Chapter 16
Aaroen
The Moon of Morning Mists gave way to the Moon of Falling Leaves and in the Moon of the Hungry Wolf, which followed, Tom roamed the north with a special cavalry unit. He was intent on hunting down Morgon and the remnants of his army.
The Empire was abandoning its outposts. Morgon had gathered the troops made available by this change in Imperial policy and had created a new force. Tom failed to make contact with him and returned to the south feeling frustrated.
He made straight for the royal apartments and was told that the queen was indisposed. From what his girls of his guard said it seemed more likely that she was dead. The information about Adrina was even more confusing. Some said she had died in the marshes. Others said she was alive and well.
He reached his room and found the door partly open. There was a shadow on the other side and it moved as he approached. Two feet were visible, clad in soft leather boots. He drew his short sword with his left hand and grasped his long sword with his right. The feet disappeared and he continued up the last few stairs, humming a little tune. Light spilled through the door. He drew his long sword and swept into the room in a two-sword stance, ready to take on any number of assailants.
'Oh ... Sky Warrior.'
He froze, swords poised menacingly. Adrina was sitting in a corner combing her long black hair. Her face was pale and she looked ill. But her dark eyes flashed as seductively as ever.
'Do you always enter your room in this manner?'
Her voice was mischievous but lacked its former carefree nature. Tom returned his swords to their sheaths. He was shocked to see how much weight she had lost. Her once shapely figure was scrawny and an ugly scar ran down her neck. He knelt beside her.
'I did my best to help.'
'There's no need to blame yourself.' Adrina squeezed his hand. 'What happened to me at Baddon Marsh was willed by the Holy Mother as a punishment for my presumption.'
'For your presumption?'
'I was vain and the Holy Mother blessed me with her lesson.'
She went on to tell him about her flight into the marshes and how she had met Alison. Tom listened as she told him about how she had suffered for her shortcomings and how Alison and Fury were suffering for theirs. It seemed they were being reborn.
Tom found it all very depressing. The idea of being reborn through suffering was sick. He was horrified to hear that Alison was going along with it. Miralda had indoctrinated her. The queen had told him about the strange old woman in the marshes.
He sat in silence as Adrina continued to recount her woes. She said her own process of rebirth was almost complete and she would soon be a worthy servant of the goddess. Tom decided that the process had little to recommend it. Adrina had lost much of her sparkle. There was little to remind him of the dynamic young woman who had caused such a scene at dinner on the night of his arrival.
Then she managed to recapture some of her old zest.
'Sky Warrior.'
She leant over and tweaked his ear.
'When I was in the marshes I met a man.'
'Are you saying you were a naughty girl?'
'No. I'm not talking about that.'
She smacked his wrist playfully.
'He's an old man and he doesn't excite me. But he does have a lot of interesting things to say. I think you should meet him.'
'What was he doing in the marshes?'
'He's a fugitive. He was once a senior member of the Duideth but he got thrown out after one of their silly arguments ... something about the Great Poof's radiance and the transmigration of soul lights.'
'That's not something I know much about,' Tom laughed.
'But you do know about eclipses. Aaroen says the Duideth are getting ready for one.'
'Who's Aaroen?'
'The priest I was telling you about.'
'Aaroen what?'
'He doesn't have any other names. He's famous and famous people get called by only one name ... like Balduur or Morgon or Sky Warrior.'
Tom took the remark as a compliment. 'Perhaps I should meet the distinguished gentleman.'
'You should. He thinks the Duideth have got it wrong.'
'Got what wrong?'
'The eclipse ... they're planning a big ceremony at which the Grand Master will call upon the Great Poof to banish Lady Moon from the sky.'
Tom recalled that the Mother Goddess was believed to shine her life-giving radiance from the moon.
'The Duideth think there's going to be an eclipse of the moon and Aaroen thinks they've got it wrong?' Tom asked.
'That's right. Just think what it will mean if those silly old fools have made a mistake. They'll look so stupid if nothing happens.'
Tom pondered the point.
'The trouble is,' Adrina continued, 'Aaroen's not sure they've got it wrong. He wonders if you could help. His emissary will be at the brewery at midday. I think you should go and meet him.'
***
Tom arrived at the brewery and found Thunder leaning over one of the huge wooden fermenting vats, sniffing the contents. The little man gave a nod and asked what he was doing there.
'I have a meeting with the royal copper smith,' Tom lied. 'We are engaged in the manufacture of a miraculous device which will extract the soul light from beer and mead.'
'You're talking about fire water again.'
'I am,' said Tom. 'I can't understand what you've got against it.'
'The consumption of beer and mead in their present forms is creating enough problems.' Thunder preened the ends of his moustache. 'Of course, if you are planning to supply it to the enemy, that would be a different matter.'
'That is my intention.'
Thunder continued his inspection of the vats. He went slowly from one to the next, sniffing the contents and examining the froth on the surface. Reaching the last, he signalled to a portly man with a leather apron.
'Brew Master, bring me a ladle.'
The man produced a huge wooden spoon and watched as Thunder dipped it into the brew.
'We seem to be short on hops. Her Majesty is very strict about hops. Make sure you get it right next time.'
He leant out and prodded a furry ball floating in the vat.
'Holy Mother. What's this?'
'A hare, Master.'
'Hare. It looks like a frigging rabbit to me.' Thunder pulled the small corpse towards him and turned to Tom. 'I'd like to have your opinion on this, Sky Warrior.'
Tom scrutinised the decaying lump of flesh.
'It looks to me like a rabbit with the tail cut off.'
'Right.' Thunder swung round to confront the Brew Master. 'The Sky Warrior believes this to be a rabbit. Do you agree?' He scooped up the animal and thrust it in the man's face.
'It does look a bit like one,' the Brew Master conceded.
'A bit like.' Thunder exploded. 'It's a frigging rabbit.'
'There's an awful shortage of hares.' The Brew Master turned to Tom. 'A young princess gave a giant a hare's paw. Now every girl from Dun Atoll to Galboreth is at it. There's hardly a hare to be found.'
Thunder threw the corpse back into the vat and rounded on the man. 'Stop making excuses. Her Majesty is very fussy when it comes to hares ... no substitutes ... that's an order.'
The man bowed.
'And no females.' Thunder barked. 'They're needed for breeding.'
He turned to Tom. 'Tell me, Sky Warrior, what would they do to a Brew Master in your former realm if they found him using rabbits instead of hares?'
'The problem wouldn't arise.'
'What do you mean?'
'They're not allowed to put meat in their beer anymore. It's supposed to be bad for you.'
'Bad. That is very difficult to understand. How can you get flavour into beer if you don't put meat into it?' Thunder reached out with his ladle and pushed the furry ball back beneath the froth. 'Holy Mother. I'm not surprised you left that place. The beer must have tasted like toad's piss.'
He turned to the Brew Master.
'Some proper beer for the Sky Warrior.'
The Brew Master stepped towards the vat.
'Not that awful stuff. That's got rabbit in it. Go and get some descent beer from the royal keg ... and bring a pair of drinking horns.'
The Brew Master shuffled outside.
Thunder turned to Tom.
'Right. Are you ready to meet him?'
'Meet who?'
'The friggin priest, of course ... the one who's come all the way from the marshes to hear what you've got to say about eclipses and clever things like that.'
Tom had assumed that Adrina's secret emissary would be someone unknown to him. In the event, it had been Thunder. He could only assume that the relationship between Thunder and Adrina had changed. The most likely explanation was that the queen was dead or dying and Adrina was being groomed for the succession. 'I'd be honoured to make the gentleman's acquaintance,' he replied.
Thunder screwed up his face. 'I wouldn't be so sure. There's more than a chance you won't like the nasty sod.'
'I can cope with that.'
'Yes. You've got skin like the end of a marsh toad's bum.' Thunder thrust out a stubby finger. 'Mind you're not rude to him. That priest could be useful to us.'
***
Tom entered the royal stables. There was a loft above the horse stalls. He pushed the door open and squeezed into the cramped space. A man was there, dressed in the robes of a priest. A staff leant against the wall beside him.
'Sky Warrior.' He rose as Tom entered. 'My name is Aaroen. There is no need for an introduction. Your fame travels before you.'
'His manners were different from those of the tribesmen ... far too slick and polished. Tom took an immediate dislike to him. He'd met scholarly arseholes before.
'I've heard so much about you,' the priest said.
'You have the advantage on me. I know nothing about you.'
Aaroen smiled. 'I have been in retreat in the marshes amongst the poor outcasts of this sad world.'
'I heard something about you having to go into hiding following a difference of opinion with the Grand Master of the Duideth.'
'It is correct that there was a dispute between myself and the present Grand Master of the fellowship,' Aaroen replied pedantically. 'Grimwald's concept of the septaggin is not only fallacious but is, moreover, a heretical interpretation of the divine tetrarch.'
'He's also a nasty little toad,' Tom said.
He moved to the centre of the loft and watched Aaroen sort through a stack of parchments. The priest found what he was looking for and held it up.
'I understand that you are knowledgeable about eclipses.'
'That's right.' Tom nodded. 'In my former realm we can predict the time of an eclipse to the smallest fraction of a heartbeat.'
'Did you tell Grimwald that?'
'I did. The little sod was going to do a deal with me. I was going to tell him about eclipses and he was going to tell me about the different realms of existence and how to travel between them.'
'He knows nothing about the realms,' Aaroen's voice boomed. 'Grimwald is an ignorant man, an usurper of the power of the septaggin and a blasphemer against the divine will ...'
Tom waited until the priest ran out of words.
'What do you know about the realms?'
'There are twelve,' Aaroen replied confidently. 'We are in the seventh. You journeyed here from the sixth and did so by following the Way of the Wizard.'
'I went up a realm,' Tom said.
'No.' Aaroen raised his head in a superior manner. 'You descended. The first realm is the highest. The twelfth is the lowest ... a most abominable and vile place.'
The revelation came as a shock but was not a total surprise.
'Her Majesty has often remarked that the place I came from seems to have many advantages over this one,' Tom said.
'In what way does she find it more attractive?'
'She's likes what I've told her about the religion.'
'Really.' Aaroen leant forward. 'Does religious practice in the sixth realm differ much from what you find here?'
'What I find here has a lot in common with what went on in my former realm in the past. By the time my people had reached the degree of material sophistication which I encounter amongst the village people here, they had abandoned the more barbaric aspects of the old religions.'
'Indeed.' Aaroen could scarcely contain his excitement. 'Did they adopt a new religion or modify the old?'
Tom embarked on a detailed account of every religious innovation since the advent of farming and Aaroen listened intently.'
'You do indeed come from a superior place,' the priest enthused. 'What you have said has been a revelation to me. A divine force brought you amongst us and its purpose was to bring the wisdom of the sixth realm to those who have not received the full revelation of the divine truth ...'
Aaroen droned on in a way Tom found intensely boring. He decided to bring the conversation back on track.
'Why do you want to know about eclipses?'
Aaroen handed him a sheet of parchment.
'When we were at Karnak we used this to predict eclipses. That ignorant man, Grimwald, does not understand that the blessed lines require modification before they can be employed in this more northerly land.'
Tom examined the parchment and tried to make sense of it. He'd long held the view that some of the megalithic monuments of his old realm had functioned as analogue computers. He had seen learned papers that claimed the monuments mimicked the heavens and could be used to predict lunar eclipses and other celestial events.
'Grimwald thinks that there will be an eclipse of the moon in four days,' Aaroen said. 'If he is wrong, that will bring great shame on him.'
'It certainly would,' Tom agreed.
'Will you look at his prediction and see if it is correct?'
Tom leant forward.
The parchment was covered in lines and circles. It reminded him of a diagram in a book by a famous astronomer who believed Stonehenge was used to predict celestial events.
***
The problem was daunting. Tom looked up from his calculations. The whitewashed wall of the stable was covered in equations and calculations but his endeavours were leading nowhere. Without a calculator the task was beyond him. He didn't even have access to trigonometric tables. He'd lectured on them in his university courses. He'd told his students how important they had been for the advancement of learning. Now, he realised just how true that was. Without the tables, he wasn't capable of the simplest geometric calculations. In short, he was wasting his time.
The crowd of onlookers failed to notice the look of desperation on his face. They were greatly impressed by the diagrams and symbols he had drawn on the wall with a stick of charcoal. None doubted that his good spells were more than a match for the evil spells of the priests of the Duideth.
Their idiotic chatter irritated him. He needed somewhere quiet where he could think without being disturbed. The queen had talked about a gully with shrines and statues. It was a place of solitude and he resolved to go there. He put down the charcoal, dismissed his guard and set off across the frosty fields, giving orders to be left alone.
He reached the gully and followed a narrow path into it. The frost had not penetrated the overhanging branches and the ground was green with moss and ferns. A stream trickled between boulders and the path ran amongst them. Crudely fashioned stone faces stared out from behind tree stumps. Oddly shaped icicles hung from branches.
There was something deeply moving about the place, something mystical. Tom was reminded of his childhood, of walks in the forest and playing in streams. He let his mind wander and a strange force propelled him along. Images from his past invaded his consciousness. He heard his mother scolding him for some childish misdemeanour. Moments later his teachers were reprimanding him. Voices nagged incessantly, each giving way to the next, each more recent than the last, as if he was growing older with every step.
Rounding a bend he heard crisp, military voices. They were questioning him about his unconventional ways of tackling delicate problems. He gave the answers he had always given and heard the voice of his commanding officer telling him he could resign his commission or face court martial.
Another twist in the path and other sounds thrust in upon him: the irritating sounds of academia. He blocked them out only to be confronted by a voice he could not dismiss. Molly Campbell was telling him to have no further contact with Alison.
Suddenly the voices ceased. He had reached a small clearing. Frost covered the ground and all was white again. A statue stood there. The figure of a man with two heads. One faced towards him and the other faced back. Tom recognised it at once. The statue was a Janus figure and represented all things past, present and future. The head facing him looked into the past.
There was something mocking about the statue. A thick layer of frost covered the thin lips, distorting them into an idiotic grin. Tom had the feeling the grin was meant for him. He adjusted his sword harness. The statue seemed threatening. Or, was it questioning him ... making him stop and think about the future?
The thought crossed his mind and he remembered something the queen had said about his soul light.
'Where was it going?'
He had always prided himself on not being religious, except for social purposes. Yet, the old woman's question had lodged in his mind. He looked at the statue and wondered what the other side had to offer.
A few more steps took him from the present into the future. Voices chanted his name, adding it to a list of heroes from the past. A shudder ran down his spine. He remembered Molly Campbell taunting him about his fascination for the hero god.
She had reminded him that the god arrived as if from nowhere, did great deeds and was brutally killed when he'd served his purpose. The similarity with his present position was all too obvious.
He retraced his steps thinking about the eclipse. The walk had cleared his mind. It didn't matter that he couldn't do the calculations. He was committed to issue a challenge to the Duideth. Eclipses were difficult to predict. The silly fuckwits had almost certainly got it wrong.