Vana took Deyv's hand and pulled him along, at the same time ordering Aejip and Jum to leave the trail.
She dragged Deyv off it after them, and Sloosh joined them a few seconds later. By the time they'd pushed and shoved their way through the dense undergrowth, far enough so that the tribesmen's voices were faint, Deyv had begun to recover.
"What happened?" Deyv asked.
Vana told him. He looked ashamed, but he said, "I couldn't help it. And it was a wonderful experience.
Better even than when I chew thrathyumi."
"Think about that when they find you and kill you," Vana said.
Deyv said angrily, "It wasn't my fault."
By then the warriors were beating the bush. Sloosh led his companions through the heavy thick vegetation, his great body crushing the growth. He made noise, but their hunters were yelling so loudly at each other and thrashing around so much that they wouldn't be able to hear the Archkerri. After a long struggle, the party came to a trail. Possibly, this was the one they'd left, but the tracks in the soft earth indicated that they had been made by some very large hoofed animals.
Presently, they came to another plain covered with yellow grass, dotted here and there with trees.
Halfway across, they heard the yells of their pursuers. These warriors had come out of the same trail and now, twenty strong, were running after them, their spears held high.
Sloosh said that there was only one thing they could do. Which they did. They removed the cube from his back, and he pulled out its , rod. By the time the warriors reached them, they found the cylinder fully expanded and their quarry inside. Fortunately, the wind wasn't strong enough to roll the cylinder with its occupants.
After a long while, during which they heard no sound, Sloosh opened the door. A cautious reconnoiter convinced him that the men had given up. Since there had been no beating on the walls, the warriors probably hadn't even come close to this strange and thus scary object.
Sloosh looked across the plain at its far end.
"There are the impressions of the Yawtl. We won't have to backtrack to pick them up."
Deyv awoke after the next sleep-time to find the rooms of the vehicle ablaze with light. He jumped up, his heart beating hard, and called, "Sloosh!"
The plant-man appeared from the next room a minute later. "I found the plate that activates the mechanisms that provide the illumination."
"Where does it come from?" Deyv said.
"From the entire material itself. Note that there are no shadows. I have also located the plates for the illumination of individual rooms. I'm progressing, progressing."
Deyv was pleased that they would no longer have to be in the dark. However, the Archkerri's investigations made him uneasy. One of these times he was going to make a mistake and press the wrong plate. Then, willy-nilly, they'd be flying through the air with no idea of how to pilot the vehicle.
They went on through a high pass, and they came to another valley. This was far broader than the one behind them. Sloosh stood looking down the slope at the smaller mountains in the valley.
"The trail ends there."
A river twisted and turned from one end of the horizon to the other. In the middle it split to form around a large island. Something tiny hung above it, gleaming whitely.
"I hope it's where he lives and that he's not just resting," Vana said.
It took them two sleep-times to get to the foot of the mountain but a short time to reach the river. They made another raft with a rudder and floated down, using a sweep to give them more control. The river was about a mile across until they came to the roughly diamond-shaped island. Here the right branch was only half a mile across. It was unusually heavily populated with athaksum. These came close to the raft, regarding its passengers with cold blue eyes though making no attack. A swimmer would not have lasted long.
The object hanging above the island was larger. It was still so far away, however, that it could not be identified.
Evidently, the island had no paths through the jungle, which meant that there were few if any people here. Sloosh waded into a swamp, following the impressions visible only to him. The others followed, putting each foot down with dread. Snakes hissed at them and slid off branches or rocks into the stinking bubbling dark-green water. Swarms of insects attacked them. Froglike amphibians weighing perhaps fifty pounds leaped out from hummocks of mud and belly-crashed resoundingly. Then they dived, only to reappear close to the legs of the travelers. Their tongues flicked out and lacerated legs with tiny sharp barbs.
Sloosh said, "They may hurt, but they can't be fatal. If they were, the Yawtl wouldn't have passed this way."
The water got deeper. Aejip and Jum started swimming. Abruptly, the bottom sloped upward, and they were soon on higher land. Now they were beneath colossal trees under which little brush grew. They stopped to smear mud over their insect-bitten bodies and to rest. There was a strange silence under the branches, no buzz, hiss, caw, scream, chitter. A greenish-gray fungus clothed the lower trunks of the trees, a fluffy ill-smelling stuff two to three feet thick.
Nobody spoke. Sloosh held a finger to the end of his beak to indicate quiet. After a while he gestured, and he started walking. They rose wearily, since it was past bedtime, and followed. In a short time they'd passed through the forest and emerged on the rim of a shallow valley. Its surface seemed to be covered mostly with sand and gigantic dark-blue boulders. Here and there were some lone trees or small copses.
About a mile away, above the center of the valley, hovered the white object. It was restrained from floating away by a massive cable of some sort in its center and slimmer cables on its edges.
Deyv spoke softly. "Three tharakorm. Tied together side by side."
Sloosh's gaze circled the area. "The Yawtl has been up on them. But he came down without the benefit of a ladder."
"What do you mean?" Vana said.
"He either jumped or was thrown off." He pointed. "He's out there now, somewhere behind that extraordinarily large rock."
They went down the slope and onto the soft, very warm sand. They had not gone more than forty feet when Sloosh stopped, holding up a hand. They wondered why he'd done so, but his manner indicated that they keep silent.
Presently, the sand began boiling. A little pit appeared, and two long tentacles, bilious green with narrow yellow stripes, slid out. They snaked around as if feeling for something. Sloosh gestured that they should back up. After about twenty paces, he stopped. They waited while the-tentacles slid out to a length of fifteen feet.
Then, so suddenly that it caused them to jump back, a long curved barbed pole like a giant scorpion's sting shot out of the sand not ten feet ahead of them.
A minute passed. As swiftly as it had appeared, the sting-pole slid back beneath the sand.
"That's strange," Sloosh buzzed softly. "It shouldn't be there. It's right in the Yawtl's trail."
"What do you mean?" Deyv whispered.
"I can see the impressions of many creatures I've never encountered before. It's evident that they are under the ground. I suspected that they've been set there to catch the unwelcome. But the Yawtl's path curved here and there so much that it was evident he knew where they were. I followed his path so we, too, could avoid those sand-beasts.
"But then I perceived one directly under the trail over which the Yawtl had gone. I also see the impressions of three humans around here. They've moved around freely. And it looks to me as if they've led the sand-beasts to other places."
"Why didn't you tell us this?" Deyv asked fiercely.
"I would have. In time. It wasn't necessary as long as we were on the safe path."
Sloosh looked at the side-by-side tharakorm. "Let's hope that their sleep-times correspond to ours. And that they don't keep a watch then. Otherwise, they've seen us. We will proceed as if they haven't. There is nothing else to do."
He closed his eyes for a while. When he opened them, he said, "The Yawtl's impressions are still strong.
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I can't see their end, so I don't know if he's still living."
Deyv understood this. He'd been told that when a creature died, it emitted a large yellow ball. No matter what colors its living impressions made, its decease was marked with yellow. Sometime later, the yellow ball would fade and eventually disappear.
"A good thing, too," Sloosh had said. "If every impression didn't fade out, my vision would be so full of them, I'd never be able to untangle them. The world, to me, would be a nightmare of complexities."
Sloosh emitted a long rising and falling buzz, for him a sigh. "As before, single file. Step softly. And don't stray from the path."
It took a long time. Sloosh zigzagged and even circled and once took them back only a hundred yards from their starting point. When they finally got close to the tremendous boulder, he stopped.
"Now be especially careful. There is a sand-beast on each side. If you panic and move too far to one side to avoid one, the other will get you."
Aejip was directly in front of Vana, and Jum was just ahead of Deyv. Though extremely nervous, the two animals did fust as Deyv ordered. The cat slunk along, looking quickly to each side. The dog's hair was bristling, but his bushy tail was high in the air. Every now and then he growled softly.
Now the sand boiled at either hand, whirlpools formed, and tentacles shot out. They slid like snakes toward the ankles of the trespassers, stopping only a few inches from them. It was terrifying to walk between the two pairs of waving seeking tips, each ending in a long hooked claw. Deyv whispered soft encouragement to Jum, and Vana urged Aejip to stay immediately behind the Archkerri.
Deyv sweated more in a minute than he had in most hours.
Then they were out of danger.
Sloosh veered away from the boulder and approached it in a wide arc. When they got to its other side, they saw that a copse of trees was beyond it, about twenty yards away. Deyv thought that the Yawtl might be hiding in it. Sloosh, however, turned toward the base of the boulder. As Deyv neared it, he saw the rim of a large pit.
The Archkerri stopped short of the edge and pointed downward.
"There is the thief."
17
AT first, Deyv thought that the Yawtl had been seized by a sand-beast and dragged into the pit. There was no evidence of a struggle, though. It was also doubtful that the Yawtl could have resisted for very long anything so monstrous. Whatever had happened, he was injured and in pain. Nevertheless, the reddish eyes glared challengingly at them. He tried to raise himself and to lift the rock gripped in one of his hands. He grimaced and fell back.
Though he was naked, his loincloth having somehow been lost, he had managed to retain the bone whistle. Sloosh pointed his beak down at him and said in Archkerri, "We are not here to kill you,
Hoozisst. All we want is the recovery of the eggs and my crystal."
Once more, Sloosh had flabbergasted Deyv. Deyv said, "You know him?"
"Yes. I met him a long time ago when he visited us with some others of his kind. How else would he know our language?"
"You knew it was him all the time? Why didn't you say so?"
"It was his theft, not his identity, that concerned me."
Vana, her face twisted, said, "I swear, I swear, I'm going to kick you so hard all your leaves will fall off!"
"If it will help your infantile emotional state, go ahead. However, you'll only hurt your foot."
The Yawtl said, "If you don't mean to kill me or torture me, then quit standing there talking. Get down here and get me out. I have a broken arm, my pelvis feels as if it's fractured, I've bled a lot, and I'm very thirsty and hungry."
"Where are the eggs?" Deyv whistled.
"Tell me, or I'll tear your heart out!" Vana whistled.
The Yawtl's thin lips opened in a very malicious smile, revealing the teeth of a carnivore. Then he closed his mouth and put the whistle to it. "They're up there. On the ship-creatures. Feersh the Blind has them.
Help me, and I'll help you. I want my own egg, and even more I want revenge."
The two humans went down into the pit and carried him back up between them. When he was let down on the edge, he said, "They're all sleeping now, or should be. Let's hope so; otherwise we're done for.
Get me back to the forest, and I'll tell you my story. You Can't do anything without knowing it."
"That seems sensible," Sloosh said. "Put him on my back."
They had to endure the ordeal of the tentacles again, but otherwise the return was much less frightening than the original venture. Once within the shelter of the trees, they gave Hoozisst what he wanted. They set his arm and put it in a splint. Vana brought water to bathe the bruises and lacerations. Deyv threw his spear up among the tree branches and knocked off many of the large purplish pear-shaped fruit. The
Yawtl devoured a dozen of these with such pleasure that the others decided to eat some with him. Deyv thought they were the most delicious fruit he'd ever tasted.
When the Yawtl's needs had been fulfilled, he closed his eyes. No one bothered him until he opened them a long time later. They understood that he had to probe his body with his mind to locate every cell that needed repair. Having done this, he could then direct the healing substances to those parts. He could also fix the rate of speed at which the healing would be done. There was an upper limit to this, but the procedure was considerably faster than the natural process. However, the degree of speed depended upon the amount of food and water ingested. Which meant that since Hoozisst had to get well soon, he would require much sustenance. Which meant that his captors were going to be busy providing him with all his belly could hold.
The probing and directions would take about half an hour if he was as skillful in technique as the two humans, and he was. Then he would sleep for a while and wake up ravenous.
The animals curled up and went to sleep. Sloosh and the humans would have liked to join them, but they had to find fuel for the Yawtls racing metabolism. Deyv and Vana speared two of the froggish beasts.
The Archkerri tore out a young tree, trimmed it with Vana's tomahawk, and used its end to knock off more fruit. Then the vehicle was opened, and they carried Hoozisst into it.
Between eating and sleeping, the Yawtl talked.
"Feersh the Blind is a wicked old witch."
Sloosh, interrupting, said, "By 'witch' he doesn't mean one who practices magic. Such a being exists only in the minds of the ignorant and superstitious. He means one who has found artifacts of the ancients and has discovered how to use them."
Hoozisst looked annoyed. "Like most of her kind, she is tribeless. She lives with her family, some human slaves, and some beezee (or khratikl), whom she's raised from cubhood.
"My tribe has had some contact with her, since her sons and daughters occasionally visit our village. We give them smoked meat and other goods. In return, she doesn't use her powers to do us evil. This burns us, but we can do nothing about it. Anyway, when one of her sons, Skibroziy, came to our village, he
"drew me aside and ordered me to come with him to see his mother. I asked him why she wanted me. He replied, in that sneering imperious manner we Yawtl have to endure, that she would tell me why when she saw me.
"I was afraid. I've no shame admitting that. But I went. Besides, I thought there might be some profit in it for me. After all, I'd done nothing to offend Feersh. Skibroziy and I traveled through the jungle—our village is only three sleep-times away—and he guided me through the sand trap, and we climbed the ladder which hangs down from the central part of the three ship-creatures.
"Feersh sat me down and gave me the best food and drink. Then she said she'd picked me to run an errand for her. Some errand! She had heard that I was the bravest, most cunning, and stealthiest thief of all the six tribes of this area. Thus, I was the best candidate to do what she wanted.
"She demanded that I go out, no matter how far or how long it took me, and steal soul eggs. Not just anybody's. They had to indicate a certain type of character. She
described the character of the owners, and she also described, in minute detail, how the eggs would indicate this.
"I didn't like leaving my tribe for a long time, nor did I care for the unknown dangers I might run into.
On the other hand, I was flattered because she'd chosen me. I wasn't going to do it for nothing, though.
So I asked her what reward I would get for my time and perilous labors. To my surprise, she replied that
I could have whatever I wanted from a group of rare or unique treasures of the ancients. She took me to where they lay on the deck and asked me to pick one. I finally did so after some agonizing and chose the
Emerald of Anticipation. I'll tell you what it is later.
"I was somewhat suspicious and didn't really believe her promise. But I thought that if she went back on it, I'd steal the Emerald from her. That shows you how valuable it was, that I would think of doing that when I was so scared of her powers. Though I must admit that there isn't a Yawtl around here who hasn't dreamed of stealing from Feersh. We all lacked the guts to try it, though.
"So I went out, and the first egg I stole was from the Riverpig Tribe. I wouldn't steal from my own tribe unless it was absolutely necessary. Anyway, mine had no eggs like those she wanted. Except for my own egg. Which, as you see, she now has. I found two more in other Yawtl tribes, and then I had to go to the human and Tsimmanbul villages and Houses."
Deyv asked, "What's a Tsimmanbul?"
"A sapient species descended from an animal that once lived in the ocean," Sloosh said. "They didn't evolve naturally from their flippered state into land-dwelling bipeds. The ancients used their powers to change them into these. But their intelligence was equal to that of humans."
"I think I must sleep now," Hoozisst said.
This irritated and frustrated his listeners, and he probably enjoyed their reactions.
When Deyv relieved Vana from guard duty, he stationed himself on the edge of the forest. Standing there facing the sand traps, he thought that if it hadn't been for his missing egg and the nearness of
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