Chthon

by Piers Anthony

Aton jumped up, clambered out of the water, lumbered to the weapon. He slapped a hand on it as though afraid it would wriggle away. He was armed now; he was no zombie.

  The women came after him, mechanically. He backed away, hesitant after their kindness to him. He had been destroying them; why had they spared him?

  Something touched him. Whirling, Aton saw a man. It was Bossman, standing outside the water. His skin was clear. His eyes were vacant.

  Aton knew what he had to do. He lifted the axe.

  The attack began. He clenched his mind against it and swung the suddenly heavy axe. The great blade of it strove overhead, ponderous, too massive for his strength. He forced it onward, slowly, guiding it as gravity took leisurely hold and toppled it down. It came to rest at last in Bossman’s skull, and he fell, fell.

  I have paid my debt to you, and—I’m sorry.

  The force of the attack lay on him like a smothering blanket, but as he staggered back it eased again. The dead women lay all around; only the two who had revived him were animate. He could kill them—

  And wander through the endless caverns of Chthon, alone. Was this the way it was to end? And if he succumbed, eventually, to zombi-ism, who would there be to kill him?

  What had the love of Malice led him into?

  “Truce.” The cracked voice came from the pool behind him. He had forgotten the black-haired woman, the last holdout.

  She was rising from the water. He was not alone!

  She approached him, moving with the awkward gait of the possessed. Her eyes stared straight ahead.

  The last of the zombie conquests was coming to him, easy prey for axe or fist. What did it mean?

  “Truce,” it repeated.

  It could talk. There was intelligence behind the Myxo half-death! The skull without the crossbones.

  Now it was ready to parley.

  18

  Aton held the axe, unwilling to take the action that would leave him entirely alone and lost in the caverns. Intelligence, even malevolent intelligence, was a more promising opponent than solitude.

  “Truce,” he agreed.

  The woman-thing stopped before him listlessly. “Do not kill,” it said.

  The zombie-master wanted to save its remaining conquests! He had a bargaining point. His mind explored the possibilities.

  “Who are you?” he asked, not really concerned, but needing to gain time for further thought. Could he win his freedom through this thing?

  The figure’s eyes blinked. She backed away, eyes on the axe. “What happened?” she asked plaintively. “Why are you—”

  She had thrown off the possession! “You don’t remember?”

  She saw the standing zombies. “I—I lost, didn’t I?” she said, hesitantly. “I went under. All the hurt and terror were gone—but not quite all the way. I wasn’t quite a…” she paused, gesturing toward the others.

  An incomplete take-over? He did not like the smell of it. Whose agent was she now?

  She straightened, becoming rigid again. “I am—Chthon.”

  Chthon—this time a title, not a place. The Myxo intellect.

  It had learned moderation. The true zombies were useless to it, because it could not control their bodies effectively. But by leaving a part of the human will intact it was able to draw on the speech center, and perhaps much of the memory and mind. But what was it?

  He asked it.

  It did not know. But, in halting interchange, a gradual picture of sorts grew. The geologic forces in the subterranean Chthon-planet had carved caverns, hundreds and thousands of cubic miles of them: hot lava tubes, winding waterways, smooth wind tunnels. The subsequent whims of nature heaved and overturned the elaborate structure, crushing the passages, kneading them down, and beginning the process over. Lava flowed again, and again; water cut across the honeycombed strata, riverbeds melted, cool lakes were crushed between molten layers. Crystals formed in the interstices, all types, growing enormously, only to be reburied. New pressures on them generated restless currents, for some were semiconductors, and diodes were formed and destroyed, while electrons ran along and through the metallic strands left as residue from prior furnaces, and discharged into the flowing waters, jumped across broken networks, and accelerated through natural coils. The sparks ignited accumulated gas, exploded the volatile bubbles. A perpetual recirculation formed, heating and cracking the cold rock and vaporizing the percolating waters as the fires settled, changing tolerances. And the crystals continued to grow and change in the new environment, and some metamorphosed into forms that were scarcely natural, and the current in them developed circulations and feedback analogous to the fire cycle nearby. At last, in whatever indefinable manner the transition from slime to living slime is made, the transition from current to consciousness was also made, without the interposition of life, and the Chthon-intellect was created.

  “What do you want with us,” Aton asked it, “with human beings? What good are we to you?”

  The woman faltered, lapsed into zombie status, then back to human. “It wants me to explain to you that it has no—no moving parts. It is all—electronic, a computer. It can think, but it can’t do anything, unless it controls mobile units. The local animals aren’t very good. They can’t follow complex instructions, and Chthon can’t adapt readily to their animate nervous systems. It needs units with—intelligence.”

  “It has two zombies,” Aton pointed out. Three.”

  “They are not—strong. They have no—it takes great concentration to make their bodies move, because the—circuits are even less familiar than those of the animals. Foreign. It needs—willing units.”

  Aton’s sympathy was small. “What’s the going rate for a ‘willing unit’?”

  “Security. Sanity,” she said.

  Aton’s laugh was harsh. “I’ll make it this deal: I’ll refrain from killing what’s left of these ‘sane’, ‘secure’ people, if it guides me to the surface safely.”

  “Yes,” she said.

  “Yes?” Aton did not believe it could be so easy. “Chthon agrees?”

  “Yes.”

  “Now?” He was looking for the catch. Was it planning to spirit away the zombies when his attention wandered, then renew the siege for him? “We travel together—the four of us,” he amended, “or I’ll kill them now.”

  “It will take—six marches,” she said. The—others cannot travel that far. They will die.”

  “Uh-huh. I can shorten their misery.”

  “You will die—if Chthon summons an—animal—and releases its mind.”

  Power politics. The thing was learning rapidly. Could it bring the chimera, or was this a bluff? But this gave him an idea.

  “If Chthon can summon animals, our problem is solved. Have it bring something to ride.”

  There were further negotiations; but before long Aton found himself mounted on the back of an enormous rock-eater, knees braced against the soft scales of its sides, hands gripping the great loose folds of its neck. His weight required it to travel on all fours, but the creature was sturdy enough to carry him easily. The others were similarly steeded. The long trip began, calculated at only two marches this way.

  This was the Easy Trek.

  The pace was swift. The huge pseudoreptiles, released from Chthon’s direct control after being given the message, hunkered along at a good ten miles per hour. The gray caverns passed as they picked their way through the maze. Aton saw that he could never have found his way out alone. He became drowsy, but did not dare to sleep. He might wake to discover the zombies gone. A strange twist of fate that made such onerous half-people valuable!

  Yet common sense told him that there would be no practical way for him to catch the zombies if their animals deviated from the course his own steed was taking. They would be lost in seconds, and Chthon could stun his own mount and prevent any pursuit. With hostages gone, he would have no bargaining leverage. He was really much more at the mercy of the cavern god than it seemed to realize.

  He
looked around him, aware of the passage of time, his legs cramped by the constant strain. The surrounding caverns had changed, and he knew that he had either slept or been very close to it. But the zombies still paced him. Apparently Chthon was holding to its word. A surprising, unrealistic development. Chthon was hardly that stupid. Why was it humoring him?

  Obviously it had rather special plans for him. The agreement had been a ruse to obtain his temporary cooperation. There was nothing he could do now but play along and wait for it to show its—hand.

  They were traveling along a tunnel, similar to the prelude to the jelly-whale’s parlor, but with a dry stream bed. The gently ascending path led on and on, meandering but unending. He was reminded of the trans-system of a spaceship, and wondered fleetingly whether they were likely to encounter any cross traffic.

  But of course Chthon would warn away any other animals, particularly caterpillars.

  More time passed as the tireless creatures proceeded. Aton’s whole body ached. But his demand for freedom overrode any bodily discomfort, and he refused to plead for a halt. He wondered just how hard he would have to fight to obtain that freedom, when the moment of decision came. It would not be granted easily.

  Abruptly, it was raining.

  We’re on the surface! he thought. We’ve come out of the caverns! Stop the march—I want to get off right here!

  But the time had not been sufficient. It was the first march, and they were still deep in the planet. In a few minutes they were out of the weather, under an overhang, and Aton understood that this was simply another wonder of Chthon: an opening so great in size that it had a separate meterology of its own. Or, more likely, there was a steady precipitation from a cold ceiling far above, or a leak from some high river. It had been, nevertheless, a surprise.

  The animals ducked into it again, and Aton clung soggily. There was something about exposure to the rain that bothered him. He had a premonition of death, of terror, and of the end of love. Strange—he had never feared the rain before.

  Brief flashes of strange vegetation could be seen as they passed. Luminescent gardens, glowing in green and blue, steamed steadily under the precipitation.

  Aton was sorry to leave that section behind.

  At length the first march was over. They dismounted stiffly and tried to relax. Aton realized that he was hungry; he had been hungry before the weird ride had begun, and now he reeled from it. The Myxo sieges had not strengthened him, either.

  The half-woman spoke: “Build a fire, if you wish, for comfort; an animal will come.” And in this manner they were provided for. Aton discovered that there was nothing inferior about zombie-animal meat.

  They were camped in wind tunnels, but unfamiliar ones. These might be part of a system opposite the one they had known as prisoners—across the mighty gas-crevasse. He would have been inclined toward exploration, if he had not long since become aware of the futility of it. What could he hope to find, except more caverns?

  They slept, Aton with his arm over the half-woman, not from any personal desire for her, but to ensure her security as hostage—for what that was worth. He reasoned that she was the most valuable of the conquests, because her mind was largely intact. Some part of the supposed bargain would be binding as long as he retained power over her. Had there been any other way, he would not have touched her at all; the concept of such alien possession was repulsive to him.

  Fresh mounts waited in the “morning,” and the four resumed their journey. The wind tunnels were left behind, and they threaded their way through a forest of stalagmites, brown and discolored with concentric rings marking gradations on the outside. Again the surroundings upset him, vaguely; the sight of such treelike columns rising from the floor reminded him of the childhood forests of Hvee, always friendly—now filled with nameless foreboding. Almost, at this point, he hesitated to leave the protective caverns, with their all-seeing god-figure. He was afraid of what he might find Outside.

  He brushed the feeling away. Probably Chthon was trying to tamper with his mind. But nothing could stand in the way of his love for the minionette.

  The mounts slowed early in the second march, moving on their equivalent of tiptoe. Aton, more alert than he had been on the previous march, looked around suspiciously. He saw the heaving hide of some gargantuan creature, sleeping. This was some dragon of the underworld, with the bulk of an elephant, lying astride their path. They were in its burrow—passages hewn recently out of the rock, ten feet in diameter, bore the scars of giant claws. But its sleep was sound, assisted, no doubt, by the influence of Chthon.

  There was so much to the cavern system, so much more than Aton had ever imagined. Surely this was the greatest of underworld domains anywhere in the galaxy. An independent man could live here in comfort, with challenge.

  The mount’s pounding thighs accelerated. Resume safe speed, Aton thought, and smiled. The wonders continued, more than the mind could assimilate in one swift trip. Some day he would have to return, to explore and exploit. There was sheer wealth here beyond calculation, and, more important, knowledge. A life spent here, recording for posterity the endless treasures of nature so much in evidence, would be well spent indeed.

  Do not try to distract me from the minionette. She is my life, not this.

  Would it ever be possible to map it all? This was a three-dimensional world, level upon level, climate upon climate, teeming with variety. A lifetime would hardly suffice.

  Hour after hour. Progress slowed as the ascent became steep. The glow from the walls faded and was gone, leaving him blind. Round rocks clattered away and down, dislodged by feet now blind and clumsy. This was the strangest section of all—too remote for illumination. It frightened him. He was helpless.

  “The animals cannot stand the light of day,” the half-woman’s voice came from ahead. “We must stop—”

  The light of day!

  “On foot. Another turn,” she said. Aton could hear her dismounting, along with the zombies. He joined them. The animals, released, decamped, eager to get away from this area. “We shall not go beyond this point,” she said. “You must go alone.”

  Alone! To the fate Chthon planned for him.

  The loose boulders banged his bare feet. Aton maneuvered around them painfully, groped his way along the ragged wall, found the dread corner. He turned.

  Light came down, not green but white. It was bright and beautiful, the bleak cave ugly. Freedom!

  As he stared upward, he saw a silhouette. It was an animal of some sort passing between him and the light—an odd birdlike creature with a very long, cutting bill, hooked slightly at the tip. It had terrible talons on the wings, as they spread momentarily, and solid, pincer-like feet.

  The chimera.

  Was this the freedom Chthon had promised?

  He could turn back, rejoin the zombies, give up his dream. Give up the minionette. Worship Chthon.

  Or he could advance upon the chimera, a creature he could not hope to overcome, and die the death it offered. Eyeless and gutless, he would live for a few moments in freedom, on the surface of Chthon-planet: lovely Idyllia.

  “I forgot LOE!” Aton exclaimed. “I left my book in the caverns, where the sieges of Myxo began.” Yes, he would have to go back for it….

  Some other time. Behind the chimera he saw the minionette, beckoning. He went to her.

  The great wings fluttered silently. The creature disappeared, and with it the other image, and the way was clear. Chthon had let him go.

  “How can we know the dancer from the dance?”

  WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS, “Among School Children”

  Epilog:

  Yes—we let him go.

  We allow Aton to revisit life.

  He was dead when he came to us,

  His culture says.

  But he was unfinished.

  And we require him—complete.

  We give him to our half-sane minion, Bedside,

  And wait for his return.

  Aton, Aton—di
d you search for evil?

  Did you desert your father in his hour of need, to pursue a fond illusion?

  Did you forsake honest love for incestuous passion?

  Did you betray your fellows into decimation?

  Did you finally bargain with hell itself, which you symbolized as Chthon?

  You have been condemned:

  Not by your father

  Not by your first or second love

  Not by your fellows

  Not by Chthon.

  Where is the evil for which you search?

  How can you tell it from yourself?

  How can you condemn yourself

  For being what you are?

  We had thought to salvage the good of your culture’s philosophy

  And destroy the evil of its being;

  But we find them near of kin.

  We had thought to recruit an envoy of extermination

  To cleanse our galaxy of life.

  But that envoy brings us LOE

  And mocks our intellect with ethical conception.

  (All we had seen before was your unsane element.)

  How can we know life’s destiny from ours?

  Are we not near of kin in our quest for completion?

  How can we condemn you

  For sharing our ideal

  In your inverted terms?

  And thus we must accept you with your woman;

  We must banish the chill from the shell,

  And learn that in our mercy

  Is our own nova.

  For as we study the chill we discover a thing of wonder: