Savages

Brendan Ball

Description

This triptych of stylistically diverse stories - on the unifying theme of the occult, mysticism and primitive religion - features three equally diverse protagonists: a revered tribal chief whose life depends on concealing signs of age, a debonair daemon suffering professional ennui in a staff training role without prospects, and a visionary moon colonist on the run from unrequited love who is blackmailed into sham psychotherapy and drawn into a bloody labour dispute.

Sujets

• Short story

Informations

• Publié par: e-bookPartnership
• Date de parution: 31 octobre 2015
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781783018154
• Langue: English

Extrait

SAVAGES: A TRIPTYCH
 
 
(c) Brendan Ball , 2015 .
 
All rights reserved.
 
 
 
Table of contents
 
 
LONG LIVE THE KING
THE DEPOSITION
LUNAR SEAS
 
Acknowledgements
 
 
 
 
 
LONG LIVE THE KING
 
 
‘Now primitive peoples, as we have seen, sometimes believe that their safety and even that of the world is bound up with the life of one of these god-men... What catastrophes may not be expected from the gradual enfeeblement of his powers and their final extinction in death? The man-god must be killed as soon as he shows symptoms that his powers are beginning to fail, and his soul must be transferred to a vigorous successor before it has been seriously impaired by the threatened decay. ’
Frazer, The Golden Bough .
 
 
 
The King of Men stood naked before the Eye of Vision. He listened for footfall on the sand outside his house, but in the heat of morning heard only mosquitoes under the roof, flies on the wall among the hanging skulls of his enemies, and upon the floor the spiders and lizards and crawling things of the earth. In the Eye of Vision was the King of Men, and in the King of Men was Fear.
 
Of a devil came the Eye, a devil on a throne on the shoulders of men, carried flat from the sunset forest with fever in its bloodless skin. Half a moon it lay so, raving in tongues of its kind. And its men waited and watched, guarding ( not it , but its burdens ) , say ing only that it came for trade, no devil but a man, from a land across great water.
In that same moon went the King his father to rest as the King his father ’s father before him, his father after the fall of a tooth, his father’s father after the coming of a white hair one morning in the days of the rain. In rightness carried they the King-Spirit, and in rightness gave it: t he rainmakers brought the eggs of the rainbow-bird, and the first wives the Draught of Passing. And with the King his father still between worlds, lo, from fever rose the devil.
Of gain were its thoughts and for women its goods - for hair, ears, arms, fingers - and before the eyes of his people the King gave of them to his wives. And the devil asked , speaking with its white hands , to see the King alone. Unto the King’s house went the King and the devil, the King his father new asleep in the next. By the door waited Dancing Flame and Mighty Lion, and tall with his spear stood the King of Men .
On the devil’s white face were n o markings of kind. In the house of the King it bared its head ; a nd the colour of its hair was as men’s, but as ploughed with ashes. With its hands it told its sickness, its rising and its thanks.
And the King made no reply.
The devil took f rom its shoulder a stitched skin, and from the skin a jar and a comb . The jar was of a rock that let through light, and in it was a blackness not as water nor as sap. The devil opened it and took of the blackness , and through its own hair plough ed it with the comb . And lo, the ashes were no more, and the hair black as a child’s. The devil looked int o the eyes of the King of Men.
The King made no reply.
And the devil took from the skin a squared light as of hard water, and bade the King look upon it. The King looked; and lo, it captured his spirit.
With a shout as of war the King raised his spear; with the scream of a woman the devil fell , a crawling thing , beneath the skulls. Its hand let go the trap , and free was the King’s spirit. The King held his spear t o the throat of the devil , and called unto him Dancing Flame and Mighty Lion.
From the earth of his house the King raised the spirit trap. Cut into its handle of wood were markings of the devil’s kind . It captured the roof ; then across its face of hard water fell the skulls, then Mighty Lion’s arm and club, then again the head of the King. He drew back and was free, looked again, and again drew back. For in the spirit trap was an Eye of Vision.
And the King was as one understanding.
He spake unto Dancing Flame:
“Father of Full Harvest, is thy heart true unto me?”
And Dancing Flame said unto the King:
“As thou art the King of Men.”
The King spake unto Mighty Lion:
“Father of Midnight Storm, is thy heart true unto me?”
And Mighty Lion said unto the King:
“As thou art the King of Men.”
And the King of Men stood tall in his house. He held in his hand the Eye of Vision, and unto them he spake :
“ Take you hence t his devil that would capture the King-Spirit , and do unto it as your hearts command.”
Thenceforth before the Eye of Vision came none but the King.
 
Now , in the quiet of morning , he stepped back to see in it the whole of himself, his teeth white, his chest strong beneath the spirit-charm, his limbs, his manhood: in all his days none failed. But it was of no meaning. He lifted his hand to the one white hair between ear and eye. He pulled upon it , but it was not of length to pull .
H e listened : a ll was still. Unto his bed went the King of Men, and thence from deep among the skins took he the mud of the devil.
The seal of the jar came not. To break such a thing made noise and pieces. He tried again as a man kills fowl, and unto his hand came the seal .
There i n t he mud were the smell of evil and the track of the dead devil’s fingers. The King looked again in the Eye of Vision. In it were the door behind, the skulls hanging, himself a warrior, and Fear.
The mud to the touch was as that which eats a man. Unto his head the King brought his fingers , and so too the mud , and so too the touch of the devil. And lo, the white hair was no more.
Unto the door came footfall. The King of Men with the heart of a thief and the speed of a lizard hid again the jar. And the King stood tall in his house.
“Enter.”
Mighty Lion entered with the pot of water, and bowed at the feet of the King. In t he hair of Mighty Lion, who carried not the King-spirit, whiteness even of bone were of no meaning .
“Rise, father of Midnight Storm.”
Through the eyes of Mighty Lion passed a shadow. There was silence in the house of the King. And the King spake unto Mighty Lion:
“This day the King washes alone.”
Mighty Lion bowed and went from him, but the footfall stopped beyond the door. The King listened, and when it went, it went not unto the house of Mighty Lion.
The King of Men turned, and lo, upon his throne was the Eye of Vision. With the legs of an old man went the King unto it. Behind his eye on the side of his spear hand, the length and width of a scorpion-tail, as blood from a wound, ran the devil-mud. And the King was as one in the eye of the death-snake.
H e washed, touching not his hair, till the mark was no more. In the Eye of Vision he looked upon one side of his head and upon the other. Light spake wetness, but shadow spake it not.
Unto the door came footfall. The King hid again the Eye of Vision. He sat his throne and looked to the height of a man ’s eyes . And it was higher than his head . So t he King sat not, but stood tall in his house.
“Enter.”
Singing River entered with the King’s breakfast, her eyes lowered in rightness upon her breasts. She laid it before him.
The King spake unto her:
“Rise, mother of Aim Unfailing.”
She rose. From the hand of the first wife took a King , in rightness, the Draught of Passing. The King knew not if she ever thought upon it.
“Wife, is thy heart true unto me?”
She smiled.
“As thou art the King of Men.”
In her look was a question not of food or water. Of five children unto him was she mother. The King held high his head.
“Send unto me Drum of War.”
She bowed and went.
The King dressed and sat his throne to eat. But when he looked upon the water, he set down the food as one whose taste dies from him. There beneath the surface lay the blackness of the devil-mud, growing down as trees. His hand moved unto his head , but stopped and touched it not. He looked to the door.
The King of Men knelt and put his hands to the pot. And lo, a storm blew the evil-trees through the water. He looked to the floor as one seeing them painted there; and he poured it not , but carried it behind the throne to a place in the eyes of none .
T he King sat again before the food. None in the night saw the colour of water, but in the night st ood a guard before the house. N one, day or night, saw drink inside a man . But what kill ed not by touching the skin , kill ed perchance by touching the heart.
Came footfall. He put the food from him, and stood.
“Enter.”
Drum of War entered. Pale were his scars in the morning shade, for great were the deeds of his arm. He knelt before the King, and the King spake unto him:
“Father of Born in Thunder , is thy heart true unto me?”
And Drum of War said unto the King:
“As thou art the King of Men.”
“Rise.”
The King looked upon him. And the King, as one to whom an answer comes, stood tall in his house.
“Father of Born in Thunder , one seeks my death.”
Terrible were the eyes of Drum of War as he said unto the King:
“My arm is ready and my spear thirsts.”
The King of Men spake as one in pain:
“It is Mighty Lion. Come.”
And the King le d Drum of War behind the throne .
“Lo, in the water he brought unto me. Evil.”
And Drum of War came not near it. The King spake unto him as one whose heart is heavy:
“He goes now my name in the forest to speak. Unto the