Chapter 31

Another cowled Talurie entered the room with a tray and placed it on a table. Fine crystal goblets glistened with cubes of ice floating in water. Next to the goblets were square biscuits and a thick paste in its own bowl. Slices of an unknown fruit in a rind were laid out at the other end of the tray. The Talurie man bade them to partake of the repast and to refresh themselves after their journey. “Do not go near the water of the canal,” he cautioned, “It is somewhat poisonous to life.”

Danel looked at Rahim, who looked back at him. Janner was eyeing the tray. “Ice cubes?” Janner said. “Most kings aren’t likely to get ice but a few times during their lives.”

“Another gift of Ibados,” Danel said, turning attention back to the tray.

“Ibados walked on these floors,” Rahim said with awe in his voice. “He touched these walls and the doors.”

“He probably built these walls with his own hands,” Janner said, sipping the water. “When he finished building them, he sat down in his favorite chair, put his feet up on the table and exclaimed, ‘thank the gods that’s done.’ He was a busy guy.”

“Yes, he was,” Danel said with seriousness. “To what purpose?”

“Huh?” Janner replied. “Don’t you Librarians explain to us like children that the gods decreed that all the world’s knowledge should be gathered here for the people?”

“Yes, but do you see a gathering of knowledge down here?” Danel asked. “Put on your thinking cap for a moment. What have we passed in our final descent to this level that qualifies as repositories of knowledge, arts, or culture? I see the columns and porticoes on the other side of the canal and I’ve a good suspicion that Master Ibados secured his papers and books there, for which there has been no need for two thousand years.”

“You mean to argue that the records of Master Ibados’s work do not justify a grand canal and a promenade?” Rahim said. “You sound as if you are treading on blasphemy.”

“I’m saying the master took advantage of this stage of construction to store his writings here, but archiving was not the purpose of the Library of Ibados; not here, not the foundation nor the Talurie. There is another, more important reason for this incredible foundation and its servants. Whatever that reason is, it is the geas laid upon me. What is it here that the gods fear?”

“We must ask the Talurie,” Rahim said. “We must gain their trust.”

Danel sat down in a chair, absently munching on a biscuit. He had traveled all this way without ‘horses to trade’ and he felt empty handed. Yet, what was he trading for? Could he say, ‘excuse me, the gods sent me down here to do something. Do you have any idea?’ Announcing himself as a Librarian should be enough anywhere else; but here, the calculus was completely different. These people had known Ibados in his day and their descendants remember. In a broad and deep manner, they knew more than the Librarians, who knew nothing of the foundations.

“We could return to the upper reaches tomorrow and put the rest of the Librarians to shame with what we have already learned,” Danel lamented. “Yet, we still know next to nothing.”

Rahim put down his glass. “Do your ears hear what your mouth said, Librarian?”

“What?”

“Librarian Bustami was correct,” Rahim said. “We are standing in the house of Ibados, in the bowels of the Library of Ibados. Bustami knew all this, and he must have done just as you said. He returned upstairs with all this information. He would have been excited, elated to bring this forgotten knowledge to the light of the sun. Yet, he somehow shamed his colleagues for the fundamental knowledge they didn’t possess. They reacted by suppressing the Librarian and his findings. He was forced to publish surreptitiously in a children’s book that went misread for a thousand years.” He waved his empty hand. “Even I would have dismissed the tales as great fantasy if I had not been involved in this journey.”

“The fruit’s good,” Janner announced. “You two need to appreciate when hospitality is offered and take advantage of the downtime. I’m gonna bet ole’ Ibados had a decent shower or bath that I am looking forward to investigating.”

“Hypocrisy, Subterfuge, blasphemy, and an upending of the historical canon,” Danel counted on his fingers. “I can’t imagine why I can’t sit back and let the world slide for a bit.”

Janner snorted. “Veteran soldiers will tell you that it doesn’t matter. If you are given ten minutes of respite, you take it with due appreciation because you may not have it again. Rest when you can if you want to maintain your edge.”

“We are resting on the shore of a canal where the gods will not tread and the Librarians, researchers, and priests pretend it doesn’t exist,” Danel said as he chewed on a piece of fruit. “I’m still under a geas and the dread becomes more oppressive with each development. Where do I go?”

Janner plopped down on a couch. “Either up the canal or down the canal. Surely these people know which direction you need to go. All you need to do is ask.”