Chapter 6: Things of Beauty
The maid woke Ketiya an hour before dawn, startling her out of a dreamless sleep by knocking on the door to her room. "Thank you. I'm up," Ketiya called, throwing back the covers and getting out of bed. The air was chilly, and the water in the washbasin was even more so, but it helped Ketiya to wake up. She opened her door and picked up her uniform, freshly laundered and neatly folded, from the hall outside. She removed her nightshirt and put on her clothes, then combed and braided her hair.
She had it all planned out – she would go to the garrison and arrange for an escort out of the town, then return here and wake the others so that they could prepare to leave. If there were no unforeseen delays, they should reach the Underpass by late afternoon and the Eternal Valley by sunset. Then they would meet with the Lady.
Ketiya went down to the common room, empty but for a servant cleaning the great hearth, and opened the door onto the courtyard. As soon as she stepped outside, she paused, smiled, and closed the door behind her slowly so it would not make any noise.
In the courtyard, lit by the gray predawn light, Jack was practicing sword forms. Ketiya was reminded of the first (and, up to now, the only) time she had seen him do this; in a little clearing in a forest some time ago and many miles from here. For some reason the whole thing had stuck in her mind, like a beautiful picture or a melody. It had happened in almost the same way – she had seen him, and decided to watch instead of letting him know she was there…
~***~
The blade of his sword is an impossibly thin ribbon of what looks like high-quality steel. From its shape – and the kind of moves Jack is practicing – she can tell that it is designed for slashing. The metal flashes and winks in the sun as Jack raises the sword over his head, then snaps it down as if he is slicing an invisible foe. It is such an elegant thing that she can hardly believe it is a weapon.
The sword's owner moves back and forth across the field with fluid grace; it doesn't look like combat practice at all, really, but more like a dance.
~***~
But then he noticed Ketiya out of the corner of his eye and stopped. He turned to face her, looking a little startled; then he smiled, sheathed his sword and bowed to her. She returned his bow and went to speak with him. "Good morning. How long have you been up?" she asked.
"Not very long. Half an hour, perhaps. Please excuse me if I seem impatient, but when will we depart?" He was probably concerned about the possibility of a repeat of yesterday's difficulties.
"Oh, a couple of hours from now. I've told the staff to wake the kids just after dawn. I'm going to the garrison to bring us an escort so we won't have another traffic problem." She grinned.
Jack looked at the ground. "I am sorry about that," he said. Ketiya tried to stop herself from laughing, but the effort was in vain – she barely kept it down to a chuckle. He looked up at her, the confusion obvious on his face.
"That wasn't your fault. No reason to apologize." She shook her head. "I should have realized that something like that would happen. I know, it's probably very embarrassing, but look on the bright side; all those people want to see you win. That's kind of a change from the usual, huh?" 'The usual,' as Ketiya knew from firsthand experience, was being on the wrong end of an uncomfortable number of weapons being wielded by very unfriendly people.
His smile warmed her heart. "Yes, it is. Thank you." Ketiya could not figure out exactly what he was thanking her for.
~***~
The sun had almost cleared the horizon when they were ready to depart. Jack did not mount his horse immediately – Crono might need his help, after all. He tried to watch the boy without seeming to watch, so as not to cause him any embarrassment. Crono watched carefully as his friend Marle swung herself up into the saddle. Then he placed his right hand on the saddle-horn of his own mount, his left hand on the rear of the saddle, and his right foot in the stirrup. He paused for a moment, eyes closed, as if thinking or praying, then heaved himself up and swung his left leg over the back of the horse without incident. He placed his left foot in the stirrup and took the reins in his hands before flashing a triumphant smile at Marle.
Satisfied that Crono was all right on his own, Jack vaulted into the saddle of his own mount. Ketiya nodded to the town guards near the inn doors. They opened the gates and the riders went out through them, with the group of guards forming up around them as an escort. Jack felt very uncomfortable about this whole situation, but he was not going to show it.
Fortunately there were few people in the streets at this early hour. The guards seemed to be enough of a deterrent to keep most people from approaching the horses. Even so, Jack was very apprehensive, for he felt many curious eyes upon him. At the head of the column, a young woman approached one of the guards with a bundle in her arms. Ketiya waved her over and held a brief conversation with the woman, who walked alongside her horse. Then the woman smiled and handed her bundle up to the Ranger before going back to the side of the street. She blew a kiss to Jack as he passed by. He smiled and waved at her, feeling acutely embarrassed.
It was a great relief when they reached the gates of the town. As they rode through onto the tree-lined road, their escort peeled away, leaving the five riders to continue on their own. Lucca, who was riding behind Jack, turned and waved to them. They waved in return and continued to do so until a bend in the road put them out of sight. Jack could feel eyes on him again, as in the city, but this time the feeling had a distinctly arboreal flavor to it.
"What was that package, Ketiya?" Marle asked. Jack had forgotten about the bundle. He turned his attention to Ketiya.
The Ranger twisted around in her saddle and held up the bundle with a glittering smile. "That young lady is the baker's daughter. She made us some pastries to take on our way. And she wished us all good fortune. A good way to start the day, huh?" Ketiya opened the bundle and took out a pastry, then closed it again and tossed it to Marle, who was riding close behind her. Marle took a pastry from the bundle and gave another one to Crono, who was riding beside her, then tossed the bundle to Jack. He thanked her, took a pastry for himself – they were still warm from the oven, and a bit sticky – then dropped back beside Lucca to pass her the bundle. After she took her own share, Jack rode toward the head of the group, excusing himself as he passed Crono and Marle, then returned the bag to Ketiya, who hung it on her saddle-horn.
"You could have just tossed it back over," she said jokingly, obviously knowing that returning the bundle was only an excuse. Jack raised an eyebrow at her and she threw back her head and laughed mirthfully, her hair seeming to throw off little rays of light where the sunlight hit it. Although Jack had spent only a little more than a week's time in her company – and not consecutively, at that – he knew that she was one of those rare people who wore a sense of humor the way some people wore spectacles. Jack, who had been accused more than once of having an underdeveloped sense of humor, both liked and envied her for it.
"Let's see how these things taste," she said, lifting her pastry to her mouth and taking a small bite. After chewing it a bit, she smiled and nodded approvingly.
He took a bite out of his own pastry, which was filled with something sweet but tangy – it tasted sort of like lemon. He tried to chew it slowly, since it was not often that he had the opportunity to enjoy a luxury like this. Or a day like this – the air was comfortably cool and clean, smelling of fallen leaves, and there were only a few puffy clouds to be seen in the blue of the sky. He closed his eyes for a few moments, reveling in the rare sensation of contentment.
"It's beautiful, isn't it?" Ketiya said, echoing his own thoughts. He looked at her and saw that she was looking up at the tree branches above their heads. "You know, aren't any electrical machines or anything like that in the Lady's realm." She took another bite from her pastry and looked back at him, her eyes saying that she expected a response.
He liked the idea of being far from such technology and all its unpleasantness. "Why not?" he asked her.
She shrugged. "Something about the magic here. They just don't work. Not even matches will work. If a tool or machine is too complicated – although the limits seem kind of arbitrary, as far as I can tell – it just won't function. Out here, you can almost forget that those kinds of things exist." She looked down at her saddle, the unspoken words hanging in the air: You can almost forget that Aku exists.
Jack had no idea how to respond. He looked at the road ahead of them and absentmindedly finished eating his pastry. That unsaid statement was true enough – this forest may have been on Earth, but it was not the same world as the one that contained the Central Hub, or robots, or rocket ships. It was as if it were stuck in a different…
Jack forced himself from that path of thought. This was, for some reason, the wrong sort of place to have something so uncomfortable on his mind.
"Are you okay, Jack?" Marle's voice startled him. He turned around and saw her looking at him worriedly. Crono and Lucca – her friends were riding next to her, since the road was wide enough to permit it – were also looking concerned. Well, he assumed that Lucca was looking concerned. With her glasses, it was not very easy to tell.
"I am all right, thank you. Just thinking." He turned back to look at Ketiya, who was looking at him apologetically. She was a good person, but she had a tendency to bring up uncomfortable topics or feelings – always by accident – and she knew it. He shook his head slightly to indicate that it was all right. She looked away from him, biting her lower lip.
"I always seem to do that, don't I?" she said softly. She turned her gaze on him again. "There was something I didn't tell you, but I think I ought to now. It was about something that happened last year, and you sort of reminded me of it earlier this morning." She looked down at her hands on the reins.
Jack's brow furrowed in puzzlement. What was she talking about? "Please, tell me," he said.
"It was the morning after I drew that map, remember? To get you to show me where you came from." Jack nodded. He remembered that – she had used a blackened stick from their campfire to draw a map of the world, because she had wanted very much to know where he came from. She had quite obviously regretted asking the question afterwards, and they had not spoken of the incident since then. Ketiya sighed. "The next morning, when I woke up and didn't see you, I thought you'd gotten mad at me about it and left. But you were just nearby practicing with your sword, like you were this morning." He was shocked, to say the least, when she made this admission.
"I never even considered doing so," he answered. Her eyes widened in surprise. "That would have been shameful." He said it a little louder than he intended to, and as Ketiya smiled at him he heard Marle giggle. He found himself wondering, with no small amount of alarm, what the girl might think that he and Ketiya had been talking about.
If he had had less self-control, he would have blushed. As it was, he turned to shoot a quick warning glance at Marle, but Ketiya was ahead of him on that score, and Marle squirmed a little under her glare. Crono, however, glared right back at Ketiya as if to say that she had no right to treat his friend that way. Lucca suddenly became very interested in the trees along the side of the road. Marle prudently pulled on the reins of her horse so that she would follow Jack and Ketiya at a greater distance – Crono followed suit, and Lucca a little afterward. This seemed to satisfy Ketiya, who turned away from the young travelers and back to him with an annoyed look. Although she did not seem to be annoyed with him personally so much as with Marle.
For some reason he could not explain, Jack found the whole incident somewhat amusing, and he smiled. Ketiya looked perplexed for a moment, then began to smile. Then she closed her eyes and began to chuckle. She twisted around in the saddle again. "I'm sorry about that. I didn't mean to be…"
Suddenly there was a loud, grating screech off to Ketiya's right, which caused her horse to whinny and rear with terror so that she barely managed to stay in the saddle. Jack had his sword in hand almost instantly and he heard Crono draw his sword as well, although the boy would probably be unable to fight on horseback. Ketiya's horse settled down somewhat and she had gotten her bow and arrow from the quiver hanging on the saddle – in fact, she was already in the process of firing an arrow at the source of the screech. Jack saw her arrow hit something small, shadowy and unpleasant-looking; then the thing vanished in a puff of smoke, and the arrow fell to the ground.
"Another demon," she grumbled. "It tried to get onto the path. But the enchantment was strong enough to keep it away." She turned around to address the others as Jack sheathed his katana. "Everyone all right back there?"
Marle was lowering her crossbow and Crono was sheathing his sword, but Lucca still had her gun in her hand and was looking around frantically, like a frightened rabbit. Even from this far away Jack could see that she was shaking. "It's all right, Lucca," Marle said soothingly. "Here, come and ride between me and Crono, if that'll make you feel better. Okay?" Lucca nodded and took her friend's suggestion. She calmed down a bit and lowered her gun, but did not hang it on her belt again.
He heard Ketiya jump down from her horse and turned to see her retrieving her arrow from beside the path. She remounted and took the reins again. "I know it might be useless for me to say it, but don't worry. They can't hurt us as long as we stay on the path. The Lady's magic is strong here." She slipped the bow and arrow back into the quiver, then kicked her horse into a walk. The others followed her.
The day was no less beautiful than it had been before, but the peaceful mood of it had been shattered beyond repair. In Jack's experience, such things happened fairly often, but that did not make it any easier for him.
~***~
They came across another small demon shortly after midday, and a spider-like creature a few hours after that. Marle accounted for the former and Ketiya for the latter. Ketiya and Marle made some heroic attempts to lighten the mood, but mostly in vain.
But when the sun was a little more than halfway along the journey from noon to night, they had reason to cheer up. The road came to a rocky cliff about twenty feet high. It led into a cave opening – perhaps natural, but obviously enlarged by artificial means - at the base of the cliff. A large stone slab, set into the cliff face by the opening, was carved with more runes. There were a few small buildings nearby – it was an outpost.
"The Underpass," Ketiya said, her voice satisfied. "This will take us to the Eternal Valley. We'll leave the horses at the stable here." She leaped down from her saddle and Jack did the same. He looked back at the three other travelers. Marle had already gotten off her horse and Lucca was getting off hers. Crono had not gotten down yet.
Marle looked up at him, but he shook his head. "I think I can do it myself," he insisted. Jack held his breath as Crono got his left foot out of the stirrup and swung it over the saddle. He managed to get his left foot on the ground, but still had his right foot caught in the stirrup. He barley managed to keep his balance, but in the end he managed to disentangle himself without falling over.
A group of Rangers came up to them. They were refreshingly polite and efficient – after greeting then travelers and exchanging salutes and a few words with Ketiya, three of them took the horses to be stabled while another two fetched some refreshments. Ketiya got something else as well – a coil of slim gray cord, some kind of rope, which she hung on her belt. The group rested for a while, but they stayed at the outpost for less than half an hour before continuing on their journey.
They entered the mouth of the cave, leaving the forest and the road behind them. It was about as wide as the road had been although, as Ketiya had told them, it was not very tall. The floor had a slight downward slope, and the passage curved gently to the right. Soon the light from the cave opening could no longer be seen, but there was some other source of light – Jack could not tell where it was coming from, as there were no torches or lanterns about. But then he saw that there were patches of glowing fungus on the walls.
"I wonder what makes this stuff…darn it. The scanner's not working," he heard Lucca say. He turned around to see her standing in front of one of the patches of glowing moss, holding a complicated-looking object in her left hand. She was frowning at it.
"Those sorts of things don't work here. Didn't I tell you that already?" Ketiya remarked. She looked at Jack. "No, I told you, but not them." She looked back at Lucca apologetically.
With a sigh, Lucca hung the scanner on her belt again. Then she jerked as if someone had slapped her. "That means my gun won't work either. And I don't know how to use anything else." Her shoulders slumped. She looked, for a moment, as if she were about to break into tears; Marle rushed to comfort her, but then Lucca took a deep breath and steadied herself. "I guess that means I'll just have to figure out something else," she decided. Jack was surprised – and impressed – by her resolve.
Ketiya smiled at her. "And I'm sure we will. Maybe the mages can do something to help you. But we have to get there first." Lucca nodded in agreement. They started walking again, descending further into the earth.
Jack was rethinking his opinion of Lucca. He did not relate well to scientists – not because they were bad people, but because for all their knowledge of the workings of things, they overlooked how things worked. They thought that technology was the only way to solve problems. Jack knew that, after a certain point, technology tended to cause a lot of problems. Lucca's apparent dependence upon it was a problem in itself. But, he saw now, she did not depend solely on technology after all. He had a lot more respect for her now that he understood that.
It was then that he noticed the mist. It was a thin, gray mist of the sort that rose off dewy fields in the morning. It was getting steadily thicker as they progressed – in fact, he was having trouble making out objects that were more than an arm's length away. He was intending Ketiya about the mist when she stopped in her tracks.
"Okay. After we pass through the mists, we will be halfway along the Underpass. But it's going to take us a couple of minutes to pass through it, and we won't be able to see each other. Also, there are some branching passages and dead ends. I know my way through, but you don't. We need to stay together, so…" Ketiya took from her belt the coil of rope that the Rangers at the outpost had given her before. When she unrolled it, he saw that it had a series of loops along it spaced at regular intervals – loops just big enough to put a hand through. So that was how they were going to keep together.
Each of them put their left hand through a loop. The loops were tied in such a way that they could be tightened or loosened. Ketiya advised them to tighten the loops so that they would not slip off. "Just walk slowly in here. And don't worry – there's nothing dangerous about the mist." Even with her reassurances, Jack felt somewhat apprehensive about the mist, but if Ketiya said that there was no danger…
They started walking forward again, and the mist swallowed them up. Jack could see nothing but gray all around him. The mist seemed to swallow all sound, too, for though the floor was of hard stone, his wooden geta made no noise when he walked. He could deal with being unable to see, but the lack of sound put him on edge. The nothingness was maddening. He put his hand on the hilt of his sword, although he knew that it would do him no good.
Ketiya stopped in front of him, perhaps to check that she was going in the right direction, but Jack did not notice that until he collided with her. He tried to apologize, but his words seemed to be swallowed up by the oppressive silence. When he backed away from her his left shoulder bumped the rock wall of the tunnel and he almost tripped over, putting Ketiya off-balance as well, and probably Crono right behind him, although he was not really sure. He put his hand to the wall to steady himself – and so did Ketiya. Her hand ended up right on top of his.
To his surprise, she did not pull her hand away. And somehow, he could not bring himself to break the contact either – in the cold, silent mist, this little bit of reality was a comfort to him. He tensed a little when he felt her hand squeeze his, and even as he was debating with himself whether or not it would be appropriate, or right, to reciprocate, he was taking her hand in his own. Ketiya slowly moved their linked hands away from the wall, and began to lead the way again.
Feeling an intense mixture of apprehension, elation and general bewilderment, he held tightly to her hand, glad for the reminder that he was not alone.
~***~
Marle was holding his hand so hard that it hurt, but the sensation reassured Crono that he was not all alone, or in some nightmare he could never wake up from. All he could see was gray blankness, even when he held his hand right in front of his face, and the silence was absolute. No, not silence, because it was more than just the mere absence of sound. It like a deafening rumble or an ear-piercing shriek, except…in the other direction, or something. There just weren't any words for it.
The around his left hand jerked suddenly, and he staggered a little but managed to keep his feet. Marle's grip got tighter for a moment. There were a few terrible seconds during which Crono wondered what had happened to Jack and Ketiya ahead of him – then the slack in the rope was taken up, slowly, and he breathed a sigh of relief. He started walking again.
About a minute after that, he heard a sound. It was very faint, but it got louder and louder with each step he took. Then he recognized it, the sound of wood on stone, which meant he was hearing Jack's footsteps. And, he realized, he could also hear the soft scrape of his own shoes on the floor. The mist began to thin – he could see his own feet, although only faintly.
It was not long before he could make out Jack ahead of him, and then Ketiya. The walls of the tunnel were visible, too. They were back in the world of the living.
Ketiya stopped and called out, "Well, that wasn't so bad, was it?" Crono heard Marle groan behind him. Ketiya turned around and favored them with a big smile. "Okay. Let's get the rope off, now. It's clear sailing from here." She removed the loop of rope from her wrist.
"Sailing?" Jack queried, removing the rope from his own wrist.
Ketiya gave him what Crono liked to think of as a Look. "You know. Clear sailing. Things are going to go smoothly."
Jack appeared to ponder this for a few seconds. Then he nodded. Ketiya shook her head in an amused fashion as she collected the rope and coiled it up again. Crono looked around the tunnel and noticed that it now sloped upwards ahead of them. He looked over his shoulder. Behind him, the tunnel faded out into gray.
After a few minutes of walking, Crono could see bright light ahead – sunlight! He wanted to run toward it, but he knew that wouldn't be a good idea, so he didn't. The distance to the tunnel mouth and the outside world seemed to take forever to cross.
Since the bright light was hurting his eyes, he looked down at the ground, to give himself time to get used to it. After he stepped through the archway of the tunnel, and onto a road of white hexagonal tiles, he finally looked up. And froze.
Behind and to the side of him, he heard Marle gasp, and Lucca murmur "Oh my…" Out of the corner of his eye, Crono noticed that Jack's eyes were wide with awe. Crono rubbed his own eyes, because he couldn't believe what he was seeing, but when he looked again it had not changed.
"Welcome," he heard Ketiya say, "To the Eternal Valley."