Terraless

by Thorby Rudbek

  “Follow me.” She opened the narrow door and started up the stairs. After one complete spiral they reached the level above. The first floor, according to my organised friends’ conventions! Once there, instead of opening the door, she continued upwards. This will certainly get their attention! It proves ‘She’ cares more than they could ever imagine. The spiral continued – as it certainly had never done before – and Eshezy noticed that, after one more turn, small glassed openings, located at (her) head height, let light in and gave her rather restricted views every quarter turn, allowing her to see across the end of the roof of the third wing, with the first wing in the near distance, then a view down the path towards Neechaall, followed by a view which showed the end of the fourth wing – just visible on the right, and next a view along the ridgeline of the third wing, with part of the original structure – also just visible on the right. She listened with amusement to the somewhat muffled exclamations coming from behind her, but continued upwards. Someday I may count these steps… in a more peaceful time… if there ever is one!

  Several minutes passed by and Eshezy counted each time she passed the view over towards the first wing. Finally, after she had seen this view from a gradually increased perspective a full nineteen times, she noticed a slight darkening of the interior of the compact tower. Finally! She reached up and pushed, opening the trapdoor above her head easily, allowing it to fall back onto the flat surface above.

  Such a blast! Stepping through into the bright daylight, she walked the half step over to the parapet, the wind playing with her hair and finding a few loose strands, and swallowed as the view threatened to overpower her. Magnificent! She was aware of the others coming up behind her, but just looked out, absorbed in the panorama. Someone closed the trapdoor; she thought later that it might have been Harthangan. Such a tower; there should be bells…

  Clouds scudded by, noticeably closer from this altitude, and her Fortress far below looked quite insignificant against the vast scenery around it. She turned right and looked back towards Neechaall, clearly visible from this great height. As I thought. The fires burned out. She leaned out over one of the lower crenellations of the parapet and looked down, finding the drop to the ground to be simply astounding. To the right, seemingly closer to the building than she recalled, was Beinkanap’s grave, reduced to a small and somehow less painful memorial. Then she stood back up and traced a mental path over the bare, de-grassed area and onto the long, rough road to the river. Her elevated scrutiny took her past the three graves there and the two tiny figures who were digging another. She observed how the ground curved lower, down to the shallow river and then began to rise again on the other side. The forest behind the town stretched back, up what looked to be a gentle slope from this perspective – how deceptive! – until the view became hazy at the horizon, where a still darker green blended with the pale blue sky. That’s a long way! Turning back a little to her left, she looked across a vast plain covered with tall grasses, dotted here and there with other, lower vegetation. I wonder what grows there. The grasses continued to the horizon, becoming misty as this was approached.

  Gefforen came up closer on her left, holding her hair back with one hand as the wind gusts threw it into her face, taking courage from the proximity of her heroine.

  “Look!” Eshezy grabbed Gefforen’s other hand and used it to point. “You can see how the river comes from way back there!” Again, the sparkling water was visible as the twists and bends in the river allowed for sections to align with their viewpoint.

  Travakane stood to her right, but his attention was slightly further to the left as he gazed from his vantage point through the same crenellation. “There’s a bit of a dip about two hour’s walk into the grasses. Might even be a smaller river at the bottom – just a stream, probably.”

  “And further around.” Harthangan cried out loudly from his position a few feet to the left, as the wind seemed to try to blow his words away. “There’s another river, and more trees in the distance.”

  They all turned to look out of the stone-framed viewpoint occupied by the one-time miner and pending travelling companion, now facing away from Neechaall. Eshezy could see how this river came out of the woods and how the woods spread out further back until they met up with the grassy plain. That’s the way we must go, across the dip that Travakane spotted and then along the far-spreading edge of that wood…

  Gefforen, now inured against the initial fright the great height had induced in her, was tracing the path of the second river downstream – one which was unknown to and therefore unnamed by the former townspeople of Neechaall. “Look, Eshezy, how much it sparkles over there!” She was still using one hand to hold back her seemingly golden hair and the other was unconsciously bracing her body against the semi-sheltering raised section of parapet to which she had carefully moved.

  Eshezy turned, moving beside Gefforen, noting how this river seemed to be heading towards the lower reaches of the River Venkanikam, but the strange shining beyond that point immediately caught her attention too. Her eyes zoomed in, trying to focus through the distortions in the air at this extreme distance and she realised there was only one thing that could make such an effect, that she had known such a place before. Before Terraless. “That, my friends, is the sea!”

  Chapter Ten

  Departure

  It was some time before the first meal of the day. Eshezy was at the top of the tower again, watching the sun beast intently as it floated and drifted behind the ever-present fluffy clouds. Darker still… we don’t have much time. She tried not to contemplate what would happen to Terraless if the light from the sun-like creature were to fail completely. She pulled her eyes away from this worrying sight and turned to gaze towards the distant forest, wondering how long it would take to get there and whether the soldiers predicted by both herself and the fearsome but now-dead Karg would arrive at her beloved Fortress prior to her own return.

  The previous evening, before she had retired to sleep in her new room, she had gone to observe Carranavak – soon after the body of the soldier Punamekin had been removed for burial – and had released his bonds after giving him a portion of a loaf and a mug of well water. She had said nothing to him, still intending to take him away with her small group immediately after breakfast. He will have no warning and he will not be able to hurt anyone here. I will keep him bound almost every moment of our journey; he will be so frustrated, but there is no other way!

  Her meeting with Athanashal, right after seeing the prisoner, was a little awkward for her – somewhat as she had expected. He seems to see right through me! And I thought that was my job… He had commented that the trip would be a great test – for all who went. The way he said it made her feel almost that he knew she was planning on taking Carranavak with them. She had felt a compulsion to confide in him, but resisted it. Instead, she had taken him up the tower, so he would be able to try out his amazing eyes on the blurry horizon. She was not disappointed – he saw some large creatures at the edge of the woods, though the distance made it impossible to describe them. At least I will know to expect them. I knew there was much more to Terraless than I have yet seen, and this tower gets me excited to go out there! Then they had gone to the armoury, where she equipped him with a bow and a quiver full of arrows – she let him pick his own bow and was impressed by how he did this, studying the carved wood intently before declaring with assurance that he had found the right one. She showed him how to ‘string’ it and how to hold it, impressed by what seemed to be a natural flair of his for such things, which was demonstrated by his confident stance as he practiced pulling the bow and placing an arrow in position. She was reassured and concluded that before long he would be as accurate in this new skill as she, and this was a great comfort to her as she considered what else they might find on their journey into the wilds. Her final words before letting him go to his room to make his preparations and get some sleep had been about their departure time and the fact that he would be expected to ma
ke good use of his eyes… Such eyes!

  Long after most of the Fortress inhabitants had gone to sleep, she had spent some time alone, out by Beinkanap’s grave, trying to resolve the pain of what she felt sure must be her fatal error. She had faced towards the distant sea – not visible of course, from ground level – and had imagined what she might have done to prevent the death… without killing Carranavak when she had first met him. She had not been successful. Be that as it may, Beinkanap should not have died! No wonder the looks I get from some of the people now are different. I hope the new parts of our Fortress will help them to believe in me and the reality of the love of ‘She’, as well as give them a chance to learn and develop, as they have not in three years. Those picture and symbol volumes, with the layers, almost like pressed leaves... leaves! That’s what they’re called! Leaves in… books!!

  She had retired to rest, reluctantly, after walking through the empty great hall and imagining what it would be like with a blazing fire on a cold dark night. Though I know there is no such thing in Terraless. Laid out in her new bed, the bolted door, comforting nightgown and heavy bedclothes providing the security she was about to leave, to lose, for a journey into the unknown, she finally had drifted off, though the change of room and more significantly, her worries did not permit the kind of deep, refreshing sleep she knew she really needed.

  A slight sound, as of distant knocking, caused her to turn away from her reminiscing and towards the trapdoor, as her memory breakthrough – related to literary terminology – still lifted her spirits. Ah! I bet it is… “Gefforen!” This was said as Eshezy raised the wood and the blonde head popped up.

  “I thought I would find you here!” The young girl climbed through and hugged her heroine impulsively. “That wood is heavy!”

  “I’m glad you came up.” Eshezy returned the hug briefly, and then turned to point out their route. “I want you to see this. That’s where we have to go.”

  “What’s up there?” Gefforen held back her hair, noticing the steady slope of the far-distant plain and the forest to its left, despite the fact that her non-exceptionally-effective though beautiful eyes could not make out any details.

  “A great secret.” Eshezy responded immediately. “Unfortunately, neither you nor I have been let in on it yet.” She shared a quick, mischievous grin with her faithful friend at this singularly uninformative and self-depreciating revelation. “We must get down and get going.”

  “Eshezy, will we be able to see this tower, when we look back?”

  “Somehow I know that looking back is not a good idea.” She squeezed her friend’s shoulder, to reassure her that she had done nothing wrong by suggesting it. “But, still… I hope we will.”

  A brief while had passed since her sojourn on the tower, during which Eshezy had descended and made her announcement about the extra travelling companion for the journey to her assembled council, this time meeting in her great hall, after a brief breakfast. The reactions were powerful and varied.

  “No!” Travakane stamped a foot in unconscious emphasis. “Leave him here. Leave him to me!” It was not completely clear to her what he intended to do with the murderous man – and perhaps not even to Travakane, either – but Eshezy thought it unlikely that Carranavak would survive until her return, if she accepted this proposal.

  “Don’t worry, I’ll make his life even more miserable than it is now!” Harthangan growled. “We take him!” His emotional response was all the more remarkable, as he had rarely contradicted Travakane, who to him had always been his unofficial leader, since his world began.

  Basrillene cleared his throat. “As long as you have Harthangan with you and you use that halter-thing, I’ll be happy to see no more of him.” He stepped closer to Eshezy and looked at her imploringly. “But don’t give him a moment. He–”

  “I won’t. I’ve figured it all out.” She turned to the solid bulk of Travakane, uneasy at the emotional undertones she detected from Basrillene. “It’s not a matter for discussion.” Eshezy tried to soften her words by the tenor of her voice, especially as she found his glare to be uncomfortable. “I don’t have any alternative. ‘She’ told me. While we’re gone, get busy with the weapons training. Do patrols around the area, use the tower to keep a long-distance look-out.” She smiled at him. “But you were going to do all that anyway!”

  Travakane tried to suppress a grin, but failed, not at all miserably.

  “We’ll be back. I’ll make sure of it.” Harthangan slapped his former nominal leader on the shoulder heartily.

  “You’d better.” Travakane punched him in the upper arm in return.

  “Basrillene will keep everyone else busy with tasks around – inside and out – our Fortress. I expect that your ‘mine-deprived’ cadre will do what he asks, when he needs extra muscle, Travakane.” Eshezy checked to see agreement as she brought the attention back to the ‘business manager’ of the ‘town in a Fortress,’ determined to keep the evenly-matched status of her two deputies unchanged.

  Then she looked at Basrillene again. “Remember though, that for any defensive tactics, you must defer to Travakane. Once you and some others get good with the bow, you will be on his first line of defence!”

  Eshezy could see that she had hushed her councillors, though clearly Travakane was not happy with her decision. I am still in charge. And that is how ‘She’ would have it. She turned to leave, then stopped and looked Basrillene in the eye as a new thought occurred to her. “Get that girl – the one who drew the pictures – what’s her name?” She knew it, but feigned forgetfulness.

  “Sehnarah.”

  “Yes. Her. Get her to look after the books – that’s what the volumes full of pictures and symbols are called. They are a great gift from ‘She’, with knowledge of Terraless – the plants, the animals, the rivers, the land. Even the sky. It will take time to figure out the symbols, but they are a way to draw words, to keep them, to share them. I know it is going to be hard to adjust, but we must if we are to be smarter than the soldiers what’s-his-face will send against us.” Here she was deliberately dismissive of Seirchaal, a calculated move to help transform their ingrained attitudes from subservience to defiance.

  Basrillene turned, intending to seek his store illustrator.

  “Here’s Sehnarah.” Eshezy was startled at the sound of Gefforen’s voice, finding – to her amused surprise – that her best supporter had somehow fetched the young artist in a matter of moments. She found a slight girl, several inches shorter than her, with a rather sallow face surrounded by wavy blonde hair, hacked unevenly to keep it out of her eyes, looking as if she had just been awakened with news of unsought daydreams realised.

  “I heard something about a room with some pictures in it?” She began without hesitation, her eagerness giving a touch of colour to her otherwise unhealthy complexion and making Eshezy revise her first estimate of her age down to about sixteen. “Gefforen tells me you were asking for me.”

  “Yes. I want you to be our ‘book-keeper’.” She paused, looking into the brown eyes focused eagerly on her, suddenly certain that the terminology she had used was not ideal. “Here’s one.” Eshezy opened it and showed Sehnarah the first picture, which seemed to have become even more like Rauffaely than she remembered.

  Sehnarah almost purred as she leaned closer to see the illustration. “Oh, did you do this? It’s so much like him.” She looked around, a realisation that the cat was not nearby causing her some concern.

  “Don’t worry.” Eshezy responded to the last, unspoken item first. “He’s gone for… help…”

  Both Gefforen and Sehnarah supported her as she almost fell.

  “Sorry.” Eshezy smiled, blushing at her own reaction to the revelation. “I really miss him – and to know that…” She shrugged expressively. “But no, I didn’t do this. ‘She’ provided this – it’s called a ‘book’.” She watched as the artistic girl discovered the symbols underneath the picture.

  “This is a clever pattern. What do
es it mean?”

  “Try the next leaf.” Eshezy carefully turned the page, excited to see how perfect for the task Sehnarah clearly was. “See the symbols here.”

  ‘It’s a message!” Sehnarah’s voice squeaked as her excitement peaked.

  You are brilliant… Now, tell the others what it means – I don’t want them to think I am the only one who can figure things like this out!

  “It says… ‘one Rauffaely’… No, ‘one cat’… and on the next leaf, ‘two cats’!” Sehnarah spoke with increasing confidence, as the concept of the written word told hold in her mind. “May I?” She glanced briefly at Eshezy to get confirmation, and took the book in her hands, turning the next page with exquisite care. “Three cats! Oh, Eshezy, this is a wondrous idea. Are there any more like this beautiful… ah…?”

  “Book.” Eshezy supplied the term as it was clear that the still sleepy-sensitive Sehnarah had not picked it up from her earlier mention of ‘book-keeper’ or her naming of it, a few moments earlier. “And yes, there are thousands!” Eshezy almost laughed at the excitement now evident and was sure that the improved diet available in her Fortress, along with the motivation of learning whilst looking at the works of other – unknown – artists, would bring this teenager into full health within weeks, perhaps days. “Basrillene will show you the book room. And I will look forward to seeing your report on the books you have studied, when I return.”

  “Thank you! Thank you!”

  Eshezy looked at her, recalling that she had not yet announced the newly equipped bedrooms near her own to Basrillene, so she was free to make the initial assignment. One of my privileges! “Sehnarah, I want you to have my old room. You’ll need somewhere quiet to study.” She looked at the others, seeing their surprise. Yes, ‘She’ has made me stronger, so that you will know I can protect you.