by Alan Lawton
The bow-haulers’ uttered a low rhythmic dirge that helped them to keep up a steady pace as they executed their arduous task, and thanks to their efforts, the narrowboat made swift progress up the course of the stream.
By mid afternoon, the party entered a small valley that seemed to be enclosed on three sides by gently sloping hills. The nulla moss that covered the hillsides, was copper coloured and of a finer texture than the similar vegetation covering the plain outside the ‘City of the Ancient Dead.’
Groups of strange two-legged creatures, that bore a slight resemblance to kangaroos, could be seen grazing upon this new strain of nulla moss. Afew of the animals wandered down to the stream to drink and the newcomers quickly realized that the resemblance to the marsupials was purely superficial; for their heads and the upper portion of their long necks were covered with fine red scales and the lidless eyes, gleaming in their narrow heads, gave the creatures an almost reptilian appearance.
Also, their slender red-coloured bodies were supported upon legs and hips that were certainly bird-jointed and doubtless gave rise to their curious hopping gait, whilst their stumpy forelegs appeared to be only useful for giving support to their forequarters when they bent down to graze upon the bronze nulla moss.
Thom pointed towards the creatures. “Narr.” He said shortly. “We breed plenty narr in Fruitful Valley.” He waved his hand towards one of the animals whose body was covered with a thick red mat of wool. “Wool narr.” He explained, and drew a warm sleeping cloak from inside his travelling pouch. He ran his hand over the soft material. “Warm … light … keep you dry … if you sleep outside on ground … during rain-time.”
The wizard pointed towards another larger narr whose body was covered by a much thinner coat of red hair. “Meat narr … plenty wool and meat narr … here in valley … bronze nulla moss … here … good for grazing narr.”
Even as he spoke, a larger and more powerful example of the curious species emerged from behind a rock and the travellers were amazed to see that an adolescent girl was strapped to the creatures back and controlling the creature with apparent ease. The girl wielded a long whip and used it mercilessly to drive back a group of wool narr who were straying away from their fellows. She was obviously controlling her strange mount by the pressure of her knees, for in her left hand she carried a slender javelin with a wickedly barbed head that undoubtedly had the capacity to inflict a terrible wound. Moments later, two young boys, similarly mounted and armed, emerged from behind a hillock and silently observed the passage of the narrowboat.
The old wizard laughed at the perplexity of the newcomers.
“Riding narr swift … but what you call bird-jointed … riding narr too weak in the hips to support man-rider … so children herd domestic narr … children also watch for Hix.”
“Do those demons whom we met in the ruins also attack your people?”Darryl asked.
“No.” The old man replied. “Most Hix live in tribes … far away in GreatWesternWasteland … here just a few families live … in ruins like ‘City of Ancient Dead’… perhaps steal odd narr for food … if Hix become too bold… children kill with javelins.”
“Your children are able to kill those monsters?” Myra asked.
“Aye … but we also lose … maybe … one … two or even three children each time,” answered the wizard, with a look of sadness in his eyes. “Myself lose …one good son … most here loose same.”
The old man moved up into the bows of the craft, and, for a while was lost in his own thoughts and the newcomers were left in no doubt of having inadvertently stumbled upon one of the many painful facets of life in the Water-Realm.
The bow-haulers stuck doggedly to their task and the ‘Bonny Barbara’ continued to make good progress for the stream remained easily navigable for the narrowboat. As the day advanced, the bronze nulla-covered slopes began to recede and eventually gave way to a flat valley bottom. The land in the valley appeared to be extremely fertile, for every inch of soil was subdivided into small fields hedged with banks of nulla moss and the travellers were able to make out numerous homesteads, each one constructed from overlapping planks of rough hewn timber.
The Water-Realm night was almost upon them when the bow-haulers finally drew the narrowboat into a small flooded basin and the travellers were able to moor their craft alongside a stoutly built wharf. The sweating haulers then scattered to their various homesteads without waiting for a single word or gesture of thanks from the newcomers.
Thom pointed towards a substantial cottage standing in the centre of the settlement.
“My home,” He said. “You my guests … come … we eat … sleep.” The wizard, however, noticed the boatmaster’s reluctance to leave his craft unattended and laughed. “No worry … boat,” he said, “children always on guard.”
The night was dark as pitch by the time the travellers crossed thethresholdofthewizard’sdwellingandtheywereimmediately greeted by a plump elderly woman who was dressed in a simple shift-like garment, dyed a brilliant shade of green.
Thom introduced them to the woman.
“This Erda, my living mate,” he explained and seated them before a warm fire burning in an inglenook style fireplace, Erda then dipped a ladle into a cauldron hanging over the flames and served them with a thin soup that she distributed in small earthenware bowls.
“Eat slow!” The wizard advised. “Get used … Water-Realm food and water … take little to begin with … along with boat food … then you no get ill.”
The travellers consumed their food as instructed and then Erda led them to three self-contained sleeping cubicles occupying the far wall of the cottage. Each of the cubicles contained a simple wooden bedstead, with a base made from strips of leather. Blankets and pillows of soft narrs-wool were also provided in abundance and the newcomers were soon enjoying their first night of rest upon land, since escaping through the depths of the ‘Devils Hill’ tunnel.
The sudden arrival of the Water-Realm dawn signalled the start of many busy days for the trio, for the old wizard immediately instituted a course of intensive schooling that was intended to equip the newcomers with the skill and knowledge needed to survive in this new and strange reality.
Thom Jak’s, they quickly discovered, was the wizard and healer of a people who called themselves the ‘Narrs-folk’ in honour of the creatures whose husbandry formed the basis of their simple agrarian economy; they also discovered that the term ‘Folk’ was generally used to describe all the inhabitants of the Water-Realm of human appearance.
‘Folk’ was also the name given to the common language that was spoken by most of the human inhabitants of the new reality. From the very first morning, Thom had insisted upon spending long hour’s doggedly imparting knowledge of the tongue to his new charges. He repeatedly estimated their chances of survival as virtually nil if they were unable to communicate with other humans.
‘Folk’ it transpired, contained numerous elements of the many languages commonly spoken on Earth, and Myra, who was far better educated than either of her two companions declared that she could recognize words that were of German, French and even Latin origin, the tongue had definitely received important contributions from the many luckless individuals who had stumbled through the curtain and unwittingly entered the new reality. Yet, many of the words and much of the language structure was unfamiliar and had certainly been created within the isolation of the Water-Realm.
Thom also said that a few Earth languages were spoken in their entirety by a few persons dwelling in isolated portions of the Water-Realm and it was fortunate that he was able to speak to them in ‘Angle’ a bastard form of English.
One evening, as they relaxed after a day of intensive study, Thom stated his belief that the entire human population of the Water-Realm were descended from the people who had passed through the curtain at various times in the past. His own grandfather, he told them, had been an itinerant knife-grinder called Tom Jackson, who inadvertently wandered through the portal
whilst crossing the wilds of the ‘Devil’s Tor,’ some eighty cycles ago. One moment he was passing over the moors above Elfencot, the next instant he found himself wandering along the shores of the great lake near the ‘City of the Ancient Dead.’
As their grasp of ‘Folk’ increased, the newcomers were able to converse and socialize with many of the inhabitants of the village and they sometimes accompanied Thom when he travelled abroad to minister to sick and injured men and animals in the outlying homesteads. In this manner they were able to learn much about the everyday life of the Narrs-folk.
Almost from the beginning, they became aware of the central importance of children in this pastoral society. Infants were introduced to riding narr at birth and were placed upon the beast’s backs almost before they were able to walk. As they grew older, they were soundly instructed in the skills required to ride and tend their charges and trained in the casting of those terrible barbed javelins their principle weapon.
Each child eventually took its place in the ranks of the narr-riders, at the age of about six cycles, and retained this position until it became too heavy for the strongest of the creatures to bear upon its back. This generally occurred between the ages of twelve to fourteen, assuming that they survived the attentions of the Hix or were not killed by a crushing fall from their speeding mounts.
The youthful narr-riders were carefully tended by their parents who lifted their offspring from the backs of their mounts, on completion of each spell of patrol duty, and they carefully bathed their tired bodies and massaged them tenderly with liniment and soothing herbal oils. The parents also made sure that their children received adequate rest and the very best food available. Moreover, the young narr-riders were honoured and respected by all of the Narrs-folk, irrespective of village or clan allegiance. Each child knew that it occupied a revered place in the life of its people. The narr-riders inevitably lost this exalted social position once they became unable to ride the narr and were forced to embrace adulthood.
The adults, who made up the vast majority of the population, appeared to be extremely industrious. They carefully tended the narr breeding females who were always housed near the homesteads and constantly waited upon the strange animals as they incubated the clutches of eggs that would hatch into another generation of narr. This was an important task, for almost the whole wealth of that rural society rested upon the wellbeing of the narr-herds. When time permitted, the Narrs-folk also cultivated a variety of seeds, herbs and tubers in the small fields that lay close to their homesteads and contributed to the simple meat and vegetable broth, together with a type of nutty flatbread that formed the people’s staple diet. The newcomers often dined upon this simple fare at the tables of these hospitable farmers and they quickly became accustomed to the local food; this was just as well, for the stores aboard the ‘Bonny Barbara’were diminishing rapidly and would soon disappear altogether.
The wanderers also learned an important lesson in tact and survival, whilst accompanying Thom during a trip to one of the isolated farmsteads. The group had been passing along a narrow track leading through a patch of woodland, when Darryl suddenly tripped over a length of exposed root and fell forward onto his face.
“Damn that cursed root,” he shouted aloud. “The bloody thing could have crippled me.”
The old wizard spun round with a glint of anger in his eyes and for a moment it looked as though he was about to strike the boatmaster, but he quickly regained his composure and addressed his three guests.
“These are Thoa trees!” he said quietly, taking hold of a handful of dry twigs. “As yet they are small and of little value, but someday they will grow tall and provide wood for our homesteads and fuel for our fires. Far to the south, there are Thoa trees growing in vast forests that sometimes reach three hundred hands in height; the largest of the Thoa trees produce nuts that can be ground into flour and from this our daily flatbread is made. Some varieties of the Thoa tree give us a sweet fruit that can be eaten fresh, or boiled down and used to produce a syrup, which is the only sweetening agent to be found in the entire Water-Realm; also the bark from Thoa trees can be stripped down and pounded to produce a fibre from which ropes, tent-cloth and even garments can be manufactured.”
The old man paused.
“In your ignorance, you cursed a gift from the Gods that makes human life in the Water-Realm possible. Here we call the tree ‘The Holy Thoa’and we give it due reverence. To pour scorn upon the tree is deemed to be a deadly insult to the Gods and to the gift of life itself.”
He paused again.
“Do not repeat this mistake. None will forgive you as I have!”
Thom then turned upon his heel and resumed the march as though nothing had occurred.
A little less than three months were destined to pass before the newcomers became reasonably conversant in ‘Folk’ the common tongue of the Water-Realm and before Thom declared himself satisfied with their level of competence.
One morning, the old wizard told them that the time had now arrived for them to master the various types of personal combat needed to survive in the many lawless regions of the new reality. He told them that he had dispatched a runner to a distant clan and had begged for the services of a retired mercenary soldier named ‘Noor-Balsam to be their tutor. The retired mercenary, he explained, had served in the armies of a number of the warlords who ruled the lands lying adjacent to the distant Northern Sea and that no other man in the realm of the Narrs-folk had a greater knowledge of weaponry and warfare. The runner had now returned with the news that the retired mercenary had agreed to the wizard’s request and would arrive on the following day to begin training the three travellers without delay.
The man who introduced himself to the newcomers at first light on the following morning, was taller and more powerfully built than most of the other Narrs-folk, and walked with a vigorous and purposeful stride that almost belied the fact that he was well over sixty cycles of age. He wasted no time on pleasantries, but had immediately ordered them to parade outside the wizard’s homestead, addressing them using the tone of a disgusted drill sergeant.
“May all of the Gods of the Water-Realm spare me?” He growled before spitting copiously into the red dirt. “I thought that I had seen some poor material when I trained the infantry of Chief Sorltoft the Slime-eater. But you are the worst I have ever encountered. Never-the-less, I will turn all three of you into formidable fighters, even if it kills me!”
The old mercenary immediately imposed a strict regime of physical exercise upon the newcomers, which the boatmaster stated, was more arduous than anything that he experienced during his time as a pugilist. Many hours were also spent in becoming skilled in the various types of weaponry that were commonly employed in the Water-Realm.
Firearms, they discovered, were never used. Not because the relevant technology did not exist, but because many of the materials needed to manufacture guns and explosive propellants were unavailable in the new reality.
Instead, various traditional weapons of warfare had been constantly refined until they were capable of inflicting slaughter on a vast scale.
The most commonly used weapon in the Water-Realm was a heavy scimitar-like sword called a ‘Gill’ and a finely worked example of its type always hung from Noor-Balsam’s belt. Rapiers, daggers and hand-axes were also in regular use and the old mercenary declared them absolutely indispensable in the brutal hand-to-hand combats that often took place in the darkness of the Water-Realm night. However, the most technically sophisticated hand-weapon in common use was the ‘Darter’ a weapon that resembled an Earth crossbow; it was a ‘Darter’ that Thom had used to finish off the wounded Hix in the ‘City of the Ancient Dead.’ But the Water-Realm weapon differed from its antiquated Earth cousin, in having a magazine containing four deadly bolts and a folding tensioning lever enabling it to be loaded and discharged with extreme rapidity. The darter was also extremely light and Myra had no difficulty in carrying and discharging the weapon. Indeed, she
mastered the weapon to such a degree that Noor-Balsam had made the girl a present of the darter upon which they practiced. He also made a sarcastic suggestion to her male companions, “That they might shoot better if they wore skirts instead of trousers!”
The mercenary also introduced them to a spring-loaded weapon resembling a native Indian blowpipe projecting a tiny feathered dart that was tipped with a deadly toxin.
“No narrsman would use such a weapon.” He declared, but he also warned them that the ‘Perm’ was a widely used weapon in some remote parts of the Water-Realm, and was the favourite weapon of the numerous paid assassins who plied their deadly trade in many portions of the land.
After the passage of some twenty darkenings, the old soldier consulted Thom and said that Myra would gain little further benefit from continued military instruction, being already fully conversant in the use of the darter and the concealed dagger.The wizard thereafter took the young wisewoman under his wing and taught her the trade of healing as practiced in the Water-Realm. Myra, being extremely quick and intelligent, rapidly absorbed the lore of the unfamiliar herbs and medicines that Thom daily used to treat sick humans and ailing farm animals. She also mastered many of the complicated spells and incantations used by the wizard to summon occult energy, thus bringing help and comfort to his unfortunate patients. Occult energy, she quickly realized, could be gathered and concentrated far more easily, within the Water-Realm than in the bounds of her home reality. Furthermore she was often bewildered by the sheer speed at which her own psychic powers were developing under the wizard’s expert guidance. She was also amazed by the fact that she had quickly learned to converse with Thom by the use of telepathy, a skill that had taken her mother long years to acquire.
