The Spaces Between (A Drunkard's Journey) (13 page)

Qainur’s gaze was beginning to match that of the elder as he looked upon his companions. “A demon! Another demon! We are too late! It has started!”

Torplug got back on his horse and motioned the others to do so. He did not speak, however, but sat there, reins in his hands, his thoughts pensive. “I’m not so sure. I wonder if the Guard was being honest about what he did and why.”

“What do you mean?” Zhy asked.
Why, oh why am I on this journey

Torplug sighed. “I think it is better to convince a village elder that demons are out than to tell the truth. Although either one is just as fabulous and contrived. Would it be better to say there are demons? Or that the Knights of the Black Dawn are prowling in your village? Demons are abstract, really, and they cause fear, but it can be managed. A group of lethal assassins in your woods? Well…that’s very real.”

“Not entirely,” Zhy put in. “If most people don’t even know who they are—”

“Think about it. You tell your village you torched an inn because of someone bad in there. ‘Who was bad?’ they ask. ‘Knights of the Black Dawn’, you say. ‘Who are they?’ You are then forced to try and explain that away, and you can’t. You’re stuck. And then you wind up getting put in the restraining house, even as a Counsel Guard, because your superiors will deny everything and leave you stranded. So…you go back to the old stand-by for the village imbeciles: Demons.” He sounded both smug and distraught at the same time.

“So…do you think the Knights of the Black Dawn were here?” Qainur asked.

“I’m convinced of it. Or other demons were here, and they were hunting them. But does it really matter which? Come, let’s ride out of here. I want to make Reldan before the inn closes up.” After they had put a couple of miles behind them, they resumed their conversation.

“So the Black Dawn is everywhere?” Qainur asked, looking out into the dark woods. In his mind, he saw camps of the Black Dawn amassing among the cathedral pines. He wanted to draw steel and cut them down.

“I don’t know. Could be another coincidence.”

“Too many of those lately,” Zhy replied, shivering against the night chill.

“What can we do about it?” Qainur asked gruffly. While his itch to fight was growing, he knew he was no match for the Dawn, even if they had killed two already. With any luck, they would ride north and pass all of this by. In an attempt to refocus his mind, he tried to picture of a nice, juicy serving maid in the next town.

“Nothing. We have gotten lucky twice. That’s two more times than we are probably allowed. I won’t count that, that…demonic bat since I killed it before it could kill anyone else. Doubtful it would have attacked us. Let’s continue northward. Maybe we will find out more in Reldan.”

Chapter 12 — Deep Down Below

A rope of knots can be used as a ladder. As a tool. So, too, can a man be used as a tool by another. Undo all the knots? You fall to your death.

Prophet Altyu-M’Zhkara, IV Age

W
e are north of the small town of Reldan. Right now we are keeping very close to my son and his companions. Soon we will be ahead of them.

“They are upstairs?” I was very quiet.

Yes, out along the road. I hope we can stay ahead of them until…until we need to—

“Need to what?

Need to leave...shh, Bimb, and listen!

“What is this Temple like, then?” Fa was asking.

The stranger talked. He did not talk much, but now he was talking more. More than Ugly Nose. I was happy Ugly Nose was not talking much.

“It is not a large building. It is very unassuming. Very small.”

“But—”

“One does not need a large building to protect the world. It is only a building. A structure. It’s really the work of those who protect it, those who protect the good in the world and work to fight the Dark. The mission is much larger. Who needs large buildings?”

I think he took a drink of water. I drank some water. All the dripping made me want to pee. But I listened.

“The building itself is built of inexpensive yet smooth stone. It’s really just a large box, as wide as it is tall. The terrain is rocky but there are trees—and, yes, it snows all the time. Its roof is very steep because of the snows… many times you can’t even open the door because the snow slides down the roof and piles on the ground. Better than caving in the roof, though! In any case, there are a few stained glass windows for light, but otherwise, the only light is the fire inside, which was my duty to keep going. There is plenty of wood in a valley below.

“There are no villages anywhere nearby. A hermit or two lives in the valleys below, but I have never seen them. There are wild animals: caribou, reindeer, rabbits, and so forth. Every six months we re-supply from Gray Gorge, if we can. Or from the Tunnels. The problem is that so few know of the Tunnels, if the courier on duty does not know of them, we send them overland. It’s grueling. But the mission is worth it.”

“You are correct,” Ugly Nose said softly.

“Are we granted anything…special…by protecting the Temple?” Fa asked.

“What do you mean?”

“Well…my son, for example. If I work hard and pray at the Temple, will…”

“I’m sorry it does not work that way. I wish it did.”

“But—”

“I know what you are asking, and I am sorry if you think that by doing this you are granting yourself an indulgence.”

Drip, drip, drip
. Three drips. It changed from four. I waited.
Drip, drip, drip, drip
. I could make a new song from that.
Three-four-three-four
.

Fa was quiet.

“I did not expect an indulgence. I was merely asking.”

“You sound like you did,” Ugly Nose said. His voice was ugly. Sometimes it sounded like the water dripping. Now it sounded like a crow.

“It would have been nice.”

“I think people get confused about the Temple,” the stranger said. “They don’t fully understand the mission. And that is the hardest part about protecting it.”

“I thought the Temple protected the world from the demons below. Great hordes of demons are going to burst from the bowels of the earth and kill everything and everyone, unless the Temple is there. For Sacuan’s sake! You told us yourself that Gozath was a demon!”

“I never said demons weren’t real!”

“Is he going to tell a scary story again?” I said very soft. I stopped. I put my hands over my ears. I did not want to hear another scary story! What if the lights went off?

He’s not going to tell another scary story. He is going to explain why the Temple of M’Hzrut is there. Listen.

“Inside the temple there are drawings on the ceiling. Horrible, unnerving and quite upsetting. When the firelight hits them just right, you can see dancing shadows—horned beasts, leaping dragons, and people being impaled on long poles. It is frightening but it is a reminder of what we do and why we protect the Temple. Although when I first saw them, an older Protector told me that it ‘created a sense of reality to the whole charade.’“

“Charade!” Fa yelled. What did that word mean?

It means show or fake. When you act sick, but you aren’t…that is a charade.

“Yes, he said that. And he was partially right. The holy elders seem to like the dramatic. Shadows, fires, candles, altars…temples even. Lights and robes and whatever else. All of this is part of the image. Part of the, well…mystique.

“Demons will not be stopped by all of this ceremony, holy essences, and the like. True, there are magical wards around the temple, and it sits atop a rift in the spirit world where demons could easily come through. People are comforted by temples and chapels and holy men dressed in robes, muttering fancy words. They understand we, the Protectors, are there. But the threat from demons is very slight—at least the threat from a multitude. Think about it—even warlocks draw power from demons, and while some go mad, the world is not in danger from them. No…so we keep the temples and the words and the constant threat of demonic invasion. It hangs over the heads of the common folk like a blanket.”

He said a lot of words I did not understand. But the Temple did not really keep us safe? It was only a building? “Ma and Fa always said the Temple saved the world from demons. They lied?”

They did not lie. They did not know. You are safe with the Temple. You are safe here in the Tunnels. Things—the things he is saying are beyond you. But please listen. For me. You are safe.

“I am safe,” I whispered. Drip-drip-drip. Back to three. I thought a new chord in my mind. I wanted to play the sutan. Zhy’s Fa didn’t want me to. Too loud here.

“So you—we—all of us—keep people safe through fear?” Fa said very loudly.

“We are not to judge how the people are kept in check or how peace is maintained. Yes, there is perhaps the role that fear plays in keeping people in line. But not all people are afraid. Not all fear an undeath or an eternity of torment. Yet they do good deeds and are kind to others. Think of the holy texts: we guard the light against the darkness.

“Even though there may not be a wave of demons that will destroy the world, the world is safer because we are here. Back in Belden, and indeed in parts of Welcfer, they are taught that the pillars of the world are held up here at this very temple. And the guardians of the temple secure it, and by doing so, they protect against the surge of demons below.”

“I still—”

“Our work at the Temple is far more important than you realize, even if it seems meaningless. By guarding this temple, we are reassuring countless families that their world is safe. Judge not how our holy ones use their words to coerce or control. Not all follow such teaching, nor should they be expected to. Those who do good for the sake of good are blessed. Those who put faith in us—in the Temple—those are the ones we serve and protect, even if we are not there. And they are equally blessed. The very fact that we are there is for them the greatest protection. For they feel safe and secure. They do not fear for the end of the world, even if such a thing is preposterous.”

“He is correct,” Ugly Nose said.

Fa made a loud noise in his throat. “It is very complicated.”

“And did not the Prophet Altyu-M’Zhkara state that we are all complex knots? Interwoven and intertwined. And we make up the world. So, too, is the world a knot.”

“The prophet who?”

“Altyu-M’Zh—”

“Oh, Altu Mkara?”

Ugly Nose made a noise in his throat. “It is a hard name, I agree, but you miss half the letters when you say it that way.”

“Why is that important?”

Wind came out of Ugly Nose’s mouth. A big wind. “Someone took the time to name him that, we must honor him thus.”

“I’m sorry I don’t honor prophets. I honor their teachings and lessons, if they are valid and do good for others. And…” Fa let out a big wind too. “Who names their kid Mkazrare—?”

“M’Zhakra.
Mmm
, like a yummy sound.
Zzzz
, like sleeping, and
Kara
. M’Zhkara.”

I wanted to laugh. Ugly Nose sounded like Ma. When I was a baby. Before she got sick and took all the pills. Before she cried all the time. She talked funny. And she made funny noises. I laughed at her faces and noises.

The young man coughed. “So what were we talking about?”

“Demons I believe,” Ugly Nose said. Demons scared me.

“I’m scared of demons...”

Don’t be scared, they aren’t real—

“Demons were real! Ugly Nose said so. The other man said so. He said there were demons!”

They won’t hurt you. You are safe here.

“But what about those who now believe demons are loose?” Fa asked.

Ugly Nose blew air from his mouth. “There are demons in this world. You may think warlocks are strong in their ability to keep them at bay, but that is wrong. Some do get out.”

“I thought only warlocks could do that…”

“That is often the case, although some people have trinkets they use to summon them. Sometimes they succeed...and...well—”

“Sometimes! How—” Fa sounded scared. I was scared.

“It is nothing to get too concerned about, but there is a threat from demons. We know that warlocks do their part to control them, but even I can’t get much out of them...there’s just too much we don’t understand. But, with the Knights and powerful warlocks, we can be fairly assured that things are not as bad as all that.”

“Not as bad!” Fa was worried.

“Yes, but you have to be careful. For instance, just north of Reldan, on the main road, there is a clearing. The clearing is wrong. The grass is dead brown in the summer and bright green in late fall and throughout the winter. There is a broken down temple far back in the clearing—that looks a little like M’Hzrut. But the place is a reversal.”

“A what?”

“A reversal is a place where night is light is day is night,” Ugly Nose was talking. I wished he would not talk. I wished he would go away.
Drip-drip-drip
. “It is an evil place. Best avoided. I have heard of the place you mention, and it has always worried me that it is on the main road. Or very close to it. Best to ride past it as fast as possible.”