Eventually even Martinn got bored guarding the boy and let him have the freedom of the place. Half a day later Rafik was already serving cursed water to customers, cleaning tables, and even collecting coins for Dominique, the heavyset woman who kept the rowdy truckers in order with a sharp word and occasionally a hearty slap. She was the fattest lady he had ever seen, but she displayed the pink flesh of her middle for all to see without shame. From the first moment they met, Dominique took a shine to Rafik and, despite working him constantly, she made sure he ate, sent him to sleep early, even washed and dried his clothes, and made sure he changed the bandages on his hand every day. After Rafik complained about the bandages, Dominique knitted a colourful glove to cover his tattooed hand, and made sure the boy wore it at all times. Rafik believed she was married to Khan, because she shared his bed at night and they fought constantly.
Truckers were a rough bunch, but mostly they treated Rafik well, calling him a “mutt” and “pup” and sometimes giving him what Dominique called “a lousy tip” in order to impress their women. Very soon he discovered the basement, where rows of wooden barrels were stacked. “This is how we make the drink we sell upstairs,” Dominique answered when he asked what they were.
“It’s an art form, kid, and I’m the artist. Make it the wrong way and people will go blind or die. Make it the right way and they will part with all their metal to get their hands on my products. And I ain’t talking about these.” She hefted at her huge breasts with both hands and laughed when Rafik blushed purple.
Rafik had the sense not to point out that Dominique herself was drinking at least as much as the customers. She was nice to him, for the most part, when she wasn’t shouting or cursing or cuffing him over the head. She was as close to his mother as he could get, so he kept quiet and tried to be as helpful as possible.
Mornings were the hardest. He missed home terribly, and many times he thought of running, yet he dared not, remembering Khan’s words. He would not last long alone in the city, and even if he somehow made it back, in his heart he knew what it would mean: his dad, the ax, the stones … he was cursed, he had been sent away by his own family and shunned by his friends. They did not want him anymore. When he thought about that, tears would fill his eyes, and he would find a dark corner and choke his misery into his stained sleeves.
His dreams on the other hand, were a sharp contrast to his harsh reality. They were filled with images of twinkling, ever-changing symbols. He was now able to hold a dozen of them at once, still a fraction of the control he knew he needed to see the hidden patterns. Even when awake, Rafik was seeing symbols and patterns everywhere he turned; they were in the circles of the wheels on the trucks he saw through the window, in the different types of cups in the area downstairs called the bar, and even in the shapes of buttons sewed onto the clothes the truckers wore. He looked at everything differently, watching shapes, categorizing them, lining them up in his mind, joining them together, manipulating them, and exploring possibilities. He didn’t know why he was doing it, but it soothed him and kept his tears at bay, most of the time.
After what seemed to Rafik like an eternity, but was probably only a month, he was ordered to put on fresh clothes, and taken on a trip around Newport by Khan and Martinn. It was an even more fascinating place the second time around, because now he saw shapes and patterns everywhere he looked. Many parts of the city were in ruins, but some buildings were so high they had more stories than Rafik could count. When they climbed over hills made of broken stones, Martinn hoisted Rafik on his shoulders, the way Rafik’s father used to do when he was back home. It made him happy and sad at the same time, and Rafik was glad when they reached the top of the hill and Martinn let him down. Soon, they passed a large metal tower, which dwarfed the guard tower in his village ten times over. Engraved on one side of the tower was a symbol that was exactly like one that Rafik remembered from his dreams; five circles intertwined, with three dots in the centre. It was the first time he saw such a symbol while he was awake, and the realisation filled him with excitement.
“What is that?” he pointed. “That symbol over there?”
“This?” Khan said, squinting. “I don’t know what it means; it’s a symbol in the Tarakan language.”
“What is Tarakan?” Rafik asked. He kept hearing this word. Even the music in the bar was coming out of a small, yet surprisingly loud, Tarakan device.
“You mean you don’t know about the Tarkanians?” Khan looked genuinely surprised.
“Arse rusts, that’s what they were,” muttered Martinn, but Khan ignored him. “They were an evil race who used to live here but now they’re gone.”
“What happened to them?”
“Dead,” Martinn replied, “and good riddance.” He spat on the ground in the direction of the tower.
“We had a war with them,” said Khan, “and before they lost, they caused the Catastrophe.”
“Why did we fight them?”
“Because the Tarkanians enslaved humans, made us do all their work.”
“Like Dominique makes me do stuff?” asked Rafik, sensing the comment would be funny. It worked—both men laughed, and Khan ruffled Rafik’s growing hair. “The woman asks nicely, my boy. You are just wise enough to obey all her requests. I should learn from you. But no, the rumors were that the Tarkanians used the human slaves’ bodies for their weird experiments and even food.”
Rafik shuddered.
Martinn was still chuckling when he said, “Well, the Tarkanians are gone now, and we are free.”
“But they left us a legacy,” continued Khan, as they began climbing another rubble hill. He pointed at the remains of the buildings around them, “Their architecture, their cities, buildings, and roads, but most important: the remains of their technology, Tarakan devices that still work even though we have no idea how. Of course,” he said, patting Rafik lightly on the shoulder, “they also left us people like you.”
“Like me? What do you mean? I’m not a Tarkanian,” he said.
“We are going to find out what you are soon enough,” Khan answered, just as Martinn announced, “We’re here.”
They were on top of an enormous hill made of rubble, or perhaps it was a ruined tower, Rafik couldn’t tell. There was a large, redbrick building before them. Although it was not tall by Newport standards, it was still taller and wider than anything in Rafik’s village. They were standing high enough to be on the same level as the top floor. It was an exhilarating height.
Even from far away the sound emanating from inside the building was loud. There were harsh and fast drumbeats repeated again and again in a simple pattern, and from somewhere inside came the distinct sound of a brawl in full swing. Rafik noticed there were many cracks in the walls and none of the windows had glass.
The two men checked their pistols and looked at each other.
Khan turned to Rafik and looked him straight in the eye. “This guy we’re going to see, Jakov, he had an … accident.” He stalled, looking for words, then said with a shrug, “Some parts of his body are replaced by metal, okay? Don’t be scared, I just want him to have a look at you.”
Rafik nodded. Compared to being told you might be a member of an evil race who caused the destruction of the world, seeing a man made of metal sounded like a blessed distraction.
“You’re to call me Uncle, okay? You understand me? Do exactly what I tell you and nothing else. If I tell you to run, run; if I tell you to dive to the floor, you do just that, yes?”
Rafik nodded again.
“Good. Now let’s go.”
They made their way in silence down the hill of rubble towards the building.
More than a dozen men and a few women were sitting idly outside. With their weapons and wild, unkempt look, they reminded Rafik of the bandits who had attacked his village the previous spring, though they were a bit