The Tower of Il Serrohe (20 page)

“
In Teresa’s mind, a minor war was being fought. On one hand, she was desperate to return to her own valley and pretend this was just a dream. After all, she usually came here at night, returning home before dawn. This time, she had spent several days and nights here without interruption.

“
On the other hand, because she had antagonized the Soreyes over the Drowning Plague, she needed to figure out how to calm the situation. As they left the bosque of Dream River, they passed through the
Taurimin,
Kastmin,
and
Càhbahmin
villages to make sure the returning ‘slaves’ had come back to their worried families. Lastly, the three went by Nohome to see how preparations for the inevitable war were going.

“
It was a classic Valle Abajo reaction. The
Taurimin and
Kastmin
tried not to think about it except for a few extra chants for peace at evening rituals and perhaps lay in a few extra stores of preserved food. A few ‘fanatics’ such as the Nohmin and some of the younger
Càhbahmin
were trying without much success to get everyone else interested in building barricades around the villages so the Soreyes couldn’t simply wade into town and take over.

“
The Nohmin made sure their double entrances would not allow a Soreye or a Soreye spear to reach the inner rooms of Nohome. Other than that, they went about their normal business.

“
Other more isolated clans had not been heard from since their representatives returned after the ‘war council’ a few days earlier. No doubt they were normally wary of attack since they were mostly hunting societies, which were always ready for a fight.

“
Even at Piralltah Steeples, although some prepared for battle, there was more interest in starting a new group of healing arts initiates than there was in further safeguarding the narrow approaches to the village.

“‘
Why did we bother sneaking into the Soreye village to see what they’re doing with that tower when the rest of the valley has forgotten their fear of war?’ Teresa raged.

“
Pia and Pita looked at her with tolerance. ‘Teresa, you must understand. The people of this valley don’t think of the future unless it continues to stare them in the face. The five young men who were temporarily slaves have created about as much interest as you’re going to see until Soreyes start coming down off the mesa killing or taking slaves.’

“‘
OK, so this is my first time and I’m taking this too seriously.’

“‘
Oh no, Teresa, you aren’t taking this
too
seriously. If you weren’t, then there
would
be disastrous results.’

“‘
Maybe the Valle needs a lesson, and I should stand aside and let them learn it the hard way.’

“‘
That is tempting. When we go to heal someone who has been careless or neglected good health practices, it is tempting to refuse to tell them off for the umpteenth time and then not return when they call for help
again
. But we prefer to be compassionate and accept the people as they are.’

“‘
I suppose people where I come from aren’t much different,’ Teresa admitted. “In fact, when it comes to war, maybe we’re too anxious to get ready for it instead of ignoring it. Maybe you have fewer wars here because you don’t take it as seriously—in spite of ones like the Soreyes.’

“‘
Perhaps that’s only true of this valley,’ sighed Pita. ‘Not really knowing anything about the rest of the world, we can’t say.’

“‘
You know, someday, I’d like to travel and find out more about this world of yours.’

“
Pia and Pita were momentarily horror-struck before realizing that travel was probably more normal in Teresa’s world. She would learn with time.

“‘
Sisters, it is well past time I return to my valley. I, um, have a brother who must be very worried about me.’ With that she gathered herself up, and hugged her sisters so tightly they nearly cried out in pain.

“
She started down the trail to the Portal. The rhythm of her pace let Teresa continue mulling over the situation. She reviewed what she had learned about the bats, the Portal, the clanspeople and…

“
Then out of the darkness a thought hit her in its totality.

“
She started to run down to the Portal as ideas swirled like storms in her head. And, in the pit of her stomach, the dread of facing her brother gnawed at her.”

thirty eight

In spite of his continuing discomfort confined in the Nohmin underground home and his interest in Nersite’s story, Don fell asleep. Nersite noticed his deep, regular breathing and, being tired himself, welcomed the break. Telling the story had made his head hurt because it had so many elements and words he didn’t fully understand.

He drank hot bark tea with an extra dollop of honey to ease his scratchy throat and curled up on his sleeping pad. In moments the odd companions shared a dreamless sleep.

Nersite roused himself the following morning. He stoked his fire, dropping a couple of the smallest coals into his censer, added fresh roasted piñon nut to intensify his signascent, and set hot water for tea on the enlivened coals.

Nudging Don gently, he said, “Time to get up. Morning is here and it’s probably safe for you to go outside.”

Don slowly felt a thousand aches and pains attack the nerve endings in his back, shoulders, and neck. For a moment, he thought he was back in Albuquerque and half expected to see Bess’s rounded form in the bed next to him.

Instead, there, peering at him with beady eyes, was a diminutive young man with short brown hair, small ears, and slightly runny nose, dressed in brown fabric like a medieval peasant.

“
Damn! What the hell—? Where am I? Oh yeah.
You.
I thought I was waking up, but this stupid nightmare is obviously continuing.”

He looked forlornly around the tight confines of Nersite’s home. “And I’m still
in this
rat hole!”

Nersite looked puzzled since he didn’t know what Don meant by “rat.”

“
No, Don, this is a Nohmin
hole,
as you call it. Consider yourself safe, if not too comfortable.”

Don hugged himself, squeezing his eyes shut and willing himself to fight down the claustrophobia. “Yeah, fine, whatever, asshole.” When he opened his eyes, he seemed to have gathered his sanity in a ball and held on to it for dear life.

“
I realize I made a vow to myself, but I’ve got a strong urge for a beer. Have any available?”

“
Beer?” Nersite asked. “What’s that?”

“
It’s an alcoholic drink. Maybe you have another name for it. You take wheat, barley, or some other grain, brew it up, let it ferment—or sit around for a couple of weeks—and it gets a shit-ass kick to it. Makes you feel good to drink it. Even wine, made with grapes or some kind of fruit would do, though I’m basically a beer guy.”

Nersite thought long and hard. “I think the Soreyes have something like that. We drink water, eat grapes and other fruits from the
Taurimin
when they’re in season, but nothing like that. It makes you feel good? How?”

“
Oh, just sort of fucking mellow. Sometimes it makes you a little shitfaced, in a party mood. Some people get nasty and mean. Me, I get talkative, horny, and then I fall asleep.” He laughed nostalgically. “I’m not sure why it is so important to me because no one gives a shit what I have to say, women aren’t real anxious to hop in bed with me—my wife particularly—and when I’ve put in a hard day teaching and grading God-awful papers, I can fall asleep before 8 o’clock in front of the TV.”

“
In front of the what?”

“
Never mind, it’s hard enough trying to explain beer to you. Just forget it. I’m fucking out of the mood now.”

“
You keep using a lot of words I don’t know: ‘rat,’ ‘asshole,’ ‘shit,’ ‘shit-ass,’ and ‘fucking.’ What do you mean by all that?”

Don laughed. “You’re a little Puritan, are you? Those are curse words.”

“
Who are you cursing? Only the
Crotalmin and Soreyes make us suffer when we don’t deserve it. Even the Crotalmin don’t really mean it in a cruel way; they just want to eat us. The
Loopohmin
and
Linksmin want to eat us, too. They’re only trying to survive. But the Soreyes want to be mean and use us for slaves.”

“
Geeze, your life’s lots of fun! Surrounded by cannibals. Anyway, I use those words to show that—’ Don paused to think about it, looking confused. “I donno. That I’m just pissed about a lot of things. Well, see ‘piss’ and ‘shit’ refer to what you eliminate when you urinate and defecate. You know, pee and poop.”

“
I know what those are,” Nersite said with enthusiasm. “I can understand those being ways of expressing something bad because they smell pretty bad, especially poop. Of course poop is a great way to identify who has passed by recently, too. But still, why would you curse someone…?”

“
I’m not actually cursing someone. Now take the word ‘fuck’ and all its forms. It’s an all-purpose word that shows you’re
really
pissed about something. Originally, it referred to making love, you know, mating between a man and a woman.”

“
Why do you use a word that’s about creating life and showing affection and bonding between the sexes as a curse? What an ugly way to use that word. Isn’t it supposed to be a good thing?”

“
Well, it is, but some people, particularly in the Anglo Saxon cultures… uh, never mind I don’t want to explain
that
right now. Just know that we get a little screwed up in our thinking and label beautiful things in an ugly way just to show how much despair we suffer.”

Nersite still looked puzzled. “I don’t think I’d like to visit your valley. Your language is very negative. Here we eat, rest in our holes, sleep, and enjoy life, except, of course, when we deal with the Soreyes—”

“—
Or avoiding being someone’s lunch. Anyway, it’s a good idea avoiding my valley, unless you have a lot of beer on hand. And I’ll try to watch my language around you, out of respect.”

Don started to sit up when Nersite offered him a fresh cup of hot tea. He sipped it slowly then looked at Nersite. “Wait a minute! Before all this philosophical bullshit… uh, sorry… Did you say I could go outside?”

Nersite looked miffed. “Well, yes. The danger is past. The Soreyes have better goats to grill this morning—”

Don stood up too fast and rammed his head into the glassed dirt of Nersite’s ceiling. “Shit! Show me how to get out of here, right now!”

Nersite nodded without enthusiasm and motioned for Don to follow. So much for Don cleaning up his ‘language.’

They wound their way through an interminable series of narrow little tunnels forcing Don to crawl at times.

“
Damn. Damn. Damn,” he cursed under his breath, trying to hang on to his little ball of sanity.

Finally, they emerged into the clear air of a glorious morning. Not a Soreye to be seen. The barren open land was slightly marred by tufts of buffalo grass and spindly, young cottonwood trees near several Nohmin entrances. About a dozen other Nohmin were already out, scurrying about gathering dry branches to supplement their coal fires.

Suddenly, Don was magnanimous. “Now this is a nice morning, even if it is a hallucination. I just didn’t know I had been drinking
so
much. Sonuvabitch!”

He looked at Nersite and saw he was still miffed. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to insult you and your hospitality. Obviously, I now understand why the Soreyes are a problem. But how did you finally deal with them while you were trapped down in that hole under the big tree.”

Nersite recovered his equilibrium. “Well, Teresa had this really great—”

“
No, not her. You can tell me the rest of that later. What about you, Narknose, and Niddle-ai? Before you went off about Teresa-whoever-she-is.”

thirty nine

“
Oh. OK,” Nersite said. “Scarflue, our captive Soreye, came around after being in a trance or delirium for hours. When we briefly recounted Teresa’s story, he wasn’t impressed since
their side
of the story depicted her as a mutated Pirallt-looking pest who conveniently disappeared when the going got tough, much to the Soreyes’ delight.

“
Scarflue reminded us we needed to get help or somehow escape our besieged Nohome. More importantly, he indicated our only real hope was to destroy the Tower of Il Serrohe.

“‘
Why would
you
want us to bring down the Tower?’ Narknose asked incredulously. He turned to Niddle-ai and me. ‘I smell a trap here. Fool us once, but not again!’