Doran could easily have crossed at the
bridge of Beruna, having heard of its existence from the innumerable
travelers he passed going hither and thither in the Emperor's
expansive empire. But he also received a haphazard but detailed
history of the battle before the fords, and of the Emperor's
clandestine traverse north of Beruna, amazing the unprepared foe.
With an earnest desire to reenact the Emperor's conquests, admittedly
in inverse, Doran, dozed along bank in bright daylight as an endless
chain of people passed him by. He observed as best he could, the
flow the river, the eddies, the rapids, the rocks, the current.
….
Grateful for the temperate breeze and
the shining moon, Doran strolled into the swirling chaos of water and
air, sound and silence. For a moment, as his feet propelled him
forward, he experienced an exultation of succeeding at the unknown.
Then the sandy bottom withdrew, and he floundered helplessly. He had
never seen nor swam before. Without considering, he had failed to
know, to comprehend his peril. Yet, any viewer of his activity would
have expressed amazement, that such flailing kept his head above
water.
In the moment of discovery, could Doran
have returned to the bank from which he departed? Possibly, but his
bravery ushered him onward, and though the thrashing of his limbs
implied desperation, he'd desperately devised a systematic, if
haphazard method, of not drowning, which seemed to succeed in its
intent. He couldn't achieve lateral movement, but he hadn't the time
to consider what would happen if he stayed in the same place. But
with the passing of time (though how much he hadn't any guess) his
arms expressed their exhaustion, and his legs lacked feeling. He
considered an attempt to return, withdrawal did not indicate
cowardice, if a repetition was undertaken. But the thundering water,
the rocks, and fatigue made returning a matter of both direction and
action, and he could contemplate neither.
Then a blow to the head knocked him
under the water. With hands flailing he grasped a wooden beam. The
bridge! Without knowing how, he had floated downriver. Unlearned as
he was in swimming, he hadn't considered the effect of the current,
but it had saved him from drowning.
With both arms wrapped around the pole,
he contemplated his situation. Reaching out, he felt the damp wood
of another support brush his palm. He knew then, he could swing from
pole to pole, like a monkey swinging from branch to branch, until he
stumbled onto the far shore and collapsed at the feet of a guardsman.
Doran hadn't realized how close to the river the walls of the city
were, nor did he care. Unlike the Emperor, his covert nighttime
crossing, had been discovered.
He lay there silently, hoping he might
recover his breathe and dignity before the man disturbed his repose.
Through nearly closed eyes he observed the guard's surprise and
suspicion, and his irritation.
“Where are your papers?” he asked
Doran, who sighed with the thimbleful of air retained by his lungs.
“I don't have any papers,” he
managed to reply after a pause.
“Why did you swim the river, when
there's a perfectly satisfactory bridge available?” the guard asked
with the hint of a laugh in his voice. “I've observed you thrash
and flail for the past few minutes. If you were trying to enter the
city silently, it was a foolish endeavor.”
“I wanted to be as brave as the
emperor.”
This answer, offered in earnest
honesty, but uttered in the middle of the night at a failed river
crossing, referring to an event fifteen or twenty years past, led
only to a bemused silence.
“Hm. Papers?”
“No.”
“Then you'll need to see the
magistrate.”
“Will he see me now, at this late
hour?” asked Doran as he was led firmly by his captor through the
gigantic main gate, and down a number of comfortably illuminated
streets.
“You're foreign, not part of the
empire, I can see that. And anyone from outside the realm of the
empire leads to the simple questions: why and where-from? The Emperor
will want to know, so the magistrate will need to know.”
….
When he was eventually brought into a
grand chamber he was deposited in the presence with a singular man,
richly dressed.
The guards receded and he approached
Doran, clapping his hands together and smiling.
“My friend, are you hungry?”
“I am sorry to disturb your eminence
at such a late hour,” Doran said while kneeling on the tile floor.
“Think nothing of it. But I must
insist you explain your unusual existence here, near the heart of the
Empire.”
And Doran told him the story, while the
magistrate nodded repeatedly, his head bobbing like a bubble on the
surface of a swift river. When the tale was finished, he spoke.
“Then you and I are alike.”
“Sir?”
“We are loyal servants of the Emperor
though we might be inclined to be his enemies. I led a company that
defended this city against his assault. I suspected a secret
crossing, and nearly repelled his advance. So I can tell you about
it. His andreia expresses itself as balm which sustains men
to success. When his toe touched the river Sirion he exhorted his
soldiers to follow, and though he spoke in a whisper, for we were
nearby, it was as each man felt he alone was receiving the praise of
some fatherly deity. Though my small contingent met them with
withering fire while in the deepest part of the river, they swatted
the arrows aside as if they were mosquitoes.”
“But for my courage and intuition,”
the magistrate continued, “I was rewarded with this position. My
abject servility didn't offend of course. Now I oversee, and speak
of the wisest man the world has seen. He lives in splendor, eating
each grain of rice from a separate golden platter. He reclines for
his afternoon nap in a room twice as large as this. And they say his
whole palace has not a single light, for he fears neither darkness or
the many threats it can hide. No man, as much of a man as he, could
experience any distress.”
“And though I have no tangible
evidence to the validity of your story, you have demonstrated a pure
desire to seek wisdom from our Emperor. This virtuous and patriotic
quest can not go unrewarded. I regularly receive messengers from his
hand, and though an audience is difficult to arrange, a pass from me
will secure your visit. He is near, and your path unhindered. So
go, and his grace be with you.”
“But don't try to cross any more
rivers in the dead of night.”
Courageous Emperor Links:
Courageous Emperor Links:
Comments
Post a Comment