Land Mark

 

 

Land Mark (1976)

I was lying on my back, on top of the six cubit high stone block,
drinking wine, and was watching the stars slowly begin to appear
as the sun set. Venus glowed and twinkled over the western desert,
and a slight breeze cooled the air. Pronti, the Easterner, and boss of the raft, was telling us about his brief time working around the top-stone crew.

The Top Stoners were highly paid cutters, and almost everyone hates them. “I saw them let one slide down and crush two worker, killing one, eventually,” said Pronti. “An accident, one of them said. Another one laughed. I punched him, and the other jumped me, and I broke his arm. I was reassigned after that. Stuck here with all of you.”

Pronti is a good boss. I suppose if I insisted, I could have been boss,but, frankly I didn’t want it. This is my last run anyway.

“But they are highly skilled right,” said Andue, who had the rudder.
“Years of training.”

“No, not really. You can learn in weeks, if you pay attention.
Longer to get good of course. But it’s also about talent. Only a few get really good. It is about handling the light saws. I was in the caravan that brought them over from the Eastern edge. It takes about two, three weeks to learn the basics. But sometimes they do have to do it by hand - rather - if the grain is right, you can get a better cut with a hammer and chisel. That is skill, that is what slow things down because there are only a few guys who can do that. Grulon is a better cutter than any of them, but they don’t like Southerners, so that would be a problem. It is all fucked up. I would rather work with you guys.”

Grulon and Andue were from way down river, beyond the headwaters, from the Green Hills.

“Why’d they let you go Pronti?” Andue couldn’t get enough of Pronti’s stories. He was both different and authentic, salt of the earth, like him and Grulon. Me, I was just different, at least in their eyes. But I knew things, and I shared what I knew, so I mostly got along with everyone, as long as I played the fool.

“In Zhumud”, said Pronti, “we already have mountains - you wouldn’t be able to breathe at the top of even the smaller ones, even if you could stand the cold.”

“You ever climb those cold mountains Pronti?” Andue worshiped Pronti, a fact his countryman Grulon thought comical.

“When I was young, sure. It was expected. We all did, even the women. I lived above the clouds. We don’t need to build mountains.”

“We have mountains in the south. Plenty high. Only goats live there.”

“Goats!” Pronti laughed. “Even in the foothills of Zhumud, the birds
can’t reach the top.”

Andue looked at Grulon, who shook his head, not believing any of
it. He reached for the wineskin. I knew Pronti was right, because I had flown over the Zhumud mountains. Pronti caught my eye and smiled.

“Why did you leave Zhumud Pronti?”

“You have woman trouble,” Grulon asked.

Pronti was silent. He looked at Grulon, began to say something,
then stopped.

“Why do you bring that up?” Andue threw a small rock at Grulon.

“Is it because your wife…” Grulon leaped like a cheetah on Andue, and punched him.

“Get off him! Yes, I had ‘women trouble’. Yes! I wasn’t the only workman she sought out. But…” There was more to the story of course, but Pronti wasn’t about to tell it.

“Like Grulon’s wife!” said Andue, as he pushed away from his countryman.

“Anyway, after I was dismissed from the Emperor’s honor guard, I helped Fontu come here,” Pronti continued. “I never realized who he was or why he was coming here. I thought he was just a rich traveler.”

I had worked with Fontu when I was with the Planners.

“You knew him, didn’t you?”

“Yes,” I said. “He understood the project better than the lead builders. They were too preoccupied with their numbers and the way the stars aligned.”

The rough squaring of the stone is done on the boat. The finer the work we do, the more money we make. But if we take off too much, the block won’t fit and will be useless. This block, the one we carried was nearly perfect, except for an overhang on one side.

Grulon’s chisel work was the best I have ever seen. Sometimes, with a few well placed shots, he can finish a piece as smooth as a top stone. He sees the flow of the grain better than anyone. Andue, however, wants to cut all the time, in little bits. Chip, chip, all the way up the river. It is the safest way, he says. He wants all of us to work like that, rather than risk a bad cut. Pronti had told me he had never seen Grulon make a bad cut.

Prontus and myself aren’t great cutters, and would rather let Grulon do his magic. Grulon climbed up on the block with his hammer and chisel.

“Wait,” yelled Andue. “Why aren’t we all just chipping at it? We can gradually get it almost perfect.”

“Almost perfect.” Grulon laughed as he prepared to find his groove.

“Wait a minute!” said Pronti. He studied the stone impatiently, aware as anyone that he was probably the least expert of us in the matter of stone cutting.

“Its a question of value, Pronti,” I said. “Is our free time on the boat
worth the slight chance that we ruin the stone?”

“No,” he answered.

“Fuck you then,” said Grulon. He jumped down off the stone and took the rudder. “I ain’t helping you with that.” He took a big pull from the wine bag. “You guys can chip all you want.” He handed me the wine and I took a good pull myself. I agreed with him. Really perfect work brought a significant bonus. It was worth the risk to let Grulon do it. We both sat in the bow, and I dug the last wineskin out from the supplies. Pronti and Andue were chipping and whispering to each other.

“I thought you could do it,” I said.

Grulon smiled and lay back. It was a big wine-skin.

Grulon was soon asleep, and I was restless, so I grabbed a hammer and chisel and jumped back up on the stone. Pronti took the rudder.

“How much further?,” asked Pronti.

Andue looked at the river bank. “Tomorrow morning, maybe early
afternoon.”

When the sun went down we stopped at a village lit up by several
large campfires and bought more wine and a side of antelope. Andue and Pronti climbed up on the stone and made a fire. I woke Grulon and he had trouble climbing the stone. We all laughed at him, and he laughed too, and the argument of earlier seemed forgotten. I went for a twilight swim before joining them.

I floated along behind the raft to avoid snags, and wondered why I
was enjoying life so much now that I had left the Council. They were moving away from the original purpose, drifting into megalomania. The so-called Pharaoh was merely their puppet now. He really thought they were building his mausoleum. I looked up and saw an Atlantian ship, heading east.

At that moment, I knew they were taking Fontu’s body back to his
home. How the river must look from up there tonight! Hundreds of
dinner fires on the floating stone blocks, all in a line as far down
river as you could see.

With Fontu gone, there were no wise ones left.

“Fontu is dead,” said Pronti. Andue was eating with carnivorous
gusto and Grulon was nibbling and drinking.

“How did you know,” I asked. Pronti shrugged. What a waste of
talent! But it was too late to harness it. I was glad for him actually,
because I knew what it meant to have your powers harnessed.

“I guess I will marry and settle in this desert,” he said. I nodded.

Andue immediately began telling Pronti about the quarter he lived
in. “It is a good place. Close to the docks. We have nice places to eat and shop. It isn’t too wild, good for children.” Pronti nodded. I saw he was thinking of his son being raised in the palace of a princess. His princess.

I had the first shift on the rudder. I woke at the first light and could
see the unloading terminal ahead. We made good time. The river
was up from yesterday. They were already pulling one up off the
raft. In this light that was dangerous. We would be second in line.
The council was growing impatient at the pace of work, it seemed.

“Perhaps in our lifetime,” I could almost hear their idle chatter. I am
leaving this land. I will go north to the forest, beyond the sea. No
more of this foolishness.

“Look at that!” Grulon was pointing. Four Atlantian ships taking
off together. Any flock of birds would launch themselves with more
style and synchronicity. I wasn’t impressed, and did not hide my
annoyance.

Andue and Pronti hadn’t expected to arrive so soon. “Must of rained like a motherfucker back home,” said Andue. Grulon nodded. We only had a couple of hours at most to finish cutting the stone. It was too late to let Grulon find a proper groove now. So we all chipped away furiously, including Grulon. Every pebble cut was more money.

I got off the raft, collected my pay, which was better than I had expected, and said goodbye. Although they would have no trouble replacing me, they were all silently mad that I was leaving, and soon I was a stranger to them. After a couple days, they would be on camels headed south to get the next raft. I bought a donkey and started for the coast.