Wanderer

Wanderer — page 3 — 3 Her attention drifted while she waited for a classmate to answer the Mentor’s question Gazing through the near opaque thermal window at her side she could make out the angular shapes of the windmills in the grain fields Like the great pale pyramid itself whose white walls had faded to an ashen gray they were made from a variety of synthetic polymeric materials As the city’s solar panels had failed one by one in the extremes of weather the windmills had mul tiplied greatly and now constituted Arcone’s main energy source A boy got to his feet Essa knew he had sentimental feelings for the elegant Mentor and suppressed a smile Beauty is without purpose he said earnestly We revere it for itself Aware of his admiration the Mentor smiled at him That is so of course Can anyone else contribute The stammerer of the class spoke Essa’s friend Veramus In b-b-beauty there is harmony Harmony p-promotes g-good feeling and eff-eff-eff Efficiency Very good Veramus The Mentor raised her beauti fully plucked eyebrows Anyone else Someone else If someone didn’t speak up they would be asked to med itate in silence for ages Wisdom and Ethics was one of those classes that had no time limit set on it and Essa was anxious not to miss Mania She stood up and said courteously Very often that which is beautiful is strong Like Arcone itself which has stood for so many centuries like a simple shape of rock in

Wanderer — page 4 — 4 harmony with the land granting safety even when the great storms sweep in to assail the city walls Though trite it satisfied the Mentor Individuality in thought and character were encouraged only in theory Very good Elessa Harmony strength efficiency These are the practical benefits of beauty You express yourself pleasingly Predictably she moved on to debate the absence of beauty Essa found herself looking out of the window again Yes Arcone had all you could ever need or want but it would be nice to get outside more than once or twice a year O The long day wore on unremittingly radiant under a cloud less sky Kean had wandered on to where the sand took over from the scrubland This was not true desert like the endless expanse of the Big White hundreds of miles to the north but unfriendly enough When he got back he would get sharp words from Hawkerman for his disobedience A solitary blue-stripe wasn’t much to show for it But all was not lost up on high four or five gray vultures hovered so pale in color they were barely visible against the sky Directly beneath them something must lie dead or dying If that something was a Wanderer and beyond help then that person’s goods would be Kean’s by right if he got to him before anyone else did He broke into a shuffling jog-trot It was an albatross Its phenomenal wingspan lay open in the most vulnerable way Its eyes were filming as Kean

Wanderer — page 5 — 5 reached it and he was the last thing it saw a young human with pale skin and gray eyes and hair so fair it was almost silver When Kean was sure the bird was dead he stroked the feathers of its neck and lifted it up How extraordinarily light it was for its size Wanderer lore held that it was unlucky to take anything from an albatross though Kean would have liked one long snowy feather as a keepsake from the only living thing that was capable of crossing the Big White itself The vultures were no lower in the sky which surprised him they would normally land by a victim before it had even died He looked around carefully reading the situa tion It was his eyes that had named him He sees keen and long it had been recognized and at last he had an identity So then What was bothering the vultures Was that tiny dark spot on the landscape a stand of acacia trees That meant at least a modicum of water and shade And shade and water could mean He began to run back the way he had come Not a trot this time but running with long strides O Terrible screams rang out in the Middle Chamber the most often used of the three immense public chambers built one above the other in the center of the Pyramid The slightly smaller arena above this one just below the plastics hot house was the Concert Hall only used on ceremonial

Wanderer — page 6 — 6 occasions or for public celebrations while beneath their feet was the Measureless Chamber In here young people thrashed around on the white floor squirming singly or together and shrieking at the top of their voices Some of the sports were organized the others were simple expres sions of chaos the only rule being that all must involve vio lent exertion wrestling Keep-Ball Tag Two or Die Members of the security force the Pacifiers stood in pairs at intervals around the walls For the policing of the mass hysteria of Mania they were without the actual elec tric pacifors All were large men over twenty-five years old with the dark star of justice stamped on their tunics They would interfere only if blood was spilled Essa saw that Veramus needed looking after Wriggling rather tamely on the floor and shouting as he was meant to he had been swept up in a game of Keep-Ball Three girls had stuffed the little round sack of beads down his tunic and had begun to use Veramus himself as the ball dragging him over to others in their squad Everywhere players were being grabbed and hurled aside but the action was naturally fiercest around Veramus Essa got to her feet and ran at the kidnappers making herself into a human battering ram The little pack of players stumbled and fell to the ground Essa reached into Veramus’s tunic plucked out the ball and flung it away from him One of the girls said That’s not fair Essa scrambled to her feet You’re not fair Leave him alone She was tall with dark hair and she looked danger ous the girl said nothing more When Essa walked away

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