But, Seetree had set his mind on revenge and would not accept cowardice in the crew, so he stoked the blaze of their courage at the great fire by feasting with the rest upon Johnnies that refused to hunt.
A feast that brought the other hunters around quickly enough.
Capan Seetree’s dreams continued to grow, just as his mental affliction and scurv progressed. He was plagued with hallucinations now, and had seen the vast land west of the river as a golden paradise that he was blessed by the jungle gods to conquer.
Once the River Demon and its fire-eyed servants were repelled, the Bakwaniri would claim the jungle as their own and sail through the heights like angels.
True, it was taking too long to find and kill the River Demon, but those Johnnies that did not disappear were hardened for the fight ahead.
The capan felt that they were getting close, or why else would the River Demon have need to call for help from this red-eyed servant?
No. The time was coming and Seetree did not care what was standing in the way. The courage of his hunters would stand with him.
Then he would be capan of all the lands from the river to the coast.
1912
Eighteen years of age.
CHAPTER 29 – Heirs to the Crown
By his 18th year, Gazda had grown tall and long limbed, and his rich diet of blood and vigorous lifestyle had covered him from head to toe with thick layers of corded muscle. The swelling chest, shoulders and flaring back formed a solid pillar of strength that rippled beneath his ivory skin.
Neck, torso and limbs were equally swollen with pliant reams of muscular flesh completing a look that went far beyond the expectations of any normal man. Life among the anthropoids had undoubtedly built this powerful body, but the very line of his form while diminutive in comparison was similar to Goro’s, almost as if his body had grown to mimic his adoptive kind.
He was a man in form, there was no doubt, but never in the history of the species had there been one so strongly made, other than in the imagination of Greek and Roman sculptors.
The night ape was shaped like a god.
Gazda’s hair grew in the appropriate places, if more abundantly than one might find on the average man. His thick, black mane started center to his face, not two inches over his nose where its startling widow’s peak played fulcrum to pointed eyebrows sweeping upward and parallel to his arching hairline.
From there the long locks formed a thick mane of wavy tousles bound away from his brow by a rawhide strap. It cascaded back over his mighty shoulders concealing a sharp line of bristle that sprouted from the nape of his neck and along his spine.
Dark hair grew down from either temple to form a pair of thick sideburns that edged his large cheekbones and continued along the underside of his jaw. This formed a hanging fringe of beard that left his full lips and narrow chin free of encumbrance or decoration.
His powerful chest was shaded by wiry black hair, and a dense spread of this grew down over the flexing of his well-defined abdominal muscles. Similar hair thinly populated his calves and forearms and lay over the backs of his sinewy hands and feet.
The long, strong fingers and toes flexed hard, sharp nails that could puncture bark, or flesh, as many of the tribe’s more ambitious blackbacks could attest.
The night ape’s god-like form was draped with a glossy black loincloth and cape made from the skins of panthers that he hunted with the keen long knife that hung from his narrow waist.
Added to his adornment were several more Bakwaniri bracelets and bands that decorated his arms and legs as proof of his continuing war with the bone-faces.
The skulls and skeletons carved upon these metal rings peered out from clefts in the swelling mounds of ridged muscle and taut flesh.
As the night ape had matured in body, so he had in mind, with special abilities ripening to match his physical prowess.
To either side of an aquiline nose, Gazda’s eyes were dark—almost black—ringed with white and appeared as such in daylight, though they could be seen to flash like crimson flame in the darkest shadow or deepest night—or should some hot passion seize him at any time of day.
The night ape’s voice was human at its core, though life among the anthropoids and the daily raucous sounds of the teeming jungle had made him a virtuoso in its use. He could easily utter the primitive ape-language and mimic any member of the tribe.
By amplifying certain characteristics of it he could agitate the entire group, or use its subtleties to calm an angry blackback in full display. Likewise he could employ its various ranges to sooth the wiliest prey into stillness.
This he used along with the talent for mimicry taught him by Ooso, who had used her mastery of birdsong to answer her cravings for flesh by luring small birds to their doom. Together in mischief they had learned the vocal range of many animals within the canopy.
Combined with Gazda’s hypnotic, sometimes crimson, gaze he could, if he was sufficiently motivated, dominate the simple communications of his tribe, or overwhelm any animal in the jungle that was within earshot.
But he was not often interested in employing this gift upon his fellow apes, for the day-to-day workings of the tribe had long since grown dull to him, and he was rarely moved to participate in its somewhat shambling social life. He was proud to be a member of the group, fiercely so, but he was simply too far ahead of his tribe mates to be drawn into their primitive politics.
Gazda rarely even played his jokes on Sip-sip as a result, and he could barely remember the last time he had thrown a stone at the crippled ape. This was not the case for Omag who could not forget being the target of those random missile attacks and because of that was still prone to nervousness when the tribe stopped to feed or groom, and should the slightest sound come from overhead.
But his tormentor had begun to avoid such things, since Omag always took his frustrations out upon his innocent brethren thus diminishing the night ape’s enjoyment of the joke.
Gazda’s adolescence had seen the passage of the worst uses for his special abilities, and as a responsible ape growing into adulthood; he would not willfully add trouble to the normal anxieties that afflicted the tribe.
Besides the reactions of even the most intelligent anthropoids were too predictable to provide much amusement to the night ape’s active mind. He would rather spend his time chasing down Harkon, and studying that remarkable creature.
Gazda and Kagoon had grown closer following the night ape’s actions during the king’s battle with the lions. The big blackback had been impressed by his friend’s bravery and the pair of them now hunted together whenever they could or joined in wrestling and mock battles, each honing his strength and skill against the other.
A similar thaw had occurred between Gazda and many blackbacks and now like the simple Kagoon, they sought the night ape out when he returned to the tribe, curious to learn the power of his shining fang, and to understand this surprising character that had so outrageously circumvented ape law.
They were also anxious to test his strength which had always been a surprising thing, but that had now grown in proportion to his bravery.
In fact, most blackbacks now accepted their losses to the night ape graciously as a means of strengthening their friendship with the victor. His reputation as a great hunter and an ape of honor had removed any embarrassment from being beaten at his hands.
Ooso was still very close to Gazda and had grown more so after her tiny daughter Yulu had grown past her toddler stage, and now demanded much of her mother’s time and energy. Ooso was pleased to share those responsibilities with her old friend, whom Yulu already sought out for extra attention without any encouragement.
The little she-ape was shaped like her mother through the body, having a round, fat torso and conical head; but with her very long arms and legs, she presented an unusually gangly form for an infant. Gazda had found that carrying Ooso’s daughter was like holding a very furry melon with four long and wriggly vines attached.
> In her short life Yulu had bonded with him, and looked for the night ape whenever there was time for play, or for grooming anywhere along the trail—especially at the Grooming Rock where she loved to show off her special connection with the tribe’s most unique fighter and hunter.
In fact, whenever the night ape visited the tribe and he was not competing in mock display with the other blackbacks, he was carrying tiny Yulu around on his hip while the little she-ape played with the curious pendant he wore around his neck.
Gazda was free with his affections for Ooso’s daughter, though he resisted her efforts to make theirs an exclusive arrangement because all of the young apes in the tribe were drawn to him by his unusual appearance, and the many strange tales that had grown up around him.
Tales given life by old Baho’s popularity among the young, and his predilection for storytelling—a predilection that often kept Gazda busy correcting the exaggerations that crept into the former silverback’s narratives.
Gazda was quick to correct the inaccuracies for they usually put too bright a light upon his prowess, and the night ape did not want to overshadow his king. Goro had fought the lions by himself, and would have gladly died for the tribe if Gazda had not intervened.
The silverback was the true hero of the tale. He was the king.
As his loyal subject, Gazda had always supported Goro, and would until his dying day, so he would not encourage anything but the elevation of the mighty ape’s status.
Having reached the age of 38 years, Goro was at the pinnacle of his power. The injuries suffered during his battle with the lions had long ago healed. Most of the scars were hidden beneath his lustrous coat, and they had done nothing to diminish the silverback’s strength and bearing.
The great sheets of muscle that clung to his gigantic frame rippled with each movement of his mighty arms, and many apes thought he resembled a moving mountain.
The silverback did bear a deep scar across his forehead and cheek from the lioness’ long fangs, but this became a grim reminder of his ferocity for any ape foolish enough to challenge his authority.
How could any blackback upon his approach forget that Goro was king, and he was a lion-killer who had celebrated his victory over the beasts by sharing their flesh among the tribe and afterward taking the young she-apes Ivee, Udam and Oka to be his queens?
Each of those lovely creatures had borne him a son, and the other apes rejoiced for their powerful king and spoke to a future of peace and abundance for the tribe of Goro.
Though some still whispered and plotted, and the lips upon the most active mouth were twisted by spite and disease.
Sip-sip’s facial deformities had made him utterly hideous by that time. While apes judged beauty differently from other creatures, the open wound on the left side of his face: empty eye socket, exposed teeth, jaw and tongue left him horrible to behold. The entire side of his head had become a rotting lesion that alternated between scar tissue, and dripping infection.
Omag’s “sip-sip” sound had become almost uncontrollable, and was amplified by the copious amounts of pus that drooled sloppily out of the foam-flecked hole in his face.
His physical deformities had worsened also, with the bones in his arms and legs twisting around their centers and distorting the thick ridges of muscle that covered them.
This did little to slow Omag while swinging high in the green canopy at speed, but hampered him appreciably when he moved to the ground. Then the traditional anthropoid “knuckle-walk” was distorted by these malformations into an awkward lurching waddle as his massive muscles compensated for the disabilities with sheer power.
He continued to carry and rely upon the axe-head “cane” he’d adopted long before, and over the time his cradling of and caring for the blade had caught the attention of bolder apes who had nicknamed the tool, still in whispers, “Sip-sip’s baby.”
The cane was integral to his walking over greater distances, and allowed him to adopt a threatening upright stance while braced against it.
Compared to the mighty Goro, Omag was a pathetic thing, deformed and disabled beyond individual survival, but the tribe was wise to remember that the strength of the bull apes was such that it could often overcome physical challenges that would handicap or kill lesser creatures.
Failed though he was and ill, Omag was still a bull ape.
It was also wise to remember he was mentor to the mighty Ulok.
CHAPTER 30 – Skin-stones and Doorways
Gazda was still often haunted by memories of his mother’s death and frequently plagued by boredom so when these things dragged at his spirit; he took trips away from the tribe, days that he alternately used for hunting game, killing Bakwaniri when he ran across any of their trails, and playing jokes on Harkon the huntress. At other times he might spend as much as a week holed up in his lair pouring over Fur-nose’s mysterious possessions.
The artifacts were many and strange, but some were within his grasp. The night ape had studied the former inhabitant’s method of stretching cleaned animal skins until he was able to reproduce the process on his own. The garments Gazda made from the processed hides were suppler and resisted decay far longer than any he had previously possessed, and though they still fell short of Harkon’s fine coverings; it no longer offended his sensibilities to wear them.
He had less luck comprehending the small items laid out on the platform beside Fur-nose’s bones, and with other wood and metal objects he found in the tree-nest that might have been weapons or tools.
The night ape often contemplated a collection of transparent receptacles that he had thought were made of water until he touched their hard surfaces. His studies had yet to illuminate the true purpose and properties of glass.
But most puzzling and disturbing were the skin-stones, curious things that he had only recently come upon.
These were perhaps the most unusual of Fur-nose’s possessions, and the most overlooked. He had found them at the bottom of a wooden box that was filled with broken branches. That box and another like it was partially concealed between the bed and the wall.
He had seen the skin-stones many times but only glanced at what he had thought were regularly shaped stones, and their true properties might have gone “undiscovered” had one not fallen from his grasp when he lifted it in his boredom.
Then a frightening mechanical reaction had occurred, and the “stone” had come apart! The hard, flat outer covering had flown open like wings and its solid interior fluttered apart into many, many thin, straight-edged skins that clung together along one side—only to have the skin-stone later return to its original hard shape after he worked up the nerve to lift the thing and allow its rigid covering to swing back into place.
So that it could become solid again!
Whatever their actual purpose, these skin-stones had further darkened the mystery of Fur-nose and Gazda’s night ape tribe for when the skins had fluttered open, he found inscribed upon them many lines of small, twitchy shapes.
At first the night ape mistook them for bugs or bits of dirt, but then he realized they would not brush off, and instead stayed in organized groups that followed the straight edges of the skins.
He had yet to comprehend the true nature of these skin-stones, though he could observe some of their facets, for there were stranger things that he had found in them.
While some of the skins had rows and rows of small but puzzling shapes upon them, others had crowds of small black dots and lines, or so they had looked at the first close inspection.
What had surprised the night ape was the strange power in these marks that could only be realized when he moved his face well away from the page. Then the tiny shapes organized themselves to look like black and white plants or trees that looked real, but were flat and bland to the taste and smell.
Phantom plants were formed that disintegrated back into dots and lines when Gazda moved his eyes closer to the marks.
The night ape found similar things in other skin-stones t
hat showed creatures made from the black marks—strange beasts he had never seen in the jungle—shadowy animals that also came apart into dots and lines when he moved his face closer, before disappearing altogether when he closed the skin-stone covering.
Gazda later found larger sheets of the skin folded many layers thick at the bottom of the box, and again were ghostly creatures made by the small dots and lines on the brittle, yellow material.
But among these were unsettling shapes that it took Gazda some time to recognize, and frightened him when he did. For there were creatures made of dots and lines, but he was certain that they were tiny night apes draped in heavy garments like those he’d found of Fur-nose’s.
Groups of night apes like himself were there on the skin, upright on their hind legs as Gazda, Harkon and the bone-faces could stand—and one thing was plain, many of them had fur upon their faces growing all around their noses!
These night apes in the black marks appeared to be standing in open canyons of light and dark stone surrounded by tall cliffs on all sides. There was no jungle to be seen and no ape like Goro or Gazda’s mother.
Night apes they were, made of dots and lines, gathered in a canyon of light and dark rocks. All of them were upright, and displaying—preparing to challenge. Was a new king to be chosen?
He did not understand the tiny night apes in the canyon, or recognize what landmarks lay around it, but the things he saw on the skin-stones left Gazda with an eerie feeling. A memory whispered in his mind and caused a sinking sense that the black shapes were not strangers to him.
The marks and lines tugged at his brain in ways that left him nauseous, and made him dream of the canyon in which the night apes gathered.
There was one such day when he came awake from dreams of these night apes and fire. No sooner had Gazda laid his head upon the bed to sleep, than he found himself leaving the tree-nest and walking across the clearing to where the dark grove of trees spread up the slope and pushed against the jungle.
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