Chapter 3A few days later I decided to travel further along the coast. The weather was fine- for Dernian Landian standards. The fog was so thick I could not make out what was in front of me. I just stayed to the road and walked on. I was alone here, and if there had been other people I would not have noticed them.I came to a small village on the shore, on the mouth of a brown river. The village was called Mikmblidhet, I learned. It was a delight to stay under a roof and to see further than a span. I saw rather poor people here, on dirty streets, but the roof was wonderful as ever, with a golden haze. I went over a roofed bridge, and could see Fon’s faint reflection in the water. The travellers were advised not to look down, just in case they would be caught in the deathly reflection. How scared these people must be. I came to a marketplace, just before sunset and the market sales had just started. It was domed with tissue, like a tent. High poles kept the artificial sky up. The people here were poor, they could not even afford a glass dome. I saw the ruins of the old dome construction, the brick towers raising upwards, burnt halfway. Small glass pieces stuck out of the mud, and I thought of the tragedy that had taken place on this spot. How many of the Blue Men would have been killed as the dome caught fire and collapsed? I walked from market stall to market stall and gazed at the things for sale. They had stranger fruits and herbs than I had ever encountered in Diwán, and of course they had ‘lec'ry by the lots. The tissues they sold were rather rough and cheap, so I was interested. I bought a plaid for half a silver coin, then continued. I hoped I would find a place to spent the night, but if I could not find any, I had to sleep under the open artificial sky, under my plaid. This market was crowded, and the crowd pushed and pulled at the other members of the crowd and many a time I was afraid to have been robbed. I was not, but I kept alert on any pick pocketing thief. I wonder why pick pocketers should have chosen this market, for all its visitors were just as poor as any robber would be. I heard people scream they had been robbed, and demanded an arrest of the thief. Some cried after they had been robbed as if they had lost everything they owned. I stayed away from the most crowed places, where the visitors surrounded artists of all kinds. I heard strange music from those places, and unknown songs. Some juggled with fruit and knives, and the crowd laughed as one artist managed to cut the fruit with the knife in mid air. Then I heard something strange to my right. I looked and jumped away. A large caged animal had put its large claw outside the cage and pulled at my plaid. The cage was made of wood, and looked as if it would not hold the animal inside for much longer. The animal, with big bulging eyes, was unearthly. Its scales glimmered silver in the shades, as if it was lit on the inside. Its eyes stared with fury, and it drooled green saliva out of its knifed beak. I jumped away, scared, and screamed in fear. I let go of my plaid, and turned, ready to go on the run. But I bumped into one of the poles that held up the artificial sky, and then it happened. The whole sky came down. The tissue pulled the other poles with it, down to the crowd, leaving large holes in the tissue where it was torn by the poles and the remains of the burnt dome. People screamed, before they got caught by the light of Fon. Their blue skins vanished in the light of day, and their blood boiled in their veins. They screamed and those who were still alive ran towards the safer places in the shades of the houses and the roofs. I just stood there in the middle of it all, wondering what had happened, and I looked around to see what has happened to the monster in its wooden cage. Finally, I left the place where the screams of the dead still hung heavy in the air. I was not very far from the disaster area, when I overheard some people talking about me. They described me and said I was a murderer. Yes, I am a murderer. I killed a man, back in Diwán, and now many men and women had been killed because of me. But I did not intend to be a murderer. I panicked, which was wrong altogether, and fled from Mikmblidhet. I changed clothes as fast as I could, and ran back to Chiirÿtët. But the news has spread, and I had to return to Kélflÿ, and from there to Diwán and finally to Daleth. I travelled with a herb seller to the border. He had bad eyesight-even for a Blue Man. He did not see who I was, I, who was mentioned by all the heralds that had been sent out to warn for a reckless murderer. And I do not know how I managed to pass the border. I guess they did not mind who left Dernian Landis, as long as nobody from the outside ever could get in. We arrived in Diwán, and there I encountered the soldiers of the Dalethian Emperor. They took me prisoner. They said I killed a monger from Dernian Landis on a place where peace should be. And now I am here, in this prison cell. I, who likes to wander as a real curiosist, is kept here in Ildritz, high over the rooftops. The blue ink is fading from my skin. The last thing that remained from my journey eastwards. Nothing is left of it, except for my memory of it. There are no friends and relatives who have welcomed me and heard my story. Only the judge has heard it, and she would not believe me. Now I am not only a murderer, but also a liar, they say. But you believe me, do you? You certainly will believe me, me, the first one from Daleth to travel to Dernian Landis. Do you? THE END |