Barry Longyear - Enemy Papers

"You will disband your warriors and make them hunters and farmers again, keeping only one sedenve of the Tsien Denvedah to do the bidding of the chief of servants in its quest to bring this world to peace and plenty. The rest shall return to raising children, hunting, living, and worshipping Aakva."

Conseh stood forth from the gathering. "Uhe, the servants must choose you as the chief of servants."

"No." Uhe looked down at the rocks of Butaan Mountain. "You will go now and do my bidding." Uhe motioned toward the old Mavedah chief of servants. "Iyjiia, you shall remain here."

The assembled warmasters walked slowly from the mountain. When they had gone, Iyjiia held out its hands and then let them fall to its sides. "What do you want of me, Uhe? Am I to be killed to clear the way for this new Sindie chief of servants?"

Uhe pulled the hide-wrapped black metal knife from its sash and pointed it at the old servant. Uhe spoke: "Things must change, Iyjiia Those who obstruct the salvation of the Sindie must step aside. Laws that obstruct this same salvation must be put aside. Do you understand this?"

Iyjiia bowed its head. "I understand."

Uhe removed the hide covering from the knife and let the skin fall to the ground. 'Iyjiia, I will end my life upon this mountain."

"No! You have brought us this far. You have unified the people. You must live to rule the Sindie."

Uhe knelt, looked up, and faced the God of the Day Light. "Iyjiia, what it takes to conquer a world is different than what is needed to rule a world."

"Perhaps this is fact, Uhe. But how do you know that you lack what it takes to rule a world?"

"I know, Iyjiia I have lied; I have stolen; I have murdered. Never should the ages be able to describe a Sindie ruler in such terms."

Iyjiia knelt next to Uhe, and placed a hand upon Uhe’s shoulder. "These were the necessities of war, of survival, of the times. We are all tainted."

"The times have changed, Iyjiia There is no need for war now, and no need for a master of warmasters. I must step aside. The servants must search among the Sindie and find one who is neither thief, blasphemer, murderer, or coward. Choose that one for your chief." Uhe looked at the old servant. "Iyjiia, will you hear my prayer?"

Iyjiia removed its hand from Uhe’s shoulder. "I will hear it."

Uhe faced the God of the Day Light. "Aakva, your old Law of Peace was wrong, and I have set it right. This is my crime, and my claim to virtue. Aakva, make yourself known to the Sindie, your children; feed them, keep them warm, and keep them safe. Aakva, in the name of your children, become a more perfect god."

Uhe then lifted its blade and fell upon it. It took but a moment and Uhe was dead.

It was Iyjiia who gathered the brush and sticks to burn Uhe’s body, allowing the pyre to carry Uhe’s life to the side of Aakva. Iyjiia remained upon Butaan Mountain for ten days and nights, praying as the servants gathered there. On the morning of the eleventh day, Iyjiia stood and addressed the servants:

"I have spoken with the God of the Day Light." Iyjiia pointed at the ashes of Uhe’s pyre. "Here we shall erect a tomb so that the ashes of Uhe the Conqueror may always be in peace. Around this tomb we shall construct a great temple that all may come and learn the story of Uhe. And around this temple the Sindie will settle and build a great city through which the people may learn, practice, and enjoy the lessons and blessings of Aakva."

A servant named Osa spoke to Iyjiia. "Has the God of the Day Light revealed to you the name of the next chief of the Sindie servants?"

"There is a child that Uhe took from the ashes of the Diruvedah. Uhe named the child Sindieah. Before it died, Uhe said that the ruler of the Sindie must be one who is not tainted by either war or cowardice. Too young to know war, Sindieah cannot be tainted by war. And it had the courage to live when its people had only the courage to die.

"We, the servants of Aakva, shall rear this child. And when it performs the rites of adulthood, we shall make Sindieah the chief and ruler of the Sindie."

The tomb was built, the temple begun, and the city named Butaan soon covered the mountain, while the world surrounding the mountain lived in peace and plenty under the rule of Sindieah.

All praised the wisdom of Aakva.

I, Mistaan, set down before you the words of Namndas and Vehya who recited before me the life of Shizumaat and the second truth.

I am Namndas, child of Piera, who was the child of Rukor, who was the child of Ivey, warrior of Uhe’s Seventh Denve. I stand before you here to speak of Shizumaat, for I was Shizumaat’s childhood friend and companion, and I was the one who stood the watch at the mark.

Sindieah Nu the Ancient was the child of Sindieah, Born of Fire. The rule of Sindieah Nu was marked by an increase in the road system begun by its parent, the expansion of cultivated crops in both the Kudah and the Dirudah, and the beginning of the great project to irrigate the Madah by tapping the hidden reservoirs in the Akkujah Mountains.

Regional centers, each governed by a servant appointed by Sindieah Nu, settled disputes, caused way stations and granaries to be built, and built and maintained the roads.

The works ordered by the servants and their chief were accomplished by each Sindie’s performance of Aakva’s Laws of Gift and Labor handed down by the servants during Sindieah’s rule. When the harvests were plentiful, the Law could be served by giving one-twelfth of the harvest to be stored in the granaries. When the crops were poor, each adult over the age of four years had to spend at least one day out of twelve working under the direction of the servants. In exchange for this, the workers were fed from the granaries administered by the servants of Aakva.

The firstborn of Sindieah Nu was Sindieah Ay. And after its parent had retired from the servants, and during Sindieah Ay’s rule of the servants of Aakva, the Temple of Uhe was completed. The cut-stone walls of the temple were as tall as eight Sindie and they enclosed an area of sixty by ninety paces. The roof of wooden beams and slabstone was supported by square stone columns arranged in six proportionate rectangles. At the center of the smallest rectangle was the great stone tomb that covered Uhe’s ashes.

The eastern wall of the temple was an open row of stone columns. Northern and southern walls each had center doorways only two paces wide. The wall facing the Madah had no opening. During the day, light was provided by the Parent of All; during the night, light was provided by the three hundred oil lamps that were suspended from the temple’s great ceiling.

The shelters around the temple were separated by narrow streets, and were made of both stone and wood. In one of these houses, covered by the afternoon shadow of the temple, a Sindie shaper of iron, in Butaan to perform its duty to Aakva through labor, gave birth to a child. The shaper of iron’s name was Caduah, and Caduah named its offspring Child of Duty, Shizumaat.

Because of the birth of the child, and because Caduah had received from those who served Sindieah Ay’s court several commissions for iron house ornaments, the shaper of iron made its permanent home in Butaan. Caduah was a dutiful worshipper of Aakva, and Caduah instructed its child in the ways and truths of the God of the Day Light, and of the servants. Shizumaat learned the story of creation, the laws as revealed to Rhada, and the story of Uhe.

On the beginning of Shizumaat’s third year, Caduah entered its child in the temple to perform before the servants the rites of adulthood. Shizumaat recited the story of creation, the laws, and the story of Uhe; and then Shizumaat recited its family line from its parent, Caduah, to the founder of its line, the Mavedah hunter called Limish.