Chapter 6
1808 Words
6
A few days later we found ourselves back at the majestic city of Alexandria. It was late morning when we passed through the gates and down the streets to the castle. The shimmering surface of the lake greeted us with soft waves that lapped against the white sands of the banks.
The shuttle ship to the castle awaited us and servants stood on the dock to take the reins of our horses. I dismounted and handed off the reins, but I didn't go down the dock to the ship. My attention lay on those shimmering waters.
I stepped off the start of the dock and walked the short distance across the sand to the blue-green waters of the lake. The waves lapped at my shoes as I knelt before them as though in prayer. That wasn't too far from the truth as I stretched out my hand, but drew it back and bit my lower lip.
Footsteps crunched across the sand and Xander appeared at my side. He stooped and caught my gaze. "Is something the matter?"
I gave him a shaky smile. "I've mostly been touching puddles, so I'm a little-well, a little reluctant to touch this much water. I don't want to see that many deer or have my head explode."
Xander grasped my left and smiled at me. "I will be here to prevent your head from exploding."
I snorted. "Thanks." I stretched out my hand and gingerly touched my fingertips to the water.
The experience was, well, overwhelming. All the puddles and streams ever told me were about rabbits hopping through their waters or deer tramping among the river rocks. They were small stories in the lives of smaller animals.
The lake, however, told me a saga of life. It was like viewing a movie with more characters than a Russian novel and more scenes than an international crime thriller. There were animals in the pictures, but much more than that. Fisherman skiffed across the surface in their boats. Children played in the shallows while their mothers chased after the naughtier ones. It was life. The full, unabridged life of the life-giving waters.
One of those lives stood out from the rest like a a bonfire among matches. The backdrop for the drama was a large lake, larger than the one in which my fingers were submerged. The water was surrounded on two sides by tall, steep mountain walls. Their tops disappeared into thick white clouds, but just beneath the clouds was a dusting of snow.
One of the other sides of the lake was a small, flat plain with a large city, and the other side, on the opposite shore, showed a gap in the mountains through which water flowed. I realized then that there were two lakes separated by those white cliffs, and they shared the same water who's source were dozens of small streams from the tops of the mountains.
It was in the second lake that I felt the anomaly. It started out as a ripple without a source, but the ripples grew stronger with each passing moment. The calm surface of the lake bubbled up into whitecaps that rocked the few boats on its waters. The men cried out in terror and clutched the railings as their ships rocked from side-to-side.
The waves stopped as suddenly as they had begun. The ripples I felt disappeared, but left me with a lingering feeling, as though I'd brushed against something greater than myself,and came away with the knowledge that I was a speck in the world.
"Miriam!"
I started back and blinked. The scene of the lakes with their high mountains disappeared. I was back at the lake in Alexandria, and all around me were my concerned friends.
Xander grasped my right wrist in his and little water droplets dripped from my fingers. His eyes searched my face as he pursed his lips. "Are you unhurt?"
I shook my head to clear the foggy thoughts left by the reading and arched an eyebrow. "Yeah, why wouldn't I be?"
"You stared at the water for several minutes without response, and I could not pull your hand free of the water," he revealed.
Darda set her hand on my shoulders. "You should rest now."
I shook my head. "I can't, at least not yet. I think I saw a god."
"Nearby?" Spiros asked me.
I shrugged. "I don't know. I've never been there before."
"Can you describe it?" Xander wondered. I described what I had seen in as great a detail as I could manage. Xander furrowed his brow and glanced at Spiros. "Those resemble the Didymes Limnes."
Spiros nodded. "Yes, but we can confirm that with the maps."
"The what?" I spoke up.
"The name translates to 'Twin Lakes,' and they constitute the northeastern boundary of our realm against that of the Black Dragon," Xander explained.
Xander helped me to my shaky feet with Darda flitting behind me. "Miriam should rest," she insisted.
I shook my head. "I'm fine, really. It was just a lot to take in, that's all."
Xander pursed his lips as he studied me. "Your face is rather pale. Perhaps we should wait."
I snorted. "They're just maps. I think I can look at them sitting down."
A sly smile slipped onto Spiros's lips. "You have not seen the maps of Alexandria, My Lady."
We proceeded toward the ship, but a uniformed officer rushed up on horseback from the direction of the city. He dismounted and hurried over to Spiros to whom he bowed. "Captain, a word from the front."
Spiros arched an eyebrow. "Well, what is it?"
The messenger's eyes flickered over all those present. "The word was sent by special messenger, Captain, and he would not give the message to anyone but you. I have come to take you to the gate tower to hear what he has to say."
The captain of the Alexandrian guards pursed his lips and glanced over his shoulder at Xander. "My Lord-"
Xander shook his head. "There is no need to explain. For the good of Alexandria your duties as her captain must come first. We will meet you in the map room."
Spiros turned completely to us and bowed to Xander. "Yes, My Lord." The captain returned his attention to the messenger, and together the two strode off with the horse.
We three boarded the vessel and crossed the calm waters to the majestic castle nestled against the steep mountain. The servants greeted us at the dock with smiles and bows, and I was glad when they removed my heavy traveling coat and hard riding boots.
Xander offered me his arm. "I do not believe you have seen the map room."
I shook my head as I accepted his arm. "No. I didn't even know there was such a thing."
"It is a source of pride for my family," he told me as he led me down the hall. Darda followed behind us like my shadow. "We have been collecting maps since before our lordship over the realm, first as a matter of military policy and then out of respect for such magnificent craftsmanship." A smile slipped onto his lips. "My father spent a great deal on them, so much so that my mother fretted that he would drain the coffers of the realm."
"He nearly did with one purchase," Darda spoke up.
Xander chuckled. "Yes, but that was not quite so high as the price of another which my ancestor happily paid and which will be the one most useful to us now."
We walked through the tall front doors of the castle and into its marble halls. The tapestries and paintings welcomed us, as did the servants in their crisp, clean clothing. I smiled and bowed my head to them as we passed down the corridors warmed by the sun and the crackling fires in all the principle rooms.
Xander led us through the myriad of halls to a room at the rear and right. A pair of thick wooden doors hid the interior. He opened them and revealed a large room lined on either side with small, square cubby holes of various sizes. In each hole lay a rolled-up piece of thick, and sometimes yellowed, paper, also of different sizes.
On the wall opposite us were several panes of glass that made up a window twenty feet tall and thirty feet wide. The window gave us an excellent view of the sparkling lake and the mountain to the left. Thick red curtains hung on either side of the glass, but were held back by small, thick cords of rope.
In the middle of the room stood a large, long wood table around which were four small chairs. Several smaller tables stood in front of either wall of holes, but those had no chairs.
We stepped inside and Xander closed the door behind us. He strode over to the left wall and inspected the small paper tags that were attached to the ends of the rolled papers. I walked over to the opposite side and looked at the rolls. Ink marks shown through the paper and revealed inked mountains, roads, and cities. It was then I realized they were all maps.
I turned to Xander who drew out a particularly large one. "This is a lot of maps."
He smiled as he set the map he held on the table and pushed one end away from him. The map unfurled and revealed itself to be that of Xander's realm, complete with Viridi Silva with its forest of the elves, the river Potami where I'd encountered my first wet relative, and the fine capital city of Alexandria. Each place was as detailed as an online map image scrolled out for maximum view so that one could see tiny streets of Metsan Keskella and the individual wheat fields that surrounded Alexandria's main gate.
I stepped up to the table and gaped at the intricate ink work. "I can see why this would cost a fortune. It must've taken the mapmaker a dragon's life to draw out everything."
Xander shook his head. "Not nearly that long, and it is not the ink work that made the map so expensive, it is this."
He set his spread hand the city of Alexandria. A transparent image popped out of the map and hovered above our heads. The image was that of Alexandria, and projected her majesty like a hologram from a science fiction movie. It showed every nick on the stone buildings and every winding street that stretched across the grand city.
My mouth dropped open as I watched tiny figures walk to and fro along those very streets. Small carts laden with vegetables rolled past the buildings on the way to the market. Horsemen in the armor of the Alexandrian guards patrolled the streets and warily watched a few drunks stagger out of a pub.
Beneath the whole image was the name of the city in large, cursive letters written in golden ink that glowed like starlight.
I looked at Xander, but pointed at the floating image. My voice came out in a squeaky whisper. "How?"
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