Kingdomturn

by Matthew Williams

  6

  With his eyes closed, Keltin felt a gentle swaying motion through the numbness that covered his body. His other senses began to return one by one, and he heard the sound of creaking boards and a constant swish that seemed to be behind or perhaps beneath him. A sudden bounce brought Keltin out of his semi-conscious state and caused him to open his eyes wide.

  Pain.

  The right side of Keltin’s head throbbed from the motion of the bounce, causing him to wince and shut his eyes as soon as they had opened. During his brief instant of vision, Keltin thought he had seen the sun through what looked like a very thin sheet of linwyrt. He stifled the urge to cry out from the pain as he slowly forced his eyes open once more. He had seen the sun, and there was indeed a sheet of some kind of fabric filtering the light above him. I’m on my back, Keltin realized as he stared upward. His tongue felt abnormally dry as he used it to pry apart his chapped lips.

  “What happened?” Keltin asked faintly, though he could see no one nearby. What’s wrong with my voice? he thought after hearing its rasping hoarseness. A hooded figure loomed over him, blocking the sun from his view.

  “Aha! Our brother awakens at last,” the figure said in a rich, booming voice. “We thought perhaps you had fallen into the death-sleep. Here.” Keltin was shocked to feel the chill of fresh, clean water as it flowed into his parched mouth. His driving thirst inspired just enough strength for him to reach out and seize the water container from whomever had spoken.

  “And lively too! You will do well, Sleeper,” the figure said as Keltin swallowed large gulps of water between breaths. When at last he found the container empty, Keltin exhaled slowly and tried to focus on the person leaning over him. He quickly determined that the face and voice belonged to a male, now that Keltin knew what females looked and sounded like. The man wore a robe similar to those that adorned the Venerates, though his was hooded and made of simply-colored fabric in hues of tan and grey. From the man’s shoulders, a short red cloak fluttered in a breeze that Keltin couldn’t feel. The sun was no stranger to this man’s face, creased as it was and deeply tanned.

  “What happened?” Keltin asked again, this time with a recognizable voice.

  “You were cast out, as we all once were. What was your sin, Sleeper?” the man asked.

  “I was told that I no longer served a purpose in Aldhagen,” Keltin replied. “And my name is not ‘Sleeper,’ I am Keltin, a Fieldsman—” he stopped abruptly before saying “under Chief Harvester Stelam” since that was no longer true. I’m cast out of Aldhagen, Keltin thought as the stark reality of his situation finally began to take hold. For the first time ever, Keltin had no task.

  “I see,” the man said with a curious tilt of his head. “Well, Keltin, I am Tir, member of the Vessel Guard of Dism Slyde.” The words meant nothing to Keltin, but he was glad to at least have a name for addressing this stranger. “I was cast out as a very young child, so I never knew a task in Aldhagen. Your journey from that place was much more violent—I’m always amazed by newcomers that survive that fall. How is your head feeling by the way?” Tir asked. Keltin lifted his hand to the right side of his head and winced as soon as the slightest pressure was applied.

  “It hurts,” Keltin replied bluntly, trying to remember what happened after plunging into the Great River. Tir’s mention of a “fall” stirred a vague memory in Keltin’s mind, but a much more troubling thought suddenly took its place. “Where are the others?” Keltin asked worriedly, thinking of Ryna, Aemetta, and Halwen.

  “Others?” Tir said, slightly confused. “You were the only outcast that we found on this journey.”

  The statement struck Keltin like an icy breeze in the middle of planting season. This isn’t right, he thought as panic overcame pain and drove him to his feet. He stood slowly, gripping the smooth wooden sides of whatever the strange box was that held both him and Tir. As Keltin’s head rose above the edge of the box, a staggering wind buffeted his face. Now he understood why Tir’s cloak was flapping. Keltin’s eyes watered, from the force of the wind, from the brightness of the landscape, and from the stinging bits of white sand that scoured his skin. He had seen small patches of sand in Aldhagen, but the sand he knew was grey, not white, and it could only be found in a few areas. Here, sand was all Keltin could see in any direction. There were smooth hills and valleys of sand dotting the horizon, but overall the landscape was distinctly flat.

  Despite being nearly blinded, Keltin could now clearly feel that the box in which he stood was moving rapidly. This is some kind of cart, he realized, still trying to process his surroundings and search for his fellow outcasts from Locboran. As his vision at last adjusted to the brightness, Keltin noticed a large eye staring at him from just beyond the left side of the cart. Whether out of fear or from standing too quickly, Keltin found himself sinking rapidly back to the floor of the cart in shock.

  “Steady, Sleeper,” Tir laughed. “Adjustment from the Casting takes time.”

  “What was that?” Keltin asked, gesturing to where he had seen the enormous eye.

  “You’ve just met your first nysk,” Tir said. “Take another look, but stand slowly this time so you don’t agitate it again.” Keltin did as instructed, and the eye was there waiting for him just as before. He forced himself to look beyond its piercing blackness to study the rest of this enormous creature—this “nysk,” as Tir had called it. There were long, writhing finger-like protrusions in front of the eye, and a smooth grey plate that covered its back. A thick wooden beam extended from the cart where Keltin stood and was somehow attached to the top of the nysk’s back plate. A torch burning just above the animal emitted a billowing stream of dark grey smoke that concealed the landscape behind it from view. Looking down, Keltin watched a large appendage moving quickly back and forth at the bottom of the nysk’s plate, leaving a woven trail in the sand behind it. Keltin looked to the other side of the cart and found a reflected view of another nysk there. Combined effort from these two creatures propelled the cart forward at great speed through the blinding landscape. In the distance, Keltin could see at least two more of these carts skimming across the sand.

  The entire scene was too much for Keltin to take in all at once. There were stories of so-called “animals” that lived alongside humans in the Old Kingdom, but the situation simply did not exist in Aldhagen. Keltin had always wondered what an animal actually looked like, though he never harbored hope of seeing one, let alone being transported by one. His thoughts were lost for several minutes in the mesmerizing motion of the nysk’s enormous limbs.

  “Soothing, no?” Tir asked, nodding towards the nysk on the right side of the cart. Keltin pried his eyes away from the animal and refocused on Tir.

  “It’s fascinating,” Keltin admitted. “But where are we going?”

  “We return, victorious, to Dism Slyde,” Tir said with pride. Keltin had no idea what “victory” Tir was referring to, or the whereabouts of this “Dism Slyde,” but he knew they needed to search for Ryna and the others.

  “You may be returning there, but can you take me back to where you found me so I can look for my friends?” Keltin asked hesitantly.

  Hearty laughter erupted from Tir, as though Keltin had just delivered an amazing joke. “You are a funny one, Sleeper,” Tir chuckled. “Look around you—we’re in the middle of the Plateau Desert with just enough water and provisions for the return trip to Dism Slyde. Even if I wanted to take you back to where we found you—which I don’t—we would cook in the sun right along with the nysks. Your friends are either long dead or waiting for us in the comfort of Dism Slyde.”

  Keltin stared at Tir in stunned silence as he attempted to find a suitable response. His earlier confusion fell away as anger took its place. It blossomed in Keltin’s core and revealed itself in his cheeks as he considered what Tir had just said. They’re not dead, Keltin thought. Not yet, at least. And we’re not even going to look for them?

  Tir took note of Keltin’s brooding anger and laug
hed again. “Easy, Sleeper. You should save your strength.”

  “Don’t call me Sleeper,” Keltin snapped.

  “Fine, fine,” Tir replied with a flippant wave of his hand. “It was the only name I had for you for the last day and a half, so it’s hard to call you something else. You slept for a long time.”

  “I was unconscious for a day and a half?” Keltin said in disbelief. Tir nodded in confirmation with a look of considerable worry. Keltin’s anger faded as he began to feel how truly weak he was at the moment. There was nothing Keltin could do for the other outcasts right now anyway, considering his state of relative frailty and the effort that Tir implied it would take to return even close to Aldhagen. His only choice was to wait, recover, and stay hopeful. Keltin slowly pulled himself back up to his feet, turning so his back would take the brunt of the searing wind and sand. He smiled faintly despite his frustration when the nysks came into view—the animals were simply amazing.

  “What else can you tell me about the nysk?” Keltin asked after the long, awkward silence. If he was to remain outside the walls of Aldhagen, Keltin decided it would be best to try to understand as much as he could about this strange world.

  “Ah, like any newcomer of course you have questions,” Tir said, his cheerful demeanor returning. “As for the nysks, well, they’re fast. That’s their most obvious trait, though it’s only true over short distances. Their real utility can’t be seen until you let them slow down a bit, though.” Tir’s eyes sparkled and he lifted an eyebrow mischievously as he continued. “At the pace they are holding right now, these animals will drag this cart for several more hours before needing a rest. Then we’ll stop and they’ll be ready to do it again. That pattern can repeat indefinitely, as far as I know. Let’s see, what else can I tell you? They’re relatively easy to tame and train. Just don’t put two of the wild ones too close together or they’ll fight. It gets loud and messy very quickly. I’m no Handler, though, so you’ll no doubt get a better answer from one of them once we reach Dism Slyde.”

  “How much longer is the journey?” Keltin asked as he watched the plumes of smoke spiral and fan out behind the cart.

  “North for one day more, Venerates willing,” Tir said with a slight frown.

  Although the idea of any journey taking days was unbelievable, Keltin was shocked more to hear the phrase “Venerates willing” coming from a man like Tir. “Why would you seek help from the Venerates?” Keltin laughed incredulously. “They left us here to die because we offended them. We’re outside of their protection now.”

  “I pray for their protection because I have seen what happens without it,” Tir said sternly. “We were not sent here to simply die, newcomer. The Venerates placed each one of us in this land for a reason—it is our test, a chance to prove our worth through unwavering faith. You are correct about one thing, however: our deaths mean nothing to the Venerates. Where they find meaning, though, is in what we choose to die for.”

  Keltin pondered Tir’s words as the cart pressed forward through the Plateau Desert. There was no reply he could give without fear of seriously offending Tir’s beliefs. Keltin was not convinced that the Venerates had ever offered protection to anyone, whether inside or outside of Aldhagen’s walls. After being so carelessly cast out with the others, Keltin was bitterly certain that the Venerates viewed all workers as disposable. When he felt the green blast from the Venerate’s staff, the last thought that had flickered through Keltin’s mind was the hope that the world outside the walls would be completely free of the Venerates’ influence. To now find that their power extended so far beyond Aldhagen was terribly demoralizing.

  Watching Tir idly, Keltin noticed that each of the man’s hands gripped a small post mounted to either side of the cart. Tir would occasionally squint into the distance in front of the cart, move his hands slightly, and then scan the rest of the horizon.

  “What are you doing when you adjust those posts?” Keltin asked.

  “Guiding the nysks,” Tir said. “Since they’re on opposite sides, they have a very bad habit of trying to go around large rocks in two different directions. With us riding in between them, that means the cart comes to an abrupt stop after smashing against an unseen boulder. I use these posts to correct one nysk or the other so they both move to the same side of any obstacle.” Keltin felt the cart shift from left to right and back again as Tir demonstrated the effect of pushing and pulling the handles. “You should stay awake for a while, now that consciousness has returned. Here,” Tir said as he offered the handles to Keltin. “See what it feels like for yourself.”

  This was an opportunity that Keltin couldn’t let pass, whether injured or not. He stepped uneasily into position between the guiding posts and gripped each with the steadiest hold that he could manage. All at once, he could feel the amazing power of each nysk as it worked to pull the cart forward. The enormous beams attached to the creatures strained to keep from bowing, and vibrations from even the tiniest movement the nysks made could be felt in the handles. Keltin looked down at one of the nysks, fascinated by its unfathomable energy.

  “Eyes up, Keltin,” Tir cautioned. “There are rocks in the near path.”

  Keltin surveyed the sand ahead and quickly spotted the approaching obstacles. He copied Tir’s movements by pushing one handle away while pulling the other towards him. Slowly, he felt the cart shift and watched the rocks slide to the left of their path. After seeing the rocks pass without incident, Keltin looked to Tir with a satisfied smile.

  “Don’t watch me, newcomer, watch the way forward,” Tir said bluntly. “Always watch the way forward.” It wasn’t the beaming approval that Keltin was hoping for, but at least the cart was in one piece and Tir hadn’t yanked the handles out of Keltin’s control. Approval or not, Keltin did as he was told and searched for the next rock in their path. With Tir’s supervision and occasional chiding, Keltin repeated the process of guiding the nysks to a safe route dozens of times before he was too weary to keep standing. Tir noticed this fatigue and at last resumed control of the cart.

  “That was a welcomed rest, Keltin,” Tir said as he took hold of the handles. “Thank you for allowing me to sit for a while—I’m not usually afforded such a privilege on one of these journeys.”

  “Certainly. But Tir, why journey back to Aldhagen in the first place?” Keltin asked, sinking tiredly back to the simple comfort of lying on the floor of the cart. Controlling the nysks had proven to be a thrilling but exhausting task.

  “Ah, as I told you I am a Vessel Guard,” Tir said. “But that title has no meaning to a recent outcast; I forget that sometimes. Let’s see—first and foremost, understand that there are special people called ‘women’ in Dism Slyde. They are not like us.”

  “Are they the same as the workers in Locboran?” Keltin asked. Tir’s startled expression confirmed Keltin’s assumption.

  “Yes,” Tir said slowly, looking warily at Keltin from the corner of his eye. “Yes they are.” There was a long pause until Tir at last shrugged away his confusion. “Anyway,” he continued, “we travel from Dism Slyde to the base of Aldhagen to deliver chosen groups of women to the Venerates: these women are the Sacred Vessels. You will learn more about them during your transition lessons; for now just understand that they are very important. My role as a Vessel Guard is to protect them from the threats of the Plateau Desert.”

  “And where are they now, these Vessels that you protect?” Keltin asked drowsily.

  “We turned them over to the Venerates for the judgement,” Tir responded. “Thankfully, all of the Vessels offered on this journey were allowed entrance into the Venerates’ kingdom—it is a great victory for our people. In one week’s time, we will return again to Aldhagen to retrieve the women and escort them back to Dism Slyde.”

  Keltin nodded as he struggled to stay awake. The blinding sun had drifted near to the horizon on Keltin’s right while he had guided the nysks; now nightfall was settling upon the sand. A sudden worry plagued his rest.

/>   “Tir,” Keltin said as he sat up. “With darkness coming, don’t we need to stop for the night?”

  “Thankfully no,” Tir replied. “Watch.”

  Keltin forced his eyelids to stay open and studied Tir’s actions. The man pulled a cord at the top of the canopy and Keltin heard metal scraping against metal. Tir pointed to the torches above the nysks in time for Keltin to watch a brilliantly-shined piece of steel rotate towards each fire. Its concave shape concentrated the torchlight into two converging beams that illuminated the sand for many strides in front of the cart. Keltin was in awe of this ingenious design.

  “Always watch the way forward, newcomer,” Tir reminded him with a grin, “especially at night.” Keltin nodded as he saw more beams of light form in front of what he assumed were other carts in their group, but in spite of his interest he let out a lengthy yawn.

  “Sleep, Keltin,” Tir said comfortingly. “Tomorrow, before nightfall, we will stand in Dism Slyde.”

  Keltin settled back to the floor of the cart. Reassured that they would be able to travel through the night, he decided to put his trust in Tir. What other choice do I have? Keltin thought with a bitter sort of humor as he drifted into sleep.

  ---

  Keltin blinked in the darkness after being jarred out of his slumber. He heard a sudden unintelligible shout from Tir and then felt the cart jerk abruptly to the left.

  “On your feet, Sleeper!” Tir shouted again. “The Venerates will test us both this night.”

  “What…what test?” Keltin asked with a yawn.

  “I said get up!” Tir yelled as he lifted Keltin by his arm. Keltin’s drowsiness faded the instant he saw the panic in Tir’s eyes.