Divine Deception: The Will Traveller Chronicals (14 page)

“So what eats the
food they leave behind?” I countered.

“The lions or
other big cats, if they get to it in time” He replied.

“Otherwise, it’s
only the carrion that will eat it” The huge female eagle added
silently. It was early afternoon when we saw our first signs of the
Lowlanders in the gently rolling foothills. Small groups of huts,
with a few vegetable patches around them, they were home to maybe
twenty or thirty families. This was certainly no invasion force;
these were clearly long established settlements. They dotted the
landscape for as far as our lofty view let us see.

They formed a
three or four kilometre belt, around the base of the snow capped
mountains which now loomed before us. As the ground began to rise
more steeply, the thick jungle foliage took over and, for several
kilometres; we flew over what looked like uninhabited, rugged
country. Without warning, we crested a small peak and there they
were! The valley below us looked like a very overcrowded ski
resort, in the off season. At least a thousand small alpine-type
huts were scattered, in an apparently haphazard manner, all over
the valley floor. At the centre stood what was obviously the
headquarters.

“Lord Robert” The
female eagle began nervously “Would you mind if we dropped this man
off at the edge?” She asked “We know their missiles don’t harm you
but….”

“I will deflect
any attack on either of you” I cut in “It is important to show
these people that co-operation has benefits” I explained “It’s the
best way to end the human danger for you and yours” I assured the
huge female bird “Both of you follow me” I banked left and began a
slow clock-wise circle, around the highest part of the roughly
circular volcanic valley. Within seconds we were spotted and the
whole camp came alive. Identically clad men, all carrying those
tiny but lethal crossbows, and some with much larger versions of
the weapon, moved swiftly into groups of thirty to fifty men. This
was definitely a military camp, with well over five thousand armed
and disciplined men.

A force like this
would certainly threaten the Carabindy government, but, no force as
primitive as this would be a match for the Supreme One’s T.T.V’s.
After two encirclements of the outer rim, I started to spiral in
slowly, gradually losing altitude. The men on the ground, black,
athletic and mostly young, stood in groups, weapons at the ready
but not looking aggressive, just curious. And what a curious sight
we made, a man in a red kaftan outfit, flying around unaided,
followed by two giant eagles, with the first one carrying the Field
Commander, like a bird on a perch below him. When we were almost
two hundred metres from the large, three storied headquarters, and
just fifty metres above the warriors’ heads, a tall, grey haired
man came out of the well built building.

The man had six
huge men on either side of him, all armed with a different looking,
metre long, tube-like weapon. They came out and stood, legs
astride, arms folded, looking up at us.

“Take the man
close to that group, I will protect you” I silently told the
gigantic male eagle. The female flew back to the rim, while her
mate did my bidding, hovering just two meters in the air, so that
his passenger could easily jump off to the ground.

“Join your mate,
but please stay near” I asked, after the man had jumped. The huge
bird dropped the rope and, with a single thrust of his giant wings,
flew up to perch beside the female eagle, many hundreds of metres
above me. I lowered myself, vertically, to the ground and stood
beside the Field Commander, who was obviously as awed by me as he
was by his own Commander.

“What trickery is
this Attann?” The voice fitted the elderly but still fit leader,
deep, very powerful, and filled with scorn and suspicion.

“This is no trick
Martin” The Field Commander urged his leader “This is no man as I
have ever known. He flies unaided, talks with birds and is
impervious to our weapons” He added.

“You fool!” Martin
almost snarled “Their technology is not fully known to us. You say
he is beyond our defences and yet you bring him here?” The leader
challenged his officer “How do you know he’s not a kind of machine
man? Perhaps a weapon?” He asked.

Suddenly,
hundreds, if not thousands of weapons were pointed at me!

My recent convert
looked distraught, then he angrily decided that he should to
renounce his faith in me.

“You have tricked
me” He accused me, adding “I have betrayed my leader with my
superstitious gullibility” He took two long strides towards Martin,
snatched one of the tube like weapons from one of the guards and
pointed it at me.

“Have you
forgotten your wounds Attann?” I asked. The man froze, his face a
picture of indecision. On the other hand, Martin had formed an
entirely different interpretation of my words.

“Not too sure you
can deal with our two stone gun are you white man?” Martin’s tone
gave me a clear warning of what was to come, so I braced
myself.

“He says that he
is of the Supreme Family Martin” Attann was still unsure. Martin
wasn’t. He strode up to Attann, took the weapon from his hands and
pointed it at me.

“Well, if he’s
really Supreme, this won’t hurt a bit” He laughed, firing the thing
at me point blank. A jagged, lightning like flash leapt at me and
ran all around me, like a massive electrical charge. Then it passed
on harmlessly into the ground. I was unaffected.

“Full guard fire!”
Martin shouted, he was shocked, but not into inaction. He and the
five still armed guardsmen fired at me simultaneously, it was quite
a light show! Metre long bolts of ‘lightning’ streaking at me and
becoming infused with the very bright aura that now surrounded me,
and, like the first bolt, they all passed on harmlessly into the
ground beneath my boots.

That was enough
for Attann; he turned and fell onto one knee.

“Sire, forgive my
people I beg you” He pleaded with me, as Martin looked on. He had
no fear on his face, only a puzzled expression.

“Did I not do so
when you and your men fired on me before?” I asked the Field
Commander in the shocked stillness. Attann looked up at me, then we
both looked over at the still unsure Martin.

“Perhaps Martin
would appreciate my mercy more, if he knew what could have just
happened” I told the Field Commander. Then, I mentally withdrew all
the power that had just passed through me from the ground beneath
my feet, balling up the white glittering mass in my hands and
throwing it over to the outer rim, opposite my eagle friends. Even
I was a bit stunned at the result.

The shock waves
from the enormous blast knocked virtually everyone but me off their
feet, some of the huts, on the slopes nearest the blast, were
completely flattened. As the echo faded and the dust slowly fell
back to cover the massive destruction, I could see that I’d just
created another pass way into the valley. Martin was a completely
changed man, when he got back on his feet.

“You could have
killed us all if you had chosen to, I see that now” He spoke with
quiet dignity. Then, he walked over to Attann and knelt on one knee
as his Field Commander was doing, all of the warriors followed
suit. There was expectation in the total silence.

“Do you hate the
snow?” I pointed to the Alps around us.

“No Sire” He
replied, clearly puzzled by the question.

“Yet it is white
and it has surely slain many of your people?” I asked him
pointedly.

“It is a natural
thing Sire, not something to hate” Martin replied.

“So was the
horrific stupidity of the white invaders” I told him bluntly “Such
is the nature of this world” I went on “Just as the white man has
killed the black man for energy, black men kill other animals in
this jungle for food, as do the larger animals kill the smaller,
this too is all natural. But” I added “It is not particularly nice
for those who find themselves at the bottom of this so-called food
chain” I continued to explain to Martin.

“And the white man
is at the top Sire?” He asked, with a trace of resignation in his
voice.

“Not really
Martin” I replied “They too have fears, often of their own kind. Do
you not also have greed, lust and larceny among your peoples?” I
asked, with my first small smile.

“Of course we do
Sire” He replied looking up curiously, not awed.

“Fortunately for
you, you don’t have their technology” I told him grinning “Or else
you’d all be your own biggest threat, as they are to themselves”
That remark did bring a smile to his lips, one which slowly made
its way up his weathered face till it reached his eyes.

“They use
technology such as this on their own people?” He was surprised but
not too unhappy at that thought. Just then, an elderly woman,
dressed in a hooded, multicoloured, full length robe, came out from
the main door of the solidly built headquarters.

All heads turned
towards her. Martin was absolutely shocked.

“Mother!” The
Lowlander Chief got to his feet, stunned “Mother, how can this be?”
He stumbled towards her, no one else moved. She walked into the
afternoon sunlight, her hands rose and she pulled back her rainbow
hued hood. Long grey hair tumbled around the shoulders of this very
old, yet still hauntingly beautiful woman. That’s when I noticed
that she was gliding, not walking! Martin, himself at least
seventy, stood just a metre in front of this very solid looking
‘ghost’ of his Mother.

“Mother?” Martin’s
voice, like his eyes, was now steady. This was a man with
incredible self control. But the old woman did not even glance at
her son. Instead she fixed her grey, almost silver eyes directly on
me as she approached.

“And so now the
Lord of the sacred House of Red is to begin his journey” Her voice
was that of a high priestess, authoritative, so clear and so rich
of tone. Though, I was a little concerned about the ‘begin’ bit. I
thought I’d been well on my way for a while already.

“What can you
rebuild, if you know not what was?” The woman asked me “Can a blind
man paint a picture? Can a voiceless man debate? Nor can you
germinate the seeds of freedom in hearts you do not know” She
continued in her high priestess voice “Emancipation is the will of
the entire world’s peoples, but what good is freedom without having
the ability to be independent?” She asked, adding “Some must step
back, some must step forward, so that the blood of the Supreme
Family does not spill on barren ground”.

“You are she that
has long foretold of my coming?” I asked. She turned to look at her
son as she answered my question.

“I am honoured to
be your prophet of truth” The beautiful apparition confirmed. With
a startling suddenness, Martin, Attann and every other man in that
valley, fell prostrate, heads down.

“Rise up my sons”
The woman’s voice held power and joy “Make you all the feast of all
feasts, bring all the people of the Lowlands to this place, so that
they may witness the birth of a truly new world, where all are
free” She reached down and took her son’s hands in hers, lifting
him effortlessly to stand on his feet, towering above her

“Just once in our
existence will we be so honoured by the Divine presence in our
midst” She told him, looking up lovingly into his emotion etched
face “Be sure the seed remains, that after Lord Robert departs, the
children’s children shall know leaders such as you and he” She
reached up, pulled his head down and kissed his forehead. Then the
magical old lady turned and gracefully glided back through the
closed door of the headquarters. Martin, shoulders most
uncharacteristically slumped, watched till she disappeared, his
pain was obvious. As he turned to face me, this remarkable man
pulled himself back from the deep shock and emotion that such a
visitation would have to have, on any man.

“My late Mother
often chastised me for my impetuousness Lord Robert” He smiled a
little ruefully. I smiled back at him.

“Today I have
excelled in displaying that fault, I beg your forgiveness” Though
the animosity was gone from his voice, Martin’s tone was strong and
his manner dignified.

“In your haste you
served me, as did Attann when we first met” I advised the mystified
Lowlander Chief “You both provided me with the opportunity to
establish who I am and what I can do, if necessary” I told Martin
grinning widely. Martin laughed heartily.

“So even when we
are wrong, we still serve you?” Martin asked.

“When the motive
for your actions is heartfelt and unselfish, then whatever you do
is a positive contribution to some part of this planet and the
beings upon it.” I answered.

“Will you honour
me by entering my home?” Martin asked. I nodded and we walked over
to the three story headquarters.

The Lowlanders
headquarters turned out to be much larger than it had looked from
the air, it was, in fact, a rather magnificent building. Broad half
logs were the mainstay of the solid, chalet-like exterior, with a
large balcony on the second floor and a much smaller two person
sized balcony on the third. The huge, much carved door was opened
by one of the guards that flanked Martin and he, alone, led the way
into the enormous foyer. It was at least twice the size of a tennis
court. The three metre high walls were grandly adorned with
hundreds of beautifully preserved animal skins. The walls supported
a heavy, Tudor-style, exposed beam roof and there were several
doors tucked into the fur lined walls.

Life sized, black
marble statues, of naked men and women, stood guard in fur lined
alcoves on either side of each door. Intricately carved stone
lanterns provided the dim but adequate lighting. A dozen or so,
over stuffed, fur covered lounges were scattered in pairs around
the highly polished wooden floor. Two very large and muscular men
replaced Martin’s six man guard. Dressed differently and unarmed,
they watched only Martin, as though I wasn’t there. We sat opposite
each other, on a pair of lounges beside a broad staircase. In an
alcove between us to our left sat the only white statue in the
place. It was a metre high and was of a fully clothed and very
beautiful young woman.