The Ancient Enemy Read Online Free Page A

size of a mot's eye, that were the most striking thing about their thin faces. They peered in at one with such intelligence and understanding that it was a little frightening at times. You never thought you could keep secrets from such a being.
    The place itself was nothing but ruins. Gigantic ruins, of buildings so large as to be cities in themselves. Some were nothing but hills of rubble covered in trees, but others still partially stood, lurching up hundreds of feet into the air. Great slabs of fallen wall material lay about their feet, but the legs of these giant warriors of stone still stood. And within them were areas that had been kept habitable, for aeons, by the wit of the Assenzi and the labor of their students.
    Of all the Assenzi, Thru came to know Uzzieh Utnapishtim the best. Utnapishtim taught history, mathematics, and astronomy. Thru enjoyed the first and the last and struggled motfully with the mathematics. His efforts brought a twinkle to Utnapishtim's ancient eyes.
    Then there was Master Graedon, the engineer. He was the Assenzi who maintained the physical plant, what was left of it, that kept them alive. Thru worked without complaint on many of the hardest jobs that winter, which earned him a place in Graedon's metallurgy class. There he was privileged to forge a sword for himself.
    From Master Sassadzu he learned kyo and the art of weaving. Kyo included archery, and Thru became a very useful mot with his bow.
    And from great Cutshamakim, the spiritual leader of the Assenzi, he learned that there were things that were unknowable, that just were.
    He also learned how to adjust to a diet stripped down to its essentials. They weren't that far wrong in the Land when they said that the Assenzi lived on cold air and imagination. Gone were the hot pies and chowders from his mother's kitchen. Gone was the habit of dining in the manner of the Land. A bowl of porridge and sour butter became a luxurious dinner. And to wash down their twice-baked biscuit, there was usually nothing more than guezme tea or water. Thru got used to being hungry.
    The kyo class met Master Sassadzu on an open gallery. At the slight sound of the command from the Master, they would spin on the spot, slant their upper bodies back with the smoothness of the cobra, and snap the foot out with the speed of the striking snake. The movement was fluid, the feet arriving in space in front of them with near unanimity. Sassadzu would watch, then let them return to rest. He would show them the motion again. His own slight form seemed to become almost a liquid as he sliced his foot through the arc of contact.
    They summoned their sense of the Spirit, felt the strength rise through their waists and gather in their shoulders.
    "Now!"
    A bend, a smoother stroke, the foot seeming to flow out, unstoppable.
    Cutshamakim's lessons were taken in his room usually, a veritable library in a warm part of the Red Brick tower. Sometimes they were taken outside though, where they practiced holding a handful of snow in their hands, watching it melt to water, and then drinking the water. The hand got so cold! The water tasted so delicious afterward.
    "Why is it good sometimes to feel the cold?" asked Thru.
    "Because it shows us that we are alive."
    Utnapishtim's history class was another popular one. One day close to the end of the class, young Belloc, a Farblow Hills mot, raised his hand.
    "Utnapishtim?" The Assenzi preferred not to be called Master by their pupils.
    "What is it, Belloc?"
    "I have heard it said that Man the Cruel came from a star beyond the constellation of the Calf."
    "There is a school of opinion that believes this. There is no evidence either way."
    Salish, from Sulmo, asked next. "You remember Man the Cruel, Utnapishtim?"
    "I do."
    "I sometimes think it cannot have been as bad as it says in the Book. Was it really like that?"
    "Not all men were cruel, Salish."
    "They teach us that there were good men, the men who raised us up."
    "They raised you up, my