City of Illusions

by Kim ten Tusscher

  Lumea slowly approached the old man. When she was close to him, he nodded at her, though his attention quickly returned to his kites. The young woman did not say anything, but lay down in the grass and watched the kites play.

  After a few minutes the man attached the lines of his kites to some poles and sat down beside her. Lumea sat up but waited for him to speak.

  “In all my twenty years here, you’re the first one to actually come and watch my kites. I’m glad you came. My name is Aeron.”

  He held out his hand and Lumea took it, although she was not used to this type of greeting. The man shook her hand heartily.

  “My name is Lumea. Your kites are magnificent, did you make them all yourself?”

  The man nodded. By way of proof he showed his hands. His nails were spotted with paint, his fingers full of small cuts made by the lines of his kites.

  Aeron and Lumea lay in the grass for hours that day, companionable but not speaking. Eventually she said her goodbyes and went to look for Elion.

  After this initial meeting, she went to Aeron more often and helped him keep his kites up in the air, or would hold parts of the kites so that he could repair them. It was magnificent seeing these silent creatures riding the wind and Lumea could watch them for hours on end.

  One day Aeron was waving merrily as she descended the hillock. By the time she was near him he had reeled in his kite and walked towards her.

  “Hi Lumea! I’m glad you’re here. I have something for you.” They walked back together and he picked up a brown bag.

  “It’s a kite!”

  Lumea happily took the package and carefully unrolled the paper that came out of the bag. Her friend was excited and had to keep himself from tearing it out of her hands and revealing the gift himself. As she unrolled it, the image of an eagle appeared. Its body, made out of balsa wood, was carved with incredibly lifelike feathers. Every little barb was visible. It must have taken Aeron hours—maybe even days—to make, and all this time he had kept it hidden from her! The beak was sharp and the eyes looked alive. The wings were made of paper painted in brown, ocher and gold colors.

  Lumea turned the eagle in her hands, watching it from all sides.

  Then she gratefully looked at the kite runner, who was smiling proudly.

  “I saw that your tattoo has the wing of an eagle in it. I hope you like it.”

  “Like it? I love it! It’s beautiful!”

  She carefully put the kite down on the ground, then hugged Aeron and gave him a kiss on his cheek. He blushed, but his eyes were glowing with pride.

  “Do you want to release it?” he asked.

  Lumea shook her head. She was afraid that she would do something wrong, and she didn’t want to rip the paper. So she watched as Aeron launched the bird into the air. Just like all his other kites, this one came to life under the subtle movement of his hands. He let it swoop down like a real bird of prey hunting a small animal. Then he gestured for her to get up and handed the line to her.

  At first she was cautious, but the eagle seemed to have a will of its own. Within moments it was soaring through the air. After a while, the man took the line back and attached it to one of the anchor poles so that it hovered in the sky, as if searching for prey. Lumea had brought food for the both of them, so they picnicked on the grass. It was late in the afternoon by the time she said goodbye to Aeron, thanking him again for the wonderful gift.

  8

  Hydrhaga did not seem to know seasons. The sun shone every day, the summer seemed without end, and everybody lost their grip on time. That was about to change.

  The day started out much like any other. Lumea and Elion were sitting in the grass near one of the smaller lakes. The lake had a bottom that sloped down gradually and in the middle it was only a few dozen feet deep. Ward had tried to convince Lumea to swim again, but the woman had ignored his arguments. After her close brush with drowning, she did not trust the water any more.

  When they arrived in Hydrhaga, Lumea had taught Elion a game that she had brought with her from Lunadeiron, but he had defeated her every single time they played, and he was well on his way to best her again. With a sudden burst of anger, she swept the pieces from the board.

  “I give up, I will never beat you.”

  “Let’s try again. Maybe this time you’ll get lucky.” “Oh, never mind,” Lumea replied testily.

  Elion was amused by her mood, but just as he wanted to remark about it, one of the Hosts approached and told them to hurry back to their rooms. His eyes were hidden behind dark glasses. No emotion registered on his face.

  “When summer ends, winter comes,” he muttered. The remark did not seem to be meant for either of them.

  Lumea gathered her things quickly, and Elion helped her up. Everywhere, the inhabitants of Hydrhaga rose obediently to comply with their Hosts’ orders. They walked towards their rooms in long lines. Elion held Lumea by her arm as they joined the line, gripping it tightly. She wanted to tell him that he was hurting her, but something stopped her. His eyes flitted from left to right, as if searching for a means of escape.

  As they neared the buildings, the number of Hosts increased. They formed a silent hedge next to the path that the guests were following. Like the Host who had told Elion and Lumea to go to their room, all of them wore dark glasses, but Lumea felt that they were keeping a sharp eye on everyone. She also noticed that their clothing was too warm for the temperature, with thick, long mantles. All of them kept one hand hidden from sight under the folds of their cloaks. It scared Lumea. What were these surly men hiding? And why did the guests have to go to their room so suddenly? When Elion looked at her, he saw the fear in her eyes. He tried to give her a reassuring nod, but his eyes suggested that she not say a word.

  A woman somewhere in front of them began to cry hysterically. Elion gripped Lumea’s arm even harder, and the pain caused her to let out a soft, involuntary moan. Elion didn’t seem to notice. The Hosts hurried to the woman and pulled her out of the line. The mood turned ugly and threatening. The other guests walked past, though, as if they were oblivious to the woman’s plight.

  It was the moment Elion had been waiting for. There was a door to their right and he quickly opened it, dragging Lumea inside. Another man followed them. Lumea looked over her shoulder and saw how one Host had drawn some kind of weapon from under his mantle. Instinct told her that the woman was about to die. She wanted to scream, but Elion put his hand over her mouth.

  “Shhh, don’t say anything, or we will know the same fate,” he whispered into her ear.

  The last thing she saw before the door closed behind them was the lifeless form of the woman lying on the ground. Nobody had noticed how the three of them—Elion, Lumea and the stranger—had left the line. She looked at the two men, confused.

  “What’s happening? What is going on?” she asked, the panic obvious in her voice.

  “Later,” Elion answered shortly as he walked through the room and to a dark staircase that spiraled down into unknown depths. After descending the stairs for a while they reached a heavy door, behind which could be heard the thudding sounds of industrial machines.

  The thudding sped up and became louder. The door opened. Lumea barely had time to think, but she pulled the two men into the shadows. As it opened wider, the light crept closer and closer over the wall. The three runaways crouched against the wall and held their breath as the light approached without mercy. Lumea’s heart kept skipping beats, convinced as she was that within moments they would be discovered. She wondered what would happen to them if they were caught. To her great relief, the worker who had opened the door let go of it again. The light disappeared as the door closed. The worker walked past them and into a corridor without spotting them.

  They were safe again, so Elion continued to lead them down. As they descended, the metal staircase ended and a stone one began, cut out from the living rock. The steps were worn and wet, and the footing was precarious in the dark. Finally, they reached some caves,
and after a while they found one that seemed as if it had not been used for a long time, since there were no signs of human activity. The corridor leading into it twisted and turned, so any light they made would not be seen from the other caves.

  “Lumea, this is Siard,” Elion said, introducing the other man.

  When Lumea looked at him the young man nodded at her in a friendly manner. He wore clothing cut in the Omnesian style, and his hair was blond and reached just below his ears. From one buttonhole of his cotton overcoat ran a twisted silver chain down to his pocket. She could see the thin metal arm of a pair of glasses poking out of the pocket. He sat proudly upright, his long legs folded beneath him.

  Lumea was surprised that Elion knew this man. She had never seen them together. Nevertheless, Siard seemed to know about her, since Elion did not take the trouble of introducing her. She looked at Elion.

  “I think you have some explaining to do.”

  “I know as much, or as little, about this place as you do, Lumea. But I never trusted it here. Siard came a lot earlier than we did. I wanted to come earlier, but they would not let me in.”

  “So the two of you have known each other for a long time?”

  “We both came here from Omnesia. When we heard the stories about Hydrhaga, we had our doubts about the things that happened here. Unfortunately, I was unable to enter on my own. You saw just how tightly secured this place is,” Elion said. He paused, frowning slightly. “Or, maybe you didn’t.”

  Elion’s voice was irritated, and Lumea thought she heard something like contempt there. She was angry that he had not told her earlier how dangerous he thought it was here.

  “You just used me to get inside the city!” she hissed angrily.

  “Look, I just saved your butt out there, so stop whining!”

  “Oh really? You saved it? From what?”

  Elion looked the other way with an annoyed grunt.

  “If you want me to help you, you’ll have to tell me everything,” Lumea said decisively, even though she knew that her words made very little impression on him. There was something in his eyes, something that she suspected was disapproval. She felt that he thought of her as nothing more than a burden, and she was determined to prove him wrong.

  “If you didn’t want me here, you shouldn’t have dragged me through that door.”

  Siard tried to mediate. “Thank you for pulling us into the shadow back there,” he said.

  Lumea did not react to his words, but kept her eyes on Elion, who in turn avoided her gaze. Then she stood up and went to lie down in a corner, and though the floor was hard she tried to get some sleep. She heard the two men talking quietly, and although she had taken to the solitude of her own free will, she felt left out. It was obvious that they did not want to tell her everything. It took some time, but eventually she fell asleep.

  “So, did you find your brother?”

  Siard shook his head. “It’s almost like he has never been here. I didn’t want to ask too many questions, but it seems that most of the guests haven’t been here for very long.”

  Elion pondered for a moment. “But we know that elves and humans came here ages ago already.”

  “I haven’t met anyone inside the walls who could confirm those stories,” Siard said.

  The whispered conversation turned to the Thuranc and the strange, eerie glow that Elion had often seen in the lakes’ depths. It was the reason he did not trust the water. Siard had seen it too, but he had no idea what could be the cause.

  “I came here looking for answers and all I found were more questions,” Siard said.

  Elion nodded and started talking about something else. “Did you see what was going on in that hall upstairs?”

  Siard shook his head again. From his position he had not seen very much.

  “There were all kinds of machines. I was hoping you might have seen them, maybe you would know their function. There were workers there, and they operated the machines with a strange kind of automatism. Almost like they...” Elion tried to find the right words, “... like they were programmed for the work. On the ceiling there were rails, and from those hung metal parts of some sort.”

  “But what are they making?”

  Elion shrugged. “I saw one man enter the hall with a handcart. But the door closed before I could get a better look at it.”

  “Can you remember what it looked like?”

  “No, I can’t. Sorry.”

  Elion seemed to hesitate for a moment, but he did not say anything else. If he had not seen that the thing was made from metal, he would have sworn that what he had seen was a living creature, but as that seemed too unlikely to be true, he did not say it.

  “We will find out what they’re making here,” Siard said before lying down to sleep.

  Elion stayed awake. As usual, he could not sleep, and besides, someone needed to stand guard. When he looked at Lumea, asleep in her corner, he stood up and grabbed his cape from the floor. He knelt beside her, and carefully draped the cloak over her.

  The following morning Lumea awoke to the sound of Elion and Siard’s voices. It took a moment for her to remember where she was and what had happened on the previous day. As soon as they realized that she was awake, they stopped talking. Lumea immediately felt last night’s anger returning in full force. She stood up and went to sit with the other two, but she left Elion’s cloak lying in the corner.

  They did not have any food with them, so Elion took charge once more and the three of them started out. They halted for a moment near the stairs they had descended yesterday, but then they turned into the caves, which had been empty for quite some time, though the thudding of the machines could be heard everywhere, louder in some places, quieter in others. They reached a small, narrow passage, which they entered single file: Elion at the front, then Lumea, and Siard at the rear of their line. The thudding became quieter as they pressed on until, finally, they could not hear it at all.

  The passage sloped gradually upward. They felt a cold draft and occasionally heard the splatter of drops of water dripping to the floor. After a long time they reached another cave. Six stalactites hung down from the ceiling in a perfect circle, around an air vent leading up into darkness. Underneath the circle was a small pond, fed by the water from a rivulet which entered the cave on the right and exited it again on the left side. Six different corridors led out from the cave.

  They stopped and rested near the pond, though Elion forbade them to drink the water. He looked around thoughtfully before resting his eyes on Lumea, who looked away with a frown on her face. She could see his thoughts as clearly as if he had said them. If it was not for her, he would not have had to explain anything. Siard would follow him without question.

  “We have to find something to eat and drink,” he said in an attempt to break the silence. “Quite likely it really is winter out there, so it might be better to get warmer clothes for the two of you. I will go see what I can find. Lumea, stay here with Siard.”

  He walked toward one of the corridors, but at the same time Lumea stood up. “If you go that way, it will take too long to find what you’re looking for. I’ll go get the food and the clothes. If it takes too long for your tastes, then you can go on without me.”

  Before Elion could answer, she stepped into the corridor from which the water flowed, in order to follow it upstream. She had noted with satisfaction that Elion did not know his way down here. On their second day in Hydrhaga, however, Ward had told her about this place, and she had taken the opportunity to ask many questions. This was her chance to show the men that she was valuable to the group. She knew that the archive was located upstream. Ward had wanted to show it to her, but he had not been granted permission. Still, he had proudly told her about everything that was stored there. Lumea was sure that she would find the clothes there, as well as something to eat. Ward had told her that the archive was used quite often.

  After following the rivulet for a while, she could see a light at the end of the corri
dor. She stood still for a moment to let her eyes adjust. When she heard nothing, she turned left.

  Farther on, there was a room where people were working. She slipped past it, laughing to herself. She had done this quite often while at home. Her father was a light sleeper, so she had trained herself to walk silently whenever she had sneaked out of the house at night.

  To her right, there was a double door leading into the archive, and she quickly slipped through them. The space that she had entered was partly darkened with heavy curtains hanging in front of the windows. The other windows allowed shafts of light to enter the dusty hall. Along two walls there were high cabinets where the larger artifacts were kept. The cabinets themselves were beautiful works of art, ornately decorated as they were. In the middle of the hall, there were low showcases exhibiting the more-important artifacts.

  Lumea’s fingers felt the carvings and she read the labels hanging on the items. It was an amazing collection. There was a half-burned banner, and its label revealed that it had once been part of a council house. Farther on, there was a piece of green marble identified as being ‘from the east gate’, and it was next to a simple bottle which apparently contained water from the Fountain of Life. The showcase in the very middle was the biggest, and it contained a magnificent dress. It was obviously the most cherished piece of the collection, but its label was blank, as though the curators had never found the words to describe it.

  It was obvious that these items were elvish in origin, which amazed Lumea. Why had the people of Hydrhaga so carefully collected and stored them? The whole place had a kind of nostalgic feel about it that Lumea did not understand. The atmosphere in this room was so different from the sterile rooms she had passed earlier. She opened the big cabinets and felt the rich fabric of the clothes.

  A sudden sound startled her and she silently closed the cabinet doors. After a quick look around she chose one of the back showcases and hurried towards it. Hiding underneath it, she tried to make herself as small as she could and waited for what would happen next. She heard footsteps approaching, just before the doors opened with a soft squeak. Lumea saw a long skirt, and when it whirled up for a moment she could see the high-soled boots. She trembled when she realized that it was a Host who had entered the archive. Her heart jumped up in her throat when the skirt came straight for her hiding place.