Chapter Sixteen – Gun

Pazu hated seeing good equipment broken up. He'd been raised to respect machinery and to keep it running on a shoestring. The number of times he'd got Eckhmer to re-bore a cylinder or turn a new lining on a worn down bearing just to keep the old Clunker running. Investment in repairs to old machinery was worth it in a community like the Ravine's where if the machinery wasn't working you'd go without a meal. So dismantling the glider felt like a crime. Completely foreign to him.

He took off the wing support hoop and the cloth from the spars then set aside the spars and tail boom. Next he stripped out the canvas interior lining of the cockpit to expose the bolted sections of the big bucket that made up the body of the machine. He ripped out everything removable from the cockpit and then unbolted the sections. Finally he was left with only so much scrap iron and cloth. It was a sorry end to a machine that had saved their lives twice. It was no great flying craft but it deserved a better end. He picked through the wreck and pulled out a few items that he knew he could sell at that iron mongers in Porthaven. The wing hoop lifting winch was a good piece of equipment, it was a general purpose winch and gears and would fetch a fair price. Same went for the wing spar opening winch. The voice tubes with their covers, being brass, were something else valuable. The radio set was the best thing in there but when he turned it over and looked at it he saw a serial number stamped on the baseplate and a crown emblem embossed alongside. A military radio, no doubt acquired by some devious means at some time by old uncle. He couldn't risk selling it. One useful thing he found was the brass telescope which had fallen under the floor bracing. That went straight in his knapsack. The control column was again good steel but it so obviously came from a flying machine that he just didn't want to risk selling it.

By the light of his new miner's lamp he loaded up the small two-wheeled cart with the parts. He had thought about keeping the wing cloth and doing something with the spars to make a tent but it would be a lot to carry around, would slow them down and he thought they could sleep in barns or, if they had to, inns (he'd rather not be seen by anyone if he could help it, but if it had to be an inn they'd try and find one in a small village). No, a tent was a good idea but not practical to carry.

Just to be safe he covered the evidence with a tarpaulin. Sheeta had sat and watched him, had noted the dejection on his face, but when he was ready she took Ono's bridle and led the horse out of the yard, Pazu beside her. Fully dark now and with neither moon yet risen, it was a good night to be doing this. Only the faint starlight guided them, but Pazu was used to working in poor lit conditions and Sheeta, being a farmer, was able to find her way up the lane and along the pathway that led around the wall behind Small Top Field. They had almost got there when they had another reminder of why they were doing this. Three small military airships came over droning purposefully towards Kingsbury in the north east, a frigate escorting two plump supply vessels. They carried no navigation lights which was unusual. It was Sheeta who pointed out that this probably meant they were closed up on an operational war footing.

The old mine shaft lay within the ruins of a small building, a winding house probably. A pair of heavy wooden hatches covered the hole in the ground.

"Watch your step, it could be deep."

Pazu peered in but it was a black blank disc. Picking up one of the gliders cockpit bolts he tossed it in.

"One… two… three… four... fi…"

TONG! The deep distant muffled boom of the bolt hitting something a long way down rolled back up to them on the surface.

"Oh, wow, three hundred and fifty feet. No, you definitely want to watch your step here, Sheeta."

They backed the cart up towards the pit, let Ono out of the traces and tipped it up. The metal, canvas and junk slid off and went clanging, booming and donging down to darkness.

"What a waste."
"But it's done now. Tanner and Morwen no longer have any evidence at the farm. I feel a whole lot happier knowing that."
"You're right. Come on, let's get back."

Pazu dropped the wooden shutters back across the shaft while Sheeta backed Ono into the traces again. On the way back she spoke.

"Isn't it beautiful here, up on the hill."
"Hm."

They could see Porthaven in the distance, its lights twinkling and the blacker sea beyond the black farmland. Pazu thought both moons would probably rise together tonight, in an hour or so, and then the view would be even more beautiful. It would then be a lovers night, a night for sitting out on the cool blue silver hillside and holding someone's hand. Out on the sea they could faintly see the bobbing lights of the herring boats and to the south beyond Porthaven the faint chuffing of a train came to them on the night breeze.

It would be good to be able to relax and enjoy being with her, but Pazu was restless. He needed to be away, to put some distance between them and this farm, this town. Much as he wanted to sit down and just be with her, he couldn't, not tonight, there were things that worried him. But there was something he wanted to ask.

"Your name, your proper name, Lucita, what does it mean?"
"Lucita is the queen of the Laputan spirit world, she is like a mother, like the soil. Everything that grows comes from her, she is the source of all new life. She is the seed inside a man and the egg inside a woman. She's very special."

seed inside a man? men have seeds in them?

Pazu was puzzled by that.

"Tanner knows her."
"I know."
"You do?"
"Hm. He thanks her for growing the food he eats. Every time he has a meal, have you noticed how he sits quietly for a minute before he starts?"
"Yes, I was going to tell you that."
"Morwen does too although you won't have seen that because when they are together, like you see in the evening, he does it, and she's usually getting things ready. But when she and I have our lunch she does it."
"Don't you find that strange? That they know the same mother spirit that you are named after? Doesn't that mean they might be Laputans too?"
"I don't think so. When the flying age ended and our people came to earth, the islands landed in many places. There were lots and lots of people on them. There were lots of castles or islands, Pazu and thousands of people went to live on the land. I suppose their traditions have remained to this day, passed on to those who had always lived on earth. But compared to the millions on the earth already they were just a tiny drop."
"But even so, Tanner's ancestors – or Morwen's – must have had contact with Laputans."
"Possibly, but what use is that to us? There are almost no pure Laputans alive now Pazu, only a few up in the north of Gondoa. Even some of the people who live near me on other farms have Onthuo blood in them."
"Onthuo?"
"Onthuo means earth, the world. Literally it means everything, but it also means earth dwellers. Like Morwen..."
"And me."

Sheeta paused and looked at him. Pazu saw an odd expression on her face. He tried to fathom what that look meant but couldn't. It seemed that she disagreed with something. Pazu was puzzled but let it go. She spoke again.

"...People whose ancestors never lived on the floating islands. You know it's possible not even I am pure blood. My family may have married into Onthuo blood. My grand-mamma told me a lot about our history and traditions, she would sing me a lot of the old songs and tell me the poems but when she died I think there was still so much I didn't know. That's how the past is lost."
"Like me. I know nothing about my past at all. Not a thing. There was mom and dad who both died when I was eight. I have a very faint memory of a very ancient man, he might have been grandpa or a much older uncle, I just don't know. Other than them I know nothing. I suppose we've always lived in the Ravine, descended from people who've lived there centuries."
"It's sad in a way, the islands only came to earth seven hundred years ago but already we've forgotten so much. It's like we forgot deliberately, we deliberately didn't tell our children about the past as a way to forget it and live on the earth. There must have been something they wanted to forget very much."
"If all the islands had the power that Laputa had, I can see why."
"Oh, no, only four of them did."

Pazu stopped.

"Why?"
"The four castles. Laputa, Lahoromne, Lapendraes and Latormolo. They were the capital cities of the Four Kingdoms."
"Wow, you never said."
"It's a subject I don't talk about, because it's old history now and worthless."
"Don't say that. History isn't worthless. History is your past, it's like who you are. I hate not knowing my family's history. It's like… like I'm owed something and people decided before I was old enough to ask about it… like they decided I shouldn't know. That makes me cross. You should write down what you remember, what your granny said, I think it's important."
"What, and end up like Muska?"

He could hear the bitterness in her voice.

"No way, he was just crazy. Mad. But if you remember for good reasons, then that's good. Sheeta, if you don't even tell your childen then they'll know even less than you do. Your grandma told you a lot, why don't you want to pass that on?"
"The only other pure Laputan I've met is Muska. If people remember by doing what he did, I'd rather they forgot."
"You know I can't understand that. Yes, Muska is a bad example, but surely the songs and the poems and the stories are worth remembering. It's like, oh, I don't know, the great composers that are alive today writing great symphonies and in the future people arbitrarily deciding they should be just forgotten,"
"It isn't arbitrary, Pazu, it's very deliberate."

They had reached the farm now. He saw in her eyes that something about this touched a nerve with her. They'd argued here a week ago, he didn't want a repeat performance.

"Uh, alright. But surely the songs and poems are so nice. Worth remembering?"

Sheeta led the horse into the yard and backed the cart into the shed. She loosed Ono from his traces and led him to the water trough by the pump. As he drank she wiped a rug across his flanks. Pazu waited patiently, but it became clear she wasn't going to answer.

"What does he-ayerth mean?"

She looked at him sharply.

"Where did you hear that?"

Pazu was suddenly embarrassed.

"Uh, last night. When I put the flowers by your bedside. Um, you were talking in your sleep."
"What did I say?"

She came around the horse and stood close to him, her eyes sparkling. Pazu didn't like that sparkle, it wasn't a pretty sparkle at all.

"Um, I can't remember… hm.. yau he-ayerth… then something else. It ended in tuh. Om-e tuh."

Her sparkling eyes left his and looked down, she suddenly seemed much smaller and simply - less. Less angry with him, less certain. Less of a person.

"Don't know," she responded lamely, "Sounds like nothing I'd say, mumbling probably."

He knew she was lying.

"Sheeta? What is it?"
"Nothing you want to know Pazu. It's been a long day. A lot happened today. I'm tired."
"Don't go. At least not yet. What did I say wrong?"
"It's alright Pazu, not your fault. Mine. I should keep my mouth shut when I dream."
"We're leaving tomorrow."

stay with me

"Alright."
"Tanner will take us into town, I'll help him unload the barley and then we'll be on our way."
"Good. I want to go away from here. Become invisible."
"Alright. Sleep well Sheeta."

please stay

"And you, Pazu, sweet dreams."

She turned to go, something jumped inside him, made him speak.

"And you," she turned back, "I mean, sweet dreams. Not dreams in which you talk."

She grinned.

"Thanks. 'Night."
"Good night."

why didn't you make her stay?

He stood watching her go. Even when the kitchen door had been closed for over a minute, he realised he was still watching her, thinking. Pazu led Ono to his stall in the barn at the opposite end from the cows. He filled the horse's feedbox and water bucket and put the blanket over him.

He came back outside, the sky was lightening, Ptamos was coming around the planet one more time and washing the dark hills in her steely blue light. Pazu sat on the bench by the kitchen door.

seed? a man has a seed in him? you plant seeds though don't you? how does a man plant his seed?

He had no idea.

and Sheeta had said women had eggs. that's silly, chickens had eggs, women had babies.

One thing he'd learned tonight – Sheeta knew more about this seed and egg thing than he did. He could ask her if he wasn't so embarrassed by it all.

"Pazoo, lad?"
"Tanner?"
"Still awake?"
"Hm."
"Barley wagon to the railway sidin's tomorrer, yes?"
"Yes. Early?"

The man came out of the kitchen and sat beside him.

"Not 'specially. 'Tis a day early, I was gonna take it day after. But you two…"
"Yes, we need to go. Tanner, we don't want to go, its not that you know. But we do have to. For your safety mostly. And Morwen's."
"Aye. 'Tis best."

The boy and the man sat quietly side by side for a few moments.

"PazooTanner."

They had both spoken at once, interrupting each other.

"Uh, sorry, after you."
"Um. Well, yer know lad, we know yers not visitin' relatives. That much is plain. If yer were and there were a war startin' then yer'd jus' go home and wait 'til it all blew over, eh? So, well, we don' know what yers goin' into but it might be dangerous."
"Yes. We know."
"So. Well."

Tanner hesitated.

"So, here. Take this."

He took something from his pocket and held it out. It looked like a bundle of rags. Pazu took it. It was heavy. He unwrapped the oily cloth and looked at the thing in his hand. He thought of Laputa's throne room. He'd last seen one of these there. He'd hated the sight of it then, an evil, loathsome thing. A thing to kill with. He hated the sight of this one now. It was black with an oily blue sheen to it, a sheen like the colour of a dead fish. It looked exactly like Muska's. Carefully he picked it up in his right hand. It was heavy and the snub nose barrel of the revolver was like the eye of death looking around for another life to take away. Tanner held out a box, a box of bullets.

"Morwen don't even know I 'ave it. I's got me shotgun so if things turn bad we'll be alright. But I reckon' where you's goin' yer might be best off havin' it."
"I can't take this Tanner. I can't shoot a man."
"Yer niver know lad. War's comin' we both know it. We've no idea what it'll be like. These airships could fly anywhere, land troops anywhere. This farmyard could be a battlefield next week fer all we know. I ain't suggestin' yer go looking fer trouble lad. Quite the opposite. But yer needs to think who yers with. That girly o' yers, she needs lookin' after. Yer needs to be thinkin' o' her. Much as that thing might scare yer lad, there's a girly there what's worth defendin'. Are ye understandin' me?"
"Hm. I do."

Defend Sheeta. That was something he would do, had to do. No, wanted to do. Remembering what they had been through at Tepis Fortress and on Laputa, Pazu knew Tanner was right. If some other officer from the Government was ordered to follow up Muska's trail, even to find out what Muska had found and why he had died, then Pazu knew the trail would lead to Sheeta. And Sheeta still had the stone. If another Muska turned up Pazu wondered if he would have such misgivings about using the thing he held in his hand.

"Thanks, Tanner. I understand. I'll defend her."
"Good lad. Yer take good care o' her now, eh? Me and Morwen's taken a shine to young Miss Sheeter, so you two be careful. And come back ter see us some day, eh?"
"We will, Tanner, we will. And thanks."

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

9 – 10 March 2007

For author notes about Chapter Sixteen, please see my forum (click on my pen name)