Pride and Fall
Page 5
tiger-stripes--took him by the arm and led him to a cluster of beehive-shaped buildings. They were small and seemed to be constructed from a single piece of ivory-colored material that was as smooth and polished as glass. Like the people, they were simple and unadorned, but unlike them, they were also plain and undecorated.
She took him inside one. It contained a single room, and except for a few furnishings it was as devoid of features and adornments as the outside. There was a single couch in the middle of the floor, padded, with a headrest. To one side, set into the floor, was a short, fat cylinder with a bowl-shaped seat. On the opposite side, there were two teats set into the wall; below them, a small cabinet.
The girl explained that the teats gave water and nourishment, and she demonstrated how they worked. Though a little self-conscious at sucking from what looked like a woman's bare breast, he nonetheless tried one of them. The liquid tasted like fine mead but without the alcohol. The tiger-lady then opened the cabinet and removed two cubes that looked like pieces of chocolate. She ate one and handed the other to him. He placed it in his mouth; it had the texture and consistency of chocolate, but it tasted like beef. He understood then that they were what the people drank and ate, a kind of nectar and ambrosia that sustained them just as their mythological counterparts had sustained the gods of Olympus.
He asked if she owned that place. She gave him a quizzical look, not understanding the question. When he rephrased it by asking if it belonged to her, she smiled as she recognized what he was asking. She then explained that the Dwellings belonged to everyone; that each person could use any that were unoccupied for as long as he or she saw fit.
As fascinating as all that was, however, he was neither a scientist nor a tourist, and he was not looking for a place to settle down. He was eager to begin his work, and while he understood he could have started in that place and time, those people reminded him too much of sheep, and while one could slaughter sheep with ease, there was little excitement in it. So he asked the tiger-decorated girl to take him back to where he left his machine.
When they arrived, however, he found that it was gone. When he demanded from the people assembled an explanation, they told him that it had become enveloped in a silvery fog, and when the cloud dissipated it had disappeared. He realized then that it must have had a built-in return mechanism. Whether he had done something to activate it, or by not doing something important it had activated itself, he could not say, but the result was still the same: he was trapped there. As he reflected on his predicament, he understood that it could have been worse. At least he had food and shelter and, what was more important, prey. They might not have been his ideal sort, but they were better than nothing, and once he had finished there he had the whole world to exploit at his leisure.
From "The Peril Gem"
Eile Chica looked down past her feet at the pit of lava. It was maybe ten yards beneath them, but she knew they'd get a lot closer real soon. Looking up, she examined her restraints. Her wrists had been well lashed with a thick cord made of fibrous vines, and slipped over a hook that hung from a rope. The rope had been thrown over a cross-pole high above them, from which she and White-Lion dangled. She couldn't twist her body around far enough to see, but she heard the creak of the winch as it was turned, lowering them towards the lava at a tedious pace. She looked out in front of her. The tribe had gathered around the lip of the pit, and they danced, screamed, and gesticulated in a wild orgy of religious ecstasy, as others stood off behind the crowd pounding on hollow log drums.
"Uhh, Braveheart, I think we're in trouble."
Irritated by the inane comment, she scowled and gave White-Lion a dirty look. "Brilliant deduction, Sherlock," she growled in a sarcastic tone.
White-Lion jerked her head around, her eyes and mouth opened in large startled O's. "Oh, my! What brought that on?"
"Whaddya think, ya ditz?"
"You sound upset."
"Now, what makes you think that? A bunch of murderous savages want ta immolate us as a sacrifice to their god in punishment for trying ta steal their sacred jewel. Why the hell would I be upset?! Gaaah, sometimes you can be such a space-case!"
"Well, getting mad at me won't help."
White-Lion's words triggered an idea for how to escape. She realized it was a long shot, but she didn't see that they had any choice.
"Geeze, get a clue, will ya? We wouldn't be in this mess if it wasn't for you and yer hair-brained schemes."
"Hey! You can't blame this on me."
"Oh, yeah? Whose idea was it ta steal the Eye of the Devourer?"
"Well, it certainly wasn't my idea to sneak through the village at night."
"Yer the one who set off the alarm!"
"Only because you were about to step on that sleeping guard!"
"Ya didn't have ta yell!"
"How else was I supposed to get your attention? You were too far away to hear me whisper."
"You were supposed ta be right behind me."
"You were moving too fast!"
"I was tryin' ta get through the village before we were discovered, ya bimbo! Why couldn't you keep up?"
"I was trying to be stealthy!"
"Dammit! I thought we agreed ta move fast!"
"I didn't agree to anything, you decided for both of us!"
"I thought it was the best thing ta do!"
"I'm the senior partner, I'm the one who's supposed to make the decisions!"
"Hah! You couldn't decide what shoes ta wear this morning, you idiot!"
"I'm the idiot? You're the one who thought we could scare the natives with a simple trick!"
"How was I ta know they'd seen matches before?!"
By that time they were within ten feet of the lava. Eile could smell the foul gases and feel the heat rising up from the surface.
"I knew yer obsession with adventure would get us killed some day, but I never thought we'd go out like this."
"Son of a--stop blaming me!" White-Lion kicked her legs in frustrated anger.
She smiled. That's it, she thought, get good and mad. "Who else am I gonna blame? It's no one's fault but yers!"
"Ooohhh! I can't believe I chose a poopy-skull like you to be my partner!"
"God, I can't believe I fell for a self-centered butthead such as you. I thought I had better sense!"
White-Lion screamed in rage as she twisted and bucked her body, but it soon turned into a guttural roar as light exploded from her eyes. It echoed through the jungle, scaring up flocks of birds and flushing animals out of hiding as they fled in terror.
Yes! Now we're getting somewhere. The only problem was, White-Lion's magical ability was erratic. Eile had no idea what would result. She could only hope it was something productive.
Read the rest of the story [https://www.goodreads.com/story/show/338142-the-peril-gem].
From "Gruff Tolls"
The three women paused as they topped the crest of the ridge. The other side of the pass ran down-slope to a narrow but deep cleft between the two mountain ranges. The sides of the ravine were sheer vertical rock walls some thirty feet apart, and even from where they stood they could hear the muted roar of the cataract deep inside the fissure.
Medb hErenn watched as Morgiana crouched and examined the vista with her experienced thief's eye.
"You were right," she remarked in a casual tone. She was addressing the Zoog Conaed, called Runt, who sat on one of the three pack yaks behind her. He was only about half the size of his race, but his verdigris-tinged bronze fur was darker and the tarnished silver facial stripes were bolder.
He declined to answer, but the former queen replied, "You should know by now he is very seldom wrong."
Morgiana gave the massive woman a look that mixed amusement and exasperation on her lovely Arabic face, then turned her attention back to the ravine while Medb followed her gaze. As Conaed had predicted, the gulf was spanned by a footbridge suspended from two pairs of rough-hewn stone spires, one on either side. The planks of the deck appeared to be
made from ordinary wood, but the ropes that supported them did not look like hemp or metal wire or any other recognizable material. They almost seemed to resemble cobwebs.
Mephitis walked up to stand between them. Medb spared the apothecary a sidelong glance and saw her eye the bridge in a dubious manner. "Are you sure this is the only way through?"
"The Quarry of the Giants should be just a few miles west of here," Medb said. "From there the trail to Urg is clearly marked, with Inganok a day's march beyond."
Morgiana stood and gave her arms a languid stretch over her head. "We certainly cannot go back the way we came. The valleys are literally crawling with spiders. I wasn't aware they had penetrated this far."
"The spiders of Leng migrate out of their valleys every quarter-century," Conaed said. "The last such was a mere lustrum ago. In time they will starve as they consume all the available food, including each other, but for now they are a grave danger."
Mephitis threw him a sarcastic glance. "You have a talent for understatement, Master Zoog."
"We wouldn't be in this mess if you hadn't started this expedition," Morgiana said, though in a facetious manner rather than with reproach.
Mephitis made no reply, but she flashed an expression of remorse.
"It matters little." Medb had a slight smile on her lips. "We are both of us big girls--"
Morgiana laughed. "Speak for yourself, you voluptuary."
Medb raised on eyebrow at the thief's taunt, but made no