Through Darkest Zymurgia!

On the 25th of Ragout, the expedition reached the Zymurgian town of Bandeku, that being the first town south of Tomar which lies directly on the main road. For the past two days we had been travelling through the wilderness, a much forested landscape of small hills and smaller valleys where our line-of-sight extended only to the next bend in the road. It was thus with a great shock of pleasure that we came down through the trees and saw a wide, fertile valley spreading out below us. The road runs in a straight line due south through the fields and orchards that cover the Valley of Bandekukana like the squares of the proverbial patchwork quilt. Many miles away the land rises again into a range of forested green hills. At the base of these hills, though invisible to us as yet, another highway runs east and west; just beyond the crossroads, on the lower slopes, stands the town of Bandeku. Like Tomar, it is a farming community; as a crossroads, it is a larger town than Tomar, with all that that implies.

Because of its situation on the hillside, we caught sight of Bandeku many hours before we arrived. The construction of Bandeku is much like that of Tomar--the same exposed beams and thatched roofs, so reminiscent of our own Anglish countryside. After several days on the road, the town seemed to beckon in welcome over the fields of grain. It seemed a likely place to get good food, good drink, a comfortable bed and a good breakfast in the morning, with lots of hot water for bathing. As we drew near the view was blocked by the trees of the orchards through which we rode, until quite suddenly we came out of the trees and found ourselves in the town.

Casual travellers are rare in Zymurgia. Wagon trains of beer travel north from Basenis Basor to Tomar four times a year, gathering up the tithe on their way back south; other wagon trains transport grain and other foodstuffs from town to town after the harvest. Other than this trade, which is minimal by Anglish standards, few people are seen on the roads. Indeed, we met no one, travelling north or south, between Tomar and Bandeku. In such a country, the arrival of travelers is always an event of great moment in the life of a town. The arrival of unusual and unexpected travellers is a thing of surpassing wonder, an event to be cherished, a story to be told and retold to successive generations of children. The people proclaim a day of jubilation and dance in the streets; they roast the fatted calf, and serve it with the local wines and spirits. This is the theory, at any rate. To say that I was disappointed by our initial reception in Bandeku is to understate my emotion by several orders of magnitude.

To begin with, the northern reaches of the town appeared to be deserted. We saw only one young man, and he did not seem glad of our presence. He stepped out of a house into the street some fifty feet ahead of us, and began walking away; when we hailed him he turned and stared at us, eyes wide, and then raced off toward the center of town without speaking.

"Is this normal?" I heard Carbuncle inquire of Mukden.

"No, it is too quiet. I have been here many times before, and have never seen the streets so empty."

"Perhaps they are holding a festival today," Philpott suggested.

"It may be so," said Mukden. "But I have never known the people to run away from visitors."

Lacking any better plan, we continued into town. We would have done so even if we had been mobbed by eager townsfolk. As Masters of Tomar, Asha and Mukden's first responsibility was to present themselves before their opposite numbers in Bandeku's Hall of the Masters. The towns of Zymurgia, though bound together by trade, the tithe, and the Dispersal of the Waters, are essentially autonomous and fiercely independent. Each is governed by its leading families, in the persons of its masters. It is rare for a town's masters to leave their town for any reason, and their reception by the masters of other towns is uncertain. No town, so far as I know, has ever attempted to dominate its neighbors; indeed, the distance between towns makes it unlikely that any such attempt would succeed. Nevertheless, a traveling master is an object of suspicion. Under the circumstances, Asha and Mukden could do no other than seek out Bandeku's masters straightaway, lest their natural caution be roused.

We had not proceeded far into the town when we heard a low rumble ahead of us, and then beheld a mass of people walking slowly towards us. They were lead by two men and two women who proved to be, unsurprisingly, the Masters of Bandeku. Wishing to give no offense, we stopped directly after they appeared, and waited for them to approach. They stopped about ten yards away, and looked at us with grim, closed faces.

I judged that Mukden would be too busy to translate, and betook myself to Cadbury's side, where I was soon joined by Carbuncle. As usual, I will dispense with the tedious details of translation.

One of the Bandekun masters, the younger man, spoke first.

"Who are you, and why have you come to Bandeku?" His tone implied that we should not have come, and that we might come to agree with that assessment. Mukden stepped forward, and spoke.

"Has Bandeku fallen so low that hospitality to old friends is forgotten? I am Mukden of the Hinkaya of Tomar, and I say I have never met with such a reception in any town of the Land Above."

The Masters of Bandeku studied him dispassionately; there was an embarassed stir in the crowd, and a man came forward and spoke to them. The speaker nodded, and turned back to us again.

"Very well. Mukden the Disperser of Waters is indeed known in Bandeku. But who are his companions?"

"I am no longer a Disperser of Waters. Asha of the Carinu of Tomar and I are Masters of Tomar. We acknowledge that we have no mastery in this place, and we respect the mastery of the Masters of Bandeku." At this, the Bandekun masters inclined their heads politely. "Our companions are people of Tomar, and several travellers from the Lands Below."

"So we have been told," said another master, the older woman. "Is this Tomaren hospitality? To bring the wrath of Great Basenis down upon us?"

"On the contrary," said Asha, somehow concealing the surprise I am sure we all felt. "They bring with them the power to quench Basenis' wrath for ever."

It was like turning a key in a lock; I could almost hear the click as the tension climbed to a higher level. Feeling surprisingly reckless I called Bruno to my side and stepped forward myself.

"Bruno, speak!" Bruno barked cheerfully. I could tell I had the full attention of the Bandekuns.

"Bruno, greet the man," I said, indicating the original speaker. Bruno bounded forward toward the man, whose eyes bulged as the black dog sat at his feet and extended a paw, panting. Bruno pawed at the air a few times, but the man made no effort to take his paw. Finally he put it down, and looked around at me.

"Bruno," I said, "play dead."

I fancy I could feel the sigh go up as Bruno lay down and rolled on his back, legs in the air. Finally, at my signal, he got up and trotted back to my side. There was silence for several minutes; the Bandekun masters clearly did not know what to make of Bruno's display. At last Asha spoke again.

"Either these men are servants of Basenis, or Basenis has no power over them. This you have seen with your own eyes. I say that Basenis has no power over them. I say as well that I have travelled far today, and do not wish to debate theology in the street. What of Bandekun hospitality?"

Matters improved somewhat after that. The Bandekun masters shouted a few orders, and in less than a quarter of an hour we found ourselves installed in a hostel much like the one we had occupied in Tomar, though rather larger. We were told that we were to be given time to rest and refresh ourselves, and then we must appear before the masters. A guide would be sent to us at the appointed time.

"They were expecting us," I said, when we were alone. "How can that be?"

"Nabili," spat Mukden, who was livid. He had managed to hold his temper during the confrontation in the street, but it had been a close thing. Asha nodded.

"I did not see him at all in the days before we left Tomar. I assumed he was licking his wounds in private. Instead, he must have come south."

I nodded, for I had noted his absence myself, and been grateful for it.

"Should we expect difficulties here?" I asked.

"I had not thought so. Now I do not know."

As further speculation was clearly fruitless, we busied ourselves with eating and drinking and washing off the dirt of the road, and awaited our summons.

I should like to give a complete report on our meeting with the Masters of Bandeku, but I cannot, as I was not invited. Indeed, when the messenger came to escort Mukden and Asha to the Hall of the Masters, "the wizards from the Lands Below" were explicitly directed to remain behind. Mukden was furious and apologized profusely to me, but I, though disappointed, refused to take issue with our exclusion. After all, one must maintain appearances.

"Who knows what Nabili has told them?" I said. "The welfare of Bandeku is in their hands, is it not? They must do as they see fit."

This observation brought Mukden to a standstill; unused to the requirements of his new office, he had not seen it in that light.

"A poor thing it is," he said, much chagrined, "when a wizard from the Lands Below must remind me of my duty!" Asha and Philpott exchanged smirks and a chuckle or two at his expense, after which the messenger reminded us all that the Masters of Bandeku were waiting. He lead Asha and Mukden into the street. The rest of us perforce sat and stewed.

The casual reader may be excused for thinking that I have lingered over long on our days of travel from Tomar to Bandeku--that I have written too much of the minor incidents of the road, rather than getting on with the story. It is true that I remember those days with great fondness, which has perhaps lead me to expand upon them inordinately, but they were also the last days for some time when I felt I was in any way in control of things. Once we reached Bandeku we mounted the proverbial tiger, and it was many days before we were able to dismount; and by then the damage was done.

Asha and Mukden did not return until late in the evening, by which time we were nearly past caring. Hodgins had played innumerable games of patience, no one having the energy for whist; the rest of us, aside from the brief, bright interval in which we dined, having sunk into a dispirited, tedious funk. Nor were Asha and Mukden in good spirits when they returned; the conference had begun badly and the atmosphere had improved only slightly as the evening wore on. The problem was simple. The Bandekuns were greatly in favor of muzzling old Basenis for good and all; they simply doubted our ability to do so. Bandeku, by virtue of its greater proximity to Basenis Basor, had had the wrath of Basenis visited upon it with rather more regularity than Tomar, and its inhabitants were disinclined to arouse that wrath needlessly. That the "wizards from the Lands Below" had escaped Basenis' wrath to date was unpersuasive; perhaps Basenis was using us to test the Bandekuns, and merely waited for their acquiesence.

"What did Nabili say to them?" I asked. Mukden began to fume, and Asha answered for him.

"He told them that the Masters and folk of Tomar had been enchanted by wizards from the Lands Below. Under the enchantment, we would seek to so enrage Basenis that all of the towns of the Land Above would be laid waste. Then, the wizards would slay Basenis and take the Land Above for themselves."

Carbuncle snorted. "Nabili is no fool, we must give him that."

"Is Nabili still here?" I asked.

"No," said Mukden, who had finally calmed himself. "He was here yesterday and left early this morning; he went to warn other towns."

"I don't suppose he told the Bandekuns that he had lost his mastery in Tomar?" Mukden laughed at the idea.

"He is no fool. He never admitted having been a master."

"What did the Bandekuns say when you told them?" asked Philpott. This turned out to be the key question of the evening, for Asha and Mukden had not, in fact, enlightened the Bandekuns about Nabili's antecedents.

"Would you have the Bandekuns think we cannot manage our town?" spat Asha. "A man like Nabili should never have been given Mastery. It is a shame Tomar will feel for generations. Do you wish us to cry our shame to the world?"

"If it will persuade the Masters here to discount Nabili's statements, yes, I do. Won't they be as angry at his actions as you were? And once they are angry with Nabili, you should have a much easier time."

And so it proved. The next morning Asha and Mukden laid Nabili's whole story in front of the Masters of Bandeku, begging forgiveness for having withheld it previously, and pleading shame as the cause. As I had foreseen, active Basenis worship was as unpopular in Bandeku as in Tomar; further, the Masters fully understood our friends' reluctance to speak of these things. They were left with but one question: could we do it? Could we slay Basenis, or at least render him harmless? Asha and Mukden assured them that we could.

"You said what?" I cried.

"We gave them our word as Masters of Tomar," replied Mukden solemnly.