local settlement date 35,990
Conservative becomes mediocre. Mediocre becomes mundane. Mundane becomes tired. Tired goes to sleep.
King Namor Zujahrah
14 build a bridge
Days later, Namor, Barbaralba and Zauqir sat in the tower marking the middle point of the most dangerous bridge any of them had been on. To get half way was almost exactly a half a day run. The night part of the day. The bridge was passable only at the lowest tide. When for three days, the two moon pulled the island to its highest level. Letting the water between the islands rush out into the ocean, not to return until the planet had spun around so that the moons pulled the islands back down again. Allowing the ocean to come rushing back in for half a day. Making the bridge disappear under water until the planet spun around again.
They would wait one day before crossing the second half of the bridge. Time to prepare fish over a fire. Time to sleep and rest their legs for the next half-day run.
There were enough fish flopping on the stone stairs when the tide receded that a small army could be fed. Most of them flopped their way back to the water. Unless Zauqir collected them up.
After eating their fish, they slept.
When the sun blasted into the tower, Namor went down the tower to have a look at the bridge. The tide was well on its way out. Too far to catch the bottom of the bridge.
The bridge by itself made little sense. There had been far too much work to make it, to serve so few travelers. Namor inspected the cut of the rocks. He stood on the wide wall and looked from one shore to the other.
He could almost see caravans going over his head.
He was lying on the bridge wall looking down the outside. It was solid rock cut with an exactness that allowed them to be locked together.
The waves danced two different directions and no direction at all. Always farther away. Farther down from Namor.
He looked out over the narrow gulf to the open ocean.
"There she is. The great bird. Do you see her."
Namor rolled over and turned around to see Barbaralba.
"Yes. She is beautiful. This bridge was not built to be only this nearly impossible bridge to run on. Look where it comes from and to where it goes. It would be very simple to anchor a structure. Starting at the lowest points. Even if it was only half way up from the two lowest points, it would be passable with animals and wagons half the time."
"It is almost never used."
"It is seldom used now. I think, when it was built, it connected the two islands. What is here is what is left of something once very grand."
"We might find out more when we get to the other side."
"I am certain we will find out many things. And the strangest thing we might find is that they have been waiting for us."
"We did make a fire."
"Not waiting for a tradesman. Waiting for protocol. For this bridge."
"If they aren't, they soon will be."
Namor laughed.
Barbaralba pulled Namor down on top of her. Zauqir was sleeping up in the tower and the rest of the bridge that was an island most always invited them to enjoy the pleasures of touch.
When the tide came back in, all three walked with the falling tide down the stone steps till the water revealed the bridge. They followed the tide down, walking quickly, sometimes running, pausing to eat, pausing to drink, then walking and running down to the lowest part of the bridge. They ran the length of the lowest part with the moons directly over their heads.
When the tide started to fill the gulf again, they were ahead of it and walked until the salt water started kissing their feet. Near the end of their run, the moons sank behind the horizon, leaving them in darkness other than a distant fire at the end of the bridge. Made for them. Their fire at the other shore had told them of the pending visit. Usually someone came over each time the bridge was passable. Most times that someone was Zauqir.
This time he brought with him a King from Castle City. He knew there would be much official pomp. Namor would want it to be a minimum but Zauqir was starting to think the world was waiting for his bastard son. That they would let him know they were happy he came to visit them.
By the time they neared the end of the bridge, they had run out of water and food. Burning muscles made it very hard to run. The water caught up with them and brought a sea creature Barbaralba had never seen. It wrapped one leg around her, she chopped through it and another leg rapped around her leg, Namor chopped through it. The next leg, Zauqir chopped through it. The creature slipped away under water and Namor and Zauqir hurried Barbaralba along the bridge.
Two young boys came running down from the fire to unwrap the creature's legs from Barbaralba, and laughing over their luck, helped hurry the visitors along the last bit of bridge.
"Welcome Zauqir and friends. We will make a beautiful meal with these."
There were a many people to greet Zauqir. Brew was passed around, as was smoke, before many words were exchanged.
"May I intrduce, from the royal family, King Namor."
Everyone stopped and stared. They all knew of the royal family with their kings and queens. They had never seen any.
"And Queen Barbaralba."
Zauqir explained to his hosts that they had a long journey and needed to eat, drink and sleep. After a day of resting, they would go to the only major city on the island. Adrone.
______ . . ______
The next morning, Barbaralba found Namor standing by an enormous fish trap. It allowed fish and other creatures in when the tide came up and did not let anything but small fish out again. Namor was amazed at its vastness and its simplicity.
The flopping fish were collected by almost everyone in the village. Behind the village, all around was a mountain. The village appeared cut off from all other civilization.
"They must take the fish to the city."
They watched as the fish were thrown live into water wagons. Each wagon, when full, was taken away by two very large animals and one wagon driver. Wagon after wagon.
"A big city."
They spent an easy day in the village and left the next dawn with an official of the village. Many of the village dwellers were already up to bid them a good journey.
The carriage was very comfortable. There was no chance of going thirsty or hungry. Namor and Barbaralba sat like King and Queen very aware of their odd new roll, while Zauqir and Hanas sat watching that the animal followed the road.
There was nowhere else for it to go; the road followed the coast. On one side was the ocean. The other side was mountain with thick tropical forest.
The road was very wide, made with almost white stone.
"It is like a dream."
"Hanas, what do the wagons bring back."
Hanas laughed.
"The last one was bringing vegetables. That one coming at us is maybe bringing cheese or milk. Most of them come back empty. We are not a large community."
"Where is the produce coming from."
"Most everything is coming from the island. There is farm land on the other side of the mountain."
"What isn't coming from the island."
"What we all enjoy on occasion. Smoke. And some spices."
"Where does that come from."
"We bring that in from Barbancor."
"Where is Barbancor."
"To the north."
"I thought Adrone was the north."
"It is for our island. Barbancor is not part of our island."
Hanas looked back at Namor for a short while wondering how he would not know of Barbancor.
"It is the mainland. Over the water."
Namor kept asking questions till he knew it was a six days one way trip for the trading ships of Adrone to Barbancor. Barbancorian ships did not come to Adrone. Barbancor was much larger then the two islands. So large that many more people lived there.
Namor attempted to work it into his world concept. He had never stopped to wonder how big the world was or what else might be on it.
"Do they have a space ship."
"A what ship."
"A ship that leaves one planet to go to another planet."
"A ship that sails to other planets. Oh my. No one has that."
Hanas laughed.
"Ships are for the traversing of the ocean, my good king. Catching fish. The only time they leave the surface of anything is when they sink."
Namor decided to save his space ship story for the officials that would certainly be waiting to host them in the city of Adrone.
Hanas and Zauqir politely ignored Namor and Barbaralba. The king and queen looked around them with full fascination until the drone of the carriage wheels lulled them to sleep.
The sun was replace by the moons before they came to the city. Countless people of all ages stood along the street watching the King and Queen being escorted into the city center.
"Barbaralba, I have the feeling they know more about us than we know about us."
Barbaralba smiled and took Namor's hand after they stepped off the carriage. They were escorted to a suite with all the comforts of the castle.
The city was unlike Castle City. Where they were in the middle of the city, were many trees and gardens. On the roof of most dwellings was a garden. There was open space.
After bathing and resting a little on the large bed, King Namor and Queen Barbaralba were invited to join their host for dinner. Zauqir and Hanas were also guests of the city of Adrone. A woman that was involved in the management of much of the city's affairs, Karnalana, was their host.
"Welcome to my home and our city. We will have enough time to discuss official matters in the days to come. Tonight we will acquaint ourselves."
After the evening meal, Karnalana presented King Namor and Queen Barbaralba a book. Thirty Thousand Years Adrone.
"Are there space ships in your book."
"Space ships. What kind of a ship is a space ship."
"It has become our understanding that our people, the people of this planet, were on a ship that left one planet to come to this planet."
Karnalana looked at Namor. Hanas stopped what he was doing to look as well. He was wondering about the nature of the mind of the visitor from the island of Castle City.
"From your reaction, I guess not. Which puts knowledge of our space travel a long time in the past. I know it sounds fantastic but it has been documented. We have brought one of the logs from the space ship with us. We can look at it on another day. We, they lived on a fast moving, enclosed world. On a moving world called a space ship. Or star ship. We left one star system and came here."
Still no response.
"For some reason this information has been lost to us. Maybe something went wrong. Perhaps it was meant to be hidden from resent history. It is a strange thing to be true. Many other strange things are true. And have been hidden from resent history. Perhaps something has gone wrong. Maybe with us. I don't know."
"We are still alive and thriving in Adrone, so maybe thing are going right. After all, a King and Queen of the Royal Family have left their island for the first time in two thousand years."
"Two thousand. That is a long time to avoid protocol. What was the protocol of the last visit."
"To tell us that the bridge was to be taken down. And that it was to stay down until someone came from Castle City to tell us otherwise."
"That is us. We think it is time to put it up again. To establish trade and protocol."
Namor saw Zauqir smiling, trying not to laugh. Namor did laugh.
Karnalana smiled at Namor and bid everyone a good night. She seemed very please with the prospect of opening up protocol. Trade. And Namor knew that Castle City had treasures the outside world would like to have.
How to build a plasma gun. A space ship. And fish.
What was in the castle, he was not certain.
But he understood that his curiosity and the unlikely chance events that lacked real coincidence that came with it. Had made him.
And Barbaralba. Representatives of the most frightening power on the planet.
In their arrogance they had forgotten what it was.
chapter 15
|
