A Place To Bloom

Dune

The place Geraln found had columns painted in gold aside a pair of massive, open double-doors. Inside were plush chairs of red velvet arranged around woven, woolen rugs of delicate patterns. The walls were covered in fine, green paper with gold flecks, and interspersed between marble columns, sculpted iron sconces graced the walls with low candles on each. Abutting the far wall was a water organ like the one I'd seen in the Count of Osenia's manse, with glass jewels stained in a rich variety of colors. Across from that was a dark, stained-wooden desk behind which stood an elder Herali gentleman in a stiff pressed uniform that resembled that of an officer from the Imperial Navy and a small, white tag with his name.

"They can't come in here!" he barked.

I'd hoped he was talking to someone else, but he looked right at me, with Dune's good arm draped over my shoulder, Oasis and Sage in tow.

Geraln turned to me with a look of frustration on his chubby face. "I've got this. Room sixty-four upstairs."

He gave Sage the key and walked over to the man beside the desk. With a quick glance my way, he leaned in close to have a private conversation with him while we made our way towards a staircase with wrought-iron balusters that spiraled up and into the heart of the hotel.

Dune practically dangled from me. Oasis took her other side and held her waist to steady her, but she struggled to put one foot in front of the other. We put our heads down and kept towards the stairs avoiding eye contact with anyone, while Geraln worked whatever magic he could.

"Up here!" Sage spoke down to us from the floor above. I could hear her footfalls as she scurried up the next flight.

As for Dune, we hadn't even started on the first step and she no longer had the strength to feign standing. The heat coming off her was far too intense for comfort. I glanced back at the front desk. The concierge looked at me for a second until Geraln brushed his shoulder to pull his attention back.

"Oasis," I said. She looked up at me. "Dune won't make it up these stairs. I'm going to have to carry her. As I lift her up, I need you to hold her arm here, and here. Then I need you to lay it across her body and tuck it in so it doesn't fall. Understand?"

"Yes," she nodded.

I wrapped one arm around Dune's shoulder and knelt low enough to wrap my other behind her knees. She fell into my arms. Oasis did exactly as I asked, catching her broken arm before it could drop down, then held it steady as I lifted her up and finally graced it over her friend's body with the utmost care.

Oasis took the lead, walking backwards up the stairs in anticipation of any little bump and keeping a close eye on Dune's arm. Up and up we climbed, and soon the floor leveled off into a hallway with a dark-green rug with a yellow outline. The end of the hall hosted a large window that cast enough light to see the numbers on the doors: twenty-one, twenty-two, twenty-three, all the way to twenty-eight.

"Up here! I find!" Sage called down from four floors above us.

Dune wasn't heavy, but even so four more flights of stairs were bound to tax my arms if I wasted any time, so we kept climbing.

On the third floor was an old Saeni woman with the same yellow-green hair and light-green eyes as Dune. She was dressed in a gray frock with a light-blue apron and was busy dusting the ledging along the length of the walls. She looked at us with a curious expression and didn't break her stare until we were up the next flight. Above, an older couple descended. As the way was too narrow to accommodate two under normal circumstances, there wouldn't be any hope of squeezing past them while carrying a girl. So, Oasis and I stepped back down and waited for them to pass. As they stepped into the light from the window, their Goloagi features were clear—curly hair, light olive-green skin, and eyes a deep emerald color. The man looked me up and down from beneath his ornate hat and gave a "hmmpfh" as he passed. The woman squinted at me, passed her eyes over Dune's limp body, and sucked her teeth as they continued their journey down.