The Enemy Papers Page 6

  Conseh rushed outside and looked at the spires of smoke, now five in number. "It is impossible, Uhe. I would not disobey you, and my warmasters would not disobey me." Conseh studied the forest more closely. "Look, Uhe! The Diruvedah sets its own fires!"

  And it was true. The fires could be seen to begin deep within the forest, far beyond the limits of the Denvedah. The gentle winds blew south toward the Great Cut. The first tongues of flame became visible above the treetops.

  Uhe took a step forward, its fist in the air, and screamed, "Mijii! Mijii! You are insane!"

  Uhe turned to Conseh. "Have the order spread to the front lines that any of the Diruvedah trying to escape the flames are to be allowed to do so. Take them, and guard them, but let them through."

  Conseh ran toward its staff of runners. Uhe looked back at the forest. The entire front was smoke and flame, obscuring the unburned trees behind. "This is a crime you do, Mijii! A crime against Aakva! A crime against the Sindie!"

  Tocchah came to a stop next to Uhe. "Watch those flames, ruler of the Denvedah. I would not—did not, could not—do the same. But you cannot imagine the pride I feel at this moment."

  "Pride?" Uhe's eyes were wide as they turned to stare at Tocchah. "Pride?"

  "They would rather die at their own hands than at yours or the Madah's. They would rather burn themselves and their children than serve your cause. Yes. Pride."

  Uhe grabbed Tocchah's arm. "It is not my cause, Tocchah! It is Aakva's!"

  Tocchah pulled its arm free and looked at the ruler of the Denvedah. "You say that there are worse things than war; worse things than eating one's young! I tell you this, Uhe: there are worse things than dying in the manner of the Diruvedah!"

  Tocchah left, and Uhe stared at the burning forest. The ruler of the Denvedah stood for two days and nights watching the flames and smoke. Upon the morning of the third day, a runner approached Uhe bearing food. Uhe ignored the food, but told the runner: "Bring word to Nuvvea. The Northern Denvedah is to go down into the lands of the Kuvedah. Tell Nuvvea that Conseh will take the Northern Denvedah and will cross the Great Cut here. Conseh will be in the land of the Kuvedah within three days. Go."

  The runner left, and Uhe was overheard to say: "And by the bones of my child, Leuno, if the Kuvedah prefers death to the Denvedah's victory, then let them be quick about it. I would spend no more good warriors' lives upon meaningless gestures. You disgust me, Mijii; and you corrupt the memory of a great people. If you refused me your service by dying with a blade in your hand, perhaps then you would be hero. But you are a coward and you have murdered your people."

  The ruler of the Denvedah lowered its head and began walking toward the forest of ashes.

  In the burned forest, the trunks of trees standing like so many blackened teeth, the Denvedah searched for days. Charred flesh and bones, arranged in ceremonial rings, were found by the warriors. All were dead, the only sounds being the hiss and crack of the few remaining fires.

  It was Uhe who found the lone survivor. It was a baby, half-covered by the body of its parent. The baby's legs were burned, and the ruler of the Denvedah had Daes send a healer to treat the child. When Uhe was certain that the child would live, it had the child sent back with the healer to the Sixth Denve to be reared as its own.

  Uhe named the child "of the world," and it was forever after called Sindieah.

  The finish of the next year saw the surrender of the last of the Kuvedah and the Denvedah victorious across the face of Sindie. On the top of Butaan Mountain, a mighty hill of rock near the Akkujah, just north of the Great Cut, Uhe gathered its warmasters and overmasters. And Uhe spoke:

  "You have fulfilled Aakva's new Law of War. Now I tell you that a new Law of Peace is the wish of the Parent of All. The servants of Aakva shall meet here in ten days. At that time, they shall choose from their number a chief of servants, who will then see to keeping the new law.

  "You will disband your warriors and make them hunters and farmers again, keeping only one sedenve of the Tsien Denvedah to do the bidding of the chief of servants in its quest to bring this world to peace and plenty. The rest shall return to raising children, hunting, living, and worshipping Aakva."

  Conseh stood forth from the gathering. "Uhe, the servants must choose you as the chief of servants."

  "No." Uhe looked down at the rocks of Butaan Mountain. "You will go now and do my bidding." Uhe motioned toward the old Mavedah chief of servants. "Iyjiia, you shall remain here."

  The assembled warmasters walked slowly from the mountain. When they had gone, Iyjiia held out its hands and then let them fall to its sides. "What do you want of me, Uhe? Am I to be killed to clear the way for this new Sindie chief of servants?"

  Uhe pulled the hide-wrapped black metal knife from its sash and pointed it at the old servant. Uhe spoke: "Things must change, Iyjiia Those who obstruct the salvation of the Sindie must step aside. Laws that obstruct this same salvation must be put aside. Do you understand this?"

  Iyjiia bowed its head. "I understand."

  Uhe removed the hide covering from the knife and let the skin fall to the ground. 'Iyjiia, I will end my life upon this mountain."

  "No! You have brought us this far. You have unified the people. You must live to rule the Sindie."

  Uhe knelt, looked up, and faced the God of the Day Light. "Iyjiia, what it takes to conquer a world is different than what is needed to rule a world."

  "Perhaps this is fact, Uhe. But how do you know that you lack what it takes to rule a world?"

  "I know, Iyjiia I have lied; I have stolen; I have murdered. Never should the ages be able to describe a Sindie ruler in such terms."

  Iyjiia knelt next to Uhe, and placed a hand upon Uhe's shoulder. "These were the necessities of war, of survival, of the times. We are all tainted."

  "The times have changed, Iyjiia There is no need for war now, and no need for a master of warmasters. I must step aside. The servants must search among the Sindie and find one who is neither thief, blasphemer, murderer, or coward. Choose that one for your chief." Uhe looked at the old servant. "Iyjiia, will you hear my prayer?"

  Iyjiia removed its hand from Uhe's shoulder. "I will hear it."

  Uhe faced the God of the Day Light. "Aakva, your old Law of Peace was wrong, and I have set it right. This is my crime, and my claim to virtue. Aakva, make yourself known to the Sindie, your children; feed them, keep them warm, and keep them safe. Aakva, in the name of your children, become a more perfect god."

  Uhe then lifted its blade and fell upon it. It took but a moment and Uhe was dead.

  It was Iyjiia who gathered the brush and sticks to burn Uhe's body, allowing the pyre to carry Uhe's life to the side of Aakva. Iyjiia remained upon Butaan Mountain for ten days and nights, praying as the servants gathered there. On the morning of the eleventh day, Iyjiia stood and addressed the servants:

  "I have spoken with the God of the Day Light." Iyjiia pointed at the ashes of Uhe's pyre. "Here we shall erect a tomb so that the ashes of Uhe the Conqueror may always be in peace. Around this tomb we shall construct a great temple that all may come and learn the story of Uhe. And around this temple the Sindie will settle and build a great city through which the people may learn, practice, and enjoy the lessons and blessings of Aakva."

  A servant named Osa spoke to Iyjiia. "Has the God of the Day Light revealed to you the name of the next chief of the Sindie servants?"

  "There is a child that Uhe took from the ashes of the Diruvedah. Uhe named the child Sindieah. Before it died, Uhe said that the ruler of the Sindie must be one who is not tainted by either war or cowardice. Too young to know war, Sindieah cannot be tainted by war. And it had the courage to live when its people had only the courage to die.

  "We, the servants of Aakva, shall rear this child. And when it performs the rites of adulthood, we shall make Sindieah the chief and ruler of the Sindie."

  The tomb was built, the temple begun, and the city named Butaan soon covered the mountain, while the world surro
unding the mountain lived in peace and plenty under the rule of Sindieah.

  All praised the wisdom of Aakva.

  KODA NUVIDA

  The Story of Shizumaat

  I, Mistaan, set down before you the words of Namndas and Vehya who recited before me the life of Shizumaat and the second truth.

  I am Namndas, child of Piera, who was the child of Rukor, who was the child of Ivey, warrior of Uhe's Seventh Denve. I stand before you here to speak of Shizumaat, for I was Shizumaat's childhood friend and companion, and I was the one who stood the watch at the mark.

  Sindieah Nu the Ancient was the child of Sindieah, Born of Fire. The rule of Sindieah Nu was marked by an increase in the road system begun by its parent, the expansion of cultivated crops in both the Kudah and the Dirudah, and the beginning of the great project to irrigate the Madah by tapping the hidden reservoirs in the Akkujah Mountains.

  Regional centers, each governed by a servant appointed by Sindieah Nu, settled disputes, caused way stations and granaries to be built, and built and maintained the roads.

  The works ordered by the servants and their chief were accomplished by each Sindie's performance of Aakva's Laws of Gift and Labor handed down by the servants during Sindieah's rule. When the harvests were plentiful, the Law could be served by giving one-twelfth of the harvest to be stored in the granaries. When the crops were poor, each adult over the age of four years had to spend at least one day out of twelve working under the direction of the servants. In exchange for this, the workers were fed from the granaries administered by the servants of Aakva.

  The firstborn of Sindieah Nu was Sindieah Ay. And after its parent had retired from the servants, and during Sindieah Ay's rule of the servants of Aakva, the Temple of Uhe was completed. The cut-stone walls of the temple were as tall as eight Sindie and they enclosed an area of sixty by ninety paces. The roof of wooden beams and slabstone was supported by square stone columns arranged in six proportionate rectangles. At the center of the smallest rectangle was the great stone tomb that covered Uhe's ashes.

  The eastern wall of the temple was an open row of stone columns. Northern and southern walls each had center doorways only two paces wide. The wall facing the Madah had no opening. During the day, light was provided by the Parent of All; during the night, light was provided by the three hundred oil lamps that were suspended from the temple's great ceiling.

  The shelters around the temple were separated by narrow streets, and were made of both stone and wood. In one of these houses, covered by the afternoon shadow of the temple, a Sindie shaper of iron, in Butaan to perform its duty to Aakva through labor, gave birth to a child. The shaper of iron's name was Caduah, and Caduah named its offspring Child of Duty, Shizumaat.

  Because of the birth of the child, and because Caduah had received from those who served Sindieah Ay's court several commissions for iron house ornaments, the shaper of iron made its permanent home in Butaan. Caduah was a dutiful worshipper of Aakva, and Caduah instructed its child in the ways and truths of the God of the Day Light, and of the servants. Shizumaat learned the story of creation, the laws as revealed to Rhada, and the story of Uhe.

  On the beginning of Shizumaat's third year, Caduah entered its child in the temple to perform before the servants the rites of adulthood. Shizumaat recited the story of creation, the laws, and the story of Uhe; and then Shizumaat recited its family line from its parent, Caduah, to the founder of its line, the Mavedah hunter called Limish.

  And when the rites were completed, Caduah applied for Shizumaat to become a servant of Aakva.

  Ebneh was the servant who had heard the child's recitation, and Ebneh was sufficiently impressed by the performance that it enrolled Shizumaat into the Aakva Kovah, the School of God. The nights Shizumaat would spend in its parent's house; the days Shizumaat would spend in the temple learning the secrets, signs, laws, wishes, and visions of the Parent of All.

  I, Namndas, had entered the Aakva Kovah the year before Shizumaat, and was placed in charge of Shizumaat's class. I drew this duty because the servants of the temple considered me the least worthy of my own class. While my companions sat at the feet of the servants and engaged in learned discourse, I would chase dirt.

  My charges were assigned a place in the darkness next to the Madah wall where my own class had begun the year before. On the morning of the first day of their instruction, Shizumaat's class sat upon the smooth stone floor and listened as I spoke the rules of the temple.

  "I, Namndas, am your charge-of-class. You are the lowest class in the temple, and for this reason, the care and cleaning of the temple is left to you. I tell you now that I will never find as much as a single fleck of dust in the temple while I am your charge-of-class. You will clean the filth from the air before it lands upon these stones; you will wash the dust from the feet of those who enter the temple." I pointed toward the soot-blackened ceiling. "Every evening it is your responsibility to trim and fuel the temple's lamps. Through all of this, you will keep clean yourselves. Your bodies will be clean and your robes clean and mended."

  Shizumaat stood. It was tall for its age, and there was a strange brightness to its eyes. "Namndas, when are we to be given our instruction? When will we learn?"

  I felt my face grow hot. Such impudence! "You shall be allowed to receive instruction when I inform Servant Ebneh that you are worthy. Sit and be silent!"

  Shizumaat resumed its seat upon the floor, and I issued a glare that encompassed all nine of them. "You will not speak except in answer to a question from me or from one of the servants. You are here to learn, and the first thing you must learn is obedience."

  I returned my glare to Shizumaat and saw it carrying an enigmatic expression upon its face. I spoke to Shizumaat. "I cannot read your face, new-charge. What does it say?"

  Shizumaat remained seated upon the floor, but looked at me as it spoke. "Does Aakva, then, judge its servants by how well they imitate the dumb animals, and their skill at wielding a scrub rag?"

  "Your words court disaster."

  "Namndas, when you asked your question, did you want from me lies or truth?"

  "This is a temple of truth. What are you called?"

  "I am called Shizumaat."

  "Then, Shizumaat, I must tell you that I see little hope for your graduation from the Madah wall to the center of the temple."

  Shizumaat nodded and looked past the forest of columns toward Uhe's tomb. "I think the truth serves you at last, Namndas."

  The days passed, and although it remained silent, Shizumaat performed its temple duties well enough. Shizumaat, however, always appeared restless; and it listened to all the talk of the temple as though trying to memorize it. By the time two new classes were formed, and my charges occupied the south end of the Madah Wall, Ebneh stood before the class to hear their recitations of Aakva, Rhada, Daultha, and Uhe.

  When all had completed their recitations, Ebneh held out its hands. "We call the Story of Uhe the Koda Ovida; and what is the first truth?"

  There are, of course, many truths within the first Koda. The student's task is to draw from the story the greatest truth. The first student stood and spoke the accepted truth of the story: "That it is Aakva's law that the servants of Aakva will speak the true wishes of Aakva."

  Ebneh nodded, pleased. "And do you all agree?"

  All of the students nodded, except for Shizumaat. My rebel stared through the columns at Uhe's tomb until Ebneh called out. "Shizumaat, were you listening?"

  Shizumaat's eyes turned toward Ebneh. "I was listening."

  "Do you agree to this student's interpretation of the Koda Ovida?"

  "No." Shizumaat looked back toward Uhe's tomb.

  "No? No?" Ebneh stood next to Shizumaat. "You will stand and explain!" Shizumaat stood and looked at Ebneh. "What truth do you see in the Koda Ovida?" demanded the servant.

  "Ebneh, I see that a rule stood between the Mavedah and survival; I see that the rule was nothing sacred, but made by Sindie; and I see that Uhe saw this and
cast the rule aside to save its people. The truth I see, then, is that rules are meant to serve the Sindie; the Sindie is not meant to serve rules."

  Ebneh stared in shock at Shizumaat for a long moment; and then it asked: "Then, Shizumaat, should we or should we not obey the wishes of Aakva handed down by the servants?"

  "If the rule is good, it should be obeyed; if it is not good, it should be cast aside as Uhe cast aside the Law of Peace."

  Ebneh's eyes narrowed, and those who sat near Shizumaat edged away from it to avoid the wrath that all could see gathering above Caduah's child. The servant continued with a voice filled with menace. "Shizumaat, do you say that the laws of Aakva can be false?"

  I closed my eyes. Ebneh was tricking Shizumaat into blasphemy. I sent a warning with my eyes, but Shizumaat ignored me. It knew what Ebneh was doing. Shizumaat was too stubborn, however, to bow to the pain the servants would inflict on its body upon the admission of the blasphemy. It would not recant and would be broken. Shizumaat spoke: "If the laws come from the servants, then the laws come from mortal, fallible creatures, and can be false."