Barry Longyear - Enemy Papers

She thought upon the universality of certain things: explanations, ideals, hopes. She picked up the tiny player, pulled herself out of bed, and began to walk the room as she listened to the Koda Ovida. The Story of Uhe.

It began with an explanation of the tabus that kept the four tribes from war. It continued with a story that began in a land… a land called the Madah.

Almost twelve thousand years ago, in a patch of hilly desert, before the world of Sindie was known to be a world, there was the Madah. It was a land of drought and famine.

The tribe of the Madah, the Mavedah, had been reduced to eating its own dead…

She heard Vunseleh’s footsteps enter the room, and moved to turn off the player. "Please, Joanne Nicole. Leave the story run. The reciter is Higa Tidanoa. Get on the bed, I shall apply your ointment, and we shall both listen."

She removed her robe and sat naked upon the bed. The story continued.

Near a fire was one of the lower servants of Aakva named Uhe. And that night Uhe sat and watched as its only child, Leuno, died of starvation. And Uhe watched as the food preparers carried Leuno’s small body toward the masters' fire.

Uhe said to the God of the Day Light:

"This, then, is your promise of plenty for keeping your Law of Peace, Aakva? Is this the mercy and reward of the Parent of All?"

Silence answered Uhe that night. And Uhe saw a child gnawing upon a piece of cured tent skin, while the child’s parent, a once proud hunter, watched with envy in its eyes. Near one of the hunters' fires, eight sat waiting for a child to make its last breath. When that breath ended, the pitifully wasted corpse would be apportioned among the hunters.

Uhe studied the faces of the hunters and saw that one of them was mouthing the curse of quick death. And the curse was for the child. And the one who cursed was the parent. And there was nothing but hunger in the parent’s eyes.

Rage drove the pain and fear from Uhe’s head. It was before that first night’s fire, the land still warm from Aakva’s touch, that Uhe stood before the tribe’s masters.

Uhe said:

"Bantumeh, great and honored ruler of the masters of the Mavedah, this night you have tasted the flesh of my child, Leuno."

And Bantumeh covered its face with its hands. "Your shame is our shame, poor Uhe."

Bantumeh uncovered a face wrinkled with age, pain, and the scars of many challenges to the rulership of the Mavedah.

"But we have all tasted either child, sibling, parent, or friend this year. There is no choice. To put our minds aside as we eat to keep the Mavedah alive is our sole hope. Your grief is understood; your reminder is out of place."

At the rebuke Uhe did not retire from the ring of masters, but instead pointed-east toward the Akkujah Mountains. "There, Bantumeh, is food for the Mavedah."

Bantumeh stood, its face crossed with anger. "You would have the Mavedah violate the tabus? Could we do such a thing, do you not think that I would already have done it?"

A master named Iyjiia who was the chief of Aakva’s servants, leaped to its feet.

"Uhe, this is a beast standing before the masters, not a servant of Aakva!" Iyjiia faced the other masters and filled its image with voice, for Iyjiia was thin and small in stature.

"The law is clear. The Mavedah is forbidden to enter the domain of the Irrveden, just as the Irrveden is forbidden to enter the Madah. It is tabu even for us to ask the Irrveden for food."

Iyjiia faced Uhe and pointed. "Even to wish this is tabu!"

Most of the masters nodded and muttered their agreement. It was a painful law to obey, but its wisdom was understood by all. To violate that law would again bring the wars to Sindie. This was the promise of Aakva, and the wars were too horrible to contemplate.

Uhe held out its arms and faced the night sky. "But I invoke a new vision from Aakva. Its old law was for a time and a place. Aakva speaks to me that the time is changed. And Aakva speaks to us all that the place is changed. It is time for a new law."

Iyjiia stood silent, for there was danger in disputing one’s claim to a vision. If the claim of the young Uhe were false, Uhe would suffer for it. But Iyjiia would pay the same price if it disputed a vision that turned out to be true law.

Iyjiia also saw that many members of the tribe had gathered around the ring of masters. Whether the law be true or not, if it promised food it might find support among that gathering crowd of armed hunters.

Iyjiia returned to its place in the ring of masters and said to Uhe, "Tell us your vision."

As was the custom, Uhe unfastened its covering of skins and stood naked before them to show the truth of its words.

"Aakva speaks to me now. It speaks of lush mountains to the east, where the darghat and the suda kneel to drink at the plentiful waters; where the trees are heavy with sweet fruits; the fields crowded with kadda melon and the white grain.

"Every evening Aakva’s hands of fire point beyond those mountains. It shows me the Diruvedah and the Kuvedah, their bellies bloated with fresh-cooked flesh; their grasslands crowded with game that leaps upon their spears; their children tall and laughing.

"Then Aakva points west of the mountains to this land of famine and the God of the Day Light says to me, 'Uhe, this is my sign that the Mavedah must leave this place. The masters of the Mavedah must go to their peoples, tell them of Aakva’s Law of War, and have them gather at the foot of the Akkujah Mountains where the cliffs of Akkujah fall to the Yellow Sea.

"From there I will lead the Mavedah across the mountains, through the land of the Irrveden, to the Dirudah. And the Mavedah will defeat the Diruvedah and will drive the Irrveden from the Great Cut and the southern Akkujah into the northern mountains."

Uhe stopped speaking, but it remained with arms outstretched. Uhe’s voice became low and grave as it continued.

"The Irrveden will try to join with the Kuvedah against us. But too fast will we attack. With the blood command of Aakva at our backs, we will strike north through the mountains, brushing the Irrveden aside. And then we will flood the lands of the Kuvedah with our victories! The Mavedah will rule all!"

Uhe lowered its arms, then stooped and retrieved its covering of skins. With its coverings replaced, Uhe faced Iyjiia. "And that is what the God of the Day Light says to me."

Bantumeh studied Uhe. "Wars? Are we to believe that the God of Day Light inflicts this ancient punishment upon us? What have we done?"

Uhe bowed. "Bantumeh, you are kind and wise. But you are too kind to meet this need of the Mavedah. It matters not what we have done. The old law will see the end of the Mavedah. Aakva’s new Law of War will see us, our children, and the Mavedah live."

Uhe talked to the masters and to the hunters crowded about the fire.

"I see there to be things worse than war. I see our glorious hunters grubbing in the dirt; I see the Mavedah eating now things too low to rank with waste; I see the Mavedah eating now things too precious and sacred to be food. And I see from this the end of the Mavedah."

Uhe faced the ruler of the Mavedah. "Bantumeh, there are things worse than war."

Iyjiia stood and waved its hands back and forth. "You cannot know this, Uhe. The oldest of us has never seen war. And this is only because we all obey the tabus."

Uhe faced Iyjiia.

"Mavedah does not fight Mavedah. Once there is nothing but Mavedah on Sindie, there can be no war. And thus the Mavedah will have both peace and plenty." Uhe let the silence of impending death fall over it.

"Iyjiia, do you dispute my vision?"

The hunters gathered around the ring of masters more closely and looked at Iyjiia. The tips of the hunters' spears glinted in the light from the fire. The night was still, save for the relentless press of the death drums.