Nightmare Journey

by Dean R. Koontz

  An hour before noon on the sixteenth day after they had departed from the meadow, Jask and Tedesco encountered three espers who had been waiting for them for more than a week. Climbing the major footpath through the Ashtokoman Hills, which marked the end of the Chen Valley Blight, only an hour or two from civilized lands, they rounded a bend and saw the brightly painted gypsy wagon, the horse grazing peacefully by the side of the road, and the three strangers who had anticipated their arrival.

  Welcome, the trio radiated in unison. We mean to be friends.

  In the thirteen days since they had killed the giant crab, Jask and Tedesco had come across many unusual creatures, many a dangerous surprise. They had fought off, three different times, marauding bands of man-sized lizards that could walk on their hind feet for short distances in imitation of mutated human beings; one of these impersonators had nearly gotten close enough to gut Tedesco with its razor-edged claws before they understood that it was not an intelligent being, but a vicious predator. They were fortunate to escape the ubiquitous arms of a quick-flowing ameboid creature fully as large as a house, which trapped them in the shattered walls and blind alleyways of a crumbling village where no one had lived since the Last War. At night they were set upon repeatedly by perambulating plants that could spin webs of entrapment as cleverly as any spider. But neither of them could have been more surprised when the three mutated human espers approached them along the dusty footpath, smiling.

  We came to warn you, they 'pathed.

  “Of what?” Tedesco inquired.

  News of your escape from the Highlands of Caul was radioed across the Blight to the Pures of Potest-Amon Enclave. You were not expected to survive the journey. But on the off chance that you might, patrols were established on the higher hills, just outside the Blight. Pures wait for you, assisted in their vigil by other men who fear espers as much as their so-holy brothers.

  “Who are you three?” Jask asked. He supposed they were trustworthy, because they were as much outcasts as he and Tedesco, yet he did not want to give his allegiance too easily.

  Each of the strangers 'pathed something about itself. Indeed, in only a few seconds, Jask found that he had absorbed as much about them as he might have gotten from a three- or four-hour conversation.

  They were:

  • a five-foot-tall, hard-muscled wolf-man named Chaney, whose long skull tapered to a narrow mouth crammed full of teeth even sharper than Tedesco's; his nostrils were black, the flesh inside them red, so that it looked as if he were about to breathe fire; his eyes were black, with very little whites to them; his ears were tufted with gray hair while the remainder of his pelt was dark brown and black; he went naked, as Tedesco did, finding no use for more warmth or modesty than his natural cloak provided; he had been a traveling musician since his childhood, a profession that afforded him excellent protection when his extrasensory perception began to develop, for itinerant entertainers were a breed apart — being able to move with all their worldly possessions in the space of minutes if they should somehow be found out as espers, staying too short a time in any town to risk being discovered by neighbors — and were expected to be at least a little peculiar, a prejudice of town-locked folk that permitted them to pass off their esp powers as something else the few times they were accidentally used in public; he was a year on the run now, cursed with his expanded awareness, twice discovered but never apprehended, a canny man who could fight hard but preferred to rely on guile and cunning whenever possible;

  • his wife, a wolf-woman named Kiera, as tall as Chaney but more slender, a double row of black teats along her belly, her tail less flamboyant than his; she, too, could walk on two feet like a woman had been meant to, or she could drop to all fours and, despite her five somewhat stubby fingers, make twice the time she could standing upright; she had been Chaney's wife when the power first came to him, but she had not reported him to the authorities, because she loved him enough to want him even as an esper; later, six months ago now, her own telepathic abilities had begun to blossom; her father had been a gypsy sign painter and after his death had left her the wagon, tools and talent he had used; she had met Chaney in a small town called Higgerpel on the slopes of the Star-Reaching Pondersals, where they had fallen in love and married some nine years ago;

  • Melopina, who looked very much like a Pure girl, with but a few unnatural refinements that must have come from the genetic engineers and their Artificial Wombs many generations ago; she was a few inches past five feet tall, with legs that Jask would have once considered too curvacious but now found more enticing than the straight and spindly legs of Pure women; her hips were somewhat wider than a Pure woman's hips, while her behind was round rather than flat; her waist was admirably tiny, her breasts not large but apparently well-shaped; her face was small and, like the rest of her body, colored a very subtle blue-green that gave one the impression he was viewing her through a layer of water; her lips were generous, her teeth broad and white; her nose was small and tip-tilted, her eyes twice as large as a human's eyes should be, the irises almost as enormous as Chaney's, but colored a bright green; her hair was midnight black and fell in rich masses over her slender shoulders; the divisions between her fingers were spanned with delicate blue, translucent webs for half their length, while similar webs bunched between her splayed toes; on both sides of her slim neck, beginning at her ears and running downward to her shoulders, much larger weblike growths lay in graceful folds, like air-blown silks; these adornments were fully four inches wide, six of them growing parallel and close together on each side of her neck; they rippled prettily in the slight breeze that came down from the mountains beyond; Melopina was seventeen and had acquired her esp powers only three months ago; her parents had rejected her, turned her in to the authorities, who had imprisoned her prior to a ritual burning to cleanse the town of her evil; she was a disciple of the Devils from the Stars, they knew, and was of the same blood that had once spurned and perhaps destroyed mankind; fortunately for Melopina, Chaney and Kiera happened to be performing in her village, Sustenpetal, when she was put in chains; they rescued her and fled from the town with her in the dead of a spring night.

  It would seem, then, Tedesco 'pathed, that you must have come to the same conclusion we've reached. Espers must band together, work for each other, in order to survive.

  Of course, Chaney said.

  Not only will we then survive, but we will no longer be lonely, either, Kiera 'pathed.

  We are seeking the Black Presence, Tedesco said. We have maps of three possible locations at which it may be hiding. Will you throw your lot in with us for these journeys?

  No word of this has reached here, Chaney 'pathed, his full tail sweeping rapidly back and forth as the notion of the trek excited him.

  No one knew it but us, Tedesco explained.

  A shielded mental conversation, between Chaney and Kiera, passed in a second, like a ball of fuzz at the edge of the others' range of perception. In a moment the wolf-man said, Count both of us in.

  Melopina said, Is the Presence real? I thought it was a myth.

  It's real enough, Tedesco said. I've got proof in books.

  The girl grinned delightedly. Then I'm with you. She took a few quick steps forward and took hold of Jask's hand in both of her smaller hands, looked at him and 'pathed, Did you really come all the way across the Blight, with all the horrors in it?

  “Yes,” Jask said.

  You must tell me about it, she said.

  “I will—” He hesitated, then said, “If we do talk about it. I don't want to use telepathy all the time.”

  Whyever not? the girl 'pathed.

  She was wearing deerskin shorts that fit her well and emphasized the smoothness of her blue-green legs and a thin brown blouse against which the nubs of her nipples pressed in fine detail. She was stunningly attractive, and her beauty not only pleased him, but upset and confused him. He had never reacted like this to a tainted woman. It seemed wrong and sinful to covet

&n
bsp; “I'd… just prefer talking aloud,” he hedged.

  But telepathy is much simpler than speech, so direct, so—

  It disgusts him, Tedesco 'pathed.

  For the first time Jask realized that he was the center of attention. Chaney and Kiera were watching him with undisguised curiosity.

  Disgusts him? How? Melopina asked.

  Tedesco 'pathed, He no longer looks much like a Pure, with his new strength and his tan, but he was born and raised in an enclave. He still thinks in some ways as they taught him to think, despite the fact he is now tainted himself. He finds telepathy too intimate a means of communication. Especially with tainted creatures like us. He gets ill at the idea of having us inside his head.

  “This is true?” Melopina asked.

  Jask nodded.

  She let go of his hand. “I see.”

  For a long moment everyone stood in the middle of the road in embarrassed silence.

  The grazing horse whinnied.

  That familiar sound broke the awkward spell and set them into motion once again. “Share lunch with us,” Kiera said. “Then we'll decide how best to outwit the waiting soldiers.” She turned without waiting for a response and led the way toward the gypsy wagon, the muscles in her sleek haunches moving with oiled precision, bunching and relaxing, bunching and relaxing with every step. Though she resembled a wolf more than a woman, Jask could understand why Chaney might find her quite attractive. Her grace was purely feminine, her attitude sensuous.

  Tedesco and Chaney walked side-by-side, the wolf-man tilting his head to look up at the powerful bruin now and again. It was evident that they were conversing telepathically, though Jask could not hear anything they said without making a special effort to penetrate the courtesy shield they had established to spare his sensitivity.

  Melopina walked just in front of him, talking neither normally nor telepathically. Her spritely, friendly attitude had changed. She had withdrawn into herself, a brooking expression on her pretty face, and she pointedly avoided looking at Jask Zinn

  He knew he had hurt their feelings.

  That couldn't be helped.

  He did not know whether to be relieved by Melopina's change in attitude toward him, or whether to be disappointed. As he watched her walking in front of him, he decided that he was a little of both.

  Lunch was an ordeal. The food was good enough, but hidden conversations coursed all around Jask. Often the espers broke into hearty laughter at some expression of wit. Each tune this happened, Jask felt, irrationally, that they were laughing at him, for he had not heard the silent joke that had triggered their mirth. He ate in silence. He did not look at them, but stared at his plate — except for a few furtive glances at Melopina, who was curled most deliciously on the lush green grass, like a fairy sprung from its roots. She returned none of his glances. The others left him to his meal as well. He felt like an unwanted guest who had arrived at an inconvenient time and had been given only minimal courtesy.

  He was aware, for the first time now, that his ordeal was not to end with the crossing of the Chen Valley Blight. It had only just begun, in fact. And there might never be a conclusion to it.

  18

  They decided to remain in the Wildlands, skirting the edge of the civilized places until they had traveled to the extreme southwest corner of the triangular Blight; that place was so remote as to make more than scattered patrols unlikely. They rode atop or inside the gypsy wagon if the land were level or inclined downhill, and they walked when the way was uphill, in order to make the horse's load less crippling. They covered more kilometers by night than by day, for they did not want to be spotted by a Pure with binoculars and thereafter monitored on their trip to the southwest.

  Jask said little.

  The others spoke even less to him.

  He slept badly and often dreamed about returning to his fortress on the cliff and taking up life where it had ended for him. Sometimes, as they creaked along the narrow lanes in the wooden-wheeled vehicle, he stared up the Ashtokomans, wondering how close he was to others of his kind, Pures, people he could talk to and understand…

  On the fourth day of their journey the barren hours finally got to him while he was sitting atop the wagon, leaning against its safety rail, watching the stars and the clouds that occasionally obscured them. Melopina was there with him. Kiera was in the wagon, lying down. Tedesco and Chaney were up front, at the reins, speaking without sound. He turned to Melopina and said, “Do you really believe in this Black Presence?”

  “I do now.”

  “Tedesco convinced you?”

  “Yes.”

  “How?” he asked.

  “In many ways.”

  “Specifically.”

  She did not respond, as if she held secrets he had not earned. The possibility that this was so irked Jask.

  “Listen,” he said, “you're acting like children, all of you. Before you got your esp powers, you talked aloud. What harm does it do? What exertion does it really cause you?”

  She looked at him more directly than she had in a long time, her green eyes radiant in the darkness like the eyes of some wild animal. “Vocal communication allows deception,” she began.

  “You know I don't want to deceive you.”

  She ignored him and went on. “Vocal speech permits a distance between communicants, permits lies and evasions and the reserve of self. Telepathy, on the other hand, soon requires complete communion of the soul as well as of the mind. It allows no secrets, no lies, no evasions. It forces a giving of the self and an intimacy that, once experienced, makes all other relationships seem silly and undesirable by comparison.”

  “Fine!” he said. “Have your soul-sharing relationships. I'm not against that. But be civilized enough to extend me a little kindness, a little companionship.”

  “You are the uncivilized one,” she said.

  “Oh?”

  “You're damned lucky to be one of the new breed of mankind, but you reject your powers and continue to act as a primitive.” Her voice was full of scorn.

  Shocked, he said, “You consider your telepathic talents to be a blessing — not a curse?”

  “Of course.”

  “How wrong you are!”

  “Really?”

  “Don't you see how your power has made you a fugitive, a hunted animal, how it's taken away your dignity, your peace of mind, how it's denied you the company of other people?”

  She turned away from him.

  He said, “If we're a new breed of men, a step up the evolutionary scale, why have our powers showed up at different points in each of our lives, so suddenly, like magic? If we were meant to be a new breed, why weren't we born with our powers?”

  She said nothing.

  He shook his head sadly as the wagon bumped down a long slope and shook them like dice in a cup. When they reached the bottom of the hill and were on more hospitable land, he said, “We aren't some new species, nothing as glamorous as that. We're merely tainted creatures, jokes perpetrated by the Ruiner, a sorry lot of—”

  Oh, shut up! she 'pathed with particular violence.

  Jask rubbed his temples to ease the headache she'd given him, and he didn't attempt to start another conversation.

  On the sixth day they parked the wagon under a grove of tall trees that were abundantly thatched with yellow leaves, certain it would be out of sight of anyone lurking in the higher hills, and they bathed in the cool, vital creek that lay a hundred and fifty meters below the ancient roadway. Tedesco, Chaney and Kiera went down the stone path first, soon out of sight, leaving Jask and Melopina to stand watch. It was an uneventful watch; they were not approached by any strangers, villainous or otherwise, and they did not approach each other.

  Tedesco and the wolf-people were gone nearly an hour. When they returned, their pelts glistened, bright and healthy and clean. They were laughing as they took over the watch and sent Jask and Melopina away.

  The path down the embankment from the grove had been laid
centuries ago, by hand. The stones were so closely fitted that no mortar had been necessary, and the years had done only moderate damage to their patterns. At the bottom of the stairs they came out on a paved ledge, which, at its water end, was stepped to feed into the creek. A few hundred meters up the creek a dam forced the water to back up to a depth of three or four meters, creating a pleasant enough swimming pool.

  There was so little communication between him and Melopina that, as he undressed, Jask felt no actual embarrassment in being nude before her. It was really almost as if she were not even there. He had made a sort of breechcloth from fragments of his tattered jumpsuit, which was all that he was wearing in that summer heat; he was nude and in the water in short order.

  He was treading water in the middle of the pool, looking around to see what had become of the girl, when she suddenly surfaced like a fish, rose part way out of the water, then sliced back into it, diving deep, leaving only a bubbly froth in her wake. When she came up again, she swam on the surface to the small dam, rolled onto her back and returned, smoothly, making very little noise.

  “You're a very good swimmer!” he called to her.

  Thank you. I sometimes feel my ancestors were born to water and that I should have a set of gills.

  She dived.

  She rose in a bright splash.

  She cartwheeled through the water, swimming first on her stomach, then on her side, her back, her other side, finally returning to her stomach again, going through this routine again and again so that she seemed like the screw of an invisible ship.

  “Beautiful!” he called, delighted with her sporting.

  She dived.

  When she came up, it was in front of him, showering him with water.

  Her neck membranes repelled the water and flowed, still, like air-blown silk, a startling contrast to her soaked black hair, which hung straight from her head.

  “That was bad manners,” he said, splashing her with his hands.

  She laughed, turned and swam off, forcing him to give chase, letting him catch her, then flipping water in his face and whirling out of reach.