local settlement date 35,989
If someone else told you what to believe, you need to look elsewhere.
King Namor Zujahrah
11 saving barbaralba
Namor used the opportunity, while he was waiting and caring for Barbaralba, to visit the Old King who had given him a sketch of the likely position of the library.
"I have heard that you have found the old library."
"Yes. It was well buried but we have a space big enough to crawl through so far."
"What did you find."
"I only opened one cabinet. The room is still in darkness. So I grabbed a few books at random."
"And what is in those few books."
"Patents."
"Patents. What kind of patents."
"Fish, grains and grasses."
"Fish patents. Well that is more than I would have been able to imagine. But I guess they would have it all covered. Everything would have to belong to someone."
"We are they. Everything is a Royal Family Patent."
"The we from long ago. It is a strange thing to find in an old library."
"Even stranger than being old, the patents are from before our time."
"That would make us or the patents a paradox. Wouldn't it, King Namor."
The old king laughed. He laughed until he chocked.
"What is a patent. Is it not the same as ownership."
"That is what it is. Ownership laws. The Royal Family own, from what you tell me, most likely everything. Which is quite an achievement."
"How can The Royal Family own the fish in the ocean. The Royal Family doesn't leave the castle."
"My guess is that anything not patented by the royal family is against the law of the Royal Family."
"Who else is there. How does it mean anything."
"The Draves. The Draves would be then the owners of nothing. So by definition, we own them."
"They are us. They are just some of us that aren't named part of the family. They have the tax collectors as their fathers. And the tax collectors are part of the royal family."
"Perhaps."
"What does it matter who owns the fish. Does a fish know that we own it."
"Well, King Namor, I've been studying this a very long time. This castle life and how it works. For the royal family to function as it does, it requires the services and goods from, based on our modest standards, at least ten times as many other non Royal Family. And that is a very modest estimate."
"Why would the ten times as many others agree to those terms."
"If the royal family has the patents on everything. They own everything. They can do as they please."
"But it is absurd. How can someone own everything in life. What does life say to that. Is that not a state of war. Against everyone and everything that is not Royal Family."
"Yes. I suppose that is exactly what it is. Or perhaps a state of slavery. Which is the same as war. My clever King. We are winning the war. So long that it isn't called war anymore. And we, the winners of the war are living on the winnings. The great mad plunders of the wealth. Of everyone and everything."
"The whole thing is a war. Tell me there is something other than war."
"The life we manage to fit into it, but no, I think you have it. In our history, if we own it all, it has been a war a very long time. I would like to know what was before the war, before the Royal Family applied ownership to it all."
"Then you must come to the library and help me."
"I will. I will be there tomorrow."
"I hope to be as well."
"Hope to be."
"I will be there as soon as Barbaralba can walk. And she is looking stronger today. My uncles and brothers are usually there. Lexus wants to come see it. My mother is certain to come. It has been quite an event for Drave, tax collector and royal family."
"Yes. I'm certain that it is. Who is Barbaralba. Has she been injured."
"She is a Drave that won her freedom at the game I went to see with my brothers and uncles. She had lost much blood. We have been taking care of her."
"Well, well, I can see that the whole thing is changing very quickly. I will help you find something from before Castle City. King Namor. I can't imagine, if I understand the form of our power at all, that we will find anything from before the Royal Family. It would suggest it was possible that there might be something we don't own."
"But you think there was once."
"I am certain of it. You make it obvious. We may find a book that says the royal family was at the first of the universe. It will simply be untrue. Fabricated framework of what we have propagated it to be. A blanket. This is quite exciting, King Namor. I believe I will set up residence much closer to your library in the morning."
"What is the universe."
The Old King laughed.
"King Namor. I have a feeling the universe is a very big thing. Much bigger than what our castle books tell us. Consider me part of your team. Get back to your Drave and we will see each other at the library."
"Thank you. Old King. You give me hope."
The old king laughed and Namor smiled and left straight away to return to Barbaralba.
She awaited him with obvious impatience.
"I must get out of here, Book King."
"You shouldn't walk on that leg."
"You will have to help me."
"I will take you now."
Namor helped Barbaralba out of Bed. She put her arm over his shoulder and gave him most of her weight.
"Drave King. Take me out of this suffocating prison of torture and madness."
Barbaralba punched him in the face.
"Bloody Beast."
Barbaralba punched Namor in the stomach. He wondered if perhaps his mother was wrong.
Barbaralba looked at Namor with visible violence. It did not seem like the beginning of a love relationship.
"I can defend myself."
"You are too slow, Castle Drave."
Barbaralba punched him once more to demonstrate.
"If you would rather, we could have it out another day and you could save your energy for walking. It is not a short distance to the outside."
"Don't talk to me, Drave King."
Every time Barbaralba suspected Namor of wanting to say something to her, she punched him.
"If another King or Queen sees you beating me, you may be hung from your feet. And left that way."
"No. You will not let them. Drave King. Your job is to get me safely out of this castle."
She punched him once again. Then settle down and concentrated on walking.
At the gate, before the guards, Barbaralba punched him once again.
"Bleeding Beast."
Barbaralba smiled. Then punched Namor hard enough that he fell to his knees and worked on breathing.
"Thank you, Drave King, for taking care of me. And bringing me out of the castle."
Barbaralba put her leathers on and strapped her knife to her leg. When she was ready she picked up the book that was still lying there. She smiled and showed the cover title to Namor.
"War Strategy Patents."
"I'll return it. Tell your stunned Draves to open the door."
"Open the door. She is a free Drave."
Barbaralba turned around quickly after she had stepped out into the street. Just to see that Namor was watching her.
"I believe in you Drave King. Get out of the castle before it falls."
Namor followed her out the door and watched her try not to limp, with book in hand, as she walked past the tax collectors who politely ignored her and out the Castle City Gate.
Namor saw the old man he had spoken to Namor's first day out of the castle. Sitting in his garden with a smoke. And a smile. He walked over to him.
"Why do you smile today. My old friend."
"The Drave King is in love with a Drave. That will be a time to remember for generations."
"She's mad as a bleeding beast."
"And as beautiful as an angel."
"Am I mad to love her. My friend."
"Yes. Of course. Who is not mad is not alive. Love is not by choice. It is part of what we are. It is why we still are. When you are in its command, you are blessed."
"Is that what it is."
The old man seemed to be having fun. Laughing at Namor's odd condition. Namor smiled and relaxed. Focused a little on the world around him. It too was very mad. Little Drave children, dirty from playing by the river, looked at Namor and laughed. Sometimes they smiled and stared for a few minutes.
Namor planted himself beside the old man and leaned with him up against the hut. Above was a little sky. Most of it was covered with castle. Walk ways or palaces or gardens spanned over the roads that followed the river straight up the mountain. Or the thing they called a mountain for want of knowing what else it could be.
Already, Namor noticed he was not thinking of Barbaralba.
"Smoke one with me, make an old Drave happy. It will help you to forget her for a little while."
"Let us smoke and I will listen to you talk of the world in front of us. Explain it so that I can understand how you see it."
The old man smiled and passed Namor the pipe and told him his long story.
No one bothered Barbaralba on her way out of the Tax Collector sector. She was politely ignored. In the village, they all watched her. They knew where she had come from. Everyone knew someone who had left the castle after a game. Some had been there.
Barbaralba, after passing through the outside gate, rested frequently to ease the pounding in her head and leg. A boy who had watched her limping and biting her teeth together, gave her a stick to help take the weight off her bad leg when she walked. The little girls smiled shyly at her when she watched them playing. She eventually found her way to the Old Man's soup kitchen.
Zauqir stood at the bar drinking, smoking and talking to the Old Man.
"Barbaralba. You have seen the game."
"They made me kill my mother."
Zauqir handed the Old Man his pipe and took Barbaralba to a chair.
She had managed to keep her emotions under control with her wrath but there was no fight left in the sanctuary of the Old Man and Zauqir.
"It's all right for a fighter to cry, Barbaralba."
"I will kill them all."
Finally she let go and let her tears fall and her body sage against Zauqir. And cried until she fell asleep with her head on Zauqir.
Barbaralba woke up in Zauqir's room, on his bed. Zauqir sat at the table with her book. He put it down and looked at her.
"How long have I slept."
"It's the morning after."
"I don't remember coming here."
"I don't know how you got from the game to the old man, you got from there to here with the help of the Drave King and me."
"Did the bastard follow me."
"The bastard lives across the street. And likes the Old Man's brew and fish."
"Have you talked with him."
"Yes. He is a good friend of the old man. A very clever boy. He wants to come with me to the ocean. To see how the fish live."
"Did you say you would take him."
"I told him I would think about it. I didn't tell him that I was waiting to talk to the boss first."
Barbaralba let out her first smile since her return.
"Let me have a brew and a soup before I think about that."
Zauqir declined to take her to the old man's soup kitchen. He helped her outside to sit on a stool on the landing in the shade of the morning light. There she could see the world from the third level while she waited for a bowl of soup. Zauqir had a couple brews brought from a neighbor.
After a brew and a soup, Barbaralba was ready to sleep. She slept almost two days, waking shortly to eat some soup and read a couple war strategy patents from a date she could make no sense of.
"The underbelly. The weak spot. Like cutting open a fish."
There was no one in the room to hear her.
She read the Royal Family War Strategy Patent book twice before deciding it was time to use her legs again and pay King Namor a surprise visit. The way the walkways were constructed, there was no need to go down to street level and up again to cross a street. There was a labyrinth of walkways anywhere from 3 to 12 flights high.
The castle wall had dwellings built against it all the way up and around. It was the coolest place to dwell in the villages. The sun was relentless. A good researcher may find a Royal Family Patent on clouds. A Drave living around the castle seldom saw one. Shade was either made or up against the wall.
She stood at his door and knocked. Pushing it open with her fist. Wrapped around a sword.
"Have you come to kill me."
Barbaralba returned Namor's smile.
"I brought your book back."
Barbaralba threw Zauqir's sword on Namor's bed.
"How are your wounds."
"Getting better. I can move everything with not too much pain or stiffness."
Barbaralba punched Namor in the stomach. To keep him on his guard. It was not the same viciousness with which she had hit a few days earlier. He was pleased with the obvious progress but was careful not to show it.
"You could invite me to see your library."
"It is not my library. But I will gladly take you to the library that we have found."
"On the way you can invite me for a soup and a brew."
"I know the perfect place."
"I know you do."
Barbaralba left Zauqir's sword on Namor's bed and Namor put his on. After thinking two knives were enough, he took his sword off again. He felt safe enough in Barbaralba's company.
They walked along the third level until they came to the small open area across the narrow and always busy street where the Old Man had his soup kitchen. Namor had to look at Barbaralba along the way to make certain she was there. He had the feeling she was part of him. She was his conflict that he was trying to resolve.
Barbaralba gave Namor one last shot in the stomach on the way down the stairs. Mostly because she knew she would likely refrain from hitting him in the Old Man's soup kitchen.
"Why do you never attempt to protect yourself. Or hit back. My slow motion, Drave King."
"I am testing the concept of protocol. The idea that language has the true power."
"Suit yourself. Book King."
Both Zauqir and the Old Man had big smiles when they saw King Namor and Barbaralba walking side by side toward them.
"The strangest things are often what happens."
"Yes, Old Man. Some days the strangest things are true."
Barbaralba frowned at Zauqir and the Old Man but reserved her comments. She sat with Namor at a table and showed him the scars on her legs, arms and chest.
"This is from the ax. That's from the sword. That one I had a long time ago from fishing."
"You have amazing muscles."
"I swam almost every day of my life, shooting fish, cleaning them. And I have been training the last year with Zauqir to be a fighter. I came here to get my mother out of your prison."
"Was that the woman that did not fight you."
"Yes, you watched me kill my mother."
"I'm sorry."
Barbaralba ripped a piece of meat with her teeth and looked up at Namor. She found it very odd that the Drave King took such an interest in her. From the first time he saw her. He could take any City Drave or Royal family member and enjoy any game he chose to play but he chose to leave his castle.
"Your family has made me your enemy."
"They have been lost in a drunken dream and are quite mad."
Namor understood that Barbaralba would have to reject him as long as she was not certain of his motives as a royal family king. She would likely keep some distance. Until she was certain what she wanted from him. He was certain she would not kill him. She finished her leg of meat, attempting to be subtly vicious.
"I'm not through beating you, King Namor."
"I understand that. And can accept your terms whatever they are."
She looked around to see if anyone was watching them. Something was happening on the street. Nothing way out of the ordinary. Just enough to attract attention and give Barbaralba a moment to slam her elbow into Namor's arm so that he would hurt.
"Bleeding Beast."
"That's the spirit, King Namor. Take me to your library."
The library was still quite dark but the doorway was already big enough to walk through. And a system of mirrors had been set up to cast light on walls and books that had been in darkness as long as 30,000 years.
"Over a thousand generations. Buried."
Barbaralba was awed. She walked around the dark library trying to imagine what had mattered so much to build a volt to keep the books safe over so many years. She wandered back to Namor and punched him hard in the stomach.
"I see what you want from me, King Namor. I want to kill your family. You are in the hands of your enemy."
"There is no enemy. Only sides of one thing."
"Either you are a fool or a brave man. Show me weapons."
Namor helped Barbaralba locate the cabinet with weapon patents. They opened and looked through a few books. Most of them made absolutely no sense. There were patents on hundreds of parts to make up most any king of weapon.
"Do you understand any of this."
Namor thought he had asked himself. What he did understand was most of the weapons were nothing at all like anything he had ever seen. The Castle Draves had the means to heat, mix and fold metal. Beat out a brilliant sword. In most cases, he had no idea what materials were being mentioned. He understood the size of some things to be very large.
"Burning Beasts. I don't believe this one. It is enormous. A space weapon. And it is from EDAD. It is ancient. And impossible."
"What, Drave King, is a space weapon."
Barbaralba leaned against Namor to have a look at the detailed drawing. On the opposite page was a picture of it.
"This patent is for a weapon that is built and used in space. For war in space. Or, wait, also for space to ground employment."
"What space. What are you talking about, Book King."
"Away from the surface of the planet."
"Flying like a bird."
"No. Not like a bird. A bird floats on air. Out in space above the air. Unless I'm confused. Which is possible but not likely. Between the moons and the ground, where there is no air."
"I don't see the use of it. Does your family make patents for everything that might be. I need a weapon I can build."
"From what the Old King tells me, we will have to look for early EDAD years. That is from where the weapons of the games come."
"What are the bloody EDAD years."
"A different time. Back before fish, grass and grain."
After much searching, they found a book with pictures and patent numbers for many types of bows, catapults and other realizable weapons.
"I will take this one."
Barbaralba was done with the dark library. But Namor was curious about space and needed to spend some time looking for books about what it was. As much as he would have liked to leave the library with Barbaralba. Somehow it was not possible. Not the correct time.
"I need to look a little longer. Space weapons don't make sense. They use projectiles that aren't really real. Plasma. Lazar. Ultrasonic. I have never heard of such things. It's all very impossible. Space."
"This is a strange place, King Namor. I don't know if it was a good thing to open it up."
"It has unbelievable information. I think it was meant to be here when we came to open it up. To have the means to climb out of the drunken dream. For what other purpose would each book be so protected from air, moisture and light. What is the purpose of a dream if we do not wake from it."
"King Namor. You should have me killed to protect your dream. Instead you care for me when I came close to death. It is my intention to make war with your royal family."
"But you did not think so a thousand years ago. You are not alone, Barbaralba. The time is upon us. The royal family has out lived its relevance. They need to be awaken from their dream. For what exact reason, I don't yet know. But it is obvious that the royal family is only royal because they have managed to propagate their dream. With most harsh methods. Space weapons. That is reason enough to question the sanity of the beast."
Barbaralba punched Namor in the stomach. He knew it was coming. Not that he saw it. Not even Barbaralba's eyes told him. He moved with her punch, wrapped his leg around her and rolled her under him and pinned her to the floor. Fast enough that it surprised both of them.
"If you try to kiss me, I'll cut open your throat."
"Why would I want to kiss you."
Barbaralba had her knife at Namor's neck.
"Stop looking at me as if you don't believe that I could kill you."
"I don't believe you want to."
Barbaralba tried very hard to stay very hard but she could see in Namor's eyes she was not doing a very good job of it.
"Zauqir told me you want to see the ocean. He allowed that it is my decision if I wish to have you with us."
Barbaralba slid her knife slowly and gently along, then away from Namor's neck.
"Let me up. Drave King."
Namor complied and stood looking at Barbaralba. She put her knife away and picked up her book.
"Before we get to the ocean, we will have killed many tax collectors. Think about that, King Namor. It will be your decision if you come or not."
She punched him once more in the stomach before prancing out like a fisher woman who had just shot a shark. She spun around at the door to see if Namor was watching her. He was looking up from a book just in time to catch her eyes. She did not smile at him but she knew Namor knew he would join her on her quest. Whatever it was. He did not believe in coincidence anymore. He would not say no to Barbaralba because they were both doing what they must do. They both knew that, somehow, it would be together.
Shortly after she was gone, Namor looked up at the entrance again. In walked the Old King.
"I am very happy to see you, Royal King."
"I am happy you are happy, Royal Drave King."
"Have you made any sense of any of your findings."
"I have found some very brilliant drawings of the river system. The agriculture of this island is brilliant."
The old King showed him and explained the fresh water rivers, the salt lakes with the canals to the ocean, the wild wooded areas and the many various plantations.
"It doesn't show the villages or the desert."
"Desert. Where is the desert. What village do you mean."
"I've been told it is a six day trip to get over the desert after leaving the villages which is also most of a day's trip."
The old king was devastated. He looked blank at Namor waiting for better information.
"I think we have been falling apart. Asleep in a dream and the real outside the dream has suffered because of our addiction to the dream."
"Oh, King Namor. I hope you are wrong."
"I wish I was. But it is my curse to seldom be wrong and see things no one from our family is prepared to see."
"Namor. King Namor. This was too much to lose. It truly was beautiful."
"We are not yet dead. Old King."
"Yes. Perhaps it is better to get busy than to lament."
"What do you know about space weapons."
"What kind of weapons."
"Do you know anything about space."
The Old King looked at Namor. Again showing little hope in his complexion.
"Space. King Namor."
"What."
"There is an old law I've seen often in fiction. Hinted at often in many books."
"Fiction. Stories not true are fiction. What is your fiction. Old King."
The Old King blinked a few times to clear his eyes and this was to clear his mind so that he could approach Namor's question with sober reason.
"Since I've seen this library, I don't know exactly where the line between fiction and fact lies."
"Tell me, Old King. What was the fiction law."
"Any attempt to leave the planet will be interpreted as an act of terrorism"
"Leave the planet. How can we leave the planet. Shall we build a great tower taller than the castle. What is terrorism. Is it a religion of terror. Is terror the law god. The god that says stay in your castle and don't wake from your dream."
"Slow down, King Namor. You will explode my head with all your questions."
"But my questions keep multiplying. Old King. Something very strange has locked us in this castle."
"We will try to determine what space is. But if the royal family owns the patents on space weapons, perhaps it also owns space."
"Well, I don't think anyone owns space. We like to think we own everything here but I am quite convinced it is part of our dream."
chapter 12
|
