Chapter Two
Part One
The large man had ordered for my attendant to apply a different cream over my eyes after the mysterious priestess woman left the island. We continued our language lessons in secret over the next couple of days without interruption while the large man, I was sure, debated just killing me or actually delivering me to these people who so desired obedience.
It was funny, I was sure I’d rather die than be obedient to anyone. In fact, the idea of running away was even less appealing. It wasn’t certain but I felt the feeling of just giving up but never following through may have come quite common to who I was before.
The tar my attendant had been placing over my eyes didn’t seem to be working initially. It wasn’t until one hot afternoon when the village was especially busy that something magical happened. The idea I might see again started to expand.
“What is your name?” I said it slowly and enunciated in a very professional fashion.
He laughed a bit, his blur moving as he tried not to be disrespectful, and then sat straight to clear his throat, “My nam ish Zek.”
Zek. It was so refreshing knowing what he said. He was overwhelmed that, despite the accent, I knew what he said.
“Zek,” I laughed and pointed to him, “Friend.”
“Friend?”
“Friend,” I then paused and looked to the door. He watched me and I was sure he knew what I was thinking. Before I could speak, he did the talking for me.
Zek started in the language I was still learning. From what I caught of it, he told me miles and miles of desert killed people. Especially “Bin-Rah”, newcomers. There was a level of intensity in his words that sent chills up my spine for a moment. Instead of continuing on in the hut, I decided it was time for our walk.
We made it past the village and had managed to get to the city style portion of this sandy place. We’d been traveling deeper and deeper into the village made of stone and leather. I was getting healthier much quicker but I didn’t want the people, predators, around me to know yet how well I truly was. Instead, at night I would move my legs in the air until they grew so tired I could not move them. I did sit ups and pushups until my torso was numb. I even bent and twisted allowing my muscles to feel loose.
This is why my vision staying the same, this fogged mess of colors, was so frustrating.
When we’d made it up the large hill, the one I’d been holding off on climbing for some time to give off the impression of weakness, Zek breathed a breath of relief and led me to a place to sit. It felt like a large stone and as I looked over the edge it seemed the miles of sand he spoke of were truly and seemingly endless and excruciating desert.
“Dangerous land.” He spoke in my language and I nodded my head. I assumed we were fairly secluded here.
“Indeed, very dangerous. Que-tu?” This meant “how far?”
“Ni-mah trech.” He replied three days. I scrunched my face for a moment remembering that the woman had given us three days for our journey. I guess everyone knew where I was going.
We stopped for a moment when a group of people began to travel down the steep stone hill we were at the resting point of. Another hill lead further up to a bundle of homes were the sweet smells of the bread had come from.
In this group there were seven women, one pregnant, and two men. One had been much shorter than the other with semi-dark skin while the other was midnight like the priestess woman. With their steps nearing us and then fading as they turned and traveled down the first hill we’d conquered, I realized the fabrics of the women’s clothing started to separate colors instead of bundling them. Looking harder, really focusing, embroidery also started to symbolize flower prints and odd shapes.
There were scars and discolorations, both small and large, forming on their varying tones. The sight started near and then began to expand. It expanded so far I turned back to the blank desert to find the very edge of the sea could be seen from this pint and even the smells of the beachside smelled more strongly at the sight.
All the air in my lungs exited my body. I nearly fell over when my attendant caught me. My sight was so good I could see his tiny pours in his face. He helped me back down when I looked all around to see everything around. I even examined the face of the younger male who had become something of a close friend.
“What?” He asked me quickly.
“My sight… I can see!” He looked confused so I pointed to my eyes, “I can see. My eyes, I can see!”
“Oaaaah!” He shouted with a large smile, “See! See! No more blur?”
“No more.”
He jumped up once, shockingly excited, as I nodded my head and shrugged. Unlike many of the people around here with markings on their skin he had no such markings. There were some scars but that was to be expected. He was also in leather pants but no shirt and instead had a series of necklaces pinned to his chest. This explained why there was only slight rattling I could make out assuming it was just one necklace.
The pins to the chest had been confusing but it was a question for another time. His hair was long, thick and straight in a braid that hung long behind his broad shoulders. He was very strong and obviously past puberty and so it confused me slightly that he had been tending to a sick person and not out doing manly tribal things such as hunting or finding himself a mate He was very beautiful for a man. Without the tribal markings or the rough skin of a hunter he was like a celebrity or model.
What had been even more curious about him were his bright, golden eyes. They nearly glowed in reflection to the bright sun hitting the sands and were protected by long, thick eyelashes.
“It’s nice to finally meet you, Zek. Granz mah nuten, Zek.” I bowed my head. He knew I could not remember my own name and extended his arm to me. I watched carefully as I stood to see there was a long knife at his side. This would be something I could use at some point.
He turned me so that we could go back down the hill but I pointed upwards. He looked at me strangely and shook his head. I nodded my own and pointed again. I wanted to see what was at the top of the great hill we’d been climbing slowly all these weeks. Against his wishes, we turned and began up again.
I knew he wanted to see him girl, the one he had been talking about. I was curious to see her face and what it was that excited him so. Instead I was taking him to a place he seemed less than enthused to see. The further we climbed the slower his steps became. It wasn’t until I had to pull him that he remembered what his duties were to me for the time.
Once at the top, a large gate had to be pushed open. We walked to the other side and it was here I saw why he was so hesitant to enter. This was the heart of the city. Many wealthy men and women in vibrant robes were walking around a large, square market place. Life here, unlike in the base village from where we stayed, was much more evolved and luxurious.
From the necks of the townspeople were golden chains and on their fingers gems. The colors they wore were so bright my eyes needed to adjust. The buildings were also large and glorious in standing made of a clay used from the sands around the city.
“What is this place?” I tried to walk forward but he stopped me. Several guards were approaching us and it seemed Zek knew well what would happen next.
“Main village. Lot’s people.”
“I can see that.”
Both men were double the size of Zek. While I was taller than nearly every woman we’d seen in the village, the men were mountains. Zek was a tall man but the guards seemed to be nearly a foot taller than him with golden armor on their bodies. They each held a spear and a shield as well.
The two interacted for a moment in their language. Zek was trying his best to ensure we wouldn’t have to enter this portion of the city but the guards looked me up and down once and moved aside to let us through. I guided my friend in and began to walk towards the center of the square. People didn’t seem to notice us much. I was sure we projected a lower level of society they didn’t much bother themselves with.
I looked around the area. It seemed there was anything you could need. There were clothing shops, food suppliers, entertainers singing or showing off their animals. People were talking and laughing, several men were ready for a fight and then there were people bargaining and selling items.
“Come on, I want to take a look.” I tugged at him again when he spoke to me in a frightened and surprising tone.
“No, please. I do not want to go back in there.”
I froze at his words. His thick accent was gone and perfect verbiage flowed from his mouth with only a hint of accent for flavor.
“What did you just say?”
“When I was hired to work for the city, my employers told me I am not to tell the chief I speak Bin-Rah native tongue.” He was referencing outsiders to the island of all sorts.
“You made me look like an idiot.”
“No, ma’am. I understand it must have been frustrating but I was offered the chance to say on with them.” He pulled me out from the center of the square down a thin, dark alley tossed wall to wall with what looked like homeless people.”
“With the village people?”
His eyes began to turn red, “You don’t understand, let me…”
“Zek, it’s been too long.”
The clank of the man’s footsteps echoed in the small alley. He was thin and a much lighter tone than many of the people working down in the village. His eyes were bright blue and hair a sandy color. From his neck a strange triangle shaped pendant hung.
Zek had reached the pinnacle of his fear at the sight of this man and moved behind me as if my height, still nearly a foot shorter than the men, could protect him.
“Nobleman Cris. I didn’t expect to see you on the Seventh Circle.”
“I often don’t leave the Sapphire. It is only for much rarer gems that I tend to vacation into poverty.” The way he said this indicated to me he might have meant visiting the stranger to this “Seventh Circle” however the way he looked at Zek told a different story.
Zek had transformed from a large man into a scared boy. He refused to make eye contact with the stranger and instead shrunk down into a submissive position behind me and began to shake.
“What is going on here, sir?” I asked. He finally looked at me, almost like he’d just seen me there, and provided a smirk. I suppose it would have been smarter to be quiet. I didn’t want to be the sort of person that was, however.
“Well, this is the one the Courts are raving about? I can see why you wanted to leave us, Zek. The Sapphire Circle doesn’t much compare to a Bin-Rah like her. I hope to hear from you soon. Please, don’t keep me waiting.”
With that small statement, the man turned and walked away. It wasn’t until he’d been gone for several minutes before Zek collapsed to the ground and leaned up against the wall. It didn’t take much to figure out why. Examining the pendant closely, it didn’t take an archeologist to realize the symbol was that of mating. It resembled two people intertwined. He also had the most gold on him than any other party without any ink in his skin to signify, with a combination of a lighter skin and hair, that he was from a different place and from a lot of money.
Placing both of those things alone clued me into what he did: A brothels man. The longer he lingered talking to us, my sense of smell picked up the perfumes only those participating in such events would leave behind. They were subtle and mostly chemical. It had been hidden under the thick smells of a spice. It was very strong but those deeds couldn’t be hidden from me for long.
Finally, when he turned, I was able to see the girls, and boys, awaiting him to come back to his carriage. They were carrying him around the square in a brightly decorated, red and golden carriage embroidered with the same symbol that hung from his neck. The women struggled but the men tried their best to compensate the weight of both the man and gold.
Zek was trying very hard not to show how scared he was but the pale in his face was blatantly apparent. I walked to the entrance of the Alley and looked around. It seemed the scene didn’t draw attention and the homeless were so food deprived or hopped up on some sort of drug that they didn’t much notice it either.
“Please don’t tell me that’s a friend of yours.”
“That’s Nobleman Cris. He was my… superior before I transferred. Not many in my position get such opportunities.” He took my arm and we started to walk, this time back towards the entrance again.
“What happened to your family?”
“What family?” He laughed, “I was sold as a baby. Those people, that life, it’s all I’ve ever known. It wasn’t until I met a man several years ago, someone who I could call a friend for the first time in my life, that I realized the world was more than the Sapphire Palace.”
“How old are you?”
“Eighteen years. I turn nineteen this coming moon.” He was trying hard to avoid my eyes. I couldn’t believe he was as young as he said considering how mature he was physically. Then again, back tracking on the thought, that may have been something outside of his control.
We made our way back to the village and my hut so that he could feel safe again. I didn’t want people knowing my sight was back and so I asked my friend to continue leading me around. I wanted him to stay here as long as possible and I think it was an unspoken fact this is what he wanted.