01 Taxilas Children

TAXILA'S CHILDREN
It was a precipitous drop - to something. Something which the Men of Lynxe didn't know.
For them, this was the end of their world! They had no concept of a spherical world orbiting
through space.
"How far does - the Rim - stretch?"
"Around all the lands of the Lynxe, of course!"
"Is there no way down - there?"
"A way into the sky? That's a nonsense question!"
The man within rocked with laughter.
"Does part of your father's lands reach to the Rim?"
"No - We are one of the inner clans which circle the great city."
"How many circle the great city."
"Three."
"That leaves seven touching the Rim."
"Your mathematics is impeccable!"
"Who apportioned out the lands to the clans?"
"You did - in one of your many incarnations, O great Taxila!"
"And in that particular incarnation, didn't I draw your attention to the fact that there are
other lands beyond the Rim?"
Danyk stared at him speculatively.
"We all know your stories - and your thoughts - about lands in the sky - from which you
say you come."
"That is something totally different! I'm talking about lands which are at the base of this -
for want of a better word - plateau."
"You will have to explain what that word means."
"The land occupied by the Lynxe is only a fraction of the land of your world. There must
be a vast extent of territory you haven't explored. The whole planet is waiting for
colonisation!"
Danyk stared out into the sea of cloud.
"The Lynxe are content with what they were given by Taxila. There is land enough for all."
"Taxila never intended for you to confine yourself to this plateau."
"You use that word again, please explain what it means."
Steve groped for words.
"The lands occupied by the Lynxe are surrounded by the Rim. I believe you occupy a vast
crater, on top of a great mountain. Once this place was filled with fire and smoke - that was
long before your people came here. It became a fertile place and somehow, sometime, they
must have made their way from below the cloud and decided this was the place to settle -
perhaps, Taxila led them here himself!"
"You should know."
"I don't know, I'm only guessing. Tell me the old legends about how your people came into
existence."
"We are the children of Taxila."
"So you keep telling me - but Taxila must have come from somewhere before he became
your racial father - and there must have been some racial mothers as well - where did they
come from?"
Danyk sat on his rock, with his legs dangling over the precipice. Steve shuddered and
turned his eyes away from such nonchalant dicing with death.
"The old legend tells us that the ten mothers of the Clans hid in the rocks to escape the
attentions of Shaita."
Steve jerked to attention.
"So - Shaita figures in this too?"
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