Impossible Dreamers

Chapter 39 (mektwi-mek): Recovery

It took a few seconds before Trentaya recognised him. Another second and her brain told her it could not be true, so he was once again unrecognised. He was older than the man she'd known. His hair was grey, not the dark, dark depth of black that she had known before. He wore the clothes of the Shadowlanders – loose fitting garments coloured in grey, green and brown, like the rocks in which they lived. His dark skin was wrinkled, rather than glossy smooth. It could not be him. Then he smiled and she knew.

It was him.

Trentaya ran to him and hugged him. 'Ralkino... Ralkino...' she said.

'Yes, yes,' he said. 'It is me. I am here. We are here.'

Trentaya stood back and looked at him again. When she spoke again the joy in her voice was replaced by pain, and some anger.

'Why?' Trentaya said. 'Why are you here. How?' She groped for words to explain what she was feeling. 'What ... What made you leave Seren-ila? Why did you leave? Ralkino, your leaving caused pain. Have you been here all that time? Could you not – could you not send us a message? What happened?'

'Are you really Ralkino?' asked Mertingo. 'Are you the Ralkino that stood in Fountain Square and told the stories that we loved? Ralkino who disappeared in the middle of a story?'

'I was there on that day,' said Bolseno. 'I was only a child, but I remember it well. You just faded away. How did that happen?'

'Trentaya, and all of you from Seren-ila. Let me tell you, I didn't leave because I wanted to leave. I had no choice in the matter. If I could have got back to my own land, to my partner and daughter and all my people, if I could have returned to finish telling the story that was so strangely interrupted, I would have done so straight away. I couldn't. And so I have made my home here in the Shadowlands.'

'And is this what we are expected to do?' Trentaya asked, her eyes blazing, looking from Ralkino to Karema. 'Are you saying that we should become Shadowlanders? To live the rest of our lives in these caves, away from our own world? Away from those we love?'

'You will not have to do that,' Karema said, stretching her hands between Trentaya and Ralkino, 'but you must be patient. Let Ralkino tell you how things are. Then we will all agree how we are to proceed.'

'Yes,' said Ralkino, 'living as a Shadowlander has taught me many things. The people here live between Bartyronis and Seren-ila, and they know something of both lands - things that have been forgotten in both lands. We need this knowledge to be able to change things. Please, all sit down, so that I can tell you this whole story.'

Trentaya opened her mouth to speak, but Karema jumped in before she could get a word out.

'Trentaya, you more than anybody must be dismayed by the appearance of Ralkino ...'

'I am dismayed and overjoyed,' Trentaya said, '...and... and confused! And angry! I have feelings that can't be described in words. I must know how and why Ralkino is here.'

'And so you will,' said Karema. 'But first you must know why all of us are here.'

And so they heard the story of the Shadowlanders.

***

Ralkino waited for all to be seated. There was a special sort of hush which descended when he was ready to tell a story, and this was no less true with these few, than when he stood in front of crowds of twillo or more in Seren-ila.

'We must travel back in time,' Ralkino began, 'and then the story takes us further back. And then even further, to times that we only know as legend. It takes us back to the time of the Great Heat.