Sun's Heart

Chapter 19.1 - Haliculir

Through the windows of the room peeked a skyline which rivalled Beryl's. The golden sea with its slow waves shifting in the wind, faded with distance and heat. Towers spiraled into the sky, as pale as lilies with sunlight playing over their smooth stonework. Birdsong trilled from between the slats above the two long windows.

Gale sat upon a sleeping mat, made of dried reeds tied with some sort of fibrous string, and covered with strange furs she'd never seen before. Her clothes and undergarments were nowhere to be seen, and her skin was cleaner than it'd been in days. Where she'd been struck across the head, there remained neither bruise nor blood. A light sunburn over her forearms was beginning to peel. The back of her neck stung with another sunburn. Her hair shone and fell over her ears in sweat-free strands.

She was aware it was natural to feel invaded upon realizing strangers had bathed her and stolen her clothes, but rather than embarrassment, she felt hazy numbness, like a dreamer who knew they walked a dream. Her thoughts were too sluggish to wonder how she got to where she was, or how much time had passed.

The din of conversation floated up to her from below her windows. Young women laughed nearby as they splashed in water. Somewhere else, magic was being used, but faintly enough the urge to look toward it was easily ignored. An angry man yelled, children giggled, and something fell with a mighty crash. An older woman babbled amongst her friends with a voice made infirm with age.

Comfort filled her, a sense of disconnection.

A feeling stirred within. The urge to stand summoned the strength necessary to do so. She set her legs beneath her and cautiously approached one of the windows. Looked downward at a river near the base of the tower. Odd trees with broad leaves lined it, reeds and grasses decorating the shoreline far below. Fields of crops peeked from behind other buildings and walls where the land curved with them. The room was higher up than she'd thought. She'd expected the city to be built as most would be when seated on a hilltop or mountain.

Rather than stair-steps of buildings and roads slanting upwards, there were simply towers butting against towers, and rounded palaces straddling the river or seeming to grow from the mountainside, with more towers jutting from their flattened tops. Stacked shapes, cylinders on boxes on cylinders, and bridges arching between them like ropes between treetops in a stone forest. Balconies and ledges sheltered with cloths and hides showed colorful individuality, some decorated with weapons or baskets or, surprisingly, flower beds. One held the reclining form of what looked like a hairless cat beside a statuesque sunbathing lizard longer than the cat was tall. A dog's friendly barking echoed between the buildings, closely followed by the bray of goats.

Everywhere, men and women in loosely layered garments dotted the city, carrying brightly colored bundles and strolling to and fro. In the sliver of water visible from her vantagepoint, a flat, long boat carried two passengers from one shore to the other.

Unreal. A feeling welled within. It's so...peaceful.

She cocked her head, feeling three people leave the mass of activity and head toward her. They approached her room, footsteps coming with the realization that she was about to be seen buck-naked and leaning out her window like she'd dropped something—

The curtains over the doorway flowed away from three tall figures in black. Each had a carved and painted white wooden mask that hid all but their eyes. The one in the front stopped and snapped something at one of the others, who pivoted and ran back outside without hesitation. The leader stood taller than most Sarceni men, but her voice betrayed her.

Gale watched in confusion with growing heat on her cheeks, but remained still in the hopes of retaining some tatters of her dignity. It suddenly occurred to her that eight months ago, the thought of being seen naked would have had no more impact on her than the thought of moving her feet to walk. She almost missed the blissful naivety from her life in Hildor.