Beneath the Eye of God (The Commodore Ardcasl Space Adventures Book 1)

by Payne, Lee

  "Did I?"

  "You called it Rome," Leahn added. "You said all the roads led here."

  The Commodore nodded. "And so they do. We saw that from our aerial survey. We stand at the gates of one of the great cities of antiquity, a builder of roads, a seat of empire and a far-flung commerce. But it's not Rome. That was another empire on another world. And how all the roads could have led to that far-off Rome, I don't know. I looked it up once. It was on a little narrow peninsula."

  He climbed aboard his horse, turned it toward the arch and urged it forward. "The important thing is that these people, whoever they were, could write. If they wrote in books, we may make a profit on this dustball after all."

  They rode for some time without seeing any more mounds, though the twins, riding off in opposite directions a short distance from the road, reported that the ground was more uneven than usual. The Commodore muttered something about "suburbs" as they continued on.

  Toward midday the road seemed to open out into a large, relatively flat area still overgrown with trees, though they seemed smaller and more widely spaced. It was as if the river they had been following had suddenly flowed into a broad green lake, a forest of trees rising from its still surface.

  The twins dismounted, Erol to examine the ground, Elor to unfold the radar map from his case. "Interesting," the Commodore said.

  "What?" asked Leahn and Ohan together.

  "The trees make our aerial map somewhat unclear but we can see that several roads meet here and that there are large structures nearby. A large temple or pyramid here would confirm the religious nature of this whole set-up. But instead of a temple we find this. What is it, Erol? Parking lot, soccer field . . . ?"

  Erol climbed back aboard his horse. "It's raised and covered with crushed rock just like the road. My guess is that we've come to the public market square. It was probably covered with rows of wood and thatch stalls for vendors. Whatever else happened in this city, commerce appears to have played a significant role."

  The Commodore turned to Elor who had replaced the map in his case. "Which way now, navigator?" Elor led them off to the right where they found the edge of the great raised platform and traced it around until they came to the place where another road joined it. This brought them to a range of low hills. As the horses picked their way carefully up the slope, Ohan saw blocks of cut stone, some with patterns on them, among the undergrowth.

  The lead rider, one of the twins, stopped at the top of the hill as did the others following behind. Ohan, whose horse often preferred to bring up the rear, was admiring the sight of them in a row along the crest when he became aware of a large dark shape rising up beyond them.

  As he neared the top and more of the dark shape's base became visible, he realized he was looking at a pyramid, far more massive that any he had seen before. And this one was very different from the others. It took him a moment to see why. The forest was gone! The imposing structure rose from a widely spaced stand of trees whose upper branches obscured only its middle, leaving most of its bulk clearly visible behind their slender trunks.

  Ohan found himself blinking in the sudden brightness. The ground before him was close-cropped, almost like a lawn. When he finally tore his gaze away from the massive pyramid, Ohan realized that he was seeing it from the far end of a broad avenue flanked on either side by a long row of buildings—not mounds of overturned stones—but buildings fronted by wide stairways leading up to open doorways.

  The buildings were long and low with flat roofs and wondrously complex facades decorated with geometric designs and grotesque carved faces at the corners and doorways. In the middle of the two long rows of buildings, facing each other across the wide tree-covered avenue were two more pyramids, half the size of the big one at the far end.

  The sight was breathtaking. Ohan found nothing in the scene to put it into human scale, for nothing in it was like anything he had ever seen before. Only the trees offered a point of reference to the world he knew. In the forest they would have grown thick and thrown out wide roots, fighting for space. Here they stood tall and slender—and the scene before him, Ohan realized—was immense and very wrong.

  "Easy, lads." The Commodore's whisper startled him. "The unexpected always makes me nervous and this is very unexpected. Let's keep to the edge of the forest and work our way around to the nearest building. Erol, you're point on the forest side. Elor, you're at the stern. If we meet modern weapons, dismount and run to cover in the trees. But if it's swords or knives, ride out into the open where you'll have room to maneuver. We're in no hurry. Take it slow and be alert."

  He turned to Leahn. "Careful with the throwing knives, my dear. There may be some good guys out there. Just don't let them get too close until we're sure."

  They turned and picked their way along the top of the ridge just inside the cover of the thicker forest. "Why is it that these projects are never simple?" the Commodore muttered to no one in particular.

  ***

  As they drew nearer, Ohan saw that the buildings were even larger than they first appeared. The doorways were half again as high as those he had known at school and the flat, square buildings were at least two stories high. It was only their great length that made them seem low. They were set on a series of broad, stepped terraces which made them even more imposing. The complex geometric designs and large stucco or plaster faces at every corner and doorway, each more grotesque than its fellows, completed the awesome effect.

  The hill along which they were riding was almost level with the tops of the buildings and Ohan saw that it had, in fact, once been a building like the others. It had closed off the open end of the avenue but was now fallen completely into ruin and engulfed by the forest.

  At a distance the structure they were approaching had seemed whole and new but up close the decay and broken stucco could be clearly seen. The back of the building was lost in the forest. Only the front remained relatively intact. Part of the side facing them had fallen away revealing one of the rooms inside. The front wall and roof were quite thick, making the interior rooms smaller than would have been suspected from the imposing exterior.

  They dismounted at the foot of the raised platform and waited while Erol climbed carefully up the fallen stones and looked inside. When he signaled all clear, the rest joined him.

  The room was dark and partly filled with refuse. The only light came from the open doorways but several places could be seen where small cooking fires had been set, their smoke blackening the walls behind them. Some of the passageways were partly blocked by dirt and fallen stones where roof timbers had apparently given way.

  As Ohan stood staring in amazement, Elor came up to report that most of the long structure was but a single room wide and that roots had forced their way in at several places along the back wall. Only the front of the building was intact and clear of trees.

  At the smaller pyramid, Erol climbed to the top while the Commodore had Elor and Leahn ride across the avenue to check the structures on the far side. He set Ohan to watch their progress and shout if anything went wrong.

  Ohan had a clear view through the scattered trees as his two companions rode across. Leahn remained mounted while Elor checked inside the open doorways. Ohan turned as the Commodore emerged from a doorway beyond the pyramid and gave him a sign that all was well. Then he turned back to the others across the way.

  Something was wrong. Leahn was galloping toward him while Elor stood on the steps behind her holding his head. Ohan turned back to look for the Commodore but saw Erol instead, dashing toward him in an odd half-crouch.

  "Alexander and I don't get many visitors here anymore," an unfamiliar voice said at this elbow.

  Ohan shrieked and leaped aside, lost his balance and crashed into the side of the building.

  Dazedly he heard Erol beside him shouting, "Stand up! Show her you're all right." Quite sure he wasn't all right, Ohan nevertheless struggled to his feet and turned to see Leahn thundering down on him at full gallop.

/>   "Smile and wave your arms," Erol commanded.

  Dizzily Ohan struggled to perform what seemed singularly inappropriate gestures as Leahn reined to a halt almost on top of him and leaped from the saddle. He was touched by her concern for his injury until he realized she wasn't even looking at him. As he began to sink to his knees again, the Commodore's hearty voice boomed in his ear, "Come, come, lad. This is no time for dozing. Introduce us to your countryman."

  Ohan found himself being propelled toward a strange-looking old forest man. He was tall and very thin with a gray mottled pelt that seemed to be going bald in spots. He was dressed in a curious collection of rags and tatters. He smiled at Ohan with a lopsided grin, more empty spaces than teeth.

  Ohan's contemplation of this strange sight was interrupted by the vigorous shaking he was receiving from the Commodore. "What? Oh . . . yes. Good afternoon, sir." He used the formal term with which one addressed an elder. "We . . . my companions and I, were wondering if anyone lived here."

  "Nope. They're all gone. Nobody here anymore. Just me and Alexander." The old man's eyes twinkled merrily but Ohan couldn't decide whether is was from madness or the pleasure of seeing them. "You aren't them, are you?" the old man asked. "You don't look like them but I'm not sure anymore."

  "Then we're probably not them." Ohan felt his grip on the conversation beginning to weaken and realized he was bleeding from a gash on the side of his head.

  "I didn't think so. You're welcome though. Haven't had any company in a long time."

  Elor rode up and dismounted. He had apparently remained on the other side of the avenue to complete his examination of the buildings there. "Are you alone here, sir?" he asked in Ohan's forest dialect.

  "Was till you folks came. Me and Alexander. All alone."

  "Where is Alexander? We would like to meet him."

  "He was here a minute ago. Kinda shy with strangers." The old man looked around and shouted, "Alexander." Everyone else looked around, unsure of exactly who or what they were looking for.

  There was a rustling in the bushes behind the pyramid and an ugly face peered cautiously through. "There he is," the old man cried. "Come on, Alexander. Meet some folks." The biggest and most ferocious tusker Ohan had ever seen stepped daintily into the open.

  "Just me and Alexander," the old man cackled, going over to meet his friend. "That's all there is to keep this whole place up. I couldn't do it without him."

  "Isn't Alexander an unusual name for a tusker?" Elor asked.

  "Well now, I've always thought so," the old man said, patting his huge friend reassuringly, "but it didn't seem polite to mention it."

  ***

  "I'm afraid I got a little excited." Leahn was applying a compress of mud and leaves to the bump on Ohan's head. "After all, I am supposed to be your bodyguard and there you were, standing all alone in this weird place with that spooky old man creeping up behind you."

  She put the unsavory-looking mixture on a strip of cloth and tied it around his head. "I'm pretty sure I could have nailed him before he got to you but he didn't seem to be armed so I just kept coming.

  "Then Erol showed up. I guess Elor must have called him. Have you noticed how they seem to be in tune with each other? Then you made your sideways leap and crashed into the wall. You've got some great moves, sport. And the old guy just stood there looking foolish and grinning and I could see that Erol didn't think he was dangerous."

  She checked the bruise on Ohan's shoulder but decided it didn't need medication. "So I didn't run him through. But you should really be more, alert, you know?"

  Ohan nodded in agreement. It had been a long day creeping through the strange ruins. Leahn's fussing over him made it almost worthwhile.

  The old man showed them where he and Alexander lived in one of the long rooms on the other side of the avenue in the building nearest the big pyramid. With remarkably few questions, except to be assured again that they weren't the "them" he was expecting, he shared supper with his visitors. He kept a large stew pot simmering, to which he added a variety of roots and vegetables that grew wild in the area.

  Ohan contributed the tubers he had gathered the previous evening. The old man identified them as coming from a field near the "half arch road." They offered him some meat left over from the previous day's hunt which he ate greedily, explaining that he rarely ate meat because "Alexander don't hold much with hunting."

  After supper they sat on the broad steps in front of the old man's door and watched the last light of the sun fade into darkness and the great swirling lights of the Eye of God come into view through the thin covering of leaves.

  "I wanted to cut them all down," the old man said. "Make it more like it must have been before they left. But Alexander, he wanted to leave some trees. He thought they probably had them here in the old days. Mostly, I think it was because he don't like too much sun."

  Alexander did, indeed, seem to prefer the cool of the evening. During the day he had maintained a wheezing kind of pant but now, after a hearty supper, he lay on his back on the grass at the foot of the steps with all four hoofs in the air, his little piggy eyes half closed and what can only be described as a look of contentment on what little of his face showed between his great curved tusks.

  "He likes you," the old man said to Ohan. "Them tubers from out by the arch are some of his favorites. Nice and crunchy. But it's so far, we don't get out there very often. Only on his birthday. We've got so much to do here."

  "I've been meaning to inquire about that," Elor said. "What exactly is it that you do here?"

  "Why, we keep this place up, of course." The old man sounded surprised. "Without us, that old forest would just creep right in here and take over. You let just one little seedling sprout and next thing you know, it's a great big tree pulling all the houses apart. They've done that in a lot of places but me and Alexander don't let them do it here. He eats 'em."

  "That's really commendable," Elor said. "And I must congratulate you on an excellent job. When we first saw the magnificent work you've done here and the tremendous area you have to cover, we couldn't imagine that only two of you had accomplished it all."

  The old man beamed. "It's organization that does it. Alexander, he'd just run off willy-nilly if you'd let him. Wouldn't get a tenth of the work done. It's me has to keep him organized." Alexander gave a loud snort but whether it was in agreement or dissent was unclear.

  "Course there used to be a lot more of us," the old man continued wistfully. "There was always folks here, even after the old ones left. Folks came in from the forest and lived here. Some of them weren't respectful. Made a mess in the old ones' houses. Then, I guess, most of them left because when the Preacher came around, they say there wasn't hardly anybody here and the place had pretty much gone back to forest.

  "He cleaned it up. Got people back here. Got them to work cleaning the place up. That's when my folks came, you see. Oh how that man could preach." The old man's eyes took on a far-away look. "Wish you could of heard him. Said they was coming back. Said they left this place in our care and we had just walked away from it. But now they was coming back and if we cleaned their houses up real good, they'd see what a fine job we'd done and they'd take us in and show us all the wonders and the secrets and we'd be near as clever and good as them." The old man paused, remembering. "Yes sir, he was some preacher."

  "What happened?" Elor asked.

  "What happened? Why nothing happened. That was the trouble. The Preacher said they came to him in a dream. Told him they were coming back at the end of seven seasons. We had to clean the place up. He said they told him we had to clean ourselves up. My mama didn't never really believe him. But my daddy did. Oh how he longed to see them, to go with them into the sky. Near broke his heart when they didn't come."

  "The sky?"

  "Up there somewhere." The old man waved his hand over his head. "Just climbed up their white towers into the sky. The Preacher could explain it better'n me."

  "White towers?" The
Commodore almost fell off the edge of his step when Elor translated for him. "Are those white towers around here anywhere?"

  "Of course not," the old man spoke slowly as if the Commodore were slightly retarded. "They took the towers up with them. The Preacher knew a lot more about the details of it. He said it was a fine place they had gone to. Maybe that's why they stayed, cause they never came back. Some folks got real mad. Preacher said he must have figured wrong and it'd be the next season instead of the last one. But when that season passed, well . . ."

  "But you stayed."

  "One day the Preacher was gone. Folks had already started drifting off. My mama got real mad and left. But my daddy stayed on. He liked it here. He showed me where he wanted me to put him down out in the forest and that's where I put him when his time came. By then, Alexander'd come along. He's been helping me and likes it here too. So we stayed on." The old man looked around at the Commodore as Elor translated. "You reckon that Preacher was right? You reckon they're coming back?"

  "The people from the sky? The ones who built this place?"

  "We've kept it as nice as we could, Alexander and me," the old man's eyes were pleading. Even Alexander seemed to be watching the Commodore in the darkness.

  The Commodore cleared his throat. "My friend," he said. "I have travelled through many lands. I've seen many great and powerful cities, yet none as impressive as this one. I can't imagine anyone who would build a place like this, and leave it, and never return."

  The old man slapped his knee while Alexander snorted approvingly. "We figure that Preacher got his numbers wrong," the old man grinned. "Could'a meant seventy seasons instead of seven. That'd be just nine more seasons from now. We got it worked out on the wall inside. Alexander and me decided we'd just wait around and see."

  "Well, if they do return," the Commodore said, "I'm sure they will be pleased with the way you've kept the place up."

  "It's organization that does it," the old man cackled. "You can't just go off willy-nilly."