"Bargain?" Jason asked. "And what will I do for you in this bargain?"
"You'll simply let me teach. I won't undermine the Warden's authority. I'll just try to wean them away from their belief in this God you've become to them."
"By teaching?"
"Persuading."
"You realize that if you try to teach them that I was a traitor to the Empire, which your little conspiracy believed, they'll either not understand, or they'll get very upset at you."
"I'm not a fool," Stipock said, "at least not usually. I know enough to avoid getting people angry. Peaceful means. Let me try to change their minds. Or do you like being God so much you won't even take a chance?"
Jazz cocked his head and looked intently at Stipock's eyes. "You mean you'd promise to obey all the laws, to build up the community in every possibly way, in exchange for my allowing you to teach people that I'm not God?"
"I promise it now."
"It must be worth a lot to you to unthrone God," Jazz said.
"If there were a God," Stipock said, "I wouldn't fight it. But when a normal man acts the role, then I'll unmake him the best I can."
"Well, then," Jazz said, "I think that's a fair enough bargain. If you can persuade them, then fine. But I warn you — I'll give the Warden power to imprison you if you incite or perform one act of violence. Even one. Agreed?"
Stipock hesitated, then nodded." But I won't be responsible if some crazy person takes an idea into his own head —"
Jazz laughed. "This isn't the Empire, Stipock. The Wardens are all just. They try to be fair. And usually succeed."
"Who's the Warden right now?"
"Hop Noyock," Jazz said.
"Your agent?"
"Was. But since I don't have any more income, his ten percent is gone, too."
Jazz held out his hand. Stipock took it, and they struck the bargain. Afterward Stipock laughed. "I can't believe making a bargain without lawyers and contracts."
"This isn't the Empire."
"Why are you trusting me?"
"Because," Jason said, "I have the foolish belief that I can see into people's hearts. I've looked into yours."
"A rather dismal place, wasn't it?" Stipock said, playing along with the joke.
"No more so than normal," Jazz said, smiling. "You still hate me. But I can trust you to keep your part of the bargain.
"And," Jason added, "you can trust me to keep mine."
10
NOYOCK LAID down the pen on the table and rubbed his eyes. He shouldn't have left the writing until the last minute. But the History had to be kept. Not since the first day of the first Warden, Kapock the Eldest, had any Warden failed to keep the History, and Noyock prided himself on being more thorough than any of them.
A rooster crowed, and then another, as if in answer. Noyock reached over and opened the shutter slightly. Still dark — someone must be walking the chickenyards, then. But perhaps it was nearly morning. Was the sky a little lighter? Had to sleep. Jason coming today, he muttered to himself. Yawned again. Jason today, and the History is ready.
Noyock stretched, and left the room he had set aside for his duties as Warden — his planning, the History, meetings with individuals and couples, when the problems or questions weren't appropriate for open discussion. This, too, was new, since Jason had left. He will be pleased, Noyock told himself. I hope he's pleased.
Below him, he could hear the clank of tin pans, the dull sound of a wooden spoon stirring rapidly in a clay pot. Who this morning? Riavain, Noyock's own wife? Or his daughter–in–law, Esten, Wien's eldest daughter, who had married Aven in a joyful ceremony — how many year ago? Thirty. Noyock chuckled. Poor Aven, he thought. My poor son, now more than fifty years old, while I look scarcely older than I did the day Jason brought me down from the Star Tower , they all tell me.
And Noyock paused to think about Jason for a moment, to think of the miracle of dwelling in the Star Tower , because no one who dwelt there with Jason ever aged. They could go in, as Noyock had done, leaving their children in their twenties, and come out to find that their children seemed to be older than they. Poor Aven. But no, aging was a part of life, the natural pattern of things. Like the cows and horses that grew old and died. It was not poor Aven. It was blessed, lucky, favored Noyock and Riavain and all the others who had been taken into the Star Tower; and thinking of Jason's goodness to everyone in Heaven City , Noyock's eyes filled with tears, and he wondered if he wasn't getting old after all, and just as he thought that, he heard a roar from downstairs.
"Lying to your father on top of disobedience! What kind of child have I brought forth!"
Aven, Noyock thought to himself, and doubtless poor Hoom was the object of Aven's wrath. Aven had always been obedient, deferent, careful. And now the poor man was cursed with a son who was wilful, forgetful, prone to disobey. But, Noyock remembered with a chuckle, the boy was a hell of a lot more fun to have around than his father had been. And Noyock had often spent hours with Hoom as he was growing up, teaching him, answering the boy's questions, asking his own. Bright boy.
The slapping sound of a leather strap. Ah, thought Noyock. This is a bad one, then. Noyock debated whether to go, for though he tried not to intervene in the way Aven raised the boy, he had often found that by simply appearing on the scene, Aven's anger was tempered, and Hoom was spared the worst.
Noyock went down the stairs to the second floor (remembering, proudly, that his farm and cattlefields had been so successful that he was the first in the whole of Heaven City to have a house with three floors. And a basement) and then turned, going up the hall to the small room that was Hoom's own, unshared with his sisters or his brothers.
"And that," said Aven's voice, now low and fierce with the exertion of the whipping, "is what happens to boys who disobey. And that," with the fall of the strap again, "is what happens to boys who lie!"
Noyock stood in the door. Hoom was kneeling at his bed, soundless as his father brought the strap down again on his naked back. Large welts were rising, but Noyock calculated that Aven could be hitting a good deal harder, and so didn't intervene, only walked in a little farther and cheerfully said, "That brings the count to eleven."
Aven brought the strap down again. "Let's make it an even dozen then, and be done."
He took the strap and hooked it through his belt, then faced his father. "Well, father," Aven said, "you see how my patience has finally been pushed too far."
"I do indeed," said Noyock. "And what did the boy do this time?"
"I come here in the morning to wake him, and find him in here half–dressed. I think, ‘The boy's getting up early to help,' and come in to give him a hug and clap him a good–morning, and by damn his clothes are wet! Been down by the river again! Down playing water games with that little bastard Wix, no doubt. But I says to him, ‘Did you sleep well?' And he says to me, ‘Very well, father. Didn't stir all the night long.' And I'll not put up with being disobeyed and lied to on top of it all!"
"So I see. Well, the boy's strapped well, now, isn't he?"
"And I hope it hurts him long enough that he learns to obey his father." And with that Aven stalked righteously out of the room.
Now, in the silence that followed, Noyock could hear the boy's labored breathing. Crying? Either that or trying very hard not to, which amounts to the same, Noyock decided. But no need to let the boy wallow in it. Good cheer: "Well, Hoom, my boy, today's Jason's homecoming."
Grunt from the face in the blankets.
"And today your grandfather's been Warden for one solid year. Four to go. Better this time than the first. What do you think, will Jason have me out, or keep me on?"
No answer at all.
"I suppose that's a trivial question to you right now, Hoom. But it plagues me a far sight more than anything else right now. What's troubling you? I know the pain's a trifle to you — what's your sorrow?"
Mumbles.
"And only God heard that remark. Have you nothing to say to me?"
<
br /> Hoom lifted his face from the blanket. His cheeks were tear–streaked, but his eyes were aflame with hatred. "I want to kill him," the boy hissed. "I want to kill him!"
The words were like knives to Noyock, who couldn't bear such words being said within his family. But he only smiled. "Ah, it isn't the pain at all, then, is it, because if it was the blows, you'd only want to thrash him. It's the shame, isn't it, of being beaten."
Hoom started to argue, then thought better of it, and Noyock took note of the boy's increasing maturity, that he'd change his mind so readily when he knew the other side had the truth. "Yes," Hoom said. "It's the shame."
"Well, Jason's coming today, and all shames are forgotten."
"Not all," Hoom said. "He forbids me to spend time with Wix."
"He's your father."
"Father or not, Wix is my friend! I didn't choose my own damn father! And I did choose my friend!"
"Well, you're thirteen," said Noyock. "In only eleven months you'll be fourteen, and come of age, and no father or mother can tell you what to do or not to do."
"But by then Wix'll have it done! And I won't have had a part in it!"
"In what?"
"Logs on the river!"
"Ah," Noyock said. "That again. But Wix is so impractical! Why go out playing on the river, with the current as dangerous and swift as it is, when we have no need to travel on it?"
"But the city'll grow, grandfather! Wix says there'll come a time when a floor of logs on the river will carry cargo from one end of Heaven City to another!"
"You can't even guide your silly logs," Noyock said. "The river isn't an ox, to be tamed by men."
Hoom turned away in ill–hidden disgust. "No, you're as bad as father."
"Probably worse," Noyock said. "I love you like he does, but I haven't the courage to try to stop you from drowning yourself. If it was up to me, I'd say, ‘Let the boys experiment. Let them learn the only way they ever will'."
"I wish you were my father!" Hoom said.
"Too late to arrange that," Noyock answered, laughing. "But go on down to breakfast. Jason's coming today."
Suddenly concerned, Hoom said, "Are my eyes red? Does it show that I was crying?"
"Not a bit. But I'd advise you to put on some clothes, boy. Your mother's likely to belt you a good one if you come naked to breakfast." Hoom laughed, and so did Noyock; and the Warden left the room, wishing that all the unhappy people in Heaven City could be so easily comforted.
Breakfast was placid, except when Aven started telling how Niggo the tailor had nearly beaten Wix within an inch of his life, because the boy had been teaching Niggo's nine–year–old daughter to swim. "That'll teach young hooligans to keep their hands off young children."
The point of the remark was too sharp to miss, and Hoom piped up in his changing voice, "She asked him to teach her. He didn't want to, but she pestered him until he did."
"Nevertheless," Aven pontificated, "if Jason had meant for human beings to swim, he'd have given us scales and fins."
Hoom's eyes flashed with anger, and he said sarcastically, "And if God had meant for men to plow, he'd have given you blades for feet."
Aven grew furious immediately, and a crisis was averted by the arrival of the bacon and Noyock's loud laughter. "My son and my grandson, both prizes for their wit!" The desire for a quarrel passed quickly, and overzealous mouths were soon filled with dripping fat. "I say that even if hogs are disgusting creatures," Aven commented with his mouth full, "they're certainly good once they're dead!"
And Noyock answered, his mouth even fuller, "And let us say the same for fat men, too!" and everyone laughed, for they had nothing but contempt for the tailors and weavers and woodcarvers who sat all day at their tasks, while Noyock and Aven and all their family, keepers of cattle and tillers of fields, considered loose skin at their waist to be a sign that they'd been slacking.
The breakfast over, they gathered cloaks against the wind and headed out of the house, down the dirt road, and joined the crowd trickling along the new road that was generally called Noyock's Road. Noyock was justly proud of it — for though Cooter the wagonmaster had suggested the idea to two other Wardens, only Noyock had caught the vision of it, and found a way to do it.
The trouble had been that no one wanted to donate time just to spread small rocks over the surface of the road. So Noyock had assessed, not time, but goods from the older, wealthier people, and had paid those goods to younger men whose farms were not yet producing, or who were still learning the trade. That way the older men didn't have to waste their time on a public job, while the younger men could work for the general good — and not starve in the process.
The result was good. A summer of frequent rain had proved it: while every other road in Heaven City was a morass of mud, Noyock's Road, which led from the Main Town, past Noyock's Town, over the crest of the hill, and down to Linkeree's Bay — the water ran right off or soaked right through, and not a wagon was stuck all summer. And now, with the evidence before their eyes, there'd been no trouble persuading the people to spread the small stones on all the streets of Main Town , and much of Wienway Road — clear to the forge. Jason would be pleased.
Firstfield was full already. The census last winter had brought a total of 1,394 people in Heaven City . Twenty had been taken into the Star Tower . Eight had died in all the history of Heaven City , of accidents or, in the case of a few of the Ice People, of the strange, inexplicable maladies of old age. Noyock had no hope of counting how many babies had been born since winter — these days it seemed that every woman was pregnant, and Linkeree's son Torrel had told Noyock, "Every third person wants a cradle these days."
Noyock came and stood on the Warden's place, and watched to see when the rising sun would be completely hidden behind the slender shaft that stuck out from the front of the Star Tower — the place where Jason lived. It was only a few minutes' wait, and then the citizens of Heaven City sighed with pleasure and fulfilled expectation when the dark place appeared at the front of the Star Tower , and the slender line descended slowly to the ground.
But Noyock's pleasure turned quickly to dismay. Jason was not alone. And the only time he ever brought an adult from the Star Tower was to put one of the sleepers into office as Warden. Have I done so badly this year, Noyock wondered, that Jason is already replacing me? But that would be unfair — he hasn't even inspected my work! And I did very well the first time I was Warden — not fair!
But as the line descended more and came closer, Noyock realized that the man with Jason was a stranger. Blond and pale, he had obviously never been in the sun; but he looked strong enough, and intelligent — but who was he? Noyock knew all the Ice People, and recognized by sight everybody over ten years of age in the whole city. This one was new.
Jason and the stranger touched the ground, and Jason strode from the chair he rode in, holding out his arms, greeting all his people. They leaped to their feet. They cheered. They cried out. They wept and laughed and some sang. And, representing all of them, Noyock came forward to embrace Jason. But Noyock couldn't conceal his uneasiness, and Jason, as always, saw into his heart. As they embraced, Jason whispered, "Noyock, my friend, this man isn't here to replace you. You're doing well, and you are still Warden with all my confidence."
And so Noyock was free to be curious rather than concerned about the stranger. Until it occurred to him that this man must be —
"The hundred eleventh Ice Person!" Noyock called out in realization.
"What?" Jason asked. But Noyock had already turned around to face the crowd. "Jason has brought with him the hundred eleventh Ice Person. The last of the Ice People! As Kapock prophesied in the History! The last of the Ice People has come!"
The people were awestruck, and Noyock barely noticed the helpless expression on Jason's face as he beckoned the stranger to come forward. "You see?" Noyock heard Jason say, but he didn't understand why. Jason stepped forward, bringing the stranger with him, and he raised his hand for s
ilence.
"Your Warden is right," Jason said. "This is the last of the Ice People. And he is uniquely gifted! Of all the Ice People, only Stipock has come from the Star Tower with the power of speech. He is a wise man in many things — but he is like an infant in other things, and you must be patient with him!"
(Did I see the stranger glare at Jason? Noyock wondered. Why should he be angry?)
"His name is Stipock. Will you build him a house?"
Of course the people shouted, "Yes," and the meeting broke up immediately — it had lasted longer than any other Greeting in the History, and because of the stranger it seemed that the tumult afterward lasted longer, too. Everyone had to touch Jason, talk to him, see if he remembered them, show him the new children, ask him a question, tell him how well things were going. And then the more curious — and the majority were very curious — had to come meet the new Ice Person.
"Stipock," they all said, trying out the name. "Welcome to Heaven City ."
Noyock watched as Wix (the problem! The thorn in everyone's side!) came to Stipock and fixed him with that cold, painful stare, and asked, "Why are you able to talk, when all the others who came from the Star Tower were like babies?"
Stipock glanced at Jason (Why do I keep thinking they're adversaries? Noyock asked himself), saw that he wasn't looking, and said, "Because my memory tape was the only one that survived the wreck of the ship in space."
Dead silence fell over the group. Someone muttered, "He makes words, too, just like Jason." But Wix only sneered and said to everyone and to no one, "Anyone can make up words." And then to prove his point, the fifteen–year–old man said, "Because my memory glibbit was the only one that survived the wreck of the mumblebunk in tiddiewart." Though Wix was irritating to practically everyone, they couldn't keep from laughing.
And Noyock wondered why the stranger was turning red. Embarrassment? Anger? Ah well. He'd need a place to stay until the new house could be built — so Noyock went to him and said, "I'm Noyock, the Warden. Would you be willing to live with me until we can build you a house?"
Hot Sleep: The Worthing Chronicle Page 19
