by L. R. W. Lee
I’m sure my eyes grew. Wait! What? Stop!
Ches let the corner of her mouth rise just a hint.
I’m merely speaking to what they most enjoy, Kovis added.
Yes, but…
I hope she asks for details, he added.
I wanted to slap him but refrained.
“Forthright, then we shall understand each other plainly,” Aunt Ta said. “So it seems you are finally here to give us what was promised.”
I inhaled sharply. Were they upset because I hadn’t returned in a moon with their reading material? I hadn’t been able to. Surely they understood that.
I opened my mouth, but Aunt Ches held up a hand. “Commitments were made… and broken.”
Strictly speaking, she was right. I couldn’t argue.
Unease blossomed and grew as all three of my aunts folded their hands in their laps and fell silent. Their quiet had unnerved me the last time, but I’d thought we’d gotten past that.
Panic rose as my mind wrestled with what, oh what, I could offer that might satisfy them.
The silence persisted, and Aunt Ta looked beyond us then gave a nod. I turned and saw an attendant bob her head, then reach out and halt a rolling metal ball in a timekeeping device. I inhaled sharply. Kovis did too.
Did she…?
I’d seen her do it before, but it still felt like a rock thudded in the pit of my stomach.
Yes, she just ended a human life.
I heard Kovis’s heart accelerate and his thoughts with it—my aunts had a lot of power and we could not disappoint them, not without consequence.
“With your permission,” he interrupted several heartbeats later.
Ta nodded.
“Perhaps you would fancy similar material… from Wake… on a regular basis.”
Kovis! What are you doing? How am I going to do that?
We made it here, we’ll find a way.
Nona smiled briefly then schooled her features and looked to her sisters, who shared glances as I’d seen them do before, communicating with some unspoken language, much as I pictured Kovis and Kennan doing when they were young.
It felt like an eternity, but each of the trio eventually nodded.
“Material from a different realm… intrigues us, greatly,” Nona said in a low, but sultry tone.
“The habits and practices of humans might just be the thing to spice up our existence,” Aunt Ches added in a hushed whisper.
Spice up their existence. I wanted to cover my ears.
“Very well,” Ta declared. “Then it is agreed. Come.”
She stood up, along with her sisters, and motioned us forward with an open palm, toward the right of the dais.
Kovis gave me a long look and took my hand.
Aunt Nona disappeared through the circular door that swirled in a host of colors. Kovis gripped my hand tighter as I stepped through and dragged him behind.
He exhaled heavily as we stepped into the room. As with everything else, nothing had changed. An expansive floor-to-ceiling window still filled virtually the entire far wall with the clear, blue sea. I still wouldn’t probe concerning how that view was possible with the castle situated in the midst of dark clouds. A huge crackling fireplace stood to the left, before which three sofas had been arranged with a short, wood table in the middle. Colorful rugs were scattered about. Every appointment was simple and lacked ostentation.
And as before, our hostesses all shed their pale garb in favor of vibrant colors. Ches donned a fuchsia robe with violet sunflowers. A steward helped Ta into a royal-blue, velvet tunic. And Nona slipped into a canary yellow robe with images of gears woven in—she buckled a belt made of discs and wheels about her waist, then picked up another mechanism and gave it a spin. Aunt Ta gave her a long look, and she chuckled as she silenced the thing.
Butterflies rose in my stomach. She spun one of those sex toys. I still couldn’t get used to their explicitness.
Kovis just stood there, trying to take it all in.
I smiled. I understood. I was so glad they’d let him in alongside me.
“Please, have a seat,” Nona invited, sitting to the right of the fireplace and drawing her legs up under herself. She leaned back and fingered the mechanism.
Kovis and I sat on the other side of the grouping, while Ta and Ches took the remaining side before the fire.
Ancel, the steward who had served me the first time, stopped behind us, his hands behind his back. “Would you care for something to eat or drink?”
We’d set out after a light dinner, and I was getting hungry I realized, so without hesitation I replied, “Those fairy dust pancakes were amazing. Could I please have some more with bubblefruit syrup and dragon horn tea?”
Ancel nodded then asked, “Sir?”
“I’ll have what the lady is having,” Kovis replied. I have no idea what I just ordered.
I smiled. Trust me.
Aunt Ches made it three orders of the pancakes and my other aunts just ordered drinks, a dragon fruit cocktail and a passion fruit sour.
Ancel retreated, and I took charge without a word, removing the pack from my back and placing it on the table. I pulled it open and extracted the first book, A Tumble in the Clouds. I pushed down my embarrassment as I opened it and showed them the picture on the inside of the cover.
Kovis tried to hide a smirk. He’d figured them out to a tee as we’d searched for these books.
“Let’s see it here,” Aunt Nona requested. I passed it to her, and after a heartbeat she bobbed her head then passed it to Ches.
“Will these types of books suffice?” Kovis asked.
“Let’s see the rest,” Nona requested.
Beyond Positions, Sweet or Spicy: Why Choose?, Hippoi Hoppoi, and the others made their way around the trio.
“These types of books will fulfill your obligation,” Ta asserted.
“Most definitely,” Ches added, flicking her brows.
Nona sucked on a finger, moving it in and out of her mouth.
Ta furrowed her brow at her sister. “Must you?”
Nona just giggled.
Kovis grinned. He was as bad as she was. What? he tried to sound innocent.
Don’t give me that.
What? I like her style. Is that wrong?
I just cleared my throat. Answer enough.
“You have come for reasons beyond fulfilling your obligation. You need something from us, don’t you?” Ta asked.
The jovial mood flattened in the blink of an eye. Her sisters folded their hands in their laps once more.
I sucked in a breath. They were masters at keeping me off balance. It’s what they’d done the last time too. Just as I’d relax, they’d shift things. They were forces, there could be no doubt.
Our food arrived before I could reply, giving me time to arrange my thoughts. Somehow my pancakes, while still amazing, tasted less so, along with my tea. Kovis was impressed with his meal nonetheless and spared no compliment in telling them so.
I wiped my mouth with my napkin, set it on the table, and looked to Aunt Ta. “We need your help, you are correct.” I explained the situation as succinctly and compellingly as I could—we feared for Velma and Alfreda and needed to locate them, the bottom line.
Aunt Nona bit a fingernail, Ta and Ches both drew a hand to their chest.
“So what do you think? Can you help us?” I asked with some degree of uncertainty. I’d prayed they knew where my sisters were. I didn’t want to think about what we’d do if they didn’t.
They sat quietly, brows furrowed.
I bit my lip.
Kovis squeezed my hand.
At length, the trio began ricocheting looks, but still no one spoke.
I always hated this about them. Their silent debates amongst themselves held no tells. It unnerved me.
Aunt Ches cleared her throat while looking at Nona. Ta frowned at both of them. What did it mean?
Still not one word.
I wanted to scream.
; “Your request implies a great deal,” Aunt Ta at last replied.
I squeezed Kovis’s hand but held my tongue.
“It implies firstly, that immortals have time devices.” She gave me a long look, as if asking why I’d be crazy enough to believe that.
I nodded slowly. “I considered that, but I hoped that if you didn’t control those, that you at least influenced all beings, not just humans.”
“You give us much credit,” Ches intoned.
“Secondly, it implies a time device is connected to the being in question geographically,” Ta continued.
I held my tongue. I’d had little basis in fact, but it’s what I’d hoped. There’d been an accident, with that one human the last time I was here. It had ended his life. They’d known immediately. I knew it was a stretch, but surely they knew where each subject was, no?
Ta went on. “Thirdly, it implies we would easily give up the information you seek. Or was there something more you offer?”
I pulled my head back. Wouldn’t they? But I thought… Oh gods. I’d been naïve to think… No doubt they’d repurposed some human’s device for me when I escaped to Wake. Aunt Ches would have set the number of my suns. My thinking had been way off. I was but a mere mortal with no right to make such a request. But Velma and Alfreda…
“I’m… I’m sorry. I assumed far too much. I apologize. I should never have—” I swallowed hard. Had I completely botched this?
Aunt Ta held up a hand. “Alissandra, I said your request implies a great deal. I spoke true. I did not indicate how we might respond.”
I inhaled deeply and let it out slowly. I needed to calm down.
She continued, “The last time you came before us, we complemented you. Do you remember what for?”
My mind didn’t have to work to remember. I’d treasured the praise. “I do. Aunt Ches, you said you thought that I’m passionate about humans and making their lives more pleasing and you wished more sand people were like me.”
“Yes, high praise indeed,” Ta added. “Has anything changed?”
Changed? My realization as we climbed the stairs came to mind, but I shook my head, unsure where they were heading with this.
“There you are incorrect.” Ta held up a finger and looked to Ches.
My stomach tensed. They thought I’d changed?
Ches continued, “I’ve not had to set the number of suns for a human gone to Wake as you did, in eons.”
She had numbered my suns. But wait. What? Others had gone to Wake from Dream? I sucked in a breath.
Kovis squeezed my hand.
“Alissandra, you willingly gave up your family as well as immortality for your charge,” Ta continued.
Of course. I’d had to. I couldn’t have left Kovis to Father’s devices. I resisted the urge to fidget. So what was she getting at?
“Granted, you had more than a casual interest in him.” Aunt Nona snickered. “I quite enjoyed hearing the intimate details.”
Ches cleared her throat.
Kovis’s breath hitched. What did you tell them about me?
Later.
Nona quieted after sticking out her lower lip.
“Those weren’t just idle words,” Ta resumed. “But you don’t see it. You were so committed to your charge that you put aside self-interest for his sake. How many others would do the same?”
“Umm… I’ve never thought about it.”
Ta smiled. She let my comment linger.
“Is that bad?” I asked when the silence became uncomfortable.
Kovis pulled my arm and turned me toward him. “If I may translate, your aunt is saying no one else would have done what you did for me.”
I felt like a fish out of water, opening and closing my mouth.
I scanned my aunts. Every one of them smiled warmly.
“But I…”
Kovis shook his head. “Accept their praise, Ali. Who knows what situation I’d be in this sun if not for you.” His hands found my cheeks, and he slowly leaned in and planted a kiss on my lips. “Thank you.”
“Again!” Nona demanded, clapping.
So he did while she rose and strode to her workbench.
When Kovis finally pulled back, Aunt Nona reseated herself and held her hand out to me. A trinket lay in her palm. I prayed it wasn’t a sex toy as I picked it up.
“I—we—want you to have this,” Nona said.
“What is it?” I asked, opening the metal case that fit in my palm. Two toothed wheels circled the inside as if of their own accord.
“A little something for when you most need it.” That’s all she said as she closed my hand over it.
“After seeing what you did, we agreed that if we ever were favored to see you again, we wanted to give you that,” Ches said.
Favored to see me again? Favored? My breath hitched. “I don’t know what to say. Thank you so much.” I drew a hand to my chest.
My aunts believed I’d changed and were honoring me. I had no words. They’d given me this trinket because they believed I’d done something extraordinary. I guessed maybe I had. Maybe. But honoring me? Them? I’d no idea what the piece did, but I’d treasure it the rest of my mortal suns.
“So we still have this matter of locating your sisters.” Ta refocused our attention.
I nodded.
“As it happens, we do have time apparatuses for immortals,” Ta said. “It is a false notion that immortals cannot die. They do, just not from the expiration of suns set for them, for Ches never numbers their suns. But an immortal or two has been known to expire from peril.”
She gave Kovis and me a stern look. “As with our other secrets, you must promise not to breathe a word of it to anyone.”
“I promise,” we both said without hesitation.
Hope rose in me. My sisters would both have a device. But could we tell where they were from it?
Aunt Ta and her sisters rose and, with the help of a steward, shed their brightly-colored vestments in favor of their drab gray attire then headed for the swirling door without a word.
Kovis glanced at me, asking if we should follow. I nodded then fell into line behind them, back into the grand hall. I clutched my new keepsake. No matter where I was, it would always connect me with my aunts. They’d given it to me because they believed I’d changed, that I’d done something extraordinary. My heart pitter-pattered.
As we emerged, a tan-robed attendant scurried over. “I apologize for interrupting Moirei, but we are having difficulties with a device.”
“Who is it, Adeia?” Ches inquired.
“Fabia of Vaduz, village of Croft,” she replied.
We’d been through the insorcelled village not long before. I wondered if we’d met the female. And what was happening to the woman if they were having problems with her device?
“It is not yet her time,” Ches replied. “She has another dozen annums to what I allotted.”
“Which floor?” Nona asked.
“The twentieth,” Adeia replied.
The twentieth floor! I'd given no thought to what was on all those floors we'd climbed past. More devices? This place was enormous! My aunts had a formidable task to manage it all. All those humans. And immortals. And who knew what other creatures, perhaps. I shook my head.
That’s a lot, Kovis whispered.
“I’m on it,” Nona replied and headed off with the attendant.
Aunt Ches motioned us onward, and we retreated into the towering shelves. The first set we came upon, to the right, was filled with candles burning brightly. An assistant hurriedly rolled a ladder to the left and scurried up. She replaced a guttering candle in the nick of time. I exhaled at how close it had been to going out.
To our left we came upon shelves in which devices with a metal ball rolled down a zigzagging track to move the hands on a timepiece. These seemed more reliable and not subject to a too strong breeze. In the next set of shelves, more attendants added water to contraptions that dripped liquid to measure time.
We
reached the entrance where Jansha and Rinion smiled, then bowed low. I wanted to comment on Rinion’s change in disposition, but I bit my tongue. Kovis chuckled through the bond.
After the pair of stewards stood tall once more, Baldik, who had been waiting for us, strode forward and held out Kovis’s weapons to him. Rowntree stopped beside his fellow.
“We’re not yet ready to leave,” I said.
Baldik gave a slow nod, although it was clear from his strained expression, he was none too happy about it.
“We’ll be upstairs,” Ta indicated to her stewards. Then turning to us, she said, “Come along.”
We’d climbed thirty floors already, how much further would we go?
As we mounted the first set of stairs, Ches said, “In the beginning, there weren't so many floors, only three. But over time, the palace has grown to accommodate new life.”
“Wow, they must be some builders.”
“No,” Ches corrected. “It grows.”
“The palace grows?” I couldn’t hide my surprise.
“It does. It’s alive in a manner of speaking. It derives its life principally from me and my sisters but some from the life it stewards, as well. I don't pretend to understand it. Nona tried to explain it once, and I've never asked again.” Ches chuckled.
I gave her a knowing smile as we started up the next flight of stairs.
“It's quite jarring when it adds a new floor,” she added, rustling her wings.
Kovis laughed out loud. “I bet that’s an understatement.”
Ches smiled warmly. “Fair enough. Rumbling and jolting, we have to take great care that none of it snuffs out the life we steward.”
My eyes were wide. I couldn’t imagine a building moving with me in it. I’d be scared out of my mind.
She went on. “As I understand it, the Ancient One himself set it in motion before the gods appeared. He placed us here after creating us, but before breathing life into another being.”
I’d suspected my aunts were older than time itself, now I knew. And as for the palace, I shook my head, unable to comprehend. The council building in Wake changed to display all the affinities through magic. But this was something entirely other. A living place. Unbelievable. I'd lived in Dream practically my whole life and I’d never known.