Elantris - Brandon Sanderson [51]
“No one takes care of them,” Kaise said.
“How do they eat?” Sarene asked. “Someone must feed them.” She couldn’t make out many details about the people below—only that they were human. Or, at least, they had the forms of humans; she had read many confusing things about the Elantrians.
“No one,” Daorn said from her other side. “No one feeds them. They should all be dead—there’s nothing for them to eat.”
“They must get it somewhere,” Sarene argued.
Kaise shook her head. “They’re dead, Sarene. They don’t need to eat.”
“They may not move much,” Sarene said dismissively, “but they obviously aren’t dead. Look, those ones over there are standing.”
“No, Sarene. They’re dead too. They don’t need to eat, they don’t need to sleep, and they don’t age. They’re all dead.” Kaise’s voice was uncharacteristically solemn.
“How do you know so much about it?” Sarene said, trying to dismiss the words as productions of a child’s imagination. Unfortunately, these children had proven themselves remarkably well informed.
“I just do,” Kaise said. “Trust me. They’re dead.”
Sarene felt the hair on her arms rising, and she sternly told herself not to give in to the mysticism. The Elantrians were odd, true, but they were not dead. There had to be another explanation.
She scanned the city once more, trying to put Kaise’s disturbing comments out of her mind. As she did, her eyes fell on a particular pair of figures—ones who didn’t appear to be as pitiful as the rest. She squinted at the figures. They were Elantrian, but one seemed to have darker skin than the other. They crouched on the top of a building, and they looked mobile, unlike most of the other Elantrians she had seen. There was something … different about these two.
“My lady?” Ashe’s concerned voice sounded in her ear, and she realized that she had begun to lean out over the stone parapet.
With a start, she looked down, realizing just how high up they were. Her eyes unfocused, and she began to lose her balance, transfixed by the undulating ground below….
“My lady!” Ashe’s voice came again, shocking her out of her stupor.
Sarene stumbled back from the wall, squatting down and wrapping her arms around her knees. She breathed deeply for a moment. “I’ll be all right, Ashe.”
“We’re leaving this place as soon as you regain your balance,” the Seon ordered, his voice firm.
Sarene nodded distractedly.
Kaise snorted. “You know, considering how tall she is, you’d think she’d get used to heights.”
CHAPTER 9
If Dilaf had been a dog, he would have been growling. Probably frothing at the mouth as well, Hrathen decided. The arteth was even worse than he usually was after visiting Elantris’s wall.
Hrathen turned to look back at the city. They had nearly reached their chapel, but the enormous wall surrounding Elantris was still visible behind them. Atop it somewhere was the infuriating young woman who had somehow gotten the best of him this day.
“She was magnificent,” Hrathen said in spite of himself. Like any of his kind, he had an unquestioned prejudice when it came to the Teoish people. Teod had banished Derethi ministers from the country fifty years ago following a small misunderstanding, and had never consented to let them back in. The Teoish king had come quite near to banishing the Fjordell ambassadors as well. There wasn’t a single known Teoish member of Shu-Dereth, and the Teoish royal house was infamous for its biting denunciations of all things Derethi.
Still, it was invigorating to meet a person who could so easily foil one of his sermons. Hrathen had preached Shu-Dereth so long, had made such an art of manipulating the public mind, that he hardly found challenge in it any longer. His success in Duladel a half year ago had proven that one could even cause nations to crumble, if one were capable enough.
Unfortunately, in Duladel there had been little opposition. The Dulas themselves were too open, too accepting, to present a true challenge. In the end, with the shambles of