The First Riders

by David Ferguson

  "First, let us all sit down again while I explain and also try to understand. You must remember, Eln-Tika and Wath-Moll, that - whatever we do - we are always your friends. We mean no harm - none at all. Our customs are different, but they will never be harmful. Can you accept that?"

  "Yes," said Eln-Tika. A few moments later Wath-Moll said the same.

  "Good," Ombissu said. "Now - you know about our religion. We worship entities that are greater than ourselves. We believe they created us and everything about us. We believe they control everything around us. As this is important to us we make ourselves subservient to them by worshipping them in the hope that they will favour us. This is the religion of our country and it is controlled by people like Mekbill. He was about to administer the first stage of admittance to our religion."

  "Do you believe in your religion?" Eln-Tika asked bluntly.

  "Why do you ask that?" Ombissu answered in the hope of giving himself more time.

  "Because I don’t believe you do. I think you are an unbeliever."

  Ombissu smiled ruefully. "It is not possible to fool you, is it, Eln-Tika. But to say I am an unbeliever is putting it too strongly. Reffurio is an unbeliever but I am less dogmatic. There may be something there, although I have strong doubts. I may say that less than a hundred years ago to be an unbeliever meant death. We are more tolerant these days."

  "Isn’t it arrogant for you to assume that I want to be part of your religion?"

  "Yes, it is. To justify our action, I can only say that Mekbill is with us for the purpose of bringing any peoples we meet into our faith. He was doing his job. But you can say that the original decision was arrogant. I believe it was. However, if you want Mekbill to explain more about our faith then I am sure he will. You can also talk to Fallassan, of course."

  "I have spoken to Fallassan. She believes because she has never been shown any alternative. She is on board your ship at the moment so I can speak without hurting her. She believes because her parents and all her friends and relatives believe. She has not met anyone who does not believe except you and Reffurio, and that came too late in her life for her to change. Her mind was already made up."

  Reffurio had said nothing up until now. Ombissu had been competently doing the talking for him, but now he felt he had to say something.

  "I think this subject should be brought to a close. The hunters do not want to be converted, and I do not blame them. If we expect them to accept our beliefs then we should be humble enough to accept theirs. We should talk no more of this."

  "Oh, no!" Eln-Tika cried. "I want to talk about it! I want to understand why you believe these things. It is important to me!"

  The sailors looked astonished at this outburst. Wath-Moll saw the look and explained: "You ought to know something about Eln-Tika. She has spent her life trying to understand, whether it is the stars, or the silents, or your religion. Sil-Jeve is much the same. I am happy just living, but they want more, so I would be very happy if you could talk about such things with her."

  Ombissu turned to Mekbill. "There’s your challenge. With the use of rational argument you may yet convert her. Do you accept the challenge?"

  Mekbill gave a half-smile. "Why not? As you have said, it is my job."

  "There you are then - now, where’s the rest of that meat?"

  Chapter 26

  It was during the following day that Reffurio broached his idea to Ombissu.

  "Have you given any thought as to what we should do when we leave here?" he asked, by way of a start.

  Ombissu replied, "As I see it, we have two choices. We could sail on south to this port they have mentioned or we could turn back and sail up the far coast of the first land we discovered. There is a third choice, of course: we could go straight home."

  "I would like to suggest a fourth."

  "Oh?"

  "We return to the wall and see what is behind it."

  Ombissu stared at his captain in astonishment. "Return to the wall? You didn’t want to have anything to do with it when we were there. What’s changed your mind?"

  Reffurio smiled ruefully. "First, I think I made a mistake. We should have investigated. It was cowardly that we didn’t. Our account isn’t going to look too good, you know. You can imagine it, can’t you? The King saying to us, ‘You found this extraordinary wall, yet you sailed right past. Why?’ And the only honest answer we can give is that we were cowards. Well, I don’t want to be thought a coward."

  "I can understand that. So what’s second? - you started your remarks with ‘First’."

  "Second - we have met the hunters. And we have blenjis. Imagine what a force we would make, us and the hunters all on blenjis. Rifles and black arrows. We would be formidable."

  "Wait, wait! The hunters? You mean you want to take the hunters with us to the wall? And the blenjis as well?"

  "Yes. I haven’t thought out the practicalities in detail yet, but I think we can do it. After all, it is only four days sailing to the wall. We ought to be able to manage to transport the eight hunters and thirty-eight blenjis for four days."

  "Thirty-eight blenjis?"

  "One each for the hunters and the landing party. I thought thirty sailors should do it," Reffurio said calmly.

  "Reffurio, we have nowhere to put thirty-eight blenjis," Ombissu said patiently. "And there’s their food and water. Where does that go?"

  "They don’t need food and water - not for four days, anyway."

  "Eh? Who told you that?"

  "Wath-Moll. One of the remarkable aspects of these astonishing creatures is their ability to go without food and water for long periods. It is a consequence of their living in this dry climate, I suppose. So, just before we sail we give them plenty to eat and drink. Then they’ll be all right. We can accommodate them in the stern hold if we rearrange some of our provisions. We can lash some of the water barrels on deck, for instance. I’ll talk to Fallassan about it - she may have some ideas."

  Ombissu was beginning to become enthusiastic about this crack-brained project. It was anathema to him - and to Reffurio, for that matter - to leave resources unused. They had been presented with these unexpected allies, and it certainly seemed a waste not to use them.

  "Let’s think about this," he said. "We go to the wall, we find whatever there is to be found. Then what? What do we do with the hunters? We can’t abandon them."

  "Of course we can’t. We bring them back here. They can look on it as a kind of holiday."

  "Right." Ombissu gave Reffurio a look. "This is important to you isn’t it? Well, we’ll ask them. I wonder what the chances are of them accepting?"

  "They’ll come," Reffurio said confidently. "They like adventure. They left the comfort of their town to live in the wilderness - that shows you what they are like."

  "We are due to visit their camp this evening. We’ll ask them then. There’s no point in waiting about."

  *

  Four sailors rode up to the hunters’ camp as the sun began to set - Ombissu, Reffurio, Fallassan, and Mekbill. The last two had been sounded out about the idea and both - even Mekbill - had been enthusiastic. It was now a matter of convincing the hunters.

  After a meal beautifully flavoured with berries and spices that the sailors had never known, around a blazing fire under a clear starry night, Ombissu began to explain his idea.

  He began by describing their ship, the way it could sail so fast, its comforts and virtues. He made sailing sound such a paradisical existence that the other sailors had difficulty in recognising it. Reffurio felt obliged to add a few footnotes.

  Speaking confidentially to Wath-Moll, he said, "Actually, it’s not always like that. Sometimes there are storms; then it is not nice at all. Even just continuous rain and moderately high winds can be unpleasant, although that is unlikely round here. Where we live, it is normal."

  "Then why is he saying these things if they are not true?"

  "They are true - but not always. He is speaking as he is because he wants you to help
us. He will be coming to that soon."

  This conversation had been conducted in quiet voices by two neighbours. Nevertheless, Ombissu had caught the gist. He glared at Reffurio.

  Reffurio saw the look and said, "We shouldn’t exaggerate, Ombissu. Let’s keep to the truth. The voyage we propose should be comfortable and pleasant, but there is a small chance that it may not be."

  "Yes, I sense that Ombissu is not telling all the truth," Eln-Tika said. She turned to Ombissu. "You should always tell the truth when I am listening. I know when you are not telling the truth or are exaggerating. It is a new sense for me because we always tell the truth, but, even though I have never experienced it before, I can tell when you are lying."

  Ombissu was rueful. "You really should work for the King. The King’s flummery detector, you could be called. The King has to listen to so much that is not true, because the speakers are too frightened to tell the truth, you would not credit. You could point this out to him and to the perpetrators, then everyone would be better off."

  "It’s right, Eln-Tika," Fallassan said. "Our polite society is based upon a web of half-truths, exaggerations, evasions, and absolute lies. You would be a breath of fresh air."

  "Which brings me to the actual content of what I want to say," Ombissu said.

  The hunters looked at him with interest and Eln-Tika said drily, "Ah - at last."

  Ombissu told them how they found the wall and why they had decided to sail on. Now they wanted to go back and explore it.

  Sil-Jeve was the first to ask the fundamental question: "Why?"

  Reffurio answered, "We have been instructed by our King to explore anything we considered interesting. In this case, we failed. Also, we have pride. We have self-belief, just as you have. But not this time. Our courage failed us. We want to make up for that."

  "I can understand that," Sil-Jeve said, "but sometimes it is best to be cowardly. Running away in the face of danger is often good sense."

  "There was no danger, only the sense of danger."

  Eln-Tika gazed coolly at Ombissu. "This is all very interesting, but where do we come in? What was the relevance of this pleasant voyage you were describing?"

  Ombissu smiled. "I think you know the answer to that. We would like you all to come with us on our ship to this other land and help us explore behind the wall. When we have completed that task, we will return you to here, if that is what you wish. We estimate the voyage will take four days."

  "And the blenjis?" Sil-Jeve asked.

  "They will accompany us. Not only that but we would like to catch and train another twenty-four on top of the six we already have. Thirty-eight of us could then ride into this land. You would have your bows and we would have our rifles. We would be the match for any we met."

  "Ah, but would we?" Sil-Jeve asked. "This wall - you said it was huge and made of great blocks of stone so carefully chiselled that they fitted together perfectly. We can’t do that, and, as far as I can understand, you can’t either. Doesn’t this make you wonder? If this mysterious people can build this remarkable wall, maybe they can do things we cannot imagine. Doesn’t that make you afraid?"

  "It did," Ombissu admitted. "But now we are unafraid."

  "I am unafraid," Eln-Tika said quietly.

  There was a short silence, then Wath-Moll said, "If Eln-Tika is unafraid, then it will be well."

  "Is Eln-Tika ever wrong?" Reffurio asked curiously.

  "No," Wath-Moll, Sil-Jeve and the others said in unison.

  "So it is settled then?" Ombissu asked. "You will come with us?"

  Wath-Moll said, "I think we should discuss this among ourselves. We will come to you tomorrow with our decision."

  "We understand," Ombissu said. "We leave you now. As always, we thank you for your hospitality."

  The hunters watched the sailors ride into the darkness. They trusted these people, but would they be happy away from their home and spending four days and nights on the strange and rather frightening sea? They talked far into the night. It was one of the most enjoyable discussions Eln-Tika had ever experienced. They covered the merits of self-expression through exploration, the challenge of the unknown, the pleasures of being part of a group with a common purpose. There was high risk involved with this venture, but with the risk was the chance of doing something no hunters had done before. They compared this to the tranquillity and happiness of their present life, but deep down they all knew what they would do long before they reached the end of the discussion. The following morning, Wath-Moll and Sil-Jeve rode to the sailors’ camp and told them of their decision. They would sail to this unknown land.

  Chapter 27

  Before they could sail there was much to do. The blenjis had to be caught and trained; the ship had to be reorganised to create room for the extra passengers; the water barrels had to be refilled; animals had to be hunted, slaughtered and the meat preserved. It was some weeks before they were ready.

  They sailed shortly after dawn as the sun was rising over the sea at the start of another beautiful day. The wind was from the south-west and as they rounded the northern cape of the huge bay they caught small waves. To the sailors it was nothing, but to the hunters it was frightening. The ship was moving gracefully through the waves in a steady undulating motion which the sailors found stimulating, but the hunters - panic stricken - huddled together in the shelter of the wheelhouse. The sailors laughed, but Fallassan, with one look, immediately created silence. She went over to them and tried to reassure them. Eln-Tika realised that there was no danger but she still found this unfamiliar movement uncomfortable. Yet at the end of the day the hunters forgot the motion and became happy.

  The voyage was everything Ombissu had promised. Techyspay sailed across a uniformly blue ocean creating a white bow wave that the hunters found fascinating. They watched for hours the water arcing from the bows in its graceful unceasing movement. Flying fish would occasionally appear, which signalled the appearance of fishing rods and fanciful nets on the deck of the ship. The hunters could appreciate this activity and even tried their hand at catching this elusive prey.

  They slept on deck, wedged between the stern and the wheelhouse. It was the most sheltered area; the hardness of the deck was nothing for chanits that always slept on the ground. Below, in the afterhold, the blenjis were less phlegmatic. They had had to be lowered into the hold using an ingenious system of hoists and pulleys. They were crammed tight and found it difficult to sleep. The hunters and sailors constantly attended them to give them reassurance.

  For three days and three nights the voyage progressed. The officers consulted the charts they had made on the journey out and decided that the winds had been so favourable they would make landfall early.

  And so it proved. On the afternoon of the third day came the welcome call from the foremast and soon all could see the long blue-grey line of the land. They sailed steadily towards it, Ombissu and Reffurio becoming more excited; they felt they had made a perfect landfall. By late afternoon they were congratulating each other. Through their telescopes, at the head of the huge bay that lay in front of them, they could see the straight line of the wall. They sailed into the middle of the bay and anchored.

  *

  At dawn they rowed the first boat to a point just beyond the southern end of the wall where there was a rocky shoreline backed by a low hill. Here they landed a party of armed sailors led by Fallassan. They scrambled up the rock-covered slope of the hill until they could see behind it. It was a terrific anticlimax. The landward side of the wall was held up by four huge flying buttresses, but there was nothing else, except for the welcome sight of a stream flowing down the valley and, it would seem, under the wall and into the sea. They waved a piece of white sailcloth to those on the ship to signal that the landing could continue.

  They ferried thirty sailors, the eight hunters, and all thirty-eight blenjis along with their rifles, bullets, bows, arrows, and provisions. It took the rest of the morning.

  Fallassan had returne
d to the ship to report her findings, which were greeted with surprise and dismay.

  "Nothing? Nothing at all?" Reffurio had queried.

  "Well, not exactly nothing. The ground round the stream and near the base of the wall seemed disturbed, broken up, as if it has been used."

  "Ah. Well, we’ll have to go to the stream to allow the blenjis to drink. Let’s see what we can find."

  While the blenjis were drinking, they wandered around the area, inspecting the ground and wondering. The disturbance was caused by a pattern of stones, the lower walls and foundations of what had been buildings. They were the remains of a village. One of the streets seemed to be wider than the others and they followed it for a little way up the valley. It seemed to go on alongside the stream. Looking carefully at the hills behind, they could see a faint line climbing through the folds of the hills until it reached the skyline.

  "I can understand these stones and these streets," Fallassan said. "This was once a village, probably a fishing village. But what is the wall for?"

  "I have no idea," Reffurio said. "All it does is block out a perfectly good view of the sea."

  "Maybe that’s it. Maybe that’s what this is all about," Ombissu said excitedly. "Take a look at the stones of these walls. There are perfectly ordinary. They haven’t been shaped, they’ve been placed on top of each other and held by a basic mortar, I should think. They were built by the people who lived here. But look at the wall. It’s been designed by an engineer and built by master craftsmen. You can be sure they didn’t come from this village."

  "So what is your argument?" Eln-Tika asked.

  "I think this village was minding its own business, living as it probably had for hundreds of years when it was invaded by outsiders. They destroyed the village and built the wall to block out the view of the sea - their livelihood."

  "But why?" Eln-Tika asked.

  Ombissu turned to Reffurio. "What does the sea mean to you?"

  "Freedom," Reffurio answered promptly. "The freedom to do what I want to do without being overlooked by authority or bureaucrats."