Chapter 9: A Whole Other World

“What do you think of this view?” asked Tulonan.

 I pressed my hands against the parapet and stared into the yawning valley. The setting sun traced the trees with long shadows and tinged their leaves with gold. I leaned over the stone railing and looked down the length of the towering concrete pylon of the aqueduct. The steep drop washed my chest with a cold terror and I quickly pulled back.

 “Why not just stand on the roof of one of the campus buildings?”

 Tulonan smiled. “Because this very aqueduct would cut off part of our view of the heavens.”

 We had met at the end of the school day and Tulonan had guided me up the stairwell that normally lead to the embarkation point for the water shuttles. But instead of stopping there, we continued up the steps till we’d reached the topmost part of one of the old watchtowers that dotted the length of the waterway.

 “Why don’t they just make this an observatory?” I asked.

 Tulonan laughed dryly. “Oh, I’ve tried to get the administrators to petition the Emperor for just such a thing, but you know how bureaucracy is.”

 He knelt down and rifled through his satchel till he pulled out a long rod made of thin acacia planks and ringed at intervals with copper bands. Standing, he handed the device to me.

 “I wanted to show you this,” he continued.

 I examined the wooden tube, turning it over in my hands till I noticed the round glass lens at the large end. I looked to Tulonan.

 “Is this the result of your experiments with that glassmaker?”

 Tulonan smiled. “Put the small end to your eye and tell me what you see.”

 I did as he asked.

 Looking into the wooden tube was like peering down a dark tunnel and seeing a cluster of trees at the far end. It was obvious I was staring down at a patch of woods in the valley.

I removed the glass from my eye to orient myself towards the school and then resumed squinting through the tube. 

 The long flaxen curls of the Celestial Lord sank down as he leaned in to give his sister a forbidden kiss. Beyond them and the coiled serpent they perched on I could make out the individual stones of the quadrangle.

 “This is very impressive, Tulonan. You could probably use this optical tube to spy on someone if you were so inclined.”

 Tulonan chuckled as I handed the device back to him. “Yes, Syndeeka, that’s why I said the Emperor might have use for this… well, this spyglass.”

 “I hope you can come up with a better name for your invention than that.”

 Tulonan and I spent the better part of the evening pointing the spyglass at the starry dome of night above us. I regretted not letting Mala know I’d be gone most of the evening, but then she’d become used to my late-night sojourns.

  It had been four days since my last meeting with the Deity Imperator and I’d had nothing but ill luck in my searches of the catacomb tunnels. It was a labyrinth down there, so much so that I found it strange that there happened to be such a direct route from Bardrakeu’s family villa to the campus-- but then perhaps that did much to explain Nebiat’s affiliation with the Sepulchral Giant.

 The thought of the poor wine steward brought me down somewhat from my reverie over examining the heavens with Tulonon’s spyglass. But then Tulonan made me look up at the moon.

 I squinted for a few minutes, initially not sure what it was I was observing on the surface of the luminous orb.

 “Mountains and valleys… is that what I’m seeing?” I asked, removing the small end of the spyglass from my eye.

 Tulonan, his face a round silhouette silvered with moonlight, laughed. “Amazing, isn’t it?”

 I handed him the spyglass and took in a large draught of cool night air. “It’s a world, then. Maybe somewhat like ours. Maybe there are people up there looking down at us.”

 I placed my hands on the parapet and stared out across the valley and at the lights of Riga Etirsuki. Somewhere in that imperial capital an emperor’s cousin may have been doing unspeakable things to a poor old butler. And yet above our heads hung a whole other world that for all I knew was populated with intelligences who also stared at the night sky and wondered.

 I shut my eyes and let warm tears roll down my cheeks. 

 The next morning I unlocked Tulonan’s office door and was surprised to find him sleeping at this desk, his head in his arms and a bottle of wine at his side. I crept up to him and gently patted his arm.

 “Tulonan. Are you well?”

 Tulonan pulled his head up to regard me with reddened eyes.

 “Oh, Syndeeka. I’m glad you are here. I’m in no condition to give lectures today. But fortunately, I have a personal assistant who carries my lecture notes to class.”

 “Um…may I ask what exactly it is you’d like me to do?”

 He gave me a dopey grin.

 “Why, lecture, of course.”

 My skin grew clammy.

 “What?”

 “Do be so good as to do that. I’ll be forever in your debt.”

 I sat down before him, placing my satchel in my lap. “What happened? Did you stay here all night?”

 Tulonan pulled his heavy head up and placed it in his hands. “After you left for home, I stayed up and continued to study the night sky. Eventually, I cajoled the guard to let me onto the campus grounds. Then found my way back to the office and took out my one bottle of spirits, which I’d stashed away for a special occasion.”

 “I see…”

 He frowned. “I thought of my wife. She would have been so proud of my spyglass. I never thought I’d have to drink alone.”

 “Oh.” I folded my hands over my satchel and stared at my lap.

 “Two years is such a long time. I always tell myself that if I just didn’t think about her all the time, I wouldn’t miss her so much.”

 I placed my hand on his shoulder. “I’m so sorry, Tulonan.”

 He stared at me with watery eyes and smiled.

 “If you had known me five years back, you would have been delighted to have the acquaintance of such an amiable old stargazer. I’m sorry our paths didn’t cross sooner, Syndeeka.”

 I certainly had not wanted to read Tulonan’s lecture notes before his various classes, but I felt a deep sympathy for the man and wanted to honor our friendship. Why be nervous? I asked myself. I’d been in many life-or-death situations before and somehow I’d managed to get through the chaos. All I was going to do was read the same essay four times a day to a bunch of pampered young men hardly older than boys.

 To the south of the main plaza and its surrounding department buildings was a wide meadow peppered with amphitheaters sunk into the ground and hedged in by groves of trees. I did my breathing meditation as I walked the flagstone path leading to the lecture space where Tulonan conducted his classes.

 At first, none of the students gave me a second glance as I unloaded  scrolls and my notebook from my satchel on the table by the lecture podium. But then their instructor failed to surface. The young men gave nervous glances and started whispering to each other.

 Then I approached the podium and (in as composed a voice as I could muster) said, “Tulonan is ill today, so he has asked me, his personal assistant, to lecture in his stead.”

 There was an uproar from the students sitting on the rows of stone benches that curved in a half-moon before me. 

 “He also said,” I continued, “that if you fail to give me the same deference as you would him, then I am to report back to him and he will personally see to it you are expelled from his class.”

 That last part was a lie, but it encouraged the young men to overcome their chauvinistic reservations and let me give my speech. 

 The class fell silent, I unrolled a vellum scroll, and then stumbled over Tulonan’s poor handwriting, faltering in places but never letting it get to me.

 By the beginning of the third class I had gained enough confidence to easily lecture the students after quieting their protests with my groundless threat. Everything was going surprisingly well until I dismissed class and Aldro hesitantly approached as I was getting my notes in order.

 “Hello, Aldro,” I said, smiling. “How are things going with you and… well, how are you doing today?”

 “Oh,” said Aldro, sitting on a corner of the table, “I don’t want to talk about her now, anyway. No, there’s something else I need to tell you.”

 “Really?” I slid a leather thong over the main lecture scroll and placed the document next to my satchel.

 “It’s about Nebiat.”

 My chest felt like it was caving in.

 “Bardrakeu’s servant,” I said slowly.

 “Yes. They…they, uh, found him. The other servants did.”

 He looked down and took in a deep, deep breath.

 I was too nervous to even respond.

 “Or rather,” he continued, “they found what was left of him.”

 All the air escaped my lungs in a dry gasp.

 “Aldro…” I sat down and looked into his youthful face “…I…am so very sorry…”

 I placed my face in my shaking hands.

 “He was mangled. One of his eyeballs was hanging out of a socket and most of his face was gone. So were most of his arms and legs.”

 I shut my eyes. “Aldro, I really don’t want to know all the details, please.”

 “Oh, I’m sorry. Of course you wouldn’t want to hear such things.”

 I looked at him. “I’m a sell-sword, young man. I’ve seen much, much worse than what you’ve described. It’s just…”

 My eyes welled up with tears and I wiped them away with both hands.

 I sighed heavily. 

 “He was a good man,” I continued, my voice cracking. “He was kind.”

 Aldro’s eyes widened. “Syndeeka, I didn’t realize you knew him all that well.”

 “I only met him twice. But those meetings were enough to convince me what a noble soul he was.”

 I crossed my hands and lay my cheek on them.

 “I need to get going now,” Aldro said, standing.

“He didn’t deserve what they did to him. Tell Bardrakeu I’m sorry beyond words.”