Insight the clash of sun.., p.38
Insight: The Clash of Suns, page 38
The four guards spoke among themselves again and finally responded:
“Don't move from here, we'll be back as soon as possible.”
“I’ll guard this palace as my own.”
After the guards left in a hurry, Zed and Finn waited a few minutes to make sure that they were not coming back and called their friends by mental connection.
“I can't believe we made it,” said Valon as he approached, still moving within the smoke cloud, covering Zed and Finn with it.
“Are you sure it's all clear?” asked Anne.
“Yes, all the guards have left. You can come out now,” Finn said aloud.
“Something’s wrong,” Kara replied. “The palace’s colors had never blinked like this before.”
“That saved us from being caught,” Zed remarked, descending from Finn's shoulders. Finn then stepped out of the disguise and took a big breath. “But we have to hurry! By the same token, it will attract the attention of the other guards and they will probably send someone to investigate. Kara, the key, please.”
Zed held out his hand.
“I believe that, as a member of the Rottervilt family, I should have the honor of opening the palace, since we have taken care of it for generations,” said Kara.
“Only because if it weren't for you, we wouldn't have made it this far,” Zed replied reluctantly, thinking that it would ease the sadness of having discovered how his mother had died.
With her hand trembling, Kara approached the lock and inserted the key. However, when she turned it, she was shocked to find that the door did not open.
“Why isn't it working?” she asked.
“Are you sure this is the key to the palace?” Zed questioned.
“The first time my father showed it to me, it stuck in my mind perfectly. This key is unmistakable.”
“Maybe you need to try harder.” Anne approached the key and turned it in vain. The door did not budge, and Zed noticed Meria's face turn sad.
“I can't believe I walked so far and won’t get to see the greenhouse,” Quincy muttered, kicking the ground.
“For a moment, I thought we would finally win at something.” Valon lowered his head and turned away.
“Sometimes, life is not as easy as it seems, and it likes to play tricks like this,” Finn added, imitating Valon.
Disheartened, the children began to walk away.
Zed could not believe it, much less accept it. If he left there empty-handed, Julius Morgan would succeed in permanently erasing his past lives. Besides, even if his mother’s death wasn’t his driving force anymore, he wanted to know what she and probably several more people had died for.
But that door was an immovable barrier. What else could he do to open it?
With complete concentration, Zed looked at the key as it began to give off the same golden glow it had done when he found it buried in his tower’s chimney.
“Zed, grab the key, we have to go.”
“Let me try it one last time,” he told Kara.
When he touched the key in the lock, Zed felt a jolt of energy run through his body. Turning the key was an unconscious movement. Then, both leaves of the door of the Palace of Eternity opened just as effortlessly as Zed’s wrist had turned.
The squeaking of the hinges made his friends turn around, and they were dazzled by the blinding light coming from the interior.
“How did you do it?!” Valon asked, running towards him with his arms up.
The other children were just as surprised.
“I just turned it.”
39
The Palace of Eternity’s entrance hall made Zed feel insignificant. It was as if they had shrunk the moment they shut the door behind them. They left the guard’s uniform at the entrance, thinking they would probably need it again.
In the center of the huge room were chandeliers that resembled glass trees turned upside down, with fluttering, fulgurating leaves. From the walls hung paintings the size of movie screens, depicting war scenes featuring a man in golden armor, riding a dragon made of smoke, with glowing eyes. In most depictions, the man wielded an elegant sword whose scale-covered hilt wrapped around his wrist, as if becoming an extension of his limb. As the children moved ahead, they found that the hall was more like a huge gallery. In the monumental paintings, that man's weapon claimed more and more of his opponents’ blood on the battlefield as his series of victories advanced.
One painting, in particular, captured Zed’s attention. It showed the same man standing firmly on the ground, with partially bent knees, one leg in front of the other, in a posture that suggested he was carrying a heavy burden. Zed observed the astonishing level of detail in the muscles of the perfectly painted body, which was so realistic that it looked as if the hand wielding his sword could strike at any moment.
Slowly, he approached the frame, and read a plaque that read: Battle of Mohenjo-Daro. The man’s imposing presence was magnified by his armor. Zed gazed at every detail on it. The three unfurled wings on each side sprang skyward from his back and were pointed at the bottom. The total wingspan was greater than the man’s height; the rest of the armor: gauntlets, boots, and shoulder plates, was decorated with similarly winged motifs, encrusted with precious stones. The armor protected his entire body, except for his head; his long, flowing hair, as black as a sea at night, had been perfectly captured in the oil painting and framed his expressionless face, surmounted by a golden crown floating an inch above his head.
Zed immersed himself in each stroke of paint and then walked to the next picture, where the same young man appeared standing in front of a burning city. In the background, pyramids rose above a rainforest, illuminated by moonlight. The painting was entitled The Fall of Tikal.
Inevitably, Zed's attention was snatched away by a gaze charged with the wisdom that only centuries of life can impart, contrasting with his youthful features. However, what Zed found most incredible about the man’s face was the turquoise in his eyes. It took him a few seconds to assimilate what he saw: it was identical to his ‘special eye’! What could that mean? Zed knew that this god-like man could be none other than Athien, the Great Creator.
“I'd never seen Athien's face before,” said Quincy, breaking Zed’s trance. “In his card, the helmet covers his face, just as in all the paintings I had seen of him.”
“He's so handsome,” Meria added.
“Why didn't you tell me you’d gotten Athien's card?” Finn asked, impressed at the revelation.
“Mom just sent it to me a few days ago.”
“And why didn't you show it to me?” Finn tugged at Quincy’s jacket.
“Because, with all this planning, we hadn't had time to play.”
“As soon as we get back to the tower, I want you to show it to me.”
“Can you stop talking about your silly games, and start looking for what we came for?” Anne reprimanded them.
“Speaking of which, what exactly are we looking for?” asked Finn.
They left the huge vestibule and entered an even larger room. Apparently, it was the building’s main hall. In the center, the largest crystal obelisk Zed had ever seen rose from the ground until it almost touched the dome that topped the ceiling, several stories above. It was transparent, and the energy it contained swirled visibly inside.
When Zed, gawking at the ceiling, bumped into Valon, he noticed that the surrounding walls did not look like those in the previous room. Practically mesmerized, he walked towards one of them to appreciate its surface of shiny, black stone more closely. It seemed as if the palace had been carved from a single monolith and its exterior were covered with breathtaking, color-changing dragon scales. He observed the irregular shapes of the stone walls; they looked razor sharp, which fascinated him.
He walked with his gaze fixed on the walls until he came upon a column and was surprised for the third time in such a short period. If his eyes did not deceive him, the columns were made of ruston, the material from which the obelisk in the fortak stadium was made. The columns reached up as high as he could see and crossed the building’s stories at different points. Zed determined that there was one at each vertex of the five-pointed star that Kara had drawn as the floor plan of the Palace of Eternity.
“I said, what exactly are we looking for?!” He heard Finn shout. He also couldn't decide where in the palace to fix his gaze.
Zed then ran back to the center of the room, to rejoin his companions.
“Anything that might be a cure for the white plague,” Meria replied, walking past the central crystal, with Zed following her. “Any book, letter, painting, or whatever seems to you like it might be helpful.”
The children had to stop for a moment to contemplate the triad of staircases, which looked more like sculptures than stairs. They rose to the upper levels snaking around each other in a dance of monolithic, white, stone dragons.
“I'll look in the greenhouse,” Quincy announced, heading down a hallway to the left.
“Wait! As far as I know, it should be on the other side.” Kara pointed towards it, and Quincy trotted over.
“Quincy!” Zed called. “We only have about thirty minutes before the guards return. We’ll meet you here in twenty. Not a minute more. Keep your mental connection open in case we need to call you before.”
“Yeah, yeah...” he said, heading off.
“How did you know where the greenhouse is if no one has entered this place?” Zed asked Kara.
“From accounts of people who knew it during the time Athien lived here. That information was passed from generation to generation.”
“How is it that the palace has been abandoned for centuries but there is not a speck of dust on it?” asked Meria.
“Maybe that's why it's called the Palace of Eternity: it's eternally new,” Valon replied.
“I wonder in which of all the rooms we might find something useful…” Meria looked up at the series of doors flanking each hallway.
“Actually, wich way do think I’ll find the toilet? I’ve been holding it since the gardens,” said Valon, crossing his legs.
“You’ll have to wait until we get out”, answered Kara. “Anyway, I think we can rule out the towers of Athien’s Generals. I don't think he would have kept anything that important in his subordinates' quarters.”
“That makes sense,” replied Zed. “In fact, I don't see any stairs or corridors leading to the towers.”
“Look closely.” Kara grabbed him by the arm and pulled him to the edge so he could increase his upward angle of vision. “Each tower has an entrance at the top. Do you see it?”
“So every time a general wanted to go up or down, he levitated there?” asked Finn, moving closer to get a glimpse of the entrance.
“Their skills were not the same as yours, Finn,” Kara replied. “For them, levitating was as easy as walking.”
“Kara, do you remember if any of the historical accounts mentioned a library? That’s probably the most logical place to look.” Zed approached her. “Do you know where it is?”
“The only thing I remember is that the central one leads to Athien’s quarters,” said Kara.
“Good thing Lord Athien cared about us and had stairs built for our convenience!” Meria approached them. “So, should we go up the middle one?”
“We don’t have much time. We’ll cover more ground if we separate into teams.” Zed stood in front of them. “Kara will accompany me up the central staircase; Valon and Meria, take the staircase on the left; Anne and Finn, take the one on the right. If anyone finds anything, just talk to us. Everyone, try to stay mentally connected.”
As they climbed the staircase, they could take a peek at the beautiful gardens through the black walls, which in some sections became translucent. After climbing non-stop for a few minutes, Zed and Kara were out of breath. They knew the effort had been worth it as soon as they opened the first door.
Suspended books, as if arranged on invisible shelves, covered the walls several stories high.
“How are we supposed to find what we're looking for in just thirty minutes?” Kara asked, entering the massive library. “It would take us months.”
“And we only have minutes,” Zed added.
“I was wrong,” said Kara, picking up one of the books to examine its cover. “It would take us years. None of them have titles. “
“All the more reason for there to be some special way of finding the book that will help us, like the index in the school library. Do you think those spheres on the table do anything?”
Kara shrugged her shoulders.
“Let's find out,” she replied, moving toward a large table in the center of the room. Before taking a sphere, she placed her hand on top of it. “I don't think this thing is anything special, it doesn't feel that way. It must be just an ornament.” Kara inspected it.
“It's not an ornament,” Zed corrected, seeing that several rings were traced on the surface of the table around the larger sphere, which seemed to have a fire inside it. Along each ring, smaller spheres orbited, each at their own pace. “It’s a solar system.”
“Ah, you’re right, but what’s a solar system doing in the middle of the room?” Kara dropped the sphere on the table, but it instantly returned to its original position. “What just happened?”
“I don't know, I never saw anything like this. But, assuming Athien made it, anything is possible.”
“Let's see.” Zed took a red sphere, the one he thought represented Mars. I always dreamed of traveling to Mars, he thought, setting it down on the edge of the table. Immediately, the piece returned to its original place. Then Zed noticed something on the ball next to it, the blue and green one that corresponded to Earth, and lifted it up. “What do you think all these spikes are?”
“I have no idea. You tell me.”
Zed focused his attention on the green blobs in the shapes of the continents, and although he had never been very good at geography class, he enjoyed his history classes.
“I think the spikes mark ancient monuments. Look, here is the Colossus of Rhodes; over here, the gardens of Babylon,” he said as he turned the sphere. “And here, the great pyramid of Giza, although I notice some buildings I don't know, like these pyramids in Mexico and monuments in Asia.”
“Why are they so important as to represent them in this model of the solar system?”
“Maybe Athien was planning a vacation on Earth?”
“We don't have time for jokes.”
“I have no idea,” he replied, as he looked at a small sphere cut in half, its orbit circling the Earth. “Is this Thalas?”
“It must be. Thalas floats invisibly above Terra.”
“It's smaller than I thought, but...” Zed was interrupted by Valon’s voice in his mind.
“There is nothing here but furniture and statues. Meria wants us to go there.”
“If you didn't find anything else, we could use a little help,” said Kara.
Both surveyed the room and found nothing that looked like a map or index that would tell them which book corresponded to which subject, so they decided to try their luck and grab a few at random. But as they began to leaf through them, they ran into another obstacle: as soon as they began to read the first line on a page, the words disappeared.
“It seems this book doesn’t want me to read it,” said Zed, dropping it on the floor and opening another.
“Neither does this one,” said Kara, doing the same.
Soon they had formed a pile of books, but both were startled as one by one they flew back into their original positions.
“Now I understand why everything is so tidy,” Zed remarked, as he saw Valon and Meria arrive at the library empty-handed.
“Did you find anything that might help us?” asked Meria hurriedly.
“I'm sure there must be something here, but none of the books have a title, and as soon as you start reading one, the text disappears.”
“Well, we'll have to figure out how to read them,” said Meria, picking up a volume.
“I'll check out those drawers over there,” Valon added.
As his friends searched, Zed's mind went into a kind of trance and the voices around him became a single noise that slowly ceased. Then, out of the corner of his eye, he noticed a shimmer in the air. It was golden, just like the gleam of the palace key, and formed a path that Zed followed, spellbound. As if attracted by siren songs and the shimmering band, he walked through the library up some stairs and found himself in another room: Athien's chamber. There didn’t seem to be a single spot in the room that wasn’t covered in stones and crystals; even the bedspread on the huge bed looked like a jewel made of fabric. Without losing sight of the golden glow, Zed followed it absentmindedly to the back of the room, where he stumbled upon the Great Creator’s magnificent armor: the one he had seen in the paintings. The shimmer in the air seemed to emanate from it.
When he saw it up close, he found that the oil painting didn’t do justice to the beauty of each sheet, each fold, and each sharp tip that formed its winged silhouette. Zed imagined what he would look like with the armor on, if only he were as tall as an adult. He looked up to find the elegant crown floating over the metal shoulder plates, and realized that it was not a simple gold object: threads of scarlet, black, and gray ergon ran across the rim, like the kinds of ergon he had seen before, but there were also purple and brown ones, slithering like snakes around the metal, and, at times, the smoke formed dragon heads, which roared before dissipating. Among all the pieces of that armor, which no one had gotten so close to in ages, the only one that Zed could wear at that moment was the crown. That seemed to him to be more than the work of fate. What could be his connection to that object? There was only one obvious, but unlikely, answer. He had to test it.
In a kind of trance, Zed tried to lower the crown with his ien. It moved with no resistance.
He stretched out his hand, and just as his fingers were about to touch it, he heard a scream.
“Zed, no!” Kara ran to him as if her life depended on it. “Don't touch it!”
But it was too late. Zed squeezed the crown between his fingers and was instantly permeated by a power that felt infinite. A flash blinded him and his consciousness was transported to another place and time.
