Ganne


27 - The Fearsome She!


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Somewhere ahead, the earth was screaming.

Kristos rode on under the pines, knowing what he would find.  The Fearsome
She had been loosed in anger, freed to vent her spite upon a defenceless
world.  She would rip the living soul out of the planet, as the Fearsome
She had done in the long ago.  That first time it was because she had
fallen prey to an hateful heart, soon after being awakened by the great
transformation.  That change, wrought upon the world by the Sons and
Daughters of Terra in their ignorance, had deeply traumatised the She.

A hundred yards short of the ravished area, the donkey faltered.  It had
to be urged to move on.  The beast did so with great reluctance, flicking
its long ears, and making grinding noises with its teeth.

At the centre of the devastation, Kristos halted the nervous animal.  He
peered around at the charred stumps.  The remains of the trees were still
reeking in the relentless rain.  The be-fouled air tasted of wet iron as
it rasped in his throat.  It was thick with smoke, and crackling with the
wild Ganne which had been ripped from the living earth by the Fearsome She
in her fury.  The emptiness left behind drew powerfully upon that part of
Kristos which was of the Ganne.  The donkey felt it too, and began to
skitter forwards, eager to be gone from this place of violation.

Beside the track lay a dead woman.  The Queen's party had taken the body,
so only the Ganne essence of the woman remained.  Like a golden mist, the
hazy form of the woman lingered near to her spilled blood.  The
remorseless drawing of the hungry earth had flattened the shape close to
the ground.  It was steadily being drawn into the earth, returning to the
source.

Kristos slid from the bare back of the donkey.  Wrapping the reins about
his wrist, he paused a long moment to regard the shimmering golden
likeness of the plump woman.  The ugly stains of her blood showed darkly
through the golden glimmer.  The donkey, scenting the fresh blood, began
to whinny and pull back hard.  Kristos laid a hand upon the a-frighted
animal.  He stroked it gently between the ears.  The donkey quieted; and
Kristos dropped the lead rope to approach the straining ghost.  He knelt
beside the form, bending down, putting his ear close to the working lips,
listening for the words.

"Karrie....  Help me, Karrie....  Please help me, Karrie...." all that
remained of Beruth Bah Raimanne was repeating over and over in a forlorn
echo.

Kristos sat back, undecided what to do.  Remorselessly, the earth was
reclaiming the Ganne of that which had recently been a High Ganne.
Kristos wanted to let her go, to let the She reclaim what was her own; but
that part of him which was still human wanted to help.  So he reached out,
and allowed the Ganne to envelope his hand.

Instantly, the image lost form.  It coalesced into a blur of golden light,
which flowed into Kristos' s hand.  For a moment, the form of a plump
woman knelt at the roadside.  She had time only to voice one last
despairing cry of "Karrie!" before it was once again the snake-eyed boy
who knelt at the roadside.

Kristos rose, remounted, and allowed the donkey to have its head.  In a
spine jarring gallop, the creature took off down the ruined road, its
hooves scattering the piles of ash and other debris from the venting of
Ganne in rage.

As the violated place fell behind, Kristos was possessed by an
excruciating sense of foreboding.  Grimly, he set his scaled jaw and
stared on down the road under the dripping trees.  The Fearsome She had
passed this way; and the She had done this monstrous thing.  The She had
violated herself by the act of ripping out her own soul from the living
earth and used it to rend the alien life which now infested her body.  If
the Fearsome She was not stopped, She would sweep away all the alien
infestation and leave the world as barren as when the Sons and Daughters
of Terra had first settled here; but far more important than that - the
She must not be permitted to damage herself further.


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