Sheri Tepper - Singer From The Sea

by Singer From The Sea(Lit)

  "And while I'm doing it, I won't accept rudeness, Melanie. Let them listen or not, as they choose, but I will not be shouted at."

  "Don't hold it against them," cried Melanie. "This business has troubled us for generations! We were sent here as the protectors of the taiau wairua, but now the taiau wairua claims to be threatened, and you agree! So, if it is threatened, then we are threatened. We've made a vow, a sacred oath, the source of our mana, to protect the creatures, all of them, even bacteria! It is our vow, the source of our mana, to destroy no living species, to contaminate no world, but you say we must! If we do this, we will have betrayed our vow. If we do not, we will have failed our trust!"

  Genevieve stared into the distance, her lips twisted into a bitter line. "You're no more troubled than I am, Melanie. If I don't act, I'll have failed my vow and my trust as well. The worst of it is that whatever we do may be wrong, and at the moment I haven't the least notion of anything we can do that will possibly set things right."

  At the marae, talk went on throughout the afternoon, and as she learned additional facts, Genevieve filled in the outline of her understanding with implications and possibilities. All the theological-cum-ritual issues around which much of the talk circled lay outside her experience. That didn't matter, however. The covenants lay outside the experience of half the people in Haven, but everyone gave them lip service. It let people get on with life.

  Believe or not believe, the longer she considered the problem, the more her understanding pushed up into the light, like a mushroom that thrust suddenly out of forest litter, a presence that was undeniable whether one knew anything about botany or not!

  On the basis of one such understanding, she told them in midafternoon that it was necessary to evacuate the marae. "The Shah will soon attack the fortress. We should not be bottled up here."

  Melanie said, "The committee says the destruction of the lichen must be discussed in Galul, with everyone taking part who wants to do so. Since we have no way to kill it, some strategy must be devised. Our scientist-persons are in Galul, so the committee and most of the rest of us will be leaving marae in a day or two."

  Genevieve reached for Melanie's arm, shaking it. "Listen to me, Melanie. Not 'most of the rest.' Not 'in a day or two.' Everyone must leave here. Anyone left here will be as good as dead." She said it in an emotionless voice. She was seeing the bodies, lying on the sand. It was no longer enough merely to see and accept. Not if there were a chance at avoidance.

  Melanie stared at her. "You're sure."

  "I have said," Genevieve stated in a clear, direct voice that held more than a hint of anger. "What I have seen, I have said. I have seen the dead in Marae Morehu."

  "Very well." Melanie frowned. "I suppose you mean soon. Tomorrow, perhaps?"

  "Tonight," Genevieve replied.

  Within the hour, Melanie came to her very flushed and teary to say that word had arrived from the malghaste in Mahahm-qum saying the Shah was mustering an attack against the marae.

  "You were right," Melanie said, biting her lip. "I'm sorry I doubted you. Here we've been expecting you, or someone like you, for generations, and when you turn up, I doubt!"

  "I don't care if you doubt me," Genevieve replied. "If I expected you to believe me, I probably should be carrying a flaming sword or something. I look in the mirror to see this witless girl and I doubt myself! So long as you and I act upon what I know, it doesn't matter whether we doubt, but act we must. Otherwise, I'm no good to you, or to anyone. You'll all leave, won't you?"

  "Most of the people here will go to Galul. We have seven sleds already loaded with supplies for the small refuges south of here, so seven of us -- including Joncaster, Enid, and I-will drive them from here to the mountains. There's a range of stony hills along the shore where we'll leave the last load, then head south to Galul, after the rest. A few of us always remain in the small refuges. We never like to go too far from the Mahahmbi, for fear of what they may get up to."

  Genevieve felt tears readying themselves, pooling. "I think I should go with you. Unless... is there any chance that Awhero could already be in Galul?"

  Melanie frowned. "We don't know. We don't know where she is or what she's doing. We've had no word at all that she's been harmed, however, so you can be confident your child is safe."

  Genevieve turned aside to hide the tears that spilled down her face. "I am trying not to think of Dovidi. If I think of Dovidi, I can do nothing. I would be easier in my mind if I could do something active and helpful."

  "Help then. If we're to leave the marae, we need every hand we can muster."

  The refuge was swarming like an ant hill. Furnishings, books, equipment, bedding, everything was being gathered up and taken through hidden doors into secret rooms and cellars. Some items were hidden between the walls of rooms, some of them were hidden under paving stones that rotated upward when a certain weight was applied. To Genevieve's astonishment, she found that almost every significant item had a label on it saying where its hiding place was to be: kitchen things near the kitchen, equipment near the garages or the laboratory. Solar panels on the flat roof slid into slots in the parapets and were covered with lines of mud brick. Books were on rotating shelves that turned a blind wall into the library. Bulkier things had wheels on them, and they were pushed down hidden ramps into empty caverns which, once the panels were closed, simply disappeared.

  "You've done this before," she said to Joncaster.

  "Every now and then our wells fail, and we have to leave the marae for a time. It would be impossible to equip it anew each time, and we daren't leave equipment where the Mahahmbi could lay hands on it, so everything gets hidden away. If some of our people need sanctuary, they can still find it, for they've been taught how to find emergency water or food or a hiding place. When the marae was built, hiding places were built in."

  Later, Melanie came to offer her tea, and Genevieve sank gratefully onto an earthen bench, built along a wall and not, therefore, storable.

  "I've been thinking," Genevieve offered. "If this matter is to be discussed in the presence of your people, won't the so-called malghaste in Mahahm-qum want to take part?"

  The question had barely left her lips when she shivered, eyes fixed on the space before her. Malghaste. A dozen of them crouched in an alley while men screamed by bearing strange weapons. A woman, clubbed from behind. "Ahhh," she murmured. "Get your people out of Mahahm-qum, Melanie. Get them out now!"

  "But that will leave Mahahm-qum unobserved," said Melanie, puzzled.

  "Listen to me!" she shouted. "You said you shouldn't have doubted me. Don't doubt me now! Get them out! Now! Or mourn their deaths."

  "What are you seeing?"

  She rubbed her head, her brow, fighting pain. "I see what will happen in Mahahm-qum! I see malghaste being killed in Mahahm-qum. Men, killing... perhaps out of frustration at not finding them here. Can the malghaste get out without attracting attention?"

  "It's more difficult the more of them there are, but they can get out, whenever it's needful."

  "It is needful now. Send word. Tell them to get to Galul."

  In the warren beneath Mahahm-qum, Awhero sat beside an air duct which ascended along a narrow stair within the wall of a Mahahmbi house. Within the duct hung a thin strand of plaited leather bearing a tassel of broken glass bits. Awhero was feeding a fretful Dovidi, distracting him, passing the time until things settled down. There was too much tumult in the city, too much running hither and thither, too many chattering gatherings of the Mahahmbi, and great loadings of harpta panniers. War, people said. War against the malghaste. Word had gone today to the marae, warning the people there.

  Dovidi pushed the bottle away and made a pained face. She put him across her shoulder and patted, waiting until he belched audibly. "Good child," she murmured. "Such quiet, good little boy." The good little boy cried fretfully, as though in pain. She put him in his cradle, a box lined with soft rags, and set it where he could see the light beam that came reflected from
mirror to mirror down the airshaft. In the light hung a selection of objects-spoons and broken tiles and animals cut out of paper - all turning in the least air, making an amusement for baby. Baby was not amused. He turned fretfully, and went on crying. She felt his forehead. Hot. Whatever this was, he'd had it since this morning. The change of food, perhaps. Some bug endemic to Mahahm that was not endemic to Haven. And, of course, loss of his mother's milk, with all the protection that afforded.

  The plaited line in the airway trembled, the pieces of glass tinkled musically. And again.

  Awhero went to the door and called deeper into the warren, "Bird is here, Kamakama."

  A youthful form erupted into the room and launched itself up the narrow stairs, soft-footed, only a slight scratching betraying the climb to the pigeon cote above. The Mahahmbi used pigeons to train their hunting birds, the malghaste used them to carry messages. Within moments the boy was down again, passing the message capsule to Awhero and standing with cocked head while she took it apart.

  "They go south," she said. "Everyone. They want us out of city. They say danger here, they want us on our way to Galul. Well, I can't go with this child sick, and nobody can go in direction Shah goes, before or behind, that's for certain. Best will be to wait until he and all his men march off toward marae, then we'll go another way. We can be gone by time he gets back."

  The youth scratched his nose. "You want me to make rounds?"

  "Better had," Awhero acknowledged. "Tell everyone to come here or send someone, so we can plan." Now what? She knew Genevieve had reached the refuge. She knew Aufors had been spotted by malghaste watchmen. He had been close in. Probably coming here, looking for her. Foolish man! If she could find him, he could accompany malghaste when they sneaked away. If she couldn't find him, likely he'd be taken by Shah's men and they'd end up killing him after all!

  The malghaste would have to go far east or west to keep out of Shah's path. No point in their going by their usual desert routes, not with all Mahahm-qum watching them in moods of murder and mayhem. Some of those killed by airship's cannon had been old men, men about to receive His Effulgency's gift. Getting dead so close to immortality, why, that was shocking, no doubt. So said fathers and brothers, heatedly.

  Well. If they asked her, she would recommend going by sea, as Aufors appeared to be going. Down the western shore, which route was, no doubt, also being chosen by some of those at the marae. They wouldn't empty the small refuges. Some would stay nearby to keep an eye on the Mahahmbi. Perhaps to lead the Mahahmbi into mountainous country.

  Awhero sucked her cheeks with pleasure, savoring thoughts of Mahahmbi among mountains. Then, as baby cried in real pain, she forgot pleasure. Pray heaven it was only colic.

  25: The Empty City

  The mountain range that had been partially inundated to make the islands of the Stone Trail continued down the west coast of Mahahm, splitting just south of the desert into two ranges, one continuing south along the shore while the other veered eastward across the continent in the virtually impenetrable barrier of chasms and cliffs that protected the highlands of Galul. It was near a stony buttress slightly north of this split that Aufors found a mooring. He tugged the boat up behind the rocks where it could not be seen from the sea.

  Getting this far had been simple enough, but now he had a fit of the niggling which-ways. Northeast to the city, or east along the foot of the mountains, looking for wherever Genevieve might have gone. The mountains enclosed a big territory, very steep, very dangerous, and if Genevieve had had some destination in mind, she had kept it to herself. If he went to the city, he would at least have a starting point from which he might trace her. Dislike it or not, he could only choose the city.

  He put on the desert cloak he had brought, along with a tattered festoon of stained rags he had plundered from the machinist's store. Dirt on the face plus the few days' beard he had accumulated since fleeing Mahahm made the malghaste impersonation quite believable. He had purposefully arrived in midevening in order to make his trek in the dark. Though he carried a light, the stars would give him enough to travel by. A moment's reference to the locator gave him the heading he would need.

  The wind had fallen to a whisper that moved only the smallest grains of sand. He covered a goodly distance in increasing darkness before becoming aware of others abroad in the night: a shadow against the stars at the top of a dune, a slither of falling sand to his right, a line of footprints along a sandy cleft, made very recently and heading southwest, toward the coast. At first these presences were widely separated, but as he penetrated farther, he saw more frequent signs, and he heard voices, too: a pack animal being berated in murmured curses, vehement whispers telling a child to hush its crying, a muttered conversation between two men as to the landmarks of a trail that led southward among the mountains. Though he noted the landmarks in memory, he learned nothing as to who was going where, or why, except that there were a good many of them.

  Since he did not known who the travelers were, or what had prompted their journey, he avoided them by going warily and stopping in this shadow or in that cleft while they passed him by, their numbers steadily diminishing. The sky had paled when he stumbled upon the first group of bodies strewn upon a cupped patch of blood lichen.

  Warily, he backed off, scouted the area, then returned to the hollow with the tiny torch from his pack. He found six bodies, dried to sere leather, with their clothing torn to rags. Carrion creatures had been at them to the extent that it was hard to tell their sex. The first he uncovered was, he thought, a young woman because she had a dead baby bundled close to her. Though he would have preferred simply to walk on, the mystery of their presence here on the sands made him go on to each body in turn, all of them some days dead. Longer than that, there'd have been little left but bones. He saw no stains of blood, but necklaces of red lichen wound the mutilated throats and fronds emerged between leathern lips. The lichen had grown into them, or through them, which made him believe the site of the slaughter was no accident.

  He thought they were all women. All women, at least one with a child. Almost as an echo, the Prince's words came back to him: "We always take new mothers along, for luck." And Genevieve's conversation with the Shah's wives. All young mothers. Going to Galul.

  Was that a descriptive phrase that really meant something like "going to heaven?" Was it a religious ritual? Or just more of the Mahahmbi bloody-mindedness like cutting people into chunks to make a point?

  Aufors hunkered down and considered. He had read of ancient societies that had revered certain trees or plants, societies that had made sacrifices when they cut a tree or used a plant. Did the Mahahmbi make some use of the bonebushes in the area? The Thorn trees? The blood lichen? Was this why it was called blood lichen? Was this ritual part of the quite impenetrable Mahahmbi religion? Or, since the Mahahmbi were known to be polygamous, had some one of them simply decided to rid himself of all wives at once?

  Cursing under his breath, he used his dagger to cut a score of lichen fronds, fat ones, wrapping them in a square of the film that held his rations and storing the small bundle in his pack. If he ever got back to the airship, he'd use the analyzer to find what if anything made them valuable to the Mahahmbi. If, indeed, this bloody ritual had anything to do with plant life.

  Continuing his line of march, he came upon other groups of bodies in the dawn hours. More broken bodies, more swaddled infants. Once might be an aberration, but twice said this was indeed calculated, habitual. When the sun rose, he went on, sticking to the bases of the dunes, winding a sinuous trail farther eastward. He heard the screaming voices of the prayer-callers and risked climbing the nearest dune, where he saw first the lashing black banners of Mahahm-qum and then the walls of the city. He lay just below the crest with only his eyes above it, staring with amazement at the troop emerging from the southern gates!

  Four men on horses. That would be... he focused the glasses more carefully. That would be Ybon Saelan, the minister to the Shah, the one wh
o had escorted them around the town and bought them the daggers. He was flanked by the Prince and the Marshall The fourth man, just behind, had to be the Shah himself, for the horse was caparisoned into virtual immobility. Behind the horses came a few dozen dark-clad men with fancy helmets, and behind them a motley assembly, shambling along in wavering ranks, twenty abreast, carrying a variety of weapons. Aufors lay quiet and counted a couple of hundred ranks, four or five thousand men. That would be almost the entire male population of the city, excluding very old men and boys.

  At the rear of the procession came a line of baggage harpta, and he watched while this array made a wide, purposeful track around the base of the nearest dune to continue southward. The travelers he had seen during the night had moved singly and surreptitiously, but this bunch obviously didn't care who knew they were coming.

  As the procession disappeared, a glitter of weapons brought his eye to a long, low building half buried in the dunes outside the gate. Though the Shah had taken virtually every man in the city with him, he had left a company of armed men to guard this unprepossessing building. He scanned it intently, intrigued by its odd shape, realizing finally that it was edged and topped by massive wooden shutters to hold back the sand that flowed above it and at either side.