"Of Humans and Elves, part 5" by Ben Cameron

Of Alternatives and Answers

      Niell felt slightly uneasy and it wasn’t the sense of awe from the ivory white walls towering above him as he walked through the summer palace’s courtyards.  Something didn’t fit right within him; perhaps it was just that he was lost.  How was he meant to know where to go in this palace?  Everything looked the same; countless corridors and courtyards that he swore he’d walked through only a moment ago.  He moved onwards between carved marble statues into the building facing him, almost unconsciously keeping to the shadows.

      Inari watched him from behind a window on the seaward side of the square.  She had been walking through the hallways to Battle-master Riling to ask for further sword practice when she had seen him.  She was surprised; it had been past a week since she’d last seen him and he had cleaned up nicely, especially without his bruises.  His dark tan was exotic in Ishtar where most preferred to stay out of the sun so it was to no surprise that Terraic had a similar complexion; he spent hours each day searching for the destitute and needy amongst the streets of Kailas and her harbour.

       She watched Niell make his way across the courtyard.  He walked lithely, if without a purpose.  Her hand rose to cover her quiet laugh when Niell appeared out of the building he’d just entered more confused than ever.  She hurried downstairs to intercept him, the trail of her satin blue dress flowing behind her.

      “Methinks you are lost,” Inari said in his ear.  Niell was sitting against a handsome statue that portrayed the long deceased King Caelan hunting amidst the forest.  He didn’t budge.

      “Sneaking up on people doesn’t work on cobblestones.  But yes, I am lost.”  He was exasperated.  How long had he been searching for that forsaken library?  And now Inari showed up as if to deliberately rub it in.

      “Does Terraic know you’re outside?”

      “Yes, he knows.”  Niell’s mood got worse.  Does no one allow me freedom?  Perhaps Viminal’s offer was the better of the two… “He sent me out, if you must know.  To the library.”

      “I’m just checking.  No need to sound so offended.  Here, let me make it up to you, I’ll take you there.  If you were wondering, that was the kitchen you just entered.”

      “I’m not, anymore.  Thanks.”  Still, he stood up gracefully and followed her.  She took his proffered arm.

      The library’s back the way you came from.”  Upon hearing this, Niell swore quite vividly.  Inari continued.  “The palace’s library is the biggest in Ishtar.  If you want to find something, it will be in there.  It won’t be easy to find, though.  What was it that you were looking for, exactly?”

      “What I’m looking for… I don’t know.  Answers.”  How could he explain it?  He shrugged.  “Not much help, am I?”

      “Not really, no.”  She laughed, hiding it once more behind her raised hand.

      Last night he’d dreamt again, the first time since he’d arrived at Kailas.  It had been the same dream as before.

“See?  Do you see it?”  He saw it.  He twisted and turned, desperate to escape, yet wherever he looked cities crumbled to dust, seas turned into boiling cauldrons and the blood of armies seeped into the ground.

He hardened himself to the view before him, refusing to give in to his tormentor gripping his head with cruel talons, forcing him to bear witness.

“Do you understand what needs to be done?”  Images of men and women hung on crosses and burnt alive floated up out of the darkness.  He could not bear this.

“Do you?”  The breath down his neck was burning him.

As always, Niell had no choice.  He knew not the answer.  “Yes!” he cried, desperate for the end.

“Liar” bellowed the voice behind his head.  “You understand nothing.  You are too scared.”  Warm blood trickled down his back as the claws dug into his neck.

“What do you want?”  screamed Niell.

“Be gone!”  A mere instant before those talons closed down upon his head…

      “Calm yourself, Niell.”  Terraic was by his bedside.

      The dream was different than before.  Longer.  And the demon that had been holding his head was livid, no longer merely angry.  It would have happily crushed his skull.

      “What was the dream about?”

      By the time Niell had told, the morning sun was lifting away the fears of the night.  Terraic, however, still seemed worried.  Thinking back, Terraic had seemed unusually disturbed, even for him.  Disturbed enough to send Niell off to the library.

      “What for?”

      “I thought you wanted answers, Niell.  They won’t appear on your doorstep.  If you’re ready to know them, you’ll find the answers.  Thus, the palace library.  If you want to discover something, that’s where it’ll be.  The library’s in the south-west corner of the palace; a big domed building.”

      “You’re letting me out of this room?  But…”

      “But nothing, we both know you can read and you’ve wanted to go out of this room, so here you go.  Besides, I need some privacy to conduct my own work.  Go.”

      Now just what was he going to do?  Search through the biggest library, book by book, till he found an answer to a question he didn’t know?

      “Niell?  Are you listening to me at all?”  He could at least be polite after all she’d done for him.  Perhaps there was some logic behind the White Hand’s philosophy that Almah placed people in a certain social class for a reason.

      “Sorry, I was thinking back to last night.  What did you ask?”

      “I asked how you knew how to read.  Where did you learn?”

      Niell disentangled his arm from hers and stood back from her.  “I haven’t been a slave my whole life you know, Inari.  Only for the last three weeks, if you want to know the truth.”

      “Oh… my apologies, Niell.  It’s just that most people don’t learn to read unless of high parentage.  And they don’t normally end up as slaves.  So where did you learn?”  She motioned for them to continue walking, and after a moment’s hesitation, Niell fell back in step with her.

      Niell walked a while in thought before eventually answering.  “I don’t remember.  That’s what I hope to find out.”  How long was it going to take to remember?  He shook his head in frustration.  “So, how well do you know the library?”

      “I’ve spent a fair amount of time in there.  I know my way around at least, if that’s what you’re asking.”

      “Where would I find something on magik?”

      They walked together through the hallways to the library, passing suits of armour, tapestries, coats-of-arms and large wooden staircases, curving gently upstairs.  It was obvious that the palace’s primary function was not as a defensive structure, though there were still no windows on the ground level.  Despite that, Niell felt a little more at ease within the darkened passageways than he had outside.

      “The library’s through here.  It’s no wonder you didn’t find it, the library’s deliberately hidden; they don’t want just anyone wandering through.  Even if you had found it, however, the guards wouldn’t have let you in unaccompanied.  I’m surprised Terraic didn’t send someone over with you or go with you himself.”

      “I’d have found someway in.”  Niell fingered the note Terraic had given him.  He would have preferred not to use it and instead get in on his own merit.

      “I’d better come in with you to ensure you’re allowed in.”  Not to mention that it wouldn’t do for him to cause a second bout of mischief.  Inari took a quick glance at his face.  “Besides, I’ll need an escort later to take me to the armoury.”

      As they approached the wooden doors, carved from ancient, solid oak, the two guards stood down for the princess.

      Is this kind of security really necessary?

      “Many of the books are priceless, one-of-a-kind.”  She saw his question as he glanced at the guards’ rather expensive weapons; it had been her initial question the first time she had come to the library.  “And there’s some sensitive information in these shelves.  So say the White Hands.”

      Inari unwound her arm to push open the doors.  The room beyond was square in shape, some hundredpace a side.  Sandstone columns, beautifully carved with depictions of Ishtar’s history and culture, supported the stone roof and magnificent glass dome skylight.  So little light got through the tinted glass that the library was not much lighter than the dim hallway they’d just left.

      But it wasn’t this that caught Niell’s breath, but the books.  Almost fading away in the poor light were antique mahogany bookcases parading down the room, their shelves lined with dusty, leather-bound books, yellowed parchments and tightly wrapped scrolls held in protective casing.  Attached to the four walls were various maps, their edges wrinkled and faded.  At the end of each row, occupied by studious scholars squinting in the dimness, were small reading tables.

      Niell moved over to whisper in Inari’s ear.  “The books aren’t allowed to be taken out of here?”  Even that whisper seemed to break the sanctitude of this place.

      “No, that’s why you need my help.  Though, even with it, it could take weeks to find even a hint of what you want to know.  What exactly is it?”

      “I had a dream… have dreams actually.”  And he proceeded to tell her about them.  He ignored Terraic’s order to say nothing, firstly because it was Inari, and secondly, because he saw no harm in it.  “The dreams eat at me, Inari.  Who is calling me to commit such carnage?  I need to find out.”

      To say the least, Inari was shocked.  Such a dream was a bad omen.  Still, she’d promised him her help.

      “We’ll find your answers, don’t worry.”

      Together, they spent the better half of the day traversing through the veritable labyrinth of bookshelves.  Any book Niell or Inari thought could be useful was carefully lifted off the shelf and taken to one of the nearby desks, scanned, and regretfully returned to its appropriate place.  Some hours later, Niell’s eyes were red from rubbing and sore from squinting.

      “That’s all I can do today.  Anything that’s going to be found won’t be found today and you look like you could do with a break yourself.  Thankyou for helping me” he whispered.

      “You have manners after all, I see.  But, you’re welcome.”

      He rubbed his eyes once more.  “Why don’t they have better lights in there?  All they’d need would be a few lanterns.”

      Inari resisted the urge to choke.  “And risk losing this library to fire from the careless knock of an apprentice scribe?  Niell, have some common sense.  They tinted the dome just so the light wouldn’t fade the manuscripts; they’re hardly going to permit oil and fire separately into the library, let alone together.  The only place lanterns are permitted is in the lower level of the library but only the master-scribes are allowed there, and then only with the express permission of either King or Voice.”

      “Then what about magical light?  Like the orbs that light Kailas’ streets.”

      Inari turned to look at him curiously.  “Niell, where have you been?  Those orb-lights were a gift given, some few hundred years ago, to Kailas for the sole reason that we cannot produce light.  We can’t control the elements…”

      “Inari.”  Niell pointed behind her to an elderly man walking rapidly towards them.

      “Excuse me.  Princess or not, if you’re going to keep talking, you’ll have to leave.  I’ll ask you to take your slave along with you.”

      Inari ducked her head in formal apology.  “Sorry, Semarin.  It shan’t happen again.”  She hurried Niell out of the library, almost pushing him.  As they went, she whispered in Niell’s ear, “As long as you stay on the good side of him, you’re fine.  If not… well, the only thing that matches his age is his temper.  And Semarin controls access to the library over all, bar King and Voice.”

      They walked out of earshot of the guards by the library’s entrance, then Niell erupted.  “How in the name of the Gods did he know I was a slave?”  And damn Terraic’s training for working so far.

      “Calm down, Niell.  It’s your clothing.  Kailas has strict regulations regarding attire, especially for slaves: no sleeve decorations and no insignias, though they’re allowed on a slave’s back to signify their owners.”

      “Can’t I just change my clothes then?”

      “How Niell?  Too many people know you’re a slave.  But that can wait for another day, probably on the way to Syracuse.  Are you going to come and get something to eat with me?”

      Niell, ungraciously, nodded his acquiescence.  “Even though I’m a slave?”

      “Drop it, Niell.  Other’s may care that you’re a slave, I don’t.  Even the Voice can’t make me change my mind.”

      Niell nodded, a little more graciously this time.  “Sorry.  I am still… sensitive to that.  Is there no way to be freed at the moment?”

      “Short of saving the king’s life, no.  Unfortunately, for you to go even near him would probably constitute as a death threat.  I’m sure Terraic will cut your bonds himself once we leave Kailas.  Like I said before, too many people know you’re a slave to be freed now.

      “And one more thing, once we’ve eaten, you can accompany me to Riling.”

      “Riling?”

      “The royal battle-master.  Terraic hasn’t said so, but even if we can’t take weapons to Syracuse, you’re going to want to know how to use them.  I hope you’ve had some training with them before, because if not, there isn’t a lot that you can learn in two months.

      “Now come, I’m hungry.”  Inari took his arm, and led him off to lunch.