Divine Deception: The Will Traveller Chronicals (10 page)

“Go back to your
cages” I ordered and they did. The two men made a dash for their
whips and guns, but I willed the guns to slide away out of reach
and the two whips to whip away! And that is just exactly what they
did! The astonished audience watched, as the two unbelievably cruel
men got thoroughly thrashed by their own whips.

The audience
quickly forgot the mystical nature of the event and urged the whips
on with bloodthirsty yells! I felt Zoran’s eyes on me, so I smiled
back into his eyes nodding. He leaned forward and spoke to the
Governor who snapped his head around to look at me.

“Those two bears
are very unsuitably matched Governor Lucas” I told him quietly. The
Governor looked up at me concerned

“Lord Robert, much
money is gambled on this fight, it must be fair” He insisted,
clearly serious. So I told him the truth. He stood up and walked
over to the edge of our small balcony.

“A young strong
female against an aged old male?” He demanded to know from the
trainers. I stopped the whips so the trainers could answer, and a
hush fell over the crowd.

The trainers
stood, clothes shredded and bodies bleeding, in the middle of the
cage, their heads hung in silent confession.

“You would cheat
the people of Alpine Grand?” The Governor thundered “We should let
you two fight them, in unarmed combat” He yelled. The audience
roared out their approval.

“How many of you
are in this building?” I telepathed to the bears.

“Twenty Sire” Came
the Father’s silent answer.

“Their cages are
now unlocked, tell them to bring all the trainers here” I ordered
the bears silently. With the entry doors open, the two huge bears
simply sat and watched the two now-terrified and helpless trainers,
as they awaited their inevitable fate.

Most of the crowd
was unsuccessfully trying to goad the bears in for the kill when
the other twenty arrived, on the outside of their cages and pushed
the rest of their totally mystified trainers into the cages,
slamming the doors behind them. Then they wheeled back the Father
and Daughter’s cages, so that all twenty two of them could come
right to the front of the stage. There they simply sat down and
waved, as I had instructed them to do. That caused complete and
utter pandemonium! But, the twenty two, hundred and fifty plus kilo
bears did nothing at all aggressive, they just sat at the front of
the stage, in front of the cages full of their erstwhile trainers,
and watched what blind fear can do to people. The audience were
falling all over themselves, women screaming, men shouting and,
when the house lights went up, it got worse!

I told all the
bears to go back to their cages and I’d see they were freed the
next day. I got many reverential “thank you s” and they filed off,
leaving the twelve trainers, two of them already badly injured,
locked inside the bear fighting cage.

“I’d suggest you
send that lot into food production Governor” I told the State Chief
meaningfully. But he didn’t get it.

“Lord Robert,
would only that I could” The Alpine Grand leader replied “But bear
trainers are few and far between ….” He began.

“You won’t need
bear trainers anymore Governor Lucas” I told him bluntly “You will
lead the people of this State to higher forms of entertainment than
the spectacle of a Daughter tearing her Father apart” I ordered
coldly. That really shook him up.

“Lord Robert” The
Governor protested “You speak of these wild animals as if they were
human, all animals kill each other Sire”.

“But only for food
Governor Lucas, not for the sport of it, and never for their
entertainment” I pointed out coldly.

“But they do not
think as we humans Lord Robert” The Governor was not going to give
up his no doubt lucrative ‘show’ easily.

“Then, Governor
Lucas, how is it that I know the first two bears were Father and
Daughter?” The Governor walked to the balcony’s edge again and with
an audacity born of desperation, actually checked my word with the
two injured trainers. They, of course, readily confirmed that fact.
However Zoran was absolutely furious.

“You have the gall
to question the word of Lord Robert?” He demanded, with an
authority I had not seen from him before. Realising what he’d just
done, the Governor dropped to one knee his head bowed low. His
compatriots did likewise, as Zoran unleashed a tirade upon them.
Did they not realise that a blink from me and their whole State
would be demolished? Were they so mired in blood that they could
not see the divine light? Susan and I kept our serious composure,
but only just. She took over when Zoran had finished his tirade,
his words had left them expecting Armageddon at any moment. She
talked quietly with the very respectful Governor and his five
aides, before we three were escorted back to their T.T.V. There was
no further resistance.

It had been
decreed that bear fighting, cock fighting and cruelty, of any kind,
to animals, was forbidden from this day. By the order of Governor
Lucas. As our destination still lay eight hours away, we declined
their further hospitality, returned to the guest house and
re-boarded our super T.T.V. The Governor’s team, photographers and
a TV crew farewelled us, as we moved out of the sculptured gardens
and skimmed off into the darkness, before getting some altitude and
speed happening. Susan had the twelve men crying with laughter, as
she re-told the events of the last day. I felt very much relieved
that we had emotionally ‘conquered’ a major State, without having
to try too hard. Largely thanks to this gift of being able to
communicate with animals!

“I like power
Robert” Susan said openly, as we snuggled up in the sleeping cabin
a couple of hours after leaving Alpine Grand “Is that a bad thing?”
She asked me.

“No, I don’t think
liking power and control is a bad thing” I answered Susan Proust’s
question “Perhaps when the need for power is so great that you do
bad things to get it, and worse things to keep it, they are the bad
aspects of liking power Susan” I looked into her eyes. “And power
does have a tendency to corrupt” I warned “If a person gets more
than they can handle”.

“Am I corrupt?”
She asked coyly, fluttering her eyelashes at me.

“You will be, by
the time I have finished with you” I laughed softly, pulling her to
me. I got a warm chuckle for a reply.

An hour or two
later, it turned out that Susan’s guess at the location of
Carabindy Province was out by less than a hundred kilometres, not
bad at all. Our navigator knew all about the place, he’d been on
one of eight T.T.V’s which ferried some of the original pioneers
out to this totally isolated State. It had literally been carved
out of the thick tropical jungle. As before, we were gently woken
just prior to our arrival.

“I don’t know
anyone down there” Susan told me as we looked down on what was no
more than a township with a vast suburbia.

“You soon will my
dear” I told her cheerily “Now, let’s go up to the cockpit and talk
to them” Once again the navigator passed the mic to the Captain and
he passed it to Susan.

“Your public
relations officer?” Susan asked me for a title.

“My spokesperson”
I replied, enjoying the glow of her pleasure.

“Who’s there? This
is Carabindy Central, whose calling please?”A female voice asked.
Susan took a breath “This is Susan Proust, spokesperson for Lord
Robert” She sounded great “Our T.T.V. is within visual range and we
expect to arrive in ten to fifteen minutes.” She advised the woman.
There was silence for a moment

“Excuse me, did
you say Lord Robert is here? In that T.T.V. with you?” The female
voice asked, sounding overawed.

“That’s
affirmative Carabindy Central” Susan responded, smiling widely at
me. “We have an e.t.a. on your Northern entrance of circa ten
minutes O.K.?” Susan checked authoritatively.

“Uh yes, yes of
course Miss …uh...” The flustered voice answered.

“Miss Susan
Proust” Susan reminded her sharply.

“Oh yes Miss
Proust” She replied. Susan switched off the mike.

“Well you may not
know them, but they sure know you now” I said laughing, as Susan
and I left the cockpit. Susan put the crewman’s uniform back on,
complete with sidearm and short bayonet, she said she felt good in
it. It certainly looked better on her than the men, and they all
agreed with that too. We came in low over the thick, impenetrable
jungle. Suddenly, we were over clear ground, so the pilot slowed
right down and lowered our T.T.V. to the ground. Once again, we
were in a bus sized, wheelless limousine, Susan and I returned to
the cockpit, as we moved slowly along a five metre wide hard dirt
corridor.

Though both sides
of us were still uninhabited grasslands, we could see a huge dust
cloud rising up ahead, between us and where we were headed!

“Can you get a
read on what’s causing that?” I asked the navigator.

“No machinery Lord
Robert. Small animals, most likely people, and some very large
animals Sire” The crewman replied, a little apprehensive “Very
large indeed” He repeated.

“Pull over to the
left and stop Captain” I ordered “Susan” I told her “Call ‘em and
tell them we will come to them. Have them stay there” She got up
and did as I asked. I was instinctively concerned at what all that
obviously fine dust might do to the sophisticated electronics on
our T.T.V. Also, I had no great desire to be covered in that stuff
myself!

We remained
stationary on the side of the corridor till the pale orange clouds
drifted off, on a wind blowing left to right. Zoran joined us just
as the navigator gave me his report.

“I’ve never seen
so many people in one place in my life” The crewman told us.

“I’m not
surprised” Zoran replied “It’s a special day for this State”.

“Why is that?” I
asked my wise old advisor.

“Didn’t Miss
Susan’s information relay your special relationship with Carabindy
Province Lord Robert?” Zoran asked, puzzled.

“No” Susan
answered for me “There was no reference to Lord Robert in the Nav
file, or the historic material” She told Zoran

“How strange”
Zoran looked bemused “Seems the Supreme One must have deleted you
from New World history when you left Sire” He told me, adding “Or
tried to anyway”.

“Perhaps you’d be
good enough to fill in the blank bit Zoran” Susan asked the old
man.

“Lord Robert is
the founding Patriarch of Carabindy Province” Zoran told us “I
actually thought that’s why you chose to come here first Sire”
Zoran added.

“How did I come to
be this State’s patron Zoran?” I asked “Have I been here
before?”.

“Many times Lord
Robert, but not for thirty years, perhaps more” Zoran told me “You
came as a lad with your parents, then as a young man with young
Lord Edmond” Zoran told me smiling.

“When you
discovered the Aklodyte, the Supreme One decided to make you the
new locality’s representative in the Supreme House” Zoran continued
telling Susan and I “When Carabindy Province received independent
Statehood, you became the State’s Founding Patriarch” Zoran
explained, adding “And now it’s time to see what your youthful love
of high adventure brought into being Lord Robert”. Zoran was
clearly proud of me and that really did make me feel good about
myself. I asked the Captain to move back onto the road and start
down it slowly. He did as I requested. What we came upon, a couple
of kilometers down the road, was startling to say the least.
Thousands upon thousands of men, women and children were waiting
there for us.

Along with the
people, stood several hundred huge horses, uncountable metre-high
dogs and three absolutely gigantic elephants, each standing at
least ten meters tall! They were ranged across the grassland, in an
arc that had to be at least a kilometre from end to end. We came
smoothly to rest behind a two story high mobile structure, with red
carpeted steps that led up to a very plush red speaker’s Dias,
complete with microphones and red lectern. As it was turned to face
the multitude in front of us, it seemed obvious that it was for me.
Except for a small group who had come out into the centre of the
semi circular clearing in front of the Dias, the people seemed to
be very casually and colourfully dressed. Loosely fitted dresses or
shorts and shirts were the order of the day.

The five in the
middle all wore something akin to safari suits and broad brimmed
hats. When the T.T.V’s door came up and the transom rolled out, the
roar would have done justice to world soccer final! With Susan and
Zoran on either side behind me, I walked out onto the transom, down
the three steps and over to the wide, thick carpeted, but very tall
steps that led to the Dias, from which I was to address my people.
Concerned that the hefty climb might be too much for the old man, I
suggested he and Susan stay on the ground. They agreed and I began
the easiest accent of a double flight of stairs in my life, my feet
actually stayed three of four centimetres off the steps! I
literally floated up those steps and arrived, absolutely
effortlessly, on the speaker’s lectern.

There were two
completely different types of audio chaos. One of them was the
multitudinous and very excited crowd, with all their cheering and
clapping, the other racket was only in my poor head.

“This is their
God?” “Looks like them to me” “I’ve never seen ‘em so emotional”
Along with a host of other comments, were cluttering up my ability
to think. As I held my hands up, I also sent a telepathic mental
message to all the animals.

“I am Lord Robert,
come to see the work of my people and all those of my kingdom” I
telepathed “You must cease your talk until I’ve heard what the
humans have to say” I told them silently. While the racket still
echoed in my ears, my head was totally silent. All the animals had
ceased to move around and were now looking up at me.