Tangle in the Dark - Kassidor

was lead by men beating drums, and large bronze tubes thatsounded like gongs. There were more horns, they were tunedand even carried some sort of melody. Next came a line ofgirls holding snakes. She had learned that the snake was thesign of the deacons, overseers of the police force or military.A rank of men with polished bronze axes completed the honorguard.But it was what came next that drew the most noise fromthe crowd, the bulls. There were four of them, and they wereeach lead by two girls, one holding the left horn, and the otherwalking behind and shouting commands. These girls werevery young and very buff, wearing loincloths so tiny that itwas obvious their pubes were shaved or maybe not matureyet. Ava was afraid for them, but then noticed that the bullswere trained. They walked where directed and marched instep with their girls. The girls strutted like peacocks with theirchests out, but were no bigger than Ava, nothing like the girlsup here.A pair of figures strode down the wide stairway next towhere Ava and the other girls were standing. The woman washolding fast to her youth, she had a magnificent face andfigure, but her skin needed a fair amount of putty to look assmooth as the girls beside them. She had the most elaborateheaddress and jewelry Ava had yet seen outside Alan’sYondure basin.The man was probably somewhat older, or at least lookedit. He was dressed in sumptuous robes, enough that he should443