The Palace

 

As the elephant neared the ridge at the top of the cliff overlooking the ocean, Bebe studied the plant and animal life along the steep path. As a child, she had been taught to catalog many details by sorting their qualities and arranging them in boxes in her mind. Calvea, her teacher, had shown her how to faithfully recall a series of events using the “valley of time” technique.

“The river of time follows a valley to the past,” Calvea had told her. “Many small streams flow into the river. Many People can remember the course of the river, but the historian also remembers how the flow of the streams changed the river.”

Her childhood training began with the rivers and mountain streams, cataloguing the minute changes during one season. Calvea then trained her to recall the births, deaths, and life events of some of the Jade tribe. She learned to observe the river of events in the swirl of battle, but also the streams that caused a battle to go one way or another.

“See that warrior,” Calvea pointed as they watched the Jade and Cawthingi battle over access to a road to the southern valley. “He favors his left side. His companion is loyal and stays closer to him but that leaves a gap, a vulnerability in their line. When you say that story of the battle, that is one of the streams.”

“How do I see it all?” Bebe had asked.

“You can’t, of course,” Calvea said. “Either side of your vision is like the tips of a bow. Draw back your focus like the string of a bow, then shoot the arrow of your focus at a detail that stands out.”

When the elephant crested the ridge and the queen’s palace came into view, Bebe surveyed the flat plain, the various stone and beige plaster buildings, keeping her focus on the mid-range point between her and the landscape. When she noticed the detail, she unleashed her focus on that spot at the corner of the queen’s palace.

She recognized the dark green sheen of jade stone from the mountains east of the Melangi tribe. This was the emblem plaque of Marten, the great one, ruler of all the tribes before the civil war.

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Hearing Calvea speak the stories of the ancient king, Bebe had imagined a grander palace. Looking to her left she recognized what used to be the garrison where the king’s soldiers trained. The queen’s race of people did not build this palace city as Alithea had thought. They had taken it from the Dallesa tribe who had called this area their own after the civil war.

The elephant ambled up alongside the palace. Like Alithea, Bebe was surprised when the Fae opened the side of the tent to reveal a passageway on the second story of the palace. Did Marten have elephants?  She searched her memory but could not recall any mention of them.

As she set foot on the landing, she paused to admire the veranda and colonnade. She wanted to turn right toward the ocean side of the palace. She could imagine the pride the king must have felt as he stood on his portico and admired the ocean. She wanted to inspect the ancient symbols on the king’s emblem.

Calvea had taught her all the symbols, carving them in the dirt and testing her memory. “Why do we need to make symbols?” she asked Calvea. “We can make symbols in our minds so much faster.”

“When I teach you the stories of the People, I must read the symbols in my mind, and translate them into speaking. You hear the words, then translate them to symbols to store the stories in your mind. The story changes slightly from historian to historian. When the symbols are written in stone, the story stays the same.”

The Fae snapped her reverie with a bark and an urgent motion to follow. The bright sunlight faded as she followed the Fae through the passageway shadows. After a turn she found herself in a large room. The Fae warrior signaled that she should wait. When the Fae warrior left, Bebe took a few steps forward, inspecting her surroundings. Where was the surgical table that Alithea had talked about? Maybe this was a separate room.

She walked to the nearby wall to inspect several knobs protruding from the plaster wall. Pushing one, the wall opened. A door! These were clever craftsmen. How many skills had the People lost after the tribes split? There were hard clay tablets stacked in the compartment. Bebe picked up the top one, surprised at the weight of it. The dust filled the depressions but Bebe recognized the symbols. These were the symbols that Calvea had taught her. What was this place? She pushed a knob to the right and another door opened. More tablets! A short sharp sound behind her caused her to flinch and the tablet she held tumbled from her hands.