Fall; or, Dodge in Hell - Neal Stephenson Page 0,291

were the buildings of the town, rising higher by the day as timbers were hauled up to their roofs and used to assemble upper stories. Flanking the town to its north and south, and new to those who had not lately stirred from Camp, were belts of open land now bright green with the fresh growth from the seeds sown by the Autochthons. These new fields were crisply delineated by walls that the Autochthons made by heaping up rocks and stumps that they had extracted from the ground with the help of their mounts. Those walls were highest where they faced the town, which made the souls of Eltown seem pent up inside. Their outlet was to the river, and there on the broad flat plain before the fires they had assembled a fleet of rafts and barges laden with rope, canvas, tools, and other supplies that figured into Feller’s plan.

Adam, knowing their purpose, could not help sweeping his gaze upstream to the place where the two river valleys came together. Just above their junction rose the bare stubbled hill with the great tree at its top. Its branches had been naked to the winter winds when Feller had vowed to cut it down, but by this time were green with new leaves. Around it, the slopes of the hill were now marked with ropes strung taut between stakes, and little flags, and tents and awnings that had been put up in preparation for Feller’s great undertaking.

Despite the fact that Adam had been forewarning them of all these things for weeks, the old souls of Camp were troubled, and surprised to see what was under way. “Many years ago,” said Walksfar, “when this valley was nothing but trees, I stood up over yonder where the tower of Elkirk stands now and looked down and had to strain my eyes to pick out the great one. Now it seems lonely indeed. I would go there now and stand before it and—”

“Talk to it?” Adam asked.

“Try to ascertain whether there is anything there that is capable of being talked to, or of talking back,” said Walksfar. “For with these wild souls one never knows; they are not like us.”

With that errand in mind they went down farther into the settlement of old buildings on their side of the river. Lately many souls had crossed over and crowded shelters into whatever space they could find. Merely getting through to the river had become difficult. As they picked and shouldered their way among the improvised shelters, various souls emerged to stare at them. For there were many whose knowledge of the Land was limited to what they had seen up at Elkirk and down in Eltown, and they had never seen anything like Adam and Eve, to say nothing of Beast or Cairn. By the time they had reached the edge of the river, where Adam had once been in the habit of getting passage on boats, they were surrounded by a crowd of a few score souls who evidently had nothing better to occupy their time than to follow them around.

“Word of your coming preceded you, Adam,” said Strongback, the boatman who had most commonly taken him across the river in the past. He seemed to be referring to a fleet-footed soul who had been running ahead of them, alerting everyone.

“I had not known that it was so remarkable an event,” Adam said, “for a few residents of Camp to go on a stroll down to the river.”

“Times are changing,” said Strongback, “and the folk of Camp are not viewed in the same way as they once were. For many years nothing ever changed there. Then you and Eve showed up. Then there was the strange business with the angel who came in the nighttime. Then all of a sudden twelve new souls who seemed to come out of nowhere. Now the Autochthons are among us and around us, bringing new ways of doing things, straight from El, and with them is Honey herself.” He cast a glance up toward the white tower of Elkirk. “And Honey brings new teachings directly from El.” He looked at the fleet-footed soul who had gone before Adam and the others spreading word of their approach. This had the look of one but lately come from the kirk and not much used to the rigors of life in the town. “Acolyte, say what you know, that all may hear it.”

Acolyte spoke in great earnest, as if nothing