Together, panting, they hurried up the twisting, worn stairs. Of course, a watch-tower would be the first thing built in a village given to tidal waves.. .this one must be very old... the woman at her side thrust the door open, drew a harsh breath of consternation.
"Look, it must have been the earthquake this morning, no one thought to come and make sure she was not hurt..."
Cendri felt her throat catch as the woman with red hair pointed. On the floor of the small, bare room, a woman lay at the foot of an overturned shelf; her skull was crushed by a heavy pot which had evidently fallen. Cendri saw in one glance that she had been old, and skinny; blood matted her grey hair at the scalp, blood spattered her shabby robe, but she must have died instantly. The red-haired woman went to her side, but Cendri said urgently, "No! We can't do anything for her! Where is the bell?"
The red-haired woman, looking greenish sick, got shakily to her feet. "You are right—but it goes hard—there, up those stairs—"
Trembling, Cendri set her foot on the stairs. They, too, had been damaged by the earthquake; some of the wooden struts were missing, and dreadful gaps showed below, but they climbed, setting their feet carefully against the need for haste, clinging to one another for balance on the rickety structure. They came out into the open bell-tower, and Cendri saw the ropes dangling from above. She grabbed them, yanked. She heard the cry of warning as the red-haired woman grabbed her round the waist from behind, holding her firmly, even so, the recoil of the great bell-rope nearly knocked her off her feet. Above her the great clanging of the brazen sound made her cry out, clap her hands to her ears as the echoes reverberated, clanged, howled at her. They swung the rope again, getting into the rhythm of the swing now, hearing the bell ring wildly along the shore, raising echoes and starting sea-birds, screaming, from the rocks.
The red-haired woman pulled her hand off the rocks. "Now we must go—they have heard," she said, and pointed below; Cendri, stunned and deafened by the bell, could not hear, but she could see women and children running from the houses in the village. She looked, aghast, at the boats marooned on the rocks, the women stumbling hopelessly toward the shore.
"Can't anything be done to save them—?"
"Maybe some of them will get to shore," the woman said. "But we must go! Quickly! The tower is high, but the structure has been damaged by the earthquake, and if the wave strikes it, it may be washed away! Hurry!"
Cendri needed no urging. They hurried down the stairs, slipping on the damaged stairs, emerging with claustrophobic thankfulness into the sunlight. Women and children were hurrying toward higher ground, struggling up the slopes toward the black, angular loom of the ruins. Cendri ran back toward Vaniya.
"Come, you must go, Vaniya—"
"Why had Grania not rung the watch-bell?"
"She could not," said the red-haired woman, hurrying up beside Cendri. "Respect, Mother and Priestess, you must come to safety too, your life is not yours to risk, but belongs to your people! Look, everyone in the village has come out to safety!"
Vaniya let them guide her along, with a sorrowful look at the marooned boats.
"And they had just repaired their nets and boats," she said, sadly. "There will be hunger in the village this winter, and I fear all of Isis will suffer if the pearl-harvest cannot be gathered!" She stood, her head turned to the women making for the shore, and her lips moved as if she were praying; but when Cendri and the red-haired woman urged her on, she went with them, stumbling.
It is too much of a shock for a woman her age... Cendri thought. Yet she, too, felt an overwhelming dread; would the pearl-divers, the crews of the boats, make it to shore, or to high ground, before the wave struck the shore, smashing through the houses and buildings and washing everything out to sea?
The path upward toward the ruins was steep, but looked well-traveled, and Cendri remembered the procession she had seen, her first night in the Pro-Matriarch's residence, the torches winding along the shore like a garland of lights; they must have come along this way...She was aware of pain in her bleeding feet, and of Vaniya's faltering steps, leaning more and more heavily on her; yet at her concerned question, the Pro-Matriarch said only, "I am very well; I only wish I knew everyone in the village was as well as I, and as able to reach safety..."
"Take care on the stones here, the path is broken," the red-haired woman said, guiding Vaniya's steps carefully, then looked across her at Cendri. "Goddess guard us! It is the Scholar Dame from the Unity—how could you let her risk herself in danger, Mother Vaniya?"
"There was danger for everyone," said Vaniya, looking gratefully at Cendri. "And it is as I thought, the women of University are as brave and competent as any of us!" She gave Cendri's arm an affectionate squeeze. "You have saved many lives today with your bravery, child. You said Grania could not ring the alarm—" she added to the woman with red hair. "Why not, pray?"
"Because she was dead," the woman said, "She had evidently been killed by falling pottery in the quake this morning, and no one thought to go and see if she was safe..."
Vaniya sighed and said, "Sad, sad; she and I were schoolfellows. But there is no time now even to mourn." She turned back, watching the women and children climbing hastily up the path, and moved away to make room for them to scramble inside the ruined city. Now they could see below them the giant wall of water, towering, looming a hundred feet high, rushing, racing at fearful speed. It smashed across the rocks and the abandoned boats with a crash; swept along across the shore and Cendri saw the tower engulfed in water, saw the houses break like matchwood and dissolve into a foaming spray of spars and boards, saw boats rise and spin away on the water like chips afloat in the surf. The sound was like the end of the world. She saw the tower itself sink and go as if it had melted into the water, and shuddered; if she had resolved to risk staying there, she would not have lived a minute in the furious boiling waves. It crashed down along the path, surging up, lapping halfway up the hillside, a foaming maelstrom of white spray; slowly, the boiling water subsided, smooth and innocent, then began to race back toward the shore. Cendri stood, appalled, seeing as it withdrew that every trace of human structure was gone from the shore; scattered beams and planks remained, but as the surging white water boiled down, there was no single house remaining, not a sign of tower or boats, gardens or sea-wall. The shore lay bare and littered, wet and foaming, with fish washed up dying on the land.
Vaniya covered her face with her hands; but only a moment later, resolutely lowered them and straightened herself, with gallant resolution.
"Well, it is over," she said, "and when the next tide comes in, some, at least, of the boats may be recovered. When the village is rebuilt, it must be re-built on higher ground, and a more effective lookout kept. We can all see the damage to structures we have built; now we must find out if there has been much loss of life." She moved toward the clustered women and children, and Cendri saw a group of men, huddled at one side, waiting.
She said, "Where is the village Elder-Mother?"
"I am here, Vaniya," said a small, stout, grey-haired woman. And Vaniya said, "Take the roll of your village. The Goddess be thanked," her eyes falling on the group of women, naked to the waist, with the strapped-on knives that marked them as pearl-divers. "Some of you, at least, are safe—"
"We saw the tide-drop, and at first thought it a low tide so that we could harvest the pearls without diving," said one of them, "But then Narila said it was no normal tide, and insisted we should leave our boats and run for the shore—I did not want to abandon my boat," she admitted honestly, "it was new-built; but I went with my sisters, and halfway to shore we heard the watchbell ringing—"
Vaniya moved from group to group, counting and assessing the losses. After a time she came back, slowly, to where Cendri waited, and looked in horror at her cut sandals and bleeding feet.
"But you are hurt! And I did not even notice! How could I have been so neglectful, when you had so heroically helped us!"
"It is nothing," Cen
dri said, though her feet smarted with the sea-salt in the cuts. "My shoes are too thin for walking on the shore, that is all!"
The red-haired woman who had helped Cendri to ring the bell and to guide Vaniya to high ground stooped and pulled off her own sandals, saying, "Take mine, Scholar Dame, No, truly, you must take them, I am from a village like this and I am used to walking barefoot on these stones, my feet are hardened; really, I only wear shoes for the sake of vanity, when I am teaching my classes!" She made Cendri sit down, pulled off the thin torn sandals and strapped her own on Cendri's feet. After her first protest, Cendri was glad to accept them, seeing that the red-haired woman walked without the slightest sign of discomfort on the rough stones.
She knelt on her heels beside Cendri and said, "I have been hoping to see you, Scholar Dame, I was one of those who volunteered to work with you in the ruins; Mother Rezali sent word to the Women's College asking for students there who could help you in your work. My name is Laurina, and I am a teacher of history. But we were told you had not yet begun your work in the ruins."
Cendri blinked, startled. Everything had been happening so fast
that she had not even realized that she was actually on the threshold
of the Builder ruins! She looked up to where, only a few hundred
meters behind her, the great ruins rose; strange, looming, dark,
immeasurably ancient, lost in Time...Her first thought was an
almost wild protest; no! I shouldn't be here, it isn't fair, Dal should
have been here first.. .it meant so much more to him____
But there was nothing to be done about that now.
Vaniya said, looking at Laurina, "I have had no leisure to bring our guest here, what with quakes here and in the City, and the High Matriarch still at death's door. And even now—with all these women homeless—" she looked around the huddled women and children, the little group of men clustered apart from them. "I regret—" she said, and for a moment, again, Cendri felt a flash of anger; she thought, we came halfway across the Galaxy to study these ruins, and they put us off for one thing after another_____
It seemed for a moment that she could almost hear Dal saying, A world where women established the priorities would never get very far, or accomplish much... and then she was ashamed of herself. The Builder ruins had waited.. .waited a very long time. At least two million years, if they were truly the ruins of some ancient race which had seeded the entire Galaxy with life years ago; but even if they were simply the ruins of some ancient civilization established on Isis long ago, they had waited patiently for centuries, millennia, and they could wait long enough for Vaniya to see to her homeless fisherwomen. There were priorities higher than scientific research, after all, even if the outsider from University couldn't see them!
She said, "Of course you must see to your people, Vaniya. But since I am so near to the ruins, may I look around at them for a little?"
She could see, in the blink of an eye, that Vaniya was not pleased; that she was almost helplessly reluctant. But she had no excuse whatever; and furthermore she had just expressed her gratitude to Cendri. "To be sure you may. But stay near the entrance until someone who knows her way around can show you how best to go through the site. It will be dark soon, and you could easily become lost inside."
"I will go with her," Laurina said, and Vaniya nodded; then one of the women from the wrecked village called to Vaniya and she turned to them, reluctantly turning her back on Cendri and Laurina.
"Come," Laurina said, "I have been here more than once, I know how to get inside. Come, there is a door in the wall—"
As she climbed through the opening, Cendri wondered again at the stability of the structures. They might not be ruins of the legendary Builders. But they were old—so old that Cendri's half-experienced eye could not judge how old they were. She had had a quick hypno-learner course in archaeology, and she could see at a glance that they did not belong to any of the known civilizations or cultures; they were not Sarnian Empire or Pre-Voltian, as most extremely ancient ruins had turned out to be on isolated planets in this sector of the Galaxy.
Yet, old as they were, she was struck at once by how new they looked. They had not, it seemed, endured millennia of earthquakes and volcanic action on an unstable and seismic planet. They had not been buried under the sea for generations and risen, wave-beaten but recognizably artifacts of intelligent life, like the Windic ruins of Aldebaran Nine. They might have been abandoned less than a hundred years ago. The paving stones in the empty spaces between the buildings were up-ended by the inexorable growth of grass and small underbrush growing up, but the buildings themselves—huge, black-glassy structures, upended, high, untouched by the centuries—were smooth and beautiful. Ruins? Cendri thought. Ruins? They are far less ruined than the Residence of the Pro-Matriarch after the last quake!
How have they survived all these years?
She looked around again, trying to make notes in her mind. Dal would be eager to hear every detail, everything she could tell him—it wasn't fair!
She said to Laurina, who walked at her side, "You say you have been here before. Is it all like this?"
"No," Laurina said. "There are lesser structures behind the two great towers here. Across this courtyard—"
Slowly they crossed the courtyard, and Cendri said, "You told me there are women in the college who have volunteered to assist me—?" She wondered why she had not been told.
"Indeed there are," Laurina said. "We were sure that the Scholar Dame would need some unskilled help, although you must have brought some qualified assistant from the worlds where women are—" She stopped, hesitated and said, "From the worlds of the Unity, where men rule."
Cendri smiled and said, "In our worlds neither men nor women rule, Laurina, but everyone does such work as—she—" she said, stumbling, remembering the male pronoun was thought indecent, "as she is qualified for. My Companion is my assistant. But we will certainly welcome such help as the women from the college of Ariadne can give us."
"I have heard," Laurina said, "that in the Unity, and on University, most of the majority of the—the Extra-scholars are men."
"Well, it is true that there are more men than women," Cendri said, wondering if this was going to be the same argument that she had had with Miranda, about how poorly men were qualified for scholarship. Instead Laurina said, "And still you became a Scholar Dame?" She pronounced the words almost with awe. "In worlds where women are not considered first for scholastic prizes you still won such prizes?"
Cendri said, "Yes," feeling guilty without knowing why; after all, she would genuinely have been a Scholar Dame by now if she had not taken time off after her marriage.
Laurina gazed at her, almost rapt with admiration. She said, "This is an inspiration to all of us, honored guest, because it shows us—it shows us that perhaps there is hope for us outside the Matriarchate, that perhaps what the elders fear is not quite so dangerous. See, a woman from outside, and you are not a slave or in subjection to any man, and you have won academic standing on your own! You are an inspiration to every young woman of the college of Ariadne, Respected Scholar Malocq!"
She was so dazed with admiration that she stumbled on a stone and Cendri laughed and helped her up. She said, "I am really very ordinary, there are hundreds of women like me on University, Laurina. And you must call me Cendri."
"Really? May I?" She sounded so awed that Cendri laughed again, trying to put her at her ease. She said, "And I will be glad of the help of the women at the college, far more than of their admiration; but I hope they realize that a scholar's work on an archaeological site is not all observation and inspiration! They should be women who have no objection to hard manual labor, for we may have to do a lot of digging and searching, through layers of the past..." But even as she said it, she wondered; this site seemed so perfectly preserved...
Laurina said, "I think you will find that our young women are not afraid to get their hands dirty in a good cause! It i
s only the weaker sex which is overly concerned with what work is suitable to its pride or its image!" She added, "Actually, there has been a considerable amount of competition for the honor of actually working with the Scholar Dame—"
"Cendri," she corrected smiling.
"Cendri—oh!" Laurina broke off, staring, and after a moment Cendri saw what had attracted her stare, even before Laurina's startled "Miranda!" After a moment of shocked staring, she turned her eyes away, in embarrassment. In a small alcove in the courtyard, on the edge of what Cendri recognized as a fountain, though the jets of water had been dry for hundreds or thousands of years, sat Miranda and Rhu, close together, their hands clasped, gazing into one another's eyes in what Cendri instantly recognized as complete mutual absorption.
Even if Cendri had been inclined to think it entirely innocent— and she had had no reason to think otherwise—Laurina's shocked turning away, and the swift, guilty way in which Rhu raised his eyes from Miranda's face, would have told her that this was clandestine—and shocking. Miranda rose to her feet, struggling for self-possession. Cendri wished desparately that she could do or say something to ease that look of guilt and shame on Miranda's face.
I don't know what the sexual taboos are here. But it's certain that Miranda has broken them, whatever they are!
Laurina said calmly, "I think the Pro-Matriarch is waiting for you, Rhu." He raised his eyes, momentarily lambent with the first real defiance Cendri had seen on the face of any male on this world; then, with a glance at Miranda, he dropped his eyes and went, scrambling up the steps and out of the fountain court.
"Laurina—" Miranda said.
"Yes; I was visiting my great-great grandmother in the village and I made Cendri's acquaintance when we went to see to the alarm bell," Laurina said calmly.
Cendri asked Miranda, "Do you know Laurina, then?"
Miranda said, "We were at school together." She was recovering her composure, but her face was still flushed. "I was too short of breath, after coming up into the ruins, to do anything else, and the sight of the water made me feel sick and faint—"
Bradley, Marion Zimmer - Novel 19 Page 12