He had expected to be seen at once, but just as he emerged he saw the two guards on his end of the stockade turn away. They were shouting and gesturing with their spears at something inside the walls. The dogs were barking as if they’d cornered a tree-lion.
11
Deyv didn’t know what was causing the agitation. He didn’t care. This was a lucky break which he was determined to take advantage of. Holding his blowgun in one hand, he sped towards the stockade. Through the dim light he could see Vana’s white body, her legs moving, a long blowgun in one hand. They’d planned to dash up and shoot the nearest guards with the poison darts. If they missed, they’d have to dodge some thrown spears. But they might be able to entice the two guards to pursue them.
If that happened, which really wasn’t likely, Deyv would lead them to Aejip and Jum. Or if one took off after Vana, he would have to follow her into the jungle, if he was foolish enough to do so. Then Vana could get him with her dart.
The plan had a lot of if’s, all fuelled by desperation. It wasn’t hopeless, though, because there were only four men to deal with. And now the gods favoured him. For a little while, anyway. He did not ask for any more time than that.
The guard nearest him disappeared, going down the ladder inside. The others however, stayed at their posts. They didn’t see Deyv or Vana. Their attention was fixed on whatever was going on below. Deyv shifted his blow gun to his left hand and removed the coil of rope from his shoulder. When he got to the corner of the stockade, he threw its loop up. It caught on the pointed end of a log and he tightened it.
Vana got to her corner about thirty seconds later. She had a little more distance to cover than he did and was not as swift a runner. She placed the dart in her pipe but did not shoot at once. She had to get her wind back first.
The guard above her still had not seen her.
Deyv thrust the blowgun into its case and hauled himself up hand over hand, his feet braced against the rough bark. The guards were still yelling. The dogs seemed to have gone mad.
Halfway up, he saw Vana drop the dart in her gun. When he reached the top of the stockade, he saw her lift the gun to her lips. Something whitish sped out from the pipe. He was too busy then to watch the aftermath.
His hands gripped the conical top of the log and he pulled himself up and over. He rolled onto the platform but did not get up. The guards at the other corners might see him. Here, in the half-light under the roof, he might be unnoticed as long as he did not silhouette himself.
He looked to his right. The guard there was visible only as a dim motionless bulk on the floor behind the railing. Vana had got him with her first shot. The poison of the striped hole-beetle had taken almost instant effect. The guard would have felt the sting of the sharpened point and would have whirled, startled. Before he could cry out a warning, his muscles would have been locked. A second or two later, he would have fallen. And now he would be close to death, his heart convulsing.
Deyv would have liked to raise his head to look over the wall. Vana, however, would be running towards his corner now. He’d been lucky enough not to be seen when he had come over the top.
The guard who had left his post was in the middle of the village now. He was doing something with the Yawtl. Ah! The prisoner had somehow got one arm loose; it flailed out for a moment. Now the guard had grabbed it again and was trying to tie it back to the dead man’s wrist. The Yawtl had twisted his head around and bitten the guard on the nose.
Screaming, holding his nose, the guard backed away and fell backward over one of the dogs. The other two guards were coming down the ladders now to help.
Another lucky break. Deyv rose, crouching, and went quickly down the ladder. On the ground, he ran alongside the wall until he came opposite the shaman’s hut. Then he dashed down the lane between two rows of huts to the back of his goal. It had no rear doorway, and the windows were too small for him to crawl through. Like it or not, he had to use the front entrance.
He spared a second to look up over the conical roofs. There was Vana, outlined vaguely against the light. Suddenly she was gone. She had come up the rope like a squirrel and was on her way. Wherever and whatever it was.
He raced around the shaman’s house. He glimpsed the guard whose nose had been bitten. On his feet now, the man was surrounded by barking and snarling dogs. His spear was raised, butt first, ready to come down on the back of the Yawtl’s head. The other guards were almost to him.
The interior of the shaman’s hut was dark, its only light feeble, coming from the two back windows and the doorway. He blundered around, feeling with his hands, tripped over something, and swore. He rose and began groping along the walls, thinking that if the bag of eggs were here it would be on a shelf. And then he almost cried out with exultation. His hand had closed on leather and within it were at least ten round objects which must be the soul eggs. But he had to make sure.
He took the bag to the doorway, untied the leather thong and brought out what he’d hoped for. Since he did not want to take the time to search for and put on his own egg, though the temptation was almost overpowering, he put the egg back in the bag. Before running out, he paused to consider the situation.
It had changed unbelievably fast. The guard who had been about to hit the Yawtl over the head was down among the dogs. Deyv guessed that the prisoner had kicked backward into the man’s stomach or crotch.
There went the Yawtl, somehow freed from his bonds. The fellow must be double-jointed or as slippery as a wet rock. Behind him came the two guards and, close at their heels, a pack of dogs. One man hurled a spear. Deyv could not see whether it struck its target, but he did not think so. The guards were not shouting triumph, though it would have been hard to hear them over the uproar of the dogs.
Now those dogs that had been concerned with the fallen guard were chasing after the others. They left an open space in which Deyv could see the man. He was on his knees and holding his belly with both hands.
From the direction in which the Yawtl had run, Deyv guessed that he would make for the ladder of the sentinel Vana had shot. That was good. Their entrance route was open for an exit. But where was the woman?
No sooner thought of than she appeared. Panting, she stepped around the corner. Deyv came out of the doorway, grinning, holding up the bag. She squealed with delight and threw her arms around him. He turned his head so that she kissed him on the cheek, not the mouth. He could not help thinking, even in this triumph, that those lips had eaten human flesh.
She drew back and said, ‘Give me my egg!’
‘As soon as we get out of here and away from the guards,’ he said. ‘We can’t spare the time.’
She looked hungrily at the bag, but she nodded. ‘Let’s go then!’
Without asking him which way they should take, she ran around the hut and back down the lane. He would have preferred going to the wall in which the gates were set and then along it back to the guard post. That way there would be less chance of encountering the guards or the dogs. It angered him a little that she had not waited for his decision, but there was nothing he could do about it. He went after her, his sword in hand. She still gripped her blowgun.
Before she reached the end of the lane, the Yawtl dashed in front of it. A moment later, some of the big yellow dogs raced barking after him. Then the two guards, and behind them more dogs.
Vana dodged into a house. But one or more of the canines at the rear must have caught her scent. A big brute stopped, whined, then dashed back, barking at the house she had entered. Five dogs followed him; the others kept on the original chase.
Silently, Deyv sped up to the now snarling beasts. Two were in the doorway, then one suddenly yelped and fell down. Vana must have shot it or struck it with her tomahawk. By then he was slashing at the three still outside. One died, its spine severed. Another staggered under a slash alongside its neck. The third whirled and bounced away, snarling, its teeth white, dripping saliva.
Deyv glanced sideways. The other dog
in the doorway was also crumpled, and Vana was stepping out over the two bodies. Deyv charged the dog, which ran away, then stopped to face him again.
Something small shot over and past him and landed in the dog’s side. Its legs gave way under it, its eyes rolled up and it was dying.
Deyv waited for Vana. He said, ‘Good shooting. But you’ve got only six darts left. Save two for the guards.’
Vana said, pointing. ‘There they go again.’
The Yawtl flashed by. Somewhere in his run he had picked up a spear. Dogs bounded after him, then the two tribesmen. But one of them looked aside and saw the two strangers. His alarmed yell trailed after him down the lane.
From a house nearby a man, head hanging, crawled out.
‘Some of them will be waking up,’ Deyv said. ‘Follow me!’
He ran between the houses to the right of the broad lane. Vana’s feet thudded behind him. They broke out from the cluster and angled towards the corner guardhouse where Deyv had tied his rope. But the Yawtl came around the corner of a house, the dogs snapping at his heels. Some of them were wounded. The Yawtl whirled and plunged his spear into the neck of his nearest pursuer. The others dodged around him, trying to hamstring him. And then some of them saw Deyv and Vana.
That helped the Yawtl for a few seconds, but the two guards, their chests heaving, sweat-covered, appeared.
Deyv ran at the dogs, his sword raised.
The Yawtl hurled his spear, and its stone head drove into a guard’s shoulder. He spun then as Deyv sped by him.
A reddish hand reached out and yanked the bag from Deyv’s grasp. The Yawtl’s howl of triumph faded as he ran down a narrow lane between the houses.
Deyv was shocked. And he could not pursue the thief because he was surrounded by dogs. His blade slashed out as he turned to keep them from his legs.
During one of his swift circles, he saw the remaining guard clutch his chest and fall on his face.
Four dogs lay dead from his sword, and two had limped off howling. One fell from Vana’s dart. Another. The four survivors fled his charge.
‘Did you see that?’ he gasped.
She shook her head. Her face was pale.
‘Go after him! I’m out of breath!’
The man who had awakened staggered out from between two houses. He held a spear but he did not seem to know what to do with it. Deyv chopped its head off with his blade, and he half-cut the man’s arm off with another stroke. Breathing heavily, his legs feeling a little tired, he ran after Vana. He found her lying on the ground, face up. A bruise across her forehead showed where the Yawtl had struck her with the butt of his spear.
Her unconsciousness lasted only a minute. Still, she did not know where she was or who Deyv was until he had helped her halfway to the sentinel platform. He told her what had happened.
‘Our eggs! They’re gone!’ She began sobbing.
He did not say anything. He felt a burning anger. At the same time, he felt humiliated. The Yawtl had made a fool of him.
She had to be supported to the ladder. When he saw she could not get up without falling, he hoisted her on his back and carried her up. She sat on the platform a minute or two, then said, ‘I can get down the rope by myself.’
Deyv blew on his bone whistle. Jum and Aejip burst out of the foliage and came running. Vana stood up unsteadily, but she successfully slid down the rope to the ground. In the village, a few people were beginning to stir. He thought of setting some houses on fire. That would keep them busy for a while and delay any pursuit. However, he did not want to waste time on arson. Besides, they really weren’t in any condition to chase him. By the next sleep-time, maybe, and he’d be long gone before then.
He untied the rope and dropped it, his weapons and the blowgun case. He climbed over the pointed ends of the log, hung from his hands, and dropped. The soft mud eased the impact to his feet. He rolled over, and just as he stood up the animals arrived.
Deyv set Jum and Aejip on the Yawtl’s tracks. They sped off silently. He and Vana followed at a leisurely pace until she was fully recovered. They found the animals on the bank of a creek. Jum was running up and down it trying to pick up the scent. Aejip was sitting on her haunches and looking disgusted. Deyv took Jum across the broad shallow stream, but the dog could find no traces anywhere. For a long time, all four went up and down both banks before giving up.
Deyv was sick with the pain of his loss. Yet he could not help admiring the wily, slippery-slick thief.
12
Sloosh was walking in the middle of the ancients’ highway as if he owned it. Hearing Vana’s whistle, he stopped and turned slowly. If he was surprised, he had no way of showing it. It was impossible to see any expression on that cabbage-head face – if there was a face under the leaves. For all Deyv knew, the head contained no bones.
‘So, you got out alive,’ the Archkerri buzzed.
‘But without our eggs,’ Vana whistled.
‘I knew some time ago that you didn’t get them,’ Sloosh said.
Deyv and Vana stared open-mouthed. Deyv asked, ‘How could you know that?’
‘I saw the Yawtl just before the last sleep-time. He was carrying the leather bag with the eggs.’
The thief had come up softly behind him and then run swiftly past.
‘He had the effrontery to slap me on my rear as he went by,’ Sloosh said. He added a modulated buzz, an abrupt rising and then slow falling to express his indignation. ‘What’s more, he laughed at me.’
Deyv ignored that remark. He had just thought of something that worried him. ‘What about your prism? If he finds out how to work that, he’ll always be able to keep ahead of us. We won’t be able to sneak up on him because he will be able to see us in it.’
Sloosh replied calmly, ‘He might find out how to operate it. But he won’t be able to interpret what he sees. However, he might just throw it away if he thinks it’s of no value to him. Still, the Yawtl are not only thieves, they’re magpies. They find it difficult to abandon anything that looks interesting, even if it has no use for them. On the other hand, the crystal is heavy, and he might feel that it weighs him down too much. It would then be a battle between his desire for survival and his cupidity. Still…’
Deyv waited, impatiently, until Sloosh had considered all possibilities. Then he asked, ‘Aren’t you interested in what happened to us?’
‘Keenly. But there is plenty of time to hear every detail of your adventure. If you have more urgent matters to tell, do so.’
Deyv sighed, and he related how the Yawtl had managed to snatch the bag from him. ‘And don’t tell me,’ he said, ‘that we should have taken the time to hang the eggs around our necks. We’re painfully aware of that.’
‘Then I won’t. But I’ll point out that you should also have removed my crystal so you could have brought it to me.’
Vana said angrily, ‘You walked out on us, left us on our own. Why should we bother to chase after you just to give you the crystal when you wouldn’t bother to go after it yourself?’
‘I mistakenly thought you didn’t have a chance of getting the eggs. I supposed that you’d be killed in the attempt or, seeing the futility of it, would give it up. In a sense, I wasn’t mistaken. I lacked the data to form a proper conclusion. I didn’t know that you two had such determination and vigour. Nothing in your behaviour and attitudes had evidenced such strong characteristics.
‘As for your returning my prism to me, well, that would have expressed your gratitude. You humans are always talking about gratitude, you know. Maybe it’s just talk; maybe you lack it to any great degree but feel that you should exhibit it. A moral trait which is satisfied by being discussed but not practised. However, since you could not have tracked the Yawtl without me, just as you can’t in the future, you could have thanked me by bringing my crystal to me.’
‘We might have,’ Deyv said. He did not believe it, though.
‘Does the Yawtl know that you can see his ghostly tracks?’ Vana asked.
They came to another junction of the highway. Vana got down on her knees and bowed three times. Deyv followed her example. The Archkerri, however, just walked through. Deyv, watching him, was amazed that nothing happened to him. There was no lightning nor any terrible pain transmitted through the surface of the road. He arose and hurried after Sloosh.
‘Do you have a pact with the gods?’ he said. ‘Or are you yourself a demigod?’
Sloosh didn’t have to ask him what he meant. That brain in the cabbage-head had worked it all out. That is, if his brain was in his head. Since his mouth was in his chest, his brain could be there, too, or perhaps in the lower body.
‘Why should I make obeisance to light signals for traffic that ended twenty thousand or so generations ago?’
Deyv was so flabbergasted he could not whistle for a moment.
‘You mean that the ancients made these signals all that time ago?’
‘Yes.’
‘But they’re still operating?’
‘Why do you insist on commenting on the obvious?’
Vana had overheard most of the conversation. She said, ‘Then the poles are not gods and their flashing eyes are not really eyes?’
‘In a sense, they are eyes. They detect traffic, and when there is a chance of collision they emit the red lights to stop traffic on one road so that traffic on the other may go through unimpeded! But the poles have other means of detection than visual ones.’
‘What kind of traffic did the ancients have?’ Deyv asked. ’Why should the ancients worry about people on foot? Or did they ride animals, as the legends say?’
‘They rode in great metal vehicles which were suspended above the road by a power which you would not understand without a great deal of explanation. Though I’ll be happy to explain. They went at speeds unmatched even by the swiftest of birds. As fast as the greatest of winds.’
The Lovers * Dark Is the Sun * Riders of the Purple Wage Page 26