by Джеффри Лорд
They spotted their first herdsmen of the people just before noon. Blade made no effort to follow either the herd or the herdsmen as they scattered wildly in all directions.
Krimon smiled thinly. «They will be very surprised when they ride into the villages and learn that the machine was carrying Mazda.»
«They will,» said Blade. Provided, he thought, this machine carries us as far as we want to go. If it ran out of power suddenly, they wouldn’t be able to test out the machine’s weaknesses and demonstrate them to the people. Also, the two of them would be practically defenseless. They might not live long enough to tell anyone that here was Mazda, returned to Tharn after a whole generation!
Less than half an hour later they passed to the north of a small village, sprawling along the bank of a small stream tinged dark red.
Krimon’s eyes noted on the screen the village’s streets suddenly exploding into activity as people and animals ran in all directions. His mouth hardened into a thin line.
«It will take days to calm the people after this,» he said with a sigh.
«Would you rather have them panic-stricken now, or dead when the Looters move in sooner or later?»
«Put that way, there is no choice,» said Krimon wearily. He was silent for a moment, then pointed. «The New City of the People, where King Rikard has his house, is off that way.» His hand pointed roughly north-northwest.
«How far is it?»
«Three days on horseback from Red Water, the village we just passed.»
«At this speed we should be there in less than two hours.»
They passed over more herds. Then they passed over villages surrounded by checkerboard fields of growing crops. Then larger villages, with smoke spiraling up from shops and forges, and roads winding away toward the horizon. Each time they saw the people explode into frantic activity as they saw the Looter machine bearing down on them. Each time they were past and gone too fast to see what happened. Krimon’s face grew more strained each time. It was obvious that he was fighting a battle inside himself.
Then suddenly the horizon turned gray white with mountains of billowing clouds. Krimon sat up straighter.
«Clouds over the Gorge, Mazda.» With a finger that trembled slightly, he pointed at the screens. «There-on the Plain of War. That is where we built the New City of the People.»
Blade had already seen the little cluster of buildings inside its earthen wall, and the machine was curving toward it as Krimon spoke. Blade could not keep his mouth from growing dry with excitement, or sweat from breaking out on his forehead. In a few minutes he would step forth among people who knew him. Even more important, he would step forth as Mazda, the godlike being who had for better or worse made these people what they were now. And above all, he would see his son.
Blade brought the war machine down so low that a thrown rock or even a high-flying chicken could have hit it. He slowed until they were moving barely faster than a strong man could walk. On the screens he noticed that some of the people who had dashed off in panic at first were slowing down and stopping to look back. This was a Looter machine, but it was behaving like none they had ever seen or heard of! Curiosity was beginning to compete with their fear.
The New City of the People hardly deserved its grand name. It was only another village, larger than any Blade had seen so far, but holding at most five hundred to a thousand people. It was surrounded by a sod and gravel wall about eight feet high. Two more cross-walls divided its interior into three sections.
«The center part holds the House of the King,» said Krimon, pointing. «He-you’re not going to land right in the King’s yard?»
«Why not?»
The war machine floated in over the walls so low that the sentries on top had to jump for their lives to keep from being knocked off. Blade slipped in over the sod roof of the King’s House, stopped in midair directly above the center of the courtyard, and settled down with a thump on the ground.
Several spears and a dozen or so arrows promptly flew at the machine and bounced off with clangs and clatters. Krimon gasped.
«They are shooting at us, Mazda.»
«Of course they’re shooting at us!» said Blade. «All at once we’re an easy target. They’re thinking that perhaps if they get their shots in first, they can-«
«But we’re friendly!»
«I know it. You know it. But they don’t know it yet. To them we’re just another Looter machine, and it takes real guts for them to do what they’re doing. Let’s sit quiet and wait. Sooner or later they’ll realize we’re different.»
Krimon sighed. «Mazda has spoken.» His tone of voice indicated he rather wished Mazda hadn’t.
An occasional spear or arrow banged off the machine’s armor at intervals for about five more minutes. Blade spent the time getting himself a drink of water and watching the screens. He decided against putting on any clothes. Mazda had come naked the first time; he would return naked.
Time passed. One by one people reappeared. As cautiously as mice, they peered out of the windows and doors, crept out to lurk behind bales of grain, flattened themselves on the roof. Blade noticed that in front of the King’s House was a pile of teksin blocks, and on top of the pile a short flagpole with a banner. The banner was dark green, and bore a flaming sword in gold-the huge Pethcine sword Blade had carried in the Great War and taken back to England with him.
Finally Blade stood up and went to the hatch. «Krimon, I think we’ve got our audience. Will you follow me and speak for me?»
Krimon bowed and replied formally. «I will speak for Mazda.»
«Good.» Blade pressed the button to open the hatch. The heavy steel disk swung open. He clambered through the opening onto the rear platform, then drew himself up to his full height. Krimon followed him.
A buzz of voices rose as Blade appeared on the platform. It rose higher as Krimon appeared. Then the neuter took a deep breath and somehow managed to come out with a full shout, a shout that echoed around the courtyard.
«Behold, oh people. Behold-Mazda has returned to us!»
Silence fell as suddenly and completely as if all the watchers had dropped dead on the spot. Blade raised both hands over his head and turned from left to right through a half-circle, letting everyone get a good look at him. The silence continued.
Then brief whispers sounded off to the right. After them came soft, slow footsteps. In one of the low, dark doorways a woman appeared. She was tall and gray-haired, and still had a good deal of what must have once been great beauty. She carried a long teksin knife in one hand. Blade recognized it as one of the knives used to hamstring the horses of the Pethcine chariots in the Great War.
The woman approached Blade, knife held in front of her with the grip of an experienced knife-fighter. She moved slowly and carefully, her eyes roaming searchingly up and down Blade’s body.
«You call this one Mazda, Krimon?» she said.
«I am Mazda,» said Blade. He spoke quietly. Any raising of his voice might seem like blustering and arouse more suspicion.
The woman brought the point of the knife close to Blade’s genitals. Her wide gray eyes met his, watching for a reaction. Blade stared back, keeping his face more expressionless and calmer than he felt inside.
«It seems he is no neuter with false manhood pasted on,» said the woman at last.
«Did ever a neuter grow as he has?» said Krimon coolly, with a gesture that took in all of Blade’s massive physique.
«Did ever friend of the people appear in a Looter war machine?» asked the woman.
«Is Mazda bound by what common men may or may not do?» replied Krimon. He was beginning to sound annoyed.
Blade kept his mouth shut and his face still expressionless. He was beginning to feel exactly the same way as the neuter. But Krimon had told him that he might find the people not quite ready to fall down and worship someone stepping out of a Looter machine. He should-he would-keep calm, until those who watched from the shadows made up their own minds. Even for t
hose who had seen him the first time in Tharn it had been twenty-five years. Memories fade.
«He is not so bound,» said the woman grudgingly.
«Then do not doubt Mazda because he comes in a machine that he has taken from the Looters, a machine whose secrets he has learned.» That brought the woman’s head up with a jerk and a gasp.
«He-«
Someone moved in the shadows of a doorway. Then a man stepped out into the light. A man standing well over six feet tall, with an athlete’s build and muscles, red gold hair that flamed in the sun-and a face out of which Blade’s own image stared at him.
The man wore a green tunic with a flaming golden sword embroidered on the chest, and two metal swords hung from a wide leather belt at his waist. On his feet-but Blade found that he could no longer notice such details. In his mind a voice was sounding.
This is my son.
The voice built to a roar. Blade opened his mouth and shouted out:
«This is my son! This is my son, borne by Zulekia beloved of Mazda, King of the People!»
The tall young man flung his long arms wide and tossed his massive head, making the long red-gold hair-Zulekia’s hair-swirl about like a halo. Then he drew both swords, cast them on the ground in front of him, and knelt to Blade. «This is Mazda. This is my father, returned to his people. Hail father! Hail Mazda!»
Chapter 13
Pandemonium followed.
People jumped down into the courtyard from the roof. They swarmed out of the doors and climbed out of all the windows. They ran into the courtyard from outside the house. There were hundreds of them, men, women, and children.
Everybody was waving something. All were jumping up and down and shouting, «Mazda, Mazda, Mazda!» with all the breath in their bodies. The roar of the crowd half-deafened Blade. His ears could pick up the cry spreading out beyond the King’s House, out into the streets, through the city. No doubt it would go on out into the country, until the houses were too far apart for a shout to carry from one to another. Then people would run as fast as they could to their neighbors, bringing word that Mazda had come again to Tharn.
It was an awesome feeling. But it was not quite equal to the feeling of looking into the face of his son. Nothing could be quite equal to that.
Blade stepped down from the platform to the ground-and immediately rose into the air again. People swarmed forward, reaching out for him, grasping him, hoisting him up. He was tossed about wildly until he felt his joints protesting. He realized that he was in real danger of being torn apart or trampled underfoot by this mob of hysterical worshipers of Mazda.
King Rikard’s voice boomed out above the crowd roar.
«Stop! Cease! Stand back and stand away from Mazda! This is not the way the people do him honor!»
Then the king plunged forward into the crowd, clearing a path toward Blade. Those the king’s massive hands didn’t grab and pull aside scrambled out of his way on their own. After the king came half a dozen armed fighters, including the gray-haired woman. They kept the path open with shouts and glares and brandished weapons.
Blade finally felt solid ground under his feet again. He took a deep breath and stepped forward to embrace his son. Rikard’s own arms went around his father. They stood there for a moment in silence that said more than either of them could have said with words.
Blade was glad he did not have to speak. He was closer to being completely overpowered by his emotions than he had ever been in his life.
Seeing father and son embracing set off the crowd again. For several minutes everyone in the courtyard and the house shouted themselves hoarse even more furiously than before. Blade and his son could not have made themselves heard if they had wanted to.
The crowd finally ran out of breath. King Rikard stepped back, looked Blade up and down, and slapped him on the shoulder, as one warrior chief to another.
«Father, come. We have much to say and we have no hope of saying any of it out here.»
He turned toward the door into the King’s House. Blade followed, Krimon fell into step behind him, and the guards brought up the rear.
The inner chambers of the King’s House were as cramped, dark, and stuffy as the chambers of any other building made of turf, stone, and hides. But they were much cleaner and less smelly. The people of Tharn might have to live for now in barbarians’ houses, but their memories of what had been and their hopes of what might be again kept them from becoming barbarians themselves.
Blade sat on a bench of teksin slabs covered with furs, and was presented with a large bronze cup of strong beer. King Rikard swept a glance around the room, and all the guards except the gray-haired woman vanished like puffs of smoke. Krimon turned as if to follow them, but Rikard motioned him to a seat.
«No, Krimon, you stay. You have seen and heard the most since Mazda returned. Your advice is needed. Yours too, Anyara,» he added, pointing at the woman.
«Of all the people Anyara was the one who did most to raise me, next to my mother Zulekia. She has proved herself strong in war and wise in council as well. I owe her much, and Tharn owes her more, over many years.» Anyara bowed her head with sober dignity at the praise.
Rikard undid his belt, poured himself beer from another jug, and sat down on a pile of furs in one corner. He drank deeply, then grinned. «By law and custom I should call in the whole Council of the People to listen and speak out. I suspect they would do more speaking out than listening if I did.» The grin faded. «But there is nothing in law or custom to say what shall be done on the day of Mazda’s return. I think we shall listen to what Mazda has to say first.»
Blade grinned. His son obviously had some of his own shrewdness. «I do not think so, either. But I will ask you to stop calling me Mazda, at least when we are alone. It makes me feel like an image set up in a temple, to be worshiped faithfully but not really much good to anybody.»
«All right, Maz-father,» said the king, smiling. The smile made him look quite a bit younger than his twenty-five years. The smile faded. «Krimon spoke of your having captured the Looter war machine and learned its secrets. I–I won’t ask if this was true. I can’t imagine you lying, at least not to the people. But tell us more. Tell us-have you found some way we can defeat the Looters? Is there any hope for us?»
«I honestly do not know,» said Blade. «I myself need to learn much more. But let me tell you what I have learned already.» He poured himself more beer.
«To start with, I believe there is a chance to make the purple ray of the war machines harmless. If we face the Looters wearing only things that once lived-wood, teksin, leather, cloth-the ray may not kill. I have seen things that make me believe this is so. But I cannot yet be sure. We must test this further.»
King Rikard’s eyes widened. Blade knew he now had his son’s full attention, and would not lose it.
Hours passed. So did much more beer and a large meal of roast meat and steamed porridge. The light that crept in around the leather curtains in the window began to fade and turn red. Blade went on talking, answering his son’s questions and getting answers to some of his own.
Eventually darkness came down. King Rikard rose and stretched out his long muscular arms until his hands seemed ready to punch through the ceiling.
«Father, I know that you have more to say. But in a single day I can only hear so much of things that I can hardly believe. You do understand?» Blade nodded. «Then we can finish tomorrow. And after we have finished, will you speak to the whole council? They must all hear what you have learned, and decide what must be done.»
«Isn’t it obvious?»
«Father, it is obvious to me. I know it will be just as obvious to the council when they have heard it. But they must hear it. Otherwise it will be said in Tharn that the return of Mazda is making the king return to the old ways of ruling. None wish that.» Anyara and Krimon nodded.
Blade grinned again. «I see you haven’t much to learn in statecraft.»
«Thank you, father. Now-there will be a cha
mber ready for you in a few minutes. Would you care to do us the honor of taking one of the women of the King’s House to you this night?»
Blade hadn’t expected this. Handing a woman over to a male guest for his amusement was a custom he hadn’t expected to find among the people, who were trying so hard not to be barbarians. Had his son really become so much the barbarian warrior chieftain as that?
Except—
Blade shot a look at Anyara. She was nodding enthusiastically, and so was Krimon. There was something definitely odd here.
«What does the woman have to say in this?»
Anyara and King Rikard both laughed out loud. «I see. You think we have gone back to the habits of the Pethcines, handing our women about as though they were swords or boots. It is not so. Even if I wanted to make it so, the first seven women I met would claw out my eyes and cut off my manhood with dull knives if I tried.
«But the seed of Mazda is precious and powerful. Many women of the people who are of an age to bear children would most gladly take that seed into themselves, in the hope of bearing a child of Mazda. Girl or boy, they would be happy with either. They know it will be a strong child. We need strong children, father. We need all the strong children we can get, so that in time we will have all the strong men and women we need.»
«Even children of the seed of Mazda?» said Blade.
«I do not understand, father. Is-is there something wrong with your seed? Certainly I show no signs of it if there is.»
Blade laughed. «You do not. But consider that you are King in Tharn because you are the only one sprung from the seed of Mazda. What will happen to you when there are a dozen or a score of such?»
«Or even hundreds. Why not be hopeful?» put in Anyara.
King Rikard shook his head. «It will be good for Tharn, even so. I am indeed the first. I am the son begotten from the Beloved Zulekia by Mazda during his first appearance. I am set apart from all others by this, and I always will be set apart. Also, I have already ruled a good many years. With luck and long life I will have ruled many years more before the first of your new children is old enough to bear a child or swing a sword. I cannot see what they can do before then that I need fear. What they do after that is far in the future. We have things much closer at hand to worry about.»
