The Chantry Guild

CHAPTER 14

The sunset exploded in their eyes as they came up over the rim onto the ledge, for a moment all but blinding Hal as his eyes struggled after the dimness of the shadowed slope below. His legs felt strange and weak to be once more on level ground. Gradually, visual adjustment came and he began to make out what was around them.

They had stepped up onto a level space that ran back a hundred meters or so before the mountain face resumed its upward thrust. The ledge was at least five times as wide as it was deep and it was a crowded, busy place.

For a moment, still dazzled by the rays of the setting sun, Hal could not make out the details. Then his vision made a sharper adjustment, and all that was there seemed to stand out with a particular depth and clarity, as if he was seeing it in more than three dimensions.

There were several openings in the mountain face at the back of the level space, whether to caves, or interior continuations of the ledge, it was impossible to tell from where he stood. He and Amanda stood only a little way to the right of a small pond, fed by a stream which angled across the flat rock of the ledge floor from a near waterfall spilling down the farther face of the mountain. The pond must drain from its bottom, he thought, since there was no other obvious exit, and the water probably emerged elsewhere on the mountainside or as a spring in the forest below.

Directly ahead, on the right of the tiny stream as Hal looked toward the back of the ledge, were three large buildings. The one farthest in was slightly larger than the one next to it, and the one closest was a structure so small that it seemed hardly more than a cabin by comparison with the other two.

All three buildings had been built of logs. The face of the mountain behind was in the process of being quarried for blocks of brown limestone, and some of these blocks had already been set up on the other side of the stream, marking the outline of what promised to be a greater structure that would eventually fill and use all the space at the back of the ledge. Away from the stream on both sides, and otherwise in lines about the ledge as well as against the upslanting rock walls of the mountain - so steep their upper branches touched the stone - were numerous variform pine, with a scattering of native evergreens. Pine needles were scattered everywhere, and made a carpet over all the ledge itself.

People in robes were moving purposefully everywhere, along paths under the lines of trees. The only exception to this, in the sharp sunset light, was a ring of individuals walking in a circle, a little beyond and behind the pond. They walked, one behind the other, chanting, a chant that Hal now realized, some acoustical trick of the rock below the level of the ledge had kept him from hearing until this moment. But now it came clearly to his ears.

They intoned it as they walked, but it carried no clear message to him in this first moment. But for a reason he could not identify, something about it rang a deep note of certainty in him. It was right.

The last of the sunset was disappearing with the swiftness that was to be expected on a world under such a tiny seeming circle of light. The star was, in fact, far from Kultis and Mara, Procyon was a much larger, as well as brighter, star than Earth's Sun. At the distance from it that Earth was from its Sun, a world like this would have been uninhabitable.

The evening shadow seemed to fall across all the world at once, and as it did so, Hal's mind finally registered the sense of what the walkers were repeating. That what they repeated had taken this long to become intelligible to him had not been because the words had not been spoken in Basic - Basic was what everyone on all the human worlds normally used nowadays. Nor was it because they had run the words together, or in any way sounded them differently.

It had only been because of their method of chanting. They intoned the phrase they used, not in chorus, but as if each one was repeating it solely to himself or herself. Sometimes the voices blended on the same sound at the same moment, and sometimes they did not. But at any rate, now he clearly heard and understood them. There were only eight words to what they repeated.

"The transient and the eternal are the same... The transient and the eternal are the same..."

So suddenly did they become understandable to him, that it was as if they had abruptly been translated from some language he did not know into one he had spoken from his earliest years.

It was not so much the words in themselves that registered so strongly on him, but the burden of their meaning, which he could not identify clearly, but which stirred him strangely. As unfamiliar music might move him unexpectedly and strongly even at the first hearing.

It was like a sound heard around a corner and out of sight, striking some powerful meaning in him, but exactly what and why was not immediately clear. Still, for the present it did not matter. The knowing would come, at its own pace, but in time to be useful. All that mattered now was realizing that it rang a deep chime of truth in him.

It continued...

"The transient and the eternal are the same... The transient and the eternal..."

...and so it went, on and on, echoing in him as if his mind was one great unlighted cavern and it was speaking to him with the voice of all the universe at once. Echoing and speaking, echoing and speaking....

His body tensed to make an instinctive step toward the circle, then checked. He held back, his eyes focusing for some reason on one walker with a long, white beard, silky on a thin, bony face beneath oriental eyes. The man he watched had just completed the turn of the circle, after having been facing away from Hal, but now came back toward him. For a moment his features were clear in spite of the steadily deepening shadow that seemed to wash the colors from the walker's patterned robe of thin, smooth cloth, unlike the rough garments the other walkers wore. Hal turned to Amanda. He saw her face looking up at him, concerned. He looked back down and smiled to reassure her. "You were right," he said. "I needed to come here." "Good," she said, the concern relaxing from her eyes. "Come along then." "Where?" he asked.

The face of the ledge was busy with people moving to and fro between its buildings. Some of these smiled at Amanda, but none seemed surprised to see her. They extended their smile in a welcome to Hal himself in a manner so like that of the Exotics as Hal remembered, that he felt a sudden, small pang of sadness. Amanda was leading the two of them toward the smallest of the buildings. "First you've got to meet the one in charge here," she said, "an old friend of yours." "Old friend?" He tried to think of Exotics who might fit that description. "Nonne?"

Nonne had been the Exotic representative - theoretically to the Final Encyclopedia, but actually, as both the Exotics and Hal had clearly understood, to Hal himself, since he had been the one who had won their allegiance to the cause of Old Earth in a debate against Bleys, broadcast to both Exotic worlds.

That had been at the time of the movement of the Dorsai people to Earth's defense, and it had resulted in the donation of Exotic wealth and knowledge to the same end. The time of the activation of the phase-shield. It was also the fact that Nonne had been sent with him to voice any objections the Exotics might have to Hal's later arrangements, as a kind of single last voice of the Exotic Splinter Culture.

Nonne had stayed the first year with him at the Final Encyclopedia. But it had become more and more obvious that Hal was concerned, not with the management of Earth's defense, but only with the work he pursued alone in the carrel of his suite. So she had gone home, leaving the actual uses of Exotic funds and skill to Ajela, and the actual execution of that defense to the Dorsai.

She had ridden out through the phase-shield with one of the Dorsai advisors, like Amanda, who had been returning to the Exotics after a brief, necessary visit to Earth. Hal, at least, had heard nothing of her since.

She had been a waspish, angry woman by nature, very nearly the exact opposite of what other cultures thought of as Exotic. But Hal had appreciated the sincerity and single-mindedness of her point of view, and her sharp-faced, middle-aged image rose again in his mind now as he said her name. It had not struck him until this moment that she might be the one he should come to meet here in this place. "I'll let you find out for yourself," was all Amanda answered. She led him on toward the entrance of the first, and smallest, log building.

However, before they reached it a figure that was not Nonne's but even more familiar to Hal appeared around the edge of the building. Walking beside him was a man as large as Hal. Both wore the penitential robes. But Hal's eyes fastened on the small body and wrinkled face of the smaller of the two, who had been his closest companion during the time when he had been struggling to bring the Exotics to give all they had to the cause now fought for by Earth. " Amid!" he said. "But you're not at the Final Encyclopedia anymore,?"

He corrected himself. "No, of course not," he said. "Forgive me. I've been so out of touch with people this last year, even at the Encyclopedia, that I forget. That's right, about eight months ago one of the advisors from Kultis, here, brought word your brother was sick. You left to go to him, didn't you? But I didn't realize you'd stayed."

A smile energized all the lines in the face of the little man so that he seemed to shine with good humor. "Hal!" he said, hurrying forward to take Hal's hand with both of his own. "I'd hoped - but I didn't really think there was a chance Amanda could bring you here!"

Hal smiled back. It would have been next to impossible not to. "As you see," he answered. "But you found a job to keep you here?" "I'm sorry. Seeing you-" He broke off. "I suppose I ought to explain that Kanin wasn't actually a brother of mine, by blood - the way the word's used on other worlds. In my generation, we still ran to large communal families. But he was as close to me as if he had been, physically, my sibling. Perhaps closer. And I called him brother'. So of course I came back here as soon as I heard. " "And stayed, obviously," said Hal. "Yes." Amid let go of Hal's hand, but continued to beam up at him. "For one thing, he'd died by the time I got here, and I was needed. For another, for a long time I'd been bothered. I was sitting there, safe and useless behind the phase-shield, in the comfort of the Encyclopedia while my people were suffering." "So your brother was one of the people here?" "He was Guildmaster," said Amid. "Now, I am. By default, more or less." "That's not true," said the tall man. "No one could have filled Kanin's shoes, his brother's shoes, but Amid." "I'm sorry," said Amid. "I should have introduced Artur, here. He's Assistant Guildmaster. Artur, you know Amanda. This is Hal Mayne. "

Artur extended a hand and Hal clasped it, feeling from the sudden heartiness of the grasp confirmation of what his instinctive perceptions of emotion in others had already suspected. Artur was an impressive-looking individual, nearly bald, with a narrow waist and massive, smooth-skinned arms and legs showing beyond the short sleeves and the hem of the robe he wore. But he would far rather have been a smaller man.

Hal had been aware that, in the first moment of their seeing each other, Artur had automatically measured himself physically against Hal's size and apparent strength. However, it had been a reflexive, unwilling measurement. Artur was undoubtedly strong, even in proportion to his height and weight, but he apparently was one of those who found the gifts of both size and strength as only crosses to be borne.

Like certain other large men Hal had met, Artur clearly had an unhappiness over the attitudes of those smaller, who assumed that because of his size he did not suffer from their fears, their sensitivities to the pains and dangers of life. He felt that everyone expected him, because of his size, to do more, to endure more, to enjoy what they thought of as an unfair advantage. An advantage he, himself, would happily have foregone if he could only be treated as no different than everyone else.

It was an unhappiness which Hal had been lucky to avoid, largely because of his upbringings, both as Donal and Hal. Also because with the Dorsai, just as physical training and skill could more than compensate for differences in power, they also rendered unimportant any advantages of extra size. Strength, there, was irrelevant, in comparison with the will and soul inside the person - large or small, old or young, man, woman, or child - on whom others might have to depend, and the Dorsai culture took for granted an understanding of this. "Come in. Come in and let's talk!" Amid was saying.

He stood aside to let Amanda go before him and then followed her through the doorway of the small building. Hal was about to follow, when Artur spoke behind him. "Hal Mayne?" "Yes?" Hal turned. " I'm sorry... you're the Hal Mayne, of course. I should have recognized you at once. Amid's talked about you often."

There was embarrassment, but also relief in Artur's voice, and Hal understood. Artur could not be expected by anyone to compete against someone with Hal's reputation. "Recognizing anyone right away from nothing more than verbal descriptions is pretty good," said Hal.

He turned and went in, hearing Artur behind him. Inside, the building seemed almost entirely given over to what appeared to be a single meeting, eating, and working room. The last of the sunset was almost gone behind the rocky peaks almost directly over them, in just these few minutes. But the lingering brightness of the sky still glowed into one side of the large room they had just entered, touching it through a number of the small, square windows spaced evenly around the walls. Interior lighting was just beginning to supplement this.

The artificial light came from a combination of candles, and three of the common, portable, hundred-year lamps, affixed to the rafters which openly crossed the space overhead under the steeply pitched roof.

Solar-charged lamps like these would be left over from before the coming of the Occupation Forces to Kultis, which brought an end to what relatively little manufacturing the two Exotic worlds had done for themselves. In addition, there was an open fireplace, contained within a square of four knee-high walls of reddish brick. There was a hood over it of some metal which looked like, and well might be, copper, undoubtedly likewise salvaged from earlier days on this world. The hood reached up to a chimney pipe of the same metal.

The fire already burning in the fireplace gave little light of its own, but what there was of it softened the rather harsh illumination from the hundred-year lamps, which were originally designed primarily for outdoor and commercial uses.

In the partition wall opposite the door they had just come in were two other doors, both partially open at the moment. One gave a glimpse into a small bed area, and the other, a bathroom. Around the large room were wooden chairs, homemade obviously, but padded and comfortable, and one large table end-on to them, that had its farther end piled with papers.

The four of them moved instinctively toward the chairs closest to the fireplace, for though the sun had been hidden for only a few minutes, it seemed that a chill was already penetrating into the building from the open air beyond the front door. "These are my quarters," said Amid as they sat down, "but I've also got another office in one of the two dormitory buildings, which can double as a bedroom. I'll let you two have that for the night, if you like, since we aren't set up for guests in the ordinary way of things. But sit down, sit down! You've come just at dinner time. Will you eat with me?" "We'd be glad to," Amanda said. Artur got up again, hastily. "I'll take care of it," he said, and went out. "He's a good Assistant Guildmaster," said Amid, as the door closed behind the big man. "If I hadn't had him to help me take charge here, I don't think I could have managed." "Do you mind if I ask why you did take over?" Hal asked. "I can see you staying, for the reasons you gave a moment ago. But why take on the job of Guildmaster?" "I was drafted into it, in a manner of speaking," said Amid. "Those who'd known Kanin wanted me simply because I'd been his brother. They seemed to think there was something in common between us that fitted the job. And, to tell you the truth, I did know something of how Kanin thought in many ways. Even though we hadn't seen each other for fifteen years. I flattered myself my decisions would be his decisions. Because he made this place work. He didn't found it, you understand - or has Amanda told you all about the Chantry Guild already?" "I've told him nothing," said Amanda. "I see." Amid looked at Hal. His lined old face was shrewd. "Why did you come, Hal?" "Because Amanda said it was something I should do. She was right," said Hal.

"You just wanted to see it?" "Originally, it was probably more of an excuse than a want," said Hal. "But now, if you'll have me, I'd like to stay awhile." "I take it," said Amid, "you might want to walk in the circle then?" "If that's allowable," Hal answered.

Amid grinned. He did not smile, he grinned. "For anyone else there'd be a period of observation first, a sort of apprenticeship, and a vote to be taken at the end of it, on him or her by all the members here," he said. "But I think we could do without that, since you're who you are."

He sobered. "In fact, no one but Artur and I knew you might be coming. It's probably best to keep your real identity secret as long as we can - which won't be too long. I think the other members will let you walk on my recommendation alone, if that's necessary." "No," said Hal. "Yes," said Amanda. "Amid, Hal doesn't know Kultis as it is now. Hal, you'd be doing the people here a favor to at least give them the excuse that they were never told who you really were."

Amid nodded, looking over at Hal. "She's right," he said. "Besides, it's not as if your coming in on the Guildmaster's recommendation alone was something otherwise unheard of. We've had people before this who were deserving, who've been let into the circle incognito. But..."

He turned back to Amanda. "It won't be more than a matter of weeks before they'll have guessed who he is, anyway. Secrets aren't easily hidden in a place as small as this ledge." "In a matter of weeks, the situation could be entirely different," said Amanda. "For now, let's do what we can to protect everybody concerned. Will Artur have spoken to anyone about who Hal is, when he went out just now to get the dinner?" "No, no. Not Artur," said Amid. "He volunteers no information. Besides, he's a highly intelligent individual, and even one who wasn't would have the sense to know the danger to Hal - and to us all, as you say - if it were known he was here on Kultis. " "In any case," said Hal, "I won't be here too long. But - Amanda, you were right. There's something here for me to find, in that circle. You were going to tell me about the one who started it?" "Yes," said Amid. "It was a Maran Exotic you'll never have heard of, named Jathed. He was a student of historic philosophy to begin with. He was ahead of his time in speculating that we Exotics might have gone astray from our original path. He spent twenty years, after he finished studying at various of our universities, examining our beginning - the Chantry Guild of Walter Blunt in the twenty-first century. How much do you know about that?" "A fair amount, as it happens," said Hal. "Good, then I won't have to go into too many details for you," Amid went on. "You know a chantry was a place, or an endowment for a place, where prayers could be said for a dead person, or persons, and that Walter Blunt chose this name for his organization back in the twenty-first century because by its very nature a chantry implies a relation of past, present, and future?" "Yes," answered Hal. "Well, it was that relationship as Blunt applied it that attracted Jathed. As I say, he spent his life studying the original Chantry Guild, You can see how the idea of a connection of past, present and future, now and forever, could lead to the concept of the transient and the eternal being the same. Jathed even went to Old Earth for a while. When he came back, he set himself up more or less as a hermit on the outskirts of a little town near here called Ichang-"

Hal looked at Amanda. "It's about forty kilometers from Porphyry," Amanda said. "We could have come through it on our way here, instead of through Porphyry, but Ichang's not a garrison town. I mean, it doesn't have a garrison of Occupation troops. The Porphyry troops have a contingent quartered there, but that's all. I wanted you to see what a garrison town on the Exotics, under the Occupation, was like." "This with Jathed was some years before the Occupation," said Amid mildly. "As I say, he became something of a hermit. You're probably already aware it's quite possible to live off the country in areas like the one just below us. There's enough insect, animal, bird, and vegetable life to keep anyone alive with just a couple of hours of food hunting a day. That's how Jathed lived. He deliberately wanted solitude to 'think through,' as he said, the proper direction of what should have grown from that original Chantry Guild."

Artur came in, followed by two men and a woman, all carrying loaded trays. Artur directed the setting of these at the far end of the table as Amid went on. "Now, of course, since the Others, and particularly since the Occupation," he said, "every one on our two worlds has necessarily begun to rethink the direction we Exotics took in our attitudes and our thinking after we emigrated to these planets. But Jathed was considerably in advance of them all. At any rate, he moved farther and farther back into the woods, to get away from even casual contact with people, and eventually - we don't quite know when - he found his way up to this ledge here."

"By that time, he'd acquired a few - disciples, let's call them. Yes, Artur?" "Everything's ready on the table. And hot." "We'll be right there. Wait-" For Artur had turned to follow those who had come in with him out the door. "You're to eat with us. That's an order. I want you to be a part of everything we decide with Hal, here. By the way, just to reassure us all, you didn't mention who Hal is to anyone?" "Of course not, Guildmaster!" "That's his way of reproving me," said Amid to Hal and Amanda, "when he calls me by my title. The reproof is for even needing to ask. We'll be at the table in a moment, Artur. Meanwhile, come and sit with us, and if I forget to tell Hal part of the story of Jathed, break in and fill the gap, will you?" "If you'd like me to," said Artur. "Thank you." "No thanks needed," said Amanda. "You should have taken the invitation for granted," "I'm sorry," said Artur, seating himself with them.

"And no apologies are needed, either," said Amanda. "Go on, Amid. " "Where was I?" said Amid. "Oh, yes, Jathed had started the walking down in the forest. He continued it up here, specifying the rules under which it was to be done, particularly the rule about how they were to chant. They were not to chant in unison, or try to walk in step, unless these things happened by accident. The idea was that they should be studying by themselves, even though they were in company. Above all, they were to utter nothing but the Law - about that last he was most emphatic. You'll have to remember that at all times, Hal. It's not a 'mantra' you're hearing from those people outside. Not a prayer, hymn, or incantation of any kind. Jathed hated the word 'mantra' and wouldn't allow it used by anyone around him, and he was a violent man about getting his own way." "He used to drive people off with a staff," put in Artur, "though he did that more when they were down in the forest - or have you told them about the earliest Chantry Guild in the woods below us, Amid?" "No. I mentioned it, then went right to the ledge," said Amid. "Now you see why I wanted you here? Jathed's first incarnation of his Chantry Guild was, as Artur says, down in the wild country below us, close to these cliffs, but not overly close. He already had a number of disciples by that time, and he set them to walking the circle he, himself, had earlier worn ankle deep. Of course, there were new people coming every day wanting to join. But as I say he wasn't easy to get along with. One mistake and the would-be member was out - chased out, in fact. Jathed walked around with the staff Artur mentioned, and anyone who showed what he considered 'incomprehension' but particularly the fault of calling the Law a 'mantra'- got chased out, with Jathed running behind them hitting them with his staff to keep them going at a good pace." "He called it a Law?" asked Hal. "Yes." Amid looked penetratingly at him for a moment. "He called it a Law and he meant it to be a Law, as clearly acknowledged as the Law of Gravity. And he was furious with anyone who wanted him to teach them. He claimed all that was needed was for each of them, individually, to study the Law." " 'The transient and the eternal are the same,' '' said Hal. "Yes," said Amid. "I don't fully understand it myself, either, Hal, but like many people who've come into contact with the Law, I can feel there's a power there, and I think Jathed was right, too, about the fact it can't be taught. Whatever's in it has to be found by individual effort to understand its meaning. You know, he said a strange thing. He said that in two generations everyone - and he meant everyone in the human race, not just those here on Kultis - would know the Law, and many would already have started to put it to use."

He shrugged. "One generation of those two has already gone by, and there's few enough even among us Exotics who ever heard of it or Jathed, and it hardly looks like that'll change in the next twenty years or less. But that's what he said." "Now is a time of change," said Hal thoughtfully. "True. But for something like the Law to be accepted, let alone put to use, under present conditions where the human race is at civil war with itself... the Others certainly aren't going to take to the Law in any case, and wouldn't, even if it came from some other source than an Exotic. You realize the Others are literally out to kill us off - all of us on these two worlds? The only reason they don't simply bring in armed soldiery and shoot us down is because a massacre like that couldn't be kept secret from the other Younger Worlds and it might give rise to anti-Other attitudes out there." "I know," said Hal. "in fact, I had Bleys Ahrens tell me about his goals, once." "The only thing that's forced Bleys to try to accomplish his ends here by genteel starvation and casual individual murder by his Occupation troops," said Amid, "is the fact that there're only a handful of Others, a mere few thousands, to control all the Younger Worlds. We here at the Chantry Guild have been overlooked, rather than specifically allowed to survive. But, back to Jathed and the history of this present incarnation of the Guild-" "Amid," said Artur, "might I mention the dinner again" The food's getting cold, as I said. We could talk as we eat," "Of course. Of course, you're right!" said Amid. "I'm getting more single-minded every day. Let's move to the table, everybody. "

They moved.