Chenda and the Airship Brofman (35 page)

“And now the gentlemen have all seen the great Pramuc perform a miracle,” Pranav Erato said. Chenda looked up. She hadn't noticed the people who had followed Ahy-Me into the shaded overhang. She was so distracted by the girl’s suffering that she paid the others no mind. Now, they all stared at her with awe on their faces.

Pranav Erato spoke to the assembled men in Tugrulian. Chenda could just hear Verdu translating for Fenimore and Candice, “You have seen. Now, will you listen?”

Chenda placed a finger on Pranav's hand.
Did you just set me up?
she asked.

He-he. I'm good, aren't I? Now they are ready to hear you. Thank me later and start talking.

Chenda looked at the dark Tugrulian men before her, and fell back on her well learned manners.

“Welcome. I thank you for coming to speak with me. I am... Chenda. Some would call me the Pramuc. I leave that for you to decide. Something happened to me, and I want to tell you about it.”

As she spoke, Verdu translated her words to the small crowd. She spoke of her time in the West, of Edison's murder and the Singing Stones. She spoke about the elements and how they came to settle inside her. She spoke of her transformation in the Dia Orella under the Dome of Lesser Stones. Finally she told them the message from the gods, and of the collapse of the temple in Kotal.

When Chenda finished speaking, the silence around her was deafening.

Chapter 19

DEPARTURES

Chenda's voice shattered the trance that seemed to cover the Tugrulian guests. “Any... questions?”

A man stood, and stiffly bowed several times. He turned to Verdu and spoke. Verdu smiled and answered him, evidently in the positive. The man quickly sat down again and turned eager eyes to Chenda.

With a chuckle in his voice, Verdu said, “They believe you, every word, but they are men, and you did make such a convincing picture on the wall.” He laughed again. “They want you to show them the sparklers.”

Chenda suppressed a laugh. “I see.” She pulled her knife from under her dress and released a thin stream of her power that separated the iron oxide from the blade in a slow stroke from bottom to top. Sparks sizzled and hissed, and each man before her sat agog. She set the knife aside and held what Chenda hoped was a dignified pose.

One by one, the ten men approached Chenda, and placed their hands on the side of her face. One by one, Chenda blessed them. They started to mill about talking excitedly, and other than the occasional glance back toward Chenda, she and Pranav Erato were mostly ignored.

What do we do now?

The men are discussing what they are going to do. Eventually they will figure out that they don't know enough to decide what it is that they can or should do. Then they will turn to us and ask what it is that they should be doing, and THAT is when we will start asking questions and decide what to do.

You have got to be kidding.

Pranav Erato giggled inside his own head.
Nope, that's how matters of faith usually play out. We could just tell them what to do, but they would never do it. They will need to ask for guidance. Watch.

Several of the men had laid out bundles of food on the rocks and were sharing it amongst themselves. Chenda's mouth watered. She couldn't recall the last time she ate. Thinking about how hungry she was, Chenda could feel the corners of her mouth pull down into a pout.

Finally, they all turned to Chenda and Pranav Erato. The bold man who asked to see the flaming dagger had evidently been proclaimed spokesman for the group. As he spoke, Chenda could hear his words through the thoughts of Pranav Erato, neatly translated.

Great Lady, wondrous messenger of the gods, divine worshipful - Good grief! He's going to go on like this all day, I think...  Ah, now he's getting to it...
The tone of Pranav Erato's thoughts returned to that of translator.
...Angel of heaven amongst us, we find ourselves at odds as to how we may serve you best. Pray tell, what do you require of us?
Pranav Erato's bubbly tone chimed in
- Good - Ask about the soldiers, and the fallout from the destruction of the Dia Orella.

“
Thank you, most gracious and humble of men,” Chenda began, and Verdu translated in turn. “First, I would be pleased to hear news of the people. What news do you have of the Emperor's soldiers? We know they seek us. What retaliation do they seek across the land for the destruction of the Dia Orella?”

Oh, well said, Chenda. Well said. You are a natural at this,
Pranav Erato thought at her. The leader spoke again, and the mystic translated.
The soldiers sweep the land, scouring the cave villages and barren rock for you, Great Lady. They say that anyone claiming the Pramuc lives, that the savior of us all has come, will be relieved of his head. Many examples have been made already. Rumors fly that the ports at Wha-Rhen and Trum-Bhal have been closed. It seems that the Emperor is willing to grind all the land into a fine powder so he can sift you out.

Chenda looked to Pranav Erato, who spoke aloud to the men and Chenda heard the Pranav shape his words into her head.
That is helpful to know, my brothers, even when it causes great sadness to me. The Pramuc's companions and I seek to spread the message, and we are grateful to you, our first witnesses. All we ask for now is that you remember. Remember what you have seen here and let the faithful know that the gods have not abandoned us. The Pramuc lives. Do not hide this glorious news.

Pranav Erato stood and pulled Chenda to standing as well.
We will leave now from this place, and you all must return to your own places. Word will reach you soon of what will come, and what the faithful will be asked to do. I bid you all go in peace
.

Pranav Erato walked with Chenda out of the outcrop and into the setting sun. He turned west and started walking at a stately pace into the setting sun. Soon, Candice, Verdu and Fenimore fell into step next to them.

“Where are we going?” Chenda asked.

“West,” the mystic replied in a bubbly tone. “We've got to get up and do this again in the morning, don't you know.”

The same scene repeated itself over and over again throughout the next several days. Ahy-Me, and occasionally Pranav Erato himself, would arrange for leaders and sympathizers of the Tugrulian Resistance to assemble, and Chenda would talk to them. They were eager to hear her message, and in the end, all wanted to serve the Pramuc. Always, she would bid them to spread the message, and wait. A time to act was close at hand.

With each passing day, Chenda focused more intently on one thing: leaving this land of horrors. On several occasions, imperial soldiers left less subtle warnings for those spreading word of the Pramuc. Rows of heads on pikes met them as they entered small villages. Chenda recognized a few of the faces. Once, she released her powers and cracked the dry earth behind the severed heads, calling forth a wind to neatly bury the lonely heads.

Despite the efforts of the Empire to suppress information about the Pramuc, word spread quickly. Sometimes hundreds of people would come to see Chenda. As the crowds got larger, Fenimore and Verdu became more concerned for Chenda's safety.  Fenimore was on constant guard, vigilant against an attack, and Verdu mingled in the crowd talking with people. He listened for any hint of false sincerity amongst the people of the crowd, hoping to stop any spies before they could report back to the hierarchy. Luck seemed to be with Chenda's companions, as there was never any trouble among the congregants.

In their spare moments while traveling from place to place, Chenda and Candice planned a way to be most useful to the Tugrulian people. The problem with most of their ideas was that the two of them were fairly sure attempts at assistance wouldn't survive the ever-prowling Tugrulian soldiers. Chenda and her companions gathered a good bit of information as they traveled. Most of it they sifted through, looking for a way to escape westward without being trapped by patrols. The Empire controlled its people chiefly by restricting the flow of food. The Tugrulians had long believed that a hundred years of civil war had poisoned the land, and that it would not sustain farming. Ostensibly passed as a rule to protect the people, there was now a law that forbade planting crops on the land. All the food that the Tugrulians produced for themselves came from underground caverns and ponds - mostly mushrooms, mosses and algae. Not the best sources for human nutrition.  Malnutrition ran rampant in some areas, especially places out of favor with the Emperor.

Chenda and Candice knew they could show the Tugrulians how to farm again, but the problems of avoiding vengeful soldiers seemed formidable. Anything the people planted would be destroyed almost immediately.  The women were stumped.

Seven days after the collapse of the Dia Orella, Chenda and her companions were waiting out the daylight in the underground village of Lhil-Bhan. Chenda had finished up her meeting with the area's resistance leaders and had retreated to a cool cave deep within the hillside. The villagers had been hit hard already by soldiers looking to suppress her supporters. Chenda laid her head on Candice's lap and wept as they sat on the floor of the small chamber.

“They are getting more brutal,” she cried, thinking of the heads of the small children mixed amongst the pikes leading into the town. “How can they do that to the little ones?”

“I don't know,” was all Candice could say as brushed her fingers through Chenda's feathery hair. The pace of the journey and the stress of constantly being hunted was starting to wear on all of them. They needed to be done.

“We have to do something.” Chenda sobbed. “Maybe there is no alternative. Maybe a bloodbath is the only way to set things to right and get out of this broke-down, hellish continent. Am I just wasting time trying to be peaceful? Should I just kill them all and let the gods sort them out?”

“Stop that,” Candice snapped at her. “You know that isn't what is in your heart. We will think of something.” Candice held Chenda as her sobs slowly gave way to the slow, rhythmic breath of sleep.” Candice shifted Chenda's body onto the floor, and scooted away from her.

She approached Verdu, Fenimore and Pranav Erato, who were already gathered in the corner of the cave.

“Ah, Candice, how is she doing?” Fenimore asked.

“Not well. We've got to get her out of here. If the soldiers don't find us and kill us, this pace will. How is our plan coming?”

“Same problems as always,” Fenimore said. “Even if we can get on a boat and get it sailing out into the Kohlian Sea, we will never be able to evade or outrun the Tugrulian patrols. The
Brofman
dropped us onto the
Tjalk
inside the patrol line, which is why it was so easy getting in. I can't see a way to get us up into the air from within the borders of the Empire. Our only hope is meeting up with the
Brofman
at Crider Island. But we still have to find a way to get past the patrols.

“We could use Chenda's power to blow the ships right out of the water, but then the Resistance will know that the Pramuc has left them, and all of the support that has been laid here will be lost. Pranav Erato can lead the people in the name of the Pramuc, so she doesn't really need to be here physically.  People just need to think she is near. Chenda needs to get someplace safe, without anyone knowing that the Pramuc is gone.”

“So, the escape plan is still a non starter,” Verdu said. “Where are you and Chenda on the serve-the-people plan?

Candice sighed. “We have figured out everything we need to do to get these people planting farms above ground again, except for a way to prevent soldiers from destroying anything we do the minute we finish sowing the fields.” She sighed again, “We've got a way to acquire seeds, and Chenda can carve out several irrigation systems in a hot minute, and with just a few amendments to the soil, anywhere around here could hold flourishing farms in no time. But how do we stop the spiteful destruction that is starving these people into submission?”

They all sat there stewing in their own misery until Ahy-Me returned to the cave carrying a large crock and a stack of bowls. “Des folks starve, but to us are very generous. Dey give too much.”

Pranav Erato smiled looking into the crock of murky soup. “It's hard to eat when you know the people who gave you the food are hungry, but eat we must. We cannot help these people if we are weak.”

“Says the man who never eats,” Candice chided. The Pranav waved a bony hand at her dismissively. They all watched as Ahy-Me ladled the soup into the wide but shallow bowls. Candice had given up on reasoning out why most of the Tugrulian food they had seen was an olive-gray color. She decided days ago that she would eat whatever came and be grateful for it. This day would be no exception.

Candice realized that Chenda's transformation into the Pramuc had changed her as well. As a scientist, residing in the live-and-let-live atmosphere of the West, she had never given much thought to the gods. They had always been there, just down the street from her apartment in the University district in an area the students lovingly referred to as Holy Corners, but she hadn't paid then much mind. The gods were there for another day, and her work, her science, begged for her attention first.

Now that Candice had been there, in the presence of the gods, or at least in the presence of a woman in the presence of the gods, they had become much more real to her. Suddenly, she believed. What she was going to do with that belief, she had no clue, but there it was.