Beneath the Eye of God (The Commodore Ardcasl Space Adventures Book 1) (14 page)

The Commodore laughed. "Yes, I've known a number of people who were convinced that the universe was mightily concerned with their own personal affairs. But I'm afraid it's what the universe thinks that really matters, not the other way around."

He turned more serious. "What are we likely to experience here today?"

They stepped aside to make way for several boys who were bringing in fresh-cut leaves and arranging them carefully on the floor. Two old men were building up a small fire beneath the rocks in the center of the room.

"Each of us lives in the center of our selves," Vardara said. "We touch others only briefly and at the edges. You come from beyond my world with questions I cannot answer." She poked him playfully. "Now you want me to tell what answers you may find here? I can fill your belly and, if there weren't so many people always around, I might even consider your offer to warm your bed. But your heart and mind and soul are closed to me and there, I think, is where your answers lie."

Girls had placed a row of mats along the walls of the room with gourds of water at each place. There were nine places along each wall and three at each end of the room. Now, others from the clan were wondering in and finding seats. Leahn entered wearing her white shift, her hair pulled straight back and braided with Neali's ribbon. An old woman directed her to a seat along the wall near the center of the room. The twins were seated together on the side opposite her. Ohan was led to a place at the far end while Vardara sat the Commodore on the same side as the twins but closer to the center.

"Lean back against the earth and let its essence flow through you," Vardara said smilingly to him. "Relax, Commodore. It's going to take a while."

The man and woman who led the singing the night before, began to chant. An old man threw something into the fire and an orange fireball seemed to fill the room. The Commodore jumped but Vardara only laughed. "That's to burn away any evil that might be lurking about. I've always thought it was mostly to get everyone's attention."

She picked up one of her gourds of water, drank from it and threw the rest of its contents into the fire. "This signifies your willingness to participate. Water is part of your essence. You are adding it to the spirit of the room. If you're afraid the world might tell you something you don't want to know, this is the time to back out."

"One doesn't become a mariner by sailing only on calm seas." He took a sip and threw the rest in the fire. "Ever onward."

The rest followed in turn around the room and soon the air was heavy with steam. Then drums in each corner began to beat, summoning the spirits of the earth from each of its four ends. The old man fed balls of resin from the great tree into the fire.

Ohan leaned back and closed his eyes. He had been here many times before. He could clearly remember the excitement and awe that filled him at his coming-of-age when he was introduced into these same mysteries in this same room—though with a different clan and far away. It had been a great relief to learn that the powerful and often erotic dreams then beginning to stir in him were all a natural part of the opening of his adolescent mind to the currents of power that flowed between the forces of the world.

He drank from the first of the cups that was passed around the room and breathed deeply of the herbs and resins that were being fed into the fire. The feelings of power he sensed here were stronger than any he had experienced before. Here there were no eddies and cross-currents of unbelievers and other ways that were so close around his people at the forest's edge. At school they had actively sought to debunk these sessions, to show the wind as molecules flowing from high to low pressure areas, the fertility of the soil as governed by the presence of nitrogen and other elements, the Eye of God as a galaxy of suns turning impersonally, far away.

He accepted his teachers' explanations. He watched the winds blow the rain clouds away from the farmers' fields. He saw that the impersonal workings of a mechanical world left them with little solace when their topsoil and precious fertilizers were swept away in towering clouds of yellow dust. And he saw the dark things they did to one another in the night when they thought there was nothing but a distant galaxy of stars to see them.

He drank deeply from the second cup and brought a picture to his mind of one of his teachers, what was her name? An earnest young woman, pretty in the way of those part-way between the smooth skins and the rich pelts of his own people. She stood before him, naked. He tried to sit her down beside him but her image twisted, then shimmered, broke up and drifted away. It was just as well, he thought. She would have been frightened in a room filled with dreams she did not believe existed.

He thought then of Leahn and her image came clearly to his mind. She stood before him dressed in the traditional bark cloth of his people, her hair done as a girl who has not yet found a lover. She stood before him and his heart ached at the loveliness of her. She held out her hand and he rose to take it. They stood, facing each other, hand in hand. He dreamed himself taller, smoother, more powerful but he could go no further. She smiled and did not ask for more than his hand. It was almost enough.

The chanting and the drums grew louder. His image of Leahn drifted away. Ohan drank from the third cup and passed it on. He opened his eyes and looked around the smoky room. He watched the third cup pass from hand to hand. Each person having drunk, came back into himself, blinking. Some, he knew, had been off searching other clans for marriage partners. Some of the elderly had been young again, others had visited the gates beyond life where friends awaited them. Ohan had always loved to soar above the treetops, sometimes almost to the Eye of God itself, free as the wind in the night air, wheeling over the world, then power-diving down on some hapless cat prowling the treetops, pulling up at the last instant and giving its tail a flick that left the creature looking around in bafflement.

This time he had gone nowhere. He had stood the whole time before Leahn, holding her hands in his. The world must laugh, he thought, to see such foolishness. He looked down along the wall to where she sat quietly, without expression. He wondered where she had been and decided not to think on it. The fire was a dull flicker in the center of the room. Clouds of power, stronger than he had ever seen before, rolled around it, sometimes obscuring it from his view.

The drums and chants had died away. His hands were held firmly by those on either side of him. The time of individual dreaming was over. They were linked into one being now, enclosing the power in the room, witnesses, should it choose to come, to the dreaming of the world.

***

The clouds of power ebbed and flowed as if hesitating to begin their show. They glowed dull red. Occasionally a stray beam of the guttering firelight groped its way through to light, for an instant, a wide-eyed face along the wall.

Then the room was gone and Ohan saw the twins rise up, great green reptiles, circling, entwining, weaving in and around each other until they were almost one, rising higher and higher beyond where the room had been, out among the stars. There also rose between and around them a furry brown figure. Ohan thought at first it was one of the people but then saw that it was an animal. Long snout, sharp teeth, tiny red eyes. It was the Commodore. Twisting, turning, weaving, a column of green and brown, scales and fur, the three of them rose among the stars and were gone.

The stars remained. And ascending through them, Ohan saw Leahn, all in white, a pillar of white. And flame. She soared through the heavens, a pillar of white flame so bright he tried to shield his eyes but his hands were held fast by his neighbors and he couldn't. He closed his eyes and still saw her, lighting the faces of those who watched.

He was next. He struggled to pull free but was held fast. So he sat and saw his heart cut out and spread around the green forests of the world, enclosing them within its thin still-beating membrane, stretched tighter and tighter until it burst and he woke up in his bedroll on the floor of the men's hall.

"Rouse out, sleeping beauty." It was the Commodore. "Rise and shine. It's time to hit the road."

Ohan opened his eyes. "Wait a minute," he demanded. "What happened? What did it all mean?"

The Commodore stopped in the midst of rolling up his bedroll and bent closer, feeling Ohan's forehead. "Beats me, lad. Vardara says the world just lets us see its dreams sometimes. It doesn't explain them. Maybe it doesn't understand them either. She said you'd probably never been the star of the show before but she gave you some stuff and decided you'd probably survive."

He stood up and gave Ohan a gentle shove with his boot. "So up and at 'em, lad. We can't hang around here all day."

Ohan began pulling on his clothes. "Why not? Why can't we stay here just a few more days. I'd really like to find out more about what happened."

"We'd all like to stay a while longer, lad. But think a minute. There are five of us and 60 of them. We're eight percent of their population and we don't help raise food. We just eat it. This community is carefully balanced on the edge of the land's ability to support it. That big banquet they gave the other night was pretty impressive and they enjoyed throwing it but it will put them on short rations for a month. No, lad. Much as we'd all like to stay, one of the secrets of being a good guest is knowing when it's time to go."

Leahn folded her dress and packed it carefully away in her saddlebags. She and Neali hugged and cried in the little room and Neali promised to name her first child after Leahn, even if it was a boy. "If you do," Leahn laughed, tightening her sword belt, "I'll have to come back and teach the kid to fight."

The whole community turned out to see them off. "If you're ever back this way, Commodore . . . " Vardara said. She was holding Neali's hand, while the girl made a special effort not to cry.

"None of us shall pass near this continent again without making a detour to visit you," he promised. Vardara was standing part way up the trunk of the water tree and the Commodore leaned far out of his saddle to give her a long kiss full on the mouth. She blushed, the crowd laughed and they were off, down the rows of crops with children running after them, then into the twilight of the forest and silence.

Chapter 9

They rode through the day, each lost in his own thoughts. Supplied with food by their former hosts, they had no need to stop early to hunt. They rode well into the evening before picking a place to camp. They built a small fire and laid on their bedrolls at the edge of its light, with little conversation.

The Commodore broke the silence. "Let's not brood, children. What dark thoughts have stilled your tongues?"

"I was just thinking," Ohan said. "I've met and then left more nice people on this trip than I have in my whole life before. I don't think I like saying good-bye all the time. It's a lot easier to live in the same clan all your life with the same people."

"There would still be partings, lad. The innocence of youth, grandparents, parents, friends, relations, our hopes for the future, wives, lovers, even children. They all leave us sooner or later. And one day we look around and we're alone and we're not the same person we started out to be."

He slapped his knee for emphasis. "So by Odin's tooth, lad, if you can lose all that just by standing still, you might as well move around a bit and see some of the universe."

"What I want to know," said Leahn, "is whether everybody saw the same things I did at that creepy ceremony. And while we're on the subject," she rose from her bedroll to a kneeling position facing the Commodore across the fire, "I would really like to know what all this is about, what we're doing out here, where we're going and . . . and everything."

"A fair request," he said amiably. "The lady wants to know everything. Anyone else have a request?"

Leahn shot a glance at Ohan who felt he had to back her up. "We have seen some strange things. It would be nice to know what it's all about."

The Commodore looked around. "Is that everybody heard from? Leahn wants to know everything and Ohan is interested in what it's all about. I too, must confess to a little curiosity." He nodded toward the twins, one lying beside him, the other in his bedroll on the other side of the fire. "Only my reptilian associates seem to have no questions. That is because, as usual, they have all the answers. But let us plumb the depths of each other's ignorance and see if we can fill in some of the blanks.

"First, Leahn wants to know if everyone saw the same things at the ceremony. She used the word 'creepy.' That's a good word. Descriptive. I would choose the word 'fascinating', and admit that I have never before witnessed a world's dreams. Some might put the experience down to mass hallucination induced by the ingestion and inhalation of various alkaloids, fungoids and whatever else was floating around in there. That, I think would be an error. I saw the twins' identical reptilian nature very clearly depicted. I saw my own background rather fancifully visualized as some sort of a rodent-like creature resembling, it seemed to me, a mongoose, a small mammal that delights in devouring the eggs of reptiles. Do either of you boys have any comment on that?"

Neither of the twins said anything so he continued. "Actually, I found the image of the three of us dancing our way across the stars rather picturesque. I saw Leahn depicted as a rising column of fire which seems accurate and our friend, Ohan, was shown as the heart of the forest. It all had a certain allegorical quality but I found no . . . "

"Wait a minute," Leahn interrupted. "Back up a little. 'Leahn as a column of fire seemed accurate.' Is that what you said? I saw it too and I didn't think it was at all accurate. The old man back at the lost city talked a lot about people going up into the sky in white towers and flames but he didn't once mention my name. How do I get to be represented as a pillar of white fire?"

"If you'll cool down a little, my dear, I'll explain why the world sees you as a white flame." Leahn continued to glare at him. "Not funny, eh? Very well, I promise to answer your question by first asking two of my own. We're agreed that we all saw the same things in the world's dream?"

Everyone nodded.

"That brings us to our individual dreams. Let's each of us reveal what happened before we eavesdropped on the world's dream."

He looked around the circle of firelight. "Very well. As there are no volunteers, I will begin by confessing that I found it an equally fascinating experience, almost as if one's mind was able to move about freely in the real world wherever it wanted to go without having to drag the body along. As soon as I discovered the apparent nature of the phenomenon, I happened to drift through the wall to the women's steam room next door. There was no one there so I willed myself up through the trunk and out over the forest. It was an exhilarating feeling, very much like a bird must experience. I flew out and visited our next destination, checked out the lay of the land, so to speak." He turned to the twins. "What about you?"

Elor answered for them. "Erol drank from all three cups and breathed deeply of the various aromatics. I, on the other hand, appeared to drink but did not. I also slowed my breathing to the minimum required for life. It had no effect. I was as much swept into the alternate state of being as was my brother. Whether this came to me through his mind or through the substances or suggestions present in the room itself, I cannot say. In any event, once we discovered, as you said, the 'apparent nature' of the experience, Erol went back to check on our ship at the spaceport while I, like you, went off to scout our next objective."

"Well and efficiently done, as usual, gentlemen. Ohan, what about you?"

"Me? Oh, well, I didn't actually go anywhere. I've done it before. I usually like to go soaring, sometimes to the Eye of God almost. And then I dive down to the treetops. It's very exciting." He stopped talking but the rest sat waiting, as if expecting him to continue.

" . . . but I didn't actually go anywhere . . . this time . . . actually."

The Commodore cleared his throat. "I sense a certain reluctance on your part, my boy, to share your experiences with the rest of us. I would remind you that it is not idle curiosity that prompts our interest, but rather a spirit of scientific inquiry and an attempt to discover the truth about our experience. If you went browsing among the ladies' bedrooms, I'm sure everyone will . . ."

"No. It's not that, exactly. Actually no one uses the women's steam bath or anything like that when they know a dream session is in progress. That was one of the first things I learned when I came of age in my own clan."

He paused. The rest were still waiting. "All right! I thought of one of my teachers at school but her image just broke up and drifted away. Then I thought of Leahn and how pretty she was in that new dress and there she was and we just stood there. We didn't do anything."

He looked up in anguish to see Leahn looking back at him. She smiled. The Commodore grunted. "Well that was certainly an earthshaking revelation. Now you, my dear. What did you do?"

Leahn's smile faded. "I went home," she said quietly. "To my father's study. My uncle was there, sitting in my father's chair beside our big stone fireplace. It was odd. I just hovered there near the ceiling in a dark corner and stared at him and he started to get nervous, to look around. He got up to close the windows but they were already closed. He paced around the room as if he were looking for something, then stormed out and slammed the door.

"I was alone in my father's study. It was funny. I'd been there a thousand times but I'd grown up with it, taken everything for granted. I'd never really looked at it before. I drifted down from the ceiling to the middle of the room and looked around. Most of my father's things were still there. There were some baskets hanging on the walls, the same kind the people use. There were a number of bluestone figurines and some pottery, not the broken pieces that we've been finding, but whole pieces."

She paused and stared again at Ohan. "And on the wall above the fireplace, right where it has always been, was this rug. Only it isn't a rug. It's a forest person's skin. It's not square like the one in the pyramid. That one was cut from several torsos and sewed together. The one over our fireplace is a single pelt. There's no head or hands or feet but you can see where the arms and legs have been cut lengthwise and opened out. It's been there all these years in my father's study. A person's skin." She buried her face in her hands.

Ohan sat stunned. No one spoke. He turned to the Commodore who gave him an exasperated look and motioned toward Leahn, Ohan rose and went hesitantly to her side, knelt beside her and put an arm tentatively around her shoulder. She wasn't crying but with her face still in her hands, she leaned against him and he held her tightly in his arms. He silently cursed himself for having to be told what to do.

"Well, children," the Commodore said after a while, "shall we postpone the rest of our fact-finding session until later?"

Leahn looked up, her eyes rimmed with red. "No. Go on with it."

"Very well. Where were we? Oh yes. Ohan would you tell us another of those stupid horse and cat fables?"

"What?" Ohan and Leahn said together.

"Trust me."

***

A mighty horse was wandering lost in the forest. He was a powerful animal but every turn he made led him farther from the path and deeper among the trees.

It had been a bad year in the forest. Dry winds had come among the treetops in the dark of the night and had stayed. The warm breath of the forest no longer mixed with the moist air from the sea to form the morning mist that washed all the treetops and collected in the myriad pools hidden among the topmost branches.

The forest continued to breathe its warm breath into the air but the hot winds took it and gave no moisture in return. The water grass stopped growing fat and wet. It saved its moisture by growing thin and dry. The little treetop pools were drying up and the thousands of tiny creatures who lived in and around them were dying. Without these tiniest creatures, the bigger ones began to go hungry. Without the bigger creatures, the forest cats began to suffer.

They cried to the King of the Cats, "Do something. If the moist winds do not return soon, we shall perish."

Even before they came to him, the King of the Cats had been thinking and thinking. He knew he could not change the winds. They blow where they will with little regard for the needs of cats. He knew that the trees would survive until the moist winds came again because they could reach down deep into the ground where the hidden rivers flowed. It was only the animals who needed water if they were to survive.

The only water he knew of was in the hidden rivers and the only way he knew to get it was to topple a water tree. But that, he realized, was a foolish idea for though cats could gnaw away some of the smallest aerial roots and undermine some of the larger ones, there was absolutely no way that cats, even all of them together, could topple a mighty tree.

The great horse was also having an unpleasant time in the forest. He was lost, the grass was thin and dry and his plated skin prickled and itched for want of a bath.

The King of the Cats watched from the lower branches as the horse wandered in circles through the trees, complaining and trying to scratch his armored hide. It occurred to the King of the Cats that this horse could help him find water but he knew that horses were selfish beasts who might refuse to share that water. He also knew that horses did not know the secret of the water tree and for some reason, the King of the Cats hesitated to tell them.

But as the dry winds continued to blow and the cats got hungrier and thirsty, the King of the Cats knew he had no choice. He would have to trust this horse with the secret of the water tree.

The King of the Cats walked out on a low branch and called down to the horse. "Good day, mighty horse. I wonder if you could spare a few moments to assist me. It wouldn't take long and I would be very grateful."

The horse looked up at the King of the Cats and snorted. "Assist you? Don't make me laugh. Go away. I have problems of my own."

The King of the Cats scurried down to a high root. "I'm sure you're busy. It's just that all the forest creatures are very thirsty and without your help in obtaining water, we shall surely perish."

"Obtain water?" The horse pawed the ground impatiently. The King of the Cats was just a bit too far away for the horse to lunge and grab him with his powerful teeth. "You waste my time with talk of water," he snarled. "You insignificant little bloodbiter. There is no water anywhere in this accursed forest. But do come just a little closer and tell me how I may assist you."

The King of the Cats took a hesitant step closer to the great armored head with its massive teeth. "Well actually there is water nearby—a large deep pool of it beneath one of the trees—but we need your help to get to it."

Now the horse was interested. "A large deep pool of water? Nearby? One that I could roll in to soothe my itching hide?" He eyed the King of the Cats suspiciously. "You must think me a fool, you insect. Everyone knows there is no open water around here."

"Let me show you where it is," said the King of the Cats. "I'll even ride on your back and if I'm lying, you can reach right around and bite me."