THIS TIME HE was lying on a stone bench in a wide plaza. The sun was warm and the air held the scent of flowers. Thin, graceful marble columns surrounded the space, their white surfaces absorbing the light and seeming to glow from within. The sky above him was a brilliant, clear blue. The sound of many voices filled the air. He sat up.
Before him were at least a hundred children, each one engaged in some task he couldn’t decipher, all the while talking to each other and laughing. Some were very young and they sat cross-legged in circles together on the stone squares of the plaza. Others were much older and, like him, they occupied benches set around the plaza near the columns. Some were so focused on their work that they seemed oblivious to the commotion around them. He felt a wave of happiness run through him.
“You wanted to see our children, Nathaniel. Here they are.”
Naliv sat beside him, and her face seemed younger to him, less troubled than when he had last seen her.
“Where are we?” he asked.
“Inside Elaimat, as I promised. Do you feel this place? Can you?”
“They are content, and not afraid.”
“They do not have to be. Nothing has reached them here. They are still free. We want to keep it so.”
He watched the children move their hands in the air, as if they were speaking in some form of sign language.
“What are they doing?”
“Ah, I will show you. Here, come with me. We will join my son, Soran. He will not mind at all.”
She took him around the edge of the plaza until they were on the other side and then walked a few feet toward the center and stopped before a small boy who was gesturing rapidly and with great concentration.
“Soran, this is Nathaniel. Would you show him what you are doing?”
He stopped his motions and looked up.
“Of course,” he said, and got up and put his arms around her as she bent over to kiss him.
“This is the man I told you about.”
“The traveler. You are here to help my mother,” he said to Nathan. “Thank you.”
“So what have you created this time?” Naliv asked, smiling. Her joy in being with her child was one that seemed to fill the air around the three of them like a tangible thing.
“We make worlds. I mean, we practice doing that. We work together,” he explained to Nathan. “Like this circle I am in now,” he said, pointing to other children nearby. “In the morning we decide together what it is we need or want, and each one of us has a part of it to build. When we are done, we have our new world to enter for a little while. Each day the group changes so that what we make becomes a different probability.”
“How old are you?” Nathan couldn’t help asking.
“Five,” Soran said with obvious pride.
“Why am I here this time?” Nathan looked at Naliv.
“I can answer that,” Soran said. “My mother wants you to know Elaimat. So you will want to help us.”
“I’ve already seen your city, more than once,” Nathan said to them both. “I can’t stay here. I don’t know how to help you.”
A shout of laughter came from the other side of the plaza. The older children on one of the benches were clapping their hands.
YOU ARE READING
The Magic Hour
Mystery / Thriller"It was not exactly dark, but a kind of twilight or gloaming. There were neither windows nor candles, and he could not make out where the twilight came from, if not through the walls and roof." -Childe Rowland "T...
