Dreams of the Compass Rose (28 page)

And thus his mind—as it had done so often before with others before this one woman came into their life—his mind drifted away gently, into its own remote place, so that he was removed from this reality, removed to a safe, gentle condition, and he did not have to think, or consider, or fear, or wonder.

A
nother span of several moons, a subtle change in the nature of the warmth of the days, and the third expedition of the four returned to the great city of the
taqavor.

Mareid was the one who had been told to follow the face of the setting sun, and so he and his men had gone in the direction opposite that of the first expedition.

“
To measure the exact direction of our daily movement, my Lord,” spoke Mareid—a thin tall soldier, weathered and already dark before he had set out, for his was a race with skin the color of dates, soft rounded features and wiry night-black hair—“one of us would be watching for the first glimmer of the rising sun at dawn, and would thus stand facing it directly. Meanwhile, a second man would stand lined up exactly against his back. Back-to-back we stood, and the one who was facing away from the rising sun would point with his hand. That was the direction we took.”

The
taqavor
reclined in his high seat and watched the tall soldier with a merciless cold gaze. “And have you found the End of the World, man? Or have you found only illusion? By all the sacred gods, do not even begin to lie to me, nor try to excuse yourself. I must have the truth.”

“
I do not know what to call it, my Lord,” replied Mareid. “But we found a strange thing—the End of the World recedes as we approach it, for what is on the horizon is always different from what it is when we arrive there.”

“
Is that so? And does the horizon run from you in particular, or just from your luckless expedition?”

Mareid bowed deeply, placing his right hand over his heart. “My Lord, I beg you to forgive me for not having the right words to describe this, and hear me out, even if it appears laughable. There is one other interesting thing we have noticed, particularly on our travels over two great oceans—for indeed, if one follows the setting sun there is mostly water, and very little dry land past this desert. We noticed that when there is a deadly calm, without winds over the ocean, and our ship sits for days without sails while we row with as much strength as we can, there are creatures swimming alongside us in the ocean that have a purpose and a destination.

“
What creatures?” said the
taqavor,
stopping himself halfway in a yawn. “Go on, for today I feel magnanimous and I am willing to listen to your imbecile tale—but not exceedingly long. So make it good, soldier.”

“
Yes, my Lord. As I was saying, there are peculiar creatures that have the bodies and fins of great fishes and yet breathe mortal air. The greatest of them have thick water-repellent hides, and they are known to grow to be the size of a ship, and blow tall fountains of water from the nostril holes. The lesser ones can grow to be the size of a man and have smooth rounded heads with long narrow snouts.

“
The lesser of these creatures with long snouts accompanied our ship for many days, sailing alongside us in the calm waters while we rowed, and then would disappear for days. Then they would return. It was as though they knew how to find us, and knew their way around the endless waters. Maybe the gods had given them the knowledge of directions. But no matter—the reason I speak of this is because, upon more than one occasion, these creatures saved us by showing us the true direction when the sun was not to be seen in the sky, and the sea mists had grown so thick that the land and sky mixed into one. At such terrifying times, afloat on the great water, all alone, we were oddly reassured to hear the creatures’ wild cries, and we followed them, having no other choice.

“
When finally the sun came out, and the days changed to clear skies and sailing wind, the creatures left us. Surely they knew we would now be safe and could be trusted to find our way.”

“
Marvelous, these sea creatures of yours,” said the
taqavor.
“Too bad I could not send them on an expedition in your stead.”

“
My Lord. . . .” Mareid’s face was drawn and he was stiff as a column from the growing fear. For he had known the
taqavor
to laugh and mock cruelly before he doled out the most severe punishment.

“
All right,” spoke the
taqavor.
“After you made your way over this interminable ocean, what then? Did you reach land and proceed to chase the horizon, or did you simply turn back after a good rest and come home the way you left?”

“
Both, my Lord . . .” whispered the poor man. “Let me explain! For we did not at any point turn back, and yes, we continued to move in the direction of the setting sun, and when we reached land, as you correctly surmise, we continued our journey on solid ground.”

“
And?”

Mareid’s gaunt form trembled as he bowed once again, and this time he remained thus bent. His speech meanwhile became more hurried. “And then, as we moved through wide expanses of sparse lands covered not with sand but with sharp pale grass, terrain turned into forest and marshes, for water was in the ground, making it rich like mud. As we waded our way out of the swamps, there were many rivers with waters gold and blue and opaque with mud—first small gentle rivulets running though grassland, then wider streams, then rivers which we had to swim, building rafts for our belongings. And then, my Lord, the lands again grew warmer, and there came an end to the river country.

“
For several long moons we moved through drier forest, then open land, passing some human settlements where the people could not speak our tongue, nor we theirs. And then, at last, the earth grew rich with sand, and we were in a desert . . .”

“
And did this desert, by any chance, look particularly familiar?” said the
taqavor.

“
Why yes it did, my Lord!” exclaimed Mareid, straightening. “You may find it unbelievable, but we were soon at the gates of your glorious city! What I am about to say, my Lord, may sound insane, but it appeared we had come in a great circle around the sun!”

“
Either that, or you had lost your minds from the sun’s heat, since it shone on you for so many days,” said the
taqavor.

“
I am so sorry, my Lord . . . I know it sounds mad, but one thing I am sure of is that we kept going in the right direction!”

“
All right, I allow this much—maybe at one point you ended up at the End of the World and you did not even know it . . .” mused the
taqavor.
“For what if the World ends suddenly, and then flips over, and you continue walking on the underside, upside-down in relation to the rest of us?”

“
Why, yes, it is possible, my Lord!” said Mareid with excitement, picking up on the scenario. “It could be that the world has its exact opposite on the bottom, including land and mountains and oceans, and even a sky! Maybe other peoples and nations fill its nether regions, and they walk upside-down and underneath us even now, and neither we nor they know it?”

“
This would imply that there are in fact
two
worlds of mortal men . . .” whispered the
taqavor
. A darkness once again obscured him and took away all traces of levity. “No, I do not like this thought at all. . . . For then my
empirastan
might be comprised only of the world on this side, and not that of the under side. And in that case. . . .”

As the thought completed itself at last, the
taqavor
screamed in rage, so that everyone in the hall trembled at the terror of his voice. And, screaming, he arose from his high seat and struck down the poor soldier before him with a powerful blow, so that Mareid lay flat on the cold marble, his face bleeding from the force of the anger. His lifeblood fell in a random splatter pattern of red upon the marble.

“
No!” screamed the
taqavor
in fury. “For I am the ruler of the whole world! It is all mine, my
empirastan!
There is no one and nothing underneath, and the earth has no opposite side! I say it and thus it is, before all gods!”

A
fter that, it seemed the
taqavor
had become a changed man. If it were possible, he was even more feral. As the days flowed, he spent more time in seclusion, more days walking lone galleries in his gardens or else locked in his private chambers, where he was heard pacing endlessly, muttering to himself, his footsteps making echoes upon the stone floor.

“
One more!” he was often heard to say. “One more left! When the last one comes back I will have the true news of the World and its End, at last! One more!”

In the meantime the woman with the knowing eyes continued with her immense task of creating the one object that would capture in it the essence of the wind rose and thus the world.

Under her directions, a hall was selected—one which stood in the very center of the palace structure—and within it were placed great blocks of fine polished marble stone. Once arranged, these blocks were carved by the
taqavor’s
own sculptors into a statue of a great flower blossom, a many-petaled rose. From the distance of the hall entrance, from all sides it looked like nothing but delicate lifelike petals, but, if observed from the top, in its middle could be seen a great round carved hollow filled with water, forming a shallow pool.

Once, the
taqavor
himself passed by as the sculptors and artisans were working in the hall, and he noticed the woman standing there, directing their work, and almost did not recognize her. For a moment a frown filled his features, a frown to see a female creature whose face was unobscured—and then he remembered who she was.

“
You,” he said. “When will I have the living symbol of my
empirastan?
Is it ready yet?”

And the woman, dressed plainly like a servant and wearing the same demure shawl as always bowed before him and said in a familiar, strong, calming voice, “Behold, my Lord, this is its cradle being built. When it is done, the symbol of the wind rose will lie within the heart of the rose of stone, floating upon calm waters.”

“
Then I await its completion.” The
taqavor
nodded.

The Prince Lirheas, standing as always to the side, noticed as he observed the
taqavor
discreetly that his father’s eyes were fevered. And his father’s gaze was unfocused and dim.

Then the
taqavor
was again on his way, forgetting the whole thing, it seemed, like an old man.

Indeed, it was a tangible relief to have his heavy presence out of the hall. Lirheas once again turned his unyielding gaze to watch the woman as she moved in her artistic energy and fluidity. For, more and more, she was the only thing he saw.

T
he
taqavor
was preoccupied in the House of Wives when he was delivered the news that the fourth and last expedition to the End of the World had returned.

The news was relayed from the other side of a gauze curtain in a luxurious bedchamber that hid the
taqavor
and one of his
taqoui
moving in the carnal act. The information had such an effect on the sovereign that he grunted in triumph and immediately spilled his seed. He then removed himself prematurely from within the woman underneath him, while she moaned and continued to grind her loins in unrelieved lust.

Back in the palace, a tired and gray-haired man awaited the
taqavor,
the soldier called Vikenti who had been directed to follow the rising sun’s left hand.

“
We have returned at long last, my Lord,” said Vikenti, his voice hoarse and dry as though he had not spoken for all these seasons since he had last been here.

“
Tell me, have you seen the End of the World, of my
empirastan?
” asked the
taqavor.
“For I must know it at last, and you are the only one left of the four who might give me a proper answer. . . .”

Vikenti was indeed an old soldier, and far from a fool. “What happened to the others?” he asked carefully. “What news did they bring, Jimor and Rihaad and Mareid, my old comrades in arms?”

In response the
taqavor
laughed. He sat in his high seat and shook with paroxysms that resembled dark fury and pain and madness.

“
They brought back nothing,” he said at last, quieting into a dark sobriety. “One by one they came back. And their tales were filled with lies and delusion. For they had been lost, all of them, deviating from their true purpose in one way or another. And now there is only you. All hope rests on you. What news have you to tell me?”

And the old soldier Vikenti sighed, for at that point he suddenly knew the exact nature of the fate unfolding before him like a carpet of twilight.

“
My Lord, what I have to tell you is a thing of wonder. And yet I am afraid this thing will not please you to hear it. You may also consider me mad and lost and full of delusion. For I am now convinced that the World, the great boundless
empirastan
of yours, has no End.”

“
What?” whispered the
taqavor.
“Not you, too. . . .”

“
Father . . .” Prince Lirheas suddenly spoke out. “Maybe this man does indeed say only what he has been given to see by the will of the gods? For I am beginning to suspect either that the gods do not want mortal men to know what the End of the World is or the answer may be beyond our meager understanding.”