8 keeping our sails all the time well filled
Rhine stared in shock, his mind wrapping around and taking in what had just happened. How the man had fallen down from the clouds at the top of the Pillar, and how the scream he’d heard had sounded oddly familiar to the one he’d heard from the woman in his nightmare. No, not a nightmare, a delusion or a curse of some kind that was haunting him.
Forgetting that he was trying to remain hidden, Rhine rose up, staring at the lifeless body. The sound of the man’s body as it slammed into the sand still echoed in his ears. He had fallen from an incredible height. Rhine knew he must have died on impact. No man could survive such a fall. The trial, he knew now that it wasn’t a criminal trial, but a trial against nature. He watched as the crowd surrounded the lifeless body, watched as they stared down at him in shock at what they’d just seen.
All of their heads were down, staring at the body. All but one. Rhine caught a glimpse of Penelope, she was staring in his direction. No, she was staring right at him. He looked at himself, realizing the entire top half of his body was exposed over the crest of the dune. He dropped down to his chest, out of sight. Breathing heavily he crawled down the sandy slope then jumped to his feet and moved as fast as he could back towards the town.
He saw, even from the distance, the distinct look of anger she’d given him. He thought that maybe that was another rule in Pillar’s Shadow; that newcomers weren’t allowed to witness somebody try and climb the Pillar. Or it was probably because of Brutus. She didn’t want them near each other after what Brutus had said he’d do to Rhine, or at least try to do.
An hour later, after Rhine had eaten and tried for a while to get the image of the falling body out of his mind, he met again with Peleos. He debated whether or not to go when a man, rather than the young boy Onyx, came to his door to summon him. He didn’t want to meet with Peleos, didn’t want to answer all of his questions. Rhine knew the old man doubted his answers anyway, and after seeing him in his head standing on the Pillar just before the man fell to his death, he wasn’t sure he could bear the sight of him.
Peleos was in a sour mood during most the discussion. He looked much older, if that was even possible, and very tired with his eyes drooping below his sagging skin. When Rhine asked him what was wrong, the old man replied that he wasn’t feeling well, but Rhine knew the truth. A man had died, a man trying to discover the mystery of the lights. But Peleos didn’t mention the trial at all. It was a topic he clearly didn’t want to discuss and Rhine figured he should avoid as well if he didn’t want to incur suspicion.
“Where were you earlier this morning?” Peleos asked him as they sat across each other on the wooden, creaking table. “I sent Onyx for you, but he returned saying that your house was empty.”
The old man gave Rhine a curious and untrusting expression he’d grown accustomed to seeing when they met together.
“I went for a walk,” Rhine replied. “I’ve been having trouble sleeping.”
Peleos nodded. “And I as well. I get that way when there are things I can’t stop thinking about. Things,” he said, clearing his throat, “I can’t make sense of.” He stared at Rhine deeper than usual as he said the words “thinking” and “things”, giving Rhine the impression that the “things” he couldn’t make sense of wasn’t a thing at all. It was Rhine.
Rhine shook his head and looked down at his fingers which were fumbling with splinters on the tabletop. “I… to tell you the truth… I couldn’t sleep because a dream I’ve been having… a nightmare.”
The old man’s eyes widened and his face lit up.
“Ah,” he said, “and what do you see in this nightmare?”
Rhine choked on a lump in his throat.
“I… I’m sorry… I can’t tell you… It’s only a dream after all, I wouldn’t want you or anyone else to think anything of it. It’s probably all nonsense.”
“Is it about the Shadow?” the old man asked enthusiastically.
Rhine nodded.
“Then it isn’t nonsense,” he said. “These dreams, have you ever in your life experienced them before? Any similarities at all?”
Rhine wondered if this was a trap, wondered if the old man was trying to get Rhine to admit that he remembered everything.
“I remember very little about my life before coming here,” Rhine replied. “Just glimpses really, but no, nothing like the dreams I’m having.”
“Then they have come to you from the Pillar,” he said. “And they have come to you for a reason. It must be trying to tell you something. It’s a mysterious thing, even for me and I have been here for years and years, but these dreams must be important, you have to listen to them.”
Rhine leaned back in confusion.
“How can a rock be trying to tell me something?”
The old man shrugged and sighed.
“I don’t know. But it can. It does.”
When they finished, as was becoming usual, Rhine walked out from the house more confused than he was before he’d entered. Weaving through the houses back to his place, he felt even more like an outcast than usual in Pillar’s Shadow. People not only stared, but they stopped talking just as Rhine came into view, not wanting to reveal any information about the man who’d died, he assumed.
Rhine spent the next few days mostly to himself. Onyx came every day to his house to bring him food and he spent his nights walking around in the cold darkness, trying to make sense of the visions and thoughts that clouded his mind thicker than the white clouds shielding the top of the Pillar. He felt more and more like a captive every day, more and more like an outcast rather than part of the group. He wished to know how the others who had come from the outside World had fared, but whenever he asked, Peleos always changed the subject.
On one night while Rhine wandered alongside the Pillar, he saw Penelope again. She was climbing the base of the Pillar, moving sideways along it, maybe ten feet off the ground.
“Still breaking the rules I see,” she said as Rhine looked up at her.
“I can’t seem to help it around here,” he replied. “Everything I do breaks a stupid rule. But what about you?”
Rhine jumped onto the Pillar and started to climb. As he’d suspected upon looking at it, the Pillar was no easy rock face. The rock was smooth, rather than coarse, from years of desert sands blowing up against it. It was difficult to find hand holds and foot holds, but even so Rhine moved up quickly and stopped right alongside her.
“Are you supposed to be climbing here alone at night?”
Her only reply was a brief smile.
“You see,” Rhine continued, “I’m new here so correct me if I’m wrong. But it seems what with your traveling far out into the desert and climbing this thing when no one’s around, that you’re the real troublemaker here. Heck,” he smiled, “you make me look pretty good.”
Penelope suppressed another smile and tried to focus her attention on climbing. She reached and hoisted her body up a few feet. Her long dark hair flapped in the breeze below her, her lean and muscular legs held firm as she adjusted for another move. She looked down as Rhine quickly rose up beside her again. She realized a challenge when she saw one. With all her strength she bolted up the side of the Pillar, keeping her chest as close to the step rock as possible.
Rhine matched her every move, rising up right beside her. She laughed as she tried to outrun him, moving up and to the side in random spurts of movement.
“I thought you didn’t know anything about climbing?” she asked.
“I lied,” he fired back. “You think I’m gonna tell the truth to that guy?”
“He’s not all bad. He’s just protective.”
“Uh huh. Protective, right,” he said sarcastically. “If you ask me he doesn’t trust you.”
“Maybe not. Not around you anyway. If he were here, if you saw us doing this he’d climb up here and throw you to the ground.”
“Who says he could catch me?” Rhine asked staring over at her an
d still following right beside her as she climbed. “And even if he could, he would need all those cronies of his to take me down. Do you have any idea what I was before I came to this place?”
“I thought you didn’t remember? That’s what Peleos said anyway.”
Rhine decided he didn’t want to discuss it.
“Yea, well… you all aren’t the only ones allowed to have secrets. So, why do you climb out here anyway? Why do you go out into the desert?”
She turned serious and climbed even faster. Rhine matched her beat for beat, digging his fingers into the small creases in the rock and pushing up with his feet. The rock face grew more and more difficult the higher up they went. Rhine didn’t know how high they were, and wouldn’t dare turn to look down. He saw that the way up ahead was smoother than usual. He stayed alongside Penelope who was climbing ferociously to lose him.
In an instant, Rhine caught it. He saw her slip, saw her reach up and slip again. With an outstretched arm Rhine grabbed frantically for her wrist. He caught her and gripped as tight as he could, not daring to let go. Her body swung into the side of the rock. She was breathing heavily and Rhine could hear her heart pounding against the rock.
Her desert brown eyes twinkled in the moonlight as she looked up at him. Rhine felt his heart race as he looked back. He had almost lost his grip saving her. He’d risked his life without giving it a moment’s thought.
What Rhine saw next startled him. Out of her eyes came tears that streaked down the side of her cheek. Rhine helped her regain a hold, helped ease her back into control, but he kept his hand on hers just in case. He felt suddenly very protective of the beautiful woman that had saved his life.
Beneath the sobs he heard her whisper.
“Because I want out,” she said, wiping away her tears and clearing her throat. “That’s why I climb. That’s why I go out into the dunes. I want out of this place.”
They climbed slowly and carefully to the ground below, neither of them saying another word. The climb took forever, but neither of them seemed to mind.
When they reached the sand below, they walked together back into town. Rhine wanted out of Pillar’s Shadow too. He realized that he’d wanted it ever since he’d came there. Only the fear of what might happen to him held him back, the fear of being killed like his men had been. But walking beside her back to town, he knew that there was something keeping him there, something he wanted even more than he wanted to leave. He looked over at Penelope with a smile; the rough woman of the desert who’d saved his life and climbed massive cliffs at night without fear. The woman who cried when he’d looked into her eyes after grabbing her and saving her life. It was her. Penelope. He wanted her more.
9 and the quarrels they arise
That night Rhine dreamt the same dream again. He saw the top of the Pillar, saw Peleos and the man with the badge standing in front of the lights. He also saw the woman and again she motioned for him to come, right before it all disappeared into a foggy haze. Rhine wondered what it all meant, why was he having those dreams?
Any good feelings he had towards his present circumstances as a result of the previous night were vanquished quickly that morning when Onyx ran in through the door screaming.
“Get up! Get up!” he said frantically to Rhine as he shook him awake. “You have to go. You have to go this instant!”
The young boy was shaking and breathing heavily. As Rhine awoke and looked at Onyx, he wondered what possibly could have happened this time. Everyone in Pillar’s Shadow seemed to hate him already, he wondered how it could get any worse than that.
Rhine sat up on the bed and looked skeptically at the boy.
“Onyx calm down,” he said. “Tell me what’s going on.”
The boy struggled desperately for air and tried to say fifty words at once. Rhine had to stand and hold him still and tell him to slow down to understand a word he said.
“He’s… coming… here… for you…” Onyx’s eyes grew wide with the words, like he’d seen a ghost. “She’s… gone…”
Before Rhine could ask him what he was talking about, a man entered in through the doorway. It was Brutus and he was furious, staring at Rhine with a clenched jaw and both his hands squeezed into fists. His dark eyes were wide, his face creased with anger. His raven black hair that curled over the top of his head was matted with a layer of glistening sweat.
Before Onyx could further explain, before anyone said a word, Brutus launched himself at Rhine. Shifting his weight to the side, Rhine used Brutus’ own momentum to throw him to the ground. Rhine shoved his knee harshly into Brutus’ back, shoving his face into the sand.
“You did this!” he yelled out beneath Rhine, spitting out sand. “What have you done to her? What have you done?”
He tried to squirm free, but Rhine pushed down even harder and pulled his bent arm back and down, causing Brutus to scream out in pain.
“Shut up!” he yelled back into Brutus’s ear. “What the hell is he talking about?” he asked, looking up at Onyx. Onyx was staring at them both, shocked and unable to speak. “Onyx I swear…”
“She’s gone,” Onyx blurted out. “Penelope is gone. Nobody knows where she is, and Brutus thinks you did something.”
“I know he did something,” Brutus blurted out, choking on sand.
Rhine pulled back harder on Brutus’ arm and he yelled out again.
“If you say one more word you’ll lose your arm,” Rhine growled down at him.
Rhine looked over at Onyx, nodding for him to continue.
“She’s been hanging out with you at night,” he continued. “People have been talking. Everyone thinks your trouble and… well now that she’s gone. Brutus thinks you did something to her.”
“I know you did,” he snarled.
“What did I say?” Rhine asked, pulling back on his arm. Nothing would please him more than breaking it.
Rhine shook his head. “I had nothing to do with it and if this prick attacks me again…”
As Rhine said the words, Brutus broke an arm free and jabbed his elbow hard into Rhine’s face just above his right eye. Rhine fell back, and Brutus climbed out from under him.
Brutus stood over Rhine for a moment as he placed his hand to his eyebrow. When he pulled it back it was covered in blood. He looked up and saw a smirk on Brutus’ face that pushed him over the edge. He wasn’t going to take it easy any more.
“You should have brought your friends,” Rhine said calmly as he rose, “at least then you’d have a chance.”
Before Brutus could reply, Rhine was on him. He moved like a striking cobra, pounding his fists across Brutus’ chest and head. Brutus didn’t stand a chance, he swung back wildly at Rhine, each of his blows blocked and countered viciously. In an instant Rhine grabbed him and threw him over his shoulder into the brick wall of the house. There was a yell, a loud crack, and a thud as Brutus’ body fell limp in the sand beside the wall.
Rhine didn’t even check to make sure the broken man was still breathing. He stormed out of the house, leaving Onyx standing in shock over Brutus’ body.