Lord of Darkness

by Robert Silverberg

  Then one time in the night we were all summoned from our sleep. I looked to the north and saw in the air many strange fires and flames rising in manner as high as the moon. And in the element were heard the sound of pipes, trumpets, and drums, most spectral.

  I had been told long ago by older mariners of such strange noises, which may perhaps be caused by the vehement and sundry motions of such fiery exhalations in the sky as are wrought by wind and heat: for those fiery exhalations, ascending into the powerful cold of the middle region of the air, are suddenly stricken back with great force, and make a noise not unlike the noise that fire makes in the air, such as the whizzing of a burning torch. But to Calandola it was a great omen. He stood looking out over the plain and said to me, “See, Andubatil, there is heat coming from the beams of the moon! That means we must march and destroy Kalungu.”

  In faith the moon’s beams felt as cool as ever, to me. But I would not gainsay Calandola.

  He rested his heavy hand on my shoulder and waved the other toward the sleeping town that lay before us. “See, see, Andubatil, the farms, the ploughed earth! Those people have enslaved our mother, and we must set her free.”

  “Indeed, enslaved?”

  “Yea. All across the land, there are men who would make themselves the mother’s masters. And they scourge her dark warm skin with their ploughs, and they cover her with their houses and their roads. It is not right. Those men spread like a plague of insects across the land.”

  I would have said, rather, that it was the Jaqqas that were the plague. But that I held to myself.

  Calandola went on, “Do you understand me? Very few understand. We Jaqqas know the truth, which is not given to other men, that this enslaving of the earth through farming and commerce is a great evil. It was not meant for mankind to do thus.” He spoke most gently and softly, like a thoughtful king rather than as a madman. “It is our mission,” he said, “to undo that evil. And so we sweep from land to land, and we rage, and we slay, and we devour; and behind us everything is made more simple, more clean, more holy. We will restore the earth, Andubatil. We will make it what it was in the first days: green, pure, noble.” And with a laugh he said, “Your Portugals, they build in stone, do they not? Well, and we will drive them into the sea, and give their stone houses over to the jungle, and the vines and creepers will pull the heavy blocks apart. And then will we rejoice, when the motherland is wholly cleansed. Do you understand, Andubatil? So few understand. We are the forces of the purifying. We take into our own bodies those who are the enemies of truth, and we absorb them, and we make their strength our own and we cast forth their weakness. And thus we conquer and prevail. And we will go on in this way from land to land, from shore to shore, to the farthest rim of the sky. Tomorrow it will be Kalungu; and then later it will be Dongo, and Mbanza Kongo, and those other great cities; and in time it will be São Paulo de Loanda, too, and when that city is gone, all will be whole again. After that we will see what work remains to be done in farther realms. Do you see? We have the semblance of ones who smash and destroy, Andubatil: but actually what we do, in truth, is make things whole again.”

  And we stood side by side all that night, looking toward the desert and watching the witch-fires dancing in the air. And that witchery did enter my brain and inflame my blood, for the words of the Imbe-Jaqqa seemed crystal-clear and reasonable to me, and I made no quarrel with them. I saw the world as swarming with ugliness and treachery and corruption, and the good green breast of the earth encumbered with the ill-made works of man; and it seemed to me most peaceful and beautiful to sweep all that away, and return to the silence of the first Garden.

  And when morning came, Imbe Calandola did mount a high scaffold and utter a warlike oration to his troops, inspiring them with the frenzy of battle. Whereupon they did sweep down upon the town of Kalungu and take it, and put its people to the sword and its high slender palm-trees to the axe, and devour many of its folk boiled and roasted, and take its children by impressment into the tribe of Jaqqas. And in that way was yet more of this land returned into its ancestral purity. And in doing this, I truly believe, the Jaqqas were aware of no hypocrisy, but were altogether sincere, in fullest knowledge that this was their divine mission, to smash and destroy until they had made all things whole. Aye, and God spare us from such terrible virtue!

  THREE

  I MAKE my full confession. In the warfare that the Jaqqas had launched against all the civilized world, I confess I did play my full part, with much heartiness and vigor.

  For Calandola had not spoken in jest, or in idle vaporing, when that he had named me on my wedding night to be his lieutenant, and the chief of all his warriors, and dubbed me Kimana Kyeer, the Lord of the Thunder. For love of my musket or for love of my golden hair had he in a single stroke lifted me to a lordship among these people, I who had been a prisoner and a slave and a pawn for so long with the Portugals. Now that we went into battle he looked to me indeed to act my role, as the right hand of the Imbe-Jaqqa, and act it I did, with all the fervor of my soul.

  In giving me this high place he did of course displace others, that might have reason to resent me. There were, I have said, twelve high captains of the Jaqqa nation. Firstmost was Calandola, and then, a long distance behind, Kinguri, by right of blood. I will tell you the names of the other ten, which were Ntotela, Zimbo, Kulambo, Ngonga, Kilombo, Kasanje, Kaimba, Bangala, Ti-Bangala, Machimba-lombo: all of great stature and awesome presence, though in the beginning I could scarce tell one from another. I knew them only as long-legged figures that stalked like spectres through the Jaqqa camp with followings of their own, and stood close beside Calandola and Kinguri at the festivals, and had privileges in the feasting. But of course with time came familiarity, and I learned to know each in his way, and saw that some were mine enemy, and some were friendly in their hearts toward me. But that knowledge came later.

  When we went down into the valley of Kalungu to take it, I was with them, with Kinguri on my left hand and Kulambo, who had the longest arms I ever have seen on a man, to my right. Calandola was not with us, for he had had himself borne ahead of us on a great scarlet palanquin in which he sometimes rode, and was directing things from the fore. But the others seemed to be looking to me to see what I would do.

  When we came to a high position outside the besieged town, where the ground did rise up into strange little tawny hillocks more than three times the height of a man, and very narrow and twisted, I said, “Here will I take my stand, and show them what a musket is used for!”

  And I did climb one hillock that gave me a view into the town, and was within musket range. And with my musket I did set up an uproar of fatal power, that terrified the blackamoors that had come forth from Kalungu to defend themselves, and sent them fleeing in an instant.

  “Kimana Kyeer!” came the cry, as I fired me my first shot. I think ten men fell, though in good sooth I could not have hit more than one, and the others dead of fright.

  I aimed and I shot again. And again came the cry, “Kimana Kyeer!” from the Jaqqas, but also now it came, not so jubilantly, from the throats of the Kalungu men.

  With those two shots did I put the town into rout. Imbe Calandola came from his palanquin, and watched what was befalling; and he grinned a great grin, and hauled forth from his robes his mighty yard, and made water in the direction of the town, with a great yellow stream that was like the outpouring of a giant spigot. For that was his token of conquest, to piddle on the threshold of an enemy that was giving over the fight.

  That was the first of my battles on behalf of the Jaqqas; but it was far from the last.

  I became so highly esteemed with the great Imbe-Jaqqa, because I killed those many Negroes with my musket, and frightened an hundred for every one I slew, that I could have anything I desired of him: the best wine, the choicest meat, captured maidens, little pretty ivory trinkets. I needed but to name it and it was mine. I confess I took some glee in this. I do not conceal it. After so long not my own maste
r, I was Lord of the Thunder, and I was like some vast force let loose from leash. There was a joy in it, that had me looking keenly forward from battle to battle. And when I fought I was like a king, or like a god. All the same I used my shot with caution and parsimony, not knowing where I would replenish my powder when it was gone, but being skillful in my aiming I made full advantage of my weapon’s force, and slew great numbers, and those who were not slain were rendered helpless out of terror of my weapon.

  Terror was a key to the Jaqqas’ success. Their foes were half dead with fear before battle ever was joined. Calandola had seen at once that I was a new kind of terror-wielder, and so it was that he did put me again and again in the fore of his troop, and I would fire, and the battle-cry would go up, “Andubatil Jaqqa! Kimana Kyeer!” And mighty was the weapon of Andubatil, and easy was the conquest of the town that never had beheld a musket before, or a white man. And to protect me, when we went out to the wars, Calandola did give charge to his most valiant men over me, even his high captains. By this means I was often carried away from hard battle in their arms, by giant Ti-Bangala or broad-backed Ngonga, and my life thereby saved: for there was ever a phalanx of puissant Jaqqa swordsmen to shield me and rescue me.

  The way of fighting of the Jaqqas was most shrewd. When they came into any country that was strong, which they could not the first day conquer, then Calandola would order them to build their sturdy fort, and they would remain sometimes a month or two quiet. For Calandola said to me, “It is as great a war to the inhabitants to see me settled in their country, as though I fought with them every day.” The houses of the Jaqqa town were built very close together, and outside each the men kept their bows, arrows, and darts; and when the alarm was given, they all would rush suddenly out of the fort and seize their weapons and be ready to do battle, no matter the hour. Every company kept very good watch at the gates in the night, playing upon their drums and the wooden instruments called tavales, and there was never any relaxing of vigilance.

  Sometimes some of the most rash of the beleaguered townspeople might come out and assault the Jaqqas at their fort; but when this happened, the Jaqqas did defend themselves most staunchly for two or three days. And when Calandola was minded to give the onset, he would, in the night, put out some one thousand men: which did bed themselves down in an ambuscade about a mile from the fort. Then in the morning the great Jaqqa would go with all his strength out of the fort, as though he would capture the town. The inhabitants coming near the fort to defend their country, the Jaqqas gave the watchword with their drums, and then the men hidden in ambuscade did rise, and fall upon them from the other side, so that very few did escape. And that day Calandola would overrun the country, which in fright and panic yielded itself up without further struggle. I saw this tactic worked many times, and always in success.

  Of the courage of the Jaqqas there seemed to be no limit. But there is good reason for this, since like the Spartans of old they are trained from boyhood toward valor. First there is the custom of putting the slave-collar to the newly adopted Jaqqas, that they must wear until they have killed a foe in battle. For a boy to wear this collar is accounted no disgrace, at least when he is thirteen or fourteen. But if he go a year or two beyond that, and still is collared, the men do mock him and the girls will not lie with him, and he will rush forward in battle to slay or be slain, lest he be accounted worthless.

  You may readily see from this that only the warlike Jaqqas live to manhood, and the weak ones are culled from the tribe early. But if by some accident of fortune a weakling endures, he will not endure long into his mature years: for those soldiers that are faint-hearted, and are seen turning their backs to the enemy, are presently condemned and killed for cowards, and their bodies eaten. I have seen this.

  I asked Kinguri once why they would make the flesh of a coward part of their own flesh, and he looked upon me frowning as if I had asked of him in Greek or Hebrew, and said at last, “The cowardice of them is boiled away in the pot, and what remains is their inborn vigor, which we consume.”

  They had many other ways of increasing themselves in courage. One I saw during the time after the conquest of Kalungu, where we remained five or six months, making use of the substance of those farming folk. It happened that some Jaqqa huntsmen did capture a lion of great fierceness, which they took in a very strong trap, using a kid as bait. This lion, which was a she-lion—and they are very much more fierce than the male—they chained down to the trunk of a great red-barked tree in the midst of a spacious plain outside their fort. Nearby, in the top of another tree, the Jaqqas did erect a sort of scaffold, capable of holding the Imbe-Jaqqa and the chiefest of his lords, among whom I was now reckoned.

  When Calandola and all his court had mounted this scaffold, the other Jaqqas who had assembled in a great circle began to set up a huge noise, which joined with the untunable discord of a great number of odd musical instruments to compose a hellish concert. Then a sudden sign was given for all to be hush and silent; and then the lion was immediately loosed, though with the loss of her tail, which was at the same time whipped off to make her the more furious.

  At her first looking the lion stared about, comprehending that she was again at liberty, but not altogether free, by reason of the multitude of Jaqqas that surrounded her. At once she set up a hideous roar, and then, greedy of revenge, she launched herself into the company of onlookers. Who did not flee, but rather ran toward the lion. She did fall upon them, rending one, and tearing another, and making a fearful havoc among them: all this, while the people ran round her unarmed, being resolved either to kill her with their bare hands, or to perish. I had never seen the like of this bloody event even in my strangest dreams, and I thought for an instant I was at the Circus in old Rome, seeing Christians tossed to the wild beasts. But these were no Christians, and they had gone joyously and willingly toward that ravening she-lion.

  In utter amaze I watched as the bleeding beast raked this Jaqqa and that one with her claws, or griped at them with her fangs. She slew more than a few of her assailants, spilling their entrails in the dust with great sweeping onslaughts of her limbs. And all this time the Jaqqas closed their ring, moving inward, and fighting and jostling with one another for the privilege of being of the innermost ring, that confronted the she-lion most closely.

  It seemed like madness to me. And yet I was stirred by it: my heart did race, my blood did grow heated, my sweat to flow. I hunched myself forward to the edge of the scaffold, and clenched my fists so that my nails did nigh pierce my palms, and shouted out to the ones below, “Beware! Turn! Jump! Guard yourself!” as the lion worked her rampage.

  The other lordly Jaqqas likewise were well gripped by the carnal spectacle. Calandola did growl and roar to himself, eyes half-closed as though he were lost in a dream of gory welter. Ferocious Kulambo, who was a great huntsman, shouted encouragement to those in jeopardy, and clapped his hands and cried out at their bravery. The dark-souled and brooding Machimba-lombo made low sounds in the depths of his throat, and strained in his seat, plainly yearning to be down there with the crowd. Even the austere philosopher Kinguri, who trafficked in such high questions of faith and money and government, showed himself now as bestial as the others, as deep in the sanguinary passion of the moment. Yet were we all but onlookers, constrained to remain in our scaffolding. That was made clear when Machimba-lombo at last could stand no more, and rose, and cried, “I will go to them!”

  “You may not,” said the Imbe-Jaqqa, cold and sharp.

  “I beg it, Lord Calandola! I cannot sit longer!”

  “The lion-circle is no longer for you,” replied his master. “You are of the captains now, and here will you stay.”

  There was palpable strain in the air between them: I saw the throbbing in the proud Machimba-lombo’s throat and forehead, like that of a Titan enchained. He moved most slowly, as if through a tangible fog, toward the ladder, and he was trembling with the effort of it. Calandola hissed at him: Machimba-lombo halted. He
fought within himself. Kinguri touched his wrist lightly and said in a soft way, “Come, take your ease, and watch the sport. For it is not fitting to go below, at your rank, good friend.” It was like the letting out of air from some swollen bladder. Machimba-lombo, moved by Kinguri’s gentle words where Calandola’s rage had not swayed him, subsided and resumed his place, and the moment passed.

  Below, there was scarce any room at last for the beast to make her attack, so tight was the pressing crowd of Jaqqas about her: and they rushed in, with a terrible cry, and seized the beast and forced her down, and by sheer weight and force did crush her and choke the life from her. Each of the Jaqqa warriors strived to outdo the others in the taking of risk and leaping on the lion. And after a time a vast outroar went up from them all, saying, “The beast is dead!” They all did withdraw to the outer edge of the circle, leaving in the midst the dead lion, now looking merely to be a great tabby-cat that was asleep, and about her some members of their own tribe that she had slain.

  Whereupon the kettles were heated and they did all greedily devour the dead bodies of the fallen. The choicest parts were handed up the scaffold to Calandola and his nobles, and we did pounce upon the meat like vultures, since that there is much virtue in consuming the flesh of those who have died bravely in this sport. I held back a while, letting them have their fill, for they were so eager.

  But when I went for mine, I came in the way of Machimba-lombo, whose lips and jowls were besmeared with grease and whose eyes were wild with hunger and something else, a sort of frenzy. I thought he would strike me as I reached past him for my slice: but again he controlled himself, holding taut, and I heard him rumbling in his throat. For this man was mine enemy, and I was coming now to learn it. Yet I could not let him threaten me before the others. So courteously I said, “I pray you, good cousin, let me have my due share.”