Robert Adams - The Savage Mountains

“Nor is Milo your enemy, Kohg. For even as all Gods are but Me, the encompassing One, so too are all men of all races brothers, could you poor mortals but see Truth. Milo attacked your people and seized their lands principally to shorten his border and so protect his people from your raiders. It is his aim to once more unite the lands and races upon this continent—not as slaves beneath his heel, such as would those whom you overheard, but as free, happy and prosperous folk.

“Does this man—for, man he is; mortal man born of woman, for all that some name him ‘god’—succeed, does he choose the proper combination of alternatives, as little as seven thousand moons may see this land once again as great and mighty as it was twelve thousand moons agone.

“This Milo is only your enemy because first your forefathers, then you, have made him such. If you and your folk choose to freely join with his Confederation, you will be welcomed and heaped with honors. If you choose to fight on I can see no future for the Ahrmehnee, save as scattered, homeless, wandering remnants of a race. But it is you who must now choose, Kohg.”

The nahkhahrah blinked the future and found it just as the Lady had stated; small family groups of Ahrmehnee, thin and ragged, barely existing in caves and makeshift tents, while being hunted like beasts by the Muhkohee, who had taken over Ahrmehnee valleys and rebuilt the war-shattered villages. He did not stay, for this possible future was too terrible to long contemplate.

And again he went soaring over the moon-bathed mountains, north and east this time. Just beyond his own village, he came to ground. Unseen, he passed between the guards and entered the tent of the brahbehrnuh, finding the young woman alone. Slowly, before her frightened and wondering eyes, he blinked his form visible.

“Listen to me, child.” The brahbehrnuh could see his lips move, shape the words. Nonetheless, they seemed more within her head than upon her ears. “Your home is no more, nor your folk. Those whom we knew as People-of-Powers and of Our Lady were not; rather were they Monsters of the Great and Ancient Evil. They it was who slew your folk and despoiled your treasure, then destroyed your hold by means of the smoking fissure.

“Now, they bear their ill-gotten booty south and west upon the backs of many mules. There be but few of them, child, less than a hundred. Avenging the murders of one’s own folk is a Sacred Duty. At dawn you must arm your Maidens and ride. You will ride with Her blessing.”

The brahbehrnuh was not without real courage even in so eerie a situation as this, and she resolutely gathered that courage. “How … how came you here, without my guards? And how know you, who are only a man, of the Hoofprint of the Goddess’s Steed, that which you called ‘smoking fissure’?”

“Child, child, how can I make you understand? This night I am as one with Her, I ride with Her across the skies and can see all that She sees. It is only through Her powers that you look now upon my likeness, for my body actually lies yonder, within the council house.”

The brahbehrnuh shivered, despite herself. Then, “If you … if you are a … a part of Our Lady, I … will believe, will do all that you can say if … if … if you will tell me my name. Tell me my secret name, the name I chose when first I became bahbehrnuh, the name which not even my lover knows, the name I have silently whispered only to the Goddess at Her shrine.”

The nahkhahrah smiled gently. “It is a beautiful name, child. It was the name of my dear mother. It is Rahksahnah.”

All the blood drained from the brahbehrnuh’s face, her strong legs wobbled, and only her grasp upon the table kept her from falling. She tried to speak, but could only gasp and stutter. Then, finally, she found her voice, though it was as weak as her body.

“I believe. It shall be as you, as She commands. The Maidens will ride at dawn.”

The nahkhahrah briefly flickered out, then reappeared to add, “Pass wide of what was your home, Rahksahnah. The entrance now is sealed. To scale the heights and climb the walls would only be to die. And you must not die, for, ere you see my village again, you will find him who will make of you a true woman, give you a future of happiness and ease and children.

“I sense rebellion in your heart, child. Expel it. Yon must realize that the old ways of the Maidens are dead this night, dead and buried as the land which spawned you all will soon be. You must forget the past and accept the newness of the future, if you are to survive.

“Now I must leave you, for there is still much I must do ere the Lady complete Her journey.”

Again the nahkhahrah swooped east. Over the range to the Great Plateau, then high over the expanse of sere grasses and frozen, rocky soil to the newly raised ramparts—raw earth and green logs and ancient blocks of stone. Unseen, he stood upon the wallwalk while an officer made his rounds. The block of granite beside the nahkhahrah once had been polished and engraved and it still bore ancient letters: NAL BANK OF.

He blinked. He saw the whole of the building of which the stone had once been a part, saw the other buildings about it, saw the odd folk who walked and talked and laughed and ate and loved, saw their black roads striped with yellow and white. He saw the folk conveyed upon their roads in large and small magical wagons, which made fearsome noises and trailed smoke behind. He saw thousands of bright lights, of every conceivable color, shining boldly or flickering in and out of fantastical designs.

He blinked. He saw the buildings and the roads again, but gone were the folk, gone too were the lights., Few were the wagons and they obviously had lost their magic, for they sat smashed and torn and rusting upon the cracked, weed-springing roads. The buildings, also, were dirt-streaked, many were sagging, and their windows gaped like the eyesockets of the skulls in the council-house rafters.

He blinked. He saw the broken block, now forming a merlon atop the battlement of the lowlanders’ fort. He and his folk had pastured goats and cattle on this plateau time out of mind without ever suspecting that a city of the Earth-Gods lay beneath their feet.

“You have not much longer, My love. Hurry, Kohg, for soon I must send you back.”

Milo awakened all in a breath, his hand immediately seeking the familiar hilt of his pillow-sword. At the foot of his couch stood a tall old man, devoid of any clothing. The face, though seamed and wind-darkened, still was handsome and the unbowed, muscular body bore the scars of a warrior. A single glance at the set of the intelligent eyes and the big nose, hooked like a hawk’s beak, told the High Lord the man’s race.

“Ahrmehnee!” he breathed. “How the devil did you get in here, old man? What do you want? If you’ve come to slay me …”

The visitor shook his snowy mane. “I am aware that steel cannot harm you, Milo of Moral I am Kohg Taishyuhn, the nahkhahrah of the Thirteen Tribes of the Ahrmehnee. I am come to seek peace with you and a place for my people in your Confederation.”

Thoheeks Bili of Morguhn felt the first tingling and relaxed his mind to allow for easier farspeak.

“Bili,” beamed the High Lord, “our war with the Ahrmehnee is ended. Send word to all your columns to retire back to the trade road and return to Vawn through Baikuh. Take your own force and ride northwest. You are seeking a muletrain which is led by three of the Witchmen … well, one is a woman. If you meet a force of armored, mounted Ahnnehnee women, do not be surprised; they’re after the same quarry.

“I’d like to have at least one of the Witchfolk alive, but remember, what I’ve told you of them and their wiles and take no chances. The treasure they carry belongs rightfully to the Ahrmehnee warrior women of whom I just spoke. They are all virgins but, forgiving them that, the man who’s seeking a rich wife could scarcely do better to my way of thinking. By the by, Bili, the brahbehrnuh, their leader, is reputed to be a proud, long-legged, handsome creature named Rahksahnah. She is of a long-lived, gifted race and should throw good colts, many of them.