Warlord of Kor
FIVE
They had some trouble getting cooperation from Horng on any furthermind-probing. The Hirlaji lived among some of the ruins out on the Flat,where the winds threw dust and sand against the weathered stone walls,leaving them worn smooth and rounded. The aliens kept these buildings insome state of repair, and there was a communal garden of the planet'sdark, fungoid plant life. As Rynason and Mara strode between the massivebuildings they passed several of the huge creatures; one or two of themturned and regarded the couple with dull eyes, and went on slowlythrough the grey shadows.
They found Horng sitting motionlessly at the edge of the cluster ofbuildings, gazing out over the Flat toward the low hills which stoodblack against the deep blue of the horizon sky. Rynason lowered thetelepather from his shoulder and approached him.
The alien made no motion of protest when Rynason hooked up theinterpreter, but when the Earthman raised the mike to speak, Horng's dryvoice spoke in the silence of the thin air and the machine's stylustraced out, THERE IS NO PURPOSE.
Rynason paused a moment, then said, "We're almost finished with ourreports. We should finish today."
THERE IS NO PURPOSE MEANING QUEST.
"No purpose to the report?" Rynason said after a moment. "It's importantto us, and we're almost finished. There would be even less purpose instopping now, when so much has been done."
Horng's large, leathery head turned toward him and Rynason felt theancient creature's heavy gaze on him like a shadow.
WE ARE ACCUSTOMED TO THAT.
"We don't think alike," Rynason said to him. "To me there is a purpose.Will you help me once more?"
There was no answer from the alien, only a slow nodding of his head toone side, which Rynason took for assent. He motioned Mara to set up thetelepather.
After their last experience Rynason could understand the creature'sreluctance to continue. Perhaps even his statement that there was nopurpose to the Earthmen's researches made sense--for could thecodification of the history of a dying race mean much to its lastmembers? Probably they didn't care; they walked slowly through the ruinsof their world and felt all around them fading, and the jumbled past intheir minds must be only one more thing that was to disappear.
And Rynason had not forgotten the terrified waves of hatred which hadblasted at him in Horng's mind--nor had Horng, he was sure.
Mara connected the leads of the telepather while the alien satmotionlessly, his dark eyes only occasionally watching either of them.When she was finished Rynason nodded for her to activate the linkage.
Then there was the rush of Horng's mind upon his, the dimthought-streams growing closer, the greyed images becoming sharper andwashing over him, and in a moment he felt his own thoughts merge withthem, felt the totality of his own consciousness blend with that ofHorng. They were together; they were almost one mind.
And in Horng he heard the whisper of distrust, of fear, and the echoesof that hatred which had struck at him once before. But they were in thebackground; all around him here on the surface was a pervading feelingof ... uselessness, resignation, almost of unreality. The calm which hehad noted before in Horng had been shaken and turned, and in its placewas this fog of hopelessness.
Tentatively, Rynason reached for the racial memories in that grey mind,feeling Horng's own consciousness heavy beside him. He found them,layers of thoughts of unknown aliens still alive here, the pictures andsounds of thousands of years past. He probed among them, looking againfor the memories of Tebron ... and found what he was searching for.
He was Tebron, marching across that vast Flat which he had seen before,the winds alive around him among the shuffling feet of his army. He feltthe muscles of his massive legs tight with weariness, and tasted thedryness of the air as he drew in long gasps. He was still hours from theCity, but they would rest before dawn....
Rynason turned among those memories, moving forward in them, and wasaware of Horng watching him. There was still the wariness in his mind,and a stir of anxiety, but it was blanketed by the tired hopelessness hehad seen. He reached further in the memories, and....
The temple-guard fell in the shadows, and one of his own warriorsstepped forward to retrieve his weapon. The remains of the guard's bodyrolled down three, four, five of the steps of the Temple, and stopped.His eyes lingered on that body for only a moment, and then he turned andwent up to the entrance.
There was a moaning of pain, or of fright, rising somewhere in his head;he was only partly aware of it. He walked into the shadows of thedoorway and paused. But only for a moment: there was no movement inside,and he stepped forward, down one step into the interior.
Screams echoed through the halls and corridors of the Temple--high andpiercing, growing in volume as they echoed, buffeting him almost intounconsciousness. He knew they were from Horng, but he fought them,watching his own steps across the dark inner room. He was Tebron Marl,king priest ruler of all Hirlaj, in the Temple of Kor, and he could feelthe stone solid beneath his feet. Sweat broke out on his back--his own,or Tebron's? But he _was_ Tebron, and he fought the blast of fear in hismind as though it were a battle for his very identity. He _was_ Tebron.
The screaming faded, and he stood in silence before the Altar of Kor.
So this is the source, he thought. For how many days had he foughttoward this? It was useless to remember; the muscles of his body wereremembrance enough, and the scar-tissue that hindered the movement ofone shoulder. If he remembered those battles he would again hear thefading echoes of enemy minds dying within his, and he had had enough ofthat. This was the goal, and it was his; perhaps there need be no moresuch killing.
He opened his mouth and spoke the words which he had learned so manyyears before, during his apprenticeship in the Region of Mines. Therituals of the Temple were always conducted in the ancient spokenlanguage; Kor demanded it, and only the priest-caste knew these words,for they were so old that their form had changed almost completely evenby the time his people had developed telepathy and discarded speech;they were not communicated to the rest of the people.
"I am Tebron Marl, king priest leader of all Hirlaj. I await your ordersguidance."
He knelt, according to ritual, and gazed up at the altar. The Eye of Korblinked there, a small circle of light in the dark room. The altar wassimple but massive; its heavy columns, built upon the traditional lines,supported the weight of the Eye. He watched its slow waxing and waning,and waited; within him, Rynason's mind stirred.
And Kor spoke.
_Remain motionless. Do not go forward._
He felt a child as a wave of sensitivity spread through all of his skinand his organs sped for a moment. Then it was true: in the Temple ofKor, the god leader really did speak.
"I await further words."
The Eye held his gaze almost hypnotically in the dimness. The voicesounded in the huge arched room. _The sciences quests of your race leadyou to extinction. The knowledge words offered to me by your priestsmake it clear that within a hundred years your race will leave itsplanet. You must not go forward, for that way lies the extermination ofall your race._
His mind swam; this was not what he had expected. The god leader Kor hadalways aided his people in their sciences; in the knowledge wordofferings they reported to the Eye the results of their studies, andoften, if asked properly, the god leader would clarify uncertaintieswhich they faced. But now he ordered an ending to research quests. Thiswas unthinkable! Knowledge was godhood; godhood was knowledge, of theessence; the essence was knowing understanding. To him, to his people,it was a unity--and now that unity repudiated itself. Faintly in thedarkness somewhere he again heard screaming.
"Are we to abandon all progress? Are the stars so dangerous?"
_The concept wish of progress must die within your people. There must beno purpose in any field of knowledge. You must remain motionless,consolidate what you have, and live in peace._ The Eye in the dimnessseemed larger and brighter the longer he looked at it; all else in theechoing room was darkness. _The stars are not dange
rous, but there is arace which rises with you, and it rises more rapidly. Should you expandinto the stars you will only meet that race sooner, and they will bestronger. They are more warlike than your people; already you arecapable of peace, and that must be your aim. Remain on your world;consolidate; cultivate the fruits of your civilization as it is, but donot go forward. In that way, you will have five thousand years beforethat race finds you, and if you are no threat to them they will notdestroy you._
He felt a rising anger in him as the god leader's words came to him inthe dark room, and a fear that lay deeper. He was a warrior, and aquester ... how could he give up all such pursuits, and how could he beexpected to force all his people to do the same? There would be no hopewish of advance, no curiosity ... no purpose.
"Is this other race so much more advanced than we are?" he asked.
He heard a low humming from the altar and the Eye grew brighter again._They are not so much ahead of you now ... but they are more warlike,and will therefore develop more quickly. In both your races, war is aquest which you use as a release for what is in you. Your sciencesquestings and your wars are the same thing ... you must suppress both.They are discontentment, and you will find that only in peace, if atall._
He dipped his head to one side, a gesture of acquiescence or agreement.He couldn't argue with the god leader Kor, and he had been wrong even tothink of it.
"How am I to suppress the race? Is it possible to convince each of themof the necessity for abandoning forgetting all questing?"
The Eye hummed, and grew brighter against the darkness of the carvedwall behind it, but it was some time before Kor spoke again. _It wouldbe impossible to convince every one. The reasons must be kept from them,and kept from the shared memories; you must not communicate my knowledgewords in any way. Consolidate your power, force peace upon them and leadthem into acceptance. The knowledge questing can be made to die withinthem. Remember that there will be no purpose ... in that they must findcontentment._
The king priest leader of all Hirlaj waited a moment, and was ready torise and leave when the Eye spoke again.
_You must abolish the priesthood. The knowledge which I have given toyou must die when you die._
He waited for a long time in the dim, suddenly cold hall for the godleader to speak again, then slowly rose and walked to the door, theimage of the Eye of Kor still bright in his vision. He stopped outsidethe doorway, hearing the soft wind of the city flowing slowly past thestone archway above him. One of his guards reached out and touched hismind tentatively, but he blocked his thoughts and strode heavily downthe steps past them.
The sound of the wind above him rose to a screaming, and suddenly it wasas though he were tumbling down the entire length of the stairway,fragments of sky and stone and faces flashing past in a kaleidoscope,and the screaming all around him. He almost reached for his bludgeon,but then he realized that he was not Tebron Marl ... he was Lee Rynason,and the screaming was Horng and he was being driven out of thosethoughts, tumbling through a thousand memories so fast he could notgrasp any one of them.
He withdrew from Horng's mind as though from a nightmare; he becameaware of his own body, lying in the dust of Hirlaj, and he opened hiseyes and motioned weakly to Mara to break the connection.
When she had done so he slowly sat up and shook his head, waiting for itto clear. For awhile he had been an ancient king of Hirlaj, and it tooksome time to return to the present, to his own consciousness. He wasdimly aware of Mara kneeling beside him, but he couldn't make out herwords at first.
"Are you all right? Are you sure? Look up at me, Lee, please."
He found himself nodding to reassure her, and then he saw the expressionon her face and felt the last wisps of alien fog clearing from his mind.There were tears in her eyes, and he touched the side of her face withhis hand and said, "I'm all right. But why don't you kiss me orsomething?"
She did, but before Rynason could really immerse himself in it she brokeaway and said, "You must have had a bad time with him! It was as thoughyou were dead."
He grinned a trifle sheepishly and said, "Well, it was engrossing. You'dbetter unhook the beast; he had a bad time of it too."
Mara rose and removed the wires from Horng gingerly. Rynason remainedsitting; some of the meaning of what he had just experienced was comingto him now. It certainly explained why the Hirlaji had suddenly passedfrom their war era into lasting peace, and why the memories had beenblocked. But could he credit those memories of a voice of an alien god?
And sitting in the dust at the edge of the vast Hirlaj plain the fullrealization came to him, as it could not when he had been Tebron. Notonly the Temple, but the Altar of Kor itself had been unmistakably theworkmanship of the Outsiders.