Mnemosynae snorted. “A calculated risk?”
“No more than Lethae’s blocks and your pseudo-memories.”
“It is unlikely the Seer could have perceived Pyra’s condition. It was too well buried.”
Pandura laughed. “The Seer could not have perceived? Why then, my dear, do they call him a seer, and why are we so interested in his codes? He does perceive! I’m afraid he perceives all too well!”
Mnemosynae frowned. “A lesson from Pandura on the reality of precognition? Now that’s ironic!”
The High Priestess shoved her concern for Pyra aside. Of more importance was how they would explain this debacle to the Titans.
U’
Sumi poked his lantern into the side hole and called out. For the first time he heard a response from inside the gloom.
“I’m in here, but my legs are weak. I need help.”
Soon, U’Sumi and T’Qinna assisted A’Nu-Ahki up to the main duct.
“The Basilisk will leave us be for awhile, but we still need to be out of here quickly,” the Seer said, as he limped with them down the tunnel.
They followed the sewer down to the slime, where U’Sumi hoisted the still unwilling Taanyx to his shoulders and staggered—with trembling claws embedded in his flesh—into the deepening sludge. T’Qinna helped guide him, keeping the cat steady. Nevertheless, progress went slow because the sphinx weighed about half as much as U’Sumi did.
After a seemingly endless plod through the fetid blackness, the conduit opened to the midnight sky inside the city’s southwest wall, where it emptied into a drainage canal. U’Sumi bloodied and out of breath, bent over and let Taanyx push off his back up onto the bank. He helped both his father and T’Qinna up the small slope before joining them himself.
From the top of the sandy embankment, U’Sumi saw that the sewage canal emptied into the harbor off to their left. The bank fell gradually down to the shore on its opposite slope, to their right. There, tied to an ancient pole in the low tide mud, sat the nearest of T’Qinna’s punts.
“There’s a small village not far along the coast, west,” she said. “We can buy new clothes and hire a unicorn so the Seer doesn’t have to walk.”
“Buy? Hire?” U’Sumi asked. He and his father were broke.
Pyra pulled two bags of small gold ingots from her oversized breast cups, and smiled. “My life savings; temple patrons are big tippers.”
THE PALADIN’S ODYSSEY | 367
And he named them all; the eldest, who was the first king, he named Atlas, and after him the whole island and the ocean were called Atlantic.
—Plato
Critias (on the kings of Atlantis)
THE PALADIN’S ODYSSEY | 367
11
Orb
T
he unicorn surged forward, snorting as U’Sumi tried to hold the beast steady. Its great beak snapped against the bit and kicked up fountains of beach sand as if it wanted to charge the ferry that approached shore with clanging bells and shrill whistle. The shallow inland Sea of Aztlan glittered southward, a liquid gold reflecting the serene afternoon sky.
A’Nu-Ahki’s incomprehensible decision to go southwest irritated his son. Why hadn’t they simply turned east at the Paqtli Crossroads for Syrsae, or even southeast to At’Lahazhia, while still in the hilly fields of the Central Aztlan Farm Consortium? From either destination, they could have circled the war zone by taking a ferry across the Hydra Gulf to Goloth, then cutting home through neutral Far Kush. From there, they could have crossed the Straits of Kush to either of the Near Kush ports of E-Tanna or the Great Havens and then walked home to Akh’Uzan.
“It’s time for us to go on a little offensive of sorts.” U’Sumi’s father had announced his plan over the eerie dance of their campfire light by a river ford north of the Paqtli Crossroads, nearly a month ago.
U’Sumi had asked, “How can only three of us go on the offensive?”
“The reason there are only three of us is that for too long we have thought only defensively. I’m not suggesting an offensive based on numbers anyway.”
“What’s he talking about?” T’Qinna had asked U’Sumi.
He remembered how the firelight had shimmered in her multicolored hair, as she pulled and scratched at her new wrap-around garment—clearly more clothes than she had ever been used to wearing.
Just when U’Sumi began to admit secretly to himself that he enjoyed watching fiery Pyra move about, unwittingly provocative, in her priestess garb, A’Nu-Ahki had insisted she purchase something more modest. The Old Man had picked out the wrap for her at a street vendor in the coastal village several day’s journey west of Temple City, to save time after she had returned twice with clothes nearly as minuscule as her old ones.
Unfortunately, he had chosen the sort of dress only an old woman would wear in those parts—a style that on an otherwise attractive young siren drew almost as much attention as her uniform had.
They had also found a good deal on the old unicorn while crossing the fields and orchards of Aztlan’s other vast agricultural consortium in the northeast. The bony quasi-dragon looked as if he might have a couple years left in him. The wretched creature grew more chipper each day, as T’Qinna sang and talked to him. She named him Shell-head, and took to polishing his boney collar-shield with the edge of her wrap—a service the ancient unicorn enjoyed with a cooing that sounded oddly bird-like for something so big.
“Why southwest?” U’Sumi had whined over the campfire by Paqtli.
“The Gates of the Setting Sun,” his father had answered, while peering into the embers as if seeing visions of what they would find there. “There may be people in that region who still remember Q’Enukki, despite the defection of Psydonu’s mother. They might join us.”
U’Sumi could say nothing after that. The Old Man won T’Qinna over to his quest by his desire to give others the same chance he had given her. U’Sumi resigned himself to the inevitable. Soon after, A’Nu-Ahki had even begun to speak openly in some of the farming villages along the way. Nothing like leaving a trail for pursuers to follow!
U’Sumi only wanted to go home, mourn the dead, and those who were about to die. What about Mother, Mamu, the Ancient, and Khumi? Didn’t they deserve to know that some of their loved ones had survived?
After more than four months of crossing greater Aztlan, the approaching ferry to Psydonis signaled their last opportunity to follow any homeward course easily or soon.
The old boat chugged into the wharf next to the strip of beach where U’Sumi, A’Nu-Ahki, T’Qinna, Shell-head, and Taanyx waited. The vessel was a run-down relic of the Century War Era that still used a wood-burning steam engine to drive its paddle-wheel.
Its ramp lowered, opening a squared-off bow between two sculpted long-necked leviathans that brooded over the off-loaders and inspected those waiting to board. The spade-shaped bodies of the leviathans spread out on either side of the small ship to form the vessel’s beam. Their tandem tails concealed the axle and chassis of the ferry’s drive wheel. Barricades protected the encircling main and upper decks from real sea serpents, which occasionally took man’s invasion of their domain personally.
Once the old passengers and cargo had finished off—loading , and the crew took on new wood, food stores, and water, the boatswain signaled the new passengers to board. T’Qinna handed the fare for three people, her cat, and a unicorn to the ferry’s purser as they came up the ramp. She then notified A’Nu-Ahki that they had now spent a third of the money.
U’Sumi said, “All the more reason we should have went east.”
A’Nu-Ahki finally took him aside by the shoulder. “You seem to think I’m still suffering from fever or something , and I’m getting a bit tired of it! Had we turned east or southeast, we would have found ourselves right in the midst of a gathering Aztlantim amphibious assault across the Hydra Gulf. Even as I speak, Psydonu’s forces are invading Far Kush, from Goloth to Firth Dracan, violating the neutrality, and cutting off any ch
ance of us getting home by that route.”
“How do you know all this?”
A’Nu-Ahki arched his brows and gently smacked the back of his son’s head. “Hello? Seer!”
U’Sumi straightened his hair out and grimaced.
“Maybe you’re still too afraid of your gift to listen to it, but I’m not. By the time we reach Psydonis, news by orb will have preceded us of the invasion. When that happens, I’m going to have to insist that you stop trying to second-guess me every step of the way. Got it?”
“Yes, my Father!” U’Sumi said, wretched that T’Qinna had witnessed their little scene.
After A’Nu-Ahki left to go up onto the promenade for some air, T’Qinna approached U’Sumi and accidentally-on-purpose bumped into him. She had a worried look on her face.
“What do you want?” He accentuated the “you.”
“Don’t you trust him anymore?”
He faced her and felt like holding her and never letting go. Instead, he said, “Of course I trust him! He’s my father! Nobody’s had a better one.”
She placed her hands on her hips, and glared up at him. “I don’t get you. I used to fight with my mother all the time and it used to sound like you and him just now. I cared for her a lot, but she would let her lovers walk all over her. She even pretended not to notice when some of them tried to seduce me. However, she was my Mauma, and I would give anything just to tell her that I loved her one last time. Why do you argue with your father when he’s been so good to you?”
“I don’t know! I just miss my mother, my ancestors, and my little brother, I guess.”
“And he doesn’t?”
U’Sumi glared back at her. “If he had a vision about some invasion, then why didn’t he just say so? Look, I don’t need you to lecture me on how to handle my father; I’m not one of your troubled patrons!”
She narrowed her eyes. “I don’t do troubled patrons anymore! Did it ever occur to you that maybe he wants you to come around for reasons other than need? If it was up to you, I’d still be at Temple Epymetu getting beat up by my troubled patrons!”
U’Sumi felt like dying. Why do I keep pushing her away like this?
Before he could think, his words gushed out in a flood. He caught her arm before she could turn to walk away. “I’m sorry; I shouldn’t have said that—it was uncalled for. I know I’ve been confused and sometimes even mean to you, but to me you are worth all the trouble we’ve seen in this war—even the death of my brother, who I loved more than anyone!”
She stopped pulling against his grip.
“Please, forgive me!” he said. “Honest, I never meant to hurt you and I don’t want to hurt you any more—ever! I was afraid you’d get inside me and then Underworld would somehow take you away. I can’t seem to risk hoping anymore! Underworld always takes people away!”
For a long while, T’Qinna’s green eyes scrutinized him with an expression he couldn’t read. The pain he’d put in them seemed to ease. She looked as if she would say something, but seemed unsure of herself, as if battling inside over what she should do. Her eyes widened and her face quivered, as though she stood on the very edge of some great precipice.
U’Sumi didn’t expect what happened next.
T’Qinna threw herself at him from her “precipice,” wrapped her arms around his back, and whispered for his ears alone, “I’m not sure I fully understand, but I believe you. I’m sorry about your brother—I didn’t know. Don’t worry; Underworld won’t take me away.” She then cocked her head sideways, and asked, “What do you mean by that, anyway?”
“She knows I’m real and does not curse me to my face… or you.”
U’Sumi broke down. He told her about the deaths of Iyapeti and Lumekki, then the fight inside the Elyo vehicle. He spoke for the first time about the sailor with red-sore and how he had first gotten the pipes she had returned to him. He described his own World-end vision and the fear that she would go the way of that sailor somehow—only a million times worse because of how he really felt about her. “It’s been so hard, I didn’t want to go west, meet new people, and watch them be snatched away. I’ve seen enough death! And in a few decades, I’m going to see a lot more. The more people I see the more faces I’ll remember when the time comes!”
“But maybe there’ll be a few who follow!” She smiled for him, her eyes emerald sunrises. “If I’m worth the trouble, then so are they.”
“But why should anyone believe us? We’re just three wandering vagabonds with a strange story, while Psydonu controls the orbs and the oracles and can paint any picture for the public that he wants—and they’ll believe him, too! Even when it’s dumb, the repetition and lack of intelligent-sounding alternatives makes it feel real!”
“I believed you, and I was raised by the Temple itself.”
He gently held her face in his hand. “Do you really feel for me what I feel for you?”
She laughed and for a split second, U’Sumi thought all the universe would crumble to sand in a frozen moment of torment. “You mean you can’t tell? From the first second I saw you on the sedan coach I started having major fantasies of running off with you to some far-off land where they’ve never heard of Temple or titans or the war! Of course, once I got to know you, I knew I couldn’t win you by any Temple art—and that made me want you even more! I thought I was pretty obvious.”
“You were. But that was before, when I thought you were just—well, being a priestess—no offense.”
She placed her hand over his against her face. “Fog of war, my love. How could you know that I wasn’t?”
“I need to know something now, though. It’s real important that you be honest with me, even if it hurts.”
“What is it?”
“My father’s right. I need to start growing in my gift, and part of that’s in the question I have to ask.”
She nodded.
“Are you just following us because of how you feel about me?”
T’Qinna seemed to ponder his question then answered slowly, “At first, I got into that conversation with your father only in the hope that you’d join in. But I really learned a big lesson when I had no reason to think I could ever make you like me. Many bad things were happening to me long before you and your father came to Aztlan. I’m still not sure about all of them even now. But I made my decision regardless of you.”
“That sets us free,” he whispered, “really free.”
They stood in the cargo bay and held each other for a long time, as Taanyx and Shell-head watched on and the ferry built up steam to depart.
T
he whole world swayed while the woman’s voice called to her through murky clouds.
“Where are you, Pyra?”
Violet eyes filled the sky like two searching moons.
“Where are you, Pyra darling?”
“My name is T’Qinna!” she screeched as she woke up.
The rosy light of a clouded moon shone in through the porthole of her tiny stateroom. T’Qinna got up and put on her wrap to step out onto the deck for some air. The haze of sleep fled from her as she dressed—and not only the haze of sleep…
It came to her in a moment of exquisite anguish. The violet eyes like small moons—Mnemosynae!
Her head spun when the realization fell. T’Qinna collapsed against the bulkhead as a gut-twisting sob escaped her throat. It came back to her in all its horror; the cramped room hidden deep in the Temple laboratories, with the frozen helplessness she had felt while strapped for hours to its table.
She recalled now how Mnemosynae and Lethae had worked over her, one to block the memories of that night she had penetrated the secret birthing chamber where she had found her mother’s body, the other to fill her mind with false recollections. Even at this, she knew there was more—much more—still hidden. I expected this from Pandura, but how could you have done it too, my mentor, my teacher? I loved and trusted you!
A quiet knock came to her cabin door, but T’Qinna did not have the wil
l to answer. The blackness around those violet eyes swallowed her. She heard Mnemosynae’s soft musical voice fill her mind and heart again with poison to cover the hastily buried truth.
How Pyra wanted desperately to believe those lies—they were so much easier to live with—so much less painful. She wept convulsively as she slid down the bulkhead onto the deck in a flaccid heap. Her mind exploded again with the vision of her mother’s body, bloodless, and ripped open like a discarded husk, eyes frozen wide in the final terror that had destroyed her from within. Is every nice thing just a deceptive shell inside of which incubates some hidden horror? Even the kindly Seer holds the world’s destruction within his healing words!
The cabin door pushed in from the outside. T’Qinna thought she had locked it, but she couldn’t be sure of anything anymore. Probably some drunken ferry hand has broken in with only one thing on his mind.
She didn’t care. It wouldn’t be the first time.
T’Qinna felt herself lifted from the cold deck and placed back onto her cot. At least he seems gentle.
Then she saw the intruder’s face.
A’Nu-Ahki knelt over her by the side of the bunk, his hands clasped together. Through her own sobs, she heard his low voice intercede for her, calling out to E’Yahavah for mercy and comfort.
He must have heard me cry out when I woke up.
The purple haze of Mnemosynae’s eyes cleared before the onslaught of a bright golden light. Maybe it was just a cloud that moved out to unveil a full moon over the placid inland sea. To T’Qinna, it was when things began to make perfect sense and her heart experienced real peace for the first time.
Pyra the priestess had dedicated her life to love without ever understanding what that really meant. Now T’Qinna would spend the rest of her days discovering the love that had rescued her from a world that love’s wisdom could not possibly allow to continue.
T
he ferry trip provided two weeks of reflection and conversation for U’Sumi and T’Qinna. They concluded that the only course ahead for them would be to marry. Still, U’Sumi wanted to wait a while before he asked his father to betroth them. He feared their sudden pronouncement of love might seem to a more mature mind the sort of adventure-induced infatuation young people in their situation would be prone to indulge. He also wanted to make sure that the hypothetical mature mind would not be right about that.
The Paladin's Odyssey (The Windows of Heaven) Page 20