Ontogeny

Chapter 9a

They spotted the volcano less then twenty four hours after leaving Barag Tull.

They were climbing a ridge of low hills on which the soil was thinner, allowing only grass and a few low, tangly shrubs to grow, and as they reached the top there it was. An almost perfect cone sitting on the horizon, its upper half shining a brilliant white with a covering of snow and with a thin coil of smoke drifting upwards from the summit. It gave the paradoxical impression of peace and tranquillity, even though everyone in the patrol knew the truth of them, of the violence and destruction that could be unleashed during an eruption. They all stopped for a moment to stare at it, all of them struck by the beauty of it, standing all alone in the middle of an almost flat country. A trio of Radiants were drifting above the volcano, they saw. Nothing but three brilliant points of light at this distance. Malone wondered whether they also had a concept of beauty, and whether they'd come just to admire it from above.

The path they were taking to reach Tollawen would take them almost to the feet of the volcano and Sherren Harle was looking nervous again, his eyes shifting around as if he was expecting a sudden ambush. His long, black tongue darted out to lick his thin lips. He said something to Crane, to which the Brigadier listened intently, trying to pick some meaning from it from the two short lessons the tracker had already given him, the night before and that morning.

"I think I caught the word for house, or home," he said after a moment. "That was all, though."

"That was very good, Sir," said Crane. "The word for home was the only word I've taught you so far that he used. He just said that this is where the spirits live. Around this mountain. He's getting scared, sir. The extra pay we've promised him may only take him so far."

"I'm not too worried about that. I think we could find our way back to the city on our own if we had to, if our friend decided to leave us. And now that we've got that nice, large landmark to guide us, we could probably find our own way to Tollawen if we had to. What was the word for mountain that he used?"

"Toll," replied Crane. "Tollawen means the land under the mountain. It's the same word in Pennygab and the Mekrol language, so Pennygab probably borrowed the word from here, just like it's borrowed other words from other languages all over the world. There are quite a few words of our own language in it, which is what makes it so easy to learn." He pointed ahead of them, to the right of the volcano, where the silvery line of a river was threading its way through the trees. "He says that, the last he heard, Parcellius was in that area, near a small town called Tollbine. The village under the mountain."

"So it's the only village near the mountain?" asked Malone.

Crane spoke a few words to their guide, who gave a single word answer. "Yes," translated the Brigadier. "I imagine there aren't that many people willing to live so close to a volcano."

"So why does anyone live here?" asked Malone.

"They don't have farms," Crane reminded them. "Their Gods forbid it. They get all their food from hunting wild animals and gathering fruit from wild growing plants. That's a very inefficient use of the land, though. They have to use every part of it, including those bits on the flanks of a volcano. I gather the village is a local staging post for the game hunters."

Malone looked to the south, to where the topmost peaks of the Uttermost range were still visible above the treetops, made almost the same shade of grey blue as the sky by the mistiness of the air in between. "Are there other volcanoes over there?" he asked.

"I don't know," replied Crane, "but from what I know of such things, it would be odd for there to be just one volcano, all alone. The whole range might be volcanic, for all I know. On the other hand, the people of Barag Tull don't seem worried about living so close to them. I would guess that the stories of spirits in this area are based on geysers, ground tremors and so on. Ignorant people might attribute these things to the actions of malevolent spirits. There's no such fear of spirits in the city, though."