Only the face remained. How, he asked himself, could the beauty of the divine be captured? Every worshipper saw her differently, or they went blind. He would have to reach into the heart of everyone who witnessed the statue in order to do right, and that was impossible.
Except for a goddess, he thought to himself.
He indented slightly where the eyes should be, and then he poured forth a gamut of energies and powers and perception, and he encased it in the stone, creating – somehow – an ever-replenishing source of power to perceive what the viewer thought divine beauty should be, and then projecting that onto the face of the statue.
He only needed to finalize, to dedicate the statue to the goddess by pulling it all into a state of permanence. He spread his arms wide again, and sent a stream of energy to the statue, a twining, glowing cloud, that started at the feet and circulated upward, fortifying and consolidating all the stone and energy and ideas into a single, cohesive piece of brilliant white marble. The cloud of energy rose to the top of the statue and collected in the space between the ceiling and the top of the statue’s head. It drew into a tight ball, then flew like an arrow down at Kestrel and shot into his chest.
Kestrel’s eyes flew open as the energy returned to him. He was weary, bone weary, from the effort to create the piece of artistry, the heartfelt reflection of his love for the goddess. He stared in exhausted incomprehension at the final product, then shut his eyes, passed out, and toppled to the floor.
Chapter 9 – Recovery
“Where am I?” Kestrel asked, before he even opened his eyes.
He was lying on a soft, plush mattress. He wasn’t in Oaktown, and he wasn’t on the bed in the guestroom in the elven embassy.
“Just a moment, my lord. I’ll go get your friends,” a boy’s voice spoke in the human language, and then he heard the sound of a door opening and closing.
Kestrel opened his eyes and looked up at an ornate ceiling overhead.
He had to be in the palace, he decided. The room was nice, the bed was luxurious, and the language was human. He had fainted apparently – long enough to be carried to the palace and put to bed.
The door opened, and Kestrel was surprised to see Lucretia enter the room, and was then even more surprised to see Princess Yulia, Greysen, and another man he did not know, follow into the room as well.
Kestrel sat up in surprise. “What an honor is this!” he smiled.
“How do you feel?” Lucretia and Yulia asked simultaneously as they took positions on either side of his bed.
“Disoriented, hungry, confused,” he answered. “Are we in the palace?”
“Yes,” the princess spoke. “I insisted that you come here,” she looked over at Lucretia, “although I was afraid we were going to come to blows fighting over you,” she smiled.
“You did an extraordinary thing! Inspired does not describe,” the man said.
“This is the arch-priest of Kai’s temple, Father Kaana,” Yulia quickly introduced.
“I told the goddess that the statue under consideration did not do her justice, and she told me to do better,” Kestrel blurted out. “I hope I didn’t mess it up too badly?” he asked.
“Mess it up?! It’s a masterpiece!” Greysen couldn’t restrain himself. “People come and stare at it and pray for hours!”
“The boy speaks the truth,” Kaana agreed. “It’s extraordinary! There won’t be anything like it again ever, unless you are inspired again.”
“I love the goddess,” Kestrel said simply, satisfied by what he heard.
“And it shows. And I love you too, Kestrel, my child,” the room was suddenly full of energy and light.
The goddess was present in his room. He felt astonishment, and he scrambled to get out of the bed so that he could genuflect before her, but he felt a powerful force press him back into the mattress.
She was not visible, but she was present.
“Growelf will be very angry with you,” the unseen voice chided him. The others in the room were looking around in astonishment, and Kaana had fallen to his knees. “Already he is jealous, and wants to know why you have not made such a statue of him.” Her voice sounded amused.
“You gave me the power to make the statue of you,” Kestrel explained. “And I did it because the people needed to see just how loving you are.”
“I gave you no powers, Kestrel dear heart,” the goddess replied.
There was silence in the room. Kestrel was confused, and the others were only bystanders, listening in on someone else’s conversation.
“But you said,” Kestrel protested.
“I said you had powers; I didn’t say I gave them to you,” the goddess gently corrected him. “You used the powers that are within you. Didn’t Kere tell you about this potential?
“You stood there for nearly a day and a half, using your own powers, in a religious ecstasy,” the goddess explained, to Kestrel’s astonishment.
“Besides,” the deity added, “think about it – how would it look if I gave you powers just to make a statue of myself? The other gods would scorn me!
“No my son, you did this all on your own, and I thank you deeply for it. I know that it came from your heart. Now rest and nourish yourself. We will talk again, for there are duties coming that you will be asked to fulfill, as only you can,” the goddess forewarned, and then the room suddenly felt empty. All the other mortals were there, but the spirit of the goddess had disappeared.
“There are no words!” Kaana thundered as he rose to his feet.
“That was truly extraordinary,” Princess Yulia agreed. “Did I understand correctly that the goddess said that you carry the power to make that statue? You’re an even more incredible person than I realized!”
“That doesn’t seem right,” Kestrel answered, shaking his head. “I haven’t had that kind of power since I used it all up in the last fight with the Viathins,” he declared.
“What day is it!” he asked. “Did she say I stood there for a day and a half? It didn’t feel that long.”
“People from throughout the whole city came to see you in action,” Greysen spoke. “We all saw it happen, little by little, the rocks moving around, changing shapes.”
“The idea of an elf creating a holy work for a human goddess has stirred quite a bit of discussion in the town,” Lucretia spoke wryly. “But they all saw it happen and no one can deny the beauty of what they see.”
“Are you a god, Kestrel?” Greysen asked. “Kai said you have powers of your own.”
The boy was looking at him earnestly, and the others were watching him intently as well, he realized.
“It felt to me like the power came from her,” he answered slowly. He needed to think about what had happened, and what it meant. “I’d like to keep this quiet, please, until I understand exactly what happened.
“But I’m not a god!” he added.
“Well, we all knew that,” Lucretia affirmed with a grin.
“The goddess said you would have duties ahead,” Greysen spoke again. “What do you suppose that means?”
“Nothing good, I’m sure,” Kestrel answered, although the idea of some challenge did intrigue him.
“May I have something to eat?” he asked, desperate to change the subject, and truly hungry besides. “What time of day is it?”
“It’s mid-morning. Greysen, would you go have a tray of food sent up immediately?” Yulia spoke, and the boy left the room immediately.
Kestrel saw his leather pouch on the table next to his bed, and remembered the original task he had set out on. “Your highness,” he spoke to Yulia, “would you look at the contents of that bag and tell me what I have?”
She reached over to pick the bag up delicately. “When they brought you here yesterday, we looked in the bag,” she told him as her fingers opened the drawstring, then poured the pearls out.
“Oh goddess!” Kaana exclaimed as he saw the lustrous jewels tumble into Yulia’s palm.
“I’m no expert, but thes
e look like perfect jewels,” Yulia spoke as she peered at the pool of white that rolled and tumbled in her hand. “You could sell these for a great deal of money. Frankly, you’d make even more if you took them to the merchants in Graylee; that’s a much more cosmopolitan market, as you know.”
She poured the pearls back into the pouch, as Kestrel pondered the unexpected fact of the value of the pearls. “Would these pearls be worth enough to buy a horse?” he asked, as Greysen returned, followed by a servant carrying a tray of food.
“You could buy a stableful of horses for that much money!” Yulia exclaimed.
Kestrel shook his head in disbelief, then lifted a fig from the tray. “When can we visit as friends?” he asked Yulia. “I want to hear what you know about things in Graylee and elsewhere.”
“I have a dinner tonight,” she mentally considered her schedule. “Why not breakfast tomorrow? Greysen and his father can join us.”
“That will be perfect,” Kestrel answered. “Lucretia and I will be back tomorrow morning.”
“Aren’t you going to stay here today and rest?” Greysen asked.
“No, I think I’ll go back to the embassy. Maybe we can stop by the temple on the way so that I can see the statue.”
“Let me take you there,” Kaana offered. “You may not get in otherwise; it’s that crowded. We’ve never seen such crowds. We sent the workmen away because they couldn’t get anything done with so many people.”
Kestrel hastily ate a bite of fruit. “Let me get dressed and we can go now. I’ll eat at the embassy,” he told his visitors. He felt a strong desire to see the statue after all that had happened.
The room cleared of visitors and he hastily pulled on his clothes, then opened the door. Lucretia and Kaana were waiting for him. The two elves pulled up their hoods as they left the palace, and they followed the priest through the streets of the city. The traffic grew thick and slow as they approached the neighborhood of the temple, and Kaana took them down an alley that led them to a back door to the temple.
Inside, the back halls were abuzz with activity, as the temple priests tried to react to all the visitors and offerings, while priests from other temples visited to witness the miracle from behind the scenes.
“We’ll get a good view from up here,” Kaana told his guests as he led them up a dark staircase, then through a narrow hallway. “This is a balcony for the priests,” he explained as he opened the door at the end of the hall, and he let them step out first.
They stood upon a narrow balcony that was slightly higher than the head of the statue, forty feet above the swarming floor of the temple sanctum. The statue stood before them, faintly glowing, and Kestrel’s eyes drank in the sight.
It was hard to believe that he had created such a piece of work. The stone was flawless in appearance, showing no evidence that Kestrel had molded it from so many pieces of stone, not to mention the tons of sand and gravel that he had swept together and then fused. She glowed, and she was beautiful. She looked just as Kestrel had remembered, when her powers had been diminished and her features had been discernable.
“This is magnificent!” Lucretia exclaimed, gazing on the statue for the first time. Elves raised few temples to their gods, choosing to worship in a less formal, more organic fashion in the woods, among the trees, so the statue to a goddess was an unusual sight for Lucretia to observe. “I almost envy that you have her as your goddess!” she said.
The head of the statue suddenly started to twist up to look directly at them, and the crowd below shouted in astonishment.
“You are welcome to join my fold, elfling dear,” the statue spoke to Lucretia as it stared at her. “Kere and I share Kestrel very well,” the goddess spoke. “Don’t we, my friend?” she turned slightly towards Kestrel.
Kaana fainted.
“Yes, my lady,” Kestrel shakily agreed.
“Of course, he is a very special case, so perhaps I should not attempt to steal your affections from Kere. She has been a noble ally and friend.” The statue turned its head back to its original location, and Lucretia grabbed onto Kestrel’s arm with a death grip.
Kaana raised his head and opened his eyes, as the crowd below continued to scream in astonishment.
“Let’s get him somewhere comfortable,” Kestrel motioned towards the woozy head priest, and the two elves quickly escorted him back along the hall and down the stairs.
“Thank you, my lord,” Kestrel told the priest as they turned him over to the attention of the junior priests in the back spaces. “We’ll let ourselves out and be on our way,” Kestrel said, as the junior priests stared at him with rapt adoration, his identity as the sculptor known.
The two visitors quickly reached the back door, stepped out, and hurried towards a relatively empty street nearby, then stopped, and Lucretia grabbed Kestrel’s arm once again.
“She spoke to me – directly to me! The human goddess joked with me! I’ll never, ever know a moment like that again,” she spoke breathlessly.
“Let’s get back to the embassy,” Kestrel urged. He was unnerved by the encounter; he was unnerved by everything in the previous two days, and he needed a quiet place to reflect.
They hurried through the midday traffic until they approached the embassy, and saw a small group of humans gathered in front.
“The back door,” Lucretia muttered, turning down a passage between two buildings, then along an alley, and through a gate. She knocked on a door, and lowered her hood, so that when a servant saw her through a peep hole the door opened and the two travelers slid inside.
“Is this him?” the servant, one of two human boys who worked for the embassy, asked. “They say you’re a prophet of the goddess,” the boy said. “Is it true?”
“I’m not a prophet,” Kestrel answered, shaken by the question.
“Get along, you scamp,” Lucretia swung a warning slap at the boy, driving him away from them. “My apologies, my friend,” she told Kestrel. She looked at him and saw how pale he looked. “Go up to your room, and I’ll bring you a tray of food. You need to take it easy,” she stated.
Kestrel obeyed without question, climbing the stairs, and flopping down on his bed, fully clothed. He shut his eyes and tried to relax, as thoughts and questions went swirling through his head. Was he a prophet, he wondered, giving the question serious thought, until he heard Lucretia’s steps rising towards his room. He listened to her rattle the contents of a tray as she put it down, then she tugged his boots off his feet.
“Roll over, sit up, and eat,” she ordered him.
They sat together, nibbling on acorn bread, a little old and almost stale, but an apparent treat that Lucretia kept secreted away.
“What am I going to do with you?” she asked rhetorically.
“I think I may just want the imps to come fetch me back home to the Forest,” he answered.
“I know Yulia would be sorry to miss breakfast with you tomorrow,” Lucretia answered. “She and I spoke after you were carried to the palace, and she was glad to know you had come to visit her,” the ambassador explained.
“That statue was truly beautiful, Kestrel. Frightening as it was to see it move, it is one of the most wonderful things I have ever seen,” she told him.
“You rest now, and we’ll work out something to get you to the palace in the morning,” she assured him. She stood and left the room, while Kestrel lay on his bed and wondered at it all.
Could he truly have powers within him, he asked himself. He tried to search himself, to feel around inside his soul, looking for the inherent energy that Kai had claimed was his own, the sole means he had used to create the statue. He did not feel it, not clearly and directly, but he did not believe Kai had lied to him.
He had used a great deal of energy – apparently for many consecutive hours – so perhaps he had simply drained himself, he decided. He nibbled on more of the food that Lucretia had left behind, and felt better as his stomach started to feel attended to at last.
He woke up
with a start the next morning, having apparently fallen asleep and slept through the night. Lucretia was knocking on his door. “Are you going to the palace?” she asked, as she opened the door. “There aren’t any worshippers outside the embassy yet,” she told him.
He freshened up, and found Lucretia waiting for him at the door. “I’ll walk you there,” she announced, and they cautiously strolled by an indirect route, one that avoided going past Kai’s temple, to reach the palace gates, where the two elves were immediately admitted.
Yulia, Greyson, and Ferris were all waiting when they arrived.
“Let’s not talk about the statue,” Kestrel said when they all sat down. “I don’t have any answers.”
So they talked about everything else. Kestrel learned that Philip was doing well in Graylee, as was Margo, who had given birth to a little girl.
“I’m going to lead a delegation from my court to visit him next month, and then he’s going to bring a delegation back with us so that he can visit us,” the princess said happily. Ferris talked about leading patrols of guards around the country to re-establish control and respect for the law in all parts, then Kestrel talked about his battle with the Viathins, the discovery of elves and gnomes in the south, and his work to establish himself as a responsible leader in Oaktown.
Before they knew it, Yulia had a staff person standing next to her, ready to lead her to the next appointment.
“I’ll give your affection to Philip and Margo for you,” she promised Kestrel.
“Please do,” he answered as they hugged, and then she was gone, off to be a monarch for her people.
Greysen and Ferris escorted Kestrel and Lucretia out a side gate from the palace, and took them to the jewelers’ street.
No jeweler had enough cash to buy all the jewels that Kestrel had brought, though he sold a portion of them.
“They’re the finest fresh water pearls I’ve ever seen,” one jeweler declared. “You’ll need to take them to Graylee to get proper value for them,” he advised.
“I may invite myself to go to Graylee with Yulia,” Kestrel told Lucretia after they had a warm and friendly departure from Ferris and his son. “But for now, I think it’s time for me to return to Oaktown, where life is simpler.”
The Guided Journey (Book 6) Page 10
