by Jason Tesar
When he walked back to the bed, he noticed a neatly folded pile of clothing on the chest. On top was a tunic, which he quickly picked up, expecting to slip it over his head. But when he unfolded it, he was confused about how it was supposed to be worn. There were long sleeves, which were unusual for Kael, but at least he knew where to put his arms. The material was a dull brown color, but soft and slick, like it had been polished. He slid his arms into the appropriate places and paused, trying to decide what to do next. The front of the tunic was open, like a coat, with two flaps of fabric hanging in front of him. He wasn’t sure how to proceed, but it was obvious that he needed more clothing; the tunic only hung down to his waist. He grabbed the other item of clothing and unfolded it.
“Pants,” he said out loud.
The only reason he knew what they were was because his father had recently explained them to him. The soldiers in the Northern Territory wore these as the weather got colder. He slipped them on and fastened them at the waist, using the ties sewn into the front. He was not accustomed to wearing anything on his legs, but was grateful in light of the crisp chill in the air.
A knock sounded at his door. His heart quickened a little as he walked over and pulled on the handle. It didn’t budge and the metallic sound of a lock being opened made him jump. Kael stepped back and the door opened to reveal a short man that looked like one of the servants. His skin had a yellow tint and his eyes were wide-set. Kael assumed that his hair was black, but could only look at his eyebrows for proof; his head was also shaved. Kael wondered if his own head was shaved for some purpose other than to treat his head wound.
When the man spoke, it was in a language foreign to Kael, but the inflection told him that it was a question. Kael shook his head to show that he didn’t understand. The man looked at the floor for a moment before speaking again.
“Awake?” he asked in a strange accent.
Kael thought the answer was obvious, but nodded his head anyway.
“You dress…come with me,” he continued, pointing at the flaps of fabric hanging from Kael’s tunic.
Kael looked down at himself and then back to the man. “I don’t know how…it’s different than…”
Before he could finish his statement, the man stepped into the room and grabbed Kael’s tunic. He wrapped the flap on Kael’s right side across his body and secured it with ties on the inside of the left flap. He repeated the process with the other side, securing it to ties on the outside of his tunic. Kael watched, confused until the man was finished.
With that completed, the stranger walked over to the foot of Kael’s bed and picked up the footwear off the floor. He placed them in Kael’s hands and lifted his robe, showing Kael his own feet. These sandals were not really sandals at all. They completely covered the feet, but didn’t extend to the lower part of the leg. They had laces, but instead of wrapping around the legs, they slid through holes and criss-crossed on top of the feet. It took a moment, but Kael eventually got the hang of it. The man waited patiently until Kael was finished.
Suddenly, he bent down and patted Kael’s foot. “Shoe,” the man said. He stood back up and nodded his head. “Shoe,” he said again and pointed at Kael’s feet.
“Shoe” Kael repeated, receiving a smile from the man.
“Come,” he said, motioning for Kael to follow him as he left the room.
The tall doorframe opened into a long hallway that reminded him of the one in his home. The man turned to the left and walked down the hallway and Kael quickly fell into step behind him. Their footsteps plodded softly on the wooden plank floor, with the slight hollow sound of being above the ground. As they walked, Kael noticed that everything about this place was foreign. Not only were the ceilings constructed differently, but the stone walls were a dark gray color and seemed to be fitted together without mortar. Everything in Bastul was built from a white stone and covered with plaster on the inside.
“Where am I?”
The man slowed his pace and looked back over his shoulder, then shook his head.
Doesn’t he know? Or maybe he can’t say.
“Far away,” the man replied and continued walking as if the answer was sufficient.
“Where are we going?”
“They tell me—wake child, bring him here.”
The hallway ended at a landing overlooking a cylindrical room with stairs curving down to the next floor in both directions. The man chose the right-hand stairs and quickened his pace down to the lower level. Kael had to jog to keep up with him. The pair moved so quickly that Kael scarcely had time to notice the large iron sconces along the wall, illuminating the room as well as a discolored area of the stone wall where something had hung for a long period of time. There were no decorations.
It looks abandoned.
When they reached the bottom, the man slowed his pace to a walk and turned to the left, entering another hallway that led underneath the one outside Kael’s room, heading in the opposite direction. The hall terminated at a large rectangular doorway, similar to what Kael was used to seeing at his home. It led to a spacious circular room lit with many torches. A crackling noise drew Kael’s attention to the right where he saw a stone fireplace that jutted out from the wall. He could feel the heat on his face, even though it was twenty feet away. The walls of the room were stone, like the rest of the building. He looked up at the ceiling and saw that it was vaulted toward the center of the room. Thick beams radiated from the highest point, angling down to where they were embedded in holes at the top of the wall. Doors were placed at regular intervals around the circular wall, mirroring the hub and spoke construction of the ceiling.
At the center of the room was a long, wooden table set with an assortment of foods. There were plates of steaming meats arranged in groups of colors from dark to pale brown. In addition, there were plates of cheeses, fruits, vegetables, and an assortment of breads. Two large pitchers sat at one end of the table, and though Kael couldn’t see inside of them, the cups arranged around the pitchers told him that they contained the beverages. The whole room was filled with a mixture of aromas from the feast before his eyes. It was so much to take in all at once, that it took Kael a few seconds to notice that most of the other boys were already seated at the table.
Kael counted eleven chairs, eight of which were filled. Each boy’s head was shaved, just like Kael’s. Filling the ninth chair at the head of the table was the kind stranger who rescued them. That left two open chairs and Kael assumed that one was for him.
“Please have a seat,” spoke the man at the head of the table who had now risen from his chair.
As Kael took his seat, he saw another robed man entering the room from the same place he had entered, followed by the boy who had been their leader during the attack on the boar. He seemed even more stunned than Kael by the surroundings. He was ushered to the table as well and when they had both taken their seats, the man at the head of the table pushed in his chair and remained standing.
“Now that you are all here, let us begin.”
Suddenly, a door on the other side of the room opened and several men in robes came out. They surrounded the table and began to serve the food onto plates and pass them out, as if they had been waiting for a signal. As they worked, the man at the head of the table continued to speak.
“My name is Ukiru and I have a few things to say before we share our first meal together. The ten of you have been rescued from certain death. When I found you, you were naked, starving, and killing each other just to stay alive. This is no way for a person to live. But just as you were rescued, you were also redeemed for a purpose. You see, the world has cast you out like refuse. But I believe that you have a great deal of worth. Each one of you had a different beginning, but that is no longer relevant. Your former life was a breath away from ending. And that is how you should think of it. Dead! What is important now is that your lives are not your own. You have been rescued and given a wondrous gift, a new beginning.”
His speech halted mome
ntarily as he began to walk around the table. He was shorter than most men Kael had met and had a steady, careful gait, like the acrobats who used to perform in Bastul during the festivals.
“I worship a god who is powerful beyond any human comprehension. He used to rule this world until its inhabitants stopped worshiping him and became distracted with other, less-important things. So, he left this world and its people to their own devices for a time. This was many, many years ago. But the time is coming soon when he will return and claim this world once again. He will drive out all those who oppose him and those that worship other gods, bringing justice to this unjust world.”
Kael looked around the table and could sense that the other boys were just as confused as he was. In Bastul, talk of such things usually involved many gods. Most families had several gods in particular that they worshiped and prayed to throughout the day. One time, Saba told him of a group of people far to the east who believed in one god who created everything. But he was still confused. What does this have to do with us?
After making several passes around the room, the man had reached the head of the table again and paused behind his chair. “I know that this sounds strange. And right now you are probably wondering why you are here and what all of this has to do with you.”
A few of the boys nodded their heads in confirmation, but Kael didn’t move. It seemed like the man had just read his mind.
“I will try to be as plain as possible. A short while ago, the god whom we worship spoke to our High Priest.”
Several murmurs could be heard around the room from the robed attendants.
“The High Priest told me that the time of our god’s return is short at hand. He appointed me to a task. From the farthest reaches of the Orud Empire, choose ten children, boys. Choose from among those who have been cast out by the world, and bring them to this place to be raised in the order of an ancient and forgotten priesthood, the priesthood of the All Powerful. Once you reach the age of adulthood, you will present yourselves as gifts to our god, warrior-priests. He will then return and you will become his instruments of justice to reclaim his kingdom. And so I searched, and that is when I found you, caged like animals. There were only ten of you left and I believe the All Powerful himself preserved you for this task.”
At this, the boys shifted in their seats.
Ukiru raised a hand in protest. “Now I know what you are thinking. This all sounds so strange and is too great a responsibility for mere children. I will not lie to you. It is perhaps the greatest responsibility that has ever been entrusted to mankind. But I will be honest with you. I am jealous of you all. It is a responsibility that I would have for myself. But I will have to be content with being your instructor. I assure you this will not be as difficult as it seems to you now. You will all be given the finest education. Your training as priests will be balanced with your training as warriors. You will make a steady transition from the boys you are now to the men you will become—the most powerful men this world has ever seen.”
“What if we don’t want to?” came a voice from across the table. It was the child who had led the attack on the boar.
“There is always one who must question,” replied the man, with a smile. “But it is a good question. Why would you not want to do this? You will be fed and clothed. You will do more, see more, and learn more than any other child in this world. It will also be a lot of fun. And when it comes time for you to present yourself to the All Powerful, you will know that you are the most fortunate person in all the world.”
“They can’t keep me here,” the boy said to himself, his voice almost a whisper.
“My dear son, there is nowhere for you to go. Even if you did try to leave, you are weeks away from the nearest city and you would starve before you reached it, that is, if you didn’t freeze to death first. But of course, I could not let that happen. And I hope that you will come to love your new home.”
Kael wished the boy would stay silent. He didn’t see any reason to argue with the man. Although he missed his home and family, Kael figured that this was much better than the fate that awaited them in prison. He, for one, felt fortunate already.
“Now that I have told you why you are here, I welcome you and consider it an honor to be entrusted with your safety. Let us eat, and afterward I will show you around your new home. There will be no further introductions tonight; we will get to that tomorrow morning. For now, enjoy the feast.”
The food was delicious, but Kael found it difficult to eat very much. Several of the other boys didn’t have as much trouble, however, and refilled their plates more than once. For the duration of the meal, the robed attendants stood around the perimeter of the room with their hands behind their backs. When one of the children cleared their plate or finished the last sip of water or tea, the attendants quickly came forward to offer more.
When everyone had eaten as much as they could, Ukiru rose to his feet and announced that it was time to show them around their new home. Some of the other boys stood up as well and Kael followed their leading. As soon as the chairs were empty, the men around the room began to clear the table. Ukiru beckoned for everyone to gather around him so that he could begin the tour. When the group was assembled, Ukiru pointed at the door through which Kael had entered the room.
“I assume that you are already familiar with your living quarters? All of you boys have separate rooms on the upper level of this hall.” Turning to the right, he walked to the next door along the wall, which was bigger than any other in the room. He slid back a large bolt and pushed open the door. “This is the main entrance.”
Kael tried to see out the door, but most of the view was blocked by the other boys standing in the way. He moved around to get a better look and saw tapered stone columns along a stone path which began at the door and extended through a courtyard area before reaching an open gate. Beyond that, the path continued for a short distance before curving out of sight.
Ukiru shepherded the boys back inside and shut the door, sliding the bolt into place once again. “This next door,” he continued, “leads to the other living quarters; it is where the rest of us sleep. The hall itself looks identical to yours.”
The next item along the wall was a huge square pillar which mirrored the one on the opposite side of the room, only this one didn’t have a fireplace built into it. The next door led to what Ukiru called the lawn, but said that he would show it to them later on. The next door led to the kitchen, but that was made obvious by the robed men entering and exiting with piles of plates and eating utensils.
Ukiru walked to the final door around this circular room, positioned to the left of the fireplace. He indicated that the group should follow him before opening the door and walking through it. Kael followed the line of boys and found himself outside, under a covered walkway. Large round beams were set into the ground on either side of the walkway, supporting an elaborate roof much like the one in the dining room. Each support beam had a torch mounted to it. Ukiru led the group down the path where it turned left in front of a square building with one door. On either side of the door, running the entire length of the building were windows shaped like the door turned on its side. Ukiru walked over to the door, unlatched it, and pushed it open. He waited until all of the boys were inside of the first room before explaining.
“This is our classroom, where our studies will take place. Each morning you will assemble here for instruction in a number of subjects.”
The room was shallow but wide, with a number of chairs and desks arranged in a semicircle, all facing toward the back wall. As he spoke, Ukiru wove through the line of desks and made his way to the back of the room, opening one of two doors along the back wall. The boys followed him into a room filled with books. Some were arranged in piles on tables, others were set on end inside of shelves.
“This is our library. We have assembled together all of the writings that will be needed for our instruction, as well as many others that you may find informative.”
“We call this place the arena. It is where most of your weapons and combat training will take place.”
Kael was stunned at the size of the building. It was hundreds of feet across and he couldn’t imagine why all of this space would be necessary. It looked like a barn. At the center of the room was a bundle of support columns stretching up to the ceiling. The room was divided into pie shaped sections that radiated from this point. The section where they were standing was completely bare, with a soft, sand-covered floor. Some of the other sections had raised floors, while others had wooden structures either hanging from the ceiling or sprouting from the ground. It all seemed confusing to Kael, but he was sure that it would be properly explained at some point.
The boys followed Ukiru to the left as he walked around the perimeter of the building and through another set of wide doors. The smell of livestock reached Kael’s nose and it was obvious where they were headed, even before Ukiru began to explain the stables.
“Some of your training will occur on horseback and as you can see, we have plenty for everyone.”
As they moved down the center aisle, horses shifted uneasily in their stalls on either side. The aisle eventually became an intersection, with one path leading straight ahead and another leading between two stalls on the left side of the room. Ukiru chose the left path and slid open another set of wide doors. A robed man waited on the other side of the door.