Lukpudo was silent.
Guo stared at the Chiton. So far away. A place of legends, and myths. And demons.
And pilgrims, she remembered. She turned to Kopporu.
“Have you spoken to the Pilgrims of the Way, Kopporu? The ones who go to the mountain?”
“Yes. Several times.”
“What do they say?”
“They say there are demons on the mountain. Demons from beyond the Clam. Monsters, who move like the wind and slay like the lightning.”
“Why then do they go there?”
Kopporu hesitated, searching for words. “They say—it is hard to understand. They say the demons are wise, as well as fierce. That they bring truth along with death. Justice itself, along with the flail of justice. They say that the battle leader of the demons is the most implacable punisher of evil which has ever lived in the world. A terrible creature, black as the night. But there is another demon, they say, who rules and commands.”
“They go there to learn from this demon?”
Kopporu made the gesture of negation.
“No, Guo. They go there to plead with her. She is the wisest being in the world, they say, the one who knows the secrets of life, and truth, and justice. But she is silent, and will not speak. Not even to her children.”
“Her children? She is—?”
“Yes, Guo. The Great Mother of demons.”
Guo stared at the mountain. Moments later, when she spoke, her voice was like bronze.
“We will go to the mountain. I would see this Great Mother of demons for myself. If it is true that she knows these things, I will make her speak to me.”
The battlemother gripped her mace.
“My people cry out for justice. If there is a secret of justice, I will have it from her. To hold such a thing secret would be evil beyond all evil.”
PART IV:
The Loom
Chapter 18
“I’ve got a bad feeling about this,” said Julius, watching the procession approach.
“Why?” asked Indira.
“Because I think we’ve become famous. And I think we’d have been better off if we’d just remained a small little bunch of happy-go-lucky, obscure, inconspicuous, fly-on-the-wall, nobody-type demons.”
He chewed his lip. “Mark my words. I speak from experience. Somehow or other, we Jews got famous early on in the game. We should have listened to the Speckites.”
“The who?”
“The Speckites. The Hebrews’ next-door neighbors. You never heard of them?”
Indira frowned suspiciously. “No, I haven’t.”
“Imagine that! And you—an historian. Just goes to illustrate my point. The Hebrews went for the bright lights of Broadway and the Speckites stayed anonymous. Guess which one of us caught hell for the next few thousand years?”
Indira snorted. Privately, she thought Julius was probably right. But—
What’s done is done.
She couldn’t begin to estimate how many gukuy were in the column approaching them. Hundreds, she thought—possibly thousands. The head of the column was just entering the village; the tail of it was still not in sight. All down the valley, three or four abreast, marched the Pilgrims.
On either side of the column, scattered along its length, members of Takashi’s platoon acted as an honor guard. The platoon had been stationed in Fagoshau (as the gukuy called their settlement in the big valley) when the huge column of new Pilgrims arrived. After observing the progress of the column up the eastern slope of the Chiton, Takashi had sent a runner to the council requesting orders. The council, after a quick deliberation, had passed on a formal invitation for the newcomers to come and visit.
And they had—all of them.
At that moment, Takashi trotted up. When the young lieutenant drew up before her, Indira saw that he wasn’t even breathing hard—despite the fact that he had just finished running up and down the entire column at her request. As was so often the case now, she felt a contradictory mix of emotions. Admiration for the young man’s excellent physical condition; uneasiness because she knew it was the result of Joseph’s relentless military training.
Still, she wished Joseph were there. The Captain had been gone for days now, leading yet another punitive expedition against a party of slavers which had been spotted the week before on the southern plain near the Chiton.