Read Online Gods of the Greataway by Michael G. Coney - Free Book Online

kidnapping. Finally he rode homeward. His thoughts were twisted and malignant. He felt betrayed and scorned by the Polysitian race and, in particular, by Kelina, who had caused him to undertake this mission. If it had not been for Kelina and her arrogant airs and her notions of superiority, he would not have found himself in this predicament. He would have been, instead, a respected Rider on a prosperous island. She had brought him to his knees with her sly ways — and now she would pay for it.
    He thought of herlying there helpless, and his thoughts were crazed and vengeful. She would pay. He shouted his intentions at the stars as he rode westward, and his intentions were inhuman. The orca swam stolidly, trying to blot out the insane thoughts that its gentle mind could not help but receive. Or Kikiwa raved on.
    Legend tells that Starquin heard him.
    Meanwhile, Kelina lay picking at the roots. She had reached a point where she could distinguish night from day through the thinning mesh, but she had a long way to go. Occasionally she let herself wonder about Or Kikiwa, and she wondered if he were dead. She guessed that his domain had been cut adrift. She expected to crawl out of her hole in a few days’ time to find she was completely alone. She couldn’t bring herself to feel vindictive toward Or Kikiwa, she knew the man was not normal. Soon she would be free and would send a dolphin to find an orca. Then she would locate her father and ride home. As the mesh thinned under her busy fingers, her spirits rose — but by that time Or Kikiwa, mad with vengeance and lust, was one day’s ride away.
    Then the sky began to streak with high hurricane clouds. Kelina felt the motion of the raft change. Long swells rolled underground. She sensed a change in the air and redoubled her efforts to escape. It is not a good thing for a tiny island to be caught in a hurricane without guidewhales. She had to return to the safety of her father’s land, which was big enough to ride out anything the gods might send.
    That night was one of the wildest in memory. The hurricane, changing direction for no good reason except divine intervention, fell upon a small area of Polysitia and scattered the islands far and wide. King Awamia’s land was driven three hundred kilometers north, other islands were pulled into the Roaring Forties and raced eastward. Many broke up, and new kingdoms arose, and new domains. Many good people were lost in the howling winds, swept from their lands, never to be seen again.
    A week later a trained orca, riderless, was seen patrolling a bay off a large continent where there are real mountains, real rivers. The orca was scarred from many floggings. The rider was never found. It is said that nobody cared, anyway. Or Kikiwa was never heard of again.
    And Kelina? She becamefamous and found her place in the Song of Earth so that both land-based minstrels and the minstrels of Polysitia sang of her, forevermore. Although the minstrels tell the same story, the language is different. In the land dialect, with its multiple consonants, so different from the liquid tongue of the floating islands, Kelina is called Belinda.

T HE S TORY OF THE B LIND C RAFTSMAN
    S
o the Song of Earthis not composed solely of the embellished observations of the Rainbow. There are other sources, such as the legends of Polysitia, which were fed into the Rainbow by scholars and historians when they came to light. The Rainbow was then able to examine these legends and search its memory banks for links with observed history.
    The trio of Polysitian stories that make up the Legend of Kelina were finally linked with the epic tale of the Triad. The dating — so far as it could be established — was approximately correct. The events and the characters were unmistakable. The triumph of the historian who first pieced together the Rainbow’s findings can only be guessed at.
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    On a remote shore of Malaloa, which is the biggest island of Polysitia, there lived a