Rhuna- New Horizons

by Barbara Underwood

  Rhuna’s first destination was her home in Cha’al, and as the RTE approached the lake, she adjusted the lateral magnetic force until the craft was stationery above the house and garden. She looked down through the glass in the floor and saw her family sitting on the lush green grass below. Shandi and Lozira waved excitedly at the RTE above them, while Aradin appeared disinterested and continued his activity in the garden.

  Still careful with the procedure to lower the craft, Rhuna slowly went through the steps Kitlamu had taught her until the RTE landed softly on level ground near the house.

  “You can fly now?” asked Panapu as Rhuna approached the garden.

  “You can take us to Judharo any time we wish to go!” Lozira said happily. “Can we go right now?”

  “Let’s just go around this area,” suggested Goram. “See everything from above!” He began to rally everyone together, including Aradin and Panapu, and ushered them into the RTE.

  Rhuna enjoyed transporting her family on the initial journey around Cha’al, and then to wherever her family wished to go. It thrilled her to see the delight in their faces as they looked out of the RTE’s windows and saw lakes, valleys and mountains from above. Shandi squealed with delight when Rhuna guided the RTE low above the course of the Great River towards Judharo and back again.

  “Very important vehicle,” Panapu said, and again Rhuna was surprised that he knew such a word until she remembered that The Reigning One’s Army had vehicles to transport supplies and soldiers.

  “We need this in war!” Panapu added, reminding Rhuna of the troubling situation between the Suchinda Atlans and the newly-formed group of Conjurers.

  “Let’s hope we won’t really have any kind of war,” said Aradin.

  “Should the Atlans of Suchinda rally against the Conjurers and indeed kill them, then…” Goram began.

  “I fight! I kill bad people!” said Panapu firmly.

  Rhuna felt that the conversation had turned too gloomy, and distracted everyone by guiding the RTE towards the massive mountain range of snow-capped peaks. “What a sight!” she said, pointing out of a window. “And those narrow valleys so far below!”

  “White mountains!” Shandi called out, and Rhuna remembered the words her little daughter had spoken earlier.

  “This is what you saw in your dream, is it?” Rhuna asked. Shandi nodded happily, and repeated her words about white mountains and bright light.

  The evening was spent enjoying delicious food from their own garden, and talking about the sights from the RTE over the Chala Valley and beyond. Rhuna was glad that she was extremely tired so that she would fall asleep quickly and not lie awake worrying about Aradin’s coldness as she had done several times before.

  The following days boasted more blue skies and pleasant temperatures, and Rhuna felt buoyed by the perfect weather. She operated the RTE frequently, transporting Lozira and Goram to Judharo regularly, and accepting a few requests from strangers to be transported to other regions. Each time, she studied the map very carefully, and recalled all the instructions Kitlamu had given her with regard to navigation and directions.

  After she had transported Goram and Lozira to Judharo, Rhuna enjoyed walking through the bustling streets of Judharo, particularly the Forum area. On her way to the forums one sunny morning, she saw Hari Tal scurrying to the markets with an empty basket. and she quickly walked forward to intercept him. Rhuna was baffled when the little brown-tone man scampered past her without looking sideways or recognizing anyone along the way. She thought his way of walking was unusual, and as she watched him disappear down a narrow alley, she wondered for a moment whether he was possibly walking in his sleep.

  Rhuna decided to visit her father while Hari Tal was buying produce at the market, but she was distracted by the words she heard as she passed the Forum for Awareness of Occurrences.

  “Three deaths in three days!” announced the man standing on the speaker’s platform. Rhuna stopped to listen, wondering who had died and assuming they were elderly people who expired of natural causes.

  “Bantu-Ren, or Renny, as he was known to his family and friends, lived only thirty-two solar cycles, and the cause of his demise is unknown,” he speaker continued. “Like the other two, Renny was in good health, and no injuries or blood loss were found in any of these three cases.”

  “You are implying that these three people died of the same unknown cause?” asked a man from the crowd that had gathered.

  “It appears to be so,” replied the speaker.

  “An ailment that kills quickly, like poison?” suggested a woman.

  “Or another trick by the Conjurers!” called out someone from behind Rhuna.

  “No,” replied the speaker. “These three, it appears, were themselves conjurers!”

  Rhuna froze as she recalled the words spoken by Sword of Justice at the Forum recently, and then she remembered the judge’s description of how they had killed some savages in the past.

  “Was their blood and flesh boiled?” asked Rhuna.

  “What? What manner of death is that?” asked a woman nearby.

  “What would make their flesh and blood cook?” asked another person in the gathering.

  “The Suchinda Atlans told me that they used their powers of transformation to kill the savages this way,” Rhuna answered.

  The crowd around her erupted in agitated chatter, interrupted by shouts from the speaker on the platform.

  “So, are we to assume that Atlans from Suchinda killed these three young people?” someone in a loud voice asked.

  “Sword of Justice said they would do it!” answered someone from the crowd, and more talk among the people ensued.

  Rhuna felt alarmed by these developments, and turned to leave, anxious to see Damell and tell him about the things she had just heard. When she finally approached the door of her father’s grand home, she was shocked to see Hari Tal standing in the open doorway expecting her arrival.

  “You’re back from the markets already? That was very quick!” she remarked as she entered the house and looked questioningly into the man’s face. He returned Rhuna’s look with an enigmatic smile, and Rhuna assumed she had been at the forum longer than she realized.

  Rhuna stepped into the main entrance room and saw Damell descending the stairs. She greeted him with a heartfelt hug and kiss on the cheek, and allowed him to squeeze her tightly for a few moments. Then she began to tell him about the things she had heard at the Forum for Awareness of Occurrences, and that she felt disturbed by these developments.

  “It is indeed of great concern!” Damell said gloomily.

  “It’s shocking that the Suchinda Atlans are killing people this way, but the High Council of Atlán killed the Dark Master - or his physical body, at least – because of all the terrible things he did.”

  “The Conjurers are a threat to the peace and happiness we enjoy in Varappa,” Damell added. “Yet, do their actions justify an execution of death by boiling?”

  “Not yet, but what will the Conjurers do next?” Rhuna said, becoming annoyed because throughout her discussion with Damell, no matter where she looked, Hari Tal was always in the corner of her eye.

  Finally, as Rhuna made to leave her father’s presence, he asked about her family in Cha’al, and she told him about Shandi’s dream of white mountains.

  “Dreams are only a slightly altered mental state, not unlike accessing The Infinite,” he explained. “She possesses a natural skill in shifting her Consciousness between planes.”

  Rhuna left her father’s house, relieved that he did not ask about Aradin. She spent the remainder of the day exploring areas of Judharo she had not visited before, until it was time to meet Goram and Lozira at the RTE base.

  As the sun descended on its final arc, Rhuna saw Goram and Lozira emerge from the city gate of Judharo and slowly walk towards the RTE base. She immediately noticed that Lozira was staggering, and Goram guided her with his arm around her waist. Rhuna stared in horror as Lozira stumbled on wobb
ly legs, arms outstretched to keep from falling while laughing like an excited monkey.

  “Lozira!” shouted Rhuna running towards her daughter. “What have you done?!” Rhuna looked at her daughter’s flushed face and disheveled hair with disbelief.

  “I am…like…floating!” Lozira uttered in a strange voice and then laughed again. Rhuna took Lozira’s face firmly in her hands and looked into her rosy face. She noticed that her daughter’s eyes were unable to focus.

  Rhuna glared at Goram reproachfully.

  “Why did you let Lozira drink too much intoxicating beverage?”

  “She drank nothing,” Goram said flatly.

  “Look at her – at how she’s behaving! She’s intoxicated!”

  “Perhaps…yet it is not a beverage she consumed, rather a remedial tonic,” Goram explained, and then recounted the day’s events in Judharo which led them to a practitioner of natural healing who provided her with a special tincture.

  “Why didn’t you come to me? I’m a Healer! What’s wrong with Lozira that she needs treatment? Why didn’t you tell me?” Rhuna shouted with deep distress and hurt.

  “It was not our intention to bypass you,” he answered. “It was an opportune encounter which led to partaking of the tonic which relieved Lozira of her distressing thoughts,” Goram answered. “Besides, you had been distracted lately, often going away on your own…”

  Rhuna ushered her daughter into the RTE and told Goram to keep her calm while she guided the craft to Cha’al. She struggled to concentrate on the operational procedures as Lozira’s moods swung from whimpering moans to high-pitched hysterics.

  “Get her to bed so she can sleep it off,” Rhuna instructed Goram when they arrived at the door of their Cha’al home. Inside the house, Rhuna saw the shocked and puzzled expressions on Aradin’s and Panapu’s faces as she escorted Goram and Lozira to their rooms.

  “Dead man did it!” Shandi piped up from behind them.

  “Did what, Honey Cakes?” Rhuna said, moving towards the little girl.

  Shandi smacked her forehead with the palm of her hand, and repeated her words.

  “Dead man…put it in his head! Din-Din’s head!” Shandi squawked with frustration. “And Lozira’s!”

  “Lozira’s?” Rhuna asked surprised.

  “Dead man put it in Lozira’s head, and Din-Din’s head!” Shandi said slowly and deliberately.

  Rhuna shook her head sadly. “I don’t understand what you’re trying to tell me, Shandi.” The little girl continued to hold Rhuna’s gaze silently for a while, until Lozira’s laughter distracted them. Rhuna watched with dismay as her older daughter staggered through the house like a drunkard while chattering about how ecstatic she felt.

  “What kind of tincture did this healer give her?” she asked Goram firmly.

  “He did not name it,” Goram answered with a shrug.

  “He gave her intoxicating herbs!” Rhuna said angrily.

  “So?” Goram shot back. “She is relieved of her mental anguish – that is the goal, is it not?”

  “What happens when the intoxication wears off?” Rhuna asked with a frown.

  “We go back to the Healer and procure more, of course!” said Goram casually.

  Rhuna shook her head and expressed her displeasure, then told Goram that she would make more time to spend with Lozira.

  “Maybe she’d like to go to the markets with me, to choose fabrics for clothes, or beads for jewellery…”

  “Yes, yes,” Goram said, nodding. “That is good.”

  Rhuna sat patiently by Lozira’s bedside until she awoke from her restless sleep. She noticed that her daughter’s eyes were more focused, and her movements as she lifted her head also appeared more normal.

  “Is it night time already?” asked Lozira wearily as she peered out of the window.

  “You should stay here and sleep,” Rhuna said. “And tomorrow I thought we could go to the markets, get some nice fabrics, or maybe something else you’d like…” Rhuna began hopefully. Lozira stared at her mother for a moment, and then nodded with a smile.

  The following morning, Rhuna and Lozira attended the markets in Judharo where textiles were brought directly from the ships as they arrived from near and distant lands. Rhuna kept watching Lozira closely and listening to her manner of speech, which was still slightly unnatural at times.

  “Choose the textiles you like best,” Rhuna said as she removed the pouch her father had given her for trading. Lozira was unable to decide what she liked at first, but after eating a delicious meal in a garden, Lozira chose the soft cotton dyed in blue tones.

  “I can make a dress out of this,” Lozira said, running her hand over the fabric.

  “I’ll show you how to make pleats around the waist!” Rhuna said cheerfully.

  They continued to wander around the markets and streets of Judharo, and Rhuna was happy that Lozira was interested in all the items on display. As they made their way back to the RTE base, they passed the Forum for Awareness of Occurrences, and Rhuna stopped to listen.

  “The Conjurers are being threatened by Suchinda Atlans, and want the protection of Judharo’s city walls – we must accommodate them!” said a woman with a piercing voice.

  “No. This is our city, our home!” a man called out in protest. “Let them build their own defences and abodes, not take ours which were built with toil and hard labour!”

  “Do not resist the wishes of the Conjurers,” warned someone else from the gathering. “They can take what they want!”

  Rhuna decided to move on and take Lozira home while she was still in a happy mood after obtaining dress material as well as footwear and beads for a necklace. That evening, when they had eaten and talked about the day’s events, Rhuna showed Lozira how to put pleats in the waist of a dress.

  “Lozira is back to normal,” she told Aradin as they retired to their sleeping chamber. Aradin merely grunted in response.

  “We haven’t been intimate in a while now,” she whispered after they had laid down.

  “I know,” he answered in the dark.

  “What’s wrong?”

  “I don’t know…” he answered, and Rhuna sensed he was lying.

  Rhuna endured another sleepless night, and by morning she had determined to confront Aradin directly about his problem. She looked out of their window at the beautiful blue of the sky and the dazzling white of the snow-topped mountains, wondering why these visual delights no longer gave her a thrill. Aroma of delicious food wafted up from the lower level of the house, and Aradin whistled a tune as he prepared himself in the bathing room nearby.

  Rhuna felt she could no longer hold herself together when Aradin emerged from the bathing room, still whistling.

  “What is wrong?!” she shouted shrilly.

  “I don’t love you anymore!” Aradin instantly shouted back. His words punched Rhuna in her chest, taking her breath away and making her legs weak.

  “I…I don’t understand…” she stammered after catching her breath. “How…?”

  “I don’t know! It just happened!” he shouted in the same agitated tone.

  Rhuna stood transfixed, her mind paralyzed and her feelings numb. She remained standing motionlessly until Aradin had entered the eating room in the lower level and cheerfully greeted Goram and Lozira.

  “Rhuna, come eat!” Goram shouted after a short while.

  “Eat without me – I’m not hungry,” she managed to call back down. Finally, her feet began to move even before her thoughts came together. She grabbed some personal items and a warm overcoat, then slowly walked downstairs on shaky legs.

  “I want to go see Damell,” she said simply. Goram and Lozira looked up at her and nodded their approval. When Aradin remained silent, Lozira looked at him puzzled.

  “You go ahead…I’ll stay here and play with Shandi,” Aradin said when he noticed Lozira’s look. Without turning around, he began to play with Shandi and make her giggle, and Rhuna was relieved that his love for his daughter had
not changed.

  Rhuna ran to the RTE and yanked the hatch door open. She found herself going through the process of preparing the Rapid Transport Enclosure automatically while her mind grappled to comprehend Aradin’s words. Her hands gripped the control levers tightly, and she strained to see out of the windows through tear-filled eyes.

  The fine weather no longer comforted her, and as she lowered the RTE to the ground outside Judharo’s main gate, she wished it would rain and never stop. When she disembarked, she wondered briefly how she had managed to operate the RTE and arrive in Judharo so effortlessly. Then she walked very fast towards Damell’s house where Hari Tal appeared at the opening door as she approached.

  “How do you always know when I’m coming?!” she blasted at him, immediately regretting her sharp tone and emotional outburst. Hari Tal’s enigmatic expression did not change, and Rhuna felt even deeper annoyance with the strange little man. “Where’s my father?” she asked.

  Hari Tal pointed to the room that was filled with morning sunshine and where musical sounds tinkled like water drops as Damell plucked one of his stringed instruments.

  “Rhuna! Come join me in playing music,” he said cheerfully. “Here is a vuda – you haven’t played in a long time.” Rhuna entered the room without speaking, and Damell’s expression quickly changed as he saw his daughter’s face more clearly.

  “What is it?” Damell asked urgently as he shot to his feet, letting the stringed instrument slide off his lap and onto the floor.

  “Aradin…he doesn’t love me anymore,” Rhuna said, hearing her voice shake. Damell looked stunned, and then a deep frown creased his kind and gentle face.

  “He said so?”

  “Yes,” said Rhuna as she choked back tears.

  “How can this be?” Damell asked, still stunned.

  Rhuna shook her head and began to speak, but only loud sobs and cries rushed forth from her mouth.