The Ports and Portals of the Zelaznids (4 page)

    
And so
these two humble men, with no other escort to speak of, left Salabad of a morning in the late summer, with courage steeling their sturdie limbs, and ascended the slopes of the great mountains, uncertain if they would ever again return to their kinsmen.

~
23
~

Chapter 2

The Teachings of Zelaznu

F

or a time, as would be expected of
such
a loyal and concerned people, the Ginyu kept close watch upon the paths
that descended
from the mountains, waiting for the day
on which
Majumi
n and Zelaznu would return from their journie,
though
with what stories or messages none could guess.

     Among the Ginyu, few thought that the brave travelers would uncover the location of the gods
; fewer believed that Majumin and Zelaznu would receive a positive response even if they managed to reach the
celestial realm.  In large measure, the people kept vigil
with
the
simple
hope that their
kinsmen
would return unharmed.

    
But
Man is a fickle creature and the burdens of the world often press more firmlie on
his
mind
than do
the
working
s of philosophie.  With each week that passed, the Ginyu watched the mountains
with
less and less frequen
cie
.  The unsaid but common notion growing amongst them all was that the travelers
, their dear
kinsman
, would never
return.

     In time, Majumin and Zelaznu assumed a new
place
in the hearts and minds of the Ginyu,
that of
distant legends.  This was true
for the
other
residents
of Salabad as well, for they
heard tell of the journie from the Gobi
out of
the mouths of the Ginyu. 
Yet
, while
the Ginyu kept faith with the memor
ie
of their
kinsmen
, they soon turned their thoughts away fr
om the past so as to build
lives in the
ir
new cittie.

     There was much toil for the Ginyu in those earlie days in Salabad
.  Having little to speak of,
they fared poorl
ie
at first
, struggling to survive on the strength of their hands and their hearts and through the charitie of others. 
But
the Ginyu were a herding people by nature, and this is where they turned their labours at last.

     High up in hills above Salabad there lived a great number of wild goats
, which roamed through the mountainous lands south
and west
of the cittie.
  With the blessing of Ki
ng Xinh, the ruler of Salabad
, the Ginyu ventured high up among the stonie peaks, ascending to
greater
heights
than
other men of the cittie had dared.  In this way, the
Ginyu
captured a large number of beasts and
collected them into
herds
, from which they would henceforth draw their sustenance
.

    
T
hus
the Ginyu and the people of the Salabad
p
ass
ed
a twelvemonth together in comfort and in health. 
And then
the white men came.

I

t was the Ginyu who saw them first, two score men, bedraggled and close to death, climbing down from the western heights.  Their strange clothes and manners identified them as strangers. 
Once
their faces
were
visible, the alien
nature
of the newcomers was even more apparent, for they were pale of skin, round of eye
, and
several had hair atop their heads that was the
colour
of wheat.

     As the strangers
entered
the cittie
and passed through its streets
, people came out of their homes, spurred by rumours of the
‘
round eyes
’
, but none knew what the business of the foreigners might be, for the
ir
language was like no other.

     The
strangers
came
before King Xinh,
speaking with him
at last
in the dialect of
the
Bactrians, with whom
a few
Salabad
i merchants
had
had
occasion
to
trade.  Thus
, in the tongue
of that southern people, the
foreigners gave King Xinh their storie
.

    
They claimed to be
fugi
tives from a lost nation, descendants
of a conquering
race which
had swept across the continent
from the distant
west
to subdue
all who dared stand against them.  They told of
forefathers
who had marched with Alexander
the
Macedon
ian; but o
f
this legendarie figure, the people of
Salabad knew
little
.  The
strangers then
told of their fathers, who had come to the
foot of the
great mountains, building a kingdom out of lands taken from the Hindu.  Of the Hindu, the people of Salabad kn
e
w
much
, having traded with them as well.

     King Xinh asked the men what had brought them through the mountains in such a season, for it was late in the year and not
a time for travel.  The foreigner
s replied that their
beloved
king
had
met his end,
whereupon
their nation
had torn
itself apart in civil strife
.  B
rother
had
turned on brother, each faction looking to build a kingdom of its own
up
on the ashes of that which
they
had destroyed.

     At last the
province from which these men hailed (a place they called Uddyana) was beset by the forces of
her
neighbours, the Kapisans and the Puskalavati,
[21]
until there was nothing
for it but to flee. 
Driven before their enemies into
the forbidding peaks of the mountains, the fugitives had, in
fear for their lives, scaled to great
heights in hopes of finding some distant and hidden refuge.
 
But
, forced to embark upon their journie without sufficient preparation, they suffered much hardship.

    
In this way, an armie of more than one hundred men reduced itself by degrees to but two score, the unfortunates having one by one succumbed to cold, privation, and other perils
too terrible to name.

     King Xinh, hearing the truth in their words, for he
had always been
a tolerable judge of men, welcomed the westerners and begged them to settle in securitie within his kingdom. 
And
so
the Hellenes (for it should be understood that these were none other than the descendants of those self-same Greeks)
thanked the king ferventlie, for they
were glad to
make their homes in
Salabad.

     In good time, by which I mean to suggest the passage of
some few
years, these few Hellenes pledged themselves to the king
who had shown them
so much favour.  Experts at martial skills,
some amongst the newcomers brought
with them novel
ideas
for
the defense of Salabad
,
and
thus
rose to serve as commanders in the royal guard.
 
Others became great traders, leading
numerous
expeditions across the Takla Makan so that the people of Salabad
could
extend their reach
throughout the land,
all the way t
o the
outer edge of the
empire of the Han
.
[22]
  Yet others, recalling the honour of their ancient blood, entered into the profession of herdsmen, for which the Hellenes
had once been fa
med
.

     The strangers
soon
took on much importance, serving the people of their adopted cittie with strength and honour, and
did also
enter into more than a few favourable marriage alliances.  In this way, the Hellenes
,
the Ginyu
,
and the nation of Salabad
joined
together
, blending the strength and wisdom of three great peoples into one.

T

he seasons pass
ed until
the Ginyu children of Salabad possess
ed
no memories of the rock-strewn desert from which their people had come
.  In time, they knew
of these things in no other way but through
the
chronicle
s written
of th
e
strange
journie which
had brought them to the
ir
new cittie at the edge of the mountains.  Th
e storie of th
at quest came to share a place in the hearts of the young with
those varied
tales
that
parents tell their children w
ithout the expectation that their children
will believe
them
.
And yet
, the young cared deeplie
for the
legends
of their fathers and for the mysterious and brave Majumin, who had
vanished into the
mountains with
the
faithful Zelaznu.

     Then came the day when a herdsman,
while
chasing an errant goat high above the cittie, came across the figure of a man
descending from
the great mountains, a fellow half-frozen and without the strength to stand upon his own feet.  The herdsman, stout soul, forgot the goat so that he might tend to the stranger, taking him to his own meagre home for comfort and mending.
 
Upon waking, the wearie fellow, much to the amazement of all assembled, revealed that he was that same Zelaznu who had, more than fifteen years before,
gone into the
mountains with Majumin.

     Some were inclined not to believe the man, for he
had long ago been mourned
for dead. 
But
there were yet souls living who knew Zelaznu on sight and who assured one and all that this was indeed that selfsame man.  Chief
among them was
Tengi,
the son of a sister to Zelaznu
.  Tengi, n
ow a man with a familie of his own, remembered
well
th
e
uncle who had taught him
to fish so long ago
.
  There could be no doubt but that this poor soul was Zelaznu.
 
Thus, w
ith one voice, as if summoned by a single spirit, the Ginyu gave thanks to the gods for returning their
kinsman
to them. 
But
what, they asked, had become of Majumin?

     In response to this,
Zelaznu told his strange tale.

     “Our journey was a difficult one,” he began, “fraught with
countless
dangers and perils.  Nights on end we struggled with the cold, using for our dwellings the caves of the earth when
F
ortune smiled and our cloaks alone when
she
did not.  By day
,
we climbed, winding back and forth through the rock
-strewn
and frozen wastes.  By night, we built fires when we
had the tinder,
so that we might
cook the meat of goats and other creatures of the heights.  When there w
as no wood to
be found
,
we ate raw meat and lived as best we could,
just
as
men have done s
ince before time was writ.