The Seventh Mountain (18 page)

Mark looked at Tim. “Are you saying that
this is inconvenient for Mrs. Shadowitz?”

“Not at all. As a matter of
fact, she is looking forward to it. She says that
she has
wanted to find an excuse to go riding. It is one of the things that
she enjoys, but seldom gets the chance to do.”

“We are supposed to meet her at the stables.
Where are they?”

“First door to the left of where the lioness
took you. Wait for her by the door. Do not go in without her.”

“Okay, thanks.”

“You guys need to select a telescope. It is
almost time to go topside to the observatory.” With that said, Tim
started to walk off toward the concession window.

The door to the balcony burst open and
Harmonious Thorpe stormed out. “TIM… TIM FAIRBANKS, WHERE ARE YOU?”
His profoundly bass voice reverberated off the walls.

Tim turned to face Mr. Thorpe. “I am right
here, Harmonious. There is no need to yell.”

Mr. Thorpe lowered his tone to a simmering
whisper. Mark noticed that his fists were clenched and a vein was
bulging on his forehead. “If I’ve told you once, I’ve told you a
hundred times, you will address me as sir, Teacher or Mr.
Thorpe.”

“Yes sir. But that was as a student. I am
not any longer a student. I have been a counselor for twenty-eight
years now.”

“You are still subordinate to me. You will
address me as such. Understood?”

Tim was obviously surprised by this public
display of temper. “Yes sir. I understand. You wanted to see
me?”

Mr. Thorpe’s tone was still seething. “Do
you know what one of your little brats has done?”

“I do not know what you are referring to,
sir.”

“I found lion tracks leading up to and away
from the school. The tracks had human tracks going away from the
school with them. I followed the tracks to the game preserve. Do
you know what that game keeper, what’s his name… told me?”

“Albert, sir. Albert is his name. And yes
sir, I think I know just about what he told you.”

“He told me that the boy with the staff
found the lioness and brought her back! Do you have any idea what
that means?”

“Yes sir. I do. Mrs. Shadowitz has already
been informed.”

Evidently Mr. Thorp wasn’t
listening or didn’t care about what Tim had said. “It means that
this boy… this prodigy… this… this… this
special
boy… has no regard for
safety, his or anyone else’s for that matter.”

“Mr. Thorpe, I wish you would not do this
here. This is a public place.”

“Do you know what else Albert said?”

“Please, Mr. Thorpe. Do not do this
here.”

“He said that the boy with the staff tried
to make him promise to feed the lioness some gazelle… tried to make
him promise to give her some gazelle, like he knew what she
wanted.”

Tim changed his tone from pleading to
resolute. “Mr. Thorpe. It is very improper for you to do this
here.”

Mr. Thorpe ignored Tim and turned to face
Mark. He patted his lips with his index finger. His tone was
threatening. “That could mean only one thing.” He pointed at Mark
and shouted. “You knew what the lioness wanted, didn’t you boy?”
His voice penetrated Mark’s every organ.

Mark looked down at his feet and didn’t
answer Mr. Thorpe.

“Answer me, boy! Answer me, now!”

Mark gathered his resolve. He looked Mr.
Thorpe straight in the eye and didn’t say a word.

“Boy… I told you to answer me!”

Mark looked at Tim. Tim frowned and nodded
his head yes, slightly.

“Yes sir.”

“I knew it. You have Balaam’s Tongue, don’t
you boy? You can talk to animals, right?”

“Yes sir.”

“Why haven’t you told
anybody about this? Do you think that you’re too
special
to let anyone
know about this?”

Tim saw his chance and broke in. “He has
told! Mrs. Shadowitz just has not told you yet.”

Mr. Thorpe turned to face Tim. “You knew!
Why didn’t you tell me?”

“It is not my place, sir. Mr. Young has
asked that only the Council of Elders be informed with the
exception of Gerod and myself.”

Mr. Thorpe wheeled on Mark and aimed his
finger at him. “Is this true, boy?”

“Yes, sir.”

“I’m sorry to hear you say that, boy. That
means that I have unknowingly violated a trust.” He turned to face
Tim again. “And you let me do it, Tim.”

“I beg your pardon… sir. I tried to stop
you. You just would not listen.”

“I don’t listen, huh. You will report to the
Council of Elders tomorrow at 9 a.m. for a disciplinary hearing.
We’ll see who listens.”

Tim bowed his head. “Yes sir.”

“I’m afraid that won’t be necessary…
Harmonious.” Mrs. Shadowitz stood up from behind Chenoa, Nick and
Jamal. “I’m afraid that you have pronounced your own fate. I will
see you in the Council Chambers tomorrow at 9 a.m. You will face a
disciplinary hearing.”

“But, ma’am. I didn’t mean…”

Mrs. Shadowitz cut him off with a whisper.
“Harmonious, do you dare to argue with me?”

“But…” Mr. Thorpe lowered his head. “No
ma’am.”

Mr. Thorpe turned and started to walk
away.

Tim interrupted him. “Ah, Mr. Thorpe. Since
these four have been pre-chosen, they have tomorrow off. I have
given them permission to return here tomorrow and finish their
selection of optics. I just thought that you should know.”

After pausing to hear what Tim had to say,
he continued walking.

Tim turned to Mark. “I figured that it was a
good time to tell him. I do not think that I could have made him
any madder.”

“Why was he so mad?”

“Well, I am not taking up for him, but you
should have told someone as soon as you could have or at least have
called for help. A lioness in the school is pretty serious
business.”

“I guess so. But still, that shouldn’t have
made him as mad as all that. That was downright mean, what he just
did.”

“Yeah, but I understand him, the way he
thinks. You see, everything to him is black and white, right or
wrong. To him, there is no in between, no mitigation and, he is a
strict disciplinarian.”

“That doesn’t make it right.”

“I do not think that what he did was wrong.
It was no more wrong than that lioness trying to find something to
eat. I think that where he chose to do it was wrong. Mrs. Shadowitz
is going to take care of that.”

“Do you think that he is in a lot of
trouble?”

“It is not proper for me to speculate on
that. I just know that I would not want to be in his shoes.”

Mark gave him a halfhearted smile. “Thanks,
Tim.”

“You are welcome. Now, you guys can go ahead
and get a telescope. We need to get topside and set them up. After
you get them set up, you can have the rest of the day to do
whatever you like.”

On any path there are many stones.

After lunch, the group walked to the doorway
that led to the stables. It wasn’t long after they had reached the
doorway that Mrs. Shadowitz walked out of the stable area to meet
them. She was holding a large red book that wasn’t very thick.

“Well, I see that you have found the
stables. I hope you didn’t have any trouble.”

Mark was eager to see the map book that she
was holding. “No, ma’am. Tim told us where the doorway was. Is that
the map?”

“Yes, it is. Why don’t you four follow me?
We can sit in the office while you look at the map and see where
you want to go.”

They walked through the doorway and a bright
green vista opened before them. There was pastureland as far as the
eye could see. Off to the right were twelve large barns behind a
single-story log cabin. Mark thought that the barns must be the
stables and the log cabin the office. They approached the cabin and
he could see where a small stream ran behind the stables and off
into the distance. An arched bridge crossed to the other side
giving easy access to the apple orchard, which was so thick that it
was more like a short forest. It looked so inviting; it almost
beckoned from the far side of the stream.

Mrs. Shadowitz walked into the cabin, sat
down at a large, oval, wooden table, put the map book on the table
and slid it toward Mark.

“The map book is divided into sections. Each
section is devoted to a particular area of the school. Each area is
subdivided according to its purpose. Now, while you look at the map
book, I’ll go and get a pitcher of lemonade. I’m sure that you are
all thirsty after your walk over here.”

Mark opened the book to the first page.
There was a map showing the school in the middle and the
surrounding areas outside of the wall. The other three leaned in
and looked at the map. There were twelve areas divided into roughly
equal sectors. They were labeled: Stables/Farming, Wasteland,
Airfield, Firearms Range, Firearms Combat, Naval Combat, Vehicle
Training, Power and Engineering, Urban, Forest, Farming and Game
Preserve/Farming. They were surrounded by an area simply labeled,
City.

Mark gave a whispered “Wow.”

Chenoa pointed to the area of the stables on
the map. “This looks the most interesting to me. My vote is that we
check out this area.”

Jamal voiced his opinion. “I like the game
preserve. I’d like to see what kind of animals they have here.”

Nick chimed in, “Power generation and
engineering is what I want to see.”

Mark didn’t say anything. He turned the
page. The next map was of the underground waterways. It showed a
maze of subterranean interconnected waterways. Blue identified the
underground streams. Green marked flooded channels. Most of the
waterways were green. Mark noticed that one of the green waterways
connected with the moat around the Island.

The next page was a legend. It showed all of
the symbols and colors that meant different things on the maps. The
scale showed that one-half inch represented one mile. Mark realized
that the outside grounds must encompass an awful lot of area.

Mark looked up and said, “I want to see it
all.”

“And so you shall.” Mrs. Shadowitz had
returned. She was carrying a tray with five glasses and a large
pitcher of lemonade. “I’ve been wanting to get out and ride more.
Now I have an excuse to do just that. Shall we say, Saturday
afternoons at two?” She was smiling when she sat the tray down on
the table. She looked up and pointed to the window.

“It looks like your friends are ready to
go.”

They all looked at the picture window where
she was pointing. Five horses were looking in. The General, a
Jasper Tribe horse and three Emerald Tribe horses were saddled and
ready to go.

Chenoa was elated. Mrs. Shadowitz said that
starting with the stable area seemed the natural thing to do. They
would get to explore the other areas in due course.

Mark enjoyed the ride. He had no idea that
there were so many horses there. There had to be more than two
thousand of them. They had ridden out one side of the pasture and
back on the other side. A high wall separated the field and orchard
areas from the game preserve and the wasteland area. In between was
the greenest, rolling, grazing land that he had ever seen. Horses
were everywhere in the lush fields. There were more birds there
than he cared to speculate on, mostly starlings, cowbirds and black
birds.

 
* * *
 

At dinner it was obvious who had enjoyed the
ride the most. It was Chenoa. That was all that she wanted to talk
about.

“I’m glad we got to do that. I love horses.”
Chenoa’s eyes were bright and excited.

Nick said, “I hope we get to see the
engineering section next. Can you imagine what it takes to power
this place?”

“They don’t need much power in the stables.
Horses live off the land.” Chenoa was obviously daydreaming.

“So do the other animals. I would like to
see the game preserve next.” Jamal added his voice.

“We are going to see it all. Why don’t we
just let Mrs. Shadowitz decide what she wants to show us next?”
Mark shrugged while he said this.

“It doesn’t matter to me what we see next.
I’ve already seen what I wanted to see.” Chenoa was still
smiling.

Jamal said, “I agree with Mark. We should
let Mrs. Shadowitz decide.”

Nick agreed with Jamal. “I think that
letting Mrs. Shadowitz decide is the right thing to do.”

 
* * *

The next day, day four of orientation week,
was supposed to be an all day event. It was the Day of Choosing.
Normally, all 288 new students were to walk, one at a time, into
the corral containing the captains of the twelve equestrian tribes.
One of the twelve horses would choose a student by walking up to
them. That would determine which tribe the student would be
assigned to. Today, there would be four less students chosen.

Tim explained the process to them. “The
horses are excellent judges of a person’s motivation and the
underlying reasons that a person thinks, acts, and responds, in
general. You see, each tribe represents one of the twelve basic
motivations. The students in a particular tribe share the same
basic motivation. In theory, they should get along pretty well. In
practice, that is not always the case. It has been traditional,
down through the ages, to represent each tribe by a gemstone or
color. That is supposed to eliminate any preconceptions about a
tribe’s worth or abilities.”

“Later, you will find out what your basic
method is. So you have motive and method. Methods are assigned
colors as well. You will be assigned a second color to wear. That
represents your preferred method of doing things. Your primary
color represents motive. Your second color represents method.”