Jack Vance - Gaean Reach 01 Read online

  Jemasze went to the controls. “We’re leaving, and fast, before the Old Erjin changes its mind.”

  “Can’t we persuade it to call off its warriors?” cried Adelys Lam. “They’re killing, destroying, burning! Nothing but bloodshed! Let me out! I will entreat the Old Erjin to peace!”

  Jemasze thrust her back. “We can’t entreat it to anything. If it were rational it wouldn’t have launched the attack to begin with. Let’s leave here before the rest of us are dead.”

  Chapter 15

  The erjin uprising achieved its most striking successes in Olanje, where fewer than a thousand erjins cowed and dominated the entire city. The residents hysterically submitted to slaughter, or fled pell-mell. Some hid in the jungles; some retreated to their villas in the Carnelian Mountains; a few boarded their yachts or the yachts of their friends; others flew aircraft to the Persimmon Islands or Uaia. Only the most negligible resistance was offered, and later, when historians and sociologists studied the episode, and the question was put: “Why did you not fight in defense of your homes?” the responses were generally similar: “We were not organized; we had no leadership; we did not know what to do.” “I am not accustomed to the use of weapons; I have always been a peaceful person and I never thought that I might be required to defend myself.”

  The land-barons of the Uaian domains assembled an expeditionary force of three thousand men, including contingents from the Uldra tribes of the Treaty Lands. In two weeks of cautious probing, fusillades from the air and assaults in improvised armored cars, the erjins were blasted out of the once beautiful city and sent fleeing in bedraggled bands across the countryside. For another two weeks sky-ships and mobile patrols pursued and destroyed the fugitives*; then without formality the expeditionary force returned to Uaia, and the folk of Szintarre ruefully addressed themselves to the task of reconstruction.

  The Uldras of the Retent, no less than the Outkers of Szintarre, suffered from the insurrection. Immediately upon receipt of the telepathic notice, the erstwhile mounts, ignoring pinch-snaffles and electric curbs, reared over backwards to throw their riders, then proceeded to rend them into fragments. Those in pens broke or climbed fences, disconnected electric circuitry and attacked members of the tribe. After recovering from the initial shock the Uldras fought back with a vindictiveness equal to that of the erjins and successfully defended themselves. Primitive and remote tribes such as Cuttacks and the Nose-talkers suffered the most severely, while the Garganche, the Blue Knights, the Hunge and the Noal took relatively few casualties.

  Two weeks later the Gray Prince called a grand karoo of the Garganche, Hunge, the Long-lips, and several other tribes; in passionate terms he labeled the erjin insurrection a plot of the Treaty Land Outkers, and he performed the chilling howl of hate by which an Uldra warrior swore vengeance upon his enemies. Intoxicated with rage and xheng*, the tribesmen echoed his howl, and on the following day an Uldra horde marched off to the east, intending to purge the Alouan of Outkers.

  Kurgech brought news of the imminent invasion to Kelse, who at once notified the Uaian Order War Council. For a second time the sky-army was mobilized and dispatched to the Manganese Cliffs, a great scarp of glossy black schist overlooking the Plain of Walking Bones, where a party of a hundred Aos mounted on criptids were conducting a cautious holding operation against the xheng-crazed warriors of the Retent. As the flotilla approached, sky-sharks plunged out of the clouds; but today they were anticipated and demolished by radar-aimed guns. The Retent Uldras, despite their fanaticism, scattered and retreated across the Plain of Walking Bones, and ultimately took cover in a forest of black jinkos on the slopes of the Gildred Mountains.

  Kelse was on hand in the Morningswake utility vehicle which had been converted into a gunship, with a crew of twelve—seven of his cousins and four Ao ranch-hands. During the first few minutes of the encounter a Garganche pellet exploded against an interior bulkhead, breaking and lacerating the shoulder of Ernshalt Madduc. There was no longer any semblance of a battle; Kelse communicated with the flotilla commander and received permission to return to Morningswake with the wounded man.

  As Kelse flew north, his attention was attracted by a plume of smoke on the horizon which aroused him to instant alarm. He radioed Morningswake Manor but made no contact, and his foreboding was intensified. He strained the sky-car to its utmost speed, and presently Morningswake appeared ahead.

  Smoke arose from a field of dry grain across Wild Crake Pond; also ablaze was the little clapboard schoolhouse where those Ao children who so desired were educated. Morningswake Manor appeared undamaged; but looking through binoculars Kelse saw a sky-blue Hermes Cloudswift on the lawn before the house.

  Kelse dropped the sky-car to the lawn. Eleven men jumped to the ground and with weapons ready ran to the house. In the Great Hall they found five Uldra nobles drinking the finest wines Morningswake cellars afforded. Jorjol sat in the place of the land-baron, his feet on the table. The appearance of Kelse took him by surprise; he gasped in wonder. Kelse loped across the room and struck him sprawling to the floor. The four other Uldras vented oaths and jumped to their feet to stand petrified at the sight of the drawn weapons.

  “Where is Schaine?” demanded Kelse.

  Jorjol picked himself up from the floor and mustered what dignity he was able. He jerked his thumb toward the study. His voice was blurred by wine. “She chose to lock herself away. She would have come forth when we fired the manor.” He lurched a step closer to Kelse and stood looking down his long drooping nose. “How I hate you,” he said softly. “If hate were stone I could build a tower into the clouds. I have always hated you. The joy I felt when the erjin tore you apart was like rain on the hot desert and caused me as much pleasure as the attention I gave your sister. My life has not been good, except for those two moments and now I will add a third, for I mean to kill you. If I do nothing else, I will take the life from your wicked Outker body.”

  A long blade appeared in his hand, thrust forward from his sleeve by a spring. He lunged; Kelse jerked away from the stroke and caught Jorjol’s wrist with his right hand; with his steel left hand he caught Jorjol’s throat; with his steel arm he lifted him into the air and staggering to the door threw him out into the yard. He moved forward, and as Jorjol rose to his feet, seized him again and shook him like a rag. Jorjol’s eyes bulged; his tongue lolled from his mouth. In Kelse’s ears came a screaming: the voice of Schaine. “Kelse, Kelse, please don’t! Don’t, Kelse! We are land-barons; he is an Uldra!”

  Kelse relaxed his grip; Jorjol sagged gasping to the ground.

  Jorjol and his henchmen were locked in a cattle-shed and a pair of guards placed over them. During the night they dug under the back wall, garrotted the guards and escaped.

  Chapter 16

  The world Koryphon was at peace: a surly, roiling peace of unresolved hatreds and unpleasant insights. In Olanje the physical damage done by the erjins had been repaired; the city seemed as gay and insouciant as ever. Valtrina Darabesq opened Villa Mirasol to three parties in rapid succession to demonstrate that the erjin uprising had left her undaunted. Across the Persimmon Sea the tribes of the Retent sullenly sat in their camps nursing grievances and planning murders, raids and tortures for the future, though without any great zest. On the Palga the Wind-runners eyed the empty slave pens and wondered how they would buy wheels, bearings and hardware for their sail-wagons. Meanwhile, under the Volwode peaks in the gorge of the river Mellorus, groups of marveling scholars had already begun to examine the rose-quartz and gold fane. The Old Erjin and his associates had departed into regions even more remote than the Volwodes. Jorjol the Gray Prince, however, had not been rendered apathetic by his reverses. The fervor of his emotions had no upper limit; rather than waning with time they had condensed and thickened and become more pungent.

  About a month after the expulsion of the erjins from Olanje the Mull sat in formal session at Holrude House. Tuning in the broadcast of the proceedings, Kelse Madduc heard a familiar voice
and saw the splendid figure of Jorjol the Gray Prince standing at that rostrum provided for petitioners, claimants and witnesses. Kelse summoned Schaine and Gerd Jemasze: “Listen to this.”

  “—this opinion I hold to be defeatist, vague and unprincipled,” Jorjol was saying. “Certain conditions have changed, as agreed—but not those conditions under discussion, by no whit! Do ethical principles fluctuate overnight? Does good become bad? Does a wise decision become a trifle merely because a set of unrelated events have occurred? Certainly not!

  “In its wisdom the Mull issued a manifesto terminating the control of the land-barons over domains illegally seized and maintained. The land-barons have defied the lawful commands of the Mull. I speak with the voice of public opinion when I call for enforcement of the Mull’s edict. What then is your response?”

  Erris Sammatzen, the current chairman, said: “Your remarks, on their face, are reasonable. The Mull indeed issued an edict which the land-barons have ignored, and intervening circumstances are not germane to the affair.”

  “In that case,” stated Jorjol, “the Mull must compel obedience!”

  “There,” said Sammatzen, “is the difficulty, and it illustrates the fallacy of issuing large commands which we can’t enforce.”

  “Let us examine the matter as reasonable men,” said Jorjol. “The edict is just; we are agreed as to this. Very well! If you cannot enforce this edict, then obviously an organ of enforcement is needed; otherwise, your role in the world becomes no more than advisory.”

  Sammatzen gave a dubious shrug. “What you say may be true; still, I don’t feel that we are ready to make such large readjustments.”

  “The process is not all that difficult,” said Jorjol. “In fact I will now volunteer to organize this compulsive force! I will work diligently to strengthen the Mull! Give me authority; give me funds. I will recruit able men; I will procure powerful weapons; I will ensure that the law of the Mull is no longer ignored.”

  Sammatzen frowned and leaned back in his chair. “This is obviously a very large decision, and at first glance it seems over-responsive.”

  “Perhaps because you are reconciled to a Mull weak and toothless.”

  “No, not necessarily. But—” Sammatzen hesitated.

  “Do you or do you not intend to enforce your edicts upon all the folk of Koryphon, high and low, without fear or favoritism?” asked Jorjol.

  Sammatzen spoke in an easy voice: “We certainly intend justice and equity. Before we decide how to achieve these fugitive ideals, we must decide what kind of an agency we are, how powerful a mandate our people have given us, and whether we really want to expand our responsibilities.”

  “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 t
he 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.”