When peace depends on the life of one man, then each new day becomes a deathwatch. Each new plan must include the thought: Can this be finished before he dies? Each new child is welcomed with the prayer: Let safety last another year. Another month, another week.
Not that people talked about it much-about how old Volemak was looking, how his back was stooping, how he winced with arthritis when he walked, how he tended to lose breath when he worked hard, how he now called meetings in the schoolhouse instead of up the ladder inside the starship. It was something they saw, regretted, feared, but kept to themselves, pretending that it wasn’t that bad, he had plenty of time left, no need to worry yet.
Then Emeezem died and Fusum seized full power among the diggers. She had started losing heart when her son Nen was killed by a panther while hunting. Later, the desecration of the Untouched God was a harsh blow, and her heart died then; the death of her husband Mufruzhuuzh was merely an afterthought compared to those. The world has ended, Emeezem, and, oh yes, your husband is dead and the brutal boy who says he tried to save your son is now both blood king and war king and when you die he will destroy all peace among your people and there’s nothing you can do except teach the women to look for a day of peace in some distant day only the women seem to barely listen anymore, and the only one who does you honor is the human Nafai whose face was your salvation long ago. When death finally came to her, coughing out of her lungs as she lay in her deep chamber, in darkness, attended by silent women and a few men watching for the exact moment of death so they could begin destroying her memory-when death finally came to her, she welcomed it with bitter relief. What took you so long? And where are Nen and Mufruzhuuzh? And for that matter, where’s my mother? Why has my life turned out to be so worthless?
Only just as she was on the edge of death there came a dream into her mind even though she had thought she was awake. She saw a human, a digger, and an angel, standing together on the brow of a hill as a host of people of all three species gathered round them, weeping, laughing for joy, surging forward to touch them, and each one who touched them sang out loud, the same glad song, and then the human, the digger, and the angel looked at her, at Emeezem the deep mother who was dying, and said to her, Thank you for setting your people on this road.
The dream did not bring Nen back to life, or give her hope that Fusum’s reign would not be bloody and terrible, and it certainly did not take her from the brink of death. All it did was let her step off that brink into the dark unknown with a smile on her face and pride in her heart. It made death sweet to her.
Fusum saw to it that she was given great honor, and in his funeral oration he praised her for preparing the people for the coming of the humans-even if she misunderstood what the gods meant their people to do. Then, over the next several days, all his rivals and opponents disappeared and were never heard of again. The message was clear: The supreme law of the digger people was Fusum, for Fusum was blood king, war king, deep mother, and, yes, god, all in one, and for all time. Most of the young men were happy with this, for he would make warriors of them once again, after so many years of being in the shadow of the humans and under the thumb of women. And if the young men were happy with him, no one else dared to be unhappy.
Fusum respectfully asked Oykib to stop teaching his silly ideas about the Keeper of Earth. Fusum took Chveya aside and told her that her presence was intimidating to the digger women and they would be happier if she stopped helping them learn about the safe storage and preservation of food. One by one the other humans were kindly asked to desist, until at last only Elemak, Mebbekew, and Protchnu were allowed to visit with the diggers.
What could Volemak do? He asked Elemak to protest to Fusum. Elemak said that he would, then came back and said that he had, and conveyed Fusum’s assurance that nothing had changed except that diggers would be taking the responsibility for educating their own people. “He said that we should be happy, Father, because now we have more time to devote to our own families.”
It was all handled so quietly, so politely, that it left Volemak helpless to interfere. He knew-everybody knew-that in effect the diggers were in revolt against human overiordship, even though until the revolt none of the humans had thought of themselves as overlords. They also knew that Elemak had somehow pulled off a coup, for he now controlled all access to the diggers even though until that moment Oykib and Chveya had been the dominant human presence among the digger people. Everyone was sure that Elemak had planned and worked on this for years, that in all likelihood he and Fusum had struck some kind of bargain twenty years before when Fusum was a hostage and Elemak was learning digger speech from him and supposedly winning him over to friendship with the humans.
“Fusum kidnapped Elemak’s child,” Chveya said, unbelieving. “How could Elemak have made friends with him?”
“I think,” said Oykib, “that Elemak understood that there was nothing personal about Fusum’s choice of kidnap victim. And I don’t think that what they made between them was what you or I would understand as friendship.”
It didn’t matter now what any of the rest of them thought of it. It was done.
That was when they started watching Volemak’s health in earnest. Even Vblemak began to speak of it, quietly, to a few.
He and Nafai got together with Hushidh and Chveya and made a list of who was clearly loyal to Nafari and who was loyal to Elemak. “We’re divided into Nafari and Elemaki again,” said Chveya. “I thought for a while that those days might be behind us.”
Volemak looked sad, but not grim. “I knew that Elemak had changed, but what he learned was patience, not generosity. The Oversold knew it all along.”
Among the humans, Nafari outnumbered Elemaki overwhelmingly, and of the adult men who might serve as soldiers, there would be no contest if it ever came to battle among humans only. But of course, everyone understood now that the battle, if it came, would be between Nafai’s humans and Fusum’s army of diggers. On that scale, Nafai’s soldiers were the merest handful, and no one had the slightest confidence that the angels, however willing they might be, could really stand against the diggers in an open war. It could not be allowed to come to battle. Nafai and his people would have to leave.
Yet even among the children of Kokor and Sevet, more than half were loyal to Nafai-in part because of the open secret that their mothers were Elemak’s mistresses. “The real complication,” said Hushidh, “is that Eiadh is perhaps the most loyal of all to Nafai, and she’ll want to take as many of her children and grandchildren with her as she can.”
“How many of them would come?” asked Nafai.
“Most. Most of Elemak’s children would come with you, though not Protchnu or Nadya and their children. But Elemak won’t stand for it if you take any of them, even if you take just Eiadh. He’d follow us wherever we might go. We can’t bring her with us if we ever hope for peace.”
Volemak listened and listened to their discussion, and then made his decision. “You’ll take everyone whose loyalty to Nafai is genuine and deep, if they want to go. You’ll have to trust in the Keeper of Earth to help you.”
If any of them thought to say, That’s easy for you to decide, Volemak, because you’ll be dead when the wars begin, they kept it to themselves.
As Volemak’s health weakened, he began to call people to him, one by one. Just for a conversation, he said, but they all came away rather shaken by the experience. He would sit with them and tell them with almost brutal frankness what he thought of them. The words could sting, but when he praised the good in them, their talents, their virtues, their accomplishments, his words were like gold. Some of them remembered mostly the criticism, of course, and some mostly the praise, but each of these meetings was recorded and later, Nafai or Oykib wrote down the words on the golden leaves of the book. Someday, when they wanted to remember what Volemak said, the words would be there for them to read.
It was an open secret that Volemak was saying goodbye. And when he took sick, the pace quickened He met with pTo and Poto, who came down the canyon to him because even in the launch he couldn’t stand the strain of traveling to their village one more time. “We will fight and die for Nafai,” they told him.
“I don’t want you to die, and you must fight only if they force you to. The real question, my friends, is this: Will you and all your people follow Nafai into the wilderness, to start over, to build a new colony in another land?”
“We’d rather defeat the diggers,” said pTo. “We’d rather fight like men. Nafai has taught us to fight with new weapons. We can bring down panthers on the run, we can kill them while we’re in flight and they can’t touch us.”
“Diggers are smarter than panthers,” said Volemak,
“But angels are smarter than diggers,” said Poto.
“You don’t understand me,” said Volemak. “I say that diggers are smarter than panthers because it means their lives are more precious. You should not be proud because you can kill diggers, because they’re men, not animals.”
Abashed, pTo and Poto fell silent.
“Will you and your people follow Nafai higher into the mountains?”
“I can tell you with perfect confidence, Father Volemak,” said pTo, “that not only will the people follow Nafai to the moon or to the depths of hell, but also they will beg him to be their king and rule over them, because if he is their ruler they know that they’ll be safe.”
“What if Nafai didn’t have the cloak of the star-master?” asked Volemak.
They looked at each other for a moment. Finally Poto remembered. “Oh, you mean the thing that lets him glow like a firefly when he wants to?”
“That means nothing to us,” said pTo. “We don’t want him to lead us because he has some kind of magical power, Father Volemak. We want him to lead us because he and Luet and Issib and Hushidh are the best and wisest people that we know, and they love us, and we love them.”
Volemak nodded. “Then you will be my children forever, even after I’m dead.”
They went home and told their people to begin to prepare to leave. They gathered up their belongings and decided which to take and which to leave. They packed their seed and the cuttings of the plants that did not grow from seed. They packed the food that they would need for the journey and to live on until their new fields ripened. And they began to move their children a day’s flight up the valley and over the next ridge, so that they would already be out of the reach of the diggers if the flight should begin in haste.
“How long will Father Volemak live?” everyone asked them.
How could they answer? “Not long enough,” they said, over and over, to everyone who asked.
At last all goodbyes had been said, all blessings given, all hopes and memories and love expressed, and yet Volemak still lingered. Rasa came to Shedemei and said, “Volya and Nyef want to see you, Shedya. Please come quickly.” She smiled at Zdorab. “This time alone, please.” Zdorab nodded.
Shedemei followed the old woman into the house where Volemak lay, his eyes closed, his chest unmoving,
“Is he ...” she began.
“Not yet,” answered Volemak softly.
Nafai sat on a stool in the corner. Rasa left the house, saying only, “Be quick.” They understood that she didn’t want to be outside when her husband died.
“Nafai,” whispered Volemak. “Give the cloak of the starmaster to her.”
“What?” said Shedemei.
“Shedemei,” said Volemak. “Take the cloak. Learn how to use it. Take the ship up into the sky, where no man can touch it or use it. Live long-the cloak will sustain you. Watch over the Earth.”
“That’s the Keeper’s job, not mine,” said Shedemei, but in truth her heart wasn’t in her protests. Volemak wants me to have the cloak, me to have the ship! Volemak wants me to have the only decent laboratory in the world, and time enough to use it!
“The Keeper of Earth will be glad of any help that he can get,” said Volemak. “If he could do his work alone he wouldn’t have brought us here.”
Nafai stood up, taking off his clothing as he did. “It will pass from my flesh to yours,” he said. “If you’re willing to receive it. And if I’m willing to let it go.”
“Are you?” asked Shedemei.
“Tend this world as your garden,” said Nafai. “And watch over my people when I sleep.”
Volemak died that night, with only Rasa at his side. By dawn his passing was known from the deepest chamber of the digger city to the highest nest of the angels. The grief was immediate and real among the angels, and among all the diggers who did not lust for war. They knew that peace was ended for them all; and also, they had loved and honored the man Volemak, not just for his authority, but for the way he used it.
At Rasa’s request they did not burn his body, but rather buried it according to the digger custom.
It was only two days later that the test of authority came. Nafai was preparing to go back up to the angel village, where Luet already waited for him. Elemak, flanked by Meb and Protchnu, and with a dozen digger soldiers behind him, intercepted Nafai at the forest’s edge.
“Please don’t go,” said Elemak.
“Luet’s waiting,” said Nafai. “Is there some urgent business?”
“I’d appreciate it if you didn’t go,” said Elemak. “I’ll send word to Luet to come down here. I’d rather you live in this village now. The skymeat don’t need you anymore.”
His words and manner were gentle, so that if Nafai showed any resistance he would look like the aggressor, not Elemak. But the message was plain. Elemak was seizing power, and Nafai was his prisoner.
“I’m glad to hear that,” said Nafai. “I thought I still had a great deal of work to do among them, but now I imagine I can just retire.”
“Oh, no, there’s still a lot of work to do down here,” said Elemak. “Fields to be cleared, tunnels to be dug, A lot of work. And your back is still strong, Nafai. I think there’s a lot of labor left in you.”
He was taken to Volemak’s house. Rasa saw at once what was happening, and she did not take it calmly. “You were always a snake, Elemak, but I thought you learned long ago that imprisoning Nafai accomplishes nothing.”
“Nafai’s not my prisoner,” said Elemak. “He’s just another citizen, doing his duty to the community.”
“What, am I supposed to have the good manners to pretend that I believe your lies?” asked Rasa.
“Lady Rasa,” said Elemak, “Nafai is my brother. But you are not my mother.”
“For which I give thanks to the Oversoul, you may be sure.”
Nafai finally broke his silence. “Mother, please. Keep peace. Elemak thinks he rules here, but this world belongs to the Keeper, not to him or any man. He has no power here.”
In another time, Elemak would have flown into a rage at those words, would have blustered and threatened, or lashed out in fury. But he was a different man now, a tempered man, a man of discipline and quiet, ruthless wisdom. He said nothing, merely watched until Nafai went into his father’s house. Then two digger soldiers were left to stand guard at the door.
Rasa went to the ship, to Shedemei. “I don’t think Elemak knows that you have the cloak now, Shedemei. You could use it to stop him, to strike him down.”
Shedemei shook her head. “I don’t know how to use it that well yet. I’m learning. It’s a terrible burden, this doak. I don’t know how Nafai bore it.”
“Don’t you see that he’s helpless here? Elemak is going to kill him, probably tonight. He won’t let Nafai live till morning.”
“I know,” said Shedemei, “I received a message from Issib, through the Index. I hear him directly now, you know, wearing the cloak. He says that Luet dreamed a true dream last night. In the dream she saw all the digger soldiers asleep, and all those who follow Elemak. Asleep while you and Nafai and all the loyal men and women and children journeyed up the canyon, and then onward, higher and farther, to a new land.”
“And what is that supposed to mean?”
“I think-she thinks, and so does Issib, and so says the Oversoul-that it was a true dream. The Oversoul has power enough to put the humans to sleep. But since the dream came from the Keeper, perhaps we must trust that she, too, has the power to put her people to sleep.” Shedemei looked away. “I’m not familiar with this sort of thing. I wasn’t one to have visions. Just one dream, really, of a garden.”
Zdorab was sitting sourly in a corner. “She won’t take me with her,” he said. “She insists I have to go with Nafai and help start another damn colony.”
“You don’t have to,” said Shedemei.
“Or stay with Elemak-do you really think that’s a choice?” said Zdorab. “Reason with her, Rasa. I’m a librarian.”
“I’m just doing what the Oversoul advised,” said Shedemei. “She says that Zdorab will be needed.”
“But what about what I nwtf?” demanded Zdorab. “Lady Rasa, haven’t I kept my oath to Nafai all these years? Haven’t I stood by him?”
“Perhaps now,” said Rasa, “is your chance to repay him for his forgiveness of your mistake during the voyage.”
Zdorab looked away.
“Can’t you take him with you?” asked Rasa.
“I want to,” whispered Shedemei. “But the Oversoul says not for now.”
“Then tell him that. Tell him it’s not for now,” said Rasa. “He thinks that it’s forever.”
From the corner Zdorab spoke again, and he was weeping. “Don’t you know, Shedemei, that I love you? Don’t you know that I don’t want to live without you?”
Tears came to Shedemei’s eyes, too. She whispered to Rasa, “I never thought he’d. . . .”
“Love you?” asked Rasa. “You never think anyone will love you, but we do. Let him go with you, Shedemei. The Oversoul doesn’t know everything. She’s just a computer, you know.”
Shedemei nodded gravely, knowing perfectly well that Rasa did not believe for a moment that the Over-soul was nothing more than a machine. “Zdorab,” said Shedemei, “will you take the ship’s launch, to carry Lady Rasa and the heaviest burdens up the canyon? And then use it to take Issib and his chair, and Lady Rasa again, and bring them to the new place where the Nafari will start their colony?”
“I will,” said Zdorab.
“And then, when Nafai tells you he has no further use for the launch, would you be kind enough to bring it back to me here at the ship, so we can lift ourselves into orbit?”
He smiled. He embraced her.
“You know that the cloak will sustain my life,” she said. “Longer than is natural. And I intend to hibernate a lot, too, so I can have the time to study many generations of life and gather a great deal of data over time.”
“I don’t mind dying before you do,” said Zdorab. “In fact, I rather prefer it that way,”
“It’ll be work all the time,” said Shedemei. “So you’ll need a secretary and librarian all the more.”
“And the salary is low,” she said.
“I’ve already been paid,” he answered her
When darkness fell, the digger soldiers outside the door of Volemak’s house fell asleep. Nafai stepped out almost at once, and began going door to door, speaking quietly to his loyal supporters and gathering them at the forest’s edge. They were not silent, though they tried to be; there was no way to keep the little children from talking or, occasionally, crying or complaining. But no alarm was raised.
Chveya stood beside Nafai, looking at the ties still binding him to the people he was leaving behind. “If they’re asleep,” said Chveya, “doesn’t that mean the Oversoul doesn’t want them to go with you?”
“It doesn’t matter what the Oversoul wants this time,” said Nafai. “I’m taking anyone who wants to join me.”
Chveya nodded. “Well, then, I must tell you that you are still bound to Eiadh and three of her children.”
Nafai nodded. “But I don’t need to speak to her,” he said. “See? She’s coming.”
And it was true. She was accompanied by the young men Yistina and Peremenya and the young woman Zhivoya, the one who had been kidnapped twenty years before. Yistina and Peremenya had their wives with them, but Zhivoya’s husband, Muzhestvo, had not come. “He’s asleep and I can’t waken him,” she explained with tears in her eyes.
“You can stay with him,” said Nafai. “No one will blame you for that.”
She shook her head. “I know what he is,” she said. “I didn’t when I married him, but I know it now. He’s one of them. In his heart and soul, he’s one of them.” She put her hands on her stomach. “But the baby is mine.”
Eiadh touched Nafai’s arm. “You don’t have to take us, Nafai. I know the danger it puts you in. He’ll never forgive us for this. He’ll believe that you and I-“
“He’ll believe that you and I have done what he and Kokor and he and Scvet and probably he and Dol have already done.” Nafai nodded. “But you and I know that we haven’t and that we never will.”
Eiadh smiled wanly at the gentle way he made it very clear that she was coming as a fellow-citizen, and not as a lover.
“Then we’re all here,” said Chveya.
“No we’re not,” said Nafai. “I have to invite my sisters.”
“They’re sleeping with him, Father,” Chveya said. “Not to mention that they aren’t the most trustworthy people in the world.”
“Are we only taking the strong and virtuous?” he asked. “Their husbands arc dead, and as you said, their morals have never been their best talent. But they’re my sisters.” He walked away, back into the village.
It was a ghost town, the doors standing open, the people gone or, in just a few of the houses now, deeply asleep. But when Nafai came to the door of Sevet’s house, there she stood in the doorway, looking sleepy and surprised. “I had a dream,” she said, when Nafai approached her. “I don’t even remember what it was, but it made me get up and here you are.”
“We’re leaving,” said Nafai. “Before Elemak has a chance to kill me, we’re leaving, everyone who would rather not live under his rule. We’re taking all the angels with us, and going to a new place far away.”
“He’ll track you down and kill you if he can,” said Sevet. “You don’t know how much hate there is in him.”
“Yes I do,” said Nafai. “Will you come with me?”
She began to weep. “Would you really take me, after all I’ve done?”
“Would you really come?” he asked. “Would you really stand with me now?”
“I’m so afraid of him,” she said. “And my Vasnami-nanya and my Umya, they think the sun rises and sets with him.”
“But Panimanya is with us,” said Nafai.
“So am I,” said Sevet.
They went to Kokor’s door. It stood open, but she was not standing there as Sevct had been. They came inside, quietly, and found that she was not alone in her bed. Mebbekew lay beside her, naked and sweating in the damp heat of the night. But Mebbekew was asleep, while Kokor’s eyes were already open when they came inside.
They said nothing, for fear that Meb might come awake. Kokor looked at them in the darkness, blinking. Nafai nodded to her, beckoned, and then led Sevet outside. They waited several paces from the house. Soon she came out, still arranging her dothing, “You’re leaving,” she said softly. “I dreamed it.”
“Will you come with us?” asked Nafai.
Kokor looked at Sevet, her eyes widening. “Us?” she asked.
“You can stay with him if you want to, Kokor,” said Sevet. “I think he does love you.”
“He doesn’t love anybody,” said Kokor.
“I didn’t mean Meb,” said Sevct.
“I know,” said Kokor. “But can’t I come with you if I want to?”
“There’s no going back,” said Nafai. “And in our new city, we’ll respect the law.”
They understood what he was telling them. “I think perhaps we’ve had our fill,” said Sevet.
Kokor rolled her eyes. “I will never have my fill,” she said. “But I know it won’t be Basilica. I’ll be good.”
“Are you sure you wouldn’t be happier if you stayed?” asked Nafai,
“Don’t you want us to come with you?” asked Kokor.
“Of course I do,” he answered.
“Give us some credit, Nafai,” said Kokor. “We can tell the difference between you and Elemak. We know steel from cheap tin when we see it.”
“Then let’s go,” said Nafai. “There’s a long journey ahead of us tonight.”
Oykib was already leading the long procession out onto the forest path, so that only a few remained when Nafai got there, among them Rasa and Zdorab on the launch. Shedemei was there, too.
“Seal the ship,” said Nafai. “They can’t get in if you don’t let them.”
“I know,” she said. “The ship will be safe.”
“Don’t try to be heroic,” said Nafai. “We’ll be fine.”
“You need more than one night’s head start,” said Shedemei.
Nafai shook his head, obviously intending to argue further. But she reached out a hand and touched his lips to silence him. “Nyef, my dear friend, I’m the star-master now. You go lead your colony into the wilderness. I will tend the ship and decide how the powers of the cloak are to be used.”
Shedemei embraced Rasa and Zdorab and then waved as the launch rose into the sky and soared over the tops of the trees, passing all the other travelers who were trudging along the road. Then she embraced Nafai and returned to the ship.
Nafai was the last to set out on the road. He thought he was alone, when suddenly he found himself surrounded by a dozen diggers. His first thought was that the Keeper had failed, that while the Oversoul was able to keep his human enemies asleep, the diggers had been able to awaken. This is how I’ll die, he thought.
Then he saw that they weren’t armed, and half of them were women.
“Take us with you,” said one of them in digger language.
Nafai wasn’t as fluent in that tongue as Oykib was, but he could understand them. “And live among the angels?” he asked. “They’ll never trust you.”
“We would rather be servants to the . . . angels,” said the woman who was speaking for them all. Nafai noticed that she did not say skymeat, but rather struggled to form her lips and tongue around the strange sounds of the angels’ own word for people. “Fusum is the most terrible god.”
Nafai nodded. “It will be hard for you among the angels,” he said, “but you have my protection, and I will trust you unless you teach me that I can’t. Do all of you take an oath to obey me and harm none of my people, humans or angels?”
They took the oath, and so he let them follow him. There was consternation among the angels when they arrived, but Nafai’s assurances and their own humble pleas won the grudging acceptance of the angels. It was still dark when they left the angel village empty, and set out into the new country to build a new city, of a new kind.
When, after many days of travel, they reached the place that Nafai had chosen years before, knowing that this day might come, pTo and Poto held a little ceremony. “A place must have a name,” they said. “And since we will always be known as the Nafari-“ the word their lips pronounced was more like Dapati, but they were understood “-then we think this must now be called the land of Nafai-“ Dapai “-and you are the one we choose to lead us all.”
The voices rang out so loud in approbation that Nafai could only smile and say, “No man could be more happily praised than to have his friends choose to name their home after him.” But despite the modesty of his words, they all knew what the naming meant. Nafai was their king. Their war king. And they would gladly die for him.
Shedemei heard what Issib said to her through the Index. “It’s dawn, and we’re well away from the village, but we’re slow, Shedya, and an army of diggers could have us by noon.”
To this Shedemei replied, “There will be no army today or tomorrow.”
“Just remember, Shedya,” Issib answered. “There’s only one of you to protect all of us. Don’t be noble. Don’t be fair. Prevail.”
“Good advice, Issya, Now let me go and follow it.”
For all her confidence, Shedemei was reluctant to leave the shelter of the starship, to make the door seal itself behind her. Wearing the cloak gave her a feeling of connection and closeness to every part of the ship, but in truth she had felt not very differently before. The ship was where her tools were, her library, her work, her career, herself. Stepping out into the village-the remnant of the village, the mostly deserted human-built houses-she was becoming someone else. Nafai must have relished this, thought Shedemei, this feeling of power, of control. But I don’t. I’m not interested to find out how much power can be focused through my flesh. I have no desire to know just how strong a jolt I can give someone without killing him.
To be fair, Nafai might not have loved it cither. But good-hearted as he might be, he was a man, and men seemed to find an obscene amount of pleasure in having the upper hand, in winning. Shedemei, on the other hand, simply wanted to know. But maybe it wasn’t a matter of men and women. Maybe it was just that She-demei’s connection to other people was never very strong, compared to her love for her work, her devotion to understanding the way life worked. Is that really different, though? she wondered. Nafai and Elemak were born to rule men and determined to win out over each other. But I feel myself also born to rule, not men or women but organisms, genetic codes, life systems, ecologies. And, like Nafai and Elemak, I will have my way.
The problem today would not be Elemak, not really. The problem would be the diggers. Shedemei could easily stop Elemak and his few human followers. But there was no way she could seek out and block all of Fusum’s soldiers, and they were the ones who would do the killing if they reached the Nafari while they were traveling, encumbered as they were by children and infants, by supplies and flocks and herds.
So whatever Shedemei did, she would have to persuade the diggers that they must wait; if the diggers did not go, then Elemak would also have to wait.
Thus it was that Shedemei walked through the village, paying no attention to the shouting as Elemak, Mebbekew, and Protchnu searching all the houses, ransacked them, really, screaming to each other about the betrayal, about all those who had gone. Mebbekew saw her and called out to her, then went howling off to find Elemak, crying out that Shedemei had stayed, Shedemei couldn’t leave the ship after all. “We have the laboratories! We have the computers! We have the Oversoul!” Time enough to disabuse him of this delusion later.
She made her way to where the digger watchmen were conferring in terror, wondering what would happen to them when Fusum learned that somehow they had all slept through the night, seeing nothing, hearing nothing, as most of the humans slipped away. “Fusum will kill you,” she said in her halting digger language.
They answered her in human speech, for which she was grateful. “What can we do? What happened to us? Someone poisoned us!”
“It was the Keeper of Earth,” she said. “The Keeper of Earth has rejected you, because a murderer rules over you. You have chosen a murderer to be your blood king and your war king.” Then, with some effort, she made her skin begin to glow. “Did you think that when Fusum desecrated the statue of the Untouched God, it would go unnoticed?”
She hated doing this. It had taken a great deal of effort to break them free of superstition, and here she was rekindling all their old fears and faiths. But how else could she control them, given the few powers that she had?
They were supine before her, offering their underbellies in a gesture of submission.
“I don’t want your naked bellies,” she said. “Stand like men, for once. If you had stood like men before, the Keeper of Earth would not be so angry with you now.”
“What should we do, great one?”
“Bring me the friend-killer, the liar who murdered Nen on the hunt.”
The charge was like an electric current suddenly flowing through them. “So it was not the panther! Not the panther!” they said.
“There was a panther,” said Shedemei, “but the panther killed a man who had been struck down by a blow from a friend.” Even as she said it, she wondered if it was true, and, if it was, how she knew it.
<I’m wondering that myself.> The voice of the Over-soul was clear and strong inside her head.
Could it be true? she asked.
<I watch over the humans. You’re the only ones who have been changed to enable you to hear me, and to enable me to touch your mind.>
But we set twelve satellites in orbit, she said. You must be able to see, even if you can’t hear their thoughts.
<I’ve never been programmed to watch animals. >
Furiously Shedemei responded, Well, I program you now to treat diggers and angels as if they were human, too.
<They aren’t human, and so I can’t regard them that way.>
Then do this, said Shedemei silendy. Remember that because the humans have to live among diggers and angels now, our safety and survival depend on you watching what these sentient aliens do. You must always know.
<I don’t have the resources that I had on Harmony. I don’t have the power, the memory, the speed, the vision to watch them all.>
Do your best.
<And when you set me to work on mathematical problems or searches and comparisons, Shedemei, I can barely watch anything at all.>
Within your limits, within a reasonable set of priorities, do your best.
<We’re going to have to have a long talk about priorities before long.>
Don’t pretend to be helpless. I know what you are, wko you are, and you don’t need me to explain things to you. Now do your best to help me understand Elemak.
<Don’t kill him,>
Shedemei almost said, I wasn’t planning to. But then she realized that in the back of her mind that was exactly what she had planned. Fusum and Elemak, both of them dead and therefore the Nafari safe.
Why not kill him? she asked.
<The diggers must be restrained. Oykib is explaining this to Nafai and Issib right now. If they aren’t held in by a powerful leader, they will run rampant, slaughtering angels and humans alike. The rage and hunger for blood in them is strong, after such long restraint. Fusum wasn’t causing them to hist for war, he was using that lust to maintain himself in power. He was riding the panther, but he wasn’t controlling it, and now you’ve cut the panther free of him.>
I haven’t done anything to him yet.
<All through the digger city they’ve risen up in revolt, because they carry the tale of how you, the woman of the tower, have come out shining and angry, condemning them all because of Fusum’s treachery.>
How can you know this?
<Oykib knows it. He hears the praying and the cursing. I told you, I have no eyes to see what diggers do underground.>
So Nafai thinks that I need Elemak to keep the diggers in check.
<Nafai says that once they’re safely in their new home, they can fight off any attack. Natural defenses, dangerous ascents where diggers will be exposed to the darts of the angels-those will be enough if they can get there safely.>
Nafii was planning this all along, wasn’t he? When he gave me the cloak, he knew he would need me to do this.
<Yes, of course. Actually, it was my idea. If he had tried to do what you’re doing, Shedemei, he probably would have had to kill Elemak because this would have been one blow too many for Elemak to submit to him again. But with you in the cloak of the starmaster, Elemak should be able to bear another defeat, especially since you’re also handing him a victory.>
Victory?
<Over his only serious rival for power.>
They dragged Fusum out of a hole in the ground and spread-eagled him before her He hissed and howled and cursed her. She gave him the mildest of jolts, and his body spasmed. “Hold your tongue,” she said.
He held his tongue.
She had them bring him along into the human village, where now Elemak and Protchnu stood, with all the other humans gathered behind them.
<Mebbekew is planning treachery behind you.>
Shedemei spoke to Elemak. “Tell Mebbekew to come out in the open and join you where you stand, Etya, or I’ll have to make an example of him and it won’t be nice.”
Elemak laughed. “So, underneath our shy and quiet Shedemei there was a queen waiting to emerge. All it took was a little bit of power, and here you are, lord of all.”
In the meantime, Mebbekew had slunk out from behind one of the houses and now stood behind Elemak. “Nafai took our women,” Mebbekew complained.
“I’m sure that if you ask him, Protchnu will teach you how to ease your deprivation,” Shedemei said. Protchnu glowered. So did Mebbekew, when he got it.
“I see you’ve already seized control of the diggers,” said Elemak, gesturing toward the captive Fusum.
“On the contrary,” said Shedemei. “I’ve seized control of nothing. I have merely accused this man, Fusum, of murdering his friend Nen.”
“I didn’t kill him,” Fusum said.
“He dubbed him down when he knew a panther was stalking them,” said Shedemei. “Only when he knew that Nen was dead did he lunge forward and kill the panther.”
“Why are you telling me this?” asked Elemak.
“Are you not the one that has been chosen to unite humans and diggers into one people?” asked Shedemei. “Are you not the one who will found the nation of the Elemaki?”
Elemak chuckled. “Oh, of course,” he said. “Of course the starmaster has always wanted me to rule.”
“The starmaster intends to take this starship into space on the day the launch returns with my husband inside it.”
“And when will that happy day come?”
“When the great nation of the Nafari is safe.”
“As long as I’m alive, there will never be such a day,” said Elemak.
Oh, yes, Nafai almost certainly would have had to kill him. “Safe enough,” she said. “Because you know and I know that you will only be able to lead your soldiers against their redoubt so many times before the people will cease to follow you. You’re a born leader, Elemak. You’ll know how far you can push and goad and persuade. And it won’t be far enough. Nafai and his people will be safe.”
“How many days?” Elemak said. He understood the bargain.
“I think it will take you at least eight days to examine the crimes of this traitor. You’ll have to find witnesses among his soldiers who will publicly confess about all the others who were murdered after Emeezem died. Justice takes time.”
“Eight days.”
“Or until the launch comes back. You’ll also be busy moving your village so nobody gets killed when the ship takes off.”
“I can see my work is cut out for me.”
Protchnu was furious. “You aren’t going to accept this corrupt bargain, are you, Father? That snake took half your family, half my family-“
Shedemei interrupted him. “Everyone who went with Nafai went of their own free will.”
“And we’re supposed to believe that?” said Protchnu. “Maybe Father will agree to your bargain in exchange for power over these-“ he indicated the diggers with disdain “-but I will track them and hunt them down and my spear will take Nafai’s heart out of his body!”
“And your mother’s, too?” said Shedemei. “Because the only way she’ll ever corne back to Elemak is if she’s dead,”
“She’s already dead!” screamed Protchnu. “She has no soul!”
“You have to forgive the boy,” said Elemak. “He’s distraught.”
“He just doesn’t understand what he’s dealing with,” said Shedemei. She reached out a hand toward Protchnu.
“No!” cried Elemak. But the air was already sparking with power, and Protchnu bounced into the air, his limbs cavorting madly. Then he fell to the ground, still twitching, and he whimpered, long high sighs that trembled as they faded. “You are really a bitch after all,” whispered Elemak.
“I think it’s useful for everyone to see that the Keeper of Earth does not leave her servants without power,” said Shedemei. “Now let everyone see how Elemak does justice. Call your witnesses, confer with the leaders of the digger people, and when in eight days or so you reach your judgment, all of us will see whether you are fit to be named the war king of the Elemaki. If the voice of the diggers and the voice of the humans are united in calling for you to lead them, then I will make you war king, and you will lead this people with authority.”
Elemak smiled at her, since of course he knew full well that she was trading the freedom of these diggers for the safety of the Nafari. He bent down and helped his son rise, shaking, to his feet.
“Remember, though,” said Shedemei. “I said war king. There will be no more blood king among the people. Do you all hear me?”
They heard.
“This one has defiled the office so that it can never be held worthily again. From now on it is forbidden to eat the flesh of angel or human. Any man who eats that forbidden flesh will be as guilty as if he ate the flesh of his own child. That is now the law of all people, through all the world! And you will enforce it over all the diggers of every land!”
“Thanks for the assignment,” said Elemak softly.
“I think you’ll come to see the wisdom of teaching them not to think of humans as a snack,” said She-demei, just as quietly. “If they can eat your enemies, Elya, how long before they decide that you are also a comestible?”
“I got the point already,” said Elemak. “Now are you done?”
“No diggers following the Nafari,” said Shedemei.
“Do you think we won’t be able to follow the trail?” asked Elemak.
“No assassins on the road,” she said.
“I know the bargain,” said Elemak, “I know that I’ve been humiliated again, and this time Nafai took my wife and half my family, and you struck down my son. But I can live with that, because you’ve given me a nation. A nation of ugly rodents who live in dirt, but I’ve dealt with worse in caravans on Harmony, even though they walked in human shape. I will stand over Nafai’s body someday, Shedemei, regardless of what you think. But if it makes you feel better, I won’t eat him. And I won’t let anybody else eat him, either. Except perhaps the crows and vultures.”
“I’m glad to see that you’re filled with the spirit of conciliation.”
He smiled at her. Then he stepped away from her and spoke to the diggers who held Fusum, “Take the prisoner into my house. And then start bringing me those who think they know of crimes this man has done.” He looked again at Shedemei. “That should take up the first day, I imagine.”
Shedemei turned from him to Protchnu, whose cheeks were stained with tears. “You shouldn’t have done that to me,” he whispered. “That was wrong”
“You were such a promising boy,” she answered kindly. “Of all the tragedies this lifelong war between brothers has caused, you are the saddest one of all.”
He went livid. “I’ll kill him, Shedya. I’ll kill them all. Every one of them.”
“What you’re saying, then, is that you’re sure your father’s going to fail?”
“I meant that I’d kill any he left behind.”
“You know the truth, Protchnu. Stop worrying about vengeance and learn how to be a leader. These people need a king far more than your father needs to be justified. All he’s ever done, he did for power. Now he’s got it. You’ll see. He’ll go through the motions of war, but he’ll lose because his hunger has been satisfied.”
“You don’t know Father,” said Protchnu proudly. “And you don’t know me.”
“Nobody does,” said Shedemei. “So maybe you’ll surprise us all.”
Eight days later, Zdorab returned to the ship in the launch. He arrived in time to watch as Fusum was executed for his crimes, his throat cut by one of his own soldiers. His body was then hung from the limb of a tree, so that no part of it was touching the sacred earth. Shedemei, her skin aglow, stepped forward then and went through the ritual of naming Elemak to be war king. The people hailed him and cheered him, then watched in silence as Shedemei and Zdorab flew upward in the launch until they entered the tower through the high wide bay where the launch was kept.
The door closed behind them, and Elemak set out at once with two hundred soldiers, leaving Muzhestvo- Mebbekew’s youngest, now a man of twenty-three-to rule the people in his absence. Elemak’s army was halfway up the canyon when the starship roared to life and rose into the sky.
It became another point of light in the night heaven, circling and circling, now and then changing its position. It was called Basilica, but in time almost no one remembered why, or what it was, or that it had once been a tower standing by the first human village on Earth in forty million years.
Elemak’s army tracked the wide path of the Nafari migration, but when they reached the stony cliff that barred the southern passage into the wide high valley of the land of Nafai, angels assaulted them from the air, shooting darts into their exposed backs. Twenty diggers died in that place, and forty more were injured. They struggled back home, and Elemak taught them to make armor so that next year they could try again.
And so it went, year after year. But between the futile wars, both nations prospered and grew, and both sent out traders and teachers to spread the new agriculture and the new modes of warfare and the new myths and legends and religions to every other digger city and angel village.
Generations passed, and the humans became hundreds, then thousands, then tens of thousands, and there was not a digger city that didn’t have its human houses overhead, not an angel village that didn’t have humans joining in the evening song. The term that became common for humans in both societies was middle people, because they stood between the angels in the sky and the diggers in the earth.
In the sky, the starship circled and circled, but it was fall of life. Shedemei and Zdorab slept long and often, but then they would emerge and use the launch to explore, to gather specimens, to introduce new variations, to give shape and strength and variety to the gardens of the Earth. In time, Zdorab’s body wore out, and Shedemei laid him to rest in a field of flowers she had brought from Harmony. Then, alone, she woke less often. But still from time to time she visited, she gathered, she tended, and silently she watched as the people spread across the face of the land, always cleverer each time she saw them, yet also angrier, and always at war.
What else could happen? The human race was home again. v1.0 [09-dec-01] 4i Publications. OCR’d 600DPI, Finereader 5, layout, quick proof inW2k . The original paperback was below average, so there’ll be some OCR errors. Most common OCR errors have been corrected. If you proofread or change this document, please retain the existing version information. Also indicate what has been improved (proofreading, layout etc). Just reformatting and changing the version number doesn’t mean that the actual text has been improved.
We’re missing #3 in the Homecoming Saga, so the series will remain incomplete until someone scans it.