The Gardener of Nahi

Chapter 36

Nahi

I’ve been writing in near darkness on this sandy floor for at least three days, capturing on paper my experiences on Cassidian – something I had neglected to do up until this point due to my lack of time.  But now suddenly time seems no longer relevant to me.  Even the silence in the house above tells me this.  If it wasn’t for the crow of the rooster every morning, I would wonder if time hadn’t stopped completely.

     Last night I dreamt that the walls surrounding the three of us had dissolved into the darkness and became the deep indigo desert sky.  The ground became wide ripples of wind-strewn sand, and the pinprick of light near the corner ballooned into the fullest of moons.  At first we laughed and cried out in joy, thinking that we were free.  But soon we realized that no matter where we walked we kept coming across our own footprints in the sand.

     Time has returned twice since we’ve been imprisoned here, and each time it has brought us a visitor, but some somber news as well.

     I believe it was yesterday that Akuli came down into the cellar.  We heard a quiet shuffling and I knew that it was not Finn.  I ran to the locked door and peered through the keyhole.

     Akuli was standing on the other side of the door, looking around at the littered glass bottles covering the floor.  The mess we had created days earlier was still there.

     “Akuli,” I whispered loudly, directing him toward my hidden location.

     “He’s gone,” Akuli said, kneeling down and pressing close to the shelves covering the door.

     “Where did he go?”

     “I don’t know, but he left a short time ago.  He had a horse-drawn carriage in the stable.  One guardsman went with him – he’s driving it, I’m sure.  Finn took Lin into the carriage with him.”

     “They went to the city?”

     “I think so.  I followed a ways behind only to the guard house before returning.”

     “You’ve been hiding in the house this whole time?”

     “Yes.  I would have made a move on him, but he has the same weapon as yours.  There was a moment, perhaps, where I could have surprised him, but I hesitated.”

     “It’s alright,” I said.  “He’s more dangerous than he looks, and I’m sure you’re aware of that by now.”

     He pushed a hand forward and his finger momentarily blocked out the light coming through the keyhole.  “Where’s the key?”

     “It was in one of the glass bottles earlier,” I said.  “We broke the bottle to get to it.  Finn was trapped in here.  We thought it was the real Finn, but it was the fake Finn.  He duped us.”

     “I heard what happened.”

     “Do you know where the real Finn is, by any chance?  Stumble across his body?”