Zollocco: A Novel of Another Universe (18 page)

Mr. Books placed a long wand of incense in the container that was set on the lectern.
"What kind of incense is that?" demanded Fiya. "Spice bark scent."
"It should have a yellow smoke, shouldn't it? I shall give it a blue smoke," said Fiya.
She gazed at the incense, her eyes turned into black pools. I saw flames within my mind. The next thing we knew a red bead of light appeared at the top of the incense wand. Blue scented smoke curled above it.
"I think we should believe each other's words when they are spoken in this place and spoken under these circumstances," Fiya said. "I have met one other person who was listed as a zitam. He lived with a rich family in Wand City. The family that owned him made him wear a gold collar around his neck; they tied a leash to the collar when they took him out of doors. They had cut his Achilles tendons because he kept trying to get away. They treated him like an exotic, wild pet, and loved him, although he was prone to fits of temper. They told me there were only five other human-like zitam, and they wanted to be the only family to own two. They said they had been promised a female zitam, but it had escaped as soon as it had been entered on the List. The zitam's hair was supposed to be the color of bark, she was supposed to have a sweet sounding voice, and like all zitam, a moody and untamed disposition."
"It seems that neatly have our various personal truths fallen together to bring us to this moment of threat," said the lanky Priest. "I myself did dream a dream of portent these two nights passed. I dreamed I danced with a blue flame that was actually a sprite. Next to us was a table that instead of having feet had carved rings at the base of each of the four legs. Set on the table were many crystals that glowed and made a sweet, soft hum. Then I had this undefined sense of danger, that something wanted to destroy the crystals, the table, the flame-sprite, and me. The next thing we knew we were being salted, something was pouring salt on us. This dream I take to mean the Toelakhan wishes to destroy our Sect and our Temple, and that each of us has qualities the Toelakhan sees as a threat if they do not control us."
"Let us send them on their way now we know how it is that they come," suggested Priestess Kindling.
There was general assent to this and we all settled ourselves around the room. Some took out the drums and rattles that were kept inside the pew seats. Others sat on the pews, and still others made themselves comfortable with pillows on the floor. Each of us relaxed, breathed deeply, centered the self, created a vast and open stillness in our psyches, and oriented this awareness towards the pulse of the deep toned-drum. I had been seated on the floor, but I went limp and fell back on the floor to allow my attention to perceive the trance world better. I saw, with my inner vision, a great boat that was powered by paddles and sails. The boat was very roughly made; it looked more like an enormous raft than a boat. I saw my fellow Holy Folk boarding the raft and taking up paddles. I joined them, and then we were out at sea, paddling rhythmically to the boatswain's drumming. The sails filled in a sudden strong wind, and the Priests were ready with ropes to guide the sails to our will. Strongly we paddled, determined of our course. As suddenly as that wind had come up, it died away and we were becalmed. We lifted our oars and drifted. This place, the becalmed place, the becalming place, was our destination. A place it was that was not a place, a time that was not a time. Where else would be the sea of spirits if not in the deep of becalmed vessels? We listened here and we spoke with our minds.
Suddenly, a huge sea-dragon rose out of the waters. The sea-dragon was five times the length of our raft. Instead of scales, he wore shimmering blue green feathers. As his long neck rose from the sea, we could see his throat, breast, and belly were plumed in downy pearl-gray. We gazed at the wonderful creature, awe stricken. The huge wings jerked out of the ocean and flapped. And then we realized an iron ring was clamped around the sea-dragon's neck. The suffering, plumed dragon gave a strangled cry of distress. En masse, we rushed out of the raft and climbed over the sea-dragon's wing. Forming human ladders against the enormous upstretched neck, we were intent on freeing the sea-dragon from the cruel iron ring.
Soma, Fiya, and a Priest whose name I don't know, climbed to the top of our human ladder finding sure-footing on shoulders, and even on some heads. The three of them pushed the iron band up towards the head of the unfortunate sea-dragon. The dragon, frightened by the iron band touching his enormous cat-like ears, bobbed and shook his head. The abruptness of his movement knocked Fiya, Soma, and the Priest down our backs. The rest of us tumbled down the neck and onto the soft cushion of the feathered, dragon back. The sea-dragon listed to the side, his huge hind claw lifted from the water, and tore at the strangling iron. The frantic clawing wedged the iron ring askew. The dragon set his enormous claw back down into the seawater. Again we built our human ladder, this time softly singing as we did so to sooth the savage panic of the sea-dragon. Up our shoulders climbed Soma, Fiya, and the Priest. They righted the iron ring, and climbed onto the dragon's head by grabbing the giant neck feathers and hauling themselves up. Once on the head, which swayed high above the sea, they threw themselves on their stomachs, stretched their arms down the neck, grasped the awful iron band in their hands, and eased it up onto the head of the dragon. Leaning against the suffering dragon's neck, we could feel the muscles tense and relax, tense and relax, as the sea-dragon struggled to remain calm. When the iron band encircled the crown and the jaw, Soma, Fiya, and the Priest shifted themselves so they could push the ring off the dragon with their legs. The iron ring at last slid off the sea-dragon's head and fell with a tremendous splash into the sea.
Fiya, Soma, and the Priest slid down the sea monster's neck, as did the rest of us. Deftly we took our places on the raft as the sea-dragon spread his wings and rocketed into the sky. The monster hovered high above us and then dove into the ocean. The force of his plummet stirred the winds in our sails. Distantly we heard the crash of waters, and our raft bobbed in the wake of the sea-dragon's freedom. A feather fell towards me and I caught it. Feathers wafted down upon the rude boat, and others, like me, reached to catch a feather. The boatswain began to drum urgently. We could not stay in this place long. With speed, we paddled so that our raft skimmed over the vastness. Our shore came to view, and with long steady strokes we approached. As the shore loomed before us my attention on the trance lessened and I opened my eyes.
I was in the Temple. It was so strange. I felt I had been on a real journey. As I sat up, I saw others sitting up also.
"Look, she has a feather," Soma said.
In my hand was a little feather. I looked around astonished. I was not the only one with a feather. Overhead the bells rang out.
"Yes," smiled Priestess Kindling, "this Temple does have bells, and no they are not made of salt. The elders ring the bells to tell us all is clear. We are to return to the village above." In her relief and pleasure, Priestess Kindling executed some dance steps, her chubby figure gracefully gliding towards the exit.
How sleepy I was when at long last I pulled the sheet and blankets of my bed about me. I drifted into slumber dreaming of the ancient sea that once covered this area. Priestess Kindling, after the trance journey, had shown us in one of the mine's tunnels a fossil of an enormous winged sea dinosaur. Had the sea dinosaur been feathered?

A few days later, a number of disciples, including me, were assembled at the edge of the great field that reached towards Saemunsil.

A few Holy ones were at hand to explain: "It is customary that disciples conclude the seminary part of their learning with a visit to Saemunsil. Within our patron Forest is a house, and in the house are the robes you may wear as Priests and Priestesses of the Blue Dawn. Not all of you will choose to finish your visit; not all of you will feel the instinct to don the robes of Holy Orders; not all of you will desire to enter the Holy Woods at all; and so not all of you will become Holy Ones. That is your choice, and it must be an individual choice. Only those who pressure another to Blue Dawn Ways, or those who act in Blue Dawn Ways through another's choice instead of their own, or those who seek to don the robe through inflated self-importance will be denied the Grace of the Blue Dawn Order by Saemunsil. All those who don the robes of their own joyous volition will have bestowed upon them the Grace of the Blue Dawn Order by Saemunsil."

Everyone listened carefully. A few questions were murmured, and murmured answers were returned. One wept in relief, one in fear, and one in joy. A few set out promptly striding towards the Forest. After a bit, one or two straggled singly after, and then a foursome plunged together towards the woods. On and on like this, the disciples made their choices to go amongst Saemunsil until only I stood alone. When I saw the last back disappear in the far-off shadows of the Forest Saemunsil, I turned towards the boarding house where I roomed. I climbed the stairs and opened the door as I had the very first time I had entered the room, but unlike that very first time, I did not carry a Blue robe taken from a house in a Forest. The robe was folded neatly on my bed. I had not set it there. I went over to it, held it up, looked at it, and then put it on. I went to the door again, glee gave speed to my steps, and I ran down the stairs and out of doors. I was a Priestess of the Blue Dawn.

CHAPTER NINE
Oasis

A huge, smooth, mud wall surrounded this town. Within the wall, all of the structures were made of adobe. The brown wall was not built high to keep out warriors and bandits. The town, this whole world, had been at peace for thousands of pregnancies. No, the wall with its two huge gates, six small doors, and ten staircases was built to keep out the sand, the wind, and the sun. Beyond the wall lay thousands of miles of desert sands. This entire planet was a desert planet, although not all of it was as dry and barren as this region. There were deserts of scrub brush and cactus. There were even a few mountain deserts with small, spindly trees.

The town, Oasis, was shaped liked a truncated triangle, an isosceles right triangle, the hypotenuse facing the direction of the most sun. At night, the heat the hypotenuse wall had absorbed was radiated into the town. This kept the town warm from the onslaught of the dark's chill. Each of the buildings within the town was built on passive solar principles, too.

I was wandering the planets closest to the Forest World, Ipernia. Besides keeping away from the Toelakhan, I had no other aim. The new Blue Dawn Priests and Priestess had been ordered out of the town immediately after the last initiation ceremony. It was the custom that Priests and Priestess must keep away from the Village Saemunsil for the first dozen pregnancies after initiation. We were to spread the peace of Saemunsil by following our personal lives in other lands. We were "sent out as seeds of Saemunsil to provide a germ of benevolent influence on the cultures of other lands." We were not to convert anyone. I walked down the smooth cobbled streets. Each stone in the roads had been lovingly smoothed flat to allow for comfortable walking. Here and there a cactus grew. I was wondering where I would go next. Although I had only been here a few weeks, I was afraid I was becoming known to too many people. I continued walking. On Earth, when someone wanted to escape, they had the "whole world." For me, all of Imenkapur, two entire solar systems teaming with life, was available.

Most of Imenkapur's cultures, most of its people, had come from the single Forest World Ipernia. Ipernia originally had had no people, but a distant planet supported people, and some of those people had been able to reach Imenkapur beforetheir planet consumed itself in volcanic eruptions. Of these people, few survived the trip, and Ipernia must have seemed like paradise to the ones lucky enough land in the Forest World. Of those lucky ones, the first woman to conceive started time as is counted by the Imenkapur calendars. When these people were at last ready to colonize the solar systems Imenkapur, they found on the planets the few pockets of the survivors of the Age of Genocide. This had been the Forest World's intent--to send people who had lived under Forest influence to bring peace to the suffering.

The fragrance of the town garden drew me from my reveries. The town gardens flanked three sides of the town well house. Although every family grew its own supply of reeds on the roof and had its own vegetable garden, the town gardens were the town's major reed and food supply. The reeds were important because they were made into mats, screens, baskets, paper, and clothes. I approached the first and outer-most portion of the gardens. This section was completely exposed to the sun. The middle section and the section directly abutting the walls of the well house were roofed with reed screens. The less sun, and the more water a plant needed, the closer it was set to the building. The roofed sections of the garden contained a sprinkling system built into the hollow reeds. Everyone in the town took part in maintaining the town gardens. Today it was my turn. I watered, a job few people in Oasis cared to do. The garden and the well house were the town's one great social center.

The well house had three sources of water. The first was a spring in the largest room of the well house. The spring watered the gardens and fed a large swimming pool in the main room. The Spring Room, as it was called, had couches and tables in abundance. It was the town lounge, said to be the most beautiful room in all Oasis. Behind the Spring Room and down a couple of steps, was The Pure Chamber, a room that held a deep well of sweet-tasting water, used for drinking, bathing and cleaning. There were tubs, bathtubs, shower stalls, and sinks in this room. There was also a huge cupboard of community glasses and pitchers. Beneath the Pure Chamber was a huge round cellar. This was the Artesian Kiva. At the far end of the Kiva, opposite to the adobe stairs was the artesian well. This room was used for religious ceremonies. The mineral water was used as the basis of most medicines. There were a few sunken tubs, where those who were ailing could sit in the healing waters. The dirtied water was piped to an underground cavern located beyond the gardens. Bacteria began the cleaning process, and then the water seeped beneath the portion of the garden that was always exposed to the sun's constant rays. The deep reaching roots of the plants drank up this water and nutrients the water contained. What was left of the water filtered through the ground into the Spring Room. Since the Spring Room water was used to water the screened plants, the water journeyed through the soil again before being tested for use in the Pure Chamber. The well house also had four rooms of gardening equipment. One of these rooms had changing booths and closets of white clothing. Everyone wore trousers, long-sleeved shirts, white shoes, white gloves, and white wide-brimmed hats when working in the garden. All of this was required garb, and only the person watering was allowed an exception. The waterer could forgo the hat and shoes. There was a small trench, about a foot wide and six inches deep, between the well house wall and the innermost garden.