At least thirty horstels fell to the ground. The others, either panicking or knowing the futility of trying to rescue their casualities, ran to the entrances of the cadmi. At several of these, they had trouble all getting through at once. The second volley caught many of them.
Jack took R'li's hand and said, "We can't get back in now. We're cut off. We'll have to run for the Thrruk."
R'li did not move; she did not seem to hear him. He rotated her slowly so that she could not see the slaughter, and he pulled her away. Blindly, stumbling, tears coursing down her face and body, her face twisted, she allowed herself to be led away. Polly was gone, and he hoped that she was not so foolish as to think that she could get back into the graces of Dyonisa again.
Polly reappeared from behind a tree. In one hand she was holding a bow and a strap from which hung a quiver of arrows. In the other she had a bloody glass stiletto. Her eyes were huge. She looked strange.
"Where'd you get those?" he said.
"I knew we'd be as good as dead if we went into the Thrruk without weapons," she said. "I sneaked back and picked these up off the edge of the meadow. The bows and arrows, that is. The other, I took off a priest."
"Took it?"
"After I stabbed him. The fat man of God was standing behind a tree and watching the slaughter. I suppose he meant to come out later, bless the survivors, and give the dead and dying the last rites. But I came up from behind him, snatched the knife from his belt, and stuck it in his big belly when he turned around to see who it was. The swine! He was one of those who tortured my mother until she died!"
Jack was shocked even while he was glad that Polly was not a weak and helpless woman. To get through the Thrruk, each one of their party would have to be tough and capable. R'li would be all right once she got over the first thrust of grief.
They walked swiftly as possible through the woods. Jack kept looking back, but he saw no men. By now, either the firing had stopped or the trees were cutting off the sound.
They came to a broad but shallow stream that fell down a series of small cataracts. The water was clear and very cold. They drank deeply and then washed off the dirt, sweat, and blood. The wound in Jack's side had bled for a little while, then the blood had coagulated. Seeing it, R'li gave the first evidence of coming out of her bereavement. She looked through the plants along the side of the brook and presently came back with a heart-shaped flower with red and black petals.
After she cleaned Jack's wound, she placed the flower against the opening. "Hold it there for about an hour. I will wash off the pieces that stick to the wound, and you should be all right after that."
After kissing Jack lightly, she stood up and looked at the mountains in the distance to the north. They towered so high that they seemed near. All three knew, however, that the foot of the closest was at least three days' journey away.
"It's hot," Polly said. She rose, unbuttoned the front of her long, billowing dress, and removed it. Underneath was not the thick underblouse and two thick petticoats he had expected. She wore nothing except the buskins on her feet.
"Don't look so shocked," she said. "You're not bothered if R'li goes naked."
"But. . . but. . .you're human!"
"Only if you disregard the attitude of the Mother Church. She seems to think that witches are outside the pale of humanity."
Jack was speechless from astonishment and also fear.
Polly stood before him and turned around slowly until she made a complete circle. Even in his upset state, he noted that she had a beautiful and delightfully curved body.
She smiled at him and said, "Did you think that my mother and I were innocents who were unjustly persecuted by the Church? No, our accuser was right, even if by accident. Riley told the priests that my mother was a witch because he wanted to have the only chemist shop in Slashlark. Unwittingly, he hit the mark.
"My mother is dead, and the day will soon come when Riley will die also. My coven would have killed him long ago, but I made them wait until I could slay him myself. It looks now as if I may have to wait a while. But when I do get my hands on him. . ."
She licked her lips, so full and pretty they looked as if they ought to be dedicated to nothing but kissing. She said, "He'll take longer to die than even my mother did."
R'li looked at Polly as if she were a poisonous and loathsome cyclops worm. Polly said, "Not so hoity-toity, my kilt-pussied beauty. You should know how I feel; you've experienced enough humiliation and injury from the Christians."
"So it's true," Jack said slowly, "that there were witches among the Earth people taken by the Arra?"
"True. But we don't worship the male demon you think we do. He's not the highest deity; he's the Great Goddess's son and lover. We worship the White Mother, She Whose religion is far, far older than that of you Johnny-come-lately Christians. Someday she will triumph. You don't know the truth about us. All you've heard are the lies and the distortions your fat priests give you.''
She rolled her clothes into a bundle. "I'll just wear these when it gets colder or if we get in thorn bushes. It's wonderful not to have to wear clothes, to feel free again."
"Is it true that you witches and warlocks have magical powers?" Jack said.
"We know some things you Christians don't," Polly replied. She glanced at R'li and continued, "But very few things that the Wiyr don't. They're as much witches as we. They worship the Great Mother, and. . ."
"But we don't sacrifice our babies to Her!" R'li said.
Polly started but recovered herself. She laughed. "How did you know that? Do you have spies among us? Impossible! Some witch who must have been forced to go cadmus must have told you that. Well, what if we do? It doesn't happen very often, and the infant who is lucky enough to be slain in honor of Her is assured of an eternal and ecstatic life in the House of the Great Mother Herself.
"Besides, you're in no position to throw stones. It was only because of the presence of the Earthmen, because of their predictable reaction, that you Wiyr quit making human sacrifices to your Goddess. Now, confess, isn't that true?"
"No," R'li said levelly. "We outlawed that horrible rite at least fifty years before the Arra brought your ancestors to us."
"This arguing will get us noplace," Jack said. "We need each other. R'li says that it's four hundred miles to the valley of the Thrruk. We have to climb some very high mountains, go through some very dangerous country. There are thrruks, mandrakes, werewolves, human outlaws, tailbears, and God only knows what else between us and our goal."
"There are also Socinian patrols," R'li said. "They have become quite active these last few months."
They picked up their weapons and began walking along the stream. R'li was at the head of their line because she knew where they would have to go. First, they must reach the Argulh Valley. From there on, she would be able to guide them with certainty. Until they got there, however, she would not have her bearings. All they had to do, she assured them, was to work their way upcountry. Eventually, they would come to a path that would take them to the Idoh. It was on the other side of the nearest peak, the Phul. This rose straight up for at least six thousand feet, then curved outward. It looked from this distance like a small-headed mushroom or a club.
"Around the other side is a broad and deep valley," she said. "When we get across that, we have to start climbing along the face of the Plel Massif. The Idoh Pass is at its farther end, high up."
Jack stopped. "I don't know, R'li. Maybe we should stay here awhile. I was all for running away at first because things looked so hopeless. But your cadmus might hold out. If it does, I might be able to get my father out of it some night. Then there are my brothers and sisters. What'll happen to them?"
R'li looked wonderingly at him. "Jack," she said softly, "haven't you fully grasped what you did when you kissed me in front of all those humans? You have no family any more!"
"That doesn't mean I don't care about them."
"I know. But they would have nothin
g to do with you. They might try to kill you the moment they saw you!"
"I'm hungry," Polly said. "Why don't you quit trying to mend things that are forever broken and think about our needs? If we don't fill our bellies and find a place to bed down for the night, we'll die. Soon."
"All right. Give me the bow and quiver," he said. "I'll go hunting."
"Nothing doing," she said firmly. "They're mine. I risked my life to get them; I'm keeping them."
Jack became angry. "We have to have a captain if we're going to get through this alive! I'm the man here! I should have the weapons and the say-so!"
"You haven't proved you're the man here," Polly said. "Besides, I'll bet anything that I'm the better hunter! You don't know me well."
"She's right about the hunter part," R'li said. "I've seen her in the forest before."
Polly gave the siren a curious look, but she smiled. Jack shrugged, unclenched his fists, and began looking along the bank of the stream. Polly disappeared into the woods. Presently he found several flints that had been washed down from the mountain. After ruining several, he shaped a serviceable knife. He searched for and found a totumtree with a branch of the proper thickness. Using the knife, he hacked off the branch. After whittling off the twigs and roughnesses along its length, he sharpened its end. By then his knife needed reworking, but he had a spear.
"I'll fire-harden its point tonight," he said to R'li. "Find some stones suitable for throwing. If I can kill an animal with them, I'll use its skin to make a sling."
The two hunted through the woods for three hours. During that tune, they saw only a barefox. Jack caught it in the ribs with a stone and rolled it over. But the hairless rodent jumped up at once and, yipping, fled into the underbrush. By then it was time to return to meet Polly beneath a kingtree.
Polly was waiting for them. She was already busy degutting and skinning a wild dog that hung from a branch.
"Congratulations," R'li said. "We'll eat well for the next three days at least."
Jack Cage's face twisted with disgust. "You're not going to eat a dog! You don't expect me to eat it, do you?"
Polly turned a cheerful face to him. "I'll eat anything to keep alive. Anyway, I don't mind. In fact, I like dog meat. My mother used to catch dogs and cook them for us. She didn't want me to grow up with the dietary prejudices of you Christians. And, of course, the coven always had dogs during the moon feasts."
"It's not as if he's somebody's pet," R'li said. "He is a wild and dangerous animal."
"No!" Jack said.
"But," R'li continued, "you make pets out of your unicorns and gagglers and other animals, then eat them. I've seen it happen on your farm more than once."
"No!"
"Starve, then," Polly said.
"You dog-eaters!" he snarled, and he walked off. Two hours later, he had seen nothing. Finally he settled for the balls of a wild totumtree. They made an unsatisfactory meal. Unlike that of their domestic cousins, their fruit had tough meat and thin, acid-tasting milk. But they did fill his stomach.
Returning, he found the two women munching on flesh that had been roasted over a small and comparatively smokeless fire. Silently Polly held out a piece to him. He sniffed; it did have an attractive odor. But his stomach turned.
"Maybe we'll find something else tomorrow," R'li said. She was at least sympathetic, but Polly was grinning at him as if she thought him a fool.
Three days and nights passed. Jack refused the meat offered him three times daily by R'li. He ate totumtree balls and with each succeeding day, looked more desperately for barefox, mountain unicorn, and wild gagglers. Several times he sighted members of each kind, but they eluded him. He was getting weaker and shaky, and his stomach was turning sour from the fruit.
On the evening of the third day, while squatting by the supper fire, he cut himself off a piece of meat.
R'li's expression did not change. Polly grinned, but she must have known from his glare that she would be better off if she said nothing. He wolfed the meat down, and so great was his hunger, it tasted better than anything he had ever eaten. A moment later, however, he was retching in the bushes.
That night, he arose and unwrapped the petticoat in which Polly was keeping the last of the cooked meat. He ate it, fought for a few seconds with his rising stomach, and quelled it. His dreams were bad that night, and he awoke irritable and with a bad taste in his mouth. But when Polly killed another dog that day, a bitch, he ate heartily.
"You're a man now," Polly said. "A more complete one, anyway."
The following day, he had luck in his hunting. He speared a unicorn as she trotted down a forest path with two colts behind her. He had been downwind, and she must have been in a hurry to get wherever she was going. She did not seem to have the normal caution of a wild animal. The spear went into her side, and she turned with such force that she tore the shaft from his grasp. He leaped on her back and stabbed her in the side until she fell to the ground. Unfortunately, she fell on his leg. His bones were not broken, but he limped for several days thereafter.
In addition to the meat, the unicorn furnished sinews from which to make bow strings. Jack removed the sharp horn and attached it to a shaft of wood to make a spear. They spent several days fashioning arrows, arrowheads, bows, and quivers. It took them six days to cure the skin for the quivers and the sinews for the strings. R'li made it evident that she was impatient to get moving, but she admitted that they would need the weapons.
The meat was cut into strips and smoked. This process necessarily involved much odor and smoke, and predators came. At two different times, tailbears came sniffing around the camp. Jack and the two women loosed some of their precious arrows. Although the bears were hit, they were not killed. One, after a short charge, changed his mind and fled. The others left the neighborhood as soon as they felt the first arrow in them.
The wild dogs were more dangerous. They came in packs of from six to twenty. They would sit down out of arrow range and gaze hungrily at the camp, the meat strung from the tree branches, and at the man and women. Jack walked out toward them. Some would retreat, while others circled to get behind him. Then R'li and Polly got close enough to shoot several. The other dogs would tear the wounded or dead apart and devour them. After a while, they would move on.
"I hope they never catch us in the open," R'li said. "Or take us by surprise. They're very quick and very clever."
"I understand they're nothing to fear compared with the mandrakes and the werewolves," Polly said. "Those are half-human and much more intelligent than dogs."
"Not to mention the dragons," Jack said. "We'll take them one at a time, if you please.''
They broke camp and resumed skirting the lower half of the Phul. The terrain became steeper, but it was still heavily forested. Only by walking in the stream itself could they avoid the thick brush. This method was impossible for more than short stretches because their feet and legs froze in the icy waters. Moreover, after two days, the little cascades became more frequent and were higher.
"We'd better abandon the stream anyway," Jack said. "If anyone caught us in it, they could shoot down from the banks."
R'li did not argue. It was time to leave the brook. To get to the Argulh Valley, they had to quit climbing. They must circle the mountain at this level.
A little while later, Jack remarked that the path they were following was remarkably smooth.
"There's a road of the Arra buried beneath the forest soil," R'li said. "It follows the mountain slope for quite a while and curves around until it ends there." She indicated an enormous outcropping five hundred feet above them.
"There's a large plateau there, and on it the ruins of a city of the Arra.''
"I'd like to see it," he answered. "It wouldn't delay us too much if we took a side trip, would it?"
She hesitated, then said, "It's something to see. No one should miss it. But there are enough dangers for us in the miles we do have to travel. I hate to add to them."
&nbs
p; "I've always heard so much about the Arra and their great cities," he said. "I've always wanted to see one. If I'd known that there was one up there, I'd have gone up a long time ago.''
"It's not forbidden country for you humans for no reason," she said. "Very well, if you must. Actually, I would like to see it again. But we must be careful."
Polly O'Brien did not object. Indeed, she seemed eager. Jack asked her why her eyes shone at the thought, why she suddenly bubbled so much. "It's said that the cities of the Arra have many buried secrets. If I could get my hands on something like that. . ."
"Don't get too excited," R'li said. "These ruins have been picked over many times."
The "path" they were following slowly curved up around the mountain, then abruptly took a less gentle turn. Now they were going in the opposite direction and were about a hundred feet higher than they had been when they decided to stay on it. Although they had been talking, they never let their voices rise above a loud whisper. And they kept their eyes open and their bows strung in one hand. It was R'li who first detected the face behind the leaves of a bush about twenty yards to their left. A second later, Jack also saw it.
"Walk as if you had seen nothing," he said. "But watch. I think the face belonged to Gill White. One of Ed Wang's boys."
A few seconds later, he said harshly, "Drop!" He hurled himself to the ground, with the two women only a fraction of a second behind him. Something thunked into the bole of a tree on their right. It became apparent: a quivering arrow.
There was a yell a little behind and above them. Men appeared from behind trees and bushes. Six men, among whom was Ed Wang.
Jack scrambled up, an arrow fitted to his string, and let fly. Three of the men cast themselves down, but the other three continued to draw their bows. Jack had hurled himself down again as soon as he had fired. He did not see his shaft strike, but he heard the agonized yell of one of the archers.
The two women rose as soon as the three arrows from Wang's group whistled overhead, and they shot. Neither struck their targets, but the men were unnerved and took refuge behind trees. Apparently they had expected only Jack to put up any dangerous resistance.
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