“It’s not nice to tease the children, Lady Allcaste,” Aju said, chuckling with her. “And I noticed you were able to communicate with your glyph by yourself. Congratulations.”
“Is that what happened in the street?”
“Yes. You recited all the proper words without me having to tell them to you.”
I’m getting used to this, slowly.
A moment later, a guardsman with an impressive-looking crest on his shoulder came into the room, together with a man dressed all in black and wearing eyeglasses. U-ri thought they might be the mustached guard’s commanding officer and some sort of local official, but as Aju interpreted for her, she discovered that the man in black was a priest in the Church of the Haetlands. U-ri began waving her arms and making gestures again, occasionally saying the word “Katarhar.”
“A mage that can’t use magic of tongues? That’s inconvenient,” the officer said, rubbing his rather large belly through his uniform.
The priest smiled. “She is still young. Yet, if one skilled in the ways of magic wishes to go to the Katarhar Abbey ruins, it falls to us to do everything we can to aid her. Besides, we must reunite her with her parents.”
It was decided they would take her there by carriage. She was made to wait a little longer, during which time they brought her some bread and soup. It was delicious—another stark difference between this town and the village of Kanal.
Once again, U-ri found herself riding in a carriage. This one was slightly smaller than the one before. She sat in the back, where there were only two seats. Yet two horses pulled in front, instead of the usual one. Probably to get us up the mountain road, U-ri decided.
The priest and yet another guard she had not seen before sat in the driver’s seat in front, leaving U-ri alone in the back where she could speak freely with Aju.
“Looks like we have to head in the opposite direction first,” Aju commented as the carriage raced out of the town, onto a broad thoroughfare heading north. U-ri worried that they might be going to a different place entirely, but the road soon curved several times. Soon, they were making straight for the dark mountain.
“I wonder what the people of this town think of the abbey?” U-ri wondered out loud, thinking about what the priest had said about them doing everything they could to help her get there.
“I doubt they think about it much at all. It’s probably a gathering place for mages or students of magic these days—hardly their concern,” Aju conjectured from his place in U-ri’s hands, where he curled about himself sleepily. He did not sound overly concerned.
“Even though the place is a ruin?”
Aju shrugged. “Didn’t Ash say people still went there?”
Neither of the two in the front so much as glanced back at U-ri while the carriage sped along. They stopped once to rest the horses a short while after entering the hilly forest at the foot of the mountain. U-ri got out of the carriage to stretch her legs, and the priest offered her a canteen of water. The priest said something, but Aju was back in the carriage sleeping. U-ri said she was sorry and looked as apologetic as she could. Then the priest put one hand to his chest and drew the shape of a cross on his forehead with the other. It was a slightly different cross than the Christian one, with two vertical lines and two horizontal lines. U-ri couldn’t tell whether he was giving her his blessing or warding himself against some evil on the road ahead.
The carriage began to climb the mountain road, bumping as it went. The vibrations woke Aju immediately, but they could hardly speak to another. U-ri was afraid she’d bite her own tongue if she tried to talk, so violently the carriage swayed. The road angled upwards steeply and was very narrow. Rocks littered the ground. The two in the driver’s seat ahead were rigid, clinging to railings on the sides for dear life. U-ri hit the back of her head on the carriage window several times.
The forest covering the mountainside was thick, though individually, the trees seemed very thin. Dry clumps of leaves clung to broken branches. Fallen leaves followed their carriage, drawn into the road by the wind of their passage. Several came fluttering in through the window. The leaves were a pale green color, and they crinkled and disintegrated when U-ri grabbed them and squeezed them between her fingers.
The higher they went, the narrower and darker the road became. The priest lit the lantern hanging off to one side of the driver’s platform. Up in front, the horses whinnied with exertion.
When they suddenly broke free from the dense forest into a flat clearing, it felt like they were emerging from a long, dark tunnel. U-ri turned around, grabbing the railing with both hands to look out.
U-ri had never seen ruins before, and she wasn’t entirely sure she was seeing then now. About the only thing standing was a tall stone wall about U-ri’s height that circled the site of the abbey proper.
The most remarkable features of the mountaintop were the giant, jagged rocks lying about everywhere. All of them were the same smoky gray color, with occasional blotches of darker sandstone here and there, all different shapes and sizes.
“I’ll bet all of those were one rock once,” Aju whispered. “It’s like a giant boulder fell right on top of the abbey, hitting it so hard the rock itself broke into pieces.”
U-ri looked around, eyes wide, and she had to agree with the mouse. Next to where the carriage had stopped was a fallen pillar of some sort with a lantern on it. It made something like an arched entranceway where it leaned against another pillar, leaving a gap through which a person could pass.
Someone came out just then, a man dressed in black. He stooped under the arch and blinked in the sunlight beyond. His clothes looked very similar to those of the nameless monks, though his head wasn’t shaven. Also, where the nameless devout wore no jewelry or accoutrements of any kind, this man had a rosary-like ring of beads around his neck.
The guard stepped off the carriage and began to talk with the man in black. The priest turned and helped U-ri down.
“We’ve arrived,” the priest announced brightly, though he was clearly wary of his surroundings. His eyes darted back and forth. “I hope your parents are here somewhere. Though, even if you’ve missed each other, your magic should work here in order to contact them. I’m sure your parents are capable of such a feat if they found it within their abilities to teach one as young as you.”
The negotiations between the man in black and the guard completed, she was now in the man’s keeping. He extended a hand to her, and pulling her close, he whispered in her ear. “Your companions have been waiting for you.”
I understood him. He speaks my language!
The guard and the priest exchanged a few brief words with the man again; then they jumped back onto the carriage, gave the reins a tug, and headed back down the mountain road so fast they could have been fleeing.
“I am a caretaker of this abbey,” the man said by way of introduction. “My name is Saulo. It is an honor to have you here, Lady Allcaste.” Saulo bowed reverently. His hair was white, and his face was weathered and jagged, but his eyes were gentle, his voice warm.
U-ri spotted the vestments of protection draped over his arm.
She sighed with relief. “Ash must have hung on to them!”
Saulo held up the vestments for her, and U-ri hurriedly slipped her arms through the sleeves.
“We are glad you made it.”
As soon as she had on the vestments, a wave of relief passed over U-ri. She was impressed she had made it to the abbey on her own.
“Ash told me you would be fine on your own. Your servant, however, was very worried, I’m afraid.”
“Why should he have been? I was with her the whole time,” Aju squeaked, sticking out his nose.
Saulo did not seem startled by the talking mouse in the least. “And you must be the dictionary.”
“Do you know Ash?”
Saulo smiled and nodded. “There will be time to talk of that in a bit. Please, come into our hall.”
Leading U-ri by the hand, the man walke
d across the rubble. Though the ruins seemed almost impassable at first glance, when she looked closer, U-ri spotted the signs of wear that come with frequent human passage. They were on a proper path. Even still, they had to duck under fallen pillars and clamber over crumbled sections of wall, and nowhere could she get a view of the ruins as a whole.
Saulo walked ahead of her now; then suddenly the path dipped downward and the man turned briefly to warn U-ri to watch her step. U-ri had assumed they were going down into a cellar of some sort, except nothing about the passage looked man-made at all. There were no steps, nor a ladder, to be seen. From the feel of the rock beneath her feet, she guessed they were heading into some sort of naturally formed cavern.
Keeping one hand on the wall for balance, U-ri walked quickly so as not to fall too far behind. The tunnel twisted from side to side, always going down. While at first the way had been so narrow that U-ri could reach out her hands and touch the walls on either side, the tunnel became wider as she descended. Soon side passages started appearing, as did chairs that had been carved out of the rock walls here and there, next to tiny ledges upon which candles burned. The light of their flickering flames glimmered off of the smooth walls of the tunnel. Saulo stopped and waved for U-ri to join him. She walked up until she stood by his side.
“Wow…” U-ri breathed as she always did when truly amazed. Her voice was almost reluctant to leave her mouth.
She stood on the cusp of a giant, naturally formed hall, with a floor like an inverted ziggurat, descending into a sea of darkness marked by countless pinpoints of candlelight. The hall looked big enough to hold U-ri’s entire elementary school and then some. The path they were on went around it in a descending spiral so deep U-ri couldn’t see the bottom from where she stood.
Bridges wide enough for a man to pass crossed the hall in both directions, shortcuts linking side passages that opened in the cavern walls. A line of men dressed just like Saulo—in black with beads around their necks—was crossing one of those bridges. Some of them carried weighty tomes, others carried bottles. One stopped midway across the bridge, holding up a light to look in their direction. U-ri brought her hands together and lowered her head.
“This cavern was mostly unused while the Katarhar Abbey still stood,” Saulo explained. He peered down into the depths of the cavern. His voice sounded weak, drawn off into the empty space. There were no echoes here. “When the abbey was destroyed, many monks fled to here, and thus were their lives spared. Scriptures, books, and valuable pieces of art from the abbey were carried here as well. More than half were saved from destruction, confiscation, and theft in this way.”
That had all been thirty years ago, Saulo explained.
“The Church of the Haetlands has cracked down on sects such as ours several times throughout history, yet Katarhar Abbey’s remote location meant it was spared for a longer time than most. The round of cleansing where it finally met destruction was a particularly vigorous one for the church.”
“I noticed burn marks among the rubble,” Aju whispered from atop U-ri’s head. “Was there a fire?”
Saulo nodded. “The head abbot was taken and executed together with the more prominent monks from the abbey. In exchange, the many other monks who had been left with no place to go were allowed to dwell here in the abbey ruins—that agreement was the result of a secret contract forged between the church’s inquisitors and our order. Of course, our order still had to pay the church heavily for the right to live on their old property.”
“Does the church still suppress religions like yours?” U-ri asked.
“No. There is an inspection once a year, but it is only a formality.”
The abbey ruins had ceased to be primarily a place of worship and now were largely used as a place to house the sick and the poor and others who had been forced to leave their land due to bad crops or other difficulties. Acknowledging this, the state church largely left the monks alone.
“However, they do not permit free passage between here and the surrounding towns and villages.”
“Yes—they said some sort of barrier had been erected around the town in the foothills where I came looking for a way up the mountain.”
“Ah yes, the mage-hedge.” Saulo smiled. “That barrier was raised by the members of the inquisition, and our magic cannot touch it. You must be an allcaste to have noticed it.”
“Actually,” U-ri said, pointing up at her head, “it was the mouse who noticed it. I was impressed with how peaceful it seemed in the town below—they seemed very well-off there.”
“We know peace here too, Lady Allcaste. Partially because we employ our own spells to hide the full extent of these caverns from the inspectors.”
“So you don’t believe in the royal lineage coming from one creator god, is that right?” U-ri asked as Saulo urged her onto the descending spiral path. The moment she set foot upon it, she found she could hear other people talking in the cavern. The scents of daily life in a village floated in the air. Steam rose from here and there in the hall. Apparently, there was quite a large number of people living here underground.
“The gods we worship are the gods of the natural world. All that is holy, all that is magic, even all that is darkness comes from nature. Thus, there are many gods whom we worship, and our gods are everywhere. There are gods even in the pebbles you might find by the roadside.”
That did seem incompatible with what U-ri had heard of the Church of the Haetlands’ beliefs. Though as a concept it wasn’t all that unfamiliar to her.
“We have the same sort of belief in the land where I come from,” she explained. “There are lots of gods, in everything, and they watch over us.”
“I am glad to hear that,” Saulo replied.
Atop her head, Aju squeaked. “I think I hear a familiar voice.”
“The mouse has keen ears,” Saulo remarked, leading them down a side tunnel that left the spiral path about a third of the way down the cavern wall. This new path was as wide as the one they left, and it divided again. They took the branch leading toward a collection of small domed buildings within another cavern ahead. There were no doors at the opening where the tunnel widened into a larger space beyond, and U-ri could see faces looking at them. Women and small children mostly. She saw crude furniture and other signs of daily life. Children were playing around the houses, and laundry hung outside the windows.
“The one you seek is there, in the room closest to the intersection,” Saulo said, pointing ahead. U-ri broke into a run. Surprised people stuck their heads out of the little stone windows of the cells to watch her speed by.
“Ash! Sky!”
U-ri left the tunnel, emerging into a space much larger than she had anticipated. She ran into the house so fast she barely had room to stop herself before hitting a large wooden table. Ash was sitting at the table across from a man in black robes. The wolf was leaning on one elbow, talking. When U-ri entered, he only lifted his eyes. “—and this tomboy here is the Lady Allcaste who accompanies me,” he finished saying.
The man in black across from Ash looked in her direction. U-ri’s mouth hung open. He was incredibly handsome.
He smiled, stood from his chair, and bowed.
“I welcome you, allcaste.”
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Confessions
U-ri blushed bright red. She could feel the color rise in her cheeks.
“What are you staring at?” Ash asked with a smirk.
She ignored him. U-ri had eyes only for the handsome man in black sitting in front of her. She bent one knee slightly, gathered up the hem of her skirts, and curtsied like a ballerina.
“M-my name’s U-ri.”
“And I am Latore. I am the doctor here in the abbey.”
She guessed that the handsome doctor was slightly younger than Ash. He was tall, with clear eyes that looked out from beneath thick black hair.
“Please, be seated,” he said, pulling out a chair for her. “I’m glad you made it here all right. We were
worried.”
U-ri sat down in as ladylike a manner as she could manage.
“We didn’t have to worry. Aju was with her,” Ash grumbled. He didn’t seem to be in the best of moods, but U-ri found she didn’t particularly care. “You pull your own weight out there, rat?”
Aju stuck his nose out from U-ri’s collar and bared his tiny teeth. “If you’d held on to me a little harder we wouldn’t have gotten separated in the first place!”
They started to argue, but U-ri didn’t hear a word. I’ve never seen anyone this handsome. And not just handsome, but smart, and kind, and strong…
Unconsciously, U-ri leaned forward, which was when she noticed Dr. Latore had purple eyes—though much lighter than Sky’s. She remembered how Sky’s had looked that one time, like violets blooming in the springtime sun. That was how the doctor’s eyes looked right now.
“I heard you came from Tato. They are not fond of strangers in that town. Nor do they get many travelers coming through. I hope your welcome there was not too unpleasant.”
U-ri shook her head dreamily, only lowering her eyes when she noticed the doctor beginning to blush.
“W-we were fine,” she squeaked, her voice as high as Aju’s.
“I’ve never heard of an allcaste who was this much trouble.”
Ignoring Ash’s remark, U-ri straightened out her skirts, lowered her eyes, and rested her hands on her knees. “A kind person informed the town guardsmen, and as soon as they heard where it was I was heading, they arranged for a carriage—”
“That wasn’t kindness,” Ash cut in. “The people in Tato want nothing to do with the mountain or anyone associated with it.”
“Not that the mountain was all that welcoming either,” Aju squeaked back. “You felt it too, didn’t you? We hit a mage-barrier on our way in. Knocked us right out of the sky, it did. And someone was shouting at us, telling us to stay away. Who was that?”
The wolf and the doctor exchanged glances. The kind smile faded from the doctor’s face. “Perhaps I should arrange a meeting,” the doctor said to Ash.