01 Taxilas Children

TAXILA'S CHILDREN
powers and because he was the son of Lyot, the Thane of The Seven Lands, who sat in the
Council of the Thanes together with the High Thane, the Adepts were content to allow him
this errant thought, until the time came when they would have the opportunity to purge him.
The Seven Lands was a province endowed with great riches, it had come into the
possession of Danyk's ancestor a thousand years before, as a result of some great service
which had then been performed. Most of the great estates had come into being at about the
same time and from the same period, the prosperity of the Lynxe was calculated.
There was no reason why the Lynxe should not prosper and especially that applied to The
Seven Lands, with its fertile soil and vast mineral riches and with the surety of peace between
the great Thanes. The Lynxe had learned that the gift of mind control could be applied to the
Scarn with far greater effect than speech, therefore, they had an unlimited supply of labour.
The Scarn reproduced with amazing fecundity. The All Wise had made the pronouncement
that they had been provided by Taxila, the old god, for the prosperity of his children. That
was what the All Wise wanted them to think and Danyk was not alone among the younger
generation, in rejecting such archaic reasoning. That was another reason for the Adepts of the
All Wise to view Danyk with disfavour.
The Thanes of Lynxe had a pressing problem, one that threatened to destroy the fabric of
the people and because Danyk was of the family of a Thane, he shared in the concern.
Increasingly, the People of Taxila were beginning to realise that unless something was done,
the race of the Lynxe would disappear for ever - and when thy did, they would leave their
planet to the Scarn.
The All Wise pointed to the laxity of the younger generation and pontificated loudly that
the problem was a punishment from Taxila. Ancient rituals, long suppressed, began to emerge
as a panacea to cure all their ills - it was hard to tell whether these were prompted by the
Adepts or not, Danyk could not be sure. The All Wise officially condemned the return to the
outlawed ways of the past.
The power to sweep the minds of the people, to get a hint of what was intended, was
something that Danyk had been practising over recent times. It was by no means the breaking
down of a mind-block, he was not sufficiently gifted to do that but it was a tapping into the
aura of excitement and anticipation that was almost impossible to control, especially where
many were involved with the one intention. When this built up, there were disturbances in the
Psi and this Danyk was beginning to detect with ever increasing aptitude. As yet, however, he
was not able to pinpoint the time or the locality of the proposed activity. To do this, he had to
rely on intuition.
In the dawn light, after his disturbing dream, he moved through the sleeping household to
the rear wing, where he roused his personal men. It was a sign of his rank that he was always
accompanied by a half dozen retainers. As was the custom, they were all drawn from the
ranks of his clansmen. It was an indication of their loyalty that they raised no objection to
being roused so early, although Danyk detected here and there, a hastily suppressed thought.
He grinned in the darkness.
His intuitive sense and the surge in the Psi, urged him to lead them through the darkened
fields surrounding the Thanehold and then across the river. They were mounted and if the
men hadn't complained, the beasts did, moaning dismally, as the cool water lapped their
bellies. The men clucked reassuringly, knowing that silence was necessary. The animals
caught the mood and were muted, treading carefully with their huge, soft feet.
The rich smell of river mud, disturbed by their crossing, assailed Danyk's nostrils - it was a
good smell, a smell of fertility. With such a land, with so much richness, why couldn't the
men of Lynxe be as fecund? Why was it becoming increasingly difficult to make their own
kind? Why were so many couples childless, even when their attempts for a family bordered
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