DARK IS THE SUN

by Philip José Farmer

  By then the beast's unwanted crew was nearing the end of its energy. The stronger ones were forced to work beyond their shift and to aid the weaker from time to time.

  "I think we should get back on our boat," Kiyt said. "I can't last much longer. Neither can anybody else,

  I'm sure."

  "You'll last until I tell you to stop, you weakling!" Feersh spat. "Oh, that all of you had the guts of

  Jowanarr! Then I could be proud of you instead of regretting that I ever birthed such whining puny milklings! What have I ever done to deserve such a brood? My slaves are better men than you, and that includes the women!"

  "Shut your ugly mouth, you old hag!" Kiyt snarled.

  He ran toward the stern then, while Feersh, shrieking curses, swung her bony arms around, hoping to strike him, after which, drained by the effort, she slumped to the deck like an old dirty rag.

  At that moment Sloosh buzzed distress, and his helpers shouted. Deyv spun to see the pole flying through the air over the bow. Its other end was in the jaws of a giant fish.

  "It came up and snatched the net of fish!" Jeydee wailed.

  If they hadn't been so utterly tired, they would have been more vigorous in expressing their despair. As it was, they moaned or stared open-mouthed and were silent. Then they looked at each other with fatiguered eyes. A few, past caring, went to sleep shortly afterward.

  Deyv sat with his head against his knees. After a while he raised it, and in a hollow voice said, "Well, as long as the beast goes in the right direction; we'll stay on it. When it goes off, we'll take to our boat."

  "That's rather evident," Sloosh said.

  He didn't understand yet that human beings often spoke the obvious just to hear their own voices and also to inspire a comment on the unobvious.

  Unable to ask anybody to do something that he didn't think he had strength to do, Deyv climbed the foremast. It took the last of his energy to shinny up it, or so he thought. But when he saw a thin dark line just a little higher than the horizon, he started to shout and wave an arm. The others looked up at him, wondering what had caused the brief frenzy. He clung panting to the mast, refusing to answer their queries. The black thickness might just be clouds. That was all they needed now. False hopes followed by a storm.

  Too weak to stay up long, he slid back down the mast. He told Sloosh what he'd seen, then said, "Can you stand watch? We'll have to keep an eye on the beast. The moment it veers off, we'll get in the boat

  We'll just have to hope that that is land."

  The plant-man buzzed that he would try to stay awake. Deyv said that he knew that Sloosh could do it.

  He tied himself to a rope, one end of which was attached to the tiny bowsprit, and he hurtled into sleep.

  It seemed to him that he'd just closed his eyes when the Archkerri's huge red hand was shaking him. It was no use trying to ignore it, though he pretended that he couldn't be awakened for 'a short time.

  Sloosh pulled him up by his hand.

  "We're heading back toward the island."

  The peak had long since sunk out of sight, but Deyv could see that they were going downwind. Ahead, big silvery fish leaped out of the ocean. They seemed to be going too fast for the beast to catch them, but that wasn't stopping it from chasing them.

  "We'll have to get on the boat," Sloosh said. "If it's land you saw, not clouds, we might make it." He hesitated, then pointed outward. "Unless that adult beast decides to eat us."

  Deyv turned around. While he'd slept, a full-grown sailship-creature had appeared. It was scudding along, all sails unfurled, heading toward them from the direction of the island. Shortly thereafter, their beast turned away from it and in the direction they wanted to go.

  Time passed. The adult slowly gained on the young. Sloosh said that this was because its sail area was much larger while its body, or hull, was perhaps only twenty feet longer. "I would say, though," Sloosh continued, "that the one we're on is not very young. It's probably a juvenile."

  They ate and slept, gaining strength, while the chase went on. They didn't know why their beast was running away from the other, but it obviously was. Otherwise, it would be pursuing fish to satisfy its hunger, which must be great by now.

  The clouds, or land, on the horizon came into sight of those on the deck. They, or it, grew larger, though it was still impossible to determine its nature. Finally, the adult was only about six hundred feet behind and a hundred feet to one side of theirs. Then the young one changed course and presently was running downwind. Its passengers thought that they would now have to abandon it. They didn't like the idea, since the adult might take off after them. While they were arguing about whether or not it was wise to get into their boat, the young beast turned, toward their goal.

  A long time passed after this. Steadily, the large creature closed the gap. And then it was running alongside its quarry at a distance of fifty feet.

  "Why is it doing this?" Vana said. "Do the adults eat the young?"

  "I don't see how they could," Sloosh said, "unless their jaws can tear through the hard bone of the hull.

  But I've an idea. However, since the question is so close to being answered, I won't voice my conclusion.

  Well, perhaps I should. You could then see how close my speculation is to the reality. But if I do, I might cause a panic. On the other hand, knowing what to expect might avert or diminish the panic. What should I do?"

  He closed his eyes. Immediately thereafter, they opened—and widely. The big beast had slanted in, and the side of its bow crashed against the middle of the young one's hull. Everybody standing was hurled to the deck. Seven times the collision was repeated, each time the attacker striking a place nearer the young one's bow. Then it came alongside until its front was ahead of its quarry and its bow was behind it.

  Three openings appeared in the deck of the young beast. The male slave Shlip had to scramble to keep from falling in as the leathery skin beneath him started to separate along a hitherto invisible seam.

  "What's going on?" Deyv cried.

  "Just as I thought," Sloosh said.

  Three round openings had also appeared on the deck of the chaser. Out of each rose a cylinder of the same color and seemingly of the same material as the hull. The cylinders were vertical and twice as long as Deyv and had a diameter about equal to that of his torso. Their bases were surrounded by some gray gristly stuff, the organs or muscles that had lifted them from below-deck.

  Now the three cylinders moved downward, stopping at a 45-degree angle to the deck and revealing that the other ends were open. For a short while, nothing happened. And then, simultaneously, they erupted with a loud bang. Out of each shot something dark and blurred which arced over the gap between the two beasts.

  Deyv, along with the others, yelled, and he fell to the deck. Only Sloosh, who'd stationed himself at the bow, remained standing. Lying on his back, Deyv couldn't see the flying objects closest to him. But the one coming down near the aft looked cone-shaped. All three struck near the openings, burst, and splattered Out a sticky green fluid.

  Sloosh buzzed loudly, "I would have thought you'd have followed my example after my warning."

  "What warning?" Deyv screamed, but he got up and raced toward the plant-man. Vana followed him a moment later. The Yawtl was too far away to hear Sloosh, but, seeing the two take off for the bow, he ran for the stern. Jum and Aejip came bounding in to Deyv a moment later.

  The recoil of the explosions had rocked the adult a little. When it had regained its former attitude and the cylinders were again steady, or as steady as they could be in the swelling sea, and as the nose of the beast started to go down, and the beast began to roll upward, the cylinders banged. Again, three cones soared out. Feersh was dragged stumbling by Jowanarr toward the bow. The others had reacted even more slowly; they seemed bewildered and uncertain which way to run. The slave named Shlip dashed toward the stern as the second salvo exploded, but he slipped in the green fluid from the first and skidded shrieking into
the ocean.

  Kiyt, dashing by the rearmost opening, was engulfed in a burst of blood and fluid as the impact of the cone knocked him sideways into the opening. Deyv glimpsed a foot going down into the hole, the rest of him was a red and green mess.

  A female slave, Tishdom, was cut on her back and her legs by flying fragments of the shell of the cone and spattered with the sticky stuff.. But she wasn't seriously hurt. Screaming, she got to the bow just as a third broadside exploded.

  This time, all three cones hit the target, and a geyser of green rose from each opening and fell back.

  Slowly, the openings closed, the leathery sections sliding back across. Once again, the deck seemed unbroken. Though the cones that had struck the deck had heavily dented it, the dents began to fill in.

  The adult veered away, its flower-eyes turning to watch the young one:

  Deyv was surprised to see Jowanarr weeping. He hadn't known that she cared the least bit for her brother. Perhaps, until then, she hadn't known either.

  Deyv smelled a strong almost overwhelming fishy odor. It reminded him, however, of another odor.

  Suddenly, he knew why the big beast had chased the smaller one and why it had shot its cones from the cylinders. He said, "Sloosh, we were caught in the mating of the sail-beasts."

  "Yes. My speculations were valid. Even though I didn't know how the mating would be done, I was nearly certain that the large beast was pursuing ours for that purpose. Actually, she is not so young. She's juvenile but nubile."

  "How do the males propel those cones so far? They look so big and heavy."

  "I presume by compressed air."

  "But why would the female run so hard? It looked as if she didn't want to be caught."

  "I suspect that the females will mate only with the fastest and most skillful of the males. That weeds out the inferior males. Ah! She's turning outward now. She sees a school of large fish, and she has to satisfy another hunger. I suggest we get into our boat now."

  They untied the ropes, coiled them, and then stumbled or fell into the dugout. Sloosh took over the rudder; Deyv and Vana managed the sail. Like it or not, they were once again at the mercy of the elements, sail-beasts, and giant fish. Deyv summoned energy to try to cheer them up.

  "That has to be land we see."

  "And if it isn't?" Jeydee whined.

  Deyv shrugged. At that moment, he didn't want to die, but he didn't care much if he did. He was even indifferent to the prospect of wandering as a ghost forever if he sank without his beloved soul egg.

  The tail of The Beast was slipping over the horizon behind them. The sky shone bright and white above.

  Around them the long green waves rose and fell. A flock of whinnying winged mammals passed over them on the way to the island. Every once in a while an adult or young female sailship-beast would appear, scudding toward or away from the boat. A few came close, the many eyes fixed coldly on them, but none attacked. And they saw some of the giant fish, though not many. What could have been lowlying clouds definitely became the peaks of mountains. Another sleep-time. Their spirits rose as far as their wretchedness and tiredness would permit.

  In the middle of the next sleep-time, they beached upon soft white sand. After thanking their various deities, they plucked fruit and nuts, ate, expanded the ancient vessel, and slept in it for a long time.

  Deyv had a dream. His grandmother came to him, which meant that she was dead. Live people never appeared in dreams. She said, "There is something you've been thinking, child. But the thought has been lying around in the darkness, gathering dust, and it may not see light until it is too late. So I have come to bring it out of the dark and show it to you."

  Though she was a ghost, he didn't feel frightened. His grandmother would never hurt him.

  "What is that thought?" he asked. He tried to reach for her, but she backed away from him.

  28

  DEYV said, "Vana, my grandmother told me that we're lost. We don't have the slightest idea how to get to the cave that holds our soul eggs. We'll never find them." Vana took his story as seriously as lie did.

  Her tribe also talked to the dead in its dreams, though usually it was the grandfather who delivered the messages for the gods.

  "Never?"

  "Never. But she said that we could make our own eggs with The Shemibob's help."

  "I don't know," she said. "I'm not saying that some demon took your grandmother's semblance and gave you a false message. But I would like to confer with my great-grandfather, since my grandfather is still alive. He has sometimes come to me."

  Deyv said angrily, "And how will you know that the demon wasn't taking the semblance of your greatgrandfather?"

  "Oh, no. My demons are not yours. Yours could not appear to me. Besides, when my great-grandfather comes, he makes a secret sign. I know by that that he is indeed what he appears to be."

  "Sure!" Deyv said. "But what if he'd been a demon when he first came to you, and it was then that he arranged the secret sign with you. That would mean that the demon had always been the one who talked to you. And if your great-grandfather does come, he won't know the sign. And you'll think he's the demon!"

  Sloosh had to pull Vana from Deyv, whom she'd knocked to the ground. He held her up in the air while she. kicked and writhed and screamed insults. Deyv got up, holding his throat.

  "She's crazy! I was only being logical!"

  The plant-man said, "I've observed that when a human is dealing with another, he's usually logical only if he's advancing his self-interests or has a desire to hurt or put down the other. Is this one of those situations?"

  "Of course not!" Deyv cried. "I was just trying to point out something to her! Why'd she go mad?"

  "Both of you have mixed attitudes toward the other," the Archkerri said. "I don't really have enough data about humans to analyze what motivates them. Rather, I should say, I don't know enough about you two, since individuals vary so much, to explain what your relationship is. I can tell you what it should be, but neither of you would care to listen. I mean, you'd listen, but your ears would be tuned to different vibrations from those I'd be emitting. Perhaps I should start over. What I mean—"

  "I was just trying to get at the truth," Deyv said. "I had no desire to hurt her."

  "Not that you are aware of. But I've observed that humans often don't know how their own psyches operate. Indeed, there seems to be more energy used in not knowing than in knowing. Why this is, after an unimaginable number of—"

  Deyv walked away. When he was some distance from the two, he saw Sloosh let Vana down. She ran into the jungle and didn't come back until a long time after. It wasn't until after the next sleep-time that she would address him, and she did so only in matters that concerned maintenance of the camp.

  Deyv was polite but stiff. So was Vana, though he couldn't figure out why she should be so, since the offense was wholly hers. But after some reflection, he saw that perhaps he had spoken too frankly. And he had to admit that if he had been she, he'd have been offended. Still, his observations had been logically based. When dealing with demons, you couldn't be too careful.

  He shrugged. He seemed to be doing a lot of that lately, and he thought, If she wants to go back on that hopeless search, let her do it. Alone. She might want to take Aejip with her for protection and companionship, but I won't allow it. The cat is mine. I've just loaned her to Vana.

  After the next sleep-time, Vana went hunting with Aejip. She returned with a young pig, a tusker, and a bagful of delicious beetle eggs. She gave these to the two slaves to prepare, then walked up to Deyv.

  "I tried to summon my great-grandfather before I went to sleep," she said. "But he didn't come. So, while hunting, I did some thinking, I sat for a while under a puh tree and breathed in the perfume of its fruit.

  As you know, it helps one to think true thoughts. You didn't know? Well, different tribes have different wisdoms.

  "Anyway, it came to me that my great-grandfather didn't visit me because he didn't
think it was necessary. I could solve my problem by myself. Which I did. I decided that what you said, what your grandmother told you, was the right path. So ... I'm going on with you."

  Deyv surprised both of them by embracing her tightly. But he stepped back quickly.

  She stared at him for a moment, then said, "You're happy! You would've missed me!"

  "We've been together a long time, and you are a good companion, even if you're grouchy sometimes.

  Too touchy, I mean. But then I'd miss—"

  "The dog? The cat?"

  Deyv gestured. "Oh, you know."

  "No. I don't."

  Her shoulders stiff, she turned and walked off. Not before he'd seen the tears, though.

  He felt a tightening in his chest, and he had to swallow. He hadn't meant to hurt her again. But she was, after all, a woman without an egg. She hadn't felt like one when he had squeezed her; her flesh was no different from that of a woman with a soul. And, he reminded himself, he, too, was eggless. In this situation, logic had no force.

  Needing to do something, anything at all to keep from thinking about her, he went to Sloosh. The plantman and the Yawtl were examining the Emerald of Anticipation. Deyv interrupted their discussion.

  "Vana and I are going on with you."

  The Yawtl burst into barking laughter. Sloosh buzzed his equivalent of mirth.

  "Hoozisst was showing me how the stone operates, though so far he can use it only for simple situations.

  It takes a long time to get complete mastery of it. However, by coincidence, we were just asking it what the decision of you two would be. And here you come along and confirm what it showed."

  The Emerald's interior was glowing with writhing designs of many colors. They looked like visual gibberish to Deyv, though apparently they did make sense. He thought it was an amusing toy but that was about all it was. Certainly, it hadn't helped Feersh much.

  "According to the witch, there are a thousand times a thousand such emeralds growing in The Shining