“I have never seen anything like this,” Vika whispered as she watched the silent ritual. “I’m sorry that Iben had to die, but I am thankful to be able to see others make the kind of decision I once made.”
Richard put an appreciative hand on Vika’s shoulder. Having been prepared for a bloody fight to the death, and now seeing that fate turning aside, he feared to test his voice.
The piglets had all run off and the sow had gone after them, so the scene was hushed as each of the Glee ate some of the water plants after they paid their respects to the dead Iben and finally greeted their long-separated brethren.
Richard, too, was sad at the death of Iben. He had been open, friendly, and eager to help, and along with Sang had completely turned Richard’s view of the Glee upside down. They were not all what he expected. They were far more than that.
Iben had wanted to talk his fellow Glee out of violence against their own kind. He had wanted to try to get them to stop and think about what they had been about to do. He thought he could persuade them.
In the end, he had.
64
Late in the afternoon, the Glee took turns using their claws to dig a grave. When it was finally deep enough, they gently placed Iben’s body in it and covered him over.
After they had put Iben to rest, they then slashed the body of the Golden Goddess until it was covered with ribbons of deep cuts. Richard and Vika couldn’t imagine what they were doing. Once satisfied, they threw the body and the head into one of the swampy lakes. The body floated for a short time among standing reeds before small creatures Richard couldn’t see began tearing at the flesh. After a few hours most of it had been eaten, leaving only bones. It was apparently a disrespectful burial to show their displeasure with what she had brought to their kind.
The strange celebration and socializing went on into the evening. As it grew dark, the Glee began finding places to sleep. Some curled up in thick beds they made from fronds. Others laid their heads down on the banks of ponds and let their legs float out into the water. Whatever had eaten the body of the goddess apparently didn’t bother with living Glee. They slept peacefully with half their bodies in the water.
Richard and Vika found a place nearby beside a beautiful bush that was more like a small tree. They gathered fronds to make sleeping mats. Neither one of them liked the idea of both of them sleeping at the same time, so they took turns taking naps while the other stood watch. Richard wondered how long they were going to have to do that in their strange new world.
By late morning of the next day the odd reunion was still going strong, with the Glee mingling together and talking with one another. Richard and Vika weren’t aware of much of what was being said, because while they occasionally heard some of the talk, most of the Glee chose not to have their voices, or possibly their confessions, heard by these strangers from another world. Richard wasn’t overly concerned, though, because everything appeared to be friendly enough, but he did wish he possessed that talent to deny others the ability to hear his words. It could come in handy at times.
As he casually watched, he remained vigilant and ready to draw his sword at the slightest sign of trouble. He didn’t think it looked like there would be trouble, but he felt it best to be ready just in case. He saw Vika idly spinning her Agiel on the end of the gold chain around her wrist as she, too, watched.
He and Vika stood out of the way, not wanting to intrude. From time to time many of the Glee slipped into the water, where they seemed most at home. Groups congregated in the water as they floated together. Others would periodically bring bundles of water weeds to the banks, where yet others could take some to munch on. Others, apparently tired from the reunion and celebration, rested their chins on a pillow of their folded arms while the bottom half of their bodies floated in the water. Yet others sat cross-legged on the banks to talk. Richard supposed they had a lot to talk about.
Richard had been to a number of fancy banquets and gatherings of officials. This seemed very much the same, other than the trappings of power and social standing, and of course the claws and needle-sharp teeth. Other than those trappings, he recognized the body language and the interplay of different personalities. The whole thing was, in a word, weird.
Richard was getting hungry himself. He wondered what he and Vika were going to be able to eat in this strange world. He certainly didn’t have any cravings for the smelly water weeds. He supposed he might be able to catch some fish, or he could hunt wild boar. There might even be fruits and berries that they could eat. Fortunately they still had some travel rations in his pack, but not a lot. As they watched the Glee, he and Vika idly chewed on strips of dried meat.
It occurred to him that as time went on maybe the Glee could provide the meat of some muscle snails for him and Vika to roast over a fire or smoke. He glanced around and realized that he didn’t see much that they could use for firewood.
All the Glee Richard had brought through the drylands were easy enough to spot, because their skin had the green iridescence. They seemed somewhat somber that Iben had died, but also recognized that his death had resulted in the end of the reign of the Golden Goddess. Iben had been the catalyst that had brought all the Glee together again. Richard didn’t know if, or how long, that would last. He hoped it did, but he worried that it wouldn’t.
He was also all too aware that at some point after those former raiders of other worlds ate enough water plants, it would give their skin the same green iridescence. He worried that once that happened, he wouldn’t be able to tell the formerly hostile Glee from the peaceful ones. If they ever turned hostile again and decided they wanted to eat Richard and Vika, he would have no way of telling them apart. That would put surprise on their side.
Richard supposed that, while he didn’t want to die, he didn’t really have much to live for anymore, except the one thing that he was growing impatient to finish.
As he and Vika watched, some of the former followers of the goddess came up to them and made a point of telling them that besides ending the tyranny of the Golden Goddess and her oppressive rule over their lives, what Richard had done had lifted them from a terrible future in which they abandoned their traditional ways and instead went to other worlds to hunt for food where many of their kind had been killed.
Some told him of beloved offspring that had been eager for the adventure of going off to other worlds and had only ended up dying there. Richard wondered if he had killed some of those Glee, or offspring. They had been vicious killers and had died as such. He hoped their minds didn’t turn to revenge.
Those engaging him in conversation explained that they had done what they had done because the Golden Goddess made them do it. Richard didn’t necessarily believe a word of it, but he let them have their excuses in order for things to remain friendly. If that was what they wanted to claim in order to soothe their consciences, he didn’t really care as long as it meant an end to the fighting.
At this point, stuck in their world with Vika, never to be able to return home to Kahlan, he didn’t really care how they justified to themselves what they had done. He only cared that it stop. Now that it had, he was relieved that he didn’t have to face yet another protracted war in which he and Vika would be vastly outnumbered.
But this new peace still had to prove to him that it could last. It was possible, or even likely, that there were Glee among them who harbored very different sentiments and they simply hadn’t come forward to express them. He realized that he might never again be able to sleep with both eyes closed.