James Barclay - Once walked with Gods

A thin line of Al-Arynaar stood on the edge of the apron leading to the steps and more blocked access down the sides and to the rear. A few others stood on the steps, bows ready, but Katyett could see there was no desire to shoot.

‘Let’s get through this crowd, Pelyn. We need to hold them off until the rain comes.’

‘I’ll skirt left,’ said Pelyn, already motioning her warriors to move with her.

Katyett headed straight through the centre of the crowd.

‘Tais, make a path. No weapons. We move.’

Those at the rear of the crowd had sensed them coming and most were quick to move aside. Further in, attention was entirely on the temple. Katyett used her arms to ease people aside.

‘Move. Now. Disperse.’

The Tais came after her, fanning out into a chevron behind her. She heard muttered curses and insults. One ula turned and stood his ground. Katyett walked on.

‘Move or fall. Your choice,’ said Katyett. ‘I will walk to my temple unhindered.’

‘Time changes, TaiGethen. I name my right to stand here. You cannot touch me. Not any more.’

Katyett shook her head, dropped to her haunches and swept the ula’s feet from under him. He fell onto his side and rolled onto his back. Katyett stood astride him.

‘Wrong,’ she said.

The TaiGethen filled in around her, pushing back any who might come to his defence. The ula bunched his fists. Katyett sniffed.

‘I don’t want to hurt you. But if that’s what it takes to stop you, that is what I will do.’ She leant down towards him. ‘You are foolish if you think you can threaten the TaiGethen. Yniss guides us. Yniss keeps us for greater tasks. You are simply in the way. An impediment to be moved.’

‘There are too few of you. Not enough to stop what is coming.’

‘Go home, ula. Look to your real enemies. Those within your ranks who desire war and care nothing for your soul.’

Katyett stepped over the ula and reached down a hand. He looked on it with contempt and pushed himself quickly to his feet. Around them, the crowd had closed in, menacing, chanting the names of Tual and Lorius.

‘The time when you can tell me what to think and what to do is gone. Remember that.’

Katyett turned away from him and breasted through the crowd once more, ignoring the resistance, the shoulders turned into her chest and the feet seeking to trip her. In their midst, only one ula had displayed any courage, misplaced though it was. Unfortunately, one was enough.

When she broke through the front rank of the crowd, Katyett saw Pelyn deploying her Al-Arynaar across the temple apron. She stood on the steps just behind them. Katyett trotted up to join her, turning to look down on the gathering from which a little impetus had been taken.

‘Where’s the priest?’ asked Katyett.

‘Still on her way here from the beetle. Or hiding out somewhere until we can organise some calm, if she has any sense.’

‘How do we disperse them?’

‘I don’t know,’ said Pelyn. ‘I will not fire on them and I will not strike them with even the flat of a blade. I know some of these people. Ordinary folk. Woodworkers, bakers and potters. We can’t attack them.’

‘Then we must speak to them.’

‘Think they’ll listen?’

‘Not to me,’ said Katyett. ‘I appear to be of the wrong thread today.’

Pelyn spared her a wry smile. ‘All right. I’ll do what I can.’

‘Talk like Takaar. Engage them.’

‘I’ll bear it in mind.’

Katyett glanced up to the heavens. Cloud was moving in fast, bearing new rain. Those intent on firing the temple would have seen it too.

‘Tais,’ she said, confident the chanting crowd would not hear her. ‘Like in the chamber, watch the torches. Intercept when you must.’

Pelyn raised her hands.

‘Please. Please. Respect the piazza. Let me speak.’

Her voice was lost in the chanting and the howling of the crowd. Katyett clicked her tongue and the TaiGethen turned to her.

‘Call. Like Takaar when he raced to save his Tai, my friend, lost now on Hausolis.’

Katyett paused then raised her face and hands to the sky, leading her warriors.

‘Jal-e-a! Jal-e-a!’

Over and over, they called her name. Their voices joined, rose and resonated. Reverberating against the faces of the temples around the piazza and echoing into the canopy, where Cefu carried it to the heavens. A haunting sound, capturing the ear of every elf gathered before them. When the last echo of the TaiGethen voices had died away, there was relative silence. Pelyn nodded her thanks.

‘Lorius and Jarinn left the Gardaryn together. Friends just as when they entered but on two sides of a debate. No one denies the passion Takaar inspires-’ she glanced quickly at Katyett ‘-but passion must not be allowed to degenerate into violence and hate. Whatever Takaar’s crimes in your eyes, does this make Yniss and his temple a valid target? We are all the subjects of Yniss.

‘I am Tuali; my Al-Arynaar before you are drawn from every thread. Remember what Lorius said. The harmony must remain. Reduce this to a fight between threads and we risk wiping ourselves out. Just like before, when Takaar rose to save us.

‘Whatever our personal grievances. Whatever we believe the Ynissul to have done while hidden behind the coat-tails of Takaar, we cannot, must not descend into mindless conflict. We must not desecrate the places of our gods. If we rip down temple walls we are all truly lost.

‘I ask you, as your sister, as the leader of your Al-Arynaar, as a Tuali happy to work with every thread to bring our race prosperity and happiness, to disperse. Go to your homes. You really want to destroy a temple? I don’t think so.’

She paused. There were catcalls, there was insult and there was abuse of the Ynissul. But it was not concerted. However, the crowd did not move. Not a single one turned away. And the agitators saw they had not lost their hold just yet.

‘Disperse,’ said Pelyn. ‘We will not allow any damage to be caused to this or any other temple. Extinguish your torches and stopper your oil. The Al-Arynaar and the TaiGethen are sworn to protect Yniss from those who threaten it. Attack this temple and you attack Yniss. You also attack us. We have no wish to harm any of you but we will do what we must.’

Unease swept the crowd and Katyett wondered whether Pelyn had misjudged her last words. But they seemed to have the desired effect. Those with no real desire to face Yniss’s elite began to break away.

But then the first drops of rain began to fall.

And someone threw a torch.

Trust is a powerful ally and a deadly enemy. Jarinn and Lorius were bustled through the back of the Gardaryn. With them ran Olmaat and his TaiGethen cell. Comforting. The sounds of the city were haunting, like the rainforest before a hurricane struck. Full of echoes and aggression.

Outside the Gardaryn in the small delivery yard, Al-Arynaar were gathering. Olmaat paused to speak to one of them, an iad that Jarinn didn’t recognise. She was Gyalan by her slight build, frightened and angry.

‘There’s trouble already at the temple piazza,’ she said.

‘Are we clear to the river moorings?’ asked Olmaat.

‘Only the south-eastern bank. Take the route above the spice market, head through Beeth’s Retreat. It’s quiet there. Most of the trouble is brewing harbourside or on the Ultan bridge, what’s not herding towards the temples anyway.’

‘Good,’ said Olmaat. ‘Katyett should still be inside. Speak to her. Tell her about the temple piazza. We can’t afford desecration. Not of any temple. This isn’t a time to anger the gods.’

‘They are already angry,’ said the Al-Arynaar.

‘No,’ said Jarinn and Lorius as one. Jarinn moved to the iad and put a hand on her shoulder. ‘Our gods issue us with challenges, such that we may prove ourselves worthy of living in this paradise. What happened inside the Gardaryn is not an act against the gods. Yniss blesses the independence of every elf to make his or her decisions. That is part of our strength. What neither Yniss, nor Tual, nor Beeth, nor Gyal will accept is wanton destruction of hallowed building and earth. That is what Olmaat rightly fears. And it is what you must stop.’