Chapter 3 Chapter Two Walls

As the little girl grows up day by day, she gradually loses her memory of her mother without knowing it.She deserves to be here, in this mausoleum; she has always been here.Only in the long dusk of July, when she looked at the mountain peaks on the west side showing a dry lion yellow in the afterglow of sunset, would she occasionally think of the same yellow light from a certain furnace a long time ago.When she thought about it, she always remembered the moment when she was hugged, it was a strange feeling, she was rarely even touched here.She also recalls a pleasant smell, the scent of hair lubricated with sage leaf water after washing, and the hair in the memory is very long, and the color of the hair is the color of sunset rays and furnace flames.That was all that remained in her memory.

Of course, she knew more than she could remember, because she had been told the whole story.When she was seven or eight years old, she began to wonder who this person called "Aerha" was. She ran to her caretaker Manan and said, "Manan, tell me how I was selected." "Oh, little man, you already knew what happened." She does know.The tall priestess Sar, with a hard and stern voice, had told her many times, and she had learned it by heart, and now she recited it as follows: "Yes, I know. The 'First Priestess' of the Etuan Tomb died, The funeral and cleansing ceremony were completed within one month of the lunar calendar. After that, several specific priestesses and administrators of the mausoleum site crossed the desert to visit villages and towns on Etuan Island. They wanted to find the first priestess who was born on the night of her death. When they find them, they take a moment to observe: the girl must be sound and healthy, and must not suffer from stoops, smallpox, or other disabling or blinding diseases during her growth." , which means that the child's body is indeed the new body of the deceased priestess.They will report the result to the "God King" who is resident in Avabas, and then bring the child back to her palace to be taught for a year.At the end of the year, the child is taken to the Throne Hall, at which time her name will be given back to her Matrons, the "Unknown Ones", because this little girl is the "Unknown Ones Living" and "Priestess Reincarnated" . "

That's what Saar told her, verbatim, but she never dared to ask.This skinny priestess was not cruel or ruthless, but she was very cold and followed strict rules in every move, and Arha was afraid of her.But Arha is not afraid of Manan, not only is she not afraid at all, she will even order him: "Now tell me how I was chosen in the first place!" He will tell her again. "We left here on the third day after the moon returned to visit the north and west, because the late Arha died on the third day of the previous moon's return. Our first stop was Tienakba, which was It is a big city, and although it is said that Tienakba is to Avabas what a flea is to a bull, it is big enough for me, and there must be a thousand houses in it! Then we went to Gaal. But neither city had a baby girl born on the third day of the previous full moon. There were boys, but not boys... so we turned to the hill country town north of Gar, which is my own My hometown. I was born in the mountainous area over there, where the streams and rivers are flowing and the land is green, unlike the desert here." When Manan said this, there would always be more strange tones in his hoarse voice, and his small eyes would all be hidden. into the eyes; he paused for a while, then Caiyi continued: "That's it, we find out the people who have newborn babies in the previous month, and talk to the parents of the babies. Some people will lie and say, 'Yes, our girl It was indeed born on the third day of the full moon last month!』You know, poor country people are usually happy to send their baby girls away. But some people live alone in a hut in a mountain valley and never count their days , and don't pay much attention to the time of the moon's return, and it is impossible to determine how old their baby girl is. In this case, as long as we ask long enough, we can always ask the truth, but it is just a waste of time. Finally, we in Enta In the Orchard Valley of Texie, a small village of ten families, a baby girl was found. She was eight months old at the time, and we happened to be away for about that long. The baby girl was born on the night the priestess who guarded the tomb died. Yes, and at the same hour. She was a healthy baby girl, sitting on her mother's lap, staring at us with bright eyes when we all crowded into the one-room hut like bats swarming into a nest. Everyone. The baby girl's father is a poor man who tends the apple trees in the rich man's orchard for a living. He has nothing but five children and a sheep. He doesn't even own the house. We all huddle in the hut, From the way the priestesses looked at the baby girl and from the way they whispered to each other, it can be seen that they think they have found the reincarnated priestess. The mother of the baby girl can also see that she hugged the baby tightly and never stopped. Send a word. Well, that's it, we'll go back to the family the next day. But, my God! That little baby with the big bright eyes was lying in the rush bed and crying, covered all over his body. Bumps and rashes caused by fever. The mother wailed more than the baby: "Ah! Oh! My baby got a witch's finger!" That's what she said, meaning smallpox. In our hometown, people also called Smallpox is "witch's finger". However, Ke Xiu, the current "high priestess of the god king", walked to the crib and picked up the baby. The rest of the people took a few steps back, and so did I. Although I didn't value my life very much, who would? Walking into a house where someone had smallpox? But Ke Xiu wasn't scared at all, at least not that time. She picked up the baby girl and said, "She doesn't have a fever." Then she spit on her fingers and started rubbing The red spots on the baby's body, the red spots will fall off as soon as they are rubbedOh, it turned out to be just berry juice.That poor stupid mother actually tried to deceive us and keep the baby! At this, Manan laughed. His yellow face hardly changed, but his belly heaved. "Her husband was afraid that the priestess would be angry, so he beat her up.It didn't take long for us to return to the desert, but every year someone from the place where the tomb is located returns to the small village surrounded by apple orchards to check on the growth of the children.Five years later, Sar and Ke Xiu went there in person, escorted by temple guards and red-armored soldiers sent by the god-king.A group of them brought the child here, because she is indeed the reincarnation of the mausoleum priestess and belongs here.Little man, tell me, who is that kid, eh? "

"It's me." When Arha said, her eyes looked far away, as if she wanted to see something that she couldn't see and was out of sight. Once she asked: "When the group of them went to take the child, how did that... that mother react?" But Manan didn't know, because he wasn't with him the last time. Even she herself doesn't remember.Even if you remember, what good is it?It's a thing of the past, it's all over.She has come to this place where she must come.In the vast world, she only knows one place: the location of Etuan Mausoleum. In the first year of coming here, she slept in the big dormitory with the trainee priestesses, all of whom were fourteen-year-old girls.Even then, Manan had been singled out of the ten stewards as her special guardian; and her bed had always been kept in an alcove in the great dormitory alone, separate from the low-beamed room of the main dormitory. The long and narrow main room is slightly separated.The big bedroom was in the "big room," where the girls romped and whispered before bed, and where they helped each other braid their hair while yawning in the thin morning light.After her name was taken away and she became "A'erha", she was arranged to sleep alone in the "hut". The room and bed in the hut were the rooms and beds where she would sleep for the rest of her life.The hut was her own, officially called the "Residence of the First Priestess," and no one was allowed to enter it without her permission.She was still very young, and she liked to hear others obediently knock on the door first, and she said, "You are allowed to come in." But the two high priestesses, Kexiu and Sar, took it for granted that she could get her permission, and they always refused to knock. Just entering the room, which made her very unhappy.

Days and years passed.The girls at the site of the mausoleum spent all their time in class and training, and no games were arranged because there was no time for games.They had to learn hymns, holy dances, the history of the Karg Empire, and the mysteries they worshiped, including the god-king and twin gods "Ava" and "Uro" who ruled Avabas.Among so many girls, only A'erha had to learn more about the etiquette of the unknown.This course is taught by one person, the "High Priestess of the Twin Gods" Saar.Because of this class, Arha has to be separated from other girls for an hour or more every day, but like the other girls, she spends most of her days at work.They have to learn to weave wool wool, to plant and harvest, to prepare daily meals, such as grinding corn into meal for cooking porridge, or making matzo with fine flour, or cooking lentils, onions, cabbage, Goat cheese, apples, honey, etc.

The best thing that could happen was getting permission to go fishing: take an apple or cornbread for lunch, and walk about a half mile northeast of the tomb site, where there is a dark green stream that flows through the desert, and sits Among the reeds on the shore, under the dry sunshine, I watched the slow flow of green water and the changes of shadows cast by clouds on the mountains all day long.But sometimes, when the line is pulled tight, and with a strong swing, a shiny flatfish lands on the bank, jumps and then dies dry and suffocated in the air, during that time if she screams with excitement, Maybeth will be like Hissed like a poisonous snake: "Quiet! You squawking idiot!" Maybebeth usually works in the Temple of the King of God. She is a dark-skinned woman, young, but as hard and sharp as obsidian.She loves fishing, you have to please her, absolutely keep quiet, otherwise she won't take you out fishing again.Don't go near the river if you can't go fishing—unless you have to fetch water from the river in summer when the well is low.Getting water from the river in summer was a grueling chore, trekking half a mile downhill to the river through scorching white heat, filling the two buckets at the ends of the boom, and then uphill as fast as possible back to the mausoleum site.The first few hundred yards were easy, but then the buckets got heavier and heavier, the boom on the shoulders burned like a hot iron rod, and the dry mountain road was blindingly sunny, and the steps became more and more slow and difficult.Finally, I went to the shade of the vegetable garden in the backyard of the big house, and poured two buckets of water into the storage tank.After lifting the two buckets, I have to go back to the river to fetch water, again and again, endlessly.

About 200 people live in the area where the mausoleum is located, but there are many buildings.Let me talk about the name "Location" first: "Location of Etuan Mausoleum" only needs such a simple name. It is the oldest and most sacred area among the four islands of the Karg Empire.The buildings in the area include three or two temples, big houses, huts, dormitories for eunuchs and administrators, guard dormitories adjacent to the wall, a large number of slave sheds, warehouses, sheep pens, goat pens, and farms.It looks like a small town from a distance! !If you look in this direction from the dry and continuous peaks in the west.Those hills were barren of grass, except for a few kinds of plants such as sage, sparse creeper grass, small weeds and desert herbs.If one looked up from the plain far to the east, one might see the golden roofs of the Temples of the Twins shining from the foot of the hills like specks of mica in a mass of rock.

The Twin Temple itself was a stone cube, plastered, with a low portico and a door, but no windows.The Shenwang Temple, which was built hundreds of years later than the Double Temple, is much more dazzling. It is lower than the Double Temple on the hillside, but it has a high colonnade and a row of thick white columns with colored capitals.Each white pillar is a whole fir tree, which was transported by ship from Huerhu Island, which is rich in forests, to Etuan Island, and then 20 slaves tried their best to drag them across the barren desert plain to the location of the tomb.Travelers coming from the east will see the golden roof and bright wooden pillars of the Temple of the King of God, and then they will see a higher position on the hillside than all the above-mentioned buildings. There is a temple that is as earthy brown as the desert and is also deserted. Yu: Huge but low throne room.It was the oldest temple of its kind, with its walls repaired and its blunt dome crumbling away.

Behind the throne room, there is a thick stone wall that surrounds the entire top of the mausoleum mound. This stone wall has not been plastered and has collapsed in many places.On the inside of the stone wall were several blocks of black rock, eighteen or twenty feet high, each of which looked like huge fingers emerging from the ground.Anyone who sees them will keep looking back.They stand there meaningfully, but no one has ever heard what they mean.There are nine black stones in total, one of which is standing upright, two of them are down, and the rest are more or less tilted.The surface of the stones is covered with moss mixed with gray and orange, which looks as if they have been colored; but one of them is not covered with moss, the black color is faintly shiny, and it feels smooth and unmarked.Although the rest of the rocks are covered with moss, you can still see or feel some shape marks carved on the stones.These nine black rocks are the tombstones of Etuan Mausoleum.It is said that they have stood here since the first man came, since the creation of Earthsea.When the isles of the world were lifted out of the depths of the sea, they were erected in darkness.They are older than the god-kings of the Karg Empire, older than the twin gods, and even older than "light".They are the tombstones of unknown rulers of the ages before the mortal world began to exist.Since the ruler is "nameless", the women served by later generations will also be "nameless".

A'erha didn't often walk among the tombstones.The tombstone stands just behind the throne room, on the top of the hill surrounded by stone walls, where no one else has set foot.Twice a year the ceremony of offering sacrifices takes place before the throne, on the days of the full moon closest to the vernal and autumnal equinoxes.When the ceremony was in progress, Arha would come out through the low back door of the Throne Hall, carrying a large brass basin.The copper basin contained hot, smoking goat's blood, which she had to sprinkle half on the foot of the black tombstone that was still standing, and the other half on any tombstone that had fallen.The toppled tombstones are embedded deep in the rock dust, stained with the blood of centuries of sacrificial sheep.

Sometimes Arha would walk among the black stones alone in the early morning, trying to figure out what was carved on them, because the oblique ridges and indentations on the rocks were more prominent in the oblique morning light.Otherwise, she sat among the tombstones looking up at the mountains to the west, overlooking the sweeping roofs and walls of the mausoleum site below, watching the first morning commotion around the great house and the guard's quarters, and watching the sheep and the mountain herds being driven into the thin grass the riverside.There was never much to do in Tombstone, and she went partly because she was allowed to go, partly because there she could be alone.It was actually a desolate place. Even with the midday heat of the desert, the area still felt cold.Sometimes the wind whizzes between two adjacent tombstones, as if two tombstones are leaning on each other and pouring out secrets.But no secrets were revealed in the end. Another lower stone wall extends from one part of the wall around the tombstone. This stone wall goes around the hills of the whole area where the mausoleum is located, forming a long irregular semicircle. none.This stone wall did little to protect it, but divided the site into two halves, the three temple halls, the priestess' quarters, and the steward's quarters on one side, and the guard's quarters and slave sheds on the other.The slaves were usually responsible for all the planting, grazing and feeding work in the locality.Guards and slaves never crossed this stone wall, and guards, drummers, trumpeters, etc. would join the ranks of the priestesses only during a few extremely sacred ceremonies, but they never stepped into the gate of the temple.Furthermore, no other man had ever set foot on the land inside the site.Pilgrims, emperors and patriarchs from the four islands have come to worship here in the past; a century and a half ago, the first god king also visited his temple to make rituals.But even he was not allowed to enter the space between the tombstones, and even he had to eat and sleep outside the walls. This low wall can be easily climbed by tiptoing your toes into a crevice in the rock.One afternoon in late spring, the little devoured person was sitting on the wall with a girl named Pan Si.Both of them were twelve years old, and that afternoon they were supposed to be sitting in a large stone attic weaving room in the big house, next to several large looms that were always twisting all black and rich wool. black cloth.They slipped out on the pretext of going to the courtyard well to drink water, and then Arha said, "Let's go!" and led the girl down the hill, around the wall where the big house was out of sight.The two climbed up and sat on top of the ten-foot-high wall, dangling their bare feet on the outside of the wall, overlooking the endless plains to the east and north. "I really want to see the sea." Pan Si said. "What are you doing looking at the sea?" Arha said, chewing on a bitter milkweed stalk pulled from the wall.Flowering season is just over on this barren island, and all the little slow-growing, fast-fading desert flowers, whether yellow or pink or white, are ready to go to seed, and the wind blows thin off-white feathers and umbrella-shaped seeds, heading towards the ground Throw a ball of clever hooked needles.Under the apple trees in the orchard, there is a field of broken flowers, mixed with white and pink, but the branches are still green-the only green within a few miles of the place.Looking from one horizon to the other, everything is a monotonous desert tea-brown, except for a silver-blue band formed by the mountains in the west due to the newly bloomed sage buds. "Well, I don't know what to do with watching the sea, I just want to see something different. It's always the same here, and nothing will happen." "Everything that happens in any place starts here." A'erha said. "Oh, I know...but I want to see a thing or two going on!" Pan Si smiled. She was a girl with a gentle personality and a pleasant appearance.She rubbed the soles of her feet on the rocks heated by the sun, and she continued after a while: "You know, I lived by the sea when I was a child, and our village is right behind the sand dunes on the seashore. We would go to the beach to play from time to time. I remember Once, a fleet of ships passed by in the far sea. Those ships looked like giant dragons with red wings. Some ships really had necks and dragon heads. They sailed by Etuan Island, but the village chief Said they were not the ships of the Kargs, but from the inner ring islands in the west. The villagers all came to see, I guess they were worried about the ships landing on the shore. It turned out that the ships passed by, and no one knew where they were going, Maybe it was to go to Carrigo to fight. But when you think about it, they really came from the Isle of Wizards. The people on those islands are dirty and dark, but they can cast spells on people with ease. " "The spells they cast have no effect on me," Arha said in a ferocious tone, "I can't even take a look at these people. They are all despicable and hateful magicians. How dare they sail so close to this sacred island?" "Oh, I guess one day the god-kings will conquer them and turn them all into slaves. But I still look forward to seeing the ocean again. Remember there are small octopuses in the tide pools on the beach. If you yell at them "Boo" they will Immediately it turns white. Look, old Manan is coming, and he's looking for you." Arha's caretaker and servant was slowly walking along the inside of the wall.On the way, he bent down to pick wild onions from time to time, and when he bent down, he saw his humped back.When he straightened up, he would look around with his dull, small earth-colored eyes.In the past few years, he has gained a lot of weight, and his bald yellow scalp is shining in the sun. "Let's slide down a little towards the men's section." Arha whispered.So, the two girls slid down the stone wall as softly as lizards, to a position where they were just hanging on the top of the wall, but could not be seen from the inside.They heard Manan's slow footsteps passing by. "Heh! Heh! Potato face!" Arha taunted in a low voice, his voice as soft as a breeze in the grass. The heavy footsteps stopped. "Oh," said a hesitant voice, "Is it a villain? Arha?" It was silent. Manan moved on. "Oh! Oh! Potato face!" "Heh! Potato belly!" Pan Si also whispered imitatively, but then hummed, trying to suppress her laughter. "who is it?" It was silent. "Oh, um." The eunuch sighed, and continued to move forward slowly.When he reached the shoulder of the hill, the two girls climbed back to the top of the wall.Pan Si's face turned pink from sweating and laughing, but A'erha's face was cruel. "This stupid old man follows me everywhere." "He has to follow you," Pan Si reasoned, "It's his job to take care of you." "The ones who look after me are the gods I serve, and I please them; the rest, I don't care about anyone. These old women and these half-men, they should leave me alone, I am the "First Priestess"!" Pan Si looked at the girl in front of her. "Oh," she said softly, "Oh, I know you are the first priestess, Arha—" "In this case, they should set me free and stop ordering me!" Pan Si didn't speak for a while, only sighed, shaking her chubby legs, staring at the vast land below the mountain.The land climbed gently into the distance, vaguely forming a long sloping horizon. "You will be able to give orders soon," Pan Si finally said calmly, "In two years, we will be fourteen years old, and we will no longer be children. At that time, I will enter the Temple of the King of Gods. For me, everything As usual. But you will really become the first priestess when the time comes, and even Kersu and Sar will obey you." The "eaten" said nothing.Her face was calm, and her eyes under the black brows shimmered slightly as they took over the sky. "We should go back," Pan Si said. "don't want." "But the female weaving master may report to Sar, and the "Nine Songs" will be carried out soon." "I want to stay here, and you stay too." "They won't punish you, but they will punish me." Pan Si still said gently.Arha didn't answer, Pan Si sighed and stayed.The sun sank into the mist floating above the plain, and in the distance, on the gently rising slope, the jingling of sheep bells and the bleating of lambs could be faintly heard.The spring breeze blows dryly and gently, bringing a sweet smell. When the two girls returned to the big house, "Nine Songs" was coming to an end.Maybeth had seen the two of them sitting on the "men's wall" a long time ago and had reported it to her superiors.Her boss is Ke Xiu, the high priestess of the god-king. Ke Xiu put on a stern face and stepped on heavy steps.She called the two girls over, with expressionless faces and voices.She led the two through the stone passages of the great house, out the front door, and up the knoll of the Two Temples, where they found Saar, High Priestess of the Two Temples.She spoke to the tall, aloof, gaunt priestess as a deer-bone. Ke Xiu said to Pan Si, "Take off your robe." Ke Xiu beat Pan Si with a whip made of a bunch of reed stems, which would cut the skin slightly.Pan Si swallowed her tears and endured the beating.After the beating, she was fined to go back to work in the weaving room, without dinner, even the next day. "If you are caught climbing that men's wall again," Ke Xiu said, "the punishment will not be so light. Do you understand, Pan Si?" The voice was gentle but not kind.Pan Si replied, "Understood." After speaking, she hurried away.As the heavy black robe rubbed against the wound on her back, she walked shivering all the way. Arha has been standing beside Saer watching the whipping.Now she watched as Ke Xiu wiped the blood off the whip. Saar said to her, "It is very inappropriate to run around outside with other girls and climb walls for others to see. You are Arha." A'erha stood with a displeased face and didn't answer. "You better just do what you need to do. You're Alha." The girl looked up at Sar's face for a long moment, and then at Ke Xiu's face, with a look of deep resentment and anger that looked horrific.But the thin priestess ignored it. She leaned forward a little, and reaffirmed almost in a whisper: "You are Arha, you have been eaten up, and nothing is left." "It's all eaten up." The girl repeated.Since she was six years old, she has repeated this sentence every day of her life. Saar nodded slightly; Ke Xiu also nodded slightly while putting away the whip.The girl didn't nod her head, but turned and left resignedly. Quietly finished the dinner of potatoes and spring onions in the narrow and dark dining room, finished the evening hymn, placed the holy words on the doors, and finally performed a short "wordless ceremony", a day's work It's over.Then the girls could go back to their dorms to play dice and sticks, and when the single rush candle had burned out, they would lie in bed and whisper.But Arha had to go through several courtyards and several slopes alone, and walk back to the hut where she slept alone, every day was the same. The evening breeze is pleasant.In spring, the stars are densely twinkling in the sky, just like a whole piece of daisies growing on the meadow in spring, and like little fishing lights on the sea in April.But the girl has no memory of meadows or seas.She didn't look up at the stars. "Oh, little man!" "Manan." She greeted indifferently. A huge figure shuffled slowly beside her, its hairless head gleaming in the starlight. "Have you been punished?" "I cannot be punished." "Can't... yes..." "They can't punish me. They dare not." With his two big hands hanging down, he stood in the dark and formed a huge dark figure.She smelled wild onions, and the rushes and sweat of his old black robe.The robe was frayed, and it was too small for him. "They can't touch me, I'm Arha." After she finished speaking sharply and ferociously, she burst into tears. Then the two big hands that were waiting closed together, gently hugged the girl into his arms, and stroked her braided hair. "Okay, okay, baby, baby..." She listened to the hoarse whisper echoing in his wide and deep chest, and hugged him tightly with both hands.Although the tears in her eyes stopped quickly, she still hugged Manan as if she couldn't stand herself. "Poor little thing." He said softly, picked up the child, walked to the door of the hut where she slept alone, and put her down. "Are you better now, little one?" She nodded, turned and entered the dark house.