Julien
by Engor
Chapter 20
A few minutes later Tannder showed Askil into the room.
"Good morning, Noble Lords!" said the Guard. "And as for you, Ambar, please accept my congratulations on becoming a Noble Son, and I wish you every possible happiness in your new Noble Family."
Ambar seemed lost for words, merely mumbling something inaudible, blushing and nodding. So Niil answered for him.
"Honourable Guard, my brother and I thank you for your good wishes, and may the Powers of the R'hinz fulfil your every desire. And now please can we drop the High Speech? We'd like you to take us into town. Julien's keen to visit Aleth."
"That's why I'm here – I've been taken off the duty roster. So, where would you like to go, Your Honour?" he asked Julien.
"Somewhere I could get another bowl of sweetsnow would be nice."
"And we could have another look at Palace Square, too," suggested Niil. "Maybe this time you can try walking across it."
"Yes!" agreed Ambar, enthusiastically. "And we could go to the Central Market, too – there's heaps of stuff comes in there from all over the R'hinz. But I don't reckon we'll have time to see everything – it'll take us long enough just to get to town."
"Maybe not," said Niil. "That's one of the benefits of being a guard, isn't it, Askil?"
"True enough, Noble Lord: the First House's guards get to use Smooth Runners, and I'm fairly sure the First Lord won't mind us borrowing one. Actually he's already said that we can."
From a distance the Smooth Runner didn't look very big. Julien was intrigued: he'd been thinking that it might be some sort of flying carpet, or perhaps some sort of exotic motorbike, but he discovered that it was actually an animal. It looked more or less like a giant caterpillar with a leathery black hide, and the idea was to sit astride it and to hang on to the waist of the person in front of you.. The first passenger, in this case Askil, had a sort of bridle affair to keep him safely in the saddle. As they got closer Julien saw that the animal was a good three metres long, which meant that there was enough room for all of them.
Once they were safely aboard the guard leaned forward and whispered something or other, and the creature rose up on its many legs and started running along one of the paths that led through the park, and it was moving at a speed that an earthly caterpillar couldn't even attain if it had been fitted with a jet-pack. Julien clung on to Askil's waist as hard as he could, and Askil laughed, enjoying the reaction of the two newbies.
Ambar, whom Niil had considerately placed in front of him, started out by gripping Julien's body with an quite painful embrace, but soon he started to relax and enjoy the ride, whooping with excitement when the creature made a sharp turn that forced them to lean over, or when it slid down an unexpected slope so fast that for a moment it felt as if they had actually left the ground and were floating, free from the pull of gravity.
But all good things must come to an end, and eventually they reached the start of the city proper. They dismounted, and the Smooth Runner simply started grazing on the grass at the edge of the park.
They were at the end of the Great Promenade, the same street where Ambar had had his unfortunate encounter with the Warrior of Yrcadia. But now it was broad daylight and there was not even the least hint of danger: now there were children everywhere, along with innocent passers-by and street vendors. They headed straight for a seller of sweetsnow, where Ambar bought each of them a triple portion, happily telling the vendor: "It's on the Ksantiri account, Honourable!"
Soon they reached Palace Square, where the Emperor's mysterious dwelling was allegedly concealed. There weren't many people about: it was already very hot, and most people had been driven to find the shade of the trees in the avenues or the cool interior of the shops. The surface of the multicoloured pavement shone as if it had just been polished, and as you looked further it seemed to become a huge mirror reflecting a sky whose blueness seemed almost white in the heat shimmer. And, so far away that he wondered if they were even still in Aleth, Julien could see tiny buildings that indicated the far side of this gigantic open space.
"So do you still fancy trying it?" asked Niil.
"Sure. Coming?"
"Why not?"
"Can I come too?" asked Ambar.
"You'll have to," said Niil. "I can't leave you behind – you can't even wipe your own nose without my help!"
Ambar made a grotesque face at him and then turned to Askil.
"Are you coming too, Askil?" he asked.
"No, Noble Son, I'll just stay here and have a good laugh at you!"
Ambar and Niil each took one of Julien's hands and they stepped onto the first stone. Outside the ground was so hot that you could feel it through the soles of your sandals, but here it was strangely cool, and the stone reflected their image against a background of blue sky.
The next stone had a slightly different amber colour, and as they stepped onto it it made a noise, a faint crystalline sound that hung in the air for a few moments.
Ambar had a brief moment of uncertainty, but when he looked back he could see Askil still standing where they had left him, a smile on his face that would no doubt change to out-and-out laughter when they found themselves unintentionally going back the way they had come.
As they stepped onto the next stone they were greeted by a chorus of birdsong – it was like being caught in the centre of a whirlwind of chirping sparrows. Again, the sound faded after a few seconds. This time they all looked back, realising that they had probably gone as far as they could before the peculiar nature of he place kicked in and turned them round. Askil was still there, and he gave them an ironic wave of the hand.
The next stone was of a deep, lapis lazuli blue. This one made no sound at all, but the air seemed to quiver ahead of them the way it does above an overheated road, and you couldn't see anything but a blur beyond it. They looked back, but this time instead of Askil they saw only more heat-haze air.
"That's it," said Niil. "It's starting. I think the next step we take will see us outside again."
"Let's find out," said Julien, and they took another step forwards, still following their original direction...
Authors deserve your feedback. It's the only payment they get. If you go to the top of the page you will find the author's name. Click that and you can email the author easily.* Please take a few moments, if you liked the story, to say so.
[For those who use webmail, or whose regular email client opens when they want to use webmail instead: Please right click the author's name. A menu will open in which you can copy the email address (it goes directly to your clipboard without having the courtesy of mentioning that to you) to paste into your webmail system (Hotmail, Gmail, Yahoo etc). Each browser is subtly different, each Webmail system is different, or we'd give fuller instructions here. We trust you to know how to use your own system. Note: If the email address pastes or arrives with %40 in the middle, replace that weird set of characters with an @ sign.]
* Some browsers may require a right click instead
