John’s stay
in Kolios had been fairly brief. He had spent a night in the inn and that had
given him enough time to get proper directions to Aristarios. No-one at the tavern
had ever heard of Kinspit or Eth, or even Visneoria, even though they were all
elves. He’d also seen a map on the wall of the tavern and it showed a roughly
circular land, bordered in the west by a massive mountain range and in the
north, south and east by the sea. ‘Belenor Helios’ was the name of the region
and he’d never heard of it before. He did, however, recognise the language – it
was very old form of archaic elven, the language that the so-called ‘ancient’
elves spoke in and to the east of Kinspit, in what they referred to as their
‘homelands’. Now that he’d had a chance to talk to some of the inhabitants of
Kolios in more detail, he’d generally been able to get the hang of it except
for a few new vocabulary wordss.
The main problem had been to explain what he was. No-one had ever seen
a human in the village before and it had become too complicated and confusing
to explain. So, he ended up saying that he was a disabled elf, who hadn’t had
enough sun during his childhood and had had to grow up towards the light. He
wasn’t sure that any of them believed him but at least it pretended to explain
why he was three inches taller than the tallest elf in the village, and had
skin that was more than two shades lighter.
He’d overcome the other big problem, the problem of money, by the
realisation that his coins were made of gold and so were still worth buying
from him, if only to melt down. So now he had a small amount of Helios money
and could pay for a ride to Aristarios. On the back of a farmer’s waggon, admittedly,
but he couldn’t afford anything more expensive. Two more days travelling, among
the salted carcasses of deer and elk, were not his idea of fun, but at least he
was getting somewhere.
Sitting in the back of the wagon he inspected what he’d manage to buy
or borrow in Kolios: a bit more food, some cheap wine, but not yet any ink. He
needed squid ink mixed with pigeon dung, allegedly, but had no idea how far he
could push the ingredients (Laurence had no trouble finding them in Kinspit, of
course, as it was a big city by the sea). In his desperation he’d looked
longingly at a wood dove, but then had been lost for a source of ink – a slug,
perhaps? He’d given up at that point – he wasn’t ready to go searching for slug
ink in a strange town.
He was sure he’d heard the word ‘Belenor’ before, maybe on ancient maps
or on the lips of an old elven scholar. Unfortunately he could remember no more
than that. Still without his bearings, all he could do was move on from town to
town, until he eventually reached the sea. And
then? he wondered – who knew.
***
John watched
as the landscape changed around him. The first morning’s journey was mostly
through the same tall coniferous forest, but then the road dropped down precipitously
into a lush region of broadleaved trees and arable farms. He was still grateful
for Eoothon’s waterproofs, but the rain was only intermittent and he began to
see why they called their land ‘Helios’ – it was now sunny and warm and he
dozed through the day
Every time that he nodded off he had fragments of the same dream. The
large ginger cat, which had been in almost every dream of his for the last few
days, was sitting in his chair in his study at home. It was still purring, but
now the sound seemed much less cat-like and more human: in fact something
halfway between a purr and a hum. Then,
the cat turned into a short, shockingly hairy, human, with a vast ginger beard
who was now sitting upright in his chair. The figure looked up and him and
said, not unkindly: ‘why did you use my
statue, then boyo?’ At that point, every time, a bump of the cart awoke
him.
On the next day, it rained again for most of the morning and he sat
dripping miserably. The sense of foreboding began to overcome him again. Was
Laurence safe and well? Why were the CRS trying to destroy the scroll? What had
happened to the Ethian scholars? He was perhaps uniquely badly placed to answer
any of those questions, and he really wasn’t the kind of person who’d just
allow events to unfold. He had to get back and do something. And why hadn’t Laurence sent him any reports? These
things nibbled away at his mood as his slow transport moved along.
Eventually, by late afternoon of the second day the landscape changed
again: to orchards, small towns and grazing land. As the number of houses by
the road increased he became more and more hopeful. The day wore on until early
evening and he began to wonder whether the city would ever arrive. Finally he
saw a wide star-scape of lights on the hill in front of him, and then he was in
Aristarios. It turned out to be
delightful, particularly at night, full of tall old Elven buildings, wide
boulevards and the smell of fine cooking. How did he not know about this place?
It was as he admired this sophisticated city that he realised, even more forcibly
than before, that he was clearly not in his old world at all, but somewhere
quite apart from it, but for the moment he didn’t really care.
***
John found a
very pleasant hotel, on the banks of the river, with a very good clientele, as
far as he could see. The manager had given him a tour of the wine cellar, but
that had required a lot of bluffing on his part, as, for obvious reasons, he
knew absolutely nothing about the wines of Helios. It was also clear that there
was no way that he could afford a room in this hotel, but this was one of those
occasions when he wouldn’t feel too guilty about doing a runner. He was sure
he’d find a way, eventually, to pay his bill. He also borrowed some evening
wear – explaining that his servant, who had been delayed, would bring him his
full wardrobe in the morning.
After he’d settled into his room and dressed he went in search of a
good sea food restaurant. There weren’t many, but he did eventually find one in
what appeared to be the smartest part of town. He sat down and examined the
menu. On it was something that he was really hoping for – squid cooked in its
own ink. Now he was making progress. He ordered a green salad and the squid and
was able to order a bottle of wine without looking too unsophisticated, thanks
to his earlier tour.
Halfway through his main course, just as he had surreptitiously taken
some of the squid ink for later study, one of the many well-dressed elves came
over to him. Like most of the diners he had been pretending not to stare at John.
The elf had been sitting with the richest and apparently most powerful group in
the restaurant – two female elves and a male elf, sumptuously dressed and very
well bred. John was startled by his presence and only just succeeded in hiding
the ink phial in his pocket.
‘You are a stranger in this city?’ the elf said
John nodded.
‘I’m sure that’s very clear!’ he said
‘Let me introduce myself. I am Alexis Palaeologus ‘
John stood up and bowed – should he try to shake hands?
‘My name is John Ismay, from Kinspit’
Alexis looked at him closely and lowered his voice.
‘So, was I right – are you a human?’
Alexis looked back at his dinner companions who appeared, in a very polite way,
to be egging him on.
John smiled. So, someone knew what a human was. He also suspected that
Kinspit wasn’t a totally unknown name to Alexis either.
‘We were sitting in our group thinking that you must have some
interesting tales to tell, given…’ Alexis’s, voice trailed off, and then he got up the
courage to continue, ‘anyway, we wondered if you’d like to join us’
John nodded. Why not? he
thought, they can pay.
‘I’d be delighted to’ he said, struggling slightly with the dialect,
‘I’d love to learn about your beautiful city’.
Alexis arranged for John’s dinner to be taken to Alexis’s table. When
John came to sit down there was a frisson of excitement among Alexis’s dinner
companions.
‘This is John’ said Alexis, ‘and John, this is my wife Helen, and my
these are my friends Phelos and Diana’
Alexis’s wife and their dinner companions were all a lot younger than
Alexis. They made an attractive group, well turned out and sociable. They
exchanged very stilted pleasantries for a few minutes and then Diana couldn’t
resist asking the question that was clearly burning in the others’ minds.
‘So, where are you from, John?’ she asked politely
‘I’m from Kinspit, in Paror, in… another place…’
All of them, except for Alexis, looked blankly at him. Alexis’s eyes
lit up, like someone unexpectedly finding an elfround[1],
‘He’s a human’ said Alexis, excitedly, saving John the trouble of
having to explain. The other three diners were riveted.
‘He’s from another world’ Alexis explained, with a flourish.
The others began asking questions all at once – John felt like joining
in. Instead he waited until the noise had died down.
‘Another world?’he asked, finally
‘Yes – well, at least that’s what my uncle has told me. He says that
there is another world, “Belenor Skiophos”, next to ours and that is where you
find humans’ said Alexis
John wasn’t all that surprised to hear that – it really did explain a
lot of things. And he knew that ‘Skiophos’ was certainly one of the old Elven
names for his world.
‘And is that where you think Kinspit is?’ John asked
‘Yes – I think so’ said Alexis, ‘these are all things that my uncle
told me long ago, although he’s a bit forgetful’
‘And – your uncle is… who?’ John said, aware that this was one of those
questions where one was probably already meant to know the answer.
The others laughed. John’s heart sank – ‘told you!’ he said to himself
‘How could you not know?’ asked Phelos
John grimaced – time to come clean.
‘I’m a stranger as you say, and I arrived in your world unexpectedly,
by my actions during a moment of great peril. To be completely honest, I know
nothing about your world or anyone in it’
‘That must be so disorientating’ said Diana, ‘poor you! How will you
get home?’
Good question thought John.
‘Returning to your original question’ said Alexis, glaring at Diana,
‘my uncle is John Palaeologus, Sebastos and Dux of Aristarios’
John wrinkled his nose slightly – clearly he was meant to be impressed,
but, on the other hand, he’d just said that he knew nothing of this country or
its customs. He decided to play it straight.
‘He is the ruler of this city, then?’ asked John
‘Yes, and son of the Basileus in Epipelagia’ said Phelos,
reverentially.
John had to attempt some more guesswork.
‘The Emperor of Helios?’ he suggested
They all nodded and murmured assent.
‘May the Uchbenoi protect him’ said Diana
Everyone nodded even more vigorously. John gave up the fight for
comprehension. He sipped his wine and munched on his salad.
‘I’d really appreciated it, Alexis’ he said, ‘If you could introduce me
to your uncle’
