"Thank you, O Shrekmikl, Great Son of The Great Mother!" he croaked. "You sent your sky-fire to wake me up, to drag me back from death! Yon showed me that I was wrong to just sit there and die! You showed me that I must be angry at the evil wretch who stole my soul egg! And you sHowed me that you favor me!"
It was possible that without the lightning, he might have sunk just so far in his despondency and then hit the core of anger that was deep inside him. Whatever might have been, the bolt had struck, and it had roused him.
He waited until the storm was over, then climbed out of the window, dropped onto the ground, rose, and walked weakly to the nearest pool. After slaking his thirst, he searched for and found some fruit which the wind had knocked off a tree. It was, however, two sleep-times before he felt strong enough to continue.
By then the thief s trail, if there had been one, had been washed away. Deyv had no idea where to look.
The thief had the whole world to hide in. Yet Deyv set out with an optimism unjustified by the facts. He felt that Shrekmikl had taken an interest in him, and he would surely set his worshipper upon the right path.
He went back on the road he'd left when the tharakorm's tenants had chased him. He continued in the same direction. After many sleeps, he was at the foot of the mountain. The road ran up it, but was twisted and sometimes went straight up a precipice. There was no use trying to travel on it. Despite this,
Deyv decided to see the other side of the mountain. Though he had seen evidence that a tribe was in the neighborhood, he felt that he could do better elsewhere. There was no rational basis for this; he just felt it.
Instead of climbing the mountain, he went around it. This involved much struggling through a sometimes dense forest and through many swamps. He kept on and finally had rounded the peak. The country on the other side looked much like that he'd left behind. Nevertheless, he felt that he had accomplished something worthwhile. Just what, he would have found hard to define.
Here the ancients' highway, coming down off the peak, curved toward his left. Some time later it split into two, and he took the left. That was an unlucky direction, just as the left hand was the unlucky hand and a wind from the left was unlucky. However, Shrekmikl was left-handed, and he was the favorite son of The Mother.
Deyv observed a herd of huge pink bipedal beasts with long tails walk calmly through the next junction.
They paid no heed to the clanging or the flashing green lights. If they could do it, why couldn't he?
Though somewhat apprehensive, he followed their example, and nothing happened. After that, he saved time by not detouring around the crossroads.
Once, while looking in the forest for a good place to sleep, he came across the remains of a fire in a thorn bower. It had been made by a single person who'd left some footprints in the mud. They looked human, but the big toes were exceptionally long. Deyv wondered if the prints had been made by a
Yawtl. Though he'd never seen one, his grandmother had described this legendary creature. One of its features was a very long big toe.
Another characteristic of this creature was its addiction to stealing. Deyv brightened when he remembered this.
Perhaps he was on the right trail.
Unfortunately, the Yawtl was not going to leave any tracks while he was on the highway. Also, he could take another road any time he came to a junction. Despite this, Deyv always took the highway to the left.
He also stepped up his pace. The animals complained in their way about this, but he ignored them.
Then one day after breakfasting, Aejip decided that she'd had more than enough for the time being. She curled up in the cave they'd found and refused to get up. It was evident that she intended to sleep for a long time before she would go on.
Deyv was frantic. The delay might enable the Yawtl—if that's what it was—to get another sleep-time ahead of them. It was no use, however, trying to change Aejip's mind. If stubbornness was a characteristic of a cat, and if cats admired it, she was a cat's cat Leaving her behind was unthinkable. He needed her as a sentinel and also as a food provider. Besides, he was very fond of her, no matter how often he got angry at her.
He finally decided to take a rest himself. He could use it, and Jum's feet seemed to be getting sore. First, though, they had to hunt. A few minutes later, the two left Aejip snoozing and went down a little-used path.
When they came to the deep tracks of a giant turtle that had crossed the path, they followed them.
Sometime later they came back out on the trail with two huge eggs. Fortunately, these had not been laid by a checkered turtle; Deyv could eat them.
Just as they stepped out, Jum froze, growling softly. Deyv laid his ear to the ground. Faintly, the thud of running feet came to him. He and Jum stepped back into the cover and waited. The path at this point was rather straight, enabling Deyv to see the intruder at least a minute before she came past him.
This was a woman who would make a good mate, if physical appearance meant anything. She was tall and had an excellent figure. Her skin was pale; her kinky hair was yellow; her eyes were blue. A bone whistle hung from a cord around her neck. She wore a short kilt of some green material supported by a broad leather belt. A stone tomahawk was tucked into it, and she held a stone-tipped spear in her right hand. A blowgun case rested on her shoulder. Her expression was one of strain, possibly of desperation.
Sweat coated her lovely skin.
Deyv had thought to step out behind her as she went by and stun her with a blow from the flat of his tomahawk. But her haste could mean that she was being pursued. It would be better to wait until he was sure no one followed close behind her. That meant that he would lose his chance for complete surprise, but it was smarter to lose her than to lose his life.
She came closer. And he suddenly knew what had made him vaguely uneasy about her without quite knowing why.
She had no soul egg.
7
JUM was ready to go silently into action the moment he received the signal, but Deyv cautioned him not to move. The woman ran by, her panting deep and sawing. She did not look behind or ahead but down.
It struck him then that she might not be fleeing. She might be trailing someone. Or hoping she'd find some tracks, since there were none in this part of the path. However, when she got a few yards on, she would see the imprints his boots and the dog's paws had made.
She did. She halted suddenly and bent down to look at them. She straightened up, looked around, and darted into the foliage. Deyv could see a small patch of light skin through some leaves. She was waiting there, hoping that whoever had made the tracks had gone off the trail for some reason other than ambushing her.
Deyv kneeled down on the ground and laid his ear to it again. If anyone was coming around the bend, he
—or they—wasn't running. He decided to move farther along the path. Should warriors notice the prints going off into the jungle, they might look for him. As for the woman, he was no longer interested. She had no egg and thus was not for him. She was a pariah, an outcast, a soulless contemptible being.
Besides, now that he considered it, he must have been crazy to think he could catch her for his mate. He had to track down the person who'd stolen his own egg. How could he do that and also drag her along even if she had had an egg?
He looked back down the trail. The patch of skin was gone. For a moment he considered sending the dog to sniff her out. It was possible that she had glimpsed him as she passed and was now prowling through the bush, looking for him. He didn't think so. But there was no sense taking chances. He'd just move on, keep ahead of her. No. He couldn't do that. He had to return to the cave to get Aejip.
If the woman was aggressive, if she wasn't just running away from him, and if she thought him a danger, she'd have to go along the edge of the jungle until she was past a turn. Then she could cross to his side and sneak back.
On the other hand, she was probably as eager to avoid conflict as he, which meant she'd get out of his si
ght and then run as fast as she could down the trail away from him.
Maybe she hadn't seen him. More likely, it had only been his tracks going off into the brush that had spooked her.
He gave the word to Jum, and the two moved slowly through the foliage. They kept an eye on the path, pausing now and then to search it out through the vegetation and so keep from going too far away from it.
He wondered if she came from the same tribe that Shamoom had stolen his woman from. She certainly fit the description. She looked strange to him but at the same time attractive. Those blue eyes had caused him a pang of repulsion for a second. They were so pale, so washed out, so much like the eyes of ghosts were said to be.
Her nose was too small and straight, and her lips were not the splendid thickness of his. But, in their way, they had a certain appeal.
Her breasts were not the large ones he admired. Yet, though small, they weren't too much so, and they certainly were well shaped. They seemed to defy gravity, those upright cones, not at all like the melonshaped breasts of his tribeswomen.
There was something to be said for the exotic. But she was eggless. That made all the difference ...
He stopped. What was he talking about? He was eggless, tool It was then that it struck him that he might have a very good reason to meet her. Could her egg have been stolen, and by the same one who'd lifted his?
When he was opposite the place where he'd seen her, or had thought he had, he stopped. After carefully watching and listening, Deyv sent Jum across the path. The dog bounded out of the foliage and dived into that across the trail. A minute later, he emerged. Jum's actions indicated that the woman had gone along the edge in the direction from which they had come. Deyv took a chance. Instead of having Jum sniff her tracks in the bush, he had the dog follow him down the trail. As he had expected, he found her prints where she had come out onto the trail. He didn't need Jum to follow her scent.
Presently, he caught a glimpse of the woman ahead as she rounded a turn. A little later he caught up with her. She turned when she heard him running, and she waited, spear ready.
Deyv stopped and asked her what her name was and what she was doing there. She replied in her speech, of which he did not understand a word.
He pointed to his chest, bare of an egg. Then he pointed to hers. Her eyes widened, and she said something. It didn't sound threatening. Nevertheless, he approached slowly, speaking in a soft tone. Jum stayed at his side until Deyv thought it might make her less uneasy if the dog remained behind.
Though it took some time, Deyv got his ideas across. If he understood her rightly, her egg had also been stolen. She had been looking for the thief ever since, which was not too long a time ago. The signs and gestures she made seemed to indicate that the egg had been taken during her last sleep.
If he understood her further, the thief had left some tracks. They had gone in this direction. Then she'd lost them, but she had continued in this direction hoping to pick them up again. Deyv indicated that if this was so, the thief had slipped around him undetected.
He said, "Yawtl?"
She didn't know what that meant. Perhaps she had another name for Yawtl.
Deyv stepped closer to her. She didn't flinch. He reached out slowly, touched her smooth shoulder, then touched between her breasts. He touched his own shoulder, then his chest. He pointed down the trail and waggled two fingers.
She shook her head. Did this mean no? Or did it mean that she didn't nod for yes but for no?
Suddenly, she smiled. It was strained, but its meaning was obvious.
He walked past her, not looking at her, and started on down the path. In a moment Jum had caught up with him. After twenty or so steps, he looked back. She was following him. In a short while, she was walking by his side.
Now and then Deyv talked to her in the low tones that ever-possible danger made necessary. Before they turned off the path to go after Aejip, he knew her name. Vana.
Aejip seemed to be sleeping, but her ears flicked when the three were close to her. Then, catching the scent of the stranger, she shot, to her paws, half snarling. Deyv quieted her down. The cat sniffed the woman's feet and legs and crotch, which Jum had also done. Vana reached out a hand carefully. Deyv was both surprised and jealous when Aejip submitted to a scratching behind the ears and a stroking of the forehead. She even purred.
A few minutes later, they left for the trail. This led them back to the ancients' highway. Jum cast about, sniffing, and started to the left. Not wanting to waste any time, Deyv at once started language lessons with Vana. He pointed out parts of his body, named them, then indicated objects along the road. Vana had no trouble remembering the names. Her pronunciation left something to be desired, however. Two of the sounds seemed to be entirely unfamiliar to her, and she was not quite accurate in reproducing five others.
A perfectionist, Deyv insisted that she master these. When sleep-time came, she could utter most of them to his satisfaction. They ate fruit, the leaves of a root plant, and a 10-pound hoofed rodent which
Aejip had killed. They bedded down high up in a tree in an abandoned nest. Deyv made no moves to lie with her although he felt passionate. It had been a long time since he'd been with the woman of the young bachelors. But Vana was forbidden to him for several reasons. One, the law of his tribe was that a bachelor could lie with only one woman until he got married. Two, even if he had felt like breaking that law, he wouldn't lie with a woman who had no soul egg. Three, the presence of his pets inhibited him.
Four, if she had rejected him, he would have been humiliated.
He slept with Jum and Aejip between him and Vana.
Just as they were about to emerge from the jungle, they saw twenty warriors walking along the highway.
These looked as if they could have been of Vana's tribe. Deyv quickly drew his sword and put its edge across the woman's jugular vein. She nodded, indicating in her strange way that she wasn't going to call out. Later, he would find out that the warriors were enemies of her people. In any event, she wouldn't have tried to get their attention. Eggless, she no longer had a tribe.
While they sat behind a bush, they continued the language lesson. By the time the war party was out of sight, she had learned ten more words.
They set out at a leisurely pace so the swift-walking warriors could get even farther ahead of them.
While they were eating some freshly picked fruit, they saw the nose of The Dark Beast rise ahead on their right. Within seven sleep-times it would be fully exposed, a black object that would fill most of the sky. A pale darkness would fall over the land, and the air would become cooler. More rain would fall, and the winds would grow stronger. It would be a bad time to travel then. Visibility would be much less; they wouldn't even be able to see down the road. Nevertheless, they had to keep going. The thief might not be daunted by the darkness.
A heavy rain came and washed out the faint traces of the thief. Two slight earthquakes momentarily rippled the road. Near sleep-time they came to another junction. Deyv started to detour around the poles, fearing a recurrence of the shocking incident, but he stopped when he saw Vana's curious behavior.
She had boldly walked up to the poles. Before reaching the intersection, however, she sank to her knees.
After bowing deeply three times and chanting at the same time, she rose and walked between the poles.
Deyv was amazed. He had thought that these clanging, light-flashing things were strange animals. It had not occurred to him they might be gods of some sort.
They'd accepted her prayers and let her through.
Would they do the same for him? Or, since he didn't belong to their totem, would they blast him? Best not to tempt them. After he'd taught her enough to ask her about the poles, he'd get the truth. Meanwhile, he'd just detour.
She stood with a puzzled, half-amused expression until he and the animals joined her. She asked him something in her barbarous speech, but he ignored her. He felt that he'd somehow made a fool of himself, and
she was laughing at him.
A little later, during another driving rain, he glimpsed something ahead. They retired quickly into the jungle. Along came the warriors with the kinky yellow hair, this time trotting. As far as Deyv could determine, they hadn't succeeded in acquiring any heads. The war party quickly disappeared into the rain, but Deyv restrained his companions from returning to the road. There had been something of haste about the group, something that suggested they were being pursued. A little while afterward, his caution was vindicated. Another war party, of about forty men, dogtrotted by them.
Deyv waited a while longer to make sure that they wouldn't run into a rearguard. Then they moved out.
They were so miserable from the cold, drenching downpour that they didn't talk much. Aejip went off to hunt their next meal. Shortly before sleep-time, she caught up with them. No carcass dangled from her mouth. Hungry, shivering, they sought out a dry, safe place. Unable to find either, they took refuge under a tree and tried to sleep. It was a grouchy bunch that took the road after they'd given up getting anything but a few very short naps.
Then the skies cleared. Though The Beast still cast its cold shadow, they felt somewhat better. Aejip slid into the jungle and came back rather quickly with a fawn she'd killed. Since it was impossible to find dry wood, Deyv and Vana ate the meat raw. Shortly thereafter, Vana relieved herself. Deyv was disgusted.
His tribe always went into the bush when they had to obey the call of nature. So did all the nine tribes of his area. They might have some customs which he found repulsive, but at least they were modest.
Their campsite was about two hundred yards into the jungle. They had started for the highway when they heard to their left loud buzzings and whistlings. Unable to resist their curiosity, they walked cautiously toward the noise.
Deyv pushed on stealthily through the foliage until he could dimly see something through the leaves. He stopped so he could distinguish whatever it was that was moving out there. Unable to see anything more clearly, he started to move closer to the objects. At that moment, something touched his shoulder from behind. He was in such a state of nervous concentration that the unexpected touch startled him. He whirled, ready to fight or run away from whatever was behind him. But it was only Vana grinning at him. She held up her bone whistle and gestured that he should let her precede him. He didn't like this.
DARK IS THE SUN Page 5
