They were both absurd names, so far as Salaman was concerned. “One should not name kingdoms after gods,” he said to Weiawala, in the cabin they shared. “Better to have named the kingdom for himself, which is probably what he would have done if he dared, and the city the same. At least that would be honest.”
“But giving Yissou’s name to the kingdom places it under Yissou’s special protection,” Weiawala protested mildly.
“As though Yissou were not the protector of all who love him, with or without such little favors from us.” Salaman smiled. “Well, Harruel has become very devout in these later days. Talk to him, and it’s Yissou this and Yissou that, and Emakkis be our guide and counsel, and Friit preserve us, every other word out of him! All this piety sits very poorly on the tongue of a murderous brute like Harruel, I must say.”
“Salaman!”
“I say it to you. Only to you.” And he made mock gestures of submission in the air, as though Harruel had just come into their cabin. “Good day, your majesty! Yissou’s fragrance upon you, your majesty! What a fine day in the City of Yissou this is, your majesty!”
“Salaman!”
He laughed and caught her from behind, his hands over her breasts, and kissed the soft furry nape of her neck.
City of Yissou, indeed! Foolish name devised by a foolish king!
It was not much of a kingdom yet, nor much of a city. At the green heart of the crater, that thickly wooded place where — so Salaman had argued — the death-star had come crashing down long ago, there now were seven crude, lopsided wooden shacks, laced together with vines. That was the City of Yissou. Each of the five mated couples had a rickety shack, and Lakkamai, the lone singleton, had a place of his own. The seventh building, no finer than the others, was the royal palace and house of government. Here Harruel sat in state for an hour or two every day, though there was little for him to do in the way of royal functions. Disputes requiring adjudication were rare in a commonwealth of eleven adults and a handful of children, and there had not yet been any ambassadors from far-off realms in need of formal welcome. But there he sat, playing at being king, at the center of this collection of shacks that played at being a city.
Not much of a king or a kingdom, no. And not much of a city. And yet, Salaman thought, they had done well enough for themselves in a short while. The City of Yissou was a little less than two years old now. They had cleared much of the underbrush, and built houses of sorts, and they had rounded up meat-animals that dwelled now in a large enclosure, where they could be caught and butchered as needed. A palisade fashioned from tall treetrunks was more than half complete, running around the entire rim of the ancient crater. Harruel said it was to guard against the attack of enemies or wild beasts, and perhaps that was all it meant to him. Certainly it would be useful if enemies ever came. But Salaman saw it also as a statement of sovereignty, an announcement of the extent of Harruel’s royal power.
And Salaman dreamed of the day when under his own sovereignty that wooden palisade would be replaced by one of stone. That day was far off, though. The tribe was still too small for such grand projects. Five men were not enough for building great stone walls. And Harruel was still king. For Harruel, a palisade of wood was a sufficiently impressive thing.
“Come,” Salaman said, beckoning to Weiawala. “The air in here is stale. Let’s go to the hill.”
There was a high place beyond the meadow, south of the crater wall, where Salaman often went to think. From there he could see the entire city, and the forest on the far side through which they had come in their trek from Vengiboneeza, and when he turned the other way he was able to glimpse the dark line of the far-off western sea against the horizon. Usually he went there alone, but now and then he took Weiawala with him. Sometimes they would couple there, or even twine. In that high place fresh breezes blew and he felt more keenly alive than anywhere else.
Together, without speaking, they made their way through the little city and past the animal enclosure to the twisting path that led up the southern rim of the crater.
“What are you thinking?” Weiawala asked, after a time.
“About the future.”
“How can you think about the future? The future hasn’t happened yet, so what is there to think about?”
He smiled gently and said nothing.
“Salaman,” she said a little while later, as they climbed, “will you tell me something?”
“What is it, love?”
“Are you ever sorry that you left Vengiboneeza?”
“Sorry? No, not for a minute.”
“Even though we have to put up with Harruel?”
“Harruel’s all right. He’s the king we needed.” Halting on the trail, Salaman turned and glanced back at the few pitiful scruffy shacks that were the city, and at the half-finished palisade along the rim. His hands rested lightly on Weiawala’s shoulders, stroking the rich fur. She moved backward a step and wriggled against him.
After a moment she said, “But Harruel’s so vain, and he’s so rough. You scorn him, Salaman. I know you do. You think he’s crude and pretentious.”
He nodded. What she said was true, of course. Harruel was violent and coarse and something of a blockhead, yes. But he had been the perfect man for the moment, the absolutely correct figure at this juncture of history. His soul was strong and he had shrewdness and determination and ambition, and much pride. But for him, the City of Yissou would never have come into being under any name, and they would all still be back there living the easy life among the ruined palaces of Vengiboneeza — an aimless people, waiting endlessly for the great things that destiny had in store for them to fall into their hands.
At least Harruel had had the courage to make a break with that purposeless, self-deluding existence. He had pulled free of Koshmar’s grasp and given existence to something new and vital and necessary here.
“Harruel’s all right,” Salaman said again. “Let him be king! Let him call things by whatever names he likes! He’s earned the privilege.”
He tugged Weiawala’s hand, and they resumed the climb.
Harruel would not be king forever, Salaman knew.
Sooner or later the gods would summon him to his rest, perhaps sooner rather than later. That coarseness of his, that violence, that blockheadedness, eventually must do him in. And then, thought Salaman, it would be Salaman’s turn to be the king here, if Salaman had anything to say about it. Salaman and the sons of Salaman, for ever and ever after. If Salaman had anything to say about it!
They reached the rim and went scrambling over the rounded edge. The palisade had not yet reached this part of the crater wall. Looking back, he could barely make out the City of Yissou now at the heart of the bowl below. Its few little buildings were lost in the ever-encroaching greenery.
But the city, Salaman was certain, was not destined to remain for long a mere collection of ramshackle wooden huts. One day there would indeed be a great city down there: a city as grand as Vengiboneeza, perhaps. But it would not be a hand-me-down city like Vengiboneeza, that had been built by long-gone sapphire-eyes and taken over in its ruination by an opportunistic pack of latter-day squatters. No, he told himself, it would be the proud product of the toil and sweat and foresight of its own people, who would make themselves masters of all the region about it, and then of the provinces beyond, and one day, gods willing, of the entire world. The City of Yissou would be the capital of an empire. And the sons of the sons of Salaman would be the lords of that empire.
Now that he was outside the crater he forged rapidly on toward his private high place. After a time Weiawala called, “Wait, Salaman, I can’t go that fast!” He realized that he had left her far behind, and he paused, letting her catch up. Sometimes he forgot how much stamina he had, and how eagerly and swiftly he moved when he was on this trail.