Mara and Dann

  ‘Why are we stupid compared with them?’

  ‘We aren’t,’ said Candace. ‘We are as clever as we need to be for our lives. For the level of living we have now.’

  ‘And we are the same as those old people that had all that knowledge?’

  ‘Yes, we think so. One of the old records said that. Human beings are the same, but we become different according to how we have to live.’

  ‘I feel so stupid,’ said Mara.

  ‘You aren’t stupid. You came from a Rock Village and didn’t know anything but how to keep alive, and now you know everything we know. Mara, if we said to you, “Take charge of the food supplies,” or “Run the militia,” or “Manage the ganja and the poppy,” you could do it. You’ve learned what we know.’

  ‘Do we have Memories here with all that knowledge in their heads?’

  Candace smiled. It was the smile that made Mara feel like a small child. ‘No. We are very unimportant people. What we know has filtered down from those old Memories who kept all the knowledge there was in their heads – but only a little has reached us. But because we know that it is important to preserve the past, we train people to be Memories, when we can.’

  ‘Are you training me to be a Memory?’

  ‘Yes. But to understand what we have to tell you, you have to know first about practical things. It is no good telling you about different kinds of society or culture when you don’t know what you are living in. And now you do. Besides, we need good people to help us run things – we are so short of them. You must see that.’

  ‘When are you going to start teaching me?’

  ‘It seems to me you have made a start. You know the history of the Mahondis, right back to the beginning when we came down from the North, three thousand years ago.’

  ‘Are we the descendants of the old Memories?’

  ‘Yes, we are.’

  ‘The world,’ said Mara. ‘Tell me about the world.’

  At this point Meryx came in and said, ‘Mara, I was looking for you.’

  Walking around the edge of a building that held the stores of poppy, Mara came face to face with Kulik. There was no doubt of it. She was wearing Meryx’s clothes and the little cap into which she had bundled her hair. He stared at her: he was doubtful too. Last time he had seen her she had been a boy, half grown. She did not look much like she had in the Rock Village. But he did stare, and turned to stare again. He had got a job, pretending he was a Hadron, in their militia. They weren’t going to ask too many questions, being as short of people as they were. And now Mara saw him every day, as she went about with Meryx or with Juba. She had been afraid of him as a child and she was afraid now. She told Meryx who he was, and said he was cruel and dangerous. Meryx said that fitted him perfectly to be a member of the Hadron militia.

  It was time for the rainy season to start.

  ‘I seem to have spent my life watching the skies for rain,’ said Mara, and Meryx said, ‘I know what you mean.’ But he didn’t. Around Mara’s heart lay a heaviness, a foreboding, for she could not keep the thought out of her mind, It is not going to last. She fought this with, They say there have been droughts before: I might be wrong. I’ll say yes to Meryx and we’ll have a child and then …

  It did not rain. It was time to scatter the poppy seed and the ganja, but the earth was hard, and the wind blew away the seed. The ganja self-seeded and did better.

  Kira gave birth, and it was at once clear that what she had wanted was not a baby, but Juba, for she took the infant to Ida and said, ‘I don’t want it.’ Ida was transformed. She took into her house a woman from the fields who had wanted a child and failed, and the two women spent all their days watching over the infant.

  The water was low in the reservoirs, and so it was rationed. Instead of tubs being taken every day to the male slaves, now it was once a week. No longer could the courtyard women spend hours in the basins that were kept filled in the bathhouse. The people of the town, used to the morning and evening watercarts, were told that there would be one delivery a day, and the penalty for wasting water would be death.

  The townspeople were showing all kinds of initiative. In the dusty gardens were appearing food crops and – illegally – poppy. They began trading direct with the River Towns merchants. The Hadrons turned a blind eye, because that meant less food had to be found from the half-empty warehouses. Some old wells were discovered, and the owners sold water, and some even established bathhouses. The monopoly of water, which the Hadrons had used for so long to control the town, was weakened – not ended, for there were not many wells. But the Hadrons were losing power fast, and when Juba said that it would not be long before the ruling junta was ousted, no one disagreed.

  Meryx said to Mara, ‘Please live with me, and let me try to give you a child.’

  Mara moved in with Meryx and found herself overthrown by love. She had not imagined there could be such happiness. Nor that there could be such fear. For her to get pregnant – what a catastrophe, she knew it. Only in a dream or a fever could she possibly have seen herself with a child, here, where the drought was creeping up from the south. For the first month she lied about her fertile time, she was so afraid. But Meryx knew it and she could not bear what he was feeling. And so she abandoned herself as she might have thrown herself into a fast flowing river, thinking that she might or might not find landfall. And yet she loved him – and it was terrible.

  Meanwhile the rainy season trundled on. There was a brief, violent storm, enough to half fill the reservoirs. The river ran again from under the cliff. There was not another storm. The poppies sparsely sprang up, and died. They were replanted and there was patchy rain. The ganja was thick and odorous, but only half its usual height.

  The four babies were born, all of them strong and well formed. The other waiting women reminded Juba of his promise, but then two of the babies died. It was the drought sickness. Mara knew it, but the others did not, because they had never seen it. Mara told the two mothers and Ida’s nurse to sit by the babies and give them clean water, but the water was not really clean. The Kin commandeered water from one of the deep wells in a citizen’s garden, and it was thought that this was keeping Kira’s (or Ida’s?) baby and the other two surviving babies alive. The babies were sheltered inside the house because of the dust blowing about, and it was touching, and wonderful, and frightening, to see how all the Kin made excuses to go into the rooms where they were, to touch them, beg to hold them, watch them sleeping – men as well as the women.

  One day Kira was not there. She left a message for the Kin that she was going to try her chances up North.

  Mara was hurt by Kira’s leaving, as the Kin were. She thought, Why did I let myself love Meryx? It was better when I was hard and cold. Now I’m open to every feeling, and it hurts, loving Meryx.

  Their rooms were in Juba and Dromas’s house, and looked into a court where some cactuses were flowering. Mara and Meryx’s bed was a low, soft pallet, heaped with cushions. Mara lay in Meryx’s arms and thought how strange it was that this delight – lying with your love in a clean, soft, pretty place, and sometimes the scent from the cactus flowers blowing in – was something that could be taken for granted, as Meryx did. Mara let her palm slide down the smooth warmth of his arm, felt his hand close on her shoulder, and for her these were pleasures she felt newly with every breath she took: pleasures as fragile and sudden as the cactus flowers bursting impossibly out of dry brown skin. Meryx had lain with others before her, and he had always been with them in sweet-smelling beds, in rooms that were cool and kept the dust out. For him there was nothing extraordinary that two bodies with healthy flesh should lie wrapped around each other, while strong hearts beat their messages. Mara often did not sleep, not wanting to lose a moment of this delight, or she half-slept, or dreamed, and more than once she dreamed that it was Dann in her arms and this startled her awake and into grief. She knew that sometimes when she held Meryx she felt that he was part-child, and wondered if this was because of Dann; fo
r Meryx was not childish at all. Except in this one thing: that he did not know life was so like a cactus flower, and could disappear in a breath. And this was really what separated them. Strange that no one, even the cleverest, could know anything except by direct experience. All his life Meryx had been sheltered in the Kin, been safe, and that was why he could not hear when she whispered, ‘Meryx, it is not going to last. Let’s go now, while we can.’

  His hand often slid to her waist, and fingered the little ridge of skin the rope of coins had left there. She had had to trust him with her secret. She begged him not to tell the Kin, and he said he would not. She pushed the cord with its heavy knots into the middle of a big cushion that lived at the head of their bed. All the anxiety she carried with her, unable to subdue it, was concentrated on what was in that cushion. She insisted on cleaning this room herself, would not let anyone else do it. She sometimes came secretly to the room to put her hand down into the cushion and reassure herself. When Meryx saw her doing this he was unhappy, and said, ‘I believe that you care more for that little nest-egg of yours than you do for me.’ And she said, ‘Without that money we would not have reached here. We would have been killed on the road.’ She knew he did not understand, because he had never in his life been at that point where it could be life or death to own a root filled with juice, or a bit of dry bread, or a coin that could buy the right to be carried in a machine out of danger. He would let his fingers travel along the tiny, rough line of skin and say, ‘Mara, I sometimes wonder if you could have said no to me, to keep those coins a secret.’

  As that rainy season ended, with months of dry before even the possibility of skies that held the blessed water, there were rumours that bands of travellers were leaving Chelops for the North, and they were not passing through, from the south, but were from the Towers. More people had been living there than had been suspected. They were leaving because of water rationing. People living near the Towers sold water to anyone in them, whether fugitives, criminals or squatters. But now there was little water to sell.

  And then this happened. Mara was with Juba, in the warehouses that held the sacks of precious poppy and ganja. When she had first seen them, the warehouses were crammed to their roofs, but now were half empty: so much had been stolen, and then there had been the poor rainy season. What were they going to trade with, when the River Towns traders came next, if they reserved enough to keep the Hadrons happy?

  Mara was a little way from Juba, who was standing on a tall pile of sacks using a probe to make sure they held what they were supposed to, and not chalk or chaff. Kulik came to her and said loudly, ‘My replacement has not arrived, he is sick.’ Then he said, very low, ‘Your brother is on level two, Central Tower.’ And then aloud again, ‘I’ve been on duty twenty-four hours now.’ He winked at her, a slow closing of a fat, yellow eye, and there was such malevolence there, such hatred, that she literally went cold, and trembled. She told him loudly to go off and rest. As he turned, there was his smile, poisonous, a threat. She thought, How strange: all my childhood I was dodging out of the way of this man and now here I must be careful not to find myself in his hands again.

  She did not tell Juba about Dann, and this made her feel treacherous. But surely he must have known about Dann? His spies and the Hadrons’ – they knew everything. When she went back into her room she ran quickly to feel if the rope of coins was still there. They had gone. So Juba did know what Kulik had told her, and was making sure she would not bribe her way into the Towers? She was standing with her hand still deep inside the big cushion when Meryx came in, and what she saw on his face made her exclaim, ‘So you told the Kin about my coins? They knew all the time – ’

  ‘I had to, Mara. Surely you must see that?’

  She asked for a full assembly of the Kin, at once. They were all there. Meryx did not sit by her, as he had been doing, but was with Juba and Dromas. She was alone again.

  ‘You never trusted us,’ said Candace, saying in her tone, her manner, her cool, hard eyes, You aren’t really one of us.

  ‘And you don’t trust me,’ said Mara. ‘You’ve known Dann was there. You knew all the time and you didn’t tell me.’

  Juba said, ‘You see, Mara, we don’t think as highly of Dann as you seem to.’

  ‘You don’t know him.’

  ‘He’s dealing in drugs,’ said Juba.

  ‘And taking them,’ said Candace.

  ‘He sent me a message,’ said Mara. ‘Why now?’

  ‘We think it is because all the people from the Towers are leaving to go North,’ said Candace.

  ‘And he is ill, apparently,’ added Juba.

  Mara was silent, looking at the faces that seemed to press in on her: concerned faces, but calm, and at such a distance in experience, in feeling. And Meryx too: He could have sat by me, she thought.

  ‘What do you want us to do, Mara?’ asked Candace.

  ‘What I would like is for you to give me some soldiers to go with me to the Towers – all right, I know that you won’t. But you asked.’

  ‘And you know that everything depends on our keeping quiet, keeping out of sight, never making trouble.’

  ‘And all this,’ said Mara, ‘to preserve something that isn’t going to last anyway.’ She spoke low, falteringly, hardly able to look at them, because she knew how strong their defences were. And what their faces were saying was, Poor child, there she goes again.

  ‘We know that you are going to try to get to the Towers,’ said Juba, and his eyes were wet – yes, he was fond of her, Mara knew; they all were – and yet here she sat, and though she was wearing a green, flouncy dress, as pretty as anything there, and as fresh, and as clean, she felt as if she were still caked-with-dust Mara from the Rock Village.

  ‘We aren’t going to stop you,’ said Candace.

  ‘Are you going to give me back my money?’ she asked.

  Candace took the cord of coins out of a little bag, and threw it across to her. Mara caught it and could not stop herself quickly counting them – and saw critical looks being exchanged. ‘Did you think we were going to steal them?’ asked Candace gently.

  ‘Can we see them?’ asked Ida. ‘I’ve never seen a gold coin in my life.’ At this they all laughed. ‘Who has?’…‘None of us’…‘Only Mara’…were the comments.

  Mara untied half a dozen of the coins and put them to lie on a dark blue cushion. Everyone craned forward, then Juba reached for one and soon they were being passed around.

  ‘How lovely,’ sighed Ida. ‘You’re richer than any of us, Mara.’ And she handed her coin back. Soon Mara had all knotted safe.

  ‘If you take that to the Towers they’ll kill you for it,’ said Juba.

  ‘I can see you think I’m very stupid,’ said Mara. Then she said, deliberately, looking around, forcing them to look at her, ‘Dann came back for me to the Rock Village. He had got farther north than here. He didn’t have to come back. I would have died if he hadn’t. I owe him my life.’ This last stopped them, impressed them: if someone saved your life, it was a debt of honour, and must be repaid, in one way or another. ‘I’m going to try tomorrow. And if I don’t see you again – thank you,’ said Mara, through tears.

  ‘Wait,’ said Candace, and threw her another little bag that had in it the small, light, flimsy coins everyone used.

  In the room she had shared with Meryx she tied the cord tightly under her breasts, while he watched her. She took off the green dress, and put on the slave’s robe from the bottom of her sack. She folded the green robe and laid it on the bed. Meryx was so hurt by this that he grabbed it and made her put it in her sack. ‘Why?’ he accused her. ‘We haven’t suddenly become enemies, have we?’

  ‘I was wondering,’ said Mara. As he exclaimed, ‘No,’ she put on the little cloth cap that she had been wearing as she went about her work with Juba and Meryx. Now she looked like a Mahondi slave: short, smooth hair, little cap, the rough woven robe that had once been white. She took off her house shoes, and Meryx snatched the
m up and put them in her sack. She pushed them right down, close to the wonderful clothes she had carried with her all the way from the Rock Village, and which all the Kin had marvelled over.

  ‘I don’t know what to say to you,’ she said to him. ‘I know I’ll never lose my sadness that I didn’t give you the chance to show you are as fertile as your father. But surely it’s just as well – if I had been pregnant, or had a small baby, what would I be doing now?’

  ‘Staying with me,’ said Meryx.

  8

  Mara set off for the centre of Chelops watched by many pairs of eyes, as she knew. The Kin were watching from the windows, and who else? She had not directed herself westwards since the Kin had taken her in. The fields, the pastures for the milk beasts, the warehouses, the suburbs where the Hadrons lived, the reservoirs and the streams – all these spread to the east of the Mahondi quarter, and that is where she had walked and worked every day. Now, her back to the east, she strode out, fast, towards the great Towers, at first through the pleasant houses of the Mahondis, in their gardens, which were mostly neglected, since so many houses were empty. For the year of her stay in Chelops she had been inside the protection of the Kin, and had become accustomed to the feeling of being enclosed, like a child looking out at the world from safe arms. Now she was on her own again. She was walking through smaller houses, in a mesh of little crooked lanes, where a big tree stood at a corner, its leaves drooping, the shade under it no longer inviting passers-by to linger. Dust filmed it. Dust hung in the air, though the rainy season had only just finished. In a small, fenced garden a milk beast stood glaring, its tongue lolling: it had been fed and watered and perhaps petted, but its owner had fled, leaving it. Mara opened the gate, and saw how the beast had scarcely the vitality left to step out into the lane. Perhaps someone will help it, she thought. Now she was cautious, her eyes on the alert, because she knew that any person she encountered would probably be a Mahondi or Hadron spy. How empty the place was; had everyone left Chelops? This had been a big, populous city. The Towers were still a long way off. It was early afternoon now, and it would take her to mid-afternoon to reach them, and then she had to find Dann. The black of the Towers was dull, did not flash or gleam, but the great sullen buildings seemed to pulse out the stored heat of the drought. As the little lane she was following reached a big street, a running chair stood waiting for custom. This was the first of the spies, probably Juba’s. She asked the Mahondi slave between the shafts, how much. She could have sworn that he was on the point of shaking his head, Not for you. But he reflected and said, ‘Ten.’ She paid over ten of the ugly little flakes of coins and was soon being jogged along street after street, the Towers always coming nearer. Dann had done this work: both on these chairs, with one porter, and on the others, like boxes, that had two. She imagined his hard, muscular, thin back, his sprinting legs, between these shafts. This youth was tough, but perhaps too thin. Rations had been cut to the slaves, but surely not to hunger point? He had not asked where she was going, so he must have been told. She stopped him where the decent order of the streets gave way to the jumble of the crowded lanes and houses that had so long ago marked the first citizens’ revulsion from the Towers. And here, at last, were people. When she got out, she saw that he set down his shafts and leaned on the chair, watching her. She quickly moved out of his sight, and into an eating house that was only a room with a few tables and chairs, and a long trestle where stood plates of rough slices of bread and jugs of water. The place was quite full yet everyone turned to stare at her. Did slaves not come in here? She was thirsty, drank a glass of brownish water, and almost forgot to pay the woman proprietor, so used was she to not paying for anything. She sat in a corner, pretending indifference to her surroundings, and listened. They soon forgot her. They were poor people, wearing clothes that had come from Mahondi warehouses. These faces were sharp and dissatisfied. She was not shocked by what they were saying, nor even surprised, for already, having left behind the comparative riches and comfort of eastern Chelops, she was seeing it as they did. They did not distinguish between Hadron lords and Mahondi slaves, but saw them as one: ruthless, grabbing, cruel masters who stole everything good for themselves and doled out what was spare to them, the poor people. But above all, Mara was seeing those gentle, favoured suburbs as a narrow fringe on the edge of this hungry town, clinging on there at the edge of the real town – the town that had been real, because from the talk it was evident how fast people were leaving. The Mahondis and the Hadrons, for all their spies and their webs of information gatherers, had no idea of how they were hated, how happy any one of these people would be to cut their throats. And Mara could hear Candace’s indifferent, ‘Oh, there’ll always be some malcontents.’