The Book of the Blue House

“Wakey! Wakey!” Conn heard, and something was moving across his face.

“Time to get up,” a voice said, and Conn remembered his brother’s friends putting bugs on his face and nearly shot up, but Cal said, “Are you alright?”

Cal had been teasing him with the hem of his robe which he had taken off, and now the curly haired young man was in shorts and an open work shirt. Down the hall a light was on, and Nialla was sitting up, yawning.

“We wanted to know if you all were going to join us,” Cal said. “All I’ve done is ruin a good night’s sleep.”

“Of course we do,” Nialla said, tying her hair back.before Conn could say anything.

“What time is it?”

“A little past midnight. It was Cayman. He teaches a little long. You don’t mind it, but the whole night’s gone before you know it.And Gabriel is coming with us, He’s in the bathroom, cleansing.”

“I think a lot of people are coming,” Derek said in a quiet voice. Conn hadn’t seen him from where he was in the corner of the room, his arms folded into his long sleves. Lorne was singing to himself, and gathering things, and as Conn put on his overjacket and Nialla slipped on shoes, they headed out through Derek’s door. The three First Years who had lunched with them were out in the hall looking eager and knuckling their eyes, and they all headed down the hall to where Derek had gone earlier to reach the Gorgon rooms, but now they were heading upstairs and Loren was singing, lustily.

They say a man gave up his

land to be the Woman’s Key!

Oh! And Seven came down

Oh, and Seven came down

Of all of them I’ve spoken

Except the one who’s broken!

Conn was right beside Derek, and Derek looked at him and smiled, shyly. Was it shyly? Maybe Conn was making that up, and Nialla said, “It’s times like this I wish Jon lived with us.”

They wound their way up to the next floor, and then the next and they were at the seventh, and then they emerged into the night sky and the cool night air.

It was here that Lorne grew quieter and Conn thought, well no one’s rooms were near the stairwell, so probably no one heard him bellowing.

And then they emerged on gardens and benches. This must have been the roof of the Blue House, and now, as Conn looked about, he saw that it was absolutely vast. He had not imagined the roof of the Temple, but what he saw now was trees and winding garden paths, little fountains and no end to it all. From where they emerged they were nowhere close to the sides of the building though, in the distance, he could make out what he thought was the parapet.

They were all walking toward what Conn thought must have been the windowless façade of the Temple. There was a great wall rising, the length of a large house, and Conn could see that it made a square, so a wall squaring an unseen courtyard. From there, in the day, the sunlight must have come into some inner court of the temple, but the paparet was not so high to prevent people from falling down, Conn decided, as it was to keep people from looking in. Now, through a screen of tree branches, he could see the city beyond. They would have been, Conn supposed right over the sanctuary, but now they were all taking out wine and cheese and bags of tobacco, and Lorne was singing:

They say a man gave up his

land to be the Woman’s Key!

Oh! And Seven came down

Oh, and Seven came down

Of all of them I’ve spoken

Except the one who’s broken!

Now Cal asked what Conn had not dared

“What in the world are you singing?”

“An old song,” Lorne said.

“That tells me nothing.”

Instead of explaining, Lorne sang:

First was the mage

Who moved from age to age

And second was his hero strong

Third was the starry maid,

who lived in trees,

whose wood would never die

Seven came down

Oh, and seven came down

Four is for the lady who fits inside

men’s hands

Who gave up arms and legs to

be an arm again

And Seven came down

Oh, and seven came down

“I don’t know anything more than I knew before,” Cal said.

“Sure you do,” Derek dismissed this. “the Seven are the Anyar. You’re just not paying attention.”

Connleth did not know what the Anyar were, but Cal said, “We never sang that song in a temple service.”

“The Gods don’t only exist in Blue Temples, numbskull,” Derek said.

Derek set down a cushion and gestured for Conn to sit on it beside him, and then, on impulse, he wrapped an arm around Conn, but didn’t look at him, and Conn liked to feel Derek’s arm about his waist, and he liked the smell of Derek. And the quiet of him.

They were drinking and talking and Lorne was smoking, and in time came the woman Obala, and then Nialla rose up and almost shrieked when she saw a black girl, young and willowy with her hair in braids come up, and she was carrying little bottles of wine and Nialla said, “This is Sara. She’s usually around Gabriel. And where is Gabriel?”

But then Gabriel was coming up with some more first years who seemed in awe of him, and he was in lose pants and a warm jacket and a cap was pulled over his ears. With him came three more people who must have been dependents. It was a regular night Derek said, and Conn felt warm and full of peace here.

“It’s all good,” Derek said.

“Yeah,” Conn said. “Yes. It is.”

He noticed that Derek had a little earring, like a twist of wire through his ear that looked intricate and wonderful and painful.

Seven came down

Oh, and seven came down

“You’re quiet,” Derek said to him, “like me.”

Conn didn’t know what to say to this, but then, of course, that was Derek’s point.

“We’re people who like to consider things,” Derek said.

Derek’s arm was still lightly around him, but then Lorne’s arm was around Cal and Nialla’s arm was around someone he didn’t know. It was early winter even if in the south, and their physical affection as well as their blankets were their protection from the cold.

“Tell us a tale, Cal,” Sara said. “give us a tale.”

“Not tonight,” the curly haired beauty said, “My tales aren’t for tonight. What about Gabe?”

The boy in glasses shrugged and said, “If you loved me better you wouldn’t make me do a thing.”

“I’ll make it up to you, Gabirel,” Cal said. “I swear I will.”

Gabriel stared at him, then laughed and said, “Alright, damn you.”

In the long ago, there lived the great king Dafydd, and though many loved him, his son King Sol would be greater still. But Sol was not his original successor. His first son was Amon, whose mother was a princess, and Amon believed his hand had the right to touch anything, and so he fell in love with his sister Tamar, and did not think this unfitting because Tamar was, he said, only his half sister. Her mother was a princess from the land of Namu, and so Amon said he was ailing and needed Tamar to come and wait upon him. And behold, Tamar was a priestess of the Lady of Amana. She was attending her brother when he held her down and had his way with her, and when he was done, she ran from him and shut herself in her mother’s house. She did not return to the temple, but veiled herself in black.

Now behold, Tamar had a full brother, the son of the High Priestess of Amana, and this was Absalom, The Father of Peace, and he went to his sister, and when his sister told him what had happened, he said, “I will be your vengeance,” and he went to Tubal, the Smith of the Gods and commissioned three swords made, and with those swords he went into the house of Amon and he slew Amon, his mother, and Amon’s son, and when this was seen, the people of the Great City of Allia where ruled the King declared the Absalom must die, and so he fled.

Now, Absalom’s mother was Maachah and her father was Talmai, King of Gesshur. She sent a letter to him to send him to the land of his grandfather, but Tamar, full of rage, raised up an army for her brother, and he rose and returned and took the kingdom of Allia, causing his farther to flee. Now, there are of that time many fair and sad songs, for this is called one of the Great Sorrows of Storytelling, but King Daffydd had a bloodthirsty nephew, Ioav, the son of his sister, Zeruiaha, and he slew many of his kin, hoping for a throne and a high place, and he led King Dafydd against his own son. He said, ‘Pray, allow that I might pursue him into the Great Wood, which is the Wood sacred to Amana the Great Lady, and Dafydd saith, ‘Follow him, but do not slay him.’

Now, when Absalom had fled from his father, he left the three great swords made by Tubal, and now Ioav took one of these, and gave the other two to his sons,.and they pursued Absalom, their own kinsman into the Wood. And, behold, Absalom rode on a great white horse called Clayrfax, and as he rode, see, his hair was caught in the branches of a terebinth so that he hung between earth and heaven, and though he cried mercy, Ioav had no mercy, and he and his sons ran their three swords through Absalom, and so desecrated the swords and the Tree and the Wood. Then Amana wept and, behold, the very wood and leaves of the tree turned red as blood.

Ioav took down Absalom’s body and buried it under a cairn of stones beneath the tree and returned home. He rode into the city and men cheered him and he told the King that he was avenged, for his son was dead. And then King Dafydd wept and Ioav chastised him saying, ‘Look at the men who died for you, and behold you weep for the son who betrayed you, Shame.’

And then Dafydd gathered himself and ceased his weeping. But Tamar robed herself in red and raised her hand to curse Ioav and his sons and she said, ‘Behold, even the Gods damn you for your deed, for see, the entire forest knows of your bloodshed,’ and she pointed from the window and, look, all of the trees of that wood were now red as blood and ever afterward have the trees of Amana been bright red like new blood.

Tamar lay heavy curses upon the sons of Ioav, and there are other stories, I will not tell here, and she laid curses upon Ioav which in time were received, but of this you must know tonight, that at the end of the Second Creation, when all the world was nearly lost, Amana’s Grove drowned beneath the waves and only one great Red Tree survived. Today, far away, there are still Red Woods grown from the seed of that Tree, but the very Red Door of our house, which is dedicated to the Lady Amana herself, is carved from the wood of that Tree which was taken from the land that sunk beneath the waves, and it is in this house the Lady is honored beside the Lord Adaon as ever she was, by love and pleasure.”