Ship of Dreams

by Brian Lumley

  “But how come you stumbled on us right here, right now?” asked Hero.

  “When I saw the zombies leaving the city to man the ships, I stole into the city and found the place where Zura makes her green gas. I took a vial of gas and was on my way back to the sky-docks when I heard voices. Since the zombies don’t talk a lot I knew you must be human, and when I got close enough I recognized your voices.”

  “But—” Eldin began, and Limnar cut him short with:

  “Listen, let’s get back to the sky-docks. Now that there are three of us, maybe we can fly that ship I mentioned. I’m a sky-captain, remember? And on the way you can tell me how you got down off that volcano, right? But let’s hurry. If we’re going to do something about Zura, it will have to be fast.”

  He led them to an area where acres of massive blocks of stone formed a square raised platform, its surface covered with capstans, iron mooring rings and many coils of thick rope. In one corner of the platform a lone ship hung suspended in midair, moving gently from side to side in the evening breeze. The ship was moored fore and aft, port and starboard, and a rope ladder dangled from deck to platform.

  Making their way across the sky-dock to where the ship was moored, the adventurers finished telling Dass their tale, and as they reached the ladder he made them the following offer. “Listen, you two: no matter the outcome of this battle between Zura and Serannian, when it’s all over I would like to come with you in search of a shantak-bird’s egg.”

  “You’re on,” said Hero at once.

  “Damn right!” Eldin agreed, “but I still fail to see what the three of us can do against Zura. I mean, what’s one small vial of green gas against her armada of ships with their holds crammed full of the stuff?”

  “If we get to Serannian first,” Dass explained, “perhaps Kuranes’ scientists can manufacture the gas for themselves, or his magicians might be able to duplicate it there and then. Either way, we have to try. Incidentally, I’m pleased that you chose to continue with Kuranes’ quest. You could have found plenty of other places to leave the underworld. I believe there are many such.”

  “Yes, well—that was sort of an accident,” Hero coughed behind his hand.

  “Accident or none, still I’m pleased,” said Dass.

  They climbed the rope ladder to the ship and went below decks. Because the ship had been blowing in the breeze, as it were, its odor was bearable. Traces of previous occupation still lingered below decks, however, but they were not overpowering. The three were able to take off their masks without undue suffering.

  In the hold they found many hundreds of gas-filled cannon balls and great carboys of greenly swirling gas with unplugged balls ready for the filling. Dass took out his small vial and looked at it in disgust. “Well,” he commented, “going into the city for this was a waste of time if ever there was one.”

  “You wouldn’t have stumbled onto us if you hadn’t,” Hero reminded.

  Dass replaced the vial in his pocket and they went back up onto the deck. “I reckon we can fly her,” said Dass, “but only just. I had a look at her engine down there and it seems in good working order. Her flotation compartments are a bit smaller than on Kuranes’ ships; that’s because she needs the room for her armaments. You realize, of course, that we’re going to have our work cut out? She’s a big ship.”

  “Aye, we can see that,” growled Eldin. “Ah, well, let’s get at it. After all, Zura and her dead ’uns have an hour’s start on us.”

  While Dass gave the ship a final check over, Hero and Eldin began carting flammable materials up the rope ladder and onto the decks. When the sky-captain was ready for shoving off, he asked them what they thought they were up to.

  “Eldin has a thing about fires,” Hero explained. “He likes to see places burn—especially places like Zura, the city. So, as we fly over that great tomb, we’ll drop a few fire-bombs on her.”

  “Fine,” Limnar agreed, “so long as you don’t set fire to the ship as well!” After a moment’s thought he added, “In fact it’s a great idea. I noticed some axes in the hold. Why don’t you get them out and do a bit of work above decks? There’s a lot of unnecessary, very heavy woodwork up here. If we’re going to overtake the armada and get to Serannian first, we’ll need all the buoyancy we can muster.”

  Half an hour later, aboard a ship which looked radically different now—literally trimmed to the bone—the adventurers sweated to carry out Limnar’s orders as their craft rose up and cleared the outer walls of the deserted city of the dead. And as soon as he gave them the signal they were ready with torches, setting fire to anything that would burn and kicking the blazing masses overboard. Down below the city smoldered at first, then caught fire and finally blazed as the night wind took hold of the flames and raced them uproariously through the rotting streets.

  Climbing higher into the night sky, they looked back and down upon a city burning from end to end. It was as if the wind had been waiting for just this moment—as if all of the good old gods of dreamland approved the actions of the three and were aiding them in their efforts—for it now seemed that Zura’s stones themselves were burning, blazing up in a glorious and cleansing mile-wide sheet of furnace heat.

  Then they were up above the clouds and that malodorous land was lost from sight, and high overhead the stars of night peeped down in friendly fashion as the black ship sailed into the west …

  An hour before midnight, when the wind was steady and the ship flew herself, Limnar sprang a pleasant surprise on the adventurers. In his bag he had a loaf of bread, some cheese and a small packet of tea. They sat together on the stripped-down bridge and munched hungrily while Eldin brewed tea with which to wash down their frugal but satisfying meal. Afterward, as the adventurers leaned on a part of the rail they had found impossible to remove and watched the reflection of the moon in the Southern Sea far below, Eldin asked Hero: “What do you suppose will happen when Zura sees us coming up behind her?”

  “Umm? Oh, Limnar says we’ll go far over the top of the armada. We’re about a dozen zombies and a whole lot of gear lighter than the ships in Zura’s fleet. He reckons we’ll catch up, too, provided the wind doesn’t change. In the morning we’re going down to a couple of hundred feet. I’ll fashion some fish hooks and there’s plenty of twine aboard. We’ll eat well tomorrow. Right now, though, I reckon you should get some sleep. I’ll give you a shake in about three and a half hours, when it will be my turn. Limnar says he’s been sleeping well and doesn’t need it; but I know you’re tired, and I certainly am.”

  “Say no more,” said Eldin gratefully. He found a large coil of rope and curling himself up in its well fell asleep immediately, knowing no more until Hero wakened him. Using the same bed, Hero too soon fell into a deep sleep. And the night seemed to pass in a twinkling …

  “Up, lad, quickly!” came Eldin’s urgent growl as he almost dragged the younger man from his nest of ropes. “We’ve company.”

  For a moment, his mind given over to wonderful dreams within dreams—having forgotten where he was and what he was about—Hero was lost. Then, with the early morning sun striking beams of light into his eyes, he remembered. “Company? You mean we’ve caught up with Zura’s armada?”

  “No,” Limnar Dass called down from the helm, “the Wanderer means that someone’s caught up with us!”

  “Eh?” said Hero, frowning. “What are you two going on about?”

  “Look up there in the sky,” Eldin replied. “Behind us—about a quarter of a mile and closing rapidly. Now then, what do you see?”

  “I see—” Hero paused, squinting his eyes against the unaccustomed sunlight. “I see gaunts! Seven or eight of them.”

  “Ay,” Eldin grimly nodded, “that’s right. And if you look closer you’ll see that one of them’s an especially big bugger—and that he has a rider on his back!”

  CHAPTER XX

  Again, Gytherik

  “That’s Gytherik, said Here.”He’s somehow picked up our trail.”

>   “You state the obvious beautifully,” said Eldin.

  “Not our trail,” Limnar contradicted, “mine. He must have gone back to the volcano, saw my snapped bit of rope lying where it fell, picked up the trail from there. Actually, I thought I saw the gaunts over the shores of the Southern Sea before I set out on foot for Zura, but I couldn’t be sure.”

  “Well, now you’re sure,” said Eldin. “And now we can tell Gytherik where his father is. That will release us from our pledge to Mathur. Gytherik himself can flap off and find his father a shantak-bird’s egg.”

  “Or,” said Hero, thoughtfully stroking his chin, “we can do a little trading with the gaunt-master.”

  “Trading?” Eldin was immediately suspicious. “What sort of trading?”

  “Yes,” said Limnar, “tell us more. What’s young Gytherik got that we want so badly?”

  “Gaunts!” Hero laughed out loud. “He’s got gaunts—and they’re five times as fast in the air as one of these damned ships. By the time Zura gets to Serannian, we’ll have been waiting for her for at least a couple of days!”

  “What?” Eldin’s bull roar signaled his disapproval. “If you think for one minute that I’ll—”

  “Think?” Hero cut him off. “I damn well know you will!”

  “Hero’s right,” said Limnar. “Kuranes needs as much time as we can win for him. I’m all for it. It’s a good plan.”

  “Oh?” Eldin snarled. “And what happens if we tell Gytherik about his old man and he just hops back on a gaunt and leaves us here anyway?”

  “We don’t tell him till we get to Serannian, stupid!” Hero answered. “Anyway, here’s the man himself.”

  Coming up fast from behind, a little higher than the ship’s mainmast, Gytherik led his gaunts in a Vee-shaped formation. The youth’s eyes scanned the deck of the black ship until he found the three where they stood by the helm. Now he gestured and his gaunts swooped down into the rigging and settled upon sails and ratlines, worrying at them in an attempt to disable the vessel.

  “Hey, cut that out!” yelled Hero.

  “Dammit all, you need us more than we need you!” roared Eldin.

  “And that’s the truth!” Limnar shouted.

  “Gytherik,” Hero yelled, “will you listen to me? We’ve found your father!”

  And at last there was a reaction. Gytherik hauled his huge beast back up and signaled to the lesser gaunts to join him in the sky over the ship. From on high he called down, “What kind of trick is this, David Hero? What do you mean, you’ve found my father? You can’t possibly have found him. Nor will I—until you’re dead!”

  “Wrong!” roared Eldin. “We know where he is, and we know how to set him free. In fact, we’ve promised to do just that. Now then, for the last time, will you talk?”

  At Gytherik’s command his great gaunt sideslipped and drew level with the ship’s bridge. The rest of the gaunts flew off to a respectful distance. “Go on,” said the gaunt-master, “talk—but it had better be good.”

  “All right, listen,” said Hero. He crossed to the rail and leaned toward Gytherik. “As Eldin said, we know where Mathur is and we know what it will take to free him, but we also want something from you.”

  “Name it and it’s yours,” cried Gytherik, beginning to believe. “But only tell me where my father is. Tell me, and if you speak the truth you’ll have no more trouble from me. But if you lie—”

  “Hold it, Gytherik,” said Hero, “you’re in no position to threaten. Not anymore. If we tell what we know straight out, that’s it. We’d never see you again.”

  “But that’s what you want, isn’t it? It’s what we all want.”

  “Not quite,” said Limnar from Hero’s side. “We have a quest of our own, Gytherik. We have to get to Serannian before Zura and her armada. You help us and we’ll help you.”

  “Zura?” Gytherik called back. “I saw her fleet leave Zura the land. What’s she got to do with it?”

  “With your problem, nothing,” growled Eldin as he joined his friends. “But it’s a problem for thousands of others. Zura intends to send Serannian and all her inhabitants plummeting out of the sky. Her reason: to strengthen her army of corpses, her zombie minions. After that—” he shrugged. “She’ll murder all dreamland!”

  Gytherik flew his gaunt closer. “And if I help you to get to Serannian before her, you’ll tell me where my father is and how to set him free?”

  “That’s the deal,” Hero nodded, “yes.”

  “How do I know you’re telling the truth?”

  “Can you afford not to believe us?”

  After a moment or two Gytherik shook his head. “No,” he said. He hovered his great mount over the deck and reined in. The gaunt settled and immediately headed for cover in the shadow of a sail. Gytherik dismounted and turned to the three. “They don’t like sunlight, my gaunts,” he explained. “And they hate flying in daylight. Can I bring them aboard?”

  “That will be all right,” answered Limnar, captain of his black ship. “They can go down below if they like—providing they don’t touch anything.”

  Gytherik called down the lesser gaunts and they all filed below, like a troupe of faceless pterodactyls. Now the adventurers could see the strain on Gytherik’s young face, his visible weariness. “I suppose it’s time I began to trust somebody,” he said. “On my own, I’m aging a year every week! But what’s all this about Zura and Serannian? Does she really mean to destroy that beautiful, sky-floating city?”

  “She does indeed,” Limnar nodded gravely.

  “That can’t be allowed.”

  “Our sentiments exactly,” said Hero. “Do I take it then that we’re agreed?”

  “Maybe,” answered Gytherik cautiously—and then: “Since I’m over a barrel, yes.” He stuck out his hand. There were handshakes all round, following which Limnar asked if it would be safe to go below decks with the gaunts down there.

  “By now they’ll be fast asleep,” Gytherik answered. “They won’t stir unless you give them a kick, probably not even then. They don’t make for good company, I assure you. Not just because they’re unpleasant creatures; chiefly because they’re boring.”

  As Limnar went below to attend to the buoyancy engines, Eldin said: “You’ve put my mind at rest no end, young Gytherik. I was beginning to believe you actually liked those rubbery horrors of yours!”

  “Oh, you get used to them,” the other answered. “But you may believe me when I say that I’d have no truck with them if they hadn’t become necessary to my search. However distasteful, they’re certainly handy as a means of transport. If we let them rest through the remainder of the day and bring them out at dusk, we’ll be in Serannian by this time tomorrow morning.”

  “One thing,” said Hero. “I counted eight little ‘uns, and your big ’un makes nine. I was just wondering how we’ll all manage?”

  “My big ’un, as you call him, is tireless once he’s airborne. He’ll take me, for I’m used to him. The captain is tall but slight; the two smallest gaunts can take him. Two each of the rest for you and the Wanderer. That leaves two spare to spell the rest of the bunch. It should be easy—provided you wrap up warm. The way I see it, we’d climb to a high altitude and then simply glide for most of the way. The gaunts are good at gliding.”

  “Er, yes, we know,” muttered Eldin.

  “Eh?” Gytherik looked at him, and when no answer was forthcoming continued: “With the wind in this direction it shouldn’t be at all complicated. We’ll need to rig up harnesses for you that the gaunts can handle, so that they can change over without difficulty when they spell each other. Also, you’ll have to put your trust in me …”

  “What’s that?” said Eldin sharply. “Oh, yes, that’s right. For of course you could tell them to drop us right out of the sky.”

  “Why should he do that?” asked Limnar as he appeared from below decks.

  “As a short cut to my father,” Gytherik answered. “I don’t blame you fellows for worryin
g about this. After all, I’ve already tried to kill you twice!”

  “Listen,” said Hero. “As far as I’m concerned those were pretty half-hearted attempts. You weren’t giving it your all, else we’d be dead. Anyway, you’ve already proved your own sincerity by landing on this ship and placing your gaunts in our hands. And we’ve proved ours. If we were simply trying to trap you we could do you in right now.”

  “So if we all trust each other so much,” said Gytherik, “why don’t you tell me what I want to know? About my father, I mean.”

  “The temptation might be too great,” Limnar supplied the answer. “You might just go shooting off on your own to free him. And we really do need your help. All Serannian needs it. By helping us—just this once—you can clear yourself of all other misdeeds. Namely, your attempts on Hero’s and the Wanderer’s lives.”

  “We’re sinking,” said Eldin, who had been silent for a while.

  “That’s right,” Limnar agreed. “I’ve blown gas out of the chambers. Hero, did you make those fishing lines last night?”

  “You’ve just reminded me how hungry I am!” Hero grinned. “Come on then, let’s do some fishing.”

  The fish were biting and in a very short while several large ones were turning brown over a small wood fire which burned in a large copper pan in the center of the deck. With the flotation chambers filling again and the ship rising once more into the sky, the four sat down to their meal and made plans. Limnar, who perhaps had the greatest interest in saving Serannian, had most to say:

  “I think,” he started, “we all should take it easy today. Do some sleeping, take turns at the helm, have another good meal later tonight. In this fair wind the ship will continue to fly herself. We’ll go for broke and see just how high we can sail her. That will save the gaunts. Then, tonight, when they’ve had their fill of sleep and darkness gives us cover, we’ll scuttle this hulk and go gaunt riding. What say you?” And he looked from face to face of the others.