Finding Eden (16 page)

“
Hey,” I say,
“what about this?”

“
Hmm,”
Sahariel says, “I think this is what we're looking for.”

He cracks open the book
and runs his finger down the table of contents.

“
It looks like this
has a list of all the rituals and festivals that happen during the
year.” Sahariel starts listing them off.

“
Okay,” he
stops in the middle of the list, “we need to take care of
something first.”

“
And what's that?”

“
I'm not going to
read every book to you for the rest of eternity.”

“
You're not?”
I try not to sound sad.

“
No,” he
says, “you're going to have to learn your people’s
language.”

“
Ugh.”

Sahariel drags me into an
abandoned corner of the library where they apparently keep all the
books for the illiterate people. Which apparently isn't very many
since the books are covered in dust and crack with age.

I grab an especially old
looking volume and blow off the cover. The dust clouds up around my
face and I sneeze. There is an odd design on the front and the spine
cracks as I open it. Inside are pages filled with repetitive designs.

“
Is this it?”
I show the book to Sahariel.

“
Why, yes it is.”

He opens the book to the
very first page and I see the iridescent ink shimmer back at me like
oil sitting on top of water.

“
So,” I say,
“how do you pronounce everything?”

“
You don't.”

“
What do you mean?”

“
Well,” he
says, “before our race mingled with the human race much, we
only spoke through emotions. That's how everything was conveyed.
Trade, debate, everything. But then once we began to fraternize with
humans, realizing it would be a little hard to communicate with those
who can't read emotions like we can, we began to integrate human
languages into our own. This book was written before that time. It
was a way to record our history. So when you're looking through the
books here, you'll find that most of the earlier texts are written in
this language.”

“
Makes sense,”
I say, “it's like Latin. A beautiful but dead language used in
the earliest of days.”

Sahariel smiles at me.
After a few moments, he gets up and stacks a couple of books. He then
picks them up and begins to walk away.

“
Where are you
going?” I ask.

“
I'm going to take
these to the bookkeeper to let him know we are borrowing them,”
he says, “we can't spend every day in here so you can learn a
new language.”

He walks away from me
with the stack of books, and I'm in no hurry to follow. I sort of
liked the idea of spending time in the library with Sahariel. I mill
around the table for a little while until I hear loud voices from the
front of the library.

“
Did you not hear
me the first time?” A voice asks, “You’re not
allowed to take books from the library. I don't care if the queen
herself asks for them, it's not allowed.”

I hear Sahariel sigh and
I try not to laugh too loudly. I decide then to walk from the
darkness so the bookkeeper could see me.

“
My queen!”

“
I don't suppose it
would be too much trouble if I borrowed these books, would it?”

I smile at the man.

“
No, of course not,
take as many as you need.”

“
Thank you.”

Sahariel picks up the
books after the man records them and walks away. As we're walking out
of the library, Sahariel mumbles.

“
What was that?”
I ask.

“
Oh, nothing,”
he says, “I just said 'not allowed my ass' is all. I can't
believe he actually tried to tell me that I couldn't take these.
Pisses me off.”

“
Well,” I say
after laughing, “at least I was there to save the day, right?”

Sahariel sighs as we
reach my bedroom door.

“
Alright, so I'm
going to leave you here for a little while. I have some things I need
to take care of. Like I said previously, if you need me, you know how
to reach me. I will be here in a flash.”

Sahariel smiles at me and
walks away after handing me the books. I walk over to my bed and drop
them on it, watching as they almost bounce off. I sigh and grab the
language book. I frown at it.

“
Well,” I
say, “this is not going to be fun. At all.”

Sahariel walks into my
room to find me lying on my stomach on my bed with three of the books
we borrowed from the library over two weeks ago spread open. I guess
I probably look rather insane.

“
Have you been at
this all day?”

“
Yes sir,” I
say, “I've been able to basically translate the first seven
things in the book, but this eighth one is giving me a little bit of
trouble.”

“
Hmm,”
Sahariel says, “let me take a look at it.”

He walks over and peers
over my shoulder at the open page on the book and at my note book
where I have chicken scratch covering a whole page, evidence of my
trying to figure out what a word means.

“
How far along are
you?”

“
Well,” I
say, “If I can figure out what this word here means, and then I
can figure out the rest of the blanks in the description.”

“
Alright, give me a
second.”

Sahariel studies the page
for a few seconds then makes a sound that I can only think of as a
mocking, smothered laugh.

“
What?”

“
Oh, nothing,”
he says.

“
What does the word
mean?”

“
It means, directly
translated, 'mate.'”

“
Mate?”

“
Yes,” he
says, “as in partner. Life partner.”

“
Oh,” I say,
“there's a festival for that?”

“
Unfortunately,
yes,” he says, “and before you ask, I have been to a few,
but it was very awkward for me.”

“
Awkward?”

He sighs.

“
Imagine being in a
room with full of people that have found the love of their life, and
you don't have yours.”

“
Yikes,” I
say, “I guess that could be pretty awkward.”

“
Anyway,” he
says, “how about you take a break from all of this and we go
take a walk. Then maybe later you can put your knowledge to the test
and you can be arbitrator. You word will be final.”

“
That sounds
awfully formal,” I say.

“
That's because it
is.”

“
Great.”

“
Come on,” he
says, “stop sulking. You've been hiding away in your room all
week. It's time for you to get outside. You haven't seen the gardens
yet, have you?”

“
Gardens?”

“
Yeah. They're
quite beautiful this time of year as well. Would you like to go see
them with me?”

I smile at him and nod in
response. He offers his arm and I loop mine through his.

Sahariel leads me through
the castle which I still haven't learned my own way. He opens a set
of French doors and I feel like I've been transported to a completely
different place.

“
Wow,” I say,
“this is amazing.”

“
I told you that
didn't I?”

“
You did but, I
don't know, I don't think words could have described this well
enough. It's so amazing looking. How come you didn't tell me about
this place before?”

“
I don't know,”
he says, “I guess it's because there have just been a lot of
things going on that it just slipped my mind.”

“
Speaking of
which,” I say, “where have you been all week?”

“
Oh,” he
says, “I've just had some personal matters I've had to take
care of.”

“
Like?”

“
Personal?”

“
Oh,” I say,
“right.”

Sahariel and I walk
around a little while in silence, and I can't help but wonder what
he's thinking, like I always am. I can never tell what he's thinking
or what he's feeling, and it's a little unnerving. I've been seeing
emotions for so long that not being able to see one person’s is
like having my sense of touch taken away.

Looking up into the sky,
Sahariel see's something that I don't and tells me it's time for the
oh-so-special meeting that I have to look over.

Sahariel walks with me to
a grand room, the same room that I stole my family member’s
emotions away. There is a very elegant throne at the head of the
room, and a red carpet, literally, leading up to it. There are a few
people milling around before the meeting, and they stop and bow, but
continue to whisper to themselves. Sahariel tells me to sit on the
thrown and soon enough people start to slowly stream in.

Pretty soon the room is
full of people and I'm nervous. I can hear whispers, and whether or
not they're about me, I start to feel paranoid.

“
I can't do this,”
I say to Sahariel and start to get up from my seat.

“
Yes, you can,”
he grabs my arm and pushes me down.

“
Uhg,” I
grumble, “I think I'm going to be sick.”

I lean back against the
chair and rub my temples. My being sick wasn't a complete lie. I
hadn't been in a room with this many people in it in a while and the
colors were starting to hurt, even though they were more muted then
they had ever been in the human world.

Over the next couple of
hours my people stood in front of me and explained why they were
there. Simple, petty reasons brought these people to stand in front
of me and bicker. After several groups, I was on my last nerve, and I
knew Sahariel could feel it.

“
Please stay calm,”
Sahariel says, “there is only one more.”

I take a deep breath,
“Okay.”

In front of me stands a
man who, without knowing him, I automatically do not like. He stands
in front of me like the world owes him a favor for being born, as if
he's the greatest thing that's ever lived, and next to him stands a
small child.

The child is probably
five or six years old, and for being in such a beautiful kingdom, is
dressed so shabby, is so skinny, that I can't believe they're in my
kingdom. The little boy stands in front of me, stiff as a board, his
fists balled at his sides, his face clean despite the dirt on his
clothes. I frown at them both.

“
I caught this
child stealing from my store,” the man says.

The child winces as the
man points his finger at him and practically shouts.

“
Is this true?”
I ask the little boy.

“
Yes, ma'am,”
the boy says.

“
And why would you
steal from him?”

“
Probably because
he's a no-good degenerate,” the man says.

“
I wasn't speaking
to you,” I glare at the man, then I speak to the little boy
again, “why did you steal from this man?”

The little boy looks up
at me and I just smile at him.

“
I was hungry,”
the boy says sheepishly.

“
You were hungry?”

“
Yes, ma'am.”

“
Do you not have
food at home?” I ask the little boy.

“
I don't have a
home.”

“
You don't have a
home?” I ask.

“
No, ma'am.”

The man scoffs and I
glare at him again but I don't turn away immediately. I stare him
down.

“
You knew, didn't
you?”

“
Excuse me, your
majesty?” The man says.