Gallel's Heir

Chapter 4: Encounters

"You're not Anath, Mama!" said Lianna.

"No, I'm not," said Dylin. "I was just thinking about a dream."

The Ancestor stretched back her other hand at an angle, as though she were ready to move or to do something. The forefinger pointed behind her gently. The whole piece depicted movement, billowing wraps that left her shoulders bare, shoulder length hair seemingly caught in a breeze. Anath smiled knowingly into the ball, pondering unknown mysteries.

Where there is a question, the answer lies somewhere, whether obvious or somewhere beyond view. Rarely very far, however, if you concentrate and follow your senses. That's what Amara always said.

Dylin continued down the stairs and entered the library through the door at the base. Lianna ran off, probably to find a picture book to read like she usually did. Dylin slowly climbed steps up to the ancient history section at the top of the library. Despite how the librarian, jen Kaylar, cleaned, the open room smelled of paper and dust wrapped in old leather. An intelligent smell. Books lined the walls, and freestanding shelves intersected one another in geometric patterns. Latticed glass in the ceiling let in ample light in the reading areas, both from the sun as well as from the crystals atop Gallel's pinnacles, as did broad windows that opened the north wall. The Kanterol River flowed a blue streak beyond her garden out the window, and scarlet trees of autumn and amethyst mountains faded into the distance.

There were dozens of books about Lady Anath, most of them conjecture. Nothing complete remained from the two and a half thousand years since Anath's time. But a dozen conjectures could guide Dylin to make her own. She scanned book titles about the Ancestor, ranging from anthropological findings to poetry. If the last had been written by Anath, Dylin would have perused them, but poetry about the Ancestor tended towards triteness. Nothing remained of Anath's actual writings.

She reached to the top shelf and grasped a book called The Early History of Gallel and the bandages on her arm slipped to the floor. In her weakness, she'd tied them poorly. Another person came around the bookshelf, and abruptly stared. It was Canúden den Ubal.

After avoiding him for so long, even now in Gallel's halls as he worked, why had Dylin dreamed of den Ubal in that way? Not that she hadn't thought about him over the years, even dreamed of him. These dreams consisted of him ignoring her, or laughing at her, or her not being able to find him through the maze-like halls of Gallel, or the surrounding forest. She had bumped into him over the last few months in the library, and he was always friendly, while she tended to embarrass herself with a tied tongue.

"Excuse me, my Lady," he stammered. She wondered at his reticence: Only a week previous, he'd discussed with her insights into the natural history of domestic leopards on one of the reading couches. He'd talked for nearly two hours, and she had managed to not embarrass herself too badly.

She lowered her hand and her loose sleeve covered her cuts. He backed away and turned to another aisle. "It's all right," she managed with a dry mouth. Her dream of him emboldened her. She breathed deep to steady her weakness and followed him. "What are you studying?"

He glanced at her and returned his look to the books. "Anything about Anath. Blasted historians are worthless."

He didn't bow or do any of the other annoying obsequious behaviors servants tended to, just the respectful, my Lady. He treated her like a person. "I'm also studying Anath," she said.

"Indeed?" His gentle look rested on her face and he smiled. He wore the black silk of a Gallel servant. Thin and olive, he stood a mere hand-span taller than she; he had grown, as boys do, over the eight years since their vision. Lean muscles in his face replaced the boyish softness of before. Sunlight from the windows brought out red and brown highlights in his wavy black hair. "Good luck with that noble endeavor, since nothing worth a rat's tail remains about her. Even archeology. She lived here in the palace. You'd think there would be more evidence of her presence."