Crystal Gorge

“You might have to change your way of looking at the world, my friend,” Longbow told him. “Zelana is a woman, and she can do things that you wouldn’t believe. Then, too, our enemies are also females. There aren’t really very many males in the world of bugs.”

“But women are weak!”

“Not in the world of bugs, they aren’t. A female bug can pick up something that weighs ten times more than she does, and then she can carry it all day without even working up a sweat. You’re going to have to change the way you look at the world, Kathlak, and your life could very well depend on how fast you can make that change.”

Zelana returned to the village of Statha the following morning. “This is very nice country you have up here, Dahlaine,” she said to her brother. “I passed over a birch forest that was absolutely glorious.”

“Did you find out just why the northern tribes are behaving so peculiarly, Zelana?”

“No, actually, I didn’t. Of course, they don’t know, either. They think that the southern tribes insulted them in some way, but they can’t quite remember just exactly what the insult was all about—but they’re positive that it was just awful. I’d say that we’ve encountered ‘tampering’ again. It’s not quite as extreme as ‘the sea of gold’ or the ‘Kajak affair,’ but it comes close. I browsed around just a bit, and the men of the northern tribes are outraged by the insult, but they have no memory of it.”

“It’s nothing but a hoax, then?” Dahlaine asked.

“I thought I just said that. I’d say that the servants of the Vlagh have come up with a way to set off certain emotions in your people without providing them with details. The emotions are very primitive, and they’re without any justification, but they have set off this war. If it continues the way it’s going right now, you won’t have any Tonthakan warriors available when the creatures of the Wasteland attack. I’d say that right now you’d better concentrate on exposing these hoaxers before this war goes much further. You’re going to need these bowmen, and right now I don’t think you can count on having them when the time comes.”

“You’re all sweetness and light, baby sister,” Dahlaine growled at her sourly.

“Just trying to brighten up your day, big brother,” she said with a sly little smirk.

TONTHAKAN

1

Athlan of Tonthakan was born in the village of Statha near the southern edge of the Tonthakan Nation, and he was a member of one of the eight “Deer Hunter Tribes.” The seven “Reindeer Hunter Tribes” lived farther to the north, and the five reckless “Bear Hunter Tribes” lived in the mountains to the east which formed the natural boundary between the Tonthakan and Matakan nations.

Athlan’s father, Athaban, was a highly skilled archer, and he began his son’s training quite early. It soon became evident that Athlan would probably grow up to be one of the finest archers in all of the Statha tribe, a prediction that was verified when the boy took his first deer when he was only seven years old with a running shot at a hundred paces.

“This boy will go far,” Dalthak, the tribal chieftain, predicted when the hunters who had witnessed Athlan’s phenomenal accuracy described the near-impossible shot.

The other boys of Athlan’s age viewed him as something in the nature of a hero, but the older boys of the tribe sneered and tried to shrug the shot off as “pure luck.”

Athlan took that to be something in the nature of a challenge, so he took three more deer in rapid succession and threw “pure luck” right back in the teeth of the older boys.

The sneers began to wither just a bit after that.

As Athlan grew older, he began to pick up some hints of discontent among the tribal elders about Dahlaine’s decision to unify the twenty tribes of Tonthakan into what he chose to call a “Nation.” It seemed that the elders felt that the unification was unnatural, and even offensive. The Deer Hunter Tribes had always viewed the Reindeer Hunters and Bear Hunters as their natural enemies, and they devoutly wished that Dahlaine would discard the “Nation” absurdity and let them go back to “the good old days,” when arrows were made for killing enemies as well as deer.

As Athlan grew older, he noticed that others were also aging, but it appeared that age fell much more heavily on those who were already carrying a heavy burden of years. Chief Dalthak’s hair moved from grey to white, and his once-powerful voice turned squeaky. The members of the tribe of Statha began to refer to their chief as “Ancient Dalthak,” a term which was supposedly one of profound respect. Athlan, however, was quite sure that he wouldn’t like “Ancient” attached to his name. It seemed to him that “Ancient” carried strong overtones of crumbling, decaying, and wasting away, but the elders seemed to think that it was just splendid. Of course, Chief Dalthak wasn’t too spry, and he tended to fall asleep in the middle of a speech—even when he was the one who was talking. By the time that Athlan had reached his tenth year, old Chief Dalthak’s son Kathlak had more or less assumed his father’s duties. To maintain appearances, Kathlak would go into his father’s lodge “to consult with our chief.” And when he emerged, he’d announce that “our chief says this,” and that technically justified any orders he might give to the members of the tribe. It was fairly obvious to Athlan that Kathlak himself was issuing all the commands, but his little game maintained his father’s dignity, and his own reputation quieted any objections.

When Dahlaine had decided to unify the tribes of Tonthakan into one Nation, the Deer Hunter Tribes had chosen to designate the village of Statha as the site for the Nation Lodges of the southern tribes. Many men in the tribe viewed that as a great honor, but Athlan caught a few hints that the more sensible tribe members saw it as a great inconvenience. The tribe had been obliged to build the oversized lodges and to maintain them, and, of course, they had to provide food and shelter for the visitors during those meetings. There were annual meetings of the Deer Hunter Tribes, and they were always rather informal, but when Athlan reached his twelfth year, the “Nation Meeting” took place in Statha, and it seemed to Athlan that it positively drooled formality. Kathlak gathered the boys of the tribe some days before the event, and he sternly laid down some arbitrary rules—“No laughing, no smiling, and no talking during the meetings. The various chieftains of the twenty tribes will make speeches—long speeches. Do not go to sleep during those speeches. Pretend to be interested. Sit up straight and nod your heads once in a while. The meeting will last for three days, and then everybody will go back home.”