Cloud Atlas (41 page)

Meronym steadied me. I din’t ’fess the boulders was yibber-stinkin’ her, but she seen sumthin’ weren’t right.
The air up here is thin’n’watery
, she speaked,
an’ your brain’ll get diresome hungry an’ make this wyrd place wyrdsomer
.

We got to the second buildin’ an’ I slumped droozy while the Prescient worked the door open. Oh, that hollerin’ sun hollowed my head.
She’s a sly un, no frettin’, Zachry!
Truman Napes Third was perched on his boulder. Meronym’d not even heard him.
You b’lief her or your own kin?
he called me, mournsome.
Are your truths jus’ “thin’n’watery air”? Am I?
Oh, I was reliefed the next beat when the observ’tree door open. Them ghosts’n’their spikery truths cudn’t follow us inside, see, I s’pose the Smart kept ’em out.

So it went all aft’noon long, yay. Most o’ the observ’trees was much like the first. The Prescient opened up, ’splored the place with her orison, an’ mostly forgot I was there. Me, I just sat an’ breathed that Smart air till she was done. But stompin’ b’tween buildin’s, twisted boulders chorused
me, Judas!
an’
Pack mule!
an’
Ship slave!
Ghosts o’ Valleysmen pleaded me thru unpartin’ frostbited lips, yay,
She ain’t your tribe! Ain’t even your color!
an’ then’n’there, oh, frightsome sense they made, I ’fess it here’n’now.

S’picion rotted me.

No Prescient’d ever been straight with no Valleysman, an’ that day I knowed Meronym was no diff’rent. The boulders’d changed the blue sky to anxin’n’flinty gray by the last buildin’. Meronym teached me it weren’t no observ’tree but a
gen’rator
what made a Smart magic named
’lectric
what worked the hole place like a heart works the body. She was whoahin’ at the machines’n’all, but I was jus’ feelin’ stoopit’n’judased for bein’ blinded by the Shipwoman since she’d come elbowin’ into my dwellin’. I din’t know what to do nor how to stop her plans, but Georgie’d got his plans, cuss him.

This gen’rator’s innards was diff’rent from other buildin’s. The Prescient woman glowed with fass’nation as we stepped into the echoey chambers, but I din’t. See, I knowed we wasn’t alone in there. Shipwoman din’t b’lief me, o’ course, but in the biggest space where a mighty iron heart stood silent was a sort o’ throne s’rounded by tables o’ littl’ windows an’ numbers’n’all, an’ on this throne was a died Old-Un priest slumpin’ under an arched window. The Prescient swallowed hard an’ peered close.
A chief stron’mer, I reck’n
, she spoke hushly,
he must o’ soosided here when the Fall came, an’ the sealed air’s saved his body from rottin’
. A priest-king not a chief, I reck’ned, in such a wondersome palace. She got to work mem’ryin’ ev’ry inch o’ that doomin’ place on her orison while I ’proached nearer that priest-king from the world o’ perfect Civ’lize. His hair straggled an’ his nails was hooky an’ the years’d shrunk’n’sagged his face some sure, but his Smart sky clothes was spiff’n’fine, sapphires pierced his ear, an’ he mem’ried me of Unc’ Bees, same hoggy nose, yay.

List’n to me, Valleysman
, the soosided priest-king spoke,
yay, list’n. We Old Uns was sick with Smart an’ the Fall was our cure. The Prescient don’t know she’s sick, but, oh, real sick she is
. Thru that arch o’ glass waves o’ snow was tossin’n’turnin’ an’ drownin’ the sun.
Put her to sleep, Zachry, or she’n’her kind’ll bring all their offland sick to your beautsome Valleys. I’ll minder her soul well in this place, never fear
. The Shipwoman was movin’ ’bout with her orison, hummin’ a Prescient babbybie what she’d teached Catkin’n’Sussy Tick-tockin’ was my thinkin’. Wasn’t killin’ her barb’ric’n’savage?

Ain’t no right or wrong
, the ’stron’mer king teached
me, jus’ protectin’ your tribe or judasin’ your tribe, yay, jus’ a strong will or a weak un. Kill her, bro. She ain’t no god, she’s only blood’n’tubes
.

I said I cudn’t, the yibber’d tag me murderer an’ Abbess’d call a gath’rin’ what’d exile me from the Valleys.

Oh, think, Zachry
, the king micked me.
Think! How’ll the yibber know? Yibber’ll say, “That knowed-all offlander ignored our yarns’n’ways an’ went trespyin’ up Mauna Kea an’ brave Zachry went ’long to try’n’minder her, but it turned out she weren’t so Smart what she thinked.”

Beats passed.
All right
, I answered fin’ly’n’grim,
I’ll spiker her when we step outside
. The priest-king smiled, pleased, an’ din’t speak no more. Fin’ly my victim howzitted me.
Fine
, said I, tho’ I were nervy, see, the biggest thing I ever killed was goats an’ now I’d vowed to kill a Prescient human. She said we should set off ’cos she din’t want to get stranded in no blizzard up here an’ leaded us back out the gen’rator.

Outside, the boulders’d falled silent in the ankle-snow. One snowstorm’d gone but another, bigger un was comin’ so I reck’ned.

We walked t’ward the steely gate, her in front, me grippin’ Jonas’s spiker an’ testin’ its sharp on my thumb.

Do it now!
say-soed ev’ry murd’rous stone on Mauna Kea.

Nothin’ to be gained by dillyin’, nay. Hushly I aimed at the top o’ the Prescient’s neck, an’ Sonmi have mercy on my soul, I thrust that sharky point home as hard as I could.

Nay, I din’t murder her, see in a split-beat b’tween aimin’ an’ thrustin’, Sonmi
had
mercy on my soul, yay, she changed my aim an’ that spiker went flyin’ high over that steely gate. Meronym din’t even cogg she’d nearly had her skull skewered, but I cogged sure ’nuff I’d been magicked by the devil o’ Mauna Kea, yay, we all know his name, cuss him.

You see sumthin’ up there?
asked Meronym, after my spiker.

Yay
, I lied,
but it weren’t no un, nay, it was jus’ the tricks o’ this place
.

We’re leavin’
, she said,
we’re leavin’ now
.

Old Georgie was outwitted, see, there weren’t no means I could kill her quicksharp without my spiker, but he’d not jus’ lay down an’ watch my vic’try, nay, I knowed that slywise buggah of old.

As I climbed up the rope with the gearbag, Mauna Kea took a lungsome breath an’ howled giddyin’ snow so I cudn’t see the ground clearly an’ ten winds tore our faces an’ my fingers was stiff with cold an’ halfway up I slid halfway down an’ that rope burned my hands but fin’ly I hauled myself up top an’ bringed up the gearbag with my painful stingin’n’raw palms. Meronym weren’t so fast, but she weren’t far from the top o’ the wall when suddenwise time stopped.

Time stopped, yay, you heard right. For Hole World ’cept me an’ a certain cunnin’ devil, yay, you know which un came swagg’rin’ along the wall, time was jus’ … stopped.

Snowflakes hanged specklin’ the air. Old Georgie swished ’em aside.
I tried reas’nin’ with you, Zachry, you stubbornsome boy, now I got to use warnin’s an’ augurin’s an’ say-so. Get out your blade an’ cut this rope thru
. His foot touched the rope what was holdin’ time-freezed Meronym. Worn face screwed ’gainst the blizzard it was, an’ her muscles strainin’ to climb that rope. Twenty feet o’ nothin’ below.
Her fall may not kill her when I let time flow again
, Old Georgie seen my thinkin’,
but them rocks b’low’ll bust her spine’n’legs an’ she’ll not s’vive the night. I’ll let her consider her follyin’s
.

I asked him why he din’t jus’ kill Meronym himself.

Why-why-why?
Old Georgie micked.
I want you to do it, an’ here’s why-why-why. See, if you don’t cut that rope, inside o’ three moons your dearsome fam’ly be dead, I vow it! I vow it. So you got a choosin’. On one side you got Brave Ma, Strong Sussy, Bright Jonas, Sweet Catkin, all dead. Cowardy Zachry’ll live on an’ regret’ll flay him till his dyin’ day. On th’ other side you got jus’ one dead offlander no un’ll miss. Four you love ’gainst one you don’t. I may even magick Adam back from Kona
.

No bolt-hole out o’ this. Meronym had to die.

Yay, no bolt-hole, boy. I’m countin’ to five …

I got my blade. A seed sprouted thru the crust o’ my mem’ry, an’ that seed was a word Georgie’d speaked jus’ then,
augurin’
.

Quicksharp I chucked my blade down after my spiker an’ looked that devil in his terrorsome eyes. He’d got the s’prised curio, an’ his dyin’ smile’d got a bucket o’ dark meanin’s. I spat at him, but my spit boom’ranged back on me. Why? Was I crazed’n’loonin’?

Old Georgie’d made a diresome mistake, see, he’d mem’ried me o’ my augurin’s from my Dreamin’ Night.
Hands are burnin’, let that rope be not cut
. My decidin’ was settled, see, my hands was burnin’, so this was that rope Sonmi’d say-soed me not to cut.

My blade chimed on the ground an’ time started an’ the mil’yun hands’n’screams o’ that devil’s blizzard tore’n’pummeled me but cudn’t hurl me off the ’closure wall, nay, somehow I pulled up Meronym an’ got us down the other side too with no bones busted. We leaned ’gainst the furyin’ white’n’dark snowstorm back to the ’stron’mers’ village, we staggered’n’tripped an’ got back more freezin’n livin’, but a dry faggot was waitin’ by Sonmi’s grace an’ I somehow got a fire cracklin’ an’ I vow that fire saved our lifes all over again. We boiled ice to water an’ unfroze our bones an’ dried our furs best we could. We din’t speak none, we was too icy’n’drained. Did I regret spurnin’ Old Georgie?

Nay, not then, not now. Whatever Meronym’s cause was for scalin’ this cussed mountain, I din’t b’lief she’d ever judas no Valleysman, nay, not in my heart, an’ the Kona’d o’ done to the Valleys what happened sooner or later anyhow. That was in the future that first night from the summit. My friend gived us both med’sun pills after grinds an’ we sleeped the no-dream sleep o’ the ’stron’mer king.

Now, gettin’ back to the Valleys weren’t no summery stroll neither, nay, but tonight ain’t the time to yarn them ’ventures. Meronym’n’me din’t talk much goin’ down, a sort o’ trust’n’un-d’standin’ tied us now. Mauna Kea’d done its cussed best to kill us but we’d s’vived it t’gether. I cogged she was far-far from her own fam’ly’n’kin, an’ my heart ached for her lornsomeness. Abel welcomed us in his garrison dwellin’ three evenin’s later an’ sent word to Bailey’s we’d come back. Ev’ryun’d got jus’ one question,
What did you
see
up there?
It was lornsome’n’hushly, I telled ’em, with temples o’ lost Smart’n’bones. But I din’t breathe a word ’bout the ’stron’mer king nor what Meronym’d telled me ’bout the Fall an’ speshly not my knuckly with Old Georgie, nay, not till years’d come’n’gone.

I und’standed why Meronym’d not said the hole true ’bout Prescience Isle an’ her tribe too. People b’lief the world is built
so
an’ tellin ’em it ain’t
so
caves the roofs on their heads’n’maybe yours.

Old Ma Yibber spread the news that the Zachry what came down off Mauna Kea weren’t the same Zachry what’d gone up, an’ true ’nuff I s’pose, there ain’t no journey what don’t change you some. My cuz Kobbery ’fessed that mas’n’pas thru the Nine Valleys was warnin’ their daughters ’gainst frolickin’ with Zachry o’ Bailey’s ’cos they reck’ned I must o’ bis’nessed with Old Georgie to ’scape that shrieky place with my soul still in my skull, an’ tho’ that weren’t the hole true, it weren’t the hole wrong. Jonas’n’Sussy din’t mick with me like they once did. But Ma got weepy to see us home an’ hugged me—
My little Zachaman
—an’ my goats was gladsome an’ Catkin din’t change none. She’n’her bros at the school’ry’d made a new game,
Zachryn’Meronym on Mauna Kea
, but Abbess say-soed ’em not to ’cos times are pretendin’ can bend bein’. A whoah game it was, said Catkin, but I din’t want to know its rules nor endin’.

By’n’by Meronym’s last moon in Nine Valleys swelled up, an’ time it was for the Honokaa Barter, the biggest gath’rin’ o’ Windward peoples, jus’ once a year it comed round under the harvest moon, so for many days we was hard at work loomin’ goatwool blankies what was our dwellin’s bestest bart’rin’. Now, since my pa’s killin’ we’d trekked to Honokaa in groups o’ ten or more, but that year there was twice that number ’cos o’ the spesh Prescient loot we’d got, thanks to us hostin’ Meronym. There was handcarts an’ pack mules for all the dried meat’n’leather’n’cheese’n’wool. Wimoway’n’Roses was goin’ to trade herbs what din’t grow near the Valleys, tho’ Roses’n’Kobbery was spoonyin’ by then an’ that was fine by me. I wished my cuz luck ’cos luck he’d need an’ a whip’n’iron back’n’all.

Crossin’ Sloosha’s Crossin’ I’d to bear watchin’ journeyers put fresh stones on Pa’s mound, so our custom was my pa’d got a bucket o’ friends’n’bros what loved him truesome. Up on Mauna Kea that devil was sharp’nin’ his nails on a whetstone to feast on this cowardy liar, yay. After Sloosha’s came the zigzag up to Kuikuihaele. One handcart busted’n’tipped so slow’n’thirstsome goin’ it was, yay, noon was long gone b’fore we reached the scraggy hamlet sittin’ up the far side. Us young uns shimmed the cokeynut trees for grinds, an’ ev’ryun welcomed that milk, no frettin’. Trampin’ southly the buckin’ Old-Un way t’ward Honokaa Town, the ocean breeze turned freshly an’ our spirits was mended so we telled yarnies to shrink the miles, with the yarner sittin’ backwards on the leadin’ ass so ev’ryun could hear. Rod’rick yarned the Tale o’ Rudolf the Red-Ringed Goat Thief an’ Iron Billy’s Hideous Spiker, an’ Wolt sang a spoony song, “O Sally o’ the Valleys-o,” tho’ we pelted him with sticks ’cos his singin’ busted that liltsome tune. Then Unc’ Bees asked Meronym to teach us a Prescient yarnie. She hes’tated a beat or two an’ said Prescience tales was drippin’ with regret’n’loss an’ not good augurin’ for a sunny aft’noon b’fore Barter Day, but she could tell us a yarn what she’d heard from a burntlander in a far-far spot named Panama. We all yaysayed, so up she sat on the lead ass an’ a short’n’sweet yarn she spoke what I’ll tell you now so all you shut up, sit still an’ someun fetch me a fresh cup o’ spirit-brew, my throat’s gluey’n’parched.

Back when the Fall was fallin’, humans f’got the makin’ o’ fire. Oh, diresome bad things was gettin’, yay. Come night, folks cudn’t see nothin’, come winter they cudn’t warm nothin’, come mornin’ they cudn’t roast nothin’. So the tribe went to Wise Man an’ asked,
Wise Man, help us, see we f’got the makin’ o’ fire, an’, oh, woe is us an’ all
.