Beneath The Mantle

by Ahimsa Kerp

“I didn’t say that was all we ate,” Acan said. “And besides, we are not men.”

  “What’s the large structure in the middle?” Doctor Gomez asked.

  “It’s our public space,” Acan said, a little smile on his lips. “For everything. City councils, eating together, civic functions, entertainment rooms. One centralized location for everything you’d do with another person.”

  Before anyone could say anything to that, they reached the first of the tree-homes. The gnarled, brown wood was stretched as though by magic into a horseshoe shape. The wood was still alive, as evidenced by the bright green leaves growing in bunches from numerous small branches. But it looked polished smooth, as though it had been sanded.

  “Which one is yours?” Stuart asked.

  “Which one is mine?” Acan repeated slowly, as though trying to answer a riddle. After several moments, his face brightened with realization. “Ah yes. I forget how proprietary you are.” He indicated the scattered wooden shelters. “All of these are all of ours. We share in Selvage. Most of them are empty, as we travel or stay for some time in the public space.”

  “But what’s to stop you from just walking into someone else’s place?” Stuart asked.

  “What’s to stop me from walking into you right now?”

  “You can see me, for one.”

  “Exactly.”

  “Are you telling me that you can sense which of these are occupied and which aren’t?” Stuart asked.

  “More or less,” Acan said. “I find it difficult to explain. But I have an innate sense of where my Selvagian friends are, always. Like knowing which way is up, or recognizing the warmth of fire.”

  “Interesting,” Stuart said. He wasn’t sure what else there was to say.

  “Now we have traveled for some time,” Acan said. He stopped walking and turned to face them. “We have come far today, and from what you told me, you had been going since well before we met. I suggest you get some sleep inside this home.”

  “I feel fine,” Keshav said. “I am not tired at all.”

  “That would be the balche,” Acan said. “You above all need some rest.”

  Keshav nodded.

  “While you sleep, I will speak to others about the disc, and your involvement. I will tell you tomorrow what I have learned.”

  Stuart did feel exhausted. His aching legs, having descended the stairs twice and ascended them once, were wobbling. Since then, he guessed they’d walked at least twenty-five kilometers. Throw in some adrenaline inducing battles and the end result is a kind of weariness that brooks no dissent. And yet, something felt strange. Felt off. Why was Acan so eager to get rid of them?

  His eyes drooped, and he was barely aware of Acan opening the doors to a handful of tree houses. “If you grow hungry or wish to bathe, simply step through the portals,” Acan said. “All homes are connected to the public space, and you can come through for whatever you need.”

  The inside was hard for Stuart to focus on. Almost like it had come from, or still partially belonged to, another dimension. The walls were not constant, and there was a feeling of rooms that came and went. The roof at times was just over his head, and at other times, he had the impression of sky above him. He watched this for several long seconds before the room shifted into a semblance of static reality. A basic chamber; one with four walls and a roof and a bed of leaves on the ground. Stuart climbed onto the bed and almost instantly slept the sleep of the dead.

  The next day, they were provided with new clothes like that of the natives. The material was more comfortable than anything they’d ever worn, and the patterns were ever-changing spirals of stars. They met other Selvagians. None were gods they had heard of, most claimed their followers had died out long ago. But all were fascinating people with great stories, and friendly tones. A tall woman named Ninkasi seemed to be informally in charge, and as they walked through the city, they were greeted as minor celebrities. Much of the day they spoke with various gentle folk. They explored the public space, eating great plates of steaming mushrooms, and watching a sort of hologram puppet show. Acan showed them a tree-home that was filled with vials of his healing balche, spoke to them of the disc, and introduced them to his friend Erinle. Erinle was a muscular brown-skinned man with feminine features; he was apparently also a god of healing. He had a smile that made you want to be his friend. It was a day of rest, of eating, and of new friends.

  On their third day, the city was attacked.

  ***

  Acan appeared to them, looking worried. Erinle was by his side. “Please, friends, stay here,” Acan said.

  “Why? What?” Doctor Gomez asked.

  “The forces of Omphalos have appeared in the valley. We will go to repel them.”

  “Is it?” Doctor Gomez lowered her voice. “Is it Ra?”

  Acan didn’t say anything, but Erinle nodded. “Close enough,” he said, his voice deep. “The Falcon Lord has split himself into two; Authority and Mind. They are leading the forces of Omphalos, and they are opponents both foul and formidable.”

  Acan grimaced. “Yes, we will need our armor.” He turned to the Upworlders. “Remember, stay here. It’s for your safety. But you needn’t remain ignorant. If we are losing, you should flee, though I cannot guarantee that running away will keep you safe.”

  He handed them a bamboo cup filled with murky liquid. Mushroom stems and caps bobbed in that dark brew.

  Keshav took it. “What do I do with it?”

  Acan narrowed his eyes. “Drink it. Just a sip each, if you would see near. More and you will see too much.”

  Acan and Erinle turned away.

  “What does that mean, split himself in two?” Stuart asked.

  Before anyone could answer, Erinle turned around. “Mortals,” he said. “I can show you, if you would see something marvelous.”

  Bemused, the four of them followed the two gods. As they moved through the city, Stuart could see, in the distance, a riot of darkness by the mouth of the river. They were too far away from the city in order to see any individuals, but the blogger housed no doubts. “That’s them,” he hissed.

  Doctor Gomez saw them too, and her face crinkled in worry. To have their refuge in this land threatened was a harsh reality to accept.

  And then they arrived at a tree-home. It looked much like any other, but when Acan and Erinle opened it, the shining light almost blinded them. The interior was filled with glittering crystal suits. They were incandescent, soft shining blues, greens, pinks, purples, and whites. They stood like silent sentinels, empty vessels of power waiting to be filled.

  “These are some of our greatest treasures,” Acan said. “At least in the martial realm.”

  “I can see that,” Doctor Gomez said.

  “Why would you ever leave the city without them?” Keshav asked.

  “We must use them sparingly,” Acan admitted. “They need natural light to power them.”

  “They were designed and created when we still lived on Lemuria,” Erinle admitted. “Sunlight was less of a commodity then.”

  “How do these still even work?” Doctor Gomez asked. “Lemuria sank hundreds of years ago.”

  “There is an area here, in our land, where the sun shines through the crust of the Earth.”

  “We’re hundreds of feet beneath the Earth’s surface. How is that possible?” Stuart said.

  Acan shrugged. “I seem to recall we engineered it, long ago, when still we dwelt on the surface. The details aren’t important. We recharge our suits there.”

  “All cities recharge their heliacal technology there,” Erinle said, a little awkwardly. “It is the cause of much of our discord with Omphalos.”

  “Much, but not all,” Acan interjected. “Conflict was inevitable.”

  There was a dark shimmering, and more Selvagians appeared through the portal. Stuart recognized some of them, but he did not remember any of their names apart from Ninkasi. Acan and Erinle joined them, and slowly, with ritualized precision, they donned their
crystal armor. Sharp angles jutted from elbows and knees. Quickly, they were completely clad in the crystal armor.

  There were two score and ten of them, which claimed about half of the available suits. The armored men and women filed out to the green fields of Selvage. A snorting roar greeted them, and a tall slender woman dressed in verdant robes waited there. Behind her were animals the likes of which they had never seen.

  Tall and dark, wide-backed four legged beasts. They looked like moose, but bigger; wild-eyed and more feral. Most of all, their antlers were massive. They were as long as a person; almost two meters of sharp branching horn stretched from their heads.

  “What,” whispered Stuart to Doctor Gomez, “are those?”

  Her eyes were wide. Her mouth barely moved as she answered. “Megamoose.”

  There was a field in a nearby valley, they later learned. The megamoose could wander there, free to graze, rut, and sleep. But there was a tree home there, with one of the teleportation portals. It was the work of mere minutes to gather up the animals, and anyone in Selvage could do it. It took a mighty mount to bear the weight of the crystal clad warriors, and nothing short of a rhino or elephant up on Earth could have handled it. These megamoose were as big as rhinos, even without their antlers.

  Out in that field was another creature, even shaggier, even more massive. One that all four of them had seen countless pictures of, even though the animals had been wiped out from the top of the Earth by the early Holocene. They were the mammut; wooly mammoths with shaggy pelts and tusks that stretched from their furry faces. The subtropical temperatures were far too high for the rugged beasts, and they lived in a cooled bubble the Selvagians had created for them. Leaving the temperature controlled bubble even for a short time rapidly fatigued the tundra creatures. It was for this reason alone they were not brought to the battle, for they were sorely needed.

  The Selvagians mounted the megamoose and rode off unceremoniously. The four humans were left alone.

  “I wish Dean could have seen those,” Doctor Gomez said. “Moose were his favorite animals. He had a tattoo of one on his thigh.” Her voice was small and her eyes far away.

  Stuart was not happy with that image, but for the first time, he realized she must have been falling in love with Dean Maxwell. Already asking herself: is this the one? Already thinking about which of her friends would serve as a maid of honor. Already wondering if he wanted children, and what they would name them. Despite the somber mood, Stuart chuckled. Who would have guessed that the analytical, short-tempered Dr. Gomez was a romantic at heart?

  All eyes turned on him, and he realized his response was quite inappropriate to Doctor Gomez’s statement. To sidestep explaining his train of thoughts, he turned to Keshav, and asked, “What did our friend give you? How will it help you see?”

  Keshav hoisted the bamboo tube up into the air. “There’s certainly one way to find out.” He took a deep drink and passed the elixir to Baruna.

  ***

  Stuart was the last to drink. The brew tasted bitter and earthy. But within moments of ingesting it, Stuart could see things. At first he could recognize the tree-homes around them, but from above, the way a sparrow or raven would look upon the world. From there, it took only a little concentration and he could shift his perspective. He could still feel his body, bound to the earth on the grass in Selvage. But his consciousness was free, a nomad of the purple sky.

  A little experimentation and he was looking down on the invading army of Omphalos. The first thing he noticed was that the army was not made of humans. Nor were there animals present. Instead there were many, two or three hundred, of the shambling creatures. They trod through streams and trampled grass, tore through flower fields, and stomped across shale. The beings were loutish, inhuman. Like robots made out of rocks and mud.

  “Do you all see what I see?” Stuart asked. As soon as he thought of them, he was aware of the three others, beside him in the sky.

  “I’ve drunk a lot of chai,” Baruna said. “But never has it done this to me.”

  “I get the heebie-jeebies just looking at those things,” Doctor Gomez said.

  Stuart agreed. “Keshav?” he asked. “Any idea what these are?”

  Keshav was silent for some time.

  “I wouldn’t stake my life on it, but if what I remember from RPGs is correct, I think we’d call them golems.”

  “Huh,” Stuart said. “Well, I don’t like the look of them. They’re terrifying.”

  “Well, after you’ve been swallowed and partially eaten by a plant, terrifying takes on a new meaning,” Keshav said. “But at least according to myths, golems are inexorable, unstoppable until they fulfill their purpose.”

  “Why do I get the feeling,” Dr. Gomez asked, “that their purpose involves coming for us?”

  Chapter 13

  As terrifying as the golem forces were, there was something worse with that army. Clad in white robes, each clasping a nut brown stave, were the twin aspects of Ra: Authority and Mind. They were falcon-faced twins. They moved with a divinely lethal grace and were wrapped in power so strong they shone with it. The only way to tell them apart was that Mind had a red diamond on his forehead; Authority had the same symbol emblazoned on his chest.

  “Look at those wankers,” Keshav said. The Selvagians were closing in, riding their mighty megamoose at an easy pace. The golems split. Those made mostly of rock and stone shifted to the front, forming a veritable stone wall. The earthy ones jerked to the either side, giving wings to the wall of stone golems. A small brook bubbled merrily behind the terrible beings.

  Without breaking their stride, the charging Selvagians shifted into a wedge formation. Acan and Erinle were riding together, over on the left side of the wedge.

  Stuart could feel his heart beating quickly, and his mouth felt dry.

  “I wanted to go the Maldives for our honeymoon,” Baruna said suddenly.

  The charging moose accelerated. The golems braced themselves, leaning into the earth itself. Looking as comfortable as two gentlemen strolling across a croquet pitch, the two falconmen held their staves before them.

  The air began to crackle with energy. Stuart sensed more than felt a great wash of heat emanating from the staves of Ra’s aspects.

  Some of the megamoose stumbled from the heat. Three would never rise again, but others struggled to find their footing. The charge faltered, fizzled, but was not finished. With a roar, the Selvagian forces met the golems.

  Even with expanded consciousness, it was difficult to see what happened next. Stuart saw the sprawling antlers of the megamoose hit the stone golems. Some golems were torn apart, but so too were many of the antlers snapped, necks broken. The battle became a series of snapshots.

  A dismounted warrior in crystal armor charged the two aspects of Ra.

  Acan and Erinle rode through earth golems, their steeds trampling enemies into the earth.

  The largest stone golem, his hands big as boulders, clapped his hand around the head of an opponent. Even with her crystal helmet, her head, was pancaked and her twitching body fell to the earth.

  A dead warrior at the feet of Mind and Authority.

  Laser pistols fired into golems, creating holes that quickly sealed up and hurt the golems not at all.

  Brown earth and red blood filling the once-clear waters of the brook.

  The smell of ozone and blood and smoke and ash and above all, the earthy smell of a summer day just before rain.

  The aspect of Ra known as Mind strode forward, his skin turning red with power and energy. His mere touch turned megamoose into cinders, their bodies collapsing in piles of ashes.

  Stuart felt his body calling to him, and he realized that the powers of the tea were fading. With an effort that made his head ache, he focused, willing the vision to last as long as it could.

  Authority was surrounded by several warriors of Selvage. It struck out against them, but their crystal armor protected them. They pressed in on him, lashing out with bla
des of crystal and obsidian.

  Mind was flame red now. It raised its hand and shot a jet of flame.

  The warriors of Selvage began to break, to retreat. But behind Mind one warrior came sprinting in. He plunged his long spear though the head of a golem and sprang through the air.

  Mind turned, head cocking upwards.

  Too late. Be too late. Stuart pleaded. The vision was going fuzzy, the reception becoming unclear. His eyes watered with the effort of watching. Already he could sense that Keshav and Doctor Gomez were gone, back in their bodies.

  The charging Selvagian, while still in mid-air, pulled out a blade and drove it through the head of Mind. The falcon-headed creature crumpled to the ground. His skin bleached color, returning to snow white in the matter of seconds. But it was not dead. It stood and raised its stave at the Selvagian warrior.

  “Stuart,” someone was saying. “Stuart.”

  For a moment, Stuart could see the concerned faces of his companions. He was sitting cross-legged on the grass, and his legs were asleep. With a great effort of will, he closed his eyes, and his consciousness escaped for one more moment.

  Mind was bleeding and running away. Authority limped over to aid him. The golems were broken, lumps of earth and stone, possessing no sentience whatsoever.

  The remaining Selvagians were gathering their steeds and returning to the city. They had won. Only then did Stuart return to his body.

  ***

  That night, they ate in the public hall. It was both celebration and wake for those who had fallen. Tall pitchers of brown, green, and blue beverages were stacked on tree trunks. On another, plates filled with sizzling mushrooms awaited. Stuart sat next to Keshav and Baruna. He looked expectantly for their fourth, but when she joined them, Doctor Gomez sat next to a thin Selvagian man whose long brown hair was gathered into a ponytail. All Selvagians were wiry and tall, but this fellow was damn near gangly. He would have been a comic figure had he not possessed the grace and bearing of a demi-god. A grace that was somewhat belied by the scruffy goatee he wore, calling to Stuart’s mind images of Florida trailer park trash.