Kingdoms of Light

by Alan Dean Foster

  Oskar ignored the swordsman. "That sounds to me like wishful thinking, Mamakitty. I'm afraid the best we can hope to encounter is the human habit of shaking hands."

  "So impersonal." Turning away from him, she let eyes and mind relax by concentrating on the slowly changing panorama beyond the boat.

  While the near riverbank retained the distinctively reddish cast of the kingdom it delimited, the low sandbars, high reeds, and rustling palms on the far side had assumed a distinctly orange hue. Very fat birds and puffballs with sunken eyes flitted in profusion among the tropical growths. While it remained warm, the closer they drifted to the far shore, the more the temperature moderated. Humidity increased, however, altering without lessening their discomfort.

  "How I long for the cool depths of the Fasna Wyzel." Always fastidious in his personal habits, Taj was suffering from the perspiration that soaked his clothing. Unlike his former feathers, the artificial raiment he was compelled to wear could not be cleansed by simple preening. So it was not surprising that it was he who suggested they take turns washing themselves and their clothing in the river.

  Having been the one to advance the proposal, it was he who tentatively slipped first into the water. A couple of ropes secured to the boat had been tossed into the river. These now dangled astern. By clinging to one of these, a bather could enjoy the cleansing action of the current while exerting minimal effort to remain afloat. Come evening, everyone had taken a turn. The river was deep enough so that even Samm's feet did not bump against the bottom. Not that he cared. The snake-man was the best swimmer among them. A few fish nibbled curiously at their toes, but nothing emerged from the deeps to bite or sting the grateful bathers. Taj had to remember to hang on to the rope with one hand instead of flapping both simultaneously in the water.

  When the stars came out, they were tinged with carmine, and the moon was a pink blot against the blackness.

  "Tomorrow we'll pick a place to go ashore on the western bank." Mamakitty was leaning back against the railing, studying the night sky.

  "How?" Oskar wondered. "When Master Evyndd took us to Zelevin, we saw boats like this on the Shalouan, and I remember watching them as they were steered. This one has no oars, no sail. Without a way to guide it, we're likely to drift past any suitable spot."

  "Don't you remember? It should be enough to just move that wooden thing fastened to the back. I recall that when they were pushed one way, boats turned in the other direction."

  Cezer looked back at the rudder that was swinging freely with the current. "That's right, I remember now. People on boats pushed such things in the opposite direction they wanted to go." He relaxed. "I suppose that means we can go ashore anywhere we like."

  She nodded. "Let's try to pick a dry place. I don't like getting wet any more often than I have to."

  He nodded understandingly. Personally, he loved the water. And for that matter, the mud. "I still wonder why those soldiers didn't come after us?"

  Mamakitty shrugged. As performed by her, it was a remarkably liquid gesture. "I suppose they decided being impaled on Cezer's blade wasn't worth capturing a female for their captain."

  While this reasoning did not fully satisfy the contemplative Oskar, he could think of no better explanation for what had transpired. Besides, he was tired. Since Mamakitty seemed content to let the boat drift downriver, he saw no point in dwelling on what was past. Finding an empty place on the open deck, he paced in circles, tighter and tighter, until at last he felt comfortable and lay down, curling up as compactly as his new body would allow, before falling into an exhausted and dreamless sleep.

  When his eyelids next fluttered, the sun was already up. A mass of orange-red fluff was gazing back at him out of eyes that protruded from the depths of dense down. Whether it was composed of feathers or fur, he could not tell. Taken unawares by its proximity, he snapped awake. Emitting a startled coo, the orange sphere promptly fluttered its feathers (or fur) and rose vertically into the air. Looking up, Oskar saw that it had joined a dozen others of its kind. They hovered above him for another moment before flocking as one for the grove of orange-tinted palms from which they had emerged.

  "I wonder what they are." Cocoa was sitting up on the deck.

  "I wonder if they're edible." Standing next to her, Cezer rested a hand on his belly. "I'm hungry."

  "We should conserve our supplies. How about some fresh fish?" Samm stood contemplating the water.

  Cezer's face lit with anticipation, and he all but slobbered on his fine clothes. "Fish! You're asking a cat if it would like some fish?"

  "You're not a cat anymore," Taj pointed out.

  "I'm not all human, either," Cezer shot back. "Don't tell me you don't feel the urge to flap your arms and take to the sky." Before the other man could reply, the swordsman had turned back to Samm. "Get us some fish, and I'll lick you clean myself."

  The giant wore a look of distaste. "Thanks, but I got clean enough in the river."

  "How are you going to catch fish?" Oskar wondered. "Master Evyndd used to take me fishing with him. There is no fishing equipment on board this boat. Besides, it is a delicate skill. You have to understand how to read the play of swimmer and sand, light and water."

  "Then I will be delicate." Leaning over the side, Samm caused the entire boat to tilt in his direction. While his companions struggled to remain erect, the giant scanned the softly rippling surface of the river intently. Espying motion, he brought his enormous axe down in one swift, arcing movement. Water erupted, cascading over the gunwale and drenching everyone and everything aboard.

  Sputtering, Oskar was about to say something disagreeable—until he saw the half dozen stunned fish that now lay twitching on the deck. Water spilling in rivulets from his bald pate, Samm sat back down in the stern, set his axe aside, and patiently began picking at the yard-long specimen nearest his feet. With a cry, Cezer and Cocoa bent to do the same. There was no place to make a fire, but that did nothing to mute the avidity with which those on board tore into the unexpected bounty. Having always consumed it raw, they saw no necessity to cook it now.

  Only Taj did not participate. The orgy of consumption, with fish blood and oil staining the deck and pale flesh and bone flying every which way, turned his stomach. He had to satisfy himself with dried fruits and vegetables from those stored in Samm's pack.

  Bellies swollen, stomachs packed full, they settled down as cats and snakes will do after eating for a long, contented nap. That left only Oskar—who although he had eaten well was not quite as serious a fish fanatic as his feline companions—and Taj to consider the country through which they were passing. While the boat drifted onward, the others slept off the unexpected feast. Rhythmic digesting sounds issued from somewhere within the somnolent Samm, persuading Oskar that despite what one might think, it was indeed possible for a snake to snore.

  "I still can't figure out why those soldiers didn't come after us."

  "You heard Mamakitty's explanation." Taj was leaning over the prow of the boat, contemplating the water. Suddenly he lifted his head. "Maybe that's the reason, up ahead."

  Oskar had to squint. Though excellent, his eyesight was not as sharp as the other man's. Then he saw it: the place forward of the bow where the river disappeared into a huge cave. The rim of the yawning opening was dominated by prominent stalactites and stalagmites.

  "We'd better wake the others. We have to go ashore before we reach that. No telling what happens to the river once it has entered the cave."

  "We'd better wake them quickly." Taj had straightened, and the hair on the back of his neck had stiffened. "That's not a cave. It's a mouth. And those things lining its rim aren't cave growths made of dripping stone. They're teeth…."

  NINE

  Amid frantic yelling and screaming, and not a few accompanying kicks and blows, Taj and Oskar fought to rouse their companions. One by one, as soon as they saw where their free-drifting craft was heading, the others came awake with astonishing alacrity.

  "
The wooden thing on the end!" Mamakitty led a general rush toward the back of the boat. "Samm—push on the wooden thing affixed to the stern!" As seemed to happen more and more the longer they dwelled in human form, the word suddenly popped into her mind. "The rudder—move the rudder!" The giant obediently leaned a massive hand on the indicated mechanism. "No, no!" Mamakitty yelled. "The other direction! Push it the other way!"

  Simultaneously fascinated and horrified, all eyes were now focused on the colossal maw toward which they were helplessly floating. As they picked up speed, Oskar saw that even though they had changed course and were now heading for the eastern bank, their angle of approach would not be acute enough to allow them to beach the boat before they were swallowed up. He began running back and forth the length of the boat until it struck him that such activity was not a suitable expression of concern in his present form.

  Two looming ridges high above the dark opening in the mountain that blocked their way suddenly cracked open, exposing a pair of flattened scarlet eyes out of whose depths stared tiny black pupils. From deep within the gaping organic cavern, a voice emerged that was like a sigh of petrified winds.

  "I am the Red Dagon, drinker of this river and everything that swims within and upon it! Draw near, and be consumed."

  "Pfssst!" Cezer yowled back. Leaping up onto the gunwale, he grimaced as he was forced to contemplate the flow below. "By my foreshortened whiskers, how I hate the water!"

  Reaching up, Oskar grabbed his friend's pants leg. "It doesn't matter, Cezer! You'd never make it."

  Reluctantly, the other man let himself be drawn down. "This boat is doomed. What else can we do but try and swim for it?" He rested a hand on his companion's arm. "You were always a good swimmer, Oskar. You might make it." He looked past him. "So might Samm."

  The giant nodded. "I have always been comfortable in the water, but I will not go without the rest of you."

  "A sensitive serpent. Who would have believed it?" A downcast Cezer looked away.

  "You might have, had you ever been able to talk to me," the giant responded calmly.

  "It's a hard thing to communicate in the absence of common speech." Taj was studying the approaching maw disconsolately, lamenting yet again the absence of his wings. "Can we discuss it later?"

  "Cezer's right. We have no time to consider alternatives. There's nothing we can do except jump in and swim as strong as we can for the near shore." Mamakitty was readying herself for the desperate leap into pink-tinted water. "It just bothers me so to perhaps perish like this, without even being able to preen one last time my silky black coat with its lovely white spots."

  "Black? White?" The gigantic pair of jaws they had mistaken for the entrance to a cave slammed shut with a ponderous thud, then parted less than a foot to allow the onrushing river to continue to drain inward. Oskar marveled that the mountainous spirit could speak and swallow at the same time. "What is this 'black and white' of which you speak?"

  Propelled by the current, the borrowed boat of the border guards drifted forward until it bumped up against a truly monstrous set of lips. Water continued to flow into the slightly parted mouth. Oskar knew that should the spirit shape decide to once again fully part its jaws, the clumsy watercraft and all aboard would vanish instantly down that extraordinary gullet.

  "Black and white is my normal, natural coloring." Mamakitty gazed apprehensively up at deep-set eyes of sentient vermilion. Having to cross in order to focus on the small boat and its inhabitants, both orbs were squashed between heavy ridges of stone. "White and black." Sensing possible salvation in unexpected curiosity, she hastened to identify the original hues of her anxious companions. "Oskar, here, is mostly a steel gray, while Cezer is normally pale blond. Cocoa is calico, a mix of many colors, while Taj is golden yellow, and Samm—Samm is gray-brown with the most beautiful iridescent maroon and blue and green diamond patterns covering his entire body."

  Like biscuits plumping in a pan, the Red Dagon's rocky eyebrows rose. "I see no such colors, though the patterning you describe is visible within the skin of your largest individual."

  "I don't like this epidermis either," the giant grunted, "but it's the one Master Evyndd's spell has bequeathed to me." Reaching up, he scratched at a prominent diamond-shaped mole on the side of his neck. "I can't even shed when I'm in the mood."

  "You are not citizens of the Kingdom of Red," the Dagon concluded. "Nor the Kingdom of Orange. Why are you on the river that I drink?"

  "We just wanted to get across," Cocoa explained plaintively. "We're trying to find some white light to take back to our own home, which lies within a kingdom that encompasses all colors."

  "All colors! That would be very tasty. Sometimes I get so tired of eating nothing but red and orange." Water foamed and bubbled around the flinty lips that spanned the river from one bank to the other. "If you were to find such a thing, something that is neither red nor orange, would you bring some back to me? To taste?"

  Oskar and Mamakitty exchanged a glance. "I don't see why not," the dog-man agreed. "As long as we can get enough for our purposes, I see no reason why we can't provide you with a taste as well. Where there is white light there have to be many things that are colored other than red and orange."

  "But can I trust you?" rumbled the Red Dagon.

  "I promise you," Mamakitty replied, "that when we find light that is neither red nor orange, I'll see to it that you are apprised of our find. And as any cat that has hunted in the Fasna Wyzel can tell you, I keep my promises. Ask the mice. One way or another, we will bring to your attention something that is not red or orange." She hesitated. "What would you like? Something green? Or perhaps blue, or yellow?"

  "Green, blue—I cannot envision these wonders!" Resonant though it was, the Red Dagon's tone had turned wistful. "What a joy that would be! What a welcome change of flavors!" Eyes of impenetrable crimson met her own. "If you find them, call out to me, and in whatever kingdom of color you are residing, I will come." The vast mouth started to gape. "Now I will let you go, and hold you to your promise."

  "Hey, wait!" If it was going to let them go, Oskar thought frantically, then why was it about to swallow them? Cocoa was screaming, and a hissing Samm preparing to dive over the side as their boat slid beneath that stream-spanning upper lip to slip into the yawning maw.

  Then he, and everyone else, was clinging to whatever they could reach as the Red Dagon, in a single violent expectoration, spat them toward the eastern shore.

  Not only did the powerful spew beach their craft, it sent it careening right through the reeds that grew along the shore and up the sandy bank beyond. Extricating himself from beneath a cussing Cezer and a disheveled Mamakitty, Oskar struggled to his feet and looked back the way they had come. This was relatively easy, since a boatwide path had been mowed right through the line of reeds.

  Out in the river, flattened red eyes had shifted to gaze over at him.

  "Remember!" boomed the Red Dagon. "Something of color!" With that reminder, the elongated orbs closed tightly, and their owner assumed once more the aspect of a dead, lifeless cave opening in the side of an inanimate mountain. Able to peer behind it from his new vantage point on the riverbank, Oskar saw that the imposing barrier folded gradually into hills that were higher still. No trace of the river escaped the yawning craw to flow over or around it.

  "No wonder it wants to imbibe something new." As he straightened his clothing, Taj gave a good approximation of his former self ruffling his feathers. "With a thirst like that, anything different would taste good!"

  "We must keep our word." Somehow Mamakitty had managed to retain her dignity despite the tumble she had taken as a consequence of the powerful expectoration.

  "In order to do that we have to keep going." With an effortless leap, Oskar was up and over the side of the boat. The ground beneath his feet was sandy, but solid and supportive of his weight. Slowly, he rose from all fours. "Notice the difference here?"

  It was true. Everything was changed, even the ai
r they breathed. Warm and moist, it was a definite improvement over the hot, dry air of the Kingdom of Red. The reeds, the palms and other vegetation, right down to the soil beneath their feet, had taken on a fruity orange cast. Whether the color change meant that the land they were about to cross was more hospitable than what they had left behind remained to be seen.

  "I don't feel as combative," a puzzled Cezer pointed out. "Could that stem just from a change in the color of our surroundings?'

  "I believe it can be so." As they started up the grassy hillock and away from boat and river and talking mountain, Mamakitty took a moment to wax philosophical. "Doesn't the presence of red always heighten your anger, or set your nerves on edge?"

  "Not mine. Must be just getting away from that other kingdom." Oskar lengthened his stride, anxious to reach the top of the hill. "Color changes don't affect me much."

  "Very little affects you much," Cocoa pointed out. "I don't think I've ever seen you really upset, Oskar. That part of your personality hasn't changed with your new body." She moved closer to him.

  "Carpet dog." Cezer was not pleased to see her walking so close to the other man. "Doormat. Flea hotel." They ignored him.

  His irritation faded rapidly, dispelled by the lush attractiveness of their surroundings. It was as if by crossing the river they had entered into not merely another kingdom, but another world. In contrast to the dry and often desolate landscape of the Kingdom of Red, the Kingdom of Orange was lush with a kind of vegetation that was as new to them as it was attractive.

  "I think this kind of forest is called tropical savanna. I used to sit on Master Evyndd's shoulder and watch while he read through large books containing many pictures." Plucking a thin-skinned, orange-tinted fruit from a nearby bush, Mamakitty took an experimental bite of the firm flesh. "This is delicious! I don't think we will want for food in this place."

  Soon they were all feasting on the bounty of the land through which they were trekking. Most selections had distinctive and stable flavors, but all were tasty. In fact, by the time evening arrived the only danger they faced was from upset stomachs due to overeating.