Their journey was delayed in the morning. Deyv went hunting with the blowgun and brought down an ushuthikl, an animal which looked much like an ape but whose ancestors had probably been coyotes.
The three companions ate well before proceeding. Deyv carried the uneaten portion for a time in its own skin. However, it attracted so many stinging flies that eventually the three stuffed themselves and then left the rest for the insects.
Two more sleep-times passed without special incident. The clouds had dissipated; the air had become much warmer. But a blackness was building up again.
Shortly before the trio reached their immediate goal, Jum stopped and growled. Deyv hurried into the bushes and called the animals to him. Presently three young men of the Red Skunk Tribe trotted up.
They wore their glossy black hair in coils atop faces painted scarlet; big wooden rings hung from their ears; and wooden plugs tufted with feathers at each end stuck out from their septums. Their legs were painted with vertical bands of green, red, and black. The men carried blowgun cases on their backs, long spears tipped with chert in their hands, and stone tomahawks in their belts. Obviously they formed a war party.
Deyv was tempted. He could shoot the rearmost with a dart after they'd passed. Then he'd loose his animals on them, and before they could recover from their surprise, he'd shoot at least one more.
However, it would be a great bother to carry their heads and soul eggs along. Far too much so. Still, it would be possible to cache heads and eggs in a tree hollow and pick them up on the way back.
But what if these were only the scouts of a larger party? Then he'd be in a bad situation. Best to play it safe. Nevertheless, he sighed as he watched them disappear around the bend. He'd never killed a man, never had a trophy.
After waiting a long time to make sure the three weren't a vanguard, Deyv returned to the trail. Jum again preceded him. Aejip followed the dog at a distance of seventy feet in case the three men had somehow seen Deyv and were sneaking back. The cat's nose wasn't nearly as sensitive as the dog's, but her hearing was almost as good.
On the way, Deyv spotted a meatfruit tree off the trail and collected what little the birds and beasts had missed. All three ate the conical protein-rich but evil-smelling fruit. By the time they'd finished, they came to an ujushmikl. A highway of the ancients.
Fifty-two feet wide at this point, it was made of a somewhat resilient orange substance and was marked with three white lines which formed four lanes. Deyv had no idea why the ancients had made the road or what the markings meant. Nor did he know which ancients had laid it here. According to his grandmother's stories, there had once been a series of ancient peoples, some unimaginably old. The ones responsible for this road may even have been those who'd made the Houses. And had also made the swords, rustless and self-sharpening, and the other wonderful artifacts which the earth now and then yielded.
The ancients had had great powers, though not enough to keep them from dying out. This highway, for instance, had existed long before Deyv's great-great-great-great-grandfather was bom, and probably many generations before that. But it was not overgrown with plants, nor had trees been able to tear it apart. The green life, except for a short grass, encroached but withered when within sixty feet of the road. Floods sometimes washed out the earth beneath it here and there. By some magical means, earth sifted back under it and packed down. Earthquakes twisted it, but as time went on, it straightened out.
However, there were vast movements of the ground that even this wonderful substance couldn't resist.
Deyv had heard that far down the road, a mountain had grown up under it, and the road ran straight up the elevation and over it. The substance should have snapped apart in many places, but it had merely lengthened.
After looking up and down the road from behind a bush, Deyv stepped out. He kept to the exact middle so that if anybody blew a dart or threw a spear from the foliage, they'd have a long distance to cover.
Two years ago he'd come to this spot with a small hunting party, and he'd walked on the smooth rubbery surface for a few miles in the opposite direction. When he had turned back, he'd gone as far from home as he'd ever been.
The miles trudged by. Aejip walked on one edge of the road and Jum on the other. It was pleasant for
Deyv to walk unimpeded and with a good view of at least two miles behind and ahead. On the other hand, he felt very exposed and vulnerable. If something came from one wall of the jungle, he could run toward the other. What would he do, though, if enemies came from both sides?
The thought was troubling. Still, he stayed on the road. He knew no other path. Besides, he could really make good time on it. If what his father had said was true, a few more miles would put him outside the land of the nine tribes. However, there would be other hostile beings beyond that. And only The
Brooding Mother knew what beasts, familiar or unfamiliar, also dwelt there.
After a long time, he came to a place where the earth had sunk an unknown depth from an old quake.
Here the road disappeared under water that had collected from the recent rain. Halting, Deyv speculated about walking on the highway or skirting the edges of the water. The latter course would take him into the jungle. Who knew what humans or beasts lay near in wait, understanding that any passer-by would probably detour around the lake and so come within easy reach?
He decided to walk straight ahead until the water was too deep for that. Then he would walk on the shallower ground near the forest. The sword and the tomahawk were too heavy for him to attempt to swim very far. However, maybe he wouldn't have to swim at all.
The water rose to his ankles and then to his waist. The two animals were swimming along behind him, with Aejip making sounds of unhappiness. Deyv turned toward the right to wade where the water was shallower. Suddenly he screamed with agony and thrashed around. By the time he reached the edge of the lake, he was limping badly. He held his teeth firmly together to keep from yelling again. He hoped nobody heard his cry.
He sat down in the mud and looked at the network of thin red welts on the side of his left thigh. The pain was slowly easing, but the muscles of his thigh were still knotted. After he'd rubbed his thigh for a while, the muscles began to relax. He then rose and walked slowly through the water by the jungle. After walking a few miles at this pace, he could feel only a slight itch. He saw something round and pale rise briefly from the lake. It could have been the creature that had stung him with its poisonous tentacles.
When the road was no longer flooded, he returned to it. Far off the tip of a mountain showed, the one which his father had told him about. It didn't seem to get any nearer even after he had walked for many miles. Deyv decided he'd go to the territory at its base and work around there—unless he found a tribe along the way. At that moment, Aejip gave a soft warning cry. Deyv turned and saw a large whitish object floating about three hundred feet in the air a mile away and approaching at the speed of the wind, which was rather slow then. Deyv ran for the jungle, with the two animals close behind him. As the thing passed over he could see the boat-shaped bottom and the round holes in it. He expected to see dark objects drop from it, but he did not. It was no disappointment.
When the tharakorm was out of sight, Deyv went back to the road. He looked back often, however, since others could be coming along. After another mile Deyv came to a junction of two roads. For a few minutes he sat down at some distance from it, wondering if he should take the other road, which was at right angles to the one he'd been on.
He also looked at, but did not go close to, the strange objects at the junction. There were four tall metallic posts, each bearing a round box with four round eyes. Deyv had never heard of these. Though they seemed to be inanimate, he did not care to investigate an unknown work of the ancients. If the posts were their totem poles, it was dangerous to get too close to them. As everybody knew, totem poles were charged with magic: good magic for those who came under their protection, bad magic for their enemies.
<
br /> When Deyv was about a hundred yards from the junction, the poles clanged, and the top eyes of the two poles facing him gleamed bright with a green light. Startled, Deyv gave a little leap and gasped. Turn barked once and was silent. Aejip growled. For a long time, Deyv stood still, his eyes on the glowing green lights. Then, slowly, he backed away. Suddenly, the eyes went dead, and three clangs came from the two poles.
Deyv froze again. The cat and the dog pressed against him.
After a while, Deyv whispered to Jum to go ahead on the road. The dog didn't want to do so, but he obeyed. Again, the poles clanged and the green lights came on. Jum turned to look at his master. Deyv called him back. When the dog reached a certain point, three clangs sounded, and the green lights went out.
A minute later a large rainbow-colored bird swooped down toward the road near the poles. Before it landed, the poles clanged and the green lights glowed. Startled by the noise, the bird veered away. More clanging and extinguishing of the green followed.
Deyv didn't know what was going on. He did know he didn't like it. He led his two companions off the road and out across the angle between the two roads. When he stepped upon the second road, the poles facing his way clanged and their eyes shone greenly. He went across the rubbery substance quickly, and the moment he and his pets were on the earth, the poles clanged again and the lights went out.
When he returned to the first road, he was a long way from the poles. They remained silent and unlit.
Deyv said, "Whew!" and wiped the sweat from his brow.
A few minutes later he had to run into the jungle again to hide from another tharakorm. This time he saw some heads, very tiny at this distance, stick out of the holes at the bottom.
Another sleep passed and then another. Deyv and his companions came across two other junctions guarded by poles that spoke with metal tongues and cast green with their eyes. Deyv skirted these and kept on. Not once did he see human beings, for which he was thankful. On the other hand, their absence also made him uneasy. Were the locals so scarce because there just weren't any? Or did they avoid the road for a good reason which he ought to know?
By then more of the mountain was visible. Its top was still covered with something white, but lower down it was black. Rain came again, and there were more lakes to go around. He came to a place which had suffered some catastrophe long ago. A lot of rotting trees lay along the edge of the jungle, but fullgrown new trees reared above them. The road was raised from the ground and twisted like a piece of leather. Deyv, Jum, and Aejip passed by it, regaining it when it became flat enough to walk on, even though it was rippled. About two hundred yards beyond this point was another junction. The poles there were leaning at crazy angles, and a bulge showed in the area between the two sets.
By then Deyv had realized that the poles did not react until he was about one hundred and twenty yards away. But now, just before he was about to leave the road, the poles clanged, and the eyes directly above the lowest turned a baleful red.
Deyv jumped, though not so much from the unexpected reaction of the poles. The animals went into the air, also, Jum barking and Aejip yowling. When he came down, Deyv howled. Something was sending a shock through him, something from the road itself. It was painful, and it made him leap about like a mouse on a hot stone. He tried to run off the road, but the repeated shocks caused him to fall. Then he felt the horrible sensations most strongly on the side on which he'd fallen.
Yelling, he managed to roll off the road and lie panting in the dirt. Aejip landed on her stomach, which drove the air from her in a great whoof. Jum, howling, tumbled head over paws onto his master's legs.
Finally, his breath regained, his muscles having ceased to quiver, Deyv sat up. The poles were still clanging and flashing a red light. He rose unsteadily and looked around to make sure that no person or beast had been attracted by their screams of agony. No one was in sight
Yes, there was.
Drifting slowly at an angle across the road, about two hundred feet up and half a mile away, was a tharakorm. Its sides and upper works were visible now: the whitish hull, short masts, yardarms, and unfurled sails. The thing could only drift with the wind, but the creatures aboard could fly against it
Even as Deyv caught sight of the vessel, dark objects dropped out of the holes in the bottom and other objects leaped off the sides. They were only tiny beings at this distance. Deyv, however, knew what they looked like. He also knew why they were leaving the tharakorm.
4
HERE were perhaps a hundred of them. They flew swiftly, cutting across the wind, their leathery wings flapping. Deyv staggered across the short grass. His legs felt weak, and his head swam. He drove on, aware that Jum and Aejip were not running in their best form by any means. Nonetheless, they were faster than he. A glance showed him that the khratikl had veered to cut him off. He tried to increase his pace, and he did. But not by much. Whatever had shocked him had taken a great deal out of him.
Before he reached the edge of the trees, he looked back at his pursuers. They were close enough so that he could see the ratlike heads, the flat rudderlike tails, the furry black bodies with long legs trailing, and the black wings. These were formed of thin skin stretched between body and back legs and a long bony finger extending from the wrist. He could also hear their cluttering.
One khratikl, the speediest, and also the bravest or most foolhardy, swooped ahead of the pack. Aejip whirled, snarling, leaped up, and hooked her claws into a wing. She came down with the thing fluttering and squeaking at the end of her paw, and she bit off its head. Then she spun and dived under a frondy bush, with Deyv close behind her. Jum was ahead of them, streaking through the sparse undergrowth.
The things were at a disadvantage now, though it wasn't much of one. They had to descend to the ground to get through the barrier of bushes and vines lining the edge of the forest. Once inside the barrier, they needed at least twenty feet of bare ground for their runway before taking to the air again. They just didn't have the room here, so they'd have to run on their long, comparatively weak legs. If it hadn't been for the shock he'd suffered, Deyv could have outdistanced them.
Furthermore, the khratikl had a limited amount of time to catch their prey. If the tharakorm kept on drifting, it would soon be out of range of its guests. On the other hand, a tharakorm sometimes released its gas and landed. Usually, this occurred when hunting had not been good, and the host lacked food from which it made the lifting gas.
At least, this was what Deyv's father had told him. Actually, it was only a guess on his father's part, though he had once inspected a dead tharakorm. The creature hadn't really been dead, though, just inactive. Later, when his father had passed the place where it had been, the thing was gone. Apparently, a tharakorm could come to life again. Or maybe a big wind had blown it away.
In any event, there was no telling what the hungry khratikl were going to do. Deyv could only run and hope to find a good place for defense or hiding. As he ran, he drew his sword. He spared a look behind him. The things were still after him, a hundred at least, their wings flapping to help them with their running, their mouths open, and the big incisors visible despite the pale light under the massive branches. The nearest was a hundred and fifty feet behind him.
Ahead of him, Jum stopped and began barking. A few seconds later, Deyv saw what had attracted his attention. Through the dimness a great bulk loomed. It was high and round, and fallen jungle giants and growths of liana half-covered it.
It was a House of the Ancients, lying on its side.
He hoped that it was deserted. It should be, from its vegetation-littered appearance. However, it was possible that a tribe lived in it and used the vegetation as camouflage.
When Deyv came closer he looked quickly around. No soul-egg tree was in sight, but this did not mean that no humans dwelt in the House. Some tribes had their trees at a distance, in a hidden place.
By then Aejip had climbed up a mighty tree leaning against the House. Jum follo
wed her a moment later. His claws slipped a few times, but he made it. He turned and faced Deyv, his tongue hanging out, his sides heaving.
Deyv ran up the trunk. A thin screech came from behind him. Aejip, roaring, leaped over Deyv's head.
Gaining Jum's side, Deyv turned around. Below him the cat was engaged with four khratikl. One, two, three! The fourth broke off and ran for the main body of his fellows. Aejip picked up a carcass in her fangs and leaped up the trunk.
Deyv put the sword into its scabbard. He let himself down off the side of the trunk, clinging to knots and the rough bark. When his feet were on the smooth cold surface of the House, he worked his way up its rounded side, still clinging to the tree. Ahead of him, Jum landed on the surface and slid backward into
Deyv's legs, his claws unable to get any purchase.
Hanging on with both hands, Deyv shoved the heavy dog up the slick curve with a foot. In the meantime, Aejip had worked her way farther up the trunk. Now she leaped outward onto the House, landed some distance above Deyv, slid, yowling, and abruptly disappeared.
Deyv shoved the dog ahead of him until they were opposite the place where the cat had dropped out of sight. He could see then that she had fallen into an opening. From his position, Deyv could move on all fours, cautiously, and perhaps reach the opening. Jum would never make it on his own.
Deyv bent his neck far back to look above. A dozen rattish faces looked down on him from the tree. If their owners had any guts—and they weren't noted for lacking courage—they would glide down toward him. The sheer weight of their bodies would send him scooting on down the curve and onto the ground.
Desperate, Deyv did the only thing he could do. Bracing his back against the trunk, he shoved the dog with all the strength in his legs. Yelping, Jum shot out, then dropped into the round hole.
DARK IS THE SUN Page 3
