Hidden Enemies. Steve Reilly
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at the bottom the walls blended into the valley floor in a sweeping arc of rock and loose stones. Small trees and pockets of bush found footholds in the rocky slopes while the lush green lands of the high plains narrowed to a strip of green along the valley floor. Aiyu called a halt to their march and began to prepare for the night. From the sack he carried over his shoulder he pulled fruits and raw vegetables and a large pelt. They ate their meagre meal before Aiyu wrapped himself in his pelt and lay down to sleep. Camille copied him, only then realising how tired she was. She fell into a deep sleep on the rocky ground in moments. Next morning Aiyu woke her before light had entered the valley. Sunrise found them well on their way again.
By the fourth day the valley had climbed higher and grown wider as if spreading itself over the mountains. They had left the trees behind, the bushes became fewer, until even the grasses gave up their battle with the rocky ground. The wind blew constantly in its attempt to stop intruders by cutting them to pieces. Pockets of white began to appear in shaded hollows. “Snow,” Aiyu informed her, picking up a handful. Camille was shivering too much to appreciate her first sight of this strange powder. Aiyu took the sleeping pelt from her back and wrapped it over her shoulders. He showed her how to tie part of it up to form a hood. Camille realised that they had reached the top of the valley. They were walking on an uneven field of black rock scattered with pockets of white and blue. The white she now knew to be snow and the blue patches were hollows filled with water reflecting the clear sky. Ahead lay a field of white glaring in the morning sun. Camille hoped that they would not be going there. The cold had long since numbed her senses but she felt that travelling over the white plain would make the previous hours seem warm. He led her over the land, weaving between the water and snow before stopping at the top of another cliff.
Far below her another river wound its way along the valley floor, coming from somewhere up in the snow and weaving its way down to where it flowed into a deep green lake. Aiyu pointed to a smudge on the valley floor beside the lake. “Konungssonur,” he told her. “Clan city of Aiyu. Obiri live Konungssonur.” Camille tried to make out the details of the smudge without avail. Even though the air was crisp and clear, the city was too far away.
“Path close. Come,” said Aiyu. He had only gone a dozen paces when he stepped off the cliff. Before she had time to scream, his fall was stopped. He called for her to approach and she saw that he stood on a narrow ledge about six feet below the top. She stood trembling, not knowing if from fear or the cold. Surely he did not expect her to climb down the cliff face. “Come. Aiyu help,” he said. Before she could think, he reached across and picked her up, setting her down beside him on the ledge. “Come,” he said and began walking along the narrow shelf. He stopped when he realised that she was not following. “It safe to walk,” he encouraged. Camille looked down over the side of the ledge to the ground far below. “No look, just walk,” Aiyu told her. “Or you want Aiyu to carry?” he asked. Camille thought of lying over Aiyu’s shoulder and looking down to the ground so far below. “No,” she decided. “I’ll walk.”
She started slowly along the ledge, hugging the cliff face as she went. When she reached Aiyu he nodded and continued along the trail. It struck her that they were moving away from Konungssonur and that she could no longer see the lake. At the same time the trail had been dropping away from the cliff top as they walked. After about fifteen minutes Aiyu stopped. “What’s wrong?” she asked.
“No wrong. Time to change trail,” he replied, stepping off the edge. This time he disappeared fully from sight. Camille froze. “Come.”
She stepped closer to the edge and looked down. Aiyu stood on another ledge about ten feet below her.
“I can’t get down there,” she told him.
“Jump. I catch you,” he encouraged.
She looked to the valley far below and shook her head. Aiyu reminded her that she had no choice. He could not come back up so she must come down to get off the mountain. She knew that the longer she waited, the harder it would be to step off the ledge so she shut her eyes and stepped out into the air. Aiyu caught her in gentle hands and set her down beside him. “Good,” he said before walking off along the ledge, reversing direction back towards Konungssonur. The trail was barely wide enough for Aiyu to stand on and below was nothing until the rocks at the bottom of the valley. She shut her eyes and, with an effort, tried to control the twisting knots inside her. She finally opened her eyes and with a deep intake of breath she began to walk. Aiyu nodded. Trail by trail they zigzagged their way to the bottom of the cliff until finally they walked out onto the rocky screed slope. Camille looked out across the valley, then up at the cliff standing so tall above her. Her stomach turned at the thought of what she had just done. “Is this the only way to Konungssonur?” she asked, finding it difficult to pronounce the city’s name.
“No,” replied Aiyu. “This is fastest way.”
She spun on the big auch. “Do you mean that we could have come to Konungssonur without climbing down that?” she demanded pointing up at the rock wall.
“Yes,” he answered “but it take two days more walk. Holdbori tell hurry. Say walk this way.” Camille stood silent looking at him, trying to understand. “Damned auch,” she mumbled, finding that she could not be mad at the big man that had done so much to help her. They set up camp for the night on the floor of the valley. She felt much better now that she was no longer shivering. Next morning after a breakfast of fruit and honey, they set out along the river towards the lake. The trees and scrub soon gave way to fields of crops, but something about the scene appeared wrong to her. She was used to the farms being fenced and fields dedicated to one crop. Here she could see no fences and the fields were randomly planted with crops of all types. Tracks seemed to meander aimlessly through a diversity of vegetables and fruit. There were a number of auchs working the fields and as they passed each of them stopped to watch the pair. They had walked for some time before Camille realised there was something else she had not seen. “Where are the farmhouses?” she asked.
“No houses,” Aiyu answered, without breaking stride.
“Then where do the farmers live?” she asked.
“Live Konungssonur,” he told her. “Everyone live Konungssonur.”
“But why not live close to the fields?” she persisted.
Aiyu spoke to her as if explaining the obvious to a small child. “Auchs live in mountains,” he told her. “No much land so no waste. No cover up good ground. Put house on rocky ground. No waste.” She kept her eyes on Aiyu as he led her through the maze of crops. When they reached the outskirts of the city, a smile split Aiyu’s face in half and his arms spread wide to embrace the buildings as he announced, “Konungssonur.”
Camille was amazed by what she saw. There were more buildings here than she could have ever imagined in one place: wooden structures with any number of sides and roofs of shingle, thatch or large wooden slabs, and some buildings that had no regular shape to either walls or roof. There seemed to be no order to their placement, as if some great being had thrown them out. The only things she could see that they had in common were the large doors and oversized shuttered windows. What Camille found most extraordinary was that they all stood on poles driven into the ground. The buildings before her were about ten feet above her and seemed to be interconnected by a maze of galleries and walkways. As she stared Aiyu laughed at her. “Welcome to clan home of Aiyu,” he said.
“It’s beautiful.”
“Come meet Obiri,” he invited as he walked to a nearby ramp leading up to the galleries.
They started to weave their way between the buildings. The galleries seemed very stable until she remembered they were built for auchs. They twisted left and right, crossing narrow bridges and wide boardwalks that lacked order, similar to the buildings and fields. Aiyu led her, always sure in the directions he took. Soon Camille was totally lost. They were passing an area of larger buildings with no windows when Camille called to Aiyu, “How do you know which way to go?”
“I just know,” he answered.
“But how?” she asked again.
Aiyu stopped