A Forest of Stars - Kevin J. Anderson [152]
Tomorrow, he would just have to keep trying.
78
ANTON COLICOS
Under the domes of Maratha Prime, the two storytellers sat on a raised platform bathed in bright light, smiling out at their attentive audience. For several hours each day, Anton and Vao’sh took turns entertaining rapt listeners with extravagant myths or legends from their respective histories. Anton was having the time of his life.
“ ‘The Pied Piper of Hamelin’ is a cautionary tale that’s frightened many children and parents.” Anton didn’t have a rememberer’s fleshy, colored lobes on his face, yet he did his best to capture the mood with hand gestures. He told of the ragged stranger who made a bargain with the elders of a rat-infested town, and the terrible payment he exacted when they cheated him.
The noble kithmen, bureaucrats, and servers were both entertained and confused. Anton often had to interrupt the flow to explain that rats carried diseases on old Earth, that humans could not sense through thism when another person was cheating them, that a self-important mayor was not the same as a Mage-Imperator or his Designates. After he told how the vengeful piper led the children into the stone mountainside, leaving only one lame boy behind, the listeners muttered, disturbed.
“But was it real?” asked one bureaucrat standing next to a lovely bald woman, her face painted with colorful designs. “Is this part of your history?”
“No, not history, just a story.”
This perplexed the audience even more. “But how can a story not be true?”
“It’s true, on a certain level. The lessons are certainly valid for all humans and Ildirans. On Earth, we sometimes invent our own stories for amusement or to explore new ways of thinking. The truth of these stories is not always in the details, but in the message.” Then, smiling, he arched his eyebrows. “Um, you enjoyed it, didn’t you?”
Vao’sh explained to the listeners, “Humans view stories differently. We have our Saga of Seven Suns, but they have many tales not connected with a single backbone. No human has yet seen the larger perspective into which they fit, not even Rememberer Anton.”
To ease their confusion, Vao’sh told a familiar humorous story from the Saga, which Anton enjoyed very much. The human scholar had already shared amusing parables and fairy tales, ranging from “Androcles and the Lion” to “Little Red Riding Hood.” Though the vacationers on Maratha were adults, their fascination made them childlike. Every one of his old stories was completely new to the Ildirans.
Later, when the audience dispersed, he and Vao’sh took a leisurely walk. Every day, Anton spent many hours in intense study of the Saga of Seven Suns, but he also spent time with the historian absorbing and observing Ildiran culture.
All around them, carefree Ildirans moved about laughing, playing games, dining in fine establishments. Anton had never been an adventurous eater, since his university salary did not allow for gourmet extravagance. Here on Maratha, though, he had made up his mind to experience every bit of culture he could.
When he went home to Earth, his imagination would be bursting with new material, having learned things that no other scholar ever had. He could mine this research for the remainder of his professional career, writing a wealth of technical papers and treatises, even recounting some of the best Ildiran stories for a popular audience.
Now Vao’sh took him through Maratha’s backstreets to the plain communal dwellings where various servants, attenders, cooks, and maintenance kithmen worked and lived, crowded together. “Because the Saga of Seven Suns belongs to every Ildiran, these are all details and nuances that will help me speak in a manner that is relevant and meaningful to all kiths.”
They entered one of the transfer chambers at the edge of the dome. Vao’sh seemed bursting with excitement. “Now I will take you outside, and you will see why so many Ildirans come here.”
With the rememberer’s assistance, Anton skinned on a slick