DUALITY: The World of Lies (10 page)

“However you manage it, a man who cannot be
dissuaded by fear, is also a man who cannot be controlled. So
although your actions were righteous, you present a danger in their
minds. And the question now is: what do we do with you?”

“I'm waiting on the same answer.
It's not what they do with me, as much as it
is 
to
 me. As you say, others cannot control my mind. I only
wish to expedite this process and to receive verdict, so I can
decide how to handle things from there. I reject this charade of
justice and will grant it no legitimacy by recognizing their
authority. I will not answer one question, sign one document, or
participate in this sham in any way, no matter what threats they
make. I know.... I know they can't keep me locked up long here when
public opinion is so strongly on my side. All I'm doing now,
Honored One, is waiting for them to resolve this for themselves,
because, in my mind, all is already resolved.”

Indulu laughed at his grandstanding. “And that
kind of attitude isn't making it any easier on them. Putting you on
public trial for this, while you refuse representation and talk
like that.... it would be a debacle for them. And they know
it.”

“Meaning what?”

“Meaning, son, that you've won.” Indulu laid a
document and pen on the table before Gahre. “From the moment I
stepped off the carriage this morning to the start of this meeting,
I've been up to my eyeballs with them, negotiating this thing. And
I'm pleased to tell you, you're free to leave, as soon as you sign
this statement confessing to your unlawful knowledge of firearm
operation. All other charges of assault and vigilantism have been
dropped. The unlawful knowledge charge will be reduced to a minor
violation for which you will pay a fine of a 4 silver and receive
my personal reprimand.”

“You negotiated this bargain for
me?”

“Yes, and at no small measure of personal risk
to my reputation I might add. As the head of nations, to directly
intervene in a local legal matter on behalf of my own godson, it
reeks of nepotism, you know.”

“So if I were previously unknown to you and
not your godson, you would not defend me as you have?”

Indulu didn't take well to the question, and
his tone became abruptly defensive. “No... no in a case as
important and exceptional as this, I would still have stepped in
and with the same favor. At worst, my timing might have been
slower.”

Gahre did not know if he believed that, but
figured he had little choice but to take it at face value. “Then
you've done your duty and have no need to tread lightly around it.
But as for this bargain you've brokered, I flat out reject
it.”

And why shouldn't he?

Indulu seemed struck with mix of agitation and
pleading desperation. “Please, please hear me out son. By signing
that document, by throwing them that one little bone, this tiny bit
of face, you will come out of here a hero, and by their own
acknowledgment. I will even forego the reprimand. I will pay the
fine for you. And what's more...”

“Save your breath, Honored One. I said I
rejected it once, now I tell you twice.”

“And what's more...” Indulu persisted, “is
that the western nation of Scythe, where Har Darox carried out some
of his most sinister deeds, has held on him a bounty for years of
an entire chest filled with gold. That fortune, my boy shall go to
you in full.”

Gahre had never known wealth. Uncle was not
the hardest working of men and his estate was adequate but meager
by comparison to his peers. Through his hunting pursuits, Gahre had
always managed to earn whatever coin he needed selling to furriers,
taxidermists, butchers, and the like, or clearing predators away
for the ranchers. As such an avid outdoorsman, he had trouble even
imagining a life of wealth and found little appeal in it. What did
a man need beyond his gear? He wanted to get new boots crafted,
maybe buy a lighter hatchet... but these were not exorbitant
expenses requiring some immense reserve of wealth. He could have
just as easily earned as much trapping in this week he'd been here
held in this bloody jail.

“I refuse that as well,” he
decided.

“Son, think twice. It is no small
fortune.”

“I fully understand what's being offered me.
And I'm twice again telling you in no uncertain terms I want no
part of it.”

Indulu was on the verge of exasperation. “Yes,
yes... ok. That's virtuous I suppose. You performed a brave and
noble deed for its own sake, and you don't feel right about
accepting the gold. We can have that money donated to worthy
charities in your name. That will play well all around.”

Play well? Indulu still seemed to be under the
delusion that Gahre was concerned about perceptions. He was not.
“The Scythian government can donate any sum to any charity they
like, but they shall not do so in my name. I don't know how much
clearer I can make myself to you. There is no form in which I will
accept that reward.”

With a great sigh Indulu laid his face down
into his hands. “Boy, you are as pig-headed as you are ungrateful.
Don't you understand I am trying to help you here?”

Gahre supposed that in his mind, that was
true. “Honored One,” he began, “I have some notion of your status
and your great works, but you do not serve my cause now. I think
it's absurd that after apprehending a criminal who has reigned
violence upon the innocent and eluded your capture for years that
matters get so distorted that I am jailed and expected to bear
blame for not honoring you with gratitude and my oppressors with
face, as though that is the crux of the problem here!”

Indulu considered this, and it was clear that
it didn't sit well with him at all. “You know, I envy this position
you're in, your moral clarity. I was similarly young and idealistic
once. I no longer have that luxury. The wheels of society turn in a
certain amount of filth, and were I to take a hard line against
every minor evil within it, their functions would
cease.”

“Like the evils in the Far West? I've been
reading of their origins. The sects rooted in wicked doctrines that
promote no virtue, but rather the greeds and lusts of men,
manifesting in slavery, torture, prostitution, and unbridled
killing. A land without law or justice. Are these acceptable evils
for the greater good?”

Indulu's eyes sank. “Tis true, we've failed in
the Far West. Our order was expelled from there generations ago. If
it be the fault of the sects, there is no helping that. All peoples
of the realms are granted freedom of religion, but therein also
lies my point and please hear it. These petty and self-serving ills
of our eastern lands pale in comparison to the anarchy and violence
of the Far West. It's a struggle as old as mankind, and we do our
best to work within it for the common good of the
people.”

“The ills of the Far West plague the near
western provinces across the Mountains of Immutability, and now
they spill over here to the East. Why do you not raise an army to
march in there and restore order?”

“Their lords would cast us as invaders, and
rightly. All we'd get out of that is a series of long, bloody wars.
And what of such an army, would you fight in it?”

“Yes. I would slay a slave lord,
gladly.”

“And do you think it would be those lords you
fight on the battlefield? No, it would be a force of conscripted
commoners, like the young man of Karnica for whom you penned a plea
to our courts for leniency. Would you be willing to slay such a
man?”

Indulu had him here. Perhaps his view was a
bit simplistic. “Then we assassinate their lords...”

“And thus create a power vacuum begetting more
civil strife and bloodshed among the factions, until that seat of
power is once again filled by the will-to-power, a will which has
no morality beyond what serves its own ends and
desires.”

“And yet by means of your rationalized
ambivalence, wickedness is allowed to flourish... and encroach ever
more upon the surrounding realms.”

Indulu stood up, angrily. He fell just short
of pounding his fist on the table. “I didn't create this world and
its iniquities, I inherited it! I have dedicated my life to working
within its systems to the greater good. You sit there as though you
know anything, as a child, and presume to instruct me on right and
wrong with barely any sense of the intricacies involved. I tell you
boy, evil is always in the world and always will be. Yes, the Far
West festers and the Near West chafes... but our great efforts have
held it in the fold. And here, in the eastern world there is peace
and prosperity, because of The Law and our enforcement of it,
because of men who still cling to virtue while immersed in The
World of Lies. What are you boy, but a loner? We talked of bringing
you into The Order, but it's clear you won't follow orders, you
won't operate under any hierarchy. The Master Ranger feels the same
way. You pontificate as one whose mind is an island...”

“My mind is a fortress!”

“Yes, that sounds about right. You
cannot separate yourself from society, boy. I'm here to
help
you. Be smart and
take it. We can send you to any university in the realms, start you
in any trade you fancy. Just tell me what you want.”

“What I want?! What I want is to walk out that
door. I want out of this unjust captivity. That is all I want from
you right now, Honored One.”

“Then sign the confession and be
off!”

Gahre held Indulu's gaze. They were both
angry. In slow deliberate motions he lifted the document from the
table, tore it several times and let the pieces flutter down to the
floor.

“That door is not locked,” he remarked in a
challenging tone. “You say you are here to help me, yet you tell me
I am not free til I do as you bid. Thus you are my
captor.”

Both men stood intently and silently fixed
upon the other for some tense moments. At last Indulu's eyes
closed, and he yielded.

“Fine. We will drop the unlawful knowledge
charge -although you know, you are completely guilty of it,
right?”

This was the one thing Gahre had indeed lied
about. Rifles were well known from the tales of the Far West, and
being the charge of a tinker it was not hard to imagine he could
have deduced its operation. In truth, he had discussed their parts
and function with uncle. As a tinker, uncle lived under the most
stringent scrutiny of The Order, so at the start of this he had
told uncle to deny the truth so that he might not himself be
implicated. It was a lie, but a necessary one. He would not
implicate kin, especially over an “unlawful knowledge”
charge.

“I see no guilt in knowledge, and no law that
forbids it can be called just. It's widely known that The Order,
which you represent and that rules over all the realms, deals in
nothing but secrets, and repressing that knowledge among the common
folk. I will not be so restricted. I will take it as my right, and
I will discover your secrets!”

“Be careful boy. I've tried to explain to you
why Forbidden Knowledge is necessary for the greater good. If you
start snooping into the secrets of The Order, it will not be like
this week you've had. It will be far more severe and there will be
no regard for due process. I may not be able to help you if you go
down that road.”

“So I'm free to leave then?”

“Yes. Might I inquire where you be
destined?”

“I'm off to a journey, to clear my mind of
this nonsense.”

“Let me buy you a horse then.”

“Thank you, Honored One, but a horse is a
burden that requires feeding and rest and suitable terrain to trod
over. In my time here I've read a treatise on the rare herbs of the
southland wilds, where many rare and valuable medicinals spawn. I
think I shall explore there and forage for them.”

“So this is your career path then, wandering
the world?”

“Why not? It suits me.”

“Please, allow me to help in some way then… on
your terms.”

“Well, I do require new boots, and I've been
eyeing a hatchet at the traders. Much of the gear I possess is
cumbersome, and I should like to reequip myself with lighter,
sturdier wears. But those are costly and I am short of
coin...”

Indulu reached into his bag and produced a
parchment and a stamp. In swift bureaucratic order he drew up a
document and emblazoned it with his personal seal.

“Take this to the traders and purchase with it
all the equipment and provisions you require.”

Gahre accepted the document. Through all of
this Indulu had sworn he was there on Gahre’s behalf, unable to see
how the opposite was true. He failed to realize the extent of it,
how that as a result of this obscene display of false justice,
Gahre now considered himself at nothing less than war with the
governing bodies, and there were none higher than the governance of
The Order. But this particular offer was useful, and as his
godfather Indulu was duty bound to provide such material
assistance, so Gahre would not deny him that.

“Thank you Honored One,” he said exiting the
interrogation room and striding his way out through the town hall
to freedom.