The Lovers * Dark Is the Sun * Riders of the Purple Wage

by Philip José Farmer

  Hoozisst stopped. ‘Sure, you’d like me to kill you now so you’d be spared the agony of drowning. You’re not tricking me, hag daughter of a hag. But if you should make it to the shore, you won’t live long. I promise you that.’

  ‘Haven’t you seen those ships?’ Jowanarr asked. ‘Their crews will take the stuff you stole from us away from you. If you don’t drown first under their weight, greedyguts.’

  Hoozisst whirled around, and his narrowed eyes grew large. He began swearing’ and stamping around, while the others laughed at him. Presently, though, as the water and the vessels came closer, all on the tharakorm fell silent.

  After a while, they saw that they had been mistaken about the crews. They were neither human nor Yawtl. Enormous whitish things crawled around on the decks. Moreover, there were no railings, no helmsman’s wheels, though the upper part of rudders showed above the water, no ropes to the sails. Other items were lacking too, but soon those on the tharakorm had no time to think about these. They were only ten feet above the water’s surface, then five, then they had landed.

  If they had not been lying flat on the deck, they would have been thrown heavily, perhaps bounced out, into the lake. Otherwise, the touchdown was uneventful. The tharakorm rose and dipped in the heavy swells, and it began to settle. Soon, water washed over the railing. More time passed. Deyv stood up. At the moment, they did not seem to be sinking. The wind and the current were pushing them slowly away from the shore.

  The nearest sailing ship turned into the wind and began tacking towards them. The booms of its fore-and aft-rigged sails were moving, but Deyv did not know anything about deep-water sailing and so could not understand just why the changes were being made. As far as he could see, the slug-things on its deck were doing nothing except crawl around.

  Some strange things were growing on or attached to the hull and the masts. They looked at first like flowers with short yellow stalks and blue petals with green centres. Their roots wrapped round the masts or clung to the sides of the hull. The flower-heads turned this way and that as if they had eyes. Those on the hull scanned the water; those on the masts moved horizontally.

  He expected the vessel to come directly to the tharakorm. Instead, it sailed by at a distance of forty feet. When it had gone some way past, it began to turn again. ‘Now it was heading directly towards the tharakorm. Was it going to ram them?

  Feersh and the others had untied themselves from the masts. Her children and the slaves did not want to take to the water. As long as they were not sinking, they saw no reason to swim. The witch swore at them and told them that they would soon be so far from land they would never be able to swim to it. If it was not too late now.

  It was. As Feersh drove her people with screams and insults towards the bow, the surface near by began to boil. They halted, staring, ignoring the witch. Up shot a frighteningly enormous creature, purple-grey, finned, cavern-mouthed, with fleshy tendrils hanging from the swelling on top of its head. It went up and up while water flew up and away from it and spray formed a cloud at its base.

  When it fell, it made a deafening smashing sound, and waves covered the decks of the tharakorm and almost washed away a woman. The slaves and Feersh’s children ran screaming towards the mast behind the aft cabin, knocking Feersh over. The whirlpool formed by the monster’s dive seemed about to suck in the tharakorm.

  Suddenly, the leviathan appeared behind them, soaring up again, seeming without end. When it curved and dived, its colossal rounded head striking the water, the spray flew all over those on the tharakorm and was followed by even larger waves than the first time. Deyv saw one of its eyes, small compared to the body yet larger than his head. It looked cold and yellow and hungry.

  Then he saw that the sailing ship was passing by the tharakorm again. It was only ten feet away. The flowers on the hull did have eyes, green with black irises. They, too, looked coldly at him before dipping to stare into the water again.

  The flower-eyes on the masts were also observing the crowd on the tharakorm.

  Some of the slugs seemed aware of the strangers. Others ignored them. They were shaped like sausages and of a pale-white translucency. Dark curving things, probably part of the skeleton, were visible below the wet slimy-looking skin. A myriad dark spots, very tiny, were just below the skin. Small seal-like flippers, at least a score, lined each side of the body. The tail was slightly bifurcated. In front of the blunt head were big green eyes with black centres. They did not seem to be part of the head; they gave the impression of being attached to it. Perhaps, Deyv thought, they were flower-eyes growing on the skin. And their roots went through the skin and flesh to the nervous system inside the skull. If it had a skull. There were no nose or air slits. The mouth held row upon row of tiny triangular teeth. He could not see any tongue.

  The deck on which the slugs crawled was black and looked leathery. It was level and smooth except for three openings, one ten feet from the stern, one in the middle and one ten feet back from the bow. There were no railings, and the water line was only three feet below the deck. The hull was a smooth shiny dark-green substance, perhaps bone of some kind.

  As the beast passed, it left the hint of an odour, more like a wet shaggy dog than anything else.

  For the third time the leviathan dived up from the surface. Though it was farther away, it was close enough to scare its watchers. The sailing ship-creature swerved sharply towards it, and when the leviathan rose again, it was almost under the bows. The ship caught the monster crosswise as the fish came down. Though Deyv could not see what the ship was doing, it seemed to have grasped the fish.

  With what? he thought. A little later he found out. The ship turned, allowing him to see the upper part of a mouth stretching out over the struggling monster.

  ‘The bow has lips!’ Vana cried.

  ‘The mouth has teeth!’ Deyv cried. He was awed. He was also frightened. What if the fish had not been enough to eat, and the creature that looked so much like a sailing ship decided to have the tharakorm for dessert?

  Like a dog with a bone in its teeth seeking a place to bury it, the sail-beast sailed towards the horizon. After a while, it turned and began sailing close-hauled against the wind.

  Whitish streaks slipped over the bow and onto the fish. Other slugs went into the water from the sides and swam towards it. It had ceased to struggle, and if it was not a carcass, it soon would be. The slugs swarmed over it, biting out big chunks. When the ship was closer, Deyv could see that some of the slugs had apparently satisfied their hunger.

  Now they were carrying large pieces in their mouths and crawling back up the bow. A swarm covered the bow, forcing others to dive into the sea, from which they would shoot out and up onto the deck.

  Deyv thought that the slugs must have suckers on their bellies which enabled them to cling to the vertical sides of the bow.

  Sloosh came up to Deyv and said, ‘We must start swimming. But if we do, either a big fish or those white things will get us. It poses an interesting dilemma, doesn’t it?’

  ‘Maybe the white things won’t consider us good eating,’ Deyv said. ‘After all, we’re not marine life. They may not be familiar with human beings and so might think us dangerous.’

  ‘There’s only one way to find out, unfortunately,’ the plant-man said. ‘As you may have noticed, the tharakorm is now sinking. The cells are beginning to fill with water.’

  He turned toward the bow. Over his shoulder, he buzzed, ‘You can hang onto me while I swim.’

  The Yawtl screamed, ‘But what about the treasures of the witch? We can’t leave them here! They’ll be lost, lost!’

  ‘Yes,’ Sloosh said. ‘A pity.’

  ‘Can’t you expand the vessel of the ancients and put the instruments in it? We can tow it behind us!’

  Deyv and Vana, despite the seriousness of the situation, laughed. Sloosh buzzed derision.

  ‘All right, all right!’ The Yawtl yelped. ‘So I’m crazy! If you had any sense of value, you’d be out
of your mind, too!’

  ‘Kiss them good-bye, if you wish,’ Vana said.

  Sloosh went into the water with all the weapons of his party in his two hands. His upper torso reared out of the water from just above the waist. Jum and Aejip leaped in and began swimming alongside the Archkerri. Deyv and Vana swam after Sloosh and, on catching up with him, clung with one hand to the straps securing the cube on his back.

  Behind them the Yawtl yelled and screamed his frustration and despair. But in a short while he had joined them. Though he needed his breath for swimming, he could not stop complaining. After a while, the water slopped into his open mouth and he shut up.

  Deyv felt helpless and close to panic. He could imagine open jaws with sharp sword-like teeth shooting; up towards his legs. Or the giant mouth of a fish which could gulp them all down without strain. After a while he came to believe that they would drown first. The current was too strong; they were making slow progress; they would be tired out long before they reached the beach.

  Those behind Sloosh were doing worse. The gap between them and the Archkerri was slowly widening. In their van was Feersh. Jowanarr was close by, occasionally calling out when her mother swam off the straight path to their goal. Kiyt and Jeydee were about twenty feet behind Jowanarr, and the slaves were strung out in a crooked V behind them.

  Deyv had just turned his head to look towards the shore when he heard screaming. He looked back again. Two slaves, a man, Treeshgaquim, and a woman, Shig, were calling for help. Suddenly, the man went under as if something had seized his legs and yanked him down. Deyv hoped that it had been exhaustion, not predators, that had made him disappear so swiftly. He did not think, however, that that was likely. Shig had resumed swimming, though she was evidently tired. Deyv tried to swim faster but failed. He had reached his limits. Sensibly, he slowed down to save his strength. Anyway, no matter how fast he went, his speed would be a crawl compared to that of whatever was slicing through the water behind him – if anything was.

  Gasping, Vana said, That sail-beast is heading towards us now.’

  Sloosh looked behind him. ‘Deyv, untie the cube. And pull the rod.’

  ‘I was just about to do that!’

  Within a minute, the ship of the ancients floated on the water. Deyv opened the door and hauled himself through it. He took the weapons from Sloosh, who hung onto the lintel so that the Yawtl and Vana could crawl over his back. The two animals followed them. Then Hoozisst and Deyv grabbed the Archkerri’s hands and helped him aboard. Deyv pulled in the loudly panting Shig and shut the door quickly, since about an inch of water had already poured in. Somebody turned the lights on.

  If this water was a lake, they would, theoretically, be blown to shore. If it was the ocean, they would sail along over it until they starved to death.

  Sloosh, his wet leaves shining in the light, said, ‘Open the door, please, Deyv. We should be almost level with Feersh now.’

  ‘So?’

  ‘We need her. When we get to The Wasteland, we can use her knowledge.’

  ‘Perhaps you can,’ Deyv said. ‘Vana and I won’t be there.’ He walked away.

  The plant-man opened the door and looked out. He buzzed something which Deyv did not hear clearly because he was in the next room. But he heard the Yawtl say, ‘Not her children, too!’

  Deyv went to the doorway, where Sloosh was pulling the witch in by her hand. Her sons and daughter were hanging onto the edge of the doorway. Water was slopping in with every down-roll of the vessel. Two slaves, a man and a woman, were swimming tiredly towards them.

  ‘Hoozisst is right,’ Deyv said. ‘They’re just a burden.’

  ‘But she says she’ll let herself die if we don’t save them, too.’

  Deyv did not think Feersh meant it. She just wanted to make sure that she had allies when the time came to double-cross Sloosh. When she asked that her slaves should be rescued also, he was sure of it. In their case, however, she was making a mistake. Their loyalty could not be counted on. They had shown that when they had beaten up the witch’s children.

  But what did he care? He was not going with them.

  Hoozisst made some trouble then. Not about Feersh but about the treasures he had been forced to leave on the tharakorm. Some had been swept off by the waves, but others were still sitting on the deck. A few more waves, and they would be gone, too.

  Sloosh said they could try to get them if they came close enough. The door could not be left open long, though, because he did not want the vessel to take on too much water. When he estimated that they were near the tharakorm, he reopened it. After a quick look, he closed it.

  ‘By the time you swam to the tharakorm he said to the Yawtl, ‘we’d be too far past you for you to get back. Of course, if you want to take the chance… Even so, you could bring back only one item.’

  Hoozisst leaned out past the doorway, hanging onto it with one hand. He pulled himself back in and shut the door. Then he went up to Feersh and slammed his fist into her stomach. She fell doubled-up, clutching her belly and groaning. Jowanarr went to help her mother. Her sons looked shocked but at the same time pleased.

  There was nothing to do but wait. They had only their cupped hands to bail out the water on the floor. If they opened the door do to this, more water would come in than they got out. They sat around in groups, Deyv and his group, Feersh and her family, and the slaves. When the voyagers felt sleepy, they slept. There was nothing to eat, but they did not go thirsty.

  When they had to urinate or defecate, they went to a room up on the upper deck. Only one could go at a time so that his or her weight would be compensated for by that of the others on the lower deck. The stench was not too bad at first. Later, it became very strong. Then they used to open the door briefly and let some fresh air in. The time came when they decided not to do that except when the odour was unendurable. However, since they had nothing to eat, they ceased to have bowel movements. Three sleep-times passed, though that was about all that did. They went through a long storm, during which many would have vomited up if there had been anything in their stomachs.

  Then the wind died, and they were riding long gentle swells. At this time the Yawtl voiced what was in the minds of more than himself. But they agreed that they should stick it out a little longer. The slaves were all for this, since, if anyone were eaten, they would be the first.

  Some time after this, the vessel stopped with a crash that threw those standing to the deck. The craft hit the obstacle again, much more gently, then began turning. Presently, it was bumping its length against something and rising and falling.

  Deyv tried to open the door. At first, it refused to move. When Sloosh ordered everybody except Deyv to the other side so that the craft would roll upward on Deyv’s side, the door opened. Deyv looked out just in time to see the hull of a sea-beast rolling towards him. He slammed the door shut before the creature struck it.

  Timing the swells, he opened the door again when it would be farthest away from the hard hull. A moment later, he went to the room on the opposite side.

  ‘We’re bumping against the side of a dead sail-beast.’

  25

  Deyv leaped from the doorway onto the hull. The creature was lying on its side parallel to a rocky beach. Its hull, though wet, was not too steep. He scrambled up on hands and feet, gripped the edge and looked over. Whatever had constituted the deck was gone now. If it had been flesh or a leathery skin, it had decayed along with the sails and the flower-eyes and other organs subject to corruption. Only a skeleton remained, bones sticking up from the interior of the hull – if hard metallic objects could be called bones.

  In three heaps along the bottom of the hull were smaller bones. These could be the skeletons of its young, the flippered sausage-things. They had died in the womb after the mother had perished.

  Deyv looked along the hull. When a wave receded from the beach, it exposed most of the mouth. The lower jaw extended along and from the bottom of the bow and was set with rows of huge
triangular teeth. It protruded about six feet more than the upper jaw, which was a fixed part of the bow.

  Sloosh had tied one end of Deyv’s rope to a chair, which he had unfolded from the deck of the ancients’ vessel. The other end of the rope he had thrown to Deyv, who worked his way along the edge of the hull. Then the Yawtl and Vana jumped out and joined him. They dragged the vessel along the dead beast until the doorway was past the jawed bow. The others came out to help. In a short time, they had the vessel up on the beach and part of the way into the forest. When its conical nose was secured between two trees, they looked for food. After stuffing their bellies with fruit, nuts and berries – several of them vomiting afterwards because they had eaten too much too quickly – they cleaned out the vessel. Sloosh collapsed it, and it was strapped onto his back.

  The plant-man went off to explore the inside of the ship-beast. It was easy to get into it from the beach, since it was lying on its side. Aejip went hunting for meat with Vana. Deyv went exploring with Jum. The only large eminence in sight was a cone-shaped mountain about fifteen hundred feet high. When he had toiled nearly to its top, Deyv saw that they had landed on an island. After working around three-quarters of the mountain, he became depressed. The horizon was bare of land. Either the lake was larger than any he had ever seen or they had floated onto an island far out at sea.

  He brightened when it occurred to him that it would not make any difference to him. He had not the slightest intention of pushing on and out. Vana and he could make a boat with a sail and return to the mainland. Neither knew how to operate a sailing boat, but they could learn. If none of the group could teach them, he would watch the sail-beasts and see how they moved against the wind.

  He tried not to think of them and the monster fish. Perhaps he and Vana would be lucky enough not to be swallowed, along with their tiny craft. They would not be as noticeable as the vessel of the ancients, which had been bumped into and tossed around a number of times, presumably by giants who had seized it in their jaws but whose teeth had slid off the hard stuff.