‘And one of them, a powerful member of her race, created the Pantathians as her servants. They are an ancient race, raised up by this Dragon Lord from serpents in the swamps of Novindus. Artificial they may have been in their beginning, but they were bred to serve this one. She was called Alma-Lodaka.
‘When the Dragon Lords vanished, this race of twisted creatures believed that they were to abide until her return. By means I will not reveal, they have found a way to call her back from the place she resides.
‘The unfortunate consequence of such an act would be to destroy all life on this world.’
‘No,’ said several men. ‘That can’t be possible,’ said another.
‘Possible?’ asked Nakor. ‘What is possible?’ He reached into his sack and drew out an orange. He tossed it to Jerome. Then he took out another and threw it to Erik, and another to another man. After a few minutes, at least a score of oranges came out of the sack.
Calis said, ‘I thought it was apples?’
‘I went back to oranges a few years ago,’ said Nakor as he kept pulling more and more oranges out of the little sack. He held up the sack and showed everyone that it was empty, even turning it inside out. Then he reached in and drew more oranges out and started throwing them to the other soldiers, until more than five dozen oranges had come out of that small sack. ‘Possible?’ he asked.
He walked up to Jerome Handy, looked up at the big man, and said, ‘Do you think it possible that I could force you to your knees with one hand?’
Jerome’s eyes narrowed and his complexion flushed, and he said, ‘No, I don’t!’ Erik cleared his throat, and when Jerome turned to look, Erik nodded once toward Sho Pi, who stood behind him. Jerome saw the other Isalani raise a questioning eyebrow; then he turned to Nakor and stared at him for a long moment. Lowering his voice, he said, ‘But maybe you could do it with two hands.’
Nakor glanced over at Sho Pi and grinned. Turning away, he said, ‘Only need one.’
To the assembled company he said, ‘Take it on faith, you desperate men. This the Pantathians can do: they can end life as we know it on this world. No bird will sing to greet the dawn, and no insect will buzz from flower to flower. No seed will take root. No child will cry for his mother’s breast, and no thing that crawls, walks, or flies will survive.’
A young man Erik didn’t know well, David Gefflin, said, ‘Why would they do such a mad thing?’
‘Because they think this Dragon Lord, this Alma-Lodaka, is a goddess. A powerful being she was, but no goddess. Yet to these sick creatures, whom she created from snakes, she was. Their Mother-Goddess they call her. And they believe that to return her to this lifeless world will bring them into a state of grace with her, that she will make them first among all the new creatures she creates. So they believe and so they act. And this is why they must be opposed.’
‘How can they do this?’ asked Billy Goodwin.
‘How we will not say,’ answered Calis. ‘We will only say that the King and a few others know this secret. No others need know. All we need know is that it is our job to stop them.’
‘How?’ demanded Biggo. ‘You lost almost two thousand men, and from what you’ve said, their army is now twice the size of the one you faced.’
Calis looked around. ‘Because we don’t travel to Novindus to face this conquering army, Biggo. We travel to Novindus to join it.’
• Chapter Twelve • Arrival (#ulink_c69a9f68-79e3-5ba7-a475-9cf2b4ffff11)
Erik winced.
The roundhouse kick Nakor caught him with had been pulled, but it still stung.
‘You still charge like a mad bull,’ scolded the Isalani. His face was like wrinkled leather, but his eyes showed a youthful merriment. Sho Pi watched closely as his older countryman spun again, unexpectedly. Erik moved just in time to keep from getting kicked in the chest again, and snapped off a kick of his own, coming quickly back to a defensive position.
‘Why!’ shouted Nakor, scolding. ‘Why did you draw back?’
Erik blew out hard, sucking in air as perspiration poured from his face and body. Puffing, he said, Because … I would have been … off balance. That kick … was to get you to back off … not to hurt you. If I had followed up, you would have broken my neck.’
Nakor grinned, and once more Erik was struck by how this strange man, aboard their ship for less than a month now, had come to be so liked by everyone. He told outrageous stories, almost certainly all lies, and his habit of winning consistently at cards caused Erik to think him probably a cheat as well. But if a liar and cheat could be said to be trusted, Nakor was.
Sho Pi came to stand next to Nakor. ‘It is wise to know when to regroup, just as it is wise to know when to press.’ He bowed, and Erik returned the bow. At first, like the others, he had thought all the rituals strange, and had mocked them, but now, also like the others, he performed them without thought. In fact, he now admitted to himself that the rituals helped keep him focused.
‘Master –’ began Sho Pi.
‘I tell you again, boy, don’t call me master!’
The men laughed. Sho Pi had decided at some point during the week following Nakor’s arrival that Nakor was the master he had been sent to find. This had brought a consistent stream of denial from Nakor that was now in its third week. At least once in every conversation, Sho Pi called Nakor master and Nakor demanded he stop.
Sho Pi ignored the instruction. ‘I think we should show the men shi-to-ku.’
Nakor shook his head. ‘You show them. I’m tired. I’m going to go over there and eat an orange.’
Erik flexed his left shoulder, stiff from the blow to his chest. Sho Pi noticed. ‘That is bothering you?’
Erik nodded. ‘Caught me here,’ he said, pointing to just below his right pectoral muscle, ‘but I can feel it all the way through to my neck and elbow. My shoulder is tightening.’
‘Then come here,’ said Sho Pi.
Nakor watched and nodded as Sho Pi indicated Erik should kneel. He made a gesture with his right hand, then laid his hands upon Erik’s shoulder. Erik’s eyes widened as he felt heat flowing from Sho Pi’s hands. The throbbing in his shoulder quickly diminished. As he knelt there, Erik said, ‘What are you doing?’
Sho Pi said, ‘In my homeland it is known as reiki. There is healing energy in the body. It is what helps you recover from injuries and disease.’
As the heat loosened the bruised muscle, Erik said, ‘Can you teach me to do this?’
‘It takes a great deal of time –’ began Sho Pi.
‘Ha!’ shouted Nakor. Moving from the rail, he tossed a half-eaten orange over the side and said, ‘More monastic mumbo-jumbo! Reiki is no mystic meditation; there is no prayer. It’s a natural thing. Anyone can do it!’
Sho Pi smiled slightly as Nakor waved him aside. Standing over Erik, he said, ‘You want to do this?’
Erik said, ‘Yes.’
Nakor said, ‘Give me your right hand.’
Erik held it out, and Nakor turned it over, palm up. He closed his eyes and made some signs, then slapped Erik’s hand, hard. Erik felt his eyes water from the unexpected blow. ‘What did you do that for?’ he demanded.
‘Wakes up the energies. Now, hold your hand here.’ Nakor moved Erik’s hand to his shoulder. Erik felt the same heat flowing from his own hand he had felt from Sho Pi’s. ‘Without prayer or meditation, it flows,’ instructed Nakor. ‘It’s always on, so whatever you touch you will heal. Now I will show you what to touch.’ To Sho Pi he said, ‘I can teach these men to use the power in two days, boy. None of your mystic nonsense. The temples claim this is magic, but it isn’t even a good trick. It’s just that most people are too stupid to know they have the power or how to use it.’
Sho Pi looked at Nakor and feigned a serious expression, but his eyes were amused. ‘Yes, Master.’
‘And don’t call me master!’ shouted Nakor.
He instructed the men to circle around and began talking about the body’s natural healing energies. Erik was fascinated. He thought back to those horses he had treated, the ones who should have gotten better but didn’t, and the ones that recovered from injuries against any reasonable expectation of success, and he wondered how much of it was their spirit.
‘This energy is made of the stuff of life,’ said Nakor. ‘I think you are not stupid men, but you are also men who do not care much for those things I find so fascinating, so I will not try to explain to you what I think this stuff of life is. Leave it to say that this energy is everywhere, in all things living.’
Calis came up on deck and caught Nakor’s eyes. Something passed between them as Nakor said, ‘All living things are connected.’ Erik glanced back at where Roo sat, and noticed his friend had also caught the exchange.
Nakor went on to explain about how the body can heal itself, but that most people don’t know how to accept their own power. He demonstrated a few things the men needed to know to take full advantage of the reiki – where best to place their hands to achieve the desired effect, how to identify different types of injury and illness – but the energy seemed always to be there whenever they touched themselves or one another after Nakor had ‘awakened the power’ in their hands.
By midday all the men had been slapped on the hand and had spent hours practicing healing energies on one another. Nakor and Sho Pi had led them through a series of exercises designed to help them identify the sources of common problems and how to recognize the flow of energies in another’s body. At the midday meal the men were joking about this laying hands on one another, but they were also obviously impressed at the ability of this simple act to relieve aches and reduce swelling and generally make them feel better.
