Forever the Road (A Rucksack Universe Fantasy Novel) Read Free Page B

his voice flat and final. “No taxi.”
    “Cheap ride.”
    “No taxi.”
    “Special price, my friend,” the driver said.
    Jay flung out his hands, shook his head, and started walking away.
    The driver shrugged. “You tourists.”
    “I’m not a tourist,” Jay replied. “I’m a traveler.”
    The driver smiled. “You tourists. Always walking around with houses strapped to your backs! But it is okay, my friend. Sooner or later, you always need a ride, and when you need a ride, I will take you.”
    Jay left the taxi behind, but the taxi didn’t leave him. As he trudged onward, the taxi would flit beside him or buzz behind him or singe Jay’s nose with a whiff of putrid blue-black exhaust.
    A few kilometers later, Jay stepped wrong and tripped.
    Banging his knee on the rough asphalt, he winced and his eyes watered.
    When he looked up, the rickshaw had stopped in front of him.
    “My friend,” the driver said. Something about the man’s indistinct face seemed familiar.
    Jay sighed. He looked past the driver to the skyline of the city proper.
    “The heat makes things seem closer,” the driver said, “but it is still far.”
    “How far?” Jay asked.
    “Farther than your feet.”
    The rickshaw’s back seat looked soft. There weren’t any springs poking out, and the roof would keep the sun off him. Jay’s knee throbbed. His feet threatened mutiny and blisters. Jay sighed and surrendered.
    “Everest Base Camp,” he said, limping into the rickshaw and setting his pack between his grateful feet.

    “ O Y! JADE! ”
    The laughter-laced shout blasted through the pub door and nearly made her drop the glass she was polishing.
    Ah, Jade thought. Rucksack must be ready for his next pint. She brought a fresh glass to the tap. As she did, The Management’s strange warning rang in her head, the way it did every time Rucksack was around: “This man is dangerous.”
    She thought back over the last few months to when the three hooded figures had appeared in the pub. It was just minutes after the letter had arrived and she’d read it. Later that day Rucksack had come in for the first time—but The Management had visited first.
    The surprise had made her drop the letter. The Management hardly ever came to the Jakes and Jades in person. Or in being. Or whatever they were. “Why is he dangerous?” she had asked, picking up the sheet of paper. “Who is he?”
    “Some say he’s a broken hero,” said the figure in blue and green.
    “Some say he’s the world’s only Himalayan-Irish sage,” said the figure in brown and black.
    “Some say he’s just a freeloading drunk,” said the figure in silver and gold.
    “None of these things has ever been proven,” they all said together. “All we know is that he is an unknown quantity.”
    “An unknown quantity?” Jade had said. “What does that even mean?”
    “It means he has no destiny. He is as a ghost to us. He is outside of us all.”
    “How is that even possible?” Jade had looked at each of the three figures. If they could look sheepish, this was the closest they had ever seemed to it. “What do you want me to do?”
    “Your duty has many guises, Jade Agamuskara Bluegold, and some are more dangerous than others. We know little about Faddah Rucksack and far less about his path. Be wary of him but watch him. Learn from him but keep your distance. Stay close but do not get involved. A man without a destiny is a man who might do anything.”
    The Management faded away into nothing, as they always did. Jade stood alone, still holding the letter.
    She came back to the finished pour. Who are you, indeed? Jade thought. Blinking at the glaring midday sun, she carried the brimming glass out into the bright world.
    The white walls of Agamuskara collected light, stored it, packed it tightly, and shot it back into the world like munitions. People, bicycles, vehicles, and animals trudged and flowed—a river of thousands moving past one-story, two-story, and three-story