Crown Phoenix: Night Watchman Express

by Alison DeLuca

Chapter 14

  The Temple

  he rain continued through the night. It drummed down on the roof so loudly that Neil, who was getting used to going to bed at odd hours, couldn’t sleep. As well, he was worried about Mana, who still lay outside in the little shack, since Weko thought that it was safest. Neil had to agree. A troop of soldiers or guards could return at any time; still, he wished that she were safely inside with them in the big house.

  Chichilia herself had gone to the small hut where the new queen lay sleeping. She brought silk eiderdowns, cushions, fans and a pair of old curtains to pin up over the rudimentary window. When she returned, she reported that Queen Mana was still not awake, although she appeared to be more comfortable.

  “We’re a house full of sleepers,” Riki grumbled, as she was pushed up the stairs to bed. “First Tache, and now Mana, and now me and Neil. I’m not even sleepy, anyway.”

  Neil agreed, and after he washed and got into bed, he lay with his arms behind his head, staring at the ceiling and listening to the rain. It drove against the wooden shutters in torrents and ran down the side of the house, drowning out the sounds of Weko and Chichilia talking to their sons.

  He must have drowsed; outside, the rain had stopped. He opened his eyes and realized what had woken him. There was another small tap at his door.

  Neil jumped out of bed and padded over to the door in his bare feet. “Is that you?” he hissed.

  The door opened and Riki slithered in. “You weren’t asleep, were you?” she asked.

  “No. Maybe. Did it stop raining?”

  “Dunno. I suppose. Come on, get dressed and we will go and check on Mana,” Riki ordered.

  “Suppose the guards are watching our house?” Neil argued, although he really wanted to go.

  “We’ll go undercover. See, I put my black dressing gown on. Hurry up!”

  Neil gave in. “Very well,’ he said, “but turn around while I dress.”

  Riki snorted. “Shy?”

  “It’s just not seemly,” Neil said with as much dignity as he could muster. “In fact, get out while I change. Go on, get out!”

  Stifling a gale of laughter, Riki left the room. Neil hurriedly pulled off his pajamas and got into some dark clothes that he found in a chest, half expecting Riki to open the door before he could put on his pants. She stayed outside however, and in a minute he joined her in the hall.

  She gripped his hand and they tiptoed downstairs, avoiding the entrance to the small sitting room where Jirili or Kakujife, presumably, still sat watch. A thin line of light under the door showed that one of the brothers monitored the house, but they managed to get downstairs undetected.

  Once they were in the kitchen, Riki began to snort again. “Most unseemly!” She pointed at Neil’s trousers.

  “Oh, stow it, would you?” he said wearily. He opened the back door, hoping that it wouldn’t creak and wake up Odjo, who slept downstairs next to his beloved kitchen. The hinges moved smoothly, however, and they glided outside.

  Riki prodded him to move forward. They crept between the dripping flowers and vines that grew in ordered confusion in the kitchen garden, towards the small tin shed.

  The hut was tightly closed against the rain. At the last moment, Riki got shy and hung back, poking Neil and motioning for him to enter first. He rolled his eyes and pulled the door open, preparing to step inside, and gasped.

  A dark figure was bent over Mana, holding a shuttered lantern that cast long shadows around the hut. “Hey!” Neil said, springing forward, ready to attack if necessary.

  The figure shrank back, and he saw that it was the girl Tache and not a murdering guard from the palace. Mana’s eyes were open, and she said in her best governess voice, “Pipe down at once, Neil, and come inside. You too, Riki, and close the door after you.”

  Neil did as he was told and entered, closely followed by Riki. For a wonder she was silent, her eyes wide open.

  Mana said something in a low voice to Tache, who sat down and put the lantern on the floor. “I’ve just been talking to this girl, who explained to me what happened to her. It was just as I had suspected.”

  He approached the low bed and squatted beside her. “She drank some nasty stuff, I think. A medicine, but something to make you feel worse instead of better.”

  Mana smiled. “Exactly,” she said in the tone of a teacher who praised a bright pupil. “It’s the substance that was put in your coffee, back in Miriam’s house.”

  “What are you talking about?” Riki had forgotten to be nervous. She squatted beside Neil and clasped her arms around her knees.

  “Actually, I’m not sure,” Neil said. “Can you explain, Mana?”

  “I think you know more than you realize,” she said.

  “Does the medicine – drug – whatever it is – come from the bolemor trees?” Neil asked.

  “Exactly,” Mana repeated. “As Tache here has found, it is highly addictive, but at first it produces a very pleasurable effect.”

  “Like opium,” Neil said.

  “Yes, except it is even more insidious than that foul poison.”

  “What is Atol trying to do? Is he trying to make it less addictive so they can sell it on the mainland?” Neil asked.

  “Perhaps. Probably by experimenting on people from Lampala like Tache,” Mana said. “From what she told me, she was deliberately given the liquid to see the effects of it, and to measure those effects.”

  Riki made a harsh sound of disgust. “Yurgh! It’s like they think we are rats, or mice, or something.” She turned suddenly to Neil and pierced him with a look. “These are the same people who have taken your friends?”

  He took a deep breath, and nodded.

  “They have Simon and Miriam?” Mana said. He nodded. “I am especially worried about her, as she retains the rights to the Company as her father’s only heir.”

  “So Simon’s parents are the ones who did all this!” Neil sat bolt upright. “We’re going to have to have them arrested!”

  “Perhaps, although I think there are worse villains than the Marchpanes to worry about,” Mana replied.

  “Oh. I suppose you mean the Cantwells.”

  “Wait! Who are the Cantwells?” Riki cried.

  “Shhh,” Mana cautioned her.

  It was too late. The door opened, causing Riki to emit a little shriek, and Chichilia came in and put her hands on her hips. “Just as I thought,” she said. “I had a feeling you two would come down here, without permission, and jeopardizing the entire household, by the way.”

  “Sorry,” Neil mumbled. He scrambled to his feet

  “Chichilia, I understand your concern,” Mana said with a tired smile. “However, I must defend Neil, who just wanted to discover some answers about the mystery that he is involved in, through no fault of his own.” Neil nodded in agreement, trying to look as innocent as possible.

  “Well, that’s as it may be.” Chichilia frowned and wagged one finger back and forth. “However, he and my daughter must go back to bed, now.”

  Riki stared for a moment, perhaps not recognizing this new, powerful version of her mother. She scuttled out of the hut back to the house. Neil quickly said good-night to Mana and followed Riki’s example.

  At some point during the night, the rains started up again. Coming down to breakfast, Neil saw huge gusts that blew long needles of water from the sea towards the house, backed up by a mass of heavy, gray clouds.

  Riki was already in the dining room, squinting into an old, used copy-book. When he entered the room, she looked up and brightened. “It’s about time,” she said. “Look, I’m writing out some plans to get your friends out of the Cantwells’ clutches.” She thumbed back through several pages of her notes and found her place. “Here’s where we’ll write down all we know, and on this page we’ll put what we need to know, and this will be a list of items that we need to get hold of, and –”

  “You’ll do no such thing.” Chichilia entered the room with a heavy mass of material in a
linen bag. “I want you to come to the temple with me today to deliver my embroidery. I just finished it last night. I suppose yours isn’t ready yet?”

  Riki gasped in shock. “Chichilia! The temple? Of all the dull, boring, idiotic places…”

  “You too, Neil,” Chichilia said, sitting down. “Have you had breakfast yet? You, Riki? Go on, eat something, and then we’ll go.”

  “Me?” Neil said.

  “But it’s lashing down rain!” Riki said.

  “Yes, you,” Chichilia said. “And there is such an invention as an umbrella, and boots as well, Riki. No, I’ll have no arguments; my mind is made up. Eat up at once and get ready.”

  Riki and Neil stared at each other in disbelief. Reluctantly, he picked up a roll topped with honey and crunchy nuts and bit into it, sunk in gloom.

  The temple was in the direction of Three-Fingered Rock, further inland. Neil hadn’t visited this part of Lampala yet, and while he was interested enough in the various groups of houses (brightly-colored, but now dripping in the rain) and the small shops built right into the side of one of the hills, he was dying to go back and talk to Mana some more. He would even have preferred writing out some plans in that ridiculous little notebook.

  He could sense that Riki felt the same way by the manner in which she plodded after Chichilia with her head down. After a minute, he caught up with her and asked, “What is this temple we’re going to see?”

  Riki answered listlessly, “Oh, it’s where we keep the records of our families and the history of Lampala and Mixiamani, and things like that.” She took a deep breath and let it out in a gusty sigh.

  He nodded, feeling sympathetic. It sounded deadly dull, although he was duty-bound to act civilized in front of Chichilia. “Anything special we need to do, or say, or anything?” he asked.

  “Naah. Just the usual – sit still, don’t talk or laugh, don’t fall asleep, no humming or whistling –” Riki reeled off. She had probably heard the catalogue of forbidden sins many times before from her parents. “Chichilia used to work here as a temple maiden before she and Weko were married.”

  “Oh, come on,” Neil said. “You’re joking. They actually have temple maidens?”

  Riki grinned. “And incense, and drums, and reflecting pools.”

  Neil began to guffaw slightly. He couldn’t help it; he felt a silly mood coming on, even though he was going into a sacred place.

  Riki’s grin widened and she nudged him. “Bet I can make you laugh first,” she whispered.

  “Oh, you will lose.” Neil crossed his eyes and made one eyeball swivel back and forth. It was the same move he had pulled on Miriam at dinner, about a thousand years ago now.

  Riki gave one of her loud snorts, which made Neil begin to laugh helplessly. Chichilia looked back at them, none too pleased, and herded them towards a broad courtyard, surrounded by a low stone wall and shining with rain. “Pipe down, you two,” she said. “Go on, in there.”

  They walked towards the temple, which was a small, squat building. It didn’t look at all like a church, or even as nice as the houses in the villages. When they entered, all Neil saw was a dark room lit by a few lamps that hung from the ceiling. “Where are the pools and the mirrors?” he asked.

  “Down here.” Chichilia headed towards a nearly invisible staircase in one corner.

  Riki went behind Neil so she could bang the backs of his knees as he climbed down. “Stow it,” he whispered. “You’re going to get us in – waah!”

  Riki instantly copied his strangled shout. “Waah! Waah, I’m Neil! Waah!”

  He felt his body shake with laughter, made all the worse by the knowledge that he had to keep quiet and respectful.

  The staircase opened out onto a huge expanse of gleaming marble, illuminated by more of the dim, glowing lamps. In the center was the reflecting pool, a huge basin of black stone with benches surrounding it. Mirrors were set into the walls, making the room appear even larger than it was, and dark corridors branched off in every direction. It would be very easy to get lost, Neil thought, and he stopped laughing. He noticed that some of the hallways were not openings but reflected images created by the huge mirrors.

  Chichilia pointed to the pool. “You wait on those benches there, and I’ll go and speak to the monks. No putting your feet in the water, Riki!”

  “As if I would!” Riki said as soon as Chichilia had disappeared down one of the corridors.

  “Oh, you probably would.” Neil said.

  Riki laughed. “The water’s cold, too.”

  Neil walked around the pool. “What’s this for?”

  “Oh, you’re supposed to look in it, and reflect – get it?”

  “I get it,” Neil said. “Hence the term, ‘Reflecting Pool’… Ha Ha. That’s all?”

  “Oh, and you can see the future sometimes.” Riki scratched one knee in a bored manner.

  “What! The future! Really?” He got down on all fours and peered into the dark pool.

  “That’s what they say. I never saw anything, though.”

  “You were probably too busy trying to fish or swim in it,” Neil said. He stared into the water, but all he saw was Riki’s face, obviously struggling with the desire to push him in. He got up quickly and moved out of temptation’s way to one of the benches, which was made of highly polished wood. “Sit down, Riki, before Chichilia comes back, and don’t even attempt it.”

  Riki sighed deeply and plopped beside him, her shoulders slumping. “Dull. I can’t wait to go back and write up our plans,” she said. She leaned her head against Neil’s arm.

  “Mmm,” he agreed. A priest, or lama, or whatever the Lampalans called them, walked past them and bent over a small stone urn set into a pillar some distance from the pool. A match flickered, and Neil smelt the acrid odor of incense. The priest walked away, waving out the match flame, and his footsteps echoed in the underground silence.

  Neil looked down at Riki. She appeared to have fallen asleep. His own eyelids felt heavy in the dim room with the scented smoke and muffled echoes.

  Something flashed in the pool. From where he sat, he saw something in the water, a white figure that wavered and grew clearer. Trying not to disturb Riki, Neil leaned forward. His heart drummed in his ears. Did he see something? Yes, there was definitely a face in the pool. Was that – Miriam?

  Perhaps it was, but she was a different Miriam from the one he knew. She looked thinner, and older, and she sat on a cot in a prison cell. Neil could see the heavy bars over her shoulder.

  He tried to edge closer to the vision of the girl. She looked up at him with her dark eyes.

  Against his arm, Riki sighed and shifted. The pool wavered, and a long, steady wave drifted across it. The picture on its surface rippled and changed. Now Neil could see a boy in a tiny, dirty room. His face was filled with despair.

  “Oh, no. Simon. Is that you? Where are you?” Neil whispered.

  “Is Riki taking a nap?” Chichilia reentered the huge chamber. Her voice echoed in the gloom. At its sound, the boy in the pool rippled and disappeared. “Do wake up, darling. We’re ready to go, now. How about some cinnamon coffee and iced cakes when we get home?”

  Riki stretched and yawned. “The incense put me to sleep,” she complained. She got up and walked behind her mother, who was heading back to the dark stairs.

  Neil turned and peered into the pool one last time, but there was nothing in its dark depths.