Vault of the Ages (16 page)

“And you brought down the anger of the gods!” cried Donn. He pointed at the boys, but it was to the Dalesmen that he shouted. “They went to the City once and entered the taboo circle and brought back a piece of the cursed magic. Our army was beaten at the battle of the river. They went again and dealt with the witches and fiends. The Lann are at our gates and our homes lie waste. People of the Dales, the gods have turned their faces from you The wrath of the gods lies heavy on us, and we have been given into the hands of our enemies!”

“Aye—aye—aye—” The voices rumbled, sullen, hating, the voices of a folk frightened and desperate and looking for a scapegoat. There had been nothing but bad luck. Something must have angered the gods, and the High Doctor was the man who knew their dark will, Fists were shaken and swords began to gleam.

“The blasphemers must die!”

“Yes, yes, yes— Hang them, hang them now
—” It was like a chorus of wolves baying. The mob pressed closer, the fierce blink of lightning gleamed on eyes and bared teeth.

“No!” Ralph’s roar was like the thunder come to earth. His sword flamed suddenly free, and his loyal guards drew their own blades and formed a ring about the boys.

“If they have done a crime,” shouted Ralph, “let them be tried as is the right of all Dalesmen. Are you beasts that would kill on one man’s word? I swore to uphold the law of the Dales, and I’ll do it at sword’s point if I must!”

“Then let them be thrown in prison,” shrilled Donn. “Let the Council judge them tomorrow.”

Ralph’s sword lowered as the crowd fell away. “So be it,” he said wearily. “Let them be jailed, as the law demands “He touched his son’s cheek, briefly and tenderly. “I’m sorry, Carl.”

The boy tried to smile. “It’s all right, Father.”

Ezzef led a squad of guards to take the three friends to jail. The young guardsman was outraged. “If that’s the law,” he cried, “then it’s a duty to break it!” He lowered his voice. “If you fellows want to make a dash for freedom, I don’t think any of us could, uh, grab you in time.”

“A dash to the Lann? No, thanks!” Carl grimaced. “Anyway, I
want a chance to plead my case before the Council. I’m going to try and get that stupid taboo lifted.”

“I’ll spread the word,” said Ezzef. “There’ve been rumors about your last expedition to the City. A lot of us younger men think you’re probably right. At least, that you ought to get a fair hearing. We’ll all be at the meeting tomorrow.” His face darkened. “And if everything goes against you, if you really are sentenced to swing, we’ll see what can be done about rescuing you. Nor do I think your father is so inhumanly upright that he wouldn’t give us a hand in that case!”

“We’ll see.” Carl’s voice was flat with weariness. “Right now I just want to sleep.”

The jail was a small, solid building near the great market square. It was watched over by a middle-aged guard and his wife, who were themselves indignant at seeing three boys facing death after having fought for the tribe that threatened them now. They prepared baths and supper, and locked the prisoners into a small clean cell of their own. The other rooms were crowded with men serving short terms for the brawling that was unavoidable in the over-full town.

When the door closed behind him, Owl yawned and stretched and broke into a chuckle. “First the witches jug us, then the Dalesmen,” he said. “And in between, we were held by the Lann. I guess we just aren’t popular.”

“Who cares?” Tom’s voice was blurred with sleep, and he stumbled almost blindly for one of the straw ticks on the floor.

Carl stood for a moment looking out of the small, iron-barred window. The rain was still falling heavily, the street was running with water and muck, the town lay dark beyond. Yes, he thought wearily, yes, his was a strange destiny. He seemed to be an outcast everywhere in the world because he bore a mystery in his heart.

Well—tomorrow— He slept.

That night the Lann army marched its last lap. Dalesmen saw burning houses red against the horizon and heard the tramping of thousands of feet and hoofs, the clinking of metal and the guttural voices of men. When the dawn mists lifted, they saw a ring of steel about their walls, campfires burning, horses staked out in grain-fields, and the savage myriads of Lann prowling around the defense.

The last stronghold was besieged.

U
NDER
the law of the Dales, every tribesman was a member of the Council and could attend its meetings on summons of the Chief if he chose, to help make new laws and reach important decisions. The Council was also the highest court, though ordinary trials were given over to a jury of elders. But this was to be no common proceeding, and the criers and drums of the meeting had been calling since dawn.

Some warriors had to stand guard in the towers and watch the encircling Lann, and as always, there were men who would not trouble themselves to attend a Council even when they were able. But rumor had been flying throughout the night and the morning. By noon the Hall was full.

Ralph mounted the stage at its northern end with a slow, grave step. He was clad in black, with a white mantle hanging from his shoulders and the golden-hilted sword of justice at his side. After him came Donn, leaning on the arm of a young Doctor, and then the elders of the tribe. They took their seats and waited.

Carl and his friends were led by an armored guard onto the stage and found chairs there. The buzz of voices grew almost to a roar. For a moment Carl was afraid. He saw the hundreds upon hundreds of eyes all staring at him, and it was worse than the spears of the Lann. Then a single deep voice shouted above the noise—“Give it
to ’em, lads! You’ve done well!” Courage returned and he sat down, folding his arms and looking stiffly ahead.

He knew the Hall from many past times, but he studied it now as if he were a stranger. The great building was one huge room, its rafters high, high above the men who surged and chattered below. From those rafters hung the ancient banners of the Dalesmen—that ragged flag had been carried by Valthor the Victorious, that dusty standard had lifted over the stricken field of Seven Rivers. The glories of the past stirred and rustled in their dreams. The walls were paneled in carved wood, gods and heroes and animals caught in a rich glow of polished oak. The wooden pillars that marched down the length of the Hall on either side were graven with leaves and fruits from the Tree of Life. Tapestries of the finest weave draped the windows, through which sunlight and air came streaming to the shadowy cavern of the chamber. From the stage to the door, the Hall was filled with benches, and now they were packed and crowded with men, the overflow standing in the aisles and beyond the entrance. Each man was armed, since there might be an alarm at any moment, and the sheen of metal was fierce in that hot, restless half-light.

Sweeping his eyes over the Hall, Carl saw that he was not without supporters. John the farmer sat strickenly in the front row. Near by was a solid bloc of young men who had apparently come in a body; Ezzef waved at Carl from that section. And there were others, old family friends, comrades of game and chase, whose looks were sympathetic.

The boy tried to relax. He was bathed, fed and rested. His wounds were bandaged, and Ralph had sent clean garments for him and his companions. He could do nothing just now. But excitement thrummed high in him; he strained and quivered with it. This was more than his own life. Perhaps the future of the world would be settled today.

A gong boomed, once, twice, thrice. Slowly the talk died away and was replaced by a breathless, waiting silence.

Ralph and Donn went through the old ritual of opening a Council. They avoided each other’s eyes. Then the Chief stepped forth. His tones rang deep and clear.

“I am supposed to preside over this, as all meetings,” he said. “But a judge may not take sides, and I think you all know that my own feelings are too deeply caught here. Therefore, I shall turn the
Council over to Wellan, chief of the elders, and speak only as a tribesman.” He unbuckled the sword of justice and handed it gravely to the white-headed old man seated at his right.

Owl hissed furiously, “He’s betraying us! As Chief, he could at least swing things to save our lives. He’s too law-abiding!”

“No, you fool,” muttered Tom. “This way is better. As Chief he could not even try to change whatever is going to happen, or people would know and howl him down. Under the law, he has no power to do more than preside. But as a tribesman, he can speak freely—and people will still know he’s the real Chief and listen more closely to him than to others.” He smiled. “Carl, your father may be upright, but he’s not stupid either!”

“We are met to try three for breaking taboo,” came old Wellan’s reedy voice. “I am told that this is also a meeting to decide if the taboo is not to be lifted. Let the accuser speak.”

Donn rose to his feet and walked to the front of the stage. His eyes smoldered over the Council, and when he spoke it was slowly and sorrowfully.

“This is a heavy thing for me,” he began. “I must turn on a family whose members have been my lifelong friends and helpers. I must call for the death of three promising youths who sought only to aid their tribe in this terrible war. The hand of the gods lies grimly on me.

“But a Doctor’s path is stern. He is sworn to forget not only himself, but all others, in serving the gods and the tribe. I have myself, in my younger days, closed my ears to the screaming of poor children from whom I pulled an infected tooth or cut a devouring growth. Yet afterward they lived because of what I had done, and thanked me for it. Now I must again hurt that I may heal. But this time the sickness is deeper. It is a sickness of the spirit, and the wrath of heaven lies on us because of it.”

He went on to describe the first visit of the boys and the trophy they had brought back—and how he had destroyed the thing with many purifying rites and hoped that the curse had been taken off. But apparently it had not, for the brave and wisely led army of the Dales had been routed by a smaller force of enemies—enemies who now held the entire land in their grip and had penned the tribe in its walls like cattle in a corral. Yet some devil must still have lurked in these boys, for they had stolen away again to the forbidden City, and had dealt with the witch-folk, and returned to preach openly the
breaking of taboo. And what ruin might not come of that second insolence toward heaven? The gods might visit all the folk with plague; or they might let them die in here of slow hunger; or they might aid the Lann to break through and butcher the people and set the town ablaze.

No, the tribe had to disown these mad boys who had thus broken the laws of the wise ancients. It had to appease heaven with the greatest sacrifice of all: human life taken according to law. “And thereafter,” finished Donn, “the gods may take pity on us and grant us the victory. But I will weep alone in darkness.”

He turned slowly back to his chair and sat down again. His hands trembled. The Hall buzzed and mumbled until Wellan had the gong sounded again. Then the old man called, “Let the accused speak.”

Carl got up. “We have decided that I will speak for all three of us,” he said, striving for quietness and dignity. He put his hands on his hips and stood looking over the assembly for a moment.

“I am not one to argue logic and religion with the wise Donn,” he went on. “However, I should like to make one or two points now, in answer to the questions just raised.

“First, it is said that we suffered our defeat at the hands of the Lann because of this visit to the City where I obtained the cold light. May I point out that we three were not the first to enter the taboo circle. It had often been done before, even if no one stayed very long. Furthermore, we did so under press of mortal danger, and the law of the Dales permits a man to save his life in any way necessary. Moreover, the first disaster to us, the Lann invasion of the northern marches, the defeat of the gathered men there, and the sack of all that territory, happened
before
we took this light away. So how could it be due to the anger of the gods? Surely they are not so unjust as to punish a deed before it is done—or, for that matter, to visit the sins of three heedless boys on a whole tribe.”

He looked at his father. “Sir, you led the army. Do you think our defeat was due to divine anger?”

Ralph stood up. “I do not,” he said flatly. “We were beaten because the Lann had a better army. More cavalry, not more virtue. Also, we cut our way out of their trap and escaped with fewer losses than even I had hoped for. Offhand, I should think the gods took pity on us, rather than vengeance.” He sat down again.

“As for the second trip to the City,” went on Carl, “again, you and your families fleeing here, and the Lann sweeping through the
Dales, happened before the crime which is supposed to have caused them. In short, O Council, I think common sense shows that whether or not anyone goes to the City has nothing to do with whether or not we win our battles. Except in this way: that by the power of the ancients which is hidden away there, we can find our victory! Let me now tell you the full story of these two visits and you shall judge for yourselves whether we did right or not.”

He gave them the tale, speaking in the plain words that he knew these earthy farmers and workmen liked. He dwelt on the great good spirit which had created the time vault in the hope that men would find it and use it well, and he told them a few things the ancients had undoubtedly been able to do. He finished simply: “Thus I ask the Council, which makes all laws, to raise the taboo on the old works. It was born of fear and ignorance; let us be bold and wise. Let us send our army forth from these walls, to drive through the Lann ring and capture that vault. Let us learn from it—first, some simple way to defeat our present foes—then, how to rebuild that glorious lost world. That is all.”

He sat down, and the assembly chamber muttered and seethed with voices. Men stirred restlessly, talking to their neighbors, turning this new thought over in slow minds. Someone stood up and screamed for the instant death of the blasphemers, but was shut up by an armed guard. The tone that grew slowly out of the noise was confused: many were frightened and hostile and wanted a hanging, many were simply bewildered, a few cried for the release of the prisoners and the changing of the law.