The Days of Peleg (24 page)

Manno Capak’s body lay naked on a large altar of wood, completely exposed to the intense beams of
Apu Inti
. If left long enough, the heat would begin breaking down his body and removing his water. Soon he would begin to stink and
Apu Inti
would have his revenge on the one who had so carelessly allowed his life to end.

It was much better to make an offering to
Apu Inti
of the damaged or offending organ by burning it with the fires of the sun, returning the ashes to their creator, and then embalming and mummifying the remainder of the body speedily. By appeasing
Apu Inti
quickly, he showed mercy and did not send the stench and sickness that would otherwise follow.

Today they would see an entire body burned all at one time! There were rumors as to what sort of evil Manno Capak might have done to bring about the complete shutdown of his entire being.

Manco Cachi rose to preside over the funeral. He was dressed in the long black robes and tight leather helmet of his office, and was the Prime over all the servants of
Apu Inti
. He had positioned the pyre so that the seven-meter tall sculpture which had been built to honor the now dead Survivor could be seen behind him. Scaffolding for the
Kalasasaya
towered to his right, and just behind him to the left was a small gate to the temple of
Mama Quilla
, the goddess of the moon.

Some forty years earlier, a group of rebels and usurpers had been banished for claiming the
Mama Quilla
was the equal to
Apu Inti
. It was a distant memory, but their temple was now governed by women to prevent such a debacle from ever happening again.

There was a large red hole in the chest of Manno Capak where his failed heart had been surgically removed. It had been carefully dissected and its inner chambers diagrammed with great accuracy. The designing ingenuity of
Apu Inti
never ceased to amaze the priests, and they had reverently reassembled the damp portions and placed them in a wooden bowl trimmed with fiery gold bands.

Manco Cachi strode to a large dais behind the pyre and lifted the wooden bowl in his hands. The surrounding crowd quieted, and he kept his hand raised as he spoke.

“
Viracocha
once judged all of mankind—the descendants of
Pacha Tata
and
Pacha Mama
—with a great flood which destroyed the entire earth. He ripped apart the moons in the heavens and flung their remnants into the seas causing great earthquakes and volcanoes; forging islands from the oceans and mountains from the plains.

“In his mercy, he selected the Survivors, nine families, who arrived on the shores of this land in a barge with livestock and grain. The fortress of mountains rose to greet us, and we swore to build our lives on the summits to honor
Viracocha
and live as close to him as possible. Should the floods come again, we would be safely above them in his care.”

The High Priest paused for a moment of inner reflection. He remembered the Crossing, and the desire to flee any future deluges. All life and civilization had been destroyed in their former land. At least, this was the story which the original Survivors had decided upon—and the catechism which the new priests were all taught—for the glory of
Viracocha
.

The gold trim of the bowl caught the sunlight as he lowered the silent, re-assembled heart and placed it into the chest cavity of Manno Capak. When
Pacha Kama
formed the Earth, she had filled her veins with the blood of
Apu Inti
which had cooled into the large deposits of gold that were now found within the mountains.

“From ashes did
Apu Inti
form man, and to ashes, the body of Survivor Manno Capak shall return.”

Manco Chavin and three other priests approached the pyre with flaming torches and touched the corners. The pyre had been stacked with plenty of space for airflow, and tinder made with wood shavings and bits of lime were scattered throughout the small structure. Finally, tiny porcelain containers filled with carbon disulfide were placed in critical points throughout the kindling and would crack open as the heat assaulted them.

The wooden structure was immediately engulfed with flames that erupted skyward and licked around Manno Capak. His skin bubbled and smoldered while the crowd cheered as they witnessed this token representation of the true fires of
Apu Inti
. The intoxicating smoke made them all giddy and they were ecstatic that the sun god had honored their priests with such a ferocious fire.

Eventually the flames died down, and only a charred skeleton could be seen resting on the coals. They remained silent out of respect. The power to undo creation was astonishing, but it was nothing compared to the power which created life
from
ashes.

The priest brought out large shovels, and collected the smoldering bones and ashes and placed them in a wicker basket which had been soaked in water to prevent it from igniting. Clouds of smoke billowed out as the basket was raised high above the crowd, and flashes of light shot out from it as the sun reflected off of the gold threads woven into its sides.

That evening, the wind would follow
Apu Inti
as he traveled westward, and it would carry the ashes of Manno Capak, returning them across the sea to the abode of the sun.

Peleg shook his head in despair. They had passed the point where
any
interpretation of Kupé’s map offered hope of finding the former home of the islanders. He stared off into the north, hoping for one last glimpse of the port city which Kupé had claimed would be here.

Thaxad (along with his ever-present apprentice, Serug) had presented him with one of his new toys. It consisted of two simple glass discs—one slightly larger than the other. They reminded him how pools of water caused light to bend, and similarly, how some crystals and oddly shaped pieces of glass distorted images.

Thaxad claimed that the larger disc collected light and turned it towards the center, and if one were to look at it through the smaller disc, the image would expand giving the illusion that one was much closer to an object than he really was.

This evening Peleg was looking forward to see if he could make the moon and stars move closer after the sunset. He was riding
Zini
where he was supposed to be watching for his evening’s sunset measurements, but he kept looking astern and scanning the coast with its towering mountains for any hint of humanity.

Trees jumped out at him as he placed the two discs in alignment. He moved them upward slowly, and saw where the mighty mountains soared so high that trees were apparently unable to grow. Perhaps the winds that descended into the sea every evening depleted the mountains of their air so that no life was able to flourish.

All he wanted to see was a house, a small observatory, or even smoke from a fire, and he could go down and get Captain Phaxâd to turn the ship around. If Kupé’s seaport could be found, it would mean a possible new center of commerce.

The sun was starting to set, but Peleg was searching the tops of the mountains along the coastal curvature to the north. He held his refraction discs steady and saw a small dark cloud rise from behind the mountain’s edge.

It was a perfectly clear evening and a storm cloud was definitely out of place. He looked at it more intently, and saw that it was speeding westward; and was actually much smaller and closer than he had originally thought.

This was no storm cloud. It was a ball of smoke riding on the high winds. Suddenly a gold flash emanated from its base, and Peleg realized that something had caught the reflection of the setting sun.

It abruptly pitched, and began a fast descent as it caught the winds which flowed down the slopes. Although it kept its westward momentum, the smoking object began to move straight towards the
Urbat
and within minutes it would surely plunge into the sea behind them.

He shouted down to the deck hands and began reeling
Zini
in to her platform.

“Captain Phaxâd!” he yelled below. “I’ve found something! Turn the boat around! Back to the north!”

He could see the strange smoldering ball clearly now. There was a smooth black covering over the smoke, and he realized that it was a canopy not unlike the envelope which kept
Zini
aloft.

It was a small hot air balloon. And whatever was in the gondola
was certainly smoldering! It was probably just cinders by now, but the heat had brought it over the mountains.

Other men could see it now, and Captain Phaxâd ordered the sails lowered and all oarsmen to their posts.

By the time Peleg arrived on deck, steersmen had already plotted the object’s splashdown position and the
Urbat
was on its way.

He pulled the emergency vent-cord and
Zini
’s bubble of hot air escaped into the evening sky.

They arrived just in time to prevent the smoldering basket from sinking as it swiftly became waterlogged. Knives were used to cut the cords that held the black balloon which seemed to be made of cotton, and the gondola with its contents were hoisted up the side of the ship and placed in the center of the foredeck.

The basket was about one meter in diameter and was made of tightly woven reeds which were saturated with smelly black smoke and seawater.

“Whoever made
this
is certainly a candidate for commerce,” Peleg offered hopefully to the Captain.

“I’ll grant you that this is a sign of civilization,” Phaxâd nodded impassively. “But anyone can make a balloon.” Captain Phaxâd was not easily deterred from his cartographic mission—and of getting home.

The men gathered around making rude comments about the stench that came from the basket. The soot that wrapped around the braided reeds dripped like black tar unto the deck.

They began digging through the charcoaled contents of the basket which had been quickly cooled by the seawater. It was mostly burnt pieces of wood and…

The men stopped abruptly as Serug extracted a blackened object which looked like a human femur. There was a collective gasp, and then a renewed effort to excavate anything else that might be comprised of something other than wood.

Soon more bones were found, and a rib cage was discovered which had its sternum carved out. Finally, in the bottom corner of the basket, submerged in the soot and cinders, they found a large human skull.

“What is that awful smell?”

Utebbibassu emerged from the small hallway leading to their cabin. She stopped in puzzlement, and then approached, studying the sides of the basket.

“Gold!” she exclaimed. She approached the basket and studied the twisted reeds more closely. The other men drew in and they all saw what she meant.

Weaved throughout the braided reeds was a gold thread which decorated the basket and, in some places, outlined patchwork figurines. Her fingers brushed the fibers as they glinted in the evening sun and she announced that it was genuine. A cursory cleaning with the cotton balloon cloth revealed additional gold artwork.

Phaxâd studied the workmanship and finally made his pronouncement.

“Any civilization that can produce this would certainly be a fine candidate for trade.”

Anguished wailing was heard throughout the city for several days. Their High Minister had been slain! Women slapped their hands on their heads and men either huddled in the streets with disbelief, or shouted their rage to the skies. There were some attempts made to find relatives of Reu-Nathor and slay them—but most were unsuccessful.

The despondent mourning continued for weeks, and the citizens kept themselves covered in ashes. Their grief eventually abated from exhaustion, and their attention turned toward the widow of the one who had revealed so much to them. In a unanimous voice they demanded that she, Mentor Inanna, take the place of her husband and become the new
Ul-Minister of Knowledge
. Although she had certainly suffered more than them all, she placed her own grief aside and graciously accepted.

Mentor Inanna now sat in the top chamber of Heaven’s Gate and thought back to that day when the streets had erupted with screams and anger. She was also intrigued by the phenomena which had converted a city of reasoned citizens into a mass of disciples who were so obsessed with one man that their devotion had escalated to religious fervor at his demise. Although she missed her husband, one could learn much in this newly discovered art of crowd control.

Chapter 21

Ascension

“Faith is believing there is a law which surpasses the law of gravity—even when falling off a cliff.”

H
undreds of new stars leapt into his face as Peleg studied the heavens through his new refraction discs. It had been a month since he had first used them to look at the night sky, but now, high up in the mountains of this new land, the clear, cool view with no moon was even more breathtaking.