The Chant

"There weren't always dragons in the Valley. There weren't always dragons in the Valley! There weren't always dragons in the Valley!" With each repetition the words gained pace, first stated slowly, methodically, three times, then again, three times, faster, then the drum began to beat, the repetitions became a chant, over and over. The chant was issued in the high language, completely forgotten, besides the chant, 'Oosen da Ragunten oo Nadallah'. There weren't always dragons in the Valley.

The chant leaders stood in a circle at the center of the great cavern, all wearing rough brown cloaks cinched at the waist with a green lace sash, hands held together, obscured inside long, drooping sleeves, bowed heads in pointed hoods with faces in shadow.

Inside their circle, carved into the bare rock, was the seven pointed star. At the centre, the eye, a stone oval ten feet across, rising eight feet from the cavern floor. At its centre, an indentation three feet across and half a foot deep held the gem like a pupil, a foot in diametre, dark green, perfectly rounded, glittering in the dim light of the torches ensconced in the cavern walls.

At the northern extremity of the circle, a figure lead the leaders, dressed identically besides the medallion around his neck, shining with a green gem. He was the Innermost. The only one of the congregation allowed to enter the circle and mount the eye. His heart had withstood more ceremonies that any other. His voice was deep, his chant boomed loudest.

The chant leaders intoned with low, guttural, glotal pronunciation, the phrases blending together into one long oscillating note. Surrounding them, in a wider circle with twenty feet between them, another circle of cloaked figures stood, heads bowed, ready. As the chant reached its thirty third repetition, they began to hum as one, still low in pitch but an octave higher than the chant leaders, almost a groan. The chant repeated three more times until they drew in breathe together, then began again.

Surrounding this circle was a still wider circle, with twenty feet between them and the second circle. As this phase of the chant and hum reached its thirty third repetition, just before the second circle drew in breathe, the third circle began their own hum, an octave higher than the second, still low and deep.

Surrounding the third circle was the crowd, with twenty feet between them and the third circle, arranged in many tight packed circles, right back to the walls of the cavern, several hundred feet across. They wore hooded cloaks with the same green sash but their faces were raised to the great domed ceiling high above, silently counting the repetitions. As the third circle hit their thirty third, every second figure in the crowd joined in the hum, matching the pitch of the first inner circle. As they drew in breathe, every second figure joined. I was one of these.

The sound throbbed, rippling out from the first circle, building to the second then third, then reaching the crowd, sustained, a low oscillating hum. After another thirty three repetitions, the drum cut out, leaving only the rhythmic hum, over and over, the original chant audible only as a faint rhythm emanating from the centre of the room. The cavern walls vibrated, the hum echoing through chambers and anti chambers, deep into the rock, to the core of the mountain. As the drum cut out, the mountain sung back, the echo through the chambers returned, coming back into the great cavern, amplifying the hum still further.

The mountain itself vibrated. My vision shook and blurred. The torches on the walls were snuffed out by the power of the sound and as the light died, it was replaced. The sun above the mountain had reached its zenith. From the roof of the cavern, at the apex of the dome, a beam of light shone through a shaft hewn in the stone to fall on the gem. The gem glowed, casting a wavering green light throughout the chamber. As it did, it lifted, rising from its bearing in the stone eye. As it rose it cast a more and more intense light across the chamber until it hung, halfway between the ceiling and the floor, shaking, the rows and rows of hooded figures cast in green tinged shadow, the cavern walls shaking.

The gem hung in the air for thirty three more repetitions. Then the chant began to subside. The chant leaders finished their song. As they did, the gem began to slowly fall back towards the stone eye. The second circle finished sixteen repetitions later and it fell still further. Then the third circle, leaving the gem ten feet above its resting place. When the crowd finished only the echoes from the mountain held the gem aloft, dropping gently back into place as they died away. The shaft of light from above disappeared, the sun above the mountain having moved along its orbit. The cavern was left in darkness. My ears rung. I squinted, though the sound was gone the scene in the pitch darkness shook, my eyes out of focus. I breathed deep, sweating. Around me many in the crowd had fainted but the rest stood resolute, listening through the ringing, waiting.

The inevitable preceding thump of wings hundreds of feet across beating the air high above the mountain forced a unified gasp of breathe across the cavern as the beast slowed its descent. The mountain shook as it landed first one clawed foot, then the other, palpable even through the impenetrable layers of rock overhead, the echoing chambers below amplifying its every movement. As it rested, the great heart pulsed its slow rhythm, two alternating chambers pumping rivers of blue blood through its gargantuan body, arteries like tree trunks, eons between each beat. We felt the dull tha-thud in our throats as it drew in a long breathe, five slow beats to fully inflate its lungs, swelling to half the size of the great cavern.

We all knew it was coming, but still each time it came the horror was fresh. The beasts throat constricted, the diaphragm as large as ten men relaxed, the lungs pushing out tonnes of breathe into a high pitched shriek, sustained endlessly, echoing through the caverns as our chant had. Many cried out, their anguish lost entirely to the all consuming sound. Many fell to their knees or passed unconscious, blood began to seep from my nose but went unnoticed as I clasped my hands over my ears, struggling to stand. It made no difference, the shriek pierced the rock, bone and flesh. When the beast left we felt but could not hear the beat of its wings and the strength of its towering legs kicking off. Only the inner circle remained upright and even there one had fallen.

I lay on the hard rock of the cavern floor, clutching my head, eyes tight shut. After some minutes the ringing began to fade. I took my hands off my ears and pulled myself sitting, feeling nauseous, breathing heavily. The stench of sweat and vomit and blood hung in the air. This was the first ceremony I had stayed in control of my own stomach and bowls. Around me bodies twitched and shuffled, returning to consciousness. Some would never return. The shriek stopped hearts, but all were needed for the song.

As my breathe and heavily beating heart slowed, four torch bearers from the inner circle lit tapers, glowing distant in the gloom. They picked their way through the mass of disorientated chanters to come to the cavern wall and re-light the torches in brackets that lined the perimeter. As the flickering light returned the scene was revealed. The crowd was strewn around the room, lying on the rock, writhing, clutching themselves, clutching each other, thousands of hooded bodies gradually stirring. The faint murmur of sobs and tears began, the living discovering the dead.

The torch bearers returned to the inner circle to retake their place, the circle of pointed hoods cast flickering shadows surrounding the eye, creating the impression of a many pointed star around the seven pointed star in the centre, though the circle was broken. One singer lay on their back, torso and head outside of the circle, their legs pointing inward. On the other side of the circle, another singer sank to their knees, sobbing.

Inside the inner circle the Innermost stepped forward to climb the steps hewn into the stone eye above the pupil, his green gem glinting.. At the top of the steps, with the great gem at his feet, he cast off his pointed hood and threw his head back to the cavern ceiling, revealing a long white beard and shaved bald head adorned with the seven pointed star tattoo. A single trickle of blood ran from his left nostril. He proclaimed, 'All Rise!'

The crowds did as instructed, rising to stand on barely stable legs. He said, "Another year has come and gone. Another ceremony completed. Another song sung. The gem has risen. Our collective power is reinstated. The beast has passed." The cavern was silent besides faint sobs. All listened closely to each word. "Another year, another ceremony, another song. We are the people of the darkness, though we remember the light. We did not always live as this, the beasts did not always fly overhead, and if there was once such a time, that time can come again!"

He paused before he went on, "and that is why we must chant, even though we make tragic sacrifices every year, that is why we must summon the beast, that is why we must hear the shriek. We must never forget. For how can we go on living in the caves, in the tunnels? How can we go on eating the algae and the eyeless fish from the deep river? How can we go on, drinking the fetid water, boiled and filtered, yet still foul to the tongue? How can we go on knowing this is all there is? We cannot. But we know, we know a time will come, when the beasts will once more be gone from the valley, so that we may live as our forefathers did. So every year we must remind ourselves. We must come together. We must remember the chant. We must remember our power. To lift the gem with the sheer power of our collective will, made real with the power of our collective voice. The voice made stronger each passing year by our sacrifice, as the unfortunate weak make way for the fortunate strong! Have you ever seen the gem rise so high?"

The cry came back, "NO!" The Innermost went on, "and next year, will it rise still higher?" The cry came back, "Yes! We will raise our young to chant in time! We will carry still more to chant still the louder! We will chant ourselves until our last breathe! and the gem will rise higher!" The Innermost went on, "and when the Gem rises high above the mountain?" The chant came back, "Then the beasts will be banished from the valley! Never to return!" The Innermost finished his speech, barrel chest booming, "You are the living! you are the strong! you survived our song! There was not always dragons in the Valley! and with the power of the Gem! Our time in the sun will return again!" He raised his hands to the roof the cavern.

The crowd erupted into cheers and shouts. "The Innermost will guide our song!" and "the chant will banish the beast." Tears ran down cheeks, hands clapped even as the dead lay still beside them, even as the cloaks of the living were stained and soiled with blood and vomit and other bodily expulsions. The uproar echoed through the caverns and caves, returning amplified again, the elation of survival for another year, the hope that the next year would be the one to end the ceremony forever.

In the inner circle, the sobbing singer rose from their knees. The Innermost boomed, "Yes sister! Rise to your feet! It is here for all to see! Even though her father, one of our inner brothers, has fallen to the shriek, so she stands, ready to chant another year!" The crowd cheered for her for a moment, before she stepped into the circle. With the footstep a gasp from the second circle, then the third circle and the crowd as they comprehended, then a gradual hush fell. Then silence. The inner circle stayed stoic.

The Innermost boomed, "Come, we all feel grief for the fallen, but it is forbidden to..." The singer cut him off with a shout, deep and powerful, with a voice trained to lead the chant, she said, "YOU LIE!" The last word echoed round the cavern in the shocked silence. The Innermost opened his mouth to reply but she shouted again, "My father, whose voice and heart was not matched by any in this circle, was not taken by the shriek." The innermost began to speak but she went on. "YOU. You.." her voice broke, becoming a piercing whisper. "You poisoned him." Then deep and powerful again, but cold, "You poison us all with your lies."

The Innermost's face became a grimace, using the full power of his voice he commanded, "Get out of the circle immediately! GET OUT!"

The singer said nothing for a moment, then again in the cold monotone, said, "There has always been dragons in the valley. We used to sing together. Until their gem was stolen in greed."

At this, several other members of the inner circle sank to their knees. The Innermost spat out, seething, "LIES. LIES. GET OUT OF THE CIRCLE. GET OUT OF MY SIGHT." Members of the second circle moved behind the singer, her head twitched back to see them, then she rushed forward, leaping up the smooth rock face of the eye. The Innermost's grimace, lit in pale green, dropped into open mouthed shock. The singer planted her feet either side of the gem and shoved with her hands into the Innermost's shoulders, as she did so her hood fell back, revealing her own shaved head.

The Innermost was cast down into the circle onto the hard cavern floor, letting out an agonised cry, spread eagle across the seven pointed star carving. The singer pointed a wavering finger down from the rock. "I name you Liar! Poisoner! Manipulator and Tyrant!" The members of the second circle had gathered on the edge of the first but would not step inside. From the ground, weakly, the innermost said, "I permit you, enter the circle, seize her." The members of the inner circle stood still as the second circle members moved between them, grasping at the singer's ankles, dragging her down, holding her arms and legs as she continued to scream, "LIAR. POISONER. MANIPULATOR. TYRANT."

A pool of blood spread from behind the head of the Innermost. He passed from consciousness as she was dragged from the hall. I joined the jeering crowd, casting curses and oaths, jostling to tear at her clothes and to land a blow. The jeers echoed through the caverns, returning discordant.