anny b. howard
CASTLE CITY MANIFEST

If ignorance is bliss, give 'em hell.
_ccm vog 04

local settlement date 35,992

Creatures that sit around and wonder why, tend to go extinct.

King Namor Zujahrah

23 down river


While Narnok and Sanskis and their guides rested and recovered from their long journey, Barbaralba went out every day with the furry hunters. Impressing them with her strength and agility continually. In the afternoon, she taught herself how to fight with sticks. Her favorite stick weapon patent was two hard sticks connected with a chain. Less effective than a sword but light and simple to make.

Namor usually half watched her and read stories written by people who had lived and died over the last 2,000 years of Snow City. There was nothing before 2,000 years. As far as Namor could interpret, the first people came up the river that they would go down. From, to the west coast.

"If I moved as much as Barbaralba moved every day, I would be dead after one. And she does it every day."

"She isn't working. She has an art and play to all that she does."

"You are agreeing with me, King Namor but you don't understand. I see it in you as well. You also have too much energy. Or so much. You and Barbaralba are different from us. From your friends from Barbancor. Your Guides. They are still week from their journey."

Namor had not thought about it. Though he knew suddenly that he had seen it in the fights of the Sun Temple celebrations.

Her advantage should have been impossible. She was faster than all of them. Had more endurance. More focus.

Namor looked away from Barbaralba to Cardinal Saharah.

"What is it King Namor. You look unwell."

"I hadn't seen it. Or I was looking at it and couldn't believe it. I don't know what it is but I know the royal family has the patent on it. Since the bridge came down, the tax collectors were giving it to the Draves. But obviously it had never left the island."

Cardinal Saharah belief in angels had been seriously modified since talking to two of them. Much of the magical mystery had disappeared. To be replace with physical reality.

"My children's children will be dead before Barbaralba becomes tired. I want to come with you to Castle City."

"What she has can not be given to someone already born."

"I understand that. You will take me if I ask to come with you."

"I will ask you to come with us. I love for you to come to our island. You and any you chose to bring or choses to come. There are some things, I am certain, with which you can help us."

"Invitation accepted."

"I am happy to hear it."

"I don't understand the meaning of all your patents, especially when it comes to living creatures."

"I'm not too certain either. There is a real absurdity to having everything patented. It means, if it can be reinforced, that the royal family simply owns everything. Perhaps so they can tax everything. But I don't know if very many of the patents have ever been used on this planet. So they may have had more purpose on the last planet. Or they may have been the demise of that planet and that was part of the reason they had been buried under rock for about 30,000 years. But why not destroy them. Well, now that we find ourselves at war with Barbancor, it is our buried patents that will make it practically impossible for us to be defeated by Barbancor even though there are many more people on Barbancor."

"Can the patents help to end the war with Barbancor without its destruction."

"Patents alone are pointless as far as I can understand. It is arrogance to believe we can own the fish. The fish don't understand ownership. They won't honour an agreement because a fish has a different concept of the world it is part of. But there is one very brilliant thing about all these almost 40,000 year old patents."

"Must I ask what that is."

"You should guess."

"That they have been preserved so long."

"Yes. The royal family has been a brutal misuse of power and natural wealth usurpation and from a fish point of view should be destroyed with extreme prejudice. And on Barbancor where there is almost no wealth their is the law of the one big monster God in all its variations. And from a fish point of view, they should be destroyed with extreme prejudice. Which would leave only Snow City."

"It is a good thing fish can't fly."

"Yes. But fish is one of the most important foods for so many creatures, including ourselves. And if this was the only reason to protect them it would be enough."

"So what are you going to do."

Namor laughed.

"I have no idea. Yet. But I am not working alone. And I am certain that educating ourselves and the rest of the planet will change the way we conduct ourselves with our many talents with which life has blessed us. I think the inevitability that the future holds gods, makes us the beginning of those gods. And it will be, it is, our responsibility to start acting like them. And this is my mission and intention. And in front of us is still a war to end. The war of sides to a thing that is one."

Though Snow City lived without the God Myth, their stories often referred to the angels that would come. Namor knew it was not really him and Barbaralba that were in the stories. It was simply anyone. Anyone would come and see that the foundation of life was in danger.

He stop reasoning when he watched Barbaralba. In her it was clear that what he had to reason could not argue the simple fact of the beauty of the dance in it. The dance of life. The ever moving of it. The ever changing. And it was a sin to nail that down with patents or the God monster laws.

That night was another night for viewing the space ship. With the help of the cardinal's big looking glass, the space ship had a shape. It had a direction, constant, silent around the planet. Or maybe not moving. Everything moved. Namor had learned much about their solar system while in Snow City.

Between them and a sun were three planets. There was another farther away. Namor had seen it. The cardinal knew where everything was and when what planet could be seen. Sometimes they where on the other side of the sun and could not be seen.

Outside the fifth planet was what Cardinal Saharah called the dirt road. Rocks of various sizes went all away around the sun. Everything, all the planets and the asteroids, circling the sun on a plane like a spinning wheel. Held by the mass of the sun and held away from the sun by the momentum that was inherent in everything.

Namor sat down on the deck and wondered about the workings of the universe. He fell into a light trance watching the stars until he felt the gentle approach of Barbaralba.

"Drave King. What do you find in the sky this clear evening."

"I was thinking."

"How unusual for the Book King."

Namor smiled and pulled Barbaralba down beside him so that she was also looking up at the stars.

"There is a star out there that used to be ours. But that is not what I was thinking. I think this is a test. Not a test someone gave us or we gave us. It is a test we have stumbled across because we have stumbled into it."

"What's the test, King Namor."

"To see if we are capable of becoming real angels. To stand out of our own way and let life take its course through us. Pass the test of survival to become the gods that will better understand their life, the rest of life that I am certain is part of our life. And the rest of everything that is out there. I think we are just waking up and getting started. And the test is to see if we can handle being conscious beasts so that we can become conscious beast angels and what it means to be gods, perhaps it is just another word for angel."

"You have a beautiful mind, Drave King. It is a good thing for all of us that you left your castle to find out what you didn't know."

"That's a pretty thing to say, my angel of inspiration and courage."

"Come to the pool with me and leave your universe till tomorrow."

Though the temple was open to everyone and people came in to pick fruits often, Barbaralba and Namor were always politely ignored when they bathed in the pool.

It was their last night in the temple. It was the last chance to play in the temple pool and sleep naked in a hammock between old trees that were likely a patent of the royal family. Everything in Snow City was brought from somewhere else. And while Barbaralba and Namor were there is seemed like the temple was made for their visit. Made over 2,000 years with dedication to a piece of a mountain isolated from the rest of the planet's citizens.

The visitors gave thanks by enjoying it. Accepting paradise as it had been made for them and relishing it for their short visit.

The morning sun found them again on their way. Narnok and Sanskis were fit and excited about going to see the island of the angels. Cardinal Saharah and three snow city citizens, with their books of wisdom and a much different interpretation of angels, were also excited to see the Island of Angels.

Everyday the river grew bigger as they followed it. After many days, it was big enough for life forms big enough to attract hungry fish. The water was still very shallow so that with her sticks Barbaralba could smack the fish on the back of their heads in the water.

Even after a long day's hiking, Barbaralba swung her sticks and dove around in the snow, took Namor away from camp to have sex under a tree on a bed of dry needles. Then go and smack some fish for everyone to eat.

The little river was joined by many little rivers and snow that fell and melted in the afternoon sun. The air became warmer and filled the travelers with a little more energy. There were more animals and berries to eat.

"Paradise is at hand."

"What do you have in your hand."

Namor showed Barbaralba that he had nothing but the air in in hand.

"In the books written in the name of God, they promise paradise and it is what we have and they call it somewhere else, embellish it with rivers of milk and seas of honey and rain at the right time and eternal life. But the only way to get to it is when they die. The true believer and worshipper and follower of the foul myth. Give up life for a lie. And what makes the thing even more vile is."

"Is what, Drave King, lover of wisdom."

Barbaralba smiled at him.

"I think we are not all that we are led to believe that we are. I think I recognized you from another life. When I first saw you, I didn't question my love for you, that was never to be a question. The question is, am I a self deluded romantic mad man or have I really always loved you. And death, though a brutal thing, is not a permanent thing. As long as there is life, we will be in it. On our way to become the gods that see it clearly. The it of it."

"The angel in us. It might be what reaches from one life to the next."

"Yes. And it is a thing that is not yet a thing. It isn't from our past pushing us. It is from the possible future. And it is trying to pull us through and we are resisting being born into it."

"Not the Drave King. I can see him reaching out and grabbing at it."

Barbaralba and Namor wandered away from camp to find a place open to the late afternoon sun. They allowed the angels to use their beastly bodies to commune as one. Barbaralba moved slowly up and down on Namor feeling where skin lost its barrier. They watched as they let the world fall away from them and become part of them.

Until Barbaralba felt a hand on her back that was not Namor's. It had fingers that went around her shoulder. She could see in Namor's shock that the intruder was a stranger. Without looking or thinking, Namor put Barbaralba's sticks in her hand.

"There is a penalty to be payed for fornicating in the open. And you will pay it to all of us."

Barbaralba grabbed the hand and pulled the intruder over her back onto the ground. Namor elbowed the intruder in the head just before Barbaralba hit the head with her sticks.

Six more groping hands came at Barbaralba as she spun around, hitting the first head of one. Namor threw one of his knives at the next attacker who also had a metal knife.

He threw his other knife at the next attacker who raised his arm high enough to block it from his neck. Namor felt a knife tear at his leg as he dove on the back of the intruder that had trapped Barbaralba with his momentum and weight.

He held her throat until Namor had bitten through the attackers neck. He tried to reach behind him to tear Namor away but Namor did not let go until Barbaralba took her fish knife to the attacker's stomach all the way to his ribs.

The two attackers that were not dead stopped attacking. They were both foggy from head blows.

Behind them came thirty men, most of them fat and ugly looking, and stood with their God given authority and demanded to know what the naked killers were doing on their land.

"We are attempting to avoid being raped. And as for your land, we have come to reclaim it."

From the laughter, it was clear they did not understand on what authority the naked man made his claim. Some of his authority was made clearer by the six that emerged out of the woods. Armed with bows and arrows.

It was not enough authority. Two sons were dead. Two were still unfocused.

"Kill them."

The thirty men moved as one. Barbaralba started moving at the sound of the arrows. She cut the throats of the two who started stumbling around at their leader's command.

The arrows came fast but not fast enough to stop all thirty. Twelve barged up to the eight visitors, swinging their knives. Barbaralba had her sticks moving so fast that any hand in her near with a knife got broken.

Other than Narnok, who had been in a few fights while intoxicated, none of the travelers knew how to protect themselves from knives. Barbaralba could see that Cardinal Saharah's neck was going to get sliced open and kicked her backwards. The knife missed her and slashed across Namor's arm before Barbaralba could smash the face of the attacker with her stick. Namor spun around and jabbed a knife into the attacker's neck. Pulled it out and jabbed it into the back of the head of the next attacker that was going for the throat of Cardinal Saharah.

Barbaralba hit Namor with her stick as she jumped by him to hit the back of another head. Namor turn around to see an attacker jumping at him.

Sanskis had a knife in her chest. Barbaralba could see her struggling for air. The fist that had left the knife came back at Barbaralba and knocked her flat on her back. Namor jabbed his knife in the attacker's throat and looked around to see one last attacker smashing Narnok with his powerful fist. Namor threw his knife in to the attacker's back, made the few steps to get to him and drove his other knife into the back of his head.

Narnok crawled over to Sanskis to hold her while she took a few last breaths and tried to smile at him.

The fight was over. Any of the attackers not dead were not capable of fighting.

While the rest stood and watched, Narnok made his prayers and rituals for Sanskis before putting her in the river. He watched her drag slowly over the riverbed in the moon lit sky. There were two nearly full moons that shone down on Sanskis as she made her way slowly toward the ocean.

After having just made camp, they packed up camp quickly to find a safer place to sleep. To find out what kind of company they were in.

Narnok cried silently and repeatedly looked up into the sky and whispered his prayers. No one spoke until they reached the village from where their attackers came.

While they were trying to decide to go by in the night or set fire to it, they listened to the sounds and Namor calculated from the various architecture, the nature of the politics most likely responsible for its condition.

There was an obvious line, like in the city of sun temple, like in almost every village and city, of wealth and poverty. Judging from the estate, they had likely killed much of the ruling class. The owners. Owning that which Namor was certain belonged to the royal family. And from a fish point of view, no one.

The fish lived in the water running over the land and the royal family had forgotten it.

"I don't think they will challenge us in the village. Those who attacked us were likely from the estate which is about the same as a house of God. Or a castle."

The law of averages were with them. The only trouble they had ever had was with the rulers. The ruled seemed to be waiting for them. Waiting for deliverance.

Namor walked with certainty, like an animal that could smell his destination, into the center of the little village and found a soup kitchen. They all walked in and looked at all the eyes that met them. Silence ruled for what seemed a very long time until someone moved from the kitchen.

A young girl came out to greet the strangers.

"Welcome, excuse these people, we don't get visitors often."

The girl pointed to a wooden table with wooden benches and took Barbaralba by the hand and led her to the table.

"You are Barbaralba the fighter of Havatara. We have heard of you."

"You have heard of me."

"News travels along the coast and up the river and news of someone like you travels to everyone. News of someone like you, we wait for such news."

The girl's father nodded in agreement to the word of his daughter.

"May I bring seven brew."

"Yes."

The father returned almost immediately with seven brew. Namor drank from the cold glass and smiled. A good brew was a good sign that the brew master cared. If the brew master cared it was likely that his friends cared.

"Do you have rooms to let for the night. We have been sleeping in tents many days."

"You can have this place for the night. We have no rooms. You might prefer to stay at the estate if you have money. They have fine rooms that the let to pilgrims who travel to Snow City."

"We are coming from Snow City and we are not on a pilgrimage. We are on a tour of protocol from Angel Island."

Namor smiled at his own use of the name Angel Island. It was no longer appropriate to call it Castle City island or the royal family island.

"What is your protocol."

"We are still working on that. But it will start with the end of priest patrol and continue with a different form of governing."

"We have heard also that you are at war with us."

"We are at war with your military, your rulers. We are at war with our own rulers. Perhaps we are simply at war with the rules. And after a soup, we can talk about it."

"My daughter has taken you name. She answers only to Barbaralba since she has heard of your story."

His daughter came with bread and a bowl of soup. Her father rushed to the kitchen to bring two more bowls.

When all had their soup, the girl and her father went behind the bar and waited. He attempted to get his other guests to talk again among themselves. To keep them from staring at the visitors.

When the man saw the bowls were empty, he went to the table and offered to bring more.

"King Namor needs another brew."

"Yes. It is among the best. If there is no great danger of violence tonight, I will drink a few tonight."

"There will be no objection from the village of you being here. You can't go to the estate unless you register and pay. But they will not come here."

"That was something we should have known earlier. Now I am afraid there are not many men left at the estate."

Namor told the story while all listened. They were sad for Narnok's loss but happy for the loss of the ruling fat men.

The girl brought brew and took away the empty bowls before taking up the courage to sit beside Barbaralba. She touched her to see if Barbaralba was real. Barbaralba stuck her finger quickly in her navel.

Little Barbaralba asked not much bigger Barbaralba about fighting and about her travels. And Barbaralba told the story of jumping from the schooner and how they lived with Sanskis and Narnok. She told about entering the fighting games with the drunk men who mostly did not know how to fight. She told of the river trip and the journey over the ice to Snow City.

The longer the stories were told, the more the soup kitchen became full of the people of the village.

They all wanted to know about the war and Castle City and what was going to happen.

When Barbaralba took a break from her telling of their story, Namor told of the history of the war and the future of the two lands and what Angel Island had to offer Barbancor and why it was necessary to change how they lived. He explained about books and education and the advantages and dangers of knowledge and the inevitable destructive course of ignorance. He gave a voice to the fish in the rivers and oceans so that his listeners would understand that ultimately, the fish were giving of their flesh so that the crazy people could be well feed and strong so that they could enjoy life on the land and protect the domain of the fish for the fish and for themselves.

There was nothing new to his story. He often told such things and the more he told them the more he understood the necessity to attend continually to everything that happened on the planet. Or it would be forgotten. And most of the people would live in dirty poverty and the royal family and others like them would devour the riches of the land until the land gave up. Like it had on the island and like it had in the huge stinking cities and their rivers of Barbancor.

It was obviously in the nature of man to oppress others for added luxury. Namor had seen it in various forms in every city and town. In Snow City they had managed a system without violence. Maybe because it was obvious enough that there was too little to waste.

By the time the stories were coming to a close for the night, Little Barbaralba declared that she would become the leader of her village and there would be no more tyranny and ignorance. She would tell the people about the fish and their job to protect them and the land.

Namor told her to build a school and he would have the books sent so that she could teach her people about the world. He told her that one day they would come back to visit again. When the war was finally over.

In the morning, Barbaralba requisitioned three canoes from the family of dead men estate. Some angry women came out on their veranda to object in high-pitched screams. They were ignored.

Little Barbaralba pushed the canoes away from the bank and stood in the river waving each time Barbaralba looked back to smile.

"Come back soon."

chapter 24