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

by Philip José Farmer

  Deyv, The Shemibob and the animals returned much later. This time, they witnessed a raid on the pod-plants by seven adults and six young of the giant red-eared rodents. The awakened warriors charged the invaders, but on this occasion the beasts fought them. Two of the creatures were killed with spear thrusts through the eyes and the others lumbered off. The price for the tribe’s victory was high: four men killed, six mauled badly.

  A severe quake struck as the casualties were being carried back up the hill. Deyv did not see what happened after that. He was too busy running through the water to escape a falling tree. The mud and the water heaved up under him, throwing him headlong several times. He did escape the falling giant narrowly. The Shemibob picked him up and carried him for some distance before setting him down. The two animals, half-drowned and thoroughly frightened, found them a little later.

  The party got back to camp to find things in a mess. Trees had been uprooted or tilted here, too. The bamboo lift and bridge had been shaken apart. A mud slide had buried the front part of the vessel, though it had not quite reached the door.

  After Deyv had made sure that Vana and the baby were all right, he was taken aside by Sloosh.

  ‘I’m afraid I have bad news for you. I can’t find either of your tribes.’

  Deyv had had enough shocks for the time being. He did not understand what the plant-man was talking about.

  ‘You mean your plants have failed you? Did the quake shake them up?’

  ‘No,’ Sloosh said. He sounded angry. Deyv knew then that Sloosh did not like what he had to report. It took much to upset him.

  ‘What I mean is that your people and Vana’s have, for some reason, left their area. Not only that. The other tribes there have also gone.’

  Deyv felt sick. He asked, slowly, hesitatingly, ‘Are you sure?’

  ‘You understand that getting data from the plants is not an easy business. It takes time, patience and much skill in requesting and interpreting. The mindless plants can only report what they’ve recorded. But I am fairly sure. I covered a large area, which is why I took even longer than I expected.

  ‘As to why they deserted, I can’t say. The quakes, however, have been even stronger there than in any area we’ve travelled in. Perhaps that is why they left. They wanted to go to a more stable place. They won’t find one. Not for long, anyway.’

  ‘Could you track them down ?’

  ‘Not unless I knew their general area. You see, the plants record visual and aural data only. But they don’t see with eyes or hear with ears. Nor would any data which could identify the individuals of the tribes mean anything to the plants. That data would be mixed in with everything else recorded, I’d have to have at least the general area in which the tribes were before I could start my questioning. Then I’d have to sort out the non-relevant data. All this would take much time and work. As it is, the task is almost hopeless.

  ‘In addition, the quakes are disturbing my informants. They’re subject to a lot of what I call noise. It’s analogous to static, though it’s not at all the same. Transmission of data has been getting more difficult, and it’s going to be worse. That’s because the quakes will increase in frequency and severity. The matter in space is becoming more dense. As the density increases, the effect puts more stress on this planet. The Shemibob told me that there are twenty dead stars which are within – I told you what a light-year is?’

  Deyv nodded and said, ‘Yes. A light-year is the time it takes light to travel in -’

  ‘It was a rhetorical question. I know I told you. Anyway, these are within half a light-year of Earth. They are forerunners of The Dark Beast, and behind them, only a light-year away, are ten. And behind them, only two light-years away, is a horde. And behind them is the main bulk of The Dark Beast.’

  The leaved face and the beak, restricted to a buzz, were not perhaps as capable of modulation of expression as the human face and voice. But Sloosh was certainly communicating his agitation. Deyv reverberated to it. He felt that doom was falling swiftly upon him. It was invisible, but its near presence was heavy.

  ‘Consider this,’ Sloosh said. ‘It was good that you delayed your journey. Otherwise, you two would have reached your homeland only to find your people gone. You would not have had the slightest: idea how to track them down. If you had returned here, you might have been too late. The gateway might have been gone or have winked out. Or it might have shifted so much that it would have been unreachable.’

  Deyv sank to his knees and began howling. His tribe, his parents, for ever lost!

  After he had given his tears to the wetness of the earth, so many that he had no more – at the moment – he lay face down, silent. Then Sloosh’s huge half-leaved hand lifted him up onto his feet.

  ‘Vana is still quivering from the quake. She was very concerned about her baby and also the life within her belly. I wouldn’t say anything about this until she’s recovered.’

  Deyv rubbed the tears from his eyes and said, ‘I’d have gone to her now and told her. But I’ll wait, do as you say. You’re very perceptive, Sloosh. Almost human.’

  ‘I suppose you think that’s a compliment. So I’ll accept it as such. Still…’

  Deyv had hoped to delay telling Vana until she had had a good sleep. But though he did not say anything about it and tried to act as if nothing unusual had happened he was unable to conceal his sorrow. It was no use. Vana knew immediately that he was very upset about something. He denied it, but she attacked him with many questions and finally told him that he was lying to her. She did not like it; they were married, his concerns were hers and vice versa. If he did not tell the truth, he was a shrinkell, a small dung-eating beast which emitted an offensive odour.

  Deyv told her what troubled him. She turned pale and began to cry and staggered off to get a knife to gash her flesh. He followed her to take the knife away from her.

  ‘You’ll frighten the baby,’ he said. ‘Go off somewhere until you are over your grief.’

  Her tears had started him weeping also. Thrust, hearing his mother, began to howl. Deyv went into the vessel to soothe him while Vana went up the hill and crouched behind a tree. After a while, she came back with red but now dry eyes.

  ‘What do we do now?’

  ‘Sloosh says that we could try to get adopted by the tribe near here. He has more in mind than our well-being, though. He hopes to persuade them to go through the gateway. But he says that they are not numerous enough to provide the minimum needed to avoid the bad effects of inbreeding. He wants to find other tribes and get them to go through, too.’

  ‘It would be nice to have a tribe,’ she said, ‘even if they have strange ways and a strange god. But they’re more likely to kill us than to take us in.’

  ‘I have an idea that might work. If it does, they’ll be happy to adopt us.’

  In the meantime, they had to rebuild the lift and the bridge. Deyv found time to scout round the area when he was not building or hunting. He located two more tribes, each about ten miles from the hill-people in opposite directions. Both lived alongside a river, a tributary of which fed the swamp. They were of the same race as the swamp dwellers and spoke dialects of the same language. They also suffered from the depredations of the red-eared rodents.

  Failing to learn enough of the swamp dwellers’ tongue by eavesdropping, he decided to kidnap an informant. He and The Shemibob hung around the hill at a discreet distance until a woman carrying a big basket of nuts came along. He shot her with a dart whose point was coated with an anaesthetic. The Shemibob picked her up; Deyv took the basket, which had spilled only half its contents.

  Vana tried to reassure the woman that she would not be harmed. It did no good. She was terrified by Sloosh and the snake-centaur, whom she was convinced were beasts or demons, or what she called dream monsters. Vana, by far the most linguistically competent, quickly learned the tribe’s language. After a while she was able to soothe the woman’s fears somewhat. When she allowed the woman to take care of
Thrust, she gained more of her confidence.

  Be’nyar said that her tribe called itself the Chaufi’ng, that is, The People. Their idol was not a god but a representation of the founding ancestor of her tribe Tsi’kzheep. She had no concept of gods. To her there were only elemental forces, some good, some evil, some indifferent. The world had been created by a bird, the Ngingzhkroob. Rather, the bird had laid a primal egg from which most living things had been hatched, including Tsi’kzheep.

  And when would they let her go?

  Soon, Vana promised. She also told the woman that the world would soon be destroyed. But the tribes near by could go through the gateway to a young world and so be saved.

  Be’nyar trembled and said that the shimmering thing was an evil force. It was taboo – as Sloosh had guessed – and her people would never enter its mouth. They would be committing suicide, be eaten up in the force’s belly.

  Vana told Be’nyar that that was not true. She had gone through just such a shimmering and had not been harmed. Be’nyar listened to her story of the transit politely – she had to – but it was evident that she thought Vana was lying.

  Deyv, listening to the dialogue, learned that the Chaufi’ng believed that as long as the statue of Tsi’kzheep was in their possession and intact, they would be able to defend themselves successfully against their enemies and prosperity would be theirs.

  He told Vana to tell the woman that Tsi’kzheep had not been doing very well against the red-ears.

  Be’nyar replied indignantly that Tsi’kzheep could get rid of them instantly if he cared to. But he had been offended by something the tribe had done. It was not known yet just what that was, but the shaman was trying to find out.

  Deyv decided to try speaking her language. It was the only way he would ever become fluent in it.

  ‘If we kill the red-ears, will your people then regard us as friends?’

  He had to repeat himself slowly for her to understand him.

  She said, ‘I don’t know. Perhaps Tsi’kzheep would be insulted. Then again he might not be. You’d have to ask the shaman.’

  Further questioning revealed that the Trading Season would start after the next circuit of The Dark Beast was over. There were six tribes which met at the trading place. It was the Chaufi’ng’s turn to act as host to the meeting. There was no trade pidgin all could speak. Instead, a sign language was used.

  Deyv groaned. Another language to learn! But it had to be done if he was carry out his suddenly conceived plan.

  He called the others aside and told them what his idea was.

  The Shemibob said, ‘It might work. One should not fight the superstitions of a people but use them to get what one wants. Usually that is done from an evil or selfish motive. In this case, it’ll be for good.’

  The following sleep-time Vana awoke them with the beginning of birth pangs. To enforce the feeling that they did not intend to harm Be’nyar, she was allowed to assist in the delivery. A beautiful girl was born. Everybody was happy but Thrust. Shortly after the infant had been cleaned, her parents took her up the hill and gave her her secret name. Her public name was Keem.

  Deyv went out with The Shemibob, Sloosh and Jum to hunt down the lair of the red-ears. He took with him Be’nyar’s soul egg to make sure that she would not try to run away while the four were gone. It was not likely that she would try anything, since Aejip was keeping an eye on hen However, Deyv believed in taking no chances with her.

  They came back without finding any red-ears. On the next trip, they saw one gnawing through the trunk of a small tree. It picked up the log after stripping off the branches and carried it a quarter of a mile to a giant tangle of tree trunks. Since the area around it was stripped except for the stumps, its followers had nowhere to conceal themselves. They stayed far behind the beast, and if it saw them it was paying them no attention.

  The tangle turned out to be both food and a home for the beasts. Its triangular entrances were formed of logs which opened into triangular tunnels. These were both at ground level and halfway up. The hunters counted twenty of the red-ears after a long observation. From time to time, some left and others came in. The latter not only bore logs in their mouths but also carried nuts, fruits and pods in a skin fold on their bellies.

  The woman Be’nyar had said the beasts were totem animals and could not be attacked except when they intruded upon the personal territory of Tsi’kzheep, which was the hill on which the tribe lived and the swamp immediately around it. However, since the red-ear was not the totem of Deyv’s party, they could slay the beast without fear of reprisal from the Chaufi’ng. Just how they could do that, the woman did not know. The red-ears’ only vulnerable spots were the eyes and the anus. The creature seldom lifted its protecting tail when in combat.

  It had, however, not encountered sentients with such brute strength as The Shemibob and the Archkerri.

  Deyv ran up to the nearest beast, which had been placidly chewing on chunks of wood ripped from a log. It dropped its food, reared up on its hind legs, roared, dropped down to all fours, and charged. Deyv turned and sped away. Though the animal was huge and clumsy-looking, it was according to The Shemibob’s calls, gaining on him. Deyv decided to put more distance the next time between him and a red-ear before the chase began.

  He ran between the two giants, who had been standing motionless, their huge clubs lifted. As they had hoped, the red-ear was intent only on Deyv. Its eyesight did not seem very good, and it might have mistaken the two for stumps or rocks. Whatever it thought about them, it paid them no attention. As it came between the two, they brought down their bludgeons simultaneously, striking it on top of the head. It went down without a sound, lay quivering for a few seconds, then, growling, started to get up. The clubs broke its spine just behind the head.

  Deyv got his wind back before going out to lure another. Another victim fell, while those around the tangle moved uneasily, growling or whimpering. A third died. But the fourth time what Deyv hoped would not happen did. Two beasts thundered after him at the same time. He did not have to shout at his colleagues to move out. They were ready, each striking a red-ear. These fell to the ground but got up very quickly. Apparently, it took two clubs striking together to make a great impression on those thick skulls.

  Sloosh and the snake-centaur brought their clubs down on their targets, once, twice, thrice. Blood poured out from the open mouths of the red-ears. A fourth stroke by each clubber snapped the spines.

  When the sixth red-ear started after him, Deyv ran a few steps, then wheeled. A poisoned dart sped from his blowgun into its gaping mouth and embedded itself in its tongue. The point was coated with six layers, five more than he would have used for a man. Even so, the beast had only slowed down a little by the time it came between its executioners.

  There was, however, no need to hit more than once. It could not get up, and presently it died in convulsions.

  The seventh died in the same manner.

  On the eighth run, three red-ears lumbered after him. The Shemibob sent Jum out to distract them. Jum had obeyed orders to stay back, though he had whined with eagerness. Now he raced up to one animal and caused it to rear up on its hind legs. But another grabbed him and tore him apart.

  Deyv did not know what was happening until he heard Jum’s yelp. He glanced over his shoulder. Though he had little breath to spare, he yelled with horror. There was nothing he could do. The dog was dead, and the leading beast was too close. It perished from poison and the clubs. The others were close behind it; both tumbled on the earth, one going head over paws. Deyv had to run to Sloosh’s rescue. His intended victim had apparently suffered only a glancing blow. Deyv snatched up his spear, which had been left sticking upright in the earth, and he drove it through the eye into the brain.

  Then he burst into grief. Jum was a member of the family, his furry brother.

  Nevertheless, the bloody work had to continue. After it was over he buried Jum deeply, and he sent up a prayer that his spirit would be wai
ting for his master in the world which the shaman had promised was waiting for both of them.

  ‘I am sorry indeed,’ Sloosh said. ‘But he did save you, and perhaps all of us. We couldn’t have handled three at once. At least, I don’t think so.’

  It was necessary to go into the tangle itself and seek out any red-ears that were hiding there. They lit torches and went into the dark stinking place. Now was when they most needed Jum, who could have smelled out any lurker ahead of them. However, they found only some small cubs, which they quickly dispatched.

  They made two fibre nets and hauled the heads in them. Long before they got to the camp, they heard the keening of a woman in mourning. Deyv ran, thinking that this was indeed an evil day. One of the babies must be dead. He arrived panting and covered with swamp mud. Vana was sitting outside the vessel, holding Thrust in her arms, rocking back and forth. His face was twisted, as if the agony of dying had been incised, and his left arm was swollen and greenish.

  Near by was Aejip, also dead, her mouth still gripping a tiny green snake with a scarlet head, the fangs locked deep into its flesh. Her eyes were open and glazed; her nose was expanded to twice its normal size from the venom.

  Vana screamed, I didn’t even see the snake until it had struck! Thrust had picked it up and was bringing it to me to look at! Aejip grabbed it from his hand, but it was too late! It bit Thrust, and he died almost immediately!’

  The woman captive said, ‘It must have come out of the water.’

  After they had buried the baby and Aejip and mourned for the prescribed time and in the prescribed manner, though this did not ease them of all their grief, they returned to their routine activities. But Vana kept saying, The woman Be’nyar was right. This is an evil place. We shouldn’t have come here.’