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A.R.Yngve

DARC AGES Book Three
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Chapter 21


"This is the voice of Darc. This is the Voice of Liberty."

No musical number preceded this speech. Darc had prepared a written radio speech in advance, for his subject was too complicated for improvisation to take place. Mechao sat next to him in the soundstage, ready to assist if necessary.

Darc took on a calm, clear note: "As I have said before: I have lived among Lepers. Now it is time for you in the cities, who may never have seen a Leper, to learn more about them. What is a Leper? What are they like? Where did they come from? How many are there in the world today? And what do I intend to do for them? These are the questions I will try to answer..."



Darc was too exhausted to speak for a long while afterward. He had put all his effort and sincerity into that speech, and found himself drained of energy. The servants handed Darc water and a towel.

"Never could I have imagined," Mechao said slowly, "that it would take me a lifetime to see the truth." Darc gave the old doctor a puzzled look. "So fiercely proud have I been of my heritage as a practitioner of genetic surgery. Countless times have I told my children, like my father told me, how important our task is, how we must never forget the old knowledge of the DNA."

Then Mechao buried his face in his hands -- at once he seemed as old as his years suggested -- and murmured: "But now I see! What have I made of this great heritage? What did my father do? Nothing! We hid it to ourselves, like selfish children herding glass marbles! All the while, for centuries, millions of people have suffered the Plague because of our unwillingness to help."

Darc had asked himself that question many times by now. Even he had failed to grasp the answer, until now. He shook his head, and comforted his woeful friend.

"No, no, no! It is because you are so proud, that you judge yourself so harshly. Remember! You were born into this world like every other man. Your ancestors took this world for granted too. You never saw a Leper until I brought her here, and how could you? Wouldn't Lepers, too, have killed you if you approached them? You have all suffered from too much isolation -- it is natural to turn secretive, when one is persecuted for such a long time.

"And: before I told you of my adventures in Amrica, there was no way you could know Lepers were suffering from ocean to ocean. Don't you see how open and friendly you have been to my friends, to me, ever since we arrived here? You could have killed us on the spot, just to secure your people. But you didn't!"

Darc stopped there. He had touched on another sensitive matter. Why hadn't Mechao killed him? Why did he reveal himself in the first place? Mechao took away his hands from his face, and looked into Darc's eyes.

Mechao said: "I thought Pipo, my guardian beast, was going to kill that young knight, or scare him off... he seemed to have no chance, coming to our island all alone. But he fought like a lion to save you... and so I changed my mind. I gave you the chance to prove your worth, and I cured your fever. I grew more curious, and when you told us that you came from another time... I changed my mind. I once considered destroying your aircraft, to hold you prisoners on Kap Verita and force Dohan to marry Meijji. But then I changed my mind again."

"Is that anything to be ashamed of?"

"My shame lies in the fact, that I did not trust you from the very beginning."

"Is that," Darc insisted, "anything to be ashamed of? You were careful, you thought of the safety of your people, as you had been taught."

"Yes... but I was also afraid, when I should have been brave." There was a brief silence. Then, Darc laughed. "What is it?" the old witchdoctor asked him, almost insulted.

Darc wiped something out of the corner of his eye, and answered: "It just hit me. Women. Women are dominant on Kap Verita. Come to think of it, they dominate this world of yours. And the world has remained unchanged for hundreds of years. They have kept the world going, and that's good..."

Darc stood up, helped Mechao up from his chair, and set off to see Eye-Leg.

"But for better or worse," he added as he left, "it takes men to make a change."