The Best Of Lester Del Rey Part 25

"He's one of the butchers," he said heavily. The bowstring stretched tighter.

"Renegade! Adominist!" Lorg screamed the words, knowing it was too late for words. "When Earth catches you-!"

Pars' head shook more firmly. "Earth!" He spat the word out harshly.-; "The men of Earth are dead a hundred years,^ [email protected] Only the weaklings are left. They'll never a&i until they have to-and then too late. Pray to your own false G.o.ds, Lorg, not to Earth!"

Lorg leaped, but the arrow was already in flight. It was a sliver, a wand, a lance-then a stake driving toward him.

Pors dropped the bow and leaned against the wall, sobbing harshly-but not for the death of Lorg.

Beyond the high walls of the s.p.a.ceport, Sayon seemed almost unchanged by the thirty years since Eli Judson had last seen the planet. Time might have ceased to exist here, though it had dealt heavily enough with him. The grayish-blue uniform of the Colonial Service hung slackly on his sinewy, old man's body.

The black was almost gone from his hair, bitter lines had been etched across his hollow-cheeked face, and his sight was almost useless without his gla.s.ses.

In a few more years, it would be too late for even the geriatric treatments back on Earth to help him.

He grunted uncomfortably as the llamalike beast he rode jolted up the rough road to the top of a hill, then held up his hand to stop his escort. "It looks peaceful enough," he observed.

"So does a fusion bomb until it goes off," Dupont answered hi his irritatingly high-pitched voice. His stout face was sweating profusely, and he made nervously futile gestures with a handkerchief.

Earth must be hard up to pick such a man for planet administrator, even on a backwater world like this, Judson thought. He shrugged and reached for his binoculars to survey the valley below.

The air was crystal clear in the aftermath of one of the seasonal storms.

Groves of dense-fruited faya berries and pastures dotted with flocks of green- wooled theom covered the hillsides. Downtrail, a caravan was meandering upward, loaded with precious spices, perfumes, and uranium ore for the s.p.a.ce trade, and he could hear the faint tinkle of bells as the beasts moved. Other caravans were winding through a pa.s.s in the opposite hills to the north, and the eastern harbor was crowded with galleys and gaudy with their multi-colored sails.

He s.h.i.+fted to study the city beyond the quays. Kalva had grown until its maze of low buildings and twisting little streets now stretched far beyond the old walls. Judson knew that most of the city was filled with squalor and filth, but distance softened that. The yellow bricks and dark tile roofs seemed to sparkle serenely in the afternoon sunlight with a hint of patterns that never became fixed.

Over the center of the city, the great temple reared its seven marble tiers, capped by a flattened dome of burnished gold plate. Judson s.h.i.+fted to higher magnification to study the square in front of the building. The crowds seemed thick there, but hardly anyone was going up the great steps. With the festival of Mesea due to begin tomorrow evening, that was a jarringly false note.

Dupont coughed nervously. "We'd better get going. If there's any trouble ..."

"From one Sdyonese?" Judson asked.

"Mohammet was only one man, and a sick one," Dupont pointed out. "Besides, these people have a lot of legends of human G.o.ds.""G.o.ddesses," Judson corrected him. Then he grimaced as memories came pouring back. Meia was thirty years in his past and should have been forgotten. He stiffened in the saddle and motioned them on.

This time two of the bowmen of Ludh moved in front. They were the usual mercenaries in this section of the galaxy-yellow, hairless apes with wolf muzzles. As soldiers, they were so good that one should have been guard enough, instead of the six Dupont had brought.

They came to the caravan he had seen, drawn aside to let them pa.s.s. There seemed nothing wrong in the att.i.tude of the woman leader, though he saw Dupont frown at an odd sign she made; it was probably religious, though he didn't recognize it.

The Sayonese were more nearly human than most races, but still alien enough.

The women's chests were flat under their brief halters-naturally, since they were marsupials-and feeif pouches showed clearly above the slit skirts both "gexes wore. Both their wrinkled skin and coa.r.s.e hair were green, while their ears and noses were grotesquely large. With their squat, heavy bodies they might have been trolls from Earth's mythology. But after the snakes of Tars.h.i.+ or the bowmen of Ludh, they looked amazingly manlike.

Even their customs and religions resembled some Earth had once known, though their G.o.d was a righteous, demanding Mother-Principle. Earth had expected easy conquest, counting on their legends of incarnate G.o.ddesses who were practically perfect images of human women, but only drastic action and the burning of half the temple had overcome that mistake a century ago. Since then, however, the priestesses had maintained peace well enough-at least until now.

"Have you seen this prophet you reported?" he asked Dupont.

The man shook his head, reaching for his kerchief again. "Only films from a distance. He came out of the desert a year ago and stuck to the provinces, picking up converts. It wasn't until last week he moved to'Kalva for the holidays. And you can't believe all the reports. They're a mess of lies about miracles."

"You haven't picked him up for questioning?"

"I'm not supposed to mix in with local religion. You know that!" Dupont's voice was petulant. "It's up to you and the high priestess, the Fas Kaia.

She's the one who asked the Sector Governor for a wars.h.i.+p and a company of Earth guards to keep peace."

Judson grimaced again. The Sector Governor had a wars.h.i.+p, but no adequate crew of fighting men for it. The youth of Earth was too busy enjoying the luxuries from a thousand worlds to bother controlling the planets now, it seemed. So he'd been sent instead, over his protests. As a mere vice-governor, he was expendable.

They were entering Kalva now, heading toward the temple and the Earth Administration palace beyond. Judson studied the crowds, realizing time had brought changes. Poverty was worse and the slaves looked ill fed. The temple taxes must be murderous. The streets were jammed with people and more pilgrims were arriving with every caravan, many wearing swords in defiance of Mesea custom. The old market was solid with skin tents and crude shelters, filling the air with stench and clamor. One skin-rotter could infect the whole area.

"Converts to Oe Athon," Dupont commented, making a misp.r.o.nounced mockery of the t.i.tle. "It thins out beyond the temple. There'll be time for a bath before the Fas Kaia reaches the palace, I guess."

The huddled ranks of unwashed Sayonese made way for them reluctantly. Their green faces stared at the humans and Ludh without seeming to see them, filled with a curious, expectant ecstasy. They might have been drug addicts, except that the drugs Earth s.h.i.+pped were too expensive for the ma.s.ses. They seemedpeaceful enough-but fanatics could seek peace one minute and start a jehad the next.

Now the street swept around the huge temple, and the crowd grew thinner. Ahead lay the palace, the Ludh barracks, and the ugly, barren cemetery hill at the end of the street. Judson glanced at the forbidding mound, then began yanking out his binoculars, cursing.

Near the top of the cemetery hill, four thin posts carried the rotting flesh of Sayonese bodies. Nearby, another wretch was still alive, sitting on the sharpened point of a stake. It had been greased until his straining hands couldn't hold his weight, and his feet rested on a mound of sand that sifted away with each writhing, tortured movement. Slowly but steadily, his body was sinking lower around the point.

At a tune like this, the fools had revived the Seat!

Judson swung out of the saddle to the ground, shaking his head as Dupont slowed. "Go on, d.a.m.n it. I'll handle this my way," he shouted. The huddles of Sayonese parted to let him through, until he was past them, climbing up the steep steps to the temple.

The priestesses must have been watching. There was a shout, and two of them trotted down to help him. To his surprise, he was in need of their a.s.sistance; his age was showing in the labor of his breathing. "Tell the Fas Kaia I'm here," he jjanted.

"The Fas Kaia-greets the Oe Eli," a heavy alto voice answered from the top of the steps, speaking in pure high Saydnese.

He caught his breath while they studied each other. She was an old woman, so fat that her skin was stretched to paleness, and her bloated body was loaded with jewels. But there was a firmness about her as she waved the lesser priestesses away. She nodded at last. "You're a strong man and a realist, I think. Thank Her for that."

"Realist enough to know you'can't tax people to starvation and hold them by torture," he told her sharply. He gestured toward the hill. "Did you think I was too stupid to see that?"

She sighed, turning one ear toward the screams of the dying man that came faintly over the noise from the streets.

"I expected you to see it," she said quietly. "These are bad times, Oe Eli-so bad that those rogues dared to try looting the temple. I may have lied in calling them followers of Athon, but their sentence was legal. As for the tax- I get what I can, but I don't starve my people. They do that themselves. Every fool on Say6n is in Kalva, to see this Athon or watch what I do to him. I've emptied my own stores, and there still isn't enough food for afl."

Slowly the anger ran out of him. Even under the codex Earth had drafted, the Seat was approved for anyone who profaned the temple. Such stupidity deserved whatever it got. "My apologies, Kaia."

"There was no offense, Eli," she told him, smiling quickly at the ritual of names. "Now, if you'll consent, we can talk better in my quarters."

In the little room behind the great gold and jade statue of Her, she waved the slaves aside and served him mild faya wine and some of the matchless Kalvan cheese. Then she sank back gratefully onto her cus.h.i.+ons, setting up a tinkling of ornaments.

" 'A wise man has many swords'," she quoted. "I am glad your Governor sent you instead of the wars.h.i.+p the administrator requested-which could have done no good. Perhaps together you and I can find a solution. Eh', when you were here before, how much did you learn of Her incarnations and their power?"

He could feel the muscles of his face tense, but he forced himself to remain calm. "I met one of your G.o.ddesses and saw what she could do," he answered.

"Meia!" Kaia's eyes seemed to gleam suddenly, as if a light had been turned onbehind them. Then she relaxed again. "I heard rumors, though I was only serving in the temple brothel at the time. Well, at least you know that a child can be born to our race who looks something like one of you-and who can grow up to work miracles. This Athon claims to be one of them."

"A man?" Judson asked in surprise, though he should have expected it.

She nodded. "All were girls, except the first, who founded our religion in a series of b.l.o.o.d.y holy wars. Some legends make it seem that he was fertile, unlike the girls, and that they may all have been seed from his loins. But the people believe they are incarnations of the G.o.ddess, and they don't disturb the temple too much. Athon does."

"Yet you didn't have him a.s.sa.s.sinated when he first appeared?" Judson asked.

He was trying to adjust his thinking to the new facts. Some kind of strange mutation, recessive and with linked genes, carrying the ability of mental healing? It was possible. Earth had found and developed a few minds with some of the same ability; they were the ones who handled the expensive geriatric rejuvenation treatments.

"I tried," she admitted. "More than once. But he converted my a.s.sa.s.sins and my spies. Then I tried to persuade the administrator to proclaim him a human, pretending to be Sayonese. There was the missionary woman before my time, you know. She tried it, until Earth found her here."

Judson had some memory from his reading. He frowned over the idea. It would make things easier, certainly. The Sayonese took the mysterious word "Sci- ence" as the unimpressive answer to anything humans might do, and they'd "regard any alien race dabbling in their religion as "the ultimate abomination. d.a.m.n Du-pont! The man could have used his brains instead of the rule book once in his life; instead, he'd played it safe until the last possible minute and then yelled for help.

"I suppose Dupont took it under advis.e.m.e.nt and warned you not to touch the man until it could be proved he wasn't human?" he guessed. At her nod, he swore softly. It fitted too well. "Do you think this Athon is human?"

She shrugged, glancing bitterly at a framed copy of the Earth-Sayon covenant.

"Who knows what a male incarnation would be like? And how can I tell about Earthmen when every one I have seen is different in size, shape-and even color? My hands are bound. If he is human, I can do nothing. If he is of Sdyon, he is beyond my power as an incarnation! Yet he must be stopped, for the good of both your world and mine. Here!"

She pulled a jewel-studded box to her and began removing papers from it, written in the native script. "Can you read these?" she asked. At his nod, she pa.s.sed them over to him. "Take them with you. You'll see he preaches both a Father-Principle and a Mother-Principle. He wants the riches of the temple stripped away and divided among everyone. He claims all races are equal. Eli, consider what that would do to Earth's position! Or think how little you could deal with Sayon without the temple-as the temple cannot do without Earth now.

Is Earth strong enough in this Sector today to conquer Sayon against a fanatic people-or to hold the other worlds if this planet breaks away?"

Abruptly, she stopped to study him. Then a slow, hard smile lifted the corners of her mouth. "I was desperate enough to think of bribing you, Eli. But a poor man after forty years in your Service must be ah honest one. Still, at least, you can see what I chose for you."

It lay on the bottom of the box, gleaming iridescent in the light and silvery white in the shadows-a neck- lace of the almost mythical moon pearls. On Earth, one would buy full geriatric treatments and ten would win the governors.h.i.+p of almost any Sector he could name. His hand shook, but he managed a smile as he reached out to close the lid.

Her own laugh sounded strained as she put the box away. "Well, perhaps someday the G.o.ddess will reward you for honesty. One can always hope," she said. Thenshe heaved herself up and turned to the doorway. "I've got a chariot waiting to take you to the palace."

It was on a nearby ramp that ran downward gradually until it pa.s.sed through a narrow gate below the steps, but Judson hardly noticed the path the priestess driving it chose. He was cursing to himself and at himself as the picture of his interview with Kaia solidified in his thoughts. She'd given him a little information, shoved the entire responsibility on him, and-yes, d.a.m.n it-she'd managed to offer him the moon pearls for his help! Those final words could only mean that. She'd managed it within an hour of meeting him; yet on her own ground and hi her own specialty, she couldn't handle the problem she'd given him!

Abruptly, the chariot jerked to a jarring halt and began backing. He looked up. The street they had been about to enter-the main street between palace and temple-was crammed with some kind of procession. In the very center, however, there was a clear s.p.a.ce where one heavily-robed figure moved by itself.

He caught the priestess' hands as she tried to turn the team around. "Wait. Is that Athon?"

She nodded, hate and sickness on her face.

The binoculars did little good. The light was already failing, and the slow- moving figure seemed completely covered in a robe and hood. Judson turned to glance at the crowd, then focused in shoct on two of the Ludh bowmen, marching toward the rear! They had no business here! If the Ludh could be converted . .

A startled noise from the mob broke the weird minor chant that had been rising, and he spun back to see a Sayonese man running toward the solitary marching figure. In one arm he was brandis.h.i.+ng a sword weakly, shouting as he ran. The flesh on his body was covered with the great scabs of brown skin-rot, and he was wasted to almost skeletal thinness.

The men nearest him started for him, just as he staggered. But there was still strength enough in his body. With a final yell, he raised the sword and plunged it deep into his own breast.

The robed figure stopped beside the thres.h.i.+ng body on the street. A hand came out of the robe to pluck the sword easily from the wound, almost without touching it. Then the hand withdrew, and Athon bent over, as if chiding the dying man. Finally he straightened. The swordsman was quiet for a second. Then the body stirred, sat up, sprang to its feet with a wild cry of joy, and dashed back into the crowd. There were no brown scabs left on the emaciated figure.

The chant rose to a wild frenzy and the procession moved on. In the center, the robed figure seemed to shake its head sadly.

At Judson's nod, the priestess got the chariot turned and began heading back through twisted alleys toward the palace. His mind was churning wildly on what he had seen. It was so completely beyond any use of healing power known to Earth-or even to the,legends here-that it could only be called a miracle, unless it had been the best-staged piece of trickery ever performed so openly.

If word of such things got back to Earth, there'd be s.h.i.+ps headed here in droves from every cult known to man, filled with credulous fools and profiteers-and among them might well be some of the hereditary president's family. Fas Kaia had been more truthful than she knew when she equated her danger with Earth's. In the unstable conditions back there, just the knowledge that such things could be would threaten the whole system. Meia had been a danger once; Athon was doom! At the palace, Dupont and his homely sister, with the eight human a.s.sistants who comprised all the Earthmen hi Kalva, were in the middle of some vague attempt at a welcoming party, but they seemed relieved when Judson pleaded extreme fatigue. They'd probably turn it into a dope binge now, from rumors of what went on here, with Dupont's sister being pa.s.sed around from man to man, not excluding her brother. But that was none ofJudson's business. With the decreasing number of women who came away from Earth for any reason now, men couldn't be blamed for making the most of whatever they could find. Earth put stiff penalties on consorting with aliens, but it happened sometimes, even on Ludh. For that matter ...

He dropped the thought and unpacked in the apartment a.s.signed to him. From the bottom of his small bag he drew a final piece-a tissue copy of Selected Books of the Testaments. He'd never read it, though he'd considered doing so; few men were familiar with any of the contents now, since the rise of the cult mysteries. But it had become his luck piece. He put it near him as he turned to the records Kaia had given him.

The contents only confirmed her words, without adding any new information. And even confirmation was meaningless, since they could be forgeries. He'd have to play things by ear, it seemed-and probably one of his problems would be the priestess herself.

But now the fatigue he had used as an excuse was turning to reality. He should call a slave to bathe him and prepare him for bed, but it was too much trouble. He made another futile attempt to think about his problems, then dropped onto the bed. He'd undress in a moment ...

Priestesses, G.o.ddesses, prophets! The last thing he had ever wanted was to get mixed into another Sayonese religious mess. Once had been bad enough- and yet ...

Thirty years before he grew old, a man could have plans for the future, even on an outworld in the Colonial Service. Eli's hopes were based on a book dealing with the oddities in the ecological balance of a world where marsupials had won the race for domination. He was spending his biannual vacation by himself in the retreat of a village a hundred miles north of Kalva, using a building the Service had owned but abandoned.

The book was neatly finished, too, and he'd been practically a.s.sured rjutfjicaltion. Then there'd be recognition, promotion, a chance to return to Earth; in time, there'd be a wife to make up for ten years without women; there'd be children. He'd always wanted a son of his own, though the idea was growing old-fas.h.i.+oned in the current culture.

It might have worked, except for an unexpected storm that caught him taking a walk to clear his mind. The same storm found a window he'd left carelessly open and blew away his antibiotic kit and ruined his radio. That left only the native doctor, who knew nothing about pneumonia. Eli pa.s.sed into a delirium with the unpleasant idea that he'd wake up only in heaven- in which he had no belief.

When he came to, he was less sure. He felt rotten, and his sight was cloudy, but there was either an angel or an Earth girl in the room, talking Sayonese with an old greeny. She wore native clothes, but no native had skin like that- or provocative hips-or such shoulders. Then as she turned, he grunted in surprise. d.a.m.ned few Earth women looked that good without makeup, either. He began to consider the angel idea seriously.

She shook her head at him, switching to English that had almost none of the lisped dentals caused by Sayonese slotted palates. "I'm only a G.o.ddess," she told him. "That is, I will be in another month. You're lucky I hadn't gone to Kalva yet, though. You were almost dead, and your cells are-well, they're different. I had a hard time with you." Then she bent closer, long yellow hair falling over his face. "Are you really an Earthman, Eli?"

"I'm as much from Earth as you are," he mumbled, reaching for her.

She seemed puzzled at his efforts to kiss her, but made no protests until the greeny uttered something that sounded like teasing. Then she disengaged herself, running her hands over her chest. With a shock, he realized it was as flat as his own.

"What's a b.r.e.a.s.t.s, Uncle Kleon?" she asked.

"A breast, or two b.r.e.a.s.t.s-they come in pairs," thecreature told her, grinning in amus.e.m.e.nt. "Read his mind a little deeper and you'll find a lot of things about them, I'll bet." His English was as easy and idiomatic as hers, though less clearly p.r.o.nounced.

For a moment, she stared down at Eli. Then she began giggling like a schoolgirl as she left the room.

Kleon came over to drop heavily onto the bed. "I'm not really her uncle," he said. "I'm her teacher, more or less, until she reaches the temple. I'm one of the few Sayonese who were admitted to one of your extension schools, before Earth decided to give up any idea of raising our living standard and to keep us on our own world. But I don't hate Earth. I got over anger and hating long ago, which is probably why I'm still alive."

"But what about her?" Eli asked.

The old man grinned affectionately. "She's a lot more interesting than I am, I'll admit. She's what she says- a G.o.ddess. And a good thing, too. You were already in death shock when she got here. Haven't you ever heard of our virgin G.o.ddesses?"

Eli had heard some stories, but he hadn't really believed them. There had been a girl born about a century before who looked like an Earth woman and who had some fantastic power to heal the sick and restore the maimed. But not that human! He looked outside to where she was talking to a couple of Sayonese.

Then he frowned. In the sunlight, there seemed to be a touch of green to her skin, and there was a hint of a line across her abdomen where a S&y&nese girl would have had a pouch. But it could have been only a subtle disguise.

"That's her father and mother saying good-bye to her again," Kleon said casually, indicating the two natives.

Eli fainted. When he next regained consciousness, his body seemed to be completely recovered, though it could only have been a couple of hours later.

He drank some of the hot cheese soup Kleon offered him, swung out of bed, and faced the old man. "All right, give it to me in detail," he suggested.

Kleon seemed ready and willing to oblige, and this time Eli was less skeptical. But he still had doubts until that evening when a wailing procession came up the road. Some had skin-rot, others were crippled, a few were blind. Then'^as they spotted Meia, their wails turned to cries "6f delight, and they made as much of a rush to her as they could, spreading out in front of her. Apparently, from what Eli could pick up of their degraded dialect, they had arrived late at her home village and been told she'd left, moving to Kalva for her birthday. Now finding her here was like a reprieve from h.e.l.l. They seemed to regard Eli as a friend from heaven for having the good sense to get pneumonia and delay her.

One by one she took care of them, sometimes talking to them, sometimes laying on her hands. Eli watched, trying to spot the gimmick, and finally gave up.

Under her fingers, flesh that had begun to corrode away literally grew new skin. Bones knit. Cataracts vanished from eyes. And once, to get at a broken spine, she casually levitated a native from the ground, spun him over, and pressed her hands to his back. There was a chant going on, but n.o.body seemed surprised at her feat.

When they were finally all cared for and spread out among the huts of the village, she turned to Eli. "It's harder than it looks," she told him. "But it feels good, too. Now, tell me about Earth."