James Galloway - The Tower of Sorcery

And so he began. Tarrin knew a goodly amount of history, thanks to his father, but this Sheldin touched on events and places that Tarrin had never heard of. He also knew just about everywhere, as he roughly sketched in the four continents of the Known World and the kingdoms and nations on which they stood, and described very briefly the continent across the sea which was the domain of the Wikuni. Although it was a dry subject, the man's light manner and keen knowledge of his material made the class actually enjoyable, and he was surprised when the man broke the class for lunch. "All of you are to sit together at the table directly in front of the Mistress of Novice's table," he instructed. "An Initiate will come and escort each of you to where you need to be after lunch. We will meet again in this room tomorrow after breakfast. Good day to you."

"The man is learned," the Selani said in her calm voice as they walked back to the Hall.

"Yes, he is," Tarrin agreed. "I'd expect him to try to pull you aside pretty soon," he said.

"Why?"

"I don't think he'll pass up a chance to learn about your desert," Tarrin told her. "Nobody but your people go there, so he'll jump at the chance to ask you about it."

"It is our home," she said. "That is all there is to tell him."

"True, but he'll still want to know," he said. "Men like that are driven by the hunger to learn."

"It is a good quality," she observed. "There is honor in knowledge."

She still hadn't told him her name. Tarrin didn't want to push her too hard, though. He had the feeling that she could be very touchy, and he thought that if he put the wrong foot forward now, it would ruin any chance to strike up a friendship with her. Making friends with her was as much for him as it was for her, for in her Tarrin felt there was a kindred spirit, someone else here that did not quite fit in. From her he could expect honesty, and she had already put him at ease by not showing any fear of him. After they'd been seated in the Hall and the blessing was made, Tarrin discreetly watched her as she ate. He was curious about what she would and would not eat. She did not disappoint him by showing certain peculiarities. She would not eat pork, he noticed. Nor would she eat any chicken or goose. He didn't know if those were personal preferences or racial or cultural preferences, though. She ate a great deal of cabbage and stringed beans, he saw, and she especially seemed to enjoy the boiled potatos.

Initiates began to arrive, pick out a certain Novice or Novices, and then leave with them, taking them to their assigned work duties. Tarrin waited until he was sure the Selani was done with her meal, and then turned to her. "Do you feel like looking around?" he asked politely.

"It would please me to do so," she answered in a similarly polite voice.

Tarrin had a good memory, and Dar had been a good guide, so he mirrored his friend's course of the tour, showing her the important areas of the Tower. She seemed more or less unimpressed with most of it, showing interest only in the library. Tarrin gritted his teeth a bit when he showed her the baths. He had no idea how she was going to accept it.

"Ah, yes, this place," she said when they came down the stairs.

"They explained how it works?"

"Yes," she said. "I find nothing wrong with it. A similar custom exists among my people, but we use a sweat tent. Such an amount of water would never be used for bathing among me people. It is too precious." She looked at the water longingly a moment. "If only we had such riches at home."

"If water was this abundant there, it really wouldn't be a desert anymore," Tarrin noted.

She gave him a sidelong look, and then she laughed. It sounded like a cascade of silver bells. "I guess it would not," she agreed, smiling in spite of herself. "I would like to go outside," she said. "I came here in the night, so I did not get the chance to see much of the outside. But I saw much grass and other plants."

"Yes, most of the compoud is grass. I wonder how they keep it so short," Tarrin mused aloud. "There's a really big garden behind the tower proper," he told her. "It's very lovely."

She was awed more at the sight of the grass than she was with the massive size of the central Tower and the six smaller towers surrounding it. The sweeping, elegant bridges that connected the upper levels of the towers to the tower proper were nothing to her, for she was staring out at the expanse of the lawn. She even reached down and touched it. "It is so green," she said in a wondrous voice. "I have seen grass and forests ever since I left my home, but I was so spiteful at being sent here that I did not look at it. It is a beautiful sight."

"It's all I've ever known," Tarrin told her. "Maybe someday I'll see your desert, and then I'll be able to compare them."

"The Motherland is not without its own beauty," she told him. "The Painted Lands have such color that it would take your breath, and the mesas and ravines of the Broken Lands cast shadows across the land that merge with the color of the rock and the sheen of the heat that make the colors dance like rock snakes. We have green, but it is so small compared to the rest of the land that it is easy to miss. Here, everything but what the humans build is green, or brown."

"Let's go look at the garden," he offered. "And there's something else there that I think you may want to see," he added.

She was impressed with the gardens, spending a great deal of time going from flower to flower and plant to plant, looking at them, touching them, and smelling them. Tarrin didn't have to get that close to smell them, he could do it from where he stood. But it did make him appreciate the beauty of the gardens just a little bit more, watching her take in the sights of the living beauty of the gardens. After they'd worked their way through most of it, he got her attention with a paw. "Come on, there's something else I want to show you," he said. "It's kind of a secret, though, so don't tell anyone about it."

She raised an elegant white eyebrow. "Then lead on," she said.

It took him a while to find it again. The scent trail he'd made before was about two days old. Since he and Dar had crisscrossed the whole hedge maze more than once, that put their scents all over the place, and after that much time it was hard to tell the trail that led true to the ones that went to dead ends. He relied on his memory for most of it, and had led them almost right to the center. It was finding that elusive choked-off passage that was challenging. The Selani was starting to get a bit restless as they reached another dead end. "What are we looking for?" she asked.

"It's a very small passage that's so overgrown it's almost invisible," he told her, frowning. "It's very hard to find."

"I saw such a thing not long ago," she told him.

"You must have sharp eyes," he said.

"Yes," she told him. She led them back to the place unerringly, and it was indeed the opening to the maze's heart. "This is it," he told her. "Thanks."

"You are welcome," she said as she followed him into the living tunnel.

The serenity and beauty of the maze's heart had just as much effect on her as it had had on Tarrin. He still felt the same wonder and peace he'd felt the day before as he looked on the lovely statue in the center of the fountain. They stood at the entryway for several moments, as the Selani stared at the statue in mute awe. "My roommate and I found this place a couple of days ago," he said in a hushed voice. "We don't think anyone else comes here anymore."

"It is a wondrous place," she told him. "The statue looks almost alive."

"I know," he said, motioning her to follow him. They sat down on the stone bench in front of the fountain. "Well, I hope you found the time we spent together tolerable," he told her.