“What is he supposed to haul with that little wagon?” asked Zeah.
“It’s a she,” replied Yuah. “At least that’s what Mr. Hollerith said. He was the only one brave enough to look. They call her Harriet.”
“Well what is Hollerith going to have Harriet haul?”
“Nothing really. It’s just a way to get her used to it. That way, when she gets bigger, she can pull a truck or a trolley or some such.”
As she spoke, the little monster suddenly realized that she was attached to something besides her own tail. She went galloping across the enclosure in a way that looked far beyond the capabilities of such a heavily constructed being. The wagon went right along with her, and when she saw this, the dinosaur began to swerve and spin in an effort to lose her pursuer. Mr. Hollerith dived to one side. The wagon flew up in the air and landed with a crash, scattering parts in all directions. Within seconds, the appendage had been completely destroyed, although now feeling the pull of the harness, the triceratops didn’t stop. She continued to run here and there until all remnants of man-made restriction were gone. Though there were several other men in the pen with Mr. Hollerith at the time of this tirade, all had jumped out, unwilling to try to slow or stop a beast with not one but three, rudimentary but nonetheless present, horns jutting from its face. Hollerith himself was also unharmed.
“I guess she won’t be pulling trolleys anytime soon,” said Zeah. “Just as well. I don’t think I would want to see that thing coming down a street at me.”
“I think she’s just precious,” said Yuah.
“I have to tell you something.” Zeah changed the subject. “I’m going to ask Miss Lusk to marry me.”
“Oh.” Yuah seemed genuinely unsurprised.
“That’s it? ‘Oh.’”
“I was expecting it would happen sooner or later.”
“You were?”
“Yes.”
“Well it’s sooner. And I need your help. I have to propose in a way that’s appropriately romantic.”
“And you don’t have a romantic bone in your body.”
“That’s right.”
“All right Papa, I’ll help you.”
Even Zeah, who was a master organizer, was hardpressed to get all of the components together in the few hours that he had remaining. He had to meet with a number of individuals for goods and services, work out the timing, and do everything but draw up diagrams. At one point he was sure that he would require the services of the Result Mechanism for everything to fall in place the way that Yuah said it should, but at last he showed up at the step outside Egeria’s door, wearing his best charcoal grey suit.
Egeria opened the door, wearing a dress that Zeah had never seen before. Zeah thought that this was remarkable, as they had essentially been living out of trunks for seventy days. She must have been saving this one aside for a special occasion. He mentally kicked himself. Of course she was saving it. She was saving it for the day she maneuvered a man into asking her to marry him. It was a lovely dress made of a heavy material in deepest red. White lace trimmed the neck and wrists, but the dress was cut in a way that made it seem deceptively simple when viewed from the front. Only when Egeria turned to close the door behind her was the layer upon layer of drapery accentuating the bustle apparent. The lace ribbon, which held on her white straw hat, matched the dress, as did her parasol which remained closed, since it was nearing sundown.
Escorting this beautiful vision along the gravel paths that now covered the settlement in a careful criss-cross pattern, Zeah could feel many eyes upon him, and for once in his life he enjoyed it. There was no doubt in his mind that the fiery red-haired beauty in the magnificent red dress was the most beautiful woman in a thousand miles and he was lucky enough to be with her. This realization steeled his resolve about the events of the evening’s remainder.
They strolled down the hill, past the tent city that had sprung up to accommodate the Freedonians, to the dock in the bay. Here, on the wooden deck extending out into the calm water was a table and two chairs. They were the same table and chairs that had graced his apartment two days before, but the table was now covered with a fine linen tablecloth and that in turn, was covered with two place settings of the finest porcelain dinnerware and brilliantly shining silver. He pulled out one of the chairs for Egeria and she sat down. He sat down across from her.
As soon as they were seated, Saba Colbshallow followed them out onto the dock, carrying two glasses and a bottle of wine. With the stiff appropriateness of a waiter in Brech’s finest establishment, he uncorked the bottle and poured a small sample into Zeah’s glass. Zeah carefully tasted the wine, and then paused as if deciding if the wine was good enough. In reality, it was a bottle from Miss Dechantagne’s collection and he wouldn’t have been able to afford it if he had to purchase it. Deciding that it met his demanding expectations, he nodded to Saba, who then filled his glass the rest of the way and filled Egeria’s.
“To the most beautiful… woman in all of Birmisia.” He paused in the middle of his toast as Saba, walking back to the shore caused the wooden dock to sway unpleasantly to one side.
“I hope that’s me,” said Egeria.
“Of course it’s you.”
Saba returned a moment later. This time he pulled a small cart, which Yuah was pushing from the other side. Despite the wheels getting caught on the wooden planks of the dock a time or two, they managed to wheel it to the tableside. The cart carried a large bowl with a tossed salad. While Saba walked back to the shore, Yuah dressed the salad and served it into white bowls with thin blue lines trimming the edges.
“Is this a subtle indication that impending events are approved of by your family?” asked Egeria.
“It’s not a subtle indication that you are young enough to be my daughter.”
Both Egeria and Yuah burst out laughing.
“Sorry,” said Yuah. “Pretend I’m not here.”
A moment later she was gone and they ate their salad.
“This is lovely,” said Egeria, looking at the sun setting across the bay. “I knew I could count on you.”
By the time that they had finished the salad course, darkness was beginning to overtake them. Saba returned and lit two candles in the center of the table. Egeria sniffed the air.
“They’re magic.” Zeah answered the unasked question. “They are supposed to keep the insects away.”
“Excellent,” she nodded.
Zeah raised his index finger, in a “watch this” gesture. Reaching into the pocket of his coat, he pulled out a small cylinder. He tapped the end on the table. Nothing happened. He turned it around and tapped the other end. Immediately, dozens of tiny lights shot out and began to dance around the table in the air.
“Ooh,” said Egeria.
“Yes,” said Zeah. “The romance of fireflies without the unpleasantness of their being insects.”
Saba collected the salad bowls and salad forks and Yuah served them their supper. Pleased with Mrs. Finkler’s cooking two nights previous, Zeah had engaged her again and given her liberty to cook the most spectacular thing that she could come up with. She had produced a pork shoulder roast with a crunchy crust, seasoned with salt and pepper, and served in a dark sauce, made from the roast stock, meat broth, dark beer, onions and carrots. This was accompanied by plump dumplings and red cabbage. Though different from anything he had eaten before, Zeah enjoyed the meal. This was notwithstanding the fact that he thought it might come up again at any moment.
“This is a lovely meal,” said Egeria.
Zeah nodded.
“I can’t wait to see what you have planned for dessert.”
Dessert was indeed spectacular and again was something that Zeah had never seen before, let alone eaten. It was a custard that just about matched Egeria’s dress, made from black and red currants, raspberries, strawberries, and cherries cooked in juice with starch as a thickener. It was topped with clotted cream, flavored with vanilla. From that evening forward, the taste
of the dessert was intricately linked in Zeah’s mind with the image of Egeria carefully spooning the confection into her perfect lips. He also remembered the monstrous splash created by some horrible submarine beast as it burst from the water in the middle of the bay and his fervent hope at the time that the potency of Zurfina’s spell preventing such beasts from coming near the dock remained in effect.
As Egeria approached the last bit of her dessert, Zeah picked up the small cylinder he had used to create the magical fireflys. He tapped the device twice on the table and said “bechnoth”. The dancing little lights that had been a fixture during the meal began to coalesce over the water. Within twenty seconds they had formed letters spelling out “marry me”, except they didn’t quite spell out “marry me”. The second m was a z, so the magical fireflies spelled out “marry ze”.
“Bugger and blast,” said Zeah.
“Marry Ze,” said Egeria. “Yes, I will.”
Zeah jumped and quickly reached into his coat pocket, the wrong coat pocket. Then he reached into his other pocket and pulled out a small box. He opened it to reveal an engagement ring. It was a meager little ring made of silver with a very tiny chip of real diamond. Taddeus Vever, a jeweler who had arrived on the Minotaur, had high hopes of opening a shop in the new colony. He had brought a small stock of basic supplies and blank rings with him. He had been able to produce a ring for Zeah and had mounted the stone that the former butler had supplied that very afternoon. The stone, if such a term was indeed appropriate for the tiny chip of diamond, had been in Zeah’s possession for more than twenty years. He had scraped and saved as a young man to purchase it to be placed into a necklace setting for Yuah’s mother. Then she had died, and he had kept it folded in a handkerchief in his sock drawer ever since.
Egeria pulled the ring out of the box and carefully slid it onto her ring finger. She smiled at it as if it were the Brech royal jewels. She looked up at Zeah and the light danced in her eyes. Zeah thought that the entire evening had worked out as well as could be expected.
The following day, Zeah felt alternately as though he was on top of the world, and as if the world was on top of him. All prospective grooms felt that way he realized, but he was just way too old for the feeling. He was tempted to stay in bed and pretend he was ill. He didn’t know why. It just seemed the better part of valor not to be seen. Of course it wasn’t an option. He had to get up. He had a thousand things to attend to, from the washing of the colony’s clothing to the washing of the colony’s dinosaurs.
His accomplishment of the former was easy. The procedure had been set up way back when they were aboard the Minotaur. Hauling the water was a little more difficult now, but at least there was plenty of manpower available. Zeah had to assign duties and make sure that everyone was doing what he was supposed to be doing. Cleaning the dinosaurs was something new, but was something that several of the colonists who were skilled in animal husbandry all agreed needed to be done. As it turned out this was easier than washing the clothes, not only because the little beasts actually liked being washed, but also because many more people volunteered for the duty. In the end, there were ten or fifteen people attempting to wash each of the six reptiles, and there was scarcely room to turn around in the animal enclosure.
By the time mid-morning had come, Zeah was already thinking about his duties later that day. Mr. Dokkins had asked him to find two more men to work the power saw and work was finally going to begin in earnest on the aqueduct. As he walked from the dinosaur pen toward the tents of the Freedonians, he noticed that Church was in session under one of the remaining trees to the northwest of the barracks buildings and northeast of the dock.
The construction of a church was still high on the priority list, even though now more of the colony were Zaeri than Kafirites. With no church building the church acolytes were holding services on the grass, just as they had done a week ago on the morning of the Brahtihn wedding. It was Zeah’s understanding that this was according to Father Ian’s instructions, though the first of these proceedings didn’t happen until two days after he had watched the priest swallowed by the tyrannosaurus.
Almost three hundred people were seated on chairs of canvas and wood in neat rows with a large dividing aisle between them. In the center of that aisle ten or eleven people stood in line, waiting to be blessed by Brother Galen. He watched for a moment as the church acolyte, standing in for a full priest, read a blessing over the person who kneeled at the head of the line. From his vantage point he couldn’t see who it was, only that it was a woman with a large hat. Brother Galen crossed himself and so did the woman. He then passed a communion wafer down into her mouth and let her sip from a silver chalice. Then the woman carefully got to her feet and walked back to join the others in the congregation. Only when she did so, could he recognize Egeria’s sharp features and fiery red hair.
“I don’t attend church, and quite frankly, I’m not one for ritual of any kind,” she had said, but here she was. Zeah didn’t know exactly what kind of problem this was going to be, but he knew that it was going to be a problem of some kind.
Chapter Nineteen: The Battle of Suusthek
The long, snaking line of soldiers marched through the forest. Incredibly tall redwood trees, large spruces, maples and bay trees, gave shade, but offered little in the way of obstacles. Though azalea and huckleberry bushes pulled at the men’s legs, their heavy canvas pants and leather boots protected them. At the head of the group was Terrence Dechantagne, who was followed by a lizardman named Sarkkik. Sarkkik wore a feathered headdress and his body was painted all black along the right side and red along the left. Next in line was Augustus Dechantagne who was followed by another lizardman. This second lizardman, Szuss, was far less ornately adorned, with just a few stripes of ochre around his neck and arms. Behind him was the wizard Dudley Labrith. Behind Labrith were one hundred eighty well-trained soldiers in khaki.
“Blast!” shouted Augie, as a small dinosaur jumped up from the brush near his feet with a twitter and shot away through the woods.
Terrence turned back and gave his brother a look, though he didn’t say anything. They had journeyed by his calculation, more than one hundred sixty miles. Along the way, Augie had frightened, or been frightened by, at least half a dozen dinosaurs. To be fair, some of the beasts had been genuinely frightening.
When they had crossed a seemingly innocuous stream two days earlier, several creatures decided that some of the humans would make a pleasant lunch. Familiar with alligators along the southernmost rivers in Brech, Terrence had read of similar creatures called crocodiles that lived in Mallon. That’s what these animals were—crocodiles. Neither Terrence nor anyone else had expected them to be so large. The three beasts in the meager little river were each more than fifty feet long and must have topped the scale at eight tons a piece. It had taken the rifle fire of more than fifty men to discourage the crocodiles.
The lizardman next to Augie hissed something in his language.
“What did he say?”
“He said not to worry. That dinosaur was harmless.”
The reptilian hissed again.
“He says it’s only a short walk to our destination.”
“Anything else?”
Augie spoke again in the lizard language. Again came a reply.
“He says we should be ready to fight.”
“All right. Tell the men.”
“Check magazines. Full loads,” said Augie to the sergeant behind him, who transmitted the order back down the line.
Less than half a mile past the point at which the small dinosaur had jumped up from the brush, the forest ended and a huge savannah spread out before the soldiers. Terrence had the men tighten up into a two by two formation and continue on. Here on the open grassland, tremendous beasts roamed. In the distance the men could see a large herd of triceratops, which they had grown used to seeing at home, but even closer was a troupe of nine or ten beasts whose size defied all logic. Their huge bodies were more than thirt
y feet tall, and they possessed a long serpentine tail and an equally long serpentine neck that placed their heads more than one hundred fifty feet from their other ends. The monsters walked along in a line toward another distant edge of the forest far to the east.
“My god!” exclaimed Augie. “They’re magnificent.”
“Seismosaurus,” said Terrence, and when his brother gave him a look, he said. “I’ve been reading.”
“Look what’s following them,” said Labrith.
A discreet distance behind the giants, were the huge black bodies and horrendous red faces of four large tyrannosauruses. All four turned to eye the humans making their way across the grassland. They might have sensed a fearlessness among the humans, or they might not have been hungry. For whatever reason, they turned back around and continued to follow the seismosauruses.
Crossing the great grassland, Terrence could see a line of rolling hills on the far side. It was only after they had marched through the waist-tall grass for more than an hour however, when the hills revealed one of the greatest sights that he or any of the soldiers had ever seen. Framed between two closer hills and sitting atop the larger, rockier promontory behind, was a city. Even from a distance of many miles, it was easy to see that this city was something spectacular. Huge gleaming white pyramids rose from its center and giant walls surrounded it, as if keeping it from flowing down the sides of the hill. Thousands, maybe tens of thousands of houses and other buildings were contained within its confines.
“I didn’t think they were capable of anything like this,” said Augie, obviously speaking of the lizardmen.
The Voyage of the Minotaur Page 28
