No answer came. But in his nostrils the smoke-tang he'd followed was sharp, so Dikar knew that Marilee had been here. In his nostrils was the warm, sweet smell of his mate, so that Dikar knew she was still here, somewhere in this blackness-filled cave.
He started moving again, slowly, groping with his feet in the dark. And his feet found her, found her form outstretched on the cave's rocky floor, unmoving even when his feet thudded against her.
"Marilee!” Dikar choked and went to his knees beside Marilee, gathered her into his arms.
She stirred in his arms! “Dikar.” Breath gusted from Dikar's great chest at that uncertain murmur, breath he did not know till now had been caught in his chest, “Oh, Dikar."
"What happened to you, Marilee? What-?"
"I—Someone sprang on me from behind, just as I reached the cave and hit me! Dikar! The fire stick! Where-?"
"Not here. Or if here, gone out. No. Not here. Even if gone out its smell would be stronger—"
"The fire, Dikar!” Sudden terror in Marilee's voice, of life without fire, of food without fire to cook, of winter without fire to warm. She was out of his arms and on her feet. “I've lost the fire, Dikar."
Dikar whirled out of the cave, was running through the woods, Marilee at his side. They burst out of the woods into the clearing and Dikar was shouting, “Get the dirt off the fire logs, everybody. Quick."
Dikar went on without stopping, darting to the door of the Boys’ House, into it. He lifted an axe from its pegs on the wall, was out in the open again, was running toward where the Bunch were scooping earth off the piled logs on the Fire Stone.
He shoved through the Boys and Girls, made out, by the dim light of the stars, a log they had uncovered, black, lifeless. His axe swept up, smashed down.
Chunk!
The log split open. Red’ sparks flew, stinging Dikar's legs. He did not feel them. He was staring at the redness from which they had flown, the glowing red heart of the log that still had life in it, the life of the fire, the life of the Bunch. “Dry leaves,” he commanded. “Bring dry leaves. Quick! Bring dry twigs. Billthomas! Halcross! Build up the fire. Fredalton! Take this axe and split up one of those logs into little sticks."
Dikar watched Billthomas put dry leaves on the glowing redness, watched the leaves take flame from the log's heart. Watched Halross feed little dry twigs to the leaves and the twigs catch flame from the leaves, and the sticks from the twigs. The fire grew again on the Fire Stone, and the light of the fire grew again in the clearing, but Dikar's forehead was deep-lined and his eyes were no longer blue, and in the darkness of them was a red light that did not come from the fire.
Dikar's eyes moved over the red-lit faces of the Bunch that stood about the Fire Stone watching the fire grow again; and his eyes seemed to ask a question of each face and pass on. They came to one face, and stayed on it, Dikar's brow-lines deepening.
That face was chunk-jawed, black-stubbled, the eyes too small, too closely set, but what held Dikar's gaze was the odd, leering grin that sat on the thick lips.
Tomball had had little to grin about since the day Dikar had returned from the far land and ended Tomball's short time as boss, forcing him to confess to the Bunch how he had tricked his way to being boss in place of Dikar. Why, then, was he grinning now?
"Do you think it was he who hit me?” Marilee whispered in Dikar's ear, “and ran away with the fire stick?"
"Who else of the Bunch would do a thing like that?"
"But why should he, Dikar? He's smart enough to know that if we lost the fire it would be as bad for him as for the rest of us."
"That's what I don't—Wait! I've got a hunch. Look. Walk along with me like we were just talking about nothing important. Laugh a little, you know, and hold on to my arm."
Marilee's fingers were cold on Dikar's arm, but her laugh rippled like a little stream running over pebbles in its bed. They walked slowly away from the fire reached the shadowy edge of the woods, were closed around by the forest darkness.
"Now!” Dikar said, and he was flitting through the forest night, Marilee a silent shadow behind him. It was like her to stay close behind, like her to ask no questions as he ran through the woods to the cave again.
At the cave-mouth Dikar stopped a moment, sniffing the air. “Yes,” he said, more to himself than to Marilee. “I can still smell the smoke of the fire-stick. The wet night air holds smells a long time.” Then he was moving again, following the sharp tang of smoke in the air, following it away from the cave and away from the clearing.
The scent-trail led him downhill. Soon the laugh of a streamlet came to his ears and then Dikar pushed through tangling bushes and came out into starlight on the edge of the brook that he heard. The smoke smell was very strong here—
"Look, Marilee!” Dikar pointed to a black something at, his feet, half in, half out of the water. “Here is your fire stick.” He squatted to it.
"He brought it here to put it in the water,” Marilee said, squatting beside him.
"'No,” Dikar answered, his voice a growl deep in his chest. “No. He slipped on a wet stone and fell, and the water outed it. See. Here are the marks of his knees on the bank. But he brought it here because this was the nearest open place in the woods, the nearest place where its light could be seen from the sky."
"From the sky? Dikar! What do you mean?"
"I mean that I know now why the plane turned back.” Even in the dimness Marilee could see that Dikar's face was hard and still, his lips tight and gray. “If he hadn't slipped and dropped the stick in the water, so that they were not sure they'd seen—” Dikar stood up. “Come,” he said, grimly.
When they came again into the clearing, it was filled once more with the wavering light of the fire and everything was as it had been before Jimlane had heard the plane. Dikar paused beside the Fire Stone, stood there straddle-legged and glowering, a muscle twitching in his cheek.
Marilee laid finger tips on Dikar's arm. “There's Tomball,” she whispered. “Talking to Bessalton down there near the eating place."
Dikar's gaze moved to where she had said. Bessalton was boss of the Girls and tallest of them, her cloak of hair black as deepest night, her legs long and slender, her hips wide. Tomball was heavy-built beside her, bulging arms hanging loose almost to his knees, great chest black-matted, his belly black with matted hair. Black-haired was Tomball, and squat. He was strongest of the Bunch, and there was shrewdness in him too, a shrewdness Dikar already had learned to fear.
The little muscle twitched in Dikar's cheek. “Marilee,” he said, low-toned. “Find Jimlane and Billthomas, and tell them to come to me first chance they can without anyone seeing them."
She slipped away. Dikar watched her, slim and lovely, the fire's red light caressing her, and there was pain in his arms and his chest, sweet pain of the knowing that she was his.
Tomball too watched Marilee, small eyes following her, thick lips a little parted. Seeing this Dikar felt a tightness in his neck and across the back of his shoulders. His hands closed into fists. If he wasn't boss of the Bunch!
Dikar's hands opened and lifted, cupping around his mouth. “Ho Bunch!” he called through his cupped hands.
The talk in the clearing stopped, and the strollers turned to him. “Bedtime, Bunch,” Dikar shouted. “A good sleep and happy dreams to you all."
"A good sleep to you, Dikar!” they cried to him, but Tomball did not cry Dikar a good sleep as he went toward the Boys’ House with the others of the mateless Boys, while the mateless Girls went toward the Girls’ House, and the mated pairs went hand in hand past the end of the eating place and into the dark woods behind. Dikar saw Marilee waiting for him by the eating place, but he did not go to her till Steveland and Halross, pimply-faced youngsters whose turn it was to stay awake the night and watch the fire, had taken their places on the smooth bench-rock near the Fire Stone.
"Be sure that one of you stays always awake,” he told them. “Be sure to listen always for the sound of a
plane in the sky. If you hear one wake the Bunch right away to out the fire."
"Yes, Dikar,” Steveland said, his blue eyes wide. “We get you. A good sleep, Dikar."
"A quiet night to you both,” Dikar said and went to join Marilee and go with her to the little house in the woods behind the eating place that, when they took each other for mates, he had built from logs to be theirs and theirs alone.
"Dikar,” Marilee said, her eyes puzzled in the ruddy dusk that sifted through to her from the fire. “Why didn't you tell the Bunch about Tomball's hitting me and taking the fire stick to where the plane could see it? Why didn't you punish him for it?"
"Would it be fair, Marilee, to say to the Bunch that it was Tomball, when we do not know that it was? Would it be fair to punish him for doing it, when we do not know that he did it?"
"But we do know!"
"No, Marilee. We do not. You saw nothing and I saw nothing that would make us sure it was him. Or did you see something—something you have not told me?"
She stopped, Dikar stopped, looking at her face on which the dim red light fell leaving the rest of her in shadow, thinking how lovely her face was, the red light tangled in the cloudy softness of her hair, her gray eyes grave and thoughtful, her small mouth puckered.
"No-o,” Marilee breathed at last. “No, I saw nothing that would make me sure it was Tomball. But I am sure, and you are sure, because we know that Tomball is the only one of the Bunch who would do a thing like that. Look, Dikar. Tomball wants to be boss, and if he cannot be boss of the Bunch he would destroy the Bunch, and he would stop at nothing to do it. You know all that as well as I do."
Sadness came into Dikar's face, and trouble in his eyes. “Yes, Marilee, I know that as well as you do. Tomball has always wanted to be boss, and when he couldn't get to be boss by fighting fair he fought no fair, and now that he knows he can't get to be boss by fighting either fair or no fair, he would destroy the Bunch rather than have me or anyone but him be boss. But it would not be right for me to fight him any other way than fair."
"Why, Dikar? If Tomball wants to destroy the Bunch, it seems to me it would be right for you to fight him any way you can, fair or no fair. Why isn't it?"
The lines were back in Dikar's forehead. Very clearly he knew the answer to what Marilee asked, but it was very hard to think of how to say it in words. “Look, Marilee,” he cried. “When we were littler we played lots of games, and we always picked someone for umpire to see that everybody played according to the rules of the game, because if there were no rules there would be no game. Remember?"
"Yes, Dikar. I remember."
"Now sometimes the umpire himself would be no fair, letting one side break the rules. And then the other side would break the rules too, and pretty soon the game would bust up because with all the rules broken there was no game any more. Right?"
"Yes. But I don't see—"
His gesture stopped her.
"You will in a minute. Look. The life of the Bunch is no game, but it is lived according to rules, because if there were no rules, if every one of the Bunch did just as he or she wanted to, all the time, there would be no Bunch. Now, I don't think you or anybody else would say that if we hadn't lived all these years as a Bunch; sharing what we had, sharing the work, each doing what he can do best, all helping one another; any but the strongest of us would be alive and happy today. Would you?"
"No. We are all alive and happy after the long years here on the Mountain because we have helped each other."
"And played fair with each other. You call me boss and obey me, but you really obey the rules the Old Ones left us and the rules the Bunch has made for themselves, and all I am is an umpire to see that everybody obeys the rules, to see that everybody plays fair. Now, suppose I played no fair myself. Suppose, whenever I felt like it, I broke the rules. What would happen?"
She answered slowly:
"Everybody else would break the rules too. I see. Because if the umpire is no fair, all the ones playing the game feel it's all right to be no fair too."
"Exactly. And pretty soon there would be no rules any more, and the Bunch would bust up. If Tomball is trying to destroy the Bunch, I've got to fight him. But if I fight him no fair, that will destroy the Bunch, sooner or later, much more surely than anything Tomball could do, or anything they who live in the far land can do. Now do you understand, Marilee?"
"I understand,” Marilee said. And then she cried, “But you've got to do something, Dikar! You can't let him—” She stopped short, twisted to a noise in the brush behind her. “Dikar! There's somebody-!"
Dikar thrust her behind him. “Who's there?” he demanded, his neck thickening. “Who is it?"
Shadows moved in the shadows of the brush, where the red light from the fire could not reach.
CHAPTER III: THE GUN ON THE ROOF
"Who's there?” Dikar cried again, and then the shadows were coming out into the light, and they were Jimlane and Billthomas.
"Marilee told us you wanted us,” Jimlane said. “We waited till everyone was asleep in the Boys’ House."
"Did anyone see you come here?"
"No. They were all asleep."
"All right,” Dikar said. “Listen, Jimlane and Billthomas. I have a job for you, but I am not going to order you to do it. I'm going to ask you to."
"We'll do it, Dikar,” Billthomas said. He was shorter than Jimlane, yellow-haired, blue-eyed, his skin as smooth as any of the Girls', his movements as graceful. “We'll do anything you ask us."
"Anything at all,” Jimlane agreed.
"Wait, youngsters,” Dikar warned, “You may not be so ready to promise that when you hear what it is. I hate asking you to do it, but it needs to be done, for the good of the Bunch. It won't be easy. You may be hurt doing it, you may even be killed. Nobody but Marilee and me will know that you're doing it."
Two pairs of bright eyes were fixed on his face. “If it's for the Bunch, we'll do it,” Jimlane said. “Whatever it is. Tell us what you want us to do, Dikar."
"Before I tell you, you must promise, cross your hearts and hope to die, that you will say nothing about it to anyone. Whether you will do it or not, you will always keep silent."
"Cross my heart and hope to die,” Billthomas said solemnly. “I will say nothing.” Jimlane said the same and then the two spat over their left shoulders to show that they could never take back what they had said.
"Now listen,” Dikar said when they had done that. “The job is to watch Tomball, by day and by night. You sleep in the Boys’ House with him, and I'll always make sure to put you on the same jobs with him, so that part ought to be easy.
"If he slips off any time, day or night, by himself, I want you to follow him without his knowing it. Do you think you can do that?"
"We once followed a deer all day,” Jimlane said, “All over the Mountain, and it never knew we was anywheres near."
"I know that,” Dikar nodded. “And that's why I picked you to ask first to do this job. I also know you two are champeens of the Bunch at shooting with bonarrers, an’ that's another part of the job."
The eyes of the youngsters widened, but they said nothing.
Dikar went on. “Keep your bonarrers near you all the time, and if Tomball does go off by himself, take ‘em along. If you see him start to make a fire where it can be seen from the sky, or from the kind of woods that will make a smoke go up through the tops of the trees, shoot him in the legs, right away, and out the fire. If he starts to go out of the woods to the edge of the Drop, in the daytime when they who live in the far land might see him, shoot him in the legs and drag him back. Stop him if he does anything else that might show Them that someone lives here on the Mountain. Do you get me?"
"We get you, Dikar.” Billthomas looked puzzled. “But all those things are Must-Nots of the Old Ones. Why do we need to shoot him to stop him from doing them? If he tries to, the Old Ones would wake from their sleep under the rocks at the bottom of the Drop and strike him down. He wouldn't da
re to do ‘em, and if he tried, the Old Ones wouldn't let him."
"Look, Billthomas.” Dikar put his hand on the kid's shoulder. “Do you remember the time when the Bunch stoned me away from the clearing and made Tomball boss?"
"And you came back with a little gun that made a noise and killed our fawn, and you made the Bunch listen to you while you proved why we shouldn't have stoned you away. And then you threw the gun up on the roof of the Boys’ House and fought Tomball who should be boss, and licked him. Sure I remember."
"Well, between the time I was stoned away and the time I came back, I went to the edge of the Drop, and I climbed down the Drop to the rocks under which the Old Ones sleep. That is the most terrible of all the Must-Nots of the Old Ones, but they didn't wake from their sleep, and they didn't strike me down. Nothing happened to me. I went into the far land, and I came back, and the Old Ones did nothing to me."
"You went into the far land,” Jimlane repeated in awed tones. “Dikar! Did you see Them?"
"I saw Them, Jimlane, an’ I saw many things that made me know how very terrible it would be if they found out the Bunch lives on the Mountain. But the Old Ones did nothin’ to stop me. The Old Ones sleep under the rocks, Jimlane, an’ under the water that foams over the rocks, an’ they cannot awaken to stop Tomball from lettin’ Them who live in the far land know that the Bunch is here on the Mountain."
"But Dikar!” Billthomas broke out. “Tomball wouldn't do anythin’ like that!"
"I hope not,” Dikar answered slowly. “Honest Injun, I hope that he wouldn't. But I must be sure, an’ I'm askin’ you two to help me be sure—No wait,” he said as he saw their mouths start to open. “Before you answer I want you to remember how strong Tomball is, an’ how he said he would kill you, Jimlane, that time when you wanted to tell the Bunch why they were wrong in stonin’ me away, an’ how afraid of him you were, that time. I want you youngsters to think of that before you say that you will do this job."
Dark Yesterday [The Classic Tomorrow Trilogy] Page 7
