Chapter 16

Tsemo and Laong followed MikkhY into the dark leaving everything behind with exception of the weapons. When Vladi hesitated, MikkhY urged, “No time to tell your parents! Come on! The land yonder the live-threatening swamp will be our save area.”

MikkhY´s boat was just the nut-shell he got from his “uncle” at the first anniversary of his purchase at the slave market as a present. It looked quite fragile and was brimful when all four were on board, “It’s sturdy and fast. Don´t be afraid it can carry us four to the end of the world!” MikkhY reassured the others, noticing Tsemo’s scepticism. Quick as a lightning they cross the Bredd-ström and took a small channel into the dense swamps along the flat coast in the back land of the coast.

In the early morning light they went ashore at a small tree-covered island, “It’s called the Smugglers Paradise, a place where the smugglers years ago brought ashore goods and slaves from the other side of the inhospitable sea. Now they use the port of Agysst!” MikkhY informed the others, “Uncle knows the place very well. It was this place he saw me the first time!”

“Did he fall in love with you already on this island? Was it love at first sight?” Vladi teased him, having recovered his wits.

“Nitwit! I was a dirty frightened boy back then, looking more like drowned rat than the cute boy I was after the slavers fed me up.”

“I don´t understate! Uncle told my father he liked you at first sight!”

“Are you kidding?”

“Sure he did! You were his favourite from the start and he is spoiling you still.”

While Vladi teased MikkhY the tired fugitives hid the small dugout in the dense reeds and made their way to the skew shag that was left of the smugglers´ settlement. Vladi and MikkhY spend the rest of the night in the shed dozing off immediately while Laong went to investigate the island and hunt for water fowl.

Tsemo went down to the beach where he waited for the sun to rise. Greeting the great light Tsemo recited:

“The sun from the south warmed the stones of the earth,

And green was the ground with growing leeks.

The sun, the sister of the moon, from the south

Her right hand cast over heaven's rim;

No knowledge she had where her home should be,

The moon knew not what might was his,

The stars knew not where their stations were.

Then sought the gods their assembly-seats,

The holy Ones, and council held;

Names then gave they to noon and twilight,

Morning they named, and the waning moon,

Night and evening, the years to number……..”

The young shaman bowed his head in awe and thanked the Sun for their escape!

Laong had just pretended to look for prey, in reality he wanted to make sure that nobody else was on the island. He wasn’t able to track down another person but was lucky enough to come across a nest of ducks´ eggs. With this loot in the string bag on his belt he returned to the shelter whistling a happy tune.

“You like eggs for breakfast?” Laong interrupted Tsemo’s meditation! When Tsemo didn’t answer, he apologized “Should I have joined you? I am still pagan preferring hunting to praying. Maybe I never will become a good shaman!”

Tsemo finished his prayer:

“Thence come the maidens mighty in wisdom,

Three from the dwelling down 'neath the tree;

Urth is one named, Verthandi the next,--

On the wood they scored,-- and Skuld the third.

Laws they made there, and life allotted

To the sons of men, and set their fates.”

Then he rose and turned to Laong, “The Norn’s have assigned a duty to every creature. At the moment yours may be the hunt, but in the days to come? Nobody knows in advance.” Tsemo smiled, embraced his student and kissed him softly.

“A dozen of eggs!” he exclaimed, “You are lucky hunter my Laong! I would die of hunger without you!”

MikkhY, poking his nose out of the shelter’s door and squinting against the morning sun, “No love-play before breakfast! My stomach is growling. Lets cook the eggs, I hate glibber!”

“A moment before you told me something else!” Vladi laughed out loud, rubbing off the spunk from his belly and licking his fingers. “You didn’t quite finish your licking, now I have to do it!”

The four relaxed in the morning sun sharing the boiled eggs, knowing for sure that nobody else was on the island. Around noon Tsemo got a bad conscience, “MikkhY, are you sure the priests will not place Aegir and Buri under confinement? They may have tracked down our friends!”

“Guess not!” Vladi answered instead, “On the second day of the celebration all ministers of the Great Mother are engaged in the ceremonies. In the early afternoon another procession will walk down from the Temple Town to city square with the Great Mother and the newly engaged couples. The priests will play their holy flutes, timpani and cymbals and the temple guards will carry along cauldrons filled to the rim with the Holy Potion. There is no danger ahead as long as the sun is up. However as the dark falls and the cauldrons are emptied to the last drop, danger is ahead!

~.~.~

Neither Aegir nor Buri could fall asleep when Tsemo and Laong had left with the two boys from Agysst in the dead of the night. They worried about their friends! Time and again they discussed the question whether they should have left the town together with them.

“I love them both!” Buri whispered to Aegir. “We shouldn’t have allowed them to leave alone. Each of us two is stronger and more experienced in fighting than all four together!”

“Don´t overdo our strengths Curlyhead. But that not the point! Are you really sure about MikkhY? We don´t know him at all. Do you really know he isn’t an agent provocateur of the priest? Maybe he lures Tsemo and Laong into a trap?”

“It’s too late now! They have left! We just can hope MikkhY isn’t a traitor!”

“Let’s pray!” They tried, but neither Aegir nor Buri could cease worrying and didn’t drift off to sleep till the grey dawn was approaching.

The sun was already high in the sky when Aegir started up from sleep. Somebody was talking. He didn’t dare to move, because Buri was still snoring his head on Aegir’s belly.

It was Kiro, who had entered the small room, “You didn’t miss anything last night. We walked AtthYs to the gate of the Temple Town, where the guards stopped us. Only AtthYs and the other chosen ones were allowed to pass the gate! Not only I and my friends Kiro, Kimi and Nilo wanted to know what happened inside, the other escorts also!” he shook his head, “The guards were quite mysterious about the ceremonies to take place within the walls.”

“So you don’t know what happened to AtthYs? Aren’t you?”

“No way! I just know the rumours about the ceremonies. But I really would like to know what has happened, because I hope to become a chosen after I have passed the rites of passage!” pulling a sulky face, “Hurry up, the procession should have left the Temple Town already.”

~.~.~

The town square was over-crowed with locals and pilgrims from far away like at the first day of the celebration of the annual coming of the Great Mother. Taking rat runs known by Kiro and his buddies, Aegir and Buri arrived in time and got a good place close to the altar. Standing about a half a head above the locals the Aegir and Buri were able to watch the procession turning into the square pretty well.

At first sight the procession followed the same scheme as yesterday. The imposing Temple Guard with the banner headed the parade framed by the two lean youngsters blowing the shofar. Next came the young musicians charming sounds out of cymbals and harps. Then however strong men were coming carrying big bags made of goatskin on their backs.

“Have you spotted the water carriers?” Kiro raised oneself on tiptoes trying to look over the heads of the grown ups, “Today they are not carrying water, today they are the servants of the Great Mother!” he told Aegir breathless with excitement. ”They are carrying the Holy Potion, the magic potion that makes your head spin, that makes you fly to heaven.”

Nilo shifting from one foot to the other and scratching his crotch added “You’ll get light-headed, you’ll get excited and you get hot for sex!”

“No chance for you to get a sip, baby.” Kiro teased his friend digging him in the ribs, “The brew is for the big ones only!”

For the first time Aegir took notice of the cups people were carrying attached to their belts, cups made of birch bark, cups made of clay or even made of the skullcaps of dogs or goats. Some skullcaps seemed to be even of made human skullcaps.

The potion carriers were closely guarded by heavy-muscled Temple Guards with their long whips. Every now and then one of them made a sally to keep the spectators at distance, enforcing his attack by loud growls. Past the carriers a second group of musicians were coming, charming lovely tunes out of flutes. This melody announced the coming of the Daughters of the Great Mother.

Today the veiled virgins were walking not alone. Side by side with everyone of the young beauties a young man was walking. It was the young man the virgin had chosen to be her future husband. The young men, initiated the night before, were naked except for a soft short loin-cloth and the mask of a ram concealing their face. Their chests were still streaked with coagulated blood testifying the bloody tattooing of the preceding night. Proudly and full of self-confidence the young men displayed their tattoo, the tree of life promising a happy life, success and fertility.

Then the big sedan chair of the Great Mother was coming. To the right and the left the chair young temple servants were walking swaying censors, while little girls were throwing the petals of spring flowers into the crowd. Today the Great Mother wasn’t sitting alone on the sedan. To her right on the soft cushioned seat her husband was sitting enthroned. All the years before this place had been reserved for the young man the Great Mother Agdistis had chosen the day before out of the circle of the young men of the city. But today it was different.

At first sight the man besides her with his ram-mask looked like always. But the spectators in the first row of the crowd were horrified by his appearance. They had been awaiting a strong young man with bulging muscles and a shiny skin. But today it was different! A scrawny old man, with chest hollow, with wrinkled skin, with bulging out belly was sitting besides Agdistis. The spectators further away could not discern the difference, because the chest of the man was painted red and he tried to sit upright. All over the place the crowd cheered and waved green braches, while the ones in the first stayed silent.

Behind the sedan twelve young couples were walking. The young women bare breasted, some of them were nursing a baby others were displaying proudly their swelling breasts and protruding bellies to the citizens and pilgrims. The young fathers displayed their bulging muscles the public and the short loincloth could hardly conceal what was below. These were the couples joined together at last year’s visit of the Great Mother. They were the pride of Agysst, the pride of magnificent city at the Black Sea. At the tail of the parade old women were walking, the wise-women, the Sybils, the wailers of Agysst dressed in drab cloth, walking with crooked sticks, their long white hair uncombed.

~.~.~

The crowd pressed forward to the altar. Everyone wanted to be the first to receive his part of the Magic Potion, the brew transmuting the mortals into immortals, the weak into an invincible fighters, the tired into an inexhaustible lovers. Aegir and Buri were also pushed forward by the people behind them, pushed in direction of the altar. The Great Mother and her gallant, the High Priest, had taken seat, surrounded by the freshly engaged couples, the veiled virgins and the tattooed young men. Last year’s couples and the wise women had gathered to the left and right and behind the altar, while the whip holders forced the assailing crowd to form a line. Now one visitor after the other was allowed to advance to the altar on knees, to bow deeply in veneration of the Great Mother, to rise his cup over his head and receive his share of the Holy Potion. Bowing his thanks he downed the liquid with one gulp and gave place for the next in the row.

When Aegir finally had occupied his position in the line-up and was close to the altar, he was able to inhale the smell of the Holy Potion. Writhing with disgust he turned to Buri, “I smell henbane! I get sick from its smell only!” he hissed to his friend, “Let’s leave! The Great Mother is serving a brew of henbane! I tasted a brew like this when I was a boy. I was sick for weeks. It probably also contains moonflower and nightshade. This really makes people fly up to heaven!” Aegir pulled his friend out of the line. “We shouldn’t take it, remember Tsemo! He is in danger!” Nobody did mind when they left the line-up and the next filled in.

~.~.~

Kiro and his friends were still too young to take part at the spiritual union with the Great Mother. While the adults had lined up to get their share of the Holy Potion, the boys had walked over to the store of MikkhY’s uncle. From their look-out on the roof they studied the crowd.

“Look, the old Morl, he is already staggering! He probably got two or three helping of the brew!” Kimi laughed, “I bet you, he soon will be attacking the next woman, a girly or an ugly old hag. He doesn’t care if he is drunk!”

“Look that old woman chaser!” Nilo mocked, “Every kid knows the old horddog can’t get hard anymore!”

“Look! Aegir and Buri are already coming.” Kiro pointed into the crowd, “They don’t even look psyched up!”

“They are worried. Look at Buri face; he sure is full of care for Tsemo and Laong!”

“Let’s hurry down and catch them.”

“Watch out! Slow! Nilo!” Kimi whispered holding back his buddy. “Watch out! The grey-haired guy! He is following Aegir and Buri. I saw him yesterday night! He is one of the Temple Guards! He is spying on our friends!”

Behind the house the three friends separated. Nilo darted straight to Buri and bumped against him, “You dirty stranger!” he griped, “You blurry-eyed son of a bitch!” he insulted Buri and took off.

While Buri looked blank eyed, Aegir got the message. “You dammed gutter snipe!” he railed and went after Nilo followed by Buri. Next moment they were vanished in the crowd.

Meanwhile Kiro had planted himself in front of the grey-haired temple guard, “Hey old man!” he accused the man, “Do you remember me? We met yesterday! Why did you push me around! Why did you hit me with your stick? What had I done to you?” the man looked amazed, turned around to look for Aegir and Buri and tripped over Kimi’s outstretched leg standing behind him. Both boys took off in opposite directions.

Nilo took Aegir by the hand and pulled him through the crowd. At the opposite end of the square they waited for Buri and then went a long round through the poorer quarters of the city to the Kiro’s house at the riverbank.

In the meantime Kiro had not been idle at all. Back home he had loaded the belongings of the travellers into their boat and some provisions he had pilfered from his mother’s underground storeroom.

“Go, go, go! Hurry up!” Kiro took the command, “The sooner we leave the smaller is the chance of the High Priest’s spies to track us down.” turning to Kimi and Nilo, “Your task is to lay the false trail. You take my boat and paddle stream up! Take the branch of the river which brings you to the Temple Town and ask at the gate for AtthYs!” as Kimi and Nilo looked uneasy, “Remember offence is the best defence!”

“And you?” Nilo questioned,

“Not your business! Just leave. See you tomorrow!”

~.~.~

The distance to the next side branch of the Bredd-ström was short. The access to small river-arm going into in the riparian forest was hidden by a reed-belt and a girdle of water-roses. Only insiders knew of it existence because it was nearly invisible from the river itself. Kiro manoeuvred the big dugout through the girdle roses into the sluggish flowing river-arm. Later the widths of the water arm grew as rivulets joined it. Also its current increased slightly. The river ran in northern direction parallel to the shoreline separated from the open water of inhospitable Black Sea the by a thicket of maples, hornbeams, ashes, elms and elder-bushes and broad sand-dune.

The boats progress was fast. Aegir however soon became impatient, “Kiro are you sure MikkhY took this water-arm? Soon it will get dark. There is nothing around only waterfowl. There are no houses, no villages, nothing. Where are our friends hiding?”

“Are you sure they took this river-arm? It seems to lead into the nowhere!” Buri complained.

“Just wait! I know MikkhY’s favourite hideout! Just wait!” Just before dusk the river split into two arms embracing a small wooded island.

“That’s slavers´ island” Kiro announced proudly, “I eat my cap if that’s not the place MikkhY is hiding with Tsemo and Laong. He loves this island, despite the bad memories linked to it. That’s the place the slave traders kept him for nearly a month when he was just a small boy. He likes to hide here, when he wants to be alone.”

On its way along the river the boat had flushed numerous birds out of their nests and hidings. The noisy birds had alarmed the Tsemo and the others. The burden of the defence rested on Tsemo and Laong as neither MikkhY nor Vladi had brought weapons along. Laong took his bow and arrows and hid in the reed-belt on the tip of the island because he was a skilled archer. Tsemo climbed a tree to take his chance from there. MikkhY and Vladi hid behind at the landing site to attack the intruders with paddles if necessary.

As soon as the boat came into sight Laong recognized his friends, “Aegir! Buri!” he called out to the others! “This way! This way!” he ordered. “Thanks God! Your coming takes a load of my mind!” he shouted aloud. He stormed to the boat waving like a mad-man. “Tsemo, MikkhY, Vladi! No enemy! Our friends have arrived!

Soon all together were sitting around a small fire talking about the events of the last day. “After the High Priest was sending his guards to spy upon us we have decided to leave also!” Aegir told the young shaman and his novice, “Luckily Kiro knew your hiding place!”

“I feel bad about running away without knowing what happened to AtthYs!” Tsemo pondered, “But I had to help him with the Holy Flute! I didn’t want him to be the sacrifice of the Great Mother!”

“You did right! You really did right, Tsemo!” Kiro comforted him. Suddenly he smiled, “Vladi, do you remember my big sister’s birthmark?”

“That big brown mark on her left fore-arm? Sure I do, I often enough teases her because of it!”

“The Daughter of Great Mother, who chose AtthYs as her number one had a mark like this!” he beamed, “My sister got him, best couisin!” Then he turned to Tsemo and pressed him to his breast, “You did right! Tsemo you are the best! My big sister loves AtthYs ever since I can remember. But this stupid bastard always was dreaming to become the chosen one of Agdistis, the man-eating monster!” He rose and began to dance around the fire! “You saved my big sister a sweet husband and me the best brother in law!”

Kiro’s keyed up reaction and the subsiding tension after the stirring events of the last days made them happy and tired. After the dugout was safely tethered to a tree side by side with MikkhY’s small boat they retired for a short night-time’s sleep.

~.~.~

In the first morning light the ways of two parties separated. They left the slaver’s island in different direction. Kiro, MikkhY and Vladi went back upriver to Agysst, while Aegir, Buri, Tsemo and Laong drifted with the sluggish current down-river to the Inhospitable Balck Sea. For reasons of safety they stayed the whole day hidden in the reed-belt at mouth of the river and started for their journey to the south after moonrise.

They passed the port of Agysst in the pale morning light in safe distance, when Tsemo spotted a greyish men-sized bundles floating in the dark water. It was the body of a man. Buri and Laong pulled closer. It was the body of a man naked with exception of the remains of a loincloth and the mask of a ram covering his head. Out of curiosity Buri turned him over, regretting this immediately. The sight was awful! The man’s chest was cut open and his heart was torn out.

“Someone has ripped out his heart!” Buri uttered disgusted.

When the next wave pushed aside the remains of the loincloth, Laong burst out horror struck, “Someone has cut off his sex! Somebody has emasculated the man!”

“There is not even a drop of blood left in this body. Someone has bled him white! Who’s that man? Who did this to him? ” Aegir moaned disgustedly.

“It’s the High Priest! I recall his mask! At the parade on the second day he was sitting enthroned beside the Great Mother. The dead is High Priest!” Buri stated with shattering teeth.

Tsemo had kept silent all the time. Now he spoke up! “Yes he is the High Priest! The man-eating Great Mother killed him instead of the young man! She killed him instead of AtthYs, the sacrifice she was after!” Looking up to the sum rising in the east, he intoned:

Glorious Sun,

Beautiful is the first light of dawn

at the far blue eastern horizon.

Oh, living Sun the creator of life,

when you appear at the eastern sky

You fill the land with your beauty.

The boats sails on the river water

upstream and downstream since way is open

as soon as dawn make it visible

The fishes jump in sight of you,

your beams reach the deep

going through the big waters.

Oh glorious sun take this sacrifice

and let live our friends their full life.

~.~.~

End of part 2