Gods of Green Mountain (24 page)

An extenuated silence followed this hot and venomous speech, as all the bakarets sat stunned. The words had been spoken! The break was in the open--this had not been planned in advance. Even the lower bakarets turned their eyes on their fiery leader, taken aback that he could act without their consent. No longer were there hopes for a compromise, for a consolidation...they had to stand behind him...he was the most powerful bakaret of Lower Dorraine.

Without anger, the king spoke slowly: "Bakaret Ron Ka, I find it strange that you speak of being "free men" when all of us here on El Dorraine have always considered ourselves nothing but free. Our rules were composed and written down by both Upper and Lower Dorrainians. We do not have separate and unequal rules for the lower borderlands. We are, and have always been, two halves of the same fruit."

Ras-Far continued: "Yet, despite this very fact you consider yourselves unequal and treated unfairly and servile and under domination--all states clearly that perhaps you do have some just cause for complaint. If so, then let us--at this time, at this table, on this day--speak out in complete candor. Lay upon this table
now
your reasons for believing yourselves unfairly governed. Then let the sunshine of reason and sanity heal our wounds, and our differences, and our grudges, so that we can sit down together and compromise, and change the laws that make you feel as you do. Let us talk as brothers of the same family, with the same common background, so that we can leave this room today, a whole and united kingdom."

But Ron Ka would not hear the reason, the compassion, or the love in the king's pleas. Angrily he led his followers against the king, until even the most reluctant were fully persuaded they were in the right. All nine followers jumped to their feet, supporting Ron Ka, throwing hot scathing words across the table at the ten bakarets of Upper Dorraine and the king. Hard, ugly, angry, and thoughtless accusations, rapier sharp and stabbing.

"You know who ordered the slaughter of Bari-Bar!" shouted out Ron Ka above the noise and confusion at the table, glaring at the king. "It was you who sent your palace guards there in the middle of the night, while I was here attending a ball with my son! You had those helpless people killed as a lesson of discipline for us of Lower Dorraine! Those people leaned more to our ways than to yours, and they have always been an annoyance to you. Those men of Bari-Bar are the only ones here who can debate on your level!"

"Sit down!" commanded the king in a cold firm voice of authority, as his hand raised, signaling silence. He was tall, while all others there were short and stocky. Every ounce of his bearing displayed dignity and power. Not one man there could fail to see his strong resemblance to the Founder King. So they sat down, smothering hot unspoken words--even Ron Ka. The king, still standing, looked down at Ron Ka with eyes as cold and hard as the ice of Bay Gar. "Now hear me, Ron Ka, and everyone here who thinks as he does! In my rule I have brought death to no one, not even inadvertently. If, when I am gone from this earth, and I am renowned but for one thing, let it be written that I would not in my reign permit a war between our two halves to ravage our country or the blood of our sons to despoil our land. To suggest that I would send palace guards to kill the populace of Bari-Bar is so childishly inane, I will dismiss it as a moment of insanity on your part, Ron Ka. Have you forgotten one very important fact? My wife had members of her family that were slaughtered on that night! And in case you have forgotten this too, Ron Ka, half the populace of Bari-Bar were Upper Dorrainians.

"I think you take me for a fool, Ron Ka! You stand and shout at me, and point your jabbing finger, hoping you will provoke me into anger, and I will speak some command to silence you, and your followers, and from that insult, there will be no retreat except to fight.

"So, I will hear no more of your accusations, for the ugly deed is thrown from side to side like a ball that no one wants to catch! If we have to settle the guilt, the responsibility for that atrocity, there is still one place, and one place only, which can place the guilt where it belongs."

The men sitting taut at the table looked at him in amazement, not understanding.

"Has your great and farsighted seer, whom you keep hidden in your palace, given you an answer?" sneered Ron Ka. "If so, I shall double over in laughter at your gullibility!"

Ras-Far met the scornful eyes of Ron Ka calmly. "Yes, Ron Ka, this time you are at least partially correct. It
was
Es-Trall who reminded me that truth can always be found if one will search long and far enough."

Then the king spun about, dramatically raising his arm and pointing out a window. "Look there!" he cried. "Look to the Mountain!"

The baffled men followed the lead of his finger, staring through the window and out through the shimmering walls of bygar.

Again the king spoke, resoundingly, his voice like a loud bell; "We will send an official delegation to that far-distant Green Mountain, and ask the Gods who see and know everything just who, or what, is responsible for the death of Bari-Bar!"

Ask the Gods? When, if ever, had the Gods responded to their prayers, to their pleas? Not even when they sacrificed what they most dearly loved. Many raised these doubts, speaking them aloud, while Ron Ka sat looking at the king with a puzzled, unhappy face.

The king responded to all their voiced and unvoiced doubts and fears. "There is no doubt that Gods live there. Es-Trall has assured me that they do, and he is the wisest man alive today. And if they have not in the past responded to our pleas, or our prayers, it is because we pleaded with them from afar. This time it will be different. Our delegation of chosen men will cross the desert lands, pass through the Scarlet Mountains, and reach that Green Mountain where the Gods live. In their very presence, the Gods cannot help but hear this time. This time they will be forced to listen, and to answer."

"And if there are no Gods there, what then?" asked Ron Ka, recovered now from shock.

"They are there," said the king firmly, "since we are here. There can be no men without Gods, no Gods without men, just as there can be no child without a man and a woman." He continued on, speaking without hesitation, allowing no space for anyone to question or to doubt again.

"We will send one strong young man from each province, so that each will hear the truth from the Gods themselves. They will all have to be young and strong men, the best we have, for it will be a long and arduous journey through Bay Sol, and then back again. During the past generations, we have developed many skills, and devised many ways of protecting ourselves from the elements. Our young men will not go into Bay Sol as did my grandfather, Far-Awn, at the age of twelve, completely unshielded, without even a bite of food in his pocket or water to last. And we do have his record of what to expect. Our delegation will take with them supplies enough to last throughout the journey.

"While our young men make the odyssey into the unknown, unexplored territory beyond the Scarlet Mountains, we will live as brothers in complete harmony, as one family waiting for the safe return of our children. We will not speak of retaliation of one kind or another in revenge for Bari-Bar, for to do so may influence the Gods."

The king was facing his governors now, moving his eyes to meet with all of those that sat at his council table. His voice dropped to a lower, deeper register now: "And if the Gods lay the responsibility for the tragedy of Bari-Bar on us of Upper Dorraine, then I will step down from the throne, and the dynasty created by our Founder King will end. I will take my wife and my daughter and we will leave. You will not see any of us again. With the throne empty, the peoples of both Dorraines can then select, through a vote of majority, who will govern in my place. For despite all this talk of being free men, none of us is ever totally free from duties, and responsibilities, even a king. It may surprise you to learn that my working hours are much longer than those of the miners who work underground. I live in lavish surroundings, yes, but there is a price to pay for luxury. My daughter is not nearly as free as your daughters. She does not have one dialect to learn, she has twenty. She has no freedom at all to do as she would like, but she accepts who she is, and prepares herself for the day when she may reign, just as I did. I am not seeking your pity by telling you this, but your understanding. For I have to admit now, there is a joy in being useful, in doing your job well, and I have believed until recently that I have been a fair and unbiased ruler."

Now the king thoroughly shocked the bakarets sitting so quietly respectful.

"And if the Gods in their righteous decisions place the fault for the demise of Bari-Bar with those of Lower Dorraine, still I will abdicate the throne of Far-Awndra." The men at the table gasped...why should he do that?

"If there is a human fault, a guilt on either side, then I, as the leader and the ruler of both sides, assume the full guilt. I alone will be punished and judged guilty--there will be no cause for dispute, or war. Only if the Gods state the destruction of Bari-Bar cannot be laid to one side or the other will I or my descendants continue to rule--and then, only at your request."

Ras-Far sat down. Silence dominated the table while the bakarets stared at him in disbelief, and some with shame. They had never been so impressed with the majesty of their ruler as they were at this very moment.

Then in a sudden burst, like fast-rushing waters breaking through a dam, everyone began to talk at once, excitedly. They were awed with the improbabilities of the quest to talk to the Gods--yet so intrigued! Deep in the hearts of every man in the room, and in every soul in both Dorraines, was the longing to know for a certainty if actually Gods did exist on that far Green Mountain--and if they did not--what then?

"Is it possible, do you think? Could our sons live to reach the Mountain? It's damn hot on that desert, the sands whirling about all the time! Still, with thought, we could devise a way. It would be a challenge." Ras-Far leaned back in his chair. He knew they were ingenious men who preferred a challenge above all else. He saw Ron Ka looking at him with a strange, admiring smile. He leaned closer to the king and said in a low voice, "My congratulations. I underestimated you Ras-Far. I thought I had you cornered, and my chance to sit on your throne was in the near future. Yet you divert us with our one weakness: a challenge to do the impossible."

"You may still have your chance to sit where I am, Ron Ka," the king said in return, faintly smiling. "And if that time ever comes, may you enjoy every minute of the long, long days, while I take my family off to some remote place and laze about, reading books that I don't have time to open now."

"And you would hate every moment of those idle, useless days," smiled Ran Ka. "I am not deceived; I have a certain amount of power myself--and by the Gods, it's damned enjoyable, despite the hard work."

The king leaned closer to Ron Ka, so that no one sitting close could overhear: "I don't expect to lose my throne, for as you said, power has its own reward. Time alone will tell us whether you or I will occupy this chair in the future."

Sharita's Decision

A
ll through the remainder of that day, and on through the night, the debate within the palace council room lasted. By the time the first sun glowed above the horizon, it had been decided: They would risk the lives of twenty men, and this was better by far than to endanger the lives of all with a war to decide who was guilty of destroying Bari-Bar.

The twenty bakarets stumbled wearily to their beds, guests of the king, and fell down upon those beds, to reach without dreams the bone-exhaustion unconsciousness known so well on old El Sod-a-Por.

This news of the decision made by their leaders raced throughout all of El Dorraine. Ask the Gods such a question? Who but a descendant of the Founder King would dare such a presumption? How improbable to think a journey like that could be made at all! Those twenty young men would die--and their deaths could be added to those already dead.

Still, the thought was exciting. To know, at last, so many things!

Their king was not a fool; if he thought Gods really existed...maybe they really did. And everyone had heard of the superior wisdom of that old, old man, Es-Trall, though no one had ever seen him except the king. There were some that thought Es-Trall didn't exist at all, that he was only a figment contrived to suit the king's use, so he could hesitate indecisively and use conferences with Es-Strall as an excuse.

Dray-Gon said as much to the princess when he met her by accident in one of the palace corridors. "How dare you imply that my father is a liar!" Sharita flared. "Why you are as impossible as your father! I have seen that old man from my apartment terrace. We wave to each other. He has a long, long white beard that almost touches the floor, and sometimes I believe he spies on me through his telescope, so I am grateful my bathing pool is on the other side of the pinnacle."

"Oh...that is interesting to find out," Dray-Gon teased, "is there a pinnacle from which one may spy on your bathing pool?"

Sharita glared at him, her eyes snapping with sparks. "No! And why don't you and your father go back to where you came from? It seems every time I put foot outside of my rooms, I bump into you. Have you nothing better to do than loiter about the halls?"

Mockingly Dray-Gon leaned against a wall, his arm stretched out to the opposite wall, blocking Sharita's passage, unless she retreated, and she wasn't one to do that. "You could ask me into your apartment, and introduce me to your pets, and then I would have something better to do than flirt with the pretty servant girls who wait on you."

"Flirt with them all you want, I don't care!" Sharita said coldly, then struck down his restricting arm with a strong blow that surprised Dray-Gon. Swiftly she gained a lift-shaft, and from there she flashed him her own mocking smile. "You see, Dray-Gon, I am not as easily trapped as you think." With that, she disappeared through the floor that opened automatically.