The strangers smiled and the riders heard a series of unintelligible sounds.
Ombissu looked at Eln-Tika pleadingly and said, "You’ll have to take over. We have a thousand questions, as I expect they have of us. We’ll have to leave it to you."
"Of course. You will have to be patient. This may take some time."
All waited in silence. This small flat clearing offered a view of the plain and Ombissu and Reffurio took the opportunity to study it with their telescopes. Far away, through the haze, they could make out the shapes of a group of pyramids just like the ones they had just left. Less distinctly, they thought they could see the roofs of low buildings all round the pyramid complex. Far below, a town awaited them.
Eln-Tika lay back in apparent exhaustion. The exchange of information seemed to be over for the moment. The others waited expectantly.
Eln-Tika eventually spoke: "There is much I don’t understand. The town below is ruled by fear, but I do not understand its nature. The rulers persecute telepaths - for reasons I do not understand - and these people are outcasts - they have escaped from this persecution and live much as we did, moving from place to place and hunting - but they are not trained hunters, they have lived in a town far from wild animals. We are the first chanits they have seen for a long time and, naturally, they thought we were the rulers come to hunt them down. They realised their mistake when they heard the bangs of the rifles. The rulers do not have such things. The rifles frightened them very much - one was slightly wounded by a bullet. But it also encouraged them. They realised we were strangers who could possibly be their allies. Being telepaths, when they came closer, they realised we were not particularly dangerous. They also realised that I was a telepath, and therefore a potential friend. They want us to help them."
After a long silence, Ombissu spoke. "There’s a lot to take in, Eln-Tika. So let’s start at the beginning. You don’t understand the nature of the fear that the rulers use. Do you have no ideas at all?"
Eln-Tika lapsed into silence once more and the others waited.
"I don’t understand, no," she said eventually. "It is enforced by servants of the rulers, but I cannot understand its nature."
"Will it be dangerous for us?" Reffurio asked.
"Possibly."
"All right - so there is potential danger," Ombissu asked. "Very well, that is to be expected perhaps. Next question: why are telepaths persecuted?"
"They are a threat to the rulers."
"A threat? In what way?"
"It is a power they do not have and do not understand."
"Most of us don’t have it and we don’t truly understand it but we don’t regard it as a threat."
"No. I do not really understand this either."
"All right - this is something else we do not understand. Now, last - they want us to help them. To do what?"
"To overthrow the rulers, of course," Eln-Tika said in surprise. "They are evil."
"Evil?"
"That is the sense I get. I can’t think of another word to describe it."
For the first time, Mekbill entered the conversation. "Evil implies the concept of good, which implies that there is a religion involved. Does that make any sense, Eln-Tika?"
"That’s it! Of course! This is about religion. The rulers impose a religion upon this people which is evil. This religion regards telepathy as evil, so they are persecuted - in fact, they are killed whenever found." Eln-Tika looked round at the others. "We must destroy these rulers," she said earnestly. "In the end they will destroy this people if they are not opposed. These rebels regard us as an answer to their prayers. We must not disappoint them."
Ombissu and Reffurio were becoming alarmed. An evangelical Eln-Tika was a disquieting sight. They would have to calm her down very quickly before she made any promises to these people.
"This is too much, Eln-Tika," Reffurio said. "We don’t know enough to make any promises. Let’s take it in stages - after all, we have time. Let’s teach them some of our language first, then we might learn a few more details."
Ombissu said, "Specifically, we need to know the population, how many are armed and with what, how many are likely to be on our side - if this is an evil regime then that may be quite a few - and what exactly is the source of this fear."
Mekbill said, "If this is a religious society then we need to know the nature of the religion, and what control it has over this people. Do they worship bees, perhaps?"
"Bees," Ombissu said thoughtfully. "I wonder..."
With a finger he drew a bee in the dust. The reaction was instantaneous. The strangers immediately burst into a babble of sound. Eln-Tika put her hands to her ears and shook her head in despair.
"Stop! Stop! I can’t take it!"
The strangers stopped talking and a period of silence descended which the others now realised was communication by thought. They waited patiently.
Eln-Tika said, "Yes, it is a religion based on bees. They value bees. They tend them carefully and they harvest the honey. We do the same and it is commendable. But they use the bees for evil purposes. This is what these people fear, but they won’t - or can’t - tell me the details. The pyramids are part of it; in fact they are central to the religion."
Ombissu looked around at his companions. "It seems to me we have three choices. First, we can turn round and go home."
"No we can’t," Reffurio said bluntly.
"Why not, Reffurio?" Ombissu asked.
"Try to imagine it. We arrive home, and the King asks - ‘What did you do?’ and we say, ‘We found this town but we did not enter it. We decided it was too dangerous’. It’s like the wall, Ombissu. We have to go on."
"True. All right, we are down to two options. We can visit this town, make friends with the rulers, find out if they want to trade - that kind of thing - buy a few artifacts, then go home. That’s the first option. Then there’s the second option. We can overthrow them and hand over rule to these rebels. That may or may not be the honourable course. It may or may not be the wise course."
"If this religion is evil - which I suspect it is - then it is our duty to overthrow these rulers," Mekbill said tersely. "It is in our mandate."
Ombissu looked at Mekbill consideringly. "Yes, it is. But there is no point in getting ourselves killed. In fact, it is our duty to return safely so we can tell the King what we have done and what we think we should do. Luckily, we don’t have to decide right now. There are more practical problems to solve. First, we need to set up a camp. Then we need to organise a hunt - I don’t know about anybody else, but I need fresh meat. Then we need to teach these people our language. And after we’ve done all that we can plan our campaign."
Chapter 29
The camp was set up a little way back into the hills, out of sight of the town. The rebels had made rough shelters from ferns and skins and branches which were very primitive compared to the neat shelters of the hunters. There were thirty rebels, none of whom were very good at living off the land, although they were learning by trial and error. They hunted animals with spears and bows and arrows, and they set traps although with only limited success. The hunters realised that they would have to do the hunting if this rather large group of people was to be fed.
It was also imperative that the communication problem was solved. Eln-Tika acting as a conduit via telepathy was very unsatisfactory to the others. The simplicity of speech appealed to them and they set Eln-Tika and Fallassan to the task of teaching the rebels the sailors’ language. Like Eln-Tika, the rebels proved remarkably adept at learning. The sailors and hunters also tried to learn the rudiments of the rebels’ language. This too was successful, even if they did not achieve the fluency of the rebels.
The sailors discovered that they had one thing in common with their new friends. The cloth that they wore came from the same woolly coated animal. Both races had domesticated this animal and it formed as important a factor in the rebels’ economy as it did in the sailors’. But there the resemblance ended. The rebe
ls were from an intensely theocratic society, one dominated by priests and their acolytes who controlled the people with complete ruthlessness. Torture and death were the norm, a startling contrast to the rather easy going religion of the sailors. To the hunters, who had no religion at all, the descriptions of the rebels were completely incredible. They could see little sense in the worshipping of idols that the sailors practised. They could see no sense at all in the religion of this town that lay below them on the plain.
One starry evening, around the campfire, an elderly rebel told them the story of the wall. Many years before, the land around them had been rich in wildlife and fertile along the valley bottoms. Their people had lived quiet unassuming lives. They farmed the animals while those in the village by the coast fished. The fishermen traded their catches for meat and wool. Then the invaders arrived. They came from the east as an army. They killed those who resisted and subjugated those who did not. They imposed their strange and violent religion and destroyed any signs of freedom and self expression. The fishing village was the first to go. The sea, to this people that came from the interior of this land, was something to be blotted out, for it represented freedom.
So they built the wall. This great construction had two purposes: to demonstrate the might of the conquering nation and to blot out the sea. The fishing village was destroyed and a way of life ended. Reffurio and Ombissu looked at each other realising that their instincts had been right.
The wall was built first but the pyramids soon followed and the nightmare began. The invaders began to realise that this nation they had conquered had a high proportion of telepaths. This was an unknown phenomenon to them and was potentially threatening as telepaths could sense emotions and thus could see past the surface of this religion to its inner horrors. Telepaths could never be converted and thus they had to be killed. The sailors thought of the island with its mysterious carvings and realised that this was part of the same process. The land became empty and even some of the pyramids that the invaders had built were no longer needed. This campaign of genocide inevitably produced a rebellion, although, at present, it was only a rebellion within the mind.
Ombissu and Reffurio, who were deciding on a plan of action, realised very quickly that they would have to involve the rebels. They knew the town, they knew the society, they could speak the language. However, they could not ride and they had already decided that the party that enter the town would be mounted. Thus Voi-Till and Wath-Moll would train two of the rebels how to ride.
It was a busy ten days of preparation. Reffurio and Mekbill were impatient to begin, but Ombissu and Eln-Tika and Wath-Moll persuaded them otherwise. They were about to embark on a very dangerous enterprise and they had to be thoroughly prepared. A few more days of riding instruction and language tuition would do no harm.
Towards the end of the ten days, Ombissu asked one of the rebel leaders, whose name was Welkarlin, what would happen when they rode into the town.
"Try to imagine the scene," Ombissu said. "We will be mounted, we will be armed with rifles and bows, we will be disciplined, we will look determined and formidable. What will they do?"
Welkarlin and the others burst into a babble of sound which the others could understand but one word in a hundred. Eventually Welkarlin replied, although obliquely.
"If we are to be part of this group then we will have to be disguised; we will have to wear the animal skins of you hunters, ride like you and behave like you."
"Agreed," Ombissu and Reffurio said in unison.
"They would not recognise the rifles as weapons - we didn’t; I am not sure whether that would be an advantage or a disadvantage. They would recognise the bows and arrows, of course, which would give them pause." Welkarlin seemed in immersed in thought; the listeners waited patiently. "I think they would treat you with respect which means that they would be hospitable. You would be guests at a great banquet, perhaps. They would probably allow you to watch the ritual of the bees. But they would regard you as heathens - non-believers - and thus inferior. You should not give any offence at all. We can teach you the customs, so you are able to avoid such dangers."
Reffurio interrupted: "The ritual of the bees? What is that?"
There was an uncomfortable silence. "We prefer not to speak of it," Welkarlin said. "It is our superstition, if you like, that we never speak of it. We do not like to be reminded."
"Very well, we won’t ask again," Ombissu said. "Returning to the matter at hand, you think they would not be hostile?"
"Probably not. You are an unknown quantity - potentially you could be very dangerous to cross. They would have no idea of your strength. Presumably you would tell them you come from a ship. They would have no way of knowing how many ships."
"This is very rational, but I do not get the impression that they are a rational people."
"No, they are not. I cannot deny that there is danger."
Wath-Moll, who had been listening carefully, said, "This danger - where does it come from? Is it from those that guard the priests? Or is it from the general population?"
"The guards," Welkarlin answered promptly. "The people are unarmed - they are the ones that are oppressed, you must remember."
"How many guards?" Reffurio asked.
"Several hundred, I suppose."
"Thirty-eight of us and several hundred of them," Ombissu mused. "Not good odds."
"We have rifles, don’t forget," Reffurio said.
"True, but, as our friends have shown us, a bow in skilled hands can fire faster than a rifle. I don’t like it, my friend."
"We also have our blenjis, but I am not sure they would not be a disadvantage," Ombissu mused. "We cannot be with them all the time. Where would they go? Come to that, where would we spend the nights?"
"In the temple sleeping quarters, I expect," Welkarlin answered. "That may be potentially dangerous. You would be surrounded by guards."
"Then we sleep elsewhere," Ombissu answered tersely. "I think we should sleep with our blenjis, which presumably means outside the town. Would that be acceptable to these people?"
"It would be considered strange. You would need a convincing explanation."
"That’s easy enough," Reffurio said. "We will say that we regard our blenjis as sacred animals and that we must be with them at all times. After all, that’s almost true."
Ombissu asked Welkarlin, "Will that do? Will they accept that explanation?"
"Probably. It seems a good idea. I think we would all be safer outside the town."
"Do you want to ride with us? You would be very useful to us. You speak the language, you are telepathic, you know the customs, you can guide us. But it will be dangerous - and it may be the worse for you if you are recognised."
"Of course I will come," Welkarlin replied, "But I would like Mayvatha to accompany me. She is my partner, and we have always been together. As for the danger, we have known that we would have to return to fight. Your arrival had simply brought that day much closer."
The remark on partners interested the others, for the concept of lifetime partnership was something foreign. Under normal circumstances, it would have sparked an interesting discussion, but times were not normal.
Eln-Tika broke in passionately: "Danger is nothing. We live in constant danger every day of our lives. I would rather die fighting for freedom than be killed by a slasher. This is one of those times when we cannot back away. We have to destroy these people. They are evil."
"I agree," Mekbill said calmly. "We must do our duty."
Ombissu looked around at the serious, intense faces. "We are about to ride into great danger. You may be asked to slaughter the ruling class of a nation. Is there anyone here who does not wish to take part? There will be no punishment for disagreement."
There was no response. "Very well. We will ride in two days and we will do whatever needs to be done."
Chapter 30
Shortly after dawn, the thirty-eight riders mounted their blenjis and rode slowly down the trac
k through the hills towards the plain. All eight hunters were there but two of the sailors had been left behind with the rebels in order that Welkarlin and Mayvatha could join them. The two rebels were wearing the sailors’ uniforms so that they were indistinguishable from the real thing. The sailors left behind had been instructed to return to the ship if the party had not returned within five days.
They rode carefully down the track to the plain. The slope gradually lessened and the track became wider and less rocky. Ombissu signalled the party to a halt. He gave his orders. They were to ride into the town in a disciplined formation. He and Eln-Tika would lead. Behind them they would ride three abreast. In the second row would be Fallassan, Welkarlin, and Voi-Til. At the rear would be Wath-Moll, Reffurio, and Mayvatha. The others could ride with whom they chose but they must stay in formation.
Ombissu said, "We will ride into this town as if we belonged by right. We will ride steadily and confidently but always alert. We will not stop unless specifically told to do so, and even then we may go on. Confidence - that’s what we need to bring this off."
They rode through a countryside that grew progressively tamer. There were fields with domesticated animals. It reminded the hunters of River Fork and its herds of flatheads and, momentarily, they became homesick. The chanits of this plain began to appear, but they seemed incurious, hardly bothering to look at this purposeful group of travellers, even though - remarkably - they were riding on strange beasts.
By late morning, the riders had reached the edge of the town. The buildings were made of stone, low and square with small windows. Here, the chanits stared at them in amazement but made no move to stop them or even to speak. The riders kept up their relentless pace and rode unchallenged along the main thoroughfare, now a wide, dusty and level road.
Ahead of them, they could see the group of pyramids, much larger than the group they had found earlier. They formed an imposing centre to the town. The riders continued their inexorable progress until, at last, they met a group of chanits who were barring their progress. The riders stopped at the edge of the pyramid complex. Although Ombissu’s interest was directed at the chanits, he just had time to notice the brilliant colours of the pyramids.
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