Berec smiled broadly. “A traveller never refuses an invitation to supper.”
He was still eating the tasty porridge soup in the lumberjack’s house, when somebody knocked strongly at the door.
His host retreated inside, bent in a bow. Two figures dressed in black entered the hut. Berec noticed at their belts were long, flat containers of boiled leather with round handles sticking out, Swords? He had seen such a weapon only once — his father’s ceremonial blade.
“He’s the one?” a black-clad figure asked. The lumberjack nodded. “You’re coming with us,” the man said.
Berec stood up slowly. There was no other way out from the hut and he didn’t feel like trying his chances against men wielding swords.
“Your dagger,” the man reached out a hand.
“No.”
They eyed each other for a moment, and then the other black-clad man waved his hand. This shocked Berec more than anything so far. In all of Taiga, his weapon had been a treasure worth much more than his own meagre life.
The two men led Berec up a winding road to one of the hill forts, past a double ring of stone walls into a cube-shaped building made of rounded boulders.
The man sitting inside on a throne of polished granite had his hair bound with a diadem of iron. Berec bowed deeply, remembering the old ways of referring to chieftains and men of power back in the Owl Marsh.
“Berec of Tacosi welcomes the master of this land.”
The man smiled.
“I’m flattered, traveller. I am no master — I only govern this hill in the name of the Greatking. But what I’m not flattered by is the way you try to lie to me.”
“Sire?”
“You are not from Tacosi, and you’re definitely not going to the Valley of Three Tribes. It’s called Valley of Two Tribes now, by the way.”
“I apologise. I had been warned not to tell strangers my destination.”
“But you will tell it to me.”
“Of course. I’m sure you have guessed already anyway, sire. I’m searching for a place called Eden.”
The governor sighed. “Just as I feared. Another worthy youth deceived by fairy-tales and rumours.”
He gestured to the guards. “Take him to one of the rooms. I will speak with him tomorrow at breakfast.”
It was the best breakfast he had eaten since his days with the Musk Oxen. There was cold mutton, hen’s eggs, sheep’s milk, cheese, and flat, crunchy bread.
“You must be surprised,” the governor said, watching Berec dig his teeth into a chunk of cheese.
Berec shrugged. He had spent four years in the Taiga. Nothing surprised him anymore.
“You are not a prisoner, if that’s what you feared. We keep you here for your own good. It would be a shame to let you run away into the forest again, chasing those lies and dreams that brought you here.”
Berec took a long gulp of cold beer from a clay mug.
“What I will tell you now may shock you,” the governor continued, “it is usually a blow for men like you. They call your kind Red Foxes, don’t they? Well then, let me tell you, Red Fox, your precious Eden does not exist.”
Berec stared at the governor, not sure if he heard right.
“I have been warned against men like you,” he said.
The governor nodded. “I’m sure you have, but hear me out before jumping to conclusions. See, for generations we have been encountering men like you, searching for this legendary place called Eden. We were letting them pass through, but soon our own youth began to join them and we could not let that happen. We could not afford to lose our best people.”
“The laws of the Taiga…”
“The laws of the Taiga are good for the Taiga, but these are Fortress Hills. The forest, and everything that comes from it, is our enemy. We had to stop this madness, but first we had to make sure the travellers were wrong. It was Greatking Urrias Elkhorn who organised an expedition in search of Eden. A hundred of our best men departed into the forest. Only a few returned, a year later.”
“What did they find?”
“Nothing. They reached the sea — a great expanse of water that separates our land from others. They marched east along the coast for many days, but they found no trace of any civilization other than some fishing villages. Even if there was once a place called Eden, it is now gone.”
Berec chewed a piece of flat bread, deep in thought.
“We think the legend of the Eden is as old as humanity itself,” said the governor, “there are many savages in the Taiga, you’ve met them yourself. To them, even a place like this must seem a promised land. They were going back to their forest huts and the rumour spread and grew, until it spawned a myth. It’s well enough if it spurs barbarians to move around the forest, discover new neighbours, spark some exchange of trade and culture… but I pity the likes of you, civilized, smart men. I can tell by your dagger and sophisticated manner that you must come from the Owl Marsh. You should have stayed there. Nothing good came from your journey.”
His calm words almost convinced Berec, stirring the doubt that had settled deep within his soul a long time ago. Still, he tried.
“But… if it’s just a myth, how come everyone knows where to go? Wouldn’t everyone in the forest point in a different direction?”
The governor chuckled. “I knew you were smart. Yes, our own wise men wondered this as well. Perhaps there was, indeed, a rich valley somewhere on the south-eastern coast, generations ago. But as I said, there is no trace of it now. Besides, you’re wrong: this is not the only version of the myth. Travellers like you are coming from every direction. Some even think the Eden lies to the north-west, from where you came. Many see our rich and prosperous land and assume this is the Eden they searched for. We let them stay; every pair of hands is put to good use.”
He stood up. “I will leave you now. Think your situation through. You have a choice: stay with us, take the Fortress Hills for your new home, or go back to your homeland. You will have protection on your way back. We’ve never had a visitor from the Owl Marshes, so you will be treated as an official envoy of your people.”
“What if I still want to move on?”
The governor sighed. “We won’t be stopping you. But I’m sure you’re too clever to do something so foolish after what you’ve just heard.”
He wandered aimlessly around the valley for a few days. He observed the workers building new stone walls, farmers struggling with the cold earth, lumberjacks defending the fields from the ever-encroaching Taiga. He did not know what to think.
Was this all there was? Was this the only choice the world had to offer? A long life of hard labour or a quick death in the forest? The governor was right: nothing good came from his quest. A wasted youth, a wasted life…
A shadow fell on his face. He looked up. He was at the edge of the forest for the first time in days. Its call was no longer as strong as before. He felt he could stay in this valley, spend the rest of his life here. The night he had spent with the Tale Gatherer awoke a need within him; he wanted to find a woman, settle down, start a family…
He heard a whistle and looked up to see somebody sitting on top of a pine tree. The man seemed different from the fair-skinned locals. His skin and clothes were reddish brown. A squirrel was sitting on his shoulder.
Berec came closer. The squirrel looked at him nervously, but the man jumped down and welcomed him with a raised hand.
“Aloue the Squirrel, of Tacosi Mountain.”
“Berec the Red Fox, of Owl Marsh.”
“I thought you didn’t look like one of those grass-eaters.”
“Do you live here? Or have you just come into the valley?”
“Neither,” said Aloue with a smile. He was slim and veiny, his movements were fast and his eyes were bright, darting left and right constantly. “I came here a while ago, but I never settled. I watch. I hide.”
“Hide?”
The Squirrel eyed Berec carefully. “I see you haven’t tried to leave thi
s place yet.”
“Leave? What for? There’s nowhere else to go…”
“Don’t tell me they’ve turned you already! Did you really believe their fairy-tale? Which one did they tell you — the one about Urrias Elkhorn’s expedition, or the one about the Great Wind?”
Berec shook his head. “It was us who believed in fairy-tales. We left our homelands, our friends and families, following a myth. My father was right. It was such an obvious lie — all I had to do was stop and think.”
Aloue turned serious. His eyes focused on Berec for the first time.
“Listen… I know the tales of these grass-eaters are convincing. But I swear by the Great Dragons, these are all lies. I know! I have seen the Gates of Eden with my own eyes. And I intend to go back there as soon as I can leave this damned place.”
Berec had no idea how to respond to that. Thoughts swirled in his head; it was too much to take in.
“Come with me,” said the Squirrel. “I will tell you my side of the story, then you can decide who to believe.”
Aloue took him deeper into the forest and the two climbed a great black larch tree.
“The patrol should not come through here until evening. Cob, are you here?” Aloue reached out a hand and the small squirrel jumped on his shoulder. “Good girl. You,” he said to Berec, “sit here, where the branches split, it’s the most comfortable place in the tree. And listen carefully.”
THE CHEST OF ALOUE OF TACOSI MOUNTAIN
You’ve heard the saying about Tacosi and the Gates of Eden. There are many such proverbs about our mountain, the tallest mountain in the Taiga. Some say you can see the Sea from its top, others — the Owl Marsh… nobody in living memory had climbed to the very top, so nobody ever verified any of these tall tales.
Nobody except me. We are kindred, you, me, all travellers. You know what it’s like. Another proverb from the Tacosi range is about the likes of us: “The Great Dragon had opened his arse and let the worms in.” I could never sit still. As all members of the Squirrel tribe, I wanted to climb, always higher. I climbed all the highest trees, all the highest bluffs… and then I realised the only place I hadn’t climbed yet was the summit of the Tacosi Mountain.
I had prepared for months. I will not bore you with details — preparation, training, gathering supplies… finally, the climb itself. I almost perished along the way, like many before me. But I did it. I, Aloue the Squirrel climbed the Tacosi! Not only that — I climbed down and lived to tell the tale.
And what do you know? The old saying was true. From the very top of the mountain, on a bright sunny day, I looked to the south-east and saw jagged teeth of an immense mountain range. It may mean nothing to you, plain-dweller, but I have seen many hills and mountains in my life. Nothing like this. I could barely see it on the horizon, but even from the distance I could tell how mighty these peaks had to be.
The first thing that came to my mind was: I have to climb this. Then I remembered the old legends. The Eden was supposed to be surrounded by a chain of impenetrable mountains. What else could I have been seeing other than the Gates of Eden?
I wasn’t drawn by the legends. I lived a good life. But I had to climb. I thought Tacosi would have been my greatest achievement, but I was wrong. There was a new challenge in front of me. I didn’t even think of the distance, the perils. I knew so little about travelling the Taiga… I thought if I just walk in a straight line, I will eventually reach the Gates of Eden. And so I went. Leaping from tree to tree I could easily avoid most of the dangers. Some idiots wearing bear skins chased after me for days, but I lost them as well… It was a long trek. I lost my way a few times, but never for long.
As the terrain started to rise, I felt I was getting close. I found a village built in the trees; I liked it there. Those people liked to climb as well. It was almost winter, and there is no climbing in the winter — I decided to stay with them for a few months.
There was a girl, different from the others. She told me she was descended from a man on some ancient expedition heading towards the Eden. He had decided to stay in the village when the party was already heading home.
All through the winter I was… working to gain her trust. At last, she showed me her forefather’s writings. I had never seen letters before, she had to read them out to me.
The man’s name was Gihher. He was born in the Fortress Hills. Yes, you’ve guessed right: he was a member of the expedition the governor has told you about. The mission to discover the Eden.
They were successful. They had stood before the Gates of Eden, that terrifying mountain range I saw from the summit of Tacosi — but they had no strength to get through to the other side.
From the mountain passes they saw the incredible riches of the Eden: houses of pure crystal, machines that walked and flew, orchards filled with fruit and gardens filled with flowers. But that was all they were allowed to see. Each of the mountain passes was guarded by a fortress.
There were villages in the foothills which made the capital of the Fortress Hills seem like a clump of mud huts. The men of the expedition asked the locals about the Eden and everyone told them the same tale: “Anyone who can reach the gates of one of the fortresses can pass through. Nobody will stop him. But he must make the journey alone, without any help.”
The expedition was split in two. Some decided to try their luck. Gihher saw them fall, one after another, down the ravines, off the cliffs… none have reached their destination. The soldiers watched it from the fortress walls. Sometimes all they needed to do was throw down a rope… but their faces were cold like the stones of the mountains around them.
Those who remained decided to go back home. The leaders of the expedition settled on a story they would tell to their Greatking. They assumed their master would be more satisfied with the news that there was no Eden, rather than the tale of how they failed to reach it. The ancestor of my lady friend disagreed with that decision. He was ordered to stay in the nearest village — the one I happened to pass through.
The story didn’t scare me; on the contrary, the challenge was even greater. Those grass-eaters had no idea how to climb properly. Naturally, they were destined to fail; but I was Aloue the Squirrel. The only man to have ever climbed the Tacosi Mountain.
I wanted to depart the tree village with the first thaw… but then I ran out of luck. A war broke out in the part of the forest between the tree village and the Gates of Eden. Some tribal union decided to fight another. The entire Taiga was ablaze. Even I could not hope to pass through the war zone without harm. I had to find another civilized place to wait it all out. The Fortress Hills seemed like a safe bet: close enough to the Gates of Eden, but far from the fighting. And so I came here, a few moons ago.
They welcomed me with open arms; they fed me the same story as they told you, and gave me the same two choices: stay or go back to Tacosi. “Ah!” I thought. “So the expedition did get back home. Better not tell them what I knew, though. Who knows how they might react…”
Everything seemed fine for a while — until I decided I had enough of sitting around doing nothing. That war had to be over by now, and if it wasn’t, I could find a way around it. Perhaps through the Valley of Two Tribes… As soon as I entered the forest I met those guys in black clothes, the ones with the swords.
“Are you lost?” they asked.
“No, just bored.”
“Let us accompany you a while.”
And they accompanied me so well, I found myself back in the valley. I tried a couple more times, and every time was the same. The last time their smiles were not as broad, and their swords no longer hidden in the scabbards. I’m not stupid. I got the message.
I can hear them come again. We’d better move to another tree.
THE GATES OF EDEN
“And what do you say to that?” asked Aloue, watching Berec’s confusion with some amusement.
“I still don’t understand something… why do the masters of the Fortress Hills care so much about maintaining th
is mystification? And why aren’t we allowed to leave?”
Aloue shook his head.
“You know nothing about these things, do you? Ruling people, warfare, spying… no, you’re from the North. You people have enough trouble staying alive as it is. Here we’ve had peace and prosperity for generations… and when people are not starving, they start thinking of war. It’s inevitable. We no longer fight the Taiga — we fight each other.”
“But what does this have to do with…”
“Think! What would happen to this land if its people knew about Eden? It’s not far away. They wouldn’t have to spend a lifetime to get there, like you Northerners do. A few weeks” journey, at worst. How many, do you think, would stay here to work for their masters, and how many would run away, even if it meant risking their lives?”
“They seem content.”
“Only because they don’t know any better. They fear the forest. They think there is nothing more to life than their fields and stone houses… No, the Greatking knows. He can’t risk an entire people packing up and leaving — and dying along the way. Because that’s what would happen to those grass-eaters. Even the guys in black would not stand long against the Bears or the Wolves.”
“And what about us?”
“Ah, that’s a different matter altogether. See, I have it on good authority that the current Greatking is preparing for war himself. He wants to conquer more land, cut down the forest, settle more people beyond the hills. But before you go to war, you need to know your enemy. This is why every traveller is given a chance to go back home — with a small detachment of spies. If I had agreed to his conditions, the Greatking would learn everything about the Tacosi: the borders, the warriors, the armament… a strategic position would be a great addition to his lands.”
Berec’s confusion only grew. The Squirrel was right: he had no idea about these things. There were no wars in the North. There were battles, skirmishes between tribes, one group of warriors bashing skulls of another with stone axes, but nothing as complex as what Aloue was describing. Most dialects of the Taiga did not even have proper words for spying, strategy or diplomacy. The Owls only heard about such things in legends.
Dragons' Fall_Tales from the Mirror Worlds Page 5