all the way underground. Just like the building she used in Urik’s elven market to access the cavern.

Giola knows the place. A little building, sitting in the middle of the abattoir. She never noticed a door, but she never looked.

The abattoir. Where Nunk said the halfling lives. Everything is pointing to the same place.

The Ambush

They enter the abattoir with the help of Giola and a dwarf templar who runs the watchtower. Pavek reveals his high templar medallion to get past the skeptical dwarf. Giola sees it too and turns pale. Suddenly, the four-bit escort job is a lot more complicated.

But something interesting happens. Giola gives back the four bits. She tells Pavek his name was whispered in the shadows when he was exiled. He was not without friends. She bought him luck from a fortune-seller. This elf regulator, who was shaking him down twenty minutes ago, is offering genuine respect.

The abattoir is a massive open space surrounded by walls, filled with the trades of death. Sixty parade paces square. Carcasses everywhere. The little stone building sits right in the middle of the killing floor.

Pavek finds the false-front door and starts working the latch. Then Mahtra shouts: “There he is!”

Kakzim. On the second-story balcony. A slender arm extends. A signal.

The butchers come for them. Well-fed, well-armed, and organized. Pavek draws his sword and says his farewell prayers.

Mahtra Saves Everyone

The fight is brutal and fast. Pavek and the dwarf hold the line, but they are outnumbered and hemmed in against the building. Parry high, parry low, parry, parry, parry. Then a blow comes from behind and Pavek goes down.

Mahtra unleashes her cinnabar protection. A hollow sphere of sound and light radiates from her body and drops everyone in a wide circle. Friends and enemies alike. Pavek, Ruari, the dwarf. All down.

But this time is different. Mahtra made the decision to protect herself. She held Zvain’s hand throughout, and somehow he was spared. They are the only two standing.

Zvain tells her the truth she does not want to hear: “They’re dead, Mahtra. You killed them.”

She sways. No. No. Ruari was right next to her. He could not have died. But he does not move. None of them move.

The templars from the watchtower charge in with pikes and shields. The crowd parts. Giola checks necks for pulses. “Their hearts are still beating.”

Zvain’s tears stop instantly. “They’re alive? She didn’t kill them?”

Mahtra then shows a new side. When the templars refuse to carry Ruari because he is half-elf, she grabs Giola’s arm and delivers an ultimatum with her strange, emotionless voice. Zvain backs her up with a reminder: “Boom, boom, boom!” A shiver runs down Mahtra’s arm, Giola’s eyes widen, and suddenly the elf is very cooperative.

This is growth. Mahtra is learning to use her power deliberately. Not out of panic, but out of choice. And the threat, not the blast, is what gets results.

The Aftermath

Nunk arrives from the outer gate, sees Pavek’s condition, and panics. He sends them all to the palace. Zvain objects, but Mahtra gives him the same look she gave Giola. The boy shuts up.

Pavek comes around in the handcart on the road back to Urik. He can see Mahtra running beside the cart, keeping pace with the elves pulling it. He pieces together what happened. She saved him. Again.

He spends the ride trying to think of something to say to Hamanu that will keep them all alive. Nothing comes.

This chapter moves fast and hits hard. Codesh is one of the most vividly drawn locations in any Dark Sun novel. The constant sensory assault of blood, noise, and death makes every moment there feel urgent. And the fight on the killing floor proves that Kakzim is not just a lone madman. He has organized followers, hired muscle, and a network inside Codesh. This is bigger than one halfling with a grudge.

Previous: Chapter 8 - House Escrissar | Next: Chapter 10 - Audience with Hamanu