Twenty-Eight
Tarlain had learned much since the Kallathik disclosure. The Atavists had been visiting for Season
after Season, along with radical members of the Church of the Prophet. Even then, the Kallathik had been slow to respond,
slow to do anything. Was it any wonder
that their rapid locomotion came as a complete revelation? The rumors and occasional evidence of
Kallathik disquiet over the Seasons had been the result of the constant pushing
from Atavist visitors, but now, somehow, the Atavists had been able to convince
the leaders of this sept that the time for action was nigh. It had to be linked to the instability of the
transition as much as anything. He
sighed and ran his fingers back through his hair, stopping the short pacing
back and forth across the dim chamber.
Everything he’d discussed with Din Baltir would come to nothing if this
hive and others joined together in the manner they were suggesting. Whether the Kallathik liked it or not, the
human population was here to stay. That
didn’t mean that those not a part of the Guild hierarchy had to suffer. What about the miners? What about the groups of itinerant
workers? The farm
workers? There were more here
than the Atavists.
The miners and farmers…
An idea was starting to
form. He linked his fingers behind his
neck and stared up at the low ceiling, then caught himself. He’d seen his father doing exactly the same
thing in his chambers when he was working through a knotty problem. It brought a quick grunt of surprise. Were such things passed down from parent to
child? He wondered briefly where his
father was now.
The noise of a Kallathik
moving down the passageway outside brought him back to the immediate. If he was going to have any success with the
creatures, he had to act soon. Who knew
what it would take to stop them, or alter their course once they had started?
He waited till the noise
of the Kallathik had faded, then slipped out into the dank passageway, headed
for the central chamber and the direction which the lines of hulking armored
forms had taken to the outside.
#
There seemed to be no
real order to the Kallathik grouping outside.
There were small clusters, there were larger groups, there
were even lines, spread out across the valley floor. Up near the main burrow entrance, four
Kallathik stood, looking out over the rest of their kind, motionless. If there was any communication between these
four, Tarlain could not tell from where he was.
He thought that at least two of those standing up there on the hillside
were familiar, but it was still hard to tell.
Wasting no more time, he strode across the open space heading for their
position.
As he approached, one of
the vast heads swiveled to face him. He
picked up his pace and stood a couple of feet away directly in front of it.
“I need to talk to you,”
he said, mustering as much authority as he could.
There was a pause, and
then the Kallathik spoke. “Talk,” it
said.
Tarlain wasn’t sure
whether it was a question or an invitation.
He swallowed, took a deep breath and looked the Kallathik straight in
its twinned pairs of eyes. “This is
wrong. There is a better way,” he said.
A slight shaking of the
Kallathik’s tail section and it turned its face away.
“No!” said Tarlain. “You will listen to me.”
The vast head turned
slowly back and the Kallathik readjusted the position of the spear it
held. Tarlain swallowed again, but this
was too important to let the gesture intimidate him. The creature said nothing, just fixing him
with its unreadable gaze.
“You are making the
wrong choice,” he said. “My people have
made wrong choices too, but there is a better way. What are you going to do? Seek out every last man woman and child and
kill them? You are a peaceful race. I know it.
You have no strife, no trouble among your kind. You don’t kill. You work together.”
“Kill,” said the
Kallathik. “You kill. You kill each other. You kill us.”
Tarlain frowned. “What?”
“Here, in the mines,
everywhere. We have seen and we have
remembered. We have learned the way.”
But that couldn’t be
right. If it was true, it had been kept
quiet within the machinations of the Guilds responsible. Tarlain’s mind was racing. How was he going to convince them of anything
if it was really true?
“If this is true, if all
of this is true,” he said, “why are you talking to me? Why do you not take that
spear you hold and drive it through my body?”
He slapped his chest in emphasis.
His heart was pounding in his ears.
It could all end here, all of it.
The Kallathik shifted
its grip as if considering. Tarlain
spread his arms wide, giving the Kallathik a clear and open target. Again it shifted, and then it gave a deep,
low growl, a sound Tarlain had never heard before. He waited, the moment dragging on for an
eternity.
“There are those of my
kind who would not hesitate,” he said.
Why do you hesitate?”
Silence.
“You said yourself that
there are two types of my people.
There’s more than that. What you
are doing is not right.”
He slowly lowered his
arms. “What do you want? What do your people want? We aren’t going away. You said so yourself. I don’t know why, but the Atavists want to
rid this world of all who are not their kind.
Maybe it’s just some Atavists; I don’t know. Our people are not all the same. Would you do this to your own kind?” He knew he was taking a risk with the
argument — he had no real knowledge of Kallathik history. None of them did.
Again there was the low
growl. Another Kallathik echoed the
sound, turning its head to look at Tarlain too.
He was getting their attention.
“Our people have used
your kind. These Atavists, these others
are using you too.”
Another of the Kallathik
clacked and burred something, but he couldn’t stop now.
“You have been treated
wrongly. Our own people have been
treated wrongly. Yes, it’s a time for
change. Everything is changing, but this
is not the way. You have to believe
me. I want this to stop as much as you
do. There is a way. I think there is a better way. Think about the forests. Think about the trees.”
Another head swiveled to
look at him. A quick
burr from another of the group, then another low growl. Tarlain had to find something that would make
sense to them. He glanced around, seeking…then saw one of the ajura wood totems near the edge of the hillside.
“The sacred ajura grows. It stands in peace. But there are parasites that grow upon them,
making some of them ill. You have seen
it. These plants suck the life from the
trees. They make them die. There are people who do the same thing. There are parasites and diseases amongst
us. Do you kill all the trees to rid
them of the parasites?” He had no idea
if the logic of the analogy would make any sense to them. Again he slapped his chest. “Now! Here!
I am here. I am one of them. Why do you not kill me?”
The Kallathik nearest
him went still.
“There is another
way. Listen to me. We can work together. Change will not be easy. Let us fix what should be fixed. If there are parasites, we will root them
out. We will purge this world of the
disease. If we must march on the Guilds,
then march we must, but let us do this together. Let me show you that we can work
together. Let me convince others of my
kind to march with us. Let me show
you. The miners, the
farmers, others. We can do
this. Give me that chance. I beg you.”
He could feel the passion washing inside him. His eyes were damp. The Kallathik were still.
Tarlain dropped his
hands to his sides, a great weariness washing over him. There was no reaction to tell him that
anything he’d said was having any real effect.
He looked from broad unreadable face to broad unreadable face. Nothing.
He was just about to try
and summon the energy for another attempt, when the lead Kallathik growled and
quickly followed it with a high chattering sound and a succession of short
clipped syllables.
As one, the four
Kallathik went still. All around the
valley, Kallathik went still.