To Storm Heaven - Esther Friesner [43]
“We’d love to!” She and Lelys hurried forward to take their places on the ground, but the old man patted the stone bench to either side of him, his eyes twinkling.
“I tell my stories to our children freely, but pretty ladies must pay the price of sitting beside me.” His glance flashed across the courtyard to where Commander Riker lingered in the shadows. “You, too, may join us if you like, friend, but you’ll have to find your own bench.” “That would be my honor,” Riker said amiably, accepting.
When he was sure of his audience, the old man leaned back against the vine-draped wall and lifted one gnarled hand to the stars. “Long and long ago, in the times after the Lady of the Balances had poured out the stars from one pan and the children of the stars from the other, there came a day when she called all the children to her and said, ‘There is strife among you. I have heard your shouts of anger and your cries of pain. Why do you quarrel? Why do you raise your hands against your brothers and sisters?’ “No one answered. They were afraid to speak. They knew they had done wrong, but even though they had fought among themselves and made the stars weep with their wickedness, they would do anything rather than lie before the Lady.” One of the smallest children there shyly touched the old man’s knee. “But the Lady knows everything,” the child said. “She’d know if someone lied to her. ls that why they didn’t try?” The old man patted the boy’s head gently. “In those days the Lady walked with the children of the stars.
They did not know that she was any different from them, only that she was more beautiful and that she could make wondrous things. They did not suspect what if they lied to her, she would know. They did not even try to lie to her because when she made them, she formed their bones of truth and their flesh of honor. To destroy the truth would be to destroy themselves.” Riker looked over and saw Lelys nodding approval.
For her, at least, here was more proof of the Ashkaarians’ kinship with Orakisa.
“After a time,” the old man went on with his tale, “someone did speak. It was Rika’an, the first man, the one whose spirit the Lady first poured from the blessed Balances. He bowed before the Lady and he said, ‘We fight because there are too many of us too close. We quarrel because we cannot take a step without treading on the feet of our neighbors.’ Because, you see, m those times all the children of the stars inhabited only a single world.” “We still do,” the boy spoke up. He had gained courage from his previous question and was no longer quite so shy.
“Yes, yes, now. But this was long ago, before the flames of Yaro made the stars weep for all their vanished children.” The old man’s eyes darkened when he spoke of this, and he made a warding-off sign over the child’s head before going on with his story.
“Then the Lady laughed. ‘Why do you all live like this, then?’ she asked Rika’an. ‘Why do you cling to one world when I have filled the sky with stars and wreathed the stars with worlds and formed the worlds with beauty?’ So Rika’an called to the other children of the stars and they built great silver ships and set them upon the seas of night and sailed away—” “—and came to IskirI” the boy cried eagerly, bouncing in place.
“Very good.” The old man was pleased, though some of the other children gave the child hard looks for putting himself forward so boldly. “But remember, it was only Rika’an’s own ship that landed here.
The others scattered to the farthest stars, never to be heard of any more. The good teachings say that Yaro, in his envy, sent fire after them and wiped them from the worlds and the stars and the sky. Only Rika’an’s ship survived.” “Why didn’t the Lady stop Yaro from—” Before the boy could ask yet another question, the girl seated beside him gave him a hard shove and exclaimed, “Oh, shut up, Herri! I want to hear Grandfather’s story, not your stupid questions.” Little Herri sprang to his feet, tears starting in his eyes. “I hate you,