It was around a half hour later that he finally emerged out of the bathing chamber. He was wearing the white tunic Kelsereid had given him, and carrying his own dirty clothes. Lana had not waited for him. He began to walk back to his left when he saw a group of people huddled together in the distance. As he approached he recognized Lana, Ryaskoreid, and another one of the winged people standing in a circle talking. The new person looked older than Ryaskoreid: his hair was lighter, his skin wrinkling. When Rylek was not far off, Lana saw him and said to the older man, “Oh, here he is now.”
The man turned to Rylek and smiled. “Yes, of course, you are Rylek,” he said, in a deep quiet voice. “Your sister described you perfectly.” He bowed his head. “My name is Andulibar, and it is my honor to meet you, as it is to also aid you and your own.”
Rylek, hoping it was correct to return the gesture, bowed his head. “Thank you, Andulibar. We’ve been utterly amazed at how your people have gone out of their way to help us, especially considering that we’re strangers.”
“In strange times, strange friendships may be forged,” Andulibar said with a light in his dark crimson eyes. “I see you are returning from the baths. I can only hope you find yourself refreshed, rested, and clear-minded.”
“I do, yes, thank you,” Rylek said. “They seem to have a way of erasing pain.”
Andulibar’s smile widened. “Of both the physical and mental variety. Some even say traumatic memories are at times washed away.”
“That would be nice if it were true.”
The light returned to Andulibar’s eye, and he spoke very softly. “Would it indeed?” He paused for a moment. “Curious; we have found that anguish cleanses us and keeps us from attempting to attain things that are beyond our reach.”
Rylek wondered where this conversation was going, but before he could dwell long on it, Andulibar straightened and spoke more cheerfully.
“However, the sun is shining, there is food enough for us, and we have four guests; it is a blessed day indeed. And I daresay although we do not yet know one another, we are bound together in ways you possibly do not yet comprehend. Your coming was not wholly unexpected.”
Rylek felt Lana’s sudden stare, but he had no answers. “Do you mean to say you were told we would be coming here?” he asked.
“In a way, yes,” Andulibar answered. “I did not know the timing, nor did I know your names. But I was told that four children of the Aenosh would be dwelling among us for a short while.”
“Do you mind if I ask who it was that told you?” Rylek asked.
Andulibar smiled. “I do not mind; no question should ever be forbidden. However, at the moment I do claim the right to be guarded with my answers. I will say this: come and dine with me tonight, and you will meet my source personally. Then it may be that you will find me more open and free in my speech.” He bowed his head low again. “Now if you will pardon me, I must attend to our gardens. I have much to prepare for tonight.” He turned and walked away.
Rylek looked at Ryaskoreid. “Do you know anything of this source?” he asked.
Ryaskoreid shook his head. “If Andulibar chooses to keep certain things to himself, he must believe there to be good reason. I will respect his wishes.”
“He referred to us as children of the Aenosh,” Lana said. “Do you have a separate name for your people?”
“Yes,” Ryaskoreid said slowly. “We are Aesid - those born of the sky, doomed to dwell beneath the earth.” He stopped and lowered his eyes. Then after a few moments he looked at Rylek and Lana and said, “But we are honored to be able to help you in any way possible. I encourage you now to explore if you so choose. We are very proud of our ancestors’ handiwork.”
“That sounds great, but what about Tresten? And Selenor?” Lana asked.
“You know Selenor’s not going to leave Tresten,” Rylek said.
“And I believe your friend will be resting for the duration of the afternoon,” Ryaskoreid said. “If you would rather not roam about Perdeisolen, you may join your friends and my lifemate in my dwelling place.”
“Would you be able to come with us if we had a look around?” Lana asked.
“I am afraid not,” Ryaskoreid said. “I know I had promised you last night I would escort you around Perdeisolen, but for now I must do my part in preparations for tonight. And no,” he continued, when he saw Lana about to interject, “we refuse to allow you to help us. You are our guests, and you have had several seemingly hard adventures. It is imperative for you to rest and allow us to serve you. I will leave you now to do as you will.”
They watched him walk off in the same direction Andulibar had gone. “I don’t want to sit around,” Rylek said. “There’s history here, and I want to see it.”
“Sounds good to me,” Lana said, “as long as we don’t venture off too far. I want to be near when Tresten wakes up.”
“Good idea,” he said. “Let’s tell Selenor what we’re doing.”
***
After they discussed their plans with Selenor, they spent the next couple of hours walking through the gardens, talking with several of the Aesid, and even examining the hallway that led them into Perdeisolen. Their conversation was light. Rylek had been afraid Lana was going to ask him about the night before, specifically about his conversation with Selenor. However, either she did not seem interested in discussing it or she had forgotten.
“This place is huge,” she said at one point. “We’ve been gone for awhile now and yet I feel like there’s so much left to see.”
“But that’s what’s a bit odd about it,” he said. “We’ve seen only a couple dozen or so Aesid. Why is there so much space needed for so few people?”
“I hadn’t thought of that,” she said. “Maybe they like a lot of space. Or the others are somewhere else.”
“And another thing that’s been bothering me,” he continued. “I haven’t seen one child anywhere. There hasn’t been any indication that there even are any.”
“Oh, you’re right!” she said as she stopped. “Do you think they’re unable to have children? And maybe they’re dying off? We have to help them, Rylek!”
“Clearly we have no idea what’s going on here, but I would like to know a little more,” he said. “Maybe I’ll ask Andulibar when we dine with him later. He did say he would welcome any questions.”
“They’ve been so kind to us,” she said softly with worry in her voice. “I would hate to know that there was nothing we could do. You will ask him, won’t you?”
“Sure, sis, I’ll ask him,” Rylek said, putting his arm around her. “You seem to have changed your tune about Ryaskoreid’s people. Last night you were very skeptical.”
“Circumstances allowed me that,” she said. “Now I’ve seen them go out of their way to help us, and the crazy anxiety that I’m most certainly not going to apologize for is gone now. They’re good people, and now I’m worried about them.”
“Well, if there’s anything we can do, we will be sure to do it.”
“Mercy acts as grace allows,” Lana said. Rylek looked at her. “It’s from a book I read,” she said.
“You were never much for books,” he said, smiling impishly. “What happened?”
“Well, you know, I try to slip one in now and then,” she said. “I’ve been told that books are the sole nourishment for the hungry intellectual.”
“Sounds awfully snobbish.”
“You mean it sounds like Tresten.”
Rylek laughed. “He certainly has a way at times. But what do you say?”
“About what?”
“Books.”
“Oh, I say books are like…a bland potato,” she said. “Obviously essential to knowing about life. But living life in an exciting, fresh way, full of experiences gives that potato all the flavor it needs to be enjoyed. Life’s not meant to be read about; it’s to be experienced, tasted, and savored.”
“So would you say it’s best to walk the road of life with a book in one hand and
a staff in the other?” he asked.
“Maybe,” she said. “But you need a third hand to hold on to a loved one to experience it all with.” Then she grabbed Rylek’s hand and pulled him along down the hallway back towards Ryaskoreid’s dwelling.
***
When they arrived, they were pleasantly surprised to see Tresten sitting up and eating a little food. The four of them were alone in the room. “Well, not awful,” he said when Lana asked how he felt. “My head is swimming, and my body is oddly weak. I probably just need to eat.”
“I’m just glad you seem to be okay,” Rylek said. “We’ve been pretty scared for several hours.”
“Well, we were really worried about you first, and now you all were worried about me,” Tresten said. “Which one of you girls will we worry about next time?”
“Hopefully there won’t be a next time,” Selenor said. “I think we’ve had enough excitement to last the rest of our Finding. It’s so incredible to think that we could easily have lost you both within just a couple of hours!”
“You know, the odd thing is I don’t really remember what happened,” Tresten said in between mouthfuls of food. “All I can recall is the four of us trying to find a way out of the cave. What did I do?”
Rylek looked at the girls, who looked back at him with blank faces. He waited for one of them to say something, but there was only silence. It looked to him that they were searching their memories to put together the events of just the past handful of hours.
What’s going on? he thought to himself. Do they really not remember?
“It’s the craziest thing, but I can’t seem to remember either,” Lana said. “One minute we were in the first cave, then the next we were in the large dark cave with you lying unconscious. Why can’t I remember?”
“Go on and tell him, Rylek,” Selenor said. “My memory’s a little foggy right now. Maybe everything’s been so traumatic that I’m just blocking it out of my mind. Surely you remember, right?”
Rylek had to think fast. It seemed obvious to remind the other three about the orb, but he was mystified as to how and why they would forget. Had the orb affected their memories too? But Lana and Selenor had not even touched it. Why was his memory unaffected? A reflex in the back of his mind told him not to tell them about the orb.
“Well, the thing is,” he stammered, trying to buy some time, “um, that Tresten, you had stepped into the shallow pool of water on the far side of the cave. And you found some kind of switch in the water which opened up a door at the other end.”
“That’s right!” Lana said. “How could I have forgotten about that?”
“But how did he get hurt?” Selenor asked.
“That’s what we’re not sure of,” Rylek said, half-truthfully. “When you flipped the switch you collapsed into the water. I jumped in to get you out so you wouldn’t drown.”
“Is that what happened?” Tresten asked. “Somehow I think something is missing…” He began to rub his hands as though he could stoke a spark of a memory. That’s when Rylek noticed that Tresten’s hands no longer looked burned. There was no scar tissue, not even any red skin.
“Your hands…” Rylek said softly, and instantly the Oathbinder flashed in his mind again.
“What about them?” Tresten asked.
Everyone was looking at Rylek. Had they forgotten about his burned hands too? Why would the Oathbinder suddenly warn him not to speak any more? “Nothing,” he finally said. “Forget it.” But fear began to creep back into his mind, and it touched something there that set off the buzzing again. There was a picture beginning to form in his mind, but he was still missing too many pieces of the puzzle. Just what is that orb? he wondered.
At that moment, however, Ryaskoreid and Kelsereid walked back into the room together. “This is pleasant to see,” Kelsereid said when she saw all four talking together. “It does my heart good to see you enjoying each other here in our home.”
“It appears as though you still have your touch,” Ryaskoreid said to her. “You brought him through his ordeal back to perfect health.”
Sudden suspicion darted into Rylek’s mind. Had Kelsereid done something to the others to make them forget last night’s events? Had Ryaskoreid lied about his knowledge of the orb? Were the Aesid trying to keep it a secret? Why could he still remember perfectly what had happened? Did they know that he still knew? His mind became a whirlwind of questions and hypotheses.
“I feel very filthy,” Tresten said, snapping Rylek out of his thoughts. “Is there any way I can get clean?”
“Oh, wait till you see!” Lana said.
But as she started to explain the baths to Tresten, Rylek tuned out from the conversation. There was too much to think about, and he was growing very frightened again of their situation. Then he remembered what Andulibar had said about asking questions of him. You’ll be giving me some answers tonight, he thought to himself.
***
As dinner time approached, Ryaskoreid and Kelsereid led the four into the heart of the Great Room’s gardens. There the river split into a small artificial moat that encircled four rectangular tables connected end to end at perpendicular angles so that they resembled a square. Eight large dogwood trees surrounded the moat, giving the area a feeling of quiet seclusion. Four footbridges crossed over the moat at equal points from each other, continuing the footpaths alongside meadows of wildflowers. Rylek found the scene to be deceptively relaxing, as he was still wrestling with restless suspicions of the Aesids’ motives.
Tresten had recovered wonderfully during the previous few hours. He had bathed and was wearing the same similar white tunic and sandals as the others, was walking unassisted and generally acting normally. No one had mentioned anything about the orb or of Tresten’s miraculously-cured hands.
Sitting at the tables were several of the Aesid, among whom were Andulibar and his lifemate, Midanibar. There was also someone whom the four did not expect to see; namely, an older man, an Aenosh. He was sitting next to Andulibar, and when he saw the four approach he smiled and rose from his seat. Andulibar rose with him.
“Greetings, my friends,” Andulibar said, walking around the tables to stand with them. The Aenosh man followed behind him. “I welcome you to our table where we shall be fellowshipping presently.”
“Thank you, sir,” Lana said on their behalf.
Andulibar gestured towards the Aenosh man. “Allow me to introduce a very dear friend of the Aesid,” he said. “His name is Altan, the Wayfarer. It is he who had informed me of your forthcoming arrival to Perdeisolen.”
“May blessings of The One be upon each of you,” Altan said, bowing his head slightly. His voice was rich and tranquil. Rylek had the impression that there was a great power and wisdom bottled up inside him. He looked upon him in awe, wondering just who this person was. Altan was head and shoulders taller than Rylek, with a well-groomed beard and short white hair. He was clothed in a white tunic which lay underneath a long black robe, girded with a simple gray belt. But it was his eyes that captured Rylek, for there was a quality to them that he could not quite put into words. They somehow seemed more real, deeper even, than any other pair of eyes he had looked into; not frightening or intimidating, but inspiring.
It’s similar to the difference between seeing a reflection and seeing the real thing, he thought to himself. He seems more like reality.
Rylek had thought on this for only a moment when Lana elbowed him. Glancing quickly at her he saw an expression on her face that meant Did you hear that? Then he remembered what they had discussed the previous night, about what Caenar had told them.
An unlooked for friend may be discovered if he or she blesses you in the name of The One, his voice echoed in his mind.
If Elder Caenar knew what he was talking about, then we’re supposed to trust this man, Rylek thought. I wonder if they know each other. Or if he somehow told Altan we were coming.
“And may they be upon you, too,” Selenor politely answered the old man.
Altan smiled. “It is a blessing each day to see all that has been created,” he said. But Rylek thought he detected a hint of sorrow in his eyes. “And there is much my eyes have seen,” Altan continued, looking directly into Rylek’s eyes as though he knew what he was thinking.
“Come, there will be time enough for conversation,” Andulibar said. “My young Aenosh friends, please find yourselves seats and you will be served presently.”
Rylek and the others sat down at one of the tables, where a female Aesid poured them water infused with rose petals. The girls initially thought it charming, but after tasting were not as impressed as the boys. Rylek and Tresten found the slight peppery flavor invigorating.
The meal was simple but excellent. Dishes were filled with grilled fish and lobster (which was new to the four), multi-colored leafy vegetables, bold yellow squash, loaves of several various nutty breads, and all sorts of ripe juicy berries. As they ate, Rylek learned the names of the other people dining with them. Beside Andulibar, Midanibar, Ryaskoreid, Kelsereid, and Altan, were two other couples: Onristinel and his lifemate, Lindinel; and Jorikith and his lifemate, Leirisith. Rylek had not involved himself in much conversation, as he was too busy enjoying the new taste of lobster. For most of the meal the discussions were quiet and polite between everyone. But he did take the time to notice that Altan ate nothing. He seemed to be content only with the rose-flavored water.
As the last plates were carried away and everyone was served hot drinks that Rylek found to be earthy, creamy, and slightly bittersweet, Andulibar gestured towards the four and smiled. “It pleases my heart to be able to serve new family,” he said. “It has been time long past since we have welcomed any guests. Please tell me, my young Aenosh friends, how do you like our Perdeisolen?”
“Your home is simply amazing,” Lana said. “I find it remarkable that you’ve done all of this work with your hands. How long has it taken?”
“That is a very difficult question,” Andulibar said. “You see, we do not like to mark the years. For no matter how much time passes between now and then, we shall never cleanse our people from the atrocities we inflicted upon this world.”
The Children of Calm Page 17