Ice Trilogy Page 25

  But we were anxious.

  Because we felt the rapid aging of our bodies. After aging, earthly death would follow. And we would be unable to search. Or help the Brotherhood. We had to find two successors who could also see together, like we did. We tested the hearts of the newly acquired. We searched for others like us. We tried replacing Fer or me with another of the brothers or sisters. But no one could replace us. And that was the hidden threat to the Brotherhood.

  We asked our hearts. But they stayed silent. The only thing we could do was search for ours. And search among ours.

  There was no other way.

  Embracing, Fer and I fell asleep. Our hearts searched even in our sleep. They recalled the hearts of the others. And tested them.

  This continued endlessly.

  For two Earth years we prepared for the continuation of the search. Finally the long-awaited day arrived. That summer in a southern city of the Country of Order an important event had occurred. The whole country had waited for it with impatience. In that city tens of thousands of the strongest meat machines, those most devoted to the leader, gathered. Along with them gathered the most important meat machines of the country, the ones who helped the leader rule over millions of meat machines. Over a period of six days all those gathered were supposed to be convinced how strong, united, devoted to the ideas of the leader, and prepared to go to war for new lands they were. The entire country prepared for this event.

  The Brotherhood prepared for it too. For us, such a gathering of meat machines offered the possibility of finding some of ours. And not only among the simple meat machines. But among the authorities as well.

  By order of the leader each meat machine in his country was supposed to know everything about this meeting of the strongest meat machines. To achieve this, hundreds of meat machines were hired who knew how to write letters on paper so that all who read these letters in other cities would have a good idea of what was happening at the gathering in the southern city. But in addition to meat machines who could write letters rapidly, the leader hired one meat machine who could produce shadows on white using various substances and light. And produce them so that any meat machines who watched these shadows would immediately understand what had happened at that very same large gathering. The Brotherhood decided to use this meat machine. Fer and I found out about her life. She loved not only to be a shadow on white but to create other shadows. More than anything she was afraid of dying in her sleep. For this reason she slept very little and lightly. She also really loved the leader. Not as a leader but as a vivid, strong meat machine. She thought of him as a fountain of hot water illuminated by a blue light. And she dreamed of making his shadow on white. To realize her dream she hired one hundred and seventy meat machines connected with the production of shadows on white.

  The Brotherhood had already been working in the world of meat machines for several years, producing shadows on white. Therefore the brothers made an effort to work in her group. Twenty-nine meat machines were supposed to watch the gathering of meat machines through special iron boxes from different angles. In these boxes, with the aid of substances and light, shadows on white gradually added up. Of the twenty-nine who worked with the iron boxes, six were our brothers and another seven meat machines worked for the Brotherhood. Of the remaining one hundred and forty-one of ours there were two brothers, two sisters, and twelve meat machines who also worked for the Brotherhood.

  Everything began with the arrival of the ruler. He flew in on an iron machine, got into another iron machine, and drove to the center of the city. The meat machines stood on the street and welcomed the leader. But Fer and I didn’t look through the crowd. Because it was moving.

  Fer and I stood near the large stone cave where the leader was supposed to stay. The cave was decorated with red-and-black material. The leader drove up to the cave, entered it, and stood at an open window. The crowds of meat machines shouted for joy. The leader raised his right arm and showed the crowd his palm. At this moment Fer and I saw him. He wasn’t one of us. We looked into his life. It writhed with a furious violence. Like the ruler of the Country of Ice, the leader adored his power over millions of meat machines. But even more strongly, he adored the possibility of losing power over millions of people. He sought power in order to lose it in the most agonizing way possible. This was the main passion of his life, although he himself wasn’t aware of it.

  The ruler of the Country of Ice wanted power simply in order to rule. Power was the only thing he adored.

  Over those six days, Fer and I attended all the gatherings of meat machines. At the first gathering the Brotherhood dressed us in the clothes of meat machines who tilled the earth and grew crops. We greeted the leader along with the other earth-tillers. We were the oldest of them. At another gathering the brothers dressed me in the clothes of a fighting meat machine. On my chest they hung metallic articles that meat machines are awarded for knowing how to kill well. I was seated in a wheelchair, Fer stood behind me. At that gathering there were many meat machines who had fought. The leader spoke to them, as did other high-placed meat machines. At the gathering of meat machines who built roads and stone caves, Fer and I were seated in a box with two windows. While the leader greeted the crowd, we watched the crowd through these windows. And we remembered ours. The next was the gathering of young meat machines. We were brought to that one in two large suitcases. They were set up next to each other. We looked through the huge crowd of rapturously shouting young meat machines. Finding ours in it, we remembered them. The next day the meat machine that produced shadows on white worked with her group in a place where the young meat machines who had come to the gathering lived temporarily. We were in this group. And we easily recalled the newly acquired. The brothers found out their earthly names. At the gathering of meat machines that gave birth to meat machines, Fer sat in a wheelchair, and I stood behind her. She greeted the leader along with all the other meat machines and listened to his speech. He said that meat machines should give birth to healthy, strong meat machines. During his speech we looked through the crowd. There were also gatherings of smaller groups of meat machines. We attended several of those as well.

  On the sixth day the leader gave a short speech. After that the meat machines organized themselves into even rows and began to leave the city. Other meat machines shouted after them. Meat machines that knew how to extract various sounds from objects blew forcefully into them and banged on them loudly. These sounds accompanied the even rows of meat machines that were leaving the city.

  The leader flew off aboard a flying machine. His assistants left the city in machines that moved by water and fire. And only the meat machines that lived in the city remained.

  The search had ended. It was very important.

  Seventy-six brothers and sisters merged into our Brotherhood. And we were strengthened in the Country of Order. Brothers Pot, Iya, Men, and Ofka occupied high positions among the ruling meat machines. Brothers Zel, Yapor, Ili, and An had power in the leader’s herd of guards. Brother Nieg and sister Vafu had a great deal of money, many stone caves, and expensive objects. Many strong and healthy young people were now in the Brotherhood, and they were ready to do anything for the Primordial Light.

  But this search in the southern city turned out to be far from simple for Fer and me.

  Our bodies had lost weight, our muscles had grown weak, our arms hung limply. We stopped taking in food and only drank water. Water that fell from the sky. And we breathed. Our hearts beat rarely. The sisters warmed us with their bodies, held us in their arms, placed us in fresh cow’s milk. Then they wrapped us in thick material and placed us in the sun. We slept.

  This continued for a long time. The Earth turned around the sun. The planets and stars, which we had created, followed their own orbits.

  Life did not abandon our bodies. They began to accept food once again and to move.

  When Fer and I had grown stronger, the sisters taught us to walk. Holding on to each other, we walked near the
stone cave in the mountains. Then we would sit on the grass. We touched each other’s bodies. And hearts, which were capable of noticing and rescuing thousands of kin among the hearts in the crowds of meat machines.

  In the Country of Order a new meeting of meat machines took place. This time they gathered not to listen to the speeches of the leader and prepare themselves to conquer nearby countries. Instead, the meat machines put on a competition of strong, agile bodies. The meat machines with the strongest and most agile bodies from different countries came to the main city of the Country of Order to compete with one another. To show strength and agility, they ran, jumped in length and height, threw pieces of iron, lifted heavy objects, swam, chased leather balloons with their feet, wrestled, fought with iron rods, beat on one another with leather gloves, spat metal at sheets of paper with iron pipes. This took place in view of tens of thousands of simple meat machines, who were not as strong and agile. They followed the doings of the strong meat machines and applauded them joyfully. The strong bodies elicited excitement and envy in them.

  The meat machine that knew how to create shadows on white was also at this gathering. With her group of assistants she followed the competition of strong and agile meat machines through iron boxes in which shadows on white added up. Then the whole country was supposed to see these shadows. And the Brotherhood again made use of this. We penetrated the crowd of meat machines that followed the competition and looked through it. In the course of twelve days we found eighty-seven brothers and one hundred and one sisters.

  Once again Fer and I replenished our strength in the mountains.

  We were bathed in fresh milk, wrapped in cloth dipped in mountain herbs, and placed in baskets hung between trees for a long time. Rocked by the mountain wind, we slept, observing the hearts of the newly acquired. This gave us joy and calmed us.

  The brothers started preparations for yet another search. But something unexpected happened. The ruler of the Country of Ice began the energetic destruction of high-placed meat machines. He did this in order to retain his power. Thousands of strong meat machines, who had been ruling over and directing millions of simple meat machines, were seized and locked up in stone caves. The Brotherhood was unable to elude this. We weren’t able to understand everything in the world of meat machines. We understood each meat machine. But the crowd of meat machines was not entirely transparent to us. Its drone suppressed our hearts. And we didn’t see everything in a crowd. For this reason we weren’t able to warn ours in time. And one day brothers Ig, Zchap, and Shoror were seized and placed in a cellar. The meat machines locked them in. They began to beat the brothers and torture their bodies. Confessions were demanded from them for things they had not done. The Brotherhood could not help them. And the meat machines murdered our brothers.

  We saw the Light leaving their hearts.

  Across the entire Country of Ice, experienced and powerful meat machines were seized and locked up. Their bodies were tortured and they were forced to confess to things they had not done. Some of them did not confess. And they died from torture. Others confessed. They were either murdered or taken off to a cold region far from the cities. There they were forced to cut down trees and dig up the earth, and at night they were locked in woodsheds. They were fed very meagerly. The meat machines died quickly in this cold region.

  In place of the destroyed meat machines, the ruler of the Country of Ice appointed other meat machines, younger and less experienced. They satisfied the ruler. The Brotherhood understood that in a few years these meat machines would suffer the same fate — they would be seized and destroyed. And this would continue as long as the ruler was alive.

  We understood that in the Country of Ice it was dangerous to penetrate the echelons of power. As long as this ruler was alive, the risk of losing brothers was too great. As soon as he died and another took his place, the Brotherhood would again strive to infiltrate the leadership of the country. For this reason the Brotherhood made an important decision: the brothers and sisters occupying high positions in the leadership of this country must leave it as soon as possible.

  A month later, thirty-eight brothers and eight sisters left the Country of Ice and made their way to the Country of Order. Three brothers perished at the hands of the border guards during the move. A large number of the brothers and sisters who arrived remained in the Country of Order. The rest were sent to two small northern countries. There the Brotherhood acquired a few stone caves. The brothers and sisters arriving from the Country of Ice began living in them. They began to prepare for the possibility of a search in these countries, where many blue-eyed, blond-haired meat machines lived.

  Fer and I had finally recovered our strength.

  And were ready for a new search.

  But a war began between the meat machines. We knew about this a long time ago. Its beginning, however, like much in the world of meat machines, happened rapidly and unpredictably. The Brotherhood expected a big war between the countries of Order and Ice. But a small war began in a different place. The ruler of the Country of Order commanded his meat machines to attack a small country to the east. The meat machines of the Country of Order quickly occupied half the country. The other half was occupied by meat machines of the Country of Ice. Then the ruler of the Country of Order sent his meat machines into other bordering countries. The meat machines of the Country of Order seethed with desire to kill in the name of Order. For this they used iron machines and iron pipes, which spat pieces of hot metal. These pieces hit the bodies of meat machines and killed them. A country was thought to be strong if it had many meat machines, iron machines, and iron pipes that could spit hot metal. The Country of Order had a lot of them.

  The Brotherhood was prepared for the war.

  We began the search among those meat machines who were preparing to fight. They gathered in even rows, moved around learning how to work with the iron pipes that spat hot metal. The Brotherhood began to use Fer and me again. Two boxes were prepared for us, resembling the boxes in which meat machines put their clothes when they moved from town to town. Before the search Fer and I would take off our clothes, lie down in these boxes, and press our legs to our chests. The boxes were closed. And our brothers took them to the place where the meat machines clustered. By that time Fer and I had become very thin by the standards of meat machines. We ate very rarely. We drank water only every three days. Our bodies became very light, and our legs and arms thin. A delicate wrinkled skin stretched over our bodies. We could not be shown to meat machines — they would have been scared and put on guard. Even in comparison to very old meat machines we looked unusual. Our faces resembled skulls. The hair on our heads had become completely white.

  Therefore we could look through meat machines only from boxes. The Brotherhood carried us in boxes all around the Country of Order and the countries it had conquered. Fer and I lived in the boxes. And we grew accustomed to them. We slept in the boxes and spoke to each other with the heart. When the search began we looked through the crowds of meat machines. This mostly took place during their meetings, when they stood immobile or sat and listened to some meat machines speaking loudly to them about the war in the name of a beautiful future. Upon finding ours in a crowd, we looked into their lives, found out their names in the world of meat machines. Through a gap in the box I whispered these names to the brothers. By various means they found the newly acquired. And Ice hammers awoke their hearts.

  The Brotherhood grew.

  But soon the big war began too. Its beginning was equally unexpected for us. We were expecting the Country of Ice to be the first to attack the Country of Order. But the Country of Order took the lead over the Country of Ice. The attack took the meat machines of the Country of Ice and its leaders unawares: they didn’t believe that the Country of Order, which had fewer meat machines and iron machines, would attack the large, strong Country of Ice. The unexpectedness helped the attacker. The meat machines of the Country of Order, sitting in their iron machines and armed with powerful pipe
s, moved quickly to the east through the Country of Ice, destroying meat machines and iron ones. The meat machines of the Country of Ice retreated, dropping their metal-spitting pipes. Many of those retreating ended up being taken prisoner by the attackers. The imprisoned meat machines were kept in fenced-off, guarded places. They were supposed to work without pay for the Country of Order.

  The Brotherhood could feel that the search should begin among the imprisoned meat machines. The brothers did everything possible to penetrate those places where the imprisoned meat machines of the Country of Ice were held. There were hundreds of thousands of them. Fer and I were placed in our boxes and transported to these locations. We looked through the crowds of imprisoned meat machines. And we found ours.

  In one crowd I saw the meat machines who had led me to the Ice. The very same strong, single-minded meat machine who had led us through the impassable forest to the place the Ice fell. Now this was a weak, sick meat machine. Its body was emaciated from lack of food, its leg was swollen. The authorities of the Country of Ice had forced it to take a hot-metal-spitting pipe in hand and go off to fight. It had been captured and was dying, without ever finding out what had fallen from the sky to Earth in 1908. It didn’t know what the Ice was. And it didn’t know that I was looking at its life from my box.

  Fer and I searched. Not only among the meat machines. As before, we searched among the newly acquired. We searched intensively for those who were capable of replacing us and of seeing with the heart just as we did.

  But we had not yet found any like us.