Part 33 (1/2)
Less wellknown however is the plight of thesurvivors of the genocide: the many Tutsis who were not killed had their arms cut off by the machetewielding Hutus. Today it is not uncommon to see halfarmed or onearmed locals quietly going about their daily farmwork.
Desperately poor, decimated by an unprecedented bloodletting, and with nothing to sell that the world wants, Rwanda has been cast aside as an ugly example of the worst of human nature.
In an already dark continent, it is a black hole.
That night the Freelander stood parked behind an abandoned church in the south of Kibuye Province, covered in branches and a filthy tarp.
The church near it was a frightening sight.
Bullet holes and dried blood covered its walls. In the decade since 1994, no one had even bothered to clean it.
Zoe stood at the back of the building, peering out into the darkness, gripping an MP5.
Wizard and the kids sat inside the church.
”During the genocide, the Tutsis fled to churches like this,” Wizard explained. ”But often the local priests were in league with the Hutus and their churches became cages into which the villagers willingly ran. The priests would keep the Tutsis inside with promises of safety, while at the same time notifying the dreaded Hutu patrols. A patrol would show up and kill all the Tutsis.”
The kids stared at the b.l.o.o.d.y bullet holes in the walls around them, imagining the horrors that had happened in this very room.
”I don't like this place,” Lily said, s.h.i.+vering.
”So, Wizard,” Zoe said from the doorway, deliberately changing the subject. ”Tell me something. What does all this really mean? When all the Pillars and sacred stones and underground vertices are stripped away, what's this mission about?”
”What's it all about?” Wizard said. ”The Apocalypse, Judgment Day, the end of the world. Every religion has an apocalypse myth. Whether it's the coming of the four hors.e.m.e.n or a great day on which everyone is judged, ever since humans have walked this planet, they have had the idea that one day it will all end badly.
”And yet-somehow-we have been provided with this test, this test of tests, this system of vertices built by some advanced civilization in the distant past that will allow us to avert this terrible end,if we are up to the challenge. Which reminds me: Lily, can you have a look at this, please?”
Wizard grabbed Zoe's digital camera and clicked through to a photograph she'd taken at the First Vertex, one of the golden plaque they'd seen on the main wall there: ”Can you translate those lines?” he asked Lily.
”Sure,” Lily said. ”Looks like a list, a list of...do you have a pen and paper?”
Scanning the image of the plaque, she quickly jotted down a translation. When she was done, it read: 1st Vertex -The Great Viewing Hall 2nd Vertex -The City of Bridges 3rd Vertex -The Fire Maze 4th Vertex -The City of Waterfalls 5th Vertex -The Realm of the Sealords 6th Vertex -The Greatest Shrine of All ”It's a description of all six vertices...” Zoe said.
Wizard said, ”And thus perhaps the clearest description of the immense challenge we face.”
”A city of bridges? A fire maze?” Alby whispered.” What's a fire maze? Geez...”
It got Wizard thinking, too. ”Lily, can you grab the Pillar, please, the one that was charged at Abu Simbel?”
Lily extracted the Pillar from its rucksack.
It still looked extraordinary-no longer cloudy but clear, with its luminescent central liquid and the mysterious white writing on its gla.s.slike exterior.
”Do you recognize the writing?” Wizard asked her.
Lily peered at the Pillar closely...and her eyes widened.
She spun to face Wizard.
”It's a variety of the Word of Thoth,” she said. ”A very advanced variety, but it's Thoth for sure.” She scanned the white writing closely.
After a minute she said, ”It seems to be a mix of instructions, diagrams, and symbols grouped into formulas.”
”Knowledge...” Alby said.
”Exactly,” Wizard said. ”The reward for successfully placing the First Pillar in the First Vertex. The other rewards areheat, sight, life, death, andpower. Those formulae you see on this charged Pillar are some kind of secret knowledge being handed down to us from the builders of the Machine.”
Lily grabbed another sheet of paper, started copying down the writing on the Pillar. Then, joined by Alby, she began translating it.
Zoe came beside Wizard and nodded at the two children: ”They're holding up well.”
”Yes. It's important to keep their spirits up, because this is going to get scary.”
”Scarier than the Rwandan genocide stories you've been telling them?”
Wizard went red. ”Oh. Yes. Mmmm.”
”Doesn't matter. Listen, I got something else that's bothering me,” Zoe said.
”What?”
”You.”
”Me? What about me?” Wizard asked, confused.
Zoe was looking at him in a strange almost amused way. Then in answer she held up a toiletry bag, and extracted from it some scissors and a razor.
”Oh, no, Zoe...” Wizard protested weakly. ”No...”
Ten minutes later, Wizard again sat with the children, only now he was beardless and his usually long shock of white hair had been shaved bald.
He looked completely different thinner, more gangly.
”You look like a shorn sheep,” Lily giggled.
”I liked my beard,” he said sadly.
Lily t.i.ttered again.
”All right, Lily,” Zoe said, holding up the scissors. ”Take a seat in the barber's chair.
Your turn.”
”Myturn?” Lily's face went white.
Five minutes later, she sat beside Wizard, head also bowed, with her own hair cut dramatically short, the pink tips long gone.
Now Wizard chuckled.
Alby did, too. ”Lily, you look like a boy...”