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granite scarp across a series of flat, barren salt pans. Each was
higher than the next, like a series of giant steps. Prefect Corin
set a relentless pace, but the priest, Belarius, kept up surprisingly
well; he was one of those fat men who are also strong, and the
shock of the ambush was weanng off Yama supposed that this
was a chance for Belarius to regain face. Already, the priest
was beginning to speak of the attack as if it was an accident
or natut-al disaster from which he would rescue the survivors.
"As if he did not invite the lightning, " Prefect Corin said
to Yama, when they stopped to rest in the shade of a tomb.
"At the best of times, bringing a party of palmers on the
land route to Ys without proper escort is like herding sheep
through a country of wolves. And these were archivists, too.
Not proper archivists-those are from the Department, and
are trained in the art of memory. These use machines to
record the lives of the dying. If you had looked closely at
the skulls, you would have seen that they had been broken
open. Some bandits eat the brains of their victims, but these
wanted the machines in their heads."
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Yama laughed in disbelief. "I have never heard of such
a thing!"
Prefect Corin passed a hand over his black-ftnTed face, like
a grooming cat. "It is an abomination, promulgated by a depart-
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ment so corrupt and debased that it seeks to survive by coarse
imitation of the tasks properly carried out by its superiors.
Proper archivists learn how to manage their memories by training
; these people would be archivists in a few days, by swallowing
the seeds of machines which migrate to a certain area
of the brain and grow a kind of library. It is not without risks.
In one in fifty of those who swallow the seeds, the machines
grow unchecked and destroy their host's brains."
"But surely only the unchanged need archivists? Once
changed, everyone is remembered by the Preservers."
"Many no longer believe it, and because the Department
will not supply archivists to the cities of the changed, these
mountebanks make fortunes by pandering to the gullible. Like
real archivists, they listen to the life stories of the dying and
promise to transmit them to the shrines of the Palace of the
Memory of the People."
Yama said, "No wonder the priest is upset. He believes
that many more died than we saw."
"They are all remembered by the Preservers in any event, "
Prefect Corin said. "Saints or sinners, all men marked by the
Preservers are remembered, while true archivists remember
the stories of as many of the unchanged bloodlines as they
can. The priest is upset because his reputation will be blemished
, and he will lose trade. Hush. Here he comes."
Belarius had ripped away the blood-soaked part of his orange
robe, leaving only a kind of kilt about his waist. The
smooth yellow skin of his shoulders and his fat man's breasts
had darkened in the sun to the color of blood oranges,
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and
he scratched at his sunburnt skin as he told Yama and Prefect
Corin that he had found fresh horse droppings. ,
"They are not more than an hour ahead of us. If we hurry,
we can catch them before they reach the foothills.Prefect
Corin said, "They make the women walk. It slows
them down."
"Then their cruelty will be their undoing." Belarius curled
his right hand into a fist and ground it into the palm of his
left. "We will catch them and we will crush them."
Prefect Corin said calmly, "They are cruel but not stupid.
They could tie the women to their horses if they wanted to
outpace us, yet they do not. They taunt us, I think. They
I want sport. We must proceed carefully. We will wait until
night, and follow them to their camp."
"They will leave us behind in the darkness!"
"I know this bloodline. They do not travel by night, for
their blood slows as the air cools. Meanwhile we will rest.
You will pray for us, Belarius. It will set our rninds to the
struggle ahead.
They waited until the sun had fallen behind the Rim Mountains
and the Galaxy had begun to rise above the farside
horizon before they set off. The tracks left by the bandits ran
straight across the flat white land into a tangle of shallow
draws which sloped up toward a range of low hills. Yama
tried his best to imitate Prefect Corin's ambling gait, and
remembered to go flatfooted on loose stones, as Telmon had
taught him. Belarius was less nimble, and every now and
then would stumble and send stones clattering away downslope
. There were tombs scattered at irregular intervals along
the sides of the draws, unornamented and squarely built,
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with
tall narrow doors which had been smashed open an age ago.
A few had picture slates, and these wakened when the three
men went by, so that they had to walk along the tops of the
ridges between the draws to avoid being betrayed by the light
of the past. Belarius fretted that they would lose the trail, but
then Yama saw a flickering dab of light brighten ahead.
It was a dry tree set on fire in the bottom of a deep draw.
It burned with a white intensity and a harsh crackling, sending
up volumes of acrid white smoke. Its tracery of branches
made a web of black shadows within the brightness of its
burning. The three men looked down on it, and Prefect Corin
said, "Well, they know that we are following them. Yama,
look after Belarius. I will not be long."
H was gone before Yama could reply, a swift shadow
flowing down the slope, circling the burning tree and disappearing
into the darkness beyond. Belarius sat down heavily
and whispered, "You two should not die on my account."
"Let us not talk of death, " Yama said. He had his knife in
his hand--he had drawn it upon seeing the burning tree. It
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showed not a spark, and he sheathed it and said, "A little while
ago, I was taken aboard a pinnace by force, but a white ship
appeared, glowing with cold fire. The pinnace attacked the white
ship and I was able to escape. Yet the white ship was not real;
even as it bore down on the pinnace it began to dissolve. Was
this a miracle? And was it for my benefit? What do you think?"
"We shouldn't question the plan of the Preservers. Only
they can say what -is. rqkwulous."
y. Belarius was more intent on the darkness
beyond the burning tree than on Yama's tale. He was [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]