Mighty Hammer Down (45 page)

The town of Reyth was not spectacular
in any way. While Burnhamheade was a marvelous sight to behold,
Reyth, like many other Vindyri towns, was dull and dirty. It looked
more like an arrangement of stables and cabins than legitimate
settlement, and barely qualified as a town at all. There were no
large buildings, and only one that was made of stone. That was a
temple devoted to all the gods, but even it looked like it was
crafted by amateurs. The rest of the buildings were made from wood,
but it was wood that was splintered and decayed, with no adornments
whatsoever.

Most of the roads this far north in
Vindyrion were not paved, and even the streets beneath them were
nothing but dirt. They were a little muddy from the rain the night
before, but they seemed fairly solid. The horses didn’t seem to
care what they walked on as long as they were fed regularly and had
cool water to drink. Rommus pet the neck of the animal beneath him
as he thought about how much the horse had helped them in their
journey. Alana rode with Vohl, giving Rommus’s horse a break from
the extra weight.

While the town itself was lackluster,
the view around them was absolutely astonishing. To the north, east
and west they could see the jagged, snow-topped mountains rising up
at the horizon, hiding the clouds as they slowly slid by. To the
south they could see far across the land; almost to the southern
wall. The air was cooler at this altitude, and Rommus breathed it
in eagerly. It was a refreshing change from the muggy heat they had
experienced on the way there.

"Up there," Rommus pointed, "that’s
where I saw the false sunset. Of course it’s too early in the day,
but I know the sun doesn’t set there. It’s sets over there in the
west."

Vohl looked off to the northern
horizon. "Master Rommus, that’s in the direction of the Land of the
Gods. Are you aware of that?"

"Yes I’m aware of it. I don’t think it
means anything though. My beliefs about the gods have not changed,
even if you say you have seen them. As far as I know, you might
have simply thought they were gods when they were nothing more than
clever humans playing a trick."

Vohl laughed. "If you ever meet them,
you will not think it is simply a trick, Master Rommus. You will
know in your heart that what you see is real. Tell me, if you do
not find what you are looking for here in Reyth, will you go to
this false sunset?"

"Yes I’m curious about that too
Rommus," Alana added.

He ran his fingers through his hair.
"I don’t see how I can avoid it. It’s odd but I feel a stronger
pull over there to the southwest. That feeling I have been having
recently is getting stronger, but I still think we should go north.
I really see nothing here that is catching my attention, so it only
makes sense to see what’s beyond those mountains. I didn’t come all
this way just to turn around now."

"Then we will all go to the Land of
the Gods together," Vohl said. "If nothing else, you can at least
say you saw the ruins of the Columns of Inshae. Your father will be
proud of that I think."

He smiled. "It takes a little more to
make him proud, but he’ll enjoy the story anyway. I am actually
curious to see them with my own eyes."

"Well the ruins are not far from here.
We need only travel down this mountain and follow that valley.
There is only one river to cross."

"And I assume we’ll have to pay to
cross the bridge like we did at the River Eloria?" he asked
Alana.

"Well yes, we have to pay to cross any
bridge here."

"Why is that?" Vohl asked her. "I was
wondering what that was about."

"Because the King collects money from
the people in many ways in order to redistribute it to the people
who need it."

"So he makes people pay to cross a
river?" Vohl asked. "The bridge is already built. It does not cost
him anything to maintain it. Don’t you find it a little unfair to
be charged for that?"

Alana cleared her throat. "Well, I
don’t like that I have to pay, but it’s for the good of the
kingdom. There are needy people who benefit from all the
taxes."

Rommus looked at the dirty, bland town
surrounding them. "And are these people paying the taxes or
receiving them? How can you tell who is poor and who is wealthy
here?"

She lowered her eyebrows at him. "I’m
afraid I am not getting your point Rommus."

"My point is, I understand the need
for taxes; our leaders can’t do things without money. They can’t
provide us with protection or paved roads and things like that.
However, when I look around and see that everyone here looks like
they are struggling, I have to wonder how well your King’s system
works.

"Ever since we got here we have been
losing money faster than I can hand it to the next collector. We
have been heavily taxed for everything we have bought, and even for
services we didn’t need. How can your King take so much and provide
so little?"

"We have paved roads and protection
here just like you have in Medora, Rommus."

"I see dirt roads. And I have not seen
a Vindyri soldier since the ones we killed when we got these
horses; not one piece of their black armor. What I am trying to say
is I don’t believe in your system. You cannot punish the productive
and reward the nonproductive. The wealthy, productive people will
soon lose interest in making money if they cannot keep it, and the
lazy will not become productive if you give them money for doing
nothing."

She looked a little annoyed. "Are you
saying that we have no business helping people?"

"No, of course not. Like I said, the
rulers need money. It’s important to understand that we are not
free and safe without a nation to live in. It’s also noble to want
to help people. It is your right to help whoever you choose in
whatever way you choose, however, it is wrong for this to be
demanded of you. You should never be forced to pay to help people.
When people realize that they are responsible for their own
success, that no one is going to hand them food or money, they will
find a way to make things work. That drive can be found in just
about every Medoran, and we are all successful and productive. If
you take away that drive, the people become little more than greedy
children, always clawing for more free things. They feel they are
entitled to things that they did not earn, and that the people who
actually earned them have no right to them at all."

"Rommus I am shocked. I thought that
you were more caring than that," Alana said.

"I’m a little shocked, Alana, that you
think I am uncaring because of that. It should be obvious to you
that I want everyone to succeed, and to do that they need to have a
chance for success. The way of this nation does not allow for that,
and these dirt roads and dilapidated buildings prove it. The only
nice place I have seen here is Burnhamheade, and that is where your
King lives."

"I am not shocked at all Master
Rommus," Vohl said proudly. "You have just described the reasons I
left my people. Our leaders were doing much the same thing, forcing
us all to the same level. No matter how hard someone worked, he
could not make more money than anyone else. This made people stop
and wonder why they should work hard when they could just be lazy
and collect the same pay. I don’t see your views as heartless at
all.

"But we are all influenced by our
cultures. I understand what Alana means. She has grown up in a land
where this is normal, and so it seems right to her. You grew up in
another place, and you believe different things. I have lived long
enough to see many ways come to pass, and I believe that the way of
the Medorans is the better way."

"I don’t think it’s all culture,"
Rommus said. "To think that we are all just part of the group means
that there is no importance for the individual. You can disagree
with things in your culture, and that means that you have a mind of
your own and you can use reason to come to your conclusions. I am
unimpressed when I hear people preaching about the way things
should be when I can tell that they are just reciting things they
have heard in the past. It’s important to think for
yourself."

"Well that much I agree with," Alana
said. "I don’t think anyone wants other people to think for
them."

Vohl turned his head around to Alana
behind him. "I think you’d be surprised at the number of people who
are willing give up that burden Alana."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

After paying the toll at the bridge
they made their way north between the imposing mountains on either
side of them. The massive cliffs rose higher and higher until they
were so high that it seemed impossible for them to stand. Rommus
felt dizzy looking up at them as he tried to make out where the
mountaintops ended and sky began. With the hazy clouds obscuring
the peaks, he just couldn’t tell.

Vohl had said that he thought the
Columns of Inshae were a long way from where they were, so they
decided to set up camp a little earlier than usual so that they
could get an early start the next day. The sun had not even slid
behind the western peaks before they had started a fire and fed
themselves. They were all exhausted so they knew they would sleep
well.

Rommus lay on his side, one hand
supporting his head, the other throwing pebbles in the fire. "When
do you think we’ll get there tomorrow Vohl?"

"Most likely before midday. It won’t
take us that long, but I thought it was a little late to attempt it
this evening. Darkness would come before we arrived. Tomorrow the
cliffs will close in tighter around us and most of the journey will
be in the dark shadow of the mountains; even if the sun shines
brightly."

"That sounds mysterious," Alana said
as she smiled. "I can’t wait to see the ruins. I can’t believe I
have lived here all this time and not come up here to see them. I
just never really thought about it before."

"Well there are a lot of things that
people miss out on because they never thought about it," Vohl said
as he polished his sword in his lap.

Alana stared off as she leaned back
and crossed her feet out in front of her. "Yeah I guess that’s
true. That kind of reminds me about when we were talking about
culture earlier. I think I am just having a hard time seeing it a
different way because I have never had to think about a different
way."

"So have you come to a different
conclusion? You must have had some sort of new light shine on it if
you are bringing it up again," Vohl said.

"I can’t say I have come to a
different conclusion, but I think I just see things differently
than you two do. I see things as gray, when you two see things as
black and white. Rommus always speaks of truth, like finding the
reality beneath it all. I am just not as willing to accept a
permanent answer."

"You mean you are not willing to
accept truth?" Rommus asked.

"Well, I’m sure there is truth out
there somewhere, but I have never found any. Just like with your
explanation for a round world, I just never came to that
conclusion; I never needed to. But the way I see it, you might be
wrong. How do I know that the world isn’t some other shape, and
your whole theory only seems right because I don’t know any better?
I have to allow some gray so that I can accept another theory when
it comes along."

"But Alana, the way you choose to
interpret reality does not change reality," Rommus said. "I am
either right about the round world or I am wrong. There’s your
black and white."

"But Rommus, you don’t see what I am
saying. I just think with gray, not in true and false like you do.
Some things can be argued. Not everything is simple."

"Yes everything is simple
when you build your knowledge on a foundation of truth. You will
never come to any truth if all you see is gray. You can’t paint a
painting with only gray paint and expect people to understand what
you have painted. They will see only a bland, gray canvas. You need
the black and white, the solid, firm things to interpret it,
otherwise your painting--or your reality
¾
is just a mess that
makes no sense."

"Well it makes sense to me. It allows
me to be open to all possibilities instead of limiting
myself."

Vohl flipped his sword over to polish
the other side. "But Alana, that is little more than avoiding
reality. There is no room for fantasy in truth. Rommus is right;
you cannot change reality with your thoughts."

"Oh no? What about when you told us
that man created the gods just by imagining them? Doesn’t that mean
that thoughts can change reality?"

Vohl was too stunned by her comment to
answer, so Rommus did. "Not really. We don’t know that that’s true.
Even if the gods are real, we have no way of knowing if that story
is correct. We are forced to deal with things on a different level.
That fire is hot. This rock is solid. These are real things that we
can build our perceptions on. If there is some strange story about
how the gods were created, we will deal with that reality when it
is presented to us. If we find out that we were wrong in our
beliefs, then we will go back and change things until our beliefs
fit the reality. We can’t simply assume that reality will magically
conform to our beliefs. Thinking that will not make it
true."