by S. K Munt
‘Then why send you at all?’
‘To make a point.’
I sighed. I was sick of being told that things had to be done with no reason why offered up! Had the world before ours had such ridiculous rules? I was lost and I wanted answers to my questions but no one was giving me anything.
I tried to keep my internal compass pointed in the right direction, but when Resonah turned left and announced that we were going to the south wing, I got all turned around- I’d only had two years of schooling after all, and we were taught so much, so quickly! Only those in the Academic caste got to study each subject in-depth, whereas the Blue Collar lessons focused on common knowledge, like the alphabet, numerals, temperatures distance, etc., etc. And of course, the study of theology, which had been covered daily. I could find Eden on a map, and knew things that girls would not have been taught until they were eight or older in the time before, but I was fairly certain that it would take me decades to actually apply my prior knowledge of Eden and successfully navigate the halls.
‘...Must be kind to him, and bright. Kohén has so far chosen the loudest girls, understand? They say it all comes down to looks but I’ve seen enough evidence to suggest that when forced to choose female companions, the princes will choose the ones more like boys, so you must stop crying! Men don’t like emotional women at any age!’
‘Chosen them to do what?’ I asked, rubbing at my nose and wishing that I’d brought a handkerchief.
‘I cannot disclose that to you, and I wouldn’t in good conscience, for I’ve seen those learn too early suffering from understanding of matters that they cannot yet grasp. But if you heed me, what I have told you will be useful to you.’ Resonah opened the first door to the left with a key and then ushered me inside. ‘Quickly darling, come. There is a small restroom in back- take the opportunity to dry your face and collect yourself, just in case the prince is already on his way up here!’
I stumbled into the room and looked around; shocked to see my watery reflection mirrored back to me dozens of times over in the gleam of glass walls. Not like windows though, but set against the shelves lining each wall. ‘Oh my…’ I hurried across the room, extreme curiosity overwhelming my distress in a heartbeat, just as it had on the common. The shelves were not full with books as I’d first hoped, but things- strange things! Human things, archaic in form, but recognisable to me from pictures of the time before in our books at home. There were hundreds of objects! Telephones that were charred in places, funny-looking shoes, typewriters, smoking pipes and fans…even a deck of cards almost identical to my father’s! I knew most of the objects from the nursery rhyme books that I’d had Finch read to me, and because some were simply older versions of what we used now and similar in appearance, and my delight was instantaneous. This wasn’t a room to collect people in, but fossils from the world past! They had to be for the grand museum that was going to be built the following year. Tariel already had one.
‘Larkin, isn’t it?’ Resonah’s voice was urgent. ‘You need to be acting quickly dear, not gawking!’
‘I’m sorry,’ I whispered, but I wasn’t. ‘I’ve just never seen such things before, not in real life! This is incredible.’ I dragged my eyes away from the deck of cards I was desperate to play with, and shifted from that cabinet to the next, amazed to see that the objects went from being the twentieth century kind to much older looking. There was a tool of some sort, and a stein in white porcelain with unrecognizable blue etchings painted onto the side beneath the image of a man in a triangular hat. I couldn’t make out the foreign lettering on the cup, but the caption was in English and had 1112BC. I almost squealed! We were in AA now, and AD had been the last time of man, but BC was the very first! How did the palace have such an ancient treasure?
‘This is from BC!’ I erupted, squinting as I tried to make out the tiny words printed beneath it in the universal language, but they were too grown up for me. ‘Sh...sh…’
‘Shang Dynasty,’ she said quickly. ‘Salvaged from the National Museum of China, Beijing, 46 AA.’
I didn’t know how the cup had been salvaged from a region that was almost completely underwater except for the city of Miko, which was the hub of the world’s silk trade and nestled high on a mountain, just like Arcadia. But I supposed things had been different back in 46 AA. I turned to smile at her over my shoulder. ‘You read quickly, for nobility,’ I said. ‘Are you joined with someone from the Academic caste?’
But Resonah gave me a queer look and responded with only: ‘No dear, I’m not joined at all.’ She pulled me back from the glass and pointed down the length of the room and I didn’t bother inquiring into her personal life- if she wasn’t joined at her age, then that probably meant that she was infertile and infertile women did not like discussing such matters.
But if she’s infertile, why is she here and not out in the singles neighbourhood with the others? Oh… she may be a widow but...
‘The restroom is down there. Hurry now and wash up, and then wait for the prince to come.’
‘But why?’ I whined. ‘Why does his opinion of me matter so much?’
Resonah drew back, her eyebrows arched in surprise. ‘Didn’t your parents tell you that impressing the prince was to be your objective today?’
‘No,’ I said sourly, making a face. ‘They said that I had to look tidy and be on my best behaviour for the Duchess but-’
‘Ahh well, clearly, their objectives differ from the majority… that’s not unheard of but…’ she sighed, looking sad as she traced my jaw with her fingertip- the nail of which was painted gold. ‘Some people still don’t understand what they judge with declared understanding. I wish that would change faster but…’ she bit her lip, and I saw that her eyes were wet. ‘You poor thing. We must trust that God has paths ready for all of us to follow, and trust that he loves us enough to give us all an equal chance at happiness, regardless of what the castes laws tell us.’
I frowned. ‘The caste laws state that we are all equal, just different…’
She lifted just one eyebrow now, and I saw that she had a pretty, shimmering gold dust powdered beneath each. ‘Do YOU believe that all castes are equal, little Lark?’ I hesitated, and then shook my head, knowing that I would have had to give a different answer if the Duchess had been within earshot with her pretty jewelled heart. Resonah smiled and nodded. ‘Good. So long as we know that things are out of balance, we can work toward correcting that, can’t we? It’s only when we completely believe the lies that we completely live them and from hereon out, you need to live so that it’s fair for you, not for the world, understood? For they are the same thing in God’s eyes.’ She touched the end of my nose and I stared into her eyes, amazed to see how intricately they’d been painted close-up- little vines with gold and green leaves painted perfectly over her lids out fading out to her temples. Make-up had not been available to anyone outside of the nobility until two years before- I knew this because Jaiya asked for lots of it for her tenth birthday- but my sister always painted her own face clumsily, as most of the Blue Collar girls did. So the elaborateness of this woman’s face had to mean that this woman was part of the nobility, right? Or possibly a dancer from the Artisan caste? ‘And you need to impress the prince, starting from the moment he enters the room. Be bright, cheerful and pleasant and he may very well decide to keep you.’
My mouth hung open. There was a chance that the prince would KEEP me? As what?
‘... And even if he takes hours or days to decide, as they usually do, you must maintain a friendly countenance, all right? Let him see how much fun you would be to have around, not how miserable you are.’
I made a face at her, thinking of how unlikely it was that any prince would choose to keep me around for company. I was always the last girl chosen for everything, even in sports, and I was usually the best! My whitish-grey hair and pale skin spoke more loudly to other children about who I was than I ever could- and who I was, was the odd one out. That had always been okay with me
, because I’d had my books to keep me company, but I wasn’t sure if I’d ever see a book again, much less have a collection hidden away.
‘I don’t want to stay here,’ I said stubbornly, crossing my arms and lifting my chin at her. I didn’t know what I wanted, but I hated the way she was looking at me with such profound pity. I wanted pity from my mother, not some stranger! Or failing that, for someone to make actual sense with their words! I felt dizzy from the influx of cryptic information. ‘And I don’t want any prince to keep me! I want to work in the gardens if I could, please!’
‘You’re five; you don’t know what you want. But I’m fifty-two and I can tell you, what you want is to impress Kohén Barachiel, because the alternative is a tedious life indeed, and one without gardens as beautiful as Eden’s are.’
‘You’re the same age as the king?’ I asked, surprised. ‘You look like you’re my mother’s age!’
‘Just one more benefit to living in Eden,’ Resonah leaned in and to my surprise, hugged me fiercely, smelling delicious- like summer fruits and wine. ‘And remember, it’s not all about looks, princess… strength is admired by men at any age and I can see that you have plenty of that. Perhaps you don’t need Kohén as a companion, but he may prove to need you, and that’s always the best way to have things.’
I didn’t understand anything that she was saying, but she was talkative in a way my mother and father had never been and she was hanging out at the palace in the middle of the week. She had to know what was to become of me! ‘What’s a harem?’ I asked her, pulling back.
Resonah’s eyebrows lifted again in shock, but then she covered it with a rueful smile and said: ‘It’s a true Eden for third-born girls with big hearts and strong wills, Larkin, and I’d very much like to see you there one day. That doesn’t seem likely but…’ She tapped the skin under her nose. ‘I had a hair lip when I came to the palace, and the king had it healed for me because I was kind to him. Remember that, and smile when you meet the Prince okay? For I see that you have lovely teeth.’ She bit her lip and rose regally. ‘And be strong- please- no matter what happens to you, there are always worse fates in store for those who wish the goodness in their life away, believing it to be a curse.’
Then, after having given me more questions than answers, Resonah flitted across the room and disappeared, her golden jewellery tinkling prettily before the door shut behind her, locking me in the room with the rest of the antiquated artefacts and making me wonder- was I to be salvaged, or ground down to dust?
After Resonah left, I was suddenly so exhausted by the prospect of all I did not know about myself, that I couldn’t bear to dwell on it one second more. I moved for what I did know instead- removing the deck of playing cards from the shelf where I had seen it, carefully sliding the glass doors shut behind me once I had it in hand. I probably wasn’t allowed to touch the things in there, but I didn’t care. I was already being punished for being a third-born, and there wasn’t anything that could hurt me more than being taken from my family had, so I sat down and instantly began to shuffle the cards the way that my father had taught me to with his recycled plastic pack, before laying out several in a line in front of me, facedown. The game was called Solitaire, and it seemed appropriate because until that moment, I’d never known solitude like it.
‘What the hell do you think you’re doing?’ a sharp, angry voice demanded suddenly, and the cards fell from my hands and scattered to the floor as my body spasmed with surprise and fear.
4.
When I turned, I saw that there was a panel of painted timber hanging down in the ceiling and a boy- covered in grime from head to toe- was striding across the room toward me, leaving dirty footprints from his boots in his wake from where they started underneath the open trap door.
God be with me! Some urchin has snuck into the castle! Is he a thief? Oh I hope Resonah didn’t lock that door from the outside!
‘I was brought in here!’ I yelped, shrinking back but not running just yet. He looked even younger and shorter than me, so I knew I’d be able to wallop him good the way my brother had taught me to if need be, but I didn’t really want him touching the dress for fear that the dirt would transfer and implicate me in the destruction he’d already caused. And he really was a fright- not just because he was covered with grit, but because he’d obviously been crying, and now the run-off from his nose and eyes had mixed with the dirt, making his face muddy, and not the fun sort of mud that I would usually get covered in when allowed outside. ‘And told to wait! Who are you?’
‘Were you told to touch the kingdom’s treasures?’ he demanded, pointing to the cards and ignoring my question.
‘Were YOU told to destroy the Collection room carpet?’ I snapped back, pointing to the footprints behind him, before pointing to the ceiling. ‘Or dismantle the roof?’
The boy looked where I’d pointed then back to me, shrugging. ‘It’s not my problem, and if anyone wants to make it my problem- they’ll have to catch me first.’ He jogged his eyebrows and I saw that his eyes were the brightest blue and the whites around them stained red from crying. ‘And NO one is going be able to catch me when I get back up in there again, trust me!’ He pointed to the cards. ‘But you’ll get into just as much trouble if you’re caught fooling around with those, you know. Some of the stuff here is worth its weight in gold!’
‘Well, they’re safer with me playing Solitaire with them, then with you stealing them, or whatever else it is that you’ve come to do.’
‘You think I’m here to steal stuff?’ the kid asked, scrunching up his face.
‘Steal, destroy, whatever…’ I pointed to the ceiling. ‘Look, I don’t like to tattle, but I’m not going to get in trouble for that mess you just made! So you better go before Prince Kohén and his guards or whoever come up here looking for me, and catch you brown-handed!’
The boy’s eyebrows drew together. ‘You’re waiting for Prince Kohén in here?’
‘Yes,’ I said, sitting back down and collecting the cards I’d dropped. I was overcome with curiosity as to why (and HOW) he’d broken into the palace, but he needed to get gone and didn’t have the time to answer my questions. ‘He was going to be a long time maybe, and so I decided to play with the cards until he came. And I was going to be careful with them you know- I’m not a dummy.’ I gave him a pointed look. ‘Now, you need to go because he could walk in at any moment and I’m going to have to at least say that a dirty kid did that so I don’t get blamed for it.’
He paused. ‘Will you tell the guards what I looked like?’
I didn’t look at him on purpose. ‘How could I possibly do that? You popped in, saw me and then ran away immediately, and were so covered with dirt that I couldn’t even tell if your hair was black or as white as mine…’ I began to lie out the cards in the pattern as I’d been shown. ‘Maybe I even fainted from shock…’
He hesitated before asking: ‘Really?’
‘So long as you leave-empty handed and get out of here before you prove to be empty-headed as well!’
‘Plausible deniability, huh?’ he asked, but I didn’t respond- I didn’t know how to! What was plausible deniability? Who was the kid and why was he hanging around knowing that we were both going to get in a lot of trouble if he didn’t scamper away?
Probably a Given kid like me, trying to dodge their claiming day! Wish I’d thought to hide in a ceiling! But who in their right mind would sneak into the castle?
I gave him a thorough look. ‘Have you turned five this moon as well?’
He frowned at me. ‘Why?’
‘It would explain a lot, but you look too young so never mind...’ I shook my head and turned back to my cards. ‘Just… get out of here before you’re caught!’
‘I DON’T look younger than five.’ The boy cleared his throat after a long silence. ‘What are you playing?’
I responded coldly: ‘Solitaire,’ and my fingers trembled as I smacked the part of the pack that I didn’t need on the floor back i
nto a tight little clump. Like he’d said, they were old enough for me to know that they were precious- but they were so stained that I didn’t think I could get into much trouble for ruining them. ‘Why?’
‘I’ve never seen anyone play with cards before…’
‘Well, now you’ll have a story to tell whoever it is you OUGHT to be running back to, won’t you?’
‘I’m not running off anywhere.’ He stuffed his hands into the pockets of his trousers, approaching me slowly. ‘Like I said, I’m not scared of anyone.’
I looked up just enough to see that his boots were in good nick, and his trousers the sort worn by nobility with leather trim on the pockets and zipper. His bravado seemed like a bit of a front for such a tiny kid, but if he’d managed to steal (then soil) such fine things then he was probably as good as an escapee as he said, and I didn’t want to look like a chicken in comparison.
‘Good for you,’ I said blithely, flipping over the first card on the bottom row. ‘But for the record, I heard that there’s a track through the Wildwoods that follows this tiny stream- and leads straight over the mountains and through to where there is no kingdom for as far as a bird can fly!’ I gave him Jaiya’s best simpering smile. ‘That might be a safer route than directly into the headquarters of the new world order, don’t you think?’
‘Really?’ the boy didn’t seem to notice how I’d mocked him. ‘The one stream?’
‘That’s what I heard. The stream starts tiny and gets bigger and bigger, so those who can stand the cold long enough to follow it get to a real paradise…’
‘But the north has been ruined!’ he protested. ‘It’s all ice and dead forest! And the Wildwoods are overgrown and full of wolves and bears and-’
‘So they say- but who knows what’s true until we’ve seen it with our own eyes?’ I asked lightly.
‘Then how do you know that this path is true?’
‘I don’t.’ I shrugged. ‘All I know is that my brother Finch once met a guy from the Corps who’d gotten lost, and said that he’d followed that stream for days until he was in the heart of the old Canuck land. Apparently, he was close to death for the last part of it and lost his toes, but then just before he could lay down and die from exposure, he happened upon a lake from the time before that was still drinkable, as large as a bay and as reflective as polished glass- in country more beautiful than anything we could imagine! Then after a few weeks of rest and hunting, he was strong enough to make it back.’ I smiled, and the boy smiled back- a dreamy smile. ‘Maybe it’s not true, but it’s nice to think about isn’t it? For kids like you and me who probably will end up outside the boundaries one day, fending for ourselves for some stupid crime?’