Chapter 6 The Village of Ruin
The Looper village of Ruin had not known such excitement in centuries. Everyone had abandoned both work and sport to crowd the riverside and witness the arrival of the Empress Simone, heir of Lila, Sisskame of Sisskames. For an hour a succession of swift boats had preceded the Empress, bringing message after message about her progress on the river and the events of the previous night. Already, they knew that she had come mysteriously from Lucilla, that she was tall and slender, that she had survived a trip up the Kalos by night, and that she was accompanied by the Noble Mald of the Fijats. But their joy and excitement were tempered by terrible news: seventeen Loopers dead and missing after a night battle on the river.
Some of the villagers had departed downstream for burial duties; and word had come back, faster than a Lusetta, that several Rodroms would be buried as well. Their friends had at least died gloriously.
They crowded the bank in the heat of noon, none of them more than four feet tall, all of them intensely busy with talk and horseplay. Now at last the boats began to appear, two, three, a dozen, a brightly painted fleet; and near the prow of the foremost sat a woman robed in sky blue. Someone raised a cheer, and at once the Loopers on the boats joined them.
“The Sisskame! The Lila-me! Lady of Lucilla! The Empress! The Empress! The Empress!”
The Empress was crying, though trying not to show it. The kindness, the care, the unreserved love she had already received from Loopers on the river had been overwhelming. Now hundreds and hundreds of them crowded the bank, pup and adult, a myriad of joyous, silly, canine faces, and all shouting for her. Maybe Raspberry had known something after all.
She stroked the little, invisible creature at her side. “What should I do?” she asked. “How should I act?”
“It doesn’t matter,” Mald said sleepily. “That’s the beauty of Looper society. They have no expectations and are happy with everything.”
“But shouldn’t I make some sort of speech?”
“Yes and no. They’ll love you just as much if you don’t. And if you do, and muff it, well, Loopers can’t tell a good speech from a bad one. If you’re uncomfortable about it, just wait till we get in the Arch’s house and I’ll explain matters to them.”
That is what they did. First they disembarked, Mald in Simone’s arms to avoid being trampled, and the Loopers crowding close, pawing her robe and licking at her hands. Then Simone slowly made her way up a hill, passing through the remains of a massive stone wall, and finding on the slope above many little wooden houses. The largest of these was three stories high, but the stories were quaintly shortened, made for the midget size of the occupants. Simone was steered to this house, where she had to bend double to get in the door.
Since she could not stand up inside, she settled on a piece of furniture that she hoped was a Looper chair, Mald in her lap. The Arch, or mayor, of the village was presented to her—a gray muzzled, Spaniel-ish sort of Looper—and after much additional cheering and frisking about, the Loopers who had managed to fit inside settled to a murmur, eager for more news. Mald introduced himself (more cheering) and asked for a drink of water (brought with much ado). Then he stood on Simone’s shoulder, a few of her long hairs lying over his invisible form, and began a story of which Simone herself knew very little.
“For centuries,” he said, “we Fijats have traveled to the Old World by the Sea Door that lies beyond the White Mountain far to the east. Riding on the backs of Dragons, our scouts have passed that Door and entered what is in that world called the Mediterranean Sea, and from there have journeyed very far, in recent times even to the land called Indiana. But that way has become more and more perilous. The Dragons do not swim those seas anymore because of danger from the Old Worlder’s metal ships, and so a lone Fijat must find a way for thousands of miles, often in danger from beasts and humans. Only with the greatest difficulty and danger did the Lady Razabera go and return from Indiana six years ago. So you see that bringing a Lila-me through the sea Door might have proved impossible.”
The Loopers whooped and barked at the very mention of a Lila-me’s coming.
“Four Fijats,” he said, “were chosen by the Forest Council this February to journey to the Far East and learn the lore of the Doors of Kulismos, the ways to and from the Old World. If another Door could be found, then they hoped to bring the Lila-me to the Fold (cheers) and end the wars that are devastating southern Eschor and threaten us all.
“We went on the Dragon Neeree’s back all the way to the White Mountain (gasps and oohs) and, having learned what we needed, returned by way of the Land of Unknown Kings. From there, we set out in twos, each pair of us on a friendly Dragon. The Misara Razabera and her friend Razatella turned aside at the south coast and journeyed up the Gulf of Saldar to the Ulrigs’ mountains. From there they intended to go into the Crow Wood in the Valley of Thunders and find the hidden Door of which we had been told.
“Beld and I kept on westward on the South Sea, and I left him on your southern shore. He was to report to the Council at the Palace of Reflections. I journeyed alone, then, on the Dragon Neeree all the way around the corner of the continent to Quintusia, and there alerted the Unknown King of that Silent City that the Emperor was coming.”
The Loopers stirred. “Emperor?” questioned the Arch. “Did you say Emperor and not Empress?”
“You see,” Mald went on, “we had learned that the Door in Crow Wood was one of two ways out from the Old World. The other exit is beneath the Ruins of Lucilla. It was essential, then, that someone of the good Sarrs reach Lucilla, and quickly.”
The Loopers murmured approval.
“The Unknown King of Quintusia has a fine boat from the East, and he took me in it far up the Kalos and then up the River of Lucilla. But as we drew near Lucilla, we began to despair. The news along the way was that the army had been ahead of us and swept the ruins clean of escaped slaves and other refugees. We saw slave galleys pass us going downstream, galleys so full that there were too many hands for the oars. When we at last reached the ruins, no one was there at all.”
The Loopers drooped visibly.
“However, poking about, my nose led me to two very strange bags lying among the stones. Their fabric was unknown to me, and they seemed to contain objects from another world. Also, I was astonished to find the scent of Ulrigs thick in that spot. That made me think that the Door at Lucilla had indeed been used, for how else could Ulrigs have come to be so far from the Long Range?
“My friend the Unknown King decided that he would go back down the river and try to rescue the Emperor, supposing that such a one had entered the Fold. I remained and followed the Ulrig scent till it took me out on the southern plain. And what sort of strange track do you suppose I found there?”
The Loopers eyes were so many zeros. “What, what?” they clamored.
“A korfy’s! Also a woman’s. The korfy’s trail went away from hers, probably without a rider because the woman’s track began from there. She must have ridden it to that point. Her track and the Ulrigs’ went another way and was soon joined by the fresher scent of a Looper. The Looper had apparently followed them and joined them. All very mysterious indeed. So I went after them.
“For days I tracked them southward across the plain and arrived exhausted and half starved at the Kalos, where they had apparently hitched a ride. Ah, but which way, north or south? Whichever way they had gone, my direction was chosen for me. I was simply too spent to walk the bank or to swim against even the Kalos’ weak current. I hopped a floating branch and rode downstream, away from you. But in a few minutes I met with Looper boats, hailed them, boarded, and told them everything—including—” Mald paused portentously. “—including that the woman I was following might be Simone, sister of the Emperor Clay.”
The Loopers all nodded in unison. “His sister! Now we understand. But what about the Emperor?”
“If he lives,” said
Mald (and Simone stiffened), “he is far from us, and will be difficult, perhaps impossible, to find. My task, as I saw it, was to get his sister safely to the Council. The Loopers I had met had seen no sign of her coming their way, so I persuaded them to pole all the way to the Vulture’s border, you know the place, and there—we did not find the Lady. Your friends Rinorg and Aldee had picked them up, and the Ulrigs with her had forced them to dare the river at night.”
Everyone was silent, except one old Looper who apparently had not already heard the reports about this adventure. “Oh, Rum, no!” he whispered
“Let it be on my head,” said Mald, “somehow I talked those fifteen Loopers into continuing upriver, though we had only knives and poles as weapons. As silent as owls, we poled along the west bank for hours and even passed the lake in safety. But when we drew near the old bridge site, we overtook rodroms going the same direction as us. They turned back on us and attacked our five boats. It was horrible in the black night.
“We had to jump from the boats and swim for shore. Then we ran through the underbrush and came upon Aldee—you all know her—running toward us and as dripping wet as we were. ‘The Empress!’ she shouted. ‘We must save the Empress!’ And her voice carried conviction. Until that moment we had not felt sure that the woman we were after was a Lila-me, but now a tremendous change came over the Loopers. They began shouting, ‘Ka Sisskame!,’ and poorly armed as they were, actually turned and attacked the rodroms. Taken with a Kuley madness, they leaped on the backs of the rodroms, slashing at their throats and stabbing at their eyes.
“While this was going on, I searched up and down the west bank and, finding no scent of the girl, swam across to the other side. I was filled with relief to find her trail there, because I had begun to think she had drowned. Here my nose failed me. She had walked up a creek, erasing her scent. It took me some time, running about as nervous as a human, to find the scent again; but I finally found the girl in a nearby ravine and led her back to the river.
In the meantime the Loopers were all dead or scattered. Several of the rodroms had died too, but when I scouted the bank I found that some of them had survived and were atop the bridge end. I did not tell the Empress this, not wishing to further frighten her. The one remaining boat was on the opposite side of the rodroms, and I despaired of how to move it upstream to the Empress, not to mention how she would pole it in her exhausted state. Then I discovered the Looper Roper hiding under its side. I searched around until I found a pole, put it in his paws, and directed him to slip the boat right under those rodroms. How they didn’t see us I don’t know, unless they had been blinded by the Loopers in the battle; but we got the Empress clean away.”
The Loopers all cheered and thumped their tails on the hollow floor.
“So,” concluded Mald, “a Lila-me has returned from the Old World, and she is safe. Now she must journey on to the Council, where much will be decided. As for you Loopers, no one will ever forget how a very few of you fought and died to save her. Furthermore, with her help the Fold may yet be saved.”
The Loopers erupted in more cries, cheers, dances, and tail thumping. Eventually the Arch took the floor.
“We thank you, Misar. You have performed miracles to bring Simone here alive, and you must know that we do not blame you for the deaths of our fellow Loopers. Any of us would have given our lives to bring the Lila-me safely to this village. Now we’re ready to send you both on to the Council, but first I beg the Empress’ help in a certain matter. We have an unsentenced prisoner, and fresh news has reached me just since the Empress arrived concerning more prisoners who require judgment. Our King is far away, so perhaps the Lady of Lucilla, our great Empress, will take upon her to pass judgment on a few ruffians?”
Simone had no answer.
Mald whispered in her ear, “Roper will be one of them, of course. Go ahead and agree. You needn’t actually punish anyone, you know, not when it comes to Loopers. They’re notoriously lenient.”
Simone nodded to the Arch.
“Thank you, your Eminence,” said the Arch. “Since it will take a little time to bring in the prisoners, perhaps you would like a short rest?”
“That includes food and a bath,” whispered Mald. “They don’t mention it because it’s taken for granted.”
“Thank you,” said Simone with a smile.
Three or four Loopers took her upstairs—she had to bend over the whole way—to the third floor of the Arch’s house and into a room dominated by an iron bathing tub, smallish but inviting. Simone seated herself again and, looking about, encountered perhaps her biggest surprise so far during her stay in the Fold. Rising from the floor to the tub were unmistakable water pipes, hot and cold.
She pointed. “How can they—”
“Hot springs,” answered Mald from her shoulder. “The Loopers are quite ingenious when it comes to matters of personal comfort. They locate their villages over such springs whenever possible. You may have noticed, by the by, that we are in the midst of some massive ruins here that are remnants of the humans’ Forest State of Ursa. I suppose the ancient Ursans built at these springs for the same reason.”
“I was supposed to come to Ursa and I did,” said Simone thoughtfully. “But where are the Ursans?”
“Long gone, Empress. Humans are few in the Forest now. You’ll no doubt meet some as we travel south.”
A helpful Looper had turned on both taps and was carefully adjusting the water temperature. Another laid out on a nearby table towels, a brush, and what appeared to be actual soap. Yet another was pushing in a little serving cart laden with fruit, bread, and drink.
“I wish you had time to see the sights here, as I have,” Mald continued. “Just the foundations of the sidroig here—that’s a sort of ‘castle’ I think you’d call it—just the foundations are monumental. Also, not a half mile north of here is the battlefield where they fought the great Battle of the Kalos five hundred years ago. The Loopers were heroes then, too. They broke the flank of the Lucillan army and drove half of them into the Vulture’s Forest, half back to Lucilla in a rout.”
Simone’s interest in history fell as the water level rose. Soon she shooed out the Loopers and Mald and took a delicious bath. Sunshine was on the green leaves outside the windows, a grape was in her mouth, and she hardly thought about her troubles.
The Loopers, always good hosts, kept human clothing on hand for guests, so Simone received fresh undergarments and another silken robe to replace the one that had been given to her on the river that morning. Her own filthy, tattered clothes she had discarded. She was the Empress now.
When she and Mald returned to the ground floor, Roper was brought before them, as expected. While the Arch briefly recounted the damning facts of his case, the bedraggled thief grinned confidently.
When his turn to speak came, “Empress,” he said, “I don’t, of course, expect any special treatment because of my small part in saving your life last night, or for leading you safely across the plain. I ask for nothing but strict justice.”
“Oh, bosh,” said Simone, who was feeling very sleepy again. (She had napped on the way, but it had not been nearly enough.) “You want a complete and unjust pardon, and in fact you’re counting on it. Well, I certainly don’t have the heart to do otherwise, but then it wasn’t my royal treasure you ransacked. My decision is that you be brought with me to the Council and be judged by your King Korazagel.”
Roper’s grin failed. “But, Empress, you could pardon me right here and—”
“Wasn’t I clear? The thing is settled. Take him away.”
And that was that. The Arch approached again. “We have two other prisoners, Empress, just arrived.”
“Bring them in,” said Simone sleepily.
Perhaps it was the sound of stringed instruments drifting in from outside, but she could barely stay awake. However, her eyes opened wide when two tightly bound miscreants were li
terally dragged into her presence—Snag and Snart.
“Lie there,” ordered the Arch, “and don’t speak till you’re spoken to. Empress, these two—whom you well know—forced poor Rinorg and Aldee, Rum help their souls, to brave the river at night, and so put you yourself in terrible danger. Then when the battle came, they ran away and left you. We picked them up trying to seize an honest Looper’s boat downstream. They’re rogues. What shall we do with them?”
Snag and Snart looked up at her from the floor with the steady eyes of veterans who had known worse. Simone chewed a fingernail and considered.
“They’d better come along, too. To this Council, I mean. After all, they’ve done some good things. They saved my brother and me from Black Magi, and Snag outsmarted the Fijat Killers and saved us all. You can untie them and give back their swords. Snag, I’ll be leaving soon, and you and Snart can come as my bodyguards. When we get to the Council, you may make your case for taking me to the mountains. Agreed?”
“Agreed, Empress,” Snag said.
“Good. And next time it gets really dangerous, don’t run away. Court’s adjourned.”
Mald had matters to discuss with the Arch, so Simone went outside where she could stand up straight and look around. Loopers had continued to pour in from outlying areas, thousands of them, and they were making holiday of it with dances, music, songs, and games. She could have walked from bank to bank on their boats. Many had brought their pets, which included animals which Simone had never seen before as well as birds, cats, and—oddly enough—dogs. It was droll to watch a Looper teaching his little dog to play fetch.
What was especially agreeable to Simone was that they now seemed satisfied merely by her presence, and no longer crowded her or hung on her footsteps. Passing quietly among them, she descended to a gateway in the ruined wall and further down to a creek that fed the Kalos. Here were three Loopers lounging on a typical cigar-shaped boat with its platform deck low to the water. They looked at her with anxious eyes. One, a bloodhound type, came forward wagging his tail ingratiatingly. His flop ears hung out through holes in a broad brimmed cloth hat.
“We’re going fishing up the creek. You want to come too?”
Simone looked down at her dress. “Not in this. What’s your name?”
“Ilbee, Your Eminence. This is my sister Dranjel and her friend Korbera. Aw, please come. We got an extra fishing pole.”
“No,” said Simone decidedly. “They tell me I have to go save the Fold from Dragons or something, and so I don’t have time to fish. Mald would never approve.” She stepped onto the deck and sat down. “Just out of curiosity—how long would we be gone?”
Lying on her stomach on the prow, Simone pulled on slender overhanging branches, and the boat glided forward a few more feet. The sunlight came through the leaves in speckles here and there, the creek water murmured against the sides of the boat, and dragon flies whirred by.
After having quickly caught enough fish to make them happy, the three Loopers had fallen asleep, curled up on the deck in the warmth of the afternoon. Simone had napped too and had waked to find leaves touching her face. They had drifted under branches that almost touched the creek, and she was as if alone in this little world enclosed by water and leaves. Soon she had discovered that she could pull the boat along the bank by tugging at twigs. But not too quickly. She had to take time to look at reflections, examine insects, listen to birds. In this lazy fashion she gradually pulled them into a yet smaller creek and, turning on her back, looked up through a gap in the branches at a towering summer cloud. It seemed perhaps time to nap again, but first—was it too much bother?—she probably ought to look at the shaped blocks now appearing on the bank. Perhaps something interesting....
At her feet Ilbee jerked awake. “Oh, bother,” he snapped.
“What, a bad dream?” she asked.
“No, they’re calling us back to the village. Misar Mald wants you. You can’t hear it, but we Loopers can talk to one another in a way humans don’t know.”
Propped on her elbows and still half asleep, Simone considered this. “I’ll bet I do know how you do it. You have dog wh—uh, I mean, you have whistles with a very high pitch.”
Ilbee started and then nodded. “I should have known the Empress would be way ahead of me.” He removed a bit of metal from his hat band. “I’ll have to tell them we’re coming. And here I thought I’d get a little peace and quiet.”
“Do you not get many holidays?” Simone asked.
Ilbee sighed. “Not more than eighty days out of the year, anymore. It’s not like the old days, Your Eminence.”
Simone’s eyebrows raised. “So you work only two hundred eighty-five days?”
Ilbee laughed. “What, you think we’re crazy? Why would anyone work like a hu—work that much?”
“I just mean that, if you have eighty holidays, well, what do you do when it isn’t a holiday?”
Ilbee looked at her blankly.
At the other end of the boat Dranjel yawned and opened her merry eyes under her blue hat brim. “Ilbee, she’s a human, so how can she understand? On holidays we gather to dance and feast. Most other days we don’t do anything to speak of. We don’t build, or farm, or make war, or anything. We putter about, we play on our boats, explore the woods, that sort of thing. How many full days’ work do you suppose you put in last year, brother?”
Ilbee moaned, remembering. “Times are hard and wages are down,” he said. “Either helping out at the mill or on one of the trade boats, I had to work thirty days last year, sometimes five hours a day. Empress, it isn’t right. I never worked so hard in the old days just to get my honey and flour and a few other things. Are they trying to turn us into drudges, take the spirit out of us? The government should do something.”
Simone exploded into a coughing fit from the effort of holding back her laughter. Ilbee regretfully raised the whistle to his mouth, but Simone gestured to him to stop.
“No, don’t tell them I’m coming yet. Tell Mald I’m fine, and we’ll be back before supper.”
The message was sent, and in a minute or two the Loopers pricked up their ears at the reply.
“Mald says come at once.”
“Well, am I the Empress or not? Tell him no, and tell him to stop bothering us.”
Ilbee told him cheerfully. That done, the Loopers brought out snacks—cakes and cheese—which the four of them gobbled without a trace of manners, ending by brushing the crumbs off the deck into the water. Small fish came and nibbled at the crumbs.
“What’s all this masonry?” Simone asked afterward. “I see concrete blocks here and there along the banks, and some even have letters chiseled in them.”
“Old human stuff,” answered Ilbee briefly. This seemed all the explanation he had or wanted.
“The humans of Ursa did it,” added Korbera, a white-furred she-Looper with a terrier face. “I learned that in school.”
“A school which no doubt is in session for three weeks out of the year,” said Simone. “I’m beginning to understand you Loopers. So what happened to the Ursans? Did they lose a war?”
“No, Empress, but after Lucilla and Miletus were conquered up north, the trade on the rivers played out.” She paused to snap at a mayfly. “And we Sarrs didn’t run and hide from the humans anymore. We stood up for ourselves because Prince Kuley had come and declared the Empire. That just took the heart out of the humans. After that, for centuries they moved away and died off until finally no one was here. There’s just the little Forest States downriver now, that’s the only humans for hundreds of miles.”
Simone reached out and touched an inscribed stone. “What’s this word chiseled here? It’s faint.”
Korbera leaned over and looked. “Oh, that just says ‘Lupris,’ which is rightly what us Loopers are called ’cause of our light feet.”
“Why would they put your name on their stone, I wonde
r?”
“Some kind of directions, I guess,” said Dranjel. “They had lots of us Loopers working on these streams back here behind their sidroig, building and damning and moving cargos.”
Simone traced a letter with her forefinger. “But how did they get you to work for them?”
“They made us slaves,” Dranjel answered lightly.
Simone pulled back her hand.
“Oh, not all of us, of course. But some unlucky ones got caught and chained.”
“But we Loopers were lucky, really,” added Korbera. “The humans hunted the Lusettas for their plumes.”
“Anyway, that was hundreds of years ago,” said Ilbee, reaching out a forepaw to stroke Simone’s slippered foot. “We’ve all been safe and happy for ever so long.”
“Yes,” said Simone, “with your thirty days work a year, and your fishing and exploring and—doing what we’re doing right now. I mean, when you float back into shady places and watch the reflections on the water. I used to do this on the cemetery pond at home. Is there a Kreenspam word for it?”
“We call it om-jebbelsa,” said Dranjel.
“Scattering time upon water,” Simone translated to herself. “And you’ve done millions of hours of it over the years. That’s good. Let’s om-jebbelal all afternoon.”
They did return to Ruin just before supper, and Simone endured a stern lecture from Mald on the subject of an empress’ dignity, responsibility, and above all, safety. After eating, she took a walk within the walls, enjoying the antics and conversation of the Loopers. As she scanned the crowd, she caught a glimpse of an unusual creature seated among them, a largish thing, robed, ugly, and with hide plucked naked except for a shock of hair on top of its head. But this impression was just for a moment. She looked again and saw it was a human. ‘So that’s how we look to them,’ she thought.
As she approached the man, he stood and bowed to her, and began speaking in Gellene. “Your Eminence, I’m Demee of Ursala,” he said, his gray eyebrows wagging. “I’ve come to welcome you to the Forest on behalf of the humans. In a few days you’ll be coming to my brother Arrez’s iron house upriver, and we hope to provide you hospitality.”
“That’ll be fine,” Simone said, remembering that an iron house, or sidroig, was a sort of castle. “That is, I mean, if it’s cleared by Misar Mald. I’m going by his advice.”
“Of course, your Eminence. You are young, and Mald is known everywhere as the best of counselors.”
Simone was temporarily tongue tied. She found Sarrs so much easier to talk to. She wanted to ask this mature gentleman what she should do.
“Well, what’s this Council?” she blurted out. “What am I supposed to do there?”
Demee looked at her with soft, gray eyes and grinned. He leaned nearer to whisper, “If you don’t know, don’t tell anybody. They all think you have the answers.”