by B A Simmons
“Legend of this K’ork-eatop was told me by my parent more than eighty years before this time,” it said.
“Eighty years ago?!” Rob said. “How old are you?”
“I have more than one hundred years behind me. Now hear me, K’ork-eatop is place of observation, according to legend. My parent memories show me what looks like, but we must search to find entrance. Power you seek is inside.”
“What do you mean by parent memories show you?”
“Do not your parent share memories with you?”
“They’ve told me stories about their lives, but I don’t see their memories.”
“That is sad for you, Rob Engle-man. My parent memories show me much of the past, even when first humans arrived. This is how we remember well voices.”
“So one of your ancestors has been here before?”
“Yes, I say this.”
“I can’t wait to see it. To think that your people used to have electricity. I’m only just learning about it myself, but it seems so powerful.”
“You desire power, Rob Engle-man?” Poulustus asked.
“I desire to understand how power is created. I, too, wish to help my people become better. I want that someday, your people and mine can live together in peace and accept each other as equals.”
“You believe this can happen? I do not. There is much between our peoples that separates us.”
“You see my people as invaders of your world?”
“Yes, I say this.”
“My people see yours as inferior. But I personally don’t see you that way. I want to learn from you.”
“You are a strange hu-man and must be hated by your own people, as I am because I work with you.”
“Your own people hate you?”
“Some, yes.”
“In all your years, have you never met a human who believes as I do?” Rob asked.
Poulustus pointed ahead of them at Doctor Morris. “Just one. When he first came to Ah-ruth, Geoffrey Morris was like you now. He is strange hu-man, even now that he is learned to listen more than talk.”
Rob smiled as he imagined a younger Doctor Morris annoying Poulustus with questions. As if he’d heard them talking about him, Doctor Morris turned and smiled at Rob. For a man as old as he was (though Rob still didn’t know his exact age), the teacher did well trudging along.
Toward the end of the day, the ground sloped up again and they rose to another plateau above the marshes. Here, large meadows spread out before them, crisscrossed by streams and interrupted only by a few trees. A few miles away, near the center of the plateau was a large black object. Rob asked Doctor Morris what it was, but without a far-see, Morris didn’t know.
“It’s the cinder cone,” Archie said.
“What’s that?” Rob asked.
“Yes, I’ve heard of such geologic features,” Morris said, “but I’ve never had the chance to see one until now. A cinder cone is what is left over from a volcano. This entire island must be volcanic.”
“It’s just a large pile of black rock, but don’t even think about going near it. We’ll be avoiding it as much as possible. It’s a death trap,” Archie said.
“What do you mean? Is it still active?”
“Actively killing people an’ animals that go near it. They just start coughing and choking, then they die. Killed my brother, when we were young.”
“Sulfur dioxide,” Doctor Morris muttered.
They set up camp and rested. As Rob made a fire, Archie disappeared into the tall grass. Some time went by before he returned with the hindquarters of an animal across his shoulders. Rob recognized it from his time on Hellhound Isle; it was that of a young hornbuck. Archie knew that they couldn’t eat the entire animal, therefore, he left the rest of it far away from their camp.
“We don’t want to be inviting rat hounds to supper with us,” he said with a laugh.
Poulustus Sahko did not partake of the meat and Archie took note of this.
“I hope you understand me, Archie Cavanaugh, I cannot eat of this life because vows I have taken.”
Archie stared hard at the Duarve, who returned the look with its black eyes.
“I should have known yee’d be a vegetarian,” Archie said, and a moment later started chuckling.
Rob and Morris joined in and Poulustus’s shoulders dropped and his head nodded up and down as if to imitate their laughter.
“Are all Duarve vegetarians?” Rob asked.
“No, only those of my order.”
“Yeer order? What are ye, a priest?” Archie laughed again, but this time Poulustus remained silent. Rob wanted to know the answer but saw that the Duarve was no longer in the talking mood and it soon retired for the night.
Two more days of hiking lifted them off the plateau and deep into the mountains.
The fourth night was dark. The moon, in its palest phase, looked only a small green disk not much bigger than the Ayday Star. The air was much colder than Rob was used to so he wrapped himself as tightly as possible in his traveling cloak as he laid down near the fire. It had died down to mere embers, allowing his eyes to adjust to the darkness, but still provided some extra heat. Archie had been standing watch less than an hour when the sound of hooves and low grunts was heard in the distance. It was soft at first but grew steadily louder, coming from above them on the trail and headed their way.
Rob awoke as Archie moved quickly to secure the asinos in the grove of trees where they camped. He watched the guide nock an arrow to his bow and hunch near a fallen tree. Moments later, a group of at least a dozen herdbeasts stampeded down the trail. Rob was astonished by their size, at least three times that of the hornbucks on Hellhound.
Rob heard the twang of a bowstring and one of Archie’s long arrows stuck into the rump of one of the last herdbeasts to pass by. The animal bellowed in pain but did not stop in its panicked run down the mountain.
“Why did you do that?!” Rob shouted.
“Hush!” Archie commanded. “Keep low, all of you!”
Rob kept his cool and noticed Doctor Morris and Poulustus were awake, though neither had raised themselves from the ground. The group was silent enough to notice the screeching sound following the stampeding herdbeasts. It was high-pitched, almost wheezy, and it grew louder each moment.
Archie had already nocked another arrow, but he laid himself flat against the tree. He no longer watched but sat listening intently. Rob, on the other hand, could not resist looking. What he saw frightened him as much as the hellhound had when it had walked onto the beach. He saw three of them but knew there had to be more. Their bodies were sleek, their back legs long and sinewy, made for chasing down prey. Their front legs shorter, more for balance than running. Their skin was black, and if there was fur, it was too short to see. Each of the paws ended in three clawed toes, and their eyes reflected what little light shone with an eerie orange glow.
These were rat hounds, as Archie confirmed later. They smelled the air and the ground momentarily to assess their prey. One moved dangerously close to the camp, and for a moment Rob thought it was coming for them. Then another screeching howl sounded and the entire pack raced off in the direction the herdbeasts had fled.
After a few tense moments, Archie stood; his bow still nocked and ready. The rest of them remained low.
“It’s all right now,” he said, though his voice sounded tentative. “They’re gone down the slope and upwind from us.”
“Why did you shoot that herdbeast? Did you want those things to catch it?”
“Whether they do or don’t makes no difference to me. No piddling arrow of mine is going to bring it down. I wanted ’em rat hounds to smell its blood an’ keep after it rather than come for us.”
“Is it safe to stay here tonight?” Poulustus asked.
Archie shrugged, “As safe as anywhere out here.”
“Thank you, Archie, for looking out for us,” Doctor Morris said, and he nodded at Rob who echoed the thanks.
The next da
y was marked by their ascent toward the misty peaks. Hidden behind the clouds, the sun no longer marked their progress in time. Rob guessed that it was sometime near midday that they began passing ruins. The buildings were low and, while similar to some of the Duarve architecture Rob had seen, the construction was notably different. The stone was far smoother and surprisingly fair in color, given its age. At that elevation, there was little vegetation to overgrow it.
The largest structures sat atop a peak nearly nine thousand feet above sea level. The air was chilly and damp for Rob and Doctor Morris, and the mist made it hard to see all that was around them.
“This is what we call Macho Pea-shoot,” Archie said, pointing to the ruins all around them.
“K’ork-eatop,” Poulustus corrected.
“This is as far as I go. I’ll camp down there an’ wait for ye a couple of days, but I don’t like to stay around here at night.”
“Why not?” Rob asked. “You’re not afraid of rat hounds, but you are of ancient Duarve houses?”
“Oh, I’m plenty afraid of both. Rat hounds will eat yeer to the bone and this place is haunted. Yeer not the first adventuring types to come here. Many that came here before never came back. An’ on that note.”
Archie held out his hand, palm up.
While Rob settled up with Archie, Doctor Morris and Poulustus unloaded their sparse supply of food and equipment from the asinos. Afterward, the three explorers began looking for a place for their own camp, and while they couldn’t quite see where the sun was, they could tell it was getting darker and colder.
As Rob settled down for the night, he couldn’t help but wonder about Mark, Anna, and the others. He found as he did, that he was no longer pained by thoughts of them. There was always the nagging doubt that lingered, whispering what if? What if they did not survive? What if Rob did not survive? Despite that doubt, a sense of calm settled into Rob’s heart. He felt confident in his family’s ability to weather storms, fight off hungry creatures, and outwit their enemies. No, they would surely meet up again, sometime. What was more interesting to him, was that his thoughts of Mark and Anna did not include jealousy.
20 – K’ork-eatop
It was the most miserable night’s sleep Rob had ever experienced. The rain and violent shivering that followed kept him up all night. It didn’t rain very hard, nor for very long, but it was a cold rain that chilled them to the bone. Poulustus Sahko seemed to enjoy the rain. He removed what little clothing he wore and relished the wash-down.
The rain had dowsed their coals and soaked the firewood Rob had gathered, making a hot breakfast impossible. They ate dried fruit and soggy bread before setting out to explore the ruins. Most of the buildings were nothing but sections of wall outlining the campus of what was likely a small town. There were two buildings set into the mountain itself and built up from there. One of these still had its roof (or most of it) attached. It was into this building they chose to explore.
Just inside the doorway, Rob and Doctor Morris lit torches. Poulustus walked ahead of them a good ten paces as his eyes could see into the darkness much better than the humans’. They found a set of stairs leading upward. The way was steep, but the steps were not. Obviously made for smaller feet than theirs, Rob and Doctor Morris carefully ascended. At the top, they found Poulustus looking in each direction. They had a choice of direction.
“This way,” Poulustus said, pointing his slender alien arm to the left. “Smells of fresher air and . . .”
“And what?” Rob said.
“And possibly animals.”
“What about to the right then?” Morris asked.
“It smells of aged air, but no animals.”
“I say we go right then.”
“We’ll likely end up searching both ways eventually,” Rob said.
Poulustus moved right. The corridor was tall with a corbelled arch. Rob could not tell if it had been cut into the mountain or just built to resemble the mountain’s stone, but the bricks were smooth and without seam. It was not long before they came to an intersection. The passageway continued ahead, but there was a way to the left, which was collapsed and impassable beyond a few steps. Also, a way to the right that descended.
“It feels warmer this way,” Poulustus said, pointing down.
“I’m all for warm at this point,” Rob said, though his mind was conscious of the oddity of moving downward toward warmth.
Chambers opened on each side of the corridor. They were small by human standards, which made for an easy investigation of each. There was nothing significant about either save for the pipes, which for Rob were familiar. He remembered similar pipes set into the walls of the Duarve House on Hellhound Isle.
The next chamber they came upon was different. They noticed right away a faint blue glow coming from within. It was larger and opened up quite a bit beyond the short Duarve-size doorway. The light came from a large globe set into the opposite wall. Several more pipes were inset next to it and a table just below it. Atop the table were several buttons, similar to those on the tablet, but also knobs and a pane of glass. In front of the table and somehow attached with a swinging arm, was a Duarve-size chair. While this was obviously the main feature of the room, several other boxes were set along the walls and tucked into corners.
“There must be some electrical power here,” Doctor Morris said. “That blue glow is not from anything outside.”
“Could the electricity be in the pipes?” Rob asked.
“It’s possible, I suppose. Look how those three meet the outside of the globe here. Poulustus, what do these symbols on the table mean?”
Doctor Morris held his torch close to the table to illuminate the odd characters.
“I do not see words, only sounds,” Poulustus replied.
“Sounds?”
“Yes, I say this. These are sounds that can create language.”
“Letters,” Doctor Morris said. “These are letters or phonemes in the ancient Duarve language.”
“I do not know this, foh-neem.”
“If you were to combine these in any order, could they create words in your language?”
“Yes, but why separate sounds? This is not how Duarve talk with each other now.”
“What sound begins your word for power? Do you see it here?”
“It is not here.”
Rob started at the top left of the table and began pushing buttons. It did not activate anything. He repeated his test of the buttons pressing two at a time while alternating the second with each attempt. Without a word, Poulustus placed all three of his fingers on three separate but adjacent buttons.
The entire table lit up and the globe above it came to life. The pale blue was overlaid by green in various incongruous shapes. Some of these were small while others covered large portions of the globe. Rob noted three large areas of green and at least a dozen smaller islands.
“Islands? Islands of green,” he muttered to himself.
“That’s just what I was thinking, Rob,” Doctor Morris said. “It looks like a map, doesn’t it?”
“A round map?! Why would the Duarve create a map that is round?”
Poulustus spoke, its voice sounding both intrigued and excited. “It is a world.”
Rob thought back to the astronomy lessons Morris had given him over the years. While many of his students hadn’t believed these lessons about the world being a sphere, orbiting the sun with four other planets, Rob had listened with great interest.
“A world, but this isn’t our world. I’ve never seen islands so large on any map. Is it Earth?”
“No,” Morris said.
“Why would my ancestors have map of your world?”
Poulustus began adjusting the knobs on the table. A small red circle appeared over the globe that expanded and brought the terrain inside it into a close-up view. Mountains and rivers, forests, plains, and cities were visible. Buildings that jutted high above the green surface were often at the center of smaller buildings.
Another knob moved the circle to different areas. As the circle came close to the edge, the globe turned to accommodate it and more of the world came into view. Poulustus’s tinkering at the table brought into view a yellow dot. It was near the edge of a large area of green. As the Duarve brought the circle over it, it let them see that the dot was fixed atop a large mountain. The slopes fell away quickly on one side while more gently descending on the opposite. In general, the number of mountains on this planet astounded Rob.
Poulustus hit another button and a set of Duarve characters appeared on the table’s pane of glass.
“What does that say?” Rob asked.
“I am not certain,” Poulustus answered. “I will attempt translation.”
Yet the Duarve continued to press buttons, causing the characters to change. Rob did not perceive that the texts displayed were in a cycle that brought the original message back to the screen.
“They are selections for demonstrations. This one is for land shapes, depths and heights. Next shows hot and cold air and wind connections. There are others of small interest, but this one,” it passed through several texts before stopping, “is confusing to me.”
“Are you not sure what it means, or how to translate it for us?” Morris asked.
“Yes, I say this. I cannot explain exact meaning, but perhaps you can help me understand, Geoffrey Morris. The words are circling stars for power.”
Poulustus pressed a button and dozens of dots appeared above the globe. Some were a white-blue color, blinking and unblinking, while others were green. After some time staring at the dots, Rob had two observations. One was that each of the dots around the yellow dot was green. The other was that they were moving.
Slowly but surely, the dots drifted across the globe’s facade. One or another would stop blinking, then as it approached the area around the yellow dot, it turned green. After drifting through that area, dots changed back to the white-blue color and some, but not all, began blinking again.