Menkal

From CleanPosts

MENKAL

Exiler landed just outside of the capital city of Akamar. The landing would not have been visible from the castle itself, but it was such a sin- gular event, even King Stronghammer hastened outside of the city to witness the landfall.

Never before had any of the gods permitted an Imperial warship to reach the surface of the Land We Know intact, though some casualties of war, mostly fighters or bombers trying to limp home after a battle, had splashed into Thalury or the upper sea in the east, or crashed into the inhabited waste- lands far to the north or south of the settled kingdoms.

Exiler landed in a spectacular show of light and noise and steam that thrilled everyone who saw it, and made the babies cry. When Peli saw it, it was very close to the flying "engines of war" in her dream, just as her parent said it would be, but Exiler was far larger than the machines in her dream, for it carried many people rather than just one.

The landing was also marked by three yang who openly were servants of the King, but secretly were spies reporting directly to Belial, and they noted the event with interest because it seemed to them that one of Belial's own warships landing in Menkal, which was Binah's land, was certainly was not authorized by Belial himself. But they would watch for now and see what developed.

The King scurried back to his castle with Peli before the first crew-mem- bers began to emerge from Exiler. He wanted give the impression (to his own people) of majesty, as though he saw this sort of thing every day. But the King himself was impressed by the majesty of Exiler, rather, which landed with a load roar and a deep bass throb that shook hez very bones.

About two hours after the arrival of Exiler, all was ready, and the crew and passengers paraded into the castle of King Stronghammer while an im- penetrable circle of his best troops protected the ship where it sat out- side the city walls.

The first to approach the throne was Lahatiel with hyz wife. They bowed deeply, until the King told them to rise and give their names.

"Your Highness, I am Commodore Lahatiel Gerash of the Imperial Navy of Gor- pai, commanding the frigate Exiler. I come before you with my sister-wife Noriel."

Welcome to the Kingdom of Menkal, Commodore," Brogan Stronghammer said. "Your quest is already known to me, and Lady Ariel has already convinced me to give you the aid you seek. You need not plead your case before me. Noth- ing need be said. There are many ears in my house, and somewhat you have to tell might not bear repeating."

Young Peli, who now sat at the King's feet to right, looked at hem quizzi- cally and hoped che was not referring to her.

"My thanks to you, Your Highness, Lahatiel said. Some of my officers are also traveling with their families, and some of these family members will need to stay here in the sanctuary you have so generously agreed to extend. Seven of my wives I have released from their bonds, and they have found new homes far from the reach of Gorpai. My sister-wife will remain with me. I now call forth three of my officers who like myself will not require your generous aid."

Lilith, Kushiel, and Rogziel stepped forward a few paces and dropped to one knee. The Commodore waved Lilith forward, and she approached the King to bow before him next to where Commodore Lahatiel was standing.

The King bade her to rise. She said, "Your Highness, I am General Lilith Gervasi of the Women's Democratic Forum based out of Luna. Also I am a re- tired major in the Greater Israel Defense Force, of Earth."

King Stronghammer welcomed her, and turned to the Commodore to say, "I see that things have become serious indeed, if you now have Bravo in your arse- nal."

Bravo! Lilith shook her head in amazement that she was famous even here in the Land We Know. Then again, she knew Robyn, Hunky, and Dory had been here a number of times before, and probably spread around a few stories of their own.

The King said, "You are far too modest, Lady Lilith, when you call yourself just a 'major' or a 'general'. For you are also the wife of Round Robyn, the human woman who exists in eternal hypostatic union with our deity, the elohim called Binah. For that alone you have a stature in Menkal that ex- ceeds even my own! It is I, rather, who needs bow to you."

"The King is very kind," she replied, while not actually agreeing with hem. "As the Commodore indicated to you just now, I do not have a dependent to leave in your care, but part of the quest of Exiler is to restore Binah-Who-Is-Robyn to life. We have been rudderless these last seven years. If we succeed in our quest then I would come here again, together with my wife, and it will be a time of the peace which follows victory, and not this present gloom under gathering clouds of war."

"The gods let it be so," the King said. Lilith bowed again, and backed her way to the previous position where Kushiel and Rogziel waited.

Then Major Rogziel came forward to repeat the ritual of veneration he had seen Lilith do and identified himself as the closest advisor to Emperor Azibeel Gerash. He also had no dependents to leave with the King, but much more important was his news that Emperor Azibeel Gerash was now dead and Thammuz hyz son had seceded him.

This was sufficiently shocking and unexpected that one of Belial's spies in the king's household drew a gasp of air, and a second was even moved to blurt out, "You lie!"

King Stronghammer whispered something to the Captain of the Guard standing beside the throne, and those two servants were seized to be vigorously questioned later.

The third Eye of Belial who was present in the King's court, a yang named Arioch, had sufficient wisdom and self-control to conceal hyz reaction, for hy deemed it a greater good to take a report of this audience to Belial himself, whether he be in the flesh of Azibeel as was last known, or not as this Major Rogziel now reported. Arioch knew he needed to be discreet but he also saw the necessity to move quickly. The two fools he called his companions would soon be placed under questioning, and they would probably give up Arioch's name as a co-conspirator as soon as they saw the terrible instruments of pain, let alone after they were employed for a day or two.

The King obtained from Rogziel a detailed report of the single combat that ensued between Azibeel and Hunky on Luna after the Emperor's raiding force was steadily cut down to just himself and a few men, and many in the King's court listened with rapt attention.

At length Brogan Stronghammer said, "Something is amiss, because I know of a certainty the gods have decreed human and nephilim should only come to- gether here in the Land We Know, where all the elohim can keep an eye on them, but in the other worlds they must remain separate, with only a few exceptions such as ambassadors and the like."

"Yes, Sire," Rogziel said. "The King knows whatever trouble is brewing now, it was Emperor Azibeel who lit the fuse with hyz raid on the Women's Demo- cratic Forum. The WDF have a sharp sting, but they are also ready to talk. Azibeel's son Thammuz is not yet even fully yang, but even hy can surely see that war will come if he lets it come."

"Then let us pray Thammuz is wise beyond hyz years and it does not come to war."

"A sentiment all people of good will share with you, Sire, be they nephi- lim, human, or jen."

Then Major Rogziel was dismissed, and hy walked backwards to where Lilith and Kushiel were kneeling, and there hy knelt again.

Peli had listened with amazement when Rogziel spoke of the invasion of Luna and the personal combat between Emperor Azibeel and Hunky of the WDF. Very little she knew of any of the worlds beyond the Land We Know. It was as though she were eavesdropping on angels speaking of war in heaven.

Now Kushiel drew forward, and with him came his two wives. He said, "Your Highness, I am Sergeant Kushiel of the House of Bellon, and I serve as the engineer aboard Exiler. With me also are my wives Adriel and Neriah."

"And you do not wish to leave them here, where they will be safe?"

"Sire, no. The Commodore has allocated only five slots for dependents to stay aboard Exiler, and I found it impossible to choose between Adriel and Neriah, for I love both of them equally and dearly. Lieutenant Adnarel was kind enough to offer one of her dependent-slots to me so I could bring both. Otherwise I believe I would have declined the mission."

The King said, "If they are willing to share the danger, and you their hus- band are willing to put them in danger, I see no intractable objection, but what will untrained yen do on your vessel? It could be a very long voyage."

"Sire they will serve with me in all the engineering and storage spaces of the ship, and I will teach them as much as they can accept."

The King raised an eyebrow and looked at Lahatiel, who said, "We had not discussed this, Sire, but it seems reasonable. I have forbidden any of our dependents to come forward to the bridge, even my own wife. Were I also to forbid them access to the greater part of the ship which is Kushiel's re- sponsibility, Exiler would rapidly come to seem a prison to them, and such was not my intention."

"Then may all the gods smile on you and yours, Sergeant Kushiel. Serve the Commodore well with the gifts you have been given."

"Thank you, Sire," Kushiel said, and he returned to his place with his wives.

Lahatiel said, "And now, Your Highness, by your leave, I will call forth those members of my crew who need to avail themselves of your generous hos- pitality."

"Let them come forth, Commodore."

At the Commodore's gesture Suriel stepped forward with the four women who were her responsibility to support. "Greetings, Your Highness, I am Major Suriel of the House of Larund, the Operations Officer aboard Exiler. My duty is to interpret all the sensor data and also work the communications of the ship. I am what you call here in the Land We Know a bliss, and these are my wives."

Suriel called their names slowly, and they rose one by one as their name was spoken. "Sire, this is Orifiel my bliss lover. . . Camael my sis- ter. . .Auriel . . . Ezeqeel, who are two other wives I support. Only Ori- fiel will accompany me on the mission, Your Majesty. The others I beg to place in your keeping until we return victorious."

"They shall be safer here in my house than any other place in the Land We Know," the King assured har. "Lady Ariel knew that well when sha asked me to accommodate them. Make your farewells to them now, Major, and I will have my servants show them to their chambers right away."

"Thank you Sire!"

There was a flurry of hugs, kisses and tears, then Camael, Auriel and Eze- queel were parted from Suriel and Orifiel, but there was also joyful hope they would all meet again someday. Above all Suriel was grateful to the King for his hospitality, for now she could concentrate on serving the Com- modore without thinking of the safety of her wives in the face of Belial's retribution, which would be sure to come otherwise.

When Barakiel Antero came forward with his merry lover Peniel, and intro- duced to the King the civilian merry couple he supported, Sachiel and Ge- dael (all of them registered as his wives), he was astonished to find not the slightest hint of reproach in the eyes of King Brogan. For this, after all, was the Land We Know, which had five different genders and twenty- three sexual preferences, and the King hemself wasn't even the same species as the human women he took to wife.

Instead, the King laughed long at the story of Barakiel's clever deception that turned the very Law of Belial against itself, and he was particularly interested to learn Barakiel was not the first to do this by any means. It was a rather widespread practice, che learned, but merry yang were practi- cally invisible in the hyper-masculine competitive warrior society of Gor- pai that traditionally considered females as little more than markers de- noting success in the Great Game.

At the command of the King, a place in the castle was found for Sachiel and Gedael, and also for Barakiel's sister Anafiel, but Barakiel told the King that hyz beloved Peniel would remain with hym aboard the ship.

Finally Adnarel came forward with her five women, but they walked too fast, and came too close, and didn't stop six abreast as they were supposed to do, but each one bowed at a different time and position, then realized they made a mistake and scooted around some more, and bowed again. Adnarel seemed very nervous, and began to stammer, and sha couldn't remember how sha was supposed to begin.

All-in-all, it was quite a debacle, but when it had gone on long enough Adnarel thought, Who am I kidding?

So Adnarel stood up, regaining her pride, and addressed the King from her heart, as though they were long friends. "King, they said I could leave my mother and my four so-called wives with you to be safe, and for that you have my thanks and more respect than I could ever show with any amount of bowing and genuflection."

The King was shocked to silence. He turned to the Commodore. "Who...who is this?"

"This is Lieutenant Adnarel of the House of Sala, Your Highness. Sha's my weapons officer, and as the King has discerned, sha's also what the humans of Earth call a 'straight shooter.'"

The King smiled, and said, "Yet I like har very much, for precisely that reason." Che stepped down from his throne high on a stepped dais and ap- proached Adnarel. The King being a jen, and she being a pure yin, Adnarel was a full head taller than hem, but now the King wanted to convey that they were on a level.

Che said, "Adnarel, I think you sense that time is too short for us to en- gage in this nonsense, and it's true. From the moment Exiler set down out- side the city a clock has been ticking. Please introduce me to your loved ones and I will find a home for all of them."

"Thank you, King! This is my mother Ananchiel . . .and this is Nahaliel . . . Sariel . . .Zotiel . . . and Gidaijal. We are probably going into combat and I am not afraid for my own life and limb but unlike my fel- low officers I am not willing to put any of my loved ones in danger aboard the ship. So please, King, allow them to stay with you."

And just as he promised to do, the King clapped his hands, and servants came forth to take the five women who relied on Adnarel to their new homes inside the castle.

When all this was done, Brogan Stronghammer turned again to Lahatiel. And now, Commodore, before you resume your quest, is there anything else I can give you from the bounty the gods have so richly bestowed upon us here in Menkal?

Yes, Sire. If it pleases you, we need water. Not for ourselves, Your High- ness! A great deal of water for the ship, because we ran down the tanks a considerable amount in the flight halfway across the Land We Know and espe- cially by landing here. Normally only Exiler Sidekick, our lander, makes planetfall. Sire, I realize your city is not outfitted properly to support a warship of Gorpai, but if you can command your servants to bring many wagons with water near to Exiler, I believe Kushiel can solve the problem of actually getting it into our vessel.

This was done with unexpected dispatch, and by sunset Exiler was aloft again, flying due west over the open ocean. But now she carried only twelve personnel aboard, the five crew, their five dependents, plus Lilith and Rogziel.

After Exiler departed, the interrogation of the two spies who gave them- selves away rapidly yielded the name of a third: Arioch. His name and face were well-known to the servants of the house of King Stronghammer, but now Arioch was nowhere to be found.

The King knew the crew of Exiler was in rebellion, and che knew the success of their quest relied on that fact going undetected for as long as possi- ble. Therefore the King, by an emergency edict, locked his whole kingdom down tight for a ten-day. No ships were permitted to leave port during that time, and no persons were allowed to transit the gates in the Wall of Menkal. Far in the north where the Wall failed the King stationed a human wall of many troops.

But none of these precautions were perfectly airtight. Arioch had several other identities hy could use, and hy was an expert at disguise. That very evening hy departed Akamar disguised as a low-ranking Menkal soldier and yealong thehentirepborderswithdAlodraaandnNath. mighty Wall that la

In the dead of night when hy found a brief moment alone, Arioch lowered himself from the Wall by an elastic rope made from certain vines that grew on Gorpai, and when hy reached the shore of Thalury at the foot of the bar- rier, he cut the rope, so that it snapped back to a much shorter length that draped over the other side of the Wall. When it was found by guards shortly thereafter they would assume by how it lay that it was an old rope for the general use of their own army and not a recent breach in security.

Then, covered by hyz black robe and moving only by the dark of night, Arioch crept slowly to the southeast along the shore at the base of the Wall of Menkal under the eyes of alert sentries who often loosed arrows in trial shots at any movement they thought they saw down there. Sometimes there was damned little beach to walk on.

The waves of Thalury never ceased to chew at the sand, and the water came right up to the sheer face of the Wall every mile or two, forcing Arioch to wade or swim for a short distance, and that made his going all that much slower and more miserable.

In the middle of the afternoon on the following day, Exiler was still fly- ing over Thalury, but now they were drawing near to the edge of the ocean. Lilith went all the way aft and crawled into the inverted Exiler Sidekick so she could look through the lander's viewport at the puffy little clouds and tiny wind-driven whitecaps on the sea far below drifting slowly back- wards.

Major Rogziel also entered the lander then, for hy had adopted it as his stateroom for the brief time he would be traveling with the others.

When Lilith saw hym she smiled and said, "I hope you don't mind, Major. I wanted to look outside, but I didn't want to get in the way up on the bridge."

"I don't mind at all," hy assured her. "We'll be at the edge of the bubble in less than a quarter of an hour. In an instant after that you will see Gorpai and the moon Palato where the ID Grid is located. And that is where I will leave your company."

Lilith nodded, but she continued to stare out the viewport and didn't say a word, for she was deep in thought. The silence was uncomfortable, and Rog- ziel was curious about something, so hy said, I wonder why you never came to the Land We Know before this. After all, you are the wife of one of the elohim who created it and rules here.

She turned to him and weighed her answer for a moment before speaking. "I think I never wanted to know it was all true. I am, or rather I should say I was a religious Jew. El is the God of my people. In our tradition God is the transcendent author of all creation, and even his name is written as four Hebrew characters, Y-H-W-H, that defy pronunciation, lest the Creator be hamstrung by the very sound of his name. Now I find out that he really is essentially just an alien being, a little ahead of human beings but not infinitely so, and he is literally the child of my own wife, which makes the God I worshiped for more than one lifetime my own stepson!"

"I can how see that would disturb you greatly," Rogziel told her. "But I have read a translation of your scriptures, and I remember a place, I think in Psalm 82, where Yahweh says, 'I declare, Gods though you be, offspring of the Most High all of you, yet like any mortal you shall die, like any prince you shall fall.' So perhaps your rabbis have leaped ahead a bit too far and too early in their theology. Do you not think that in the end El will prevail after all, and your monotheism will then match reality?"

"That oracle in the Psalms would bring me great solace," Lilith replied, "were I not embarked on a desperate mission to save Yahweh himself from dy- ing!"

"People have been saying God is dead' for a long time, General Gervasi, and not just in your world. One hundred years ago King Ravenmaster of Nath was put to death, and the Temple of Yahweh was razed to the ground. It was the time of the Revolution in Nath when the Republic was born, and many of the laws established by Yahweh here in the Land We Know were overthrown. The people celebrated by exchanging gifts, and said, 'God is dead: We have killed him.' And they sought a way to prove this pronouncement of death to others in the Land We Know, but perhaps more so to assure themselves.

"Now from the beginning of days the elohim commanded all ship-masters never to sail more than a hundred days west beyond the sight of land. It was a simple safety precaution. If you sail too far west the ocean spills right over the edge of the world, much as superstitious sailors on Earth once believed, but here it is literally true and means certain death.

"So rigidly was the prohibition observed that if any captain, drunk or oth- erwise, steered his ship west beyond the hundred days, the crew invariably resorted to mutiny and threw the captain overboard. No such crew returning to port without their commanding officer ever faced punishment.

"But in post-revolution Nath, reason (falsely so-called) reigned supreme. And when the time was full ripe, seamen were found to man two ships. They were sailors eager to disregard Yahweh's strict commandment never to sail so far west. Perhaps another land lay there filled with gold, and the warning of the elohim was merely to prevent men from despoiling the treas- ure of the ages.

"The two ships were Will o' the Whisp and Fire of the Covenant. For a hun- dred days and more they drifted west in the current with sails unfurled, for on Thalury the currents move stately to the west while the winds reli- ably blew east.

"One night the lookout in the highest mast of Fire of the Covenant screamed that the horizon ahead was closing in on them. There was a sharp edge to the sea! Captain Dogtrapper signaled with lamps to Will o' the Whisp that he was raising his sails and veering off. But Captain Skulldagger aboard the Will didn't follow suit until it was too late. With billowing sails Fire of the Covenant barely escaped, but the current was too strong for her sister ship. In short order Will o' the Whisp was seen to tip over the edge and was never seen again.

"In the east of the Land We Know a sheer unbroken escarpment rises to 25,000 feet. This is the wall of the Glob Nab, which you have already seen. It is said when people die here, their shades migrate to the top of the the Glob Nab. There they can hear many voices carried there by the winds of the Land We Know. Ever they walk that rampart, hoping to hear the voices of the loved ones they left behind. When they do hear their name it is bitter- sweet, for they soon find their friends and loved ones have finished griev- ing for them and moved on. The more famed a person was in their life, the more fragments they hear, so they linger somewhat longer. But the humble accept the truth sooner.

"At length nearly all the shades come off the precipice and rest on the lawn behind it which lies on the very edge of the Upper Sea, ever in shad- ow. They wait for one of the white ships to come and take them east to an unknown destiny. The gods refuse to speak of their final fate, for great gifts are sweeter, it is said, when they are but revealed in their fulfill- ment unspoiled by hasty tidings.

"But the shade of Captain Skulldagger remains on the edge of the Glob Nab year after year, to this very day, for he had attained a form of immortali- ty through infamy, and never a day passed but that his name was spoken aloud with a shudder by someone far below in the Land We Know when this story is repeated, and the sound of his own name is carried aloft to the Glob Nab, and he both savors and dreads it."

Lilith smiled. "I like your story very much, Rogziel, and that was true, she enjoyed all the stories about the Land We Know, but surely you don't believe a word of it."

"Why not? Just because there are elements of magic in it? Magic may be mere fantasy in the worlds we come from, but here, in the one place created by the elohim from scratch, magic is very much alive. Frankly, your unbelief astounds me, Bravo. You say you are the wife of Round Robyn, which I sup- pose makes you a lesbian. In the Land We Know, lesbians are pyrokinetics. They can warm food and drinks, or even kindle fires. So now we can try a little experiment, because in telling you that story about Captain Skull- dagger I've allowed my coffee to get too cool to drink."

Bravo tried, but Rogziel's tube of coffee remained cool his hand. But another course suggested itself to her. "I always thought that straight women have the more interesting power in the Land We Know," she said with a sly purr. "They have the power of persuasion, and sometimes this can be absolutely irresistible."

"Ah, so you have read our scriptures, just as I have read yours."

"Lilith put on an evil grin and asked Rogziel, "Got the hiccups?"

And beginning in that instant, Rogziel did have them, as a matter of fact. He started hiccuping fifty times a minute, such that he could not speak a single sentence without making three or four of the involuntary tics.

"I wonder if the power of persuasion I have here as a straight woman will carry over when we leave the Land We Know," Bravo mused as the Exiler rushed west and very shortly now would fly over the edge of the sea. "If it doesn't, then your hiccups will end, and no harm done. But it might be the case that I need the power to persuade you to stop your hiccups. And there might be a significant problem with that because you're not coming back here with us, are you?"

The ship passed over the edge of Thalury and they both saw one of the most amazing sights possible in any universe, a whole ocean rushing over a wide cataract with no bottom. Lilith supposed all that water must be recycled somehow, rather than created anew, but she had no idea precisely how. Ro- byn-Binah would of course know, since it was her waterfall.

The ship was very close to leaving the Land We Know now, and Rogziel was getting more than a little worried. "General (hic!) if you please . . . (hic!) . . ."

Lilith did a little wave of her hand, said, "I think your hiccups have stopped now Major," and there were only a few seconds to spare before the white skies of the Land We Know instantly gave way to the starry black of space over Gorpai. They rushed out of the ID Grid there almost as soon as they realized they were inside it.

"That was an evil trick to play on you, Rogziel, she said. Please accept my apology. But I concede your point that magic is operative in the Land We Know."

"No apology is necessary. I was needling you a little bit, and you retali- ated in your classic overwhelming style."

"I actually admire you very much for the terrible risk you will be taking today, she admitted to Rogziel, looking down upon the cratered moon of Gor- pai called Palato dotted with the structures and weaponry of the largest military base in the Empire. Also I have the final answer to a question about myself I always had, and you made that answer possible."

"But next comes the hard part," Rogziel told her with an penetrating empa- thy that shocked her, because she thought she was being safely oblique. "You will need to find a way to break it to Robyn."