Wednesday, October 19, 2005

   Chapter 13: Sanna-Saegea-Pindus (part 2)
Pen went to the communal bathrooms—thankfully, they were empty—and locked himself in one of the stalls. He leaned his forehead against the stone wall, closing his eyes to concentrate.
He was already hating himself for his outburst at Lucifer. Why did he do that? Lucifer had never done anything but be kind… He was a real friend, the first he ever had…
Black tears…
What did that mean?
He knew pain now. He could cry… but why?
The silence was too quiet. No breathing… no beating heart…
Black tears…
Stone walls… the sound of a million beating hearts…
Black tears…
A darkness of the heart… a darkness of the mind…
Black tears…
Pen smashed one hand into the rough stone wall, causing a fine mist of sand to crumble to the ground. A second later, he stormed out of the bathroom and back down the hallway. His mind stopped reeling while he walked, and he slowed down as he started to get a hold of himself again. By the time he had made it back to their room, he was back in control of himself.
The door was unlocked, so he let himself in. Lucifer was standing by the window with Sasheeta in his arms, looking surprised.
When their eyes locked, all words left Pen. He could see the deep-down pain in Lucifer’s eyes, like a wound. He was so sorry that no words could express it. On the inside, the fire sparked back to life, burning even more fiercely than before.
A single black tear slid down his face and fell to the floor, where it disappeared.
Immediately, Lucifer’s eyes became soft again. The wound inside him turned into a scar. “It’s okay,” he said, releasing Sasheeta so that she could climb on his shoulder. He gathered up his black cloak, giving Pen the chance to say something, but when there was only silence, Lucifer continued. “Let’s go down for breakfast. The Caravan must be leaving soon.”
Koshga flew to Lucifer’s other shoulder, and the four of them left the room.

After breakfast, which was also held in the great castle courtyard, Panda and Nano gathered together the Caravan and led the group back through the city to the dock. There was a crowd there to see them off—including the parents of many newbies—at the harbor.
Extra boats had joined the ranks of the old ones, almost doubling their numbers. Pen could finally see the toll that the war had had on the elves; they made up only about a quarter of the group, and the rest were all angels. Before the war, it was said that the two races were of equal number.
They started off slowly, giving the newbies some time to teach themselves how to use the paddles, before they started down the final stretch of the Acheron River. Pen and Raine took over the oars in the morning, trading over to Lucifer and Yatii in the afternoon. Pen and Ed paddled the last hour before they finally stopped for the night.
The weather grew hotter as they traveled; the initial heat of the south had been kept at bay the previous day from the rain. But here the sky was clear and the suns were hot; they noticed that the bright green of the angel’s hills was slowly beginning to mix with the drier, rough, yellow grasses of the Southern Plains.
By the time Lucifer and Yatii took the paddles, there were already mountains to be seen on the Anatol side of the river, blue and tall above the forest. They were the Sanna-Saegea-Pindus; in the tongue of the ancient Letheans, the “Peaks of Summer’s Winter,” named so because their summits were famous for being covered in snow, even in the height of the south’s burning heat. The River Lethe was fed by the constantly melting and snowing mountain-tops.
The Pindus Mountains—as they were called by angels and elves—were the home of University. Excitement stirred in the Caravan, the blue peaks coming closer, realizing that they were drawing nearer to their destination.
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