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They followed her to a door, and suddenly the light of Tengri-Khan was in her
eyes, making her blink rapidly. They went out onto a stone patio, several
tables there with red umbrellas to shield them. Kati squinted, eyes slowly
adjusting to the light as they went to a table and were seated there, a
transparent wall the height of a man to their left.
And then she saw what was there.
Huomeng pointed, and said, "
This is Shanji."
They were perched on the side of the mountain only a negligible distance
beneath the summit, and the rock sloped steeply below them for thousands of
meters to a plain stretching towards the horizon in every direction; in the
far distance was a faint silhouette of mountain peaks. To the north, spires
rose from the plain, belching smoke, and near the mountain's base was a solid,
packed mass of buildings with streets between them, people moving there like
armies of ants. Beyond the tall buildings were clusters of smaller structures,
and beyond that the plain was broken into squares of green and gold and
glittering blue, as if painted by an artist's giant brush, as far as the eye
could see.
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- Chapter 9
"A city!" she gasped.
"It is called Wanchou," said Huomeng. There was sadness in his voice. "It is
the only true city on Shanji.
And the Emperor, in his palace, does not bother to speak of it. Kati, how many
Tumatsin do you suppose live in all the ordu s you know of?"
"Oh, thousands. There were many people at Festival when we came together."
Huomeng chuckled wryly. "Actually, it's closer to a hundred thousand, so I
guess a lot of Tumatsin don't go to Festival. And in the Emperor's city, with
the royalty, nobility, the Moshuguang, troopers and their families, we count
around twice that number. That is three hundred thousand people, Kati, which
seems like many until you realize that in that city you see below you, in all
those buildings and smaller houses, there now live nine million people. And in
thousands of hamlets, on farms, zones around the smoking factories, even
beyond where we can see from here there are another six million. They go about
their daily lives, raising their children in ways used by the ancestors of our
ancestors, before the time of First
Mother.
This is Shanji, Kati.
This is where the people are."
There was a passion in his voice, an anger when he spoke.
"I didn't realize " she began, stunned.
A woman came to take their order and left quickly. People at other tables were
watching them. All were
Hansui. Huomeng pointed behind her. "
Our workers live there, by the village we passed."
Kati turned around, saw buildings sprouting like black crystals from the face
of the rock, several tiers of them slightly lower than where she was sitting.
"The workers here have it much easier than those in Wanchou, and far better
than the country people.
Their rooms are cooled and heated, they have the finest medicine we can
provide, and machines make their work faster and easier. The people below, the
real people of Shanji, have none of this. Simple diseases like influenza have
killed hundreds of thousands of them in past epidemics. They have adjusted to
it by breeding like rabbits, unchecked, for they know that only two children
in four will survive to adulthood. The nobles own their land, their homes, all
the stores that provide them with goods. The people own nothing, not even
themselves."
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"They are like the Tumatsin," said Kati.
"No, they are not."
"And why not? The Emperor takes our land, kills those who resist, forces us to
the sea. We are under
His control, not ours."
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- Chapter 9
"Suddenly you are Tumatsin," said Huomeng softly. "There is a parallel, of
course, but it is not the same for the people below us. There is no noble
class within the Tumatsin, and that is the difference. A
Tumatsin farmer produces a bushel of grain, and uses it to barter for his
needs. The grain is his. But here, everything belongs to the nobles, who
barter with each other and the Emperor to provide themselves with luxuries far
beyond those of the people. The people have nothing to call their own.
They receive scrip for their labors and buy goods from shops owned by the
nobles. The goods are limited, priced high, and no private enterprise by the
people is allowed. There is no competition for the nobles.
"If the people are unhappy, then why don't they do something about it?" asked
Kati, perplexed.
"They aren't unhappy. They take each day as it comes. They have a place to
live, and those who work have full stomachs. They have no idea how the nobles
live, and they have never seen the Emperor's city.
They are content through ignorance. Their lives could be much better, but they
don't see it.
"But they are happy," said Kati. "I was happy living in the ordu
. I lived outdoors with the freedom to ride in the mountains, and I was never
hungry. But I see your point. What we produced was ours. Our anger came from
the Emperor pushing us around like we were cattle. We thought the lands were
ours, but they weren't."
"Exactly. There's another problem that bothers me even more. The farms and
factories continue to produce excesses. There are great stocks of copper,
bronze and steel filling warehouses near the factories, and food stored in
bins on every farm. We produce more than we need, and it's useless, yet there
is much unemployment for unskilled people. We do not expand, and the Emperor
isolates us from other worlds we could trade with. We have become stagnant on
Shanji. We do not progress, but our population grows."
Their tea and cakes had arrived. Kati munched sweet honey, and said,
"Mandughai told me she would have Shanji join the rest of her worlds. Could
this be the plan of the Moshuguang?"
"I think so," said Huomeng. "Why else would Mengmoshu have me spending my days
learning about the shuttles and the mother ship? He clearly intends to use
them."
"But what is my part in this? I play mind games, moving energy from place to
place, and talk to
Mandughai in Her gong-shi-jie, and She tells me there's something I must do.
So what is it?"
"Ask Her," Huomeng said, sipping tea. "Ask Mengmoshu. Maybe they don't know
the answer yet.
You're still changing, Kati. Don't you feel it?"
"What do you mean?"
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- Chapter 9
"You're thirteen, and a Tumatsin. There are changes in your chemistry as you
reach womanhood.
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Haven't you felt anything? Haven't you noticed people staring at us for the
last few minutes?"
"No!" said Kati, suddenly uncomfortable.
Huomeng leaned over, and put a hand on hers, whispering, "Kati, the color of
your eyes has changed four times since we sat down here. They were brown, then
amber, even red for a moment, then brown.
Now, they're red again."
Kati's face flushed.
"Even redder," said Huomeng. "Fascinating."
"Why didn't you tell me?" she whispered angrily.
"What for? It's natural. Your eyes reflect your emotions, and I think they're
pretty. You're Kati, not
Mengnu. You're a Changeling, and that's not a bad thing to be. You have the
blood of First Mother in you."
People were staring, she now noticed. She wanted to close her eyes, or cover
them, but Huomeng held onto her hand. "Be calm. Relax, and be yourself. I
think First Mother has waited for these changes in you. Maybe these are
necessary before you can do what she wants. It's all part of a bigger picture,
Kati.
We're both involved in it."
The words calmed her, and she closed her eyes a moment, breathing deeply. When
she opened them again, Huomeng smiled, and released her hand. "Brown again,"
he said.
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