The Blue Hawk Read Online Free Page B

up to it to get rid of the King! So …”
    He hesitated, his eye on the hawk.
    â€œRenewals have failed before,” said the Keeper. “Tomorrow’s rod is full of the deaths of Kings.”
    â€œHe is Goat,” said the Mouth of Silence. “If we send him to Aa, we shall ourselves have broken a ritual, and it will seem that we did so merely to silence a witness.”
    â€œYou are all making strong points,” said the One of O. “But I think you are not trusting the Gods enough. Let us tell the truth, and as far as we can let us follow where the Gods seem to lead. The truth is that the Gods spoke in the boy’s heart, telling him to remove the hawk because it was unfitting that the Renewal should be completed; we do not know why. But let us attempt to question the Gods further, and discover why. We have a sign. The Blue Hawk cannot be tamed, but it sits at ease on the boy’s wrist.”
    â€œIt is drugged,” said the One of Gdu.
    â€œNot so drugged that it could not answer you, my brother. I say we have a sign. I take it to mean that the Gods will permit this boy to tame this hawk.”
    â€œIt cannot be done!” said the One of Gdu. “The hymn says …”
    â€œJust so,” said the One of O. “He must train the hawk in secret. If he fails the failure must not be known. If he succeeds, that must also not be known until we are ready. The King dies tonight, but it is a hundred days or more—is it not, Brother Keeper?— before Tan begins to rise in flood. At the height of the flood the dead King will travel on Her breast to the land of Alaan, and only then can the live King be shown to the people. Suppose on that day, at that showing, the Blue Hawk were to fly, and kill one of our Temple doves, and return tame to its master …”
    It was as though the Major Priests perceived, one after the other, the answer to a question that had been troubling them. No one said a word, but their eyes seemed to change as they gave small nods of agreement. The One of Aa stretched as he gave his voiceless laugh, and the frown left the forehead of the Mouth of Silence, leaving his old face smooth and saintly.
    â€œWhere will the boy do the training?” asked the Keeper of the Rods.
    â€œThe Temple of Tan,” said the One of O.
    â€œYes, there’s good open ground above that,” said the One of Gdu. “If it can be done, that will do. I shall choose a discreet priest to help him.”
    â€œNo,” whispered the Mouth of Silence. “He must do it alone. He and none other, or why did the Gods choose him? Praise the Gods, boy, and be happy. You serve in a great business. There is no doubt that Gdu spoke in your heart.”

III
    Tron had seen the One of Gdu train a common river hawk to complete obedience in fifteen days. But Tron had been at the Temple of Tan thirty-seven days before the Blue Hawk settled again onto his own wrist and stayed there without a frenzied struggle against the leg throng. It was another twenty before, flying on a long, fine leash, it learned to return to a swung lure and thence without fuss to Tron’s gauntlet. He knew that he would never have progressed even that far without the help of the Gods.
    The deserted Temple of Tan stood at the point of a large sloping triangle of rocky desert, around which the river curved in a vast, abrupt bend. On the far bank spread peopled miles of fields and irrigation ditches, but the Temple on the promontory was deserted, except for the little scurryings of bats and lizards and the huge presence of the Gods. Their statues watched him as he moved across courtyards deep in blown sand, or along corridors slimy with bird droppings and bat mess; Their slow breathing seemed to fill the evening air; Their voices whispered in his dreams. At times the fear of Them so overcame him that he longed to run out into the desert, to run and then walk and finally stagger and fall and sink