Richard raked his fingers back through his hair as he let out a sigh of angry frustration. “Look, I intend to do my best, as I said I would. I have proven my willingness to help end this threat to both of our worlds by coming here, to your world, with you. But this is not my fight alone. It is your fight as well.”
“But we cannot—”
“This is about your future more than mine.” Richard gestured off in the direction of the goddess and her followers. “You heard what that spy said. The goddess intends to slaughter and eat all of you for disrespecting her. What if I die in the attempt to kill her? Then what? What will you do then? Just let them kill you all?
“Brutal leaders like the Golden Goddess cannot long tolerate those who don’t believe, follow, and do as they are told. She views all of you as a disease that could spread to her followers if she does not cut you out before she loses any of her followers and then her power. She cannot allow you to live. She will send her followers for you and they will kill every one of you, along with your females and your offspring. You don’t need to believe me. You all heard what that spy said.
“I have fought wars before, and this one is really not all that different. Such brutal leaders always seek to eliminate any who don’t believe in their cause.
“You all are a bigger threat to her than I am. If I am killed, she continues to rule. But if you are not eliminated, you all pose a continual threat that could make her followers turn on her. Leaders need the support of those they lead. All of you threaten to cause her to lose her support. For that reason, she must kill all of you.
“It is not up to me to do it for you. You all must be a part of your own futures if you want to protect not only your own lives, but the lives of your offspring. If you do not help me, your offspring will have no future.”
One of the Glee in front gestured to be heard. “You told that spy that you are a war wizard, the bringer of death. You said that war fighting is what you were born to do. We are not war fighters. We were not born to do this. This is something you alone must do. We cannot fight.”
Richard fought back his urge to yell some sense into them.
“I realize that,” he told them, trying to maintain his patient, reasoning tone, “but you all need to listen to me. You are a gentle race. You are peaceful. You love your young. You do not wish to harm others.
“I understand all of that because I was once very much like you. I did not want to fight. I learned hard lessons that if I stand aside, then those I love lose everything. They lose their lives. I have seen many good friends die.
“I learned that to save those I love, and even others who believe in peace as I do, as you do, I had to fight even though I did not wish to fight. I am telling you this from my harsh experience. If you wish to survive, you must fight for your own lives. I can help a great deal, but I can’t do everything for you. This is about your lives, and the lives of your kind. If you don’t take your world back from the goddess, she will take everything from you.
“She already has plans to come and kill you all, so, in a way, you all are already dead. Your only choice now is to decide to live.”
57
Sang looked around at the silent Glee watching them. They seemed to be shaken by Richard’s words as they looked at one another, but Richard didn’t hear their voices. At least they weren’t running away. He wondered if they were talking among themselves or voicing their objections to Sang alone, or maybe even arguing among themselves and they didn’t want him to hear.
It was even possible that they were all about to decide that they couldn’t, or wouldn’t, fight and in the end they would all walk away, leaving it to him. He couldn’t do this alone with only Vika to help him. He feared that they were so shaken by all they had heard that they would end up saying no. He knew that once the Glee had made that switch to hunting and killing, they lost all reluctance, but these Glee had not made that transition to being killers.
He knew that he might be able to kill the goddess, but that would not by itself stop the beliefs that she and her followers held. If these Glee would not fight for their own lives, then in the end, the most realistic thing he could do would be to save the people in his own world by destroying the device that allowed them to go to different worlds to hunt people. That might be enough to save his world, but it would not save this one, and he and Vika were going to have to live out their lives in this world.
Finally Sang turned back to Richard, as if having heard what the others had all had to say. “Lord Rahl, we understand and appreciate the very meaningful sacrifice you have made to save your kind, and your world, as well as to help save our world and preserve our way of life. We have helped you in coming here so that you might stop the goddess and save your world. We also understand the threat the goddess poses to our lives.
“But even if we agreed to do this, you must understand that we would die out there in those barren, dry, empty lands. It is too far for us to travel away from here, away from the water where we gather our food and live. We could not survive out there. We would die.”
“And what you need to understand is that I know about fighting wars. I’m telling you, if the goddess believes there is only one way in, then that is the only place she will guard and the only place they will stand ready to fight. If we could instead go in behind where they least expect us, and surprise them—”
“I am telling you, we could not do it,” Sang said, lifting his arms in frustration. “We would die out there.”
“Not necessarily,” Richard said.
Sang shook his head in apparent exasperation. “We cannot go that way and hope to live to fight them.”
Richard smiled. “That’s what the goddess believes. That is why it would give us the element of surprise on our side, and surprise is one of the best weapons you could have in a fight. Surprise will help all of you prevail even though you are not experienced at fighting. It would be even better if we could come in at night. When does it get dark here?”
Sang hissed his frustration that Richard just didn’t seem to get the point. He gestured to the sky. “There is always at least some light in the sky. When the sun goes down, there are moons that provide light.”
“Moons?” Richard asked. “How many moons are there?”
“Two. It does get darker when the sun goes down, but with the light of the twin moons it never gets to be such a dark night like it sometimes does in your world.”
“Is that when they sleep? When the sun goes down and it’s darker?”
“Yes. When the sun goes down and day grows still, we all sleep then. When night comes, we sleep partly in the water to stay wet, and also to be safe. The wild boars like the mud, but they are afraid of water, so they won’t come right up to the banks to attack us.”
“How much longer until then?” he asked. “Until they sleep?”
Sang looked to the sky, shielding his eyes with one claw. With such thick, continually heaving and rolling clouds, it was hard to tell where the sun was, but apparently the Glee had learned how to judge it. Sang thought a moment, trying to think of a way to explain it. Finally he did.
“You know how long it took us to come here from the device on the mountain? It will be the quiet time when the Glee sleep in probably three of those journeys. That long. We have never crossed the drylands, but it would be at least two days and nights. We could not survive that long there.”
Richard pinched his bottom lip as he considered. It was a problem that it wasn’t darker at night. Still, if the goddess and her followers were asleep, that helped. He consulted the map Sang had drawn on the ground, and again looked at the sky.
“Then we must go now, around the way they would not expect us, in order to arrive at their place when it is dark,” he announced to the crowd watching him.
Sang shook his head along with many of those in the crowd watching. “You are not listening to my words. We would die, so we can be of no help to you in fighting them if we go that way. If you wish to go that way, then
you and Vika will have to go alone.”
“If there was a way that you could cross the drylands, without getting too dry or suffering, would you all agree to come with me, show me the way, and fight with me against them? If there was a way, would you help me for your survival and your world?”
Sang looked around. A number of the Glee finally nodded. Richard knew that they were probably all nodding because they felt it was impossible, so they could easily commit to something they thought they would never have to do.
Sang shrugged. “If there was a way, then yes. But there is no way for us to do this, so we cannot go with you.”
Now Richard knew for sure that he had just gotten them to commit to something they all thought was impossible. It was easy to agree when you never thought it was possible and so you wouldn’t have to do it. He was about to use that commitment to his advantage.
He looked over at the pile of float weed Sang had pulled up before and thrown on the rocks. He turned back to Sang.
“I would like you to show me the water plants you use to get the jelly that protects you when you travel to my world.”
“The scrum?” Sang asked.
“Yes,” Richard said. “Collect a big pile of the scrum plants for me.”
58
Richard watched as a few dozen or so of the Glee waded through the swampy water, bending down and pulling up water weeds here and there. As they collected it, they threw their loads on the bank beside the pile of float weed.
While they were doing that, he directed others to collect more of the float weed and an even bigger pile of flutter weed. They had no idea why he wanted them to do it, and he knew that they possibly thought he was crazy, but as he and Vika watched, they all went along with his odd request and collected the water plants. As they worked, the piles grew quite large. Every time they asked if they had gathered enough, he had them continue adding more to the piles.
As the Glee brought ever more of the water weed up onto the bank, Richard finally squatted down and pulled some of the scrum plants from the pile. The plant was tough and fibrous, and almost transparent. The broad, flat blades were almost as wide as his fingers would be if he spread them all the way out. Each piece was longer than he was tall, and a relatively uniform width.
The most remarkable thing about it, though, was how slimy the long blades were. If he pulled one through his fingers, he could collect globs of the sticky, gelatinous coating. The broad leaves themselves remained quite slimy despite some of the coating being removed.
The other plant, the float weed, had groups of nodules that apparently caused the ends of the plant to float, probably so that they could reach up to get more sun. Below the nodules, the broad blades of the plant were almost as wide as the scrum, but it was only slightly slimy, as was any plant growing in water, and the leaf texture was thick and strong. It was hard to tear.
The flutter weed was similar to the float weed, but without the nodules and even more flexible. Both sides of the broad blades were wavy, but they were pliable enough that they could easily be flattened out.
Richard looked up at the puzzled Glee watching him. “I need the help of one of you so I can demonstrate what we are going to do.”
Looking around at the others and not seeing any more volunteers, one of the Glee finally stepped forward. “I am Iben, Lord Rahl. I will help you. What would you like me to do?”
Richard stood, bringing up a bundle of scrum plants in one hand. “I would like you to simply stand there so I can demonstrate to everyone that it is possible to protect yourselves so that you can survive a good long time in any dry land.”
Iben shared a look with Sang before finally coming up to stand in front of Richard. Richard immediately began layering the slimy scrum plants over and around Iben’s body. Next he wrapped his arms and legs with lengths of the wet, slippery plant. He draped some over Iben’s large, black head and around his chin and then around his neck. He directed the others watching to pay attention as he explained how to lay down the strands to weave the long plants together in order to give them more strength together and hold them in place.
All the Glee watching were fascinated. Richard thought that since they so enjoyed being wet, this must be something that felt luxurious to them. A few of the Glee stepped up to help by smoothing down the scrum in a few places or filling in missing spots. As they did, Iben made a low, guttural, cooing sound.
“Now,” Richard told his eager audience, “over the top of the scrum, we are going to do the same thing with the float and flutter weed. On the flutter weed, pull off the round nodules, like this. We don’t want that part of the plant. We only want the long, broad parts.”
When he did, several of the Glee scooped up the discarded nodules and tossed them in their mouths. He could hear them softly pop as the Glee chewed them.
As they watched, Richard began covering Iben in the same way he had done with the scrum plants, but this time covering it over with the thicker types of water weeds. He wove the layers together so that they had strength in all directions.
“How does this feel, Iben?” he asked.
“Actually, quite wonderfully wet.”
“Good. Now, walk around to make sure it stays put.”
Another Glee called out for them to wait. Soon, it brought long, thin, flexible vines out of the water. They were about as thick as string, but stronger.
“Use this,” the Glee said. “Put it around and around to help hold the scrum, flutter weed, and float weed in place.”
Together Richard and the one who had brought the vine used it to quickly weave a net of sorts to help hold the water weeds down on Iben. Richard remembered quite well how the gelatinous material always slid off the Glee when they arrived in his world. Now the flutter and float weed, layered over scrum, kept the slime against Iben’s skin so it couldn’t slide off.
Richard gestured. “Move around. Run and bend.” Iben hopped about, following the instructions. “See how well it stays in place?”
Iben demonstrated his new suit of water weed to the others, walking among them so they could inspect it. It worked better than Richard had dared hope.
“Now, I want all of you to do the same thing with each other. Put the scrum on first, as I showed you, and then the other weeds over the top both to hold it in place and to keep it from drying out. This way, even if the top layers of flutter weed dry out, it won’t matter because underneath it will still be wet and comfortable.”
The Glee were all eager to try both being the one wrapped and the one doing the wrapping. It almost seemed a game to them, something new and unheard of. They cooed excitedly.
With an eye to the sky, keeping track of the day and how much time they had before dark, Richard saw that the afternoon was wearing on. He urged them to hurry. If Sang’s map was at all accurate, it was a long journey across the drylands, and Richard wanted to arrive at the enemy camp while they were still asleep.
It never ceased to surprise him just how much dexterity the Glee actually had with their big claws. They could pinch the first two on one hand together to hold things, much like fingers. Of course, without thumbs, it was still somewhat difficult, but they managed and were obviously good at it. In fact, maybe because they were used to handling the water weeds, they were faster at it than Richard had been. Along the way, they perfected the weaving technique, making the suits of water weed fit snugly yet still allow them freedom to move.
As they worked at wrapping each other, more of the Glee collected the water plants needed. Before long they had an entire trade in full swing. The Glee found the wrapping exciting and interesting. None voiced any complaints. He knew that when they came to his world, if they became too dry, they could always activate their lifeline and return to their own wet world. Out in the drylands, they would not have that ability.
He was sure that somewhere along the line, they had to have figured out what he had in mind, and why he was doing this, but if they had, none of them balked or refused to join in.
<
br /> As they worked, he realized it was building a sense of camaraderie, like soldiers working on their armor to get each other ready for combat.
He hoped they would maintain that sense of spirit when they headed out into the drylands, and even more so, when they met the enemy.
As they were wrapped, the Glee drew their lips back to show him a kind of frightening smile. He returned a similar smile, hoping it satisfied them despite his not being able to quite match the display of teeth.
Sang came up to him, completely wrapped from head to toe. “I am amazed by this, Lord Rahl. I thought crossing the drylands would be impossible for us, but I really think this will work. Not only now, but in the future, after we are rid of the goddess, this will give us a way to expand our world and discover new places and more food.”
Richard put a hand on Sang’s slimy shoulder. “I’m glad to hear it. But the day is wearing on. We must hurry. We need to get to the goddess’s followers while they are still there and before they leave to come here. We still have a long way to go.”
Sang nodded. “As you say, we must get started, then. You are right that it is a long way around through the drylands in order to get to the place the goddess holds. Unfortunately, none of us has ever traveled there, so we are not exactly sure of what that place is like or what we might encounter there.
“We will not be able to get there in one day. We will have to stop along the way tonight for some sleep for at least a little while, because it will be a longer day tomorrow and then tomorrow night we will arrive there.”
Richard looked around at all the Glee, wrapped in water weed, watching him. “You all look wonderful. Let’s get moving.”
59
Sang had been right. As the sun set and night descended on them, the two small but bright moons certainly did provide enough light to see by, especially out in the windswept drylands. Everything, though, was a different shade of gloomy, dark red that seemed to weigh down Richard’s spirits. He wanted to rub his eyes to clear away the bleak shades of reddish color to everything. He had never really appreciated color so much as he did after being in this place. He longed to see the simple colors of his world again.
Into Darkness Page 28
