The Broken World Book One - Children of Another God (34 page)

Talsy sighed.
"I've seen what Truemen have done. It's not only the way they treat
Mujar, they treat everything badly. They have no respect for
animals or plants and trees. They take and destroy, kill and
enslave, giving nothing back."

"They?" His
brows rose.

"I don't want
to think of myself as a Trueman. Can't I be Mujar?"

He laughed.
"I'm afraid not, my little clan. But you have the mark of the
Mujar, so the gods agree with me."

"So, tell me
more."

"Well, it's a
double-edged sword, as they all are." He paused, considering her.
"The Mujar mark means you'll never be able to hunt and kill again,
but it also means that beasts will no longer fear you. The souls,
like the Kuran, will not harm you. They may even help you, if you
ask nicely."

"Why were you
struck down and stuck to the sand?"

He squirmed,
looking away. "Well, that was sort of punishment, if you like. I
guess they never expected it to happen, so when I marked you they
were a little angry."

"What did they
do?"

"Just gave me a
good talking to, told me I was a naughty boy and sent me back to
watch over you."

Talsy grinned
at his flippant tone. Although he had become friendlier in the time
they had spent together, she had sensed his reticence in his
guarded looks and the questions he would not answer. Now his
demeanour was open and friendly, and gentle affection shone in his
eyes.

"But I wasn't
here," she pointed out.

"Of course you
were. Only your spirit left."

"Oh. You mean I
was unconscious?"

"Sort of." He
chuckled. "You did a lot of moaning and muttering."

She pulled a
face. "How have I changed the fate of the world, and what does it
mean to be chosen?"

"Ah." He poked
her in the ribs. "I'll tell you when you get off me."

She obliged,
and he sat up with a sigh of relief. "That was getting
uncomfortable." He brushed the sand from his hair, and she prodded
him.

"Talk."

"Okay, okay.
You've been chosen as worthy, which means you're not like the rest
of your race. You're not selfish, cruel or greedy. That changes the
fate of the world, because now all who are good, though they may
not be as worthy as you, must be saved. It's one of the laws of
retribution."

Talsy
considered. "From the Hashon Jahar?"

"Yes."

"What are
they?"

"I only know
what I already told you."

She sighed. "So
what did the tests mean?"

He plucked
another blade of grass from the sparse growth on the dunes. "First
you'll have to tell me what happened."

She recounted
each test in detail, and he pondered them when she had
finished.

"The first," he
explained, "was of loyalty. They wanted to know whether you would
help all Mujar, or just me. The second was of objectivity, to see
if you would condemn your own people for their sins. You could have
saved them all."

"But they
didn't deserve it. What about the third?"

"That's a
tricky one. I think they wanted to see how well you understood the
situation, why your race is being destroyed. They wanted to hear
you argue against your own kind."

"I see. So what
happens now?"

He shrugged.
"Beats me, I'm not a god. When I find out, I'll tell you."

"How will you
find out?"

"They'll tell
me."

"The gods?"

He nodded.

She said,
"There's still so much I don't understand. I wish I knew all of
it."

"So do I."

Talsy rose to
her feet, brushing sand from her trousers. "I'm hungry."

Back at the
cave, Talsy put some vegetables and shellfish in a pot and placed
it on the fire. While the stew bubbled, she pondered what he had
told her and the possible ramifications of her new status.

She indicated
the mark on her forehead. "Does this give me any powers?"

He laughed and
shook his head, then his mirth died. "Well, in a way it does. It
protects you, first of all, though not from Truemen, of course. But
you can ask souls for help, which means that, in a way, you control
what they do. The trees, the sea, the earth, fire and the wind. But
then, you won't need to do that unless something happens to
me."

"Like if you
decide to break clan bond," she suggested, surprised when he raised
his head to stare at her.

"The clan bond
between us is broken. It was the moment I marked you. What we have
now can never be broken."

"How can that
be?" She frowned. "That means you've lost your freedom."

He smiled and
shook his head. "No, it means you've gained yours."

"Explain."

"You're Mujar
marked. You don't need protection from animals or souls, so you
don't need me."

She stared at
him, horrified. "You're going to leave?"

"No." He
hesitated. "Not now. Not completely. I may leave if I wish, but
I'll always return."

Talsy sagged
with relief, his words bringing a warm rush of joy that banished
her lingering doubts. His declaration filled the aching void that
had always existed within her, a longing for love and security that
her father's possessive affection had never completely filled. She
blinked away the warm sting of tears.

Chanter stirred
the pot. "One day you may want me to go, and then I shall."

"Never!" she
said. "Why would I?"

"You belong
with your people, and one day you'll meet a man with whom you wish
to stay. I doubt he'll want me around."

"I want to stay
with you."

He shook his
head, gazing into the pot. "I'm Mujar. I can never give you what
you want."

"You don't know
what I want."

"I do. Love.
Marriage. A family."

"No. I'd rather
have you."

He smiled.
"You're still young. Your feelings will change, and I can't give
you what you'll want then."

"You're not
Trueman, and you don't understand us as well as you think you
do."

"Don't I?" He
looked away. "Time will tell."

Chapter Fourteen

For the next
three weeks, they lived a simple, peaceful existence Talsy would
have happily continued. The day after Chanter marked her, she
discovered the difference it made. The strange, beautiful creatures
no longer fled her approach, but treated her with the same
fearlessness they accorded Chanter. Delighted, Talsy stroked their
velvet skins and the strange leaf-like fronds that grew on them
like feathers. Up close, she discovered they had a delicious smell
that made her mouth water. Chanter came to stand beside her,
plucked a frond from the creature she was stroking and ate it.

"What are you
doing?" she demanded, surprised when the beast merely glanced at
Chanter.

He plucked
another frond and held it out. "Try it."

She took it
with an uncertain frown. "Doesn't it hurt them?"

"No."

Talsy nibbled
the frond, which tasted as delicious as it smelt. Chanter smiled
and plucked another for her, eating one himself.

"What are
they?" she asked.

"Creatures of
this world. The ones that were here before Truemen came."

"Where have
they been?"

He shrugged.
"Around. Living where there are no Truemen." He plucked another
frond. "This one is a food beast. It lives on the earth, like a
tree. You see that its legs are in the soil?"

She nodded. It
was one of the stilt-legged species that pushed its legs into the
ground and stood there all day.

Chanter
explained, "It takes goodness from the earth, like a plant." He
pointed at a beast that basked in the sun. "That one lives on the
light, also like trees, and eats soil." He indicated a long,
multi-coloured beast with a snake-like head. "That one is a
predator. It eats the food beasts' fronds."

"It doesn't
kill them?"

"No beast of
this world kills other creatures."

"Except the
Hashon Jahar," she said.

"Yes."

"But surely,
without predators to control their numbers, there would be too many
of them?"

"No, because
they breed slowly."

The creature
they ate hooted, and Chanter went over to another to continue the
feast. Talsy gazed around at the peaceful vista, entranced. Food
beasts absorbed goodness from the soil or sun, while predators
wandered amongst them, plucking fronds. This was, she realised, a
world without killing, bloodshed and pain. A perfect world. The
frond she ate tasted like a sweet fruit. Different types of food
beasts had different flavours, she discovered, and their fronds
were bloodless.

"They're not
really animals, are they?" she asked. "They're plants."

"In as much as
they're not entirely flesh and blood, yes, they're partly plants.
But they have brains and feelings; they mate and give birth in a
similar way to your animals."

She frowned.
"What do you mean, my animals?"

"Trueman
animals. Horses, dogs, wolves."

"Did we bring
them with us?"

"In a manner of
speaking. The gods created them from the memories of the men who
came in the silver bird that fell from the sky."

She stared at
him in amazement.

After that, the
food beasts provided all the nourishment they needed, and Talsy
thrived on the new diet, regaining the weight she had lost. The
balmy days were the happiest she had ever known. She frolicked on
the beach with Chanter, played with the gentle sea creatures and,
through Chanter, spoke to the sherlon. He taught her something of
what it was to be Mujar, at one with this colourful world so rich
with joy and laughter. She discovered the wonder of being truly
free, not only from the constraints of Trueman society, but the
stigma of being Trueman and feared by the wild beasts.

The only flaw
in her utopia was that Chanter vanished into the sea every night.
The first time she woke alone, she lay awake until he returned, wet
and wild from the ocean. She realised, however, that she could
never hope to tame a creature as wild as Chanter, and resigned
herself to his absence when the call of the wild lured him away.
She did not want to tame him, though. One of his best aspects was
his wildness, which made him impossible to control, but gave him
his strange allure.

Three weeks
later, Chanter decided that they should move on. The Wish he had
granted Mishak remained unfulfilled, and he still had to find
Arrin, if he lived. He was certain that the boy would have headed
up the coast to the next town, where he could earn the fare to
cross the Narrow Sea. He knew that the chances of finding Arrin
were slim, and Mishak might have succumbed to the Hashon Jahar too
by now, yet he had to try.

Talsy packed
her bag and mounted the black stallion, which carried her up the
coastal road at an untiring canter. Within a few days, they passed
two ruined towns, and at each one Chanter tested the wind and the
earth for signs of Arrin. Deciding that Arrin would have continued
up the coast if he did not cross the sea, they continued
onwards.

Over the next
two weeks, they encountered many scenes of death and destruction.
The colourful creatures abounded, rooted amongst the debris of
Truemen's downfall. Scavengers had already picked the ruins clean,
leaving only bleached bones and fallen stones. In the months since
Rashkar's fall, it seemed that the Hashon Jahar had wiped out
almost all of the Truemen cities. Occasionally, they came across
fields of skeletons, the remains of those who had fled the cities
or armies sent to fight the Black Riders. On one of these fields,
Chanter stopped beside a pile of bones and sighed. Talsy came to
stand beside him.

"Arrin?"

He nodded.
"Mishak's Wish has failed. He will never see his son again."

"If what we've
seen is anything to go by, Mishak's dead, too."

"Probably.
There are few left, though."

"Where are
they?"

He shrugged. "I
don't know."

Talsy walked
away. "So what do we do now?"

Chanter
followed, carrying the bag. "We must head west, I believe."

"Why?"

"Just a feeling
I have."

Talsy glanced
at him. "Can't we return to the cave?"

"No. We'll
travel west."

The stallion
continued to carry Talsy along deserted roads and through
devastated cities, towns and villages. Flattened tracts of ground
and stream banks marked the Black Riders’ passage. The trampling of
thousands of hooves had churned the grass to mud in broad swathes
and created new roads that cut through forest and field. As Talsy
and Chanter travelled westwards, the ruins became fresher.
Scavengers still frequented some, which gave off the stench of
death. The rainbow-hued creatures vanished, and they were forced to
return to a diet of vegetables gleaned from the abandoned fields of
sacked towns. Deer, sheep and cattle abounded, but Talsy found that
she could no longer hunt them; the thought of killing sickened her.
She threw away her hunting bow, keeping the knife only as a tool
for digging and cleaning the vegetables they ate.

Three weeks of
travel brought them to a rocky coastline and a ruined city. The
town had been destroyed no more than a few days before, and flocks
of vultures and crows wheeled over it. Chanter avoided it, and they
travelled further up the coast before making camp. Talsy built a
fire and put up her tent while the Mujar visited the abandoned
fields to procure their supper. When he returned, she put the
vegetables on to cook and settled on a rock beside him. Noticing
smoke rising a few miles away, she pointed it out to him. He
considered it.

"Could be
another destroyed settlement."

"Maybe," she
agreed. "But perhaps there are people there."