This might be the ocean for all he knew. It didn't seem likely that they had been pushed to the lower shore of the land mass. Still, his eyeball calculations could have been incorrect. There was no use taking a chance.
As they angled down, thev saw some tiny white spots on the water about a mile from the beach. When they were closer, they recognized these as very large two-masted sailing ships. Deyv was impressed by their size. He'd never seen water-going craft so huge. At the same time, he felt any little optimism he'd had evaporate. The people on those ships would kill them or capture them.
The witch's two sons were weeping and sobbing and shouting that they could never swim that far to the shore. Jowanarr looked pale, but she didn't seem to be scared. Feersh, who couldn't see what was coming but had had it described to her, stood with her back to the mast. She had doffed her robe, since its heaviness would drag her down. Deyv thought that she would soon be in the same situation she was in when her mother had chased her naked and weaponless into the jungle. The difference was that she was old now. And blind. Would her children help her swim or would they abandon her? She'd given them no reason to love her.
Perhaps she was thinking the same things. If so, she wasn't letting them show on that grim face.
The Yawtl left his tall pile of treasures and swaggered up to Feersh.
"Well, hag, where are your witchery, your evil schemes, and your arrogance now? Hoozisst tricked you good, didn't he? You'll soon be sinking to the mud, and your flesh will be eaten by the fish, though it may make them sick."
Hoozisst's laugh was stopped by a hard slap from Jowanarr's palm. He staggered back, holding his cheek, his eyes slit. Then he flashed out his sword and raised it to cut the daughter down. She stared at him, her arms folded.
Hoozisst stopped. "Sure, you'd like me to kill you now so you'd be spared the agony of drowning. You're not tricking me, hag daughter of a hag. But if you should make it to the shore, you won't live long. I promise you that."
"Haven't you seen those ships?" Jowanarr asked. "Their crews will take the stuff you stole from us away from you. If you don't drown first under their weight, greedyguts."
Hoozisst whirled around, and his narrowed eyes grew large. He began swearing and stomping around while the others laughed at him. Presently, though, as the water and the vessels came closer, all on the tharakorm fell silent.
After a while, they saw that they'd been mistaken about the crew. It was neither human nor Yawtl.
Enormous whitish things crawled around on the deck. Moreover, there were no railings, no helmsman's wheel, though the upper part of a rudder stuck above the water, no ropes to the sajls. Other items were lacking, but by then those on the tharakorm had no time to think about these. They were only ten feet above the water's surface, then five, then they had landed.
If they hadn't been lying flat on the deck, they would have been thrown heavily, perhaps bounced out, into the lake. Otherwise, the touchdown was uneventful. The tharakorm rose and dipped in the heavy swells, and it began to settle. Soon, water washed over the railing. More time passed. Deyv stood up. At the moment, they didn't seem to be sinking. The wind and the current were pushing them slowly out from the shore.
The nearest sailship turned into the wind and began tacking toward them. The booms of its fore-and-aft rigged sails were moving, but Deyv didn't know anything about deep-water sailing and so couldn't know just why the changes were being made. As far as he could see, the slug-things on its deck were doing nothing except crawling around.
Some strange things were growing on or attached to the hull and the masts. They looked at first like flowers with short yellow stalks and blue petals with green centers. Their roots wrapped around the masts or clung to the sides of the hull. The flower-heads turned this way and that as if they had eyes.
Those on the hull scanned the water; those on the masts moved horizontally.
He expected the. vessel to come directly to the tharakorm. Instead, it sailed by at a distance of forty feet.
When it had gone some way past, it began to turn again. Now it was headed directly toward the tharakorm. Was it going to ram them?
Feersh and the others had untied themselves from the masts. Her children and the slaves didn't want to take to the water. As long as they weren't sinking, they saw no reason to swim. The witch swore at them and told them that they would soon be so far from land they would never be able to swim to it. If it wasn't too late now.
It was. As Feersh drove her people with screams and insults toward the bow, the surface nearby began boiling. They halted, staring, ignoring the witch. Up shot a frighteningly enormous creature, purple-gray, finned, cavern-mouthed, with fleshy tendrils hanging from the swelling on top of its head. It went up and up while water flew up and away from it and spray formed a cloud at its base.
When it fell, it made a deafening smashing sound, and waves covered the decks of the tharakorm and almost washed away a woman. The slaves and Feersh's children ran screaming toward the mast behind the aft cabin, knocking Feersh over. The whirlpool formed by the monster's dive seemed about to suck in the tharakorm.
Suddenly, the leviathan appeared behind them, soaring up again, seeming without end. When it curved and dived, its colossal rounded head striking the water, the spray flew all over those on the tharakorm and was followed by even larger waves than the first time. Deyv saw one of its eyes, small compared to the body yet larger than his head. It looked cold and yellow and hungry.
Then he saw that the sailship was passing by the tharakorm again. It was only ten feet away. The flowers on the hull did have eyes, green with black irises. They, too, looked coldly at him before dipping to stare into the water again.
The flower-eyes on the masts were also observing the crowd on the tharakorm.
Some of the slugs seemed aware of the strangers. Others ignored them. They were shaped like sausages and of a pale-white translucency. Dark curving things, probably part of the skeleton, were visible below the wet slimy-looking skin. A myriad dark spots, very tiny, were just below the skin. Small seallike flippers, at least a score, lined each side of the body. The tail was slightly bifurcated. In front of the blunt head were big green eyes with black centers. They didn't seem to be part of the head; they gave the impression of being attached to it. Perhaps, Deyv thought, they were flower-eyes growing on the skin.
And their roots went through the skin and flesh to the nervous system inside the skull. If it had a skull.
There was no nose or air slits. The mouth held row upon row of tiny triangular teeth. He couldn't see any tongue.
The deck on which the slugs crawled was black and looked leathery. It was level and smooth except for three openings, one ten feet from the stem, one in the middle, and one ten feet back from the bow. There were no railings, and the water line was only three feet below the deck. The hull was a smooth shiny dark-green substance, perhaps bone of some kind.
As the beast passed, it left the hint of an odor, more like a wet shaggy dog than anything else.
For the third time the leviathan dived up from the surface. Though it was farther away, it was close enough to scare its watchers. The sailship-creature swerved sharply toward it, and when the leviathan rose again, it was almost under the bows. The sailship caught the monster crosswise as the fish came down. Though Deyv couldn't see what the sailship was doing, it seemed to have closed down on the fish.
With what? he thought. A little later he found out. The sailship turned, allowing him to see the upper part of a mouth stretching out over the struggling monster.
"The bow has lips!" Vana cried.
"The mouth has teeth!" Deyv cried. He was awed. He was also frightened. What if the fish hadn't been enough to eat, and the creature that looked so much like a sailship decided to have the tharakorm for dessert?
Like a dog with a bone in its teeth headed for a place to bury it, the sail-beast sailed toward the horizon.
After a while, it turned and began sailing close-hauled against the wind
.
Whitish streaks slipped over the bow and onto the fish. Other slugs went into the water from the side and swam toward it. It had ceased to struggle, and if it wasn't a carcass, it soon would be. The slugs swarmed over it, biting out big chunks. When the sailship was closer, Deyv could see that some of the slugs had apparently satisfied their hunger. Now they were carrying large pieces in their mouths and crawling back up the bow. A swarm covered the bow, forcing others to dive into the sea, from which they would shoot out and up onto the deck.
Deyv thought that the slugs must have suckers on their bellies which enabled them to cling to the vertical walls of the bow.
Sloosh came up to Dew and said, "We must start swimming. But if we do, either a big fish or those white things will get us. It poses an interesting dilemma, doesn't it?"
"Maybe the white things won't consider us good eating," Deyv said. "After all, we're not marine life.
They may not be familiar with human beings and so might think us dangerous."
"There's only one way to find out, unfortunately," the plant-man said. "As you may have noticed, the tharakorm is now sinking. The cells are beginning to fill with water."
He turned toward the bow. Over his shoulder, he buzzed, "You can hang on to me while I swim."
The Yawtl screamed, "But what about the treasures of the witch? We can't leave them here! They'll be lost, lost!"
"Yes," Sloosh said. "A pity."
"Can't you expand the vessel of the ancients and put the instruments in it? We can tow it behind us!"
Dew and Vana, despite the seriousness of the situation, laughed. Sloosh buzzed derision.
"All right, all right!" The Yawtl yelped. "So I'm crazy! If you had any sense of value, you'd be out of your mind, too!"
"Kiss them good-bye, if you wish," Vana said.
Sloosh went into the water with all of the weapons of his party in his two hands. His upper torso reared out of the water from just above the waist. Jum and Aejip leaped in and began swimming alongside the
Archkerri. Deyv and Vana swam after Sloosh and, on catching up with him, clung with one hand to the straps securing the cube on his back.
Behind them the Yawtl yelled and screamed his frustration and despair. But in a short while he had joined them. Though he needed his breath for swimming, he could not stop complaining. After a while, the water slopped into his open mouth and he shut up.
Deyv felt helpless and close to panic. He could imagine open jaws with sharp swordlike teeth shooting up toward his legs. Or the giant mouth of a fish which could gulp them all down without strain. After a while he came to believe that they would drown first. The current was too strong; they were making slow progress; they'd tire out long before they reached the beach.
Those behind Sloosh were doing worse. The gap between them and the Archkerri was slowly widening.
In their van was Feersh. Jowanarr was close by, occasionally calling out when her mother swam off the straight path to their goal. Kiyt and Jeydee were about twenty feet behind Jowanarr, and the slaves were strung out in a crooked V behind them.
Deyv had just turned his head to look toward the shore when he heard screaming. He looked back again.
Two slaves, a man, Treeshgaquim, and a woman, Shig, were calling for help. Suddenly, the man went under as if something had seized his legs and yanked him down. Deyv hoped that it had been exhaustion, not predators, that had made him disappear so swiftly. He didn't think, however, that that was likely. Shig had resumed swimming, thiough she was evidently tired. Deyv tried to swim faster but failed. He'd reached his limits. Sensibly, he slowed down to save his strength. Anyway, no matter how fast he went, his speed would be a crawl to whatever was slicing through the water behind him— if anything was.
Gasping, Vana said, "That sail-beast is heading toward us now."
Sloosh looked behind him. "Deyv, untie the cube. And pull the rod."
"I was just about to do that!"
Within a minute, the ship of the ancients floated on the water. Deyv opened the door and hauled himself through it. He took the weapons from Sloosh, who hung on to the lintel so that the Yawtl and Vana could crawl over his back. The two animals followed them. Then Hoozisst and Deyv grabbed the
Archkerri's hands and helped him aboard. Deyv pulled in the loudly panting Shig and shut the door quickly, since about an inch of water had already poured in. Somebody turned the lights on.
If this water was a lake, they would, theoretically, be blown to shore. If it was the ocean, they would sail along over it until they starved to death.
Sloosh, his wet leaves shining in the light, said, "Open the door, please, Deyv. We should be almost to
Feersh now."
"So?" .
"We need her. When we get to The Wasteland, we can use her knowledge."
"Maybe you can," Deyv said. "Vana and I won't be there." He walked away.
The plant-man opened the door and looked out. He buzzed something which Deyv didn't hear clearly because he was in the next room. But he heard the Yawtl say, "Not her children, too!"
Deyv went to the doorway, where Sloosh was pulling the witch in by her hand. Her sons and daughter were hanging on to the edge of the doorway. Water was slopping in with every down-roll of the vessel.
Three slaves, a man and two women, were swimming tiredly toward them.
"Hoozisst is right," Deyv said. "They're just a burden."
"But she says she'll let herself die if we don't save them, too."
Deyv didn't think Feersh meant it. She just wanted to make sure that she had allies when the time came to double-cross Sloosh. When she asked that her slaves also be rescued, he was sure of it. In their case, however, she was making a mistake. Their loyalty couldn't be counted on. They'd shown that when they had beaten up the witch's children.
But what did he care? He wasn't going with them.
Hoozisst made some trouble then. Not about Feersh but about the treasures he'd been forced to leave on the tharakorm. Some had been swept off by the waves, but others were still sitting on the deck. A few more waves, and they'd be gone, too.
Sloosh said they could try to get them if they came close enough. The door couldn't be left open long, though, because he didn't want the vessel to take on too much water. When he estimated that they were near the tharakorm, he reopened it. After a quick look, he closed it.
"By the time you swam to the tharakorm," he said to the Yawtl, "we'd be too far past you for you to get back. Of course, if you want to take the chance ... Even so, you could bring back only one item."
Hoozisst leaned out past the doorway, hanging on to it with one hand. He pulled himself back in and shut the door. Then he went up to Feersh and slammed his fist into her stomach. She fell doubled-up, clutching her belly and groaning. Jowanarr went to help her mother. Her sons looked shocked but at the same time pleased.
There was nothing to do but wait the ride out. They had only their cupped hands to bail out the water on the floor. If they opened the door to do this, more water would come in than they got out. They sat around in groups, Deyv and his group, Feersh and her family, and the slaves. When the voyagers felt sleepy, they slept. There was nothing to eat, but they didn't go thirsty.
When they had to urinate or defecate, they went upon the upper deck to a room. Only one could go at a time so that his or her weight would be compensated for by that of the others on the lower deck. The stench wasn't too bad at first. Later, it became very strong. Then they would open the door briefly and let some fresh air in. The time came when they decided not to do that except when the odor was unendurable. However, since they had nothing to eat, they ceased to have bowel movements. Three sleep-times passed, though that was about all that did. They went through a long storm, during which many would have thrown up if they'd had anything in their stomachs.
Then the wind died, and they were riding long gentle swells. At this time the Yawtl voiced what was in the minds of more than himself. But they agreed that they should stick it
out a little longer. The slaves were all for this, since, if anyone was eaten, they would be the first.
Some time after this, the vessel stopped with a crash that threw those standing to the deck. The craft hit the obstacle again, much more gently, then began turning. Presently, it was bumping its length against something and rising and falling.
Deyv tried to open the door. At first, it refused to move. When Sloosh ordered everybody except Deyv to the other side so that the craft would roll upward on Deyv's side, the door opened. Deyv looked out just in time to see the hull of a sea beast rolling toward him. He slammed the door shut before the creature struck it.
Timing the swells, he opened the door again when it would be the farthest away from the hard hull. A
moment later, he went to the room on the opposite side.
"We're bumping against the side of a dead sail-beast."
25
DEYV leaped from the doorway onto the hull. The creature was lying on its side parallel to a rocky beach. Its hull, though wet, was not too steep. He scrambled up on hands and feet, gripped the edge, and looked over. Whatever had constituted the deck was gone now. If it had been flesh or a leathery skin, it had decayed along with the sails and the flower-eyes and other organs subject to corruption. Only a skeleton remained, bones sticking up from the interior of the hull—if hard metallic objects could be called bones.
In three heaps along the bottom of the hull were smaller bones. These could be the skeletons of its young, the flippered sausage-things. They had died in the womb after the mother had perished.
Deyv looked along the hull. When a wave receded from the beach, it exposed most of the mouth. The lower jaw extended along and from the bottom of the bow and was set with rows of huge triangular teeth. It protruded about six feet more than the upper jaw, which was a fixed part of the bow.
Sloosh had tied one end of Deyv's rope to a chair, which he'd unfolded from the deck of the ancients'
DARK IS THE SUN Page 20