The Lovers * Dark Is the Sun * Riders of the Purple Wage

by Philip José Farmer

  However, there were vast movements of the ground that even this wonderful substance couldn’t resist. Deyv had heard that far down the road, a mountain had grown up under it, and the road ran straight up the elevation and over it. The substance should have snapped apart in many places, but it had merely lengthened.

  After looking up and down the road from behind a bush, Deyv stepped out. He kept to the exact middle so that if anybody blew a dart or threw a spear from the foliage, they’d have a long distance to cover. Two years ago he’d come to this spot with a small hunting party, and he’d walked on the smooth rubbery surface for a few miles in the opposite direction. When he turned back, he had gone as far from home as he had ever been.

  The miles trudged by. Aejip walked on one edge of the road and Jum on the other. It was pleasant for Deyv to walk unimpeded and with a good view of at least two miles behind and ahead. On the other hand, he felt very exposed and vulnerable. If something came from one wall of the jungle, he could run towards the other. What would he do, though, if enemies came from both sides?

  The thought was troubling. Still, he stayed on the road. He knew no other path. Besides, he could really make good time on it. If what his father had said was true, a few more miles would put him outside the land of the nine tribes. However, there would be other hostile beings beyond that. And only The Brooding Mother knew what beasts, familiar or unfamiliar, also dwelt there.

  After a long time, he came to a place where the earth had sunk an unknown depth from an old quake. Here the road disappeared under water that had collected from the recent rain. Halting, Deyv speculated about walking on the highway or skirting the edges of the water. The latter course would take him into the jungle. Who knew what humans or beasts lay near in wait, understanding that any passer-by would probably make a detour round the lake and so come within easy reach?

  He decided to walk straight ahead until the water was too deep for that. Then he would walk on the shallower ground near the forest. The sword and the tomahawk were too heavy for him to attempt to swim very far. However, maybe he would not have to swim at all.

  The water rose to his ankles and then to his waist. The two animals were swimming along behind him, with Aejip making sounds of unhappiness. Deyv turned towards the right to wade where the water was shallower. Suddenly he screamed with agony and thrashed around. By the time he reached the edge of the lake, he was limping badly. He held his teeth firmly together to prevent his yelling again. He hoped nobody had heard his cry.

  He sat down in the mud and looked at the network of thin red welts on the side of his left thigh. The pain was slowly easing, but the muscles of his thigh were still knotted. After he’d rubbed his thigh for a while, the muscles began to relax. He then rose and walked slowly through the water by the jungle. After walking a few miles at this pace, he could feel only a slight itch. He saw something round and pale rise briefly from the lake. It could have been the creature that had stung him with its poisonous tentacles.

  When the road was no longer flooded, he returned to it. Far off the tip of a mountain showed, the one which his father had told him about. It did not seem to get any nearer even after he had walked for many miles. Deyv decided he’d go to the territory at its base and work around there – unless he found a tribe along the way. At that moment, Aejip gave a soft warning cry. Deyv turned and saw a large whitish object floating about three hundred feet in the air a mile away and approaching at the speed of the wind, which was rather slow then. Deyv ran for the jungle, with the two animals close behind him. As the thing passed over he could see the boat-shaped bottom and the round holes in it. He expected to see dark objects drop from it, but he did not. It was no disappointment.

  When the tharakorm was out of sight, Deyv went back to the road. He looked back often, however, since others could be coming along. After another mile Deyv came to a junction of two roads. For a few minutes he sat down at some distance from it, wondering if he should take the other road, which was at right angles to the one he’d been on.

  He also looked at, but did not go close to, the strange objects at the junction. There were four tall metallic posts, each bearing a round box with four round eyes. Deyv had never heard of these. Though they seemed to be inanimate, he did not care to investigate an unknown work of the ancients. If the posts were their totem poles, it was dangerous to get too close to them. As everybody knew, totem poles were charged with magic: good magic for those who came under their protection, bad magic for their enemies.

  When Deyv was about a hundred yards from the junction, the poles clanged, and the top eyes of the two poles facing him gleamed bright with a green light. Startled, Deyv gave a little leap and gasped. Jum barked once and was silent. Aejip growled. For a long time, Deyv stood still, his eyes on the glowing green lights. Then, slowly, he backed away. Suddenly, the eyes went dead, and three clangs came from the two poles.

  Deyv froze again. The cat and the dog pressed against him.

  After a while, Deyv whispered to Jum to go ahead on the road. The dog didn’t want to do so, but he obeyed. Again, the poles clanged and the green lights came on. Jum turned to look at his master. Deyv called him back. When the dog reached a certain point, three clangs sounded, and the green lights went out.

  A minute later a large rainbow-coloured bird swooped down towards the road near the poles. Before it landed, the poles clanged and the green lights glowed. Startled by the noise, the bird veered away. More clanging and extinguishing of the green followed.

  Deyv did not know what was going on. He did know he did not like it. He led his two companions off the road and out across the angle between the two roads. When he stepped upon the second road, the poles facing his way clanged and their eyes shone greenly. He went across the rubbery substance quickly, and the moment he and his pets were on the earth, the poles clanged again and the lights went out.

  When he returned to the first road, he was a long way from the poles. They remained silent and unlit.

  Deyv said, ‘Whew!’ and wiped the sweat from his brow.

  A few minutes later he had to run into the jungle again to hide from another tharakorm. This time he saw some heads, very tiny at this distance, stick out of the hole at the bottom.

  Another sleep passed and then another. Deyv and his companions came across two other junctions guarded by poles that spoke with metal tongues and cast green with their eyes. Deyv skirted these and kept on. Not once did he see human beings, for which he was thankful. On the other hand, their absence also made him uneasy. Were the locals so scarce because there just were not any? Or did they avoid the road for a good reason, which he ought to know?

  By then more of the mountain was visible. Its top was still covered with something white, but lower down it was black. Rain came again, and there were more lakes to go around. He came to a place which had suffered some catastrophe long ago. A lot of rotting trees lay along the edge of the jungle, but full-grown new trees reared above them. The road was raised from the ground and twisted like a piece of leather. Deyv, Jum and Aejip passed by it, regaining it when it became flat enough to walk on, even though it was rippled. About two hundred yards beyond this point was another junction. The poles were leaning at crazy angles, and a bulge showed in the area between the two sets.

  By then Deyv had realized that the poles did not react until he was about one hundred and twenty yards away. But now, just before he was about to leave the road, the poles clanged, and the eyes directly above the lowest turned a baleful red.

  Deyv jumped, though not so much from the unexpected reaction of the poles. The animals went into the air also, Jum barking and Aejip yowling. When he came down, Deyv howled. Something was sending a shock through him, something from the road itself. It was painful, and it made him leap about like a mouse on a hot stone. He tried to run off the road, but the repeated shocks caused him to fall. Then he felt the horrible sensations most strongly on the side on which he had fallen.

  Yelling, he managed to roll off the road a
nd lie panting in the dirt. Aejip landed on her stomach, which drove the air from her in a great whoof. Jum, howling, tumbled head over paws onto his master’s legs.

  Finally, his breath regained, his muscles having ceased to quiver, Deyv sat up. The poles were still clanging and flashing a red light. He rose unsteadily and looked round to make sure that no person or beast had been attracted by their screams of agony. No one was in sight.

  Yes, there was.

  Drifting slowly at an angle across the road, about two hundred feet up and half a mile away, was a tharakorm. Its sides and upper works were visible now; the whitish hull, short masts, yardarms and unfurled sails. The thing could only drift with the wind, but the creatures aboard could fly against it.

  Even as Deyv caught sight of the vessel, dark objects dropped out of the holes in the bottom and other objects leaped off the sides. They were only tiny beings at this distance. Deyv, however, knew what they looked like. He also knew why they were leaving the tharakorm.

  4

  There were perhaps a hundred of them. They flew swiftly cutting across the wind, their leathery wings flapping. Deyv staggered across the short grass. His legs felt weak and his head swam. He drove on, aware that Jum and Aejip were not running in their best form by any means. None the less, they were faster than he. A glance showed him that the khratikl had veered to cut him off. He tried to increase his pace, and he did. But not by much. Whatever had shocked him had taken a great deal out of him.

  Before he reached the edge of the trees, he looked back at his pursuers. They were close enough so that he could see the rat-like heads, the flat rudder-like tails, the furry black bodies with long legs trailing and the black wings. These were formed of thin skin stretched between body and back legs and a long bony finger extending from the wrist. He could also hear their chittering.

  One khratikl, the speediest and also the bravest or most foolhardy, swooped ahead of the pack. Aejip whirled, snarling, leaped up, and hooked her claws into a wing. She came down with the thing fluttering and squeaking at the end of her paw, and she bit off its head. Then she spun and dived under a frondy bush with Deyv close behind her. Jum was ahead of them, streaking through the sparse undergrowth.

  The things were at a disadvantage now, though it was not much of one. They had to descend to the ground to get through the barrier of bushes and vines lining the edge of the forest. Once inside the barrier, they needed at least twenty feet of bare ground for their runway before taking to the air again. They just did not have the room here, so they would have to run on their long comparatively weak legs. If it had not been for the shock he had suffered, Deyv could have outdistanced them.

  Furthermore, the khratikl had a limited amount of time to catch their prey. If the tharakorm kept on drifting, it would soon be out of range of its guests. On the other hand, a tharakorm sometimes released its gas and landed. Usually this occurred when hunting had not been good and the host lacked food from which to make the lifting gas.

  At least, this was what Deyv’s father had told him. Actually, it was only a guess on his father’s part, though he had once inspected a dead tharakorm. The creature had not really been dead, though, just inactive. Later, when his father had passed the place where it had been, the thing was gone. Apparently, a tharakorm could come to life again. Or maybe a big wind had blown it away.

  In any event, there was no telling what the hungry khratikl were going to do. Deyv could only run and hope to find a good place for defence or hiding. As he ran, he drew his sword. He spared a look behind him. The things were still after him, a hundred at least, their wings flapping to help them with their running, their mouths open and the big incisors visible despite the pale light under the massive branches. The nearest was a hundred and fifty feet behind him.

  Ahead Jum stopped and began barking. A few seconds later, Deyv saw what had attracted his attention. Through the dimness a great bulk loomed. It was high and round, and fallen jungle giants and growths of liana half covered it.

  It was a House of the Ancients, lying on its side.

  He hoped that it was deserted. It should be, from its vegetation-littered appearance. However, it was possible that a tribe lived in it and used the vegetation as camouflage.

  When Deyv came closer he looked quickly around. No soul-egg tree was in sight, but this did not mean that no humans dwelt in the House. Some tribes had their trees at a distance, in a hidden place.

  By then Aejip had climbed up a mighty tree leaning against the House. Jum followed her a moment later. His claws slipped a few times, but he made it. He turned and faced Deyv, his tongue hanging out, his sides heaving.

  Deyv ran up the trunk. A thin screech came from behind him. Aejip, roaring, leaped over Deyv’s head. Gaining Jum’s side, Deyv turned round. Below him the cat was engaged with four khratikl One, two, three! The fourth broke off and ran for the main body of his fellows. Aejip picked up a carcass in her fangs and leaped up the trunk.

  Deyv put the Sword into its scabbard. He let himself down off the side of the trunk, clinging to knots and the rough bark. When his feet were on the smooth cold surface of the House, he worked his way up its rounded side, still clinging to the tree. Ahead of him, Jum landed on the surface and slid backward into Deyv’s legs, his claws unable to get any purchase.

  Hanging on with both hands, Deyv shoved the heavy dog up the slick curve with a foot. In the meantime, Aejip had worked her way farther up the trunk. Now she leaped outwards onto the House, landed some distance above Deyv, slid, yowling, and abruptly disappeared.

  Deyv shoved the dog ahead of him until they were opposite the place where the cat had dropped out of sight. He could see then that she had fallen into an opening. From his position. Deyv could move on all fours, cautiously, and perhaps reach the opening. Jum would never make it on his own.

  Deyv bent his neck far back to look above. A dozen rattish faces looked down on him from the tree. If their owners had any guts – and they weren’t noted for lacking courage they would glide down towards him. The sheer weight of the bodies would send him scooting on down the curve and onto the ground.

  Desperately, Deyv did the only thing he could. Bracing his back against the trunk, he shoved the dog with all the strength in his legs. Yelping, Jum shot out, then dropped into the round hole.

  Deyv leaped outward, his arms stretched out, slammed into the cold surface, slid, and suddenly was falling. He yelled and then crashed into a floor. He was not hurt, though he was shaken up. Fortunately the floor, which was really a wall of the House, was that of a small room. If it had been as large as some in his tribe’s House, he would have had a bad fall.

  The animals were standing but shaking themselves as if they were trying to locate loose parts. Aejip had dropped the dead khratikl. Deyv stood and looked upward. The window opened from the inside; the round port hung down. A snarling head appeared in it. Deyv yelled, and the thing disappeared. It would be back soon with much company.

  At one end of the floor was a door. Deyv climbed over the piles of dirt and leaves and skirted a nest some creature had abandoned. He scraped the accumulated mud off most of the door and used an ornamental projection to heave up on it. It rose soundlessly. The room below was much darker than that in which he stood. Without a light he could not tell how big it was and hence how deep was the next floor – or rather, wall. Still, he couldn’t stay where he was.

  Jum protested, whining, but through the opening he went pushed by Deyv. A moment later he was barking. He did not sound hurt, so Deyv told the cat to follow him. She did not like it, but after looking down with her eyes wide open, she leaped down.

  Deyv dropped, his knees bent.

  Another small room.

  A flurry of chittering and squeaking came from above.

  Outlined in the dim light were a dozen heads.

  There was some dirt on the floor. Deyv felt along it until he found another door. This, too, gave him a grip with its projections. He got that up, and the frightening process was rep
eated.

  Apparently, the khratikl had given up. That showed good sense on their part. Only a desperate being would enter a House from the top side. The three continued. Each time Deyv prayed that the room below would not be a big one. Each time The Great Mother heard him. It did not get any darker, since it was possible to get only so dark. The air grew mustier with every level. He also began to be thirsty. At last, they reached the lowest floor and what would have been a window in the wall on the opposite side if the House had been standing upright. Deyv pulled it up and found mud below it.

  Unless the room contained more doors than the one through which they had dropped, they were done for. There was no furniture to stack up and try to climb back up on. Nor did he have a hook on the end of his rope to throw back up with the hope that it would catch onto something. Even if it had a grapnel, there was nothing for it to snag onto.

  The House of Deyv’s tribe, according to tradition, had contained some furniture when it was found generations ago. But this building had been looted.

  Fortunately, the walls of the rooms were as rounded as the outside of the building. Deyv managed to run up the curve in the dark until his hand felt a door. After sliding back, he sat down to get his wind back, and then he ran up again. Groping, he felt a projection but slid back before he could seize it. The next try, he hung on. The door swung down, and he rolled back to the floor – that is, the wall.

  On the third attempt, he grasped the edge of the door and hauled himself over. Before going up, he’d tied one end of the rope to his waist and the other around Jum’s body. The dog howled with protest, but he went up kicking and scraped against the edge of the door. Deyv untied Jum. Aejip, no matter how much Deyv coaxed, wouldn’t leap up through the doorway. Deyv couldn’t blame her, since even her light-sensitive eyes could not see.

  If she did try to jump, she’d probably slam her head into the edge of the door. He climbed back down, tied the rope to the cat and to himself, and got over the door and through the doorway. Dragging her up, however, was even more laborious and exasperating. But he did it.