by A M Russell
‘You are right,’ said Heelio, ‘We give you the means to return to us, should you ever need to do.’
‘Wait a minute,’ said Oliver, ‘You mean the tattoo has the power to bring us back to this time frame?’
‘Yes. Of course. We will offer you anything you ask of us. Your Chief has eyes that speak to us. We see all times in them. We know the trace of times. How many there were before this.’
I remembered the long time of being watched by Heelio and his party when we first met them. So there had been a reason for this cautious approach. It wasn’t just to see if we would react in an unfriendly way.
‘So you know all about the time distortion effects?’ I asked.
Heelio considered this for a moment. ‘You are using words that tell me you do not often feel this within. You must feel in here.’ He placed his hand on my chest; ‘then you can go to any place in this land, or in your cloudy place.’ He looked deep into my eyes then as if he had done with Jared before the bridge, then appeared uncertain. He turned to Jared. ‘You say that your young brother has travelled this way once?’
‘Yes.’ Jared stared at me as did all the others stood near. I wasn’t sure what the old tribesman had seen in me. But I had learned to be more patient. Heelio turned away and spoke to some of the group of men and women who had come to our small resting place. One of the men left after bring given a set of odd instructions.
‘He will choose the gift,’ said one of the women pointing at me.
‘He has many times in his eyes.’ said another dark-haired Lady stepping near to me. She looked at me very closely so that I could feel her breath on my cheek, then she passed me and stood behind me. They came forward then; a whole group of women. They came very close, almost but not quite touching. I felt myself blinking furiously, but chose to stay very still until this examination was complete, as each one stepped into my personal space then faded out of it. I felt my heart beating quite hard with a sense of nervousness about what I was expected to do next.
We all appeared to be waiting for something then; the tribes’ people characteristically stood quite still. Oliver moved from one foot to the other as if to relieve some stiffness; but it was probably his training to be primed and ready for any new situation.
‘Jared?’ I said, ‘will you please find out what they mean?’
‘They want you to…’ just at that moment the man returned with a black wood case that I supposed might be made of ebony. There was a flurry of whispered excitement among the women. Then and only then did they seem like the girls from my own world back home. Heelio took the case and placed it carefully on a cloth spread on the ground for the purpose.
Inside were the most wonderful trays of coloured powder. Every earth colour I had ever seen, and some new ones I had not. It was breath taking. Then Heelio lifted out the upper tray to reveal another underneath with even more extraordinary hues. Purples and violets, crimson and palest rose among them. I thought it strange how an hour ago I had been thinking of artists’ pigments, and of painting a portrait of my beloved Janey. I felt overwhelmed by the sight of so many precious earths and strange unknown dyes.
‘I would like you to choose the colours first,’ said Heelio, ‘And then the symbol that you may all share. This will…. Assure the working of the…. I’m sorry but I do not have the words from your world to describe it.’
‘Perhaps,’ said Jared, ‘I can help.’ He got down on his knees and examined the powder. In a slow wave all the people also sat, as if they had been waiting for this cue. Marcia and Oliver looked at each other and came forward to peer into the cask.
‘You may choose the colours that seem right to you.’ said Heelio, ‘and you need feel within your mind the shape of the symbol that can carry you and your tribe to many places.’
‘Is this science?’ asked Marcia.
‘I think it is.’ said Jared, ‘but maybe it doesn’t work if you are just “scientific” about it.’
‘I will do this.’ said Marcia suddenly, and turned her left forearm to the women who now sat behind me. They murmured and nodded.
‘You are blessed,’ said that first dark-haired Lady, ‘you will return with joy.’
‘Well, I guess we’ll see about that!’ said Marcia back to her often habitually forthright self.
‘But what do we use for a symbol?’ asked Oliver.
‘Davey?’ Jared spoke softly, ‘Whatever it is. It will work. The power is in the earth colours themselves.’
I stood up and went to the place where I had been sitting. There it was, still drawn in the sand.
‘Well would you look at that!’ said Oliver.
‘Yes that’s it.’ Jared recognised it too. It was the drawing from the magnetic force lines. Hearts stacked up one on top of the other. I remembered Janey taking up the green pen and drawing the curve along the points I had plotted. It seemed right somehow.
Heelio summoned Andre and two of the women. They stared at the figure for a couple of minutes. I looked again at the pigments. What a choice. But then…. There in the corner were two that seemed to suit. One a bright leaf green; and the other a gorgeous red-gold.
‘Yes. These are the ones. For you they will give you your woman.’ said Heelio.
I looked away. This felt like it was getting too personal.
‘I’ll go first.’ said Marcia, ‘Just so you boys don’t chicken out!’
Marcia held her arm still while the dark haired woman and Andre carefully applied the inks. The other girl passed them the little pots of ink that had been mixed with what I thought to be aromatic oil. It smelt sweetly exotic, similar to Patchouli oil, but with a hint of Jasmine.
The sharp points they used were like embossing tools that I had used at college but a lot finer. The lines were draw with textured patterns in them. Andre and the dark-haired lady were extremely skilful. Before very few minutes had passed it was the next person’s turn. Jared went next. Then Oliver hesitantly allowed them to draw the symbol on his forearm. He looked away and winced. The girl in the orange dress approached him and got him to look away by distracting him with smiles and jokes he didn’t understand. He seemed to calm down then and it was finished without too much fuss. Then it was my turn. Being contrary I wanted to watch everything. I was fascinated by the technique. I found the pain rather irrelevant; and focused on the colours of the inks, and the patterns on the lines. The whole design was about one and a half inches long and beautifully proportioned.
Afterwards the women applied some salve that was viscous and transparent. It had a soothing sensation of coolness that also seemed to stop it stinging. Oliver was immensely relieved. It wasn’t until a lot later that I found out that Oliver was usually extremely phobic about needles and injections. He really did do something exceptional that day. I couldn’t imagine him being afraid of anything.
They then wrapped our arms with leaves and narrow strips of cloth. The leaves had a substance in them that healed you quickly and stopped any infection. It seemed that the earth colours themselves had already been fired to sterilise them. Much care was taken over this. Heelio indicated another of his sons and the narrow strips of cloth they often wore around their upper arms. They too had their tribal marks. They were usually kept covered, either in that way or with the mud paint.
Heelio spoke with Jared alone. We waited. Marcia seemed restless. It was nearly time to set off. Everything had been checked. We were ready to face this afternoon’s fortune: whatever it might bring us. Jared seemed to be taking an excessive amount of time. Just as Oliver had decided to go and chide him he came back. Andre and his friend Chee came and stood by us, and so did two others.
‘Another time I will greet you as a brother.’ said Heelio and raised his hand to us in farewell. The girl in the orange dress pressed against Oliver. He looked alarmed until we realised that she was tying a sling around his body with refreshments for the journey.
‘I bet it’s more of those gooseberries.’ he said to me. He smiled at the girl and
said “thank you” clumsily as she withdrew.
‘Ok? Davey; Marcia. Oliver.’ Jared was business like. Our guides who knew all this fuss to be unnecessary stood patiently by. I looked back then at the crowd of people that had gathered, but they had all vanished. I found it shocking, but remembered how the men in the caves had watched us and then disappeared into thin air it seemed. We started our walk.
‘What was all that about?’ Oliver asked Jared.
‘Oh… he told me how to use the symbols. I have some more of the lotion stuff here. Look.’ He handed a small round wooden jar to Oliver, ‘They will be usable by the day after tomorrow. We need to keep applying that every six hours.’
‘How does one use them?’ Oliver again.
‘I don’t know yet.’ said Jared.
‘Oh…’ Oliver seemed to be digesting this.
‘I think it goes something like this: we will see where we have to go, and then we just have to want to go there. It’s like when you go back to Main Base…. This is just my theory. That wipes out the timeline, right? This doesn’t do that. But what happens then is anyone’s guess.’
‘So what happens if one of us gets killed?’ Marcia got straight to the point as always. If felt it was a good thing. There was no virtue in dodging the issue.
‘The Chief said that was not something he had any power over. They are not like us. We are not at the moment in the place where any of us originate. We must consider what we know about this place already. Until every single person who doesn’t belong here has left permanently everything is still in a state of uncertainty.’
‘Whoh!’ said Oliver, ‘If you tell me about that dratted cat again I’ll not be pleased.’
‘Come on.’ said Jared, ‘It’s not that bad.’
‘Yes it is!’ said Oliver and Marcia at once. They all laughed and I felt a little left out.
Jared glanced at me. ‘What do you think Davey?’
‘What were they saying about me?’ I asked him, ‘That would be useful.’
‘They say that you see things that aren’t there yet.’
‘Like drawing the symbol?’
‘Yes. Like that. Have you had any thoughts in that direction?’
‘I have actually.’ I said. I told them about the picture in my mind of packing cases. And about the thought that I knew where the stolen equipment was. It didn’t feel quite as foolish as I’d hoped. As long as there was a “scientific” reason for this foresight I was quite willing to share my revelations with the group.
‘We’ll talk later when we get to the ridge.’ said Jared with some finality. From then on we concentrated on covering the ground at a steady pace, following the route picked out by our guides.
The afternoon wore on. But as we had rested earlier we didn’t need to stop. And apart from the occasional sips from the water carriers no one did anything else but kept walking. The lush land rolled under our feet. We passed trees and groves of flowers. Until at last we came to a set of ridges that looked suspiciously like the landscape that we had seen from our transport during our trip across the ice fields. I was shocked to find that not only did it look the same; it seemed clearly indistinguishable. I stopped and stood, staring like a teenager at a pop star, with my mouth open. Then I remembered myself and turned my head, pressed my lips together and adopted a more sensible stance… or so I thought. Oliver seemed to be nodding as if this was what he expected. Jared found his compact field glasses and scanned the whole area.
‘It is this way through,’ said Andre, ‘we will be there in the time you call “ten minutes”.’
We all moved slowly to the left and ducking down under branches entered a narrow cut. A strip of forest clothed this channel which opened out into a miniature valley with steep rock ridges on either side.
Andre walked forwards a few paces and down a slight dip into a flat bottom hollow. I saw that it wasn’t even visible from where I had been standing a few yards away. We all filed down.
‘This is the place.’ Andre said softly, ‘we can stop here, and then I will take the Chief to the top just above our heads.’
‘How will you do that?’ I really couldn’t see any way up. Marcia ignored all this and took off her pack and found a spot to sit down in. She had seemed quieter than normal since we got near the ridges. Andre’s two other friends found a spot to lay down where they could see the leafy entrance to this little secret den and promptly fell asleep. I marvelled at their practical outlook and wished that I could retrieve some feelings of calm and quiet that I had felt earlier today. It had been an emotional roller coaster of a time since the crack of dawn. I sat down and decided to think from a more prostrate position. I stretched out, propping myself on one elbow. I didn’t feel tired… far from it. But I was lacking any peace of mind about all this.
‘I want to see too.’ I said and pointed upwards.
‘Of course.’ said Andre and sat down to rest a while.
When we did climb up there, it involved clambering up the slippery diagonal of a large tree branch to reach a narrow ledge above our heads. I remembered the caves and the tribesmen’s apparent absence of disturbance in the presence of things that were excessively vertical, and reasoned that this being preferable to that, would be a piece of cake. I must have been on form, because I only slid back down three times before getting a firm purchase on the surface.
We looked cautiously over the top of the ridge. No one said a word. There were tracks in the ground that had dried into easy to read patterns, the tread of army desert boots. I felt then the first true pang of fear. We would, as in most scenarios “wait until nightfall” to creep into the enemy camp. With some luck, and a fair slice of sheer bravado we might effect a rescue by twelve midnight. By sun up we planned to be out of there. Jared stared at the boot patterns for an awfully long time. He was perturbed by something that I hadn’t spotted. But I waited until we were back in the shady den before asking him about it.
‘This is too easy.’ Jared said.
‘Are you kidding?’ Oliver didn’t sound convinced he wasn’t joking, ‘we haven’t even got in yet.’
‘Exactly.’ Jared looked at his watch. The four guides were awake.
Andre turned to us, ‘We will do as my father bid me. I will not disobey. But we can stay here until tomorrow’s light fails. If any of your people come out we will lead them to a safe place further away. And then you can have time before you make your way home.
We sipped water and waited. The time seemed now to pass with excruciating slowness. It would only be dark enough when it was around nine in the evening. I began to drift again. The exercise followed by this state of boredom where there really was nothing to do except wait, made me fall into a semi-alert state. I could hear every sound. But my body felt like it was floating in water. Marcia took out a tiny pebble from her pocket and rolled it from one hand to the other and back again. Jared had his back against the great tree. The same one he and Andre had so nimbly climbed earlier. He was staring upwards for a while. I thought he was looking at the ledges on the ridge; working out which were climbable. Oliver sharpened more small branches. He seemed to be amassing quite a collection of pointy sticks. I hoped we wouldn’t need to use them. We were all armed after a fashion. Everyone had a hunting knife, and between us we carried a variety of penknives and multifunction pliers and other small tools. Andre carried only short spears tied on straps that rested across their backs. He said they were for catching fish. I realised that Andre and his kin had no argument with anyone. They seemed to want to keep it that way. Remaining unseen kept them outside of that maze of connections, and away from the other world beyond the Ice Fields. They remained defensively neutral. I supposed that they could just melt away if the Men in big boots arrived. It was a shame we didn’t have the skill for it.
A little while later Jared got my attention with one slight movement of his hand. Oliver and Marcia gathered round him also.
‘It’s time to decide who goes into the caves.’ he said.
> Marcia looked angry. Oliver was mild and asked: ‘I think we know the answer to that already.’
‘Yes. Yes….. Of course.’ Jared didn’t look at Marcia who was tightening her fist over that pebble with a face that seemed as if she was a million miles away from us all. I knew that look. She was often watching others. Listening in on other’s conversations, and doing something else at the time. She was so smart and strong I began to be edgy when she didn’t speak. Confrontation was most definitely Marcia’s middle name. But she seemed to be wistful now and quite ready to rebuff any comment misaimed in her direction.
With a sharp intake of breath Marcia looked squarely at Oliver and said: ‘I think I know how to decode the tag.’
‘Bloody Hell Marcia! Where did that come from?’ Oliver had apparently forgotten all about it.
‘It’s been on my mind,’ she said simply, ‘as you might imagine.’
Oliver looked to Jared who nodded slightly. Oliver took the blank one out and handed it to her. She turned it over and slid the two halves apart. There were no markings. No scoring or anything where the ID might have been removed.
‘I think I can do this,’ she said, ‘but you mustn’t see how I do it.’
‘Oh?’ Jared said cautiously, ‘Why is that?’ he clearly had not forgotten that Marcia did have a temper on occasion.
‘I realised that the only way something can exist here is if it is not known by other people. The power of forgetting…… we are the sum of our memories. But what if…. you don’t know something. Then you know that you don’t know. So you don’t forget, but you can’t tell anyone afterwards…’
I thought she wasn’t making any sense, until I saw Jared looking at her; ‘Marcia…’ he said hoarsely, ‘if I don’t tell you later.; I’d like to say in front of witnesses that you are the most magnificent creature I have ever met!’ He started at her and smiled with eyes that glowed in the failing light.
‘Oh…. of course.’ said Oliver and looked away. Why was I the only one with whom the penny didn’t drop?