Infall

Hey everyone-- Thanks to those who left comments. I appreciate it. -Harp

Chapter Eight

Indya walked between Zen and Kythe, entering the great halls of the alzar. They went through many rooms, Indya looking up at a rounded ceiling so high that the top receded into shadows she couldn't see. It was covered with bright tiles and painted images, and there were mighty columns, Indya trying to look at everything.

There were people here, too, but Kythe and Zen didn't introduce her. Two men came and took Ashka and Zozo. She looked after them.

"They will care for them, nina, give them baths and bring them to our rooms," Zen said.

Most of the people stopped where they were and stared at her, and then they dropped their faces to the ground.

"I think they're looking at my butt when we pass," she said low, voices echoing in this space.

Zen leaned. "You have an especially sweet round one."

"We're almost there, alea," Kythe said.

"I don't mind. This is where you are growing up?"

"Our residence is up those stairs," Kythe said, pointing. "We will show you soon. And the kitchens are that way. And the stables are that way. Those are the things I cared about when I was a boy."

"I think you both are beautiful as childs," Indya said. "I like to know you."

"We would have pulled your hair," Zen said. "I didn't like girls until my voice changed."

"How you know you don't like a girl?" Indya dismissed. "You don't know them all. Your voice change? I noticing you are deep."

"Yes. Men on Atlantis, their voices don't break?" Kythe said, making a small face.

"Break? I don't know," she said. "They are the same."

"None of the men courted you, nina? You're so beautiful," Zen said.

"All peoples of Atlantis is beautiful, Zen. We changing ourselves because we like to look at the beauty."

"Then I'm glad there's only one of you falling out of the sky to seduce us," Kythe muttered.

"You didn't answer my question, nina," Zen said.

"Yes, one likes me. His name is Pavel. But I is only being with him for finding out he has sex with me. He don't want to."

They slowed on either side of her.

"What?" she said, all of them stopping. "What for you don't keep going?"

They faced her, strange looks on their faces.

"You were using him for sex, alea?" Kythe said.

She frowned at him, and then she winced and shrugged a little with one shoulder, gesturing. "Maybe, a little. I wait. He don't't want to, I said. I am trying. I am a chair. A vase," she said, gesturing at one. "A bowl. I am in pretty clothes that show my breasts and belly like the clothes you and Zen is gives me and he's looking at the tree and wants to hold my hand and talking and talking, he's so boring. I like you. I come here, you are strong and handsome and Kythe is touching me right away."

Zen laughed, kissing her, Kythe taking her and kissing her and then they put her in front of them, Kythe smacking her bare butt.

"Walk that way, lustful woman, so we can look at you," Zen said, gesturing.

She looked back over her shoulder, frowning a little, and walked on. "You're a little crazy, you two. You shows me where to go I don't walk in your father's bath on mistake?"

"Keep going ahead," Kythe said, both of them still laughing.

She looked back. "You're strange," she said.

"I'm sure it's you who are strange," Kythe said, getting control.

"No."

They came up on either side of her when they reached huge doors, twice Kythe and Zen's size with carvings all over them, iron hinges and thick and dark wood. The doors opened like they did that by themselves, but there were men behind them who did it and didn't look at her.

"You don't have so many women, I think," she said, going in. "I don't see them. This is a long walk to cross one room."

There was a man in front of them sitting on a raised chair at the top of a small flight of shallow stairs with carpet on them, everything elaborate textiles, dressed in fancy clothing and a plain gold circle on his head just over his brows. He was like Kythe and Zen, older but handsome, big, the same dark brown hair, but his was shorter and loose and had gray in it.

His strong face was impassive and then he saw her and his brows went up, a quick sweep with his eyes and then they flashed to his sons on either side of her. There was a cluster of more men to the kah-rí's left, who were also looking at her, and some weren't friendly glances. She looked at Kythe, who turned his head to look down at her.

"Don't worry, alea," Kythe said in a low voice. "Our father will learn the truth."

"All right," she said, nervous now.

"Call our father 'Kah-Rí' every time you speak to him, nina," Zen said.

She was really nervous now. "All right."

They stopped in front of the chair and for the first time, she saw Kythe and Zen look at the floor to someone. She glanced at Zen, who nodded a little and she looked down at the floor like she'd dropped something and then looked up again.

Their father didn't say anything, looking at her face, his expression not friendly or unfriendly.

She waited. Nobody said anything. She looked around a little. "Hello," she said. "I am Indya. It's nice to meet you," she said, adding when she remembered. "Kah-Rí. I said that. They just tell me be honest. Okay."

She waited. Nobody said anything. She looked around some more.

"Would you like some clothes, Indya?" their father said.

"I think they have them. You have them, Kythe?" she said, turning and then looking back at their father, everyone murmuring at something. "Kye-Rí. I said that." She leaned in to Zen, speaking low. "Do I say it every sentence, Zen?"

Zen answered in the same low voice. "No, nina. Only each time you speak."

"I remember that. Okay." She faced the Kah-Rí. "Hello." Then she wasn't sure. "Kah-Rí."

Kythe touched her shoulder and he had her dress and pants. "Thank you, Kythe," she said under her breath, feeling a little silly naked in such a place. She put the pants on, and then the dress, straightening and smoothing it, everyone watching, and then she walked to a chair along the wall, a long walk, and sat down and put on her boots, leaning over to tie them. "Okay," she said to herself, feeling like this wasn't going well.

"This woman is simple, Kah-Rí," one of the men with the kah-rí said.

"This simple woman gave us the far-see and a map of the world, Disemond. Her language is different. That doesn't mean she's unintelligent."

"Thank you, Kah-Rí," Indya said, returning and frowning a little at Disemond. He was rude.

"These are my engineers, Indya," the kah-rí said.

"Okay, Kah-Rí," Indya said, turning to them. "Hello. I am Indya. It's nice to meet you."

"She didn't give us these things, Kah-Rí," the man named Disemond said to Kythe and Zen's father, then addressing her. "Can you even read?"

"My language," Indya answered.

"I'm sure. Some man she knew gave her these things. Surely you see this. Get her to tell you who he is and we will learn the truth."

"What you say this, engineer?" Indya said to him. "I don't say you're stupid or your ideas comes from some woman behind you. I don't know you. You don't know me."

Disemond opened his mouth, but the kah-rí raised his hand and the engineer fell silent.

"Where did you learn these things, Indya?" the kah-rí said. "The things that allowed you to make the map and the far-see?"

Her eyes shifted to him. "I learn them in my home, Kah-Rí. My people, we learn rules. Rules of the world, of bodies, of our thinking. Rules of the bodies of the animals and the plants. The rules of rocks and the sea. Numbers and language. The past. People. How we learn. Suns and moons. Anything we finding has rules."

"Why do your people learn these things?"

"All peoples is curious, Kah-Rí."

"I'm not curious like this," the kah-rí said.

"It's a choice," Indya said politely. "My people is believe knowledge is important. We study the rules of everything, Kah-Rí."

"I am wearing the earpiece you brought, Indya. Will you speak to me in your language?"

"Yes, Kah-Rí," Indya answered in Alcon, the language of Atlantis.

"Why do your people have this knowledge and we don't? Are my engineers stupid?"

Disemond's face got tight, she saw, when the kah-rí asked this question, the other engineers also offended by it.

"No, Kah-Rí," Indya said in Alcon, glancing at them. "They are probably intelligent people if they are here with you. To build something, your foundation must be strong. If you think the world is flat and not round, then how can you know the placement of the things around you to navigate well through it? How can you learn about the sun and the moon, or the forces that govern them? When you know the rules of the world and they are true rules, then every bit of knowledge that you collect builds your knowledge higher."

The kah-rí's brows had gone up. Then he was squinting at her. "Give me an example."

Indya thought about it. "I am in my house and it's hot. I am so hot that I am saying to myself, 'Why is it like this, poor me, I'm sweating and my shirt is sticking to me.' Kah-Rí," she remembered to add.

The kah-rí laughed, a sharp bark.

"I go up the stairs in my house and it's worse," Indya continued. "It's even hotter. And I say to myself, 'This is strange. It seems to be hotter the higher I am in my house and cooler the lower I am.' You have noticed this, Kah-Rí?"

"Yes, Indya," the kah-rí said. "I have noticed this."

"So, now I guess an answer. One time I say to myself: 'The air rises up the stairs because warmer air is lighter than cooler air like one rock is lighter than another.' But I still don't know. Even if I think it's a good guess, I can't stop or try to make up more rules from the guess itself. That is what your engineers probably do. Before I can say my guess is right, I must prove it to be true or false. Kah-Rí," she remembered again to add.

"And how do you do that?"

"I try things that will show me whether it's true or false, Kah-Rí. For this, maybe I will trap air and heat it and see if it becomes lighter. I do this, and from this, I learn whether my guess is true or false."

The kah-rí waited. "Is it true?"

"You are curious, Kah-Rí?" Indya said, smiling at him.

"Yes, Indya, I am curious," the kah-rí said, giving a soft laugh. "Now tell me."

"But how will you know I've said the truth, Kah-Rí? Wouldn't it be better if I could demonstrate it to you? For us to accept that something is true, that we have found a rule of the world, we have to be able to show that to another and always have the same outcome."

The kah-rí's eyebrows had gone up. "Usually when I tell someone to do something, Indya, they do it."

Indya shrugged. "I don't mean to offend you, Kah-Rí. But if I do what you say because I fear your anger, you'll never know if something is true or not. You'll only know that it's true that I said it, and that it's true that I fear you."

"Then demonstrate this to me, as you say, if it's true or not, this rule-of-the-world, this hot and lighter air," kah-rí said. "You make your point, but now I want you to do as I say."

"Yes," Indya said, her eyes going up. "I will need things. Kah-rí."

The kah-rí's eyes narrowed. "I have heard this before from my engineers. What impossible things do you need?"

Indya's eyes went up, listing. "Paper that's stiff and light and difficult to burn, like the kind from rice Kythe uses. Glue. Sticks, light and small, about this long," she said, moving her fingers, "five of them, and a very small candle. Kah-Rí."

"That's all?" the kah-rí said.

She shrugged. "Yes, Kah-Rí."

The kah-rí turned to one of the engineers, telling him her list, and the man left. "When he returns," the kah-rí said, "you will demonstrate this for me. In the meantime, I ask this to the maker of this world map, the maker of the far-see and the close-see. What about these weapons my sons say are in your mind that you refuse to tell us? Is there a way I could persuade you?"

Indya was aware of Zen and Kythe on either side of her, and she knew that they hadn't known her father would ask this. She could feel Kythe's tension. Indya felt a wave of sadness. The wonders she knew at this man's fingertips and he wanted weapons.

She went and sat at the kah-rí's feet on the stairs, looking up at his face, people murmuring around them. "You want to make your people stronger, Kah-Rí? Educate them. If you give a mystery to ten different people and say to solve it, one person will be more intelligent than the others. But if you give that mystery to ten people together, they are many times more intelligent than one person could ever be. Then your people will have all these things you crave but also the wisdom to use their power."

A man came in, looking at the floor, and approached with a great tray with the things she'd asked for. He stood still, offering it, his head bowed.

"Bring a table so she can work," the kah-rí said, looking at her. "Demonstrate this to me, Indya."

"Yes, Kah-Rí," India said, rising and going to the table, speaking in Edion, seeing it. "I'm sorry," she said to the man who had brought the tray. "I will need a candle that is not so heavy? A very small candle?"

The kah-rí gestured and the man left.

Indya took the paper and made a shell, the glue with a stick in it. She spread it and then set the paper aside to dry and took the light sticks, crossing them, making a small platform frame, securing it. She waited, testing, and then when the glue was dry, she attached the platform to the paper shell. A man came back with a tiny candle on a small piece of bamboo.

"Thank you," Indya said, smiling at him, the man eyeing her before he walked away. "Excuse me," she said, the man stopping and turning. "I need fire."

"Can you not produce fire from the air?" Disemond the engineer said. "Summon it like lightning?"

"Not without a mechanism. That is not its rules," Indya answered. "It's not magic. It's the same as your aqueduct, or the rules keeping your buildings up. I just knowing more rules than you do."

"Get her fire," the kah-rí said.

In a moment, a man came with a small lit stick.

"Thank you," Indya said, taking it, still speaking in Edion. "I notice it's hotter upstairs. I want know why. I guess that hot air is less heavy for cold. I have to show it's true and we all know it's to be the same answer all the time. I put the air in the paper and I heating it." She lit the candle and put it carefully on the small platform under the lantern, in the mouth, holding the lantern still, lit with an internal light.

Indya waited and released it, watching, smiling, as it rose into the air, people exclaiming, several crying out. "It goes up and I know this is a rule of the world. Hot air is lighter than air that is being cold."

"How is she doing that?" Disemond exclaimed. "It is magic. We know now she is a noita."

"She just told you how she did it, Disemond," the kah-rí said, watching the lantern. "Were you not listening?"

"Yes, Kah-Rí," the engineer said, trying to ignore the lantern now, his shoulders tense, but his eyes were drawn to it. "But this is merely a traveler's trick. We don't need this. It's useless. What could we do with such a rule?"

"Answer Disemond, Indya."

Indya shrugged, gesturing. "Making a larger and putting under it a basket to carrying people after you is knows more. Rules is to build on rules. But for making the large one, you must first know that this rule of the small one is true."

There was a heavy silence.

"This woman is not a noita," the kah-rí said. "There will be no future charges of being a noita. Record it. Indya, you will stay. My sons, stay. The rest of you, go."

Kythe and Zen came forward, both of them glancing at the lantern, which was bumping on the ceiling now. Everyone else left, some too quickly and on the edges of the room, all of them glancing at the lantern.

"Will it stay up there, Indya?" Zen said when he arrived, also looking up at it. "I didn't know you could do this."

She gestured. "You knows the rule now, Zen. Say a guess."

Zen slowly grinned. "It will come down when the small candle fails and the air inside cools and becomes heavier."

She smiled back. "Yes. You is build your knowledge. I go to see Mavia," she said, turning to walk away. Kythe made a sharp noise and she froze, looking at him, her shoulders coming up, turning around and returning to them.

"The kah-rí must dismiss you, alea," Kythe said under his breath when she arrived.

Indya put her hands behind her back and looked at their father. She swallowed. "I'm so sorry. I don't knowing these things, Kah-Rí. I will learn these laws for your house."

"What were you on your ship?" the kah-rí said. "Were you like my engineers, an advisor to your rulers? Answer in Edion, which I'm told you learned in very little time."

"No, Kah-Rí. On Atlantis, there is being no rulers. I am on our ship, the engineer, her name is Salisa. She helps us living on the floor of the ocean and not our ship...falling into the world and everyone dies. She knows more than me, much more. I learns these things in a school in Atlantis. They is teach to me."

"A school. How old were you when you knew the things you showed me today?"

Indya thought about it and winced a little. "Ten, Kah-Rí, when I learn about this."

"Ten years old," he echoed.

"I'm not being so smart, Kah-Rí. All my people knows this things."

The kah-rí was studying her. "Alons waits for judgment," the kah-rí said, changing the subject. "What should I do with him?"

Kythe moved at her side but their father raised his fingers.

Indya glanced at Kythe and then back at the kah-rí. She opened her mouth and closed it. "I forget he is there, Kah-Rí. You asking me? I forgive him. He's family for you, for Zen and Kythe. He's not enemy for me. He's just lying for reasons."

"And if I said he urged me to have you hanged as a noita?" their father said, the kah-rí's eyes shifting to Kythe.

Indya looked at Kythe, who looked back at her. She was frowning lightly, turning back to the kah-rí. "I'm sorry. Where is I hanging to and for why? Kah-Rí," she remembered to add.

The kah-rí's brows went up.

Indya turned to Kythe. "What don't I understand, Kythe?"

Kythe's eyes went to their father. "Alons urged my father to tell his soldiers to kill you, Indya."

Indya stared at him blankly and then she began breathing faster. "I'm hang upside-down for kill me, Kythe? I'm not a bad person. What did I do?"

"Now answer me again, Indya," their father said. "What should I do with Alons?"

"You tell him we are not enemies, please, Kah-Rí?" Indya said.

The kah-rí got up from his big chair and came down the stairs to stand in front of her. "Alons is no longer your concern, Nah-Lí. You will come one out of seven days while you are in residence and sit at my feet and talk to me about these wonders with the earpiece. You will call me father. You can go."

Indya stared at him.

"Why does your little beauty look like she's going to cry?" the kah-rí said to Zen.

"I'm sorry," Indya said, blinking. "I miss my parents every day. I'm happy to find one who is being a father for me." She stepped to him and hugged the kah-rí and then she froze and released him, reversing. "I'm sorry. I didn't do that. I said something polite and left. You forget the other one. Okay? All right." She remembered. "Kah-Rí," she added. "Or Father, I don't know which now."

Zen snorted out laughter, Kythe looking away, his shoulders shaking.

She turned to look at Kythe and then the other way to look at Zen. "You are laughing at me all the time. It's not right. I'm being with your father and he's an important man to be respect."

Zen only laughed harder and turned and bent down and swept her up, putting her over his shoulder.

"You don't do this to me!" Indya cried.