by Jason Tesar
Ukiru looked to Soren for a nod of confirmation before picking up the pale statue from the courtyard and placing it back in the corridor. He then reached for a black statue and placed it outside of the gate. “The other half of your enemy’s force exited the western gate and has come behind you. Your men are now trapped in the corridor by a force in the courtyard, another outside of the gate, and archers above you. Your men are defeated.”
Kael immediately looked up from the map and extended a hand to Soren. “Well done.”
Soren grasped Kael’s hand and shook it. “Thank you,” he said with a smile on his face.
Ukiru turned to Soren and clasped a hand on his shoulder. “You are the winner of this competition. Congratulations.”
Soren only smiled in response.
“Now, you must finish packing. Tomorrow we begin our pilgrimage. We must be ready to leave at first light.”
The two young men walked out of the room together and Soren put his arm around Kael. “You put up a good fight.”
“No, I didn’t,” Kael argued. “You’re just saying that to make me feel better.”
“Yeah. You’re right. You didn’t stand a chance,” Soren said, patting Kael on the back. “Come on. I’ve got to hurry. I haven’t even started packing yet,” Soren said, running ahead.
“We were supposed to start a week ago,” Kael yelled, but Soren had already rounded the corner and was out of earshot.
* * * *
The light from the quickly sinking sun filtered through the trees, leaving the ground in the garden dappled with alternating yellow light and purple shadows. Maeryn sat on a rock ledge surrounding an island of flowers, carefully pruning them by snapping off the dead parts of each plant. The soft humming of a melody drifted to her ears from across the garden and it brought a smile to her face. Aelia liked to sing and it warmed Maeryn’s heart to have the child in her presence.
Life is difficult to understand sometimes. It seemed like such a long time ago that she was surrounded by very different circumstances. She used to watch while Kael and Ajani would play in the courtyard. Saba would always be nearby, ready to give an explanation to the boys about how something worked. Eventually, when the sun went down, Adair would come home and everyone would sit down to a meal together.
Life was different then. Maeryn knew that even in her current circumstances she was more fortunate than most, but somehow, that didn’t make her feel any better. It was peaceful in the garden, among the trees and flowers. Somehow, regardless of the things going on around them, the plants and trees kept growing, kept going through their seasons. They would shed leaves or change colors depending on the species, but eventually, all would bloom again. What will my life look like when it blooms again?
“Ma’am?” came a voice behind her. Maeryn was so deep in thought that she had not heard the footsteps in the coarse sand.
“Yes,” she replied, turning to see Zula standing patiently behind her. The woman held a piece of parchment in her hand, which she extended to Maeryn. “Thank you, Zula.”
“Yes, ma’am,” she replied with a nod and quickly turned and walked away.
She is a strange woman to figure out. One moment she would speak with such passion, disregarding every manner expected of a slave. Then the next moment she would be polite and follow all of the rules to perfection. Maeryn thought that it must be difficult for such a passionate woman to keep quiet. And it seemed to be getting more difficult for her. Indeed, Maeryn herself was finding it more difficult lately to be in the presence of Lemus and not say all of the things she wished to. She only hoped that Zula would not make a mistake in front of that man, for her own sake.
Maeryn turned the letter over in her hands and the sight of the wax seal on the other side sent her heart racing. She immediately lifted her head and glanced around the garden to make sure that no one was watching her. The slight movement of Aelia at the other end of the garden was the only presence she could see.
She broke the seal on the letter and unfolded the parchment.
I know not the final destination of this letter. Nor do I know to whom it is sent. What I do know is that the one who reads it has proven himself time and again to be a true ally. For that I must extend my appreciation as well as the offer of my aid in any circumstance where I may be of assistance to you. As I do not know your identity, I will trust that if you ever need anything that is in my power to give, simply communicate it to me and it will be done. As a gesture of my trust in you, I wish to give you information as well. Please forgive the generalities as I do not wish to endanger anyone with specifics. Indeed this letter is already incriminating and I hope you will follow my advice and burn it as soon as you are able. In the past, Bastul has not been a major focus of our efforts throughout the Empire. Therefore, it has gone overlooked for some time. Lately, certain events have brought Bastul to the forefront of our attention, due in large part to your own contributions. However, we do not have enough allies in your city to make any difference. Therefore, I must ask a favor of you, if you wish to continue this relationship, but it will require much patience. The Empire has been built upon the backs of slaves who reap none of the benefits of its citizens, but who must labor every day for its welfare. The city of Bastul has one of the largest slave populations in the Empire and I believe that these people are the key to developing a large base of sympathizers to our cause within your city. My request is that you take note of every slave within Bastul and find out if there are any who would not want the chance to change their way of life. From the information we have received from you in the past, I feel confident that you are the man for this task. My hope is that you are willing to take this next step and become an active part of our cause. However, if you do not wish this relationship to continue, simply burn this message and I will not contact you again.
I await your reply.
Maeryn quickly folded the parchment into its original form and looked around the garden to make sure that no one was watching. Her heart was still beating loudly in her chest in stark contrast to the silence in the garden. Aelia had only moved a few feet from her last position and was now staring in awe at the butterfly flexing its wings on her arm.
Maeryn looked back at the letter, afraid to open it again. Somehow it seemed more dangerous if she were to reread it, as if the first time had been an accident. Many thoughts raced around her head, crashing into one another and making it difficult to think clearly. She raised her hand to her eyes and massaged them until her mind cleared. The words of the letter shocked her in many ways. She had no idea that the Resistance was so elaborate and involved so many cities. It made perfect sense that a movement such as this would not be limited to Bastul, but for some reason, she hadn’t considered the vastness of it and the consequences of involving herself in such a cause. When she first wrote a letter and gave it to Zula, it was a result of her own personal struggle with Lemus and a desire to see him fail. She didn’t realize what she was getting herself into. But the more she thought about it, the more sense it made. Who else is capable of doing this task? Who else has my position and is not fiercely loyal to the Empire? What about the attack on the shipment in the harbor? If Bastul really has been ‘overlooked’, what kind of power do they have in other cities? It all became too much to think about. Maeryn knew that she would need to think more on this matter before deciding, but something inside her already knew the answer.
“Aelia?” she called out.
“Yes, Mother,” came the reply from behind a flowering bush, followed by a sweet little face.
“Let’s go inside, the sun is almost down.”
Chapter 20
Tears flowed down Saba’s face. He had no images to recall, only the feeling of a deep and immense sense of loss. Someone had died in his past; someone he loved deeply. In the recent months since this memory—if it could be called such—came back, there were several occasions when the feeling would overwhelm him and he would cry until his body fell asleep from sheer exhaustion. He wou
ld wake, only to find that the feeling had not gone away, but had only lessened in intensity. Eventually, he would heal and begin to feel normal for a while until it happened again, unexpectedly. As far back as his time in Bastul, Saba had wished that he could remember what was in his past. But on these occasions, he knew that the pain was too great for him to experience and that it was a blessing to have no memory of it. He wondered now if there were other painful things in his past, things from which he was being protected by his own forgetfulness.
* * * *
Kael sat at the prow of the ship, watching as waves broke into white foam around the hull. From somewhere behind him he heard the laughter of Horace and Donagh as they shared a joke. They had all been at sea for weeks now. Initially, the trip had been an exciting break from their normal routine. But when the first day of the week arrived, they began with the usual morning meditation, followed by all of their normal instructions in various subjects. The afternoon’s physical training consisted mainly of hand-to-hand combat while trying to keep one’s balance during the rocking, swaying motion of the boat at sea. It was difficult at first, but Kael found that the rhythm of the ocean was like everything else in nature; it felt alive and seemed to have a predictable pattern once you got to know it.
But Kael wasn’t thinking of any of that right now. He was preoccupied at the present with trying to catch a glimpse of their destination. He had been told, along with all of the others, that they would reach the temple before sundown, and he had grown tired of being at sea. Finally deciding not to torture himself any longer, he got to his feet and moved past the others, taking a seat at the stern. The view was much of the same. Stormy skies and ocean as far as the eye could see. The only difference was the wake left behind the large boat.
It was strange to think how much time had passed since he had left Bastul. He had stopped counting long ago, but it must have been close to eight years. Things had changed drastically in the past year for him. Ever since that talk with Ukiru, Kael realized that he had been living in the past.
The past is past, but the future is yet to come, Ukiru would say.
Kael laughed to himself. It was funny how well you got to know people when you spent enough time with them. Although in his case, he didn’t have any choice. It wasn’t as if he could go anywhere. Still, he was starting to enjoy his life again. He was living in the present now, and looking toward the future. Ukiru told all of them that by the end of the trip, they would get to see the temple, meet the High Priest, and receive a commission straight from the All Powerful. Kael knew that it was just another step in his training, but it would give him a taste of what his purpose in life was to be, and that had recently become very important. He was no longer a child, he realized, but a young man being prepared to go out into the world as a messenger for the All Powerful.
“What is that?” yelled an excited voice from the front of the ship. Kael turned around and looked to the southwest, off the starboard side of the ship. About half of a mile away, the low-lying clouds had parted, allowing a bright shaft of daylight to stream down to the ocean in a column of brilliant pale yellow.
“Wow,” remarked Kael as he walked back to the prow. “That’s beautiful.”
Soren turned around and noticed what Kael was looking at. “No. I think he was talking about that.”
Kael turned from the spectacle and followed Soren’s pointing finger toward the southeast where the boat was facing. At first he didn’t see anything. “What am I supposed to be looking at?” he asked for clarification.
Arden turned around. “Don’t you see it?”
Soren waved a hand at Arden and turned back to Kael. “Look closer at the water.”
Kael looked back to the ocean and after several seconds he noticed something different. It was still more than a mile away, but the shimmer on the water was slightly different, duller somehow.
“Is that where we are headed?” asked Jorn.
Kael wasn’t sure to whom he was speaking until he realized that Ukiru was standing behind him. “Yes, Jorn. That is where we are headed.”
Ukiru always had a fatherly tone in his voice and Kael realized that it was getting more noticeable as time went on.
“What is it?” Jorn asked, still confused.
Ukiru couldn’t help but smile. “I’ll explain it when we get closer,” he answered, adding to the mystery of the situation.
During the next few minutes, all of the boys stared in wonder at what they couldn’t understand. The clouds began to break apart and more light streamed down from overhead. The glittering light reflected off the water making it more difficult to see the object of their fascination. Suddenly, as they moved closer, its silhouette broke apart from the horizon and became a substantial object.
Ukiru’s timing was perfect. “What you are looking at is a circular wall surrounding the location of the High Temple of the All Powerful. The surface of the wall is covered in sheets of polished metal to reflect the image of the water around it. It is not too much different from a mirror; only, instead of reflecting one’s face, it reflects the water around itself, thereby concealing what is behind the wall.”
“Is it floating?” asked Coen.
“That is a good question,” Ukiru replied. “It is not floating, but underneath the water, the wall is anchored to the ground. The water is very shallow by the wall and we must circle around the wall and enter from the south where there is a deeper channel through which boats may travel.”
As soon as Kael realized what he was looking at, a question formed in his mind. “Why is it necessary to hide the High Temple?”
Ukiru turned to Kael, somewhat shocked by the question. His agitated features slowly gave way to his usual calm demeanor as he gave Kael an answer. “This world is no longer loyal to the All Powerful. Therefore, it is not safe to leave the temple exposed to anyone not specifically looking for it. For that matter, followers of the All Powerful are not safe to roam about freely in this world, which is why your training has included combat.”
“I thought the temple would be bigger,” Donagh pointed out.
“Actually, it is very large; you just can’t see it,” answered Ukiru.
“What do you mean?”
Ukiru smiled. “It’s under the surface of the water.”
“How can you build a Temple under the water?” Donagh asked in a deep voice.
Ukiru turned to face Donagh, apparently liking his line of questioning better than Kael’s. “I don’t know how one might build a temple under the water, but this one was originally above the water. You see, thousands of years ago, the gods built this temple. Everything that you see now was once dry land and the waters were not this deep. The temple was carved out of a mountain and the people would come here to worship. There was a great war between the gods, and the one that we call the All Powerful emerged victorious. He chased the other gods away, never to return again. But eventually, this world stopped worshipping him and he left until such a time as he would return to claim the world that is rightfully his own. After he left, the oceans rose and buried the temple beneath the water. It has remained this way for thousands of years until now.”
“Why would he leave?” Kael asked, interrupting.
Ukiru tried not to show his frustration. “The All Powerful left this world to give everyone the opportunity to see how detestable life would be without him. We have had many years to make our decision and still the people of this world choose to live without his guidance, or most of them anyway. But now the High Priest has heard the voice of the All Powerful and has restored the temple. We are, at this very moment, preparing for his return.”
As Ukiru answered the questions of the young men, the boat made its way around to the south side of the wall and was now within a hundred yards of the structure. As they approached, its camouflaging quality began to lose its effectiveness as the individual sheets of polished metal could be made out from one another by their riveted seams.
“The wall conceals the top po
rtion of the mountain which is the only part above the waterline,” Ukiru continued explaining. He was about to say something else when he realized the boys were not paying attention. Everyone was watching as a section of the wall slid sideways to reveal a glimpse of the interior through a narrow channel, just wide enough for their boat.
Kael looked over the side of the boat and could see a distinction between the shallow water and the darker, deeper channel through which they were sailing. As the ship left the open ocean and entered the confines of the channel, the water abruptly changed to glassy smooth. The air was more still as well, the wind being blocked by the surrounding wall. As if waiting for a signal, dozens of oars sprouted from the hull of their ship and began to propel the boat through the channel and into a courtyard of sorts.
It was even more impressive on the inside. All around the interior of the wall were covered ports filled with various sizes of ships. Some were tiny and others were larger than any ships Kael had ever seen. Rising from the center of the harbor was an island without trees or vegetation of any kind. What did cover the land, however, were numerous buildings and structures as well as a multitude of different piers jutting out a short distance into the channel like spokes on a wheel. Most of these docks had small rowboats moored to their sides. But the strangest sight of all was the enormous cave burrowed into the island.
Narian, who had been silent for most of the trip, finally spoke. “Is that how we get into the mountain?”
“Yes, it is one of four entrances. There are three more facing the north, east, and west.” Ukiru seemed pleased to hand out information that pointed to the glory of the High Temple.
As their boat approached the island, six men walked out from the shadows of the cave entrance and quickly made their way down to the pier. These men were dressed all in black, much different than the monks who staffed the ship on which Kael stood. Their long-sleeved tunics fell only to their waists and they wore loose-fitting pants that ended several inches above their calf-high sandals.
