Softly, she said, "I heard her call your name, Brian. Did you know her?"
Petra wanted more than anything to ask if he had pursued a sexual relationship with the girl, but didn’t for fear of his answer. She knew what the answer to that question would be because she knew what the women of the Little People were like.
He turned red and said, "Her clan-group was captured by a bunch of these others and she managed to escape. I took her in because I didn’t know what to do with her. I couldn’t leave her and she would have just followed me anyway."
His downcast eyes told her all she needed to know. Feeling sick to her stomach, she fought down the urge to retch and said, "I guess we have some things to talk about then, don’t we?"
He took a deep breath, aware that she had somehow deduced what his relationship with Bon had been and said, "I guess we do."
Taking him by the hand, she led him to a pair of knee-high stones and sat, pulling him down on the other. There, knee to knee, she stared into his eyes and asked, "Did you love her?"
He frowned as he considered what he felt for Bon and said, "She drew something out of me that I didn’t know was there. It created a need and she answered that need."
Taking a deep breath, she sighed as she let it out. She suddenly wanted to hurt him as he had just hurt her.
"You should know that I was captured by the People of the Fire shortly after they captured a group of the Little People and I saw what they are both like. The People of the Fire treated me the same way they treated the Little People and I can’t say that I enjoyed it. There were a few times that it woke something inside, but I kept remembering that it was the kind of thing that made me run from the other Brian."
Astounded and hurt that she had admitted such a thing, Brian knew what it cost her to even say the words, but knew that, deep down inside, she wanted to save the relationship they had found with each other. He had known that there was some reason that she hated the original Brian and that it had bled over into her dislike of him. It was only when she learned that he was different from the other Brian that she had admitted there was something between them. Now, for her to learn that he was a lot like the other Brian, she needed to work it out with him; find if he needed a continuation of the practices he had fallen into with Bon. Deciding that it was best for him to be honest with her, he reached deep within himself and dragged up the answer that was best for her, whether it hurt or not.
He clasped both her hands in his, unmindful of the Staff that had fallen beside his feet, and said, "I need to keep that part of me hidden from you. I think those needs will always be with me, but they will never find an outlet with you. It might be best if you take the path to my world without me. I’ll help you get there, but I won’t go with you."
The tears in his eyes surprised her. If it hurt him that much to say those things then it stood to reason that he loved her too much to hurt her. Since she accepted that as true, she knew that she wanted him with her in the other world. Her need to hurt him was gone. It was as dead as the girl lying among the stones.
Shaking her head, Petra wiped a sudden tear from her eye and said, "You’re coming with me. If I escape without you, there is no reason for me to escape at all."
He bowed his head, unsure how to make her understand that he didn’t have any real control over the needs that Bon had awakened within him. His hands clenched on hers, tightening until she cried out in pain and jerked them away from him.
He said, "You see! That’s just a small part of what I need! There’s a hell of a lot more! Don’t you understand? It will never be gone!"
Pointing toward the shambles in the camp, he cried, "I’ll always be just like them!"
Pushing herself up from the stone, she stared at him with her face twisted in her efforts to keep from crying and walked away from him. Before she knew it, she found herself standing over the body of the woman of the Little People with the ape-cat sitting only a few feet away, and saw what they had done to her. It was far worse up close than viewing it from a distance, and she stood aghast for a moment. It was then that she saw the small smile on the woman’s face and knew that it had been something about Brian that had put the smile there. What had he been to her? A savior? A willing partner? Someone that could give the woman the things dictated by her curse? What was it he had said? She answered a need? It was apparent to her that he had also answered the needs dictated by the girl’s curse. Could he answer her needs? Could he be the man she thought she had found? Was there a way to rehabilitate him? Was it this place that had changed him? Had she also changed? Petra thought that she had.
Forced on her at first, the treatment she had received from Rocheg-mont had come to be acceptable at the last; not because it was welcome, but because it was inescapable and she had developed a kind of addiction for the way he treated her. Perhaps that had been the trap that had also caught Brian. Maybe if she could persuade him to leave this place with her, he would revert to the man that he had been after the Universe made its adjustments.
As though reading her mind, the ape-cat; she would always think of them as such, spoke. "The Curse of the Good Lord covers us all. Even those who arrive or are born after his death are caught in it."
She turned to the ape-cat, surprised that it spoke English.
"Brian said that you carried a message from the Good Lord! What was it? Can you tell me?"
The beast moved restively, its eyes going to the small group of captives who cowered under his gaze, and said, "He told me to reunite you with the man and help you to fulfill your mission. He told me that you must both leave. You must be alive when you leave; the man need not be. It would be better, if problematic, if he were; but it is not necessary."
Disturbed that the success of the enterprise didn’t necessarily include Brian’s survival, she skirted the topic, pointing instead at the captives and asking, "Why didn’t you kill them? You killed all the People of the Fire that had captured me. Why were these any different?"
As one of the women in the group edged away from the others, preparatory to making a run for it, the ape-cat, grunted and snarled, stretching a hand out as though to reach for the woman. The woman scurried back into her place in the group and the ape-cat turned his attention back to Petra.
"When we found the clan-group you were with, we were making war, as always. When I scented the Good Lord on you, I went to his Death-Place to ask if I had made a mistake and he told me of his plan."
With a human-like shrug, he said, "We may kill but we are to leave as many alive as we can. The Good Lord has included them in his plan."
Perplexed by the thought that any of the inhabitants of this place could play a part in her escape from it, Petra asked, "What part does he see in this for them?"
With a snort, the ape-cat said, "Nothing, concerning your escape. But when you leave, he intends lifting the Curse and being merciful to them. Your presence makes it possible."
Still puzzled, she asked, "How?"
Looking at her as though she was being obtuse, he said, "When the Good Lord was killed, His Death-Curse precluded the possibility of He and His brother both living in this place. His brother, however, wants you very badly. The hunger is rising within him and soon, very soon, he will activate your sisters to lure you to him. This, you know already."
With the ever-present mist, and the sun hanging motionless at the horizon when it was visible, there was no way to gauge the passage of time. She had been told over and over that Time did not exist here, so she had fallen into the habit of judging its passage by how many times she had slept.
She burst out, "I’ve lost track of how many times I’ve slept since I first heard that! It’s been so long! And it was supposed to be ‘soon’ then! How much longer? I’ve got to get Brian out of here before he is ruined!"
Lifting a hand, he turned it palm-up and examined the claws that protruded from its fingers, retracting them to scratch under an arm with the hand. His attitude seemed blasé in the extreme as he said, "Without T
ime, there is no concept of patience in this place. I will be glad when the Curse is lifted; I miss the grass, the trees, the rilling streams and the movement of the sun. It was good to lie in the tall grass under the trees and watch the sun move from side to side of the sky. You will know when you must seek the brother of the Good Lord." His eyes went to where Brian sat with his head in his hands. "Till then, you can only make the most of what you can have with him. So long as you sojourn with my people; the food will be plentiful, you will be safe from all who may threaten you in this place and the two of you can make more of your own. If that is what you will."
The ape-cat’s fatalistic view of life may have been practical for him, but Petra wanted an end to her stay in this place and wanted Brian with her in his world. She could only throw up her hands and stalk back to where Brian sat.
"Talking to that ape-cat is like talking to a wall!"
As Brian lifted his head from his hands, she saw that he had been crying and she pressed a hip against him, forcing him to move over slightly on the stone. Once seated, she wound an arm through his and took his hand in both of hers, leaning her head against his shoulder.
"Don’t worry, Briney." She lapsed into use of the nickname she had used so long ago in another world with her own version of him. "It will turn out alright."
Wiping his eyes with the backs of his hands, he sniffed once and pulled the pack around in front of him.
"I kept your clothes for you. Washed them out in the lake and dried them in a globe while I slept."
As he pulled them forth, a wan smile crossed her lips and she thanked him, saying, "Now I can finally dress decently. This wool is warm but it chafes. I don’t even know what kind of wool it is; it seems kind of straight."
Plucking at the sleeve of her top, he said, "It’s their hair. The Bor-bon-meeg, the Little People. About the only trade that goes on here is in raw materials. When the tall guys catch some of them, they keep them for a while, until they’re tired of them, and then let them go after they shave their heads. The Little People usually cut their braids in half when they get long, and use them to trade, but they hate to have them shaved off. I never knew why until today."
Sensing that she was treading on dangerous ground, at least where Brian’s emotions were concerned, she nevertheless asked, "Why?"
"The Good Lord liked their hair. They felt guilty about betraying him and so, they braided it, swearing that they would let it hang loose when he forgave them. Not before."
His voice almost broke as he said it and she stroked the back of his head, shushing him when he started to explain and apologize to her. Patting his back, she hoped for his sake that the time would come very soon when they could leave this place.
Chapter Nine
Trudging through the mist, Brian felt almost good about the way things had turned out; Bon was dead, but at least he didn’t have the problem of what to do about her now that he had found Petra. He could just imagine the unholy rows that would have broken out because of the little woman’s appetites.
He turned and walked backwards for a few steps as he looked back at Petra; she was finding walking difficult after their last sleep. It had been quite some time since Bon was killed and his needs had finally broken the bonds he had set on them during the last sleep. Petra had been something more than cooperative, but hadn’t really enjoyed any of it until it became dangerously violent. It was that which frightened him more than the extent to which he had gone. Was she becoming more a part of this place than was healthy for her?
He saw her head jerk to the right as the tiger-ape loped out of the mist from that direction; returned from another scout. Stopping, he asked, "Is there anyplace good to camp over there? Petra’s getting tired and I could use a rest, too."
Urh-mor-hrh said, "There is a wrecked building just ahead. It still has a roof but one side has been crushed in. I remember it; we once held conclave there before the Curse was uttered. A stream still flows nearby on its way to the lake."
Brian linked arms with Petra as she caught up to him and when she leaned against him, he handed her the Staff and picked her up, cradling her against his chest. They heard the tiger-ape muttering about mating with his third concubine under the trees along the stream in the old days, and Petra tried to repress a smile.
She said, "Has it occurred to you that everyone here seems preoccupied with sex; both before and after the Curse?"
He marveled at how light she was, even fully dressed, and smiled, feeling content for the first time in a very long time.
"I think they lived a kind of ‘lotus-eater’ existence before the Curse. So, yes, they made love a lot before then. And, since sex was used to lure the Good Lord into an unwary state, he cursed them to be preoccupied with it. Not just with sex, per se, but with survival, killing and distrust. From things that Urh-mor-hrh has said, I gather that they all played pretty well together before that. Then the Good Lord’s brother, being jealous of his power, tempted the Bor-bon-meeg and the Soos-tow into helping him engineer the Good Lord’s death."
Her brow knit for a few seconds and she asked, "Do you think they…intermixed during sex?"
With a dubious look, he answered, "I know the Little People are pretty promiscuous, and were before, also, but somehow I just can’t see one of them having sex with a Uu-mor. The size differential is just too great."
She knew that he would think she was curious about his relationship with Bon, but she asked, "How much difference, do you think?"
Sighing, thinking just what she thought he would think, he said, "A Bor-bon-meeg female weighs about eighty or eighty-five pounds at the most, usually less, and a Uu-mor is something like a thousand; you do the math. The ‘day’ before we found you, Urh-mor-hrh…consorted with a female Uu-mor and let me tell you, it was something to see. There was fur flying all over the place, growling and yowling fit to wake the dead. A Uu-mor is every bit as well-endowed as their size would indicate." Shaking his head, he said, "A Bor-bon-meeg and a Uu-mor. No."
They caught up to the tiger-ape just then and found him waiting for them. As he started ahead again, he said, "The Bor-bon-meeg like it that we have such rough tongues." He walked on for a few more paces and from the mist, they heard him say, "They are just the right size to use their entire bodies to give our members a massage. I’ve missed those days. Your Bon-tow-fut was a favorite among us."
Petra giggled despite the effect the statement had on Brian and she buried her face in his neck, stifling the giggles for his sake. She was sure his face had turned red and he was stoically enduring the embarrassment, but she didn’t dare raise her head for fear he would storm off. After a short walk, they found the tiger-ape standing before a large building. The side of it had been smashed in but the roof was more or less intact and once they found the doors; big, wide wooden valves, they entered without having to clamber over the smashed stones of the wrecked side. Letting Petra back onto her feet, Brian turned the Staff’s power loose in the place and they were bathed in warmth and light.
Petra stepped into the globe and removed a pair of the fruits from the pack, handing one to Brian as she settled onto a stone bench to eat her own. As the tiger-ape made his circuit about the place, finally settling down to one side of the globe, Petra lifted her head from her fruit with a strange expression on her face. Something was different; like something was scratching at her mind, begging to be let in.
"Urh-mor-hrh. You said that it would be soon."
Grumbling as he arched his back to scratch it against a stone, he nodded his head.
"Soon. The hunger has already started within the brother. No more of your sisters have fallen through the Veils of Creation since you arrived. He has depleted the energy released when he consumed the last one and he must have more. He is aware of you and I suspect that he has sent your sisters’ shades to draw you to him."
She asked, "What is he like? Is he tall? Short? Thin? fat?"
Sighing, the tiger-ape let his body thump down onto the now-warm stone and
said, "He once looked much like the Good Lord but since the Curse, he has been forced to live a half-life, neither here, nor in one of the worlds. I think he spends a great deal of his time in the Veils, drawing your sisters to him. That none have come lately speaks to the influence you held in the Universe; without you moving through the worlds, none of your sisters has the urge to move between worlds. He only manifests himself here when he feeds on one of them, and the space since the last has been long. He will be so hungry and tenuous that he will be incautious. He will manifest fully to partake of your energy and that is when he will be at his weakest."
"Can we expect any help from the Good Lord when that happens? I’m not sure we’re up to the task."
Nodding, Urh-mor-hrh said, "He has moved already, expending a great deal of the power he had husbanded for just this occurrence. Your visit with him, with the Staff, gave him a much-needed boost or he wouldn’t have been able to help at all."
Brian asked, "Would it help any to use the Staff in his presence again? If it will, we can go there now."
Urh-mor-hrh shook his head, thumping a hand on the stone floor. "Here. You stay here now. The Good Lord has done all that he can. Everything has been set in motion that can be."
They were silent after that, but after eating, Petra stowed the seeds and cores of the fruit back in the pack and stretched out on the bench, extending a hand toward Brian. He ignored her, not wanting a repetition of the last episode and sat still as she moved on the bench to trail her fingers on the back of his neck. The tiger-ape rose and Petra was sure he grumbled, "Noisy neighbors.", and exited the building to sleep outside in the mist.
She caressed Brian’s neck. "Was your need so easily taken care of last ‘night’?"
He lifted his head, catching her hand in his and bringing it around to hold rather than let her try to arouse him with it.
"No. I can tell that yours wasn’t either. It’s not right, Petra. We can’t keep doing that. Don’t you understand? I don’t want to keep hurting you."
It Happens Every Day Page 15