The House of Flags and the Citadel Stair (39)

Godiar turned his gaze towards our host.

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Godiar turned his gaze towards our host. “Ambiskar, I wonder if you can remember anything USEFUL about Aranon and his visitations here?”

I glanced at Ambiskar, fearful that he would reveal some vital secret to Godiar.

Ambiskar didn’t look in my direction, his smiling eyes focused on Godiar. Ambiskar shrugged. “I have some stories. But very few specific details about his comings or goings, unfortunately. It’s more than a year ago, and I do have many customers every day.”

The room seemed exceptionally quiet in the short silence that followed. We were the only customers at this early hour. But that also provided Godiar with an opportunity.

Godiar glanced around the many different tables, each with a different style and mood. I imagined his gaze lingered too long at the secluded trellis table, but he turned back to Ambiskar. “I wonder if you can remember where Aranon would SIT during his visitations?”

Ambiskar shrugged, and smiled sadly, but I thought he was scrambling for something to say.

Godiar pressed on. “If we knew where Aranon would sit, we could, it is possible, LAY HANDS at those locations and, it is possible, find some ... echoes.”

I swallowed hard. I felt like everyone must have noticed, but no one looked at me.

Ambiskar seemed to cheer up. “I DO remember that Aranon never sat at the same table twice. He wanted to explore the WORLD in the House of Flags, through the foods and drinks on offer here. A very curious man. Interested in all things.”

I would have believed his statement without question if I didn’t already know it was a fabrication. Not a COMPLETE fabrication, of course. Father might have preferred Kinnon fare, but he DID have an interest in foreign foods, and it was true that Father had traveled extensively. But my impression had always been that Father resented every part of his duty, even though he’d always, without fail, put that duty first above all things. Above his wife. Above his sons. Yes, even above my brother.

Father would have preferred to sit in his study to the end of his days, never disturbed by such sundry distractions as children, wives, or bodily needs, surrounded by books and papers, a pen in his hand.

This was perhaps the most sympathetic thought I’d had regarding my father.

I realized Mother was very quiet. While she’d looked like she was enjoying this exchange, her eyes now clouded over, as though she was remembering certain things from her years of living with her husband. Or was it that she worried about Ambiskar, that if he could lie so smoothly and so readily to Godiar, he would be able to do the same to us?

*

We parted ways like old friends, with embraces and promises to return soon. As we passed out of sight, I saw Ambiskar still standing outside the House of Flags, waving like a mother sending her child off to boarding school for the first time.

Godiar strode ahead, eager to make up for the lost time.

“We’re only a little behind schedule,” Godiar said, when we caught up with him.

“There’s a schedule?” Mother was all wide-eyed innocence.

“Of a sort.” Godiar seemed relieved that we had switched back to Peledarri. “I just had a plan in mind, and the diversion has perhaps upset some of it. No matter. We will push on and make up the lost time.”

He maintained a relentless pace, and the cliffs of the Citadel loomed ever higher.

Before too long, we reached the gatehouse, and I could already see the great, wide Citadel Stair behind and beyond it, seemingly reaching the sky like a stairway to heaven, or to the city of the gods. The sight took my breath, and my attention, and I came to a halt just staring up at it.

Mother hurried after Godiar, and I could hear the conversation with the guards.

And then something else penetrated my awareness. Off to my left, an insistent urge pulled my gaze to it. A house, backing onto the cliff walls, partially built AGAINST the cliff, as was the whole street, but this one was special: Aranon had been there.

And, even at this distance, I had a sense of my father’s Trace reaching beyond the house, into the rock itself, and up into the Citadel. Here was the place where my father had crossed the Boundary from Cellar to Citadel without being arrested, and, therefore, without being detected. What had he been up to? Why take the risk of such secrecy? And who had shown him the secret way?

“Araled!” Mother beckoned to me. “Come along!”

I nodded, and started towards them, realizing for the first time the physical costs of climbing these monumental stairs, or any secret ones reaching just as high.

*

Continue reading with Part 40!

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