The Children of Calm (7 page)

Chapter Four:

The Shadows of Secrets

The next morning proved to be sunny and mild
, and the warmth of the sun drove the fears and anxieties of the previous night out of Rylek’s mind. In the light of day it was easier to assume the conversation he had overheard was harmless. Celek had served in the Elite Service, and for all Rylek knew, still carried on in their dealings occasionally. In the end he felt it was unnecessary to tell the others what had happened since he was afraid of jeopardizing what was probably a secret mission.

Meanwhile New Year was fast approaching. The inhabitants of Calm were busy making preparations for the ensuing celebration. Thanks to the unseasonal weather some changes had to be made, but all the same the little village was bustling with colorful decorations and festivities: streamers were hung, banners flew in the breeze, the streets were washed, and tents were raised along the lakefront. So it happened that three days before New Year, and consequently their birthday, Rylek, Tresten, Selenor, and Lana could be seen sitting under the Old Sentinel on the lakefront. The breeze off the lake was cool, but the sun was high and warm. Rylek was lying on his back with his hands behind his head, drifting into a bit of a nap, as the other three were arguing over the medicinal values of starpods.

“I don’t care what you’ve heard,” Tresten was saying, “or what you’ve read, or what you’ve made up in your own heads using your ridiculous ‘women’s intuition’ or whatever it is you call it, but I’m telling you there is nothing valuable in their skins or juice.”

Lana shook her head. “Again, you argue by insulting us rather than offering any kind of proof. How can you possibly claim to back up
your
ridiculous claims? There was research done by people who actually know what they’re talking about.”

Selenor chimed in. “Not to mention how for hundreds of years wives and mothers have used the pod juice to numb burns and deaden pain.”

“You said it there,” Tresten said. “’Wives and mothers;’ they are nothing more than old wives’ tales. Please enlighten me as to why no one uses the juice now for that purpose?”

He was answered with a long silence.

“Exactly,” he said. “Though I will grant you the fact that the mind is an extremely powerful thing. Simply take some sick or injured people who happen to be easily persuadable, tell them starpod juice will cure them, and it probably will in some cases – no matter what the diagnosis really is. So why don’t you go ahead, crack open a pod, and try it on yourself? Maybe it will cure you of that nasty women’s intuition.”

“Shut up,” Lana said angrily. “And besides, it’s just the base ingredient for the medicine. I would think it needs to be concentrated or something…”

“
You
would think?” Tresten asked. “
I
think it makes a horrid sticky mess.”

“I’ve heard that some people eat the skins,” Lana said.

Tresten scoffed. “Look, Lana, I know you’re fairly decent around the kitchen, but please, for the love of Mira, don’t start getting any ideas of experimenting on me. If they taste anything at all like how they smell, forget it! And I take back what I said earlier – don’t open one up, at least with me around. They’re not meant to be opened. Just leave them in the water at night, so they can do what they were designed to do: give us light.”

“One day, Tresten, I’ll prove you wrong,” Lana said.

“I think all logic will have died at that point,” Tresten said.

Rylek started to softly snore; Selenor repressed a laugh.

Just then they heard some footsteps approaching in the grass. They turned to see Celek carrying a pack on his back. “Hello, children,” he said.

“Hello, sir,” Lana said. “Where are you off to?”

Celek glanced towards the eastern rim of the mountains. “Oh, just going to go for a hike.” He paused and looked back to the east.

Lana thought he looked anxious.

“It is certainly a beautiful day,” he said slowly.

“Yeah it is. Who wouldn’t love a trek through the woods?”

“I have certainly always loved a mill-” he started but his voice stopped.

Lana exchanged glances with Selenor.

“Selenor, Tresten,” he resumed after a few moments, “may I have a word with you briefly?”

The twins glanced at each other. “Sure,” Selenor said.

Celek started to walk down the lakefront. Selenor looked at Lana, who merely returned her own look of confusion. Tresten stood up and then helped his sister get to her feet.

“Well, I guess we’ll be back in a minute,” she said to Lana, as she and Tresten followed the lakefront down to where Celek was waiting for them.

Lana tried to be sneaky and subtly watch, hoping to make out what they were saying, but they were too far away. Suddenly she heard a rather loud snore behind her. She picked up an acorn and threw it at Rylek, pelting him on his nose.

He snorted, jumped, and said “Ow! What…?”

Seeing he was now awake, Lana scooted over next to him.

“Couldn’t you have just shaken me or called me or something?” he asked.

“That would have been too obvious,” she said. “I’m trying to be unassuming.”

“And beaning me in the face is unassuming?”

“Shh!” She leaned in closer to him. “What do you think Celek wants with Tresten and Selenor?”

Rylek looked over at the group of three standing at a distance. His curiosity was piqued, since it was now the end of the week and he had overheard Celek say something about that. Before he answered her, he studied him for a moment.

Celek was short and thin, but his body frame betrayed his strength and agility. He was the most agile person Rylek had ever known. His black, thin hair was graying around the temples. Rylek thought he looked very noble at that moment. He then realized it was probably because Celek was standing up straighter than usual, despite an obviously heavy pack on his back.

It must be something with the Elite Service
, he thought to himself.
So I’m glad I didn’t say anything to the others since it’s probably top secret information.

“Celek?” he replied to his sister. “How should I know? I’d say it was none of our business since we weren’t invited in on the conversation, so I’m not going to worry about it.” He then put his hands back behind his head and lay down again.

“Boys are so useless,” Lana said. “I’ll just get Selenor to tell me when they get back.”

“Then I’m going back to sleep.” Rylek said. “Wake me when…oh, I don’t know, when it’s time for…something.” With that he rolled over on to his right side. “And try not to be so obvious that you’re spying on them, okay?”

“Oh, shush!”

She sat there for several more minutes, balancing her time between looking out on the lake and stealing glances at Celek and the others. As much as she strained her ears, however, she could not hear any voices at all. Finally Celek turned his back and left. Tresten and Selenor stood for a few minutes together, then slowly made their way back to the Old Sentinel. Lana watched them as they did not look at or speak to each other; their eyes were fixed on the ground. Selenor looked back once at the spot where they had stood, and Tresten stared out over the lake for awhile. After a time they sat down next to Lana in silence. Lana looked from one to the other, waiting for somebody to say something. When nothing was offered she could not take it anymore.

“Well?” she asked. “Is everything alright? By looking at the two of you, I’d think something was wrong.”

Selenor started playing with some blades of grass. “No, I don’t believe anything’s wrong,” she said. “I guess I’m just a little…confused.”

“How so?”

“He basically said he’s going to be gone for awhile,” Tresten said. “He hopes to see us sometime after New Year and probably after we return from our Findings.”

“Where’s he going?” Rylek suddenly asked.

Lana looked over to see he was now sitting up. “Decide to wake up now, did we?” she asked.

“Shut up,” Rylek said. “Where’s he going?”

“He didn’t say,” Selenor said. “But he kept apologizing. And I’m not even sure why.”

“That’s odd,” Lana said. “Why in all of Mira would he do that?”

“No idea,” Tresten said. “But he said something very bizarre…” He looked at Selenor for a moment.

“What?” Lana asked excitedly. “What did he say?”

Selenor and Tresten were looking at each other, communicating silently. After a bit, Tresten gently nodded. Selenor sighed. “He said he could no longer live in a place where he was denied the honor of raising the two children that were rightfully his own.”

Lana nearly choked. “Wait;
what?
”

“Is he claiming he’s your father?” Rylek asked.

“I don’t know,” Tresten said. “He claimed he’d said too much.”

They sat in silence for a few moments as the weight of the conversation settled. Rylek noticed that the breeze had died. There also seemed to be an annoying buzz in his ears.

What did he mean when he said to that man that it wasn’t fair to her or to them?
he thought to himself.
Does this have to do with that? Is this part of what he had to do before he left?
He shook his head in an attempt to ward off the buzzing and concentrate on something that seemed just out of reach.

“But Aunt Penni’s always said…” he started aloud. “Well, I mean everyone’s always told us how no one knows who your father is. We all know the story of how your natural mother wandered into Calm not knowing much else besides her name. And as far as I know, Celek has never been married.”

“Don’t be so naïve,” Tresten said softly. “You know that doesn’t necessarily mean anything,”

“But that would mean he knew your mother before she came to Calm,” Rylek said. “Why would he just now be saying this when everyone else has always wondered who she was?”

Silence fell upon them again as no one had an answer. Rylek stood up after awhile and walked to the lakeshore. Lana looked desperate to find something to say. Tresten sat with his head in Selenor’s lap as she played with his hair. The silence was thick and heavy. No one could find anything to say. After some considerable time had passed, Rylek turned around and looked at his friends. Tresten seemed as though he were worlds away, with glazed-over eyes staring blindly into nothing. But Rylek’s eyes locked with Selenor’s, and he saw the tears that graced her cheeks.

His heart broke.

***

They eventually left the Old Sentinel, but more out of obligation than anything else. The village bell had tolled one hour after noon. Caenar had set up an appointment with them to discuss their birthday at one o’clock, and it was always rather difficult to back out of something he had scheduled. They made their way to the Hall of Knowledge, which housed the town library. Caenar was the Chief Librarian and Historian.

In front of the Hall, in the middle of the street, was a large golden statue of a pious-looking man: he was bald with a thick beard, eyes lifted skyward, one arm holding a book, the other a spade. The plaque at its base was labeled
KAEL WHINDREP
, in honor of the man who saved the village after The Great Purging. It was his ideals of isolationism and socialism that the villagers adopted, fearing any contamination from The Outside. Through the years the isolationist mentality naturally lessened, though the villagers did not go out of their way to remind the rest of Calabranda of the village’s presence. Rylek never liked the statue, and found it odd that the villagers had some time ago thought it necessary to build.

All four ignored it in their continued silence as they climbed the steps to the front door. Their dark mood lingered as they entered the tall vaulted main room saturated with sunlight and the sweet musty smell of paper, and carried them as they made their way to the back.

Caenar’s door was open. The silence was finally broken when he said, “Ah, my dear children, please come in.”

The office was not overly large. The centerpiece was a beautiful old desk, with some odd papers and such scattered around it. A bookshelf filled with dusty volumes lined one wall, while various maps and paintings lined the others. Four chairs were facing the desk. Caenar rose from his chair behind the desk, and walked towards the children.

“Please come in and have a seat. Make yourselves at home,” he said, while pulling the two middle chairs out for Selenor and Lana. Rylek could not help faintly smiling at the old gentleman.

“I trust all is well with you,” Caenar continued, “but, if I may be so bold, I cannot ignore that these old eyes of mine see fallen countenances upon your faces. Is there anything at all I can do for you?”

Tresten seemed to be in a trance.

Selenor’s voice cracked. “No sir, I guess we’re just having one of those days, if you know what I mean.”

Caenar studied them all for a few moments and then warmly smiled. “Indeed I do, Miss Selenor, indeed I do. However, allow me to say one thing first, and then we shall move on to other more celebratory matters. But even before that, I have one other important thing I must do.”