Chapter 2: A Leap of Faith

Wherein Yrah succumbs to peer pressure and commits himself to a course of action that could have disastrous consequences for him and everyone he knows.

On each side of the Tower, grassy fields sloped downwards into the valley. The lush, green growth was dotted with the flowers that gave the Silver-eye valley its name. Silver-eye flowers were undoubtedly the most beautiful thing in the valley. When they bloomed in the springtime, it was not uncommon for girls to wear them in their hair. When a man proposed marriage to a woman, it was traditional for him to offer her a bouqet of Silver-eyes. Every spring there was a ceremony in the Temple to thank the Soulkeeper for the flowers.

Their class ended prematurely, the children now played in these fields contentedly. They knew that there was at least an hour before they would be expected home now, and they intended to make the most of it. They played tag, rolled down the hill and otherwise enjoyed the day.

Except for Yrah, however. He sat with his back against the western wall of the Tower, which at this time of the day was in shade. He was deeply troubled by what he had just seen.

What could a man have done to turn the Judgement water pure black? Brother Kye had called it the worst he had ever seen. But the look on Pila's face... She had been certain that her grandfather was a good man! And Teq had been Judged four times in the past, and found worthy each time so he must have been a good person in his youth, surely.

Yrah pressed his ear to the cold, stone wall of the Temple. He had not seen Pila leave the Temple yet, so he assumed she must still be in there arguing with Kye. He couldn't hear them, of course. The wall was ten feet thick. It was also impossibly tall; if one craned his neck and looked to the sky, they would not see the top. It simply rose into the clouds and faded from view. Nobody knew who built the Tower, it had simply always been. It was a constant in the valley.

Yrah turned his head back and further pondered what had happened.

 

There were only about a hundred deaths a year in the Silver-eye valley that the Soulkeeper refused to undo. Outside the valley, Yrah supposed people must die for good all the time. The lands beyond the Silver-eye valley and across the ocean were the domain of the lawless bandits and barbarian tribes, and Yrah thought that even if such a savage was brought to the Temple when he died and lain upon the altar, the Soulkeeper wouldn't bring him back.

Some of the other children told stories about how the tribes outside the valley sometimes killed and ate their own babies. Yrah didn't know how they could know this; none of them had ever been out of the valley. He sometimes wondered if the outlanders were really as bad as everyone said.

He was so deep in thought, he didn't hear Hrad, Dryn and Enyani approach. It wasn't until Dryn nudged him with the toe of his sandal that Yrah looked up with his big, brown eyes.

Hrad and Dryn both wore plain tunics, and Enyani was garbed in a modest white dress that contrasted her auburn hair. Yrah thought, as he always did, just how pretty she was. He could never say so, of course. The others would just laugh at him.

"Yrah? You wanna find out why the Soulkeeper didn't bring that man back?" Hrad asked.

Yrah wasn't sure he had heard correctly.

"What?"

"Dryn came up with a plan to find out what Teq did to turn the water black! But we need your help," Hrad explained.

Enyani giggled. "It looked like cow poo! Mixed with soot!"

Yrah looked inquisitively at Dryn.

"How? Ask his granddaughter? I don't think she knows. She seemed very shocked that he died for real."

Dryn was wearing his 'I-know-something-you-don't' smile again, and Yrah seriously considered kicking his feet out from under him from his position sitting against the wall.

"There's a jewel-thing at the bottom of the water basin, about the size of a chicken's egg. It's what the Soulkeeper uses to colour the water. But more importantly, it whispers exactly what it is that the person did wrong. The soulservants use it to find out why the Soulkeeper refuses to revive people."

Yrah raised one eyebrow.

"How could you possibly know that?"

"My uncle, of course."

"The one who was training to be a soulservant before his leg got bitten off by a bear?"

"Uh huh. He told me 'bout it."

Yrah sighed.

"Fine. Let's go get it, then."

He made to stand up, but Enyani put a hand on his shoulder. The feel of her soft, white hand made Yrah blush, and he sat back down.

"Brother Kye won't just let us take it."

"So what do you mean? You want to steal it?!"

Yrah was becoming increasingly uneasy.

"Sssh!" spat Hrad, glancing fearfully at the Temple.

"The Soulkeeper can't hear us, stupid!" sneered Dryn. "He's got no ears, he's just a beam of light."

"But you don't know that, Dryn. Nobody's ever been higher up in the Tower, they just see the light come through the eye."

"Anyway," interupted Enyani. "We need your help, Yrah."

"You want me to run in there and grab it?"

"No, don't be silly. Brother Kye is still in there arguing with Pila. We'll have to do it at dusk tonight, while they're cremating Teq's body."

Of course, thought Yrah. Every last one of the soulservants would be attending the cremation; they always did. The Temple would be completely empty while they gathered atop a seaside cliff to stand around the pyre chanting prayers, and then scatter Teq's ashes to the evening winds.

"But what about the guards?" Yrah questioned, his eyes wide. Whenever the Temple was empty, half a dozen guards were posted by the archway that led within. Yrah had seen them before; huge, hulking men with spears and angry faces.

"This is the clever part," said Dryn arrogantly. "We need one of us to die, so we can pretend we're just taking you into the Temple for a judgement. The guards won't mind, since child judgements always work. Then, once the person is revived, they just fish the jewel out of the water and hide it in their pocket! Easy!"

Yrah was doubtful. Stealing from the Temple? He wasn't sure that the Soulkeeper would forgive that, even though he was a child.

"And you want me to be the dying one?"

Hrad nodded vigorously. "Yup. Meet us at the waterfall tonight, and you can jump off the top. We'll carry you to the Temple and say you fell while we were playing."

Yrah was slightly scared now. He'd never died before. It sounded scary. And this business with the jewel... Even if Dryn was right and it actually existed, this seemed like an awful thing to do on his first judgement.

"I don't know..." Yrah was wavering. Dryn spoke quickly to try and convince him.

"Annelyn said if you do it, she'll kiss you! On the mouth!"

Annelyn was widely regarded by the rest of the class as the prettiest girl among them. While most of the class were twelve winters old, Annelyn was fifteen, and starting to bloom into her adult beauty. She was in a class with the twelve-winters because she wasn't very clever; she never paid attention in lessons, preferring to gossip with her friends and braid their hair. Yrah secretly thought she wasn't very nice, either.

"I don't want a kiss from Annelyn," he mumbled.

"What?" Dryn looked confused. "What do you want then?"

A kiss from Enyani, he thought but didn't say.

He remembered Teq's serene face as he lay on the altar, and Pila's calmness turning suddenly to outrage at Kye's accusation. He also remembered how black the water had turned. How Brother Kye had called it 'the worst he had ever seen'! Suddenly, his mind was made up.

"I'll do it. Just to find out what Teq did to deserve this."

Dryn grinned, and Hrad clapped him on the back. Only Enyani seemed nervous. Guilty, even.

She'll be impressed once it's done! Yrah thought to himself. He couldn't quite believe that later that very evening he would be throwing himself off the waterfall and dying! It was quite exciting, really.

 

Reviews

[Kate Whitaker]

Very interesting. are you considering continuing it?

[AnonymousLad]

I am! The next chapter should be up in a couple of days :)

[Kate Whitaker]

Excellent I look forward to reading it