Kingdoms of the Wall Read Online Free

climb, if you're doing it without any real sense of why you're putting yourself through such an ordeal."
    "What does matter, then? Surviving until you get to the Summit, I suppose."
    "That's part of it."
    "Part of it?" I said. I blinked at him. "It's the whole idea, Traiben. That's why we go. Climbing all the way up to the Summit is the entire point of making the Pilgrimage."
    "Yes. Exactly. But once you reach the Summit, what then? What then, Poilar? That's the essential question. Do you understand?"
    How difficult Traiben could be, how bothersome!
    "Well," I said, "then you go before the gods, if you can find them, and you perform the proper rites, and then you have to turn around and make your way down."
    "You make it all sound very trivial."
    I looked at him and said nothing.
    He said very quietly, "What do you think the actual purpose of the Pilgrimage is, Poilar?"
    "Why—" I hesitated. "Everybody knows that. To present ourselves before the gods who live atop Kosa Saag. To find them and ask their blessing. To maintain the good fortune of the village by paying homage to the holy ones."
    "Yes," he said. "And what else?"
    "What else? What else can there be? We climb up, we pay homage, we come down. Isn't that enough?"
    "The First Climber," said Traiben. "Your great ancestor. What did He achieve?"
    I hardly had to think. The words came rolling out automatically, straight from the catechism. "He offered himself to the gods as an apprentice, and they taught Him how to use fire and how to make the tools that we needed for hunting and building, and how to raise crops, and how we could clothe ourselves in the skins of animals, and many other valuable things. And then He descended from the mountain and taught these things to the people below, who had been living in savagery and ignorance."
    "Yes. Therefore we revere His memory. And you and I, Poilar—we can do just as He Who Climbed did. Climb the Wall, find the gods, learn from them the things we need to know. That's the real reason why we go: to learn. To learn, Poilar."
    "But we already know everything that anybody needs to know."
    He spat. "Stupid! Stupid! Do you really believe that? We're still savages, Poilar! We're still ignorant! We live like beasts in these villages. Like beasts. We hunt and we raise our crops and we tend our gardens. We eat, we drink, we sleep. We eat, we drink, we sleep. Life goes on and on and nothing ever changes. Is that all that you think there is to being alive?"
    I stared. He was utterly bewildering.
    He said, "Let me tell you something. I intend to be a Pilgrim too."
    I laughed right in his face. "You, Traiben?"
    "Me. Yes. Nothing can stop me. Why do you laugh, Poilar? You think they'll never choose anyone as weak as I am? No. No, they will. They'll choose you despite your crooked leg and they'll choose me even though I'm not strong. I'll make it happen. I swear it by He Who Climbed. And by Kreshe and all the sacred ones of Heaven! " His eyes began to blaze, bright with that hot eerie Traiben-brightness of his that made him so mystifying and even frightening to all who encountered him. There was a Power about Traiben. If he had been born a Witch instead of into the House of the Wall, he would have been a santha-nilla with great magic at his command, of that I'm sure. "There's work for us to do up there, Poilar. There are important things that need to be learned and brought back. That's why the Pilgrimages began—so that we could sit at the feet of the gods and learn the things they know, the way the First Climber did. But for a long time now nothing useful's been brought down from the mountain. We make no progress. We live as we've always lived, and when you stay in the same place, you start to slide backward, after a time. The Pilgrimages still go forth, yes, but either the Pilgrims don't return or they come back crazy. And they bring us nothing useful, so we stay forever in the same place. What a waste, Poilar! We have to change all that.