The Flight from Kar (The Emperor's Library

by Frederick Kirchhoff

  “Would you have him sit here doing nothing?”

  “No, I wouldn’t have him do that. Despite what he thinks about Klei—and a few other things I see no reason to bring up—I rather like your Emperor. He knows how to use his position, even when he has little actual power. But why is he taking Zoë with him? Doesn’t he realize that she’s the last of Helen’s children?”

  “Yes, the Emperor knows that. And he also knows Zoë. Don’t forget, it was Zoë who volunteered and the Emperor who decided to accompany her. She would have taken any effort to discourage her as a sign that he questioned her abilities. So what else could he do?”

  “Are you saying there’s nothing between them?”

  Jon smiled.

  “No, I’m not saying that. But Zoë isn’t like anyone else. Romance doesn’t mean anything to her.”

  “She’s a real warrior maiden, isn’t she?”

  “You could call her that.”

  “Still, she has much to learn about herself,” Lyla observed quietly. “Let’s hope the lessons bring her as little pain as possible.”

  Lyla looked away as she spoke. Jon sensed that their conversation was at an end; however, before he parted from Lyla, Jon had a question for her.

  “When you went to Kar, did you visit the Emperor’s library?”

  Lyla laughed.

  “How on earth did you find that out?”

  “The librarian remembered you.”

  “After so many years?”

  “You were the only person from the Valley of Women who’d ever used the library.”

  “I remember him to this day—a thin young man who seemed terrified by my presence. I wondered if I was the only woman who’d ever come to look for a book.”

  “He’s not a young man anymore. And he has a granddaughter.”

  “That’s a surprise. Did he tell you what I was after?”

  “No. What was it?” Jon asked.

  “I was looking for a reliable account of what the Emperor actually said when he gave us our land. The women insist that he was the one who forbade adult males in the valley, but I suspected he only said that the women would rule there, and, over the years, what began as a custom turned into a law. Unfortunately, none of the histories your librarian friend offered me held the answer. They mentioned the Valley of Women and told the story of how the land was granted us, but nothing more specific than that. The palace must contain rooms filled with centuries of Imperial decrees. That would have been the place to look, and don’t think I didn’t ask. But it turned out that such records aren’t open to the general public. They contain too many state secrets. Or what the Emperors like to call state secrets.”

  Most of the people Jon knew would have considered looking for secrets in a room full of documents an unappealing charge, but he rather liked the idea. There was so much about the past he had yet to learn, and each piece was part of a giant puzzle that might reveal something totally unexpected.

  “If I ever return to Kar, I’ll see what I can find out.”

  “Well, I won’t force you to make that a promise. I don’t want you to break another one.”

  Chapter Twenty-five

  The Emperor and Zoë left the next day. They’d had no choice but to take the western route over the Boundary Mountain, and Peter had traveled with them as far as the Forest House, where he planned to keep an eye on the Chosen. The old man had explained that when the Emperor returned, he’d need reliable intelligence about the enemy, and who better than a Forester to provide it? The Emperor agreed, and Ethel, unwilling to have her father undertake this task alone, came with them.

  Jon and Alf decided to set out from Bent Lake two days after the Emperor and Zoë. Since they couldn’t appear Foresters, Tando had found them more suitable clothing. Dressed like workmen, they left the village late in the morning, timing the journey to reach the enemy camp at dusk. The night before, Jon had wanted to say goodbye to Klei; he knew there was a real possibility that he wouldn’t return to Bent Lake. But Klei was nowhere to be seen. Jon hadn’t been sure what he wanted to tell him; he’d relied on the right words coming. Now Jon himself might never know what the right words would have been.

  The afternoon was warm—one of the last hot days of the southern summer. It wouldn’t be many weeks before the rains began, but today it was hard to believe this land knew anything but relentless sunlight.

  ▲

  They’d been climbing two hours, when Jon sensed the presence of a Rand.

  Is it you, Saash? he asked.

  Yes. I’ve been watching this path every day since I met you here. But now you have someone else with you—not Zoë, but a man like yourself. And there’s another man below you. Did you know that?

  What does he look like?’

  He’s not tall. He’s a small person—like me—but with pale yellow hair. He was with you when you journeyed by the ocean. I saw him walking with a tall dark-skinned man with curly hair and an earring.

  Would Marekko never disappear from his life?

  It must be Klei. But I cannot tell you why he is here. He must want to speak to me.

  “Alf,” Jon said, “we have to wait here. Klei is following us. He must have wanted to see us before we left the valley. I looked for him yesterday but I couldn’t find him.”

  Alf peered down the trail and then turned back to Jon.

  “How do you know Klei is following us? I don’t see him.”

  Can I tell him?

  Yes. He is Alf—the one you rescued from the Brotherhood. I recognized his red hair. He’s the only New Man I ever saw with red hair. Are there others like him? It’s a strange thing, the color of his hair. Do you consider it beautiful?

  He’s the only one of us who has such hair, Jon replied. Whether it’s beautiful you’ll have to decide for yourself.

  And so Jon explained to Alf what he’d explained earlier to Zoë—that he had a way of communicating with the Rand and that there was one nearby—a friend named Saash, who’d told him about Klei’s being on the trail behind them.

  “Where is the Rand?” Alf asked, looking around in all directions. “I’d like to see him.”

  And Saash appeared from behind a rock, as if by magic.

  “Here, put your hand on my chest, Alf,” Jon told him. “That way you’ll be able to hear Saash speak. He’ll sound like me, because his words will come through me in some way—I don’t understand how it works—but it’ll be his words and not mine.”

  Alf laid his hand solemnly on Jon’s chest, and Saash greeted him with equal solemnity.

  “This is incredible,” Alf said. “I’ve never experienced anything like this. Was he one of the Rand who helped you up the hill?”

  No, I was not. But I’ve talked to those of my kin who came to Jon’s aid that night. They’d been watching the men on the road and they saw a group of Foresters watching along with them, and then a woman came from the camp, helping a man who was very weak. And to their surprise they could hear some of the thoughts of the man—not clearly—but it seemed to them that he was calling for help. That was why they followed you. I learned this when I visited my friends in the valley to our north.

  “Ask him if he saw the Chosen when he was there.”

  I can hear you, Alf. Yes, I saw the Chosen. They’re camped along both sides of the road, but it’s easy to escape their eyes in the forest. I think they’re afraid of going where there are so many trees.

  And then Alf asked a question it had never occurred to Jon to ask.

  “I just called you a Rand—but what is the name you use for yourself?”

  We call ourselves the People.

  “The People. Then that’s what I’ll call you, too.”

  Thank you. I would like that. But let us be quiet. I hear your friend below us.

  Jon and Alf stopped speaking, although Jon wondered why Saash had asked them to be quiet. Did he think Klei didn’t want them to know he was following them?

  Moments passed before they heard Klei’s footste
ps on the rocks below. Saash’s hearing was evidently more acute than theirs.

  “Klei,” Jon called out when he saw his face appear around a bend below them.

  Klei looked startled, but managed an awkward smile. Jon knew at once that he hadn’t expected to encounter them.

  “I’m glad you’ve come,” he told him. “I looked for you last night—to say goodbye. I don’t mean to sound dramatic—but what Alf and I have to do will be dangerous. One or both of us may not come back.”

  It was only then that Klei, who’d had his eyes on Jon the whole time, noticed Saash.

  “Who’s that naked man?” he asked, almost in a whisper.

  “He’s my friend Saash. He’s one of the People—the ones who helped you get me up the hillside last year—only he wasn’t there then.”

  Klei didn’t appear to be listening to him. He walked slowly up to Saash; then he reached out and took his hand.

  “My name is Klei,” he told him.

  “He doesn’t speak,” Alf told him. “But go and put your hand on Jon—on his chest, under his shirt. Then you can hear Saash.”

  With a bewildered look, Klei did as he was told, hesitating just an instant before laying his hand on Jon’s bare skin.

  I am honored to meet you, Klei, Saash told him.

  Jon felt strangely foolish. He moved away, breaking Klei’s link with the Rand. Why was Klei here? Like them, Klei wasn’t wearing the garb of the Foresters and was dressed instead in the gray clothing allotted boys in the Valley of Women. He must have decided to join their mission, and now Jon would have to persuade him to return to Bent Lake.

  “Walk with us a while,” Jon said to Klei, moving away from Alf and Saash, who watched them go without following them. “We have a long way to go today, but we can talk together. You’ll like the view from the top of the mountain—and then we can say goodbye and you can return to Bent Lake.”

  “I’m not going back to Bent Lake, Jon.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I’m not going back to the two valleys.”

  “But you can’t come with us. We need to be as inconspicuous as possible; another person will simply add to the risk. I know you offered to come with Alf. It was wrong of the Emperor to ignore you. He doesn’t know you the way I do.”

  “Did I say I was coming with you?” Klei asked.

  “Then where are you going?”

  “Somewhere away from this place.”

  “No, Klei, tell me—where are you going?”

  “I don’t know—but it doesn’t matter. And most of all it shouldn’t matter to you. You’ve been avoiding me since the day we left West House.”

  “Avoiding you? You were the one who was avoiding me?’

  “Sometimes you are really stupid, Jon. A lot stupider than I once believed possible.”

  “Why are you talking this way?” Jon asked. “If you’re leaving Bent Lake, you must be going somewhere.”

  “Somewhere . . . anywhere . . . I just want to go where I can think. I’ve been following other people for two years. First you, then the Foresters, then the Emperor. Nice little Klei—pretty little Klei—everybody’s friend, not that anyone needs to take him seriously. I’ve almost forgotten what it is to take myself seriously.”

  Jon had never heard Klei speak with such bitterness.

  “But what about Marekko?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Didn’t you and he have something going between you?”

  Klei’s anger was palpable.

  “This is the second time you’ve asked that question. Did you think I was lying the first time? He’s a friend—that’s all. At least he was a friend.”

  “But he’s not a friend anymore?”

  “No, I didn’t say that. He’s still a friend.”

  There was something Klei didn’t want to tell him.

  “But he wanted to be more than a friend?”

  “What he wanted to be is none of your business, Jon. I gave you credit for being perceptive, but I must have been wrong. I must have been wrong about a lot of things.”

  Jon swallowed. He hated to hear Klei talk this way. He hated his anger—especially because he knew he deserved it. And now the words he hadn’t been able to imagine yesterday were coming after all.

  “But I love you, Klei.”

  “You love me?” Klei asked sarcastically. “Come on.”

  “I mean it. I love you, Klei.”

  Jon reached out and touched Klei’s hand, but Klei pulled away and wheeled about so that he faced Jon on the path.

  “Do you? Then do you want me to come with you and Alf?”

  Jon wasn’t sure how to respond. He had a plan and there was no part for Klei in it. Klei would only be in the way. He’d told him he loved him. Surely that was enough.

  “No, you can’t come with us. You have to return to the village and wait for us to return.”

  “I have no intention of returning to the village. And I wasn’t serious when I asked about coming with you. I didn’t follow you for that purpose. I waited to leave until you’d had time to get well ahead.”

  Jon knew that Klei was telling him the truth, but it was hard to grasp Klei’s contradictory impulses. Jon fought back the desire to hold Klei in his arms.

  “Then where do you plan to go?”

  “I haven’t decided yet.”

  Let him come with me.

  Saash and Alf had caught up with them.

  With you? Why would you want him to come with you?

  He’s your friend, isn’t he? And so he’ll be my friend.

  But how can you speak to him? He has no tritargon.

  We will manage. I’ll take him to where he will be safe.

  Where is that?

  To my home—to my home on the island.

  The island you can see from the shore where I met you and your mother?

  Yes, that is our home. Not the nearer one, but the second island. But we won’t go there today. I’ll take your friend to stay with the People on the other side of this mountain and then I’ll watch to see if you return from the Chosen.

  I may not return.

  That is your fear, but I don’t believe you’ll lose your life in this journey.

  How did you know that was where I was going?

  You told me—you may not have realized you were doing it—sometimes ideas come from us faster than we can keep track of them.

  Jon turned back to Klei.

  “Saash has invited you to go with him.”

  Klei didn’t respond immediately.

  “I know it must sound strange to you,” Jon told him.

  “No, not strange—just unexpected. There’s nothing strange about Saash. At least I didn’t think so when he spoke to me. It felt like I was talking to someone I’d known all my life. And perhaps it will turn out to be best for both of us.”

  “For you and Saash?”

  “No, for you and me.”

  They walked along silently, coming at last to the place where the path became a zigzag of steps cut into a steep rock face just before it reached the crest of the mountain. Here, Jon heard Saash’s voice.

  This is where our paths take different directions.

  Why so soon?

  There are New Men above us. It would be best if they didn’t see me. Tell Klei he should come with me now—if that is his wish.

  Jon told Klei what Saash had communicated.

  “Yes,” Klei replied, “it is my wish to go with Saash.”

  Saash made a motion indicating that Klei should follow him, but, as Klei turned to go, Jon reached out and laid his hand on his shoulder. This time Klei didn’t draw back, but turned slowly and looked at Jon.

  “Good bye, Klei.”

  “Good bye, Jon.”

  Klei stood motionless for a long moment; then he turned toward Alf.

  “And good bye to you, too, Alf.”

  Then he joined Saash and the two set off on a path leading westward. In a few moments, they were lost
from sight, and, although Alf was walking at his side, Jon was overwhelmed by a sense of being alone in the world.

  ▲

  Soon afterwards they came upon two archers guarding the pass from the North—a man from Bent Lake and a boy from the Valley of Women, who recognized Jon and seemed to think him a hero.

  “We may be returning this way in another day or two,” Jon told them. “And, if so, we may have other men with us. But you’ll have nothing to fear if you see either me or Alf leading them.”

  From where they were standing, they could see the camp of the Chosen laid out in squares between the road and the river. Beyond the camp, the South Road branched east and, once beyond the ford, lost itself amid the rising hills.

  “Remember the way you counted the troops riding north the Bridgetown? If we knew how many soldiers they put into each square, we’d know many men they have,” Alf observed.

  “Can you count the tents?”

  “There are twelve on each side of a square, which would mean twelve times twelve, except for the fact there is a clear space in the center.”

  “The inner square is five tents by five tents. Let’s do the math.”

  Alf grinned. Years ago, they’d challenged one another with mathematical calculations. Jon was always faster than he was, but Alf made fewer mistakes. Jon used to say that didn’t matter. The important thing was understanding the principles involved. “Any fool can get the numbers right.” This one was easy, but it still brought back old times.

  “One hundred forty-four less twenty-five means one hundred and nineteen tents in each square.”

  “But the problem is, how many men to a tent?”

  “At least two, I’d think—but maybe as many as four.”

  “And that would make . . .?

  “As few as two hundred thirty-eight and as many as four hundred seventy six to a square; and there are six squares, so that means at least fourteen hundred soldiers but perhaps more than twenty-eight hundred. I remember Peter saying something about three thousand men—that’s close to our high estimate.”

  “But you’ve forgotten the Brotherhood, Alf. They must be that cluster of darker tents on the other side of the road next to the forest.”