The Gem Lords

Mekk - Part 3

     The clock towers each had two clock faces, he saw now, one on each of the outward facing walls. Each face was over twenty feet across, with fifteen hours marked, but they only had one hand, currently standing almost vertically, almost pointing to the topmost hour which was marked with a golden, six pointed flower. It was a long way past noon, though. The sun was lying close to the horizon and casting long shadows across the street. The vertical position on the clock dial must mark the most important part of the Garusian day, Strong mused to himself. Something that happened at around sunset.

     The rest of the clock faces were covered with intricate abstract designs and words in the Garusian language that Strong couldn't read, although the letters were easily big enough if the spell Saturn had cast on him had allowed him to read written Garusian. Strong somehow knew, without being told, that the towers contained huge bells, large enough that they could be heard across the entire city, probably summoning the faithful to prayer.

     The temple stood right on the edge of the shielded area of the city, he noted. Right on the edge of the unprotected areas inhabited by the labourers, and he saw that a huge open area had been left among the prefabricated hovels to form a giant plaza in front of the building. A plaza in which hundreds of thousands could gather with the sun shining behind them, illuminating the side of the temple facing them.

     Thousands were there already, he saw. People who cared nothing for the procession heading towards the other end of the building, the grander of the temple's two entrances. They were staring expectantly up at the clock towers, some gathered in family groups, and almost all holding blue flowers in their hands, holding them up and waving them like flags while more continued to file in. Even the crowds cheering the procession of carriages was melting away now, as people drifted away to attend the religious ceremony.

     "We've come just at the right time," said Corto with satisfaction. "You'll be able to hear the First Child delivering the blessings."

     He gestured to where a steady stream of the city's upper classes were entering the building through its colossal main entrance. Almost the whole population of the sheltered area of the city, by the look of it. Had they had the good luck to arrive on the holy day? wondered Strong. He thought not. Corto had said they'd come at the right time, not the right day. He thought it very likely that the Garusians did this every day.

     The thought chilled him. Every day at sunset, it seemed, every living soul, man, woman and child, left whatever they were doing and gathered at their nearest house of Mekk to receive the blessings of the Children. Every evening, come sun, wind or storm, for the whole of their lives.

     He saw infants and people too old to walk being carried or driven there and mentioned it as casually as he could.

     "Yes," said Corto. "They don't want to risk damning themselves to Hell for the sin of absence."

     "Even if they've previously followed a lifetime of faithful attendance," said Strong carefully.

     "Of course," Corto agreed. "One is either faithful or one is not."

     "But there is the chance for absolution if a transgressor is sincerely repentant," said Strong hopefully.

"If the First Child is convinced of their sincerity," said Corto. "And the transgressor performs some suitable and arduous penance."

     Saturn nodded his approval. "To ignore the call of the bells is an insult to Mekk," he said. "I am pleased to find that you honour Mekk as faithfully as we do. Your ships, of course, have their own chapels, as do ours, for the use of their crews when they are away from their world."