The Tower of Il Serrohe (49 page)

“
I don’t understand.”

“
I don’t think I can explain it, but I understand it as much as I can understand any of this delusional shit, uh, stuff.”

“
If they know what we’re going to do, then why do anything?”

“
Good question. If you go tearing up to the Tower tomorrow or any other time, they’ll know about it before you do it. In fact, before you
know
you’re going to do it.”

Don thought.
This is impossible. These folks are better off moving away or staying here on the “blind side” of the mountain, so at least the damned Soreyes can’t see what they’re up to. How can they see such far distances, or if that even matters, as long as they can see what’s going on in their own backyard?

“
Look, Nersite. This is all very interesting, but I gotta think about it.”

“
OK, but let me finish my story. You need to hear the end.”

“
Sure, little guy. Go ahead.”

“
As we reached the very top, the sky exploded with bright light and screaming.

“‘
Nohmin! Nohmin!’ yelled a Soreye priest, running around trying to knock down Netheraire with the same blow of his staff that struck me.

“
But she was too fast for him, so I pulled out a few Sleep ashes and threw them in his face. He fell onto the platform near the edge like a big pile of Soreye. He tried to get up but that threw him off balance, and he fell screaming off the edge. He hit the sidewall once and bounced to the center, hitting a stair plank that sent him spinning head over heels to the floor. He screamed horribly until he hit the plank, but from there he fell to the hard stone floor in silence.

“‘
How horrible,’ I said. ‘I didn’t mean to knock him off—’

“‘
It’s OK,’ Netheraire said soothing me. ‘You didn’t mean—’

“
Her words were cut off by yelling and banging from the direction of the monastery.

“‘
Move fast, Netheraire. The priests have heard his screams.’

“
We started knocking off loosely stacked bricks around the outside of the Tower.”

“
Wait a minute,” Don interrupted. “How could you knock off the adobes? Didn’t they use mud to hold them together?”

“
Scarflue explained to us that mud caused the adobes not to work well. They couldn’t bake the Time into the mud as it would take away some of the adobes’ power.”

“
Hmm,” Don thought. “Maybe that explains why it looked foggy or dusty when you looked out the lower windows. Surely, they had to use some mud as mortar for the lower part of the Tower. In fact, they probably used mud most of the way up the Tower since seeing the ancient past wasn’t important anyway.

“
So you and Netheraire knocked off the top few rows of adobes because they stacked them without mud. They probably had to rebuild it all the time when adobes were knocked or blown off by a strong wind.

“
When my great-grandmother Teresa had the big storm blow it down, they probably used very little mud. But they’ve likely worked out the engineering problems so the new Tower is likely stable and will be hell to knock down.”

“
What kind of problems? En-gin-ear-ring?” Nersite asked.

“
You wouldn’t understand, but it’s kind of like what the beavers, uh, the Kastmin do when they build a dam and the islands where their lodges are: building and changing things to solve problems or to do things better.”

“
Oh.”

There were several moments of uneasy silence like when a teacher can’t think how to reach a student who doesn’t understand, not even enough to ask a pertinent question.

“
Go ahead with your story, Nersite.”

“
As we were knocking off the adobes, Niddle-ai came running up the stairs. We were surprised to see him. I wondered if he had been resting, or had stayed behind to watch for Soreyes.

“
He had a bunch of long, skinny things wrapped around his shoulders. At first, I thought he’d been attacked by a Crotalmin, but he said these were the hemp things made by the Soreyes, and coiled on the floor at the bottom of the Tower.

“
I think you mean rope. The Soreyes probably used it during construction and repairs. Rope would be handy to lift pallets of adobes and tools. I used to help my Uncle Tony when he built a small adobe barn. We used ropes, block and tackles, and things you have no idea about, so don’t bother asking.”

“
Good idea,” Nersite said. “So Niddle-ai took this ‘rope,’ and we wrapped it around the tops of the smaller posts against the Tower wall. Each time we wrapped it around a post, Niddle-ai had us bring it to the middle of the platform at the top, where we stretched it to the next post.”

“
So you had the rope all come together at the middle?”

“
Yes. Netheraire and I had no idea why he was doing this. He said it was something he once saw the Soreyes do.” Nersite shrugged.

“
And…?”

“
When we had wrapped the rope around all the side posts, we had this spider’s web thing in the middle. Niddle-ai, even though he was old, worked faster than we did, so he pushed us away as he continued wrapping ropes around posts.

“
Then he said, ‘Get out of here!’

“
But, too late. I saw the bottom floor fill up with sleepy priests.

“‘
Look, it’s Sartoh! He’s dead!’ one of them cried, like it wasn’t true.

“
I could hear anger sweeping through the crowd.

“‘
It’s Nohmin! At the top!’ another shouted.

“
The angry crowd roared like an Ursimin, and they fought and hit each other while climbing the stair planks to get at us. They moved slowly due to their fighting and some fell off the first few steps.

“‘
Netheraire, all’s lost,’ I cried. ‘We have no way off the Tower; we’re going to die!’ We looked at each other and Niddle-ai with fear. He had now finished wrapping the rope and laid it on the platform.

“‘
We can climb down a rope along the side,’ she said.

“‘
But wait! Our mission, we must destroy the Tower.’

“‘
How?’

“
I then understood Niddle-ai’s thinking. ‘Grab onto this rope,’ I said, handing her a bunch of ropes that were attached to the posts. ‘Then jump. Our weight will pull down the loose bricks.’

“
Niddle-ai smiled and nodded, holding out a paw for his share of the rope.

“‘
But—’ Netheraire said.

“‘
I know,’ I said, not liking this one bit. ‘We will all die. But think of the Nohwood. Everything depends on us.

“
A lost look on her face showed me she felt the same way. ‘Then let us chant a farewell… my friend.’ She lowered her head.

“‘
My
friend?
’

“‘
Well, more than that, but time has run out for us, Nersite,’ she said, patting my paw.

“
This was all too much. I stood there in silence. With everything  I had wanted in my life standing next to me, we had to end it by leaping into death. The luck of it all! This is
not
‘The Way It Is’ or that I wanted it be. Yet, living Nohmin and of times to come needed us.

Sharing the memory of that dangerous time, Netheraire nuzzled Nersite and chirped mournfully. Nersite tried to ignore her and continued with his story.

“
We three grasped the rope. Like a Crotalmin, the Soreye priests had wound their way up nearly half the distance around the big post.

“
Above all the angry voices, I heard Niddle-ai.

“
Not looking at us, he spit chewings from his cheeks and spread them on the floor, chanting loudly.

“‘
Nersite, he’s doing a glassing chant,’ Netheraire said.

“‘
But, why?’

“
Niddle-ai opened his eyes. He looked at me then at the wall. I looked there, too, and understood. The Tower walls were made of sand—hard, baked sand. ‘Of course, the adobes will get hot from the heat of his chant!’

“
Netheraire pointed. ‘Look, the adobes are heating, glowing red at the bottom!”

“
Calmly, Niddle-ai pulled the rope from our paws as he pushed us to the platform’s edge. Handing us a coil he’d wrapped around a top step, he began pushing us over the edge. We resisted. Returning to the center of the platform, he sat cross-legged; grasping the big rope connected to all the posts. He pulled it tight and looked at us like a Loopohmin staring down his prey.

“
He was chanting again. As he stared, I smelled Timeless incense. I heard his voice
in my head
.

“‘
Go over the edge on the rope!

“‘
But—

“‘
Come on, Nersite,’ Netheraire ordered.

“
And so we threw the coil over and let ourselves down with quick foot-under-foot movements.

“
The ground felt good. Screams of outrage, then horror from the priests filled our ears. They had seen the glowing bricks and discovered Niddle-ai.

I rushed back into the Tower to look up. I could see the bottoms of the priests’ feet. Niddle-ai was hidden except for his hands as they pulled the rope. He chanted loud and clear, his voice filled with joy. Netheraire pulled me back out.

“‘
It’s Timeless in there. Did you forget?’ she shouted.

“‘
We can’t leave him—’

“‘
It’s his plan. He must have thought about this when he insisted we go on.’

“
I started going back in.

“‘
No. He’s making the same sacrifice we were to make. Don’t deny him that.’

“
The ground shook followed by a loud crash. The smell of hot sand and baking dirt filled the air.

“
As we watched in the early dawn light, the top few rows of the Tower folded in while Soreye priests dropped over the edge, clawing at the loose falling adobes. We ran back down the steep slope as the walls continued toppling.

“
Finally, all was quiet. We turned, looking back at what remained of the Tower. With the top rows gone, the platform was exposed. Netheraire said she could see the priests grabbing at Niddle-ai, beating him.

“
They threw him down into the Tower. We heard the deadly thud of his body as the priests yelled in victory.

“
One of them spotted us in the rocks. ‘More Nohmin scum! Get them! Get them!’

“
In their mad dash to get at us, the Soreyes ran into each other and fell off the Tower, taking more adobes with them. I heard screams of pain as others must have fallen down the stairs.

“
We ran like our butts burned from the glassing chant. Diving into an old Nohmin cousins’ tunnel we ran through the darkness, hitting walls at turns and slamming into dead ends.

“
We kept trying different routes, including going above ground for a quick dash to the next hole.

“‘
Netheraire,’ I called at last. ‘We’re near the south edge of Seared Meadow. I smell sagebrush.’

“
We found a tunnel leading to the light. I peeked over the edge of the hole at its top, carefully looking and listening. Off to the north, Netheraire saw the Tower with its top rows missing and its east side bulging out.

“
It was damaged but not destroyed.

With his nose, Don lightly nuzzled Nersite’s shoulder. Although it wasn’t a Nohmin gesture, he understood the offer of comfort and sympathy.

Don spoke quietly. “I know it hurts to think of Niddle-ai dying with the Tower still standing, but you did serious damage. And you made the Soreyes think twice. They are getting much nastier now because you made them mad but cautious.

Don realized what he’d said. “Maybe that’s not all good, but it made you seek me out. I would have never come here at the bat’s insistence if you hadn’t suffered this setback. I’d still be drinking and trying to get my life back together. Instead, I’m here as some kind of animal, thinking I’m completely insane.”

Nersite looked at him. “And that’s supposed to make me feel better?”

Don shrugged and grunted like Raquela did. Now, he knew why she displayed that odd behavior—it was a deer thing.

“
Look, little guy, I appreciate the story. But I have to do some thinking.”

Don got up and stretched. “If I don’t get back in the morning,
don’t do anything!
If you insist risking everyone on a lost cause, fine. But before you do, I have to think. Stay here for at least five days. If I haven’t returned after that, I believe you should give up and go back to your clan homes.”