"Shut up! Shut up! Do you want to get us killed?"
"Well, your argument led me to think about anger, and—"
Deyv managed to stretch himself far enough to place his hand over the plant-man's beak.
"Now, be quiet! Or I swear I'll lop off your buzzer with my sword!"
Sloosh said nothing after that. He resumed climbing; and after what seemed a long time, and may have been, they rose through the shaft in the center of the middle tharakorm. The cable was wound around a huge windlass suspended about ten feet above the top of the shaft. On the edge to their right was a smaller windlass, used to let down or draw up the rope-ladder. Deyv looked around quickly. No one was in sight, though due to the dimness of light, that didn't mean that no one was on the decks of the two tharakorm attached to the central one.
However, that no one was around was good. But they were still in trouble. Sloosh couldn't go any higher than the point at which the cable came off the monstrously large drum of the windlass. There was nothing for him to grab on to. The cable was wound too tightly around the drum.
It might have been possible for Deyv to crawl up Sloosh's body and, standing on his shoulders, dig his fingers into the cable and draw himself on up. This was out. One touch from him, and the alarm would go off.
The rope ladder hadn't been drawn all the way around its windlass. About ten feet hung down below the edge. Deyv explained what he had to do. The Archkerri didn't reply, but he must have been thinking of what would happen to Deyv if he failed. He may also have wished to tell Deyv not to cry out if he did fall. Or perhaps he was calculating how long it would take Deyv before he struck the ground. Who knew what went on in the mind behind the cabbage leaves?
Deyv wondered, fleetingly, what Vana would think if his body came through the darkness and splashed in front of her. That was a strange thought, he thought even more fleetingly. What did she care?
Or perhaps he might fall on the Yawtl. Though he hadn't killed Hoozisst, as he'd felt like doing, and though he'd treated him as a comrade, which he was, in a sense, he still was angry because the Yawtl had stolen his egg. At least, if he, Deyv, fell on Hoozisst, then the thief would die, too. There was some satisfaction, though not much, in that visualization.
Deyv would have liked to ask Sloosh if his grip was still strong. He needed reassurance. It didn't matter, however. He had to act now, whatever the situation was.
Gripping the Archkerri's lower body with his legs, Deyv untied the rope around his waist. Then he slowly slid down the rope, only a few inches from the triple cable, and when he was a few feet below
Sloosh's legs, he began to swing on the rope. Back and forth he went until he could almost reach the dangling rope-ladder with the fingertips of his extended right arm.
Then, at the next swing inward, he released the grip of his left hand and fell outward. His right hand missed the first three rungs but closed on the next to last. And his left hand snapped around and seized the bottom rung, and his toes banged into the side of the shaft.
The ladder held firm.
He gasped with relief. Until then he couldn't be sure that the windlass around which the ladder was wrapped had been locked. If it hadn't been, the drum would have spun out, and he would have fallen clinging to the ladder, which would have smashed on the ground below.
He pulled himself up with arms and shoulders until he was up enough to get a foothold. Then he climbed quickly up the ladder and was over the edge.
Sloosh's leaf-covered head was turned toward him. Deyv signaled that he must return down the cable to the ground. There was no way of getting the plant-man onto the tharakorm except up the rope-ladder.
While Sloosh was letting himself down, much more quickly than he'd ascended, Deyv studied the windlass at close range. Though he'd never seen such a machine before, he figured out within a minute how to unlock it. Having done this, he began to unwind it slowly. The weight of the rope-ladder, over six hundred feet long, was immense. The windlass had a brake, however, which was operated by foot.
And it must have been oiled recently, since it didn't squeak.
Looking down through the hole, he could not see the ground or the people on it. The Archkerri had disappeared into the darkness. Deyv wouldn't be able to see the ladder reach the earth, but when it could no longer be let down, he guessed it would be there. If there was a surplus, it wouldn't matter.
When the drum was almost bare, Deyv relocked the windlass. It would take some time before the first person came up, so he might as well look around. He would not go out of sight of the windlass, however. He didn't want any of Feersh's crew to find that the ladder had been lowered and to raise an alarm.
Having taken his blowgun out of its case and fitted a dart into it, he went to the center entrance of the ship-creature. A wooden cabin had been built over it. Its door was closed. He circled the cabin, noting that it had two windows on each side, both too small for him to wriggle through. At least one person was inside, snoring.
For a moment, he considered entering through the door and killing the sleeper. There might be others, however, and so more than he could handle. It was best to wait until all his party had boarded and rented after the arduous climb. He prowled the deck, looking through the windows of the other two wooden cabins. One seemed to be unoccupied, but that could be because it lacked snorers.
The tharakorm on each side of that on which he stood also had cabins. According to Yawtl, the center creature was the residence of Feersh the Blind and her brood. The one on his left, looking toward the bow, held the khratikl; the one on his right, the human slaves. The witch and her family numbered six.
The Yawtl had said that one of the major dangers was Feersh's Emerald of Anticipation. This was a large green translucent stone she always wore suspended from a leather cord around her neck. Its name came from its ability to predict events anywhere from a few minutes to a few hours before they happened.
"She told me that it was a stone of some sort which grows in the land of The Shemibob," Hoozisst had said. "There are uncountable numbers of these stones, but very few dare enter the glittering evergrowing land which is known to some as The Shining House of Countless Chambers. Others call it The
Jeweled Wasteland or The Bright Abomination.
"Feersh, however, must have had the courage to trespass on its very edge. She would've chipped off a jewel and fled with it. It is said that she was stricken blind shortly thereafter. I don't know if there is any truth in that story. I doubt it. Not the story about The Shemibob. There is no doubt that the monsterwitch exists. I mean Feersh's claim that she stole the Emerald herself. As is well known, witches seldom leave their homes, be they Houses of the ancients, castles, caves, or tharakorm."
Sloosh interrupted then. "That is because they have become too dependent on their ancients' artifacts, and they feel uneasy unless they are surrounded by them. They have no tribes, and they can't trust anyone except their families, and sometimes not even them. In fact, most witches suffer from a sickness of the mind that makes them unable to venture from their homes without great fear. They are prisoners of their own powers."
"Anyway," Hoozisst had continued, "the witch told me that she can 'speak' to the Emerald and give it information about situations that might occur. The precious stone then replies, telling her what is most likely to occur. I don't mean that the Emerald actually has a voice. It responds by showing within its interior certain designs. Only the witch can interpret these. Or so she said."
"If she's blind," Vana had asked, "how can she see the designs?"
"She is dependent upon her eldest daughter, Jowanarr, who describes the designs to her. Jowanarr will become the head of the family when Feersh dies. If she isn't too old to bear children then, she will have them by a slave picked for his intelligence, good looks, excellent physique, and virility. If she's barren, then her sister Seelgee will bear the children, but Jowanarr will still head the family.
"But that doesn't matter. What does matter is that Feersh
promised that after I'd stolen thirty eggs, I'd get the Emerald. She would then teach me how to give the information to the stone and how to read the designs. I should have known that she was lying, the bitch!"
"You were very lucky you weren't killed," Deyv had said. "You should have been, even though a tree broke the fall."
"We Yawtl are tough," Hoozisst had said. "Besides, I'd grabbed a blanket from the shoulders of her son
Jeydee, and by holding on to its four corners I slowed my fall somewhat. Still, it was luck more than anything else that kept me alive. The tree-gods saved me so that I could get my revenge."
Whatever the abilities of the Emerald, it wasn't warning Feersh now. But then she didn't know about his party, Deyv thought. Or, if she did, she wasn't worried about them. After all, the stone was dependent upon the data she gave it, and if that was insufficient, the stone didn't have what it needed to make the right prediction.
On the other hand, for all he knew, Feersh was well aware of what was going on. She'd set up a trap; she was watching them from the dark cabin. Those within were awake and pretending to snore.
He looked down through the shaft. Here came the first climber, Sloosh. He bore on his back the collapsed vessel and Aejip, tied to him. The cat was scared, but she wouldn't make any noise.
At that moment, he heard a cough. Down on his hands and knees, he turned around. He could see no one. That meant that either someone had coughed in the central cabin or that he or she had come out of its door. This faced the bow, and he was behind the cabin.
He rose with the blowgun in his hand. Softly, he walked to the cabin and along its side. The cough was not repeated. There was no one in front of the cabin, but its door was open. Someone was out on the deck. But where?
He quietly shut the door and went to the other side of the cabin. The cougher was walking toward the bow, which was pointed downwind. Deyv looked back toward the windlasses. He could see them from the cabin plainly enough. The man hadn't noticed that the rope-ladder windlass drum was almost bare.
He couldn't escape noticing it on the way back, not if he was more fully awake.
There was only one thing to do. Deyv walked toward the man, who by now was standing near the bow, getting ready to relieve himself. He was very intent on his business when Deyv's tomahawk struck him in the back of the head. He went over the low railing of wood glued to the deck and disappeared without an outcry.
19
DEYV whirled, tense, hoping nobody had heard the crack of weapon against bone. Sometime later the faint splop of a body smashing into earth reached him.
Deyv went back to the hole quietly, pausing to listen at a cabin window. There wasn't a sound. Sloosh came up shortly after, breathing heavily through his chest-mouth. Deyv helped him up, unloaded the cube, and untied Aejip. The cat bounded onto the deck, grimacing soundlessly. Deyv patted and stroked her to soothe her and whispered that she should stay there until Vana came. It had been agreed beforehand that the woman would be Aejip's partner during the attack.
The Yawtl came next, toiling upward with Jum bound to his back. Deyv also petted and quieted him.
Vana boarded close behind Hoozisst. Deyv told them what he'd observed and that he'd killed a man.
"I thought I saw something falling through the dark," the Yawtl said. "I was afraid it was you. But when
I heard no alarm, I knew that it must have been one of them. If he came from that cabin, he was one of
Feersh's sons. I hope it wasn't Skibroziy. I want him to suffer much before he dies."
Hoozisst had described in detail the layout of the rooms and corridors of the ship-creatures. Feersh slept in a chamber on the lower deck. Sometimes, she was alone; sometimes, with a male slave. Jowanarr spent her sleep-time in the aft cabin with two or three slaves, male and female. Seelgee was in the cabin nearest the bow. Kiyt was in a cabin near his mother's. Jeydee and Skibroziy were usually in the middle cabin, either by themselves or with a couple of male or female slaves. Hoozisst had also described the sons and daughters so that they wouldn't be confused with the slaves.
The only way to get belowdecks was to go through the cabins—unless you were a khratikl. The plan was to seize Feersh as a hostage. Hoozisst had said that he believed they would be safe as long as they had her in their power. The others would do what she said—he hoped. Of course, there was the possibility that Jowanarr, who no doubt was impatient to be the chief, might let her mother be killed.
The raiders went behind the central cabin, where Vana passed around torches she'd brought up on her back. Using the cabin and a fiber sheet, found on the deck, as protection from the wind, they lit the torches. First, they poured out from a gourd some fish-oil they'd prepared. Then the Yawtl used his iron and flint to rain sparks on the oil. After a few failures, it finally lit. He poured more oil on the blaze, and they took turns dipping the ends of their fish-oil-soaked torches in the fire.
Just as the third torch was set to burning, they heard a scream to their right. They spun toward the sound but could see nothing. A moment later, a furious shrieking khratikl swept at them from the darkness. Its leathery wings beat at Deyv, and its claws ripped into his face. Shouting with pain, he dropped his torch and grabbed the stinking loathsome thing and threw it on the deck. Before it could rise, it was tomahawked by the Yawtl.
It was too late to carry out their original plan. They'd intended to split up the party so all three cabins could be invaded at once. Now they had to get inside the central cabin at once. Somewhere something metallic was being struck, its deep bongs vibrating through the air. And from the tharakorm housing the khratikl came many screams of rage.
Hoozisst, holding his torch in one hand, opened the door to the central cabin with the other. He snatched his tomahawk from his belt and, yelling, charged inside. Vana followed, the now roaring cat close behind her. Deyv picked his torch up, felt the blood streaming down his face, grimaced at the pain, and, sword in hand, bounded after the others. The dog, growling, leaped after him. The plant-man, the slowest, had been chosen to form the rearguard.
The cabin was made of a heavy wood stained a brown-reddish color and painted with horizontal bands of yellow and green. Spears, blowguns, tomahawks, war clubs, and one of the ancient metal swords hung on the walls. Two corners held beds, wide, mattressed, and covered with some beautiful cloth
Deyv had never seen before. There was a chest of drawers and two stands with washbowls, and soap, towels, and bottles of some dark-green substance.
In the middle of the room was a table of glossy hardwood which held a base on which was a large ball of quartz. It pulsed with a fierce orange glow that made the torches unnecessary. It struck Deyv with astonishment, since it had not been on fire until a moment before. Jowanarr must have summoned the light through witchery.
A man, a well-built slave with dark-brown skin and wavy hair dyed green and yellow, lay face down on the floor. Blood spread out from under him. On the bed by him sat a naked woman, Jowanarr. Her hands were clutching her chest and under her dark skin was a paleness. She was long-legged and slim but had huge breasts and a long narrow face, a long hooked nose, and dark eyes great with terror.
On the other bed sprawled another male slave, Vana's short spear sticking out of his throat.
Jowanarr, seeing Deyv's bloody face, started to stand up. Aejip and Jum snarled at her, and she sat back down.
Deyv went past the table with the glowing, quartz sphere and removed a square trap, door by its metal ring. The opening revealed a dark well from which descended a flight of wooden steps that had been placed over the steep ramp grown by the tharakorm.
He looked up. Vana was pulling on the spear caught in the slave's windpipe.
"Forget that!" he said. "Take that sword off the wall!"
The Yawtl beat her to it. Swinging the blade around over his head, he whooped.
Deyv had no time to be disgusted with Hoozisst's greediness. He could handle the sword better than
Vana anyway, being th
e stronger. She shot out her tongue at him, an expression of contempt in her tribe, and turned around to withdraw the spear.
Sloosh had closed the door behind him. A good thing, too, for immediately thereafter paws pounded on it, claws scratched, and screeching filled the cabin. Ratlike faces looked through the windows, followed shortly by bodies. Aejip flew along the walls, raking the faces with her claws. Jum leaped up and bit down on others. Vana thrust her spear into a dripping mouth.
"Tell the witch's daughter to order them to stay out!" Deyv whistled at the Yawtl in Archkerri.
The Yawtl spat words at Jowanarr. She hesitated, but when Hoozisst, his sword raised, stepped toward her, she screamed out at the beasts. They ceased trying to get through the windows, though their din filled the cabin.
Deyv grabbed the woman's hand and yanked her off the bed. He pulled her to the opening in the floor and thrust her down ahead of him. She fell down the wooden stairs but would have been up on her feet and down a corridor if he hadn't leaped down on top of her. Her head hit the floor, and she passed out.
He hoped he hadn't killed her, since he might need her later.
Vana came down swiftly, followed by the two animals. Hoozisst took the steps two at a time, surrounded by light. He'd abandoned his torch for the glowing quartz sphere.
"It makes a much better light," he said, grinning. "Besides, I want to make sure nobody else grabs it."
Deyv didn't wait for the Archkerri to make his ponderous way down the steps. He raced ahead toward where the Yawtl had said the witch slept. Open entrances, dark, silent, flashed past. The doorway to
Feersh's room was about ten feet away when he slammed headlong into a wall that shot out of a recess.
He fell back onto the floor, the sword and the torch fallen from his suddenly limp hands. For a moment he didn't know what had happened. Added to the flow of blood from the claw wounds was blood from his nose.
He rose shakily and picked up the torch. The wall had slid out or dropped down from hollows within the corridor walls. It had come out so swiftly he hadn't even been aware of it. Nor had he heard it thud into the floor.
DARK IS THE SUN Page 15
