Schisms
Page 11
Chapter Eleven
Ilim began to bemoan his old age and wished he could leap like a gazelle, like the young men. The traveling was getting hard and especially on the back of the mule. After many days of traveling Ilim eventually met some Raea tribesmen. On first catching sight of him they marveled at him and Ilim wondered why until one youth exclaimed that he was Nagilla come back in the flesh. Ilim rebuked the youth for it, thinking he was drunk but an older man approached him slowly, gently pulling Ilim aside and told him what they all saw.
“Ahaifa! You have the light of God streaming from your face and it is wondrous to our eyes. Though you may no longer perceive it, we can.”
“Such is the countenance of a man who communes with God. He no longer sees the glory in the same way lesser men do.” Said another man. Ilim was struck silent at this, touching his face. So it was not a fever dream in any way. It was truly confirmed for him now. God had made another way for him, another path and caused him to meet up with friends on the plains.
In fact, they had come looking for him, sent by the elder men he'd set off with earlier. Once they'd found him traveling back he left with them and it so happened that some among the group were going to make the trek south to Rhuctium to buy salt. At first they'd thought to head east to Zapulia to buy the sea salt harvested there but word traveled that one of the massive Elapu caravans of the south had finally arrived from the salt basin in the Sidunna Desert and that there was now much good salt to be bought and sold in the markets there. Besides, word also traveled that Hatchet Men were near the Zapulian border and they had no wish to encounter them. Tribesmen had little fear of outsiders but they had business to conduct and were not looking for trouble and they were traveling as a small group to buy salt, not as a large armed band of warriors.
He was now traveling with the caravan and he was given the honored position of traveling by camel.
“A prophet has risen up!” Many of them began to say excitedly. But Ilim stopped them.
“I do not know yet what life entails for me. Do not say a thing before a thing is sure, my brothers.” But Ilim was much happier. He now had a grand purpose in life and he thanked God inwardly for it. They began preparations for a feast once they arrived at Rhe and showed Ilim their underground bathhouse. After taking his clothes off he was first sanded down vigorously until his skin turned a dark, ruddy color. An old woman grabbed the robes and tunic and went off to have them washed. Then he entered the steam room with the other old men and then to the pools to bathe. Afterward, he was refreshed, once again and thoroughly cleansed.
The town consisted of permanent dwellings, the small one and two-story stone houses of the townspeople, and temporary dwellings, long houses of the Raea when they were not traveling the open desert.
After all of the proper greetings among the tribes people were observed they made a feast to share their joy with with him that reminded him of his time living with the Karig. Hundreds had come out to share in the meal and to see and speak with him and to give and receive blessings. Someone brought out a flute and another an oud and there was music and clapping and singing and laughing and much fellowship. It brought back good memories. He felt as if he could again delve into the oneness of the tribe. He had observed one thing among more than one tribe: They were fiercely independent people yet adhered to a strict sense of hierarchy and honor within the group. Every individual and family had their place but everyone had a voice in matters, yet to the outsider they moved and breathed as one organism. The musky odors of the tribal dwellings and the scenery of their surroundings created a stark and simple beauty, a reminder of all that was elemental and pure. They hunted, sometimes on foot, great and fierce beasts, they fought when necessary and could be savage. Life was hard and men were tested in regards their strength. But they revered the world around them and the One that formed it. It was strength that was not forced or created in an arena. It was what it was, given to them by Divine Hand and honed by the land and the beasts that inhabited it and they respected it as all glory to God, or to the gods if they did not worship the First Pillar. Some of the men had married Karig women, Ilim noticed when he arrived into town. He himself had thought of marrying one long ago but he had devoted himself to God completely after his one great love died of fever many, many years ago.
The meal was rich. There was milk wine - a soured milk from camel, sheep, goat or mare - mixed with red sweet wine, quass, flat breads with olive oil, dried fruits, stewed goat and mutton and their own version of lapirim.
Lapirim was a staple of the tribal peoples. It was called different names by different tribes but it was always quite similar – organ meats aged and mixed with layers of herbs and salt and spread with the fat when deemed ready to eat. Some prized the hearts, others livers or kidneys or brains and spleens. But it was also made with eyeballs, lungs or genitals. It could be made from nearly any plant eating animal but sometimes predators too, the most prized lapirim made from horned beasts, aurochs or wild elephanta, but meat from those animals were rare. It was often stored underground for preservation. How much lapirim was served at a celebration feast was often a sign of the wealth of a family and sometimes there were even lapirim eating contests. The Raea usually preferred hearts and brains in their lapirim, but nothing of the animal was wasted. It had given its life to the tribe so that they might live, therefore it was necessary to eat everything. To do anything less was a sign of disrespect to the life given up. Ilim had nearly forgotten how much he'd missed it. He was feeling tired and needed it to strengthen himself for the long journey ahead. Generous portions were sliced and he piled them upon his flat bread and ate his fill, washing it down with milk wine. Later he ate dried plums and raisins and some honeycomb – the Raea were truly a wealthy tribe – and talked with the men after the feast, while they drank tea and gazed at the stars above.
“We are glad you made it back my friend. Tell us! What did you see?” Asked Kesh'i.
“I have glimpsed the mind of God. He has given me a commission.” They all nodded.
“We saw the rays from your face. Truly, you spoke with God. What was His will?”
“Messages of denunciations. To denounce the corruption in Jhis.” Said Ilim. He took a sip of tea. Kesh'i chuckled.
“The Ainash will not like that much.” Said one of the other men.
“The Ainash do not like anything that requires forthrightness. Why I became one I will never understand.”
“Ah, my brother, you are from an important family. You were trained to be one all your life. God put you there for a reason. Who better to clean a house than one who has lived in it?” Said Kesh'i. Ilim permitted himself a smile.
“You are speaking right, Kesh'i. Things do have reasons that we may not know.” He took another sip. It was flavored with cardamom and cinnamon. He savored the scented bloom of steam and a thought came to him. “Tell me, why do you not simply go to Jhis and buy salt there?”
“Jhis! Dak Ellak!” Kesh'i cursed.
“Juhi!” Said another. “They think us simple and stupid in Jhis. Salt is three times higher there than anywhere else and they think tribesmen cannot count. The sellers even saw it down and put it in pots and cut it with powdered white rock. Thieves and robbers, all of them!”
“We prefer the slab salt. That way we can see for ourselves what we are getting. Nothing but corruption and treachery from top to bottom in Jhis. Besides, Jhis becomes more dangerous each year for those who hold to the old ways.”
“That is true.” Ilim had to agree. Was he not going back there to denounce them for these very reasons?
“One of my friend's sons, a young man not more than fourteen years, was kidnapped while there and thrown into the arenas. He was a rebellious ram's ass who wanted the city life, but even so, he was a child of the tribe. We have not heard anything about him since. Lately, we have heard through the voices of the sands that they have taken to acting like the Egians. Kidnapping the poor and foreigners with no powerful family ties and t
hrowing them into the games, or, from what we hear, in Egi, forced conscription, slavery or even prostitution, if they have youth and a fair look to them. Either way, it is an accursed place these days.”
“Was it ever a blessed place?” Asked Ilim and the others murmured in agreement. Ilim sighed. He thought of Khalit, another one rebellious against his elders and against God, looking for a way to make a name for himself after finding out about his Reshaim ancestors. He often thought of the king as his own son. His ears burned for good news but it was not to be found in Jhis and he wondered. Powerful as he was and wild of spirit, Khalit was not a schemer by heart. Everything he did was in the open. He worried for the king.
After the meal they gathered by a fire in the home of Kesh'i and retold accounts of the Reshaim and stories of honor and great warriors of old. Then they asked Ilim for any important official news. He told them of the king's intention to take a new queen. They scoffed at this.
“A Strab. It is no good, Ilim. The king has set himself on the path to death.” Said one man.
“Strabians, they call themselves. Puh! Back when I was young they were simply known as Strabs. High-minded, strange people. Never trust a Strab and do not marry one, nor take their daughters for your sons or give your daughters to their sons in marriage. It was known wisdom.” Said another man, shaking his finger in the air.
“May it always be known.” Said Ilim. The others raised their voices in approval.
Quite a few new babies had been born that week and now that it was known that Ilim was a prophet of God the tribal mothers approached and requested a blessing from him. The shaikhs gladly approved it so Ilim asked for a public call to prayer. A young man took up an old red ram's horn and blew it. Many town's people came out and soon there was an even bigger crowd of tribes people and townspeople. Ilim prayed before them. The call and response.
“Blessed are those of the desert for they have not forgotten the First Pillar.”
“Ellah Kaifah.”
“Blessed be all the babes born in the desert for they have been given the true life from God.”
“Ellah Kaifah.”
“May they always recognize the First One and may God watch over them all the days of their lives.”
“Ellah.”
“Blessed be the tribes people that they keep to the way of the First One.”
“Ellah Kaifah.”
“May God rebuke those who deceive us and curse those who would veil Him from the people. He has opened the way and is sending his king to bring us back to the Red Path.”
“Ellah.”
“May we all seek His light in the darkness and seek His will in the face of all the gods for He is first. May we keep our eyes on the one He will send to straighten the way. Ellah Kaifah.”
“Ellah Kaifah.” Ilim felt as if a weight was lifted from his heart. He would seek the way and clear the path for the one who was coming. An invisible storm was coming over the world, a storm of darkness and light. And he had much work to do. Whether he would live to see it to completion he did not know but it made him glad of purpose, nonetheless. Many kissed and embraced him and went back to their homes.
“My brother, you are always welcome among the Raea.” Said Kesh'i.
“I will never forget your kindness to me, Kesh'i.” Said Ilim. The next morning Ilim left just before sunrise, when the sky was a faint dawning blush of orange and pink. Others had risen while it was still dark to see him off.
“Blessed be the prophet of God!” Some of the townspeople and tribesmen called. The camels and pack mules were loaded and they began their journey south where they would eventually travel west to Rhuctium and he would go east to Gamina to meet this mysterious girl-child.