Jack Vance - Gaean Reach 01 (22 page)

“Agreed in all respects!” Jorjol declared. “The Mull must come to grips with reality and establish once and for all the nature of its role.”

“We’ll hardly achieve this task tonight,” said Sammatzen dryly, “and in fact it’s time to adjourn until tomorrow.”

Kelse, Schaine and Gerd Jemasze watched while the members of the Mull slowly made their way to the retiring chambers. Schaine said in a voice half-amused, half-horrified: “In addition to his other talents, Muffin turns out to be a demagogue.”

“Muffin is a dangerous man,” said Kelse somberly.

“I think,” said Gerd Jemasze, “that I would like to be on hand for tomorrow’s session of the Mull.”

“I want to be there too,” said Kelse. “I think it’s time to amuse the Mull with Father’s wonderful joke.”

“I’ll come too,” said Schaine. “Why should I miss the fun?”

The Mull convened at its appointed time in a chamber crowded to capacity by folk who scented momentous, or at least stimulating, events. Erris Sammatzen performed the usual convocation ceremonies and indicated that the business of the day might proceed.

Jorjol the Gray Prince immediately stepped forward. He bowed to the Mull: “Honorable persons! To reintroduce my proposals of yesterday, I call the attention of the Mull to the fact that, in defiance of the Mull’s edict, the land-barons of Uaia retain control over lands seized by violence from my people. I request that the Mull implement their edict—by coercion, if necessary.”

“The edict has indeed been issued,” said Erris Sammatzen, “and to this date has met no compliance, and in fact—” He stopped short as he noticed Gerd Jemasze and Kelse Madduc who had come to stand before the railing which separated the Mull from the audience. “I see before me two land-barons of Uaia,” said Sammatzen. “Perhaps they bring us notice in regard to the edict.”

“We do indeed,” said Gerd Jemasze. “Your edict is absurd, and you had best retract it.”

Sammatzen raised his eyebrows, and the other members of the Mull stared down in displeasure. Jorjol stood stiff and alert, his head thrust forward.

Sammatzen spoke politely: “We are a sober honest group; we try our best but we are not infallible and sometimes make mistakes. But ‘absurd’? I think you have selected an unsuitable adjective.”

Gerd Jemasze responded no less equably. “In the light of recent events, the word does not appear too strong.”

Sammatzen’s voice became heavy. “Do you refer to the erjin insurrection? Ah, but we have learned a lesson indeed, and the Gray Prince, whom you see before you, has suggested a method to repair our weakness.”

“You intend to recruit a mercenary army of barbarians? Is that your intent? Do you recall a hundred thousand historical parallels?”

Sammatzen started to speak, then checked himself. “The matter has by no means been decided,” he said at last. “We have, however, issued a judgment that the land-barons must cease to assert title to the Treaty lands; and arguments to the effect that time lapse has sanctified title will not be considered.”

Jemasze grinned at the Mull. “This then is your considered opinion?”

“It is indeed.”

“Then, by precisely the same reasoning, Uldra tribes of the Retent must yield the territories they now control to the tribes from whom they seized them. These tribes in turn must yield to the tribes which claimed the land before themselves. Ultimately—and here is the idea which Uther Madduc found so amusing—all must yield to the prior habitancy of the erjins, from whom men originally seized the land. Indeed we have only just crushed their very reasonable and quite legitimate effort to regain these lost territories.”

The Mull stared at Jemasze in bemusement. Sammatzen said in a tentative voice: “This is a facet of the case we had not considered. I agree that it is most challenging.”

Jorjol strode forward. “Very well, do as he suggests! The Uldras support the concept! Give all Uaia back to the erjins; let them take ownership! We will roam the wild lands as before; only destroy the grotesque halls of the Outker land-barons! Break their fences and dams and canals! Expunge every suppurating vestige of the Outker presence! By all means deed the land to the erjins!”

“Not so fast,” said Kelse. “There is more to come: the second part of my father’s joke.” He spoke to Sammatzen. “Do you recall the erjin shrine, or monument—whatever may be its function?”

“Naturally.”

“This was the ‘recent event’ to which Dm. Jemasze referred a few moments ago—not to the erjin insurrection as you supposed. Perhaps you noticed that the erjins are depicted riding in what apparently are spaceships? You know that fossil traces of proto-erjins have never been found on Koryphon? The conclusion is clear. The erjins are invaders. They arrived from space; they conquered the morphote civilization. The morphotes are true indigenes; the fossil record is clear on this point. So the chain of conquest has yet another link. The erjins have no better title than the Uldras.”

“Yes,” admitted Erris Sammatzen, “this is very likely true.”

Jorjol emitted a wild yell of laughter. “Now you award Uaia to the morphotes! Then be sure to give them Szintarre as well, and the villas of Olanje, and the luxurious hotels and all the property you believe yourselves to own!”

Kelse gave a sardonic nod. “This is the third part of my father’s joke. You of the Mull, and all the Redemptionists, found it easy enough to give our land away, by reason of your ethical doctrine; now demonstrate your integrity and give away your own property.”

Sammatzen showed him a sad twisted smile. “Today? At this instant?”

“Anytime you like, or not at all, so long as you rescind your edict in regard to us.”

Voices called out from every corner in the chamber: protesting, jeering, applauding. Sammatzen at last restored order. For a period the Mull conferred in soft mutters but obviously came to no concerted opinion. Sammatzen turned back to Gerd Jemasze and Kelse. “I feel that somehow you are using casuistry to confuse us but for the life of me I can’t define it.”

Adelys Lam cried out bitterly: “It is clear to me that the land-barons not only profess a creed of violence, but that they also warp their creed into a travesty of an ethical system.”

“Not at all,” said Gerd Jemasze. “The travesty exists only because reliance upon abstraction has made reality incomprehensible to you. These issues aren’t merely local; they extend across the Gaean Reach. Except for a few special cases title to every parcel of real property derives from an act of violence, more or less remote, and ownership is only as valid as the strength and will required to maintain it. This is the lesson of history, whether you like it or not.”

“The mourning of defeated peoples, while pathetic and tragic, is usually futile,” said Kelse.

Sammatzen shook his head in dismay. “I find such a doctrine repellent. The enjoyment of human rights should rest upon a base more noble than brute force.”

Jorjol gave another caw of laughter. “You and your sheep-brained Mull: why don’t you pass an edict to this effect?”

Kelse said: “When the galaxy is ruled by a single law, these ideals may have substance. Until then, that which a man, a tribe, a nation or a world, or the entire Gaean Reach possesses, it must be prepared to defend.”

Sammatzen threw up his hands. “I move to rescind the edict dissolving the domains of Uaia. Who dissents?”

“I do,” declared Adelys Lam. “I am yet a Redemptionist; I will never be anything else.”

“Who assents?…I count eleven votes, including my own. The edict is canceled; and we now adjourn for the day.”

Jorjol strode from the chamber, robes flapping about his long legs. Kelse, Gerd Jemasze and Schaine followed. Out upon the avenue Jorjol halted to look first one way then the other. To his left the way led across the Persimmon Sea, to Uaia and the lands of the Retent; to his right, only a hundred yards along Kharanotis Avenue, the space depot offered transit to other worlds.

“How he hates us!” mused Schaine. “And think! We nurtured this hate by our own deeds. We were so vain and proud that we refused to admit an Uldra waif into our Great Hall; think of the tragedy it brought to all of us! I wonder: have we learned our lesson?”

Kelse was silent for a moment. Then he said: “This is the language of Olanje and not the reality of Uaia. It contains bright glimmers of truth but not all the truth.”

Jemasze said: “There are as many realities as there are people. At Suaniset any gentleman may dine at our table, no matter what clothes he wears.”

Kelse gave a sour chuckle. “And at Morningswake as well. Uther Madduc fostered his private reality perhaps too rigidly.”

“There goes Jorjol!” said Gerd Jemasze, “off to inflict himself upon another world.” For Jorjol had chosen to turn right, toward the spaceport.

The three strolled along Kharanotis Avenue toward the Seascape Hotel. A tall mesh fence separated the road from the swamp, and a gap in the foliage afforded a view across the swamp, down to the slow water of the Viridian River. A morphote, resting on a log, made an incomprehensible gesture and slipped off into the undergrowth.

*
Kachemba: a secret Uldra cult-place, dedicated to divination and sorcery, usually located in a cave

*
Morphote viewing is a sport on many levels. The morphotes stimulate upon themselves all manner of growths: spines, webs, wens, fans, prongs, to make themselves objects of fantastic splendor. Morphote viewers have contrived an elaborate nomenclature to define the elements of their sport.

*
Wittols: One of every thousand Uldras is born albino, eunuchoid, short of stature and round-headed. These are the wittols, treated with a mixture of repugnance, contempt and superstitious awe. They are credited with competence at small magic and witchcraft; occasionally they deal in spells, curses and potions. Major magic remains the prerogative of the tribal warlocks. The wittols bury dead, torture captives, and serve as emissaries between tribes. They move with safety across the Alouan, since no Uldra warrior would either deign or dare to kill a wittol.

*
Sky-shark: A crude one-man aircraft, little more than a flying plank fitted with a gun or some other weapon, used by Uldra nobles for attacks upon enemy tribes or duels among themselves.

*
Weldewiste: a word from the lexicon of social anthropology, to sum up a complicated idea comprising the attitude with which an individual confronts his environment; his interpretation of the events of his life; his cosmic consciousness; his perception of self vis-à-vis the universe; his character and personality from the purview of comparative culture.

*
The two most common appellatives of the Gaean Reach are Dm., for Domine, which may properly be applied to all persons of distinguished or exalted station, and Vv., a contraction of Visfer (originally Viasvar, an Ordinary of the ancient Legion of Truth, then a landed gentleman, finally the common polite appellative.)

*
SLU: Standard Labor-value Unit; the monetary unit of the Gaean Reach, defined as the value of an hour of unskilled labor under standard conditions. The unit supersedes all other monetary bases, in that it derives from the single invariable commodity of the human universe: toil.

*
On the worlds of the Gaean Reach and Alastor Cluster, especially those with rural populations, a new profession has come into existence: the man skilled in star-naming and star-lore. For a fee he enlivens nocturnal gatherings with his tales, marvels and descriptions of the worlds surrounding stars within the vision of those present.

*
Blasphemy mask: the Uldra warlocks array themselves in a burnt-clay mask in the likeness of their enemy, with whatever of his accoutrements they are able to possess, together with his caste tassels; then they visit the kachemba, or secret fane, pertaining to the tribe of the enemy, and there blaspheme the tutelars of this tribe, in the expectation that the tutelars will revenge themselves upon the person represented.

*
Aurau: untranslatable; said of a tribesman afflicted with revulsion against civilized restrictions, and sometimes of a caged animal yearning for freedom.

*
Karoo: Uldra festivities, including feasting, music, dancing, declaiming, athletic contests. An ordinary karoo occupies a night and a day; a Grand Karoo continues three days and nights, or longer. The karoos of the Retent tribes are wild and often macabre.

*
Criptid: a long low pad-footed variant of the terrestrial horse. The Uldras of the Retent disdain criptids as mounts fit only for wittols, sexual deviates and women.

*
Sarai: Untranslatable: a limitless expanse, horizon to horizon, of land or water, lacking all impediment or obstacle to travel and projecting an irresistible urgency to be on the way, to travel toward a known or unknown destination.

*
Soum: the thick tough dun lichen which carpets most of the Palga.

*
During the latter stages of this period the Board of Directors of the SEE (Society for the Emancipation of the Erjins), returning to Olanje from their places of refuge, decried ‘this orgy of unnecessary and meaningless slaughter’. They recommended that, when feasible, the erjins be captured rather than killed, in order that the captives might be educated, rehabilitated and encouraged to create a new peaceful society, in some unspecified area of Uaia. In the emotional climate of the mop-up, the SEE doctrine received small implementation.

*
Xheng: untranslatable; a dark and peculiar emotion which might most succinctly be translated
horror-lust:
a generalized desire to inflict torments and agonies, a fervent dedication to the achievement of sadistic excesses.