Khadi's Story 12: Kruddy |
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I sent Heesm out to see if he could find out about the Council. He can sense the Power now, and perhaps the slaves would know things that those in control do not wish to be known. This is a sad state of affairs: in Kehahn, there are no secrets, and cannot be, when any thought can be Read. If you desire sex with someone, he Knows it; if you dislike someone, you must make it up to him, for he knows why. None of these things are true for those who live without the Power. How poor they are. While Heesm was gone, I showed Elbry how to make good strong flexible steel. He is still startled when I handle the red-hot metal, and his apprentices stand and stare open-mouthed. But the work is good, and we made a start on metal for some swords, and for some miner's picks. After a few hours, Heesm returned. He brought with him a youth, naked as Heesm but with no collar, and pale-skinned like me: a Kruddy. The Kruddy is not Strong, but I can sense that he could be Awakened into the Power, like Heesm. He does not speak the "refined" dialect of the rulers here, but his language is closer to our own. At first, the Kruddy did not trust us, but I kissed him and offered to Feed him; he lay down, so I knew that he had been Fed before. I Fed both Heesm and the Kruddy, and afterwards the Kruddy knelt, and opened his mind to me. He did not try to hold anything back. The Kruddies, then, are all that is left of the people who lived in Kred'Nos before that city was destroyed and Town Thirty-six built. When the Raeian Empire conquered Kred'Nos around a hundred years ago, it seems they slaughtered all of the people there they could find, destroyed the city as best they could, and built Town Thirty-six. This particular Kruddy, whose name was Dhuu'ik, Smoke will Rise, lives in the ruins of the old city. Heesm had told Dhuu'ik about me: the boy is so much in awe of me that he probably said that I was going to Unite the Orbs, although in truth that happens every thousand years whether a ceremony is held or not. But at any rate, it is Dhuu'ik and not Sheema who knows the Council. I noticed that he had been branded, on his right side below his waist. The sign was a hexagon with a circle inside it; I asked him whether he knew the meaning, and he whispered in my ear, awareness. That is its hidden meaning; the outer meaning is guardian, and he knew that too. So the Knowledge is not all lost! It was too late in the day to travel to the Old City on foot. Heesm is doing better with his pain exercises, and in any case his feet are getting tougher, and the Kruddy has never worn shoes and can go anywhere naked. But I cannot arrive at the Council tired, and with weary hungry footsore children along with me. I could Travel back to the tower where we left the Road, but to do that would leave Dhuu'ik disoriented; I cannot see the tower in his memory, so I think he would not know where it was, and we would need him to guide us. So instead we spent the time preparing for the Ceremony: it turns out that both youths have learned parts. Appropriately, the Kruddy has learnt the part that we call Repression, and the he calls Return; Heesm, of course, has learned Suffering. If there are only the three of us for the Ceremony, that would leave me for Derangement. On the way tomorrow, I shall buy some slave-children for a sacrifice.
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