The Book of War

The Book of War

  M L Lucas

  Copyright 2015 M L Lucas

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  The king’s wise man climbed the final set of stone stairs leading to the roof of the palace carrying a rolled up carpet under his arm. He opened the think wooden door and walked out into the velvet, jewel-encrusted night. He breathed deeply the dry, cool night air sweetened by aromas from the palace gardens. The nights could get quite cold but the wise man was quite used to them and had long ago ceased to notice

  The wise man scanned the skies. The palace roof gave the best views of the heavens as it was the highest point between the distant mountains in the east and the great sea in the west where the sun had set some time ago as the night watchman had already sounded the hour three times.

  As the king’s leading wise man, he was learned in all the philosophies and the practical arts but his particular speciality was knowledge of the stars and he now turned his trained mind to study the sky. He quickly noted the positions of the constellations and the planets and then proceeded to systematically scan each sector of the sky looking for new or unusual phenomena. Such changes could herald times of change, events or circumstances which could endanger or assist the king and the city he ruled over. For example, a new star could mean the appearance of a new king; a difficult situation for a wise man whose employer was the current incumbent.

  The scan of the skies took a long time as the wise man was careful and meticulous in his study, knowing that the lives of the people of the city were in his hands, as they relied on him to be pre-warned of any danger that may be foreshadowed in the stars. However, on this occasion, there were no surprises, and the stars and planets were following their customary cycles. These cycles, including the mysterious wanderings of the planets, had been meticulously documented and were consulted continuously by the wise men to advise the best times to undertake critical tasks in the life of the city and the surrounding farmlands which supported it.

  However, the wise man’s tasks were not yet completed for the night. He needed to study the stars in the other world, which is the world of signs, symbols and portents. This was a world which only the initiated and focused could enter through the power of the mind.

  The wise man laid out on the flat stone roof, the roll of carpet he had brought and sat cross-legged on it. Thus seated, he closed his eyes and concentrated.

  The wise man took one deep breath and then another. But before he took a third, he made his mind small, and with infinitely small fingers of thought, he searched out the fine, minute cracks in the boundaries between worlds and squeezed his mind though one of the small cracks. As he breathed deeply a third time, his mind expanded out into the other world and with the full concentration of his mind opened the eyes of his mind into the other world.

  The other world was both different and the same as the everyday world. Some of the wise men taught that the other world was more real than the everyday world and that the everyday world was nothing more than a poor shadow of the other world. However, to the wise man the other world was not a different world but the same as the everyday world, only seen from a different perspective, more deeply or perhaps more directly, using senses that were inaccessible except to the trained.

  The stars in the other world didn’t twinkle but were brighter and steadier than in the everyday world. They could at times move differently from the real world and new stars could appear which were not visible in the everyday world. However, the buildings, trees, ground and the familiar solid physical presence of the everyday world, appeared less solid in the other world, almost translucent and foggy.

  Even without seeing them, the wise man could often sense the souls and spirits of people and animals in the other world as ephemeral sparkles or bubbles of light and colour. He reached with his mind and was able to feel or see, he was not sure which, the deep, brooding, and somehow distant spirit of the king. But his mind was pulled to another soul, Sarai, now stressed and anxious about some affairs of the queen. Her spirit was as familiar to him as the gentle, warmth of her body as she would lay sleeping in the cool freshness of the morning.

  There were occasions when the individual creatures in the other world would group together to take on a larger version of their physical forms but it was rare and the wise man had seen it seldom. It would occur when a group of animals of the same kind reached a critical population size. Then, the normally indistinct creatures, the translucent sparkles and bubbles of light and colour of each of the individuals would combine and coalesce into a gigantic monster.

  It was several years ago, but the wise man still remembered as if it were yesterday, when the city and the surrounding farmlands had been engulfed in a swarm of locusts. The wise man remembered the giant locust monster towering over the city in the other world. Each part of the golden outline of the giant locust monster; its antennae, its huge bent hind legs, head, eyes, and horrifying mouth-parts, were a mosaic made of perfectly formed miniature golden versions of itself. So that looking at just one leg of the giant locust one could see thousands of tiny locust forms, each one perfectly golden and each one aligned in such as way that together they formed the moving outline of the tense muscular hind leg of the giant locust monster. Myriads upon myriads of these miniature locusts formed the giant locust monster and the wise man knew that each one of those miniature locust figures was a single locust which combined with the others now acted as a single being; a gigantic monster that ate all in its path and had brought starvation and disease to the city.

  The wise man had also seen on occasion, giant bees flying and giant ants marching across the landscape, each one made up of thousands of individual bees and ants. However, bees and ants rarely interfered with the affairs of men and generally such monsters kept to themselves.

  After surveying the landscape for a few minutes, the wise man returned his attention to the stars and then proceeded to scan the heavens in much the same way as he had done in the everyday world. This took some time and the night watchman had sounded for the fifth time before he had finished.

  When he had completed, he scanned the landscape once again and noticed a small golden dot far to the west. He strained his eyes to see what it was but it was far away, and he discerned that it must be close to the great sea.

  The wise man knew that it was possible to move around in the other world using the power of his mind. He concentrated now and the carpet on which he sat lifted up into the air and hovered over the palace. He then concentrated further and the carpet floated away from the palace and over the city towards the west and the mysterious golden dot far to the horizon.

  The area around the palace were the oldest of the city and in the various buildings which crowded the narrow laneways and paths of the city, the relatives of the king, the nobles and the important bureaucrats and court officials dwelt. These dwellings, so solid in the everyday world, appeared translucent, and fog-like in the other world. It seemed that a strong wind could blow them away with very little effort. Within them, the rainbow lights of the occupying souls danced and played as they went about their business either awake or in dream.

  The further west he flew, the city sloped further downwards and gradually flattened. He was now drifting above the buildings that served many purposes, as dwellings, workshops, shops, barbers, and eateries. These were all still part of the old city which lay within the inner wall.

  The inner wall which surrounded the old city was the cit
y’s last line of defence against invasion. It was thick enough to allow two men to walk side by side along its top and had lookout posts built at various stages. By royal decree, no structures could be built within thirty cubits of either side of the wall to preserve its structural integrity but the wise man could see there were a few incursions into this prohibited space. No doubt some city official had been paid to look the other way.

  As the wise man drifted past the inner wall, he looked down upon the outer city and the towering outer walls that surrounded the whole city. He drifted over the open space which was the great bazaar or market place. As it was night, it was deserted except for a few travellers and their camels camped in one corner. They either could not afford or did not wish to pay, to stay at the city’s inn.

  At last the wise man came to the outer walls and looked across to the west where he had seen the golden dot. However, he could make out nothing more discernible here than he had from the palace roof.

  The wise man knew it was dangerous to travel too far from his body which still sat on the stone roof of the palace. He knew that the body he could see seated on the floating carpet, and the carpet itself, were nothing but illusions and that it was only his mind which had travelled to the outer walls.

  There was nothing further that he could learn from the other world at this time and he released his mind. Like an archer’s bow which after being held taut is released, his mind snapped back into his body seated on the palace roof in the everyday world. He got up, stretched his legs, rolled up the carpet and left the palace roof, the small golden dot in the distance still playing on his mind.

  Entering his apartments in the palace, he headed unthinkingly towards his bed and sat down heavily.

  “That woman is going to be the death of me,” Sarai started. “First she wants red flowers and then she changes her mind and wants yellow flowers. How are we going to get the yellow flowers at short notice and what do we do with the red ones?”

  The wise man knew Sarai was referring to the queen and that such talk was dangerous. If overhead and reported to the queen, it could make life very difficult for both of them.

  “Royalty always has particular and specific tastes, and have high expectations. It is our challenge to try to meet them,” he replied, trying to placate her.

  However, this only had the opposite effect and infuriated her more.

  “Typical. You are always defending them no matter what they do, regardless of how they treat you or me. Is bad behaviour defined by position? Is bad behaviour acceptable just because one sits on a throne?”

  Expecting a response and getting nothing, Sarai turned to her husband who sat on his bed deep in thought.

  “What’s the matter?” she asked, her faced creased with concern.

  Slowly looking up from his reverie, the wise man turned to his wife, and his voice seemed to come from a great distance. “I feel a change coming and it leaves me cold.”

  Sarai felt a chill run through her own body, and she sat down next to her husband and held him in her arms.

  “Sarai,” the wise man said gently, “if danger arises, go to the gardens. Not the royal ones but the other gardens where we used to walk. Go and hide yourself.”

  ****

  The summons to the king had been urgent and the wise man knew that it would not be good news. When he arrived at the king’s chamber his attention was immediately drawn to an official prostrated and trembling in front of the king, and to the king whose dark moody presence overshadowed the enigmatic drama being played out within the magnificent chamber.

  The king cast his look in the direction of the wise man and it fell like a physical weight as the king examined the lines and nuances of the wise man’s face looking for any tell-tale sign or expression.

  The wise man had no time to study the room and its occupants or to attempt to make any sense of what was happening before the king boomed in his direction, “Wise Man, what have you seen in the stars?”

  The king’s gaze intensified as he studied the wise man’s reaction to his question, seeing first incomprehension, then surprise, then thoughtful recollection and then, just for a split second, a momentary hesitation before he answered, “Nothing of significance, My Lord.”

  The king studied the wise man in silence, for what felt like an intolerable period of time, but the wise man resisted the temptation to fill the silence with words.

  The king released the wise man from the intense grip of his gaze. He knew that the wise man had told him the truth but he had not told him everything that he knew or suspected. The wise men had a reputation for being tight-lipped in relation to their areas of esoteric knowledge and to speak minimally at best. The long years that the wise man had been in his service had generated an element of trust between the two and he did not press the wise man further.

  “We have heard word from the west that the coastal cities and the cities of the valley have all been taken by force. A large army, possibly from across the great sea has started a campaign in our region but we have received no embassy from them,” the king stated in a concise monotone.

  This was news indeed to the wise man and his face conveyed that fact to the king.

  The king remained silent to enable the wise man to contemplate and understand the import of his words. During this time, the wise man took in the scene surrounding him.

  The king’s chamber was a large circular room with a domed ceiling and columns around the outside, providing an open centre. The lighting was concentrated in the central area leaving the columned outer circle in shadows.

  As a palace official, the wise man had entered the chamber via a side entrance and the king and his close advisers were seated on the wise man’s left directly opposite the main grand entrance which was now closed by two large doors in front of which two of the king’s guards now stood.

  The prostrated official, obviously the informer and bearer of these bad tidings, cowered in the fully lit centre of the chamber in front of the king. The king on his elevated throne was flanked by the standing figures of his chief military commander and other advisers. Further out from the king was the king’s scribe, standing behind a slightly slanted raised bench containing parchments, scrolls and writing utensils.

  The king turned to the official cowering on the ground in front of him and said quietly, “We thank you for your service. You may leave our presence.”

  The cowering man got to his feet with relief and bowed to the king quickly twice and glanced expectantly to the king’s steward who, in turn looked towards the king. The king nodded and the steward took out a plain cloth purse and handed it to the man. Quickly taking the bag and hiding it in the folds of his robe, the man bowed again to the king and left via the now opened grand entrance; not daring to overstay his welcome. The guards closed the doors behind him.

  The king turned to his chief military commander and stated, “We need to find out more about these foreigners. We will need translators, people who can speak their language and spies. You have contacts. Make known that we will pay well. But be discreet.

  “Send out a scouting party to find our where they are, what they have done and most importantly their strength. They have to be reliable men who are capable of assessing accurately.

  “We will need the commanders to start raising an army.”

  “Conscripting an army will put people on notice that something is happening, My Lord. What will we tell them?” asked the commander.

  “Tell them nothing,” replied the king. “Orchestrate a rumour that we are starting a campaign against the border cities of the land between the rivers. Start another rumour that we are going to the aid of one of our allies amongst the salt valley which is under attack. Organise as many contradictory rumours as possible. And when asked, neither confirm nor deny any of them.”

  The king turned to the wise man and commanded gruffly, “I want you to study the stars diligently and tell me everything that you see.”

>   ****

  Night after night, the wise man entered into the other world to study the stars. The golden dot on the horizon grew steadily larger and its form could be deduced even from a distance. It was human. A giant human figure, no doubt made up of countless human miniatures which were still too far away to be seen.

  The wise man guessed that the presence of the giant human form in the other world and the invading foreign army in the physical world were no coincidence but were one and the same thing. But that could only mean that the size of the army and the souls that it commanded and ruled were enormous and beyond anything he had ever imagined or contemplated.

  It was no wonder the king had received no embassy. A force of that size had no need for diplomacy. The wise man could only hope and pray that its intentions did not involve the city he called home and the people he cared for and loved.

  ****

  It seemed to stretch out on every side as far as the eye could see. Every square patch of land outside of archery range from the city’s walls was occupied by warriors and their camp paraphernalia. All arranged in orderly groups.

  The huge army had descended almost overnight. The people from the surrounding farms had fled. Many had turned to the city for protection bringing in as much supply of food as they could under the circumstances. Others, perhaps the wiser ones, had fled to the distant mountains but even there the future was uncertain and in no way safe.

  The city itself was now cut off from all external supplies of food and water.

  Since the wise man’s last audience with the king, the king had largely kept his own counsel with the exception of the military commander, now titled commander of war, and some other close advisers. Everyone else had been told nothing or close to nothing.

  The king and the war commander made a point of being seen every day and walked along the city walls inspecting the guards and giving a quiet word of encouragement to those around them. Although, they took care never to look out over the vast army surrounding them so as to appear to be unconcerned, as if the scene was of no significance and not important enough even to glance at.