The Chosen sdotc-1

by Ricardo Pinto

  At night they ate the food that they had found as they had found it. Fire seemed a sacrilege. They cleaned each other as if it was something they had always done. They made love. They slept together with only the moonlight for a blanket.

  The next day they made a raft, and hidden beneath an awning they improvised from their purple cloaks, they paddled among the stilted flamingos to explore the islands lying in the lagoons. On one of these they sheltered from the greatest heat of the day. All day long they heard the waft of birdcalls and the delicate sculling of water as the flocks fed. Stick legs crossed and recrossed like a passing of spears before the scintillating textures of the water.

  In the early evening they ran across the mud waving their arms and sending a pink drift up to hide the sky so that they stopped, gaping at the colour and the rushing surge of it.

  This must be what it's like to receive Apotheosis,' muttered Osidian.

  Seeing the serious, fixed wonder of his face, Carnelian crept away and kicked water over him so that Osidian grew angry and chased him. They wrestled their patterns across the mud and, thrashing, rolled into the shallows. They rose panting, their laughter gashing white their muddy faces. The deepest pool they could find only came up to their waists. They washed each other. Osidian stopped Carnelian when he would have had more play. He seemed remote.

  'What're you thinking?' Carnelian said, as lightly as he could.

  Osidian turned to him, as beautiful as a marble god. This morning we used up the last of the paint. I didn't expect that we'd stay down here so long.'

  Carnelian gazed at him, aching with a longing to engulf him so intense it almost made him cry. Instead, he grinned outrageously and slapped the ridging of Osidian's belly. 'What of it? We'll have to hide out the day in the shade. The night'll still be ours.'

  'But how shall we return?' Osidian turned to look back at the Pillar of Heaven, a thunderous mass against the mauve sky.

  Carnelian looked at it, tried to see where the Halls of Thunder were, remembered his father with a pang. He had forgotten him and that his people would be expecting him back.

  Osidian's sombre looks stopped him passing it all off with a jest. It would have been hollow, anyway. They went back together, gouging the mud with their toes, so close that often their shoulders and elbows touched.

  'One more day?' Carnelian asked at last.

  Osidian looked sidelong at him, and gave the slightest of nods.

  Carnelian sat up. Something had woken him. He stood up, cursed under his breath as he tottered waiting to see if he had woken Osidian. When there was no stirring at his feet, he ducked out from under the sheltering branches. A miraculous ceiling of stars dizzied him. The moon had set. The Pillar of Heaven was a hole cut out from half the sky. He was sure he could see some tiny flecks of light floating there near its top. He shook his head. It must be illusion. The Halls of Thunder were too far away. A sound. A faint, creaking sound. He turned to look across the Yden. Stars snared in its mirrors. Beyond, the pale, mountain wall stirred its reflection into the thick black Skymere. There it was again. A creaking and, perhaps, floating above it the tickle of faraway bells. He saw the lights. A necklace of tiny diamonds stretching across the crater's black throat. He watched its creep make tiny sounds. People were moving along the Ydenrim.

  Something brushed his arm. He cried out. 'Hush,' hissed the shadow, grabbing hold of him. 'I'm sorry I woke you,' said Carnelian, fitting his head into the space between Osidian's neck and shoulder. He could feel Osidian's heart beating through his stiff body. By the shape of his profile, Carnelian knew he was watching the lights. Another set had appeared, off to the south. 'What are they?' Carnelian whispered.

  He waited and was going to repeat the question when Osidian said, 'Processions of the Chosen.' He had returned to Quya for the first time in days.

  'What does it mean?'

  "That we must return to the sky.'

  Carnelian tried to get more out of him, unsuccessfully. He let him move away.

  'Let us grab what sleep we can before daybreak,' said Osidian.

  Carnelian felt a twinge of irritation. With his resumption of the Quya, Osidian was turning himself back into a stranger. Carnelian's stomach knotted. Was he regretting their lovemaking? Carnelian followed him back. Crouching under the branches, he lay down, denying himself the desire to touch him. He lay for an age, miserable, bound on the rack of the worries he had put aside, until sleep released him into a fitful dream.

  THE SILENT HEART

  Better a sword thrust

  Than a wounding silence

  (proverb – origin unknown)

  Reaching out for Osidian and not finding him, Carnelian awoke. He sat up and saw through twigs and leaves the morning bright on the faraway Sacred Wall. The Skymere smiled its alluring blue. The waders stirred the glimmering lagoons.

  He crept out from under the branches, stretching, delighting in the air's warm caress. He looked for Osidian. The Pillar of Heaven was a slab of night auraed by the sun. From it came shadow that washed over him and out to narrow a dark road across the lagoons and the lake and up the Sacred Wall.

  Osidian was nowhere to be seen. Carnelian followed a trail of footprints to the water's edge. A few ripples creased the water's silk. He waited for a head to surface. He dipped his foot. He walked in, enjoying the coolness as it came up his legs. He allowed his knees to fold and sank. He swam as languidly as the fish, enjoying the weight of water on his limbs. He came out when he saw Osidian coming down to the shore. He seemed unnatural clothed.

  'Have you bathed?' Carnelian said, rubbing the water off his skin.

  Osidian gave him a nod.

  'Why didn't you wake me?' Carnelian used Vulgate in an attempt to coax Osidian back into intimacy.

  The day ahead will be best met with you fully rested,' Osidian replied, in Quya.

  'Kiss me,' said Carnelian with a grin.

  Osidian looked at him without emotion. He came closer, leaned towards him as if over a wall, touched a kiss to Carnelian's cheek. Carnelian watched him stand back, feeling how closed Osidian was to him, how dry his kiss. 'Is anything the matter?'

  Osidian looked over his shoulder at the Pillar. 'Without paint we must return always in its shadow. Though it will ebb slowly we must still allow time to gather fruit.'

  Keeping in the Pillar's shadow, they paddled across the lagoons, sometimes having to heave the raft over spits of mud. Eventually, the water began to crowd with water lilies. When they became dense enough to snare the raft, they abandoned it and wound off across the pads. The pools narrowed and clogged with reeds till they were mostly walking on land.

  When they reached the wild orchards, Carnelian looked back. The Pillar's shadow had retreated from the Sacred Wall across the Skymere and was now defending the Ydenrim against the morning.

  They wandered up through the terraces, plucking apples and pomegranates from the trees and slipping them into their packs. Hearing water, they found a stream that they followed until it brought them to the wall of the Forbidden Garden. They walked along this until they found a gate that Osidian opened with his key.

  The jewelled colours of the garden were dulled by the Pillar's shadow. The terraces staircased up to its dark sky-seeking cliff. Barefoot, they wandered paths in the oppressive perfume exhaled by trumpet-throated lilies. Staircases of jasper and mirrored granite were ice under their feet. Carp hung their gold motionless in pools. Trees stood like mourners. Carnelian felt he was trespassing.

  At last they found a pavilion through which water percolated in a thousand twisting rivulets that made the air humid and filled it with melancholy music.

  'We must wait until the sun passes overhead,' said Osidian and laid himself out on a ledge so that Carnelian could hardly believe him not carved from its lifeless stone. He tried to wash away his loneliness with the sacrament of the feeling from the sound of rain. As the shivers coursed up and down his back he tried to focus on how with this ecstasy the Twins had brought into being al
l living things.

  Osidian woke him wearing a solemn face. 'It is time.'

  Carnelian watched him tearing strips from the hem of his purple cloak and winding them round his feet and hands. Osidian looked up. 'Do as I do. The sun will be at its highest. Exposed skin will taint instantly.'

  Carnelian copied Osidian. When they were ready, they stood in the pavilion's door with the rain sounds behind them. Outside, the garden burned fiercely with hardly a shadow. They ran out into the sun-ray downpour. Soon they began to feel the heat through their hoods and through the silk shoulders of their cloaks. They moved quickly, stopping wherever they could find shade. The kitchen garden gave welcome relief along its narrow half-shaded paths. The garden's wall had to be climbed with some care. Several times, Carnelian winced as a sleeve fell away to reveal the blinding whiteness of his arm. The sun's scorch on it seemed to threaten a blistering burn.

  At first they were glad when they dropped down on the other side into the thorn forest. But the canopy was thin and brown. The thorns snagged their cloaks, trying to pluck them off and expose them to the sun's shrivelling glare. Each time a cloak snagged, it had to be worked free with tedious care. Imprisoned in their cloaks they broiled. At last they reached the shadow that the Pillar was casting towards the east. It was as deliciously cool as the sky-reflecting waters of a mountain lake.

  Osidian drove Carnelian up the Ladder as if they were being hunted. Up and further up they climbed. Carnelian hardly dared to look out across Osrakum. When he did, he had to cling hard to the rock, feeling the wind trying to pluck him off, to send him soaring down into the turquoise world below. Each time, the Pillar's shadow had stretched further out over the Yden angling slowly towards the south. It was exhaustion that made him stop looking. When his hands had walked their way up to the next handhold, he pressed his cheek against the rock, one eye left free to make sure he was not falling. When they reached each rest cave, he would flop into it, his breath rasping, resentfully mute, waiting with increasing anger for Osidian's next demand that they press on.

  They were sitting in such a cave when Carnelian refused to go any further.

  'But we can make the next stop if we push on,' Osidian pleaded.

  Looking out, Carnelian could see the tide of shadow was already close to flooding Osrakum's floor. He was weary. His limbs were trembling. He let his head hang forward. He would not go any further.

  'What is wrong with you?' cried Osidian.

  Carnelian looked up and saw disturbing flickerings in his eyes. 'Nightfall is near.'

  Osidian snorted, saying haughtily, 'My Lord has quickly gained expertise in judging time.'

  'If you wish to go on, my Lord, go. I am remaining here.'

  They ate the fruit they had brought in sullen silence. The sharp, sweet pomegranate juice awoke in Carnelian memories of joy. He glanced at Osidian and felt his anger melting away. The stubble on his head made him seem less a Master. He tried to find a way to his side. 'Osidian?'

  'What?' said Osidian, his voice, his face, his eyes, all granite.

  Carnelian turned away thinking that perhaps the Yden had been nothing but a dream.

  The morning sun found Carnelian's face with a single ray. He smiled in his dreams then woke with a start and edged away into a shadow. He could see an arch of sky bright enough to stab pain behind his eyes. Looking away, he found Osidian sleeping in the gloom. He crept close to him and looked into his face. Even in sleep he was frowning his birthmark. Carnelian leaned close, thinking to kiss him, but pulled back when he stirred.

  'When do we continue the climb?' he asked, as he watched Osidian wake.

  'When do you think?'

  It was like a slap. Carnelian hid his hurt in silence. Sometimes he would catch Osidian looking at him, his lips parted, and he could see that the boy had something he needed to say. But the words would not come out and

  Carnelian would lean his head back against the rock, close his eyes and try to make his mind as blank as a drizzling sky.

  The moment they felt shadow come, they left the cave and teetered on the edge of the sky in a wind that came scorching up from the land. Above them, the Pillar's head still showed the halo of the sun passing behind it. They resumed the climb. The rock that at first had been almost too hot to touch cooled slowly. The wind grew turbulent. As they struggled on, Carnelian nursed his resentment, ignoring the little voice reminding him that Osidian had warned him how terrible the climb would be.

  Even as the sky was darkening, they dragged themselves up into the throat of the Windmoat ravine. Once they had rested a while, they put on their robes, their shoes, their masks, covered themselves with the purple cloaks and climbed up to the ledge. Only a breeze ruffled their cloaks. The heart-stone screens of the ammonites were sieving light along the whole length of the ledge. In contrast, on the opposite side, only a handful of lit windows pricked the gloomy face of the forbidden house. Osidian went ahead, his shape defined by the light freckling through the screen. Through its holes, Carnelian glimpsed the long crowded galleries. Their hive mutter was more insistent than it had been those few days before.

  The library swallowed them into its black silence. It seemed a refuge and Carnelian's heart sank as they reached the moon-eyed door and removed their masks. 'So we part here?' he said, wanting to make it a joint decision.

  'No,' said Osidian. 'I will come with you at least some of the way.'

  Carnelian was more cheered than he would admit to himself. He led Osidian off along the familiar path back to the Sunhold. After the perfumes of the Yden and the rushing air of the sky, the air was oppressively stale and lifeless. 'Like a tomb,' Carnelian muttered.

  Osidian grabbed his shoulder and yanked him round. 'What do you mean by that, my Lord?'

  Carnelian blinked at him. Osidian's eyes held bladed light. Carnelian felt rage building up inside him. 'I meant nothing at all. Do you not find this place grim in comparison with the Forbidden Garden?'

  Without answering him, Osidian launched off into the blackness. Carnelian felt as if a knife point had been taken away from his throat. It made him feel violent.

  They walked in silence until at last they reached the stair that led up to the Sunhold. They were more than halfway up when Osidian stopped. The narrow space was filled with their breathing.

  'What are we waiting for?' Carnelian asked, exasperated.

  'Hush!' hissed Osidian. 'Listen.'

  'I hear nothing,' Carnelian whispered.

  Osidian nodded vaguely, his eyes looking far off through the stone.

  The feeling of being shut out made Carnelian's anger flare. 'Please let me pass. My Lord evidently has a need to be by himself.'

  Osidian frowned and his eyes came back to focus on Carnelian. 'What?'

  Now that Osidian was looking at him, Carnelian felt he was behaving like a petulant child. He was incapable of apology so he gave way to coldness. 'Let me pass.'

  'Come on,' said Osidian, urging him to go down the stairs.

  Carnelian stood his ground. 'Why?' Osidian's porcelain perfect face looked down at him. 'What are you waiting for?' 'Explanations.'

  Osidian jerked his finger upwards. 'Your father is up there and the trapdoor is closed. Do you want to go and knock on it and then appear before him and whoever else might be there, dressed as you are?'

  Carnelian thought about it. Why would his father have returned to the Sunhold? 'How do you know this?'

  Osidian's head dropped as if he were dealing with a stupid child. He looked up again. The pulse of the Emperor's heart has stopped.'

  Carnelian listened for it. Osidian was right. The pulse was gone. His hand came up to his head. The God Emperor was dead. His father was no longer Regent. The God Emperor was dead.

  'Will you go down now?'

  Carnelian let Osidian squeeze past and stood for some moments, dazed, as the light receded down the stairs. When he caught up with Osidian, he touched his shoulder. 'You knew before we came here?'

  'Did you not know
when you saw the processions of the Chosen moving along the Ydenrim?'

  The election,' said Carnelian in sudden realization.

  'Of course the election,' snapped Osidian.

  They reached the bottom of the stairs.

  'But how will I get back?' said Carnelian.

  Follow, commanded Osidian's hand. He walked them to the edge of the nave and into the column forest beyond. As they walked along the back wall, Carnelian could hear Osidian sniffing the air. He lifted his nose and detected the tang of urine.

  When the smell had grown very strong, Osidian lifted the lantern and showed Carnelian a narrow staircase. 'Up there. Sometimes, guardsmen of the Lesser Lords use this old construction stair when they have need to make water. It comes up into the Encampment.'

  'Where there are tyadra, surely there will be Chosen.'

  They will be in the nave observing the Great selling their votes. You should be able to slip through unnoticed to one of the Sunhold's postern gates.'

  'We part here, then?'

  Osidian jerked a nod. Their eyes locked. Each could see that there were words the other wished to say.

  'Goodbye then,' Carnelian managed at last.

  'Goodbye,' said Osidian. He handed Carnelian the lantern and disappeared into the darkness.

  In spite of covering his mask's nostrils with the edges of his cowl, Carnelian found the urine stench grew overpowering as he climbed the steps. He reached a landing whose walls were arched with stains. He hitched up the skirt of his cloak in disgust and walked towards a dim doorway. He stared. Pavilions had been put up everywhere. Perfect rows of them, each made by stretching jewelled cloths between columns. Some were dark but others were lit from within like paper lanterns and glowed the colours of their heraldry. A path narrowed off across to the faraway wall of the Sunhold. But this was no easy route. Along its length it was lit by many filtering pavilions and glimmering along it were Masters with their guardsmen. To left and right were the beginnings of many more such paths. He would have to trust to luck to find his way to the other side unseen.