He turned
and led me through shifting sprays of the White Swarm and curving crests of
buildings toward the southwest corner of the city. As we walked, I noticed that
wind tattered the edges of both his cloud and his body, as though he was not
quite solid. When we arrived at a small building, just beneath the wall, he
stopped before a small building, he stopped and waved his hand. A door opened. We
stood together for a moment outside. Within, it was dark, but the White Swarm poured
from us soon glowed gently, and showed a staircase that led down. I started
when I saw that the spiraling stairs were jade.
“Into the
old city,” he said. “The fire did not burn deep. In that we were quite fortunate.”
I waited
for him, but he soon waved me forward. “This journey is for you, and you go
places I will not. But greet in my name the one whom you will meet.”
“I don’t
understand,” I said, then laughed at myself. I stepped onto the staircase. When
I turned, Jerem Cozak had already gone.
I shrugged
and took the stairs as quickly as I safely could. The White Swarm lit my way,
pouring glowing out in my breath and following me down the stair, but never
thickly enough to impair my vision. I wondered if the White Swarm would
eventually overcome these machines, too, or leave them as they were. Something
told me the walls would all be white someday. I went down to about the eighth
level, and remembered that Kasora once held vast reserves for when it was
besieged. I would later learn that many of the levels between had been empty
since the war between the cities.
The
staircase ended before a square door in the manner of the old city. It opened
when I approached, swinging on metal hinges. Within stood the man who had been
second in rank to Cassan Vala. He looked much as he had when I had seen him in
Sepira, though he wore no armor, only a blue silk shirt and trousers like my
own. He nodded when our eyes met.
“Jerem
Cozak greets you, Nogilian” I said.
“He and all
his friends are welcome here, spearman. I feel strange not wearing armor. But everyone
seems to agree that I have fought enough. Neither of them will let me go on. So
for me the war is over. I will keep this city when the rest of you are gone.”
I nodded,
surprised that he had answered so many questions I had not thought to ask.
Perhaps I should have followed him, but then would I truly have been needed? I
could sense that many men would follow him, not because he was a mystery, but
because he was such an easy man to know. That way of being is far more rare and
pleasing.
“All his
friends, you say. But I came down these stairs alone. He says that everyone
else has gone on ahead. Is that so?”
He nodded.
“It is. He waited for you, and for the other few who had not woken yet. Will
you follow me?”
I nodded
and said of course I would, wondering that he had been second in command, and
someone else first. Even in the midst of the argument at Sepira I had thought
him a fine leader, and a warrior great even in his sadness.
And as I
thought of that, I realized it was gone from him. I remembered how I had felt
after Nesechia, and then during this siege, and understood. Valor itself can destroy
a man, if it is virtue for such horrors. If such had happened to Nogilian,
Jerem Cozak was right to release him.
We walked a
long way down a dim corridor. We passed no doors, and turned only once, toward
what I imagined must be the very center of the city. He felt no need to say
anything while we walked, and neither did I. When we stopped, it was before a simple
door much like the one that had marked the bottom of the stairwell. Yet to this
one Nogilian placed his hand, and the door swung wide.
No comments:
Post a Comment