Sacred Trust (19 page)

“Yes, but—“

The high priest interrupted me. “That is all for today. I will see you again tomorrow, at the same time.”

We were escorted out of The Temple of Enlightenment by the two temple guards. Neither one spoke to us as they hustled us outside, quietly backed up inside and closed the doors in our bewildered faces.

Our policewoman accompanied us home, and then it was time for our guard's shift change and, most importantly, our dinner. My stomach had been growling for the last couple of hours.

“What did you think about everything the high priest told us?” I asked over dinner. This time we ate in the living room. I had fixed everyone chicken sandwiches with chips and dip, an introduction to some simple Earth foods I had been told they could tolerate.

“Nothing I had not heard before,” said Ruen. “The priest is quite unlikeable however. It almost seemed like he threatened us at one point.”

“I know what you mean, and I think it was me he was directing his comments to,” I said. “He towered over us and said strange things. Eonus, what do you think?”

“Not pleasant. Chicken good,” he said, taking a huge bite of sandwich and chewing vigorously.

I wasn't quite sure what Eonus meant by his comment. He didn't seem too upset by our afternoon's experiences at the temple, so I decided I wouldn't dwell on it. “I'm glad you like the sandwich. Maybe tomorrow I'll bake a ham for all of us.”

“What is ham?” Ruen asked, still peeking under the top piece of bread on her sandwich.

“Smoked pig.”

“Like the ones we saw where we were held captive?”

“Yes, very much like them,”

Ruen finally picked up her sandwich and braved a bite. A pleased look swept across her face as she popped a chip into her mouth.

“What are we going to do tomorrow?” she asked around the food in her mouth. It wasn't considered bad manners to Basilians to talk with their mouths full.

“Since it's a rest day, I think we should stay home in the morning and make some plans for the afternoon,” I said.

“What do you think about going to a birkl game tomorrow afternoon?” Ruen asked.

I swallowed my food before I asked, “What's birkl?”

“Just a silly game where players kick a ball around a field, although I do enjoy it. The reason I want to go is because there will be huge numbers of people in one place. An excellent location to look for albinos.”

So we agreed upon our plan for tomorrow.

For the rest of the evening, we drew enough on our second board game to give it another couple of rounds of play.

Ruen had neglected to tell us that in a birkl game, players used a mount like a short-legged camel. That was the only way I could describe the animals I saw on the playing field. Light green skin and short legs made them unusually distinctive, but their two humps were what made me think of them as camels.

“What are those beasts called?” I asked.

“They are pumpus,” said Ruen. “I used to ride one when I was a youngster.”

She still is a youngster
, I thought, but I couldn't say that out loud. “Don't you think it looks like that animal we saw when we were held captive?” I asked her.

Ruen seemed surprised by my question. “No, they were a different size and color.”

I didn't think they were that different, at least from my point of view. However, I changed the subject. “I can see the rider is close enough to the ground to kick the ball with his foot, but what happens then? How do the players score points to win the game?”

“If you look at all four sides of the field you can see there are areas blocked off, with players on foot in front of those spots. Two of the areas are for each team. And the players on foot are called goalies.” Ruen bounced in her seat.

At least one word translated well enough I understood the meaning.

“So what do the players on the pumpus have to do?”

“Get the ball past one of the opposing team's goalies, twice in a five minute period,” said Ruen.

It had amazed me that, of all the worlds I knew of, the length of the day had turned out to be similar. Hours weren't really the same, but a minute was close to the same length of time as on Earth. Of course, the only worlds I knew were Earth, Arandis, and Basili. And they were all populated by humanoids.

“Getting two goals in five minutes must be tricky with two areas for each team,” I said.

“It does make it hard to follow for the spectators. And the players must somehow communicate with each other to determine who tries to get a goal, and who tries to defend, and which goalie to attack, and on, and on.” Ruen smiled. “But I love this sport.”

We watched for a while. Our police escort sat beside us and seemed totally engrossed in the game. Although she glanced our way regularly, I imagined any movement on our part, would break her concentration immediately.

The birkl game lasted for a couple of hours, and then we were on our way to The Temple of Enlightenment.

The four of us stopped for a snack.

“Ruen, how did you like the game?” I asked.

“It was pretty exciting, but my team lost,” she said.

“How do you pick a team to cheer for?”

“Well, there is this guy in one of my classes I am attracted to, so I decided to pick his team.”

Attraction, huh
?
She is still so young
. But then I realized I had had attractions of my own, at her age, too.

Eonus just gave the Arandi approximation of a snort.

“Be quiet, Tata,” said Ruen. “I know what the two of you have been up to.”

Eonus ignored Ruen, except to say, “Call Eonus. Ruen good friend now.”

Ruen seemed pleased with his announcement. “Thank you Eonus. I consider you my good friend too.”

* * * *

The acolyte at the entrance to the Temple of Enlightenment quickly found the high priest for us. Ada Chap then led us further into the bowels of the temple than we had ever been before. Much to my delight, we ended up in their library.

Ruen gave me a nudge—the high priest was speaking and I had gone to another dimension.

“... so our religion is based on the concept of equality and duality. Does anyone have any questions?” he asked.

Ruen piped up, since she knew I hadn't heard much. “Could we look at some of the volumes in your library? This is fascinating.”

“Of course. What would you like to see, Tata?”

“Old science,” said Eonus.

The high priest nodded. “And you, Ruen Title?”

“Do you have any volumes on ancient animals? Nara made me think of that today when we watched the birkl game.”

“I missed that game,” said the high priest. “Too many other commitments.”

Ada Chap looked my way. “Nara Scotia, what would you like to view?”

“I am interested in ancient biology. Do you have anything like that?” I asked.

“I can certainly accommodate all of your requests.” He waved at the acolytes who had accompanied us, and they scurried off. “In the meantime, join me in a cup of tea, while we wait.”

The three of us followed him a short distance further into the depths of the temple.

We found ourselves in what looked like another conference room and settled on some stools. An acolyte joined us, and proceeded to make our hot beverages.

I did enjoy the Basilian equivalent of tea. Quite relaxing, but not addictive, as far as I had been able to tell.

“Drink well,” said the high priest. “The volumes you requested should be here shortly, and beverages are not allowed around library books, in case of damage.”

I sipped for a bit, and then looked around the room.

The room became increasingly blurry, and then my eyelids were suddenly so heavy I could no longer keep them open.

Okay, now where am I?

Once again, I found myself face down on a cold floor. I opened my eyes to find myself in another unfamiliar place, and it was getting to be a little monotonous. I knew I'd been transported again—this time from the Temple of Enlightenment—but to where? The flooring looked suspiciously like that of our previous prison.

“Nara, are you alright?”

“Dad?” I pushed myself up to my knees, and confronted my long-lost father hovering over me. I threw my arms around him. His came around me, and he pulled me to my feet, hugging me tightly to him. “Where have you been?” I sobbed into his shoulder.

“Right here, where you were held and where you are again. Now, tell me...are you all right?” he asked again.

“I guess so...” I pulled back from him, sniffed and wiped my tears away. “...but I'm thoroughly annoyed at being abducted again.” I wanted to hit something, or at least stamp my foot. Dad knew me so well that he took a couple of steps back.

Looking around, I saw Ruen and Eonus being tended to by Raen and Ilandus. At least this time, our confinement included most of our parents. Since Kikess had arranged our afternoon outings at The Temple of Enlightenment, he was not going to be pleased about our second abduction.

And I knew that creepy high priest was involved. Somehow. I expected him to pop through our door any minute now.

Although the room I stood in appeared similar to our previous confinement area, it turned out to be much larger. It had a series of bunk beds—enough to accommodate ten people. The center of the room had a number of tables and stools. Apparently this jail cell had the same interior decorator, as the walls remained the same boring color.

I took a couple of steps to reassure myself that my body parts still worked.

I noticed our parents had already been given similar clean clothes to what we had received during our previous imprisonment. “So this is where you guys got to,” I said to the ambassadors. “Officer Kikess has another massive manhunt going on, and he's not going to like the fact that the three of us have disappeared again. I can't say I'm very happy about it either.”

We definitely needed to get to the bottom of this—and fast!

Ruen, Eonus, and I settled at one of the tables, but there weren't enough stools for all six of us to sit there. Raen pulled an extra stool over from another table to sit by Ruen, and Eonus took my hand to tug me down onto his lap. I could feel my cheeks redden, considering we'd never been this demonstrative in front of our parents before. However, Eonus seemed comfortable, so I decided to take his actions in stride as well. I draped my arm across his shoulders as his went around my waist, and we smiled warmly at each other, ignoring the surprised looks from Dad and Ilandus.

Then Dad smiled. “Well, look at you two. When did this happen?”

“Recently,” I said, keeping my eyes trained on his face. “Eonus, you aren't saying anything.”

“What say? Unhappy to be here, but together.” Smiling, Eonus kissed me lightly, and then I rested my forehead against his.

“Just ignore them; I always do,” Ruen said. “So, how did you three end up here, in this lovely vacation condo?”

Laughing silently, Dad shook his head. “We were on our way to see Aron to get our tracking devices when we appeared in this room. Earlier, I was skeptical about your notion of a transporter, but I'm pretty convinced of it now.”

“Again I will say our captors are neither Arandi nor Basilians,” I said. “And they certainly aren't human.”

“But they sure look like us,” Ruen added, “except for their skin color. Basili has never had any incidents of albino births.”

“Not Arandi,” said Eonus, putting a hand to his head.

I frowned. What did his gesture mean? “What is it?” I asked him, but he merely shook his head and remained silent.

“What's the meal schedule?” Ruen asked.

“Yeah, will it be suppertime soon?” I asked. My stomach was definitely telling it was.

“Yes,” confirmed Ambassador Tata. “Soon.”

“What have you all been doing with your time here?” I asked.

“Waiting for our captors to contact us. Since we're ambassadors, and I'm sure they know it, it only stands to reason they would make face-to-face contact. We need to negotiate our release,” said Dad.

“Actually, what we need to do is find out why we keep getting abducted,” I said. I shook my head, but it didn't help my mood. Getting repeatedly uprooted made me cranky. “Anything else?” I asked, pointing at the ceiling.

“No,” answered Ilandus.

So they hadn't been adventurous. That didn't surprise me.

I gestured towards the amenities room. Dad gave me a thumb's up. So the setup worked the same; we'd just been transported to a different room this time.

Ushering everyone into the amenities room, I said, “We need a plan. Staying here and not trying to escape is futile. We could wait forever for negotiations to begin. We need to be proactive.”

My father wasn't happy with my boldness, but I had had enough.

“What do you suggest?” asked Ruen.

“We have to know more about our captors, so we need to continue our exploring. After dinner, I think the three of us should explore again. The ambassadors can stay here and send our food trays back and such. And I think we should also ask for paper and writing instruments, as before, so we can ostensibly create games and write letters but, in reality, draw our maps.” I looked around the room, but I saw no indications of yea or nay. Which didn't surprise me much when half of us were diplomats.

“Well?” I looked from face to face. “What do you all think about my proposal?”

“No,” said Ilandus. “Naru and Raen stay; I go.”

Not what I'd expected from Eonus' mother. She proved to be more adventurous than I'd imagined.

I looked at Dad and Raen. “That seems like an excellent plan,” he said, after glancing at Raen.

What?
I thought.
They want a little privacy. Is that why Ilandus wants to go with us?
I wondered if she knew what I suspected was going on between my Dad and Raen. I sighed. I needed to think about Dad perhaps being with Raen. In recent memory, he'd not had a long-term female friend that I knew about, or even a close female friend. Perhaps he'd hidden his affairs behind meetings and other absences to protect his young daughter. But I wasn't a child anymore.