King of Days: The Veiled Guardians

7. The light at the end of the Barrel

Karíto was tossing and turning in his bed, he was having a reoccurring dream of the past events. Sometimes he was the prisoner, or he was the knight defending the king. But for some reason the robed man always remained a mystery. In the end of the dream he would always make it back to the alley by their house, and in looking into the barrel he would be sucked into the blackness. He was becoming progressively agitated when he made it to the Barrel, but this time as he was sucked into the barrel he remembered a word from his childhood, when he had discovered the secret treasure cove. As if he was compelled he yelled out "Salu!" though he did not know what it meant. Immediately the darkness turned into bright white, and before him was the symbol etched in a smoky almost living black. Karíto gasped and woke up.

It was the morning after the celebration, most stores were not yet open, and if they did open it would be sometime in the late afternoon. The festivities lasted until the wee hours of the morning, and most were too tired from their libations. Karíto was not one of them however; though he was tired, his tiredness was instead from a poor night sleep. All he could think about was the events of the previous night, or at least he thought of them to be events. He got up from bed and got ready for the day, as he put on his green jacket he noticed a reddish stain on the elbows. It was a stain from the roof he had climbed. Shaking his head he thought fresh air would do him some good, he really needed to clear his mind. He walked past his parents who were enjoying breakfast, they looked up and Rebecca addressed him "Are you feeling better Kari? That was a stressful night huh?"

Karíto nodded "I'm feeling a bit better, I'm going to go out for a little bit of fresh air" He walked outside and marveled at how quiet it was, there was trash all over, however the quietness seemed to make its presence felt.

As he was walking past the alleyway he looked in, but quickly pushed the thoughts out of his mind. He was enjoying his walk when he began to notice many little details he had never noticed before. The roads for instance were in a tight grid, but then the alleyways were the exception. He noticed that the closer he moved toward the mountain and the Knight's Quarter, the lower he got. But the closer he got to the poorer sections the higher the altitude. It all felt to be directing him to one place, but that place was not the mountain. Before Karíto knew it he found himself at the gate of the Lower Borough. He saw a faint white light emanating from a window, feeling a bit anxious he began to back up. He did not notice that he was backing up toward the center of the street. He was so ensnared by the faint light that he lost his footing. Before he knew what happened he found himself tripping over a loose tile on the ground and fell hard. Raising his sore head, he looked up and saw the gate. His gaze focused on something about that light, it was clearly the symbol in the double c shape, the one from his youth and from his dream! Panicking he began to struggle to his knees, but in that moment a horse drawn carriage hurtled toward him. In a second he dropped to the ground and rolled to the right missing the horse and the carriage. Getting up he dusted himself off and walked to the side. He looked at the tile, and picked it up. The front had nothing on it, he closed his eyes and turned it over, slowly opening his eyes he let out a sigh of relief, it too was blank. He went to place the tile back, but then noticed a series of raised dots that were present on the preceding tiles, there were many, and it looked very systematic. From across the road Karíto saw an old man staring at him.

The old man beckoned Karíto over, so he walked over to the man. "Closer" said the old man. Karíto moved closer "It is a map, they are dots that correspond to places in the city. Each place has its own mark, and each person has his own place." Karíto smiled at the man, however he was trying to hide all signs of feelings he had toward the man. He thought him to be mad, similarly to the old man he had accidently met when he came down from the roof. Karíto thanked the man for his time, and walked away. Under his breath he muttered, "thanks for nothing old coot."