by Jason Tesar
“Is that all there is?” asked Jorn, sounding worried.
“My dear Jorn, your question is an honest one.” Ukiru paused, thinking of the right words to say. “This is only a small meal to take the edge off your hunger. But in a few minutes you will meet the High Priest, who will lead you in a meditation where you will be met by the All Powerful. Please believe me when I tell you that food will be the last thing on your mind. In fact, I doubt that you would be able to keep anything in your stomach if you were to eat too much.” Ukiru took the tray and handed it to Jorn. “Take a few pieces and pass it around.”
As each person chewed on the small amount of cheese and bread, Ukiru continued. “Until this point, I have attempted to show you everything that I know about how to protect yourself, lead others, and be a useful tool for the work of the All Powerful. The time has come for all of you to meet him. This is a great privilege, reserved only for a select few. And everyone who has come into his presence has been unable to keep his grip on consciousness, including myself. I do not say this to scare you, but I want you to realize that after this experience you will feel a presence in your life that will guide and protect you. The All Powerful will accomplish great things through you, and you will never experience a greater life than this one, which has been given to you. I have shown you everything that I know in our time together, but after tonight there will be another who will instruct you.”
Ukiru isn’t going to instruct us anymore? Kael felt a tinge of sadness. He tried to imagine what the next part of his life would be like.
It seemed that they had only been in the room for a few minutes before Ukiru stood and waited for the others to do the same. “It is time,” he stated, and walked toward the door. The monk who had fed them opened the door, and the group followed Ukiru out into the dome-shaped room. Ukiru waited by the large curtain until everyone was present.
Again, Kael was the last in line. There was a tension in the air that made him feel uneasy. It’s probably just the anticipation of an important event. But it felt more like something terrible was about to happen. He looked around at the others to see if he was the only one who felt worried, but they only seemed excited.
“You are entering a holy place, so I will remind you that I expect the highest level of respect from all of you.” With these words, Ukiru pulled hard on a thick rope, and the curtain glided sideways to reveal a dark tunnel. The effect was anticlimactic, and the boys looked back and forth at one another, clearly expecting something different. “Follow me,” Ukiru added, proceeding into the darkness.
For a few seconds, Kael was unable to see anything and had to rely on his sense of sound to guide him, listening to the footsteps ahead of him. But slowly, a soft glow began to reflect off the walls, and the silhouettes of the figures ahead could be made out. The glow quickly grew into a flicker of sharper yellow light and the echoing sounds of footsteps diminished. The tunnel ended at a large wooden cage set into a hole in the wall.
Ukiru grabbed hold of the cage and opened the front like a door. “Everyone in,” he instructed.
With hesitation, the others walked into the wooden cage and moved to the rear. Kael followed, while Ukiru brought up the rear after closing the door. Then, grabbing hold of a lever on the ceiling of the cage, Ukiru pulled it sharply and the cage began to descend.
As their descent began to quicken, Kael’s stomach began to tighten.
“What is this?” asked Rainer.
Ukiru, still holding the lever, turned his head. “It is a lift used to transport supplies between the various levels within the mountain. It is also the quickest way to the place of worship.”
After several minutes of watching the stone walls and occasional tunnels pass by, the lift began to slow. Kael watched Ukiru’s hand on the lever as he controlled the speed of the descent.
Ukiru began to apply more pressure to the lever until the lift stopped completely. Then he walked to the front and unlocked the door, which swung outward over another smooth stone passage.
The group exited the lift in the same order they entered it. Then the young men waited for Ukiru to close and latch the door.
When the instructor was finished, he walked to the front of the group and proceeded down the short passage that ended at another thick black curtain. Without hesitation, Ukiru reached up and pulled the curtain aside. The passage gave way to an enormous cavern that stretched away so far that the other side was lost to the shadows.
“Ouch,” Horace whispered as someone bumped into him from behind. The group had unknowingly stopped a couple steps inside, unable to walk and appreciate the majesty of their surroundings at the same time.
The cavern was spherical from the ceiling down to the walls, ending abruptly at a sand floor, smoother than the beaches of Kael’s childhood. Around the perimeter of the cavern were enormous statues of creatures with great wings reaching out to either side. They looked almost like men, but their features were stretched lengthwise. There was a bonfire burning a short way out into the cavern, from which the heat could be felt even at this distance. The most visible thing in the whole place was a large hole in the roof where moonlight streamed down in a column to illuminate a circular stage at the center of the sand floor. The stage was surrounded by a moat of still water that reflected the moonlight onto the cavern ceiling. Night had apparently fallen while they were touring the inside of the mountain, and it seemed that the ceremony had been timed to coincide perfectly with the passage of the moon.
In front of the fire was the silhouette of a man. He was tall, a full head taller than Ukiru, who immediately started walking forward. The High Priest, or so Kael assumed, spread his arms wide in welcome, revealing the draping of a heavy cloak covering his entire body, including his face. Ukiru stopped short and knelt before him. The straggling group behind him followed his example and knelt in the sand.
“My lord, High Priest of the All Powerful, I bring you ten young men from the farthest reaches of the Empire. All ten have been raised in accordance with the instructions given to me. All ten I now present to you as gifts to the All Powerful.” Ukiru rose to his feet and the young men did the same.
The High Priest, who had been completely silent until now, suddenly spoke with a commanding voice. “Young men, present yourselves.”
Kael stepped forward with the others and they assembled into a single line like they had been instructed to do on countless previous occasions.
The High Priest walked to the end of the line and stood in front of Coen. “Coen, do you present yourself as a gift to the All Powerful, to be an instrument for his glory on this earth?”
“I do,” Coen answered uneasily.
Kael’s heart was thudding in his chest as he waited for his turn. After Berit and Donagh, his turn came and he answered the same as all the others. When the High Priest moved on, Kael felt no sense of relief. His nausea was getting worse. Jorn was the last to answer, after which the High Priest moved back to the center of the line and faced the group.
“Come with me,” he said, and began to walk across the sand to the center of the cavern. As they approached what now looked like a stone dais, Kael could see arched bridges attached to either side, extending across the moat to disappear into the sand. It was at one of these bridges that the High Priest stopped the group. Once again they gathered in a line as they were accustomed to doing from all of their time at the monastery. The man in front of them walked three steps up the archway and turned to face them.
Kael was startled at the volume of his voice when he began to pray. “Mightiest of all gods, the one we call All Powerful, we beseech you to meet us here in this place.”
Kael looked to either side and noticed that some of the young men had their eyes closed. He took this to be the proper conduct and closed his eyes as well.
Suddenly, the High Priest began to speak in a language that Kael had never heard before. Usually he could guess languages, or at least the region they came from, just by the sounds. But this was one that
he could not figure out.
Kael could feel his shoulders and neck muscles tightening with each passing minute. With his eyes closed, he couldn’t help but concentrate on the mesmerizing words of the High Priest and his own heavy breathing. His heart beat in a loud, hypnotic rhythm that fell in line with the cadence of the High Priest’s voice.
Kael was unsure of the passage of time. It could have been minutes or possibly hours since the prayer had begun. A soothing sensation washed over him and calmed all of his anxieties. It was a peaceful feeling that changed his mood about the whole occasion. The prayer being echoed off the stone walls of the cavern now seemed majestic, even if he couldn’t understand any of the words. The air was cool and the sand felt soft beneath his feet. An overwhelming sense of belonging welled up in his heart, and for the first time in as long as he could remember, Kael felt truly happy.
The beat of his heart, the cadence of the prayer, and the rhythm of his own breathing grew louder and louder until they became one symphony of sound. Somewhere along the way, Kael lost all sense of direction and feeling of his body, but it didn’t matter because the feeling of intense joy drowned out everything else.
Kael opened his eyes and saw nothing but darkness. The cavern, the High Priest, and all of his friends had disappeared. It wasn’t a scary feeling, but a feeling of intimacy. There was another presence there with him, and Kael felt comforted. He seemed to float in nothingness with the company of this other being for minutes before any perceptible change took place. When it happened, it was so gradual that he wondered how long the darkness had been gone. It was as if he were at the bottom of a large lake, staring up at someone who was talking to him from above the surface of the water. But the change wasn’t anything as simple as a vision. Neither did it make as much sense as words. Instead, ideas floated into his head from somewhere else. Peaceful feelings that made him imagine that he was waiting on the front porch of his home and an old friend was walking toward the house. The friend waved and Kael waved back. A wild excitement welled up inside him, although he couldn’t make out the face of the visitor. After several minutes, the friend stood in front of Kael. His features could not be seen, but his calm presence could be felt. He didn’t speak, but Kael could feel that he had been traveling a long distance and wished to come inside and rest. Kael turned and opened the door to lead the friend inside. Kael realized that the house was nowhere that he had ever been before, but he knew exactly where everything was located. He showed the man to a sitting room with many comfortable chairs and gave him the best one. As the man made himself comfortable, Kael took a seat across from him and eagerly sat down, not knowing why he was so excited to visit with this stranger who seemed so familiar. As he watched the figure across from him, a fleeting thought crossed his mind and vanished just as quickly as it came. There was a sense of being in this situation before, but then he lost the thought and the man was talking and Kael forgot all about it. His words carried no sound, but Kael had a vague sense of satisfaction, as if the communication were making sense. It must have been hours that Kael sat and listened to this man speak, when the previous memory returned in a flash. Suddenly, Saba was sitting across from him, dressed exactly how the stranger had been dressed. Saba spoke in his soft, gentle voice and Kael smiled at the sight of an old friend. All of a sudden, Saba’s face vanished in a grimace of pain and the stranger sat before Kael once again. His demeanor was different this time. Replacing the calm friend was the body language of one who had been severely offended. Kael reached his hands out and pleaded with the man. He apologized for thinking of someone else and tried to explain that he was only reminded of someone else because of his kindness. The stranger didn’t want to hear any explanations and abruptly stood to his feet. Kael ran to the man, but he was too fast. The stranger had already turned and was running toward the staircase leading up to the topmost portion of the house. Kael began to panic, as if there was something up there that he didn’t want this stranger to see. The man was fast and could leap several stairs at once. Kael quickly lost sight of him but continued to run as fast as he could. By the time he made it to the top, he could see that the door to the top room had been smashed in. Kael ran into the room and skidded to a stop. The stranger’s back was turned to him and he was kneeling down, about to open a wooden chest that lay in the middle of the floor. Kael suddenly became aware of a pitchfork in his hands and a feeling drifted to him from somewhere in his memory, a frenzied sense of protection for what was lying on the floor. Then he ran at the stranger and drove the pitchfork into his back.
The vision vanished. Kael was once again aware of his body, now lying back on the sand. Had he fallen? He couldn’t remember. His eyes wouldn’t open, and he could still feel the presence of the stranger in his mind. His body began to simultaneously itch and convulse, as if someone else were trying to get inside of it. Kael drew in a deep breath and tried to block out all other thoughts except for his own heartbeat. He could feel the extremities of his body and began to flex his muscles. First his fingers, then his toes, and slowly the rest of his body came under his control. Eventually his vision returned and he opened his eyes. He briefly caught sight of an orange glow like a dying fire, and then the attack returned.
This time, it was in his mind. Hundreds of images flashed in front of him. Some were from his childhood, and it seemed that some were from his future. He watched himself crawl on the floor as a baby, and then the vision changed to himself as an old man crippled on the floor. Images of dying people and feelings of suffering shot through him like lightning. The most intense feeling of hatred he had ever felt washed over him like an ocean of sewage. He felt hopeless and alone and all of a hundred other horrible emotions at the same time. He reached out for help and the images immediately stopped. The stranger stood over him with an extended hand. Kael felt exhausted and dirtier than the lowest human being on the face of the earth. But something inside him, something that was truly his own, would not let him take that hand. Instead, he kicked at the man and spit on him. Just as quickly as the defiant thoughts came to him, the flood returned. He saw his mother being hacked to pieces by a barbarian. When he turned his head away from the gruesome sight, he saw his father being stretched by horses until his limbs pulled away from his body. As the images flashed in front of him, he grew cold and numb. It was like being in the presence of a massacre and not being able to blink or even close his eyes. Kael knew that his eyes were deceived, but he still cried at the horrible things he witnessed. Hours seemed to pass before the images in his head stopped.
~
The first pleasant feeling was the cold sand beneath him. His body had been sweating so badly that his clothes were stuck to his skin, as if he had been swimming in the ocean. The cavern ceiling was far overhead and the moonlight that had been streaming down before was gone now. The only light was from a pile of glowing embers—all that remained of the bonfire. He turned his head and saw several figures lying on the ground, but could not make out who they were. Whoever was to his left was still standing, and he thought it might be Narian. Suddenly, the figure began to wobble and lean back. Footsteps pounded by Kael’s head as one of the monks ran to catch whoever it was who had just lost consciousness and lay them safely on the ground. When the monk walked back to wherever he had been standing, Kael could see who it was that was next to him. Donagh’s calm face leaned slightly to the right, where Kael could get a good look. He didn’t seem to be in any pain. He just lay there in the calm posture of someone in a pleasant dream. The exhaustion of the events caught up with Kael and he found his eyes drooping. He tried to resist sleep for fear of experiencing any more of what had happened, but sleep overtook him anyway.
CHAPTER 23
Bright morning light was shining in Kael’s face when he awoke. The soft rocking motion of his bed told him that he was back on the ocean. He opened his eyes and sat up. The other young men were all in their beds, sleeping soundly. Kael wondered if the others had experienced the same thing he had. But he doubted t
hat was the case. The sound of footsteps startled him and he lay back on his bed, pretending to be asleep. He suddenly felt guilty, like he shouldn’t be awake.
Ukiru’s quiet footsteps could be heard moving around the room, stopping at each sleeping body.
Kael’s heart was beating so loudly in his chest that he feared it was audible in the small room, proof that he hadn’t followed Ukiru’s instructions. Unexpectedly, a warm spoon was pressed against his lips and the aroma of soup filled his nostrils. He allowed the nourishment to be poured down his throat, feigning a peaceful sleep while inwardly fighting the impulse of fear that told him to get up and run.
Ukiru’s presence lingered over Kael a bit longer than the rest before he finally moved on and eventually went above deck.
When he was gone, Kael sat up to see if any of the others had been awakened by the feeding, but he was still the only one. His head ached and his muscles hurt like he had been training for combat all day. He rose to his feet and stretched his weakened body, surprised by the toll that the ceremony had taken on him. After more than an hour of pacing around the room in silence, Kael returned to his bed and tried to sleep again, but couldn’t get comfortable. It was like torture, waiting below deck for someone else to wake up, but there was nothing he could do. Kael passed the time by imagining what had happened in Bastul while he had been away, and he was alone with his thoughts until dusk.
The sun had dipped toward the western horizon, off the port bow of the ship, when Kael’s thoughts finally resolved into a decision. All day he had been struggling with how to continue at the monastery. He wasn’t sure of when they would finally be sent out into the world, but he knew that he had to leave soon. If the being that attacked his mind and body was really the All Powerful, then Kael didn’t want any part of him. He still felt like he needed to bathe after the visions he saw, though he knew it wouldn’t do much to clean the polluted feeling inside of him.
