He seemed pleased by this. The Shemibob and the Archkerri might be higher beings, but they too could be mystified. In the presence of this aeons-old enigma, they were as helpless as he.
The Shemibob said, ‘Some of the figures are letters which humans used in their writing from the beginning. That X, that T, that H and that O, and others have always been used here. They are simple naturally formed figures, so natural they they’ve been used on other worlds, including my native planet.
‘But many of the characters are unfamiliar to me. And I believe they were unfamiliar to the great civilizations which saw them floating above the sky when the Earth rotated more swiftly on its axis. They probably had more success than I’ve had in interpreting the message. It must be a message, a spelling out of Earth’s doom and, perhaps, the means for escaping the doom.’
Sloosh said, ‘Perhaps. It would have been better if, instead of letters of some alphabet, the sender of the message had used moving pictures. They could have been understood by anyone.’
‘That does seem the logical thing to do,’ she said. ‘Perhaps the figures were designed as directions to The House. Anybody could follow them to it. In which case, we should be able to see something that will enlighten us.’
From somewhere in Deyv’s mind a thought seeped out like water that had forced its way up through rock.
‘Now I know what you meant when you said that the figures won’t go out again until a new universe is formed!’ he said. ‘But… if the House and its occupant are waiting until then, wouldn’t they – perhaps – have come from an older universe to this one? I mean, couldn’t they have survived the death of the universe that existed before ours? They passed unscathed through the fall of all matter and the formation of the giant fireball and its explosion and the formation of this universe? The House is made of something which will outlast the deaths of many worlds!’
Sloosh patted Deyv’s shoulder. ‘Very good. You are learning.’
‘What nonsense,’ Hoozisst said. ‘Why would anyone stay in The House while the Earth was a good place to live in? Surely, that man, if he is a man and not just a statue, would leave The House to enjoy life. What sense is there in sitting frozen on that chair and only rousing, and that not often, to look out of the window?’
‘We don’t know that he does stay in The House,’ The Shemibob said. ‘Of course, that would imply a longevity that makes even mine look as short as a mayfly’s existence.’
The Yawtl snickered.
‘Besides, there is no guarantee that The House would be drawn to a planet,’ Sloosh said. ‘It might float through space until it falls with all other matter towards a common point.’
‘Perhaps,’ The Shemibob said, ‘it makes no difference to the tenant.’
‘The point is,’ Hoozisst said, ‘is there anything there that will tell us what the flying figures mean?’
The Shemibob sighed and said, ‘No.’
‘Then we’ve wasted our time and put ourselves in danger for nothing.’
‘You’re too practical, too unimaginative,’ Sloosh said. ’This universe wasn’t created for the likes of you.’
The Yawtl lifted one lip to show some sharp teeth, but he said nothing.
Deyv looked from the screen into the sombre depths below the window. Was the statue really a human being who woke up now and then after an unimaginably long nap? Who then walked through a hall and into a room that held a window and looked through it to see how the world had changed? And then he walked back to the throne and became a statue again?
What woke him up and what put him to sleep again, turning him back into a stuff that nothing could destroy?
Deyv shook his head, and he shivered.
Sloosh said, ‘I wonder why the hand on the thrigz is yellow and the figures are blue?’
The Shemibob gave her flapping laugh. ‘What is the colour of time?’
Sloosh buzzed laughter. ‘I don’t know. What is the angle of thought?’
‘Or the temperature of love?’
‘Or the rate of acceleration of instinct?’
‘Is a dead ray of light grey or blue?’
They burst out laughing again. This was cut off by a cry from the Yawtl. ‘His finger moved!’
Startled, everyone looked at the screen.
After a while, Deyv said, ‘I think I see it move, too.’ He wanted desperately to get down off the roof and into the vessel.
The Shemibob said, ‘No, it didn’t. You imagined it. So did Hoozisst.’
‘It’s like watching a corpse and thinking you see its chest rise and fall,’ Vana said. But she didn’t sound too certain.
They kept on looking at the finger with the gold band. There wasn’t a sound. It seemed as if the whole world had died.
Finally, The Shemibob said, ‘We have less time than I thought. We should go now.’
Deyv did not recall ever before hearing words that made him so happy.
41
Seventy times The Dark Beast had crossed the glaring skies.
Thrust was walking now and babbling, on the edge of mastering many words and forming short sentences.
Vana had just announced that she was again pregnant. Neither she nor Deyv had given in on the dispute about which tribe they would live with.
Phemropit said that it would soon need more ‘food’. They must look for another source of the ore from which it obtained its energy. The Shemibob had promised that they would keep an eye out for it. But she confided to the rest that there was not much chance they would find the ore.
This made Deyv sad. Though he found it impossible to love the creature, he did have a certain fondness for it. Moreover, he and the others depended heavily upon it for transportation, meat and protection. When it expired, they would have a much less comfortable and safe life.
Shortly after this, the Yawtl said that they were getting close to his native village.
‘What do you propose to do?’ The Shemibob asked. ‘Take your egg and the Emerald to your home and be a shaman there? Or go on with us to look for the gateway? It would be best if you did both. You might be able to talk your people into coming with us. Then, if we get through the gateway, you and your people will have a new world to settle down in. You might also find new and valuable things to steal.’
‘If!’ Hoozisst said. ‘I am not one to put much faith in if’s. Besides, this gateway probably leads only to somewhere on this planet. I’d find myself in a worse situation and might never get home.’
‘Then you will die and your tribe with you.’
Deyv thought that if the Yawtl’s village was near by, then so was the place where Feersh had moored her tharakorm. And near that was the cave in which she had hidden his and Vana’s eggs. He asked Hoozisst if he would lead them to it.
‘What can you give me for this service?’ Hoozisst asked.
‘Nothing,’ Deyv said angrily. He hesitated, then said, ‘Nothing except not cutting your throat. After all, Yawtl, you owe it to me. If it wasn’t for you, I’d not be in this mess.’
‘Thank him, then,’ Sloosh said. ‘If it wasn’t for him, you’d not have had all these educational experiences. You’d be a simple savage squatting in the mud, incapable even of dreaming about the wonderful things you’ve seen. Not to mention having known me.’
‘I owe you,’ Hoozisst said, his eyes narrowed. ‘But it’s not what you think.’
Later, Deyv told Vana of his conversation.
‘But we can find the cave by ourselves.’
‘Do you really think it’s necessary? We have these.’ She lifted up her soul egg.
‘I’m not sure they’re true ones. You know what The Shemibob said when I asked her whether she’d fixed them so they’d show a phase-in even if we were mismatched.’
For some reason, Vana burst into tears and ran away. Deyv worked out why a few minutes afterwards. He was sorry that he had hurt her. But the truth had to be faced. Anyway, he was not certain that The Shemibob was just teasing him. Look how stub
born Vana was about his going to her tribe.
Another thing worried Deyv. That was that the baby had no soul egg. Both he and Vana had looked for a soul-egg tree during their journey. Of course, they had found none, since these were either well protected by their owners within the villages or by the Houses or hidden in the forest. Anyway, even if one had been found, it might not have had a matching egg for Thrust. Supposing when they got back to their tribe, whichever it was, no match could be found?
Thrust would be killed. It was not so bad to lose a baby before you came to love it. At least, that was what Deyv had been told. But to see a spear thrust into the baby now – that vision was unendurable.
He told Sloosh about this.
‘You are a savage! Could you do this?’
‘What else could I do? I wouldn’t like it, I’d be grief-stricken. But that is the ancient way of my people.’
‘Sometimes,’ Sloosh said, ‘I don’t know why I bother trying to talk you into going through the gateway.’
They ate heavily of a sow that Aejip had killed. The Yawtl surprised everybody by insisting on cooking it. He explained that he was in a good mood because his journey would soon be ended. He wanted to do some service for the others as a slight repayment for what they had done for him.
Deyv awoke with someone yelling in his ear. He had a bad headache, and his mouth felt as if it had been filled with sand which Aejip had used to bury her excrement. Then Vana was shaking him and shouting that he should wake up.
‘Feersh has been killed! Her throat’s been cut! And The Shemibob’s bag has been stolen!’
Deyv tried to sit up, but his elbow kept slipping. ‘What? Who?’
‘The Yawtl!’ Vana said. Her face looked drawn and pale, and her eyelids were heavy. ‘He did it! He did it! Thank Tirshkel, Thrust is safe!’
Deyv staggered up to find the room in the vessel in an uproar. It took him some time to determine exactly what had happened. Only Vana at first was aware of it. She had eaten less than the others because she had had a stomach upset. The drug that the Yawtl had put in the meat had affected her less. She had awakened first and, despite a sluggish feeling, had got up to check on the baby. He was still sleeping, having eaten some of the drugged meat.
Then Vana had seen Feersh, lying on her back, her mouth open, a bloody slice ringing her neck. So deep was the incision that the bone of the windpipe showed.
Some time during the journey, the Yawtl had found in the jungle a plant containing a drug. He had prepared it in the pork, in what form no one knew. He must have put aside a piece of undoped meat for himself. Everybody recalled seeing him eat; they would have thought it strange if he had not.
After all except himself had fallen asleep, he had killed the witch. And then he had taken off with the bag and all its treasures except for The Shemibob’s light and the Emerald of Anticipation. She had kept them by her while she slept.
Why had not he simply cut everybody’s throat? That would have been logical. It would have kept them from pursuing him. Also, he could have dragged their bodies out, though it would have been perhaps too much for him to haul the great weight of the Archkerri and The Shemibob. Then he could have taken the priceless vessel also.
No. That would have been too much for him to transport at the same time as the bag. He could have hidden it, though, and returned for it later.
Sloosh’s opinion was that Hoozisst had spared them for two reasons. One, though he was often sarcastic about them, he really liked them. Except for the witch, whom he hated because she had cheated him and tried to murder him. Two, the Yawtl probably wanted to give them a run for the treasure.
‘We ran him down once, and that hurt his pride. He’s giving us another chance, rather, giving himself one, to elude us this time. He’ll not only have the bag of treasures but the satisfaction of beating us.’
‘But,’ Deyv said, ‘he knows that you can see his psychic tracks. He can’t lose you.’
‘He can if I get tired and give up. Or if I don’t chase him at all.’
‘He won’t be able to return to his village,’ Vana said, ‘until you’ve given up.’
‘Until we’ve given up,’ The Shemibob said. ‘Which may be never.’
They buried the witch, loaded up and set out. Some time later, Deyv had a worrying thought. Supposing the Yawtl went to the cave and took their eggs? It would be just like him; he would have a good laugh imagining their faces when they found them gone. He told Vana of this, and she started worrying, too.
Just before sleep-time, there were several mild tremors of the earth. The Shemibob consulted her Emerald and said that a severe shock could be expected soon.
‘Perhaps,’ Deyv said. ‘By the way, your Emerald did not manage to predict when Hoozisst would steal your bag.’
‘It can operate only on the information I give it,’ she said, looking down at him from under long-lashed silvery eyelids. ’It did say that the Yawtl would try to steal the bag-’
‘I didn’t need the Emerald to know that.’
‘Don’t interrupt me, lesser one. I didn’t need it either. Nor did I need it to tell me that he would be preparing to steal the bag when he departed from his usual behaviour pattern. That departure was his offering to cook our supper. Unfortunately, I was so involved in a philosophical discussion with Sloosh that I failed to note his deviation.’
‘Ah!’ Deyv said, grinning. ‘Then even the greater ones can make errors.’
‘Don’t get smart with me,’ she said, but she smiled. ‘As for the Emerald, you mistake its nature. It’s not a magical device. It’s scientific, and it is only as useful as its operator makes it so. It’s chiefly valuable for analysing a large amount of data, which even my mind can’t handle. Not so swiftly, anyway.’
Not long after lunch, they were shaken by a series of quakes. They would have been thrown to the ground if they had not happened to be riding Phemropit. At this place, the highway ran through a narrow valley, and avalanches from both slopes almost reached them. One boulder rolled to within a foot of the stone-metal creature.
They went on, and shortly before supper time they came to a very narrow part of the valley. Before them was a pile of rocks, trees and mud, hurled down by the tremors they had experienced earlier.
‘The quake was even more severe here,’ Sloosh said.
He walked up to the edge of the great tangle and pointed into it.
‘Hoozisst’s trail ends there.’
It took much digging by them and some bulldozing by Phemropit to uncover the Yawtl. He was lying face down under four feet of mud, his arms crossed on his chest. Bone stuck out from one crushed leg, and the right side of his jaw was shattered.
Though they dug here and there for the bag, they failed to find it.
‘It’s no use,’ The Shemibob said. ‘We could work here for a long long time and still not find it. And yet… I could be standing right above it now.’
She finally decided that they would have to go on without the bag.
‘Hoozisst didn’t mean to do us a service, but he did. If we hadn’t been slowed down by the effects of the drug and having to bury the witch, we would have been here. And we’d have been killed, too. It wasn’t such a bad exchange, my treasures for our lives.’
After covering the Yawtl again, they pushed on over the rubble. This extended for about a mile, and then they were back on the highway. Phemropit rayed a deer, which was a quarter of a mile ahead of them, and they dined. It began to rain heavily then, so they went into the vessel. While they slept, Phemropit rolled ahead on the highway.
Deyv was awakened by Vana.
‘What’s the matter?’ he mumbled.
‘Phemropit has stopped.’
They opened the door and looked out cautiously. Seeing nothing alarming, they got down and went in front of the creature. The Shemibob signalled, ‘What is wrong?’
‘I’ve almost run out of food. If I keep moving I’ll use it all up. I must do what you call going to sleep. Unless you
can find more ore for me.’
‘I’ll be frank with you,’ The Shemibob said. ‘There is very little chance that we can locate the ore.’
‘Then I’ll have to shut down. That is too bad. I have enjoyed being on this strange world and knowing you. I’ve also learned much. If it hadn’t been for you and the others, I would have been very lonely. As it is, I’ve learned new concepts, things which I would never have known if I’d been on my world. So, thank you and good-bye.’
‘Wait!’ she signalled. ‘I’m sure the others would like to make their farewell.’
That didn’t take long. One by one they flashed a few words. And then Phemropit’s light-hole became dark.
Vana wept and patted the hard nose. Deyv had not felt much sorrow, just regret that their mighty transporter and protector was no longer available. Vana’s tears, however, evoked some sorrow from him.
They put the folded vessel on Sloosh’s back and seated the baby by it. Deyv did not look back until he was a quarter of a mile down the road. The huge dark creature was motionless, waiting. No one would come to help it, though. It would sit there until some cataclysm dislodged it or buried it. Now and then it would rouse from its ‘sleep’, stirred by some mechanism which Deyv did not understand, and it would ‘look’ for salvation from some passer-by. It would never receive it.
Vana, who had also turned to look, said, ‘We’ve lost three of our party in a very short time. Do you think that omens ill for us all?’
‘I was trying not to think about that,’ he said.
Ten sleep-times later, they came to a junction. Sloosh called them to a halt.
‘This is where we part. That is, if you insist on looking for your soul eggs. That road will take you into the area of Hoozisst’s village and the cave. But you may never find the cave. As for The Shemibob and me, we’ll keep on. Now that she no longer has her detector-sphere, we will have a hard time finding the gateway. But we’ll succeed.’
The Lovers * Dark Is the Sun * Riders of the Purple Wage Page 54