2
"The city is a desolation." Miniaan slipped out of shadow into theclearing, where the others waited for her without a fire; she was shaken,short of breath. No longer young, she had hurried on the ten-mile returnjourney from Vestoia through high-noon heat of jungle. "I could not evenfind the house where I was born. Oh, Pakriaa--Paul--of every ten houses,seven are empty. The streets are dirt and rubbish. No one knew me. Well,that's not strange. Those I met supposed I was a stranger, probably fromthe east. But the ones who were suspicious did not challenge me--theyslipped into their sorry houses and stared at me through the cracks." Shesat down in weariness, wiping sweat from her scarred head and shoulder."Word of what I said will travel quickly. But not one followed me here. Imade sure of that."
Arek asked, "Have you had anything to eat?"
"No, I--only walked through the streets.... Doc, some had Englishwords--a few, badly spoken. No one could pronounce _d_ at thebeginning of a word, and they had absurd turns of speech I don'tunderstand. One woman said to me, 'One fella goddamn skirt belong youwhat name?' I thought she was asking about this skirt I made in theold fashion, but then we spoke in the old tongue: I found she onlywanted to know who I was and where I came from. It seems that now,under Spearman-abron-Ismar, they indicate--what word do Iwant?--social--social levels----"
"Castes?"
"Castes, that is it, Paul--they indicate castes by the color of a skirt. Inthe old days there were only two castes--soldiers and voluntary laborers,not considering the family of Lantis or the slaves at the bottom. Nowthere are--oh, ten, twenty, I don't know. Those who work at the dye potsmust never do anything else, and they can look down on the workers inhides; this woman was a maker of arrowheads and despised both.... I toldher (and some others) that I was a stranger from a distant village, and Isaid I had heard by rumor of other gods and giants, who would come one daysoon to talk with Spearman-abron-Ismar--yes, they call him that,Spearman-male-issue-of-Ismar. It frightened her: she made excuses and ranaway. I told it to another, an old woman, who broke out cursing andweeping. She said, Oh, no more of them! No more----' And sat down in thestreet and scattered dust on her head."
"Did you see--him?"
"No, Paul. I saw the palace--changed, with new tall doors. There weresoldiers at the entrance, so I did not dare go near. They wore aheaddress--it was the old bark fabric, I think, but a shape I neversaw. I saw the great stockade--always the biggest thing on the shoreof North Lake--still in repair; there was the same sluice, to washaway the blood of the meat slaves. There is still a ferry near it,where the crossing is narrow at the lake's inlet; I could seeacross--streets and tree-sheltered houses. And outside the city I sawa mound, very foul. Once the city was clean. There was a boy playingnear it--ran when he saw me, but I caught him and asked him about thatmound. I could hardly understand his gabble. It seems that nowadays inVestoia children have reason to be afraid of grown women. When wecould talk he told me the mound was the grave of the False Empress,the Wicked One--everyone who passes is required to defile it. A law."
Pakriaa laced her wrinkled hands at her throat, smiling at ChristopherWright, quoting a few of his own words: "'The laws are living things:let men guard them against crippling and disease.'"
Nisana asked, "What is next to do?"
"We sleep on it," Wright said. "Long journey. We're tired. We'll gothere in the morning. With our weapons of course, but...."
Mijok said softly, "First-light is a good time."
"I think there won't be any fighting," Miniaan said, and she relaxedand leaned happily against Muson's plump knee and ate the meal Arekhad ready for her in fastidious birdlike bites. "If they're troubledby the rumors I scattered they'll slip away and hide, not fight.They're weary, bewildered, disillusioned people--at least that is thetemper of the city as I felt it."
Nisana murmured, "With Spearman's bodyguard it could be different."
"Why," said Wright, "he'd never turn them against us. Not if he's theman I used to know, or anything like that man. He came a long way withus once." But Paul had to wonder: _Was he ever with us?_
There were six giants in the party: Mijok, Arek, Muson, Elis,Sears-Danik, Dunin. Elis was the year's Governor at Adelphi, butDorothy had held that position the year before and would assume itssimple duties in his absence. Nisana's eldest twin daughters hadwanted to come, but Nisana had not allowed it, requiring them to stayin school under Brodaa's temperate discipline; the only pygmies herewere herself, Pakriaa, and Miniaan. The group had come 120 milesoverland, after _Argo IV_ set them on a beach north of the coastalrange: this had seemed better than taking the sloop south, whereharbor would be uncertain and the winds and currents unknown. Thefirst twenty miles ashore had been a retracing of Abara's long-agojourney with the olifants, through swampy and treacherous jungle.After rounding the range they could follow the eastern edge of thegrassland that spread on its lee side, traveling in the open only atnight, to avoid omasha. For all of one day they were bedeviled by aswarm of biting flies, and since there were brown wings circling theycould not escape into full sunlight, where the flies would not follow.Eventually Pakriaa found an evil-smelling plant and remembered its usefrom old times. The juice of the root was a protection; the smell wasalmost as distressing as the bites but less dangerous. Miniaan ofVestoia had never heard of the plant's use: perhaps that explained whyVestoia had never exploited the otherwise pleasant region due west ofLake Argo.
There was fitful sleep in the daylight following Miniaan's return, andthen an evening meal. Arek and Muson and the two young giants seemeduntroubled by tomorrow, full of speculative curiosity. Mijok wasuneasy, though he would not put it in words; Elis, too, would beremembering. Wright said again, "He came a long way with us.... Jensenchose him--remember that: chose him from among seven hundred otherphysically fine youths who had the same training, the same kind ofcourage, who wanted the--privilege, as he did."
"I can always wonder what Jensen himself would have made of Lucifer."
Wright said, almost with reproach, "Jensen was a great engineer, Paul,but he was also a student of history. Compared with what hisleadership would have been, mine has been weak, vacillating,academic--it was bound to be. I take credit for some achievements.I've said give protoplasm a chance. We have done that. We'veestablished the climate of liberty under law (for our very smallgroup) and proved that a human mind can by-pass twenty thousand yearsof blundering, with no other help than a flexible language and the fewbasic rules of civilized action--as the so-called savages of Earthalways proved it whenever they had a chance to secure a genuineeducation and fair treatment. But--in our material development theremust have been a thousand lost opportunities--things Jensen (andprobably Ed Spearman) would have seen at once."
Paul laughed. "Ed could have designed a better sloop."
Wright dismissed that with a chuckle. "Ach--she floats, boy. Shesails.... When I get angry or impatient or discouraged--when I sticktoo tight to a plan of my own and fail to hear the opposingargument--then I remember that Jensen had a charity, a patience, akindliness, almost as great as Sears had--"
"Tocwright," said Pakriaa, half amused, "why do you search yourself?Must you always be sitting in judgment on your own mind?"
"Why, yes, dear, I must." His fingers played in his white beard."Cod-and-baked-beans origin.... Remember my fussy little _History ofthe Americas_, the first book Dorothy and Nisana copied out for mewhen we found how to make good paper from the marsh grass...? Butself-searching is a vice-and-virtue not limited to the Charin tribe,Pakriaa--ask yourself. And ask Elis." The black giant smiled."So--I'll go on with it just a little. Paul, is it weakness in me toask that when we find Ed Spearman, you do most of the talking? I wantto be--merely friendly if I can, not say much. At least until we knowwhat sort of man he's become. Nine years ago, I don't think he everhad much resentment against you. You hear both sides--usually thesurest way to make an extremist hate you bitterly, but somehow peopledon't. You're a--kindly listener; I only try to be, pushing down a bigpart of my natural te
mperament to do it.... Why, I think I never evenappreciated the full nastiness of sarcasm until one time (it's notsuch a small matter)--one time on the space ship, when Searsreproached me for it: something that went against his own nature, bythe way, because he was always too afraid of finding fault withothers."
"I'll talk with him first, Doc, if you want me to. But I wonder what Ican say. I keep seeing Ann. The things she told us--he things Miniaanhas told us today."
"A city that never was," said Miniaan sleepily, "never was even in theold times. Maybe I dreamed it. If you are quiet, maybe I will allow usto wake up in a moment on the island of Adelphi...."
"Ann is not changed," Muson reflected, "even though the baby died."
Mijok said, "I'm not sure. I think she is. In what way I can't define.But she's not the same sad little thing I watched when she wassleeping in that fever. Well now, that was truly long ago. She puzzledme more than the rest of you, and you were all a great mystery--and Iwith a dozen words and the old terrors crawling on my skin like lice.Maybe it was her seeming weakness, her secret look of listening--whichI thought I began to understand when she taught me the Earth music,but I don't suppose I ever did understand it." Mijok laughed andlooked away. "Doc, it was very difficult for me to grasp that you werenot begotten out of the west wind by a thunderbolt. You'll never knowhow difficult, because you were never a savage. You were born to bearticulate. Those twenty thousand years of blundering--bad I don'tdoubt they were, but they gave you something. I am as if the foresthad generated me, with no past."
Miniaan murmured and rolled over on her back to look up into theleaves. "I too. I was never born. Someone with no father nor motherlooked at that filthy mound they say is the grave of the Queen of theWorld. The mind of a white-furred Charin is my father and my mother."
Elis suggested: "Ann has come neater to the immediate present."
"Why, Elis--" Pakriaa was surprised. "She said something like that tome herself, a short while before we came away. She said, 'Myyesterdays became tomorrows before I lived them. I want to find today,Pakriaa. Where is today?'"
Miniann pursued the dark stream of her own thought, which now seemedto be giving her pleasure and not pain: "This morning I found howyesterday can bury itself with only the smallest scattering of years.There will be other cities. Never again Vestoia."
Wright asked gently, "But you can remember good and pleasant things ofthe old city, the way it was when you were young there?"
"Oh, I can, I can. But I'll have today, too. I think I found it firstwhen I bore my little sons, at Adelphi." She sat up, leaning onPakriaa's shoulder. "I've had good todays at Adelphi. I don'tunderstand how it could have been abandoned by this Spearman I'venever seen."
"In a way," Paul said, "you did see him. You were one of those whocame on the canoes up Lake Argo. You saw the boat set your fleetafire."
"Yes. That was war.... And before I was wounded I killed, I think,seven of your people, Pakriaa. One with a blue skirt. I wounded her inthe throat, and I have heard she died in the forest, looking north."
"Yes, Tamisraa. My sister Tamisraa was a bitter woman," Pakriaa said,"and quite brave. Miniaan, all that was over long ago, in a forgottencountry. Now we pull weeds in the same garden."
Night came tranquilly. Elis, who kept the last quarter of the watch,waked them before first-light. There was the help of a full red moon,and they followed the sound of a swift river which flowed into NorthLake through the palace district of Vestoia.
For more than a mile outside the city the jungle was like a park,undergrowth removed, vines cut away. But the vines were coming back.Greedy purple fingers curled to recapture and reclaim....
In the outskirts no one halted or questioned them. They saw no armedwomen; here and there a man crouched in a weedy doorway with staringchildren half hidden behind him. Mijok, Elis, Sears-Danik and Arekwalked on the outside, with shields upheld against a possible arrow orthrown spear. Rifles and pistols were now history, all ammunitionspent; they lay in a closet off Wright's room at Adelphi which hecalled the Terrestrial Museum. Paul, Wright, and Elis had Earth-madehunting knives, still keen. Miniaan, leading them, held a spear, butthere was a blue-flower garland below its blade, symbol of peace.Pakriaa and Nisana preferred to carry no weapons; Muson and youngDunin had never handled one in their lives. Miniaan said over hershoulder, "There is the old stockade. Here we turn right, toward thepalace."
There was scurrying and disturbance now. Beyond Mijok's shield Paul saw afew lean women running; one of them halted at Miniaan's call and approacheduneasily. There were questions, dubious replies. At the far end of theshaded avenue was a growing cluster of red bodies before a thatchedbuilding with one tall doorway. Miniaan explained: "I told her that we comepeacefully and want to talk with Spearman-abron-Ismar. And she says shethinks he would be asleep at this hour."
"So?" Wright frowned and fretted. "But the word you left yesterdaywould certainly have reached him." The Vestoian twittered a last wordor two and ran away down the street; Paul saw her elbowing through thecrowd in front of the palace. "We might go forward a little...."
Most of the group melted away; some forty armed women remained, in aragged formation blocking the entrance. They made no threatening oreven warning gestures, but their staring was heavy and cold. Thevolunteer messenger returned, pushing through them to speak again withMiniaan; once or twice a halting gabble of something like pidginEnglish made Miniaan wave her hand impatiently. She turned to Paul."It seems Spearman told her to say that he is under the--the climate?The weather? Is this meaningful?"
Wright said, "Tell him his third-born son is dead and the doorway ofhis palace is too narrow for our friends. Wait.... He asked nothingabout Ann?"
"She does not say so."
"I can send him no message. You see what I meant, Paul?Paul--you--send whatever word you think best."
"Well.... Miniaan, ask her to tell him that--Ann could not come withus. That we want to talk with him and, as Doc said, that his door istoo narrow for some of us."
The soldiers seemed to catch a glimmering of it; they made way for themessenger, and it might be there was less suspicion in them, morecuriosity. Sears-Danik, Tejron's dreamy eldest boy, whispered to Paul,"I am trying to remember him. Not much hair on his head--it was brown.I was only seven when he flew us to Adelphi. His voice--heavy."
"Yes. His hair may be gray now, Danny, as mine is. His face will lookolder--it never had a young look. His body will not have changedmuch."
Dunin asked, "He is older than you?"
"No, dear, a little younger."
But Spearman seemed older by far, appearing abruptly in the doorway,arms spread against its frame, face thrust intently forward and eyessquinting as if they troubled him. He wore a black loincloth of barkfabric, nothing else. His sparse hair was wholly gray with streaks ofwhite at the temples, his cheeks, leathery, deeply grooved, andflushed. "I didn't believe her," he said. Seeing him, the guards heldtheir spears as if they were Earth-born soldiers presenting arms, thengrounded the butts; they remained rigidly at attention when Spearmanpaid them no heed. "I didn't suppose...." Spearman hiccuped; he rubbedboth hands across his face.
Seeing tormented uncertainty in Christopher Wright, Paul steppedforward. "Sears died, long ago. Doc and I got through, with--some ofour friends." He paused, short of the guards, and held out his hand,and Spearman stared at it, communing somehow with himself, approachingat last, clumsily, to take hold of it in the old Earth gesture. Therewas alcohol on his breath; his bloodshot eyes fought an open strugglewith bewilderment; his handclasp was damp, unsteady, quicklywithdrawn.
"Sorry," he said, "not well. Hard to get it through my head.Well--Christ, I'm a bit drunk. Not strange, is it...? Mijok." Hisglance traveled over Pakriaa and Nisana without recognition; itlingered at Arek, but he did not speak her name. There was thebeginning of a stiff smile, unreadable, as his eyes fixed onChristopher Wright.
"Ann--reached us," Wright said, hardly audible. "She--"
"Why don't you speak u
p, man?"
"She came along the coast," Wright said, not much more clearly. "Thebaby died--a little while before she reached us."
Spearman blinked, glanced at his hands, let them drop. He noticed thetight soldiers; in the antique military manner of Earth he said, "Atease...." The spearwomen relaxed part way, eyes front. "Maybe,"Spearman said, "maybe you came too soon."
"What do you mean?" Paul asked. "We had to come as soon as we knew youwere alive.... Are your other children well, Ed? Are they here?"
"Oh...? Yes, I see.... You came too soon. I still have a little townof seven or eight thousand and some very loyal followers."
Wright struck his fist into his palm. "We are not your enemies. Wenever were. There was a place for you at Adelphi. There is now."
"Oh...? I can imagine it. So--Ann--"
"Ann came back to us. It took her a hundred days, she says. Shewas--is--skin and bone--"
Paul said, "She'll recover, Ed. Only needs rest and food. She wantsJohn and David--naturally. They're her children too, Ed."
Spearman said almost absently, "Are they?"
"What!"
"I don't exactly believe your story, you know.... You must havebeen--watching--for a long time."
Behind him Paul heard Nisana's miserable whisper: "What is it? What isit?" And Wright's muffled answer: "A sickness."
"There's no truth in that, Ed," Paul said. "Five days ago we stillsupposed that you and Ann were lost when the lifeboat went down in thechannel."
Spearman shrugged. "Yes--I think you've come too soon. You shouldhave worked longer in the dark. We had an epidemic here. Many died.And another trouble--mental--well, you've kept track of that, ofcourse: the way they've fallen away from me, gone back to the forestand the old life, when I could have given them a golden age. A prophetwithout honor." He coughed and straightened heavy shoulders. "My God,I can't blame the poor fools--now that I know how it was done." Hisvoice did not rise. "Without the conspiracy and interference, I couldsoon have started them in building a ship that--Never mind that now. Ihave the designs, of course. That what you came for?"
Mijok broke in, utterly bewildered: "What are you saying?"
Spearman dismissed the giant with a stare and a voice of coldpoliteness: "I don't blame you either. I remember you well. I supposeyou had to do whatever your god ordered, without question...."
The twin boys had appeared in the doorway, dressed like their fatherin bark fabric: slim, well-knit children, thin-faced like Ann, nineEarth years old. They halted uncertainly, perhaps driven by curiosityto violate an order of their father's. Paul tried to smile at them,and one responded but then blushed and looked worriedly away with ahand over his mouth; the other stared like a pygmy without expression.Spearman did not appear to notice them, though Paul's smile must havetold him of their presence. Elis broke the silence: "Mijok and theothers of my people do not create gods. We live by our own light sofar as it reaches, without fear of the mysteries beyond it." Hisvoice, so seldom loud in anything but laughter, boomed and echoed backfrom the thatched walls. "At Adelphi, orders derive from the laws,which are made by all of us and understood by all of us."
"Yes," Spearman nodded, upper lip drawn in, as one who saw his saddestpredictions verified. "Yes, he would teach you to say that."
Arek said disgustedly, "There's no conversation here. He listens tohis own mind, no other's. As it was on the beach, years ago--Iremember--"
Spearman said sharply, "Wright, be careful! You've brought yourbullies here, but I ought to warn you, this is the country where Istill rule. There are some left who love me and understand me."
Dunin muttered to Paul, "Bullies--what word is that?" Paul squeezedher wrist, a warning to be silent.
Speaking with care and difficulty, Wright said, "Ed, your boys areabout nine, Earth time. Would you say that is old enough to makecertain decisions? Would you be willing, Ed, to ask them whether theywant to go to Adelphi and see their mother again?"
Spearman glanced back at them. He would be seeing, Paul knew, how theboy who had smiled was staring at Wright with his mouth fallen open,how the other's blank look had crumpled into a grimace foretellingtears. "Now I really understand it!" Spearman said softly. "So it wasa kidnaping--a real kidnaping. I simply would not believe it when mymessengers came from Spearman City--but I should have known, I shouldhave known. You stole Ann in order to get my children too, for your--"
There was a murmuring among the guard and in the crowd of pygmyspectators who had gathered at a safe distance. Uncomprehendingly,Paul saw a few wildly pointing arms, saw one of the guards throw awayher spear and run blindly down the street. Others were doing the same.The swelling murmur was broken by thin screams. Those of the guard whoremained were staring into the northeast quarter of the sky, where abreak in the trees permitted a view of it, and they weretransfixed--the guard and Spearman's boys and now Spearman himself,glaring at that blue patch of morning heaven with total unbelief. Butthen Spearman did believe it, was perhaps the first to believe it,tears starting from his gray eyes and running unregarded down the hardchannels of his face. "From home! Home--oh, my God, so long atime...!"
The spot seemed small and slow in its descent, riding on a cushion offlame brighter than sunlight....
The Vestoian pygmies were all running now. Not into their houses, northe palace, but away down the tree-sheltered streets, a mindlessstampede, weapons tossed away with an agonized crying of tiny voices.
Paul's eyes found it, held it, saw the white flame change to a vastoutpouring of brilliant green like the burning of copper."Charlesite!" Spearman cried. "They've found how to use charlesite forbraking! No radioactivity."
The ship must be aiming for the open ground twenty miles away. Theycould hear the roaring now, almost gentle with distance.
Arek's red arm became a warmth over Paul's shoulders. She said, "I'mafraid."