Chapter 15

Kerala Castle

Ashinji led Jelena along a short corridor to a descending staircase. He slipped his arm around her shoulders, lending her support. She felt grateful for the help—her legs were still a little weak from disuse, and it gave her a chance to be close to him. She wanted so much to rest her head on his collarbone and breathe in his scent—so different from that of a human man—but she dared not. Ashinji had been unfailingly polite and decorous; his behavior was totally in keeping with his high station. It would be shamefully presumptuous to think that he would welcome such attentions, especially from her, a foreigner and a half-breed.

I must keep my feelings under control, keep things in perspective,she thought. I could get swept away so easily! There could never be anything between Ashinji and me other than friendship.

Three flights down and through another door, they emerged onto an outside landing above a sunny courtyard. Jelena looked up and saw that she had been lodged on the uppermost floor of a semi-detached wing off the main building. They descended the wooden staircase to the gravel-covered yard below.

“Come. I will lead you around to the front of the main hall,” Ashinji said. He released his hold on her shoulders and beckoned with a wave of his hand. Jelena sighed regretfully and started after him, her eyes in constant motion as she took in her surroundings.

Jelena had spent her entire life within the walls and precincts of Amsara Castle, and she knew the details of its architecture intimately, thanks partly to Magnes, but mostly from her own explorations. Kerala Castle seemed nothing like Amsara at first glance. They crossed the small courtyard and exited through a wooden gate carved with the figures of fantastical beasts. A gravel path led off through a garden of flowering shrubbery. The perfume of the blossoms hung lightly in the warm air, like the sweet promise of spring.

To the right loomed the main bulk of the castle. Built in a series of graduated tiers—Jelena counted four in all—the castle resembled a multi-layered cake crowned by a sloping tiled roof with upturned corners. Rain gutters, shaped like the heads of dragons, adorned each corner. The walls were of white plastered wood, set with many narrow rectangular windows in the bottom three tiers. The fourth and highest tier, Jelena could see, had fewer but much larger windows, a feature she had never seen in any building before. She imagined that they afforded an amazing view of the surrounding countryside. At the moment, most of the castle’s upper windows were open to the spring breezes. The entire structure sat atop an imposing base of tightly fitted stone blocks, pierced at regular intervals with what looked like arrow slits.

Off to the left, Jelena could see the castle’s inner wall rising like a stone curtain above the garden. The figures of sentries, silhouetted darkly against the bright spring sky, made slow progress along the battlements. The path and the garden ended at a large yard that fronted the castle’s main wing. At the top of a short flight of wide, shallow steps, a pair of spear-toting guards flanked the castle’s entrance. At present, the heavy rectangular wooden doors stood open. Directly opposite, a gate pierced the curtain wall, topped by a gatehouse built with the same style of sloping tiled roof as the main castle. The massive, iron-bound leaves of the gate proper also stood open, but Jelena could not tell what lay beyond.

Ashinji stopped and opened his arms expansively, as if he wished to embrace the entire castle complex. “This is my home,” he said with a touch of pride in his voice. “Through there,” he pointed at the gate, “the ground slopes rather steeply down to the base of the hill where the outer wall is built. The main gate leads out onto a bridge that spans the south channel of the river. You cannot really tell from up here, but Kerala Castle is built on a rocky island in the middle of the Saihama River. You Soldarans call the river Janica.”

Jelena nodded in understanding. “How far are we from…where you found my cousin and me?” Jelena asked.

“About two days’ ride west from the fords. Maybe twelve of your leagues. Come. I will take you down to the lower yard.”  As they walked toward the open gate, Ashinji continued his commentary. “My ancestor Kaiji Sakehera built Kerala Castle about nine hundred years ago. My family has been here ever since. The original castle was much smaller than it is now. Each lord since Kaiji has added to it so it now takes up the entire island. My father has not done any new construction, but he has done a lot of remodeling, mostly to modernize the place.”

As they passed beneath the gatehouse, the two guards snapped to attention. One of them called out what sounded to Jelena like a greeting, which Ashinji answered with a smile and a wave.

“Your language sounds so… I don’t know… so musical,” Jelena observed. “It’s beautiful to listen to.”

“I would be happy to teach you to speak Siri-dar. It is as much a part of your heritage as is Soldaran. That is, if you choose to stay among us.” He stopped walking and turned to face her. Something in his face and eyes, there and gone in an instant, left Jelena feeling a little bewildered. She got the distinct impression of someone filled with intense longing for a thing that they feared they could not have.

Careful, don’t get carried away,she cautioned herself. 

“I would very much like that,” she replied, and was rewarded by his smile, a flash of strong, white teeth. They started walking again down the sloping path that led towards the lower yards. Jelena could see the gate more clearly now, with its double-sided gatehouse and guard towers at each corner. In the yard below lay the stables, the smithy, and what looked like guard barracks. Off to the right lay a large, flat, grassy area, a smaller yard enclosed on three sides by a brick wall topped with a partial roof, and several buildings Jelena couldn’t readily identify. The myriad sounds of a working castle, so familiar to a young woman raised in a place much like this one, drifted upward on warm draughts of air.

There were many people about—plainly dressed servants hurrying on various errands, off-duty soldiers lounging in the shade, a small pack of laughing children. Everyone they passed offered a warm smile and a greeting to Ashinji, and he responded in kind. Clearly, Jelena thought, the people of Kerala harbored a great affection for their young lord.

The sound of a bleating goat unexpectedly jabbed a thorn of homesickness into her heart. She thought of Claudia and had to quickly pretend to wipe grit from her eyes in order to cover her tears. She imagined her foster mother, elbow-deep in suds, calling out orders to the laundry drudges under her command. Later, Claudia would take her midday meal in the kitchen with the other servants, surrounded by people she had known most of her life, yet feeling alone, without the girl she had raised as her daughter. That night, she would retire to the room that she and Jelena had shared for so long, and she would truly be alone.

“Ah, here is your cousin,” Ashinji announced, breaking Jelena’s melancholy reverie. Magnes strode up the path towards them, sipping from a waterskin. They walked down to meet him.

“Whew! Your man Gendan gave me quite a workout, Ashinji,” Magnes exclaimed. “The swords they make here are excellent, Jelena. And you should see their armor. Truly exceptional. I still can’t figure out how it’s done, even after examining Ashinji’s up close.” Magnes’s flushed face dripped with sweat, and the linen elven-style tunic he wore was soaked through. He beamed at Jelena. “Cousin, you are looking almost like your old self again. I believe I can see the roses blooming in your cheeks as we speak.”

A pair of female servants hurried past them, skirting a wide path around Magnes. They greeted Ashinji deferentially, all the while glancing sidelong at Magnes and Jelena. Jelena wondered at the look in their eyes.

“My friend, if you wish to meet my parents later, then a bath and a change of clothes will be needed,” Ashinji said politely. “I mean no offense, you understand.”

“None taken,” Magnes assured him. “I have gotten used to bathing every day, and I quite like it. Jelena, now that you have been freed from your bed, you can discover for yourself the pleasures of the elven bathhouse. It’s like nothing we have in Amsara.”

“I thought I might take Jelena up to the top of the wall for a view of the countryside…that is, if you feel up to climbing the stairs,” Ashinji said, smiling at Jelena.

I’d climb a mountain after you,she thought. “I think I can make it,” she replied aloud.

“I’m off to get cleaned up, then,” Magnes said cheerily. “I’ll meet you back at the castle. He turned and headed up the path toward the upper gate. Jelena watched him go, and her heart swelled with love and gratitude. Magnes had sacrificed everything and risked his life in order to help get her here. She had no idea how she would ever repay him.

“Your cousin is a very interesting man,” Ashinji remarked as they approached one of several staircases leading up to the battlements. He slipped a hand under Jelena’s elbow to support her as they began to climb. “We have had many good talks. It is truly frightening how many misconceptions exist between our peoples. It saddens me deeply.”

“Magnes is my best and only friend,” Jelena replied. “He has always protected me.” Her breath caught in her throat as they reached the top of the stairs and she could at last see out over the wall.

The island upon which Kerala Castle stood reared steeply up from the riverbed and gave the fortress a commanding view of the surrounding countryside. A sturdy wooden bridge connected island to shore. A small guard post stood at the far end of the span. The land spread out in gently undulating folds beyond the flashing, foaming waters. To the east and south lay forest, to the west the deep green of pasture land, crisscrossed with low stone walls. Fat brown and white cattle munched contentedly on the lush spring grass.

Jelena sighed, feeling a measure of peace begin to slide into her soul. She relaxed and let her mind wander for a time, simply enjoying the warmth of the sun on her face and Ashinji’s quiet presence at her side.

After a while, Ashinji pointed westward. “That way lies Sendai, where resides our king. It is many days’ ride from here. Kerala is at the easternmost border of Alasiri and so faces two human realms—that of the Soldaran Empire to the south and the land of the Urghus to the east. We elves have never had any reason to fear the Urghus. They prefer to remain on their windy steppes, beyond the Kesen Numai Mountains. Occasionally, a trading party will cross the high passes in summer to sell us horses in exchange for luxury goods like silk cloth, jewelry, or steel weapons. The Soldarans, on the other hand…”

“Magnes has shown me books written by Soldaran historians about the wars between the Empire and Alasiri,” Jelena interjected, “but it has been many years since there has been any fighting. Surely, you don’t think that the peace will be broken?”

Ashinji’s brow furrowed and he turned to gaze at her with troubled eyes. “Magnes has said that the Soldarans talk of war, that there are rumors of the empress wishing to reclaim territory that she believes rightly belongs to the Empire, and in truth, we believe that these are more than just rumors. The king has called a meeting of the High Council of Lords to take place at the end of summer to discuss the possibility that by next spring, Alasiri will have to defend against an attack by the Imperial Army.”

“Will that mean you would have to fight?” Jelena asked quietly.

“I am an officer. I would lead a company, yes.”

Jelena sensed that, behind Ashinji’s simple words, lay some very complicated emotions, but she did not feel that she could claim the privilege of being able to share his innermost thoughts and feelings. Instead, she changed the subject. “I want to thank you for everything you’ve done for me. Magnes told me that the doctor here saved my life, and I am truly grateful. I don’t know how I’ll repay you, but perhaps I could work here at Kerala for a while, in the kitchen maybe, when I’m stronger. That’s where I earned my keep back home.”

To her surprise, Ashinji took both of her hands in his. “You do not owe me anything, Jelena. It was I who caused your hurts in the first place. I never would have forgiven myself if…” He stopped speaking and, for an instant, Jelena again felt the strange sensation of pressure inside her skull, as if words that were not her own were struggling to form in her brain. Ashinji’s eyes expanded until they filled up her entire field of vision and suddenly, she felt as if she were falling into their green depths.

“Jelena! Jelena, what happened? Are you feeling ill?”

She found herself leaning heavily into Ashinji’s chest, with only his arms about her waist to prevent her from collapsing to the stones. “I…I don’t know. I felt very dizzy all of a sudden,” she murmured. Her face lay against his neck and so, slowly, she breathed in his strange, fascinating scent. An ache flared up below her belly, one that she still believed she had no hope of ever satisfying. With embarrassment heating her cheeks, she quickly pushed away to stand on her own. She lowered her face to hide her discomfiture.

“Perhaps you should return to bed. You can meet my parents tomorrow.” Ashinji’s demeanor was one of solicitous concern and entirely proper for a good host. Jelena was furious at her body’s insistence on flinging up thoughts and feelings that would only get her hurt and cause embarrassment and pity on Ashinji’s part.

Damn it! Why am I obsessing over him like this? You have to stop this, you stupid girl! He will never, ever, want you!

“No, no, I’m all right. I want to meet your parents today. I’m very anxious to show your father my ring. The sooner I can discover any information about my father, the sooner I’ll be on my way to finding him.”

“I do not wish to lessen your hopes, Jelena, but have you given any thought to what you might do if you cannot find your father or any of his kin? Or if…” Ashinji did not need to finish his sentence.

“Or if he, or they, reject me? I haven’t given it a lot of thought, no. I guess I should. Ashinji, please tell me the truth. Is there any chance at all that my father might actually accept me?” 

Ashinji sighed and turned to stare out over the parapet. When he again looked at her, his face was troubled. “I can only say that we elves hold some of the same prejudices concerning humans as do humans concerning us. I wish it were not so.”

Jelena started to speak, but Ashinji held up his hand to stop her.

“That does not mean that all elves feel the same way, nor do we all hold that those of mixed blood are inferior,” he continued. “Out here in the borderlands, humans and elves have been quietly intermingling for centuries, so folk are a lot more tolerant. My parents are especially so, and they tried to raise all of their children to be free of prejudice.”

Here, Ashinji paused for a moment, and a small frown creased his brow. “I am sorry to say that they were not entirely successful.” He did not elaborate, asking instead, “No one here has treated you badly in any way, have they?”

“Oh, no!” Jelena answered quickly. “Though I can tell that not everyone thinks like you do about… what is the elven word for a mixed-blood person?”

“Hikui,” Ashinji replied.

“Most everyone I’ve met has been nice to me, or at the very least, they’ve not been rude. I’ve gotten far better treatment here than I ever got back home.”

“I am happy to hear that,” Ashinji replied, then said, “Your father most likely comes from a border family. He probably would have been raised with more liberal attitudes, which is why he could fall in love with a human woman. So, there is a good chance he will accept you.”

Acceptance was all Jelena had ever wanted. Still, she determined that, no matter what, she would make a life for herself somewhere, even if that meant spending it alone.

“I think my parents will be ready to see you now,” Ashinji said. “Shall we go?”

Jelena allowed Ashinji to take her good arm again as they descended the stone steps down to base of the wall. She felt surprised and pleased when he did not release his hold, and she permitted herself to lean on him a little as they walked. She imagined she could feel the pressure of many curious eyes bouncing off the back of her neck as she and Ashinji retraced their steps toward the upper gate.

They passed through and crossed the upper yard to the main entrance of the keep. Magnes stood waiting for them, just out of thrusting reach of the door guards’ spears. He appeared freshly scrubbed, wet hair plastered to his head. He had changed clothes and now wore a deep green tunic that appeared one size too small for him. Jelena tried to suppress it, but an unintentional giggle escaped her tightly closed mouth.

“I know, I know,” Magnes grumbled. He tugged futilely at the hem of the shirt, which hit him just above the crotch.

Ashinji also tried to look sympathetic, but he, too, could barely suppress his laughter. “I am sorry, my friend, but you are so much taller and wider than most of us. It has been difficult finding clothes that will fit you.” Magnes nodded his head, hand raised in a gesture that signaled his understanding of the situation. “Follow me, then,” Ashinji directed. “I will take you in to my parents’ private sitting room.”

The guards snapped to attention as Ashinji passed between them and stepped over the slightly raised threshold. Jelena followed closely, with Magnes right behind. They were now in a large entryway with corridors running off before and to either side of the door. Jelena, raised in a world of stone and brick, found the smells and sounds of a large wooden building to be new and intriguing. She delighted in the springy give to the floor beneath her feet.

Ashinji led the way down the left-hand corridor. Naturalistic murals decorated the walls, each depicting landscapes populated with animals, birds, and insects. Jelena slowed to admire a scene of a falcon stooping to strike a rabbit partially hidden in a thicket. The detail of the work was both painstaking and breathtaking. She could almost see the delicate twitch of the terrified rabbit’s nostrils as it awaited the deadly embrace of its killer.

Duke Teodorus had never had much use for purely decorative objects; artwork at Amsara had been limited to practical things like carpets and tapestries. To hang paintings purely for their aesthetic value would have been a wasted exercise as far as he was concerned. For the first time that she could remember, Jelena pitied her uncle.

They came to a staircase and ascended four flights. Jelena had to pause at the top to rest and catch her breath. Another corridor stretched before them, this one hung with silk banners of brightly woven floral patterns, waving sensuously in the breeze from the large open windows in the opposite wall. At the far end of the corridor, a door stood open. The sound of laughter, high-pitched and full of merriment, drifted through. Jelena’s excitement and apprehension surged as each step brought her closer to the one man in Kerala who could possibly help in the search for her father.

Ashinji paused just outside the door. “Wait here a moment,” he said, then slipped inside. Jelena groped for Magnes’s hand and felt him seize hers in a firm, steadying grasp. They waited in silence, listening to the musical interchange of words between Ashinji and his family.

The squeak of approaching footsteps heralded Ashinji’s return. He beckoned them to enter with a sweep of his arm. Jelena held on tightly to Magnes’s warm, callused hand, as if, by letting go, she feared she would be cast adrift on a stormy sea, to be swept away and drowned.

The room, like the corridor, was large and airy, but Jelena saw none of the details. Her attention fixed immediately on the little knot of people sitting in the center of the chamber—a man and woman seated in low chairs, a young girl standing behind the man, hands resting on his shoulders, and two children sprawled on the floor at the woman’s feet.

“Jelena, Magnes,” Ashinji said softly, nodding to the man and woman. “These are my parents, Lord and Lady Sakehera.”