Small Gods

Fundamentally true.

‘I have something to show you that may amuse you,’ said Vorbis, standing up. ‘Can you walk?’

‘Oh, yes. Nhumrod was just being kind. It’s mainly sunburn.’

As they moved away, Brutha saw something he hadn’t noticed before. There were members of the Holy Guard, armed with bows, in the garden. They were in the shade of trees, or amongst bushes — not too obvious, but not exactly hidden.

Steps led from the garden to the maze of underground tunnels and rooms that underlay the Temple and, indeed, the whole of the Citadel. Noiselessly, a couple of guards fell in behind them at a respectful distance.

Brutha followed Vorbis through the tunnels to the artificers’ quarter, where forges and workshops clustered around one wide, deep light-well. Smoke and fumes billowed up around the hewn rock walls.

Vorbis walked directly to a large alcove that glowed red with the light of forge fires. Several workers were clustered around something wide and curved.

‘There,’ said Vorbis. ‘What do you think?’

It was a turtle.

The iron-founders had done a pretty good job, even down to the patterning on the shell and the scales on the legs. It was about eight feet long.

Brutha heard a rushing noise in his ears as Vorbis spoke.

‘They speak poisonous gibberish about turtles, do they not? They think they live on the back of a Great Turtle. Well, let them die on one.’

Now Brutha could see the shackles attached to each iron leg. A man, or a woman, could with great discomfort lie spreadeagled on the back of the turtle and be chained firmly at the wrists and ankles.

He bent down. Yes, there was the firebox underneath. Some aspects of Quisition thinking never changed.

That much iron would take ages to heat up to the point of pain. Much time, therefore, to reflect on things…

‘What do you think?’ said Vorbis.

A vision of the future flashed across Brutha’s mind.

‘Ingenious,’ he said.

‘And it will be a salutary lesson for all others tempted to stray from the path of true knowledge,’ said Vorbis.

‘When do you intend to, uh, demonstrate it?’

‘I am sure an occasion will present itself,’ said Vorbis.

When Brutha straightened up, Vorbis was staring at him so intently that it was as if he was reading Brutha’s thoughts off the back of his head.

‘And now, please leave,’ said Vorbis. ‘Rest as much as you can…my son.’

Brutha walked slowly across the Place, deep in unaccustomed thought.

‘Afternoon, Your Reverence.’

‘You know already?’

Cut-Me-Own-Hand-Off Dhblah beamed over the top of his luke-warm ice-cold sherbet stand.

‘Heard it on the grapevine,’ he said. ‘Here, have a slab of Klatchian Delight. Free. Onna stick.’

The Place was more crowded than usual. Even Dhblah’s hot cakes were selling like hot cakes.

‘Busy today,’ said Brutha, hardly thinking about it.

‘Time of the Prophet, see,’ said Dhblah, ‘when the Great God is manifest in the world. And if you think it’s busy now, you won’t be able to swing a goat here in a few days’ time.’

‘What happens then?’

‘You all right? You look a bit peaky.’

‘What happens then?’

‘The Laws. You know. The Book of Vorbis? I suppose—’ Dhblah leaned towards Brutha — ‘you wouldn’t have a hint, would you? I suppose the Great God didn’t happen to say anything of benefit to the convenience food industry?’

‘I don’t know. I think he’d like people to grow more lettuce.’

‘Really?’

‘It’s only a guess.’

Dhblah grinned evilly. ‘Ah, yes, but it’s your guess. A nod’s as good as a poke with a sharp stick to a deaf camel, as they say.^{71} I know where I can get my hands on a few acres of well-irrigated land, funnily enough. Perhaps I ought to buy now, ahead of the crowd?’

‘Can’t see any harm in it, Mr Dhblah.’

Dhblah sidled closer. This was not hard. Dhblah sidled everywhere. Crabs thought he walked sideways.

‘Funny thing,’ he said. ‘I mean … Vorbis?’

‘Funny?’ said Brutha.

‘Makes you think. Even Ossory must have been a man who walked around, just like you and me. Got wax in his ears, just like ordinary people. Funny thing.’

‘What is?’

‘The whole thing.’

Dhblah gave Brutha another conspiratorial grin and then sold a footsore pilgrim a bowl of hummus that he would come to regret.

Brutha wandered down to his dormitory. It was empty at this time of day, hanging around dormitories being discouraged in case the presence of the rock-hard mattresses engendered thoughts of sin. His few possessions were gone from the shelf by his bunk. Probably he had a room of his own somewhere, although no one had told him.

Brutha felt totally lost.

He lay down on the bunk, just in case, and offered up a prayer to Om. There was no reply. There had been no reply for almost all of his life, and that hadn’t been too bad, because he’d never expected one. And before, there’d always been the comfort that perhaps Om was listening and simply not deigning to say anything.

Now, there was nothing to hear.

He might as well be talking to himself, and listening to himself.

Like Vorbis.