The First Riders

by David Ferguson

  "It’s bizarre," Ombissu said after a long scrutiny. "It looks like a huge wall."

  "That’s what I thought. I think we should take a look."

  "I agree."

  The ship turned to port and they sailed well into the bay. The object was now obviously a massive wall which blocked off the valley between the hills.

  "The question is," Ombissu mused, "is it natural or is it artificial. And if artificial, was is it for?"

  Reffurio was scrutinising the wall closely through his telescope. "It has to be artificial. It’s far too regular. But it is huge. It must be twice the height of our tallest building. It’s higher than the masts of this ship." He scanned its length carefully. "I can’t see anybody. If it is a fortification you would expect people on the top, or windows, but there is nothing. It is simply an enormous blank wall."

  "Shall we investigate?" Fallassan asked.

  There was a pause, which Reffurio broke. "Well, I’m not so sure we should. Whoever built this knows how to build a huge wall. What else do they know about? Weapons, for instance? I think we should sail on."

  Ombissu looked at Reffurio in surprise. "This is overcautious, surely? So far we have seen nothing but a wall. The people who built it might be gone like the people who made the carvings on the island."

  "Yes," Reffurio said dubiously. "But this is a large country, not a small island. The chances are, they are still here."

  "We’ll send a boat. Sail right up to the wall and examine it and touch it. Then we’ll make a decision. There’s nothing on the water, no boats at all. In fact, if it weren’t for that wall I would say the place was incredibly peaceful."

  "Right." Reffurio turned to Fallassan, who had been listening intently. "Take the boat - just six of you, row to the wall, examine it, then come back. And don’t hang about. We’ll have the other boat in the water just in case."

  Fallassan had the boat in the water within minutes and soon they were rowing hard.

  As they neared the wall, they became more circumspect. It towered above them but they could see no movement, hear no sounds. Cautiously they approached the base of the wall until, at last, they could touch it. It was made of huge stones shaped into squares and so accurately made that they fitted into each other perfectly. Fallassan took out her knife and tried to insert the blade between two of the stones but she failed. She ran a hand over the surface and felt the smoothness. It was an incredible structure, but what was it for? It was completely featureless. It rose vertically into the air straight out of the water. There were no decorations, nothing to indicate its purpose.

  They had rowed to the centre of the wall but now they rowed to its south end where it met a hill. They could see that the wall buried itself into the hillside, leaving no gap. It completely blocked off any view of the valley from the sea. They rowed back, none the wiser.

  As Techyspay lay at anchor in the middle of the bay, the three senior officers and the priest held a council. They were evenly divided as to a course of action. Surprising to Reffurio and Ombissu, it was Mekbill who was the most vociferous.

  "There must be a civilisation behind that wall, nothing else could have built it. They must be heathen and thus must be converted. It follows, therefore, that we must land and seek them out. We simply land beyond the wall, climb the hill, and we are behind it."

  "It’s odd that, isn’t it?" Ombissu said. "This wall cannot be a defence because it’s so simple to circumvent. As Mekbill says, you simply go round one of its flanks."

  "We don’t know that," Reffurio said gloomily. "There may be ditches or something."

  Surprising to Fallassan, who rather agreed with Mekbill, it was Reffurio, the daring seafarer, who was the most cautious. He appeared to be acting upon some deep instinct.

  "I don’t like it," he kept saying. "The wall has a purpose which escapes us. This makes it dangerous because we are dealing with the unknown. I don’t believe we are invincible. I do believe that whoever built this wall could be very dangerous to us. I suggest we sail on. This seems a huge country. Perhaps we will find an explanation somewhere else."

  "You surprise me, my friend," Ombissu said. "I thought you were the risk taker."

  "As I said on the first day of this voyage, I take necessary risks. There is nothing necessary about investigating that wall. We have been following this coast for only one day. There may be other more profitable wonders ahead."

  Mekbill could see that Ombissu was almost convinced by Reffurio’s argument, an argument he found flawed. It angered him that they were about to waste an opportunity.

  "One of the objects of this voyage is to find others and convert them. I believed that I would be superfluous to this task because I thought we were alone. I was wrong about that, even though all we have found so far are artifacts. There must be people beyond that wall. They are so close it would be criminal to just sail on. What are the risks? We are armed with the finest weapons in the world. We would strike fear into the hearts of anyone."

  "That’s your idea of conversion, is it, Mekbill? Strike fear?" Reffurio asked sardonically.

  "Of course it isn’t. That is just the means to an end. Conversion comes from inside the mind. The truth of our beliefs is self- evident. They would be converted by words."

  "I agree," Fallassan said excitedly. "This is a great opportunity. If these people were warlike we would have seen them. They would have been on the wall or on the hills or on the water, but we saw nothing. Nor did we hear anything and we were right up against the wall."

  "That doesn’t mean much, Fallassan," Reffurio said gently. "That wall must be immensely thick. You wouldn’t hear the crowd in the Sailor’s Rest at throwing out time through that wall. Anyway the decision is with our executive officer." He looked at Ombissu expectantly.

  "Yes, it is," Ombissu said heavily. "I can see both sides of the argument, but we will go on. We will sail on at dawn."

  Nobody said anything. The decision had been made and that was that. They left the cabin to return to their duties.

  Chapter 21

  This voyage down the coast was becoming like one of the King’s yachting expeditions, Ombissu thought. Beautiful weather, calm seas, no dangers at all. Except, of course, the King’s yachts rarely made all speed. He gazed down to the afterdeck and saw that some of the hands were even fishing. Lines were dangled over the side and once in a while he saw a fish being pulled in. The fish were unfamiliar and it was a matter of trying them all to see which were edible. The fabulous flying fish, which accompanied them all down the coast, had proved to be extremely acceptable when fried. The hands were trying to work out ways of catching them in the air and ingenious nets had been made but so far they had had no success, although there had been much laughter at their futile efforts.

  But it was becoming a little monotonous this eternal pattern of headlands and small bays with their sandy beaches. Although he and Reffurio had decided to keep sailing until they found something interesting - such as a village - they would have to stop soon just to relieve the boredom.

  He was amazed at the lack of life. After the wall he expected that there would be coastal villages, fishing boats, especially with this abundance of fish. But there had been nothing. It was an empty land. And as he caught that thought he saw a movement. He grabbed the telescope and looked intently at the nearest barren hill. Yes, he was right, there was movement. He could see a herd of grazing animals.

  He called to Fallassan, "Take in the topsails and make twenty points to port. I want to get as close in to that hill as we can."

  Reffurio came on deck with the change in course.

  "What’s happening?" he asked abruptly.

  Ombissu handed him the telescope. "Take a look at that hill," he said, pointing.

  Reffurio saw what he had seen. "Ah. A hunting expedition."

  "Exactly. We take in the boat, you and I and half a dozen sailors armed with rifles, and we have us a few of those animals. I expect they are edible."

  "Right. Fallassan!"
Reffurio called.

  The boat was rowed up to the beach, the men jumped out into the warm shallow water and dragged the boat onto the beach. The two officers stepped ashore and took up their rifles.

  The animals were grazing quietly halfway up the slope, about twenty of them in a slowly moving herd. They were light brown with cream stripes on the side. They were lightly built and looked very fast. They would probably not give much meat but it was better than nothing. Reffurio looked carefully for predators but could see none. It was a sensible precaution for herds of grazing animals normally attracted some very dangerous beasts. Taking a crouching position, they cautiously crept up the hill, rifles at the ready. The animals seemed to see them, but took no notice.

  Ombissu said to Fallassan, "You take the one on the left of that big rock and I’ll take the one to the right."

  The two sailors took careful aim at their animals and fired. They dropped simultaneously. They and the hands ran towards the animals and before long they had tied them with ropes and were dragging them down the slope to the boat.

  They had never seen these animals before, so, after preparing one of the bodies, the cook fried a steak from a hind leg for sampling. Reffurio cautiously smelt it then cut off a corner with his knife. The others watched expectantly. He popped the piece of steak in his mouth and chewed. Without commenting he repeated the process.

  "He’s eaten two pieces," Ombissu said laconically. "It must be good."

  "Yes, it is. It’s excellent."

  "Right. We’ll have a feast. We’ll eat this one fresh and salt down the other."

  Everybody grinned. Sailors always dreamed of fresh meat. For a few days their dreams would be fulfilled.

  *

  They continued sailing uneventfully down the coast, always looking and always finding nothing of interest. For two days they sailed until, rounding another rocky point, they were confronted by open ocean. The land had turned sharply north-east. As the situation slowly unfolded in front of him, Reffurio, who was on deck, ordered the topsails to be taken in. Ombissu joined him almost immediately.

  "This is an interesting decision," Ombissu commented. "Do we continue to follow this extremely boring country or do we carry on south across the ocean?"

  "Carry on south," Reffurio said promptly. "We have plenty of provisions for another ocean crossing. And I have a feeling we may find something good."

  "M’yes," Ombissu said dubiously. "Ah, here’s our priest, and Fallassan. Let’s hear what they have to say."

  Mekbill hurried towards them and asked urgently, "What are you planning to do?"

  "We haven’t decided," Ombissu said calmly. "What are your views?"

  "Follow the coast. This is the land with that wall. If we continue along the coast we may obtain some clues."

  "I don’t see why," Reffurio said, "There’s been nothing on this coast and I don’t see why this other coast will be any different. On the contrary, it is further away from the wall. Look, Mekbill, apart from the wall and a few grazing animals we have found nothing. It’s all the same - low hills and rocks. No mountains, no trees, nothing much at all."

  "So what do you propose?"

  "We cross the ocean in a south-westerly direction."

  "Eh?" said Ombissu. "South-west? Why south-west?"

  "I don’t know," Reffurio admitted. "I just have a feeling that south-west is a good direction. If we sail due south we will find nothing, but if we sail south-west we will find what we are looking for."

  Fallassan laughed at the expressions on the faces of Ombissu and Mekbill. "What you are witnessing is the famous Reffurio instinct. I know it well and he is nearly always right. I wanted to follow the coast for the same reasons that Mekbill gave but now I have changed my mind. If Reffurio says we should sail south-west then that is the way we should sail. For how long, Reffurio?"

  "Three days," Reffurio answered promptly.

  Ombissu, who had been listening to this dialogue in amazement, stepped in. "Just a moment, just a moment, what is going on here? Has Reffurio suddenly become some sort of seer? Where is the sceptic I know so well? South-west? Three days? This is remarkably accurate, my friend."

  "Yes, it is," Reffurio said somewhat apologetically. "But that is what I feel. It is something to do with the lie of the land - I think. This point of land might continue as a ridge underwater to appear on the far side of the ocean. The range of hills that make this point are lined in a southwesterly direction. But I am trying to rationalise something that is instinctive."

  Ombissu turned to Fallassan. "And he is nearly always right, did you say?"

  "Yes. When he is wrong it is always about something trivial. On the big decisions he is always right."

  Ombissu made a gesture of resignation. "Oh well, south-west it is. We will sail for five days, just in case our friend here is not entirely accurate. After that we turn back and continue along this coast. Any questions?"

  The other three looked at each other and then back at Ombissu. They did not speak.

  "None? Very well." Ombissu turned to Fallassan. "South-west, all sail. Don’t bother keeping watch for a couple of days - our friend doesn’t think we need to. No, ignore that last order," he said hastily, on seeing the expression on Fallassan’s face, "I wasn’t being serious."

  *

  On the morning of the third day, after two entirely uneventful days of sailing, expectation mounted. The story of Reffurio’s prediction had spread through the crew, and such was his reputation that every idle hand was staring ahead looking for the first sign of land.

  It came in the middle of the afternoon. Fallassan had climbed to the foremast lookout with a telescope and was scanning intently. Then she saw it, a long line of purple below the clouds and against the horizon. Her hail brought everyone on deck and up the rigging.

  As they slowly approached, the line of land began to widen, just as it did before. But this time there seemed to be layers to the country that was unfolding before them. At the front were hills - as before - but behind were huge mountains, and they seemed to be snow-capped. The sun was sinking as they closed in on the coast. At nightfall Ombissu ordered the ship to heave to and they sat out the night just offshore.

  That evening the three senior officers, the two junior officers and Mekbill had a celebratory dinner. Ombissu, who had already congratulated Reffurio on the accuracy of his prediction, raised a toast.

  "To our captain, who can decide on the best course of action when others can see nothing."

  Reffurio responded, "To glorious discoveries, riches beyond our dreams. This is where we will find them."

  "Another prediction?" Ombissu asked.

  "Of course. Look at this place, those mountains. Snow-capped peaks, just like home."

  "But not the same," Mekbill said reasonably. "It’s much warmer here, ferns on the coast rather than trees, for instance."

  "Well, yes, of course, but you know what I mean. Those mountains are familiar. This place feels much more comfortable, more reassuring."

  "M’yes." Ombissu eyed Reffurio thoughtfully. "I’m not so sure about that. I agree that this seems a much more exciting country than the last, but I’m not so sure about it being familiar. I think we will be in for a few surprises. I hope we are, in fact. We need some excitement, something new."

  In an atmosphere of great conviviality they ate their meal. They were even hurrying through it in a vain attempt to bring the dawn closer. Only Reffurio - who had nerves of steel - slept well that night.

  *

  At dawn, Techyspay set sail. As before, the coast lay almost north to south. As before, they sailed south. As before, the coast was backed by dusty, fern-covered hills. But this time they seemed more massive, more variable, more interesting. Almost immediately they saw a large herd of grazing animals. They were dark brown with distinctive flattened heads which formed a point at the rear. They were much bigger than the animals they had found in the other country. Then they saw a disturbance. A group of the animals looked up from
their grazing, heads all turned in the same direction.

  "They’ve seen a predator!" Ombissu exclaimed. "Can anybody see it?"

  "No, but they can," Reffurio said. "Look! They’re off!"

  The group of animals had started running, then suddenly the whole herd was a moving brown mass.

  "Look at them go! See how they run!"

  Then through the ferns they saw one of the animals go down. Try as they might, they could not see what had happened. The rest of the herd came to a stop much further up the slope. Techyspay sailed serenely past and the herd was lost from view. The crew broke into an excited chatter.

  Reffurio turned to Mekbill and said, "I hope that was interesting enough for you. It was for me."

  But Mekbill did not answer. The moving ship had brought another herd into view. Mekbill pointed to it in silence. There were thousands of animals all over the hillside.

  "If these animals are edible, and I expect they are," Ombissu commented, "then this is a hunter’s paradise. For that matter, it is a paradise for hungry sailors. I think I feel another hunt coming on."

  "Same as last time?" Reffurio asked.

  "Yes, I think so. No - this time I’ll stay on board. You and Fallassan go - and take one of the junior officers, Voyallan, say."

  Techyspay was hove to, the boats lowered and the first boat set off for the shore, Reffurio in command. The crew dragged the boat onto the sand and set off through the thick ferns that backed onto the beach and set off up the hill, rifles at the ready.

  Halfway up the slope the ferns thinned out and they could see to the summit. The grazing animals were spread out in front of them, unconcerned. Reffurio was about to signal that they should move forward cautiously when Voyallan saw something move to the right. Reffurio looked, then saw something that terrified him. A huge head had appeared above the ferns. He signalled to the others and, on looking, they froze in shock. They could see the head of a terrifying predator with an enormous mouth whose huge pointed teeth were arranged in close packed rows. The animal was looking intently at the herd and not at them, which was the only positive factor in this alarming situation. Reffurio motioned everyone to keep still and make no noise.