Khadi's Story 9: The Sermon at the Inn |
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After speaking to the woman called Sheema, I left the palace by the same small back door I had entered the day before; no-one made any attempt to stop me. There was a crowd clustered over by the front entrance to the Palace; they were chanting Golden Sword, but they did not see us. I carried the boy in my arms, for he was still weak from the gelding, and I think was in shock from what he had seen, but outside I stopped to Heal him once we were past the crowd. I had to go back to the inn, for Elbry the smith would surely have noticed the sword disappear from his stone floor, then reappear later. The way took us past a large room open to the sky, as they say here; there were stands set up at which people were shouting about fruit and vegetables and other alien foods, about drinks and about many useless carved items. I approached one of these shouters; his table was piled high with oddly-coloured fruits, some spherical and the size of a testicle, others as large as a head, and some smaller than an eyeball. Like many of them, he wore few klodes, just a cloth about his waist, seemingly in order to make voiding difficult. There seems to be a hierarchy here, where more important people wear more klodes; this is entirely backwards, and shows how far these people have fallen. I asked, What is a good fruit to eat? Give me one, and the man laughed in scorn. Give, he mocked, sell, you mean! I'll "give" you five of these juiceflesh for eight, or ten for twenty! I had no idea what he was talking about, but Heesm, kneeling beside me, rubbed his head against my leg in the manner of a slave who hopes to be given permission to speak. I looked down at him and gestured for him to stand, and he told me, quietly, that the man wanted either eight or twenty golden discs, and that a better bargain would be a single disc. So this was the purpose of the discs that we have stored in the Chamber of Strange Objects: they are for obtaining fruit. So be it. I Fetched a single golden disc from the oldest pile, and held it aloft. The man gasped, and I realised he had thought I had no gold. As indeed I had not, a moment before, but what of it? I handed the gold disc to the man, who looked at it carefully, placed it in his mouth and tried to eat it, then examined it again. He was puzzled, and said, this is very old. And indeed, engraved upon the coin is a date, although it is not in any calendar I know. It said 90,301, but we number years from the Closing, and we shall reach 30,000 this year. I Fetched a disc from the newest pile and offered him that instead; he took it, nodded, took a large fruit the size of my head, then another, and handed me fifteen of them, more than he had promised. I was about to tell the boy to bring them when I realised, firstly that he could not, for he does not know how to control his Power, and secondly, that this was probably more than I could eat. By this time we were being watched, though, so I had an idea. I thanked the man, who had the smile of one who has made an empty promise; then I Lifted all of the fruit in a pyramid, with the base uppermost, leaving the palm of my left hand touching the lowest, and we walked away. People nearby started banging their hands together (they call it klapping but do not use it to punish or frighten). I walked back to the crowd by the Palace, and, keeping four of five of the fruit back, launched the rest until they hung suspended over the place where the people were pressed most thickly together. We had been seen this time, and there were shouts, so I let the fruits fall. When each fell onto a person's head it split and burst, and juiced of various bright colours went everywhere. But we could not stay, for the people were made angry and I think wanted to follow us. I Hid for a moment, though, and watched the crowd disperse as people ran hither and thither trying to find me. The boy, they ignored. We walked back to the smithy, and on the way the boy explained to me how these discs that they call money are used. They are truly an evil invention. I shall not describe to you the details, for it is better that the idea be destroyed. Suffice to say that it is a means for keeping some people happy and others miserable, for starving some to death while others live, yet unrelated to the Power or to the Gods, and so insidious that many do not realise the trap. * We arrived back at the Smithy to find another crowd, but these people were listening in silence as Elbry addressed them. He spoke gruffly, in short sentences, but they wanted every word, and when he stopped, they asked questions, or told him to begin again. He was telling them of how the sword had lifted and vanished, and how it had reappeared. And when he saw me, he stopped, and said, Here is the One! He is here! All the faces turned towards me, and looked first at me and then at the slave crouching at my side. I shrugged and walked up to Elbry, put the fruit down, and turned to the people. I couldn't see over their faces, they were pressed so close, so I gestured to the boy and had him crouch down so that I could stand on his back. His skin was warm under my feet, and the sunlight poured down on us from the Two Orbs, for it was near noon. Elbry said that I should speak to them, and tell that that I was indeed come to save them. I had, in a manner of speaking, so I Fetched the sword into my uplifted right hand, and spoke. A sword is nothing. It is a piece of metal. It is the Power within that gives it strength. I have not come to fight battles for you (there was a sound of disappointment from the crowd) but to bring back the Power. We in the Fortress at Kehahn have waited the appointed thirty thousand years. Every thousand years we have sent out a searcher, and every tenth searcher has brought back one of the Three Keys. I am the third searcher, and when I return to Kehahn with the Third Key, the Gate shall be opened and the Gods will return. There was cheering here; I do not know whether these people knew that the Gods are sometimes little more than capricious children with unlimited Power. I Returned the sword and went inside. I said to Elbry, I made the sword for you, but he just shrugged. Then I told him about Sheema, and he snorted: she is a bitch. I was not familiar with the term: since our women have no hands or feet and cannot talk or see, I had no experience with female behaviour. But here, even though women are not held to be equals of men any more than are slaves, they are permitted to speak, and in the case of Sheema can be powerful. I shall find out just how powerful tonight, perhaps, when I visit her.
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